Chapter 21

Zale stood outside the Spirit Hall on the training field very concerned about his very immediate future. Only one week had passed since his latest trial with the eels. Despite Wade’s insistence he receive a full two months’ recovery time, Malchi would only allow one week’s worth of reprieve from physical training. During that week Zale had started training his glyphs. The beginner book he was given for joining had most the basic concepts of how to form and power glyphs. It was much more detailed than Zale imagined. The three basic glyph models in the book were very rudimentary. One was a glyph that could produce light very similar to the one he tested with, however the one in the book could be placed on an object to imitate a candle or torch. The second one was a glyph that created a small invisible field that when broken tripped a sound alarm. The third glyph could be placed on anything and acted as a tracker. To Zale’s surprise they were all quite useful, unfortunately he couldn’t use any of them yet. Turns out making a glyph flash for a couple seconds was much easier than creating a functioning glyph.  

Learning how to create glyphs wasn’t why he was outside on the training field though, and it was definitely not why he was worried about his immediate future. Devon stood directly in-front of him. Malchi and Commander Cipher stood off to the side. Devon looked excited, his bow already drawn. He looked toward his master for the command to start.

“Well, you finnaly get the sparring match you wanted so bad,” Malchi shouted.

“Are you sure you want them to do this? It doesn’t seem like a fair fight. I hear your student has been out of commission twice. I told my students they should be thankful I’m so nice to them,” Commander Cipher said.

Devon winced.

Zale was with Commander Cipher, he may have done well in the street fight but Devon had been training with Commander Cipher non-stop since the awakening ceremony. He had seen the two fight, and that was when he first arrived at Delvers Ridge.

“Win or lose he needs experience. Besides, I think if we do this at least three times a week the gap may close faster than you think.”

Coomander Cipher nodded his head.

“On the count of three. One, two, three,” Malchi shouted.

Devon jumped back and fired an arrow of ice at the ground that transformed the field into an ice rink as soon as the word three was shouted. Zale took a step onto the ice and slid around a bit getting his footing. He realized quickly that it would be much more efficient to just slide like he was skating however it was not fast at all. This fight was clearly in Devon’s favor. As Zale tried to close the distance between the two Devon fired off one arrow after another at Zale. They were being launched much faster than the blades of wind he faced the week prior. On top of that Devon was mobile as he fired the arrows, constantly moving further away from Zale as he fired the arrows. Zale tried his best to dodge but the ice rink that Devon had created made it very difficult. He ducked under one arrow, and rolled away from another.

When Zale came out of his roll running he stumbled and took a fall accidently dodging the third arrow. Getting up was when an arrow struck him on his elbow. It didn’t pierce his skin the way a normal arrow did but it still hurt, and more importantly it frosted his entire left arm making it very hard for him to move it. Zale looked around trying to figure out what he could do to change the pace of the fight, at this rate he was just a sitting duck. Unfortunately, the training field was completely empty. Just himself, Devon, and the ice rink. The ice rink. Zale jumped over the inxt arrow and stomped on the ice rink as hard as he could with his heels.

Cracks appeared on the ice but it didn’t break. He spun to the right dodging another arrow and spun back around and stamped the same spot again. A spider web of cracks appeared but it still didn’t break. He took an arrow on his right thigh as he stomped a third time. Shatter. The ice gave way and broke into pieces. He grabbed up the biggest piece and held it in front of him as a shield running as fast as he could toward Devon. Arrows bombarded the piece of ice he held in-front of himself slowly degrading its integrity. A couple hit his legs slowing him down but he trudged on closing the distance a little at a time.

The arrows stopped coming. Zale’s speed picked up. He had it. When the distance was closed he could use the martial arts he had trained in to his advantage. Twenty feet, fifteen feet. As he closed in on ten feet away he noticed Devon’s bow was still aimed at him with an arrow that was spinning very similar to the drill Devon had created when Zale had first met him in the hot springs. Before Zale could move out of the way the arrow was released. The force of the collision sent Zale flying. The makeshift ice shield shattered completely. Before Zale could get up his hands were each hit with an arrow that buried them in ice like makeshift shackles. Devon moved over Zale with an arrow drawn and an ugly frown on his face.

“Match over,” Malchi shouted.

Devon shot the arrow into the distance. “What the hell was that? You think I’m that easy that you don’t have to use your active?”

Malchi walked onto the field and broke the Zale’s hands out of the ice so he could get up. Commander Cipher also had a frown on his face.

“I don’t like being taken as a joke,” Comander Cipher chimed in.

“I assure you this was not a joke. I can’t tell you what his abilities are, but I can assure you he will not be able to use them in the foreseeable future. Possibly not even during the tournament. That was why experience fighting against strong actives is greatly needed,” Malchi stated matter of fact like.

Devon and Commander Cipher gave Zale a strange look.

“What ability could stop him from using it?” Devon asked.

As soon as the words came out of his mouth he regretted it and shook his head. It was very impolite to inquire about people’s abilities, especially at young ages when they were still in training. In fights, surprising an enemy with an active was very powerful. Malchi just looked at Zale in response to Devon’s question. It was Zale’s decision to trust Devon. They would compete in the tournament together. There was no guarantee that Zale and Devon would be allies once the fighting started.

“I don’t have an active and I never will. I have dual passives. Because passives take longer to train I may not be able to train them high enough to matter by the time the tournament starts,” Zale responded.

Commander Cipher was stunned. Devon just looked confused.

“I’ve never heard of someone getting two passives? Are you lying to me?”

Commander Cipher grabbed Devon by the collar and dragged him off the training field.

“He isn’t lying boy. Get ready, as of today your training doubles. You may be better than him right now, but if you don’t want him to surpass you than you need to put in more effort. We will see the both of you here in two days for the second sparring session.”

Zale followed Malchi back inside to start their training for the day. As he put on the weighted vest to begin running he saw monks carrying out container after container of eels. It seemed they were taking them out of the Spirit Hall.

“What is that about?” Zale asked Malchi.

“You killed the last one that we trained with. I doubt they will serve you any good now. They fetch a good price at market though, we can use the coin to purchase the next step of your training,” Malchi respnded with an evil grin.

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