********************
Arnik opened his eyes and found himself in a dark empty place, as he strained his eyes all he could see far and beyond was this dark empty abyss." Hello, is anyone here, can anybody hear me " he called out but was only met with silence. He tried to remember the events leading up to him passing out," I was in a fight with Gerdi, and then I got trapped in a ball of earth, so where am I now? am I still in the ball? " these were the questions in Arnik's mind.
Just then he noticed a light shining in the distance, " Hello, is anybody there" he called out as he took a step forward, he was only greeted with more silence, he began walking towards the light, he could feel something pulling him towards it, an almost nostalgic feeling, the closer he got to the light, the brighter it shone, a bright shade of blue, just as he was about to touch it, he heard a voice, it was neither masculine nor feminine but it was loud and asked a simple question,
" HUMAN, ARE YOU WORTHY OF ME",
Arnik took a few steps back obviously shaken, he gathered some courage and asked in a loud voice " Who are you", there was silence for a bit before the loud voice responded
" I AM THAT WHICH SOARED FREELY IN THE SKIES, I AM THAT WHICH STOOD ABOVE THE REST OF MY KIND AND BATHED BOTH THE LAND AND THE SKIES WITH THE BEAUTIFUL HUE OF FLAMES THAT OTHERS COULD NOT COMPREHEND, I AM THAT WHOSE FLAMES CONSUME ALL OTHERS.SO I ASK AGAIN HUMAN, ARE YOU WORTHY OF ME, DOES YOUR PASSION BURN AS FERVENTLY AS MY FLAMES?"
Arnik stood still pondering, " soaring, blue, flames" it took but a second for everything to click, " The Blue Basan, it must be the blue basan, or at least the manifestation of its spirit," he thought to himself, it was asking if he was worthy, did that mean it wanted to bond with him. Spirit bonding, he'd read about it, a process that involved mythic creatures with elemental attributes bonding with mages of the same elemental affinity, this resulted in massive power boosts. The Basan species as a whole were A-ranked fire creatures, but a Blue Basan with its rarity had to be at least S ranked or higher, bonding with such a high-tier creature at this stage of his life would be no doubt dangerous, this is because mages with Spirit bonds had been bound to their spirits from a very early age, for some as soon as they awoke their magic-circuits, for others as soon as their elemental affinity was discovered.
"No use thinking about it too much, I'm not like other mages anyways " Arnik thought to himself, he raised his face and looked at the bright blue flame in front of him, " I am worthy," he said in a loud voice, a few moments of silence and he heard the voice again,
"I COMMEND YOUR BRAVERY, SHOW ME YOUR FLAME ",
With this Arnik stretched out his right hand a small flame appeared on his palm, the blue flame came closer until it was just beside the other flame, and the blue flame began absorbing the flame until there was nothing left, it then slowly settled in Arnik's palm and dissolved into it. Just then Arnik felt a terrible pain in his head, he collapsed to his knees, he felt hot, very hot, it felt like a fire was burning in him and was threatening to consume him whole, Arnik began to scream in pain, the feeling was unbearable, he looked at his palm and saw that it had been covered in a blue flame, the flame rapidly began to other parts of his body, he continued screaming and trying to put out the flame.
"Is this how I die? "he thought to himself, images of his early life in the Frost mansion, how he had awoken his magic circuit, his first day of school, his friend Rowan, his father. "His father, no, there was no way he would die now, he had to restore his honor, he clenched his fist and began absorbing all the flames in just as he had done with the mana when he had broken through, his crest began glowing very brightly, very very brightly, he closed his eyes but he could still see the light, just as he felt himself slipping away, he heard a familiar voice,
"YOU ARE WORTHY".
********************
In the arena, a minute had passed since Gerdi had trapped Arnik within the Earth seal, and the entire facility had gone quiet, the students anxiously waited for something to happen, just then Gerdi began laughing loudly, " I'm amazing, not only did I best one but two Elite students within a short period, I'm sure to have made an impression on everyone " he thought to himself. He began walking towards the huge ball of earth at the center of the arena, he got beside it and placed his hands on the it confidently, "Anyone else " he asked loudly.
Just then the ball began to shake, Gerdi quickly removed his hand in pain, just know the ball of earth had burnt him,"What the hell " he muttered angrily, a small crack formed on the ball, then another one and another one, a blue light began emanating from the ball, " Oh shit " muttered Gerdi as he tried to get away, but it was too late the ball exploded into a million pieces and out of it came Arnik covered in blue flames from head to toe, two huge blue flamed wings behind him. The entire school seemed to hold it's breath, before someone screamed from the crowd, " Blue flames, they're blue flames", Werner was rooted to the spot " they're real, the legendary blue flames". In the arena Arnik hovered above the ground and appeared to be lifeless until suddenly he looked at straight at Gerdi, lifeless eyes, with blue flames burning within them.
" What, you still wanna fight? Bring it" Gerdi yelled, two huge chunks of earth were sent flying at Arnik, who simply avoided them mid air, a small fireball formed in his hand which he threw in Gerdi's direction, a fireball of that size would normally not be a cause of concern to any mage but Gerdi instinctively blocked with an earth wall, that decision turned out to be a good one because at the moment of impact the fireball produced an explosion so large that it Werner and those closest to the ring felt it.
The smoke cleared to reveal several metal pellets which Gerdi fired at Arnik, managed to evade most but the attack downed him. Once on the ground, Gerdi, whose hands and feet were now plated in metal, quickly closed the distance between him and Arnik attempting to turn it into a close combat battle which he thought would be disadvantageous to Arnik, Arnik however rather than back away also launched himself at Gerdi, the collision of both created a shock wave. Gerdi was much better at close combat than Arnik, but the other had such overwhelming power that the battle kept going. Gerdi was receiving considerable damage, his magic armor having felt the brunt of both Rowan and Arnik had began to crack and lost its effectiveness, " I have to end this as soon as possible" he thought to himself.
Landing a quick combination of punches, Gerdi moved fast and managed to land a huge blow which he expected to knock Arnik out, the latter simply responded with a supercharged uppercut which sent Gerdi tumbling some distance.
" That's it" Gerdi shouted as he spat blood out, he began chanting something similar to when he created the earth cage, any sane mage would try to disrupt him immediately but that was what GerdI wanted, he planned to use this as bait you lure Arnik closer so he could use his ultimate trump card more effectively, but unlike his expectations, Arnik casually walked towards him seemingly unbothered, this angered Gerdi even more, slamming both fists into the ground as before he yelled " Litho Style: Metal seal", this time several metal pillars suddenly shot out of the ground towards Arnik, the latter continued to walk towards Gerdi casually. The pillars began attaching themselves to Arnik's hands and feet, " Ha, you're finished now" Gerdi said smiling, but then he noticed something, the metal pillars began to melt as if under severe heat, the blue flames engulfing Arnik burnt even more ferociously and his blue wings appeared. Gerdi sank back in fear, falling on his butt , " You're , you're , you're a monster he stuttered " , Arnik now hovering in mid air, gave a slight smirk before raising one hand and creating a large blue fireball, still focused on Gerdi "DIE " he said and launched the attack, Gerdi paralyzed by fear stayed rooted to the sport and began screaming instead, tears running down his face.
Just before impact, someone came crashing down from above, taking a quick glance at his surroundings, he clasped both hands together," Nimpo" he simply said and the entire ring became covered in black, the fireball dissipated and Arnik fell to the ground, every ounce of mana in the ring had been dispersed at once, just before Arnik went unconscious, he looked at the strangers face and saw that it was none other than Instructor Sykes.
Arnik lay on his bed in his room, he'd been lying there for most of the day reminiscing about the events of the past few days.
When he'd woken up after the fight, he was in the school infirmary. Instructor Sykes had come to see him sometime later, and the school had decided to let him, Rowan and Gerdi go scot-free but with serious warnings, the only one who'd receive some level of punishment would be Werner Tidme who'd failed to supervise the fight properly.
He'd been discharged a few days later, but both Rowan and Gerdi would require more treatment due to the severity of their injuries, it would take at least two weeks for both to properly recover. Arnik had visited his friend while still in the infirmary, his friend's state had made him really sad and quite depressed. Other than that, there was still the issue of his father, he needed to see him as soon as possible to discuss a number of things.
Arnik decided to go see him immediately, it was a Saturday and he didn't have much to do anyway, he'd just obtain permission to leave school and be back by evening. He left the dorm and headed for the school gate, as he passed various groups of students gathered together, he could hear them whispering things about him among themselves. The fight was all the students talked about, especially those in the lower classes. Many hadn't imagined the difference in power between them and the elite class to be so overwhelming. The only topic more popular than the fight was Arnik's blue flames, there had only been a handful of blue-flamed mages in history and all had been quite powerful, for an elite student in his first year to suddenly have them, it was a huge sensation indeed.
Ignoring all the whispers and side remarks he finally got to the school gate, got permission to leave, and left for the frost mansion. Lirdunia was a society that fully integrated technological advancements with the use of magic, it was predominantly populated by humans but also housed a number of different races.
The Frost mansion, being the home of a prestigious family was located to the far north of the academy, both were situated in Marrakech, a district that housed the affluent members of the society and the capital of Lirdunia.
Arnik had just gotten to the halfway point of his destination when he suddenly had a thought, even though it was a Saturday, it was just past midday and his father would still be working probably till the late hours of the night, whereas he had to be back in school by evening to beat the curfew, " urrgh how could I be so dumb" he said rubbing his temple in frustration, nevertheless, he decided to still go to the Frost mansion rather than go back to the academy," I'm already halfway there, might as well just see it through to the end"
A few minutes later he arrived at the massive gates of the Frost mansion, the security guard recognized him and after a short exchange of pleasantries, he was allowed access into the massive estate. He immediately headed for the staff quarters, the Frost estate was very large, it housed several facilities and buildings and the Mansion itself stood at its center, from the main gate alone, it would take at least ten minutes to get to the staff quarters on foot. As a child, Arnik had gingerly explored every nook and cranny of the estate, he was a curious child who took great pride In exploring the massive piece of land, expeditions, he called them, it was on one of such expeditions that he had come across Eissa Frost practicing magic.
********************
It had been a cold summer day, it had rained a little in the morning but little Arnik had been so eager to go out and play. Immediately it stopped raining, Arnik rushed towards the pond intending to catch some fish. On getting to the pond he tried unsuccessfully for several hours to catch something but just couldn't, he quickly got bored and decided instead to climb a nearby oak tree for fun. He had just climbed to one of the trees' high branches when he heard two voices, they were the voices of Eissa and an elderly mage who Arnik knew to be Eissa's Magic Instructor, they both stopped as they got to the pond, Arnik listened more intently on their conversation.
" You need to calm down Eissa, feel the mana around you, and then absorb it all" as the instructor said this Eissa closed are eyes, at first there was silence and then the water began to ripple, and then it began, the pond began to move much more violently and soon waves could be seen. " Very good, very good, now visualize and materialize", Eissa took a long deep breath, and as she let it out slowly but surely the pond began to freeze over, this continued until she got halfway, and then she stopped. " Well done Eissa," her instructor said, a smile plastered across his face, Arnik who was still up in the tree was left wide-eyed and jaw dropped, this singular event set him on the path that he was on to date.
********************
Even as he passed the pond right now, these were the thoughts in his head till he eventually got to the staff quarters. He exchanged pleasantries with a couple of servants along the way and soon got to the apartment in which he and his father stayed. He noticed that the door was open slightly and proceeded to open it all the way, and was surprised to find his father in bed. He seemed to be shivering a bit, Arnik hurriedly rushed to his father's side,
" Dad what's wrong are you alright?" he asked worriedly, his dad who had been sleeping unbeknownst to Arnik opened his eyes to find his son who was supposed to be in school staring down at him,
" Arnik, what are you doing here kiddo," he asked surprised, " That's beside the point now dad, I got home to find you shivering in bed, are you ill ?" Arnik asked, worry still etched on his face. Shimon was caught off guard by his son's level of concern and tried to alleviate it a bit, " I'm fine, I'm just a little cold that's all, you don't need to worry about it" he answered trying to force a smile.
In response, Arnik simply got up and walked towards the little fireplace that served as a stove and source of warmth, in a swift movement he generated a fireball and launched it at the logs piled on top of each other and the stove ignited, he then silently walked towards the door and left the room. He came back a short while later with some vegetables in his hand and began chopping them, he then poured these ingredients into a pot and began making soup. Shimon watched silently as his son moved effortlessly and quickly, Arnik had learned to cook from an early age, this he did so he could have dinner ready for his dad who usually got back from work pretty late, Shimon couldn't tell exactly what it was but his son looked a lot different from when he left a few weeks back, there was almost an air of maturity around him. Soon the soup was done and Arnik served his dad, he also served himself and both ate in silence.
********************
Once done, Arnik cleared both plates and sat on a chair opposite his father who still sat in bed. His father looked a lot better after eating and getting warmed up and he decided to proceed with his discussion.
"Dad there's something I need to talk to you about, " Arnik said,
Shimon sensing his son was serious sat up and spoke" I'm listening kiddo",
Arnik continued " What do you know about something called a Soulrune?"
Shimon's face fell, this was the last thing he expected to hear from his son, how could he know about something that had been implanted in him since when he was just a baby?. Shimon let out a deep breath and tried to calm himself, Arnik was a bright boy and sooner or later he was bound to find out the truth, in a steady voice he answered his son,
" There's no need to dilly dally, I can tell that you already know about the Soulrune embedded within you",
Arnik was taken aback by his father's directness, but he simply nodded in agreement.
" You were bound to find out sooner or later" continued Shimon, he let out a sigh, " What I am about to tell you is something that happened before you were born, something that involves your mother"
Arnik stiffened at the mention of his mother, this was a topic that his father always deliberately avoided as a child and he had stopped asking about her after a certain age.
" Does this also involve how she died? " Arnik asked, trying to sound as calm as possible,
Shimon let out a small sad smile, Arnik could see tears welling up in his father's eyes,
" Your mother isn't dead Arnik, she is very much alive " Shimon answered, a drop of tear falling from his eye.
This is my tenth chapter and for some reason I feel very good about it. I was also told to celebrate every kind of win both big and small so this is no exception. I want to thank everyone who has continuously read this story and supported me in one way or the other, this is only the begInning let’s continue on this journey together!!!
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