Time passes until midafternoon, and another beast has been located. My smile is wide when I'm told what it is.
Crouching low, a stream enters my view when I pull the foliage apart. Fifty paces away, an adolescent Hell Boar laps at the water. Its guardian is nowhere in sight, and we wait.
An hour ticks by as another Hell Boar comes into focus. This one is small too, so our wait continues.
I grow frustrated when a third and fourth baby pig start frolicking in the stream. It's only when daylight starts to slip away that I feel the ground rumble.
Five adult Hell Boars trail behind a mass of their squealing children.
"Gods above.. this is fucked Kelric.." Anthony whispers into my ear.
I nod at his words while replying, "Yeah.. I could probably take them, but I don't think I could protect you all while doing so."
A few people flinch around me, and I realize my words were careless.
"Sorry."
Annabelle is to my right and chuckles darkly, "Don't apologize, it's pretty obvious that we're worthless compared to you."
I make a signal to have everyone retreat when a loud crack makes me whip my head around.
Dean was laying on his back with a broken log beneath him, the interior was unknowingly hollowed out.
Jean picks his brother up roughly and angrily whispers into his ear. It's too late though, the snorting pigs are already making their way over.
My orders are fast as I brandish a sword in one hand and the dagger in the other.
"Squad A get behind me and to the left in staggered line, Squad B do the same on the right! Reverse wedge formation!"
The panicked students hurry to comply, and I see a dark figure approach out of the corner of my eye.
Turning back to the Hell Boars, the young ones scurried away while three stood their ground at the stream.
Two were walking over and squealing loudly as they warily glanced from side to side.
Slowly getting into position, I place my back to a tree and wait. The twisted excitement fills my body with battle energy as the rage in roars inside.
A brown head steps past me, and I swing down hard. Its thick neck stopped my blade three quarters of the way though; one hand was not enough to completely cut through.
My rage is not hot enough yet either and I try to fan the flame.
The other Hell Boar let's put a shrill cry that pierces my ears as glowing red orbs shoot to my left and right.
I'm swordless now, so I swap the dagger into my dominant hand.
Running out from behind the tree, I have to roll to avoid being seared by more condensed fire.
Turning and planting my feet, I meet its charge head on. The shield was useless as twisted tusks penetrate steel, scraping bones together as it exited my arm.
Rage burns hotly and fills my body with its power, we're locked in place as neither one of us can get an advantage.
Screaming death cry's echo out from faceless people, wrath consumes my vision, preventing recognition.
Sick wet thuds are a beautiful symphony as sharp metal runs the Hell Boar through.
Voices mix with my own in yelled victory now and the beast falls to the ground as its tusks rip out of my arm.
I barely notice the wound and snatch a sword from fumbling hands.
The black tendrils leak out of me as I charge into the clearing, ready to reap more lives. The stupid beasts are distracted by something as I approach.
A familiar voice tries to call out, but I do not listen, my swing is powerful and lops off a head after I jump onto a broad back.
I'm ready to kill again and look for another target.
The beasts unmoving forms shake me out of my rage and the tendrils of black retreat. There's a pounding in my ears that takes a minute to subside as I clutch my head.
Zyre is saying something, but I wave him away.
"I'm fine.."
My body aches and it's a while later before my head clears completely. Someone bandaged my arm while I clenched my eyes together. Familiar faces greet me when I look up, worried expressions dotted each one.
They're waiting for something, so I try a victory speech, "Good job you all, take pride in today's battle."
They keep looking at me and I snap out, "Go retrieve the cores and dress the bodies you idiots! I want to eat fresh meat tonight!"
Suddenly a chorus of cheers went up and everyone finally leaves me alone. My body is somewhat weak, but I can still stand.
When I sway a little, a head pops under my shoulder. Elias looks at me worriedly and asks, "You alright Kel?"
He clamps a hand over his mouth and tries to start apologizing, my warning fresh in his mind.
"S-sorry Kelric! It just slipped—"
I laugh and lean on him, it's nice to have a friend again.
"Shut up. Don't worry, you've earned the right to call me that."
Elias is startled by my words and his sly smile eases across his lips, "You're so magnanimous Commander Kel.. say Kel, do you like when I call you Kel? Kel, I've been thinking recently…"
All the way back to camp, Elias teases me with his idiotic rambling.
As if the praise of my fight with the Green Horns wasn't bad enough, the reenactment of the recent fight was mortifying. These fools chased each other around the fire and tried to imitate how I screamed in rage.
A lot of them adlibed words I did not say to make me sound like a story book character.
Dean was jabbing a branch at his brother shouting, "Foul beast! You dare attack my comrades!? I'll send you back to hell, you gods damned Hell Boar!"
Jean snorted and played dead after the mighty weapon touched his stomach.
Annabelle groaned, "That was awful.."
Laughter echoed as embarrassment flooded me. Is that really what I look like when I fight..
Elias laughed and offered me some more of the roasted meat.
"Cheer up Kel! You looked so amazing today!"
He was really abusing the nickname privileges I just gave him. Dean took an interest in our conversation and chimed in.
"What's this? You dare shorten our brave Commanders name to just 'Kel'!?" he shook his head as if disgusted by the idea.
Elias stuck out his tongue and gave him a thumb down, "I'm the Vice-Commander, I get special privileges."
I duck my head and eat, unwilling to watch the display.
The fools are still up to their antics a while later and I realize that I'm supposed to be in charge. It takes a minute to get their attention.
"Alright, it's bedtime. I want at least three people on watch at all times. I don't care how the shifts are decided, as long as it's fair."
Bodies snap to attention and mock me with a salute.
"Yes sir!"
Begrudgingly, I do it back. They wouldn't move otherwise.
Going back to my secluded spot, I roll out the blanket Zyre provided. It's actually very nice, a thick hide of some beast with brown fur.
Elias comes over and retrieves his pack and starts to walk away.
"Where are you going? You don't want to sleep with me?"
He almost trips over his feet and looks at me horrified. Running back, he clamps a hand over my mouth.
"You can't say things like that! What if everyone gets the wrong idea!?"
I don't see a problem with my questions and remove his hand.
"But we sleep together every night? Everyone already knows we share a room."
Elias's mouth dropped open before closing tight.
"O-oh.. haha.. you meant like sleeping together in the same area.. haha.."
"What else would I have meant?" I'm thoroughly confused now.
Elias just shakes his head and rolls out his hide next to mine, when he lays down, I ask why he's so close.
"Y-you idiot! You just said.. arrggh! Shut up and sleep already."
I close my eyes and wonder how I've pissed him off with an innocent question.
My body is unnaturally warm when I wake, the fall morning air should be a lot colder. There's a furnace between my arms though and I hug it tight, not wanting to open my eyes.
It's annoying though, my heat source keeps squirming around.
My voice is low and tired as I mutter, "Stop moving, I'm not letting go…"
This seemed to work, and I fall back asleep again.
The next time I wake, the sun seems to be around mid morning, probably a couple hours after breakfast.
A mess of blonde hair tickles my nose, and I look down to see Elias in my arms.
'How'd that happen?'
I let him go and get up to stretch, my arm stings a little, but I've always healed quickly. Taking off the bandage, some blood leaks out as scans peel off from where it bonded with the cloth. I'm trying to redress it, but the position is awkward.
Elias suddenly kneels before me and angrily yanks my hand away.
"Stay still and let me work."
Doing as commanded, I watch him somewhat expertly bind my arm.
When he's done, he stomps away like I just offended him.
There's still a bunch of leftover meat from last night and I swipe away flies as I eat the cold food. Emmit comes up to me ands coughs strangely, he doesn't meet my eyes as he speaks.
"We.. uh.. just started scouting.. so I'll send someone when we find.. something.."
At first, I thought it was his accent making it hard to understand him, but the way his words kept petering out was unusual.
"Is something the matter? Why are you being so hesitant today?"
He coughs again and tries to string another sentence together, "Ahem.. it's just that, you know.. in my country.. things like that are somewhat.. strange.."
"Strange? What are you talking about, speak clearly."
Emmit shuffles nervously while wringing his hands, "Your uh.. closeness with Elias.."
"Oh. Yeah, we're pretty good friends, he's helped me out a bunch, so I like him a lot."
Emmit coughs again and nods before running away. I turn when footsteps from earlier alert me to someone else's approach. Annabelle looked like she was going to say something but stopped and left after her jaw refused to work.
What is with everyone today?
We only found a few more beasts and ended up retrieving two more earth cores and five water cores. The beasts weren't that strong, and thirst was quenched yesterday so I let my classmates handle it all. They seemed to have a lot more confidence after yesterday's encounter.
When everyone gathered around the fire tonight, quick glances kept being directed at me and Elias. There's been a stuffy air all day and I'm sick of it.
Grabbing Dean by his collar I ask, "Spit it out, what's going on? Why're you all being so weird?"
Dean swung his head back and forth, trying to find support in his classmates. When he received none, he looked at me carefully.
"Well, it's just that… we're all a little surprised by how good you and Elias 'get along'…"
"Is that all?" I let him go and smile at my friend who was staring at the ground, "You all should get used to it then, he holds a special place in my heart."
Nodding sagely, I walk back to my spot and sit down.
An explosion of conversation immediately follows, and I think that I've finally settled the matter. It's only when I try talking to Elias that I know I've made another mistake.
After commanding everyone to sleep again, the morning of the third and final day in the Glumsticks arrives. Zyre wasn't going to take us back till noon, so I gather everyone for one last hunt.
I let them take the kills again and watch in fascination as the people who were able to condense use their power to fell a few Cursefang wolves.
It was a tricky fight, and I almost rushed in at a few points, but Elias was competent and took charge smoothly.
I've never seen a light affinity in use before, and the devastating power makes me shiver. Even at great distances, the beam of white he throws around pierces bodies and burns a hole in them.
Walking over to one, I finger the smoking flesh and see that it's cauterized in a black crust.
I should probably stop hitting Elias so much..
The first hunt didn't take very long at all, so I let them do another before rounding everyone up. Zyre seems impressed with our haul and pulls me off to the side as my classmates climb back onto the wagon.
"I just got word that Professor Mateo will be back soon; you're going to start attending his class when we return."
I'm a little unwilling and say, "Does that mean I'm out of class 1-10 now, also how'd you get a message all the way out here?"
Zyre looked amused and had a hint of mockery in his voice.
"No, you're still a member of 1-10. Professor Mateo is just a little.. special.. so you'll be having a one-on-one session with him till you can control your affinity. As for how I got the message, I used this."
Zyre palmed the orange pulse stone and held it up for my inspection. I'm not really even sure how to use one, so this explanation doesn't make sense.
He continued after my face told him I didn't understand. Apparently, there was another language I was going to have to learn that was specifically for pulse stone usage.
Depending on how you let your essence flow into the stone, it would shake in different rhythms and intensities, somehow you could send coded messages this way.
I can barely think when my essence is used, so this skill will have to wait a long time before I can learn it.
The atmosphere back to Elomburg is fairly jovial, even Zyre's strictness as a teacher relaxes considerably.
We are shuffled back into the classroom before we can end the day. Zyre looks at each of us individually and smiles.
"Great job out there. You managed to collect ten earth, six fire, seven water, three curse, one abyss and one life core. This far exceeded my expectations, so tomorrow I will be giving you the day off!"
Everyone cheered and Zyre slammed his hand on his desk to stop the noise.
"Unfortunately, I said I was also going to be grading your leadership abilities. You lot were so pitiful out there that it wasn't for Kelric and Elias, you would've gotten nothing! Everyone followed orders without question, which could be considered a good thing. However, you morons, what was the point in assigning Squad leaders and Team leaders if you weren't going to delegate the simpler tasks! Nobody played off each other's strengths and instead relied solely on themselves. We're preparing for a war, not petty squabbles! Your day off is revoked and classes have been extended by two hours every day from now on. Class is dismissed."
Zyre motioned for me to stay behind, and I watched as everyone lifelessly left the room. When the door shut, Zyre smirked at me while playing with the affinity cores.
"Did I sound overbearing just now? Hehehe.. I can't wait to see their expressions tomorrow."
His sudden shift makes me remember that this man is truly insufferable.
"Anyway Kelric, head to the room at the end of the research department tomorrow, Professor Mateo will be expecting you. Your only goal in the near future will be getting your affinity under control. There isn't a time limit per se but… try to finish within the next month or two, I'd like to have you back before the tournament."
I'm not sure what the tournament is but that question can wait, "Where's the research department?"
After getting directions, my feet are light as I leave. I'm getting excited again, the thought of taming my power is exhilarating. It's something I've never thought possible until I came to Elomburg.
Once I master it, my true goal can begin in earnest.