Chapter 9: Selection Preparation

(Eve Solaris POV)

I dodged what would have been a fatal blow from the incoming blade grazing the side of my cheek. Dozens more soon followed, turning into a relentless rain of slashes left and right, giving me little time to breathe.

“You’re going to need to try harder to be able to get through to the second phase of the selections. If you can’t even manage this, then you’re in dire straits.”

Gritting my teeth, I continued to desperately dodge Ryla’s blade and attempted to take advantage of an opening she had seemingly left out.

I sidestepped out of the way of another lunge and then parried another with the staff of my bladed-bow.

I took a couple of steps back creating distance and began channeling mana towards my hand. I then leaped forward and swung my bladed staff downwards, spinning it right after to try and catch Ryla off guard and land a strike. To my dismay, however, she effortlessly dodged my swing and began a counterattack of her own.

This is what I wanted, however.

I used my affinity with gale and summoned a fierce burst of wind from the palm of my free hand, catching her off guard and knocking her back. At least, that was how it should have happened .

However, once I summoned the wind burst from my palm, I lost control of it and instantly watched as the mana overloaded and blew up in my face, again, knocking me back and on to my back.

“Owww… Ughhhhh.”

“You okay?” Ryla asked, approaching me. She gave me a hand and helped me back up.

“Yeah, I’m fine. This is more frustrating than it is painful. I don’t understand why this is so hard for me. I mean, I get the general idea of it and I’ve tried to control the amount of mana I feed my spells, but I still can’t seem to control the outcome.”

“Honestly, I would think you need to slow down. Nobody expects you to be able to use spells effortlessly or perfectly in two weeks. Rushing it will only hurt or worse, cripple you. You’ve made really good progress so far, just take a breather and continue trying.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know… I just wish I knew what I was doing wrong.”

“Let it come naturally. There is no way to rush these things as every affinity is unique in its own way.”

“I know, I just hope that time comes before the selections.”

Ryla walked back to where she was before and took her stance.

“Come on, again.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The tumultuous winds blew against me. Ever since my first time coming up here, I began making it a routine to become familiar with this place. The ever-changing gusts rippling around my body felt natural to me now.

I went through the motions once more. I began with summoning mana from my heart, sending it to my arms and down to my hands.

I then began to slowly release a steady stream of mana from my palm and condensed it, sucking in the air around us like a vacuum. I slowly fed more and more mana into it until it began to swirl at a rapid pace. However, the outcome was the same as I began to lose control of the violent sphere. Before it got too out of hand, however, I diffused the mana and sucked it back into me.

I let out a sigh of frustration and annoyance before I began channeling some mana from my heart once again.

“Glad to see you’re still at it” I heard a voice call out from behind me, recognizing it immediately.

“Kalan, you’re back!” I said, immediately turning around to find him sitting on a small stone seat.

He nodded, “Just got back and thought that I should check up on you. How’ve you been holding up?” He asked as he motioned for me to sit down next to him.

“I’ve been good, I guess you could say. I got the basics down for the most part and yet I haven’t been able to successfully use my affinity much without it blowing up in my face, literally.”

“So I’ve heard. I spoke with Ryla a bit ago before coming to see you. Despite how much you’re struggling, I think you’ll do just fine.”

“I want to believe that, but I feel like for every step I take forward, I end up two steps back.” I said looking down at my hands, calloused and bruised from the harsh weeks of training..

Kalan's eyes followed my gaze and he smiled. “We can all see the effort you are putting in, Eve. Remember, you’ve only just begun your journey and this isn’t supposed to be easy. You’re making great progress as it is, keep yourself grounded. Remember to celebrate your victories while learning from your losses, they are just as if not more important for your training. ”

“Was it hard for you? When you first started to learn how to use mana, that is.”

I could see his gaze disappear, looking at somewhere far away.

“It was… complicated. The truth is, I never really had a teacher until much later on. Even then, a lot of the power I have now, I learned and developed on my own. Learning to use mana and affinity is as much as a journey as it is a learning curve.”

“Your mana and affinity take shape in the struggles and experiences you go through. You can’t grow without a catalyst; you can’t force it.”

“I know you want to get to the bottom of whatever it is that happened, but you can’t jump ahead a hundred miles. Remember to live for the present so you may strive for the future.”

I sat there speechless, still taking in what he said.

Looking back on the past two months, I haven’t really taken much time to… live. I had been so focused on training and getting stronger to get revenge, and keeping my mind off of what happened, that I hadn’t really tried to take a step back and just rest.

“Thanks, Kalan.” I said, while keeping the tears brimming at the corner of my eyes at bay.

“For what?”

“Don’t worry about it. Just know that I am grateful.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Kalan POV)

I sat down at my desk and opened a cabinet on the side to reveal a couple of cups and some alcohol. I pulled out a bottle of Starlight and poured myself a generous amount.

I swirled the drink a bit before downing it all in one go. The flavorful liquid passed over my tongue and down my throat, leaving a pleasant burning sensation.

“That bad, huh? The last time I remember you breaking out that bottle was back when-”

“I know.” I said, cutting Ryla off.

“Want to talk about it?”

I pulled out a second cup and poured some inside.

“Drink.”

Ryla took a seat in front of my desk and picked up the cup, downing it in seconds as I did.

“The Satanists, they’re worshiping someone.”

“The ghost in the legends?”

“No, not him. Something else.”

Ryla raised an eyebrow in response.

“Why do you think so?”

“When I arrived at the church, on the door were the words Rise of the four Apocalypse! Praise our liberator, praise Death!”

“Are you sure it wasn’t just the words of lunatics?”

“Of course, I also thought it was just a false alarm at first. That was before going inside the church, anyways. The entire compound was decimated, seemingly abandoned. The priests were decapitated and their heads impaled next to each other.”

I began pouring some more into the cups and took another drink.

“Any leads?”

“Here, look at this.” I said, handing her the journal.

“What’s this?”

“It’s what the archbishop was investigating in the Borderlands. Everything he did or saw was recorded in this journal.”

She took the journal from me and began flipping through it briefly.

“The blood of our enemies will be a tribute to our lord, our God? What does that mean?”

“I don’t know, but the scene was abnormally absent of blood. The bodies inside the church were all drained of any life, no blood on the floor anywhere either. I would’ve stayed and investigated longer, but something came up.” I said as I rolled up my sleeve showing a part of my arm that had seemingly been infected

A part of my arm from my shoulder down to my elbow had turned black and was beginning to decay.

“What happened- are you alright?!” Ryla asked, shocked.

“Yeah yeah, I’m fine, don’t worry. My holy blessing has been restoring it bit by bit.”

“Still, how did this happen?”

“I’m not too sure to be honest. While I was fighting off the bandits, the aura in the room began to become tainted, sinister. Before I knew it, my arm started to lose whatever blood was in it.”

"How is that even possible??”

“Like I said, I don’t know. If anything, it confirms that someone just as powerful as I is involved.”

We both downed the rest of our drinks and sat in silence.

“So, what next?” Ryla finally asked.

“We hope for the best and prepare for the worst.”

“I think I need another drink.” Ryla sighed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Eve Solaris POV)

After meeting with Kalan yesterday, I took the rest of the day to more or less relax before going back to trying to work on my affinity. It wasn’t really an eventful rest of the day, but it definitely helped me loosen up a bit. My mind was as clear as ever now thanks to that.

I began by circulating mana out of my body and then back in. I let my mana flow with the torrent, feeling as the breeze took abnormal twists and turns, pulling my mana back and forth.

Then it clicked.

All this time I’ve been trying to weave the mana and wind together into one making it mine, however I was going about it all wrong. Wind isn’t meant to be controlled or mixed; it’s something that’s supposed to be natural and work on its own accord.

The reason that my spells keep blowing up is because I lose control of them. I initially thought it was because I was channeling too much mana, but changing the amount didn’t seem to fix it.

‘So, what if I try to guide the wind instead of trying to control it?’

I began sucking my mana that I had released back in and started to use it to form a ball once more in my hands. I repeated the same steps I had always done.

I started to feed more mana into the ball and watched as it rotated faster and faster, sucking in the surrounding wind into it. I opened my eyes to see the same, bluish-green sphere as I always did, rotating at a rapid pace. This time, however, instead of trying to control the wind inside, I used my mana and pushed the wind outwards, away from me.

I watched as the fierce ball of wind blasted outwards, impacting against the railing in front of me. The ball dispersed outwards, sending an intense blast of wind in the direction it was traveling.

“Hah. Haha. I did it… I did it!!”

I felt exhilaration take over as I began to channel mana back to my hand once more.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ryla took her stance, dagger in each hand, the one in her right flipped backwards.

“Ready?”

“Ready.” I responded, flexing my bow into its bladed form.

I took initiative and lunged forward, bringing the bladed part of my staff down as fast as I could, forcing Ryla to dodge towards her side.

She took that opportunity to stab at me with her daggers. Her relentless combat style was something I could barely even follow, let alone handle.

Daggers had limited range so they were supposed to be at a disadvantage when facing an enemy with a spear yet Ryla’s rich combat experience made it seem otherwise. Every so often her daggers would barely graze me, a testament to the difference in our skill.

I once again tried to create distance and lunged backwards like I did last time.

“Trying that again?”

Ryla threw one of her daggers at me and began lunging towards me at a fierce speed.

I channeled some mana to my leg and down towards my feet. I pushed it out and gathered in the ambient wind and blasted it outwards below my step. The impact propelled me forwards towards her, catching her off guard.

I stabbed my staff at her forcing her to quickly side-step exactly where I wanted her to be.

I swept her off her feet and watched as she fell backwards, hitting the ground with a thud. I began to bring my staff down on her before she seemingly disappeared.

I tried to turn around but, before I could react, there was a knife to my throat. Ryla had created a shadow clone that took my attack while she crept up behind me to ensure my defeat.

“Come on, Ryla, that’s unfair!”

“Oh, whatever do you mean?” She asked innocently.

“You know exactly what I mean, you jerk!”

“Nothing is unfair in battle, Eve. Every battle is either kill or be killed, no inbetween. The enemy will not spare you any mercy because you might be weaker, just as you would never do that for them.”

‘It’s hard to be mad at her when she’s right, but that’s exactly what is infuriating’ I thought to myself, slightly annoyed.

“Fine, whatever!” I said, moving her blade away from me.

“If it makes you feel better, that was a good move you pulled off there. Too bad your attack was pretty much telegraphed. There’s not much you can do once you’re airborne so it’s easy to predict what the enemy might pull off.” She said with a slight tease in her voice.

“I know!”

I turned around to see her trying to hide the smile on her face.

“Oh, come on, Ryla, don’t tease the girl too much.” I heard Kalan say from behind me.

“Whatever, old man!”

I could hear Kalan laughing as he got closer behind me.

“Regardless. I think you’re ready for the most part. You seem to have gotten the basic uses of your affinity down, at least enough to use it practically in a fight. In time you’ll learn to use it even more, I’m sure.”

‘In time, huh.’

“I think that’s enough training for now.” Ryla chimed in.

“You’re just saying that cause you know you’ll lose if we go again.” I said with a sly grin on my face.

“Oh, want to bet?”

I got into stance once again.

“Bring it on!”