Chapter 14: Injured

Darkness.. pure darkness

Teo could not see anything but the back of his eyelids. He could feel the wind blowing through his hair, the light shining down his skin, the smell of the grass and the sound of the pond's water gently hitting the shore.

He concentrated his mind until all distractions vanished one after the other. His own pulse became louder and the second pulse did not come this time.

His concentration peaked and the sound of his heartbeat vanished.

He could not see or feel anything... a few hours later a soft of sound came. The sound was so light that he thought he imaged the sound but after a while the same sound rang again, but this time two different sounds came. After a while 4 different sounds came.

'Is this the elemental pulse?' he wondered

After 2 hours the could hear an infinite amount of sounds in his surroundings. He could tell that many of the sounds were the same, but they were still too soft to differentiate.

'These sounds must be the elemental pulses' he figured.

He continued on until it was 6 am. Cien opened his eyes and with a flick of his hand, Teo who was in deep meditation floated and was dropped into the pond -SPASH-

Teo woke up from his deep meditation and found himself on his bed. He was forcibly kicked out of the inner world.

-KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK-

An urgent knocked could be heard from his door. It quickly repeated over and over and Teo finally understood what happened. He got off the bed and headed to the entrance to answer the door.

As he opened the door a figure suddenly rushed and gave him a hug. The figure rushed so much faster than Gina's speed last night that before Teo could tell whats going on, he already felt a body against his own.

"Oh little Teo are you alright?" The familiar voice quickly said and Teo recognized her right away

"Big sister Rowen, I'm fine, I'm fine" Teo replied

Rowen quickly took of Teo's shirt. With Rowen's speed and strength Teo could do little to react, much less resist

She soon found out that there were no injuries on Teo's body at all.

"That DAMN Riss! She worried me for nothing!" Rowen angrily roared.

She had heard the news about the incident between the Silver Sword Association and her brother last night from Gina. She didn't think that the Silver Sword Association would dare make a move on her brother, but this morning she heard from her friend Riss that was from the Emerald Pavilion that several Silver Sword members were talking about how they beat up Teo.

Hearing that news Rowen quickly rushed towards Teo's cave to confirm Riss' information.

On her way to Teo's cave, she was full of worry and anger. 'If you injure one hair on his head I'll break your limbs that it will take a full year to recover!' she shouted in her head

But now seeing Teo perfectly fine, she concluded that Riss played a trick on her. She had involuntarily cursed Riss aloud in front of Teo as she dropped the bag she was holding.

Teo who had never heard her sister curse before was deeply shocked.

Seeing Teo with that look on his face, Rowen quickly continued -cough- "I'm sorry little Teo, a friend of mine must've played a prank on me. She told me that you were attacked by some Silver Sword members"

Hearing Rowen's sentence, Teo decided to tell her about the events last night "Big sister Rowen, I was attacked by them last night"

Rowen was confused 'If you were attacked last night, why aren't you injured?' she thought

Guessing what his sister was thinking Teo continued "But, luckily a friend of mine gave me protection talisman. They thought I was injured but I was perfectly fine"

Teo purposely hid any facts regarding the old man Cien and made up a story.

Rowen was easily convinced by Teo. She recalled that one of Teo's friend she met before was actually from the Emerald Pavilion. Though a protection talisman was not that cheap, it wasn't expensive as well. It should be able to protect Teo and Windle might have even given Teo a discount.

"That Silver Sword... Nathan.." she growled in a low voice. Although Teo was unharmed, the Silver Sword dared attack her little brother! She must exact revenge!

When Teo heard Nathan's name from his sister's lips, he quickly said "Big sister, don't tell anyone that I am actually uninjured. If they find out, they might come again."

Rowen agreed "Okay little Teo, we can keep it a secret, but I'm still going to give Nathan a good thrashing. Maybe last time I hit him too hard that he forgot who easily defeated him in the ranking tournament. Don't need to worry about it, I'll challenge him in the Arena, if he has any face left he will definitely accept it and even after I beat him, he will probably not go after you again.. unless he wants to die" a killing intent quickly vanished as quick as it came.

Rowen picked up the bag she dropped and took out some bandages. "Here, we should cover up your body so they will think you are still injured"

Rowen helped wrapped Teo up in bandages, left a protection talisman as well as the bag full of medicine and bandages and quickly headed for the Area.

.....

In the morning, Teo usually waited for Lia and Windle.

When they both saw Teo covered in bandages, they were overly worried

"Teo what happened to you?" Lia quickly asked

"I was attacked last night by some people from the Silver Sword" Teo answered

"Are you sure you want to go to class? Maybe it would be better to stay home today" Windle suggested

"That's right, Oh we can take you to the medical center, they should be able to give you some medicine to help you recover faster"

Ever since Lia joined the Martial faction, she would often be covered in sores and injuries, She would often go with other members of the faction to the medical center, which healed minor injuries and oven sore muscles within a few minutes.

Teo smiled and then suddenly grabbed both their shoulders, moving them closer to him

Teo whispered "Don't worry, I'm not really injured. My sister gave me a protection talisman so I am completely fine. I just don't want anyone else to know because Silver Sword might come back again"

Windle and Lia quickly understood the situation. They smiled and headed for class.

.....

After the first class Windle and Teo headed straight to the elementalist class.

When they arrived, the class became silent again and stared at Teo. This time Teo was not unaffected like before. His gaze swept through the room and saw Zachery and his gang as well as the the 3 other elementalists that was part of the Silver Sword Association.

Windle and Teo went to their usual seats, like everyone else. From the start of the first class to since today no one changed seats. This meant that the circles within the class was already established.

Zachery and his group of friends all laughed. Not just them even the people from the Silver Sword laughed loudly.

Teo's face, besides his brow was mostly unchanged. His brow wrinkled. He was clearly upset. 'I need to get revenge'. It was the first time he was ever angry at someone, but surprisingly he was relatively clearheaded. From the books he had read before, he knew that he can't just lash out at them.

Both groups had a strong backing. One was the Rizon faction, the other was the Silver Sword Association. If he had to take revenge, he must do it anonymously.

A well crafted plan quickly formed in his head

...

As he was finalizing his plans for revenge, Dina arrived.

"Okay class let us continue on our exercises, bring out your stones"

Unlike everyone else, Teo did not immediately take out his void stone.

He quickly closed his eyes and started meditating.