Chapter 5:

The next day, at snack break…

“Atch!” I heard someone yell from below the structure.

Peeking my head over the side, and looking below, I saw Mikael.

“Atch! You need to come, quick!” He called, beckoning me with his hands. “Hurry!”

“What is it?” I asked, confused.

“There is a structure leader meeting, you’ve been invited,” Mikael said. “The 1st and 2nd-grade leaders are going to be there too.”

“What about the third graders?” I asked. “Is there a reason they aren’t showing?”

“I’m not sure, all I know is that they’re starting in a few minutes, you need to hurry to the 2nd grader’s structure,” Mikael replied.

“Fine,” I said, turning back to my friends, “Let’s go, there’s a structure leader meeting.”

“Huh, why were we invited?” Rich asked.

“Yea, they usually leave us out of the mix, it might be a trap,” Evan nodded.

“I don’t think it is,” I responded. “Tensions are high between the 2nd graders and the 3rd graders. They wouldn’t want to make another enemy.”

“What about the 1st graders?” Brett asked.

“Even if the 1st graders attacked us right now, I think we’d be able to defend ourselves,” I shook my head, heading into the slide. “I doubt they would try anything fishy either.”

Sliding down the winding, green slide, I made it to the soft woodchips below. Following Mikael, we headed across the playground, passing the 1st graders’ wooden structure and stopping in front of the 2nd graders’ red, blue, and yellow structure. The structure was one floor, though it was filled with multiple rooms and fully roofed. It was also the biggest structure, surface area wise, about twice as long and wide as our structure.

Standing out front were two guards, both second graders. Like the rest of the second graders, their lotus was colored a dark grey, different from the white of the kindergarteners and the light, mid-tone grey of the 1st graders. Neither of the two guards looked particularly strong, though they were still stronger than most of our class, both of them at level 3.

“Welcome, Kindergarteners,” the guard on the right said, giving us entry. “Everyone else is already inside.”

Walking into the multi-colored structure, we passed through a few of the rooms, filled with 2nd graders. At the end of the hall was the main meeting room, probably meant for the leaders of the 2nd grade. Upon entry, I stepped into the dimly lit room and sat down in one of the few empty seats. Everyone else was already there, filling up the large, round, white, plastic table. There were four seats out, and three of them were now filled.

“You must be Atch,” a girl with short, brown hair and lightly tanned skin said from across the table. “I’m Roxy, leader of the 1st graders.”

Name: Roxy

Level: 9

Strength: 4

Power: 5

Speed: 6

“Yea, I’m Atch, nice to meet you,” I replied, taking one of the empty seats.

“She doesn’t seem too strong,” Brett whispered into my ear.

I looked over to Mikael, who was standing behind me, then whispered. “Is she the leader?”

Mikael bent down to my ear, and whispered, “Yes, she’s the leader of the 1st graders, though she’s only the Fourth Lord. The rest of the lords are her men, serving under her.”

“Interesting,” I thought to myself, turning back to the table. “I wonder why.”

The last boy sitting at the table must have been the 2nd-grade leader. He had a large nose and a rat-like face all upon a skinny body. He seemed too frail to be the leader of the 2nd graders.

“I am Nathaniel, second in command of the 2nd graders, and Second Lord,” the boy said, leaning back in his seat. “We welcome you, Atch.”

Name: Nathaniel

Level: 14

Strength: 3

Power: 10

Speed: 6

“We should get started, shouldn’t we?” Roxy asked, looking over to Nathaniel.

“Might as well, William isn’t coming anyways,” Nathaniel replied, clearing his throat. “Atch, you may not know, but the 3rd graders this year are getting very full of themselves.”

“As they prepare to enter the 4th grade and leave our North Playground, they’ve completely cut ties with the rest of us,” Roxy added.

“Right,” Nathaniel nodded. “Tensions have been growing, and we’re preparing for war.”

“War?” I asked, cutting him off.

“First of all, don’t speak when I’m speaking,” Nathaniel said, giving me a dirty look, before continuing. “And yes, war. As you know, ranking is a very essential part of our school.”

“Uh, huh,” I said, forcing down the fire boiling in my chest.

“Well, being defeated by people in a lower grade hits your rank harder than anything,” Nathaniel said, looking directly at me. “So, that’s why we need you to give the final blow.”

“I get it,” I said. “But what’s in it for us, Kindergarteners.”

“You seem like a smart kid,” Roxy said. “Your school ranking and infamy will shoot up if you defeat a third grader.”

“Sorry, I don’t care about that,” I lied, scooting my chair back. “I’ll have to decline for now.”

As I stood up, Nathaniel yelled at me. “Wait! We’ll throw in a four-speed pill for you.”

“Make that one for each of us,” I said, nodding my head back at my friends. “And then we’ll have a deal.”

Nathaniel turned to one of his henchmen, before replying. “Alright, we’ve got a deal, we’ll send a messenger with the pills at lunch break.”

“Good, see you then,” I smiled, exiting through the door with my friends and Mikael behind me.

“Are you fine with this?” Mikael said as we exited through the front entrance and out onto the playground. “More people will be gunning for you from other grades if you rise the school ranks too quickly.”

“Mikael,” I said, dodging the question and eyeing him for a second. “We should be getting five pills later. If you want the fifth one, then arrange a meeting between me and the 3rd-grade leader, William.”

He nodded, “I’ll get it done.”

“Good, come to me when it’s been set up,” I said continuing toward our structure as he turned away.

Upon arrival to the structure, the group of henchmen sitting on the first floor nodded to me respectably as I passed. Heading up the stairs, we ran into Maximus.

“Hey, Maximus, is something wrong?” I asked, suspicious. “Only captains and above are allowed up on this floor.”

“Oh, hey Atch,” Maximus said. “I was just looking for you… I was wondering if I could try out for a promotion.”

I laughed, “I see, okay then. At lunch, we’ll be holding the captain test.”

“Thanks, see you then,” Maximus replied, running down the stairs and into the lower floor.

“Is that necessary?” Brett asked as we sat down under the canopy. “We already know the extent of his strength, he is the Second Lord of our grade.”

“I can vouch for him,” Evan spoke up. “During yesterday’s game, he was the one who defeated me.”

“No, no, no,” I calmed them down. “That’s not the point of this test. I already know how strong he is, I just want to see how you fare with the pills in effect.”

“I get it,” Rich nodded. “During our fight, we will be in constant training, and the effects of the pills will multiply our gain.”

“Yep,” I smirked.

There was the sound of feet against wood chips beneath us, and I peered over the ledge. Standing below was Mikael, he grinned up at me happily.

“I got it,” Mikael gave me a thumbs up. “Come with me, we’ll be going to the 3rd grader’s hidden base.”

Jumping quickly over the ledge, I landed next to Mikael. My friends landed behind me.

“Hidden base?” I asked, unaware they had one.

“Yes, hurry, follow me, they’re already waiting,” Mikael grinned.

Quickly, we lurked along the wall at the far back of the playground near the bridge. Near the wall was a large red tube, made of stone. Crouching inside, Mikael knocked in a strange pattern against the floor of the tube, and it slid open. Beneath us was a third-grader, who climbed down a wooden ladder to the brightly lit room below. I grinned, very intrigued with the third graders. Climbing down, we got to the bottom, entering a large, square room, with a large stone table in the center. The rest of the room was filled with 3rd graders, who stood around defensively, watching our every move.

“Hey, you must be Atch,” a strong boy with swoopy blond hair said from the other side of the table. “I’m William.”

Name: William

Level: 21

Strength: 13

Power: 5

Speed: 10

“It’s a pleasure,” I said, sitting down at the table. “Do you know why I’m here?”

“Yes, I heard Nathaniel is planning on waging war,” he sighed. “So, why did you decide to betray him?”

“I haven’t betrayed him yet,” I said, cutting William off. “I just came to see if you had a better offer for me.”

“And what makes you think I need the help of some little Kindergarteners?” he asked. “None of you are stronger than any one of my captains.”

“Of course you don’t,” I replied. “Though not only would I be a double agent, but if I were to finish off Nathaniel, he would drop to the bottom of his class’s rankings. So far down he wouldn’t be able to climb back up and would be expelled.”

William thought to himself for a second, nodding. “Smart kid, aren’t you… What do you want in return?”

“We were given five rank-5 speed pills from Nathaniel,” I lied. “Can you afford better?”

“Five rank-2 leveling pills,” William said, gesturing for one of his men.“Would that work?”

His henchman placed a small pouch on the table, taking out five flat, green disks.

“Taking one of these will increase your level by two, your stats will go up accordingly,” William said. “Do you accept this offer?”

“Yea, that sounds good,” I smiled, swooping up the pills. “Mikael here will be the one to relay you the information we gain from Nathaniel.”

I pointed my thumb behind me at Mikael as I stood up.

“Pleasure becoming allies with you,” William said.

“Yep, see you around,” I replied, climbing up the ladder with my friends following me.

I handed out the pills to everyone, including Mikael.

“I recommend you don’t take the pills until you hit a level bottleneck,” Evan said, putting the pill into a small leather pouch. “These pills are pretty rare, I’m surprised he gave you them.”

“I see,” I said, putting the pill into my own leather pouch. “But here’s the thing. If you think about it, we’re the ones coming up on top from this whole war.”

Everyone’s expressions lit up.

“Yep, now you understand,” I grinned. “We’ll be suffering minimal losses, while also profiting greatly.”

“Ah, good work captain!” Brett laughed, slapping me on the back.

I chuckled, “It’s only natural.”

————————————

“Lunchtime,” Mrs Z said as the bell rang out above the class. “Have fun, don’t forget your bags!”

The usual mad shuffle toward the door was made before I was able to exit the building. Quickly, I ran over to my structure. I could see Rich and Brett running over in front of me. Somehow, Evan was already at the structure when we arrived. Mikael was also there, waiting outside the structure for our messenger. Nodding hello to Mikael, we passed through the structure and inside.

“First thing on our list for the day is to get the pills,” I said, sitting down at one of the benches under the canopy. “After that, is when we’ll do the training against Maximus.”

“Got it,” Evan nodded.

There was a slight pause before Rich spoke up.

“Oh, guys, I forgot to tell you, but my dad and I are training after school today,” Rich grinned. “You’re all invited to come with us if you’d like.”

“Don’t you usually train swordsmanship with your dad?” I asked.

“Well, not recently,” Rich shook his head. “My dad is coming back from a month-long knight mission yesterday.”

“You’re dad’s a knight?” Brett awed. “So cool!”

“Oh, it’s nothing too special,” Rich laughed. “We’re all gonna be knights someday too.”

“Hopefully,” Brett sighed.

“Well I mean,” Rich said. “Compared to the rest of the kids in our grade, we’re on top.”

“Yea, that’s only for this year though,” Evan said. “As we move up in years, the top 10 weakest from each grade are dropped, and 20 new students join. The next year, 20 are dropped and 30 join. So on so forth.”

“So, the competition is always steadily increasing, eh?” I grinned. “Just what I like to see.”

“Well, anyway, what do your parents do?” Rich asked the group.

“My mom and dad are mages,” Brett said. “She and my dad went to this school, though they didn’t end up becoming knights for the army.”

“My mother and father are both merchants,” Evan said. “I don’t see them very often, since they’re always traveling.”

“Wait, your last name is L’Getz, right?” Brett pried. “Your parents are the school’s biggest donors, are you rich or something?”

“I mean, kinda, I guess,” Evan blushed, then changed the subject. “Anyway, what are your parents, Atch?”

“Uh, my dad is a carpenter, and my mom just stays home…” I said, feeling pretty stupid.

“Is your dad, like, some world famous carpenter or something?” Rich looked at me in awe.

“Not that I know of…” I said, though my mind was racing. “If all of your parents are such special people, then how did I even get into this school?”

“I’m not sure,” Brett frowned. “Maybe your parents are friends with the headmaster or something.”

“I don’t know,” I said, though my thoughts were cut off by the sound of footsteps coming up to our floor.

“Hey, guys,” Mikael said, as he rounded the corner. “I’ve got the pills!”

“Good work,” I grinned, taking the bag from Mikael’s hands.

“Here everyone, take one,” I said, placing one pill in each of their hands. “And Mikael, is Maximus downstairs?”

“Yes, he’s down there, said he’s waiting for his test,” Mikael shrugged, heading down the stairs.

“Alright then,” I said, looking at my friends. “Take your pills, and get ready.”

We headed down the stairs and stopped in front of Maximus. Bringing him outside the structure, we headed over to one of the many circular sandboxes nearby. Each sandbox was filled with sand, of course, though was surrounded by concrete and slightly raised from the floor.

“So, Maximus,” I said from the sidelines as my captains lined up on the other side of the sandbox from Maximus. “Here’s the deal, during your fight with these guys, no lethal attacks or magic are allowed. I will deem when the match is over, unless you or the captains are knocked out.”

“Got it,” Maximus grinned over at the captains. “Let’s do this.”

Some of the sand around Maximus flew up, flying around him defensively. There was a reason I gave Maximus the advantage, and that was not only to test my captains, but also to make their training harder.

Evan equipped his ice gauntlets and ran forward, punching at the small, swirling tornado of sand around Maximus. However, it seemed like Evan’s attacks were all but useless. Brett, unable to collect water from his surroundings, was limited to only the base water he has in his orb.

“Evan, give me a weapon,” Rich said, as Evan took a few steps back from the swirling tornado.

Evan nodded at Rich, and shattered his left ice gauntlet, leaving an icy dagger in his hand. He tossed it to Rich, who grabbed it and ran at the Maximus, With one stab, he pierced through the tornado and slashed a gash in it, wide enough for Brett to shoot a spear of water through.

“Excellent teamwork,” I thought to myself as Maximus’ sand tornado dropped and he stumbled backward from the blow.

Before Rich could get in another attack, the sand beneath him caved in a foot or two, trapping his feet under. Maximus ran forward, crushing into Rich and sending him flying back a few feet. Rich rolled to a stop and stood back up slowly. By now, enough time had passed for Brett to refill his water orb. Rich and Evan ran forward, dodging to the sides as spikes of sand shot from the floor beneath them. Jumping at the same time, they smashed into Maximus, knocking him to the floor.

“Watch out!” Brett yelled, as a spear of water shot toward their dogpile.

Rich rolled to the side, out of the way of the spear. Evan, instead of dodging, grabbed Maximus and rolled into the spear. The spear pierced into Maximus once more, though it also stuck into Evan.

“Don’t release the spear,” Evan called over to Brett, holding Maximus tightly. “Rich, you know what to do.”

“Got it,” Brett said, tightly gripping the dagger.

Sparks of electricity shot through the blade, as Rich held it to Maximus’ neck. Maximus roared, blasting Evan and Rich off of him with sand. As the two were about to hit the ground, their bodies were swallowed up by the sand.

“Quite the impressive control over his element,” I thought to myself. “He’s gotta be at least 5 stars.”

Brett released the water spear, his orb slowly starting to fill again. Maximus rolled his shoulders and started toward Brett. Out of the blue, a hand shot out of the sand, grabbing onto Maximus’ right ankle. Quickly, ice started spreading along Maximus’ leg and the sand around his foot.

Evan’s head busted from the sand, “You won’t beat me that easily.”

“Evan!” Maximus growled, slamming the sand near Evan’s head, barely missing.

“Evan, I need a weapon!” Brett yelled.

Evan pulled his other hand out of the sand, his gauntlet exploding into another dagger. He tossed the dagger, it sailed high, flying over Maximus’ fingertips and into Brett’s hands.

“Here we go,” Brett grinned, stabbing the blade into his orb. “I’ll call this one, Frozen Trident!”

Maximus wrenched his foot from Alexander’s grasp, breaking the ice, though it was too late. Brett rushed forward, holding a longsword made of clear ice. As he swung, it was as if I could feel the air chilling around us. The blunt end of the blade crushed into Maximus’ side, flinging him out of the sandbox and skidding along the wood chips around it.

“That’ll end it,” Brett said, sticking the blade into the sand.

The blade shattered into a beautiful cloud of shimmering ice dust.

I walked into the sandbox, and helped Evan out, then walked over to where Rich was buried. Shoving my hand into the sand, I fished around, before feeling Rich’s arm. Grabbing it, I pulled him out, shooting sand everywhere as he emerged.

“Thanks, Cap,” Rich saluted, laying on the sand. “Did we win?”

“Yea,” I grinned. “Good work out there.”

“That’s good, but I’m so tired!” Rich groaned.

I laughed as I walked over to Maximus. Giving him a hand, I helped him to his feet.

“So, I’ve failed,” Maximus said, hanging his head.

“No, you’ve definitely passed.” I grinned. “Welcome to the main team.”

Maximus grinned, before slumping to the floor, passed out from fatigue. I picked him up, slinging one of his arms over my shoulder. Calling Brett over, he helped me carry Maximus back to the structure.

As we neared, everyone cheered, congratulating Maximus on the fight. Bringing him up the stairs, we gently placed his body on one of the benches.

“He’s really strong,” Rich said. “He was able to take us 3 on 1, can you even do that Atch?”

“I dunno, wanna test?” I asked, standing up.

“Uh, nah, maybe some other time,” Rich laughed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Anyway, have you guys decided if you want to come train with me this afternoon?”

“Oh, yeah, sure,” Brett said. “Though I’ll have to go home first and tell my parents.”

“Same here,” I replied, then thought to myself. “Though in reality, I have a few questions for them.”

“I can come right away,” Evan said. “My butler usually comes to get me from school, so I’ll just tell him I’m going over to your house.”

“Alright!” Rich beamed. “You guys won’t regret this, I promise you will all get stronger.”

I nodded, smiling as the lunch ending whistle blew.

As I re-entered the classroom, Mrs Z had already written today’s lesson on the board.

“Welcome back class,” Mrs Z said. “We’ll get started as soon as you all settle down.”

A few moments later, there was only silence as we waited in anticipation for the lesson.

“Okay, let’s get started,” Mrs Z said, fishing through a bag on her desk. “You probably all remember when you got your element affinity crystals, right?”

There were a few murmurs of agreement before Mrs Z continued.

“Right, well, today we’ll be discovering your secondary elements!” Mrs Z smiled, pulling out a clear, round crystal. “I’ll show you how it works.”

Mrs Z gripped the crystal tightly and closed her eyes. “Focus your magical energy into the crystal, just like last time.”

The crystal glowed dark blue, though there were no stars surrounding it.

“Everyone has the same affinity for their secondary element,” Mrs Z said, opening her eyes. “As you can see, I have the water element as a secondary. Let me show you something.”

In her palm, an orb of water appeared, much like Brett’s but a lot smaller. Suddenly, the orb turned a dark brown.

“By combining my Earth and Water elements, I’m able to make mud,” Mrs Z said, emptying the mud orb over the trashcan. “Anyway, it’s your guys’ turns now.”

“Interesting,” I thought to myself, walking over to the front of the room with the rest of the kids.

Grabbing one of the crystals I walked back to my seat and sat down. Clenching it in my fist, I felt a cool sensation run through my hand as I focused my energy into the crystal.