Rider and Lore was waiting for an answer from me. I don’t have any other excuses to decline their invitation so I decided to go walk with them. Rider was listening to some upbeat music on his headphone while Lore walks casually. It was getting a little bit awkward walking with them when no one was talking at all.

Thankfully, Lore broke the ice and talked to me, “How was your day, White?”

“It was great. I just got my magic recently.” ‘Recently’. At least I used that word to pretend that I got my magic during the holiday or something.

“Woah, interesting. Have you train a lot then?” asks Lore.

I had to answer honestly or else it will just get worse, “I haven’t started training yet to be honest.”

Suddenly, Lore suggests, “Why not you train with us?”

Rider then puts down his headphones and joined in the conversation, “Training? You just got your own magic, White?”

“Uh yeah” I nervously answer his question.

“I think another person would be fine in our training this Saturday right?” Lore asks Rider who just joined the conversation.

Rider unsheathe his Blade from its scabbard and swings around and said, “I don’t mind. The more the merrier. Especially when it is White. He is basically the one who united us back then during The Seven Month War.”

The Seven Month War, a ‘small’ war that happened in our city. Many lives were gone back then. It was a brutal seven month indeed. I’m still trying to cope over what had happened back then. If only I…never mind.

Lore patted me on the back and said, “Hang in there buddy. We were all there back then. We understand.”

With the situation getting all moody, Rider breaks into a different topic, “Have you heard about the new Elematrix game coming up soon?”

Lore joined in, “You mean the one where all the characters have Elemental Magic in it right?”

Elematrix, that game actually ended up being one of my favourite series. Now they are making another one it seems. I think I should watch the trailer when I get home later.

I joined in as well, “Hey what is it about this time?”

The day gone by swiftly as we talked about Elematrix. It was a relatively normal week at school. Nothing big really happened and The Magic Duel was still weeks away. The next interesting parts comes on Saturday, the day of my first training alongside with Rider and Lore and apparently, Kaym as well.

“I didn’t know you were invited as well, Kaym” I asked him as we were on our way to the training area.

He happily replied, “We’ve been doing this for the past few weeks during the holiday, you know?”

“Wow. That’s interesting.”

Kaym then asks me about the Magic Duel, “Any news about the recruitment?”

I sighed and told him, “Sadly, no. Blax and Rulend were kind of busy handling the new books that just got in this week.”

“I see.” Kaym give a little thinking for a moment and then told me, “Maybe we should ask Rider and Lore.”

“I’m not sure if they even able to join it. If I’m not wrong they are training for a different battle right?”

“You mean The Magic Invitational? That’s a small tournament in our city coming at the end of this month. It’s no big deal really. How about I try asking them.”

Kaym jogs away toward the training area to meet up with Rider and Lore. I stopped a moment and looked at Kaym. I just hope it will all just end well without any trouble. I sighed and followed Kaym.

“Good morning, guys!” said Lore who was very cheerful that day.

“Morning to you as well, Lore” Kaym greeted back. “Hey, where’s Rider?”

Where is Rider? I thought he would be the first to arrive here but it seems not. Just as we were looking around for him we heard a voice from above us.

“Make way, everyone!”

What the heck? How can he get there? I stopped the time when Rider was right in front of me. I have to remember that I only have a second to do this so I pushed both Kaym and Lore away. Just as I was about to get away, my power started disappointing me. The results, Rider landed on my back. I really need to increase my magic level.

“Sorry about that, guys. I was fighting a horde of Wicked Crows at the sky.” said Rider who just appeared from out of nowhere.

“Wicked Crows? I never see a real one before. Only in books at least.” said Kaym.

I gather my bearings and stood up then asked Rider, “Why were you even fighting those birds? I bet it was you who started it.”

Rider casually responds, “Basically, yeah. I made them mad. But I won the fight.”

Then, a rock hit Rider from behind. Rider looked at where the rock was thrown. There was a Wicked Crow right in front of us. The crow then leaves. I guess that was a defeat for Rider.

Lore snapped him back to reality, “Anyway, about our training today. I guess we have to slow a little down since White just joined us today.”

“Alright then, are you ready, White?” asks Rider as he was stretching his muscles.

“Wait, were doing it now?” I asked them.

“Yes. Don’t worry. We’ll discuss about that after the training.” Kaym told me as he was also stretching.

“That? What do you mean?” asked Lore.

Without any warning, Rider was done stretching, “Times up. Let’s go!”

Rider immediately ran upward the hill nearby. The others followed as well leaving me all alone. They left me and with that I stretched a little and jogged together with them. After jogging upward and downwards at the hill for about seven times, we finally took a short break. After that, we started training our magic and used 4 different boulder as our target practice each.

To be absolutely honest, I really don’t know what should I do in order to train my magic. But thankfully, Lore said that for someone who just recently got magic should try to increase their Infinitum capacity. That was because having a huge amount of Infinitum can surely help me a lot in the future. It was almost the same as our stamina. Thankfully, both Infinitum and Stamina can be increased at the same time in any type of training. So all I had to do was do some stamina related exercise like jogging, jumping in one place, jogging, stretching, jogging, lifting weighs, and also jogging that’s probably the most important one.

We stopped training two hours later. I’ve never trained this hard before. I was totally exhausted by the time Rider calls it a day. I sat down and drank a bottle of mineral water that Kaym bought for us.

“Let’s have breakfast under the WarZ Cafe Building.” Rider suggests.

“Before we do that.” Kaym stopped Rider. “I got something to say.”

“What is it, Kaym?” asked Lore.

Kaym begins, “Have you guys considered to join The Magic Duel?”

Suddenly, Rider and Lore face changed. They looked very serious. They probably have no intention of joining the duel at all.

“The Magic Duel…” said Rider.

Lore started rubbing his cheeks and said, “We did consider to join it but then we realise we don’t have enough members so we decided to not join the duel.”

“Then how about joining White’s team?” Kaym suggests.

Rider and Lore were surprised.

Lore said, “White? You thinking of joining the duel? Why didn’t you say so?”

Here I thought it would be hard to ask them to join my team but it seems Lore accepts it gracefully. However…

Rider interrupts, “Hold on, Lore. We already decided not to join the duel so we can focus on The Invitational which has an interesting prize pool by the way. Don’t you think it is a little too late now?”

“But The Invitational is just a competition in our city!” said Kaym.

Rider replied, “You are not in White’s team. I know that. So why are you the one trying to recruit us?”

Kaym closes his mouth and remained silent. He looked at me hoping for me to find a way to get them to join Team Stardust. I suddenly got an idea so brilliant but at the same time risky.

I spoke to him, “Rider, I issue you a challenge!” Regrets were felt that day.

“What kind of challenge?” Rider asks.

“Why not you two fight both me and Kaym in a two on two duel? If we win then you have to join my Team in The Magic Duel!” I was really not sure why I said that.

“Very well then, might as well have a duel before breakfast!” said Rider who was unsheathing his Blade.

“Are you serious, White? What if we lose?” said Kaym.

“We are not going to lose.” I confidently said.

Rider swings around his Blade and stopped moving it. He then swings it as if he was drawing a symbol.

“Generation 3, Number 1! Transform!” Rider shouted while doing a transformation pose.

Rider who just now were wearing the average exercising gear are now wearing a full red costume with some black and silver material with a red helmet to cover his face. The main idea of his costume is the obvious dragon symbol at the top of his helmet. He looks like a Dragon Knight to be honest…

TO BE CONTINUED