Lixarts Academy: First Year

held my hand above my head as I laid in my bed, debating… contemplating what to do. How can I beat Kasen when he can break through ‘Colosseum Of The Damned’? That battle truly proved to me how useless I am against overwhelming power. If Kasen was there with Aaron then they would’ve been able to save those students, to save Edward. Maybe then, I wouldn’t have these nightmares every night.

Watching Dugal crush Edward’s skull into the ground, watching those student’s heads explode like balloons right in front of me.

Putting Aura and Rose at risk by not being powerful enough.

I need to get stronger.

As I am right now, I can’t protect anyone. In the face of total strength, I can’t hold my own. I’m not able to protect anyone so what’s to stop Dugal or that faceless mask guy from attacking them.

What the hell am I thinking right now? In the face of total strength? I just need to be stronger than everything else if that’s the problem, right? I will become stronger than anyone and anything that has ever existed before me.

If it’s a monster I need to beat then I’ll surpass my humanity.

I will become a monster myself.

“DOM! GET UP! AURA WANTS TO TALK TO YOU!” Josh shouted from his bed.

“What…?” I rubbed my eyes. I stood up and grabbed my clothes. I walked to the bathroom and changed.

“Hey,” I yawned, “What’d you want?” I asked, groggily.

“It’s evidently apparent that you’re super weak,” she harshly said.

“Really?”

“Yeah but that just makes me even weaker. After all, I lost to you. So that’s why I wanted to ask you,” she inhaled, “did you wanna come train with me? My grandpa was the captain of the Magic Defense Force, Enchantopia champion, and one of the 10 pillars. He’s more than capable of teaching us and I thought that maybe we could go together?” She looked away for a moment.

“Hell, yeah, I do but don’t we need approval to leave?”

“He handled that. He has that kind of influence, you know, being super badass and all,” she whipped her hair from off her shoulder.

Sometimes I forget how pretty she is, too.

“Seriously? That’s awesome. I haven’t got to see you use your magic seriously in a while,” I told her.

Her face turned stone cold.

“That’s ‘cause I’m weak. I need to get stronger then maybe we can spar, too.”

I looked at her chocolate brown eyes for a moment.

The old Aura I used to see, the girl who didn’t care about magic at all was gone. If even

for a moment, she was gone. Her will and determination shimmered from her eyes as she locked eyes with me.

“Stop staring at me, weirdo,” she turned around and walked away.

“MEET ME AT THE LOBBY IN 2 HOURS!” She shouted down the hall before turning the right corner.

I grabbed everything that I would need for this trip, well everything I could think of, clothes, toothbrush, homework, my brass knuckles, and this…

I grabbed the silver locket off of the dresser and put it around my neck.

“ALRIGHT, JOSH, I’M OUTTA HERE! TAKE CARE OF THE ROOM!” I shouted, he shot me a thumbs up before I closed the door.

I gave my student ID to the receptionist sitting at the dormitory entrance/exit. She grabbed it and jotted it down on her paper before grabbing her folder from her drawer. She looked at me and then back down at my ID before giving it back to me.

“You~ are good to go, it says here you’ve been approved for a leave of absence for 1 week,” she smiled at me.

I waved goodbye to her before meeting Aura in the lobby that was in the next room. Aura waved me over to her.

She was wearing her casual outfit, the one with the sweater with the rose on the corner, and her light blue jeans. Her pink smiling dino keychain hung off of one of her belt loops.

“You ready to go?” She walked over to me and looked at me. I towered over her as I got a more up close view of her than I usually get.

“Yeah, I’m ready.” I patted my bag before looking back at her.

“We’ll be gone so did you get all of the homework we’ll be needing over the next week?”

“Yup,” I shook my head.

She turned around and started walking out of the building.

“We’re leaving now?”

“Yeah, he’s been here for a bit, catching up with his old colleagues.”

I followed her out into the courtyard where the sun hit me like a flashlight in the dark. It took a minute for my eyes to get adjusted as an old gentleman walked up to her. The older gentleman was wearing worn out jeans and a regular black t-shirt, with his silver hair tied up and a sword resting in its sheath on his side.

“GRANDPA!” She was more excited than I’ve ever seen her as she ran over to him and wrapped her arms around him. He hugged her back before she let go and looked up at him.

“How have you been, sweetie?” HIs old, coarse, yet joyful voice uttered.

“I’ve been great. It turns out Rose chose to attend here too!” Her eyes were bright, full of life, not the girl I saw earlier.

“That’s great, I know she was having some doubts,” he reassured her.

He looked over to me.

“And who is this?” He walked over to me and held out his hand.

“I’m Dominick.” I grabbed his hand.

My body was surprised at how strong his grip was as he shook my hand.

“My name is Vodgel, I’m Aura’s grandpa.”

“Nice to meet you, sir.”

“Sir?! Aura, I like this one!”

She wore a smile across her face as she locked eyes with me again. He looked between the two of us and smirked. He clasped his hands together.

“OKAY!” He shouted.

We unlocked our eyes.

“We will be heading over to my house, which is in Silverkeep. Be wary though, Dominick. It is a little bit rustic,” he emphasized before walking away.

He walked us to the top of the school where there was a wyvern sitting there.

I jumped backwards and grabbed my brass knuckles from my pockets.

“WHAT THE HELL IS A WYVERN DOING HERE?!” I shouted as those two stood over there, confused.

“This is a tamed wyvern,” he spoke calmly.

He snickered before coming up beside me.

“What did you think your brass knuckles were going to do to an actual wyvern?” He chuckled before hopping onto the saddle followed behind Aura and then me.

I grabbed onto the straps on the side and held them tight.

The one thing I’m truly afraid of is heights.

The clouds rolled by as the twilight sunset disappeared, revealing the blanket of shimmering stars that illuminated the pitch black sky.

I was scared shitless but the view wasn’t so bad. Until her grandpa tried to push me off into the ocean. He laughed hoarsely to the point where he was crying. The last hours were a blur as I tried my best to forget that whole ordeal.

“Ew, I’ll never get used to that smell,” her voice was muffled by the sweater covering her nose.”

“What smell-” I was cut off by the rancid smell of fish invading my nostrils.

I gagged as some vomit almost came out.

“Be a man, it’s just some sardines, son,” he punched me on the shoulder.

“This is Silverkeep? The home to the Adventurers’ Guild?” I shouted.

It was depressing. The docks were empty as the boats were further out, fishing for their supper. The buildings in the town were run down as some were boarded off with wooden planks and the doors were hanging on by a thread. The one good thing was that the civilians seemed to talk to one another as there were large groups of people hanging out, laughing, drinking by bonfires with local music playing.

“No, this is the south side of Silverkeep. The northside of Silverkeep is where all that happens. Honestly, I just got tired of the ass kissing and the lies. Everyone was so fake to one another whereas here,” he pointed, “they’ll tell you what they think about you to your face,” he looked at me and looked back to Aura.

We FINALLY made it to his house which was your normal two story house with the beige paint and the red roof. He landed the wyvern in the backyard. I hopped off, Aura did shortly after followed by her grandpa.

They walked to the house as I lagged behind.

The inside was much bigger than what it looked like on the inside with a velvet paint on the wall and chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. The chairs and furniture were that of a history museum which kings and queens used to lounge around in.

“I took you for a “whatever works” kinda guy. ” I asked him.

“What’s a “whatever works” kinda guy?” He questioned.

“It’s a person who will buy something cheap because it works, like a cheap bed as opposed to a fancy bed.”

“It’s expensive because it’s great quality. I get it,” he stopped before scrambling his mind to see if he should say what’s on his mind, “I grew up poor too but now I have the money. I’m not going to leave it around, letting it go to waste.”

“I’m not poor? I mean sure I was before but now I have loving parents that love me and provide me with things-” I closed my mouth as I realized I may have told Aura something I didn’t want her to find out about right now.

I went upstairs and closed the door to the guest room and changed into a different set of clothes.

The house was quiet as the mood was uncomfortable for the time being.

“RISE AND SHINE, LOSERS!” Her grandpa had a megaphone outside in the backyard.

This is why he chose a place so far away from other people.

I changed into my training clothes before running outside, Aura following right behind me.

“WELCOME, LOSERS!” He shouted in our faces. We both showed no reaction.

“Good.” He set down the megaphone.

“Follow me.”

We followed him to the shed where he walked in and grabbed training dummies and weapons. He also grabbed some weird small circular machines that emitted a luminous blue light. He set them on the ground. The machines whirred to life and life-like holograms appeared. They appeared to be able to move on their own as they walked forward and stood next to Gramps.

“These are known as the Twins. The Twins are two identical holograms with extensive combat training capability. I train the new pillars’ recruits everyday of the week. Well, not every day, I get weekends off but these are the babies that are helping them improve at rapid rates.”

“Aura.”

“Yes, sir?”

“You’ll be sparring with Twin #1. I’m not quite sure you’re ready to fight them both at once.”

“Dominick!” He whirled on me.

“Yes, sir?” I asked.

“You’ll be training with me,” he said, taking the sword out from the sheath on his side.

I turned my head slowly and looked at him with a confused expression. I pointed to my face,

“Me?” I said.

“Yes, you,” he dashed over to me. He sliced his sword through the air where I was standing. I ducked down as low as I could go.

“Okay, so you’re flexible. That’ll come in handy with your skillset.

His sword hummed as the air was a little distorted where he sliced.

It felt like it had a heartbeat.

“That’s not a normal sword, is it?” I said as I jumped backwards, narrowly dodging his expertly aimed attacks.

“Nope, it’s a sword infused with mana but how did you know that?” He looked at me, skeptical.

“I’ve trained with swords, that one felt ominous compared to other ones,” I answered.

“Yeah, usually you’re given a magical attribute the moment you awaken. However, I’m in the same boat as you. Now… I have a little bit of mana but not much, much less than the average magician. Hell, even children have more mana than me. That’s why I’m specifically training you because you remind me of myself. I was weak, fragile, scared. I told myself I wasn’t scared but the moment I lost my family, because of my weakness was the day, I knew I had been suppressing my fear. I’m willing to bet that you felt that way during Enchantopia.”

I scoffed.

“I’m not scared. I never have been scared and I never will be. What do I have to be scared of?”

He sighed and adjusted his stance. He held the sword out in front of his stomach. He wrapped both hands around the handle and tightened his grip until his knuckles were white.

“I’ll show you fear today, son.”