Group training

8.  Group training.

The earth hands comes at me and I jump in the air dodging the hand, I turn towards the ground and create a fireball that has some air magic inside and propel it toward the hand. The ball hits the hand exploding it to dust, the force of the explosion throws me higher to the air and I start forming another fireball with twice as much air inside it.

I throw it toward the place I expect Cyril to be and the force knocks me back. I look around and do not see him anywhere, then I feel multiple sharp cuts on my back and water shoots past me with a high pressure.

I fall on the ground and my wounds are almost healed already, I form a torrent of fire and shoot it toward Cyril and sweep it toward the way Cyril ran to evade it.

The torrent of fire followed Cyril until it hit him but he dissipated the fire with an air barrier, he then grabs me with an earth hand and squeezes me hard. I slice through the arm with pressured air and start forming a fireball but I’m flooded with water and I fall on the ground.

“You gave up the last time when you got grabbed with the earth hand, nice work getting past it. I think you earned the right to sleep normally on the last night of the individual training.”

“Thank you master.”

Cyril walks out from the training room and I keep standing there baffled, for the first time in a week I do not have to train nonstop until black out. I stagger a bit as I start walking out of the training room, it is so quiet now and it feels like I have been training for my whole life.

My body feels like it is still on fight mode and I cannot relax at all, I keep looking out for someone that might jump on me but when I reach the cabin I feel like I can maybe relax a bit.

“Melissa!”

Someone yells my name from the behind and I feel like my heart would stop. I look behind me and see Alice there running toward me and she jumps on me and hugs me with tears in her eyes.

“I missed you Alice.”

“I am so glad you are all right.”

“How was your training?”

“Nothing compared to you honestly but seriously can you use magic now?”

I smile a bit and form a small fireball on my hand and then release it.

“That’s so cool, I cannot wait to do that myself.”

“We still have to survive the rest of the training before we can continue our journey.”

“Yeah, I guess we should go to sleep already.”

We walk outside and go to one of the tents and lie down while talking little about the training we did the past week before we fell asleep.

I open my eyes and see Alice’s face near mine, I back up a bit and look at her sleeping face. She looks calm and cute while she is sleeping, I look at her until I hear a sound of the door outside and I get up and go out of the tent.

“Wake up midgets, this is the last day of your training and the last time I have to look after you kids.”

Luna comes from behind Cyril and Martin and Marie come out of the other tent. I glance around and see Ryan standing next to me, I get startled a bit by how I did not notice him at all. Alice walks to the line as the last person and we all stand there waiting for instructions.

“When you fight in a group you need to know each other and yourself so you can reach the full potential of the group. I will give you some time to get to know each other’s new strength so you can fight me with your full power.”

We all just stand there looking at Cyril.

“Fine, ill back up a bit so calm down and start talking I’m not waiting forever.”

Cyril backs away and we form a circle. I form a thin air barrier around us to keep him from hearing our conversation.

“Holy shit that’s neat, I guess you learned some magic Melissa.”

“Keep it down Martin, the air barrier isn’t that strong that it can block every sound we make. Let’s whisper from now on.” I say to Martin in a quiet voice.

“I am guessing that everyone else except me and Melissa learned how to do physical enhancement on their bodies with mana. I learned how to use the four elemental magics well and I can use two at the same time. I can also guess that Melissa learned other magics beside healing but not as well as me, if that’s the case I have a strategy.”

We all confirmed that what she said was true.

“Marie, Melissa and Alice are in the front line with Melissa being a bit further back and slinging spells at Cyril while Marie and Alice fight him but not too aggressively, just small attacks from a distance.

Martin stays with me to keep me safe as I charge a big spell to damage Cyril, Ryan will disappear from sight as soon as possible and wait for Cyril to charge at me to bounce at him.”

We glance at Cyril and see that he is still in place waiting.

“So, what happened to your spear Alice?”

We look at Alice’s new spear that had a wooden shaft and a metal head.

“Things happened and Cyril gave me a new one, he said that the wood is special kind and should be durable and the metal has magical properties but I can’t use them yet.”

“That’s cool.” says Martin excitedly.

“Ok, it sounds like you are done with your little meeting.”

“Sorry guys.”

“Well we were ready already so it is not a problem. Good luck everyone.” I say while taking my sword out of the scabbard and my shield from my back.

I stop making the air barrier and walk behind Marie and Alice that are both ready to fight, I form a fireball with air inside and throw it at Cyril. The smoke from the explosion hides Cyril completely, I form another fireball and look around trying to find Cyril.

As the smoke starts to clear up I look there to see if he is in the smoke, I feel a force on my left side of the neck and I am pushed in the ground. I hit my head on the ground hard and I try to breath but Cyril’s boot is on my neck crushing it.

I see Alice and Marie turning around and Marie stabs at him in a quick succession, he dodges them all while keeping one foot on my neck. Then Alice swings her battle hammer at him and he jumps in the air dodging the hammer and kicks the hammer to jump further in the air, Alice loses her grip of the battle hammer and her balance and she steps in front of her to regain it but at that moment Cyril kicks her temple and Alice falls on me unconscious.

Marie tries to stab him when he lands where Alice was standing but he grabs the shaft of the spear and punches Marie in the face with his left hand. Marie staggers backwards while she loses her grip of the spear, she holds her nose that is bleeding and looks up but she is hit on the right side of the head with the shaft of her spear and she falls on the ground unconscious.

I release a torrent of flames at Cyril and he creates a big ball of water and throws it at my fire, it comes at me slowly while extinguishing my flames, I stop releasing the fire and it falls on me and bursts making both of us soaked. I wipe my eyes dry and see Cyril walking toward Luna, I try to stand up but Alice is on top of me.

I start to push her off me when I see a shadow moving quickly on the ground toward us, I look up and see a block of dirt dropping on us. I drop my sword and grab the shield with both hands and try to shield us both. The impact is heavy and all I can do is to weaken the force of dirt as we are buried under it.

My hands are trapped under the shield and the weight of the dirt and I can’t breathe, I try to pull my arms free but I am unsuccessful. My lungs start to burn from the lack of oxygen and I start to pull my arms harder and harder until I run out of strength and give up.

I lay there losing consciousness when a memory of the last day of training comes to mind where I pierced through the earth hand with air magic. I use the last of my power to pierce the wall with pressurized air and push my head as far as I can to the hole and take a long breath.

With my mind working again I start pushing the dirt from the hole with air and soon I can move my hand upwards, I keep pushing the dirt away until I could lift the shield off me and use both hands to push away dirt from on top of Alice.

I pull Alice closer to me and check if she is breathing, after I confirmed that she is still breathing I push her gently to the ground while healing her and stand up. She starts to wake up and stands up too as I watch the aftermath of the fight with complete shock.

Ryan is on the ground unconscious, Martin is also on the ground but with sever burn wounds and his armor has melted on him. Luna is on the ground next to him bleeding all over from the countless cuts to her body and Cyril is standing behind them with his right leg that is filled with burn wounds is bleeding from the Martins sword that is sticking out of it, his chest is pierced with a sharp pointed rock piece and his right hand is bleeding from a deep cut that goes from shoulder to elbow.

“I know you can still fight but let’s stop it here, you did decently but don’t think that you are strong or anything, the moment you come across a real monster you will know that you are weak. Well you at least passed my basic training so you can feel proud of yourselves, now get healed and pack up your bags because when you leave to do the last trial you aren’t coming back here.”

Cyril walks past me and drops a bag filled with the extraordinary healing potions and goes inside the cabin. I pick up the bag and see seven potions there. I smile happily and start making others drink it and soon they all are up with no visible wounds.

I tell them what happened after they passed out and then we started to gather our things. 

Chapter seven.  Chapter nine.