Algernon Black || The Rise of a God ||

(Chapter 80) Escaping Fate

Lucy received a letter detailing a training schedule and the location of the practice room. It was at the far east end of Attwood, and each captain had an allotted time each day to use the room. Luke's was right after dinner to sunset, and on the weekends, they could use the room from four to eight, and he could spend the rest of the day preparing them in any way he saw fit.

The many porcelain doors to the practice room were left open when Lucy arrived to Luke's team hard at work training. As Lucy stepped inside, she saw what looked like one very long sand box at the back of the room with a girl stood in the middle. Another student was manipulating the sand around her into humanoid shapes. The girl let out extremely powerful shots of dark energy that would no doubt have broken any normal sand-formed structure, but it barely put a dent in the figures.

Lucy could tell right away there was something different about this particular sand. When they had practiced with regular sand in Opperwoods class it usually broke apart upon minimal impact unless there was a lot of effort put into compressing it by magic. But the sand in the practice room formed together as hard as boulders and almost instantaneously. Lucy stood on an unoccupied small portion of the sandpit. It had a firmer way about it than regular sand and was almost springy like it was resisting her feet as she walked on it.

"It's kinetically charged sand," Luke revealed as he snuck up behind Lucy. He wore a headband to keep back his blond hair as it still wasn't long enough to tie up. "An invention of the last good king." Luke went on as he led Lucy closer to take a look for herself. They watched one of his recruits, a very well-practiced girl named Yerri, fight against sand shaped by another of his recruits, a boy named Nathaniel. Her dark magic was extremely well channeled and would have sent a grown man on their ass from one hit, but it barely dented the sand sculptures. Nathaniel gave little thought to forming the next molds, but the sand reacted instantly to even the faintest tracing of magic. "Usually when trying to use creation magic with sand wastes a lot of time and magic to compact it together sturdy enough to be an effective weapon, but this kind forms tight bonds together as soon as they touch but still is as easily separated and shaped by the practitioner's control."

Lucy called some of the sand to hand and formed a small but remarkably dense ball. "What's it called?"

"Don't know if it has a real name, but we call it moon dust," Luke said, analyzing his recruits' progress as his second in command, Rowland oversaw the hand-to-hand combat training as  he currently beat the younger ones to a pulp.

"A bruised rib is nothing!" Rowland shouted as he took on three underclassmen. "What? Do you think your enemy is going to care about your pain when they're trying to kill you?" Rowland warned, knocking two of his trainers to the floor at once.

"He's quite intense," Luke admitted. "But very effective." Lucy worried for her teammate's safety, but thankful she wasn't up to spare.

"But come with me," Luke added, heading back outside.

"Where are we going?" Lucy asked as they entered a nearby clearing.

"We're going to do your special training. A technique I call, run like you're about to die."

Lucy laughed and as she did the wind around Luke suddenly puffed up and blew her hair back. She covered her face with her arms, and in a few seconds, when the dust settled enough to lower them, saw Luke yards away.

"How did you do that?" Lucy yelled out to him, amazed at how quickly Luke had moved, but when she saw his footprint embedded a few inches into the ground, she realized, "You used magic to push off with your feet."

"More appropriately called the propulsion technique." Luke educated her on his stroll back. "Hopefully when you're able to do it you won't leave as noticeable a trail behind." Luke undid his headband and messed with his hair. It became too slicked back and proper from the running and didn't match his preferred style.

"How do you control magic to your feet?" Lucy asked, wiggling her toes.

"With a lot of concentration," Luke confessed. "And practice. Which is why you'll need to start now in time to be prepared."

"Prepared for what exactly?"

Luke smirked to himself, "You'll see when the time comes." He said, wondering when it was that Orenza's team would be stopping by for their turn of the room. "But for now, just trust your captain," Luke unlocked the golden cuffs from his wrists and outstretched them to Lucy. When he released them into her hands, Lucy's arms drop, just like they had made her sink to the ocean floor back in the first tourney.

"Why are those so deceivingly heavy?" Lucy whined as she was barely able to pick up either arm.

"That's what I said when they gave them to me!" Luke said, taking one back. "All the ancient artifacts of known are." Luke relocked one cuff around his wrist. "All the time, even in their rested state they're just as heavy as their biggest form."

"That's a lot of weight to carry all the time," Lucy remarked struggling with both hands to even carry one.

"I know," Luke sighed, but when he looked at Lucy struggling with everything, she had to bear its weight he knew he wasn't the only one with burdens. "Well, it's not the heaviest burden you'll ever carry, but it will help you with dealing with some others. I'll have you carrying those firsts, so eventually supporting your own weight will be nothing."

Lucy bit the insides of her cheek worrying if she could learn such a thing, but replied, "Yes, captain."

Luke smiled with an over inflated ego by the respectful address. "Get good enough, and you may even be able to outrun fate, Little Lahue." Luke teased. "Though I highly doubt you can."