The Crystal Odyssey

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Training Session!

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Training Session!

The patch of land was a flat field, free of any trees to cause any disturbances. Maya places our stuff on the short grass and near some trees near the edge of the field. He then walked towards the centre of the square like space and told us to stand back and observe. Maya lifted one hand up to the sky and clicked his fingers. The click ejects a loud pulse of high pitched sound. The noise was painful to the ears and it caused all the nearby animals including the birds to all evacuate the area. Immediately after the ground lit up, strange symbols lit up in the grass increasing in size and brightness. The ground itself began to morph and change. A stone platform began to materialise forming pillars and strange Aztec-like structures, ‘was this our training ground’ I thought to myself. Once the objects had solidified and lost their wavy appeal Maya lowered his hand and turned to us with a cheeky smile on his face, “This is my ability, I specialise in illusions and the human senses,” Maya explained. I was a little astonish and honestly freaked out by just how real the structures looked, if he hadn’t told us it was an illusion, I would have thought that he’s teleported some objects from another place or created them himself. “Don’t be fooled Arc!” Niamh snapped, “With Maya’s level of skill this might as well be real because his illusions can do as much damage as the real thing.”

Maya commanded us to train against one another in what he called the arena. He had created a row of steps that lead down to a circular platform that dropped into the ground with vertical walls, much like a coliseum. Maya stood at the top of the stairs whilst we stood in the pit of the arrangement. “Today we are going to start with basic hand to hand combat training. If you want to do any damage you need to learn to fight not just run away or use fancy little tricks,” Maya shouted from the top of the stairs. “You will spare of against Niamh. By the way Niamh...don’t go easy on him.” Niamh nodded confidently.

We sparred of for three hours straight. In that space of time I had learnt how to punch and kick properly and how to duck and dodge. We focus on my physical abilities that didn’t use any special abilities. Maya insisted that I had to learn that first before we moved on. We spent the rest of the day doing combat training putting those skills and moves into action. We event spent the next day doing the same thing. I would switch between Niamh and Maya so I could learn both their techniques. Maya’s attacks were fierce and bold but they were very slow in comparison to Niamh’s movement, her movement was more sharp and light but faster, much faster. Maya lacked speed but made up for it with his strength whilst Niamh lacked in strength but made up for it with her speed and stamina. Niamh had trained so much that her movement was elegant yet dangerous. She used her legs as well as her arms and even her head. She could release seven punches in a matter of seconds without breaking a single sweat. Maya was a slower but I could tell that he was holding back, he could send me flying in seconds but he was using more and more of his strength as I improved.

I was a mixture of both their abilities. On the first day my movement was sluggish and weak but by the second day I had found my own style. I didn’t use my fists much; I focused around kicks and acrobatics. As a child when I was in Ghana, I used to climb a lot and jump about so I found it easier to channel that into battle. Maya said I was like a monkey, my movement had no elegance it was just mad and instinctive but it worked. By the end of the second day I could hold my own against Niamh.

Maya liked to skip stages so on the second day Maya made me battle against Niamh with her blades but not at full strength. Niamh’s power increased dramatically. Our sparring was no longer close combat, Maya told me to use that crazy movement of mine to figure out a way to defend myself. The first day was tough. I had to take a pause every two hours together some energy to keep going. All I could do was run around hopelessly as Niamh lashed out whips of water or shot balls of liquid or frozen liquid and occasionally charge at me with streams and jets of water. Maya would sit at the top of the steps and just crack up with laughter. When I trained with Maya and his abilities I was even more helpless. He would make wooden dolls to attack me and all I could do was dash around until I got cornered. “Arc focus!” He would always shout. “Focus and combine both your attack with your movement, use your head!” Even with such words he refused to go any easier on me. I got to such a point where I had to drain energy from around me to keep moving. After the second day of this Maya decided to stop and help me connect my own abilities to help me attack.