The Elemental Trials

Sixteen

Skye

Three months.

We'd been trapped on the island for three goddamn months.

I hadn't seen Lilian, or my aunt and uncle, for three whole months. The last time she saw me I had sprinted off to go confront those thugs, and now - as far as she was concerned - I was missing. Or more likely dead. I tried not to imagine the state she must be in, but I couldn't stop myself over the last few days. It had practically been the only thing on my mind.

And all because of this piece of shit. I glared at Alex, letting my body slowly shift into the fighting stance it had gotten used to after all these months. It was quite clear that Alex wasn't in the mood, and I knew that if he had his way then we definitely wouldn't be having this spar right now. But too fucking bad.

"Ready?" He asked with feigned interest, entering a fighting stance of his own simply to satiate me. It was obvious to both of us that he didn't need it, but I think he liked to make me think that he was trying. I didn't respond, glowering at him silently as my hands tightened into fists.

And then, strikingly fast, I was off.

My toes glided across the grassy field, my feet hardly making contact with the ground, and in an instant I was there beside him; launching my fist right towards his face. His palm came up triply as fast as my own movements, yet somehow he managed to make the move seem lazy.

The moment we collided I reeled my fist back, aiming instead with a sharp kick at the side of his knee. His leg shifted faster than I could even track, and before I knew it he had taken a whole step back and fired his other leg directly into my stomach.

My instincts had grown absurdly quick since our first spar, so my forearms were there to take the brunt of the blow even if it did send me a few feet back. Once the tip of my boot made contact with the ground, I was shooting off once again.

I decided to change tactics this time. A quadruple blast of air flew from my hands, slicing their way towards Alex as his pupils darted between them all despite their invisibility. He moved elegantly, nimbly twisting his body and slipping neatly through all the blasts to emerge right where I wanted him - directly in front of me.

Reeling both hands back, I focused with all my might and sent a single, powerful, widespread blast straight into his face. Now, this is the thing I'd noticed after three months of these daily spars that Alex thought I was ignorant. I hadn't - in all that time - ever truly seen Alex's top speed.

Which means that he could've, quite easily, avoided this hit. In fact, it'd probably be as trivial to him as taking a single step is to me. But he didn't do that. Instead, he let the blast hit him dead on - pretending to be caught off guard by the attack. His head snapped backwards and the rest of his body followed, sending him tumbling to the ground.

It sent a surge of anger through me to know that he's putting on a show - and one that he actually thought I was buying - but I was able to force the rage to dwindle down as I reminded myself of why I was sparring him in the first place. And so I went back to playing my part and attacking like I usually would; like someone who's gotten their hopes up and thinks maybe they've finally found an opening.

I wasn't that stupid; I knew there was no opening. There never was and never would be an opening.

Because, while he let himself get hit every now and then to give me some semblance of hope, Alex and I both knew he'd never lose this spar. 'Cause that was our agreement; I win, we get to leave the island. He wins, I try again tomorrow. Daily spars, only air powers allowed, incapacitate the other in any way you can.