Cray's newest fighters

A day of training

I jumped back as a rain of arrows fell to my feet. "Is that all you can do? Dodge me?" I looked up to see Artemis standing there in her grade two form. That way, if she hit me, I wouldn't go to sleep forever. "You need to attack back if you are ever to get good enough to win this war." 

"I will. I will get stronger." I pulled out my bow.

"Finally." I swung it around and fired three arrows at her. She blocked them with her bow. 

"You are going to have to do better than that." She looked at me, and then gasped as I was standing in front of her with my bow drawn. "What? How?" I pointed at the necklace.

"I learned how to make it affect time."

"Really? That is something that even Iwanagahime took two centuries to learn. I am impressed my vanguard." She dropped to the ground and kicked out. I didn't have the necklace active, so it hit me pretty fast.

"Even as a grade two you are really powerful."

"Of course. Did you think that a leader of a group could be weak?"

"No. I guess not." I went to slowly put my arms out to pick me up, but I grabbed her and threw her back. She landed about thirty feet away. 

"Better luck next time." She jumped up, and laughed. "You need to try better if you want to ever win." Then, she heard a light ticking sound. She looked around to find an arrow attatched to her shirt. There was a red dot on it, and a second later it blew up. She landed on the ground, now shirtless, while the shards of her shirt danced in the air. "You sneaky little brat." She stood up straight, and she turned back into her grade three form.

"You had enough training for today?"

"There is someone else that you need to train with. Come over here." She waved, and someone stepped out from behind a tree.

"Iwanagahime?"

"Yes. She is here to help you learn how to use the necklace even better."

"Really? I thought I was doing well already." 

"You are, but we need to make sure that you are as powerful as you can be right now." She stepped over to me, and put her hand on my shoulder. "You are going to learn how to do something that seems impossible, but you will understand how to do it in time." She stepped back from me. " I am going to use my power to increase my speed, or the time zone around me. I want you to stop me."

"Like block you?"

"No. I want you to stop the time zone that I am in."

"Really?" I looked around kind of nervous. "Well then, I guess we should start."

"Of course." She got into position, and then moved. I didn't even see it until it hit me. "Come on. You need to better than that. Pay more attention." I stood back up, and she came at me again. I dropped to the ground, and concentrated on  the one spot above me. Time slowed there, and then stopped for a second. Iwanagahime was right above me stuck in the time warp. I unfroze time, and she went flying past. "Very good."

"Is there something that I can help with?" I looked shocked, and then turned around to see Sunshine standing there.

"What are you doing here?"

"Of course I am here to train myself." I thought to myself, and then realized that she is a vanguard too. 

"Well then, would you like to train with me?"

"Well be careful because my fights can get pretty hot." Seals started to form all over her body, and a heat washed over the area that made all the plants wither. 

"Well well well. I guess you really do get hot during a fight." She smiled at me. Then, a fireball came flying at me. I dodged it, but my shoulder got burned a little bit. "Well this sucks." I started to run around her, and I pulled out my bow. I was down to three arrows, but I think that one of them would do the trick. I pulled out a blue arrow, and notched it in the bow. I jumped back, pulled the arrow back, and let it fly. It went soaring through the air. She tried to incinerate it, but it pushed right through her fire.

"What?"

"Water arrow." Just then, it exploded sending water to spray all over. It made the plants stand up again, and all of the fire to go out. "I think that you should try to train the intensity of the flames more. They were all red for crying out loud. Not even orange."

"Thank you." She bowed her head. "I need as much help as I can get." 

"It was my pleasure to help out a friend." I looked up at the sky. 'I wonder how Chris is doing.'

"Thinking about old allies?" I jumped back to see Percy standing about one hundred feet away.

"What do you want?" I grabbed another arrow.

"Just wanted to check out the competition. That is all." He smiled. "If this is all that you can muster, then I am sorry to say that you stand no chance against us." He started to run at me. "I may as well finish you off now!" He swung his spear, and I jumped over it.

"What are you doing? Go away!" I fired the arrow at him, and he jumped back. The arrow then exploded, firing shards of metal all over. He jumped over with his face bleeding from the attack.

"I misjudged you. You are smarter than I thought." I stood up, wiped his hand over his face, and all the wounds were healed.

"What?"

"But you must become stronger if you ever hope to get anywhere near close enough to beat me." He turned away and vanished.

"Who was that?"

"That was Percy. He is the reason that we are still vanguards. He is the reason that this war is about to hit a whole new level."

"Really? He must be really strong then."

"He only has gained power through hatred. That is what his clan is, a bunch of hatred."

"What clan does he lead?"

"The sky paladins. A group of rejected paladins. They seek revenge for not being allowed into the other paladin clans."

"That is awful."

"I know tell me about it."

"How could you just reject people?"

"What?"

"How could anyone just say no to someone who wants to join you. Weak or not, they are still willing to help. I understand the Shadow paladins, and some of the Gold, but the Royals? Since when did they care how strong you were? They are all about weak units coming together to help fight."

"I know, but no matter what he is trying to start another war. I am not saying that the other clans arent guilty, just that we have to prevent this war before we can try to change the other clans."

"Well I understand. I need to get going, my mom will be wondering where I ran off to." She bowed to me again, and then vanished. Just then, a group of Spike brothers jumped out and attacked me. 

"What?" I jumped up trying to dodge them, but they were faster than I thought. They grabbed my leg, and slammed me on the ground. "Oof." Just then, a slight cyber vibration could be heard.

"What the..." Was all one of the Spike brothers could say before being cut down out of nowhere. I looked up to see a young lady standing there. 

"Begone." She moved her hand out, and the Spike brothers all went flying backwards. 

"Who are you?" She smiled at me, and then nodded. 

"All in good time."