Leviathan

Chapter 14-- Training

Chapter 13:

Emerald

"You do know that your wings change colors, right?" Aaron asked as I picked up my books and loaded them into my book bag.

"Mmhmm," I said dismissively and headed for the door hurriedly. My wings would change colors with each element I used. Red fading to a light orange for fire, aqua fading to an icy blue for water, white with metallic blue tinted tips for ice, a rich emerald with elegant silver swirls for earth, yellow with specks of silver for air, a blue-green turquoise tint for rain and black with golden blades of lightning for thunder and lightning. The final element, spirit, was a teeny little bit tricky. Its color was a light violet deepening to royal purple at the ends. It wasn't as straightforward as that though. I have to see Diare to talk about meeting Emmaline Sarahs, the only Leviathan alive with an affinity for spirit.

“So I was thinking,” Aaron, continued, still keeping up with ne as I headed to ML's huge basement arena, which was on the last floor. Each species had their own floor to train on, except the werewolves, who trained in the forest. We took over the extra space for flying room.

“Do you want to try out a relationship? I know this isn’t the most romantic setting, but I genuinely what to try this out. Please?” Aaron asked.

I paused, nearly late for my class in the empty hall. “Sure,” I decided. “Okay we can give it a go.”

He smiled from ear to ear and kissed me. I smiled and pushed him off with a laugh. “No need to be so clingy, I thought girls were the only ones who did that.”

He smirked. “I’m just on touch with my feminine side.”

Smiling, I turned and ran to my next class, breathless.

The arena was furnished with wood, with mahogany floorboards, oak doors and poplar furniture fixings. The setting of the arena could be altered with the push of a button and put up pools, dirt pits, air vents, fire-proof walls etc. The gadgets were incredible.

"Today, we're gonna take a break from all the elemental training," Diare said, pacing slowly on front of us. All of the students had their wings hanging out of their backs, filling the room with myriads of colors reflecting off the walls. It was comfier than retracting them inside our backs. My pure white wings shone in the yellow light of the room.

"I think I've never told you about this, but Leviathans have a patron, of sorts." She said into the quietness of the arena, voice reverberating off the walls.

"I'm sure all of you have heard of the Greek god Ares," Diare continued. "He is also known as the angel Mikael. He gave a single feather to Kieran Leviathan, the ‘founder’ of Leviathans. The feather was used to create an elixir that enabled Kieran to become a Leviathan. Of course, he got some of Mikael's powers with that as well.

"Aside from power over the elements, Mikael could also be classified as a warrior. He was the Greek god of war, after all. He was a master at all fighting techniques and was most skilled in the art of swordplay.

"Each Leviathan has retained some of that power. Even now, every one of us have a special weapon that means the most to us; that we can summon into our hands in the blink of an eye. Today I'm going show you guys how to do this and then you can go off and practice for a while."

More powers? Great. Just great. I rolled my eyes and sighed.

Hunter bounded up and flicked me in the arm. "Hear that? We get more powers!"

"Gosh, I don't want any more!" I groaned. "You would think that power over all the elements is good enough, but no," I ranted. "I just had to have more powers."

"Awww, come on. It'll be fun."

Diare held out her hand. The air above it shimmered and in her hand appeared a spear with leaves twined along the shaft.

"Try it. Hold out your hand and visualize a weapon forming in your palm."

Hunter closed his eyes. There was a faint shimmer, then a silver claymore materialized in his hand. It had a bronze hilt, with a silver insignia and bronze tendrils wrapping along top of the blade, near the hilt, resembling tree branches. His eyes bulged.

"Wicked." He closed his hand and flipped the sword over. "Emerald, it’s easy. Just envision it in your mind and it'll appear."

I sighed and closed my eyes. Weapon, I thought to myself. I felt a weight in my hand and on my back. My eyes snapped open. An intricately carved bow rested in my hand. Golden tendrils wrapped around the platinum limbs and the grip was a solid block of shimmering moonstone. Surprisingly, it was feather light in my hand. I turned my head behind me. An empty leather quiver rested in the valley of my wings. It was studded with silver and gold branches that mimicked the ones on my bow. I looked back towards Hunter. He was still studying his claymore. I thwacked him with the edge of my bow.

"Tada!" I crowed.

He scowled, rubbing the sore spot on his arm. He brightened up when he saw the bow in my hand. "Whoa, that's super expensive looking, Em." He reached over to take a closer look. I handed it to him and his claymore disappeared as he hurried to catch my bow.

"Dude, how can you hold that? It weighs like 400 pounds!"

I frowned. "No it doesn't. Give it back then."

He shoved it back into my arms. I huffed and waded through the sea of students who were clutching weapons. I saw Laura wave a pair of nun chucks at me. I waved back and continued to walk towards Diare.

"Hi Diare, where can I find some arrows?"

She gestured towards the storeroom near the edge of the arena. "Go check inside. I'm sure there are some there."

I headed to the storeroom and flung open the door. There were lots of random things inside, like fire extinguishers, towels, mops, etc. A few other students clutching bows opened the door hesitantly and walked inside. There was a selection of weapons along the left wall. I glanced at it and spied a few quivers of arrows hanging on the wall. I picked up one and scrutinized it. The fletching was made of clear fiberglass with a sleek aluminum shaft and smooth metal tip. I collected a bunch of them and dumped them into my quiver. Then I went back outside.

Diare had put up targets against the side of the wall. Other students were sparring with each other, filling the open space with the sound of metal clashing against metal. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Hunter sparring with Finn, laughing merrily and shoving him to the ground, pointing his claymore at Finn's face. Finn laughed it off and slapped the blade away, clambering back to his feet. Laura was determinedly around her opponent, Claire, a hateful girl who bitched about everything. With a few quick strikes, Laura had the girl on the floor moaning in pain. I smiled and headed to the targets. I stood behind the red line that was a few yards away from the target and pulled the bowstring deftly back with a smooth hiss. The arrow notched perfectly and I aimed at the center of the target. I counted to three in my head and let the arrow loose. It whizzed in the air and thunked with finality into the absolute center of the target. I drew another arrow and notched in in the bow, pulling the bowstring. I released the arrow and it pierced the target just to the right of the center, brushing past the earlier one.

On second thought, more powers don't seem so bad after all...