Heather's Adventures: The Search for Maxamus

Chapter 18. Max

"Man, you're strong..." I panted as Rheannah kept me on my toes in our small spar. She was waving her sword around left and right with such speed. I almost fell over twice. She was good. Really good. Exceptionally good. Her offensive ability shocked most people. However her defensive seemed to be even better just because her defense was a strong offense. She defended herself by harshly throwing more and more at you until you couldn't attack anymore.

"Keep up Max, I can't fight every battle for you." Rheannah insisted as she flung a mini tornado at me. I hit it back at her with my sword turning it into a hurricane by adding some water. She hit it back with her sword, dissolving it so she didn't have to worry about it being thrown around the battlefield. Smart thinking Rheannah, very smart.

"Rheannah I don't know how much longer I can hold up in this."

"You have to hold up longer," She cried as she kept trying to attack me with everything, "you need to be able to outlast everyone and everything."

It was then our teacher walked into the training center. We let ourselves in and started training on our own. This was typical, only this time Rheannah was in tears and throwing everything she could at me. Our teacher stopped and threw down his bag, "you two must stop, you're going to wreck the room."

"Not until Max comes at me with everything he's got!" Rheannah shouted to our teacher as I ducked to miss one of her sword strikes. I quickly created a pool of water flooding the entire room. It started slow but the water started to rise faster and faster. Rheannah however could easily defend herself since she could create the air and oxygen. Meanwhile here I was creating even more water and hurling water everywhere. I never used this much power all at once before.

"Max, what are you doing where are you getting this power?" Rheannah shouted as I quickly moved through the water and burst through her air bubble, tackling her down to the ground with my sword at her throat. I had won...ish.

I knew Rheannah could quickly throw me off so I said words to end the fight, "If you were a normal person I would've won at this point. This fight is finished."

"Where did you get the power..." Rheannah's wet yellow-blonde hair was plastered on the sides of her face as she looked up at me astonished with my power with those deep sky-blue eyes of hers.

I quickly drained the room of the water and absorbed it all back into me. "I don't know, I just have the feeling that the power I just did there isn't even half of what I could do."

"Why are you so strong?" She asked me as I helped her up onto her feet. She quickly uses the air to wind-dry herself, "we're twins we should be equal..."

"Think of it this way, I'm better at power, you're better at swordfights." I told her as our teacher ran over to us. He was drenched.

Oops.

"Maxamus Merrywell what have you done?!"

"Won the fight against my sister?" I questioned my fighting techniques, "I actually beat my sister for once?"

"Power fighting is not encouraged; this is where we practice our swordsmanship not our powers like that. You aren't a swordsman, you're a mage!"

Rheannah stood and shook her head, "He beat half the class in sword techniques. He's both. I don't have these powers either. You've seen mine."

"Your father was the same way, one day he came and his power was strengthen to the level of a mage although he clearly favored his swordsmanship skills over his powers. Only your father had a valid reason why, unlike you I don't see why..."

"How well do you know him? What did he do to Max?!" Rheannah screamed at our teacher, holding her swords' tip up to our teacher's throat.

Our teacher threw his hands up. He was afraid of Rheannah. Hell, everyone was here. Rheannah was more skilled than pretty much everyone. If she had her sword on her, you did what she asked. She knew how to use it to her advantage and she rarely ever lost. "We worked together before; however it was only after strange circumstances that he gained massive power. Surely, the same thing could have never happened to Max. It is impossible."

"What happened?" Rheannah demanded once more.

"I am not at liberty to explain." He repeated, "It was classified work. I am only allowed to say it is something that is impossible to have happened to Max in the twelve years that he has lived."

"Hmph." Rheannah turned on her heels and sheathed her sword back in its case on her belt. She started to walk out and I only followed her, not entirely sure what to do. She just turned and walked away. This was quite odd.

As we were walking out, our teacher shouted, "wait...there is one thing I can tell you."

"Do tell us then." Rheannah retorted back. That was her goal. To gain the information through guilt.

"There will be someone out looking for him. I can't tell you who or how they learned of him. There will just be someone looking for him. They won't know more than his name and perhaps his sword or other details. They'll have protection from our lords."

"Is this a girl or a boy?"

He just shrugged, "could be either. I can't judge. All I know is they will have protection by the lords and you two have it as well. I can't explain it besides your father asked the lords for it. He had to have done that."

"How are we protected?" I asked.

"They must have an artifact. I know Thalia's artifacts have been missing for ages, however your father had Puggy's artifacts. Max, your sword. Although both swords were born from the same sword, Max's is Puggy's lost sword. Rheannah's is Elizabeth's sword."

"Elizabeth had a staff. Not a sword."

"That was a common misconception that Elizabeth was all about Magic. Thalia was the mage. Elizabeth was actually very competent with both Magic and physical fighting. All four of them were. Thalia and Puggy both just had extreme amounts of magic—creating mages as you now know of them today."

"But how were they created?"

"The artifacts have been lost over time. They are accidently combined into other swords. Your father combined the two swords without even knowing what they were until later when he noticed the power. When he separated them he knew each of you would get an artifact and would be protected. Just beware, because Puggy has wide ties to Thalia so there may just be that someone who is either a dominate Thalia or grew up training with Thalia's that may be after you."

"They'll be all four branches, just like us." I stated, "no one else would ever come near me if they knew what was good for them."

"That's all I can tell you at this time. Believe me if I was at liberty to tell you more I would most definitely tell you more, however I am not." So Rheannah and I left that place.

As soon as we were outside I turned around to face Rheannah, "That's her, Rheannah. It's Heather. She's out there trying to find me."