Dark Turn (Book One In War Of The Magi)

Chapter 6 - Something old, Something New

Sweat covered my face. It felt refreshing against my skin.

After sparing for two hours against many simulated combat soldiers, my body had grown tired. Not from the fight, but from how boring it was. Even in the highest difficulty, it was easy to eliminate all of the holographic soldiers. Although, to be fair, I did have previous training in the art of combat.

The warmth of the Arena was starting to get to me. I still wanted to spend a few minutes training, but the heat was a problem. Taking my combat shirt off, I let the slight breeze hit my body. Feeling a bit less like a volcano, I continued my training.

A few seconds later, a soft chorus of squeals came from the viewing area. I gave a quick glance to the people that made such a annoying sound. Five girls, two from my class and three that I had never seen before, were standing in the balcony edge of the stands, eyes looking like they were ready to pop from their sockets. I wondered why they were here. Maybe to learn something from my fighting technique. I pushed those thoughts behind me and kept practicing.

Half an hour later, the same squeals were heard after I blocked an attack from two of the practice soldiers.

"Don't you have something else to do?" A loud booming voice came from behind me, alerting them.

Joshua had his arms folded in front of his chest, looking at the five girls with a raised eyebrow. A playful smirk was adorning his face.

After a few seconds, the girls fast walked out of the arena, quickly stealing glances at me, giggling while doing so.

"Damn, you are one hell of a hit..." Joshua was staring at me, a smile on his face. "I guess when someone like you takes his shirt off, girls just come running after him!"

He laughed loudly, looking at my confused face. They were here just to see me? To see my appearance? Superficiality at is best.

"How was training?" Josh had come close to me, handing me a towel.

"Quite good. Been perfecting a technique. Close to achieving it." Wiping the sweat off my face, I dressed myself again.

"You're invested in The Dance of Devils aren't you?"

"Quite a bit, yeah. It's really important to test my limitations and abilities against other students of the same caliber."

"Aren't the Trials close?" Joshua had started picking up parts of the training drones and looking at them like a military scientist. It was a normal thing for him to do.

"It's Friday, if I'm not mistaken." The prospect of having the admission combats so close was giving me the nervousness of a lifetime. There are plenty of capable duos in this Academy that can do a much better job of being one of the five representing it.

"Have you trained with Emma yet?" His question came with a sly, trademark, smirk of his.

"Yes I have." I said, shrugging off his subtle remark. "We got some battle plans defined and a few other strategies. How about you? Heard that you are going to participate."

"You heard well." His response was short and quite heavy, like an unwanted reminder.

"Who are you 'Duo'ing' with?" It was my time to make a sly smirk at him, although it came as a stupid normal smile.

"Demius..." His eyes darted the opposite way when he said the name. He really didn't like him. It made me wonder...

"Why? You don't even like the guy!" Although I wanted to sound pissed, my smile gave it away.

"You fucking know why!" His voice was laced with a mixture of anger and embarrassment. A weird thing for him.

I started laughing hysterically, tears flowing form how hard I laughed. I just couldn't keep it in anymore.