The School of Dragon Riders [Dragon Riders #1]

Chapter 34 (edited)

It was the beginning of the third year for Jack.

Snow was dead. Tanya was dead. Fox was dead. Medea was not right.

He didn't know what do, but he wanted to do something. He had to help her. He loved her. He couldn't just let her go.

His mentor, Sasha, was patient with him since the Medea-joining-the-dark event. He still trained, and his archery skill was better than ever. He learned to use swords and to shapeshift to his advantage in fights. He learned how to heal himself and others faster and without consuming so much energy.

However, he couldn't do this himself and he needed help, but he had to do it secretly, since the headmaster made it clear that he was not allowed to go. He already tried to persuade the older students to help him, but all of them denied, calling it a suicide mission.

He sighed. The only choice he had left was to persuade the first years. They are all thirsty for adventure, but he didn't want to be the one leading them to their death. He needed skilled people, but still, first years couldn't possibly be as good as the older students, but he knew that it was his only choice.

***

Sylvester Hayward was in his room, making his pen levitate. He had a Wind Element, and he was getting good at doing things like this. He summoned the wind below the pen, and made it levitate without moving around.

"Syl, showing off again?" His roommate, Andrew, said from the bed. Syl laughed and made the pen land softly.

He stood up from the chair and looked through the window. It was sunny outside, and he saw people flying with their dragons. Syl's dragon, Narr, was a lot smaller than those of older students were, but he was the fastest of his classmates. Syl wanted to compete in this year's Tournament. He was good at fighting and using his Element: Wind. He has only one Element, but he is strong and it was natural to him. He saw his reflection in the mirror; black hair and bright blue eyes, which made girls look at him more than he liked. He wore a red cloak with the emblem of 'Fate'. Cloaks were a new thing in the school, and everyone liked it. They looked cool while flying.

"Lunch won't be ready for a few hours. I am going to make some changes for the Hook. I think I figured out how to fix it," Syl said, looking at his tall, brown haired and blue-eyed roommate, who also happened to be his best friend.

Syl had been working on a tool for a few years now, which was a hook that attached to his belt and could be operated with one hand. It was controlled with lots of smaller gears and wires, and before, he could never make it start or work for a longer period of time.

He figured out that if he could control the main gear with wind, he could do it... and he could give himself a wind boost as well. He just needed to make a few changes to the system. His mentor, Ash, knew what Syl was doing and he was allowed to use some school supplies.

Andrew just nodded, picking up a book and opening it. Today was a free day, as well, but Syl didn't feel like going to town with his schoolmates.

He grabbed a bag that contained the Hook from under his bed, swinging it over his shoulder. Right after, he left the room and proceeded to go downstairs. He passed a few students, all wearing different cloaks and shooting glares at each other. He smirked, finding the hostility between them amusing. He personally didn't care much about parts.

After a few minutes, he reached the supply room. He wanted to make a new tip for the hook. He needed something sharper, something that would pierce the dragon skin. He just needed some strong material that he could weld in nicely. He had all the tools he needed to make the shape and sharpness.

After some time of searching, he found hard steel that was nearly indestructible. There wasn't very much left of it, but he collected enough pieces to make a few spare tips. He used to be a blacksmith's apprentice before being invited to this school, so he knew what to do.

***

After two hours of hard work, he completed three tips. They were pointed and had three curves at the place where the tip connected with the rope, so that the hook would stick in when it entered something and Syl made a mechanism for releasing the curves so the hook could be pulled out.

He had most of the mechanical things finished, but he needed to make a few modifications. He mounted the hook onto the rope and put on the belt.

The belt had the whole mechanism on the side, and it was used with his right hand. He was left handed, so he used his sword with the left hand. That's why he put the mechanism on the right side. Some smaller levers had to be pulled with his hand in order to switch main gears for firing the rope, opening the curves, closing the curves, and pulling the ropes in. The 'fuel' for the Hook was his Wind Element.

He had the firing mechanism finished, and all he needed to fix was the curves opening and closing. He took in a deep breath and got ready to fire.

He was still not good at aiming, so he turned towards a black wall, aiming somewhere around the middle. He concentrated on the wind and imagined it at the gear. He pulled the lever to activate it and made the win spin it fast.

The hook shot out at the speed of an arrow, and it hit the wall with a loud thud, piercing and making cracks. The whole hook was in, and if he had the curve system worked out, he could have been able to do it perfectly.

The hook wasn't in the middle, but he wasn't far from his goal either. He shifted the lever again, and made the wind activate another gear, pulling the hook from the wall and onto the belt.

He was satisfied with this, but he had to finish his creation. He knew what to do with the gears and it would take him an hour at most.

He took off his belt happily and went to work.

***

Surprisingly, it took him only around half an hour to fix everything. He put the belt on again, now used to its weight. It wasn't too heavy, but at first, he had balancing problems. After a year of wearing it though, he got used to it.

He aimed at the same wall and pulled the lever. He put the gear to work and the hook fired at a great speed.

He then shifted the lever and extracted the curves, making the hook stick to the wall. He wasn't fast at it, but this was the first time his project worked, so he wasn't used to it yet.

The next thing he did was pull the hook towards him, or in this case, pull him towards the hook. He activated the gear, this time needing more wind strength than before, but he could manage it with ease. He felt himself being pulled towards the wall very, very fast.

Before he could react, he slammed into the wall face-first. He grunted in pain, feeling blood flow down through his nose.

"Hey, are you alright?" He heard a voice followed by footsteps.

Syl managed to pull the lever to release the curves, and he fell to the ground, failing to land on his feet. His head was in pain along with his nose, which he suspected was broken.

"That was pretty cool! I have the Holy Element. I will heal you," the voice said, and Syl felt himself being lifted to his feet. He looked up to see an older student with white hair smiling at him. He looked vaguely familiar.

The boy's hands started glowing and Syl felt himself feeling better. After only a minute, all of his pain was gone and his nose stopped bleeding. He wiped the dried up blood and looked at the boy.

"Thank you. This is my project, called the Hook. You saw what it does, but this was the first time it was successful," Syl explained to the older boy.

"No problem. Your project seems to be complete! Iam Jack, by the way."5-