The Marked

Discoveries

As it turned out, I did not enjoy Mike's exercise. Shea and Tom made it seem simple enough, but when I faced him in the same positions as Mark and I had been in yesterday, I soon learned that it was near impossible to hit his arrows. They moved so fast that I barely had a second to figure out where they would hit, and then try to deflect them away from my body.

Shea had held her rapier out to let the arrows hit the point, which broke their shape up into wisps of smoke. Tom had used his hammer as a shield, but once or twice had spun the shaft to knock arrows out of the air. They had both suggested I take Tom's second approach, as I was not nearly as skilled as Shea was.

Ryan, surprisingly, had hardly any trouble shooting the arrows. "It's like after he fires them, I can see the path they're going to take," he had tried explaining to the others when they commented on his aim. Mike had looked thoughtful for a few seconds, and then snapped his fingers loudly, calling out from across the yard.

"Aha! I thought that your ability seemed to have an abnormally long recharge rate! It seems that you also have a passive ability!" Tom and Shea had looked in awe at Ryan, but we were both confused. 

"What do you mean, a 'passive ability'?" Ryan voiced my own question, and we waited for Mike to answer, as he was mumbling to himself about things that I couldn't make out from where I was standing, which was about ten feet to the side of Ryan, next to Tom and Shea. He stopped talking to himself then, and looked up at Ryan with a slightly apologetic look on his face.

"Well, it's sort of like Tom's ability, in a sense. It increases his strength and speed, but he has control over how much power he puts out. In a sense, he can deliver an extremely heavy hit that costs him a lot of energy, or several less damaging effects that don't drain him as much. It seems that your own ability, Freeze, works in a similar sense. You have slightly increased comprehension speed, and it seems to increase when you focus on my arrows.

Which, when you think about it, makes sense. Being put into a situation where you need to accurately predict an object's trajectory, but it's moving so fast that you can hardly see it, is extremely difficult. It's why, no offense, James is having such a hard time. Even though you're both new to this exercise, you have an advantage over him."

I nodded then, understanding. I didn't feel offended at Mike's words, as they were true. Ryan was looking at the Mark on his arm, gun held loosely in his grasp. He left his position, and came to stand in front of me. "Your turn, J." He laid a hand on my shoulder and gave me an encouraging smile. I tried to return it, but I wasn't sure if I succeeded.

Walking forward and standing in front of Mike, I hesitantly summoned my sword in my hand. Mike drew back on his bow, taking aim at me from across the yard, and I breathed in deeply, letting the air rush past my gritted teeth as I planted my feet in my stance. I held the sword loosely in front of me, the blade held a few inches away from my face, every nerve on edge as I waited for Mike to fire.

I didn't really see the arrow coming towards me, so much as I felt it.It seemed t be heading for my left shoulder, so I angled my sword into its path. I felt the arrow connect with my sword, knocking it back an inch or so. I didn't have time to celebrate my small victory, however, because right after that came another one, this time heading for my exposed chest.

The others had told me that I should try to focus on blocking the arrows, but after three previous failed attempts in which I had only managed to block the first arrow or two, I had decided to try something different. My body, which had previously been stiff in grim acceptance of being hit, loosened.

I slid to the left, just in time for the arrow to miss my right arm by less than an inch. If Mike was surprised by my sudden dodge, he didn't show it. Already, two more arrows were on their way. I quickly realized that only one was aimed at me, while the other was shot at my left side. Ah, I thought, so he's trying to keep me from dodging. The other was going to hit my right thigh if I didn't block it, but instead I just shifted my stance a bit, and it grazed the pant leg of my jeans.