Ancient Forces (2018 Reboot)

Chapter 32 - A New Threat

The school bells rang and Zayne wearily stood up from his seat and placed his test on the teacher's desk. After consideration of the test Zayne had discovered that he did know quite a bit more than he remembered. The first few pages were simply over things he didn't, unfortunately they were the higher scoring points. However after looking around at the combination of the stuff he did know his score would be well over acceptable. That was if he got them right. Which he was confident he did! Partially. To put it simply in his mind Zayne worried about his grade, but also knew that he had done better than he'd expected, and hopefully had done better than the teacher was expecting of him too. Zayne waved his goodbye to the teacher and stepped out into the hall. There was an open pathway just for him, just as it was everyday. Then it struck him and the sudden rush came to mind. The daily race.

Every day at the end of the school day there was a race between Zayne and Damien to see who could run around the school and then back to the entrance faster. It was just a friendly competition, and a great way for kids at school to end their laborious learning hours. Zayne smiled as he felt the surge of heat race to his legs, making them lengthen and expand. They curved just as they should have into their half human half dragon mutation, allowing Zayne to take off within an instant. He ran past several groups of people who waved to him as he past. Once he was outside, he took a hard right, blowing past several other groups of kids all waiting or already heading for their rides. They all cheered as he ran past, very quickly spotting Damien as his cousin ran around the corner of the building. Damien was surprisingly fast for someone with ice abilities that was usually used to slow others down. The first few days of these races Zayne had been surprised.

Zayne turned the corner and saw Damien ahead, the ice beneath his feet allowing him to skate across the ground with ease. Zayne dug his feet deep into the ground and launched himself forward, within a few strides getting head to head with his cousin. When Damien realized how close Zayne was he gave up his casual skate and morphed his body into a blue scaled, crystalline dragon mutation. He began taking longer strides on the ice, and very quickly pulled ahead of Zayne once more. Zayne wasn't going to allow such an easy defeat this time, especially since he'd been working on a new maneuverability technique. He'd used this on Damien before, but he'd just mindlessly done it then. Now he'd mastered the ability of using his flames to change his direction, or speed him up in the direction he was already going.

Zayne curved his body down and launched himself forward, lifting his entire body off the floor. Damien was just behind Zayne as the fire rushed from his chest to his left arm, the energy pulsing and congregating at his palm. Damien made the final turn with ease, but Zayne had no connection to the ground to change course. Instead Zayne held out his left arm and fired a massive pillar of flames, then directed his right arm behind him and fired another pillar, instantly rocketing him past Damien and back to the entrance of the school, giving him the win in an instant. Damien fell back and dug his hand into the ice, then scraped his feet against the ground and slowed himself down, finally coming to a rest next to his cousin as their bodies slowly returned to normal, the glowing orange and pulsing blue vanishing from sight. Clapping and cheering came from the surrounding students at the close race. Zayne and Damien shook hands and laughed at the struggle, recounting their ideas and thoughts as they occurred.

"Well I'm glad you two are having fun," Aleah said from the doors as she approached.

Zayne and Damien looked to her in unison, both still smiling, "Yeah we are. That was as close of a race as it has ever gotten in the last few times we've done it."

"Alright well I've gotta get home early today. Parents have plans and such," Aleah stated as she ran up and climbed onto Zayne's back.

"How's Kaleb doing by the way?" Zayne asked.