The Oracle

Chapter 34: The Ties that Bind

AKARI

I propel myself off of the nearest wall before I swing my scythe over my head and twirl around in the air to slice the projectile flying towards me before I pull the trigger on my gun and shoot the rest of them down before I land on one knee, my long blonde ponytail swaying around.

"Akari!" Clea calls out from behind me and I pause my training simulation to look back at her as she jogs over to me.

"Hey," I take a moment to catch my breath. "What's up?"

After the dining hall announcement, I decided to catch up on my classes before going to the training area where I practiced my skills in order to take my mind off of things and get some more training in. After all, you can never have enough practice.

"I wanted to see if I could train with you," Clea starts, "but also, did you hear? There's another mission bulletin listed for us already."

"Already?" I raise my eyebrows. "When?"

"We leave tomorrow," Clea frowns. "According to Reverence, it's the um...the place he..."

"The jungle?" I ask, my breath hitching.

"Yeah," Clea swallows thickly. "He's coming along, apparently."

"What?" I frown. "Why? He should be resting."

"He insisted on coming," Clea sighs. "Carmin begrudgingly accepted, but only because he's coming too."

"Wait, Carmin is coming?" I raise my eyebrows.

"Yeah," Clea nods. "Darius, Evory, Sora, Reverence, Carmin, Raciel, Isabella, Kaito, you, and me."

"Why so many of us?" I ask.

"Reverence is supposed to be our guide. He claims he knows where the next runestone is," Clea explains. "After he guides us there, we're supposed to split into two teams to search the area. So far, it looks like the line up for the teams is Carmin, Raciel, Isabella, Sora, and you, and then Darius, Evory, Reverence, Kaito, and me."

"This seems..." I trail off, thinking of Gambit's words.

"Yeah," Clea says quietly. "I know. I don't like it either."

"Well, we can't do much about it I suppose," I sigh. "For now, let's focus on training."

"Yeah!" Clea grins excitedly and smacks her fists together. "Let's do this!"

"Do you know how to use a bow?" I ask as I grab one of the training bows to give to Clea since we're focusing on projectiles for the moment.

"Not particularly, but I had another idea in mind," Clea grins and holds up a fan of daggers, making me smile in return.

"Alright," I nod, getting ready to resume the training simulation, my blue eyes meeting Clea's grey ones. "Let's do this then."

"It's on!" Clea shouts excitedly as the simulation resumes and we both take our stances, Clea releasing several daggers at a time while I kneel down and shoot the projectiles on my side down out of the air.

***

"That was so cool how you shot three in a row with one bullet!" Clea gushes excitedly as the two of us leave the training grounds together.

"Don't count yourself out," I giggle. "The way you move around like lightning is extremely admirable."

"Seems like you two had fun," Kit muses as she stands before us, a white towel around her neck and her long magenta hair dripping slight water droplets onto her sky blue tank top and black shorts, Sander standing next to her in black athletic joggers, his usual bracelet still on his wrist.