Chapter 14

The pressure of someone laying on John disturbs his comfortable sleep. Though the smooth, warm texture fills him with an arousing joy. The person shifts themselves, making him realize that his arms are entangled around them. He holds tightly, applying more pressure onto his chest, but hears a soft moan as a reward. He opens his eyes and witnesses shiny silver, blonde hair on a feminine figure. He brushes her hair and notices something odd about them. They are touching bare skinned, as if they are the other's blanket.

"What's this?" Helena speaks up, rubbing her eyes. She raises her head and they lock eyes only for a moment. Her face poofs into a shade of beets. "Wh-wh-wh." She panics, trying to sit up.

"Wait!" John shouts, pulling her back and hugging her. He feels his cheeks warm up as her large chest presses against him. "If you stand, I'll see everything." He reassures her. They lay in silence for a moment before Helena speaks.

"John. I can feel your thing against my thigh." She mumbles against his chest.

"That's… because I'm with a beautiful girl." She looks up at him and rests her ear on his chest feeling his heart beat hard.

"Why is it so big down there?"

"It's because it's awake and full of energy." She glances at the clock on her wall after a few moments of silence.

"It's been 2 hours since class has started!" She sits up not caring if John sees. She climbs off the bed and starts putting on her white underwear. John enjoys the sight as he sits on the edge of the bed.

"Do you remember last night?" He asks making her bed.

"Only bits and pieces."

"Do you think we did it?"

"I would say yes."

"Wanna do it again?" Helena throws his shirt at him.

"We can talk about this later. We have class." She does her best to not show her face to him.

"It's a shame I don't remember our first time together. Hopefully next time will make up for it." He comments as he puts on his clothes. She glances at him and he returns the glance. She breaks contact first and finishes putting on her school uniform. John turns her around and kisses her lips. They hold together for a good moment before separating. She takes a quick step back, shivering like a small animal.

"Ah- Why are you so aggressive?" She asks, touching her lips.

"I didn't think you'd let me if I asked." She cutely furrows her eyebrows, attempting to look mad. "Are you mad?"

"No… I don't mind." She blushes red like the sunset and heads for the door. She's being uncharacteristically cute today. "J-just no more surprise kisses." John leaves the room and they both sneakily make their way to the boy's dorm.

"Why are you following me? You can easily get to class now." She shakes her head in disagreement.

"We're both late so we should show up together." They make it to his room and she sits on his bed, focusing on the ground as he changes to his school uniform. She steals a few glances at his resting penis. "John, are we an item?"

"Currently no. We can be, but as of right now we have not made such a thing clear. Why?"

"No reason, just worried about our status."

"Helena, even if I did get a lover you will still be my priority." He states kneeling down to reach her eye level. "We can be friends with benefits or lovers either way, currently you're my number three girl."

"Haha three?" She pushes him lightly. He catches himself.

"Yeah, my mother and sister are ahead of you." He places his forehead against hers. "So what will it be? My lover or partner in crime." She leans in close and kisses him lightly.

"Lover." John smiles and kisses her again, she freezes in place like a cat. The word cute doesn't do her justice in capturing her adorable reaction. He breaks off the kiss, leaving her breathlessly staring into space.

"Now let's go back to class." He grabs her hand and leads her out of the room.

"To the east we have the Eastern Continent, The birthplace of Demons, Dragons and Trolls. To the west we have the Western Continent, The birthplace of Angels, Fairies and Giants. To the north we have the Great Northern Isles. Four massive islands that each behave like their own realm. The names of the islands are as follows, Olympia, Yggdrasil, Shinto, and Egypt. To the south we have the unknown continent, those that travel there never return sane." Ms. Reeves reads from a textbook.

Marcus looks over to his brother's seat, empty and so is Helena's. They should know that they will get punished by Ms. Reeves. John bursts through the door with Helena close behind.

"Here! We are here!" John shouts, making his way to his desk.

"Let me guess you overslept and it won't happen again. Am I correct?" Drake speaks up.

"Wow, it's like you read my mind." John answers.

"That's really cool. I didn't know you could do that?" Helena chimes in sarcastically.

"Both of you meet me after class. For now take your seats." Ms. Reeves responds. With pure luck or similar wave links, Marcus, Drake, and Alexander give him a thumbs up. He smirks, but still ignores them and continues to make his way to his seat.

"Ms. Reeves, just tell us about the event!" Drake yells. She grabs a pen and chucks it at him, hitting his forehead hard.

"Fine! As you may have already heard there's going to be an event in a few weeks. 13 of you will compete against 13 of class D's students." Ms. Reeves shuts her book. "Today, we'll choose who will participate. Lessons will be put on hold until the event is over. I encourage you to train, each person that wins their match will earn one gold and the class that wins the most will earn one gold for each student."

"One gold!" Most of the students yell.

"That's like ten potions." Arthas mutters.

"So go on and choose or I'm going to choose myself." Ms. Reeves offers.

"I say the top three of the class are guaranteed." Momo speaks out glancing at John.

"So John Reaper, Luke King and Marcus Cain." Ms. Reeves announces. "Anyone disagree?" No one disagrees. She grabs a clipboard and begins to write the names on it.

"I nominate Brock Carson, Darius Raven and Alexander Bloodmoon." Luke declares.

"I nominate them as well, but I want to include Helena Infernious." John chimes in. Marcus grins at Arthas and Drake and he raises his hand. They widen their eyes and begin to shake their heads.

"I nominate Arthas Grey, Drake Knight, and Rayner!" Marcus shouts making eye contact with Rayner.

"Anyone disagree?" Ms. Reeves asks once more. Rayner is about to raise his hand, but she doesn't notice, writing the names on her clipboard. "Four, three, three. Ok, three more and you have your representatives."

"I volunteer!" Astra shouts.

"So do I!" Akane yells.

"I nominate Rurena Zodrel." Marcus declares. She glares at him.

"And that's 13, any disagreements?" The class remains silent except for a few whispers. "Good now I'll leave you to your training. Class dismissed."

"Wait? So no more class training?" Astra asks.

"Those will still be available, but most students in the past have preferred to do their own training in addition." Ms. Reeves answers.

Marcus heads to the training area waiting for Astra and Sarah. After an hour of waiting and laying on the grass with Maximus, he decides to train by himself. Marcus rips chunks of rocks out the earth condensing as many as he could at the same time, only managing to do five. Bruce once explained to him that using two abilities at the same time was extremely difficult and was a signature of advanced mastery over your abilities. Holding the rocks in the air Marcus attempts to conjure a sphere of wind in his palm. The rocks drop at a slow rate and the wind begins to form at a slower rate than usual.

"Interesting." Marcus tells Maximus. "Come on Maximus, use your magic." The dragon begins to emanate smoke from his mouth before releasing a short stream of fire. "Good boy, keep practicing and you'll soon be able to hunt on your own."

"Marcus, are you busy?" Luke calls out. He glances at the dragon and his eyes light up for a moment. "Cool dragon."

"How'd you find me?"

"Your girlfriend told me."

"Girlfriend?"

"The one you sit with." He starts to snap his fingers, thinking about the name. "Umm, Astra I believe."

"Ok, what can I do for you?"

"We are going to spar."

"Why? We can just train."

"No, this way we can improve our reactions and decision making in the middle of combat." Luke counters.

"Fine, but only for a bit. I'm trying to learn new techniques."

"We're foreigners, we should stick together." Luke says approaching Maximus. "Do you mind?" He asks, hovering his hand over Maximus.

"Go for it. So you figured it out. I suspected as well. So you know we each have our mission that we must finish. Sticking together will only delay that." Marcus says, returning Maximus after Luke pets him a few times. "I have to kill the King of Seairon."

"I have to find a the remaining phoenixes and keep them safe." Luke declares. "Some of which aren't even born yet."

"So you're a phoenix. That's pretty cool, I'm an angel. Oh, since we're getting to know each other, I'll tell you a place where you can take the phoenixes and they'll be safe there. You see my father is-"

"Enough chit chat. Your girlfriend will arrive soon and get in the way." Luke interrupts.

"She's not my girlfriend."

"Don't care."

"Remember, no killing blows. It won't help either of us if one of us dies."

"I know, I don't want the school to expel me in the first year."

They separate and create distance. Marcus draws Valkyrie and Dawn as he is walking towards Luke who coats his arms in flames. Luke lunges forward to get closer. Each punch he throws forms into a solid fiery spear. If Marcus had a normal shield it would have shattered by now. Marcus swings only to crash into a solid fiery shield that Luke manages to form. Luke disarms Marcus's shield. In a quick reaction, Marcus blasts a powerful gale against Luke blasting him a fair bit away. Marcus shoots wind-like blades before he gathers wind above himself.

Luke recovers barely blocking one of the blades of wind with his shield. He forges bird-like projectiles and fires at will interrupting the wind blades. Luke charges towards Marcus, coating himself in dark blue flames shaping into a large lance consuming everything in its path. Marcus compresses the bluish grey wind above into his fist. He releases it towards Luke full force, causing an explosion that blows both him and Luke away, leaving a large crater between them.

"That was new." Marcus states. "Wanted it to only hit you."

"Guess I'll try something new as well." Luke forms a pair of flaming wings on his back. "I'm going all out." Luke creates six large spheres of fire hovering above his wings for a moment. He then decides to compress the spheres of fire allowing them to orbit him. Marcus starts to increase the wind speed in the area around him, twirling the wind to create a large barrier. Marcus also gathers wind and shapes it into a large wind-like lance that is aiming at Luke, swirling in place.

Luke launches one of the spheres before dashing to launch another. The lance starts to rapidly shoot bolts of air at Luke and the spheres of fire, slowly losing its size with the continuous rapid fire. The bolts pierce the tough earth like butter. It takes a while before the bolts completely disperse the fiery spheres. Luke has not only increased his speed, his fire power also increases exponentially. He effortlessly out runs the bolts.

Luke blasts two more spheres that crash into Marcus' barrier. The first sphere engulfs a little less than half of the barrier, while the second sphere collides in the same area. Marcus, blown away from the impact, throws the remains of the lance at Luke while trying to rebuild the strength of the barrier, decreasing its size. Before the lance crashes into the ground, it expands releasing waves of bolts in all directions. Luke manages to dodge most of the bolts only getting a few cuts and slashes. He grips his remaining fiery spheres in each hand thrusting it against the newly formed barrier, blasting through the shield easily causing a huge explosion.

Marcus quickly recovers from the knock back of the explosion, gathering wind as he regains his footing. He pressurizes the wind into a ball, while encasing his arm with layers of strong wind. Luke stands from the blast and directs two powerful streams of fire at Marcus. Though midway they intertwine and reshape into a massive, bird-like figure that charges true, uncontested. Marcus aims his hand at the ground and releases a powerful blast of air that lifts him off the ground above the massive bird.

Luke's eyes are drawn towards Marcus' left leg which is on fire. With clear sight of Luke, Marcus twists his body dragging the air blast with him while infusing it with more strong wind. Marcus reshapes the wind into a hammer as it crashes down onto Luke like a meteor. Luke notices and manipulates the bird to change directions and target a defenseless Marcus.

Both combatants are unconscious on the scorched battered ground. After some time, Drake and Arthas wander onto the chaotic battlefield, seeing the aftermath. They investigate looking for the source. They find two heavily wounded bodies laying face down. One has multiple burn markings and the other has many cuts.

"What do you think happened?" Arthas asks, approaching Marcus.

"Well obviously they fought and knocked each other out. What I want to know is how someone our age is able to put out such destructive force?"

"They are considered one of the strongest in our class. I wouldn't be surprised if they fought holding back, not wanting to kill each other." Arthas answers, kneeling down checking Marcus' pulse.

"Yeah, but what about outside our class?"

"You saw Celeste. She didn't budge at all, even when I went all out."

"Yeah, but you're weak."

"We are about the same."

"My point still stands. We should take Marcus to Rayner." Drake states.

"Why can he heal?"

"Maybe, I don't know? He should be able to do something."

"You just don't want to get the teachers involved."

"Pretty much." Drake answers walking to Luke. Arthas picks up Marcus, while Drake picks up Luke.

"Take Luke to his room and give him a potion." Arthas says.

"I know, I know, and don't forget their gear."

Marcus wakes up in his room with Rayner gently touching Marcus' forehead chanting a phrase. A burst of green light glazes over him. The burn marks all over his body fades at a consistent slow rate.

"That stings." Rayner smiles as he hears Marcus' voice.

"Look who's finally awake."

"What happened?"

"You tell me. Arthas just dropped you off and said to heal you before running away."

"I had a sparring match with Luke and we started to increase our fire power as it dragged on."

"Two of the strongest students clashing, no wonder you're badly hurt."

"I feel fine though."

"Cause I healed most of it already."

"Thanks." Rayner stares at Marcus looking where his wounds used to be.

"Get up."

"Why?"

"We have to train." Rayner says, putting on his coat. "Let's go get Astra and Sarah."

"I don't think they want to train with me."

"Sure they do, if they want to win."

Rayner leads the way to them. Astra and Sarah are sparring with Rurena as the referee. Astra was superior in every way. Every time Sarah attempts something, Astra manages to counter with slight difficulty. As soon as they see Marcus and Rayner approaching they put a hold onto the match.

"Are you guys ready?" Rayner asks.

"Yes." Sarah and Astra respond. The group goes to Marcus' usual training spot. The surprise looks on everyone's face confuses Marcus.

"What happened?" Astra asks.

"I fought Luke."

"What the hell! You guys did that?" Sarah points at the destruction.

"Yeah, pretty cool right?" Marcus answers.

"Astra, what technique are you trying to learn?" Rayner asks.

"I'm just trying to enhance my fighting capabilities with wind."

"That's so basic." Marcus states.

"So what!"

"Marcus." Rayner says.

"But it does fit you." Marcus says, drawing Valkyrie. "Astra, try to coat your sword in wind, it doesn't have to be fast or condensed, just coat it." Valkyrie is dressed with untamed wind as it swirls similar to a tornado, Marcus demonstrates as an example.

"That's easy." Astra does as she's told and grins at Marcus. Three layers of wind wrap around the blade. "I want to fight like you."

"Now increase the speed and amount of the wind." Astra sighs, but does as she's told. The wind starts to rapidly twist around her blade like a tornado, growing in size.

"This is getting pretty difficult to maintain." Astra states.

"Now condense it to your preference."

"Condense?" Marcus forces the wind around his blade to twirl rapidly similar to her, but he shapes the wind almost infusing it together with the sword, slightly extending its length and width. "I'll try." Astra mumbles, concentrating on the blade.

"Rayner, can you go get Arthas and Drake?" Marcus says disbursing the effect.

"Sure." Rayner says leaving.

"Sarah, create a fire wisp."

"A what?"

"Do you know what a Will-o'-the-wisp is? A floating orb of light."

"Oh, that? Yeah I know, but why? I'm not fighting?"

"You still have to train even if you aren't fighting. How else do you think you'll beat Astra."

"Fine. How would I make one?"

"Rurena, can you show her?"

"How do you know, I know how to make one?"

"It's basic knowledge that kitsunes are able to utilize that ability with ease."

"Looks like someone did their research. Fine, but you owe me for volunteering me." Rurena forges three orbs of pink lightning which orbit her in a playful manner.

"I'll buy you a cake. Sarah, learn this and you should be able to expand your fighting capabilities."

"Does it have to be orbs?"

"No, but it's the easiest to do."

"What are you going to be doing?" Rurena asks.

"I'm going to try to use two abilities simultaneously, but the real question is what are you going to be doing?"

"I'm going to get my second tail." She grins. "And Rayner is going to speed up the process with magic."

"Right and what's that going to do, not to mention what he's going to do?"

"It should at least give me enough strength to beat you." She teases. "And Rayner's level of magic can rival anyone in class."

"Good point. He is very versatile."

"Marcus! Help!" Astra yells. Marcus encases Astra's blade and his wind, containing the gale she was brewing. "Thank you."

"Again." Marcus says releasing his grasp around the sword's blade.

"Wait!" She yells.

Over the next few weeks this group made some progress. Astra is able to control her wind more fluidly, and she developed some techniques for her fighting style. Sarah learns to forge a dozen orbs that orbit her at will, but is able to reshape at least half as many into bats by fusing them together. She also claims to have more tricks up her sleeve.

Rayner and Rurena succeed in unlocking the second tail though because the process was unnatural it can only be used for a limited time before requiring a short rest. Marcus attempts to cheer Rurena up, claiming that she does easily reach the destructive level of him and Luke, in that state.

Arthas improves the amount of ice he can summon in a given time and the speed of its spread, also he is able to transform his arms into more of a draconic shape. Drake meditated for a while, releasing a pulse of energy every few minutes, his physical capabilities for a human has improved dramatically. Marcus achieves the use of both wind and earth simultaneously. He then focuses on raising his earth capabilities to rival his wind.

John trains with Helena, Alexander, Darius, Rin and Momo. Helena focuses on the destructive power of her attacks while polishing her fighting style. Alexander unlocks a new ability relating to his race, and he polishes his control over wind and fire, creating a few new techniques in the process. Darius dramatically expands his control over wind. Rin watches the training process and in a similar fashion to Drake, she meditates. Momo spends her time with John helping him grow stronger, in any way she may assist. John improves his swordsmanship and the output of his abilities, allowing quicker destructive attacks.

Throughout the weeks the teachers made sure that the classes weren't meeting each other. They would cast barriers that blocked sight or cast spells that changed what the students would see. The students didn't know who would fight or any new information about the other classes. That is until the day of the exam, which told them the names of the participants.