Time Flies

Classes started, and every passing day Cain learned more about the world and about people. In the morning class period he learned more about how to fight and how to use his weapons, and thanks to him being the first in the rankings he was constantly challenged, but he always managed to come out as the winner. In the afternoon, depending on the day, classes alternated between the Master Geographer, the Master of Healing and the Master of Strategy. And on Sunday the day the students were given some rest he always was in the company of Elion and Adalind and the three went to the library to study or for Eriel's fields to watch the ranking battles for the students over 15 years of age.

The first time he took Elion and Adalind to watch a battle for the first rank on the over 15 category his friends couldn't believe their eyes. The speed of the attacks, the mastery which the students used their weapons and the strategy the fighters used in their match up was incredible. The result was another victory for the student who bore the first rank, Gunthar of the Jhung clan, or the battle demon as he was known in the College. As he wasn't from one of the Royal clans everyone was surprised when he took the first rank as soon as he entered the 15 years of age category. His excellent fighting skills along with his unique Lineage, were enough for him to stay undefeated while he was a student of the College. Now he was 17 years old and maintained his perfect record, from when he entered the College seven years ago, till now. It was his Lineage that had given him his nickname, when Gunthar used his Lineage his eyes and his body would become black, while he had it activated he became faster and his skin would become more resistant.

Every time Gunthar fought the stands on the arena would be full of people since almost everybody on the College was a fan of his fighting style, the boy used knuckles on his hands and fought without a bladed weapon. Every time Cain watched one of his fights he felt like he still had a long way to go.

The classes in the morning gave Cain more control over the movement of his body, eliminating the most unnecessary movements, and it also made him more familiar with his spear. As the other students would gradually awaken their Lineages, struggles for ranking became increasingly difficult, but the natural ability of Cain allowed him to win every time. At the afternoon he would watch the theoretical classes and at night he would pick his training weapons made from Orichalcum and go train, every student received this weapon after one month of training. The College encouraged the students to walk with it all day, every day, in order to grow their knowledge of the weapons and to get used to it. On this training classes he took his time to train his Lineage as well, to do that he would make a small cut in himself and try to stay in control while he did his normal regiment for self-training.

In Master Vivith's class he learned more about the history of the continent, on the two kingdoms that were on the other continent at the south separated by the Great Desert since the earthquake that closed the passage by the Cordilleras of Juk, the kingdom of Tule and the kingdom of Esvern. He also learned about the Elders, an ancient race of geniuses who lived on the continent about 8000 years ago, and how they were decimated after they dared to challenge the Divines. The Elders mainly lived in what is now the Forbidden Lands, but the ruins of its ancient cities can be found scattered throughout the kingdom. The cities of the Elders are made of a technology still unknown to men and their weapons are still legendary to this day, the Winterdome Mountain is full of ruins of their cities, still not fully explored. Legend has it that the technological knowledge of the Elders had even made possible to create a door to the plane of the Divines.

In the classes of Master Evelyn, Cain learned about first aid, but also learned about herbs, which ones had healing powers and which ones are bad for human beings, which could serve as food and which ones that if ingested could act as poison.

The classes of Master Ugar were preferred by Cain, in them he learned about the strategies used in ancient wars, including those used in the Great War 500 years ago. Cain thought it was strange that even when there was talk of the Great War no one commented on the Siegfried Clan it was as if the Clan had never existed. Once when talking to Gundam he asked about the survivors of the Clan and the old man answered him that 200 years had passed since the last time someone had heard any news about a survivor and that most people believed the Clan was already extinct.

Some days were more special than usual, one of those days Cain and Elion were returning to their houses from the library, they had left Adalind at the female lodge and now followed to the male lodge, the boys talked about the winter that was about to arrive, Elion was telling Cain about everything he intended to do since he was going home.

The College streets were getting darker and the lamps were already lit, suddenly an older student who had been talking to his colleagues bumped into Elion and began to argue with him, Cain recognized the student, he was Marcus Reinoc, his hair and his eyes were black, he was 13 and was at number 10 in the ranking for students from 12 to 14 years of age, he had a thin body and was not very tall as was common to those of Reinoc's Clan. His abilities were known by all, because although he was not as strong physically as the other students, he was learning the lessons very fast and rapidly rising in the rankings since receiving his Lineage, getting better and learning new moves after each fight.

"Cheeky Boy, you think you can talk like that to me in front of my friends and leave without receiving any lessons?" Marcus looked at Elion his face full of fury.

"If you were not an idiot and looked at where you are walking this would not have happened" Elion said with a smile in the corner of his mouth.

"That is enough, you will fight me here and now, unsheathe your weapon, and I'll teach you to respect your elders you scum" said Marcus, Elion had begun to pull his swords from his waist when Cain pulled him aside.

"Are you sure it's a smart choice to fight him, fights between students without the supervision of a Master of War are prohibited, if you lose and faint I'll have to hide you until you wake up" Cain spoke out of concern for his friend.

"Thank you for your concern Cain, but do not worry. I will win from this joke of a fighter" Elion spoke to Cain, but made sure Marcus heard all his words, his green eyes were completely focused on his opponent.

"You do not think you're being a bit arrogant? He's older, more experienced, stronger and still has a good position in the ranking of up to 14 years. Look I'm not judging you, but you're still ranked 12 in our age" said Cain not believing his friend had the smallest chance against his opponent.

"I'm telling you not to worry; if you will feel better I promise to you that I will win, have I ever broken one of my promises?" Elion asked already knowing the answer.

"No, you always keep your promises" Cain did not like the idea of fighting with Marcus, but he saw that Elion would not give up.

"I would not be a man if I broke one, since you agreed I will go now" The blond boy turned to his opponent and drew his two swords of Orichalcum "Hey! Manure bag, I'm ready!"

On hearing the last provocation Marcus ran in the direction of Elion, he wielded his scythe, a dangerous weapon since the curvature of the blade can reach the person even if the cable is blocked, but Elion seemed to know that, because he did not think to defend by trying to block, whenever he was attacked by Marcus the blond boy dodged the blows perfectly. A minute passed with Marcus trying to hit Elion and the blond boy dodging, the heir to the Reinoc Clan and his friends seemed surprised, but without a doubt the most amazed person among those present was Cain. When the blow came in the horizontal Elion would jump back or bend down, when it came in the vertical he would dodge to one of the sides. After another minute Elion started to tap the cable of the scythe after every dodge as a sign of mockery.

"That's all you can do? So, I think now I can already start attacking" after saying this Elion began to strike blows against Marcus, Elion's blows were quick and incisive nothing like he had shown up until now during the trainings, Marcus tried his best to defend with his scythe, but every time he blocked one of the swords the other struck him. One by one the limbs of the boy were being paralyzed, when he fell to the ground unable to move anymore Elion walked up to him looked at his eyes and let out a small laugh. The yellow headed boy then struck both of his blades at his enemy, one at the head and one at the heart.

"Who's next?" Elion said looking at the two friends of Marcus who were still disbelieving what had just happened. Quickly the boys took the body of their friend that lied on the floor and ran away.

"Elion that was amazing! Since when were you so good?" Cain was still stunned, his face made clear how impressed he was.

"Oh, that" said Elion a little embarrassed. "Well, I'll have to tell you a story for you to understand. As a possible heir to the chief of Clan Fortred my father made me train with weapons since I was two years old, and I always showed a great aptitude in training. See Cain I'm not the only child my father ever had, I had an older brother, my brother died three years ago, robbers attacked the caravan in which he was returning home from the College and killed everyone. My father to this day believes that it was someone from our clan in an attempt to weaken our family and make it so we will not be able to keep as heads of the Clan." Tears were forming in Elion's eyes as he told this story. "My father made me promise never to show my skills until I get my Lineage. I never showed my true skills to anyone before this, I just showed to you now because I trust in you, since my brother died I have never had a friend in which I can trust. To me you're a brother Cain, even though we do not share the same blood"

Being surprised by the boy's sudden declaration Cain didn't really know how to answer. "Elion, you really are my best friend, I never had a brother, but I can say that I consider you one" after this conversation the two averted from their way to the men's dorm and went to a huge oak tree close to the wall that faced the mountain edge. They used to come to this tree at night whenever they wanted to relax. The boys climbed the tree and stood there trying to remember what they were talking about before the fight.

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During the second year of their training in the College Adalind received her lineage, and had to take lessons every Sunday morning, those classes were specially created to help the kids from the Ghuel Clan to understand their gift better and accept it. This year was very hard for Adalind, she would have sporadic visions about the future of the people she was looking at, but those came without warning making she feel nervous all the time.

Most of the time she did not say anything to anyone about her visions, the ones whom she confided were Cain and Elion. In another day that would be striking, she was alone with Cain in the library, the two were studying late for a test that the Master of Healing would do about medicinal herbs, Elion had gotten tired of studying and returned to his lodge. They were arguing about which herb would be better for a potion against fever, when suddenly she remained completely still with her blue eyes staring at nothing. Cain soon realized she was having a vision, he looked around and found no one, the vision was about him! She finally opened her eyes and awoke from the trance.

"So, what have you seen?" He spoke without hiding his curiosity.

"You do not want to know. Believe me, you will not like what I have to say, and what's more you will not understand my vision since we don't know how they work, we don't know if they work as a prediction or as a metaphor." Said the red-haired girl, sadly.

"C'mon Ad" Ad was the nickname that Cain had given Adalind some time ago saying that everyone called her Adalind, and he did not want to be like everyone. "There is no one else here so your vision can only be about me, and if you say that I will not understand it, what harm is there if you tell me?"

"Am I ever going to convince you otherwise?" The boy answered quickly with a negative sign with his head. "I believe I have no choice then, after all you would insist until the end of time to know what I saw. Okay, my vision starts like this; I'm marching in a company of a hundred soldiers in front of me there is a village, it is located in the middle of a lake and the only way to get to it is by crossing a small bridge that leads to its gates. As the company gets close to the gates they suddenly open and a tall man gets out of them alone, he's muscular and very handsome. He looks at the company and smiles, looking closer the man resembles you, but I cannot say for sure because his beard makes it hard to see his traits. He proceeds to unsheathe his two swords and run in the direction of the soldiers. Then it ends."

"You are right, I cannot understand any of this, but thank you anyway Ad." Said the boy. "Do me a favor and do not talk about what happened with Elion, okay? We don't need to worry anyone else with it." Cain didn't want anyone worried about it since it would not matter as no one would understand it.

"You're welcome, now let's go back to the studies I want to do well in this test tomorrow. And do not worry I will not tell him" the girl said while opening another book on the subject of their studies.

And like that two years passed like a flash.