Mantes

The mammoth of a beast stood there, leaking what appeared to be a liquid fire from his eyes and mouth. Farica stood not to far, her face white with shock. She dropped to her knees and looked at her hands as if she had done something wrong herself.

"FARICA LOOK OUT!" Sheppard screamed. Her head snapped up as Mantes' titanic jaws came within inches of her. Right before he closed his mouth around her, she vanished into thin air. In every sense of the word. It was a technique she invented that she called wind shifting. She was able to turn herself into pure air and flow along the wind. She reformed behind him and the two began trading blows back and forth, one after another. They moved almost too fast to actually watch what was happening. Even with his great size Mantes was incredibly quick, at his peak being able to move at speeds fast enough to go from one end of the Sol system to the next and back in only a few minutes. Here, however, even with his incredible speed he was being matched.

Farica was sending off hit after hit, while simultaneously blocking the ceaseless blows from the great titan. They clashed sending shockwaves every time strong enough to shatter mountains. It was a display of godlike proportions. Valentine had never seen anything like it before. Farica dodged a swing from Mantes wind shifting again. This time reforming twenty meters above Mantes. She formed what looked to be some type of arrow between the index and middle finger of each hand. She released it and it launched at seemingly incomprehensible speeds. It hit Mantes in the side of the head ripping away at its metallic skin if you could even call it that.

The arrow landed toward the feet of Mantes creating a massive explosion that shattered the ground surrounding the entire block. The ground began to bulge like a water balloon being overfilled. Finally after mere seconds the ground burst, compressed air shot up creating a blast wave that ripped apart buildings in the surrounding area. Fire poured from the gash in Mantes' head. While the shot was powerful, it only seemed to anger the hulking devil of a creature. Mantes took one breath out, then filled its chest with air. He looked up toward Farica and opened his mouth. His throat began to glow until finally, a massive beam of fire moving at the speed of light fired from his mouth. It burned as hot as a thousand suns. The ability was called Devils Tongue. It was this ability that gave Mantes his Tier 1 classification only now it was amplified by the power of the absorbed Halo. However, Farica didn't falter. She stood her ground in the sky. The blast nearly hit her without even so much as a twitch from her. But as it came within millimeters of her skin, she wasn't fazed. The tip of the beam exploded into a fabulous spiderweb of power, circling in front of her like a disc.

"What the hell happened?! She wasn't even touched!" Calden exclaimed.

"She's a captain for a reason. " Sheppard responded. "Devils tongue already has the power to destroy all life on the surface of the planet if used correctly. With the Halo of Jonathan, its power is increased tenfold. In addition, it now has an elemental factor. But as I said Farica is a captain for a reason. She is currently using her Chayil to manipulate the air in front of her to create a vortex strong enough to overpower the rotational force of the blast. She is one of if not the smartest of all the captains and her mind is what makes her such a potent fighter." He continued

"Shouldn't the heat be ionizing the air though?" Asked Valentine.

"It should if it was normal air. The difference between Chayil and normal elements is that the properties of an element can be manipulated to the user's will when it is Chayil that has been turned into an element. Farica is able to force the air Chayil to have the properties of energy rather than matter. This means it can't be ionized." Answered Sheppard. They looked back at the fight, as they did Farica shot down toward Mantes. She landed a massive kick that knocked him off his feet and sent a titanic shockwave thundering through the city. Mantes shrieked with rage, quickly spinning up to deliver another attack. He snapped his tail toward Farica, the tip glowing red hot. She formed a staff in her hands and countered the attack.

The tip of the staff formed into a spearhead and she hurled it at Mantes. It pierced his flesh, jamming itself in his chest. He crumpled to the ground in defeat, at least so it looked. He raised his hands and smashed them into the ground, from his palms smoke began to emerge. Then, a piercing white flame shot out of his palms in a sudden blinding burst, completely incinerating the rock below. It seemed like a futile move, however, Mantes gained his notoriety for a reason. That same reason was why Farica was specifically sent on this mission. Mantes' biggest weapon was his intelligence. He was one of the few sentient Titans that were created. It is said the sentient ones were birthed from stars. Mantes whipped his tail up and the tip opened. Out of it shot multiple white-hot fireballs that burst into hundreds of smaller fireballs. A barrage not meant to deal damage, but rather to be a diversion to slow her down.

"Shit, he's not going after her, he's going after the city. My guess is Mantes is making a caldera underneath the city. I'm not sure how he plans on blowing it, but we got to be careful from here on out." Sheppard said. The students looked nervously at the fight, except for Valentine. He looked at the fight with an analytical eye. Ubel took notice and began to do the same.

"We should go down and help." Elof stated abruptly.

"Are you suicidal? That thing would kill you just by breathing on you wrong, hell the captain is barely holding her own ground right now." Responded Caira. Just as she finished responding, Ubel had already run toward the exit of the ship.

"Wait, it's not safe especially for just one of us!" Cried Valentine. He ran after Ubel, grabbing the sword his father had given him the morning before from the armory. Ubel rushed out the door with Valentine and soon the rest of the class in stride.

"You're gonna get yourself killed you clod! You won't prove anything just from getting added to the mortality rate!" Caira yelled. Ubel leaped toward Mantes, winding up a haymaker. His hand got surrounded by fire that quickly turned pitch black. He slammed into the side of Mantes' head causing a massive explosion. After the smoke cleared, the massive and malevolent face of Mantes stared at the group. His eyes glowing now a deep red. He looked both calm and seething with fury. After all, how dare such a feeble creature even attempt to harm the now burning beast of the north. Then out of nowhere, up jumped Valentine with his sword drawn. It was a longsword of Gaelic origin.

The blade was sterling silver and the hilt a shimmering gold. Along the core of the blade and hilt ran a ruby red material. Valentine swung down gritting his teeth, knowing full well this was the one chance he had. He swung down onto Mantes' tail, cleaving it off. A piercing screech filled the air as the titan writhed in pain. The fire stopped blasting out of his hands as he slammed down his hand in the direction of Valentine. The tip of one of his fingers hit Valentine in the face, blowing him to the ground and creating a massive gash under his right eye. He landed hard, getting knocked out from the blow.

"VAL!" Screamed Elof. He turned and drew his blade. A brilliant blue sword, similar to his brothers. He jumped at Mantes and before making contact the sword began to glow. He lodged the blade into Mantes' eye, and as he did blue energy flowed from the sword into Mantes' head. It rippled through his body fracturing the plating of his skin. Mantes flung Elof off and he landed without issue. Out of the sky, Farica came soaring in. She flipped in the air and struck down with a massive ax kick, striking Mantes in the head. His head landed on the ground shattering even more of the already fractured battlefield. There was a tranquil silence, the first since they had arrived there. But it was almost terrifying how quiet it was as if all sound had been stripped away from the surrounding area. The silence broke when the sound of rubble being disturbed arose from the rear of Mantes' still body. It was Valentine, he was bleeding from the face, covering the right side of his body.

"I've gotta be honest, that hurt a lot more than I thought it was gonna." Valentine murmured. He started walking over toward the group when Mantes' eyes shot open. He reared ready to crush Valentine but in the blink of an eye, his arm was sliced to bits and exploded. Everyone looked at Valentine and in his hand, the sword's red core was glowing. It all happened in an instant but the look on both Farica and Mantes' faces said it all. Whatever it was, they knew and were either terrified or awestruck by it. Farica snapped back into reality and quickly delivered the killing blow on Mantes, decapitating him with the swift cut of a wind blade. Elof had compromised all integrity of his armor-like skin leaving an easy opening for any lethal blow. She walked briskly over toward Valentine and grabbed him by the arm. Elof rushed over.

"What are you do-" Elof tried to ask

"You too, I have a few questions for the both of you." Farica interrupted. They walked over to the airship followed by everyone else. The disaster relief teams had arrived to safely deal with the catastrophic damage done. In the airship, Sheppard, Elof, and Valentine sat around the conference room table. Farica walked in with something in her hand. She walked over to Valentine and put a bandage on his face, Then sat down at the end of the table.

"Let me get right to the point, where the hell did you get these?" Farica demanded

"They were given to us by our parents yesterday morning before we got to the school. Now let me ask you what's the fuss?" Answered Elof.

"You really don't know what these are? Jesus christ Eiten." Farica chuckled, she stood up and began pacing. "How the hell did you convince Shauna to give these to 'em?" She continued. "All right here's the deal, the weapons you possess are pretty obviously not normal swords. Hell, you can't even really call what Val has a sword. The one you have Elof is the Guardian Sword. It was your mother's weapon during the war. As for you Val, that is the Blade of Fate. It was your ancestor's weapon, lost in time. However, a few years ago your father found it. God knows why he decided it was safe to give to you." Farica said. Valentine and Elof both had faces of somewhat shock and awe. But that quickly faded to faces of query.

"What makes them so dangerous?" Valentine asked.

"That I can't say. The devil you know is better than the devil you don't, and I'd much rather deal with titans than the sons of Eiten with the knowledge of what they possess." Farica stated.

"Do you really think we'll just go full turncoat?" Elof said.

"I don't think you will, but I want to get to know you better before I tell you what you with those weapons alone are capable of. Never mind once you learn to wield the power of a Halo." Farica responded. Then suddenly her face lost its stern demeanor. She almost looked sad, which was out of character for someone like her. She sat down at the end of the table again.

"Jonathan was only a kid. I knew I shouldn't have brought him with me. His blood is on my hands today." She murmured.

"That's not true, you did the best you could." Valentine chirped.

"Then the best wasn't enough!" Farica yelled. Her face quickly went red with embarrassment.

"I-I'm sorry for losing my temper, it's just that I promised myself I wouldn't let any more of these kids die. He was only nineteen, he was still a child. I fear I'm not cut out to be a captain." Croaked Farica.

"Stop saying that, I told you once and I'll tell you again: You're one of the best we got and have ever had. These things happen even sadly, to the ones who have a lot of life left to live. It will never get easier to lose someone you're a commanding officer to, but that's the price a captain pays." Sheppard butted in.

"Were you a captain?" Asked Elof.

"Yeah, I got "promoted" to be a teacher by Faulknor because of my ability to give high-level last-minute training to those who fought in the war. I wish I could be fighting the remaining titans head-on, but I believe I'm more useful in getting the next generation ready for future threats." Responded Sheppard. The "meeting" ended and Elof and Valentine returned to the main part of the ship as it set off back to the school. The trip back was filled with silence, as requested by Farica as a symbol of respect for the death of Jonathan. After about an hour, the ship landed at the school and everyone was ordered to go back to their dorms for the remainder of the day. The lounge was silent, everyone was still in shock at what they had seen.

"I'm gonna go make dinner if anyone wants to help you're more than welcome." Thema said faintly. She walked over to the kitchen and started prepping.

"I shoulda done something." Valentine whispered.

"We tried and almost died, there isn't much we could've done. Even I wasn't able to hurt him." Responded Ubel.

"It just would've been more bodies to count if any of us got fully involved, hell you hit him once and nearly got your head blown off." Added Issan.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right. Christ, I'm gonna go wash up. I'm still covered in shit from the city. I doubt any of this is healthy." Valentine giggled. He walked toward his room to get his bathrobe and towel. He went to his room and a chill went down his spine when he suddenly remembered his dream from that morning.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" Caira asked.

"Jesus Christ, you scared the hell out of me. Could ya at least knock?" Said Valentine.

"Sorry, I kinda can sense people's emotions and it seemed like you weren't doing too well. Also, you still haven't gotten that cut on your face properly treated so I was planning on bringing you down to the med room." Caira stated.

"Oh shit, I forgot about this. Yeah, I should probably get this treated." Valentine responded. The two walked out and went down to the bay. Valentine walked in followed by Caira and asked to get the cut fixed. He walked out to the waiting room after getting healed and saw Caira waiting for him.

"Huh, that's odd." Caira murmured.

"What is it?" Asked Valentine.

"There's a scar. Normally the injury gets completely healed, I think it's cause it went untreated for over an hour." Answered Caira. Valentine shrugged and they both walked back toward the dorm. Valentine almost asked Caira why she walked him down and waited for him, but ended up withholding the question.

"It's because no one else would've, plus you're interesting." Said Caira. "I don't know a lot about you even though you seem to be the Headmaster's favorite, you and your brother of course. So let me ask you this." Caira walked in front of Valentine and blocked the way. "What makes you so special?" She asked. Valentine was at a loss for words. How did she know what he was gonna say? More importantly, what should HE say right now?

"Well, I've been training since I could walk, even though I was a late bloomer. Also, my parents are both highly renowned captains. Or at least they were before they retired to a more normal life when we were born. Other than that I don't know, I can't even access my Halo. I guess I'll always be a late bloomer huh." Valentine responded. Caira looked at him with curiosity and some distrust, before her expression changed to one of almost care.

"Alright, I believe you. Although with the amount of effort you've been putting in since such a young age, I'm very surprised you can't use your Halo. I can't recall anyone with the same condition." Caira said with abnormal confidence. A sudden wave of exhaustion came over Valentine and he dropped to his knees.

"Hey you ok?!" Caira said worryingly.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just really tired. Can I get a hand back to the lounge? I don't even need to make it to my room, just the couch." Caira put his arm over her shoulder and they began walking back. When they entered the lounge no one was to be seen, they had all gone to the dining room for dinner.

"I can take you back to your room if you want." Said Caira. From the other room, Wade overheard Caira, He peeped his head around the corner. Valentine said something in his sleep as that he passed out even before he hit the sofa. But when Caira turned around to head toward the table he saw her face was bright red.

"That fucking dumbass." Wade thought. He knew exactly what he had said because he had mentioned it to him the night before.

"Man, when he wakes up this will be fun to watch." Murmured Wade.

"You say something?" Asked Ubel.

"Nah, just laughing about something I remembered." Wade Chuckled. The next day was their first official lesson as students. But would also be their first official assignment.