Chapter 83: A proper send of

Ciaran followed his brother outside. It was a cloudy day and soon it would begin raining.

'Well, at least I know the weather is on my side.' Ciaran thought.

Edith rose a cloud of dirt to limit the vision from the outside. She didn't want her grandson's magic to be exposed.

There was no way to persuade the boy to let the matter go; he was already arming himself in his stone armor. Ciaran had seen him use it while fighting Clara, but a lot has changed in a month. For one the boy was able to cover his entire body in rocks.

Before he had just a thin layer of dirt but now it was full body armor. And unlike his fight with Clara, Rayon didn't plan to hold back.

In his head, he thought that if he could beat his brother into submission they would never allow him to go. Rayon didn't buy the narrative that his brother was being forced into this.

'He lasted a whole month of supervising the class, I didn't even think he could last a week. Yet, why did he have to choose to go THERE of all places? Fuck you, Rony, not this time!' Rayon thought.

It was easy to see where the boy was coming from. Ciaran had never liked being in the Academy. Sure, he loved the idea of the Library, and he goes to class, but he does that out of his own choice. The fact he was stuck in there for so long and he hadn't tried to escape was what puzzled Rayon. The brother he knew, would have made a run for it in Year One.

'Always planning ahead, well let's see if you planned for me kicking your ass back to reality.'

He glared at the smaller boy. Ciaran just looked at his brother and sighed. He could guess some of the thoughts running amok in his head, but he had given up on explaining himself.

"Let's see if that fancy army bullshit has thought you anything useful."

Ciaran dashed toward the boy. He knew his brother loved to play defense and he wanted to humor him. He was about to go for a low kick when Rayon struck out with a knee. Then he extended his leg and fired the armor on it like a bullet.

Ciaran was caught ill-prepared and got hit right in the stomach.

Rayon didn't give him a chance to breathe and used his sliding-on-the-ground technique to quickly get to his brother.

Ciaran wanted to fight fair and square against his brother, but that wasn't an option anymore. He called on the Wind and told it to slice at the soldier boy's ankles.

It was a sneak attack and it drew blood. Rayon got destabilized and crashed into the ground face-first.

"Of course, you can use magic. I was just reading about economic trade my hard ass. Rony you bastard you were a mage all along." Ray shouted, still angry, but he couldn't hide the pride and joy he felt for his brother.

He said as he charged at his brother again.

"Wait!" Ciaran raised his hand.

The rack warrior stopped in his tracks.

"First of all, if this was my idea, would Mom let me go? No, she would not, and believe me, she was pissed enough to beat me up as it is, if this was all a trick she probably would have killed me already. An extension to one, never piss our mother off, when she beats you she aims to inflict as much pain as possible." The boy said, shocking his brother.

"Second of all, why the fuck would I go to a war zone, if I was bored. Ray, I would go to the damn Desert, and betray the Empire, that way I could at least get to see my family." He said, and his brother frowned.

His brother just confessed that he had no loyalty to their nation, which Ray already knew. But the way he phrased it, it sounded that his brother was already pissed off at the whole of the Empire.

"And third and, seriously, most important of all, what did I tell you about listening to my monologs? It's always a bad idea, and I am always buying myself time. Good job, now you lost your advantage." Ciaran said smugly and charged at his brother.

Rayon was confused about what his brother meant, and then he felt it, a single drop of rain hit his nose. What followed was a downpour, that drowned off all the sound from Ciaran's footprints. The boy moved with the water and, using his left leg like a whip, he smacked the rock boy in the chest.

"One surprise attack for another, now we are even. Come you rock-brained brat, let your big brother show you how to actually fight." He laughed in the face of his brother's plight.

The little soldier did not like that one bit and fully charged at his brother.

On sunny weather on the ground, Rayon would have been faster, but now they were more or less evenly matched in speed. However, where Ray charged in with little to no control, Ciaran was a master of his every move.

Using his Wind, also made things even more unfair. Ciaran had full control of the fight and constantly bombarded his brother with hits. And yet, the soldier had taken little to no damage, and the trickster was already exhausted.

He had to move around like a hyperactive chimpanzee, because he felt what a half hit from his brother felt like, and he didn't want to feel the real thing.

The fight went on for twenty minutes, but at that point, it could barely be called a fight. It was just Ciaran hitting Rayon at every opportunity, and then cursing out the Earth element because he was starting to take more damage, than his alleged victim.

"Give up already, you can't even touch me toy turtle," Ciaran said, a vein popping up on his forehead.

His brother had calmed down and smiled.

"Hey, do you know what I like to see the most right now?" Rayon asked, and Ciaran was blinded, and then immediately got punched in the face.

The rain had stopped, and the sun broke through the thick blanket of clouds.

"A little sunshine." The soldier laughed as he approached his brother, who was groaning on the ground.

He gently kicked the fallen boy to turn him face up.

"Any more tricks, or do we call this my win?"

Ciaran sighed and pointed at his feet. There the soldier could only see a puddle of water, and a tiny spider trying not to drown.

"If you can beat them –

you cheat" Ciaran said, and flashed his iconic smile.

Next, the armor on the soldier froze and then fell off him. Before he could reequip himself his limbs were pulled from every direction, by an invisible force.

"Did I forget to mention Ray? This has always been a two-on-one." He laughed as the spider grew and started climbing her partner.

Finally, the spider grew to her actual size. She was half as tall as the house, and at least five meters (16,4 feet) wide.

"Meet my partner, isn't she a beauty? She apologizes for my rude- Ari, what do you mean, he attacked me, it was all self-defense." The boy started bickering with his spider, while his brother watched in wonder.

The spider was hugging him, and more shocking than that, his brother was allowing someone other than his family to be so close to him.

"You dirty cheat, how long have you had a familiar for, and why didn't you introduce her to us." The soldier asked, his anger gone.

When he learned he was the last one to find out tho, his anger was reignited, but sadly for him, he was still tied up. The two bickered, and occasionally Ciaran would translate, for Ari, when she wanted to be included in the conversation.

"Our boys are strong Cami, they will get through this," Liam said to his wife, who still refused to speak.

She was sad to see her boys get hurt, but at least they could somewhat protect themselves. Ciaran was more of a schemer than a soldier, but where he was going, that would serve him better.

"Let's send our boy of happy, I will not pretend I like any of this, but I will be damned if I send him off while we are still fighting. That's how bonds are destroyed." Camille said,

Determined to find a loophole with which she could have her son back sooner.

Eventually, the boys came back to the house.

They got dried up and came to the living room for dinner.

"Before you go, any more secrets you need to tell me about. You will be gone for years, better come clean now." Rayon said, still bitter that he was the last to learn about everything.

Ciaran looked him in the eyes and said in a matter-of-factly voice.

"We are not blood-related; Mom and Dad lied about that. I am adopted, and not completely human. A half fish if you must know, and no I do not lay eggs."

After that, the boy soldier had a million questions, but his brother told him to ask their parents when he was gone. The adults were getting a headache, and the boy left them one last nasty present before he left.