Chapter 18

Alex remembered getting bitten and slashed. He remembered slicing those two to shreds, but he also remembered freezing the two remaining wolves in place, not with extreme cold, but by invading them with spacial energy and locking them in place. They weren't frozen it time, he could sense the neurons in its brain firing away. Meaning it was seeing everything.

'I'm close though I know I can block energy but can I confine it.' Moving the dome to cover himself he controlled the shade, making it take form. He then invaded it with his spacial energy. When that was complete he focused on stopping it freezing it in place.

'I did it! I think.'

It was taxing, the energy he used to hold it there was being sent back to the spacial dimension, while he was summoning more to replace it. He opened a hole at the top of the dome so he could see. He was surprised, he could see the cluster of darkness in a humanoid shape. He wasn't losing any dark energy. He had an idea, a good idea an idea so good that he didn't know why he hadn't done it before.

After closing the dome back up, He concentrated as much energy into a small area as he could. 'The more energy, the more it can relay to me, meaning it should be able to show me the most minute details with enough energy. He spent a minute gathering energy around him and concentrating it. Then he placed it into the area that was locked, after he willed it to sense he was shocked with everything that he saw in his mind. He saw the many molecules that made up the air he breathed completely frozen. In the sensor that he had made that was about the size of the baseball he saw no new molecules. No he saw them, but they were too fast blipping in from one side and out the other.

Alex then changed the shape of the locked area bringing it closer together. The concentration and speed of the molecule decreased, but he still couldn't see it clearly.

'Man!, and people say light is the fastest thing in existence. I would say darkness would give it a run for its money.'

Alex continually brought the concentration higher and higher. It was getting harder to control, Alex had an idea he unfroze the air molecules, and used his spacial energy to create a vacuum, by removing controlling only the shade to remain, and not allowing air back in.

Alex breathed a sigh of relief as the strain he was feeling had lessened significantly. He continued to concentrate the dark molecules. Until eventually they had no space to move around. He could finally see it, and he studied it intently memorizing every aspect of it.

Alex had used the dome so he could use real shade rather than, shade he conjured up, this was the real deal. He watched intently, and he noticed that the molecules were rearranging themselves. He watched as they linked together from such close contact, and formed a similar pattern to the hexagonal one he used for the dome. Startled he opened his eyes, the dome was pitch black, but he could see the sphere it was quite a few shades darker than the rest, it had a halo of darkness radiating off of it.

'Wow.' Was all Alex could think of when he saw it.

He reached out to touch the halo, it was thick the same density as water. Alex felt even more surprised he felt his darkness element reacting. It was growing stronger. He was happy, he had never heard of a wizard tower for training the dark element, but it turns out he wouldn't need one. Most importantly he wouldn't need to kill innocent creatures.

Finally noticing James returning, he released all of the energy.

Alex took notice of another thing that had happened. His spacial element was stronger. 'It seems that my spacial element has grown in strength.' He didn't get to see the extent of the change because James had already entered with the papers.

"Wow that was pretty quick!" Tom said complementing his friends pace.

"Yeah, quick my butt. maybe for someone who can't use magic, but everyone on the racing team would've been back and sitting in a recliner, by the time I had just picked up the papers." James replied while wiping sweat off of his brow.

"Here you are, these will cut into your practice time, but they are well worth it." "The rune-making club meets in 30 minutes." He said while looking at the clock. "And the potion brewing club 2 hours after."

Alex was relieved that he was, not taking regular classes he was only taking three. The rest of the students had to take 8, each of them being an hour long.

Alex to finally got to practicing control while waiting. He created wisps of shade around him, he recognized that it was a lot easier to control his darkness in the light.

He rotated them around him created various shapes and formations. From anyone's perspective it would look like someone was doing a performance, but Tom and James who were speaking to each other in a low tone, it was amazing. The shapes which started out blurry, were fading and getting replaced with clearer and sharper versions. For Alex, who could see in all directions with his spacial energy, it easy to see his mistakes and fix them. He was also employing the knowledge he had gained not that long ago. He was perfecting the darkness molecules. Unlike everyone else who could only look at a model, Alex was able to see the molecules from inside and out. Using that knowledge to try and imagine his own darkness with the same makeup.

After Tom and James had finished talking James walked up to Alex.

Alex released all his energy.

"Hey there you've still got ten minutes, but the club meets at the other side of the building. I'm headed there now, are you all ready to go?"

"Yeah I am ready." Alex said grabbing his stuff and leaving the room with James.

"We did some talking, we will get you a pass. You won't have to go to regular classes, if you feel like your about to breakthrough. There will be no repercussions, unless of coarse you abuse it too much, but with this and the training we will give you, we can guarantee a first place victory this year."

"Your also welcome to join our training room whenever you like, other than the instructors you won't find any more well informed people."

"Thank you." Alex understood that they were relying on him, to help them. 'Not many would get this treatment, and I won't waste it.'

James smiled "don't mention it!"

"we all profit off of this. I still don't know why real talent isn't nurtured." "Ive heard of kingdoms across the ocean, and there they have people that had your affinities and growth, they would have been shipped off to the best training facilities." He frowned. "It's a shame knowing what has happened you've probably been blacklisted."

"Of my seniors, one had the darkness element, he made it well into the top five. John is one of the strongest students I've seen, and no doubt the strongest they have seen, but not one of them snobby colleges sent out an invitation." He said with anger visible in his voice. Alex watched in fascination as flames sparkled around James.

"Luckily though, a man stepped forth. I don't know where he came from, but he was the only one who offered. I drew a picture so I wouldn't forget." He opened up his wallet and pulled out a folded paper. After Alex saw it his eyes flashed with recognition. It was Drak.

"This was four years ago." Alex stated.

"Yup, it was. When you graduate and if they treat you the same, look for him I'm sure he watches. I've never seen him since then, but many dark mages have received invitations, even when others ignored them."

Alex thought of this.

'It might have been him that year, but I doubt he would repeatedly come back to one school. He said that he would send a representative when I graduate. Nothing was said about before then.' After thinking Alex came to a conclusion.

'There must be secret schools for dark mages. Hiding from the government, due to the lack of power. Drak didn't have to hide, showing how much influence he had.'

"Be sure to find him, here you can keep this."

James said while handing Alex the paper. "I'm leaving this year anyway it won't do me any good."

"Thank you once again." Alex said

"All's well, alright time for rune making. Are you excited." James said.

"I'm very excited, even just thinking about it, my heart is beating loudly." Alex replied.

"Haha lucky you, my excitement is visible whenever I'm not actively controlling it. You saw it earlier with my frustration." James replied happily.

"Yeah it was cool though, do all elements do that? I mean darkness does, but only with strong negative emotions."

"Yeah all elements do, from a gust of wind, to dropping the temperature, or even creating tremors." James replied. "You should see the instructors though, they are on a different level."

James opened the club room door. No one else had arrived other than the instructor.

"Hello, you must be Alex, James was very insistent on you joining the club. Do you have the papers filled in?" The instructor asked.

"Yes." He replied while handing him the papers.

"Very good. Here is the card for the room, we will soon see how well your affinity for rune-making is. Until then you can take a seat."