Until death?

by Andur

  But the reason, why Stephen and Iris attract my attention is because they are holding hands. Their expression is... yeah... if this was some kind of comic, the artist would draw a pink aura and hearts around them. That's how it feels!

  Garbiel, Tanja, Sven and Sandra are also present.

  “Hi, Stephen. Long time no see.” I try to strike a conversation because I am curious.

  “Oh Angrod and Celes! I just escorted Iris here. I am gone then, my class is about to start too.” He bows and leaves.

  I throw a curious look at Iris, who starts to fiddle with her hands at everyone’s gazes. It seems everyone became aware of those two.

  “Well.. you see. I live inside the Cygnus mansion now and as a result I spent really much time with Stephen and at some … time he proposed I guess? So we are a couple now! No need to look at me like a rare animal!!” Iris is red from head to toe.

  “Ohohoho. How far did you go already?” Sandra and Tanja jump at Iris. That's exactly the right matter for those two bird brains. Celes runs up to them too and they have the typical girls talk.

  I turn to Gabriel and Sven who are now the only ones I can have a … decent talk with. I hope?

  “So what's up with Tongord?” I ask them. The lesson should have already started.

  “He went to get the new student.” Gabriel informs me and Sven nods. “The rumours say that yesterday, he went against the whole fighting class and won.” Sven adds.

  Sven somehow managed to get a hold of his shyness over the years. Though he is only all right with people whom he knew for a little while.

  “The rumours on this school are always a little out of proportion.” I just remember the rumour about me and Celes, subduing the whole fighting class with our presence alone.

  The guys in that class are all weaklings after all. You could throw them by the dozens against anyone of the special class. Many mangled bodies would be your only result.

  At this moment Tongord arrives with a guy of about our age. He has horns and slit pupils, like someone with a strong royal bloodline should have. His hair is dark like mine and you can really see a strong resemblance.

  I guess he really is my cousin? “So here we have the other students of the special class. Everyone line up here!” We do as ordered and Tongord continues with the introduction.

  “So here we have Iris, Tanja, Celes, Sandra, Gabriel, Angrod and Sven. Everyone, this is Markorn of Tirna.” Markorn smiles and bows to us. “I am happy to join your class.”

  Markorn walks up to the beginning of the line and shakes hands with everyone. Reaching Celes, he bows down in an attempt to kiss the back of her hand.

  *WACK!*

  At the mere attempt Celes gave him a slap with the backside of her hand, lifting him up three meters into the air while spinning two times. He falls to the ground head first and impacts.

  Ouch! Celes took the work from me. What a way to end your life.... his spinal cord must be broken!

  “Hahaha! I like them spicy. It's no fun without a little challenge. The people in this class are sure to be worth the time.” The corpse talks! Markorn stands up and tests the movement of his head.

  We hear some creaking sounds, like something snapped back into place, but otherwise Markorn seems to be fine.

  He continues farther down the line, until he reaches me. “I am pleased to meet you cousin. It was overdue for a long time now.”

  “The pleasure is on my side.” I answer. He grabs my hand and puts his whole strength into it. Which is enormous. I hold against it with everything I have until I hear my bones break.

  The pain must have been immense. But I didn't even flinch. As soon, as I realized that I wont win this fight of strength, I used my telekinesis to sever the nerves for pain in my hand. All I feel is a nasty itch.

  This obviously disturbs Markorn a little, he must have felt the bones break. So he lets go and continues towards Sven. Remaining with me for too long would have been strange.

  I will kill that bastard! I will take my time doing so! This isn't going to be over fast, I swear.

  I hold my hands behind my back and set the bones right. He got my two fingers and one of the metacarpals! By the time Markorn is done shaking hands with Sven, I have already healed my hand again.

  Then Markorn walks back up to the teacher and Gabriel and Sven look at me with worried faces. “You okay?” “I could hear them break!”

  “No worries. I am fine!” I smile and show them my hands while moving them as proof. At this sight, I can see Markorn's eyes go round for a second.

  “Okay! After we are now all somewhat introduced to each other, we can start our training fights again. Markorn, you as a newcomer can choose your opponent if you want.” Tongord continues the training.

  “I would like to test myself against my cousin!” Markorn answers with a devilish smile. “That's fine then, everyone else team up and start training.”

  The others also team up for training and spread out. I am left alone with Markorn. “That's strange, I thought I broke them. You are rather weak for someone of the royal bloodline dear cousin.”

  “I see no problem with it. I just find it strange that you aren't hiding your hostility at all.” I really don't know what to think of that guy.

  “There is no need to play games between us. I am pretty sure, I can take Celes from you and get the throne for myself. A weakling like you isn't cut out for the throne.” He is very confident to have the upper hand.

  I put my hands into my pockets and set up a few defence spells. “We will see about that. Will you talk for the rest of the day, or can we start the training?”

  “I will start the beating then.....” Suddenly Markorn is in front of me. Did he teleport? I didn't see him move at all! I pull my head back by pure reflex. It was burned into me from training every day with Celes. An open palm crushes my shield and drives forward, through the space where my head had been.

  A stone lifts from the ground and shoots straight at Markorn, but it is swept aside by his hand. Not fair! That should have killed him! I jump backwards, but Markorn follows in close range and continues to throw his fists and feet at me.

  Each time I manage to evade by a hairs breath. I thrust my hand at him and a small red orb shoots out, but he evades with ease.

  “Hahahaha! Silly little spells! Ain't worth a thing if you can't hit!” He leaps forward and places a perfect kick on my chest. The air is pressed out of my lungs, but thankfully my stone skin spell protects me from taking serious injuries. I still feel like something broke!

  I am still thrown backwards. It is like I was hit by a truck. After flying a low arc through the air I impact the floor and stay down.

  While lying on my back and casting another healing spell I think about the situation. This guy is way too powerful. Something is off. He seems to use the same fighting aura, as that Senda guy. Senda fought just with his body too, but that guy is on another level.

  “Done already? I am even more disappointed now.” It seems that Markorn doesn't want to shut up.

  Somehow I am angry now. I don't get angry often. Hmmm, I guess using a second hand is allowed in that case.

  Suddenly Markorn appears above me and I see the sole of a foot coming down on my face. Teleport again?

  The foot stomps down but all that gets stomped is earth. I teleported ten meters above Markorn, swinging down one of my hands in a chopping motion from above, a wave of energy discharges from me.

  But the sucker somehow realizes the danger and jumps to the side. A five meter long rift is struck into the earth, where he just stood.

  Now he jumps up to me, but I teleport to the ground again. Hehehe. That's the problem with high speed movement, you can only do it if you can propel yourself somehow. Real teleportation is much more convenient.

  I shoot another -air bullet- at him, which he can't evade. It strikes him point blank and he is lifted even higher.

  *WHAM*

  Air bullet is a nice spell. It doesn't have much penetrati
on power, but it packs a serious punch of physical energy.

  I wait until Markorn falls down again, in his face I see pure rage. When he is about five meters above me I hit him again, pounding him upwards again.

  *WHAM*

  And again.

  *WHAM*

  And again.

  *WHAM*

  Mwahaha, this is fun.

  *WHAM*

  Though, it's disturbing that I can't do any damage to the sucker. Hmmm, what to do? A little experiment to test his defence?

  *WHAM*

  Let's try how you deal with one of these.

  A little, fist sized red orb of energy appears in my hand. I move my hand to aim at him but Tongord grabs my hand from the side.

  “That's enough. I think there isn't much value in this duel any more.” He looks wary into my face.

  “I don't think we are done yet!” I answer and stare at Tongord.

  *PLOP*

  Markorn hits the ground with an ungraceful belly landing. He jumps up and storms to us. “I WILL GET YOU BACK FOR THIS! YOU ….”

  *RRRUUMMMBBBLLEEEE*

  A distant sound can be heard like the roll of thunder. Everyone turns into the direction to see what happened.

  There is a mountain in the south of Midhold. But now a little piece of it is missing near the peak. It's no big deal that would be noticeable, if you weren't looking for it. But a cloud of smoke and dust marks the place pretty good.

  It must be quite the event, if you can see it from here. The mountain is pretty far away.

  “Isn't that the direction, one of those red orbs of yours went Angrod?” Tongord asks me with a serious tone.

  “Uuum. Yes, the orb went that direction.” I smile a forced smile at Tongord.

  Then Tongord looks at my hand, in which a fist sized red orb is hovering. “That one is bigger!”

  “Uuum. Yes, this one is bigger. You are very observant today teacher.” I still smile at him.

  “Dispel that thing at once! You will NOT mess up my training field!” He screams at me.

  “Hmpf. Fine.” I close my hand around the orb and it is gone. The lesson is at its end anyway. Tongord cares about his training field more than his own life.

  Markorn still glares at me, but he is silent now. I smirk at him and walk back to the others, who are already grouped up.

  ***

  Some time later Celes and I are inside the car and on our way home. I take a curious look outside the window and ogle the new look of the mountain.

  “You had that dangerous smile on you face again today.” -Celes

  “Dangerous?” -Me

  “You know, like you were really enjoying to hurt someone. And when you started to treat him like a ball to play with. Then you got that other look, like you were dissecting a rare animal.” Celes sounds a little worried.

  “Hm. And I am not allowed to experiment on a bastard, who broke my fingers? And tried to kiss you? He would have survived it anyway.” -Me

  Damn! That came across the wrong way! Didn't that sound like I was jealous?

  “He would have survived THAT!?” -Celes

  Good! She didn't realize it!

  “I felt an unbelievable amount of mana inside him. Maybe that spell would have been just enough to scratch him.... ” -Me

  “Do we have a problem?” -Celes

  I shrug my shoulders. “Maybe. But it's for sure that you don't acquire that much mana by natural ways.”

  36 - School life continues?

  This whole situation is out of hand! It's been two weeks since Markorn showed up at our school. Since then he evolved into something like the local boss of a gang!

  He seriously wounded some students, who didn't jump on his every whim. All in all he is acting like he owns the world.

  Though at the moment it really seems like nothing can stop him. After Angrod couldn't scratch him in special class, he challenged me a few days later.

  I couldn't do anything to him either. He is using a mana aura, which is protecting him. It is similar to my technique, but much much worse in terms of mana consumption. Unfortunately he has huge amounts of mana to waste.

  “You already have an idea how to stop that guy?” I ask Angrod.

  “Nope.” He shakes his head and leans back in his seat. “He has too much mana, he can toss it around in any way he wants. Maybe we can take him down if we fight together.”

  “Then we fight together, he is a real bother. Yesterday, he appeared and tried to lead me off somewhere!” This guy is dangerous!

  “Ok. Then let him do you. While his guard is down, you ram one of those hairpins into a vital spot and the problem is solved! A good plan.” Angrod nods to himself with a smiling face.

  Scum! Idiot! I will not forget this! Wait and see, my revenge will be painful!

  “H... How could you suggest this! I am your fiancée!” -Me

  “No hairpin? Well you are right, too dangerous. Poison then! We will poison him, mwahahaha. Oldest trick in the book!” Angrod smiles at me.

  “Don't you have any shame?” I ask agape.

  “No? What's wrong with poison? Do you think he has some kind of resistance?” Angrod now has a worried look.

  “I think we are not really talking to each other! Do you even pay attention to me? Look up from your book when I am talking to you! It feels like you aren't taking me seriously.” I am in dismay. This doesn't feel like a proper conversation at all.

  “I am sorry Celes, but I really have to think about the coronation. It's in two months and I have to win that fight somehow. On the side, I have to take care of breaking the shield of that stupid city! So let me read this book, it helps me to concentrate.” -Angrod

  “Fine, tell me if I can do something to help. I will go and visit Tanja. She promised to load a new spell into my ring.” I turn around and walk away.

  “I hope it isn't another indecent spell to hide your presence, just to sneak into my room! Besides, I have to talk to Tanja anyway. So bring her if you find her!” Angrod calls after me, but I just wave my hand at him and turn around the corner.

  I loathe it! Why can't I build a decent relationship with him again. A few times it looked pretty good, but when he gets stressed, he always falls back into the old behaviour and I can't get through to him.

  If he would be the old.... . Nah. What am I thinking. Maybe he was really right and we should forget about the past. We are really different people from then.

  Maybe I just don't want to admit it, but I could be different too. Heck! It has been a few thousand years since then!

  *Bump*

  Ah! I ran into someone! “Um, sorry! I guess I didn't pay enough attention.” A student, about two years older than me is blocking my path. Three other guys are behind him.

  I step to the side but they block my path. When I turn around I see that three other students are behind me and the hallway is suddenly empty. This was set up?