Chapter 10 – Inflammable
A few hundred miles away from the institution of Academe, stood the city of the Capitol, between the regions of the rich suburbs and the fast city centre, was the area where the common folk lived. Houses stacked up against one another, combined into a long line of one building, each unit encompassing of a family with either too few a member or too many a member. The neighborhood was understandably close knit, with the ones of too many taking care of the too few.
Off late, however, was one particular house of interest. It was not easy to cherry pick this one as every one of these houses looked like one another with industrious black sloping tiled roof and smoke puffing out of its chimney. Yet no one around the house, knows the coming and goings of the people there.
A woman stood outside, watching the air being puffed out, her umbrella protecting her from the soft pattering of the rain. She was wearing nothing out of the ordinary, her clothing just like all the other passersby's, a top, a skirt reaching her ankles and ankle length boots. And yet, everyone avoided her, carefully maintaining distance as they crossed her, way out of her reach and attention. Something about her spelt danger. She walked towards the house, her heeled boots, clacking on the cemented pathway. She made her way to the front door and creaked it open.
In the middle of the hall, there was long dining table, almost too big for the tight space. A group of six individuals sat on each of the chairs, their identities hidden by their elaborately ordained masks stuck to their faces. These masks were embedded to their faces so that no one would be able to snatch it away and can only be taken away voluntarily by the mask's owner. Even in death, their identities would remain hidden.
'Please tell me why did Sahira leave for the dimension of Earth.' One of them asked. 'Her loyalties are needed in the Isle of Sin and Sacrifice.'
'Sahira had acted on her own.' The man answered. 'Even if I knew the reasons for her departure, I cannot be sure, if they were the same.'
'Sahira was the one who knew about the spells needed for the project in Twilight Village.'
'She was not the only one.' The man answered. 'But her loyalties were for her own people. She may have been acting on her own terms.'
The woman coughed loudly as everyone turned their attention to her. 'The rumors of the Isle of Sin and Sacrifice, are turning out to be true.'
Another man laughed sarcastically. 'Seems like Sahira's loyalties were for the Isle of Sin and Sacrifice itself.'
The woman's eyes drifted towards her boss. 'I looked for her signatures. It's not present.'
The man looked at her and smiled sadly. 'Which would mean that Sahira has been unsuccessful in her adventure.'
'She died?' It was a feminine voice, but one cannot be sure if the owner was feminine.
'Someone had been dangerous enough.' The man with the sarcastic laugh replied. 'But we have enough confidence to know that the Isle of Sin and Sacrifice are going out of control.'
The woman's boss smiled sadly. 'Seems like our friends are just as much of a pain as our enemies.' He looked towards the woman. 'Why don't we just let them take out each other?'
****
'Nyla! Behind you!'
When Clea and Yuvan, both of them belonging to Scholar approached Nyla about making a team, Nyla did not even think once about it before accepting the offer. Clea, Udong and she was able to lift the largest boulders Nyla had ever seen anyone her age pick up. And Yuvan, being a Kaze, was fast, and had techniques along with his speed that made him a strong contender against Clea. They had been training with one another sparring continuously for a couple for a couple of days, in order to understand each other's strength and weaknesses. Nyla now understood the difference in being a Seeker and a Scholar, there was a glass ceiling between them, which try as much as she could, was not able to break it.
When the boulder came hurling at her, she jumped straight up into the air, dodging it. She glanced over to Clea, and there was a look of annoyance on her face. Nyla landed on the ground with ease and then walked over to Clea.
'You cannot keep dodging each boulder I send Nyla.' Clea pointed out as Nyla neared her. 'An Udong stands is ground, you were supposed to smash it into pieces.'
'And you are supposed to help me get to that. I am Mai, not an Udong.' Nyla said, enunciating it.
'Yet, you behave like a Kaze, you cannot do that. Your element is grounded and real, use it like that Nyla!' Clea barked.
Yuan immediately appeared before them. 'Why do you keep insulting Clea?' He softly landed in front of them. 'Besides, I believe it was because she was so nimble that you wanted her in the team.'
'Yes, but she should at least know how to stand the ground against an attack, that's the basic idea of being an Udong.'
'I said I am a Mai.' Nyla barked. 'I am not an Udong.'
'Yeah, we have heard how they fight.' Clea snapped. 'You do fight or do you guys still run away from everything?'
Nyla felt the anger rush into her.
Yuan's eyes widened. 'That is not appropriate, Clea.'
Clea scoffed and pressed on the pin attached to their training suits. The clothing dissipated into the normal loose and loose trousers one wears around the academia. 'I am done for the day. I suggest Nyla to practice more, but unless she grounds herself, I don't think there is any use to it.'
Nyla took a deep breathe in, trying to calm herself down. 'Maybe if you don't align yourself with name-calling, you would be able to use it for actual better tactics.'
Clea was ready to berate back at her, when Yuvan placed his hand on her shoulder pointing to the two new entrants into the arena. Nyla watched as Tara and Zalana enter the arena, with Tara significantly different from the first time she met her.
Both Tara and Zalana spotted her team and started slowly moving towards the other end of the court. Nyla stood there and watched as Tara and Zalana stood opposite to each other, positioning themselves for the sparring.
'Are you coming Nyla?' Yuan asked, politely, disrupting her watchful understanding. 'For dinner.'
Nyla shook her head. She was intrigued by the physical transformation that Tara had undergone, walking in strong and lean.
They paused and stood opposite to each other, and then Zalana started attacking. Tara counter attacked almost any of the attacks that came at her from Zalana's side and Nyla realized that could not be an easy feat.
And yet, she understood that Zalana had not been not her capability. The water waves were not fast or forceful enough to throw anyone off ground and Zalana was in perfect control of its speed.
Nyla frowned. It didn't make sense to Nyla why Zalana would pair up with someone as weak as Tara. At the very least, not the way she had been in the beginning. Though there was a massive improvement, Tara still had a long way to go. And Zalana could have made any team, she clearly had much better skills then the two Scholars with Nyla.
That was when Nyla realized it.
Zalana was a Savant. Therefore, it wouldn't matter who she teamed up with, the match would be tipped to her side.
Her stomach rumbled from hunger, and Nyla decided stop spying on them. As she walked towards the exit, Nyla glanced back. There was coordination between them. And that does not simply present itself, it comes with understanding of training together for months.
As she neared the canteen, she saw her sparring mates at the distance. She immediately jogged towards them. Clea and Yuvan seemed to be engaged in a conversation. Nyla slowed down allowing her ears perked transform into her Mai form.
'I don't know, I don't think think she has the same competitive edge as we thought she did.' Clea answered. 'I have been pretty disappointed with our overall progress in the grounds.'
'Well, unfortunately, we have already promised to make her part of the team.' Yuvan replied. 'We cannot go back on that promise.'
'Well, what can you expect?' Clea answered back. 'It is not like Mai's are great fighters, they rely more on the Mai form rather than the element.'
'Maybe tone it back with the racism.' Yuvan pointed out.
Clea opened her mouth to say something, but Nyla had heard enough. She pursed her lips and decided to walk back to her room, her appetite lost.
As she walked reached her dormatory, she noticed someone putting up a bulletin on the notice board near the stairs. 'The Vanguard Program' was boldly written on the headers.
'Hey, what is this for?' She asked the guy who was using pressing on it, sticking it to the board.
He turned around. 'Apparently, there has been an emergency proclaimed at the IDC. They want to recruit as many as trainees as possible.'
'And this is for?'
'Fastracking the training process.' He answered. 'Completely voluntary though.'
Nyla pursed her lips. She may have lost a team, but she definitely was gaining better training.
****
'The Level 4 to 6 have not been in the past thousand years.' Instructor Yvonne spoke. Next to her, was Professor Ragnok, who was infact the reputed Head of the Department for Combat. 'In fact, the last dimension level change happened due to Serephina. You could say in a way that she was an extinction level threat.'
Tara stood next to Zalana, along with many others in the main Arena. It was after dinner the day before, while walking back to their dorm rooms, that Zalana spotted the flyer for the 'Vanguard Program'. They had decided they would at least explore it, to see if it would help them with anything. Tara didn't care for it so much and she wished, all of this was over so that she could go back to when everything had been normal, but like Aaliyah suggested, she played along.
Zalana frowned again. 'Serephina saved this dimension from falling apart.'
From what Tara had understood from Zalana, Seraphina was a messiah figure, with so much Uyir in her that she was able to stabilize the dimension from joining into the adjacent ones, breaking away the merge. She revived the power of elements and additional introduced the Cadins. Zalana being a White Cadin, a healing one, was a devout Serephina follower. Most people from her city in Kylma and people from Islands of Varyns, another water element majority continent, were so.
'How is she a threat?' Someone asked unconvinced, probably having the same chain of thoughts like Zalana.
'Well, she had been a threat to the already existing world. And like I said, once it's a Level Six, or better word to use is Extinction, no force in the world will be able to stop it.' Ragnok answered. 'Nobody could stop Serephina from mingling the powers of Jiva Sphaera to that of Rahas.'
Tara noticed Zalana's tense up a bit.
'Do you know how she was able to achieve it?'
'If I did, I would become a Level Six.' Yvonne joked and laughed loudly at her own joke. A lot of the other students joined in. Tara and Zalana didn't.
'These sessions are for speeding up so that you can become a Scholar faster. And as you know, you wont be recruited by IDC or graduate unless you are a scholar.' Ragnok pointed out.
'But why the sudden Vanguard Program? Why wasn't it introduced earlier?'
'We have had the Vanguard Program almost a decade ago.' Ragnok answered. 'But the reason as to why we are introducing it right now, is because, as many of you know, reports have come in about increasing dimensional overlapping activities.'
Almost immediately, there was a sudden collective gasps and murmur amongst the group. 'The activity has been more than what we have seen some time, hence we have these sessions with the Stranacs. To help you train faster and become a Seraph quickly.'
During one of her initial classes on the training program, she remembered one of the instructors explaining about the Stranac. When inactive, the liked like metallic humanoid figurines. They would be intstilled with a combination Transfiguration spells and Enchantment spell, and when activated, based on the spell the Stranac would transform into the physical form of an Unnatural, without the magical powers of one.
'These sessions are freelance sessions, that is no instruction would be given. The brawl is to train the students to surprise. But lest to not make it irrelevant, you will be marked for grades. Which would decide whether or not you would qualify for the Test of Three. '
As the crowd gathered around Ragnok, Tara spotted Nyla glancing upto them as the crowd clamped upto Ragnok. She smiled awkwardly and waved slightly. Tara was confused until she saw that Zalana was smiling and waving her hands back. Tara frowned and looked back to Ragnok.
'I am bringing out the first Stranac and I will activate it.' Ragnok said. 'It's a Level 1, a ghoul, pretty harmless, its usually taken care by civilians themselves.' He waved both of his hands upwards, causing one of the slabs behind him raise themselves up revealing the shiny silhouette of the Stranac.
Ragnok, then clamped his palm into a fist and circled it clockwise, from front to back and then pushed his full arm forward. This moved the Stranac forward, to where the crowd was standing.
'Alright, everyone.' Ragnok announced. He went forward and pressed on the lower back of the androgynous metallic robot. The spells for all the transfiguration spells work best when tapped at the point of location of the lower spinal cord, associated with stability and strength, or much simply the element of earth.
Ragnok moved infront of the Stranac. 'A ghoul will have long tendrils and sharp ears with its pale sickly skin.' He spoke as the stranac slowly took form behind him, its shiny skin dulling into a pale sickly one. The hands grew long and pointed. 'Its sharp teeth and sort of flat face, would make it having recognizable, but each ghoul is different.'
'Does it have antler like horns?' Someone asked from the crowd.
'Of course not.' Ragnok replied, confused. 'That is an oddly specific question.'
'Then what is that?' Someone else asked, pointing to the top of the animals head.
Tara looked immediately towards the top of its head. Sure enough the Stranac snout was growing narrower as to antlers started forming at the top its heads. Within a few more seconds, its limbs grew into long talons as it fell on its fore legs.
'That's impossible.' Ragnok spoke, confused and dazed. 'I had specifically arranged for a ghoul.'
The buzzing sound of activation rang through as the Stranac's eyes lighted up. It then looked forward and roared loudly.