The tournament wouldn't be for another few months, and yet, Noboru would be sent to the north regardless.
He stood in the office of Photon with Markus and Amber. Beside them stood Domanic and his two teammates. One of them had turned out to be a fire user—the fire user that Noboru had ended up fighting at the end of his bracket. Her name was Sarah Abigale. She was one of the few students who had gotten into the course without passing tests because of her pure skill and power output, a prodigy in a sense brought in under recommendation.
The third teammate of Domanic and Sarah's team was a boy named Jamie, a tall shy boy with the power of sonar. He could send out sound shockwaves and vibrations as attacks as well as a sort of sonar, of course, which he mostly used to defend but was put on the support group because he discovered his usefulness for search and rescue operations.
The six waited in the room. Domanic sat in the corner meditating as Markus argued with Sarah over fire and ice and her actual control. Noboru sat with Amber keeping her company, talking about this and that, while Jamie stood by Domanic as if guarding him, lowering the sound around them to let Domanic meditate easier.
A small time passed as Photon and Killerblade finally entered the room. The second they did, Amber and Noboru turned, Markus and Sarah straightened, and Domanic opened his eyes slowly still sitting.
"Good morning children," Photon spoke as he sat down in his chair placing his hands on his desk. "We have a very special opportunity for you all."
The six stayed silent as Killerblade sat back on a sofa and lazed around. Photon coughed into his hand. "Guess I'll continue. Well, as you may know from your history lessons, three of the four major kingdoms used to be ruled by three of the four major dragons. It is where we get the official names of our kingdoms from. The thing to note is that these dragons, despite their core in our history, are quite violent. The ancient scriptures say that after the fourth Dragon of the Eternal Sky left without reason, the other three became hostile towards mankind."
Killerblade sat up, swinging her sword randomly out of boredom. "What the old man is trying to say is, dragons are bad, and we have to kill them from time to time."
Fire crackled at Sarah's fingertips as she stepped forward. "You want us to fight a dragon."
Killerblade smiled. "Yep, a good old undying dragon. When you kill it—if you even can—then it'll rebirth in a few years to kill us again, so then we just rinse and repeat the process."
Photon cleared his throat as he spoke, sitting upright. "And the reason you six have been chosen is because we quite frankly do not expect you to kill anything, let alone one of the four major dragons. This is simply a mission for educational purposes. Killerblade along with a handpicked group of heroes will be the actual one to kill the dragon. You may fight if you wish, but for your safety you will be dragged off if the situation seems dangerous. This decision was given by Nexus. They told me to pick six students, and I had originally chosen you four," he gestured towards Noboru, Markus, Domanic and Sarah, "and decided to simply give the final two slots to the last remaining members of your trios."
Killerblade's sword slid back into its sheath as she walked across the room towards Markus. "You see, a hero's job isn't to save people from dangers. It's to make sure dangers don't appear in the first place. So instead of fighting the dragon when it attacks, we attack it. Simple. And as one of the top students, your ass will be on this mission."
The room went quiet as the six contemplated everything. The thought of fighting one of the four main dragons was already mind-splitting. The main four were leagues above your day-to-day wild forest dragons, and to fight one as part of a graded school assignment was just beyond belief. Noboru specifically couldn't sit still. He remembered sitting in the library of the castle, his tutor reading him the history of how the kingdoms were formed, the war between humankind and the ancient beasts of the world. The mysterious disappearance of the Dragon of the Eternal Sky and how the last three immortal dragons had started the war, destroying the land forming the dead zone in the center of the planet. The bones of the dragons after they had been defeated were used to form the great walls that separated the four kingdoms from each other and the dead zone.
Noboru was truly a fan of dragons; every part of their history mesmerized him. The same could not be said for Markus. When he was young he sat in the library of the orphanage with Amber, telling her stories of the dragons from the book he read—the violence they committed that had sent humans far back in advancement, tech, land, resources. If it wasn't for them, maybe he wouldn't have ended up in that place. Maybe he would've had someone he could run back to when he felt unsafe as a child, but it was always a maybe.
The entrance to the training facility was cold, mostly due to the weather but also the sheer presence of Markus as they headed out of the building past the rows of fields towards the roads. Noboru could feel the ice crawling over Markus even from a distance, far more concentrated than during his fight with Domanic, and far more violent.
It was a quiet journey from there. A bus stopped by and they got on. But why had they randomly been told to fight? Well, for the simple fact that the reawakening of the dragons was random. They could revive thousands of years after being killed or only a few seconds. That type of power made the temples where the last remnants of the dragons lay some of the most heavily watched areas across the planet. If a bone even twitched toward another, the Six Scales were instantly scheduled a meeting alongside Nexus.
In this case it had been a fang. A single twenty-foot tooth had vibrated toward a small pile of bones and they slowly formed skin. The analysis had come back with a 3-day revival estimate.
The second the bus stopped they all got out and moved into a building, entering an elevator that shot them up high up a skyscraper. The force of the ride made Amber's stomach churn and Jamie dizzy as he grabbed onto the handle bars to stabilize himself. Ice around Markus's ankles kept him grounded and Noboru simply didn't get nauseous at speed.
The elevator stopped fast and Amber tripped, pushing Sarah out the doors. "Watch it," she scowled, grabbing onto the railing catching herself, looking over the edge. "Whew, that's a long way down."
The others walked next to her and looked over the edge. The kingdom, despite being so far down, was still so large, one of its edges barely visible from even up there. The mountains behind the kingdom loomed on the horizon, its frozen peaks standing tall as they looked up.
"So," Noboru asked, "how are we getting there?" His hands twitched ready for anything, excitement in his eyes.
The loud sound of spinning blades came from above as a helicopter descended and hovered stationary at the edge of the rooftop. Killerblade's voice came loud over the sound. "We're going to RailBolt there."
"Rail WHAT?" Markus shouted over the sound as Killerblade grabbed his arm and chucked him off the roof into the helicopter. His body vanished inside as a loud churning sound came from within and the others stepped back.
From under the helicopter a large cannon-looking machine extended, pointed towards the bottom of the mountains. "The border is lined with criminals so we have to go over it, and this is far more fun than normal flying."
The five watched as the lines on the barrel glowed green, then with a loud bang and what they all assumed was the scream of Markus, they watched as a giant bullet of ice shot out of the cannon arching over the sky at a tremendous pace. It took a good 4 minutes until it started to slow down and descend, slamming into the bottom of the mountain exploding into dust and mist. And when it cleared, Markus Carbona stood there, unscathed but very confused.
The RailBolt was originally a super train launcher that got donated to the government for rocket launching. After many failed attempts the original designs were scrapped and changed resulting in the modern rocket launchers of the world. However, Killerblade had gotten a hold of the original RailBolt designs and realized they were too weak to launch a rocket, but could easily send a human cross continent in a matter of minutes. And in her normal fashion she simply took the designs against government orders and created the new RailBolt that was her "fun" mode of long range transport that absorbed the powers of the person inside to regulate the shot to not damage their body.
The machine had amplified Markus to create a shell of ice around him in the form of a bullet for maximum efficiency created to be destroyed on impact reducing the force on his body that let him live.
The other five still stood shocked as the bullet landed, waiting. They jumped at the sound of Markus's voice screaming into the microphone he had been given. "YOU CRAZY BASTARD WHO ON EARTH SHOVES SOMEONE INTO A GODDAMN CANNON ON TOP OF A SKYSCRAPER."
After a pause, Noboru laughed leaning on the railing. "Hahah god, I can't believe he's alive. What on earth even is that machine?"
The others were still stunned, all apart from Domanic who hadn't been phased from the start, though he too would admit he would've screamed if he had been the one unexpectedly thrown into the RailBolt. But now that he knew what to expect, he walked over and stood on the railing.
The others watched as Domanic jumped in. The hum of the machine and the dark green glow as it churned, then with a bang he was gone, soaring through the sky in a bullet of sand made from his own body. And a few minutes later from below at the base of the mountains sat Markus sitting on a slab of ice, and when he looked up at the falling sand bullet he simply blinked. "You've got to be kidd—"
The sand slammed into him and he fell back off the ice slab as sand scattered everywhere, then each grain slowly rolled back to each other stacking up until Domanic's body was reformed.
"The cannon seems effective," Domanic's voice came over the speaker as the others got in line ready to also be shot across the Kingdom.
Killerblade stood at the ledge chucking in each student one by one. Sarah used her flames to rocket her way further and faster landing behind the boys in a crater of melted rock. Domanic stood at the edge looking in. "Not too bad. Keep clear of the sand, I might need it."
Markus kicked the dirt at the edge and ice shot out of his leg into the hole creating a staircase. "Don't melt it, the others might need it."
***
After Jamie ran, Amber and Noboru stood at the edge of the building. Jamie had blasted off with controlled sound bursts and landed gracefully in the crater made by Sarah, confirming his landing a few seconds later.
Amber hopped into the chopper and down the barrel as the machine hummed again, the loud burst of wind as she vanished into the sky surrounded by sand and ice. Her powers couldn't be condensed by the machine so it used leftover energy from Markus's and Domanic's launches.
Killerblade leaped onto the edge of the chopper and held out her hand. Noboru ran, leaping off the edge of the building, clapping her arm and swinging into the cannon with a grin on his face, vanishing.
The inside of the cannon was dark. He ran his hand along the sides and felt the cold metal start to warm up as faint patterns glowed, and with a final great burst he blinked and was propelling through the sky. The air felt dense around him as he ran his fingers through streams of wind ragdolling across the sky.
As his body neared the edge of the mountains he saw the others waiting. Markus sprinted forward, swinging his arm up and a pillar of ice diagonally spiraled out of the ground. Noboru spun adjusting himself and the very millisecond his foot touched the ice, he ran.
His body propelling across and around the spiral slide as he skidded to a stop in front of them. Glancing back at the sky as the ice melted, Killerblade's body fell from the sky as she threw her sword from her side to the ground and landed on its hilt.
Turning back he looked up at the mountain, the peaks so far away he doubted he'd ever see them. The others stood behind him taking in the sight of the mountains, and on one of its lower peaks stood a temple, so large that it was visible from even down where they stood.
"We'll be scouting first to make sure the terrain and wildlife are good and clear of the fight until the others arrive," Killerblade announced taking a step forward onto the fine line of brighter snow that separated the mountain from the Kingdom.
And with that, they followed. Noboru looked up ahead with a smile on his face. For some reason, he was really happy.