Alkalians (13 page)

Quickly flipping back onto his feet,
Sean, with dark orange wounds on his chest, side-thrusts away from
another spell used by the Magician, which smashes into the floor
where he was standing, and dashes towards the wall of the arena
again, forcing the Magician to run after him. Noticing the color of
his wounds, one of the freshmen speaks up, “Excuse me, Professor,
but what exactly happens if Sean’s wound energy becomes red? Is it
true that he could be, uh, you know…”

“
I’m glad you asked that.
Once an Alkalian’s wounds turn red, it indicates the morph’s health
energy is dangerously low, and any further damage done to it could
carry over into the human form, or even kill the Alkalian. However,
to prevent the chances of a fatality occurring, it has become
customary, perhaps even instinctive, for the Alkalian to demorph as
soon as his wounds become red. In today’s era, we as a people
shouldn’t have to worry about killing each other, and so we only
battle until one’s wounds become red and demorphs. In another time,
the Age of Chaos specifically, we fought each other to the death,
and therefore it didn’t matter if we demorphed or not.”

As she spoke, the Magician continues
to throw spells at Sean, who dodges them with air balance dashes
and drifts along the stone wall that is being pounded by the
blasts. Finally getting tired of his spells missing, the Magician
uses another Wavequence, spreading it for a wide range.

Having been waiting for this
particular spell, Sean suddenly launches himself straight up into
the air, allowing the spell to break against the wall below him and
awe all of the students, even Matt and Rose. One of the freshmen
asks Serpanz, “Wait, is Sean actually flying? How can he do that
without wings?”

While Sean roosts himself on the top
of the arena wall, Serpanz replies, “Well, Larson, he is just well
talented at air balance. As you are implying, the only Alkalians
who should be able to fly on air balance are those with wings,
which enhance their air balance in order to do so. There are a few
cases, though, where the individual can be so skilled with it that
they don’t need wings, like Sean. Air balance is, after all,
displacing energy into the air around you and using it to move your
body. If one trains himself to, he could give himself the ability
to fly, dash at incredible speeds, or even command the
winds.”

Sean jumps off of the wall and propels
himself into a swooping glide towards the Magician, who tries to
intercept him with a cast bolt. To his misfortune, Sean spirals
past the spell, then collides into him with his elbow, throwing him
off his feet and leaving a bright yellow wound in him, grabs him by
his legs, floats them both into the air while they spin like a
wheel, and hurls him down to the ground, where his face smashes
against the floor and sprays orange energy.

Sean isn’t finished with his assault
yet. Ending his spinning, he lets himself fall down towards the
Magician and lands next to him, bringing his left fist into his
wounded ribs for a crushing blow that causes red energy to erupt.
After the Magician demorphs below him, the freshmen cheer for Sean
as he walks back to them, bowing to them like a victorious matador,
while the intermediate slowly gets back on his feet and limps back
to the others.

Stepping forward to get their
attention, Serpanz says, “We shall conclude today’s lecture with a
few more pieces of basic information. Now that you’ve seen the four
generic kinds of Alkalian morphs, you should yet remember that
there are types that have combat styles specifically for an
individual’s unique type or traits available in his morph. We’ve
already hinted at these kinds with the Beasts who have guns or
magic, and then there is Sean, a Brawler, as you observed him. The
last thing we’ll talk about is a technique every Alkalian can
potentially use, but at their own risk. The Ultimate Attack, as it
is commonly called. Does anybody know what that is?”

Serpanz waits for any of the freshmen
to raise their hands, and calls upon the only one who does, Rose,
who answers, “The Ultimate Attack is a powerful technique developed
by an individual Alkalian and used to deal the greatest single
serving of damage to one or more foes, and since it is developed by
an individual, Alkalians of the same type can have different
Ultimate Attacks. However, one does not usually try to use it, as
it costs so much energy to execute it leaves the Alkalian drained
of power and defenseless for a moment. Therefore, the Ultimate
Attack is reserved only for a finishing blow or as a desperate
response in a dire situation.”

“
Very well put, Rose,”
confirms Serpanz. “Would you care to give us a demonstration of an
Ultimate Attack?”

“
Of course, Professor.”
Stepping forward from her curious classmates, she then warns
everyone, “You all might want to get far away from me,” as she
morphs and puts her palms together. While the students and Serpanz
get at least fifty feet away from her, a great amount of green
energy gathers between her hands until it stabilizes as a sphere
that covers her whole torso.

Compressing it down into her right
hand, Rose slaps the floor before her, releasing the energy and
shouting, “Ultimate Attack, Head Hunter Tree!” From out of the
floor bursts into existence a huge tree of blood red bark, with
wickedly curved and sharp branches without leaves flailing about
and thick roots rising up and breaking apart the ground around it.
Surprising everyone, even Serpanz, with its size and ferocity, they
jump back from the searching tips of its roots and look at the top
of the tree, where Rose stands perched on the base of one of the
branches.

Only a few seconds after she summoned
it, she gets rid of it by demorphing, causing the whole monstrosity
to vanish in a flash of light while she lands on the ruptured
ground, breathing heavily and sweating from exhaustion.

Walking up to her from behind, Serpanz
pats her on the shoulder and then tells the still amazed freshmen,
“As you can see, an Ultimate Attack can be a very powerful and
dangerous technique, and that it causes a great recoil to its user.
You may also have noticed that Rose’s battle morph is another
uncommon type, an Elemental Artist. However, we will talk more
about Elemental Artists, Brawlers, and other kinds of morphs
another time. For now, we shall watch as the basic morphs shown to
you duel each other.”

As the freshmen return to sitting on
the ground while two intermediates step forward and morph, one the
Swordsman and the other the Spearman, Matt asks Rose, “Hey, are you
alright, after that?”

“
Yeah. Yeah, I’ll be
fine.”

Seeing she is okay, Sean nudges her
and asks, “So, that was your Ultimate Attack, huh? You just summon
a big, bloodthirsty tree.”

“
Yep.”

“
Hmm. How useful is that?
I mean, it’s a tree. It can’t really go and chase down a guy, can
it?”

“
Well, no, that’s true.
It’s meant for if I’m facing a foe much bigger and stronger than
me, so I summon it right next to them, and then it ensnares and
tears them apart.”

“
Ah, I see. But then, why
didn’t you use it on that Golem yesterday?”

“
Hmm. I guess there are a
few reasons for that. One, I didn’t need it to defeat him. Two, it
might have been dangerous for him to get caught by it. And three,
he wasn’t big enough of a foe to use it on.”

“…
Indeed. So Matt, do you
have an Ultimate Attack, too?”

“
Oh, yeah, I have one of
my own,” he replies. “I call it the ‘Countdown to Destruction’. I
would show you guys, but, as the name implies, it’s
very
destructive!”

“
Hah, if you say so.” Sean
pauses a moment while the intermediates began dueling before he
moans, “Dammit, I’m the odd one out again!”

“
What do you
mean?”

“
What I mean is I don’t
have an Ultimate Attack! Since I didn’t know how to even fight, I
never really thought about making one for me. But now that I do
know my powers, perhaps I should get working on one! And, I will
guarantee you now, it will be so incredible that it will make yours
and Rose’s Ultimate Attacks look like child’s play!”

“
Haha, I would love to see
that happen, Sean!” Rose remarks before the three watch the
intermediates dueling for the rest of the class hour.

***

Some time after gym class ended, Matt
emerges from the dark stairs leading down below ground in the
college building, hauling a large bag over his shoulder. Groaning
as he sets it down, he wipes some sweat from his brow while looking
around the quiet and deserted hall. As the rest of the students
have been dismissed for the evening, he is the only soul left
wandering the halls. Taking out a slip of paper from his jacket, he
goes over to a map of the building to compare room numbers, and
soon finds the room that is supposed to be the study for Lyn and
her company. Unfortunately, the room is on the far side of the
building from him.

Groaning again as he returns to the
heavy bag, Matt realizes that, if he was in battle morph, he would
be able to carry the bag easily. To his startled surprise, however,
he does not morph, no matter how much he concentrates. Curious to
why he couldn’t morph at the moment, he puts the thought aside as
he lifts the bag over his shoulder again and trudges off down the
hall.

What feels like a long time passes by
as Matt carries the heavy bag down the building’s corridors with
him having to stop every minute or so to rest before moving on.
Soon, in a more narrow section of a hall he turns into, he finally
reaches the room he is looking for. Coming up to the door on his
right, he drops the bag with a loud thump, huffs in breaths, and
wipes away more sweat from his face, composing himself to look
presentable.

Shrugging his sore shoulder to stand
up straight, Matt sighs one more time, calm and collected, and
knocks on the door. A moment passes before he hears a female voice
just on the other side of the door say, “Who is it?”

“
It’s Matt. Matt
Calamos.”

Another moment goes by before there is
an unlocking sound from the door and it opens inward, where a woman
in the tux-and-slacks suit stands before him, no undershirt beneath
the vest and her cleavage clearly visible to him. Smiling nicely,
she nods to him and says, “Please, come in.”

His composure almost shattered upon
viewing a woman’s cleavage again, Matt smiles nervously as he nods
back, picks up the bag, and walks in. As the woman closes the door
behind him, he looks around the apparent study hall in curious
awe.

The large room seems more like a suite
from a hotel than a study hall. In the center of the room are two
large, brown couches facing each other with a coffee table between
them and a red carpet on the floor beneath them. In the wall far
off to his left is another door that leads somewhere else, his
guess being a bathroom. On the wall to his right is a long wooden
table with a few chairs and a computer console in one corner of it,
and in the wall opposite him is a wide window that overlooks the
rolling fields outside the college building and purple curtains
drawn open to its sides. But what catches his eyes the most is not
how exquisite the room looks, but how it is full of women, the most
of them sitting on the couches and a few at the long
table.

Instantly stiffening up as all their
eyes turn to him as they stand, Matt scans over the friendly faces
to soon recognize Amelia, one of the women rising from the couches,
and Lyn, the lone woman at the window to turn around and see him, a
bright smile coming to her face. Walking across the room to greet
him, she says, “Welcome, Matt, to our humble study hall, which we
reserve for studies or recreational activities throughout the year.
What do you think of it?”

His eyes darting about as all the
women gather around him, so close to him he can see every one of
them and their cleavage, he hesitates before replying, “It’s, uh,
it’s nice.”

“
Why, thank you, Matt.”
Facing him with only a foot between them, she asks, “So, how are
you supposed to spend your ‘detention’ with us?”

“
Uh, well…” Finding
something else to focus on other than the women’s chests, Matt
bends down to open the bag and explains, “We were working with
making runes that emit smoke in class, so the professor wanted me
to finish working on my own…” He then holds up a blank slab of
rock, one of many yet in the bag. “And then make fourteen
more.”

Examining the blank piece of stone,
Lyn asks him, “Hmm, smoke runes, eh? Just simple smoke, or some
kind of special gas?”

“
Um, just smoke. Normal,
gray smoke.”

“
I see. And that’s
all?”

“
Yeah, that’s it. I’ve
spent so much time already on my own rune, though, I don’t know how
I’m going to manage making fourteen more in no more than two
hours!”

“
Hmm. Well, actually, that
won’t be a problem for you, Matt.”

“
Really? Why?”

“
Because, while you finish
up your own rune, the rest of us can make the other
runes!”

As the other women nod in agreement,
Matt is amazed by their generosity and asks, “You all really don’t
mind?”