Alkalians (31 page)

It takes him a moment to also notice
the wooden debris from the log floating in the air, aimed at him
like possessed spears. The timber dives at him, and a stupefied
Matt has no time to dodge. They land in several parts of his body,
piercing him deeply, and the wounds turn into dark red energy, the
loss health spraying into the air.

Matt is immobilized by the surprise
attack, both arms disabled from using swords or guns and his
magic-pulse system greatly disrupted. With low health energy and no
strong attacks, he can no longer fight with the skill needed to
match Rose, who sprints to him with leaf daggers. Matt can’t
believe it. With the last of his strength, he prepares himself for
the final blow as he falls to his knees.

Chapter 6

Cracking Down on the Crown

***

Rose’s attack grinds to a stop, her
feet dragged into the ground, the blades thrust forward. They reach
Matt’s neck, touching for thin cuts. A small trickle of blood drips
from the leaves’ sharp edges.

Rose had to halt in her finishing blow
because something she didn’t believe could have happened did. Matt
demorphed. She is bewildered, her reasoning scrambled by the
action. Matt shivers in fear with his eyes shut tight, but when he
feels himself still alive, the leaves at his neck, he slowly opens
them to look at her.

Rose loses her voice for a moment, but
manages to get out, “Why did you demorph? Shadow Core terrorists
don’t demorph. They fight to the death.”

Matt answers, not realizing at the
moment that’s why he wasn’t a terrorist. “I wanted, my parents, to
say good-bye, while I still have a body.”

Rose trembles as many emotions crash
and pile up in her. Before demorphing, she drops her weapons
between them, also sinking to her knees. By the look on her face,
her demorphing, and her body about to breakdown, Matt concludes he
was wrong in any suspicions about her.

Tears appear from Rose’s eyes as she
says, “Oh, Matt, I’m, what was I…” She lowers her face, unable to
look at him. Matt, at first, can’t understand her crying, and
reaches out to touch her. She smacks his hand away, yelping,
“Please, don’t do that. How could you show pity for, for, ahh, I
almost, sniff.” The tears begin to flow.

Matt finally gets it. “Rose,” he
slowly says, trying to hold back his own tears, “I am at just as
much fault as you. We both screwed up, we, let’s just be thankful
it didn’t lead to…”

Rose interrupts him,
throwing her arms around him and bitterly weeping. “Oh, Matt! How,
how could we,
why
did we…?” She can’t restrain her emotions anymore, and the
tears and sobs pour out of her against him.

Matt feels the same following her
outbreak. His tears run down his face, and he whimpers right along
with her. They cry without restraint, holding the other tightly,
and both apologize and forgive without words. But meanwhile, on one
of the rooftops of the cabins, someone has watched them during the
confrontation, a sniper’s zoomed-in vision focused on them. Cussing
to herself, she takes her left-arm rifle off her target, turns
away, and hops off the roof and out-of-sight, as if she had never
been there.

***

Some time later, Sean and Dante stroll
towards the cabin sites, arriving at the seniors’ plot first. The
freshmen’s are on the far opposite side of the clearing, a few
minutes away yet. They walk relatively slow, thinking there was no
longer need to rush in their actions. It has been about ten minutes
since they fought James.

They are both silent the whole way,
each one minding to their own thoughts. Dante wonders to what
extent James’ talking with Matt and Rose could be, while Sean plans
what he’d do later that night. But then, he remembers something he
could chat about with Dante. “So, how are your fighting techniques
coming along?”

Dante exhales the last smoke of his
cigarette, which he drops second-mindedly. “Fine, to a small
degree. I’m not as gifted as others when it comes to
expansion.”

Sean understands the comment,
smirking, and asks, “Well, have you had any progress? Have any of
your attacks become more, ah, sophisticated?”

“
Maybe. I’m doing some
experiments right now, and they seem to indicate my sword-swinging
needs some work. My attacks are fast, but they don’t cut deep, and
I can’t get past a strong defense, as you may have noticed against
James earlier. Therefore, I need to figure out some way to allow my
sword to cause greater damage, but without slowing down its speed
or building up momentum with air balance.”

Sean tries to follow him, but only
some of the details stick. “Wait a minute. All you want is to make
your strokes stronger? Why don’t you use both hands as the base for
your sword, then?”

Dante admits, “True, that would be the
most direct solution. But it does present a big disadvantage. When
I do that, the sword becomes heavier, and it makes my reactions to
things around me slower. So I need to find some other way
to…”

“
How good are you with air
balancing?”

Dante looks confused when asking, “How
is air balance going to help my swordsmanship?”

“
A lot, actually! I mean,
take me, for example. I use my air balance not only for high
agility, but also as a force behind my attacks. Plus, I’ve lately
noticed that, by merely concentrating air around me, I can then put
it into my attacks. Therefore, I can do harm to my opponent even
without having to fly around first!”

Understanding what he is saying, Dante
thinks about it. “If what you say is true, then I could use my air
balance to be the force behind my sword’s attacks.”

“
Yep, that’s what I’m
saying!”

Nodding, Dante adds, “And, I’ve even
discovered that I can gather air around my blade and then whip it
out as gales of wind. But I haven’t thought of a use for that,
yet.”

“
Hey, I can do that, too!
Well, I don’t do it too often, either, but I have it in case I need
it. So, think that solves your problem?”

Dante thinks for a moment, running
simulations of techniques in his head, before nodding. “Yes, I do
believe it does. I’ll have to practice a little, but I think I can
put together my swordsmanship and air balance.” He glances at Sean.
“Thanks for the tip.”

“
Not a problem,” he
proudly responds. But he then realizes what he just did. “Oh no! If
I’m supposed to avenge myself for you failing me last year, you
getting more powerful is a
bad
thing!”

“
Not for me,” Dante
smirks, annoying Sean as the freshmen cabins come into
view.

***

Meanwhile, in their cabin, Matt and
Rose take a shower together again. There was no objection or
hesitation between them, they just did it, without a word between
them. It proves to be just the thing they need to calm themselves
and clear their minds. The warm water and vapor relieves their
aching bodies, and the other’s touch as they somberly wash each
other is a reassurance that they are alive, that there are no
secrets between them, and that they are truly sorry and willing to
forgive for their paranoia earlier. A few times during their
bathing, Rose tightly embraces Matt, pressing her body close
against his, and they stay like that for a moment, holding the
other compassionately, feeling each other’s hearts beat to the same
rhythm, to heal the bond between them almost broken.

During one of the moments of embrace,
Matt asks, “Should we tell anyone what happened?”

“
No,” Rose responds. “If
anybody asks or needs to know, just say we had a practice
sparring.”

Matt nods in agreement as their
embrace ends and she turns away, letting him scrub down her back
with the soapy sponge. He says, “It was an amazing fight, if you
look on the bright side. You fought very well, and proved the
better by beating me.”

“
Thanks. Did you know some
of those techniques were ninjutsu?”

“
Oh, no. So that’s
ninjutsu. Is it really a rare and hard martial art to
learn?”

“
Usually, unless you are
in my family. The Alamence bloodline has all the martial arts built
into different members. Therefore, we are perhaps the most
specialized Elemental Artists in the nation.”

Matt thinks on it before saying, “So,
it’s natural for you to be a ninja, and you pursuing mastership of
it isn’t because you were planning on an illegal
career.”

Rose, confused by his reference, turns
back to face him, allowing him to wash her chest and waist. “Why
would you think using ninjutsu points to being a criminal? It
doesn’t matter what your power is, what matters is how you use
it.”

Matt becomes embarrassed from her
rebuke of what he said before he explains, “Well, that’s how I
learned about it. I was told ninjutsu was the most successful
technique for assassinations.”

Rose wonders two things at
once. Why hadn’t she ever told him about her martial art, and how
did he learn enough about it to get the wrong idea about her? She
knows one of the answers, she never thought anyone would suspect
another of killing. They could all kill, really! As the sponge in
Matt’s hand goes lower than her waist, causing her to slightly gasp
and close her eyes while he washes her sensitive area, she is more
concerned of how he got his information when she asks, “Did you say
someone
told
you
about ninjutsu?”

“
Yeah. James did. James
Iroshen. It sounded like he knew what was talking about, and I
guess I overreacted to it.”

Matt mentioning James surprises and
confuses Rose while the sponge strokes down her legs. Could it have
been a creepy coincidence, or something more sinister? “James, huh?
That’s strange, I was approached by him today, too, and he told me
about that new tactic of the Shadow Core terrorists.”

Matt comes up with the same eerie
question Rose has as he straightens up, handing the sponge to Rose.
“Why would you think I was from the S.C. just because James gave
you some information about them?”

Rose shrugs before taking the sponge
and running it across his chest. “He was worried you might be an
undercover terrorist, and asked me to interrogate you
thoroughly.”

“
Yeah, and he feared you
were some professional assassin with a mission from Riaquen.” The
pieces of the puzzle come together in Matt while Rose works the
sponge down his body. James was a boss student. James told him
something to suspect Rose, and then James told Rose something to
suspect of him. He doesn’t care when the talks had all happened or
how. The only thing he thinks matters is
why
. An answer soon comes to him,
which pales his face and expands the width of his eyes. “I can’t
believe it.”

“
Believe what?” Rose asks,
pausing in her scrubbing him and standing to look him in the
eye.

“
I’ve an idea of what
James did to us. He made us so anxious about the other, we had the
misconception to fight each other and cause serious injury, or
worse. And, I have a guess of why he would do such a thing. He was
working for Cain.” The meaning of this conclusion sinks deep into
Rose and Matt, a moment passes before Matt suddenly feels weak and
embraces Rose first, and another moment goes by as their deep and
delicate touch comforts each other.

***

Sean and Dante arrive at Sean’s cabin
soon after the freshmen cabins come into view. Sean turns around to
Dante and says, “A simple knock on the door should determine if
Matt or Rose are here.” He then bangs his fist hard on the front
door several times.

A familiar female voice is heard
through the door. “Who is it, and what do you want?”

“
Ah, hello Rose!” Sean
replies. “I’ve got Dante with me, and he was wondering if we could
show the place around to him, and, you know, chat a little. Shall
we let him in?”

There’s a moment of no response. Sean
and Dante exchange glances, curious of why she didn’t respond, but
the door soon swings open. Before they can walk forward, Rose grabs
them by their coats’ collars and yanks them inside.

As soon as they’re in, Rose slams the
door closed, making Sean and Dante jolt further. She walks over to
the couch, where Matt sits with his head facing down. They both
have only a bath towel wrapped around themselves, and her hair
hangs like it was still wet from water.

Sean is stupefied from the strange
scene before him. Both Matt and Rose in a towel, and her hair was
still wet. What did he just miss is his immediate thought. He asks,
“Hey, guys, what’s going on?” Dante is as baffled as him, shown by
his raised eyebrows marking confusion.

Rose ignores their questioning looks
and says to Matt, “You tell them, I’ll be getting dressed.” She
heads upstairs to her bedroom, closing the door behind her, and for
an instant Sean and Dante can’t help but look after her.

When they return their attention to
Matt, they see him raise his head to them, and they match gazes
with him. His eyes glare into them, the violet irises darker and
more ferocious than they have ever seen them. They also notice the
newfound scars across his neck, but are too surprised by Matt’s
fierce look to linger long on them. Before either of them could
ask, Matt asks instead, “Sean, James Iroshen is a senior boss
student, right?”