Alkalians (8 page)

Relieved that she has no grudges, Rose
smiles and replies, “Agreed. This is a time of peace, and all of
that is in the past, to be learned from and not
repeated.”

“
Exactly, Rose. In fact, I
think it would be nice to have the two of us, whose ancestors were
bitter foes, become friends and bridge that infamous gap between
us.”

“
Ah, yes, professor, I
think that would be nice.”

“
Excellent. Alright, let’s
do this warm-up.” Following beside her, the two women begin jogging
at a steady pace by the walls of the arena. A moment passes with
them jogging before Rose resumes the conversation. “You know, with
the way you intimidated me and the rest of the class, I thought you
were going to be a rough instructor. But, I can see now that you’re
actually not that rough. Er, professor.”

Laughing at the risky compliment,
Serpanz returns, “You can just call me Orcra, Rose. However, don’t
make that conclusion about me so soon. As I told the rest of your
class, my job is to make your skill in your battle morphs near
perfection. And that is especially directed toward you.”

“
Me? Really?”

“
Oh, yes. I can tell that
you’re already well-toned, in human athleticism and your battle
morph’s skills. However, I think you can be better in both. Rose, I
intend to work you so hard that you will be able to outmuscle,
outrun, and outfight not only the other freshmen, but higher
classmen, and possibly even
me
. Do you understand?”

“
Uh, yeah. I
understand.”

“
You have a problem with
that?”

“…
No. No, I don’t. In
fact, I think I’m actually looking forward to it. This can be
another step in my endeavor to become one of the greatest Elemental
Artists of the century, so I will appreciate any way you can make
me stronger.”

Smiling at her humility and honesty,
Serpanz says, “Glad to hear it. So, if you’re not afraid of the
challenge, let’s pick up the pace.” Before Rose can think of
objecting, she is already pushing onwards at a brisk run, and she
has to speed up to stay with her as they complete one lap around
the arena with nine more to go.

***

About a half hour later, Matt and Sean
are out of the campus building and by a small group of trees in an
open field. The evening is clear and warm with a light breeze.
Setting his book bag down by one of the trees, Sean asks Matt, “So,
whatcha think of the library?”

Rubbing his head, Matt replies, “Wow,
I’m still overwhelmed, thinking about it. There were so many books
in there!”

“
Yeah, well, libraries do
tend to have a lot of books, Matt. It’s actually the norm for
them.”

“
Right, I guess that makes
sense. But how could anyone find the books they are looking for in
there?”

“
Oh, you saw what I did,
right? We passed by some aisles, found the category we were looking
for, went down its aisle, scanning the shelves, and…” He opens up
his book bag, fishes around in it, and pulls out a large, textured
book. “Ta da! One encyclopedia covering the general types of
Alkalian battle morphs!”

Laughing at the presentation, Matt
concedes, “Okay, so maybe that was an easy book to
find.”

“
Yeah, maybe it was. But
anyway, before you start beating the pulp out of me, er, I mean,
training me, let’s figure out what kind of battle morph you are.”
He opens the book and scans through several pages, like a dedicated
researcher. “We can narrow the search down a lot, as you’re able to
use swords, guns, and magic, which many of the types
can’t.”

“
Okay.” Stepping up beside
him, Matt looks over his shoulder as he scans through the
book.

Soon, Sean’s searching comes to a
stop, finding the listed Alkalians he is searching for. There are
only three types shown. One is a heavily armored and gunned cat
called Beast, Machine Cat style, the next a Paladin, humanoid with
the plate armor design, and the last with a figure blurred out and
titled, “Legend; style varies with element and gender.”

In a process of common sense
elimination, Sean figures Matt is definitely not a Beast, and he
couldn’t be a Legend because his morph isn’t that mythic looking.
In fact, his morph resembles more of the Paladin. “Ah hah!” he
proclaims. “Matt, you are the Paladin type. Well balanced in most
combat fields and power stats, except for a higher rating of
health, attack, and defense.” Before Matt can get a closer look, he
then thumps the book closed.

Seeing Sean apparently found his morph
so quickly, Matt decides to do the same for him. “Hey, give me the
book, and let’s look for your type!”

Disturbed by the turnabout suggestion,
Sean reluctantly gives it to Matt, who begins looking at the
chapter groups in the front of the book. He asks, “So, you thought
you’re a Brawler, right? Didn’t you say your morph resembles your
brother’s?” Sean nods. Matt flips through the pages, and comes to a
section titled “Brawlers,” with a whole column of different styles.
Suddenly aware of what the problem is, he tells him, “Here’s why
you didn’t figure out your morph’s powers. Look at all these styles
of Brawlers!”

“
What!?” shrieks Sean,
ripping the book away from Matt. Taking a first glance at the
column, he can’t believe the truth of it, and he says, “We always
thought there was only
one
kind of Brawler, me and my family! Wow, would you
look at all these. But which one is me?”

“
Let’s find out,” answers
Matt, changing into his battle morph.

Sean glances at Matt and back to the
book repeatedly, then finally goes along with the idea. Giving Matt
the book, he morphs so Matt can compare him to the Brawlers in the
column.

Matt quickly finds the Brawler style
that looks the most like Sean’s, so he shows him. “Here, how about
this one? The Speed style.”

Sean studies it carefully, looks at
another style, and says, “Yeah, this one is my brother’s, the
Strength style, it having more isolated and larger scales than
mine. I can’t be these other ones, either. The Psychic one has a
different scale pattern, the Water has those slits along the ribs,
arms, and legs, and the Chain has chain-link armor instead of
scales. That leaves me, the Speed, the one with my same scale
pattern.”

“
Yeah. So, what do they
mean by ‘Speed?’ ”

Sean thinks for a moment, and says,
“Well, I know it can’t mean super fast punches or kicks, as I’ve
already tried that. But you would think some part of me would
automatically make me accelerate…”

“
Do you air balance?” asks
Matt. Sean gives him a bewildered look, so he explains, “When an
Alkalian floats, flies, or dashes because they disperse energy that
propels them off the ground or air?”

“
Oh, that. Why didn’t you
just say ‘fly?’ ” Sean brainstorms, and he concludes eagerly, “Hey,
that might actually work! What I have to do is zoom about with air
balance to build up speed, and
then
I attack!”

“
That could be worth a
try.” Matt looks around, and recommends, “Why don’t you do that,
then crash into that tree over there?” A scraggly, dead tree stands
nearby.

Sean seems nervous to the suggestion
at first, but replies, “Okay, sure. But if I shatter into a
thousand pieces from the impact, you’re putting me back together!”
He starts performing the air balance, rising a few feet into the
air and hovering away to enlarge the distance to the tree. Turning
toward it, he launches forward from a compressed dash, and prepares
to collide with his speed increasing greatly. Flying into the tree,
Sean’s tackle smashes through it, and the log scatters into wooden
debris while Sean tumbles onward some extra yards.

The impact happens so quickly Matt can
only stand there in surprise for a moment. He hurries over to Sean,
sprawled across the ground, and helps him up. “Sean, are you all
right? Did you get hurt?”

Instead of being angry or
hurt, Sean looks unscathed, and he’s gleefully smiling. “That
was
awesome
! As I
was racing toward that tree, my instincts just snapped awake, and I
imagined all kinds of ways to hit it! It all felt so natural, yet
thrilling, and incredible! I can fight now, Matt!” He then shouts
to the sky, “I CAN FIGHT!!”

Matt feels proud for Sean and his
awakened ability, but reminds him, “We didn’t just come out here to
find out how you fight. We now need to let you practice your
moves.”

Sean is unflinched, saying, “Yes,
right, we still need to train me. I can’t wait to get started! Come
on, let’s see just what I can do!!”

Matt nods, drawing his large, black
sword from his right hand, and faces-off with Sean as they prepare
to spar. Before either of them makes a move, somebody starts
clapping nearby. Turning to the direction of the noise, they see
Dante emerge from behind another of the trees in the grove, softly
clapping with a calm, intimidating look on his face. “Bravo,
bravo,” he says as he approaches them. “Perhaps now you’ll be able
to pass the freshmen class this year, Sean Wyseinburg.”

Both of them startled to see him, Sean
manages to speak, “Er, hey there, Dante. What are you doing
here?”

“
Oh, I just happened to be
in the neighborhood, and I couldn’t help but overhear you two, so I
came over to say hello.”

“
Say hello? Right. You
just wanted to say hello to two freshmen, one of them having failed
to pass last year and the other some kind of super strong
freak.”

“
Yes, that’s right.” After
taking out a cigarette and what looks like a small, jagged piece of
rock to produce a flame from the rock and light up a smoke, Dante
adds, “And while I was at it, have myself a contest between battle
morphs.”

Sean groans before complaining, “Oh
come on, Dante, you already kicked my butt today, and I only just
figured out how to use my battle morph. Do you really have to
slice-and-dice me again?”

Taking his cigarette between his
fingers to blow out a plume of smoke from between his lips, Dante
explains, “Actually, Sean, you are not the one I am interested in
fighting. The one I’d like to duel is…” His eagle eyes turn to
pierce through Matt. “You.”

Matt, surprised along with Sean, asks,
“Me?”

“
Yes, you, Matthew
Calamos. I could not help but be impressed with how well you took
down that intermediate in gym today. I was so impressed that I wish
to try my morph against yours, to see just how good you are in
it.”

Not sure if he should feel proud or
scared, Matt says, “Oh, I’m not that special or anything. I guess I
was just more skilled than her, that’s all, and…”

“
Wrong.” Interrupting him
with a sharp tone, Dante tells him, “It wasn’t your skill that
impressed me. It was your strength. Even with the direct, smooth
deliveries of your attacks, they did much more damage to her morph
than normal versions of those same attacks would have done. I have
my own theory as to why your attacks are so strong, but to see if
it’s correct, I would like to test my battle morph against yours
and see how well it holds up.”

“
Uh, well, um…” Looking to
Sean for any help and getting nothing but a bewildered shrug, he
reluctantly says, “Okay, then. We’ll have a duel.”

The only sign of intrigued surprise on
his face being a raised eyebrow, Dante asks, “You won’t decline? If
you don’t feel good about fighting me at this moment, that’s fine.
I won’t force you into something you don’t want to do.”

“
Oh, no, it’s alright.
I’ve been raised to accept formal requests for duels between battle
morphs, as it’s the honorable and respectful thing to do. So, we’ll
go ahead and duel. Any terms or conditions we should go
by?”

Taking another smoke of his cigarette
before tossing it on the ground and rubbing it out, Dante says
while smoke floated out of his mouth, “Swords only, since that’s my
only means of arsenal. Agreed?”

Exchanging a concerned glance with
Sean, Matt sighs before firmly nodding and saying,
“Agreed.”

***

A moment later, both Matt and Dante
are in their battle morphs, a black knight and a red samurai, their
battlefield the open plain beside the tree grove. Dante energizes
the katana-like sword between his two hands, while Matt summons his
monstrous broadsword between his hands. The two stare back at each
other, both ready for combat, and a sudden gust blows between them.
Meanwhile, Sean is off to the side sitting against one of the
trees, still in battle morph and acting as a spectator.

In that moment as both wait for the
other to start the fight, Matt realizes he made a big mistake in
agreeing to use only his sword in this battle. He should have
already known that Dante would be quicker and more agile with his
swordsmanship than his. Despite this, however, he has an idea that
might help him match his opponent, and he holds his position,
waiting for him to make the first move, his expression as still as
Dante’s.

After another breeze blows by, Dante
at last begins the battle by rushing forward in a sprint. Not
panicking from the head-on assault, Matt makes no move, allowing
him to get closer. Before Dante moves his blade to attack, he
propels forward in a burst from his air balance.