Chapter eight: HIS MAJESTY
What exactly happened to you?"
"Commander!" he stood up saluting, as a tall, dark, muscular man with bald hair walked into the hospital.
"At ease, soldier." the Commander said, and the young man dropped his hand.
"Boy, when was the last time you had a proper sleep?" The captain asked, noticing the dark shaded underneath his eyes.
"How can i sleep sir, take a look at my sister, she is dying." the soldier lamented pointing at his sister who was lying down on the hospital bed.
Her skin was as pale as a demon, there were dark circles around her eyes, as though she hadn't slept for a long time.
The doctor slowly brought down the white cloth that was covering her body, and the commander's eyes widened in surprise. He had never seen anything like this. It looked like black veins spreading all over her body, just by looking at it he could see the vein slowly traveling up to her neck.
"it has been spreading fast lately…i have never crossed part with such an anomaly in my life." the doctor confessed, placing his hand on the girl's body.
"Excuse us doctor…I will like to talk to the soldier alone." the commander requested.
"of course…if you will excuse me then." he said leaving.
"What exactly happened at Diagon?" he asked.
The soldier looked taken aback in remembering what transpired in Diagon.
"when looking for survivors." he began.
"I felt a sudden death intent…a wild desire for blood thirst, and it was emitting from the room my sister had entered." the soldier said as he broke down in tears.
"Brace yourself soldier." the Captain motivated.
"No…if I had gone with her this wouldn't have happened." he cried the more.
"I can't help you if you don't tell me what happened to your sister…was it a beast or a demon?" the commander asked.
"No…it was a boy," the soldier answered, cleaning the tears of his eyes. "He attacked her with a black small pin." the soldier explained.
"What ability did he use?" the commander asked.
"Shadow." he answered instantly.
"Shadow?" the commander repeated.
"yes sir."
"Are you sure of this?" the commander asked.
"positive."
Then his an Eden, the Captain muttered under his breath.
*****
Malcon opened his blood red eye, the room was dark, but that wasn't a problem since his ability allowed him to see well at night. Instead of training he had slept for a whole day, and the king was said to be coming tomorrow.
"You most have been really tired?" Bane asked, as Malcon came down to the dining hall.
"yeah...but am good now." Malcon said, forcing a smille on his face "I want to train now…do you want to join me?" Malcon asked.
"nope, I've had my fill with training" he said laughing.
Malcon went down to the training ground, everyone was already done with their meals and probably sleeping, that means he had to be quiet, so as not to wake anyone up. At first he wanted to train himself on his martial skill but thought otherwise, for a whole year he had been training his body, and now he wanted to cultivate.
He sat down on a lotus crossing his legs, taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes. Within him, He could see the yellow mana core floating in mid air, and he started absorbing mana into it.
A mage powers are graded into six stages, and as you advance in power, the colour of your mana core changes.
Any mage at the rank of a novice, his mana core should be green, and advancing in power is the greatest achievement of anyone, most people didn't even get to leave the novice stage throughout their life.
After years of proper cultivation with beast crystals or mana, if the mage is lucky his mana core would turn yellow, putting him at the rank of a specialist. At the rank of a specialist, you will have little or no problem with attacking or defending yourself from beasts.
The next stage is the veteran. At this stage your mana core turns blue. Veterans are considered so strong as they could even hide the aura from their body, making it hard for one to sense their rank.
After the veteran the next stage is the expert rank, at the expert rank your mana core turns red.
The next rank after the expert is the master stage, at the master stage your mana core turns black.
Only very few people evolve from the master stage to the elite rank. In the elite rank your mana core turns white, people at the elite rank are rare and are regarded as the strongest mages. And finally when a person's mana core turns gold, Malcon had never heard of anyone that has achieved such power, having a golden Mana core places you at the rank of a legend.
Malcon knew he wouldn't be able to advance from the specialist stage to the veteran before tomorrow's duel. Opening his eyes he saw ivy standing in front of the training ground, staring at him.
"You scared me." Malcon said, standing up.
"sorry." she apologised, smiling.
With the warm smile she appeared even more beautiful, her pink long hair was parked to a ponytail and she wore a loosened white gown.
"You're already a specialist." she said, her eyes fixed at Malcon.
"yeah. "
Looking at her, Malcon could see the green aura emitting from her body.
"Aren't you feeling sleepy?" Malcon finally asked.
"Couldn't sleep." she confessed
"Why…what happened?"
"I mean…well, the kings duel is tomorrow and I wanted to train"
Malcon was normally not the person to interfere with other people's problems, and she seemed to have noticed malcon's slow attempt to leave her.
"Could you help me train?" she asked politely.
For a while Malcon thought of the best way to tell her no.
"Please!" she pleaded, with her puppy dog eyes.
"Fine…I will give you a few tips," Malcon finally agreed. She jumped up excitedly and her gown followed suit.
"But first…change your cloth." Malcon said.
And that was when she realized what she was wearing, her cheek turned rose red, and she ran back to the house.
Few minutes later she came out wearing her black uniform, she went to the store and brought two wooden swords.
At first Malcon wanted to teach her how best to defend herself with a sword. Over an hour had passed and she was picking up really fast. After about two hours, Malcon taught her the best way to attack someone, making sure she understood the fact that tricking your opponent was one of the wisest things to do.
Over three hours now, he could tell ivy was tired, so he decided to call it a day. And they went back to their rooms.