| 5th of Teryusin — Year 362 of the Cycle of Synthesis, Grand Cycle ??? |
Jhestine brought out a hand to pull him up. Raoul amenably obliged, allowing himself to be brought to his feet. A few smacks to his own pants’ legs wiped off the dust and dirt that were sticking to the fabric.
“Awakening…” muttered the boy. “What might being a Driver of this Cycle do for me?”
“It’s a very self-contained Cycle,” Jhestine replied, waltzing a few feet away.
The suited woman nocked a fist out of the other hand she was keeping in her pocket and held it out open. The Jati in the air stirred, whirling towards her hand in a near-instant gathering. A bright blue gleam finished the casting, and in less than two seconds two alike training swords of wood sprung to life in her grasp. Each one held a perfectly curved hilt and a blunt edge. She tossed one over, and Raoul narrowly caught it with both hands, almost stumbling forward.
“I never took swordsmanship as my elective, Miss Marrow.”
“No worries,” she chuckled, placing her free hand into her pants’ pocket. The other limb flexed, fingers tightening all too familiarly around the polished grip with practised ease. “This isn’t meant to teach you how to fight with a sword. Most Drivers rely on magic and Driving, if anything. They often only carry melee weapons to use when someone gets too close, or for fashion. There’s a wide market for stylish artifacts, you know.”
She continued, coughing to shift the subject. “The main point is that we’re going to put to the test your Driving powers. It won’t be an official or recorded one, just simply do your best to conjure what Awakening offers. Remember to tell me if you’re stuck, okay? I’ll give you a few pointers.”
Physical education—at least the actual practical physical aspect of it—was one of Raoul’s worst subjects. It wasn’t to the point his mother would chide him for it, but his stamina was a clear opposite to his intelligence and was the subject of “remarks for further improvement” on bi-monthly school reports.
Still, he shrugged and raised the blade’s tip in Jhestine’s direction.
In response, she gave him an approving smile.
“Very good. Begin.”
The wind took all too long to notice she had moved. It swept in an impromptu gale, desperately attempting to catch up as she charged forward. A ferocious glint in her eye, Jhestine stabbed the blunt end directly straight for Raoul’s chest.
Odd, he thought in that split second. Despite his mind registering her as being no more than a few feet away, Raoul’s eyes thought otherwise. A strange, orange glow permeated the weapon, blinking rapidly as if trying to draw his attention. It was way too far away.
Straining his legs, he kicked off the floor, pushing himself to the side. He raised both arms above his head and brought down the sword in an amateurish slash. Jhestine reacted in that quick instant, her one weaponized arm bending inhumanly to send her sword against his in a perfect riposte. Sword against sword clashed in a single, room-spanning clack. Raoul’s strike was stopped promptly.
Gritting his teeth, he pulled back. Like a student rushing to finish an exam before time was up, he scribbled into the air a series of sigils around an imaginary circle. The magical formation hummed to life in the next moment, and the sigils on the outer ring flashed, each one spewing out a small, pencil-sized bullet of ice.
“Magic? I understand if you’re comfortable with it…”
In one swift sequence, she slashed her blade at the air, somehow cutting each icicle in half despite having a blunt weapon. She then followed afterward with a heavy sweep to his legs.
Except, it was a fake.
Raoul’s eyes flashed with potent white Jati in that bit he noticed her leg somehow blurring into the background, nearly melding into the dirt floor of Midasia. In exchange, her right arm seemed to darken and then blink rapidly.
Danger. He was beginning to figure out what Awakening was capable of.
Trusting in his prediction, he made no effort to dodge the sweep, and instead brought his blade out to combat her thrust. Both weapons met once again in a harsh strike, but this time Raoul held his guard fast.
Jhestine’s eyebrows flitted upward at the read. “You learn quickly, Raoul. But you have to consider that your opponent may not feint once. They might feint twice.”
The arm that was holding her sword in the clash suddenly let go, and the sword fell harmlessly to the floor. He blinked, eyes following the sword’s weak route. His peripheral screamed at him as darkness entered, and he had to visibly force himself to guard against the fist that was sent to his chest.
Another feint. The darkened fist suddenly lost all shade, transferring instead to her left leg. This time he was truly caught. His body could not catch up to his predictions, and he fell to the ground backwards in a heavy slam.
“Ow… Ow… That’s twice.” he huffed, scratching the back of his spine. “You move too fast, Miss Marrow. It didn’t even take you half a minute to beat me.”
“Sorry,” Jhestine hurriedly rushed over, helping him back up to his feet again. “I’ve gone through reports of Cycles’ abilities so much, I instinctively went for the best way to overwhelm a Driver of Awakening.”
Still groaning from the pain, Raoul perked up at the mention. “I noticed. My eyes were signaling to me where the danger was going to come from, and everything seemed to be farther than it actually was. It gave me the faith to see through the sweep the first time. Unfortunately, my body couldn’t follow along as you continued.”
He continued. “Is that what Awakening is? Reading peoples’ intentions, and a heightened perception?”
“Correct.” She replied, waving a hand to dismiss both of the swords into Jati. “It’s a very self-centered Cycle—not in a bad way, of course. When used to a greater mastery than you displayed today, it can even allow Drivers to see attacks seconds before they are thrown, or spot the tiniest of details from far away, like an eagle. It can also reveal hidden secrets around you or read peoples’ thoughts in conversation, but you had no opportunity to use it here.”
“To overwhelm a Driver of Awakening is to overwhelm his senses until his body cannot follow what he sees. Was I correct, Miss Marrow?”
“Indeed. It’s great to keep in mind when you face someone of the same Cycle as you. Or even someone who relies on divination spells to predict the future.”
He nodded, gratefully accepting the advice. “Is it normally this easy, by the way? I don’t want to sound like I’m blowing my own horn, Miss Marrow, but I didn’t need to draw upon any feelings of conviction or willpower to use my Driving while we were training.”
“Oh, that?”
She waved her arm around the room once more, drawing attention to the Midasia that had been brought into the Resonance Chamber.
“We were in your emerged Path the entire time. Emergence works by turning the surrounding environment into your innate world, so naturally you have the home field advantage while you’re in it. Notable benefits include an increased intake and circulation in the Jati that flows through your body, a near-instant usage of your Driving without the conviction that normally is needed to call it, passive effects to the world—yours come in the form of a total disruption to time and technology—and a special, personal-based effect that varies based on the Driver and the Cycle they are manifesting.”
“For instance, yours is Awakening. I noticed you weren’t focusing much on the environment, but if you tried, you would most likely be able to fully notice everything. I mean it literally. It’d feel like your senses were scattered everywhere. Would you like to try it now?”
“I will.”
Raoul sighed, letting out a heavy breath. He allowed his focus to drift away from Jhestine and onto the Midasia that had manifested into the once-white room.
In an instant, his senses heightened. His vision suddenly blurred from how clear, bright, and massively detailed everything was. Every fiber of each wheat stalk was about as close to him as his own eyelids were. His nose clenched itself closed, overpowered from the sheer earthy smell of everything. Despite his closed mouth, he could clearly taste the dirt in the air, and he grimaced at the uncanny texture.
He shook his head, mentally pulling himself back from the haze the next. He shot a surprised look at Jhestine. “...I feel like a druggy, Miss Marrow.”
A chuckle left her lips. “It takes some time getting used to. It’s like getting new glasses. You seem to be understanding your Cycle better the more you analyze it. Given a few days, or even weeks of training, you might be able to match a professional Driver in Driving.”
“You praise me too much. I was merely doing as my instincts suggested.”
“And your instincts were right. I sense a budding Driver in front of me. I know I mentioned to you earlier about getting lunch. Would you like to now?”
Raoul smiled, opening his lips to give a positive reply. Before his words could leave, though, his phone dinged. He raised an eyebrow, pulling it out from his pocket. By then, two more dings arrived to interrupt the conversation entirely.
Krockodile: I’ve found the Simón-Hector girl.
Krockodile: You said she often slept over at you and your buddies’ homes, right? Well, that’s where I checked first. Wasn’t in the BTC heir’s private estate. Nor in his maid’s home. And obviously not in your house.
Krockodile: Ready for the kicker? She’s in Under Buril.
Raoul couldn’t physically stop himself from frowning. What was Idri doing in the slums of the city?
Raowl: What? Why is she there?
Krockodile: Beats me. I looked onto some sites and spotted a post from an Under-Burilan from the last few days and found her beating up a bunch of gang members. Here, got the video for you. -video file-
Raoul didn’t click the thumbnail just yet. He raised an apologetic look to Jhestine and gave her a bow. “I’m sorry, Miss Marrow. But something’s come up, and I have to go. If you still want to talk soon, please message me.”
“I don’t mind,” she replied. “It seems to be something important. We can save lunch for another day.”
“Thank you.”
He left that same minute, rushing towards the elevator with hurried steps, but not without leaving a stable line of numbers on the wall on his way out with the Magic Words cantrip. The eleven-digit set was his number, hastily drawn with light strokes.
There was an eerie silence in the ten seconds it took for the elevator doors to close. Four beeps and four floors would pass before Jhestine gave a knowing look to the scientists in the Observation Chamber, most of whom were already wide-eyed at the results.
“I know what you all are thinking, and no. We are not going to be taking him in as a lab rat. I do not want a single mention of this testing sequence reaching anybody outside of this room. Got it? Anybody who even tries to disobey will be answering to me directly.”
The swallowed gulps of fear and subsequent hurried nods from each of the robed scientists were all too palpable.
With unhurried steps, Jhestine made her way back to the Observation Chamber, stopping in front of the one fifteen-inch screen in the middle of the panel. She scanned the results, focusing especially intently on the part of the results that showed the unexpected output of Path energies that differed from Awakening.
“Still… to be a Driver of all Cycles. I’ve never seen anything like it.”