Alkalians (7 page)

After she gets back on her feet, she
looks forward to find Matt sprinting toward her, his rifle gone and
an immense, dark energy sword, almost as tall as himself, sprout
from his right hand. Having time only to watch with dread, she
stands still while Matt spins and swings the sword forward through
her. A split second after the cleaving slash, a gushing of orange
energy precedes her legs being cut off, the lower halves vanishing
in bursts of light and the rest of her collapsing upon the
floor.

The freshmen, intermediates, and Prof.
Serpanz, are dumbstruck. Even Rose is amazed, almost breathless as
she stares at him in his dark armor. Matt lets his black sword fade
out, and charges up a magic spell in his left hand. Lying face-up
and cringing from the massive damage upon her, all the Magician can
do is look up with pleading eyes when he turns back around, but it
is no use. A merciless Matt aims his glowing palm toward her,
calling out his spell’s name:

“
Blastion
!”

A sphere of black energy, much like a
cannonball, fires out from his hand and crushes the Magician’s
chest, releasing a large explosion that cracks open the ground. A
red demorph flash mingles with the black flash of the explosion,
and the woman is found lying unconscious on the seared floor, her
body sprawled out like a lifeless puppet and her face pale with
shock.

***

The faces on Prof. Serpanz, the
freshmen, and the other intermediates, even the one named Dante,
are very similar to the unconscious woman’s. Matt demorphs and
walks back to the freshmen, himself becoming confused at why they
are staring at him.

Looking at Rose and Sean, he has a
face asking what’s the matter. Rose tries to smile and speaks for
herself, “That was incredible.”

Sean mutters to himself, scratching
the back of his head, “This is going to be one interesting school
year.”

Chapter 2

Rough Introductions

***

As gym, and the school
day, comes to an end, Matt, Sean, and Rose make their way toward
the gym exit along with the other freshmen. Except for Matt and
Rose, they had all lost their battles. Sean is flustered from Matt
and Rose’s performances, as he tells them, “This is great,
marvelous,
extraordinary,
even! I’m the guy who doesn’t know how to fight,
and my roommates are the class superstars!” He then laments,
“Spirits, why? Why do you torture me like this? How long will I
suffer!?”

Rose asks, trying not to laugh, “Well,
are you sure you don’t know what your powers are?”

Sean sighs, slumping, and replies, “I
thought I had it before, because I’m a Brawler type Alkalian, like
my older brother. So I figured, like him, my punches, kicks, and
slams would play out on their own and do damage. But it doesn’t
happen for me! I’m just some freak without any fighting
powers.”

As the three reach the exit, and Rose
is about to say something, they hear Professor Serpanz call after
them. “Rose Alamence! May I have a word with you?”

Wondering what she could want, Rose
tells Matt and Sean, “Go on ahead, I’ll catch up.” She turns around
and goes back towards the professor.

Matt and Sean enter the main hall and
go along with the flow of students leaving the building, where Matt
asks Sean, “Have you even tried training?”

Sean mumbles, “My family couldn’t
figure out what I should do, and I’m not desperate enough to make
me someone else’s problem! Let’s face it, I’m a hopeless cause. But
enough about me! What Alkalian type are you?”

Caught off-guard from the switch, Matt
says, “What am I? Oh, um, I don’t know.”

Sean stops his walking abruptly. They
have reached the main entrance of the building, as students
continued walking or jogging past them. He turns back to Matt with
an unbelieving face, and asks, “You don’t know what your type
is?”

Matt shrugs and nods yes.
Sean is then the one who thinks his friend has a problem.
“
Who
could not
know what their battle morph is!? Didn’t your parents tell you? Did
you ever wonder why your morph is different from others? Do you
even have a clue what you are, with those superpowers of
yours!?”

Before a stammered Matt can answer,
Rose rejoins them. Having heard Sean’s outburst, she asks, “What’s
going on?”

Sean replies in a wise-guy
way, “Well Rose, we have quite the irony standing before us. An
Alkalian who fights with full knowledge of his strength, but
doesn’t know what Alkalian he
is
!”

Matt regains his voice and replies,
“Wait, listen! My parents trained me on how to handle combat, so I
figured out my powers as I learned to fight. But when I asked my
parents what my battle morph was, they wouldn’t tell me anything,
except I was special.”

Sean remarks, “Oh yeah,
you’re
special
all right!”

Before he can continue, Rose
interrupts, “Now hold on, Sean, at least he knows how to fight! The
real problem here is you!”

Sean’s absurd attitude deflates, and
he’s gloomy again. “What can be done about it? No one’s going to
help me, the loser of the class…”

“
We’ll help
you.”

Sean looks up to the warm
faces of Matt and Rose. Feeling guilty, he moans, “But it would be
unfair if there was nothing I could do in…” Suddenly, inspiration
hits him, and he says, “Scratch that, there
is
something I can do in return! You
both train me, and I’ll help you fit in with the way this school
runs! I can help out Matt with runes class, and I’ve lived through
the culture of the student community already, so I can tell you
about all the important people and such.”

“
Wait, how the school
runs?” Matt asks. “What do you mean by that?”

“
Ah, yeah, uh, how do I
give you a quick idea? Okay, you remember that little speech
Professor Kaystone gave yesterday? Well, half of it means nothing.
The students here do
not
treat each other as equal peers. Not only do you
have the hierarchy of classes, with seniors at the top and freshmen
at the bottom, but you’ve got the individual students known as
‘boss students.’ ”

“
Boss students?” asks
Rose. “Why are they known as that?”

“
The boss students,
usually seniors themselves, are the self-imposed leaders of the
community, dear Rose. Whether they are of noble heritage, wealthy
backgrounds, superior skill with their battle morphs, or any
combination of those three, they use those qualities to win favor
or fear from the other students and control them. In fact, some
boss students literally fit the term ‘boss’ by running their own
small gangs of loyal students, who go around competing for the
majority of the community’s respect and occasionally getting into
rumbles with each other.”

“
So, the boss students are
pretty much the most popular students in the school?”

“
Yah, pretty
much.”

Matt asks, “And just who are these
so-called ‘boss students?’ ”

“
Well, I’d love to tell ya
here and now, but…” He looks around at the crowd of students moving
by them, and then says in an undertone, “It would probably be
better to tell you back at the cabin. See, the boss students may
even have spies moving about, always listening for the latest piece
of gossip about them.”

It takes a moment for Matt and Rose to
understand what Sean means, but they soon understand and nod in
agreement.

“
Right, so, what’s our
next plan of action? Ah, I know! Matt!” He snaps his fingers at
him. “Head back to the cafeteria and go get our dinner.”

“
Our dinner?”

“
Yes, our dinner! At the
end of the day, after classes, they start taking orders from
students for their evening meals, and then they deliver them out to
their cabins to be shared by the students in each cabin. So, for
tonight’s meal, get us a pizza or something. Pizza sounds
good.”

“…
What’s a
pizza?”

“
ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?”
Sean roars out. “You don’t even know what
pizza
is!? Did you grow up under a
rock or something!? Unbelievable, man!”

Matt, Rose, and students yet moving by
them jumped back from Sean’s outburst, and the other students move
on, casting disgruntled looks at him, while they wait for him to
calm down again. “…Sorry about that. I’m prone to random outbursts,
if you haven’t figured that out yet. But anyway, just go ahead and
order some pizza, you’ll know what it is by tonight, I swear it!
Meanwhile, Rose and I will head out to the open fields and do some
training.”

“
Uh, actually, I’m sorry,
but I may not be able to help train.” As Matt and Sean look to her,
Rose explains, “I agreed that every day after class hours, I would
stay with Prof. Serpanz and work out with her. I don’t know why
she’s interested in me, besides how well I did today in
combat.”

Blinking curiously, Sean says, “Oh,
that’s all right, all I need is Matt here! Plus, while he trains
me, you can help me with assignments and studying. Just because
I’ve already been a freshman and taken some of the classes doesn’t
mean I’m any better at them. Oh, and while we’re at it, I can find
out what Matt’s battle morph is! Yeah, no problem!”

“
Ah, okay. Well, I guess
I’ll see you guys later.” She waves good-bye to the two men, and
turns around and heads back to the gym.

Sean turns back to Matt and says,
“Alright, Matt, we’ll go get that pizza cooking, and then we’ll
head out to the fields for some training! Sound good?” When Matt
doesn’t reply, his gaze fixed on Rose as she walks away, Sean
glances between them before waving his hand in front of Matt’s
face. “Matt, you still here?”

“
Huh? Oh, yeah, that
sounds fine.”

“
Alrighty, let’s go!” He
takes off down the hall, nearly empty of student traffic, and Matt
is slow to respond before hurrying after him, casting one last look
at Rose before she vanishes behind the gym doors. As they disappear
around the corner further into the building, someone steps out from
the shadow of another corner, near the building’s entrance, on the
other side of the hall from where they had been speaking. The young
man known as Dante, his presence having gone unnoticed, was
listening in on them the whole time, smoking from a cigarette. He
blows out a cloud of smoke from his nostrils, his emotionless
expression yet locked on where Matt had gone.

***

Back in the gym, Rose walks over to
Prof. Serpanz, who is stretching her limbs in warm-up while waiting
for her. Coming out of a standing hamstring stretch, she looks to
her and says, “Welcome back. Do you mind if we started out with a
little jog? Say, ten laps around the arena?”

Rather than being flabbergasted at the
suggestion of so many laps around the far-and-wide circumference of
the gym floor, Rose shrugs and replies, “No, that’s fine by me,
professor.”

“
Good. And, you won’t mind
working out in your casual attire, for today?”

“
Uh, oh, no, that’s no
problem. Here, let me just put this away.” Her hands reaching up to
her chest, she takes the amulet hung around her neck and tucks it
under her shirt.

Having had her eye on the amulet,
Serpanz asks, “So, according to your amulet there, you’re a proud
member of the Alamence clan, from Riaquen?”

Looking back to her, Rose nods. “Yes,
that’s right.”

“
What kind of Elemental
Artist are you?”

“
Um, ninjutsu with the
botanic, er, plant, element.”

“
I see. And how capable
are you with your martial arts?”

Giving herself a quick stretching,
Rose chuckles before answering, “Well, I don’t mean to boast, but
many have been surprised to know I’m well versed in ninjutsu
techniques not just in my battle morph, but in my human form as
well.”

“
You can use your martial
art
outside
of
your battle morph? No kidding?”

“
Heh, yeah. Ever since I
chose it to be the martial art of my morph, I’ve trained and
studied it vigorously both in-and-out of morph, from my childhood
to this very day.”

After a moment of regarding her,
Serpanz nods in satisfaction. “Well done, then. It’s good to know
there is still at least one ‘true’ Alamence in today’s
age.”

“ ‘
True’ Alamence? What
does that mean?”

“
Well, as I recall it, all
members of the elite Alamence clan of Riaquen had to be masters of
their martial arts, both in-and-out of morph. Am I
right?”

“
Oh, uh, yes, that’s true.
But that was mainly because we were in the middle of a blood feud
with the, the…” When the thought of what she was about to say makes
a connection, she gasps and looks apologetically at Serpanz.
“Professor, I am so sorry! I didn’t even think of it until just
now, but you must be from…”

“
The Serpanz clan, the
hated rivals of the Alamence clan that were eventually kicked out
of the feudal states. Yes, I am a descendant of the Serpanz, as my
last name states. However, the discord between our families went
right along with the era they were in, the Age of Chaos, and so
should mean nothing in today’s world. Don’t you agree?”