Jasmine

Yami Aphiry City

"Jasmine... Jasmine, where are you?"

"I got you!" I missed him.

"You can't get me... you can't g-Jasmine!" Owen ran past me and blocked a stone thrown at me. "Who's there?!"

"Well, if it isn't Jasmine the Witch and her pet monster. You trained him to defend you now? I thought you were protecting him."

"Go away!" Owen took a step towards them.

They all backed up. "You know what? You are going to regret coming anywhere near us..." They had left.

I woke unable to sleep because of what that kid had said. It took me a minute to realize Owen was missing. I fell out of bed and not even bothering to get properly dressed I hurried out and looked around. There was a light from a fire not too far away. I started walking carefully but when I heard 'monster' I ran as fast as I could. I got there to find every last kid in the village there. All in a circle around the fire and Owen, he was tied down to a rock near the fire, a knife beside him.

I didn't think about it, I jumped out and before I could do anything I and was caught by two boys. "Where do you think you're going?" I hit one over the head, punched another and felt a sharp pain on the back of my head before my mind went spinning.

I woke tied to a rock with Owen beside me.

"We waited till you were awake, now let us begin!"

Someone began chanting stupid sacrifice words, like sacrificing us would do them any good. Scaring them with words is pointless. Trying to bargain with them is useless. The only thing I can do is...

I noticed someone above me with a knife in hand.

Owen was struggling to get free and just before the knife came down, Owen's power flared and the entire area was consumed in darkness.

"You know, sometimes becoming a monster is the only thing you can do..."

Owen sat on his rock feeding the fire. There was blood everywhere much like when I first met him. I got up and looked around. Not a single thing had no blood on it.

"Who was it?"

"You mean the blood? No idea... it's like it's a part of me I attack and tear apart. It only looks like I killed someone but really I kill a part of myself, no idea what part. I feel the same."

"Where did everyone go?"

"I don't know, probably at home. Some probably went covered in blood too." He pointed to a couple untouched spots on the ground. "They were really close."

"I want you to make me a promise. Never use this power again."

"Wh-"

"Promise me!"

He looked at me and smiled. "As long as you are safe, I promise."

I woke up.

Chloe

Shino Aphiry City

Beautiful... no other word could describe Johnithyn and Joanna's dance. They defended each other and then attacked together. Yesterday I watched Owen practice, he looked so cool and powerful performing his moves but it looked as though he is struggling against their dance of death.

Finally Owen backed off and halted the struggle. "Fighting the two of you is difficult..."

"You got better too," Johnithyn said.

"I still have a few flaws. No one can learn this fast without having a few," Owen turned to me. "You're turn; show me what ice is all about."

I stepped into the arena and conjured two ice shields.

"I'll start with something you're familiar with," a white flame showed up in his hand.

I shook my head. "Don't... don't go easy on me," the edges of my shields turned sharp, I spun and threw one at him.

My attack was blocked with a dirt wall. In front of it, two golems rose. One of fire, one of earth. A third rose behind me.

Usually when more than one golem is created, the summoner only moves one at a time to prevent from draining himself. Owen was moving all three.

I ran towards the earth golem. I dodged an attack from it and jumped onto its arm, it raised its arm and I was thrown over the earth wall. A water golem waited there. Before it attacked, I froze it solid and punched threw it with a hand of ice, It shattered.

First lesson when creating a golem, if you can remake one, do it. The power is already there so it won't take much and if you add more, you can make them smaller and faster.

I took the shattered ice and created three figures my size. I added my power too and gave them weapons. I finished in time to see the three golems smash though the earth wall. The third was of stone.

I was always terrible at controlling the golems; they were too big and didn't move fast enough, this time won't be a problem.

I had them follow me into battle. I threw my remaining shield and cut through the earth golem's legs. It collapsed and broke apart. My ice golems made short work of the stone golem. The fire golem was a bit different.

I dodge an attack and had us circle it. I drew breath and the four of us blew frost. The fire golem burned out. Looking around my golems were no longer golems. They looked like me, they were clones.

One of them spun and cut another's head off and then almost destroyed the other. I blocked the attack with a shield; my clone followed through and stabbed its stomach. It shattered.

"Now I can fight you," Owen dropped down in front of us. "Let me know if it's still too much," He conjured a massive white fireball and threw it at me.

"I put my shield out in front of me and was almost disappointed Owen's attack didn't send me flying, it felt pretty powerful. My shield caught on fire so I threw it to the side and conjured two blades.

"Alright, let's do it your way." he conjured a two handed fire sword and came at me.

My clone blocked his first attack; he dodged mine, blocked my clone's, dodged my second and then cut my clone in two while blocking my third swing. Two moves after that he had a knife at my throat. "I've been trying to learn how to do that, can you teach me?" Switching weapons and fighting styles is hard, quite a few people mimic Elder Dimetry for his famous weapon styles. Not really in my class though, no one really likes weapon training anymore. All they want to do is become the best magic user.

"I'm not perfect yet, but I can be a sparring partner for you to teach yourself. It's more of what you're comfortable with. I can only help with the transitions." Owen backed off and taunted me to make the next move.

xyx

Joanna

Chloe surprised me when she took out the first of Owen's golems, but after she took out the fourth and then her own clone that turned rouge on her... I was blown away at how much she's learned compared to the last time I saw her fight. Of course Owen was too fast for one person to keep up with in close combat, it made up for his lack of experience in battle. Chloe, on the other hand, seemed like she's practiced a lot. More than Johnithyn ever has and sometimes he'd go for days non-stop. Her moves, stances, attacks, blocks... they were all performed flawlessly. What Owen was doing was giving her the experience of fighting another, it was working.