MakiaVi: The Frozen King - Chapter 2
The next morning, the six new residents gathered in the lobby to meet Brakon for their first official day of training. They found that the building was absolutely spotless, without any signs of yesterday's damage. Burlik turned to Brakon and asked, "What happened? This place looks like new.""This building has a magical rune in its foundation. Every night at midnight, the building is reset to it's previous condition. It's a lot cheaper than trying to fix what you kids break. Speaking of which," Brakon looked over to Edion and Leon. "While I support sparring, please stay out of Amara's garden. Keep it contained to your building or the training grounds.""So what are we learning?" Bellatrix asked. "You will find out soon enough." Brakon replied. "We need to go out of the city for this one. Follow me." He led them out the building and flew high into the sky. His students kept up with him as best as they could. From this height, the size of the city was more apparent. The MakiaVi was about fifty miles in diameter with high walls surrounding it. Once they were outside the city's borders, a massive forest awaited them below. Trees stretched out as far as the eye could see. Some of them even tall enough for the group to touch. Brakon pointed to a small clearing below them. "This will do fine. Land here." He landed with care. barely disturbing the grass beneath him. Bellatrix and Leon followed his example. Edion, Burlik and Zan were a little rougher in their entry, uprooting some of the foliage when when hitting the ground. Tereen slammed into the ground creating a large crater around her. The tremor was large enough to knock everyone else off balance. She rose from the crater and walked up to the rest of the team, brushing off the dust from her pants."Now then," Brakon announced, "Welcome to the Eternal Forest. Today I will be teaching you all to properly use Viren. Do any of you know anything about Viren?" Bellatrix raised her hand and said, "It is the energy that allows dragons to fly." Brakon nodded. "Yes. Thousands of years ago, our ancestors used wings to fly and were much larger than we are now. Once they discovered Viren, they slowly evolved to the slimmer form that we all have today. Viren is the life energy that all things radiate. While we mainly use it to fly, it also has many
other uses. Leon, can you help me demonstrate?" Leon raised an eyebrow at his request. "I don't really know much about Viren, not sure how I can help." Brakon smiled. "Don't worry, all I need you to do is stab me with your sword." The trainees gave each other odd looks. "He must have finally lost it." Burlik mumbled to Edion."You want me to what?" Leon yelled. "You heard right. Attack me with all your might. I won't even move." Leon hesitated for a moment but eventually drew his sword and prepared to attack. "Are you sure?""Give it your best shot!" Brakon taunted with a smile on his face. Leon flew as fast as he could to Brakon and lunged his rapier towards Brakon's chest. The moment the blade made contact with his scales, it bounced off with a clang. The force of the impact sent Leon flying back. "What the hell?" Leon yelled. Brakon grinned as he explained, "I shielded myself with the Viren stored in my body. With proper training, you can use Viren to protect you, heal minor wounds, even multiply the strength of your attacks." Brakon then drew his longsword and turned to face a nearby tree. It was about ten times as tall as brakon and thick enough for even Tereen to hide behind. "Watch and learn kids." Brakon said, as he lifted his sword into the air. He took a deep breath and in one swipe, cut the tree in half. The top part crept off of its base and landed on the ground with a loud thud."That's...impossible." Edion said as he stared at the fallen tree. "Well it's not since I just did it." Brakon said as he sheathed his sword. "Now it's your turn."Bellatrix shouted, "There's no way we can do that!" Brakon smiled to her. "I remember when I was a new member, it took me six hours to cut down one of these trees. I think you can all
manage that." Zan walked up to Brakon with a determined look in his eye. "If that's the case, I'll do it in three!" he said raising a clenched fist to his brother. "Now that's the spirit!" Brakon cheered. " Just make sure you do it in one hit. There is a reason it's called the eternal forest." The trainees traded confused glances. As they looked around, they noticed that the damage that had been done in their landings had already disappeared. Even now, the tree Brakon cut in half was already regrowing from the trunk. The top half that was cut off formed its own roots and lifted itself upright to made a new tree. Brakon flew up and sat on the branch of the new tree. He picked a colorful piece of fruit from one of its limbs and took a bite. "Go ahead and get started. I'll be up here if you need me. Oh, and please do be careful kids." Bellatrix immediately sat down in front of her tree with her legs crossed. The rest of the trainees began hacking away at their targets. They each unleashed a fury of attacks on their trees with no progress being made on any of them. Each time, their weapons bounced off the bark. An hour into the training, Edion took a break. "This really is impossible." he huffed. Edion looked up to the tree where Brakon was sleeping. He shook the tree with a fierce kick. "Hey! How are we supposed to do this? None of us have made any progress at all." Brakon moved the hair that was covering his eyes. "Actually, Bellatrix has made pretty good progress so far." Bellatrix was still meditating at the base of her tree. "What are you talking about? She hasn't moved an inch in the past hour!" Edion screamed. "We draw Viren from all living things on the planet. Try getting more acquainted with nature." Brakon returned to his nap.Edion grumbled as he prepared to strike the tree again. Before he attacked, he looked at the rest of the trainees and lowered his arms. They all had taken up Bellatrix's strategy and sat in front of their trees in silence. Edion sighed and sat down in front of his tree as well. He closed his eyes, took deep breaths and tried focus on the forest around him. For a while, he felt nothing but his legs starting to fall asleep. It wasn't until they hit the two hour mark that he felt something. It was like the faint current of a river flowed through his body. It started from his legs and pooled in his heart. Edion relaxed his muscles as the sensation flowed through him. The gentle current began to pick up speed. It soon turned into a rushing rapid and the pool in his heart began to overflow. Edion started levitating in the air and his eyes glowed bright green. Fog collected around him as a strong wind current whipped around. It was as if Edion was the center of a tornado. The air became extremely cold. Everyone halted their meditation and Brakon awoke from his slumber."Oh no." Brakon muttered as he dashed towards Edion. The rest of the trainees struggled to hold their ground against the force of the wind. Brakon was not slowed down at all as he grabbed Edion out of the air and laid him on the grass. He put a hand over Edion's chest and took a deep breath. As he inhaled, the green energy transferred to Brakon's body and the wind began to die down. "How was he able to draw so much energy?" Brakon whispered. It was then that he noticed the symbol on the shoulder of Edion's jacket. The trainees all gathered around Edion who was motionless but still breathing. Edion opened his eyes. "How are you feeling?" Brakon asked. "Alright, I think. What happened?""You took on too much energy." Brakon explained. " If you try and store more than you can, it will search for an exit and destroy your body in the process." "You could have warned us!" Zan yelled. "Sorry, I didn't expect any of you to go over capacity like that." Brakon defended. "It would usually take a whole day for a newbie to gather that much power. In any case, you should all be fine to continue." The students returned to their trees. Edion stood up and stumbled a bit. "Are you sure you are ok?" Lien asked. "It's ok if you want to take a break." Liara added. "No, it's fine. I can handle this." Edion grunted. He summoned his gauntlets again and swiped his claws at the tree. This time, it carved out a large chunk of the tree. Edion cheered his success. As he finished celebrating, the tree grew
back the part that was lost. He sighed, "He did say do it in one hit."As they approached the three hour mark, the time it took for each trainee to gather Viren became exponentially smaller. None of them even bothered sitting down to meditate at this point. Zan stood in front of his tree, out of breath. His hands red from his failed attempts. "Tick tock kids." Brakon taunted. "What happened to cutting my time in half Zan? Tired already?" Zan gritted his teeth and prepared for another strike at the tree. This time when he gathered energy, the air around him started to heat up. On his upswing, the blade had gathered all of his energy and was red hot. In one large swing, Zan took down the tree just as Brakon had done earlier. Zan grinned and yelled to his brother, "Ha! Told you I would do it!" Just as he said it, Zan started to fall to the ground. Brakon appeared in front of his brother and caught him."Great work." Brakon whispered as he laid his brother down on the grass. Soon after, all of the other trainees started to chop down their own trees. Burlik tossed his shuriken towards it, with an aura of high pressure water coating it like the blades of a saw. Leon took a quick swipe with his rapier, cutting the tree with a gust of wind. The blade never even touched the bark. Bellatrix dashed past her target with lightning quick speed and cut it in two. Small sparks could be seen discharging from her katana. Tereen swung her hammer into the earth, knocking a large boulder into the tree and shattering it into pieces. Finally, Edion coated the claws of his gauntlets in ice and took a strong swipe at the tree, cutting it cleanly in five different places. "Amazing progress everyone!" Brakon said. "But remember, this is only the beginning."Over the next month, Brakon ran the six of them ragged. Every day they ran a series of brutal drills. One was to fly a hundred laps around the entire MakiaVi. Another was to swim to the deepest part of Bravia Bay and back up thirty times. They also trained to deflect arrows only using Viren. All of this was on top of regular sparring matches.At the end of the month, Brakon stood with his students in the garden of the class C dining hall. "Outstanding work everyone!" Brakon announced to his exhausted trainees. "You all have put in a ton of work and I think you all are deserving of an award." Brakon snapped his fingers and two chefs brought out a large picnic
table behind him with delicacies from all the dragon controlled provinces.. "This should be a decent upgrade from your usual meals.""It's about time!" Leon snapped. "I was beginning to think you westerners were all just awful cooks." He walked up to the table and reached for a portion of the beef. Brakon then threw a powerful punch his way. Leon blocked it but was sent flying back to where the other trainees sat. "What was that for?!" Leon screamed. "What? The food is all yours. You just have to take it." Brakon replied with an unsettling smile on his face. The students groaned in unison. "Forget this. It's not worth the trouble." Edion said. He began to walk away from the group."Oh, I didn't know we were serving chicken today?" Brakon taunted. A cascade of "ooooo" sounds came from the other trainees. Edion summoned his gauntlets and a powerful aura of Viren surrounded his body. he turned to Brakon and yelled, "You'll be eating that food from a straw when I'm done with you!"With a battlecry, Edion flew straight at Brakon with his claws ready to strike. Brakon very easily dodged the attack and grabbed Edion by the tail. He started spinning him around in circles so fast that Edion could barely move. "Stop! Stop! Let me go!" Edion screamed. "As you wish." Brakon said with a huge grin. He released his grip and sent Edion flying through a nearby tree. "Come on! You guys can do better than this!" Brakon taunted. Zan and Bellatrix looked at each other, nodded and dashed towards Brakon together. Bellatrix disappeared from view and reappeared behind Brakon with her sword ready to strike. Brakon caught her blade with his bare hands. He then swung Bellatrix by her sword into Zan, sending them both flying back to where they started. "Well since none of you are hungry, I'll get started then." Brakon said as he sat down and started picking at the grilled fish. "That salmon is mine!" Burlik yelled as he threw his shuriken towards Brakon. he caught the weapon by the giant hole in it's center using only a finger. Brakon
didn't even look up from his meal as he sent it back with twice the force it was received. As it went flying back to it's owner, Tereen swung her hammer into the shuriken and knocked the it into the ground. It kicked up dirt as it spun in the and eventually lost momentum."Team huddle!" Bellatrix announced. Quickly, all six trainees gathered together and started whispering. "Oooh a plan! I wonder how this will go?" Brakon said. The students spoke for about five minutes before they broke up and got into a formation. Edion rushed towards Brakon, leaving a massive trail of dust behind him. Again, Edion approached with his hands open to swipe at him. "That won't work!" Brakon said as he punched Edion in the stomach. This time, Edion was able to hold his ground. "What?! How?!" Brakon exclaimed. As the dust settled, Brakon saw Tereen standing behind Edion, bracing him against Brakon's attack. "Gotcha." Edion whispered. Brakon looked down to see that his hand was frozen to Edion's. Before he could even react, Burlik threw his shuriken at Brakon. This time, Brakon had to dodge at an awkward angle,throwing him off balance. Bellatrix quickly came in and slide tackled his legs. Edion used their connection to slam Brakon to the ground. Once there, Leon and Zan had their weapons at Brakon's neck. Brakon had a huge smile on his face."Amazing teamwork everyone! You did even better than I could have hoped. The food is all yours, for real this time. You all earned it!" The trainees all cheered and started to dig into their favorite dishes. As they ate, they all laughed and reminisced over their month of harsh training. Brakon smiled, looked at the sky and said, "They are in your hands now Elise."