Chronicles of the Rising
Book One - Omega
Chapter One - A Lesson (part 1)
~*Galen*~
I held my spear at the ready, tip down and backend held high. My Aegis' Pale blue-green glow reflecting faintly off the frozen ground. I stood there staring down my opponent, waiting for him to make the first move. He too, just stood there staring back waiting on me.
Trident held aloft and dark blue Aegis blending in with the ice surrounding the sparring arena, I could see why they were known at the 'Frost Giants', Never in my life had I been around so many people who were as tall as myself.
While I was loathe to make the first move, especially with someone who possessed a complete Aegis, one of us had to start this little training session. Otherwise I wouldn't hear the end of it from Aurum.
"Eh, screw it." I held my own complete Aegis and a full set of blessings. Nothing to worry about. Besides He wasn't too skilled with his blessings from what I understand.
I twirled my spear tip creating a small vortex of wind. Small, but deadly enough to slice through wood easily, simple enough to test his skills without worrying about causing too much damage.
As expected he was waiting for it and swung his trident in a backswing bringing up a wall of ice to block the oncoming attack. So, he was proficient enough is both his water and wind blessings to be able to use ice-based moves. Not surprising, they're known at the Frost Giants for a reason. A majority of their blessings revolved around water, wind, some earth and a splash of spirit here and there. Fire blessings were unheard of within Jotunheim.
And that is exactly what I intended to use for this match to come to a quick close. I wasn't enjoying the frigid cold this far north, I don't care how 'refreshing' Aurum claimed it was.
I used to my wind blessing to give me speed as my earth blessing granted me strength, I thrust my spear forward sending a blast of fire as I raced towards the wall of ice. I jumped through the newly melted hole to . . .
nothing
I did a quick scan looking for my opponent only to hear movement above me. I looked over my shoulder in time to see him gripping the side of the ice wall and launch himself at me. There was a small click as two of the nodules freckled over my Aegis unlocked and spun. Two of the ethereal chains within the back my Aegis snaked out towards him. He brought his trident up to attempt to parry the oncoming attack only to have the chains pass through him.
I used his moment of surprise to dart sideway. I slammed my spear on the ground and as I brought it back up summoned a pillar of earth towards my target. The attack hit dead on and slammed him into the ice wall. He went crashing through to the other end of the arena.
I watched as he picked himself up out of the large chunks of ice scattered about. His head snapped up at me and I knew this would end badly. The Jotuns were a proud people and being knocked around by a low-lander, as they called anyone south of their frozen haven, was a cardinal sin.
He whipped his trident around up above his head bringing a massive wave of water, snow and ice around him. Stabbing his trident out in my direction brought the wave rushing at me.
I simply waved my spear out at the wall of slush freezing it solid in place.
I smirked within my helm wondering what he'd do next.
He came flowing through the ice wall as if it was thin air, trident pointed straight for my chest.
Well, damn,
That was new.
I brought my spear up, barely catching the trident between two prongs. The center tooth, half a length longer than the outer two, catching against my chest plate. The resulting screech echoing inside my helm and the only reason I wasn't thrown off balance was my added strength through my blessing.
Shoving him back with enough force to throw him away a few paces, I brought my spear around in an overhead attack. It was by a slim margin of a combination of both speed and agility that he was able to slide sideways and avoid the strike.
I summoned wind to my side and launched in to the air. We both just stared at each other. I suppose out of a loss as to how to hit me, he sent large chunks of ice flying at me, to which I easily avoided hovering around in the air.
Casually flying about, I began to rain down small blasts of fire at him. I couldn't help the evil grin that spread across my face watching him run about the arena jumping and dodging.
My fireballs were snuffed out and gust of wind picked up as I looked over and watched my counterpart slowly descend down to the arena.
"That will be quite enough, Galen, I've seen all I need to." Aurum's calm voice came up to me carried one a stream of air of his own making, sounding as if he was standing next to me.
"You lack adaptability in your techniques." He informed the Jotun.
The Face place slid open from the middle, revealing dark blue wavy hair and a braided beard that fell to his chest. "Just exactly how do you expect me to attack him when he's 50 feet in the air?" he growled at the smaller man.
I took note of the difference in their height. Aurum wasn't a small man by any means, he stood at 5'10" but his presence gave him the imposing stature of someone far taller. The Jotun easily towered over him, giving the name "Frost Giants" all the more credence. I vaguely wondered if that's how I looked standing next to the raven-haired man.
My musings were interrupted as I watched Aurum stretch his staff out at me. I had a short moment to realize I was in danger as ice crystalized around me and I fell back down to the Earth.
I had to use an explosive fire technique to explode out of the ice before I hit the ground. I barely managed to slow my descent before crashing to the ground and most likely my death.
I glared over at the man about to voice my displeasure when I saw him twirl his staff ever so slightly in my direction again. A crushing sphere of water coalesced around me. I slashed by spear through the water and sent the water back towards Aurum.
He simply waved his hand to the side and sent the water away. I begin to stalk towards him with the intent of telling him exactly where he can shove his staff when he clenched his hand in to a fist. Jagged shards of metal slid up from the ground and I found myself trapped in a make shift cage of blades and spears. I simply glare at the other man from within my Aegis. Combining blessings to utilize their second nature wasn't something I was proficient at and he knew this and excelled at turning my short coming against me often. I guess the Jotun wasn't the only one receiving a lesson today. I decided to use this time to attempt to work the metal backwards away from me as I spun earth and fire blessings together and reached out to the metal. I was rewarded with the barest of twitches for my efforts.
I caught Aurum watching me and he smirked knowing all too well my frustrations at not being able to get myself out of a simple predicament such as this.
Aurum looked back at the taller man and arched an eyebrow as if to say 'there, you see?'.
The Jotun scowled back at him. "You know damn well I don't possess an earth or fire blessing."
"Nary did I use earth or fire to bring him out of the sky, Strom. Am I correct in assuming that you aren't proficient enough in your wind blessing to fly?"
The Jotun, Strom, looked away irritated. Admitting a weakness was also against the Jotun warrior code of ethics, so he remained silent looking off to the side focusing on nothing in particular.
"I see. That will make the journey back to Hallow Bastion all the more vexing." he sighed. "Though, I suppose, the extra travel time can be used to teach you how to make the most of your blessings. Least I can do is ensure you're not completely behind when your training starts with the Guardians." he mused more to himself.
"And why should I listen to an Omega like you?" The Alpha sneered down at his would-be teacher.
I sighed. "Bad decision."
He looked over at me puzzled as a blast of fire sent him rocketing across the arena to crash in to the side of the mountain.
Aurum calmly strode over and waited for the man to painstaking extract himself from the rockface before kneeling down. "Any other questions?"
Strom wisely remained silent and kept his head down.
"We leave at Dawn, be ready" Aurum stood and began to walk away. I cleared my throat rather loudly. He didn't even look back as he waved his hand down at his side slightly and the metal slowly slid back in to the ground.
I let go of my spear and it winked out of existence. my Face plate slide apart vertically and I walked over to offer the other Alpha a hand up. He groaned and worked out some the soreness from his body. "Is he always like that?"
"You mean not allowing someone to disrespect him?" I arched an eyebrow at the other man.
"Yeah ok, I deserved it." He looked away guiltily. "Doesn't mean he had to hit me so hard." He rubbed his sore shoulder. Even with his Aegis in place I know he still felt the impact in more places than he thought were possible.
A chorus of hollering laughs started to come closer. Strom appeared to be uneasy as the other Jotun warriors walked up still chuckling.
"shown up by a tiny Omega." one shook his head laughing.
"Maybe if we send you away with the little bitch, you'll finally come back with some balls after you tame that little spitfire." Roared another.
I winced and prayed to whomever was listening that Aurum had moved far enough away not to hear any of that. I glanced over in the direction he had wandered off in.
Aurum stood not too far off, shoulders tensed and gripping his staff hard enough that his knuckles had gone white.
I groaned.
this wouldn't end well.
I slowly reached out and grabbed ahold of Strom and silently backed away with him. Removing him from the line of fire was the only way I could guarantee his survival long enough to make it back with us.
Strom to his credit appeared to have caught on to the eminent danger we were about to be in and let me guide him away.
The lessons weren't over for the day as the most powerful blessed I had ever met slowly turned around with thunder in his eyes and fire on his stare.
"I beg your pardon."
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