Into Darkness (Part one)

  

  In Summary of these past few months of intense training:

   

   In my Journey as a fighter, I learnt jiu-jitsu, karate and taekwondo . Learning these different fighting styles helped me develop my own. I could now hold my own against Akira in a hand to hand fight. Within the astral plain i had learned to control spell forms and read magic runes. Magic runes, were the characters on the spell form that appeared whenever someone activated a spell. The physical strengthening spell, that I unintentionally cast during my third fight with Akira within the astral plain contained about three hundred singular magical characters of which if any were incorrect, the magic formula would change, and the spell would be altered. Among normal astras, or even elite ones the ability to read magical formulas was extremely rare in fact, from what akira told me even elite astras could only sense the formula, that it would be beyond impossible for someone to physically be able to read the entire formula. This would indeed prove useful against an enemy astra.Maybe this was connected to my abnormally high IQ, but i didnt question it.

    After a while of helping Akira, we started noticing an extremely powerful radical force of allied criminals. They called themselves "Spectre" and there seemed to be an astra, no several astras within their ranks. This wasnt suppposed to be possible unless there were escapees other than Akira and the other unknown astra, that is, if he was still alive. 

    Four months had passed since I started training and I had made huge improvement within that time-span, but the issue is that so far i had only learned hand to hand combat. Against an astra, if i were to use the physical strengthening spell that I learned and perfected to the best of my ability i would do considerable damage to the astra, but i would also damage my self if too much magical power was exerted, hence why it was important for me to read the magic formula that i used. I could also read my opponent's magical formula to know what spell they were going to use.

 

Akira POV:

    The view from above the city was majestic, as i flew through the night sky using my flame jets. The cold wind hitting my face reminded me of the night we escaped the facility. It was crazy to me how an entire year and a half had passed since then. My entire sector had planned the escape together and we were hoping that we would all escape together. My best friend at the time Blyke was a scaredy cat, but he was optimistic. I remember that his plan for when we escaped was to go to the ocean. I hope he survived and was able to atleast realise his dream. 

   As I landed at the site where some criminals who were supposedly part of Spectre were gathering to steal weapons and ammunition near a small military base, i exerted a bit of mana and then released my killing intent. It collided with the mana and was sent hurdling towards the group. They were all stopped in their tracks. 

        Over the coms, I heard Chris say that there had been a sudden surge of mana from this area; he told me to watch my back as there could be another astra in the area. As I landed, my fist filled to the brim with mana collided with the solid concrete floor, the shockwave then causing the ground on the surrounding area to crack and shake. The criminals closest to the impact were sent flying by the wave of mana that washed over the area. The criminals rushed me in groups tryig to take me down but their foot work and overall fighting was amateur at best. These grown men should feel ashamed of getting owned by a fifteen year old; astra or not. by the time five minutes had passed i had narrowed down their numbers to sixteen. 

 

           Three men rushed me; two weilding metal pipes and one had a knife. I jumped high into the air, and using their momentum pushed the knife weilding fellow with straight black hair into his accomplice who was in stance behind me going in for a solid hit with his pipe.They slammed together and the one weilding the pipe was stabbed in his abdomen. Meanwhile I kicked the other one who was coming from my right with a mid-air side kick to the face, the sole of my shoe practically digging into his forehead. With this there were only thirteen left. I then continued fighting. 

             After about five minutes, there were only five men left, of which four were armed and in fighting stance, and one was just standing there with his hands in his hoodie pockets. His hoodie was up so i couldnt recognise any of his characteristics, but he seemed different from the rest of these thugs. His aura was rather menacing, and yet I could sense no killing intent. The four that rushed me were dealt with quickly. So now it was just him and I.

       I stared at him for a brief moment, then snickered. This arrogant bastard, I'll let him get out of here to send his boss a message. I spoke, "Hey you, get out of here while you can and this message for your boss," 

The hooded figure didnt reply, and didnt even try to run away or attack, he just stood there staring at me for a brief moment. I continued, " Tell him I'm coming for him."

      The hooded figure the began laughing. Was this guy a maniac or what? I couldnt get a read on him whatsoever and it was irritating. He then responded in a deep voice and sarcastic tone, " You're coming for me? Dont make me laugh!" He then stamped his foot on the ground and a storm of mana rushed towards me. I couldnt sense what type of spell it was, neither could I have sensed his mana. A barrage of dark amethyst couloured crystal shards flew my way at super sonic speed. With my enhanced speed, i was barely able to dodge. So this was where the surge of mana came from. This guy was definitely stronger than me, i needed to get out of here A.S.A.P. but he wasnt going to let me get away. I would have to fight him, or atleast stall for enough time until I got a chance to get away. 

    I concentrated to let the flow of mana which my body produced go throughout my entire body. My mana was spread thin since i had just fought against his entire army. I boosted forward at top speed towards him. In order to at least stand a fighting chance against him, I needed to clear the distance between us and i would have to hope that he couldnt match me in a close up fight. As I got close to him, I felt the air; it felt like the air around me weighed down upon me. Was this gravity control? I could no longer fly, and i was slowed down quite a bit. He lunged forward towards me and in his hand, as he lunged i could see his weapon materializing, almost as if it was always there. His casting speed was way faster than mines. The hilt of his dagger was tightly wrapped in a cloth like material, and his blade was the same colour as the shards he sttacked me with earlier. The blade seemed too beatifull to be a weapon it was like he was weilding an amethyst crystal. 

    When he was about five feet away from me, i began materializing my sword. My long sword shinning red from mana formed just in time and i used the blade to clash with the hooded figure's amethyst blade. He had already imbued mana into his blade, seems he was going for the kill. I met his blade with my own, and laced it thickly with red hot flames and mana. Our clash stayed for a few seconds, in which i could feel his pain; a never ending, lonely pain. His eyes were filled with hate and regret, and his jet black hair that looked almost like Christopher's swayed rapidly as the wind from our clash spread around. My own blonde hair was flailing wildly as the ground around us cracked even more, now becoming a full crater.Our clash ended in an explosion and in that instant i was able to use my flame jets to get away, my opponent looking directly at me as i left. He then just suddenly sank into his own shadow together with his henchmen who sunk into their shadows.

    On the flight back to the base, I couldnt help but contemplate about the battle. The hooded figure vaguely reminded me of my best friend Blyke from the training facility. His smile was radiant and gave all of us hope. I couldnt see his face clearly, but I was certain that he resembled Blyke. Thats only speculation, but if that really was Blyke, then thats a problem, because then he would be the leader of Spectre.I decided not to tell Chris about Blyke and just head home instead of going to the base. 

      I headed home after telling Chris to go home over coms. When I got home to my two room apartment, i cleaned up the cup noodles packages that were all over the floor and took a nice cold bath. I went to bed but checked my phone to see a message from Chris saying he had a surprise for me, to head to his house tomorrow.

I replied "ok, sure".  I had a hard time falling to sleep, but I eventually did manage to fall asleep. 

Akira Dream scape POV:

    I opened my eyes to find myself inside the training facilty. I was next to blyke, with his short black hair. More accurately we were running away from the security guards in the long never ending green hallways. We turned a corner and soon met up with everyone who had made it. I blasted down the strong metal door at the end of the hallway and we began the real escape; getting through the birch forest. No one was able to get slippers or shoes so we mad the run through the snowy forest barefooted. My flames melted the snow on contact, so it wasnt too hard for me. From the left, right and behind; I saw gunfire and blood. The enforcers had been released already. We couldnt even fight back against the enforcers because they were fully armored. We just had to keep running and pray we didnt get shot. The dead bodies of my peers began to pile up, and the once snow white forest was stained with red. We made a solemn pact that whoever made it out of here would live a happy life for everyone who didnt. I made it to the edge of the forest and for the first time in my life, I used my flame jets. I didnt remember chanting, or even concentrating, it just happened. I longed to run away. Before i blasted off, to my right, there he was. It was Blyke! He had made it to the edge of the forest as well. I couldnt yet control this ability of mines, so this resulted in me leaving him. I turned around to see the sad look in his eyes, and that was the last I saw of him. My eyes slowly began to close.

 {The next Morning}

   My eyes opened to see the golden rays of the sun peeping through the blinds. Why did I have that dream? I sat on my bed and pondered. I then remembered that i had to meet Chris at his house today. I got ready and then left. About an hour later, at about ten o'clock i arrived at his house. I was curious, what would he have prepared? He said it was a surprise, but that just made me more interested. I knocked on the door to be greeted by his butler Reid. Reid was indeed a really cool butler and from what I hear, he was a Marine. I also heard from chris that he had thought him some fighting techniques. I greeted Reid, "Hi good morning sir, Christopher told me to meet him here."

He replied, " Ah yes, Christopher is awaiting you inside."

    I met Chris in the dining room, and we had breakfast together even though I already ate before coming. He forced me to eat, because his maid had prepared food for both of us. During breakfast I asked, " So you called me here to eat breakfast with you? Was that the big surprise you had planned?" I chuckled.

     He hastily replied," No of course not, you idiot! I'll show you after breakfast,"

   After breakfast, he carried me down to his basement through a secret tunnel behind the bookshelf in his room.

He lead me down a white hallway and down one elevator ride. The next thing actually blew my mind. Ah the power of money at its best! He introduced me to the new base."Impressive!" I stated. 

He replied," I know, who do you think designed it, some third rate engineer?" This prideful bastard!

   Tolerating his annoyance, I spoke " I got something for you" and materialized a box with magical runes carved along it. I handed him it, and his dumbfounded expression was priceless. With his ability to read magical runes he should've been able to read the engravings on the dark wooden box. This was the Legendary Knife Of The Maiden Of The White Dragon. An untold story of ancient Greece. I spoke," From this point on, this is your weapon."

            

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