Hali continued to barrage me with her rock attacks. It’s so cold and painful when the impact hits the body. As the stones came right at me, you can see ice crystals forming around the frosty steam that surrounds it. Panic-stricken me, my knees fell weak and I fell to the ground.
“Are you going to sit there and die or you going to fight?!” Hali’s words echoed in the labyrinth. Uncle Earl's smile flashed before my eyes. He was there when I was attacked, trying to protect me. He stayed by my side all day and night, after the attack. He sacrificed his eye just to keep me safe. Hali also spent all day and night to heal me and him. I looked up at the platinum blonde hair woman as she slouched backward to yawn and stretch. She was willing to teach me how to fight. My mother trusted her to come to find me. Who am I to be afraid, when there were people in Creaturae are fighting for their lives?!
Just then, I remembered what Hali said before she attacked. “Lesson one…defense!... You need to learn how to visualize in a small amount of time of what you want your powers to do.” Hali’s orders echoed in my mind. Still shaking, I stood back up and questioned, “What am I supposed to do?!”
Hali grinned from ear to ear, “Listen, when you use magic, which I know you have before. You need to visualize your next moves. My ‘ice bullets’ attack is quick, it will train your mind to think and act during battle. The more moves you can anticipate from your enemy, the higher the chance you will win the battle. But you have to visualize and anticipate.” she explained.
Train my mind…visualize. Remembering back to when I attacked the lava lady, she protected herself by conjuring a blanket of lava to stop my attacks. Hali threw another five-rock pebble in the air, they began to transform into ice as it stays afloat. Flicking her fingers again on each rock quickly, her ‘ice bullets’ bolted across the area towards me. Concentrating, a prickling sensation pierced my arm as I swiped my right arm from left to right creating a curtain of water to appear. Yes, it was just like what that lady did. This was almost like a movie. When two men are in a gunfight, one shoots at the other, while the other flips up a table to shield himself.
The bullets shot through my wave barrier and hit me several times in the chest. The impact wasn’t as hard as before but it still hit me. I fell on one knee and grabbed the areas that hit me. Feeling sore and confused I continue to pity myself.
“Juvia...” Hali called, as her eyes narrowed. A shiver ran down my spine when I directly made eye contact. It felt like they were piercing mine making it hard to look away. “In battle, you have no time to rest, even if you are injured or hurt. If there were citizens here to protect, are you going to sit there on your ass and pity yourself?” Hali said coldly. Her words rang clear into my ears. Uncle Earl’s face showed up in my head. “To protect yourself and the ones you want to protect...” Hali paused as she pointed her right thumb to her heart. “You need this! Courage! To create courage, you need willpower. Exercise your mind to not listen to your body, but your heart!”
She was right, even if it's cliché. Taking a deep breath in, I stood up again this time my mind was ready. Exhaling, I began to think. At this moment, I know I’m weaker than Hali, she has more experience in battle and time to learn and control her powers, not like I. I can use my powers for small jobs, snowflakes, figures, and putting water back into the drain. On the last attack, I was able to conjure up a barrier but it was too weak. It was just water falling, like a waterfall. Should I try to use ice? But I didn’t know how to do it on my own, at least for now. Also, it’s probably not a good idea to use the same power as the person you’re facing, which is more powerful.
Another five small rocks were thrown in the air again. This time, I was ready for the next attack. I watched as the ice began to formulate like crystals, cold steam sizzled the rocks. That gave me an idea. Refocusing my attention, I fixated on my left palm. First, breathe in, create a small circle, and focus the small circle to turn clockwise. It appeared and was slowly turning clockwise. Feeling giddy, I focused harder to make it go faster. A suction of wind began to circle in front of me. Breathing out this time, I imagined the circle getting bigger and bigger. The suction of wind began to spin faster and harder, the leaves and debris around in the area began to spin. I created a whirlpool in the palm of my left hand.
Hali eyes narrowed for concentration and began to flick the bullets towards me, faster this time. The prickling feeling surged throughout my whole body this time, as I imagined making the vortex of the whirlpool smaller. Watching the vortex shrink a little, the bullets hit the barrier and ricochet away from me. This was the first time I was able to block one of Hali’s attacks. I stared down at my palms of my hands, adrenaline was soaring inside of me wanting to jump out.
Out of breath, I fell to the ground panting hard. As I opened my eyes, I saw the dewy purple sky. The sun finally came up painting the sky in different colours. Steps crunched the dirt and grass, Hali’s shadow loomed over and pulled out her hand. I took it and she pulled me back up.
“We going to need a lot of work, but it was a good start. Starting today, in the mornings you will be doing training with me. After school, you will do this list of exercises every day. On the weekends, we will have longer sessions of training. Long story short, we are going to have a lot of time together.” Hali smiled, as she handed me a folded piece of paper. I stared at her, reluctant to take the paper. This was just the start? Oh my god…
Hali dispersed the thin barrier that she had put up at the start of the training. All the existing pain and injury I had on me disappeared into thin air. Like it had never happened, she chuckled watching me pat around my body in confusion.
“I call it the 'Ice Age Dome', the thing I did earlier. I created that. Its sole purpose is whatever injuries that were to happen in it will leave the body like ice melting into water. If you were to break your leg, for example, within the ‘Ice age dome’ and I were to disperse it or you were to exit it your leg would go back to being normal. Even if I cut it off.” Hali explained with a creepy smile on her face. “I can’t have you going to school with a broken leg or black eye. People would think you were being abused at home.” She continued.
Abuse…was not the word. I was reminded about the pain from her ‘ice bullet’ attacks made me winced automatically, it was more like torture.
We walked back to the house with Hali’s arm wrapped around my shoulders. The event kept cycling over and over in my mind. The woman in the wavy dark hair kept flashing in my mind also. If my mother were here…We arrived at the house before I could have finished my thoughts.
Quickly showering, I got ready for school like normal and arrived at school like nothing had happened last night. The police cars were scattered in front of the school, students were buzzing because of them. Officers were questioning the students and faculty members if they knew about the woman who attacked me yesterday. Nervous, I sprinted towards the front door quietly and headed towards my locker.
The police were speaking to the teachers, staff, students and parents came to the school wondering what the reason for the attack was yesterday. Walking through the hallways, the murmurs sounded like they did not hear or knows why the police were here in the first place. The principal was trying to calm down the concerned parents as I walked by them.
From what I heard, the police and school believed it was a terrorist tried to attack a student from the school. The school bell chimed, the class was starting soon. Fatigued, I walked towards my classroom. I can hear a loud buzzing of voices emitting from my classroom. As I stepped into the classroom, everyone stopped in silence and stared at me.
I stood by the door and stared back at the silent glares. Not sure of how to react and embarrassed from being stared at like that, I escaped to the back of the class and sat in an empty desk. Quickly setting my books on the desk, I feverishly pulled out my phone. I began to type on my phone screen, sending a message to Hali.
“Hali the police are at my school. People aren’t even sure why they are here. The police think yesterday’s incident was a terrorist attack. Somehow everyone knows I was involved with. What should I do?” This was the message I sent to her. Two checkmarks appeared beside the text message I sent her, hopefully, she reads it. Wait…does she even knows how to use a phone? I wasn’t sure what kind of technology Cultor Nemorum was capable of. If you think about it, do they even use technology? The bell chimed again, my first class started as my teacher walked in.
“Hali the police are at my school. People aren’t even sure why they are here. The police think yesterday’s incident was a terrorist attack. Somehow everyone knows I was involved with. What should I do?” This was the message I sent to her. Two checkmarks appeared beside the text message I sent her, hopefully, she reads it. Wait…does she even knows how to use a phone? I wasn’t sure what kind of technology Cultor Nemorum was capable of. If you think about it, do they even use technology? The bell chimed again, my first class started as my teacher walked in.
We made immediate eye contact and he shook his head. I didn’t understand why until a couple of seconds after. Entering behind him were two figures that had bulletproof vests on. One was a tall black woman, her build was very muscular but she was very beautiful. The second one was a shorter Asian man almost a shorter height than me. He walked in with a smile. His smile was genuine, and he was just as muscular as the other officer. They were both wearing SWAT-like outfits with their headgear off. I looked down by their waist and there were many small guns and a large gun. The sight made my body shrink into my chair as much as possible.
“Good morning class, these two detectives here are from the RCMP. Let me introduce to you, Detective Knight and Detective Shao.” Mr. Chan, my math teacher, announced to the class. The two detectives stood, with their heads held high and back straight. They looked dignified but their gazed and glared kept the classroom silent and still. With their presence, they were able to quiet the class faster and longer than I did earlier.
The shorter Asian man called Detective Shao stepped forwards with his fake smile and began to explain the class about the incident yesterday. His smile was very even, but his eyes didn’t crease or crinkle. To be honest, watching him smile and explain to the class about the incident caused a barrage of shivers down my spine. I had a bad feeling about the two officers. While Detective Shao was still talking, Detective Knight made eye contact with me. To make myself not obvious, I stared back and smiled. Just then, I felt a buzzing in my right pants pocket. At the same exact moment, I saw Detective Shao eye contact went from the rest of the class to the phone in my pants pocket.
Scanning the room, luckily everyone including Mr. Chan had their full attention on Detective Shao. Maintaining eye contact, I waited till the two officers looked away from me. When I was given the chance, I checked my phone for any new messages under the table. There was one, from Hali.
It said, “Whatever you do, don’t say anything about what happened yesterday. If they know you were the one targeted, they might take you in for questioning. Wait for my instructions and contact me when you can or I won’t be able to protect you.” I texted Hali back quickly, “Ok”.
Quickly another was sent back, “I’ll pick you up after school today.” Hali replied. I smiled at the message, but I felt a shadow looming over me when I looked up it was Detective Shao. He was not smiling at me, his glare carried a heavy blood lust. We gazed at each other for a couple of minutes. His eyes directions moved up and down around my area. It made me feel like he was searching for something on me, but search for what?
Nervously, I stuttered, “I’m sorry. I’ll put away my phone.” Shaking like a leaf, I jammed my phone back into my pants pocket. Detective Shao smiled, “Well we are doing individual interviews with each student and you can be the first.” He gestured his hand towards the direction to the door as Detective Knight kept it open.
I followed. All eyes were on me in the room. There were whispers here and there because students were not resolute with the next step. We stepped out of the classroom with Detective Knight in front of me and Detective Shao trailing behind. There was nowhere to run.
We walked down the hall towards an empty computer room, which was used only during I.T. classes, which only takes place after the lunch break. Multiple students and officers were speaking with each other, I’m guessing about the incident. Instead of sitting and being questioned in the classroom like the rest, they led me to a more secluded area. It was in the supply closet, just big enough to fit three people.
We all sat down at once when we entered the secluded room, still feeling nervous, I took a deep breath in. While the two were getting documents and tapes ready, I quickly pocket dialled Hali, so she can listen in to the conversation. The way the two of them gazed at me. In the classroom, on the way to the computer room, and even now didn’t make me feel comfortable or safe. There was a very heavy sense of hostility I felt with the two of them. I didn’t feel any of this with other police officers that were interviewing other students in the room outside of this one, so it seems like they knew I was the victim.
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