Aruther Bastard

Shit, he didn't wake me up; it looks like ill miss our first class then. By the time I got to school, it was time for lunch. When I got to the cafeteria, I saw Riley and Xander chatting about something.

"Yup, I told him I was going to leave him behind if he didn't get up in time," Riley said

"It's only your second day. It wouldn't have killed you to wake him up. Oh hey, Arthur, you look like you just woke up." Xander said

"What the hell, man? You really let me sleep in?" I asked

"I told you I would leave you behind if you weren't up. that's what you get for staying up late last night." Riley said 

I concentrated mana into my right hand while Riley conjured wind around him.

"Woah, let's calm down, guys," Xander said as he started to stand up

"THATS ENOUGH." A voice called out 

When I looked over, I saw Mr. Wayne walking over to us. I stopped concentrating mana into my right hand, and the wind disappeared.

"You two really don't like staying under the radar." He said 

I didn't realize what he said until I looked around and saw everyone staring at us.

"Did you just wake up or something, Arthur? You look like a mess anyway. There will be no fighting in the cafeteria. Also, make sure you meet up with your squad before class today, as you won't have much time to discuss anything before we start the lesson, that is all," he said, and then he disappeared.

"I forgot all about our squad. How are we supposed to meet with them if we don't have any way to contact them." I said

"You two must be the bastards." A soft voice said

"Yeah, we are, and who are you?" Riley asked

"Perfect, my name is Rose Fawnroe. I'm a member of the Phoenix squad." Rose said

She had her hair up in two buns. It was a cherry color, and she had bright blue eyes. She was also pretty short.

"Well, that's convenient," I said

"What." She said

"Oh, Nothing," I said

"Well, anyway, I wanted to find you two since you weren't available at the end of class yesterday. The others and I will have a training session after lunch if you guys can come." She said

"What about classes," Riley said

"Just stop by them before and ask for the work for today. They should give them to you if you tell them it's for training." Rose said

"What about Mr. Wayne's class," Riley said

"We won't be training all day. We will still make that class," Rose said

"Well, we will be there. We meant to meet up with you guys at some point before class, so this will make it easier," Riley said

She gave both of us her number, and we followed her to the room she had reserved for training. It was a big white room about the size of a typical classroom. It was empty when I walked in.

"So here we are. It looks like the other two aren't here yet, so I guess I'll give you two an introduction of myself. As you know, my name is Rose Fawnroe. I'm 17 and a freshman, like you. I am very good with healing and water magic. My mana color is green, and I'm training to be a medic." Rose said.

When she finished speaking, the door opened, and Bridgette walked in with a guy almost as tall as me. He had dark red hair and was wearing a hoodie and some pants.

"So you two are finally out of trouble, huh," Bridgette said 

"We were never in trouble," I said 

"Whatever." Bridgette said, "Well, this is our five-man squad. The three of us introduced ourselves to each other yesterday while you two were busy with whatever. As you know, I am the squad leader, so if you two would please introduce yourselves and tell me your fighting capabilities, I can decide on a formation for us."

"Why should you be squad leader? Some strong like me should." I said

"I can show you why I'm the squad leader and a member of the ten," Bridgette said

"You are only a ten member because of your family name. Don't praise yourself too much," I said

She then shot out a blast of fire from her hand right at me. I started forming ice from my hands when a massive wall of water rose from the ground, blocking the fire. I noticed Riley had drawn his sword, and the guy next to Bridgette did the same.

"Enough. What is with you two? Arthur Bridgette is the squad leader unless the squad decides she is unfit. Bridgette, that is no way to prove you should be a squad leader." Rose said she had a stern look on her face.

"She's right, Arthur. Calm down. You had no reason to bring her family name into this," Riley said

"I'm sorry," I said 

"It's fine. Rose is right; I shouldn't have blown up like that," Bridgette said

"Now, will you two introduce yourselves," Rose said

Riley spoke up first, "My name is Riley. I'm 17 years old. I am very good with a sword and can use wind magic. My mana color is black." 

When he said his mana color, Rose and Tristen looked shocked. Bridgette just looked dumbfounded that we were telling the truth. Before anyone could say anything, I started to talk.

"My name is Arthur. I am also 17. I can use ice and stone magic, and my mana color is white."

The same look appeared on their faces.

"You are telling me you two weren't lying," Bridgette said,

"You think that idiot could lie to you at the lunch table? He was in love with you." Riley said

"No, I wasn't, and anyway, it's not like we could hide it," I said

"That's crazy." the guy with red hair said

"So I know Bridgette, but I'm not sure who you are," Riley said while looking at the red-haired guy.

"He's shy. His name is Tristen. He's 18 and uses fire magic like I do and has red mana," Bridgette said

"Well, now that we are all accounted with each other, we should pick a formation to use as we mostly have attackers rather than defenders. I think I'll be in the front since I'm the squad leader, and Arthur and Tristen will be at the sides with Rose in the middle and Riley in the rear." Bridgette said

"That works for me," Rose said

"I have no complaints," I said

Tristen just nodded, and then Riley said

"Hold on, you don't even know how we fight or our fighting prowess. I'm fine with taking up the rear, but only if I know I can trust the people up front. I know how strong Arthur is, and I guess Bridgette is part of the top ten, but I know nothing of Tristen." 

"You make a good point, but I know how strong Tristen is. He won't let you down," Bridgette said

Riley clearly didn't like this: "We still have this room for a while, right? So we might as well have a two-on-two with Rose as a healer."

"That sounds fair. What are the teams?" Bridgette asked

"Well, as we need to learn to work together, how about me and Tristen and you and Arthur," Riley said

"No way," I said 

"I'm not working with him," Bridgette said

"I think this is a good idea. If you can't work with each other here, you'll never be able to work with each other in the future," Rose said

Reluctantly, we agreed the match was going to be an all-out fight. You are out once you become incapacitated. Whichever team has both members incapacitated first loses. We had both gone to opposite ends of the room, and I could see Riley telling Tristen what I had to assume to be a plan to take us down.

"Maybe we should devise a strategy or at least some idea to deal with them. I don't know much about Tristen, but Riley is strong and smart," I said

"Look, even if he is strong, there is no way Tristen will go along with him. It took him a whole year before he even talked to me, and we were partners in middle school. Just stay out of my way, and there won't be a problem." Bridgette said

"Well, don't you at least want to know his fighting style," I said, trying to make some sort of plan.

"No need. I have all the info I need already." She said 

I looked over at Rose, who gave a countdown

"3…2….1 Fight," she said.

Bridgette took off towards the two of them when the countdown finished, her fist engraved in flames. I pulled out my great sword and followed behind her. I was expecting Riley to launch forward with his wind magic, but he didn't make any moves, and Tristen didn't either. Riley didn't even have his swords drawn, so I thought something was a miss.

"Wait, Bridgette, something's not right. They were expecting this." But she just ignored me. As we got close to them, I saw Riley smirk and then saw him blow a tornado of wind at Bridgette. At the same time, Tristen shot fire from his hands, merging the two and making a massive fire tornado.

"Haha, don't you know I'm a fire user? You think this trick would work on me?" Bridgette said she had put a firewall in front of her, blowing the fire up.

"I knew it wouldn't work. I just needed a distraction," Riley said as he appeared before her with his swords drawn. He swung down hard at her head, and she slammed into the ground. If he weren't using training swords, she would have died from that. I went to cover her when Tristen threw a fireball at me. I managed to put up an ice wall to block it. I watched as Riley got ready to attack Bridgette again when she got up and made an explosion go off in front of Riley, which he dodged and backed off. She then looked at me and Tristen and charged Tristen.

"Wait, let's calm down and think," I said, but she couldn't hear me or ignored me. She rushed to Tristen, who was caught off guard. She threw a right hook, barely missing Tristan, who countered with a fiery kick to her abs. She took the hit and grabbed his leg. He looked shocked, and panic set in when she charged her punch with blue fire. He punched her in the face, but she didn't budge. He could see the flames getting brighter, and then she swung into his stomach. It hit, and Tristen went flying before he hit a wall. Riley caught him and safely moved him over to Rose.

"Ok, good job. Now it's just Riley. If the two of us work together, we should be able to stop him with ease," I said

"I agree that attack used up a lot of my stamina. I need you to back me up now," she said

"Ok, he is a master with wind magic, so be prepared for an attack like before," I said

When I looked back at Riley, he smiled, and I saw lighting all over his body.