Cyrus Solaris
The periodic clanging of silverware and obnoxious chewing were the only things that could be heard in the cafeteria. I took my time eating, savoring every bite, looking forward to the possibility of the best guilds reaching out to me.
But I felt uneasy because Sora sat at a table several feet away from me, her piercing gaze never leaving me. I assumed she hated me for what I did and said.
I figured she only confronted me because of our grandfathers. Hoping that the faint tether would provide some benefit. But that's not something I can allow.
Theron ruined that for everyone.
After finishing my third plate of food, I dropped my plates off. There was an hour before our mandatory curfew, and I still wanted to explore the other facilities on the main island.
Opening up my map of Xhatal Academy, the combat facility caught my eye first, and it was a place I needed to get familiar with if I wanted to keep progressing my skills to get stronger. But it was all the way in the south pavilion. I had time to kill.
The walk to the south pavilion was just over a mile and took around fifteen minutes. Reaching my destination, I heard a loud clamoring and grunts coming from inside the dome that covered the wide terrain of the south pavilion.
Interested, I proceeded through the sliding doors of the combat facility. Inside were five humanoid figures attacking a lone student.
A stern surge of cosmic energy washed over me, causing me to focus on the lone target in the middle. The student was a girl with brunette hair and red highlights.
The same girl whose totems I stole during the games.
Mira was her name.
"What are you staring at, bozo?" the girl said, standing tall with her arms crossed.
Just my luck, another angry girl.
"The robots. I was staring at the robots." I chided back, avoiding eye contact with her, the scene of what I did to her replaying in my mind.
I might have treated her almost as badly as Sora.
Spitting on the ground, the girl walked forward.
"Wait, you're him. The cocky little screw who beat me. Cyrus, right?"
"Correct," I responded, wishing I could back out of the conversation. But her presence was commanding, forcing me to stay put like an anchor in the ground.
She closed the distance between us. "I'll have to admit that stunt during the games pissed me off."
"No one has ever beaten me like that, and I'm not gonna allow it ever again." She said with a scowl, poking me in the chest. I fought my instincts to slam her down with gravity.
But I had little to no cosmic energy left, so I settled for swiping her hand away.
One of her rugged eyebrows arched.
"Don't like being touched? This school really is filled with ego-driven boys, I guess." She said, poking my chest again.
I slapped her hand away for a second time, my temper starting to rise. I had to calm myself down.
I turned my body away from her and headed towards the robots behind her. "Stop while you're ahead," I said, placing a hand on the cold metallic plating of the robot before me.
"I would hate for you to miss the important assembly tomorrow."
Before I could react, the robot swiped my hands away.
Shifting my gaze to Mira, I saw her tapping on a tablet.
"Shut it, screwhead. Step away from the machines," she said, as the robot swung its arm toward my head. I side-stepped the attack from the metallic arm.
"Why should I? You don't own them."
"I don't, but you are getting in the way of my project," she claimed, continuing to mess around with her tablet.
"Which is?"
Waving the tablet in front of me, "Hacking them. So that I can change their operation limits and restrictions, if I'm going to crush the rest of you, I need to train more than everyone else." She said, engrossed in her work.
"If you tell anyone what I did to the bots, I'll bury you," she proclaimed, her amber eyes commanding obedience.
Folding my arms, I stood firm against the brash girl.
"I won't. But under one condition."
"I get access to them, too." A silence hung for a few short moments, while our intent clashed, causing the air in the training room to thicken.
"What, no, why would I share with you?" I didn't say a word. Instead, I just released a small bit of my cosmic energy.
Returning a threat with a threat of my own. A threat that would show her where she really stands.
She didn't back down either, releasing cosmic energy of her own.
I didn't have the strength to fight right now, so I thought of another idea.
"I wonder what the headmaster will say when I tell him what you did."
Mira's cosmic energy subsided.
"Fine… You have a deal. Give me your watch." I tossed it to her, and she connected it to her tablet. A few minutes passed, and she was done.
"When you swipe to the end, you will see an app that will grant you the same access as me." Mira scoffed as she tossed my watch back.
"Now get out of my hair."
"Pleasure doing business with you," I said as I left the training facility.
The interaction with Mira reminded me I couldn't let up, not one bit. I couldn't allow someone like her to catch up, and I had to find a way to close the gap between the two ahead of me.
My watch showed that I had only ten minutes before curfew.
I need to find a place to sleep. I knew the recreation center would be packed with people I didn't want to see. So I settled for a patch of grass, which housed a large tree with draping branches and fresh leaves.
In a way, it felt like old times with my father.
Lying under the leaves, I activated my new dimensional storage and took out my sleeping bag and the care package I had received.
Before I opened my care package, I saw a lone person set up a sleeping bag in a patch of grass. Focusing, I noticed the dusty blonde hair and tall stature.
It was Stravos.
Our eyes met for a brief moment, and then he turned his back towards me.
Students worshiped him, it didn't make sense that he would sleep alone.
But I pushed the thought aside and brought my attention back to my care package.
I opened the box, my care package came in. Inside, there was a black telescope with orange trim and a magenta engraving of my initials.
C.A.S.
It was a collapsible one, small enough for portable, convenient use. Then I noticed a note dangling from one of the telescope's knobs.
I snatched the note; it read: I know you will be training hard and pushing yourself to your very limit. But try to take some time to do things I know you love. I remembered how much you loved going to the planetarium, so I made sure you had a piece of it with you. P.S. I built you a special kind of stress ball. Use your ability on that instead of the students. We don't need any more families despising us. Love, Gramps.
My grandpa always knew how to brighten my mood, even if just a little. I loved him for that.
With nothing else to do, I climbed into my sleeping bag. I started messing around with the stress ball.
It was much heavier than expected. It must have weighed around three hundred pounds.
"Of course he would do this." I couldn't help but think that Dad would have done something similar, granting me a gift that came with a test.
But before I could linger on the thought, my watch vibrated. Bringing my wrist up to my face, I saw three numbers next to the message icon.
Three messages appeared. Two from guilds I did not recognize, but the last one came from the Eclipsing Dawn representative.
Theron's guild.
A lump in my throat formed, and my heartbeat stuttered into a frantic rhythm.
"Just do it, Cy." I pressed the message tab.
Lord Enzo was pleased with your performance. He said, "He reminds me a lot of myself at that age. Most people will call his final move heartless and cold, but I saw exactly what it was: a necessary choice. You showed what it means to be a rift runner. "
The message made my stomach churn.