Zeke sat on the cold, cracked earth, fingers curled tightly around Tala's leather cuff. The weight of it pressed into his palm, rough and unfamiliar. The world was silent, broken only by the faint rustle of leaves in the distance. His breath came in shallow bursts. He closed his eyes, willing his mind to clear, to stop spinning.
"Not here. Not here..." The thought echoed, repeating itself, louder and louder. "Maybe she's not here. Maybe… maybe she got away."
His fingers flexed, feeling the cold bite of the cuff's surface. It had caught on the twisted bark of that old tree. That meant something. It had to mean something. She's alive. She has to be.
The words spilled out like a whisper, half-prayer, half-madness. "She's alive… she's alive…" he muttered, voice cracking, almost to himself. "The cuff caught on the tree… so maybe she escaped…"
AHH!
His eyes snapped open. A sudden scream tore through the stillness, raw and ragged, off in the distance. Sharp and desperate. Somewhere close, yet far. It shattered the quiet like glass.
Zeke's grip on the cuff tightened until his knuckles went white. His breath hitched as images flashed behind his closed lids: Tala's calm but fierce eyes, Rian's stupid grin, Kaito's piercing eyes. Faces. His new friends flickering like ghosts in his mind.
"No. No. They're alive. They have to be."
He pushed himself up, wobbling on unsteady, injured legs and began scanning the area. The bodies lay scattered like broken dolls, limbs twisted and shattered. Nausea clawed at his chest, but he forced himself to focus.
Near the body of a boy around his age, glinting faintly in the light, a sword lay. He snatched it up, cold metal biting into his palm before awkwardly bowing to the corpse, "Umm...I'll use it well or something." Next to it, a dagger with a jagged edge, still sharp. And nearby on the body of a girl, a slender stick carved with delicate runes hung on her waistband.
"Tala uses something like this." he muttered, clutching the stick tightly.
"For Tala. I'll find her and give it to her." His voice trembled, desperation bleeding through the words. "She's alive… she has to be."
Zeke strapped the weapons to his body quickly, sword across his back, dagger at his hip, wand tucked in his belt. He jumped up and down a few times, testing his balance, making sure the gear didn't slow him down.
The screaming still echoed, distant but growing more frantic. His heart hammered in his chest, every beat a thunderclap in the quiet forest. He could feel his mana simmering beneath his skin, restless and electric, his legs still felt like they were on fire, but he still cleared his mind, attempting to gather the motivation needed to continue.
"Emotions are linked to mana," Ethan's voice echoed in his mind, clear and steady.
He closed his eyes and let the memory flood in, the lesson. Feel it. Channel it. Use it.
Zeke's breath slowed as he asked himself "Wait why am I even doing this, how about finding a cave and camping until the end of the trial? What am I fighting for?. He clenched his hands tightly as his mind began to spin. The face's of his new friends flashed through his mind, the memory of finding Tala's cuff, the possibility that they all might be in trouble or even worse, dead, Zeke wasn't sure what he felt towards his new crew but he knew that if there was a chance they were still alive and out there fighting he would save them, and if they have already died... then he would burn this forest down and slaughter all the beasts that live in it. The air around him began to thicken, darkening subtly as a flicker of something fierce carried out through the wind, a hint of killing intent.
Bang! The energy shifted, brighter now. All beings are filled with the innate desire to live, to struggle, to survive, Zeke channeled that raw primal feeling into his mana. It pulsed with new energy raw, wild, unrestrained.
I'm fighting for survival.
It didn't stop there, memories rushed forward like a tidal wave the helplessness of his childhood, the nights spent crying, the weight of being trapped in silence. His aura coiled tighter, condensing into something colder but then images of his younger siblings overwhelmed him, Amy's sleepy eyes, Sam's quiet strength, Eli's laughter like sunlight breaking through gloom, he was responsible for them, that is why he came to the academy in the first place, to get stronger, to leave home with his siblings and escape from his parents. A heavy warmth blossomed, weaving through the cold and wild energy he was emitting, it's density rose as it began to affect the physical world.
For family.
Branches snapped, bending away from his path as he surged forward, the grass flattening beneath his feet before he even touched it. The world around him responded to his will, bending, yielding.
And finally…
His eyes snapped open, blazing with renewed fire.
"I'm fighting for myself."
The air surrounding Zeke shattered with a BOOM. Leaves and dust spiraled into the sky as shockwaves rippled through the forest.
...
High above the forest in the 'sky', a group of professors hovered silently, watching.
"Is he going through a breakthrough?" One teacher gasped, eyes wide. "Impressive, he is now ahead of most of the other trial takers."
The others murmured in agreement. The man who had given the speech on orientation day, the Headmaster narrowed his eyes while stepping closer. "Hmm, it's that kid from the plaza, I expected better from his kind."
"Though I guess it isin't that bad for his age, still, not the strongest in this new group" he murmured, voice low but sharp, he looked at the nearby professors. "Keep tabs on that one if you want to watch something interesting."
...
Unaware of the attention he had drawn to himself, Zeke felt his body flood with energy, every muscle pulsing with newfound strength. His senses sharpened vision doubling, colors brightening until the world overwhelmed him.
He stumbled slightly, breath ragged but unyielding. A fierce smile tugged at his lips, the first hint of a fighting spirit breaking through the shadows.
"This…" he thought, eyes burning with determination. "A breakthrough? It feels like a physical breakthrough not a mana one though."
Zeke blinked hard, his vision sharpening as if a veil had been lifted. He looked in the distance as a drop of water fell down a leaf before muttering excitedly, "Holy shit this is cool as hell, why can I zoom in what the, oh shit the scream, that's right".
He turned his head in the direction the scream came from and found the target, no more than a half a mile away he spotted them. Five students, four boys, one girl, circled up in a defensive formation. The air churned around them in wild arcs. A distorted figure lunged at them again and again.
The groups movements were slow, a sign they were beggining to tire, the girl raised her wand. A flash of light burst out like a ripple, and suddenly the creature was more visible, a transparent beast on its hind legs with a claw reaching out. A Hollow.
"They're about to lose," Zeke muttered, watching the boy holding the shield stumble backward, chest heaving with exhaustion.
"Faster."
With a sudden grunt, Zeke pushed off the earth. The ground cracked beneath his feet as he doubled his speed. Trees blurred past him. The air screamed in his ears. Wind slapped his cheeks raw. But the rush was electric. His heart pounded, eyes locked on the fight.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Crap," Daruis's lungs were burning, struggling to provide the oxygen needed to keep fighting, voice raw, shield trembling in his hands he screamed out. "We can't go on like this! What the hell is the school thinking sending us here on the first day of school and without backup?!"
The Hollow was relentless, its limbs shot forward, hitting Darius's shield head on with claws that shimmered like obsidian. His arms felt like lead as he fell back, he couldn't block another hit this was it. "My teammates are spent. Even Mira's last spell barely made a difference."
BOOM! Darius's head spun around thinking there was another monster only to see a streak of movement. A boy, his age, maybe younger. Sword across his back. Dagger at his hip. Expression unreadable.
He was fast. Too fast.
BANG!
He slammed into the Hollow shoulder-first, the impact sounding like thunder as the creature was launched backwards, crashing through two trees in a shower of bark and splinters before finally managing to stop itself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Zeke rolled his shoulder once, grinning as the Hollow snarled and regained its balance.
"I get it now... you must be invisible..." he said, voice brimming with energy and new found confidence from his breakthrough. "'Cause you're ugly as hell."
Silence...
The 5 students.
The teachers.
Even the hollow stopped moving.
In the sky, The Headmaster llet out a chuckle.
"He has quite the tongue." Turning his head to the woman beside him. If Zeke was present, he would recognize her as Professor Lira.
The man continues. "This is the one I wanted you to investigate, you said he was a good kid? Whats his name?"
Lira with an embarrassed look on her face, head facing the ground as she replied to the man in a slightly hushed voice.
"Ezekial"