Every school in the colony had a trainning room, or at least a gym. Although the gym seemed like an odd place to train or use powers, it was where the students went to whenever they needed to practice.
Now, somewhere inside the gym, the sound of fists hitting something plastic echoed, followed by sharp grunts and huffing.
A female figure stood in the center with a fighting stance at display. A fighting stance that was specific to a certain kind of family. She slammed her fists into one of the training mannequin again and again. Her breathing was ragged and her hair was sticking to her forehead.
"Alright, that's enough for one night," she muttered, bending over with her hands on her knees. But then a voice started echoing in her head.
'Terrible form. Why can't you be more like your sister? You chose to be weak and pathetic.'
"Yeah, tell that to the man who calls you weak."
She raised her hand and ice mist started forming around her fingers. The air around her cooled and a shard of frost materialized.
She hurled it at the dummy and it went straight for the chest. Another one formed, and another, each flying faster than the last until her arms ached and her lungs screamed for air. In total, she only formed three.
She dropped to her knees, panting, her breath fogging up the space in front of her.
The cold was burning her fingers, but she still wanted to push harder.
Then she heard footsteps coming from the hallway. She cursed under her breath and dove behind one of the storage racks. Probably a security guard doing rounds. The rules said no training after curfew.
But the footsteps didn't sound heavy like a guard's.
They were lighter… slower even. She took a peek around the corner and saw a student walk in.
He had that scruffy brown hair and thin frame. She couldn't make out his eyes but she recognized him.
It was the same student who was in testing with her earlier.
Axel was it?
The same one who had taken her out without even using an ability, even when she herself had used hers, she was unable to defeat him...
"What's he doing here?" she whispered with a frown on her face.
He didn't notice her. He just walked toward one of the metal dummies and stared at it for a while...
*******
Axel walked into the gym, his hands tucked in his pockets and he had a smug grin on his face.
He was kind of proud of himself. No fence, no wall, no locked gate could ever stop him. He didn't even know how he got that good at sneaking around, and scaling fences but at this point, it was like a hidden talent.
The gym was quiet except when he got there. He thought he heard something earlier, like punching or grunting, but when he looked around, no one was there.
"I'm probably tripping," he muttered and shook his head.
He walked further in, past the racks of training weapons and dummies, until he stopped in front of one.
"Wait a second... someone was here." He said staring at one of the dummies with a punctured chest.
"Whatever, they probably left before curfew." He shrugged
Now, his hands started feeling weird, hot in a way that wasn't painful, more like energy crawling under his skin. This was it. Time to test his new skill.
He stood there for a moment, staring at the dummy like it was supposed to tell him what to do.
"Okay… how the hell do I use this thing?" he asked out loud.
The system didn't respond. No tips, no tutorial, nothing. He tried focusing on the name, Infernal Slash, but still nothing happened. Just silence.
Then, as if it had been waiting for him to complain, a faint chime sounded in his head and the system popped up.
[Perform a horizontal slash through the air to use the Infernal Slash]
[Note: Skill is more effective in close range.]
Axel blinked. "That's it? Just… slash?"
He shrugged, lifted his hand, and prepared to swing it through the air.
Just then, his palm started to glow, it was faint at first, then it became brighter, burning with a molten red energy that crawled across his skin. The air rippled like heat above asphalt.
Then, whoosh.
As he swung his fist, a wave of red energy burst from his hand and slammed into the mannequin. The thing split clean in half. The edges burned and smoke rose from the cut.
[Infernal Core Status: 90%]
"Holy crap!" Axel breathed, his voice shaking a little. "That… that's insane."
He couldn't stop himself. He tried again, another swing, another wave of burning energy. The next mannequin split. Then another. And another. And another….
[Infernal Core Status: 80%]
[Infernal Core status: 70%]
[...]
He kept going, laughing under his breath like some mad scientist testing his new weapon.
[Infernal Core: 0%]
[Unable to use Infernal Skills at the moment]
By the time he stopped, there were at least ten broken dummies scattered around the floor, each one sliced open and steaming. His right hand trembled a little and glowed faintly. Then the glow faded.
[Your Infernal Core is on cool down]
[Infernal Core Status: Cooling Down]
[Duration: 5 Minutes]
"Damn," he said, flexing his fingers. The energy inside him felt like a furnace running low on fuel.
He could feel it, hundred percent of something was drained.
"So every slash takes ten percent. Guess I can't go crazy with this in a fight."
Still, he couldn't help but grin. Whatever he was turning into, it felt good. He thought about the name the system gave him, a Halfling.
Half of something, that he knew.
Half human, that part he also knew. But what was the other half? The glowing eyes, the heat in his blood, the way he could feel anger and excitement mixing like fire, it didn't feel human at all.
Before he could think too much about it, the system chimed again.
[New Mission Received: Learn what a Halfling is.]
[Reward: +10 EXP.]
Axel stared at the message, his heart still thumping from all the destruction.
"Guess I've got myself a busy schedule tomorrow," he muttered.
"Let's see what I've really become."
He looked around the ruined gym, the smell of melted rubber and smoke was still hanging in the air.
"Oh boy. Better not be here when someone comes."
******
(Few minutes ago)
Ares lay on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. The dorm was quiet, Axel and Rick were out of it. His mind wandered as it usually did when he couldn't sleep.
'I miss home,' he thought. 'Well, I can't exactly go back considering I got my ass banished… but whatever.'
He sighed and turned on his side, trying to push the thought away.
He was just starting to drift off when he heard something. A sound of someone shifting, then standing up. His eyes opened slowly.
It was Axel. 'Thought he was asleep.'
Axel was on his feet, moving quietly toward the door. Ares didn't say anything, just watched as Axel slipped his jacket on and snuck out. It was late. Way past curfew.
'Where the hell's he going at this time?' Ares thought, sitting up.
'Ooh guess I got myself a divergent. One who doesn't follow rules. Nice.'
He waited a few seconds, then got up and followed.
He didn't even know why, curiosity maybe, or just boredom. He kept his steps light as he trailed behind Axel down the hallway and out through the back of the dorm building.
When Axel scaled the fence with ease, Ares just shook his head, rolling his eyes and whispered under his breath, "What a show off."
Still, he followed, careful to stay far enough that Axel wouldn't notice. They crossed the courtyard, and soon Ares saw him heading straight for the gym.
'Hmm,' he thought, hiding near the edge of the building.
'Looks like he wants to train. Didn't he say he couldn't use his powers yet?'
He watched from the shadows as Axel walked inside. At first, nothing happened.
Then he saw it, Axel's hand began to glow.
In one motion, he witnessed Axel slash his hand forward and red wave shot out and split a mannequin clean in two.
Ares's eyes grew wide.
'No way… that's certainly not human energy.'
When Axel finally stopped, panting a little, Ares noticed his hand flicker and fade back to normal. Then Axel left calmly like nothing happened.
"You're hiding something, huh, Axel..?I'm gonna find out what it is and what you are."
*****
Axel returned back to the dorm the same way he snuck out. He got inside his room and into his bed, within minutes, he dozed off.
Unbeknownst to him, he had successfully drawn the attention of two individuals in one night…
****