Chapter 10 Class Reunion
Simon
It had been a few hours since the samurai left, and that eruption of fire.
"How's your training going?" Jenny asked me with a warm smile. "Are you at the third stage yet?"
The third stage—a term we made up. We thought that our control and output of mana would increase linearly. It did, for a time, but there were some noticeable jumps that happened. We arbitrarily labeled them stages.
We characterized the first stage as just unlocking mana and allowing it to flow through you. At this point, mana feels more like a pulse or short-lived current you send throughout your body. It didn't last very long. It was more like a flare-up.
The second stage made the first one feel like rehabilitating a paralyzed body part. Everyone reached this stage relatively quickly. At this stage, your mana channel is able to output much more mana for a longer period of time. Not all of it, though; we still had way more mana than we could control. It was at this stage that some of the teachings of the old samurai guy started to make sense.
It also allowed us to notice that mana constantly needs to move. That's why it gives a feeling of flow. This leads to it cycling in your body unless forced to stop. Stopping it allows you to gather more of it in one place. You could also release it, but that did nothing but waste mana.
I have no idea why it does this. The process sounds complicated, but it happens automatically—sorta like breathing. I did find it funny that your channel is located near your heart and that it functions like one. Comparing mana flow to blood flow was surprisingly apt.
I gave Jenny a frustrated look. "No. I'll get there soon, though."
She leaned her head on my shoulder. "Oh. Well, Dwight and Nat have reached it. I think William is close." Then, turning to face me, she said, "Want me to help you practice?"
Jenny was the first person who reached this third stage, and the most adept at mana. Natasha reached it second; no doubt spurred on by the previous academic rivalry they had.
I am quite pissed off that that pretentious idiot Dwight got there first. I mean—he wasn't actually an idiot, but I didn't like him. I don't know how Jenny could stand to be friends with that guy.
My emotions must've slipped onto my face. "You alright? A little jealous?" Jenny giggled.
I shot her an annoyed look. "Fine. Just frustrated."
Jenny wrapped her arms around me. "So, let me train you. I'll get you there in no time."
Her hug disarmed me; I leaned into it. "No. You should focus on yourself. Try and reach a fourth stage if it exists. Like I said, I'll make it there in no time."
"Alright," she sighed in disappointment. "I just wanted an excuse to spend time with you, but I'll let you focus."
I wanted to spend time with her too, but I didn't want it to cost her own training for my sake. But I had to catch up to her so I could protect her. I'm not letting anything happen to her.
Maybe I'm just too prideful. Still, I should, hopefully, be stronger than Aria whenever I see him again. It'll be fun holding that over him. I wonder what he's doing right now?
"Tch." I clicked my tongue. I'm spending too much time wondering about him. I'll find out when I find him. Right now—I unleashed as much mana as I could—I need to get as strong as I can.
The only method of training your mana channel was to simply use it. Like a bench press, I output as much mana as I could and then relaxed the channel. Other times, I kept up a consistent flow and punched a tree. I could punch a hole in a tree now, by the way. Isn't that cool?
At the second stage, any one of us could take on a roach. Reach the third stage like Jenny, though, and you might be able to take on five of them.
Continuing with my training, I attacked the trees around me. I wasn't exactly a fighter, so punching felt awkward. Really, I was just flailing my arms at objects around me.
"Simon!" Jenny's voice sounded urgent.
Out of breath, she ran over to me. "Simon! We found Andre, Jessie, and the rest of your friends except for Aria. Well, they found us. They look pretty beat up."
My heart jumped. "Where are they? Take me to them."
"Let's go," Jenny replied.
Jenny led me back to the clearing where we had originally found each other. Everyone from both our groups had gathered around— "Jessie!"
I saw Jessie first and shouted his name. Around him were Andre, Havi, and Sunny. They were all together. I guess me and Aria got unlucky then. They really did look beat up, but even more than that, they looked guilty.
Jessie looked up at me. "Simon…" his eyes were sunken and depressed. He looked haunted. All of them did.
"What happened to you guys? Where have you been? Have you met anyone else?" I asked.
He just looked at me in silence. Everyone waited with bated breath.
Finally, Jessie opened his mouth. With a sharp inhale, he told us what happened.
Flow, Aria's analese, their encounters with the roaches.
"At some point, it looked like Aria gained the same abilities as the roaches. It was odd, and hard to tell. We didn't have time to ask him about it."
Next came the encounter with the flame lion. How it killed roaches like they were nothing. How it chased them down in seconds and almost killed them. Aria's sacrifice… "Aria was unusually fast; we didn't know why. That's why he did that. Because he had a chance to escape."
I felt horrified. My stomach twisted and my head felt light. Aria was with them, and yet—
"Is he alive?" I asked, almost afraid to get an answer.
"We don't know," Jessie's voice was deadpanned. "That thing was fast. I think faster than him. Maybe Aria had some sort of trick or plan, but…"
"He had to," I added once Jessie trailed off. "He's tricky, and smart when he wants to be. Plus, he wouldn't ever dream of sacrificing himself for you guys. He had to have had a plan. He's definitely alive out there."
I didn't know if I said this to convince Jessie or myself. Even after all that, the knot in my stomach wouldn't untie. Even if he escaped, who knows where he ended up. Jenny must have sensed this because she slipped her hand in mine and caressed it comfortingly.
She stayed back with me while the others asked them about Aria's analese. According to them, Aria said that he did something with his, and that's why he could use it here. Then, he chose not to elaborate any further before running off. Sounds like him.
Then Jenny spoke up. "I think we should go look for the others. Any one of us is strong enough to take on a roach or two. Some of us, strong enough to take on multiple."
"Yeah!" Dwight piped up, his voice annoyingly arrogant. "There's 16 of us. We'll be fine."
With Dwight's proclamation, we followed the nearest pull we could find.
While we were walking, I did some more catching up with my friends. They referred to mana as flow, which if you didn't hear the actual name from a wind-wielding samurai, I guess would make sense.
Turns out their early practice with mana gave them a much better first encounter with the roaches than us. They were already as strong as one. Right now, they're around mid second stage. That's pretty impressive considering they didn't meet samurai sensei.
"Wait, maybe Aria learned to control the wind," Havi said. I told them about the samurai guy, and then we discussed Aria's odd abilities. From the looks of it, that guy actually managed to use the same powers as the bugs.
First the analese, and then this. Why was he getting all these abilities? Was he special? I couldn't help but feel a bit jealous. That idiot always found odd ways to get ahead.
Maybe if we got familiar with mana beforehand, I also could have learned how to use wind mana. No, it was probably because of his analese that he could. Lucky bastard. I'll just have to refine my mana to be way stronger than his.
On our way, we found quite a few roaches, even some packs. None of them caused us many issues. Havi, Andre, Jessie, and Sunny were especially adept at killing them. They were also especially aggressive toward them. Rage was in every strike of theirs. Even Sunny.
Eventually I went back to Jenny to spend time with her. She was debating with Nat on what they should do.
"I don't think following this pull is going to help us find anyone," Jenny said, looking toward Nat.
"Why's that?" Nat asked.
"It's kinda too late for that to work," Jenny couldn't seem to find the right words for what she wanted to say. "At this point, I don't think any groups would be following the pull to look for others. It's already been nearly half a day."
"You're right," Nat mused. "By now, they'd either be at a place of safety, or aimlessly wandering around."
She fidgeted with her hands. "I think we should look for a safe place. I'm not sure if anyone else will be there, but we do need a place to rest."
"But are there any safe places in this forest?" Jenny asked, holding my hand again.
Nat pondered for a moment. "I'm not sure, but I did notice a thinning number of roaches as we went farther right." She pointed in the direction she had in mind.
Rubbing her chin, she continued. "I've been paying close attention to how these bugs operate. They seem to prefer large groups considering how they hunt, and probably don't like going too far out. If they live in hives, then the more of them you find the closer to the hive you must be getting. If you notice a decreasing number, then it's probably an area they don't inhabit."
"That's… pretty smart," Jenny reluctantly admitted. "But what if they don't go in those areas because there's something even more dangerous there. Like what Andre and the others encountered."
Nat took a second to consider her argument. "Well, the samurai guy implied there are only roaches here, and the more dangerous things are further out; like where Jessie came from. So we'll probably be safe."
With that, Jenny and Nat explained the new plan aloud and everyone agreed to it. We began heading toward the direction Natasha talked about with her leading the way. We hardly encountered any roaches now, which was nice. Looks like Nat was right.
After walking for nearly an hour, no more pulls could be felt. We were officially in a roach-free zone. Now we just need to find a place to rest.
It wasn't much longer until someone spotted something.
"Guys!" It was Gareth who called out to us. "I found other people!"
Other people! My eyes lit up in excitement. I didn't think we would be this lucky. This is probably the last group of people too. With this we'll all be reunited—
Except for Aria.
The thought killed my mood.
Excited clamors echoed all around me. People started running to the spot Gareth called out.
Jenny began to run over as well—dragging me by the hand as she did. I heard the sound of rushing water. There was a smoky smell in the air. Something was burnt. Did they even find food? Were they cooking?
The trees opened up wide as we stepped into another clearing.
This one was rocky, with a small hill and a cave carved into it. A small waterfall cascaded down into a naturally made pool lined by stone. It looked pretty.
But the most eye-catching thing? People! Gareth was right. There really was another group here. Now the only person left to find was Aria—
Then it caught my eye. A boy, lying down, unmoving. That distinct combination of milky white skin, and pure black hair and clothes, and—although shut right now—eyes. That was Aria.
I felt relieved, happy for a moment, but like a rollercoaster, my emotions dropped into dread. The smoky smell, the thought of them cooking meat. Bile rose to the back of my throat as a disgusting irony made itself apparent like a cruel joke. He was there. Aria was right there. But looking at him. He looked—
Dead.