~Academy - Chapter 1~
Hello everyone! After being gone for so long I am proud to bring you the beginings of yet another new story! But don' t worry, I am back to writing the others as well. Updates will be slow, but they are coming!
~Axel~
He could see smoke forming a fierce dragon in the morning sky. Though it was still dark he could clearly make out the dark smolder and faint light above the trees. He'd set enough villages on fire, burned enough fields, to know the signs. Digging his heels into the flanks of his horse Axel urged him on. His only thought was how they found them. He was part of one of the many nomadic tribes throughout Hallow Bastion and they were nowhere close to the capitol city, Radiant Garden. None of the peasants should have enough force to even consider running them out of the forest. He'd even been out all night checking on all of the nearby towns to make sure they wouldn't cause a fuss when they rode past.
Beneath him, Fury's hooves hit the ground like thunder. He could feel the wind pulling his hair back and making his eyes water. But no amount of speed could get him there fast enough. Even when he was close enough to smell the burning leather of their tents and hear the screams he felt like it took forever to get there. Pulling hard against the reins to halt Fury, Axel jumped from his back. The fire had been contained to just their tents by the emperor's mages marked clearly by the white Nobody symbol on their black tunics.
Feeling his own magic rushing through him he summoned fire of his own. The mages clearly hadn't expected a barbarian to wield the same magic they'd trained years to perfect. Not that his was flawless. Hell, it was anything but. Like him and those who taught him it was wild and unpredictable. Chances of him starting a real forest fire were high but in the moment that wasn't his concern; the smell of burning flesh was. He could see a child still in one of the tents. Throwing up a sturdy wall of fire to give himself some time he dove through the fire at the entrance of the tent to grab the child. It didn't hurt him. For him fire was a warm blanket; the flames tendrils of tickling fingers. Yet the child wouldn't be as protected. She wasn't as blessed as Axel was with magic.
The tricky decision of how to get the child out through the flames was made for him. From behind a wave of cold hit him. He couldn't breathe from the suffocating chill. Even the child's breath was taken. The cold surrounding him never ceased but he was frozen in place. In his arms the child shivered. "Mommy?" pleaded the child.
"It's okay," Axel cooed. "I'll find her." Trying to force his chilled body to move it took him a minute to realize he wasn't simply numb, he was frozen to the ground. The sound of the mage's footsteps behind him got him acting again. Sending magic through his limbs he melted the thick sheets of ice around him enough to but the little girl down. "Run," he commanded.
As soon as she left his arms he let heat explode from him. The tent burst into violent flames around him. The mages gasped and he could feel another wave of cold as they tried to subdue him. Keeping an armor of heat around him Axel turned to face them. Four of them. Four bastards had scattered his tribe to the winds and killed however many more. Why had they targeted them? How had they found them?
Trying to ignore the panic for the rest of his tribe Axel focused on the anger. Taking a breath he focused on himself, forgetting about the men. It wasn't a quick thing that he was doing. Drawing every bit of his power wasn't something he could do in an instant if he wanted to release it without destroying everything he could see. But it didn't matter. His temperature was rising to the point any ice that got too close melted then evaporated before it could reach him. The heat was warping his vision. The little girl was almost far enough away. He had to just give her a bit longer. So close…
The mages must've known he was doing something. They gave each other a look. Too damn bad. Whatever they were doing, whatever nice, organized spells couldn't stand against him. There was no chance. Spreading his arms out the first bit of his gathered power escaped his control. Sent out in a wave the others staggered back. Grass withered in a perfect circle around him. Trees shook.
"I'll see you in another life," said Axel with a grin. He could feel his power slipping already. There was too much to be held in a small mortal frame. The first flames were small lines of power that shot from him across the ground. They weren't aimed more than towards the mages but they were easily deflected. Axel could see the fear leaving their eyes. They thought that was all it was going to be. That was nothing. They'd be nothing, their ashes indistinguishable from the rest of the burnt earth.
"Axel!" Dropping his arms Axel felt the breath being knocked from him as his power took on its own life. Falling to his knees he struggled to redirect it, to actually take control of it. Pressing his hands against the ground he forced it into the earth. "Axel!"
Axel's head whipped around. "Get out of here Lea!" Why was his brother here? Why wasn't he protecting their clan? Their family? He couldn't gain control. He'd let it go too far. There was nothing left in him to stop it. "Run!"
He'd always loved fire. He'd loved the wild way it moved. Its heat kept them alive in the harshest winters. His father said it was his birthright. There were other clans of barbarians with "wild" magic but there was nothing wild about it. Maybe compared to the perfectly trained mages bound to the emperor but theirs was just shackled, forced into unnatural shapes. Barbarians used the magic of the earth and her elements. Mages took it and made it do other things. That was far more wild and unnatural.
Yet as the flames lapped up around him, freezing him in place, expanding out around him at a dangerous rate he hated it. It was destructive, dangerous. It wasn't keeping them alive, it was killing everything. Everything was blurred but he could see everything. He watched each blade of grass ignite as one. The fire danced towards Lea. Lea's fire red hair became indistinguishable from the flames that were eating at his body. Axel couldn't see his green eyes but he could see them as the last bits of his brother before he was nothing but ash as well. The smell of burning flesh might have been in his mind. All he could smell for sure was burning life.
Forever and yet in an instant everything was dead around him. His camp was gone, the forest was ablaze and his brother was a memory. And still the four bastard mages seemed nothing but winded. Two lay on the ground, one on his knees, one holding himself as if he were cold; none even slightly marred.
"Bastards!"