"Edo!"
Edo opened his eyes to find himself floating in a white nothingness with a single floating flaming feather. He hears a loud, deep voice speaking to him. It seems to be emanating from the object itself.
"Edo, look deep inside yourself."
"Deep inside myself? What are you talking about?"
"Yes do it and know the truth."
Edo closes his eyes and concentrates.
"Now tell me what you see."
"I see my mother and father and me all together; a happy family before father was sent into the war."
"Yes, continue."
"Wait this isn't right I'm seeing a fire, a blue fire is that...Shang City? I had nothing to do with that!"
"CONCENTRATE!"
He thinks harder, trying to focus on the previous images.
"I see trucks pulling into the village...killing people and kidnapping children!? They're breaking into my house! Grabbing my arms and pulling me out of my house! Wait, what about mom!?"
In his vision, he turns around and sees his mother getting speared through the neck by one of the SE enforcements for resisting. He hears her screams and sees her blood. At that he opens his eyes confronting the enflamed feather ounce again.
"This isn't right! That was a false vision! That never happened! I volunteered for the Supreme Evolution to become an assassin! They didn't kidnap me! Nor kill my mother! She died of a disease before I left!"
"Not everything is as it seems boy"
"Wait?! Wha-"
Edo wakes up from his dream in a cold sweat. He looks over to the clock lacrima on his desk. It reads 6am. Edo moans.
"What was that dream? Or should I say nightmare."
He gets out of bed and walks into his personal bathroom and cleans his face with the sink water. He looks up at the mirror and stares into his own shady blue eyes, his messy white hair nearly covering them.
"My name is Edo Izoric. I am a volunteer assassin recruit for the secret society known as Supreme Evolution. I am a member of the SEs own Drakill program, in which SE researchers implant young recruits with lacrimas making most 2nd generation dragon slayers, I was chosen to be implanted with the Ice dragon slayer lacrima…"
Edo breathes a heavy sigh. He continues.
"I am one of the top recruits in my class and the program and I aspire to be a great assassin!"
He closes his eyes for a few seconds then reopened them.
"Everything I saw in that dream is a lie!"
And with that Edo begins to get ready to head down to breakfast. But the curiosity of those visions still lurks within him.
/
As Edo rides the elevator down to the cafeteria area he can't help but keep thinking about what the voice told him the previous night,
What did he mean by "not everything is as it seems"
As the elevator door open to the cafeteria, the smell of a delicious breakfast filled his dragon like senses and he became entranced by it.
"Oh boy, I love breakfast."
"Oh yeah sure, you say that about anytime your near food ice boy."
Edo turned around to see his best friend, Raze. Raze was his age, blonde hair, green eyed, and knew sound manipulation magic and was quite impressive. He is not part of the initial Drakill program. Instead he was trained at a young age. All Edo knows about his friends past is that he had some daddy issues and he ran away from home about two years ago and eventually ran into Ms. Zhara. Ms. Zhara is one of the heads of the master council of the SE and is also Raze`s caretaker. The SE allowed Raze to join the training parts of the program but only if he will someday serve them as an assassin. He agreed. And for the year he's been here he's made quite an impression. He's also managed to become Edo's best friend somewhere along the way.
"When you get your food, Lake and I are waiting over there."
"You guys already eat?"
"Yeah."
Raze walks back to the table in the corner. Edo turns back towards the serving area again entranced by the smell.
/
As Edo approaches the table, Lake yells out to him.
"Good morning sleeping beauty!"
Lake is the same age as Edo and Raze with light blue eyes and almost deep sea blue hair. Like Edo, he is also a recruit in the Drakill program. He was implanted with water dragon slaying lacrima which makes his magic extremely compatible with Edo's. So they became instant friends. Lake was also very accepting of Raze when Edo invited him to join there group though Raze couldn't join their team because you can only have two assassins per team but they all still became as close as brothers. Not much is known about Lake's past. Anytime someone asks him about it, he just says he volunteered like everyone else. This makes many suspicious because Lake is the top recruit in the whole program and is guaranteed to be an amazing assassin for the SE. Edo blows off his teasing.
"Yeah sure sure..."
"That's some meal you got there." Says Raze
Edo looks down at his tray and realizes he has nearly 8 plates stuffed with food and 4 bowls of oatmeal and cereal. Edo has always seemed to have this problem with losing control whenever he's around food.
"Oh c'mon, this is normal for me." He says as he chomps into his first waffle
"I'm surprised you're not overweight with the way you eat." Raze says blankly.
"Yeah he's gotta point there Ed." Lake says
Edo got annoyed by this. "I told you not to call me that."
Lake narrowed his eyes "Wanna fight?"
At this the entire cafeteria went silent and all attention was on those two. The members of team Alpha fighting was a fathomable thought. There was fear that they mightdestroy the entire facility yet there was also excitement to see the two battle it out.
After about a minute of silence, the three boys began laughing hysterically.
as if that'd happen they all thought together
There were sighs of both relief and disappointment heard all around the cafeteria.
"So what do you guys think is in store at training?" Edo asks.
"I don't know man but I sure hope it's not lap courses again." Raze replies
"Yeah that would suck." Lake adds.
This makes all three smile and continue common conversation. They had grown so close the last couple of years even with the restriction of never being able to leave the Mt. Vazil facility.
Mt. Vazil is actually a mountain. Well only technically a mountain. On the outside that's what it looks like disguised with the many others in the slander mountain ranges. But on the inside it's a massive facility that serves as the current base of operations for the SE and home to the Drakill program. Going outside is usually restricted and prohibited except to the higher ups to minimize risk of being discovered. It's actually an extremely rare thing for a trainee to even see the outside world but Raze is actually an exception to that. Because he lives with Ms. Zhara he gets to leave everyday but that is only because Ms. Zhara is usually in charge of holding magical artifacts and objects obtained by the SE. And because the council has agreed that keeping all that excessive magic in the main facility would be dangerous, Ms. Zhara keeps most of them on her property at a small town on the outskirts of the western part of the ranges. How she and her adopted child, Raze, leave the facility is strictly secret.
Edo couldn't keep it in "hey guys I had the weirdest dream last night."
"Let me guess it was about food again haha" Raze says
"No no it was something..."
"Well spit it out man!" Lake demands
"Well I saw visions of some other fake past I lived or at least I think it was me but I'm not sure it was all confusing."
"What did you see?" Raze asks
Edo begins describing the visions he saw last night. How he saw The Shang City fire from 7 years ago and how he saw his village being ravaged by the SE themselves. He told them in explicit detail about the killings he saw (including his mother) and how they seemed to be kidnapping him along with many of the other children.
"And in the dream it all seemed to be directed by this flaming feather... That seemed to be talking to me the whole time"
The other two boys seemed shocked. Lake a little more so. He was wide eyed and looked almost angry. Raze, on the other hand, looked only shocked and slightly disturbed.
"That's some scary stuff man." Raze says
"-but I know for a fact that none of what I saw ever truly happened. I specifically remember volunteering. I remember the SE coming to my village only searching for recruits and I thought 'why not' because no one could tell me no since my mother had died two months prior."
"Wait, I don't get it no one was watching over you during that time?" Raze asks
"Well of course someone was." Edo responds
"Well who was?" Raze continues
"Let's see ummm- actually who was? I don't think I remember exactly… Now that you mention it I don't think I ever even thought about that time period." Edo says with a puzzled look
At that Lake suspiciously changed the conversation "SO I HEARD WE ARE SPARRING IN TRAINING!"
Edo stares at him in confusion while Raze covers his ears in pain "you don't have to be so noisy gawsh."
Raze has always had this problem with loud noise. The other two think it's a side effect from his magic.
"Ok I guess..." Edo says suspiciously "guess we better go get ready then."
Lake looked relieved almost as Edo said this which just raised more questions in Edo's head.
"Ok see you there, and don't be late. That means you Raze." Lake said as he got up from the table and left.
"Well with the headache I got now I might as well not go at all." Raze said as he recuperated.
"Why didn't you wear your earplugs today?" Edo asks.
"I forgot em' but I'll be sure to ask Zhara for some spares before I head to training. Man what's with that guy?"
"I don't know he seems kinda fishy today doesn't he?"
"Yeah...OH CRAP we're gonna be late!" Raze says
"Oh yeah you're right, I'll head down there and you go get your spares from Zhara"
"Aight catchya later..."
/
Raze had just gotten his spare ear pieces from Ms. Zhara and was walking into the training grounds when a sudden shock fell on him. He was late... again. As he walked in he heard the instructor discussing what they were going to do that day so he decided he would try to sneak in unnoticed. I mean there were enough cadets sitting on the floor right?
He quickly located Lake and Edo who just so happened to be sitting on the other side of the gymnasium looking building. He decided to hide his best in the shadows of the balconies to get his way over there.
About halfway there
"Late again, Raze."
Raze's face was covered in shock and embarrassment. He swore, Mr. Saiyo had eyes everywhere. He heard some of the lady recruits chuckle.
"That's the third time this week" Mr. Saiyo said "You're lucky I'm so lenient, I should report you..."
"Yeah yeah sorry won't happen again" Raze says as he heads over to his friends
"You say that every time" Saiyo says as he massaged his temple recounting all the times the boy had caused him stress "Take a seat."
"Sure thing."
"See what'd I tell you, I knew he would be late again." Lake said to Edo as Raze approached.
"Hey I had to go get some spare earplugs from Zhara, geez"
"Late is late" Lake replies while shrugging
"Yeah shut up." Raze says as he sits down next to them
"Alright today we are sparring" Saiyo continues "1 on 1. Your names will be drawn at random. The only rule is to not use any move that may destroy a part of the big room."
The big room is basically an indestructible battle ground made from magic material that can withstand most magical forces except...
"This basically means all goes except Dragon Force, which shouldn't be a problem since none of you have mastered it yet." He draws two slips from a box that seemingly appears out of nowhere. "First match: Edo vs. Kead."
Both stand up. There is an eerie feeling of anticipation in the room. Kead like his opponent is a 2nd generation dragon slayer, his respected element being acid. He is about a year older than the other boys, very slim, with longish messy green hair that reaches his upper neck area. He has white colored eyes which make it seem like he just has very small pupils and he wears a type of gas mask on his lower face. Many think he just wears it to look intimidating which he does. But there's also a theory that he has to because he took a weird side effect shortly after being implanted with the lacrima.
They began walking towards the big room while the other students headed towards the spectating hall. Once they are lined up in starting positions, Saiyo speaks over the intercom.
"I'm giving you a short 7 minute match." He says "If a victor isn't decided by then, it's a draw... Begin!"
"Ice Dragon Frozen Claw!" Edo's fist becomes covered in ice in claw formation as he lunged at Kead.
"Acid Dragon Scales" Kead said as he back flipped to dodge, then green glowing scales began to soar down on Edo
"Ice Dragon Skin" Edo's skin became covered in blue scales from head to toe. The flying scales seemed to just deflect off of the hardened skin.
"Smart move on your part, you obviously know the effect a dragon's acid can have on magic." Much like poison, dragon acid doesn't take much damage critically. It instead slowly dissipates ones magic energy the more times one is hit by it.
"Quit talking." Edo said with a smirk as light blue energy began circling his balled fist "Ice Pillar" with that Edo's right arm transformed into a pillar of ice that continued to stretch until meeting the wall behind Kead after he had dodged and was standing on his pillar arm.
Kead began running up the pillar while charging energy in his fist
"Acid dragons Claw" he said with a swipe to Edo's face. Edo stumbled back clenching his face.
"What's wrong, can't handle the Ph levels?" Kead said. He was shocked when he heard Edo chuckling
"Was that supposed to be a pun?" He stretched his arms out to his sides. "Ice Dragons Tears!"
Hundreds of ice cycles formed in the air around Edo and launched themselves at Kead. Kead attempted to dodge but failed and hissed in pain as the freezing projectiles planted themselves at his body.
He quickly recuperated and shouted "Acid Dragons Tide!" And two green, gooey looking figures formed around his fists. The figures stretched out reaching out for Edo.
Edo just smirked and reached for the goop as it approached. It incased his hand and he felt the stinging. This is when he silently said "freezing factor" and the gooey figure instantly turned to ice and broke into a million pieces.
Back in the spectating room, nearly everyone gasped. Even Raze and Lake looked somewhat surprised. "So he finally got it down eh?" Mr. Saiyo muttered to himself.
Kead stepped back in confusion. He narrowed his eyes and thought up a new strategy. "Acid Dragon Mist." A green mist erupted from his gas mask and began filling the room.
Edo coughed. He had no defense against this kind of attack and he could feel it slowly draining his energy but he didn't let it show. He tried looking around but the mist stung his eyes and it was too thick to see anyways. He held his breathe. He tried thinking but was interrupted by a sharp pain in his chest. "Acid Dragons Burning Fang" Edo felt himself fly across the room and crash into a wall.
He was winded and figured out that Kead's new strategy was to make the ice boy breathe as much of this acidic air as possible. He collapsed to his hands and knees due to the immense pain and then remembered something. He could hear Kead's footsteps getting closer and closer. Edo relaxed his palms and thought to himself Freezing Factor. "Acid Dragon's- Ahh" Kead was interrupted as he slid on the floor that was now turned into ice. Edo heard where Kead had landed and jumped into the air. This was his chance. He cocked his head in the direction of the downed Kead. "Ice Dragon's Roar". A blast of freezing energy left Edo's mouth and headed straight for the Acid Mage. "SHI-" Was all Kead said right before impact.
In the spectating room, everyone was blinded by the shining blue light that was illuminating from the breathe spell. Raze and Lake both smiled and nodded. he's got this one in the bag they both thought together. Sure enough, after the light faded and the smoke cleared, all that was seen was a slightly injured Edo standing victoriously over a completely beaten Kead. He had the biggest victory grin that showed off his massive, dragon-like canines. The entire spectator's room was full of gasps and sighs. He looked pretty badass until his stomach grumbled...
AUTHOR NOTE:
These characters are around the 12-13 age range currently.
Also, this is my first fic. I really hope you enjoyed the first Chapter! I don`t know how often I`ll be able to update as school gets in the way of a lot of things. Plus some of my friends are helping me develope this so bear with us. I`ll try my best to update on a consistent basis. THANK YOU!
