Chapter 48
The Fire Masters: Part 2
Blaze, Cinder, Diego, and Furno arrived on time for the first Trial. They were in the forest to the south of the school at sun up like they were instructed to.
Waiting for them in a small clearing was one of the four instructors that oversaw the school, and the instructor leading the trail of agility was exactly who Blaze expected, Diego's father Sadio.
Sadio a bipedal, rabbit-like Pokémon. Most of his torso and head, as well as his arms and tail, were white. He had long white ears, the insides of which were yellow. His eyes, which had red-orange pupils and white irises, had a deep navy pattern below them and yellow eyebrows above them. These eyebrows connected at the nose, which was red-orange, and formed a "crown", which connected to the red-orange tuft of hair sticking out from his forehead. He had two whisker-like tufts of white fur on each side of his face. Over each shoulder was a navy patch of fur, which continued down the torso and connected at the middle of the chest, creating what resembled a sports tank top. This navy-colored fur was also seen on his lower torso, creating what resembled a belt. The fur on his lower body was colored red-orange and resembles a pair of pants, with yellow pockets and ending in yellow tufts at the knees, with little tufts of fur on the backside of his thighs. His ankles and feet were colored navy-blue and tipped red-orange at the toes.
Sadio smiled and said "Welcome to the Trial of Agility! Behind me is the entrance to an obstacle course. Your test is to navigate the course and bring back an item on a pedestal deep within. Be warned, there are four items and the course is designed to be inhospitable to them, you must retrieve the items and bring them back here intact"
Everyone ran into the forest as a group, sure enough, there were four paths. They split up and ran off, leaving Blaze alone to his thoughts.
As he ran forward he came to an elevated set of logs over a pond, his balance served him well, just as it had atop Temporal tower. Then he came to the second obstacle, which was rather confusing to him. It was an elevated plank walkway with flame jets on the sides that scorched the area in short bursts. While threatening to nearly anyone else, being fireproof meant this was rather unintimidating. Blaze nonchalantly walked across the plank, not even flinching as he got blasted by one of the flame jets.
Blaze finally came to the pedestal and his heart sank, now the course made sense. Before him was a small statue of a Charizard made of solid blue ice. It was clearly immune to sunlight given the bright light piercing the trees and shining above it, but the flame jets would disintegrate it.
Blaze made sure to cool off his hand before picking up the statue, he felt his nervousness steadily rising as he heard the flame jets whooshing. He stood there for a solid five minutes analyzing the pattern. Considering the movement of the jets, he would half to cross the 35ish foot plank in less than three seconds, something he knew he wasn't fast enough to do while holding the delicate statue.
"Think, what would Alex do if...NO" Blaze shouted out loud. He needed to figure this out himself.
After looking at the flame jets and the plank an idea came to him, "Who says I need to walk across it"
Gripping the statue firmly in his left hand, he jumped off the edge and grabbed the side of the plank. He then slowly but surely used his free hand and tail to cross the plank from below.
After an easy jog across the logs, he came back to the clearing where Sadio was waiting, he had returned first!
"Well done!" The Cinderace exclaimed.
On cue Furno, Diego and Cinder returned holding similar statues, all of them had succeeded around the same time.
Furno scowled, Blaze had beaten him in the first trial, and he wasn't going to let it happen again.
Sadio smiled at his son before turning to the group and saying "Congratulations on passing the first trial, head to the dojo where Pele will give you the next one"
Furno walked off grumbling, while Cinder and Diego took a moment to congratulate their classmate.
"How did you get past the jets?" Diego questioned.
"Went under the plank, just had to think outside the box" Blaze admitted.
Diego gave a jealous look and said "I should've thought of something like that, I was just barely fast enough to make it"
"Not too different from me, I created a bubble of psychic energy around the statue to get across. It was a combination of agility and problem solving, I have a feeling the next trial will have a twist as well" Cinder guessed.
Waiting in the dojo by Pele were three massive stone totems, they were made out of obsidian, a substance famous for being immune to even the strongest of flames.
Once all four students were staring at the Totems, Pele smirked and said "Welcome to the Trial of Strength. Your test is to break these obsidian totems apart, but be warned in the center lies a fragile item that you cannot afford to break, or you fail"
Everyone gave a concerned look except for Furno, who walked up, took a deep breath, and chopped the totem in half, stopping just before the center. Everyone, even Pele gasped at the display of strength and precision.
In the center of the totem was a small glass ball with a piece of paper inside, Furno grabbed it with a smirk and handed it to Pele.
Once she got over the initial shock, Pele crushed the glass ball in her hand and read the note within. The Blaziken nodded and said "step aside and wait for the others"
Furno gave Blaze a taunting look before walking off to the corner of the room.
Cinder was next, she ran her hand across the totem, once she found the glass ball, her eyes began to glow purple. Glowing cracks in the obsidian grew until the totem completely shattered leaving the intact glass ball floating in the air.
Diego Hi jump kicked the totem, it barely moved an inch and created a small crack.
"What am I gonna do...wait!" Diego exclaimed as he ran out of the dojo, returning a moment later with a small pebble. He clutched the stone in his hand, focusing his fire and shoving it in the crack. There was a glow and the top of the totem exploded, revealing the hollow spot where his glass ball was waiting.
As the Reboot retrieved the glass ball, he chuckled and said "Obsidian is a lot weaker in the inside because of the air bubbles when it was lava"
Blaze was sweating, even after a brick break and flamethrower, the pillar was undamaged, thankfully the dojo floors were fireproof.
"Guess that's it!" Furno mocked from the sidelines, while Cinder and Diego gave him a scowl of disapproval.
"Think...think...obsidian..air bubbles from Lava..wait Lava!" Blaze realized under his breath.
He ran his hand across the obsidian and focused his energy, there was a slight simmering sound, he had caused just the tiniest portion of the totem to melt with his lava manipulation, but no one, not even Pele had realized it.
His hand glowed, and with a single chop, Blaze chopped the totem's top off and retrieved his glass ball.
Pele gave a wide smile as Blaze handed her the glass ball. She read the notes before nodding and saying "All four of you have successfully passed the first two trials, which means there is one left, the Trial of Skill"
"Where is that going to be?" Cinder asked.
"Tomorrow at noon, there will be a tournament in front of the Masters, the last Pokemon standing will win. A head to head fight is the greatest Trial of Skill you can have, and only one can win! It will be single elimination and your first opponent will be the name on the piece of paper that the masters put in the totems"
Blaze felt his heart sink, he would have to fight his two new friends to succeed...
Author's notes- Sorry for the long delay, I hope this chapter is enjoayble to you guys. See ya soon for the Finale of the Fire Masters Arc!
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