Chapter 5 : Growth

Zaiwei

"no."

"No."

"NO!"

The blade instructor's angered yells filled the courtyard, causing all of the students to look over at the cause of their masters yelling. He was standing at the far left corner of the courtyard where a series of training dummies were situated. In front of him was a short girl with pure white hair and tall ears on top of her head along with a long bushy tail. She was holding her sword loosely at her side, her head bowed and her ears were drooped down sadly as her trainer continued to yell.

"These techniques are grade level three!" He barked, "You've been training here for years! You should be at grade level twenty!"

The small Lyn dropped her sword and flinched away with a scared whimper as he held up his hand as if to strike her across the face. The entire courtyard was silent as the instructor seemed to weigh his options about disciplining the girl in front of him. Under normal circumstances, he would have, however she was part of the prestigious Kaichou family, one of the wealthiest Lyn families in the entire world. Sighing, he dropped his hand and took a deep breath to calm his nerves.

"Again. I want you to try again."

Cautiously, the girl bent down to pick up her sword which was lying beside her on the stone ground of the courtyard before weakly slashing at the training dummy in front of her. After a while, a small snicker rose throughout the crowd of students which soon grew to be uproarious laughter as the girls weak attempts to perform blade techniques grew even more pathetic. She felt tears well in her bright red eyes as the laughing continued and her grip began to falter on her sword. With one last slash, she dropped her sword completely, letting it clatter to the ground, before running as fast as she could into the building nearest her crying hysterically as the laughing could still be heard when she slammed the doors shut behind her.

"What a joke!"

"She should just quit now!"

"Bringing shame to the Kaichou's like that! HAH!"

Off to the side, a small figure leaning against the wall felt a trace of rage fill him.

"Why doesn't little Alexis just give up? She's worthless anyways!"

"Weak!"

Reaching down, the figure tightly grabbed the handle on his sword which was resting against the wall beside him.

"Absolutely worthless!"

His golden, rage filled eyes shot wide open and a fierce snarl appeared on his lips as he quickly pushed himself away from his resting spot and into the light. His gold, shaggy hair blew in the wind as he shoved his way past some of the other students. His large circular ears twitched and his long tail was tensed as he made his way to the center.

"ALRIGHT THAT'S ENOUGH!" He yelled at the top of his voice, bringing all of the students jeering to an abrupt end, "Nobody trash talks my sister, you got that!?"

Silence.

"If you all think you're so high above her, then duel me right here, right now!" Glaring around the crowd of students, he pointed at a large jin male, who's sword was held at his side. The Lyn recognized the outfit the Jin was wearing meant that he had been training here much longer than he had and it would be a great example to not mess with his little sister.

"You. I see you're much more experienced than I am, so why not test yourself?"

The jin laughed, "You know you won't win, Shiro." Shaking his head, he held his sword up and brought two fingers down the long, polished blade, "Everyone here knows that you prestiegous folk aren't built for combat."

"Then prove it, tough guy." Shiro's eyes never left the Jin.

Shrugging, the Jin pushed his way through the crowd and squared off against the Lyn who was about half his height, "My name's Renkai, by the way. I thought I should tell you who beat your little Lyn ass so you can go cry to your mommy and daddy when you get a little boo boo."

"Keep talking, dickhead." Shiro whispered under his breath as they both moved away from one another and drew their blades. After a few silent moments, the two rushed at one another, swords at the ready and killer intent in both of their eyes.

Renkai was the first to strike, his sword slashed in a wide arc from his right shoulder down to his left hip. The lyn quickly looped through his legs and replied with his own flurry of stabs and slashes at Rekai's back, who swiftly turned around and held up his sword, blocking all of Shiro's attacks. The sounds of steel clashing against steel rang throughout the courtyard as all the other students watched in awe as the two exchanged blow after blow at one another. Their movements almost hypnotic as their swords seemingly became just another extension of their bodies with the fluid motions and the incredibly adeptness of their skills. While Renkai stuck to the books with his fighting style, Shiro however was spicing things up to keep the battle interesting. He would continuously sashay in and out of Renkai's precise attacks and piroutte all the same, seemingly dancing around his opponents attempts to strike him down. This is what he was known for and he knew very well that he was the best at this style. After all, it was his after all.

However, there was a known tension between the other students that if this were to keep going on, that the two fighters would resort to their special techniques that, even though they were extremely terrible at using, would definitely swing the fight towards either of their favors. Shiro possessed the power of lightning and could absolutely burst down a target with a barrage of electric filled slashes from his sword, to devastating effect. He was the strongest Lyn at the entire school and Shiro wasn't afraid to hold his chin up whenever he was regarded as such. That was his expectation of himself and his family name.

Yet, Renkai too possessed an elemental power which he had only just learned to use. His use of two ethereal blades which would hover around him as he channeled his inner flame could tear an opponent apart if they were unleashed. His skills with his powers were sloppy, despite his constant training he couldn't just seem to master it. That didn't stop him from using it against training dummies and having to pay for new ones after trying. Renkai's strikes too would become enhanced, a flicker of fire periodically appearing at the edges of his sword. It wasn't consistent, but extremely deadly if someone were to be struck with the flames.

Their duel continued for several minutes, neither of them gaining or losing ground to the other. Suddenly, they both jumped away from one another, with Renkai dashing backwards and landing in a low stance with his sword at his side while Shiro performed a perfect back-flip to land on his feet with his own weapon held behind his back. Both of the fighters were breathing heavily, sweat drenching their foreheads as they stared at one another. Their eyes never faltered and their muscles were visibly tensed, ready to make a move should the other do so.

Renkai was the first to move, jumping up and facing Shiro with his body partially turned away. Throwing his hands out to the side, he summoned forth two magical swords from his palms which began to swirl around him. The heat emitting from his body grew, making the air around him blur from the pure energy.

Shiro took this time to summon forth his electricity, his weapon became electrified with dancing blue strings of lightning and sparks flickering in a dangerous display. The smell of ozone filled the air and the space around the Lyn grew distorted as the power surged.

"Enough!"

Their gaze upon one another faltered as the quickly looked at their instructor, who had a less then pleased look on his face.

"What do you two think you're doing?" He said in a low tone.

Renkai stood silent.

Shiro however, did not. "I was protecting my family's name against him." As he referred to his opponent with utmost disgust, "He and your other students were insulting my sister, and I could not have any of that. As my late grandfather once told me when I was very young, 'Protect those who need your help, even if it from themselves'."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Renkai shot back angrily.

"It means that your attitude would get you into much more trouble then today." The Lyn snapped quickly, "Insulting a clearly superior family, especially against one of the most skilled Lyn families in the entire world mind you."

"You were the one who initiated the fight, dipshit."

"Yet, you attacked first." Shiro cocked his head to the side with a devious smirk, "What you just said was one of the most childish excuses coated in sugar coated words."

Silence.

"I think it was... You started it!" At that, Shiro stuck out his tongue and laughed, "I may be younger than you, but you have a temper of an enraged bulbari in the Skypetal Plains."

Renkai yelled in anger as he sent an ethereal sword straight at the Lyn in front of him. Shiro tried to draw his sword, but was helpless as the blade descended upon him.

The feeling of hot blood plastered Shiro's face and he slowly opened his eyes and felt his entire body freeze at the sight before him. Ears hung low and face strewn with pain, was Alexis, the tip of the flaming ethereal blade protruded from her chest and the smell of burning flesh filled her brothers nose. Looking up, Alexis's cherry red eyes met Shiro's deep gold as she smiled through the pain weakly back at him.

"I'm not completely worthless after all..." She said before coughing up a heap of blood onto her brothers shirt before collapsing forward into his arms.

The sound of howls of anguish filled the courtyard.