Chapter 7: The guild's training…

"Wake up!" Sonic awoke to see Mare-rith yelling at all of them. "I said get up, come and eat your breakfast immediately!" Mare-rith yelled. Sonic slowly got up and walked out of the room followed behind the others. He walked to the same dining room. His eyesight was still blurry. He looked around. "What's for breakfast?" Sonic asked. Mare-rith put four bowls of oatmeal on the table. "Oatmeal?" Sonic asked. "It's healthy for you." Mare-rith said. "I usually skip breakfast." Sonic said. "That is unhealthy, get used to eating in the morning, that oatmeal is the best and most sweetest around." Mare-rith said. Sonic ate a spoonful. "Not half bad." He said. He suddenly ate more and more of it. Until his bowl was empty. He drank whatever was in his cup. It was orange juice. He drank it all. "What now?" Sonic asked. "Now, you await your friends to finish eating." Mare-rith said. Sonic sat down disappointed. Soon they were done. "Good, follow me." Mare-rith said. Each of them did as told. They walked outside. To a wall with targets.

"First, is your accuracy test. Take the pistol I give you and await my instructions." Mare-rith handed them each a pistol. "Okay, on three, you will shoot the targets as many times as possible. The echidna over by the targets is here to grade you…now, one… two… three! GO!" Each of them started firing at the targets, with goggles on. Sonic decided to take his off. He disobeyed a rule. Once the time limit was up, Mare-rith said, "STOP!" They quit shooting. "Now, the echidna will grade each of you." Mare-rith said. The green echidna stood up. He then spoke. "Shadow's grade: 97, Knuckles' grade: 85, Tails grade: 100, Sonic's grade: 17." The echidna finished. "Sonic, do you realize why you failed this test?" Mare-rith asked. "Uh…" Sonic was dumbfounded. "You took off the damned goggles!" Mare-rith screamed, "Never ever disobey the rules." "Yes sir…" Sonic replied.

"Good. Now, I'll take you to the melee combat test. Each of you will go head to head, and fight. Maybe Sonic has learned something of the accuracy test. Hm… perhaps to heed my warning." Mare-rith said. They walked to a ring with a metal fence around it. "Here, each of you are to be given a sword." Mare-rith said, "I'll hand you one, then follow my instructions." He handed them each a sword. "First up is Knuckles and Shadow! Into the ring!" Mare-rith shouted. They each entered the ring. Wielding some old swords. "Now, there are rules. #1: No cheating in any way, #2: You are to stop immediately under my command when I call the match over. That is all. Here, we shall learn the arts of Hedgusst battle. Don't become greedy with your swings, allow your opponent to make a bad move and strike at the wisest time. That is all, BEGIN!" Mare-rith shouted.

Shadow and Knuckles started, they swung into each other's direction, and locked swords. They were pushing back into the opposite direction. Knuckles let go, causing Shadow to stumble. Knuckles swung at Shadow, and Shadow ignited the jets under his jet shoes. He shot into the air, and dived at Knuckles, who jumped put of the way, Shadow landed and blocked Knuckles' attack. Shadow walked backwards, he knew never to turn your back on the opponent, as he was walking, Knuckles charged into him; Shadow evaded the attack and tripped Knuckles by the leg. Knuckles fell to the ground. Shadow held the sword not far from Knuckles head. "THAT'S ENOUGH!" Mare-rith shouted, "Shadow is the winner." Shadow and Knuckles exited the ring. Sonic was about to walk in when Mare-rith grabbed Sonic's arm. "Did I yet give you orders?" Mare-rith asked. "No sir." Sonic said. "Get back Sonic, I don't want to tell you again." Mare-rith said. He paused for a second, irritated with Sonic. "Now, Sonic and Tails, you may enter the ring." Mare-rith said as Sonic ran into the ring, followed by Tails.

"Alright, go!" Mare-rith yelled. Sonic and Tails started to duel with the swords. "Tails," Sonic said, "If you're going to last in my family's guild, you've gotta get tough! How's this for a lesson?" Sonic grabbed both ends of the sword and tackled into Tails, who smacked the dirt floor in the arena hard. Sonic swung into Tails' direction, Tails quickly rolled backwards into a summersault. Sonic stumble Tails swung at Sonic, but was surprised when he blocked him how hard the blade rattled. Tails was pushed back by the force. Sonic ran at Tails and swung at him, Tails evaded it, able to have a free shot at Sonic, he swung at Sonic, who blocked it, pushing Tails back, this time Tails dropped his blade from all the shaking. He stumbled to grab it as Sonic jumped to hit Tails, he rolled on the dirt, covered in it now. But at least he dodged the hit. Tails arose to see Sonic just swinging at Tails. Tails put the sword in the way. Sonic smacked it straight out of his hands. Tails was about to move, when Sonic put his blade in front of Tails. Joking, Sonic said, "Not another move mate." Sonic finished. "THAT'S ENOUGH!" Mare-rith said. Sonic dropped the blade on purpose, he tackled Tails into the dirt hard. "OW!" Tails yelped. "Get used to blows like that. You'll need a lot of roughing up." Sonic said. "Sonic, you lose." Mare-rith said. "What? Why?" Sonic asked. "I gave orders the round was over, yet you again assault Tails." Mare-rith said. "I was playing, toughening him up!" Sonic said. "You know the rules. You too fail this test also." Mare-rith said, "Now, Tails and Shadow will duel." Mare-rith finished. Tails and Shadow awaited Mare-rith to speak. "Enter the ring." Mare-rith said. Tails and Shadow entered. They bowed to each other and walked to opposite corners. Sonic made a noise, "Hmph!" He said irritated. "GO!" Mare-rith said.

Tails and Shadow ran into each other, locking blades. Shadow easily pushed Tails back, Tails once again pulled off a sweet move. He rolled backwards, somersaulting.

Shadow came in for another swing. Tails moved. They were starting to sweat now. Tails went for Shadow, swinging at him. Shadow blocked it, and again pushed Tails back, this time he was used to Tails pattern, but Tails didn't somersault backwards again. He was smart enough to realize Shadow would come in from behind, so Tails just hopped out of the way. Shadow waited, and so did Tails. They stood for a little bit. Waiting for one of them to make a move, eventually Tails grew more impatient than Shadow. He went in for a hit, Shadow was going to block again. He pushed in Tails' direction. Tails moved his blade, causing Shadow to swing into thin air, and stumble, Tails was about to hit Shadow in the back while he had a chance, but Shadow swung his sword at Tails' feet, tripping Tails. Tails fell. He dropped his sword and Shadow picked it up. Shadow put his sword in front of Tails' head. Mare-rith gave the word. "That's enough!" Tails and Shadow exited the ring. The same green echidna approached the ring, to grade them again. "Shadow's grade: 100, Knuckles grade: 50, Tails grade: 85, Sonic's grade: 0." The echidna said. "You will have to learn Sonic, start paying attention." Mare-rith said.

Tails approached Shadow. "Good job." Tails said. "You too." Shadow said. The two shook hands and smiled. Sonic sat there thinking. "How do they respect each other so easily?" Sonic though.

"Alright, one more test, then lunch time." Mare-rith said. He walked to another wall of targets. "The most important test of all! How to learn Chaos Magic. You will each first need a chaos emerald to start off with. I'm sorry Tails, you will have to sit out here. You just don't have our blood in you. I'm sorry, please do not feel left out, you have other useful talents they don't. Now, every student who starts off has to use a chaos emerald. To tap into its power. Those who have mastered that power, can tap into it hundreds of miles away, and still have a very tight focus on it. This guild only has two chaos emeralds, the other five are still out there, somewhere. Each student will hold the emerald and use the magic. The first spell is the most simple one. But when you master it, it can be the most deadly and powerful. It is called a chaos sphere. I'll give you the emerald, and you try to make a green energy ball using your mind. Then, we'll practice shooting it at the targets on the wall. We'll start with you Sonic. The only rule is, don't hit anyone else around you, or anything, only that target." Mare-rith said. He handed Sonic the crystal blue chaos emerald. "This one, I can't screw up!" Sonic said. He looked at the emerald. He focused on it. He started shaking a little. He could feel a burn in his palm. It started to glow green. It formed a hand size green flame ball in his hand. "Good, let's see if you can maintain it without the emerald in your hand. Mare-rith removed the emerald form Sonic's hand. To his surprise, the energy ball remained completely functional. It didn't die out at all. "Good, throw it at the target." Mare-rith ordered. Sonic through it at the target, it made a miner explosion, and a part of the target decinigrated. Sonic walked behind the others.

Shadow and Knuckles did it too. Shadow did it better than Sonic by a little bit. Knuckles struggled, but it worked out. By the end of the test, the green echidna walked up to them.

"Sonic's grade: 100, Shadow's grade: 105, Knuckles's grade: 80." The green echidna said.

"Now, you each proved to certainly be one of us. Mr. Tails Prower, we'll watch your career carefully, we really consider you one of us." Mare-rith said. They walked to lunch.

Once at the table, as they started eating, Mare-rith began speaking.

"This training will last about a full month. Even then, you won't be able to master the techniques, but be able to fight with them, tomorrow, we'll go over many studies and more tests. Be prepared.

Sonic and the others seemed confident. Until a few weeks passed by. They were showing the best of all the students. But still, the work proved to be a major pain in the ass.

END CHAPTER

The training will go about one more chapter.

Then it gets to exceed more. Send reviews.