It had been 2 weeks since Nagisa had broken through the first stage and Kaede has finally recovered from her fever.
During the 2 weeks, Nagisa had been able to hide Kaede's fever with his newly awoken power Status Control. Kaede had wanted to teach him more about his new ability, but Nagisa had convinced her to wait until she felt better again.
She had still told him about the basics though. From what she said, it was another advantage of the dragon tribes. Dragons would gain a new ability with every new stage. These abilities were also called Unique Skills.
From what Kaede had told him, Unique Skills were usually one-of-a-kind abilities, that dragons gained on top of the spells and techniques from usual mages and combatants. Just as the name suggested, these skills were unique to the user. The chances of two dragons having ONE identical "Unique Skill" was lower than 5 % which made the chances having multiple ones almost none existent.
"My Unique Skills are Fleet Footwork and Shape Manipulation." Kaede whispered to Nagisa after making sure that no guard was near their cell, "Remember that you must never reveal your Skills to someone you don't trust with all of your heart." She warned him with a serious face.
"Huh…" Nagisa deadpanned, it wasn't exactly convincing to say that right after she had revealed her Skills to him, "But I don't really get it, so they're basically extra spells, what's the big deal?" Nagisa asked.
"It's hard to explain so I'll show you." Kaede smiled while lifting both her hands, "Our Unique Skills will have a huge influence on our magic style. Here…" she started to mutter some weird sounding words under her breath.
A visible greenish air ball started to form in her palm and when it stabilized, she aimed her palm against a wall, "Air Bullet!".
The second she announced her spell, the air ball rapidly left her palm and shot towards the wall she was aiming at! With a dull sound of impact, it dissolved again sending a tiny breeze back to Nagisa and Kaede.
"Woah!" Nagisa quickly moved towards the spot of impact, there was a fairly deep dent in the massive wall! "That's amazing!", if that had hit a human, he would've been blown away and at least had a few broken ribs!
"That was a standard rank 2 wind spell." Kaede let out a quiet giggle seeing Nagisa's reaction, it was the first time she saw him actually acting his age, "Move aside Nagisa, I'm gonna do the same again but with my Unique Skill now."
"Mhmm." Nagisa nodded and quickly crawled back beside Kaede as she started to mutter the same words again. Just like before the air ball started to gather in her hands but this time she didn't shoot it as soon as it had stabilized. Instead, the emerald scale on her right hand started to glow! The shape of the air ball slowly started to stretch and turned into a spike, "Air Bullet!".
Once again, the air spike shot into a wall! Only this time it didn't simply dissolve with a dull sound, the sound was a little higher pitched and there wasn't the breeze that had been sent back from before.
Nagisa went ahead to observe the spot again. Unlike the dent from before, the impact area of this one was a lot smaller, but at the same time, the hole in the wall was a lot deeper! The second Air Bullet was definitely a lot more dangerous than the first one! It was slightly faster as well!
"See what I mean? Unique Skills are special because they can be added on top of your regular magic, you can use them to alternate the usual spells to make them more effective or maybe even change its effect."
"I see…" Nagisa was imagining what he could do with his Status Control, "Do you know any water magic spells? I don't know any." Nagisa then asked her.
"Hmm… I never really paid attention to them since they are useless to me." Kaede clocked her head to the side and started thinking, "Oh wait! I know one!" she claimed excitedly.
"Hmm?" Nagisa's eyes sparkled with excitement as he waited for her answer.
"Remember the healing spell I use to heal our hands every second day?" Kaede asked with a cute grin on her face, "That's an alternation or rather simplification from the original Healing spell which is a water exclusive spell, I just happen to remember the original spell." Kaede explained proudly.
"What's the difference between the alternation and the original?" Nagisa asked.
"Hmm the original spell is more effective, my grandpapa told me that before the alternation was invented, water mages were the only ones who could use healing magic. But a prodigy from the wind tribe managed to make the spell usable for wind mages as well." Kaede explained, "But still this was the only healing spell he managed to alternate, higher ranked healing spells are still water exclusive."
"So healing is water exclusive huh…" Nagisa didn't know why, but the idea of playing a supportive role didn't sit right with him. "What's the spell?" Nagisa still asked with a smile on his face, even though he didn't like it, healing spells would always come in handy.
They spent the next few hours before dinner teaching Nagisa how to pronounce the spell correctly. "I think I got it." Nagisa felt like his brain had been fried. Kaede was a strict teacher, not only did she teach Nagisa the pronunciation of the spell, but she also told him the meaning of each and single word. Of course, it would prove to be useful later on, but Nagisa wasn't prepared to learn a new language when he asked for a spell.
"Alright give it a try!" Kaede urged him while Nagisa was still fighting the dizziness in his head. He quickly shook his head and tried to concentrate again.
"Alright, here it goes." Nagisa closed his eyes and started to mutter the spell while calling forth his mana, "Healing touch!" Nagisa announced and touched his left arm with his right hand. Instantly he felt the spells effect on his arm. It was slightly different from the one Kaede was using, his felt more soothing and gentle, while Kaede's was a little wild on the edges.
"Hmm… so what happens when I…" Nagisa closed his eyes again and the scale on his right hand started to glow, "I don't feel anything OUCH!" Nagisa yelped and instantly let go of his left arm. His arm was starting to turn purple and it was stiff.
"What did you do?!" Kaede quickly muttered her own healing spell and placed her hands on Nagisa's arm, it was cold! "Did you just try to use your Status Control on a healing spell?!" Kaede scolded him in disbelieve, "Healing spells work inside the body! When you mess up you could seriously injure or even kill yourself!" Kaede yelled angrily while healing his frozen arm, "There, now it's better… your blood vessels are still a little bit blocked though."
"Hmm… sorry." Nagisa scratched the back of his hand with his good arm, "Here let me take over." Nagisa offered while activating his own healing spell again.
"Don't do anything stupid!" Kaede glared at him before slowly pulling her arms back, "You were also going to heat the healing spell up weren't you…" she asked him with a slight pout on her face.
"Ehm… no?" Nagisa lied while his scale started to glow again.
"Hey! Stop it!" Kaede complained while trying to pull Nagisa's hand off his arm.
"It's working!" Nagisa shouted excitedly. When he used his Status Control to turn the water nature into steam, the area of effect of the spell was a lot bigger and the healing effect was a lot weaker, but the heat made it really comfortable like just coming out of a sauna.
"Huh…" Nagisa let out a long sigh, well at least his vessels weren't blocked anymore, "So using ice with Healing Touch is dangerous…" Nagisa noted. A sound of coming towards their cell made Kaede and Nagisa instantly looked up and move back into their corners. A guard holding two trays with food came around the corner.
After Nagisa had shared his dinner with Kaede like usual and had waited for the guard to leave with their empty plates, Nagisa quickly sat back up and looked towards Kaede, "Hey, I think you said that you had two 2 Unique Skills." Nagisa reminded her.
"Hmm? Oh yeah, what I showed you before was Shape Manipulation, it lets me change the shape and form of the wind element I gather." Kaede explained, "Just like your Status Control it requires a bit of creativity to use it effectively. My other one is rather hard to show you… oh, I know! Hey Nagisa, give me a piggy back!" Kaede happily asked.
"Huh?" Nagisa raised an eyebrow out of confusion, "I mean sure, but why?" Nagisa asked but still turned his back towards her and kneeled down.
"You'll see!" Kaede answered while jumping onto Nagisa's back and wrapping her arms around his neck. The chain of the iron ball was long enough so it stayed on the ground.
"Woah! Easy there!" Nagisa said after he almost lost balance from Kaede's jump. "So? What now?"
"Just give me a second," Kaede assured him while her scale started to glow. But nothing seemed to have happened.
"Huh? Did you just?" Nagisa asked astonished when the weight on his back suddenly reduced itself.
"Yeah, Fleet Footwork reduces my weight by 50% and makes me float a little when I'm jumping or midair." Kaede explained as she jumped off Nagisa's back, "See?" Nagisa turned around and saw how she was slowly moving back towards the ground while tiny whirls of gust gathered around her. It took her 3 seconds to reach the ground again, "I can control how much I float by adjusting the wind surrounding me."
"Wait so if you jump from somewhere really high you can float for ages?" Nagisa asked her enviously, "That would almost be like flying."
"Well… yes." Kaede chuckled a bit awkwardly, "Until I run out of mana that is."
"… Did you try?" Nagisa deadpanned.
"… The second I got it."
"I see…" Nagisa could understand, when he had used his Unique Skill for the first time, he had drained his entire mana pool as well, "Did you get hurt?"
"No… daddy caught me last second." She said with a sad smile.
- Ah… her parents abandoned her to make her train with her grandfather… -
Nagisa remembered after asking the question, "Hey, Kaede." He called her to catch her attention.
"Mhmm?" She looked up.
"When we're on duty tomorrow, follow me for a while." Nagisa smiled while leaning against the wall, "I have a surprise for you." Nagisa took a deep breath and decided. Kaede recovered faster than he had expected, there was still more than an entire week before the next guard shift which meant that the guard who was slacking off was still on duty!
"Hmm? Sure." Kaede looked at him a little bit confused but also excitedly, "What is it?"
"We're trying to escape tomorrow." Nagisa whispered to her after making sure no one was close by, "I dug a secret passage out of this place."
"…" Kaede stared at him dumbfounded.
"What's wrong?" Nagisa was confused, "Don't you want to leave?" He frowned a little bit while asking.
"I do… but… won't it be dangerous?" Kaede gulped and asked a bit hesitantly.
"Maybe, if we get caught we will be in trouble. But I do think it's worth a try." Nagisa said while looking at Kaede's expression. She was still hesitant, it almost looked like she didn't want to escape.
"Hey, Nagisa… i-if we manage to escape… what then?" Kaede asked with a troubled look on her face, "Don't get me wrong, I do want to leave… but…"
"But? What's the matter?" Nagisa blinked a few times out of confusion, he couldn't think of anything that might make Kaede want to stay in this cell.
"If we manage to get out of here… where will you go to?" Kaede bit the bottom of her lips and asked. "Will you still be my big brother?"
"Oh…" Nagisa blinked at her dumbfounded, he hadn't thought about that, "I'll be your big brother as long as you don't mind Kaede… and to where I will go, I don't really know." Nagisa let out a silent sigh, "Do you think the wind tribe might take me in?" Nagisa asked with a slightly sad smile.
Kaede bit her lower lip again, Nagisa was asking to live in the wind tribe. But in the history of all of the four tribes, there had never been a case of a non-tribe member being allowed to live in a certain tribe, "I'm not sure, but we can still ask! Grandpapa is the chief of our tribe! And he saw me as the hope of the tribe or even the dragon race! You're just as good as me! So maybe grandpapa will take you in!"
"Yeah… that'd be nice." Nagisa gave it a little thought before smiling, "If your grandfather would allow that you wouldn't have to train all alone anymore." Nagisa petted her on the head while saying. "So come with me tomorrow, I'll show you my plan then."
One day was more than enough for Kaede to remember and understand Nagisa's plan to every single detail. The mind training a mage goes through not only increases their ability to multitask but also increased their memory capacity and speed of understanding at the same time.
"Alright." Kaede nodded while pulling her blanket closer to her body, the sun was going down and it was getting colder in their cell.
"Let's rest early today, we'll need our stamina tomorrow." Nagisa smiled as he pulled his own blanket to cover his body, "Good night, Kaede."
"Good night, Nagisa." Kaede smiled at him as she nodded and closed her eyes.
Kaede was standing inside the secret storage Nagisa had dug and stared at the passage in disbelieve, "So you dug a tunnel to the outside AND towards our cell while you also kept mining an impressive amount of crystals to maintain our meals?".
"Pretty much yeah." Nagisa gave it a little thought before he nodded in confirmation, "So did you remember where all these tunnels go?" Nagisa asked again just to be sure.
"Yeah, I got it all." Kaede nodded in confirmation. "But you said we'll run right after they bring us back to our cells, what about the chain and the iron ball?" Kaede wondered, "I don't think we'll get far with these on us."
"Don't worry about it, you'll see." Nagisa grinned before starting to fill his and Kaede bags to load them into their carts outside the hole, "Let's get out of here before they wonder where we're off to." Nagisa said while carefully pushing the bag through the hole and slipping through it right after.
"Yeah." Kaede nodded while taking her own back and doing the exact same.
Once Kaede made it out as well and filled the crystals from her bag into her cart, Nagisa started to patch the hole one last time, "This should do it." Nagisa nodded with satisfaction while patting the mud that filled the hole while the second whistle echoed through the caves, "Let's go."
Everything had gone smoothly when they got back into their cell, Nagisa handled the man with the high-pitched voice like always, unloaded his cart with Kaede and they were sent back into their cells.
Clack, the sound of the chain getting reattached to their legs echoed through the empty cell as the guard Nagisa had been keeping an eye on, locked the door before taking his leave to slack off again.
They both stayed still until the footsteps of the guard weren't audible anymore and Nagisa started to move. Quickly gathering two fist-size water balls, Nagisa made them cover certain spots on both chains before the scale on his right hand started to glow like a sapphire.
"Alright, can you use your Air Bullet on my ice Kaede?" Nagisa asked after eyeing his work, "preferably the spikey version."
"I don't think that's gonna work Nagisa." Kaede frowned a little but still did as he asked as she started to mutter her spell.
"It will! Trust me." Nagisa assured her while watching the air balls turn into spinning spikes as her scale started to glow as well.
Kling, the chain on Nagisa's leg was easily split in two only leaving a short rest still attached to him. Now that the chain was broken, Kaede could see that the inside of the chain was already rusty and weak. "Did you?"
"Yeah, I started shortly after being captured, I continued to lock moisture into one spot every day until the inside was all rusty and weak, originally I was thinking if I could smuggle a hammer or a spike into our cell, but your Air Bullet was a better alternative and the fact that I could freeze it to make it easier was just a bonus." Nagisa explained while Kaede charged up a second Air Bullet to sever her own chain.
"You planned all of this?" Kaede shook her head as she put her mind to it, "And people told me that I didn't act like a child.".
"Well, I was on my own a bit longer than you, it's not really something to be proud of." Nagisa sighed before walking into a corner of their cell and carefully removed the tile there revealing a small hole barely big enough for them to fit through, "No going back after this Kaede, you ready?" Nagisa took a deep breath while placing the tile on the side and looking towards Kaede.
"Yeah, we'll make it out of here and have you join the wind tribe." Kaede also took a deep breath and confirmed with determination while walking towards the hole.
"Yeah." Nagisa smiled while letting Kaede walk past him and jump through the hole in the ground, waited for a few seconds to let her get out of the way before following her. There was no going back anymore.
And the great escape begins! After spending almost 5 months in a slave prison Nagisa's finally making his move! Hehe, I'm getting excited myself, this story is slowly getting started now! I hope you guys are getting excited as well :P.
I assume some of you already noticed that Kaede's feelings towards Nagisa aren't just purely the simple feelings for an older sibling anymore. I do believe that girls start developing romantic feelings earlier than boys. But while she's having some romantic feelings for him, she has no idea herself.
Well, I'm gonna stop writing before I accidentally give out spoilers :D. Tell me what you think about this chapter! It's really important to me!
And as always, thank you so much for your support! And I'll see you in the next chapter ;)!