Matt and Alex walked down to the breakfast table, everyone was already there.
"Cool, a fruit cup!" Alex said excitedly, eyeing the breakfast table.
"You're a fruit cup," David mocked.
"Is being a fruit cup good or bad?"
"Alex, it was a joke," Matt told him.
"Oh... that's not funny." Alex took the fruit cup and left.
"What took you two so long to get down here?" Green asked.
"We woke up last."
"No, thats not it!" David laughed.
"Huh?"
"Ryan woke me up and he decided we should go down here and leave you with Alex. If we left him alone, he'd probably cry."
"Why you... yeah, Alex would cry."
"Ok, today is official training. You guys know that, right?" Green reminded.
"We know."
"Analyzing your skills yesterday, you will each be given different training," Vio explained.
"What do you mean?"
"We'll be training your strengths," Shadow translated.
--
All of the apprentices stood there, waiting to hear what their mentors would say.
"All of you will be trained to be sword fighters, except Alex," Red announced.
"What? I'm not strong enough to be a knight? Are you sending me back? I don't want to go back!" Alex whined.
"You're going to be an archer! Geez, the world is not going to end!" Blue told him.
"Oh, ok then..."
"Here are you're practice weapons," Shadow said, giving them sticks. Except Alex, who got a real bow.
Everyone split and took a piece of space for training.
"Matt, your best strength in sword fighting would be quick-thinking," Green told him.
"Oh that's lame!"
"No, remember when you were cornered by Ryan? What did you do?"
"I loosened my grip on the sword, then moved out of the way. I know Ryan is strong, so he'd get his sword stuck in the rock behind me." Wow, that sounded smart, Matt thought to himself.
"Exactly, so try this...wait. Hey Vio! Get down here!"
Vio came over when Green called.
"What do you guys want?"
"Put Matt in a swordlock," Green instructed.
"Why don't you do it?"
"Just do it." Vio obeyed.
"Ok Matt, there are no stones or anything, what do you do to get away from the swordlock?"
Matt stomped down on Vio's foot.
"YOW! That freakin hurt!" Vio shouted.
"Haha... I just wanted to see that again," Green laughed.
"Well, are you happy now?"
"Yes," Green answered. Vio went back to training Jess.
"Isn't it kind of pathetic to have your foot being stepped on as a weakness?" Jess asked skeptically.
"...Yes," Vio responded. "As I was saying, your best strength would be speed."
"Okay, cool."
"That kind of technique that you used yesterday was good, where did you learn it?"
"I taught myself."
"Oh... did you ever sword train before coming here?"
"Yes."
"Who was your teacher?"
"Nobody, I taught myself everything."
Vio had been expecting Jess to be trained by an elite sword fighter, but it was all her work.
"Okay, try and fight me," Vio ordered, picking up a stick. Jess began running up to him.
Is she really going to use the same technique as last time? Vio wondered.
When Jess was about to slash him on the right side, she quickly turned left and did a spin attack. Vio turned around and countered her attack with a spin attack as well. A swordlock.
"Since you have no speed here, what will you do?" Vio asked Jess.
She jumped back, freeing herself from the swordlock. Jess waited for Vio's next move. He leaped forward, his stick crashing down on the ground as Jess jumped out of the way. Vio came forward, slashing at Jess. Instead of blocking them, she dodged each one. Vio did a spin attack but Jess dodged that attack as well.
Then she suddenly lunged forward and pointed her stick towards Vio's neck.
"Deadlock," Jess whispered to him.
"Good..." Vio told her. He couldn't believe she actually got him in a deadlock.
Vio thought about it. Every time he fought someone, they tried to block his attacks. But Jess, instead of blocking, dodged everything. How impressive... Vio thought.
--
"David, your best strength would be agility."
"Blue, what's agility?"
"Um... I really don't know. But Vio said it was because you we're swinging that sword pretty fast at testing."
"Okay, so I have agility. What do I do now?"
"Do the same technique you did at the exam on this dummy," Blue said pulling out a large training dummy.
David nimbly swung his stick in all different directions, nailing the dummy every time.
"Good, if that was a real person. He would've gotten a heck of a beating," Blue complimented.
"No, he'd be laughing at this lame ass stick," David pointed out.
"Oh right."
"Now what?"
"Where did you learn sword training from?"
"Local academy, I was the best fencer in class."
"If you are, fight me."
"Already?"
"Yeah! Go ahead, try." Blue picked up a stick. He charged forward with the stick, slashing at David. David blocked each blow with ease. He attempted to lunge forward, but was blocked by Blue. They both jumped back, freeing themselves from the swordlock. David attempted to lunge again with more strength, Blue swung the stick as hard as he could to counter the lunge. David's stick broke in half and he flew forward from being off balanced.
"Ok, you win..." David admitted. He felt Blue's stick positioned behind his head.
"Thanks. Now wait here, I need to get you another stick."
--
"Your strength is... well strength," Shadow told Ryan.
"So I'm the strongest?"
"Yep."
"Sweet..."
"Yesterday, you thought you had Matt beat, didn't you? But then he moved out of the way and your sword got stuck in the stone."
"Um... yeah, that wasn't really smart, was it?"
"Exactly, so you should put that strength to good use."
"How?"
"For example, if one person is weaker than the other, their strengths are imbalanced. So the stronger person could push forward and beat the weaker person."
"Well, exactly how strong am I?"
"I'm going to see. Spar me and I'll figure it out."
Shadow waited for Ryan to come forward. If he came forward, then all Shadow would need to do is extend his stick. If Ryan ran into it, that'd be a deadlock, since a real sword would've probably killed him. As Shadow predicted, Ryan ran forward.
Here he comes...Shadow got ready.
When he thrust his stick forward, instead of running into it, Ryan jumped up and smashed the stick in mid-air. Then he pointed his stick towards Shadow.
Well that was unexpected, Shadow thought to himself.
"So how strong am I?" Ryan asked eagerly.
"Pretty good, kid."
--
"Your strength is accuracy," Red told Alex.
"Okay! So what do I do?"
"See that those targets?" Red asked, pointing to five targets in the distance.
"Yeah."
"Shoot each one with an arrow."
"Which one do I do first?"
"Um... how about the one closest to us, right there." Red pointed to a target about four yards away.
"Here it goes!" Alex shot the arrow into the bulls eye.
"Thats great! Now try the other ones further off."
Alex shot each arrow into the bulls eyes of the targets.
Wow, he is good, Red thought.
"What do I do now?" Alex asked eagerly.
"Hmmm... lets go to the river!"
"Why?"
"You'll see."
--
Shadow Ryan, with some Phantoms, were sneaking past the river to get to the castle. Bellum had given him the task of kidnapping the Links.
"Why do I always have to do the hard work?" Shadow Ryan muttered to himself.
"Hey boss, there's someone up ahead," a Phantom informed.
"Huh?"
Looking ahead, Shadow Ryan spotted Red and Alex.
"So when a fish jumps out, try and shoot it into that tree with an arrow," Red instructed.
A fish jumped out of the water.
"Oh my gosh! A fish!" Alex exclaimed.
"Now's your chance!" Red reminded him.
"Right... where'd the fish go?" The fish had landed back in the water.
"This is what they call training? This should be easy," Shadow Ryan whispered to himself.
"Are we going or not?" a Phantom asked impatiently.
"Yes, wait here." Shadow Ryan changed into a shadow creature and began to creep behind Red and Alex. Alex began to feel his presence.
"Red... I think there's something behind us," Alex whimpered.
"Where?" Red turned around, he saw nothing. But then he began to feel Shadow Ryan's presence too.
"Where'd it go?"
"Where ever it is, be careful..."
"Too late!" Shadow Ryan turned back to human form and grabbed Red from behind.
"AH!" Alex screamed.
"Let go!" Red tried to free himself from Shadow Ryan's grasp. It would be probably be easy to free yourself from a kid three years younger than you, but Ryan is strong. And Shadow Ryan is stronger.
"C'mon guys! Help me here!" The Phantoms came out from hiding and took Red.
"Ryan! What the heck are you doing?" Alex questioned.
"I'm not Ryan, I'm his shadow," Shadow Ryan corrected.
"His shadow?"
"Alex, get away from here! Don't worry about me, I'll be fine!" Red yelled
Shadow Ryan turned around to face him, "The boy is probably frozen in fear."
"Hey boss, what about the kid?"
"Take him as well, Master Bellum would be pleased to have captured an apprentice."
Bellum! Who's that? Red wondered.
"Where'd he go?"
"What do you mean?" Shadow Ryan turned around, but Alex was no longer there.
"Where is the freakin kid?" Shadow Ryan asked Red demandingly.
"You'll never catch him!"
"We'll see about that. Two of you Phantoms can take Red back to Bellum, the rest of you guys, come with me."
"How do you expect to keep me in their grasp long enough to get to your prison?" Red asked.
The two Phantoms disappeared in a puff of violet-black smoke, along with Red.
"One down, nine more to go," Shadow Ryan smirked.
Just to let you know, Shadow could probably kick Ryan's ass with his magic. But you're not supposed to use magic on your students.