Chapter 8: Instructors, The First Round & Stuff!

Xion's P.O.V

"You know…" Kain spoke while polishing an apple. "I am surprised the Prince has that much power sealed in him." He took a bite out of the green fruit & continued speaking. "It is a good thing only instructors were told what actually happened otherwise he may have been hanged." I nodded in agreement. The Prince was lucky, if not for the cover up story about a student trying to make a nuclear warhead out of the Elemental properties of Darkness & Fire then he most likely would've been executed as the laws state.

"So Kain…" I spoke getting up from the bench at the guard outpost to look out the window. "Do you know who's been chosen for the Instructor section of the fight?"

"No…" He threw the rest of the apple away after reaching the core. "Do you know who is?" He picked up his dragon design helmet & put it under his arm.

"I know I'm one of the choices they want to pick but there's a chance I might lose control of my darkness so I'm their last pick for it." I sighed. "Well, besides Uranus that is. Anyways, I hope Yugo, Bakuryu, & Shina don't all decline."

"Why not? You don't want a chance to get back at Zephyren?" He nodded to my still semi-charred hand.

"I do…but my darkness being so close to him may not be a good idea."

"What do you mean?" He had placed his helmet on his head & gestured for me to follow him outside of the outpost to check on more new arrivals.

"I mean either of us could end up losing control again & endangering others." I winced as a little memory of my past flashed before my eyes. "Anyways, they should choose you. After all, they still need a Human Instructor to participate in case Patrick makes it."

"But what about the two vampires & the Werewolf?" He cleared the two students & sent them on their way. "Raziel is the closest thing we have to a Vampire Instructor & he's participating. We also have no Werewolf Instructors since there are very few here."

"Freya Crescent has been chosen for Raziel, & I believe that Zidane Tribal has been chosen for Slate."

"Ahh, A wind user for Raziel & a Non-Elemental for Slate. What about the Werewolf though?"

"No idea. You trained Freya before there were any Anthro Instructors didn't you?"

"Yes. I gave her one of my lances upon graduating too." He sighed. "She was my star pupil. I often have her come back & demonstrate to Wind elementalists."

"Though, Raziel may not end up fighting her at all. Remember, it's a team effort but all will start out at different points along the map chosen."

"Well anyways, I have to go & tend to other duties…Ahh, Uriko!" He wave to a girl in an oversized shirt running over to us. "How are you?"

"Fine, fine," She said turning to me. "I've been looking everywhere for you!" She scolded me.

"Why?" I asked, hoping that it wasn't about me being chosen for the Instructor match.

"You've been chosen for the match!" She jumped as if it was a great honor. Don't get me wrong, it was, but I didn't want to be a part of it.

"I see." I looked to Kain who had a serious look in his eyes. "Thanks, Uriko."

"Heeeee, no problem!" She turned back to the Academy & left.

"Have fun, you'll need time to train so I'll leave you to it." He turned & left to scold some kids for trying to enter an outpost, leaving me to deal with my newfound despair.

James' P.O.V

"Chaos Spear!!!" Shadow yelled as a beam a Chaos Energy charged towards me. I deflected it sideways using a metal barrier I had created. "Chaos Spear!" Another ball of yellow Chaos energy appeared in Shadow's hands this time becoming an actual spear shape.

"How'd you do that!?" I asked moving the metal barrier so it was under my feet. I lifted myself off the ground.

"No need to tell you now is there?"

"Oh yeah? Well, haha! I am the Silver Surfer!" I yelled hands on my hips. "Woah!!" I swerved sideways as Shadow launched the spear at me. "Okay maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe not silver surfer…" I flew circles around him tauntingly. "More like Metal Surfer." I dodged another Chaos Spear. And another.
"Nani nani boo boo you can catch me!" I grabbed him & threw him over my shoulder launching him into the wall. Dust was floating everywhere where he had hit.

"I can't catch you?" I heard the voice in my ear as I felt two arms wrap around me as he threw me off my floating platform & onto the ground. "Seems like I can. Now get up!" I groaned as I felt the metal platform once again become a pendant around my neck.

"You let me get you to drop my guard." I told him.

"Bingo. Anyways, I see you've improved with your Elemental abilities. You might be an Arcane Anthro Instructor soon." He praised.

"I doubt it." I told him, hiding my shock at the sudden praise.

"Chaos Spear!" I heard a voice behind me, I jumped sideways making my necklace back to a board in the process. A green hedgehog wearing a leather jacket with two scars on his chest came into the room.

"Scourge!" Shadow said. "Why did you come back?"

"Aww, don't tell me you didn't miss me, Shadow?" He teased. "I mean, I know Rouge has an Emerald or two here so I thought to myself…" He took out a purple gem & started to toss it up & down. "Why she doesn't need more than one so, I'll relieve her of one."

"So you stole it?" I spoke.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk." He waved a finger at me. "It's not stealing if you take what's already stolen." Another wave of Chaos energy whipped from his hand hitting Shadow square in the chest.

"Shadow!" I yelled at my now unconscious ally.

"I'll use you as target practice for this new gem." He laughed & started firing. I swerved left & right making my way to the wall. When I reached it I made a dome around myself & caused the metal to become denser. Other Instructors would be here to deal with the issue soon so I took out a pack of cards & started setting up a game of Solitaire. Sure enough, I heard him being taken away after about ten or twenty minutes.

Aerith's P.O.V

"Are you sure Tifa?" I asked again.

"Yes Aerith. I'm going to enter the tournament." She sighed.

"But you said you didn't want to fight Zephyren." I told her recalling an earlier discussion.

"I don't & there's a chance I won't have to. Hey Regal!" She waved to a well dressed blue haired man walking by. "Do you know where Zell is?"

"No, I'm afraid I don't ." He replied politely.

"Okay, thanks anyways. Aerith, I'm going to find Zell for training okay?" She ran off. I shook my head.

"What's wrong Ms. Gainsborough?" I heard a high voice call. I looked down to see Vivi staring at me with his big yellow eyes.

"Nothing, Vivi. So what are you up to?" I replied, faking a smile.

"I was looking for you to see if you could tell me more about the Lifestream. Your lesson on it was bit confusing so I wanted to ask if you could explain it again."

"Okay then. Now pay close attention." As I started my lecture I noticed he was really trying hard to understand. That cheered me up a lot more. "If only more students were like him," I thought to myself. "Then being an Instructor would be so much easier."

Squall's P.O.V

"Firaga!" I shouted as a ball of red hot flames shot from my hand. Cloud dodged to the right separating another sword from the large one he carried. I charged in hoping to catch him off guard when he swung at me with the smaller of the two swords he had. I jumped backwards looking down to make sure I landed properly. When I looked up Cloud was up above me coming down with his sword above his head. I jumped back again, narrowly avoiding the beams that came from the blade when he landed. I jumped forward again, seeing an opening. I brought my gunblade down hoping to knock him out. He had blocked to attack but staggered back. I kept up the relentless assault of sword swings, hoping for him to give.

"Thundara!" Cloud shouted. I was struck by a thunderbolt which stopped my attack & knocked me over. He jumped away placing the smaller sword back into the larger one.

"That…" I groaned as I got up. "Was a nice counter." We shook hands & headed towards the door.

"We should spar more often." Cloud suggested.

"Yeah…" I reached for the door handle & received another jolt of electricity. "Ahh! Next time though, no Thunder Materia, okay?"

"Only if you don't use any Fire Materia." He indicated to the burnt section on his loose left sleeve.

"Deal." I chuckled. I noticed a brown haired man walking towards us. He waved & held out his hand.

"Hello." He shook our hands. "My name is Noctis Caelum."

"My name's Cloud & this is Squall." Cloud introduced us.

"Nice to meet you. I saw the two of you sparring, could I join you or would that be a little late now?" He nodded over to the small arena we just left.

"Well, I guess. It'll be fun to have new competition. Right, Cloud?" I ran my hand through my hair.

"I guess. Just give us about half an hour to catch our breath." He replied.

"Very well." The man spoke & pulled out a metal blade similar to my gunblade.

Patrick's P.O.V

I summoned a large tidal wave from the pool of water beside me to trample the two Behemoths. It didn't work too well, just made them angrier. My opponent was to be five starving Behemoth fiends, but due to them being so hungry two had already been devoured by the others. I had already taken care of one by submerging him in the water, causing it to drown. Its lifeless corpse now floated there.

"This isn't good…" I spoke to myself. I tend to do that sometimes. I was being backed into a corner by the two beasts. Come on, think! What are Behemoths weak against? I was running out of time, as the two beasts were now less than 2 feet from me. I could feel their nasty breath on my clothes. And miraculously…they started to fight each other! They must have decided that I wouldn't be enough to satisfy them both. I took my chance & dove into the pool & forced the water out so I had a sphere of air around me & a small little 'pipe' so I could breathe. Thankfully, Behemoths can't swim, so this gave me time to think till they noticed I wasn't there anymore. Then an old lesson came back to me…

"Behemoths aren't affected by magic or elemental properties all that much due to their tough skin & unique DNA. But they do have a weakness. They rely heavily on their sight, so if you take that away the battle is yours." I remembered my old teacher Quistis Trepe telling me.

"That's it!" I shouted. Joy rushed through my body as I let the water lift me up to the surface. I used my abilities to wrap the light around me & make me slightly invisible. I shuffled through my pockets moving backwards on the water slowly as the Behemoths now circled the large pool of water. "Where is it?" I thought to myself. Then my hand reached a black grenade. "Yes!" I chucked the device at the one behemoth, blinding him. I could see its eyes cloud over & I rushed in for the kill, brandishing my Dual-Ended Blade. I beheaded the Behemoth & retreated back to the water, still invisible to them. The other Behemoth went over to feast on its former ally. I quickly dispatched of it while it was distracted.

"Finally" I sat down letting my invisibility down. "It's over…"

Melissa's P.O.V

I received cheers as I left my arena room.

"Congratulations Melissa! You've passed the first match!" Reikourin said patting me on the back.

"Did you really think that I would have a hard time with two Iron Giants?" I asked him with a smile on my face. "Especially in a forest environment. All I had to do was send the plants through their armor & immobilize them, then the rest was easy." I shrugged.

"Listen to her everyone! She called that easy!" I received more cheers as Reikourin gave me more semi-empty praise.

"You'll be given your next match in two days time. Rest up, 'cause you'll need your energy for the next one!" I heard Kratos say to me after I left the room. Patrick was there already, looking exhausted.

"What did you have?" I asked.

"Three very hungry Behemoths." He sighed.

"Wow!" I sat down beside him & patted him on the back. "That sucks. Anyways, has anyone else made it out yet?"

"Nope, I was the first." He sighed again. "I'm gonna go rest for a bit. I'll see you later." He got up & walked off to the Human Section.

Zephyren's P.O.V

I let the last of the Lamia fiends get in close & finished it off with a quick slice. As I did however, one of the swords it was holding sliced into my arm leaving a huge gash. I heard a door open as it fell & forced myself to walk through it, tired as I was. I was praised & cheered on by the crowd but when I got out of the arena I was rushed by medics to the infirmary to heal all my cuts.

"Zephyren!" I heard Keira scream as she rushed in to hug me.

"Hey Keira…Ow!" I yelled as she squeezed my sore arm.

"Sorry." She quickly said.

"It's okay." Do you mind if I talk to you in my…Well, our room later?" I asked.

"Sure. What time?"

"How about seven-ish?"

"Okay, I'll see you then." She turned to leave.

"Yeah, see you." I replied letting the doctor finish stitching my arm. After they were done I headed to the sparring arena. When I got there I noticed Cloud & Squall resting & a third guy warming up.

"Hey Zephyren! Did you win?" Squall asked.

"Yep." I turned to the new guy as I got closer. "And you are?"

"Noctis Caelum." He bowed. "I've heard a lot about you, your majesty."

"I've heard about you too, Noctis." I said putting a hand on my hip. "Now I won't treat you like royalty." He smiled when I said that. "But only if you do that same. Okay?" He nodded & I noticed a small little flicker of something above him. The sun hurt my eyes when I looked up but every four or five seconds a small flicker would go appear. It wouldn't be noticeable if you didn't have enhanced vision.

"What are you looking at?" Noctis asked, looking up where I was to see if there was something there. I transformed & flew upwards, surprising the others as I did. I grabbed the handle of one of the many weapons flying above Noctis.

"So you manipulate the Elements of Metal & Light Noctis?" I asked turning the axe I had grabbed around in circles.

"Yeah…" He replied a smile on his face. "I'm surprised you could see that, though."

"Yeah, I can tell." I tossed the axe to him & changed back.

"Well, I'll see you guys around…" I turned to leave but stopped at the door. "Also Noctis, show your ability to Reikourin when you're alone. I think he might like someone like you."

Raziel's P.O.V

"Slate!" I yelled as a Manticore advanced on him. He threw the Manticore to the floor & ran over to me.

"You know…" He said twirling a chakram in his hand. "If you didn't throw that Wyrm through the wall I might not have made it past the first match. So, thanks."

"Don't thank me yet." I replied. "After all, we have to beat what? Like three more fiends? All of which aren't harmed by Wind Elements." I sighed. I would have been done by now if it wasn't for the accident of smashing the wall & letting all of Slate's opponents rush into my room.

"These guys? They'll be easy…" He nodded to the two Chimeras advancing on us. "Just get the snake tails on the Chimeras to bite each other once then they'll kill each other. As for the Manticore…" He nodded to the Manticore that was getting up. "That guy you can handle with the Wind element." I looked at him.

"Remember what I said?" I shook my head. "Not harmed by Wind element!"

"I never said you needed to attack it, did I?" He looked at me. I thought about what he could mean for a moment & realized.

"You want me to use the wind to throw the Manticore over to the Chimeras for it to be bit too…" I said. "Not a bad plan but one flaw."

"What's that?" He looked at me as we manoeuvred out of the way of one of the Chimeras attacks.

"This!" I shouted. The Manticore was charging at me, its angelic wings pounding in the air. I jumped on its back & pulled on its sphinx-like head. It bucked & fell to the ground. I pulled out my sword & drove the blade into its head as fast as I could. The fiend's body writhed in pain for a second then stopped moving. "There's no Manticore to speak of now." I told Slate as he grinned & shook his head.

"Smartass!" He shouted over the roar of the angry Chimera that had lost its tail from the other Chimera crushing it. We quickly dispatched of the two remaining monsters & headed through the door.

"All of our competitors are now finished. Though, there was a slight mishap." Reikourin announced nodding to the monitor at the replay of me destroying the wall. "The games will continue as planned & all of our competitors have passed!" Cheers resonated through the stadium once more. "The next round will be held in two days time! Now please return to your classes as originally planned." Groans replaced the cheers as Reikourin said those last words.

"Well done Raziel, you too Slate." I heard Kratos congratulate us as we walked down the hall.

"Thank you." I replied. "I'm going to go for a hunting trip…" I turned to Slate. "You should feed too. That was a tiring battle & you'll need your strength."

"I'll get something later." He replied.

"Well then, I'll see you before the next match. Later!" I turned & left to go hunting.

"Razzy! Wait up!" I heard Melissa behind me. I waited for her to catch up to me.

"Hey!" I ruffled her hair. "Congratulations on winning your first match, Sis!"

"Heeeeeey! Stop it!" She batted my hand away. "Thanks though! Where are ya headed?"

"Hunting. It's been a while since I last did & I don't know how much longer I could go without blood." I turned as I heard a Human's walking speed get faster as I finished the sentence.

"Okay, I'll go with you so you don't accidentally hurt anyone." She had a smile on her face.

"You just want an excuse to satisfy your boredom don't you?" I asked.

"Yeah, that too," She giggled as she answered. "Don't tell me you don't want me to come along just in case."

"You're right about that…" I sighed. "Well, let's go then." And we left the grounds of Eternia.

CHAPTER 8 END