OoO( 3 )OoO

1 Year Later...

Lyle had grown nearly a foot from when he was a kid. He had acceled in all his training, except his Alchemy training. The guildmaster explained that the training of the Will was a lot more dificult than the others. Even at this comment, Lyle continued to train and to try. Seeing his endless efforts, the guildmaster hired a private tutor for Lyle.

"Focus your spirit into your hand." said the woman.

Lyle concentrated, but it wouldn't work. He sighed and dropped his hand. "This is never going to work, I'm just not as skilled as Maze is." he said.

The woman stood up and walked over to Lyle. "That is the first thing we have to take care of. Your Will won't let you you control it unless you are confident that you can." she said. Lyle looked up at her. He knew the reason he couldn't concentrate, and that was because the guildmaster had hired what looked like a goddess to teach him Alchemy. Her long dark hair flowed down to her back and she wore a black apprentice uniform that fit tightly to her body. To top off her beauty, she wore a golden tiara with an emerald right in the center around her head to hold her hair back.

"I know Elizabeth, but I just can't concentrate." he said looking away from her.

She smiled when she saw him look away. "I think I know something that might help." she said. Untying a cloth band from around her arm, she walked over to him. "Close your eyes." she said, and he obeyed. Walking behind him, she gently tied the cloth over his eyes. He stood there and could see nothing before him. "Now hold out your hand and try again." she said.

Slowly he raised his hand and tried again. Finding it easier to concentrate, he focused and could feel his hand getting warmer. Suddenly, his hand started to glow and miniature lightning bolts started to extend from his fingertips. Elizabeth smiled. She bent down and placed her mouth next to his ear. "Now, throw your energy towards your opponent." she whispered referring to the straw dummy in the center of the room.

Lyle drew his hand slowly back and concentrated harder. Thrusting his hand forward, lightning shot from his hand and obliterated the straw dummy. Elizabeth smiled and started to clap. Lyle pulled the cloth off and looked at the remains of the dummy. "I did that?" he asked her.

She smiled at him and nodded. "You did very well Lyle, congratulations." she said.

"Alright!" he yelled.

Elizabeth laughed at his entushiasm and said, "Alright little one, the guildmaster wanted to see you when you were done with your Alchemy lesson." She walked over to the door and opened it. "He is waiting by the melee circle." she said.

Lyle resented being called little one. But he smiled at his teacher and said, "Yes ma'am." and walked out the door.

Arriving at the melee ring, Lyle was greeted by the guildmaster. "Ah Lyle, how did your lesson go?" he asked cheerily.

"Pretty good, but I could've done better." he said.

"Very good. Now then, today we will be putting you against Whisper in the melee circle, since she is the only other trainee that chose melee as her skill." he said. Lyle looked over and saw Whisper leaning on her spear in the ring. She smiled and waved at him, then he waved back. "Now, hop into the circle and we will begin." Lyle drew his wooden sword, when the guildmaster put a hand on it. "No no no, put that old thing away. Today you will be using a real sword. Here, get used to the feel of this sword." he said handing him a steel long sword.

Lyle grabbed it and held it aloft, weighing it in each hand. "I got it." he said, then hopped into the ring. The guildmaster was about to begin the match when a man with skin as black as night and gigantic armor on walked up to him.

"Ah, Thunder! Your just in time for your sisters match." said the guildmaster.

"Yes, I heard you were putting her against some farmboy." said the man in a deep voice. He smiled at Whisper and said, "Don't take it too easy on him."

Whisper smiled and turned to Lyle. "Well, what are you waiting for farmboy, lets get this over with." she said, and readied her spear.

Lyle held his sword in front of him as the two circled each other. Lyle move a single inch forward. He stood his ground, aiming the wooden sword at her. Whisper, being less patient, lunged forward with her wooden spear.

The young warrior sidestepped his adversaries thrust and swung at her med section with his weapon, but missed as the lithe Whisper ducked under the attack. She swung her spear and hit the boy in the leg with the wooden shaft, making him jump sharply in pain. Shaking the attack off, he prepared as Whisper lunged for his other leg. This time, the boy jumped over the attack and swatted her across her arm with his sword, making her flinch. Taking this chance, he dove forward to strike out at her heart, but she quickly stepped back and spun, swinging her spear around with her.

The wooden pole arched around her as she swung low, sweeping his legs out from under him. As he fell, she lifted the spear over her head and attempted to bring the mock weapon down across his chest. But Lyle managed to pull his sword up and block the attack, then brush the weapon aside as he flipped back to his feet. Not taking a moment to breath, he dashed forward and began slashing relentlessly at her.

Whisper was swift, blocking the majority of the attacks. But her weapon required more range to be effective, making it difficult for her to attack.

"Whisper! What are you doing? That's all wrong!" shouted Thunder from the sidelines. Whisper looked at her brother as Lyle swung his sword. She threw up her weapon the block, but the swing had enough power to throw her off balance. Lyle jumped up and swung his weapon with both hands downwards, forcing Whisper to her knees as she blocked that attack as well. But this left her defenseless to Lyle's foot, which knocked her over. Lyle quickly thrust his sword forward, just as Whisper thrust her spear. Both of the apprentices stopped moving, each with a weapon pointed at their throwats.

"Enough!" shouted the guildmaster. Opening the gate to the melee circle, he walked inside and said, "Very good both of you."

"Whisper, that was terrible. You should watch me in the Arena, you might learn a thing or two." said Thunder. Lyle watched as Whisper stood and lowered her head in shame, then he turned and glared at Thunder.

"She would have won had you not been running your mouth while she was fighting." he said.

Thunder looked at Lyle and glared at him. "What did you say to me boy?" he asked.

"You heard me!" shouted Lyle.

"Lyle, that is quite enough!" said the guildmaster. Then he turned to Thunder. "I am afraid he is right though, you really shouldn't break her concentration in the middle of a fight. If Lyle had been a bandit, then your sister would not be here with us."

Thunder snorted dejectedly. "Come Whisper. We will train some more." he said walking away.

Whisper nodded then turned to Lyle. "Thanks for sticking up for me." she said. Lyle nodded and smiled. She turned and ran to catch up with her brother.

The guildmaster turned to Lyle smiling. "That was very thoughtful of you, but you should be more careful with that tongue of yours. You may have to fight Thunder one day, and he won't go down as easily as Whisper did." he said.

"I don't care. One day I'll challenge him and I will win." he said.

"Indeed, but for now, lets just get you to your next test." he said. "Follow me to the Archery range."

Lyle indeed followed him, and found a pleasing sight in front of him at the range. Alex was staring down the end of her arrow towards the infamous and evil straw dummies that dodged back and forth. Letting the shaft fly, it flew through two of the dummies heads and struck the third in the chest. All the people around clapped joyously and she turned around to see the boy that she had grown to like very much.

"Lyle, where were you? I set a new guild record!" she bragged.

"I was in my Alchemy lesson." he said.

Alex's head drooped slightly, "Oh, with Elizabeth." she said.

"Yeah, but I'm really happy for you. I know that if I even do as half as good as you, then I'll be setting a new record as well." he said. She smiled brightly at the compliment. She hugged him tightly, making him turn red.

Alex had grown as well, and not only taller. Her body now fit her uniform perfectly, gaining her many admirers, including Lyle. She stood almost as tall as Lyle and her hair had grown a foot, making her look every inch Artemis, the greek Goddess of the hunt.

Lyle smiled nervously and hugged her back. "Well, its my turn now." he said, and she let go of him and stepped out of the circle. Grabbing a bow handed to him by a nearby apprentice, he pulled the bowstring back.

The dummies again started to move back and forth, and Lyle realeased his first arrow. It struck the middle one dead in the chest target. He fired several more arrows and scored, not noticing the wink that passed between one of the new students and an older troublesome apprentice. The new student named Vangard tossed an apple at Lyle to try and break his concentration.

"No, Lyle!" yelled Alex.

Lyle's eyes widened and he spun around and saw the missle. He took aim and fired at the apple, impaling it and sending it flying into the air.

"Thats very good Lyle." said the guildmaster. He then turned to the new student. "As for you Van, you will cease these interruptions right now! You have caused enough trouble for Lyle in the past month with his Alchemy training and I will not stand it much longer."

Van, who had short dark hair and wore a black apprentice robe, smirked. "Yes Guildmaster, it won't happen again." he said.

The guildmaster nodded and turned back to Lyle. "Seeing you hit that apple on such quick notice proves that this test would have gotten an A+. So if you will follow me to your last test, we will see just how well your Alchemy training today did." he said and walked towards an island in the center of a pond.

All around the pond were waterfalls crashing into the water below. Lyle walked across the wooden bridge and into the center of the island.

"Now then, here dummies will jump out of the ground. Your goal is to destroy as many of them as possible. Be warned, they have been set to fire back, so be careful." warned the guildmaster, who stepped onto the bridge and out of Lyle's magic reach. Also watching was his Alchemy teacher Elizabeth, Alex, Van, and some other guild apprentices.

Lyle stood still and closed his eyes. Focusing his energy again, he waited until he heard a sound. Suddenly, a dummy popped out of a trap door behind him and shot a fireball from a crystal in its body. Lyle ducked and spun around. Throwing the thunder, he struck the dummy and destroyed it, a sight that pleased the guildmaster.

Another came up on the other side and fired another at him. He ducked but wasn't able to concentrate quick enough to create more lightning. Suddenly, a fireball hit him in the back and sent him sprawling. Elizabeth and Alex gasped, which was quickly drowned out by Van's laughing. Getting up, he concentrated long enough to let loose another bolt of lightning at the next dummy, but was caught by surprise as another came up behind him and hit him in the back.

A dummy shot up beside him and shot a fireball at point blank range, throwing Lyle across the island. "Guildmaster! You have to stop this!" shouted Elizabeth. The guildmaster nodded and turned to the operator when they all heard an astonishing yell.

"No!" yelled Lyle as he got to his feet again. He dodged weakly until he was in the center of the island, where he was hit by three more. Falling to his knees, his uniform half burnt off, he slipped into an instant trance. All around him, Oakvale was burning. Bandits were coming at him from all sides and they all laughed maniacly as they swooped in for the kill. "I am not done yet...Not yet!" he yelled and stood to his feet.

He raised one hand in the air and started yelling a battle cry. His eyes seemed to glow as the fireballs fired at him drifted to his hand and flew in circles around it. His eyes widened and he slammed his flaming fist into the ground. Everybody around gasped in amazement as they saw the sight before them. Some even felt fear.

As Lyle hit the ground with the gathered fire, the entire island exploded like a volcano sending fire and ash flying. The dummies instantly discentigrated and the stones destroyed. A shockwave flew through the ground and nearly knocked everyone off their feet. Then, as quick as it started, it was over. Lyle fell to the ground and was immediately sought to by Alex, Elizabeth, and the guildmaster.

OoOoO

Lyle awoke in the hospital wing a few hours later. He looked at himself and noticed that he was bandaged around both arms and around his chest. He moved and found out why he was in the hospital wing, he could barely move without pain.

"Hmmm...Lyle..." mumbled a voice in the darkness next to him. He looked over and could barely make out the sleeping form of Alex. She sat in a chair next to his bed and had fallen asleep. Lyle smiled, and despite the pain, he got out of his bed and covered Alex with the blanket. Leaning over, he gently kissed her on her forehead, then left.

Walking down the hall, everything was quiet as the guild slept away the worries and troubles of the day. But, someone wasn't sleeping. Lyle heard it, a constant grunting and the sound of lightning. He silently traced the sound to the Alchemy testing area and to his surprise, he found Van practicing his will techniques. Walking to the now blackened bridge, he crossed and watched in interest.

Van's fist was covered in the bright blue glow of the lightning technique. Grunting again, he slammed his fist into the ground, making the glow disapate. "Dammit!" he yelled and fell to his knees.

"You know, the ground absorbs electricity. You'll never be able to do that with lightning." said Lyle.

Van jumped to his feet and spun around, aiming a glowing hand at the intruder. Seeing Lyle in the dull glow of the lightning, Van scowled. "What are you doing here, aren't you supposed to be dying?" he asked.

Lyle smiled. "I can see now, your jealous of something, thats why you don't like me." he said.

Van unleashed the lightning, only to have it absorbed by Lyle's lightning covered hand. "Me? Jealous of you! Ha!" he shouted.

Lyle's smile faded. "Look, just admit it alright! Whatever you are jealous about, don't be! Is it because I am taking all three classes? Maybe because I have Elizabeth as my Alchemy teacher. Well, don't just stand there looking like an idiot, what is it?" he yelled.

Van shot another lightning bolt, but it was absorbed as well. Van ran up to Lyle and yelled as he slammed a fist across his jaw. Lyle went to the ground, but quickly got up and punched Van with the fist he had absorbed the lightning with, making Van shake violently before flying across the ground. Van slowly got up and his hand started to glow red. Throwing a fireball at Lyle, he ran up to him. Lyle, distracted by the fireball didn't see Van coming and was pounced upon. Van punched Lyle many times across his jaw, yelling the entire time, "I'm not jealous of you!"

Lyle was nearly unconscious when the same killer instinct that flared in him earlier arose. Yelling out loud, he slammed both fist's onto the ground, making fire shoot from the ground like a geyser. Though not as powerful as the last one, it still did its part. Van was lifted off Lyle and scorched, then thrown onto the ground next to him.

Van panted heavily, then looked at Lyle and smiled slightly. "Its Alex." he said.

"What?"

"I'm jealous because Alex feels safe about hugging you and kissing you. She won't even look at me." he said closing his eyes. "Ever since I came here, she has looked down on me like I was just a dog. But when she looks at you, I can see love. She looks at you as more than a friend."

"She does?" asked Lyle curiously.

"What are you, blind? Of course she does. Haven't you noticed how she stares at you when you are eating together? Or how she constantly asks if you need anything?"

Lyle smiled slightly. "Not really, I've been too focused on my training to notice much of anything else." he said. He used what was left of his strength to pull himself upright.

Van followed his example and smirked. "I guess you are kinda thick." he said. Lyle looked at him, then started to laugh. Van couldn't help but laugh also, then he looked at Lyle. "Hey, by the way I've been meaning to ask you something. I came here of my own free will and Alex's parents thought it would do her some good. But you never talk about why you came here, nor does anyone else."

Lyle looked at the ground. "I didn't have a choice in coming here. A year ago, I was just an ordinary kid in an ordinary town living an ordinary life. But that changed, almost too quickly." Van nodded, interested in the story so far. "My village was attacked by bandits. They burnt the entire village in search of something that I have no knowledge of. But they killed all the villagers, including my family. I was found by Maze soon after and brought here. I and one other are the only known survivors."

Van's eyes widened. "You're kidding! You lived in Oakvale?" he asked. Lyle nodded and Van scratched his head. "Sorry about your family man." he said.

"Don't be sorry for something you didn't do." said Lyle.

"Then sorry for making everything so hard for you around here."

"Heh, I probably wouldn't be as skilled had you not."

"You aren't going to let me be sorry for anything are you?" asked Van smiling.

"Nope."

"Oh well. Oh, one more thing. Can you teach me that spell you used earlier? Not right now, I can barely walk, but I mean later."

Lyle smiled. "No problem, I think I may get to like that spell." he said.

"Why?"

"It will keep my fans away when I'm famous." said Lyle, and they both started laughing loudly.