Rise Of Faeries Book I : Ascension

Chapter 29 - Pay Back

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7 years ago

14-year-old Kairo panted as she supported herself on her knees.

"Come on, piccola. You are not focused." Her uncle Sirius admonished, his raven hair falling I'm into his electric blue eyes.

"Phasing is hard. Why is this a war skill again?"

"It's a rare skill. Only a few can use it, including our family. You can avoid attacks when they come incessantly and you are not prepared for them or you can use it as a surprise for your opponents, if you are lucky they may end up striking each other. All you need is to gather all your energy into your core and will your body to phase in and out of existence," Sirius lectured. "But there is a limitation as to where you can phase to, that's the difference between phasing and teleportation."

"Okay, let's try again."

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Kairo gathered up her energy from within, its presence changed her eyes to ice snow.

Brandon moved first, he pulled rocks scattered around the arena. He aimed them at Kairo and shot them at her. Luc immediately followed suit, throwing ice at her.

The whole arena held its breath.

Kairo spread both her hands, halting the attacks mid-air.

"What in the gods!" Branden exclaimed.

"How did she do that?" Luc echoed.

As though in agreement, they decided to fling themselves at her, each aiming a punch at her midsection. Targeting the place they assaulted last night. That's when Kairo disappeared along with their halted stones and ice.

It was too late when they comprehended what was happening as each other's punch landed on the other, throwing them backwards on their backs. The whole arena gasped, Xaden and Rayland stood from where they sat and the professors watched with wide eyes.

When Kairo phased back, she was three feet away from her first position. Her eyes glared up at Joseline, she remembered the smug look in her face and the way she painfully pulled her hair. Her temper flared. She pulled back her right hand, alongside the ice shards and created a half arc above her head, halting it there. She then pulled back her left hand, creating a similar half arc from beneath the first one, aligning the two. Ice on top and stones beneath, and then she thrust them towards Joseline.

She had been watching her all along and her eyes widened at the incoming assault. Summoning her green flames, Joseline spluttered the ice and stone shards. Her hazel eyes glared up at Kairo, "What the hell was that? Some sort of show off?"

"No, show off is beneath me." Kairo summoned the blue flames she had mastered to conjure, her eyes shifted from ice snow to golden, "It's pay back time." And then she threw fireballs at her.

Joseline ducked and rolled out of the way, creating fireballs of her own and haulting them Kairo's way. But as she did with Brandon's stones and Luc's ice, Kairo halted Joseline's fire and fired it back to her.

Joseline tried to dissipate the flames, but she underestimated the force at which it came hurtling at her. Although she managed to diffuse the fireball, the force threw her back, sending her to the ground.

Silence reigned around the arena. Every eye watched wide-eyed, no one expected the display they saw. Someone clapped, his laugh bouncing off the walls, "It's been a while since I saw such an interesting display."

All eyes turned to the new comer. He stood by the upper entrance of the arena, his black hair hung around him like a curtain and his shrewd ivy eyes watched Kairo.

"Deputy Headmaster Aurelious." Professor Mariana greeted. "To what do we owe the visit?"

"I heard there was new KAIST, so I came to watch. I am impressed, I think I will watch the rest," he replied.

Kairo reigned in her feelings, it made her feel better to fight back, she needed to stop letting people bully her. Especially because she wasn't defenseless or clueless, she could defend herself perfectly.

She walked off the arena to stand where Cassian and Amaira were, they were watching her with varying looks. Cassian had confusion and concern marred on his while Amaira was half concerned and half proud.

"Don't ask," she told them immediately.

"That's not fair." Amaira pouted," Your abilities are confusing me. Isn't it that you don't have any active powers?"

"I did ...I mean I do. This is my power. I can manipulate energy of all things around me. Like I did with the ice shards and the stones, even Joseline's fire," Kairo explained.

The duo nodded, leaving the conversation at that although they weren't satisfied. Kairo watched with pride as Amaira easily deflected her opponents and there was no need to say anything about Cassian, he was a natural.

It was the girl with the saffron eyes that was interesting. She was physically weak compared to her opponents but there was a strange calmness about her that intrigued Kairo. Her opponents, underestimated her as well, they smirked and scoffed to themselves at her sight.

A boy charged at her. He was scrawny and tall but you could tell he had fighting skills packed somewhere in there. He moved swiftly and calculatively, but he was lax with his guard down. The saffron eyed girl did not need to move to counter attack, her eyes just glowed purple and the boy fell to the ground, screaming everyone deaf.

The other two opponents stood uncertain. They shared dubious glances before a girl with magenta hair shrugged and then charged. But unlike the previous boy, she used her power and threw wind blades at the girl. It was truly impressive, she had ran towards saffron girl and threw back her hand as though throwing a shot put.

The blades were barely visible to the naked eye except Kairo was watching all this via her energy and could see the traces of the blades. "Impressive," she muttered quietly to herself.

Instead of impaling the girl however, the blades redirected vertically, creating some sort of halo atop the girl's head. If anyone was impressed by Kairo's fighting display, they were even more impressed by this one.

"I have never met or seen a mind fairy before. It is true, they are amazing," Cassian said coolly.

"Amazing is downplaying it, the girl is the boss!" Amaira exclaimed excitedly.

Kairo silently agreed, her eyes glued to the fight inside the arena. Her lips parted in surprise, her mouth forming an 'O' , when the girl thrust the blades back to their sender. But along the way they changed shape into miniature arrows, their speed towars their target doubling. Magenta girl did not see this coming as her wind blades now turned arrows shot her backwards in a ferocious force, and she landed on her back.

Once again the arena was quiet before another booming clap echoed around the arena. "Absolutely impressive! I am glad I stayed!" Deputy Headmaster Aurelious laughed, his eyes shone with pure "Impressive, indeed." Professor Mariana walked up to the center of the arena, her frown etched on her face, "It seems KAIST will have its members for their own ... orientation?"

She sneered at that last part. Her nose hanging in the air as she regarded the elite students. Everyone looked up at them as well, they didn't move just sat there, watching disinterested.

They are surely stuck up. Kairo thought, shaking her head as she turned her eyes towards saffron girl. Her head was bent low, despite being the main victor of this entire charade.

"Please, follow me."

Kairo jumped at Rayland's voice. She wondered when he had stood up and arrived where they were. His eyes were hard and his lips thinned. He didn't seemed pleased at escorting them. Again.

They followed him without reservations though and without looking back. Kairo sighed, she had no idea why she was so eager to come to this school, nothing was as she had hoped.