Drea was taken through the city to get to the training area after she changed back into a brand new Kaienshi uniform. All she could do was gawk and stare at everything around her. They were in a forest, but it was more industrialized with the wooded buildings dotted in a seemingly random pattern. Some looked older and some newer, but they exuded the feeling of history. Some of them stayed brown like the bark, but others were white or gray with a blue or green roof. It left Drea wondering if they’d built all this themselves. It had certainly advanced since she had been in Korena’s body.
They walked with the two girls in the front and the two guys in the back. Drea was stuck in the center by herself. She felt alone. Danny’s actions left her wondering if they were still friends, but she knew she couldn’t let it distract her from her training.
They arrived at the training area in about ten minutes, which was an underground room the size of an Olympic swimming pool. The ceiling, walls, and floor were all gray. A stairwell led them into the darkness until someone hit a light switch on the side of the wall, igniting small, round lights at regular intervals.
“It’s nice that you’ve finally come,” said a strong female voice. She walked down from another set of stairs off to the left and stood in front of them, spewing confidence and leadership. This woman must’ve been the ruler of Koracan.
Drea noticed that her four escorts had kneeled behind her, but she didn’t feel a need to do the same. Danny and the others hadn’t told her anything about this woman, but it was obvious she was in charge. Drea stood tall as this woman walked toward her, a stern expression on her face.
“Why haven’t you kneeled?” It wasn’t an accusation, but an honest question.
“I see no reason to kneel to someone whom I have no knowledge of.” Drea straightened her back and looked the woman in the eyes.
The woman raised an eyebrow. “You’re an interesting one. Crafty with your words.” The woman stood next to Drea to address the four others: “Why haven’t you told her about me?”
They all hesitated, so she continued, “I received a report that the Lori now have all the artifacts, but you shouldn’t have taken her here without my permission. Exactly how much of her situation have you really told her?”
The four of them looked away and hesitated again. It was clear that none of them could respond. Shena looked up to try and answer, but the woman cut her off. “I will do this myself.”
Quicker than Drea could see, the woman reached out and grabbed her face, covering it with her hand. Drea could see through the slots in her fingers for about a second before her vision changed again. It had been a while since her last vision, but the woman had caused this one. She could feel her body fall to the ground limply. It must’ve looked like she was dead.
Drea eyes remained open this time, but she still couldn’t see out of them. She was aware of her entire body, but her other senses had been taken from her. She could only see blackness.
Images and information began to pour into her mind incessantly, jumbling themselves together in a mush. S- stop! She yelled, but nothing happened. There was no response, and when she realized they weren’t stopping, she tried to calm down and absorb it in.
It slowed down gradually, giving Drea the chance to actually make sense of it. She saw the woman who gave her the vision and heard a voice say “Wren.” That must’ve been her name. Judging from the images, Wren became the leader of the Kaienshi many years ago when her parents passed. She was known for her immense power and leadership.
That’s when Drea saw images of Koracan. It was where they trained all the Kaienshi. She could see all the former Weaponsmasters and their training there. It seeped into her mind and burrowed into her skull. She instantly knew how they trained and what she would need to do to be even stronger than them.
The images blurred out of control without her intent suddenly. Drea had no control over what she was seeing anymore, but was still somehow able to remember it. She felt herself blink a few times until her vision began to come back into focus. She was lying on her side, looking out in front of her. Danny, Shena, John, and Toni were still kneeling, but were looking up at something now when they weren’t looking at her.
Wren was speaking. “You know you have no place doing this. She needs to see that.” Her calm expression was irritating, but it was even more annoying to the person standing across from her. Zen was in his horse form and she could tell he was just about ready to explode. He kept his hands clenched and his eyes trained on Wren. Drea knew he had an incredibly short temper, and that calm expression she wore wasn’t helping.
He didn’t respond, but just stood there, livid with anger. Drea had to do something before this got out of control. She tried to rise, but her body was weak and only got up on her elbows, her liquid-like brown hair still touching the cement.
“Zen,” she said as loud as she could muster, but her voice was scratchy and weak. Drea tried to rise further, but couldn’t. She flipped her hair out of her face and looked straight at him. His anger instantly turned to concern.
Drea took a few seconds to catch her breath, keeping her eyes on Zen. She continued to rise, feeling her strength seep back into her. Zen stood silently with Wren as she rose, whose expression hadn’t changed. She formed a staff with his fire to help her get to her feet. Once she had risen, she nodded almost imperceptibly to Zen. He looked back at Wren with contempt, and turned himself to dust which dissolved into Drea. She rose to her full height, which was about a foot less than Wren, and looked at her sharply.
“And I don’t care who you are, you have no right to speak to him like that or knock me out. If you want my help or cooperation, you need to respect me like you want me to respect you.” It was immediately obvious that Wren had never been talked to like that by a “subordinate.”
Wren came up to Drea menacingly, looking down on her with those piercing auburn eyes. The four others in the background stared at them, sitting so still that they looked like they’d stopped breathing. They probably did, thought Drea. Wren stopped a few inches in front of her, forcing Drea to look up in order to see her eyes.
“Very well,” she said quietly. “I didn’t come here to fight with the Weaponsmaster, but I did what needed to be done.” Then Drea heard her say, You will need listen to me if you want to keep yourself and everyone else safe.
Wren turned to address Danny and others then, “Train her. If the Lori really do have the last artifact, she’ll need to learn quickly.” She turned and went through the stairway that she entered from. She would probably be watching from somewhere.
“Wow Andrea,” said John with a smile on his face. “I’ve never seen anyone talk back to Wren before.”
“Yeah, you’d better keep yourself in check if you want to last around here,” Shena said as if she knew everything.
It was quiet for a few minutes until Toni said, “Well why don’t we get started with your training?”
* * * * *
The first matchup was between Shena and Drea. This should be interesting, thought Drea as she waited for Shena to draw her weapon. Danny, John, and Toni had gone into the other room to watch. It was only a small room with a piece of Plexiglas so they could see the fight. Nothing too special.
Shena reached over her back and drew her huge sapphire blue sword. It was about three feet long and at least half a foot wide, its blue sparkles glowing under the dim light.
Of course she would have a weapon like that. It matched her attitude. Abrasive and tough.
This was her first real fight with a Kaienshi, but Drea didn’t miss a beat. She let her aura flow through her veins and into her hands. It filled her with energy and made her feel strong.
There was a pang in her heart as she thought about her previous battles with Danny. She missed his friendship, but he didn’t seem to care too much for her anymore. It was time to prove herself, and she wouldn’t let her emotions get in her way.
The huge axe-like scythe that she loved appeared in her right hand with the chain hanging from the handle wrapped around her arm. In the other hand, the spiked glove appeared. She had gotten very used to these weapons, and had a hunch these would be the two she mastered.
Shena narrowed her eyebrows and took the first strike. She’s fast! thought Drea as Shena rushed towards her. Drea barely had time to raise her weapon to block Shena’s attack. Metal clashed on metal as their weapons collided in a shower of orange sparks. Her expression turned from anger to surprise as Shena outmaneuvered her and kicked her backwards. She rushed to Drea, not missing a beat. Drea jumped and rolled out of the way, landing in a kneeling position.
She really will kill me. Drea was breathing hard. This battle just started; I’m not going to lose yet.
Drea rose to her feet, keeping her eyes locked on Shena. This was a serious fight for her, and Drea wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of knowing she had won.
Drea ran towards her, closing her eyes to focus only on Shena’s aura. Got you. Drea heard the metal clash as she hit Shena. She opened her eyes to see Shena trying to keep her weapon up while Drea pushed it down.
That’s when Shena dropped her weapon and disappeared. Before Drea knew what happened, Shena was behind her, ready to go for the kill.
Drea let her weapons disintegrate and turned to block the hit. This would be a battle of martial arts. The two of them tried for what seemed like forever to get the upper hand in the battle of the hands and feet. Drea had gotten so much of her skill from Shawn, and now it was coming in handy. She was tiring down Shena, until Shena got a hold of her sword again anyway.
Shena looked extremely tired of this, but Drea wasn’t going to give up so easily. Shena rushed towards her at light speed; it really looked like she was actually bent on killing Drea now, which was very possible. She didn’t even wait for Drea to draw her weapon, but luckily Drea had time to react before she was cut into strips.
She drew her thin dagger that Danny had given her so long ago from her ankle strap. I’ll end this now, she thought as she planned out her next attack.
Shena came in close, trying to get her shoulder, but Drea bent down out of her way, giving her the perfect chance to stab Shena in the stomach. A millisecond before Drea stopped and called truce, Shena used her speed to get out of the way and came up behind Drea. She grabbed Drea by the neck and threw her back against the wall, hard.
Drea felt the wind race out her, as if it was scared to even be caught in her lungs. She fell on her side, gasping for air. Shena had grabbed her throat harder than she thought. Her knife clattered to the floor.
Drea got up on her elbows and stared at Shena with contempt. She didn’t even look like she cared that she’d won.
“If you can’t even beat me, you don’t deserve to be Weaponsmaster.” She walked out of the room and up to where the others had been watching.
Drea was so angry that she let fire escape freely out of her hands by accident, making her fists glowing balls of red and orange. She lifted one to look at it; her hand was completely immersed in fire, yet she wasn’t burning. It was beautiful and strange at the same time. Zen. We really must be one.
She felt his agreement emanate from his aura. Will you help me be stronger? I have to get stronger, I need to be stronger…
Zen made no comment, but she could feel his “yes” in his aura. Drea wanted to save everyone, and as angry as it made her to admit it, Shena was right. If Drea couldn’t beat her, she had no hope of beating Alka.
I will become stronger, and I will prove all of you wrong.