"Today you guys will practice activating your powers. If you have any questions or issues please do not hesitate to ask." Assera stated as she started to move to the storage area she had gotten the Aptitude Crystal. She was stopped half way as Syn spoke up, loud enough to reach Assera.
"Professor, how can I practice mine? It is healing." She stated blushing at speaking without raising her hand. She was worried that she would be left behind, the thirteen year old already had the least amount of mana. Kyroth did not blame her for being worried about such things.
"O Syn, you can still activate the power even if it does not do anything. You will not be able to feel how much mana it takes to heal however. With your power the amount of mana it takes is based upon the wound. The larger it is the more mana it will take to heal." Assera stated before vanishing behind the wall.
"Do not worry Syn, you will do fine." Kyroth stated as everyone started to spread out in the room to make sure they had plenty of room away from the others. Kyroth was about to activate his own power when Assera came back from the storage room with a glowing crystal the size of a chair.
Sitting it on her desk next to the chalkboard she just watched as everyone was practicing. Kyroth watched in turn seeing Charvor send a blast of energy forward shattering a chair in the corner. What shocked him most was Ia, he had almost forgotten about her to be honest. In her corner she stood there with a glowing set of armor over her body. It looked to be made out of leather with a animal fur on the back. The glow of it caused her scar to stand out more then normal and he turned away quickly. Her sharp dangerous eyes catching him looking at her.
Ash was on the other side of the room as a minor glow covered his legs. With a quick motion he was on the other side of the room. Kyroth remembered then that Ash also had Augment, but why did it only cover his legs. His mind recalled Vesk telling him that he had Full Augment but at the time not really understanding what he had meant. Shrugging he turned to see Syn concentrating as a wave of energy left her hands for a small period before it stopped she was already out of breath.
Assera's eyes were on Kyroth waiting on him to show what he could do. He was unsure if it was due to the fact that she knew about his unique case or because she wanted everyone to activate there powers before she would move on to whatever that large glowing crystal was for.
Closing his eyes he felt the mana and pulled causing it to flow throughout his body. Opening his eyes everything came into focus as he dashed across the room as well sliding to a stop inches from the wall underestimating his speed. Kyroth chuckled a bit as he turned back to the rest of the room.
Ash was staring at him, confusion on his face. Behind him others were watching as well as Kyroth glowed a light blue color, he could feel the mana slowly draining from his body but at a slower pace then the night of the bandit attack.
"Why does his whole body glow and mine does not?" Ash asked, Kyroth sensed a bit of anger in his voice as he asked it turning to Assera. She smiled lightly as she folded her hands into her lap.
"He is a unique case, just like Charvor is with two elements. Kyroth Awakened with the power known generally as Full Augment. It is a advanced form of the one you Awakened with Ash, it amplifies his entire body but has a much higher mana cost. My guess is when he Awakened the mana cost of it probably almost killed him from mana burn." Assera added as she slid off the desk.
"Seems unfair." Ash stated as he let the blue light fade from his legs crossing his arms the muscles in them flexing. Nivora was also watching him with a mixture of curiosity and disdain. She seemed to see him as the competition instead of a teammate.
"Everyone is different, do you feel that Charvor's dual elements is unfair?" Assera stated not giving him any time to reply before moving on. "This crystal behind him is a Mana Crystal, this one has just raw mana. It can be used to quickly draw mana out of it to refill your own reserves. Today however I will be using it myself while I tether myself to all of you. This will give you a huge boost in your mana pool allowing you to practice as much as you can. This will not however do anything for you stamina so please take breaks. If you could raise your hand when you are ready for a break I will sever the tether so as to conserve my own mana." Assera explained to the class. Waiting for the acknowledgement of the class to start the process.
Once everyone nodded Assera laid her hand on the crystal as it grew a bit brighter a aura surrounding her hand. Taking a sharp breath her eyes widened a bit before she composed herself. "That feeling never gets old." She muttered more to herself then the class. With rapid motions she threw a ball of energy into each student causing a visible line of light from them to her. Kyroth felt the same thing he had before from Vesk every part of his body hummed with mana.
Kyroth focused again, this time on just his legs trying to see if he could choose what part of the body he could augment. To his surprise it worked, his legs alone started glowing, he could feel the difference in mana cost as he did so. Bursting with speed over to Ash he slid to a stop. "How about a race?" He asked him smiling.
"We are supposed to be practicing casting our spells." Ash growled his legs starting to glow blue as well. "But you are so going to lose." He stated a small smile appearing on his face as he took off.
"Cheater." Kyroth yelled after him as he started to follow trying to keep up noticing that even augmented that Ash was a bit faster then him. The two dodged pieces of furniture with simple movements. A sly smile came over Kyroth as he came next to the wall and leaped up running across the wall. Half a hour later the two of them were collapsed against the wall panting. Raising a hand Assera removedthe tether. Kyroth probably had a fourth of his mana left even with the tether he had went through a large amount.
"That was actually pretty fun. Maybe with practice you can get to a full augment Ash. Have you tried doing more then your legs at one time?" He asked through heavy breaths. While he had the man at least somewhat open to interaction he wanted to try and break down some of those walls.
"I did after seeing yours. For some reason I could not get it to spread, it would just switch to the part I was trying to add." Disappointment was in his voice, he tried to mask it but with the exhaustion from running he was not that successful.
Kyroth nodded letting silence fill them for a few minutes. "Well, we are just now learning about spells maybe it something else besides just willing it to happen. I mean when she explained it like that seemed like it would be simple to learn new spells." Kyroth stated his breathing slowing down his eyes watching the others.
Nivora and Charvor had actually followed Kyroth and Ash's idea and were sending blasts of magical energy at each other. Sometimes Nivora would change i up and throw up a wall to prevent his spells from hitting her allowing her to take a moments breather. Isen and Ia were still in there separate corners and from what he could tell they were just forming and canceling there respective spells.
In the middle of the room sat Syn, the tether was off of her as well, she was breathing quite deeply a book in her hand. Waving to Ash he started to move across the room when he slammed into a shimmering wall. Holding he face he looked over to see Nivora smirking at him before turning back to Charvor. "That was low." Kyroth whispered to himself a small smile on his face though.
Concentrating he made his way around the almost invisible shimmering wall to sit next to Syn. "How are you doing?" Kyroth asked as he glanced down to see what book she was reading. It was a book about the history of Serenity Academy. He had seen it in the living room when he browsed the books but had not picked it up.
"I am doing okay, just cannot seem to go as long as the rest of you." Her breathing was not as bad as before but clearly it was still a task for her. She looked up her eyes were red, from the looks of it she had been crying a little bit.
"Hey, do not beat yourself up. We are all different, just keep at it and you will grow. Do not judge yourself based on what we can do. As long as you keep moving forward that is really all you can do. I bet you know more then most of us do about other things." Kyroth stated bumping her with his shoulder smiling. He hated seeing her this way, not to mention the fact that the others seemed to not care.
"I know, but it is hard to feel good when everyone else can last so long and do such cool things." Syn stated weakly closing the book putting it aside. It was not until then that Kyroth noticed her bright blue eyes. It was strange that he had not noticed it before, shaking his head he continued trying to comfort her.
"I mean look at me, I was the only one to not know about the eight elemental areas of Serenity Island. I might have been given a powerful starting spell, but you guys know more than me. Dumb luck in the long run does not beat out hard work and preparation." Kyroth added.
"But at least you are doing well." She weakly added with a sigh. Kyroth sighed at that, he had to figure out a way to make her feel better he just did not really know how.
"So how did your powers activate?" It was a sore subject for most of them he figured, Vesk had stated most manifest when you are in great distress.
A few minutes passed before Syn spoke, "My mother had an accident, she fell. A sharp piece of metal pierced through her. So much blood was coming from the wound, my father was away at the market and it was just me. I was trying to stop the bleeding when my hands started to glow. Before my very eyes the wound started to close up." Syn stated, her body started to shake a little remembering the experience.
"I am so sorry Syn, that must have been terrible." Kyroth stated trying to comfort her but not really knowing how. "Just remember without your healing powers she would have died. You might not have what you call cool powers, but being able to heal those hurt is a gift I would not be upset about having."
Her cheeks flushed with color at the end of Kyroth's little speech. "Thank you, when you put it like that, it does make it a little better." She whispered.
Looking up he saw that the crystal Assera was using was almost completely dark. Exhaustion covered her face as she continued to hold the tethers to the remaining people. Finally she cut the connections and slid to the ground.
"Good job class, I have never seen a group pick up on casting quite as fast as you. Usually takes most of the day if not two." Assera stated through deep breaths. "Go get lunch, be back here when the schedule says to. Weakly she waved her hand shoeing them away from the room.