Chapter 104 Back To Classes

Chapter 104 Back To Classes
CASSIE'S POV 

I opened up my eyes and immediately coughed out water from my lungs. 

"Cassie! What happened this time? Are you hurt?" Jake asked, holding my face. 

My jaw still ached slightly. 

"I'm okay. Just encountered a little water." I mutter, touching my head. 

"Are you sure you can continue? Do you need to take a break?" He asked. 

"No!... I mean, no. I'm fine." I almost yell but tried to keep my voice steady. 

He just won't stop with trying to talk me out of this. 

He nodded quietly and didn't say anything else. 

After a while, I heard from someone that Sage was okay and had been taken to the clinic to get checked. 

I felt relieved and ready to dive right back. 
Just a few more people to go and the Voreth would be left without a host. 

~

I struggled but I successfully got Greg, Nick, Gia, and Stacy out from the Voreth's trap and they were all taken to the clinic to get some treatment. 

The Elementals were left with the dark blue mist that floated inside the magical sphere acting as a shield.  I asked Jake to take me to see it for myself. I wanted to see for sure that the Voreth was now powerless.

"It's time to properly get rid of this entity." Principal Bellweather said.

"The entity cannot be fully destroyed. All we can do is trap it in a place it won't ever get out." Mr Winchester said.

"Well then what are we waiting for? Let's put it where it belongs once and for all." Instructor Ryke added.

The four elder Elementals pushed the sphere with them all together with their joint powers, and moved it the school's underground basement I didn't even know existed where they sealed up the entity with pieces from the wardstone, and recited an ancient binding spell to completely seal it off.

~

For the rest of the week, some of the ruined buildings that got affected were on repair by the builder Earth elementals.

BOOM. CRACK. RUMBLE.

Everywhere was loud and busy as they were fixing walls, pulling up new stone, growing trees back where the Voreth had snapped them.  

By Wednesday, you could walk the grounds without stepping on broken glass.

By Friday, the smell of dust was gone.  

By Sunday night, if you didn’t know better, you’d think nothing ever happened here.

But we all knew better. 

Because Monday morning the school's bell rang loudly at 6 AM. 

I groaned while tossing around in my bed. "I can't believe classes resume today." I mumbled.

"Of course. We might have overcome the Voreth, but we still have something much more bigger coming. The war." Madeleine said with the dryer in her hands. She was already up and almost ready for classes.

Right. The war.

"I better go get ready." I say, propping up from my bed, heading right to the bathroom.

~

Our first class for the day happened to be combat classes.

The arena was already packed with students when we arrived.

Instructor Ryke briefly addressed everybody before matching two students to kick off the first lesson.

Damon vs Jake.  

Water vs Fire.  

I frowned at the match because I didn't want to see them hurting each other.

But everyone seemed to be interested in this particular match.

Jake was already in the ring quickly without wasting much time, rolling his shoulders, flames dancing between his fingers. 

Damon walked in a minute later with water slowly curling around his wrists.

Instructor Ryke stood between them.  

"Rules," he said. "First to yield loses. No lethal hits must be used. And most importantly no permanent damage. This is a simple assessment, not an execution."  

He looked at both of them. "Understood?"  

Damon grinned. "Loud and clear."  

Jake just nodded.  

"Begin."  The second Instructor Ryke said it, the air seemed to change.

Jake didn’t waste time. He slammed both palms down and the floor under him lit up. A wave of fire shot across the ground straight at Damon.  

Damon didn’t flinch. He raised one hand and the humidity in the air condensed. A wall of water rose up, met the fire, and hissed.

Steam from the contact clouded everywhere. The whole front row started coughing.  

"That’s it?" Jake's voice came through the steam. "I expected more, Wash up."  

Then he was through it.  

He came out of the cloud moving fast with his fist on fire, aiming for Damon's ribs.  

Damon twisted, caught Jake's wrist with a splash of water, and used the momentum to throw him down.

Jake hit the ground, rolled, and came up quickly.

And then it was just chaos.  

Jake threw fireballs. Big ones that might leave scorch marks on walls.  

Damon fired back with whips of water, quenching the balls and creating bursts of steam that made it impossible to see three feet in front of you.  

Jake melted the floor and tried to trap Damon's feet into the ground. Damon secretly froze the puddles and made the whole ring slick so Jake kept slipping.  

They were fast so that people couldn't make out the ice Damon had just used quickly. But because I knew about it, i immediately knew he used ice.

Every hit they landed on each other made a sound that made my teeth ache.  

Fire crackled and Water crashed.  

And the students was losing it with their 'oohs and their ahhs' with every hit that was made.

At this point, I wasn't rooting for anyone of them to win. I just wanted the fight to stop.

Jake jumped high in the air, both his hands up, and pulled fire from the air itself. A massive round fireball, right above his head.  
"Let’s see you block THIS!"  

Damon slammed both palms to the ground. Water shot up from underneath, from the pipes, from the air, from everywhere.
It met the fireball mid-air.  

Then BOOOOM.

Steam. There was so much steam.

When it cleared, both of them were on their knees, breathing hard.  

Damon had a burn across his forearm and Jake had a cut above his eyebrow that was bleeding into his eye.  

Neither of them had yielded though.

Instructor Ryke jumped into the ring. "Enough! Both of you. I told you no big moves. To the infirmary. Now."  He commanded.

Damon wiped blood off his mouth and grinned at Jake. "Not bad, dragon breath."  

Jake simply chuckled. "Right back at you. Wash up."

Jake's eyes somehow found mine on their way out.

"Are you okay?" he mouthed to me.

I nodded at him.

He was the one bleeding and yet he's asking me if I was okay. 

Crazy boy.

As they walked out, instructor Ryke immediately called out two more people into the ring.

David and Greg.

~

"Your mom's really handling this class?" I asked Madeline once we were seated in our second class for the day.

"Yeah. Isn't it exciting?" Madeline seemed happy to be attending her mother's class which I found lovely and scary.

I don't think I could ever take it if my mom was my teacher in my school.

Mrs. Stone was standing in front of the board, with her arms crossed.

"Everyone settle down, and pay as much attention as you can," she announced.

"In this class, I need you to forget the ideologies you might have about fire being the strongest or water the most flexible, Air the most unpredictable. Because in a real war setting, earth wins."  She said proudly and the earth students cheered her on while others scoffed and mumbled disapprovingly.

She slammed her hand on the desk and the floor trembled.  

Everyone was quiet again.

A vine shot up from a small crack and wrapped around her wrist, then let go.  

"Earth is not just about rocks, children. Earth is everything that stays in place."  

Then She started writing on the board.

♦ 
EARTH ELEMENT: PROPERTIES
1\. Growth - plants, crops, forests. Feed an army or starve it.  
2\. Decay - rot, rust, bone. Kill without touching.  
3\. Metal - iron, steel in weapons. Control of the battlefield.  
4\. Stone - walls, shields, prisons. The only element that can block the other three completely.
♦

"Now, lets talk about the elements and their weaknesses. We'll start with Earth."

"First weakness to learn about this element," she said, turning to us. "Earth tends to be slower in reaction. And you have to be touching the ground to use it. Lift an earth elemental being in the air and they’re useless."  

"Second weakness. Fire can burn roots, affecting the growth of trees from beneath the ground. Water erodes stone, making the solid weak and eventually collapse. Air dries soil to dust, reducing the heavy impact from the soil."  

"Third weakness. Earth elementals are the most stubborn. They tend not to adapt fast."  

"You see the people we’re fighting have extra powers within the elements tree. Not just the basics of these elements we've come to get used to."  

She snapped her fingers. The lights dimmed and an illusion appeared in the air.  

"Bone mages. Necromancers. All of them use earth as a base for their craft." She looked at us. "You need to understand how they use that part of the element. Or you will die in the first hour of the war."  

For the next 30 minutes she drilled the whole class. Most especially, the earth students.

How to sense footsteps through the ground.  

How to pull iron from the ground and make a stronger shield against attacks.

How to grow a wall in 4 seconds flat.  

How to listen to the earth.  

"Test on Friday students. You will be buried up to your neck with my element and expected to get out using your various creative ways using your own elements. Class Dismissed."  

Everyone groaned. Except me.

I didn't really know if that test applied to me as well.

As we filed out, Mrs. Stone stopped me. "Cassie."  

"Yes?"  

"You will also be participating in the test." She informed me as if she just read my mind.

Hey I thought that was my power.

"But, what am I supposed to do against being buried?"

"I'm sure you'll figure something out. We need now more than ever to know the limits of your power and how they work or clash with other elements." 

"But..."
"No buts, dear. See you during the test," She walked away before I could ask more.  

Great. 

I just hope I don't embarrass myself that day. 

~