After two back-to-back sparring sessions and using his Adrenaline Rush skill, it was fair to say Lenny was tired. His stats had been recovering quicker than last time, perhaps as his body began to adapt to the skill, or maybe just because he hadn't been in an actual life-or-death situation when he used it. Still, the payback was harsh, and he was far from at his best. At this rate, he calculated he would be at two thirds his usual speed and strength by the time the Group Warfare session was to take place. Not exactly ideal, considering he was supposed to be proving his strength to Ivy from the Drowned. He figured this was karma, punishing him for unfairly using his ability to fight against an un-spirited, instead of relying on his technique and fight IQ.
Lenny met Rose and Harry in the food hall. Today was unusual, though, as the facility had special guests visiting from the Eastern Sun. As such, the kitchen had been instructed to adopt an Asian themed menu. They served sticky tofu drenched in soy sauce with rice, a sort of tuna-like spirit beast sashimi and spicy egg rolls. This went down a treat, variation being the spice of life, and so the canteen was a lot busier than usual, with many going up for seconds and even thirds. And so, it had taken a while for the three of them to get served their food and find a free space to seat themselves.
Unlike usual, Harry was surprisingly quiet, neither upbeat nor talkative. Both Rose and Lenny had noticed this and were giving each other odd looks.
"So, how's elemental classes?" asked Rose.
"Fine," he replied, his voice flat.
"You're not being bullied, are you?" asked Lenny.
"No," he sighed.
"Then what the hell's going on? Because something's up." As Lenny said that, though, he spotted two familiar faces. It was the brother and sister who had attacked him on his first day in the Great Hall.
"It's just, I know both of you are going to train with the Drowned girl today."
"What's your problem with the Drowned?"
"You mean you don't know?" asked Harry. "I guess that's right. Maybe a little before your time."
Although Lenny had been momentarily distracted by the brother sister pair, he now turned back to concentrate on Harry, intrigued by the direction of his conversation.
"You see, my family were part of Terra Firma. Back in the day, when they were big, they were one of the Four Pillars. Actually, it wasn't even that long ago. About fifteen years. Just after I was born. Our faction replaced the Black Dragons, who were wiped out by the first Nightmare gate. There was a power vacuum and we'd long been considered next in-line, the fourth largest faction."
Rose looked at Lenny, as if asking if he knew. He raised his eyebrows and shrugged in response. History had never been either of their strong suits and the politics of factions from more than a decade ago was outside their remit. Although even they had heard of Terra Firma and were aware the earth ability was once considered strong. They just didn't know any of the specifics.
"Anyway," said Harry. "Then came the Drowned. Or the new Drowned. We'd always had friction with them. It was referred to as the Battle of Land and Sea in the press. It had been going on for years, but we'd always been considered the stronger faction, and we weren't exactly in an all-out war, more like a cold war.
"We'd been helping the Western Alliance with our earth ability, making trenches and temporary buildings on the beast planets. They'd given us weapons and armour and beast cores in return. In fact, the other pillars were worried we were getting too close. But when Maria Poole took over as leader of the Drowned that all stopped. She was young, and so no one expected things to change so quickly. In fact, they assumed the faction would be temporarily weakened by the shift in power structure. But gradually, they noticed something strange was happening.
"They'd started to claim other clans, defeating them in conflict and having them join their own. At first, it was just the ice users. The Drowned had always been primarily a single affinity faction, with a few scouting abilities as support. But when they took over the Frost Monarchs and then the Depths, they merged all powers of water, ice and sea-based transformation. It wasn't long after that, they set their targets on us. But they didn't want to bring us into the fold, they wanted to wipe us off the face of the earth.
"I'm not sure how it happened exactly, but one morning, most of the clan had disappeared. They didn't even turn up dead, there was just blood, destruction and missing people. My father had been on leave at the time, he'd taken us on holiday to the coast, ironically, considering this was where our two opposing powers met. He'd received a phone call from the Western Alliance who were offering sanctuary to any surviving members of Terra Firma. Apparently, they'd made a deal with them, with the Drowned, that they could take in what's left. Anyone who refused was fair game.
"Anyway, I don't think he believed it at first, but when he tried to get in touch with everyone, everyone he knew, they were nowhere to be found. My family worked for the government after that, till one week before I arrived at Sanctuary. One week in the Fiends and he was dead. Doesn't take too much thinking to work out why or who was responsible."
There was a long silence.
"Harry," said Rose. "You know we put you first, right? Over any factions. We don't have to go, if you don't want?"
Lenny suddenly looked at Rose. Although he was divided at this point. He had no love for the Drowned, and Harry's story was tragic, but he also knew he needed to go to the Group Warfare class if he was to get himself some new spirit cores and acquire a few more enhancements. In his present state, he had very little means of defending himself, and after seeing the strength of the Indigo sashes in his Melee Arms class, he was now aware how vast the gap in strength really was.
"No," said Harry. "Maybe it's a good thing you get to know them, learn what you can about their strengths and weaknesses. But I'll say this again: Don't trust the Drowned."
*
When they arrived at the domed building beside Prism, there were already other groups waiting there. Lenny recognised Tobias, the gravitational user, but none of the people who he was with. He recognised Charlotte too, who seemed to be with two other males, a smaller group, including a young man with a violet sash. Lenny had not seen the other violet sash before, meaning he must have been in the Transformation Arts class or Elemental Fighting, or maybe even a powerful support ability meaning he solely practiced Group Warfare. It did make him wonder who wonder be the stronger of the two, but after spotting a number '1' on the lanyard around his neck, he guessed that had answered that question.
When had Ivy and the young man fought? That must have been a part of the separate ranking that had taken place between the blue, indigo and violet sashes. Why had they required such secrecy, even between the students themselves? "Unless…" he had a sobering thought. "What if it would simply be too dangerous to allow that many powerful ability users to fight at once?" After seeing Tobias and the others, he couldn't help but feel there was some truth in this explanation. Even though Tobias had lost his fight, Lenny thought he had the stronger ability of the two and had simply made a bad choice in his tactics that day.
There were many groups there, and though Lenny thought the strongest would team up together, this was not in fact the case. Actually, most groups had a leader of the blue sash or above and then a mixed set of supporting fighters, including some yellow sashes in the mix. "I guess the way the ability complements the group becomes more important in a group battle," Lenny thought.
The group that intrigued him as much as anyone, though, was a stocky looking boy with dishevelled brown hair, and a wide nose and jaw. He had four people with him, all carrying a bow, demonstrating they were part of the Archery class. Why would someone need four archers in their group though? Actually, now he thought about it, he was surprised to see that not every group had an archer. Some would have to be using elemental abilities for range, or simply didn't consider it important enough to warrant a place in their group.
"Here," shouted someone from behind them. It was Ivy. She had three others with her, only one of which Lenny recognised. They were a blue sash ice user by the name of Drake. He'd seen him fight in one of the sparring sessions in his Melee Arms class, and he had to admit, his ice ability was strong and he'd beaten his opponent definitively, with Master Wood having to step in to save them. It was unusual for an elemental ability user to attend the Melee Arms class in the first place, but his sword skills were strong and he would use ice to either trap or attack his opponents from different angles than his main weapon.
"I didn't know if you'd show," said Ivy.
"I wanted to see what the fuss was about," Rose replied.
Ivy smiled and began to make some introductions. "Everyone, this is the healer I told you about. Her name's Rose."
"Hi," she said awkwardly, realising she was now the centre of attention.
"This is Drake, our damage dealer. This is Paige, they sort of work in tandem. And this is Lilly, our battery."
"Battery?" asked Rose.
"She can recharge us back to full strength. Not any damage, we were hoping that's where you'd come in. She can't recover spirit essence either, but your stamina, strength, speed—it'll feel just like you're fighting fresh."
Lilly spoke up: "Who are you?" she asked Lenny.
"I'm Lenny. I don't have an ability."
They all looked at one another.
"Well," said Lilly. "If you're part of our group, I can't have you going out there exhausted." She put her hand on Lenny's shoulder, and a few moments later, he felt like he was back in top-fighting shape.
"How did you know?" he asked.
"It's part of my ability. I can see when enemies are drained too."
Lenny had to admit, this was a particularly useful support ability. Effectively, she could help the group decide who to attack, and also, ensure they were at their peak, as long as she was kept safe. It was like the group set up were ensuring their strongest were maintained at their peak, rather than just doubling down on powerful ability users. He had to admit, Rose would fit in well with this group.
"What about you?" asked Rose. "What's your role? I don't even know what your ability is?"
"I do a bit of everything," Ivy smiled. "Attack, defence, utility."
"What does that even mean?" asked Lenny. He was wondering if she had an ice ability, or water, or maybe even some kind of transformation, but none of these seemed to fit that description. Not unless she had learnt to use the ability in unusual ways.
"I guess you'll find out," she said, still smiling.
The group chatted amongst themselves, until a beep and a click let them know the door was unlocking. With a sort of whoosh sound, the door opened, sliding into the wall.
"Show time," said Ivy.
But something strange occurred as Lenny walked inside of the building. His system sent him multiple notifications.
"A dangerous facility has been detected. There is a large number of spirit beasts inside. Slay the beasts for extra EXP. The locking mechanism to this facility is simple to override. Simply scan the door console. A new training ground has been unlocked: The Jade Garden. Proceed with caution."