Chapter 13: Resolve
As Shimon finished his story he began to weep uncontrollably, all those painful memories were just too much for him to bear.
Arnik sat opposite him stunned, everything made sense now. This was why his father had spent so many years slaving away at the Frost mansion, this was how he had gotten the Soulrune and most shocking of all he was a halfling. His thoughts were all muddled up and he began to feel dizzy.
He quickly shook this feeling away and stood up, he moved to where his father was still seated on the bed and embraced the older man. His father still weeping began apologizing,
"I'm sorry kiddo, I'm sorry for being a failure of a father" he cried.
Arnik simply looked at his father and cleaned the tears that were on his face,
" You're not a failure," he said smiling, "You're the best dad there is".
His father stared at him at a loss for words and then simply hugged him. As soon as his face was out of his father's view however his expression changed.
" In this world, only the strong are acknowledged, it's the universal rule," he thought to himself.
"If so, there's only one logical thing for me to do then, GET STRONGER!!!".
He spent some more time with his dad telling him about how the school had been so far. He conveniently skipped the fighting part but told him about his progress. Shimon was amazed but more importantly, he was proud of his son's achievements, after a short while Arnik left for school.
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Immediately Arnik got to school, he went straight to his hostel. He was thinking of how to maximize the Soulrune he had within him to its full potential and ultimately get much stronger, he did this for a while before deciding to go see Olea the next day, she had always helped him in the past so why not now, after this, he drifted to sleep.
He woke up bright and early the next day and got ready to go see Olea. Like the students, the teachers also stayed in the school so he was sure she would be around. He quickly left for her office but wasn't surprised to find it locked, he decided to wait for her to arrive
Olea arrived a few minutes later and was surprised to see Arnik waiting in front of her office, she had last seen him in the infirmary while he was unconscious. Without a word she opened the door and entered her office with Arnik in tow. She sat down at her desk and told Arnik to sit opposite her. She observed the boy for a while, something about his demeanor had changed, he wasn't smiling like he usually did and there was pure determination oozing from him, there was just a touch of desperation as well.
"How can I help you today Arnik?" she asked staring directly at him,
" Olea, I need to get stronger, fast and I don't know what to do " he answered leaning forward till he was just a few inches from her face, she smiled at him and he realized how close they were, he quickly recoiled in embarrassment.
She sighed and began typing something on her computer, she then pointed to the giant screen behind Arnik who followed her gesture and turned to face the screen as well. The screen flickered a bit before coming to life, images from the fight between Gerdi and Rowan leading to Arnik's intervention and eventual fight with Gerdi played on the screen.
Once the video was finished Olea who was now sitting at her table next to Arnik spoke,
" Now after watching this fight, what are your observations "
Arnik thought for a while, replaying the images of the fight in his head, he then looked at Olea and began speaking,
" Gerdi is adept at hand-to-hand combat, not only that he's also very good at using his elemental affinity well in close combat fights".
Olea nodded in acceptance before speaking,
" If it came down to raw destructive power, you would overpower him, even if he didn't know that at first, he eventually understood that.
He was able to quickly process that information while the fight was going on and created a counter for it. "
She reminded the video of when Arnik had shot some fireballs at Gerdi and began playing the video again while still speaking,
" Watch how he's able to defend against ranged attacks and quickly counter-attack"
She then sped up the video to where they were fighting with fists,
" See how he's able to switch comfortably from ranged to close combat, he's taking information as it comes, quickly processing it, and then reacting with a counter ".
Arnik was watching in earnest, everything Olea said was right, during the fight while he was simply fighting and doing whatever came to him naturally, Gerdi had been fighting with calculated movements.
Olea was speaking again,
" Your greatest weakness in a fight right now is your lack of combat experience. Asides from that, you lack the appropriate gear as well as resources to aid you properly in a fight. Also, this is probably a hunch, but I'm assuming that you have no training in any fighting style whatsoever ", she let out a sigh before continuing,
"Listen, you have potential Arnik, as a mage you are one of the fastest I've ever met and after reviewing that fight, I can tell that you can also be a good fighter as well, but nobody in this world survives on potential alone, you need resources and to get those you need money, lots and lots of it. It'll be hard but I think I know a way, it should help you with learning how to fight as well as making some money on the side.
Considering you're still in school and have to study and cultivate your mana as well, it'll be hard and you'll have to make some sacrifices but trust me it'll be worth it".
She turned her head to look him directly in the face, " What do you say, are you up for it?" she asked.
Arnik clenched his fist remembering everything that his father had told him as well as his earlier resolve to become stronger, he said " Yes I am, when do we start?".
Olea nodded, satisfied with his response
" I need to speak to a friend first, meet me during lunch tomorrow ".
Arnik nodded and rose to leave the office quietly, he was ready.
He left the staff building with plans to study a bit before going to the infirmary to see Rowan and then spend the rest of the day training. Just as he was approaching the library, he saw Vaella pyro, surrounded by a group of girls, "Her posse" he thought to himself. They consisted of girls from the other classes below the elite class and they were all first years.
Arnik had just passed them when he heard an authoritative feminine voice from behind him,
"Hey you", he stopped and turned to see Vaella right in front of him. Even though they were in the same class, he had never spoken to Vaella, if anything he had avoided her because of her temper, not like she would have anything to say to him anyway.
" What do you want?" Arnik asked, he was in a generally bad mood and couldn't care enough to spend time talking to her.
" Quite rude of you " Vaella responded," Anyways I watched your fight a few days back and I must say, I am impressed".
"And?" Arnik responded,he was rapidly getting irritated and Vaella high strung attitude wasn't helping.
"And I want you to come work for the Pyro family, as you know we have a very good relationship with the Frost family and we ca-"
" No, " Arnik said bluntly and turned to leave.
Vaella was livid, " Who do you think you're talking to, you piece of shit" the surrounding environment suddenly became very hot, flames began surrounding her and eventually grew, manifesting the shape of a bright red Phoenix behind her. The girls in the posse hurriedly scurried away afraid of getting burnt
" There's that temper, " Arnik thought to himself, the old him would never even have dreamed of talking to Vaella like this and yet he didn't even care right now.
Vaella was stronger than him and both knew it, the logical thing to do would be to back down but Arnik refused," No more running away he told himself "
With this resolve set in stone within him, he turned to face Vaella and let his flames also come to life, the blue flames quickly grew manifesting the shape of the Blue Basan.
The two stood facing each other for a few moments, the shockwave of both flames hitting each other violently, students began to gather to find out what was going on.
Vaella was shocked, what a show of power, plus no one had ever faced her like this Her shock eventually turned into acknowledgment and she calmed her flames to further aggravate the situation, Arnik did the same.
Vaella began to speak again but Arnik simply raised a hand " I'm not interested, leave me alone" he said as he turned and continued walking to the library.
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