THE FINAL TEST

Aelia stood motionless, like a tower, as the five orbs that surrounded her began to rise from the ground, lighting up the whole dome into a soothing white light that embraced her and the royal knight Lex, whom stood in front of her, and Lord Ataoro, who was standing at a distance. Aelia’s support team were inside the observation cabin, silent and expectant of what would come, holding many things that could be said, but no words whatsoever.

Just like always, Aelia had four training orbs levitating elegantly around her, glowing in a lively cerulean blue, just like her eyes. However, the fifth orb was shaking, and its light was flickering slightly, clearly proving that she still couldn’t keep her fifth thought stable.

This however, made this whole situation even more intriguing both to Ataoro and Lex, who were certain that Aelia had to have a solid strategy in order to be so confident.

“You both know the rules, but I will state them right now.” Said Lord Ataoro. “Whoever manages to hit first, wins the fight. Guardian Aelia must make use of her five orbs to prove she’s ready to continue with the next phase of her training.”

Lex prepared his combat stance, communicating he wasn’t going to hold back at all.

“Ready?” Asked Ataoro, looking at Lex who nodded and Aelia who didn’t move an inch, but her concentration clearly stated she was as ready as she could be.

“Begin!”

As soon as Lord Ataoro’s voice silenced, Lex was approaching Aelia at full speed, in order to give a certain thrust, that if it wasn’t for his abnormal reflexes and body control, could pierce through her body. However, everyone knew Lex could cut his movement cold as soon as it touched Aelia.

This didn’t make his approach any less brutal. However, Aelia also started with an aggressive approach, sending three orbs flying straight towards the knight, all of them close to each other, making him deflect two of them with a thrust, but being forced to change direction in order to avoid the third, and stand at a distance.

Being completely conscious of the position of all five orbs, he noticed the three that had been sent to attack him, were positioned to surround him just outside his range. This wasn’t a strange tactic, but what was indeed intriguing, was that Aelia’s weak orb, had been moved so that it levitated right above him, outside of his attack range.

This could become extremely annoying, since it meant he had to keep his attention on that shaky, flickering orb, with the constant threat of falling down on top of him due to the force of gravity. Even if she lost control of it, it could still manage to land a hard hit if it landed. The remaining orb however, stayed firmly defending Aelia right in front of her statue-like body.

“Smart.” Said Lex to himself, praising the strategy. However this was still just a weaker option, when compared to handling all five orbs at full control.

Lex moved forward with menacing movements, hoping to bait Aelia to attack, but she simply maintained the orbs right outside his attack range. He tried to approach a few other times, but Aelia’s orbs maintained a strict and patient distance.

Lex knew he couldn’t get confident, since Aelia was clearly setting a trap. The orb shaking above his head was also disturbingly dangerous, since he didn’t know - and probably not even Aelia knew - when it could drop. However, this meant Aelia would probably only make her move once he entered a dangerous range.

The knight charged towards Aelia once more, preparing a wide horizontal Attack, as if trying to bat the defending orb out of the way. The three orbs that surrounded Lex seemed to open up the way, and even the orb defending Aelia moved away. Aelia had left her guard completely open, as she repositioned the five orbs to surround Lex from widely different angles.

Lex was right in the exact range and position to land a solid wide hit on Aelia. The four controlled orbs gathered momentum to barrage against the knight, as if they were being magnetically attracted to the knight. However, it was too late, since he knew his lance would land first.

As his strike travelled through space, cutting the air on its way, the lights of the dome faded out. Aelia’s eyes lost their glow, as well as the five orbs approaching Lex. In that exact moment, Aelia had jumped backwards, making Lex completely miss its target.

The five orbs, even thought they had been turned off, still held their momentum in the air, dangerously closing distance towards the elite knight. It was as if Aelia had discovered how to make unconnected orbs be a completely functional weapon.

However, Lex wasn’t ready to give up. Even though it was smart, the attack was linear and now that all five orbs had revealed their direction, he was ready to defend himself. Lex quickly turned his torso to gain immediate force, and threw a wide strike that, just like a perfect plane in space, batted three orbs out into the now dull dome that surrounded them. The most predictable orb was the one that was falling right above him, so he knew he simply had to move away in order to evade it, and since he also had a clear idea of where the remaining orb was coming from, he knew he could also avoid getting hit by it.

As Lex hit the orbs, Aelia managed to stand steady, and entered her combat state once more. The whole dome lightened, as well as the orbs and her eyes, as three orbs where sent flying into the distance.

Lex was clearly evading the remaining two, but he had to move in a very awkward position to achieve this feat.

What no one other than Aelia understood at that instant, was a peculiarity about reconnecting mid-way to a moving orb. Aelia had noticed it a while ago, as she was used to losing control of her fifth thought, but last week she had been training a very specific skill for this very moment.

When the two remaining orbs reconnected, she could shift their acceleration immediately. Even though it wasn’t enough to make an abrupt change in their direction, she could slightly alter their paths, making her only remaining, well controlled orb, to shift towards the weakest orb, hitting it with the tremendous force it was already carrying, and sending it violently flying towards a now defenseless Lex.

The hit was as clean as it could be, landing against Lex’s ribcage, as he traveled through the air from his evasive jump. At that very instant, he dropped his lance, and managed to stabilize midair, as he touched the floor with his hand to control his horizontal fall. He slided across on his feet and his knees, as he moved away from the place where the orb had struck him, until he completely stopped. He was smiling.

Everyone was speechless, even Ataoro, who knew he had just witnessed a technique that had never been used before by a guardian, carried out and demonstrated spectacularly, right before his eyes.

“That’s it!” He shouted in excitement. “Guardian Aelia passes the test!”