Beginning of War by Abiran Raveenthiran (open ebook .TXT) 📖

from the ground. It was creating a maze. He wanted to confuse Aalok. That was not a bad idea since Aalok had a lot of power. I had not expected Shaurya to also be able to think strategically unlike Vivaan. It gave him a chance to win.
Aalok lifted his arm and pointed it at the wall. It was still on fire. I saw his muscles tense up and numerous blasts of fire erupted from it. I could feel the vibrations of each blast breaking the walls. All that was left was pieces of rocks where the walls were. Among the rubble was Shaurya’s human body lying in the rubble. “WOW!” said Avni wide-eyed.
Aalok lifted Vivaan’s body onto his shoulder and walked to Shaurya’s body. Then he grabbed Shaurya’s leg and dragged them back to us. “Neel, take care of them while I take on the next competitors. Neel took Shaurya’s body and left through one of the doors leading to the inside of the building, along with Aalok behind. After a few minutes, Aalok came back after a few minutes and looked at us. “So, who’s next?” Aalok asked.
I looked at Avni to see hear reaction. “Aalok, I am not participating in this fight. I do not want to be a leader. I am a follower.” said Avni. I was hoping that she would go next to avoid the fight but I knew that I would have to fight. “I will go help Neel heal the boys” said Avni.
“As you wish” said Aalok. He seemed to have no emotion toward it. He looked neither happy nor mad. “I guess it’s just you and me” said Aalok facing me.
“Let’s do this.” I said trying to build self confidence. I could do this I just have to surprise him and break his focus.
He looked surprised as if he did not think that we would continue this fight but still continued to the field. I followed him and went to the left side of the field as Vivaan and Shaurya had.
“Make your first move to start” Aalok said. He was giving me the first move so I would have to make it a good one. I knew just what to do. It was time to call on Serpent but there was no water. I hope that I could get water from deep in the earth to summon it. I was able to feel the water with my and mind and called it up. The ground shook as the water snake was coming through it. I could tell Aalok was not expecting this much power. I had given him the surprise. Objective met I thought in my mind. The thought formed a little smile across my lips and Aalok saw it. He looked surprised for a second.
In the middle of the field the water snake emerged. Parts of boulders and rocks flew from where Serpent emerged. I made it looked as angry as ever and made it give an intimidating hiss. I made it begin to attack him. Aalok tried attacking it fire similar to how he fought Shaurya but it did not work. It just hit the water, sizzled and died down. I was his weakness of course I had the best chance to win out of the others.
Aalok jumped away from Serpent and said “Very creative Aarav. You truly are much stronger than the others. But not stronger than me.” With that he put his hands together similar to a praying position and pushed outwards with his hands. Nothing happened. I looked around to see if there was anything happening but nothing happened. It felt as if it was getting hotter. Something was definitely wrong but I did not know what. Where was the attack? I looked at Aalok but just had that stupid smirk along his lips. I think he was making the air hotter. I could feel my energy dropping rapidly and Serpent slowly evaporating.
It was time to change into energe form. I changed into my form and as I did tornadoes of water came surging through the field as Serpent had. The clouds overhead became darker. I gave a mighty roar as I felt my energy climbing back up. The air was still warm but droplets of water from the tornado kept refreshing me. It was a great feeling but it was time to get back to business.
I faced Aalok who seemed impressed by the tornados and was admiring them. He was not even paying attention to me. “Very impressive. Finally, some potential in the group.” He said. I could not believe this. Other than concentrating on the battle he was looking for potential. It felt good to be complimented.
I sent a blast of water and without even looking in my direction he sent a burst of fire from my hand that was equal. I dived at him hoping to get a strong headbutt. Aalok jumped out of the way, did a flip, and landed on top of me and rode me. I did not know how to get him off. I tried shaking him off and flew upside down but it didn’t work. I tried to look upwards to see what he was doing on me. All I saw was a fist surrounded by a ball of fire hit my head. After that everything went black.
A New Power

I awoke to see Neel and Avni sitting by my side. Avni had a huge smile on her face. “That was incredible.” said Avni. “Yes indeed. You also seem to have quite a bit of potential.” said Neel.
“I suppose that Aalok is now the leader?” I mumbled not very proud of myself. How could I just let him win? I was so close. It was within my grasp. The team will be broken with all the trust issues.
“Yes he is.” said Neel without emotion. I suppose he knew the results. “But your second in command!” said Avni with so much emotion.
“What?”
“Ye, he decided that you had a lot of potential and since he will not be there most of the time, you will take over.” Maybe this team did have a chance.
“Alright enough chit chat.” said Neel “Its time to train.”
“Already, I’m still recovering.” I replied not wanting to get up. The bed was so comfy.
“No, get up.” He replied.
I got up and went to the field. Everyone was already there and meditating in a circle except Avni and Aalok. I sat down beside Vivaan and began to meditate. Then Neel walked into the middle of the circle and sat. Open your minds up, I want to be able to feel the power exchanging between all of you.
What was he talking about? I must’ve missed a lot of training. Then I realized that I could feel the presence of their minds. I reached out and felt someone’s mind. There was suddenly a block that was formed. I could not get past it and opened my eyes. How had I done that? I had never been able to do that before.
“Okay enough meditating everyone. I will first catch Aarav on everything he missed.” Then Neel faced me. “Aarav what we learned in the past few days was that being a Legendary does not give you power but it unlocks power that you already had. Also, we are beginning to open up our minds to one another but stay within reasonable limits and not pry into memories. It is a privacy issue that many people do not wish to share. When they are ready then they will show their memories. For now we are just learning to communicate between our minds which will allow better communication through battle.”
We learned many things that day but Neel focused on me. We did many martial art techniques from Tae Kwon Do, Karate and Kung Fu. We learned some theory here and there but not much. We learned that the only way to stop the chaos was to defeat both Dark and Light Lord because they are having a war and both are actually destroying our villages. Neel focused on me because he was also a water warrior and taught me many new techniques. This training continued on for weeks and months. Aalok came and joined once in a while but barely came. He just came to watch our progress which he did not look pleased about.

Raiding Time

“It is time to see if the training had been doing any good.” said Aalok “There are packages of food being sent to the Dark Lord today so we will pursue and try to get the package. There are about a hundred warriors sent to guard the package so it will be a serious fight. Get ready we will be going in a few hours.”
“This is such sudden notice.” said Neel surprised with the information. He seemed to know a bit more about the package but I will discuss this with him later.
“Will we be able to complete this task with the training given?” Shaurya asked Neel.
“Of course we can you big ogre. Look at you. You can probably eat them instead of fight.” said Vivaan. We all laughed because it was true and he was truly a beast. Vivaan and Shaurya also became very close throughout our training sessions. I receive extensive training from Neel because he is also a water fighter so I have been working the hardest. Avni has been learning about herbs for healing from books in the library and forests in the nearby areas. She excels greatly at healing and increasing our abilities through herbs. Aalok is never there so that leaves Vivaan and Shaurya by themselves. They became very close and learned some joint strategies and movements that make them much stronger together. Shaurya lacks in speed but has high defence and Vivaan is the opposite so they support each other in what they are weak in.
“It is enough laughing go get read, it is time to go.” said Aalok who did not laugh but did give a little smile that circles along his lips. That’s the most happiness I ever see him express. Even in our mind communication system, he does not express his feelings; he is strong