Empyrean city

The ground vibrated a little as two thousand five hundred teenagers practiced in unison; with sharp gazed and glowing blue eyes they channeled a silver wave from their hearts which was their force pool, to every fiber in their body, boosting their capabilities, every move of their swords left an afterimage. The training ground was filled with shouts as young Spartans trained in their Mastery. At another spot in the large training ground some teens gathered, they were watching two beauties battle.

Ariana ducked and pierced her spear upwards with extreme precision, but the other girl smiled and flipped backwards landing gracefully and beckoned Ariana to attack, Ariana stared at ivy with a slight smile on her lips, she moved towards ivy and pierced again ivy avoided the spear but she never knew it was a trap Ariana had prepared for her.

Ariana left her spear and grabbed ivy at her shoulders while she brought her knees towards Ivy's tummy with great speed, ivy used her palms to reduce the impact as it was already to late for her to avoid it, she still underestimated the power within that move as she became dizzy when Ariana's knees collided with her tummy.

Ariana watched ivy wobble about and fell to the ground, she smiled victoriously and walked away. On her way to her friends ivy caught up with her and said with a beautiful smirk,"you think you won, I got Arthur and you lost".

Ariana glanced at her and sneered,"I never chased after Arthur so all I know is that you lost to me in our spar".

Ivy brows raised as she mocked,"oh, so you are waiting for Alex, who had disappeared for seven years now, we are all low level warriors and even approaching it's ceiling I don't understand why you're so obsessed with a boy who may have not even become a low level warrior".

Ariana ignored her and kept on walking, ivy didn't stop there as she continued,"can't you see Arthur, he's strong enough to battle ten of us, he's handsome and all the girls in this camp admires him so I know it pains you that I got him and you didn't".

Ivy still opened her mouth to continue but an arrow swooshed past her ear even cutting few strands of her beautiful silver hair, she turned and saw Camilla aiming another arrow at her with a devilish grin on her face. Ivy knew it was time for her to leave so she backed away but not without glaring at Camilla.

When she got close to Camilla,"thank you", Ariana said with a smile, to be honest both her and the group thought Alex was probably dead, it has been seven years and no word from anyone, not even the commander. Alex just vanished and no one seemed to care.

She was now at the top of the 2nd stage in her weapon mastery, the reason the kids at the camp could advance with such speed both in their warrior level and weapon mastery was because of their connection with the ellcrys, every kid who has awakened a phantom has a stronger connection with the ellcrys and it has it's advantages such as their fast advancements.

During these seven years all the kids had grown into powerful teenagers drilled in the hard ways of the Spartan regiment. They were now worthy of the name young Spartans with each of them at the low level and has at least stage one mastery, they were already a force that one has to give a second glance. Although Ariana is not among the top, she was pretty balanced and it would be a hard task for any top young Spartan to defeat her. Arthur, William, Asher and Ulrich were very famous in the camp but there was a teen that was mostly forgotten by the young Spartans and he was Derek Greene; Derek had grown from a chubby food loving kid to a lean and handsome teen, but he distanced himself from his mates apart from his friends Derek was always absent from everything that had to to with others. Ariana always finds him at the forest sitting on a specific tree branch and gazing at the sky. Derek had reached the 3rd stage in telekinesis, he was really powerful if he goes all out and even with some girls interested in the mysterious Derek, he turns a blind eye. Sometimes the attitude Derek puts on when he ignores the female Spartans made Ariana and the group feel pity.

It was a known fact that a team of William and Derek will be almost unbeatable in the camp. William famously known as the wall has also reached the 3rd stage, although his attack is pretty low his defending capabilities was so great that the commander said his talent was to find in the whole of denerim, those words earned the jealousy of a few kids but no one wanted to fight him for it, they were not stupid. William's height had reached 1.78 meters at just fifteen!, He was the tallest kid in their camp and he also had a bulky figure, he was a muscle man and when he holds his shield it's game over for anyone who can't match his abilities.

Ulrich Dunn was the same as Asher, they both loved the spear even with his unlikable attitude, Ulrich was a powerhouse to be respected in the camp, there was no fear because even though other young Spartans respects him and avoid causing problems with him if it comes to a fight no Spartan ever retreats for they are trained that way. There was another famous line in the vastlands; a warrior with fear has lost his title as a warrior, and should be discarded, okay that last part was only in the silver bloods army for in a warrior clan weakness would not be tolerated and fear is the number one source of weakness.

The most exciting battle that occurred was the fight between Ulrich and John a year ago, there was no winner but they destroyed nearly ten weapons in their battle, it ended with both Ulrich and Asher shaking hands and going to the infirmary for a month for they had exhausted their entire Force pool and also heavily injured themselves. The commander praised them for nearly killing themselves and as a gift he locked them in the dark cell for close to two weeks, which caused nightmares for both John and Ulrich.

John was a tough problem for the group as he would always run and scream in fear when he sees the commander, it became a continuous embarrassment to them but they swallowed it with straight faces.

Finally the teens had been told the truth about the silver blood clan and it was way bigger than they knew, both the chieftain and the Elders were not supposed to be at this city, they were high borns and were supposed to be at the empyrean city deep inside denerim, but the chieftain choose to stay here for some reason and most of the silver clans high born were at the emperyan ranked city, infact unlike the city the teens came from the main population of the empyrean city are silver bloods, humans were rare there. It was only in other cities like the teen's city that humans were more populous.

The news made many kids develop the urge to see that great city, even the group was interested well most of them were supposed to be there, but their mood soured when they thought maybe that's where Alex had been all this time; with other high borns and the children of the grand Elders.

"Where's Diana", Ariana asked Camilla who shrugged and said,"I don't know".

Ariana just shook her head and smiled, the teens were stunned by her smile, which to be honest was very captivating. Ariana is one of the most beautiful girls in the camp and with the constant rejuvenating bath, the training had no side effects on the teens, the effect was more obvious on the girls as their beauty glowed, Ariana was a beauty with a nice shape even though she was still developing it was obvious she would have men lining up just to get a glance at her when she has fully grown.

As they walked they sighted John coming towards them, with his short hair and sharp eyes, John was a pure definition of a silver Spartan; simple and sharp. Even from his steps everything was calculated, he was like a machine that was always vigilant it was almost impossible to sneak on John, his spirit sense radars about two meters around him. With all his changes he never left his duty as Ariana's protector as he calls it. (Author: I will always say it's John's idea, I never gave him such job.)

The others thought John likes Ariana and he's been constantly chasing after her, but the group knew better; John even supported Ariana's claim over Alex since when they were young and has pledged with undying loyalty to stop any other girl from approaching Alex when they finally reunite.

John smiled at the girls and said with fervour,"William and Arthur are about to spar against each other and this time it's a team battle with Derek teaming with William, Derek!, It's been a long time since I saw him fight, everyone is rushing over there, oh! I almost forgot they are at the arena, that was finished a month ago".

"What!, Derek's at the arena, wow!, This is amazing, Derek has finally decided to come out of the shadows, ha! Arthur will lose for sure, is he out of his mind, how could he agree to William and Derek teaming up", Camilla shouted in shock when she heard Derek will be fighting, she also sneered at Arthur's stupidity.

"You don't even Know who Arthur is teaming up with and your concluding", Ariana hits Camilla's shoulder lightly as she chuckled for Camilla expression when she sneered at Arthur was hilarious. She turned to John and asked,"who is on Arthur's team?".

John knitted his brows in thought before he spoke,"I don't know, Arthur never mentioned who he was teaming up with, everyone thought it was Ulrich but now you asked, I'm not so sure".

Ariana was confused this was strange, well Arthur was a strange boy so it was kind of normal for him to keep such suspense.

"What if.....!", Camilla's words caught John and Ariana's attention, they stared at her with full attention. Camilla covered her mouth with her hands which made John who was kept in suspense shout,"what if, what!!".

"It's pretty unbelievable but what if it's Alex that's teaming up with Arthur, maybe he wants to use this opportunity to test our strength and William and Derek seems like a good option".

Camilla's words were quite unbelievable and John turned to Ariana only to find out she was also staring at him, they both stared at themselves with questions.