The missing piece
Ulrich stood up, stretched his arms and grabbed a spoon without looking he flung it towards the approaching John, while he also kicked the plate he avoided earlier in the same direction. John managed to grab the spoon but the plate had reached it's destination, John gritted his teeth and endured the pain he felt at his tummy, using the pain to fuel his anger he jumps into the air and swung his left foot at Ulrich's jaws, Ulrich raised his arms and defended but the kick sent him flying, he groaned in pain as he landed on a table. John walked towards Ulrich slowly, when he got close to the table Ulrich stood up immediately and punched John's tummy he didn't stop there as he launched another one at John's jaw but his fist touched nothing, Ulrich only felt a slight breeze and BAM!, Ulrich flew back this time he destroyed the table he landed on. John appeared with glowing blue eyes and smirked.
"You are getting really good John, I would say you've left the weak section but if you think you are strong enough to defeat me than you are dreaming", Ulrich scowled while spiting out some tiny wood pieces that got into his mouth.
"And I will crush this dream of yours, this time Alex is not here to avenge you....hahahahah", Ulrich added and laughed mockingly.
Derek who was both enjoying his food and the show now had a frown on his face,"your glad he's missing aren't you?".
Ulrich glanced at Derek and scoffed,"so what!, What can he do other than depend on the alderigde rage", Ulrich lips curled up as he said,"ha!, You think I did not inquire, Alex can't always be that powerful and his activation of the rage was a fluke, that's not his real strength, besides he's the only fool that got missing from the whole batch".
Derek slammed the table with anger and the plates and spoons on his table and few tables around him began to float, Ulrich squinted his eyes but he still maintained his cocky smile, Derek felt like sewing Ulrich's mouth. Ulrich ignored Derek and turned to John as his eyes glowed blue and his phantom appeared at his back and merged with him, his body buffed up, he appeared before John and punched his face, sending John rolling on the floor. Ulrich ran towards John and was about to kick him, but John was not the same person he was two years ago, he defended with his arms crossed and raised both of his legs and kicked Ulrich's chest causing Ulrich to retreat. Suddenly he heard his friends shouting at him, before he could understand what they were trying to say darkness filled his sight and Ulrich fell to the ground, he had fainted. The sound of a plate rotating on the ground was the only object that could link what just happened, the kids all turned and stared at Derek who went back to eating his food calmly. Ulrich's friends glared at Derek furiously before taking both Ulrich and his cousin out of the canteen, it was dark and there was no light tower in their camp so they had to activate their phantoms to give them a little light on their way to the infirmary or else Ulrich and his cousin will be in trouble for missing tomorrow's training.
••••
The next day the loud drum rang and the kids woke from their slumber, Derek, William and John walked out fully awake and jogged straight towards the forest path, they had no time to waste and they were not the only ones few kids were also jogged in the same direction when they entered the forest they ran at a steady pace, two years had made them figure out a good method to help them finish this stamina training on time.
After three hours, Derek and the others returned with sweaty bodies and went to take their baths, when they were done with their bath they went to the canteen to have their breakfast where Derek had to eat with many kids watching him, some had been staring at him during their morning training but it was more obvious now he came to the canteen. After leaving the canteen they went straight to the training ground to train with their weapons and increase their familiarity with their stage. William and John trained together while Derek and Ulrich sat with their legs crossed and communicated with their phantoms and runes respectively.
Asher's temperature became icy with his runes glowing softly and his eyes trembled once in awhile, he slowly exhaled with white mist coming out of his mouth and the spear on his laps began to emit a sharp icy Aura.
At Derek's position, the rune at his chest glowed brightly even with his thick black shirt the light from the rune was still visible, four small blades were floating around him, sometimes they would move with a high speed and slow down after awhile, even though they were blunt the speed at which the blades moved made the kids training nearby back away.
"Your need to calm down, you will gain nothing from this", white said with concern.
"I'm fine, I can handle it", Derek said, he was communicating with white telepathically, all telekinesis phantoms has this ability.
"No you can't, you will harm yourself so calm down or your anxiety and impatience will damage us both", white said.
"I have been at the begining of the 2nd stage for more than two months now without moving any further and that was not in my schedule", Derek said stubbornly, he was at the same position for more than two months now and that annoys him.
"I have unlocked some memories and from what I've seen it's totally normal to be stuck at the 2nd stage and it's supposed to take years before you can think about the 3rd stage, you are already one of the best for reaching 2nd stage at ten years", white explained to Derek.
"Alex entered the 2nd stage at eight!, I don't know where he is but it's impossible for Alex to be at the same stage", Derek retorted.
"You really don't understand, Alex only trains his weapon mastery but you train your mastery in telekinesis and believe me when I say Alex cannot reach the 3rd stage at ten!, That's the peak of adept stage!". White could not really understand the way Derek thought sometimes.
When she had successfully convinced Derek, she began teaching him and pointing out his problems with his control.
"Your control make look flexible but it's still rigid, you also need to learn how to read your opponents thoughts and attack at the same time, you always pause when you need to read your opponents thoughts, your friends don't realize it but your blades attack speed slows drastically. Finally you need to focus more on your instinct than what you read, because there are people who can decive you and people with high weapon mastery are deadly to deal with, their skills are performed without them thinking about it".
"But that's when I'm old enough to leave the camp".
"I know, you need to train now so you will be able to beat these kind of people when you finally meet them", white assured him.
Derek nodded and relaxed his mind, he followed his dad's teaching and spread his mental wave till it's limit and then he began to compress it, this was the major problem. His dad said until he could completely compress his mental wave and focus on a particular spot without influencing it's surroundings he was not ready to be a telekinesis grandmaster.while Asher and Derek were learning more about their abilities, William and John had prepared themselves for their training.
William and John faced off, William equipped his shield and a short sword while John also equipped his shield but he chose a spear and got ready to battle the WALL, a nickname given to William by the other kids, during his training William had told five kids to attack him while he defended. The five of them attacked relentlessly but they couldn't breakthrough his defense and after that day William was given the nickname THE WALL, with his control and steady movements he withstood attacks from five stage one adepts, he won the admiration of the kids with his mastery and even Arthur was shocked.
William smirked and said softly,"your footing is unsteady and your spear is not at the right position, John squinted his eyes with suspicion, but William's words got to him and he was about to correct his stance. BAM!, William's shield collided with his own which caused him to fall. William tightened his grip on his sword and said,"you lost focus and I won by sowing doubt in your head, I can't even believe you would fall for it". He readied his shield and waited for John to stand up, John hits the edge of his shield on the ground to vent his anger then he stood up and stared at William with sharp eyes.
John ran towards William and pierced his spear at him which William deflected and slashed his wooden sword at John's hand that held the spear, the pain from his wrist made John drop his spear. William saw his advantage and slashed again but John blocked his attack with his shield, John placed his shield in front of him and continuously defended while moving back, William was relentless in his attacks, he kept looking for a hole in John's defense as he slashed from all possible angles. John gritted his teeth and held onto his shield even with his arms hurting, his eyes flashed and he shouted at William.
"You would never win if you continue like this and I will not drop my shield so stop your hopeless attacks", he smirked, he was sure that William couldn't break his defense. Suddenly, BAM!.