Ten minutes. This back and forth between stabbing, maneuvering, and enduring had gone on for ten minutes. Surely the headmaster was frustrated by now?
Raina was fighting alone out there, Alix couldn't even give her commands. There was no way Raina could hear him from her stomach!
But wait, if there's a mental link between me and the voice, then surely there could be one with me and Raina?
Alix pondered for a moment, crashing against the lining of Raina's insides. Smoke had pierced through her body again, and went through Alix's thigh once more, forcing out a guttural cry of anguish.
Curses! Just let me think!
The voice was an ominous presence who still lingered even after thousands of years of silence--well, somewhat. If it could bestow the power to tame beasts, then surely it could also give man the ability to forge thoughts and transmit them to those very same beasts.
Raina! Get closer to him
Alix felt a sudden jolt as Raina moved. He crashed into another side of the cavity as Raina slithered across what seemed to be the wall of the office.
Oh! It worked! Wait, why is she going up the wall? He's still on the ceiling?!
This time, the smoke that sank through Raina's body resembled fangs. The worm was ripped away from the wall and thrown back down onto the marble floor.
Get up, Raina!
But it was too late, the fangs were back on her again, and a plethora of claws swam through Raina's body, pinning her down. The voice's booming words had whipped against Alix's ears, shrouding his heart with a veil of fear.
[Your Creature Raina is in Critical Condition]
Critical? How?! Wasn't she healing?
But thinking back, Alix recalled just how long she had been fighting for. She had been stabbed numerous times, much of the smoke had torn through her insides and she had also expelled much of her secretion ability in the process, everything had costed her energy. Raina was exhausted.
[It is Advised That You Dispel Raina]
Alix didn't hesitate. ''Go, Raina! Go!'' With all the rudiments of a blink, Raina vanished from thin air. All that was left was the disturbed worm tamer who was laying in the contents of Raina's stomach. Thick blue mucus enveloped him, mingling with the blood that was pouring out of his wounds.
The headmaster came swooping down from the ceiling, accompanied by the thick smoke that surrounded him. He gave Alix a strange look, it was a concoction of disappointment and scorn. ''Why did you dispel your beast?''
''She was going to die if I didn't,'' Alix huffed, his gaze fixed to the ceiling.
''And? Did I not tell you this was a battle, worm tamer?''
''This was my battle. I simply dragged her into it. You won, headmaster.'' Alix said, struggling to his feet. His fresh wounds were burning as if a man had set them aflame, the more he limped the more he grimaced under the pain.
''Your plan was a foolish one.'' The headmaster scolded. His words forced Alix's eyes to meet his. ''Did you really think I would allow myself inside that beasts stomach? I would rather be a tamerless.''
Alix sighed, and walked past the headmaster with his head drooping. ''I suppose not, it was silly of me.''
''Wait, boy. You aren't about to leave this place looking like that, I'll grab you some new uniform.'' The headmaster said, his entire body coalescing into a cloud of smoke. Even in that form, his voice could still be heard, loud and clear as ever. ''Monte and Mayfor will still be sent to the tower, Alix. All due to your failure. Take this as a lesson, when the Great Reset comes, death will be the only thing that blooms from failure.''
Alix was left with his thoughts, a deep rumination plagued every corner of his mind. He was still so weak! He had gotten so full of himself, too. Really, a plan? A theory? It all amounted to nothing.
Like they discussed, Alix had planned to have the headmaster teleport into Raina's stomach, which would have paired well with his theory if it was true--the theory being that, should the smoke be separated by a solid surface, be it a wall, or even Raina's body, then the headmaster would not be able to teleport out of Raina. It didn't matter now, though.
He had to get stronger. The entire reason he was admitted into the academy was to learn as much as possible. Everything under the academy roof was made to refine and sharpen his skill as a tamer. Otherwise, how would he survive the war? How would Raina survive the war?
I'm sorry for getting you hurt again, girl.
***
After getting his new uniform--which was smaller than the clothes he had soiled--he resumed class as normal. After lunch he had science class, where the students--who were instructed to form groups during the practical experiments--strayed clear of the unfortunate worm tamer who had the paladins mark imprinted on him. The teacher, Eddard Brokefynn, didn't pay him any mind throughout the entire lesson, merely slapping textbooks on his desk where he then told him to revise years worth of content without so much as telling him how.
Alix had overheard from the other students that he held a grudge against Lord Vaylor. You see, the mans last name wasn't actually Brokefynn, it was Blokefynn--a surname adopted due to the hammerhead sharks that his family tames. But one day, feeling slighted during an event being held by house Bryteburn--a dragon taming family that owns the fifth zone--Lord Vaylor had rewarded a derisive jape that Eddard had made by snapping his arm. Hence, Brokefynn.
And now, Eddard was taking out his perpetual anger on the child that Lord Vaylor was oddly close with. Come the end of the biology lesson, `Alix had asked Eddard for a bag to carry all of his textbooks, reminding him that he had left his own at home. For a moment, Alix thought the man was going to hit him, but he only snatched a bag from under his desk and threw it at him.
Next was geography class, which was more fun than the last, and a lot more tolerable because Joyce was there.
She didn't dare question what had happened in the fight between him and the headmaster, his morose mood and strange silence had answered enough. Joyce instead spoke to him about the subject of their lesson, to which she proclaimed to be her favourite.
He loved hearing her speak about it. He watched her lips move and her eyes glint as she went on and on about the Whispering Jungle, the Scorching Forests, and the Boiling Marshes. She had pulled out a textbook from her bag and pointed at every region she described with a finger that was just as excited as her.
Alix had asked about all the creatures that lived there, to which Joyce elucidated on with textbook-like description. There was some other information she had told him that gave Alix various dangerous ideas. According to her, it was in those regions that many tamers gathered to hunt those same creatures, either to tame them or to gain strength so that they could progress.
Alix had pondered about that for a moment. The empire was ancient, if creatures were truly hunted like that then shouldn't there be none left? It didn't make sense to him.
Joyce had filled in those blanks too, however. She had told him about the breeding businesses, and how her own family--the Lenkosas--even owned one.
Billions upon billions of creatures were brought up in simulated environments that resembled their natural habitats, and once they reached a certain age they were released into the wild at controlled intervals where they could then roam free. That way, no creature could ever truly go extinct.
To Alix, this was a revelation. He had thought about this deeply, even as the class ended and when they were waved off by the teacher, Catelyn Lenkosa, Joyce's eldest cousin. She was nicer than the last one, but still austere and skeptic in manner. She would have likely ignored Alix too if he wasn't so buddy-buddy with her cousin.
In English, Alix was buddy-buddy with nobody. He didn't even care for it, this lesson was the absolute worst, he proclaimed inwardly.
The teacher, Allen Austen, waffled about a myriad of tamerless figures who lived before the great cataclysm--people like Shakespeare, Franz Kafka, Alexandre Dumas, George R.R. Martin, J.R.R Tolkien, George Orwell, a Stephen 'King,' an Emily Bronte, and many more.
Alix had to admit, those tamerless figures interested him immensely. It seemed so strange to him--the fact that there really was a time where the tamerless lived conventional lives, free from slavery and prejudice, for everybody was just flesh--just a man, none could summon a dragon out of thin air, nor crawl out of a pile of rubble like a slimy flatworm.
But then the teacher deliberated on all the tamers who had made an impressionable impact on modern day, 57th century literature--and that brought Alix's head onto his arms.
When the class ended, Alix sauntered out of the room, feeling Allen Austen's eyes boring into his back. He paid the frowning teacher no mind and pulled out the schedule he had slipped into his new uniform.
Tamer lessons!
Nope, Alix thought. He had his fill of fighting, and he wouldn't suffer any more. Plus, there was no way he was going to make Raina fight again considering her condition.
Like a troublesome student, Alix decided to truant. It was the last lesson of the day anyway, luckily Alix had missed his first period, math. He was never good at the subject.
He sighed as he finally left the building, eagerly greeting the cold fresh air that filled his lungs with a warmth he has never known. Outside of the building, however, two security guards stood idly, the orange sun bestowing its light on their bald heads. They approached Alix with suspicious looks on their faces, and then a flood of questions escaped their mouths.
Alix sighed once more, taking a seat on the steps that led up to the academy. ''What am I doing out here? Oh, nothing. I'm just waiting for Lord Vaylor and his servant. They're taking me back home, you see.''
''L-lord Vaylor?'' One of them said, taking a step back. ''Ah, so you're--''
''Yes, that's me. Alix Vineyard.'' The boy smiled.