The Beast Within

CHAPTER THIRTY

“I never got to ask, what kind of magic do you have, Haneul?” Ceraun asked when he had recovered sufficiently from the strain on his lungs, dusting off his pants.

“Wind.” Haneul replied.

Ceraun's eyes went wide, glancing at Adrik and noticing that he was the only shocked one. “You knew?” He accused the other Mage.

Adrik shrugged. “It was not that hard to figure out, did you not see him run?”

"You could tell just by seeing him run?" Ceraun demanded in disbelief.

"Not all of us use our heads for airheaded musings." Adrik scoffed. "We should get to training." He reminded, ever the reasonable one.

Hopefully with Haneul present, Ceraun would divert his competitive spirit away from him, Adrik just wanted to train in peace.

What he had not counted upon though was the two of them teaming up against him.

It might have been not so bad if they were simply dragging him into silly competitions but apparently all Ceraun needed to boost his playful nature was a bubbly Haneul.

They dedicated themselves to bothering him, Ceraun using his lightning to break each rock he chose to drag or lift and Haneul blowing up dust whenever he tried to build up his muscles.

He prided himself however on how long he stood out against them till Haneul got too close and he snatched him up with his magic induced superior strength to hold him up over the flowing river.

"Break another rock, Feyrer and I'll drop him." He threatened calmly, a vein ticking visibly on his forehead.

Ceraun immediately backtracked on his plans, not only did Haneul not know how to swim but the river was also poisonous, he would not take it that far.

As often as he would tease and pester Adrik, he was also aware that he did not know what the other was capable of, he was not interested in pushing the brooding Mage, not when it was not his life on the line.

"Fine, fine." He quickly agreed, raising both hands in surrender. "I won't anymore, let go of Haneul."

Adrik did this with visible disgust on his features, walking away from the river bank to take a break.

Ceraun and Haneul decided to take a break as well, their energy curbed by Adrik’s cold actions.

"I heard that in a couple weeks, officials from the Capital willbe coming to Thrika to take down names of Mages enlisting in the army." Haneul blurted out, his eyes staring into the distance.

Ceraun picked up soft rocks to crush to dust between his grubby fingers as he assimilated this information. "You don't think that the Lord from yesterday has any connection with this, do you?" He asked Adrik.

"I'm not sure, Lord Edbert had only come to show his children a Mage's powers but…" he trailed off, leaning backwards on the slanted rock. "That is quite a rare occurrence, I do not see any high ranking non-Mage official doing that simply because their children requested it." He started to ramble as he did when his thoughts happened faster than he could make any sense of them.

"On one hand, as distant cousins of the non-Mage King, perhaps it granted them some privileges not available to the others." He pushed a hand through his short hair, making them stand on end. "And also, it could also have a connection to the fact that enlistments would be happening quite soon but I can't make heads or tails of what that could be so the first seems more likely."

Haneul just gaped at this while Ceraun nodded importantly even though he could not follow what the other had been rambling on about.

"I've never heard him talk so much." Haneul stage whispered over to Ceraun who in turn whispered quite audibly.

"He has these moments, they are very rare and you can barely make heads or tails of what he is going on about."

Adrik sighed long-sufferingly. "You are both aware that I am right here and I can clearly hear you."

"Ooh! I see what you are talking about now, Ceraun." Haneul nodded importantly.

Adrik pushed himself up to his feet with a huff. "I knew it was a horrible idea to sit with you two."

As much as Ceraun and Haneul were annoying and irritating, Adrik would not deny that they gave their all to increasing their potential.

After they had rested a bit, they did not pay Adrik any mind, much more themselves.

They were so engrossed in their various activities that they did not even notice Adrik slowing down to study them briefly.

For a slender lad, Haneul was particularly adept at using his powers and Adrik could tell that it was because he had much practice at it.

He could imagine that the non-Mage soldiers did not pay any mind when Haneul used a little bit of his powers while spying, they probably saw no harm in it, besides it meant that he would get information faster to them.

That small bit that the non-Mage soldiers had overlooked was what got Haneul to where he was, easily slicing at rocks with wide wind blades.

All his limbs could easily do this, making him create impressive slashes in the big rock in front of him.

The fluidity of his movements could also be traced back to the sneaking around he had to silently do.

Ceraun was not letting himself get left behind, he was usually a noisy one while training but Adrik had learnt to block him out, he was quite relieved that Haneul was much quieter.

For a silent and lethal Magic User that he was, Ceraun was quite rowdy and destructive.

He barreled down rocks, yelled as he dragged rocks across the rough terrain, kept up his yelling while punching rocks.

It was a madhouse with him.

Adrik was not the type to put airs about himself but he could humbly say that he was the most dignified out of all of them, he was the oldest so it was really no surprise.