The Spirit Martial

Spirit 13

Pinagbihis kami ng training wears para mamaya. may training kami na assign for today at kasama ang iba pang royalties. We get to train with others kasi we have the same trainer pero kung papapiliin ako, I’d rather stay there and train by myself kaso nga wala talaga akong alam sa mga mahika. All I know is how to heal and control my poisons, I don’t really have any ideas sa iba and aside from that, I have too many questions. Is my spirit for poison and healing only? Are the other spirits have the same function as mine? If not, ano ang sa kanila? Do all spirits have poisons and healing magic? Ilan lang iyan sa mga gusto kong itanong. I guess being here isn’t so bad after all. A blessing in disguise indeed.

“I’m impressed by your bravery,” biglang sabi ni Kailani habang sinusuot ang red shorts na parte ng training wears namin. Honestly, the training wears are junk at sight but they are actually comfortable to wear. I hope our school's uniform will feel the same.

Of course, I promised your butlers to protect you. I wanted to say that pero huwag na, ang cringy tapos ayaw kong makita ang kung ano man ang magiging reaction niya. Knowing him, his reaction will be weird. It's either that’s how he’s built or that's how he was taught but I don't actually mind that much.

“I don’t tolerate bullies,” sabi ko but it’s also half true. I know how being bullied felt like. Athough I was one of the students who aims and always in the top list wherever I go, bullies are always there to drag me down. Ano pa kaya kapag ako ang nasa sitwasyon ni Kailani? I don’t think I can ever survive in my second life so I'm very grateful to have this kind of life even if it's full of lacking pieces that I am about to look for. At least I get to have something that I should look forward to. Thinking about that, I wanted to ask him someday about how we met. Talaga bang nakatayo lang siya doon o may plano ba talaga siyang tumalon?

“How do you know I’m beeing bullied? Pwede namang ako tapos nagrevenge lang sila? Ikaw nga nagsabi di ba? Hindi mo alam kung ano ba talaga akong tao,” he said ad he put his hair backward using a white bandana.

“I just know,” I replied and I did the same thing with my hair. “You’re my partner, what do you expect me to do?” I added and he smirked.

“When I first met you, I really thought I can’t handle or control your temper and rudeness but now that we’re both here, I think I made the right decision,” he replied and I nodded.

Pagkatapos naming magbihis, lumabas na kami pareho and saw the others at the garden. From what they explained earlier bago pa kami nagbihis, lalakad kami sa loob ng forest na malapit dito. The forest is quite large and there monsters deep inside it. To complete this training today, we are given the whole afternoon to look for something. They actually call this as treasure training. As we train, we’ll find the treasure that we are assigned to. It’s more like treasure hunting.

“Final instructions.” our trainer said as he handed us cards. “There different types of monsters there and to complete this mission, you have to get the assigned treasure that you needed to bring. Each of you have different treasure and each of you have different locations.” he added and he handed us a piece of cloth each with a map. “You’ll use this as a guide but for tomorrow, I will not be providing you maps anymore so you better stroll around the forest while learning,” he added again.

“Kailani,” I called at napatingin siya sa akin. “I’m not good at directions, I hope you are,” I said and he glanced away.

“Then I’ll guess we’ll get lost together,” he said with a nervous smile.

“I’m not joking Kailani,” I said coldly.

“The feeling is mutual,” he replied at napahawak na lang ako sa ulo. I guess we’ll figure things once we get inside. We’ll not die, right? I hope we’ll not.

Our trainer gave us the signal and we were allowed to see our cards and what’s the treasure written on it.

“S-Seriously?” I said at napatingin ako kay Kailani na nanigas.

“Is this a joke?” he asked at napatingin kami sa iba. We were wondering na baka may favoritism ito or ano but all of them had the same reactions like us.

“What did you guys get?” biglang tanong ni Kailani while showing his card. “Why the hell we got this?” he said with a nervous smile at napatingin ako sa card niya. Hindi ko alam kung alin ang mas mahirap, sa amin ba or sa kanila but one thing is for sure, it’s a treasure from a deadly animal.

“A fang of an anaconda?!” I exclaimed.

“How about yours?” he asked.

“W-Well,” I replied at napatingin ako kay Kailani. He showed our card and even Kali and his partner was stunned.

“A dragon scale,” he read at umiling siya.

“Then I guess we’ll say our each other’s good luck then,” sabi niya. “We never know. It might be our last meeting,” he added with a sarcastic smile. His smile is telling me something. Is he planning to kill us both?

“Maybe,” sabi ko. “If you’ll die then I guess you’re right,” I added with a sarcastic smile as well.

“You are really something else,” he said at umalis na siya palayo.

Kumunot ang noo ko at napatingin ako kay Kailani.

“Ewan ko ba kung partner kita or personal body guar, hindi ko gets. Even if I want to answer his insults, you really better answers so I choose to keep my mouth shut,” he said as he chuckled.

We talked with our trainer for a couple of minutes and gave us three flares each incase of emergency. At least may binigay talaga sila, they don’t wanna risk the lives of royalties right?

We went inside the forest and surprisingly, the trees were gigantic nang makalapit kami.

“These trees are dangerous too, they give off chemicals or fogs to give delusions so do not be separated with your partner no matter what.” our trainer warned at pumasok na talaga kami ng tuloyan.

Just a few steps at nawala na sa paningin ang trainer namin kasama ang ibang soldiers. I wanna think positively but my mind is starting to play tricks on its own at ayaw kong may mangyaring masama talaga, I wanna live so bad.

I grabbed Kailanis arm at agad siyang napatingin sa akin. Muntik na akong napatawa when I saw his expression. He was about to cry and he was pale already.

“God Kailani, it’s been only 3 minutes. Paano pa kaya kapag nakita na natin ang dragon?!” reklamo ko.

“I-I-I know,” utal-utal niyang sagot.

I sighed at pilit na iniharap siya sa akin.

“Aconite chain,” I mumbled as I imagined the police chains at kumulupot sa aming kamay ang vines ko. He glanced at it at agad siyang naptingin sa akin.

“For safety purposes,” sabi ko.

“I like it,” he replied with a faint smile.

Nagpatuloy kami sa paglakad at wala naman kaming nadaanan na weird na pwedeng magpapakaba sa amin. Unfortunately, both of us are bad at directions so as we glanced into the map, may instances talaga na hindi kami pareho ng iniisip kaya we’ll just trust our guts. So far, wala pa naman kaming masamang daan na nadaanan.

“Cygnus,” he called at napatigil siya kaya napatigil rin ako.

“What?” I asked at napatingin sa harap.

What is that? Because of the thick fog, all I can see are giant red eyes with yellow pupil.

“What the hell is that?” he asked.

“Honestly, hindi ko alam Kailani pero isa lang ang ibig sabihin nito,” I added and I gulped. “I think it’s better to run,” I added and we slowly moved backward while the eyes were getting nearer at us.

Napatigil kami nang may natapakan akong tree branch and it let off a loud echoing sound. The fog started to get thin at bumungad sa amin ang napakalaking ahas. Mas malaki pa ata sa bahay ni Kailani.

“I think we made a wrong way,” Kailani whispered.

“This is supposed to be your brother’s treasure,” I said at umatras ulit ako habang nakasunod naman si Kailani. “Why the hell did we end up here?” I added at nagtinginan kaming dalawa.

“Because we are both bad at directions,” he replied at napalunok kaagad siya. “Cut this chain, I’ll carry you. We’re flying,” he added.

The next thing we knew, the snake opened its mouth at agad kong pinutol ang ginawa kong chain. This is quite embarassing but I have no choice but to follow- he carried me like a bride at lumipad kami palayo. I kbow he got wings but I didn’t get a nice view dahil sa bilis namin. All I thought na malayo na kami sa ahas but when I peeked, we were 2 meters away from its mouth and I panicked.

“Which way?!” Kailani exclaimed at agad kong kinuha ang map na tinago ko sa bulsa.

I peeked again and saw the snake’s tongue sticking out papunta sa ulo ni Kailani.

“Kailani!” I called and he seemed to know what happened so he evaded the snake’s tongue and unfortunately…

“Holy s**t!!!” he shouted when he saw how the snake’s tongue ripped our map.

“We’re dead Kailani, we’re really dead,”