Snippet #2328032

Artemis sighed deeply as he watched the scene play out and then turned his back. If Desmond was actually going to fight it wasn’t’ his place to get in the way, so he just turned and began to walk away. His company was waiting for him, and he kind of didn’t want to be around if Desmond was going to fight for real. He had a tendency to make it rain and make the air pressure increase. Everytime this guy lets loose my neck gets stiff, I swear just being this close to him when he releases makes it hurt… I’m out of here. he just walked rather quickly away ,not wanting to let his muscles tighten anymore, though he did call over to a young officer who was hiding behind a pillar watching, “Hey, you, you might want to move back, things are gonna get chaotic for a second here… oh and by the way, call for some medics would ya. I don’t have the time right now.” The officer stammered a response and Artemis headed away.

As he hit the road an open top transport (jeep) came pulling by and he waved it down. The driver slowed and was about to stop when Artemis simply jumped up on the running boards and indicated for him to keep driving. “Where too sir?” the man asked.

“Training grounds… my unit’s got more work ahead of them.” He glanced back at the shrinking courtyard, seeing several seals burst into being and hearing a couple shots ring out. He let out a sigh realizing the relaxing vacation was over and looked forward as they headed down the road toward the training grounds.


-=-=-=-

Caspian breathed heavily as his actions caught up with him. He felt his palm sting slightly with the burn that it had sustained from activating the spell change. His face was slightly downfallen though, despite his victory, as he realized that several eyes were on him with interest. At this rate I’m gonna end up getting bombarded by second year challenges. he sighed and stepped away about to be resigned to his failure with staying in the shadows for the first quarter when it hit. He felt the hairs on his neck stand at attention. The pressure hit him taking his breath for a moment. He’d forgotten what it felt like to have someone’s aura completely encompass his own, to feel the residual pressure a strong aura created in the atmosphere. Of course it was all in his head, the real aura he was feeling was not anywhere near him, but rather it forced the mana in the atmosphere to reverberate through the area, like a rock dropped in a still pond.

He turned, like all the other Magus, and looked to the distance where a spire of blue rose to the height of nearly five stories in the distance. The energy was incredible to behold. “Wh-who is that? What…what kind of magus?” he asked out loud, many making the same comments. That was when the CSM whistled to get their attention and informed them all that it was General Ruler (apparently even the Guardians had noticed it) and then he said it wasn’t’ even his full strength.

“But… but at the opening ceremony…” Caspian spoke to no one, not truly loud enough for those further form him to hear, “ his energy wasn’t nearly that large… can a limiter, can one of those devices really restrict an aura that much?”

-=-=-=-

Daniel was in his perch, watching the day pass by when he noted that Delryn was making his move. He brought the platform to the ground and stepped out to the forming crowd. Some of the Magus were over there too and Daniel was just lazily sipping his coffee when it hit. Like a wave he felt an intense pressure that made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. Glancing toward the main campus he wondered what it looked like to the Magus. He knew of no Guardians who could see auras, at least not without some special spells and mumbo jumbo or scientific such and such, it must be quite a sight though. Of course he didn’t need to see it or be able to sense the exact position or origin of the energy to tell who was letting off some steam, “Finally getting involved, eh sir?” he chuckled.

There weren’t many who made it to the fifth and technically highest year at the school. Most were seniors their fourth year and most commissioned then. However the Generals and some of the Colonels were of a select crowd that would remain enrolled an extra year acting as command and control of the school. Students at the higher levels are often in complicated situations because of this and younger students knew to play it by ear. But still the school had some basically held truths.

Delryn was making some speech about the feeling and addressing the students concerns but Daniel was less interested. He just stood there and let the CSM do the heavy word lifting. He then heard him call out Rallen and caught Daniel’s attention. He was handed some package and as he opened it and looked over the contents he smirked, “Ah… I see… good choose, man.” He said and then sat back letting the two have their conversation. That was until a slight roll of either thunder or the detonation of some spell but either way it got his attention again to the main campus.

One of the generally held truths of the school was that the highest of the students at the school were incredibly powerful, and that their power needs to be regulated, as such there is a group of people called “Limiters” at the school. These “limiters” are not an official group of people but rather just a tag placed on officers (who are Magus for obvious reasons) who are given an Aura Limiter, a device that helps them to control the output of their large auras while in regular life that doesn’t’ require constant concentration on such. The fact is those how have made it to their fifth year (a mere 1% of the initial freshman class) and those who show extreme potential or power often are given these items as aids. Without a limiter some of the most powerful magus in the country would be unable to function, as their aura would require constant meditation to control. If an aura of a “limiter” wasn’t controlled it would cause atmospheric chaos as the raging aura would breakdown the mana in the atmosphere and cause the forces of nature to go wild.

Right now a layer of dark cloud was rolling in and condensing above the central campus, making Daniel smirk. “He’s holding back, kind of, but I wonder who he’s fighting that made him release the limiter?”

“It’s Major Reyes, actually…” a voice cut in from behind him.

“Hmm?” Daniel turned and smiled, after all he was on the outskirts of the training field. Artemis hopped off the side rail of a transport and walked toward the gathering company. “Really… that’s interesting…” Daniel seemed to realize that they were in front of the entire company and so he suddenly snapped too, “Sir, shall I fall in the company, sir?”

“Huh? Oh, no that won’t-” he stopped and looked back, as if on cue the aura vanished, somehow he seemed to have predicted that but only the magus could see the aura reduce and disappear, the fight had ended almost as fast as it had begun, “Oh, he’s done already? I thought the Major would last longer.”

“You know Malcolm might have won.” Daniel commented.

“True.”

“…Anyway, so am I falling them in?”

“No, that won’t be necessary, I’ll address them in a moment ,but first I need you, Ethelyn, and Delryn to give me the names of those who impressed.”

“Well, Suna was her usual swift self, and Kai wasn’t bad either as expected. The new kids all show some promise to a degree but if you want to know who I think stood out in the guardians I’d say… hmmm,” he leaned in and whispered so the others couldn’t hear, “Karu Taka-Takahashi I think Is his name, then there was Rey, and Delryn has some others I think.”

Artemis nodded, “Good, Ethelyn, Delryn? What about you two? Any talent I should know about?”