The Hive - Part 1 (Decayuss and Raven Kurosaki)

Job Information:

"Zzzzzzzzzz.....zzzzzzzz.......gwchkl.....zzzzz.......noooooo......don't do it.....don't....don't eat the strawberry sundae....zzzzzz......NOOO--" The blood red eyes of Eclipse Soul's guildmaster, Deniel, shot open in alarm as he woke up from a strange nightmare he had. His face was covered up by an open book, so when he sat straight, it fell from his face straight to the ground. Several pants came out of his mouth as he looked around his office, and realized what had happened. He was reading yet another book with his feet kicked up on his desk, when he decided to take a break, and then fell asleep momets later. Upon realizing it was all just a dream, he relaxed his wide eyes a bit, and blinked a bit, his body still a bit fatigued from waking up so suddenly. He pulled himself back a bit, and took his feet off of his desk and looked around once more. To his right was a stack of books that he had already finished reading, on the floor there was the one that he had fallen asleep to, and everything else seemed pretty normal as well. Right next to his wooden desk was his keepsake weapon: Nidhogg. A medium sized black katana sheathed inside of a black scabbard. Deniel reached down and picked the book up off of the floor, and placed it right next to the stack of books that he had. He yawned at long last and stood up from his chair. "Sleep well?" His sword had asked him, sounding very sarcastic as it witnessed Deniel's sudden awakening, and meant that it was a nightmare. "For the most part. I had a nightmare where someone ate my strawberry sundae." As he passed up the sword leaning against his desk, he picked it up and brought it along with him in his left hand.

He passed by the small table in his office, and went towards the large window that looked out at Phoenix Mountains below. His red eyes stared blankly at the bitter cold snowtop of the mountain, and the much more lush and green valley beneath his guild. He was at the highest peak, and had one of the best views. He slowly closed his eyes, and let out a sigh of relief escape his lips. The view never seemed to get old to him. After getting a quick view, he made his way back to where he came from: his desk. "Is this all you can do, Deniel? Ever since you became Guildmaster, all you've done is sat here and read, which you have almost never done before, and stare out at the view. Don't you ever feel restless, or the need to go on a job? ...Anything at all?" Deniel placed his gloved hand on top of the book that was atop the pile of five of them, and then slipped it down on top of the one next to them. "I don't know, Nidhogg. Ever since I killed Mom and Dad, I haven't had the urge to fight in general." Deniel slipped another book down, and then a third, but on top of the fourth, there was a small letter that Deniel hadn't opened it. "Hm?" He put Nidhogg down against the desk and picked up the letter. He gave it a quick inspection, before he ripped it open and quickly unfolded the paper. After that, his red eyes scanned down at the text, and processed it through his mind.



"This probably wasn't a good idea..." Deniel found himself on Divide Island. The letter had been a request for him to assist with instructing a training camp for young mages, alongside the Guildmaster of Sabertooth. He had no idea who their guildmaster was, nor was he too sure about instructing a training camp. And he had been on the site for less than an hour, and he was already disappointed in some ways. The tents were already pitched up, and every single person was gathered, save for one. Deniel was perched atop a small wooden altar, or stage, he couldn't really tell the difference, with all of the mages in front of him. He couldn't necessarily tell what particular guild they were from, nor did he care. As his eyes looked down at him all, he picked almost each and every one of them apart, recognizing their flaws to the best of his ability. Nidhogg was in his left hand as usual, and they all seemed to be waiting on him, but he was waiting on someone. Sabertooth's Guildmaster, as he didn't want to start without him....or her. Deniel didn't know which it was, but he guessed a 'he'. "I wonder what kind of hard-ass Sabertooth has as a Guildmaster. Maybe he'll be nice enough to bail me out of this..."

"These people must be either crazy or out of their tiny minds," Raven complained to none other than her black friend as she held a rather elegantly designed invitation letter in one hand. Between the shock and inability to believe the letter, Raven actually forgot that both words she decided to use meant exactly the same thing.

"They want me to instruct a training camp for young mages...As much as I would want to help the new mages find their will to fight, I don't think I'm even the right person for it. I have been Guild Master for what? A Month? That's barely enough time to learn anything myself!" the youthful girl kept going much to the chagrin of Kuroe who was trying to sleep beside her on the white fluffy bed Raven owned. "Kuroe?! Kuroe! Anwer me!" the girl finally shouted and started jumping up and down on her own bed, clearly intended to not let her friend get his sleep. She kept it up till the said bird flew up and started pecking her forehead.


"I was trying to sleep, Raven!" he yelled at her before flying back to the chair in a corner of the room.


"It's no time for sleep, Kuroe. We should get going already. Uh uh the Eclipse Soul Guild Master will be there too. I heard they had a change of Guild Masters around the time I became ST's guild master. I wonder what kind of person the new ES leader is," she mused, more to herself as the girl started walking around, picking important things up and throwing them into a brown satchel. The thrown items included a couple of books, her magic items excluding her pendant, some money and a tube of sunblock cream. The small tug she felt on her tank top after it got stuck to one of her dresser's drawer finally brought her attention down to the outfit she was wearing. A black tank top, white cardigan with rhinestones attached and white trousers were what she hand on. Her feet were covered with black converse shoes and just for the heck of it, she was even wearing a pair of black leather gloves.

"Come on! We will be late if we don't hurry,"she called out to the sighing Kuroe one more time and walked out the door followed by a regretting Kuroe.


"And we are here," she exclaimed after seeing the camp from a little away. She was flying beside Kuroe when she spotted the small settlement in the island. "I see some kids and uhh a man on a raised platform...must be the ES guild master," she told her companion before flying down behind the camp just so that she could avoid the amazed gazes of everyone. When she came up to greet her partner in crime for the training camp, she had set foot behind the man just in time to listen to him hoping that the ST guild master would be nice enough to bail him out of the situation.

"Hmm Not a chance," the ever playful Raven whispered right next to his ears after having leaned down to do so. "Nice to meet you, Sir. I'm Raven. Sabertooth's guild master," she introduced herself and took some steps back to closely take a look at the mages gathered around.

Deniel heard someone immediately respond to the question that he intended to ask himself. Her voice sounded a tad bit familiar, and his first instinct was to grab on to his katana's hilt with his right hand. Upon looking at her, he almost immediately drew the blade, until he stopped for a second to take a closer inspection. His eyes were wide, as if he had seen a ghost, but he quickly lowered them and took his hand off of his blade. Get a grip, Deniel. She's dead! He gave his head a very quick shake, and warmed up his expression to the female, which introduced herself to be Sabertooth's Guildmaster. He wasn't entirely surprised to find out it was a female, but he did expect a male. "Raven. I'm Denial. D-E-N-I-E-L." The first word he said sounded like he was telling her he was "Denial", but the spelling he had was intended to let her know that his name was "Deniel", just pronnounced like the word. Normally he gave his last name, but since she didn't, he saw no reason to give his. He looked back at the crowd of young mages that were gathered, and by young...it really did mean young. By the looks of it, he estimated that these were kids, around 8-12 years old. Perhaps the oldest one would be thirteen. Regardless, Deniel wasn't really sure how to deal with kids. They weren't little kids but they were....kids, nonetheless. Deniel stared blankly out at all of them, and didn't know what to say. They didn't seem to know what to do either, they just stared right back at them.

Eventually Deniel cleared his throat, and spoke. His voice was quite powerful, enough to where every kid there could hear him. "So...welcome to this training camp. My name is Deniel, the Guildmaster of Eclipse Soul. And this is Raven. Sabertooth's Guildmaster--" Immediately one kid raised his hand, and without Deniel even calling on him, spoke up: "What's Eclipse Soul?" "A guild." Another kid caught on to Deniel's lack of control, and spoke out of control again: "Can you do fancy magic tricks?" "Why is your name Denial?" "What does that even mean?" Very soon almost every kid was asking him questions, or talking amongst themselves. A huge amount of noise was made, and Deniel was starting to get ticked off. But before he did something reckless or unnecessary to get their attention, he decided to take a much more peaceful and friendly way to do it. He gave Raven a glance, and then looked back at the crowd. He held out his sheathed sword in both hands, and then spun it between them. Following that, he threw it up in the air, spun around, and caught it with one hand. The chattering and yelling started to die down, but Deniel kept going. Following that, he took the sheathed blade and spun it around his neck, using his shoulders as a pivoting point. He took his blade off one last time for a final trick, and by this point every kid was watching intently.

He put the bottom of the scabbard on the tip of his left combat boot, and lifted it up. He balanced it almost perfectly, and held out his right hand. His hand slowly approached the sword's hilt, and with one swift motion, he drew the blade from its scabbard, and kicked up the scabbard into the air. The black blade reflected almost no sunlight, and Deniel only swung it twice before he caught the scabbard falling down, and sheathed his blade. After that, there was a brief moment of silence, and then all of the kids started to cheer at him. Deniel gave a brief bow, before he stepped back next to Raven. "Go get em'."

Raven stared at the Eclipse soul guild master with amused eyes as she saw him react rather weirdly at first and then suddenly go back to being calm. She was pretty sure she triggered something she shouldn't have when she did that sneaking up thing on him which also made her wonder why it never worked well on most mages. Most of the mages she had tried this playful trick on had given her the same result. How boring! But she would pout about that later. For then, her attention had to be elsewhere..


But then he proceeded to teach her his name like he was teaching a five year old although admittedly, she definitely would have messed up the pronunciation of his name if he had not told her. After a nod meaning she understood, she turned towards the students along with him. If Raven knew what Deniel was thinking, she would say they had almost the exact same way of thinking. But when the students fired questions after questions and one of them in particular was directed at Deniel's name, Raven did feel her lips curl up. Kids were really just something, huh?  


Finally there was the swordplay that Deniel presented them with. She could tell just by looking at his movements that he was very used to using a sword. Raven, outside having a spell that can produce a sword with her ravens, did not have much skills or experience in that department. She didn't regret it, however, since she knew her strengths laid somewhere else. And then suddenly it was her turn. The girl who was standing behind the ES guildmaster all along raised an eyebrow and pointed a finger at herself as if asking him if he was serious. But she quickly shook her head and gained back her composure before walking up to the young ones in front of her. At least they had someone to teach her, was her first random thought which suddenly shifted to memories of herself training and controlling her fearsome powers by herself.


"Uhm uhh I honestly don't know any sword tricks," she started, looking at the curious eyes of the young boys and girls on her. It was as if they were expecting her to split the sky open and show them the path to heaven and hell. So she did something she was half sure not many could do. She let her wings grow out from behind her and take its full form. Playfully enough, she moved her wings slightly, sending a small yet powerful eough gust of wind to make the kids stumble back a few feet. "I'm a raven," she smiled at them and then decided it was time they officially began.  


"Alright! So we don't have much time to waste. I don't there is much to talk about. All of you should get ready for practice and show up in the ground around ten O' clock. Those of you who are interested in melee attacks, hand to hand combat or swordplay must report to Master Deniel," she said, throwing a  glance at the said person from the corner of eyes to make sure he was ok with the way she was proceeding with things. "And those who are interested in magical abilities and long ranged attack types must report to me. Is that clear?"  


There was suddenly a roar of agreement from the small crowd and Raven smiled prudly at them, showing them that they did well. "Now you may go and get ready!"

Deniel gave Raven a very sly smirk. She seemed puzzled that it was her turn to speak up, but regardless of whether or not she wanted to, he would force her to. She ended up doing it on her own, saving Deniel some time and energy. The young raven-haired mage crossed his arms and observed Raven, with a smirk still on his face. He gave a glance out to the audience one last time, with a few kids still staring at him, until they turned their attention to Raven as she spoke. His smirk grew even wider when she proclaimed that she didn't have any sword tricks, and Deniel almost thought that the kids were going to cause another uproar. But suddenly, wings that looked like that of...well a raven, came out of her back. Now Deniel knew where she got her name from. His smirk faded away, but he did give a quick whistle of amusement with them. "Woo-wee. Look at that, Nidhogg." Deniel seemed to be speaking to himself, and since Raven's back was to him, she more than likely didn't know who spoke back to him. "What are you looking at, Deniel? Her wings or something else? Hahahaha!" The two of them exchanged a bit of boyish laughter. The second voice that spoke up sounded echoed, almost, and had a bit of a deeper and more ancient voice. Raven was a raven...and Deniel was a Nephalem. It was a weird set-up for these two guildmasters to be leading this group.


Raven had then ordered the kids the time and place to set themselves up. Overall, Deniel was impressed with her performance. She said ten O'clock, which meant that he and Raven had around half an hour to get ready and...do whatever. She had ordered the kids to report to him who wanted to learn more hand-to-hand things. And he really didn't mind. It was fortunate the Magic part was left up to her, because if Deniel tried teaching them Magic, he would probably fail at it. He wasn't that experienced when it came to teaching anyone else Magic. The only reason he was so good at his own was...because it was his own. And that's all he knew. But, obviously, he was much more skilled with the blade.

Another bit of an uproar was caused as all of the excited kids started to walk around and away to do their own things. Many of them got into small circles or groups and began to chat with one-another, but most of them went away. Once the kids had finished dispersing, Deniel gave a very slow and loud clap to Raven. It wasn't slow enough to be considered sarcastic, though, and Deniel's upbeat tone also made that clear: "Well done, Miss Raven. Well done. You handled that crowd nicely. Not bad." Deniel jumped off of the platform he and Raven were on, and started to walk away. He gave a very quick wave over his shoulder, with a jerk of his wrist and holding up three fingers: his index, middle, and thumb: "Catch ya' later." Deniel passed by a group of kids, one of them was trying to perform the same trick he was doing. Deniel quickly gave him a bit of advice when it came to his posture and execution, and then walked off. "Hmmm....now where can I find a tree?" Deniel asked himself as he wandered around the camp.

Raven turned to watch Deniel clap slowly, complimenting on her performance. She wasn't sure if she should be happy or offended. 'Was this guy seriously treating her like a child?' she raised her eyebrow and said nothing as he walked away. When she picked up him talking about finding a tree, Raven had only a few simple words going through her head; What A Guy! In her life, she was pretty sure she had not met another one like him before. She wasn't sure if he was serious or irresponsible. "Whatever. I would rather not get my head mixed up over that guy," she talked to herself before turning around walking away to the tent that was assigned to her. Kuroe followed closely behind her but not before throwing a glare at the ES guild master.

The first thing she did was throw her satchel on the bed before plopping down on it with a sigh. She had roughly half an hour to relax and get ready to tackle the troublesome kids. She was pretty sure she was going to witness some weird abilities and magical explosions. Basically, controlling one's magic and its abilities were one hell of a difficult thing to do. To learn magic, it was important to keep a strong check on your emotions. And that was not something everyone excelled in.  


After a few minutes of staring at nothing, Raven got up and kicked herself off her bed. She could hear the loud chatter of the young ones as they got ready for their first lesson with the guild masters. Some, she noticed, were very excited while some were scared and some simply found it a pain. Raven chuckled at the mixed feelings she got from all of them and happily pulled out a small band from her satchel. She pulled her lilac hair back and then pulled it back into a messy ponytail before looking around to find a small bucket filled with water at one side. She splashed some on to her face and dried it off with a towel.  

Finally, she walked out with a yawn. It was exactly three minutes before ten O' Clock when Raven arrived at the ground. Raven didn't even need to look around to know that Deniel wasn't there yet. Honestly, not even all of the kids were there yet. Raven just got there early since she had nothing much to do in her tent. However, she did take some time to observe the ones that were already gathered around her. A lot of them were girls and some of them even appeared shy and scared. Well, if she had to show off her magic to someone better than her for the first time, she would be scared and shy too. She can slowly put them at ease. Learning to control magic was difficult but once you got the hang of it, it was the most beautiful thing too.

Deniel hummed to himself as he exited the premises of the camp and started to find a tree. In fact, he had already found some, but he waltzed on right past them, as if he were searching for a specific tree. The next group of them he found, he took a moment to stop and look at them. He closed one eye, and held up his thumb in an L shape on several of the branches. Eventually he shook his head and continued on to the next group. It took Deniel around ten minutes to find a tree that he was finally satisfied with. "This will do..." he quietly said to himself. Deniel leapt up from where he was and grabbed on to one of the tree's branches. He flung himself up to the next one, and that was the one he was looking for. This branch was at a perfect ninety degree angle with the tree's trunk, and was perfect for Deniel to lay down on. "Ahhh...you gotta' love nature, Nidhogg." His sheathed black katana lay on his stomach and the two of them merely stared up at the sky. The sky that was visible through the branches, that is. And also at the ground below. Even if his sword didn't have eyes, it was still able to see the outside world. The two of them sat there, and merely admired the serene atmosphere that surrounded them. "It's ironic, isn't it, Nidhogg? How I could become so destructive at times, but be like this at others." "Yeah...it is..."


The raven haired mage then closed his eyes, and took in the scent of the nature surrounding him. The bark of the trees, the smell of the leaves, and everything else. He let the warm breeze go into his nose, and out of his mouth. Deniel entered a state of undisturbed calmness. Only for about ten minutes. Once ten minutes had passed by, Deniel's blood red eyes shot open, and he nearly fell down from the tree. It was a controlled fall, though, as he landed on his feet with Nidhogg in his left hand. "Alright, let's go!"


Deniel arrived back at the campgrounds right on time. Literally. As soon as he got back to where he and Raven inititially were, not literally on the stage, it was ten thirty. "I'm here! I'm here...! So...like Miss Raven said, anyone who would like training in hand-to-hand combat, or sword arts, come to me." Since most of the females seemed interested in taking Magic lessons from Raven, a majority of the boys came to him. There were a few exceptions, however. Unlike the girls, the boys seemed very eager and excited. Pretty much all of them had come prepared with a bamboo sword, so Deniel decided that it was going to be the very first thing he would do. There was a small commotion with them once they arrived, but Deniel spoke over them all, and got them to calm down. "Alright, alright, ya' little rascals! Calm down! I prefer to get started right away, so let's not waste a minute. All of you, line up! I want rows, seven people in each row, as even spacing as possible. And we're gonna' get this show on the road!"

Raven was in the middle of showing some of her students how to channel their magic powers when she saw Deniel finally show up. She gave him one glance from the corner of her eyes, mentally shaking her head at the guy. 'Seriously, I don't get that guy,' she thought but waved it off her head since she didn't want to dive deep into whatever he was doing. It was none of her business.
When she turned back, she noticed that a few of her students were staring at her, expecting something to happen suddenly. "Uhm so as I was saying, it is impossible to control your magic with different thoughts running in your head. The first thing you want is to focus, feel that tingle of your powers touch the tip of your fingers and toes and then picture. Picture the shape, the size, the range all within the power that you can muster. Never let your emotions control you and let go of your hold on that power because that would be dangerous. Now I want all of you to channel your inner power, let it take shape a little," she told them, letting her own magic flow through her just in case something went wrong.


She saw the children nod in excitement, having found that controlling magic could be fun. But they remembered what Raven said about control and decided to keep their excitement in. "Once you get used to the feeling of magic flowing within you, you'll be able to control it. Don't fear," she gave a last bit of advice as she walked along the line of young mages, channeling their magic. Soon, one of them, having a better control of her powers, decided to let her ice magic grow. Blue snowflakes swirled and twirled as it grew out into a tree like forming, dancing and twisting in the air to paint a beautiful picture. "Well, someone gets it. Isn't that beautiful?" she asked the rest who seemed to get more excited as if they finally understood and the girl that managed to let her powers out blushed after getting a pat on the shoulder from Raven.


"Try it, everyone. Just like that but keep your emotions in check and make sure your control, your link to your power is strong or a lot of things can go wrong," she told them as everyone let out their inner power with a burst of energy. Pink, green, yellow, gold, silver, blue and in various other colors, everyone's inner powers sprung up, quickly painting different pictures in the sky. "Easy. You don't have to go too far. It's your first time. Take it slow and it's ok to have your power break a few times," she told them after seeing a few trying to go further with their powers. Soon all of them broke their power at the same time, letting the sky fill with shiny, dusty speck of lights.

The kids scrambled amongst themselves to get in rows, usually friends standing right next to each other. It took a minute or two, but they all figured it out, and were evenly spaced like Deniel had ordered. Deniel gave them a nod, "Right. So being a swordsman--or woman--is quite a long journey. It all starts with taking baby steps, until you gradually get to the point where you are comfortable with your sword such as myself. What must happen before the, however, is very strict training. This may seem boring, dull, and restricting at first, but it is necessary to become a skilled swordsman--or woman--, and perhaps maybe even reach up to my level. So! Anyway...everyone repeat my actions. I will not word them. Merely figure it out, what you must do." Deniel did not draw his blade. Instead, he held it by the hilt normally, but the scabbard was still sheathed over it. Deniel held on to the hilt with two hands, and the kids did the same. Then he perched his right foot in front of his left, almost in a lunge formation. And he held his sword at a certain angle, that most kids didn't take notice to, but some did. And those were the ones that Deniel had a feeling would make much better swordsmen. Or women...but there was only one girl. Deniel lifted his blade up, and then swung it down. He used very little of his strength, and that was on purpose. Because if he used all of it, then he might have knocked down all of the children in just that one swing.


The children replicated Deniel's action. Some of them did it faster than others. Some were slower. Some seemed to put more effort into it. Others had closed their eyes and done it. Deniel wasn't looking for speed, nor was he looking for doing it slowly. He performed his slash again, hoping more of them would get it. Deniel was concentrated on the movement of his blade more than his own arms. He made sure that if there were an opponent in front of him, he would strike down hard and fast, but also be able to retract quickly. He performed this a third time for them, and more of them started to get it. All of them were silent, not a word from them. And not a word from Deniel. Then he decided to demonstrate the same thing with not just a sword, but with his fists. He put down his sheathed blade, and the students did the same with their bamboo sticks.

Deniel held out his fist at a ninety degree angle, and then get a punch with one of them. He twisted his arm while he was launching his fist, and brought it up at a shoulder-level. Again: hard, fast, and concetrated. The silence was a means to adding on to the emphasis on concentration. If they were not focused on talking, then they could concentrate more. Deniel gave a punch with his left hand this time, and the results were spectacular. If there was a kid who hadn't caught on to his lesson, he didn't find them. They were all doing an excellent job at figuring it out. Finally, Deniel relaxed himself, and spoke. "Good work. All of you. Like I said: beginning lessons are boring because of the slowness of them. Concentration is not easy to attain, and it is most certainly not easy to have when you are fighting. That is why these practices are necssary. If you can make concentration a second nature, like a reflex, then your performance will be above average. Now, take up your sticks, and do the same exercise over and over again. Without me. Cut at the same time, in the same way, with all of you concentrating. I will be observing."

Raven took a few seconds off to see how her companion was doing. He had the kids placed neatly in rows, all following his example. ‘Looks like he is managing that fine,’ she nodded before turning to her own group of students. Most of them had caught a hold of their own magic power, being able to channel it more freely now. “Remember, do not lose concentration,” she reminded them when she found a girl’s attention waver from the corner of her eyes. She quickly pulled herself together when she heard Raven and blushed profoundly and the Sabertooth guild master simply placed a hand on her shoulder to get her to relax. “It’s alright. You learn from your mistakes”.

“Alright!! That’s enough. Let’s actually try using each of your magic powers now,” she announced with a smile, gathering the attention of everyone to her. “You!” she gestured towards a red haired girl who was staring at her nails. She had been staring at the curly haired girl for a while during the first part of the exercise. Disappointedly, the girl was much more interested in her nails and hair than actually doing what was told. Either she was very confident or she was forced into this. She guessed it was the former and Raven, being Raven, made sure would show her where she stood. She could sense no more magic power from her than what she got from the rest. She was mistaken if she thought she didn’t belong with the beginners. “I want you to fire a blast of your magic at that target.” Raven pointed a thin finger to one of the target that was around 20m away from them.

The girl who introduced herself as Rose walked up front and even made a show of it as she stood next to Raven with a smirk. “It’s about time the young ones took over, right auntie?” she snickered at Raven whose expressions remained just as stoic as it always had been. Inside however, the violet haired girl was screaming in fury. ‘How dare she call me that?! I’m nineteen! Nineteen! Dammit’ she chuckled humorlessly at the red haired brat. “Keep your smart remarks to yourself and do what is told,” she told the girl who huffed in annoyance at the unaffected way Raven handled it.

She raised her hand, pointing her open palm at the target. Soon, a red magic circle weaved itself in front of her palm and a rose beam including traces of rose petals in it were shot straight towards the target. For a moment it looked as if the beam would hit the target but Raven was already expecting the real outcome of it. She could tell just from the way it curved that it would soon turn back on them.  On her right hand, she felt the familiar grip of a traditional Japanese fan. Counting seconds in her head, Raven gradually closed her eyes and slashed the air with it. Her black wind managed to cut through the rose one, piercing through the rose petals, leaving black feathers floating in the air in place of the petals. “You’re ten years too early for this, Ms Rose”.

And that's exactly what Deniel did. He held Nidhogg behind his back, and began to watch the kids. They all stared at each other in wonder, and no one made a move. Until one brave person up in the front, took his bamboo stick, and swung it down. He did this several times, until the person right next to him caught on. The numbers of people swinging were multiplying, and it was all because of the young one in the very front. He looked to be around eleven or twelve years old. For his age he seemed to have quite a nice build, with messy brown hair and green eyes. Very soon, every single person in Deniel's group were swinging at the same time, with precision, but more importantly, concentration. He decided to wait a bit to tell them they were done, just so he could scare them into thinking they were doing something wrong. He circled the large group several times, but not a single one of them broke their concentration despite Deniel not stopping them.

Eventually Deniel got in front of the group again, and held his palm up, "That is enough for now! You may all stop." Everyone gave one last swing, before coming to a complete stop. They all stared at Deniel, in silence, and he gave them a friendly, approving smile. "Well done all of you! You are fast learners. And you all have potential to wield the blade excellently. But that takes years of training. I would say ten to twenty." All of them gasped and spoke amongst themselves for several moments. Then one kid blurted out: "Well how old are you, then?"

"I'm nineteen." They all spoke together again. Then, the one that had lead the group in the excercise, asked him, "How come you didn't need to train so long?" Since he was right in front of Deniel, the very tall man crouched down to make eye-level with him. His blood red eyes stared straight into the green, and gave a shrug. "Because I'm a Nephalem, my boy. My body ages the same, but develops faster, and in a much more advanced way. What is your name, by the way?" The kid he was in front of still stood up tall and proud, and didn't seem the least bit scared of Deniel being right in front of him. "My name is Credo. And...what's a Nephalem?" Deniel stood up tall once again, and there was murmuring between the kids once more. They were all wondering the exact same thing: what is a Nephalem? "I'll let you all know later. For now, we must resume our exercies. Now that you have some level of concentration down, let's take a huge step up. Repeat what I do."

Deniel held on to Nidhogg by its hilt again, and performed not just one swing, but a whole combo. He swung from beneath his knee up to the sky, and then brought it back down again in another swing. Instead of going all the way down to his knee, he stopped at around his chest area, and then pulled his sheathed blade back. He thrust it forward, before finally ending with an uppercut punch. If there were a foe in front of him, he would have cut from his hip all the way to his shoulder, and then from his shoulder down to his chest, where he would finally jab him right in the heart. Deniel performed it once last time for them, "Up! Down! Back! Jab! Punch!" It looked simple, and it was, but being able to incorperate concentration into it was the tricky part. Deniel stopped doing it, and left it up to the kids from that moment on. "Go get 'em boys! ....And girls! Hahahah!"

Rose’s eyes didn’t leave Raven for the rest of the magic class. In fact, she had made sure to follow each and every movement of her teacher with sincere interest. And Raven could feel it at the back of her neck. As unpleasant as that had felt, however, Raven was still glad that she was no longer paying attention to her nails. She chose to ignore the piercing stare and focused more on the others who were putting up a lot of interest in controlling their magic. Some lost their grip on it too easily and she managed to stop them before someone got hurt. And some were excellent at commanding their power that it naturally impressed Raven. She was glad that these kids would one day grow up to be great mages.

“Alright, all of you can take a break now,” Raven finally announced before plopping down on the grass covered ground below. She sighed and started pressing her shoulders, feeling stiff from just standing still and instructing people. It felt very tiring for her. “I hope I don’t have to teach kids again,” she found herself whispering to herself. “Tiring, huh?” she heard Kuroe coming down to sit next to her, changing into his normal form.

“Yah, can you get me some water, Kuroe?”

“Sure, just hold on,” Kuroe stood up as he answered and took a turn back to their tent.

Raven took the few minutes to lie back against a large oak tree and shut her eyes. She hoped everyone back in her guild was doing fine. She had told them that she won’t be around for a week. Knowing that lively bunch, it was most likely that they had turned her guild hall into a giant room full of mess. ‘But Zenshin and Fred is there,’ she tried to reason with herself, only to sigh realizing that Fred would most likely do nothing while Zenshin would just let them do what they want since he could always replace the broken things easily.

“Water, Raven,” she felt the cold bottle of water being pressed against her cheek before realizing her friend was already back with water. “Thanks, Kuroe. Hey, why don’t you teach them for a bit? It shouldn’t be that difficult for you,” she peeked at the unimpressed crow from the corner of her eyes to figure out he would never do it. In fact, while she was teaching, he was probably off sleeping on some nice branch he found. How easy was his life!

“Raven?” she heard a familiar high pitched voice from her side. “Rose? What is it?” the red haired girl visibly paled and turned in circles again and again before finally settling down on the ground near her. “I…how can I get as strong as you?” she heard her voice go down a few unusual tones, clearly embarrassed to ask this from the person she picked a fight with not too long ago. “How about I show you right after this break?”

Instead of hoping that the students would be able to put a certain level of concentration in each of their blows, Deniel was much more worried about whether or not they were going to hit each other. They were just bamboo sticks, sure, but even that could be a pain sometimes. Luckily for him, no one had hit anyone a minute or two into the exercise. He watched all of his temporary students in unison, each of them performing each strike at the same time. The concentration that Deniel had taught them seemed to have been having some effect on their performance. Earlier it took each of them a very long time to have the ability to make sure their blows were not wasted ones, and would hit the target. Now that they had gotten the hang of it, they had the ability to apply it to different types of swings. And in that case, it was the swings that Deniel had just taught them. He looked around with satisfaction. Saying that every kid got it down would be an overstatement; several of them lost their concentration between blows, but regardless the progress was steady. Deniel then turned his eyes to the kid in the very front, Credo. He was the one that lead the exercise before, and he was once again impressing Deniel with his skill. He was the very first one to be able to perfect Deniel's combination, but regardless of that, he still kept going.

Even though not every single child had attained concentration, Deniel decided they should take a little break. After glancing over at Raven's group, she decided to give him a break, and he didn't want to push kids too hard. He returned to the front of the group, and clapped his hands twice, and each kid finished their last swing before glancing up at him. "Ladies and gentlemen, that will do for now. You may take a break, and you now have bragging rights. Your task is to brag to each and every member of Raven's group about what you've learned. Diiiiismissed!" Deniel dramatically, heroically, but very unnecessarily gave a wave of his hand. The kids dispersed themselves in almost no time, except for Credo. "Master...Deniel?" Deniel glanced down at the boy, and lowered himself to eye-level. "Credo my boy, what can I do for ya'?" Credo appeared to be very determined and serious, while Deniel was relaxed to the point of it seeming like he didn't care. "C-Can I hold your sword? Please!? I want to know what it's like...to wield one. As I know I will someday. And I want to train more." Deniel lifted both of his eyebrows up and gave a shrug. His sword had been leaning against his shoulder as he was crouched down, but he let it drop to the ground in front of Credo. "Go for it, kid."

Credo still retained his serious look; the kid didn't even smile. He dropped his bamboo stick, and grabbed Deniel's sword by the hilt. He gave it one harsh tug to try and lift it off the ground, and found no avail. He gave it a second attempt, then a third. And then he tried with both hands. Then he tried lifting it from its scabbard. He tried pushing his feet against it, but it didn't work every single time. He couldn't even budge it an inch. "Wh...what's going on? Am I too week?" Credo watched as Deniel lifted the sword back off the ground effortlessly, and felt a deep despair inside of him.

"Not at all, Credo. You are very strong. And I can tell your will is strong, too. You learn fast, and I know you'll make an excellent swordsman one day. But lemme' tell you something. No one can lift this sword except me. I won't let anyone, and frankly it won't either. Not even the strongest man in the world can make it budge. It chose me, and I chose it..." Credo looked embarrassed as he picked up his bamboo stick again, "Oh...I see." Deniel lifted himself back up on his feet, and placed his hand atop Credo's head, "Don't let it get to ya', kid. It's still too early for you anyway. And as for more practice....forget about it! Practice is great, but have some down time once in a while, kid! Chill out! Smile, even! Yeesh..." He gave Credo a lit pat on the back of his head as a signal for him to go and do...whatever.

Credo took a few steps forward, until he looked back at Deniel, "I-I think I understand now. Thank you, Master Deniel!" He ran off from Deniel with a wave, and Deniel gave a small wave back. He put his sword over his shoulders and held on to each end of it with one hand, relaxing himself. "You know, you're not bad with kids. I thought you would scare em' away." Deniel smirked and shook his head at his sword's remark: "Shuddup, Nidhogg..." He gave a brief glance to Raven, sitting under an oak tree with one of her red-haired students. The smirk on Deniel's face became much more of a sly and mischievous, "But here is how you scare people...." He said as he quickly darted off between the tents, out of Raven and Rose's sight.

Deniel used the time to sneak around the big Oak Tree, instead of approaching from the front. He took the long way around, just to make sure neither of them saw him. And then, when he was finally on the opposite side of the trunk from them, he put Nidhogg in his belt slot and started to climb the tree. When he got into the branches, the darkness of his clothing helped to hide him in the shadows, and that's when he sprung out. He positioned himself to a branch just in front of Raven. In one swift motion, he jumped down, curling his legs around the branch, and swining himself just in front of Raven like a monkey, while exclaiming:

Raven was quietly planning the next direction her teachings should take with Rose sitting right next to her. She was surprisingly quiet for someone who was preoccupied with her nails and appearance during more than half of the lesson. Rose had, for some reason, fixed a pair of intensely red eyes on Kuroe who was already sweating from the unusual attention he was getting for the day. To put it down plainly, the air around Raven, Rose and Kuroe was oddly very quiet. So quiet that the sound of a pin dropping could be heard if it was ever dropped.

“GAAHH!!” Rose jumped, screaming as if she had seen a ghost sprout out of nowhere while Raven sighed, looking apathetically at the upside down Deniel who got the bright idea of scaring Raven and her companion. Funny enough, Raven was far more affected by Rose screaming right beside her ear rather than the grinning Deniel in front of her. She simply gave him a raise of her eyebrow before poking him on his cheek with her long index finger. “You realize I have the eyesight of a bird, don’t you? As odd as it sounds, I can see things similarly to how it would be if I was flying. I saw you sneaking up to the tree behind me,” she told him, sticking her tongue out at him at the end. “You confirmed the evolution theory for me, though,” she poked his nose this time before quietly getting up to comfort the still scared red color haired mage she was talking to not too long ago.

“So you’re taking a break too? How was it? Did the kids give you trouble?” she asked Deniel without turning back to look at him. Rose had found a new interest in Deniel and was now staring at him with a huge red face. Raven wasn’t sure if the poor girl was embarrassed or angry but the color her face was painted in looked painfully unhealthy in the Sabertooth guild master’s eyes. And between the whole mess, Kuroe was still sitting cross legged, not having moved an inch from his previous spot, laughing at the look in Rose’s eyes.

Rose, by then, had stopped staring at Deniel to come and cling to Raven’s arms instead, glaring silently at the laughing crow . “I never thought the Eclipse Soul guild master would be this weird,” Rose muttered under her breath, her voice barely above that of a whisper. But Raven’s ears were sharp enough to catch it and as much as she wanted to keep a straight face like she usually does, Raven could feel a fit of giggles ready to escape her lips. “I was just like you before I arrived here. You’re not alone,” she whispered back, not really bothering to wonder if Deniel would hear her not. The Eclipse Soul guild master was surely weird but Raven could tell he was not only friendly but talented and strong as well. That alone was good enough for Raven to accept him as a friend and teasing her friends were always her favorite hobby.

He was a tad bit disappointed that he didn't get a reaction of out of Sabertooth's Guildmaster, but the little girl's reaction was good enough for Deniel to laugh. "Hahahah--!" Deniel was cut off by Raven poking his cheek, much to his confusion, but also an explanation as to why she wasn't so scared. It was....inte4resting to say the least. A bird's eyesight. He crossed his eyes and grumbled regardless, as it would have been fun to see her get scared over something so trivial. She poked his nose this time, and he was really confused as to why. It didn't seem to add much and it felt...awkward. He gave a shrug while he was upside down, "Yeah. You gave your kids a break, so I decided to give mine one. No trouble at all. They are excellent listeners, and learners. I think they have great potential." Deniel swung himself a bit several times up on the tree branch, until he let himself down. His downfall was meant to look impressive, and perhaps show off his skill, but it ended up doing the opposite. As he swung himself, he built up momentum with each swing. Until finally, he let the firm grip of his legs go from the tree branch. He made an attempt to do a flip on to his feet, but instead, he ended up falling flat on his face on the ground. "OW!" He exclaimed straight into the ground, pretty much muffling his voice.

He placed his palms on the ground and pushed himself up, shaking his head. There was a small amount of grass and dirt on his face from the impact, along with his clothes. He heard the small talk between Raven and Rose about him being weird before, but he didn't mind. It's not like he could say he wasn't. As he stood up, he brushed his face and clothes off of grass and dirt with his hands, smacking his clothes a few times and brushing off his face. He then crossed his arms and leaned his body against the tree branch, staring at the two. "Weird? I'd say that's an understatement. You have no idea. But what did ya' expect me to be like? Terrifying? Intimidating? Pissed off?" Deniel let out a brief laughter once more, but this time he was joined by another one. It was the same voice from before, the one that was laughing with Deniel when Raven was addressing all of the children. "You know, Deniel, that may be accurate sometimes." Deniel looked down at his sheathed blade, and remembered that he forgot to introduce him.

Abruptly, he drew his black katana from its scabbard, and held it up to Raven and Rose. It looked like he was going to stab or cut them for a moment, until he said: "Ladies, this is Nidhogg. My best friend." If the sword had hands, it would wave. But all it could do was speak. And every time it did, it turned brighter for a moment before going back to its normal color. "Yo! Nice to meet ya'!" After introducing it, Deniel pulled the sword back, and sheathed it once again in its scabbard. "But yeah...like I said. Training is going great. Especially this one kid named Credo...he's got a lot of talent in him. How was it for you, Miss Raven?" Deniel sarcastically said 'Miss Raven'. He did so just so he could address it to the kids, but since he wasn't around them, there was no need to. But he did it anyway.

Amusingly, Raven had one arm wrapped around her waist and the other on top of it with its fingers curled under her chin, looking elegantly thoughtful, just to be clear, when Deniel fell down the tree and then proceeded to ask them what they expected of him. Truthfully, Raven had expected a rather serious looking middle aged man with a beard and knitted eyebrows when she first flew to the island. She expected the man to be quiet serious in nature and harsh with words. Well, what made her expect that? Well, maybe it was just this weird notion that pops into her head every time she thinks of guild masters and their power over an entire group of mages.

She dropped her stance with a shake of her head and quickly looked away with a snort before looking back. This time, her eyes were fixed on the sword, quite refined and attractive in style, it was the type that Raven wouldn’t mind holding onto though she doubted that it would ever heed to Raven. The first time it spoke made it clear to her that the sword was anything but ordinary. And with extraordinary swords came specific wielders and other agendas. However, the rather deep voice did give away the fact that it was the voice she heard at the beginning while she was addressing the young crowd. She clearly remembered the remark, only chose to ignore it since she wasn’t sure where the voice came from. Wasn’t she just too nice?

“So you are the one who, along with Deniel, was interested in something other than my wings at the beginning,”she spoke with a gentle yet scary smile on her face. No, she wasn’t mad. In fact, she was nice enough to overlook it. Please, she understood humor! Most of the time…

“Training was alright. It’s surprising but most of these young ones are focused enough to get their magic flowing with not too much of a hassle. Rose here,” she gestured towards the red haired girl as she spoke,” Was good enough to actually almost hit the difficult stage target. Of course, if she worked a little, she would be able to control her magic just as if it was another part of her”. Raven had put a hand on the small girl’s shoulder while she introduced her to the Eclipse soul guild master, telling her that she really was good even with her lack of experience.

“Oh and because Raven never forgot, I’m Kuroe,” her black bird, now in his human form, jumped into the middle of the conversation, throwing a glare at Raven from the corner of his eyes. It clearly told Raven that she had forgotten him and Raven simply looked away with a sly whistle. “He is my dear friend who, clearly, doesn’t respect me. Not complaining!” she stuck her tongue out and shrugged when the glare intensified. “Yah he loves me too,” she muttered under her breath. “Anyhow, I think we took a longish break already. Maybe we should get the two groups to conduct a friendly sparring match later”.

"What? No, I wasn't--" Deniel was going to explain to her that he wasn't really looking 'elsewhere', and that it was just a joke between him and his sword. But as he held up his finger in protest, she interrupted him, answering his question. From the way it sounded, Raven's training was going a lot like his one. The young mages showed incredible and surprising talent, and Rose was able to hit the more difficult targets, just as Credo on his side was able to lead the band of kids he had. Deniel gave another glance down at Rose with his blood red eyes, and just raised both of his eyebrows at her at the same time, as if he were saying: "What's up?" He looked back at Raven. But just as he did, her pet jumped right in front of him. Out of alarm, Deniel had jumped back away from the group, and put his hand on the hilt of his sword, as if he were an enemy. And if he was, Deniel would have drawn it and cut it without hesitation, but since he was introduced as her pet instead, Deniel loosened himself up. His reaction timing was very fast, and in almost an instant he was in a battle stance, with his mind set to fight. That showed not only his skill, but also his level of hostility. Anything that made him jump or came out of no where, he almost took to be an enemy.

But just as he realized that he wasn't an enemy, Deniel returned to his casual and laid back state. Deniel gave a smirk at her pet, and at Raven. The two seriously reminded Deniel and Nidhogg of their own relationship. I guess it's a universal thing, huh? Deniel gave a shrug at Raven's suggestion, but before he responded to it, he needed to clear up the incident from earlier. "I wasn't looking elsewhere, by the way. I was looking at your wings. Nidhogg was just making a joke...which I don't even know what he means. What do you mean, Nidhogg?"

"When you're older, Deniel."

"But I'm nineteen--"

"Another time, then!" Deniel blinked several times, and then gave another shrug. "Sparring is a maybe. Magic does have an undenyable advantage over untrained swordsmen. Range." After saying that, Deniel already started to walk away, and gave a wave over his shoulder. "Catch ya' later." Deniel was gone in a few seconds, leaving him and his sword walking by themselves. Deniel returned to the middle of the campground where he and his group were at, and cleared his throat. "Alright! MY GROUP, ASSEMBLE! Let's go!" Suddenly, there was a huge outburst of kids running around and talking with each other. Deniel's whole group made short work, assembling once again. This time, instead of in organized lines, they all stood right in front of their mentor, just a few feet away. And each of them looked at him in silence, with Credo in front. "Alright, ya' rascals, here's what's gonna' happen. We're gonna' break off from the camp for a bit perform a very serious, significant task of becoming a swords...person. Meditation."

“Alright!! My Group, assemble!” she echoed Deniel as he left to get his group back. Raven had stayed at the same spot under the big tree this time, letting everyone gather around her as Rose took a position nearest to her at the front row. Raven gave her a glance and nod of approval followed by a gesture telling her to come closer. She wasn’t the type of person to focus on one person alone but Raven was sure that she could use Rose later for improving the others. She was one level above the others that were gathered around and that in itself would be a good thing.

“Alright, how many of you actually tried to focus and practice your magic controlling between the break time?” she asked, her eyes following all of her students starting from left and going to right. She found some confident faces mixed in with some confused and some dread filled faces. She could already guess that only ten percent of them actually tried what Raven taught them while the rest fooled around. “What did I tell you little ones? Hmm? You have to focus when you want to learn magic. Just because you succeeded once doesn’t mean you will succeed again. Your feelings and your mental control on yourself and your thoughts affect your magic flow and control as well. That’s why most magic users who focus on their magic alone are usually either very serious while fighting or completely insane because they are trying to become one with their magic. Try summoning your magic now and see what I mean,” she instructed and turned to one of them who looked confused at Raven’s words. Maybe he thought that it wasn’t necessary. But he followed Raven’s instructions anyway and then proceeded to try and light a small fire in the tip of his fingers. It worked and the bright flame stood up straight. Yet, within a few seconds, it started wavering and then completely broke down with a small gust of wind that passed over it.

“Do you understand how weak your magic is when you have other thoughts running in your head?” she raised an eyebrow, particularly at the boy who nodded understandingly. “Great, we will start from the very beginning again. Everyone, focus your magic and conjure it to the tip f your fingers. Make it a part of yourself and control it. I want to see beautiful mini sculptures of your magic when I walk around all of you,” she notified them and stepped forward, quickly taking a turn towards the left to observe everyone. They had some difficulty in summoning their magic again but some of them, those that were probably practicing, got it done easily and she could tell that their magic twisted only the way they wanted! To see the proud face of theirs only made Raven happier. They would grow up very quickly and they would soon learn the harsh reality as well. No matter how much control you have, if you can’t hold your own in a battle, it’s useless.

"But first, how many of you guys bragged to the other children?!" Immediately Deniel was met with a horde of responses, with all of them saying that they did. They all nodded to each other, and Deniel gave a nod to them as well. He gave them a thumbs-up, and was satisfied with their progress. The bragging part was unnecessary, but it showed that the kids had some faith in Deniel, and was enjoying him teaching them. "Alright, now then...meditation! ....It's boring as shit!" Deniel swore for the first time in front of the kids. Most of them gasped in shock at it, but Deniel could care less. And, in the front row, Credo didn't seem to mind either. "But if it's so boring, why teach it to us?" Deniel gave a brief chuckle and responded: "Despite it's lack of entertainment, it is crucial. Meditation is an excellent way to attain concentration. It calms both the mind and the body. I meditate several times when I can. But in order to truly focus it in....you shall become one with nature! Follow me!" Deniel appeared to be filled with energy and excitement. Almost everything he said had a powerful voice backing it up, but also a certain level of enthusiasm. He very much looked forward to it, despite him saying that it was boring.

Deniel lead the children away from the camp, leaving Raven and the rest of the kids alone. Deniel brought the kids through the nearby grove of trees, and listened closely with his ears. There where some whispers among the kids as they followed them, as they all spoke to ecah other about their experience, while Credo walked right alongside Deniel. As Deniel focused, he listened. Not to the whispers, but for the sound of water. Deniel heard a waterfall nearby, and he was keen to find it. After around ten minutes or so of walking, Deniel finally came to the waterfall that he had heard. The waterfall dumped into a small pond, coming up from a cliff that bordered it. The trees had cleared up when Deniel and the children reached the area, giving them a view of the sun and the sky. "Alright, this works! Everyone, sit wherever you please! And meditate!" Deniel hadn't even instructed them how to meditate. He assumed they all knew the typical meditative position, which they did. They all sat down, sometimes in circles or groups together, in a typical meditative position, and closed their eyes.

They were silent in almost no time, and Deniel was in the middle of the horde of kids. Hey, Deniel. Are you honestly that ignorant to the joke I made earlier? Nidhogg spoke to Deniel in his mind rather than speaking out loud, so he wouldn't disturb the children. Deniel shook his head, and spoke back in his head. Of course I did. I just pretended that I didn't. I'm not going to get off on the wrong foot with this woman. You should know by now, Nidhogg: I can pretend like I don't know, but in reality...I've already seen it all. Hahahah! Deniel smirked as he laughed in his head, but made sure not to make a sound. He did not want to disturb the children, as any form of distraction would surely cause them to have error.

Just like having concentration, the children were slow with their progress at first. A select few of them had managed to meditate in the way that he wanted them to, but Credo wasn't among them. Deniel frowned and gave them a bit of advice: "Don't think about what you're doing. Think about anything else. Your mind. Your body. Your blade. Your surroundings. You can't see it, so imagine it. The waterfall. The trees. The ground. Everyone around you."

Raven could tell most of them were doing just fine with their magic control. Of course, some lost it a little but they were quick to regain it too. In short, she was training some really smart kids. One of them event went really artistic and painted a picture with her magic for the others. Some tried to follow it while some directed their attention to making something else.

Kuroe, on the other hand was sitting on top of one of the trees observing Deniel’s group, snickering when he found that they were deep into meditation. If he wasn’t the prideful crow that he was, he probably would have done something mischievous already. ‘Should they even be dropping their guard so?’ he wondered with one eye lazily open. He just wanted to go back to Sabertooth already. He had more company there than he would ever have here.

Raven pushed the careless hands of a girl up as she stopped behind her. The girl in question was looking around at other people’s creation while still having her magic open on the field. “Your first mantra is to concentrate. Don’t forget that. You might cause trouble not only for yourself but for others around you too,” she scolded with a soft voice. She didn’t want to scare them off after all.

The girl instantly shied and went back to doing what she was doing while Raven made one more round around them and finally sat down under the tree Kuroe was on. “Psst Raven!” she heard the familiar voice of her black bird from above. “Raven, do you really believe Deniel when he said he wasn’t looking at something other than your wings?” Kuroe asked, this time scooting over to the branch right on top of Raven before leaning his head down. Raven by this time had already turned her head up to look straight up at Kuroe. “Of course not, he is a boy. That says enough,” she smirked and returned her head to its normal position after feeling the small ache in her throat. “He can keep thinking I’m not aware though. What’s the harm in that?” she continued after crossing her arms over her chest. The small joke wasn’t worth provoking a fight with the ES guild master in her guess. They had future chances for alliance and she wasn’t hoping to dump water all over that plan.

“Next time, maybe I’ll slap him on the back of his head or something,” she simply shrugged at the scoffing Kuroe who found it funny that Raven was not going to attack the boy with his sword. “Aren’t you too kind?” he was sarcastic. And finally, shook his head before retreating to his previous branch and previous lazy position. “I would call it as being tactical, Kuroe,” Raven told the shifting Kuroe on top of her and got up with a yawn. She was starting to get bored of the whole training thing. Maybe it was time to have the kids blast a few things down.


OOC: Bad grammar x3x In my defense, I was tired of writing 2 essays in one day

With Deniel's advice, the kids had started to improve their performance levels in meditation. It was a hard thing to do, contrary to what most people believed. Most people believed that meditation was just sitting down and relaxing, when in a way, it was the opposite. A person needed to be aware with their mind, but relax their body. That was one of Deniel's steps towards attaining concentration, and hopefully some of the kids would understand that. More and more of them got to the level Deniel wanted, and once almost all of them did, he abruptly clapped his hands and interrupted them. "Ladies and gentlemen, get off your asses! It's time to DUEL!" Deniel had already said 'shit' in front of the kids, so they weren't so concerned with him saying 'ass'. But most of them were confused as to what he meant. Some of them even thought he was joking and just continued meditating. Deniel watched them all for several seconds, until his grin was gone. "I mean it! We're going to have a quick tournament! You versus someone else here! The winner gets a special prize!" Deniel was not yet going to reveal the 'special prize' was, so that got of the kids excited about what it could be, and it stirred up competition. "This is going to be in a very organized fashion. Everyone, clear some space up, and huddle beside me."

The kids and Deniel had their backs to the pond, while they all huddled into one spot, which left a small opening. They chattered amongst themselves, until Deniel moved to the other side in front of him, and clapped his hands. "LISTEN UP!" He raised his voice high so they could all hear him, and were almost immediately silent afterwards. So far, this was a very obedient group of kids. "Fighting with a sword is not fun and games. If any of you think that way, you're in the wrong spot..." Deniel took a pause there to see if anyone would ask him anything, or even step out because of it. No one moved an inch, so he continued. "One hit can mean the difference between victory or death. That's not always true, but today I will be treating this tournament as such. Now, what's going to happen is this: You will each start in front of each other at a fixed distance, so no one tries anything funny. When I say 'go', you will begin your battle. The battle won't be determined on who hits first, but more of where you hit. Obviously a cut on the arm isn't going to determine the battle, but a blow on the neck will. I'll be the judge of that."

Deniel crossed his arms and gave a smirk at the group of kids. Now they were chatting amongst each other once again. Credo was the only one that wasn't talking, and seemed to be focused on Deniel more than anything. Deniel held his hand up, as he wasn't done. "Now, then. I will also be selecting the match-ups at random, and this will run like a tournament. If you lose, you'll join me over here. If you win, go to the right or left, and we'll get to you once the next round starts. This is your chance to prove me that you've learned something." After that, Deniel pointed at two random members of the crowd, both of them were girls, "Now, you two are up first! .....Go!" They nervously looked at each other, and then stepped on either side of the crowd. Once Deniel had said 'go', both of them held their bamboo sticks like they had been practicing, and slowly approached each other rather than going in recklessly. That was a good sign to Deniel, showing that they took the battle seriously. This should be good, Nidhogg.

Raven yawned with her body thrown back slightly against the bark of the tree. Lonely wind flew hastily through the leaves and branches like a young lover trying to find his other half as Raven halted halfway through her stretch to gaze solemnly up at the sky. Something about the tender nature made her melancholic. Maybe it was because the quiescent feelings it gave brought even unwanted memories out to surface. However that worked, Raven felt the need to get up and take long, peaceful walk down the stream she had noticed before arriving.

Running a cold hand over her tired eyes, Raven quickly got up and rounded the tree. She found Deniel and his group of students a few meters ahead of her. Kuroe was still sleeping up at the tree she had left. So it was quite nice to know that no one would be following her in her sudden desire to be alone. Sound of wood on wood alerted her of the activity Deniel’s group was currently engaged in. It suddenly reminded her that she had left her own group of students back. It was fine though. A teacher wasn’t necessary once they got the swing of magic control. A feverish thirst to experiment and create was all that they needed. If they had that much passion, they would excel greatly at their own magic.

She stood there gazing at the eager children clashing their wooden swords against each other for a little. Deniel must have been a good teacher to them. She could see the satisfactory smile on their faces and it was obvious that they placed their trust on him. The golden veil of light that fell over her eyes made her groan and turn her head away. It was far too sunny for her liking now. So the lilac haired woman gave on last glance at the group before turning and walking away. She walked along the bank of the stream, almost lost in the magical feeling it bought along.

Birds sang, the stream made its own music and the wind pitched in to create harmony with the rest. It was one of those times Raven liked to completely purge all thoughts from her struggling heart. It also made the placid little girl in her come out and dance under the merry sunlight. Too bad Raven couldn’t completely let her soul drown in the sensation. She still had way too many thoughts running through her head and Raven never forgot responsibilities for her own pleasure. With that in mind, she decided it was time she got back to where she left her students. There was only one last thing she had to teach them before they could try and completely go free with their own magic powers.

She wished she could turn into a crow herself and fly away. The peaceful part inside her wanted nothing more than that. Be born into this world free and to die just as free. Humans could never do that.

OOC: First I would like to say....

1000TH POST BABY, YEAH!


The first battle had passed by very fast. After the two had gotten close to each other, the first person to attack was pretty much the one that lost. She struck, and the other one had blocked it and performed a counter attack. She went straight for her foe's neck, following Deniel's advice. Deniel had no choice but to hold his hand up, "Done! You, Miss, you're the winner." The girl who won had apologized, but the other one didn't seem too hurt. After that, it was on to the next match. Deniel picked them one-by-one, each round not lasting longer than thirty seconds. That made it go by fast, but Deniel wasn't entirely pleased with that. Most of the time, it was the first person who struck ended up losing. And that was boring, and not the way most fights worked. Well...some fights, but not all of them. After the first round of kids, Deniel had cut the whole class in half, and now it was down to the second round. Just like he imagined, Credo had won his round, but what was unique about his, was that he struck first, but he still won. The person tried to block it, but he overpowered them and still landed his blow.

"Okay! Round two! Let's go!" Deniel picked two more kids at random, and watched them duke it out. Since it was the second round, the kids were more skilled than the ones from the previous round, and thus resulted in a better fight. Instead of the person who dealt the first blow ended up losing, the fight lasted for several attacks. The rest of the fights were also like that. After the second round started the third, with Credo still inside of it. The fights lasted longer each time, and surprisingly enough, time flew by fast. By the time Deniel was down to the last 2, Credo and someone else, the sun was already setting. "Alright, you guys, this is it! After this, your training for the day is finished!" Deniel held up his hand, and then released it down, and the fight began. Credo began by taking the offensive with his bamboo sword, starting out by striking several times agressively. The other one was a boy, and he seemed to be around the same height and age as Credo. Credo appeared to be much more influenced by anger and negative emotions, while the other one appeared to be very calm.

Deniel had noticed this anger from Credo throughout the entire tournament, and grew a bit concerned about it. But, even with the anger, Credo was still the victor of the fight eventually. Credo had managed to get a hard blow on the kid's neck, which would have lopped his head off otherwise. Deniel held his hand up for them to stop, "Alright, that's it! Winner is Credo!" Most of the kids weren't surprised at all. Not even the one Credo beat. Credo and him shook hands, and complimented the skill of another. Deniel clapped his hands twice to get the attention of the kids one last time. "I'll think of the prise tomorrow, Credo. For now, I think you all deserve a rest. Good job today, everyone! Steady progress! I like it, but get some rest! Let's go!" Followed by all of the kids in a huge crowd, Deniel made his way back to the camp. And as soon as he got there, all of the kids broke away from him, and into their tents. That left Deniel alone out there for the most part. They probably got their assigned tents when they arrived, but Deniel had no idea where he was supposed to go. So he just stood there, awkwardly, and looked around. "Ummm...where the Hell is my tent?"

Raven slowly walked back, her arms crossed behind her head. Once again, she realized that her thoughts were slipping down some unknown regions. In fact, walking was just an automatic reaction for her since she knew she had somewhere to be. Other than that, neither did she pay attention to where she was going now was she planning anything useful. Her thread of thoughts went from apples to honey and then oddly towards the pile of cloths she had not washed yet back in Sabertooth. Yes, her train of thoughts was very odd, especially after all that sad thoughts on raven demons and so on.

Suddenly, the faint sound of leaves rustling yanked her back into the real world. She halted mid-step to glance at unassuming bushes. Was something there? Maybe it was some wild animal? She wondered, continuing to stay in the same position for a little more. Just as she was about to walk away, she heard the sound again. This time, it was clearer and nearer. At first, when she turned back, she saw nothing near the bush but as she dragged her eyes down to where her feet was, two button like orbs made their appearance. How cliché, Raven thought while staring at the innocent eyes of a fluffy creature known as rabbit.

The twitching little thing poked its nose into her feet first, sniffed and then twitched again. The white ball of fur continued the action till Raven finally gave up and picked it up by its ears. “What on earth are you doing here?” she sighed, suddenly remembering all those stories where the main character encounters a rabbit while thinking it’s some vicious beast.

“I was expecting a lion…”

By the time Raven got back at where Deniel’s group was meditating, she had the small rabbit on her shoulder. Raven didn’t think it was a stray owing to the small pink ribbon around its neck. There was no name tag or anything but it was proof enough that it belonged to someone. She noticed that everyone had already left and walked back to where she had left her own kids. “All of you can stop for today too,” Raven announced as all of them finally broke their control over their magic and let it break down into nothing. “I’m sure all of you are tired. Get going. And Rose, I’ll show you something tomorrow,” she told her after watching the rest of the crowd disappear.

The next time she stopped, she saw Deniel standing in the middle of the whole camp, looking left and right. She didn’t even have to ask what was wrong. It was far too obvious. “Your tent is right opposite to mine~” Raven chimed with her eyes closed with a flat tone, walking right past him towards the direction her own tent was at. “You can follow me if you want to or do you prefer sleeping up in trees even at night?” she teased, still with a flat tone as she made a final turn towards the end of the camp where their tents were located.

Is it there!? Or there!? Maybe it's right there!? Nope. That one is definitely mine! ....I don't think so! Deniel was circling around himself, trying to determine which tent his was. He was never informed about it, and he didn't worry about it up until now. If all else failed, he still had the trees to sleep in...But just as soon as he was going to give up, Raven approached him and saved him a good night's sleep. "Oh, right. Thanks!" Deniel did as Raven said and followed her. He wasn't too concerned about her joke of sleeping in trees. He knew the idea sounded ridiculous, and he was pretty much the only person he knew that actually did something like that. In his opinion, though, it was a useful skill to have if all else failed. Deniel nearly took following her to the next level, because he nearly followed her inside of her tent. But he stopped himself short, and stayed outside. "Oh. Right. Sorry..." He said before scrambling off to the right to his tent. There was a few yards of distance between his tent and hers, and he could see that their tents were the larger ones. Deniel almost waltz inside of his tent, and was surprised to see it was mostly....empty. There was just a bed on the left side of his room, and the rest of it was fairly empty. He was surprised because these weren't the kind of camping tents that the kids got. The ones he and Raven got were the ones that people expected to be used for expeditions or military camps. In other words, they were fairly large with plenty of space. And all Deniel's one had was a bed.

In some ways that was all he needed, but it wouldn't have hurt to have a desk. Or a table. Or something. Deniel grumbled and looked to his left, the direction Raven's tent was. "I'm willing to bet those guys gave her everything...." Deniel then realized that there was at least one more object in his tent, something he dearly needed. A coat hanger. Planted right in front of his bed. With just a shrug, Deniel removed his long, leather black coat and hung it up. He also removed his black combat boots, leaving him in just his black t-shirt and and jeans. He gave a long, drawn out yawn, and set Nidhogg right beside his bed to lean against. He hopped right on top of his bed, with his hands folded behind his head, and stared up at the ceiling. "What a day this has been, Nidhogg...." Deniel gave a glance at his sword that was leaned next to him on his bed. "Yeah. This isn't as bad as you thought it would be, is it?" Deniel looked back up at the ceiling, and closed his eyes as he shrugged. "I guess not. In fact, I'd say it's even better. I just wonder how Raven is doing with her group. Oh well...g'night. I'll talk to you in the morning."