Child of prophecy
Chapter 15
Aksh went out of the room and entered the hall. It was nothing like what he saw yesterday. The table was set fine with the chairs aligned, there was not a single speck of dust anywhere—and Rudra was lying below the table-his face covered in bruises. He trembled a little and muttered in his sleep, "Devil… she is a devil."
"Just ignore him," said Shreya, standing at the corner with a cup of tea in hand. "He was awake the whole night and was forced to clean not only the hall but the toilets, kitchen, and walls as well. I feel bad for him."
Aksh gave Rudra one last glance, eyebrows raised.
"Oh right," Shreya added, "Captain is waiting outside behind the Dog House. You should hurry. He isn't fond of waiting. The more you make him wait, the more devilish ideas he'll come up with to beat—I mean train you." She replied awkwardly smiling.
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"So you're finally here. My hair started turning grey waiting for you. And what happened to your wrist?" Arihant asked looking at Aksh's wrist.
"Oh, it's nothing, I was setting the almirah… my foot slipped and my hand got caught in the door."
Aksh replied tightning the clumsily wrapped cloth strip around his wrist.
"So… this is where I'm going to train?" Aksh asked, looking around the area with confusion.
"Why? Is there a problem?" Arihant raised a brow.
"No, it's not that… it's just..." Aksh looked around, clearly confused. "Isn't it a bit too small for a training ground?"
They were standing behind the Dog House. The area was covered with trees from all sides. The front was closed off by the building itself, and the only open space available was barely the size of Aksh's room. It was hard to believe this cramped spot would be the starting point of his training.
"There's a reason behind that," Arihant said, glancing at the narrow space. "You'll understand it soon enough. For now, let me explain what you're going to do."
He turned toward the forest and shouted, "You two, come out!"
Avni and Jasmine came forward out of the forest, Avni still floating on her inverted hat.
"You already know Avni, right?" Arihant said with a smirk. "She's about your age, so I think she'll be your best training partner."
"Hey Aksh! We meet again—how are you? I'm fine. We're gonna train together so let's be friends! We are gonna have a lot of fun together and let's go eat some chocolates after the training and also-"
She floated around Aksh running her mouth not letting anyone to speak a word.
"So… are we two going to spar?" Aksh asked, completely ignoring Avni's presence as she continued spinning and rambling in the background.
"Ahh… he ignored me…" Avni whimpered and ran towards Jasmine on her hat.
Arihant laughed loudly. "Spar, he says! Hah! Don't get cocky, you snotty brat. Avni here could kill you with her pinky finger—and you wouldn't even know what hit you." He pointed at Aksh's lean frame, grinning. "With that bony body of yours, you'd snap in half before she made her first move."
Then, just to top it off, Arihant pulled one of his signature annoying expressions—the kind he reserved exclusively for Aksh.
Aksh clenched his fist, struggling to keep a straight face. There was only one person in the world who could make the expressionless boy show any emotion at all—an expression of pure annoyance.
"So what exactly are we going to do, bastar—Captain Arihant?" Aksh asked.
"Since your body is too weak," he said, locking eyes with Aksh, "you can't handle any training related to Tejas right now. So for the next one month, we are solely going to focus on building your physical strength—pushing your body to its absolute peak." Arihant replied .
"You didn't have any breakfast, right? Here, eat this." Arihant threw a pouch toward Aksh.
Aksh opened the pouch. Inside were strange, dark brown-colored pills. "Only take one," Arihant ordered.
Aksh was never picky about food—he would eat anything that could fill his stomach—but what was with these weird pills? And how was just one supposed to be enough for a growing kid?
Aksh didn't say anything and simply gulped down the pill.
"Alright, Avni—begin now."
As soon as the words left Arihant's mouth, something slammed into Aksh's left abdomen. He instinctively grabbed whatever hit him and get slided a few feets back.
When he looked down, his eyes widened—it was a tree branch, twisting and moving on its own.
His hands were already tattered and bleeding from the friction of grabbing the branch. Before he could even process what was happening, another one came from behind like a missile, aimed straight at his back.
He released the branch in his grasp and ducked just in time, barely dodging the incoming strike. The branch he released launched itself from upward like a whip. He jumped a few feets back trying to dodge it.
But the one he had dodged curved mid air and this time smashed directly into his gut.
Blood sprayed from his mouth and he fell to ground unconscious.
Aksh slowly opened his eyes and found himself staring into a pair of teary, emerald-green eyes of Avni's.
Her green hair were touching his face like vines of forest.
"Are you alright? I-I'm sorry I hurt you," she sniffled, her voice trembling.
Before Aksh could answer, a blunt voice cut in.
"It's fine. It's for his own good. And it's not like you hurt him—he's just too weak to protect himself from such simple attacks."
"Don't be so hard on him" Jasmine interepted then turned towards Aksh.
"Aksh try to sit in the lotus position."
Aksh groaned a little as he pushed himself up holding his bruised abdomen with his hand. His shirt was already tattered from where the branch had struck him earlier.
Jasmine sat beside him and placed her hands on his back.
Slowly various plum blossoms began to appear on Aksh's abdomen and hands where he was injured and covered them whole. The veins of the petals radiated a pink energy towards Aksh's skin.
After a few minutes, the plum blossoms began to wither, turning from pink to grey. Jasmine slowly removed her hands from Aksh's back, and the petals from his body fell down and vanished into thin air.
Aksh opened his eyes and looked at his hands. There was no visible injury. His body was completely healed—there were no longer any wounds on his hands or torso.
And there was something different as well. He clenched his fingers into a fist and, despite no visible change, he had a feeling that his muscles were stronger. Not drastically, but enough for Aksh to notice the change.
"What happened? My wounds are completely healed," Aksh asked, a little confused.
"It's nothing to make a fuss over. Do you understand now how you'll be training?" Arihant replied, folding his arms.
"No, I'm not quite sure," Aksh answered, still uncertain.
"It's simple," Arihant began, his voice casual but sharp. "Avni here can manipulate nature—especially trees and plants.
She'll be continuously beating you near to death. Dodging her fast and lethal attacks will improve your perception. Taking them head-on will increase your strength. Running from them will build your stamina and speed. Learning which attacks to dodge and which to take will sharpen your judgment. And Getting hit again and again by them will increase your endurance-but you would get severely injured with this training method, and in the worse case, you might even die."
Arihant smiled and spoke further.
"And that's where Jasmine comes in," he continued, pointing his hands towards her like presenting some zoo animal. "She's a six-star healer. She can heal any wound, no matter how fatal, as long as you're still alive. So, she'll continuously revive you from near death so you can keep going with the training."
He paused and made a sorrowful expression.
"But, she can't help you much after a while. Using that level of healing drains her Tejas. Sooooo…" Arihant dragged the word out, for a more dramatic hit.
"I gave you those pills, they're the latest invention from the infirmary department of the academy. They are called Tejavrittas pills. They don't dissolve immediately into your body. Instead, they dissolve according to the energy your body needs. When Jasmine uses her power, she boosts your white blood cells for faster recovery. Normally, that would take her Tejas, but thanks to the tejavrittas pills I gave you, the energy from them will substitute. Not only will they heal you, but they'll strengthen your body too, since the more cells regenerate, the stronger they become."
"So with that settled, let's begin the second round—hahaha!" Arihant laughed like a devil.
At that moment, Aksh gulped.
He knew—that this training would be worse than hell.