The morning air buzzed with tension as we gathered outside the Academy's transport gates. This wasn't theory. This wasn't sparring. This was our first real mission.
I adjusted the straps on my uniform, the black-and-silver trim catching the early sun.
Toho fidgeted beside me, practically bouncing on his heels.
"Field training already," he whispered. "Think we'll actually get to throw hands?"
I cracked a small smile. "We'll see."
Gohan stood at the front, flanked by a few other instructors. His eyes were hard, his voice clipped as he addressed us.
"You're being sent to Celestiala. There have been disturbances in the lower districts. Weapons embedded with Essence are being sold. Intel says a deal will take place today. The exact location is unknown, but we've found a general location. You will work in squads. Observe, assist local authorities, and — if necessary — engage."
Lucian stood further down the line, arms crossed, gaze half-lidded but sharp underneath.
I caught his smirk when Gohan said "engage."
He was itching for a fight. So was I. But I didn't need to show it.
A portal opened with a low hum, swirling with silver light. Without hesitation, we all stepped through.
***
The city of Celestiala sprawled before us, a gleaming maze of towering spires and winding alleys. Crowds stepped away, admiring us students. Then there were the old men, lost in their lives, eyeing us with envy. Even from the arrival point, you could feel it — a pulse in the air. Something was wrong beneath the polished streets.
Instructor Rael stepped forward, his long coat fluttering in the wind.
"You'll move in groups of 5," Rael said. "Standard patrol patterns. Minimal engagement unless authorized. Keep your comms open. Any major threat, you fall back and call for support."
Lucian, of course, gave a lazy half-salute and turned away before Rael finished speaking.
Once squads were assigned, we fanned out through the city.
Group 1:
-Zero Langham
-Toho Isei
-Flem Borrows
-Jace Marrow
-Terra Kincaid
Group 2:
-Arix Dune
-Tessa Kain
-Thorn Blackwood
-Mira Solenne
-Caspian Dray
Group 3:
-Kara Valtier
-Lucian Wraith
-Nia Drakos
-Anya Thorne
-Orion Vale
I glanced at Toho. He caught my look instantly.
"You're thinking what I'm thinking?" he said under his breath.
"Yeah," I replied.
When had either of us ever been good at sitting around and waiting? Without a word, we peeled away from the others, slipping into the deeper veins of Celestiala's underbelly.
We moved fast, quietly, following the prickling instincts honed from years of training.
However, we were being followed. Toho and I exchanged a look. It was apparent that we could sense both of the followers, Lucian and Terra.
"Guess she sensed us taking off," I muttered under my breath.
"We have two secret admirers," Toho chuckled.
We continued leaping across the buildings, not minding Lucian and Terra, who were trailing us from a distance. We continued looking for Dren. And it didn't take long. A hidden alley. A faint ripple of Essence in the air. And at the end of it — a figure.
Toho and I jumped down from the roof, rolling into the alleyway.
He was leaning casually against a shattered pillar. Sunlight glinted off the heavy, rune-etched chains wrapped around his arms.
He looked up, grinning like he already knew who we were.
"Well, well," the man said. "Didn't expect the Academy to send pups."
The figure straightened up as we approached, the heavy black weapon slung across his shoulders — a twisted blade fused into a chain. Mist swirled around his feet, and from that mist, faint ghost-like tendrils of chains slithered along the cracked ground.
"Dren Veylor," he said, almost politely. "Remember the name. You'll be screaming it soon enough."
Toho tensed beside me, already gathering Essence into his fists. I stepped forward calmly, tilting my head.
"You're the one causing the disturbance here?" I asked. Dren's grin widened, but there was no humor in it.
"Disturbance?" he echoed. "No. I'm just here to sell my toys until you people interrupt me.
The ground beneath us darkened suddenly, as black, misty chains erupted from the cracked stone, snapping toward us with frightening speed.
Gravecoil, his Innate Technique.
The chains weren't just reaching for us. They radiated an oppressive force, trying to sap the Essence from our bodies before we could even react.
I could feel it, like invisible hands clawing at my core. Toho jumped back, narrowly dodging one chain that coiled around the air where his leg had been.
I stood my ground, letting the first chain whip toward me, then pivoted sharply at the last moment, grabbing the chain mid-swing. The texture was strange, neither fully solid nor fully energetic.
Dren raised an eyebrow.
"Bold. Stupid, but bold."
With a sharp yank, he tried to pull me off balance, but I planted my feet, twisting the chain around my arm and anchoring myself like a rooted tree.
In that moment, I felt it again — the drain of my Essence
Dren jerked the chain again, expecting resistance, but instead, I stepped into it, closing the distance in a blur. His eyes widened just slightly.
My fist smashed into his gut like a hammer, Essence reinforcing the strike just enough to rattle him without overcommitting.
Dren grunted, sliding back a few feet.
With a snarl, he drove his Chainblade forward in a vicious thrust. The weapon extending mid-strike as Gravecoil chains sprouted from its tip, aiming to impale and bind me all at once.
I weaved aside, my body moving on instinct, sharpened by endless hours of sparring, real fights, and the raw discipline of repetition. One step to the left, pivot, drop weight, inside his guard.
I slammed my elbow upward into his wrist, jarring the Chainblade off-course.
The blade scraped past me, hissing with dark energy.
Dren recovered fast. He flicked his free hand, and from the ground, a forest of chains erupted, trying to ensnare my legs and arms.
Sliding low beneath a sweeping chain, I twisted my momentum into a spinning kick, snapping one of the ethereal chains like it was brittle glass.
The impact shivered up my leg. These things had bite, but they could be broken.
"Martial arts? Against me?"
He lashed out again, this time swinging the Chainblade in a wide, arcing strike. The mist thickened around it, becoming heavier, colder.
I felt the tug on my Essence grow harsher, a gnawing at the edges of my energy.
Toho, with a shout, blitzed forward, Essence crackling off his fists in short, brutal sparks. Dren had to split his attention. Dren twisted his body, trying to rip his Chainblade around into a defensive coil, but Toho was already there, a blur of motion, hammering a heavy blow against the weapon's shaft. The impact knocked Dren off balance, his boots scraping across the cracked ground.
I seized the opening. With a push of Essence through my veins, accelerating me, I closed the gap, one heartbeat, one blink, and drove a rising knee into Dren's ribs.
A low grunt tore from his throat. He felt that one.
Snarling, Dren shoved back with a burst of dark mist, forcing both me and Toho to retreat a few steps. His form blurred, the chains slithering faster now, responding to his will like angry vipers.
"You think pressure's enough?" he rasped, his voice low and savage. Mist boiled at his feet, then exploded outward in a ring of writhing black chains.
Gravecoil: Binding Maelstrom.
The chains weren't striking randomly now. They were moving with surgical precision, weaving a cage around us.
One chain shot for Toho's ankle, and another for my wrist. A third lashed toward my throat, fast as a whip.
I ducked low, Essence surging to my limbs, and pivoted on instinct, the chain missing by inches, slicing through the air where my neck had been.
Toho wasn't so lucky. A chain caught his wrist, jerking him sideways and slamming him into a crumbling wall. Dust exploded from the impact.
"Toho!" I shouted. But he sat up, blood dripping from his lip.
"It's nothing," he barked. "Handle him."
Dren lunged, Chainblade flashing toward me in a wicked downward strike. I caught it on my forearm, Essence-reinforced skin blunting the worst of it, and countered with a rugged cross to his jaw.
His head snapped sideways. But he held on. He used the momentum to swing a boot into my side.
Pain flared, but I rolled with it, turning the force into motion. Backpedaling a few steps, I caught my breath.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement — a flicker in the alleyway shadows.
Lucian and Terra, watching. Waiting.
I drew a sharp breath, centering myself, and reached deeper.
Into the current of Essence woven into my bones. I raised my hand, fingers tracing an invisible pattern into the charged air. The alley dimmed, shadows crawling toward me like moths to a flame.
"Light Essence: Storm Break."
The words were simple, but the effect was not. The very air around me shuddered, reality twisting like a sheet of paper caught in a violent gust.
Above me, the air cracked open, forming a jagged glyph of pure silver light, spinning in place, radiating arcs of compressed Essence.
Dren reacted fast, throwing up a wall of Gravecoil chains between us.
The moment I thrust my palm forward, the Storm Break discharged, a spiraling lance of searing energy, cutting through the chains like they were smoke.
The blast hammered into Dren's defense, detonating in a shockwave of silver and black.
The alley buckled under the force. Cracks spiderwebbed along the walls. Chunks of debris rained down, swallowed by the spiraling storm of Essence at the blast's heart.
Dren staggered, his Chainblade ripped from his grasp and clattering to the ground. I didn't give him a second to recover. I moved through the smoke and debris, each step a precise strike against the imbalance I'd created in him.
One. My fist slammed into his shoulder, dislocating it with a wet pop.
Two. An elbow drove into his solar plexus, folding him forward with a gasp.
Three. A brutal hammerfist to the back of his neck sent him crashing down to one knee.
Toho ripped the chain from his wrist, shaking dust from his hair, and ran to my side.
"You dropped a nuke," he coughed. I kept my gaze locked on Dren, who glared up at us, blood dripping from his lip.
"You're finished," I said, voice low but steady.
And the alley held its breath, waiting for the next move.