Flester grit his teeth slashing through another huge rock with his Flame sword, and then launched a light ball which destroyed the rock. He was repeatedly forming new huge rocks using Materialisation and then breaking it which made the clearing full of debris of rocks that Flester had slashed and destroyed.
"That Princes..." He clenched his sword sending a huge Flame arc into another rock he had formed. Seeing the rock not broken, his anger only grew as he rushed to the rock. "Take this." He screamed as he slashed through the rock with his sword.
"How did she know about the Elemental symbol." He panted, his head paining, and he was clearly exhausted.
"I never even met her or any noble except Fey..." His eyes softened thinking of his arrogant classmate. He knew very well Fey was very kind-hearted and all that arrogance of hers was just a fake wall others did not see through.
"Even Fey, or any noble from Frosthold are not respected among other nobles, and even frost noble family do not consider other nobles or even the royal family as allies." Flester walked away from the stone he just slashed.
"So even if the Frost family knew of my elemental symbol, they won't report it to the royals, instead would use me for their own benefits." Flester looked down to his feet.
"Could it be Night?" He thought but quickly dismissed it. "Something in that old man's eyes says me that he would not say anyone about my Elemental symbol."
"But that princess..." His eyes narrowed in anger as he recalls the talk he and Princess Jasmine had after they missed the Crown Prince Kairo Gold's match against Draven.
"Uhh, I can not believe I missed my brother's fight." Princess Jasmine almost seemed to whine, Flester walking awkwardly beside her.
"The spectators said they could not see anything as they were too fast, and it had ended in under 5 minutes with the Prince defeating Draven with ease." Flester said and Jasmine turned around angry.
"Heh-that's my brother, and the young lord for you." She said with a grin.
Flester and the Princess were walking up to a peak of a mountain and Jasmine's face became serious.
"I am so damn angry." She said gritting her teeth. "How could leave me alone and go?" She asked angrily then glared at Flester "All because I decided to treat someone like you."
"Let me tell you something." She continued. "You are not worthy of the Flame Elemental Symbol." Jasmine said flatly.
"You are strong indeed, and others may believe you are a prodigy but that is natural for a Elemental Symbol holder, in fact I'm sure you are the weakest holder there has ever been."
"Why do you say that?" Flester asked, trying to supress his increasing anger. "It will become a problem if I act wrong with her." Flester though to himself.
"You don't even know that." She scoffed with distain at his seemingly lack of knowledge.
"It is said and proven by the past holders that the Elemental Symbol is not just some random powerhouse tool, it is a spirit blessed by Imperial God himself over thousands of years ago. We have found six Elemental Symbol till date."
"The Flame Elemental Symbol which you hold-but according to the rest of world, is missing. The Water Elemental Symbol which is currently in the hands of a noble family in the Sapphire kingdom. The Earth Elemental Symbol, currently with the king of the Emerald Kingdom. The Wind Elemental kingdom with a noble family in the Diamond kingdom. The Lightning Elemental Symbol with the queen of the Platinum kingdom."
"And the sixth?" Flester asked curiously.
Jasmine looked him in the eye and continued "The sixth Elemental Symbol is the Dark Elemental Symbol... It has been lost for 200 years now with no trace of where it is."
"That's why you are not worthy of the Elemental symbol." Jasmine said.
"Oh God, I want to kill her." Flester thought.
"Just because the rest are either royals or nobles, its not right for me to have the Elemental symbol?" Flester asked, unable to contain his anger.
"It is obvious you don't know, you studied in Frosthold." She sighed and looked once again at Flester's eyes.
"Flester... The only reason you are this strong is not because you are some kind of prodigy. The Elemental Symbol, every one of the Elemental symbols slowly sends their past holder's memories into their new ones, this does not happen in a day or even in a week, it takes over a decade... slowly sending the memories of every one of their attacks into new holder to make them strong."
"You, an orphan, got this symbol and all the attacks you think you have made is just you using someone else's technique which you inherited through the Flame Elemental Symbol." Flester's eyes widened.
"TH-THAT'S A LIE!" Flester screamed out to Jasmine, the princess now calm looking at Flester who was getting increasingly tense. "I never remember any memories of another man or woman."
"No, that symbol feeds you, one by one, it gives you pieces of someone else's attacks, it gives it slowly, so slowly you naturally come to think they are yours. That's why you feel natural using it, because the memories came to you in such a way it feels like you made or mastered them."
"So... all of these-"
"Are someone else's. The past holders of the Flame Elemental symbol." Jasmine broke the complete truth to the boy who was in utter shock and was almost in tears.
"All the hard work...All the days I sneaked into the library and stole the books, all that time only to learn that all that was not even necessary."
Jasmine sighed as he kept a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I was too harsh on breaking it to you, but there was no other way to tell you, even so I still believe you are not worthy of the symbol."
Flester's eyes widened as he calmed himself down.
"You are not one to decide that, you have never seen me in a fight."
"That's true, but I did see you after the fight, in a quite, what would you say, unharmed? Were you hurt after the fight? Yes you were, in a dire and near death situation, each time saved by the instincts and memories of the Flame elemental symbol."
Flester slashed through another one of his Materialised stone. After the talk, a royal guard came and Jasmine went with our guard and ever since then he could not take her words out of his head.
"Am I truly worthy of the symbol?" He asked himself, it had been only recently that his journey had begun and he had already found a demotivation.
"I wanted to become a challenger to win the tournament, not for fame but because I wanted to be strong, I don't know who my parents are, or if they are alive, I want to search them." Flester thought looking at the evening sky slowly darkening.
"I knew I had to be strong, ever since I was little, I had a liking to the books in the library of Frosthold, while other kids were enjoying, I used to sneak in and read them every single day, and when that could not satisfy me, I sneaked out with the books to read at night while my fellow orphans slept."
"I learnt plenty basic moves at the age of five, like sending magic to different parts of my body, and manipulating magic. My power only grew with time as I read more techniques from the books I stole, then learn and keep it back, I learnt other techniques, basic light magic techniques, and then I joined the academy and learnt I had a affinity to the flame element and worked on it too stealing books."
"And like that, at 12 I learnt materialisation, not through a book, there was no book in Frosthold for learning such a move, I had sneaked out of the city gates and fought magic beasts, and when I was cornered by three beasts, I just did the technique somehow even though I did not know about its very existence, and made three daggers which I threw at the three beasts using magic and killed them."
"Light step was different, I saw no book even mention such a technique, I performed it at the age 13, a year before I graduated, I did not understand the technique."
"Whenever I sent excess light magic in my entire leg in a weird way I did not understand, and then thought to run, my body acted on its own, my magic acting without my consent and then, I was there, somewhere far, in an instant." He thought as he laid on the ground on his back, some small debris poking his back.
"The second time I did it for practice I understood my body wan not ready yet to spam the technique yet. I trained the move once a week, and I still could not understand how it worked, though I could at least be able to use it properly and in the place where I wanted to be performing the technique, and I could control the speed, only a bit but it was progress." Flester thought as he closed his eyes.
"Now, its been over one year, and I can't control it completely, and learn all that I learnt was not because I was a prodigy but because of someone else's memories."
"Does it matter though?" He said to himself standing and enjoying the evening breeze. "It's not my mistake I got this symbol, and when I have something that is mine, why is someone telling I don't deserve it?" He turned back towards the city, a cold, but determined look.
"I have something I can use to grow strong, deserved or not, I will use it, no matter what." He says and begin walking towards the city.
"For these many years, it was the nobles and royals who had the symbol, it was them who were strong, it was them who despised them, now the memories of such nobles are helping me become stronger, and now, I will become a inspiration to all the commoners." He thought to himself and grit his teeth when he though of Jasmine.
"And crush anyone who stands before me, and find my family."
Flester reached the city, his mind calm and cool now as he walked in the city, his eyes drifted to all the shopkeepers and civilians. Everyone looked lively and open-minded.
"Not at all like me..." Flester thought. "How can I be like them? So open and uncaring about what they say?"
Suddenly, someone screamed. "Help! He took my money." A old lady cried out, and everyone became alert, their magic energy ready, even then it was obvious the robber was not someone ordinary, he moved fast, and no one realised he had passed except a few.
"Stop!" Flester screamed taking off after him at full speed and instantly began closing the distance despite the robber taking sharp cuts and turns.
"Shit!" Flester breathed out as he saw the hooded robber throw an ice dagger towards him. Forming a sword he broke the dagger, and with a magic burst closed the distance and shoved him to the ground.
"Leave me!" He cried but could not break Flester grip on his hands.
"He's preparing an attack." Flester thought. "Shit! What now?"
"Binding threads." Threads of magic caught the shoved robber covering his body as Flester jumped back.
"We are the guards." He turned back to see two guys, one smiled to him while others had a thread and caught the robber.
"Here, this is the lady's who was robbed." Flester gave the two the money pouch to deliver to the old lady which was useless as she herself had just reached sitting on someone's back.
"Is it her?" A guard asked to which Flester nodded, and the guard gave him back the pouch.
"You saved her money, you give it." The guard said and jumped away with the robber.
"Thank you so much, young boy." The old lady gave a warm hug to Flester. "Good job, kid." An onlooker said with a smile and walked on.
"That was so cool~" A kid said to him with stars in his eyes. "Can I be like you?" Another kid asked and soon he was praised again and again until his face was burning red.
"How cute~" A girl of his age commented with a laugh.
"I-I'm sorry." Flester said, his face turning red with shyness as he ran off away from the crowd.
"What's wrong? We were applauding him, why did he run?" one of the guys commented as Flester vanished as he jumped from one building to another and finally reached his apartment.
"Exactly. I don't need to be a prodigy to make a change. After all, once you are strong mage, it does not matter if you were strong from the beginning or not."
Flester entered his room with a determined look.
"No matter what, I WILL NOT STOP!" He declared to himself.
"After all, I'm Flester, the one who holds the flame."