The training room they were in was very spacious. It was one of the biggest ones that Michael had ever seen. Not the biggest, it was just short of claiming that spot.

  Also, unlike the other training rooms that Michael had been to, this one was better lit than the others. Michael didn’t know why, but he was always so fixed on the lighting levels. It was probably because of how badly lit their house was.

  “Welcome to our in site training room,” Chrys said, motioning to the entire space that they were in.

  “I must say, it looks very… safe,” Maya said looking down at the padded flooring, “and large.”

  “We needed a place to allow some of our personnel to train,” Chrys conveyed.

  Michael took a glance at some of the obstacles that filled the room. All of the obstacles were padded in one way or another.

  There were large, thick poles. Knobby lumps stuck out of the floor in other places. Michael looked at them and inferred that they represented rocks and trees that you would find while out in the field.

  “What type of training are we going to do then?” Michael asked.

  “We’re going to do the traditional training that we do at the Twilight Academies. It should be pretty similar to the training that you did at the Eclipse school,” Chrys moved to a locker and opened it.

  Inside the locker was about half a dozen energy shields. Some things were still similar to the Eclipse. Either the Eclipse copied the Unity, or the Unity copied the Eclipse.

  “I’m guessing that the rules are that the first one to break the other person's shield loses,” Michael speculated, “other than that there aren’t really rules, are there.”

  “You would be correct in the assessment,” Chrys said.

  Michael walked over to the locker. He heard Steven and Mori start talking to each other.

  A soft clang came from the locker as Michael picked up one of the energy shields. He drew it around his waist and buckled it.

  “How are we going to set this up,” Maya stepped to Michael’s side.

  “Let’s do a tournament-like set up,” Chrys suggested, “it would allow all of us to get a good amount of practice in.”

  Nodding, Michael walked out to the center of the room where there was a clear spot. Chrys accompanied him a second later.

  Maya started talking to Harmony, Steven, and Mori. She was probably explaining what they were doing.

  Other than the standard armor of the Oathsworn, this was the first time Michael saw the clothing that Chrys wore for combat.

  Chrys was dressed in a black pants, a white shirt, and a vest. Michael didn’t understand the practicality. It did fit with her silver and brown hair, but that didn’t affect the actual practical use of it.

  Pair that with her weapon, which looked like a parasol, there was nothing to her that looked dangerous. Michael didn’t understand it. Chrys had her reasons, and he would leave it at that.

  “I guess we can take the first round then,” Michael said to her.

  “Agreed,” Chrys said, “prepare yourself.”

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  Without warning, Chrys lunged forward towards Michael. This left Michael unprepared.

  He thought there was going to be a countdown, he was mistaken. Now the only thing that would help was a quick reaction.

  Michael flung his sword out of its sheath and pulled the trigger on the blade. The sheath looked as though it was starting to melt. The sheath quickly formed into a shield and Michael prepared for a blow to connect. That blow never came.

  That was strange. Michael looked over his shield. He saw the padded poles and lumps, but Chrys was nowhere to be seen. Harmony, Maya, and Steven were standing on the sideline.

  Steven had a large grin on his face. This aggravated Michael slightly. He looked away from Steven.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Michael saw some movement. He whirled around and put his shield up just in time to block a lunge from Chrys.

  Her parasol now had a blade coming out from the tip. It was something that Michael had no idea could happen. Something that he would have to keep watch of.

  Michael pushed forward to try to throw Chrys off balance. Fluidly, Chrys dashed off to the side. Michael kept his eyes on her trying to keep track of her.

  The air around Chrys started to glimmer. Her body started to shimmer. She was starting to do something, didn’t correspond to her parasol. Michael inferred through everything that he had seen that it was her aura. No device would be able to do that.

  He would need to do something to stop whatever Chrys was doing.

  Pulling on his aura, Michael started to conjure a windstorm that would knock anyone off their feet. It wouldn’t work if she managed to gain distance from him.

  Michael rushed forward and tried to get within distance of Chrys so he could take a slash at her.

  It took too long though. Chrys’s form shimmered and suddenly vanished.

  Realizing what was going on, Michael backpedaled. He put his back to one of the poles hoping that it would give him some cover if he held his shield up.

  Even though Chrys had revealed what her aura could do, Michael didn’t know how to counteract it. It was really hard to hit something invisible, even if you had the ability to create an area. There was no way to guess where Chrys was going to show up next.

  Pulling more energy, Michael started to channel it into a firestorm. It would take a lot of energy, but it might allow him to get the upper hand.

  Flames started to swirl around in the air. The padded objects that got in the way got blasted with the flame. Luckily, instead of catching fire they deflected the flames. Michael didn’t take into account the flammability of the room that they were in.

  Michael continued to make the flames, but he noticed something peculiar about an area off to his left. There was an area where the flames were just going around. Not too dissimilar to what was happening with the poles.

  Moving forward, Michael kept the fire trained on the spot where the fire was deflecting. Michael started to use his aura to create a bolt of lightning in the palm of his hand.

  If Chrys was standing in front of him, then the lightning would be more than enough to stop the energy shield.

  Michael reached out with his hand, electricity arcing between his fingers. He began to try to force it out, but before he could strike, Chrys appeared from that area and lunged forward at him out of the flames.

  The parasol that Chrys was holding was open and it hit Michael in the head, temporarily blinding him. When Michael opened his eyes again Chrys was gone, just like before.

  He needed to come up with a plan and fast. Otherwise he would lose in a matter of seconds.

  Michael turned around and ran toward the wall.

  This time there wasn’t just open space in front of him. Chrys was right in front of him.

  Michael noticed that part of the handle of Chrys’s parasol was gone. Along with that Chrys was now holding a thin bladeBefore Michael could react Chrys sliced at him with the blade that she was holding.

  In an attempt to parry the attack, Michael tried to bring his shield up. It was too late, he wasn’t fast enough. The blade made contact with his energy shield and caused it to flash red.

  Surprisingly, the shield didn’t break. Before Michael could even realize that fact, Chrys had hit him in the face with her parasol once more. This time opening it when it hit.

  It caused the energy shield around Michael to crack, then shatter. The momentum that was in the stroke that Chrys initiated kept going and hit Michael in the head.

  Darkness started to grow around the corner of his eyes. It was the end of the duel.

  The only thing that Michael could think of when he passed out was how out of practice he was.