They Called Me FIVE

LANCE

I approached the gleaming sword. Startled by the reflection it's giving me. Instead of my face, I see another person's face on it. Green wrinkled skin, black sullen eyes, like dark empty hole pointing downwards to the Earth's core. I cringed at its sight.

"I wouldn't touch it if I were you." Someone behind me said. Another guy, not Lista. This one is taller, has an air of authority around him. Blonde hair, deep scar on the lower part of his cheek, his eyes are startling metallic grey. His muscles are no joke. I can see the layers of trained hard abs beneath his white thin V collar shirt.

"Who are you?" I asked. He didn't spare me a glance and just stared at the creature reflected in the silver sword. 

"That weapon is forged with the use of mana from the Faeries. So anyone who's not a Faery and touch the hilt with their bare hands will die." 

Out of surprise, I took a step back. He flash me a smile. "But nah, it won't work on ya. You're the Eklektos after all."

"I'll take it you're one of Dad's old buddies?" The smile retracts from his face. He looked over the spears aligning in their proper place and sigh.

"If I we're you, you're next move is to be careful. Don't trust anyone so easily. Just like that scheming sword who has taken hundred lives of Rankers and hunters alike with it's deadly curse, there might be other... things, who has the same drive. Not everything appears as it seems."

I can't understand why he pause on the 'things' part. But his serious tone is enough to bring out the anxious me in the surface.

"Anyway, if you want to have a parring Master who can teach you how to use all these weapons, feel free to come to this place." He took out a pen and a crumpled paper from his pocket, scribbled something on it and handed it to me.

WAYNE REC CENTER

518 S WALL STREET CHICAGO ILLINOIS

I stare at him. "You know, you're contradicting yourself. You just told me don't trust anyone easily, now you're telling me you'll be my mentor and come to this auspicious place." He laughed. The scar under his left cheek stretch towards his upper chin.

"It's an offer, dear Eklektos. I won't force you if you don't want to. I know you prefer to be trained by your Dad and Lista but... the techniques they're teaching you, was only enough to crush Beasts under your feet. Not Faeries. As far as I can see now...you're strength... Can only take down Class 10, above than that and you're finished."

If strangers easily told me I will die quickly because I'm weak, or I'm not good enough I would have flipped by now and defeat him by fist. Show my dominance. Prove my strength.

Strange enough, I don't have the drive to do that right now. Because the face that's been shone by the faint light coming from the window, the amount of experience oozing out from his carefully toned muscles, tells me I'm no match for him.

He doesn't mean harm. He sees my possible growth, but foresaw I wouldn't be able to exercise my capabilities to its maximum use if I stuck myself with Dad and Lista. Deep down, I realize it too.

With Magnus I can feel he's on a whole new level. Right when he took up his double sword and point it at Dad, I know it's the end of us. Neither Dad and I can stop him. In my desperation, I feed on the alienated feeling building up in my gut. And that black wave happened. Magnus vanished.

In some ways, this dude reminds me of Magnus. They kind of have that 'I'm an awesome guy but I'm too lazy to flex it out' vibe.

"What's Class 10?" I blurted out.

"It's kind of like a ranking between Faery races. They told you there are thirteen races with Faeries right? To measure the amount of mana stored in their body, they established this Class system. Class 1 are the royal families, called the 'Dark Elves'. Class 2 are the knights, called the 'Djinn'. And the list goes on. But after spending thousands of years in the Forbidden Land, their mana started to deflate. Their strength are slowly drained."

He paused, looking down at me. More like waiting for me to finish his tale.

"So they resorted to dominating human realm to collect souls of the people and energized their mana, is that it?"

He chuckled. "Energized? That's some choice of word, but yeah they turn to humans as living mana booster."

"Then the Auf... are they the humans who still live without souls?"

He scrubbed his chin, his thumb tracing the scar lining his cheek.

"Well, that's a good question. You see, a mortal body is useless without a soul. And Faeries have no use of dead bodies except feeding it to the Beasts."

"So the Auf, still have their souls intact?"

"Half, actually. They retain half of their souls to keep their body moving while the other half was converted into a mana. And whoever holds that other half, is the Auf's master."

So that Faery woman in my dream...that Twytlyth...she holds half of those Auf's soul in her body?

"Nasty business isn't it?" He asked. I nod absentminded.

"Oops, run of time. Gotta jog." He hopped into the window facing the streets. At first, I thought it's a glass upper sliding window. Then he flip the blue curtain aside and revealed the other half. A double door glass window, with a latch on the center. He corked it open and planted his feet on the side rail. Positioning his body in an attempt to jump out of this two no, three storey building.

"Wait!" I ran after him. "Aren't you gonna stay long -"

"Can't. Got a time limit. The pet's super bubbly. Anyway, remember the conversation we have dear Eklektos. Aufs used to be humans that became slaves of the Faeries because of their souls halfly consumed. And your Dad and Lista...are slaves. There's no taking back of their souls now, no saving them. One way or another they will turn into an Auf and point their fangs on you. I'm tempted to say 'soon' but you only got days before this happens. You better prepare for the worst. See ya."

And he jumped.