Chapter 5: First friend
After a few rounds of evaluation to gauge their basic capabilities, Llarm, Lucius, Gindu, and Eri were thrown headfirst into a challenge that seemed more like punishment than training:
Fighting Darfin.
'This guy is a total maniac,' Lucy thought as he dove to the side, barely dodging a column of fire that exploded past his shoulder. The heat seared the edge of his tunic, leaving behind a sharp, acrid smell of burning fabric and smoke.
He coughed, eyes watering. But there was no time to recover.
Without warning, a glistening sphere of water snapped into existence around him, clear and suffocating. The temperature plummeted. It clung to his skin and clothes like icy hands, squeezing the air from his lungs. His instincts screamed. He kicked, twisted—but there was no give.
The world outside distorted. Sound vanished. He could see Darfin's mouth moving, but there was no voice. Just silence
His vision began to blur at the edges when two shadows streaked in—Eri from the left and Gindu from the right. Their blades gleamed as they charged together, letting out cries of defiance.
Eri moved with deadly precision, her twin blades flashing like silver lightning. Gindu, all power and brute force, roared as he lunged, claws extended.
Darfin's eyes flicked to them. With a sigh that bordered on boredom, he leapt upward, twisting through the air in a graceful spin that defied the laws of gravity. Steel clashed beneath him as the two attacks met nothing but empty space.
Still, their assault was enough.
The concentration he needed to maintain the bubble wavered, and with a sudden pop, the watery prison collapsed around Lucy. He dropped like a stone.