Tales Of Earthem: P.O.T.S
chapter 9

Verse 8 -The strongest 12

Jyro spent a total of 3 days bed ridden in the special facility room where they treated injuries in the academy, he arose to see Sebastian nestled by the foot of his bed sleeping peacefully with a note from headmaster Kobi perched near the foot of the bed, the note told Jyro to come to his office immediately when he wakes up. So Jyro and Sebastian proceeded down to the headmaster’s office, when they reached the end of the left hall Jyro could already hear arguing as he slowly opened the doors, when he entered inside Tristine and Johnny where both seated inside with Professor Kobi. “Jyro you’re ok” said Tristine ,she then rushed over towards him and gave him a hug, “ nice to see you back again mate” said Johnny ,” you two” responded Jyro as the two nodded at each other,. “Ahem “sounded MR. Kobi, “now that’s out of the way ill like to address what went on in that library” he said, the 3 kids then turned to one another with an expression of fear,

“Well the standard punishment for breaking the rules of such kind would mean a full scale discipline but since there were certain unexplainable events you’ll all be receiving a warning” the 3 kids sighed with relief when they heard they’ll only be warned, “but Sir , what was that thing in the library that attacked us” Johnny asked ,the headmaster was dreading that question but knew they’d eventually ask him about it , “that spirit you saw is called the Guardian spirit their entities that were cast by a warlock to protect the city they roam at night around the Cantas walls and protect the country from any demon or evil that attempts to come in, the guardian spirits have been around since Canta was established as a country” he said, the kids then looked at one another once more in confusion “so what was it doing in the academy ” said Jyro, MR Kobi sighed to himself then answered “We don’t know, this is the first time they’ve entered the academy walls without being told to and why they did comes as a mystery to me as well, but don’t be afraid kids will get to the bottom of this” said the headmaster, “that’s all now ,you may all resume your normal lessons now….oh Jyro can I speak to you for a few minutes please” Johnny and Tristine exited the headmasters offices and left Jyro alone,. Mr. Kobi got out of his seat and moved closer to Jyro he had that small bottle in his hand from the first time they met, “Alice?” called out the headmaster, the water rose out from the bottle and forcefully entered Jyros mouth once again, the force was great enough to send Jyro flying off his chair gasping for air whilst clutching at his throat, and this went on for a few seconds more before the water came out his mouth and Jyros senses returned. “ wh…what was that for” muttered Jyro as he coughed and gasped for air, Mr Kobi helped the boy up and apologized to him, “ my apologies I really should warn you when I do that I just had to make sure one more time, Alice the reading ? “He said “Roughly around 100 master no change” spoke the liquid as it then returned back into the bottle, Mr Kobi was lost in his thoughts for a minute trying to make sense of something “ So you can use the lightning brand ability without a high VDE” asked the headmaster, Jyro nodded to confirm, the headmaster held the boys two hands and asked him softly “ do you think you could tell me about it… you know how the secrets for the brand” he asked, as the headmaster spoke Jyro noticed a cold stare in his eyes “I’m sorry sir but I can’t” he replied , “very well I understand….Oh yes where was we” Jyro didn’t understand what Mr. Kobi was getting at , but he didn’t say a word he himself didn’t understand why he could do those things it just seems normal to him. “There’s an annual event that we hold here for the E graders the top 12 students are pitted against each other in a grade C mission and it’s got me thinking that I’d like to sponsor your name down to take part” the headmaster announced, “ wha… me” responded Jyro in shock,” but I’m not even, I mean me one of the 12 strongest how could I” he muttered, “don’t fret over it believe in yourself boy.. ahh time is off the essence Mr. Thomas will continue this later” said the headmaster he then escorted Jyro out of his office.

“ the top 12 students are judged by their VDE count and academic brilliance they are then set against one another on a Grade C mission, and the winner is awarded the title as the strongest in the year” explained Tristine as she and Jyro were walking through the halls, “ But why was I chosen my count is just about 100” Jyro exclaimed “ well beats me, I’m not too sure about it myself this must be a first, anyway try not to think about it too much Jyro the 12 aren’t announced to the end of the year so we’ve got a couple of months till then” said Tristine ,the sudden sounds of bells ringing was heard , the bell chimed twice,” two rings , looks like an assembly’s been called” said Tristine so the two of them then made their way to the Chapel hall.

The first years all descended to the chapel hall where a slightly old man dressed in black was standing in the middle of the hall, he had no hair on his head and a greyish silver goatee and a serious face. Jyro and Tristine made it to the chapel and on the upper row, Jyro looked around for Johnny but saw no sign of him anywhere “Trish you seen Johnny about today” Jyro asked curiously. The stern eyed man standing in the middle of the hall cleared his throat abruptly then started to address the students “Students, my name is professor Ordor Valentine” he said, “sounds like a villain” one of the students muttered which led to sniggers across the hall, the professor glanced at the culprit who spoke who almost had a heart attack when he saw the look the professor gave him, the hall fell silent. “Now then, you’ve all been summoned here today for one purpose …. To understand the difference between the weak and the strong, Those of you born weak I suggest you remove yourself from this academy, we have no used for weaklings only the strong survive in this accursed world” said the professor whilst the students all sat as still as stones as their hearts raced from the fear of the professors words. The professor clapped his hands and in walked what looked like a goblin pushing a large screen towards the professor, the students gasped at the sight of it” Take it easy now nothing to fear this is a house Goblin” the professor said, the students all gawked at the greyish creature who’s legs was in chains, Jyro looked on at the creature and couldn’t help but feel sorry for it. Whilst it continued to wheel the massive screen into the chapel it tripped over its chains and fell over, the professor sighed as he casually walked with his arms across to the imp, “Get up” he said, the imp then begun apologizing when the professor suddenly kicked it, he kicked it again and again insulting the creature as he done so, Jyro became enraged “THAT’S ENOUGH!” he yelped as the whole hall turned around to face him, the professor turned and looked at him also” ho oh , so you’re feeling well now then Mr Thomas” said the professor whilst gazing at Jyro seated above, Jyro suddenly felt uneasy and could feel a tense overwhelming pressure coming from the professors gaze, “ I’m ever so sorry if my disciplining of ‘MY’ imp offends you, would you like me to stop for you I mean I wouldn’t want to hurt our little geniuses feelings now would I ” said the professor sarcastically ,Tristine then quickly pulled Jyro down to his seat, “what do you think you’re doing” she whispered to him , Jyro suddenly came to his senses “s..s..sorry about that I don’t know what came over me “ he replied.

The professors imp quickly centered the screen in the middle of the hall and turned it on, “humph, now then the reason I took you all out of lessons was to inform you all the annual strongest 12 event will be taking place earlier than planned” which led to countless chattering through the halls “silence” spoke the professor” due to the high potential of students this year it’ll take place in 2 months!” the professor looked towards Jyro and smirked, “now here are the 12” he said, “ whattt are they serious, we haven’t even been here that long how in the world are they going to choose” Tristine said furiously. The students chattered amongst themselves all shocked by the early announcement of the event, nevertheless professor valentine begun announcing the 12 top E graders, as their names popped onto the screen in no particular order,1) Handolos Vega,2)Clive broomstin, 3)Leo Blackstorm,4) Alania Kaur,5) Bobby West,6) Tristine Morrowind,7)Valko Tius,8) Arnold Vega,9) Madison Scarlet,10) Isis Gates,11) lance Murdoch ,12)……Jyro Thomas. A deep silence fell upon the hall then a sudden burst of cheers rained down, Jyro was the only person looking on to the screen and feeling concerned, “well isn’t this a bother” Tristine said referring to the names on the event, “this can’t be a coincidence to have the event now…mmm something is most certainly going on” Tristine finished talking she realized Jyros attention was adrift and snapped her two fingers at him “don’t think about it Jyro what’s done is done will get through this one way or another” she said with a smile . “silenceee” Professor Valentine bellowed, “the rules are as follows in 1 month from now the chosen 12 will be exempt from your timetabled lessons to train, you’ll be set a C grade mission which will not be known till the Eve of the Event, also you are allowed 1 person from the same year as you as a subordinate for the event, obviously this person cannot be from the 12, and all 12 named MUST participate in the event ……..that is all”. Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ (F)indNƟvᴇl.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

The students exited the chapel where Tristine was still trying to cheer Jyro up, “ it’s not that bad Jyro plus you’ll have me there” she said as she smiled erratically, “ I didn’t realize you were that amazing though Tristine , your actually listed as the top E graders!” Jyro said, “haha its nothing really I probably got there for my academic brilliance” she replied. Whilst the two walked down the hall to their dorm they saw Johnny sitting with Sebastian on the perch of the steps that led down to the vineyards, Sebastian was purring softly at Johnny licking his hands , there you are” said Tristine “ thought it would be cool to miss assembly now did you” she said sarcastically before she uttered anymore words Johnny turned around to look at his two friends , “OH my Gosh” gasped Tristine “ what happened to your eye”, Johnnys left eye was black and purple and by the looks of it he could hardly keep it open. Jyro immediately grabbed onto his arm,” Johnny who did this to you, tell me now, who was it” Jyro said angrily, Johnny shoved his arm away “it doesn’t concern you” he shouted then stormed off. Jyro and Tristine stood there dumbfounded when Jyro looked off into the distance and saw Valko Tius with a group of his friends laughing as they walked away, a sudden rage begun to boil inside the boy “Tristine, Emmanuel dorm is on the other side of school right” asked Jyro “yeah it is but“, “so whys Valko over here” he asked. Jyro stormed off into his direction “Wait Jyro, stop” Tristine called out. Jyro was burning with rage as he stormed into the middle of Valkos friends and shoved Valko to the floor, Jyro grabbed him whilst he lay on the floor” don’t ever touch my friends again” Jyro shouted as the looking crowd dragged Jyro off Valko, Valko got up huffing and puffing and clenched his fists tight, his breathing started to accelerate rapidly, Jyro looked on in shock as Valkos eye colour slowly begun to change from the once blue colour it was to a dark orange tint. The boys holding Jyro then let him go and slowly stepped away from him , Jyro looked around to see why then realized they was moving away from Valko, Valko started breathing at a frightening pace then suddenly burst towards Jyro at a frightening pace and speared Jyro to the floor just as his fist was about to be thrown, “terrae continent” spoke a voice and green vines suddenly wrapped onto Valko and through him backwards, The head mistress appeared out of nowhere and placed one foot on Valkos chest “Stand down Mr Tius or I won’t be accountable for my actions” she said, Valkos breathing slowed down and his eye turned back to normal. He got up and dusted the dirt from his uniform, “you just wait Thomas, in 2 months nothing will save you…your DEAD!” Valko shouted he then walked off with his friends, the headmistress turned her attention to Jyro, “mmm Mr Thomas getting yourself into more trouble are we? You best watch yourself people with good natured spirits like your own don’t last too long in this world” said the headmistress whilst she walked away down the hall. “what in heaven’s name was that all about Jyro ….Jyro are you even listening to me” Tristine said, but what the young girl didn’t know was Jyro couldn’t speak, as sweat rolled down the boys cheeks he came to a frightening realisation that if the headmistress hadn’t intervened Valko might have killed him there and then, taking into account if all the other 10 had power like Valko he wouldn’t stand a chance in 2 months and he knew he had to get stronger.

The night fell on Canta and all the pupils were in their respective dorms, Jyro lay down on his bed whilst he looked to the ceiling and recapped on his day. Knock Knock , “come in” said Jyro, the door opened and Johnny was standing there, he couldn’t look at Jyro in the eyes and felt guilty for storming off earlier,” erm I just came round to say sorry, Trish told me what you done for me with Valko…Thanks” Johnny said whilst tying to think of more things to say,” don’t worry about it that’s what friends are for” Jyro replied as the two boys stared at each other in silence before shortly bursting into laughter. “So why did he do that to you anyway?” asked Jyro “haha erm well, I interrogated him about the book, things were said then he got a bit angry and as you can see this was the result, plus our families don’t get along anyway my dad and his our both on the opposing council ” said Johnny whilst pointing to his eye, “by the way I heard about the 12 strongest, good job mate! Make sure you give em hell” Johnny spoke, “huh, oh yeah I’ll try” Jyro replied not looking o feeling confident at all,” well luckily for you I didn’t come empty handed, as part of my apology I come baring gifts have a look at this” Johnny then handed Jyro a few sheets of paper, each paper contained information about the 11 other E graders participating in the event, estimated VDE level, height, weight and Brand (if known). “Wow, I’m impressed how did you get all of this” said Jyro excitingly, “well that’s my specialty I’m here to become a Ducem after all and gathering Intel on the enemy Is Childs play for me really” Jyro begun looking through the notes, “Isis Gates” said Jyro “ ahh I knew you’d take notice of her, she’s known as the beautiful ice queen her older sister is part of the 12 Holy swords , there the strongest military Exorcists in Canta an elite bunch handpicked by the queen of Canta herself so she has a lot to live up to, her VDE probably exceeds over 500 which probably makes her the strongest in our year” said Johnny ,Jyro listened intently and he was surprise to hear someone that strong was in the academy, “ oh yeah she’s also one of the only few in our year that own a brand, I personally haven’t seen it but I heard it’s incredibly powerful” said Johnny, Jyro felt like telling Johnny about lightning brand but was still feeling uncertain remembering the words the headmaster said to him. “Alright I’ve taken the liberty of devising your training regime, you best be ready it’s going to be long 2 months mate” he said, whilst Jyro looked on at his friend talking away he couldn’t help but feel happy inside and glad to have met Johnny, he was someone who seemed to always brighten his aura anytime he was around him, the both of them didn’t even need to ask one another who Jyro was going to pick as his helper for the event, they both knew the answer already.

Sᴇarch the FindNovel.net website on G𝘰𝘰gle to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.