Mason curses under his breath and walks away, looking to walk over around the top-level some more. Sam follows behind as ever, keeping an eye out for Gentus to get further instruction on what to do. Sam braces for another intrusion of his mind, curious to see if he could train to not feel that pain, making notes in a small notebook and quickly throwing it into his bag again, patting it down tight as he catches up to Mason.
"What do you think we're going to do?"
Sam asks an obvious question, but he needs to lob a simple topic to Mason to keep his attention.
Mason considers for a moment, stopping on his heels and looking through some pillars at the edges of the battlefield across from them. Mason wonders.
"I think it's typical of any teacher to want to see what their students are capable of, right?"
After a breath, Mason says aloud,
"I'm hoping it's a battle royale, see the combatant students go head-to-head?"
Mason grips his fist at his side.
Sam winces but knows that's very likely what's about to happen.
"Yeah, I guess only the combatant students are being tested, there's no advantage to making those of us that only want to learn suppression and manifestation."
Mason nods, keeping his stride over to another large statue. The base of the statues reaches just above their heads and continues to tower at the legs and the rest of them. Above them currently stands a woman with a flowing dress and no back to it, only large and felled wings.
Mason spits, throwing a spiteful curse at the base.
Winged Blessed are typically the type to hold themselves above the rest of the Blessed. Among their ranks, they have some of the higher echelons that fancy themselves as close to Angels as humans can get.
The advent of Blessing manifesting among humans was wrought with a holy war among humans, believing the righteousness of Heaven would lead them to glory, even over their own kind. This was quickly done away with by the real Angels of the War.
In a whisking flick, Angels sealed humanity's ability for flight with wings, dastardly magic that limits the ability of those who manifest to reach the sky but still left them with some of the higher levels of Blessed energy. The winged Blessed are found in a lot of ruling positions in the world now, and Mason has a fight to pick with each of them.
Namely, Breck.
Passing the statue with a kicking strut, Mason and Sam perk their ears as a familiar yell pulls their attention.
"Maaaaaassssooooooooon!"
Melody throws herself towards them. Mason and Sam both look at each other in a blink and brace for impact. Trialing golden light, Melody slams her open-arms into Mason and Sam's necks, hugging them deeply and roughly against the guardrail behind them.
FOOMPF
"Mel?"
Sam shouts as she chokes him.
"Dammit, M-"
Mason tries to break free, only furthering his dig into her side as he squirms about. Melody holds them tighter, excitedly wringing their necks with the pit of her elbow.
"What are you guys doing here!?"
Melody yells into the tops of their heads, finally loosening a bit. Mason pulls away first, quick to his feet. Sam stays next to her, his eyes as red as blood, staring at her chest from where he turned into during her hold.
SWAKK
Melody stands now too, her hand firmly flat and freshly pricked on Sam's cheek.
Sam pulls away now too, straightening out and fixing his glasses over his regular green eyes.
"Ahem- we're here for a training exercise, we think?"
Sam informs, walking over to Mason's side now. Mason straightens his jacket and wrings his neck, tilting his head in his hand.
"Yeah, Gentus called us from somewhere and told us to head to the colosseum."
Mason's voice strains as he stretches, elongating throughout as he bends his neck about. Mason looks off to the colosseum as he finishes, seeing now that a few more students are arriving at the top of the bowl and into the stands.
"Wait- are you guys…?"
Mason stops, suddenly halted by a striking heavy air. Sam starts to choke back on a suddenly dry throat, shutting his eyes in strain. Melody notices something too, a sudden heat at her ankles around the Halo. The three of them look at one another, suddenly afraid of what's coming.
The class shouts and hollers, excitedly for something. The three of them push off over to a viewing deck, hurriedly looking for what's causing such a disturbance. As they all try to peer around, they shutter in strange anticipation.
"What the Hell is this?"
Mason shouts at them as if demanding a correct answer. He grips onto the rail before him, leaning heavily onto it.
"This feels like…"
Sam quietly posits, holding down his bag at his side.
Melody looks around and sees that some of the students are doing the same, while others are holding their hands over their eyes, shielding from the sun as they look skyward.
In tandem, the three of them look up at what can easily be described as an advent. Angels appear to be throwing one another through ringers in the sky just above them.
The first of them spotted is enlarging his Halo, throwing it as a powerful and destructive slicing disc at the other,
"Rend!"
The being calls out, a human's magic spell, that confuses Melody. She knows that Rend is a high-class spell that's capable with a Halo through a ton of spent energy and mastery. Just then, she picks out the voice shouting it, and looks harder at the Angel; Mr. Verim lets his Halo free and parts the clouds as his power soars through the blue.
"Mr. Verim…"
Melody says, catching Mason and Sam's attention.
"Your teacher?"
Sam looks up again.
"He's capable of… this?"
Mason looks now too, realizing the familiar feeling he had with the powerful heated air raining on them all.
"Gentus is up there…"
Mason says softly, shattered at the incredibly drowning level of power he's feeling.
Mr. Verim and Gentus standoff in the middle of the sky, the former waiting for his halo to return to him, and the latter of them keeping aloft with a powerful thrust of his expansive golden wings.
Gentus' back is a far view away, yet the whole of the student classes beneath him can see that stretched outright are his long and pointed wings. They don't reflect as feathers would but let light pass through them like a window. A golden glass drapes from his back, and he's able to keep them stretched for a time. Even for someone of incredible mastery and training, the flapping of a human's wings is supposed to be next to impossible.
Continued in PART FORTY-TWO…