Chapter Seventy-Four.

(Luca)

The scary guy's a good cook. This food is really delicious. I don't want to stop eating, but my stomach's so full.

He starts cleaning up the dishes, taking them to a pump in the kitchen and washing them there, before drying them with a towel and putting them into the cabinets. He looks sad about something. I didn't think he could be sad. He's always got that glare on his face. Other than now.

Well, and when we were eating. He looked happy as we ate.

He's weird. Scary, but weird. And he's nice, I guess. Just a little bit. These clothes are super comfortable.

"We'll start with you first," the scary guy walks out and looks at Braden. "It takes sixteen minutes, forty seconds to return to full from empty on Health and Mana, though if you hit 0 Health, you're dead, so there's no coming back from that unless you know an Angel with the appropriate Skill. And there aren't any Angels around. And that's why you're staying here and doing as I say, because I will ensure you two don't die, as long as you stick with me and do what I say.

"Now," the scary guy says. "One way to increase your recovery rate is by being on your property. For you two, that's here. It doubles it automatically while here, meaning that if you train here, you'll recover in only eight minutes and twenty seconds."

Okay? What does that mean?

"So," the scary guy says. "Visualize a spike of wind swirling around, like this."

The scary guy waves a hand, and purple wind appears in front of his hand in the form of a spike, swirling around. That is so cool.

I watch as Braden tries a few times, the scary guy giving him a few tips, then eventually telling Braden to try generating it at the tip of his staff. He stands behind Braden and moves my brother into a stance, holding his arms and positioning his hand on the staff.

He seems really annoyed and is kind of rough with my brother. Despite that, he spends an hour working with Braden until my brother manages to cast Wind Spike. His is just air, and I can barely see it. Guess I need more than 2 Perception. Gotta work on that.

"Yes!" Braden exclaims, pumping a fist into the air.

"Good job," the scary guy says. "Now do pushups, situps, and planks while you're waiting for your Mana to recover."

"Why?" Braden glares at him.

"To toughen your body," the scary guy states. "You might be a magician, but what if something gets past the team and hits you? You'll need to be able to take a hit."

"This is Strength training!"

"You're weak," the scary guy states. "You have little meat on your bones. Training your body for strength while pushing it to its limits will affect your Endurance. The other option is I beat the crap out of you, and I'd be more than happy to do that, if you'd like."

Braden hesitates, then nods, asking what a plank is.

The scary guy removes his chest and arm armor, then his tunic, setting them on the table before dropping onto the ground, holding himself up using just his forearms and feet, his back perfectly straight and aligned with his legs, angling down towards his feet.

His body's muscular. Not big and massive like some of the knights we saw, but in a lean and really defined way. I don't think he has any fat on him at all. I wish I had a body that cool. Will doing his workouts make me like that, too?

He demonstrates that and a couple of other types of planks, then shows what a pushup and pullup is, though I think he's doing that just to treat Braden like my brother's stupid.

Braden reluctantly gets to work on the exercises, and the scary guy sits at the table, lifting up one arm and biting into it. I stare at him in horror when I realize that he actually bit through his skin. His canines are sharp. And a little bit long.

"Luca," he holds out his bleeding arm. "Come here. Put your hands over the wound and focus on healing. Reach into yourself and push for the healing powers to draw out."

I'm scared, but walk over to him and do as he says. It takes me several minutes to be able to acquire the Skill, and the scary guy's voice gently guides me the entire way.

New Skill! Heal Active Mend wounds. Healing Factor: 100% of your Intellect Cost: 15 Mana (reduces by 1 per Level of this Skill) 6 Health has been restored to your target!

"Good job," he smiles at me. "Once you have another 8 Mana, you can do it again, okay? I'll need to keep hurting myself, though, since my regeneration's high enough that I'll probably heal all the way naturally. Just to let you know."

I nod, not sure I want to see him keep getting hurt. Seeing the blood makes my stomach feel funny.

Carefully, I remove my tunic and fold it up before setting it on the table. The air is chilly as I start doing pushups. It's not easy. I can only do one. Same with situps. I can't do planks for very long, either. I'm really weak.

The scary guy is encouraging, though. Encouraging me. He doesn't seem to care much to encourage Braden. When I give up and just lie here until my Mana's recovered, too exhausted to do much else, my brother does the same, collapsing beside me.

I sit up when I hit 23 Mana, since that's what I need for Heal, and go to use it on the scary guy.

"Wait," he says. "Take on Novice if you really want to go the healing route. It'll provide an immediate bonus to your Intellect and Willpower, and using Heal should net you some Experience. Braden, you didn't take on Novice Elementalist, did you?"

Braden huffs as I take on Novice, acquiring 1 Intellect and 2 Willpower.

The scary guy bites himself again, and I use Heal on him, restoring 7 Health to him this time. He wants us to do more exercising, but I don't think I can, so I watch his injury heal. It takes it less than a minute to heal all the way. His last one lasted for a lot longer, though!

How badly did he hurt himself the first time?

The scary guy has us practicing every time our Mana has restored enough, and makes us exercise whenever we recover enough. It's not fun, but I do gain a point of Strength and another of Endurance, so I guess it's alright?

I'm still scared, though. When it's time for dinner, the scary guy lets us rest as he cooks. He sets a deck of playing cards on the table, teaching us a game where we guess what numbers the others have. I'm not very good at it.

I don't like talking, especially not around him. He's scary and scares me.

After dinner, he tells us to stay here and keep playing, and that he'll back. We're not, under any circumstances, to leave here. I relax a lot after he's gone, and Braden does, too.

Braden and I keep playing until the scary guy returns after an hour, and when he does, he hands Braden a bunch of clothes.

"Those are for you," he says. "You two need a bath. Come with me."

He leads Braden and me to the house's bath, showing us how to use it and stuff. It's really simple, but I'm scared. I don't want to bathe around him.

"Make sure you're both clean and dry," the scary guy glares at Braden. "If Luca catches a cold, I'm holding you responsible. Use the towels there to dry off, then hang them back on that rod so they can dry. I'll take a bath after you two finish."

He leaves the bath, and I let out a sigh of relief. We're alone, not bathing with him. That's a big relief.

"Come on," Braden pats my back. "At least he's giving us privacy for this."

(Zack)

"Jesse told me about their arrival," Nik says.

I grunt in response, and he snorts.

"The Crystals didn't tell me his brother was coming, too."

"Really?" Nik asks. "That's surprising. Maybe they didn't know?"

"I think they did," I hesitate for a moment, then tell him my suspicions about Braden and my plans.

"Good luck," he tells me. "Where are they now?"

"Bed," I answer. "They're upstairs. Braden's already ended up in Luca's bed because of his brothers' anxiety. I'll probably go to bed once they're asleep."

"What are you planning?" He asks.

"What do you mean?"

"For Braden," he responds.

"Oh," I say. "To make him as strong as he can be. As long as he does what I say, he should be fine."

I take another swig from the bottle of wine, then offer it to Nik, who gives me an appraising eyebrow. He knows I don't need him to say it to know what he's asking. There's something on my mind.

"I was showing them how to check their Personal Information," I tell him. "Instead of their status. Nik… my information changed. I figured that my Species had switched to Demigod, and it's true, but… my Type is different, now."

"It is?" He asks. "What is it?"

I pull up my Personal Information, staring at it for a few moments.

Name: Zack Age: 13 years Sex: Male Crystal Alignment Dark of Fire Species: Demigod Type: Dragon of Existence Height: 4'11" Weight: 99lbs

I send the information to Nik, who stares at it for a few moments, too, nodding as he does.

"Dragon of Existence," he says. "I assume this has to do with your father? Normar's information says his Type is Holy."

"Probably," I shrug. "It explains why a Dragon is my alternate form."

"So what, exactly, is your father a god of?"

"It's complicated," I shrug, and he snorts.

"You're heavy," he says. "A hundred pounds? Shouldn't you be around ten lighter?"

"It's all muscle," I smack my stomach. "These abs aren't light, even if they aren't big."

Nik chuckles in response.

"So," he says. "I take it you lied the other day, then, when you told me you'd checked your status and it said Demigod for your Species?"

"Yeah," I scratch the back of my head. "I just assumed that my Personal Information had updated when it became obvious what it was. Big Flame told me that Big S had intentionally hidden it from me to keep me from knowing before I found out."

"You asked Big Flame about it?" He asks. "I can't believe I'm calling him that."

Yeah, well, I like it!

"We know you do," I giggle. "Hey, Big Flame."

Hey, Zack! I gotta go, Intellect's poking me again.

"Bye," I say, and his presence fades from my mind. I sigh. "I should've checked my Personal Information after we found out I could turn into a Dragon. I mostly don't like looking at it 'cause it shows how short I am, so I didn't."

Nik laughs, ruffling my hair, and I pull away from him.

"You have a good night," he tells me.

"Thanks," I tell him. "Tell Gold I said to have a good night, too."

"Will do," he says, then leaves.

I lean back and stare up at the stars while I wait for the signs that the twins are asleep, then I make my way upstairs and into bed, drifting off into sleep and my dream visions. When morning comes, I wake the twins up and tell them that I'm going to make breakfast, then I head downstairs and make breakfast.

The twins join me after a few minutes, and I can tell they're eager to eat the bacon I bought. They both loved bacon before they died, so I expected that.

After breakfast, it's back to training for them. I am not letting them out into the field until I'm confident they'll be fine. I want Braden to have at least 20 Intellect and 10 Mana, first. Wind Spike only uses twenty percent of one's Intellect per Level of the Skill for the power within it, so I also want him to have it up to Level 2 before we go out as well.

"But I'm so sore," Braden complains when I tell him to do the physical exercises.

"I know," I tell him. "But your body will adjust. You'll be sore for a couple of days, so do the sprints I told you to do. Once you both have a little more Strength, I'll teach you some basic self-defense with your staffs and with your fists and feet."

"But I'm a magician and Luca's a healer!" He protests.

"What if you're out of Mana and something comes close?" I ask. "Luca won't be able to defend himself, and you won't be able to cast any spells. If you get separated from your staff, you'll need to be able to fight without it. It's nothing intense, just basic stuff. Now do the sprints. We'll work you up to full runs around the neighborhood to work on your Agility."

He groans, but does the sprints across the yard, which Luca already started on. Two weeks. I want them battle-ready in two weeks.