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

Verse 8 -The strongest 12

Jyro spent a totalof 3 days bed ridden in the special facility room where they treated injuriesin the academy, he arose to see Sebastian nestled by the foot of his bedsleeping peacefully with a note from headmaster Kobi perched near the foot ofthe 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 theyreached the end of the left hall Jyro could already hear arguing as he slowlyopened the doors, when he entered inside Tristine and Johnny where both seatedinside with Professor Kobi. “Jyro you’re ok” said Tristine ,she then rushedover towards him and gave him a hug, “ nice to see you back again mate” saidJohnny ,” 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 onin that library” he said, the 3 kids then turned to one another with anexpression of fear,

“Well the standard punishment for breaking therules of such kind would mean a full scale discipline but since there werecertain unexplainable events you’ll all be receiving a warning” the 3 kidssighed with relief when they heard they’ll only be warned, “but Sir , what wasthat thing in the library that attacked us” Johnny asked ,the headmaster wasdreading that question but knew they’d eventually ask him about it , “thatspirit you saw is called the Guardian spirit their entities that were cast by awarlock to protect the city they roam at night around the Cantas walls andprotect the country from any demon or evil that attempts to come in, theguardian spirits have been around since Canta was established as a country” hesaid, the kids then looked at one another once more in confusion “so what wasit doing in the academy ” said Jyro, MR Kobi sighed to himself then answered “Wedon’t know, this is the first time they’ve entered the academy walls withoutbeing told to and why they did comes as a mystery to me as well, but don’t beafraid 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 afew minutes please” Johnny and Tristine exited the headmasters offices and leftJyro alone,. Mr. Kobi got out of his seat and moved closer to Jyro he had thatsmall 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 airwhilst clutching at his throat, and this went on for a few seconds more beforethe 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 andapologized to him, “ my apologies I really should warn you when I do that Ijust had to make sure one more time, Alice the reading ? “He said “Roughlyaround 100 master no change” spoke the liquid as it then returned back into thebottle, Mr Kobi was lost in his thoughts for a minute trying to make sense ofsomething “ So you can use the lightningbrand 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 youcould tell me about it… you know how the secrets for the brand” he asked, asthe headmaster spoke Jyro noticed a cold stare in his eyes “I’m sorry sir but Ican’t” he replied , “very well I understand….Oh yes where was we” Jyro didn’t understand what Mr. Kobi wasgetting at , but he didn’t say a word he himself didn’t understand why he coulddo those things it just seems normal to him. “There’s an annual event that wehold here for the E graders the top 12 students are pitted against each otherin a grade C mission and it’s got me thinking that I’d like to sponsor yourname down to take part” the headmaster announced, “ wha… me” responded Jyro inshock,” but I’m not even, I mean me one of the 12 strongest how could I” hemuttered, “don’t fret over it believe in yourself boy.. ahh time is off theessence Mr. Thomas will continue this later” said the headmaster he thenescorted Jyro out of his office.

“ the top 12students are judged by their VDE count and academic brilliance they are thenset against one another on a Grade C mission, and the winner is awarded thetitle as the strongest in the year” explained Tristine as she and Jyro werewalking 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 afirst, anyway try not to think about it too much Jyro the 12 aren’t announcedto the end of the year so we’ve got a couple of months till then” said Tristine ,the sudden sounds of bellsringing was heard , the bell chimed twice,” two rings , looks like anassembly’s been called” said Tristine so the two of them then made their way tothe Chapel hall.

The first yearsall descended to the chapel hall where a slightly old man dressed in black wasstanding in the middle of the hall, he had no hair on his head and a greyishsilver goatee and a serious face. Jyro and Tristine made it to the chapel andon 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 manstanding in the middle of the hall cleared his throat abruptly then started toaddress the students “Students, my name is professor Ordor Valentine” he said,“sounds like a villain” one of the students muttered which led to sniggersacross the hall, the professor glanced at the culprit who spoke who almost hada 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 understandthe difference between the weak and the strong, Those of you born weak Isuggest you remove yourself from this academy, we have no used for weaklingsonly the strong survive in this accursed world” said the professor whilst the students all satas 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 pushinga 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, Jyrolooked on at the creature and couldn’t help but feel sorry for it. Whilst itcontinued to wheel the massive screen into the chapel it tripped over itschains and fell over, the professor sighed as he casually walked with his armsacross to the imp, “Get up” he said, the imp then begun apologizing when theprofessor suddenly kicked it, he kickedit 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 professorturned and looked at him also” ho oh , so you’re feeling well now then MrThomas” said the professor whilst gazing at Jyro seated above, Jyro suddenlyfelt uneasy and could feel a tense overwhelming pressure coming from theprofessors gaze, “ I’m ever so sorry if my disciplining of ‘MY’ imp offendsyou, would you like me to stop for you I mean I wouldn’t want to hurt ourlittle geniuses feelings now would I ” said the professor sarcastically ,Tristinethen quickly pulled Jyro down to his seat, “what do you think you’re doing” shewhispered to him , Jyro suddenly came to his senses “s..s..sorry about that Idon’t know what came over me “ he replied.

The professors impquickly 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 theannual strongest 12 event will be taking place earlier than planned” which ledto countless chattering through the halls “silence” spoke the professor” due tothe high potential of students this year it’ll take place in 2 months!” theprofessor 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 worldare they going to choose” Tristine said furiously. The students chatteredamongst themselves all shocked by the early announcement of the event, neverthelessprofessor valentine begun announcing the 12 top E graders, as their namespopped onto the screen in no particular order,1) Handolos Vega,2)Clivebroomstin, 3)Leo Blackstorm,4) Alania Kaur,5) Bobby West,6) TristineMorrowind,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 asudden burst of cheers rained down, Jyro was the only person looking on to thescreen and feeling concerned, “well isn’t this a bother” Tristine saidreferring to the names on the event, “this can’t be a coincidence to have theevent now…mmm something is most certainly going on” Tristine finished talkingshe realized Jyros attention was adrift and snapped her two fingers at him “don’t think about it Jyro what’s done is donewill 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 thechosen 12 will be exempt from your timetabled lessons to train, you’ll be set aC grade mission which will not be known till the Eve of the Event, also you areallowed 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 participatein the event ……..that is all”.

The studentsexited the chapel where Tristine was still trying to cheer Jyro up, “ it’s notthat 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 listedas the top E graders!” Jyro said, “haha its nothing really I probably got therefor my academic brilliance” she replied. Whilst the two walked down the hall totheir dorm they saw Johnny sitting with Sebastian on the perch of the stepsthat led down to the vineyards, Sebastian was purring softly at Johnny lickinghis hands , there you are” said Tristine “ thought it would be cool to missassembly now did you” she said sarcastically before she uttered anymore wordsJohnny 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 thelooks of it he could hardly keep it open. Jyro immediately grabbed onto hisarm,” Johnny who did this to you, tell me now, who was it” Jyro said angrily, Johnnyshoved his arm away “it doesn’t concern you” he shouted then stormed off. Jyroand Tristine stood there dumbfounded when Jyro looked off into the distance andsaw Valko Tius with a group of his friends laughing as they walked away, asudden rage begun to boil inside the boy “Tristine, Emmanuel dorm is on theother side of school right” asked Jyro “yeah it is but“, “so whys Valko overhere” he asked. Jyro stormed off into his direction “Wait Jyro, stop” Tristinecalled out. Jyro was burning with rage as he stormed into the middle of Valkosfriends and shoved Valko to the floor, Jyro grabbed him whilst he lay on thefloor” don’t ever touch my friends again” Jyro shouted as the looking crowddragged Jyro off Valko, Valko got up huffing and puffing and clenched his fiststight, his breathing started to accelerate rapidly, Jyro looked on in shock asValkos eye colour slowly begun to change from the once blue colour it was to adark orange tint. The boys holding Jyro then let him go and slowly stepped awayfrom him , Jyro looked around to see why then realized they was moving awayfrom Valko, Valko started breathing at a frightening pace then suddenly burst towardsJyro at a frightening pace and speared Jyro to the floor just as his fist wasabout to be thrown, “terrae continent” spoke a voice and green vines suddenly wrapped onto Valko and throughhim backwards, The head mistress appeared out of nowhere and placed one foot onValkos chest “Stand down Mr Tius or Iwon’t be accountable for my actions” she said, Valkos breathing slowed down and his eyeturned back to normal. He got up and dusted the dirt from his uniform, “youjust wait Thomas, in 2 months nothing will save you…your DEAD!” Valko shoutedhe then walked off with his friends, the headmistress turned her attention toJyro, “mmm Mr Thomas getting yourself into more trouble are we? You best watchyourself people with good natured spirits like your own don’t last too long inthis world” said the headmistress whilst she walked away down the hall. “whatin 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, assweat rolled down the boys cheeks he came to a frightening realisation that ifthe 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 standa chance in 2 months and he knew he had to get stronger.

The night fell onCanta and all the pupils were in their respective dorms, Jyro lay down on hisbed 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’tlook at Jyro in the eyes and felt guilty for storming off earlier,” erm I just came round to say sorry, Trish told mewhat you done for me with Valko…Thanks” Johnny said whilst tying to think ofmore things to say,” don’t worry about it that’s what friends are for” Jyroreplied as the two boys stared at each other in silence before shortly burstinginto laughter. “So why did he do that to you anyway?” asked Jyro “haha ermwell, I interrogated him about the book, things were said then he got a bitangry and as you can see this was the result, plus our families don’t get alonganyway my dad and his our both on the opposing council ” said Johnny whilstpointing 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 repliednot looking o feeling confident at all,” well luckily for you I didn’t comeempty 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 informationabout 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 ofthis” said Jyro excitingly, “well that’s my specialty I’m here to become aDucem 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’dtake notice of her, she’s known as the beautiful ice queen her older sister is part of the 12 Holyswords , there the strongest military Exorcists in Canta an elite bunchhandpicked by the queen of Canta herself so she has a lot to live up to, her VDE probably exceeds over 500 whichprobably makes her the strongest in our year” said Johnny ,Jyro listenedintently 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, Ipersonally haven’t seen it but I heard it’s incredibly powerful” said Johnny,Jyro felt like telling Johnny about lightning brand but was still feelinguncertain remembering the words the headmaster said to him. “Alright I’ve takenthe liberty of devising your training regime, you best be ready it’s going tobe long 2 months mate” he said, whilst Jyro looked on at his friend talkingaway he couldn’t help but feel happy inside and glad to have met Johnny, he wassomeone who seemed to always brighten his aura anytime he was around him, the bothof them didn’t even need to ask one another who Jyro was going to pick as his helperfor the event, they both knew the answer already.