Gatekeepers Book 2: Galeforce

The following morning, Vertex brought Draycos to the flat-top island once more. As they drew close, Draycos spotted two dragons already standing on the island. Draycos recognized one of them as Zero, but the second dragon came as a surprise; it was Boreta, the dragon Draycos met when he was at the castle infirmary.

“This is an unexpected surprise,” Vertex commented as he landed on the island in front of where Zero and Boreta stood, lowering Draycos to the ground. “I was expecting Zero to be here, since I asked for his assistance for Draycos’s training today, but what brings you here, Boreta?”

Boreta gently smiled as she glanced down at Draycos, who stood close by Vertex’s feet. Her butterfly-like wings fluttered slightly in the breeze. “The entire council has been made aware of the difficulty Draycos has when it comes to being able to call on his magic,” she responded. “I wanted to help out with that, so after the games ended last night, I contacted several other prominent members of my family to ask for ideas on what could be done. We managed to come up with a solid solution to the problem after bouncing ideas off each other for a few hours.”

Draycos was surprised to hear that Boreta had gone out of her way to help him with his training. Grateful, he gave the female dragon a slight bow. “I really appreciate you going out of your way to do that for me,” he said. “You didn’t have to do that for me. Thanks a lot.”

Zero and Vertex stared at Draycos with the same surprised expression on their faces while Boreta hid her mouth behind a fist and chuckled. Draycos looked up, confused by their reactions.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. It’s just surprising to see you actually do have proper manners,” Zero told him.

“It was unexpected to hear those words come out of your mouth,” Vertex added, nodding his head with his arms crossed in front of his chest.

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?!” Draycos shouted indignantly. “Just because I haven’t shown them much yet doesn’t mean I don’t have good manners!”

Boreta began laughing out loud at this point, a single tear rolling down her face. Draycos’s face reddened and he clamped his mouth shut as the other two dragons joined in on Boreta’s laughing.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean any offense by that!” Boreta finally managed to get out, wiping a tear out of her eyes. “That was just so unexpectedly unsuited to your personality that I couldn’t help it.”

“Yeah, well, you can apologize by hurrying up with your business here and moving on. I don’t have all day,” Draycos retorted as he looked away.

Smack.

“Oof!” Draycos ate dirt as Vertex lightly punched him on top of his head with a tap of his fist. This caused Boreta’s laughter to begin anew, and it was a good minute before Draycos pulled his head out of the hole in the ground shaped like his face and Boreta got a grip on herself again.

“Can we get on with this already?” Draycos muttered as he shook rock fragments out of his hair. “I really don’t have time to waste playing Vertex’s comedy skit. Wait, I’m sorry!” Draycos flinched and held his arms above his head as Vertex moved to hit him once more.

“It’s alright, Vertex, calm down,” Boreta soothed the dark grey dragon with a wave of her hand. “I don’t mind the boy’s bluntness; it’s honestly somewhat refreshing talking to someone like this after all the stress the Council members deal with daily.” Boreta approached Draycos and crouched down so she saw eye to eye with the young man. “This is the solution to your problem that my family came up with last night,” she announced as she lightly tapped the crystal in Draycos’s pendant with one finger. There was a bright flash of sky-blue light that faded as soon as it appeared, and the crystal glowed for a moment before returning to normal.

“A magic focus?” Vertex inquired as Boreta stood up. “Are you sure it’s wise to give Draycos something like that? He’s still a criminal, you know.”

Boreta rolled her eyes at Vertex and huffed. “Are you kidding me? We all know he had nothing to do with the theft of the Orb of the First King. Are you going to question his trustworthiness after all he’s done already?”

Vertex grumbled but said nothing.

“Umm, sorry. But what did you do just now?” Draycos held the pendant and stared at it, trying to see if there was anything different about it now.

“I cast a series of spells on that crystal of yours just now, Draycos,” Boreta answered. “I’m aware that Poseidon is already using it to track your position and determine your actions, as well as using it to restrain you if the situation calls for it. I just added a few additional functions to it now to help support your magical abilities for the time being.”

“You placed several spells on it? That took less than a second, though.”

“Never underestimate the Managuard family, Draycos,” Zero piped up. “They excel in the magical arts, far more than any other family. Boreta is no exception to that.”

“Back to the crystal, though,” Boreta continued, ignoring Draycos’s and Zero’s comments. “That crystal basically functions as a magic focus now. It’s an item that new magic users rely on to assist them in summoning their power while they’re learning. All you have to do is touch it, and clear your mind as much as possible. You won’t risk falling victim to your own anger this way.”

“Is it really that simple?” Draycos wasn’t very optimistic about this. “I mean, it was so hard the last three days just trying to use magic at all.”

“Give it a try for yourself if you don’t believe me.”

Draycos still looked somewhat skeptical but did as he was told. He closed one hand around his pendant and took a deep breath before slowly exhaling. Draycos began the process of calming his mind, but only a few seconds after he started he felt a familiar sensation run throughout his body, as if fire and ice were coursing through his bloodstream.

“Oh, my.” Boreta sounded mildly surprised. Draycos opened his eyes and confirmed the smoky black-blue aura surrounded his body.

“This is unexpected,” Boreta observed casually. “Your mana purity level must be exceptionally high if your magic came out so quickly after touching a focus.”

“Mana purity level?” Draycos was confused by this new term. He glanced at Vertex. “We didn’t discuss that when we went over magic theory. What is it?”

Vertex sighed. “You know how I told you that the amount of mana one has is proportional to the amount of blood one possesses?” Draycos nodded. “That’s where mana purity comes in. In some cases, beings will possess either far less or much more mana than people of their race normally possess. Think of the average ratio of blood and mana being one to one. In some cases, the ratio may be five to one, or vice versa. There’s no determining factor for what causes an individuals’ mana purity level to differ from others of their race, except for their heritage. And since inter-race relationships are looked down upon, and half-breeds are even rarer, there’s hardly ever anyone who possesses different purity levels than others of their race.”

“Either way, the amount of magic he’s giving off right now is quite impressive,” Boreta commented, shaking her head in amazement. “It’s on par with the mana of an average dragon, and they’re at least ten times stronger than your everyday human. I’m really curious as to what your parents were, Draycos.”

“Sorry that I can’t answer that one,” Draycos replied, shrugging. “I have no memory of them whatsoever.”

“That’s too bad,” Boreta murmured, tapping her chin with a finger in thought. She shook her head again. “Anyways, my business here is done. Draycos, please don’t waste any more of your time. The second round of the games have already begun, and with the way the matches have been progressing, it’s certain that you’ll be fighting again tomorrow afternoon. I wish you the best of luck.” With that, Boreta unfurled her insect-like wings and took off, leaving a faint trail of sparkling dust as she flew.

“Thanks for the help!” Draycos called after her, waving his hand.

“Well now, I think that’s enough conversing for the time being,” Vertex stated. “Zero, are you ready to teach Draycos some basic Enhancement spells?”

Zero nodded. “Yes. In fact, I think Draycos is more suited to learning Enhancement spells then Conjuration spells, anyways. There’s one I would personally like Draycos to learn as soon as possible.” Giving Vertex a somewhat sadistic-looking smile, Zero quietly manipulated his tail, shrinking the black scythe-shaped membrane to an almost microscopic size while his tail crept closer to Draycos. All of this went unnoticed by Draycos, who still had his back to them while he continued to wave after Boreta’s figure shrinking in the distance. Before Draycos noticed what he was doing, Zero quickly slipped his his tail up the back of Draycos’s shirt and gently stroked Draycos down the back along his spine with the tip of his tail. He felt Draycos shiver.

Draycos’s reaction was instantaneous. Without turning around, he grabbed the tail behind him with his left hand, immobilizing it. Pivoting counterclockwise on his left foot, he raised his right hand up in the air, which became enshrouded in his magic aura.

“Cut the crap already, you frickin’ perv!” he shouted as he brought his fist down hard on Vertex’s tail at full strength. Or he thought he did. One moment he thought he had Zero’s tail trapped in his left hand. The next it had simply vanished as Zero quickly withdrew it from Draycos’s clutches. Draycos’s magically enhanced fist hit the ground and caused the rocky surface to shatter, creating large cracks and fissures on the top of the floating island.

“See? What did I tell you?” Zero chuckled while Draycos glared at him. “He does have some talent for Enhancement spells already, even though it’s not his native class.”

Vertex sighed and held his head in his hands. “Honestly, Zero. How many times are we going to have to tell you to quit it with this weird sense of humor you have? I’m starting to think you really have a thing for the lad.”

“Are there such things as restraining orders in this world?” Draycos questioned as he continued to glare at Zero. “Because I would love to have one filed against this gay dragon right now.”

Zero’s expression went sour at this comment, and Vertex’s laughter echoed through the air as the sun continued to rise in the sky.