LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 3: The Ugliest Blade
The base had been incredibly empty as not many of the Blades themselves remained alive. Upon completion of their facility, Shiro, Sil, Raten, and Vorden- as the senior most and majority of the surviving members- not to mention technical leaders of the Blade family had a meeting about what direction to take. The brand new building was wasted if it just sat mostly vacant. Shiro had an idea to make good use of the space, and to help bolster their numbers. They ultimately came to the consensus that taking on new members, like a guild of the past, or in more recent times the way factions would do, would be the best option.
They agreed to start small at first, taking on only vetted or reputable travelers and highly skilled individuals. As well as inviting any of the orphaned children under Sil's charge that age out of that system to funnel in to their organization, permitting they meet certain guidelines and show interest. The resulting system that was decided by Vorden and Sil was laid out to solve as many problems as possible. Now that Sil had no abilities, it wasn't really possible for him to run the entire orphanage alone. In exchange for room and board, members would do a weekly duty to the orphanage. They had need of all kinds of skill sets. From healers for obvious reasons, and earth ability users to assist with groundskeeping or building projects, to instructors, counselors, as well as cooks, housekeepers, and even just child supervision or security. This way the orphanage could remain in operation and the Blade family could hopefully, with any luck build back a little bit of their former glory. The Blade ability after all was one of the most powerful abilities to ever have existed. None of them wanted their line to cease, and for it to possibly pop up in a different family somewhere along the line that perhaps would use it for problematic intentions, like Hilston had done.
As a result of these changes being implemented, several powerful and noteworthy ability users had already taken up residence in the building. As well as a handful of the children that had reached the age of maturity and no longer needed to be looked after by the likes of an orphanage.
Though the building was still mostly empty, as they made their way through the door the sound of punches being thrown at large training bags, and the repetitive whacking of legs against training dummy's along with the occasional verbal utterance that would accompany physical exertion began to fill Vorden's ears, letting him know that there were others using the room as well.
After his eyes had already adjusted to the dimly lit hall just before, the blindingly bright light that illuminated the entirety of the training room caused Vorden to quickly shut his eyes and turn his face down towards his chest as he shielded it with his arm. Amidst the ocular assault, he shuffled slightly to the side, not wanting to block the doorway should anyone else be attempting to enter the room after them. Suddenly, he collided yet again into the person closest to him.
"Oof," a sharp female voice cut through the commotion. "Hey, watch where you're going!" The rather stern woman continued as Vorden blinked a few times, trying to reorient his eyes to the new experience.
The training room had been designed for optimal human performance. As natural sunlight was known to be the best option in any environment to promote alertness and aid with focus and memory, the room was designed to allow for as much light as possible. And with the benefits to mood and vitamin D absorption, the entire ceiling seemed to be crafted from skylights. It was all glass from wall to wall, so clear and clean that if Vorden hadn't known better, he would have thought it was just an open air garden in the center of the Blade Base.
Of course, he had seen all of it before, many times since it was completed. Somehow, this time was different. Whether it was the youthful sharpness of Sil's eyesight at this age, or purely the youthfulness of these eyes in particular, who could tell. Either way, Vorden blinked a few more times and tried to see whom he had this minor fender bender of sorts with. Squinting to mitigate the glare, he could only make out a tan figure with fire red hair braided loosely and cascading over their shoulder.
"I'm... I... I'm... Sor...". Suddenly his sentence was cut short as a large object rammed in to Vorden. Before he could finish his words, he was shoved rather hard to the side, crashing into the wall just next to him. Raten had rammed in to his side with his shoulder. Using all of his weight to in the most literal way, get Vorden out of the picture.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's sorry. I'm Raten, and you are stunning." Raten swiftly grasped her hand and leaned in to kiss it, but before he could, she pulled her hand away.
"Make another move like that Romeo, and I'll show you how stunning I really am," the woman sneered, holding her hand tightly to her chest. "Emphasis on the word stun." She added with a sharp glare. The kind of look that clearly wasn't meant to be taken in a friendly way.
Vorden's vision had cleared up and he couldn't hold back his laughter any longer. He blurted out a hearty chuckle at Raten's expense. "Hahaha! Serves you right!" he exclaimed while rubbing his arm that had been smashed into the reinforced wall.
Vorden watched as Raten's face went from shock to fury, his face turning bright red. A low grumble, similar to a growl, started to escape from him as he glared at Vorden. Without any warning he punched Vorden's other arm this time,instead of offering a helping hand.
"SOME WINGMAN YOU ARE, YOU WORTHLESS, GRIMY, PIECE OF..." Raten's voice trailed off as he stormed off towards the center of the open matted area. He turned back to Vorden.
"So are we doing this or what?" he demanded, gesturing towards the space in front of him.
Vorden walked over, hugging his arms across his chest as he rubbed his throbbing arms. As he positioned himself in a fighting stance, Raten had already done the same.
"Let's go, little brother. Loser has to finally admit that they are the ugly brother," Raten smirked, getting himself back into the right mindset.
"Raten, I am older than you. I am NOT your little brother! Besides, why would we need a fight to decide? I think our new friend just answered that question for us both! Haha."
The anger boiled over and Raten was instantly ready to take action. He charged forward, bellowing a booming battle cry. His speed was shocking, barely giving Vorden enough time react, let alone dodge out of the way. Luckily, Vorden's body was in peak condition as well and he was fast too. In fact his reaction time was a lot snappier than it had been in the past decade or two while inside the much older Blade body inhabited jointly by Raten, Shiro, and him. He was able to jump very high into the air, but still just barely cleared Raten's shoulder as he launched up and out of the way. The leap was quick and impressive, but the subsequent landing was far from successful. Vorden tried to soften the impact by rolling into it, but it was still not a great landing. He continued rolling through it and tried to quickly get back on his feet, now a bit disoriented. Once he got his bearings, he braced himself for a second charge, his eyes darting wildly around the mat to make sure he didn't lose sight of Raten. Several onlookers had begun to gather on the outskirts of the fighting area, watching.
It wasn't every day that one had a chance to witness a legend the likes of Sil in action. Though mostly all knew about Sil's condition, and were made aware of the two Sil doppelgangers joining their ranks, mostly because it just so happened to actually be two of their leaders, the idea of witnessing two 1000 year old Blades taking each other on was just as enticing.
Vorden didn't have to search for long, as Raten was standing wide-eyed not too far from where Vorden had just been standing. Woah, that was fast. His reflexes are better than what they were before. Already! Raten thought to himself. I have to stay sharp. If this is Vorden not even warmed up, this fight is going to be harder than I thought!
His face may have looked calm and calculating, but internally Vorden had nearly the same thought. It was time to get serious.