YAY! 
While never stated, the identity of the Adini siblings quickly became apparent to the boys. Two persons came to stay at a property of their fathers. Unlike others within the city, they also accepted the boys as students. Through the gossips of the kids, the twins confirmed Clarinet and Trump were the people who killed the spirit wolf. Their father probably met the siblings and offered them free housing in exchange for teaching his kids. Knowing this, the boys made sure to thoroughly study under the Adini.
The schedule for their study and training was set from Monday to Thursday. They stayed with Clarinet and Trump at the property helping with chores in their free time. Weekends were time for family, and they returned home.
Their determination and mental capacity (from their previous life) caused the Adini a lot of surprise. For a 5-year-old, the pace at which these kids absorbed knowledge and their willingness to improve themselves was abnormal. It was exciting when you got a student so devoted to your teaching. Trump was the victim of this. He got lost in the training. When the young man came back to his sense, the twins’ body have already sustained quite a few injuries and broken bones. Clarinet assured that her younger brother got a good scolding for it.
Although the siblings were warned of the boys’ singlemindedness, Trump was not an experienced trainer. He just barely tiptoed into this kind of career for a source of income. Moreover, it was uncommon for kids to be this concentrated to training to the point of injuring themselves.
It became even more distinct when other parents applied their kids as students. Most of the 5 or 6 years old were only there to have fun. The 7 to 9 years old showed a better learning attitude, since they would soon be enrolled to formal education at 11. Yet none pushed themselves as hard as Ren and Gowen. It made other kids wonder if that’s because they have 2 heads and, therefore, twice the resolve. Despite all that, the problem remained the same. They could not use magic.
Just like that, three months quickly flew by. On the Saturday night, the siblings laid down on the coach outside watching stars. They enjoyed the cool evening with some cold beverage.
“Good food. Great drink. Nice neighbourhood. Peaceful life. Most importantly, out of the busy life of the capital. It was a good thing we decided to leave.”
“Now you only need a husband.”
“No, thank you. You go and fetch yourself a girl if you like. I rather enjoying my free life.”
“You make it sound so easy, sister. Finding a woman that resonates with you on a soul level is hard.”
“Then don’t start it in the first place.” Clarinet grabbed her mug and had a mouthful. “Hah~! Feel so good!”
“Hey, sister!”
“Hum?”
“About Ren and Gowen, did they get any better at magic training?”
“Now that’s new. Why Ren and Gowen?”
“Well, they are the most motivated kids I have ever met. They are more disciplined than anyone. They practiced harder than anyone. I can tell they tried their best, that they want to become adventurers...” Trump sat up. “…but physical training can only bring you so far. Mr Taka is right. They need to be able to use magic. Adventuring to the world without magic is too risky. I have hoped that they were special. I hoped that they could grow to the point that they can handle themselves without magic. That way, they can convince Mr Taka to let them be adventurers.” His eyes were clouded with sorrow.
“They hit their limit, didn’t they?”
“Yeah. I know their muscle won’t start growing until later, but I can already see the limit of their body, of our elven body. In the first few weeks, even 9 years old had troubles sparring with them. After those kids learned and practiced how to apply magic to their attacks, their differences shrank drastically. Those boys are still the best and would continue to be so for much later, but…”
Clarinet rose from her seat. “So that’s why you asked me about their magic.” She took Trump’s silence as confirmation. She gulped down another mouthful then letting out a long sigh. “Their dream is getting slim.”
Their weekend night ended with a low note.
At the beginning of week, the kids were informed that the siblings were planning a sparring section in the woods. The kids would need to get their parent’s agreement to go with them. Some parents worried for their kids’ safety, while a number of children were not fond of the idea of more learning. As a result, only half of them tagged along, mostly older children.
Those that joined the section were children with high commitment, Ren and Gowen were among this group. Majority of them, however, were looking forward to leaving the city wall. This would mark the first time in a while that any kid was allowed to go outside.
Three months ago, after Clarinet and Trump encountered and killed a spirit wolf, the city had an urgent meeting. Wolf doesn’t travel alone. They only leave their pack for a couple of reasons. The first was to find mate. Only young wolves do this. A spirit animal is one that lived past their natural lifespan. Spirit wolves which usually stay as the top don’t leave to find mate but accepting younger wolves into their pack. The second scenario was harassment. Bullied members could leave their pack to find a better family. The last possibility is territorial war. The lone wolf’s pack could have lost their territory and had to leave. Then it either lost its pack to the war or during the exile making it a lone wolf.
If the last one was correct, a large change in the wolf society had taken place. A pack strong enough to topple the pack of an 80-years-old wolf doesn’t just appear out of nowhere. Whatever the truth is, a cascading effect would likely happen. In conclusion, children were forbidden to go into the woods. Adults that need to go into the woods arranged their schedule to travel in larger groups. It is better safe than sorry. Since thing has quieted down, the rule became more laxed, and there was today.
Having a large group of kids into the woods was a bit risky so they stayed close to the city. With the ratio of 21 kids and 4 adults, it was sensible.
The four adults consisted of the Adini siblings, Taka, and another parents. These worrywarts that were parents of these kids were busy, so they asked Taka and the other guy a favour.
The kids were divided into two groups. One practiced magic with Clarinet, the other with Trump on physical training.
“Fireball!” The boy in green conjured a flame the size of his palm. Aiming for the target, he activated the second spell to unleash the fireball at the red mark.
The spell flew at a speed equivalent to a rock being lightly thrown. It went in straight line directly to the middle of the white plate disintegrated at its target.
“Yes!” The boy sprang up in delight. For the entire week, he has been ridiculed by his friend for being the last kid that couldn’t hit the mark. Now they wouldn’t be able to call him Teddy “poor aim” anymore.
“RUN! RUN!” Clarinet yelled. “I TOLD YOU EVERYTIME. RUN!”
It took the boy 3 solid seconds to absorb and started finding cover.
Clarinet stood with hands on her waist, teeth grinding in frustration. Teddy is the one with the poorest performance among the 7 years old. He was slow in his wit and couldn’t concentrate for long. He is not bad in term of learning. He is just lazy. He couldn’t even remember fundamental things like hiding after casting spell properly. In combat, this mistake is fatal.
“If you attack from a position with good shelter, it’s fine. If you attack in an open, never stay in one place.” It was a chant that Clarinet forced Teddy to remember but he didn’t seem to improve at all.
“And he wanted to become adventurer...” Clarinet talked to herself.
While on the topic of adventurer, she wondered if the twins were doing well.
On Trump side, the non-magic sparring section was coming to an end.
As the name described, the children were not allowed to use magic during this section. They must win using their skill.
The practice was straightforward. Every duel won gives you 1 point. The higher the point, the higher your rank.
Besides having to compete with older kids, the twins were given a condition. It was an extremely unfair rule, but the boys agreed nevertheless. Ren and Gowen fought against other kids in a set of 3 duels. They needed to win all three duels to earn 1 point, while the other kid gets one point for every win.
For example, the twins win the first duel, draw the second, and win the last. Both sides get no point. If on the third duel, the other kid manages to win against the twins, the score would be 1st win, 2nd draw, 3rd loss for the twins. In that case, the other kid gains 1 point.
Win of the previous set won’t be carried on to the next one for the twins so if they want to earn point, they must get a perfect score.
If the twins lose all 3 duels, the other kid gets 3 points.
The facade was to make thing balanced because the twins were fighting as 2 vs 1. In truth, it was to encourage other kids to duke out with the twins as well as giving the twins harder challenges to improve themselves. Consequently, many tried for easy points. It was totally different from the usual class where most of them avoided the twins. Losing to a “defected” is one thing, losing to one younger than them was an entirely different business.
Even with the odd stacked against them, the boys proved to be a tough bone. Ren and Gowen dealt with their opponents one duel a time crushing them like dried twig.
In spite of all the loss, the kids continued to match up against the twins. They were no fools. They knew the more the twins had to fight, the less their stamina. Pretty much the norm in the outside world. An entire party of adventurers or an army of soldiers fought against a spirit animal. Tiring out the strong opponent while preserving their strength such is the strategy.
This practice forced the twins to surpass their limit or try doing, while it also gave the other boys a sense of cooperation where those who failed pointed out the weaknesses of the twins for others to exploit. Ren and Gowen would in turn benefited from these by addressing their own shortcomings.
It was unclear if it was intentional, but the boys developed their own way to delegate tasks among themselves. When one head dealt with the fighting, the other observed and calculated. This was a new thing for them.
In their previous life, they acted as one. When fighting against the angels and the humans, it was unknown which head would be lost. As a result, the two head synchronised their control. In the scenario that one was lost, the other would continue to carry on the momentum to defeat the enemy and perhaps live for another day, not wasting the sacrifice of the other head. Magic was more powerful when they synchronised their casting.
“Two in harmony surpasses one in perfection.” Or so they said.
Their role in combat was the heavy hitter of the group by doubling down the power onto one enemy.
When tallying the points, the twins ranked 3rd. The other children were quite satisfied with the result. Those kids probably felt that they just beat a boss monster. Of course, there were those with high self-esteem agonised over the fact that they were beaten more than they were beating the twins.
The kids were allowed to rest for 2 hours. They could go anywhere as long as it was not too far from the closest adult.
Ren and Gowen, being the isolated ones, leaned on a nearby tree to check themselves. Their body has been getting more used to rough activities. Their hands didn’t shake or feel numb as much as the first time they held the stick. Their control when they were exhausted has greatly increased. It felt good when they achieved something toward their goal of becoming an adventurer.
“I think we made a mistake.”
“What?”
“Our fighting style was ill-suited for the previous section.” Gowen explained. “It was defence-oriented, it was to buy time. It was bad. The other guys were trying to overwhelm us. The longer we dragged out the fight, the more time they had to recover. The blue head over there even told the others to not allow the fight to go our way to prevent us from recovering in combat.”
“Can’t be helped. We are alone. It is not smart to get into a situation like that but let’s just think it was a good training… or do you suggest we fight for real?”
“We probably will cause problem for father if we fight for real.”
“Yup.”
“Sons.”
Taka’s call startled them.
“Uhm, father.”
He squatted down near them.
There were too many bruises for such young boys.
He held onto their hands. This hardness on the skin was not for those of their age. He questioned himself whether he should allow them to continue like this.
Being ignorant of harm and danger was their nature. It worried him. He didn’t know if they would be fine by themselves without someone to tell them where is enough.
He could end all of this with a single word. They were obedient to him. They would not question his decision.
It would be wrong though. They had tried this hard for their dream. It was just wrong to deny their effort. It pained him greatly that he had to push back his paternal instinct.
They tried this hard, yet their future was uncertain. It is unknown if they could learn how to use magic or not. If they could not learn how to use magic, then no matter how cruel it is he will have to crush their dream. For now, he would do his best to support them.
“Don’t overexert yourself, sons. Do it at your pace.”
It was time for the magic-allowed section. The kids were getting worked up. There wouldn’t be that handicap like in the first section, but they have an edge against that two-headed kid when magic is involved.
Everyone was confident. They practiced hard the last several weeks playing “catch up” with the “freak”. It was a good chance to see the fruit of their labour. The blue hair was particularly excited.
Ever since he asked his family to study under the wolf slayer siblings, he has suffered greatly at the hands of that kid. Losing to a kid younger than he is was a big deal, but it got worse. That kid is the same age as his “genius” brother. Being the older brother of the boy with greatest magic affinity was no joy. He kept being compared to his younger brother.
He tried to practice the sword. If he couldn’t win in magic, he would try to stack up his odd with physical skills too. He thought being the best in the class of these wolf slayer siblings would win his parents back.
Nope. Life didn’t work that way. Ren and Gowen, or so they introduced, completely trashed him. Being knocked down by a kid one head shorter than you was humiliating. It was not like anyone has ever won a fair fight against that freak, but that didn’t stop the gossip.
Talking about the fight, he just finished his opponent, and the freak, their own. It was his turn.
He has learned their fighting. He got tips from the teacher on how to use magic. That kid was also drained on the morning section. He got the best chance to win now.
That freak rarely went into offense and usually won by countering their opponent. It was logical for them to do so since they were tired. He decided to let them have the initiative.
Both sides stood there without moving. The two-headed boys squinted their eyes.
The blue hair took this as his opponent was getting impatient. He knew the strike range of that kid. He knew their speed. He could do this.
As he predicted, the smaller opponent lunged toward him.
The smaller kids raised their wooden sword.
He raised his own feigning a block. In reality, he was ready to retreat a step. Once that strike was a miss, there would be opportunity to attack while his opponent was still within range.
The two-headed kid’s sword was about to go down now.
The blue-hair boy told himself it was not time. He wanted assurance.
The strike has moved down a quarter of the way.
That was what he was waiting for. He pulled back letting the wooden sword crash onto the ground a step away from him. The blue-hair boy swung his own sword with all his might. His mouth whispered the strengthen magic. He would finish that magicless in one hit.
The chanting allowed the twins to catch up with his plan. They were recovering from that miss attempt.
It wouldn’t be in time or so the blue-hair boy thought. Time was almost frozen to the boy’s eyes as his weapon slowly made its way to the other kid’s head. He would have that kid on the ground in tears.
Too concentrated on his own device, he didn’t realise reality was changing. By dropping their knee, the twins bought extra time before the opponent weapon could reach its destination. In the fraction of the second, the twins smoothly switched their grip. Their left hand moved up to hold the hilt while their right hand moved down to the pommel. Using the left hand as a fulcrum, his right hand moved the sword in similar manner to a lever.
It was just on time to deflect the blue-hair boy’s sword. Despite this, the magic added extra weight to that strike allowing it enough downward momentum to bend the twins’ sword lightly and chipped off Ren’s head.
The older boy screamed internally as his sword strike was going off the mark sliding along the twins’ sword to the ground.
The climax was not over yet. The blue hair swung back his sword gaining distance to build up the momentum for the next strike.
Meanwhile, Ren relinquished his control to Gowen. That hit disoriented him a bit. The lemon-colour head brought their body back up.
The blue hair’s sword was in motion sweeping from left to right. By the height, this strike would reach his opponent’s neck.
Gowen have already anticipated the trajectory. He struck with the full weight of their body at the blade of their opponent’s weapon. It hit the other sword near the tip causing it to slide down to the ground.
The soil ate up whatever the momentum the sword used to have in exchange for a stirring mark on the surface.
While the blue hair was getting his sword back up, Gowen made another full weight attack. This time he struck near the sword guard.
The assault loosened the blue’s hair boy’s grip, and his sword bounced right off his hands.
Trump ordered them to stand down before announcing the duel belonged to Ren and Gowen.
The last duel finally concluded.
“Teacher”
“Thames. What’s wrong?”
The blue-hair boy hesitated for moment. “Teacher, what is it that I did wrong?”
“You mean the duels? You did pretty well though.”
“No. Not those guys.”
“Oh. You mean your duel with Ren and Gowen.”
Thames reluctantly nodded.
“Where should we begin? Ok. The first strike, the one that Ren and Gowen initiated the battle. It was a bait.”
“A bait?”
“It was really easy to dodge. They had no intention to make it connected in the first place. They just wanted to create a situation where you believed it was an opportunity.”
“That… that… that doesn’t make sense.”
“Of course, it doesn’t. The way they did it was amateur. Normal people wouldn’t fall for that, but you did because they knew what you will do.”
“Eh?”
“You need to learn how to hide your intent and emotion. It was clear that you were waiting them out while being impatient to strike.”
The boy’s expression slumped down.
“Don’t feel discouraged. They honed their sense of battle. It’s hard to explain, but when you get used to fighting you just knew it. Sometimes, it felt like gamble. They won because they spent more efforts in their training.”
Trump continued with his analysis. “You got other ways of winning. For example, training your combat skills. Remember when you dodged their first attack? Have you not retreated as far as you were, they wouldn’t be able to deflect your strike in time. It takes skills to know how far was far enough. You still did good with that strike though. I can tell the spell enhanced your attack considerably. Thank to it, Ren was out of combat, and Gowen had to carry the rest of the fight. In normal duel, you would have won.”
“I know it. Those freaks. I would have won.”
Trump walked toward the blue-hair boy. He flicked the boy hard with on his forehead.
“Ouch! What did you do that for?”
“Do you want to get stronger?”
“Huh? Yes.”
“Better?”
“Yes.”
“Then do this.” Trump pointed at the boy. “Drop this excuse immediately. I don’t know why you hate those boys and I don’t care, but nobody getting stronger by saying others are freaks. Whatever excuse you find to vent out your anger was a waste. If you are frustrated, then use it to practice more.”
“Yes… teacher.”
“You good?”
“These soft bones really suck.” Ren hugged his head.
While their body were conjoined, not all senses are equally distributed. Something they learned after their 4th birthday. Feelings on the left head will mostly be received by Ren and vice versa for Gowen. They could still feel a little on the other but not as clear.
“I miss augmenting magic already.” Ren lamented.
“Probably have to live with it for the rest of our life.”
“And these ears are not helping.” Besides a piece of Ren’s head, Thames also managed a small cut on his left ear. Elven ears are sensitive. For those that enter rough career involving fighting, they would be encouraged to either get used to the pain… or get rid of it. Cutting their ears is out of question, so they had to suck it up.
“Better not touching it.”
“I wonder how Bankai deals with it. He got flappy elephant ears.”
“Other than himself, only Julia would know.”
“They got quite close, didn’t they?”
“Probably get married after the war… if she was still alive.”
They recalled their happy time with the merry bunch that was the Twelve Heroes. Each secretly made a mental toast to the other heroes in their imaginary celebration party.
“HELP!”
Their eyes turned to the direction. It was out of their view.
“Kids. Get together. Come on!” Trump told the kids to come closer.
A few seconds later, the other adults came running to Trump. They made small exchange then quickly moved out.
Their father, Trump, and Clarinet hurried away to the north. That direction was away from the city. At the same time, the last adult led the children back to the gate.
Every kid has the same confusion. What was going on?
Five minutes later inside the wall, the adults gathered, and there was a wagon parking on the main street.
“A pack of wolf led by a spirit wolf, here?”
“How many are they?”
“How old is the spirit wolf?”
People surrounded the wagon owner, a thin old man, named Batch.
“There were around 40 of them. My security chief said the alpha wolf is around 100 years old.”
Everyone gasped at the revelation.
“There were still more than 10 people out there. Please, save my crews.”
“Mr Taka and the Adini have already gone to check on the caravan, but they will need help.”
“Warren. Gather 300 people. Tell them to gear up.” He turned to another guy. “Gaea. While I am out, you’re in charge. Alert the Mayor and the Farmer Association.” Then he addressed the rest of the crowd. “Everyone. Go home. Ensure no child was outside. Those that can fight, arm yourself!”
This city is home to 2000 elves. They have a large number of able-bodied, but 300 was stretching their limit. They couldn’t send all of their best away leaving the city unattended. The wisdom of age told them that what is worse than a disaster is the second disaster striking at their back.
They couldn’t just let the caravan died either. The place of the attack is the main travel road. If they let the animals do as they please, they will just keep coming back. They need to teach the beasts which is their territory, and which is not.
Amiss the chaos.
“Ban, do you see the two-headed kids?”
“What? Uhm. I think they were here a moment ago.”
“Damn it. Mr Taka asked me to take care of his kids. Wait! Do you know where his older son is?”
“I don’t. Sorry. I need to go back home now.”
“Hey! Wait! Damn it!”
Ren and Gowen have already made their way into the woods. They didn’t know what they can do but just sitting at home didn’t feel right for them.
“Gowen. That one!” Ren pointed at a healthy branch on the left.
“Look good!”
In the time of drinking a small cup of tea, they made it on the branch. Their hand got a large rock they just picked on the way. From the base of the branch, they estimated a distance of half their height. They marked it in their head then smashed the rock into it with all their might.
They needed weapon if they wanted to be useful. Wooden sword wouldn’t cut it. That thing was designed to cause minimal damage. They needed something bigger. They needed a club.
This branch was as thick as their thighs so it will do. They didn’t want this club to be too long, so they had to cut off the unneeded. The branch is densest and thickest near the trunk. It was this distance that would be the best weapon for them. Meanwhile, by sitting on the branch they could weaken the connection between the branch and the trunk. It was dangerous but they could allow a fall.
“What are you doing?!”
A familiar voice that they haven’t heard for a while. It was Niko.
“Brother?”
“Get back home, you idiots.”
“No. I have to help father.”
“You, idiots. What can a freak without magic like you do to help? Go home!”
“NO.”
“I say GET BACK HOME!” Niko conjured fox fire around him. As many as six flames appeared around him. “If you talk back one more time, I will rough you up then drag you back.”
“You never care about us. You just happen to see us here. You intended to find father, too, didn’t you? Why should we go home while you-”
Niko’s irises turned yellow while his pupils became fox-like. He retracted the fox fires and summoned a small tornado in his palm.
Fox fires being a racial specialty of fox spirit has a big advantage over magic. While it costs spirit or lifeforce instead of mana, fox fire can be cancelled after it has been conjured. The user can refund all the spirit that they spent on the fox fire. Magic can’t do that. The “Wind Bomb” spell Niko used can not be cancelled. The mana he spent can not be refunded. If he wants to turn off the effect, he needs to use a dispel spell to destroy the effect. This holds true for all spells.
Niko was serious this time.
The twins clenched their fists.
“We said NO. Why can’t y-”
The Wind Bomb blew the base of the branch apart throwing the twins onto the ground.
“WHY? WHY MUST WE GO HOME WHEN YOU RISK YOURSELF WITH FATHER?” They screamed on top of their lungs. So frustrated, tears streamed down from their eyes. “At least, let us go with you. We swear we won’t be a burden.”
Niko’s eyes steadily returned to normal.
“AAAAARRRRRRGH!” The twins rolled over on the ground.
Niko let loose a Wind Bomb on their left knee without batting an eye.
The twins’ bones were likely dislocated from its joint.
“Why?” It hurt, but they agonised not because of the pain in their leg.
Niko looked without emotion. He put his foot on the ankle of their healthy leg.
Niko was not joking.
“I will… go home.” Ren tearfully responded.
Only then that Niko let them crawl back to the city, while he made haste toward the signature of his father’s spirit.
