The Journey of Amal: Stone

It’s a beautiful autumn Sunday, a great weather to start the Elemental Sports. This is a yearly program of the Heartkin School of Arts where the students will participate in competitions from games to arena. All levels will compete against each other as they take pride in their talents and prowess. It’s a fun event, but not to a senior girl who spent her whole summer training for the arena.

“Oh, come on!” Amal said as she tied her laces, but it ended up damaging her boots.

“Amal, you’ve been tying up your laces over and over since the last thirty minutes. You’re not fighting yet, but you’ve already murdered your boots,” says Kyndra, her best friend. “Relax, it’s just a game.”

“Not the game I want to be part of!” Amal exclaims, “If it wasn’t for that fire-boy, I wouldn’t be here.” She blames the encounter with the boy two months ago. It was an unfortunate timing that her professor caught her in action when she performed a smart offensive fighting skill.

“You know it’s called Lighter right? And he’s got a name- Zade,” says Kyndra, giggling as she daydreams of this boy, Zade. She stands up, about to leave, “Oh, yeahꟷ don’t forget to tell me all the details about how hot he is when you’re against him later.” Kyndra then leaves the dressing room for the contenders of the arena.

The sky longed for a burst of cheers and there it was, not any longer, the preliminary competition starts, and the judges are introduced along with rules and safety measures for the fighting competition. The contenders’ names were revealed on the screens in brackets and the sequence of the matches.

Amal warms up at a corner, starting by a relaxed sitting position. It is crucial for a Summoner to stabilize her heart rate to be able to connect more to the earth below. It is important to ground the whole body and mind as a surrender to the powers of the earth beneath.

Eruption of cheers shook the entire arena. The first match has now started. It is not uncommon for the arena to be unscathed judging by the blasts and whooshing of the first match. Amal suspects the match is a summoner against a venter. She thought to herself if she were a second late of noticing a venter’s skill, she would lose face. After all, venters are known for their lightspeed. However, summoners are keen observant, so if she loses, she thinks her ancestors would disown her. Amal shakes her head, dismissing the doubt on herself.

The competition was exhilarating that every time a match ended with applause, Amal fidgets her anxiety off of her hand wrap, tightening it while wishing she was in bed doing nothing. And there she goes on, daydreaming about how she missed the soft embrace of her mattress back in her dorm.

Her daydreams were so far from over, but unfortunately for her, her match came up. She comes into the arena and witnesses the refurnished setup. The arena had the classic open field with a lake on the side. At the far side entrance, she sees her opponent. Her opponent is a summoner like her. As much as she could feel relief, she could never feel at ease especially when her opponent is a senior and the top in her class.

She could feel the loud cheers for her opponent. But Kyndra’s loud shouting was all she needed.

“Amal,” her opponent calls, surprised to see her as his opponent. Amal has always been meek and alone, enjoying crafts and never a warrior at heart. “I didn’t know you were a fighter.” He shakes hand with her, an oath of sportsmanship.

“Me too, Steven,” she says, pursing her lips as she tries to show a little interest in the competition, which in fact, she’s not.

“Well, at least we get to see what you got. I’ll go easy on you,” Steven playfully winked at her and paced back to his position.

Amal starts into a stable and hard-core stance. The audience were stirred at how Amal showed confidence despite a strong opponent. As the sun scorched the arena, it was never in compare to the hot stares between the contenders as they were both summoners, keen and observant. But studying their opponents does not limit to their vision only, the real battle comes from their feet.

Amal thought, first move loses the match. But Steven proved he has the upper hand.

Steven launched in the midst of one blink. He attacked a blind spot at Amal and sent an eruption of boulders at her feet as she run around the arena, dodging Steven’s multiple attacks. Amal then takes the opportunity to attack Steven with a collapsed ground beneath his feet. Steven’s attacks were cut short and Amal broke free off the chase. She mounted a cliff towards Steven and jumps at him with a kick. Steven catches it with his arm and hit Amal with a big crumple of rocks. Amal was thrown away and got stoned at the wall of the arena. The rocks served as her cuffs, now she couldn’t move.

Amal pulled herself together and tried to break free. It took all of her strength that her face went red from all the struggles. But as she sustained that strength, she was hit of the worst migraine attack.

“Argh!” she winced, whispering to herself, “Please, not now.” Her migraine attack pulsated from her temples so strong that her vision went blurry. Amal groaned and whimpered, frustrated of the situation. Later then, her heart skipped a beat that shocked her. She broke her arm free and held her chest as she went breathless.

Steven was alarmed and ran towards her. But her senses were on spike, she thought of the ongoing competition, hence, danger. Adrenaline rushed as she defended herself with just one hand. To her surprise, the arena shook from ground up. A blast of dust had covered the entire field, lake ran dry and the ground where Steven once stood became burrowed. The poor unconscious guy was found at the far side of the arena.

As the field cleared, the horn blew, ending the match. Loud cheers and shouts filled the entire arena, cheering for the unexpected victor. A lot of compliments aired around, but Amal could never care less. She was too baffled and confused because all she remembered was, she held out her hand to Steven, then she felt a huge wave coming out of her hand and a mere stone hit him and exploded.

Amal rushed to Steven’s side. Responders came in.

“Is he okay?” she asked to one of the medical team.

“We’ll take care of him,” the responder said, and went back to aid Steven. Amal was pushed back to make space for the team as they laid him on the stretcher.

Kyndra came running in to meet Amal. She was screaming and jumping in excitement. But to her dismay, Amal didn’t look as joyful as her.

“What’s wrong?” asked Kyndra.

“I think I may have hurt him,” said Amal with a frown face.

“Wellꟷ duh?! It’s a fighting arena,” said Kyndra.

Amal looks at her in disbelief but opted to dismiss it. She didn’t want any more of this, especially her migraine attacks occurred way too strong she could’ve passed out. Amal left Kyndra and went back to the waiting area for the preliminary victors, but instead of preparing, she went to the facilitator which happens to be her professor that signed her in the competition.

“Sir, I’m afraid I can’t continue to semi-finals. My migraineꟷ” Amal was cut off by her professor’s palms that landed on her shoulders.

“I believe in your potential, Amal. I can see you becoming a great leader, even in the most prestigious organization. I feel that this journey is the beginning to unlocking your potential,” her professor gently said with a smile.

“Thank you, Sir. That’s… I appreciate it, but I,” Amal thought back about the incident. “There’s this unexplanable… I don’t know. Maybe I’m just not used to this kind of competition.” Amal believed she was meant to be an artist, an expert of her crafts. Never did she ever dreamed of becoming a warrior, a defender, or a protector of the society.

“Yes, I have witnessed your compassion to your opponent. And that’s exactly why I see potential in you. Always remember, it’s not all about the fist. It’s always about good intentions. Now, tell me,” her professor asked, stepped closer to her ear, “Have you seen the depths and limits of what you can do? Because something tells me, you don’t know who you are.”

“What do you mean?” Amal looked up to him.

“See you on semi-finals,” said the professor and walked away.

Amal was left with an unexpected source of strength and inspiring wisdom. She continues to her station and waits for the preliminaries to end.

***

The sun has fallen, and the preliminaries have concluded. The arena is getting cramped with other students and audience who witnessed other competitions. The semi-finals have sixteen contenders, and they will be fighting in teams of four. Regardless of their nature, they will have to fight through their wits and fists.

Amal watched the screen where the teams are revealed. Unfortunately for her, the fire-boy she held grudge with is on her team. Without a second later, someone poked on her shoulder.

“Congratulations,” it was Zade, “Your finals spot is secured now that you’re in my team.”

Amal snubbed at him disdainfully. “I blame you,” said Amal, as she turned her back on Zade. She couldn’t stand the presence of the arrogant man. Though he never bullied her or any kind of sort, Amal feels her personal space violated.

“Oh, come on. You don’t sound like the girl who landed a tough kick on me,” banters Zade. He tails Amal and follows her around. Walking by her side, he continues to talk about the summer encounter of the two.

The other two members of their team have found them together. Amal smiles as she realizes her team is a good advantage. They have a summoner, a venter, a bender and a lighter.

“You’re Amal, right?” the venter offers her hand, “Roselle.” Amal shook her hand and turned to the guy.

“And you must be?” Amal greets politely.

“Chris,” he shook Amal’s hand with a nod. “I saw your preliminary. Are you okay? I noticed you had… a situation.” He glances to Zade, and both nodded. It seems they’re acquainted.

Amal smiled and wondered how keen he was after all the tension of the fight. She shrugs, “Never better.”

“But then she blasted him off in a blink. How unexpected and mind-blowing. I swear nobody seen that coming,” Roselle compliments.

“I could never agree more. You should try fighting her. She lands a mean kick,” Zade playfully nudged Amal.

Roselle giggles while Amal tries to keep Zade’s exaggerated comments. Chris, however, played a friendly smile but kept an eye on Amal. Something about her felt mysterious.

“So, here’s how we play,” Zade huddles the three in a circle, “I smoke them, and we hit them.”

Three of them blinked in question.

“That’s it?” asked Roselle with her brows knitted in confusion.

“Got it,” Chris crossed his arms, “Roselle, you are the eye. Round our opponents and tell me the closest directions. Amal, you can sense them anywhere so you can lure them all together to where my aim is. Zade, you can rain fire on them to finish it. I’ll help a little.”

“That’s exactly what I meant,” Zade clicks his fingers and pointed at Chris for the credit.

“Okay, if things don’t work as easy as we planned?” Roselle asked, giving the plan the benefit of doubt.

“Improvise. Zade and I will find a way to smoke them,” said Chris

“Okay, bet,” Roselle grins.

The four promising talents warmed up on their own. No one dared to slack for they are all warriors at heart, except Amal. She sees the history of bravery as if she felt her teammate’s ancestral pride. Inspired by their efforts, Amal didn’t waste no time and fixed her mind on winning. Perhaps, for a little, she is enjoying the competition.

Their match is now announced. As they enter the arena, everyone was as silent as the night as if they waited for this match. The scorching torch blazed the arena in luminous light. It brought warmth to Amal’s arms. She felt cozy as though she were in bed. But the coziness was abruptly interfered by the sudden whoosh of the winds. It was Roselle grinning; she is more than ready.

“Careful venter,” Zade warns with a cheeky lopsided smile, “Your opponent is as big as a hurricane.” Zade chuckled as he turned to a tall man that wore a venter’s sigil.

“Well, he’s never met me,” Roselle replies back. She grinned as though she knew she’s more powerful than the tall venter. Confidence ripples her braided hair.

The horn is blown, and the fighters attacked. Zade and Chris is on the front, trolling the opponents with a wide range of attacks. Fire blasted, and waves crashed the walls of the arena.

A tremor lightly shook as the fight peaked in heights. Two summoners contested, at this time, with their skills in summoning the life of the earth. The ground crumbles at the wake of Amal’s giant rose and her opponent’s huge poison sumac. Amal was shocked at her opponent. In fact, summoners aren’t supposed to use any poisonous plants for their studies. But to see one during a competition, Amal wonders if this is permitted by the headmaster.

“Don’t let any of the sumac touch you!” Amal shouts at her team.

“Why? It’s just a shrub,” Zade shouts back.

“It’s not just a shrubꟷ“ Amal stops when she sees Zade blasted the whole thing.

Chris jumps up and immediately freezes the oil that rained towards them. The sumac still stands even with the fire blast.

“The oil causes rashes. A smaller encounter could spare you two weeks,” Chris explained with a stern look. “Don’t go rushing in again. Let’s stick to the plan.”

Everyone rushed out and spread. Roselle managed to keep her opponent busy, while Amal supports everyone from the lashing sumac. Amal’s thorned vines would flap away the lashing sumac. While she controls and protects her teammates, Chris and Zade would take care of the remaining opponents. They tried to lure them and almost risked their skin from touching the sumac. They’d rather get hit by the opponent’s attacks rather than the sumac.

Finally, Roselle lands a jaw-cracking elbow, and it throws her opponent unbalanced. Chris and Zade took this opportunity to attack this venter and successfully lured the other two who came rushing in to support their other teammate. Now, cornering all four of them with Amal’s vines, she extends the thorns and pushed the opponents closer to each other. The sumac now had been prisoned and taken over by the rose. Amal struggles in maintaining her stance. This skill takes a toll on the summoner, especially on longer duration.

Chris runs stream the ground with water, then Zade evaporates it and turns the field into a foggy space. Roselle runs swiftly before the smokescreen covered her field of vision and located their opponents just as they planned. She runs in lightspeed to Amal, and down a large crater fell beneath their opponents’ feet upon Roselle’s point of direction. Roselle blows away the fog up to the sky, giving Chris and Zade a clean shot of their attack.

As fast as it came, a striking pain hit Amal’s right side of her head. She grimaced and thought of the recurring headache she had during preliminaries. She touches her pulsating head in one wrist but continues to control the thorned vines to keep the sumac from lashing out. The game is almost over, she thought. Amal watched sternly and releases her grip of control to the thorns as the two launches their wide range attacks. Zade released a humongous arrow of fire and Chris had ice frozen daggers that rained down on their opponents.

A storm of dust blasted the arena as Chris and Zade’s attacks landed on their opponents in one go. It is indeed a total knockout. This could be the best team the crowd has ever seen. Thundering cheers had covered the ears of the victors. The game is over.

***

Chris and Zade are talking at the far side of the corner. Amal wraps her hand in new bandage since the final tournament will be starting in ten minutes.

“Amal,” Roselle scoots over Amal’s side on the bench, “I can really see that this isn’t your thing.” She hands over an ice pack to relieve Amal’s migraine.

“Yeah, it’s not,” Amal smiled apologetically, “But I won’t be a slack to you guys. I know this is important for you.”

“In case, you didn’t know,” Roselle pats Amal’s back, “You’re a good fighter. I believe this is the beginning for a change. I think you’re a warrior deep down there.”

“Thanks,” Amal nods, and ponders on what her teammate just said.

Chris and Zade comes over. Both confused and curious. Amal asked what was wrong, but the two went towards Roselle.

“Roselle,” Chris approaches, “Do you know any forbidden venting skills?”

“No,”

“Are you sure?”

“No, none that I am aware of.”

Chris looks at Zade as if their eyes are speaking to each other. Amal was left dumbfounded, lost from the group’s conversation. She has no idea about forbidden skill in venting.

“Last fight, on semi-finals,” Zade starts on explaining, “Before I get to launch the arrow, something, like a force, launched my arrow without my control. So, there’s only an explanation to that, it’s you Roselle.”

“What?! But my hands weren’t even moving that time,” Roselle retorts, “If you think I did it, you will feel the sharp wind or even get cut with it.”

Zade leans back, “You’re right. How about you Chris?”

Chris shakes his head negatively, “Whatever that is, that secured our win.”

The four tries to think about what could have caused it. While Amal thinks it over, her head suddenly aches and the pain felt as if her head was splitting in half. This time, she groaned as she held her throbbing headache. Immediately, the other three assisted her. Roselle held the ice compress for her, while Zade got a bottle of water for her. Chris, on the other hand, stayed by her side and gently massages her suboccipital muscles. He carefully treaded his fingers on the ridges where the skull and the neck meet.

Amal’s vision casted a dark shadow and pieces of blur. She takes a sip from Zade’s bottle of water. When she felt Roselle’s cold ice compress, she melts into relief and touches the ice compress. Surprisingly, the ice melted down faster and faster.

As the water dripped down, Chris extends the cold feeling to Amal’s scalp. Her tense muscles on her nape began to subside. Roselle switches over to Chris to compress a piece of ice on Amal’s nape so he can focus on cooling off Amal’s tenses muscles. For a battle against migraine, it lasted for seven minutes and when Amal’s breathing returned to normal, her migraine dies down.

“Amal,” Roselle touches Amal’s shoulder, “How are you feeling?”

Amal blinks at them, unable to diagnose what she currently feels. She only nodded.

“I think she could land a kick on me now if I told her I spit on that water a while ago,” Zade banters, which ended him knocked up on the chin by a rising boulder out of nowhere.

Roselle chuckles at Zade’s funny face when he got caught up at it unexpectedly.

“You better not be joking at me, fire-boy,” Amal banters.

Zade spits out blood, the side of his lip cut. “You know, if you could warn me about something, maybe you could delay the attack about a little bit.”

“Serves you right for that disgusting joke,” Chris chuckles as he gives a hand on the beat-up Zade.

Zade cleans himself up and nods at Amal, “You sure you can fight, Amal?”

Amal nods back and assures the team. They only had one minute left to prepare. They made sure they are warmed up ready for battle. As for Amal, she plans to focus on summoning rather than fighting fist to fist. She wouldn’t want to pressure herself and risk another migraine attack.

Under the moonless night, the arena starts to rumble from the uneasiness of waiting. The final tournament of the talented students has been the most awaited of all. The generals from the Citadel, the international investigation organization, have now situated at the seats together with the headmaster and the professors. For the prize of the winning team of this event will have a slot at the training camp of the Sentinels, the armed forces of the Citadel.

“Who is that?” Amal asks, her eyes focused at that one stern general.

“That’s General Yang, he commands the international transportation, ensures transportation policies are followed by forwarding agents. I hear he’s also the meanest,” whispers Roselle.

“He does look mean,” Amal turns away as General Yang meets her eye.

The competition did not wait any longer. The final tournament has now begun.

Zade, as aggressive as he is, launches a wide range attack to the two benders that were preparing an attack. This blows off as Zade evaporates the water they were bending. The other two opponents are a summoner and a venter. Amal stands as a support role to Chris who’s fighting the summoner’s golems. Roselle takes care of the venter as they both fight in fists, running and chasing in lightspeed.

Amal notices a subtle uneasiness from her left temple. She worries it could be her recurring migraine. She calls on to Chris.

“I can’t hold much longer,” Amal shouts to Chris. Her vision starts to zigzag, a light stroke just by her peripheral vision, it was the venter.

The venter manages to land a kick on the side Amal’s head and throws Amal to the far side. Roselle continues to fight the venter and attacks at an open side. She then punches the venter’s stomach in lightspeed that took the breath out of the poor venter. He was thrown off far away, knocked out.

Amal tries to lift herself up. Her migraine now in its nefarious rhythm. She looks up between her blurry vision. She sees Zade getting attacked on.

She clumps her fist and swings her arms in ways, summoning boulders to hit Zade’s opponents. As she began losing her tight fist, her hands swung loosely. But before she could finish summoning, her vision cleared and there she saw, a complete strange phenomenon.

Zade’s fire swings freely around him. The opponents water bending floats high above them in droplets, even Chris’ frozen daggers hang loosely at the top of his head and around him.

Amal’s vision went black. Her arms dropped and all their attacks launched a blast to their opponents. Amal has completely blacked out.

The room filled in pure bright white light. Amal knew she’s in the infirmary just by the scent of strong disinfectant. She was then met by a group of faces and a few familiar ones. She blinks and tries to sit up. Finally, her recurring headaches has ceased.

“Amal, how are you feeling?” asked Roselle, still in her combat attire from the final tournament, as well as Zade and Chris.

“It was you all along,” said Zade in curious tone.

“Zade, now’s not the time,” Chris intervened. Zade backed away from her bed. Roselle, however, held on to Amal’s hand.

“Miss Amal,” one of the familiar faces spoke, “I am from the Disciplinary Commission of this school. When you’re discharged here, please meet us in the headmaster’s office. Thank you.”

The disciplinary commissioner, along with his other associates, exited the infirmary room and left. Amal is left hanging. What could she have done that required her presence in the headmaster’s office?

“What did I do?” Amal started, skipping her teammate’s eyes from one another hoping to get answers. After all, she’s always been meek and a good student. Until of course, the Elemental Sports happened.

“We cannot confirm for sureꟷ,” Chris stops as Zade butts in.

“Well, I can actually testify that she controlled my element,” Zade crossed his arms.

“Say what? Stop playing with me, Zade,” said Amal.

“We don’t know for sure, but what we’re certain of is that whatever happened affected all of the nations. You are news everywhere, and I meanꟷ everywhere,” said Roselle in utmost emphasis.