My Brother Is The Hero Of Earth 10 Chapter 10 - Target Practice

The next morning was strange, at least to me. There hadn't been a single time that I didn't enter the 'Rift' when Alice opened the portal. Instead, I could only say goodbye with the others that were staying and tell them to be safe. The Fuban Tundra wasn't filled with dangerous creatures, but the sub-zero temperatures were just as deadly as anything they might find. I was sure they would be fine, but that didn't stop me from worrying about them.

We all watched the portal closed then started to separate. Kiara went straight to the garden as expected while Ella and Sophia both walked back into the manor. To my surprise, Alice and Katye followed me into the training field and over to one of the sparring rings.

"Hey, want to be target practice?" Alice asked.

"What kind of a question is that?" I demand.

"It's not for me, it's for Katye."

"That really doesn't change much," I said.

"Come on, I'm pretty sure you'll be fine."

"Pretty sure?!?"

"Her excess mana didn't hurt you, right? It should be the same."

"You're not inspiring confidence, Alice," I sighed.

"When have I steered you wrong, Becca?"

"Many times! Just last week when you dropped Gus and me into a goblin mine without warning for starters!"

"Shut up and get in the ring," Alice said in a commanding tone.

I sighed and crumbled as I saw Katye's embarra.s.sed face. "Fine," I said as I dragged myself to the far end of the ring.

Katye took a few steps in and a dome of silvery light enclosed around the ring. It was one of the protection spells that I had seen when Lesedi sparred against the golem, but then another one of gold appeared on the outside of the silver one.

"What's going on, Alice?" I yelled.

"Just a precaution, just a precaution," Alice said as yet another dome appeared, this one black in color.

"I'll try to make this light," Katye said as she raised a hand.

I took in a deep breath and gritted my teeth. A bolt of violet lightning, as thick as her arm, shot out of her outstretched hand and hit me square in the chest. The impact knocked me off my feet and, despite the small amount of smoke from my charred shirt, there was no pain, quite the opposite, in fact. The energy clung to me as it slowly spread out through my body, revitalizing all of my muscles.

"Oh, G.o.d! Are you okay?" Katye asked as she ran over.

"Yeah, I'm fine, it actually didn't hurt," I said, sitting up.

Despite me saying I was fine, she was closely examining the hole in my shirt, just high enough that my chest wasn't revealed. The problem I was having was her hands were on my arms as she held me still which just channeled more of her mana into my body. It made me feel giddy and fl.u.s.tered, but in a more physical sense than I had ever felt before. I wiggled out her grasp and stood up quickly, trying to escape the sensation.

"I'm fine, Katye, really," I said.

"Looks like I was right," Alice said as she dismissed the formations.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I repeated, yet again.

"Not that," Alice said, waving her hand, "your body absorbed the chaos energy, even what was left behind in the ambient air that the spell traveled through." She gasped as an idea struck her and she exclaimed, "It finally makes sense why you are a Chaos Dragon, you neutralize the chaos radiation of Katye's bloodline. Not only that, but you could actually start purifying some of the chaos regions!" She started to turn to leave, but stopped quickly and added, "Help Katye burn off her excess mana since Melissa won't be around to put a barrier on Raz tonight. If you keep casting until you collapse, you should be fine until they get back, Katye."

Alice walked off without another word, leaving me confused as a strange sense of dread crept over me. Alice mentioning Raz just sealed my feat for the day as the whole house already understood Katye would do anything for that little dog. I peeked over my shoulder and found Katye staring at me with a strange look.

"I'm sorry, Becca, but you said it didn't hurt..." Katye's voice trailed off as she raised a hand again.

I didn't mean have the time to mentally swear before another violet bolt of lightning flying out and pegged me once again in the chest. I managed to take the hit with only a few steps back, instead of falling over like before. The moment she raised a hand again, I followed my instincts and jumped to the side. I thought I had managed to dodge the attack, but bolt curved and, although it didn't me square in the chest again, it grazed my shoulder. Once again, the same energy entered my body and there was no way to deny that it was stirring my bloodline as scales began to sprout out over my shoulder.

"d.a.m.nit, give me a second," I complained. When she lowered her hand, I gave a sigh then casted my sandstorm spell and transformed.

I pulled out a special set of clothes Sophia had made for me and changed into them. Since my scales were stronger than most of the armors Lesedi could make, Sophia made me these clothes which could use my mana to repair themselves. It was a simple cut, red tank top and a black pair of knee-length shorts, both with golden flame embroidered along the bottoms of each piece. I released my spell and gave her a nod, but Katye stared at me in surprise.

"Your magic is messing with my ability to suppress my bloodline and I would rather not destroy my clothes completely," I explained.

"Oh, I'm sorry... It's just..."

"It's fine, Katye, I just wasn't ready before."

Katye giggled and looked away as she rocked on her toes. "Sorry," she said quitely.

"Come on, I'll need to burn off this excess energy. We'll go to the archery range since Terri isn't here and test your ability while letting me run," I said as I headed for the back of the field.

"I don't understand," Katye said.

"Whenever I loss a bet with Lesedi or Terri, they make me play 'Shooting Gallery'. Much like you, they can both attack me without really hurting me so I basically become target practice, like Alice said," I responded. I touched my storage ring and pulled out two gold earcuffs. "This is kinda like a walkie-talkie, just put it on and it will work within ten miles," I said, handing her one of the cuffs, then putting on my own.

"Okay, so now what?" she asked as she attached her cuff.

"Go to the end and we will test your range for starters," I said, pointing to the end end of the range.

She nodded and walked slowly in the direction I pointed. She seemed to be resisting the urge to prance on her tiptoes like she had been since awakening her bloodline, but there was an odd stomp to her foot that made me smile as I suppressed the urge to laugh. While she walked, I lightly shook out my body, trying to dislodge the tingling sensation that was slowly building up.

"Okay, I'm pa.s.sed the line," Katye's voice chimed in my ear.

"Alright, I'm fifty meters away. Try hitting my hand," I said as I raised my hand to the side.

"It... it doesn't work like that for me, not yet anyways. I 'lock-on' to a target."

I sighed, "Fine, bring on the lightning."

Her giggle rang through my head and a moment later a violet bolt of lightning was heading straight for me, getting faster and faster as it moved. This time, I was shoved back a number of feet proving that, not only did her spell gain speed as it traveled, but also strength.

"Keep them coming while I back up and we will see if we can find your range," I said, although the thought of how strong her spell might get worried me. Even if the spell couldn't hurt me, it could throw me into something and that would likely hurt.

I backpedal at first, but once she got into a rhythm, I just let her spells do the work while I tried to dodge the dummies that littered this end of the range. She could easily reach the back of the range as I tested with my back against the wall and the impact left a crack in stone. After that, I returned to the fifty meter range where I tried dodging her attacks. I said "tried" because, while I managed to dodge the first ten, by the next ten, she was locked onto my back. I couldn't escape that lightning no matter how hard I tried, but I won't say I didn't enjoy it.

I started to really push myself, trying to avoid her attacks, but instead of getting tired, her spells filled me with more energy. I kept moving faster, racing around the range between fifty and seventy-five meters away and ducking behind the dummies. I was so focused in on my world, I didn't notice that Sophia, Ella, and Kiara had arrived and were watching us with varying degrees of shock on their faces.

Suddenly, the bolts on lightning stopped and I couldn't help, but snarl as my bloodline lashed out at the loss of the chaos energy. I shut my eyes and took in a deep breathe. I opened them a moment later and looked over to Katye, who was already being tended to by Ella and Kiara while Sophia was walking towards. I couldn't move as I was fighting to suppress my bloodline.

"Becca? What's going on?" Sophia asked.

"Alice's idea... Katye needs to burn off mana..." I said through gritted teeth which felt wrong in my mouth as my clarity began to return.

"Not that, look behind you!"

I slowly let out a deep breathe and twisted my head, ever so slightly, to peek over my shoulder. I was dumbfounded as I saw a large, black-scaled wing with crimson webbing. My wings were something that I had heard about since the two times I was pushed to the point that they formed, I blacked-out and had never remembered anything.

"Alice, now!"

Sophia didn't hesitate and pulled out a token from her storage ring then crushed it. "What can I do?"

"Leave, take others."

Sophia nodded and backed away. She hurried over to the girls then they helped Katye up and they all left for the manor. I could see Katye looking over at me, but I closed my eyes and put all of my effort into calming down.

"Becca! I'm so sorry, I didn't think this would happen," Alice said as I heard her run up. "Here."

I felt a bottle press against my lips and I let her pour the contents into my mouth. It was bitter and tart at the same time and it sent a chilling sensation throughout my body. I gave a sigh of relief as I felt the pressure on my mind begin to ease instantly.

"Better?" she asked after a few minutes.

I nodded and opened my eyes. My body felt misbalanced, so I checked and found that wings were still there. With a thought and desire, I snapped my wings open to their maximum width which looked to be double my height and they gave off a crackle of red electricity. I shifted my body to touch my wings when I felt part of me drag across the ground. I now had a long, black-scaled tail with crimson spikes running down the center that reached all the way down to the ground.

"You've got to be kidding me," I said, but I noticed something else had changed. I ran my tonged over my teeth which had changed into long, sharp fangs.

"This is your second form, Becca, and you are conscious. This is a big step," Alice said.

I shook my head and said, "I'm far from controlling it."

"But you are closer than you were yesterday," Alice encouraged with a gentle smile.

"How much longer do I have?"

"Another minute," she replied.

I nodded and knelt down on the ground. Alice had given me a potent tranquilizer and I could feel the battle between it and my bloodline for supremacy. When the drugs finally won, I fell into the gentle embrace of the darkness while my body fell face first into the dirt.