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The next morning, the six new residents gathered in the lobby to meet Brakon for their first official day of training. They found that the building was absolutely spotless without any signs of yesterday's damage. Burlik knocked on one of the walls. "What happened? This place looks like new."

Brakon tapped the floor with one of his toe claws. "This building has a magical rune in its foundation. Every night at midnight, the building is reset to it's previous condition. It's a lot cheaper than trying to fix what you kids break. Speaking of which..." Brakon looked over to Edion and Leon. "While I support sparring, please don't do it in Amaria's garden. She treats that thing as if it were her child. Keep it contained to your building or the training grounds."

Bellatrix leaned against the the wall. "What are we doing today?"

"You will find out soon enough." Brakon replied. "We need to go out of the city for this one. Follow me." He led them out the building and flew high into the sky. His students followed closely behind. From this height, they got a better feel for the size of the city. The MakiaVi was about fifty miles in diameter with high walls surrounding it on all sides. The main roads cut the city into quadrants, each of which was the size of a normal city elsewhere. Once they were outside the city's borders, a massive forest awaited them below. Trees stretched out as far as the eye could see. Some of them were even tall enough for the group to touch. Brakon pointed to a small clearing below them. "This will do fine. Land here." He landed with care, barely disturbing the grass beneath him. Bellatrix and Leon followed his graceful example. Edion, Burlik and Zan were a little rougher in their entry and uprooted some of the foliage in their path. Tereen slammed into the ground, creating a large crater around her. The tremor was large enough to knock everyone else off balance. She rose out of the crater and brushed the dust from her clothes. Tereen received a few well deserved looks from her peers.

Brakon opened his arms up wide. "Welcome to the Eternal Forest. Today I will be teaching you all to properly use Viren. Do any of you know anything about Viren?" Edion assumed the question was rhetorical. Brakon pointed to Bellatrix who had her hand raised. "Yes?"

"It is the energy that allows dragons to fly." Bellatrix said.

Brakon nodded. "Correct. Thousands of years ago, our ancestors had wings and were much larger than we are now. Once they discovered Viren, they slowly evolved to the slimmer form that we all have today. Viren is the life energy that all things radiate and dragons can harness it naturally. While we mainly use it to fly, it also has many other uses. Leon can you help me demonstrate?"

Leon raised an eyebrow at his request. "My knowledge on the subject is limited. I doubt I would be of much assistance."

Brakon smiled. "Don't worry. All I need you to do is stab me with your sword."

The trainees gave each other odd looks. "He must have finally lost it." Burlik mumbled. Edion agreed that his request was odd but he was eager to see where it would go.

Leon froze. "You want me to what?"

"You heard right." Brakon said. "Attack me with all your might. I won't even move."

Leon hesitated but eventually drew his sword and prepared to attack. "Are you sure?"

Brakon beat his chest. "Give it your best shot!" Leon darted towards Brakon and lunged his rapier at his teacher's chest. The moment the blade made contact with Brakon's scales, it bounced off with a loud clang. The force of the impact sent Leon flying back. His blade had not left so much as a scratch.

Leon stumbled to his feet. "What the hell?"

Brakon grinned. "I shielded myself with the Viren stored in my body. With proper training, you can use Viren to protect yourself, heal minor wounds, or multiply the strength of your attacks." Brakon drew his longsword and turned to face a nearby tree. It was about ten times as tall as Brakon and thick enough for even Tereen to hide behind. Brakon lifted his sword into the air. "Watch and learn, kids." In one swipe, he cut the tree in half. The top part crept off of its base and crashed into the ground.

Edion stared at the fallen tree. "That's... impossible."

Brakon sheathed his sword. "Well it's not since I just did it. Now it's your turn."

"There's no way we can do that!" Bellatrix shouted.

"I remember when I was a new member. It took me six hours to cut down one of these trees. I think you can all manage that."

Zan walked up to Brakon with a determined look in his eye. "If that's the case, I'll do it in three!" he said, raising a clenched fist to his brother.

Brakon clapped his hands together. "Now that's the spirit! Just make sure you do it in one hit. There is a reason it's called the eternal forest." The trainees traded confused glances. As they looked around, they noticed the damage that had been done in their landings had already disappeared. Even now, the tree Brakon cut in half was already regrowing from the trunk. The top half that was cut off formed its own roots and lifted itself upright to made a new tree. Brakon flew up and sat on one of its branches. He picked a colorful piece of fruit from one of its limbs and took a bite. "Go ahead and get started." he commanded in between his chewing. "I'll be up here if you need me. Oh, and do be careful kids."

Bellatrix sat down in front of her tree with her legs crossed. The rest of the trainees began hacking away at their targets. They each unleashed a fury of attacks on their trees with no progress being made on any of them. Each time, their weapons bounced off the bark. Edion clawed away at his tree with a flurry of blows. He had not sum much as scratched the tree.

An hour into the training, Edion sat exausted in front of his tree. "This really is impossible." Edion looked up to the tree where Brakon was sleeping and shook it with a fierce kick. "Hey! How are we supposed to do this? None of us have made any progress at all."

Brakon moved the hair that was covering his eyes. "Actually, Bellatrix has made pretty good progress so far." Bellatrix was still meditating at the base of her tree.

Edion pointed to Bellatrix. "What are you talking about? She hasn't moved an inch in the past hour!"

"We draw Viren from all living things on the planet. Try getting more acquainted with nature." Brakon returned to his nap.

Edion grumbled as he prepared to strike the tree again. Before he attacked, he looked at the rest of the trainees and lowered his arms. They all had taken up Bellatrix's strategy and sat in front of their trees in silence. Edion sighed and followed their example. He closed his eyes, took deep breaths and focused on the forest around him. He tried to feel the life that pulsated through the ground. For a while, he felt nothing but his legs falling asleep.

It wasn't until they hit the two hour mark that he felt a change. It was like the faint current of a river began to flow through his body. It started from his legs and pooled in his heart. Edion relaxed his muscles as the calming sensation flowed through him. The gentle current began to pick up speed, soon turning into a rushing rapid as the pool in his heart began to overflow. His blood felt like acid as it rushed through his veins. Edion started levitating in the air and his eyes glowed bright green. Fog collected around him as a strong wind whipped through the air as if Edion was the center of a tornado. The temperature dropped well below freezing which halted the students' meditation and shook Brakon awoke from his slumber.

Brakon's eyes locked onto his student. "Oh no." He leapt out of the tree and dashed towards Edion. The rest of the trainees struggled to hold their ground against the force of the wind. Brakon was not slowed down at all as he grabbed Edion out of the air and laid him on the grass. He put a hand over Edion's chest and took a deep breath. As he inhaled, the green energy transferred to Brakon's body and the wind began to die down. "How was he able to draw so much energy?" It was then that Brakon noticed the symbol on the shoulder of Edion's jacket. The trainees gathered around Edion who was motionless but still breathing. "How are you feeling?" Brakon asked.

Edion sat up and rubbed his head. "Alright, I think. What happened?"

"You took on too much energy." Brakon said. "If you try and store more than you can, it will search for an exit and destroy your body in the process."

"You could have warned us!" Zan yelled.

"Sorry. I didn't expect any of you to go over capacity like that. It would usually take a whole day for a newbie to gather that much power. In any case, you should all be fine to continue."

The students returned to their trees. Edion stumbled to his feet. His right glove glowed. "Are you sure you're ok?"

"It's alright if you want to take a break." Liara added.

Edion took his fighting stance. "It's fine. I can handle this." He summoned his gauntlets again and swiped his claws at the tree. This time, he carved out a large chunk of bark. Edion cheered his success as he punched the air. Once he finished celebrating, the tree grew back the part that was lost. "He did say do it in one hit."

As they approached the three hour mark, the time it took for each trainee to gather Viren became exponentially shorter. None of them even bothered sitting down to meditate at this point. Zan stood in front of his tree, out of breath. His hands were red from his failed attempts.

Brakon shook his finger. "Tick tock kids. What happened to cutting my time in half Zan? Tired already?" Zan gritted his teeth and prepared for another strike at the tree. This time when he gathered energy, the air around him started to heat up. On his upswing, the scimitar had gathered all of his energy and was red hot. In one large swipe, Zan took down the tree just as Brakon had done earlier.

A huge grin spread across Zan's face. "Ha! Told you I would do it!" Just as he said it, Zan started to collapse.

Brakon appeared in front of his brother and caught him. "Great work." He laid his brother down on the grass. Soon after, all of the other trainees started to chop down their own trees. Burlik tossed his shuriken towards his. An aura of high pressure water coated it like the blades of a saw. Leon took a quick swipe with his rapier and cut the tree with a gust of wind. The blade never even touched the bark. Bellatrix dashed past her target with lightning quick speed and cut it in two. Small sparks discharged from her katana. Tereen swung her hammer into the earth and knocked a large boulder into the tree, shattering it into pieces. Finally, Edion coated the claws of his gauntlets in ice and took a strong swipe at the tree. It cut cleanly in five different places. Brakon slowly applauded their work. "Amazing progress everyone! But remember, this is only the beginning."

Over the next two months, Brakon ran the six of them ragged. Every day they ran a series of brutal drills. One was to fly a hundred laps around the entire MakiaVi. Another was to swim to the deepest part of Bravia Bay and back up thirty times. They also trained to deflect arrows only using Viren. All of this was on top of regular sparring matches.

Brakon stood with his students in the field behind the class C dining hall. "Outstanding work everyone! You all have put in a ton of work and I think you all are deserving of an award." Brakon snapped his fingers and two chefs brought out a large picnic table behind him. It was a spread fit for a king, filled with delicacies from all five dragon controlled provinces. A beef stew on the table caught Edion's eye. "This should be a decent upgrade from your usual meals."

Leon scoffed as he tossed his hair aside. "It's about time! I was beginning to think you Bravians were all just awful cooks." He walked up to the table and reached for a portion of the beef. Brakon threw a powerful punch his way. Leon blocked it but was sent flying back to where the other trainees sat.

Leon raised a fist to his teacher. "What was that for?"

Bracon had an unsettling smile on his face. "What? The food is all yours. You just have to take it." The students groaned in unison.

Edion turned away from the table. "Forget this. It's not worth the trouble."

Brakon sniffed the air. "Oh, I didn't know we were serving chicken today?" A cascade of "ooooo" sounds came from the other trainees.

Edion summoned his gauntlets and a powerful aura of Viren surrounded his body. He turned to Brakon. "You'll be eating that food from a straw when I'm done with you!"

With a battle cry, Edion flew straight at Brakon with his claws ready to strike. Brakon dodged the attack with ease and grabbed Edion by the tail. He spun him around in circles so fast that Edion could barely move. "Stop! Stop! Let me go!" Edion screamed.

"As you wish." Brakon released his grip and sent Edion flying through a nearby tree. Brakon beckoned his students over. "Come on! You guys can do better than this!" Zan and Bellatrix looked at each other, nodded and dashed towards Brakon together. Bellatrix disappeared from view and reappeared behind Brakon with her sword ready to strike. Brakon caught her blade with his bare hands. He swung Bellatrix by her sword and slammed her into Zan. The blow sent them both flying back to where they started. Brakon pulled out a chair from the table. "Well since none of you are hungry, I'll get started then." He began picking at the smoked salmon on the table.

Burlik spun his shuriken in his hand. "That's mine!" The sea dragon threw his weapon towards Brakon with an aura of water coating it. The instructor caught the weapon by the giant hole in its center using only a finger. Burlik's eyes widened at the sight. Brakon didn't even look up from his meal as he sent it back with twice the force it was received. As it went flying back to it's owner, Tereen swung her hammer into the shuriken and knocked the it into the ground. It kicked up dirt as it spun and eventually lost momentum.

Bellatrix shot her arms into the air. "Team huddle!" All six trainees gathered together and started whispering.

Brakon stood up and eyed the group. "Oooh a plan! I wonder how this will go?" The students spoke for about five minutes before they broke up and got into a formation. Edion rushed towards Brakon, leaving a massive trail of dust behind him. Again, Edion approached with his hands open to swipe at him.

"That won't work!" Brakon said as he punched Edion in the stomach. This time, Edion was able to hold his ground. Brakon gasped. "What? How?" As the dust settled, Brakon saw Tereen standing behind Edion, bracing him against the strike.

A wry grin spread across Edion's face. "Gotcha." Brakon looked down to see that his hand was frozen to Edion's. Before he could even react, Burlik threw his shuriken at Brakon's chest. With Brakon's arm occupied, he had to dodge at an awkward angle that threw him off balance. Bellatrix came in and slide tackled his legs. Edion used their connection to slam Brakon to the ground. As soon as he landed, Leon and Zan had their weapons at Brakon's neck.

Brakon had a huge smile on his face. "Amazing teamwork everyone! You did even better than I could have hoped. The food is all yours, for real this time. You earned it!" The trainees all cheered and started to dig into their favorite dishes. As they ate, they all laughed and reminisced over their harsh training. Edion inhaled the aroma of the beef stew and was showered with memories of home. He grinned as he lifted the bowl towards his mouth. Leon carved off a piece of the beef. "Even my father would rejoice in such a meal." Edion froze at his words as the smile faded from his face. Leon looked up from his meal. "Are you alright Edion?"

The ice dragon snapped out of his trance and painted a smile on his face. "Yeah, everything's fine." Edion took a sip from his bowl and gave Leon another reassuring grin. The sky dragon shook his head and returned to his meal. Edion sighed as he stared off into the sky.