“That……was surprising.” I said in shock.
“Yeah, but I’m glad I passed the second round!” Matthius smiled and gave me a high five.
“Oh yeah, Ajax! You’ve passed a couple rounds before! Can you give us a leak?” I said with cunning intent.
“Well, watch out in the middle of the night.” Ajax said, concerned. “Even when we are same in our dorms.”
“Why not?” Matthius asked.
“Just, be ever alert. It’s hard to explain.” Ajax said. He seems to want to avoid this conversation.
“I don’t deserve to be here.” We turned around to face Amelia. She had her head faced down to the ground.
“Why not?” I asked. I felt kind of sad for her thinking this way.
“Both rounds I passed because of you guys helping me.” She raised a hand towards me. “I mean you saved my life in Beku Utara and I only protected myself when the pufferfishes attacked.”
“Well, the past is the past. Don’t worry about it too much.” Matthius said.
The wind started to calm down and my body felt warm from touching the stone paved floor of Air Alasan.
“It’s ok.” I replied.
“But I’m not.” Amelia seemed really to be really sad. I don’t get the logic. She passed two rounds of challenges. Does she not want to be an air tuan?
“Congratulations to all of you who have survived this pufferfish pandemic. Sorry for it to be a surprise, but in order to become an air tuan, one must be always prepared.” I heard some people snickering. Must be the buff ones I thought to myself.
“It has been a long and tiring journey for you all. I hope you all will find rest in the dorms that has been specially made in Air Alasan.” Jahazrimi continued.
“Yeah, specially….” I heard Ajax saying that to himself.
The winds started to grow harsh again, creating goosebumps on my skin. The four of us quickly went to a kakitangan, grabbed a new set of glorious keys, and entered our room. It was quite nice, although it wasn’t nice as the room in the plaza we stayed in. There were four single beds, with two on each side and a wooden table at the end of the room. I peered through the windows and marveled at the clouds. We are literally, floating in midair. Air Alasan is amazing.
I turned around and changed my clothes. Despite the cold weather, I was all sweaty probably with the battle of the pufferfishes. I perhaps even produced an odoriferous stench. I heard their needles can be quite the stink. After the battle with them, I felt very tired. Perhaps pufferfishes can spread languidness throughout the air. There would be hall in which the elementals would feast, but I was too tired to force myself to leave this room.
“Do you want to go eat?” Matthius asked.
“Tidak. Termia kasih. Too tired.” I replied.
“How about you Amelia?” Ajax asked.
“I’m not in the mood. Thank you though.” She gave a smile. Ajax and Matthius nodded and slowly closed the door behind them. This left me and Amelia alone. We chose beds diagonally of each other.
For the first couple of minutes I was just wandering around, staring at the clouds that pass by the window. Cirrus, they’re called, if I remembered clearly, the faint wisps of cloud that dominate the high altitudes of the sky.
“Are you alright?” I didn’t know what else to do. I could’ve slept straight away and to prepare for tomorrow’s challenge but it felt wrong just to leave Amelia alone like this. It seemed disrespectful.
“Yeah.” She sniffed “I guess I’m fine.”
“But clearly you’re not. You’re just euphemizing what you actually feel inside.”
“That’s not true.” Amelia said in a loud voice. I raised an eyebrow. Clearly her loud voice seemed to be an act of defiance and I can see a few tears pouring down her face.
“Alright…..you got me.” Amelia turned away from me.
“Really, it’s ok.” I sighed.
“But I only fought for myself when you guys fought for me. You should’ve just left me there in the seabed.” I don’t know if she meant it literally or not. It probably wasn’t true but her voice seemed like she really meant it.
“Well…..when you are an air tuan, you can help back Air Raya, saving the entire Water Kingdom, and not just saving one or two lives, but thousands!”
“But if I can’t even pass these two rounds on my own, clearly I’m not suitable to be one!” Amelia said in defiance. I backed away. She obviously was pissed, and so I stepped away and went back to my side of the dormitory.
“I’m sorry……..it’s just, you know……I don’t deserve this.” Amelia said. I can see a fresh batch of tears well up in her eyes.
“It’s ok really………” I don’t know what else to say, but it seemed rude if I didn’t. I don’t know what I should do next.
“But” Amelia started. I listened intensively, raising my head a bit. “I saw you with the pufferfishes this afternoon. Quite the moves there, you studied Air Seni Bela Diri?”
“Yeah, my dad, then my mentor taught me for tujuh tahun.” Seven years.
“You know, I could use some of that.” She gave a smile and a quick laugh. It was at that moment when I saw her teeth, so putih like snow, and they shone even in the nubilous and hazy weather.
“Sure. You want me to teach you a few moves?” That was the natural response I had to give.
Amelia wiped her tears away. “If you don’t mind.” I got up and because of her nimbleness and agility, I decided to educate or instruct her with a few flexible demanding moves. I decided to teach her the vertical tornado kick or sepakan menegak as we call it, a short form for the real term. It basically uses our legs to form a deadly circle perpendicular to the ground. This requires our body to maintain parallel while twisting to spin the legs, creating two deadly kicks per jump.
I demonstrated in front of Amelia. I leapt to provide force for my jump, and then I twisted my body and spun my kicks, treating it like honed blades, a buzzsaw. I made sure to remove away some objects that were nearby. A learner will need space, a lot of space to do it without vandalism. Her kicks were a bit cumbersome, I had to help position her legs properly and hand movements associated with it. Sometimes, she hit me by accident, but that was alright.
She was in the midst of performing another sepakan menegak when Ajax and Matthius returned. Amelia, surprised by their presence accidently positioned her legs wrongly and slammed me hard in my cranium. Out of a sudden blood loss and impact, I fell onto the floor.
“Oh my……I’m so sorry!” Amelia cried out. She lifted me up to a sitting position to lean at my edge of the bed. Although the kick was hard, but the way she lifted me up so tenderly made me forget all the pain.
“It’s ok. THAT was a good kick.” I had a quick laugh.
“Are we missing something?” Ajax tried to interrupt.
“Oh, nothing. Trying to train her the ways of Air Seni Bala Diri.” I started to get up. Amelia gave me a hand.
“Interesting. Since lapan I’ve trained it. A very good martial art indeed.” Ajax replied.
I yawned. “Oh man, after the two rounds and a long day, I feel really tired. I’m going to sleep first guys.”
“Wait……” Ajax reached out a hand for me.
“What?”
“Don’t sleep too deeply. Be prepared………”
“Alright seriously, you have been acting strangely about this. You said be prepared, be prepared. What is your point!?”
“It’s hard to explain…” Ajax had his statement cut off.
“But I’m really tired…….”
“Alright, I’ll be the watch guard then. Sleep well.” Ajax has been acting weird about this. It seems he wants to tell the truth but something is hindering from doing so. I don’t think he dislikes any of us, I don’t know, I can’t really tell at this moment in time. I heard Ajax say something else, but I was too sleepy to listen. I had to close my heavy eyes.
It was around the middle of the night when I woke up again. It was dark in the room, but some light is able to penetrate through the window for me to see that Matthius and Amelia were asleep. Ajax, however, was staring directly at the wall facing him. He was sitting on the bed with his legs crossed. Surely something must be going on. But my mind was too sleepy to continue to be conscious for the time being. So I decided to sleep again. O, the pillow felt so nice. I promise that when I become an air tuan, I will provide my family with comfortable beds and pillows like they provide here at Air Alasan.
I heard a murmur. Probably from Ajax I assumed. But soon that single murmur became multiple; the others must have joined the conversation. I felt multiple shoves, but I did not budge. I REALLY had a long day.
I felt three types of shoves: a familiar one, a muscular one and a tender one. Despite their budging, I was still too sleepy to wake up. A kick. A nasty one.
“ALAMAK!” I screamed. “What was that for!?”
“Look!” Ajax shouted. It turns out that the room was starting to flood. I felt a soft sound like a silenced rifle coming out of a wall. It was an arrow, but it was firing horizontally so it missed. Many more openings started to form. Soon, the room was booby trapped with arrows. I had to duck, jump, and cartwheel out of this place. “I told you to be prepared!” Ajax shouted.
“So that’s what this ‘be prepared’ thing is all about!? Why couldn’t you just say so!?”
“I told you it was hard to explain!”
“Hard to explain!? YOU…..” I got cut off and had to jump over an arrow.
The water is about to rise, the arrows kept coming. I was about to run out of the place, when I felt I stepped on a tile, not a tile, more of like a trigger. It pressed down. I felt stone tiles rubbing against each other.
“From the ceiling!” Matthius shouted
I turned around. A deadly axe was charging towards me. I leapt away from it.
“Behind you!” Matthius shouted again. An arrow was firing from behind. I closed my eyes thinking this is it. This is my end. I don’t have the reflexes to evade this any longer. When suddenly I felt the presence of a quick wind. I can recognize it anywhere, the sepakan menegak.
“Ouch!” I turned around. It was Amelia with a bloodied heel. I don’t know why she did that. True, the sepekan menegak was for kicking away projectiles, but she has barely learnt it and now, she was all wet and was intense pain by the arrow piercing through her heel. All I heard from her were screams.
It wasn’t helping with that double edged axe and arrows that kept coming through. I NEED to get OUT of this place. I slowly reached for the door, lifting Amelia. After what seemed like minutes, I finally reached the door entrance. I opened it. A dark figure with a robe. He knocked me down with a punch.
“Sayan!” Matthius shouted, he was rushing towards me, deflecting any arrows that came in his way. But it wasn’t helping. The room was filling with more water by the minute, but it was too shallow to swim yet. I laid down underwater, seeing the dark figure about to give me another deadly blow. Amelia looked at me in shock…….and in pain. A sudden flush of water took him down. It was hard to see underwater, but I knew it was Matthius. A last resort. Have to cast spells to get out of this mess.
The dark figure wasn’t hindered however. He tried to assault me again. I quickly laid Amelia down, hoping she would not hurt from the impact. I then did another Air Seni Bala Diri move, the air lumpuh.
He tried to punch me with his right hand. Using my left hand, I clasped it tight, preventing the punch. I then used my right humus to slam hard on his fist, paralyzing it for a short while. I clasped my right hand onto his fist and using it as a lever, pulled him closer, while hitting his abdomen a few times with my right knee, stunning any future moves. Then using his fist I controlled, I used it as a fulcrum, swinging him to the floor, performing a takedown. Finally, I gave a punch while quickly kneeling on the floor, performing a final blow, forcing him to stay on the ground.
I then examined a closer look at him. He was a kakitangan. I was starting to get furious. They literally booby trapped us. And despite the flooding in the corridors and our dormitory, I was sweating and my heart was pounding fast. I took a quick view, a hall of drenched elementals and kakitangans. Some acted like corpses.
I quickly ran out of the dorm.
“Hey!” Ajax shouted “It’s trapped too outside!”
I turned around and saw flying rocks the size of basketballs flinging around the corridors. I can’t dodge these. It’s time for spells. I casted a frost shield. The rock smashed my frost shield, hitting my hand, but not enough force to bruise or hit my chest. I slowly crafted an ice wall, preventing an extra couple of boulders from hitting me. I saw another kakitangan. He casted an ice ball towards me, I used the sepekan menegak to redirect the hit of the ice ball, hitting him hard on the neck, an instant takedown.
The further I went to the heart of the corridor, the more hazardous were the obstacles. More boulders and arrows, continued inundation. The water was not up to my hips. If the rate of pouring continues, it would reach my head within the next couple of minutes. Fortunately, I was a water elemental, trained to breather underwater for long periods of time. But I can’t manipulate the obstacles. There are trapdoors, spiked floors, speared ceilings, harpoon launchers, waterproof fire, even cosmic particles and more kakitangan, the more I fought, the deadlier they went.
After taking down a couple more kakitangans, I saw the sun rise through the window, although it was still very dark. It was enough to distract me from paying attention to a spear attached to the ceiling to pierce through my head. A snap. But the spear was snapped rather than the snapper by an ice harpoon. Panting.
“Thanks, Ajax.” I said
“You know how long it took me to reach here? I was worried so I had to face peril man! It just gets more dangerous at the heart of the corridor!” It was the first time I saw Ajax frustrated.
“Look, I’m sorry, but I got to escape from here!” My voice started to sound really bubbly with the sprinklers continuing to fill the place with water. “Well, when will this mayhem ever end!?”
“I don’t know!? Ok!? All that I passed through, I……I sort of forgot. That is why I couldn’t explain it to you properly! I completely forgot what I did here!? It was a very emotional moment, okay!? Let’s just find a way out of here!” He shoved me and casted a tidal wave to push back the boulders that were charging towards us. “But right now! We have to rendezvous with Matthius and Amelia.”
“Amelia!” I suddenly remembered about how she saved me from an arrow and ended up with a bloodied leg. Ajax and I rushed back, only that we couldn’t rush, the water was so high it reached to our shoulders, and if that wasn’t bad enough, the sprinklers were filling the place with even more water. I saw the corridor, and utterly flooded place, heck, some of them were red, blood red. Oh god! I can still see some elementals and kakitangans floating around in the water. This must be a mass murder rather than just a simple challenge. Well, this is Air Alasan.
After what seemed like hours, we finally got back to the dorm, except that it was nearly filled to the brim with water.
“Matthius! Amelia!” I lifted my chin and shouted.
“Over here!” Matthius replied. All I heard from Amelia were screams, but not as intense as when the arrow first hit her, either from the gradual reduction in pain, or the water limiting her voice. I offered Matthius a hand into lifting Amelia. Matthius was tired and fingertips all wrinkly. I checked at mine, mine were wrinkly too. I carried Amelia at my back. “How do we get out of here!?” Matthius was in deep confusion.
“I don’t know……” Ajax replied. “But we have to get out of here! We can’t seek refuge here!”
Ajax was the leader. We are looking for a place, a place to escape. We continued to walk around the corridor, hoping to a find a place, a place that is dry. With the priority searching for an escape path, obstacles meant nothing to us. Whenever a kakitangan came by, we could easily take them down, either by magic, item or skill.
Things were a lot clearer now that the sunlight can penetrate through the windows, but it offered no sign of safety. The water is getting dangerously high now, with the water touching lightly under our noses. But after another turn, we found the escape route. Keluar! The bright green sign, Keluar! It was our hope to freedom. Ajax quickly rushed towards the door, doing powerful kicks at it. But it wouldn’t budge, the water has absorbed too much of the force from his kicks. Matthius, with all of his remaining energy, created a huge tidal wave, blasting the door open. There were a flight of stairs. It was dry. Dry ground! Refuge! Safety!
“Yes!” Ajax screamed. We all ran inside it. I made sure Amelia felt alright, carrying her at the back. A few other water elementals, taking down their latest kakitangan too saw the escape route. They ran with joy, at least they tried. They instead had to swim towards the exit, since the water levels are getting dangerously high. We all felt utter joy as we first stepped on the flight of stairs. After going up the flight of stairs, with the other water elementals behind us. We saw a red door. We opened it. A ray of light. Hope. We have finally felt a sign of safety after hours of peril.
