Visti El Bulron

As you can surmise, the four people pictured here are those four trainees. The one in the front is Magel, the speeder. Then comes Hokar, the rockbody (he can form rock on his skin), Buck, the tall, thin strongarm, and finally, Argent, who isn’t blessed with an power except that of his Bird-Folk ancestry.

As with most things I make, it’s far from perfect. However, I like the opportunity to play with the tools I have at my disposal and share the product.

You can read an excerpt of Visti El Bulron (involving the four trainees) below.

Argent extended his wings, catching an eddy and holding himself in the air above the fight below. A hefty young man named Hokar lifted an arm encased in stone, blocking strikes from their fellow trainee, Buck. Though he wasn’t as physically muscular as Hokar, Buck was just as strong. Both where Empowered, Hokar with the ability to create a stone shell around himself, and Buck with above-average strength.

As Argent pulled his blow-gun up to shoot at the other two competitors, he noticed the fourth one, Magel, come racing in. Magel ran faster than any normal man, which made him a difficult target to hit. Instead of firing, Argent waited to see what would happen.

Magel saw the world differently than most people, though whether it was because of his speed or some other reason, they didn’t know. Because of this, he didn’t try typical tactics on other people. Argent would have used something similar to his knock-out darts to drop the two boys, but Magel opted take a rope and tie to a boulder, then run it around the perimeter of where the fight was taking place, looping it around a small bush. He ran back and forth, making an elaborate net around the two sparring boys.

If he had just met Magel, Argent would have laughed. But now, after years of training? He knew that even though Magel’s plans might not look like they made sense, they always worked exactly how he wanted them too.

Below, the speeder pulled the loose end of the rope, tightening the net. With looks of shock on their faces, both men fell backwards. Magel grinned at the sight.

Yellick, their trainer, spoke into Argent’s mind. You aren’t moving, boy. Mind telling me why?

Argent knew how to keep inner dialogue hidden from Yellick, and inwardly tightened against the word ‘boy.’ It had been ten years – surely he wasn’t just a ‘boy’ anymore. But he pushed it aside and replied, Sometimes it’s better to let your enemies destroy one another, instead of doing the work yourself?

Hmm, Yellick murmured, his thoughts soft, Except that you’re not being scored on being the last one, but how much damage you can do.

Argent mentally shrugged. Yes, Sir.

It made sense, he was just having fun watching Magel work. With the same grin on his face, the speeder was beginning to pull end of the rope over Buck, who was unsuccessfully attempting to push himself to his feet.

Argent lifted the blowgun to his lips, and with a careful aim, shot a dart into Magel’s exposed neck. The speeder grabbed at it and turned to look at Argent’s place in the sky. An expression of annoyance mixed with acknowledgment of superior tactics crossed his face, then he collapsed.

The blowgun shifted to Buck next. His unarmored form was a remarkably easy target to hit. Before Argent could fire, though, a rock blew past his ear. Argent focused his attention on Hokar, who had gotten to his feet and filled his hands with his rock shell. “I forgot you could fire those,” he muttered. It was a new development within the past six months. Very few rockbodies could launch their rocks, but Hokar was clearly in that group.

Hokar lifted his hand again, aiming for Argent’s wings. Argent brought his wings together in front of his face, letting himself fall backwards. He knew that Hokar didn’t have enough skill to calculate how to fire his rock at a moving target. Even a still target was occasionally a challenge.

Though he couldn’t see the ground, years of flying let Argent estimate how far he could fall before he needed to open his wings. He did so, bringing his blowgun up. The rockbody was encased in stone, but Argent knew he typically left gaps near joints to allow him to move freely. He fired at the elbow, but the dart bounced off.

“Do you like it?” Hokar asked, lifting his arm and showing Argent the ribbed rock at the joints. It limited movement, but left him fully covered and able to move a bit more than normal. “Magel and I came up with it a few weeks ago.”

“I’m impressed,” Argent said. Even when fighting against each other, developments that the others made were exciting. It meant they were that much more powerful. The more difficult the challenge, the more they grew. The more they grew? The more difficult the challenge.