When the nine got there, they saw that Minhyun was standing in the arena dressed in a brown cloak and the man he was facing had a black one on, the hood of it up over his head so that they couldn’t see his face. Minhyuk decided to explain why the other had his hood up, “The reason the grand superior has a hood on is because his face is messed up…It was messed up from his battle with the grand superior before him.”

The others nodded and sat down, eyes glued to the two who stood there in the arena, looking at each other cautiously, and waiting for dawn. The sat there and watched as they both stayed on guard, glancing at the sky before quickly glancing at their opponent again.

While the nine sat in one area of the arena, another group sat observing the battles as well, there sat the superior, the inn keeper, and the sister of the two Miro brothers. All three watched with seriousness covering their faces, knowing that this would be a difficult battle that needed to be won or else the whole world would be facing the consequences of the monster that laid deep in the shrine being released.

As soon as there was a slightest bit of pink in the sky the hooded man shot a streak of blue light at the eighteen year old standing before him, the boy dodged while favoring his left leg. The cloaked man smirked noticing the younger’s weakness right away despite the younger hiding it extremely well.

The two continued to fight this way, the sixty-some year old man firing attacks and Minhyun avoiding them without even attacking or defending while using his powers. The man glared and the younger looked at him with emotionless eyes. The older was growing tired of the boy’s resistance to using his abilities to the fullest, so he was going to force the younger to use not only his elemental abilities but the others as well. After all, the eighteen year old will have to use them to prove that he is worthy of the position.

The two continued to battle the way they were before, but eventually the hooded man sent a beam of light at the younger’s wounded leg. The light beam was thick and going towards the younger at full speed, making it so the only way to stop it was by the younger using his powers. Minhyun glared at the blue beam heading straight towards him, as soon as the glare appeared, the blue light beam burst and the blue flames spread in the air, slowly changing into yellow flames before disappearing, showing that the younger had taken control of the beam and dispersed it. The younger looked at the older male with a darkening facial expression and a pointed glare. The hooded man smirked; he had finally awoken the fighter in the boy who, as long as he knew, refused to use his powers on anything except for the minions.

The grand superior then used the bond between light users to speak to the younger male alone, “Minhyun-ah…I know you don’t like using your powers to their fullest, but in order to defeat the monster that lies deep within the shrine, you need to unleash your full powers, if you don’t you will lose all those who go into the shrine with you and you will lose those whom you hold dear to you…You’re going to have to use your abilities until you collapse from exhaustion otherwise it’s over for not only you but the whole world…so will you unlock your full powers using this fight?”

The younger looked at the man and nodded.

The older male smiled, seeing that the younger finally realized that there was nothing he could do anymore, he was the lone holder of the light other than the grand superior. He also realized that in order to protect the nine who were going to be with him in the shrine and fulfill the order given to him by the boy’s parents he had to unlock all the powers that were sealed away when he was younger. He knew it was going to do a good bit of damage to his body internally and probably hospitalize him for a while, but he knew he had to do it.

“If I do force my body to unlock my powers finally, will you promise me to watch over the nine as I heal?” asked Minhyun, using the bond as well.

The man nodded, “I’ll care for them, and I promise you that. I’ll take the half-breed to the leader of the half-breeds and have him realize the full extent of his abilities and senses, plus I’ll have the leader train him so that he’ll grow stronger and unlock the fighting abilities that lay with in him. I’ll personally train the humans in combat at the academy, I’ll have them ready to go by the time you’re awake. As for Minhyuk, I’ll take him to the fire temple where the fire master resides, where he’ll become the fire master’s apprentice and will learn to control the offense part of fire better, plus he’ll grow far stronger in the magma pond filled temple, the place a fire user feels the most relaxed and complete, where the first fire user resides. Minhyuk will learn from the first fire user and his powers will be far stronger than they are now…He’ll also strengthen the newly discovered defensive half of fire.”

Minhyun smiled, “Very well then…”

“Minhyun, when you’re healing you will encounter strange things that’ll seem like dreams, and you will learn what powers us light users and what exactly locks up our powers when we are born and what unlocks them fully.” Said the man through the bond, “Please know that unlocking your powers fully will hurt greatly, because the veins your power run through will be growing thicker to accommodate the powers that are increasing in strength...plus it’ll hurt because you will breaking the bone like structure with in the veins that are blocking the powers from flowing through you completely…It’ll be painful, but it’s worth it…Also, Minhyun, your change will be far more painful than mine or any other light users was because we unlocked the ‘gates’ when we were seven/eight years old while you are doing it ten years late. Your body has already stopped growing so once it starts again it’s going to be extremely painful, but as I said before, it’s worth it.”

Minhyun nodded, smiling at the man who then prepared his attack, Minhyun prepared his attack as well and the two began to battle again, attacking each other with their powers happily. As they fought Minhyun focused on putting all of his powers into his attacks and defense.

Up in the stands the nine were watching in shock, their faces lit up either blue or yellow, depending on who was attacking at the time. Something that confused eight of the nine was why the two had stopped fighting for a good ten or so minutes.

“Why did they just suddenly stop like that?” asked JeBim, curiously.

Minhyuk then spoke, “They were talking through a bond only light users hold…The light users can talk to each other through a strong bond that prevents even the strongest half-breeds with mindreading abilities from hearing their conversation.”

The eight nodded.

“I wonder what they were talking about.” Muttered Youngwon, continuing to keep his eyes glued to the fight going on.

“Probably about how hard and painful it’s going to be for Minhyun to unlock the powers that reside in him…” muttered Minhyuk, “Look I don’t really understand the things about light users, so don’t ask me about what I mean by it after all the grand superior will probably explain to you what is going on as soon as it happens.”

The boys nodded and continued to watch the fight in silence, they all saw Minhyun suddenly show a pain filled expression and heard Minhyuk whisper, “It’s starting.”

“What is?” muttered Kris.

“He’s transformation…he’s not going to be changing on the outside, however on the inside, one of the ‘gates’ in his Kei veins opened up and the Kei veins will start to grow thicker to accommodate the strength of the Kei surging through it now…” muttered Minhyuk.

“What is Kei?” asked JeBim.

“It’s the thing that allows us to use our powers and live…it’s a necessary thing for us to live…it’s like how you all need blood to live, well we need both Kei and blood,” Said Minhyuk.

The boys nodded and they watched at the fight continued however there was a bright flash and they all were blinded and unable to see anything, however as the light vanished they saw a sweating and unconscious Minhyun laying on the ground, a pain filled expression on his face. The hooded man picked the younger male up and moved out of the arena, quickly followed by the nine boys who were sitting in the stands. The nine followed the man to his house which was on the top floor of the combat academy. He walked upstairs inviting the nine to follow; the nine did, and watched as the older male placed the eighteen year old in a bed to rest. The eighteen year old’s face was red and had drops of sweat running down it, the pain was obvious, the second noticed something odd in the older male’s neck, he saw a random cloud of blue under the skin.

“W-what is that?” muttered the boy, slightly disgusted.

“That is where the first of four Kei-gates broke.” Said the elder, “You all must be wondering about what’s going on right now, aren’t you?”

The boys nodded.

“Gather around…” muttered the man, the boys gathered around the eighteen year old’s unconscious form, “When the Miro people are born, they are born with two types of veins, blood veins and Kei veins…the Kei veins are what give us our powers. When we are born, there are Kei-gates, or calcium build ups, in five locations of our bodies. These gates prevent the Kei from flowing in our body, there forth we have no powers, however as the person grows up and the Kei veins expand the gates break simply turn to ash and soon dissolve into the Kei and you begin to develop one of five elemental powers. In fire, water, earth, and air users the gates simply crumble as you grow older and their abilities grow rapidly as do their powers and they usually have all their abilities by the time they are six. When they hit the age of six they usually start training to strengthen their abilities. As for light users, they don’t start to develop powers until the age of seven when their first Kei-gate, which is in their stomach, crumbles because the vein expanded and starts a small flow of Kei. So while the other element users are training, the light users are still developing, which is a rather painful process for light users alone and you’ll find out why in a minute.”

The old man took a deep breath and then continued, “Also something I need to say now before I continue on; all five of fire, water, earth, and air user’s kei-gates dissolve by themselves, while only one of the kei-gates in light users will dissolve by itself. So, since the light users only have one gate that opens up by itself when they are seven; so, at the age of eight, they’re put through a series of trials which are to unlock their powers. You see a light user’s kei-gates only open up in certain situations. The one in their stomach just opens with age, the one in their neck comes from them realizing their responsibility and that they can’t run away from something, and the other three vary between people, so the other situations he has to go through to unlock them is unknown, however he’ll have all of them unlocked by the time he wakes up again.”

“I don’t understand though…you said their kei-gates opened at the age of eight. He’s eighteen, so how are his still there?” asked Seungjun.

“Also, is that blue stuff supposed to be there?” asked Minseok, who was a little disgusted alongside his twin brother.

The man shook his head, “The answers to those two questions are tied together…He left the city at the age of six, so he didn’t go through the trials, and whenever he came back after that he refused to take them, because he didn’t think he would have to because at that time he was nine and there where dozens of other light users so he never went through the trials, after it’s their choice on weither or not they want to go through them…However when the minions attacked out city they wiped out all the light users first since they were of the greatest threats to them. They didn’t get Minhyun though since he was outside of the city at that time and they didn’t get me because I was too strong for them to take on. A few weeks after the attack, Minhyun came back and found out that he was the only young light user left, which meant that he had to unlock his powers and grow stronger so that he’d be able to take me on and take my position as the grand superior. When he found out about that, he left the city without second thoughts and didn’t return until now…where he accepted that he had to take the responsibility and as you all know opened the one kei gate. The blue stuff there is actually Kei, the thing that gives us power, from the looks of it when the one gate collapsed; it took the vein that was connected to it with it and cut it open a bit.”

The boys all looked frightened by that, with an exception of a few.

“Don’t worry, he’ll heal himself, look, he’s already doing so…” said the man, the boys saw that the blue was slowly disappearing after moving into a certain area, they all found it fascinating for some reason, “You see the changes are going to be really painful for him because he’s put it off for ten years to the Kei-gates are pretty much bones that are connected with the tissues in the vein now, but since that bone is there, his veins are only growing in certain areas, since they can’t grow in those areas since the gates are connected with the tissue and is holding the tissue down, so when the gates collapse, it’ll drag the connected tissue with it and it’ll leave a hole in the tissue and it’ll do as we just saw…Have you ever torn a muscle before?”

The boys shook their heads.

The man sighed, “Well, if you ever do, that’s what the vein feels like for weeks, even after it’s healed…so yeah…That’s it…is there any questions?”

The boys stayed silent and shook their heads.

“Alrighty then, it’s time to talk about training,” Said the man.

“Training?” said the boys.

The man nodded, “I promised Minhyun that I’ll have you all ready for taking on the monster in the shrine by the time he wakes up.”

The boys looked at him in shock.

“Follow me and I’ll take you all to the rooms seven of you will be staying in…” said the man leaving the unconscious eighteen year old in the room alone, since he was taking care of himself despite being unconscious. The man then lead the seven to their rooms, “Min Jun, Seungjun, Kris, Youngwon, Soohyun, JeBim, and Minseok, you all will be staying here to train in hand to hand combat with me, we need to make sure you all are aces by the time Minhyun wakes up. Minhyuk you will spend the next few weeks in the fire temple training with the fire master and the original fire user, you know that all fire users who want to be masters have to go there to train and earn their title from the original fire master, plus you know that you have to be a master to enter the shrine.”

Minhyuk nodded.

The man then turned towards Daehyun, “Daehyun, you are going to be going to live in the sanctuary for the next few weeks, unlike Minhyuk who won’t be able to leave the temple until his training is complete, you will be able to come and visit here because you will be learning hand to hand combat as well.”

“Why do I have to go to the sanctuary?” asked Daehyun.

“It’s the half-breed’s land…there you will learn to control the abilities you possess and where you will strengthen them,” Said the man, “I’m going to allow you all to spend this on day in peace before we start the intense training for the battle to come when Minhyun wakes.”

The boys all nodded and the old man motioned for them to leave the academy, they all nodded and moved down the stairs, before looking back a the door that lead to the room where Minhyun was still lying unconscious, “I’m doing as I promised I would, so you better keep to your side of the promise and deal.”

Random chapter...Hopefully you all enjoyed. Hopefully it's not too confusing.