The Guardians' Legacy

“So that’s it?” Garta asked Colth as he walked through the gym’s exit door toward the academy’s medical wing.

For a moment he thought he was entering that hallway alone, but the woman surprised him, not only with her presence, but also with her question.

“What are you talking about?” Colth retorted in an irritated tone, without taking his eyes off the path in front of him.

— That was unfair. You kn...

— And what do you want me to do?! — The boy retorted nervously and stopped his steps in fury. With an intimidating look, he stared at Garta's face, who was forced to look away. — Do you think I don't know? That was ridiculous.

— So, is that really all? — The woman turned her eyes to meet the boy.

— What? — Colth asked to gain time in his thoughts, it was his turn to look away. Then he looked at Garta again with determination. — You have no right to say anything! You missed the targets in the shooting test on purpose, didn't you!?

— ... — She fell silent, that reaction was enough for a confession of guilt. She didn't seem proud, again she avoided eye contact with her interlocutor.

At the woman's confessed silence, Colth turned and walked down the hall again with his hateful steps.

— So that's exactly what happened. Everything here is so fake that it makes me sick! — said the boy, in a scathing tone.

Garta stood back, thoughtful, thinking about retaliating with more words, but gave up.

As soon as Colth entered the infirmary, he came across Celina in the hallway, which was as white as a snowy day.

The bright place with its chemical smell was quite different from the rest of the gym, almost no one walked around there.

“How’s Aldren doing?” Colth asked the girl who was leaning against the wall next to a closed door.

— Well, the nurse is dressing him up. — Celina replied, pointing her thumb toward the door. — It looks like he didn't break his leg.

— Really? That's great.

— That idiot. — Celina said as she watched the light reflecting off the spotless white floor. — He could have made your injured leg worse with those jumps.

— Yeah. You're right. — Colth agreed. Then he positioned himself next to the girl, leaning his back against the wall, like her. — But he doesn't seem like the kind of person who gives up easily.

— Hmm. Indeed, he is not. — Celina's serious and worried face did not change.

— Have you known him for a long time?

— Yes, since I was a child. Enough to know that this stubbornness is not new.

The door to the next room opened. From inside, a nurse came out and simply greeted them with a slight nod before changing direction and walking down the hallway.

Celina left the conversation aside and quickly entered the room.

Aldren, sitting on the white bed, was head down and completely disconsolate. The girl stopped as soon as she saw the scene and seemed to freeze in the middle of the room. Colth followed her and, upon noticing the silence between them, took the initiative.

“How are you?” he asked awkwardly. The goal was to cheer up his colleague, but he himself was uncomfortable with it.

“I’m sorry,” Aldren said in a melancholy tone. The room fell silent again for a second. “I’m useless.”

— Don't say that. It's okay. There are many possibilities beyond the Ministry of Defense, everything will work out...

“I ruined everything, Colth,” the dejected boy interrupted. “I ruined the lives of all four of us.”

— N...

— You're right. — Celina replied immediately. Once again Colth was interrupted. The unkind words, spoken directly to Aldren's ears, made him tremble with guilt.

— Celina? — Colth was shocked by the girl's harsh words.

This was definitely not the time to blame Aldren. The boy was destroyed, inside and out. Doing so would only sink him deeper into a dark and depressive feeling. Even so, she continued:

— You're right, Aldren. You ruined our chances of joining the Royal Guard. Satisfied? — she said her words, staring at Aldren who kept his head down. She took a deep breath and continued once more: — But so what? Are you going to stay in this basement forever?

Colth didn't understand that out of place speech, "Basement? What is she talking about?" he thought, surprised by the dialogue.

“You’re so unfair,” Aldren replied. His melancholy voice, followed by his reluctant glance at Celina, showed Colth how lost he was in this conversation.

— Nothing here is fair, Aldren — Celina stated after getting even closer to the boy sitting on the bed.

Even though he was still noticeably down, Aldren managed to muster a smile and agree with his best friend.

—So what do we do now? We have no home to go back to — he asked sincerely.

And before anyone could respond, the bedroom door opened and closed again. At that moment, Aldren’s face changed drastically, and he was suddenly extremely shocked. He was the only one facing the door, and the only one who had seen what had entered the room.

— Celina! Watch out! — he shouted tensely to the girl in front of him.

The sudden warning cry was due to a fourth person in the room, a man in a hood and dark clothing. The stranger moved forward quickly, immediately behind Celina.

She didn't have time to react to Aldren's warning. The mysterious man grabbed her neck and face with both hands coming from behind the girl's small body.

Celina struggled with all her strength, only managing to knock a wooden bench to the floor in the center of the room, but she couldn't resist. The man had completely dominated her.

Colth froze at the unexpected situation. Aldren jumped forward from the bed, in an instinctive advance, the pain in his ankle had completely disappeared, perhaps because of the adrenaline that ran through his blood at this moment, he would attack the man without thinking twice.

It was an act of courage on the boy's part, and even a certain clever one, since it had crossed his mind that the hooded man had no weapon other than his own hands, which were covered in black gloves. Even so, when Aldren came closer with his closed fist, trying to reach the man's covered face, the hooded man dodged it with a quick step to his left side. Aldren's blow passed close to its target, but his fist only hit the stuffy air of the small room.

Another step, this time to the right, and a quick movement with just one of his arms while the other remained around the girl's neck, was enough for the man to hit Aldren squarely in the back of the head, unbalanced by his own ineffective blow. The boy immediately fell unconscious with one of his cheeks pressing against the white floor.

— What the hell is this? — Colth finally spoke, but his body didn't react accordingly. He remained static with his eyes wide open and his face white.

— Let me go! — Celina struggled and tried to free herself from the man's muscular arms, but it was in vain.

— Shut up — the man responded to the girl's screams with a strained voice and then took something out of his pocket.

The object removed was a simple white rag soaked in something remarkably smelly. The stench permeated the small space with a unique characteristic of irritation. The man brought the cloth to Celina's mouth, who immediately realized the evildoer's plans.

She knew she couldn't even think about breathing the steam emanating from that cloth, but she had no choice, the man hugged her neck tighter and forced her to seek the oxygen she was lacking.

“Protect her. Now. Protect her!” Colth’s inner voice called out an action echoing in his head.

Celina's eyes grew heavy, and before Colth could react to it, the door to the small room's entrance opened again, this time violently.

Colth was startled again as the hooded man prepared himself for what was to come. Through the door, which had been thrown open by what sounded like a kick coming from outside, Garta walked into the room. She closed her eyes, staring at the man's face, which was covered by the shadow of his hood.

“Let her go, right now,” Garta ordered. Colth was surprised by the woman’s firm, confident voice.

— Who the hell are you? — The mysterious man asked harshly, he no longer needed to worry about Celina, the girl was already sleeping in his arms like a sleepy child.

— You guys are so stupid. — Garta replied without changing her determined posture. — Did you really think that a possible guardian would be like this, alone so close to you?

— You're a guardian too. I should have known. — The man had cleared up his own doubt.

He then dropped Celina unconscious on the ground. Next to Aldren, the girl's body lay unconscious. Then, the hooded man prepared himself with what seemed like the initial movements of some kind of fight. With one of his fists clenched and the other hand open with the palm of the glove exposed, the man spoke again:

— Whatever. I just need this one, I won't feel sorry for you.

Colth was sweating coldly and trying not to be noticed by those two who were saying absolutely nonsensical things in his ears.

— As if you could with me. — Garta adjusted the sleeves of his jacket and also positioned himself for what was to come. A hand-to-hand fight, in a space so small and cramped that any major movement would inevitably lead to a wall.

The man took the first action, he advanced towards the woman with his fist clenched, taking the lead in her movements. As if it were nothing, Garta simply turned her face away from that blow, and then grabbed the man's arm. Using the strength employed by her opponent, she threw him against the wall without difficulty. The hooded woman's forehead hit the concrete in the corner of the room.

— What a disappointment. A mere rookie emissary — Garta said provocatively.

The woman's superiority was evident as she used the corner of her eyes to continue observing the man who was slowly getting up after the blow he had suffered.

— Argh. — The man prepared himself again with his characteristic fighting stance. — You are cornered. Tera's guardian won't make any difference.

— Oh? How ridiculous. If Tera's guardian is so irrelevant, why are you after anyone who raises suspicions? — Garta's rhetorical question made the man bite his lip in anger. — You're so desperate, you're even sending an emissary to search for a possible guardian. "Ridiculous" is an understatement.

Those words made the man boil even more with anger. Once again he started towards Garta. This time he seemed less cautious, his open hand, with the palm facing the woman's face, was the one chosen for the offensive.

Taking into account the fighting stance and the types of movements used by the opponent, Garta was convinced that the man was an emissary with specific skills. Therefore, she knew that she could not let herself be touched by the man's palms, that would not be a problem for her.

He waited for the right moment, the man's hand approached and, when the blow became a movement of no return, Garta gave a quick punch, from bottom to top, to the opponent's stretched elbow and then punched the partially hidden face with his fist completely closed.

The emissary was left without a floor, his body was thrown backwards, falling into the corner of the room at Colth's feet. The boy did not move and also could not close his mouth after seeing the power of the woman who had already won that fight from the beginning.

— Now, answer me, from which world are you an emissary? — Garta asked as he massaged his own fist that was burning in pain.

— Argh — he suffered in pain. With one of his arms stretched out on the floor, he accidentally touched something that had gone unnoticed until then.

The man grabbed it as his last chance at victory. The woman hadn’t noticed yet, but the emissary was holding the wooden bench that Celina had knocked over earlier.

— How many more emissaries...— Garta interrupted her speech when she was hit by something. The light wooden bench flew across the room and harmlessly found the woman's body. — Argh!

It seemed like something inconsequential, that would lead to nothing, even so, when Garta turned his eyes forward after protecting himself from the aggressive object, he was surprised.

If the man were to attack her again, it would be simple, she would easily react with an even stronger blow than the last one. But what Garta didn't expect was for the man to go after Colth. He was already standing, and stretching his open hand towards the boy's face.

Garta found herself in an adverse situation. She feared that the hooded man would touch the frozen boy, she didn't know how deadly his ability as an emissary could be. Fortunately, she had something she could use as her last resort to avoid such a possible problem.

Colth noticed the man's blow, but he couldn't react in time, because it was a completely unexpected fighting move. He had never been attacked like that, but from his point of view, everything was fine. Colth would wait for the man's harmless hand to reach his face while he closed his fists to land a few blows on the man's unprotected abdomen. This was the counterattack he had imagined, against that strange and completely ineffective blow.

It was something he had learned in his training over the last year with the one he admired the most. Ineffective blows had to be countered, not defended.

But something did not happen as expected, the palm of the man's hand, until then harmless, began to emanate a yellowish light like that of a distant star.

Colth was very surprised. He thought about retreating, but everything had already been decided, there was no turning back. The man's hand began to approach and the brightness grew. The boy realized that this was not normal and, for sure, it was dangerous. The light was so close, with the right blow approaching, that the best he could do was close his eyes.

Blast! The noise, never before heard by Colth, shook his eardrums.