Destined Oracle (Completed)

Chapter 24 - Battle Practice

Chapter 24

Battle Practice

After evening classes were over, we met in the front courtyard again, as the younger students took their seats on the stairs of the porch to watch. Some of them asked if they could help.

Michael kindly told them no and some pouted, but remained to watch.

We began practicing were we left off at lunch and I phased behind Katherine, simulating her capture. She gasped as I grabbed her, using her as a shield. Everyone stopped instantly.

"What are you doing? Do you think the Excrucio will have a time out so you can think about what is going on?" I yelled at them.

Marcus phased, distracting me, while Stephanie lifted Katherine away from me.

I smiled. "Well done!" I praised, then shot a sphere at Stephanie while she concentrated on lifting Katherine safely away.

Jackson, a fifteen year old Wizard, deflected my sphere, guarding Stephanie. She looked shocked at his sudden move, but smiled at him thankfully.

Once Katherine was set back down, I phased around again. I phased to my room and looked out through my windows to see their reaction. They stayed on guard and looked around. I let them sweat for a few minutes while I took a small and necessary break. Once I was finished, I phased behind the onlookers and the others looked at one another. They were stumped and didn't know what to do again.

"How are you going to handle this situation?" I said sarcastically as I phased to a new location.

Some ran to take positions around the onlookers, while dodging the spheres I threw at them.

I found Marcus open, so I phased behind him and pulled his tail. "You're dead!" I shouted.

He jumped about three feet off the ground and yelped like he had been kicked.

I laughed so hard that someone's spell caught me off guard. I threw my hands up to surrender while I laughed at Marcus. He sulked away from me, twitching his tail with jerky movements.

I looked up toward Michael and saw that the younger students thought Marcus' reaction was hilarious, too. Even Travis, who was leaning against a pillar watching, had a wide smile. Our eyes locked briefly and I felt that strange tingling in my chest again, before he broke eye contact and strolled inside the house.

I shook off the feeling.

I had fun practicing and the others did, too. They wanted to try again after dark, but I declined. I told them that we all needed the rest. Friday would come soon enough.

Over the next two days, we practiced and talked about suggestions on how to simulate other bad guys. Mr. Hienly suggested building dummies that we could spell to be animated. Then, we
could have the animated dummies move in on the students in waves to simulate a real battle.

That way, students wouldn't know when or from which direction the enemy would come—giving us a better chance to prove our capabilities to the parents.

The guys were busy building dummies and even allowed the younger students to help. We needed extra ones to practice with and then build up the supply again for Friday's exhibition.

They spent hours in the auto shop, way past midnight each night.

By Thursday evening, we had practiced for more than fifty hours and had built more than one thousand and fifty dummies. Everyone was nervous and tension during dinner was silencing.