The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2 novel Chapter 58

Part 11

“However, there will be times when I will do everything I can to convince you combatants that the exercise is real. That will include your not knowing if psionic contacts with the outside world are genuine or simulated by me, you will not be able to perceive any non-combatants who have been Translocated beyond Hiliani in the exercise, and if the exercise is held when the children are awake and they are Translocated to the shelter, you will not be able to perceive them. And of course, on those occasions, some of the attacks that are no longer effective against the simulated demons will be effective again, to prevent my ruse from being revealed as it was tonight.

“I’ll leave you to discuss your performance amongst yourselves.

“And by the way; well done.”

With that he was gone.

“How about a cheer for our new young warriors?!” Bezedil called, and everyone did give them a rousing cheer.

“Thank you.” Reggie said, speaking for the four of them when it was quiet again enough for him to be heard.

“We might not have an exercise for a while after this.” Mark chuckled. “I think it might take Quewanak some time to figure out how to counter your spell. I sure can’t think of a way yet! And he never has his demons counter anything we do unless he’s actually found a way to counter it in reality.”

“The easiest way would be for him to simply kill the four of us at the beginning of the attack.” Helemia mused. “So we should teach it to as many of you as we can right away.”

“Beyond that, we can think of at least three ways they could counter it by magical and psionic means.” Reggie stated. “Including Shielding from the energy that comes from the sun, casting very big psionic Shields a few meters beyond their bodies, and doing a lot of really fast Translocations to avoid being targeted. So I’m sure Quewanak will find a counter quite quickly. On the other hand, we do have a few more tricks up our sleeves. As Quewanak once told us, researching in isolation gives you originality, and we four have been able to think of different things than the rest of you have. Of course, now that we’ve joined the community exercises, it’s time to meld all our efforts.

“So we should make sure we’re psionicly Shielded against Quewanak and any demons who may be listening and that Ria is sheathed for a while, then we’ll show you what we’ve been working on…”

The next exercise was four days later, in the late afternoon. The four children had just finished sparring and were relaxing on the grass when there was a bright flash of extremely short duration, then they suddenly appeared in the main shelter.

“You are dead.” Quewanak informed them from the center of the cavern as dozens of children and older women appeared around them, and the command group appeared around the table. Then most of the other powerful members of the colony appeared around the edge of the cavern, having been ‘killed’ as well.

“The exercise is concluded.” Quewanak stated a moment later.

The four moved up to the table and past the Privacy Barrier, allowing them to see the display spells and hear the command group, which today was composed of Silaran, Kragorram, Bezedil, Dalia, and Markhan the Senior.

“You were killed in an explosion which sterilized the vale you were within, killing everything there. Would you like to see it?” Quewanak continued, as the situation displayed on the table became apparent in tiny blue and red lights.

“Later definitely, but not now.” Reggie stated as they appraised the display, which replayed the few seconds of the battle over and over.