Chapter 126 - 124 The Serpent Born from the Arrow

Chapter 126: Chapter 124 The Serpent Born from the Arrow

The decision did not awaken noisy enthusiasm. It remained on the table with the sobriety of something that, once spoken aloud, began to demand a form. Until then, the club had been a room they had obtained and a shared intention; from that afternoon onward, it needed a date, permits, routes, and responsibilities.

For that reason, the four of them remained facing the sea and devoted the remaining time to turning their first activity into a plan: travel north to learn about its traditions and stories, observe ancient forms of Rakzar, and search for traces of ARMEX native to the region.

The rest of the afternoon passed between notes and provisional decisions. They would not leave the nearest weekend, but the following one. That way, they would have time to present the proposal, obtain the authorizations, study the region, and prepare for the trip. The date would still depend on Luciana’s approval, but it already gave them a point from which to organize everything else.

They also agreed on a mixed solution. They would request that the expedition be recognized as an official club activity and find out what the Institute could provide, from permits and contacts to a possible means of transportation. Sebastián would cover with his own resources whatever the institution could not provide, although they would not hire anything before receiving authorization.

Having money solved the expenses, not the need to plan.

Óscar then separated what was essential from what could wait. First, they had to confirm who would travel. Zaira still did not belong to the club, and they would have to speak with her before including her. After that, they would choose the destination, the route, and the lodging, taking into account the climate, safety, and the necessary equipment. Luciana, for her part, would need to know the purpose, approximate duration, and the way they would record what they learned.

Valentina listened from her place, understanding some things and getting lost in others. For her, the trip meant going out with her parents, seeing a new place, and taking Narka with them. Sebastián and Virka explained to her that it would not be a vacation, but an activity to learn about the stories, customs, Rakzar, and ARMEX of other people. They also made it clear to her that they still needed permission and had to make sure everything was safe.

—Are we all going to go, Dad? —she asked, looking at Sebastián.

—That is the intention, but first we have to organize it properly.

The girl turned her face toward Virka.

—Are you going to go too, Mom?

—Yes. If the activity is approved, we will go together.

Valentina thought for a few seconds before remembering the most important absence to her.

—And Uncle Narka?

—He will come too —Sebastián replied.

Satisfied, she asked where they would sleep, whether Narka would travel big or small, and how many things she could bring. Óscar incorporated those questions into the notes as lodging, travel conditions, and personal luggage. Without intending to, Valentina reminded them that any route, schedule, or place would have to be suitable for her.

In the end, the order was defined: they would speak with Zaira, present the proposal to Luciana and, after learning her answer, handle permits, destination, transportation, lodging, provisions, and equipment. Virka would research the region and the conditions of the journey; Óscar would compare transportation and lodging options; Sebastián would organize the proposal and cover the expenses that the Institute did not.

Valentina received a task suited to her: think about what personal objects she would need and remind them that Narka also had to be taken into account.

The light gradually abandoned the windows while the list took shape. When they decided to stop, they still did not have a chosen route or an authorization, but they knew what they had to do to obtain them. The expedition remained a possibility; however, by the end of that afternoon, the club already had a direction and a date toward which to move forward.

When they left the room, the afternoon had already been almost completely consumed. The notes were put away, and silence once again occupied the tables, as if the place had closed behind them whatever they had just set in motion.

At the main entrance, Óscar said goodbye to return home, while Sebastián, Virka, and Valentina waited for the SUV that would come to pick them up. Narka remained with them in his reduced form, sheltered inside the girl’s backpack.

The vehicle arrived shortly afterward.

During the ride, Valentina continued talking about the trip, about the things she could bring, and whether her Uncle Narka would fit with her for the entire journey. Her questions gradually lost strength as they went on, overcome by the exhaustion of a day longer than usual. Sebastián and Virka answered only what was necessary. The expedition already had a direction, but it still depended on too many decisions from others to present it to the girl as a certainty.

The night passed without incident.

The house regained its usual stillness and, after the necessary routines, each of them retired to rest. Valentina slept beside Virka, nestled against her with the serenity of someone who did not expect the darkness to bring anything with it. Virka also remained asleep.

Near both of them, Narka cultivated in his miniature form; his small figure remained motionless, devoted to a practice so familiar that it did not even disturb the sleep of those beside him.

Sebastián, on the other hand, remained awake in his own room. Sitting in silence, he carried out his cultivation through the deep hours of the night, allowing the outside world to diminish until it disappeared behind his concentration.

There were no threats, interruptions, or hidden presences. Only that strange calm that sometimes seemed more difficult to accept than danger, because it did not require him to destroy, pursue, or survive.

When dawn began to yield, the house remained intact, and the following day arrived without demanding anything in return.

The morning progressed with the simplicity of the everyday. They got up, got ready, and returned to the Institute in the SUV. Valentina was taken to her classes, accompanied by Narka, once again hidden in her backpack, while Sebastián and Virka continued on to theirs.

The following hours passed without events out of the ordinary: lessons, classroom changes, voices accumulating in the hallways, and the orderly repetition of a school life that little by little was beginning to seem normal to them.

When classes ended, Sebastián, Virka, and Óscar picked up Valentina.

This time, they did not head immediately to the club room or the training field. First, they had to turn the plan from the previous afternoon into a proposal recognized by the person who had agreed to take responsibility for them.

For that reason, they went to the teachers’ room and asked to speak with Luciana.

She received them without showing surprise. She let them in, moved aside the documents she had in front of her, and listened while they explained the club’s first formal activity to her.

Sebastián presented the general purpose of the expedition: travel north to learn about its traditions, gather stories, observe ancient manifestations of Rakzar, and search for records of ARMEX native to the region. Virka explained that they planned to carry it out during the following weekend, so that they would still have time to research the route and prepare what was necessary. Óscar completed the proposal with the practical matters: transportation, lodging, provisions, permits, and the possibility of combining institutional support with Sebastián’s resources.

Luciana did not interrupt them until they finished. Her gaze moved from the notes to the group, pausing for a moment on Valentina, who remained beside her parents with the backpack on her lap.

—The activity corresponds with the purpose you presented for the club —she finally said—. I approve it, but the date will still depend on the permits and the conditions of the trip.

Sebastián nodded.

—We can cover whatever the Institute does not provide.

—I’ll keep that in mind, but first I’ll review what the institution can take on —Luciana replied—. I have to check the available transportation, the required supervision, and the expenses that can be authorized. When I have that information, you’ll know what you’ll have to cover on your own.

The approval did not resolve every matter, but it allowed them to continue without working around an empty possibility. Luciana would keep the proposal to make the corresponding inquiries, and they could move forward with the search for the destination, the route, and the lodging.

Before leaving, Sebastián also mentioned that they wanted to offer Zaira a place in the club and allow her to participate in the expedition.

—Has she already accepted? —Luciana asked.

—Not yet —Sebastián replied—. We’ll talk to her today.

—Then don’t include her in the final request until you have her answer. If she accepts, bring me her information along with the other changes.

With that, the meeting concluded. They said goodbye to Luciana and left the teachers’ room with fewer doubts than they had brought with them, although there was still work to be done.

They did not go looking for Zaira through the hallways. They knew where to find her: the Rakzar session was still waiting for them.

The path toward the outdoor area led them away from the traffic of the classrooms and the voices enclosed between walls. The air took on the damp scent of the coast before the field came fully into view.

There, on the open expanse beside the sea, the instructor was waiting for them, motionless near the elevated console. Behind him rose the Ring: an enormous, dark gray circular platform, supported on hydraulic mechanisms capable of lowering it toward the waters. Under the light of that hour, its surface looked like a lifeless block suspended before the immensity of the sea.

Zaira stood at one side of the platform. She had arrived before them and waited in silence, prepared to continue the training.

The instructor raised his gaze when he saw them approaching, without abandoning the rigid posture with which he seemed to measure even the time it took them to cross the field.

Valentina headed toward the safe area with Narka still reduced inside her backpack. Sebastián, Virka, and Óscar advanced toward the Ring, but the attention of all three eventually settled on Zaira.

Before the mechanisms awakened again and the training claimed their bodies, there was still one question that only she could answer.

The instructor gave them no more than a glance before pointing toward the changing rooms.

The conversation they needed to have with Zaira could wait. She was already focused on the training, and none of them tried to pull her away from it.

They changed quickly.

When they returned to the field, they wore the Institute’s simple, dark training clothes, without plates, cores, or lines of energy. Valentina settled into the safe area with Narka reduced inside her backpack, while the four advanced toward the line.

The instructor was already waiting for them in front of it, with the black staff resting beside one leg.

—Formation.

Sebastián took the point. Virka positioned herself to his left and Zaira to the right, both one step behind; Óscar closed the arrow from the rear.

They did not need to correct the distances.

Each of them found their place with the naturalness that before had only appeared after several attempts.

The instructor raised the staff.

—Begin.

—Advance —Óscar ordered.

Sebastián took the first step, but restrained the acceleration his body offered him. In previous practices, that impulse had been enough to stretch the point and leave the flanks chasing after him; this time he advanced at the pace the four of them could maintain.

Virka and Zaira moved in with him, and Óscar remained close enough that his orders did not come from a formation that had already moved.

The instructor waited until they were within his reach. Then he swung the staff toward Sebastián’s right shoulder.

—Close.

The flanks folded inward. Sebastián shortened his step, and the arrow compressed around him before shifting to the left like a chain pulled taut by the same tug. The tip of the staff passed through the space they had just abandoned.

—Open.

Zaira accelerated outward, but she did not do so too early. She waited for Sebastián to free the angle and entered it with a brief, measured burst. Virka opened to the opposite side to maintain the balance, and Óscar held the rear without allowing the center to empty.

The arrow regained its width in front of the instructor from a new angle and gained several steps.

The grass sank beneath their footing. Four dark lines were marked across the surface, first closing together and then separating with a precision that had not existed in their previous attempts.

The instructor retreated until he once again covered their path. He feinted toward Zaira, trying to draw a premature acceleration from her, but she did not respond to the first movement.

She waited.

—Right —Óscar said.

Sebastián angled the point of the formation. Zaira reduced the distance, Virka widened the opposite flank, and the four changed direction without losing the links.

Only then did the instructor reverse the attack and thrust the staff toward Virka.

She was already entering the weak space. She did not try to impose her strength or stop the blow head-on; she pivoted on her footing, withdrew her body from its reach, and held her position long enough for Sebastián to rotate the point.

Zaira closed in behind Sebastián, and Óscar followed the turn.

The arrow did not break.

It changed direction around the threat and opened again as soon as the staff finished its path.

For the first time, the instructor had to give up a step that they had not gained through a charge.

His posture changed.

He spread his feet, bent his knees slightly, and lowered his center of gravity. The staff no longer rested beside his body. Until then, he had waited for their mistakes; from that moment on, he began to provoke them.

He moved against the point, withdrew before the close, and appeared on the right flank. Zaira restrained the impulse to pursue him. Sebastián did not turn faster than the others could follow either.

It was Óscar who called the change.

—Rotate. Left.

Virka held the axis. Sebastián traced a short arc in front of her, Zaira traveled along the wider end, and Óscar closed the turn from behind.

Their soles tore at the grass, which bent into a dark crescent beneath the weight of the movement.

When the instructor tried to enter through the space that should have opened during the rotation, he did not find one of them isolated, but the entire formation closing over that point.

The staff descended toward Zaira.

—Close.

The four drew inward and moved together. Zaira disappeared from the spot an instant before contact; Virka held the pull from the opposite side, Sebastián gave ground without detaching from the point, and Óscar kept the retreat united.

As soon as the staff passed in front of them, the next order came without delay.

—Open. Advance.

The arrow extended again. Sebastián recovered the front, the flanks intercepted the angles of response, and Óscar pushed the rhythm from behind.

The line was only a few meters away.

Sebastián could feel the strength contained in every step. It would have been simple to unleash his own, cross the space before the staff could follow him, and turn the exercise into a physical contest. Virka was also holding back far more than she showed.

But overcoming the instructor that way would not have meant that the four of them had advanced.

That was why none of them broke the common rhythm.

The instructor moved again, now with a speed he had not needed before. He closed the center, forced the arrow to open, and feinted an entry against Virka.

Óscar read the movement.

—Right. Close.

Sebastián turned; Zaira moved in; Virka held the end.

For an instant, the instructor was intercepted between the point and both flanks. The formation advanced, and the line appeared behind him, close for the first time.

Then he changed his footing.

He did not attack the space they were protecting. He waited for the exact moment when the arrow began to open to sweep the staff through the still-narrow interval between Sebastián and Zaira.

Both corrected, but their movements were separated by the smallest fraction.

The black tip struck Sebastián’s side.

The discharge was brief. His muscles hardened, and the advance died in the same step. Virka and Zaira closed in to hold the formation, but the instructor had already recovered the center and covered the line again.

None of them crossed it.

The silence that followed was brief.

The instructor watched them without relaxing his legs or lowering the staff. Around him, the grass retained the grooves from the closings, openings, and rotations that had forced him to abandon his stillness.

—Better —he said—. Again.

It was not a victory. The line remained behind him.

However, when the four returned to their positions, they no longer had to rebuild the arrow: it was still there, contained between them, waiting for the next movement.

This time, Óscar did not order the advance. He waited until all four had reset their footing and watched the instructor, still motionless in front of the line.

—Technique one.

Sebastián stepped back first. Virka and Zaira accompanied the movement without abandoning the flanks, and Óscar closed the retreat until they had put several meters between themselves and the staff.

The instructor did not follow them.

His place remained at that boundary, and he stayed in front of it while the arrow changed shape.

Sebastián kept the head. Virka remained behind and to his left; Zaira took the opposite diagonal, a little farther back; Óscar positioned himself at the end. They no longer looked like a compact point, but four short blades distributed on both sides of the same axis, each prepared to repeat the movement of the one before it.

Zaira inhaled deeply and tightened her abdomen. Óscar did the same. The tension descended through their thighs to their calves, visible beneath the dark clothing, but neither held their breath longer than necessary. They released it as they settled their feet, turning the breath into firmness before the burst forward.

Sebastián bent his legs. Virka lowered herself with him.

—Advance —Óscar ordered.

The head shifted to the left.

Sebastián did not trace a sharp angle. He curved the trajectory and returned toward the center with a heavy impulse. A fraction later, Virka repeated the curve; then Zaira and, finally, Óscar. The change traveled from the point to the tail like a contraction, and when Sebastián began the next turn, the others were still finishing the previous one.

The arrow became a serpent.

At first, their bodies seemed to separate. Each advanced along a different diagonal, leaning to one side before cutting toward the other. However, none of those oscillations arose in isolation. Sebastián set the amplitude, Virka held the transition, Zaira gathered the momentum, and Óscar kept the tail from falling behind.

Four winding trajectories grew across the field, different from one another, yet linked by the same rhythm.

Sebastián let a greater portion of his strength fall into his legs. Virka did the same. They did not use it to pull ahead, but to brake and relaunch their bodies through each curve without breaking the cadence Zaira and Óscar could maintain. The speed remained common; the weight of their footing, however, became something else.

Their soles crushed the fibers of the artificial grass and dragged their ends during every change of direction. The dark granules scattered in small bursts. Behind them remained four curved strips, wide and deep, resembling the marks tires would leave when turning under excessive load.

The surface did not split open, but it retained the violence of every step in folds, grooves, and fibers stretched toward opposite sides.

From the safe area, Valentina wrapped both arms around Narka’s backpack and leaned forward. She had already seen them learn to move as one during that night; she had never seen them turn that unity into something like this.

The impacts reached her like muffled blows beneath the field. Her eyes widened with every undulation, following a shape that seemed too heavy to move so quickly.

The instructor stopped watching the bodies separately. His eyes lowered to the marks and followed the order in which each curve appeared. He spread his feet farther apart, placed one diagonally, and lowered his center of gravity. The staff rose in front of his torso.

He did not try to guess which of the four would arrive first. He waited to discover the moment when all four would become one again.

The distance decreased.

With each undulation, Sebastián reduced the width of his turns. Virka drew closer to his back; Zaira closed the diagonal, and Óscar shortened the tail. The four strips in the grass began to draw together. At first they brushed against each other at some points; then they overlapped until they formed a single darker, wider track advancing directly toward the instructor.

The serpent was drawing in its body to bite.

Óscar saw the last space disappear.

—Now.

Sebastián returned to the central axis. Virka and Zaira closed behind his shoulders, and Óscar entered the wake of the three. The undulation died in a single step.

All four drove down the next step almost at the same time, and the metal base hidden beneath the grass responded with a dull resonance. The formation shot forward, turned once again into a point, although now it carried with it the accumulated weight of the entire serpent.

The instructor waited.

Sebastián arrived first. Instead of confronting the charge, the man turned his hips, moved off the axis, and swept the staff diagonally against the outside of his arm. It was brief contact, used as a guide, not a barrier. Sebastián’s force slid to the right without finding anything against which to discharge itself.

But the deviation did not destroy the technique.

Sebastián accepted the change and extended the curve. Virka opened to the left; Zaira crossed the opposite space, and Óscar advanced through the center that had just been left open. The point split around the instructor with the same speed with which it had formed.

They were not fragments thrown apart by the collision, but four planned routes that reappeared when the defense became concentrated on Sebastián.

The instructor understood the second part of the maneuver as the bodies passed beside him.

The line was only a few steps away.

He turned barely half his body. He brought the staff behind his waist and aimed the lower end toward the four backs moving away from him. His thumb slid over one of the blue lines on the handle.

A dry snap cut through the air.

Four microdiscs flew out in a fan. One adhered to Sebastián’s back; another to Virka’s shoulder; the third struck Zaira’s thigh, and the last attached itself to Óscar’s calf.

For an instant, nothing happened.

Then four blue flashes ran across the dark clothing.

Sebastián’s body responded with a minimal contraction, too brief to knock him down, but enough to mark him. Virka lost the continuity of a step. Zaira’s thigh went numb, and her knee gave way before she recovered her footing. Óscar’s leg locked in mid-stride, forcing him to stop so he would not fall.

The charge fell apart less than a step from reaching its purpose.

None of them crossed.

The instructor crossed the open space between them before the numbness disappeared. He passed them, pivoted on one foot, and recovered his position.

When the four were able to turn toward him, he was already once again in front of the line, with it extending directly behind his heels and the black staff resting diagonally before his body.

Only a few steps separated them.

—Almost.

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END OF Chapter 124 The path continues...

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