Akashic Arcana The Boiling Point of Rage

Melle found himself floating in the middle of a vast ocean, staring up at a sky that was quickly descending into darkness. His ears her mostly submerged in the calm waters, every sound except the pounding of his heart was muted. How long had it been? Why hadn't he been chosen yet? Why hadn't he passed the trial? He thought he'd understood how to complete the ritual.

I'm so tired. He thought, feeling the hollow pit that his stomach had become growl in hunger. He'd been out there for hours now, all through the day. No food. No water. He needed to bond the water spirits, to become one with them. He knew it would take long... but...

Before he knew it, Melle was slowly sinking deeper and deeper into the ocean. Above him, the crimson sky was almost too obscured to see and the water that towered over him seemed as endless as the water the stretched out beneath him. He was too tired to care, too tired to panic. He simply accepted. Not just his fate, but the embrace of the ocean and the comfort it would bring.

It was then he felt the presence. A vast essence that made the ocean, maybe even the universe, feel small in comparison.

Water flooded Melle's mouth.......

-----

With a start, Melle snapped awake in a very familiar location: the hospital ward of Arcadia academy. He woke up panting, drenched in his own sweet, his hand trembling with small jolts.

"It was bad enough dying once" Melle growled, still not fully aware of his surroundings. His blurred and panicked mind still processing. "I don't need to dream about it either."
 
“Ah, you’re awake.” A sweet voice suddenly said. “Hush now and listen, mister Wauters.” The voice continued.

Suddenly, Melle could see a white haired women with beautiful emerald eyes that shone as if they were small, dying stars themselves. She was looking at him; her eyes twinkling as she scribbled stuff down on her ORB.

“I’m the doctor in charge of the treatment of your wounds, so, don’t be afraid or angered when i get close.” She said; making the ORB disappear in one of her tightly-fitted uniform’s hidden pockets. She then moved towards him, playing a hand underneath his chin; moving his head around when needed. As she did so, her eyes widened considerably.

“Ohmy, you must be in quite the pain.”
 
The more Melle began to process his surroundings, the more he remembered what had happened and why he was waking up in the state of pain and exhaustion that he had. There wasn't anger at first, just disappointment. It was a poisonous thing, dissolving away at his insides.

But like everything in Melle's life these days, those sadness was soon washed away by the tides of his soul. Then all there was left was the rage that he'd lost again. His anger boiled, the ocean was in a raging tempest.

Melle's eyes glowed a deep blue, like gazing down into the dark, never ending depths of the waters.

"It's nothing," Melle said, his voice cold and distant. "it's just a little mana drain. The rest will heal."
 
“Both second- and third degree burns, along with a bruisedchest... those injuries are not something that’ll heal without medical attention.” The white-haired doctor with the angelic face told Melle; a slight blush making her emerald eyes shine cutely.

"Now, please let me treat those." She said and grabbed a device that hummed with pure power; a soft glow emitted from its focus. "It won't hurt, it'll... it'll just tingle." She chuckled; letting the device hover above Melle's skin.

"Now, tell me; what'd you think you would achieve by fighting your very own royalty?"
 
As much as Melle seemed against getting the treatments done, he didn't move in any way that would disrupt it once it started. He'd remain still when needed and would even move as directed. Much of the anger that he had earlier was gone now, burned out by the thrill of what had been a great fight. It had been replaced by something else entirely, one that was a little more person. It was an anger that been passed down to him through the family, by the proud memory of his house.

Melle glanced down at the ground at the doctors question. He ground his teeth, body tensing as he opened his mouth to say something rude on impulse...and stopped. His body loosening with a long sigh.

"The people of our nation owe my family a debt. My house bleed for it, family lines that have existed for generations died out because of that war. We gave everything for our country. And what do we have to show for it? A life in the slums? Nights going hungry while I watched my parents work themselves to death to afford what little we could? It's pathetic."

He scoffed, knowing that he was going too far, speaking and giving more of an answer that should've been required. But there was no better way to get him in a mood to vent, it was getting his ass beat.

"I'm the last to heir to my family name. If I don't live up to my house legacy... if I left that bottomless pit of debt and destitute lifestyle continue beyond me? I'm afraid my house, my family will die and be forgotten. So I have to make a name for my family again. Make my mark on history in a way that will not only ensure that we'll never be forgotten, but it will make sure that my children and their children won't live in debt."

It was then that his body tightened again, and his eyes narrowed.

"And I'm going to do that, prove to everyone that my family is not dead yet. That the pride of our ancestors and that the soul of the ocean still lives in our family's blood." His voice lowered to a growl. "And I will do that even if I have to break every bone in his fucking face to do it. I'm going to beat him in a duel. A proper duel. And when I win, I will prove to him the true different between his family and mine. "

He ended his angry rant in a long sigh, then finished his thought in a calm tone.

"His family is weak. They may know grief, but they do not know suffering."
 
Right at the moment Melke was done talking, the door opened;

"-how is he? Please do tell me that he is recovering." It was Christian; looking around holding a hand up towards the nurse who stood behind him.

"But sir, you can't just-..." She had started, only to be shut up by Christian, who said;

"I just did."

Right at that moment, he realized Melle was there and he was awake. It was also then that he noticed the doctor had already begun treating him. "How is he?" Christian asked her; only to have the nurse walk past him; her Laboutin heels clicking audibly as she turned to assist the doctor with her treatment.

The doctor however didn't reply to Christian, instead she told Melle; "Well, he seems like a decent guy to me." She then let it at that, turning towards Christian before saying; "Well, besides the boiled skin, all of his injuries are healing well. The only thing i worry about would be the bruised chest." She then continued her work with the humming device, whilst Christian walked towards Melle and told him;

"You fought well."

He then smiled a little, looked at the doctor and said; "I'll leave you two, uhm... three, to it." He then walked out of the room; sighing heavily as he dropped the veil of well-being: he was tired, and would need some proper sleep rather soon.
 
Melle fell silent when Christian entered the room, the tension in the air growing thick and suffocating. Normally, he'd have a wise comment or an angry remark for his Prince, but instead all he had was the the cold fire burning behind the blue hues of his eyes.

Christian was rubbing dirt in Melle's wounds, either through his ignorance or it had been something he'd done on purpose. There was only one logical answer to that.

When his Prince finally left them room, Melle didn't seem to relax anymore. That tension still looming over his shoulders. Today was just a bad day and he needed something really stiff and cleansing to help him get over it.

"Being a decent guy in this world isn't enough," Melle responded to the doctor after a moment. "Decency doesn't make a great leader, it doesn't even make a good friend. You need passion, you need a goal and you need to have the drive to go out there and achieve it at all costs." This had been perhaps, the largest driving force in his life. Though his pace may leave his body broken in the end, as long as he achieved it, nothing else mattered.
 
The doctor; her emerald eyes wide and her facial expression one that looked like she recognized what her patient was saying.

She flicked off the device, chuckled and said;

“If you promise you won’t do anything rash for the next week, i can let you go home now. However, if i do; i don’t want to see you here again for quite a time.”

She then chuckled again; gesturing the nurse to leave.

As the nurse left - obviously not without a scoff, the doctor got closer to Melle and said; “Try to use your brain next time; and don’t solely rely on your anger; whilst it is a good motivator, it is rarely a good source of power.”

She then awaited his reply; her eyes twinkling curiously.
 
Melle couldn't help but eye the doctor strangely as she suddenly seemed to have a change of tone. Her words had almost seemed encouraging, then there was the unasked question that he eyes seemed to suggest there was. Everything threw him off his guard, causing him to hesitate.

"Tsk," He scoffed, looking away from the doctor out of frustration. "It's not like I woke up today and told myself that I was going to fight him. I just... lost it. Christian bad mouthing me behind my back didn't help either." Melle nearly growled again, his expression even resembling a rabid dog. ""What do you care anyways? After all, he's a 'decent guy'."
 
“A decent guy, yes.” She said; her eyes focussed on Melle. “However, he is not my patient, and since you are, i care.” The doctor continued, pulling a chair close to sit down upon. Strands of white hair fell down from her carefully styled hair; making her emerald eyes pop into view whilst it also softened her feminine shapes. She blushed slightly as she brushed one such strand behind her ear, revealing a fair skin.

“When someone ‘loses it’, there is often a underlying trigger.” She said, chuckling as she continued; “Now, remember what i said about rage being a good motivator? Well, if you find that trigger and succeed in preventing it from triggering, you might just beat him.”

Her expression then gradually got more and more mischievious as she spoke; “But do remember, that he too has that trigger. Now, triggering his...” She laughed mysteriously, raising a brow in joy. If Melle had listened closely, he could have noticed that there was a certain, unsuspected wisdom in her words...
 
Melle's emotions were volatile things, like most hotblooded young adults like him, but as of late they seemed to favor two of them: anger, and the one that he normally found himself in. A focused determination, like a pot of water just beginning to reach its boiling point.

When he looked at the doctor, there wasn't any interest or at least seeing her as a person. The thing he saw in front of him was a tool, something that could help him reach what he wanted to be. Though Christian was just a stepping stone in his life, he happened to represent a very annoying roadblock.

"And what exactly are you implying?" He asked, straightforward in the way that he normally was. Melle didn't take too much for subterfuge. He'd rather just walk up to his enemies and punch them right in the face.
 
The nurse simply chuckled as Melle asked what she was implying. Deciding to go with it, she began to speak and, to be frank, she enjoyed being like this.

“Well... push the right buttons and you might... you know, set-off a bomb.”

She chuckled a clear chuckle before plucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

“But hey; smashing buttons is a idea too, if you are to attached to your anger.” She smiled cutely. “However, buttons won’t Work when smashed.”
 
Melle could feel his calm crack, small fractures running across the iced surface of a lake. His urge to lash out at the nurse as she yet again gave him a vague answer. Mustering up the energy to do more than a glare was the most he could do, all of his motivation slipping through his fingers. It had been a long day after all. First his training, then his fight with Christian.

"You're wasting my time. Say it straight if you think you know how I can win," Melle paused, as if weighing something in his mind. "as long as its a fair fight. " he spoke those last words with a sigh, his earlier hesitance weighing them down.

"I'm not interested in beating him if I have to do it like a coward. "
 
“Being smart at fighting your opponent is not a sign of cowardice; it shows that you’re smart and know how to effectively make use of your opponent.” The doctor said; her face more stern now; annoyed by the boy saying she’s waiting his time. “Find his weakspot and make use of it and i’m sure you’ll win.”

She then sighed, saying; “I’m not trying to waste your time,-“ she began; her voice somewhat snippy. “-in fact, i gave you tips you should make use of. I’d hate to see you here again...” she then smiled brightly; her face suddenly happy again. “a follow-up conversation would be welcome, thou...”

She then kept her smile and walked towards the door, saying; “You’re free to go. But Please; try to stay alive this time?”
 
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