Xander vol.1 Transmutation

Xander

Vol.1

Transmutation

Book three of The Athena Universe

Jaz Johnson

Copyright © Jaz Johnson
2014

All rights
reserved

Smashwords
edition

Acknowledgements

As always, a big thank you
to my family and friends for your support and encouragement. To my
fans for your love and motivation. I adore you! I hope I can
continue to give you great stories, and that you’ll keep
reading.

Enjoy!

Chapter 1

In the mists of the
elaborate training arena within the Oisian Kingdom’s walls, you
could hear the clear sound of weaponry slicing through the air at
rapid speeds. Followed by the sound of thudding as the sharp heads
of the soaring spears collided with the walls, floor, and other
objects. But never their target – Xander.

The prince laughed as he
outran and dodged spear after spear. None of them were aimed at
vital organs, but they were still missing their marks. He looked
back over his shoulder at the man throwing them.

His friend and trainer,
Sven, who was maintaining his focus, despite the mocking
expressions coming from Xander. He threw another spear at Xander’s
legs, which he leapt over with ease, landing with a roll and
returning to his feet in a dash. He smiled back at his good friend,
who was grinning back at him with a hint of approval.

“
It’s like you’re not
even
trying
!”
Xander laughed with a shake of his head.

Sven huffed in response,
picking up three more spears as Xander headed towards the far wall
of the arena. Seeing that, Xander picked up his pace. The first
spear hit just behind his foot, piercing the ground. Xander kept
going, pushing his foot into the wall and using his momentum to run
up a short length of it, just barely dodging the pierce of the
second spear. Pushing just slightly off the wall, he balanced his
footing on the spear lodged in the stone wall, ducking low before
jumping from the spear and heading straight on the path of the
third spear.

Spinning his body to the
left, he reached out and grabbed just below the head of the spear.
Continuing the pivot of his body, Xander turned the spear around
with some fancy hand work and sent it flying back at Sven before
landing on his feet. Sven, seeing the approaching spear, abandoned
his remaining ammo and dove from the pillar he was perched
upon.

He landed on his feet only
a few yards away from Xander, who was still smiling. They stared
each other down momentarily. Xander raised his arms to gesture to
the move he had just pulled off. His brows rose, obviously
impressed with himself.

“
Eh?” he
laughed.

Sven rolled his eyes,
crossing his arms as he waited for Xander to finish his
gloating.

“
Come on, I nearly got
you,” Xander insisted. “Did you see that
dismount
?”

“
Big whoop,” Sven
huffed.

“
Wh –“ Xander nearly
choked at the lack of praise. His hands fell to his hips.
“
Big whoop
?” he
repeated in disbelief. Sven shrugged, making Xander smirk. “Come on
then,
old man
.
Let’s see if you can –“

Xander was interrupted by
the sound of approaching growling. Both of their attentions fell to
the noise, both of them grinning in response. Sven took a noted
step back as Xander allowed his ears to guide him in his opponent’s
direction. On his left, approached – on all fours – his
guardian.

The overgrown lioness was
making her way over to the area of the arena in a low prowl. Her
head low between her shoulder blades. Xander chuckled as she
trekked forward, eyes sharp in her desire to spar. He made a
gesture with his hands, encouraging her to run at him, which she
happily complied.

Loni’s padded paws came
thudding down against the floor of the arena as she charged at
Xander, who was gently bouncing from foot to foot in anticipation.
When close enough, Loni dove for Xander, who twisted his body to
the right, narrowly avoiding her clawed paw.

He hollered a laugh,
smacking her bottom as she landed, and getting a growl in response.
Hitting the floor, she was quick to spin around and swing at
Xander, who hopped back, curving his body in accordance to the
paw.

“
Come on!” Xander shouted,
egging the feline on.

Loni huffed as she rushed
up to him again and swung her left arm at his legs, aiming to trip
him. And as Xander jumped, she morphed into a woman, her sandy
blonde hair swaying about her fact as she spun her body on the
floor with the support of her hands. As Xander’s feet touched back
to the floor, Loni’s now stretched leg was swinging towards them
with the same goal, this time succeeding.

Xander hit the floor with
a thud, but before Loni had the chance to climb on top of him, he
kicked her away. Not by much, but just enough to give him the time
to get to his feet before she got to hers and charged again. Xander
jogged backwards as she ran.

And as she did, she
reached to her right and yanked one of the spears that had pierced
the ground, broke its head against the tiled floor, and held it
firmly in her hands as she closed the distance between them. Xander
rushed through an expression of surprise as he turned around and
picked up his pace, getting a chuckle from Sven, who was watching
from the sidelines.

Xander rushed to the wall
where the second spear had struck with Loni hot on his tail.
Reaching the spear, he grabbed it and used his momentum to spin
himself upwards, succeeding in a handstand on the spear just as
Loni struck the wall with her staff.

She stared up at him,
scowling as he twisted his body, kicking down at the head of the
spear and breaking it off, his foot continuing for an aimed kick at
Loni’s shoulder. She backed away in time, grinning as she pointed
her staff forward, and waiting for Xander to do the same with
his.

Xander snickered as he ran
forward, his staff firmly gripped and ready to engage. The wooden
staffs collided with a thwack, again and again, each of them taking
turns in powering the other into moving back. Their bursts of
energy lasted for minutes until they backed away from one another,
each panting and trying not to show it.

Xander smirked, wagging
his brow teasingly at his guardian. But his smirk faded when Loni
smirked in return.

Noticing a bit too late
that she had not charged back at him, Xander spun around, ducking
as much as he could manage in the short notice, and just narrowly
avoiding and strike to the back of the neck from Sven’s staff, that
he had fashioned while watching the spar. Xander threw up his staff
in order to back flip the rest of the distance away from Sven,
catching it on its way back down.

He laughed at the two as
they started to close in on him. He spun his staff between his
fingers, bringing it around his back before steadying it in front
of him. He rolled his shoulders, again, bouncing gently from foot
to foot in preparation for the next round.

But then it occurred to
him as they came closer, that it was time to change the playing
field. He smiled as he threw his staff at Loni who ducked and swung
at it, caught off guard. Sven’s attention was drawn to her for just
a moment. And in that moment, Xander stomped on the floor, his
foot, pointing in Sven’s direction, sending a shockwave along the
floor to his body.

Sven’s staff hit the floor
as his body spazzed, absorbing the short-lived shock.

Remnants of the shock wave
fluttered about the room, making Loni shriek as they frizzed her
otherwise silky hair. She quickly morphed back into a lioness,
opting out of the spar as she hurriedly licked her paw, before
gliding it along the top of her head, trying to flatten her
fur.

Sven scoffed as he gave
his body a shake, loosening his joints from the shock they just
endured. His bright lime green eyes opened with a hint of mischief
as he smiled at his friend of similar abilities. Repeatedly, he
balled his hands into fists as he rolled his shoulders, steadying
his footing as Xander carefully placed his. Xander returned the
smile, beckoning him.

“
Come on,
old man
,” Xander
mocked.

Sven laughed as he pulled
his hands back, touching them to his clothed chest and summoning a
voltage of his own. Not wanting to give him the time to charge,
Xander took off in his direction, his hands building a wad of
electricity in their palms.

But just before he could
get close enough to touch said palms to Sven’s skin, Sven pushed
his charging hands forward with a grunt, sending several strings of
electricity flying in Xander’s direction.

Xander hollered as two of
the strands struck him, sending him flying back with flailing limbs
until he hit the ground with a thud. Sven didn’t give him the
luxury of recovery as he charged for him – literally. His feet
picked up increasing amounts of static as he ran, eventually
leaving a trail of sparks behind him each time a foot left the
floor.

Seeing him coming, Xander
pushed his charged hands at the ground, “whoa”-ing as the charge to
the floor sent him soaring into the air in time to avoid a
voltage-packed kick from Sven.

Jerking his head up, Sven
smirked as he did the same thing with his feet, launching him into
the air with Xander, and making his flail in a pointless attempt to
avoid collision. Sven took hold of Xander’s waving ankle with both
hands, sending a shock through him before flinging him back into
the floor. Xander landed on his back, his armor cracking the tiled
floor from the impact.

He grunted his exhale, his
eyes squinting and blinking repeatedly as he groaned. They widened,
seeing Sven coming in for his landing, his foot looking like it was
ready to stomp down on his midsection. He rolled out of the way in
time to avoid the impact, stopping on his hands and knees and
looking back in Sven’s direction. Sven stood tall, looking over at
his trainee with a smug grin and a cocked brow.

Xander huffed, standing
and cracking his neck. He shook his hands, wiggling his fingers and
drawing a current between them.

“
Okay then,” Xander
huffed.

Loni whined as her fur
absorbed the static that was flying around the room once again,
making it stand and tickle her skin.

And on the other end of
the arena, with the doors to the place opening gradually, entered
Seraphina. She pushed the doors open with the tips of her hands,
calling a breeze to do most of the pushing for her with a single
flap of her large, strong, white-feathered wings.

Her pin-straight,
nearly-platinum blonde hair swayed back as she stepped into the
room, and immediately frizzed around her pale face, making it
scrunch up in annoyance. Her hands immediately left the doors to
pat down her hair, her wings flapping to shake the static from
their feathers. She shrieked a womanly rage, drawing the attention
of Sven, Xander, and Loni, who was sharing similar emotions as she
worked on her fur.

“
Ah! My wings! My
hair
!” Sera shrieked,
shaking her head, her bare toes beating against the floor as she
tried to shake herself of the static. “Stop it,
stop it
!” she demanded.

Craning his head back to
look at the angel, Xander rose his brows, his hands automatically
abandoning their charge at the sounds of her shrieking. Sven, on
the other hand, got a kick out of Sera’s cries, and actually sent a
small zap to her wings, making her cry out again.

Catching the game, Xander
wasted no time in sending a warning flare in Sven’s direction. Sven
laughed, but raised his hands in surrender as the angel ventured
further in to the arena.

“
Ugh!” Sera groaned. “You
brute, Sven.”

She glared in his
direction as she made her way over to Xander, who turned to
properly greet the royal advisor. He nodded his head to her, as she
gave a subtle bow, before composing her posture and continuing to
fix her frizzing hair.