Chapter 35:

Slowing his pace, Will approached his friend as dust and dirt settled around them.

The impact had sent shards of rock flying in all directions, but he could tell from the wince on her face that she hadn't quite accomplished what she had been hoping to. She was also cradling her wrist.

Hoping to keep things light, Will said, "Well, that was exciting. Though, if we keep blowing them up we're going to need to get some bigger boulders or something."

"I'll see what it would take to pick up a strike plate, like the one at my place. We'd have to lug it out here and back, but that would probably be a good exercise for you anyway."

"Sounds like a plan. So, I take it you were getting a jump on our next project?"

"Yeah, I was hoping to get a better feel for it. I was also testing to see if I could get my arm reinforced in the time it took to throw the punch. Pretty sure I broke something in my wrist, but it's almost back to normal."

"So, what's the verdict?"

"Well, I think it will be possible, eventually, but not at my current skill level."

"Ok, well, let's work on this together. Sil said something about it being like making a crystalline structure out of aetheric energy in our bodies."

"Right. Let's get to it."

Sitting down, facing Cierra, Will turned his attention inward. He knew the first step of this process would be forming a solid mental image of what he wanted to accomplish.

He decided to start with his right arm, from the elbow down, and started by focusing on the energy channels in that part of his body. In the image he was forming, he made sure the flow of energy into the limb remained steady.

With that base image, he began adding smaller channels branching off from the main flow. Steadily, those veins took on the form of a three dimensional grid that filled in the shape of his arm.

Once the grid was completed, he then finished connecting the grid to the main branch of energy running along his skeletal system. Connections completed, he drew energy to fill in the new grid pattern.

Trusting his instincts, he made sure the connections created a circuit, similar to how electricity might flow. For a moment, he was surprised by his ability to keep the entire grid in his mental picture, but it didn't shake his focus.

Finally satisfied, he made sure his image maintained a steady and uniform flow throughout the grid. Then it was time to test it.

Keeping his new image at the front of his mind, he actively applied it to his system. The biggest trick was making sure he wasn't pulling any energy away from the channels running through the rest of his body. Slowly, the energy flow in his arm began taking on the form he envisioned.

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Watching the arm he was working on, he was momentarily distracted as the energy suffused the limb. As the amount of power there increased, it started to develop a slight glow.

It wasn't like the glow from the crest on his chest. Rather than being bright and obvious, this was more like one of those glow in the dark stars kids put on their walls and ceilings. It was just a subtle luminosity. He could tell it was highlighting the grid pattern he had envisioned.

Before long, he felt the energy in his arm hit a stable level. He could feel instinctively that continuing to push aetheric power into that arm wouldn't accomplish anything, so he focused on just maintaining the new pattern.

With his other hand, he poked the newly reinforced limb to see if he could feel a difference in it. He thought the flesh might be slightly more rigid than before, but couldn't be sure he wasn't just imagining it. He decided he would need a more forceful test of what he had accomplished.

Standing up, he looked around and selected a decent sized boulder. Moving over to it, he double checked his right arm was still reinforced. It was, so, hoping he wasn't doing something incredibly stupid, he balled a fist and let fly with a punch using only a small amount of his strength.

His fist impacted the rock with a slight smacking sound of flesh on stone, and he was happy to note it hadn't caused him pain. Realizing he might not have actually used enough force to bypass the protection he naturally had now, he decided to step up his effort.

Once again focusing on maintaining the pattern in his arm, he let fly with a lot more force. The power behind the blow was enough to cause the boulder to wobble on its base this time, and the sound was definitely a lot sharper.

Pulling his hand back, he looked at the knuckles of his fist. The skin on the back of his fingers was an angry red. He was slightly shocked to see how mild the damage really was. There was only a little tearing that was bleeding slightly.

More important was the total lack of damage to his knuckles and the myriad little bones in his hand. He figured a little superficial damage to his skin was a small price to pay for being able to hit something as solid as a rock with that much force. In a real fight, the technique would be a game changer.

Cierra startled him then, by speaking up from her pose on the ground.

"You pick this shit up at an annoyingly fast rate. Now, sit your ass down and work on applying that little trick to other parts of your body."

Will smirked at her griping tone, but followed instruction.

Focusing, he worked to build the pattern in his left arm. It wasn't long before he found a wall that would require practice to climb. Reinforcing his left arm required focus, which pulled from the concentration required to maintain the pattern in his right arm.

Considering the limitation, he released his hold on the energy construct in his right arm. Waiting a few moments while the energy flow in that arm returned to normal, he tried to cement the image he had used to create the pattern in his mind.

For his next attempt, he wanted to apply the technique to both arms at the same time. Something about the symmetry of doing both simultaneously, rather than one at a time, just made sense to him. It felt like it would make it easier to hold on to the focus he needed to pull it off.

Once he was confident of holding the image of both arms in his head, he again began to apply the image in his mind. It felt like he was mentally willing the pattern into existence in his limbs. After just a few moments, he opened his eyes to find both arms showing the familiar glow he had been hoping for.

Looking across at Cierra, he found that she too was closely examining both of her arms. He could feel the perfect balance she was maintaining, and saw the look of satisfaction in her eyes. Looking back at him, she grinned before speaking.

"NOW, we start the testing portion of this technique."

Will couldn't help but grin back at her. He was also basking in the glow of satisfaction caused by succeeding in their goal.

"Let's do it!"

With that, they both stood up while maintaining their focus, and picked a boulder to use as a punching bag.