The ball of lights beams descend with my items and for a second time I am taken up. After the balls of light enter me I am set down filled with a new vitality and strength. I clench my fist slowly then release my grip. I lift my arm and see the muscles bulge. A smile finds its way onto my lips. ‘Wow, this is the best I’ve felt in years.’ I look up and see Charlie snickering at me and my face heats up. I quickly turn around and gather up my backpack and rifle. I put the backpack on under my cloak then I grab my rifle with both hands and point the barrel down. ‘Safety first.’ I let out a chuckle. Just as I’m about to leave the platform a thought strikes me. ‘I need ammo for this thing.’ I check the sleek futuristic rifle and find it already has a powercell. ‘One powercell is good for 50 shots but I’ll need a couple more.’

Once again I connect with the System and purchase 2 powercells for 10 points each. ‘Anything else.’ I think for a couple more seconds before sighing and walking down towards Charlie. ‘I don’t have anymore points so it doesn’t matter.’ I quickly travel down the steps and meet Charlie who is at the bottom.

“Are we going to your room to train?” He asks as we start walking towards our rooms.

“Yep.” I answer then I look towards his room. “Unless you want to use your room.”

“Nah, your rooms good enough, besides it’s not like it would change anything to train in my room.” He says as we reach my door. I place my hand on the door knob and open the door for us.

“True.” I say. We continue past the beds then enter the basement. ‘I guess it’s less of a basement and more of a training room but hey details.’ We walk down the steps and enter the metallic box that is my basement and training room. “We should start out by testing out our new toys.” I say to Charlie. Charlie gives a thumbs up and a smile that makes him resembles a child on Christmas.

Charlie practically sprints to the firing range while I casually follow behind him. Charlie arrives then starts tapping away at his drone controller. Soon after his drone flies to Charlie’s right and he starts aiming his carbine. I reach him just as the first round is fired along with its characteristic pop. I look at the target and see a red light along with a little grey line. “As good a shot as ever I see.” I tell Charlie.

Charlie looks at me with a glint in his eyes. “This drone is amazing, not only does it provide a marker of where I should hit it’s also providing information on the optimal engagement range and angle of fire to best hit the target. Along with providing a video feed that’s linked to my helmets hud.” He turns back to the target and continues firing.

‘Looks like he’s going to be practicing for awhile.’ I walk to Charlie’s right for a bit until I reach the next target. I then heft up the pulse rifle to my shoulder and look down the iron sites. I take a breathe then slowly breathe out. Once there is no ir left in my lungs I pull the trigger. A little pressure on my shoulder followed by a bright flash of light is the result of my action. When I open my eyes after a couple seconds I find that my paper target is gone and there is a scorch mark on the metal wall behind where the target used to be. “Jesus, I guess I shouldn’t expect anything less from plasma.”

I hear a whistle to my left. I turn and see Charlie looking at the scorch mark on the wall. “You sure did pick a good weapon, huh.”

“Yep.” I answer back. I look back at the wall then I place my pulse rifle on a table. “I’ll keep practice with that for later.” I say as I try to find a comfortable place to sit. I eventually just end up sitting down next to the table.

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“Why are you sitting down?” Charlie asks with a look of confusion.

“Because I want to try and sense my demonic essence.” I answer Charlie. I then close my eyes and focus on my body. ‘I’ve felt something off since buying the imp bloodline and it wasn’t only the increased mental stats.’ I focus on the slight burning sensation in my chest. I feel something like sticky fire. The more I focus on it the more intense the burning sensation gets. ‘I wonder how I can use this? Is it like Qi where I have to circulate it. Do I gain more of it by cultivating or exhausting it.’ I try to move the demonic essence from my chest to my hand. It takes immense concentration but I am able to move it but as it moves it feels like every where it passes is set on fire. Slowly, agonizing second by second I push it towards my hand and after what feels like a lifetime I manage to get the demonic essence to my hand. I then push it towards my index finger and open my eyes. The demonic essence easily passes through the skin unlike every other part of my body and a dark red almost black film covers my finger.

I look at my finger for a couple seconds the I slowly stand a place my finger on the table. No visible effect occurs. “Hey Charlie, I need your help.” I yell out. Charlie stops shooting and turns around.

“What do you need?” He asks as he walks over to me.

“I want to test the effects of demonic essence.” I tell him. He gives me a confused look as he walks closer.

“How?” He asks.

“Like this.” Isay as I place my finger on Charlie’s arm.

“Fuck.” Charlie jumps back and yells.

“Sorry Charlie but I needed to know.” I tell him with a shrug of my shoulders.

“God damn it, it feels like every single neuron in my body is on fire” Charlie rubs his arm and says.

“So the raw form of the energy upon contact induces immense pain. Good to know.” I mumble to myself. ‘I wonder if I can mould the energy into a weapon.’ I look down on my finger and start forcing more energy from my chest to my hand. The energy flows easier than the first time and with less pain. ‘I guess I just need to send the energy around my body and temper my body to the energy or in cultivation terms create qi pathways.’ More and more of the energy flows to my hand until no more is left. The essence quickly joins the previous layer of essence and creates a half inch thick coating around my finger. ‘Now to form it.’ I will the essence to move and imagine a single clawed finger. The demonic essence lazily flows over my finger creating a claw like coating over my finger.

I move my hand and tap the clawed finger against the table. A light tp sounds out as the demonic essence at the tip of the claw solidifies. ‘Interesting, I don’t really want to slash Charlie with this but I can guess at the effect it will have.’ I then will the energy to flow back into my hand and I expand the energy like a lake into every part of my hand. The moment t leaves the previously traveled area the pain flares up but fighting through it I manage to expand throughout my hand. Once I finish that I push the energy to all five of my fingers and will claws to form. The demonic essence flows and creates a thin clawed finger on each of my fingers.

I look down at the table and move my hands to the edge so just the claws are over the table but my fingers aren’t. I then rise my hand and quickly bring it down. No sound is made as my claws slice through the wooden table like butter. ‘Not too bad.’ I will the energy back into my hand then I focus on push all of the energy into a single point in my palm. Slowly the liquid like essence leaks out then pools in my palm. I will the puddle to compress trying to form a ball. Slowly the essence flows back into a single point on my palm and slowly forms golf ball sized ball. I will the ball to float above my hand but it doesn’t budge so I concentrate hard. It takes minutes but reluctantly the ball leaves skin contact and floats a little ways above my hand. I will the ball higher and it acquiesces soon the dark red golf ball is floating about 3 inches above my hand. ‘This is mentally exhausting.’ I think to myself

. I concentrate on the ball again and will it to spin. Slowly at first then at increasing speeds the ball spins. I focus on the spinning ball and look down range. I catch sight of a paper target. I slowly angle my body towards it then once again focusing on the ball I will it to shoot away from me at the target. Slowly at first the ball moved but as it moved further away it sped. Although it sped up I could exert less control on it. Once it reached about five feet away from me I lost all control and the ball shot off hitting the target then slamming into the metal wall. Once it slammed into the wall the ball splashed apart like a water balloon then the essence transformed into a gaseous state and quickly flew towards me. It soon reached me then it flew into me through my skin sending waves of agonizing pain through me as it flew towards my chest. Once it reached my chest it slowly started to condense into a liquid form again.

At this point I was on the ground sweating from both the pain and my own mental exhaustion. ‘That was extremely unpleasant.’ I thought to myself before I passed out.