The jester girl held a long, curved stick wrapped with footwraps serving as a makeshift spearhead, while Zer’s shadow paced up and down the plateau, giving final instructions.

“Your spirit is ready to embrace the air style, but your body is not yet a vessel capable of containing its power.”

I stood in a left-sided stance, hands clasped behind my back.

“In war, you had a shield and a comrade’s shoulder, but now it’s different. Forget that anyone might help you when you face death. You’re alone and only have yourself to rely on. Remember this. Or I will hammer this knowledge into that thick skull you humorously call your head.”

The mighty warrior’s shadow had been instructing me for hours, his face occasionally showing a hint of regret. He still couldn’t quite come in terms with suffering a defeat to me, or maybe he was upset with my lack of progress.

“Open yourself to the air current,” the newly minted teacher continued. “Remember it’s not about how hard you strike. What matters in combat is that you’re the only one whose blows find their goal. Jester!”

Blik, for the umpteenth time that day, jabbed me in the stomach with the stick. All my concentration was gone with the air knocked out of my lungs. This fragile girl was landing surprisingly strong blows. Once again, the pain made me double over, gasping for air.

“Stop holding air inside your body. Breathe. Be ready to release it at any moment. Jester, you press on his stomach. And you, chosen by the ape, inhale and try to catch the streams of exiting air.”

I straightened up and took a deep breath, which wasn’t easy as my stomach ached from all the blows.

Unconcerned about my condition, Blik applied his stick to my abdomen, observing my reaction with a mischievous look on his face. He was probably the only one among us who enjoyed this whole thing.

Feeling the pressure gradually increase, I opened my mouth slightly and tried to relax. The truth behind the emperor’s words suddenly flashed up in my mind. I sensed the air that seemed to be infused with some force escape my body effortlessly. “Tsh-ah...”

“At last,” the shadow commented. “The air style is underestimated by many. Whatever you do, you must remain open to breathing. Because each your strike is an inhale and an exhale at the same time.”

“How so?” I didn’t understand.

“When you strike, you exhale to focus your Qi on the target. But when you retract your hand after contact, you must take a lightning-fast inhale, which can be three times shorter than the exhale. Understand?”

“Of course. Your teaching talent is boundless. I just imagined all that and,” I snapped my fingers, “understood it at once.”

“For a warrior, you talk too much. Conserve your Qi and save your wit for tavern wenches.”

“Me? Talk too much?” I asked in disbelief. Even Blik lowered his spear and tilted his head to the side, peering at Zer with silent astonishment.

“Way too much, baboon’s friend!” Zer stated, missing the irony.

I exchanged glances with the jester. Shaking our heads, both of us continued to do what were told, practicing this odd exercise again and again. Blik pressed on my stomach with his spear until, at one point, Zer was satisfied with the smoothness of my exhales. After that, the shadow ordered me to turn around.

As Blik lunged at me, his spear touched my stomach, but I exhaled naturally and the stick’s wrapped tip just brushed on my skin.

“Much better. It seems you’re not as hopeless as you’re pretending.”

“Does this mean I’m now safe from a real spear?” I marveled.

“Certainly you aren’t. And if you keep wasting your Qi on talking instead of practicing, you won’t even be able to realize how it got you,” Zer answered seriously. “Don’t get too comfortable; we’re far from done. Now spread your arms and pretend you’re a bird.”

“A bird? But I was chosen by the monkey.”

“It was me choosing the monkey!” Zer slapped his forehead and said slowly, as though trying to hammer his point into my head: “Pretend your monkey is pretending to be a bird. Is that clear?”

“Please promise me you’ll never teach anyone ever again,” I murmured.

However, this exercise turned out to be surprisingly simple. I did it again and again, but Zer gave out no praise, stroking his thin beard and mustache silently until he said: “Interesting. A development like this usually takes years to complete, but it comes easier to you: either thanks to your immense potential or your natural gift amplified by completing the Sphere’s trial. Remember: never give your ring to anyone. Crazy as that may sound, with losing it, you will lose all your experience and have to start anew. That’s something you wouldn’t wish on an enemy.”

“I understand,” I said seriously. “By the way: why do you think I have good potential?”

“Your eyes. They are colored differently. That indicates an open potential. For example, mine are fiery-red, which means I can achieve Supreme Mastery.”

“My eyes?” This discovery turned my world upside down. “I always believed it was a defect, but a fighting ability depending on it? Amazing. So, can I too achieve Supreme Mastery?”

“Uh... Rather you can achieve Epic.” For the first time ever, I saw Zer’s face take an awkward expression. I even rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. But the emperor quickly regained his composure and frowned, barking: “Why are you idle? Get on with the exercise! Jester!”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

***

Time passed quickly. To my delight, I achieved a state where, as the spear approached my stomach, my body would curve like a wave, allowing the rag-wrapped stick to pass by.

Zer assigned me a new task. I spent the next half a day swaying my torso as though emerging from a body of water while Blik swung his improvised weapon at me.

My body was drenched in acrid sweat that stung my eyes and made me itch all over. Now I understood why Zer had made me strip down naked. Washing and drying our clothes was a luxury we wouldn’t be able to afford for a long while. The plateau air had a beneficial effect on my wounds, so by midday, my face almost stopped hurting.

I continued my practice, feeling numb like a wooden puppet from fatigue. When Zer added dance-like rotational elements to my exercises, this feeling mounted.

Each practice session lasted three hours with breaks for rest, sleep, and snacks. Zer rationed our meals, but being in a place of power, I could practice tirelessly, feeling well-rested with very little sleep and eating my fill with the bits of food that would’ve been insufficient anywhere else.

Night passed, a new day dawned, and I kept moving, dodging, sweeping, lunging, jumping, and combining all of these. I’d long stopped trying to grasp the meaning behind the moves I was learning; I just performed them reflexively.

“Zer? How will you know when I’m ready?” I asked, waking up the next morning.

“Blik!” Zer shouted instead of answering. The jester sprung up and looked around until his gaze settled on the master. “How much food we have left?”

“None, my lord.” The girl bowed, barely avoiding a fall from exhaustion.

The emperor nodded. “That means you are ready.”

“Really?” I asked, squinting at him skeptically. “And the lack of food has nothing to do with it, right?”

“Just the opposite. There’s no more food. Practicing without it will do more harm than good. A fighter must be well-nourished.”

“Well, that makes sense. So, what’s our plan?” I frowned. The idea of another fight with the bandits evoked strong feelings but I couldn’t tell which prevailed: the fear of another humiliating defeat or the anticipation of victory.

“Plan? Are you a warrior or a damn strategist? Go down to the village and take revenge. That’s our plan.”

“Well, I’m no strategist, but that’s not a smart thing to do either. Don’t you think so?”

“So, when you rushed down there to beg them for food, that was a brilliant thing to do or what? Stop trembling. One day I did just the same, and it worked out fine.”

“But, Emperor, you had a spear and a knife,” Blik pointed out.

Zer smirked. “And he has different-colored eyes! Besides, there’s nothing for the two of you to eat anyway, so...”

He was right. We wouldn’t last long without food, even in a place of power, so we left the plateau, heading down. The descent was just as arduous as the climb had been.

***

How long had I been in the mountains? Two days at the very least. But in the village, the table still stood exactly where it had been, with the bandits nursing their hangovers instead of reveling.

Blik remained in the shrubs, while Zer and I approached the table, my entire body trembling with excitement. The emperor’s shadow was visible to me, but still invisible to others. Of the twelve bandits, only five remained at the table; the rest were sprawled on the benches or out of sight, probably inside the houses, tyrannizing the villagers and checking if anyone was hiding any valuables, young girls, or good food and booze.

One of the five drinkers was Eye. Kneeling before him was a well-dressed old man, likely the village mayor. I walked slowly, taking deep breaths to calm the excitement mounting inside me with each step.

The mayor had just finished speaking and was about to leave when our eyes met. I saw his gaze fill with hope that his people’s oppression might cease, if even briefly. The gang leader spotted that and also turned to look at me.

“You still alive, huh? Look, old man, he’s still alive!” He jabbed his fist into the poor villager’s shoulder.

I saw his sole gray eye widen in surprise—and his true essence suddenly revealed itself to me as if I were in the mental room. He seemed to see mine as well.

His shadow had a dog-like spiked collar around its neck; apparently the artifact he’d received inside the Sphere.

“Take a good look,” Zer hinted. “Ask his artifact how many opponents he’s defeated.”

Wondering about the point of that, I still complied. As the question left my lips, I sensed rather than heard a resonant answer that seemed to come from a hollow filled with the stench of decay and the squeaking of rats: Zero.

“Wow, lucky you. You have the gift, and your first opponent is a newbie like you,” Zer nodded in satisfaction. “He might not even know how to absorb an artifact. Go on, Rhys. Let’s bring this scum down so the world can sleep peacefully.”

I can’t do that. I must let him know that he has a choice.

“He has no choice!” the emperor barked. “Just give him a beating!”

Hey. Don’t forget it’s for me to decide who you mark with your seal of darkness.

“Careful, or I’ll have you climbing all the way back up to the Sphere. But it won’t let you in for a second time, so you’ll have to find a new one. Did you forget how they threw you into the ditch, half-dead?”

“I didn’t forget anything,” I said aloud. The gang leader, who couldn’t hear our dialogue, took it personally.

“Wow, he didn’t forget! Hahaha! So, you don’t care about your life?” He laughed, scrutinizing me. The other bandits, who were also staring at me like stunned fish, joined in instinctively, supporting their leader.

“You will leave this village right now and take your men with you,” I said as firmly as I could, still believing I could resolve this my way, not Zer’s.

“What if I don’t?” He cracked a smirk, apparently enjoying this.

“You will lose your life, fool. Your bodies will be seized by Emperor Zer Ilkaar’s shadow army.”

“Oh, what an idiot,” Emperor Zer Ilkaar drawled, sitting down at the table and putting his hand to his face.

The bandits erupted in laughter as if I were some village madman. I felt a bit foolish.

Do I really look that stupid?

Absolutely, Zer replied. Glancing his way, I saw him rubbing his forehead as he watched this performance from the front row.

“Kill him, Eye! Or let me gut him!” one of the thugs by the leader’s side called out.

“Ah, but he’s funny,” Eye drawled yet waved his hand. The smirking thug stood up and came forward.

Nearly seven feet tall, dressed in old leather armor exposing his belly, he reminded me of my hateful army sergeant. His bushy beard, massive eyebrows, broken nose, and ears mashed like under a hammer completed the look.

With his right hand, the bandit pulled a dagger from his belt, while his left reached for me.

“Don’t let him grab you. If he does, you’re dead!” Zer reminded.

Knowing the consequences well enough, I moved sideways, using only my toes’ tips. The enemy grasped only air. Carried on by inertia, he had to take another step to keep balance.

My dance-like step allowed me to round him, my ears ringing with the rapidity of it all. Grabbing a knife from the table, I was about to stab it into the thug’s back when Zer yelled: “No damage to the body! You’re a head above them all. Use your technique to knock him out.”

I hesitated. That gave the thug time to swing his blade at my neck. His attack seemed very slow to me. I ducked and spun around, extending my leg, and tripping the thug up. The strength of the impact astonished me: it sent the bandit flying up into the air and tumbling a couple of times before he collapsed at my feet, unconscious.

Zer, like a bird of prey, swooped down on the fallen bandit and pressed his red-hot ring to his chest, muttering a few words. The shadow world hissed and shuddered. The thug’s shadow screamed and sank into the ground, replaced by a more robust, spear-armed silhouette.

“Stay down. Await my command,” Zer ordered the new shadow and, straightening up, looked at me. “Continue.”

The gang leader grimaced and stood up. “You’re more than meets the eye, huh, you oaf? Watch out. That’s you last chance to leave this place alive.”