“Spirit harmony is all about decisiveness. The greatest trait its wielder can have is an indomitable will and complete clarity of what they want to accomplish.”

~Kouki Kanshiki

Chase

The wind brushes my hair into my eyes as the gap between me and Daimyon shrinks to nothing. He reacts to my movement, turning to face as my punch catches him square in his chest. *BOOM* He’s knocked over the lake, skidding on its surface like a skipped rock. Pulling his arms out, he releases pulses of air to break the momentum propelling his body. His maneuverability with wind arcana is impressive. He uses it to jet back across, attempting to put pressure on me.

Unfortunately for him, I know how he fights. As he gets close, I kick the same tree he knocked me into, shattering it at its base before I swiftly move around it to push it down faster, aiding its fall. Daimyon barely dodges it. He puts his hand forward, releasing a great gust of wind that takes me off of my feet, knocking me into the air. Using his mobility, he swings under me.

Luckily I was able to pick up a few small branches as I was pushed up. My hands clear them of foliage and shoot them at Daimyon. Although he's able to dodge the first few, they're only a distraction. Amidst the branches I pluck a pebble at him that I snuck off the ground and it's more than fast enough to catch Daimyon straight in the chest, sending him down into the ground. I aim myself straight towards him, and by swinging my hands back, my body bursts into a dive. Tucking my legs, I spin forward to put my feet first to stomp Daimyon directly into the dirt. A foot away from impact, he pulses out air, narrowly avoiding me as I impact the ground.

*CRASH* A small crater and dust surround me and, for once, my hair obstructing my vision bothers me. My hands reach to my shirt and I rip it off, tearing it into strips. I need to look him in his eyes. No, it's more like the fire in me has commanded me to look him in his eyes as I win. Pulling my hair back and wrapping it with the remains of the shirt, my eyes peer forth with perfect clarity.

Wind swirls again clearing the dust and there’s Daimyon drawing more arcana, making eye contact. It’s an acknowledgment. An acknowledgment of rivalry. As his floating body drops to the ground and he lands softly on his feet, the wind calms and he smiles.

“See, you can beat me.” He says. My fists unclench, my body relaxes and the heat dissipates. All of that emotion is replaced by surprise.

“Huh?”

“Chase, I’m sorry...sort of. You were wallowing in self defeat like you always do. You might not think I do but I notice how you lower your head. How you think over and over, obsessing about obvious decisions. How you analyze and reanalyze the smallest of interactions. Even as you were just exercising, your mind went to work picking something apart and all that power you were holding just left you.”

Daimyon takes a seat on top of the tree I toppled and waves me over to sit next to him. As I plop down on the stump, he places his hand on my shoulder. “I didn’t know I was bothering you that much.”

“It's not really you. It’s me. It’s just that you’re so free and I wish I could be that way so maybe... me and Pip could actually get along.” He looks down at the ground, his smile dropping for a moment. Then it returns with a slight chuckle.

“I’m not as free as you think. What I said about your parents was insensitive but realistically that’s true of my parents too. A hero's sacrifice is great but I’d prefer it if my heroes came home instead. My freedom comes from the thought that they did what they did for a reason. I can’t change the reason, but what I can do is act on my own reasons and live without regrets.”

“You don’t worry about making mistakes?”

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

“Nope. To me the only mistake you really make is doing nothing when you can do something. Besides, even if you make a mistake, most of them are fixable. But, you can’t fix the past so I act in the moment.”

“Wait what? That doesn’t make sense. If you make a mistake it’s going to be in the past and you can’t fix it.” Daimyon laughs.

“You don’t get it. Take for instance when I met you. If I didn’t step out and offer my help, who knows if I ever would have gotten the opportunity again. Not having you as my brother is far scarier than any mistake I could have made at the time or even with Kiyonna. Me taking risks has gotten me this far. Even my mistakes have always given me something important.” That forces me to raise my head and look over at him. What can mistakes give you that’s worth having?

“Like what?” I ask.

“Experience. Every mistake I’ve made has made me better and smarter. Every failure I ever had fending for myself in these woods made me stronger. That’s why I don’t fear it, instead I fear not acting when I should. What Hotman might have done to Kiyonna if I stood there gawking. Who I would have become if I never offered to help you or didn’t come with you to your grandfather’s.”

I think on his words for a moment.

“But that’s what books are for. So you can take from others experiences to improve yourself. So that you can learn the lessons and others can deal with the failures.” Daimyon runs his hand through his hair, putting it behind him.

“I don’t even think you really believe that. If that was all there was to it then you’d be one of the strongest naturalists ever already. We’d never need another scientist. You know better than that. Could you fight like that before?” My gaze lowers to the grass at my feet.

“No. That just happened.”

He pats my back. “Exactly. Some things you just have to learn through your own body and in the moment. By the way, it's refreshing to actually see your face. You have some scary glowing eyes when you do...whatever that was.”

I chuckle in response.

“It’s called spirit harmonization. I didn’t know my eyes did that. You know, yours glow when you charge up.” He cocks his head.

“Hmm. You know it felt like you were ahead of me the whole fight. How did you do that?”

“Harmony comes with a state of quiet. It’s like I can take in my surroundings and every moment feels like it passes so slowly that there’s no rush. It helps that I have a perfect memory too. I recalled every one of your training sessions or at least the ones I saw. What were those blasts you hit me with and how are you able to maneuver so well?”

Daimyon pulls a twig off of the tree, fiddling with it as I discard the stuff I picked up during the fight.

“It’s called wind compression. It makes it so all the arcana I absorb comes out in those bursts. Bones has been teaching how to use it on a basic level. But that’s about all I can do with it outside of the Skywave Cannon.” That stops me dead in my tracks.

“The what?”

“Yeah, he taught me the Skywave Canon but he forbade me from using it. He says I’m not good enough yet.”

“Wow, that’s not surprising since it’s a sacred wind technique.” He shoots me a look.

“A sacred wind technique?”

“Well yeah. Each sacred six spirit teaches a wave cannon technique to their host. I’m not sure how he learned it or even if it’s supposed to be possible for a normal naturalist to use it. I imagine that the force from releasing a technique like that would blow off most naturalists' arms completely. It’s not surprising that he’d want you to be absolutely prepared for it. That’s probably one of the reasons Kouki told me to lift the Stone of Xaltas. A prep for some kind of uber power technique.”

Daimyon’s eyes go wide for a second then he bursts into laughter and I join him.

“Chase, you do realize our teachers are absolutely insane right?” Daimyon nudges me with his shoulder.

“Yeah and we’re crazy for thinking we can be as powerful as them.” He looks at me and his face turns serious.

“No we're not and the biggest reason is that we have each other. We’re not rivals, we're brothers and that means we’ll push each other to reach both of our goals.” The moment's levity shifts as we hear a voice in the distance. It’s unfamiliar to our woods and a chill runs down my spine as my spirit senses the presence of a dangerous arcana signature.

“Thanks for leading me here, young one.” The source of this omen reveals himself from behind a nearby tree. He’s tall, pale, shirtless and wearing a long fur coat. His aura is cold and harsh as if an arctic storm decided to land on top of us. Worst of all, his hands are holding Pip’s shoulders.

~End