Panting for breath Zig groaned on the ground covered in sweat sprawled on his back. "Are you done already?" Jacobys face loomed over me with an almost bored expression. "I ~gasp~ just need a few minutes" with great effort I dropped into mediation and started cycling earth aspect into my body easing the exhaustion.
After a few minutes I stood up and took my position across the sand pit from jacoby. "Well at least you are starting to get the hang of cycling for recovery, too bad you still can't use It while moving" jacoby said as he gathered sand around him like armor and charging forward. Side stepping Zig did his best to avoid the surprisingly quick attacks of jacoby. Ducking under a wide swing Zig shoulder checked jacoby sending him off balance. Stepping forward and trying to capitalize on the more Zigs foot sunk into the sand causing him to fall on his face. Rolling over and spitting out sand Zig yanked his foot free only to find jacoby standing over his once again.
They had been sparring together like this for the last two days and despite eating sand more times than he could count he had to admit he had been improving. On his first day Zig couldn't even follow his sparring partners movements and now after just two days he was able to count attack. Jacoby wasn't going full force but Zig was still very pleased with himself. One of the biggest reasons was something that jacoby called passive enhancement. Apparently using aspects had some permanent effects when filtering through your body,mind and soul.
Focusing on a pure earth aspect and only on the body ment he was catching up to jacoby at least in the physical strength and durability. That's not saying much since his companion had a soul foundation technique that gave him very fine control over sand but did little for him physically. As Zig found out the hard way soul technique users had a much greater control over their environment like causing the sand under his feet so shift and give out.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Seeing Zig was a bit lost in thought jacoby called an end to the days practice and told Zig to meet him earlier tomorrow for more training. Thankful Zig made his way back into his dorm and sat down to meditate. With the time to think and exposure to a soul path user Zig had finally decided how he wanted to fuse his technique. He played to combine all three aspects but instead of trying to force the aspects into a field around him he would enhance his existing body technique.
Focusing on his core energy Zig first converted earth aspect which came effortlessly. Soon he cycled it through his body and back through his core. Now that every thing was flowing Zig forced on convincing a small amount of energy into cold water aspects and adding it to the stream. It was difficult and Zig thought that if he did have practice with other aspects the creating a focused aspect like cold water would have failed. Adding it to the earth cycling thought his body sent chills thought him almost causing him to lose focus. Gritting his teeth Zig forced him self to continue and converted a small amount of dark aspect. This aspect added to the mix made him feel like he was going to lose control but all of a sudden the three separate elements fused together and stabilized.
In shock Zig examined the new and unknown to him aspect. It gave off a vibe of weakness and Zig wasn't completely sure but he thought almost like it was hungry in some way. Getting lost in checking out his new discovery Zig was surprised when his core completely ran out of energy leaving Zig weak and dizzy. Apparently this new aspect took a lot more energy than the basic or focused aspects.
Getting tired of calling it the new aspect but not knowing what to call it Zig decided to test it with jacoby and name it then. With that decided Zig went to bed excited to see what tomorrow would have in-store for him.