Impacting the sand once more, I tumbled until I came to a halt on my back, staring up at that eternal blue sky for long moments, before the sing-song voice of Aella called out to me, annoyed.
“Hunter, up. There’s no time for lying down with the skills you have.” I groaned and climbed to my feet for at least the 200th time, the sand sticking to my sweat-damp robe and skin. Aella had decided to take on my training personally, as she thought she was the only one present with the skill to avoid accidentally killing me. We had started with stances, footing and the basics of human motion – it was quite interesting, until it led directly into practical examples.
I had improved a lot over the last few hours, but then any gain is substantial when you begin with nothing, as new my teacher in blue kept reminding me. My effectively teenage body wanted to make snappy comebacks, of course, but I used the wisdom and the discipline gained over my 82 years of life to keep the snark in check – at least after the first couple of times Aella took exception to it. Pain, they say, is a great teacher, and like Walker had said – Aella was exceptional.
Brushing the sand off the parts I could reach, walked back over to face my opponent, sucking in deep breaths, taking in the Experience of it all and adding it to whatever small store I had.
Once I was back in position, I dropped into the stance I had been shown, palms out and hands relaxed. There was no build-up or warning before she came at me, just slightly faster than I could have reacted without my Danger Sense. With it, I managed to stay ahead of her blows, dodging and deflecting on the bleeding edge of what my body was capable of, sweat dripping down my face to soak my beard. That was how it went, as it had for hours, with her increasing her speed at a glacial pace, until inevitably a blow landed and sent me tumbling once more.
“You’re really improving! You have a gift for combat - hand-to-hand at least. You could almost keep up with Fou Shei now, until he engaged his Focus, at least. But hey, that’s something! If you were 8 or 9, I’d be really impressed.”
I sat up slowly, rubbing at the spot she had kicked, doing my best to take in the feeling – I was not enjoying the pain, but despite that, it was still an Experience and I would take what I could get.
“Thanks for that, Teacher. Always great to hear you’ve improved to the level of a pre-teen. Can you explain the whole, Focus thing? Walker said he’d tell me later, but it keeps cropping up.”
Tilting her head to the side, Aella, considered me, one hand raising to tap a finger against her chin, a pretty pout decorating her ubiquitously beautiful face.
“I would normally tell you to wait, but you are pretty far behind... everyone...” Pink eyes narrowing for a moment, she walked over and sat in front of me, one knee upright so she could lean on it.
“You can feel the Experience inside you, right? It should just be sort of flowing about, like when shaking a bowl of water?” That was a surprisingly succinct way of describing it – the energy inside was crashing against the sides of me exactly like that. Stopping for a moment to feel, I nodded my head.
“Good. That’s how it is for most children. Experience pools within you, but it has nowhere to go, no shape has little practical use. In order to begin to use it, you must first form your Focus – willing your Experience to take shape and then by allowing your Experience to shape you. Many begin with the elements and some with great beasts. The shape your form your Experience into will form the focus of your power.” I frowned hard – that sounded like a lot of circular bullshit to me, but I managed to hold back my question – Aella did not look like she was finished and the last time I had interrupted her she had literally knocked me out.
“For me, my Focus took the form of a great mountain, because I wanted to be a solid as the stone and my blows to carry the weight of the great peaks. The Apex of The Crystal Drake used a Dragon for his Focus, as I understand it. Many families follow a theme, for example the Unceasing Squall your fiend Fou Shei is part of. But each Focus is unique to the person. You must find something that fits you and make it your Focus, around which your Core will from. From there, the Core grows into the Path to your Foundation, from which you build until you reach the Pinnacle. Most children are taught the importance of the Focus from an early age, and by the time they have gathered enough Experience to do anything with it, they have a solid Focus in mind.” She left unsaid – for once – that I was getting something of a late start.
I wondered if Walker had a sword as his Focus, or a cloud of them. There was obviously an evolution of power an ability as you moved between all the stages Aella had listed – nobody just jumped to millions of swords, right?
There was only really one thing that sprang instantly to mind, something I had always had something of a fascination with – electricity, or at least arcs of it. I thought immediately of lightning.
“What about lightning, can I use that? Go full Raiden?”
“I have no idea what Raiden is, but lighting can be used, but it’s very difficult to control, from what I’ve heard. Most elements have a desire – to endure, like earth. To consume, like fire. Lightning desires to rest and will take the quickest route to earth, where it may sleep. It is supposed to be very hard to bend it to your will. For somebody who perhaps is looking to reach a survivable level as soon as possible, there are better options.”
What Aella was saying was true – that I needed something sooner rather than later, and about the nature of electricity, but I wanted it, suddenly. I wanted to hold lightning in my hand like Zeus, and I wanted it more than Fou Shei’s sister.
“Where do I form this thing? Do I just picture it in my head, or what?” My voice sounded eager to my own ears, and hungry.
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“You’re going with lightning, aren’t you? Well, far be it from fated for me to get between a fool and his foolishness. The Focus is formed in your lower energy centre – it is found just below and back of our navel. This is where the refinement of Experience into energy occurs, and will form the centre of your energy circulation. It can be difficult to find, initially, but if you follow the Experience flowing within you to its centre, there it will be.”
Crossing my legs, I closed my eyes and turned my gaze inwards towards the rush surging within me. It moved like a sea in storm, as hard as Aella had said to track, but I knew I needed to do find that centre if I wanted to survive here on this world of demigods. And more still, if I wanted to survive the tasks Xiournal gave me.
It felt like hours of tracking wave after wave of that golden force before I found a place of calm, a still spot hidden amidst the roiling tsunamis. There I stood in my mind's eye, and pictured myself, surrounded by a crackling nimbus of lightning as it arced around me like burning cracks in the world, making me faster, stronger – protecting me. If I could not control it, I would become it.
Bending my will, I started to collect the energy around me, pushing it into the shape I pictured. It was hard and I almost gave up a dozen times but after what felt like an eternity fighting that storm to make it mine, there stood in that calm centre the faintest echo of myself, electricity raging about me, filling me.
The sea had also changed – where before it had moved in a state of chaos, now it was almost still. Paying close attention to it, I noticed it was still moving, spiralling in towards that image of me. Towards my Focus. To say it felt strange would be an understatement – the feeling of all that energy spinning inside me forced me out of my centre with a gasp.
“I did it! I formed my centre! I’m better than a 9-year-old!” The grin on my face bellied the mediocrity of my words, hands held above my head in triumph – but Aella was shaking her head.
“No, you haven’t. You’ve started the process, sure, but it could take months for the Focus to fully form. You’ll need to keep up the hard work if you want to accelerate that, and make sure you keep cultivating Experience. It’s being drawn inwards to form your Focus now and the lack could pose quite a shock to your body. Now that that’s out of the way, you’ve had a long enough break. Back to training!”
“Will I be able to use lightning now? Is there an advanced class?”
“I just said your Focus is not complete – you’ll gain nothing until it is. As for the advanced class, sure. Come, I’ll make sure to kick you twice as hard.”
*
***
*
By the time my master returned, the sun was setting and I could no longer differentiate my aches – I was just one large bruise. I had not yet died of dehydration after a solid 9 hours of practice, as while adults may not need to eat on this world, apparently, they did like to stay hydrated.
Striding out of the elongating shadows of the arena’s steep walls, Walker made his way across the hot sand to where Aella and I were sat going over my training.
“You progressed a lot today, Hunter. You have excellent reflexes and your strength, speed and stamina are exceptional for somebody at your level of advancement. If you keep training as you did today, I have no doubt that you will find little challenge when facing an average opponent of up to 15 years of age - within the year.”
“Stop, Teacher... You’re embarrassing me... But I will keep up the training, even if I can’t be here. I can’t stay weak forever.” My voice started with dry sarcasm, but quickly gained sincerity. Aella had been hard on my today, and I’d probably have a hard time moving in the morning, but she had always made clear what I was doing right and wrong, and especially how to go about fixing my mistakes. Walker had been right, it turned out – Aella was a great teacher.
“I am gratified to hear you have progressed, Hunter, though I would expect nothing less from The Falling Star.” He turned his blindfolded gaze between us, a grin forming at the corners of his mouth.
“The Falling Star? Is that you... fighter name... Aella?”
“It is! I earned the name when I first used my Path in battle. I shattered both my enemies, and the battlefield.” She sounded proud, chest puffing out distractingly.
“The Chained Wraith sect was broken in more ways than one that day. It was... impressive.” The way he said “impressive” reminded me that they were going out for drinks and I wondered how I was going to make myself scarce.
“Ugh, should I sleep outside again? Do... adults... sleep?”
Walker replied without looking at me, all his attention reserved by the lady with the pink eyes.
“We do indeed sleep – though I suspect less than you.” He began to say something more, but Aella beat him to it.
“You can sleep here! There's a small house here, for when I cannot be bothered going home.”
“Wow, thanks Teacher, I really appreciate that.”
“It’s fine – it means you will be here early for more... advanced... training.” I winced a little – when Aella had said she would kick me twice as hard it had not been a joke.
“The boy and I must visit Ben Won Ro in the morning – we have things we must discuss.”
“With that crazy alchemist? Are you going to buy that pill for Hunter?”
“No – it would most certainly kill him. Hunter has been tasked with convincing Ro to make no more of the things, and I too think it would be best if only the one was ever made.”
“You can be so boring, Walker! There’s nothing wrong with boosting your cultivation with pills – not everyone has talent. If the boy was at the Core level, it would benefit him greatly.”
“I hold no bias against the use of medicine to increase your cultivation – it is the specifics of this pill I disagree with.”
That was interesting – apparently getting a head of drugs was fairly common here.
“Why, what does it do, specifically? I only know the name, and I doubt pretentiousness is enough to put you off.”
“The Grand Harvest Body Refining Pill is supposedly capable of linking your mind with all around you, allowing you to Experience what they do, and to thus boost your cultivation. The pill is powerful, certainly, however it is my belief that it could not only damage your Focus by submerging you in the Experience of so many others, but it is also too powerful. To move from Core to Pinnacle is not out of reach when consuming such medicine, and to reach such heights without the wisdom to match may make the conquest of the Chained Wraiths seem pale.”
Walker’s voice was ominous, and while I did not know the specifics of the power which differentiated the various levels, going from almost the bottom to the top did seem like a bad idea, if that resulted in immature assholes with power like Walker’s own.
“Enough of business – shall we go for that drink, Aella?”
“Let’s - it’s been too long, Walker. Let me shoo everyone out of the arena and I’ll lock up.”
“I’ll come for you at dawn, Hunter. I would prefer not to kick you awake again.”
With that, Aella began to shout at the other students to get their attention, before driving them from the sandy arena like a sheepdog herding sheep, the two of them – one dark and tall and the other bright and animated walking arm in arm.
The dull boom of the closing doors could be heard from across the short distance, marking the silence of the now empty facility and leaving me along with the sudden thought that Aella had not shown me where the house was.
“Shit.”