As the weeks dragged on, Tsugi continued to improve in both strength and skill. He secretly practiced his skills, afraid his father would find out.

Tsugi ran through the gauntlet while his father was close behind him launching attacks. He dodged punches and kicks, jumping from log to log and dodging swinging weapons. A flicker in the wall caught his eye, he threw a hard kick into the log behind him, shattering it to pieces, launching chunks toward his father and stopped the hallucination.

Tsugi stood in the middle of the room, panting. The stronger Tsugi got, the more intense their bouts got.

"Let's try your hallucination." Sir Gorou sat down and closed his eyes. Since Tsugi's been improving, Sir Gorou changed the conditions to Tsugi's hallucination magic. If he could perfect his hallucination for Sir Gorou, then he would get the day off, but Tsugi has yet to be successful.

Tsugi stood a ways in front of him and closed his eyes. He let his aura slowly envelop the room, designing every intricate detail, from the smallest cracks to every color, shade and lighting. When complete, he opened his eyes. "Done."

Sir Gorou opened his eyes and scanned the room. He stood up and slowly walked around, inspecting everything. He wiped a finger over different surfaces and checked for the presence of dust. He picked up a spear and turned it over, before breaking it in half as easily as snapping a twig. He investigated the break to see how authentic it was.

"You call this a replication?" The sound of his voice was enough to kick Tsugi into fear. He could feel his hallucination getting weaker with his rise of emotion. He was able to meditate and calm himself before dodging the broken stick that flew right to his face.

He caught a glimpse of it as it flew by, the stick didn't have splintered ends like it should when wood breaks, instead it had a flat end like it was cut in half.

When he realized his mistake, simultaneously he returned to reality and he could see a fist enter his peripheral vision. He was able to predict what was going to occur and was able to react fast enough to block the incoming attack.

Sir Gorou followed up with a fiery kick. Tsugi barely dodged on time, and winced when the flame singed his forearm turning it red and blisters boiled under the surface of his skin, making his arm look like the back of a red toad.

The bout lit up the room with flashes of light sending dancing shadows all across the walls. Magnificent violent explosions were exchanged between them, reaching the far corners of the room. Debris and rubble decorated the floor like ornaments.

Tsugi was exhausted and panting, fighting for air to enter his burning lungs. A cut on his eyebrow caused blood to pour down and obscure his vision, red boiled patches were left on his body where bits of his clothes had burned.

"Again." Sir Gorou sat on the floor again.

Covered in sweat, Tsugi quickly tried to control his breath before commencing with the magic. After the completion, Sir Gorou conducted his inspection again, first breaking the wood, after seeing that Tsugi had fixed it, he would move on to find other problems. With every problem, another bout started and the hallucination magic was once again conducted after the bout had subsided.

***

The training went on for months, before Tsugi was able to get the hallucination perfect.

"Good. You can release it."

Tsugi came back to reality sitting in front of Sir Gorou.

"You have the rest of the day off."

And with that, Sir Gorou stood up and left the training room.

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Elated, Tsugi went to see Yahni about healing magic again.

Tsugi has been getting better and has been able to heal without losing consciousness, and was able to heal a few animals before tiring out, but he hadn't developed enough to heal life threatening wounds yet.

"Why is it so hard to build enough earth magic?!" Frustration took over. If he gets hurt, he doubts Sir Gorou would heal him. Even if Tsugi can get stronger, he knows Sir Gorou will make the training sessions even harder. He needed to be able to heal himself.

"I understand that it's frustrating Young Master Tsugi, but life is never easy. Everything in life is hard earned."

"What about my dark magic? I feel like it came so naturally!"

"The exact opposite young master. You don't remember all those times that you came so close to death?"

All the haunting memories rushed into his mind. He clenched his eyes and shoved them back into the box under lock and key. He had been pretty good at keeping his emotions at bay with the hallucination training that he forgot about them.

"Don't give up, young master. Keep working at it and you will achieve it one day. When that day comes, you will be glad you never gave up."

Tsugi rubbed his face and let out a big sigh. "I just wish it wasn't so frustratingly slow!"

"You are still very young, there are still many years ahead of you to develop more, don't stress yourself too much young master. When I was your age, I had only just learned how to cultivate my powers, I wasn't even able to heal anything yet, so if you think about it, you are doing really well."

Yahni's reassurance had made him feel a little bit better. He was just concerned that at the rate where Sir Gorou's going, if he doesn't learn it soon, he may not live to learn how to properly heal.

"Follow me young master." Yahni led him outside and pulled an injured rabbit from the cage. "This little one was attacked by an owl last night, but it was too big for the owl to carry, so the owl left it.

I will heal it and I want you to push a little of your energy into mine and follow my energy. You will be able to feel the flow of my magic, how it looks, where it moves to and how it moves. Maybe then it will help you get a better understanding.”

"Okay." Tsugi placed his palms on her back and proceeded to push a little energy to infuse with Yahni's. He could feel her aura flowing smoothly around her body like a thick layer of rubbery skin.

"When you condense your energy, it will feel like this." She explained. "But..." she released her energy and it expanded powerfully, her energy was immense, it engulfed Tsugi into it and the few surrounding trees. "If you don't control it, it will go wild like this. So, you pull it in close almost like you want it to protect you. The closer you pull it to your body, the more condense it gets and it can act like a shield."

She pulled the aura back in and Tsugi could feel it shrinking and turned more viscous. "Now, follow it." She pushed the aura to the surrounding plants. Like a phagocyte, they engulfed the life from the plants and coursed through the aura, flowing like a stream, weaving around her body.

It spiraled around her arms and through her hands into the target site and pulled the bones together, the cells and platelets were pulled to the site and enhanced to speed up the healing process like fast forwarding time.

The site healed and the clot was disintegrated to be recycled in the body. She slowly pulled the remaining energy out and returned it to her body.

Tsugi pulled his aura back in astonishment. The amount of energy she poured into healing, the beautifully elegant way her aura moved and danced through the healing process flowed so smoothly.

"Now that you were able to see it, I hope you have a better understanding of the amount of energy required to heal, and why it takes so much energy. It doesn't just magically heal it, you need to be able to pull the platelets to the site, activate every step of the coagulation process from beginning to end and speed it up, without accidentally causing a clot somewhere else in the body.

If you aren't careful and you accidentally travel somewhere else in the body and activate a platelet there, you could cause an unnecessary blockage. So, take the time to develop enough magic and practice, young master. I believe you will be a wonderful healer one day." She smiled dazzlingly.

"Thank you Yahni." Now that he had a better understanding, his frustration subsided.

He returned to the castle, determined to never give up and push himself harder to get better.

"The Commander has summoned you to his study." A knight waited for him by the entrance into the castle.

"Thank you."

Upon reaching the door, Tsugi's hands shook, he still feared his father, no matter how strong he had gotten. He always felt weak in the presence of his father. Refusing to allow fear to sink in any further, he took a deep breath before knocking.

"Come in." Sir Gorou stood by the fireplace and chucked a log of wood in.

"You summoned me Commander?" Tsugi bowed.

"Prepare to leave in the morning."

Tsugi's eyes widened. 'Where am I going?'...was only one of the many thoughts that ran through his head.

"You will be going with me on a mission." Sir Gorou answers, as if he heard Tsugi’s unspoken words.