Flames coiled around Yuval as he slipped into his stance. He struck out once quickly, his jab merely meant to throw his opponent off guard. The man predictably dodged out of the way, and Yuval followed up with a sweep at his legs. He needed to win this battle quickly. He couldn’t afford to wait until his opponent’s weapon activated, a glowing energy sword that was at the moment merely a hilt. Frustratingly, his older opponent stepped over his leg sweep with barely a care.

He was too fast. Yuval needed to be faster himself. Flames hugged his limbs, speeding his movements with their warm embrace. A kick towards his enemy’s side was avoided by the slightest step back. Yuval followed up by slamming his foot into the ground, turning that kick into a lunge. His fist nearly struck the man, but even the flames coiled around his arm didn’t quite touch his opponent’s clothing.

Yuval twisted his hips, his left fist aiming for the man’s center of mass. Yet just like everything else, his smug opponent twisted away, dodging his attack with his eyes closed. No, he couldn’t get frustrated at that. It was stupid.

He stepped far inside the range of the man’s sword. If the weapon was activated, he might have just impaled himself on the blade. A rising punch at his chin. A spinning kick, and though Yuval turned his back on his foe, his senses could still pick him out. A low, rear kick aimed at a leg. But not once could he touch him.

Yuval growled in frustration, flames building inside of him. They filled his lungs, before spraying forth from his mouth. The cone of fire didn’t touch a hair on the man’s head. But perhaps the flow of energy might have forced him into a difficult position. One more jab to push him against a wall and then-

All of a sudden, his body felt sluggish. His energy was denied to him, and the flickering light filled his vision. No, it couldn’t be! It was too soon!

The blade flashed across his neck. He felt its cruel heat. He gargled as he felt the blood drip down his throat.

“You’re dead, Yuval.”

Yuval tried to stomp Chidi’s foot. Obviously his older brother dodged that, though. “It’s not fair! You said I got ten moves and I only used eight!”

“Both the leg sweep and the fire breath definitely counted,” Chidi retorted. “Also, didn’t you say you were going to change up your energy flow?”

Yuval grumbled, looking at the sword in Chidi’s hand. It wasn’t a real sword of course. It wasn’t even real lasers. It was more like a flashlight with a defined shape and endpoints. He could feel it when it ‘cut’ him still, but it was much safer. No matter how much his brother was okay with injuries, Yuval really hadn’t gotten to that point yet.

“I was, uh,” Yuval struggled to explain. “I was gonna change up my energy flow. On my next move.”

“It would have been too late,” Chidi said. “It would be simple for anyone to account for a single anomaly.”

Yuval grumbled. If he’d just landed one hit… or at least scorched Chidi’s clothes! He would have won. Not really of course, but according to their rules it would count. Yuval wondered if Chidi had used energy to dodge his fire breath, but he certainly hadn’t sensed anything.

He wanted to make Chidi have to use his energy. Yuval also wanted to force his brother into a fair fight, but obviously that was going to take a long time. Chidi was strong. So strong, in fact, Yuval wondered if anyone could beat him. Yuval might have gotten annoyed at him for fighting with his eyes closed if he didn’t do that with everyone else, even their parents.

Yuval wished he could beat them, too. However, they never made things easy. Not that he actually wanted that. He was mature enough now to know that it would be a hollow victory. But if he could at least ‘win’ according to certain restrictions and move onto the next level of training, he would feel his improvements. “Am I ever going to get really strong…?” Yuval muttered.

“Yuval. You’re barely twenty. You’re already plenty strong for your age.”

“Yeah but… auntie Alva fought in a war by my age.”

Chidi shook his head. “And you should be glad you haven’t had to. Wars aren’t any fun. Besides, that was in the lower realms. If we were to compare the two of us, I was in Essence Collection before I did anything really dangerous. Trust me, you’ll have more than enough opportunities in the future.”

“Like fighting against the Trigold Cluster?” Yuval asked.

“If we have to,” Chidi agreed. Though personally, he didn’t think his brother was as ready as Yuval thought. Especially if he still cared about little things like cuts.

-----

Elsewhere, another youthful fire cultivator trained, though with a much better understanding of what the world involved. Even if she was missing many large pieces. Unfortunately, she too was subject to frustration. “It’s so annoying,” Jyotsana complained to Prospero. “I feel like I’m never going to get everything back.”

“So?” the man shrugged.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“So? These are my memories! My insights. I worked hard for those!”

“Unless you do something royally foolish, without taking another step in your cultivation journey your total lifespan will be longer than before. Furthermore, your early path is clearly more efficient,” Prospero said. “What memories concern you? Thoughts of family, friends?”

“I didn’t have any of those.” The corner of her mouth twitched. “It was just me.”

“You must have had a few comrades in arms or the like,” Prospero said.

“Nah. That’s how I ended up in a group with… those four,” Jyotsana reminded him.

“I see no issues then,” the man shrugged once more. “You live. Your cultivation is improving. You have access to resources. And you can visit with your friends.” He paused. “Except you don’t.”

She blasted a target with flames. Most of the time, her control was much better but she just wanted to use some effort. “We’re not friends.”

“I can go get Durff and have you say that to his face, if you want,” Prospero threatened her.

“... Please don’t.”

Prospero grinned. “I think you’re just embarrassed about how you look.”

“And what’s wrong with it, huh?” she stomped her feet.

“Nothing at all, young lady.”

Jyotsana grumbled. How was she supposed to get any respect like this? It was fine. She’d grow taller soon. Definitely. Her new mother wasn’t this short, so she still had a chance.

-----

Durff wasn’t good with numbers, but he was fairly certain that he was supposed to be out of energy. Oh, he was tired alright, but with however long it had been he should have been completely out, what with the constant fighting. He knew that the sensible thing to do was to break off the battle long ago, go rest, and come back.

But he hadn’t done that. Instead, he kept hitting things. And he wasn’t going to stop until he smashed the whole system. Except for the star, obviously. That hadn’t done anything to him and he was pretty sure people would get upset. Also that he couldn’t do it, since stars were soft and hard to smash.

Unlike the stupid asteroids in this system which were extremely hard and still difficult to smash. But hey, he was making progress. The first time he’d actually broken one of them in two he had been elated. Now, he was being chased by ten times as many quarter asteroids or something like that. But he was still going to smash them all.

There were some minor details to iron out. Like if he smashed the entire system into a powder and it kept trying to murder him. The tiny shards were already kind of annoying. Maybe he could instead… smash things together?

Durff had long forgotten his reason for actually coming to the system to train. Something about weight or whatever. That didn’t matter so much.

Maybe if he smashed these things small enough they would crash into each other more and keep fighting each other.

The main problem Durff had was hitting just one thing at a time, so he stopped doing that and just hit everything in an area. He smashed some asteroids, and then bits and pieces of them smashed into him. There were enough that the ones after them were blocked by the pileup, as he was covered from head to toe.

When things didn’t smash into him too fast, it didn’t hurt that much. Which was good, because everything already hurt a lot. Durff pushed everything away and began swinging his hammer again. It would be so much easier if everything was in one spot. Maybe rather than trying to break all the asteroids apart, he should have turned them into one big one?

He didn’t know how to make the stuff stick together except by hitting it really hard. So he began doing that. Each swing captured clouds of debris, sweeping the area around him. Sometimes he made things worse, causing more stuff to shatter. It appeared even the smallest dust wanted to attack him. How annoying.

Durff hadn’t realized it, but his hammer was chipped and cracked from his constant battles. No amount of energy support was enough for the impacts it had to withstand time and time again. Especially not when his energy had gotten lower and he started relying more on feelings to smash things.

His body was some part of his success, but a more tempered body would only get him so far. A certain sort of insight was necessary to do things beyond what energy alone provided for. All powerful cultivators relied on such to some extent, though those who focused on particular weapons tended to do so to a greater extent.

Durff was far from being any sort of smith, and he never would be. His hammer was a weapon of war, not a tool. Even so, he slowly began to form something. Swing after swing, he compressed more and more of the various rubble inhabiting the system into a single mass. While in theory it was more dangerous like that, in practice it never moved far enough away from him to build up any sort of relative velocity. When it crashed into him, it was no different from him falling a short distance onto a planet.

Soon enough, it became an even thinner distinction, as he forced more and more mass together. Even the smaller particles that wanted to launch themselves at him were draw in by the growing mass of the planet he was putting together.

There was no rhyme or reason to how Durff went about it. He wasn’t intending to create a planet, just smashing things together. It naturally began to gain in density as its own gravity crushed the inner layers, aided of course by his heavy swings sending more and more matter into the single clump of matter.

The natural inclination the local matter had to assault him came with some level of self propulsion, but once gravity reached a certain level the smaller rocks and dust weren’t able to overcome the pull. The larger ones generated proportionately more energy, but they were easy for him to target, leaping over them and sending them down to be part of the mass below.

Durff had no idea how long it took, but eventually he found himself standing on a planet with half a hammer. A planet that was trying to smash into him, barrelling around its star with great enthusiasm. But as he was already standing on it, it literally felt like nothing.

He frowned. Why was he there again? Oh right. His hammer wasn’t heavy enough. He dropped it. It gave a very satisfying thud. Oh! Maybe he’d just needed somewhere with more gravity?

For some reason he felt that wasn’t right. Either way, he was going to have to get a new hammer. This one was pretty busted.