Chapter 8
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For a few moments after Bairn and Helion shout nothing happens, then Theo makes the first move. He lunges forward, seemingly with only the power of his body and punches blindly towards me his arm, It has two rings of fire circling it. I activate my light body technique and float out of the way. When his fists reaches full extension at the point where I once was the two rings combined and shot out a powerful burst of flame.
Seeing I dodge his strike he seems like I have damaged his ego, Perhaps he wasn't expecting me to be able to keep up with him after all I had gone through no formal training. His breathing had slightly laboured. I decide to fight with my physical body and void sphere only for now.
I smile at him and he puts up his guard suspecting I will make my move, He is correct. I teleport into the air above him and land on his shoulders, He doesn't notice at first due to my light body technique. Its his mother who tips him off with her shocked expression, he looks up and his pupils shrink. He jumps back which unbalances me and I drift to the ground. It was at this point when bairn spoke.
“Don't hold back Theo, I suspect he will be a challenge” Her voice is a mix of confusion and excitement.
I see, Perhaps he went easy on me because he's used to easy opponents he might be like me, a genius as Tenelux has called me.
After Bairn speaks Theo nods and his body changes becoming more muscular and defined, His fingers grow claws. I see his jaw moving, Perhaps he is also growing fangs and a tail appears with spear tip at the end. He body is also covered in flame. I realize this is like what I can do with my wings, I decide to not bring them out for now but I will use my lightning now.
While he is covered with fire I have lightning crackling all over my body, I create a fan of floating silver feathers behind me as ready made projectiles.
I make the first move this time, Charging my legs with lightning I dash forward while simultaneously throwing the clear net in front of me, making me disappear. To the outside observers it seems like i'm still running at Theo but to him i've disappeared again, he looks up searching for me, It leaves him open, I punch him directly in the chest with a charged fist. His body is tough so I don't break bones, but my speed coupled with my lightning charged punch blew him off his feet and back a few metres.
The audience of Bairn the man and even helion are confused, why didn't he block. To them it seems that I charged at him openly.
I smile, he looks as confused as they are. I decide to be cocky a raise my hand and make a come at me motion. He thinks about it for a moment then smiles and charges. We enter into a small brawl of trading punches, knees and kicks. We continue for about 10 seconds till I realize he's coming out on top in direct confrontation. I use 3 of the feathers to shock him, two into the front of his legs and one to the middle of his back. I misjudged the charge it seems because as soon as the feathers hit they give out blast of power knocking out his legs and pushes him into a faceplant. I jump back some and watch him get up. He seems to be smiling and then starts to giggle, From behind him a mirage of a large cat covered in dancing flame with an long tail with a spear head at the end. Is it his shape? His body changes more.
He swells in size by a large degree his muscles bulge and his teeth grow from his mouth becoming savage fangs and the flames around him increase in heat and size. I realize he has gotten truly serious, Not waiting for him I do the same, I make my wings erupt from my back and charge them with lightning, this vaporizes the back of my jacket and shirt. I create a new fan of feathers behind me, all charged higher than before and I began to hover off the ground.
Helion POV
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When Theo fully assimilated with his shape I could see Barin and Brent swell with joy and prepare to stop the fight, I stop them at let the fight continue I know this isn't Azrons limit. The other two doubt me for a moment until in proven right, Two grand black and silver wings appear from Azrons back and he hovers off the ground. While I was aware of Azron sphere essence I was not sure about his Shape, Perhaps a bird?
After their grand exhibition of their grand abilities their stamina runs dry and they both collapse. A bit lackluster for an ending but their kids what can you expect.
Minutes pass,Theo wakes up before Azron and leave with his parents, before he leaves he looks back at Azron and smiles. Seeing this I also smile, I know of Theos attitude. I also know what this change means.
Azrons POV
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I wake up and find myself lying on the floor with my head supported by someone's legs. My eyes open and I see helion looking down at me. Not sure what happend I get up slowly, It's hard to do it feels like all my energy has been drained. Helion supports me as I get up.
“What happened” I ask
She smiles.
“You and theo both used to much power and collapsed, He woke and left before you”
“Oh” It was the only answer I could think of.
I did remember that I made all of my power course through me as to give me a power boost, I couldn't contain it and it just slipped out maybe it was the same for Theo.
Helion tells me the rest of the day's plans are cancelled and will be rescheduled due to my exhaustion and collapse, I gladly accept I have some things I want to work on.
During the sparring match I noticed a few things. Points being movement and power as well as planning. I need to work on both of these.
Helion accompanies me back to my room, not because I needed it, she seemed to want to and I saw no reason to say no.
We enter the room and she looks at me for a short moment before asking a few questions.
“Your powers have grown? Did the spheres explode and some shards mix with your shape?”
I answer truthfully.
“Yes”
She nods, Apparently the shards enable physical manifestation basically allowing me to use my shapes abilities and add abilities and attributes to the shape. They all had one initial one. Thinking to myself I wonder if I have another ability as the light body and lightning feathers both came from the shards.
“Also what is your shape, I'd like to know for future reference” she says.
“ Its me with wings and armour” I answer simply just giving the basic view of it , I had told tenelux before so I assumed she knew.
Her eyes slightly bulge, she ask for clarification and I explain about it and how I told tenelux. She mutters something about how he must've thought I was joking.
She leaves after that, having business to take care of. I sleep for the moment, experiments come later.
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2 weeks have passed since the initial sparring between me and Theo, since then I have spared 3 more times with him, each of the battles never reached the level of the first one it seemed some sort of mystical energy was at play there which the adult called puberty.Over the two weeks I learn that Theo and now I are more social outcasts within our age group due to our power growth and above age maturity. Because of this me and theo become close friends.
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Over the weeks I have felt various emotions coming back to me, happiness, anger, frustration and whatever emotion was responsible for playing tricks on others. I didn't experiment with my power like i'd planned, Helion recommended I learn how to read and then study in the library to think and study on how to improve myself. The lessons began a week and a half ago, Helion took me to a room that expanded upon mental absorption to make the process faster. In the time span till now I've learned how to read and write. The process takes longer if it's a language you're not familiar with.
Today's the day I first explore the library, In a word i'm excited. Inside there is history and techniques for the taking. I plan to take a look for mentions of the void sphere anywhere in the library but my main objectives are to look for techniques and learn the properties of my elements as well as the stages of power your island and sea go through.
I enter the library and explore, I pick out books about the various topics i'm interested in. A few hours pass and i've settled with 3 books to take with me to study. The three are the fundamentals of lightning, Compendium of weapons and techniques and internal power and usage. I register the books as being rented by me, they have system in place to keep track of the books, and return to my room.
In these two week ive moved to a slightly larger room with a desk, an area with increased natural energy for refinement and is located closer to where Theo and the training hall are. Helion made the arrangements.
I settled into my desk and chose to read the the book of internal power and usage. There were few stages that were known and fewer stages that were documented. First stage was sphere expansion, there were ten levels in this. Next was island expansion, this let each sphere make its own island, this was the level in which you could customize and expand your essences as well as your shape. The stages beyond this were unknown or not shared. Judging from the description I was a second level sphere expansion. Expansion happened when the density inside the sphere became too much for it to handle to it reforms, sometimes they need time, such as the case with my battle sense.
Usage is very complex. The body has internalized pathways the power can natually travel on. They were known simply as power veins. Certain practices could increase the size, durability and amount the lines could handle, certain techniques used different veins. I plan to use these practices. Practicing flowing power through the lines can also improve the control on the amount of power you can use.
The book also mentioned lifespan, It increased as your power increased.
Glossing over a few more things I finished the book and wrote down a few notes, Id use the notes for training later on.
I got out the book on lightning next. There were many different training methods for lightning. I mainly focused on the information about higher power and speed. There were a few methods. Charging your entire body can increase your overall speed and reactions. Charging one part of your body can make it increase speeds by insane amounts. I will use the whole body charge, with my void ability I have no need for instant movement techniques.
The offensive techniques mainly focused on the concentration and flow of lightning. Concentration for bolt or beam attacks, Or flow for formation and wave attacks, I made a mental note to check out formation later. Making notes on how I will train later. I lose myself in the information. As time passes I hear a knocking at the door. I stand up open it and theo walks in, looks like he's bored again. He goes straight to my bed and falls on to it.
“You bored again” I ask
“You could say that” He sounds dejected.
He must've sparred with the other kids again. Unlike me Theo went to the general schooling system here and sparred frequently with the other kids. He was the one who often won and he had social difficulties due to his attitude when he couldn't understand why other kids weren't as strong. This is how he and me became such good friends.
“Who was it this time”
“Ben” He says
His hand shifts between a human hand and a furry hand with claws. This was the result of assimilation you are able to shift different body parts at a stronger scale and your shape evolves.
I nod. Ben was one of the annoying ones from the stories i've heard from Theo, weak but vile mouthed. He enjoyed ridiculing theo for his freakish “growth”. Apparently to Ben gaining power for your self was laughed at.
I myself only went through this once as I was not included in the kids general education, They did ask but I wanted to study on my own.
Theo usually didn't let it get to him though, He liked his strength and now me because I could match him. Because of his outcast status within the other kids he got bored quite easily, often coming to me for entertainment. We usually worked on new moves or went and sparred.
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Today we sparred again, This time I won. This brought our total to 3-3. As we got our towels and we prepared to leave we see five other kids our age come into the training hall. Spotting us one of them gestures towards us, we hear a laugh and they begin to walk over.
There little group seemed to be hiding something as they come up.
They reach us and start laughing, they begin to form a circle around us. Theo looks worried
“Hey theo guess what we got” Says one of the kids.
Theo stays quite. He's confused.
“Well I'll tell you, we got sick of all your high and mighty attitude so we decided to take you down a peg” The boy says
Theo only looks confused.
They all pull out a stick that has strange scratches all over it. The sticks glow and my body begins to burn from the inside out, I can't feel my body anymore. My lightning reigns out of my control, from the expression on Theo's face the same thing is happening to him.
They put the sticks down and walk over to Theo, it seems i'm collateral damage to them. At this point my vision blurs from the pain and I see them begin to kick theo and stomp on him, I can do nothing. I try to tell at them, try to make them stop. This continues for I don't know how long, they show no signs of stopping and at this point Theo is limp and unresponsive. I feel anger towards them for a time then towards them I feel coldness, I feel that I will when I can, kill them.
I begin to feel something slowly cracking, breaking, my bones?
My vision becomes clear and my body moves, But i'm not in control of my body. I can feel my body now, it's different, bigger and my teeth their sharp. My muscles bulge under pitch black armour and claws, wings expand from my back and my body leaks a silvery black mist it has lightning traveling through it. The kids only notice me when the mist drifts under their legs and shocks them, both with its appearance and lightning. One turns around and his eyes go wide.
Whatever is in control does nothing and looks at the kids with cold emotionless eyes that hide burning rage, my burning rage . Its at this point I fade into nothingness, I dont have the power to hang on anymore. Before I completely go the being in control acknowledges my rage. I guess this is the return or birth of my newest emotion, Rage.
I feel a word resounding through my mind. Transcendence. That is my shape original ability.
They last thing I see and feel is a warm liquid covering my arm while a kids body is hanging from it.
End of Chapter 8
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