"It looks like the anonymous source was right," Draven said as he stared down at the men carrying crates from an abandoned power plant and loading them into trucks. Guards with guns patrolled nearby, keeping a lookout. They each wore a red armband with the symbol of the rebellion stitched into them.

"You see them down there," Master Sygvar pointed to a pair of guards. "You think you can take them by yourself?"

Draven stared down at the pair of rebel guards. One was a skinny kid of average height with a neon pink mohawk. The other was tall and muscled, built like a bodybuilder. They both stood in front of a door leading into the power plant. Each had a gun at their waist. "This should be easy," Draven said as he began to stretch and get warmed up.

Sygvar laughed, then pushed him. "Good luck!"

Draven fell from the building. He began to cycle essence around his body, naturally enhancing every aspect of his body and mind. His rapid fall to the ground slowed as his perception of reality sped up. Right before he landed, Draven converted some of his essence into kinetic energy and shot it out of his feet, slowing his fall. He landed on his feet without a sound.

Draven drew his sword and sprinted towards the guards. He constructed a mental representation of the guards' guns and sympathetically connected them to their real weapons. Sympathetic bound objects share energy and matter between themselves. What happens to one happens to the other. The more alike the two objects are, the less energy is lost in the exchange between the objects. Draven pulled on his mental image of the gun, and the guns on the guards flew toward him. He uses essence at the fuel source, his reserves only being consumed a little due to how similar the bound objects and mental image were.

The guards stopped their talking, chasing after their guns. Draven sliced through both guns when they flew in range of him. The bodybuilder guard came at him first. Draven punched the man in the stomach.

He grunted and flashed Draven his white teeth, "My turn!"

Draven heard servomotors whining as the big man drew back his fist. His fist blurred towards Draven, hitting him on the jaw. Draven leaned backward with the blow, taking most of the force out of the attack. He thrusted his sword forward into the the big man's gut.

"No Killing!" Sygvar shouted from above.

Draven paused mid-strike, allowing Mohawk to punch him in the face. He took the full force of the blow, but he felt nothing. The essence cycling through his body made Mohawk's normal punch feel like nothing. Draven distanced himself from the two combatants and sheathed his sword. Though he preferred to fight with his sword, he liked fighting unarmed almost as much. Draven adopted the first kata of Al'Manti unarmed combat, a pure offensive fighting style meant to dominate.

The big man ripped off the trench coat covering his body, revealing limbs enhanced with cyberwear. Servos on his legs whined as he ran at Draven. He threw another punch at Draven.

Draven dodged the attack and grabbed the big man's arm. He grunted, pumping even more essence into his system as he then grabbed the big man by the torso and suplexed him. The big man's head collided with the ground, cracking the pavement.

Letting go of the big man, Draven turned to find the Mohawk guard. Mohawk kicked Draven in the leg and followed up with a lightning-fast jab. Draven caught his fist and then squeezed his hand. He smiled as he heard the sound of bones cracking layered over Mohawk's screams. Draven let go of Mohawk's hand and punched him in the jaw, knocking the rebel out.

"Bravo, good work," Sygvar patted Draven on the back. "Though you should heal those bruises on your face and leg."

Draven used Body Supremacy to heal his injuries. He conjured a mental image of his body. Connecting the mental image to his real body with sympathy. Then, he imagined his body healing, channeling essence to those locations to complete the process. The bruises on his face and leg slowly disappeared.

"You know if you had opened yourself up to the Weave. You wouldn't have been surprised by me pushing you. Or gotten hit by these thugs," Sygvar said.

"True, but I didn't have enough time to open myself to the Weave." Draven pointed up towards the building they had been standing on, "With you pushing me off the building."

Sygvar rubbed his chin as he grinned, "That's why you should always be prepared for anything. You never know when an enemy may strike."

Stolen novel; please report.

Draven squinted his eyes, "You're not my enemy. You're my teacher."

Sygvar crouched down and examined the crushed hand of the Mohawk rebel. "And did you really have to crush his hands? Do you know how much this will cost to fix?"

""He's a rebel. I'm sure he's done far worse to other people. He and the other rebels should be thrown into the Abyss," Draven decided to let Sygvar change the direction of the conversation. He walked over to the door leading into the power plant. Remembering what Sygvar said, Draven opened himself to the Weave as he opened the door and entered the plant. Instantly, the Weave warned him of danger. He quickly converted his essence into kinetic force and launched himself forward. A knife missed impelling him, instead slashing Draven's side.

"Don't move!"

In front of him, Two guards were pointing assault rifles at Draven. He glanced behind him, finding two more guards. One holding a knife with Draven's blood on it.

"I said don't move," one of the guards in front of Draven yelled, aiming his assault rifle at Draven's head. "Go tie him up," He gestured to the guard next to him.

The guard nodded, wrapping his gun sling around himself and letting his gun hang from his shoulder. He retrieved zip ties from a pocket on his black vest and approached Draven. "Turn around and put your hands behind your back."

Draven complied and turned around.

"Slowly!" The guard added.

Draven moved slower. The two guards behind him came into view. Both were wielding melee weapons. One held an electric baton. The other had a knife dripping with Draven's blood. Draven constructed a mental representation of the guard pointing a gun at his head. He sympathetically connected his mental image with the guard, then willed the image to move towards him as fast as possible. Draven jumped forward.

The two guards in front of Draven collided and fell to the ground. Draven landed over them. He sympathetically bound their guns to each of his hands and then balled his hands into fists. The imperfect sympathetic link burned a large amount of Essence. The guns of the guards crumpled into useless piles of junk metal.

One of the guards under Draven pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the leg. The guard pulled it out, letting Draven's blood flow. He stabbed Draven again, but Draven caught his hand and broke it. Draven punched the guard in his jaw and knocked him out.

The other guard had crawled away, regrouping with the other two wielding melee weapons. The one with the electric baton yelled as they charged Draven. He swung his baton in a low arc; lightning blazed across the long metallic end. Draven dodged out of the way of the attack. He grabbed the guard's outstretched arm and pinned the guard's arm behind his back. Draven activated the baton, electrocuting the guard. He released the guard, allowing the man to flop to the floor unconscious.

From the Weave, Draven felt the last two guards approaching him from behind. He ducked their attack and swept their legs with an Essence-enhanced kick. Both guards fell to the ground as Draven backed away.

Essence exploded out of Draven's arms. He bounded it sympathetically to a mental image and then willed the mystical energy into two force bolts. He fired the projectiles directly at the heads of the two guards on the ground, knocking them both out. With all of them taken care of, Draven healed his wounds.

Sygvar walked into the power plant. He looked around at the guards lying on the ground, "Not too bad."

Draven dug into the pockets of one of the guards, pulling out a handful of zip ties. Then, he stepped outside the building, restraining the bodybuilder and mohawk guards with zip ties, and dragged them into the power plant. He tied the four remaining guards and placed them with the bodybuilder and mohawk kid.

"Who do you think has the weakest mind?" Draven asked Sygvar.

"Probably the kid with the mohawk," Sygvar responded.

Draven channeled Essence into his eyes, opening the eyes of his soul. Threads of the Weave appeared before his eyes. He sympathetically bound the concepts of Mind, Persuasion, and Trust to the Essence within his body. Coating his hands in Essence, Draven began to Weave the Threads. His hands blurred as he sped up, Weaving a simple three-thread spell.

"Ah, a suggestion spell. That's a good idea," Sygvar commented.

The Essence within his body slowly changed, taking on the feeling of suggestion. Draven stopped Weaving, placing his hand on the head of Mohawk, and he launched the spell. He then slapped Mohawk.

The kid screamed as he woke up, "What happened?". He looked around as if searching for something. Then, his eyes settled on Draven and Sygvar. He shook his head, "What did you do to me?"

"What is this place?" Draven asked.

"This is …" Veins on the kid's neck enlarged as he struggled not to speak. "This is a power plant," Mohawk smirked in triumph. "You'll have to try better than that."

Draven rolled his eyes, "What is the rebellion using this place for?"

The kid strained to keep his mouth shut. His veins bulging around his head and neck. "The top floor is a training facility!" He yelled out as he took a gasp of air. "The ground floor is a weapons manufacturing facility. And the basement…"

"What is the basement?" Draven asked.

He shrugged, "They don't let us go down there."

"They who can go down there?"

"Scientists, officers, and more trusted members of the rebellion. They mostly bring down crates of supplies. But nothing down below ever comes up."

Draven nodded, "Hold still." Draven channeled Essence into his eyes, bringing the Weave back to his sight. He sympathetically bound the Threads of Mind, Light, and Shape to a small chunk of Essence within his body. Essence flowed into his hands as he Weaved a custom spell.

Mohawk flinched backward as Draven launched his spell at him. The spell hit Mohawk in his head and then disappeared. A few seconds later, light emerged from his head, constructing itself into a three-dimensional map of the power plant. Draven sympathetically bound the map and wielded it to his hand. "Where do the officers hang out?"

"They usually take their breaks on the second floor. They have separate rooms on that level, too."

"Thank you," Draven Weaved a sleep spell and put Mohawk asleep.