Chapter 11

“Good morning.” Ise greeted Lee when he emerged from his tent in the morning.

“Morning. No one else up yet?” Lee asked with a yawn as he joined Ise by the fire.

“No. Just us. I would offer you breakfast but I was worried it’d get cold so I’m waiting for everyone to be awake before I make it.” Ise said.

“That’s quite considerate of you.” Lee responded. They sat silently by the fire for a few minutes. The warmth of the fire was welcome against the chilly morning air. Lee didn’t break the silence; he didn’t know what to say. Ise did not break the silence, he cherished the sounds of nature around them. The silence lingered on the morning air for a few minutes.

“Hey Ise……I wanted to thank you.” Lee finally broke the silence.

“For what?” Ise was caught off guard.

“Giving me a second chance. I never really apologized for how I handled the first mission. I did everything wrong. But I still had the gall to get angry when I was demoted. You…….make a better leader than I could.” Lee swallowed his pride with an audible gulp.

“No…..You shouldn’t apologize. I’m no better than you.” Ise turned his gaze away and clenched his teeth.

“…That...sounds more like an insult than assurance.” Lee was taken aback.

“On our second mission, I didn’t listen when everyone told me that my plan was foolish. You all even tried to compromise with me on it. But I still would not budge. I could have healed him of any injuries you all inflicted, but I still wanted him alive and unharmed. I cannot be a good leader, because I cannot imagine a plan that isn’t exactly the way I want it to be, no matter how unrealistic.” Ise lamented.

“So…sounds like we both suck.” Lee stifled a chuckle, which soon turned into a full laugh.

“No, we do not suck. Look at you, you put all this effort into trying to unite the team together and get us to train. We don’t even know the specific challenges we’ll have to face in the qualifier, and you still are planning for them.” Ise complimented Lee.

“It’s nothing. Breaking the ice and training are just the logical thing to do……that reminds me, I haven’t told you all what the qualifier is yet!” Lee shot up at the realization.

“Oh……Oh! And we haven’t told you-” Before Ise could finish he was cut off as Lee jumped up and grabbed a pan.

“Get up everyone! We have a long day of training ahead of us!” Lee shouted as he banged on the pan.

“Lee! I was going to use that to make breakfast!” Ise yelled back.

“You still can, but we gotta get these guys up, come on!” Lee handed Ise another pan for him to bang.

“…. Alright. Good morning, everyone! Rise and shine!” Ise started banging on his pan too.

Before long, everyone had reluctantly emerged from their tents and was sitting around the fire waiting while Ise made breakfast.

“So, before we start training today, it seems we have a couple points of discussion.” Lee tried to get everyone on topic.

“Yeah?” Roku grunted.

“Yeah. The first of which is that I know what is going to go on at the qualifier.” Lee smirked.

“Really? I thought it was supposed to be a surprise.” Ace said.

“Yeah I did to………Turns out all I had to do was ask. Wish I knew that before I……Anyways, the qualifier.” Lee trailed off.

“What is it?” Roku asked.

“The only secret part about it is what it is qualifying us for. The procedure is actually pretty simple. All teams meet up at the edge of town, and then are guided off to a section of forest that is controlled and guarded. Each team is sent to a specific part of the woods, far enough away that we shouldn’t run into anyone else. Once everyone is in position, they release monsters into the woods. Whichever team kills the most, wins. Simple right?” Lee smiled.

Indeed, it did seem simple to him, but the others knew of a factor that would definitely derail that train of thought. Lee had yet to learn about Evan and his plan to hunt them. For those who knew, a reality became apparent: this would be the perfect way for Evan to attack them. Death in a forest filled with monsters, while tragic, would not be out of the ordinary. Evan would for sure strike during the qualifier.

“What’s going on? What’s with those faces?” Lee asked in response to everyone’s grimaces.

“Lee, there’s something we haven’t told you yet.” After one look at Roku reminding him not to touch on Evan’s true motive, Ise began recounting the previous day’s incident.

“All this happened while I was gone?” Lee hung his head, ashamed he wasn’t there to help.

“No, he would’ve found a way to separate us no matter what. He wanted you and Ace to be excluded.” Ise explained.

“Damn……This complicates things.” Lee lamented. Lee’s spirit had risen when he heard how simple the qualifier would be. Just hunting and defeating monsters was an easy task with this team. In fact, most of their troubles came from the inability to NOT kill things. But now knowing there was a person in the mix who had studied them for the sole purpose of hunting them, it threw a wrench in Lee’s plan.

No one else in the group noticed it, they were too busy thinking about their own predicaments, or perhaps it was because Roku was the only one who knew Lee well enough to notice. Lee’s head was hung, but it wasn’t in sorrow or disappointment. A wicked smile spread its way across his face. He was excited.

“This is exactly what I wanted! We are important enough to be targets! This ‘Evan the Noble’ is of enough importance to be known by a title, and of all groups and people, he targets us. This will be our chance to shoot to the top!” Lee’s thoughts were so obvious Roku could almost hear them.

Roku didn’t say anything, and he had no desire to say anything, for Lee was not alone in being excited, above all else, above the desire to win, the desire to protect his teammates, the desire to succeed, Roku’s desire to get his runback against Evan was above all else.

“Anyone have a plan?” Lee asked, hiding his enthusiasm.

“I got nothing.” Ivory sat back with a sigh.

“The only thing I can think of is to try and reason with them…...but I know it won’t work.” Ise echoed her sigh.

“……. If worse comes to worse, maybe I can…..” The chatter of Ace’s teeth could be heard. It was not fear that caused her to shake, it was the thought of having to kill any more people.

“No, we’d never ask you to do that. You won’t ever have to kill anyone else again.” Ise said.

“Yeah! The whole reason we are here is to train & improve. In your case, you’re gonna learn how to control your power.” Lee echoed Ise’s sentiment.

“I think it’s too early to worry about our plan. We need to focus on training first. At the end of the day, I’ll tell you when I think of something.” Lee added.

“Why are you making the plan? We demoted you.” Ivory raised an eyebrow.

“I know, I’m a bad leader. I can’t lead a team to save my life, and in fact it almost cost me my life last time. This time-” Before Lee could finish his speech, he was interrupted.

“As a team, we need to listen to everyone’s input. And as team leader, my opinion is that Lee has shown that he is a very forward-thinking person. His first plan failed because of Roku’s mistake and his inability to lead us to adapt. But I think he has redeemed himself. He brought us out here to strengthen us through training, he brought us together and finally broke the ice. I think the least we can do is hear him out.” Ise said.

“I agree, Lee may be a delusional fool who puts himself before everyone else, but he does have a mind for planning. I can attest to that.” Roku also came to Lee’s defense.

“I don’t put myself before everyone else…. mostly……… anymore.” Lee quietly said.

“I mean, if no one else is having any ideas, I guess we can go with his plan…. It better be good though.” Ivory rolled her eyes.

“Now that we are in agreement that we’ll think of a plan later, are we going to start training? Or should that wait? I’m fine with waiting…” Ace trailed off at the end nervously.

“We start now.” Roku smiled and cracked his knuckles as he stood up.

“I like your enthusiasm Roku, but you won’t be sparring with Ace yet, we gotta do warmups first.” Lee stopped him.

“Shouldn’t you explain what the whole regimen you have planned is before we start?” Ivory asked.

“I think it would be better if you explained as we went, we have spent too long sitting here talking already. I am ready to start.” Ise said.

“Yeah, let’s get going!” Roku excitedly yelled.

“Alright, so we’ll start each day with a fifteen-mile run-” Lee was interrupted by multiple groans.

Despite the groaning, everyone started the run. Even when magic is involved, especially when magic is involved, the basic pillars of strength and fitness cannot be neglected. That was a lesson Lee learned from his master.

As they ran through the forest along the path Lee made, a smile grew on Lee’s face. He was back at it, he wasn’t giving up, he was working towards something. He wasn’t alone. It had been a while since he could say that.

“Come on guys, that’s one mile down! Keep up the pace!” Ise said as they passed the first mile marker.

“Yes sir!” Lee said. He wasn’t alone. He wasn’t going to let himself believe he was again. This time he was going to recognize the people around him. This time he was going to treat them like people and not tropes. This time would be different.

***

“It’s over! We did it!” Ivory said as she collapsed at the finish line. Ise and Roku remained standing next to her.

“Come on, keep it up, finish strong!” Ise shouted words of encouragement back to the two who were lagging behind.

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Ace stumbled her way across the finish line and collapsed next to Ivory.

Despite his confident demeanor and enthusiasm in setting the training up, Lee finished dead last, and collapsed next to the other two.

“You can rest for a minute, but the next step of our training begins shortly, right Lee?” Ise was met with three groans.

“Alright……..now that the runs over….we’ll hop into the next part of training…… Ego, I mean, magic practice.” Lee had yet to catch his breath.

“…...Why magic practice? And why’d you call it that other name?” Despite her exhaustion, Ivory caught onto Lee’s mention of Ego.

“…. How do I explain this without sounding like a jerk…..Down here peoples understanding of magic is…different, sort of incomplete. Where Roku and I are from, it’s known as ‘Ego’. I think by sharing our knowledge of it, and combining it with how magic is perceived here, we can all grow stronger.” Lee sat up.

“What do you mean incomplete? Wouldn’t it not work if it was incomplete?” Ivory was stunned.

“…..Tell her Roku.” Lee rolled over and threw up a little, still recovering from the run.

“Ego is the energy inside you that you can focus to become stronger.” Roku said.

“…. Really? That’s all you’re giving her? Is that really all you know about Ego?”” Lee said before going back to throwing up. Roku responded with a shrug.

“….That’s hardly different from magic, but I probably shouldn’t put too much stock into what idiot number two says. Everyone has energy inside themselves called mana, and when drawn upon, it can do a variety of things called ‘magic’. For me, I can enhance my arrows to be stronger, faster, and track a target. Some people use magic to cast spells written in the ancient tomes, some people use it to make stuff like fire swords, and it can be used to heal people like what Roku does. There are some other more unique cases like Ace, but that’s the gist of it.” Ivory explained.

“……..I see.” Lee thought for a second.

“With Ego, it is all based on your perception of yourself. The energy within manifests in abilities to fit your perception of what you want and need. But it also comes from what you think about yourself and what you think about Ego. It’s all built around perception and beliefs. Since down here everyone believes it to be ‘magic’ and work how magic does, it manifests that way……...” Lee trailed off. He knew differing ideas and perception about Ego could change it, but could it really be affected this much? Could there be other places who have an even different understanding of it?

“Well, what I believe is that my magic has worked for me so far, I don’t need to change it.” Ivory wasn’t impressed by Lee’s vague explanation.

“Changing perception might not help you, but I can see it helping Ace, Ise…and apparently Roku. If you want, now might be a good time to go and get that briefcase you forgot.” Lee said.

Ivory’s eyes lit up as she remembered it but tried to play it off.

“Alright, I’ll leave soon, no rush.” She said before leaving a few seconds later.

“I don’t need this either.” Roku huffed.

“I’m not so sure about that. How do you think your ability works?” Lee was still shocked. He’d known Roku for years, and never knew about his complete lack of understanding of Ego.

“I don’t have one, don’t need one, don’t want one.” Roku turned his head away from the thought of getting some cheat power.

“What about…...” Lee tried to think. He was sure he’d seen Roku use some ability. Beatdown Barrage? That was just a series of punches. Fighting Flow? Redirecting where the energy was focused in his body, anyone can do that. Roku really didn’t have any ability.

“What about that ‘new ability’ you mentioned you used in that battle at Pops’ house?” Lee asked.

“Oh that? It had nothing to do with Ego. I’ll show you eventually. I’m gonna go train over here. Get me when it’s time to spar.” Roku went to train by himself.

“I guess that leaves us three.” Lee turned to Ace and Ise.

“Our goal with this is to figure out what part of your perception is shaping your abilities, so we can learn what your real abilities are.” Lee said.

“I’m a healer, is there more to my ability than that?” Ise questioned.

“Well, there might be. There are many different ways to repair something. Figuring out if you fix something with tape instead of glue can help you get a better understanding of your abilities and become more efficient.” Lee said. Ise didn’t seem to get the metaphor.

Ise’s healing was already very good, but he could become faster, or use less energy. There was always room for improvement, Lee thought.

“What do you think my ability really is? What part of my perception is shaping it?” Ace asked.

“I have a couple ideas, but its something you have to figure out on your own. So, we’re gonna meditate.” Lee sat down cross-legged.

“Meditate? I don’t really like to be alone with my thoughts.” Ace said softly.

“It will be fine, Ace. Meditation can be very peaceful.” Ise assured her.

“Just try and focus on your desires, worries, fears, find any perception that might affect your ability, and trace it back to find the true nature behind your Ego…...or magic if you prefer to call it that.” Lee said as he closed his eyes and began meditating, Ise and Ace followed suit.

Ise thought about all his wants. He was a doctor, and now a healer. He wanted to see everyone in top health, he wanted to help people, he wanted to make sure they were in no pain. He had seen patients die in front of him, he had even had some who he knew personally. It was the worst feeling in the world. To Ise, death was his enemy. It was what he spent his whole life fighting against and preventing. It was what separated him from his family. He was blessed to be given this second chance. That’s what being a doctor is, giving people a second chance at life.

Ace thought about her fears, and her regrets. She had killed people, hurt people beyond repair. This uncontrollable, boundless power she had had done it. She wanted to help people the only way she could. Shouldn’t her perception be about helping people? Shouldn’t she be a healer like Ise? Or at least a wizard who casts spells that buff her teammates. But no, she was given a power most would kill for. A power she can’t control. A power she feared.

Lee thought about his power…. for about a minute before moving on to more pressing matters: The upcoming fight with Evan. How should he approach that fight? Roku never loses to the same opponent twice, that’s why he’s only fought Diran once. As much as Roku wants to beat Evan, he’s not gonna fight him until he is sure he’s gonna win. Evan probably knows this; he’s not going to go into a fight with Roku unprepared. Should Ace fight him? She could probably obliterate him in one attack. No, they can’t ask her to do that. Ise and Ivory are out of the question. Ise doesn’t fight, and archers are best outside of one-on-one confrontations. Could Lee himself do it? This Evan guy picked the fight knowing all about them. If he’s prepared to fight powerhouses like Roku and Ace, what could Lee do? No, that’s how losers think. If push came to shove, Lee had to be ready to fight him.

“Enough meditation, I’m ready to fight someone.” Roku disturbed the silence.

“Roku you…...It’s fine. We have meditated long enough.” Ise calmly responded.

“Sparring is next on the itinerary anyways.” Lee stretched as he stood up, as if awaking from a map.

“But I didn’t have my epiphany yet. I don’t know how to control my ability.” Ace worriedly said.

“It’s fine, you’re not gonna get it in one day, it was always gonna take more than meditation.” Lee extended his hand to help her to her feet.

“Who is going to spar with Roku? We have an odd number of people. I’m not going to fight anyone, so that leaves only three.” Ise asked.

“You’re right, I was counting on sparring against Ivory myself. We could do one on one’s and rotate, but there’s no fun in that. Instead, we’ll do a two vs. one.” Lee smiled.

“You and I against Roku?” Ace’s face lit up, if she had a teammate, she could avoid doing all the fighting.

“Nope, Roku and I against you.” The color quickly left her face.

“Since you can’t control your ability, we’re gonna focus on improving your energy enforcement and basic hand to hand combat. If we improve your control of that, your control over your ability might improve with it.” Lee said.

To be able to fire off giant blasts of energy like that, her energy reserves must be huge. With enough training, she may be able to rival Roku physically, Lee thought to himself. The problem is Ace is too far in her own head. Lee was hesitant, and careful not to sway her perception too much.

“Yes! I’ve been wanting to test my strength against Ace!” Roku shouted excitedly.

“Remember, it’s just sparring-” Lee tried to explain before being interrupted by Roku quickly saying:

“Three two one go!” All in one breath.

***

“How are they still going at it?” Ivory asked, briefcase in hand.

“I have no clue, I have not needed to step in and heal anyone yet either.” Ise responded.

“How do they have so much energy? I tapped out almost two hours ago.” Lee spat out, dumbfounded.

The trio was sitting on the clearing where they had previously meditated. Ivory arrived an hour ago but was still a spectator long enough to understand the unbelievability of how long this fight had been going on.

“Ace is so much stronger than I ever imagined. Granted Roku isn’t enhancing his attacks with Ego, but for someone to fight Roku for three hours straight…...it’s unbelievable.” Lee had mixed feelings about what was on display.

“Her growth has been amazing to witness. She started the fight with practically no fighting skills or knowledge, but she has grasped the basics already. Even I can tell that the flow of her energy has improved.” Ise smiled.

“My abilities don’t use much mana, but I still run dry after an hour and a half at most. Their mana reserves must be boundless.” Ivory smiled too.

Roku and Ace’s sparring match had already left its mark on the forest. Trees had been knocked down, some had their roots exposed, others had holes clean through them. Roku had a wide smile on his face, and no shirt on his back. He was enjoying his new sparring partner, not many people could go the distance with him, and although her skills were lacking, Roku was showing her the way as the fight progressed.

Ace’s face, however, had a mix of terror, nerves, fear, and awe at her own power, culminating in a shaky smile-like expression. Her hat had been discarded earlier in the fight, and her cape was torn and ragged. Bruises and small bits of blood decorated her body, but she still hadn’t reached her limit.

The only one whose expression was downturned was Lee’s, and he hated himself for it. He was trying to change his ways, but the jealousy and cynicism was still welling up in his heart, though he tried to suppress it. There was, without a shadow of a doubt, another person stronger than him and they were on his team. As far as strength goes on the team, he was number three out of five, dead middle. No closer to the top than he was the bottom. But he was not a side character, and this is not a show, book, or game, he was done thinking like that.

“So, what’s in the briefcase?” Lee redirected his thoughts to Ivory and her mysterious case.

“I’ll show you, but I don’t know what you’ll think….” Ivory started slowly lining up the numbers to unlock the briefcase.

When they finally lined up, she pushed a button and unlatched it, as she slowly opened it, Lee’s eyes lit up in awe.

“So, you happy?” Ivory smiled. Her theory was right, Lee recognized it, it had to be an artifact from the plateau.

“Oh yeah. We’re happy.” This changes things. This was the missing piece in Lee’s plan.

“Fire off your ability, use it, hit me!!!” Roku shouted to Ace.

“Ah!” Ace backpedaled away from Roku.

As the sparring match between Ace and Roku reached its conclusion, a smile finally found its way onto Lee’s face.

***

“So, the way I see it, Evan is gonna do one of three possible things.” Lee said, his face lit by the campfire.

The group sat around a warm fire, tired from the long day of training they had behind them. Ise had healed all of Ace’s injuries and the three scratches, four burns, and singular bruise that Roku had suffered.

“By nature of this challenge, we have two objectives we need to accomplish. We need to kill the most monsters, and fight Evan’s group. If we kill the most monsters but get killed by Evan it won’t matter that we technically won, as we’re dead. If we don’t kill the most monsters, but still beat or survive against Evan, we’ll get kicked out by Cassidy. So we’re gonna have to split into groups to accomplish both these objectives separate from each other.” Lee explained.

“The first possible action Evan will take, is to try and take down our monster hunting team. To guarantee we have a fighting chance against Evan, and still be able to kill the monsters, we’ll have Roku and Ivory be the hunting team.” Lee said.

Roku and Ivory looked at each other. They hadn’t really interacted that much, but the pairing made sense. Ivory felt secure that she’d have Roku watching her back, and Roku liked the prospect of being able to fight Evan without Lee or Ace.

“The second possibility is that he goes after Ace. He excluded Ace and I when he tried to recruit you guys, so he knows how dangerous Ace can be. So, the second group will be Ace and Ise.” Lee said.

“Why am I and Ace together? Where are you?” Ise asked.

“You’re there to heal Evan after Ace kicks his ass, so make sure he doesn’t die.” Lee laughed.

“And I am in the third group. There’s a real possibility that Evan doesn’t wanna fight Ace himself, knowing how strong she is, so he has probably stacked his team so that together they can win against Ace. But if I split off, he’ll have to split off his team. Either he faces Roku alone, Ace alone, or I alone. He’ll have to split off his team to fill the other objectives. He’s made it clear that he works best in groups, so splitting them up is our best deal.” Lee explained.

“What do we do if Evan doesn’t come after us? Do we regroup?” Ace asked.

“Well you’ll just have to adapt…….kidding. Only kidding.” Lee said, echoing back to his blunder at the first mission.

“If Evan doesn’t attack the monster hunting group, they should just keep killing as much monsters as possible. If Evan doesn’t attack you Ace, once you defeat his entourage, meet up with me. I’ll do the same if he attacks you, cleans up his goons, then join you. If he attacks Roku & Ivory, we’ll both be dealing with the rest of his group split between us, so once we meet up we’ll go help the hunting group.” Lee explained the whole plan.

“You’re so sure of this. What if he does something outside of the three possibilities you set? What if you die to him, or can’t beat his goons? What if he’s stronger than Roku or Ace?” Ivory asked, she wasn’t against the plan, but thought it almost seemed too simple. Lee smiled a confident smile.

“What kind of fool plans on his own death?” Lee cooly replied.

“……. That’s from One Piece, right?” Roku snickered.

“I regret ever trying to get you into anime.” Lee facepalmed.