Brel:
Brel was walking towards the bedroom where his two future disciples slept, and it was fifth ring and fourty turns in the morning right now. Hopefully, they had listened to him and were awake and ready. If not, then he'd just have to wake them gently. He walked closer to the door and heard nothing from the room. Well, nothing that even resembled speech anyway. He grumbled to himself and went back to his business. Five turns later, he came back to the bedroom's door. Still nothing. He frowned as he considered the likelyhood of them still being asleep despite his instructions. Another five turns, and he went back towards the room. Upon hearing nothing, he burst open the door and walked in. There they were, the runty and the disciple, sleeping in each bed, respectively. The disciple slept quietly while Runty snored like, well, a snorerock would be an accurate description.
"Wake the nether up, you fools! Didn't I tell you to prepare yourselves and be ready for training at sixth ring?", He punched the door and screamed enough to wake the dead. The door didn't break though. He made sure of that by dispersing the force across the door's surface rather than focusing it at one point. Disciple might have been more suited to doing that, but Brel had some tricks up his sleeve.
The disciple jumped to his feet and growled like a beast, spinning around, perhaps searching for the cause of the disturbance, while Kerrio stuttered in an utterly pathetic manner, then he stammered out: "Wait, what? Who's their? Why did you wake me up so early?".
"Because you're going to train, you brat!", Brel replied, thwacking Runty in the head, causing him to whine in pain. Queltsom dashed at Brel, but the move was a bit clumsy and inexperienced, so Brel batted it aside and thwacked him the same way. He liked him even more because the blind, fighting-inclined boy who had punched Brel when angry didn't squeak in pain like the sighted runt. He had some spunk, and Brel liked spunk.
"Are we under attack, teacher?", he asked calmly.
"No, disciple, I was simply waking you up. And I like that attitude of yours. Why the change in manners, disciple?", Brel asked curiously after answering the question.
"You're clearly stronger than me, for now at least, not to mention I'm your disciple. So, yeah, you're my teacher.", the boy replied.
"Alright then. Do you need me to guide you by hand? You're blind, no?", Brel offered.
"Thanks for the thoughtfulness, teacher, but I can follow you.", he answered politely.
"Oh?", Brel prompted. "How, if I may ask? I'm curious to know."
"I can sense your pressure.", the boy replied.
"Pressure?", asked Brel.
"It's complicated, maybe another time?", Queltsom replied.
"Certainly, disciple.", Brel agreed. Kerrio was already gone somewhere. "Ah, where did Runty run off to?", Brel grumbled.
"It's his house, y'know. He can do whatever he wants.", Queltsom remarked.
"Where did the manners you just showed go?", Brel said.
"You being my teacher doesn't mean I'll agree with you when you're wrong. He is my friend, no matter who you are.", he replied casually.
"Oh, I'll have to flatten out that spunk of yours then.", Brel said.
"You can try.", the boy challenged. A tiny bit of his daring aura flared for an instant, taunting Brel to run headlong into the boy and crush him bit by bit at a time and show him his place. But he had enough experience and discipline to stop himself at the last moment.
Queltsom:
"Follow me then. We'll go to the kitchen and have our morning meal there, then we'll head out to the edge of the forest for training.", Brel clarified. He started to walk, and I followed his lead. I could have imagined it, but it seemed like my pressure sense had increased in depth just a little bit. Regardless of that statement's truth, we walked for a short while and did some slight turns here and there until I sensed an opening where the background pressure I felt yesterday and two smaller pressures were, surrounded by two pressureless sides. Couple that with the smell of sweets and the sound of some drink rising to the surface of a tool of some kind (I really didn't know what those cooking tools were called), and I knew that this was the kitchen. Brel entered with a greeting to Lady Eileen, whom I expected to be there as one of the two pressures I felt, the other being Kerrio.
"Hey, Kerrio and lady Eileen, good morning!", I said.
"Hello, Queltsom. Good morning to you too. How did you sleep last night? You must be hungry. You didn't eat or drink anything last time. Come and sit besides Kerrio!", she invited.
"Ok, thanks, ma'am!", I replied. I walked in after a while and tried to sense for a pressureless space slightly above ground that could accommodate a person sitting on it, and I soon found one next to one of the pressures. I sat in there with another person across from me and another besides the one I sat next to.
"How did you find it?", she asked curiously.
"I can feel things, basically. It's more complicated than that and less efficient than what I imagine sight to be, but it works when I'm following people.", I told her.
"And since I'm planning on going with him, it'll work most of the time, I suppose.", Kerrio added, and the woman gasped.
"What! It's dangerous! You both can stay here at my house, where it's safe, since there are no monsters, as you know, so there's no need to leave unless you have to.", she argued.
"He does have to. Because he wants to find his parents, whom he doesn't know if they're alive or dead. And I have to go with him because I want to explore the Omnis. You named me Kerriosko, meaning the wanderer, and I intend to do as my name describes me: explore this universe, help people by fighting beasts, and see how far I can rise in strength. I recognize and am thankful for your great help ever since I came here, stumbling out of the wilds, running away from a pack of scary monsters, but I want to go beyond this village and see how far I can go. I'll look back and remember all you've given me, then I'll thank Eileen Valdris, the woman who gave me my name after I forgot my earth name, for being the person who took care of me in my days of weakness. I wouldn't worry about you; Sov is here to help, as you know. And I already have a crazy monster on my side.", he said intensely and confidently. "Besides, I have some business to take care of outside the safety of the village, and I intend to take care of it once and for all!". I somehow sensed his desire for... revenge? Payback for something, but also determination. I liked that feeling I sensed from him because it resonated with me. So I resolved to help him.
"Alright, Kerrio. Then I'll keep seeing you until your training ends, and then we need to talk more about this. You have your desires, and I have mine. Perhaps we'll find an equilibrium?", she finally said with a sigh.
"Let's drink already. It's getting cold.", Brel grumbled impatiently. I was a little angry. Not as angry as yesterday, but still angry enough to growl at him, letting him know that I wanted him to stop that stupidity right now! Teacher or not, no one interrupts a talk between my friend and his mother, even if not by blood.
:
"Woah! I guess he really is my friend now, isn't he? It's nice to know he's watching my back. Well, listening my back. Wait, that doesn't make any sense, but you get the idea, the blind version of someone watching your back, with no less effectiveness.", Kerrio thought with a chuckle to himself.
"Something feels strange about this boy; I don't like it. It unnerves me. He's clearly polite when I behave well with him, but as soon as I grumbled, he challenged me like before. Perhaps he's arrogant or... No, he doesn't seem to be the type of boy who's that bad. It's more like he's daring me to cross the bounds of what he's willing to tolerate, as if he is some higher authority that disagrees with my decision. It was really, really faint, but my senses were still sharp enough to notice that the world itself reacted to that growl and rippled because of it. I'm sure that if he was set on the right path, he would take the entire world and even the fabled Omnis by storm.", Brel thought at the same moment.
"You're in good hands, Kerrio.", Eileen sent to him through Sov.
"So that's my first master?", Sov buzzed in her mind.
"Yes, he is.", she replied.
Queltsom:
I was touching the table and looking for the plate and cup when Brel, the stupid teacher, told me to use my speed from before to speed up my touching of things to avoid wasting time, and Kerrio defended me by telling him that I wasn't used to my senses yet, which was true. I commented on the deliciousness of the cookies that Lady Eileen had made, and she was glad I liked them. Then we finished our meal, stood up, and the three of us left after saying goodbye.
We walked for a while, and eventually I heard the light hustling and bustling of people, rolling wagons, and the cries of a few sunwind horses in the distance. They were very fast mount beasts who could carry a lot of weight with no issue, as well as carry their riders at extremely fast speeds. There were even legends and myths in some countries that said that those creatures could fly, cultivate their energy, or even turn sapient. Some of them might be true because Sunwind horses were very smart. That is, smart enough to recognize someone other than their rider trying to ride them and kick them or lash at them with their burning tail, as well as being able to learn and understand the languages of sapients more deeply than normal horses could. Their cries sounded deep but calm, like a refreshing breeze with the depth of the sun behind it. I loved those creatures as much as I wanted to have a pet Tharo. Maybe I could have both if I got a big house? Maybe when I'm stronger, I'll have the chance to...
"We're here.", Brel declared. I sensed a lot of small pressures, felt the wind on my face, and smelled trees and plants. I knew that I was in a forest. The air was nice, and this place called to me to explore its depths. Maybe later? We stopped walking, and Brel started speaking again.
"We are on the edge of what we call the safezone. As you may have known, Elva never gets attacked by beasts. We do not know why that is the case, but we thank the God for it. This beast-free zone extends a mile outside of the village on all four sides. Beastss still attack Raiga, our neighboring city to the east, but they have their hunters to deal with them. That is why they are willing to trade with a so-called backwater village like ours. Anyway, we will train here. Let's start by showing me your moves, disciple.", he said.
:
Queltsom growled, then started by charging towards Brel and spinning on his heel. The speed increased, and he screamed, "Endless Vortex!". Then he threw a barrage of punches at Brel, screaming, "Punchstorm!". He sent one big punch at him, saying "Titan's Fist!", which had a surprising heaviness, then he kicked him and bounced back, almost falling to the ground.
"Nice rudimentary set of moves, disciple. A dashing move to get in close range, a variety of punches with varying amounts of force distribution, and a move to increase your momentum. In fact, this whole fighting style of yours is based on momentum, but your moves are crude, your punches are weak, and your stance is utterly pathetic. If a rock could see and fight, it would easily read your attacks and thwart them!", Brel said.
"Huh? But Gelrahq taught me to fight like this. Maybe some stuff I couldn't do perfectly, but is it really my whole fighting style that's wrong?", Queltsom asked.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
"No, disciple, the style is fine. But your way of using it is not. Let's start by correcting the first thing that comes to mind. You need to stop growling when you charge. Because if you growl like a beast, your enemy will know you're about to attack and will expect your strikes and counter them. Now charge at me, but without growling. If you fail, do it again until you succeed.", he instructed.
Queltsom:
I growled and charged, then remembered that it was wrong. I faltered and tried again. No matter what I did, I couldn't stop growling. Then I tried taking a deep breath and holding it when charging until I reached him. "Good, disciple! Do it again.", he told me. I tried the same thing again, and it worked once more. On the third try, I went back to my old habit and growled, at which point he sighed in disappointment. I resolved to try harder. We kept at this for a while, until I succeeded about 6 out of 10 times.
"You're learning fast, disciple! Impressive!", he said.
"Thanks, teacher. I'm still unable to do it seamlessly, though. It's like something's telling me that what I did before was the right thing, and what you're telling me to do is wrong, even though I realize that logically, your improvements are the right thing to do.", I said.
"Well, you need to take control of whatever is telling you that and do what you want, not what it tells you to do."
"I'll try, teacher.", I told him.
"We'll come back to your charge tomorrow.", he said. "Now, we'll work on that stance of yours. I don't like it. So sloppy! Ugh!"
"Tell me about this stance. What's the point of it?", he asked me.
"It's called the Tree Root stance, and it was designed to make my feet immovable and firm on the ground, just like the root of a tree.", I said.
"Well, your feet aren't firm enough, disciple. If your enemy kicks you with enough force as you are now, you'll fall like a dead man. Watch.". He kicked me in the knee, and I couldn't dodge. True to his word, I fell to the ground, moaning and groaning. I stood up and dusted myself off, then he started poking and prodding different areas of my legs, feet, hands, and knees, telling me to straighten them and tense them up. I noticed that it was hard to do, like whatever was telling me to growl earlier was objecting strongly to what I was doing. I tried to force it to listen to me, and eventually, it stopped giving me headaches. Brel told me to practice walking like this all the time if I wanted to get used to it and build an instinctual reaction, just like how I don't need to think about walking to do it. I tried walking that way for a while before Brel stopped me.
"You need to practice this along with charging. I expect you to come at me without growling, all while avoiding to fall to the ground when I kick you, no matter how hard I do it. It doesn't matter if your bones are bent or broken. Understand?", he spoke. "Yes, teacher. I'll do my best.", I replied.
"Our combat session is over for today. You can go home and rest if you like; I will take you home and come back here if you want; or stay here and watch me thwack runty into shape. He looks even more puny than you do. Your muscles are strong, at least, even if they feel unused for a long time. I'm not sure how that happened, but keep practicing, and you'll notice that even your speed will improve as your muscles feel less heavy and more fluid.", he told me.
"No, I'll stay here and support him. He does seem to be a bit weak, but I'm sure he'll be very strong in his own way in time.", I said.
I sat down on the ground and entered a state of half-meditation. It allowed me to rest and relax while hearing Kerrio's training and cheering him on at the same time. I felt the pressures around me, and they gave me the strength and comfort I needed to rest. Yeah, those were nice trees who liked to help people. Maybe because they have absorbed enough energy to gain intelligence or something. I instinctually did something that I didn't understand, just like when I gave Lady Eileen a piece of myself. Maybe that was the Sov I heard about before. I gave them some of my life force. Each tree received a little bit of my life force. There were around 5 trees close by, and they were giving me the energy I lost when training, and I felt their pleasure somehow. I'm not sure, but I think I can understand most creatures now, somehow. Well, understanding creatures is always nice! They gave me even more fresh air and energy now, and I sent the thought of thanks at the pressures, not knowing how to talk with them.
"Wow! I think they like you now, Meros!", a cheerful female voice spoke in my head. I sensed the energy, and my mind fortress didn't indicate that it was hostile.
"Who are you? You feel like the background pressure I sense when no one is around back in the village.", I spoke back, sending the thought to the connection I felt between my mind fortress and the pressure, which was still around even outside the village. I could sense that we were almost at the limit of the pressure, and then I remembered what Brel had said about the forest.
"Are you related to the reason why beasts don't attack this place? Is it because they sense you?", I asked.
"Yes, exactly! So you could sense me? Very, very interesting!", she said. "You know, it's infuriating to hear the villagers not even care about the reason why beastss don't attack their homes. They take it and live with it, not realizing that the God has blessed them with a great gift. Perhaps they will realize it if they lose my protection, but I have no intention of letting my domain be stained by the blood of living things. I've already made a grave mistake by allowing one monster to step onto my domain, and I didn't even realize it until it was too late. I couldn't warn the villagers because they are unable to speak to me like you are, however you're doing it. You mentioned pressures, yes?", she asked.
"Yeah, but I don't even know you, lady. At least introduce yourself before you start asking questions. I like curious people, but as I said, I don't know you yet.", I replied.
"Oh yes, forgive me, Meros! I haven't talked with a sapient creature for an agonizingly long time, and you're the first to speak to me in ages! I'm just so very delighted right now! "Well, my name is Korvelia Vextentus, but you can call me Kor". she asked.
"Why are you calling me Meros or whatever? I'm Queltsom. But it's nice to meet you, lady Kor? Madam Kor? You sound old; no offense. "So, what should I call you?", I asked in return.
"Just Kor is fine, Queltsom.", she said, seeming reluctant to say my name for some reason. Weird.
"So, Kor, I want to hear Kerrio's training and cheer him on, so let's talk some time in the future, ok?", I asked her.
"Sure, as long as you know how to reach out to me again. If I sense you trying and not succeeding, I'll connect to you myself just like now. It will help your mind grow stronger the more you try to connect with the creatures around you.", she answered.
"Goodbye, Kor!", I said, and she sent me a feeling of vague pleasure before leaving. I focused my full attention on the training.
Kerrio:
Kerrio was instructed to run as fast as possible from the edge of the tree line to the entrance to Elva without slowing down at all. Yes, he was supposed to run at top speed for a mile without slowing down! He did not look forward to that at all! Every time he slowed down, Brel would just kick him like a horse and force him to speed up again, threatening to do worse if he caught him. And the worst part was that Kerrio knew that Brel was only doing the equivalent of tapping him lightly because the kick he gave Queltsom when the blind boy was training was monstrously hard, to the point that it caused a minor shockwave! He realized that Brel adapted his strength depending on whomever he was training at the time. But Kerrio eventually recognized that he had to do this in order to get stronger and finally settle the score with that scary lion lady. He was going to train hard, harder than even Brel was willing to push him, and he wouldn't stop until he reached that goal and punched her in the face, showing her that letting him go was a really bad idea and a grave mistake on her part. He was still scared to death of the cataclysm, but he knew, deep within, that he wasn't going to cower in fear all his life, and he wanted to be brave and strong. She had toyed with him, like a cat toying with its prey, broken his arms and legs, and drank his fallen blood, then laughed at him and gave him a potion, forcing him to drink it to heal all the wounds she inflicted just for the sake of her amusement. He was so outmatched that he felt like an ant before a lion. Well, she was a humanoid lion lady, but still.
"I will fatten you up like livestock before eating you, little one. Be ready for me, or don't, but the Cataclysm will consume you!", she had said in a mocking, playful voice that was a twisted version of how Kerrio had imagined cats to speak if they could when he was young. The potion regrew his arms and legs and even prevented monsters (beasts, he had to remind himself, since monster was apparently seen as an insult unless the creature deserved it) from attacking him while the potion was in effect. She had left him on the brink of death and healed him just so she could show him the disparity between her, the predator, and him, the prey. It made him sick to his stomach, and he was full of rage just thinking about it. She might have been watching him even now, but he didn't care. He was going to kill that monster or die trying. But first, he had to get stronger, and the first step to doing that was to run like a devil was chasing him, because it might well have been, in the form of Brel.
He ran while breathing deeply. His legs started to ache, and his muscles strained, but he ran. His heart started hurting, but he ran. His breath was heaving, but he still ran. Only one thing was on his mind. Get stronger to destroy the cataclysm! He put his whole focus on running, cutting himself off from anything and everything else around him. He ran forward, reached a wall, turned around, and ran again. He didn't register Brel or Queltsom calling for him to stop, nor the sound of his own loud yelling, nor the system notification that told him that his strength had increased by 3. He did not register the hand that reached out and supported him, nor the fact that he was stomping one foot after the other without crossing any distance, until he fell on the floor, unconscious.
:
"I knew he would do it! Yay Kerrio!", Queltsom said in front of him.
"Something is driving him to do what he just did. That much spunk had to have come from somewhere.", Brel said.
"Yeah, I sense determination from him. He wants to get stronger for one reason or another.", Queltsom replied. "Again with sensing emotions. What are you, boy?", Brel thought.
"Then we'll help him reach that goal.", Brel declared.
"Of course we will.", Queltsom replied confidently.
"Now, let's go to her office, so she can tell you about the village and what surrounds it.", said Brel.
"This is going to be hard as the Void!", Queltsom muttered under his breath.
"Are you going to let Runty's determination beat yours? Remember what Linda told you? Jane's different now.", the old man said, and the bloodlust almost flared for a moment, but then it stopped.
"I'll try my best. Let's take him home.", Queltsom suggested, sighing.
"Alright, I'll carry him; come with me, and then we'll go to Jain's office.", Brel agreed. The bloodlust rippled for just an instant, but Brel's new disciple suppressed it in less than a second.