“You know, we weren't expecting you to actually win any of the fights yet, you became iron rank day of.” Fenrir consoled the two downtrodden men in front of him, during their last bout with Jeremy Oscar took a nasty cut to his upper arm, after some healing magic from Onwyn it was mostly healed, but it still needed to be bandaged.
“I know, but I still thought I’d be stronger.” Amon conceded with a weary sigh.
The breakfast they ate was the leftovers of yesterday's dinner. The lunch they had was just trail rations and spirit coins, and their dinner was prepared fresh every night. With the way Onwyns storage ability worked any food placed in it would keep fresh, and the exact same temperature it was placed in at, so technically they could prepare a veritable feast and slowly dish it out throughout the journey, this was suggested every time, but the group bonding of cooking and eating together was worth the time spent each night.
Essence users didn’t technically need to eat, a lot of their energy came from ingesting spirit coins which were a much denser energy source. However most essence users agreed that Spirit Coins tasted like shit. So a large number of lower ranked essence users supplemented their diet with a large amount of actual food. When essence users got to Silver Rank they could no longer persist on food anymore, unless they spent the whole waking day eating. Past that it was worthless to eat real food, many essence users still ate food, however they didn't need to waste their time on the bad stuff, being able to choose to eat only what they wanted too, one of the often overlooked luxuries of Gold Rank life.
Becoming an adventurer was much harder than they thought they would. The beginning of every day was terrible, they worked all their muscles until failure, then had a whole day of walking ahead of them. Rodrick also made them carry their own supplies, before realizing that they actually didn’t have many, and filled their bags with rocks. After that they had one of two things depending on the day, either combat training with Jeremy, or guided meditation, which they called consolidation.
“I don’t get this” Oscar said after a few minutes of awkward silence
“Grab onto the nothingness.” Calida said
“Become one with the void.” Amon said
“Immerse yourself in emptiness” Fionn said
“None of that means anything.” Oscar complained
Oscar’s thoughts were always racing at this point, every time he closed his eyes he saw his mom’s body lying on the floor of his house. He heard the screams of everyone from his town when he started to zone out. He just got up and walked away, he summoned his spear and walked into the dense forest nearby, he took out his anger on the trees, he screamed, he yelled, he cried.
When Amon found him Oscar was panting, half from physical exhaustion, half from mental exhaustion.
“Are you okay?” Amon asked.
“How did it come so easy to you?” Oscar answered, raising his spear to him.
“I can’t apologize for you not being able to meditate. It’s literally the easiest thing I’ve ever done” Amon said unhelpfully
“That’s it, I’m going to kill you” Oscar said, thrusting his spear at Amon.
Amon responded by using his Quickair Defense from his Shield essence, currently the only actual shield ability from any of his Essences. He still raised his hands to block the blow, out of reflex.
Oscar lowered the spear and forced it at Amon, who turned out of the way and stepped back. Oscar kept putting pressure on Amon until Amons back was to a tree. He put his hands in an ‘x’ formation in front of himself and activated his Invincible Stance ability which among a few other features, made his skin as hard as steel. Oscar's Spear slid right off his arm and buried itself into the tree bark right next to Amon’s head.
“You’re actually trying to kill me!” Amon screamed in terror
“Of course I am, I told you that I was.” Oscar practically growled
“I thought that was hyperbole, you’re crazy. You’re crazy!” Amon said, before punching Amon in the stomach, summoning his shield right behind him so he toppled on the ground of the woods, getting up by propping himself up with his spear. Amon kneeled down to get eye to eye with Oscar before saying “Why do you want me dead”
“I hate you, that's why, you always got it so easy.” Oscar said
“You know, my life fell apart that day too, you’re not the only person that lost people”
“You still have your father! You still have your family” Oscar said, getting up fully, and attacking with his spear again
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“I have a monster that sold out his own village” Amon yelled at him, trying to get control of the spear.
“At least you have someone, I have no one anymore” Oscar screamed at him, through a sob. Oscar got control of the spear and continued attacking Amon, never landing a decent blow, but Oscar’s Relentless ability from his Adept Essence was recharging his stamina.
“You have Fionn-” A blocked blow. “-Rodrick-” Another blocked spear “-Fenrir, Calida, Onwyn” between every name was a spear attack made with intent to kill. “Me. You have me Oscar” Amon said, tears streaming down his face. Oscar stopped in his track
“Why the hell would I want you in my life? We’ve hated each other since we were born” Oscar also had tears going down his face, although he’s had those for an hour at this point. Ramping up in his attack speed with his frustration.
“I don’t hate you!” Amon conceded.
“You should! Everyone should, I’m a monster” Oscar proclaimed.
“You’re not a monster, why would you say that about yourself?” Amon tried to console him between blocking and evading his spear, a hard line to walk.
“Because I am, my village needed me and I didnt help” Oscar yelled.
“You couldn’t help, you were locked in a basement, and the only thing you’d have done was get yourself killed.” Amon said, grabbing the spear and getting control of it. “Now you’re alive, and we have the chance to actually help, help like your dad did.”
“Why do I need to be the one who lives?” Oscar threw his spear to the side and hell to his knees sobbing and screaming.
“Because you’re the one with the strength to put their souls to rest. You’re the one with the strength to make sure it will never happen again.” Amon said, sitting on his lower legs and putting his hand on Oscar's shoulder.
“How the hell do you meditate?” Oscar asked.
“I don’t know how I can help you here. It came naturally to me” Amon said. “I do have an idea. You don’t necessarily have to meditate”
“How the hell do you meditate without meditating, is this more of your “grab onto nothing” crap. That’s all meaningless” Oscar said through sobs
Amon sighed “No, it’s actual stuff. Every morning you do your braids, and I see you… zoning out I guess” Amon said, “What do you think about when you do that”
“Nothing I guess, I’m sure that I think but I can't really remember what I think about when it’s done” Oscar said
“Oscar, that’s exactly it!” Amon said, his face lighting up.
“I’ve tried to tap into that mindset, I can’t get it” Oscar said
“You can while you braid your hair?” Amon asked
Yeah.” Oscar responded
“Then just do that” Amon said
“I can’t do that, I don't braid my hair for long enough” Oscar responded
“I think I have something for that, I got them for you” Amon took a small bag out of his pocket, and handed it to Oscar. When Oscar got the bag he opened it to find a handful of multi-colored beads. Hair beads were not a part of Oscar’s village’s culture, however his father liked them, and Oscar had always thought they had framed his face in a nice way. The beads that Amon had given him were golden, and red
“Thank you, thank you Amon, I’m sorry for how terrible I’ve been, I’m also sorry for trying to kill you. How did you know I wanted these” Oscar said
Amon had seen the beads in the shop, and also noticed that Oscar had looked at them, and decided to buy them for him, but he decided not to give them to him when he always made snippy remarks about him. He didn’t genuinely consider that Oscar braiding his hair would be meditative until after their fight.
----------------------------------------
“They fought last night?!” Calida yelled “And you knew, and didn’t stop them!?”
“Their fighting kept me awake. Their fighting also led to a conversation, one that they needed to have. If it was ever actually dangerous I would have intervened” Fenrir said
“What was the fight even about?” Calida asked
“It was about nothing, and everything.” Fenrir said, looking out the window to his left, letting the sunlight wash over his face. Rodrick slapped him on the forehead.
“What did I say about talking weird like that” Rodrick said “And looking out the window after saying odd shit doesn’t make it normal”
“Let me be cool, Rodrick!” Fenrir said.
“You don't have to say cool stuff to be cool, you need to be cool to be cool” Rodrick said, confusing even himself half way through.
“May I ask you why you are so mean to him, Rodrick?” Fionn asked sincerely.
“Well that’s a long story, we were both in the same orphanage, I’m two years older then him so when I turned 18 he was only 16, they kicked me out because I was an adult at that point but Fenrir was always like a bother to me, and he was too aggressive to ever be adopted, so I adopted him. So I guess he’s technically my son, but he’s my younger brother” Rodrick explained, while Fionn stared at him, dumbfounded.
Amon came down the stairs “Can you lot quiet down a bit? Oscar is having a tough time focusing on braiding his hair.”
Calida rushed over to Amon, checking him for any serious injuries, to which he had none. “Why does he need to braid his hair?” She said.
“We think it might be a good enough replacement for his meditation, I gave him some beads for him to put in his hair, so it will take longer.” Amon said Calida whipped her head around to Fenrir.
“Is that why you let them fight?” She yelled.
“And now they’re friends too, so you’re welcome” Fenrir clarified.
“How the hell would fighting in any world bring them closer?” Calida asked.
Fenrir and Rodrick shared a glance, before Rodrick said “You don’t have siblings, do you.”
Calida looked shocked before saying “They’re not brothers”
“They are now” Fenrir said