The itch of sweat under the mask had intensified to such a degree that he tore the mask from his head as soon as he saw the exit. The feeling of wiping your actual skin with fabric felt like heaven now. With a content sigh, he stepped out of the participant’s entrance and into the cool evening air. For a moment he reveled in the sundown, the noises of hundreds of people – enjoying the feeling to be alive.

Res was pulled out his revelry by a raspy voice that cried out. “Hey, you! I have important news.”

“Shit, bro. Someone has recognized you. Why did you pull off the mask?”

Yet, the only person who was giving him any heed was a beggar who leaned against the colosseum outer wall. When both of their gazes met, he could see the glint of greed and fear in the beggar’s eyes. Intrigued, Res walked over to the beggar and dropped one silver.

“Do we know each other?”

The bagger snatched up the silver coin and motioned Res to come closer. “I have a secret message from the young revolution.”

Res didn’t dislike the beggar, but he reeked of alcohol and shit. “I am sorry. You must have gotten the wrong person. I don’t know the young revolution”

Instead of answering, a silver glint appeared in the beggar’s offhand and he lunged towards him. The killing intent within the beggar’s eyes made him seize up. This action was his saving grace as the beggar had expected him to flinch. Instead of piercing his heart, it opened a shallow cut at the side of his chest. The pain let him snap out of it and he released an enormous amount of aether in all directions. The closeness to the colosseum’s outer wall flung him back.

He flew through the air and came to a tumbling stop on the stone-cobbled street. Adrenaline got pumped into his veins and he picked himself up from the ground. “Bro, shit. That was my fault. I have a slight delay between the action and receiving the information from your senses.”

Res cast about for any more attackers and lamented Jason. “You could have told me that earlier. Never mind that. I don’t think this is over yet.”

Everyone in the vicinity had been pushed back a step or two and most people had felt the unnatural wave of force. “Bro, let’s fucking leave. The elite palace guard will be here shortly. This shit gets too crazy.”

“You are right. Let’s hope we don’t crash like in practice.”

Across the small plaza resounded the running footsteps of the colosseum’s guards. Res didn’t stop to see what would happen if he stayed. During the carriage ride with Granny, he had thought of a workaround for his lacking control. If he pushed outwards into every direction, he would be pushed upwards no matter the terrain. With a burst of aether into every direction, he lifted off like a hero out of legends – At least that was how he had imagined it. Indeed, his theory had worked. Too well. His head was swimming from the immense force and his three-meter jump had turned into a fifty-meter jump. When he looked around, he realized how beautiful Trianon’s flickering lanterns were.

“What the fuck, Res? Do you want to kill us?” The seriousness of his tone awoke Res from his musings.

“Sorry, you are right. We will impact the ground eventually, what can I or you do to prevent that?” Res propelled himself upwards again with an uncontrolled burst of aether.

Jason grumbled and replied. “First, I wanted to keep the delay secret from you, because I thought I would become useless in your eyes. In a fight, one needs to react within milliseconds.”

Res continued to push himself fifty meters into the air, fall down and push back up. His body wasn’t made out for being flung around by such immense powers and his vision turned dark around the edges. “Jason? We don’t have time for this right now. We can talk about it later. What should I do !!?”

“I know you think it is dumb. Now I realize it too. We are bros after all and … “

“Jason, do something or we are both going to die!”

“Oh, right, bro. I forgot.” Res’s descent slowed and he came to a stop two meters over the roof of a blacksmith shop. Then Jason let Res’s body fall.

“Did you have to do that?”, Res asked as he rubbed his hurting bottom.

“Bro, I did it for you. You need to learn your lesson. I couldn’t let the opportunity slide to have you fall on your precious butt in front of hundreds of onlookers.”

When Res looked up from rubbing his butt, he realized that Jason hadn’t lied. “I should leave now.” He waved at the crowd and gave a wink to the shop owner. The gesture unfroze the shop owner he shouted about ‘calling the authorities’.

In the next ten minutes, they figured out a weird method on how to traverse the rooftops. Jason didn’t want to use too much aether as it could lead to the actual enchantment knot adapting. In other words, the knot would continue to suck in aether even if it wasn’t activated. It didn’t take a stretch of the imagination to think of several horrible scenarios. They decided on a strategy where Res would push himself off the roofs and Jason would stabilize him in the air. The constant up and down was jarring at first, but Res adjusted to it.

“Whoooa, Bro that is sick. I wouldn’t call it flying, but it is close.”

He allowed a contented smile to show on his face as he marveled at the wonderful sundown. The only thing Res feared was the inevitable landing. Instead of thinking about his immediate problem – Landing - he thought about the beggar. The inevitable conclusion hit him like a ton of bricks.

“Brent must have been really successful with his young rebellion, huh?”

“Bro, that is a fucking unimaginative name, if I say so myself. Still, you are right. For them to react with such drastic measures must mean that at least ten thousand children have switched sides.”

Despite racking his brain on how to proceed, Res couldn’t find an acceptable option. Relaxing and developing his powers further were incompatible on a fundamental level. His former self would have scoffed at the prospect of training, but Res had started to enjoy it. A loud rumble from his stomach interrupted his musings. With a new goal in mind, Res turned to head towards the talented baker near Granny’s shop.

“Let’s get some of those delicious pastries before we visit Orson.”

“Bro, that’s an excellent idea. Cultivating on an empty stomach is nasty.”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

After they were one minute away from the baker’s shop, Res’s hands began to sweat. “Jason? You can stop my fall again, right?”

“No, my dear princess. Should I wipe your ass? Do it yourself. You can’t depend on me all the time.”, Jason responded in a cheerful voice. Res was scared shitless, but judging on Jason’s tone, Jason wouldn’t budge. “Bro, you should drop down now, before we enter the main street.” Res wanted to, but his pounding heart and sweating hands told him to keep going. So, he did. “Bro, hello? Can you hear me? Drop Down!”

“I want to but, … ”

“Are you a fucking pussy? Just do it!” Res hesitated for a few more moments, so instead of landing in a side alley, he came down in the main street. The feeling of inevitable doom overcame him and he began to scream like a skewered pig. He impacted the wall of the baker’s shop with a dull thump, but Jason luckily softened the impact a little. Still screaming, he slid down the wall and writhed in pain on the ground. “Bro, that wasn’t as bad as I had thought. Apart from the fact that I can’t use any more aether or else I would suck up your life out of you.”

When Res saw it that way, he stopped the retort that was ready on his lips. Booming laughter resounded through the street and Res scrambled to his feet. People were shoved aside to reveal a giant of a man pushing his way through the crowd. “Bro, that is the baldie from yesterday. Akila’s guard, was it?”

The bare-chested giant flexed his enormous muscles and scoffed at Res. “We meet again. Oh, how little Trianon is. This time, you will not run away like the chicken you are. I already let you go twice and I was punished. The whiplashes of my mistress will be forever imprinted on my loins.”

“Bro, what the fuck? That is some fucked up shit.”

Res had to stop himself from chuckling as the baldie continued his prancing. “My mistress has cut me free. She has cut my bonds. The lion has left the cage. I have defeated countless enemies in hand to hand combat. No one has ever defeated me and I will twist your neck as I have done to all my previous opponents. I will …”

Res’s amusement at the display was turning into annoyance. “Baldie. Please come to the point.”

Baldie’s face flashed red like that of a tomato and he shouted in a fit of rage: “You will not call me baldie. My name is Reinhardt the neck breaker!”

The act only ingrained the name baldie in Res’s mind. The bull of a man charged Res. This time, Res could sense a tugging aura radiating out from Baldie. “Bro shit. He is using aether!” As fast as he could, he pushed up from the ground but tilted too much to the right. Under him, Baldie had rammed into the wall and a fist-sized imprint could be seen in the wall. Res shuttered at the thought of what such force would do to his frail body. Luckily, his changed trajectory let him crash into the softer linen canopy of a shop.

When Baldie saw Res trying to scurry away, he shouted out: “No, you don’t get to run away again! Flaming charge!”

Baldie’s fists caught on fire and his eyes glowed a vibrant red. “Holy shit, Res. You can’t run from that. He has close to infinite stamina until he hits something.”

Res could only watch in horror as baldie demolished one stand after another to get to him. He estimated to have ten seconds until impact and so he did the only sensible thing – Think. He circulated such enormous amounts of aether in his brain that it hurt. His entire world went black, and he knew he only had seconds to think.

“What should I do? Flee? Not an option. Fight him head-on? Not an option. Negotiate? Pointless I need something to back me up. There was a wooden pole on the ground.”

With a plan in his head, he opened his eyes and froze up at the bloodthirsty sight of baldie. Res shook off the shock and rummaged through the debris. He was deafened by Baldie’s battle cry, but he still whirled around and held the pole in front of his chest. Both their gazes met for an instant and Res pushed against the broken pole. The sickening squelch of a sharpened piece of wood entering a human body would always stay in his mind. But Baldie’s cross punch had already been in full swing and wasn’t stopped by the pole. For a moment, Res’s world went black as he was flung back by his own spell. He tumbled end over end for several meters and his ears were ringing.

“Bro, stand up. The fight isn’t over!”

Indeed, Baldie looked more offended than hurt as he pulled out the pole from his right biceps. The damage was done and his right arm now only hung from his shoulder. Res surged to his feet and ran to a blacksmith’s shop. Behind him, baldie was shouting as if Res had murdered his entire family.

“You bastard! You destroyed one of my babies!” Baldie cradled his torn right biceps like a mother would her child. Despite his various cuts and bruises, he still managed to grasp a basic army knife. His physical state wouldn’t allow him to hold a sword, even if he knew how to wield one. He turned in time to see Baldie pulling in ludicrous amounts of aether while shouting: “BLOOD PRISON BESERK”

“Bro, shit. That dude hates you. Your only task now is to stay alive. Baldie has sacrificed five years of his life for five minutes of threefold strength. After five minutes, he will be defenseless. Get as far away from him as you can. Easy, right?”

When he looked at the monster whose gaze had snapped onto him, Res doubted it. Baldie’s veins were now bulging out like worms and his bicep was completely healed. The most terrifying thing could only be seen through aether sight. To his aether senses, Baldie was like the sun on a snowy winter morning. No matter where Res looked, he would always get blinded.

"Running away doesn’t sound half bad.”

When Res turned on his heels and ran, Baldie began to sprint at Res on all fours like a wild gorilla. Surrounding bystanders were now running and screaming for their lives. Res had never thought much of his athletic capabilities, but he must have broken some kind of record. The crunching of the cobblestones under Baldie’s feet and the constant cries spurred him on. Yet, the footsteps were coming closer and closer. When the pounding of feet stopped, Res knew that Baldie had pounced. He pushed as little aether as possible to his feet and was propelled ten meters ahead. Not a second too early, as the road behind him exploded into cobblestone pieces. Because of the delay between them, Jason cried out a warning as Res landed on the cobblestone.

“Everything is all right. Where should I run to?”

“Shit bro, that was too close. You have more important matters to think of right now than the elite guards. That monster would mow down innocent people. The only place that would be deserted now would be the ghetto.”

Immediately, Res changed his course and raced into an alley. Followed by the furious roars of Baldie, they wreaked havoc wherever they passed. Baldie’s roars turned more and more to frustration as he could not catch Res. The whole cat-and-mouse game took ages, and the roars had now turned to desperation. After a sharp turn to the right, Res realized too late that he had entered a dead end. When he whirled around, he found himself cornered by that rabid monster. Waves of fear and despair washed over Res when he saw the monster coming closer and closer. Something in Res snapped.

“No running away. Too strenuous. Too much stress. Face the predator.”

“Bro, why did you stop running? Push yourself onto the apartment building. Wait. It’s not like I don’t want you to fight, but that is the worst moment you could have chosen to fight.”

Res calmed his right hand in which he held the dagger. With that gesture, a sudden flood of nothingness washed all his emotions away. He righted himself. Baldie’s cries of victory resounded through the alley as he once again pounced at Res. With a mental shove, Res flung himself toward Baldie and gripped the dagger tight with both hands. The dagger sunk into the abdomen of the thug and ripped open a giant red slash. In this new detached state, he marveled at the ease with which one could cut through human flesh.

The wound would have been fatal to any other person, but Baldie’s skin writhed like a living being and closed shut. When Baldies’s muscular hands met nothing but air, he whirled around and faced Res with a snarl on his face. Instead of running or even standing still, Res charged at Baldie who looked on in confusion at first. When the criminal saw that Res didn’t have any aces up his sleeves, he met Res’s charge with an animalistic ferocity. This time, Res catapulted himself over the raging thug and even managed to land on his feet. Baldie’s reaction had slowed and when he turned, Res could see that some of the fight had left his eyes.

“Bro, you are sick. That was sick! Look, his eyes have stopped glowing and now are just flickering. He will be unconscious in five minutes.”

Indeed, the eyes only flickered and Baldie sat down on the dirty stone floor of the alley. Res didn’t heed Jason’s advice and approached Baldie who was currently holding his head in pain. “Hello, Baldie. Can you hear me?”

The panicked face that stared back at him reminded him of a small boy, not a grown man. “I don’t want to hurt you. I want you to do one thing:” Baldies’s eyes opened wide in expectation. “Think.”, Res whispered and then turned and left with a push of aether.

Baldie stared on, dumbfounded. Everyone in the streets knew that letting an enemy live is suicide. Yet, he was still breathing.