The first thing that John noticed when he drifted back into consciousness was Will’s grinning face. In moments, John went from a dreamy, slow awakening to his body rocketing into combat mode. Without his control, John's pulse skyrocketed, his pupils dilated, and the muscles in his own body seemed pumped full of energy. In short, his body felt more alive than it ever had. Will only had time to notice this before he felt an energy rise up from within him. The presence swept away Will’s consciousness with as little regard as the wind does for a pile of dead leaves. Swept away, what was left tried to throw a punch at Willis face despite the unfavorable conditions on the ground.

Surprised, Will leapt back before the punch could connect and shifted into his own stance by instinct. 

          Propelled by some unknown energy, John involuntarily snarled and leapt to his feet. Will found himself frightened by John’s expression. John was staring deep into Will’s eyes but there was no one there. The eyes were dead. Those eyes reminded Will of the vast emptiness between the stars. Will’s very being was repelled by the creature in the room with him. The very walls seemed to close in on Will as what was left of John took stumbling, uncoordinated steps toward him. It only advanced a couple steps towards Will before John seemingly came back to his senses. Looking down at his hands and then back at will with confusion, John spoke.

"Hey Will, what happened?"

         Will looked at the kid like he was crazy. He couldn’t recognize the kid that had become such a normal part of his life in such a short amount of time with the creature that had just invaded his home.

"What do you mean what happened? You just tried to attack me!"

John looked around as if for some support.

        John scoffed. "Will, I could've sworn you hit me a bunch of times and I cracked my skull on the ground. What sense does it make that I attacked you?" 

         Will chuckled good naturedly despite his immediate reservations. Will wasn’t an idiot. Whatever happened to the kid wasn’t normal but obviously John didn’t have the deception in him to lie to Will. Will let the moment pass but promised to take a glance at John’s character sheet as soon as John gave him the permission. "Alright kid, you're right. You ready to learn how I did it?"

Excitement shone in John's eyes as he forgot all about Will making him black out. 

"Yeah! What the hell was that? One moment I was fighting you." John trailed off as he noticed Will's smirk. "Well, sort of fighting you." The smirk deepened. "OK, getting my ass kicked..." At Will's open grin, John moved on quickly. "...and then you ramped it up a notch and there was a flash of blue light and all of a sudden I couldn't use that limb." 

        Will let John off the hook. "That's not a bad explanation. All I did was use the skill Disable. The point of the move is to well…disable your opponent. Even a rock head like you should be able to remember that much. So you remember mana right?"

John nodded.

"So the mana in your body generates what we call an aura. Auras are useful, if you can read them, because it can give you an idea of the potential energy a person possesses. Over time, what skills you use, what abilities you have, and how you use them affect the look of your aura. Everyone is unique. Even someone who has the exact same class with the exact same abilities won't have the exact same aura. It's for this reason that Assassins are skilled in Aural Detection.  Because there are plenty of ways to fool biometrics and other scanners but there are few ways of changing your aura outside of simply suppressing it."

John sighed. "That's interesting and all, but how does that relate to Disable."

        Will gave John an annoyed look. "I'm getting there kid. This is one of the biggest secrets my family has to offer and you want me to just hand deliver it you like it's a damn pizza."

John look confused. "What's a pizza?"

         Will stared at the ceiling and began muttering to himself. "Collective save me from idiots. He doesn't even know what a pizza is." 

         Will leveled his gaze back on John. "As I was saying. In order to use Disable, you have to manipulate your own aura into the other person with each strike. It's different from psionics because you're not using your mana to transform the energy around you into something else. Instead, you're using the energy that your body naturally produces in order to affect your enemy. In short, it's a focus and endurance based skill rather than a willpower and intelligent based one. Questions?"

“No, Will. I still have no idea how to do what you’re saying, but I’m assuming you’re getting to that.”

          Will gave John a wry glance. There was something about this kid that made you just want to like him. Maybe it was the kicked puppy dog look the kid kept giving him. It’s as if the kid's very being was just reaching out for some companionship. The loneliness in Will’s own heart wanted to reciprocate. He smiled.

“Yeah John. I’m getting to that. It’s going to be a bit difficult for you since you weren’t raised with Aural Sight like I was, but you’re going to have to try and watch my aura in the visible spectrum as I use it augment my attacks. It’s a separate ability that I might teach you later. To really learn disable you just have to focus on pushing your own energy into your opponent. Take your stance.”

          Groaning. John pulled himself into a modified boxing stance. Once leg was forward while his weight was distributed to the rear foot. His hands, raised to protect his face, were slightly opened in order to grab an opponent’s limb. While he didn’t learn this in the Unarmed Combat I simulation, after watching Will fight, he realized that having his hands open might be the difference between a successful attack and a fumbling attempt.

          Will merely watched the positioning of John’s body and the placement of his hands. A few minor corrections later and Will was satisfied. He moved into his own stance. Soon he focused on his own body and let his natural energy augment his limbs. The aura was invisible to most practitioners, but to Will’s eyes the blue of his aura began to surround his body. It looked like bright blue water vapor evaporating off of the surface of his skin. Around his hands and shins, the aura could be seen to be thickening until it resembled an almost transparent armor. Ready, will looked up at John.

          As soon as he looked up, John dropped his stance and started clutching his head. A low groan could be heard. The moment lasted but a couple seconds and then notifications began to flash in John’s view.

Your Adaptability and [???] have granted you the skill Aural Sight.

Skill Acquired! Aural Sight Lvl 1: Aural sight is the ability to see the auras of individuals around you. At the lowest levels, Aural Sight only allows the user to see and understand basic qualities of an aura. As the skill develops, the user will be able to understand more information about their target. Should the target of Aural Sight have a higher level Aura Suppression, the user will be unable to retrieve any information. Cost: 10 Mana per Second.

Will looked at John with a little concern until John got back into his stance grinning.

         Bemused, Will asked him “hey kid, you playing possum on me? Pretending to have a headache won’t keep me from whipping you up and down this living room.”

John just grinned. “Nah, I’m good Will, I just learned how to use Aural Sight!”

         Will, frowned. That skill should have taken him much longer to learn. Will wondered if this sudden acquisition was related to the behavior that will demonstrated earlier. Putting false cheer into his voice, he decided to ask.

“That’s great, John. It took me a much longer time to learn how to use that skill, how do you think you learned it so quickly?”

John’s previously open face became guarded. “Uh..I donno will. I guess I just pick these kind of things up quickly.”

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          Will could tell that John was lying but decided not to press the kid on the matter. They would have plenty of time together before they went to go rob his family manor. The truth would come out eventually. It always does.

“Alright, well activate your sight and tell me what you see.”

          John’s feeling of fear receded as Will seemed to drop interest in his new found abilities. John really liked Will but he didn’t know what Will would do if he found out that John had a rare ability. People died for much less and even though Will had treated him well so far, there was no reason to believe that Will wouldn’t turn John into his family as some kind of pet experiment to reclaim his place. Every time he thought about mentioning the strange presence within him to Will, a strange foreboding would overcome him and he would shy away from talking about it.

Will cleared his throat and John was jarred from his own thoughts.

“Any day now kid. I may be immortal but that doesn’t mean I enjoy wasting time on fools.”

          John’s face grew heated and he activated his Aural Sight. A strange pressure built behind his eyes for a few moments until a strange popping sensation occurred. Once that happened John could see a blue fire licking upon Will’s skin. It was beautiful. The fire was the exact same shade of blue as Will’s piercing blue eyes. A short while later the vision faded, as John’s mana expended itself. His awe was all over his face.

         Will smiled in response. “you get a good look kid? What did you see?” Will was genuinely curious as everyone’s Aural Sight worked a little bit differently.

         John exuberantly responded. “Will! You were lit up with blue fire! It was transparent and it seemed to be focused on various points around your body.”

“Good job, kid. How many points did you notice before the sight ran out?”

John took a moment to think about it.

“Well, there was a line of points that were centered vertically on your body, but I’m not sure how many there were. It was hard to distinguish them from the rest of the flame. The only thing I really noticed was your hands and shins. There seemed to be a feeling of danger emanating from those points.“

          Will started to think aloud. “Huh…that’s strange kid. Most people notice the sources of the aura first rather than anything else. Seems like you’re primed to notice anything that could be dangerous to you. Feelings from the sight don’t tend to develop for at least a few more levels. Correctly interpreting those feelings is even more difficult.”

          John just looked at the floor. He was afraid that if Will saw his guilty expression he would immediately request to see his character sheet or to kick him out. Thankfully, Will seemed to take the information in stride.

“Oh well, time to continue. I’m going to attack you once again and I want you to block but also try to feel the energy emanating from my body. When your mana regenerates, use your sight sparingly as I strike in order to help you feel the difference in the strikes. To begin with, I’m going to alternate my strikes. Some will be augmented and some will not. The ones that are augmented won’t be able to disable you. Right now, we’re just trying to get you to feel the difference in my strikes so that hopefully you can feel the difference in yourself. I thought we would be spending at least a week on this training but you seem to be picking it up fairly quickly. I hope we can finish this and then while you’re training in the sims, I’ll begin planning the manor heist. Alright kid, any questions before we begin?”

           Before the “o” in “No” even left John’s mouth, will had already attacked. Awkwardly, John blocked the first salvo of strikes before he felt himself slipping into Inner Focus. Once that happened his defense smoothed itself out. The strikes and blocks began to feel like a dance between the two men. There was no room to talk in the quick sparring and John tuned everything out but his own breathing and the blocking of the next strikes. John could tell that Will was holding back both in terms of speed and strength but John began to lose himself in the patterns of striking and blocking. Every now and then, Will would throw a wild punch or a quick kick and John would have to adjust his defense to take into account the stray strikes.

          As this went on, John began to realize that the seemingly random attacks that Will was throwing actually had a purpose. They began to feel subtly different than the rest of Will’s strikes. There were a touch stronger and touch faster than the rest of the salvo. In this dance that was as regular as a metronome, they began to feel completely out of place. As more time went on they were jarring in their irregularity. As if Will could sense this in John, the pace of the fighting abruptly increased and the complexity of the maneuvers increased. No longer was the pattern jab, jab, cross, hook, hook, undercut, jab. It was instead random and chaotic and John’s Inner Focus was strained to its limit as he had to block the new strikes. This too began to feel familiar as soon as the most unforeseen strikes felt just as odd to him as before. However, these strikes left quickly fading spots of numbness where they landed. Something twisted in John’s gut as he felt the numbness began to spread as each successful hit lengthened the duration and the intensity of the numbness.

          John found himself growing angrier and angrier as his reactions began to slow and his limbs started not to respond to his commands. Abruptly his anger crashed over him and on the next strike, John’s Aural Sight activated without conscious thought and John noticed the distinctive blue fire covering Will’s hand. With a growl, John blocked and black fire burst from the point of contact.

          Noticing this, Will only grinned and increased the pace of his attack. Now, every strike came laced with blue fire and John had to abruptly decide whether he needed to block or dodge the incoming strike. Every time he needed to block black fire would reflexively come from the point and defend him from the influence of Disable. In the meantime, the anger with John kept growing. He kept being fed thoughts that objectively did not feel like his own. But in the moment they were soothing. Will was trying to embarrass John. Will just wanted to use John for his own good. Will was only teaching John Disable so that he could frame him for the heist on the manner. Will didn’t care about John. He never cared about John. In fact, right after this, he would kick John out of his house and tell him never to come back. John would have to live in that lifeless, grey room for the rest of his life. He was a poor, sad Nameless and he would die that way.

          John yelled out loud in anger. Abruptly the fight changed. No longer was John merely blocking, he began to attack Will back. Black fire blossomed on John’s fists as he struck out at Will with increasing ferocity. Noticing this increase in aggression, Will decided to deescalate the situation before whatever thing possessed John before would take over. After a rapid exchange of blows, John realized he couldn’t move his arms. The attack was so quick that John didn’t even see it happen and the surprise snapped him out of his anger. He looked up at Will blankly.

“Woah” he whispered.

Will smiled indulgently. “Woah, indeed kid. If I didn’t know any better I would say that you had been training these skills for weeks. It seems like you’re an adaptable little survivor. We may just have a chance at this thing.”

         John inwardly cringed at the use of the world adaptable but nothing couldn't keep the smile off of his face as he noticed that he had a series of notifications.

Ability Leveled Up! Unarmed Combat is now Lvl 2! Ability Leveled Up! Inner Focus is now Lvl 2!

Skill Acquired! Disable Lvl 1: Disable allows a user to project their aura into their opponent. At the lowest levels it causes numbness and disorientation. At the higher levels, limbs can be completely disabled and organs completely stopped. This skill was discovered by the Crow family and only those instructed by a member of the Crow family may be able to use it.

Ability Acquired! Aura Manipulation Lvl 1: Aura Manipulation allows the user to refine the aura for both attack and defense the higher this ability is leveled, the less Aural Abilities cost. Once all of the aural abilities are learned, this Ability will morph into Aural Mastery. Additionally, this ability provides a small bonus to focus and endurance. 

You have levelled up! You are now Lvl 3! You have six stat points to distribute.

          As the feeling of euphoria enveloped John’s body, he was reminded once again why levelling up was a magical thing. He was riding a high of accomplishment and pride when Will brought him crashing back to reality.

“Collective, only level 3?! No wonder you’re so useless. What have you been doing with your stat points?”

The air was abruptly let out of John’s sails. “Well, nothing so far. I wasn’t sure what I should put them in and how that would affect becoming an Outlaw.”

“Well kid, at least that’s a small mercy.” Grabbing a nearby rag, Will wiped the sweat from his brow before grabbing another one and throwing it at John. He gave John a roguish grin. “Just means we’ll have to think of some unorthodox training methods to get your level up.” John quailed at the evil glint in Will’s eyes. Without thinking about it he backed away slowly. The gesture wasn’t missed by Will who turned to go back in the kitchen. He called over his shoulder.

“Hey, grab those two sims and I’ll start making some food. By the time you get done with both of them. I’ll have some food cooked and then we can sit down to plan a training regimen.”

          John wiped the sweat form his body with the rag that Will threw at him and then mad ehis way back to the couch with the waiting sims. Sitting down he stared at them both.

“Hey Will, which one should I do first?”

Will looked over curiously. “Sneak, the purple one will help you, with the second one, Lockhacking. A word of warning, John. Unlike in Collective’s simulations, you can fail these. The consequences aren’t fatal…but they can be unpleasant. Outlaws don’t believe in soft lessons. You’re going to learn a skill, but you might not like what else you learn.”

John flashed him an innocent smile. “It’s alright, Will. I’ll be able to do it. We have to anyway, right? This is the only way to get better.”

“Yeah…you’re right John it’s the only way.”

         Satisfied, John looked into the depths of the glowing crystal and Will watched as John’s eyes seemed to fade as his consciousness was transported to another time and another place. He quietly muttered.

“Yeah John… It’s the only way. Progress always requires sacrifice.” Will shook his head sadly and began to prepare dinner.