Jay had plenty of time to reflect on the storm sage's words during the long journey back to the coliseum. He understood where the sage was coming from, and he agreed it would be better if he learned on his own. But that didn’t change the fact that he went to the sage simply to learn and got outright rejected and gained nothing.
Well, nothing except the marble rolling about in his palm. What’s the deal with crystals storing information in this place anyway? Jay had been neglecting his list for a while. He’d been focused on building a relationship with Akira and Lyra and even more focused on not dying via everything the storm sage had thrown at him over the last few hours.
Jay didn’t draw too much from the sage’s description of Harmony, other than that it was a task he had to undertake on his own, but he found the way the sage described it fascinating.
Models, definitions, and diagrams dominated Akira's explanation of essence. He approached it like a science. A mystery to uncover. With each technique he studied, another facet of Harmony would be revealed. Akira observed Harmony as a natural phenomenon, and he tried to cobble together the closest thing to an explanation he could.
The storm sage approached Harmony as an art. He wasn’t bothered with nailing down the specifics; he simply accepted them. The sage didn’t try to explain essence, he took it for what it was and ran with it. He didn’t break it down into its component elements, he measured it against the world it occupied and studied it in everything he observed.
Maybe the disconnect derived from their personal differences. But then which one was true? Akira’s rendition certainly sounded more believable to Jay, but was that just because they had more similar personalities? If you looked at the facts, then was the sage’s way of thinking more correct? He was stronger, and after all wasn’t that the way of the world.
Jay reflected on the storm sage’s other words. Regardless of his personal view of essence, Jay clearly saw a wise man behind the speeches. The sage mentioned Wind Whisperers, young masters, and Frontiersmen. Jay didn’t know who these people were, but he guessed they were subsets of harmonisers. Would they not have different opinions to both Akira and the storm sage? Would they not have different lessons to teach? Should Jay seek them out for guidance?
The horde of questions hurt to think about after a while. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if there were any answers in sight, but there weren’t. Jay accepted his headache and stopped trying to make sense of it.
In a haze of mysteries, there was one glaring certainty that loomed over Jay like a dark cloud. In five days, he was entering the coliseum with a Goldenback gorilla opposite him. No amount of philosophizing would change that. He was going to fight, and he needed to win.
Waiting for him at the coliseum was the second-best fighter in his division, next to her was the only person he knew from Earth that had survived a coliseum fight. They might not know the secrets to essence and Harmony, but they knew how to survive, and that was more important right now.
The countless pavilion statues cast long, hazy shadows under the lazy evening sun. The storm edging in on the island’s south side hadn’t made it to the centre yet, and Jay felt the evening chill set in as he made the final leg of his journey back to the viewing room.
Hopefully some answers awaited him there.
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Jay stood outside the viewing room. The door was left slightly ajar. By the sounds of it, they were watching previous Goldenback gorilla fights.
“Doesn’t look too hopeful. Has he got much firepower?” Said Vega. Unsurprisingly, she sounded just as hungover as Akira did earlier.
“No, not really, that’s why I sent him to the storm sage. Hopefully he’ll get something there.” Lyra said, it didn’t sound like she expected much.
“Why do you want to help this guy anyway? Haven’t we got more important things to focus on right now?” Vega added.
“You should have seen him analyse my fight earlier. It was like he’d seen it all before. If he can get past the first few fights, he’ll be a useful guy to have along.”
Lyra wasn’t being entirely selfless, which was a good thing in Jay's eyes. There was no such thing as someone with no ulterior motives, at least hers made sense and didn’t hurt Jay.
“Are you sure he hadn’t just seen the fight beforehand?”
Jay chose this moment to walk in the room, deciding to end that line of reasoning before it got explored. It was a bit of an awkward entrance, Akira and the twins turned to greet him just as a gorilla dismembered a screaming gladiator on the projection behind them.
“How’d it go?” Akira asked. He paused the fight replay just as a huge spurt of blood erupted from the dead gladiator’s torso.
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Jay fully recounted his past few hours to the gang. Detailing everything, the underwater tentacle, the towers, the fight, and finally the conversation afterwards.
“Yep, sounds like a sage to me.” Vega said. She snapped her fingers, sending sparks skittering into the air. “I went to see some guy called the tinder sage a while back, he made me sit for hours just snapping my fingers. Not too sure why.”
“Tinder sage?”
“Wanted to speed up my flame generation. He was the best person within half a week’s travel.”
“Did you get anything useful out of him? All I got was this stupid marble.” Jay held up the storm sage’s gift to him. Akira’s jaw dropped, his eyes shot open. Lyra maintained her cool demeanour, but her twin’s smirk and raised eyebrows told him enough.
Wait, this thing’s actually worth something?
“Woah! You didn’t tell us he gave you one of those! You got a new outfit and a memory crystal. The dude must have loved you!” Akira said. He clambered out of his seat to get a closer look at the marble.
“You shouldn’t speak so soon Jay.” Lyra said, pulling out a pair of sapphire marbles. “A memory crystal from an expert can be a useful tool. I’ve heard of undercover masters picking acolytes solely because they possess something like this. It proves someone is at least somewhat interested in you.”
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Jay initially thought that the storm sage and Selena didn’t think much of him. Sure, they buttered him up with kind words about how he wasn’t like most fighters. But then they unceremoniously dismissed him and told him not to come back for three weeks. Was that any way to treat a prospect you cared about? He couldn’t make any assumptions though. The fight game was never simple, here even more so than Earth. Jay had a whole new set of rules to learn.
“From what you described, the thunder punch on the tentacle is your only way of generating enough power to damage the gorilla.” Akira said. “You’re not going to grab a hold of it and bash it into that wall like the eel. It seems like a relatively simple technique, so it shouldn’t take much time to learn. Go over the crystal tomorrow and get as much practice in as possible. That’s your win condition for the fight.”
Vega stared at Akira silently. Her mouth almost cracked open, but she stayed quiet.
“Find out what the sage told you in the crystal.” Lyra said, drawing Jay's attention back. “I’ve been watching some previous Goldenback fights at the coliseum. It doesn’t look good, but it isn’t hopeless.”
“Yeah... Thanks.”
Jay looked at each of the three gladiators in front of him. “Why are you helping me out so much? I get being nice to the new guy, and that I can help you too. But don’t you guys also have to fight in a week?”
Vega chuckled and gold flashed over her eyes. The dismembered gladiator behind her was replaced by a table in classic coliseum gold. There were over forty unknown names there, but Jay recognised a few.
Vega Twinstrike
#1
Lyra Twinstrike
#2
Akira Kurosawa
#15
“This is the entrance list for the E Grade advancement tournament next month. Once you enter your visa gets frozen and you don’t need to fight every week. It means people like me have more time to relax and people like Lyra have more time to stress.”
“It means, there's less rush and we can focus on more meaningful preparation.” Lyra sighed. “Anyone can enter but not everyone makes it into D grade alive. You have to be certain you’ve got what it takes, otherwise there's no point even entering.” The younger twin shot daggers at her sister’s smirk.
Jay stared at the marble in his hand. He was rank 973. The trio in front of him, although they seemed normal, were stratospheres above his power level.
Yet the storm sage was probably stratospheres above them too. If all these people were willing to help, even just a little bit, Jay had to take everything he could.
“So where do I start?”
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“Marvelling at my meticulous analysis, I see. A wise, welcoming, choice. Witness your wealth of weaknesses. But fear not; faint flickers of hope still froth forth for you.”
Although Jay sat perfectly still, meditating in the corner of the training room Akira had taken him to, his concentration was almost broken by the internal sigh the sage’s voice evoked.
Jay watched his past self begin swimming towards the towers as if it was his own memory. It didn’t feel too weird watching himself, Jay had analysed enough of his fights to get over that hump. The strange part was the occasional snarky comment that he didn’t hear the first time around. Hearing the booming voice of the storm sage inside his head made it insanely hard to keep focus.
“I expanded my domain so that you may take advantage of my personal essence and use some of my power. This shortcut to essence manipulation only works when I will it, so don’t get any ideas. It should help you when you learn on your own however.”
It didn’t look like past Jay was getting much help, floundering against the wind and waves, barely moving forward.
Jay’s helpless body sank underneath the surface. Jay shuddered just thinking about the giant tendril of darkness. Even from the sage’s point of view, he couldn’t see its source.
“Aww, come on R̵͔͐'̷̣̽l̵̢̑ȳ̵͈͠é̶̡͇͝h̶̻͖̎̓t̷̳̅́ǎ̸̱n̴̮̠̾ ̴̖̪̍P̸̰͛̿ȓ̴͚̤o̶̹̟̒͝t̷̻̟̑e̶̛̫̿c̵̡̯̈́t̵̲͊̉o̵̠͛͝r̷͕̜̃͠ ̶͎́ó̴̝͈f̵̱̏̌ ̵̟͠t̶̠̪́h̶͇̪̃ḛ̵̮͌ ̴̤͋̅D̷͚̄ę̷̒ë̸̼̲̈p̶̺̅͝! Don’t bully the new kid!”
Jay decided it would be better for his mental health if he ignored whatever the fuck the storm sage just said. He resolved never to go swimming near Tranquillity tower again and returned to the memory.
Jay moved closer to his past self and the tentacle. He was winding up the final punch. The storm sage appeared beside him and walked over to past Jay; the memory slowed to a crawl as he entered the scene.
“Wait a second. Wasn’t this supposed to be your memory, oh magnanimous storm sage? How is your beautiful form gracing my eyes once more? Please share but a sip from your fountain of knowledge.” He said, pausing for a reaction that Jay refused to give.
“The truth is… I’m just that good!” He said with a wink. “But onto some analysis. I know you’re begging for it. Here you channelled the essence of thunder to deliver a large amount of force after you hit our lovely leviathan friend.
“What is thunder? We need to know that to understand its essence. An artist such as I can see the heart and soul of thunder without devolving into such mundanity. But I’ll give your plebian mind a quick explanation.
“Although it’s a part of the storm, and arises when lightning strikes, thunder is a purely sonic phenomenon. It’s just a large sound wave, and a sound wave is just periodic compression and expansion. In a storm, the lightning catalyses the cycle by applying enough heat to significantly expand the air around it, which then compresses the next layer of air and so on and so forth.”
The weather science lesson was somewhat interesting, but it didn’t exactly tell Jay how to recreate the punch. He didn’t see the point in it.
“When you released your pent-up power, you compressed the water. That kickstarted the thunder wave. When you try to recreate this punch, make sure you focus on the cycle of compression and expansion. There lies the key to understanding thunder essence.”
Right. Compression and expansion. Got it. Jay's attention faded as the storm sage began to list off metaphors about thunder. Jay began to understand that the best way to get anything from the storm sage was to know when to stop listening. The old man was undeniably wise, but his alliteration would test even the most patient of saints.
Jay's speed and timing were his greatest assets as a fighter, but he feared that wouldn’t be enough. He thought about what Akira said last night. If the thunder strike was his only way of damaging the gorilla, he needed to get to grips with it, and use it without the storm sage’s domain propping him up.
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Jay opened his eyes and stretched out the stiffness in his neck. After another night on Lyra’s couch, he’d gotten up first thing in the morning to train. There were only four days left to find a way to win.
Although there were many training rooms dotted around the island, Akira had taken him to one inside the coliseum. Jay stood up, brushing sandy gravel off his new red robes. This training room was designed to mimic the feeling of being outside, the walls and ceiling almost looked like an overcast sky when Jay focused on anything else.
No longer inside the sage’s memory, Jay watched Akira begin a sort of kata in the middle of the room. He didn’t move like any other swordsman Jay had ever seen; he didn’t move like any other fighter Jay had ever seen. Akira often discarded his sword and practiced fighting invisible opponents without it. Some of his steps defied logic. Accelerating and decelerating rapidly with no apparent tells.
Akira thrust his scabbard into the ground in front of him. He took a few steps back, blocking imaginary attacks as he retreated before holding his ground. He unleashed a horizontal swing. Jay could almost feel Akira's opponents being bisected. Akira ran towards his sword’s sheath. Three mammoth strides dug into the gravel. He hopped up, the last step falling on the end of his scabbard.
Akira sprung into the air, simultaneously letting loose a rising slash as he accelerated upwards. He kept rising. Floating in the air for two, three, four seconds before landing as softly as a feather. He shook his sword off to the side. Jay was certain he saw blood fly off the blade, but he cleared his eyes and saw it was clean.
Beads of sweat rolled their way down Akira's temples. He looked more serious than Jay had ever seen him before.
He turned to Jay.
For a split-second Jay felt like an ant, quivering under the thumb of a sadistic giant.
Akira's kind smile returned, and Jay's fear washed away.
Gone, but not forgotten.
“You ready?”