So many emotions were going through Brittanie as she looked across at her suprised and clearly nervous son.
He tried to apologize, but she knew the lesson had to be taught. If this attitude of arrogance and superiority appeared like it did, words wouldn't work to make sure her son didn't become a tyrant or worse.
His powers had too much potential for good and bad and it was on them to make sure he used his strength properly.
"Begin!" Mitch shouted.
She took a single step and her vision blurred for a split second and she was behind Kyrain who didn't even see her move. She knew, to him, it would be as if she vanished.
She swung her spear across his back. On impact she could feel just over half of her impact drain out from the strike. The impact itself still threw Kyrain forward.
Brit flashed to his front and launched a front kick to his chest with the same effect. He still staggered backwards trying to follow her speed. Then she really began.
- Kyrain -
He couldn't even see her move. It seemed like teleportation to him for those first two strikes and then it seemed like she was everywhere at once. He brought his sword up trying to defend himself and that's when he felt a searing pain lance across his left calf.
He turned and a cut appeared on his right tricep, then right calf, left tricep, and then all over his body in ten seconds. He was so completely outmatched it was laughable and he knew it.
He tried to extend his antiaether field to lock on to his mom. She must have noticed, because she stopped right in front of him.
- Brittanie -
She felt what he was trying to do and to prove her point that his strength was meaningless to much higher tiers of power, she stopped and let him.
The drain on her increased, but she was a tier 7 and shrugged through the effects and extended her light whips from her back. Thin lines of pure gold light attached themselves around all four of Kyrains limbs and dragged him to her. His eyes went wide as his skills meant absolutely nothing to her by appearance alone.
Seeing him like this was killing her inside though. This was her baby boy. She held him so close when he was born and taught him everything. She nursed him when he was sick. Tears streamed down her face from how much it hurt her, but she knew Kyrain needed to learn that he isn't untouchable and that he can't walk through life thinking he was or he would get himself killed.
She wished every day for Sorin to return as this was a dad's role when a child got to this point, but they would do it themselves to make sure he became a good man. Sorin always told her when he was here.
"A good man is a dangerous man, but a gentle one. Any boy can use their strength for selfish gains, but a man uses their strength to shelter those around him."
Brittanie reared back with her right hand, spear in her left and punched. She felt the usual amount leave her strike, but it was still enough.
*wham!*
She smashed Kyrain square in the jaw. She saw his eyes roll back and he went down unconscious.
She scanned his body making sure there were no major injuries. With a twist of her will she healed the cuts to him and the fracture to his jaw, but left the forming bruises.
- Kyrain -
Kyrain opened his eyes and slowly got up. He had a headache already. The last thing he saw was his mother immobilize him even at his full power like it was nothing and then casually punch him in the jaw, putting him to sleep.
"Get ready. I'm next." His uncle said as water began rushing over his feet and his uncle stood on the water as it moved him across the arena, his bident in hand.
"I'm not as fast as your mom, but I promise it won't be an issue." He said as the water all around them exploded into needles of water and shot toward him.
Kyrain reacted as he had seen this technique before in their training, but never to this level. He curled up pushing his nullification to the max, but it stopped maybe half of the water needles as the rest stabbed into him.
To his horror, they flowed out of the wound mixed with his blood and flowed around his joints before freezing. He panicked as he couldn't move anymore. He needed more. Tier 3 wasn't cutting it. He struggled against the path to the beyond. He needed more.
He pushed harder than he ever had before in his desperation. It didn't move any more than it usually did, but in Kyrain's panicked, desperate mind he didn't even care. He pushed and pushed and pushed.
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He struggled like an animal caught in a trap and then it jumped.
*bleep*
A rush of strength pushed into his limbs. The water and ice locking him in place fell away.
Kyrain looked up and saw the suprise in his uncles face, then a manic grin. "Now we're talking!" The water grabbed him and pushed him forward quickly with ice forming around Kyrain's feet even through the new tier upgrade.
Kyrain could feel that he had reached tier 4 and he was going to use it. Kody slashed out with his spear with a still unimaginable speed as Kyrain used his newest skill, he was quickly overwhelmed, but it slowed the strike enough allowing Kyrain to lean out of the way and release what aether he had caught in the strike.
There was a kinetic shockwave as his uncle was ripped up and out of the water, throwing him across the room. Before he could crash, the water caught him and he gracefully flipped to his feet.
"That's a new trick." Kody said as he completely drained the water reservoirs in the arean and sent them all at Kyrain, enveloping him in a dome of water.
He nullified the water around him, but it had nowhere to go. It was recycled back into the water outside of his sphere then it turned into ice lances and they launched all over him.
Cuts appeared all over his body and he was running out of oxygen. Spots began to appear in his vision and he exhaled. The fight quickly left him as did the water around him.
He slumped to the ground as the water was all returned to the reservoirs. He lay on the ground coughing and sputtering as a guilld healer came running in.
"Heal only the cuts and more serious injuries. Leave the bruises and aches." He heard his uncle Kody direct the healer.
Kyrain just lay there thinking about how he got into this mess. He knew he would never cross this line. He was nothing to both his mother and uncle. They were still holding back and could have crushed him in an instant.
After a few minutes, he heard the rasp of a sword being drawn from its sheath. He looked over as his uncle Mitch took his place where Kody once stood. Sword by his side in a relaxed posture he commanded his nephew to get to his feet.
Kyrain got up, walked over to retrieve his own sword and stood shakily across from one of the deadliest swordsman in the country.
There was no signal given and Kyrain had no idea what was happening. One second he was looking at his uncle and the next he was spining through the air, sword leaving his hand shortly before smashing back into the ground with three cuts across his lower back that seared right after impact.
"Get up! You are untouchable right?!" Kyrain pushed himself up grabbing his sword again. He couldn't even register his opponent to even use his own skills. He was so horribly outmatched it wasn't even funny.
"You want to disrespect your mother and dad thinking that just because he isn't here there are not consequences? Child you may be born into a family that has turned out rather extraordinary, but that doesn't mean you get to be arrogant and think you're better than anyone!" Mitch said.
*wham!*
The impact came out of nowhere. It looked like his uncle took a single step then vanished only for that impact to land at the same time, launching him across arena with three more cuts, this time to his right leg.
"You are strong boy, but you are on track to end up as an abusive bpy who will oppress those around you with your power rather than help them. Get up!"
Kyrain got up, placing his weight on his other leg and trying to face his uncle. He vanished with a line of dust going to the side. Kyrain was now being launched to the right, tumbling, then sliding with three more cuts this time to his left tricep.
"If you keep on this mindset, you will end up getting put on the wanted list with hunters coming for you. Is that what you want?! Get up!"
Kyrain had tears streaming down his face and blood dripping down his body as he slowly got back to his feet. Left arm hanging uselessly.
His uncle vanished again.
*wham!*
Everything went dark.
The nrxt thing Kyrain knew, someone was running their hands through his hair and his pain was completely gone. He opened his eyes and saw his mother.
She smiled at him, but could still see the traces of tears on her face.
"Welcome back little dude." Kody said when he saw him move.
Kyrain turned his head and saw both his Uncles sitting on the ground around him with him laying in his mother's lap.
"We love you kid, but you can't continue down the path you were. The world we live in now is far too dangerous for you to walk around thinking you're the baddest guy around." Mitch said.
"I've even had to call for help from time to time when I've been outmatched by enemies trying to press into the USA from the coast. I even had to run once when I disturbed the leviathan." Kody commented.
Kyrain scrunched his brows.
"Leviathan?" He asked.
"Oh yeah...turns out the Bible was telling the truth about that thing. I was screwing around exploring and found this chasm in the ocean and this massive snake dragon. I thought I could do what I did with Krakentoa and Neptune, but I was very very wrong. It was completely impervious to anything I did."
All three of them were now looking at Kody with their eyebrows way up. It was Brittanie that spoke first.
"How long ago was this?" She asked.
Kody scratched his head, smiling with embarrassment written on his face.
"Remeber that string of tsunamis last week?" A new voice spoke up.
They looked up as Kody's wife and Kyrain's Aunt Kassie and his little cousin Kalypso walk in and walking toward them.
"That was this idiots fault. He came limping back to the house bleeding everywhere from that thing causing massive damage along the ENTIRE Pacific coast. Drained our entire bank account and then some in order to pay back damages." She said coming over and smacking him upside the head.
Kody sputtered "It wasn't that bad. I wasn't able to even scratch the dumb thing though. Turns out the stories about that thing were dead on about nobody being able to kill that thing and human weapons being useless against it. Besides, I've said I'm sorry every single time you hit me."
She kicked Kyrain's leg lightly.
"Learned not be a moron yet?" She asked.
"Yes ma'am. I won't be trying that ever again."
Kassie smiled up at his uncle Kody. "If only your uncle had that ability to learn. I overheard him talking to one of his guild masters about giving it another go with precautions this time not to drain our account."
Kody got an evil look on his face as he looked at Kassie, who had a mental path.
Kassie paused for a moment then scrunched up her face.
"Kody you're absolutely disgusting! I hate when you do that. I don't want those images in my head you pervert!"
*smack!*