3 months later

At a random flat field in the middle of the badlands, a boy was getting brutally beaten by an adult male.

The boy was Itami, and the one doing the beating was Kage.

Ever since they started sparring this is how it went.

They'd bow to each other to thank them for the match, take their fighting stances, and Kage would pummel Itami black and blue.

For Kage, this was exhilarating and therapeutic, but for Itami, it was torture.

Although it was beneficial and helped him sharpen his battle instincts, Itami was sure Kage could pull his punches but deliberately chose not to.

This made Kage angry because he was taking a beating for nothing, and Kage could feel this.

Kage knew Itami would love nothing more than to punch him straight in the face.

However, what could Itami do? During the three months they've been sparring partners he hasn't landed a hit once.

Although only Itami knew today would be his chance.

Kage's POV

As the sparring continued, it started to morph into how it usually did. Itami began throwing weak punches or cane strikes.

I dodged, and then he'd attempt a trick or diversionary tactic. Since the first time, we sparred and I beat him into the dirt, Itami gave up the notion of fighting me on fairgrounds and used any trick possible.

This time, he tried to put sand in my eyes to blind me while he hit me with his rods.

Unfortunately, how could this ever work against a knight rank? If one could blind a higher-ranked individual with sand, then there wouldn't be any left on beaches anymore.

I quickly saw through the diversion and aimed a quick kick to his gut, but when I was about to make contact, I heard a **BOOM**, and suddenly Itami appeared behind me.

I was shocked. When did Itami develop such a technique, and how did I not know about it? Suddenly, I made a mistake and became lost in thought during the battle. Nevertheless, who can blame me?

I witnessed a nine-year-old kid develop a never-before-seen astral art, and on top of that, it was quick enough to get behind a knight rank.

Granted, it was because I hadn't expected him to use a speed-increasing technique. However, in battle who could know the other's techniques 100 percent?

This was simply incredulous. **Whizz** Suddenly, I felt a surge of ether come hurtling towards me, but I dodged, and it grazed my cheek. This brat. He did it. He put a scratch on me. Seeing his eyes light up, I could tell he was proud.

However, the saying goes, pride is the devil, and how could I let my nephew fall astray? Suddenly, I punched my nephew in the gut, and he went crashing through a mountain or two.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

This made me feel better about letting an unranked hurt me.

Technically, he's a pawn-rank, but that didn't make it any better because he couldn't use Aether or his aspect.

However, when I found Itami, I went from disappointed to deeply confused.

Itami was in terrible condition, and bleeding from every orifice. I knew it wasn't caused by the punch because I controlled my strength and ether to ensure he didn't get hurt, so I immediately frowned.

It must be the technique.

Does it put too much stress on the body?

I should question him when he wakes up.

3 hours later

Third-person Pov:

Once Itami woke up, he felt a ringing in his head and throbbing in his chest. 'How did I get here, and why am I all bandaged up?

What happened? Were we attacked?

Where's uncle?' Itami started frantically panicking at the thought of his Uncle being injured.

After all, recently, he'd gotten close with his uncle.

Although at first he was scared of him, over time, Itami started to get used to him.

The best way Itami could describe his uncle was that he was strange.

He was like a different person when he wasn't on a mission.

When he was on a mission, he was cold and callous, but at home, he was still calm but a little eccentric.

Also, he was secretly caring.

When he was out training late, he'd leave food on the table, and if he passed out training on the mountain, he'd magically, end up on his bed.

At the thought of losing such a man, Itami started to panic, but then he started to calm down when he thought of something.

Wait a minute thinking back...

I was in the middle of using 'swallow', and I finally managed to hit him. Knowing my uncle, he'd probably…. ' Thinking about this, he became enraged.

"That bastard is the one who put me in this condition, didn't he? Damn! Did he have to hit me that hard because I grazed him? Why can't he take a loss like a man."

Hearing these words, a man about to check on Itami's injuries suddenly opened the door with his mouth slightly twitching.

"Brat! You're lucky you're still alive, yet after I saved you want to talk bad about me," he said with a disgruntled tone.

It was Kage.

Seeing Kage's face and hearing his words, Itami thought he was about to be in a world of hurt.

However, after letting out his frustrations, Kage only sighed.

This astonished Itami because, as long as he remembered, Kage believed in corporal punishment.

However, Kage was sitting still after he insulted him.

Something was up.

Then suddenly, Kage spoke, "Boy, What was that technique you used?"

Hearing this, Itami started to smile ear to ear. 'He must want to know about my new killer move.

Should I tease him a bit, or should I tell him? Tease him. It's not every day I one-up my uncle. I need to marinate in this, but how? Oh, I know I should…."

While Itami was thinking of different ways he could taunt his Kage, his thoughts were interrupted when Kage said, " I know what you're thinking, and although one should bask in their achievements, I would hurry up because if you continue using this technique, you could die.

After Kage finished speaking, silence momentarily floated in the air until Itami started to panic.

"What do you mean I could die?" He said frantically.

"Calm down, I don't know anything for sure, but after you used that technique, you started to bleed from your eyes, ears, and mouth. Now tell me what you did if you want to avoid after-effects?"

" Okay, uncle remember when I was trying to learn how to control my ether by catching it all in a bubble slightly around my skin," said Itami " Are you talking about that poor excuse for ether skin. That was funny. You tried to catch your ether, but you caught your air too. You looked like a tomato–".

"Shut up!" Itami said enraged

" I was at the end of my rope, and I couldn't find a way to get faster.

However, one day, I thought back to when I first started with the airless bubble.

Then I wondered what would happen if, rather than keeping everything in, I kept everything out, so I tried it, and for a moment, I felt lighter.

Then, after testing it and realizing it was a recurring thing, I added ether jets to it, so I could move super fast in short instances.

However, when I did that, the bubble would pop, causing a loud noise, but because of the jets, I was moving faster, so I chose to ignore it.

After doing it the first time, yesterday, I felt pain, but I chalked it up to straining ether reserves.

Until today when I got frustrated and decided to use it. "

Kage's pov:

I can't believe what I'm hearing.

Did this brat stumble onto one of the 12 great conundrums of ether arts?

Gravity arts.

I must not be mistaken.

What Itami's doing is destabilizing the gravitational forces around him causing him to become "lighter".

I can't believe a nine-year-old did this. Especially not Itami. After all, this boy wasn't a genius by any means. The only thing that could be said to be a little special about him was his aspect and his Gorgon no Shogeki.

However, even that art was just an advanced form of mana sense, and he could only use it three times a day.

This made it simply unusable. Let's not even talk about his self-invented "style" if one could call it that.

Although it was impressive for him to create his fighting techniques, compared to low-tier family styles it was nothing to scoff at.

However, this was different. Itami accidentally stumbled on a type of ether art that was deemed impossible. One that was thought could only be displayed in ancient aspects.

On top of that, he powered it without aether, which means it has room to grow.

However, it doesn't come without its drawbacks.

Destabilizing the gravity around you is good, but eventually, gravity has to return.

However, that's not the biggest issue. It's that coupled with ether jets.

The ether jet used to power it puts too much stress on the body, and his body clearly can't handle it.

What should I tell him though?

Should I ban the move, or should I help him refine it?