“Hiya!” Thorne released the energy that was bubbling in his hand. With a mighty push, his reserves of energy instantly became nearly depleted, but as a result, something incredible happened.
A jagged red beam of pure striction energy shot out of Thorne’s hand right into the head of the Hook-Claw he was fighting. The dinosaur’s head exploded into a gory scene of blood and minced flesh.
Nearly collapsing, Thorne had to grab onto the nearest tree for stability.
“God damn.” He huffed, “That uses so much energy.”
He smiled though upon seeing the result of the blast, “But it sure is worth it.”
Thorne had completely shifted his training in the past month to focus on The Red Nova Torrent technique. It was a devastating attack. Without fail, every time Thorne used it, the attack would kill his opponent in one blast. It eviscerated even the toughest of beasts and served as a prelude for Thorne to show what the red spectrum was capable of.
The Phantom Leap was a brilliant utility skill. Still, in Thorne’s eyes, it did not exemplify what the red spectrum was truly about: untampered destruction and chaos. The Red Nova Torrent was just that, however. A pure, unfettered, raw beam of destruction perfectly fit Thorne’s fighting style; it was the perfect killer.
However, the technique was far from perfect, as it had one fatal drawback: Its energy consumption. It used at least ninety percent of what the user had to offer. Thus, the user would be in a position of extreme vulnerability and weakness after using the technique.
Despite this, Thorne was content with the technique, ‘It may be dangerous to use, but it’s a perfect trump card.’ He thought once he regained his balance, ‘If I’m ever in a dire battle, this ability will be the perfect last-ditch effort.’
‘Hopefully, it will be enough.’ Thorne thought darkly as he pictured the final opponent he knew he would have to face. He would not run and ignore it as his brain told him he should. He would not give in, for if he did, then no matter how powerful he became, he would always be prey.
‘Now, time for amber training.’ Thorne grimaced. He had often neglected the training of his other spectrum in favor of pure destruction, but he knew it was a naïve idea that the red spectrum could carry him all by itself.
Thus, when Thone finished training with The Red Nova Torrent, he had no red energy left, so he trained his amber spectrum in a rather unorthodox fashion. He remembered hearing from the instructors back at the academy that the more you endure, the better the training. Many skimped out on this aspect of amber training, and instead of going to the extremes, they trained in the realm of comfort.
They would essentially just exercise, be it running for a long time, maybe climbing a mountain, or swimming across a lake. This, of course, put the body in a strenuous position. Yet, it was utterly incomparable to what it could truly experience and survive.
Thorne began to climb the nearest tree. Thirty feet. Forty. Fifty. Torne continued climbing to a towering height. He soon reached a suitable height, ‘this should be good.’ He sighed heavily, ‘This is going to hurt.’ Gazing over the forest one last time, Thorne enjoyed the view. He could see the indomitable mountain in the distance, the green treetops and infinite grassland. While seeming to be a technological wonder at first sight, the world was just as incredible in terms of nature.
‘Here we go!’
Thorne jumped!
He did not protect himself. No shield of amber was cast, and he did not even bother to circulate his internal energy.
He flew downward at an incredible pace. The wind ripped through his hair and tore raggedly at his skin. It was a short flight, really, only a couple of seconds. But the constant hitting of branches and horrible wind made it feel like an endless torture.
BOOM!
A crater formed as Thorne collided with the forest floor!
Gritting his teeth and clenching his jaw, Thorne tried not to scream.
He immediately tried to clear his thoughts and control his energy, but it was challenging. Pain racked his entire body, and his blood flowed away from his brain and towards the various injuries.
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‘Back…legs…Neck.’ He grunted internally, barely able to think.
With great difficulty, he began to circulate his energy. Firstly, in great droves, he commanded the amber mass of energy to travel hurriedly to his back and neck, the two areas of most damage.
The energy moved with pure motivation to protect. The power couldn’t exactly heal him, but it could help the natural process, which did, while also ensuring Thorne sustained no further injuries.
It was a slow process, but after some time, his back and neck healed to a reasonable extent, and the only area of further energy was his legs.
Thorne smiled in relief, ‘Finally, it’s healed. I hate doing this so much.’
Closing his eyes, Thorne rested his head against the tree, finally done with his grueling training.
ROAR!
His eyes snapped back open as he heard the mighty noise.
‘Oh shit.’ He thought in panic.
A Hook-Claw was a dozen feet away from him and swiftly closing the distance!
Without access to his legs, Thorne held out his hands and, with difficulty, projected an amber bubble around him. It was a technique he had practiced intensely for the past month, a perfect layer of self-protection.
The dumb beast surely saw the bubble but still decided to charge into it. Thorne and the hungry Hook-Claw collided with great force and were sent flying opposite directions. Thorne continued bouncing off of all available surfaces, and his pain shot as his legs sprung around in all directions. They contorted as they impacted the bubble in an unnatural position. Coupled with the pre-existing injury, the pain that now afflicted Thorne was incredibly immense.
Unwilling tears slowly rolled down his face, and for a moment, Thorne almost blacked out. Thinking quickly, Thorne withdrew the amber bubble and redistributed his energy to his legs. The pain did not immediately dissipate; luckily, it lessened to a bearable degree.
Thorne snapped his head upwards to look for the Hook-Claw. It had registered itself and again charged at the seemingly weak Thorne.
‘Nearly there.’ Thorne thought calmly. His mind had already been subject to many battles and could remain calm even in the direst situations.
The Hook-Thorn continued its charge and was only a few feet from Thorne now! Instead of attacking with one of its two long hooks, it opted to bite viciously at Thorne with its massive fangs!
Moving quickly, Thorne withdrew one of his sabers from his spatial storage and placed it in his left hand. Then, as quickly as he could, he moved the ember energy in his body to his right arm. The energy reached its destination franticly, and Thorne commanded it to do one more thing before being put on the front lines. It rushed outward and began coating his right arm thoroughly. It was as if his arm was geared with its individual self-contained bubble of amber protection.
With a grimace on his face anticipating the pain, Thorne held up his right arm right in front of the Hook-Claws ferocious fangs!
It bit down harshly on Thorne’s arm! But the shield held, and the teeth harmlessly bounced off!
Moving expediently, not trusting the shield to hold for too long, Thorne made his move. Still on the ground, Thorne used his sparse amount of red energy to coat the edge of his blade! He sat upward quickly, almost as if he was doing a sit-up, and stabbed forward mercilessly!
The red-coated blade connected with the exposed stomach of the Hook-Claw! Once so full of vitality, the impaled beast gurgled its final noise. Blood spilled from its previously ferocious mouth, and it collapsed pathetically onto the forest floor.
Still sitting, Thorne looked up into the sky and sighed heavily.
He chuckled slightly upon remembering something, “This is the second time, huh.” He laughed sardonically, “Fall from a tree, heal, then be attacked by a damn dino.”
Thorne found it all so funny. The first time it had happened, it was a grand accident. A life-and-death struggle of great peril. But now, it was just simple training.
“The world moves in mysterious ways, huh.” He laughed hoarsely before tentatively getting up.
‘Currently, I have two defensive techniques.’ Thorne thought as he accounted for his amber spectrum abilities, ‘The sword-shield and bubble-shield will have to be enough defensively. Though I’m unsure if I will be strong enough to kill it.’ He thought somberly; killing the snake would be a monumental task. ‘If I remember correctly, Master Khal told the students that they would be picked up in three months. That means that I have only one month left before we leave.’
His eyes hardened upon realizing this, ‘One month before I kill that bastard. I need another red spectrum technique. The Red Nova Torrent may be good, but I don’t think it will be effective against a beast that size.’ Thorne scoured his brain for potential options before remembering something: the visceral dream he had witnessed. The vision of three horrible beings in his life being killed: The snake, his father, and Vlad. It had seemed so simple when he first saw it, a vision thought up by his mind to combat the stress and terror the snake had imparted onto him.
‘It has to be more than just some coincidental vision.’ Thorne thought with furrowed brows, ‘I hadn’t even thought of extending the energy past the blades at that time.’
The vision was the first to introduce him to the limitless potential of external techniques. Before the snake and the vision, Thorne had barely delved into external techniques, let alone something as practical as expanding the length of a weapon using energy.
He shook his head in bewilderment, ‘Can the simplest technique really be what I need?’ He thought, conflicted.
He sighed deeply, ‘It’s all I have, so I will use it.’ He decided, a little disappointed by his lack of options.
‘The death of that snake will come from power and power alone, not some complicated plan or some divine ability.’ His eyes clouded over and filled with the marvelous image of a massive green head rolling on the forest floor, dead.