I gaped at the raw power master Haze possessed. And what was that black armor she had?! That looked badass! I want magical armor! How do I get magical armor?!

Fengboa reading my thoughts, answered, “It looked to be a chakra-forging technique. We might be able to do it with my chakra or our Healing chakra.”

“We need to train,” I said.

“Agreed,” everyone else said, startling me since I had forgotten they were there.

“Uhh, yeah, right. Totally talking to all of you, yes. We must train. Yes,” I said nervously.

Cami looked at me quizzically from down the row and shook her head, leaning back in her chair. I leaned back and saw the twins looking at Haze, all starry-eyed. I nudged them and asked, “Impressed?”

“Aye,” Leila said.

“She’s so powerful,” Shersha agreed.

“We’ll work hard and get that powerful,” I egged them on.

“Aye, we’ll be even more powerful!!” the twins exclaimed excitedly.

“Yeah!” I exclaimed, their enthusiasm feeling infectious.

“SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP, DUMBASS!” Shiro yelled, “You’re disturbing everyone around you!!”

The twins and I sat down quickly and sheepishly apologized to everyone. But I still felt a certain excitement for the next step in my learning. Not to mention, I needed to pick out two new cores tomorrow.

***

Haze brought us to the training building after her fight. Once there, she broke down the fight into pieces and told us what we had to do in the future, especially since there is a chance we might have to fight the Otherworlders and Drakara again. Now that they know our fighting styles, they will be harder to face next time. And Drakara is apparently one of the top ten fighters in the tournament. So, that’s good to know. Ha, I beat a top-ten fighter in a one-on-one fight.

Once Haze finished drilling us on our mistakes, mine being I left the team to fight solo, I approached her and asked, “Master Haze, what are your cores, and how do I make my own suit of chakra armor?”

Haze raised an eyebrow, “If I were anybody else, I would beat your face in for asking such an insensitive question. Next time don’t ask for someone’s core compositions. But I’ll answer your questions. After an apology.”

“Right, sorry for asking a personal question,” I said with a deep bow.

Crossing her arms, Haze said, “Apology accepted. Now, my first core is Fire and Force, creating Explosive chakra. Very powerful at close range. My second core is Air and Speed, creating Sound chakra. Good for quick bursts of speed. My third core is Earth and Blood, creating Steel chakra, as you know. My fourth core is Death and Destruction, creating War chakra. A highly dangerous and deadly chakra to cultivate. My final core is Nature and Water, creating the Mother Nature chakra. It grants control over plants. You’ve seen firsthand how powerful it can be when I fought Lii.”

My eyes brightened, and I asked excitedly, “Can I get—”

“No,” Haze and Fengbao said in unison, interrupting me.

“I didn’t even finish what I was going to ask.”

“You were about to ask if you can get the War core,” Haze said.

I looked down sheepishly, “Yeah.”

“Well, you can’t have it. Not only is it impossible to get in this day and age, but all the known sources are dried up.”

“Where can I find one, though?”

Haze looked at me severely, “You have to fight in a war. Or a similar battle on the same scale. And we haven’t had one of those in years. Not to mention your body won’t handle that kind of power.”

“But I—”

“No,” Haze said, ending the conversation.

“Fine,” I relented, “Can you at least tell me how to make the armor?”

Haze nodded and gestured for me to sit down. Once sat, she asked, “Which chakra will you use for the armor?”

“Either my Storm chakra, Healing chakra, or maybe even my Ice-claymore chakra.”

Haze nodded and began to pace in front of me, “Your healing chakra won’t work for what you want to do, but the Ice-claymore chakra might work best. Have you tried forming objects with your Storm core?” I shook my head. “I see,” Haze continued, “Then let me break it down for you. Creating armor out of your cores takes a lot of chakra, especially since it is one of the few forging techniques requiring a constant stream of chakra.”

“Okay, so what does this have to do with my Storm core and, I’m assuming, Fengbao?”

“Since Fengbao is a spirit, anything you forge with him will cost a lot of chakra. And if you make a suit of armor with him, you will run out of chakra quickly. Once that happens, if you do not dispel the armor in time, Fengbao will eat away at your life force, and you will die.”

I froze at this information and asked, “Fengbao, did you know about this?”

“I did not know about that. If I had, I would’ve warned you. Remember, if you die, so do I,” Fengbao said defensively.

“Okay, just checking,” I said, getting a quizzical look from Haze. “I was talking to Fengbao about what you just told me. Apparently, he didn’t know that either.”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Haze nodded and said, “Well, if you want to learn how to manifest the armor with Fengbao, you will have to exercise precise control over a chakra known for being uncontrollable. So, we’ll use your Ice-claymore chakra for this. Stand up.” I did as I was told and waited for instructions. “Start cycling your chakra through your body. Once you do, tell me,” Haze instructed.

I cycled my chakra through my body, excluding my nine tails. “Okay, I have it.”

“Good. Now for the hard part. What do you want your armor to look like?”

“Why is that the hard part, master?” I asked.

“Just try it, and you’ll see,” was her only response. I scowled a little and closed my eyes. Keeping the chakra flowing through my body, I tried envisioning my armor. Let’s start with my head and work our way down. I want— when I envisioned my helmet, my chakra was disrupted and stopped flowing. I opened my eyes with a gasp and took a few deep breaths.

“And there’s the hard part,” Haze said, “You can envision whatever armor you want, but only one will work.”

I looked up at my master’s smiling face, “So I have to go through every imaginable piece of armor until I make something?”

“Yep, good luck. Once you figure it out, talk to me,” Haze said and walked away.

Shaking my head, I got to work finding my armor. I couldn’t help but feel something was missing from what Haze had told me. Could it be from how I formed the image? I’m going to experiment with that.

I closed my eyes and cycled my chakra. I started with my helmet again. And again, I felt my chakra get disrupted. I restarted my chakra and tried going a little slower. Starting from the center of my forehead, I imagined a small dot of chakra for my helmet. Nothing happened. I then began to move down my face, and once I was halfway down my nose, I felt my chakra start to disrupt, and I stopped. Oh, I see. I have to color in a picture without seeing the actual picture.

That’s actually kind of cool. Anyway, I got to work filling in the blanks. Whenever my chakra started to disrupt, I would pull away and move around the disruption. I soon had the face of the helmet done. It left my mouth and eyes open, framed my face, and attached by a circlet around my head with seven four-point stars around it like a crown.

After exploring my head more, I couldn’t find any more areas to fill, so I moved onto my chest and back. That took longer to figure out as it had more of a backless dress form with no shoulders. My legs were pair of clawed boots. The claws formed on my toes with a three-centimeter spike on my heels. Several long chains made of four-point stars connected to my waist, creating a long skirt that went down to my feet. On my arms was a pair of clawed gloves extending my forearms to my elbows. The claws were connected to my fingertips and my knuckles, giving a slightly intimidating appearance.

I opened my eyes and looked down at my bare hands after what felt like an hour of cycling. I then looked up to look for Haze, who was simultaneously sparing with Scarlet, Cami, Jax, and Xiao. I jogged over to her and waited for her inevitable victory.

Once she finished the fight, I said, “Master Haze, I finished.”

Haze turned around to me in surprise, “You did that fast. How long has it been? Two hours?”

“I don’t know. I was lost in thought when cycling,” I answered.

Haze nodded and said, “Well, at least you’re ready for step three.”

“I am ready!” I exclaimed.

“Good, cycle your chakra,” Haze instructed, “Envision your armor,” I envisioned my armor down to every last detail, feeling my chakra flow un-encombered, “Good, now force your chakra out in those spots and bring it back into yourself, that is how you make your armor.”

I concentrated and felt my chakra flow out of my body slowly and back into my body. I felt nothing happening, so I increased the speed of the flow, making it go faster. Nothing happened. I increased the speed again and again. Then I felt it, a cold weight forming around my body.

Opening my eyes, I smiled at my armor. Although I made the shape right, I didn’t know there were designs. The chest piece had an intricate snowflake pattern embroidered onto it, and the stars on the skirt had similar embroidering. I lifted my helmet and looked at the face of it. Around the edge of the helmet was a long-thorned flower with white and blue flower petals on the temples. Unable to stop smiling, I put the helmet back on and felt the armor with just my chakra. I felt in complete control over every one of my movements in the armor. I even felt control over the armor itself.

“Hey! Snowflake princess!” Shiro yelled from behind me. I turned slowly toward him to see his ferocious smile. “You care for a fight?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said, returning his smile, “Be prepared to lose to a snow princess.”

“In your dreams, snowflake!” Shiro yelled and ran down to the other side of the training room, readying himself for a fight.

***

Shiro and I square off against each other and wait for Haze to signal to start the fight. She stood between us and raised her right hand, “On my mark! Three! Two! One! Fight!” Haze dashes out of the way, and Shiro and I instantly close the distance between us.

I swipe with my claws, and Shiro ducks under them, throwing an uppercut at my ribs. The strike sends me stumbling back a few paces, and Shiro shakes his hand in pain. I look and see it’s covered in blood. Looking down at my side, I see he didn’t puncture my armor. He cut his fist on my body. I knew I looked sharp. Letting out a small laugh at my pun, I lung forward and swipe several more times at him with my claws.

Shiro dodged and back peddled under my barrage before covering his fist in flames, sending a fireball at me. I jumped back, avoiding the attack, but as I did so, I felt my skirt chains become loose momentarily. That gave me an idea. I charged forward and jumped high into the air while spinning my body in a corkscrew. As I did, I used my connection to the armor to unfurl the chains. They spread out in a spiral a dozen meters across, aiming for Shiro’s neck. He jumped back, avoiding the attack.

As I landed, I felt another instinctual feeling about my armor and sent some chakra. The floor under my feet turned to ice, and I glided across the ground like an ice skater, leaving a trail of ice in my wake. I smiled and glided around the room, spinning with the spiral of chains, creating a deadly safe area around me. I turned my focus to Shiro and began to close in on him.

Shiro growled and jumped at me, fire around his fists and burning in his eyes. He sent a volley of fireballs at me from above, which I easily dodged as I glided across the ground. Then Shiro began to fall to the ground, and I knew this would be my one opportunity to end the fight. I turned my body, aimed for where Shiro would land, and raced toward him at top speed, dodging his fireballs. Five meters. Four meters. Three meters. Two meters. One meter. I pulled back my claws and felt my chakra disappear.

My armor turned to blue and white shiny dust, and my bare feet hit the ground, launching me face-first into Shiro’s gut. We tumbled to the ground in a tangled mess, him on his back on the ground while I landed on top of him. “Ouchy,” I said as I looked up at Shiro and him down at me with a massive blush. I raised an eyebrow and was about to ask what that look was about, but then I felt it. Right between my chest, something hard located between his legs.

Now it was my turn to blush. I shot up to my feet, cycling all my Storm chakra to my right foot, drew it back and yelled, “HENTAI!!” and brought my foot full force between his legs. He screamed in pain as he shot across the training room, over our team’s heads, through the wall, out into the hallway, through the training room wall on the other side of the hallway, before stopping in the wall on the opposite side of that training room.

Still blushing, I crossed my arms and turned my back to him with a “Hmph” and tried to get a hold of my emotions. I should probably apologize to him later. I was a bit overzealous with that hit.

After that, Haze healed Shiro’s wounds as best she could, rushing him to the hospital for some reason while the rest of us went to our rooms. I lay in bed and focused on my skills.

Would you like to split your Solar core? Yes/No?

I selected yes, felt my body split in half from my sternum to my head, and holding back a scream of pain, I passed out soon after.

***

Ding

Solar core split complete