Ding

Skill: Chakra Separation lvl 1. Level up.

Skill: Chakra Separation lvl 1 has reached level 2

With that notification, I collapsed to the ground and gasped for air. Haze and I have been training on my control for hours, and I lost every time, but I got very good at controlling my chakra now. Out of curiosity, I opened my skill and looked at the new description since I leveled up.

Skill: Chakra Separation lvl 2. Separate one chakra core at a time and have greater control over the separated chakras.

Requirements to reach the next level: Separate chakras fifty times. 0/50.

I smiled. It wasn’t as good as I hoped, but it would do. I sat up and saw Orrin smiling broadly at me. “Well, I believe I’ve held my end of the bargain. Now for you to hold up yours,” Orrin demanded, not unkindly.

“What about the best single chakra choice for chakra control?” I asked.

“That is for you to decide on. It all depends on the person and what they want to control. Now about my payment.”

Sighing, I sat up and explained quickly, “Forty-five, forty-five, ten. Take two chakras of your choice and begin filling a core with them. When you are almost done, stop taking the first two and start taking the third chakra. You will have to expel whatever excess chakra you have to save your life, but once you’re done, you’ll have a three-chakra core.”

Orrin nodded and said, “Thank you very much. I shall be off now. See you in the Colosseum.” Then he left.

I waved goodbye and turned to Haze. Who looked perfectly fine despite fighting with me for hours. I stood and asked, “One more fight, master.”

Haze looked at me quizzically and said, “Are you sure? You haven’t won yet.”

I nodded, “This time, I’m not holding back.”

Haze shrugged, and her usual manic smile spread across her face, “Very well! One last fight!”

Without warning, Haze shot forward with an explosion and opened with the same right hook she had opened with all day. I felt Fengbao cycle his storm chakra while I cycled my Ice-claymore and separated it into its components. Force chakra covered my body, and lighting shot out as I turned, grabbing Haze’s wrist and throwing her over my shoulder with enough force to make her break the sound barrier.

Haze wasn’t phased as she pivoted and landed feet first against the left wall. She bounced off it, shooting toward me once again. I was too slow to react this time, and I felt her knee impact my face with a loud bang. I didn’t budge, however, and noted the ice that formed on Haze’s arm, where I grabbed her along with the ice that now formed on her knee. I smiled as I took the energy from her knee and sent it back at her.

She was thrown back and landed on her feet a few meters away. Scowling, she formed her black armor around her, and I shot forward with a single step leaving a trail of ice in my wake. I punched at her gut with a right cross, and she dodged to the side, returning with a swift kick to my legs. I redirected the energy from the kick and sent a blast of force to her gut from point-blank range.

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The chest plate of her armor shattered into black smoke, and she was sent stumbling back several meters. I felt my chakra run out with that, and I began focusing on recovering my chakra. Turning to face Haze again, I felt Apollo cycling his chakra along with Crucible. The power coursing through me filled me with strength, and the world seemed to slow down immensely. Haze noticed this, and she repaired her armor as she, too, drew on more than one core.

My chakra sight had grown stronger, and I could see her chakra flowing through her body just before the armor repaired itself. We charged, and I felt my chakras concentrate in my right fist. Ice spikes formed around my fist as fire ignited in my palm, and lighting jumped from ice spike to ice spike. Haze’s eyes widened for a small fraction of a second, and she slowed down ever so slightly. I took advantage of the hesitation and punched at her legs. We were still a couple of meters away from each other, but with my power, I didn’t need to be close.

A whirl of blue, red, orange, purple, and white energy shot from my fist and impacted her legs. The attack shredded the armor and made her stumble forward, nearly falling. She couldn’t stop her momentum and rolled forward, clearing the two meters between us in an instant as she brought her foot down and struck my left knee with an ax kick.

I stumbled back, and Haze lept up at me, wrapping her legs around my head, twisting, and throwing me across the room. I flipped and landed feet-first on the front wall of the training room. I grimaced and thought fast, ‘Fengbao, if you were to make armor around me, how long would you last before sucking my life energy?’

“Best guess, two minutes. It depends on if your body can withstand the strain and for how long,” Fengbao answered quickly.

‘Do it,’ I commanded.

“I think I need a catchphrase to do it,” Fengbao said, contemplatingly.

‘What?!’ I asked as I hit the ground and dodged a black spear Haze threw at me from across the room with enough force to break the sound barrier. ‘You don’t need me to say a catchphrase! Now make me armor!’ I said, scolding Fengbao.

“I don’t need one. I want one.”

‘Can we discuss this after we win the fight?’ I asked as I dodged three more spears.

“No. I want it now, and you must say it out loud.”

“I, too, like this idea,” Apollo agreed.

‘Not you too!’

“Come on! Say something for us to activate the armor! I want something that instills fear in our enemies,” Fegbao implored.

Gritting my teeth as I dodged another spear, this one putting a small cut across my face, I cleared my mind and said in a low voice, “Dragon of storms, make them fear your power. Manifest!”

“HAHAHA!! YYYYYEEEEESSSSS!!!!” Fengbao yelled in my head, and I felt his power redouble as blue, purple, and white armor began to form around my body. My hands got gauntlets with three massive lighting claws. My chest was covered in scaled armor, and my legs gained blue and purple boots with claws on the tips of my toes. A long tube of blue, purple, and white scales formed around my tail and became the head of a dragon. And finally, a crown with long horns formed around my brow with long beads that went down to my shoulders on either side of my head.

I shot forward in a blur of motion, moving so fast that I looked like a living lightning bolt. In fact, I was too fast as I ran into Haze. She was thrown to the opposite end of the room, and I raced after her, passed her, and kicked up at her back, sending her hurtling toward the ceiling. I jumped up, hit the ceiling, and spun. The maw of my dragon tail opened wide to bite down on Haze and throw her back to the ground as I spun. Making a creator and sending up a plume of dust.

“That’s enough. You can’t take any more strain,” Fengbao said as the armor began to dissolve, and I fell back to the ground. Once the armor disappeared, I felt the strain it put on my body, and my muscles tensed up as I fell. Just before I hit the ground, Haze shot out from the dust and caught me, and we rolled across the ground in a confusing pile of tangled limbs.

Once we stopped, I rolled off of her, and we both lay there panting and exhausted. Haze spoke first a few minutes later, “Was that … your spirit … Fengbao?”

I nodded, still unable to speak.

“Well … good job, kid,” Haze huffed, still catching her breath.

“It … was … a lot … to … get them … to … do it,” I managed through gasps.

“Well, it worked. You won this time, Zeana.”

“I … won,” I gasped.

Ding

Blockage 3/3 complete.

Heart core unlocked

After reading that notification, I quickly caught my breath and said, “Hey, master. I’m going to need some new chakras.”