I groaned as I slowly became aware of my surroundings. What happened? I remember being stabbed and then being healed and passing out. So, what happened after that? I opened my eyes and looked around. I lay in the bed back at the inn. Haze sat in the center of the room, meditating again and ignoring my presence.
Sitting up with another groan, my muscles sore and overused, I asked, “What time is it?”
“You’ve been out for a couple of hours,” Haze answered, her eyes still closed.
I nodded, “What happened to the jar?”
“You dropped and shattered it, remember?”
“Oh, right,” I sighed.
“Ready for round two?” Haze asked.
I didn’t answer immediately, instead thinking about whether I could or should do it. I could create speed chakra just by running and jumping a lot. So what was the point of fighting the monster with no power at all? What was the point of using the monster to generate speed chakra? Why this specific monster? No, why this specific training method? Then it struck me, “Master, I’m not supposed to use no chakra whatsoever, am I?”
A small smile cracked Haze’s stony demeanor, “What do you think?”
Damn, the answer questions with other questions method. I’ll have to make a good guess. “I’m supposed to use my chakra around me to empower my chakra sight, and that’s supposed to teach me something,” I hedged.
“Not quite. Try again.”
I thought a bit more on the half-answer. I was close, but not close enough. Maybe, “I’m supposed to use the chakra sight, right?”
“Yes,” Haze responded.
I nodded and thought a bit more about the problem. I’m supposed to use my chakra sight but not my chakra. So how am I supposed to use the chakra sight if I can’t use my chakra? I pondered the question a moment more before a theory came to me, “I’m supposed to use the chakra around me to empower my chakra sight?”
Haze’s small smile turned into a grin, “That is correct. Now how do you do that?”
“By taking the excess chakra that I create!” After another moment of thinking, I exclaimed and jumped to my feet, “I could also use that to increase my strength and speed!”
“Which in turn—” Haze began, prodding me on.
“Which in turn creates more Speed chakra for me to harvest and an infinite feedback loop of power!”
“Drawbacks to this plan?”
“THERE ARE— There are drawbacks?” I began to exclaim excitedly but quickly deflated as her words finally processed in my little Sith brain.
“Yes, what are they?”
I pondered this a moment as I sat on the bed, “The downside is I won’t be able to use the chakra like all my others. It would just be increased speed and strength, wouldn’t it.”
“Yep, it’s good you realized it before you tried something stupid.”
“There’s something stupid I could do with that?” I asked, hoping to learn of a possible overpowered power I could somehow get.
“You could accidentally fill your core with something you don’t want,” Haze answered simply.
“Oh,” I said, my hopes dashed.
“And you never answered my first question,” Haze said, opening her eyes and turning her head to face me with a savage smile, “Are you ready for round two?”
I closed my eyes briefly before returning the smile, “You bet I am!”
***
ROUND TWO! FIGHT!
Charging toward the calamity class monster, I threw a rock at the back of its head, causing no damage. The monster chittered and turned to face me. Its left claw had regrown, and the same could be said about its right eye. Recognizing me, it charged at me, swiping its pincered arms at me in opposite horizontal directions. I jumped forward and spun, feeling the Force and Speed chakra moving around me and pulling them into my body.
The Force chakra empowered my body while I guided the Speed chakra into my new chakra jar. As my chakra sight activated, I saw the monster had a core of its own that guided its movements. I stepped and spun to the side as the monster stabbed down with two quick jabs, the monster’s core telegraphing its every move.
The monster swiped with its right pincer and stabbed with its left. I ducked and jumped back, avoiding the attacks. Once I landed, the monster’s core sped up, unleashing a flurry of swipes and stabs. I side-stepped and jumped around several of them before one stabbed into my right leg, causing me to groan in pain, but I held onto the jar, which was almost full of power. The monster raised its free claw and prepared to drive it down to end my life, but Haze appeared out of a shadow and cut the monster’s arms off, pulling the one stuck in my leg out and dragging me through a shadow to safety.
I lost that round too, and there wasn’t enough speed chakra to fill my core. Next round, I’ll win.
***
Round three! FIGHT!
The next day I fought the monster again, this time losing a leg to a diagonal slash and breaking the jar of chakra again as I fell over, making me have to start over.
***
Round nine. Fight!
After several unsuccessful fights and four broken chakra jars, I felt confident I would win this ninth round. Then the monster cut off my legs and one of my arms, breaking the fourth jar and costing me the round.
***
Round sixteen. Fight.
It’s been a little over a week of fighting this monster, and the annoyance of losing all the time was starting to wear on my nerves, especially after losing my limbs or being impaled several dozen times and breaking twelve chakra jars nearly filled with chakra. This fight was no different, with the exception of the monster taking a bit out of my side for the first time and feeling its little mouth and arms shredding my body as it ate.
***
Round … twenty-something… fight.
This was my last chance to fight the monster before Haze had to step in and end the monster for good. I looked down at the eighteenth chakra jar in my hand and thought long and hard about what I needed to do. Looking back up with determination, I turned east to the sunrise and opened my stat screen to look at my quests.
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Skill: Quick Advancements Lvl 10. Advance your cores three times as fast.
Requirements to reach the next level: Advance a core to level seven within six hours and learn a new way to use your chakra cores, and learn a new way to use your chakra cores. Time Remaining 4hr 30min.
I sat down and began to meditate as I soaked in the chakra from the sun. I began to expand my core with every breath, compress the power, refill, and expand again. I repeated the process several times over until I couldn’t expand my Light core anymore then I began to refine the chakra within as fast as I could. I refined and purified the chakra over and over again and again until I felt the core shine with power, and I instinctively knew I couldn’t refine the core anymore as a sound resonated in my head.
Ding
Skill: Quick Advancements Lvl 10. Evolved.
Skill: Quick Advancements Lvl 10 has evolved to Advanced Chakra Control Lvl 1.
Skill: Advanced Chakra Control Lvl 1. Advance your cores five times as fast, and control all aspects of your chakra around and within you, creating a chakra zone under your control within a ten-meter radius of you.
Requirements to reach the next level: Defeat an enemy with your Chakra zone.
I opened my eyes with a grin and looked at Guru Shi’en, Master Haze, and Yuki and said, “I’m ready.”
“Good luck, kid,” Haze said as I stood and began walking toward the calamity class monster Kaggen.
I started my walk slowly, gaining speed as I drew closer. Collecting the Speed chakra I created along the way and stored it in the jar. I then picked up a rock along the way and hurled it at the monster with a shout. The monster wasted no time reacting as I turned, ducked under the rock, and swiped at my legs. I jumped and rolled over the attack, dodging the first swipe and the following stab with the monster’s other arm.
Quickly getting to my feet, I backflipped, dodging the attack from behind. Landing, I squatted down and dodged the second attack that would’ve taken my head as I collected more chakra. The monster was already annoyed as its core and movements sped up. Spinning backward, I dodged four consecutive jabs and side-stepped to get closer to the monster as I collected more Speed chakra.
With a chattering roar, the monster tried to grab me, but I jumped up and out of the way before the monster could grab me. I kicked off the monster’s chest and landed a couple of meters away from it, collecting more of the precious chakra. The monster’s core sped up further and charged me incredibly fast. That’s when I did something different. Gathering the surrounding chakra, I formed a haste spell and cast it within an instant.
The monster’s speed appeared to slow to me as it unleashed a flurry of slashes that would’ve cut me to ribbons normally. I ducked, jumped, spun, and bent at odd angles as I dodged each attack and collected the Speed chakra. Then I felt it. The jar emanated incredible power, and I wasted no time harvesting it. Jumping back to give myself some space, I guided the chakra from the jar into my body and began filling my core.
However, the monster didn’t let me have any reprieve, and it charged again. It jabbed down. I stepped to the side. It slashed at me. I jumped back. It attacked from two directions. I caught its arms as I dropped an empty chakra jar, letting it shatter on the ground.
Ding
Fourth Core 1: Speed Lvl 1
Apollo’s power flowed through me as he now empowered my body. With giddy glee, he rumbled, “You know you want to say it.”
I chuckled a little and spoke with a bellowing roar from within the depths of my chest, “Infernal Lion, let them hear you roar! Manifest!” My body exploded in flames, and the great monster Kaggen backed away, wrenching its arms from my grasp. The fire whirled around my body as it quickly formed armor. A great lion’s head and mane formed over my head and shoulders as bracers formed on my arms with flaming claws over my fingers. My body was covered in flaming armor with diamond shapes, a cross over my chest, and eight flaming daggers along my ribs while my legs took on the flaming shape of a lion’s hind legs.
A crooked smile curled my lips as I looked up through the lion’s maw at the giant mantis and said, “My turn to eat you.”
Kaggen roared and charged at me. I reciprocated the monster’s sentiment and shot forward with a blaze of fire behind me, overtaking the monster’s speed and swiping at the first leg. My claws cut through the monster’s chiton-covered leg like a hot knife through butter. The monster roared in pain, spreading its wings and jumping into the sky. I wasn’t about to let it escape, and I pulled the knives from my sides and threw them at the monster. The daggers shot out of my hands at incredible speed and cut the monster’s wings from its body, causing it to roar in pain again and fall back to the ground.
The moment it landed, I launched myself at the monster again and swiped for its head. I saw my reflection in the monster’s eyes as I swiped my flaming claw through its neck and landed on the other side of the monster. Kaggen, the calamity class monster, stood there for five seconds before its head rolled to one side and struck the ground, followed by the thundering boom of the body hitting the ground right after.
Dispelling the armor around me, I turned to admire my handy work as the dust settled and a new notification appeared.
Ding
Title granted
Title: Calamity of Monsters.
You are now a calamity class monster.
I shrugged and said, “Well, there are worse things than being a calamity class monster, I guess.” Then I went up to the monster and had my tails begin disposing of the body as they tore through the chiton armor, and my master began making their way to me to tell me their decision on whether I was ready to be a master.
***
Name: Zeana Si’enn; Title: The Endless Storm, Calamity of Monsters; Race: Deadly Zin; Cores: 8; Age: 9.
First Core 1: Lightning And Force Lvl 7
First Core 2: Water And Life Lvl 7
Second Core 1: Earth And Force Lvl 7
Second Core 2: Ice, Edge, And Force Lvl 7
Third Core 1: Air and Fire Lvl 7
Third Core 2: Fire, Ice, And Edge Lvl 6
Fourth Core 1: Speed Lvl 1
Fourth Core 2: Light Lvl 7
Skills:
Advanced Chakra Control Lvl 1
High Pain Tolerance Lvl 2
Chakra Separation Lvl 2
Monster Tamer Lvl 1
Natural Abilities: Flight, Hard Skin, High Agility, High Dexterity, High Intelligence, Hivemind, Multiply, Genetic Alterations, Kitsune Form, Split Cores, Climbing Form, Tsudzurao Form, Quick Transformation.
Racial Abilities: Sin, Penance.
***
Once Master Haze, Guru Shi’en, and Yuki got to me, I was already halfway done eating the monster corps. “So, how’d I do?” I asked happily.
“You did quite well, young Zeana,” Guru Shi’en answered, kindly smiling.
Yuki yipped in agreement as she jumped from his shoulders onto mine, showering my cheeks with kisses. “Haha! Stop that, Yuki! It tickles!” I laughed as the little fox kit kept licking my cheeks until I pushed her face away from mine and scratched behind her ears.
“You got your core all set?” Haze asked.
I nodded, “Yep! Speedcore all set and ready to go.”
Haze smiled approvingly, “Well done. Now, what are you doing with the corps?”
Looking back at the body as my tails began eating the main body, I said, “Eating it. It’s got valuable DNA that I can’t waste.”
“Ah,” Haze said, unsure what else to say.
Turning my attention to Guru Shi’en, I asked, “So, what’s your verdict?”
“What verdict?”
“On whether or not I should be a master, of course!” I said, bouncing on the balls of my feet in excitement.
“Oh, that,” Guru Shi’en said and thought for a moment. He was silent for several minutes as my tails finished eating the dead mantis before he took a deep breath and told me his answer, “My answer is no.”
“This is awesome! I’m going to be— wait, no? Why no?” I began celebrating, but his words registered in my head, and I had to stop myself.
“That’s right. I will not teach you, and Haze will remain the master.”
My shoulders drooped as I asked, “Why not?”
“Firstly, your mental age,” Guru Shi’en began to explain my flaws, “You’re mentally and physically still a child, so you assume things too quickly, and you take people at their word, believing them too quickly. This could lead to the death of you and your students. Secondly, your abilities. You are strong, and nobody’s arguing that, but you don’t have enough control over your chakra to put them to any practical use. When it comes to fighting, you’ll be fine, but could you boil a pot of water for tea? I don’t think so. And thirdly, your overall knowledge, you don’t know enough to train the next generation. That is why you will not become a master and will stay a student under Master Hazaizil. Is that understood? Or will you argue with me?”
I hung my head and nodded, “Yes, Master Shi’en. I understand.” Then I bowed deeply, “I will work hard to be a great master one day!”
Guru Shi’en chuckled, “That is good to hear. Now I will be off. I will tell Noir about our success before our scheduled session today.”
“I did not need to know that!!” I exclaimed as I stood up straight.
Haze laughed, “HAHA! Well, you did good, Zeana! Let’s do a little monster hunting to celebrate. More of these mantis monsters are out there somewhere, and we need to ensure they don’t return.”
My shoulders drooped, “There’s more?”
“Yep, that’s just the mother caring for its four-hundred offspring, give or take.”
“Four hundred!”
“Yep! Now, let’s slaughter them so they don’t get a chance to grow up!” Haze confirmed happily and began walking in a completely random direction. I sighed and scratched behind Yuki’s ear before following my master to kill baby Mantises.