"Pull!" Jake shouted, his voice monotone from boredom. Minutes passed with nothing happening.

Jake was not surprised nor concerned. If he was braced for an expected pull on his line, this would not be actual practice for fishing.

Fish will hit a hook anywhere from when the bait is just above the water to it sitting for ten hours or longer. Fish are nothing if not capricious.

If Jake wanted to practice like the actual conditions demand, he'd need to keep a constant controlled stream of Qi flowing into his line from the moment he cast up to an hour later.

Frankly, Jake will only have to wait a few seconds for the fish to hit at most, but it was good practice for when he wasn't dealing with an asshole fish.

And for his Qi control.

It was mostly for when he wasn't dealing with the asshole, but in a world where Qi played such a pivotal role, he doubted he would ever regret working on his Qi control.

This was especially good to practice for his Qi control. He was feeding a small strand of Qi along his vine fishing line that was a fraction of an inch. If he sent a burst of Qi down the line because he lost control, it would snap the fishing line. If he sent too little, his Qi would do nothing. If he stopped feeding Qi, his strand of Qi would snap, leaving his line unprotected for the seconds it took to resend a new strand of Qi down the fishing line.

A comparison would be like squeezing a bladder of water in just the right way to get a constant flow while holding a footlong ruler under that stream to guide the water to a meter stick which continues the path of the water, all without spilling a drop. And then you force the water back the way it came.

Do all that without any help or mechanical devices while trading out water for Qi, the ruler for a fishing pole, and the meter stick for thirty plus feet of fishing vine-line, and that would be the approximate level of difficulty Jake was dealing with to inject and control his Qi in an attempt to enhance the rod and line.

But Jake was a fisherman. And if there was one thing fishing taught someone, it was to be patient.

In another word, endurance.

So Jake waited.

And Waited.

While Jake waited, he began looking at his Qi-infused fishing line. The fishing line stuck out to his senses like a string of Christmas lights. Seeing what was happening in real time made controlling the Qi's flow far easier than feeling around blind.

Then an idle thought struck Jake as he looked at the glowing line. I can see and feel Qi, why can't others?

The thought rocked Jake, causing him to lose control of his Qi for a moment.

Jake fought to smooth out and control the ripples disturbing his Qi before they built out of control. If his internal Qi became too wild, it would snap the strand of Qi running from him down the fishing line, but a part of his mind never stopped working on the thought.

It was obvious. Blatant really.

Jake had been staring at a line of Qi for the past two weeks. What creature in its right mind would hang around a strand of Qi from another being?

That was like sticking your head in an alligator's mouth and hoping it doesn't snap shut.

Then again, it was his Qi. If someone could sense his Qi in any situation, it was Jake. His perception of his Qi might be skewed, but Jake was making no effort to hide his Qi. Anything paying attention should notice his line.

Jake should assume that anything he can detect with his senses would also be detected by everything around him.

Experience and age mattered far more than raw power when it came to finesse. And detecting and analyzing Qi from another creature counted as finesse.

Jake was what, subjective months? A year? Old as a cultivator. Objectively he could be ten thousand years old. Don’t mean shit if I have no experience.

Anyway, Jake needed a way to hind his Qi.

Fish are easily spooked. Even if you catch their attention enough to chase a lure for a bit, it will not last forever, and they can still be scared away.

Radiating Qi seems like a good way to scare a fish. Or anything, honestly. Especially a fish, though. Jake sure as hell would be wary of a line of Qi.

Easy solution, don't radiate Qi. I’ll wrap my Qi around itself until none escapes. Make it a void…

It would solve the problem of radiating Qi… But then there would be the problem of having an empty spot.

Ever walk through a forest and suddenly have all the noise but the rustling of the trees stop? It's eerie and usually means an apex predator is nearby.

People from Earth, being the oblivious humans, who live in modern cities filled with constant noise, and are used to tuning it out, might not notice the change right away. Anyone who spends time in a forest should train themselves to detect the change, though. If you are wary, a puma might not have such an easy time leaping down from a tree onto your back.

You know what will detect an empty void and avoid it on instinct alone? Animals.

Animals have survived and will continue to survive based on their evolved instincts, so they will listen to and trust those instincts when they tell them something is wrong.

An empty line in the water might actually be worse for Jake than having his fishing line shine like a second sun. At least when hunting for animals, humans will probably write off an uneasy feeling and fall into such a trap.

As to why an empty line would be worse than a blatant one, well, a barren Qi-less streak would appear like it was trying to hide, which it was, meaning it was trying to get closer and cause harm. While a shining light could either be viewed as an attempt to ward everything off or lousy control, which for Jake would be the latter.

Some fish might approach, but they would be looking for an easy meal or what another creature was trying to hide from them. Either way, the fish's guard would be up.

Can’t be nothing, but it also can't be a light house beam. So…that would leave…what?

My fishing line!

Not the bad one he was using, but the scaled braided line he spent weeks making. Jake wasn't going to use the actual physical line or something, but the concept.

A hard shell of Qi that encases the soft insides.

Well, the shell was meant to keep the insides from escaping, not keeping something from the outside cutting the line. And the shell would have to adapt to the ambient Qi to fit in. Which would change foot by foot. Maybe inch by inch.

“…Feck…” Jake sighed, "this is going to take a while."

Distracted by how much effort and how long this would take, Jake's control slipped.

He did not entirely lose control of his Qi, which would have caused the strand of Qi to be severed. It was just a more severe roiling of internal Qi than before.

Jake's grip on his Qi became more and more tenuous, and the Qi strand connected to his pole was stretching farther and farther as its anchor became unstable.

As Jake struggled to grab hold of the far end and pull it back to him, it was like he was juggling a slippery fish above the water. Jake knew as soon as it slipped past his fingers, it would be gone.

Grabbing hold of the metaphorical fish with both hands, Jake began to reassert control, shouting in excitement, "Ye-- Mother fecken~" before Jake petered off and began muttering under his breath.

Jake started to reel up his severed line. Fluffy had yanked on the end, snapping it while Jake's Qi was unstable.

This is going to take a while…

**********

Jake stood, left foot planted on a rock, right hand holding his weapon pointed out into the lake while his left hand was clenching and unclenching with anticipation as a breeze stylishly ruffled his hair. His eyes were squinted in resolve, looking out over the water.

"I said gentle breeze, Fluffy! Tone it down a bit." Snapped Jake.

"Yes, Master." Said a sniveling voice drifting on the wind.

The breeze lessened, and Jake nodded in approval keeping his eyes squinted, "Ok, now, we're ready." Jake said with solemnity.

This had been a long road, full of trials and tribulations. Now it was time to see the fruits of his labor.

For the first time in two months, as the Jake sleeps, though he was sure he was staying up longer and sleeping less, Jake was going to cast his line into the lake.

Jake watched the rainbow trout snap his line enough times that even he learned something needed to change if this was going to happen. Either he would catch it on the next cast or not at all!

Maybe the one after that. Depends on how this next cast went.

Walking forward to the middle of the rock outcropping, Jake stopped right before stepping onto two root balls, shoulder width apart, sitting on the stone.

Bracing himself, Jake planted both his feet onto the roots. Once his feet settled, finger-sized vines radiating out from the balls, covering the rock surface, lifted up and began wrapping around Jake's legs, then up to his mid back and chest, locking him in place.

Other roots also connected to the balls radiated out, digging deep into the ground around and under the stone. Jake did not care how strong the fish was. It was not moving a stone the size of a house.

The worst that could happen would be his pole being ripped from his hands, which was only a mild concern for Jake.

Settling himself into the root seat, Jake slowed his breathing and readied himself to cast.

In one smooth motion.

A motion so elegant that an epic poem could be written about it and not do it justice.

That, if witnessed, would bring a tear to the eye of the beholder. Damn rabbit better be crying.

Sublime would be the best word Jake would use to describe his cast.

Jake practiced casting and waiting to get a hit for thousands, tens of thousands, of tedious times. If it was not sublime, or at the least elegant by now, what had he been doing with his life for the past months. Waisting it, dumbass.

Jake's cast was smooth. The line spooled out, forming a gentle arch over the lake.

Hanging in the air, the lure flashed in the faux sun at the apex. The moment seemed to last for an eternity before the lure began its plunge towards the graveyard of its brethren.

Down and down, the lure fell, making it closer to the lake's surface than all but Jake's first cast.

Inches above the surface, Jake relaxed for a moment; he would make it into the water! His control over his Qi enhancing the line wavered, letting the full brilliance of his Qi shine out into the world for an instant.

It was an old hat for Jake. He tried to focus as much as possible during his practice, but do something enough times it becomes tedious, and mistakes will be made.

In those moments of mistake, one can make up for the lack of focus with real progress as they scramble to fix their error. Or that's what Jake believed.

He had a lot of moments where he made a misstep in recent memory, thanks to the tedium of casting.

Jake stilled his Qi with a thought, then clamped down on the line's concealment. It only took a moment for him to regain control, but it was already too late.

Distracted by regaining control of his Qi, Jake first felt, then saw, massive jaws close around his lure. He was slightly shocked by the fish's sudden appearance and failed to focus his will to strengthen his line in time.

I was going to make it to the water… All Jake's effort to hide his line was rendered pointless in an instant.

The thought of his situation weighed on Jake. His fishing line rose into the air, clamped in the fish's mouth as Jake stood stunned.

The Jaws of death clamped tighter and tighter while Jake and his Qi lay motionless, unprepared.

Suddenly, Jake felt a sharp tug, then nothing.

The surprise and inability to act ended when the jolt of his missing Qi hit Jake. His eyes tracked the massive fish hanging in the air, scales flashing in the light, a small lonely strand falling away from its mouth.

Rage filled Jake as his vision narrowed onto the fish.

Before the tunnel of black swamping his vision covered everything but the cursed creature, Jake imagined waves of force flowing off him, causing pebbles to lift off the ground around him.

It did not concern Jake one way or another. All he wanted, all he could think of right now, was catching that fish.

Jake's Qi erupted out of him and down his line.

This was not the gentle, controlled flow of Qi he built up with practice over the last couple of months. No, this was a wild storm of raw power and potential.

One moment his line was barely discernible from the background as it hung concealed in the air. The next, his line was a shining super-charged neon ray pointing from Jake to the fish.

It was as if the world froze at the sudden release of the overwhelming power, as everything in the valley processed the unveiling of The Lord of The Land.

More Qi than Jake had ever released in a single instant rushed out of his body and into his line. A part in the back of his mind expected his line to disintegrate.

Long moments passed as Jake's perception slowed, and the fish inched higher, slowly continuing its climb. When nothing happened, and his Qi senses told him his line was better than fine, that it was now stronger than ever before, a savage smile spread across Jake's face.

In his months of practice where Jake was trying to hone his control over Qi, he had never been able to control so much Qi. For the life of him, he could not figure out how to condense Qi into its own physical shape.

No matter how frustrating it was to be unable to figure it out, Jake knew it would take longer than a few months and some unstructured independent lessons to figure complex problems out.

Jake assumed it was mildly complex. It would make Jake feel better if it was complicated and not some obvious trick that he had missed.

That was really the reason Jake had never used so much Qi before. Without the ability to create a stick made out of pure Qi, Jake had nothing that could contain so much of his Qi.

Jake struggled to contain, control, and use a tenth of this amount multiple times. Even when he tried infusing Qi into his braided line, all that happened was an explosion. Take a look around his garden. You will see the regrowing and scorched patches that are testaments of this.

But now, Jake didn't even notice as another massive pulse of Qi ran down the line, further infusing it for his enhancement. He had not achieved his purpose, and everything else was an annoyance.

The massive, oversized trout had begun its fall, and all Jake had was an unhooked fishing line with all but the last few feet floating on the water's rippling surface.

With Qi, it was all that he needed.

As the newest wave of Jake's Qi entered the line, the light coming off the line dimmed in a rapid wave.

When the pulse of dimming light reached the end of the fishing line, it lashed out like a whip.

The line flipped gravity and physics the bird as the entire length began to move and hang in the air without Jake using anything but his mind and Qi.

Instead of hitting the fish with the tip of the line, Jake aimed for a section five feet in from the tip to hit the fish's spine so the end could wrap over the top.

Like an anaconda, the line started rapidly slithering forward, trying to wrap around the fish and completely envelop its body.

Jake could hear a buzz from his reel as the handle spun due to the line pulling itself free before it suddenly stopped. It’s not enough.

A shiver ran from Jake's core through his body and down his line at the thought.

His fishing line began sucking up the infused Qi as every portion started rapidly growing, significantly increasing the speed at which the line was coiling around the rainbow trout.

Not taking kindly to its body being encased and squeezed, the fish started thrashing its body back and forth, trying to throw off the line.

It might have worked if it was still in the water, but the bastard decided it liked showing off in the air, and now it was at Jake's mercy.

He had none.

As anyone who touches a fish can tell you, they are slimy. It helps fish swim through the water and protects their scales, probably. Jake didn't actually know, but it sounded reasonable, and he heard you can hurt a fish if you somehow scrape off too much of that slime.

"Scrape it all off! Make it die even if it escapes! Muhaha!" Screeched Jake at the top of his voice.

Jake was in a rush. He needed more of his line to encase the fish.

Once the fish landed in the water, there was no way his constricting line would contain the fish unless it was fully encased.

With every revolution he wrapped around the fish, Jake was trying to force the end of the fishing line between the fish's scales.

There are plenty of them out there because it is rather horrific. Think of a horror movie where a worm-snake-leach-thing latches onto a body with its mouth and whips its tail around as it slowly forces its way in. Maybe it's eating its way in, perhaps it's digging in-between muscle and skin; who can tell.

The end result is that it's horrifying to watch, excruciatingly painful to experience, and there is now something inside a body that will eat its way out at its convenience.

That’s what Jake wanted. Not the eating his way out, but the worming in and latching on, so it was impossible to remove part.

The stupid fish's scales were too strong.

So Jake went with plan C.

It was more convenient than plan B since the line was already coiling around the fish in plan C’s direction.

Besides, plan B was a little gross and was the lowest path someone could take. You would have to be a real bottom feeder to use such a path.

In through he mouth, it is!

Corkscrewing forward along the fish's length, the fishing line scrapped around fins and over the gills before shooting into the fish's mouth.

The second Jake decided on a new plan, the line shot forward and Jake began to alter his line by splitting the vine-line into multiple mini-vines so if one broke, it would not cut the whole line.

Already, his line was small. Jake was hoping that the strands were so exceedingly small that they could fit between the gaps of, let's say, a giant fish's teeth.

Normally, this line was the size of a needle's width. Now, the mini-vines were the size of a hair.

Second, and this was far more important, Jake stuffed as much Qi as he could into the stands to reinforce the part of the line about to take a beating.

"Hahaha! Eat this mother fucker!" Jake cackled as the strands of his fishing line lashed forward like a snake aiming at the fish's mouth.

The tiny strands of his line slipped between the teeth of the fish and began to ball up inside its mouth. Jake needed more.

His fishing line had already grown a hundred feet in the moments it took for the fish to fall most of the dozen or so feet to the water.

It took a lot of fishing line to encase a seven foot long four feet tall fish.

With every section of his line growing, that resulted in quite a bit of extra length. Jake was pretty sure it was an exponential growth rate, too, not that he was a math whiz or anything.

What Jake could say about his seat-of-his-pants plan was it was wholly dependent on his Qi reserves, which were being sucked into the line faster and faster.

It’ll all be worth it if I land this bitch.

Jake needed more strands in the fish's mouth. It could still move its mouth around and was persistent in cutting the vines working their way through its mouth. Jake had no idea why, but the trout did not like that they were there.

An image of how to fix the problem popped into Jake's mind, and he pushed it into his Qi.

Near the end of his line, a foot in front of the fish's mouth where the line was still one piece, a bulge formed on the line before new strands began shooting out, working their way into the fish's mouth.

With the water beginning to lap around the fish's body, the strands already inside the fish's mouth began to grow and mass together, especially at the edges of the mouth, in an attempt to hold the jaw of the fish open.

At this point, Jake discovered a pleasant surprise before feeling rather dirty.

Jake had nothing else he could do at the moment. The fish was almost entirely submerged, and either his line would contain the fish, or Jake would have to rely on his makeshift hook to hold long enough for him to throw together a new plan.

Everything relied on the fish and its actions, which allowed Jake to pause for a second, pushing away his anger and regaining his clarity.

The first thing Jake noticed was the mental image filling his mind.

Though he ignored his sense of the land most of the time, it was there.

The land was not water, though.

Jake could only notice a fish with his sense of the land when a fish would brush against a rock or plant. Most lakes aren't filled with plants, and fish don't make a habit of swimming into rocks, so it was rather useless.

Stolen story; please report.

That’s probably another reason the fish always annoyed me, it was surprising me, and I subconsciously got used to always knowing what was around me, so— Who cares? It's still a taunting-ass-bitch and deserves what it gets.

With his Qi radiating off his line and his line acting as an antenna, Jake discovered he had a decent understanding of what was surrounding the line.

The Qi echo location even allowed Jake to see in color. Somehow. The mental picture was muffled and fuzzy, but it was infinitely better than not seeing anything at all.

As to why he never noticed before, well, before he always cast into his garden, you know that place with all the plants and ground. Any shitty image it gave him was being overshadowed by his usual perception.

If he looked, Jake might have noticed a difference, but Jake had other things on his mind.

Now though, Jake had an unmistakable mental image presented to him. An image that said he might have gone a bit too far in his anger.

The mental picture was kind of fuzzy.

But as everyone knows, Art is open to interpretation.

Jake didn't see that many interpretations, though.

It was all the stupid flashy-mic-flasherson's fault. If the fish had just let Jake fish in peace, they would have never had to go this far.

The struggle does make it more exciting and all around better. Who wants to deal with a dead fish lying there while you do all the work? Fucking boring. At least I’ll always remember my first, thought Jake.

This was technically a new world. New life. New body. New abilities. New everything, really.

So Jake needed his new first catch.

If Jake lands this bitch, it will be the first in a long line, but Jake wasn't planning on rushing to the finish like he did last time. He was going to enjoy this because he doubted it would end soon.

The fish seemed to agree with Jake, for it was only a moment or two that the fish was covered in water before it darted off.

One swipe of its tail, and it was gone, pushing right through Jake’s fishing line, trying to stop it.

Do you know what the problem is with wrapping a bunch of string around an object is? If it falls off or the object in the center gets removed, and then the string gets pulled taught, there is bound to be a knot or two.

If you are unlucky, this knot will be pulled so tight that it becomes a permanent part of the line.

A permanent weak section of said line that will snap the first time it is placed under real strain.

Was Jakes vine-line that he spent a day making, months practicing with, and had now basically become an extension of his will, like a third arm, knot proof?

Nope.

Five different knots formed as the fish popped open the near cocoon of Jake's constricting vine-line and then proceeded to drag the cord behind it, quickly taking up the slack.

Tension began to build as the slack was quickly used up. Part of Jake's mind was occupied with transitioning his Qi from making the end of the fishing line grow into mini-vines that collected in the fish's mouth—in a non-sexual manner—forming a ball to using his Qi infused in the fishing line to stimulate growth. With the line growing, the fish should not be able to put enough tension on the line to pull out its… hook.

The rest of his will and attention was focused on the knots that continuously tightened, threatening to cut different sections of his line as they contracted.

All he could do was hope his line and hook would hold long enough for Jake to refocus.

Jake's mind raced up the line as he used his Qi already present at each knot to grow a new section of line over the knot from each end before cutting out the knot and any trapped line in the middle. Jake then smoothed out and compressed the line making it indistinguishable from the rest of the line.

Each knot only took a fraction of a second to fix, but Jake could feel strand after strand of the threads reaching through the fish's mouth being sliced. Most of the strands were cut as the fish frantically worked its mouth, leaving a trail of twigs in its wake.

"Oh, no, you don't, " Jake snarled as a fierce smile spread across his mouth.

Jake was a reservoir of Qi. His fishing line was primed with Qi. All Jake had to do was throw the gates open and let his Qi run free.

Which was precisely what he did.

Once Jake released his Qi, his fishing line was little more than a hose, with Qi gushing out the end.

Jake smiled as he was struck by the image of a tree.

A single trunk that branched out to dozens, then hundreds, and finally thousands of roots.

It was exactly what Jake needed.

A new line broke off behind the bulb holding the few threads still connected to the fish. That line only grew a short distance before it stopped adding length and started adding mass.

The new bulb built upon itself, swelling as more and more Qi was pushed into it. The wooden core burst at the seams with Qi and was becoming the Qi battery for Jake's plan to hook the fish properly.

As the bulb continued to build upon itself, Jake started guiding the line trying to mirror the fish.

No longer was the line trailing behind the fish as it began to shoot forward under its own growth powered movement, surging along next to the fish's mouth.

The fish's course was taking them down into the lake's depths.

Jake controlled the growth of the fishing line, trying to keep pace just ahead of the massive trout, he needed more time, and it was best for the mini-vines to have little to no tension put on them. The three that remained unbroken had wedged themselves between the fish's teeth so it could not cut them.

Not with its teeth, at least.

Whenever Jake messed up and tugged on the fish, a black sparkling Qi beam would slash out, trying to cut the thread. One or two hits wouldn't matter with the amount of Qi suffusing the line, but with Jake pumping most of his Qi to the wood core, there was not enough left over to fix the line before another blade would hit.

The fish had missed more than it hit so far, but the strikes were becoming faster and more accurate.

Ever find something with your tongue and then try and pick it out? It was kind of hard.

The fish also slipped through kelp gardens, around rock outcroppings, under stone arches, and around stone pillars. The fish being at least mildly distracted was understandable, helping Jake's lines hold longer than they might have.

It was only a matter of time, though, before the fish cut all the remaining lines by rapidly slashing the entire front of its body multiple times, but until it overcame its instinctual desire to flee, Jake was in the clear.

The fishing line streaked through the water with the rainbow trout, causing a school of fish to explode around the pair. The duo arched up in a twirling dance over a stone obelisk before diving down to the base of an underwater hillside and entering a tunnel several dozen feet long.

Exploding out of the stone tunnel, the fish immediately started weaving around the stone pillars making up this section of the lake, which resembled the ruins of a city to Jake.

While Jake doubted the fish knew precisely how much Qi Jake was using to keep up with it, whatever it assumed must be close, because a shit-ton would be the only reasonable way to describe the amount.

Needless to say, Jake was running out of Qi to pump down the line, and the fish was taking more decisive actions in its attempt to cut the last mini-vine.

The circumstances could not be denied; Jake was nearly out of time. He was focusing on a dozen things all at once, not even counting his body, which he could only vaguely feel, and the fish was only running. The situation was doomed if it remained the same.

But Jake just needed a little more time.

Time he will probably get so long as the reason he was able to stay in this does not become the reason he fails. What some might not notice of an ever-growing fishing line is the cost in Qi.

Putting it another way, Jake needed a dribble of water a mile away, but all he had was a water tank with a foot of water left in it and a garden hose with thousands of holes.

Jake could not get enough Qi to the end of his line to create the Qi density he wanted for the next step of his plan.

If Jake was to describe how it felt to gush out Qi constantly, it would be like trying to urinate as fast as he could while on the clock. A slight strain that flirts with being painful as you try to force out that last dribble before respawn.

Forcing out one last burst of Qi, Jake exited the area of discomfort with a leap and landed in excruciating. It was necessary.

Jake needed more Qi at the end of his fishing line. With the exponential growth of his fishing line, it was easier than ever to keep up with the fish as far as speed was concerned.

With every portion of the line demanding Qi, though, Jake had finally reached the point that supplying enough Qi to keep up the enhancement was a strain. Causing more growth was a pipe dream.

After this, whether enough got to the end of the line or not, Jake would not be able to send more. His body felt like a wrung-out rag.

Jake watched the wave of Qi flow down the fishing line. It was constantly chipped away as the fish sped up and slowed down.

Jake took a mental step back as he tried to get a look at the whole picture one last time.

It was a mistake. A shiver ran down his spine, disrupting Jake's control of his Qi.

Jake knew he was in pain. It was a fact.

In the back of his mind, he could feel his body's agony. However, the pain did not touch him until he took a step back, lessening his focus.

In the moment, it is easy to ignore the discomfort. Now that Jake was paying attention, Jake knew what was happening in his body.

A deep hunger was wracking his body, gnawing away at his insides. While his skin felt like it was being split open wider and wider as he forced out more Qi. It was like the pain after you get a blister, but you keep on going and pop it, then keep on going after another blister forms and an infection sets in, except covering his whole body.

Also, his body was wracked with the kind of cramps people get after a twenty-mile run without drinking anything.

The surprising part was that his Qi strand leading down his fishing line did not snap.

Glancing down, Jake saw the wooden handle of his rod had grown into his hand. It was… expected.

Jake already knew it was like that. It made it easier to control and pump Qi into the rod.

Flexing his fingers a few times, Jake shrugged. He was ambivalent, It was fascinating, and Jake could tell it hurt on some level, but…

Serenity crashed through Jake.

No, it was always there. Deep down, he wanted to be distracted by his body. The pain. Not because Jake likes to feel pain, but to give the fish a chance.

Being distracted by pain seemed to be authentic. It was always a choice, however, one he could take back at any time.

Jake hurt. His body ached and felt like it was being ripped apart, but it did not matter. It was just a fact to take into consideration as he strove to achieve his goal, nothing more.

The fact that he was even feeling pain in the first place was a luxury. An extravagance to make the whole situation more thrilling.

To give the fish a chance.

Like Jake wanting to get that last bit of Qi to the end at the potential risk of the fish escaping, but would make catching the fish a guarantee instead of merely likely.

Unchallenged success can be somewhat fun, but there is no achievement so great as the one that comes a hair's width from failure.

And when the stakes are so low, why not go to the edge of failure, shit, even jump off the cliff. And see if you can pull yourself back to victory.

The last strand connecting Jake's fishing line to the trout had snapped, calling Jake back from his mini-vacation with a grin stretching across his face.

Sinking into his fishing line, Jake felt an unfocused view of the waters and rock around his line down its entire length. A focused perception of the surroundings blurred by as Jake's mind traveled down the line.

When Jake reached the end, his gut told him that the line's length was approaching two miles.

All he wanted, needed really, was the last thirty feet of the line, so Jake limited his perception.

In the half-second it took Jake's consciousness to travel down the line, the fish was at the edge of his Qi-echo location perception.

With a mental twitch, Jake's fishing line used up the little slack that remained in the line as it exploded after the fish by using whatever dregs of Qi remained in the line to stimulate movement like a muscle.

While the fish was still going as fast as ever, it was no longer zigging and zagging after getting free from the line. It was making a break for it in a straight line.

With the fish running in a line, it was effortless for Jake to Qi-sense an intercept course.

Jake's judgment of where the fish was going was spot on. But Jake miss judged the length of his line. Instead of the tennis-ball-sized wood core being whipped in front of the fish, it slammed into the pretty rainbow scales on its flank.

Saying a piece of wood the size of a tennis ball slamming into a flank of meat does not do justice to the event.

Ever seen a whip? What was it, five feet long? Twenty? A part of that whip could brake the sound barrier.

The acceleration a ball at the end of a two-mile whip was under could most accurately be described in terms of rockets.

This was not a flimsy aluminum can designed to be as light as possible, though. This was hard Qi reinforced wood.

It might not sound like much, but the fishing line could either be as flexible as any fishing line or stronger than a one-inch steel rod.

The ball at the end of the line was not any less strong. It could only be stronger with the amount of Qi Jake forced into the wood core.

So when the fish's body folded around Jake's line and was pushed several dozen feet to the side, Jake was not surprised.

What was surprising was that the fish was unharmed, other than being a little stunned from being blindsided, and was pushed about sixty-seven feet away instead of bouncing off the roof of the mist cage.

It was great that the fish was stunned for a moment. It allowed Jake to do what he needed.

Jake just needed his line sixty feet closer.

Some back of the napkin math told Jake he needed to double thirty feet twice to pass in front of the fish, right? Yeah, that’s it.

A moment later, Jake used a small part of the Qi in the wood core, sending it down the line to feed the vine's growth.

"Shit!" Jake hissed as he exploded the wood core in a rush.

There were two problems: the fish started to move, and Jake was a dumbass.

If you have thirty feet and double it, it becomes sixty. If you double the original thirty again, then you will get Jake's desired sixty.

Jake did not do that. He sent enough Qi to double the thirty than the sixty.

When the wood orb was in front of the fish and showed no signs of stopping, Jake exploded the core.

Luckily, as the fish tried to dart away from the object coming at it, it was too stunned to get entirely out of the way.

A new type of mini-vines shot out of the orb in every direction. It was the only way to actually hit something.

Getting close enough to the fish wasn't the problem so much as how easily the fish could dart around.

Jake was not using his eyes, and there was a perceptible lag with his echo location trick.

And this fish's speed and maneuverability made every other fish look like a slug. Not a fast one crawling around a branch, but the fat one that sits on a log all day basking in the sun, waiting to be eaten.

Jake cackled as seven strands peppered around the fish's head, sticking to it.

Sap is surprisingly sticky. That was before it was specifically designed with Qi to be resistant to dissolving in water and sticking to things. Especially fish scales.

The sap coating the threads coming from the tennis ball-sized wood chunk was now on a whole new level.

Adhesive as the sap was, the fish would eventually cut or rip off all of the strands.

The gleam of anticipation in Jake's eyes grew as seconds passed. The fish used shadows to slash at the lines instead of putting on a burst of speed to reach the end of the line and yank off the mini-vines.

It was a reasonable response, it was the wrong choice, but it was still an appropriate reaction to something sticking to you.

There was only so much a few small sap-covered vines could do. Jake knew that.

A pulse of multi-colored light originated from the orb of wood and radiated down all the strands. Only the strands connected to the fish returned the pulse to the wood core. Once the return pulse hit the core, every strand began folding towards the fish.

As different strands came into contact with each other, they started twisting together before slapping as much of their sap-covered selves as possible to the fish.

Once the pulses of light started and the strands moved, the fish realized its mistake and began madly darting around, trying to break free.

The fish failed.

It was already too late.

The initial burst did pull off some strands and dragged the rest through the water, impeding their progress a bit. The problem with the trout's escape plan was that it brought the fish into contact with a half-dozen more strands.

Most of them were already wrapped around another strand and had twice as much sap, doubling their strength and adhesive area of contact.

Ten-thousand strands of string can hold up a ton just as well as a cable. Jake did not have that many, but the idea still holds true.

A few hundred strands of vines covered in sap will do just as well as any hook. The only limitation to this plan was how much Qi Jake put into the wood core, which was producing the sap and fixing the occasional mini-vine.

Jake put a lot of Qi into it. Maybe too much. But there is no such thing as overkill.

His plan should work. It had to work. The fish could not cut the strands fast enough to matter, probably.

If it could cut them all, Jake was fucked. He didn't have enough extra Qi to send down the line to matter.

Oh, Jake was still sending a staggering amount of Qi down the line, but it was the bare minimum amount of Qi needed to keep the enhancement of two miles of fishing line active.

His land was sending him a hair more Qi than he was using, but Jake wanted to save the Qi for an emergency. It was neither comfortable nor seemed particularly smart to be empty of Qi.

Slowly, the tendrils coming out of the wood core began to grow, creeping along the fish's scales, further strengthening and solidifying their hold.

The fish's course suddenly changed from randomly darting around in a futile attempt at avoiding the tendrils to streaking towards the lake's floor.

Flashing through the water, the fish slammed a portion of its body covered in mini-vines into a rock.

Dozens of strands were scraped off from the contact as the pillar collapsed in a cloud of dust. While the loose strands floated around in the water, they quickly touched other strands still connected to the fish and twisting around them, making their way back.

The rainbow trout aimed for another rock, and Jake began to reel in line for the first time.

Pulling back on his rod, Jake laughed as the fish's head was whipped down and to the side, causing its dorsal fin to be smashed into a rock instead of a vine-covered area.

More strands broke off from his actions than the fish would have scraped off, but it was the principle.

Had to set the hook.

Jake was madly reeling his rod. He needed to get as much slack in his line before the fish realized what was happening.

Really, it does not matter who or what you are. It is rather shocking if you are suddenly being pulled through the water.

There would be a what-the-fuck moment, especially with tendrils crawling over its gills and face, which had to be disconcerting.

Whatever the reason behind it was, the fish did not react as Jake began to reel.

It was only after Jake had reeled in a few dozen feet of line that the fish began to react.

The fish tried to swim up at an angle before it was jerked down by the line. Then the fish tried to swim down in another halfhearted fruitless response, but it was quickly pulled back into line with Jake's constant reeling.

Jake, like most fishermen, had wished at some point to see the end of his line. It was substantially easier to fish if you could see a fish and how it reacted to your lure.

It's like playing with a cat that pretends not to want the feather, but you see its head poking around the corner and tail twitching. You know the mini-murder-machine is going to pounce. You just need to make it do it.

This is not close to that situation.

Jake had already hooked the fish, kinda. And it was more like Jake used his vision to force his will on the fish, not entice it.

However, the point was that with Jake able to see the surroundings, he could react to the fish as it tried to get the line tangled in something.

He didn't have many options, but he could at least brace himself and reel faster.

The fish had stopped reacting, though. There were plenty of opportunities to loop around a stone or shoot to the side, but it let itself be pulled past them all and was now being towed through the stone tunnel.

It was beyond suspicious, and Jake was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

The fish twitched as it was pulled out of the tunnel, then shot forward along the length of the fishing line.

"Shit!" Jake yelled as he frantically tried to take up the slack.

The fish did not give him the time, flashing hundreds of feet forward, before it turned and shot for the surface.

Going by pre-Qi logic, Jake would be able to do nothing except keep reeling until he could tug on the fish.

Going by Qi-exhausted Jake status, his situation was the same.

Jake stopped reeling.

He had only pulled in a quarter of the length the fish shot forward, but he could not reel anymore.

Literally, his handle would not move.

Looking down, Jake cursed. His reel was filled to the point that line was spilling over the edges of the spool. The fishing line then did what it does best, wrap around everything possible.

The final straw that stopped Jake's reeling was when the tangled mess looped itself around the base of his rod and the reel's handle.

They were different loops of line that were knotted together somehow.

Jake gathered the Qi he had saved up, then grabbed the fishing line with his free hand between the first eyelet and the reel pulling in some slack before using his Qi to sever the line.

Cutting the line, well, telling the line to separate, only took a tiny spark of Qi. The rest of his Qi was sent down his other hand into his reel and guided the tangled line to unspool onto the ground.

Even with the tangled mess it had become, the line came flying off the reel like it was propelled by a motor, but it was still taking long moments for the line to come off.

Moments Jake did not have. The fish was still shooting up, and even without Jake reeling, the free slack in the line was rapidly used up.

Eyes flicking to the line in his hand, Jake stuck the line to his rod with a puff of Qi.

Bracing himself, Jake only had to wait a moment before his pole snapped forward ninety degrees.

His arm was pulled forward slightly, but Jake was not concerned. He was still anchored to the ground, and the fish could only put so much force on Jake with the line being wrapped around so many stone outcroppings. But his seat still creaked slightly.

The fish's scales were flashing in multi-colored light and shadows as it flapped its tail, struggling toward the surface.

Behind the massive fish, whirlpools and eddies spun with each swipe of its tail, churning the water into a froth.

The fish continued to place massive amounts of tension on the line over long seconds.

Jake waited, free hand still closed around the line connected to his rod. "Any momen—

In rapid succession, the line loosened and then tightened several times before settling on being slack.

Disconnecting the line from the pole, Jake lowered it to the few coils of the line still connected to his reel.

The line on the reel was looped around the reel seven times before falling to the ground and spooling in a pile.

Jake needed enough line to keep it from slipping off the reel, but how was he supposed to reel in two miles of fishing line on a spool he designed for a couple hundred feet.

Using the last reserves of his Qi, Jake started guiding his line to stick to his reel and then feed onto the ground.

It did not take that much Qi, which was perfect for Jake, who had little Qi to give. He would be able to save more Qi as he reeled in more line—it would take less Qi to enhance the line—but right now, Jake was back on empty.

With a functioning pole again, Jake started reeling like mad to pull the line out of the falling rubble before it settled.

Of the nine boulders the fishing line was wrapped around, six of them were sliced in half, two knocked over, and one that the line scraped over its exterior, polishing it.

Foot after foot of line was reeled in as Jake raced the fish in its mad dash for the surface.

Jake lost.

An explosion of water heralded the rainbow trout's arrival to the surface.

The first sight of the fish for Jake was the flash of its scales. As the water fell away, the fish shone in the sun like every other time it taunted Jake, except its scales glittered far brighter than ever before.

For a moment, Jake was left to sit in curiosity at what the fish was doing as he frantically reeled up the line so fast a faint whistle could be heard.

Jake's eyes widened in shock as he gasped, "Holy—

He never finished because he reflexively threw up his hands in fear, except his hands were still reeling and holding the rod.

Jake was positive he threw up his han—Oh, that’s cool, Jake thought as he looked at the shield hovering before him made out of his fishing line vine.

The fishing line cannibalized part of itself—didn’t know I could do that—for Qi. The part cannibalized shriveled up and dried to a husk falling off the vine, as another part would be able to swell up and become a needle's width in thickness. Then the line wrapped itself like a giant spaghetti noodle coiled around its outside until it was six feet long and a couple fingers wide. It was enough to block the fish's pencil-thin attack with it hanging in the air in front of Jake. So long as it was positioned right.

Jake went back to what really mattered, reeling in all the slack, rather than looking at the aftermath of the fish's attack.

If you have ever seen an anime with a super powerful massive monster in it, it was basically the first attack you see it do.

To those not familiar with it, the attack was a bright light on some part of the body that grows brighter as it charges, after a second, an energy beam lashes out at the ground immediately in front of the monster before shooting off towards a city, destroying the land and then the city in colossal explosions.

The attack from the fish was not on that scale, but it tried its best to match it.

As the fish hung in the air and rotated, the scales along its side grew brighter until suddenly, all but a few scales in the center dimmed as the light condensed.

The condensed light Qi shot out low in a beam hitting the water in a burst of steam before the fish continued pivoting, slashing the beam across where Jake was standing and continuing up into the air. In the beam's wake, the troth of water that formed crashed together in a swirl of water steam, sending ripples out over the lake.

Steam was still drifting across the water as Jake locked eyes with the evil monster that had destroyed his precious garden. How can I let such a vile creature defile my lands! Jake chuckled at the thought.

He did lock eyes with the fish, but it was nothing more than a hunter eyeing its prey. Then the fish was pulled forward in the air as the line finally became taught.

Even with the attack that came right at Jake and damaged a part of his garden, he felt no fear, only excitement and ambivalence. There was his instinctive reaction as he flinched, but that was out of surprise.

"Time to work this son-of-a bitch!" Shouted Jake in anticipation as the trout splashed down.

Jake might not have felt any fear from the interaction, but the fish obviously did. It started erratically tugging and leaping as it thrashed along the lake's surface.

It meant nothing.

The front half of the fish was covered in vines coated in sap. Shadows would whip out whenever the vines approached the mouth or gills, slicing off the ends. It didn't seem to want anything else shoved into its body.

Jake stopped sending the veins to those areas. He did not need it. The wood core had enough Qi pumped into it that it could continuously pump out sap for hours.

Any vines that fell off due to some combination of water washing off the sap and the fish leaping around were quickly recoated and reattached.

The line was not breaking. It could not throw the… hook. And whenever it struck out with one of its light beams, Jake's fishing line took the hit without any problems, which the fish must have suspected as it stopped after two more attacks.

That or it ran out of energy.

Jake didn't care as he got down to the long process of working the fish.

When the fish put on a burst of energy as it tried to escape, Jake would let the line play out while giving as much tension as he could without stopping the fish cold. Don’t want to discourage the fish from thinking it could escape.

Then Jake would tow in the fish as it slowed down for a rest.

It still took hours to reel the fish in. Jake could have done it faster, but he was having fun and blowing off some steam after months of work to catch the stupid thing. It was time to thoroughly enjoy himself.

The once proud fish lay at the end of his small rocky peninsula, weakly flopping its tail in the water as it frantically gasped for air.

Detaching the rod from his hand and unlatching the roots clamped around him, Jake let the roots wrap around his pole. Then Jake grabbed the line and kept tension on the fish as he slowly walked up to it.

Reaching down, Jake grabbed the rainbow trout's mouth with one hand, teeth pressing into his palm, and pulled it farther onto land.

Situating himself to the side of the fish, Jake leaned down and lifted the fish over his head with a grunt, shouting, "Now this is a fi—

Stumbling forward, Jake tossed the fish to the side, hearing a distant splash as he found himself trying to breathe on his hands and knees staring at the granite beneath him.

Like a fish gasping for air… Jake's mouth moved, but no matter how hard he tried, the feeling of suffocating would not leave.

Long moments passed as fear raged through Jake's mind. He knew he needed to calm himself. To think of a solution to this problem.

It did not matter. The fear was too intense.

Jake lay on the ground, gasping as spots speckled his vision. He was suffocating. His land was suffocating.

He needed to.

He needed to…

Power flashed through his body and out into his land.

Jake roughly inhaled.

Panting, Jake rolled over, lifting himself up on his elbows, and looked across the lake.

Horrified awe burned through Jake before the constant prickling anticipation and fear in the back of his mind exploded to the front.

A massive pillar of black flames towered up to the top of the dome, hitting it and then cascading down the inside in a roiling mass of licking flames.

Jake's eyes traveled down the pillar until he reached the bottom. The shores and slopes of the mountains were aflame. The hungering black-red fire was consuming everything it touched.

Jake knew. It had been why he felt such a need to relax and recuperate. Why he never tried to do anything about his circumstances. Jake, like his land, had been waiting.

"It's time,” the words forced themselves out of Jake. An acknowledgment of what every part of his being knew.

At the words, his Claimed Land exploded in a wave of Qi.