Five weeks later:

Vath and his brother stepped out their front door, heading to class like every day. The sun shined down, brightly but not yet too warm for comfort. The air was clear. The trees lining the streets at intervals rustled in the breeze, with the birds in them singing as near the only sound this early in the morning. Vath had thought he was loosening up in that first trip with Wald, but weeks of classes with teachers he actually liked, progress, and moments like this throughout the day had unclenched his insides farther than he thought possible. He walked calmly, enjoying the time, while Kaser sauntered next to him.

As usual, all he could do was sigh as Kaser bent down at their next door neighbor’s food chest, snagged an apple and continued walking without breaking stride. “You know you’re going to get some poor caretaker in trouble if you keep messing up the order every day.” he said, not for the first time.

“Hey, if he wanted his apple so badly, he’d wake up before we were already on our way to class. Besides, it’s just an apple. Not like he’ll make a fuss.” Kaser responded and lifted the snack to his mouth to bite.

As they rounded the corner to the next street, they heard the sounds of a door opening followed by a chest, and then, clearly an aggravated voice calling out, “Again?! It’s an apple! How hard is that to remember? I’ll have to talk to them. This is getting ridiculous.” before clattering dishes and a slammed door returned the quiet.

When Vath looked over pointedly, Kaser had frozen mid bite. He finished the motion, and after a quick chew and swallow, had the decency to look embarrassed as he said, “Ok. I’ll stop.” Vath just shook his head and went back to sightseeing on the little walk they had to their first class of the day.

Their day continued much as usual. They had learned quite a lot about cultivation and the sect, mastered their new cultivation methods, and Ilma had gotten them both started on their first techniques. Kaser had chosen a movement speed technique, which at his early stage of mastery just made him faster, but at higher levels could do much more impressive things. Depending on how he developed it, and how his own understanding of the void influenced it, it might let him run through obstacles as if they, or rather he, weren’t really there, it might generate a field around him that destroyed things into their base components while he ran, or any of a large number of other possibilities. Vath had chosen something far more simple. His technique enhanced his strikes. It was basic, and he’d had to get special permission from Ilma to practice an offensive technique in her basic class, but given that it was currently limited to one hit and he stuck to punching static targets, she allowed it. Eventually, he’d be able to use it to enhance the power of every attack he made with his body, and perhaps even stretch it to empower external techniques he used. There were also examples of it being used to penetrate defenses using a similar concept to Kaser’s potential to run through walls, but what Vath wanted most was its one recorded use of being able to destroy or destabilize techniques. They were slowly catching up, but it would take ages for them to truly match their peers technique to technique. If he could figure out how to partially nullify that advantage with just simple strikes, he’d be quite happy. That would take a lot more advancement in it, unfortunately.

History class continued as it had. It would be a few more months at least until they’d covered everything needed to pass the test to finish the class, but they’d learned some interesting things in the meantime. The ancient empires had a nobility class that ruled things on the behalf of the empire, and the sects had been organizations apart, on top of mountains or inside volcano calderas. There had been significant friction between the nobility and the sects, as one had law, the other had strength, and both had pride. It had led to the fall of more than one empire, and civil war in nearly all of them. The modern Empire was different. The Emperor had fixed this problem by not instituting a noble class at all when he conquered the land. He had entreated the sects to move from their remote and hidden locations to cities, and to move into central cities. He gave them what used to be the noble’s positions, and had them rule areas themselves, under his authority. Sect masters and even Elders were obviously too busy to run the country, but the Emperor provided legions of administrators and other functionaries. They kept things going as intended, and answered to the sect leadership, who had full authority over them, except in matters where the law was already clearly laid down, or if the Emperor had commanded them directly. This suited the sects just fine, as it lessened the number of people who could command them from thousands of weak cultivators trading on their family name for power to one man who had proven his strength over them in founding the Empire to begin with. They had better trade, more authority, fewer arrogant annoyances, and it was even written into the nation’s laws that should someone outstrip the Emperor in power, they could challenge him for rule directly, and, if successful, the Emperor would step down to let the strongest rule. Now, thousands of years had passed and such a thing had yet to occur even once, but it was possible and legal, and would avoid the terrible wars of the past if it worked, so the sects had little to complain about. There was still friction, of course, but the Empire had already lasted longer than most previous nations they had records of, and had gone without a civil war entirely in that time, which none of the others managed.

Lunch was always delicious and filling, and Emara and Dornah had taken to sitting with them to eat. Vath still didn’t talk nearly as much as the other three, but he enjoyed their company.

Exercise had stopped showing almost any gains on their catalogers, but neither wanted to backslide in their progress, and Vath still had fun. Feeling the burning of his muscles and lungs had always felt like success to him.

But the class he’d made the most strides in was the last class of the day: sparring. He wasn’t the strongest combatant in the class, but he had improved more than perhaps anyone else, and was closer to the top than ever. The styles the brothers had been given couldn’t match them better. Kaser’s style was entirely about using his speed and control to avoid until a mistake was made, and then punish the opening with body or technique. He was good at it, but he was better at cultivation and techniques over all. That was ok, though, as his techniques would improve his speed anyway.

Vath’s, however, had brought his assets to the forefront. The Hungering Fist taught him three major things: One, to use minimal motions to avoid or block strikes that would do significant damage; two, to let through hits that wouldn’t do significant damage and trust his durability to handle it; and, three, to simultaneously rain down blows on his opponent. Whether fist, foot, elbow, knee, or technique; the Hungering Fist never stopped its assault on the enemy, regardless of what retaliation came. He hadn’t tried it against weapons or technique, and was sure that would mean he needed to adapt the style or add new ones, but for sparring class where both of those were not allowed? It felt good, and it was working fine.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“We’re gonna shake things up today,” the sparring teacher, who Vath had learned was named Parlan, said, “You’ve all gotten comfortable fighting each other, so today, we’re gonna move to a bigger arena, and you’re gonna be going up against another class. Techniques will be allowed as long as they aren’t too dangerous. This is so you and we teachers can see how far you’ve come, to start getting you used to fighting people you don’t know the abilities of, and, hopefully, it’ll be fun.” Vath and Kaser smiled to each other. Today would certainly be harder, but they’d get to see so many new things, especially with techniques being thrown into the mix.

Vath checked his catalog as he walked, curious at his standing before what was coming.

Name:

Vath

Cultivation Stage:

Essence Integration - 67%

Organizations:

Sect of the Shining Void

Essence Balance:

Perfect

Strength:

26 (~7)

Potency:

28 (~18 [7+11])

Speed:

20 (~7)

Flow:

17 (~7)

Durability:

23 (~7)

Resilience:

17 (~7)

Affinities:

Void - 88/100

Bloodline:

Empty Wolf (Close) - Early Awakening

Techniques:

Cultivation:

Empire’s General Method (Mastered)

Sect of the Shining Void General Method (Mastered)

Balanced Shining Void Method (Mastered)

Offensive:

Void Strike (46% to Mastery)

He was happy with what he’d accomplished. His affinity had stopped going up two weeks ago, even with his mastered void cultivation method, and Wald had confirmed he’d either have to slowly grind his way through the block, or have another epiphany, because that was the only way to make it take less than years to finish past this point. He was still working on void strike, and he had yet to find a way to improve his three essence attributes outside pure cultivation and his affinity, but that was fine. It had been barely more than a month. At his current rate, it wouldn’t even take another before he reached the next stage, and Kaser was even further ahead last time he’d checked.

They walked outside the outer quarter to the civilian quarter. That was where all arenas were kept, so that the general population could enjoy the matches. The arena was large and grand. It was made from white stone with flecks of other colors inside, all of which were polished smooth and shiny. There were statues of great champions and murals of the fights they’d had in this very stadium, and gilding abounded. The building could easily sit thousands at a time without feeling crowded. Vath couldn’t believe how much wealth had been spent to make a place just to watch fights. It was pretty though. Most of the disciples were staring, it being their first time here.

When they reached the floor, which was made of infused flagstones instead of the sand they were used to, they found that despite the large space and doubling the students, there were only four circles instead of the usual ten, and they had boundary flags around the edge, which were also infused. He assumed most were meant to watch for learning and perhaps entertainment, and those flags were to catch stray techniques before they injured the audience. It didn’t take long for Parlan to call both classes together and confirm what he’d guessed. The other teacher was right next to him, but must be lower in seniority. Or perhaps they just didn’t like talking as much.

Parlan laid out the rules, “There’s only four circles today. We’re not going to run through tons of opponents. Each student will fight twice, once for the one you pick, and one for someone who picks you. Techniques are allowed, but anything likely to be lethal is still banned. If you’re not sure if it’s too dangerous, ASK. If one of you uses something too far past the line and you didn’t check with us first, there will be consequences. There are healers here, so we should be fine, but while this is meant to be a bit of fun, lives are not things to play with. Weapons are still not allowed. Rather than picking a partner at random, we’re gonna draw names and order. Everyone, line up to pull one out of these buckets, depending on which class you’re in, and then pull your order out of that one.”

The lines went quickly, and Vath walked back to Kaser glancing at his results. Twenty-three was fairly early, but he’d get to watch some first. He wasn’t sure who he’d gotten, though that shouldn’t be surprising; he’d never met anyone in the other class.

As he looked around though, he realized that wasn’t strictly true. He did recognize people in the other class. Exactly four of them. The leader of the four, who’d previously mocked the brothers and gotten scolded for it, was smiling dangerously, and brandishing his opponent paper at him like a weapon.