Escora was more than happy to start sparring again. Despite the remaining awkwardness between them, she needed the practice and was wary of showing her moves and skills off to anyone else. There were other disciples competing with her for the water using elder’s patronage, and they’d undermine her any way they could.

“So, how hard to you want to go? Going all out right away when I’m at a higher Realm,” Escora asked. They were at one of the outer sect’s training areas.

Verus gave her a look and cycled his ki. “You don’t have to hold back at all. I’m also at the Tempered Realm.”

How could she not notice that? Other disciples certainly had, although maybe they’d heard something about him from other sources. Escora was almost as isolated as he was.

Surprised, Escora blinked and then peered at her friend. “Oh, so you are. That makes more sense. Huh, I guess I wasn’t thinking. Your spirit is so muted I didn’t notice that you’d ascended.”

A brief look of confusion then appeared on her face. “Oh? What type of ki are you using? It’s hard to sense and I don’t recognize it. Something negative?”

“Void!” Verus answered as he puffed out his chest proudly.

Escora made a face. “Is that a real attunement? I’ve never heard of it.”

Verus glared at her. Why did no one understand how amazing it was that he’d found such a rare attunement. “It’s very real. It’s simply uncommon for people to have it.”

“Fair enough. I did hear that your problem was that you were looking for a rare attunement. I guess you found one. Congratulations. What does it do?”

Verus hesitated. Mostly void ki seemed to suck stuff up, but he wasn’t going to explain it that way. “It does many powerful and interesting things, but I’m not going to tell you all my abilities right before we spar.”

Escora chuckled. “Alright, let’s get right to it then. We’ll go all out right from the start. Show me what you got.”

“Fine with me,” Verus replied as he raised his guard.

His sparring partner didn’t waste another moment. Grinning, she charged straight at him.

Verus immediately stepped forward to meet her, feeling a thrill as the rush of combat filled him. Pushing aside a series of probing punches, he responded with several of his own. For several moments, they were evenly matched as fists flew through the air.

“You’re definitely faster than before,” Escora laughed. “But can you match this?”

Wisps of blue energy rose from her shoulders as she cycled a water ki enhancement technique through her entire body. Verus quickly felt pressured as Escora’s movements became not only noticeably faster and stronger, but smoother as well. He dodged one punch and raised a hand to blow another, but the blow hit his raised arm with enough power to make him wince in pain. He stumbled back, and Escora let him go.

This left Verus with a few options. He needed to use a technique of his own to level the field. The most obvious answer was a body enhancement technique of his own, so Verus took a deep breath and flooded his body with void ki. It flowed through his channels in intricate patterns that boosted his capabilities, but there was a problem. Verus already knew that Escora’s enhancement technique was more powerful than his.

Void ki didn’t boost the body particularly well. That was one of the many things that the power of nothing wasn’t great at. Human ki was better at increasing strength and speed but using it came with downsides of its own. Verus’s lackluster attunement made using it inefficient compared to void ki, and it was difficult to flood your body with human ki and use void ki techniques at the same time. Thus, he would simply have to make up for his weakness by combining multiple void techniques.

As void ki flowed through him, Verus glided forward to engage Escora again. He moved with light steps but surprising speed. One ability he’d discovered that void ki had was to decrease his weight. However, he had to be careful, lest an unexpected punch send him flying.

Escora met Verus halfway with a jab at Verus’s face. He sidestepped her attack and they began trading blows. However, Verus quickly found himself on the defensive. As he’d expected, Escora was still faster and stronger than him, so it was time to cheat.

While distracting Escora with a jab that she easily blocked, Verus made a subtle motion with his other hand as he emitted void ki and shaped it into an Unseen Hand. The technique latched on to her elbow and tugged it down just as Verus threw another punch. His fist slipped above her lowered guard and hit her cheek. Verus held back, but the unexpected blow startled her.

“What?” she exclaimed as she stumbled back.

Grinning in excitement, Verus followed her instead of letting her go, and he used another Unseen Hand to pull her foot slightly forward as she lifted it. She stumbled again, and he threw a skipping sidekick that rapidly closed the distance between and then he planted his foot right in her ribs.

Off balance, Escora flailed and toppled over, but except for her pride, she was unhurt. As she sat up, she glared at her sparring partner. “What was that? I know you did something sneaky.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Maybe. It’s a secret.”

“Stupid rare ki types,” she muttered as she stood up and gave him a look. “You enjoyed that way too much.”

Verus just shrugged and kept grinning. It was true. He had enjoyed that an awful lot.

Escora rolled her eyes. “Enough playing around then. I’ll show you what I’ve really got and beat your silly secrets out of you.”

“Go ahead. I’m here to learn.’

His friend laughed as she jumped backwards away from him. “Confident, eh? You humble bastard. Well, let’s see what the range on that little trick of yours is.”

Verus dashed after her and prepared to use Unseen Hand again, but as he closed in, Escora used her movement technique. Blue ki gushed out from beneath her feet as she slid away from him, and there was a new twist. As Verus tried to turn and lunge after her, she pivoted and made a low kick-like motion that sent a splash of water ki at him.

Surprised, Verus took the water ki right to his face, and it stopped him right in his tracks.

“Ah, that’s cold!” he yelped as flinched back with his eyes shut. He supposed he should be lucky it wasn’t acid or something.

Wiping his face clean of evaporating water ki, Verus glared at Escora, who’d taken the opportunity to get away safely.

“Serves you right!” she yelled as she summoned a whip of water essence and lashed it toward him.

Dropping his void enhancement technique, Verus used a Vanishing Feather Step to dodge to the side of the attack. He disappeared in a blur and reappeared close enough to his opponent to throw a punch, but she was ready. The young Telhri woman deflected his arm to the side and jumped away from him. He quickly moved to follow, but once again she skated away and kicked a wave of water ki at him.

Verus was prepared this time. He raised his hands and activated his devouring ability. Most of the water ki was thus pulled into his palms and sucked into his core. Grinning, he burst through the thin remainder of water ki without a problem. While real ki emission attacks would swiftly overpower his ability to devour ki, Escora’s splash was more of a distraction and the haze of water ki it created wasn’t very thick.

Activating his void enhancement technique, Verus sprinted after his opponent. His light body allowed him to move with deceptive speed, but Escora put on a burst of speed of her own. As she glided back, she jumped up into the air and spun around. Two essence whips formed as her hands cut the air and then flew toward Verus.

The crossed lines of essence zoomed toward Verus at slightly different angles, cutting off his advance. He hesitated, unsure of what to do. There wasn’t enough space for him to slip through using Vanishing Feather Step.

That brief pause was all the time it took for the incoming water whips to reach him. All he could do was try to shield himself as the projectiles slammed into his chest and raised hands. The impact drove the air from his lungs and sent him flying backwards. Pain flashed through his ribs as he was thrown onto the ground and rolled across the smooth stone. Ow. He’d never actually been hit with this technique before. It hurt a lot.

Groening, Verus climbed to his feet and stretched his sore body out. Thankfully, this was only a sparring match, so Escora had held back a little. He didn’t appear to be seriously hurt.

“I give up. You win this round,” he told Escora as she walked over to him.

“You did really well. I was feeling the pressure right up until the end. Once you got serious, you were like a wolf on my heels.”

“Thanks, I learned a lot.”

He really had. The sparring match had been very informative. He had a much clearer picture of his own strengths and weaknesses now, and he definitely knew what he had to improve. His main problem was his inability to deal with large projectile attacks like Escora’s whips. Dodging wouldn’t always be possible, so he really needed to come up with a technique to block them. There had to be a way to use void ki for that. He’d simply have to keep experimenting.

After saying goodbye to Escora and making plans to do some more sparring at a later date, Verus went to look for Fang. The battle-maniac was his best source of information, and it was time to start planning his next move.

Unsurprisingly, Verus found Fang over at the dueling ground. The other outer disciple seemed to have just finished watching a fight between two young woman, who were now leaving. He had no idea how Fang knew when these battles were going on. There had to be an entire network among the outer disciples that he was completely ignorant of.

Upon seeing Verus walking his way, Fang looked over to give him an excited grin. “Ah, Verus. I was wondering if I’d see you again. I didn’t run into you during the trip to the Reaches, and you disappeared after. I’ve heard quite a few interesting rumors about you though! Are they true?”

Verus returned his smile. “It’s good to see you now, although I’m glad we didn’t cross paths out in the Reaches. You would have made a terrible foe. Congratulations on reaching the Tempered Realm!”

With his trained spiritual sense, Verus was easily able to detect that Fang had reached the Tempered Realm using a Way that had the iron scent and crimson tint of blood. It fit him, even if Verus found it slightly disturbing.

Fang laughed. “Thanks. I see you’ve reached the same height. Good for you! I would have bet against it to be honest, and it seems you found a rare ki type after all, since I don’t recognize yours. You’re just full of surprises.”

Verus sighed. “Did everyone know about that?”

“Not everyone. People talk and secrets don’t keep, but most weren’t interested in a temple ward like you. That’s changed of course. Not only have you reached the Tempered Realm, but the rumor is that you’ve got backing now. That means you’re involved in sect politics.”

“I don’t know much about that sort of thing.”

“Then you should probably learn as soon as possible.”

“On that topic, I do have a question for you. What do you know about an outer disciple named Avon Fortex?”

Fang frowned. “I know of him. He’s a medallion holder. However, as much as I like you, I’m no longer going to be handing out valuable information for free. You’re not a nobody anymore. If you want something, you need to offer a trade. Although, you’ve revealed more than you know just by asking me about him.”

Supressing a groan, Verus pressed on. He knew he was bad at this. Politics really wasn’t something he had any experience with. “Pardon, but what do you want in exchange for information on Fortex?”

“How about the name of your backer? A lot of disciples are very curious about that.”

Verus considered the offer. Fang probably only knew general information on Fortex, but he didn’t have to give up much either. The other elders probably already knew about him, and he could bend the truth a little. “I have a tentative relationship with Elder Caligo, who took interest in my search for a rare attunement.”

A thoughtful look appeared on Fang’s face. “Elder Caligo, eh? I don’t know much about him, although I’ve heard he’s a layabout. You’ve obviously been ordered to go after Fortex though, since he’s not someone you’d challenge on your own. That means Caligo’s working with someone else in his faction. How did you get involved with someone like this?”

Feeling frustrated, Verus kept his face carefully neutral. He hadn’t even been aware that his master was part of a faction. He was really bad at this. He wanted to say that ascetics were above politics, but even he wasn’t that naive. “It’s your turn to answer a question. What do you know about Fortex?”