With the spots to the competition now filled, Owen decided that they should now hunker down and train hard for the next month. Owen, Will and Grace went to train together in a private training room, with Kenneth and Jason going off to do their own thing.

The white room was almost barren, except for two metal containers that lay at Owen's feet. Well, it didn’t really matter much if there was no training equipment, because they didn’t need them.

"For these next two weeks we won’t be sparring much. Instead we’ll be primarily consuming these bad boys," Owen said as he tapped the containers that were filled with aether pills with his foot. "We have to do this because we need to become intermediate essence users as quickly as possible."

Grace and Will stood before him. Will in particular had a curious look on his face.

"How strong are intermediate essence users compared to us?"

"Well, people say that you have to have at least ten average novice essence users to take on an intermediate one."

"They’re that strong?" Will’s eyes then went wide. "Then how strong are advanced essence users?"

"Dude, they’re in a different ballpark altogether. They’re equal to around one hundred average intermediate essence users."

Will's already wide eyes seemed to become even more wide.

"And don’t get me started on the elite and peak essence users. You’d flip out if you heard their numbers."

Grace chimed in. "Have you ever seen a peak essence user?"

"Nah," Owen shook his head. "And I probably will never see one in my lifetime."

Owen reached down and pressed the buttons on the sides of the containers, which made them pop open their lids. He slid a container over to Grace and Will.

"Let’s get started then, we don’t have all day. For now, you guys should take two aether pills every thirty minutes."

Grace looked at him like he was a madman. "Isn’t the daily recommended intake just one?"

"Yeah, but my insignia ability is affecting you guys, so you probably won’t die if you take more than what’s recommended."

Owen sat down and reached into his own container.

"How many are you going to take?"

Owen smirked at her. "A handful."

And with horror, Grace watched as Owen stuffed a fistful of pills into his mouth.

***

A week had passed, and the trio had made significant progress towards becoming intermediate essence users. Owen in particular felt like he was on the verge of ranking up.

Isaac had joined them for a training session for one of those days. He was watching as Owen was stood in the middle of the training room, with his palms turned upwards.

"Alright." Owen said, and a moment later a small spark popped up from his right hand. Then, a flame burst out forth from it, towering high above his head. At the same time on his left hand, frost particles formed on his palm. And then a column of blue frost also erupted up high, matching the height of the tower of fire.

Owen smiled and looked over to Isaac. "It’s nice right? Now that I’ve got more control over kinetic energy, I’ve been developing these techniques for the competition."

Owen closed the palms of his hands and the fire and frost petered out and vanished.

"Yeah it’s cool, but does it consume a lot of essence?"

Owen shook his head. "Not really. It’s actually quite easy to maintain."

He then put his hands on his hips and looked around the room.

"Where’s Will?"

Isaac raised an eyebrow. "He’s right in front of you." He said while he pointed towards Owen.

Owen swerved his head and looked straight ahead. There was nothing there. But then, the blonde hair of Will popped into existence, along slowly with the rest of him. A cheeky smirk was on his face.

Owen broadened his eyes. "I guess you’ve gotten good enough to fully turn yourself invisible now. But wait," he turned to Isaac. "You saw him?"

He nodded slowly.

"Then that means that his hide insignia doesn’t actually turn him invisible," he looked at Will. "Instead, it just let’s you bypass the perception of the person you choose, right?"

"I guess so."

"Then that’s good. We’ll at least know where you are if you choose to use your insignia during something like a group fight."

As Owen carried on talking to him, the door to the room opened, prompting him to stop and turn and look at the entrance. Jason was stood there. He walked in and looked at Owen.

"How’s training going?" Owen asked.

Jason folded his arms and sighed. "I don’t really feel like I’m progressing at all. The pills I’m consuming aren’t helping me move out of my plateau."

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Did you come here for some advice?"

"No. That’s not what I came here for," Jason unfurled his arms and stared into the eyes of Owen. "You’re probably stronger than me. But what I want to find out is by how much."

The corner of Owen’s mouth turned upwards. "Oh? Are you challenging me to a fight?"

Jason nodded. "Let’s have a spar."

"Alright. I’ve honestly been itching to trade fists with you for a while."

Owen turned around and walked a few paces away from the centre of the room, with Jason doing the same.

Will came over to the side of the room where Isaac was. They watched as Jason and Owen faced off against each other.

"No holding back?" Owen asked.

"Yes, I want to face you at your strongest."

Owen observed him. He had a smaller build than his father, but his muscles were still large. Owen had been told by Isaac that Jason had the strength insignia. Knowing that going in, he planned on avoiding his attacks.

Jason surged essence throughout his body. The red colouring of the energy seeped from his skin, creating a crimson aura.

"Here I come." Jason said, as he took a step forward, kicked off from the ground, and charged forward like a raging train.

He closed the gap between them in just a second. He had aimed to tackle Owen to the ground, but Owen had grabbed his head when he was close and used it as leverage to hop over him.

Owen twisted in the air, and with his essence enhanced leg, kicked him in the back. Jason stumbled forward momentarily. He recovered, and swerved back around only to find Owen there with his fist inches away from his face.

The punch landed, rocking the head of Jason. Owen pulled back his fist, and with quick succession, threw out three more that hit his torso.

Jason swiped at him like he was a bear, but Owen backed away. He stepped back in and threw a hook, but to his surprise his punch was stopped in midair. It was like he had hit some soft mattress. Ignoring that, he went to punch with his other hand, but the same thing happened again.

He then jumped backwards to create some space between them. He quickly tried to figure out why his last two punches didn’t reach him. He had the strength insignia so, was he strengthening the air to create some sort of shield?

The loud yell of Jason interrupted his thoughts. Jason had his arms above his head, which he brought down, slamming them into the floor. The floor shook violently as if there was an earthquake. If it were not for the shock absorbers that were placed in every training room, then the floor would have likely crumbled.

Jason's essence surged out of him. He needed more speed. He pulled more and more essence out from his soul and used it to enhance his legs. Then, he exploded forward.

Owen didn’t have the time to react. Jason had spread out an arm, and had clotheslined him straight across the chest. The attack had sent Owen flying backwards into the room’s wall.

Owen let out a grunt as he smacked the wall like a pancake. Jason came for him again. He ran up and threw out an overhead punch, but the punch slowed down to a crawl, eventually stopping right in front of Owen's face.

Owen let out a small laugh. "You’re not the only one with a shield."

He looked up into the eyes of Jason and smiled. He moved forward from the wall, which caused Jason’s fist to move back forcefully. Jason tried to resist, but his fist was still moved back.

Owen now stood face to face with Jason. He moved his hand forward and found resistance.

"I wonder if your shield is ice resistance."

"What–"

A billowing cloud of frost erupted from Owen's hand, encasing Jason in it. The air bubble that was acting like a shield for him, was now frozen over, trapping Jason like he was a bug in a cocoon.

Owen kicked over the ice structure and watched it roll away. He clutched his chest and rubbed it.

"Man, that hurt."

He walked around the ice structure, keeping an eye on it as he moved to the centre of the room. He grabbed his shoulder and started to roll it around. Owen knew that the scuffle they had now was just to test each other out.

The ice structure started to crack, and a moment later Jason’s hand burst out from it. Jason forced his head through, and rose up from the floor. A breath of visible cold air escaped his lips.

He looked at Owen and clenched his jaw. It was time to let loose. He gritted his teeth as he activated his essence ability. Two white stubs began to sprout from the sides of his head. They grew larger and larger until they became massive horns. Jason sprouted black fur from all over his body. His face began to contort and change. And a black tail emerged from behind him.

Owen stared at him and grinned maniacally. His hair began to spike up as his essence surged out of him, and he started to increase the kinetic energy in his body.

Meanwhile, watching from the side of the room, Isaac and Will were huddled together.

"Damn, we should have left when we had the chance to." Isaac said with Will nodding frantically.

Jason had finished transforming. He had become a hulking, humanoid bull. The beast stared at Owen and roared. Jason crouched forward with his horns pointed towards Owen.

Owen himself let out a yell and crouched forward. There was a momentary silence as the two waited, but then, they both moved. The only thing Isaac and Will saw was the colours red and yellow trailblazing across from each side, and then suddenly meeting in the middle, causing an explosion of essences to spread out.

Owen and Jason became visible as they clashed. Owen had the horns of Jason in his hands. They both tried to push forward but made no ground as their strengths were equal.

Jason made a wild sweep forward with his hand, but it hit nothing as Owen vanished. He appeared a moment later from the side and shot out a punch into the side of Jason.

Jason shrugged off the blow and instantly retaliated with his own fist. But that too had hit nothing. Owen vanished again, appearing for a second, and then vanishing. He moved like a blur around Jason, taking cheap shots wherever he could.

Jason roared out in annoyance. Using his insignia ability, he took the strength from Owen’s legs, causing him to skid to the floor. Jason instantly went for him and lifted an arm up to pound it down on him.

Owen used kinetic energy to slide himself to the side, narrowly dodging the attack. He then flew up from the ground, and with unparalleled speed, shot at Jason with both his feet pointed at him. He dropkicked him straight in the face, crunching Jason’s nose.

A crazy smile spread across Owen’s face. He kicked off from his face and backflipped, landing a few feet away. He held up his right hand towards Jason and held up his left towards Isaac and Will. Jason was still reeling from Owen’s attack and clutched his nose.

"Let’s end this." Owen said. A swirl of fire was forming from the palm of his right hand. It circled around, then condensed, forming a bright orange fireball.

Jason recovered, only to look over at Owen and see the fireball launch forward with great intensity. It hit him straight in the chest and exploded into a brilliant burst of fire. The fire filled the room quickly, with it then turning into smoke.

The walls of the training room automatically formed multiple vents to filter out the smoke. Isaac was crouched in front of Will. He had summoned a metallic shield in front of them incase they were caught in that explosion. But the fire hadn’t reached them.

A few more seconds had passed, and finally they could see the outcome of the fight. Owen was stood proudly over Jason, who was sprawled out on the floor with his arms outstretched. He was detransformed and was currently looking up at the ceiling with solemn eyes.

He looked over at Owen. "I lost, huh?"

"Yeah. It was a good fight."

Jason looked back away and clenched his fist. He pounded the ground with frustration.

Owen raised an eyebrow.

"Sorry, I just don’t like to lose in a contest of strength. It just makes me feel weak."

Owen looked at him for a few seconds and then frowned. He furled his arms together and sighed.

"Look. During the gauntlet I hated the fact that you had forfeited. I thought you had looked down on me. But the truth is, I would have lost if you hadn’t done that. So thank you, this plan of mine has been working because of you," Owen unfurled his arms and held out a hand for Jason. "Let’s grow stronger together for the competition."

Jason looked at him then smiled softly. He took his hand and was helped off the floor.

"Alright, let’s become stronger."