Teacher Yalak

I was with Zala in the forest near the lake. We were hiding from the villagers. If one of them discovers what we were doing, they'll guess we have a tattoo, and we'll be banned or, even worse: sentenced to death.

Rarely anyone came this far. There was no dangerous beast near the lake. The only people who could potentially come were the orphan. They would usually explore the forest to pick some fruits to exchange for meat or eat.

We were sitting on the grass facing each other.

"Alright, Baruba asked us to improve our control over ovzgûn. For now, we didn't use it for anything. But I think we will need it for his next teachings. However, he will not teach us how to fight. It will be a peaceful application of ovzgûn. He already told us some clues on how we could use ovzgûn in combat. He said we could use the energy produced or gathered by our tribal tattoo and infuse it in other tattoos to activate their skills. A bit like how I retract or make my mask appear. Do you get it ?"

"Yes, but I don't have other tattoos than my tribal, and neither do you. So where did you get that skill ?"

" I'm coming to it. Baruba also said that tribal tattoos also hold their set of skills. Do you get it now ?"

"Ah, you mean that activate a tribal skill by putting ovzgûn in your heart ?"

"Yes"

"But there is something I don't understand. Our ovzgûn energy is already in our hearts, so shouldn't our skills always be activated, or maybe I don't have any skills ?" Ask an increasingly worried Zala.

" You have a skill; we have the same tattoo, so if I got one, you must have one yourself. But it's not working that way. What I am going to tell you are only guesses. I succeeded in using the skill by chance. Our tribal tattoo passively absorbs or produces ovzgûn and stocks it somewhere. But the energy is not used if we don't will it. So we need to extract the energy and reinfuse it on the tattoo. Only then the tattoo's skill will be activated."

Zala closed her eyes, slowed her breath, and focused on herself. I waited for a few seconds, and she then opened her eyes.

" So, did you feel anything ?"

"No," She answered, disheartened.

" I did what you told me, but nothing happened !"

I was reflecting for several seconds, and a few possibilities came to my mind.

" Where did your energy go ?"

" It still got absorbed by the tattoo."

"Well, In that case, I can only think of three possibilities. First, it was used, but you didn't know the skill being used. Second, you didn't give it enough energy to work, and last, there is another condition to use it."

" Or maybe the ovzgûn returned to its storage place." She added

" That's indeed a possibility if it exists. Let's test it then !"

" Ok then, try to do it again, but this time do it while imagining facing opponents."

For twenty minutes, we tried different things, like giving a punch or roaring, but nothing worked.

If someone had come at this moment, we would have been deemed crazy. 'Not that they already consider me as one, though.'

We were becoming frustrated, so we decided to explore the possibility of missing energy. I didn't want to do this one as it was risky. We know very little about tattoos. And pouring too much energy into it might end up harming the heart.

I told Zala to be careful and stop as soon as she felt something going wrong.

She started gathering energy. She slowly put it in her heart once she reached the maximum she could control.

I was carefully observing her every facial movement. I was quite anxious about what could happen.

She suddenly opened her eyes, jumped, and rushed to the nearest tree. She punched it with all her strength. The tree shook violently. The thing is that the tree was three hundred years old, one with a sturdy trunk. My mouth was wide open. I was shocked.

'Too powerful !'

" What happened" I exclaimed.

Zala shook her hand as it was painful.

" Ha, It's hurting so much !"

She might be strong, but her skin and bone weren't as hard as the tree bark.

"Well, when I was putting the energy into the tattoo, at some point, I felt a tingling sensation in my body. It became unbearable. I needed to make it go. The only solution that came to my mind was to punch something. And as I didn't want to punch you, I punched the tree."

I shivered, imagining what would have happened if I had been the one receiving the punch.

"Congratulation, we discovered your tattoo skill !"

Zala stopped straight, hearing my words. She realizes what happened. She looked at the tree and then jumped in joy.

" I did it !" she was elated.

" You sure did, and it's a powerful skill !"

In the next few days, we explored the limits of the skill. We discovered that the skill took a bit of time to activate, at least thirty seconds. It's the time she needs to pour the minimum energy into the tattoo to activate the skill. But as her control over ovzgûn improves, she should be able to reduce that time. The skill would last only one strike. Another point is that she can apply the power only to one part of her body. The last thing we discovered is that the strike could exert a maximum of three times her strength.

Zala names this skill : heavy strike.

It's an impressive skill, on par with mine, but I still prefer mine as it is more all-rounded.

As the progressed, something started to weigh on our minds. It has nearly been two weeks since the trial started. Like last time we posted two orphans at the entrance to report if they saw Ushha. In the last two days, the young orcs that took part in the challenge started to come back. Ten of them were already back. We became increasingly worried about Ushha's situation.

...

[Third POV]

The third week after the start of the trial.

Golok was a huge tall orc. He was 2.8 meters. He had short black hair and brown eyes. On his belly, we could see the tattoo of a big sitting bear. It was aggressively displaying its fangs.

Golok was an ambitious orc. He wants strength and glory. To get the chief position of his tribe, he challenges the previous chief to hûrbâk. He beheaded him in front of the whole tribe.

Since then, he led the tribe. He conquered two tribes in two years. They were unstoppable. Their tribal tattoo improved their strength massively, and bear tribe men were usually larger than other orcs. They easily dominated the two poor tribes. They had some losses, but the gains outweighed them.

That was until they decided to face the Braveheart tribe. The braveheart and their tribe were long rivals. Although few in number, the Bravehearts were stronger. So Golok used a different tactic, less honorable than directly facing them. He decided to weaken them by targeting hunting teams. They killed them with numbers. It took them a few days before he judged they would win easily. So they decided to make a surprise attack at night.

Everything went according to the plan till two warriors appeared. Golok knew them and was really wary of them. They were the chief and the strongest warrior of the tribe. He had underestimated them. They killed a third of his men before they were put down. He even received an important wound on his chest. In his fury, he ordered to kill everyone.

Only two orcs thwarted all his plans. Instead of becoming stronger, they were weakened. At least the Braveheart tribe wouldn't be able to mess with him anymore.

It took them years to get back to their peak. But now they are ready to start it again.

He was currently in his hut facing a young bulky orc. For this year's ceremony, he decided it would take place quite far, near the fiery wolf tribe.

"So Glush, did you succeed ?"

" Yes, Father, we killed a dozen of them."

" Great ! We will soon be ready to subjugate them, but we have to be careful they are stronger than the Braveheart tribe. We will target their young ones for now. In a few year we will enter in war with them !"