Control

It's a new morning. Leo and Crito sit by the window drinking coffee when Flora walks into the room. Her hand is over her chest, and she has a face of discomfort. "Morning Flora," Leo says, his face showing clear concern. "Good morning. Hey master, my chest kind of hurts after yesterday." Flora said. Crito leans backward, lighting a cigarette. "That's just mana fatigue." You were empty, and now you have built up more mana. "The pain is your body getting used to the changes."

This mana fatigue that Flora was feeling was like sore muscles after a workout. To feel that kind of pain in the place of the heart was a painful experience that was hard to ignore. This pain was a sign of mana being built in the body. A sign of her power growing.

Crito opens the window next to him and blows a puff of smoke before getting up. "Well, the best way to deal with the pain is to get rid of the excess mana. Get ready, and we will begin a lesson on control." Crito said as he left for the garden. Flora grabs a piece of toast from the table before leaving as well. "Don't push yourself too hard." She gives Leo a smile. "I wont."

Flora and Crito are now standing in the garden. Crito is turned away from Flora. "Um, mister, Crito." Flora is cut off by a sudden beam of light shooting out from Crito's neck. Flora made a loud scream in shock as she dodged to the side. The beam of light, however, turned in midair and hit her in the back. Flora makes a grunt in pain and falls forward to the ground. "And that's one example of control." Crito said it with some kind of smug self-satisfaction.

Flora on the ground looks up with a face covered in dirt. Crito hands her a handkerchief. It felt soft and slightly wet. It seemed he expected her to eat dirt, which just annoyed Flora further. Crito extends his hand, but she ignores it and gets up herself.

Crito shrugs and continues the lesson. "So as the name implies, control is all about controlling the flow of mana itself. The example I just gave was changing direction after I had already shot. But for another example," Crito holds a sphere in his hand once more. It lies completely still in his hand. But then the sphere began to grow and grow until it was bigger than Crito himself. "What you see here is worthless," Crito says, to Flora's surprise.

"Why. Wouldn't that be harder to dodge?" Flora asks. Crito gives her a nod. "Then what's the problem?" Crito tosses the orb at the training dummy, and it has the same impact as the attack he made yesterday. "True, it's bigger, but the impact hasn't changed despite me using more mana. To put it simply, it's a waste. since I only released mana and knew I wanted a sphere. As I released mana, the sphere grew and spread itself thin. It was nothing more than an empty shell of mana."

Crito creates a sphere once more. "Now watch when I use control," Crito says, beginning to look like he is physically straining himself a bit. The sphere begins to grow brighter. So bright that it's hard for Flora to look at it. Crito's face is unmoving as it continues to grow brighter. Finally, he throws it.

The sphere moves so fast that Flora can't even follow it with her eyes. It makes an impact with the dummy and explodes in a bright white light, completely blinding Flora. As the light subsides, Flora is able to see what the attack did. The top half of the dummy was completely blown off.

Crito, with a smug face, begins explaining. "See, controlling the mana allows me to compress it into a smaller space. So instead of growing in size, its impact grew. Crito's explanation comes to a halt as he notices that Flora isn't listening. Her eyes were stuck to the dummy. Her body was shaking, and her breathing was unstable. Crito yells, trying to get into contact with her, but it's no use.

Finally, Crito decides to shake Flora, and she seems to snap out of it. Crito sat her down to let her catch her breath. "you ok?" Flora began steadying her breathing, and after a few minutes, she gave a nod. "Let's cut the training short today." Crito is clearly worried about her. Flora gets up quickly and shakes her head, refusing to stop now.

Crito, after some convincing, allows her to continue the training. "fine. Then I guess we are testing your understanding of control." Crito says. Crito takes a look at the dummy. "It seems we can't use the dummy, so train on me," he says before taking a battle stance. Flora takes a deep breath and takes a battle stance herself.

Flora creates vines from her hand and shoots them out towards Crito, who sidesteps to the left. The vines turn back around to try and attack his back, but he slashes his right side, cutting the vines. "Don't just copy me. "Find something that works using your powers." Crito says in a stern voice:

Flora this time tosses multiple seeds, which all grow into flowers, and begins shooting towards Crito. But Crito seems to dodge them all with ease. "There is a small delay between each flower shot. With your current skills, you are spreading yourself thin." Crito Lectures.

Flora, with one last idea, tosses a seed just straight at Crito, which he reflects to the side. The seed sinks into the ground this time, and below Crito, a vine shoots out. Though Crito quickly jumps forward, dodging the attack before grabbing Flora by the head and slamming her to the ground, he says, "You definitely had a good idea, but it was too telegraphed." Flora doesn't seem to hear it completely. Crito takes her by the arm and throws her over the shoulder. "Training's over. "What do you want for dinner?" Crito asks. "I would like pasta, please," Flora says in a defeated voice.

The night falls once more, and this time in the middle of the city, a burning building can be seen lighting up the streets. A man inside is running and avoiding falling debris. But it doesn't take long before he is caught by the man he was running away from. Helios grabs the man by the neck and lifts him upward before placing his hand on the man's chest. The man begs for his life: "Please don't kill me." Begging that fell on deaf ears, as Helios grows a toothy grin and blows a hole straight through the man's chest. Helios drops the body, and once again his smile disappears. He places his right hand over his left side of the chest and makes a throwing motion upward. "May your spirit rest."

Helios exits the burning building, and from a small bag on his hips, he hears a sound. A sound indicating he is getting a call. He answers. "What?" Helios said, irritated. "You finally decided to take it, did you? "How is the mission going?" Martin asks. Helios takes a large sigh. "I killed everyone in the house and even gave the ten something else to throw the blame on."

"You went too far again, didn't you?" Martin lets out a pissed-off sigh. "Whatever, finish the last targets immediately and return to base!" Sirens could be heard in the distance, and Helios began walking away from the scene. "Nah, there is no rush. Plus, it was kind of hot in there, so I'm going to grab a drink," Helios says in a mocking voice before ending the call.