Friendships

With the confirmation of his victory, Thirteen felt his legs giving out from under him as he fell. Thankfully, someone was there to catch him.

"Are you alright?" Ten asked, having dashed over and placed his arm over her shoulder.

Thirteen smiled at her, "Better by the second. Thanks."

While she helped him walk over to the sitting stones, Thirteen fished around his person until he retrieved a small pill which he immediately consumed.

Head Instructor Nicholas had given him a year to learn the fundamentals of Unhindered Motion or it would be taken from him, but the man had never tested Thirteen. Instead, after watching him train a few times, early into the year, he instructed Helper Melia to provide these revitalization pills for him every week, and never brought up the deadline.

The pills were not for healing, but would help him recover his lifeforce faster, and therefore heal himself.

"Here, sit down." Ten said.

Taking a seat on a flat stone just long enough for the two of them, Thirteen saw Forty-five and Nine over by Four who was being looked at by a medic. He was a little concerned that he had gone too far, but expected Four would take offense to anything less.

While Ten sat next to him, Thirteen was reminded of something as he looked at Forty-five.

"When are you and Forty-five fighting?"

"Tomorrow, in the dojo. It'd seem like we were copying you two if we made some big spectacle."

"Aha sorry" Thirteen chuckled with a smile.

"Nervous at all?" He asked.

"Umm… Is it mean if I say no? I just don't think I'll lose."

"Not mean, no. Definitely cocky."

"Good, cocky's fine." She said with a grin.

Thirteen started asking about how she planned to fight tomorrow, and Ten excitedly spoke about her new techniques, whispering closely for anything she kept secret from Forty-five, which admittedly, wasn't a lot.

As the two spoke animatedly, the medic seemed to have finished with Four and he was being taken back to the dorms, passing by Thirteen with assistance.

Four smiled as he passed and called out.

"That was good. I didn't see the last bit coming. We'll do this again! Just give me a month, no, a week!" He started yelling as the medic, aided by Nine, forced him on towards the dorms.

Thirteen smiled eagerly, this time it would be Four trying to claim top place, not him. That felt surprisingly good.

Ten was chuckling at Four's excitement from beside him. He truly did look somewhat comical, disheveled and covered in burns, yet shouting excitedly through a wide smile.

"Congratulations." Forty-five called as she approached. "He's not going to leave you alone now. You know that right?"

"I'm aware" He smiled.

"Getting excited for tomorrow?" Ten asked her.

"Of course. I've kept a lot from you this past year you know?"

Forty-five realized the two were sitting weirdly close and looked down to realise they were both squeezed onto a single stone that could only just fit them both. She looked around for a brief moment, but there were no others nearby, and she felt strangely awkward just standing in front of them.

"W-well, I should head back. Class finished before your fight anyway, and I need to get ready for tomorrow."

"Right, I'll see you later" Ten said.

"Bye."

After Forty-five had left, Ten looked to Thirteen quizzically. "Did she seem weird to you?"

"No?"

"Huh. Anyway, we should get going too"

Ten again threw one of his arms over her shoulders and stood.

"I should be fine if you want to go with Forty-five?."

"It's fine, come on."

Leading him back to the dorms, Ten opened the door and helped him sit on the bed. Thirteen was unaccustomed to relying on others, but it truly was a help. He tried to lean across the bed to reach the resource box sitting on the opposite bedside table, but an incredible pain and cramp in his core stopped him in his tracks.

"Ten, could you pass me that please? The box."

��Sure, Here."

Rummaging within, Thirteen found one of his remaining Lifeblooms and forced himself into the lotus position despite the incredible pain his body produced in resistance.

"Thanks, I'll cultivate a bit and I should be good in no time."

"No worries, take your time." She said as she looked around the room curiously.

Thirteen felt oddly insecure with her looking about, not that he had anything personal in his room. Unless his favored placement of weapons in the arms closet counted?

Closing his eyes, Thirteen decided to deal with the pain in his gut first and try to re-energize his body. Ten was often bored easily and would head out when she had fulfilled her curiosity. And he could thank her again at dinner.

Thirteen breathed deeply as he absorbed the external energy of the Lifebloom. He didn't use it to cultivate his baseline, but simply transformed it into his own energy which his body could use to heal. While he did this, he took the chance to reflect on the battle.

He had used his new techniques to do quite a lot, the Sanguine Control proving far more versatile than he originally thought. Something he had learnt early in his cultivation was that different techniques learned from manuals would only serve as examples on how a power could be manifested. The applications and variations to the technique were all dependent on the practitioner.

Like extending a withering void across his blade, or learning to read the injuries and stamina of a person with lifesight. With the Sanguine Control technique, he had taken this to another level, armed with a versatile medium to experiment with.

The caustic blood and the shifting of liquid to solid had been examples of how to manipulate the properties of blood, while simple movements could be achieved through the bonded will. These had served to inspire many applications including the incorporation of withering, the hardening of blood filled with lifeforce to a durability stronger than steel, the coating of weapons to allow basic telekinetic control, and more.

He could do so much with the technique and still he felt like he had only scratched the surface.

The Unhindered Motion fighting style was incredible, but it was difficult to maintain, and it was Thirteen's inability to remain unhindered that rendered him defenseless to that final, devastating blow.

He had also relied too much on that countdown, the method he used to hypnotise himself into a combat trance. He had proved he could do it without the countdown, now he would need to learn to do it reliably.

As Thirteen's body healed and he felt constant—albeit faint—energy filling his muscles once more, his revision was interrupted by the distinct feeling that someone was watching him.

Opening his eyes, he found Ten sitting on his bed, directly across from him in the lotus position as if cultivating. Her eyes were mostly closed, just one open as she peeked at him.

"You done?" She asked.

"Sure?"

"Then let's talk."

"About what?"

She tilted her head. "Your last mission? No, better, my last mission!"

Her eyes practically sparkled at her own correction. He had heard the basics of her mission before, she had been grouped with two others she was not accustomed with and had to track down and kill a courier riding cross country on horseback. Apparently Nicholas or the King, or whoever the mission came from didn't like what the man was delivering, or who it was being delivered too.

He knew the basics of it already, that the courier was in fact a trusted subordinate of the man who sent him, and that his cultivation was bordering the Core Establishment realm, but her excited retelling and the new details easily caught his attention as he abandoned the thought of further revision, something rare for him.

When her story was coming to an end, Thirteen began to talk on his last mission as well. They had all gone on at least one mission a year, and Thirteen's last involved defending a merchant's carriage alongside five lances of a mercenary company, 25 mercenaries in total.

There wasn't really anything exciting in his story, but he found the people truly interesting, and repeated a lot of their own stories to Ten, followed by them both fantasizing about equally thrilling adventures for themselves in the future.

Eventually they ran out of new topics and started repeating older ones that they'd already spoken about in length on other days. It had to be said that when one was in the mood to talk, even old stories could feel new again.

As they continued their conversation, hours having passed, the door to the room opened and a sweaty Nine, straight from personal training entered.

He froze like a statue, eyes wide as he recognized Ten sitting on the bed, and he turned to glance back out the door for a second as if considering whether to leave.

"What's wrong with you? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"U-um. Nothing."

"Nine, Is dinner ready yet?" Ten asked.

"Yeah, I mean it will be soon. I just came back to wash up first."

"Allright, I'm going to head off. See you both in the dining hall."

With swift movements she stood up and moved through the doorway, her head low.

Silence reigned for a moment as Thirteen watched her go while Nine fixed a bland stare on his dorm mate.

Reaching out a hand, Nine gently closed the door behind Ten, still staring at Thirteen.

"Seriously, are you okay?"

"What was she doing in here?"

"Talking? I think cultivating at one point."

"Did s-she, look around?" He asked, now looking at his own side of the dorm which was quite messy.

"Relax, I'm sure she thinks nothing of it." Thirteen replied nonchalantly.

Nine let out a deep sigh, as his shoulders slumped. He looked to his friend with tired eyes and took a while before he spoke again.

"You know… nevermind."

He started to clean up his side of the room as Thirteen began to suspect Nine's thoughts.

"Forty-five was asking about you." Nine called out a few seconds later, his back still to Thirteen.

"Oh? What for?"

Nine simply shook his head before grabbing a clean set of clothes and moving to the washroom, stating that he'd go first.

Thirteen looked to the now somewhat cleaner side of the room with a thoughtful look. He wasn't dense. And he certainly wasn't blind, practicing his observation skills at every waking moment. But he was truly inexperienced in this regard and wanted to simply ignore the inconvenient feelings of his friends.

Thirteen liked Ten.

That was all that mattered.