8 The basics

"We do not have time for an elaborate lesson, So I will teach you the basics." Davidson stood before Marcellus taking off his coat for the first time since the two met.

"Ok, damn this sounds fun." Marcellus was bounce-stepping in front of Davidson.

Kim and his men showed the two their usual training ground in the center of a small forest close by. Kim ordered the men to gather all the soldiers close by before they set out to get their princess back.

The place was isolated, an open place in the middle of a forest. it was perfect for training without attracting unnecessary attention.

"There are two things that distinguish two awakened people as strong or weak. Their energy pool and their mastery over its applications." Davidson let his aura spread around him as folded his sleeves up. His long hair began to flow gently as if the wind was flowing just around his head.

"Please avoid complicated words while explaining Mr. Davidson" Marcellus requested as he tried to channel his own aura imitating Davidson. however, his aura was very weak and its shape was a mess."

"Good job channeling your aura without me having to tell you. I am envious of the enthusiasm of the young." Davidson smirked.

"Go on Mr. Davidson we have no time, remember?" Marcellus was still bouncing around.

"Okay then tell me young Marcellus, what differences do you notice between your aura and mine?" Davidson increased his aura intensity gradually. A black smoke formed around him and spread out violently. The trees in the close vicinity began swaying because a strong wind was created.

Marcellus looked closely. He had already noticed the key difference a long time ago. But this time around Davidson let out more aura than last time so the difference was more clear.

"The volume of our aura is clearly different. Mine is like a lake to your ocean." Marcellus was a bit demotivated now that he saw Davidson was still hiding his true potential last time.

"And the shape, Last time you let out less aura so it perfectly enveloped your body but this time there's a dark sphere around you, guess that's what happens when more aura is used."

Davidson was impressed. Marcellus was not very bright about other things but he seemed to have a knack for this.

"Very good young Marcellus. The energy that you can see and sense is called the aura and The energy that rests within you is called mana."

"There are more categories to this energy?" Marcellus complained.

"This is the most generic classification. It applies to Gods as well as followers."

"Ok, can we skip to the action part of the training?" Marcellus impatiently walked around Davidson.

"You must know this much Marcellus, This is just the building block and we have no time to get you to reach the level of top Angels yet, this is the very essential starting knowledge you must have." Davidson took a deep breath as the winds stopped and the spherical aura around him stabilized.

"Now focus."

Marcellus stopped moving and stared at Davidson's aura.

"The mana sleeps inside an awakened person. As of now, there is no way to trace mana unless it's the Gods sensing them. The gods have the ability to sense the mana of their followers in close vicinity. Mana is the passive form of our power. It's always there. Like the magma resting inside a dormant volcano. Then comes the aura, It's like the lava. when an awakened tries to call forth his power the aura emerges. It can then be sensed, seen, and even touched. what you see around me is the aura."

Marcellus tried to channel more aura but he had no idea how. He tried holding his breath. clenching his whole body, everything he could think of, but to no avail.

Davidson continued.

"The aura is mysterious, it can be used in various ways. and the uses become more relevant the more aura you have to spare. That's where the mana pool comes to play. Mana pool directly influences how much aura you can produce at a given time. you must be able to summon your aura at any given time as you will."

"Yeah, but how? I can't seem to be able to do that. I can sense the aura coming out of me but seems like that much is happening involuntarily." Marcellus was tired by using all his strength earlier.

"It's hard at first. Just like how babies can't walk right away, your brain has never had to send the driving signals to control the aura before. The aura is like a new organ that suddenly appeared on your body. It's there but your brain does not know what to do with it. In theory, it's the same as how right-handed people cannot use their left hand very well." Davidson held his right hand above his head and just above his palm a black ball of energy formed.

"As you play around you will learn how to control your aura. That is the first step to be a high-level awakened. this applies to gods and followers alike."

He pointed his Index finger towards Marcellus and the energy ball slowly moved towards Marcellus and stopped. Then, with his index finger again, He commanded the ball to come back to him. Marcellus could only watch in amusement.

"I will teach you three things, this is the first thing you need to learn out of those three." Davidson got rid of all his aura and signaled Marcellus to come closer to him.

"I would have let you figure this part yourself but we are short on time so we are going to have to take a shortcut."

As Marcellus got closer, Davidson put his palm on his forehead.

"Woah, is this baptism or something?" Marcellus freaked out at first.

"Your Metaphor game is going quite strong Young Marcellus." Davidson laughed.

"yes, It's the baptism to let the aura in you flow. It is usually dangerous when used on other people. But, In it's true from the aura of a follower cannot hurt another follower of the same clan. I am going to continuously inject a consistent amount of my aura into your body, by the time you can stop the flow of my aura into your body You will be able to call forth your own."

"Wait a minute, Mr. Davidson," Marcellus jumped back.

"Won't I, like explode if there is too much aura?"

That made Davidson laugh.

"Since we are in the same clan, my aura will flow through your body, in and out, it won't stay there, of course, unless if you want it to. If you can trap my aura in you that will mean you are already good enough to control your own. we both have the same aura after all."

Davidson put his palm on his forehead again. Marcellus stood still and gulped.

"Here we go." Davidson let out a stream of aura from his palm that traveled into Marcellus's forehead and disappeared.

Marcellus felt a sudden jolt of energy. It was similar to the time he awakened for the first time in the ring. His breathing got easier.

"Feels like I am getting double the oxygen than usual when I breathe," he thought to himself.

He felt very lively. Every breath he took made him feel stronger. He could feel the wave of energy, generating in his forehead that made its way downward, passing through his vessels, his nerves, to his very being.

Four hours passed.

They were standing the same way they were standing four hours ago. Both of them did not feel tired. Marcellus had his eyes closed. His body was getting used to the energy flowing through his body. He could notice every wave of the aura at any part of his body. He could track their movement. He was slowly beginning to adapt to the aura. it did not even feel foreign anymore, he was developing a sense that the energy had always been a part of his body.

Davidson was amazed. Marcellus was indeed different when he focused. His focus was amazing. he had not spoken once since they began. His breathing had a rhythm to it, it did not even miss a beat. It was an ability that built up with his fighting experience.

"He is a big ball of natural talent." Davidson praised Marcellus inside his head.

His aura was consistently and smoothly flowing through Marcellus.

Marcellus took a deep breath, his rhythm changed. At one point Marcellus took his longest breath. Davidson suddenly began to feel resistance in his flow. it was getting harder to send aura into Marcellus's body. Marcellus exhaled. Davidson's aura stopped flowing into Marcellus. He could then feel another aura that was opposing his own.

Davidson removed his hand from Marcellus as he opened his eyes. A burst of aura emanated from him, it exploded out of his body violently and grazed the ground and even the trees that were several meters away from them.

Davidson smiled as Marcellus began observing his hands, then his whole body where his eyes could reach. His aura was not spherical like Davidson, it was very Irregular. But the amount of aura he was releasing was insane. It was causing very strong winds that reached the outskirts of the forest they were in.

"Oh, I remember this." Marcellus smiled at Davidson.

Davidson congratulated Marcellus on summoning his aura.

Marcellus exhaled as his aura slowly died down. Then he again channeled it to make sure it was not a fluke and that he had learned it completely. It flared up again. He had learned it.

"now let's move on to the interesting part."

Marcellus's eyes lit up when he heard that. His eyes were asking a question to Davidson and he understood it very well.

"Yes, now we are going to learn how to use this aura in combat." He said and waited to see if Marcellus had anything to say.

"Hell yeah." That's all Marcellus had to say.

"I should tell you first, What I'm teaching you is not the full potential of an angel-class follower. You might have some kind of unique ability in you, just like my advanced vision. I found it much later after learning to use my aura and I still do not know the full potential of it yet."

"Being able to fly would be cool." Marcellus quickly said while he was lost in imagination.

"Flying isn't even a unique ability, You can fly once you master using your aura. But not everyone is able to do it"

"Woah really? can you fly too?" Marcellus was again shooting lasers with his eyes in excitement.

"No, not yet. I haven't had the time to learn that. It requires extreme coordination of aura and body control. Almost all angel-class followers of top gods are said to be able to fly." Davidson then concentrated the aura around his fists, it formed a black surface.

"Now this is what we are learning next. You coat your body with a smooth layer of your aura."

Then he pointed his aura covered palm at Marcellus,

"Pick up a stone and throw it here." Davidson pointed towards a stone lying on the ground using his other hand.

Marcellus picked up the stone and stretched his arms.

"As hards as you can." Davidson kept his palm firm.

Marcellus threw the stone, he was surprised at his own strength. That throw wasn't humanely possible. It flew towards Davidson at insane speed, it even created a ripple of dust mid-air. Marcellus worried that he might have thrown it too hard.

But as soon as the stone touched the aura surface around Davidson's palm, it burst into pieces.

"Woah what happened?" Marcellus screamed in excitement. It looked as if the stone was shot mid-air.

Davidson retreated his arm and put it in his pocket.

"Your aura is harmless to you and your clan followers, but it interacts differently with anything foreign. when I concentrated the aura in my palm, the aura followed my will. The aura follows rules of inertia, when the wielder commands it to move, it moves. when it is commanded to stop, it stops. While following the will of its wielder its acts as pure energy but when a foreign object tries to change its inertia it becomes destructive."

He looked at Marcellus who was playing with his curls already getting lost in the complex explanation. so Davidson tried to simplify it for him.

"It explodes anything that touches it as long as the aura is sufficiently concentrated."

"Oh" Marcellus understood the gist of it.

"This is the most basic use of aura in the warfare between the awakened. Any regular follower who trains a little can do this. but like I said earlier, depending on the mana pool of the awakened and the concentration the impact can have a huge margin between two people of different mana pools. while the regular followers can break through walls with the destructiveness of this aura A well-trained top angel could easily destroy skyscrapers. This can be used both in offense and defense."

"Should I try it? I just have to focus the energy on my hands right?" Marcellus flared up his aura.

"Yes, as simple as that. try it on one of those trees." Davidson picked up his coat and sat under a tree as he watched Marcellus skipping towards a tree.

Marcellus took a deep breath and put his palm on a tree trunk. he closed his eyes and immediately all the aura flaring around him started converging towards his palm.

Davidson was watching in awe. it had taken him more than three days to be able to move his aura as he willed. Marcellus was learning way too fast.

"youth is scary" He smiled as he kept watching like a proud father.

Suddenly his eyes widened as he looked closely, he hadn't noticed till now but Marcellus was channeling way too much energy and the concentration of the energy was insane. As he used his advanced vision he saw a small vortex appear in the center of Marcellus's palm.

"Wait, Marcellus." He shouted but Marcellus was too focused to notice.

The Aura suddenly emitted very bright light and caused a large explosion. It left a crater that was about spaned about twenty meters away from where Marcellus stood. The shredded tree trunks and branches lied on the ground and dust slowly settled.

"Holy shit that hurt." Marcellus who was now sitting on the ground held his right hand that had swollen because of the reaction of that impact.

Davidson ran towards Marcellus and checked his hand. It was nothing serious, He looked at the large pit,

"You are doing so well it scares me young Marcellus." Davidson offered his hand to Marcellus to get him back on his feet.

"I hope nobody heard that," Marcellus said dusting himself off watching the crater he made with shocked and delighted look on his face.

"Wait here," Davidson said and dashed away before Marcellus could say anything. to normal eyes it would have looked like he disappeared but Marcellus was already used to that speed.

A few minutes passed and Marcellus noticed trees swaying ahead of him. They were being parted as something big was seemingly heading towards him.

"What the-" He thought to himself and stayed alert as he waited for it to show up but he sensed Davidson's aura coming from that direction.

Davidson was carrying a giant rock. It went up more than half the height of the trees. Davidson was carrying it like it had the weight of a pillow.

He threw it at the center of the opening, it was almost as big as the whole place. Marcellus watched in awe as the rock finally landed and shook the ground.

"I thought I just pulled off something great and you just had to overshadow it right away," Marcellus complained as he inspected the rock.

"what's it for?"

"We are moving on to the last stage of this training session," Davidson said as he took off his shirt. He was a very muscular man. He had a huge scar on his abdomen with several other noticeable scars all over his body.

Marcellus watched his body and could not help but be impressed.

"already?"

"you nailed the second stage too, you did more than what I had expected." Davidson seemed like he meant business this time. He was satisfied, the young man in front of him had the potential to be one of the strongest angels in the whole world.

"What you are going to learn next will be what will take you to greater heights. If you become good at this, you won't even need special abilities. The use of aura to give yourself unrivaled raw power that cannot be overpowered by any cheap tricks. The true essence of being a superhuman."

As he focused and took a stance a thin film of aura appeared for a few seconds and disappeared but then his skin changed colors. It almost looked like his body had turned into metal.

"The aura mysteriously interacts with your own body. it makes you strong, it makes you faster and heightens your senses, you must have already felt that several times by now".

Marcellus nodded as he was feeling that just a few moments ago.

"Now you are going to enhance those effects, what you did earlier was envelope your body with an aura externally. The drawback to that is although you can create great outer force, your own body is too weak to handle that impact. you are slow to react to that high-speed movement of energy. "

"Yeah, it hurt my hands real bad when I did what I did earlier." Marcellus's hand was still shaking from the impact of the explosion earlier.

"The aura can do so many things for your body. It can accelerate your metabolism and your brain signals, making you perceive high-speed movements. It can heal your injuries rapidly. it can make you sturdier at the cellular level. it can multiply the amount of strength your muscles can create."

Davidson walked towards the rock and flicked at it with his finger. that flick scraped off a one-fifth portion of the rock.

"I did not use my aura here, that was nothing but pure physical force." He said looking at a Marcellus who had his jaws dropped as he also realized it was just pure physical strength.

"This is called Fusion. you are incorporating your aura with your body to a cellular level. You can turn your body into a hard substance that can withstand anything, you can hit with unimaginable strength, you can heal any injury mid-combat and move at the speed of sound. Depending on your mastery of this you can be indomitable. Especially for a natural fighter like you, fusion is the core weapon,"

Marcellus felt a chill. he was so occupied by the idea of aura he had almost forgotten what he was before all this and what he had always loved. Fights, brawls, and fists. The idea of fusion was very enticing to him, he was grinning without realizing it.

"The fighter-type ability huh, Mr. Davidson, can you tell me the status quo?" Marcellus took off his shirt as he said that.

Davidson raised his eyebrows as he did not quite understand the question.

"How far have the others reached with this fusion thing? I mean the strongest ones"

Davidson smiled as he could feel Marcellus's excitement.

"The people of the Wukong'clan are said to be the expert at this with Wukong himself being the greatest fighter using fusion. They explicitly use the hardness their body can achieve using fusion. They have been developing mostly in the ways of fusion unraveling so many mysteries of aura and their effect on our body. They use a rating system in the range of ten to compare their hardness with ten being the hardness equal to the hardness of diamond. They also use other metrics to measure speed and strength." Davidson looked at his own hardened hands and added.

"I haven't had much time to practice fusion, my hardness rating is around four right now." He then looked at Marcellus seemingly challenging him with his words.

"The angels of Wukong can easily achieve a hardness rating of eight, while Wukong is said to have an indestructible body with the perfect ten."

The fighter in Marcellus was wreaking havoc inside him.

"Can't wait to have a brawl with those monsters." Marcellus could not stop grinning.

Davidson dressed and walked towards Marcellus.

"I am going to leave now young Marcellus, I have to locate miss Ivanna so you will be on your own for the rest of your training. Practice fusion until you can crush this entire rock with just physical strength. I will send someone to see how ready you are, also use fusion so that you don't feel hungry for an entire day. I'm sure you can figure that out yourself."

Marcellus nodded as Davidson walked past him.

"Mr. Davidson" Marcellus called before Davidson could leave.

"Our aura, I don't think I have seen a dark-colored aura anywhere before. I can't help but feel that it seems a little bit ominous at times."

Davidson stopped in his track for a moment as it had crossed his mind before as well. Then he continued to walk as he laughed heartily.

"I like how it contrasts perfectly with my white suit so I haven't thought much about it. I'm sure you are just overthinking young Marcellus."

Marcellus shook it off and went on to focus his aura as Davidson disappeared into the forest.