Sparring

…

'What the f*ck is going on?' his ability enabled him to enhance his reaction time, his vision, and his thinking speed. Still he found himself in this predicament which he could not explain.

"Again!"

Naliaki shouted while flipping up from the ground like he weighed nothing, the wind was moving him up. The moment his feet touched the ground, he was before Chris with sparks left in his original position and his right fist throwing another punch at Chris only for him to pause with a grunt. His fist had missed completely and his stomach had suffered another punishment from Chris, he couldn't even disperse the blow as though there was no wasted power. 

This time he fell to his knees before Chris with a groan he was trying to suppress as the pain was above his threshold to bear. 

"How do you keep doing that?" Naliaki asked in exasperation. Then with a look of resignation on his face 

"Stun" Naliaki said in a low voice. Chris could not move as jolts of electricity ran through his body immobilizing him briefly, causing him to be unable to react as Naliaki's fist enlarged in his eyes. 

Chris felt dizzy, he finally enjoyed the same beautiful view of the ceiling as Naliaki, he even had background effect in the form of stars. He could feel the itch brought about by healing that made his left eye uncomfortable to keep open.

Naliaki had a smirk on his face in triumph at finally hitting Chris, even if it was an aided attack it was still his ability. He did not notice his mentality shifting from trouncing Chris to managing to land a hit on him by any means possible. 

Chris stood up from the ground and turned to face Naliaki who immediately entered a defensive pose. 

"Are you ready?" Chris asked. "Here I come." 

By the end of Chris's declaration he was already in front of Naliaki, fingers splayed out wide as though trying to fit his head into his head. Before his fingers could close around Naliaki's head he disappeared from his front in a blur as the floor his feet stopped at briefly was wet with supercharged water. "Bang!" Chris kept moving, never stopping at a single place for more than a moment, as Naliaki kept flooding the places he was at with supercharged water. And if Chris got close enough for a hit, he was met with the same supercharged water in the form of a barrier.

"How long can you last? Look how much essence you used so far." Chris taunted as he kept dancing around his opponent. 

"You've not been paying attention to your surroundings" Naliaki said with a triumphant grin taking over his face. 

"Thunder cloud zone" 

Visible tooth pick sized threads of lightning originating from different place spread through one third of the combat room, connecting to each other and bouncing off each other in a Brownian sporadicness to fast for any martial Mystery to react, how much more a bone refinement martial Mystery. 

"Transient light." Almost the same time Naliaki had used his thunder cloud comprehended aspect of his ability, Chris had employed one of his. A very versatile ability any who cherished their lives must learn by default given the same ability index.

The smile on Naliaki's face disappeared when he saw that Chris had somehow managed to escape the range of his thunder cloud. "How much essence did that movement cost you?"

"Not as much as you consumed I'm sure." Chris said with a confident look on his face. 'I only used a tenth of my mystic essence, that's steep.' He was bluffing, somehow he did not feel confident showing his cards till he was left with no choice.

"Ok, I think I'm spent… that ability consumes a lot of essence it's outrageous." And he was right, abilities consume essence in proportion to its power output. Say we measure in accord with grams, imagine each unit as blocks of c4 of the same gram. One unit of mystic essence equaled one gram of c4, so the higher the unit of the essence the heavier the c4 involved and in the same proportion the more damaging the resultant explosion.

Therefore to be able to comprehend an aspect of your ability index that consumed a third of your total mystic essence was an impressive feat in its own right, going further, to escape such an ability in the same rank in a direct confrontation was an even more impressive feat. 

"You have had intensive physical combat training before haven't you?" Naliaki asked while panting slightly, he was a little out of breath and a little worse for wear from the little bout.

"I guess so." Chris answered with a sheepish smile on his face. "In my defense I told you about my amnesia, so I lack any certain answers." 'Plus I thought you said you were going to teach me a few things, was that confidence misplaced?'

"Though your attacks were awesome, your battle sense is top notch and your reflexes amazing. Your attacks… it felt like fighting against a natural phenomenon." Chris said in a tone that reeked of admiration. 

"I don't know how to interpret your statement, it almost feels like you are mocking me or complimenting yourself by yourself..." Naliaki had a frown on his face as though weighing his choices, with a long sigh he gave up. "I'll just pretend to believe you." 

"Do you feel a little weird after using your abilities?" Chris had a look of discomfort on his face, this was one of the instances he cursed his amnesia.

Naliaki looked at Chris with a peculiar glint in his eyes but also with confusion and concern. "That only occurs for those who are newly awakened. No, in actual sense, that's part of the process of being a martial Mystery." Naliaki explained. He fell into a pensive mood, as though reminiscent on a sad or painful memory from time past. "My bubba always joked about it, he would say it was the process of mixing the egg whites with the yolk… there's bound to be a little pain involved." Naliaki said the last part in another tone and in imitation to his brother.

Looking at the silent Chris, he could see a heavy sadness in his glassy eyes as though he held the sorrows of the world in his soul. "It is clear you know an even greater sadness and loss than even I who lost an entire family and clan." Naliaki said with a slight to his brows laced in confusion and pity. He knew the sadness he bore, but at least he knew its cause… but Chris looked pitiful to him because his sadness was currently inexplicable, and that was a greater sadness on its own.

"That's a terrible description of anything." Chris said breaking the ensuing silence and trying to change the topic of discussion.

"Yes, a really terrible one. But the essence of it remains the same, as mortals transitioning into Mysterys each of our abilities dictate our affinities. That also dictates the direction of our evolution as Mysterys. So it's perfectly normal to feel a little pain during the process." Naliaki was delighted in the fact that he was of help, plus he could also be regarded as a mentor of sorts to Chris.

'Hmm… I see so that's why I feel this ache every time I used this new ability index, I also felt it when I just got this ability but it was not as painful as today.' Chris mused internally. "I'm guessing that the more we use our abilities the faster the process, right?"

"Yeah, that's correct. But the rate is probably different for each person. Oh, before I forget-- "

"Bang!!"

"We meet again plebeian." a few people entered the combat room and, amongst them one of the females Chris recognized from the previous night spoke in a nasally tone.