Chapter 3 : Potential

Day1, Sweat was dripping off her forehead and elbows as she stood in stance. Her breathing was as erratic as it could be. She was at her stamina's end and for a woman who has been training her physique for most of her life first to get stronger and then to compensate for the lack of control of aura, it was saying a lot.

Anika could barely feel her feet and arms but there was still soreness of muscle which was slowing going from sweetpain to just pain. Krishna stood in front of her not dropping even a drop of sweat even in the heat of the sun. Anika stood by holding onto her knees now and said huffing and puffing, "we have to do this for the whole week? We have been training since midnight, it's been 12 hours now."

"I just said it is simple but I never said it would be easy." said Krishna giving a smirk

"I might just die by the end of the week."

"Don't worry, you can rest for 2hours after every 10hours. That would include time for food too. So you better use it efficiently."

"Are you kidding me? That's torture." said Anika closing her eyes from a very painfull cramp from her biceps.

"Rather, I am being lenient. I wasn't given this luxury. I would not recommend sleeping through all of 2 hours, if you don't replenish yourself with mineral and nutrients you won't survive the next 10hours, either the cramps will get worse enough that you won't be able to move at all or you will run out of energy to burn."

Anika's face got flustered with disappointment and she looked like she could cry. It was unclear to Krishna how could she maintain that body when she is so lazy. But then again 12hours of continuous burning of aura and energy isn't something he expected of her to be able to achieve.

He actually thought it would take her a month to be able to complete this ordeal slowing building up enough stamina but now it seemed like she was always ready for this, it was just a matter of knowing what to do.

"I would not stand here wasting my time feeling pitiful, you are wasting your precious 2 hours."

"What?" said Anika got up with a jerk and ran to the basket of food that Ganesh had left in the morning. She munched down everything like a beast and fell into a slumber right away.

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Day 3, Anika was getting used to this schedule. She was learning how to recover stamina wise using aura. This would be a problem in a fight if someone was running out of aura but here it was her goal and her inefficiency in this new skill only added to it.

They were currently in a forest area close to the city. If trees could speak they would only be begging for mercy at this moment. Among these was one tree with no damage on it. The reason, it's defender Krishna stood beneath it supporting his back over its massive trunk.

Krishna stood up and walked a few steps into the sun and said,

"Looks like you have been easing up, might as well teach you a few tricks to defend yourself." He then created a flame in his hand about the size of a football "You see this is like your aura, uneven and weak." The fire ball then shrunk into smaller round ball about the size of a cricket ball. "This is what we want to achieve, smooth and powerful. It may seem less intimidating but with the same amount of energy as the previous one it packs a better punch."

Anika still maintaining her stance but easing up to a degree said, "what am I supposed to do with that information?"

"You have been using body enhancement to fight with requires a lot of control and that's the exact weakness you possess. You should have always started with fire based attacks. A wild flame is never a bad thing and controlling its general direction is relatively easy."

He then again showed that fireball transition and said, "this will also be a good exercise for controlling your aura."

"But how am I supposed to use up that much aura just by doing that exercise."

"Who said you will be doing only this. Our fight continues you will just have to learn this while fighting, what good would it be if you cannot use it in a battle."

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Day 5, Anika had been learning fast she was mostly able to make a good fireball, not perfectly round but it was now a matter of just fine tuning with experience. Her attacks were getting stronger but she was still unable to fully control the flames as they ran wild. Even ganesh who used to pay visits now and then was surprised by the amount of destruction and was worried if there would be any forest fires. Though the situation was not as bad as before, Not only was Anika's control better but she had been continuously learning new tricks along the way and luckily krishna was there to prevent a catastrophe.

It was still evident in the surroundings as the fire had taken the lives if quite a few trees but the one where krishna stood was still unfazed. It was as if Krishna was challenging himself to not let even a single leaf take harm.

Anika in particular was irritated because she had also noticed that Krishna had been protecting the tree intensively. Leave a branch she hadn't even touched a falling dry leaf. So now the tree was like a trophy to her, a hurdle that she wanted to cross or had to cross in order to prove her metal to herself.

Defeating Krishna was also on the list but it was far from her reach at the moment. Krishna had only been using one hand and the man hadn't even moved from his position no matter what she threw at her. A flick or wrist was enough for everything. Her growth was not too small though, it just wasn't enough. If he was to go all out she probably won't last even a millisecond.

Day 7, Anika had been giving it her all and also improving on her new tricks. She had eventually stopped her attacks on Krishna and focused them all on the tree. At least it made him move when she attacked the tree from back but that was not a win in anyway for her.

It was the last hour and Krishna said, "This ends when you empty your aura pool, you did a good job." it had already been 11hours, she was pulling on her last straws. After this hour Ganesh will be arriving and it will be over, but if she could not take down even one leaf it would surely be a sore defeat for her.

One leaf was now enough for her to satisfy herself, a far cry from her previous hopes.

"Hey dude, don't you have like classes? Why don't you go there those students must be missing you."

"Resorting to warfare with words now? Don't worry I just lost my house I need a month off to cool down my mental health, don't I?"

"You are a good liar." Anika said smirking "And you say I am the lazy one."

Suddenly another Idea struck Anika's brain and her smirk extended a few millimeters. 'Gotta try it, it's all or nothing. Not like anything till not has worked anyway'. She made a fist and lit it with fire, she used body strengthen and got ready to pounce.

Krishna could sense this as she had previously tried something similar. 'A fire punch will not work, you should have learned that by now'. Anika grunted a little as she pooled in all her strength into this and in a flash was close to Krishna, ready with her fist pulled back.

To Krishna it was like slow motion as he waited for her to launch the punch. Her punch was faster than the previous one but as it got launched into it's arc she was slowly opening up her fist. It was then that Krishna realised something was off, his senses told his to dodge even though it wasn't something that could be fatal but even an injury is worth dodging.

The now open palm was heading towards Krishna's head and when he finally realized what it was. So he tilted his head and let the fist pass through. She hit the tree's trunk with the palm and the fire got diffused. The trunk of the tree suffered only a slight burn. Anika was now dizzy after using up her everything and fell unconscious saying.

"I hit it, I won."

Krishna who was a little surprised as to the way she bluffed it as a punch and said "Yeah you did, but you didn't just hit the tree, you destroyed it."

To a naked eye it would not seem like anything as the tree still stood there without even budging a centimeter. Krishna then bumped his fist on the trunk, instead of a hard woody sound it was more of a muffled sound. The outer shell then started giving up with cracks and the whole thing collapsed with only ashes on the inside.

She had used body strengthen to get her the speed, the flaming fist was a decoy, a lie, and there was a very high power concentrated flaming ball in her closed fists. When she hit the tree she applied a shield which she had picked up from Ganesh and that then let the fire run wild inside this closed space.

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1hour later, when old man Ganesh came to the forest he was happy because Anika had changed so much in such a short span of time. He went on his job so he could not be here for her training but he would drop by food on time and see Anika train herself and improve.

This time when he came to the spot which was now a clearing in the forest both Krishna and Anika were not there. He was sure they were not at home because he just came from there after making food and if they had left he would have met them on the way. He saw the now crumbled ashes of the once so sturdy tree where Krishna stood and thought 'I would not want to be on the receiving end of that attack.'

He searched around and found them with ease. Anika was sleeping under a tree and Krishna too was Asleep on under the next tree. So he just sat under one of the trees in front as that was a particularly busy day for him. He saw Anika sleeping like a child with a faint little smile on his face. 'I wonder how long it has been since she slept so peaceful like there is no worry in the world.'

Anika's circadian rhythm had adapted to her new cycle now. She woke up and saw Ganesh in front sitting and looking at her.

"You are creeping me out old man." she said in a mildly sleepy voice.

"Don't worry, I just came by with the food, I thought you would be hungry so you could eat before we went back home."

She sat against the tree and appreciated the twilight that made the atmosphere so pleasant. Something that is very rare in the city, it inadvertently made her feel bad about destroying all those trees. She looked at her side and there was Krishna still sleeping like a log.

"Look at that monster, how can he sleep like that."

"Let him be. He deserves this sleep. You may not be aware but he hasn't slept a single day this week. He used to spend all that time trying to use that inefficient healing spell of his trying to reduce your fatigue probably. I too was surprised when I came to drop food for you both once."

Hearing this Anika was surprised and her fair skin started taking on red hue. Ganesh thought he needed to clear things up so he said "don't worry, it wasn't like you old injuries or something so only hand was enough. I would not leave you two guys alone in the jungle in such a state...unless.." He saw her getting more red and a tad bit irritated so he stopped.

"It's not that you dramatic old man." said Anika a bit shyfully "Are you sure the food was for 2 people?"

"What?" said Ganesh seriously shocked "Don't tell me you ate everything and gave him nothing."

Meanwhile Krishna was unaffected by any commotion and was dreaming about piles of tasty food.

For whole month they came to that clearing then to train as Krishna already had a one month leave and it was better than hearing some annoying dramatic stuff that Ganesh would enjoy.

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One month later, It was time for entrance exams of RUA. Krishna, Ganesh and Anika stood at the gate of university looking at the fairly simple sign over it that said RUA in Gujarati. Anika was here to finally have her shot at the dream she sewed a long time ago and Ganesh was there to support her.

Krishna looked at these two and said "why did you guys stop?" he was met with no reply but just that hopeful look they had while looking at the gate, "l am no part of this staring drama, I am leaving for the class." Ganesh held his hand tightly and said, "You are coming to see your result of training her and now stand still you are spoiling the scene."