The Adept (Honour)

[Zorolo]

I sat, idly pondering the facts I had come across in my studies of the Aura Masters I had been doing. I had learned many facts in my studies, and many other things that I found interesting. I sat in my cabin, thinking silently as I laid my head over the back of my chair. Of all the things I had learned, they hadn't made my search any better. I had yet to find anything that I had looked for. I hadn't found a trace of another Aura Master alive in all existence.

However, what I had learned was very interesting. According to my research, the earliest Aura Masters had been something close to gods. They were weavers of the life streams that came from within themselves to their fullest powers and could do many things with its great powers. Even with all my training, I could never do such things. Those same Aura Masters also had a purpose for existing. They had to maintain the celestial balance.

You see, when existence first began, the clash between good and evil in the form of the fallen angels that became demons and angels that lived in Heaven during the earliest times of existence threatened to destroy the mortals that were forming. From those mortals, there were some that could use the spiritual powers that existed deep within their soul to fight against both sides to keep the balance even in the mortal realm. Some of these Aura Masters even became so strong that they could easily challenge Archangels. When that fact made it to the highest kingdom of Heaven, the Archangels set out to destroy these Aura Masters.

For centuries after that great slaughter, the Aura Masters were fewer, but they still existed. Race evolved and changed their form, but still, the powers were very much the same. It is also said that once every thousand years, an Aura Master would rise with powers similar to the firsts. An Aura Master with a clear aura. When he rose, the Aura Master would gather to him and fight again. This went on for centuries, until the last blow was struck.

With the banishing of one of the lowest Archangels and the weakening of one of the lower kingdoms of Heaven, a king rose up to protect the kingdom. The angels couldn't fight back the invading armies of demons, and since their king was not an Archangel, the Archangels ignored his plea for aid. He made the only choice he had and called for the newest of the leaders of the Aura Masters to aid him, and the spiritually strong warriors united to fight this fight. In the end, the demons were defeated.

However, the king of the Angels learned that these Aura Masters had great strength. He betrayed them, and killed off as many as he could. In the end, only one remained. That man's name has been lost in history, but I assume it is probably one of my ancestors. That is the history of the Aura Master, but it doesn't end there, since I still live, you see.

Next, I learned just how the Aura Master's powers work. You see, there are two kinds of ways Aura Masters can gain their powers. The first is to awaken, as Master put it. Those who awaken are those who's auras are normally very normal colors. These are the people who's powers come to them after a serious or traumatic event happens where the person's drive for power breaks their bodies hold on the aura in them. After that, these people begin to see auras when they close their eyes, have flashes of super human physical abilities, and have even gone so far as to actually be able to materialize their aura for short periods of time. However, these people lose their powers if it isn't properly released after a period of time, although how long is unsure.

The second kind of person is the Adept. An Adept, in this case, is a person either born with these powers or a person who's very spiritually aware at a young age, although the second is extremely rare. These kinds of people have precious gem colored auras, like my own, and have a much greater control over their aura, even before ours is unleashed. It explained my powers over my air. This power never leaves a person, and it will stay with them until the day they die. It is mostly passed genetically, which means I should recognize my father's aura if I ever met him in the realm of the dead.

To awaken the power of an Aura Master, a person that is awakening or an Adept must first find someone who can. The only people who have this power are higher beings, such as the deceased God of the Ethereal Forest, Cenarius, for myself. The awakened or Adept will search out the nearest person for this purpose, and then, the Master can choose if they want to release the person or not. I'm still hoping that I'll have that chance before I die. It'd be the greatest honor of my life.

That's when I sensed something odd. My good friend, and assistant, Armond leapt on my shoulder. The albino monkey and I stood up from my table, where I had been writing my findings, and looked out towards the trees outside of the warded area around my cabin. The serpents were fewer in number recently, since my hunting trip with Hunter and Rain, but they were still a good deal about. However, they wouldn't dare come near the wards around my house here, because they were poisonous to even these giant snakes.

I closed my eyes and opened the world of auras up to me. I could feel something. Someone was awakening, or an Adept was realizing his power. Either or, I could feel it, and knew what it was. I opened my eyes and my normal smile widened. "I guess I should call him to me. This might be my only chance," I mused to myself as I increased my energy output as much as I could without attracting too much attention from the outside. My door would open to this person when whoever it was got here. It could feel him the same as I.

[Silver]

Something brushed up against the skin of my cheek. I turned, fully expecting to see an open door or a person waiting behind me, but was disappointed. The hallway was just as it had been two seconds ago, when I first walked through it.

This marked my first willful visit to the Dome, the third of three visits so far. The first two times had been mostly accidental, and both times I had been greeted by abnormal people who called themselves teachers in this strange place. I had come deliberately this time, and had not been greeted by anyone at all. The halls stretched before me without offering guidance, real or imagined, and most of them were shadowed or blocked by something undefinable.

The warm against my face was starting to spread across my body and had gained a clear source: back the way I had come from. My eyes narrowed at the offending passage, wondering at it now that I was taking the time to look more closely. It was slightly different than it had been before. It seemed more greenish, less white and gold. Most of the walls I had seen in this place were either solid white or the tan-brown of sandstone, making the green stand out more clearly. The heat was becoming more and more tangible, more obvious, as the color became more and more vibrant.

It reminded me of a forest, going by the warmth and texture, or a tropical ocean.

Without truly realizing I had done it, I felt myself drawn to turn and begin walking back down the corridor. My footsteps were dulled to almost inaudibility, somehow replaced without my knowing it by the sound of a steady pulse, droning fast enough that it was almost a hum. It was deep enough that I could feel it vibrate through me, but somehow alluring and welcoming and dangerous and odd and enigmatic all at once. Most of what it brought to mind was forestry, though occasionally, when I felt my thoughts drawn elsewhere, the brush of a warm wind steered me back.

For a moment, I felt a special kinship with the fish caught by an exceptionally wise and gentle fisherman: steadily pulled, given no choice, but with such and easy guide that it was almost willful to be going towards the boat. That was where the sense of danger stemmed from, I did not doubt. The feeling was strong enough that I was almost completely sure that whoever this was, friend or foe, would be a poor choice of person against whom I could fight. I felt myself drawing nearer as the warmth began to steadily increase, and a sudden familiarity descended upon me.

Not that I knew exactly who it was, or even that I had a face to put with this feeling of knowing the person behind this—by this time I was sure it was a person, for whatever reason—but rather that I could feel a kinship with him, or a foreknowledge. As if we had met and connected, but never really gotten to know one another through anything important or meaningful. This was a person I could have fought. This is a person I could have had a drink with, or a meal with. This was a person who could have been my brother, my father, my mother. It was someone who I could not recognize at a glance, but would immediately remember when I was properly reminded.

The door stopped me. It was a door like any other door, but I could feel with absolute clarity that beyond it was the person I knew. The person I had met. My hand closed on the handle, twisted it. As the door opened, a blaze of golden heat coursed through me, as if I were stepping from outside a fiery building to the very center of the inferno. Remarkably, I felt none the worse for doing so. Rather, it was almost like pure energy was pulsing against my skin, trying to get in and definitely making an impact on me, but completely unable to enter ... or else unwilling to enter. It was amazing and inexplicable. Trying to explain a sensation such as the one I felt at that moment would take years, and even then it would be fragmented and incomplete.

It was stunning.

I stood in the door for a moment, soaked in the warmth, before I mustered my strength and finally stepped inside. This was my destination. I was sure that this was my destination. The person had to be here, in this place, in this ... jungle.

The green outside had been almost an illusion, like a mist, disappearing before the eyes just as I got close enough to touch it. In here, it hung on everything. Trees, grass, plants, everything was as forest green as I could possibly have imagined. As soon as I stepped inside, I realized that I was alone. Whoever was in the room was far away, or hiding.

"Hello?" I called. Unsure, I waited.

[Zorolo]

"Come forward into this den and find the cabin. I'm waiting for you there. I hope you make it, for I have long waited for the appearance of one such as yourself," spoke I as I rested my right hand on the pommel of Apollo and looked outside the ward. My voice traveled through my quarters, making it to the man. I can't lie that I did feel a little bad about what this person had walked into, but at the same time, a test was needed. A test not of my own hand to see if this person could survive against even the most harsh of climates.

That was something I had lived through for four harsh years under Master's training. Long days in the forest, fighting with not but a dagger to protect me. Every so often, I would wind up in situations where Master would need to save me, but for the most part, my earlier training progressed to a point where I could easily prove that I could survive. Thinking back on it now, when he taught me to first use my aura as a weapon, although I didn't know it then, I gained my first real feel for power. Even though Air Slash is fairly weak in comparison now, everyone starts somewhere, and that was where I started.

Did this person know what kind of power her or she truly held? Did this person know just how powerful they could be? Did this person know that they could be an unrivaled warrior with the power they could gain? These were the questions I asked myself as I stood there, looking at the trees and into the distance. This person would soon learn that power wasn't something that everyone could fully gain, but something that everyone could find. If this person found me, this person had the potential to find power, as every person can in one form or another.

Armond jumped on my shoulder, doing a quick backflip, as I noticed the movement of a large, scaly predator. A snake was moving towards this person that had entered. Only one had sensed him, since the others had scattered after the mass slaughter to drive them away. They would be back in force in a little while, but for now things were peaceful. I tapped my feet against the ground a few times and then stopped. That noise wasn't a good idea, since the snake could probably feel it. Still, it didn't matter once something large outside the warded area started moving.

I stood at the very edge of the wards, wondering what this person was like. I didn't think too much on it, though, letting myself return to a more pressing matter at hand: how would this person handle the example of how much more powerful they could be? This would be a good chance to show off basic skills that a person gained when the first seal is removed. That would be a lot of fun.

However, for now, I would wait. What a tedious thing. I hoped he wouldn't take too long. Otherwise I might die of boredom first.

[Silver]

A voice I recognized penetrated my awareness, come from everywhere and nowhere inside that strange chamber of the Dome and filling my head with strange phrases. Though the voice was just as familiar as the feeling I had gotten outside in the halls, the feeling of knowing something that was unrecognizable had left me: I knew this voice. It was distinct, stand-out. All the same, I could not quite put a face or name to the voice.

That was starting to get me annoyed. If only because I was good with matching faces to voices, I felt as if this person was tricking me somehow or, at the very least, manipulating me, and I had no tolerance for either. I could feel the awe vanish from me, and with it went the sensation of warmth, the welcoming breeze. Even the colors in the room seemed to dim slightly, becoming a less vivid green and gathering more basic earth tones. The forest looked normal, ordinary. It looked natural, even if it was cramped beneath the roof of this insane school.

The cracking, breaking, snapping sound off to my felt sent me immediately onto my guard. The palm of my hand clasped my sword by its circular guard and pulled it out, a ringing hiss of metal against the leather scabbard. Whatever it was, it was getting closer. I could tell by the increasing volume of the now-recognizable sound of trees being broken.

My eyes sought the treetops, roving up ... up ... up ... and by the time I had craned my neck all the way up and back and I was practically leaning back against the door, I still had not glimpsed what I could call the canopy, much less the tops of these monstrously tall trees. The surprise I felt should have been larger, but I found myself taking everything that happened in this place with an easy stride. Even the sound of snapping trees was something I could take.

Or so I thought, until the sound ceased to be. Silence descended heavily upon the room, oppressive in its ominous lack of ring. What I had not noticed before, I noticed now: birds, insects, small forest animals. They had been singing, chirping, moving and scrabbling and rustling the leaves nearby and all around. It had become as dead and quiet as a mortuary. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end and stayed their, warning me that the animals were definitely not the only creatures placed into danger by the presence of whatever it was.

"Find the cottage."

The command rang through my thoughts and pushed me into action. Whatever this thing was, I was fairly certain that it was not the person who had addressed me or anything I had ever met or wanted to meet. I took a few hasty steps into the forest, testing it. Nothing lashed out to bite me, no one jumped from behind trees to gag me and drag me into a foul dungeon, the sound of crushed trees did not renew. For all intents and purposes, the forest appeared just as harmless as it had just a few moments prior.

Except that it was still silent as the grave.

I paced through the forest with a paranoia complex to keep me company, my gaze shifting gradually as I took in my surroundings with every sense. The further I walked, the more I understood that my initial reaction had been no fluke. There was something watching me and now I was sure of it. There were sounds now, dim and unfocused, much like viewing a beam of light through a window covered with paper. It was unclear, rustling, almost like ...

My footsteps slowed, stopped. My breathing stilled, my body temperature lowering and changing as I forced my pulse to calm and still with my breathing. There was some kind of serpent watching me. A lizard or—gods forbid—dragon would never have been stupid enough to make such loud account of themselves, unless they were some kind of pet and had lost their hunting instincts. That left one thing: a snake. There was an exceptionally large snake observing me. More than anything else, it was the implication of size that bothered me. Even a poisonous snake, or millions upon millions of poisonous snakes, would have been preferable to a single large snake. I had come face to face with large snakes, and they were frightening creatures.

An average python, which is only about twenty feet long, squeezes a person so tightly and firmly that not a single bone in their body so much as fractures. Rather, the snake squeezes until the point at which the prey can no longer be squeezed, keeping them alive all the while, after which it promptly begins to swallow the crushed animal or person. It is the instant release, rather than the compression, that kills. Every internal organ, every blood vessel, ruptures at the same moment.

It was an unpleasant death. I had no interest in such a death. That was why I found the prospect of a large snake to be frightening. That was why, when I took my next step, my breathing was so slow that it could easily have been mistaken for someone in a coma, my heartbeat so negligible that only a very sensitive person would have been able to sense my pulse. It made walking more difficult, but it also put me out of the sensory feedback of my scaly foe.

Off to my left, it moved. I suspected then that I had confused it, because it began thrashing about, leveling at least five trees before it settled down again. I froze. It saw me. I was absolutely certain. It would not have stopped otherwise. My left hand, unmoving at my side, gripped the circular guard of my sword comfortably, ready to switch it over and prepare for a face-to-face with this abominable creature. More trees snapped. I could see it now, out of my peripheral vision.

The breathing I had stilled to almost stopping completely halted, catching in my throat when I took in the beast hunting me. It was huge, at least twenty feet around, with an enormous, scaly head and blood-red eyes. It was an albino. Every inch of scales was milk white.

Its tongue twitched out, and simultaneously my arms moved. The tip of my blade embedded itself into the nose of the beast, catching it just seconds before it had the change to open the mouth which, I am sure, would have been an awning as large as most cave mouths. The impact threw me back as the snake moved forward, undeterred by the small infraction against it, and my sword buried up to the hilt just below its nostril. The creature batted its head aside, as if trying to rid itself of a pesky insect, and lost sight of me in the process. The gape of its jaw, sudden and unexpected, forced me to swing myself up onto the scaly face.

Of all the disturbing things I had done and seen done in my wanderings, straddling the head of snake the size of a tree was by far the most inordinately terrifying of all. It reared up suddenly, pulling me with it since I still refused to loose my grip on the sword. Wooden claws raked across my back s the branches and leaves of the forest became weapons against me. Frenzied squawks ensued from the eruption of the serpentine body, renewing the clamor within the forest. All manner of frenzied animals let loose their own cries and, just before the massive head pushed into open sky, I saw a pure white monkey sitting carelessly on a branch and watching me with an expression something akin to amused cruelty.

I wanted to kill it.

The fresh air high above the tree tops was welcome, but it rang with the sounds of animals and was tainted by my current seating arrangement. By now I was thoroughly impressed by the size, strength, and raw majesty of this albino wonder. I was also thoroughly pissed off that I was going to die.

Being in a state of near-death insanity, I did the only thing that I should not have done: I killed my mount. The sword flashed out of its nose in an instant, flashing in an arc of metallic blur before it crashed down again, this time directly through the top of the bestial head. I realized too late that, although I had won in a technical sense, I still had to survive the free-fall back to the forest floor. It was then, when I was no longer threatened by an outside force, that I decided to think rationally.

In the two long, teetering seconds it took for the body of the beast to realize that it no longer had a brain to control it, I formulated a plan: I would leap into a tree and slowly but steadily climb my way back down. A simple fix to a large problem. This plan was completely demolished when the massive snake began its death throes, leveling every tree nearby and flinging me into a serious of wide loops that connected me with no trees. It was almost a miracle. I will not take the time to explain the feeling or after-effects of being flung about by a dead snake, far above a dangerous forest floor, with nothing to hold onto but the hilt of a sword that is, conveniently, imbedded in the skull of the dying snake.

It was unpleasant. Every part of my body snapped, popped, or stretched numerous times. My breakfast may have been left somewhere above the forest in order that it may find its own way down.

By the time I stood up, a swathe of land a few miles wide and perhaps a hundred feet wide had been carved into the forest. I was sore, tired, and my eyes were so wide and unblinking that I had begun to think that I would never sleep again, for lack of the ability to close them. The only good thing to come from my ill-fated meeting with the snake was that it had given me directions.

At some point during the rampage, it had decided that it was a good idea to smash up against some kind of invisible wall, after which it had flailed me onto the ground and proceeded to shudder violently for a long time. Behind that invisible wall was a small, nondescript cottage. In the doorway there was a green-haired man. My soreness dwindled to a memory, replaced by the clear realization of who this strange person was.

"Zorlo?"

[Zorolo]

"Aye," spoke I as I looked upon the man that stood a few feet in front of me. That, no doubt, was Kichaa, a man I had met in pitched combat once before. I closed my eyes, and I still felt the power of an awaken, or mayhaps an Adept, I wasn't sure, since his aura was a dull gray. It could go either way, so it would be hard to tell until he was awakened, I supposed. However, I knew a few things about this warrior from our battle. The cold feel of his titanium blade had only one goal, but no love or care about it for anything else. A dangerous thing indeed.

"Kichaa, you've come. I didn't expect to see you here. I had imagined the person that I would see would be someone who actually had some idea of what kind of power they were walking towards. Then again, I suppose being the last Master of it makes it hard to know what you're dealing with. I suppose you're wondering why you're here. Why you were called here beyond your own will, right?"

Whether or not he responded, I didn't really notice. Knowing Kichaa as I did, which I'll admit wasn't well, I assumed he could have cared less. Anyway, I would tell him.

"You've been called here by my aura calling out to you. Aura is awakening in you, and wants to be freed. I can do that, and you can become an Aura Master like I am. You would have the chance of gaining power all mighty with that awakening. However, I fear that you'll doubt my words. If you do, mayhaps I'll show you," I told him with a smile. "Shall I?"

[Silver]

The pulse and breathing I had been suppressing eased and returned to normal now that I was faced with another human being, a person I could touch and hear and understand. For a moment, I put my mind off the fact that we had parted ways on rather strained terms with each other. After a fit with an oversized serpent, I was ready to have a conversation with the most evil villain in the universe. Since I was relatively certain that Zorlo was not that person, the meeting almost made me faint with joy.

"Alright," I said, taking his words with a grain of salt. This was the same boy with an overactive naivety complex and an uncanny fondness for shoving pointed objects into people for the sake of enjoyment. Anything he said would probably be touched with at least a bit of wishful thinking.

The mention of an aura was confusing. It was one of the few words I had heard with recurring frequency throughout my travels, always without a clear meaning. Almost no one seemed to believe that it existed in fact, everyone believed that it existed as a theory, and a few stubborn nitwits were so certain of its existence that they made games with one another to fascinate easily-deceived people that they were honest. Mind games and riddles surrounded the word like a plague. I chose to avoid mentioning that to Zorlo, since he obviously believed it with some degree of fervor.

"You have my undivided attention, kid," I said, my awareness expanding to take him in a fuller view. It was an ability I had only developed recently, after my first battle with this man. It was part of what made me wonder about him, and especially about how true it was. Most of his body was covered in a layer of green light, the same shade as I had seen when I first walked into the hall, and he radiated a heat so fluid that I felt as if I were bathing in his presence. If that was aura, he had more than my attention. He had my interest.

[Zorolo]

"Good," said I as I moved towards him with a smile. I thought about this man with some interest, since I doubted he would truly show interest without a proper demonstration. First, however, I had much to explain to him about the great power welling up inside of him. I could feel it pulsing, ever wanting to be as free as my auras were. It called to my aura, demanding freedom, but I wouldn't allow that. I had things that I had to know before I would even think of freeing his aura to be used.

"First of all, aura is a component of the Life Stream. The Life Streams is where souls are recycled when they die and are brought back to existence from there. Aura Masters have the power to tap into that power and materialize it to strengthen themselves. For example, I can summon up my aura without much thought now." Suddenly, a massive, green, flame like energy erupted around me, fully visible to anyone who could see, neither burning nor harming anything about me. "This is my aura. The power I have gained from having mine released."

"Each Aura Master has his own color of aura. Mine just happens to be emerald green, that's all. Yours is yet undiscovered itself, hiding as a gray color right now. I'm sure you're probably asking yourself what this has to do with anything. Well, it doesn't really have anything to do with this, just a demonstration of my power," I said as I dispelled my aura thoughtlessly.

"Now then, the Aura Master's power to tap into the Life Stream, or more specifically, the Realm of Auras and call forth their own aura is a power special to each Aura Master. The aura of every being, as well as every Master, is special to themselves, and no two auras are exactly alike. Now then, to call this power up from your soul, you first need it to be released. Do you want me to release yours?" I asked him, smiling as normal. I wasn't sure what his response would be, but I would wait.

[Silver]

The lights show was impressive and convincing and all the things it needed to be for a believable show of power. Even if the lights had not been enough, the surprising gust of wind and the uproar of heat was enough to convince me that he was being entirely honest with me about this, or at least that he believed he was being honest and he had sufficient powers to bring his points home. Many things could be faked, but I had never met a person who could create such a sudden and believable illusion that affected the senses with such potency.

I paused for a moment and considered what I knew.

He was younger than I was. He was peculiar, and had a strangely vigorous approach to combat, one that bordered on near-suicidal desire to fight. He was honest, trustworthy, and honorable. Those were the things I had learned in the past.

He was, if my senses served me correctly, a more powerful person than I was. He had access to a more abundant and more efficient source of energy than I did. He was entirely confident in his own superiority, and it had nothing to do with an oversized ego, from what I could tell. He believed in himself and was eager to teach, something I had noticed once before. He was not manipulating me, but he had no objection to stringing me along using my curiosity. Those were the things I had learned just between the first time I touched the warmth of his aura—something I was moderately convinced existed in some form—and when he stopped speaking.

"I will admit that this is intriguing," I held up a finger, as if cautioning him, "but I am not going to do anything weird or ceremonial just because I think this is worth hearing about. My life is practical at this point, so I need some kind of practical reason to ... to release this. You make it sound like it could be dangerous. Just how dangerous is it?"

[Zorolo]

"Dangerous?" asked I. "It isn't dangerous at all, actually. Well... that depends, actually. However, when it could be dangerous doesn't matter at all if you don't want to at least try to unleash your power. To break the first seal, the seal that another Aura Master must break, you must simply be willing to let me force my aura to wake yours up. It's completely safe, trust me. I had to have it happen to me from a god, so I would know if it were dangerous or not, you see," I told him, smiling.

I stepped closer to him and rested my right hand on the handle of my sword, however not dangerously, my arm just felt natural resting this way. "In order to gain this power, you must be willing to trust the fact that I won't hurt you in the process of freeing your power. Aside from that, it is totally safe for you. There is a point at which after it is awakened, it might be dangerous, but I'll tell you about that when you agree to under go this process. It's fairly simple."

I recalled how it happened for me and recalled the feeling of my auras being freed. It felt like a lifetime of being caged ended at that moment. I wondered how long he had felt this, but didn't ask. I merely continued to walk about the enclosed area, thinking to myself about this process.

"It's a simple process. All I do is place my hand on your forehead, release my aura into your body, and it shatters the first seal and allows you to materialize your aura. Now I'm sure you're asking yourself how you know I'm no charlatan, right? Well, find a way for me to prove that this power exists to you, and I'll do it. However, I won't awaken your powers yet, since I still have other things to know."

I paused in my movements and smiled. I wondered what he was thinking and what he would say. This was ever more interesting, considering who had wandered into my chambers. Interesting indeed.

[Silver]

I knew what I wanted even before he finished. It wasn't what I needed, really, because I was already closer to believing him implicitly than I was to distrusting his word, but rather what I wanted. Seeing is believing, they say, and I wanted to see just what this aura was good for, what it could be used for, and, most importantly, how this man used it. It was almost a reflex. I wanted to know if this aura of his made him better than me.

I had beaten him once. With this aura, with this outpouring of strength that he tossed at me without so much as a second thought, could he overpower me? was he so much faster, stronger, more agile, or resilient, that I became less than he was? I knew for a fact that my technical skills were at a more practiced level than his. I knew that I was naturally more suited to real combat than he was. Now I found myself wondering whether he had found a way to bypass the hard work I had poured into my skills, the mental training I had forced onto myself to condition myself for combat.

The rasp of titanium heralded the second time within so many hours than I drew my sword.

"Show me what your power can do. You can prove I have it afterwards, but I want to see your limits first."

What I kept to myself was the reason behind my wanting to see his limits. I wanted to see them, yes, to know them, but I also wanted to test them. More than anything, I found myself wishing that he was better than I was, stronger and faster and more agile and more enduring, simply to find out whether or not that made my abilities less. I wanted to test his limits, to see if, once he reached his limits, I would be able to force him to reconsider how far he was stretching himself. A dragon is a powerful beast, but a single missing scale in the impregnable armor plate would render it weakened and take its life.

"Show me," I said, a challenging smile on my lips, "Just how good you are. Don't hold it back. I want to see it all. Everything."

Dying was the worst that could happen, and it had never been proven that dying was such a bad thing. For all I knew, dying could be like sinking into a warm bath. I reminded myself that it could also be like sinking into a bath of red-hot coals and readied myself to fight. Best case scenario, I would stay alive. I put my focus on that, brought up my second sight, and gripped my sword.

"Come on, Zorlo. Let's see your aura."

[Zorolo]

Just what I had hoped he'd say. I rested my left hand on the handle of Apollo, removing my right hand prior, and drew my golden bladed sword. I felt the power course through my body and begin to flow out as I stood there. Another fight with Kichaa, but this battle would have no bars. There would be no restrictions for how much power I would use here. Perhaps merely a taste of the kind of skills and power he could have would be more then enough.

"A fight is what you want, a fight is what you'll get," I told him as I rushed him quickly, green flames covering my sword as I swung it. My blade struck the center of Kichaa's blade. As he pushed against my sword, the sharpened blade of my sword with the aid of the green flames surrounding it cut about a half an inch into the sword. Kichaa pulled back as he noticed my sword cutting through his in our sword lock, even if just barely. "Aura Enhancement is the most basic skill. Using your aura to make a weapon sharper, like that," I said as I made my move, blurring in my motion to move around him and strike him with a blunt sword from behind, "pr make your sword as blunt as a club."

Kichaa stumbled forward from the hit and I smiled at him as I dispelled the aura from my sword. "Beyond anything, the natural power of any Aura Master is the fact their aura makes then stronger, faster, and many times more durable then a normal person. I can fight for days, weeks, and possibly months and tire very slowly. That's the kind of power you're looking at. If you don't believe me, let me show you," I said as I called upon the deepest aura in my body and released the flame like power that I drew my power from.

"Now then, see if you can keep up," I said from within the green inferno as I began to run around him at speeds far beyond anything he had seen me move before. Dirt and aura filled the air of the circle I was running around him. I smiled as I watched him try to keep his eyes on me and readied to attack. "Now then, can you truly keep up?" I asked as I charged inside of typhoon of dirt and aura and appeared before him within two seconds.

My first moved like a blur as I thrust it into his armored chest, no pain entering my hand at all as I watched him fly backwards into a nearby tree. "So, how is that for my first test?" I asked with a smile as I rested my sword on my shoulder. "Or do you want to see more?" I asked, hoping he'd be able to handle more then that.

[Silver]

Something in my shoulder had popped when I hit the tree. It occurred to me that I had almost always seen someone hit a tree directly aligned—their back straight, perfect posture, almost entirely upright. I had hit at more of a rakish angle, my shoulder taking the brunt of it and the upper parts of my spine taking the rest. It hurt.

The moment I hit, my vision blurred noticeably, much as it does when you rub your fingers in your eyes constantly for a few seconds so that all you see is black and white dots. What happened to me was like that, only it was instant and it was accompanied by what felt like a pair of jolts of lightning working their way into my mind, one from between my shoulders and one from the socket of my left arm. Once the initial sharp, throbbing pain had receded, it only got a bit worse. My head started pounding at a steady rhythm, my arm gathered a pronounced ache and twitched involuntarily at least three times, and I had trouble standing up straight.

I was moderately impressed that I had even been able to stay on my feet. Most of what I thought after that was limited to swear words and choice phrases to describe the relationship between Zorlo's mother and my father's long-dead plow animals, so I refrained from speaking. Not that I could have if I wanted to, since breathing out was almost as painful as breathing in, which was an excruciating pain roughly equivalent to shoving a rusty shard of iron into my lung.

Somehow I managed to straighten my back and twist a few times, and was rewarded by a series of very loud, angry-sounding pops from the bones all along my back. The throb in my shoulder became more pronounced, but it stopped hurting to breathe. I had traded one bad pain for a small increase in an already-bad pain. That was good enough.

"Test," I grimaced, realizing for the first time how much I took for granted the ability to formulate words, "failed. Try again."

He was close enough that I felt comfortable lunging forward, throwing my weight out of proportion to make up for the lapse of control I was having in the left side of my body. If I had tried to move normally, I would have ended up looking—and falling down—like a drunken sailor. As it was, I missed by just a hair's breadth, though more from my opponent deciding that he would move slowly than from my own amazing speed. He rapped me on the back of the hand with his sword, sending a pulse of irritated pain through my arm.

I retaliated by spitting in his eye.

Never let it be said that I will not take advantage of the element of surprise. He reeled back for a moment, one hand going instinctively to wipe the ‘disgusting' foreign substance from his vision, and I reacted by moving forward. The blade of my sword swept forward, just under the field of his vision, and lashed towards his kneecap.

[Zorolo]

You know what they say: when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. Well, in this case, taking the blow, and even going so far as to stumble back on my backside. I smiled as I looked at the cut. It had sliced through my kneecap, through the tendons inside, and had cut halfway through my leg. What at first was enormous pain simply faded into a smile across my lips as I looked at him. "Nicely done," I spoke as I placed my right hand on my knee and began channeling aura into my wound.

Aura rushed through my arm and into my leg, and from the rest of my body and into the deeper parts of the cut. Not a second passed before I removed my hand and revealed the wound had completely vanished, without any trace at all. His sword moved quickly towards me, but mine moved faster. Our blades clashed as I looked at him, feeling quite excited about this whole thing. I supposed I still had some defensive skills to teach him, and I had yet to teach him and offensive skill. Only one I could think of was basic enough, but I'd also want to teach air and water walking. Those were fun too.

"The gift of healing that all Aura Master's gain when they learn to focus their aura towards healing. You can heal not only yourself, but others as well. Your power can be used to save yourself or someone else. When your powers are first released, you won't be able to do things like that, or reattach limbs like I can, but you will be able to speed up healing of broken bones and things of that like, and rid yourself of cuts and scrapes and bruises with fair ease. A very interesting power, no?" I asked with a smile as I pushed away his sword as I resummoned my aura.

I spun over onto my hands and knees and shot myself from a downward strike by my foe and spun myself around in midair, sticking my feet to a nearby tree and standing on it, looking upwards at him from my ninety degree angle from the tree. "By focusing your aura into your feet, you can do things like stand on trees, or walk on water, or walk on midair," I told him as I placed my foot on an invisible platform in the air and began walking over him. "Platforms of aura for water walking and air walking are pretty much the most simple thing you can do. Just focus is required," I said as I readied to attack.

Kicking off of my first platform, I twisted my body and created another and kicked off of it. I performed this move several times, moving around in all different directions, building up speed before finally rocketing myself like a missile towards Kichaa. My sword burned bright, and he stepped out of the way. When my sword and body landed, it seemed almost as if dirt would shoot everywhere and confusion would reign, but it didn't. A small amount of dust kicked up as I used my aura to cushion my landing, leaving almost no displaced air.

"What do you think now?" I asked him, smiling. I knew it would take more then that, but it was a good test, I figured. Such basic skills were fun to toy around with.

[Silver]

"I think I'm thirsty."

That was my first thought.

"I think I'll sit down."

That was my second thought.

"I think your aura powers make you look like a clown."

That was my third thought.

"I think this room really sucks."

That was my fourth thought.

I chose not to vocalize any of these thoughts, but I did take the initiative to sit down with my back to a tree, cross-legged and mostly alert. He was way too fast for me to keep up with him, and his skills are strong enough that it would probably be more beneficial to be sitting with my back to a tree, if only to take advantage of its support so that I would not have to take his weight, the weight of his attacks, and keep my own weight as well. Besides, so long as I had my back to a tree, he would not be able to slam me into one. That was a bonus.

What I did choose to vocalize came out as a veiled insult nonetheless, but that was unavoidable. It was in my nature to taunt people when they were winning. I said, "I think your aura powers are pretty impressive. Batting around a simple warrior like me. Must be a lot of work. Got anything that could take down something about your strength?"

Alright, I will admit that the veiled insult was veiled by clear glass about as wide as a sheet of paper, but it at least I had avoided insulting him directly. I had the feeling that he could take a joke, anyway, and he would understand if I did not stand up to deal with him. He probably knew at a glance that he was this much more powerful than me, that I would be unable to do anything against him, and that it would inevitably lead to either him stopping or me giving up. I was betting on the former. He did not seem like the kind of person to kill a man out of hand, and I had yet to give him a good reason to take my life.

Then again, you never know. Maybe he was a real jerk, and I just had not known him long enough to hear about it or see it. Maybe he was a murderous scumbag who was doing this to get his kicks and giggles just before he tore my lungs out and used them for water bottles. Maybe I was getting delusional and dizzy from watching him run around like a freaking rabbit.

"Alright. Show me the next thing, O Great Zorlo."

[Zorolo]

I tapped my chin with my empty hand as I thought about the question he had asked. Did I have an attack strong enough to take down myself? Come to think of it, I didn't really know for certain. I'd never had to fight myself, but taking a guess by the people I had fought around my power, I'd say I did. Well, one of two, anyway. One was a form, which I don't think I wanted to see myself fighting, the second was my ultimate attack, which I was even less enthusiastic of seeing myself using it against me. Either way, I did have a way to defeat myself... kinda.

I opened my mouth to speak as he asked me to show him the next basic skill. I held up my finger, closing my mouth and openi