Chapter 8

  Yin breathed deeply, letting go of his cycling and ending the self imposed torture. ‘’How long?’’ He asked Secretary and the pale purple spirit, bloated and digesting another jade level scale, showed him. ‘’Almost three minutes! Progress, hell yeah.’’ He sighed deeply, massaging his chest. ‘’I hate that breathing pattern.’’

  Secretary created little firework flashes of light around a box of text. ‘Training!’

  ‘’Yeah! Let’s go!’’ Yin got up and shook his stiff legs out, then hobbled out of the living complex. He had to cross a few streets and go up and down staircases of either stone or roots and foliage shaped perfectly for stepping on. But eventually he made it to the closest gymnasium.

  The proper name for them was Sacred Training Grounds, but effectively they were the same as gymnasiums. Just built with people who could throw tactical nukes around in mind.

  The particular one he went to was mostly underground, with only a vast canopy of leaves as a roof. All in all, it was a square a few football fields in width and length. The space was divided into squares, fields for artists of every level under the lord stages. Many in the lower levels were taken, children in the copper and iron stages sparring and using low level techniques.

  Yin found someone who looked like an overseer, a plain man in white martial artist robes. ‘’Hey. Can I get a Jade Square?’’ The man looked at him, his face changed twice, using copper sight and then seeing his split soul.

  It took him a few moments to decide that, yes, Yin may use a Jade room. Yin disagreed with the terminology, just because the sides of the square had script wards didn’t make it a room. But he agreed to the rules, no striker techniques and no ruler techniques that were wider range than the room. If he wanted to do that kind of thing he’d have to rent a space at a specialized facility fourteen blocks away.

  He had a space roughly twenty five by twenty five meters. Plenty to do a little bit of running in circles. ‘’Secretary remind me about what we’re doing today please.’’

  The spirit conjured up a list.

  -Cloak techniques (Both paths)

  -Practice martial arts in and out of cloak

  -Advanced forging (Pure)

  -Figure out forging (Ramiel)

  There were several items on the list that were struck out due to the rules of the establishment.

  Yin cycled pure madra. ‘’Figure the Pure cloak will be the easiest thing we do today.’’ He used a neutral pattern through his channels, filling his entire body with pure madra, noticeably draining his core. The average cloak technique required the user to push it both out and in. Flooding muscles, bones and organs all simultaneously.

  Yin stood still for twelve minutes, Secretary keeping count, before he managed it. The trick was mostly mental, going past the rational thought that he was cycling an energy. It was more than that, pure madra was power, the strength of the creature called a human amplified. It flooded him, taking the place it was always supposed to be in and making Yin more.

  Yin took a step that caused him to skip into the air as if he’d leapt. A straining feeling in his calves quickly fading as his iron body swiftly healed any damage at the cost of some madra. After some more tentative small movements he walked and then ran, crossing from corner to corner in the square faster than any athlete on earth possibly could have.

  He felt like he could do more, his mind felt like it was moving twice as fast alongside his body. Taking aim from one side of the square he crouched and then jumped as hard as he could. Yin sailed through the air feeling like Montai. Thousand mile clouds were garbage compared to the freedom of just leaping like a frog and actually getting somewhere. He landed close to the halfway point in his square, Secretary informed him he’d leapt almost ten meters.

  Burning sensations across his frame faded swiftly and Yin stopped himself before he got carried away again. The cloak faded and he pulled as much of his pure madra back into his core as he could, leaving him with just over three quarters left after the short exercise. If his core had still been at iron it would most likely have already been empty.

  ‘’Okay.’’ He found himself breathing hard now that he slowed down, and had to wait for a minute before he continued. ‘’Alright, now the same thing with Ramiel.’’

  He’d taken a few days just cycling the path to get used to its behavior. Same as with the pure madra he had to figure out the mental image of what the elements were. Light, mainly used to create visual phenomena. But to Yin it was speed, and energy.

  Fire, energy as well, but strong, rough and hot. He felt like he’d just thought of an innuendo but disregarded it, fire was fire.

  Force, more nebulous to Yin but he had an idea, force was motion and stillness, unstoppable and immovable at the same time. Force was control.

  Together they were Ramiel.. Quick, hot and only stopping when it was done.

  Yin sat on the ground and purged his mind.

  It took more than an hour to create the mental model he wanted, then he slowly began to cycle, keeping tight control of the madra. Deep breaths and then he cloaked himself in his path. He began by lifting his leg, and his knee almost hit his head.

  Yin almost fell over as madra was drawn forcefully into the muscles and tendons that had damaged themselves in the extremely quick motion.

  Slowly and with his entire will behind keeping it under control Yin put his foot down. He needed more space.

  Taking his place on one side of the square he got into an easy start stance to run. Cloak came up, and he kicked the ground.

  In a burst madra soaked into his entire body, for a fleeting moment his brain was enhanced keeping up with the speed. Even so he raced across the space in a single bound, then the mental enhancement ended.

  Stars flashed before his eyes, someone was yelling, Secretary slapped onto his face and Yin saw the scripted boundary of his square deactivate. Letting a big splash of blood fall to the ground.

  His entire face itched terribly as madra soaked it and mended all the damage he’d done to himself bit by bit.

  The overseer came over in a burst of his own cloak technique, some basic fire path. When the man found Yin already mostly healed with a big blood splatter covering his face and chest he thought it was a prank and yelled at him.

  Yin blew the blood out of his nostrils one by one after his face had stopped itching and told Secretary. ‘’Ok, more space before we do that again. Let’s take a break for lunch and then ask for a bigger square.’’ The spirit agreed, creating images of hearts and stars in a burst, must have talked to Zeurel recently.

  —

  Yin ended up going home to wash up and returned the next day.

  ‘’What do you mean no?’’

  The overseer, a woman this time and truegold to boot, denied him again. ‘’What part was unclear? Your unusual constitution can’t possibly leave you needing a truegold room. I will allow you a jade room and no more.’’

  ‘’I need more space than that.’’

  The woman looked like she might throw him out by force rather than argue so Yin decided on extreme measures. He had a clear shot a few squares down, close to a hundred meters, he cycled and before the woman could stop him he burst out in his cloak.

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  One step took him clear over an iron room, the next built his speed even more and shot him through another iron and then a jade room as well. Yin slid to a stop as he canceled the technique, catching a friction burn on his half mangled legs that made the healing even more unpleasant.

  He couldn’t help the shocked laughter he let out as the wind he’d stirred caught up and brushed his hair over his face. Force built on force, amplifying with every step. ‘’Godspeed Cloak. Secretary note that down.’’

  When the overseer caught up he told her before she could say anything. ‘’I want two truegold rooms linked together so I have a little space to stretch my legs.’’

  —

  Yin had an audience gathering outside his two linked rooms, a total of two hundred and fifty meters across. The two steps he’d taken earlier had drained an eighth of his Ramiel core. In other words he could take a few more steps or take other actions cloaked before he’d have to stop.

  He yearned to experience the speed again so he decided on running. It should also please the crowd of jades and irons gathering outside that were starting to make a ruckus.

  Focus. Cloak. And kick off. His mind experienced a wave of stretched time, an instant felt much longer as he soared across the floor. Timing it he kicked off again speeding up more, but the stretched time was the same, going faster it wasn’t quite enough to keep up. Third step it felt like he was flying, even with his perception enhanced the world blurred.

  Yin realized that if he fell at the speed he was going he might turn into a long stain on the floor. Could his path decelerate? Not much time to find out.

  He engaged the cloak again with more madra coursing through him, if it didn’t work he hoped it would at least keep him intact for the crash. His feet approached the floor and Yin used all his will to think of stopping, to use force to cancel his inertia.

  Before he knew it he was in a cloud. He’d died. Again. At least it seemed he’d get a third life in some sort of heavenly place. Unless he’d just actually gone to heaven this time.

  The cloud around him faded and he tumbled out onto the floor, several people started yelling at the same time. Yin felt his pure core draining quickly into his body, and with a snap something important clicked back into place and he was in agonizing pain.

  —

  Due To Shameful Conduct Yin (Last Name Redacted) Will Be Kept Under Surveillance.

  Yin glared at the sign Secretary had conjured to follow him as Margo and Zeurel took him to a private training ground. There weren’t many people actually around to see it since they were in a high end place. The problem was that Zeurel and Margo could see it.

  ‘’What is your last name Yin?’’ Margo asked as she came back, having spoken to a few people who Yin would label eggheads. Due to their goldsigns, and also their general air of scientific nerdiness. Zeurel had asked the same thing twice.

  So Yin gave his third untrue answer. ‘’Madagaskar.’’

  ‘’So your full name is Yin Ceasar Gormedios Madagaskar?’’ Zeurel snickered, Cherie on her head mimicking the motion, sounding like a drizzle of rain.

  ‘’One hundred percent.’’ Yin nodded sagely and waved his hand through Secretary before it could reveal the truth.

  Margo gave him an odd look as she led them into the trunk of a tree that made the training complex he’d used look small. Inside they walked through corridors and eventually entered a vast room, every surface Yin could see was covered in scripts. Just looking down gave him new insights into how a line of script could be written. ‘’Secretary, memorize everything.. Secretary?’’ The purple spirit had turned into a puddle that slowly crawled over the floor. ‘’Exactly right, keep it up.’’

  The trio spent a moment observing the puddle of spiritual dreams before getting to work.

  ‘’So, you wanted to practice your cloaks in combat?’’ Margo asked.

  Yin nodded, and refocused, drawing his eyes away from the goop. ‘’Yeah, I don’t think my Rami-.. hmm. I’m changing the name of my path, because calling it Ramiel out loud is kinda cringe. Uuuh. Collapsing.. No. Falling Star. My Falling Star cloak might be a lot for even truegolds to keep up with, so I wanted to try some things out with you Margo.’’

  She nodded and went to fiddle with a script panel at the entrance, instantly drawing Secretary over to inspect what she was doing. ‘’Right, and what martial arts do you know?’’

  Yin stretched out his body as the room lit up and an aura of earth and life madra suffused the walls and floor. ‘’Yeng taught me Dan Kugo, and I’ve been practicing some I remember from my past life. Boxing and Karate.’’

  ‘’I know ballet.’’ Zeurel piped up, sitting without clothes and playing with Cherie.

  ‘’Why did you undress?’’ Yin asked with his back turned. So he could get a better stretch.

  ‘’Well it’s just us here so I thought, hey, these people love seeing my fur, why not give them a show? And here we are.’’ Zeurel sounded immensely pleased with herself. Maybe a big part of that was finally getting to be natural, and another part was probably how much she enjoyed Yin’s reaction.

  Margo acted as if the nude satyr was a common occurance to her and walked towards the center of the space. ‘’Dan Kugo.. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard of that. It’s meant for fire artists I believe.’’

  Yin hummed in agreement as he stepped up to the overlady, remembering the times he’d seen his father do the moves. Sometimes displaying them by hitting Yin with them at a level of force that wouldn’t leave permanent damage.

  His mood soured. Yin knew Margo was leagues ahead of him in terms of power so he wasted no time. One of the opening moves of Dan Kugo, a flying knee with all the force of an explosion. His cloak settled into him and Yin relaxed for a split second, sinking just a tad and then kicked off, bringing a knee up against Margo’s abdomen.

  His knee crashed into her, the woman hadn’t even reacted, but the feeling, it was as if he’d pushed his knee into sand.

  Margo nodded, still standing as if nothing had happened. ‘’Mmm, yes I remember now, try the round kick. Aim here.’’ She patted her neck.

  It took Yin twelve tries to get the kick right, even with coaching from both Margo and Zeurel. The cloak simply made his movements too erratic. What should have been a smooth pivot kept turning into much too big motions. And, of course, when it finally landed it was as if he’d kicked the softest pillow in the world.

  He had to spend some time resting afterwards, letting Zeurel heal him to save some of his madra.

  ‘’You said, what was that? Boxing and Karate? Could you show me?’’ Margo asked, crouching near them with a dream tablet.

  Yin started with boxing, explaining the rules of the sport and then performing some of his preferred moves. The Dempsey roll that had earned him two victories in his college days and flicker jabs. ‘’There’s a ton of stuff I never really managed to do either, like using my entire body for a straight. I never got that right...’’ Margo performed the most beautiful straight right he’d ever seen.

  ‘’This is similar to my Su’matn Akk’guon, but a bit more rigid. And people at the equivalent of the foundation stage would fight like this? Amazing.’’

  ‘’The native names for martial arts here are amazing.’’ Zeurel mused, sprawled out on the ground.

  ‘’Well, most of the styles date back to before Lady Emriss helped to unify the language.’’ Margo tried a few more punches, having a bit of trouble figuring out how flicker jabs were effective. ‘’I think I know a few artists who would be good sparring partners for you Yin. Did you have anything else you wanted to try?’’

  Yin rolled his neck and thought for a moment before shaking his head. ‘’Nah, I think it’s time to move on to striker, forger and ruler stuff. Let’s go with the easy one first.’’

  He held a hand out and cycled, gathering madra in his arm and imagined a beam. What came out was an uneven bolt of half liquid light that shot across the room. Splashing and being consumed by the scripts on the far wall. ‘’Never mind, this is going to be harder than I thought.’’

  He tried again and condensed it more, making a cylinder splash against the wall on his second try. ‘’This is too draining, I’m already under a fifth. Should I advance to Jade before I keep trying these things with Ra- Falling Star?’’

  Margo glanced down at his stomach and seemed to realize he was actually still half iron. ‘’Hm, yes. In fact, I’ll get you something to speed it up, I nearly never spend my assets anyways.’’

  ‘’Awesome! Get me some dragon meat!’’

  Margo ignored him.

  Yin spent the rest of his time in the room practicing his pure cloak and received a lot of coaching from Margo on his martial arts.

  —

  Days and then weeks passed as Yin progressed. Spending days recovering just to make some tiny progress forward with his paths, and then it was back to the training room.

  And yet his techniques didn’t come together as he wanted them to. His Falling Star striker technique, still unnamed, either moved too slow, was too diffuse or zipped out with no substance.

  Pure moves came just as slow. The moves That Guy had used were way too demanding for Yin to use them. Even the forged hands, the empty palms, were beyond Yin. And every little attempt to refine his skill with them cost him days worth of advancement.

  In the end he was forced to spend less time on large destructive moves and focus on his hand to hand skills. Eventually he was introduced to different kinds of weapons, just to expand his arsenal.

  It took months, but one day he finally made just one step of progress. Yin cycled his Falling Star madra, envisioning a bullet being fired at maximum velocity. A burst of madra shot down his arm and for a split second he forged it just at the tip of his fingers. Then he forced it forward with all his will behind the projectile.

  A line of light seared his retinas for a second before it dissipated, the air still hissed from the energy that had burned through.

  He should have felt elated that it had worked at all, but Yin could see the inspiration for his path. The flash of light, the mountain reduced to plasma.

  It wasn’t enough.