The impact echoes throughout the room as the body skids across the floor, Theo plants the tip of his spear into the floor attempting to slow is momentum,
"Is that all you have?" asks Grandmaster Smoke as he walks to him, his strides slow and controlled as though he was just another old man, but in Theo's eyes he see something else entirely.
Smoke looks as though he is death incarnate coming to claim his soul, but instead of cowering in fear and dropping his weapon he raises from upon his knees and readies himself.
Smoke leans his head to the side, "maybe you have more fight in you after all, but will that be enough" as he finishes his sentence he fades out of view as though smoke dissolving into the air.
Theo doesn't look around like a headless bird, no, instead he closes his eyes and taps the tip of his spear upon the ground, sensing, listening for the feedback that he gets,
Tap, tap, tap,
He continues even when he gets nothing back until, he sweeps his spear back just in time to block an attack.
The force cracking the concert floor under him and his arms feeling like lead.
Smoke doesn't say a word, he simply fades again out of view, these attacks happen again and again, with no clear rhythm of tempo, relentlessly,
Near the end Theo's arms are in tatters and his senses so alert that even the fall of dust seems to be a sign, as though to betray him.
Smoke appears before him, "we're done for today, go back and rest, there will be more tomorrow."
Just like that he's gone again, Theo almost collapses there and then but his pride does not allow him, he plants the butt of his spear down to hold him up and uses it as a cane as he drags himself to his room.
In the hallway in his way to the showers he sees one of the maids, Dalea, cleaning some of the artwork, as he passes by she says,
If you never learn how to use coating correctly, you're going to continue getting beat on."
Theo stops in his tracks and glares at her, "since when did you become a training instructor?"
Dalea simply smiles, "every worker here is at least Tier 2, and the staff in the inner circle are even stronger.
We have lived longer, trained much more and have fought countless more battles than you, but I guess you're right, we aren't training instructors."
She says as she continues to clean. Theo takes a couple steps continuing his journey but then stops again and asks,
"What do you mean?" A smirk grows on Dalea's face, "you are treating the mana as something external, it is not, it is connected to everything you do and even more so in later Tiers.
Treat it as a second skin, allow it to flow like blood, and when releasing it outwards, move it like breathe, inhales and exhales.
That's all I have for you, I have so much more to clean"
After that she said nothing more and didn't even spare Theo a second glance, she simply resumed cleaning as though nothing as happened.
Theo says nothing and continues to the baths, there he laid in the waters, allowing it to soothe and wears and tears of training.
As he laid there he though of what Dalea had had and began to implement it,
Allowing mana to coat his hand but instead of simply having a blob sit on the surface, he allowed it to move, tracing it along of paths of visible veins.
This process was not as easy as it seemed, his control and focus was tested but the results were visible.
No longer was there any obvious gaps in his coating, and he didn't have to react as fact to deal with an attack for any puncture in his coating as it would draw more mana to that location and therefore increase his defense.
Then he tried releasing it outside of himself but he overestimated himself and the moment it detached from his it diffused outward.
Still not dense enough, but I can diffuse it outside while still connected to me, it's just take up to much focus and most of my mana depending on the range and how long I have it active.
Theo sighs thinking of how much further he will have to go to reach his goals, before he could contemplate too much, a book released itself with his storage ring and automatically flipped to blank pages writing themselves.
It was the book that Theo's father gave him, and the contents of the new pages were on how to externalize mana and the best methods and practices to do so.
Why is this showing up now and not before, just how much knowledge does this book hold, and how do I get it all?
These questions he ponders, flipping through the pages but just pike before, it stops before it gets to anything involving Tier 3.
This is enough, if I can master the techniques up to Tier 2, I'll be twice as strong easily.
(Meanwhile in the War Room)
"So do you want to send him to the Crucible now, or later, there is still another 3 months until he really needs to make an appearance?" asks Grandmaster Smoke.
"No, the hunting mission from before has revealed a distasteful reliance on his inheritance rather than his actual strength so I am thinking about send him on a camping trip. It will not be as bad as the Crucible, but it should get him adjusted." Says Alaric, still looking over documents.
"Where were you thinking Sire?"
"The Arctic, I hear the density of mana there is much higher than even some primeval forests and the beasts have been transitioning with no one to stop them."
"Very Well, Sire" says Smoke as he then vanishes from the scene.
Once Smoke was gone
"Do you need me to lend a hand my lord?"
A voice asks, his grin you can hear behind the mask.
"Aren't you always protecting him anyways."
"Yes, but I can always add some more color to the scene" say the figure as he walks out of a dark veil, with his only distinct feature being a white mask with a smile drawn from ear to ear.
Alaric shakes his head, "if it wasn't for her orders, I would have had you killed by now"
The smile somehow grows ever wider, and he floats around the room, "come on, you know you love me."
Alaric wishes his eyes could kill glaring at the man
"So scary, I'll see you around" his voice fades as he enters the dark veil
Elsewhere
[Behind you]
Stella sidesteps to the right avoiding her father's overhead attack.
[Duck]
She does avoiding a follow-up sweep.
Stella stands there in the ready, sweating leaking from every pore in her body.
Shaka stares at her suspiciously, then takes a single step forward but it's too fast for Stella to process or even for the voice to advise her.
He grips her throat and pulls her up
Stella eyes widen shocked by her father's sudden appearance and attack; she flails her arms fighting for air and release.
Shaka pays her no mind and scans his daughter up and down, his eyes glowing with a burning red sheen. Once he confirmed something, he let go, there was no remorse present in his gaze as he watched Stella inhale sharply to refill her empty lungs.
He conjures a chair into the room and sits and waits for her to fully calm down, once she does he asks a simply question, "did you make a deal?"
Stella's voice hearse and still in pain responds weakly, "no," then how did you avoid two of my attacks, and before you think about lying, know that I am Tier 4, from your readings you should know what that means. Once, I could believe to be talent or instinct but two times, at Tier 1 is impossible unless I let it happen and I didn't, so how?
Stella looks at him with a stupid look on her face, "you choked me out because of that!" She roars straining her already fragile voice. Shaka looks at her with no change in his expression, "I don't like repeating myself."
"There is this-" Before she could say anymore a splitting headache appeared, ringing overwhelming your senses and paining pulsing through her head. Shaka visibly worried, kneels down to examine her but her finds nothing. 'She can't fake this, what's happening?'
[You can't tell him, you can't tell anyone]
'I understand, please stop'
With that the ringing and the pain vanishes but she can still hear the buzzing in her ears.
Shaka stands, still watching, observing, "it seems like I will not get answer today but let me warn you, whatever or however you did it, if it's not yours then it is bound to betray you someday." With that he walks off and heads upstairs.
"Show yourself! Who are you!?"
Stella yells into the silence.
Nothing appears, and she gets no response.
All she can do is simply sit there, clutching her head.
Nyesha is upstairs reading her grimoire, "how is training going?" she asks not even raising her eyes from her book.
"There have been some new developments." He says grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge, "there seems to be an entity that have latched on to her, helping her in battle."
Nyesha shoots up, "if that's the case, then doesn't that mean Alaric is no holding up his end of the bargain."
"What would be the deal if it was actually causing her harm, and plus you would know if the other party was breaking apart of the deal. That only makes them much worse, because we still don't know what it is or what it wants with Stella."
Nyesha sighs, "nothing has started yet and there are already too many moving pieces."
Shaka walks over and caresses her shoulders, "for now, it doesn't have to get more complex, the Crucible is about to start and from them there is little we can do, after all our reputation in that other world doesn't mean much anymore, and there is little that we can do."
Nyesha looks up into his eyes, but there was not a distraught mother but a battle hardened warrior, "then you have to do your best to make sure she doesn't embarrass herself amongst those heirs and mortals."
Shaka with a grin on his face, "of course, I'll make sure that she can walk all over those spilled brats."
Above the Arctic
High up in the sky, there is a small plane going over the Tundra.
"Are you ready Young Master?" asks Grandmaster Smoke
"Would it matter if I was?"
"No."
With that Theo smirks and jumps from the plane heading down into the white expanse.
"Sir, we were going to land, right?" asked the pilot.
"This is better for us, back to base." Smoke commands.
All he can hear is his breath and the wind whipping around him.
"Fuck me, this is what I get for trying to look cool." Still, he keeps his composure and identifies a safe place to land. '
*Boom*
With violent thump he lands forming a small crater beneath him.
"Damn it"
He says massaging his joints
I only must be here for three months.
But
He looks around, feeling with his mana and senses
It seems that I am far from alone, and the mana concentration here is almost better than at home
*Howling*
Theo hears howling in the distance
I have to make camp
With that he tightens his jacket and walks through the white expanse.