by J. J. Thorn
"Your turn, Ren, you and Jen." Zane winked as he pushed me towards the mats.
We'd already sparred enough times that it shouldn't have been a big deal, and somehow Zane would act like we were going on a date each time it happened. Sure, I thought to myself, let me just throw around the girl I have a crush on. I bet she'll really fall for me after that.
"Yeah, yeah, no pushing." I took my spot on the mat across from Jen as Britta made her way over to Zane.
We would often be bruised from our matches, but our bodies became more durable as we got stronger. As a result, no one ever left the building with broken bones.
"You ready sword-boy?” Jen snickered. “You got me last time, but I won't let you win this one." Despite her quickness and her abilities with a sword, she could be predictable in a fight.
I couldn't beat Zane often, but so far, I'd beaten Jen more times than not.
Zane counted us down. “Three, two, one…Start!”
Jen charged towards me. Her arms and legs pumped as she crossed the mats. I knew I couldn't beat her in speed, so I held my ground near the other side of the mat.
I bent my legs and leaned forward, anticipating a direct charge at the body. I also had a better chance at darting left or right if she tried for a direct hit.
As she was about to reach me, she pivoted her left foot and swung her body into a fully powered roundhouse kick. When we first started sparring, she would never have made a move like this, but at this point, she knew my body could handle the hit...if I let it connect.
Instead, as she got closer, I enhanced my eyesight to see her movements. We still weren't very fast compared to higher-Ranked users, but I'd learned that every bit counted in a match.
My Energy was drained as I focused on Jen's movements. As a result, when she started to bend her right leg back, I jumped to the ground, landing on my knees but avoiding the blow. Her leg connected with nothing as I passed by her left side.
With her body overextended, I stood myself up and tried to grab her arm from the left side. As I tried to get to her, she used that same arm to push off my body and fell backward onto the ground.
Now on the ground, I tried to grab her leg. She noticed my movement and rolled back to her feet in one fluid movement. I envied her athleticism.
Even though the fight had just started, Jen was already panting. She wasn't able to augment her body with Internal Energy yet. None of us were. Still, she put a lot of effort into her initial assault. Coupled with our constant fights throughout the evening, and she probably didn't have much left in her.
We both smiled as we looked at each other for that brief moment. The smile didn't last long as Jen started to throw quick jabs at my head and body. This was actually one of the ways she would excel against the rest of us. She didn't have a sword, but using her hand to mimic a sword, she could imitate some of the same quick movements.
They didn't sting as much as a full-blown punch, but they still hurt as she kept digging into me with sideswipes and jabs.
I did my best to avoid and block some of her hits, but they came faster and stronger as she kept pressing. I could tell she was trying to finish the fight with this exchange.
I needed to start fighting back, otherwise I'd need to stop the fight. My neck was already pounding from a couple of well-placed jabs, and my chest felt like battered meat.
So, instead of stepping back to brace for the hit, I leaned forward as she came in for another hit. I took the blow on the chin, but I also found myself directly in front of her. I fought off the pain and grabbed Jen's outstretched hand. Not expecting me to take the hit, she didn't react when I used her arm as leverage to throw her against the ground.
Once there, I could finally make use of my size advantage. Regardless of how strong she was, it was always a challenge to lift someone off you while they put all their weight into keeping you down. Especially when they held an arm behind your back.
Jen tried to roll her body left and right, but eventually gave up, realizing I'd pinned her down for good.
Another win for me.
"Okay, you win,” she said. “Get off me."
I got off her back and offered to help her up, which she took gracefully.
"Good fight, Jen.” I smiled. “My shoulders, neck, and chest are all completely bruised. I think that might be my last one for the day."
"Don't give me that, Terrence, we've had six fights now, and you barely even threw a punch!" Jen usually called me Ren, like all my other friends, so I could tell she was a bit mad.
"I don't want to rub it in, Jen, but I did win..." I started to walk back to her friends. Jen hated to lose, so I knew that would rile her up a bit more.
"I don't care about that. I'd be fine if you did it any other way. Instead, the fight always ends the same way. Either you pin me down after not throwing a single punch, or you slip up, and I win without you even trying."
"Trust me, I'm always trying. You should be happy that the fights are so close. One wrong move and I lose."
"Don't give me that crap, what gives? Why do you refuse to hit me? Is it because I'm a girl? If it is, you should know that my body is stronger than most humans on the continent. I can take a couple of hits during a friendly match. Plus, we have healers available on campus. There's no point in thinking I can't take a hit because I'm a girl."
We reached the other two, who were also talking about the fight.
"You know it's not about that, Jen.” Zane gave her a placating smile. “Ren always wins fights that way. Sure, he'll throw a punch or two here and there, but it's not how he likes to fight."
I thanked Zane internally for his ability to side-step the other reason why I didn't want to punch Jen in the face. Even though I might have feelings for her, he was right. I usually didn't punch Britta or Zane either.
As a consequence of being fat most of my life, I had learned to try and outsmart the people who would tease or bully me.
"It's not because you're a girl,” I said. “I do the same thing with Britta and Zane. I try to anticipate how you’ll move and then use it against you. Being able to augment my eyesight just made me better at it."
"You're anticipating when we're going to hit you in a fight?" Britta asked.
"I guess, sort of. It's hard to explain. I used to get bullied. And they'd, you know, hit me with sticks…I was never fast enough to get away, so I had to learn how to avoid it. Have you ever been hit with a stick in the ear? That shit hurts. But if you move your head just slightly, you can get hit on the back of the head instead. Or the shoulder, if you have more room to move.
It wasn't ideal, but I learned to watch and be patient. Eventually, they'd get tired of it. So, when you’re wailing on me with jabs and punches, they definitely hurt, but I'm waiting for that moment where you let your guard down, just enough. Then I use my weight to finish the job. I’ve never been the fastest, but I've always been the biggest. Even with our new strength, it's hard to get rid of someone holding your arms behind your back. Even more so when I'm putting most of my weight into it."
The three of them looked at me before Jen finally came up and gave me a side hug.
"I'm sorry that happened, Terrence. They really treated you like crap growing up. Didn't you say it was your own cousin?"
"He wasn’t the only one. I was an easy target. It's okay though. Look at me now!" I put my hands on my hips, smiled, and held my head high like one of the heroes from some of the books we read as kids.
It got a few half-hearted chuckles out of the group and lightened the mood enough to move onto something else.
"But you've got us now!” Zane smiled and punched me on the shoulder. “Screw those kids. Plus, you have wicked Affinity powers. I bet we're at the point where you could kick any of those kid's asses."
"Okay, enough sappy stuff,” Britta said. “We're fighting here. Who's going against me next?" She walked to the other side of the mat.
The three of us looked at each other and eventually decided on Zane, who had
n't been in the last couple of rounds.
Zane walked onto the mat. Zane was the most exciting fighter out of all of us. Sometimes he'd be scrappy and fast, sometimes he'd be methodical. Unlike Jen and Britta, he didn't rely on the same few moves, which made him more unpredictable than all of us.
This time, as he stepped onto the mat, he held out his hands as though he was about to give Britta a big hug.
As Jen counted them down, Zane lowered his voice to a growl and yelled at the top of his lungs.
"LET'S GO!"
Zane kept his arms outstretched and then started to skip in Britta's direction.
The worst part wasn't how everyone in the building took that moment to look at Zane and Britta in their fight.
Nor was it them looking at Jen and me, since we were obviously their friends.
No, the worst part was that Zane won.
Sure, he won because Britta spent half the fight on the mat laughing, but it still didn't make it feel any better.
Chapter 4 – Technique
I was running late to General Energy Manipulation. Again. Sparring took longer than I'd expected, so I made the selfless decision to clean up before class rather than getting something to eat.
My class wouldn't even know what I'd done for them, but I knew I'd done my good deed for the day.
I rushed to class. I didn't want to miss anything Professor Wilks had to say. She was a fantastic teacher whose enthusiasm came through when she talked about what Internal Energy could do.
In class so far, we'd spent a lot of time talking about what was possible with Internal Energy.
Physical augmentations, skill augmentations, mental augmentations, and Energy manifestations were all things that Affinity users in the past had documented.
I could only augment my eyes, but I loved learning about what might be possible in the future.
And I was still hoping for a Skill that affected my whole body. Based on what we'd learned, it may not have been as specialized as getting a leg-based Skill, but it allowed you to have a better shot at manipulating Energy across more of your body. And to me, that seemed like a cheat.
For now, I would have to keep training and wait.
Current Progress.
Affinity : Weight
Rank 1 – View Weight – 93%
Energy : 3/17
I reached class as Professor Wilks started to speak, making it just on time. The class was never full, but I was happy to see that Chet had an open seat beside him.
I nodded at him as I sat down and started to listen to Wilks.
"Welcome back to another class! I've got something today that I think you'll all be quite excited about. In fact, today is the turning point in our course. From this point on, everything we do, will use what you learn today! So far, we've talked a lot about what other Affinity users have been capable of in the past.
“We'll spend a bit of time at the end of term discussing how Energy manipulation works within our bodies, but this class is just an introduction to that. For more information on that, please join a theory class in the second semester.
“So, back to today's class. We're going to talk about different techniques to improve your usage of Internal Energy. I'm going to list them off, and then I want you all to guess what they might mean. Fun right? So, here's the list. Meditation, Quick Exhaust, Trickling, Visualization, Naming, and Referencing.
“Keep in mind, this list isn't everything, but these are some of the major ones. Plus, they're already quite broad, so you might have heard them referred to as something different. So, pick one and tell me what you think it means."
Chet raised his hand. "Meditation. It's when you try to filter out everything around you and focus on just your Internal Energy."
"That one is always first, but it's beneficial and can be accomplished by just about anyone. I recommend that each of you spend at least an hour every week doing some meditation. Daily would be even better. If nothing else, it allows you to reflect on your life. Even if you're not using it to enhance your Energy manipulation abilities, it is still useful.
“That's why we have a full 'Meditation' class. It isn't just three hours of total meditation though, you'll also learn how to meditate more deeply, which will help you in your growth. To your answer, I would give one additional caveat. Meditating is not just for improving your Internal Energy awareness. There is Energy that exists in the world, which can be more easily felt while you meditate.
“For elemental Affinities, this could help a user grasp their specific element more effectively. For any Affinity user, meditation could lead to enhanced Energy regeneration rates and more effective Energy management. Meditation has several uses. Thank you for contributing. Now, let's have another."
Several students lowered their hands after Chet said meditation. It was the most obvious of the bunch. Like, what could 'Referencing' be? Zane had told me about meditating, and despite helping me try a few times, I had a hard time getting into it.
She picked another student.
"I haven't heard about the others, but I think I know what Visualization is. Is that when you spend time trying to make something appear that you’ve previously seen?"
"I think that is a good attempt, but let me try to say it in my own words. I would describe Visualization as trying to imagine how I might do something before actually doing it. Affinity users have practiced Visualization for thousands of years as a way to internalize what they might do in the future.
“Visualization isn't possible for all Affinity Skills because some things aren't visual. For instance, some SWORD Affinity users can identify swords at Rank 1. There's very little Visualization required with a Skill that tells you details of a sword.
“Instead, sword users, Affinity or not, might visualize in their heads how a sword will move while they use it. They might imagine how the blade will feel, what sounds they might hear or what smells turn up as they practice in their mind's eye. If you become proficient enough with meditation and Visualization, you can do both simultaneously. Still, Visualization is a good practice in itself.
“For Affinity users who have just gained a new Rank, this can be extremely helpful in learning their Skills. Because for most, this will be the first time that the Skill has a physical effect on the world. And if you're going to go throw around fireballs in real life, you might want to get a grasp on how that fireball might look or act before using the Skill. Thanks for contributing! Okay, let's get some more."
I decided to try raising my hand. I didn't know what the rest meant, but I could at least guess based on the names.
"Quick Exhaust,” I said. “Is this when you try to get rid of your Energy as quickly as you can?"
"Yes, that is the gist. To most, this would seem counter-intuitive. Why would you want to run out of Internal Energy? First off, this is sometimes the only way people can train when they're Rank 1, like yourselves. You have so little Internal Energy that it becomes near impossible to do anything but use it all up. But if we ignore that, what about later on, when you aren't using it all up by default?
“Let's think back to the fireball Affinity user. I've just learned to create a fireball, and forming the fireball uses half of my Internal Energy. If they use their fireball regularly, they can use it twice. If they try to expend all of their Energy at once to make a fireball, what effects might they see instead? Maybe the fireball will be massive? Maybe it will be more destructive? Hotter? Or what about speed?
“If I expend all of my Internal Energy faster, can I manifest the fireball more quickly? Can I give it commands? Who knows, but these are all things to consider. A fireball is just one example, but the concept can be used across any Skill. The idea of 'Quick Exhaust' is to use all of your Energy for a specific purpose. As you get better with the Skill, you might be able to do the same effect without using as much Energy but trying anything new will generally have consequences. Expending all of your Energy is just one.
“Since we're talking about ‘Quick Exhaust�
��, I'll talk about its counterpart, 'Trickling'. So, if ‘Quick Exhaust’ is to use up all of your Energy as quickly as possible, 'Trickling' is where you expend as little Energy as possible for the same effect.
“I won't go through the fireball examples again, but consider being able to do all of those things for a fraction of the Energy cost. Like meditation, there is an entire course called 'Conservatism' that talks about 'Trickling'. So, we have two left. Who wants to guess either 'Naming' or 'Referencing'?"
For a few moments, no one raised their hand. After waiting a bit longer, one student decided to try.
"I'll try Naming. Is it when you try to Name your future Skill? It's like Visualization, but instead of thinking of what you could currently do, you think about what you could potentially do in the future?"
"Nice try. What you're describing I would still call Visualization, but that was a nice effort. In this class, 'Naming' is the convention of adding a name to something you are currently capable of doing. The intention is for that effect to become a Skill eventually, but at your current Rank or lower. 'Naming' is tricky, though. Sometimes, the names we give things don't always mean that's what will appear.
“As an example, let's think about the fireball again. Let's say I've been Visualizing and using 'Quick Exhaust' to create multiple fireballs when my Rank 2 Skill's primary effect is to create one. To some, this is only possible by advancing to Rank 3, but geniuses might get the change at Rank 2 without having to Rank up.
“Skill creation is fascinating as a whole. I would recommend researching it outside of class for ideas once you get your Rank 2 Skill. I mention geniuses, but anyone can create a Skill.
“Anyways, the FIRE Affinity user continually creates their two fireballs. Eventually, they use it so often that they give it a name. Let's say they choose 'Multi-Ball'. In their head, whenever they want to use 'Multi-Ball', they still use their Rank 2 Skill while thinking about the 'Multi-Ball' method. They repeat this process for months or years, and eventually, to their delight, 'Multi-Ball' becomes a Skill of its own. Unlikely for most, but possible.
