The Game Before the Fall

Chapter 13: The winner. (Part 2)

I should have been asleep. After all I had an incredibly eventful day. Even after the tournament I spent many hours going through diagnostic tests for our Virtual Body Helm. The university advisor in charge of managing Professor Grayton's lab was having a fit with all the sudden emails he was getting. It wouldn't be long at all till they managed to catch a good sponsor to put the technology into production. Then there was the quite intense messages I received from my friends who had clearly discovered it was me who won the tournament. They weren't so much angry as they were surprised. Finally there was our at home victory party which had ended only a few hours ago.

The problem was I had been woken from my sleep. My senses were primed, highly alert at the creeping sensation that crawled against my heart. When it came to sensing danger, I was equal best in our recon team. When it came to senses energies like mana and Aura I was better. The sensation I felt now, simply put, was similar to bloodlust. Not just the will to fight, but to also do harm. It was an emotional energy that released naturally and some could even control it to their advantage. I felt it now, leaking into the room. The me of last week wouldn't have been able to pick it up, but since Aria's incident and my forced use of mana, I had taken a significant step to my growth.

I rose out of bed, reaching behind it to pick up a wooden sword that laid on the floor. It was a solid object that Aria had bought for me when we were younger. Surprisingly it was rather well made and could pack quite the wallop. I gently pulled open the curtain that split our room. Aria was lying in bed, sleeping peacefully. Satisfied she wouldn't wake I approached the door. The sensation was growing stronger. I crouched, lowering my body as I slowly opened the door. If there was danger I would spring straight to action.

To my surprise there was no threat beyond the door, instead a single women sat at the dining table, her arms crossed and staring straight at me. It was clear that the sensation of bloodlust was coming from her. I stood up casually, and hid the wooden sword behind the door.

"Sorry for waking you up," Zen said simply.

"You didn't, I was just getting a drink," I replied.

"Ardent, don't pretend you can't feel it," Zen's expression was calm. Almost scarily so. "At this level, you're quite perceptive to feel it. Too perceptive."

My brow furrowed and I sighed in defeat. It was useless to hide it from an expert like her. I sat opposite her at the table.

"I assume you want to talk?" I opened the discussion.

"When we spoke in the hospital before, we both said we wouldn't pry into each other's past. But...," she looked genuinely apologetic, concerned at what she was about to say, "I need to know Ardent. When I spoke with Arthur and Aria, they both said you had never tried martial arts before meeting me. When I first met you, your body was weak, but your mind was strong. It didn't feel like natural talent, and I ignored that."

I remained silent unsure of what I should even try to use as an excuse.

"I was fine to say nothing, but that last move you pulled in the tournament. Even if Areithia Online is just a game, the way you moved is something I didn't teach you."

"Zen..., I can't explain it." It was crazy to try to. I had been desperate in my fight against Crozen and used Zen's Aura Control technique. I was hoping she wouldn't be able to tell because it was a game and wasn't replicated fully. Her perception however was too great.

"You don't have to. Just tell me one thing and I will trust you. I want to trust you. Do you have anything to do with my clan?" her eyes locked on to mine and I was surprised at what I saw. They were firm, serious but they quivered. Zen was afraid, not of what she was saying, but of something else.

"Your clan?" I was openly confused. "Zen I don't know anything about where you're from. I know that may not sound like enough but let me say, what I did, I learnt from watching you."

"You learnt from me?" Zen raised her brows. "That's... can I hold your hand?"

"Sure," I handed it over. Zen took my palm and placed her fingers on top. A sting of energy penetrated through my skin and leapt down my arm, singing through my chest. I had the chance to stop it but did nothing.

"You've unlocked your Aura." Zen's eyes were wide. Her eyes softened, relieved and she smiled, "I see, you were telling the truth. I can tell you don't have anything to do with them."

"You're just going to trust me?" I knew there were those who could read Aura and from it emotions, but even then Zen accepted it.

"Of course," she wiped a budding tear from her eye. "Oh, looks like I was tenser than I thought I'd be. Sorry about all this."

I smiled sincerely as I took my hand back, "No need to be sorry. If you're in trouble Zen, I-all of us, would help you."

"Thank you, but... if you ever do encounter someone who knows me. Please be careful. I left behind a life that wasn't the cleanest. For a moment I was afraid that this was all a trap, that I had never won my freedom. Sorry for suspecting you."

"It's fine," I chuckled. "I'm being plenty suspicious after all."

"You really are," she laughed gently before smirking. "Releasing your Aura isn't something a normal person can do, and you did it with little help. You know that means we can train a bit harder now, don't you?"

A shiver went down my spine and a part of me wanted to run away. I couldn't back down and took the challenge with a smile, "Bring it on."

*

I was wrecked. Since returning I had pushed my body to the brink multiple times but now was something I hadn't felt in a long while. Not just physical exhaustion but the feeling of having my spirit drained and left bare. It didn't help that the honest truth of it was I was super curious about Zen's past. Who she was, why she knew about Aura, where she came from? They were questions I wanted to answer more than I could admit. The implications of the truth could be world changing. It was only because it was Zen that I held back. I could barely sleep. So when we greeted each other for our usual morning practice, I thought the exercise would finally put my mind off it. It certainly put my mind off it.

Beside the gym was an empty space with nothing but a bare concrete floor. The previous renter had used it as a storage space but it had been weeks since they left. It was the other half of the basement which Zen had purchased and currently unused. It was there Zen began our training. If it weren't for the budding amount of Aura I had, my arm would have been broken from her first kick. From there it only escalated as Zen pushed me to the most I could achieve, while somehow never surpassing it. The result was me collapsing due to lack of sleep and exhaustion.

I woke in the back room of the gym, laid down in my VRP, the lid closed for privacy. We had begun training at just past 6, it was now past 10. The Japan Regionals would be starting soon. Now I had rested I felt much better. From the feeling of my muscles, Zen must have massaged me as they weren't too sore. In regards to my more spiritual side, I was feeling okay. There were four pools of energy that the body could use. The first was stamina, your physical and mental energy, basically what all humans had and nothing supernatural. Then there was Mana, energy that came from the world and could dwell inside your body. Third was Aura, energy from your soul. The last was called internal energy. You could say it was the supernatural limiting energy to stop you dying. Every time you used Mana or Aura, it consumed internal energy. When that energy hit zero, you would be buffeted with feelings of nausea, fatigue and usually faint. It recovered slowly but quickly while asleep. It was also the one energy that wasn't present in Areithia Online. After all, it would make a boring game if after a few hours of play your character couldn't move.

My body now was in a state of growth. With my Aura unlocked, and the small amount of Mana I had been able to control, my internal energy was activated. Zen has basically made me use it all up. I now had an idea however of how hard I could go in case things went badly.