Statera: The Balance of Yin and Yang

Balaka

"Good morning congees. Today we will be going through sparring, please pair up with your partners and line up to get your dose of balaka," Advisor Lokni called out. "I want all of you to drink the whole dose, foul as it is. Then practice the sparring sequences that we have learnt. Without contact first, please."

Elora bumped her elbow against mine, then looped an arm around my bicep, grinning as she dragged me towards Tomokai, who was holding a rack of several vials of dark brown liquid.

"Oh look! If it isn't my favourite congees from Minato," He grinned as he handed Elora and I each a vial. Another queue formed near Sethina, who was holding another rack.

"Best to drink it with your nose shut," he said, crinkling his nose.

I looked at the vial dubiously and gave it a swirl. Some sediments stirred up from the bottom of the vial and floated about in the liquid. Elora looked at me, then shrugged and unscrewed the cap, downing it in one shot. Immediately, her face contorted into a grimace, and her shoulders were shrugged up as she stuck her tongue out.

"Eurgh, oh boy, that's disgusting."

Wincing, I eyed the vial dubiously. But I downed the brew quickly anyway, forgetting to pinch my nose in my haste. Immediately, my nose and tongue were assaulted with a foul, sulphurous smell and taste. My eyes watered. Urine-soaked leather indeed. Even if I had never tasted that before, I imagined balaka was what it would taste like. I had to resist the urge to gag.

"Alicanto's flaming –" I started to swear, then realised Advisor Lokni's eyes drilled into mine, just daring me to finish the curse. I snapped my mouth shut and swallowed the rest of my words.

We handed the vials back to Tomokai, whose eyes were dancing with mischief.

The herbal brew would take about fifteen minutes to take effect, so Elora and I retreated to a corner of the training room to practice a few simple sequences. Over the past few weeks, I had gotten quite good at the ta'aeci sequence, and even managed a bit of the cha'anko form. Elora, however, was amazing at both. However, she still struggled to gather the energy in her hands and feet to amplify the impact. Although her form was impeccable and quite powerful in its own right, the lack of energy integration meant that it was not as powerful as it could potentially be. The thought was quite terrifying, considering how strong her strikes already were.

I felt for my energy, feeling it flow as I moved through the gentle, flowing sequences, then letting it accumulate in my hands and feet before executing punches and kicks. The energy accumulation added an extra oomph to the strikes.

It was growing more apparent as the weeks passed whether Elora and I were Yin or Yang dominant. The particular energy accumulation used in our Sento classes was generic. We did not need to specifically manipulate Yin or Yang, though we had just started learning that in Advisor Maeve's classes last week. Instead we just naturally accumulated our natural energy. Yin dominant users (me) tended to have weaker strikes which felt like a cold blow, while Yang dominant users (Elora) tended to have stronger, warm strike.

This was different in comparison to Yin or Yang trained congees, who were able to specifically draw upon Yin or Yang energy which resulted in much more concentrated and specific strikes that were freezing cold or burning hot. Yang users in general were better at attacks, since strong burning strikes were far more debilitating than weaker, cold ones.

However, Yin users also tended to be better at defence – and when they accumulated energy in certain parts of their body, would be able to absorb these general energy-amplified strikes better than Yang users. But such Yin defence did not work against pure Yang projections... meaning Morrigan would have been defenceless against Aaryan's attack.