We arrived at the colossal stadium. Inside the arena, several short lines had formed for registration.


    — I’m first! — Tot exclaimed, stepping into the queue.


    Sui followed, and I lined up behind her.


    — Tot, Kingdom of Lygote, twenty-two years old. — he stated to the official managing the participants’ register.


    — Proceed to the strength assessment. — the official replied curtly.


    Tot approached the familiar device and struck it twice—once without aura and once with it.


    — Warrior, third class, mid-tier. — the official recorded the result next to Tot’s name. — Participant number 221. Next!


    — Sui, Kingdom of Lygote, seventeen years old. Mage of the third circle.


    Sui cupped her palms, where three interwoven silver rings shimmered and rotated.


    — Number 222. Next!


    — Aney, Principality of Atun, twenty years old.


    The official glanced at me, curling his lip in disdain.


    — Warriors below second-class mid-tier are not admitted, — he stated.


    — I know.


    — Proceed to the strength assessment.


    I struck twice, and the device confidently displayed the mid-tier level of a Battle Master.


    — Battle Master, mid-tier! — he recorded in shock. — Participant number 223!


    He handed me a token with my number, and we left.


    — The competition begins in three days, — Tot informed me. — First, there will be qualifying matches, where you’ll need to defeat ten opponents in a row while losing no more than three times. Only then will the competition for the top hundred begin.


    — Got it. I think I’ll manage.


    — Where to now? — Sui asked.


    — I need to return. My teacher doesn’t like to waste time.


    Damn, that sounded so pitiful that the siblings gave me a sympathetic look.


    — Alright, let’s go together. I’ll give you my notes.


    — Sure. — I agreed.


    The family estate of Tot and Sui was quite large and looked impeccably maintained.


    — Wait here, I’ll bring them! — Sui left me in a garden pavilion and ran inside the house.


    I felt my teacher sitting on the porch, staring in my direction. Of course, he knew where I was. A brick fence and a few walls were nothing to him. Hopefully, he wouldn’t be furious about my wasted time. The thought made me break into a sweat. This was a nightmare.


    — Here! — Sui handed me a stack of notes tied with a blue silk ribbon. — Take your time returning them, study them thoroughly.


    — Thanks again. — I tucked the notes away.


    — Well…


    — I have to go. My teacher’s already urging me.


    — Should I walk you?


    — No need, I got it.


    I crouched and leaped over the house and fence, landing in my teacher’s courtyard.


    — Have you completely lost your mind? What’s wrong with using the gate?! — he thundered the moment I landed.


    — Sorry, Master, I was in a hurry to train.


    — In a hurry, were you? And where’s your respect?


    Look who’s talking.


    — Now, I’ll show you six sequences based on the three strikes you learned yesterday. Once you memorize them well, we’ll train them with aura.


    He grabbed a spear and stepped into the center of the courtyard. My teacher demonstrated each move as many times as I needed to memorize them. When I finally said I was ready, he left me with a bottle of pills and returned to his favorite chair, sipping alcohol from a copper teapot as he watched me.


    The sun had already begun its descent when I was still swinging my spear. It was tough at first, but it gradually became easier to repeat the exercises. I wasn’t counting how many times I had done them—my goal was to develop muscle memory so that the movements would become automatic, requiring no thought.


    Occasionally, Tot or Sui would appear on the rooftop of a nearby building to watch, but I paid no attention and kept training.


    — Enough. — Kruk stood up and put away his teapot and chair. — Time to train with aura.


    He walked over, grabbed my belt, and leaped into the sky.


    Damn it! A little warning would’ve been nice! The force nearly sent my heart plummeting to my stomach. Like an arrow, we shot out of the city. Battle Ancestors could do that? As the momentum of our jump waned, Kruk tensed and stomped on the air, which seemed to harden beneath his foot, launching us forward again.


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    — Master, a little warning next time! — I rasped as we landed hundreds of kilometers from the city. — I nearly died!


    — Oh, stop your nonsense. You’ll be training here.


    I looked around. We were in a rocky valley dotted with jagged cliffs rising twenty to thirty meters high like teeth from the earth.


    — Remember, you have two days to train until you can shatter any of these cliffs into gravel with a single strike. Got it? Two days!


    I didn’t dare ask what would happen if I failed. Instead, I simply replied:


    — Yes, Master!


    One strike… Was that even possible?


    — Well, get started. I’ll be over here in the shade. — He walked over to one of the cliffs, pulled out his chair, and sat down.


    I knew the task was tough and had no idea where to begin. Of course, I could break the cliff apart, but in a single strike and into gravel? I glanced at Kruk, hoping for some hint, but he just sipped from his copper teapot, ignoring me completely.


    Fine… I approached a cliff and, without hesitation, delivered a straightforward punch, pouring in nearly all my strength. The rock trembled, sending large chunks flying and kicking up a bit of stone dust. About a third of it? Maybe less? I struck again with roughly the same result, and within moments, the remaining rock collapsed under its own weight.


    Two strikes… I moved toward another cliff when Kruk’s voice stopped me:


    — Where do you think you’re going? Does that look like gravel to you?


    He pointed at the massive stone chunks behind me.


    — Master, but—


    — But what? Do you not understand what gravel is?


    — No, Master, I mean to say that it’s impossible to reduce a cliff to tiny fragments with a single strike!


    — Hoooo? You really think so?


    Kruk rose from his chair, approached a massive boulder, and, picking up a small pebble, tapped it lightly against the rock. With a loud crack, the boulder shattered into tiny stones that could easily fit in my palm.


    — Master! How?!


    — Do you even understand the purpose of this training? Repeat it.


    — To train spear strikes with aura.


    — And what are you doing?


    — Training spear strikes using aura.


    — Notice any discrepancies?


    I fell silent. I knew I was doing something wrong, but what exactly?


    — Do you even know what aura is?


    I said nothing. I knew I used it to enhance myself and my weapon significantly, but what aura actually was—I had never thought about it.


    — Alright then, let me explain some things to you, things I’ve come to understand through years of training and observation. But I warn you—this knowledge must remain only in my head and yours. You may pass it on only to your own student, if and when you have one. Agreed?


    I simply nodded under his piercing gaze.


    — So, aura is a warrior’s inner power, permeating all his muscles, internal organs, and even bones. Inside the body, its form resembles thin strands. Their length varies and depends on the individual’s physique—some may have strands reaching several dozen centimeters, while others have them very short. And since these strands exist solely in an energetic form, I concluded that their length depends only on a person’s internal frequency. The higher the frequency, the shorter the aura strands.When people release their aura outward to suppress an opponent or reinforce their weapon, it may look spectacular—I won’t deny that—but the energy efficiency of such a process is extremely low. It’s like trying to carry water with a sieve—you might get a few drops where you need them, but ninety-nine percent will spill onto the ground before you even get close. The thing is, the lower the density of the surrounding environment, the faster the aura dissipates in it. Are you starting to understand where I’m going with this?


    I nodded, though I didn’t fully understand yet.


    — By channeling your aura through dense objects, you can deliver it to your target with almost no loss, spread it inside, and then—boom!—detonate it. Watch closely.


    He picked up another small stone from the ground and filled it with a large amount of aura before walking up to the next boulder.


    — And now, the most important part.


    He began twisting and compressing the aura near the surface of the stone into a tiny bead, no larger than a poppy seed. The moment that bead touched the boulder, the aura instantly spread through it, forming a spatial lattice inside the rock.


    — Boom! — Kruk said, detonating the aura strands.


    The boulder immediately cracked apart and crumbled into rubble.


    — Of course, — he continued, — if you need to destroy a rock, you don’t have to compress the aura—you can slowly fill it instead. But that won’t work with a living opponent. No one will just stand there patiently, waiting for you to do that—they’ll defend themselves. However, if you do it with a large amount of aura and instantly—any defense will fall.


    I watched him in fascination, unable to take my eyes off him. This was incredible knowledge—he was a genius!


    — And one more thing, since we’re at it. Let’s talk about defense. It’s much more effective not to saturate your armor with aura, because it will dissipate the same way. Instead, weave a network of aura strands inside your own skin, reinforcing the most vulnerable areas. At first, it may feel uncomfortable, but you’ll get used to it, and you’ll wear this armor constantly, making you impervious to surprise attacks from enemies or assassins. At worst, they’ll just scratch the outer layer of your skin. Though, this kind of defense won’t work against powerful and skilled mages—but that’s a lesson for another time.


    Kruk gazed dreamily at the sky.


    — Now, back to the purpose of our training. Why are speed and force in your attack so crucial? Your strike must penetrate any opponent’s defense, and only then—when your weapon touches or even pierces their body—only then should you release your aura. Without hesitation, faster than their survival instincts can react! Your speed and strength are already sufficient for your level—don’t doubt that. With the strikes and combinations you’ve learned in the past few days, you can break through the defense of anyone up to the rank of a Battle Ancestor. Now, all that’s left is refining your aura attacks. Understood?


    — Yes, Master! Thank you for this lesson!


    The old man smiled with satisfaction.


    — Alright, off you go now. Stop distracting me from my important business.


    That “important business,” of course, was lounging in his chair, gulping down alcohol.


    I sat down as well, lost in thought. Compressing aura into a tiny sphere… The opposite action of spreading it, which I had already mastered. I had never even considered that spreading aura wasn’t an efficient method—simply because that’s how everyone did it.


    I picked up my spear and began saturating it with aura. That was easy enough. Then, I started pushing the energy toward the tip, twisting it at the very point. It was strange—I hadn’t expected to be able to concentrate so much energy in such a small space. When I felt it was enough, I touched the tip of my spear to a nearby boulder without even standing up.


    The explosion was deafening. A cloud of dust immediately engulfed me.


    Kruk choked on his drink and burst into a coughing fit.


    — I think… I did something wrong, — I muttered in confusion.


    — Aney! What did you just do? Can you repeat that?


    He rushed over, dragging me toward the nearest rock.


    — Here, show me on this one!


    I shrugged and repeated my actions.


    The rock trembled and crumbled into fine gravel. I barely had time to see a delicate aura web flare up inside it. But unlike my master’s demonstration, I hadn’t formed a precise, structured lattice at all.


    — Incredible! This is unbelievable! Your internal frequency is extremely high—your aura strands are incredibly short!


    He seemed pleased.


    — But Master, I can’t make it as neat and controlled as you.


    — Nonsense! That’s unnecessary! Now, attack every rock around us as fast as you can. Don’t stop until you’re completely drained.


    As fast as I could? Well then…


    — “First Consecutive Step,” — I whispered to myself, and caught the flash of my master’s pupils dilating.


    This time, Kruk didn’t sit back—he moved alongside me.


    In just a few seconds, I had obliterated three dozen boulders. Then, unexpectedly, everything went dark.