The young man felt a giant ball of hot steam hit his body as he walked through the stone arch and smiled.
"This scrub's going to be good for us."
"Yes. This place will feed us well, we can recover from our almost death." The fire inside him seemed to be happy.
"You don't sound tired anymore, the food and this place seems to be helping."
"I also feeling excited to be in this place." He opened his mouth and took a deep breath of the steam. He felt the fire in his body absorb the energy from the steam.
A voice called out to them.
"Recruits, in the next room remove all clothing and belongings on your person in the large woven baskets next to the doors. Then walk into the next room and follow the instructions there."
He followed the recruits and walked through the steam into the next room and started to remove his clothing.
"I'm not looking at others, just focus on taking my clothes off."
His could feel his face turning red. "Thank goodness for the steam or everyone would see my face." He could feel his heart beating faster as his excitement grew.
He grabbed his clothes, standing naked and placed his clothes in the basket by the door. He glanced around and noticed the women recruits were quickly looking away from shyly. He looked on the other side where naked tattooed women were staring at him smiling and winking. He looked away, as he heard laughter.
"He's shy...Pity, he has a suitable tool for playing with."
His face went red as he heard these words, "I guess they approve." He quickly walked into the next room.
An attendant handed him a small towel.
"This is for wiping the dirt and sweat off your body. Here you'll sit in this steam room until your body is ready. An attendant will then come and take you to the scrubbers." The attendant said in a bored voice.
He followed the attendant to an empty stone seat sitting alone. He watched as the attendant would place warriors sitting in different locations, while some were just pushed through to the next room.
"I wonder how long I'll be in here for... I should find the fire." he said closing his eyes.
He stood in front of the flame, its voice filling the space around him.
"This place will feed us both well. Let me show you how to feed on the heat around us."
"Your voice has changed slightly." He shook his head in amazement as he watched the flame become slightly bigger.
He watched as a figure of himself appeared from the flame and sat in a cross-legged position. He watched as the figure started breathing while holding their hands over its stomach.
"Just simply breathing was bringing in the heat. I can do that…" The flame figure faded from his view as the voice of the flame filled the space.
"Do that and we'll feed well whenever we're in a place that is rich in energy."
He opened his eyes stood up and stretched as he watched an attendant look at him as they walked by with another person pushing them gently into the next room. He sat back down on the stone seat cross-legged, placing his hands above his stomach and below his lungs, and started to breathe deeply.
"It's working…" He said with a smile after a few deep breaths as he felt the heat enter through his breathing.
"Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr"
He looked down at his stomach sighing, "How much will it take to fill me?" He said as he breathed in more of the energy.
"Must focus on feeding, and not on negative thoughts stopping me from feeding."
He kept breathing in the energy until it became very difficult for him to keep breathing it in.
"What happened?" He opened his eyes and looked around him in surprise
"All the steam is gone..." He got up and moved to another seat which had a lot of steam around it. He sat in the steam. "Let's try this again." He closed his eyes and started breathing in the energy again.
A few breaths later, he opened his eyes looking annoyed. "That emptied too fast. I still feel hungry..." He stood up and looked around in confusion.
"Where did all the steam go?" He watched as attendants were rushing around with buckets and batterys. He was able to see the others in the room also looking around in confusion, and attendant walked up to him and pointed to the next room.
"You better go into the next room..."
As he walked into the next room an attendant walked up to him and wiped his body down.
"Through the door, there will be attendants with brushes that will scrub your body and hopefully open your energy points."
Walking through the doorway he felt heat rising from the stone floor heating his feet. "This is an interesting feeling."
He looked around him and saw many people laying on the stone floor to his left down a corridor. An attendant point him to the right.
"Lay down on this, and we'll use brushes to hopefully open your energy points."
As he laid on his back feeling the heat of the stone he watched as two attendants with brushes started scrubbing his body. "Wow, they are scrubbing me very hard."
He looked down at his skin. "They scrub so hard, yet there are no scratches or marks from the brushes..."
"What are you doing? Stop being amazed and started feeling all the energy in here, we need to feed and there is a lot of energy in here to feed on." The flame's voice filled his mind.
He smiled, as he started to breath the energy in. "Never a moment to stop feeding."
As he was breathing in the energy, he overheard the attendants that were brushing talking to each other.
"It's cold here, and his body is not responding to the brushes."
"Does that mean his energy points are sealed shut?"
He opened his eyes. "My energy points are sealed shut? What does that mean?"
He glanced at the attendants staring at his body. "Yes, it is very likely. We should send him to the slabs, hopefully that will unblock his blocked points. We should also tell his superior, the bad news."
He felt an attendant push his body up until he was sitting on the raised stone platform.
"Keep walking down their until you feel you can no longer go further." He nodded, stood up and started to walk down the corridor where he saw all the others lying on the stone floor.
"Hey, flame, what do they mean all my energy points are sealed shut?"
"When we merged and became one, your bodies energy points were all sealed shut. Don't worry, it just means we can't use their techniques, but we can still feed."
He nodded sadly as he walked noticing a small stone path alongside the large stone slabs that had people lying on top of. He walked up to the recruit unit that he entered with and looked at their red faces and bodies.
He smiled and walked through the small group and continued down the small path. He turned and smiled at them. "It's a little cold here for me, I'll go ahead."
He kept walking until he felt a wall of heat he couldn't walk through, without bending over in pain and discomfort. "This must be my limit."
He stepped onto the slab and laid on his back starting to breath in the energy around him.
He felt the energy from the stone slab enter his body through his breathing. "Finally, I can feel my stomach starting to fill…"
"Flame, what am I breathing in, is it the heat or the fire energy since my energy points are sealed shut? What exactly is going on here, since I won't be able to use it like the others"
The flame flared briefly then replied. "You're breathing in something that's not heat or fire, but it's the energy where fire and heat comes from."
"That explanation didn't help me understand." He said to the flame in confusion.
"Usually, people absorb fire energy and become a walking fire battery, but if they tried to absorb what we're feeding on they wouldn't be able to handle its power."
There was a moment of silence, then the flame continued.
"Further down this tunnel there is a monster that is feeding on the same energy that we are."
He turned his head in the direction the flame mentioned and felt a blast of heat and a terrifying sense of dread come upon him as a shadow started to grow in his direction.
"It's suddenly hard to breath, what is this monster?" He said feeling his heartbeat race as a shadow started to come into view.
"Tap…Tap…Tap…Tap..." The tapping stopped causing him to look up unable to move. "What strength, I can't move my body. I must see what this monster is..." He lifted his head groaning and stared in amazement.
A small old man with a black cane, covered in scars, missing an eye and a large black tattoo of a flying dragon on his chest stopped in front of him.
"Bang! Bang!"
"Boy, are you one of the new recruits?" He looked at the small crater and cracks in the wall where the old man hit it with his black cane.
He nodded, with sweat dripping down from his face straining to keep his head up to look at the old man.
He watched the old man smile. "It seems we have another one... It has been a long time."
He watched in fear as the old man chuckled to himself and continued to walk down the path away from him.
"Finally, I can relax." He lowered his head and started to calm his fear filled body. A loud voice came through the tunnel pushing his body flat against the stone.
"Arrgh." He moaned quietly.
"Treat that flame inside you well, and you'll soar above all!" The voice faded away and so did the pressure. He sat up on the stone breathing heavily.
"How did he do that to me? How was he able to see the flame inside me?"
"He sensed me, just as I was able to sense him. Don't worry about that monster now, as you just felt, he could destroy us with his voice if he wanted to…Just keep breathing in the energy until we're full." The flame said hungrily.
He sighed loudly, "Flame, will we be that strong too?"
"Hahahaha..." Laughter filled his mind. "Why try and be at his level, when we can be stronger."
"Flame, you are right, we're here to become the best and not the same as others."
He opened his eyes with determination and stared at the roof of the stone tunnel and started to breath in all the energy he could hold.
"This place is good.It's not running out of energy like the place with the steam."
By the time he felt full and satisfied, he stood up and stretched his body. "Finally, I feel full."
"Let's leave here since being full, but we must come back here always." The flame's voice reminded him. He smiled.
"You also sound very full…Yes, you're right.Let's join the rest of our group."
He yawned loudly and walked out the way he had come. As he got closer to the exit, he saw the Firewarrior who had sent them in here staring at him in silence.
The Firewarrior pointed at him, "You. Come now.You're late."
"Late?" He mumbled to himself. "I was only in here for a few hours at least…���
He followed the Firewarrior in confusion as they walked towards the exit. An attendant ran up to him with a bundle of clothing.
"Here are your new clothes, put them on as a recruit of the FireStrike unit... Never tarnish the name or there will be only death as a result"
"Death again…" Muttering to himself as he got dressed, his mind was filled with the voice of the flame.
"That is the price of being here, a cost you must accept and pay if you do wrong. Remember that…"
"That is something I'll never forget, and something I accept with all my heart." He said quietly as he got dressed.
Once dressed in the red and black uniform he stepped outside and was blinded by the brightness outside.
"What the, I was only in there for a short time..."
He looked confused as he recovered from the temporary blindness. He rubbed his eyes until he could see again and saw the other recruits with the Firewarrior staring at him waiting for him to form up with the others.
The young man quickly joined the others silently, as the Firewarrior watched him enter the formation.
"Since you are now all here, we can go through your training schedule, those who can't yet feel the fire energy will come for scrubbing every day."
The Firewarrior looked towards him.
"From now on, you must enter there with a timer, no more than four hours at a time. Everyone must meet up here for training as the sun rises every day. If you're late, you'll be punished severely and painfully."
He watched the Firewarrior stare up at the sky.
"As it's now noon, you're all going to eat, then we start combat training. Dismissed!"
The recruits broke rank and quickly headed towards the mess hall for lunch. He watched as the ones who had fallen over in pain earlier had serious faces as if they were about to fight to the death with their meal. He walked up to a nearby recruit looking confused.
"Didn't we go in there at noon?"
The recruit turned his head and looked at him quietly replying.
"You don't know how long you were in there for?"
He shook his head.
The recruit replied in amazement.
"You were in there for almost four full days."
He stopped walking for a moment, "four days?"
The recruit nodded. "Yes, people thought you were dead and burnt to a crisp or in a pile of ash somewhere in there. I bet you were dust, but here you are."
He stopped walking for a moment and turned around to look at the building.
"Almost four days..."
He noticed that the Firewarrior was staring at him. He looked towards the mess hall and started walking again shaking his head in wonder.
"Four days...We must've been very hungry if we needed to feed for that long."
He joined the others as they walked into the mess hall with a smile.
"Finally, my path to becoming the strongest Firewarrior begins."