(Yep, three chapters today. Also, while I was writing, I was listening to "Violence and Pain" by FabVL on Youtube. I recommend ya'll check his stuff out, it's really good)
As I arrived in my room, I thought back to what I agreed to. I was going to try to pass the UA Entrance Exam. UA has the lowest acceptance rate in all of Japan, and the exam has both a written and practical part. That means you can't be all smarts and no strength, and you can't be all strength and no smarts. Which means I need to try and get used to my Lura.
If a regular person heard that you could control your bones, they most likely would not think anything of it, because it's a power you have to think a good bit on to realise how powerful it actually is. For example, you could increase how strong the bones in your body are to give yourself more natural durability. And with my Lura, I can do anything as long as it has to do with my bones.
The first, most obvious application of my power, is using my bones as weapons, the same kind of way I did when I first activated my Lura. I think the best thing to do is distribute a bunch of sharp bones in very exposed parts of my body to provide a makeshift defence, and manifest even sharper bones from my palms and knuckles, as well as my toes, knees and soles, making any melee attack from me a combination between blunt damage and slicing damage. Let's try it.
I stood straight up, and took a deep breath, before closing my eyes. I imagined specific areas where I wanted to make a makeshift defence. My chest, my back, and my legs. Now, manifest the bones. Done. Next, bring them out.
Sharp, now bloody bones quickly pierced straight out of the areas I wanted them to. I buckled to the floor from the sudden burst of expected pain, but since I was anticipating it, it wasn't anywhere near as bad as when I first used it. Shredded muscles hung on the bones like clothing on a clothing rack laid out in the sun to dry. Blood was dripping off the bones in extreme amounts.
This is my biggest weakness. The pain. This also confused me, since every case I heard of where someone awakened their Lura, even if it was something as dangerous as lightning or fire, their bodies would create something to allow them to safely and painlessly use their ability. So, why not me? Why did my power mutilate me in the most brutal way possible, and give me just enough healing ability to slightly recover?
Putting those thoughts away for right now, I clenched my fists. Now, for the bone knuckles. Again, go through the same process as last time. Imagine the areas where you want the bones to start manifesting. Done. Now, bring them out.
This was much less painful than bringing the bones for the makeshift defence out. (Thanks to sacrificalsoul for the idea, by the way.) However, that didn't mean it didn't feel horrible. After all, I don't think anyone would voluntarily choose to get a power that mutilates them every time they use it, unless it came with a regeneration factor MUCH better than mine. Small, spiked bones came out of my knuckles, pointing outwards, ready to shred the flesh of anyone who thought it would be a good idea to fight with the dude who is okay with his power mutilating his own flesh.
Now, for the palms. Repeating the steps, before long, two bones at least 5 times sharper than the ones around the rest of my body tore their way out. After dealing with the pain, I noticed something that is a game changer.
I wasn't draining any kind of energy while the bones were out. As long as I could deal with the pain, I could have them out for as long as I want.
This also further solidified the fact that the pain was my biggest weakness as of right now. However, I don't see any way to deal with it other than to try to get acquainted with it.
With that discovery, I retracted the bones back into my body, going in reverse order of the way I manifested them. Starting with the palms, then the knuckles, then my legs, the back after that, and finally, the chest. I wanted to see how fast my regeneration was, so I didn't go to try and cover the now gaping wounds over the spots I manifested the bones. The wounds only healed completely after a minute. Not bad, but as I said before, it doesn't heal anything other than the skin and muscles that my ability damaged in the first place.
Now, I have to think of specific ways how I'm going to apply my attacks. At first, my mind drifted to something Ragdoll told me about, martial arts. But, then I thought of something else. In my tribe, fighting was the number one thing, both for entertainment and survival. One of the biggest parts of our culture were the friendly tournaments where anyone could participate to fight freely. All warriors constantly went there to refine their fighting styles. And, while I see the value in martial arts, the fighting style of our warriors always fascinated me. While I call it a style, people in this modern environment would refer to it as something else.
Berserker style.
Our warriors, thanks to our tribe's incredible resilience, could get away with MUCH more than anyone else in a battle, and because of that, we can do things that other people see as unreliable in combat.
(Let me give you guys a frame of reference for how resilient your average 12 year old in his tribe is like. You could hit an 12 year old with all shots in a Spas-12 shotgun, and, they would get hurt, but they would just get right back up, and could just kinda pat themselves off, and then beat your ass.)
Our warriors use a style in combat where we release all our animal instincts, and fight like men possessed, using everything, including scratching, clawing, biting, pouncing, everything that you would see in a wild, feral animal.
And, with my Lura, this style could become even more deadly. Now, that will be my style for when I want to kill someone and make it miserable. But, I have an idea for a style that I'll use in every other scenario. It will be focused on elegance, accuracy, and brutality. It will be based off a martial art I saw video footage of. Capoeira.
But that's something I'll begin to work on tomorrow. Right now, I need some rest.