Cato Emberson's Perspective:
I stared through my fire-clad fists at the four approaching enemies and attempted to gather my thoughts.
The closest enemy was ahead of the other three and positioned in the peak of their 'V' formation. He gathered source energy to coat his right fist and a small dagger in his left hand as he leaped forward.
As the dagger-wielder jumped, I dove forwards into a roll. As I braced with my hands, I ejected source energy into my left leg and swung my heel, knee locked straight.
The dagger-wielder had been drawing back his right hand to deliver a slicing wind-powered punch, and because of my sudden movements, he only brought his left hand up to connect with my calf. Although it may have slowed my attack, I felt my flame-coated heel connect with his upper left ribs right in his armpit.
He launched away from the shock but stabilized himself before landing on one knee and clutching the burnt portion of clothing where my attack had connected.
He was far enough away that I didn't have to worry about him for a while.
When I had fully completed my forward roll, the other enemies had constructed a diamond, and the corners were almost on me.
I crouched low, brought up my guard, and focused on my attackers. The man on my left held a war hammer and was bringing a powerful blow towards me. The female soldier on my right was a step behind the man and had swung her longsword a moment late.
'Well, why wouldn't I aim for that,' flashed through my mind as I drew more source energy to my fists and feet.
The war hammer was almost the size of my torso, and the man wielding it was enormous to fit. The man swung his war hammer down at the crown of my head—the force behind the hammer made a low whistle in the air. I stepped away from the hammer and towards the longsword wielder. She was a step late and trying to cut me in half at the waist.
I pumped a noticeable ember of Soulflame up through my arm and into the center of my palm. As I did, I threw my energy enveloped fist towards where her blade connected to the handle and made sturdy contact. The energy coating her longsword wasn't enough to beat my Soulflame, and I snapped her sword at the handle.
As the majority of her blade carried its momentum past me, the war hammer landed where I had stood a second ago, creating a deep depression.
'Must be a Mountain Tribe,' I thought, sighing internally as I briefly glanced at the scale of the impact.
The blast lifted me from the ground and set me off-center, causing me to land on just my right foot.
Once I did, I spun on the ball of my foot towards the female soldier and jumped. I cocked my left fist back, and while I turned using my abdominal muscles, I kicked my left foot back towards the Mountain Tribe member, releasing a blast of fire.
The blast from my attack at the man propelled me towards the longsword-turned-handle wielder as I continued to rotate my body.
My fire-clad fist connected with her hands she had brought up to defend her face, but that only lent her more injuries.
I not only heard but felt my fist crunch through the small bones in her hands and then her jaw. She flew back from my attack, and I was sure she was unconscious, but my flames had caught onto her clothes; she'd be ash soon.
The Mountain Tribe member had landed near his teammate after he attempted to absorb my kick.
'A dagger-wielder, only wind form source energy. War hammer wielder, source energy form unknown, but powerful.' I attempted to assess the situation when I felt an icy chill go down my spine.
I slammed down flat onto my stomach before I could even think. I had reacted instinctually. I pushed myself up from the ground and took another look at my surroundings.
'Right, God Source, ice and water form source energy. A real bastard too.' I briefly smiled at the thought of killing him as he tauntingly stood over my sword.
But, before I could do anything to the one I wanted dead, his lackeys attacked me.
I narrowly dodged the war hammer's strike by jumping over his horizontal blow, his hammer slightly grazing my leg as I jumped.
I sacrificed my flame-coated hands as I pushed source energy into my feet and Soulflame into my wounds.
When I leaped out of the way of the war hammer's path, I ended up parallel to the top of the hammer—floating as if I were laying on top of it. At the same time, the spectacle of a man swung it fruitlessly at where I had been.
An immediate thought came to mind, and I frantically gripped a hand around his throat and released a blast of fire from my feet. I propelled both the Mountain Tribe member and myself away from the dagger-wielder and God Source.
As we were breezing through the air, I eventually reorganized my source energy and started to char the Mountain Tribe member's throat in my grip.
After landing safely on the ground a ways away from the other two, I dropped the corpse of my previous enemy and started to advance.
The techniques the Goddess had taught me in hand-to-hand combat started to fill my head.
I advanced towards what seemed to be the last two enemies the Goddess would conjure for this round and stared through the fire surrounding my fists.
The God Source would occasionally launch a conical ice spire in my direction, but they were either quickly destroyed with my fire-clad appendages or easily dodged.
I danced through the open realm, dodging a flurry of wind strikes and ice blades that flew towards me, quickly arriving in front of my enemies. The dagger-wielder was to my left and thrust his dagger at my abdomen. The God Source conjured a sword of ice that he swung down with both his hands at my clavicle.
I gripped the dagger wielder's wrist with my right hand and released a blast of source energy that successfully meant he wasn't picking his dagger up again.
Using the blast from the source energy, I swiftly slid under the blade path of the God Source, narrowly dodging his sword.
I stood parallel to the God Source's blade, and before he could react, I slammed my right fist into his sword handle, crunching the bones in his fingers and whipping his head towards the ground.
Before he could fall over, I brought my left fist back and swung it in a full uppercut connecting straight into the God Source's nose and sending him flying.
I turned to the once dagger wielder and extended a flaming palm.
Before I could kill the Goddess' summon, it stammered out something.
I couldn't make out what the summon had said, and scanning my surroundings did not reveal the Goddess to be anywhere near me.
"What did you say?" I spoke coldly to the summon.
"S-spare... me." He coughed, clutching his stump of a wrist with his good hand.
My head exploded into a rage, and I could barely think.
'Why is this training summon, asking to be spared?' I tried to think of a reason but couldn't.
'Worst of all, why is this Nature Tribe member begging to be spared like they didn't kill my best friends and countless Fire Tribe children?'
I knelt next to the training dummy and looked him in the eyes. He was sitting on the ground, his legs extended, with his hand and stump in his lap.
I gripped his ankle and smiled at him mirthlessly with images of the corpses of my friends in my mind.
"I shall spare you, good sir; however, it is up to the fire whether you live," I announced to the summon that was now screaming in horror as I lit his ankle on fire and walked away.
The ironic grin I had flashed towards the Goddess' summon started to turn genuine as I heard the crackling fire growing behind me, and I approached the God Source.
I picked up my sword on my way towards the helpless ice wielder and stood above him.
This one had been particularly annoying, and I had no personal gripe against killing him even if he begged and pleaded. Plus, the previous enemy had caught me by surprise, but no matter what they did or said, they were not real, and I could kill them freely.
"P-please, don't kill me. You've already demolished my hands. Let me go, please!" The God Source shouted his last request and brought his hands above his head in resignation.
I frowned at the once so confident God Source now turned into this begging mess.
I placed my hand softly onto his. He raised his head and looked at his hand to see them ignite in a bright searing white flame.
I walked away from the tortured screams of the enemy and started to search for the Goddess.
She appeared after the last enemy had turned to ash and provided a slow clap.
"Well done." She spoke flatly.
"That wasn't very cool. Making them talk like that." I pointed to the piles of ash around the recent battlefield.
"You are on a path for revenge, Child. You must deliver vengeance to those who have wronged you. Some will beg for mercy; others will scream loud and hard. You must be immune to all of these symptoms of war."
"Will the summons continue to speak from now on?" I asked the Goddess.
"Correct, some will be tricky, others not so much. Good luck."
The Goddess disappeared and in front of my vision emerged a near army of summons.
"This is an endurance battle; just don't die." The Goddess' voice rang through the realm.
Metal grinding against metal and the occasional grunts of the summons usually filled the silence in the realm, but this challenge filled the dimension with nothing but chaos.
The sounds of slamming boots, rattling armor, and weapons colliding were deafening. The screams of dying soldiers echoed through the realm as I attempted to survive.
However, I wanted to make the most of this training opportunity and spent my time in the middle of the battlefield with my fists and feet ignited in flames practicing either hand-to-hand combat or my swordsmanship.
As I continued to carve through soldier after soldier, my body became weighed down and coated in blood. The screams continued to echo through my brain, and the rattling of armor was piercing my eardrums.
I began to disassociate from my current task. Almost as if it were a hallucination while I was cultivating. My movements and reactions became second nature as I blocked, parried, dodged, and attacked while the world fell silent.
I mindlessly carved my way through battalions of enemies until I finally realized one thing had remained constant along with my newly found silence.
A smile plastered across my face that stretched from end to end, as big as it could get. I glanced into my pitch-black blade and saw a reflection I hadn't dared look at in a while.
My silver hair covered my brown eyes if you could even call it silver. It was stained blood red and across my face was the biggest smile I had ever seen. Yet, my once pale face was also dripping in blood.
Not my own, but the blood of the hundreds of enemies I had cut and beat down in silence as my instincts took over.
'What was that?' I thought, the sound of the battlefield starting to return to me.
'And why did it feel so good?'