"They're close." Tsuki warned me.
I concentrated on the Mana and saw the 3D map again. I sensed 4 Mana signatures, and they were strong. 'They're about 20 meters away... I hope their leader isn't with them.'
"I'll fight and capture them, you make sure I'm not disturbed." I ordered Tsuki.
'I'll have to touch them one by one to make my ability work on them. I'll use my ability to make them gravitate towards each other and render them unable to fight.' I planned.
I needed to make a jump that would be fast enough to surprise them. I concentrated on a point on the ground under their feet and set that place as a gravitation point. I jumped off the 10 meter high building and activated the gravitation point. The Mana on the gravitation point activated immediately and pulled me to it. To survive a jump from that height, mixed with a gravitational pull that was 2 times greater than earth's, it required me to make myself 'lighter'.
*Tsuki Shizukana*
Niam jumped into the air and unsheathed his sword, this time holding it with the sharp-edge facing him. He wanted to take the gangsters hostage, not kill them.
He appeared more confident in his abilities now. Having made a plan and having fought with a 'veteran' increased the trust in his new abilities. In my perspective, Niam had just awakened and had made more progress in 4 days than most Bearers, including me, in 2 weeks.
I had never met a person whose character is comparable to Niam's. He was unique, he was different. What must have he experienced to be the way he is today? The fact that he learned swordsmanship from his mother made him even more interesting.
He was still in the air, falling towards the gangsters who had no clue what awaited hem. He landed behind the one furthest in back and swung the dull side of the blade at the gangster's head. The gangster immediately fell unconscious. Niam didn't wait for anything, he started swinging and knocking the gangsters out one by one until the last gangster noticed him. The last gangster pulled out a 20 centimeter long hunting-knife and imbued Mana into it, reinforcing it and making it more durable. Niam was confident, but he wanted to be on the safe side of things, so he held his sword in a way to make the sharp edge face his opponent. The sound of steel clashing filled the
dead-silent streets of Central Superio. When no technology could exist, the world appeared more peaceful than it really is.
It took about 2 minutes to completely defeat his opponent. Niam's sword-art was beautiful but yet so aggressive, so wild yet so calculative. 'Whoever stands in front of his blade must feel the world's weight on their mind and shoulders. I feel threatened even if his blade had never faced me directly.'
Niam activated his ability and made the gangster gravitate towards each other.
*Niam Henka*
I immobilized the gangsters and saw Tsuki walk towards me. 'The danger is over..' I realized.
"We'll bring them up to where we started to rest. Take the small bag over there, it has fish in it. The one I have, has fresh water."
Tsuki nodded and carried the bag up into the building. I used my ability to make the gangsters 'lighter' and managed to carry them all up in 2 trips.
***
"We'll light a fire and cook the fish. If we're are lucky, the bait should make them come and attack us first thing in the morning. When they ambush us, I'll lead them inside this building and in the worst-case scenario, I'll make the building collapse on them." I explained.
"Okay" Tsuki responded, her eyes on the fish she was going to devour.
*Crack*
The campfire cracked and cooked the fish-meat. When it was ready, Tsuki ran out of patience and grabbed the stick in which a fish was on. She bit out a piece of the meat and steam came out her mouth.
"Fuafuafaufaufu." Tsuki inhaled and exhaled air to cool the meat.
She looked funny, making weird moves with her mouth and tongue while steam came out of it. I chuckled and she didn't seem to notice. I waited until it cooled off, and bit into the fish-meat. The taste of meat, fat and small fish-bones made memories of times when I had meat almost everyday, resurface. It was my first time eating meat after I rose from the rubble. My confidence and trust in my Salan ability skyrocketed, I felt unbeatable and the world seemed to be in the palm of my hands.
"What did you do before the impact? Were you like an athlete or something?" Tsuki asked.
"I was a student in my final year. I didn't do any sports except the swordsmanship my mom taught me every once in a while. And You?"
"So you're 19 years old and the only thing you did was swordsmanship training. I was a final-year student too and I went to an all girls school."
***
We sat and talked for about and hour until the first gangsters started to wake up. I stuffed their own socks into their mouths to keep them silent. Muffled yells and curses, teary eyes and hopeless expressions appeared on their faces.
*Slap*
I slapped one of the gangster and took the sock out of his mouth. The other fell silent, curious to see what would happen to their friend.
"I want to know your and your boss' name and what your most recent orders were." I threatened him, my Shoto drawn and resting on his bare neck.
"My name is Alejandro and our boss' name is Mul-Soo. He wanted us to deliver the food to our comrades. He said we should take another route because he sensed dryness."
'A dryness..?' I thought and remembered Tsuki telling me, that Reus had met this Mul-Soo. Reus informed them about Mul-Soo's water-based Salan abilities, but I couldn't trust his words. Alejandro telling me his boss's words, that related to something like humidity, made me a bit more sure about Tsuki's knowledge on Reus and the others.
'Did I cause this dryness? Did he sense me before I could sense him?' I questioned. I stressed over all possibilities while trying to look as calm and collected as I could.
Suddenly a hand on my shoulder interrupted me. It was Tsuki "Let's deal with it tomorrow, okay?" She said.
All the built-up stress, fatigue and tiredness washed over me. It made me realize just how much I tried to force myself to struggle when I could just deal with things a bit slower.
I still had broken ribs, cuts and bruises, not to forget the torture Gustav made me go trough. I was lucky enough to have my body restore it's muscle and fat mass by Mana.
"You're right." I responded, a soft smile on my face. Her words made me think about my Mother and the times were we trained.
It was a similar situation back then, my Mother taught me the Space Entity style and beat me up for hours on end, making me experience what the Henka Clan's sword-art does to an opponent. I was full of bruises and my ambition didn't allow me to quit. And at some point,after I fell down and tried standing up, my Mother touched my shoulder. "Enough for today, I don't want you to hate me for training you this way."
The words spoken were different, the feelings behind them, the same.
Care and love, something I only knew from my parents.