"Oh trust me. If that ensures my survival, I am willing to learn."
Aurea looked at him, amusement shining all over her eyes. They both silently finished their dinner, and Zenon got comfortable as he lay on the ground.
He wanted to check some things about his Runes but got startled when a small pebble was thrown toward him.
Looking toward where the little rock came from, he found Aurea with her back straightened looking at him directly. After a moment of visual contact, she said,
"Didn't you ask me to teach you? Let's start now."
Zenon frowned a little bit and said, "Now? Can-"
"No, we can't wait until tomorrow... that same excuse made the entire world succumb to laziness. If you really want to learn to fight, you better be ready to spend most of your time learning."
The two Unseens looked at each other for some seconds before one of them sighed and sat back up.
Aurea took a deep breath and began,
"Let's start with a question to set up things. Why do you think that two animals would fight?"
Zenon tilted his head at the sudden, unexpected question. After some serious brainstorming, Zenon could only end up with the same word.
"I guess... do they fight to ensure their survival?"
"Survival... Do you seriously think that two animals will always start a fight just to live another day? Most of them will - the vast majority indeed- but the most dangerous of them won't."
Zenon opened his mouth to argue but strangely, he had nothing to say. Aurea chuckled and said,
"Along this path Zenon, we will encounter multiple people, I'm sure of it. Trust me when I say that some Unseens... or humans, even Layer Beasts in general, start fights for any other reason than survival."
"Well... it's what I did back in my fourteen."
Aurea sighed and after some moments she said,
"The real reason... Well, it's pretty hidden inside everyone's soul but it always remains the same. Even if you wish to deny it, it's all about the thrill of possible death."
Zenon tilted his head, not knowing what Aurea meant by that. I mean, for sure he wouldn't just start a fight cause he wanted a little taste of a near-death experience, because he already went through two of those.
Almost as if she was reading Zenon's thoughts, Aurea continued,
"With time, people begin to understand this world... this realm, or however you wish to call it, it's all about sudden deaths. I've seen people slowly change after leaving the Layers.
While the majority tend to break, those who manage to retain a brisk of sanity after leaving this forsaken place become the real Enlighteneds. Those who instead of succumbing to fear managed to use it to their advantage.
Those who use their insanity to become stronger."
Aurea's voice slowly trailed off, gaining some confused looks from Zenon. To be honest, it's not that what she's saying makes no sense, but it's rather difficult to digest. After some seconds of silence,
"I think I'm going too fast. Let me explain first what fighting consists of and then we'll get back to this. Fighting consists of both mastery of the body and mind, that's nothing new.
The body is the easiest one to master but takes a large amount of time. One part is based on repetition. Get a weapon and repeat the same strike perfectly, flawlessly, not a single degree off each time, for as long as your body resists.
Each strike will not only strengthen your body but will also make your muscles memorize that said pattern until they beg for mercy. Your footwork will slowly become accustomed to each strike, subconsciously preparing itself in the midst of a fight."
Zenon slowly nodded as he listened to Aurea's explanation.
"Now the second part is experience. Even if you spend a thousand hours repeating the same strikes over and over until your daily routine is filled with nothing but practicing, it won't have such an impact as a real fight.
When you train, you subconsciously integrate the movement of each strike individually. However, when you get in a real fight, your brain has to understand and learn when to use each strike to ensure maximum efficiency.
You only truly learn when you are on the verge of losing your head."
This actually... didn't really make much sense. Well, it did, but some things didn't add up.
There was some sense in Aurea's statement about improving through repetition.
Most of the Awakeners, and later Unseens, have probably received extensive training in most forms of art from expensive tutors. But they didn't really have any form of real experience, meaning they are close to being harmless flies.
But then, how come Aurea managed to completely clean the floor with all those Unseens? The only answer was that she received proper real-experience situations that allowed her to polish her skills. Just what kind of life did she live to become so good in this art?
"Now, for the mind, we need to go back to what we have talked about and concluded. That the core of fighting is based on the thrill of death.
After all, the more you fight, the more you learn to love the almost choking sensation of knowing that you could lose your life at any moment. It could be summarized as kill or be killed."
Something inside Zenon awakened as if he just realized the obvious answer to a trivial question he had for such a long time.
"If you wish to believe any lie such as, I'm only fighting because I have no other choice, well... go ahead.
No one is responsible for your sanity but you.
If you wish to master the mind, you need to understand how to love this thrill, as it will be the only emotion you will feel when fighting. It doesn't matter which weapon or style your opponent is using. What truly matters is that you are the last one standing."
Aurea lowered her eyes and muttered, "Just be the last one standing."
---
While Aurea peacefully slept, Zenon couldn't feel even the most meaningless wisp of drowsiness. His mind was constantly repeating the same words.
'Repetition, real experience, the thrill of death...'
These three important keys lead to the realm of the dangerous warrior. He managed to understand two of them, but the last one... he was still unable to grasp them properly.
Was it as Aurea said? Did he really need to learn to love that thrill she was talking about? Whenever he got into a fight, his mind was constantly shouting at him to either run or die. Yet now... now he had to learn how to find pleasure in near-death experiences?
Even if he did so, wouldn't that turn him into a mindless monster whose only desire is to feel that emotion over and over?
Zenon had seen and met enough people to conclude that using this feeling to fight was not as optimal. After all, the outskirts were similar to a free-for-all battlefield. Only those who didn't care about life managed to get out of the most dangerous situations and live another day.
Of course, one shouldn't mix living and fighting. One's life isn't purely focused on constant figh-
'Wait a moment... why am I thinking as an outskirts boy...'
Zenon finally found the piece that was preventing the puzzle from being completed. He thought of what Aurea said as a normal human, not an Unseen.
However, when he shifted this vision from one end of the rope to the other, everything started making more sense. The will and job of an Enlightened is to fight. Fight Layer Beasts until your very own being grows accustomed to it.
'Then the thrill of death... is not fighting against humans. Is fighting against Layer Beasts!'
However, this proved rather difficult.
He now had to change his own vision from surviving to becoming used to this new feeling. It was difficult to completely turn his mindset from one thing to another and will probably take a while anyways.
But if he was trained in something, it was his mind. He hasn't spent almost five years living by himself, constant changes occurring left and right to not be able to go through this meaningless change of mind.
Maybe he was ahead of most Enlightened just because of his past...
With this thought, Zenon slowly drifted into a deep sleep.
... Yet in the sunrise, he was awakened by a heart-breaking scream.