Within the dimly lit basement Alex still laid on the ground, the signs of the array all gone. And then with a jerk Alex got up. Excited to try out his new invention, with even actively using it, he was already feeling invigorated.
He focused himself, ready to crank it up. And then
"ALEX!!! You hear me, get up to the training ground, old man Kent's been already pissed." Chris screamed out from his doorstep, loud enough to be heard down below in the basement.
Alex sighed, "Nvm, I will just go and try it later. I don't even wish to imagine what that old man has in store for me" feeling a shiver down his spine.
Alex took the stairs to go up, before going he blew out the only torch with the room, leaving it in dark.
He slid the bed back to its place, making sure no one knew about the stairs existence.
He freshed up, and then went on to the training ground, with Chris. Chris was grinning all along, he tried to hide it but couldn't. Alex wasn't sure what to make of it, ignoring Chris's antics.
What awaited him at the training ground was a pissed off, Kent, words weren't needed, the air around him just gave it all.
Soon as he saw Alex, his temper flared up even more, "you brat, what do you think you are? Just because I allow you on a hunt you get complacent "
"What was rule number one of the hunters?" Kent asked out in a loud voice.
Alex's body turned stiff, "Never to skip training" he replied back in a loud tone.
Kent had it in him, to drill discipline even within the likes of Alex, whom even the royal mentors couldn't convince. Kent didn't leave Alex for the next 15 minutes, giving him an earful, meanwhile Chris was enjoying every moment of it, even making faces behind Kent's back to infuriate Alex.
Chris did have a valid reason though, of course no matter how many tantrums Alex threw Kent wouldn't have allowed him, so to prove his capabilities someone had to be beaten up, it being none other than Chris.
Only after Kent stopped his rant, did Alex take a sigh of relief. Kent then called out "Ron, get here" he then glanced at Alex, "brat, get ready we are starting the next stage of training. Pick up a weapon of your liking."
Alex went out through a selection of weapons, the variety here was great, from spears and swords to whips, bows to thowable knifes. Alex went on and simply chose a pair of metalic gauntlet, without Nebula, his combat power with a weapon wasn't great.
Then Kent announced the start of the spar. His opponent, the same guy who trashed him, on his first day at the training ground. Rules were fairly the same, just the changes being Ron was allowed to use his abilities and his weapon.
The instant the spar started, Ron rushed at Alex using his halberd, he swung his halberd towards Alex, Alex simply ducked to doged, seeing Alex fall for his bait, Ron smiled. He swung his halberd once again, skillfully retaining the momentum, and swung it vertically downwards towards Alex, giving him no chance to get up.
Alex formed a x using his gaunlets above his head.
Clang!!
There wepons clashed, With neither being able to over power the other, and then Ron used his ability.
[Heat convection]
Using the blade as medium of transfer, Ron channeled heat current through it, it's destination Alex's gaunlets.
The gaunlets started heating up, searing Alex's hands, seeing himself losing advantage, Alex pushed a bit more and slid the halberd aside making it penetrate the ground. Alex leaped back making distance between him and Ron.
"Oh fck"
He then realised his error, he was fighting with someone using a halberd, a long range weapon and he brought himself right within its range. His only saving grace, was the halberd stuck in the ground, he rushed towards Ron without further ado.
Right when he felt he would reach close enough, Ron shifted his grip, bringing his hands near the halberd's centre, and swung with a beastly strength. Alex barely managed to doge it.
In an instant Ron, changed from a skillful fighter, to almost a mindless barbarian, he began swinging his halberd, making sure it followed Alex no matter where he goes.
Alex wasn't able to fight back, Ron had clearly made a circle around himself making one unable to enter it, that is if one wasn't ready to take a brutal beating. And to top it off he was slowly increasing the radius of the circle by moving his grip towards the end of the halberd, a little more and it would cover the arena. Alex's hands were damaged too, just having the gaunlets on was hurting like a bitch.
"Ok it's enough" Alex thought to himself. He then started using his pseudo artifact.
As of now it has a total of 3 functions.
First, to allow him to absorb life force from dead beings, and store it within his body in the form of nodes.
Second, it can use stored life force to heal himself or it can combust the life force to give him a temporary rise in strength.
Alex instantly used the second function to heal his hands in a instant, reliving him of the pain, and then he started to counter attack. He combust the life force, and used the new gained strength to rush towards Ron.
In an instant he was half through the circle avoiding the attacks within the zone. Seeing Alex get closer Ron once again slipped his hands towards the center, and increased the intensity of his swings.
Alex doged the halberd, with his new gained strength, dodging didn't even take effort, his body was finally able to match speed with his thinking speed. He punched the halberd's blade, making it almost fly away. Ron's eyes widened he didn't expect Alex to be holding back. And before he could even reclaim his calm.
Alex reached next to him, his plan covering his face and then with a bang Alex thrashed Ron's head on the ground.
"Okay stop it, Alex won" Kent ended the spar, making sure Ron wasn't severely injured.
Meanwhile, everyone has their eyes widened, looking at the arena, even those engrossed in training took a pause, and stared at a smiling Alex. No one was expecting him to be this strong, he was a blank, the output of his strength just didn't make sense.
Back to Alex, though he was smiling, even feeling a sense of satisfaction, beating Ron. He was cursing inwards.
"that jolt of strength almost combusted the whole of my stored life force, anymore and those
nodes would have collapsed, making me go through that hideous process once again." Alex shivered at the thought.
Making sure Kent was alright, Kent got up facing Alex, no knew what was going through his mind.
"You managed to awaken your ability, didn't you?" Kent asked.
Alex simply nodded in response. Only then did everyone else on the training ground release a sigh of relief.
Kent continued, " from what I can tell, you can use it to gain sudden outbursts of strength, and those holes on your fingers must be a result of you awakening your ability, most likely due to your ability being a external recharge dependent."
Often there were changes in the body, complementing their ability, it ended up being the best cover up for Alex.
"Damn, old man, can't you stop acting all knowing for once" Alex grumbled.
In response, Kent just stared at Alex, then he sighed "go take a rest of 15 minutes and then come back, and if you got any injuries, take one of those lambs to awren, to get healed."
Alex simply exited the ring and just sat below a tree. Chris immediately came up to him, asking about what ability he had awakened and other things that piqued his curiosity.
Kent though stoic on the outside, was the happiest one here.
"that brat has even managed to awaken his ability, he already has the wits" he looked up in the sky, lost in thoughts "brother, maybe I have found someone to inherit your legacy"