Twenty-Four

Kon sat on the floor of his room with a pile of F-Grade cores around him, everything they'd acquired from the harvested monsters in the facility. He'd also managed to snag several of the E-Grade cores, keeping them slightly off to the side as he started to breathe as he had been taught, slipping into a meditative state. Visualizing his metaphysical body was easier and easier as his body absorbed more energy, coming to mind within moments.

His body floated in a sea of darkness, glowing ribbons of white-silver outlining his body while blood red runes floated in his gut, spine, leg and brain, all of them giving a sense of violence, but dull to his inner-eye. The first core dissolved into a stream of black-red power that his body hungrily ate, burrowing through him to slam into his stomach.

Kon's chest tightened as he watched a much more condensed stream of red energy come out of his stomach only to be grabbed by his body, sucked into the silver-white veins, drowned and dissolved away in an instant. Core after core was consumed as his hands scrambled around to get his energy back to an equilibrium that would allow him to start the pool needed to form the rune.

Every one of the F-Grade cores was used as his hungry body pulled the energy his processing rune cleansed, sucking it away until his body was a beacon of light against the backdrop. The runes began to pulse with power as they hungrily claimed what little remained, vampiric in their need as they began to feast on his body's energy reserves.

"Shit."

Power flooded him as he grabbed the first E-Grade core. His vision wavered, body flexing under the sudden increase of strength before stabilizing as his processing rune withstood the deluge of shimmering, crystal like energy. Memories of his last attempt of absorbing an E-Grade crystal came back to him and he forced back the panic at the pain he'd endured to stay alive.

He pushed the energy to his brain as he began to imagine the lines of the rune and the words he'd chosen. More and more the energy came like a burst dam, but already Kon could tell the difference. It was painful, stretching his abilities to contain it, but not the destruction he'd nearly wrought upon himself last time.

"React Faster. React Faster. React Faster." The words hammered home like a smith working piece of stubborn metal as he visualized himself reacting over and over to threats that came at him. Slowly the rune formed, each line emerging from the crystal clear pool of energy as red lines, beautiful, lithe, graceful lines that spoke of speed. The shimmering pool was drawn away until nothing was left, leaving only the red rune floating in his rain, not far from the processing rune already there.

A shockwave radiated out of him, running down his spine, his limbs flexed as his energy avatar spasmed as the newest rune flared its power. Then it settled, condensing as it shrank into his mind. His energy avatar settled, every line flowing peacefully as his silver heart beat in steady rhythm, sending continuous thin threads of energy throughout his body.

Kon blinked his eyes open, dispelling the image of the avatar as he looked around his room. Sweat stuck to his body, his clothes soaked as he rose on unsteady feet, swaying to grab his bedstand to prevent himself from falling over as he coughed, clearing his throat of phlegm.

"That wasn't that bad," Kon muttered to himself, only half believing it as he went to leave the room and to the shared washroom. The door opened and he stared at Benny's face from inches away, the old man's eyes crinkled with worry as his strong hands reached out to grab his shoulders before Kon could slump forward.

"Boyo, how much did you use?" Benny asked as he helped Kon out of the room, holding his limp body up.

"Had to use an E-Grade to finish it. My body consumed all the F-Grades like they were nothing," Kon said again, coughing at the end as his throat still felt filled of phlegm.

"One thing to read about it, another to see it. I could feel the disturbance from my room. Had enough energy coursing through here to make a few runes, let alone one. Got worried you'd decided to take more than what was owed," Benny said as he dragged Kon toward the showers.

"No. It just gets harder and harder to absorb the energy. Need more of it each time," Kon said as Benny gently tossed him into a shower, turning the water on before Kon could get out of his clothes.

"You stink," Benny explained as Kon shivered under the piercing cold water, his teeth instantly chattering as his body jerked alert, the fuzzy haze around him disappearing.

"It seems he's finished forming?" Diur said, sticking her head around Benny to look at Kon, eyes filled with concern. It softened when she saw him, relief flickering across her features before her normal placid mask returned.

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"It doesn't seem so bad. He's not spitting blood this time," Diur said with a nod, before disappearing. Benny gave him another once over to make sure he wasn't about to collapse, before closing the door and giving him the privacy to finish bathing. He stripped down, bathing as fast as he could while shivering under the brutal blast of cold.

There was a series of spare jumpsuits kept in the washroom that they all used while on the ship, and Kon quickly was dressed in fresh clothes and leaving the washroom, feeling slightly more human again. The door opened without sound and he stepped out.

"GAHHHH!" Benny screamed in his face, appearing from nowhere. Kon's heart rate spiked as he punched out instantly, his fist grazing by the man's long mustache as Benny jerked his head back. Kon stood there panting, staring at his extended fist as Benny looked at him while stroking his mustache.

"Yeah. Looks like a decent increase to his reflexes. Nothing to write home about, but when we finish up the next level of body cultivation, he'll be a mean bastard, no doubt," Benny said. Diur was standing a few feet away and nodded in agreement as Kon just stared at the duo.

"What was that?!" Kon yelled at them when he finally recovered.

"Testing to see if all those energy cores were worth it," Benny said with a shrug. Diur nodded with him as Kon looked between the two of them as he slowly controlled his breathing.

"And?" Kon spat.

"Ehh. We'll see. Diur's going to keep her cultivation going while the two of us train a bit more with your new rune. Then you two are going to clear those rifts and bring back the treasures. Can use them for trade to find something for you," Benny said, shooing Diur back to her room as Kon walked toward the main room.

"If we're going to be pushing you into a close combat role, we're going to be working harder in the gym. Need you to hit harder than everyone else if you're going this route. I don't train good, I train the best. You understand?" Benny asked, standing there with his hands at his side, but there was an air of excitement around him.

"I'm fine with hard training. Alice wasn't the most gentle," Kon said.

"Sounds like a fine instructor. But of the many talents I have, healing isn't one of them. Well, not of the way you know it anyways," Benny said, the last part mostly a low grumble.

"We'll just have to go a little slower," Kon said with a shrug. Benny titled his head and blinked slowly a few times.

"No. It's just going to take longer to heal you than a moment. Now, to the gym," Benny said, waving his hand toward the correct hidden door. The two of them found themselves staring down each other, their hands raised in guard positions.

"I have been teaching you slowly but I know the path now. Are you ready?" Benny asked. Kon nodded and then Benny was there, punching him in the face.

His head jerked to the side and he kneed the Knight in the gut, pain flaring through his leg as he hit what felt like steel. Kon rolled, instantly as his body reacted before he could think. Benny's leg flashed through the space he'd just occupied, a blow that could have crushed bone if it'd connected. Kon rolled fast, leaping to his feet just as a heel was driven into the ground where his face had been.

Benny was a whirlwind of strikes, faster and faster until Kon was moving only on instinct, his only defence was retreat as the old man pushed him. Sweat covered his body as he felt energy roar into his mind, fueling both his sensory rune and the reaction rune. It was the only thing that let him keep up with the knight.

In between the blurring fists and lighting fast kicks, Kon glimpsed Benny's face. He looked bored. As if he had done this a thousand times before and it took nothing to keep moving at the pace he was going. As if Kon was beneath his notice, not worthy of his full attention.

A kernel of anger sprouted in his stomach as he gritted his teeth and Kon felt his body respond to the anger, power surging from the depths as his heart began to hammer his ribs. Kon threw himself back, not allowing the sudden burst of power reveal itself, no matter how bad his body ached to act, he controlled himself.

Benny threw the same combination of blows he'd done twice now, a straight jab, a low leg kick that transitioned into a roundhouse kick that ended in a right cross. Kon had barely been staying ahead of the combination before, but now he could feel it coming and he reacted.

He dodged the jab, twitching his head to the side and lifting his leg as the low leg kick swished by without contact. Kon leapt forward even as Benny began his roundhouse, slamming his fist under the Knight's ribs with all the power he had. Something cracked in his hand, but Kon gritted his teeth and hit him with a straight as Benny staggered back a single step.

Bone met cartilage and Benny's nose burst in a spray of blood. The old man suddenly disappeared, increasing his speed until Kon couldn't see him even with all his runes running at full power. He reappeared a second later, staring at Kon with calculating eyes.

"We're going to have to fix that trigger. Can't be anger that lets you start pulling from your reserves. Took you long enough," Benny said as he cracked his neck side to side, allowing a bit of a smile to cross his face as he reached up with hand to touch his busted nose. Power hinted around him, crackling tendrils that touched everything at once, and Kon looked away before he could become ensnared in the rune again.

"What's the matter? My nose is unbroken. As is your hand," Benny said. A stab of pain shot through his body as bone adjusted in his hand. Kon looked up to see Benny wince as his nose straightened, a flare of power radiating from the rune before it disappeared again.

"Told you. Healing just not in the way you're used to. Anything short of death," Benny said with a cruel look in his eyes as he lifted his hands back into a boxing guard. He stalked forward, already bobbing and weaving as he cut the distance between them.

"Now that you've figured out how to draw on your reserves, I guess it's time to see how deep they are." Kon's stomach sank as he lifted his hands up in a similar guard. It was going to be a long, hard workout, where Benny would press him to the utmost, he knew it.

"Then why am I happy?"

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