"I don't wanna feel like the idiot in the room here but what the hell's 'Spirit Distortion'?" Ace asked and it seemed like Raten was also unaware of what it meant as well.
"You're not an idiot. I doubt most people know about it." Florian sighed, beginning to explain, "Spirit Distortion is a condition that's most common with Zen Wielders at a younger age. Their Spirit Shard becomes hazy because their Zen energy leaks out from it and forms a smoke cloud around it, making it difficult to know what Stage they're at."
"Normally, it only lasts for a short period- two weeks at most before the end of childhood but..." He trailed off, unsure of why the condition affected him even though he was long past being a child. Gaining this new information, even more questions about his origin sprouted in Raten's mind.
He looked at his bare hands, clenching them. "What are we waiting for? Let's get to training," he stated, coming off as dismissive about the information he had just received but Ace knew better.
"Alright!"
* * *
Four days later.
In a forest between Dreamdale and Quilton village, in a cleared out area, Raten and Ace were engaged in battle.
On the first day of training, they had grown tired of using the Training Hall, needing more space to train so Florian had recommended the place. The forest was in no way dangerous as most higher Staged Taikon Beasts had been consumed by the occasional hunting activities members of the Heart would engage in to retrieve their valuable Spirit Stones.
At first, it wasn't as spacious as it was now and they had eventually grown frustrated with the trees interfering with their spars as well as the piling bodies of the crawling creatures that had unfortunately been cuaght in their crossfire.
"Raten, we need to do something about this. This is starting to look cruel." Ace pointed out when his deflected energy ball had completely terminated an unsuspecting dove.
So they decided to kill two birds with one stone, clearing the trees in their surrounding sparring ground, aiding in their training in the process.
Raten hurled a punch at him but the Energy User blocked with his forearms before retaliating by swerving and performing a sweeping kick. But Raten jumped back and ran forward just as swiftly, using his knees to hit Ace's head, slamming him into the bark of a particular thick tree several metres away.
"Ha-ha." Raten snickered in amusement as he remained charging forward but was surprised that his knee was hitting something else. It was his opponent's hand. "Damnit." Ace had blocked the attack with his arm on time.
In retailation, he gripped on the Zen Wielder's knee with both arms, lifting his whole body off the ground and smacking him against the tree behind him, the tree being the one to suffer the most for this attack as its root were ejected from the soil.
They changed up their training once in a while, sometimes they would practice with just their Power. Other times, it would just be hand-to-hand combat. In the current case, it was the latter and someone watched them from above for his own entertainment.
"Ace and Raten... They both get too cocky," Florian analyzed, sitting on a wooden platform he had made from some of the trees whilst using chopsticks to slurp up noodles. "Mm. I always forget how much of an impact Winter's cooking leaves on my mouth. How is this so good?"
Ace was still swinging Raten's body against the trees which proved to be incredibly light, hurting the Zen Wielder every time he was smashed against one.
"That's it!" Raten pulled away forcefully, freeing himself much to the other's surprise before performing a flip in the process and landing on the ground. His opponent was still recovering from the shock and Raten capitalized on it. Running forward, he attempted the same kick from before.
'He's trying it again. No, it's a feint.' He thought, gathering his bearings while trying to analyze the grin on his face. 'No, he assumes I think it's a feint so I should block it.' He positioned his forearm in the area his sparring partner was aiming at but instead, he received a punch in the gut and then a kick to his neck that sent him flying.
Raten wasn't going to give him a chance to recover as he bolted in his direction.
Dust was kicked up from the ground because of Ace's impact. A fist came through the dust but Raten caught it, punching his arm but he received a kick to his leg as well, bringing him down.
The dust had completely cleared at this point and they could be seen in a stalemate with Raten gripping onto Ace's fist while the latter kept his leg pressed down on the former. A bit of blood could be seen dripping down their foreheads, some slight bruises were also visible on their face and torso from all their brawling.
"Oh, they've never reached a stalemate before. I wonder what'll happen now." Florian thought aloud, having finished his collation. Most of the grove grew silent simply because most of the animals had been driven away when they cleared the area for their informal training ground. Only the steady breathing of the two brawlers resonated. They were both clothed in sleeveless garments that allowed free movement and also showed off their chiseled, bulging muscles.
"Give up."
"Never," Ace retorted through gritted teeth, keeping his hold on Raten's leg hardened for as long as possible. A bead of sweat rolled down the side of the Zen Wielder's face as he felt his palm slip but he gripped on even firmer, squeezing his partner's fist.
Two minutes went by and Florian had grown bored of reviewing their stalemate, deciding to head back, leaving the pair alone.
*
"Alright. This and that and also that." Annie rifled through her personal wardrobe, picking out the things she knew would be necessary if she wanted to wow the kids yet again. She laid them all across her bed, gleaming at them with a sense of pride in her commitment to what others may have found silly.
"Wait, where's that thing I bought the other day?" She scoured the wardrobe yet again but was unable to find it. "Oh, yeah. Hello, Annie!" She facepalmed lightly before crouching and reaching under her bed, successfully locating the missing item.
"Alright, into the rabbit hole." One by one, she flung the items into her hat which seemed to have a limited dimensional space of its own, allowing her to store everything with ease.
In a matter of jumps and light sprinting, Florian had arrived at the Heart Base, laying his eyes on Annie who was on her way out.
"Oh. Hey, Florian." She waved at him, making her way to him. He waved back. "Hey! Have you seen Raten by any chance? He was supposed to assist me in my show at Dreamdale," Annie asked to which he nodded.
"Great! Can you tell me where he is?"
"Wait, did you say he was gonna help you? With your magic show?" He asked in disbelief.
Annie broke into a smile. "Right! It sounds crazy but he's like a totally different person when it comes to entertaning the kids. And he looks so happy and goddamn charming when he does," She said, cooking up a dreamy version of him smiling flirtatiously with a pink rose between his pearl white in her imagination.
"Anyway, he's training with Ace at the forest," he divulged.
Her eyebrows perked up with a surprised look on her countenance. "Oh. Well, it's fine, I guess. He can just hop along next time. I better go get the equipment I'll use to wow the kids." She rushed off while Florian zipped to his room, aiming to take a nap.
An hour later, Annie was on her way to Dreamdale for her usual activity when she caught a glimpse of her roommates in the forest she had chosen to travel through. "What are they doing?" Jumping off the trees and landing on the cleared out field, she closed the distance enough to see what exactly they were up to.
Raten and Ace were still in the same positions they had been in for over an hour, neither of them giving out and not wanting to admit defeat to the other. Every muscle in their body remained tense and were at the breaking point. They're exhaustion was clear but nevertheless, they persisted.
"Ugh, hello?!"
"Annie?!" The boys let out simultaneously, losing out to fatigue and dropping to the ground in groans of exhaustion. "Damnit!"
Annie chuckled mirthfully, making her way to them. "Hey, it's cool if I join your training sometimes, right?" She asked as the boys were still recovering their stamina, greedily taking in air and panting.
"Sure. Whenever you like," Ace replied at last in between large gasps of air, much to her delight.
"I'm going to perform for the kids at Dreamdale," she mentioned, getting a reaction from the black haired boy. "Raten, you coming?"
"Yeah. Just... Give me... a minute."