While Alea was blasted back about twenty feet from her own blast, the man was only sent back ten.

  Ten turned out to be enough.

  He was just barely outside of the line of bricks that make up the fighting ring.

  Unlike the mumbles and random claps that Will received during his fights, Alea receives a full round of applause. Which Will gladly joins in on as he walks outside the observation booth to clap for Alea.

  The man frowned as he looked around at the crowd, and then he glances down at his feet and the realization hits him.

  The smugness that he had on his face for the majority of the fight turns to anger. He glares at Alea, who is breathing heavily, sweat dripping off her brow, and is clearly exhausted from using so much fire.

  He takes a step towards her, embarrassment and revenge on his face.

  The two judges, who were watching from a few feet outside the ring disappear.

  The next millisecond, one appears behind the man with a hand place on his shoulder, the other appears in front of him, a hand placed half on his chest and shoulder on the opposite side of the other ref.

  “The fight is over. You lost boy. You will respect the rules or we’ll put you down. Am I understood?”

  The man looks at the ref, his face getting more and more red. For a second, Will thought he was really about to let his anger get the best of him. It would of been funny to see such a prideful person be handled like a toddler by the two refs. But fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, he forces himself to calm down and growls out a “Yes sir.”

  The disgruntled fighter walks away and Alea walks back to where Will is standing, a big smile on her face.

  “That was amazing!” Will says as she gets close enough.

  She nods at the booth. “Let’s go inside.”

  He nods and follows her in. Once the door is closed she yells. “I did it!” Will laughs at her excited outburst. “That jerk was tough. But I was able to take him down!”

  “Yea speaking about that. What kind of power did he have? I couldn’t tell.”

  “Gravity.”

  “What?! No way! Wait..isn’t gravity magic rare? I don’t know why but I thought it was.”

  “Eh. It’s not as common as the four elements, but you’ll come across it from time to time. Luckily his finesse and control with it were lacking. But his raw power with it was insane. I didn’t think I’d run into anything that could hold me down but he came burning close.”

  “So that’s what happened! I was wondering about that.”

  “Yea. Basically took everything I had to fight him. Which sucks, because now everyone will know what I have.”

  “True, but we knew this would happen when Taleya signed you up for this division. The whole point was for you to push yourself. Besides, they might know how much raw power you have now, but not fine control. It just so happened that guy’s element and power countered yours pretty well.”

  “I don’t know Will. No one in the Mind Realm should be lacking in raw power. Maybe he did counter me well, but I’m going to struggle like this with every fighter I face.” He can tell she’s worried. Seeing that emotion in her, her confidence flagging slightly, makes Will realize that she’s just as young as he is. She’s so confident all the time that Will started to think of her as older.

  Will softens his voice slightly. “You were trained by one of the best teachers of fine control there are. Plus we’ve been working on new techniques for you to try. Why not use this platform to try them out? And besides I wouldn’t worry about raw power for now. The second you hit the Mind realm I want to help you advance your fire.”

  “….what do you mean?”

  Will rubs the back of his head. “I know some things. I can’t tell you how I know them, just know that I do. In this case, I know some things about a few of the elements. Not enough to help people at our master’s level. But people like us? It should definitely come in handy.”

  Alea stayed quiet for a little while, thinking it over. “My master always said that advancements in your element should come from personal experience. That if you haven’t figured anything else out about it then that means you don’t have enough experience with it yet. She calls it the grind of elemental strengthening. Wouldn’t this be…I don’t know, cheating or something?”

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “No, I think I understand what she means. There are definitely aspects of an element, let’s call it the element’s nature, that have to be experienced to be truly understood. Those advancements definitely have to be realized through experience.” Will shrugged. “But there are other aspects of an element that can be described. Might take a couple explanations because there’s kind of a lot of ground work of knowledge that has to be understood first. But for the most part, at least for what I know, it can be taught.”

  Alea just stood there and stared at him.

  “And you’d be willing to just..teach me?”

  Will shrugged again. “Sure. Why not?”

  “Oh I don’t know, because that kind of knowledge sounds like the sort of thing that is kept closely guarded. Sort of like, you know, a powerful sect’s closely kept secrets?”

  “Hmm. Taleya did mention something about that once. But I’ve always been a big believer in shared knowledge. Rising tide raises all boats kind of thing.”

  “I swear you’re such a weird boy.”

  Will laughed. “Yea, I get that a lot.”

  Will and Alea watched the rest of the fights, studying every single competitor, trying to brainstorm techniques that would work for as many of them as they could think up. It was a great exercise in not just battle strategy, but also in trying to come up with new and exciting techniques to try out using with her element.

  Once the Mind realm tournament was over for the day, the two of them decided to head into town and celebrate the win both of them had today.

  They were both hard fought and hard won. They both agreed that a little relaxation was in order. Alea suggested that they try walking around the town square and seeing all the booths and shops.

  Will immediately thought of all the times he saw a town or city center filled with shops and stalls in anime and immediately got excited. He was never one for shopping, mostly because he never had any money for it. But still, how could living out an experience he’d seen all the time in anime not be a fun time?

  He agreed and off they went.

  To say it was better than he expected would be an understatement.

  One of the first stalls he saw was an assortment of all kinds of weapons. Will looked wide eyed at the selection and was immediately about to walk over to the store when he felt Alea tug him back by his jacket.

  “What’s the matter with you? Everyone knows you never go to the first stall you see. They’re at the edges for a reason.”

  “Oh. Right. I knew that.”

  Alea rolled her eyes at him and they kept walking.

  Will saw stalls and stores selling all kinds of amazing things. From enchanted jewelry and accessories, to more weapons, to actual potions!

  Will couldn’t be stopped as he bolted over to the stall, a half amused, half confused Alea walking behind him.

  “Alea look! Actual potions!” Will forgot himself for a second as he looked at them all. There were blue ones and green ones, red ones and then weird clear ones.

  Hmm I bet the blue is for Qi and the red is for health. But what the heck are the green and clear ones for?

  “Ah young master has a very discerning eye.” A portly middle aged man with slicked back brown hair walks up to them after getting done talking to another customer. He smells a little but has clean robes. Weird.

  “I can always identify the customers with an eye for quality, and you sir definitely do.”

  Alea rolled her eyes. “Why did you get so excited for potions? They’re pretty standard stuff.” She glanced at the smelly man and smiled evilly. “Except for these hunks of trash. You could find higher quality in the slums.”

  The salesmen glared at Alea. “I’ll have you know every single one of these potions are top of their class! Why, every adventurer in the land would kill to have them and be grateful to be able to draw on them in times of need!”

  Will ignored their bickering and started talking out loud. “Hmm, so the blue help replenish Qi? But Qi doesn’t really run out. And the red is a health potion? That one’s easy to guess. But what about the green and clear?”

  The two of them looked at Will like he was an alien. Which he guesses isn’t that far from the truth.

  The portly salesmen whispers loudly to Alea. “Is he dense?”

  Will rubs the back of his head and chuckles. “Sorry about that. I’m…from the sticks.” Will smiles to himself at his own joke. Getting lost in the sticks was how he got here. “And I’ve never really had much exposure to potions.”

  “Well then young man allow me to educate you!” The salesmen puffs himself up with an air of self importance. “The red potions are indeed healing potions. From cuts to damaged organs, these potions will cure everything short of regrowing a limb! The blue is indeed a Qi potion, but think of it less as an addition to Qi, and more like a jump start to the Qi already circulating throughout your body. It will revitalize your Qi circulation regardless of exhaustion level and allow you to fight for longer.”

  The comparison reminded Will of something. “So like an energy drink for your Qi?”

  The man stared at Will askance. “What, exactly, is an energy drink?”

  Will curses to himself. What a stupid slip up Will.

  He changed the subject to try and distract the man. “So how long does the potion allow you to fight for?”

  The man stares for a moment longer but seems to let the question go. “Everyone is different. The potions simply react to every individual differently. However, the higher you are in cultivation generally, the shorter and weaker the reaction.”

  “Ah, makes sense. And the other colors?”

  “The green is to treat poisons, toxins and a strong enough drought will even help alleviate the effects of lingering aggressive Concepts.”

  Concept?

  “We’re not sure why, but health potions just don’t treat any of those.”

  “That’s really interesting.” Will said.

  “Is it though?” Alea says from the side.

  Will ignored her. It really is an interesting fact. The science nerd in him wanted to find out the why’s of it all. But the secrets of potion making would have to wait.

  “The clear potions boost the effectiveness of one’s aura.”

  “Allegedly.” Alea says with thick sarcasm.

  “The chances of it working do differ from cultivator to cultivator I’ll admit, but they do work miss.” The man puffs himself up with a self important air again. “Reginald Snader would never sell anything that wasn’t worth selling.”

  “Unfortunately they won’t help you.”

  Will turns at the sound of the new voice.