Two weeks passed. I could effortlessly use Rapture whenever I wanted, and my body was getting stronger.

  Even so, I couldn’t close my gap with Nigel. It seemed like he was growing taller and getting stronger every day. His blows were harder to handle, and his kindness pissed me off more and more every time he beat me. I’d have preferred gloating, honestly. Each time he beat me, Nigel would pick me up, apologize, and point out things I could have done better.

  I wanted to cut his arms off every time he spoke. Fortunately, the Trailblazers started taking Nigel with them on low-level missions. He was technically a member of their group through the Guild, and I wasn’t, so I wasn’t allowed to participate. It gave me plenty of time to practice independently without interruption or criticism.

  Thunk!

  My arrow hit the center of a makeshift dummy Quintin made for me when I was younger. It hit the head, pairing with the two other arrows I’d already fired near that spot.

  “Maybe I’m meant to fight at a distance forever,” I thought as I admired my skills.

  I sent a fourth arrow into the dummy’s head, prickling its artificial face with wooden shafts. After that, a fifth arrow left my bow. It landed right between the other four arrows I’d arranged in a near-perfect box in the dummy’s head.

  “I’m still pissed, though. If I could just use mana with the bow, then—”

  Oh. Wait!

  I fueled air mana into my arms. The speed at which I could notch and release an arrow doubled.

  “That’s helpful,” I muttered. “Faster, but not as accurate,” I assessed as I stared at all the slightly-off-the-mark hits I’d made. “Still doesn’t change the fact I’m useless at close range. Doesn’t make me any stronger.”

  Annoyed, I headed toward my house and peeked through the kitchen window to see how dinner was coming. Amalia was slowly cooking food while Quintin sat calmly in the kitchen. Neither noticed my presence.

  “Go get her,” ordered Amalia.

  “She’s only been out there a few minutes, and the food’s not ready yet. Give her a bit more time,” replied Quintin. “She needs to blow off some steam. Barcus says Yen’s getting frustrated. Nigel’s beating her pretty consistently at this point, and he says he can sense it’s starting to eat at her.”

  “Is there any way you can help?”

  “Not from me, no. He’s teaching her the Warring style, and I never liked it enough during my military training to keep up with it. Hell, they wouldn’t let me once they saw my skills with the Heavenly techniques,” gloated Quintin. “I mean, it’s just better. If you stop a Warring user’s first attack, they’re easy to handle. Then it’s just down to skill. Heavenly style’s harder to learn but precise and powerful. An equalizer, honestly.”

  “Teach it to me!” I shouted, pointing at Quintin.

  Quintin jolted with a start while Amalia stumbled forward and nearly knocked what she was cooking to the floor.

  “Sorry!” I apologized, excited. My gaze focused intently on Quintin. “Speed isn’t enough to beat Nigel. I need an edge. If the Heavenly style is what you say it is, I want to learn it. Please.”

  “I don’t know…”

  “You said it yourself. We have time.” Amalia nudged her head at the door. “Go. Your daughter’s asking for your help.”

  “O-Okay.”

  Quintin soon found himself in the setting sun holding a practice sword. He uncomfortably scratched the back of his head while I stared at him with sparkling eyes, waiting for his wisdom.

  “I feel bad teaching you something without talking to Barcus first,” admitted Quintin. “Might disrupt his training process. We are paying him.”

  “Nigel beats me four out of every five times we spar, and soon, he’ll beat me five out of five. I don’t care about Barcus. I just want to get stronger,” I replied quickly. “I get the importance of training in the Warring style. It has value. I’ll keep practicing it, but I still want to learn something different. Just increasing my speed isn’t helpful, and Bydon won’t teach us the Chaos style cause of our ages. Barcus hasn’t even offered to teach me the Heavenly style, but it’s all I have left. This is important. Now…Heavenly style. What do I need to know?”

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  Quintin sighed. “Right. Well, I can’t blame you for your frustration. I wouldn’t say I liked the Warring style either. It didn’t mesh with my personality.”

  “Your personality? Why would that matter?”

  Quintin crinkled his brow. “Using internal mana of a certain element affects your senses.”

  “It does?”

  “Haven’t you noticed?”

  “Nope.”

  “Air clears your mind and narrows your focus,” said Quintin. “Try it.”

  Curious, I circulated air mana in my core inside my body. Sure enough, I felt the myriad thoughts bouncing around in my brain dim until only the world around me mattered.

  Oh. That explains a lot. I can see why this works for some people, but I hate it. It’s better for people who move on impulse. I’m too much of an over-thinker.

  “Water mana heightens your senses, and that ability gets better as you train,” said Quintin. “Circulating air makes you feel faster, and earth makes you feel sturdier. Water increases your reaction time and flexibility, so the Heavenly style is based around parrying, blocking, and creating openings for powerful deathblows.”

  That might be exactly what I need.

  “Give it a shot, yeah? If you can use the Warring style, you can already internalize elemental mana. Instead of air, use water now.”

  Nodding, I changed the feeling of air in my core to water.

  “How does it feel?” asked Quintin. His words came out much slower than expected.

  My inner thoughts expanded. Planning became easier. My thoughts were more fluid. Everything around me looked clearer. Sounds were more precise.

  Why haven’t I tried this with any of the other elements? I guess I’ve been so focused on the Warring style and my current failures that the thought hasn’t really come to mind.

  I stopped the flow. “I like that. How do you fight with it?”

  “You pool your mana into your weapons,” explained Quintin. “The Warring style is a total body enhancement. The Heavenly style is a weapon enhancement. In that respect, the Chaos style sits in between the two.”

  Quintin walked over to a woodpile by a stump we used to make firewood. He put a log on top, grabbed his axe, and split it in half. “That’s a normal weapon. When you use the Heavenly style, your weapon gets enhanced.” Quintin tossed aside the axe and held out his hand. “Even your hands.”

  I watched my father place another block of wood on the stump, one much larger than the last. He primed his hand. Green particles bloomed and floated out of his palms like dusty fireflies. He swung down his hand and split the firewood as easily as he did using the axe.

  I clapped.

  Smiling, Quintin bowed. “Always appreciated.” He grabbed his practice sword. “And if you use a weapon, the effects will be even greater.” He placed a third piece of wood on the stump and swung.

  His attack split the wood and the stump underneath and slashed the dirt under the stump.

  I want it.

  “Just think of it like water’s filling a hand-shaped cup,” I told myself. I circulated mana in my core and altered it with water.

  “It’s the same as the Warring style. Circulate and move it into the area you want to enhance,” explained Quintin.

  I immediately visualized my sword as an outgrowth of my palm.

  “Don’t worry. It’ll take a few tries for you to get the—”

  “Got it,” I said. White particles rose from my hands. “That makes so much more sense.”

  “A-Ah! Good job,” said Quintin. His face marred with surprise. “That’s…That’s great. You did that on your first try. I didn’t even know that was possible.”

  “Like I said, it makes sense.” I paused. “How does this work for weapons? They’re not a part of the body. How do you conceptually pool mana into them?”

  “Well, you need to—”

  “Visualize them as extensions of myself?”

  “Y-Yeah.”

  “How is that any different from external mana?” I wondered. “Oh, you’ve got to maintain the connection to your core, right? Or at least your hand. Circulate the mana from the weapon to the core like you’re bonding it to yourself, right? Hold on. I’ll try it out.”

  I snatched the practice sword I usually used off the ground and funneled mana into it. I could feel my mana pool into the weapon, but it also felt like some energy chain was still connecting the sword to my body. Little particles beaded from the practice blade.

  “Oh my Gods,” uttered Quintin. “How?”

  “Can I put this in a projectile?” I asked, already knowing the answer. “Like my bow?”

  Quintin nodded his head. “O-Oh, yeah, it’s the same way.”

  “But when the arrow leaves my hand, it’ll lose the connection to my body.”

  “B-But it’ll have a mana charge and strengthen your arrow. You can try it if you—and she’s already picking up a bow.”

  I notched an arrow, filled that arrow with mana, and fired. The connection to my hand snapped, but I didn’t feel the energy return to me. Instead, it left with the arrow.

  The head of the dummy, the one I’d used for years, burst apart when my arrow hit it.

  “Interesting. And I lose the mana when it separates from me. Then again, I’m losing mana every time I fight with the style, so there isn’t much of a difference,” I reasoned. A smile overtook my face. “Nigel’s in for it now.”

  “Yen, sweety?

  “Yes, father?”

  Quintin peered at me wearily. After a while, he crouched down and held my shoulders. “The Gods gave you your gifts for a reason. I don’t know if there’s anyone like you in this world, and I’d say that even if you weren’t my daughter.” He stared at me. “What do you want to do with the power you’ve obtained, Yen?

  “I wish to go on a brutal massacre of all the humans who ever wronged me,” I said in a dark, quick voice.

  Quintin’s eyes widened, and he flinched.

  I laughed. “Just kidding. I couldn’t care less.” I paused. “I don’t know. I just want to feel safe.”

  Quintin’s voice filled with religious undertones. “Don’t you feel called to be something more?”

  “Nope!”