Kendra and the other nobles quickly left the dining hall after our exchange was concluded. Five waited a few minutes, then also left without any further words. I hurried to the kitchen's serving area, which was still barred by a metal grill. It was dim on the other side, and I couldn't see anyone there. I banged a couple of times on the grill, but no one came, so I gave up and headed to the infirmary.

Matrina confirmed that the small vial of clear liquid that Kendra had given me was, in fact, a minor healing elixir. I hadn't trusted the noble enough to drink the mixture blindly.

"Did you eat anything?" Matrina asked after handing the vial back to me.

"No," I replied, hoping she would offer something.

"Good," Matrina said. "Best to take that on an empty stomach."

I thanked the old woman for her advice, then returned to my room in Quarters, which was empty. I resisted the urge to glance inside the crystal partition that Naisha and Alanna had set up for their half of the sleeping area, instead going into the washroom, a large rectangular room with the bathing supplies on the right half of the room, a tall wall-to-wall mirror on the left, and a small covered opening that led to the garbage chute in front of me. I undressed and lowered myself into the large ceramic basin that served as a bathtub.

I wasn't going to take any chances after my experience with the qi pill. My knowledge of how alchemical medicines worked was rudimentary, but I knew that the principle was roughly similar for both qi pills and healing elixirs. They would introduce a quantity of easily-assimilated qi, although in the healing elixir's case, the qi was a specialized form distilled for restoration, rather than permanent refinement.

I removed the small glass stopper from the vial and drank the bitter liquid quickly. My tongue and throat itched as I swallowed the elixir, but the liquid didn't reach my stomach, instead seemingly dissipating into my torso directly. A flash of heat spread through my body, then surged intensely within my injured hand and the sides of my head.

The injured areas grew uncomfortably hot and ached. Meanwhile, the qi within my core danced about in response to an influx of strange spiritual energy. I couldn't absorb and process this energy, not like the qi from a pill, but the energy still disappeared as if consumed. The process wasn't as painful as the forced transition to Grandmaster, but the itchy sensation that had started in my mouth had spread until my whole body, inside and out, had an unpleasant scratchiness to it. But as the strange energy within me dissipated, so did the discomfort.

I looked down at my right hand. The red, broken flesh on my hand had mended already, a mix of white scarred tissue and new pink skin now present. I touched the sides of my head and found that my ears had returned as well. I turned to look at myself in the mirror. My hair was slick with sweat, my face flushed red. More importantly, my ears were back, although as I turned my head one way, and then the other, I could have sworn that they were slightly larger and protruded slightly further out to the sides than I remembered.

Good enough. Amazing, really, given that this was the first time I had used a healing elixir of any kind.

I quickly washed up, dressed, and grabbed a handful of pre-stocked rations from my storage locker--a stick of dried meat and several squares of hard tack. I ate in a hurry and made my way back to the Homeroom in time for the afternoon class.

Everyone else looked to be there by the time I arrived. Ikari wasn't present, but I immediately spotted a new figure, the presumed second instructor, standing in the center of the room coolly observing us.

The statuesque woman had reddish-brown hair cut almost as short as mine, severe brown eyes, and a stern mouth set in a permanent frown. Her robes were a drab blue, similar to what was provided in the storage lockers. She had hidden her aura, but the physical sense of power was unmistakable. She wore no sword at her side, but neither had Ikari.

I walked to the group of students, staying on the side furthest from Kendra, where my teammates were standing. Alanna stepped closer.

"I heard what happened," she said, nudging her head subtly towards the other nobles.

Naisha cut in between us. "Kendra's pissed at me, like I had something to do with it. She won't even talk to me now."

Alanna shrugged. "I say that's for the better."

"It was two against one," I said. "It wouldn't have ended badly, otherwise."

"And this isn't bad?" Naisha asked in a huff. "At this rate, no one will want to talk to us."

"You would have let Five fall?" I asked. I liked to know who I could count on and who I couldn't when it mattered. Five, despite his prickly nature, had at least shown his worth in the midst of a duel.

"If I were him, I would have yielded, or run, or not been looking for trouble in the first place," Naisha said.

I glanced at Five, but he didn't seem bothered by Naisha's words. His right sword hand was wrapped in a brown cloth. So, he had chosen not to use another elixir yet.

"You, not looking for trouble?" Alanna raised an eyebrow. "That certainly explains your night time hobbies."

"That's different," Naisha said, crossing her arms. "It is. It's training!"

Alanna shook her head. "Fine. But the four of us need to stick together." She pointed her finger at me. "Talen here's shown he's the reliable sort. I made a good choice, admit it."

Naisha waved Alanna away. "Whatever."

The air around me suddenly thickened, for lack of a better word, and a heavy pressure surrounded me on all sides, not forcing me to my knees, but slowing any movement as if I was swimming in a thick molasses.

I immediately looked to the silent instructor. She had taken a step forward from her previous position, and her arms were clasped behind her.

"I am Chalisa, disciple of Shiah, your instructor in Qi Shaping."

The blue letters appeared in front of me without any command on my part.

Classes

Swordcraft I: 0%

Qi Shaping I: 0%

The heaviness around me wavered, traveling up and down my body, before it dissipated from all around me at once. I had the strange notion that I had been inspected.

"Should we sit?" someone asked.

"I care not." Chalisa surveyed us once more. "A pity. Not a single one of you has any qi shaping ability to speak of."

I frowned, as did many of the others. Most of us could perform basic qi manipulations, and my own handling of qi was higher than average. I knew Naisha could perform her qi walking and binding to a level that few others could mimic. Yet, the woman still considered all of that beneath her notice. She, undoubtedly, existed at a far higher rank than any of us. We kept quiet except for Naisha, who whispered to Alanna.

"You think she has flying swords, too?" Naisha asked.

Chalisa's eyes latched onto Naisha before Alanna could reply. "Flying swords? Please. I suppose you'll be wanting a demonstration. They always do, thanks to my less subtle colleagues. I'll need four volunteers."

Chalisa continued to stare at Naisha. No one else moved or spoke.

"Does she mean us?" Naisha murmured. "What if we lose another hundred points?"

I wouldn't have minded volunteering, but I had been wondering the same thing as well.

"Guys?" Naisha shifted nervously.

Alanna and I exchanged glances. She nodded, then elbowed Five, who was pretending to yawn.

"You can run," Five said in a low, lazy voice. "Or not get into trouble in the first place."

"Five!" Alanna hissed.

Five smirked. "Lucky for you, I like trouble." He stepped forward.

Alanna grabbed Naisha's hand and pulled her along towards Five, with me trailing behind them. The four of us stood in a line before Chalisa. As before, the rest of the students backed away to the sides of the room.

"What do we have here?" Chalisa turned to Naisha, who was the furthest to her left in the line. "Palm lines suited for fine control. Feet implants for raw strength." Chalisa sniffed. "Too clumsy for thieving, even by human standards."

Naisha scowled and raised her head, but Alanna tugged on her arm sharply. Naisha lowered her head again without saying anything. I kept my face expressionless, although I was wondering about the last statement Chalisa had made. Did she not consider herself human?

Chalisa shook her head after looking at Alanna. "An inelegant brute. Wasted potential."

Five's held back a grin as Chalisa turned her attention to him.

"You find that amusing?" Chalisa asked. "If she's a brute, you're a wreck, an amalgam of mistaken possibilities. It's as if someone who actually knew what she was doing etched your lines while half-drunk, botching them all."

Five glowered back at Chalisa. "And what about the clansman?" he asked, indicating me with a nod.

Chalisa looked down at me along the length of her nose. "This one is...a nothing. A zero."

Although I had been expecting an insult, her comment still stung. The years of training--my whole life--reduced to nothing in her estimation. Her words only made me want to prove her wrong all the more, and judging from their bristling, the other three felt the same way.

Chalisa tilted her head slightly. "Oh? You wish to prove me wrong? Come, then. Attack me. Do you best. Or your worst, if it's any different." She turned away, pointedly ignoring us.

The four of us looked at each other.

"Plan?" Naisha asked.

"What difference does it make?" Five asked. He had already drawn his sword, although he was holding it with his left hand.

Alanna shrugged. "He's right. Let's just not get carried away this time."

Five grumbled something. "Fine, the rest of you go first. I'll look for an opening."

Seeing as there was no point in delaying, I drew Terminus and approached Chalisa. I took two steps towards her before an invisible force clamped onto my legs.

"Talen?" Alanna asked.

I strained, sending my qi through my legs, which took on a slightly yellow hue, but I could barely move them forward.

"I...can't...move." I forced each word out, as even moving my jaw had turned into a strenuous task.

I sheathed Terminus. I stopped trying to approach Chalisa and retreated instead. The invisible force holding me hostage went away.

Chalisa still faced away from us. "Do you see? All the theatrics, spinning swords, et cetera."

I understood clearly. She had somehow used the force of her aura, not as a heavy blanket of qi, but as a monstrous extension of her, to subject anything close to her to her will. The others wouldn't understand exactly what had happened. Chalisa was waiting for me to explain, I realized.

"I didn't sheath my sword," I said. "She forced me to, forced my arms to move."

I must have been at least ten feet away from her. The implication was staggering. I didn't know how far she could extend her aura with that much strength, but she had absolute control over her personal domain. She had overcome the strength of my body and spirit, making me put Terminus away like I was a puppet on strings. She could have easily taken hold of my heart or crushed the insides of my head, I imagined.

As did the others.

"Impossible," Alanna said in a low voice.

"Do you understand now?" Chalisa asked. "Swords, swordshifting, all that nonsense--for what? Master your qi, and you master the world."

Five lunged forward suddenly, his body glowing a bright golden hue, but he froze halfway through his attack, his body suspended partially mid-air. The veins on his neck bulged as he strained to fight Chalisa's aura, but he was helpless in her grasp. His body rotated until he was floating upright. Five put away his sword, lowered his arms to his side, and then bowed deeply, all the while raging in fury at his loss of control. Clearly, he wasn't bowing of his own volition.

"What's the point of this?" Naisha yelled angrily as she gestured to Five's bowing form. "You told us to attack you, but you're not even giving us a chance."

The force holding Five in the air let go, and he dropped to the ground, landing somewhat awkwardly on his feet. He stared at Chalisa but didn't move to attack again.

"True," Chalisa said. "You've seen what nine ranks of qi sheathes can accomplish. But now I'll fight you using only the most basic of qi shaping techniques. The qi touch."

Chalisa twitched her right hand's index finger. It was a small motion, barely perceptible had I not been studying her hand, wondering when the last time she had bothered to hold a sword.

Naisha cried out and slumped to one knee. I had seen a faint shimmer travel between Chalisa and Naisha just now, a distortion of the light.

Alanna crouched and touched Naisha's shoulder. "What is it? Are you okay?"

"Nevermind," Naisha growled. "Get her!"

The rest of us advanced cautiously towards Chalisa, unsure what her new attack was. Alanna's greatsword burst into yellow flames, but she immediately dropped her blade, the flames extinguished.

"Qi touch? You're not even touching her!" Naisha yelled.

Chalisa shrugged. "Very well. Approach."

Five immediately attacked with his sword's projectile tip, sending the triangular piece straight at Chalisa's throat. Chalisa tilted her head sideways and caught the two chains as they passed by. Golden light flowed down the length of the chains, and the sword tip spun in a slashing circle again aimed at Chalisa's neck.

The sword tip fell, lifeless, and the chains extending from Five's sword went slack. Five jerked backwards on his weapon, and Chalisa let go. The chains flared with light again as his sword tip retracted.

I was already slashing low at Chalisa's knees. Terminus was filled with a charge of qi, and when Chalisa slapped at the flat of my blade, I released an explosive burst of power, intending to avoid direct contact as I had done with Kendra before.

Flecks of golden light scattered from my sword, but there was no explosion. Chalisa's palm touched my blade, and my connection with Terminus was broken. I was no longer holding a spiritual extension of myself but a foreign, lifeless piece of metal that didn't respond to my will.

In that moment, I may have lost Terminus, but I still owned my hand. I twisted my sword, intending to scrape Chalisa's hand, but she dodged the attack with ease and stepped closer to me. She stabbed at my sword arm with two fingers extended like a knife blade. I withdrew to dodge her, but I wasn't fast enough. Her fingers grazed my bicep, and my arm went numb. I, too, dropped my sword.

By now, Five was slashing at Chalisa. Naisha had recovered and circled around with her twin short sword, as well, searching for an opening. Chalisa avoided Five's attacks with ease, despite not using a sword herself. Her hand touched Five's arm, then a leg in quick succession, and Five fell to the ground.

I had some idea of what she was doing. My qi had been cut off from my arm, but as the circulation returned, the numbness faded. She was disrupting the flow of qi, or dissipating it somehow. She had done something to the qi from Terminus as well to negate the explosion.

Naisha was on the ground once more. Alanna had retrieved her greatsword and was in the middle of delivering a powerful overhand swing when Chalisa lunged with a palm aimed straight for Alanna's stomach. Alanna doubled over and dropped.

Seeing as Chalisa wasn't using the mismatch in strength to harm us, I picked up Terminus and charged into the fray again. But I was here to improve, not to be battered about for no reason.

I swung at Chalisa again, angling Terminus for a crosswise cut across her torso. Chalisa lunged her arm past my blade, but this time, before she touched me, I cut the flow of qi to my sword arm.

For an instant, my arm hung limply, nothing but its momentum carrying it forward, Terminus already beginning to loosen from my grasp. Chalisa's warm fingers touched the back of my wrist, but this time she seized me, her hand clamping down like iron shackles.

A moment later, I sent my qi back into my arm, stirring it to life. I gripped Terminus before dropping it, attempting to swivel the blade with only my hand, as Chalisa held my arm in place. But Chalisa squeezed harder on my wrist, to the point of breaking.

I dropped the blade. "I yield!" I shouted, hoping she wouldn't crush my wrist bones.

Chalisa let go. "Good," she said. "You're learning. Explain what you did."

I rubbed my sore wrist. She hadn't beaten me with a qi-based technique. She had used the sheer difference in strength to overpower me by brute force.

"I cut the circulation of qi to my arm when you grabbed me, then restored it," I said. "Your qi touch failed, but..." I looked down at my wrist. "I couldn't match your strength."

Chalisa nodded and looked to the others, who were rising to their feet. "I used my own qi to disrupt the flow of qi within your own bodies and weapons. The turmoil from the interaction is enough to paralyze you for several seconds, but if you preemptively cut off the circulation, you won't suffer from the prolonged paralysis."

"But why paralyze?" Alanna asked. "If you can score a touch by hand, you could have scored a cut instead with a sword instead."

"Yes, you could," Chalisa said. "But forget the metal in your hand. You are the sword, and your qi is the blade. What is a fight between two sword artists? The act of imposing the strength of your qi upon the other. The qi touch is the first step. There are other benefits. Against a higher-ranked opponent, you may not have the strength to cut their flesh. But disrupting their qi is another matter.

"You sent these qi touches across a distance, too," I said. I had seen the quick flicker of something passing through the air then. "Was that the same?"

"Yes, some call that a qi bolt, but the principle is identical," Chalisa replied. "Other questions?"

"Who would win between you and Ikari?" Naisha asked with a wry expression.

"If we were both fighting freely, neither, for we would be equally matched," Chalisa said in a matter-of-factly tone. "But a battle is rarely fought without constraints."

I hadn't expected her to reply to Naisha's question, but her answer made sense. Disrupting, controlling--Chalisa could fulfill many other roles beyond pure swordplay. But as the disciple of Kizen the warrior, I had to guess that Ikari would triumph in a measure of pure offensive capabilities.

"For while our power is equal, you'll find that we are all quite different," Chalisa said. "Enough with the demonstration. A bonus to our volunteers."

+10 xp. Total: 1028.

"A hundred points!" Naisha pumped her fist in triumph. "This class is definitely better. And we didn't even break any bones to do it." She smirked in Five's direction, but Five just shrugged.

I stared at the numbers. Ten points when I should have gotten a hundred. It was the Assignment again.

"I'm pleased to hear that you're enjoy my introduction to qi shaping," Chalisa said. "Now, it's my turn to ask the questions. I can see that your practical qi shaping skills are nonexistent. Let me test your knowledge as well." Chalisa paused. "You may want to sit down for this."

We returned to the others and sat down on the hard gray floor.

"A brief assessment to test how far we have to go," Chalisa said.

The blue letters appeared in my sight.

A perfect sphere of qi in a spiritual void is compressed into half its volume while doubling its rate of internal circulation. What is the final vitality?

A) One-half the original vitality.

B) The vitality is unchanged.

C) The vitality is doubled.

D) The vitality is quadrupled.

Ikari's questions had bothered me because of their vague sensibilities, but this question...this vexed me for a completely different reason.

I had almost no basis for answering the question. Nothing the elders had taught me or that I had found out on my own prepared me for this. We calculated angles of cutting, forces and vectors behind swings and jumps, but not of qi itself.

I could grasp the meaning of the question, and the question itself seemed fair. Qi was everywhere and in everything. In and of itself qi did nothing. It was through the expression of qi as vitality, the engine of change, that qi extended life, granted power, enabled techniques, and gave humans the ability to reach beyond their mortal grasp.

Except I had never tried to calculate vitality. Intuitively, I knew that compressing qi was fundamental to increasing its potency, and hence, its vitality. My own journey from Expert to Master and, more recently, to Grandmaster confirmed this. My core shrank, not grew, with the advance, and my speed, strength, and stamina had all increased accordingly.

The question was, how much? A Master was the lowest ranked sword artist who had a fully formed core of qi; the proto-cores of Experts didn't count. Although I was a Grandmaster now, my connection with my core wasn't experienced enough yet to visualize it, and I couldn't estimate the changes in size accurately. At Master, it had been a ball somewhat larger than my fist. At Grandmaster, it was...about the size of my fist? The width had only changed a small amount, but the volume would have changed more. Certainly not two-fold, maybe one-and-a-half times?

I wasn't quite sure on the bounds of my new strength and speed. The gains in physical ability would rapidly increase for a short period upon gaining a rank before tapering off. As a rule of thumb, the peak difference between Master and Grandmaster was four-fold, although not everyone would reach his full potential.

That left the problem of circulation, which I had the most difficulty judging. The qi swirling in my core had increased its speed, no doubt, but had it doubled? Maybe? Increasing the circulation would increase the vitality by a proportional amount, I assumed.

Finally, there was the difference between the real world and the question. Real cores weren't perfect. Theoretical gains in vitality didn't necessarily turn into perfect increases in power or skill.

So, if my core had increased by one-and-a-half times in size with twice the circulation, my vitality, as measured by the change in my physical abilities, would double at most. Taking into account the less than perfect conversion of vitality, perhaps a three-fold increase was the true change in vitality. Bumping up the numbers to match a two-fold change in volume would give...about four times the vitality.

D, final answer.

I held my breath and waited. I hated that an incorrect answer was met with silence instead of a negative notification. It made the wait before an inevitable disappointment stretch out even longer--

+1 xp. Total: 1029 xp.

I brushed a trickle of sweat away from the sides of my temple. It wasn't from any sparring with Chalisa. At least, not the physical kind.

Alanna whispered from my right. "You get that?"

I nodded wordlessly.

I moved on to the next question, which was incomprehensible. I heard several groans from the others. Naisha, who sat in front of me, glanced over her shoulder, her eyes slightly wider than usual. She mouthed silent words, which I couldn't make out. It was obvious, though, that Naisha was asking for an answer or hint. Not that I could help her on the second question.

"There's no honor in cheating," I whispered back.

Naisha let out an exasperated sigh. "I told you before. Screw your honor."

Chalisa's brown eyes focused on Naisha. "No cheating."

From the sound Naisha made, Chalisa must have awarded a penalty to her point total. The instructor gave a curt nod to me, although I wasn't sure if the acknowledgement was for getting the first question right or for denying Naisha.

In the end, there were nine more questions after the first, but I couldn't answer any of them. I vaguely understood a question asking about channels, but not the detailed description of the qi as it flowed through them.

"A disappointing performance," Chalisa said. "I suppose that was to be expected."

She rubbed her head, a move that seemed unusually out of place for the powerful sword artist, as if the students were inflicting suffering upon her instead of the other way around. I sat quietly, but most of the others, including Naisha, were loudly bemoaning the questions.

"How were we supposed to do that?" Naisha asked. "Even he said he only got one right." She pointed her thumb back at me.

I winced at having myself brought into her argument. Chalisa had been rather lenient, so far, but I feared that Naisha wouldn't know when to stop. Meanwhile, some of the other nobles glared at me. One correct question wasn't impressive, but apparently it was more than they had achieved.

"Why can't we just use a sword," someone called out. "Why all...this?" It was Kendra, although she made a point not to look in Naisha's direction.

Chalisa's eyes narrowed. "Some of you asked before, why? Remember, too, that your enemy may not be human, or fight like one."

I had forgotten about the threat, the Void Beasts, with everything that had happened.

"Yes, the Void Beasts," Chalisa said. "You'll meet them up close soon enough. Tell me, when Euleban's pythons are crushing you in their grip, what use will one of your swords be? What of their venom, when it courses through your veins, burning you from within?"

A quiet spread through the group. I recalled the snake-like shapes attacking some of the exam participants. Were those the pythons she meant? They had slaughtered the sword artists. I didn't know if my higher rank now would make any difference.

Chalisa nodded slowly. "Tomorrow, you will see."