The first thing on Tero's mind when he woke up every morning was training.

Sometimes he would immediately look down at his fists and summon the blue-green energy that would surround his fists.

He loved having this power. He felt weak and useless his entire life, being denied combat training by his father and being the oldest one out of his brothers to get a power strain.

But now that he had one and was training daily, he felt more powerful than ever. I'm not like my older brothers at all. He thought. Surely I can't end up like them. I'm going to be different. Tero thought about how he had the potential to surpass them. He knew thinking this was wrong, but their greatness for the time that they were alive had put him down and made him think he was weak. Now, he thought, It's my turn to be great.

Tero would enter the training room everyday. For the first few weeks, Jonakai, if not busy, would train with him everyday. He taught him how to manage his power, how to train his physical and mental strength to allot more concentration of the power strain, and how he could develop good attacks. Techni would challenge Tero as an opponent and block and counter his attacks. For weeks, Tero couldn't land a successful hit on him.

His training was great; and Tero was so happy that his father was finally teaching him the ways of combat like he always wanted him to.

He would train for several hours at the start of the day, eat lunch, and then meet one-on-one with his teachers in various subjects. Math, English, History, and Science. Each class was four hours long, and after attending he'd eat dinner. Then he'd either get with his good friends, Mason and Lisa, or go back to training. If time allowed, he'd do both.

He had always been friends with Mason and Lisa, children of two of Jonakai's soldiers, since he was quite young.

Just about everytime they met up, he decided to show his newfound powers and his progress to them outside Tero's dinner hall.

About a month after he awakened his power strain, he showed them a move where he could emit his energy forward three feet in the shape of a baseball.

"Woah! That's so cool...I can't wait to get mine next year when I turn ten!" Mason exclaimed.

"I can't believe how much better you've gotten. Who knows how strong you'll become?" Lisa said with a large smile on her face.

"Yeah!" Tero exclaimed. "Thanks guys. I really wanna keep improving everyday. Dad has been coming to train me less lately but I'm still improving without him which is good. He always said independence was key."

Mason and Lisa nodded. "Tero," Mason said. "What power do you think I should get?"

Tero thought for a moment. "Hmm. I don't know...maybe something to do with leaves or trees? You've climbed them even since we first met, you seem to love them."

Mason's face was unsure. "I don't know how I'd turn that into a power though...but who knows."

"I could help you brainstorm one day. We could create an entire moveset and power." Tero replied.

"That'd be so cool! We should do that." Lisa added on.

"Thanks guys." Mason replied. "I'll just need a week to figure out the basis of it."

Tero and Lisa nodded.

"What about you Lisa? Any plans on a power strain?" Tero asked.

"Well..." Lisa started. "My Dad doesn't want me to get one until I'm at least thirteen. My Mom said the same thing. They don't really think I need one since I want to be a doctor, but I could get a power strain that could help me there."

"Aw man." Tero said in a disappointing tone. "It'll be ok though, I felt the same way. My brothers got there's two to three years before me and I couldn't help but feel like I was being restricted. You'll get yours when the time is right."

"Thirteen seems a little old though. If you think up a really good power before then you might be able to convince them to get one earlier." Mason added on.

"Yeah." Lisa replied. "Well, my brother is allowed to get his next year, same time as you Mason. He wants to be a soldier in the King's army. My parents don't want him to but he's been dead set on it for years, so the least they could do is hold him out until ten for his power strain."

Tero couldn't help but notice how much this sounded like his situation was before he awakened his power.

After this conversation, they all went to play a variety of sports in the entertainment field. Jonakai's city was massive. After all, it was home to roughly six/seven thousand people.

Tero's friendship with his friends grew every week, and he cherished them a ton. They were his only close friends in his father's city that resided in the kingdom, and he was able to tell them about his life and learn more about those outside his family and his advisors.

Tero's training became rather intensive after the first few months. He was now ten years old, and he wanted to become very strong as quick as possible. He asked his father to up the ante on his training, and surely enough, he did.

Tero would strength train for half the time now, and a quarter of it was used for intensive move training, and the other for battles/spars against his father and Techni.

In these battles, Tero was now being counter attacked by Techni or his father. They would do light attacks that wouldn't injure him, but enough to get him to stop fighting.

For his one of his moves, Tero would rush his father with an energy fist. In other moves, he could use his legs to do a spin kick and either impact the enemy directly or fire as a projecticle. He was even able to send out energy to places across the room and make it have a sort of boomerang effect.

Due to him also having ranged attacks, it was unpredictable to the enemy if it would be a close, mid, or far range attack.

Or, at least that's what Tero thought. But to his father and Techni, who were extremely talented fighters who also experienced these moves everyday, they were very predictable.

Jonakai and Techni would always tell when he'd fire his energy, and either block it or counter attack it. The latter left Tero out of commission for the rest of practice.

Tero understood that this was necessary; if he was to train, he'd have to learn how to withstand attacks.

Tero was now extremely sore after every training now, to the point where sometimes at practice, he was in pain everytime he threw a punch. He wanted to take a break, but he thought that would make him seem week to his father and Techni

Tero soon learned to ignore the pain. Either that or his body became strong enough to endure it.

About a year and a half in, when he was eleven, he taught himself secret attacks. He still wasn't able to land a hit on either one of them in all this time. After all, he had requested that they made training as difficult as possible.

Tero assumed that his predictable attacks were a result of his guardians learning them because of everyday at practice. Could it have been that the moves he did were predictable themselves, or not fast or strong enough to make an impact? Sure, but Tero disregarded that. He knew he could tackle at least one part of it.

Tero trained everyday in secret. He would do this in the period after his education and before dinner. He did this for half a year, creating a ghost moveset that was never seen in the training room; only in this tiny period of time.

His outside training didn't go unnoticed though. Tero was becoming gradually becoming faster, stronger, and more versatile with his moves in training, more than he ever had in that initial year and a half of training. Techni and Jonakai noticed this but assumed it was just because of him growing and aging naturally, but they still suspected something was up.

After about six months, he decided to put them to use. He had now been training for two years, was now eleven, and was determined that today he was going to land a hit on at least one of them.

He walked into the room like any other day. He did strength and moveset training and was finally ready to challenge his father.

Techni was in the corner eyeing the fight.

"You ready?" Jonakai asked.

Tero was extremely nervous. Was my training gonna be good enough here?

"Yep." Tero replied, and he swiftly ran towards Jonakai.

Jonakai stood still but put his fists up as he watched Tero's movements.

As Tero was quickly approaching Jonakai, he slowed down a bit when he was around fifteen feet from him. He bent down forward with one knee touching the ground and his right hand balled in a fist, touching the ground in front of his knee. He then looked up at Jonakai.

Jonakai was confused. He had never seen this move from Tero. Tero usually never differed from his original moveset, so seeing him act in a different way than before stood out more than it should have.

Rather than thinking it was a slip up of some sort, Jonakai immediately switched to thinking it was a different attack. However, before he could figure out what it was, Tero had switched positions. Tero moved left and used his left hand to throw out not just an energy ball, but an energy rope. It went straight out of his hand, and it was so long that it went passed Jonakai's right side and attached to the wall behind him.

Jonakai, so perplexed by this new attack, stared at the rope behind him for a good two seconds.

When he turned back, Tero was just about two feet from his face with an energy charged kicked.

Jonakai did a lightning step back to dodge it. Tero's kick went up and past his head and Tero's body was now falling backwards in the air. He still had the rope attached to the wall behind Jonakai, and that's exactly where Jonakai's attention when to after the dodge.

Jonakai saw the rope coming back at him full force and immediately ducked to dodge it as it pulled back to Tero's arm.

Jonakai then turned his attention back to Tero and shuffled left.

He missed both these attacks. I wonder then, did he think the rope was going to work?

That's when Jonakai heard something. But at the same time that he heard something, he saw something in the same place his eyes where his eyes were fixed beforehand.

Tero's left fist, the one that didn't have the rope attached, quickly jolted up towards the ceiling. At the same time, he saw Tero's face brimming with determination.

And the sound of granite floor shattering and breaking below him filled the room.

As he looked below him, a mass of blue-ish green energy overtook him and hit him full force.

He was hit hard and sent upwards by Tero's attack.

It turns out that when Tero's fist was planted on the ground, he had sent energy underground that he planned to bring up under Jonakai.

Tero's finally landed back on his two feet as he saw his father flying backwards from the attack. Jonakai soon landed back on his two feet just as Tero did.

Techni could be heard clapping and cheering in the corner. "Two years! You finally hit one of us after two years, Tero! Congratulations!"

Tero's joy could not be comprehended. He had been training to land this hit for two years, but the last six months had been exceptionally devastating. His smile stretched far across his face as he stared at Techni's expression of joy.

And then he looked at his father.

Jonakai's expression was more distraught than joyous. Tero stared at his face for a good five seconds before Jonakai cracked a smile.

"Wow....great job, Tero."

Tero's smile slowly faded. He realized for a good second that his father never initially held any sort of joy over his accomplishment. The smile that he presented now was fake.

"You're extraordinary, Tero! Really! Where'd you learn that?" his father's smile got bigger as he noticed his son's smiling fading.

Tero knew it was to reassure him.

Tero didn't want to complicate things any further, so he recuperated his smile. It was never as large as the initial one, but it was enough to at least convince Jonakai he was fooled by his father's praise.

Techni stepped up to fight Tero. Tero used another secret move of his, and even though Techni was aware that he was planning something secretive, he was still able to land a hit.

Techni praised him accordingly, and so did his father, but he knew the latter was fake.

Tero was happy that he was able to apply his strength, but not happy about his father's fake praise.

Tero noticed that over the course of the next few months, he had gotten pretty strong. He hadn't realized it but the extra training didn't just allow him to stump his guardians with "secret moves", but gave him extra training, allotted him more strength, more time to think about battle strategies, and more confidence in his abilities.

But as his strength increased, his father's attendance and participation in his training decreased.

Tero wondered why. He had blindly and foolishly assumed that, even though throughout his childhood his father was clearly opposed to him training, one day he just flipped the switch because Tero asked too many times. He knew in the back of his head that his father never changed his mind. He had asked himself why he never allowed this thought to be dug up from time to time.

Finally, when he was actually getting stronger, when he was no longer weak, when he was actually showing signs of being a capable warrior, his father showed his true colors.

Tero wondered why. He wanted to ask. He wanted to do something, whether that'd be confront his father, ask him why, or anything, but...Tero was scared.

Tero was scared that if he set his father off that he may block him from training overall. He wouldn't do that, right? Tero would ask himself everytime he pondered the idea of such a thing.

Tero decided to go to Mason and Lisa with his problem.

"He keeps becoming distant as my power grows...it makes me think he never wanted me to be strong in the first place." He explained to him on a foggy Wednesday night after dinner.

Both Mason and Lisa had awakened their power strain. Mason had a power strain that derived from the earth element, and he was able to conjure singular leaves, combine them into masses, and do many other things.

On the other hand, Lisa had learned a pure power strain. Pure power strains are power strains that are passed down by lesson through generation. She learned the Healing Touch power strain, which is self-descriptive. It comes with other medical uses but fit her needs pretty well.

"Hm..." Mason pondered. "I mean, he lost his..."

Mason stopped himself from saying anything too offensive. He didn't want to bring up Tero's dead brothers. He wasn't sure how he would react to his take on the situation either.

"Yeah, I know. But, even when he had lost Tyde, he still trained Temiente...I just don't get it. Why doesn't he want his own son to be strong? I mean, his Dad is the King, surely he would want his family to remain strong right?"

Mason and Lisa still shivered everytime he heard it stated so plainly out of Tero's mouth. His grandfather was the King.

King Jonah had actually visited Tero two weeks ago. He made a promise to try and show up at least three times a month and check up on his son and his grandson.

Tero showed him his newfound power, and Jonah cheered him on.

"You're really growing, Tero. I love it. You are your power. As you grow, it grows, and you'll find that your place in the world is very much determined by your power. You're going to be great."

Jonah's words meant a lot to him. Everytime he trained afterwards, they echoed through his brain.

But somehow, even though they were said by the King, these sincere words were trampled upon by Jonakai's fake sincerity and lack of passion towards his son's endeavors.

As the years went on, Tero got stronger and the pattern continued. As he got stronger, less father present in training.

At thirteen he was able to get multiple hits on Techni in a spar. It never injured Techni, but it was enough to make Techni take him a tad bit seriously. Tero was truly becoming a force to be reckoned with.

Jonakai noticed this. He was much stronger than Techni so the fights went a little different, but Tero still put up a good spar.

One day, randomly, Tero mustered up the courage to ask his father why he was attending less.

His father responded in the most plain way possible.

"I've gotten more busy. You've gotten stronger. I no longer need to be present in here all the time and you need to learn to become more independent."

Tero was now offended.

"It doesn't make sense though. As soon as I got stronger, you just stopped. You stopped coming even for stuff that still needs work. If you stayed here the whole time I could be even stronger."

"Like I said Tero, I'm more busy, and you need to be more independent. Learning how to train alone is-"

"I trained alone! Remember those secrets moves where I hit you? It took me six months to be able to hit you with one! But you weren't the least bit proud of me! You pretended like you were, but I saw how you looked!"

Tero's eyes started to water and his voice became shaky.

"Look." Jonakai replied. "I really am proud of you. I was proud of you there, I was just...stunned. I always wanted my previous sons to be stronger, but I-"

"Then why weren't you proud of me? Why, when I showed the most strength, were you not proud of me-"

"Because strength isn't everything, Tero!" Jonakai shouted shouted fiercely.

The room grew quiet for several seconds following this, and Tero took on a distraught expression as a single tear fell from his left eye.

"Damn what my father says. You'll soon notice that most of the things that happen in this world aren't because of strength but because of weakness. You are already strong enough, in name and in fortune. I made the mistake of thinking that my previous sons weren't. Don't get caught up in strength."

Jonakai exited the training room.

Tero fell to the ground and started crying. Techni came over to him and tried to comfort him.

After this argument, his father was extra nice to him outside of training. But he still didn't come to training often. In fact, his visits started going from 3-4 days a week to only one or two.

As Tero hit age fourteen, he was stronger than ever. This meant that Jonakai was there less than ever.

There had been one week in the past two months where Jonakai had attended more than one day a week.

Because of this, Tero made sure to give it his all on the days when his father would attend. If his father was going to become more distant in his training as he got stronger, he might as well become as strong as possible. It's not like he could regress in strength.

Throne Day, the day that occurs every five years in which people battle it out in the central square and then challenge the king to a duel to take the throne, was coming up. Tero's father told him in advance that he would attend on this day to distract him from the anxiety that he had on Throne Day.

Jonakai's father was the King, and so every Throne Day he lived in fear that his father, now 82, may lose his crown...and his life.

Tero woke up on Throne Day nervous as well. Jonah was his grandfather after all. But for as long as him and his father had been alive, Jonah had never fallen victim to a challenger. In fact, Jonah had never been seriously injured by a challenger on Throne Day.

Tero's initial anxiety seemingly faded as soon as he stepped into the training room. He saw his father standing on the training mat, almost like he was awaiting Tero's arrival. Usually when Tero entered to train on the days his father was there, Jonakai was just sitting in a random corner of the room doing next to nothing.

Tero looked at his father with a puzzled expression. "Why are you on the sparring block already?"

Jonakai didn't say anything for a few seconds.

"Let's fight already. I need something to distract me."

Tero nodded with a blank expression and then proceeded to get into position.

When the battle commenced, Tero stuck both of his hands out and extended long whips that he slapped on the tile in front of Jonakai. Jonakai dodged every single one of them. He was dodging backwards and the whips were chasing him as he still kept his face towards Tero.

Then, he bolted.

His body darted like a lightning strike towards Tero, and he slowed down his speed as he got closer to Tero.

He was now just two feet from Tero's face and he stared directly into his eyes.

He lifted his hand up to charge up for a lightning punch.

Tero, who still had his whips out from his hands, needed to react quickly or else he would be out of commission for the rest of training.

Luckily, Tero knew that his father would take advantage of his ranged attacks and close the distance on him, so he had an ace up his sleeve.

He had a bit of charged energy around his feet, and he sent even more of it down there as soon as he saw Jonakai jolting towards him.

And, by the time Jonakai was throwing his lightning punch, he had enough to perform his trick.

He broke the tension of energy near his feet and he propelled up into the air, extremely quick and swiftly.

He was now hovering above his father, twenty feet up in the air.

He then sent tons of energy back up to his hands to create a charged up energy orb to send back down.

Jonakai noticed this and bolted up in the air towards his son to close the distance once again.

But Tero knew this would happen.

As soon as he saw the glimpse of Jonakai's movement, he sent the orb down.

And Jonakai was nearly hit by it as he couldn't slow his lightning speed on his way up.

He just barely countered it with a slap back towards Tero.

The orb came flying back towards Tero, and he was not prepared for this. He thought his father might have just brushed the attack off and tanked the hit. He never considered that his father might send it back.

And then it hit him.

He was able to put his hand out and take some of the energy back in, but he still suffered a bit of the attack.

He fell from the air and hit the ground heavily.

He winced in pain, but he was used to it. He got back up on his feet as he saw his father coming back down.

As him and his father were considering their next move as they stared into each other's eyes, a familiar sound echoed from another part of the room.

It was the door to the training room, and followed by this was Techni's booming voice.

"STOP!" He yelled. "STOP FIGHTING!"

Tero and Jonakai immediately turned away from each other and looked towards Techni, erasing all notions of battle in their head.

Techni panted. "The...He..."

Jonakai and Tero were now very concerned. Techni usually kept his cool, so seeing him act out like this was a rare occassion.

"What's wrong? Tell us, please." Jonakai urged.

"The King! Jonah! Your father...he's..."

The next word that came out of Techni's mouth would echo through Tero and Jonakai's heads frequently for the rest of their lives.

"...dead."