Kom and Jarem had profound faith in Sorp, so no matter what they say, within them there is a core belief that Sorp will prevail. They had seen some rather doubtful times where Sorp appeared to be hanging on by a string, this didn’t look like one yet.

“Hey, Jar.”

“Mm?”

“Shouldn’t we be managing this situation?”

“What do you me-. Oh! Your right, lets go.”

While the fight proceeded slowly there is still a sense of tension in the air. Kom and Jarem have begun walking around taking bets. A whopping majority betting on Oftert.

When their hands meet a second time, Sorp experienced a strong rebound again, his hand shooting backwards. But Sorp is quick to adapt and rather than forcefully stopping the impact he twirls in two whole circles to defuse the kinetic force.

“What was that?”

“Is he dancing?”

This sort of action would be absurd in a fight, maybe against foolish people it could work as a type of counter attack, but not against experienced fighters. The problem is, this isn’t a genuine fight but a sparring session focusing on a very particular application of the B.F.M. energy.

“It seems you guys don’t know Sorp at all.”

Kom shook his head at the crowd, they had all put some Vcoin on the line. Not astronomical sum but a healthy number.

“Not only is Sorp a genius fighter but a prolific dancer.”

Jarem stood there nodding. They were very serious. It should come as no surprised that a flexible being that relies heavily of intuition is a phenomenal dancer. It can be seen as a sign of a talented fighter to be agile on their feet.

The crowd wasn’t in any kind of mood to listen to Kom or Jarem. And especially not Oftert, who felt a strange urge to leap forward and start a brawl.

“Are you really a newbie!?”

“As new as they come.”

Sorp had already shocked some people and been questioned if he was a newbie before. He couldn’t help but respond when asked. He did appreciate the fight and while he didn’t mean the person no harm, he also wouldn’t hold anything back.

“Your turn.”

Sorp readied his right hand again. He still felt it pulse with a dull ache, but it was nothing much at this point. His adrenaline was flowing and endorphins were making the pain almost enjoyable.

“I’ll crush your arm.”

Oftert didn’t realize he was losing his edge. His open palm shot out, except this time it wasn’t slow. It isn’t illegal to do this but it is frowned upon. Oftert was never a person too fond of propriety so this is not a shocking turn of events.

His mistake however, is to assume Sorp was not ready for this sort of strike. It could be said Sorp had the advantage when it came to real time combat rather than their well timed slow maneuvers.

The problem with this sort of fighting while training is that people are more likely to make mistakes and get hurt as a result. And this isn’t supposed to be more than a way to train and measure yourself with your peers.

“Oftert lost his patience.”

“Disgraceful.”

A few frowned seeing him, some even managed to blurt out a few hasty words before the sound of muffled thunder reverberated from the sparring arena. They had once again collided.

“As expected.”

Everyone was speechless. Everyone but Kom, as if unable to endure a silence longer than a second he felt the urge to comment.

“It’s not their fault, really. How can they know about Sorp? These are all underground mole people after all.”

Oftert had made an enormous mistake showing his intent to harm. As soon as his aggression was apparent, Sorp changed his tactics as well. He weaved slightly and thrust his open palm into Ofterts lower right chest. The impact nearly stopped his heart. He didn’t even have time to scream and fell listlessly to the ground.

When people were finally coming back to their sense they looked to their peers, to Sorp and then Kom and Jarem, who were counting their Vcoin.

It was at this point the older man from before made his way towards Oftert and broke something in his hands and let the brown dust fall onto his lips and into his nose. Oftert sprung up inhaling and coughing vehemently.

“You’ve only yourself to blame.”

The old man looked away from Oftert and to Sorp. In truth what Sorp had done was considered worthy of punishment, but seeing as Oftert had already broken the rules it could be overlooked.

“Alright. Come with me then.”

The man was clearly talking to Sorp but Kom and Jarem shamelessly tagged along as if it were only natural. The old man raised a brow but ignored them.

“Sorp, we should go dancing.”

“Right! It’s been way too long since we had time to cut loose.”

Sorp was still managing the pain in his hands and upper torso. He looked at Kom and Jarem, they were clearly enjoying themselves. Especially with the new windfall of Vcoin. They needed a way to spend it.

“Alright. Let’s find some place.”

The old man finally loosened up a bit after hearing their conversation. He was thinking that these were just willful youths. He reminisced about the time he was young and reckless.

The only issue was they didn’t appreciate the mysticism he was trying to cultivate. He enjoyed looking enigmatic and unfathomable. Every time he saw the admiration in people’s eyes he felt a surge of joy.

“Hold on. Why are we following this guy?”

“This guy!? I am one of the Two-step faction commanders! Haven’t you heard of commander Phallen of the Two-step faction?”

Sorp was focusing on his body, trying to understand why the B.F.M. energy caused so much damage despite being something he supposedly created himself.

Jarem had a blank look on his face, he was playing through a fantasy in his head. He wanted to go find a place to spend some Vcoin.

Kom however thrived in conversation and especially loved heated reactions. He doesn’t like to incite anger but he enjoys getting a reaction out of people.

“Oh? Is the Two-step faction famous?”

“Of course we’re famous. We’re one of twelve factions capable of reaching dark purple depth.”

Seeing that Kom had no reaction to his statement he felt indignation.

“Even if your new, you must have read the general information about the underground city. Where did you lot come from?”

“We came from the Second wave reinforcement camp. It’s usually Dart that bothered with those long information brochures.”

The guys had all received a bulky information package about the general things in First wave city, but they also didn’t bother reading things that didn’t make sense until it was read all the way through. And that includes things like factions and their hierarchy.

In general, people are expected to join a faction, freelance for one or create their own. There are some benefits to each choice. Joining an existing factions allows for more guidance, creating their own group allows for greater control and possible high profit margins.

Lastly,freelancing is actually looked down on but they have their freedom. There are also organizations that deal with freelancers, sometimes freelancers band together to create their own factions after sharing life and death experiences.

The greatest issue with creating your own faction is that it lacks the foundations of older factions, which is a different way to saying, lacking in resources. In fact, most new factions are just groups of freelancers.

“We’ll have to educate your soon then. Why are you challenging the sparring stage when you don’t intend to join the faction?”

“Sorp just likes to fight. And It was a great opportunity to make some Vcoin.”

It has become ingrained in the guys to bet on Sorp when he fights. It's not even a question anymore, just a question of how high the stakes should be.

“You won’t get anywhere in life depending on Vcoin.”

“We don’t depend on Vcoin, we depend on Sorp.”

Sorp was listening to the conversation but had no interest in it. Most of his attention was on understanding the previous fight. He was trying to relive it and figure out why he had been on the losing side despite having impeccable timing.

“Depend on Sorp. You are Sorp?”

“That’s right.”

Despite diverting most of his attention to other things, Sorp still managed to look like he was interesting in Kom’s and commander phallen’s conversation.

“Where did you train your energy surge technique? It isn’t bad but a bit sloppy.”

“You mean this?”

Sorp struck out into the air. The effect of B.F.M. energy being thrust created a muffled sound, similar to a deflating bag. It was a weak sound but once it collides with a counterforce it’ll create a sound similar to that of a thunder.

“Right. That´s a basic surge technique. Are they teaching it now in the Second wave reinforcement camp? I thought they were focusing on crafting.”

To understand commander Phallens sentence, one has to know he has memories to fill an entire life and has lived through them just as a normal human would experience a life. He has lived through the evaluation of the wave camps and other training facilities.

“I was guessing.”

Others would might lean towards talking about how they learned to craft and lose track of their thoughts, but Sorp was accustomed to cut directly to the chase. It may seem tasteless and bland, but he was this way because he had others to be flavorful.

“You shouldn’t take Sorp as a normal person. He’s a freak. A monster. Even us, who grew up with him, keep being amazed. Actually, your pretty lucky to meet Sorp, he’s a celebrity.”

Phallen wanted to spit on the ground, he was beginning to dislike Kom more and more. This fellow kept interjecting with nonsense. A celebrity? Who was he? He is commander Phallen, a revered Two-step faction commander.

“You said you were guessing? Do you mean you created your own energy surge technique?”

“Yes.”

Sorp didn’t really consider it something he invented. He was just applying what he understood about channeling B.F.M. energy, it was actually because that was his method that it was so faulty.

“Can you walk me through your process?”

Sorp went onto quickly recount in simple terms what he was doing. And understably Phallen was appalled but not too surprised. It was actually a bit of a problem that kept occuring, that people would treat their bodies like a B.F.M. tool when they are fundamentally different.

“This really won’t do. Alright, I’ve decided. I’ll take your under my wing and give you a proper technique to train with.”

Sorp’s eyes lit up and his smile got brighter. He really did want to become stronger. And since he entered Perpetuity he was developing a taste for new ways to become stronger. Not just physical brawn.

“Wait! What about us?”

“What about you?”

“You’re taking us under your wing as well?”

“No room. Sorp is a big guy.”

“Sorp! This isn't fair!”

However to Kom’s surprise and Jarems not so surprise, Sorp ignored them. He was moving closer to Phallen. Going so far as to ask some questions about manipulating B.F.M. energy throughout the body.

Phallen began by explaining some basic concept such as how B.F.M. tools in tandem with a body are like an electrical wire. Without the tool, the electricity has nowhere to go and causes a rebound force when leaving the body.

While his explanations weren’t technically correct, it is still useful concepts to understand going forward.

Jarem wasn’t interested in the conversation but Kom was now sulking. He felt excluded from the conversation, in a sense he felt defeated.

Kom kicked a small pebble on the ground and watched it shoot forward. It was a rather good kick, or so he felt. His gaze followed the pebble, making him look ahead. A few sizable buildings that look like they were carved into the bedrock. They were decorated, making them more palatable than the simpler buildings.