Chapter:6

Xavier continued his training with Benedict and Octavia. Through Benedict’s lessons, Xavier learned more about the nature of Ki. One evening, Benedict revealed very important information,

“Master Xavier , while Ki is referred to as a single entity, it is not. Ki can be further divided into Abstract-Ki and Material-Ki.”

“Interesting so what’s the difference?”

“Well Material-Ki is what individuals use to do all the extraordinary things like run on walls, shoot fire and all that jazz, while Abstract-Ki originates around the brain and it directs Material-Ki. Abstract-Ki is also responsible for dictating what abilities an individual could do… a sort of mental block if you wish to call it that.”

Xavier closed his eyes and pondered on the information for a few seconds, then he made a conclusion,

“So, Material-Ki is like muscles in the body and the Abstract-Ki; the brain.”

Benedict stroked his chin then nodded,

“Very good analogy. As you know, to make your muscles stronger you need to exercise. Material-Ki is similar and therefore practicing techniques could, to an extent, deepen a person's Ki-Basin. On the other hand, one does research, expands their knowledge and mental exercises to improve their cognitive abilities. Abstract-Ki, similarly, improves after practice, and studying. Abstract-Ki’s growth is what can make your control of Ki better, your senses sharper and the level of your techniques that you know and can potentially learn, increase.”

Xavier enjoyed his lessons with Benedict, he found each session refreshing. As for his lessons with Octavia, they were basically a daily confidence reevaluation catalyst. Xavier had been making slow progress in Octavia’s classes, to her obvious frustration. Xavier was not too shy to show his blatant disinterest and dislike for Octavia’s classes.

He threw punches with accuracy but the Ki released was quite meagre. Xavier had displayed the textbook form but as for the attacks themselves, they would take awhile to administer any damage to a person putting up a decent Ki-Shield. Octavia was infuriated and no longer wore the polite smile she reserved for those she was supposed to serve. On one particular day Octavia had snapped and Xavier walked out...more appropriately crawled out of that sparring session looking like he had survived and solved an apocalypse on his own.

As he was going to go inside to wash up and rest, Xavier caught sight of Raijin practicing on the range. Raijin was shooting bolts of electricity with pinpoint accuracy and Xavier saw an opportunity. Xavier approached Raijin, who at seeing Xavier’s condition winced and breathed in sharply, and he asked Raijin to be his lightning element trainer, Raijin happily agreed. So from then on Raijin taught Xavier the basics of the lightning element. Around this time Benedict had started to teach Xavier basic techniques from some of the other elements or at least gave him guidance, as Xavier possessed the ability to utilise any of the five basic elements. Octavia did not want to feel left out and gave Xavier a daily quota of 100 strikes, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, 100 push-ups and a ten kilometer run as the cherry on top of the exercise routine from hell.

While Xavier’s days became quite tiresome due to his commitment to several different exercises, he was appreciative of the visible benefits. In just a matter of a few weeks he was extremely fit and he was naturally swifter and his strength had grown by leaps and bounds. In a month and a half Xavier was able to use the basic Ki-Techniques taught to him with quite some proficiency. It was a few days after this that Xavier decided to go all out.

It was a bright Sunday morning, Xavier walked into the clearing that he and Octavia used for their sparring matches. They both bowed and Octavia waited for Xavier’s first move. Xavier extended his left arm and hand and formed a blade of Ki around it. Next Xavier focused Ki to his throat and bellowed,

“Let’s go!”

The sudden use of the Warcry had caught Octavia off guard and she involuntarily walked back, tripping. Xavier saw an opportunity and launched himself towards Octavia, swinging his left arm. Octavia regained her composure and dodged. Octavia backed away and grinned,

“Good idea, but not good enough. How about it, if you can scratch me 10 times or immobilise me you win, don’t worry I won’t go too hard on you.”

Xavier whooped,

“Well 9 more to go!”

As if on cue, Octavia felt something sticky and warm on her left cheek. As to how the blade reached her, Octavia was clueless. Xavier took Benedict’s advice from one of their lessons,

“If you are against an enemy physically stronger and more advanced than you, which you will evidently meet, you have to turn to your brain. Think of the saying, ‘Work smarter not harder’.”

Xavier had known that he could not reach Octavia, as close as he may get, her reflexes were just too good for that and so he at the last second would add Ki to the bled so that he could lengthen it. Octavia was trying to think of how she had been scraped but she did not have enough time as Xavier came back launching more attacks. Octavia decided to form a blade of Ki as well and she traded blows with Xavier. After some time, though, it became painfully obvious that Xavier’s swordsmanship was a match for Octavia’s.

Octavia decided to stick with what she knew best and decided to cloak her hands in a shapeless mass of Ki to use hand-to-hand martial arts. On seeing this Xavier took it up to a notch and used the Quickstep technique to give his strikes more force but Octavia and her hand-to-hand combat had a relationship that was to be feared. Octavia eventually started to push back Xavier, who retreated later. Xavier adjusted to the new challenge by cloaking his right hand with Ki and shortening the blade on his left to reflect the two sword style, Niten Ichi-ryū.

Octavia went unbothered by that development but what had caught her attention was when Xavier activated his Gakushanome. While under normal circumstances she would have been less than impressed, Xavier had focused more Ki to his eye than usual, therefore causing a streak of electricity to emanate from his left eye and for it to glow brighter than usual.

Xavier launched himself with an even more forceful quickstep than he had done previously, closing the distance in a mere second, he could now move faster without worrying about tunnel vision. Octavia had never seen Xavier move that fast and had not been prepared for such immense speeds on his part. Octavia had marvelous reflexes but she could not react quickly enough to pull off a perfect dodge and instead, for the second time that day, back peddled and tripped on her left foot. Xavier struck again but despite her previous blunder, Octavia quickly recovered and put up a defence.

She was met with a sly grin plastered on Xavier’s face, she found herself with a small slash on her right shoulder. Octavia applied a Ki-Element transformation and the Ki cloaking her fists turned into fire. Xavier smiled and thought to himself,

“Using the Ardens Fist, a good choice but after seeing you use it so much this was bound to happen.”

Xavier knew that using the Ardens Fist gave strikes more force, it was its biggest advantage but it was also its fatal flaw. After studying how Octavia used over the course of several weeks Xavier had devised a way to use its advantage to help him. Xavier, to Octavia’s surprise, went quickly towards her, as Xavier did he focused Ki throughout his body and strengthened his muscles and executed his next move with mathematical precision. He went under Octavia’s strike, and as he went behind her, pushed her forward making her lose her balance, and taking that window of opportunity formed a blade of Ki and struck her right leg.

As he formed the blade, there was a strange crackling sound that followed. Instantly, Octavia’s leg became quite numb. Xavier had transformed the Ki on his hand to the lightning element which could disturb the electrical signals of the body. As Octavia dealt with a leg that was inhibiting her movement to an extent, Xavier was trying to deal with his hand that twitched and the sharp momentary pain that would come and go not to mention the fact that he sensed a considerable amount of Ki drained.

Octavia knew that she would no longer be able to outmaneuver Xavier and so opted to go by launching a series of large hailstone projectiles. Xavier could already see their trajectory and could at least see some of the movements he had to slice each one but there were simply too many variables. As much as he wanted to reach Octavia he just couldn’t and so he went with a simpler solution, after all, simplicity is bliss. Xavier performed the Earth Fortification 1st stage by stomping his right foot, causing some of the ground to turn to mud and rise, then when it reached the desired height the wall of mud became solid. The ice bullets were stopped by the thick wall. As the last set of ice projectiles flew through the air, Octavia’s leg felt not that numb and she decided she had to play a closer offense.

She sent a numerous amount of ice projectiles to hide the sound of her steps as she charged towards Xavier and his wall. She went behind the wall to find it completely empty. All of a sudden a wave of fog came all around her, obstructing her view. As the fog passed she heard a loud crackling sound, she located its source and found Xavier perched up on a tree. Xavier used the strongest quickstep he had ever managed and was instantly in front of Octavia. She raised her hand to launch an attack but before she could Xavier with a flickering Gakushanome and his body cloaked with a light amount of electricity.

As Xavier tackled her and wrapped his body around her and it dawned on her that Xavier likely had used the sound of her projectiles to charge the electricity, as he would most likely have to do due to his poor control of lightning which was evident by the twitching he had previously suffered. At the exact second she had finished the thought, Xavier shouted,

“Equitable Shock!”

At that Xavier released a bunch of electricity causing the grass around to burn. If it weren’t for the sudden Ki that Octavia cloaked her body she would have had to face worse consequences. Octavia collapsed and could not move although she was awake and relatively fine. Xavier was having twitches occurring at random spots on his body. Before he could lay on the ground to rest, Xavier decided to make a point by cloaking his fingernails, which was all that he could manage, and inflict the remaining slices that he needed. He ensured that he won absolutely.

He then collapsed onto the ground and laid there until Benedict found the two on the ground. Xavier rested for several days, having to deal with twitching throughout his body while Octavia simply dealt with manageable numbness throughout the body. Xavier had finally fulfilled a goal he had after his first lesson with Octavia, defeat her.