It wasn’t working. He couldn’t figure out what to do with this hunk of mineral in his center. He mustered all the willpower he knew how, and beat against it. It didn’t move. The anger creeped in making it difficult to stay centered.

Blood pooled in his hands. He was squeezing so tight, the nails penetrated in. He tried to maintain focus but that was slowly crumbling as the rage burned in his center. He certainly felt there was enough fire inside, but why couldn’t he do anything with this center.

“Goddess damn it!” He shouted, as he smashed his will against the core once again. His focus suddenly disappeared. That last strike had broken his focus, but he swore he felt the qi give a little. He sat silently, stunned, for several minutes.

Perhaps what had just happened was all in his head, but he needed to go back. His curiosity demanded it. He breathed steadily and after several minutes had calmed enough to find his center. His excitement was almost too much to quell, threatening his focus.

He took another breath. As he found his center and looked upon it, he immediately lost focus. But there on the side of the core, he saw the dent. A large dent. He felt like such a fool. Heat was needed to move any metal, to soften it up first.

His anger was the factor he had been overlooking. He was taught to keep his anger and emotions at bay, but maybe one was just what he needed. Emotion or anger, he wasn’t entirely sure yet.

Wolf stabilized his breathing as he refocused inward. Eyes closed, legs crossed, and palms up with forearms on his needs. The world around him faded away. There was only his center.

“Well, what do we have here?” A nauseatingly familiar voice came crashing through the darkness. “The useless waste of food is still trying to cultivate.” There was a round of uncomfortable chuckles from Shen’s posse.

“Leave me be.” Wolf growled. This wasn’t the time for Shen’s intrusions. He wouldn’t find his center while being harassed.

“Tell you what. Since you’re too useless to do anything else, what if I allow you to follow me around and clean up my table scraps. The perfect job for an animal like you.” Shen’s laughter made it abundantly clear that the idea was merely a concession.

Wolf kept his eyes closed and ground his teeth, trying not to respond.

“He’s too pathetic to even know what a fine offer that is.” Shen said smirking at his posse, standing but a step away from Wolf.

The timing couldn’t have been worse. Wolf uncorked the anger and with his newly focused will, lashed out. Wolf didn’t notice that Bruce had slipped between the boys in that moment, and was about to try talking down Shen.

“Come on Shen, let’s...” Bruce couldn’t finish, as he was launched backwards by Wolf’s strike. There was an audible crack followed by complete silence. Everyone had watched as Bruce slammed into the rock, spine first, slumping to the ground.

Wolf had opened his eyes, his jaw hung open in shock. Even Shen was stunned.

“What have you done, animal?!” Shen barely whispered out, a tone of pure hatred. Two lackeys ran to check on Bruce. They scooped up the boy under his arms and questioned how he felt. Bruce looked dazed as he responded to the boys, “I think I’m alright.”

Everyone could see something was wrong. Bruce demanded the boys let go of him and let him walk, but the boys held firm. “I can’t...” He looked down, “I can’t feel my legs.” Bruce barely managed to get the words out. Wolf just stared in horror.

“Call Master Hemi!” someone shouted. More calls could be heard echoing as others came to see what the commotion was.

“What have you done you stupid animal.” Shen spitting each word between his teeth.

“What’s going on here Shen?” An older man’s voice rang out as he approached the crowd. The man had features like a hawk and wore a chain emblem reserved only for elders. Wolf noticed the similarities between Shen and the older man.

“Uncle Wu. This criminal struck Bruce in a surprise attack and injured him.” Shen spoke rather quietly.

“That’s not what happened!” Wolf growled toward Shen.

“Silence.” Master Wu spoke with a strange yet powerful, silent vehemence, sending a chill down Wolf’s spine.

The man wore a blue robe that Wolf couldn’t quite place. “Silence.” Elder Wu spoke with a strange yet powerful, silent vehemence, sending a chill down Wolf’s spine. “You two, take Bruce to Master Hemi immediately, no need to wait here for him” He waved over two of Shen’s cadres. A crowd had started to form, a mixture of the acolytes and even a few scattered journeymen.

Then he turned his piercing gaze on Wolf. “For attacking another member of the order, twenty lashes.” Wolf felt his hackles rise, but before he could even do anything, arms wrapped around his shoulders like a vice. He tried to struggle, but he had no such opportunity. The two that had him were in similar blue robes as elder Wu. Then the memory flashed in his mind, these were the peacekeepers. From Wolf’s brief understanding of them, they were the peacekeepers. While the monastery rarely had any issues, there were around three hundred people living in a fairly cramped space, and altercations did occasionally arise.

It was only now that Wolf realized where Shen gained his arrogance. His uncle Wu was the head of the peacekeepers and one of the handful of monastic masters. Contrary to what many thought of a monk, only a small portion of those here completely cut all ties outside of the order. His robes were pulled down over his shoulders to bare his back. Ropes bound his wrists as they were hoisted above his head and he was bound against a wooden pole.

Wolf snarled as he yanked with all his strength, but these methods had bound cultivators tens of times stronger than him. They shoved a leather bit into his mouth. He went to spit it out when the acolyte held up his hand stopping him. “You’ll want this, trust me.” Wolf didn’t sense any malice, so he decided to begrudgingly accept the advice. He could see the burgeoning crowd, it felt like half the cultivators in monastery had gathered, even thought it probably only numbered in the dozens.

Wu glared at him, as another acolyte in blue brought out an evil looking whip. It was short maybe three feet long in total, with multiple braided leather cords like the heads of a hydra. “This is the flayer, it will teach you the lessons that the goddess did not.” The muttering of the dozens quieted down as Wu took up position behind Wolf. “There must be order, or there is only chaos.” Shouted elder Wu “CRACK” the pain seared across Wolf’s back, and he bit down hard on the leather strap in his mouth.

Silently thanking the acolyte that had warned him. “There must be law, or there is only anarchy” “CRACK” This time Wolf screamed through his clamped teeth. His back a raw open wound. “The goddess is merciful, but man is cruel” “CRACK” Elder Wu preached like a priest howling his sermon at the unfilial masses. Wolf’s back was afire, his anger brewing. In that moment, like lightning in a bottle, Wolf realized he had an opportunity. With every crack of the whip, with strength born from pain, Wolf pounded at his block of qi. With each crack of the metaphysical hammer he struck releasing waves of power.

By the eleventh strike, elder Wu felt something was off. The boy had stopped screaming. He had even stopped flinching with the strikes of the flail. Wu had seen fully grown journeymen break down in repentance after a round with the flayer. His jaw tightened in anger as he increased his strength with some of his own qi.

Even in a semi fugue state of focusing his pain into anger, Wolf felt the last strike down to his bones. His hatred amped he felt his anger over taking his consciousness. His hindbrain tried to fight it. He was a human, not a monster. Another strike and he felt it slip further way as he tried in vain to hold on.

Wu was seething at this point, he drew his arm back again and amped up his qi even further adding to his strength. He would not be embarrassed by a child.

“Enough” A hand caught Wu’s wrist like a vice. He angrily spun only to be faced with cold faced Master Xian, an a livid master Dunrock. “How dare you interrupt me.” Wu spat. “I said enough” Xian grunted. “peacekeeping is my domain.” Growled Wu. Dunrock leaned in keeping his voice low and deadly. “If you dare strike that boy one more time you’ll be the elder of grave digging.” “You dare…” “Silence” interrupted Xian. “you didn’t think we would notice you using qi infused strikes while disciplining an acolyte?” Wu’s face dropped, startled.

He had in his anger perhaps pushed the boundaries of what was with the rules. While none of the others watching mattered, if the two masters were to take this to the headmaster, elder or not, he would be the next one disciplined. “He is clearly strong enough to accept the punishment, but as a favor for the two honored masters, I will proclaim the punishment has been delivered.” The difference between master and elder was usually rather distinct. Elders were below the headmaster in the operations of the monastery.

They made the laws and established rules, controlled duties like peacekeeping and finances, and ran overall operations. Master’s on the other hand, were simply the head of departments. Master Hemi for example, was the like king of the healers quarters. He had to deal withing what budgets would be set by the elders, but what he used that budget for, who he took as an apprentice, anything of that order was under his domain.

Thus, while animosity could occasionally arise between elders and masters, the amount of problems that could cause would be bad for the order. And anything bad for the order brought the attention of the headmaster. And no one wanted to be caught between a rock and a hard place. Thus elder Wu knew when to accept small loss of face and move on. His acolytes in blue, quickly untied Wolf who nearly fell before Xian caught him. The crowd quickly dispersed now that the show was over. “I’ll take him to Hemi.” Xian said quickly. “No,” Dunrock grumbled. “Bring him to me smithy.” “He needs his cuts to be seen too.” Xian argued.

Wolf back was a mess of blood and raw strips of flesh. Wu had not taken it easy on him. “I have salves and bandages at me smithy. Know how to treat burns, this is the same.” Xian wasn’t sure he would agree, but Dunrock was closer to the boy than he, so he acquiesced. As they walked, Wolf’s blood dripped onto the dirt path. “Damn that Wu.” Dunrock grunted. He was tempted to go to the headmaster about this, but he knew the line was too blurry for any punishment to be handed down to the old elder. Dunrock was unsure why, but Wu always seemed to be given a little extra leeway by the headmaster, he could only guess what his future would hold.

Dunrock led Xian into the dwarf’s little hut behind the smithy. Dunrock pushed some pots and scraps onto the floor before Xian set Wolf down on his stomach. The boy was conscious but seemed to be unresponsive and out of it. “Do you need anything?” Asked Xian as he stepped away. “I’ve got it from here. You should go check on that other boy. Wolf isn’t a monster, he will want to know how he is.” Xian just nodded and left.

Dunrock busied himself pushing over a stool and pulling out a jar from a high cabinet. He opened the cork top and flinched from the acrid smell. “Aright boy, this is gonna hurt.” He hoped the boy would be out of it enough to not feel the burn from the salve, but his hopes were crushed when the screaming started.