Chapter 4

“Now, before I begin, do you know anything about Layers?”

Quake shook his head.

Jeck nodded, mostly to himself.

“Good. Much easier to explain when you don’t have any pre-conceived notions. Now, seeing as you understand much more than you should, I’m going to assume you know what concepts are?”

Quake looked thoughtful for a moment before answering hesitantly. “They’re ideas, right? That’s the impression I get from the word.”

Jeck smiled at him, he was pretty clever for someone who only became sentient recently.

“Correct. Concepts are ideas and ideas are very potent forces when used correctly. Now, I’m going to go off on a tangent because the history of Layers is messy and it’s important that you understand why we use them, not just how.”

Quake nodded. Focusing on the reasons why something came to be made sense to him.

“People have the ability to make up new powers. You’ve seen me grow logs, breath fire and manipulate earth right?”

Quake shook his head up and down rapidly, paying rapt attention. It was honestly kind of cute, not that he’d say it out loud. Didn’t think Quake would appreciate that. He was probably just excited that he’d be learning something new from someone for the first time.

“Well, those are abilities I made up myself. They’re more for utility than anything else. Making seats, cooking food and repairing damage I do to the environment, et cetera, et cetera.

Anyway, a long time ago, some smartass thought to himself ‘Hey, why don’t I make up an attack that’s purely conceptual?’ and he did, gloriously succeeding in his task, forever changing the history of combat and severely pissing off a lot of people. See, what makes a conceptual attack very annoying is that it’s pretty much the ultimate attack that all others spawn from. How do you dodge or block the idea of an attack? Well, everybody came to the conclusion that you couldn’t, and that the only way to feasibly fight all the one-hit-kill moves was to have your own conceptual barriers.”

Jeck started to pace back and forth in front of where Quake was standing.

“Of course, this meant that a lot of nothing got done, seeing as nobody could actually hit one another. This continued on for a couple of years until a bigger smartass than the first came up with an idea that would eventually become known as Layers. These are super-conceptual fields that permeate an individual’s entire being. They levelled the playing field of combat once again by blocking all conceptual attacks and nothing else. They did more than that though. These were fields that you could apply to offense as well, making sure that your attacks ignored any perfect shields.”

Jeck stopped pacing abruptly and turned to face the boy in front of him. “Did you understand that?”

The bipedal mongoose in front of him put a hand on his chin and stared at the ground. Truthfully, he was a little confused but he didn’t want to admit that he didn’t fully understand. Who discovered all this? How exactly did one obtain these Layers? He really needed an example. Maybe if he pretended he could understand he’d be able to pick it up as he went?

“No, I understa - “

“Bullshit.”

He flinched at Jecks harsh tone. Jeck gave him a flat stare until he looked away in shame. Then the man before him sighed. “Relax kid, you might be smart, but nobody fully understands this stuff on the first explanation. If you don’t understand anything, just ask. I’m not going to think you’re stupid because you don’t know something.”

He put a hand on his chin.

“I’d actually think less of you if you pretended to, so don’t. Now, questions?”

Quake mentally let out a sigh of relief at his words. He’d thought he really messed there. Nobody had ever had expectations for him before. It was a strange feeling honestly. “Um, how exactly do layers work? You said that they block perfect attacks and nothing else, but you also said that all attacks come from those same conceptual attacks. Shouldn’t it block all of them regardless?”

Jeck looked up as he mulled over how to answer. An explanation should be concise and efficient. He could go into technical terms but that would probably raise more question than it answered. Better to explain the basic ideas now and then build on it later.

“Okay see, the Layers have a unique property. If an attack that is coming towards you ignores your natural defenses, let’s say, a punch, the Layer removes or negates the part of the attack that would bypass your defense, leaving only the kinetic energy of the blow. Does that make sense to you? It’s sort of like a combat filtering system”

The rat was visibly struggling to imagine his scenario but he eventually nodded, telling the truth this time.

“Okay good, I’ll give you another example then. Do you remember how that big mammoth knocked you out?”

A scowl darkened his furry face and he nodded curtly.

“Remember how his attack seemed to bend, even though you dodged? That was one of the ‘absolute’ attacks we talked about. An attack that can never miss its target, even it needs to warp space to do so.”

“And Layers will protect me from that?”

“It’ll stop it from bending space when you dodge, it’ll still put you through that mountain again if you let yourself get hit by it.”

Jeck could see the contemplation on the mongooses face. Oh yeah, he was definitely hooked now. If he had any reservations about learning from him before they were forgotten.

“Will you teach me how to use it?”

“Of course, now it won’t be easy. It takes months for even the most talented of warriors to peel open their Layer.”

Now, Quake was a talented kid, very talented actually, and awakening your Layer allowed you to begin to tap into the potential you had. Potential was best awakened when attempting to do something. Therefore, a goal to strive for was something that he would benefit greatly from, right? Time to light a fire under his ass.

“But seeing as you’re a smart cookie, you have three days to do it before I leave.”

“WHAT?!”

The look of shock on his face was pretty funny though.

“Hey, hey, hey, chill! You can do it.”

“What do you mean I’ve got to do it three days?! You said it takes years!”

“I did say that. I also have places to be so you better be as good as I think you are. Also, before I forget. You are going to be learning proper control. It is imperative that you do so as soon as possible.”

Putting his panic at losing his first chance to defeat that big wooly bastard aside, he instead asked “Why is control so important? What happens if I don’t learn proper control?”

“If you don’t? You die. It may not be today, or even five years from now, but you will misjudge your strength eventually and break something you shouldn’t. Then Caomhnaigh will get you. Or Sábháilte will, depending on where you are.”

“You mentioned that name before. Who is C-Cea-Ceev- “Quake mangled the pronunciation of the foreign word several more times before giving up. Much to the amusement of Jeck who was laughing at him. “Oh shut up, you know who I mean.”

“Hah, don’t worry about it. Her name is Caomhnaigh, that’s ‘Keeve-knee’. It’s Irish for protect. The other name is Sábháilte, ‘Sa-wall-chuh’. That one’s Irish for secure.”

“What’s Irish?”

“It’s the native language of my home country. A surprising amount of things here have Irish names so you’ll probably see more of it if you travel.” Then to himself he muttered. “Seriously, what are the chances an Irishman gets dropped into world where things just happen to be named after his native language? I swear to god if….”

Quake watched him mumble to himself, fascinated by the terminology he was throwing out. Some terms eluded his knowledge. He made a mental note to ask what an ‘Isekai’ was later and decided to snap Jeck out of his mumbling by snapping his claws in front of his face. He blinked in surprise.

“What was I talking about?”

“Cao-whatsherface.”

“Right. Those two are the Guardians of this planet. They protect Nature and Civilization respectively. Caomhnaigh looks like a monkey with one eye, about your height and usually decorated with whatever the local fauna is. I’ve only caught a glimpse of Sábháilte once, but I was…preoccupied, and didn’t get a good look. They are why I’m going to teach you proper control over your strength. If you destroy enough of your environment.”

Jeck leaned in and stared dead into Quakes blue eyes.

“They will find you and kill you, there is nothing you can do to stop them.” He then leaned back and clapped his hands together. “Let’s begin!” He exclaimed cheerfully.

***

For the next three days, Quake did nothing but eat whatever fruit Jeck could scrounge up for him, and get his ass kicked over and over and over again. Sleep was non-existent and rest was limited to ten-minute intervals, and only then once he physically couldn’t move. It was the most exhausting thing he’d ever done but he relished the challenge. He could feel himself getting stronger every time he fought.

His goal was to recognize and be aware of his true self. This would be the key to peeling open his Layer. He was close, he could tell. With every punch, kick and swipe of his tail, he was one step further.

Jeck was an efficient teacher but a brutal one. He never fought fair and seemed to have no problem with pushing Quake to his limits, or past them if he felt like he was slacking.

This was tough on Quake, and to his embarrassment, he lashed out at Jeck.

Lack of sleep combined with frustration at the extreme deadline he was given lead to Quake losing his temper. He yelled and pleaded for sleep or, to his shame, give up.

Jeck always waved off his requests for sleep but when he asked to quit just fixed him with a cold stare until he finished. Jecks death stares were the worst. It always felt like there was a council of people unanimously judging him unworthy to live. After a staring contest where he somehow felt outnumbered despite them being the only two competing, Quake looked at the ground in shame.

His emotions were hard to keep a lid on, after so many years of simply lashing out when he felt threatened, keeping his cool and staying rational was harder than anticipated. As he fought, he learned how to keep his strength in check. A punch that could shatter rocks now barely left a mark on the fragile log Jeck was having him punch repeatedly. A leap that would have cracked the ground beneath his feet now only left a cloud of dirt. Jeck deemed the results so far as ‘satisfactory’.

‘Satisfactory’ his furry ass, he was doing fantastic.

On the second day, he began to feel….something. It was a strange feeling, like he was precariously balanced on the edge of a cliff, and something great was at the bottom. He just needed a push to inch that bit further, until he was free-falling.

Finally, on the dawn of the third day, he felt something within him change. Something great and vast had begun to flow through his entire being. Encapsulating him, holding him gently in a loving grasp.

Hot like fire yet at the same time, cold like ice.

His whole body begun to glow and energy thrummed through his body. The exhaustion of the last few days events disappeared as though they had never occurred and he could feel the wounds he had accumulated begin to rapidly heal.

He stared at his hands for a second as he processed what was happening, then he threw his hands up in the air in celebration. Jubilation started flowing through every vein in his body. So great was his joy at beating Jecks deadline that he didn’t notice him walk up behind him.

“YES, FINALLY! KISS MY ASS JECK! I DID IT. I - ”

“Excuse you?” Came a flat voice from behind him.

Quakes excitement immediately flipped into panic as he whirled around.

“I-I……thought you were getting food.”

“I was, until I felt a spike of energy from over here.” Jecks flat tone turned into one that promised a very entertaining time, for him anyway. “So, you’ve awakened your Layer. Why don’t we give it a little ‘stress test’ then, shall we?”

Jecks arm exploded forward, too fast for Quake to put up any meaningful defense against. All he could do was brace himself for the blow. It never came. All he felt was a small breeze of displaced air and looked at Jecks fist stopped inches from his face, before it grabbed his shoulder and wrapped around his neck. Knuckles rubbed painfully against his furry skull.

“Surprise noogie attack!”

Quake let out a yelp and tried to pull himself free but Jecks grip was like a steel vice.

“Get off me!”

“I’m so proud of you!”

Quake clawed the arm around his neck and bit back a yelp of pain. What the hell was Jeck made out of?

“Let go!”

“I knew you could do it bro.”

“I’m gonna kill y -“

“I NEVER DOUBTED YOU.” Jeck interrupted him, probably deliberately, the bastard.

“I –“

“NOT ONCE.”

Quake abandoned his failed attempts at threatening Jecks life and instead reached up and tried to scratch his eyes out. Jeck just tilted his head back out of reach and laughed. ‘Curse my stubby arms!’ He stretched his arms out further and stood on his toes. ‘Just a few more inches…come…on….’ Quake strained his arms and legs, desperate to feel just a little bit of slack so he could reach his target, and he felt it he did.

Unfortunately for him, that slack was Jeck letting go. He yelped again as he fell onto his ass. The only thing that really hurt in that whole exchange was his ego. Jeck kept laughing like the smug prick bastard that he was. Clutching his raw head, he scowled at Jeck.

“I succeeded at doing something that takes most people years of effort in three days and you have to rain on my parade?”

“You liked it.” Jeck accused.

Quake shook his head in denial. “I.. didn’t like it at all.”

“You hesitated.”

“No I didn’t.” And so what if he did? Friendly contact felt nice and no one has given him anything remotely resembling a hug since he was born.

Okay so maybe it felt nice but he wasn’t going to admit it.

Jeck rolled his eyes.

“Anyway, I can do something that can cheer you right back up.”

“What?”

“I can remind you that there’s a big mammoth out there whose ass needs a kicking.”

“…You live for now.”