Ki, aka arcane stamina and health. Molded by runic enzymes in the body it was the mana of the body. Powerful beasts roamed earth because of it. Warriors could harness the awesome power it contained, and go down in history as a one-man army or even a dragon slayer. I could technically take a step towards greatness as soon as I unlocked it.

There was only one problem:

I failed at it!

The situation was quite ridiculous to me.

Trying to use my mana to make my limbs move and then not, wasn't really doing it for me. When I tried it out on my arms I would instinctively use my muscles to counteract the force, and when I didn’t they appeared to move spontaneous and clumsy around like a rag-doll.

It only made me look like an idiot.

I was sitting as a spectator watching finale of the amateur tag-team-tournament. It was Team "Simple" against Team "Two scales and a hair"

I would fight against Team "Orc strength" once this was over.

The fight had started with the half-dark-elf-half-human going up against the aura cultivator. It was probably for the best for Team "Two scales and a hair" because it turned out the half-elf had a strong psychic ability.

An ability based on psychic mana. The mana of the mind.

It was some sort of [Mental Attack], that would force the opponent to faint.

The aura cultivator, that Martin and Mathilde had faced before, had some sort of resistance to it. He had clearly suffered, and had trouble standing up, but fortunately the Half-elf had no real combat skills, so he was defeated with some trouble.

The fight had advanced since then, and now it was the argonian Djaske up against the father, the dark-elf. The Dark-elf was wielding an arm guard, and a one-handed sword.

Djaske had his usual speed, and expertise. In fact: it made me wonder if he had even been serious the fight before.

The dark elf was skilled to, he wasn't as fast, but he used a variety of spells to make it balance out.

[Green flame coating], [Spear of destruction], [Flaming shield], [Dash of fire], etc..

Christ, he had a lot of spells ready, was he really an amateur?

An old man beside me noticed what I was doing.

(Old wood-elf male) "you seem to be trying something young man, what could it be?"

Shit, a talkative old person, even when growing older those types hadn't been my favorite kind. Well guess I had to be polite.

(me) " I’m trying to figure this ki thing out. The problem is that I just can’t get this to work"

(Old man) "I saw you fighting, are you really telling me you don't comprehend it yet?"

ugh, did people have to rub it in? okay world, I got it: I suck at it.

(me)" sight* yeahhh...."

(Old man) "thought so, you are making the mistake of trying to use your ordinary mana to accomplice it. that won't work"

(Me) "Why not? a ki user told me that it was the way to go"

(Old man) " If that is so then he's either very special, or not a very good teacher. you see, even if it technically is mana, it’s not what you popularly would call mana. Besides thinking about it as one thing would be like thinking of all kinds of food as meat, it's simply not true"

(Me)"...what do you mean? it’s not just a way of strengthening your body?"

(Old man) " No. No that is a simplification, it would be more accurate to call it a broad term for arcane health, arcane stamina, arcane strength and so on."

(me)" Then if it’s all arcane, what would be wrong in having a starting point in mana?"

(Old man) "You are not getting it. That's the wrong way of thinking. you must think that it got other roots. It originates from the body, and is replenished by eating. In old times, it was a necessarily means for survival, but because everything has become easy and harmless in modern times very few people got the need for it and thus never develop it.

We starred at each other for awkwardly long time, i was waiting for him to continue.

It never happened.

(Me) "I don't intend to be rude, but I feel there is some sort conclusion that I’m missing out on"

The tone of the conversation had slowly shifted to be annoying, i couldn't figure out how and why, but I could feel that the old man felt the same. But it was he who had started the conversation!

(Old man) "young man, I’m telling you that you have to have a reason. Like being in a life-threatening situation, panicking, or just pushing your training that far. What is your God-dam REASON!?"

(Me)"I'm trying to get better at fighting, are you telling me that isn't ENOUGHT OF A REASON?!"

(old man) " APPARENTLY IT'S NOT!"

(Me) "Know what?! FINE!"

Having said that I turned my back towards him. He did the same to me. How-da-fuck, had the conversation ended up like this? Already now i could in hindsight see that it was incredible childish, but apparently, we had a very bad social chemistry.

For the moment that was at least that was what I thought.

pow-change, 1st person, Martin

Clearly something was wrong about this situation.

An uneasiness was spreading.

The first signs had been how the fight down there had begun to be more intense, and so had the spectator’s cheers. They were in fact beginning to sound aggressive.

For a while I had dismissed it as the natural result of the final coming to an end.

Until the conversation between my brother and the old man started going south. It was highly alarming.

I noticed that similar conversations started around place. Two spectators started fighting. People began yelling and become violent.

It wasn't a mass panic, more like a mass anger.

This was getting dangerous. Really dangerous.

(Mathilde)" Oh hey Martin! I got the ice mana to work!"

I turned around, was she affected as well? It would decrease my chances of surviving.

She was happily spraying gust of cold out. No growing shards this time? I took of note of quickly she was mastering the mana, but pushed it to the back of my head. There were other concerns now.

I had an idea on how her ice mana worked compared to her ordinary mana, and if that idea was true then I knew a cause for this situation.

(Martin) "Quick Mathilde, is there something wrong with your ordinary mana?"

(Mathilde) " what? of course not........wait… there is something wrong. It makes me angry?"

(Martin) "BLOK IT! look around"

she looked around and noticed the changed mood in the people. Her faced darkened. She had come to same conclusion as i had:

Mind-affecting mana had appeared.

I looked around, some people didn’t seem as affected, they probably had strong minds like me. I took a breath, I guess I had to use that ability:

I looked towards the Half-Elf.

[Mind connection]

(Martin) "have you noticed it?

(Half-Elf) "yeah, it’s affecting my dad. My mom, the black dude, and Djaske are fine"

(Martin) "good, so you can tell who's affected?

(Half-Elf) "yes, I can feel about 400 minds and only about 20 is unaffected, oh wait never mind it’s 21, that girl got some cleansing skills"

(Martin)"Thanks, I trust you can handle it."

The [Mental connection] was lifted. Okay now I had a better scale of the situation.

The thing to do now was too get out of here.

I looked at my brother. He hadn't muttered a word until now. His fist was shaking with anger. He turned against the old man, about to punch him.

oh crap. [Clear mind connection]

pow-change, 1st-person ,Matt.

I just wasn't having it. Who did he think he was? treating me like I knew nothing?

I turned around, this guy had to pay!

[Clear mind connection]

My mind suddenly became clear again, why had I been angry?

My fist stopped midair.

(Martin)"sorry this is a bad way to introduce me as a psychic, but you are affected by some sort of mind manipulation. We must get out of here, this is dangerous! you need to compose yourself. once I disconnect, you will feel the affect again, so you need to keep your cool"

He was psychic!?

[Clear mind connection] was disconnected. Martin went pale, he clearly had a migraine from using the ability.

My mind instantly went aflame again. I wanted to punch him for not telling me about his psychic abilities. I did however remember what he had just said.

I took a few breaths. composing myself. The affect wasn't removed, but now i had control over it.

(Me) "Think I got it now, let’s move"

The most natural to do would be to meet up with the others who weren't affected by the rage, but unfortunately, we had a very bad position.

We sat in the far corner of the semi-stadium. Meaning that one direction meant going thru a crowd of enraged people, who now was straight up mindlessly fighting.

Another direction meant going thru fewer, but much more dangerous group of participants of the tournament.

The only real plausible direction was an nearby exit, only a few people was in the way.

A random person attacked me from the side.

I violently placed a fist in his face, and began kicking him.

(Martin) "Matt! get it together! follow us!"

Oh, right.

I followed him. We pushed those few people aside that was in our way. Me and Mathilde made sure that no one attacked our little group successfully. i hold my anger in bay.

It was a weird felling to forcible be angry. it could be compared to being drunk:

you know that you are drunk, and you know its duo to alcohol, but even though you know the reason for it you can't change the fact that you are drunk, you can only deal with it in the moment.

We finally left the stadium.

screams could be heard in the distance. i could see people fighting, and some cars were burning.

Really world? really? The effect absolutely had to expand beyond the stadium? There was one place we could go...

(Martin) The main building of the Academy Omo is our only real option, it won't contain as many people."

Damn it, Martin beat me to it. Okay, control the rage...

We were about to move when a voice from behind interrupted us.

(Voice) "so you are the ones we have to fight against, are you running?"

The voice came from a overly muscular orc, it was easy to guess he was from team "Orc strenght"

I mean, like really, was he a bodybuilder or something? Those muscles were beyond that of normal orcs.

(Matt) "yeah, what do you care?"

(Orc) "I don't like cowards who runs, from the battle, FACE ME"

CONTROL the rage... CONTROL IT, but i knew that even if i did, it wouldn't matter. The orc was just as influenced as i was, if not more, and he was looking for a fight. There was only one outcome of this.

With a load roar, he ran towards me, he grabbed a bat from the stands.

Oh yeah? So that was how it was? I grabbed a bat to, and with a similar roar i ran towards him. I could play that game too.

The bats smashed together, his splintered and mine, of course boosted with my aura, smashed against his chest, and splintered as well. He smashed a leg into me, and i collided with the ground. I narrowly avoided a fist to my face. He aimed for another attack.

[Frost breath]

Mathilde threw her magic towards him. The snowflakes hit him, and expanded, but since they had lost momentum the moment they had hit, the shards, that grew when hit, were largely noneffective.

It was however very aggravating to him. He forgot about me and began moving towards her.

A large dangerous person was about to harm my sister.

Needless to say, I didn't like the idea.

She stumbled back, but the orc hit her anyway.

My head went blank...

When I "woke up" the face off the orc was all bloodied. I was repeatedly punching him. My vision was red, but not because of the blood. I could feel pain and bruises but i ignored it and kept beating him, even though he had lost conscious a long time ago. I didn't care, i just had to get it out. I could faintly hear the sound of my brother yelling to stop, it somehow made me conscious again, how barely it might be.

(Martin) "Stop Matt! you have defeated him!"

(Matt) "I DON'T CARE"

(Martin)" yes you do! this isn't you"

I stopped.

I slowly stood up, and turned my head towards him.

He took a step back when he saw the madness in my eyes.

That's right, fear me, who he did he think was telling me to stop like that? like he had control? like he was better than me!?

I took step towards him. The step was so hard it left a mark in the concrete, i channeled most of the mana i could into my fist, preparing to throw a deadly punch.

Mathilde stepped in front me.The fist from before had apparently not done her any serious harm. Her hands had a blue hue, and cold was emitting from them.

Stupid thing to do, she had to pay for standing in my way!

My eyes meet her. There was a resolution in them

It didn’t originate from anger, or anything personal against me. It was merely a resolution to protect her brother…

…from me.

My movement stopped. Shame filled me. I think they could see it, because they visible relaxed.

My mind was still ablaze though. My breathing increased in rate and I already felt I was about to lose control. I couldn't let that happen nearby my siblings again.

I looked towards my brother, I hoped he would understand my silent plea. Fast.

[Clear Mind Connection]

The burning stopped, relief flushed over me. I instantly began running away.

(Martin) "I can't hold this up for long"

(Me)" Just do it as long you can, I will get as far away from you as possible "

I was glad we understood each other.

(Martin)"I’m sorry, but I can't hold this up much longer"

(Me)" Thanks, and I’m sorry to "

I sat down in a meditative position. It was in the middle of the marketplace, yet it was strangely empty.

[Clear mind connection] was cut.

The world went aflame again, and I returned to what had now become suffering to me.

pov-change 1st-person Mathilde.

(Martin) "Don't follow him, danger".

Then he fainted.

First Matt suddenly became calm again, then he ran away, and then Martin just fainted in front of me. What the fuck had just happened? Was he responsible for this?

If this was the situation, then I guess I just had to carry him to Omo! Then I would get Matt, he shouldn't think that I would let him run away like that.

I grabbed my brother and tried to find a good way of carrying him, but after a few awkward tries I gave up. Still needed those muscles.

Okay, I began dragging him then.

I had almost reached the entrance of Omos main building when I saw another orc appear.

He looked to be just as a muscle-head as the guy before. Had that guy been born in a gym? It looked like he had never heard of the concept called moderate work-out.

...annnnnd he spotted my thru half of the market place.

(Me)" Arhh COM'ON!"

Sight* Guess I had until he reached me, to stop him.

[Frost breath]

Okay, now I just had to figure out how to throw ice-shards without freaking hitting something first.

Let’s see... if I changed a little of this… No that wasn't it. that only made them grow larger.

What about this?

A shard appeared!

…aaannd landed on the ground.

I tried again, all with varying results. Some absolutely not child friendly words came from my mouth. I didn’t have the time!

The orc had reached me.

Fast! I had to use something I had figured out:

[Ice wall]

Instead creating separate shards, the fused together. I sprayed out a wall.

The orc straight up destroyed it.

[Cold spray]

No shards this time, just cold.

He started to shiver, until: [Boosted body heat], he stopped shivering.

Why wasn't it working? I was sure that the ice-mana had been much more effective before. Later Martin told me that some of the ice-mana probably was used to subdue my infested ordinary mana from influencing me. Of course, I didn’t know that now.

I tried out [ice coating], it created the fusing crystals right on my skin. I figured out I could form a shield. I even figured out how to use it as stepping block, and propulsion beneath my feet, but it didn’t matter. The fight was going nowhere. If you can could call it a fight that is, all i did was dodge, block, and making him feel cold.

A while later…

(Other orc voice) "Uuuarrghhh!"

A third orc! just as bumped as the two others. He was about 100 meters away.

A fist hit me in the stomach. I had forgotten to watch my fight.

I crashed into a stand. A sharp pain emerged from my side.

I raised a bloody arm: [Frost breath]: but only a few pathetic "snowflakes" appeared.

He walked towards me. I had exhausted all my resources, including my most of my mana. I couldn't do anything about it.

Another fist was raised.

Was this how it would end? Just after I had become a mage? Then what would happen to Martin? and Matt? I started laughing, blood emerged. The gods had really pulled out their middle-finger this time.

pov-change 1st, person Matt.

I ran as fast as I could. Jumped.

[force propulsion], a use of my [force] technique. it was crude but worked. I covered the last few meters airborne before I hit the orcs head with my shoes. [outwards force]. His face smashed against the ground.

Auch. He would have a mean headache when he woke up, and then some. Not that I felt regret, but I suspected that the state I was in had something to with it.

At least I had saved Mathilde.

She was all bloodied up, had trouble breathing, internal wound, and at least two broken ribs...

(Mathilde) "Ey man, what’s up with the last second safe? could have *cough* come a little sooner ya'know"

(Me) "Sorry about that, here let me give you give this"

I placed the bag I had stolen on the ground, and searched among the equally stolen items.

I took out a healing potion.

(Me) "Drink this, there is more in the bag"

(Mathilde) "Thanks, nice sword"

Typical her. Acting like everything was fine when it wasn't

(Me) "yeah, I found it randomly laying around, and I thought: hey I might need this, sooo.."

Coincidentally it was the sword that had made me want to compete in the tournament.

(Mathilde)" glurp* glurp* ahhhhh! That hit the spot. Oh, and there is a third orc by the way "

There was? I turned around. indeed, there was. another meathead.

The key-difference was that he had a weapon. A one-handed Warhammer covered in iron, and with a red handle. The sides of the hammer had some ornaments with the center being a small red crystal, strongly signifying that it was enchanted with something.

He had noticed us too.

Once again it was clear that a fight was unavoidable.

In reality i just jerked at the hilt and nothing happened, the blade stayed sheathed. I took the sword of my shoulders, and took a closer look. Had i overseen some sort of locking mechanism?

I noticed some runes where the hilt and scabbard meet. when I tried to unsheathe the sword, they would glow faintly, and it would shut even tighter.

What was this?? Considering the situation this really wasn't the time! I gave it a few more violently tries, but eventually I gave up. Figured it was no use, besides: the orc was getting close. Guess I just had to use it as a club then.

At least I had come up with something new that might would help:

[Curse boost] Black flames erupted from my aura. I could fell the power rise in me.

When I was left with the ordeal of somehow overcoming the curse, I had three challenges ahead of me:

- Reduce the effect of the curse.

- Reduce the intake of the curse.

- Find a way to make it leave me

The first had been the hardest. once I had a grasp of it, it was clear that it wasn't mana belonging to me. The difference was that I couldn't directly control it in any way, like suddenly having a third arm controlled by another person. It was very stubborn to work with, but by using my own to push it, I managed to at least isolate it in me and reduce it significantly. Once I had this part done, it was much easier to figure out the rest.

The second challenge had been surprisingly easy. I already had low mana-regeneration, I just somehow flipped a switch that made it go to zero. I knew it was unusual, but it wasn't the time to consider the meaning of it.

Then there was the third challenge: Making it leave me.

I couldn't simply push it out of my aura, not without opening my aura and get contaminated with more of the curse. In my attempts, however, I stumbled over a rather curios technique.

With a little trickery involving my techniques, I found out how to force out the curse out in a way that made it appear as black flames. It had the neat effect of boosting said aura techniques. The drawbacks were that it was a very slow way of making the curse leave me, and while I had it active I could feel parts of its effects.

Anyway, things happened and now I ended up with having to fight that person in front of me.

With the black flames surrounding me I leapt towards him. The sword was swung in a huge arc towards him.

With a jerk, he slammed the hammerhead on the blade. A short burst of light emerged from the crystals on the hammer. At the end of the hammerhead a gust of wind appeared, it flew to a wooden stand a few meters away.

The stand became heavily damaged. Good thing I wasn't standing in the way.

The hammer flew towards me. Rather than blocking it I made a back step. Another gust of wind appeared. Trying to avoid it I was hit in the side. I stumbled a meter back.

He tried again but this time I was prepared: [boosted outwards force]. The weapons clashed, I was barely able to hold the hammer back. An opening! using the gab that had appeared I took a step forward and slammed the sheathed sword with full force into his stomach.

He took half a step back, grunted in pain, but other than that he was discouragingly unaffected by it. I suspected that he had unlocked his ki, otherwise I could see no other explanation to his durability. Using my aura techniques, I avoided his next attack. Black flames surrounded me.

The fight continued. To keep up with him I needed to reinforce my every action with my boosted aura techniques’.

Even so it was clear that the only thing i was fighting against was brute force. He had no actual skill, so avoiding the hammer and constant blasts of wind was relatively easy, considering.

There was plenty of openings I could use, only problem was that my attacks never had enough of an effect. I never got the opportunity to follow up on my attacks, so the result was very frustrating stalemate.

At some point, I noticed that I had almost no traces of the curse left in me. The black flames died out. Originally that had been my intention, but now I really needed it.

I placed a foot on his chest and set off, creating some distance us. Being in the middle of the fight I had little to no time to think the situation thru, so I decided to use my own mana as a substitute for the curse:

Bright white, green, and blue flames erupted from me, yellow sparks could be seen too. The flames where thicker and more potent than before.

I attacked him again. The sword swept away his hammer and hit him hard. He stumbled back a few meters visible in pain, it had an effect! This time I followed up and pushed him back step for step.

The was however one inherent and fatal flaw with using my own mana:

I was spending it, and since I was using it for my aura techniques I needed to consume more and more at a faster and faster rate to keep up my power. I had been aware that this would happen, I had just not thought that it would happen so fast!

Desperately I putted all into one last move:

[Final Burnout]

The flames shun even brighter, and sparks filled my vision as I hit him. He flew back in a spiral of arcane flames. A tiny stand was smashed, and a crack appeared on the wall he had hit.

My vision darkened. The mental stress of using such a huge amount of mana at once almost made me faint.

I still grinned. Naturally winning gave me a sense of victory and relief.

With a roar the orc got on his feet. He was heavily bruised. A wound from his head covered one of his eyes in blood.

With his remaining eye, he spotted me and started rapidly humping towards me.

My face instantly changed to that of utterly despise and resentment. I had just beaten him! Why did he have to stand up again? How did the world expect me to beat him now!?¨

I HAD USED EVERYTHING I GOT!!!

A feeling of anger rose in my chest. Not that fake anger from before, I had after all got rid of the curse, but a real genuine anger, and with also followed a mixed felling of desperation and determination I had never felt before.

It was at that moment:

The crystal on my sword glimpsed for second. The scabbard opened on the side, which made it possible to unsheathe the 1.2 meters long blade.

A felling of power came from the blade as it enchantments made it feel lighter and began to amplify what little of my mana that was surrounding it. it was by a useless amount; a point was however proven:

The sword wasn’t a toy. It was a real weapon, and meant to be it.

Even though the orc began closing in again I remained calm. I knew one thing:

I could fight the guy.

I ran towards him. My running speed was faster than usual. We dealt a few blows. I noticed that I was almost as strong as when I used the non-boosted techniques’, but passively and constantly! I was clearly losing the blows; my objective was however only to find an opportunity to end the fight.

There! go under the hammer. Move behind him! I aimed for the back of his knees:

cut. a clean hit. With a bumb he collapsed on the ground. Shakenly he tried to get up. He fell again.

This fight had really taken it’s time. The adrenalin was still rushing in me, so I didn’t feel the exhaustion.

I sheathed my sword. Using one hand to lean on it, I squatted in front him:

(Me) "Too bad, you are not winning today bastard. Guess I will take this as my winning price"

I wiggled the sword.

I stood up. With a firm swing I took the hammer and threw it out of it his reach, turned around and began walking away.

Angry protests could be heard behind me, but he was going nowhere.

So, this was what having unlocked ki felt like? weird, it didn’t really feel different from before. I Thought it would at least be a little like mana, maybe that's where I had been wrong. I had been able to depend on my aura techniques’; therefore, I hadn’t need it before. Well it only took me emptying my mana reserves to unlock it.