Chapter 22 - The First Form of Power

The two yellow stars were high up in the sky, and a moderate breeze was presently blowing over the area. Kane stood motionless in anticipation, his hair fluttering in the winds, watching Marcus gathering energy on his left hand. After a while, a white ball formed on Marcus’ hand, as it gradually expanded in size, until it roughly reached the diameter of 50cm. The sphere weakly glowed, as Marcus let go his hand, leaving the sphere suspended and floating in the air above the ground.

Kane looked at Marcus excitedly, waiting for the appearance of the ‘little clone’. However, Marcus just casually walked towards Kane, “Ok… It is done! We can start the training now!”

Kane raised his eyebrows and opened his eyes wide, “Err…? Where is it?!”

“What?” Marcus instantly replied confused.

“Didn’t you just say… that I will be fighting your little clone?” Kane responded completely dumbfounded.

Marcus looked at him weirdly, then answered grandiosely, whilst pointing his finger, “Huh?! Are you blind? That ball is my clone! The incredible Marcus Junior!”

Kane expressed a funny face, and instantly said, “You… you call that weird ball your clone?! I was expecting a clone that looks similar to your appearance! Not some random ball! So much for the hype!!”

When he heard this, Marcus paused to think, then looked towards the ball of energy. He pondered for some time, as he touched and played with his chin. Then he smiled and waved his left arm, “Ha ha, relax, relax, I can easily fix that! Such trivialities hu hu. I am your Master after all, don’t you dare underestimate my abilities!”

He coolly walked towards the ball, then he took out his storage device and started searching in it. Meanwhile, Kane waited with interest, seemingly trying to figure out what exactly Marcus was up to. Shortly after, Marcus took out two items, a hat similar to a sombrero, and a portrait. He then placed the hat on top of the ball, and stuck the portrait firmly vertically on the ball of energy. The portrait was of Marcus posing stupidly with a bottle of wine in his hand, more drunk than sober.

Kane`s face instantly fell and stared in disbelief. He didn’t know if he should laugh or cry at all this.

Marcus then placed his hands on his waist, completely satisfied, “It definitely looks more like me now! What do you think kid?” However, Kane didn’t feel like replying at all. Seeing this, Marcus decided to change subject. “Have you noticed the change kid?”

Kane looked at him puzzled, “What change?!”

“The gravity of the planet maybe?” Marcus coolly asked.

Kane paused for a while, “Now that you`ve mentioned it… it isn’t affecting me anymore!”

“Of course it isn’t! Now that you have direct access to your cultivation centre, the gravity of this planet will not have any more influence on your physique!”

“Anyways, we wasted enough time, let`s start now,” Marcus uttered, as he moved back towards Kane and explained. “Before we start with the training…” Marcus paused to rub his nose, then continued, “I need to enlighten you about the properties of the magnetic core.”

“The magnetic core is the first form of power, and it represents force and physical strength. It is classified into three categories as follows: attraction, repulsion and manifestation.”

“Attraction is the ability to attract any matter towards you. Solids are obviously the easiest to attract. Let me give you a quick demonstration.”

He reached out and pointed his left palm towards a small stone that was around 30 metres away from him. Instantly, the stone flew in a straight line, from the ground directly into his hands. This only took just a couple of seconds.

“The stronger your magnetic core is, the farther your attraction force can extend, and the larger the objects you will be able to move and attract!” Marcus continued whilst he juggled the stone.

“However, attraction is rarely used in combat, and not advisable either. The reason for this is very simple. If you attract your opponent, you will only be making his attack even stronger, since you will be accelerating his speed!”

“As for repulsion, it is the ability to repel matter away from your body, and this ability is mostly used for attacks. The basic attacks allows you to push away or slow down enemies that are approaching you, whilst more advanced attacks allows you to attack your enemies from range. There are various standard techniques that can be learned, which unlike the skills of the soul, they don’t require any insights to learn or enchantments to cast.”

“Finally there is what it is called manifestation of the magnetic core, which is the ability to draw out the power of the magnetic core outside of your own body! This can be either in the form of partial manifestation or total manifestation.”

“Partial manifestation is the case where the manifestation is still in contact with your body. It can be used defensively by erecting invisible barriers around your body, or it can be used to strengthen the attack of material weapons. The four power crystals compliment and amplify this very power.”

“Kid, remember when you did that earlier sword attack? That can be considered a form of partial manifestation of your magnetic core.”

“Is that so…?” Kane asked surprised as he turned his gaze towards the ground, staring at the broken pieces of his previous sword.

Marcus nodded in agreement, then he pointed his finger towards the floating ball, “Now look at my clone, which is a form of total manifestation of my magnetic core. The manifestation is physically separated from my body. However, the clone is still directly linked with my internal magnetic core. Hence, any damage dealt to my clone would be also dealt to me!”

Marcus then interrupted his speech, “I guess I have bombarded you with enough information for today! Hope I haven’t lost you Kid?”

“No Master, I have understood everything you said,” the thoughtful Kane replied. It was now that Kane seemed to have remembered something. “So those techniques that Ozzy and Julia used against me back then were all techniques of the magnetic core...”

Kane then smiled and enthusiastically stated, “Master, I just can’t get myself to accept that my future self will be able to do all of this! It feels so unreal, so incredible!!”

"Ha ha, you don't even have the slightest idea yet of what incredible really is kid! Allow me to show you something impressive!” Marcus grinned as he waved his palm towards a large cliff, whilst Kane watched curiously.

“This repelling technique is called Magnetic Wave, observe it well!” Marcus uttered whilst his hand glowed, forming a white flat circle of energy over his palm, circa one metre wide. Then with a powerful blast, the circular wave departed his body with incredible speed, rushing straight towards the cliff. As the wave moved, its edges bended, changing the appearance to resemble that of an empty spherical cap, similar to the shape of winds generated by a meteorite travelling inside the atmosphere of a planet. The wave then collided with the cliff, generating a small explosion. When the debris and dust cleared, Kane could see that the wave had left a human sized crater on the surface of the cliff.

“Wow…” Kane was clearly startled by the power of the blast.

“And this is another repelling technique, called Magnetic Slice!” Marcus proclaimed as he waved horizontally his hand, generating an elongated arc of white energy that marched towards the same cliff, slicing it horizontally in two on first contact.

Kane instantly opened his mouth in disbelief, whilst Marcus continued his little show. “Now I am going to use my attracting ability to pull over the top half of the cliff!” Marcus shouted as if he was playing a little game.

“The hell…!” Kane jumped out of his skin in fear and immediately ran as fast as he could, away from Marcus.

Marcus laughed hard whilst he pulled the cliff towards him, then caught it with a small bang, seemingly with no effort at all. He then raised his hands vertically upwards, with the cliff suspended in the air, resting peacefully on his hands.

Sweat now covered Kane`s forehead, as he shouted completely terrified, “Are you kidding me?! How is all this even possible?! How can your physical strength be this strong?!!”

Marcus smiled as he replied, “My physical strength isn’t that strong. If this large piece of rock had to fall on me, I would be instantly killed! The reason I am able to lift it like this is because of two factors. First, I am using my repelling powers to counteract the gravitational force of this planet, making the weight of this large rock not any higher than that of a human being. Secondly, I am using the power of partial manifestation to surround my arms, increasing their durability. The only downside for using both techniques together is that I am rapidly burning away the power of my cultivation centre. Thus, I will only be able to hold in this position for like 15 minutes, maybe 20 minutes at most!”

“And now…” Marcus smirked and shouted, “This repelling technique is called Magnetic Pulse!” A gentle yet powerful force was unleashed on the rock, propelling it upwards with incredible speed.

“Ha ha! Are you ready for the grand finale kid?” Marcus laughed out like a crazed person, whilst he used both of his hands to form a large circular white energy, much larger than before.

“Oh come on! What else now!” Kane replied completely irritated by Marcus’ madness.

“This high level repelling technique is called Ultra Magnetic Wave!” Marcus screamed as he unleashed its devastating power. The shape of the blast was similar to the lesser Magnetic Wave, albeit much larger and its power was on a whole different scale. As the blast powered off Marcus’ hands, the area surrounding him trembled and large cracks appeared on the ground below his feet. The powerful blast sped with tremendous speed, until it hit the flying cliff.

BOOM~~~~~

The cliff was completely disintegrated into pieces by the power of the attack. An ear piercing sound echoed throughout the area, forcing Kane to cover his ears with his hand.

Marcus stared satisfied at the explosion, and at the same shouted, “Hey kid! Are you sure you want to stay there standing? Soon this area will be covered by falling rocks! You don’t want to hurt yourself right?!”

Kane opened his eyes in disbelief, then he ran like a madman towards Marcus, busy cursing into his heart, “Seriously! And here when I thought he couldn’t go any more overboard, he instantly proves me wrong and pulls out this shit on me! The hell!” Kane barely made it to Marcus before a barrage of rocks descended on the ground.

“Right now I am using my hand to create an invisible barrier on top of us, using the power of partial manifestation. In general, the power of the magnetic core will remain transparent as long as it is touching the body, but it will turn white once it completely detach,” Marcus happily said, whilst the various pieces of rocks bounced on the barrier.

However, Kane wasn’t that appreciative of this information, and instead replied in fury, “What`s the big idea! Are you trying to kill me?!!”

Marcus retracted his hand, then turned facing Kane and calmly asked, “Let me ask you something kid. If one day you are fighting an enemy, and you will be on the losing end, you think they will be taking pity on you just because you beg them? You think that all this is just a little game?”

Kane stared at him, but didn’t reply because he was lost on words.

Marcus then asked, “You know the reason why I took you in as my disciple? Back then, when you had fought Yakov in the tournament, I had noticed that well deep inside you, there is a fearsome warrior, a merciless fighter ready to be unleashed. The expression you showed, the ruthlessness, the bloodlust… all of these characteristics can only be found amongts the most powerful fighters of the galaxy!”

Kane remained staring at Marcus, now with a very thoughtful expression. He seemed to have finally realised that becoming a fighter isn’t like practicing a hobby. If he wanted to become strong, he had to train hard, and experience all kind of hardships. Only by lots of hard work and several sacrifices one could become a strong fighter!

Kane smiled at Marcus and softly uttered, “Thanks Master… for bringing me back to my senses.”

When he heard this, Marcus smiled, then he looked around him, and afterwards he grinned, “Don’t you think that this area needs a clean-up with all these rocks laying around?”

Kane turned around to look, but before he could finish turning, Marcus immediately uttered, “1st Major art of the soul, Wind blow!” Suddenly powerful winds erupted outwards from Marcus’ body, clearing and pushing away all objects in the area, including Kane.

“Ughh!!” Kane shouted in air before landing with force on the ground, several metres away, with his face facing the ground. The now pissed off Kane struggled to raise himself up whilst he whispered, “That Bastard…!”

“Hey Kid! Shouldn’t you be worrying about your opponent?” Marcus raised his voice so that Kane could hear him.

Kane immediately reacted and turned around. Right before him, almost touching his face, stood the clone ball. Kane shocked himself and promptly retreated backwards by a few steps. Marcus Junior then started rotating on itself, until its back was facing Kane. In the meantime, Kane watched curiously trying to figure out what exactly is going on.

“Damnit! I had forgotten about this stupid ball! I have to figure a way to get rid of it somehow…” He then turned his gaze towards the swords tank. “Right, I should go and grab a sword already!”

Whilst Kane was lost contemplating, out of the blue, a small magnetic wave erupted from the ball, straight into his stomach. The speed of the wave was so fast that it didn’t give Kane any chance to react, yet alone dodge. “Arghhh…!” Kane screamed in pain completely stunned. “Damnit!! This thing is capable of firing those waves too?!!”

The explosion of the wave sent Kane flying horizontally with tremendous speed, as he bounced and rolled several times on the ground during the process, before coming to halt when his back collided with a large rock.

Kane coughed out blood, then he immediately swallowed two healing pills. He was reduced to a very sorry state, and his entire body was covered with wounds and bruises.

Marcus stared at him from afar whilst he whispered. “Sorry kid… but if by any chance my one and only disciple would end up dying in the future because I was too lenient with his training, I would never be able to forgive myself!”