Capítulo 8: Make It His Own

The forms were very simple to understand. They mostly focused around the footwork needed to move toward and away from an opponent. They were aggressive and showed how a body should remain ready at all times to strike at a single weakness. The way the body was drawn reminded Clark of a cat waiting to pounce.

As Clark studied, he lost track of time. He was burning every single page in to his mind as if he would never be able to see it again. Which was true, Clara had said she would be taking it back. But as he read it he realized that a lot of the styles mentioned the use of a tamed beast's flames aligned with them.

This would be ideal for Clara whose spirit beast took the form of a rapier. It may not have been around at that moment, yet Clark swore he could feel the burst of flames that had knocked him aside during the test. "Devi, we can't use flames…we will need to discover something else to use together."

Since Debi had been carefully looking over Clark's shoulder, he saw where he was meant to be. Therefore, when Clark stood up and began to copy the footwork, Devi matched the positioning. Every single time Clark took his own stance, Devi was moving to match him.

While doing so, the pair unintentionally began to meditate. They were moving as one being and not separately. This was how a spirit tamer and spirit beast were meant to be. The profound bond between them was formed on the day that they were born. It was more apt to say that they were two bodies with one soul.

"Is this kid having an enlightenment? He sat there reading for six hours then stood and starts to have enlightenment?" Clara had only ever gone through this once. It was when she had been forced to train for three weeks straight. Her father had shown her his strength while free from his duties. It had inspired her to push for the tier she was at now.

When she had finally grasped her own technique with her flame striped lynx in the saber form, she had fallen in to enlightenment. Over the period of ten hours, she had found the ways to perfectly mold her new technique with her movements. It was exactly what she had needed to break through to the next tier.

Clark twisted and moved following the footsteps. He would crouch and dive forward as if he was carrying a dagger or short sword. With every movement, Devi would change direction and begin with chilling laughter. He was practicing the chance to cause their opponent unease and confusion. It would let Clark deal a surprise attack or get an opening.

The energy flowing between the pair was being drawn out of the cracked soul stone. It should have been to help Devi recover later. However, the act of training paired with the phantom meditation was enough to require their bodies to force themselves to heal. Clark didn't even hesitate to pull the water flask of healing water from his pocket. He felt that if he didn't he would collapse before he understood what he was trying to grasp.

The feeling of energy between him and Devi was just out of their reach. It was frustrating. It mocked him and what he desired. "Devi! Bite me!" Clark felt that he needed motivation. Just slapping his face or punching the wall wouldn't do it. He needed to feel the true pain of the soul.

To Clara's surprise, she saw Devi bite down hard on Clark's shoulder. The look on Clark's face matched the one that Cara had had when Devi bit her. But he soon became stone cold calm. It was enough for the entire training room to feel as if it had decreased in temperature.

Terrifying laughter burst out of Clark's and Devi's mouths. They had perfectly matched each other in their training. Their bodies moved from side to side slightly changing their motions. Clark's footsteps seemed to become softer and softer while his hands were moving with less dramatic swings. He was using more of his body's energy to fuel his movements.

He could feel it fading away. But this was great. He loved the feeling. Clark felt that he had truly grabbed on to that mocking energy he felt just out of reach a moment again. When Clark suddenly approached the training dummy, Clara wasn't sure if Clark had lost his form for the crimson battle art or if he had started to adapt.

As his fist flew at the wooden dummy, Clara found her answer. There was a strange ripple, one that Clara had seen around Devi when he was invisible. The responding crack was the main body of the wooden dummy cracking. It was also followed by the sound of Clark falling directly on his back.

"Finally made it to the first step of your training. Enlightenment, changing my family's battle arts, and using your first attack with the energy shared between your spirit beast and you." Clara looked at Devi who had found itself floating above Clark unconscious as well. The pair had burned away all their energy. "And it only took fifteen hours straight to achieve this all. What a monster."

Claar smirked while she told a maid to go and get food. She was going to take her own time training while Clark recovered. Then they would start all over again. As soon as Clark woke up and ate something, Clara would see how long he could last. There would be no stopping until she was satisfied or he broke.

Over the days, Clark didn't see a single ray of sunlight. He had already developed some basic self defense techniques which had helped him. Now, he had taken the scarlet battle style as his own, but with a twist.

Clark was able to pull at his energy that he shared with Devi. while doing so, he lost sound in his footsteps and felt lighter. It was as if he wasn't really there. Instead, he was similar to Devi who floated about the room.

When Clark channeled this energy in to his fist, he found that he could force it outward. The result would be a feeling of shifting in the core of his being while his target would receive a massive amount of focused damage.

"Again! Get behind the dummy and strong then to the next!" Clara had set up a series of dummies. Clark was using his energy to move around to their blind spots. His strikes needed to crush them one after the other or else Clara said she would be done with his training.

Devi laughed and moved in tandem with Clark. As Clark would punch, Devi would bite. His invisibility allowed for the perfect one two combo. Clark's attack would cause damage while Devi's would draw away energy. The two would be able to cause a decent amount of pain and damage at once to cause their opponent to break. Mental and physical damage.

"Keep those ghostly steps of yours moving! No hesitation and never stop! If you stop you die!" Clara sent a quick burst of flames outward causing Clark to dodge underneath. This had kept Clark from slowing himself to a stop after each attack.

"Come on! One more focused punch!" Clark struck out and heard the last dummy crack. It fell to pieces in front of him. "Six days, fourteen hours. That's how long it took for you to be able to use those two moves. If you hadn't passed out so many times since you got here I would say you would have learned it much faster. Good job. Tomorrow we head to Nova academy. You may sleep in a bed tonight." Clara walked away, she hid her impressed smile from the panting Clark.

"Devi…we did…we did it." Clark could barely catch his breath. A maid rushed over to him to give him water before directing him to a freshly drawn bath.