First Fight

"Him."

He pointed to a lean amen standing not too far from them.

"Before we actually start training you, I want to verify certain things about you and your abilities. So, you would have a sparring session with him."

"What? Just like that?"

"Yes. Don't worry; you cannot die. We have the best healers here."

"Sure, I guess…if it turns out I don't enjoy getting beat to a pulp, I can just up and leave, right?"

"Yes, you can, Mr. Fury."

"Then let's get started."

Heat and his opponent started off by trading punches; Heat managed to hold his own for a while before getting hit with a series of moves.

The amen began to taunt Heat. "What's the matter? I expected much more haha!"

"Oi, oi, lower life form, know your place," Heat replied.

He was angered by that response. To him it seemed that Heat did not either appreciate how gentle he was being or know how outmatched he Heat was. In rage, he charged at Heat, who evaded and hit his mid-section in rapid succession. He retaliated with a kick to Heat's rib cage. Heat crushed unto the floor and let out a short scream in agony, before immediately returning to his feet.

This wasn't new to Heat; getting beat up or beating someone up. Heat had found himself in unpleasant situations on several occasions, but always found a way out. He didn't want this to be any different. However, unlike the other situations, this person knew exactly where to hit to make him feel excruciating pain—it was different.

"You're tougher than I presumed, I'll give you that," he complimented Heat.

Heat cracked his knuckles, stretched his fists and changed his fighting stance.

"Interesting."

The amen threw a punch at Heat, who easily and quickly swept it aside and followed with successive powerful kicks. After getting enough space between himself and Heat, the amen tried to attack again but Heat jumped and smashed a knee into his face. On his knees, he felt something broken on his face.

"Wow."

The amen spat out blood. He looked Heat in the eyes and grinned; suddenly, Heat couldn't see him. He looked left, right, behind and in front but saw nothing. Then, Heat felt a very low pressure on the ground just in front of him. He quickly turned sideways and felt a punch just miss him. His eyes widened in amazement.

All this while, from a room above, Shishio and Supido watched Heat fight.

"He used his ground reception already," Shishio said.

As a snake amen, Heat had the ability to detect movement through the ground. It was simply referred to as ground reception.

"He learns very fast, just as I hoped."

"Heat is already well versed in hand-to-hand combat, he's depending on prior knowledge and experience, but the in the end he can't move," Supido said as he turned to leave.

The amen had caught Heat by the neck, lifting him up.

"Where do you think you are going to?"

"The training is over."

"Yes, but the fight has almost started," Shishio replied.

"I fail to understand."

"You heard me; Heat has all the power he needs already. All he needs to do is awaken it at different stages of his training. The more eager he gets, the more he unleashes, meaning this gentleman should be done in about a minute."

There was a sudden burst of purple spa, manifested as a dancing aura around Heat.

Supido turned back to the fight with enthusiasm.

"Wow." Heat clenched his fist and took in a deep breath. He felt energy rushing through his body, energy he could not explain. It was as if he could reach out and literally touch the sky. "So, this is spiritual energy."

In an attempt to prevent Heat from completing his power up, the amen charged at him with a punch. Heat easily caught it and returned a devastating one, breaking a rib.

"Crazy."

Heat stood still, reveling in the amount of power dwelling inside him.

"Pretty impressive isn't it?"

Aquila approached Heat, wearing a grin like a mother seeing her baby walk for the first time.

"This is how you guys feel every day?! You should be part of literally every sport team in school. Wait a minute, so is that why Ursus is – and Supido is -"

"No, and no. They suppress it at school. All that's their body without spiritual backup."

A group of people arrived to take the wounded amen away.

"Come with me; Shishio wants us to check some stuff."

In a dark room, Heat sat facing an amen he could not see but could sense using his ground reception. If it wasn't for the partially visible door handle, he might've thought he was back in the abyss of the sea of flames.

"Are you relaxed, Heat?"

"Yes, but I would be more comfortable if I knew who was sitting here."

"All you need to know at the moment is that I'm a fox amen. We will have a proper introduction some other time. What we are going to do is simple: I will envelope your body with my spa, revealing all your valves. Humans without the ability to manipulate spiritual energy do not have any open valves. Someone like you should have some now. The more of them that are opened, the more access you have to your full reservoir of spiritual energy."

"Ok, I'm ready."

A white aura appeared in front of Heat. It drew closer slowly, then wrapped itself around him, before disappearing. Tiny, glowing dots appeared on Heat's body.

"Wow."

In the dark room, Heat resembled a constellation of stars in the night sky.

"In just a month since you were bitten…incredible."