The Mission Begins

The next day in the Metorium. As I perform some 'simple exercises' with Master Shawn I do my best to circulate my Uua whenever I can, which is anytime I am not doing something too strenuous. It may not seem like much, but compared to before when I could only circulate my Uua by concentrating heavily on it, what I am doing now shows my vast improvement.

Circulating my Uua reduces the stress of the exercises, giving me the opportunity to think of something else than what my body is going through and my thoughts fly to the book Master Hogan had given me yesterday.

I started reading it almost as soon as I had gotten home, so as to find out all I would need to learn. Apart from telekinesis, a few other noers had caught my attention but the ones I really looked forward to learning were protection, enhancement, and second sight. Protection makes one able to create a sort of second skin using the Uua. That 'skin' could absorb energy, thereby protecting one from most types of harm to a small extent. I had spoken to Drew during lunch today about the noers and he had told me quite a bit.

According to him, the protection noer is a low-level one that can provide a small level of protection. For instance, it couldn't stop a bullet, but it could save your head from being smashed by a bat. For the enhancement noer, he had said that it could enhance part of my physical abilities. I could use it to temporarily become stronger, faster, and so on, but as it is a low level noer its effects will only give me an edge against normal people.

Finally, the second sight. He had said it is far more important than I realized. Without first unlocking it, one could not unlock the Third Eye. He didn't explain what the Third Eye is, but he had explained the effects of second sight. Simply, it will enable me to see things I normally shouldn't be able to, like the Fasuru. Also, it can allow me to see the aura of a person and thereby know how powerful they are, but that's only if they aren't concealing it. Finally, it allowed me to see using other electro-magnetic waves like infra-red, ultraviolet, and x-rays and also enables me to truly begin to see magic.

"But," I had argued, "that orb you create whenever we are in that room, isn't that magic?"

He had shaken his head. "That's Uua, not magic itself, and the only reason we were able to see it is because of the destructive nature of the Uua once it leaves the body. It causes the air around the Uua to combust, the light from that combustion is what you're seeing."

"So you're saying it sets the air on fire?"

He nodded.

"But it doesn't feel as hot as fire. It produces heat, yes, but not that much." I argued.

"That's because you're unwittingly suppressing it. Try releasing it and throwing it towards something and you'll see its true destructive power."

I had remembered how my Uua had blown up the ceiling during my lesson with Master Hogan and had no choice but to agree with what Drew was saying.

"I see you've learned quite a bit," Master Shawn says, snapping me out of my thoughts. It takes me a moment to realize he is talking about how I am periodically circulating my Uua to make things easier for myself. "Was it Drew that told you about it?"

I nod at him. "Yes."

He nods to himself as if he had confirmed some thought of his. "Well, I would have told you about it anyway. What effects have you noticed it has on you?"

"Um… it helps me feel less tired."

He lets out a short laugh. "That's all. It seems you haven't learned a thing at all. Okay then, it seems 'simple exercises' aren't good enough for you. Let's move on to something a bit more complex." He says with a devilish grin. I wasn't too worried, after all, I could always circulate my Uua.

A few minutes later and I realize that I had underestimated the difficulty of the exercises. The 'simple exercises' felt more like a gentle massage compared to this. A few seconds into the exercise and I was sweating bullets. At the moment, I feel like I have just taken a bath with sweat. There is no part of my skin that isn't covered in sweat.

As I exercise I begin to notice something strange. Every time I manage to circulate my Uua, the weights I am carrying suddenly seem to become lighter, almost as if I was getting stronger. Once the thought comes into my head I can't get it out. I perform a few tests and confirm my theory. Yes, apart from relieving me of my tiredness, circulating my Uua also served to make me a bit stronger.

I wonder if I can become stronger by circulating more of my Uua. I decide to test it out, drawing out far more Uua than I would usually circulate. Again I am proven correct as the weight in my hand lightens considerably. I can't help but laugh out with joy at my discovery. Master Shawn notices and turns to look at me.

Without waiting for him to ask I say. "It makes me stronger."

He says nothing for a moment before nodding and motioning for me to stop. I drop the weights gratefully as I circulate my Uua faster to wipe away my tiredness.

He makes a strange motion with his hand and the room distorts, the front of the room stretches into the distance as tracks appear on the ground.

"Run." Is all Master Shawn says.

* * * * * *

Drew

We get through the back fence and are soon staring at the mansion in front of us. We are in the middle of what I can only call a mini forest but which is actually the backyard of the owner of this house. We hide in the cover of the trees as we watch the house. This is where our investigations have led us.

As I look at the house I remember what Hugo had told us about our mission yesterday. Some people who have allied themselves with the Fasuru have been making some suspicious moves which culminated in four people dying the day before yesterday. The preliminary investigations showed that while there was magic involved in the deaths of those four people, the magic was nothing too serious. They then tasked our team with finding out what is up with those people and if possible, to neutralize the threat they posed. If they were too strong to deal with, we would report their positions to the Laen and some Wranths would be sent to deal with them.

I activate second sight and turn to look at my team. After ensuring that each of them is completely concealed, I turn to look at the house, switching my view to infra-red. It is night so it is easier to see hot things. I count five people in the house, each of them gathered in a particular room. They seem to be discussing something.

"How many are they?" Lathia asks from beside me.

"I can see five," I say before turning to who is standing to my left. "How many Fasurus can you see?"

Ruan speaks. "Eight. Three on the ground floor, probably acting as guards. The remaining five seem to be gathered in a room."

"How strong are they?" Daniel asks.

"The guards are level thirty, as for the ones in the room I can't really tell, but they should be between twenty-eight and twenty-five, maybe."

Ruan doesn't explicitly say it, but I can tell that there's another Fasuru in the house, a strong one for that matter. There's no other way the levels of those other Fasurus could be hidden without a stronger one concealing it. So there were nine Fasurus in the house, three acting as guards, five in the room with those five people, and a hidden one of unknown strength hiding somewhere in the house, probably in the room with the others as something important seems to be happening there. The hidden Fasuru must have strength close to or even greater than Ruan's for Ruan not to be able to see through his concealment.

I turn to Ruan and ask. "Do you think you can take him?"

He nods, his expression devoid of any emotion. I nod and turn back to the house thinking.

After some time I say."We were not explicitly ordered to capture them so we should be able to deal with this on our own. If we can get rid of the guards, we can get as close as possible to that room and find out what they are talking about. If we get sufficient information we can leave without any problems."

"And if they discover us? We have no idea what arrangement they had with the guards, the loss of the guards could expose our presence." Emma says logically.

I nod having already thought of that possibility as it was the most likely to happen. We could leave but that is not an option, we have no idea whether they will still be here tomorrow, and if they escape and hurt others it will be our fault.

"If we are discovered Ruan should be able to take out at least one of them, or two even if they try to Fuse. Their levels aren't too strong so we should be able to take on the rest while Ruan engages the one that is hiding. Once we are done we can help Ruan finish him off."

"And if they have a powerful artifact?" Emma asks.

"Then we escape and report it as quickly as possible. Is that okay?"