The Crystals

"What is this?" asked Zohaifa staring at a glass clear hexagonal bipyramidal structure in Lazuli's hand.

"This is a healing Crystal. You haven't heard of these?"

"No."

"I suppose you don't know that. Let me enlighten you. You can find structures like these throughout the universe. They spawn at random times at random places. That is why I expected you to know."

"Hmm, I saw a similar structure. It looks like diamonds. But what of it?"

"Maybe you didn't since Crystals spawn more in Cant World than any other places for some unknown reason. But its function is interesting. They store aura and when you break the Crystal and absorb the aura, you get a temporary power boost. Let us use the healing Crystal as an example. When you break it you get the power to heal which you can use only once," saying which Lazuli broke the crystal and absorbed its aura. A few moments after Lazuli rested her hands on Zohaifa's shoulder, his soreness vanished. His body felt fresh.

"Thanks, I feel a lot better now."

"You are fighting for me anyway, so I thought I should do this much. Now, should we start the basics?"

"Yes," Zohaifa and Marium answered in unison.

This time the training was less intense than before which took 2 weeks. She taught basics regarding aura. Lazuli taught them 3 things.

First, she taught them how to detect an aura. Turned out that the presence Zohaifa always felt was just other people's aura. But this training brought Zohaifa to notice the fact that despite Lazuli being stronger than any other he knew, he never felt any tremendous presence. When he asked about it, he came to know that Lazuli keeps her aura hidden on purpose so that enemies cannot detect her presence or guess how strong she might be. It is a habit of the experts according to her.

Second, she taught them how to charge aura. Aura charging creates an external and internal effect.

For internal, it increases the aura flow throughout the body which makes it faster to charge an attack. On top of it boosts strength, speed, and other aspects of fighting. Even hearing and vision sharpens up.

For external, it creates an effect on the environment depending on the intensity of the charging. It creates waves of air, vibration on earth and glow of light whose intensity also depends on the intensity of the charge.

Third, she taught image training. It has advantages and disadvantages in comparison with the usual training. The advantage is that it can train aura much better and it can help create, improve, or tweak aura moves without moving an inch. The disadvantage is that one cannot expect any physical improvement from this.

"My part ends here," said Lazuli, "there is one more thing I would add like to the basics which is flight. But it will be a time-taking lesson. So, the logical approach is to use the time to train martial arts instead."

"I will be sparring with the two of you every evening. You can choose your actions for the rest of the time," Lazuli said before she left for her work again.

Zohaifa and Marium stared at each other as an awkward moment of silence prevailed.

"What now?" both asked.

"Let us try image training now," said Zohaifa, "I don't want to spar. It will make one of us anxious before the tournament."

"I agree," said Marium with a smile.

Then Zohaifa sat down to meditate. In a few moments, he found himself in an empty world with no boundaries anywhere. The only things are darkness and the solid floor made out of nothing.

"The image world is surprising no matter how many times I am here," Zohaifa said to himself.

"But I did not plan anything. What should I train?" Zohaifa thought while rubbing his chin, "I got a good enough result by analyzing my weakness and enemy's imperfection for the last time. I don't know much about my enemy or who my enemy might be. So, I will concentrate on my lacking."

"Let's see," Zohaifa said as he sat down in the emptiness of the image world, "Firstly, I need an attack faster than 'Golden punch' or maybe find a way to get the 'Golden punch' land. Secondly, I need to figure out a way to improve my 'Lightning shield.' All I can do is stand inside."

With a smile, Zohaifa continued, "No physical stress is going to hold me back now."