I'm awake and feeling recovered. I dress quickly for a morning of fighting, tying my hair back tightly with my bandanna. My belt is snug around me, my knife at my back, and the new sword ready at my side.

People are still here in the inn. It's become a de facto center of activities. Even the mayor is still here keeping company with the doctor. It's before dawn and they've been awake since they were called. I'm actually impressed they care for the village that much. Many leaders don't, only caring for what the position can give them. But as I told them, this is my kind of job.

I want to help those who struggle to do their best and bring positive changes to those who can't do it for themselves, even if the pay is low. I understand that people who want to do their best don't always have the money to pay for the best or even anything good. I'm willing to help those people.

I still have to earn something to live, but what they can give is enough, and there are often hidden sources of additional income they haven't thought of. Like whatever is hidden in the thieves' hideout. I expect there to be plenty they can add to my bill once it's recovered.

As I open my door to walk to where they're standing around yet another body, one of the villagers says, "...and then we got the story out of Han and went to Niva's house. That's where we found the leader of the thieves."

Another villager says quietly, "The way he died is weird, isn't it?"

A second villager who went to Niva's house adds, "Niva was already gone, but we got scared and didn't chase him."

I would say that was wise. "I think you did the right thing," the doctor agrees with me. "He was killed the same way those soldiers were. Ordinary men don't have a chance against whoever did this."

I interrupt from where I'm standing at the doorway. "What does the man Niva look like?" They turn to look at me in surprise. "While I'm getting rid of the rest of the thieves, I'll take care of Niva, too."

"Sure, we know where they are," the mayor says in his usual boisterous voice. He turns to the innkeeper. "Bring me something to write on!"

"Izark, you're dressed for battle," the doctor comments. "So, you're recovered?"

"That's right," I tell him as I head for the front door.

The mayor comes rushing up with a hastily drawn map for me. "Hey, apparently your opponents have a new ally."

"Sounds like it," I agree, not worried. It's good I'm here to help them.

"Oh, hey, wait a minute! We don't have your horse ready yet. This is so sudden." The mayor begins to chivy people into getting a horse ready for me. I don't need a horse, but I won't tell him. He wants to be helpful and I don't want to seem any stranger than we already have.

I pause to look up the stairs towards Noriko's bedroom. I can feel her, that she's sleeping. The wind also lets me know she's still there. I won't let this take any longer than it has to. I hope she'll behave today while I'm gone. I wish I knew how to tell her how dangerous it is to use her powers as a Teacher here. She may worry when she finds me gone, but she needs her sleep. The innkeeper will tell her where I've gone. I ignore the little boy in me that's promising her I'll be back soon.

Dawn arrives as I'm arriving at the place below where the thieves have their hideout. It's up in the cliff face where we fell from, but at a farther distance from the village, so I've had to come a long ways. I guess it was okay to have the horse do that much running for me. I leave it tethered to a tree and begin the climb to their hideout, jumping from outcrop to higher outcrop.

I land up on the top of the mountain here and look around, check the map and continue on. I hear them and smell them when I'm getting close. They've laid a trap for me and are waiting. "That dog. He's here."

"Hmph. We can ambush him. We can beat him with our trap."

I continue forward until I sense the trap laid for me. From behind me comes a steel net, weighted around the edges. It lands on me, but I keep my feet. "We got him!"

"We did it! That's a steel net! You can't even cut it with a sword." Four men come out from hiding, rushing me.

"Pull him down with the net! He's helpless." Again, they've made assumptions.

I grab the net in my hands and call on my fire energy to melt the links, and on my strength to tear the net apart in front of me. The net falls off me to lie on the ground, the broken links falling to clink against the steel of the net. The thieves skid to a halt in fear. "Thank you for saving me the trouble of having to hunt you down."

"This can't be happening!"

"But - but that's a ...steel net!"

I head for them. They swear. I move fast and they jump and try to run. Their swords are out from before, but I don't draw mine. This time I can be in control. When I'm in control I use hand-to-hand strength attacks. They're similar to energy attacks, but it's more the use of the strength of what I am than using the energy I can control. When I'm weak the energy comes out. It doesn't have to this time.

The four men are on the ground, incapacitated before they can run three steps. Fist and foot blows faster than they could see rained down on them and now they're groaning. "Save your breath and don't bother moving," I say to them. It will hurt less if they stay still. "I have a question for you. Do you know a merchant named Niva?"

"Sure," says a new, prideful voice from above me. I turn quickly. I didn't sense this person at all. Long blond hair and greedy eyes that look at me. Not the greed for money, but for something else. He wants me for something. "He's my boss. In fact, he's waiting for me at the hideout. ...Waiting to hear I've killed you."

Ah. He wants my death. One who loves the power of winning in battle. I've come across a few, but none have been able to best me, even at only this strength. "Have you been here all this time?" I ask him. He admits it. Usually they're prideful enough to talk before engaging. He isn't ordinary, the wind now tells me. He can hide his presence from even the wind. I'll be wary. He's likely the one who can use energy attacks. People like that - like me - are very rare.

"Was it you who killed the thieves' boss at Niva's house?" I ask him, to confirm it. They're often boastful as well.

"That's right," he answers easily.

The thieves on the ground aren't happy with that answer at all. "What did he say?"

"You son of a ...you called us out here saying you had a message from our boss!"

The man above me leaps down from his high perch on the rocks. "I just wanted to see what the man I'm going to kill was like." He lands lightly, like I would. I stay wary. "By the way, I heard you were hurt."

"Maybe they got it wrong," I answer.

"I guess so. You were pretty good. You finished four big guys in no time. But -" I sense a gathering of energy. He isn't going to waste time. His hand comes up as if he's preparing to shove me over from the distance we are apart. He actually does plan on it, but it will be a strong ball of energy that hits me. "- you won't beat me."

I put up both of my hands to block the incoming energy with a shield of my own. His blow has enough force behind it to actually pick me up and throw me aside. The tree behind me falls and I crash into the side of the cliff that was near it and fall into the underbrush.

The man I'm fighting mutters to himself. I let him come closer. Even in battles like this, small moments of recovery are still useful. "He flew sideways! Did I miss him? I must have landed at least one or two of my distant blows on him." Ah, that's why it was so powerful. It really was multiple fast attacks in a row. He wasn't taking any chances either. "At least some of his ribs must have been -"

I rise to my feet, not wanting him too close. "You have great power. An ordinary man would be dead instantly if he were struck by that." It's my warning.

Instead he becomes angry that I appear uninjured. He's too prideful. "You...swine. You're still standing?" He immediately unleashes another barrage.

This time I leap out of the way. I stood still the first time to understand how powerful he is. I reach for my sword. I much prefer using my sword when I do energy attacks. It allows me to control the energy better. "Now it's my turn."

I head for him, swinging my sword. I let loose just as much energy as it would have taken for me to put down a normal strong opponent. He acts like he didn't feel it. He's leaping backwards as I push strongly against the earth to run at him faster than most men can run. He's able to keep ahead of me, but I'm pressing him.

He yells at me in frustration. "Don't make a fool of me!" A strong energy blast comes at me from both of his hands, but I've changed my shield's shape. It cuts through his attack, sending it around me. He stares at me confused, not understanding why nothing happened to me.

I prepare my next higher level energy attack, gathering it in my hand. He draws his own sword, swearing again. I hold the energy for now and send it through the sword to defend against his sword blow. That's just as strong as mine. He also can direct the energy through his weapon.

I keep him on the defensive, testing him with every blow, to see if he can keep up with my speed. He's good enough to keep up with me. That's rather impressive. I stay on my guard. He may show me something new.

Our energy blows slam against each other again and again. I can feel the force being deflected by my shield. Much of it is going down into the ground because we are standing on it. There's a different feel to the earth suddenly. My foot shifts at his blow, the ground collapsing under it.

I'm distracted enough by the effect that he gets a hand free and slams me with a direct energy attack to my head. Because we've been in close sword combat, the energy blows me back again, like his first series of blows did.

I do a back-flip to land on my feet again. It didn't hurt me much. My shields held, but the force against it was more than my feet could grip the earth. My opponent cries out in surprise.

Now that we're separated I can hear a river far below us, the moisture from it coming on the air. That would be a long way to fall. It's likely the same river Noriko and I were on underground, but here it's come up to the surface.

I'm taking too long. I would like to finish this now. "It'll take all I have to deal with you." I collect all the energy I can hold, allowing myself to transform just enough to gather even a little more, since he already has dealt well with all I can give and not transform. "HAAAH!" I send the energy at him.

He raises his arms in front of him, understanding that this is another level completely. The energy slams into him and he cries out, "ARRGH!" He's blown back many feet and I walk towards him to see what he'll do next. He rolls off his back and pushes to his hands and knees.

"You're as good as I thought you would be. You're not very hurt," I say to him.

He rises to his feet, already nearly exhausted protecting himself from that last blow. He's quite angry, one who can't lose. Those are the worst kind. They won't stay down, have to kill or be killed. "I don't want to hurt you, but you are quite the adversary. If I leave you wounded, I'll be sorry some day. I'm sorry, but I have to finish you off." I'd really rather not, but it's a sad truth I've learned.

Suddenly his expression changes and he looks up at me in wonder. "It's you. Now I get it! It's you!" He points at me and cries out, "You're the one who took the Awakening from the Sea of Trees!"

What?! As I try to comprehend what he's just said, part of me desperate to kill if he knows that, or even just suspects it, the ground beneath us begins to crumble and an entire point of the cliff face slides down the mountain towards the river below us. That final energy blow of mine was too much for the ground under us. We made it unstable and we're falling.

I was closer to the edge and he's now above me in the air. Above him I see a faint shadow of a giant hand reach down from the sky and wrap itself around the man who was my opponent and they both fade and disappear. Then I'm crashing into the pieces of earth that crashed just before I did, and I'm buried by even more. My energy shield protects me from being crushed, but I lie stunned for a time.

What did he mean? The soldiers were killed by him. Was he one of those sent into the Sea of Trees? Did he see the dead flower insects? They were very tough to kill and took both energy and my strength. He would have understood what it meant for them to be sliced into pieces, then. I close my eyes. I've also left behind evidence that damages us. And now he's seen my face. How I wish I could have killed him.

Why did the cliff have to fall? I was only one step away from doing so. And...what was that hand? Who's rescued him? Is that a sign of the one who wants me most? I hope with everything I am that they didn't see me, didn't understand who I am. They took him. He'll likely talk and want to fight me again to win. Those kind come back again and again.

I shiver with a chill that goes deeply into my bones and I'm changing, my fingers turning into claws as I draw on the most strength I'm willing to call for. The rocks fall away from above me and I'm rising to my feet to climb out of the rock fall. With one leap I'm back up on the top of the cliff face. I'm glad we moved far enough away from the initial confrontation with the thieves so that they can't see me. It takes me some time to calm down enough to have the changes fade from me again.

Once they have, I'm quick to find Niva. He's a weak heavyset man who loves power. I tie him up and the other men and take a few bags of coin for myself as extra payment. The villagers won't know what was here and won't begrudge me the extra pay. None of us can get it back to who it was stolen from anyway.

Leaving the five men tied in the cave, I hurry back to Calco. But before I go, I ask one question to Niva. "What was the name of the strong man you hired?"

Niva gives me a nasty look. "It looks like he tried to give as good as he got, or you got lucky. He said his name was Keimos."