Chapter 8 - The Feeling Inside.

We trained for forty hours straight, healing every time that we couldn't go on any more. The feeling was incredible, for by the end of the time I was able to occasionally test the young woman whom I fought against. And the amazing thing was that every time I was healed, my strength was increasing. It was quite an experience, but one thing that I noticed now was that I wasn't unleashing any of the power I had done earlier. When I asked Jessie why, she told me that my hidden power was only unleashed after heavy physical damage, and that because I had become stronger her attacks weren't having the same effect on me. However, I soon realised that I was not the only one who could achieve such power.

My hands were striking Jessie all over, but as had been the case for most of the time she was able to read my attacks and intercept them. I decided to try something that I had been pondering for the past hour, and I moved downwards, sweeping my right foot towards her unprotected legs. Jessie flew straight into the air, and I saw it as my chance. I jumped as high as I could, exhilarated by the fact that I had, and struck her full force in the face with my right foot. I landed with my two feet on the ground, and Jessie fell landing in a heap around twenty feet away from me. I grinned at my result, but the smile was taken off my face as I heard her voice.

"Yes! Yes! Yesssssss!"

".what the.?" I gasped as Jessie started to glow a pale blue. It wasn't a blinding light, and I looked on in disbelief as she started to rise into the sky. And this wasn't a jump. She was floating.

"Yes Rylian! You did it! Now get ready to face my ultimate power! Do you think you can survive?! I doubt it!"

Her laughs ran cold all over my mind, and I stood ready for any kind of attack she could throw at me. Or at least I thought it would be any attack. The result was quite different.

Jessie's body was shaking softly, and I saw the muscles in her arms and legs engulf to around twice their normal size. Then, she placed her hands in front of her, and the ground shook beneath my feet, not violently, but enough to scare me senseless. What the hell was this?!

I can't explain what happened next, for it was just like a gut reaction trying to protect myself. A massive yellow light came from Jessie's outstretched hands, and I knew in that instant that if it struck it would probably kill me. I pulled my hands behind my back, and pushed them forward using all the energy I had. A beam of blue light came flying out of my own hands, and I almost lost concentration with the surprise of what I had just done. The two beams of light approached each other, and they collided together in the sky. The power was unimaginable at that point, but there was no explosion, only the immense clash in the sky and the battle for supremacy. I pushed my feet as far as I could into the ground, and pushed upwards for all I was worth. I could hear screams of delight from the other side, and I wondered if Jessie had lost it completely. However, the thought left my head quickly as the power I was facing off against increased dramatically. I now knew one thing for certain. I had to put everything I had into this one. Otherwise. I was done for.

That was when, luckily for me, I was able to unlock my powers once again. I screamed wildly and felt the energy built up inside me, and as it did I felt my beam rise up into the sky. I was winning! It was a great feeling, but at that point I felt a crazed emotion in my heart, and as I looked upwards I could almost see the look on Jessie's face, and I realised that I was about to kill my mentor. Suddenly my heart changed balance, and I put all my energy into trying to push the beam out of the way. My blue energy flew into the sky, and I was faced with Jessie's oncoming beam. There was no way that I was going to dodge it in time, so I stood my ground and got ready.

I was lucky, for I still had the burst of energy from my 'hidden powers', and once the beam hit and exploded all around me I put my hands over my eyes to protect myself, whilst using my energy as a shield to protect me. It was incredible, like a tornado had hit my body at full force, and I almost succumbed, for the pain was heavy and diluting to the soul, but I held on for my life and finally the explosion waned and the dust settled around me. I stopped Jessie coming to ground, and I fell to my knees laughing. I don't know what came over me at that point, but I felt great, alive, like I had been reborn and I was ready to return to my existence with a new purpose. Jessie started to laugh as well, and before we knew it we were both on the floor, unable to get up from the hilarity of the whole thing!

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"You know." said Jessie, after we had regained control of our senses.

"Yeah?" I replied.

"That was my heaviest attack. I was taking a real risk hitting you with that one, but somehow I knew that you'd survive it."

I laughed and nodded to her. I felt incredible.

"One thing Rylian. are you able to use KI blasts at will now?"

"KI.? You mean that beam that I was able to use?"

"That's the one. And I'm guessing now that you've unlocked that, I'm guessing that you'll be able to use smaller, more refined blasts of your own, yeah?"

I looked upwards, and I honestly couldn't believe any of this.

"Possibly. I mean I haven't tried yet..."

"Well, you can try now. We have nine hours of training left, and we're gonna use it kid! You have a gift. you have the potential to be stronger than any of us, and I intend to make it happen. It's only a matter of training now, it gets simpler from here on in."

She walked backwards, and raised her body into a fighting stance.

"Alright Rylian! We're alive again! Let's go!"

For the next nine hours we trained solidly, getting the edge on one another at different times. I made a few more discoveries as I was fighting, techniques that I could use with my energy. I was now able to hide my power with my mind, so that it couldn't be sensed so easily. Also, I was now able to fire the smaller blasts of energy. However, to do such a thing required taking up a lot of my strength and stamina, and so I only used these to defend myself at first. I was exhilarated by the battle, and by the time the fight was over I was ready to eat. I stood beside Jessie, and she chanted a command. I was told to put my hand upon hers, and once I did I found myself transported back to the village of Jamala.