Baam woke up staring at the alabaster ceiling. For a moment, he did not realize where he was. The sight all around him and the softness of the sheets, so different than that rocky floor he knew, disoriented him – stirred in Baam a heavy sense of wrongness.
Then he remembered.
Baam groaned and rolled over.
After a quick shower, Baam got dressed and stepped out of the room and into the corridor. The stark difference between the sterilized furnished room and the dirty tunnel and cave was still startling even after a week.
When he entered the circular chamber, Viole found himself alone. He remembered Hwa Ryun's warning of her departure last night and felt his hands twitch – curling into fists. Am I alone again?
Then Ha Jiinsung came out from the main hallway, scratching his head and yawning, "Morning 'Ole."
He released his fist, tension leaving.
"Seonsaeng."
"We'll have a quick session before I head off."
And he froze again, "Head off?"
"Did Hwa Ryun not tell you? The two of us are going to be gone for the week."
Viole opened his mouth, then shut it. "Alright," he said at last, "What do I do until then?"
"Until then," he said as he flung three cores out, golems began to rise – rocks and rubble condensing around them, "You'll practice."
The golems went up faster than before. The rocks coalescing around them in moments. Viole would have thought it was Ha Jinsung's handiwork, but he seemed just as surprised. Then it was gone, "Begin," he said.
Viole took the back stance once more, specifically the Ha Style: Weightless Crane, a form made for the explosive power inherent in Has. Viole didn't have that same power, but –
A golem struck.
Viole dived out of the way, springing up into a spinning roundhouse. The shinsoo reinforced limb crashing into its flank. "Nice one!" he distantly heard the shout, but he was distracted by the golem he sensed coming from behind. How can they be so sneaky? He screamed in his head just as he jumped to the side – it's fist cratered the ground where he once stood.
"I guess I'll be heading off."
"What?" Viole asked – distracted. One of the golems took the opportunity to attack, forcing him to throw a block up. He skidded back a few feet. "Already?"
"Yep!" Ha Jinsung piped up.
Viole dodged another blow by vaulting over a golem. As he passed he brushed a hand against the core – he felt the Flare Wave Explosion technique course up his arm and into the blue sphere. When Viole landed on the other side the golem crumbled into dust. "Good luck … I guess."
"Don't need it."
The other two golems did not go down so easy. Whenever Viole tried land a hit with FUG's signature move the constructs would dodge or move out of the way, even blocking the cores when they could. They … they had intelligence. Just like how that one had tried to sneak up on him. They were hard enough to handle when they were just incredibly durable.
He moved and moved and moved, landing hits that left no true scars. I need to be faster. A truth that grew slowly but then just rang with clarity in him as he dodged and weaved. Yes, he had to be faster. If he was fast enough he could land a hit with the Flare Wave Explosion but … how? The answer came quickly – reinforcement. If he could reinforce his arms, why not his legs? Viole sent shinsoo flowing through his legs, then tried to jump to the side.
He stumbled.
One of the golems punched him in the gut.
It flung him across the chamber. Viole landed in a heap.
He forced himself to his feet. As the two golems shambled over to him, Viole's mind worked in overdrive. All of his current abilities were the product of replication. Once they were done to him he simply knew how to do it. This may well be the first time he learned an ability the hard way … he wasn't even sure this was an ability.
But he had to try it again.
Viole walked then ran, closing the distance as he sent shinsoo coursing through his body, felt power and energy pool around his legs. The golem in front reared back an arm, ready to cave Viole's face in, but before it could strike the boy just vanished.
He reappeared behind it, right in front of the second golem. He reappeared in a flash of afterimages. Viole punched, fist hitting the core, then going through it. The golem collapsed in a spray of vibrating rock and rubble. As he landed, Viole used Flow Control on himself, negating the aftershock and leaving him sound and whole in the remains of the training golem. The last remaining enemy turned on him, raising both arms up to slam them into him.
And it stopped.
Just one look was all it took, Viole used Fast Skip on it, arresting its movements there and then. He walked up, breathed out a sigh, and closed his eyes. I need to form two baangs to attack. He could feel it, the power slithering about his chest, unformed and untouched. This won't be the same. His control over the golem, over the technique, weakened – slackened. It's arms once began to move. It won't.
It froze again.
Viole's arm darted out.
The third crumbled.
In the field of rock around him, Viole gasped for breath. That's when he heard it.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Viole glanced up the moment he heard the sound, and saw Yu Han Sung there. He clapped slowly, and after the third clap he let his hands fall, clasped behind his back. "A decent performance," he said, "for a Regular."
"What do you want?"
"Just you. How impolite. No Yu Han Sung-ssi for me?"
Viole stared.
"Very well," he said, "I came to evaluate your progress. As I said, it's adequate for a Regular. But we aren't looking for a Regular. Even with your speed for acquiring new skills and your new passenger you still lack the needed strength to kill Zahard for several years yet."
Just hearing about it caused a stab of pain to slam into him, more than that, it caused … something … to squirm, thrashing about in his chest. Viole grind his teeth together, working through the pain so one clear thought came to him.
I have no interest in killing Zahard.
"What do you want?" He repeated.
"Your body, your time, your blood, your sweat." After each item on the list, Yu Han Sung took a step closer. By the end of it he had stepped fully into the training chamber. "While Ha Jinsung is gone I will oversee your training."
I have no interest in giving you any of that, either. But instead he said, "Ha Jinsung-ssi will teach me."
"I am not questioning his skills as a martial artist. But your primary position isn't as a Fisherman, but a Wave Controller. Physical exertion is your weakness and he's been shoring it up. Shinsoo manipulation is your strength. You must play to your strengths in order to pass tests. You do want to pass, correct?"
I have no other choice. "Of course."
He beamed. Viole was used to Ha Jinsung's slight smiles or Hwa Ryun's smirks, so something just off about the Ranker's expression. Once more Viole sighed, then reached for the fallen cores.
"Those won't be necessary."
He stopped. He stared at the man. His smile never left his face.
He wouldn't.
He would.
Three baangs appeared above his head. Two baangs appeared above Viole's – one certain, secure, the other wavering, but both sent out a blast of shinsoo that met Yu Han Sung's in the middle. For the third, he dodged – jumping to the side.
Right into a trap.
Right before Viole's eyes was an orb of shinsoo, a ball of compressed energy. He barely even had time to move when it exploded outwards in a flash of blue light that washed over him. It should have hurt, he knew, but slamming into the far wall after it flung him hurt more. It was as if all the energy from the attack had just soaked into him.
Viole got up from the ground, ready to move, but then stopped. Just – stopped. Mind and body halting.
Yu Han Sung still stood where he did before, hands clasped behind his back, but around him hovered dozens of those balls of shinsoo, clinging to the floor of the cave. They had been there all along.
He took his hands out from behind his back, held them up, and ignited them – wreathing his hands in bright blue energy that twisted and curled about his fingers. Above his head yet another baang joined the first three, "I call this the Straight-Line Long Pierce. Try not to die."
The four baangs glowed then a single beam shot out – like a long, smooth cylinder of vibrant blue. Viole poured all the shinsoo he had available into one baang, dramatically buffing up the soo in the baang. As the beam shot out he threw all his strength into halting it there and then.
It didn't even slow down.
He scooped up one of the cores off the ground and flung it into the air, like before rocks began gathering about it rapidly, a half-formed golem being created. Then the beam blasted a hole through its chest, disintegrating the core. But by that time Viole was gone.
It was too dangerous too step anywhere within the chamber itself but the ceiling and walls were free of those bombs. After throwing out the core he jumped up, reinforcing his fingers so they dug into the rock ceiling. But it was not enough. Viole's eyes widened as another beam shot out, right after the first, aimed right where he jumped up to – Yu Han Sung had predicted exactly what he would do. Viole released the Reinforcement, hoping to dodge the second blast by falling, but he did not fall fast enough to avoid it.
That blast from before should have hurt. This did. The whole world went white and as the blast impacted his chest he felt pain spread out – creeping up his limbs. He didn't even feel the ground when he thud against it. The world titled afterwards, as Viole lay in a pool of his own blood, it faded and blurred. Through the haze of his consciousness he saw the globes of blue wink out of existence as Yu Han Sung approached, hands still clasped behind him. Viole could not make out his words, though the man said something.
He sent shinsoo swirling through his body, trying to use the same technique that Jinsu used. But no matter how hard he tried Viole couldn't – he felt the power circulate, but his wounds refused to heal. He continued to look at Yu Han Sung, his words, even though the pain, became clear to him, "Is this all?" The man asked.
Viole tried to struggle to his feet, but could only sit up.
"This is the end, I suppose."
At that moment, a blur flickered into being between the two. Ha Jinsung now stood there. The look on his face reminded Viole of that anger that Jiggu held – that one that contorted the face and lit the eyes aflame. That slight smile was gone, replaced by a frown that seemed etched on him – natural.
"What" His seonsaeng started, biting out every word, "are you doing?"
"You've come back."
"Answer the damn question."
"Training."
"Like hell that was. Besides, I'm his instructor."
"The Elders have determined that his growth his not adequate. I shall be taking over his Shinsoo studies."
Viole probably should have interjected then, but his head was too foggy.
"No, you won't. We'll handle that."
…Who is we?
"If extra training will not be done, you know the alternative."
Ha Jinsung looked like he wanted to say something to that, but a silence stretched instead.
The other man sighed, clasping his hands behind his back, "I think I need a cup of coffee."
And he was gone.
Not left down the main tunnel gone, but vanished into thin air gone. One moment Yu Han Sung was there and the next he had just disappeared. Viole remained tensed for a moment later, but when he saw Ha Jinsung relax he too sighed.
The sound seemed to alert Jinsung. The man turned around, he glanced up and down Viole's form, then said, "You're a mess."
I seem to be getting that a lot. "I can't use Jinsu's technique."
"Hm. Maybe it's too advanced for you? That new source of power can do it."
Viole closed his eyes. Before, he had used Flow Control on himself, sending the shinsoo swirling through his body, this time he focused his attention on his chest – onto that spot where pain had twisted through him. He pushed and pulled it like he had for his own shinsoo, and he felt his wounds fade.
To Ha Jinsung looking on, he saw a red exoskeleton emerge out of Viole's back, the ribs curling around his arms. For a moment, just a moment, a long narrow Needle appeared in the boy's hand, but when he opened his eyes the power had vanished just as the wounds had.
But the man stayed silent.
"…What is it?"
"Well, as you know, Hwa Ryun and I were supposed to go on that mission. I was thinking of taking you with us."
That caused Viole to jerk his head around.
"Why?"
"We're done here. It's no longer safe for you to stick around. So might as well come with us now rather than later."
It's no longer safe … he's talking about Yu Han Sung, isn't he? There was a tension there between them that Viole couldn't begin to understand. Many things within FUG were still mysteries to him. He'd let it be – for now.
"…So what are you going to do?"
"We're actually going to secure the next safe house. The Guide will lead the way."
"Secure? From who?"
He didn't answer that one, instead just getting away from where Viole sat and walked towards a far wall. Viole slid back onto his feet, and started heading towards him, but then he paused for a moment, glancing over to the tunnel that led to the room, then he left it behind.
When he looked back anew tunnel, slopping upwards, seemed to have just appeared in the back of the chamber. Hwa Ryun waited on the other side, nodding at them. Perhaps it was like that illusionary barrier that Hwa Ryun pushed him through days ago? The path is there one moment then gone the next?
For her part, Hwa Ryun smiled when she saw him … or at least Viole thought it was a smile. A twitch to her lips. "I see you're joining us," she said. Ha Jinsung took the lead, a few steps ahead of them. He thought it would be quiet on the trip up, but the redhead Guide had not finished, "This will be a good opportunity for you."
Don't take the bait. Don't – "In what way?"
"You'll see firsthand how FUG operates. How your seonsang-nim does."
The image of that list, with its scribbles and arrows, came to mind, "I know."
"Do you?"