Marcus enjoyed his breakfast on the public terrace far above the ocean. The early morning sun warmed his skin and the fresh ocean air was a nice change of pace. It was definitely the second best way to start his day. Of course, nothing beats waking up next to naked Azaa.

He had a lavish breakfast 'Marcus Style', with a lot of everything. After he had signed a few autographs (yes, even here), he ate, enjoyed the view and listened to his music. Yesterday's breakthrough had greatly elevated his spirit. Now that he thought about it, things were actually going really well for him.

You only just started to understand this new ability, but you sound like you have already mastered it.

Good morning to you too, Xeen. I know I'm just getting started.

Do you?

Is there something you want to tell me?

No.

Aha.

Ye-jun walked into his field of view with a tray full of food and a tablet under the arm. The man was smiling like the Cheshire Cat and Marcus took off his headphones. "Good morning, what makes you smile so much?" Marcus asked and Kim just gave him the tablet. Marcus found a video on it, from his little accident in the training room. The quality was surprisingly good and it showed a small time loop of him causing the shock wave.

"Do you see it?" Ye-jun said, still smiling like a mad man. "Try slow motion," he added, and Marcus furrowed his brows. He used the slowest speed and looked at the event again. Again. And again. In the fourth loop he saw it, the shock wave wasn't caused by the shout. When he made the shout that time, he also stepped forward stomping down his right foot, and now in slow motion he could see the shock wave actually starting from the ground. Ye-jun saw the light in Marcus' face and said, "It isn't a shout. But I believe it is also not a stomp."

Marcus slurped some very delicious noodle soup to buy some time to think. "We have tried a lot of movements and attack actions, we should have found some kind of kick or stomp attack. More than that, this feels to restricted compared too Impulse Hammer," Marcus theorized and Kim nodded. "I pulled the footage this morning and I have a theory…." "It is a modifier," Marcus suddenly said. "Tsk. You got it already," Kim laughed and Marcus joined him. "I had been so certain it would be another attack. But a modifier… how does it work, on what does it work? We need to narrow it down," Marcus said, now quickly finishing his breakfast. Kim enjoyed watching him and worked through his own, far smaller, breakfast.

Like two boys, who had just found out what the word porn did for them on the internet, they couldn't wait to get back to the action. This time around they left the building and Ye-jun guided Marcus deep into the island to a very special place. "Amy and I call it our playground, but it is actually a special garbage dump for materials, tech, machines, broken training equipment," Kim explained and Marcus looked around. He saw a lot of broken stuff including… "Is that a tank?" "An armored personnel carrier. We trained a bit with it, but Jack broke it with his puppet," Ye-jun explained and Marcus could believe that. Jack's puppet 'RumbleBee' was a juggernaut of destruction. Five tons of attitude and bad manners.

Here, surrounded by scrap, they cleaned up a small area to start serious practice. Kim had brought two cameras and glued them to large pieces of metal. The man always thinks three steps ahead, Marcus thought and got himself ready. A modifier meant, the ability was interacting with other actions or events. In this case it seemed to be connected with causing a shock wave through some means (working theory). Marcus wound himself up, but only a little, and made a heavy stomp. First try and the ground ruptured, dirt and small pieces of trash flew through the air. Marcus repeated the same thing ten times to get a better feeling for the ability.

"What mental picture are you using?" Ye-jun asked, as they reviewed the camera footage. "First I imagine compressing red energy into a small ball and then I imagine a red wave starting from my stomping foot," Marcus said, and Kim tilted his head, "Why red?" And Marcus laughed, "Don't know, I guess energy is red in my head."

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

"How is the endurance consumption?" Ye-jun asked, after the second set of stomps. "These smaller ones aren't too bad. Ten can be recovered in ten minutes, I guess," Marcus said. Kim thought for a moment, "Okay then let's go big, try the biggest stomp you can and then we try to gauge your endurance consumption." And they did. Kim retreated fifty meters away and Marcus imagined compressing a giant ball of energy into a needle pin and then let it rip.

Marcus was thrown back and high into the air while the shock wave wandered through the ground and reach into the air above. It expanded and rushed over the area in a fraction of a second, reshaping the land around him. After a heavy impact Marcus slowly got back on his feet, aching from the experience, while Kim came running to him. "Holly crap! That was even more amazing than last time!" He said and Marcus smiled while catching his breath.

Grrrr. Tsk.

What?

Nothing.

You said you were not going to help, then don't make unhappy noises in my head!

You call it a modifier and what are you modifying?

Marcus didn't understand what Xeen meant, at first. "You talking with Xeen?" Kim asked and Marcus made a strained face. "He isn't happy with our tests," he said and tried to figure out why. Then it hit him.

"Once I have got my endurance back we should try and use it together with Impulse Hammer," Marcus said and Kim nodded. It took a few minutes for Marcus to get back to a decent amount of endurance and Ye-jun used the time to tell him something. "I'm going to make an announcement very soon, but I want you to know before then," he said and Marcus could tell this was important. "I am going to officially abandon the race for the first place. I will concentrate on other things, developing my abilities, family, taking time for myself…," Kim explained and Marcus agreed this was a good idea.

"There will be backlash and slander, you will also be hit. My brand will suffer a lot. I expect to lose half my followers on social media. But ultimately this change needs to happen," Kim said with a firm voice. "The rest of the world will see the wisdom in your decision eventually. Rushing towards the top just doesn't work, you burn yourself out and then you die," Marcus agreed with his teacher and Kim nodded with a grim expression.

"Okay, next test. A 50% Impulse Hammer in the air and a low power shock wave," Marcus said and Kim stepped back a few meters. Marcus readied himself, compressed some power and started his strike.

Marcus you sh-

He didn't hear Xeen's words before he unloaded. An ear destroying BANG! followed and the shock wave moved over the playground hitting a big scrap pile twenty meters away. A small firework of garbage followed as the force of the attack distributed itself through the garbage pile. Marcus saw nothing of it, because he was lying about ten meters away in another garbage pile, a rusty old metal piece stuck out of his right shoulder. Kim came running, with a wild mixture of emotions on his face.

"You okay?" He asked and helped Marcus up. Kim removed the rusty metal piece in one go and Marcus clenched his teeth. The healing took a few seconds and in the meantime Marcus could listen to Xeen lecturing him. "I forgot to activate Carapace. Impulse Hammer does also cause knockback to me," Marcus said with an annoyed face.

Pain is the teacher of the mindless.

Very funny.

They tried again, now with Carapace, and the result was amazing. "We should keep this ability under wraps for the time being," was Kim' advise, after watching the effect. Marcus nodded in agreement. "I'm far away from actually using this in battle. I can't control it, it costs far too much endurance and it takes too long to set up. I can't just hang around five seconds to concentrate on compressing energy," Marcus said, but he didn't feel discouraged. This was normal, Impulse Hammer had started the same way and now it was second nature. "How about one last really big one?" Ye-jun asked with glowing eyes.

They cleaned up an area and used the armored car as a back support to stop Marcus's backward movement. He imagined a large ball of energy, compressed it to the size of a tennis ball and placed it in the imagined path of his Impulse Hammer shock wave. He clenched his fist and gave it his all.

Marcus opened his eyes and saw Kim's worried face. What happened? His body was hurting, he couldn't hear what Ye-jun said, but he followed Ye-jun's look and turned his head to the right. His whole arm was reforming. Kim slowly helped him up and now his hearing came back, but more than that he saw what he had done. There was a trench in the middle of the playground, the armored car and Marcus had moved nearly twenty meters too. "This ability should come with some warning signs," Marcus said with a weak voice. He felt empty inside and his arm recovered at a snail's pace, that attack had drained him to the bone.

You could have warned me, Xeen.

You had to experience this with your own body. Telling you, would not have made you understand what you are dealing with.

"Marcus, this ability is terrifying." Kim's eyes expressed true concern. Marcus nodded and watched as his finger tips returned to him and the pain faded. He had hoped for something powerful, but this Impulse Wave was maybe more than he could handle.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.