Children of a Lesser God

Chapter 107: Black Flame

The rest of the car ride was strangely quiet. The now falling snow added a layer of insulation to the world, causing both Kat and Laz to feel isolated. Due to the time of night and the snow, the roads were clear of other drivers. Even snow plows seemed to be absent.

Once they got back, they went went their separate ways with Kat heading upstairs while Laz went to the hall and then to his room. After getting himself cleaned up, Laz tried to sleep, but felt like he was still wide awake. Sitting up on his bed, Laz assumed a lotus position as he had seen Kat do and began his cultivation. Since he didn't have the interference from the water, he was clearly able to feel the source essence in the air rush into him as though he was a human vacuum. It rushed throughout his body and finally settled into the ever shrinking ball. Laz, now used to the feeling, spent time pressing the ball tighter and tighter. Every time he was able to make it smaller, it was like a void in his body opened up, causing even more of the source essence to rush in to fill the gaps. If Laz had any single complaint, it was that it seemed to take too long to refill his body every time he pressed the ball tighter.

Of course, Laz had no idea that the reason for this was because the amount of source essence in the air was still incredibly small. Had there been a larger amount or if he were back near the flower and the pond, his way of drawing energy would have caused him to blow up like a balloon and possibly explode.

Laz was able to draw and compact the energy 8 times before a knock came on his door. Not thinking too much, he called out,

"What is it?"

"Time to get up!" Came Kat's response through the door.

"What do you mean? We just went to bed like 10 minutes ago.." Laz was a bit confused. Before he tried going to sleep originally, he had looked at the time and knew it was around midnight. Therefore, he should have had about 6 hours before she came to wake him up. Laz felt that something didn't add up right.

"It's already 7. Since we got to bed late, I went and cooked breakfast before coming to wake you."

"Really?" Laz asked while getting out of bed to find his phone. Noticing the time on it verified what Kat had said, Laz felt weird.

He walked over to the door and opened it up to find Kat standing there in an apron. Laz had a strange feeling of being woken up by a big sister, but that thought came and went quickly. The only reason he did so was to make sure he wasn't having a strange dream.

"You ok?" Kat asked while observing the strange expression on Laz's face.

"Yeah? Yeah! I'm ok. It's just weird since I felt like I didn't sleep at all." Laz took a moment to collect himself and looking himself over, he felt like he was, in fact, ok. In fact, he felt great, like he had slept a full 8 hours. Shaking his head a few times, Laz smiled at Kat to convince her.

Unfortunately for Laz, Kat was far from being gullible.

"What happened?"

"Nothing."

"Tell me!"

"No. Really. Nothing."

At this moment, Kat began to remove her apron and slowly started taking steps into the room. Laz realized that if he didn't talk, she was going to make him talk.

"Ok. Ok. Stop. Wait..."

"Too late..." Kat was taking each step in a slow and unhurried pace, getting closer and closer to Laz. On the other hand, Laz kept taking a step backwards, one after another, to keep away from her.

"It was nothing ok. I just felt like I had cultivated all night and didn't sleep. So when you knocked, I was in a daze and still sitting in my bed not knowing what had happened. But it turns out I feel great so it should have just been a dream. See?? Nothing to worry about." Laz had reached the bathroom door and realized that there was no where else to back up too. Luckily, Kat stopped after hearing his explanation..

"Really?"

"Yeah. Honest."

Kat took a quick look over Laz, even going so far as to put her hand on his forehead to check for a fever. Not finding anything, she let out a silent breath that she had been holding.

"Ok, well, from now on, don't try to do that before bed. Your not actually rested just so you know. If anything, your body is wired as though you were jacked on caffeine. I didn't warn you about this because I didn't think I had to. You weren't exactly getting the hang of cultivating through meditation so I figured there was no use in telling you. Guess the pool helped you way more than I thought," Kat half explained what his problem was.

"Yeah, the pool..." Laz unknowingly looked at his finger when he thought about the previous night, causing Kat to go a bit red. She quickly grabbed his hand and dragged him out the door while trying to explained what had happened to him thereby changing the subject.

"You basically loaded up on source essence and caused your body to be full of energy. Although it's fine if you do it during normal times when you are awake, it's not good to do that at night. You still need to sleep like a normal human... AND STOP LOOKING AT YOUR DAMN FINGER BEFORE I BREAK IT OFF." Kat lost her cool and screamed as Laz seemed to not be paying attention.

"YEAH. Uh... yeah. Sorry."

"Don't be sorry, just don't think about it. Ever again. Understood?" They had reached the stairs and had begun to climb them, entering into the apartment.

"Yeah. Yes, yes ma'am." Laz finally came back to his senses.

"Good. Now eat." Kat and Laz both sat down and started to enjoy the breakfast she had prepared.

"Have you heard from Jon yet?" Laz asked at one point, putting down his orange juice.

"No. Not yet. I left him a voicemail, but I haven't gotten anything back yet."

"Oh." Laz was feeling a bit worried.

"Don't go looking like that. He's like this sometimes. He could be away for days, especially when there is no class scheduled for the week due to the holiday."

"Holiday?" Laz had lost track of time once he stopped paying attention to it.

"Thanksgiving? This Thursday? Ring a bell?" Kat asked.

'Already?' Laz thought to himself, but he just responded to Kat with an "Ah" as though it had just slipped his mind.

"Anyway, he will be back any day now, but just in case, he left us some stuff to practice while he's gone. Besides, you have to head back next week," Kat reminded Laz.

Looking dumbstruck, something finally clicked with Laz. The whole moving in thing was just temporary. He had gotten in the habit of it pretty quickly and felt like it was natural. Because of this, he never considered that he would be leaving. And fairly soon at that.

"Aww... Do I have to?" Laz asked, half joking and half serious. He really started to like being at the dojo and being busy all the time. Working out, learning how to fight, training... and most importantly, spending time with someone.

"Yes, you fucking have to. You're too young to quit school and it would be problematic if they had the sheriffs try to track you down," Kat responded while munching on some toast. In truth, she felt the same way Laz did. It was actually way more fun having him here and taking care of him than being alone. Kat didn't want to admit it, but she wasn't going to lie about her feelings.

"Don't be like that. You can come back on your winter break again if you want. And we are doing a full turkey and everything as a dinner and party for you, so look forward to it!"

"Alright. It will be nice to do something like that again."

"Good. That's the spirit. Finish up here and let's get ready to go at it downstairs," Kat said, feeling a bit more lively than before. After all, he wasn't gone yet and he could come back so why feel depressed?

Bringing his formidable hunger to bare, Laz quickly finished up everything around him and ran downstairs to get into his gi.

When Laz got back to the main area, he saw Kat already there. While he had changed into his gi which was normal for the workout area, Kat didn't bother. She was still wearing the black KISS tank she had on underneath the apron along with the grey booty shorts. If Laz didn't know better, he would have guessed she just rolled out of bed.

*You're probably thinking I look like I just rolled out of bed right?*

Startled for a minute, Laz had forgotten about using the spirit to communicate, but he quickly regained himself.

*Kinda, yeah.* Not like it was a problem, but he didn't think it was the best outfit to fight in. Mostly because it didn't look like she was wearing a bra and he couldn't help but think that those massive things would get in the way if they were to actually fight.

'Hell, she might even attack me with them. Being knocked out by a boob, would that be a good or bad thing,' Laz pondered to himself. Of course, that stopped as soon as Kat spoke up.

*And that's where you are wrong. For your information, I sleep naked. If I have clothes on, I couldn't have just rolled out of bed!* Kat smiled after explaining, as though what she had said made perfect sense.

*Anyway, for the rest of today, use your spirit sense to talk. Keep it up until your head starts to hurt... maybe around the level of a pounding headache. It's to help train. Questions?*

"Nope, none."

Kat responded by hitting his right shoulder while pointing to her head.

*Nope, none.*

*That's better.* Walking to one of the back closets, Kat got out a rather thick padded dummy and dragged it over in front of Laz. Shooing him away, she stood in front of it in a Teiji dachi stance and braced her arms before explaining.

*Remember how I said we were both internal energy users?*

*Yes.*

*That's both true and not true. The truth is that our abilities are internal ones, but the energy can actually be directed outside of us. In a similar way to how you made that poll explode on the first day, you can also direct your energy outside of the body using your ability. Watch me.*

Kat took a deep breath and calmed her body. Then, before Laz knew what was happening, he saw Kat take a step forward towards to dummy and punch out. To Laz's utter amazement, he saw a yellow wave extend from her fist and hit the dummy, knocking the almost 100 kg dummy over.

*HOLY SHIT THAT WAS COOL.* Laz threw out at her.

*I know, right? It's different than using pure energy to lash out. Instead, you instill a bit of your source essence to change the properties of the energy. Mine becomes like rock and lashes out with a strong impact. Yours will be different based on your energy. Give it a try.* Kat walked forward and lifted the dummy back into place, beckoning Laz to come over and give ti a shot.

Laz quickly imitated her stance, but facing the dummy, he felt at a loss. Laughing, Kat gave him some advice.

*Little quick to get there without really knowing how to do it eh?*

*Ah... yeah.* Laz rubbed his nose in an effort to hide his awkwardness.

*He he he. Alright. Well. Try it like this. Just use the loose essence in your body while avoided anything that's concentrated. This way, it won't be as strong and you can control it better. When you punch, project it forward, through your body and out your fist. I can do it without activating my ability, but you might want to only try while activating it. In this way, the energy that comes out is tainted by your essence and isn't pure energy anymore,* Kat explained as best she could. Originally, this idea came from her dad and the results were amazing. She just couldn't remember how he explained it originally.

Laz seemed to get the idea though as he got back into the Teiji dachi stance. Kat was tempted to tell him he could do it without the stance, but felt that using it might help him focus more.

When Laz felt he was ready, he struck out, but all that happened was a pure energy shot with no hint of attribute contained within. Although the dummy moved back, it stayed upright. Because the dummy was made out of a reinforced rubber, it flexed a lot more than wood and wouldn't easily blow up.

Moving it back into position, Laz tried a few more times, but with no success. Kat wasn't surprised. This wasn't something that could be learned right away. Even with all of her experience, it took her two weeks just to do it once and another two weeks before she was able to fuse all of her loose energy into the strike.

Although Laz had failed several times, he didn't give up. Each time, he was able to feel that he didn't use his own energy right and adjusted it the next time. Every failure was therefore not a failure, but a check to see what worked and what didn't.

Having almost ran to the end of his thought train, Laz once again got into position and tried one last time. Feeling the energy flow, he was finally able to inject a small spark of his own essence into it and punched out.

Kat, who had been watching on halfheartedly, jerked straight up at the sight.

When she had done it, it formed a golden, rock like impact wave.

When her dad had done it, it formed a small, yellow colored, bolt of lightning.

But when Laz finally did it, black flames rushed out from his fist like he was a human flame thrower, immediately melting a fist sized hole through the center of the dummy before Laz was able to stop the flow of loose energy.

"Son of a bitch..."