Reflections on the Warpath - [An Isekai Progression Fantasy]

For the first three days of the fight, Jay didn't have a spare minute of time to himself. After Saulin, there was another island to scout. The day after that, two more. The other islands showed more signs of Smothering Grasp Alliance presence, although Kestrel hadn't had a taste of combat since their encounter with the queen of the skies.

Since boats could only leave or return to the Full Moon Sanctuary under the cover of nightfall, Jay had no time to do anything other than sleep while inside Limitless Ascent's home base. The storm sage's gift had gone untouched on Jay's bedside for the entirety of his time within the underground sanctuary.

Until now.

After their third straight day of scouting, Samira told Kestrel that they'd been granted a day of rest. Jay suspected it was because they had an important mission the day after, but he wasn't about to complain. He sat cross legged on his bed, back leant against the rough stone wall of Kestrel's dorm. Like every other room inside the Full Moon Sanctuary, it had been carved from the rocks with little regard for aesthetics or comfort. Jay didn't mind it too much, but the bobbles digging into his back were starting to get on his nerves.

Jay unwrapped the package, tossing the paper aside and picking up the cloudy, grey crystal within. It was around the size of his fist and heftier than the memory crystal Karis had used to show Jay his journey to the coliseum. When Jay looked closer into the swirling clouds, he saw occasional flashes of white shoot out from them.

Jay closed his eyes and began imaging the storm sage lecturing him, hoping that the thought would transfer him into the crystal. After a failed minute of that, Jay switched to his last memory of training with the sage, the two fights against his future selves.

That didn't work either.

"What's that?"

Jay cracked an eye open and saw Jack standing across the room from him, leaning by the dorm's doorway with his arms crossed. The orange Embrite glow stained his face an odd yellow as he stared at Jay.

Jay held the crystal and turned it towards Jack. "A gift from my teacher. Do you know the storm sage?"

"Do I know the storm sage?" scoffed Jack, gently shaking his head. "Of course I know him. I watched his final fight live. He's probably the strongest person I've ever seen inside the coliseum."

"He was a gladiator?" Jay blurted out. "I didn't know he fought, I'll have to watch his fights sometime."

"You'll either have to convince Samira to show you or wait until C grade. The storm sage didn't enter the Second Chance Coliseum like a regular gladiator. When the coliseum recruited him to live on the island, he agreed to three C grade fights. They each lasted less than a minute."

Damn…

And how he just sits in his tower writing poems?

"What's the issue anyway?" asked Jack. "Have you never used a memory crystal before?"

"No, I've used them before. But this one feels different. Like there's something blocking me from getting inside."

"Huh," Jack replied, "maybe it's a soul crystal. Man, what I wouldn't give to get a soul crystal from the damn storm sage… you're a lucky bastard, Jay."

Jay could sense his captain's jealousy and gave Jack a strained smile.

"Thanks… but what exactly is a soul crystal?"

"It's like a regular memory crystal but with a piece of the creator's soul embedded inside. It means they can interact with you and have proper conversations while you're watching whatever they want to show you."

"So what do I need to do differently to enter it?"

"Don't just imagine an image or scenario. That's not how you connect with a person's soul. Think of the sage's Harmony and his personal essence. The rest is dependent on your relationship, but that should get you most of the way there."

"Interesting, although I guess it makes sense."

Jay closed his eyes again and held the crystal in his lap.

This time he thought about the storm sage more holistically. He didn't focus on the moments he'd spent speaking with the sage, instead he thought about what the sage stood for, who he really was.

Instead of sending prodding jabs at the crystal, peppering it with flashpoints of the past, Jay's thoughts enveloped it like a surging black cloud, rolling towards land. Jay's thoughts rushed out of him, but then they took a step back. The sage and Jay were two very different people. No matter what his thoughts were on the man, Jay didn't think they'd connect through them.

No, for someone like the sage he needed emotion.

Jay dissolved his structured thoughts, his imaginary storm cloud instead becoming the currents that made it.

Somewhat surprisingly, trust flew to the forefront of Jay's mind in his meditative trance. He hadn't realised it before, but the sage was always one of the people he went to whenever things got dire. In this cutthroat world of gladiators, the eccentric harmoniser at Tranquillity Tower had truly become one of the pillars Jay leant on, even if he was a touch annoying.

Because annoyance was there too, although Jay sensed a fondness within the irritation he felt.

If the storm sage knew how much Jay appreciated him, perhaps he'd take him on as a permanent student. Jay wasn't sure whether he wanted that. Jay appreciated the old man's quirky charm, but the same couldn't be said of the 'siren's song'. Jay's lips curled although it didn't disturb his meditation.

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But there was a final layer of his feelings towards the storm sage. One deeper than the irritation and deeper still than the fondness beneath it.

Admiration.

Jay chased goal after goal, fight after fight, yet the storm sage simply was. While Jay acknowledged his differences to the sage, a small part of him really wanted to be just like his mentor.

Although floating through his feelings was nice, Jay didn't feel much closer to entering the memory crystal. He opened his eyes, preparing to thank Jack for the advice.

Jack wasn't there.

Or perhaps he was. A grey haze blocked most of Jay's vision; he picked out a silhouette he thought could be Jack, but that was about it.

Jay looked up. He realised exactly where he was as soon as the bottom of his chin poked out from above him.

He turned around and spotted the storm sage and his student Selena sparring. The blue-skinned woman was on the front foot, although she could hardly be described as the aggressor. Her calculating fighting style reminded Jay of Karis' and he wondered if they were both from the frontier.

The sage parried one of Selena's punches aside before pawing her follow up downwards. He planted his lead foot into the ground just as Selena fired a kick, twisting his torso and catching her foot in the crook of his elbow before it fully connected. Before she could wriggle out of his grip, the sage feinted a punch and swept her base foot from beneath her.

"Old dog's still got it, eh?" cried the sage. He turned to grin directly at Jay while sweeping Selena to the floor.

"Not bad," Jay replied, impressed by the old man's manoeuvrability.

The sage stopped smiling. He snapped his fingers and Selena froze mid-air as she got to her feet.

"That was supposed to be a surprise! Who told you about soul crystals?" he grumbled, snapping his fingers again and unfreezing Selena. She stood up and stared at the sage, not acknowledging Jay.

"My team captain, Jack. He's a member of Limitless Ascent."

The sage groaned as he beckoned Selena forward. Once more blocking all of her attacks with ease.

"I wouldn't trust him if I were you…Never trust a man who doesn't like surprises."

I'd be shocked if he knew it was supposed to be a surprise…

"So what's the deal with your gift then, I just get a piece of your soul in my pocket if I have any questions?"

The sage baulked at Jay's suggestion before driving a rapid punch into Selena's gut and knocking her to the ground.

"No, no. That would be far too useful and horribly cruel to the poor piece of my soul trapped here with you for a month. Now hold on for a minute, listen to what I have to say next."

Selena ran back at the sage and he paid full attention to her rather than Jay. He caught the fist she punched him with, twisting her wrist into a lock before shoving her aside.

"Your strikes need to reflect your Harmony," he told her. "Each step you take should echo the essence of rain, Selena. Defend against my attack this time. Watch how I channel the storm with every movement."

He didn't give Selena another warning.

The sage ran forward, thundering stomps punctuating his charge. He feinted a punch, letting the momentum from his feint roll him into a new position. He sent a jab towards Selena's face, just powerful enough to snap her head back and too fast for her to have any hope of blocking it.

He drifted closer as Selena recovered, a strange gliding advance so subtle that the sage's student barely noticed it. He grasped her robes, locking her in position before driving his knee into her gut.

Jay heard the dull thud echo within the strange cloudy crystal. The sage shoved Selena away and snapped his fingers. Selena lay on the ground frozen but Jay's eyes lingered on the sage.

The sage's close-range combat was drastically different to his own. Jay couldn't spot a consistent technique in his movements, and each step felt far more focused on power than Jay's speed based footwork. He saw some similarities to Fox's more strength-focused grappling, but they were only fleeting. At times the sage lacked fluidity but at others he embraced it.

"What did you notice about that exchange?" he asked Jay.

Jay waited a second before relaying his observations to his teacher. After he finished, the sage seemed to want more, so Jay's analysis went deeper.

"You mentioned channelling the storm with every movement, but there wasn't any cohesion in your movements. Perhaps that itself is a quality of the storm, but I think you were doing something else. The different aspects of combat reflect different aspects of the storm, they all come together to make the storm, just how the different aspects of fighting come together to make up your style."

"A fitting conclusion to make," the sage replied, smiling to himself.

He snapped his fingers again, turning to face the unfrozen Selena as she got back to her feet.

"Did you notice the links?" he asked her.

"Every motion aligns with an aspect of the storm. My punches strike like lightning darting down from the heavens. My knees and feet crash onto the battlefield like thunderclaps while my grapples smother you like an oncoming cloud."

The sage continued waxing poetic at Selena. Jay cringed as he launched into another round of metaphors but smiled as he noticed their differences in expression. The storm sage was repeating what Jay had told him but in a drastically different way. That didn't mean either of them were wrong, they just found two explanations to the same solution. The metaphors wouldn't work for Jay, but they might work for Selena.

And based on what Jack had told him, they'd definitely worked for the sage.

Snap.

"A harmoniser must embody their essences at all times if they are to achieve Harmony," said the sage. He'd fully turned to Jay now and Selena stared blankly into the distance behind him. "What do you think that means?"

"I already fight a lot," replied Jay, "should I try and embody electricity when I fight to merge them together?"

The sage shrugged. "I won't tell you what to do, Jay. But I will give you some things to study on your journey…"

The sage held up four crystals, each identical to the one Jay already had.

The one he was holding right now.

The one he was… inside?

Jay stopped thinking about that.

"I've placed four of these crystals within the archipelago; each contains a soul fragment of a harmoniser who merged their fighting style with their elemental essence. Listen to their advice."

So I am supposed to embody electricity… or at least try to.

"That is all, young Jay. Now, my soul fragment will leave this crystal as soon as you exit it. You can re-enter the memory, but I will not be sentient, and you'll only see my lesson with Selena."

Jay nodded.

"Now, what do you think about a quick poem before you start practicing?"

Jay immediately left the crystal.

Jay's mind leapt out from the foggy crystal. His head jolted back, knocking the base of his skull into the knobbly rock behind him.

Still standing cross-armed in the doorway, Jack raised an eyebrow.

"Shit, have you been waiting all this time?" asked Jay.

Jack's eyebrow stayed raised. "I'm not sure what you mean."

"I just spoke with the storm sage," said Jay. "Inside the crystal, I mean. He spent a few minutes pointing out some things I should try and learn over the course of the tournament."

Jay told his team captain everything he'd spoken to the sage about inside the crystal. Jack spent another second looking confused before pinching his forehead and sighing.

"So not only do you have a soul crystal from the storm sage, but it's also time dilated too? You barely closed your eyes for ten seconds!"

Jay sheepishly smiled as he once more heard the jealousy bleeding through Jack's words.

"Never mind. We have a meeting in the war room early tomorrow morning, a briefing for our next mission."

"Any idea what it is?"

Jack shrugged.

"I don't know where we're going, but I don't think we'll be scouting anymore."