Resonance//Dissonance [BOOK 2 in progress]

With his body regulated to a better state than ever before since gaining his powers, he could now progress onto the next issues he had during his battles.

He lacked more sophisticated means beyond simple, raw destructive power.

While he took quite a lot of pride in his battle senses and how well they carried over into the magical realm, how quickly they evolved, Luke was man enough to admit, they were not enough.

He needed to make up for his weaknesses, and so he returned to what he knew, he reached back into the barred memories of him working as a Breaker, the subconcious block he created on them peeled away much easier than in the future, he could sense it was thanks to 'Theru's intervention into his mind.

It was yet to be decided if it was for the better or worse.

The myriad of jobs he had to do with his father gave him a versetile enough expierience to unite the common, most useful tools and actions that he would require to round up his skillset.

To disorientate, to bind, and mobility. In these aspects he felt himself most lacking. He learned it the hard way when young, that you need to be able to set the pace and rhythm, you need to be able to dictate the situations whenever possible to overcome foes better than you. Weather it be by halting their attack or suprising them, or by having the means to escape or chase.

"Chase...That fucking Relentless Pursuit, it seemed like such a great skill but with how hot headed I get mid fight I can't control it properly, and it controls me instead, I need something that will allow me to close the gap, and give chase properly, and not stumble and shuffle like an old man!" the memories of his failure on the Sand Mountain still felt like raw whipping scars across his mind and whatever he had in place of pride.

The recent success allowed him to taper off the anger, and Luke turned to a different issue, leaving the mobility for the end so he can approach it with a clear mind.

"Fuuuuuuuu...."a deep exhale whistled in the wind, " Right, right, distraction...but a magical one...whispers? Voices maybe? Something with sound or visual, some phantoms maybe?" thinking out loud he could feel himself deflating with each next idea.

"I have no fucking idea how to approach that shit, nothing in Monsoons books mentions that, not that I would take him for a shadow puppets fan, so what the fuck can I conjure up?" and he once again came back to the center of his skills.

He had the elements, a basic grasp across Elemental Manipulation, instinctual and some basic spells for guidance but his best ones were still Fire, Electric and Kinetic.

"Hmmmm, what the fu...hmmm, maybe? Can I translate this good old classic into this realm?" wondering to himself he extended his arm straight and opened his palm, flesh still pale yet more lively, almost thrumming with vitality. He enjoyed this sight, even the scars criss crossing his old tattoos seemed more vibrant, distinct.

With memories implanted from his father locking him in the basement and chucking them inside the cellar, he drew upon the sensations of the physical, the confusion, the blindness, the fucking persistant ringing in his ears. From the memories of him using this upon others, he imbued the desired outcome, mind going blank, shock, halting of movement and thought.

A spark ignited on his palm, and quickly it rose to embers many, turning them into a ball of fire that floated there steadily, crackling as it fed on the air and his energies. The flame scorched the air, it trembled and wobbled as the wickless fire became hotter and hotter, expanding in size as Luke's controll over compression was shown to be inadequate.

Using his prostethic arm, he covered the flame and sourced even more power from over it, the two streams gushing from his palms formed a purer orb, not as irregular in shape. More and more power was channeled into the fireball, and with it's intesity so did Luke's smile grew. More and more heat was trapped between his fingers, enough to blacken his fingertips, to cause the flesh to become reddend, bubbles form under skin.

Just as he thought he was finally getting to a point of usability his control slipped, and the sphere he envisioned became fractured, the whole spell shattered as the immense heat and power overloaded the matrix and exploded in his palms.

The heat was immense, a wave passing over him, scroching the front of his body, even with his eyes closed he could see blinding light burning into his retina. Immiedietly after the wave of heat came the sound, or rather the POP and lack of any sound at all besides the ringing from behind his skull that reverbrated all along the bone, making his brain shake. He felt something tug on his body as he felt his feet left the ground, a moment and he had a secondary thought that his back scraped against the ground, secondary, as the primary thought that overtook him was a primal, animalistic scream that trashed in confusion and bounced within his ringing skull.

Time became ambient, irregular and elusive, Luke layed there, on his back, with his body smoking gray wafts into the air as he blinked the blindness away.

"Yup, just as I remembered, great, peachy even" he murmured to himself, the ringing so persistent he couldn't even hear his own voice.

And so, once the confusion left his body and mind he attempted again and again, and more and more blasts covered his body, he became better and better at control and channeling but as days passed he was simply unable to stabilize it enough to be able to chuck it outside of the cage his fingers created.

It was the middle of the night as he felt another attempt tetter on the edge of failure, and preempitvly he cast the fireball forward, releasing it from it's capture and spreading his palms to the side, holding both arms in front of him, channeling power in a jet-like cone so the explosion spreads out in front of him, not into him.

"FUCK!" No matter what he tried, he simply couldn't control it well enough. The Void destabilised it almost immidietly, with an added spice of leaving Void corruption on every surface the flames licked, he had to channel pure Chaos to banish the infestation from the material, his senses screamed and tore at his mind as he wintessed how the Void dismantles reality in front of him. His shaping skills, even though improved, simply did not allow for such a concentrated blast to remain stable as it moved further away from him.

And while a High Explosive granade was usefull, it was not what he needed, additionally, a granade you cannot control the leght of fuse is more of a burden than an asset, and he had enough burden to carry already.

In frustration, he dropped onto his back, arms spread wide as his heavy body thumped against the cracked roof he trained on.

Extending his charred arm towards the sky, he pointed with just one finger at a random star, marveling still at the speed his body was recuperating from the horrid burns he inflicted on himself, lost in thought.

"Such a wild thing, I should be dead hundreads of times over by now, and yet this body holds, the spark remains, I still feel the pain, how deep it digs into me, but now I carry more flesh for it to gauge, I grow faster than it can rip out, what a blessing it is, finally, I can push with reckless abondon, abondon limits, truly shine..." the tip of his finger ignited with a wisp of flames, fickle and delicate, it was ravaged by the night's wind, at the cusp of going out.

More by instinct than by thought, he used telekinesis to form a lantern around it, keep it from being blown out, more for fun then need, he could simply strenghen it. He added some density to the magic that carried the kinetic strenght, and it deepenend in color. He stared at it, imaging it to be a small, little star which was captured off the sky.

Suddenly, he rose, sititng up, as an idea flashed into his mind.

"WAIT! What if?!" inspiration guided him, and as the stars compressed themselves with immense gravity, so did he draw upon any source of kinetic force to compress the feeble flame in a sphere of power. As it was about to die out, he feed it more power, more and more, shaping it as best as he could, but compensating for the slips in control by forcing it in a cage of power that pushed it inwards, more and more, the forces fought, and more and more, they rose in power. He feed the kinetic, drawn from his muscles and surroundings with mana attuned mental influence, he made it not invisible, but imperceivable, he made it so that any that observed it would pass it over, ignore it as nothing worthy of note, even as blazing light scrached against the casing and a flamestorm rumbled within, he compressed it further and in a matter of a minute, it shrank from the size of a beachball to the size of a tennis ball. His fingers trembled as he exerted immense presure on the orb, and as it reached peak compression of his abilities...

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Luke tossed it as far and high as he could. What might look like a casual throw carried this ticking time bomb many, many buildings over, and as it sailed over a roof few streets away, he felt the kinetic energy shatter and dug into his forearm in pieces, where before it was a cast that he coated against his arm to handle the pressure, it became jagged shards that drew blood through skin.

It was barely noticable in front of the light show that took place in the sky. The air Clapped with humongous might, and light shone with such strengh that as like raised his right arm to shiled his eyes, he could see his bones through the flesh, quicker than thought came the deafening sound that dragged his body across the rooftop, wall of wind treating him like a newspaper moved by a gust, he had to grasp against the building so he wouldnt fall, fingers diggin deep into concrete as more and more waves of heat and sound struck him.

Somehow, the heat wasn't so invasive as before, It spread out more evenly and instead of burning the surroundings, focused on burning the air, causing it to ripple and fluctuate, causing more and more concusion and confusion to spread.

The whole ordeal lasted barely seconds, but expieriencing it took a lifetime and a half. All throught out his skin was torn to shreds, bled like a slaughtered pig, eyes watery and hazy and ears streaming blood down his neck he grinned maniacly and laughed, laughed so hard his whole body trembled in the air.

Once the explosion subsided he pulled himself up the rooftop, and wobbly took few steps away from the ledge.

Pride, pride bloomed within his chest and he screamed a growl of joy, fist clenched and back arched backwards as he howled to the moon, laughing.

The moment of mania passed and he started calming down, his body scabbing all over and repairing the damage in the eyes and ears.

"What a fucking overkill! Hhahahaha! I will admit, the max capacity is too much and too inefective, but the method works! It fucking works! Now I will just scale it down and finally I will have another tool under my belt, and what a rowdy tool it is! Hahahaha!" the ecstasy was something new, hitting stronger than before, Luke's brain fired of neurons developed mostly from drug use, the hormones in his brain flooded it as If a dam was broken, he expierienced a high he almost forgot could even exist.

And he basked in this feeling like no other. Enamored by it.

To progress, grasp success by it's edge and pull it closer and closer, what a joy it was. It was the same with weight training, calisthenics, learning any new skill in the mortal world. It gave him assurence, a sence of greater safery, of capability. Each new benchmark of progress took him father away from the helpless child on the mercy of a vengefull father, each success made him something greater.

The skill was an overkill at it's bigger form, and not as effective in destrucion as other would be, but that wasn't an issue, this is meant to distract, so he did not need to channel so much power into it, and the less power it held the more stable it was. Few tries and he found the sweet spot, now that expierience and rigid image of it was there, he could twist it and rebuild it with ease. Within hours he could lob the Bang Granades with enough strenght to confuse a big room, and channel them at the same speed it took for him to swing his arm.

The skill reached the point of practicality, and that was more than enough for now in Lukes head.

Riding on the high of succes, he basked in the rising suns rays, and focused on the next task at hand.Already, 11 days were spent on perfecting his techniques so far, he needed to hurry up. Mobility excersices were always the bane of his existane, but ones that he took on with determination and focus, while he may have hated them as a mortal, they were important, crucial to posses a full capability of violence, it was a bridge that led to many roads, many new ways to wreak havoc and destruction.

A neccesary evil as he called it.

So he took stock, and gathered once again what tools he could wield.

Luke already demonstrated how he could move using magic during his sparring with Monsoon, jagged splinters of kinetic power hoisting him up in the air, puppetering him like a marionette. He thought about adding wind to it, but his grasp over the elusive carelessness and freedom that was the basis over that element was too poor to even consider, and while basing hastening spells he got were working, the incantation time and for some, the resources needed to be always on hand were simply not worth it in a time of need.

So he dropped down of the roof in one, smooth jump, floors of the building passed behind him as he dropped down like a brick, and maybe a meter above the parking lot he tethered himself to the wall and distributed the energy under his feet to make a panel he could stand on, now, instead of the force dragging him downwards he entombed himself in it and allowed the pressure to compress his body from all sides.

Unpleasant, but barely harmfull. A second in the air, and he dropped the last meter, landing stiffly and without worry. While his knees still ached a bit under the load of his enchanced stature, he still marveled at the capacity for miracles this body held now. What joy it could bring to him, what good he could bring to others? So far, his strife was only his, so was his burden, but the new challenge? Getting rid of Blitz? Rescuing the twins? It was something abstract to him, a fantasy coming true.

No longer was he a wild dog held on a tight, choking leash, nor was he the outcast that abondoned his past, he lived in the now, in this moment, and he lived for the seconds that came next. He had a goal, a purpose and he had to get it done.

Just to be sure, and for a small warm up he cycled his refinining technique through himself at low output, body heating up, handling the strain well with the healing matrix up and runnning proper now. As the skill guided his powers, he slowly started to stretch, more and more testing the limits of this body. Elbows, shoulders and wrists were still somewhat stiff, his range of movement could use some work as the rigidness in the arms could limit his grappling. His lower body was up to par to his needs, splits, standing overhad kicks, standing side and frontal splits.

"Good enough" murmured to himself.

The body was adjusted well enough, able to handle the strain of natural movement.

With a twitch of a mystical muscle, spindly limbs shot out from him, invisible yet carrying force and leverege, they struck surfaces around him and pulled the body upwards, slowly, the man hung in the air like a puppet on strings would.

Covering his body in a suit of telekinetic receptors, he pushed outward with all his might, each bodypart straining, and his mind channeling all this captured power into an explosive shot that tossed his body across the air, rigid and motionless as it sailed in the air. Acceleration comperable to a revving car, the air whistled in his ear as he moved closer to the end of the parking lot, stopping barely centimeters away from the wall, creating a pillow to cushion his arrival, pressing on him and a wide area of the wall, spreading it out so it barely cracks the elevation.

Using the same method, but generating less power he turned to the side and lowered himself, the appandages dragged him into the building through an open garage door. Constant pressure expressed itself on Luke, and he fought back against it, his body being jerkingly dragged along the corrdiors and floor as the effect. Expanding his Perception through tactile sense, he could oparate in 3 dimensions without issue, able to manouver his body as if a rigid object in a vacum of space, pushing, angling and halting as he wished. The moment he tried excerting more force for a shadow box attempt, it all came crashing down, the weight displacement, and lowering of power channeled into the Telekinetic suit made him stumble and eat dirt on the first attempt. Luke felt as if someone tripped him, slapped him and batista bombed him into a wall.

Lukas lacked balance, and it was easy to see. As he picked himself off the ground, and set his nose with well trained precision once more, he thought on what he could do to improve his skill.

Less volotile movements, but also more were needed, a balance needed to be found. By trial and error, the rough edges were smothed out. With hip support and expansion of phantasmal limb support he managed to increase his flow, manouvering in three dimensions became easier, the walls of the building being pock marked by his technique. His wall crawling allowed him to easily push using any part of his body to move it whole wherever he pleased and orient him in erratic and unpredictable ways. Still, it needed more training and fire testing but it was enough.

Something was on a cusp of creation, just needing the final touch, Luke really focused and allowed the feelings he carried about the technique coalsce, to form and be expressed. Each fail he corrected, each good part of it mixed and formed a rigid structure, how he interacted with his magic during the movement, how Luke's specific body movements dictated the reactions they carried.

"Let this DOCTRINE OF HOLLOW PULSE AND SHATTERED FRAME be the begginging of a work I will improve on, a techniqe that will develop with me, a tool I shall never abondon." and with those words somehting clickled, even without the Gaze, the man could feel that knot of thought and feelings intermingle with his magic and settle deeply into the very core of his being.

The feeling was pleasant and settled quickly, there was more work to be done.

It was his now, his to wield, a weapon to polish, to sharpen. He once again became just a bit stronger.

With a swipe of his hand, the wall in front of him exploded outwards, a gaping gap revealing the word outside. He dropped himself from the air into the edge of the building and thought about how to proceed futher.

He tried using the doctrine and pushed himself of the building, the body launching as if released from a slingshot. He covered much distance and was high, high in the air as the first problem made itself known.

He was too high to latch onto anything else, his senses were too slow and diminished to effectivly impress on anything beyond 40-50 meters, he had no means of further acceleration.

Dissapointed he could only wait for his drop to finish and landed few meters above the ground, propped up by his Doctrine, and confused on how to proceed.

The acceleration was good, but he felt, in such and open space he could achieve much more.

Once more, he peered back into his memories and possibilities he could expand on.

And, the last moments with the Raven Man flashed into his mind, his chase as they both left the building. While it's result was pure shit for Luke, he felt the moments before the fall held some potential.

He decided to wield the flames of shame that burned within, and instead of allowing them to fester and scorch his mind, he would guide the heat into reforging what he was lacking.

Drawing upon the dark memory, he sought the ember of light that could light it aflame. Running the whole sequence through his mind, he winced and sighed at the mistakes he made, guided by the magic infused rage and rashness. Finally, at the very end, the moment he jumped out of the building while chasing the Raven Man, he saw what he sought.

The instinctual use of Ignition to propell him forward. Luke's body trembled as he stopped on that memory and allowed it to blanket his body, to emulate the state he was in.

It wasn't perfect. The rage, adrenaline and rush made it all blurry and unclear, but it was enough.

Sparks lit up in his palms.

His body hunched forward as his palms pointed behind him, locked elbows and shoulders straining for the moment to come.

A deep breath in.

His veins popped out through his skin, lit up by iridescent blaze, increasing in intensity with each heartbeat. His fingers turned bent, claws gripping onto flames coalescing, limiting the exit points for the flames to escape. Like a microscope focusing it's lense, the flames focused tighter and tighter.

"BURST!" Luke willed, and his magic obeyed. With his exhale, a powerful jet of flames shot out from his palms, pushing his body with immense speed forward, powerful enough to cause his head to whiplash and torso to twist and turn immidietly, without control.

His body shot shoulders forward, dislocating both of them in a painful manner and raising him up into the air, just for the useless arms lacking controll to direct him into the pavement and drag him across it like a wet mop.

As his body dragged itself by momentum alone, the flames turned off quickly, the skin tore as if on sandpaper and flesh blossomed in flowers of blood.

When he finally stopped, smashing his head against some random pile of debries, he laid there.

"Not the best start. " he admitted, but using his sensed measured the distance he traveled and the time it took. Easily five times faster than what he could achieve with his Doctrine.

"But not the worst." and through the torn flesh on his face, and ragged sinew, Luke smiled.