The Tower of Emnu

Aaron challenged the right corridor over and over, without any reservations. He needed to be faster and slowly but surely he got the timing of the golems down. Their attacks had a certain rhythm to them, they always attacked the same way, if not exactly from the same spot or angle. But it was always, step, raise the weapon and slash down as fast as possible. The first two steps were quite slow and the timing of when they would slash seemed at first like it was totally random until Aaron realized they always shifted their stance when they slashed. Their stabs were a bit more difficult to discern as they weaved them in between slashes. But again, always with a step in front of them, this time more offensive forward leaning to increase the range of the blade.

When he realized this oddity which probably came from the golems not being actually alive, but automatons, he slowly but surely developed an advantage over them. His mental image was to stay in the flow of the Unceasing Palm kata. Stay fluid, always move gracefully and let your hands react to any enemies that came for him. It was less of an intent that was focused on the moment, which yes, he did when directly approaching a blade to divert it, but usually when he was just moving he tried to stay in the flow of the kata to be in the right position to immediately counter with his hands.

No matter if he had to punch or block and move away the sharp blades. The difficulty was mostly in doing everything perfectly because he would get cut otherwise and had to redo everything from the start. But Aaron did not mind his mistakes. He learned from them and he kept pushing against this latest obstacle. It was still difficult. Without Wind Steps he did not have the natural speed to handle these golems. He needed to plan and react accordingly every time. Plan his route, move through them and punish any that were in a bad position so he would not get overwhelmed. Where he had destroyed the other golems in the two other corridors, here he barely killed one in five, if at all. Mostly he tried to disable them by releasing a punch into their faces, smashing their eyes apart. Blind golems were basically no threat as they slashed wildly around them hitting the other golems nearby.

After who knows how many attempts Aaron finally stepped over the threshold of the end of the right corner. He was panting, dead tired and mentally drained. His mind did not entirely regenerate after one of these sessions. It felt like it, but Aaron's real mind was getting tired and he guessed there was a limit to how long he could keep challenging this trial.

He sat down and calmed his ragged breathing, relaxed his mind and meditated a bit while the golems in front of him returned to their alcoves. Only when he felt a bit better did he go for the second key piece made out of beautiful turquoise jade. He touched the Jade and was catapulted into a memory again.

Sylus grandfather continued with his demonstration of the Unceasing Palm kata right where the memory of the left key piece had stopped. While watching it he was bombarded by information and experience from Sylus himself who tried to recreate his grandfathers style, much more effectively and successfully than Aaron had been able to do. This memory was less story and more the condensed experiences and hints as well as guidance from Sylus, the adult Sylus and probably a Master of Nine himself. It was more about conserving Qi, about efficiency, about how he could use Qi Projection in the Tower itself. It was a massive information dump and Aaron took a few minutes just to let the knowledge sink in. But he also got the not so subtle hint that the real price awaited him once he had left the Trial of the Mind. The third kata.

The information Sylus gave him was like a step by step guide on how to develop your own intent. It did not tell him what intent to use when, but it did teach him the methodology to chose the right intent as well on how exactly to do so. In the end it was a lot of mental imagery that worked as a baseline and could be applicable in many situations, but without actually giving any specific situations they could work with. It boiled down to many of the same solutions Aaron had found on his own. Focusing on hardness was exceptional for reinforcing his limbs during many of the punches. What he had not done correctly was adding extra weight, extra mass into his intent. The effect of adding extra mass to his punches this way was extremely powerful. How exactly Qi converted into mass was just as miraculous as anything else Qi did. But that was only the start. He also got tips how to contain projection and still use it.

This was by far the most important information he got as it showed in depth experiences of how to tone down Qi expenditure and conserve the precious energy while still being combat effective. As much as Aaron was inspired by the novel ways of thinking and sculpting his will, he also followed the hints and went to finish the trial first, before he modified his intent. Because the most important hint was that everything would work much better once he had mastered the missing piece of the triplet. The Piercing Finger kata.

He collected both jade pieces and they fit together beautifully forming a contained Qi cycle that showed all of the information Aaron had gotten in a continuous manner, not split in half. After taking a glance at the complete picture, the information deposited in his brain was even more complete. But Aaron felt a slight headache coming as he slotted the jade ring into the altar. This was a lot to take in all at once and this was not the end.

With a grinding sound the altar fell away into the floor and showed another empty corridor without any alcoves. Wearily of another test Aaron stepped into the new corridor and before he reached its end the trial vanished around him.

Aaron found himself standing in a small courtyard whose walls surrounded an obvious training area. There were five other kids his age with him in the courtyard, they were around 10 or maybe 12? He did not really know how old Sylus was at this point in the memory, but the others looked barely adolescent to him. This memory was not an interactive one, but like the memories in the other cores Sylus had given him. So more like a movie he lived through rather than a game or trial. Sylus made a show of looking bored while he internally was more excited than he had words. He had managed to pass the trial of the mind and so was allowed to learn the third heavenly kata early even before the foundation realm!

A tall man clad in bronze armor walked across the training field filled with dummies of various sizes, toughness and complexity. Some were simple and without any arrays, other would keep track of where you hit it and would score and rate you accordingly. Sylus knew this because he had been here before when training. The man in the bronze armor radiated power so thick it felt like a mountain was pushing down on Sylus shoulders. But he tried to withstand the pressure and stand tall and at attention.

The man had thick eyebrows and he paused in front of the row of kids and nodded when none of them fell to their knees.

"Welcome young geniuses of the Artis clan. You have distinguished yourself from your peers and have passed the trial of the mind before the Foundation realm. Showing that you have grasped some concepts of the third kata before your pitiful rivals had even a glimpse of the power of a complete triplet."

The man walked down the line of kids and studied each of them with piercing eyes.

"You have gained insights into Qi projection. The essence of the third kata, but not its entirety. The third kata is called the Piercing Finger kata and I bring you this knowledge and demonstration I impart on you with a stern and serious warning." The man stopped in front of them and his stare was like a burning sensation that pierced through young Sylus soul.

"The third heavenly kata is not a kata for sparring, its not a kata that has any fancy or miraculous effects on your body like Rejuvenation or an increase in your reaction speed. The Piercing Finger kata is purely offensive. It is a weapon, a means to kill. You will never use this kata against your peers." the man roared the last part, emphasizing the never.

"Never!" he repeated even louder and all of the kids nodded, including Sylus.

"Good. The third kata uses the insight you have already proven you have and allows you to project Qi out from your body. It is designed, distilled out of hundreds of thousands similar techniques over millennia of our clan's existence. It has 31 distinct poses that will integrate themselves flawless into the already established framework of the rejuvenating fist and the Unceasing Palm. Together they will form the first perfect triplet. The hand triplet, golden hand or whatever else fancy name poets have imagined for it. Learning this last kata will make you impossible to fight in close quarters unless your enemy has a weapon or is another practitioner of the Heavenly kata."

The man got into a stance and made sure they paid attention by telling them the exact angle and framework of the stance. He then slowly went through each of the 31 poses while explaining.

"There are a few different types of grip or handform in the Piercing finger. The first one is the tiger claw, or grappling grip."

The man demonstrated an open hand with the fingers splayed apart curled like a claw. He then went through a few forms of the kata that Aaron, who was watching all of this through Sylus eyes, absorbed just as greedily as Sylus did in his memory.

"The tiger claw is used in very close quarters to leverage strength, to throw, grapple, grasp but also to unleash Qi. The tiger has claws after all." the man said with a smirk and then grasped a nearby straw dummy leaving behind five long holes in the material. Then he shifted his weight and in a graceful, but wickedly fast move he swiped his hand across another armored dummy. Sparks and the sound of tearing metal could be heard as the dummy was sliced apart by invisible claws.

Slowly the man demonstrated all of the "beast form" hand forms. Snake whip was a curled palm basically that was mostly used to grapple and was used in conjunction with the Unceasing Palm but could also be used to rapidly attack from strange angles and tear holes into the dummies he demonstrated the technique on. Each pose he showed had an animal theme and he demonstrated various different methods of using each of the poses and adjustments to them as well as how they connected to the katas they had already learned.

When he was done with these forms the man's whole aura shifted.

"Now that we have the grappling forms behind us we get to the sword form." the man said solemnly and then used a rather familiar form for Aaron. He used the trigger finger and the middle finger together as the blade of the sword and curled the pinky and the ring finger underneath the thumb.

"This form is used to concentrate the Qi projection by sacrificing three of the five direct energy links to project Qi out of, the tips of your fingers. These two fingers fuse together to release one smooth blade of Qi. This is the most commonly associated form of the Piercing Finger and probably the most lethal."

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The man then went through a whole plethora of forms demonstrating how to use the handform correctly. It was the least accessible of the handforms and took some getting used to to weave into the other katas, but it was also the most lethal. Every stance was another way to attack with the blade of Qi projected out of the finger. There were contained forms, so stances that used the Qi projected as a short blade and there were projection stances that released Qi. Sylus watched it with bated breath and absorbed the information like a sponge. When the man had finished showing the stances he took a deep breath.

"This sword stance is the most dangerous because it makes Qi projection the easiest. You have not seen me damage any of the training dummies, correct?" he asked the students who all shook their heads after double checking the nearby dummies. The man nodded and then gestured them to follow. He lead them across the courtyard to dummies on the other side of the training area. These dummies were clad in heavy armor and the closer they got the more gasps could be heard by the kids. The dummies had small holes in them that looked to Aaron like bullet holes.

"The sword form can be used to turn the sword into a projectile, especially these poses." Slowly the man demonstrated them and this time targeted dummies that were close by, tearing into them. It was an awesome display of might.

"A Master of Nine can use the sword form of the Piercing Finger to kill an enemy on the other side of the battlefield. But the true range and how to project your Qi farther than a few feet will come with mastery of the sixth kata." the man explained patiently.

"Now all of you demonstrate the forms and poses of the Piercing Finger. Show me what you have understood and let me teach you the third Heavenly kata."

Slowly Aaron experienced first hand how Sylus learned the kata. Went through each pose with him and then went on to integrate the kata into the already existing framework to finish the triplet. This included something the bronze clad man called half kata, where you used one hand to express one kata while the other hand used another. Sword and shield, so Piercing Finger and the Unceasing Palm kata as combination, their usage, how to move, how to fuse them together and every other possible combination. Sword and mace, rejuvenating fist and piercing finger and so on. Each combination of half kata had different moves and stances that turned the three distinct katas into a unified system of combat with your hands.

When Sylus was finished learning the kata and the half kata variations Aaron woke up in his own body. It was a sudden uncomfortable experience to be catapulted out of the memory. Aaron blinked and tried to make sense of being back in his own body. He had gotten so used to Sylus body it was a bit of a shock to be back in his own body, so much stronger and more flexible. Even while sitting he could feel it, how the fiend-god art had turned his body into something else entirely. The pure might in his muscles was awesome to feel in comparison.

Slowly Aaron opened his eyes entirely and blinked into the fading sun. It was late afternoon, the fake sun turning towards the horizon and Aaron had a really bad headache from all the information he had just consumed. He was also parched and slowly stood up and walked a few steps over to his waterskin. He drank slowly until he felt a bit better and then he just stood there.

Aaron felt his own body with an intensity he really only experienced once, after he had first learned sensory harmony. Slightly overwhelmed by the ever increasing influx of sensory input he let his senses wash over him.

He could hear anything around him in a mile radius as if he was right next to it. Heard an antelope grazing, water flowing through rocks, how the wind flowed through the grass making it sound like ocean waves. But all of his other senses reacted just as strongly. The mana of the floor billowed out in waves and crashed over him as his mana sense was brought to the front of his mind. He sensed the spellforms contained in everything, in the floor of the tower, in the walls, in the air animating the wind. He could smell the scents delivered by said wind. He smelled lizards, antelopes and freshly cut grass. He smelled poop, blood and sweat from the animals living, fighting and dying out there on the fifth floor. He could smell everything in the most minute detail from the moss on the wall of rock behind him to the scent of meat from the antelope carcasses that were bleeding out a bit further away. His senses turned inward as he started to feel his clothes on his body, felt how his lungs extended as he took a breath. He even sensed the Qi in his own body circulate and being passively added to his dantian. He felt the blood pump through his veins and his organs work without any conscious input. He felt every single thing in his body. The taste of his mouth was the last straw and Aaron shuddered for a long moment before he calmed down.

He focused and pushed the overbearing senses aside, let them return to the background where they belonged. Only when his senses had stopped making his head swim he started to stretch. He focused his attention and his hypersensitivity to loosen his muscles after sitting all day in the same pose without moving at all. When he was done with that and he felt his back unclench and his legs uncramp he continued to stretch like he had learned from practicing Wind Steps.

Mei's stretches hurt at first, especially with his oversensitive mind, but they soon made his body limber and relaxed and that kind of relaxation felt good. Really good. Aaron sighed and kept going, kept pushing the boundaries of the stretches. He soon discovered that he had a range of movement that was simply awesome, especially compared to Sylus body. He could do any gymnastics he desired, any he could remember ever seeing. He did a split as easy as he could do a backflip, front flip and handstand. With a chuckle he balanced on one single finger as he did a push up and then flipped back to his feet. His body was awesome, but this was just the start. It was time to train and integrate the katas and his other techniques with his real body.

He activated Wind Steps and felt the bubble of Qi surrounding him. He moved, jumping across his camp, stepping against a nearby wall and then leapt into the sky. The unfettered freedom of the technique flowed through him as he soared through the sky, clearing the camp in a fraction of a second. He paused directly above it before he could fly off towards the nearby wall of the floor. Then he slowly drifted down back to his camp. He enjoyed the sensation of falling like this. He felt as light as a feather and he had absolutely control over his movements. Well, not exactly absolute control, but it was pretty damn close. He should try to train this control while he was in this state of mind.

Besides he wanted to be sure he was ready for the unified katas, the first triplet. For that he needed to acclimatize to all of his techniques again. He started to use Wind Steps to walk and slowly he got used to it again as he fell into the familiar exercise of measuring his steps with the movement technique active. He trained liked this, just moving back and forth in his camp for 20 minutes or so until he was satisfied. With both his mastery over Wind Steps and his senses as they calmed down.

Then Aaron grinned and fell into the new stances he had learned. Time to try out the completed triplet of the heavenly kata. First things first though. Slowly, meticulously he moved through the Piercing Finger kata. Made sure his body experienced each pose or stance at least once in perfection. He went through each pose in a sequence of smooth, limber grace. He repeated the stances until his body had learned the unfamiliar moves. Which took only around 10 or 15 repetitions. Then and only then did he began to layer in intent and got the Qi moving inside of his body with purpose.

Aaron fell into a trance like state as he focused on establishing intent, on moving into each pose with the right will behind it as he expressed his intent through Qi. His senses had no problem feeling the Qi react, move and conform to his demands. Soon Aaron unleashed claws of Qi into the air, tearing through it with the sound of ripping silk, was puncturing the air with snake form in a rapid liquid display of attacks, hooks and smooth limber footwork that begged to be combined with the unceasing palm kata. But not yet. When Aaron got to the swordform he began to remember enemies he had faced, beasts he had slain and fought as he shadowboxed against the enemies of his past. His Fingers turned into the base of a foot long sword of Qi, more a dagger than an actual blade as he released the blade and cut with a very familiar sound of a blade cutting the air apart. Last but not least he unleashed his Qi in the right poses as he finished the last poses of the kata. His aim was perfection of the kata itself and only when he was satisfied did he move on to the next step.

Warmed up and ready he began to combine the three katas into a unified system. It felt awesome. He moved from one kata to the next, used two at the same time, fused them together in a never ending sequence. Time slowed and accelerated, he punched the air and the crisp sound of his punches releasing Qi echoed in the foothills followed by the sound of stone being cut apart. His trance like stance remained while he moved through all three katas combined. But that was the problem. There was an almost unlimited amount of combinations. His two hands began to express two different katas as he trained each kata at the same time. The weaved together katas formed a perfect harmony that resonated with Aaron deeply.

It felt like he had found the missing puzzle piece, every single stance he had ever learned, every punch, every palm strike was connected to a plethora of options to follow up after it. It was a liquid, fluid system that had no boundaries and there was an answer to any question. An enemy comes from behind? Use this form. An enemy attacks from the right? Block his attack with this palm movement. The enemy did all of this at once? No problem, combine these forms at the same time to achieve an even better result. Half kata was a revelation of possibilities. Aaron had started to do this himself before, but now with the Piercing Finger kata he learned how to properly do it without losing any of the efficiency.

Time seemed to stretch as he moved through the katas in a rush of movement, he barely noticed how Wind Steps was woven into the kata, how he integrated every single thing he had ever learned since coming to the tower into a unified system of combat. Aaron leapt into the air with wind steps and continued the display of his katas there, mid air, unleashed Qi and blocked, turned and fell, accelerated and slowed down. Time crawled by as he used the Unceasing Palm kata to give himself time to react and adjust Wind Steps.

A bubbling laughter broke out of Aaron as he landed and his feet, feeling as energized and alive as he had ever been. This was how it felt to master a thing greater than yourself, an art of combat, a unified, harmonic state of intersecting parts working together creating a greater whole. It was so beautiful, so perfect he felt like crying and laughing at the same time.

But all of it came at a cost. When Aaron came down from his rush he realized just how much Qi he had used to do this. How rapidly he had depleted his dantian while unleashing Qi and using intent to support all of his katas. When he had began his dantian was around 60% full, when he had stopped he had barely 20% left. In around 20 minutes of constant usage he had drained 40% of his total Qi capacity. That was weeks worth of work and Aaron almost despaired. He had not wanted to use this much! Damned Sylus and his infinite Qi reservoir in the memory core.

Aaron felt suddenly cheated and anxious. What was the point of having this awesome power if he could not use it? But he also realized the results of his training on the walls surrounding his camp. Streaks of stone had been cut away by his Qi claws, puncture holes where everywhere and he had been barely conscious enough not to damage any of his equipment, but damn he had done a number on his camping spot. It looked like someone had used some really big guns or drills to dig into every single surface surrounding him.

"Fuck…" he cursed and then laughed again. He was such an idiot. This was overkill. He could have killed 20 behemoths with this much Qi, maybe even more.

"Okay, lesson learned. Qi projection costs too much to use casually. Learn how to control it before using it again." he said to himself looking incredulously at a boulder he had pulverized with his fist from a few meters away.

But Aaron had an idea to solve his issues. Sylus had included some methods and ways to contain Qi and use the kata anyways in the core. So instead of fretting and cursing his own overly liberal use of Qi he returned to sit down and dive into the trial of the mind. He could worry about replenishing his Qi reserves later.

The sudden return to Sylus body was as jarring and uncomfortable as he remembered it. But he did not have to bother with Qi usage anymore here. So Aaron got to training, now facing the golems of the trial with the finished triplet. It was ridiculously easy. With no restraints to Qi he mowed down the golems like they were barely there. He punched through their heads with Qi blades unleashed and dove through them until he had cleared the entire trial. That had felt good, but Aaron was not here just to let off some steam after having wasted 40% of his dantian on training. Instead he focused on the jade ring he reassembled and on the information contained within. How to contain Qi and preserve it.

It took Aaron hours of rerunning the trial until he had gotten anywhere close to the ideal he wanted. In the end there were some very important takeaways he had to internalize from this training.

First, Qi projection out of his body was taboo. Only used once a fight at maximum and deliberately aimed to end the fight. Everything else would be a total waste. Two, reinforcement of his limbs with intent was the key. He may not be capable of using Qi projection liberally, but he sure as hell could use the intent he learned to reinforced everything else he did. This meant a rather small usage of Qi for an incredible increase in combat power. Three, the Unceasing Palm kata was best used when he coated his palm with Qi. This enabled him to use the kata normally without having to bother with injuring his hand. It meant he could block blades with a palm and it was an impenetrable barrier against most things. This did cost Qi, but against sharp, deadly things or Aaron considered in the tower, magic, this was the best defense. It benefited from it more than he was able to describe. Not using Qi actively was almost a waste. This meant it was costly to use, but it also meant it could do things it had not been able to do before. Like negate enemies attacks entirely.

Aaron quickly found out that a palm coated with a thin film of Qi could block swords and arrest their momentum entirely without cutting into his hand. Same with claws. The kinetic force put behind any strike was simply lost in the ocean of his palm, no matter how thin or flimsy the Qi barrier looked, the intent was just the same. That was the key. Qi could do so much more than Aaron had ever even imagined.

With his preliminary mastery over Intent and how to preserve Qi at an acceptable level, Aaron left the memory core.

Back in his body he was not surprised to see that it was night already. He had used an entire day training and learning. Now it was time to test out his improvements. If he wanted to justify his Qi expenditure, he had to hunt a lot. So his first order of business was to establish how easily he could kill things with his upgraded capabilities. It was time to hunt some behemoths and see how useful his Qi blades would really be.