Austin got right to work on his enchantment. He figured there was no longer a point in deliberating over the details. He could conceptualize for hours, but he would not know if something worked until he tried. So, he began to write enchantments in different combinations.

  Central to each enchantment was the character for metal. With that character at the center, he branched off to other characters. Things like the size of character, placement, and density of Essence all mattered with each character he wrote. This meant that he had to carefully consider each character’s importance as he wrote them.

  Austin’s first few attempts ended up not doing anything. He realized that he was trying to be too careful and did not provide enough Essence. While that meant he was safe from a backlash, it also did not give him any proof of whether he was headed in the right direction or not.

  At that realization, Austin started to apply more Essence as he wrote. He applied the most Essence to the characters for metal and defense. Then used less as he branched off from there. His first major attempt used metal at the center, then branched into defense and round. As he finished writing, he placed his hands over the scroll and channeled his technique into it. In quick response, a metal orb shot from the scroll into Austin.

  Austin wheezed as he tried to catch his breath. The orb landed straight into Austin’s gut and knocked the wind out of him. As Austin tried to recover, the orb rolled on the ground and disappeared into silver dust. If that was the backlash from trying to enchant a defensive technique, Austin was glad he did not try to enchant an offensive one.

  Austin started to grow frustrated as his attempts created a variety of backlashes. The metal ball was just one of many. A metal spire ripped through the ground and tossed him upward. A scroll exploded in his face and cut him with metal shrapnel. His most successful attempt, at least what he considered to be most successful, was when a metal dome erupted from the ground and threw him upward. He decided that he would use the last one as a basis for his enchantment since it was the closest. He just needed to figure out how to make it work exactly to what he needed.

  ***

  “I want you all on even ground for this training. So, there will be no use of Essence,” Clive began his instruction. Many of the participants sought him out after the games, and they now lined up in the empty area that was used for the games.

  “This will also make it so you don’t compensate for your mistakes with Essence,” Clive continued as he paced through the line of students. “You have grown used to using your Essence and may find my instruction difficult. But know that it is for your own good and you will grow into true warriors after I am done with you.”

  Maya started to feel nervous as Clive spoke. She had become skilled at Essence use, but she never fought without it. She did not even think she was particularly athletic and worried about how she would handle the training.

  “I can see you are all worried,” Clive said with a relaxed smile. “You don’t need to be. We will take things slow, and your bodies are already more athletic than before the Survival Game. I believe that it is an effect of Essence. Even as Leads, it has molded your body to become more athletic.

  “Most of you can throw some sort of punch. So, that will not be our main focus. Today, we will focus on your defense. This includes an understanding of footwork and your surroundings. We will start with footwork. Please watch closely.”

  Clive entered a ready stance with his left side forward. He carefully shuffled his feet on the ground in different directions. His feet barely came off the ground as he did so. Instead, they glided over the ground. The entire time he moved, he kept his left side forward. He then switched to his right side and repeated his steps.

  “The idea behind good footwork is being able to control your movement and distance,” Clive explained. “You want to keep your stance forward the entire time, and you don’t want to make large steps. Large steps will slow you down; that’s why you glide your foot as you move. Go ahead and get started. Use my demonstration as an example.”

  The group began to follow Clive’s example. Each of them started with their left side forward and tried to follow the steps he showed them. Maya struggled with the steps. They just felt so unnatural to her. She tripped over her feet multiple times as she tried to mimic the steps. Her biggest struggle was getting the foot at the proper height for it to glide over the ground. The way that Clive moved made it look like he did not even lift his feet when he moved.

  Maya looked over at her fellow students. Many of them were making mistakes of their own. Some were tripping like she was, while others could not help but make larger steps. Clive’s main focus was on the ones who made larger steps. He addressed their mistakes before moving on to people who were tripping.

  “What’s the point of all this?” Joe blurted out. Maya was shocked to see him as part of the group, given how overconfident he acted during the games. “I know how to walk! This isn’t going to help me at all.”

  “Did you pay any attention to my fights?” Clive asked calmly.

  “A little bit, but I had already won, so I didn’t focus too much,” Joe said honestly.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “I figured as much,” Clive nodded. “If you did, you would understand how important good footwork is. It keeps your body stable and allows you to better assess your environment.”

  “Sounds like a bunch of rubbish to me. I bet you only quit yesterday because you were scared to lose to Maya,” Joe snapped back.

  Clive rubbed his temples with his fingers in annoyance and let out an exasperated sigh. “Could someone join me up here? Since Joe was not paying attention yesterday, I think it is best to demonstrate.”

  No one volunteered; they all just looked at each other expectantly. Even the people who did not pay close attention to Clive’s fight knew that he was a skilled combatant. No one wanted to be the demonstration dummy. As Maya realized no one would go up, she let out a sigh and walked towards Clive.

  “I’ll do it,” Maya said. “What do you need me to do?”

  “Thank you, Maya. At least someone isn’t scared of this old man,” Clive chuckled. “All I need you to do is try to hit me.”

  Maya nodded and entered a ready stance. Clive gestured with his hand to come towards him. Once he did, Maya moved in and shot her fist forward. Clive stepped to the side of the fist with ease. His posture and face looked completely unchanged.

  “Please continue, Maya. I would like to get my point across,” Clive said with a cheerful smile.

  Maya did as Clive asked and continued punching him. Each time, Clive moved out of the way while looking unfazed. His body obviously moved, but he had the appearance of not moving. He was like a body of water, completely unaffected by anything in its path. Maya was also shocked to realize that she barely moved from her spot. Clive had dodged in such a way that he circled around Maya and kept her in place.

  “Good footwork grants you control,” Clive instructed as he continued to dodge Maya’s attacks. “It allows you to keep a stable mind and body while also allowing you to control positioning. A fight is like a dance where you each are trying to be the lead. Since my footwork is better, I am leading this dance.”

  As Maya punched once more, Clive closed the gap between the two with a forward dodge. He positioned himself to the side of her body and quickly grabbed her outstretched arm. He quickly threw her to the ground, using her arm as leverage.

  “Thank you for participating with me,” Clive whispered as Maya hit the ground. He then turned to address the rest of the group. “As you can see, I took the lead, and all it took was effective footwork. Now get back to your practice.”

  Clive extended his hand downward to help Maya up. Maya took the hand and lifted off the ground. As she got to her feet, she dusted off her clothes and rubbed her back. Once she recovered, she ran back in line to continue her training.

  ***

  Austin’s body was covered in bruises and cuts as he continued to try to get his enchantment right. While he could easily heal the damage he received, he was more interested in saving his Essence for his enchantment attempts. Not only that, he was so focused on his experiments that he did not even recognize the pain. His mind only cared about the enchantment.

  “You need to balance the formula,” a voice chuckled.

  Austin looked back and forth for the source of the voice. His mind snapped out of his concentration, and he was not sure where the voice came from. He quickly looked back and forth but could not see the source of the voice.

  “I’m offended. My dear student has forgotten the voice of his master,” the voice continued. “The amulet!”

  Austin had completely forgotten about the amulet that Artas gave him. He reached into his shirt and pulled it out. The characters that made up its enchantment lit up with green light. “Uh, hello.”

  “Hello, my dear student, I see you’ve come far in your enchantment training,” Artas said in his characteristic jovial voice. “Watching you fail has grown to be less entertaining. So, I thought I would help.”

  “You’ve been watching me?!” Austin said with frustration. “I’ve been struggling this whole time, and you just busted out popcorn and watched?”

  “Well, I can’t constantly intervene. There is a limit. I hoped you would get it on your own, but I think you need a little help,” Artas said. “Your enchantment looks pretty good, but you need to balance it better. Right now, the energy is sporadic, and that’s why it doesn’t work.”

  “So like making each side of an equation equal?” Austin thought out loud. “Does that mean that the rest of my characters need to match up with my central character?”

  “Yes! Exactly that!” Artas said. “I knew you just needed a little push in the right direction. Now get back to it.”

  The amulet’s light faded as Artas finished talking, and Austin shoved it back into his shirt. Austin felt good that his characters were actually on the right track. He just had a lack of understanding of how to make the enchantment work. If he understood correctly, then the surrounding characters needed to add up in their Essence amount to the amount he put into the main character.

  Austin furiously started to write characters as inspiration filled him. He started with the character for metal, and then each character after that would be in descending order of the Essence imbued. The order was defense, sphere, construct, and absorption. As he wrote the characters, he felt in his heart that it finally worked.

  Once the last character was finished, Austin looked over his scroll with a smile. He placed his hands above the scroll and started to channel his technique into it. Silver light flowed as streams of ribbons from his hands into the characters on the scroll. Each character filled with light until they shone brightly. Austin released his hands from the scroll and winced. He was just ready for the scroll to fail and backlash on him. A backlash did not come, though. Instead, the silver light slowly faded until the ink of the characters was black.

  Austin was worried for a moment that he made a dud and opened his senses to see if he could see Essence from the scroll. As he opened his senses, he could see faint lines of silver around the scrolls. He knew at that moment that he was successful. A wide smile came across Austin’s face as he grabbed the scroll and collapsed on his back. The scroll landed flat on his chest as he could not help but laugh. He did not find anything particularly funny, but instead, he just felt so relieved.