1% Lifesteal

Thor wasn't a soft man, and he certainly wasn't a gentle trainer. While the man's assistance was priceless, his methods were brutal, and he had no qualms about using force to reshape Freddy's foundation.

Freddy was no stranger to pain. He could handle a beating or tough training. Yet, many of Thor's suggestions and most of the man's guidance struck where it hurt the most—Freddy's ego.

He had truly believed that his build wasn't that bad. Even though Thor called it garbage, he still held on to the belief that it was mostly fine. But as the man had said, many things were missing, and many of his choices plainly made no sense.

Thor didn't wait to start Freddy's training. As soon as they were done with their "evaluations," he jumped right into teaching him, even clearing his whole schedule for the day just to focus on Freddy.

And the first thing the man took aim at was Flowing Strike.

"Okay." Thor sighed as he looked over the paper Freddy had given him. "What exactly was your logic in pairing Flowing Strike with Abyssal Depths, and then, on top of that, adding the concept of 'force transference' to the ability? There's no way the backlash doesn't hurt you, even with your toughness. If I'm being honest, this seems like a very stupid idea to me."

Freddy chuckled. "You know what they say; if it works, it ain't stupid."

"Except it is stupid as fuck. Just because something works, it doesn't mean it isn't stupid. What differentiates clever and dumb isn't the outcome—it's the investment of thought. And you're either poor of mind or a super shitty investor."

"Okay, I admit that it does hurt me quite a bit. But the damage I can do with this ability is worth it. I mean… I can always heal from the damage I take."

"Yeah, but your healing is slow. Just because you can heal after a fight doesn't mean that taking unnecessary damage during a fight is a smart choice."

Freddy scowled momentarily. "I…" He pinched his brow. "I have an answer to this, but it's hard to explain. You're gonna have to give me a moment to think."

"Sure, think all you want." Thor smirked. "I'm waiting."n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Okay… I… My reasoning," he said, cupping his hands together as he slowly formed his argument, "is hard to elaborate in words. But! I formed… my intuition, I guess… Or no, wait. I uh…" He paused for a moment to pick his wording. "My understanding of ether grew alongside my understanding of what my talent allows me to get away with."

"Yeah, okay…" Thor nodded. "Go on."

"Right. Uhm… So, how do I put this? There are a lot of reasons why I think this approach is worth it. It is something unexpected—who would guess that their opponent can punch so hard they shatter their own arm into pieces? Also, the damage is… significant. I can show you on the impact alloy if you want."

Thor slowly nodded. "Okay, let's see it in action."

Freddy nodded and walked over to the metal column. Then, he activated Flowing Strike with only a single star and punched. The impact was enormous. Cracks and waves spread out like crazy. In turn, his arm only suffered relatively minor damage, with his veins turning blue and his wrist spraining a bit. With just a single star, he could almost handle using Flowing Strike without any backlash. Almost. And only for the time being.

Thor scoffed. "That's cute, but I still don't see the point. Also, if that's what your arm looks like after a one-star use of this combo, then honestly, I can't see why you'd bother using this shit."

"Come on!" Freddy urged. "This can easily change the outcome of a difficult fight."

"Sure it can." Thor smirked. "It can change the outcome by instantly making you lose."

"If I use this ability, my opponent will lose harder than I will."

"No, Freddy. If you land this ability, your opponent will lose. If you miss—"

"No, I actually thought about this," Freddy said with a raised hand. Then, he used Flowing Strike again. He swung his fist at the empty air. The force behind the ability quickly accumulated in his fist, making his nails bleed and bursting his veins before going the other way. And then, when it reached the other side, he stomped his foot on the ground, causing cracks to spread and offloading the force. "There."

"There? There. Really? That's your solution?" Thor blew air through pursed lips. "So let's just say you aren't busy fending for your life because your opponent used your miss as a chance to counterattack and let's completely ignore that this still did a ton of damage to you, both to your arm and your legs; what will you do if someone restrains you the moment you use the ability?"

"That's unlikely to happen…"

Thor's eyes shot wide open. "Really!? Oh fucking really!? Did you really just say that!?"

Freddy winced. Even he could tell that that was a stupid thing to say. It was more than possible for someone to restrain him just after using Flowing Strike. And if that happened, the ability would bounce from one extremity to another without the possibility of release. And if he couldn't move, he couldn't direct the force, either. It would damage his hands, feet, and even his head, possibly hurting his brain.

Even if he was about to win the fight, this could instantly spell his doom. It wasn't just a weakness—it was a critical exploit. One he had never realized existed.

"Unlikely to happen, he says," Thor repeated with a dark chuckle. "Don't be an idiot. If you have a weakness, you can't bank on it not being exploited."

"I know…"

"You know!?" Thor shouted. "You did not just say that. You know? You don't know shit. He knows, he says, look at Mr. Smartass over here! If you know, then why am I teaching you!?"

"I… Okay, just…"

"Okay, just what? Let me set something straight—you don't know a single thing when we're training. When I say something, even if you knew it beforehand, you didn't. I don't want to hear the words 'I know' leave your mouth ever again! Are we clear?"

"Look—"

"If we're not absolutely clear on this, then we can't continue," Thor declared. "If this is just going to be you correcting me all the time and acting like you're already a goddamn master of what I'm trying to teach you, then get the fuck out and do things however you please!"

"Please just calm down…"

"Calm down? You do realize what we're doing here, right? This isn't a cute little group project where we tape folded paper into flowers. I'm trying to turn you into an effective warrior. Because if you can't fight effectively, you die. And as one of the elite fighters of Valhalla, you have a responsibility to be as close to perfect as possible! Any mistake you make risks more than just your life alone. So I'm not going to be considerate of your feelings or your damn ego!

"And this"—he gestured at Freddy, the floor below him, and the damaged impact alloy—"is a very stupid idea! To be entirely honest, I'd prefer nothing more than to force you to remove Abyssal Depths and practice Flowing River instead. The only reason why I won't do that is because I understand that it's important to let people develop strategies they like.

"That being said, unless we can figure out a way to patch these weaknesses up, I'll still strongly suggest you undo Abyssal Depths. And I really hope you take my advice. Are we clear?"

Freddy scowled. He opened his mouth to try to retort, but the warning behind Thor's glare made him swallow his words. He took a deep breath. "I understand."

"Good. Now, let's try to think of ways to remove these weaknesses. I already have a few ideas ready, but it's better for you to come up with solutions on your own. Give me your best ideas, and I'll tell you what will work and what won't."

Freddy tried focusing on a solution, but his mind felt hazy. A deep, suppressed anger was still bubbling in his gut, and if he was being honest, a spiteful sprout of hatred was growing in his heart. But he felt helpless and frustrated. He needed Thor's help.

But after that beratement, he couldn't help but feel his opinion of the man turn for the worse. He knew it was just his ego receiving a beating, but he still couldn't help it.

Freddy pulled the spark of undeath from his ring and sat down on the ground. While beating his meat, he used the soothing feeling to clear his mind. Once he was done, he felt clarity settle, and ideas started flowing.

He needed either a way to offload the force into something or a way to cancel Flowing Strike while minimizing harm to himself. One by one, he delivered his ideas to Thor, who scrutinized and rejected most of them.

The way Flowing Strike worked was by creating a "wave" that moved through the water in his body. Like a wave inside a pool, when it reached a wall—in this case, whatever limb he was striking with—the force had nowhere to go, and the wave would be forced to go in the other direction unless he offloaded the force with a strike.

His first idea was to use a destructive counterforce to cancel the wave in his body. But this wasn't a good idea. Not only would it be difficult to pull off, but it would cost as much essence as Flowing Strike, and it would still cause great damage inside his body, even if it would be more evenly distributed.

His next idea was to use his blood affinity to create some sort of object he could offload the force into. However, if he was restrained, he couldn't direct the force effectively enough to make this work.

After that, he suggested using methods to perhaps break up the waves or slow them down, but both ideas were too expensive and inefficient.

He fired off one idea after another, and with total, brutal honesty and in great detail, Thor explained why they wouldn't work. But hey, at least he wasn't being mean anymore.

After much thinking, Freddy finally had a flash of inspiration. He got an idea that seemed excellent at first, then horrible on second thought, and then, on third thought, a bit uncertain.

He looked at Thor. "What if I were to use my blood affinity to create a bunch of small barriers that would slowly weaken the power of the wave as it moved through my body?"

Thor's first reflex was to sneer, but then he frowned. "Huh… You know, this would be a horrible idea, but… with your undeath, toughness, and ability to heal"—he shook his index finger—"It might just work. Okay, let's try this one."

Freddy nodded.

He used his blood affinity to quickly construct a prototype of the ability. It didn't take much time or effort. While he couldn't absorb blood after hardening it, this only counted for blood that was no longer attached to his body. His Gore Knuckles, for example, were still connected to his bloodstream even after hardening them. This allowed him to rehydrate the blood and suck it back into his body.

A similar concept applied to all the blood inside him. If he wanted to, he could harden all the blood in his body and then rehydrate it. There were even some blood abilities that used this concept. But usually, they only involved hardening the blood inside the cardiovascular system.

For this prototype to work, Freddy had to interrupt the waves as they moved through his intracellular and extracellular fluid. Meaning he had to force the blood out of his veins and into the rest of his tissue.

He made the ability distribute blood all across his body, and then he used that blood to create small, prism-shaped obstacles the waves would run into. These obstacles would dissipate and redirect the wave, breaking the force up and distributing it through his body more evenly. The blood, however, was only partially hardened. After a few seconds, it would "melt" again.

It would still be stuck in his flesh. He couldn't avoid basically causing extremely complex internal bleeding through this method. And there was no easy way to undo it. But as Thor had said, with his powers, he could tolerate this.

As soon as the shell became viable, he crystallized it and tried the ability in action. He immediately tested it with a double-star Flowing Strike. As soon as he used the prototype ability, he felt the force slowly dissipate. It still rattled his tissue and made his body grow numb, but it didn't actually cause much damage. A moment later, the blood softened again.

It did, predictably, cause a lot of micro-tearing in his muscle tissue, but it wasn't to the point where this would be enough to take him out of a fight.

"Okay…" Thor said, nodding solemnly. "While this is a bit of a rough implementation, I can see this being a viable solution to the problem. That being said, I'm tasking you with meditating on the blood tablets in the library. This is a rather novel idea, so you'll have to find inspiration to improve it into something that doesn't suck."

Enjoy exclusive adventures from empire

Freddy nodded. He was given an hour to rest, recover his essence, and meditate some of the reflux essence away.

Given his satellite, Freddy hadn't spent as much essence as Thor had presumed, and given Freddy's soul construct, he recovered his essence reserves quite quickly.

Thor was understandably rattled by Freddy's quick recovery.

Freddy decided not to hide either his satellite or his soul construct.

"Okay…" Thor muttered. "What the fuck is it with you anymore? You're just cheating at this point."

Freddy chuckled. "I was just pretty lucky with some things. Anyway, what's next?"

"Lucky… Hah… Lucky, he says. Damn right you were. Okay, so… I see you're working on Hydraulic Throw?"

"Yeah."

"Why don't you crystallize it?" Thor asked.

Freddy scowled. "I don't have the 'precise direction' concept yet."

Thor simply stared at him for a moment and then broke into laughter. "He doesn't have 'precise direction,' he says! Is that a joke?"

"What?"

"Dude… you don't have an essence-manipulation talent. Forget about it. 'Specific direction' is as accurate as you're going to get."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa…" Freddy raised his hands. "Are you telling me it's impossible to get 'precise direction' without an essence manipulation talent?"

Thor looked at him with a deadpan expression. "Yeah. What, did you think essence-manipulation talents were for show?" He sneered and shook his head. "You're already as tough as someone with a defensive talent and as strong as someone with a strength talent.

"But even then, someone with a quality talent in either category will still have advantages you won't." Thor's expression turned serious. "Talents provide a unique, qualitative upgrade to a certain aspect of your power. There's a reason why so many factions stick to only using essence-manipulation talents for a chosen affinity. It's because, without it, their members wouldn't even be able to practice their most valuable abilities.

"To put it bluntly, without an essence-manipulation talent, you're blocked out of a huge number of advanced abilities. For good. There is no way to change this. Don't get me wrong, your talent is fantastic in many ways. But you seem to have gotten a bit too comfortable with the idea of competing with the advantages of other talents. But take my advice and forget about this one. It's plain impossible."

Freddy was stunned. It wasn't like he didn't know this already… but Thor was right. There was no way for his talent to give him an edge here. But still, as he slowly came to terms with this, he felt… crushed. It hit him a lot harder than he expected.

Without realizing it, he had cultivated a feeling of omnipotence. And now, as that feeling started to fade, he felt vulnerable and weak. Indeed, there was no talent that could be good at everything. He would always have some weakness he couldn't do anything about.

And that scared him.

"Is there really nothing I can do…" Freddy muttered with a distant look in his eyes.

Thor appeared hesitant for a moment. The man could clearly see how rattled Freddy looked. He sighed and put a hand on Freddy's shoulder. "There is really no way for you to perfect this rune, but there is a way to push it half a step forward."

Freddy perked up.

"There are certain potions that can slightly enhance your essence manipulation for a brief period. If you used them and then practiced the ability, you could develop a subrune that slightly improved your accuracy, but that subrune would only apply to a single weapon." Thor peeked back at Freddy's ability sheet. "Your Blood Javelin will be the only ability this would apply to, then. And even then, it still wouldn't be perfectly accurate.

"But these potions aren't cheap," Thor added. "If you want to do this, you'll have to pay for them. Is that okay with you?"

Freddy nodded.

"Okay. Good." The man grinned. "The day is still young. And we have plenty of stuff to go over. Come on, you've had your rest. Let's continue."