I wanted to stay in the bath longer, but my urge to train became too much. I left the bath and put on some fresh clothes that Cassandra had provided for me. They were actually pretty close to the clothes I wore before, I wondered if she had made these? Sundi eventually joined me outside in the back area of the Tavern. She was dressed in her full garb, including her mask. "Are you ready Sid? I am going to come at you at full strength. This is the only way that I can teach you. You need to come at me the same. Understand?" She said in a serious tone. "Alright, I will take this seriously." I responded as I got into a fighting position. I could feel that the atmosphere had completely changed. Sundi's eyes began glowing a bright amber hue through her mask, and she got very low to the ground. In the blink of an eye, her body flashed and was suddenly right in front of me. All I managed to see was her hand striking right towards my throat as if she was using it as a spear. I sidestepped to the right, narrowly avoiding the deadly attack. I countered with a quick low jab with my left fist, but she jumped up in the air, spinning her body around to throw a kick at my head. She was so fast, I could barely keep up. I ducked to avoid the kick, but as she spun in the air she simply switched the leg she was using to kick and the back of her heel came flying down at my face. All I could do was raise my arms up to block. Her strike landed and threw me backwards. I used the momentum to flip my body and spring off of my hands, landing on my feet. I then used my traveling hands. I sent two strikes at her shoulders, but somehow she managed to turn her body just in time to avoid the blows. She cartwheeled towards me and then dropped low for a leg sweep. I stamped my foot firm into the ground willing to take her attack head on. That was my mistake. She used the leg sweep as a faint and then immediately changed the direction of her kick. That was when I had an ingenious idea. In order to block her kick, I put my hand into a waypoint as a way of blocking it. Eventually, as we continued to exchange blows, I was able to just place my hands at strategic points using my blessing to completely suppress her attacks. This continued to go on for at least thirty minutes. I knew that I needed to land just one good attack. Sundi was able to dodge, evade, and block anything I threw at her. I don't know how she was doing it, every time I would use my blessing she would avoid my strikes by a hair. I also noticed that something strange was happening… As we continued to fight, for some reason I wasn't able to open waypoints directly in front of her body. It seemed like there was some kind of unidentified space around her body that was preventing me from using my blessing close to her. I continued to test out this theory as we fought and It seemed that there was at least a two inch gap of space around her body that my blessing wasn't able to permeate…. Eventually, I was able to create some space between us. In that moment, I focused my vital power, trying to flow all of my energy down through my legs. I used this to jump forward at full strength while throwing a single strike through my waypoint. I aimed right for her abdomen. There was absolutely no way she could avoid this at my strength and speed. But as I threw the powerful punch that seemed to even distort the air around us, she simply held up one hand and guided my strike to her side. This sent a powerful wave of air flowing past her from the force of my strike. I was dumbfounded. "How did you avoid that!?" I cried out. Sundi shook her head in response. "That's enough for now." She said as she took off her mask.
"Seriously, how were you able to avoid that?" I questioned. Sundi has a rather annoyed look on her face. "Before I answer that, you aren't taking this seriously enough Sid. There were multiple opportunities where you could have completely taken me out. Instead you were avoiding hitting me in certain areas were you? You never once tried to hit me in the face, or even my back side. You were specifically only focusing on areas around my torso and arms. Did you think I wouldn't notice? If this were a real fight you would have died. Is that how you plan on facing your enemies? Don't you want to find your friends? Didn't you say you were going to help me?" Sundi angrily questioned in a frustrated tone. She was right. I didn't want to hurt her, but in the process I had disrespected her. I was beginning to feel shameful. "I-I am sorry. You're right. I didn't want to actually harm you, and because of that I purposely avoided places that could potentially kill you. I will do better." I said with regret in my voice. "Ugh, just don't do it again. If I say to take it seriously, you need to go all out. That's the only way you're going to be able to get stronger Sid." Sundi replied. "I understand. I will take responsibility for it." I stated. "So, now to address another problem with your fighting. You understand the concept of Vital energy, yes?" She asked seriously. "Y-yeah, I mean I understand that it's like my own personal power that I can use to become stronger right? I can use it to make my attacks more powerful or even become faster. Is that what you mean?" I asked innocently. "Yes and no. What you just described is only the most basic idea of what vital energy is. I'm not surprised that it's the only thing you know about it, but it seems I am going to have to educate you about the true concept of vital energy, so listen carefully. For millennia, my tribe had referred to this power as Jia. To say that it is a misunderstood power would be an understatement. Within the world, most people and even the gods themselves only understand this power to be the innate energy that a person holds within them. They call it vitality, or life energy. But this simply isn't the case. Jia is the true power of your soul manifested. The reason it is so misunderstood is because it is something that stems from the Mother Goddess Gaian herself. The soul is something that was gifted to mortals by the mother goddess. It was something that gave us individuality, meaning, and especially the true feeling of life. Without a soul, mortals would literally be just empty shells. We would lack passion, or any type of emotion. Emotions are what fuel us. Emotions or rather feelings are the core of what makes a soul so special. The feelings of love, hatred, happiness, sadness. This is what makes living creatures unique. Jia, is the culmination of those emotions within our soul. In its essence, Jia is the ability to use this energy of the soul through its manifestation. Are you following?" Sundi asked. "Yes, I think I understand. But I don't really get how this is any different from how I am using it." I said in confusion. "Because Jia was a gift to us from the Mother Goddess, our tribe has a deep understanding of it. In fact, we are probably the only people left within the world that actually know its true origins. You're using it only to strengthen your body, but that is just the most simplistic way of utilizing it. Even the strongest people in the world usually only understand vital energy in this way. They may apply this concept to different things, such as their senses allowing them to perceive energies in the world, or even in their voice to emit their true emotions from their soul. My tribe however…. Can utilize this power outside of our bodies." She said as she held up her hand. "Wait, what? How does that even make sense?" I asked while trying to understand what she was saying. "In truth, many people utilize a version of this without even knowing. Such as a person's aura that defines them. You saw this the first time that Pete had met me. In anger, he let out his aura surrounding him that created a distinct pressure on the souls of everyone on that ship. You may understand this more simply as what is referred to as killing intent. It is something that becomes innately understood when facing someone who is resolved to kill. I'm sure that you have already begun to perceive the energies of people around you. That energy is Jia. I want you to focus and look at my hand. Tell me what you see." Sundi stated as she continued to hold up her hand.
As I focused intently while looking at her hand, I could faintly see the flow of energy emanating from her body. As I continued to look, it almost seemed like the energy around her hand was slightly changing and moving. "Are you moving it purposely?" I asked. Sundi smiled and said, "Good, so you can see it. Yes, I am moving it of my own free will. What you are looking at is my vital energy. This is my Jia. Let me explain how it works. Similarly to how people emit their intentions through aura or even their voice, I am emitting my Jia to the outside of my body. Through training I am able to control its movements as it emits from my body. However, this is the interesting part. It can be used to redirect the energies of another person. Hold up your hand and try to focus your energy there." She said as she moved closer to me. I held up my hand and did as she requested. I focused my energy into my hand and began to see a distinct flow of energy around it. Sundi then moved her hand closer and closer to mine. As she did this, I could clearly see the energy of my hand being pushed back. It was a very strange sensation. It was like the two energies were colliding, but mine was being pushed around and away from Sundi's. Sundi then pushed her hand all the way onto mine, and as she did the energy of my hand completely retreated back within my body. "This, this is what you were doing when we were fighting isn't it?" I questioned. Sundi smiled and said, "Exactly. When you would throw a punch, I would use my own Jia to guide your energy away from my body. With the use of my Jia, I could completely suppress your energy as it came into contact with mine or send it sliding off of me. When you are throwing a punch, you are actually already emitting your Jia from your body. That's why there was such a powerful force released from your strike. The difference is that I am able to control the motion that my Jia flows, while you are not. Because of this, it doesn't matter whether you are using the divine energy of your blessing or your own personal vitality. The two can coexist or fully conflict with each other. The fact is that if you can control this, you can avoid further damage or penetrate someone else's energy. If you were able to control it the same way that I can, It would take a considerably greater amount of effort on my end. Now, the key to using this method is by understanding the shape and feel of your energy. If you are able to completely integrate your own vital energy with the divine power of your blessing, you will be able to create a distinct shape and control with the energy within yourself. As of right now, you are seeing it as two different energies existing within you. If you continue to do this, one of the two energies will eventually suppress the other and you will only be able to utilize one to its fullest extent. Seeing as how deep your vital energy is, I would theorize that it is actually already suppressing your divine energy to a certain degree. I am not certain, but if you can utilize Jia then I think you may be able to unlock further uses with your blessing." Sundi finished as she placed her hand on my chest for a brief moment.