Lue stood at the mouth of the cave, his new pet ESS coiled around his shoulders, preparing for their departure into the unknown wilderness beyond. But first, he knew he needed to practice the strike that Elder Popas had been teaching him. The flickering flames he used to prepare his meager meals would serve as his training target.
Elder Popas had not exaggerated when he warned that this technique was incredibly difficult. Each strike Lue attempted carried its own unique flaws, and whenever he managed to correct one problem, new imperfections would emerge or old mistakes would resurface. The process was becoming a genuine headache, testing his patience and resolve with every swing.
"Ha!" Lue shouted, throwing his fist forward toward the dancing flames. The movement felt sluggish, lacking the explosive speed he knew the technique required. "Too slow," he muttered, shaking his head in frustration.
He reset his stance and tried again, this time focusing on increasing his velocity. "EEHNG!" The strike came out rushed and sloppy, his timing completely off. "Too fast," he groaned, wiping sweat from his brow.
The third attempt looked more promising as he found a middle ground between his previous efforts. "Ahh!" But as his fist cut through the air, he realized his aim was several inches off target. "Not accurate enough," he said through gritted teeth.
Determined to get the accuracy right, Lue adjusted his positioning and threw another punch. "HeeyaH!" This time his fist found its mark, but his footing was all wrong. His base felt unstable and weak, lacking the solid foundation that would give his strike real power. "Weak stance," he admitted with growing exasperation.
ESS had crawled down from his arms and was now watching him with what appeared to be curious interest. The small creature's head tilted slightly as it observed Lue's repeated attempts and failures. Sweat poured freely from Lue's forehead as he continued his relentless practice, and he was discovering that having a pet was far more challenging than he had initially imagined.
The creature seemed to require constant feeding, and when Lue wasn't providing food, ESS would latch onto his arms with surprising strength and begin draining his cosmic particles. This constant energy drain was becoming a serious concern, especially given his already limited reserves.
"I don't even know a single proper technique," Lue said aloud, his voice echoing off the cave walls. "Not to mention my cosmic particles are so small to begin with, yet ESS is always latched onto me, draining what little I have." He paused in his training to look down at the creature, which had once again attached itself to his forearm. "At this point, if I don't learn this perfect strike, I won't survive long enough to make it out of this cave alive."
The reality of his situation was becoming increasingly clear. Lue possessed no knowledge of defensive techniques or offensive ones, which made protecting himself from creature attacks extremely difficult. He only knew how to use his fists and turn cosmic particles into fire energy. The perfect strike was his only hope for survival in the dangerous world that awaited him beyond the cave's protective walls.
After completing more than a thousand practice swings, Lue finally dropped to his knees, his body trembling with exhaustion. His muscles ached, his lungs burned, and his cosmic energy reserves felt nearly depleted. The endless repetition had pushed him to his physical and mental limits.
"I would stay in here longer," he gasped between heavy breaths, "but there's no food or water." The cave had provided temporary shelter, but it could not sustain him indefinitely. With a defeated sigh, he dropped onto his back and stared up at the rocky ceiling, feeling utterly frustrated with his lack of progress.
ESS crawled across his chest and let out a small hiss. To Lue's ears, it almost sounded as if the snake had asked, "What's wrong, Mommy?" The absurdity of the thought made him laugh despite his exhaustion, and he reached up to rub the creature's small head affectionately.
His gesture of kindness was immediately punished as ESS latched onto his arm once again and began draining his cosmic particles with renewed vigor. Lue smiled bitterly at the predictable outcome. "Yep, it's my fault for petting you," he said with resignation.
Despite his fatigue, Lue decided to attempt one more training session. His strategy would be different this time. Instead of focusing solely on the physical aspects of the strike, he would work on raising the number of particles he could comprehend and control. Perhaps by improving his understanding of cosmic energy, he could learn to use his flame abilities more accurately and effectively.
As he began his meditation and energy work, Lue watched in amazement as the number of particles he could comprehend increased dramatically over the next four to six hours. The improvement was beyond anything he had expected or experienced before.
Then he made a startling discovery: ESS wasn't simply draining his cosmic energy for its own benefit. The little snake was somehow processing and refining the energy, then feeding it back to him in a more concentrated and powerful form. This symbiotic relationship was actually making him improve at an accelerated rate.
Soon, Lue began to feel the hot, flaming energy coursing around his body with increased intensity. The sensation was intoxicating and empowering. A sudden moment of enlightenment struck him, and he decided to follow a new theory that had formed in his mind.
Thick, dancing flames erupted around his hands, making them appear as if they were truly on fire. The flames moved and writhed with a life of their own, casting shifting shadows on the cave walls. Lue looked at this new development with wonder, not fully understanding the purpose or mechanics of the flames, but he could definitely sense the improvement they had made to his hands' capabilities.
He checked his cosmic energy levels and was shocked to discover they had reached a staggering one thousand two hundred. These were groundbreaking advancements, and unfortunately, no one was present to witness them. Even Elder Popas, or anyone knowledgeable about cosmic power, would have been shocked to their core if they had seen what Lue had accomplished.
The flames surrounding Lue's hands were not ordinary by any measure, yet they were unlike anything that had been seen before. This was because he had unknowingly created his own unique technique, though he didn't yet realize the significance of his achievement.
Filled with newfound confidence, Lue stood up and moved toward the cave wall. He pulled back his flaming fist and sent a crushing blow forward with all his might. His hands landed on the solid rock, and remarkably, he couldn't even feel pain from his knuckles. The impact was absorbed and distributed by the flames surrounding his hands.
A slight tremor ran through the entire cave as dust began falling from the ceiling above. The force of his punch had been far greater than anything he had previously been capable of producing.
"Haha, I need to get out there and try this move out immediately," Lue thought with excitement. With that declaration, he moved quickly toward the cave exit, leaving behind the small fire he had created for the resident ghosts to keep themselves warm during the cold nights ahead.
The exit of the cave was not far away, and Lue soon reached the opening that led to the outside world. He stepped through the entrance and immediately noticed his first potential target: a silver fox with blood-red eyes. The creature turned toward him, momentarily confused by the unexpected appearance of a human being so deep within the notorious Midnight Forest.
However, the fox wasn't what truly caught Lue's attention. As he looked up at the exit of the cave, he realized that the sky overhead was completely nonexistent. Only a thick canopy of intertwined leaves blocked out all natural light, plunging the entire forest into an eerie, permanent darkness. This was the true Midnight Forest in all its ominous glory.
Lue refused to let this intimidating sight shake his resolve. He leaped high into the air, his flaming fists aimed directly at the head of the red-eyed fox below.
"Die! Demonic creature!" he shouted as his fists made contact. He was surprised by the devastating power of his own strength. The white fox instantly collapsed to the forest floor, its life extinguished in a single blow. This was his first real kill, not counting the thousands of crawling spiders he had destroyed days earlier.
The cosmic particles from the defeated beast flowed into his body, providing a small boost to his energy reserves. A slight smile appeared on his face as he savored this moment of victory, but his celebration was cut short by an ominous sound echoing through the trees.
The sound of defiance and anger reached his ears, a low, threatening snarl that sent chills down his spine. He looked in the direction of the sound and saw another white fox emerging from the shadows, then another, and then another still. They growled menacingly as they surrounded him from all sides, their red eyes gleaming with predatory hunger in the darkness.
"Well, I'm surrounded on all sides," Lue observed with grim determination. "Guess I'll just have to smash my way through all of them."