The Earth After Rebirth

"Why? I feel fine, I could take on a mountain right now." Jorge shot back.

"That hole on your thigh must be an accessory then?" Hiro chuckled as he said.

With the adrenaline pumping him up, he hadn\'t noticed that he was badly injured. He couldn\'t even say when and how he got it, but when he saw it his brain started to make it hurt. He couldn\'t even stand anymore.

"Felix, what are you doing! Attend to him." Nikolai reprimanded him.

Felix felt annoyed at how useless the Chasing Madness healers were. He found himself doing half the work, when there a whole 5 of them. He couldn\'t believe just how weak unevolved priests were.

He started healing him without complaint, because his hesitation was met with Nikolai\'s deadliest stares.

"How are you guys so strong?" Jorge wanted to know their secrets, not only are they fighting machines, Felix\'s healing was faster than average priests.

Kiro shrugged, "we got lucky I suppose."

Of course he didn\'t believe that their strength was mere luck, but he also understood that was Kiro\'s polite way of telling him it was none of his business so he put a lid on it.

Amongst the people there, Hiro was the only one who didn\'t want to be there. He thought this was a waste of time, he could be in his shop right now, working on mastering the true blood potion.

He hadn\'t stopped looking at it since he acquired it. It seemed easy at first glance but it was really complicated, it required many steps that needed a master\'s hands. It frustrated him that he could brew it but it never came out right.

Naturally, Kiro noticed this about his friend. He thought he\'d go mad if he stayed cooped up, so he dragged him here. He believed a change of scenery would give him fresh ideas. Though, whether that works will only be clear after this war.

It took only several minutes to have Jorge completely healed. His guild mates were starting to wonder why they were even there, by the looks of things, this After Dark had everything under control.

All except for Lyle wanted to give up, this motivated him even more. He wanted to be the next guy who yells out that he wants to fight, he wanted to be as strong of a sage as Kiro was.

"Master Kiro, please, teach me your ways!" Thats one thing he\'d never stopped pestering him about, whenever they had a little break he\'d mention it.

"I don\'t know how to, have you unlocked meditation?" He asked having given up telling him not to call him a master.

"Yes sir, but it\'s not easy to concentrate. I\'ve only entered the meditative state once. My mind can\'t seem to be cleared enough to enter it."

"Yeah, because you talk a lot."

Kiro ordered him to sit cross-legged and close his eyes, so that\'s what he did. He sat behind him with his hand on his back.

"This may feel uncomfortable but don\'t break concentration, I\'ll help you a little."

Kiro was at a point where he could split his concentration, so he didn\'t need to be semi-unconscious to meditate. He was still aware of his surroundings, as he took Lyle on an adventure of his own.

He slowly injected him with kaos, the game would convert it into mana before it entered his body. Otherwise it would be deadly for the non-kaos user.

After several minutes, Lyle was deep in his meditation. Fatigue and everything slowly washed away from his shoulders, he felt lighter than he\'d ever been in Asgard.

After relaxing in nothingness for quite some time Kiro took him to paradise. He almost broke concentration as this was his first ever mental world he\'d been in.

"Calm down."

"What\'s this place?"

"My mental world I guess you could say."

"Wow. So beautiful, can I also make something like this?"

Kiro wasn\'t sure if he could. He used a different energy than he did. He also created this space because of Kaos.

"Maybe?" He shrugged.

"You\'re very impressive master Kiro."

He could feel the longer he was there, the stronger he was getting. Kiro took out Ryu and stood in a fighting stance.

"Well then kid, let\'s spar."

Lyle smirked taking out his staff. He wasted no time and rushed Kiro with a barrage of attacks, that were blocked. With every single strike missed he became erratic and careless.

Kiro would simply swerve to the side and hit him on the butt, making him more angry that he couldn\'t land a single attack and he was being handled pretty easily.

"You\'re impatient. When your attacks don\'t land, you become irrational and make unnecessary movements that burn your stamina faster. You don\'t have to be that wild, sages are a sophisticated bunch that use the very air to attack."

He advised as he swung his staff that created a gust of wind, blowing him completely out of the way.

Lyle got up, he looked like he was about to cry. But he listened though, he didn\'t rush him this time. He listened, looked and waited. His staff at the ready.

"Better!" Kiro yelled and blinked in front of him.

And because he was listening and looking, he managed to react just in time and blocked Kiro\'s attack that would\'ve most likely killed his mental self.

Kiro was obviously not using all his might, this was a spar against a weaker person after all. He didn\'t need to overexert himself.

Lyle\'s movements were becoming more pronounced, he stopped wasting his energy like a brute. This made Kiro smile, the kid was a fast learner and now he thought being a master wasn\'t so bad.

He was having more fun than he thought he would, and 9with his power at little over 30% so he was a little stronger than Lyle.

"Master." An echo voice sounded.