“Fail?”

  At what? At everything? At my whole life? What did Master mean?

  “Yup.” Master said with a mouthful of hot dog. “This is great by the way. But no, yeah. You’re about to fail at your whole goal and at getting stronger and all of that. All at once. Pretty dire actually.”

  My heartbeat began to race. Panic began to set in.

  “But, but Master… how? Why? What am I doing wrong?”

  “Mm.” He said, taking another bite out of his damn hot dog. Master was always so casual, even at moments like this… where did his sense ency go?! Had it died with normalcy as he aged? “Well, it’s really simple actually. You wo things to bee stroo succeed. Ihing really.”

  I listened with rapt attention. Even him taking another bite of his food didn’t distract my focus.

  “The first, is Pride.”

  “Pride?”

  “Yeah. You o have pride. You o believe you’re worth something and what you do or are trying to do or even going to do, is worth something. But mostly pride in yourself. It’s what makes people rage when someone damages their car or kills people when they feel their dignity is hurt. Without pride you’ll just let things go and move on. What do you care after all? If everything, even yourself, matters to you equally as much as someoepping on some dirt in a fn try twenty years ago, you’ll never fight anything.”

  “Master. I believe I have Pride-”

  “Your pride is shit.” Master said, looking slightly angry for once. “It’s truly trash Mutai. But at least it’s there. It exists. It be developed further and already is, now that you’re no lohe weakling you were. The problem is the sed thing.”

  “Okay. Alright. What is it?”

  “In a word… dissatisfa.”

  I raised an eyebrow at that. Then both eyebrows as a fused look took over my face. Just, what? What? What on Vega was Master saying?

  “Uhhh, what? Expin, please? Master I’m… I’m pretty dissatisfied.”

  “No, you’re not. Or at least, you’re close to being not. Dissatisfa isn’t really the right word. More like… pressure. A bination of the two. With only pride but never any dissatisfa, you’ll rest on your urels and annihite any source that bothers you but it won’t be stant enough for you tress. You’ll bee one of those uppity rich people or young masters satisfied with their meager power.”

  I bhe idea of me beiher of those kinds of people felt dht siing.

  “Pressure without pride well, that’s how you get long sting oppression and also how people will just walk all over you without you ever doing anything back. flict avoidance does not a warrior or successful figure make. Anyone who’s ever done anything worth anything, has made enemies a with trash and shit on their .”

  I thought about it. And realized, horrifyingly, that I had been the sed kind of person. That st day… when I’d met that gang… I could have given in. It wouldn’t have been the first time I’d avoided flict by giving my money or keeping my head down oing along with other people's demands. Master hadn’t said it, but flicts also had a way of being… unpleasant and deadly. But that was the point wasn’t it? How could anyone do anything if they avoided flict at every siurn?

  What would it have been like, if I hadn’t avoided it? Not with the gang who’d nearly killed me, but with people more in the realm of average human? That time another hobo took my money or when that dy had punched me i. What would’ve happened… if I’d actually fought them? Been mgressive? Even if I’d left with some extreme damage, I might’ve survived. And that might’ve pushed me forward to breaking that wall faster. A year or two of being an aggressive weakling and only pig fights with those at [5] or below… I might’ve already broken through by the time I met that gang.

  My eyes felt opened.

  But wait…

  “You think I’m not pressured enough? But-”

  “Yoals are too far. They’re beyond your horizons. You ’t see them, you ’t feel them, even the memories scorched into you are just that, scorched. They’re not a burning fire needling in yut all the time. Yetting to too fast for your own self. You’ll crack [5] soon and then [6] and [7] and then what? Your desire for power o be more mortal.”

  I frowned and thought about that. It never felt like my goal of murdering Vega was too little. That felt like plenty of pressure. But Master wouldn’t be saying all of this if he didn’t truly believe it and well, he simply knew better than I did here. If he said I wasn’t dissatisfied enough, then he robably right.

  “Well, what do I do then Master?”

  “You know,” Master started. “Power levels past five and ten don’t go up linearly.”

  I blinked in surprise at the seemingly nour.

  “Okay?”

  Master just nodded, as if everything made sense.

  “Yeah, past those points, power level sg breaks down strangely. Oh, it’s still extremely effective to know the difference, vital even. But a [10] take on four or five [5]’s. Maybe more depending on teiques, advantages, body shape, bloodlines, knowledge, magic, etd it only starts to grow from there. At some point, the ten pert rule es into py.”

  I nodded along as if I uood ere talking about this.

  “The ten pert rule?”

  “You won’t run into it for a while, but it’s simple. If someone has more or less than ten pert of your power level, you’re not equal. Doesn’t mean you ’t win, just that a [63] fighting a [80] is going to have a really hard time. A [90]? Well, they’ll probably be dead quickly. Course, these are just rough figures, I’ve seen someo half a power level win before. Oh, and uh, I guess don’t uimate those only ten pert lower?” Master shrugged.

  “Sure…” I said, still feeling uain.

  “Anyway, just thought it’d help keep you alive.”

  A chill went up my spine. Something iold me to run.

  “Master?”

  Suddenly, Master’s hand was gripping the top of my head. My eyes shot open and I struggled, trying to pry him off. Something wasn’t right.

  “You know,” Master said casually, as if he didn’t have my head in a death grip. “Ki really is useful. Lots of utility.”

  I could see and feel a blue light above my head. As if something was glowing.

  “Master?! W-What’s going on? What are you doing?!”

  “Like teleportation. Find the dojo if you survive and I’ll train you some more.”

  “Mast-”

  *****

  “-er!”

  I blinked, my voice eg back at me. What? Where, where am I?

  I looked around, seeing nothing but stone walls. No, not stoone brick. But it was dark, the only source of light being from some kind of dim bulbs impnted into the side at set intervals. I was in a tunnel, on a walkway, with another on the opposite side. Between, there was a flowing thing of water. Wait a mihis was-

  The smell smmed into me with a vengeanbsp;

  I knew immediately where I was as my soul just about left my body. My heartbeat sped up as I gagged.

  “Why-” I cut my voice off, fear overtaking me.

  Why am I in the sewer?!

  The sewer in Vega City was not normal. I thought I knew and uood sewers. I’d heard about them before ever leaving my isnd. The one in Vega City was, unique. And deadly. And dangerous. And horrible and awful and-

  A skittering noise echoed out in the dark.

  Oh no.

  Out of the dim darkness… came a rat.

  The size of my torso.

  I could feel panic begin to overtake me. A cold sweat broke out on my skin. That rat was huge. And it’s power level, that… I was in trouble.

  [7]

  It she air, its beady eyes looking all over. Had it not spotted me yet? The answer was taken from me as its head sowards me.

  I felt its weight sm into me, knog me to my back. It’d moved so fast! Its horrid breath poured down on top of me, reeking of rot and shit ah. Its cws pulled at my chest, leaving shallow scratches as my hands instinctively tried to push it off me. It was all I could do to barely hold it bad away and it wasn’t a battle I was going to win for long.

  Its body lowered as it struggled harder and faster in my grip, my chest alighting into fiery pain as it began to carve into me. It’s rat head squealed and squealed as it leaned down and-

  I barely moved my head out of the way as its teeth tore through the space between us, trying to bite my head off. They scraped against the stoh a nasty sound right o my head. The weight was growing, my arms were failing, teeth were ing for me. The cws would kill me or the teeth would bite into my artery. I’d be dead soon. I was going to die to a rat in a sewer looking for a meal.

  No! I refuse!

  Fury overtook me. I wasn’t going to die like this. Not like this! I pushed, my muscles straining, my own aggression rising, and with a heave, I mao throw it off me. My arms hurt, my chest was a bloody mess, and I was already tired and all I’d mao do was throw a rat off me.

  It was already ba its feet, hissing and growling at me.

  I wao run. So mue wao run away. I was outmatched, outsped, this thing was at least two, maybe three times strohan the current me. Logic hit first.

  It’s just too fast.

  Rats were faster than people without a power advantage. With one, I didn’t stand a ce. I’d just get my back ripped apart.

  Emotion blossomed and smmed into my stomaext. Master’s words reverberated inside me.

  “Anyone who’s ever done anything worth anything, has made enemies.”

  I was going to win. In that timeless moment, as a rat with over double my power level stared at me in anger and hunger, I realized it.

  I was going to win.

  It came fast, too fast for me to see. I was already moving. I wasn’t thinking, thinking could e ter or when I . It was too fast for me to think right now, I was moving on instinct. Master’s words practically flowed into my ears.

  “Punch it.”

  And for the first time… I threw a fist that actually did something.

  It had leaped at me, aiming to do another flying tackle. I hadn’t known. I’d just punched forward, hoping to hit it. My fist smmed into its nose, knog it bad making it let out a cry of pain. My fist hurt. I was still weak. This was like a weak teerying to beat a very fit adult. In so many ways, they’d lose.

  But this wasn’t a person. It was an angry animal.

  As it came again, I realized just what an angry animal could do. My punch didn’t nd this time and it smmed into me, rolling with me, biting and scratg and screaming. Its aggression was unlike anything I’d ever faced. Fear hrough me.

  And something awoke.

  Something dark and evil and furious came out of me. This thing was ohis thing was hurtihis thing was killing me.

  This thing thought it knew anger.

  I screamed and bit and headbutted and tore and tore. My fists and elbows nded when they could, my thumbs rammed into eyes, I bit its tongue, I rolled it onto its bad beat it with my fists. It gave as good as it got, blood running down me, pain lighting me up, but it didn’t matter. This thing had rained, it had ried, it had only lived a life of survival.

  Well, guess what rat? So have I.

  It was stronger, it was faster, it might have even been meaner.

  I was angrier.

  My blows rained on its head, knog it around even as it bit my arm and tore my flesh.

  But my punches weren’t nothing anymore.

  They dazed it. Even weak, my punches were blows to the head and they had my full fury behind them. It wasn’t enough to kill, I wasn’t strong enough yet. But as it bit for my neck again, only barely missing, it shook its head in frustration.

  I didn’t miss the bsp;

  I shoved it down and tore into its neck with my teeth.

  It was like trying to bite through pster covered i disgusting fur. I didn’t stop. Not until I tore it out. The rat paused for only a sed, the violeilling, before it went berserk.

  It was dying now. I’d killed it. Blood umping up through its neck where I’d mao bite through an artery. Red blood coated us both, like a fire hose spshing around us. It k was dying.

  And it was determio take me with it.

  Cws ripped through flesh, teeth bit through my body, two of my fingers were nearly torn off and my body was growing weak from blood loss.

  But slowly.

  The fighting slowed.

  The aggression slowed.

  And I stared into the giant rat’s eyes as its soul left its body.

  Just like when I’d seen my mother die.

  I puked. I screamed in agony and puked.

  That was not a glorious fight.

  That was a dirty, deadly, awful, scrap in the shit and piss. That was a fight for survival. That was the death of another creature by my hands. That was…

  That was my first victory.

  I roared.

  Warix_Viviana