The Spiritguard

"Alright, I'm going to insist we do ONE thing before we go back to the barracks," Kael snips. "Can we, do it, please? You have to agree before I say it!"

"Yeah, yeah," I say. "Anything for you, bud."

Kael points at me, a brazen, resolute, and somewhat mischievous look in his eyes. "I'm going to teach you a new technique!"

I nod my head. "Oookay, I see where this is going. You're worried about my match with Josiah or whatever his name was."

"Jonah," Kael corrects me. "And yes, I am. Your Animus skills are dreadful, Sig, but there's one that I think even you could learn in a day that would really help you out."

We're standing in my backyard as my mom prepares dinner for us. Kael spent the afternoon practicing some of his own Animus techniques to prepare for the match tomorrow. Me, I practiced some sword skills with Crossed Heart.

"Use the Animus technique 'Light'. The one we learned a couple weeks ago."

I nod, and get ready. I hold up my left hand and concentrate all my attention to the tip of my finger. In moments, a bright light extends from the tip of my finger. NIce! It had been a bit since I practiced this one. Nice to see its still coming natural to me.

Kael's eyes narrow as he focuses. "Okay. Now take that light, and focus on moving it. Move it to the tip of your sword."

I furrow my brow. "Whatever you say, boss." I hold out my finger and point it to the tip of my sword. I think hard and imagine the light shooting out of my finger and to the sword. 

"Not like that," Kael moans. "The light isn't going to just teleport there! You have to move it. Through your body. Through the sword."

"Alright. Let me try that."

I take a deep breath and I stare at the glowing light on my finger. I imagine it moving slowly through my hand. As I do, the light seems to sink into my hand, making it glow from the inside. Kinda spooky.

I continue looking, watching, focusing. The light moves through my wrist, down my arm, and...stops. Once I can no longer see the glow, it becomes hard to focus.

"That's tough to do," I say, exhaling a bit as I lose focus and the light dissipates. 

"You can't just rely on seeing the light. You need to feel it."

"It's hard to feel something that I can't actually FEEL," I pout. "Seeing it is much easier."

"Start with your other hand, then. It's already holding the sword."

Hm. Good point. 

I focus my attention - and my spirit energy - on the tip of my right hand. The hilt of my sword lights up in brilliant light. I'm doing it!

I focus harder than I ever have on anything before and will the light further down the length of the blade. The further it gets from my body, the more unstable it becomes. Flickering, dimming. It's about halfway down the length of the blade and I think I can get it all the way when I am suddenly snapped back to reality. 

"Dinner's ready!" my mom calls from the open window. It's enough of a momentary distraction to make the light completely vanish. 

"Thanks, Mom, we'll be in soon!" Kael calls out. As close as he and I are, he's always called my mom 'mom'. Like a second mom to him - he's decently close with his mom as well. Oh, and she loves it - having Kael like a second, adopted son.

"Try again. You can do it this time, Sig."

I try one more time. It's a lot more natural this time. The light is more stable, and it moves along the blade. Still a little wobbly toward the end, but I am able to make the tip of my sword shine.

"Nice one!" Kael says, as he is absolutely beaming with pride. Looks like big bro isn't that bad at this Animus stuff after all!

"Now comes the hard part," Kael snickers. "Remember this feeling. You're holding a lot of Animus energy at the tip of your sword right now, yeah?"

I nod. "Yeah. More than I would normally need to for this technique. Moving it away from my body requires a lot more energy and concentration."

"That's good," Kael notes. "That's how I knew this training might work. If you were TOO good at the technique and already able to do this, you might not have so much energy at the tip of your sword."

I stare at the point of Crossed Heart. It's brilliant and glimmering silver blade catches the light in such a way that it makes the entire sword look as if it is made of light itself. 

"Now...while you focus every last bit of your Animus energy at the tip of your sword...swing it."

My eyes widen. Swing the sword? Now? It's taking all my attention just to keep the light steady. A fast movement like that would surely break the technique.

"You can do it, Sig," Kael says reassuringly. I take a deep breath. He's right. I can do this. I just need to focus. Focus harder than I ever have. 

I close my eyes. There's so much energy at the tip of my blade that I don't feel like I need to see it anymore. I'm just imagining a swirling ball of energy at the tip of my sword, not light. I'm holding it there. It's unsteady, but I can feel it. I raise up my sword. I ready myself to swing. The energy is still there. 

I swing the sword. I hear a crack of energy, like a whip. I open up my eyes and see an arc of crackling light for a brief moment, before it blasts off in a shockwave that blows my hair back. 

"That, my friend, is a new Animus Technique. 'Shatterpoint'. You can focus a ton of Animus energy into an object, and when you swing or release that energy, it creates a localized blast as all the energy is released back into the air."

I wonder how he knows all this stuff - he's taking the same classes I am. Maybe he's studying ahead?

"Now, let me show you how it works against an offensive Animus Technique." Kael whips his hand back and a ball of wind appears in his palm. "This is called Cyclosphere, and its a favorite of Jonah's. If I hit you with this, you're going down. Imagine having your legs hit from behind while getting clotheslined at the same time."

"Not a pleasant idea," I say, raising an eyebrow. "So what, you want me to practice getting hit?"

Kael gives me a look. "You haven't figured it out yet, Sig? That technique I just taught you, it's a defensive technique more than anything. If offensive Animus techniques are being used against you, you'll be able to use Shatterpoint to dispel them."

"Oooohhh!" I say, my eyes sparkling with sudden wonder. We've only talked about fighting low-level spirits in class so far. Nothing about defensive Animus techniques. That's so cool! I like that much better than what we've been learning, which has been mostly utility techniques.

"Let's try it. If you can do this, you'll definitely take Jonah by surprise."

I focus the energy at the tip of my blade again. This time, I'm able to gather it there quickly. I feel the same ball of energy as I did before. I get into a stance, ready to swing.

"Now!" Kael shouts, and he throws the 'Cyclosphere' at me. It's fast. Faster than I thought it would be. The second my mind processes that, I start to swing. There's no opportunity to time it. It has to be now.

My soul is shaken by the sheer volume of the crack this time. The neighbors are going to think someone just took a bullet for sure. My eyes are wide in amazement. The Cyclosphere is dispelled so violently that the air turbulence even makes Kael lose his footing, ten feet away. 

"What the hell was that!?" I hear my mom shout from the open window. I look to Kael and we both just chuckle at each other. 

"Kael just turned me into a badass, mom! No big deal."