Kai's breath came slow and measured, his chest rising and falling in steady intervals as he locked eyes with the monstrous projections before him. Their grotesque forms loomed under the twilight sky of the Nexora, shifting with an eerie fluidity, their very existence pulsing in and out of focus as though reality itself struggled to contain them. The fractured moon above bathed the battlefield in a haunting glow, the swirling grasses beneath their feet whispering in invisible voices.
Zayne stood beside him, arms crossed, his sharp, hawk-like eyes unwavering as he observed. The air around him thrummed with controlled power, deep violet arcs of energy crackling in slow, deliberate bursts. His posture was relaxed, but Kai knew that was a lie, Zayne was a warrior who is always ready, always in control. "Listen closely, boy," Zayne began, his voice carrying over the wind that wasn't truly wind, but the shifting currents of time itself. "The essence of the Drakon Dankana is not in brute strength or even sheer speed. It is about rhythm." Kai frowned. "Uh huh...wait, did you say rhythm?" Zayne nodded once. "Everything in existence follows a rhythm. The pulse of life. The current of time. The very fabric of reality itself moves in patterns, cycles, beats that dictate how it flows."
He lifted his hand, fingers curling slightly, and the air around him responded. The strands of luminous energy rippled outward in a slow, mesmerizing wave, bending at his command like an unseen tide. "To master the Drakon Dankana, you must first feel this rhythm." Kai's fingers twitched as he stared at the swirling energy that obeyed Zayne's every motion. "Okay...and how exactly do I do that?" Zayne tilted his head slightly, smirking. "Reach out. Listen. Not with your ears, but with your senses." He gestured toward the field, where the towering Leviathan projections pulsed with borrowed power. "Feel the rhythm of the energy within them. Not just their shape or their physical presence, but the very flow of time as it moves through them."
Kai exhaled sharply and closed his eyes. Feel the rhythm.... He extended his hands in front of him as he commanded his temporal energy to reach outward and pierce into his surroundings, stretching his awareness past the surface, past what his eyes could see. The world blurred at the edges of his mind as he focused. He could sense the energy, swirling, churning, but it was like static noise, erratic and overwhelming. He pushed further, trying to isolate the patterns, to decipher the silent language hidden within the shifting strands of time. Nothing. Kai grit his teeth. Again. He inhaled, slower this time, reaching deeper, letting the pulses of energy resonate within him. He felt them shift, flicker, but there was no pattern, no beat, no sense of order. It was chaos, slipping through his grasp like sand through his fingers.
"Too forceful," Zayne's voice cut through the haze of Kai's concentration. "You cannot drag the rhythm by force. You must let it come to you." Kai swallowed back his frustration and nodded. He tried again. Alright then, slower it is. This time, he relaxed his mind, trying to listen rather than force his way through. The air shifted. His senses brushed against the vast ocean of Temporal Energy surrounding them. But still....nothing made sense. It was like trying to hear a song while standing in the middle of a raging thunderstorm. His hands curled into fists. Hours passed. He tried again and again. Different approaches, different ways of spreading out his senses. Reaching. Waiting. Feeling. But he was simple unable to find a rhythm amidst the chaos. It felt just like the way it did when he was first introduced to temporal energy.
Kai's body trembled with exhaustion. His breaths were ragged, his shoulders rising and falling with each heaving inhale. The Leviathan constructs stood before him, unmoving yet alive in their own way, their presence pressing against his senses like an oppressive weight. Still, he couldn't find it. Kai gritted his teeth as he cursed under his breath. A sigh left Zayne's lips, quiet but unmistakably disappointed. "Tch, maybe I overestimated your capabilities." Kai opened his eyes, his gaze snapping to Zayne with frustration. "What do you mean?" Zayne turned to face him fully. "Looks like sensing the rhythm of external objects is still far to advanced for you. Just try to manipulate your own inner rhythm for now.," he said, his voice as sharp as steel. "You want to feel the rhythm of the world? Start by understanding your own rhythm first."
Kai's breath hitched. His own rhythm? He looked down at his hands, still trembling, his skin stained with remnants of Temporal Energy. He was familiar with his own inner rhythm, after all, he needed it to summon Umbra. However simply knowing the rhythm was one thing, commanding it was another. Zayne's arms folded again, his piercing eyes watching him carefully. "Focus on yourself first, boy. Your heartbeat. Your breathing. The way your own energy moves through your veins. Learn to control you own rhythm, before you try to command another's" Kai swallowed hard, then closed his eyes once more. This time, not reaching outward, but inward.
Kai inhaled slowly, as he shifted his focus inward. The world around hi: the unreal sky, the towering Leviathan projections, even Zayne's piercing gaze, all seemed to fade away into the background. Instead, there was gentle warmth. A familiar, steady presence that wrapped around him like an old memory. It was strange. He had spent hours struggling, clawing at the edges of something incomprehensible, yet now, the moment he turned inward, the rhythm was simply there. Not hidden, not chaotic, but natural, like the gentle ebb and flow of ocean waves. He could feel it within him: the slow, powerful beat of his soul, the steady flow of Temporal energy, the way it pulsed in perfect harmony deep within him. It was like a song he had always known yet never truly listened to it's full potential.
A slow exhale left his lips, his fingers unfurling from the fists they had curled into earlier. The exhaustion in his limbs melted away, replaced by an effortless stillness. The warm sensation spread through his core, each breath syncing perfectly with the energy coursing through his veins. It didn't resist him. It didn't scatter or twist into chaos. It simply flowed. Kai's eyes opened, and for the first time since training had started, he wasn't frustrated, he was calm. His gaze met Zayne's, steady and certain. "I've got it," he said, his voice unwavering. "I've located my rhythm." Zayne regarded him for a long moment, unreadable. Then, with a slight nod, he spoke.
"Good." His voice was low, carrying the weight of something deeper. "Right now, don't try to control it. Don't force it to bend to your will." He took a step closer, his presence pressing against the air like an unshakable force. "Simply observe it. Feel the motion, memorize the way it flows within you." Kai's breath steadied as he closed his eyes again, surrendering himself to the sensation. Zayne's voice lowered, a near-whisper against the shifting winds of the Nexora. "Good, you are making progress. Keep going, understand the flow of your rhythm, become one with it."
"I've got a firm grasp of it now," he said, a confident grin spreading across his face. "My rhythm.....it's steady and controlled." Zayne studied him, his sharp eyes scanning for any signs of uncertainty, but there was none. He gave a slow nod. "Good. Then it's time for the next step." His tone remained even, but there was an underlying weight to it, as if everything before this moment had merely been a warm-up. Kai's brow furrowed slightly. He had a feeling this wasn't going to be as easy as it sounded. "Stretch it outward," Zayne instructed, his voice steady as steel. "Layer it over itself again and again. Make every segment of it unbreakable."
"....What?" Kai asked, confused. "Once you have achieved that," Zayne continued as if Kai hadn't spoken, "accelerate the rhythm. Push it to flow at higher speeds. Force it beyond its natural limits." Kai stared at him. "Oh, sure. Right. That sounds totally doable," he deadpanned. "I'll just casually stretch my own soul out like taffy, fold it into an indestructible fortress, and then speed it up like I'm shifting into overdrive. Piece of cake." Zayne remained silent. Kai exhaled sharply, shaking his head. "You know, you really need to develop a functional sense of humor." Still nothing, absolute silence. Zayne's expression remained perfectly impassive, his stance unwavering, his focus solely on Kai. He didn't acknowledge the remark. He didn't so much as blink.
Kai huffed, muttering under his breath, "Of course, just ignore me. You always do." Zayne, predictably, continued to ignore him. "Do as instructed," he said simply. Kai sighed, running a hand down his face. "Yeah, yeah. Stretch it, layer it, make it unbreakable, then speed it up. Got it." His sarcasm had faded now, replaced by a begrudging sense of determination. This was going to be rough. With one deep breath, he grasped his inner rhythm but right before he could go any further, a sharp and significant shift in temporal energy immediately threw his off balance. Kai's eyes snapped open, turning towards Zayne, the source of the disturbance. Zayne's body glowed with a dark violet light, small particles of energy breaking off from his body as they dissolved into the air.
"DAMN IT!...this is not good" Zayne cursed under his breath.