Rey drew a deep breath, activated the Gravity Orb, and placed it about five feet from him. It was the size of a baseball and had only twenty percent gravity. Even still, he was sucked towards the orb, as if someone had flushed him down the toilet.

  Rey cried out as he floated in mid-air, circling the orb as if that were a star and Rey was stray debris. Then he felt what it was like being in the asteroid belt. Many small loose pebbles and rocks came hurtling towards him like annoying rubber bullets.

  “Ow!” He cried as they pestered him all over his body. One scratched his cheek, awfully close to his left eye. Then one hit him right in the sack, really taking the wind out of him. He shut off the orb and fell to the ground, groaning, as he cringed inwardly.

  “Are you okay, Rey?” Ajay called.

  He hooked a thumbs-up sign. “Never better.”

  “Then why are you like that?”

  “Because I love my skills so much that I’m giving them a violent hug or they are giving me one, right in the dangly bits.”

  Rey always hated how long it took to recover after something hit him in the nuts. It was the worst kind of pain, and only a guy could understand this pain. It was like his whole body shut down, as he cringed inwardly. So, he lay there for longer than he should’ve, contemplating one of life’s most complex questions for the millionth time.

  Why the FUCK do I not have immunity from my own skills? Here, have an awesome skill, and the frustration’s on the house.

  Ajay had immunity from fire. The guy literally set himself on fire when he had to overcook his Nestoriel babies. Filomena was never jolted with gigawatts of energy when she wielded her lightning bolts, trying to cosplay as Zeus. But if he placed an orb of gravity, he would be thrown to it, like he was a rag doll in an oversized blender.

  After taking too long, he sat up and decided to place the orb far, far away from him. He put it on the ground, at least twenty feet away. He almost wanted to place it right in the middle of his struggling friends. Now, as hilarious as that would be, he didn’t want to turn into a sizzler served up for the demons.

  So, he placed it on the ground and kept the gravity at twenty percent. It was far enough that none of them should’ve felt the pull of the orb. Rey certainly didn’t, and the others were fine as well, just like before the orb started attracting loose rocks, pebbles, and even dirt, which there was plenty of. Not only that, he noticed that the orb formed a small crater around it, as it pulled the contents of the earth into it.

  Rey snorted. Wait, that reminds me of something.

  It gave him an idea, and shut off Gravity’s Orb, and all the rocks, pebbles, and dirt fell into the small crater. He turned to the opposite side, where the stream was minding its own business and doing streamy things. He activated Gravity’s Orb once again and placed it right above the flowing water.

  Just like with the dirt, the water was attracted to the orb and started spinning around it in rapid succession, just like the dirt had. Rey shut it off and turned towards where his friends were doing their best impression of humping the ground. One could call them push-ups, but that would be a real stretch of the word.

  “Ajay,” Rey called. “Shoot your fire into this orb.”

  Rey placed the orb about thirty feet from him and kept the gravity to a measly fifteen percent. Ajay frowned, not knowing what Rey was asking him.

  “What orb?”

  That was when Rey realized that the others couldn’t see the orb. He could because it was his skill, and maybe that was one good thing his skills afforded him. At least he could see where they were. If he couldn't see them and they didn't afford him immunity, he would've asked for a refund.

  “Wait, does that mean you cannot see the edges of your Gravity Domain?” Rey called.

  All three shook their heads, making Rey smile, but pretty soon they saw the orb, as it collected dirt.

  “There!” Rey pointed. “Shoot a small column of flames or a fireball or something at it.”

  Ajay frowned but chucked a fireball at the orb. The orb’s gravity drew in the fireball in a circle before the fireball collapsed into it, lighting the whole orb on fire, and then the flames fizzled out.

  Rey thrust his hands into the air. “Yes! Bitch, I’m the Avatar.”

  “The what?” Kassandra asked.

  Ajay’s eyes widened. “Oh, I get it.”

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  “Good, then you explain that to the girls. I have more Avatary things to do. I can’t be bothered with the plebs.”

  Kassandra raised an eyebrow. Rey giggled as he winked at her and sat back down to figure out another conundrum that had been itching his buttcrack for some time. He pulled out his dagger and tossed it out of the Domain. The dagger flew a few feet before it decided that it had had enough and crashed into the craggy ground.

  Rey sighed. “Gravity…I love you. I really do, but today you’re driving me so far up the wall I’m practically installing ceiling fans in the lava skyscape that didn't drip down for some reason.”

  This made him wonder whether gravity was reversed on the ceiling, keeping the lava up there. He could try to find out. After all, he did have Repulsion. He could shoot it at the ground and take off like a rocket.

  Get your head in the game, jackass. Demon Rey snapped.

  He shook his head. His demon side was right. He was getting sidetracked. He put the thought of experimenting to be a rocket to the back of his mind. He would try that when he got to the Kingdom of Volcanoes. After all, it would be easier to reach the ceiling from those mountains, no matter how fiery they may be.

  Another fun place that was nothing but nice saunas and natural, warm-water pools. The only thing was that the warm water pools were heated by radioactive lava.

  Why is Hell so hellish?

  With those fun thoughts, he walked to his dagger, picked it up, and hurled out of the Domain. As always, something entering or leaving the Domain slowed down, and the same happened this time.

  It was for only a second or two at best, but it was there. The dagger slowed as if moving through Jell-O, and then it was past. Though when it cleared, it flew quite a bit after that.

  He recalled it using Attraction, and once again, the same thing happened. The blade slowed for a moment, and then it was through and back in Rey’s hand.

  “Man, I really should’ve been a physics major to understand this shit,” Rey mumbled to himself.

  He watched as they suffered through the workout, every rep screaming, 'This friendship is abusive'. Thankfully, no demon had shown itself, but that was beside the point right now.

  Rey threw the dagger three more times, and the same effect happened each time. Finally, he decided to try something else. He shoved his hand through the invisible barrier of jelly. As expected, his hand slowed. It didn’t feel like it was moving through jelly, but it slowed against his will. He kept his hand there for a few moments. He wiggled his fingers, and they moved slowly in a trance-like motion.

  “Just what the hell is this?” Rey wondered.

  He shoved his hand through the Domain’s edge and tried the same. His fingers wiggled at a regular pace. He pulled his hand back through. Something was up with this barrier; he needed to figure out what it was and, even more importantly, how to use it.

  But for now, he set this problem aside as he was this close to yanking his hair out, staring at an invisible wall that slowed everything down. He decided to return to his training, but not before pointing two fingers at his eyes and then back at the barrier to let it know he was watching.

  Also, an obligatory. “I’ll be back.”

  The next few hours were spent working his body and magic to the extreme. After almost three hours, he had to stop, because his Mana was nearly spent. He shut off both the Gravity’s Domains and crashed to the ground, as did the others. Filomena bonked her head on the ground as she was going down for a push-up. It was pretty funny, but he didn’t want to get electrocuted, so he kept his lips tightly sealed and let Demon Rey laugh for him.

  He stayed on the ground, huffing, staring up at the ceiling. His body felt so light after that grueling workout. He didn’t know how long he'd been down, but soon three faces were crowding his vision.

  “He’s still alive,” Kassandra declared.

  “Gee, thanks, Kassi.”

  She just shrugged. “I’m guessing you’re out of Mana, Mr. Avatar Gill.”

  “Firstly, that’s my uncle’s name, and secondly, just about.

  She frowned. “You have an uncle named Avatar?”

  “Well, not really that, but close enough.”

  “You were right about one thing,” Ajay chimed in. “It sure feels a lot better when you’re out of that gravity circle.”

  Rey grinned. “When you three weren’t there, I ran these training simulations for almost an entire day.”

  The others nodded.

  “Well, anyone want a drink?” Kassandra asked.

  “I’ll come with,” Filomena said.

  Ajay stayed behind and took a seat beside Rey. He finally sat up and stretched. His whole body ached, but this would be nothing compared to what it would be like tomorrow. Good thing, he was used to this gruelling exercise routine, so it might not be so bad.

  “Was that your new skill?” Ajay asked. “The orb thing.”

  Rey nodded. “Yes, sir. It’s called Gravity Orb. I can place it anywhere and dictate the pull of gravity that it can have. I feel like it’ll be pretty handy. Though just like Gravity Domain, I’m not immune to its effects. As it turns out, gravity is a mean lover. It gives you great power but doesn’t give you immunity, unlike your fire. I have half my mind to switch to one of the elemental powers.”

  Ajay smiled. “You’ll be fine, Rey. I saw you muttering something to yourself.”

  Rey waved a dismissive hand. “Don’t worry about that. I was trying to figure out…Hey, by any chance, did you take any physics classes in college?”

  From what Rey remembered, he was a software engineer, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t have taken some physics classes on the side to torture himself.

  Ajay shook his head. “No, why?”

  “I’m just trying to figure something out, and my head is spinning, because I can’t figure out what’s causing the slowdown effect at the edge of the Domain and how I can use it.”

  “Slow down effect?” Ajay asked.

  So Rey explained to him and told him to try it out himself when they start again. "It's like my brain is getting scrambled by a rookie chef trying to impress Gordon Ramsay."

  “That is strange, indeed,” Ajay mused.

  “Thank you for confirming that,” Rey said, trying to keep the sarcasm out of his voice, but he was sure he was failing.

  He patted Rey’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’m sure you can figure it out.”

  Then he left to get a drink of water and probably sneak a smooch from his lady love. The latter of which, he should do as much as possible, considering Rey hadn’t figured out what her canon event was. Now, he was feeling bad that he should’ve been focusing on that.

  He groaned. Why can’t something be easy for once?