Chapter 41

  The Fountain of Love

  After watching so many fights and really being forced to watch and dissect everything mentally, I’ve come to a few universal conclusions, especially after testing out my findings by using my own Skills as comparisons.

  The first thing is that Skills that used Mana, or at least an attuned aspect require a breath in to initiate, then based on how long they take that breath, the level of power being used increases. Then they need to exhale to let that power out. This further enforced my second finding and the one that I made earlier, where most physical Skills had to be used with an exhale. I was hypothesizing that almost all Skills had to be triggered by exhaling, that exhaling somehow filled the Skill’s activation sequences in one’s mind. I also think that given time, people could eventually move away from exhaling to trigger a Skill, but that might only be done when mastery of the noted Skill is achieved.

  Of course, this wasn’t all I had learned thus far tonight. I also found that you can learn a lot about people from watching their actions, and reactions to things.

  Take for instance, the fact that I was forced to stand in the horsey stance for so long was not unnoticed by both the crowd and of course the two ring girls.

  The two ring girls who always seemed to find a moment to pass the time between matches by coming over and messing with me and thereby exciting the crowd. For instance, both came over and with devilish smiles, they came over and stood next to me and my stationary form.

  Just looking at them, I could tell they were up to trouble, but the cute kind. The kind where they know and I know that with a simple smile they will get out of any trouble they might be preparing to cause.

  Getting close, they then stand up on their tippy toes and try to peer over and around my two outstretched, but closed hands. By their actions I can tell that they are going to turn this into a sort of shell game.

  While they are playing their game and trying to make me part of the interactions, to keep people engaged between matches, I begin my own response.

  Slowly, ever so slowly, I begin to regenerate my mana thanks to my Golden Life Ratio Mana Regeneration*.

  Tap-tap.

  The two girls looking down excitedly while smiling their thousand-megawatt smiles, excitedly tapping my left hand. I shake my head the only part of my body that can apparently move without causing an issue in this process, then breaking Mr. Yi’s true form, I slowly unroll my left hand to reveal nothing.

  “Darn!” The two ring girls, Lucia and Luna, declare in unison before scampering back to the ring, grabbing their signs and doing a quick round letting everyone know they still have four minutes.

  Then once their trip around is over, they come back and look playfully towards each other, prepared to play this game once more. This time going towards the right hand, but this time I have had enough time to prepare and am prepared to make them a winner.

  Tap-tap.

  In the same playful act, they tap my right and this time as I unroll my right hand, I get to my next number, twenty-one and wind up releasing a plume of green mana infused smoke out of my right hand and focus so that the excess mana can now only escape through my open right hand.

  Sal, having apparently watched this whole display the entire time, suddenly joined in.

  “What’s this? Have the girls found it? The mystical fountain of love? Right here at our own Pit?” Sal cried out.

  “CHEERS!” The crowd who seemed to appreciate any form of entertainment between matches chimed in. Hearing the crowd’s reaction, the ring girls both paused and then looked at each other the way that only two people who have been around each other for years could do and share a look.

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  With that look, I don’t know what was exactly said, but they both seemed to come to a resolution, as they both smiled mischievously and nodded towards each other, letting the other know they were in. What exactly they were in for, I didn’t know but they began playing it up.

  As my impromptu fountain of energy kept getting sprayed upwards, I even made sure to add an extra rotation going for thirty-four motes, the extra of which was still forced through my right hand, just to see what these two would do. Moving quickly, both girls went in and shoved their faces right in the middle of the still rising stream of green energy. Not the best of survival instincts, but it was harmless, at least I hoped it would be harmless. The fact that I was both crouched down and my arms were at most up to my head made it so the girls had an easy time getting their faces into the stream.

  Moving in, both seemed to know to go to their right side, just missing each other, while allowing more of their bodies to be covered in the stream. Again, their level of practice and coordination was on full display as they worked seamlessly. With all eyes on them, and my wearing a mask and costume, while I was nervous, I felt less so, knowing this was all about these two gorgeous actresses who were used to drawing the attention to themselves.

  Holding their heads within the stream of Mana, they paused took in a deep breath, counted to three then on cue, they both opened their eyes in near synchronization. But rather than staring at each other for any length of time, they only glanced at each other for a second, before seeing something and then turning their faces towards me.

  “Oh no, it looks like they have succumbed to the love madness,” Sal called out, his voice adding a play by play of what was happening so that even the people without the best view of me could understand what was happening.

  “Love madness,” both ring girls called out, their voice near a dull monotone, but clearly holding a slight undertone of playful mirth.

  Then moving as one, they both went over to me, lifted the sides of my mask, causing a slight breeze to form on my cheeks at the sudden and unexpected exposure.

  I am turning to look to my left, towards Lucia, the blond-haired ring girl who seems like she is the first to cause mischief.

  That’s when I see her moving in, bright red lips puckered up. Then I am attacked from both sides.

  Smooch.

  In near perfect unison, they both end up kissing the sides of my face. I can even feel an odd tingling sensation on my cheeks from where their lips just parted.

  As for me, I am frozen still, feeling slightly embarrassed and glad no one can see my reaction at the moment.

  “You’re the best,” Lucia whispers in my ear, her words and closeness causing an instant shiver to pulse down my spine. As expected of the two, Lucia is the boldest and seems to drop her side of my hood gently letting the left side of my face get covered.

  Pausing for a heartbeat, I can still feel Luna’s presence. Seeing her standing there, I can see a bit of timid fragility in her.

  “Please don’t be mad,” Luna stated.

  Seeing Luna’s slightly nervous posture, I just let a slow but confused smile fill my lips as I turn to face her.

  “I’m not mad,” I reply and mean it.

  Luna takes a half a heartbeat, then a second, apparently reading my face to see if I am lying, after a second, she exhales in relief.

  “Thank you,” Luna states and then drops the side of my hood that she had been holding, letting my embarrassed face finally hide. Though Luna does keep her gaze focused on my own for what feels like an extremely long time, before turning to flash her last sign that tells everyone the show is about to continue and to get back to their seats quickly.

  Only after she leaves, do I realize that she just used a Skill on me. That exhale? That had to be a Skill, right? But there was no magic to it, meaning what? It was a personal Skill? Did it make her look prettier? If so, it worked, but that didn’t seem to be the exact Skill she used, as she looked just a gorgeous afterwards.

  If it wasn’t a Skill to make her look prettier, then what was it? The only thing I could think of was that it was some type of social truth telling Skill. Did she do that just to see if I was telling the truth, about not being upset? I have that thought, and that makes the most sense, and then I wonder if it means that she too might find me attractive? But then I paused, shaking my head, no.

  No, she just wanted to make sure I wasn’t too offended and would want to leave.

  While it had been unexpected, I couldn’t help but think that it did help pass the time a little faster, which was all I was really looking forward to at this point. Something to make the mind-numbing aspect of staying in a horsey stance after every round not so unbearable. Of course, Mr. Yi must have been reading my mind, as he just looked at me, and then turned towards the two ring girls who still giggled and waved nicely at me, Lucia openly, while Luna waved with a shy eloquence.

  “I believe you have proven yourself to have a strong enough core. From now on we will begin teaching you to walk, by having you take your first step towards mastery,” Mr. Yi began.

  I blinked at him, but fortunately Mr. Yi demonstrated versus coming up with some crazy name like Lotus Stance or something completely crazy, like horsey stance, when really, he means Rider’s stance.

  “This is the first form, and it is called right step,” Mr. Yi noted and then taking his right foot from the set horsey stance, he moved. Stepping forward, with his right foot, while pulling back his clenched right hand to his chest, while extending and rotating his left hand.

  I could tell the arm thing was likely for balance, but I was thrown off by how this stance’s name made sense. But rather than pointing out why the sudden shift from crazy names to names that made sense, I followed his movements and soon found myself working out and stretching different sets of muscles.

  “Good, now hold this for the duration of this match. During the next match we will shift, and you will take the left step position.” Mr. Yi began.

  For a moment I wondered why this was happening. Why Mr. Yi decided to change it up, but seeing Mr. Yi’s glance at the two ring girls, I think I understood, he was protecting me. Protecting me from being forced to be a prop in their antics.

  I think I appreciated that more than anything, though I was sad that the girls wouldn’t be able to try the love fountain gimmick again. Just thinking about it, I could still feel their sticky residue on the side of my cheeks and I almost wondered if I were to look, would I see two sets of lipstick kisses on the side of my face?

  For a moment, I thought about using Trash to remove the lingering traces, but I quickly lost that thought, as the next match starts and I direct my full attention towards it.

  Finally, a match I have been waiting for.

  “Our next match is Leah the Destroyer versus the Great Gale and Brimstone!” Sal commented.

  Eruption.

  Based on the crowd’s reaction, I knew this was a matchup I should watch closely, for I would likely learn a lot from watching these two.

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