Chapter 10: Dance of Dignity

Hunter now flexed, in a triumphant pose, displaying his palm to Lin Qing. Feng Biao could see on Hunter's palm a tattoo of the scary face from before. It was smiling, as it had before the circle disappeared.

"Told you I could beat your ass," Hunter said with a grin to a clearly furious Lin Qing.

"Watch your mouth, do you even know how lucky you got? I could have ended that fight in an instant!" Lin Qing said with a clearly flustered appearance.

"Hey, anytime you wanna lose again I'm ready to-"

"Alright, both of you be quiet," Fang Zhang said loud enough to cut through the argument, "keep up this childishness and I'll be writing down that neither of you can be trusted to keep a cool head."

Fang Zhang's threat worked, Hunter and Lin Qing shut up in an instant. Lin Qing walked back, shoulders slumped, to the boys who had stood by his side while he had challenged Hunter, who patted him on the back and glared at Hunter. While Hunter walked towards Feng Biao, proudly strutting without care.

"See that Biao? Told you Partial Divinities aren't anything to scoff at."

"You really are strong."

"Heh, you know it," Hunter said while slapping his leg for emphasis, "anyways did you find out your dorm situation yet?"

"Dorm? Aren't we assigned bunks?"

"Nah, you get rooms here my friend. Let's go ask an instructor to room you up with me, that cool with you?"

"Yeah, that sounds good," Feng Biao replied. Sharing a room with Hunter would make it easier to ask him questions in private. Perhaps he'd even have some helpful words of wisdom to share about his current situation.

From the fight, Feng Biao had just watched it was clear to him. His Divine Abilities were not very good. In a fight, he could not hope to actually keep up with either of the two combatants he had just watched.

Therefore he had one choice. To get stronger, and make up for his current weakness with future strength. Fang Zhang then grabbed his attention.

"All of you are to use the remaining hour to train, and when the hour is up return back to where I call you."

With that said Fang Zhang walked back to the empty desk where Lady Dongmei had been.

Hunter then tugged on Feng Biao's shirt, "Come on, let's go ask Instructor Fang to put us in the same room."

Feng Biao nodded and they both made their way to Fang Zhang.

"Instructor Fang, can you put my friend Feng Biao in the same dorm as me?"

Fang Zhang looked at the two beside him and responded, "It won't be an issue if you can both get your assigned roommates to agree."

"Sweet, when do we know who our roommates are?"

"You'll find the answer to all questions relating to that when you're done training."

"Thanks, Instructor Fang," Hunter said as he turned back to Feng Biao.

"Well let's get training then, huh, Biao?"

"Yes, but if it's fine with you Hunter I'd rather we do something we can talk during."

Hunter scratched his head then said, "Alright little cardio never hurt anybody."

And so the two began jogging at a brisk pace around the gymnasium, immediately Feng Biao started the conversation.

"Hunter, are you fine? It looked like it hurt in there."

"Yeah, it hurt like hell, but I'm just out of Divinity right now."

As Feng Biao had been told by Hunter on the bus, Divine Actives used Divinity as fuel, as did actions such as empowering your own body. Running out of Divinity was not fatal, and after rest, it would recharge.

Meditation was apparently another way to recharge your Divinity, although that only worked within a Mythological Marble and required training.

"So what did you really wanna talk about Biao?"

"A lot of things, but for now, what is the HCF exactly?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, are we soldiers? This isn't the environment I know the CCF recruits go through. I read up on their boot camp, it's way stricter than this."

"Ah, yeah we're not soldiers," Hunter said his smile receding.

"Is that a good thing?", Feng Biao said puzzled.

"Well, basically all the coalition forces used to be united under one single banner, the UCF, United Coalition Forces," Hunter slapped his head before continuing, "oh and the UCF is still around, they're like management for every countries' own armies that participate in the coalition forces."

"So the HCF split off?", Feng Biao guessed.

"Yep and the history of how it happened ain't simple. Crack open a history book if you wanna find out more. I'll just say there's a reason my ancestors came to China."

"In China signing up for the HCF when you're Marked is mandatory right? Well in other countries it's not and in others, it's not just mandatory."

"Not just mandatory?"

Hunter slowed his pace before continuing, "Remember this, we're not soldiers, because we're not meant to be fighting other humans. A High-Ranked Marked in a war would kill countless people without another Marked intervening."

"Just take a look back at what happened when Marked were new. Back then instead of focusing on the Marble in Mexico people focused on something else."

"What?"

"Wars, particularly in the Middle East and in South Africa where Marked were engaging in actual combat with regular humans."

"You know how high your Rank needs to be for you to brush off a gunshot Biao?", Hunter said staring seriously at Feng Biao, "it's only gotta be Mortal Rank. Biao, right now you can tank a gunshot if you concentrate your Divinity in the area you'll get shot."

"And remember, the higher the Rank the stronger the physical body, eventually you can just walk up to somebody shooting you and-," Hunter stopped talking and shook his head.

"Well just to make things simple the HCF is not a military organization OK? They call this a boot camp but after your stint with this is over you'll be given a whole bunch of options for what to do with yourself. Not everybody needs to go inside of Marbles."

Feng Biao and Hunter then continued jogging in silence. Feng Biao continued to think about his future. Was dignity through combat truly necessary then? Lady Dongmei didn't seem like much of a fighter, had she offered her services of being able to identify a Marked's Divinity for them her entire life?

Useless as Feng Biao's Divine Abilities seemed with a body the Rank of Hunter's own surely he could enter into physical labor. Was that truly so bad? He would never have to risk his life in missions like Strong Man Zhou had or have his life's path be decided by others.

This time Feng Biao could not answer his own question. As Feng Biao jogged with Hunter his mind danced through the endless possibilities of his future life. Why did he need to choose the hardest dance?