7.3

Rey frowned, looked up at the sky and nodded at his master's threat. "What will he be able to do to me?" he asked himself to answer himself with another question, "Break my feet? He is capable, that I do know," he thought as he lifted the torso of his aching body.

"Try as I might, I don't know how I'm supposed to control my murderous intent. After all, it's not something I do because I want to. If I'm not conscious, how can I take control? Of course, Heroclades makes a good point: ever since I killed White's father, I feel like a killer. A weapon ready to do harm if anyone comes up against my edge...". Realizing something... "An assassin and not a warrior. Both are weapons. And why do harm if I can avoid it or even go so far as to protect? It's already something I've noticed. However, until now, to survive in the animal world, I had to make use of that overflowing bloodlust. They don't talk or reason... they bully... they behave like what they are and I... I behave like them." The little boy pulled himself upright as best he could and breathed softly, in a way he had found the answer.

Heroclades, already as one who didn't expect to get anywhere, spoke disappointed:

"A good excuse for not feeling bad about killing is to think about how many others benefit from you having the chance to go on living because of them. Let's face it, what's the point of all the sentiment, if your opponent was hopelessly doomed to failure anyway. And if you die now, you will make the sacrifice your friend's father made in vain. Rey, you must give priority to your feelings before the dead. This is the last chance I will give you... Open your eyes."

The little boy opened his eyes. Heroclades raised his hand in the air and closed his fist and then raised his thumb and gave a smile.

"You made it. You have control of your killer instinct. As you can understand, no one would trust someone who emanates uncontrolled murderous instincts from his body, as a wild animal does. Why? Because, even if such a person feels guilty about having killed, or perhaps having to kill again, no one will be able to reason with them and end a conflict with a not-so-violent conclusion. Taking responsibility for your actions is the best solution, and is the way of a warrior; but the best option is not to start something that you can previously avoid."

"How did you know?" asked Rey confused, referring to his master knowing that the "guardian of Paradise" he had faced was the father of the little cub that accompanied him everywhere.

"I am not an elf, however, my level for interpreting energy is sharp enough to recognize that, in you, you have part of the body, flesh and blood of the beast your father once let go. The same beast that shares ties with the little one at your side. You are half vampire, my disciple. If you acquired any ability from your mother, perhaps there is a chance to bring him back to life, just as you make him part of you...."

Rey, impressed to know something he didn't know about vampires, nodded his head and, though he wanted to know how to perform such a feat, he had to restrain himself from asking. "Heroclades is not a vampire. Hence, he cannot teach a unique lineage trait." Although, on the other hand, Energy Interpretation was a term related to the second main foundation of a warrior, fighting spirit and willpower. Rey had read about them and felt more interested in learning them for the time being, but since reading was nothing like the actual experience, he hadn't had a chance to be able to get a grip on it.

Patting the worried White's head, Rey spoke aloud.

"I promised your father that I would take responsibility for my actions and it would be the right thing to be able to revive him if I can, but..." Changing the direction of his face, Rey looked in the direction of his master, "for now it's best if I continue the basics of energy, how can I control the fighting spirit?"

Heroclades took a step back and shook his head.

"For today your training is concluded. Controlling the fighting spirit is not as easy as controlling the killer instinct."

"And when is the training over?" he asked with trembling hands, the blood draining from his mouth.

"Precisely, when you control your fighting spirit and defeat me in combat."

"Combat? Is that fair?" he said as he let out a breath of air.

"More than a combat it is a test in which you will be pitted against reality and what your brain perceives. The first step in being able to control the fighting spirit is to ignite the willpower that resides in you."

"I feel my body has recovered enough. Let me try as long as I remain conscious," he said aloud, continuing to think, "From what I read in the fighting books, overcoming pain by using willpower is the first step. Pain, precious friend to this body. But I'm still one step ahead; unlike the previous test, I have an idea of what to do in this one. The key is fragmentation. Breaking a large task into small parts is the only way I can go on indefinitely until I find the answer."

"Still even the day begins. I had planned to enjoy the house and a morning stroll, but I guess it won't take me long to please your demands. When you fall unconscious, we'll finish with the training."

The little boy nodded his head. The tan-skinned gentleman pulled out his book and began flipping through a few pages.

"What are we doing now? Where are you? What are boundaries? What is sensation? What is perception? In what ways can we change our perception of reality? Could your mind change its structure when it experiences new things? These are the questions that will help you..."

"Why do you ask so many questions?" asked Rey intrigued.

"Don't pay too much attention to the questions; they are a system of teaching that I found efficient both in my apprenticeship in sorcery and in my path as a philosopher."

Dismissing his disciple's curiosity, he continued as he found the perfect spell. After reciting letter by letter, Heroclades asked:

"Are you ready?"

Rey, before he could even answer, felt his body being bathed by a liquid that fell from the air; immediately, he opened his eyes as wide as he could. Making his throat bleed, he screamed with all his might and, from side to side, writhed on the floor while the little feline looked at him without understanding what was happening.

"This is fire, my skin burns in flames! But I neither see it, nor does it burn me... it is an unbearable pain! Think Rey, think!" he said to himself. "Fire. It is fire. I'm engulfed in flames, I'm burning... No! Fragment, this is pain. I have to resist, I want to resist, I can resist. Just a little more," he said to himself again and again between tremors and spasms.

"The mind can change. When we process something that makes sense or needs to be there, we can make it real. As well as we can eliminate it or ignore it so we can go on our way. Your reality is not the only reality and, as rational beings, we make the mistake of believing it is. Even so, the mind feeds on the willpower within you; to be efficient in terms of willpower, do not face the impossible without first increasing your security by accepting small achievements. You still don't lose consciousness, that's a small achievement...."

Beginning to wander between various things, he continued:

"Oh, willpower is a flame that dwells within the eyes. Ignoring your father's contradictory case, this flame must be burning. Think of those small accomplishments as branches. Small achievements, my disciple, small branches that will feed the flame that will give you the energy to move your fighting spirit."

Rey, with trembling eyes wide open, watched as the skin, skin and nails on his hands fell off. His flesh shrank and twisted until it too fell away and exposed bones, held together by small pieces of white flesh, also on the verge of giving way. He felt the pain of being burned alive, but for some reason, the bones in his hands did not fall and his eyes could still see. Looking from side to side, he saw himself reflected inside White's worried eyes. "How could I possibly look normal?" he wondered.

Stopping squirming and clenching as tightly as he could his fists, Rey also noticed that his furry companion was looking at him with a face like one who didn't understand what was happening. "Ahhh! I can, this is nothing, this is not stopping me... This is something my mind is creating," he thought as he closed his eyes tightly. "In a book I read that flesh has no nerve endings... my bones have no reason to feel this excruciating pain. But, although the letters in a book show abundant knowledge, they are not experiences. this is experience!"

"What you experience now is based mostly on your perception" he spoke as he paced back and forth. "Of course, perhaps if you did not know what fire is, at this moment you would not understand what is happening to you. Rey, your mind is not basing itself on what is truly happening, but anchoring itself on what you choose to perceive. You are letting your thoughts choose to receive specific information and leaving the other out. More questions for you, what is sensation?"

Rey clenched his fists even tighter, gritted his teeth as hard as he could and stopped moving. He still had trouble controlling his breathing, but he was trying to ignore the pain he felt with his whole being. "If I can still see, if I can still touch, if I can still feel it's because this feeling isn't real!" he said to himself.

"No, you still don't understand. Resisting is not enough" he said to with a snap of his fingers intensify the sensation the little boy was feeling. "Heed my words. Willpower, your mind, what you think you feel, what you truly feel. Sensation is nothing more than a process in which we receive stimulation from our surroundings. And if I told you that the liquid I poured on you was cold, very cold, capable of freezing the trunk of a tree... What is perception?"

Rey opened his eyes again, but this time he saw his hands differently. They were frozen to the point of breaking. Believing he was frozen was more in line with him being on fire. But between hot and cold inside his mind a paradoxical contradiction was created. He now felt so hot that at the same time he saw as if he was freezing, or he felt so cold that at the same time he felt as if he was burning. "A little more...just a little more. I must stay conscious, I know I can. This is my only chance and I must not waste it."

"Perception is when your mind tries to understand the stimulation you are receiving and wants to give it meaning in order to understand it. The last point is selective attention. With this, you can use willpower to trick your mind into seeing what you want to see, and not necessarily what is there to see. Rey, the pain is not real, stand up, open your eyes and act normal. A fight is about receiving information from your surroundings and then giving it a definition so you can act on it. Rey took a deep breath, got up from the ground and acted as if nothing was hurting."