It was late when John got home. It always was, after he had taken the manager position. He went in early and came home late. He hadn’t really noticed, but that was the same as Humberto had done. It was also a lot more work than it seemed each hour, and with more of them… John sighed. At least the pay was good enough. He needed every bit he could get. They were barely staying on top of bills as it was. Kyle was still awake, sitting in front of the television.

“I noticed you didn’t show up for work again today,” John started. “I can’t pay you if you don’t show up… and honestly with your inconsistency, I would have fired you if you were anyone else. Do you know how hard it is to get someone to fill in a shift without notice?”

Kyle looked over at him from the couch. “Sorry. Flipping burgers isn’t exactly my idea of a dream job.”

“No shit,” John snapped. “Do you think I wanted to drop out of college and flip burgers myself? While you guys are staying here, the least you could do is show up to work instead of staying home watching television all day.”

“...Sorry,” Kyle turned off the TV and stood up. “I’ll make sure to show up on time for my shifts…”

“Good.” John watched as Kyle walked away. He sighed. Somehow, he’d forgotten to eat even though he worked with food all day. Maybe he’d have cereal. He grabbed a bowl, half filled it with cereal before the box ran out, and poured the last bit of milk that was even less sufficient than the amount of cereal. He sat down heavily at the table, shoveling the food into his mouth.

As he sat he noticed the newspaper splayed out all over the table. They didn’t have a paper delivered, but there were still places to get them. There were several papers, actually, all opened. Parts of them were circled. Jobs as a handyman, electrical engineer, IT, anything that vaguely fit Kyle’s skills. Any would pay better than working at Brad’s Burgers. However, the number of them that were x’d out indicated that there hadn’t been any success.

John glanced over at the couch, where he imagined the old laptop also had job search sites open. Having found out he was at least partly wrong to yell at his cousin didn’t make him any less angry… just less sure where to direct it.

-----

He breathed out, slowly, his breath a smoking cloud of darkness. It had been unsettling to see that when it first started happening, but now it was normal. John, for he was John even if he had to deal with Fortkran’s problems, found that old memories often resurfaced when he was cultivating. It threw him off until he dealt with them somehow. Now that he could actually do anything now, but he could at least consider things from a more removed perspective. Things had been pretty bad sometimes, but at least they’d held on.

Right now, he had something more frustrating to deal with. His life was probably not at risk, but he had problems the former owner of his body had left behind. He doubted this would be the only one to resurface, just the first.

-----

It was easier to really attack Brage when John imagined he was swinging at Fortkran. That was who was responsible for the whole mess, after all. Not himself, and not Kyros. Kyros was probably in the right with the whole thing, but it wasn’t possible to just let him have his way.

While they used different weapons, Brage was still the best opponent for John to fight against considering the elemental types. He wasn’t as overwhelming as Gerben Tenebach, which was surprising considering he was still in the next phase, a full five levels ahead. That didn’t mean it was easy, but at least he felt like he had the slightest bit of a chance to land a blow. He knew channeling his anger into attacks wasn’t productive, but it was better to do it in a safe environment than lose his head in the actual duel.

By now, Brage’s sword bounding off of the ground at him was nothing new. He dodged the initial attack and the rebound, stepping in when Brage overswung backwards. His sword slashed along his ribs, only barely cutting through the man’s defensive energy… and then Brage’s larger sword was slicing down at him at terrifying speeds. Only a hurried execution of Hidden Steps allowed him to dodge out of the way, but the shockwave as the attack hit the ground still knocked him off his feet.

“Not bad, young master,” Brage held out his hand to lift John up, “But that was a false opening.”

John sighed, “Your sword repelled off the ground behind you too… no wonder you overswung so much.” He took the hand and stood up. “I thought I had you.”

“To be fair… you almost did. You recognized the opening and took it immediately. If you had been slower it would have been dangerous, but at that speed you could have turned my feint into a real opening. You just needed a bit more behind your weapon.”

John cracked his neck. “My swordsmanship isn’t quite there yet. My best hope is my cultivation. I should be able to break through to seventh level in time.”

“Good. That won’t make you safe, but it will certainly help.”

-----

For the rest of the month, he cultivated and sparred, mostly against Brage. He learned that when fighting a stronger opponent, it wasn’t possible to just hope to match them and wear them down. He needed decisive blows, without leaving himself open. He wasn’t sure how he’d done with that, but his secondary objective had gone well. He’d broken through to the seventh level… and perhaps equally importantly he had much more practice absorbing earth energy. Brage had to have noticed him doing it by now, but he hadn’t commented. Then again, what was he going to say about the young master’s cultivation choices? His parents and grandfather were more qualified to speak to him there.

It felt like cheating to show up to the match with new armor and a sword from the family’s vault. However, he’d had enough of being poor in his previous life. He might as well take advantage of the wealth he had now while he could. Beating down someone less fortunate than him who was probably justified wasn’t exactly something he wanted to do… but to even make that a consideration, he had to actually win. Besides, he wasn’t planning to kill the man.

Kyros stood across from him, wielding an axe in one hand and a shield in the other. In general earth cultivators liked big, weighty weapons. They fit their attributes well, but John hoped he could take advantage of those particular attributes.

The arena’s referee announced the two participants. “Kyros Tomasson brings grievances against Fortkran Tenebach, which shall be settled by this duel. Begin!”

John moved quickly. He wasn’t really Fortkran. He just needed to keep his family’s honor intact, and he preferred not to be injured as well. He hoped to catch Kyros flat footed, but his sword was blocked by the shield. He moved around to that side to avoid the axe swinging in retaliation, and began to look for openings. Kyros was eighth level, near the peak of the Spiritual Collection Phase. John was just one step behind him, but his spiritual totem was of the first level. It was growing, but it certainly couldn’t match a second tier totem yet. Kyros had at least that- perhaps a third tier totem.

John found Kyros to be much less skilled than Brage. That was obviously going to be the case, but the fact that he was being seriously attacked instead of taught made up for some of it. He parried attacks that came too close, siphoning as much extra energy as he could. He had it in mind to take an earth elemental spiritual totem at the Foundation Phase, for his next step in his optimistic cycle of elements. He didn’t have an affinity for it yet, but he’d gotten used to it. He could slip a little bit of it into his attacks to provide extra momentum or around his feet for more stability.

He didn’t know what Kyros’ spiritual totem was. He couldn’t discern a special feature, which might have meant it was just for basic empowerment. Hopefully that was the case. He continued stepping around Kyros, whose feet remained relatively still. It wasn’t a disadvantage for him, however, but merely part of his style. He turned as necessary to face the man he thought was Fortkran, each swing of his axe coming uncomfortably close.

Then one went slightly wide. Unlike with Brage, the attack wasn’t vertical- there was no earth to reflect off of, and that meant reversing the momentum would take the full effort expected. He slapped the axe even further wide with a quick application of Gravity Blade, his sword pushing back towards Kyros. His neck was open, but John aimed for his shoulder instead. He cut through the armor… and the tip of his sword sunk into flesh before clanking against bone… not nearly as deep as he had imagined.

So that was it. Stone Bones. One of the most basic but still quite effective spiritual totems of the second layer. It wouldn’t mean a literal transformation of Kyros’ bones into rock, but they would be extremely sturdy… and it came with a general toughness improvement. Enough that the man didn’t seem to mind pushing against his sword to try to tackle him to the ground. He should have gone for the neck.