Eian found the experience of fighting someone closer to his strenght much different.

He was bare from the waist up as a shirt was a disadvantage in this scenario.

Taking a stance Eian held both palms out ready, his opponent eyed him carefully, both fists clentched.

Bursting into motion Eian swayed forward to throw of his opponent, a colliding fist met his shoulder.

Barreling forward Eian tackled his opponent, whom quickly grabbed his neck and pushed him off with each hand, a tense cord of muscle found a place behind his neck.

Struggling Eian fought back savagely swinging his neck about to dislodge the arm, attempting to wrap an arm under a leg and throw them to the floor.

Suddenly a hand gripped his hair, pulling his neck backwards and a punch connected to his face.

Desperate, Eian kneed the guy between his legs.

"KAWH!" Gary dropped to the floor on his knees mouth agape, spewing nonsense.

A quick fist, followed by a rapid backhand sent him to the floor on his back.

Gary wiped his face and a perpertual scowl decorated it as he spat blood on the floor, lips bloody.

"Ye both suck." Ul watched on shaking his head.

"HE KICKED ME IN THE NUTS! MY NUTS! D'FUCK DUDE!" Gary was red-faced and fuming.

"HEY! YOU GRABBED MY HAIR!" Suddenly Eian wanted to punch him again.

The two hot heads almost clashed, but the earth cracking snapped their eyes back to Ul.

"Kid one. Hair's a weakness, easy to grab and it bares the neck 'n head." Ul pointed to Eian.

All the while, Ul gripped at the air, as though it were a physical representation of Eian's hair.

"Kid two." Ul started.

"why am I kid two...." Gary mumbled under his breathe.

"Shet it. Mind the family jewels, or ye'll lose 'em someday." Ul smirked, Gary looked a bit pale.

Ul had told Eian it was probably best to fight someone from his world, and lo' and behold, there Gary was, apparently he also had an Earth-element spirit.

"'Nyways, ye both got some bad habits. Fast fights 're good fights, get close, play dirty and don't hold back." Ul barked out a laugh.

Here they were, for what must be like twenty rounds, Ul unleashed them both at each other's throats and made them pretty much tear each other to shreds.

As they'd both reverted Gary was physically in better shape than Eian and apparently had prior training with some kind of martial sport, still Ul said it had given him bad habits, as that thing appearently wasn't designed to kill.

Losses were as common as wins, Eian fought dirty, going for eyes, balls, and more recently both hair and face, but Gary was wisening up to those and his muscles gave him a slight edge.

"This is a waste of time." Eian grumbled, wiping a bloody nose.

"You're a waste of time dick-head." Gary smirked.

"Fuck you. And at least mine still works." Eian growled, Gary opened his mouth.

"Shet it!" Ul's bellow drew their attention.

Ul glared at both of them for some time.

"Explain." Ul looked at Eian, arms crossed.

Angry, Eian drew blank at first, before organizing his thoughts and bringing forth an important worry Eian had, he tried to think of the best way to get his idea through.

"Well. In my....our world we have guns, if we are going to be fighting other people isn't it more useful to just use those?" Eian frowned, he'd realized this ever since Ul had told him about the world changing.

He didn't know if Ul knew what fire-arms were, but given that he knew about various worlds he likely did, or at least a close or the magic equivalent.

After all a gun can kill people from far away and can penetrate even metal armor, what use was practicing against humans if they had those?

"Right, figured ye weren't a complete dolt, kid one, yes fire-arms are a problem. At least for yer immediate future. As ye grow it'll resolve itself, but ye gotta stay alive that long first." Ul stoked his beard.

"Hey are you-" Gary started.

"Shet it! I'm explaining here." Ul rolled his eyes.

Eian snickered and his smirk widened as Gary glared at him.

"Either way, best way not te meet the ol' grumpies down under's to prepare. A strong Rock armor'll stop most normal ammo and Qi Cladding'll work well if yer strong enough too, stings like a belt on the buttucks though. Both of those run on power though, which is limited. If yer caught with yer breeches down, then well...let's just say yer fucked." Ul laughed, it was rather annoying.

"That doesn't solve the issue. And who the fuck are the old grumpies?" Gary crossed his arms with a frown.

"I'm wondering the same thing. The bullet problem I mean." Eian looked at Ul as the dwarf sighed.

"Kids, rude and impatient." Ul replied with a scowl.

They stood there in silence, and Eian scratched his neck, waiting.

Ul looked up and seemed to think for a while.

"Look here, boys. Biggest problem a warrior's got is getting close, especially 'gainst people, they're smarter than beasts and fight different. Mages tend te shoot us from afar, same problem with guns, only worse since rock-armor and cladding sometimes ain't 'nough. Espers use 'em tricks to fool us. Best way's te get reliable armor, AND SLEEP IN IT, I don't know if ye'll get some reliable stuff there in yer world though. Second best is te choose yer fights wisely, that won't work all da time, fights come suddenly. So how do ye solve the problem?" Ul looked at both of them with squinted eyes.

Eian looked to Gary, whom looked back and shrugged, they both looked at Ul helplessly, whom shook his head.

"Walls are one. Rock walls'll stop some stuff. Bonus is it'll give ye cover, hard te hit what they can't see. Biggest problem here's pulling it from nowhere, 's a big drain, ye gotta got some good stuff 'bout te shape it. Worse comes, dig and hide till shit stops flying, HA!" Ul pointed to the rocky mountain wall.

Eian raised an eyebrow at the remark.

"I thought you'd be against hiding." Eian remarked as he tried to fit the idea of hiding from bullets, it felt cowardly, while it would sting his pride, it meant living and really wasn't that what mattered?

"I'm also against dying. There was this one time, barely out the crib I was, a nearby Hive appeared, some hybrid Juggernaut Tunneler types, nasty mix those buggers, some got past the routine scans and the defenders acted too slow. Me mum locked us in a reinforced bunker we kept 'bout just in case. Pops designed it, made it, then hired to enchant it, back then that was expensive stuff. Lots of people died, but not I, pops thought ahead even though people thought he was crazy for buying the damn thing, heck mum thought he was crazy... Well kid one, kid two, moral o the story is he who laughs last, laughs cause he's still bloody alive. HAHAHAHAA!" Ul laughed on for quite some time.

As Ul's laugh died down, he continued.

"Right, another good way's to use an energy barrier. At the level ye both got yer Mind thsgra's it'll be close to impossible though...So ye got to boost yer noggin a bit fer ye te pull it off quick enough fer a fight 'nyways. Down side's yer regular defense'll take a tad longer te reach that way." Ul looked at both of them.

Frowning Gary asked the question for him.

"What's an energy barrier? Can it stop a bullet? And how many points in Mind do I need?" Gary stared at Ul with intense focus, as if missing this meant living or dying, which when you thought about might actually be true.

The questions focused Eian, energy barrier, he rolled the words over his tongue.

"Barrier's a shield that surrounds ye kid two, 'n with 'nough power it'll stop anything but it's costly. I prefer MY armor. I'd say five's the bottom-marker on Mind, thing's 'll take practice, but ye'll be decent enough to apply some basic stuff, I mean lots o practice though. Days fer simple stuff, maybe weeks." Ul clarified.

"How many days?" Gary asked, he was pretty insistent.

"That boy, depends on talent. Effort too. Look Ah can't force ye te choose yer path, but my advice is te quickly kill monsters, anything that's even slightly magic 'll boost ye bit by bit. Beat everyone te the punch 'n get yerselves te yer peak on both body n spirit first, the combo'll make it less likely ye'll die to something crazy. Like ammo shots." Ul advised.

Eian's face tightened slightly as Ul mentioned their peak, that had been mentioned before as a racial limit if he remembered correctly.

"And when we hit our peaks? How do we pass it?" Eian asked.

"That. Boy. I can't quite teach completely." Ul scratched his chin.

"Why?" Gary beat Eian to the question.

"Fer starters passing the first ones' usually ain't TOO hard te figure out. Each limit has a different bust too, 'n those got limits too. Fer Body or rather Qi ye condense the core. Mind's tricky, different and often personal to each person, so I can't help ye there. Spirit's tough though, ye got te siphon off power from yer element's plane and absorb it, hurts worse than being mushed to paste. Further than that we don't tell ye just yet, who knows what'll happen. Wars? Bandits? Killers usually advance quickest, since they ain't got problems killing regular folk, so boss man says we hold back on that fer now. Most people stagnate after a while too." Ul looked up.

That took Eian by surprise, Gary scowled.

"Aren't you supposed to help us get stronger and surive? Besides! Those things you just said make no sense! " Gary let out, clentching his fists.

"Can a fish teach a horse te swim? It's impossible te teach it to ye, ye got to experience it yerself. A' right, we also don't want te help only te find the place empty with only some powerful dolt or dolts whom used ye te become a monster. 'Sides like I said it ain't too hard the first few times. Word'll get around." Ul shrugged.

"Can you repeat those for me?" Eian asked, he didn't catch it quite.

"Fer Qi refine the core, Minds personal and tricky but ye usually do it meditating in yer mindscape-" Ul was about to continue.

"And what's a mindscape?" Gary interruptted, to which Ul shot him a dirty look.

"Mindscape's sort o like yer inner mind, useful fer practicing PSI stuff, ye need at 'bout five mind I'd say. Spirit ye got te siphon power from an elemental plane, pull deeply and hold on te as much as ye can. OH! and don't try te do these things before ye hit yer peak." Ul warned.

"Why not?" Gary asked on the off-hand.

"Ye'll cripple yerself. If ye surive." Ul warned and gave them both the stink eye.

"Right, got it." Gary nodded quickly, Eian gave a quick nod too.

Ul nodded, then put on his helmet.

"Well enough warm-up. Ah think, it's 'bout time ye both learn some team work." Ul said, Eian had the distinct feeling he was smiling under the helmet, his heart sank.

******

They lay in a large uneven stoney field, puffing erratic, hearts rocketing at a thousand RPM.

"Hey my buddy, Eian... You were the front liner for your team right?" Gary asked nicely, profound wetness could be seen clearly in his eyes with a touch of desperation.

"Fuck you. I ain't vanguarding him." Eian flipped him the finger from the floor.

"Aw come on buddy, you chicken?" Gary's condensating tone made him want to grab the little shit by the throat and strangle him.

"Fuck you. And the answer's still NO." Eian clarified, as he huddled under cover.

A resounding shatter of stone, followed quickly by sharpel gave Eian the shivers and his mouth suddenly felt dry.

"Come on kid one, kid two. Ye both wanted to test out fire-arms right?" Ul gloated hefting The Monstrosity.

The Monstrosity, as Eian called it, looked like a cross between a bazoka and a cannon, Ul hefted it on his shoulder casually.

The impact blew off limbs, as well as splattering them all over the place, rock armor was useless, and it had left both their eyes bloodshot.

Each time, Ul shot at them, aiming solely for limbs he said, they had to practice the art of molding stone quickly enough to provide cover, apparently they needed two sets of Empower active to shape it fast enough.

Fear was the greatest motivator, according to Ul.

Ul at least had the decency to restore them to their fully upgraded selves, else they'd be ripe for slaughter.

Looking at the muzzle of The Monstrosity, Eian's legs flared like fire, igniting his Qi he hurled himself away just as an ear-shattering sound burst forth.

Two Empowers were already active and he channeled power up his shoulder to his hand as he rolled, fear and adrenaline coursed through his veins, clearing his mind and coordinating his intent and power.

Half-deaf Eian prayed the stone wall erected properly, even as the cold hard floor greeted his back before he finished the roll, thankfully the impact on the stone floor only felt like hardened wood.

Recovering swiftly Eian bolted randomly, gooseboomps up his back as another explosion rang farther away, swiftly followed by a high pitched scream.

Cold sweat dribbled down his face as the implication settled in, Gary was down, that wasn't the important part, it meant Ul would now fully focus on HIM.

Eian powered another Empower and swiftly erected three seperate mounds swiftly draining his reserves, misdirection was key, if Ul hit one he wasn't behind it meant more time before the next round.

'God. Please save me.' Eian prayed truly for the first time in years.

Closing his eyes, Eian opened his new sense, Eyes of the Earth as Ul quoted, here it was truly a life saver.

Everything connected by solid minerals on the floor became known to him in a dull hazy sense, he focused quickly finding a heavy set of footsteps, heart-pounding his anger clouded his judgement, he burnt through the last of his reserve and send a concentrated earth spike towards Ul.

As expected it had little effect, he Saw it shatter harmlessly upon Ul's hazy form, cursing beneath his breath Eian closed his eyes and quickly tried to recover his reserve.

Power trickled in almost agonizingly slow even as he felt Ul approach.

An explosion sounded out, making him cringe, luckily he felt no sharpel, meaning Ul hit another mound, he wasn't using Eyes of the Earth appearently, at least the goat-fucker had some decency.

Desperate Eian began crawling his way into the stone beneath his feet, power low he went in slowly, another shot rang out and Eian felt flinging shards pelt the tope of his head, they bounced off harmlessly.

Re-doubling his effort Eian dug, as Ul got closer Eian abandoned the dig and ignited his Qi bolting like thunder.

Pain, overwhelming pain caught his leg, suddenly he realized he was flying, landing on stone with a resounding smack.

Gritting his teeth he crawled away.

He blinked and Ul stood before him, Gary was sitting on the floor cursing, massaging his arm, phantom pain was a bitch.

"Right, well let's try something smaller." Ul smiled, he bared forth a long tube, flowing intricate runes wriggled upon the surface.

"Fuck dude! Give us a break!" Gary pleaded.

"YEAH!" Eian swiftly nodded as he collapsed on the floor.

"Bah, fine. Five, then we get back te work. Ye boys need more shaping up." Ul started.

As they rested Ul explained the exercise.

"This baby be shooting fast, but a strong rock-armor'll work on stopping it, Qi cladding'll work too, we gonna practice those two along with dodging and fast molding. Good job on the mounds last round Kid one." Ul finished, congradulating Eian.

Eian for his part, wondered when he did to deserve this special brand of hell.

He couldn't wait to leave, he'd take zombies and monsters any day, but Ul was the evil incarnate.

*****

The time was nigh, Ul looked at the prone forms of both kids, they were barely past childhood really.

He pitied them in a way, the challenges they would face were numerous, they'd lose loved ones and their whole world would turn itself on it's head.

He'd prepared these two as best he could, investments which would hopefully not only survive, but thrive.

His own world had matured long before his birth, but Ul himself had fought against several invasions from Conquerers, before boss man came and took them under his wing, literally.

Those wars were hard-fought and his people sufferred much to retain their freedom, clashing against armies filled with dull-eyed slaves, ravenous undead, powerful Golems, flying ships, magic stinking of blood and corruption, even elderich monstrousities which the Conquerers either tamed, enslaved or bargained with.

Ul himself had struck the final blow upon a Conquerer, it was the single most difficult thing he'd even done, a gigantic three-headed mutated dragon whom had managed to retain it's sanity despite mutation, it's skin had warped and it had taken a chaotic hue of black and grey scales, many friends and comrades paid the price in blood to buy him the chance and he didn't waste it.

Wincing he rubbed his chest armor, underneath he kept the scars the beast had inflicted upon his being, healers spent years tending to him, forcing his body to live, despite terrible pain, until finally he was healed and lauded a hero.

Nowadays he mostly spent his time forging powerful weapons for the boss man's top men and women, the lowest of whom were peak Immortals like him, the most powerful were just a step below the boss man, gods.

Many of his compatriots considered Ul's methods extreme, they teach their students magic the normal way, showing them what was possible and letting them figure it out, lessons straight out a classroom.

A whole bunch of hogwash that was, these people didn't need to be taught to be engineers, nor were they the graduates of some fancy academy, they needed te be battle ready fer the horrors they'd face.

And if there was one thing Ul was damn good at was forging a damn good weapon, whether that be hammering away impurities, blancing the weight to perfection, or sharpenning it till it drew blood as it's purpose.

Over-all in this iteration of the program he'd taught barely two handful of new warriors, the number was abysmally low due to the fact most quit his training after one lesson.

He'd taught mostly men this time, but here and there he found a few females whom were made of sturdy steel, hopefully they wouldn't break.

Shaking his head he snapped out of his brief lapse of concentration, he must be getting old.

Dismissing his runed repeating bayonet, it was a standard edition police of his home used, it operated on stored elemental energies, which created pellets and shot them at rapid speeds.

They weren't the most deadly fire-arms out there, barely more than a toy really, but from his understanding this new world was stuck at this level of technology for the most part.

"A'right kid one, kid two, times finally up. Ye'll both go meet yer friends, if they want te, and if ye want te too." Ul looked at them both briefly, question implied.

"Hell Yeah! I mean...I guess I should say bye." Gary, kid two, rubbed his face, an elated expression crossed his face.

Ul chuckled, it was obvious the boy was relieved to be done with practice.

"Yeah, I gotta say good bye to the guys." Eian, kid one, scratched his head, whom also looked happy to be leaving.

"Well, don't forget, my offer stands, find me and I'll make ye stronger than ye ever dreamed." Ul smiled, flashing pristine teeth with a winning smile.

Both boys paled at the thought, making him smile all the wider, the offer was genuine, but over the years he'd found few took him up on it.

Dispite being strong willed and coping with his training, most people tended to prefer a life of ease and complaceny over strife and Ul delighted in finding those select few whom chose a life of hardship and power, it wasn't an easy life but it was fullfilling.

The pay was wonderfull too, and it brought a smile to his face just thinking of his bonus awaiting him.

Drink that could still affect someone of his caliber was rare, and inordinately expensive, how was a guy supposed to get drunk when bottles of the stuff would bankrupt kings?

"Well I ain't big on good-byes, but we probably won't meet again. See ya later kid one, kid two, it's been fun. Good-luck." Smiling at the thought of alcohol, Ul waved his hand and they both vanished.

He similarly dismissed his other students with his other split-avatars.

The job was finally done, and things were on schedule, a dwarf has priorities.

"Time te get smashed." Ul smiled as he detached his conscience from the Network.

Getting off a comfortable bed, he looked around at his workshop in search of booze.