Stepping into the courtyard, Colt was nearly brought to his feet as Hisa slapped him in the back.

She hits like a truck...

"Hey, Colt!"

"H-Hi..."

Dakota sat in a lawn chair, reading some sort of magazine. "We thought you skipped town on us."

"Nah, I was just tired." he said, "I had a long day yesterday."

"I know, Yuri told me about it." she said as she sat down her magazine, "How are you holding up?"

"I'm good now, but I'm still a little tired-"

Hisa pranced over to him and clapped right in front of his face, emitting a small shockwave that forced him to stumble backwards. "How do you feel now?"

"That definitely woke me up." he muttered as he wiped his face.

Dakota rose from her lawn chair and joined them, "Colt, you said that you were going to do some of your own working during our little break. Did you discover anything new?"

"I think I have my core power, but I'm not really too familiar with it yet, and I got better at manipulating my core energy." said Colt. "Is that good enough-"

Dakota's face went pale, "Oops, I guess you're already done then."

"I'm done?"

"Once you core power awakens, you have roughly one week before you have to develop a core power. It's formed around your beliefs, thoughts, and personality, which is why I told you to think about what it was that you wanted." she said.

"Okay, so I have about three days left." said Colt, "It hasn't been an entire week yet."

"I said roughly. Once your actual power develops, there isn't much that can be done after that." said Dakota, "The whole 'one week' thing only implies that you will have a core power by the time a week has passed. It's completely possible to develop one before that time is up."

Colt fell to his knees, deflating in defeat. "It's over already? I'm stuck like this, huh?"

"I thought you were going to need my help, but you caught on pretty fast." said Dakota. "Don't worry about it though. Just think of it like turning in an assignment three days before due date...Which also means that I can't really help with any other core power related stuff until that due date passes."

"Makes sense." He stood back up and dusted himself off, "Is there anything else I can learn?"

'Other core power related stuff'?

Is there even more to core powers than that?

I should wait until the moment she brings that to me, I bet she'll tire out if I ask about it now.

Dakota clapped her hands and took a deep breath, "In the meantime, we should focus on mastery of core energy. Most people tend to put too much stock into core powers, that they miss out on the fundamentals. Core energy is the building blocks of life, so gaining complete control over it would set you one step above the rest."

His eyes gleamed with excitement, "I'm ready!"

"Good. I'll be teaching you about a cool finishing move: the critical burst." She sped off into the forest, leaving the others behind.

"Wait-She took off!" Colt rolled up the sleeves of his hoodie, "Let's go after-"

Hisa held his arm before he could follow Dakota, "Colt, it's cool that you have a core power! Can you tell me what it is?"

He did his best to ignore the pain of her squeezing down on his arm.

Is this some kind of messed up joke? The touchiest person has the most brute strength...and she's unaware of it.

"It's nothing major, I can just heal my injuries by burning through my own core energy." he said.

"Man...If we ever fought, I bet it'd be fun!"

"Don't hold your breath on that ever happening." he felt a cold sweat come over him, "Anyway, we should follow D-"

Hisa snatched him up by his wrist and shot off into the forest after Dakota. The wind blasted into his face as she ran, as if he were riding in some sort of racecar. Before too long, the 'ride' came to an end, leaving them both in the center of a field.

It was the same place Jax had brought him during their first training session.

Dakota walked over and tossed a small green bottle to the ground, freeing a cloud of smoke into the atmosphere. Soon after, a horde of core beasts gathered around the three of them.

Hisa scoffed, "These guys are weak."

"You can tell on first glance?" asked Colt.

"Watch this," Dakota stepped forward, channeling a great torrent of core energy into her fist. As her fist plunged into the stomach of the largest beast in the crowd, a burst of core energy exploded from the impact, eradicating the beast as it withered into thin air.

The free sparks of energy flowed back into her.

The remaining beasts dropped to their knees in forfeit.

"Wait-I think I did that yesterday!" said Colt.

And I think I was hit by something like that too. Those hits Fuchsia were landing on me seemed like that too.

"That's good," said Dakota, "This attack is known as a Critical Burst. It amplifies the damage of your initial attack, while also stealing some core energy from your target."

Yup, that's exactly what it felt like yesterday.

"Dakota, I want to do that too!" shouted Hisa, "Can I?"

"Of course, anyone with core energy can do it." said Dakota. "It ain't easy though."

Colt channeled core energy into his fists, "I'm ready to learn!"

"Pay attention. They sound simple, but it's difficult in practice." said Dakota, "First...You need to have proficient control of your core energy, and you need to be able to read your opponent's core energy."

"Welp...I can't do that yet..."

"Don't give in so easily, reading core energy is pretty easy. Literally try to feel my core energy..." She channeled her energy into her fist, lighting it with a light blue aura.

Colt marveled at the sensation, akin to the heat of a candle being lit by him. "I can actually feel it."

"That's to be expected," said Dakota, "Hisa, are you getting this?"

"Uh huh!" Hisa stared intently at Dakota's right hand.

"Now..." The aura disappeared from her hand, "Try to sense it."

Colt furrowed his eyebrows and closed his eyes as he searched for the source of heat. "I can't sense it anymore. Can you, Hisa?"

"Nope!" She tugged at her pigtails and groaned, "I'm not cut out for this complicated stuff! I just want to fight!"

Dakota karate chopped Hisa on her head, "Quit whining. Mastery of this technique separate the good from the great."

"Fine..." muttered Hisa.

"It's harder to sense my core energy since I stopped moving it on my own right? That's where core energy manipulation gets tricky. Take a few guesses on what you would need to do to read my core energy like this."

Hisa tilted her head, "Do we just attack you until you're forced to start showing your core energy?"

"Nope. That's incredibly dangerous. That may work if you can blitz your opponent, but if not, you can run head first into your own demise."

"Aw..." Hisa squatted down and started playing with an army of ants, "I'm stumped. What do you think, Colt?"

"I'm not sure," he said. "Do you need core energy to sense someone else's energy?"

Dakota nodded her head.

"That means that we feel other's core energy with our own core energy." said Colt.

"Exactly. Keep going."

Hisa jumped up and covered Colt's mouth, "I got it! We need to get our core energy to touch you! Right?"

"Yup. I'm glad you both came to that conclusion." Dakota turned to Hisa and sighed, "On your own..."

Hisa giggled as Colt shook his head.

"We need to talk about concealing core energy first. If you just let your core energy run without any care in the world, your opponents will be able to read its density, flow, and volume." said Dakota, "These core beasts are all C-Rankers. You're both going to play cops and robbers with these little bastards."

Colt squinted, "How is that supposed to help us?"

Dodging the question, Dakota set a timer on her phone. "You'll be working together, and you have an hour to catch them all."

Hisa squealed in excitement, "Ooh! Can we kill them?"

"No," said Dakota. "This exercise is strictly geared towards core energy control."

Hisa pouted, letting Dakota carry on.

"When you capture one, you need to bring it back to me. I'm gonna be standing..." She walked over to a streetlight and sat down on the bench next to it. "Right here. The core beasts will get a ten minute head start."

"Wait-" Colt looked over to the nervous core beasts, "These guys are scared out of their minds. What if they try to use the ten minutes to flee the area?"

Dakota's expression darkened as she leaned back, "They won't. I can sense their core energy, so if any of them go too far, I'll kill them."

"Okay then..." He looked over to the beasts as the pressure of the situation truly set in on them.

Dakota turned towards the beasts, "If any of you can evade these two kids for an hour, I'll let you live. Now scram, and don't leave the forest."

The beasts nodded their heads in understanding, fleeing into the forest with one final chance of survival.

"I guess we should get ready." Colt threw his hoodie on the bench and started stretching his legs. "What's gonna be our strategy for this, Hisa?"

"Eh?"

He looked up to see the blank expression written on her face. "The strategy...For the exercise..."

"Oh! That? We don't need that." Hisa sat down on the ground and yawned, "I saw their speed. I can catch them."

She is right. After what I saw earlier...We're good.

Now that the so called tutorial had ended, Colt thought back on Dakota's words regarding core powers. If they were truly influenced by one's beliefs and character, it'd make sense for him to have something that heals him. His entire life had built around resurrection, which actually made his core power a slap in the face.

He could only heal himself, and it wasn't even some form of immortality. If he were to run out of core energy, death would be looming on the horizon once again.

Despite this, Dakota mentioned there was more to learn about core powers, so hope was still within his grasps.

Hey, the fact that I even have a superpower is great! I'll make the most of this so-called curse for now...