Chapter 20)

I woke up with a slight pain on my chest.

As I rose up from my back, I had to adjust my eyesight to the bright light. This wasn't the coliseum, where was I? I rubbed my eyes, as I could see my vision coming back to me.

That's right, I got cut on my stomach when I was fighting that nightmare. I looked down at my body, which was covered in bandages and stained with my dried blood. When I flexed my muscles on my stomach, I could feel an almost pinching pain, causing me to lie back down to relieve it.

I also remembered that that guy also had some weird black crystal in his hand. I didn't know what it was, but it was giving me some weird feeling before I felt everything blur the night before. I thought he had pierced the crystal into my skin, but maybe it was my imagination. I didn't feel anything like a crystal in my body, that's for sure.

I was sitting in the bed I had slept on just before we had went to the coliseum, and as I looked towards the side of the room I could see the blue sky from the window. I looked back towards the ceiling, as all I heard was the deep breathing from my nose.

"You awake now?" I could hear a knocking from the door, before it suddenly opened up, revealing Barsanti with a tray containing two cups and a teapot.

"Yeah, I guess so... Wait, what happened? How come I'm just laying here in bed? What happened yesterday?" I had so many questions that needed answers, I had no clue on how I managed to survive.

"Woah, slow down a bit! Don't worry, everything was taken care of. We just need you to take a break and recover from your wounds. You weren't exactly in the best shape."

Grabbing a chair from the side of the room, he sat down beside the bed and placed the tray on the desk next to me. Pouring a green liquid from the teapot into a cup, he handed me it as I sat up from my position.

"Drink this. It'll make you feel better. It has a special herb that treats wounds."

"Thanks." I grabbed the cup, I could see a slight steam rising from the liquid as I went ahead and drank it. Almost a moment later, I felt like I was about to hurl.

"Nope! You have to drink it! If you don't then there would be no point of you even putting it in your mouth! If you expected medicine to taste good then that's your fault!"

It felt like my throat was begging me not to gulp down the liquid, but almost forcing my body to do so, I was able to finish the liquid in one gulp, as I could almost feel my taste buds dying.

"What the heck was that?! That tasted like freaking throw up!"

"Haha! It sure does, but how do you feel now? Do you think it helped?"

Now that he mentioned it, the pain I felt previously when I was flexing my stomach had stopped, and it was like I was never cut to begin with. My vision also recovered, now I could finally look out the window without having to squint.

"You're right. But was there really nothing else you could have gave me? That would have killed me by itself, without my cuts!"

"Unfortunately not, but now you feel better, so now we can start with some light training to help you recover faster."

"Training? What type of training could I do while I'm covered in bandages?"

"Watch." Barsanti said, as he reached from the inside of his robes and took out what looked like a pinwheel.

"Is that a pinwheel? What's that for?"

"You remember what Essence Projection is?"

"I think so." I remembered Barsanti mentioned it when he fought off those nightmares from the alley, but I had no idea how he did it in the first place.

"Well, it's the ability to project your Essence from your body and manifest it into energy. If you remembered the training we did on the grey path, I was using a small amount of Essence to project the energy onto you."

"So how do I do that?"

"Well, first off, you need Essence, which of course you have, so that crosses off one of the steps from the list. Second, you need to be able to focus your essence onto a singular point. Let's start off with creating a small ripple from the cup. If you can move the tea, then we can cross off step two."

Handing me another cup filled with the green tea (it smelled awful.) I stared at it without an idea of what to do first.

"So how do I even create energy?"

"Well, it's all in the mind. Just like you know how to shape your sword into existence with essence, you need to shape your essence into existence."

"That's it, huh?"

"Yup. Go ahead and give it a try. Buuut, it might be a little harder than you think." Barsanti smiled. "Not a lot of people have this completely mastered."

I just need to create essence from my mind? Sounds easy enough. If I could shape my sword into existence with ease, then this should be a piece of cake.

It was not.

I thought I was going to go lightheaded with how much concentration I was focusing on forming essence. Just when I thought I had gotten the hang of the whole thing, I would end up losing focus and having to restart all over again.

"It's hard, isn't it? It's definitely a strange technique, you don't really know the shape of essence if you can't focus on it, unlike your sword. You know it's shape, which makes it easier. What is essence's shape? There are so many ways it can be used." 

"So then, is there a way to figure out essence's shape? Does it even have a shape?" I asked, confused on what Barsanti was trying to say.

"There is a shape, but it isn't universal, if you know what I mean. Everyone has a different idea, or concept of what essence is, but it isn't formed by their understanding of it. It's formed by what their mind  think it's shape is."

"Could you show me how you use essence? Maybe I could have a better understanding." I still did not have a complete idea of what Barsanti was saying, but I think I could understand it a little better now.

"Sure." Barsanti said, standing up from his chair and looking towards the wall ahead of us. 

Slightly shifting his eyes downwards, he raised his hands in front of his body. I could feel a strong sense of wind gather around his arms, encased in a see through ball, the gusts of wind would fly around at fast speeds, like it was trying to escape. 

"This is what my mind shapes essence as. Powerful winds that can send anyone flying to whatever direction I desire." He slowly dissolved the ball of wind, until there was nothing left, resting his hands back to the sides of his body.

"You think that gave you a better understanding of what essence is?" 

"Uh, yeah, I think so, at least." 

"Alright, then let's give this another try." He sat back down on the chair, as I looked back towards the cup of tea in my hand. 

So my mind shapes the concept of essence? I guess it was harder to figure it out, since I was trying to create it's shape through my own thoughts. So I just have to understand what my mind thinks it is? 

I closed my eyes, clearing all my thoughts from my head, allowing my mind to visualize essence's concept.