Chapter 3

Rex's head swam as he tried to heave himself from the floor. He met Riasha's eyes and realized she was rambling on about something but she sounded like an adult out of a Charlie Brown cartoon. It was making him feel annoyed. Why couldn't she just shut up?

Rex shook his head to break out of it but he only grew more enraged. He gripped his hands into fists and began to shake. He logically knew he wasn't upset but something was driving him off the cliff.

Riasha finally realized that Rex was having a hard time. "Grab them, quickly." she commanded pointing to the bones.

Rex looked at her, fuming at the order she had given him. He fought down the urge to fight back and grabbed the bones.

"Push the excess anger into the bones. Force your body to expel the energy." Riasha said as she mimed some strange movements.

Rex tried to do as she instructed but he couldn't focus well enough to push anything. This just made him angrier but the target of his anger this time was the bones. As he focused his outrage at the bones, squeezing as hard as he could, the feeling rushed out of him. He felt perfectly calm but drained.

He breathing was heavy as he wound down. He gave a small smile to Riasha, "Sorry." He felt embarrassed by the whole situation. He put the bones back down on the bed.

"It's ok Rex." Riasha said waving one of her hands, dismissing the event, "When dealing with these kinds of concepts, there is a bit of a learning curve. Doing something like you just did at the level that you're at is bound to have some...side effects. Now, look at your fine work." Riasha smiled and pointing at his weapons. Her giddy attitude was beginning to shine through again.

Rex nodded with a slight exhausted smile and looked at the bones he laid back on the bed. They looked the same except for a fine pattern distributed across their entire form. Swirls and shapes that seemed important but he couldn't make any sense out of.

"Really look at them. You really need to train your sight." Riasha said giving an accentuated eye roll for effect. "Once you train it enough you'll do it without thought."

She was very good a communicating with her eyes even though they were covered. Maybe it was the extra set of arms? Rex shook his head to clear the tangent and looked at the bones with his spiritual sight. He saw what she meant. They both had a red haze around them but it was trailing towards him. If he really focused he could sense a pull from the pair.

"Keep your sight open and grab them."

Rex did and the moment he touched them, he noticed two things. First, they fit perfect in his hands. They seemed like they molded to his hand regardless of the position. Secondly, while he was in contact with them the fog tightened around the bones and extended to his hands. This made a sort of spiritual film that formed a glove that connected him to them. Rex gasped and inspected the sight with wide eyes.

"What am I looking at here?" Rex asked, feeling like he missed something.

Riasha looked at him agape. Even though Rex couldn't see her actual eyes, he definitely felt their judgement. She gathered her wits about her again and explained. "They are bound weapons. At this level it just makes it so they can't be used against you if someone disarms you." She waves one hand and looked away, obviously irritated at his lack of excitement. "They are also ancestral, meaning they are either made from your ancestors, made by your ancestors with certain techniques, or used by your ancestors to the point that they formed a spirit bond.."

Rex gave her a dumbfounded look.

"It also means they can grow as you grow. They are perfectly suited to you." Riasha kept her gaze on Rex, expecting some sort of reaction. He gave none. "They're good." she relented.

Rex just continued to stare at her. His thoughts felt sluggish. The whole process took more out of him than he thought.

"Let's just go and put them to good use." Riasha sighed and shook her head, motioning with all four of her arms out the bedroom door.

Rex was dazed but complied.

They made their way downstairs and went out the back since the front was still blocked off, even worse now after Rex's tantrum. When they got to the front of the house, Rex tried to head straight to his motorcycle but Riasha cleared her throat to get his attention.

"I don't think so. That thing will be useless soon." she then points down the street. "We need to get you on the path and the best way to do that is tossing you straight in. If I had to guess, I think 25 of these essence marbles should be plenty for what we are trying to do." She began strolling down the middle of the street like a girl skipping through a peaceful field of flowers. She pointed to the puppets down the street and says "Get to work."

Rex took in the sight before him. There were dozens of puppets now, more than when he came through here the first time. The sky also started to change to match the colors as the orbs he saw in the sky not long ago. It was becoming a dark green with wisps of white and yellow rushing through it.

Rex took a deep breath and just decided to follow Riasha's lead. He nervously gripped his weapons and approached the first puppet. They seemed to have terrible eyesight and didn't react to him until he go to within 5 yards. When they finally noticed him, they made that horrible howling noise and charged him with surprising speed.

He didn't react in time to hit the thing but he was able to get it into a grapple. It was snapping at him trying to take a bite but Rex was able to stop it from getting a nice meal. He finally pushed it off of him, they were lighter than he expected since they had the look of full grown men. He took a wild swing at it as it rushed back in and caught it in the ribs which caused it to stumble to the side where he took a swing with his other weapon, catching it in the temple and putting it down for good.

"That was just...bad." Riasha said "What kind of place is this? Why are you so weak?" She gestured around herself.

Rex got the sense she wasn't trying to insult him but was genuinely curious. He just shrugged at her. "I'm not exactly an expert bone. We haven't had to use normal weapons in a very long time."

"That's not my point. Most places, even before becoming initiated have warriors that can fight off the initial threats."

"I'm not sure where the military is but we don't use close combat weapons much anymore you know. We have guns."

Riasha gave him a quizzical look.

"Guns? Long range weapons that fire very quickly over long distances. Very few people train for hand to hand combat anymore."

Riasha's quizzical look morphed into a horrified one. She had realized something. "Oh, your people are in serious trouble. Let's keep going, we can talk later."

Riasha picks up the marble from he puppet he just killed and drops it into a bag on her belt he hadn't noticed before. "I wanna see you fight a few more before we start our instruction properly."

Rex nodded and trudged off to the next monster. He was able to deal with this one easier. He never let it get him in a grapple but it took him more swings to deal with it. The third one was dealt with even easier. He was quickly getting his feet under him.

"Fast learner, good." Riasha raised her eyebrow at him. "For these next couple, I want you to get angry." She bent over to pickup the last marble.

Rex frowned at her, "Just get angry? Not exactly how it works I don't think."

"For most people, that would be true but not for you. You have that anger inside you at all times now., you just need to tap into it. Later we can learn to control it."

Rex's frown grew deeper but he was determined to take her seriously. He tried a quick body scan and found something strange. He did have something inside him. It looked like a node the same color as his bones. He mentally poked the node and it responded by spouting some red fog. As the fog made it to his mind, he found himself growing irritated.

"Good, more." Riasha urged.

He poked it again, harder this time and more of the fog emerged, causing him to begin to boil with anger. He looked at Riasha with wide eyes. He felt himself losing his grip.

"Don't point that thing at me, they're the ones who did this to you." She pointed at a few puppets nearby.

Rex turned, taking in the enemies. His body felt like it was beginning to swell like the first time you take supplements for the gym. His muscles felt uncomfortably tight and he was beginning to shake. He burst into movement, faster than even he expected and almost fell face first but somehow kept his feet under him and reached the first puppet in just a couple strides.

He swung his weapons in a horizontal smash, one catching the puppet in the head and the other in the shoulder. It crashed into the ground. The next puppet rushed Rex but he wasn't playing games this time. It slashed him across the chest and tried to grab his right arm but he just yanked it towards him and smashed it in the face with his forehead. It fell and he crushed it with his bones. He went on to kill 3 more before his energy started to flag and the anger dissipated.

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" Riasha's eyes were starting to glow through her binding in an intense golden light. Rex swore he could hear battle when he looked at her.

Riasha noticed he was staring at her strangely and forced her eyes to return to normal. "Good work Rex. Let's try something else. Tap into your anger again but this time try to shepherd it into your weapons."

Rex was tired but tried to do as she requested. It was difficult, the energy wanted to flow straight into him. It felt like it had a preference for him to be enraged as opposed to trapped in his weapons. Rex managed it eventually though. The energy rushed into the bones and their glow intensified.

"Excellent, now go. Get the rest of those cores."

Rex had gotten into a rhythm with the puppets. They were basically unthinking animals and once he figured out their tactics, they were no problem. He found the anger empowered bones did at least double the carnage of his normal strikes without causing him to lose his mind.

He had one more core to harvest and wanted to try something. He funneled anger into his weapons and also allowed some to flow into his body. He could feel it starting to take control so he shut off the tap and turned to his last foe. When he struck this puppet, its head turned to pulp and covered him in viscera.

He wanted more.

"No. Focus your extra energy into the weapons. You are at your limit." Riasha commanded. She sighed, "Look, I commend you for combining the two techniques but it's more than you can handle at the moment."

Rex just glared at Riasha, anger building in his chest. He dashed off like a rambunctious, obstinate child and began clobbering puppets left and right. When he finished bashing his 8th puppet, he vomited and started to sway on his feet and collapsed.

Riasha face palmed with one of her hands and grabbed him, dragging him back towards the house.