Leo
He sat on a little hill that was a little out of town which was a place he had found a while back when he used to do his morning runs before the settlers arrived. It was quite beautiful and gave him a nice enough view of the town and its folk as they went about their day to day business. Since his senses had become more pronounced after becoming a superhuman he could see much farther than before and thus he liked to come to the hill and sit under a large Jacaranda tree that dropped purple flowers around him that time of year and just watch their daily lives unfold. It was the one time when allowed himself to relax and grasp the little bit of normalcy in this new world they lived in. It gave him peace especially on days he wanted to be alone.
At that moment he had chosen to go there to celebrate the end of his gruelling training under the demon for the past 6 months. A few days before his bro, Luke had finally acknowledged him as a legacy disciple but instead of accepting the role of being his master, he had opted to become his senior brother under his own masters(because apparently, he didn't have only one). they were now brothers in more than name since they were part of the same clan. Apparently, it was a big thing when the clan accepted new blood within their ranks. He was slightly excited by the prospect.
At that moment as he sat under his favourite tree he was checking his progress. He was looking at his stats screen in wonder. He had subconsciously stopped himself from checking his skills during the first month of training due to the fact that the fusion grew at a snail's crawl which greatly affected his motivation to work on them. He had decided to do so once Luke acknowledged him and stopped holding back and then after the test to become a Legacy became he never thought to check them once more. Now that he did though he was quite astounded by the results of his labour.
Life form : Awakened Mortal
Classification: Superman
LEVEL 1
Basic Skills: Intuition[0,99% fusion]
Hyper-cognition[0,90% fusion]
Psychometry[0,75% fusion]
He was floored by the rise in his abilities especially intuition which was his most difficult ability to raise. He tried to figure out what would account for each rise in his abilities. The most obvious one was his hyper cognition which he used during the day when he memorised everything that occurred during his bouts with Luke from the dodges and connected hits and all the sensations he felt including the pain and then it went into hyperdrive as he would activate the analytical powers to analyse the movements during the night. Finally, the early morning warm-up where he would run very profound simulations of these bouts each day. This had greatly pushed up his ability.
The psychometry was explainable because he used regularly consciously or unconsciously when he would get a vibe from Luke during bouts or from other people daily either from stuff around the house or the people themselves. It had not risen dramatically but it was a rise that made sense since would catch a feeling or two many times a day from different sources.
The true mystery was how his intuition had risen to that degree since he had not made an active effort to increase his usage and hence fusion with that particular skill. The last time he had tried to raise it by sensing and dodging the incoming assault from tennis ball projectiles he had failed to trigger any growth in it as they no longer were capable of assisting him. A hypothesis began to develop in his head. As he fought to defend himself against the onslaught of Luke, he was forced to abandon all thought and rely on his instincts to dodge and evade attacks. Perhaps as he chose to embrace more natural danger sensing his instincts fused with his intuitive abilities which allowed him to more accurately anticipate danger.
The theory made sense because it also explained why his own improvement in dodge and countering attacks was so exaggerated. He had been unconsciously using his intuition and then subconsciously self-adjusting to meet the dangers he would sense. It was only possible because Luke barely pulled his punches which was a very legitimate threat to Leo's well-being regardless of whether it was training or not. He was ecstatic because he had realised the connection between his own intuition and danger. He would need a true sense of danger in order for any training method he came up with in the future to truly function and actually result in improved fusion of the skill. Now he was on the precipice of reaching 1% fusion and he had a feeling something significant would occur.
He was energised by his new progress because he was almost done with his requirements before he would go and fight the monsters head-on. That's when it hit him. He was almost ready to leave Willowborough and move on. The idea had been quite novel to him when it was abstract and not something that was real and looming so close. He realised that he had grown attached to Willowborough a bit. To the jacaranda tree on the hill overlooking the town where he could feel the breeze on his face and be refreshed spiritually if not physically. Grown attached to the farmer along the way to his spot who always took the time to say hello to him regardless of whatever busy task he was doing. To the lady who had taken over the local bakery who had somehow guessed that he had a bit of a sweet tooth and always managed to put a confection in the daily bread delivery sent to commander Jacobs and his ward. He had above it all grown attached to Luke.
Leo had never had any siblings and he would be remiss if he did not say he had always wanted one. Despite his issues with older male figures since the events of his past, Luke had managed to actually break the thick walls of his emotional defences and earned his trust. He wondered how he would break it to him that he wanted to leave. His resolve for revenge was greatly weakened as he tried to think of a good way to tell his brother what he planned to do from the very start.
He stood up and dusted off the blade of grass and flowers from his clothes as he made the journey back to their home dreading the discussion that was to come. He walked in solemn silence and did not even take out his phone to play the AJR music he liked to play when he went on long walks. It was a very long forty minutes and he did not feel like he had come to any concrete decision. He pushed the remove to open the electric gate and entered their house. He found the place a complete mess. Things were thrown all over the place. Shattered material littered the floor. For a few seconds, he thought intruders had come into the place until he realised how foolish the thought was with the level of security the place had.
He went and placed his fingers on one of the shattered vases on the floor. He freed his thoughts and then felt the rage. The sheer emotion that was behind the shattering of the glass shook him. He was able to tell that it was rage that Luke had felt and he knew that something had greatly disturbed him. His brother needed him so he rushed upstairs to his room and kicked the door in.
He found him standing shirtless as he sent punches of such ferocity into the punching bag dangling from his wall. It was ripped up in a way that said he had been working through a lot of feelings in the past few hours. He turned to Leo and then the ferocious look on his face went slack and his face was as if he was waking up from a trance. Leo did not say the word and simply walked to him and grabbed him in a tight hug. Luke was caught off guard and took some seconds before he finally hugged him back as his feelings became more grounded. The whole time this happened Leo was able to get a sense of the situation using his Psychometry. One time he did not mind hugging a shirtless sweaty bastard.
He finally pulled back with his hands on his brother's shoulders and looked into his extremely light brown eyes and asked, " are we gonna kill him or not? say the word and I am in brother." Luke's eyes flashed with surprise and then acceptance and gratitude as if he knew that Leo knew somehow. He did not ask how he found out. He simply shook his head and pat Leo on the cheek the way he usually did after he kicked his ass and wanted to cheer him up.
"It's okay little brother, karma has a way of rounding back on guys like him and revenge will only cause me more grief which I just don't need right now. Instead, let us look at more positive things," Luke said while turning around and reaching for a towel on a nearby stool. He wiped himself up and then sprayed some body spray on himself before moving to the place where there was a large mat on the floor.
He took a seat and gestured for Leo to take his seat and then he said all mysteriously. The fundamentals of martial arts are Hard and Soft. That is the whole concept of yin and yang that they spout in those Chinese movies and eastern fantasy novels. The basis of tai chi is also in this concept. It is believed that first came energy and then came form. Thus together they brought life. Meaning that everything begins with those two concepts. Hard and soft. Form and energy. The form is pertaining to techniques and training centred around the physical body. Those are what we have been going through these past six months all in an effort to push your body to its limit. Your muscles and strength are at the limit of what they can be at your current level.
There is a lot of research and studying that went into developing these theories because generally human martial arts were mostly based around the hard system of training and it was efficient in creating powerful juggernauts that could tank the most terrifying damage and also deliver the most terrifying attacks possible but somehow something felt like it was missing. We all thought the missing link was in the efficiency which was partly correct and thus more and people opted for martial arts that made people powerful and yet lean. Only enough muscle to power attacks and movements but not too much to obstruct agility, it was ground-breaking but still wasn't enough. That was when we looked at eastern concepts of energy and energy manipulation. So we found Chi.