For the next two hours, Luthra did not speak, he simply turned the desolate canyon into a lethal obstacle course with Rebecca as the sole participant. He hurled rocks, not with the lazy arc of a lob, but with the flat, dangerous trajectory of a projectile, forcing her to dive and roll across the jagged ground until her new clothes were torn and her knees were scraped raw.
"Ow! Hey! That one took a piece of my hair! Are you even aiming?!"
He followed this by whipping his chain, the metal whistling through the air to kick up blinding clouds of dust and pebbles just as she regained her footing, or to wrap around a loose chunk of the canyon wall and send it crashing down near her position.
’This is a complete waste of time. She’s just flailing around like an idiot. She’s going to get herself killed.’
Rebecca scrambled away from a collapsing pile of shale, her breath coming in ragged gasps.
’He’s just being a bully! This isn’t training, he’s just taking his bad mood out on me! I hate him, I hate him, I hate him!’
Luthra picked up a rock the size of his head, weighed it in his good hand for a fraction of a second, and then threw it. The throw was different this time, it was not aimed at her, but at a point three feet in front of where she was about to land from her last clumsy dodge. It moved with a speed that was far beyond mere training.
The rock impacted the ground with a crack, spraying her with stone fragments. One of them, sharp as a piece of glass, sliced across her cheek, drawing a thin line of blood.
She froze, her hand flying up to her face, her fingers coming away wet. She stared at the blood, then at Luthra, who was already picking up another, larger rock.
’Wait. He knew. He knew exactly where I was going to be. That wasn’t a warning shot.’
A cold understanding washed over her. This was not a game, it was not bullying. This was a lesson. A brutal, painful, and absolutely serious lesson.
’He’s not trying to hurt me. He’s trying to teach me how to not get killed.’
Her entire posture changed. The frantic, panicked energy was replaced by a tense, coiled focus. She got into a low crouch, her eyes no longer watching Luthra, but watching the rock in his hand, his shoulder, the angle of his feet.
Luthra saw the shift, the sudden stillness that replaced her panicked scrambling.
’Hmph. Finally. It took her long enough.’
He threw the next rock.
Rebecca did not dive or roll away. She took a single, precise step to her left, letting the spinning projectile fly past her with only an inch to spare. She did not stumble. She did not fall. Her eyes were already on him, waiting for the next attack.
For the rest of the day, there were no more complaints, no more shrieks of protest. There was only the sound of whistling rocks, the crack of the chain against stone, and the soft scuff of Rebecca’s feet on the ground. She was not just dodging anymore, she was moving with an instinctive, predatory grace she never knew she possessed, her body flowing around his attacks like water.
As the sun began to set, Luthra stood with the chain coiled around his arm, watching her. She stood a hundred feet away, her breathing even, her body a collection of scrapes and bruises, but her eyes were sharp and focused.
He uncoiled the chain, letting the full length of it pool on the ground.
’Alright. Let’s see what she can really do.’
He stomped his foot, and the entire length of the chain shot up from the ground like a striking serpent, not at her, but at the unstable cliff face directly above her head.
The impact dislodged a massive section of the canyon wall. An avalanche of rock and earth, tons of it, began to cascade down towards her. There was no room to dodge, no time to run. It was an inescapable, crushing wave of death.
Rebecca looked up at the falling mountain of rock, and for the first time since the training began, she smiled.
It was not a happy smile, it was a grin of pure, unadulterated battle-lust.
"So this is what it feels like."
A torrent of chaotic, black-and-red energy erupted from her body, a violent aura that pulsed with raw, untamed power. She did not try to block the avalanche, instead, she lunged forward, directly into it, her small hands outstretched as if to welcome the crushing weight.
The system’s notification appeared
[Final preparations complete. Synthesis of [Negative Void Combat Arts - Stage 1] is 100% complete. Framework is now available for integration.]
’About damn time. Now how do I...’
Before he could even process the system’s message, Rebecca vanished from her spot beneath the cascading tons of rock, her previous location consumed by the avalanche without a trace. She reappeared directly in front of him, her small fist already swinging toward his face.
He instinctively brought his good arm up, his forearm intercepting the blow just inches from his nose. The force of the impact was absurd, a physical impossibility that launched him backward through the air, and he did not stop until he slammed into the far canyon wall a hundred feet away, the collision cracking the solid rock behind him.
’Shit. My arm is definitely broken and I think a few ribs, too.’
He slid down the wall into a heap, the pain a distant, secondary concern to the small, terrifying figure now walking calmly toward him across the dusty canyon floor.
She stood where he had been, a wide, predatory grin plastered across her face, her knuckles were scraping the dirt as she moved, "That was fun. Let’s do it again."
’Ugh, she lost control again.’
"System. Integrate the framework. Now."
An avalanche of pure information, far more vast and violent than the one made of rock, slammed into his mind. It was not a gentle download, it was a hostile takeover. Stances, breathing patterns, energy circulation routes, and dozens of techniques, each one designed to weaponize the very emptiness of his soul, were forcibly crammed into his consciousness.
The pain was a completely different animal from a simple broken bone, it was the agony of having his entire existence rewritten from the ground up.
[Integration with [Negative Void Combat Arts - Stage 1] initiated. Host’s neural pathways are being forcibly remapped. This process will be excruciating. Do not lose consciousness.]
He grit his teeth, his body convulsing on the ground as the system’s combat data carved new pathways through his mind.
Across the canyon, Rebecca watched him tremble, her grin widening, "Oh? Are you having a seizure? Don’t worry, I’ll help you."
She crouched low, her knuckles scraping the dirt, and then launched herself toward him again, a small, hate-fueled missile aimed at his prone form.