Divine Apostasy Book 7 - Chapter 53

Chapter 53

Ruwen and the rest of the Adepts, even to his surprise, Echo, treaded water above the coral disk he had found the night before. The late morning sun reflected off the water, causing him to squint. The waves swelled as they approached the shore, and everyone moved up and down with the perpetual motion.

The thick cotton of their uniforms held the salt water and normally would have made swimming difficult with all the weight, but the combination of everyone’s superb physical shape and the extra one hundred Swimming skill the Viper Pants of Floating provided made it easy.

“Below us is a coral disk,” Ruwen said to the Adepts. “It highlights one of the three hidden patterns in the Steps. Do any of you know them?”

Ruwen glanced at Sift who floated on his back with closed eyes, smiling every time a wave raised and lowered his body.

After a brief silence, Nymthus responded. “Since it is under water and our pants keep us safe from drowning, I’m assuming it has something to do with breathing.”

“That’s right. Who here pays attention to their breathing?” Ruwen asked.

Prythus spoke up. “Our Master taught us to breathe through our nose, exhale when striking, and take deep breaths to calm the heart and feed our muscles.”

“Excellent advice,” Ruwen responded. “But there is more. The first three trials emphasized balance, and this breathing trial is no different.” He glanced at all the Adepts. “If you pay attention to your breathing, you will find it incredibly erratic. Sometimes you breathe quick and shallow, other times, slow and deep. Also, many Bamboo and Viper Steps benefit from lungs that are only partially full. Which means we should not assume the two best states are full lungs or empty and rush to each.”

The Adepts watched Ruwen, obviously not having ever given thought to alternate states. The exception was Echo, who observed passively, but he could tell she already knew this concept.

“Sisen Sift,” Ruwen said. “Is it more complicated than that?”

“It’s always more complicated,” Sift responded, still floating on his back. “Many Steps benefit from a buildup of oxygen, and some even from a lack of it.”

“How can starving your body of air be helpful?” Nymthus asked.

Sift let his feet drift downward and he looked at the Adepts. “The Bamboo Viper Steps are much more than a fighting style. They teach balance, and not just how to make the two styles even, but the complexities of reaching that balance.”

Ruwen’s heart raced at hearing Sift say the word “even.” He brought it under control and swallowed, his mouth still filled with the taste of maple syrup.

Sift continued. “Primal parts of your brain respond to danger like not getting enough air, altering the alchemy of your blood, and providing a surge of strength and speed, beneficial for some Steps. Empty lungs make other movements easier to perform. The complexities go on and on.”

The Adepts watched Ruwen and Sift with rapt attention.

“Below us,” Ruwen said. “Is a coral disk. It contains thousands of tiny holes that bubble air seemingly at random. They are not random.”

“We confirmed it this morning,” Sift said.

Ruwen nodded. “The trial below, if I had to guess, provides most of the hidden breathing knowledge. More than enough to give you an advantage over your opponents.”

“How does it work?” Prythus asked.

“In a moment,” Ruwen said. “We will sink and swim to the edges of the coral disk, which produces a constant stream of bubbles. It takes practice, but when you feel a bubble passing your nose, breath in immediately.”

“It feels like your nose is itching,” Sift added. “That’s when you know to breathe. This is difficult, and your heart will race. Normally you’d control that with breathing, but since that is the source of the issue, it compounds the problem. A wicked design.”

The Adepts remained silent.

Sift continued. “I’ll say it again. This is not easy. It took me an hour this morning to get comfortable breathing at the edge, and longer to make my way through the Steps. Do not let the stress overwhelm you.”

Ruwen hid a smile. It had only taken Sift a few minutes to catch on to the underwater breathing, but he’d added almost an hour to the time to take the pressure off the Adepts.

Over Sphere of Influence’s mental link, Ruwen spoke to Sift. You are a great Sisen.

Sift turned to Ruwen and grinned, as the taste of maple syrup disappeared.

“Let’s see if anyone can beat our Sisen,” Ruwen said, hoping the competition might distract them from the worry of breathing underwater.

Ruwen sank and the other thirty-two Adepts followed. The water here was far enough from the beach that it remained free of sand and the sun provided plenty of light. The Coral Vipers had disappeared or remained out of sight.

Echo, who didn’t need to breathe because of her Gem Fortified body, figured the bubble-breathing out almost immediately. A man in Rung One and a woman in Rung Three didn’t know how to swim, and the added anxiety made the process hard for them. Even with the added hundred skill points to Swimming, their unfamiliarity with the water made it difficult.

All the Adepts except for Echo triggered the safety passives on their Viper Pants of Floating at least once, but less than thirty minutes later, the Adepts stood in a ring along the edge of the disk. Ruwen and Sift strode to the middle where a flowing stream of bubbles, just like at the edge, floated upward. The water-soaked uniforms provided enough weight to keep everyone firmly pressed to the ground.

Sift began the Viper Step forms, and when enough space separated them, Ruwen moved to the center and began breathing from the stream of bubbles. Then, mirroring Sift, he began the Viper Steps as well.

Ruwen moved through the forms, marveling at the ingenuity of this trial. It wasn’t perfect. He had spent a vast amount of time figuring out the most efficient way to breathe through the forms and had taken his knowledge far past what this disk provided. The value of the trial to the others was massive, though. Instead of spending months experimenting constantly to find the right sequences, this disk got you close.

When Ruwen needed to breathe, a column of bubbles always met him, when he shouldn’t breathe, no bubbles existed. It was an astounding piece of construction. Spending an hour down here would have shaved months from his trial-and-error method. The Founders had commented about Masters always being welcomed here, and he could see why they would want to return. This type of advanced training was invaluable.

Echo remained on the edge of the disk as the other Adepts attempted the course. She studied the bubble patterns intensely, and Ruwen guessed she was mentally moving through the forms. He did something similar when learning. Visualizing the movements and actions ahead of time to aid his technique.

The Adepts triggered the passive on their Viper Pants of Floating with every attempt, some of them not even making it three steps before panic overwhelmed them and they gulped in a lungful of water, or the lack of oxygen made them too dizzy to function.

As the day wore on, all of them made progress, however, and Ruwen could see the immense pride they felt for the accomplishments. At mid-afternoon, he stopped them for the day, as the Adepts showed signs of exhaustion from the difficult training.

Echo remained as the rest of the Adepts swam to the surface. As Ruwen, Sift, and the Adepts swam toward the beach, he studied the pressure waves she generated as she attempted the coral disk for the first time.

Not needing to breathe gave Echo an advantage, because when she failed, she only needed to walk back to the center and start the process again. With the entire day spent studying the bubble patterns, she made incredible progress.

On the ninth attempt, Echo successfully finished the Viper sequence.

Ruwen, Sift, and the Adepts reached the beach, and the Adepts stumbled out of the surf, their bodies trembling from the day’s efforts. They laughed and joked; their spirits high from success. Ruwen told Sift to head to the dining hall with the other Adepts, and that he’d catch up later.

Ruwen stood in the surf, waist deep in the ocean. He faced the bamboo covered hills and analyzed the pressure waves Echo continued to generate back on the coral disk.

It took seventeen attempts for Echo to finish the Bamboo forms, as the Step’s throws and twists created a more complex breathing pattern.

On the fifth attempt of the combined Viper and Bamboo Steps, Echo succeeded. Ruwen strode out of the water, amazed at Echo’s ability to master techniques she’d only observed for half a day. Her Gem Fortified body helped, certainly, but he knew that wasn’t the only thing. Echo had excellent Step skills paired with natural ability, and while not on the same scale as Sift’s talent, it bore many similarities.

Ruwen doubted Sift or Echo would ever match his probability wave abilities, so they would likely never best him in a fight, but Echo, just like Sift, had a natural grace that gave their movements a beauty Ruwen couldn’t match.

Ruwen sighed as he exited the ocean, scolding himself for the brief attack of jealousy. What he lacked in natural ability, he made up for with focus, intelligence, and work ethic. This allowed him to succeed in almost everything he concentrated on. Only art like the Stone Sculptor Valora’s sculpture, Clouds Embracing the Sun, that gave a buff just by looking at its magnificence, were outside his capabilities to master.

A voracious curiosity had served Ruwen well his whole life, but he didn’t have time anymore to chase perfection on things that didn’t matter to his immediate goals. So Sift and Echo could remain the champions of graceful beauty, while Ruwen concentrated on healing himself, transitioning to the Divine rank, and creating gods.