Second Chance

Chapter 15: High-Tier

Wellston:

Arlo's Apartment, 3:15 PM

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A high-tier, two percent of the population, the ruling class, born for success. Trained from birth to become leaders of society, but most importantly... trained to fight. Yet this was not the case for some. Unlike John, who was trained by his father in hand-to-hand combat, Blyke was not born to be a high-tier, rather he forced himself into it, so naturally he was unprepared for what lied ahead when learning from those who were.

Elaine had walked into Arlo's 'training area' where the three men were duking it out, looking to see if anyone needed to be healed yet.

"Arlo! Is everyone still breathing?" She called to him from the sidelines.

Leaving the scuffle, he walked over to her.

"We are good... For now" He responded. "Is there anything left in the fridge to drink?" He asked.

"I'll make some juice" Elaine answered.

"Yeah, that would be nic-" Arlo began...

"AHHHHH" a scream echoed from Blyke as he was flipped.

John and Blyke had continued to spare while Arlo was talking to Elaine, but John had a severe advantage when it came to close quarters combat. He had found an opening in Blyke's defense which he fully exploited by flipping him in a takedown style move, pinning him to the ground.

Angered from being taken down again by John, Blyke activated his ability unconsciously for the added strength boost to overpower him. Although John told them 'no abilities' he figured this would happen eventually, so he allowed himself to be pushed off so the situation would diffuse.

"Blyke! Remember what I said? NO ABILITIES" John yelled to him across the room.

Realizing that he had accidentally activated, he immediately shut down.

"My bad... It's just a natural reaction for me" Blyke explained.

"That's exactly the issue" John responded. "You rely too much on what your ability can do for you, but not what you can do for your ability!"

Puzzled by this, Blyke had to humor John by asking him what he meant. This also caught Arlo's attention who had finished with Elaine on the sidelines.

"Blyke, what separates us high-tiers from the rest is not just our abilities incredible potential, but ourselves. The user is what makes the real difference" John began.

"For example, with my ability, I have a powerful one, but it relies on others to be useful. When I manipulate someone else's aura to my own, and proceed to use their power better than they can, it's not just a matter of base ability strength, it's a matter of the user and their attributes" John finished.

"What's your point?" Blyke was still confused.

John was about to answer when Arlo spoke up for him.

"He means that the best way to improve your ability, is to improve yourself without using it" Arlo interjected.

Although upset by being interrupted, John agreed with Arlo's analysis.

"Exactly" John agreed. "There are two steps in this process, the first is to train without using your ability, and the second is to train with it active, but not using its power"

"Even though you may not notice it, when we use our complex abilities, we drain more energy, and this will directly affect our combat effectiveness" John continued.