Depthless Hunger

The group gathered not just outside the outpost but outside the Windborn community. Kai thought about the region as wasteland even though it was far richer than what he knew in Goralia. In any case, it looked empty enough for a real demonstration of power.

Talndim set up a half dozen boulders in a line, each about the size of a person. Kai could only watch, along with Zae Zin Nim, Omilaena, Inafay, Orotaisin, and the Tonjin brothers. It seemed like they were the only ones who would be participating in this lesson. Once he was done, Talndim hopped up onto the last of the boulders, sat on the edge, and brushed off his hands.

"First off, forget this being some easy trick that will make you unstoppable right away," Talndim said. "That's not why we keep it secret. It's more like giving a sword to an infant. The baby isn't any more dangerous, it just might hurt itself. Anyway, question: what is power?"

Everyone looked back at him, taken off guard by the sudden switch in tone. Talndim chuckled and shook his head.

"This ain't philosophy here. You could say something like 'The ability to do shit' or 'Who's stronger than who.' It's all close enough. But if somebody gets a bigger and bigger sword, is it more powerful? Course not. That's useless unless you can actually use it for something. The same applies to magic and all forms of power."

"I don't know," Inafay said. "If people are throwing fireballs at me, I'm going to avoid the bigger one."

"Yeah, and a dagger is better than a toothpick. Scaling only matters up to a point." Talndim leaned back and scratched at his head. "This about it this way. Imagine two strong guys, really strong. One of them can blow up a mountain, the other one can blow up two mountains. But if the second guy is trying to hit his opponent by blowing up two entire mountains, isn't that kind of just... stupid? He's not fighting a mountain, he's fighting a guy. He should concentrate all of that power into a more focused technique."

"You're saying that phases exist to focus on powerful human opponents?" Kai asked.

"Don't get ahead of me now. Just talking about the basics here. Power is useless unless it's applied, and that means focus. Precision. If you take two men with the same strength, the one who applies his strength better will win. Why would that change as power increases? People who just try to blow up bigger and bigger mountains are idiots who'd never survive a real fight."