ShadowBound: The Need For Power

With the week of resting granted to the student body before academy duties resumed, Liam had spent most of that time away from the dormitories and the idle conversations drifting through the academy grounds. While others used the break to relax, wander the city, or simply enjoy the rare absence of lectures and drills, Liam had taken advantage of something few students even knew existed.

An underground training hall constructed beneath the city of Grandeur.

It had been built quietly under the authority of Queen Lucy herself, designed specifically to give Liam a place where he could train without unnecessary attention or interference. The space remained isolated from the daily life of the academy above, allowing him to focus entirely on the one task that now mattered most.

Adapting to his new mystic level.

For the entirety of that week, Liam’s routine had remained simple and methodical.

He did not rush the process.

He did not test his strength recklessly.

Instead, he approached the adjustment the same way he approached most things in combat—by studying it carefully, step by step.

The first thing he began doing was regulating the flow of Myst within his body.

Most mages, upon reaching a higher star level, immediately attempted to test their new strength through spells or techniques. Liam did not. He understood that the real danger after an Ascension was not lack of power, but lack of control.

So he began with the most basic task possible.

Circulation.

Each day he would sit quietly on the cold stone floor, eyes half-closed, breathing slowly as he guided Myst from the center of his core outward through his channels. The process itself appeared uneventful to an outside observer, but to Liam it revealed an enormous amount of information.

At five-star, the Myst flowing through his body had always felt sharp and volatile, like a current of energy constantly pressing against the boundaries of his channels.

Now it was different.

The energy circulating through him felt heavier.

Denser.

It carried more pressure with each pulse of his core, as though the current running through his body had thickened. At first the sensation had been disorienting. The Myst moved faster than he expected, occasionally forcing him to slow the circulation just to keep the flow smooth.

For the first two days of training, that was almost all he did.

Circulate Myst.

Again and again.

Guiding the energy through his arms, his legs, the muscles along his spine, and then back into the core itself.

The purpose was simple.

He was learning how much Myst his body could handle at any given moment.

Occasionally he would increase the flow slightly, testing the pressure building within the channels. If the current began to feel unstable or strained, he would immediately lower it again.

Through repetition, he gradually began to map the new limits of his body.

By the third day, the circulation exercises no longer felt foreign.

His channels had begun responding naturally to the increased Myst pressure, and the once heavy flow started feeling familiar—almost comfortable.

Once that stage had passed, Liam began testing his physical movement.

He did not immediately begin combat drills. Instead, he focused on something far simpler.

Walking.

At first the movements felt strange.

His body was stronger now than it had been before the duel with Percy, but strength alone was not the issue. The increase in Myst amplification had altered the way his muscles responded to even small amounts of effort.

The first time he attempted a simple forward dash, he overshot the distance he had intended to travel by nearly two meters.

After that, he adjusted.

Liam began repeating short bursts of movement across the hall. He would start at one point, channel a controlled amount of Myst through his legs, then push forward with a single step.

Stop.

Turn.

Repeat.

The process looked almost trivial from the outside, but he repeated it hundreds of times.

Each movement allowed him to calibrate how much Myst was required to accelerate his body, how quickly his balance shifted when stopping, and how far his momentum carried him before his muscles corrected the motion.

On the fourth day of training, he began introducing sharper changes in movement.

Short dashes turned into sudden pivots.

Pivots turned into rapid directional shifts.

The exercises gradually evolved into a rhythm of motion where Liam would sprint, stop abruptly, twist his body, and change direction again.

With each repetition he learned more about the subtle changes in his reactions.

His reflexes were faster.

His balance corrected itself more quickly.

And the Myst reinforcing his muscles responded almost instantly to his intent.

Once he had become comfortable with movement, Liam turned his attention toward something far more important.

Myst efficiency.

At six-star, the amount of Myst available to him had increased significantly, but that did not mean he could afford to waste it.

So he began practicing techniques at the smallest possible scale.

Rather than unleashing full attacks, Liam would focus on producing minimal manifestations of his abilities. A flicker of dark flame would appear in his palm for a moment before fading away. A thin strand of shadow would form along the edge of his dagger before disappearing again.

The goal was not power.

The goal was precision.

Each attempt allowed him to observe exactly how much Myst was required to sustain even the smallest effect. What he discovered quickly was that the amount of energy required had decreased dramatically.

Techniques that once demanded noticeable effort now formed almost effortlessly.

By the end of the fifth day, Liam had begun practicing with his weapons again.

His dual daggers rested naturally in his hands as he repeated a sequence of movements he had practiced countless times before. The difference now was the Myst flowing through the blades.

At five-star, reinforcing his weapons with Myst had required deliberate concentration.

Now the energy wrapped around the steel almost instinctively.

Each slash carried a sharper edge of power, and even simple strikes felt heavier than before. Liam paid close attention to how the Myst behaved when it flowed along the surface of the blades.

If the current became too dense, the energy would extend slightly beyond the edge, increasing the cutting range.

That effect could be useful.

It could also be dangerous if left uncontrolled.

So he practiced suppressing the output, allowing only the smallest layer of Myst to coat the steel while he repeated basic attack patterns.

Slash.

Reverse.

Thrust.

Deflect.

Again and again.

Between those weapon drills, Liam occasionally tested the connection he maintained with his shadow companions.

Nyxie and Smoke responded to his summons almost immediately each time he called them. However, even here he noticed subtle changes.

The Myst linking them to his core felt stronger now.

Their presence within his shadows appeared clearer, as though the bond between them had deepened after his Ascension. Smoke’s movements through the surrounding darkness were faster than before, while Nyxie seemed capable of shifting between shadowed surfaces with greater ease.

Rather than pushing them into combat drills, Liam simply observed their reactions.

He would move through the hall while they followed his shadow, occasionally issuing quiet commands to test their response time.

Each instruction was simple.

Move here.

Hide there.

Return.

The goal was not to train them, but to confirm that the increase in his own Myst level had not destabilized the bond he shared with them.

By the sixth day, Liam had begun pushing slightly further.

The exercises became more demanding.

Rather than simple circulation or basic movement, he started combining both aspects of training. He would channel Myst through his body while performing continuous motion, forcing his system to maintain stable energy flow under physical strain.

The first time he attempted this, the result had been unpleasant.

Halfway through the exercise, the Myst circulating through his channels became slightly unstable, sending a sharp pulse of discomfort through his chest.

Liam stopped immediately.

He sat down, steadied his breathing, and allowed the flow to return to normal before trying again.

The second attempt went better.

By the third repetition, his body had already begun adjusting.

This was how Liam trained.

Not through reckless force, but through constant observation.

Every reaction from his body was recorded in his mind. Every subtle shift in Myst pressure, every slight delay in response from his muscles, every fluctuation in the flow of energy was something he noted carefully.

By the final day of that week, the difference in his movements was obvious.

The disorientation he had felt after waking up from the duel had completely vanished. The Myst circulating through his body moved smoothly, no longer resisting his control.

His reactions had stabilized.

His movements felt natural again.

And the increased pressure within his core no longer felt foreign.

One evening near the end of that week, Liam finally paused his training and sat quietly for a moment.

His daggers rested beside him while his gaze drifted toward the floor.

After several seconds of silence, he exhaled lightly through his nose.

"...Yeah," he muttered under his breath.

The adjustment process had gone better than expected.

His body had accepted the six-star domain far more smoothly than most mages ever could.

But even so, Liam understood something clearly.

This was only the beginning.

Being a six-star knightmage meant very little if he did not fully understand what that level of power allowed him to do.

So as the final day of rest approached its end and academy duties prepared to resume once again, Liam had already reached a simple conclusion.

He had adapted.

But he was not finished learning.

Not even close.