The Fusionist Book 5 -- Chapter 37

Chapter 37

“So, are you ready to try some other techniques for subjugating your Stama?”

Instead of being ready for disappointment yet again, Larek was actually anticipating this class all day. His first few classes with other trainees had been very similar to the previous day, though he did receive quite a few more curious looks in his Stama and Battle Arts training; from the few conversations he overheard, they were wondering why he wasn’t participating – and why Instructor Wendie wasn’t taking him to task for it. He ignored the whispers and used the time to observe the other trainees instead, which continued to firm up his belief that he had found the solution to his own Stama problem.

He hadn’t actually accomplished anything yet, even after an epiphany the night before, but he had a good feeling about his chances in his Stama Subjugation class. He was so preoccupied with his thoughts on his Stama that he barely cared that he was subjected to another intense and physically draining training session with Senior Instructor Torge. If anything, his preoccupation allowed his instincts take over as he practiced regulating his strength and adjusting his body to get through the obstacle course, reaching farther than the day before. There was even one section that he’d gotten to that included Instructors throwing fist-sized wooden spheres at him as he walked along a thin wooden beam, designed to teach trainees how to dodge projectiles while actively moving, and he managed to get across with only a few hits. He even managed to keep his balance despite the impacts being hard enough to leave temporary bruises, which earned him some minor accolades from a few of the other trainees.

Every other private instruction he participated in shown marked improvement in his handling of weapons and combat awareness – though he still ended up battered, bruised, and laid out on the floor time and again the by superior abilities of the Drekkin training him. Still, both his better stat management and a few more increases in his Martial Skill Levels had shown a visible improvement in the way he moved in combat – at least in his own eyes. He was sure he was still pathetically awkward and slow compared to many of the other trainees, let alone the Instructors, but he could already feel himself getting better.

Now, it was time to work on his other major obstacle: his Stama.

“I actually think I figured something out last night, though I haven’t tried it yet,” he said in response to his Instructor’s question about attempting some new techniques.

As the Drekkin had mentioned before, instead of staying in Mock Arena 5 for this portion of the training, they had moved to the relatively quiet, empty space of Training Hall 205. It wasn’t a very large “hall”, more like a 50 foot by 50 foot room constructed of stone with a few thin mats sparsely scattered about, but it was more than enough for just the two of them.

“Oh, and what it that?”

Larek hesitated to say anything, because if he told the truth, it would out him as a Mage. While he was beginning to believe that the Senior Instructor wasn’t one to freak out over that knowledge, and might even be an ally in his journey to improve all aspects of himself, he wasn’t quite ready to reveal that information. If his idea worked, then the explanation would almost require sharing that secret, but he didn’t want to overcommit until he knew it worked for sure.

“It’s… something new, and I’m not even sure it will work,” he deferred. “If it does, then I’ll try to explain it a little better.”

“Just make sure you don’t hurt yourself permanently or allow your Stama to take control, or you may never get it back,” the Drekkin warned, and Larek nodded in affirmation.

Taking a deep breath, the Fusionist closed his eyes and entered a hyper-focused state, concentrating on his body and the Stama welled-up inside of it. This was what he had done the night before in his room when he had an epiphany, but it wasn’t until now – when he had someone nearby to help in case anything went wrong – that he was going to do anything about the knowledge he learned.

Using his Magical Detection Skill, he confirmed what he was seeing with what he had figured out. He looked at the density of energy around the area, seeing the strands of light that marked the ambient Mana that was available. More accurately, what he was seeing was the floating energy that was released from the world of Corruption that opened Scissions and then Apertures all over the world. He had noticed this before in the Sealance Empire, as the multicolored strands seemed to change in appearance when they entered a Mage’s body and then changed in a different way when it entered a Martial’s body. He had already deduced that this free-floating energy was basically converted into Mana or Stama when the body absorbed it from the environment, but it didn’t really *click* in his mind until last night. The only excuse he could think of why it hadn’t occurred to him until now was that it hadn’t really mattered at the time of his discovery of the multicolored strands, as he had been more focused on Mana density than anything else – which had been a mistake.

What he should have realized but hadn’t was that both Mana and Stama were two sides of the same energy that infused the world. In simpler terms, his Mana felt like a tranquil river flowing lazily through his entire body, while his Stama had the sense of being a raging inferno contained in a relatively small space in his chest. Whenever he let his anger or intense emotions overwhelm him, it pierced through the container of his Stama and released it throughout his body, where it seemed to have a mind of its own in the way it was used.

And it was the truth behind that concept, of it having a mind of its own, which led him to discover what he had the night before.

It was all Corruption. When it entered his body as Mana, it was pacified and tamed by his mental abilities, which were reflected in his stats. In other words, his mind took it in, dominated it and told it to behave, and it did.

When it entered his body as Stama, however, it wasn’t influenced by his mental stats but by his physical stats, which left it charged with the powerful strength of his physical body. Instead of being tranquil and tame, it was like a wild animal, and only by subjugating by accessing those same stats would it obey a Martial’s commands, moving to where it was instructed to go. That was also why he was warned by both Penelope and Bartholomew that the higher Stama someone had, the stronger the pushback the Stama had against the person controlling it; with higher stats to feed off of when it entered his body, it would therefore be that much harder to subjugate.

Herein lied the problem. Having obtained Stama when his Martial stats were already quite high, and then making no active attempt to subjugate it once it was in its body, his Stama was now wholly independent and wouldn’t listen or react to anything he did to it. Essentially, it had a mind of its own and wasn’t interested in being under the thumb of anyone. It seemed to have a small sense of self-preservation, which was why it didn’t do anything that would cause him to outright die or lose complete control, but it was otherwise going to do what it wanted to. The fact that it hadn’t simply taken over at all times was due to the fact that it was locked away, only accessible when his intense emotions – when he recently realized was influenced by his Dominion magic – cracked open the barrier around his Stama and released it into his body.

It wasn’t until he really entered his hyper-focused state and discovered that he barrier around his Stama wasn’t just some sort of metaphysical shell made of hopes and dreams.

No, it turned out that the containment of his Martial energy was none other than a thick barrier of Mana.

At first, he wasn’t sure if he was correct, because how could the peaceful energy of his Mana ever contain the wild, destructive energy of his Stama? Was it the same in everyone else?

Observing other trainees using their Stama and looking closer with his Magical Detection Skill at the pool of their energy in their bodies, he discovered that they didn’t. Instead, it was purely their Stama Subjugation Skill that allowed them to contain their Stama in their bodies until it was needed, an unconscious control that kept it on a leash. So, why was his different? Well, because of the way his Mage side was awakened, it also activated his Martial side most of the way; but since it wasn’t done with an initial influx of foreign Stama – which he deduced was actually designed to teach his body how to subjugate the Martial energy – his body had to adapt. Instead of subjugating his Stama, his Mana simply contained it and locked it away so that it wouldn’t harm anyone.

Because his mental stats had always been higher than his Martial stats, his mind had been able to easily contain his dangerous Stama. It was only through times of stress that the shell cracked open – but it was also his newest Battle Art, Tactician Mind, that allowed him to boost his mental stats enough to partially counteract the boosts to his physical stats to influence his actions somewhat while he was being controlled by his Stama.

So, what was it that he needed to do to finally access his Stama? All of this knowledge he had gained from observation and introspection led to one quite simple conclusion, and it was the basis of which he was going to finally control that which had slipped through his grasp time and time again.

And that conclusion was what he already knew, but hadn’t acknowledged: Mana and Stama were one in the same. It was only what stat ultimately influenced them that made the difference.

If that was the case, then he could also draw some parallels to the Skills that dealt with them directly: Mana Controland Stama Subjugation. Mana Control hadn’t exactly been easy to acquire, but once he had it, it made controlling his Mage energy almost effortless. With Stama Subjugation, he had to give up the thought that he could ever master the Skill enough to actually control his large Stama pool; the time for establishing dominance over his Stama through the use of the Skill was long past. For any other Martial, his body would’ve been crippled by the lack of control, if it hadn’t already ripped him apart by the destructive strength of raw physical energy.

But Larek wasn’t just any other Martial. His Mage energy had been able to contain but not directly control his Stama, preventing him from being crippled or killed by it. But they were both energy with different… flavors, he supposed, but energy, nonetheless.

What did that mean?  Well, if there was anything he was good at, it was directing energy to follow a particular pattern to achieve a desired result.

In other words, he was going to use a Fusion to achieve control. But instead of powering it with Mana, he was going to use Stama.

Foolhardy? Probably. Dangerous? Certainly. But did he think it would work? Yes; yes, he did.

Why did he believe he could do this in the first place? Because he had already been manipulating his Martial stats for a long time now through his Boost Fusions, and they directly influenced his Stama pool. He had been told before that Stama Subjugation wasn’t a Skill that could be boosted by a Fusion, which he certainly understood why; it was something that couldn’t be artificially enhanced, as it had to do with the Martial’s control over their own stats – just like he was learning from Senior Instructor Torge.

But he was confident enough in his abilities as a Fusionist to create an aid in conjunction with his Skill, a way to train Stama Subjugation so that it could be used properly. It would be way around the limitations he currently had when it came to controlling his Stama, while using his strengths at the same time.

As he prepared himself to start, he could sense his Instructor getting closer before laying a hand on his shoulder for direct contact; he mentally sighed in relief that Torge already knew why he wanted to do this with someone else present. The Drekkin, having much more experience with Stama and manipulating it outside of his body and in someone else’s, would be able to monitor him in case something went wrong and Larek’s Stama was let loose throughout his body without any control.

Now that everything was settled, he began to create the Fusion he had been thinking about all day. It was a relatively simple one compared to some he’d created lately, but it was also the most different. First and foremost, he was going to be making it inside of his body, something he’d never done before; he knew that it could be done after placing a Fusion on both Kimble and Nedira, though this was going a lot harder because wouldn’t be attached to skin or bone. Instead, it would be attached to the flesh inside of his body that surrounded where his Stama was located.

Secondly, instead of being flat and two-dimensional like usual, he had mentally designed a spherical formation. For the first time ever, one of his Fusions wouldn’t have sides, but would be attached in a way that it formed a perfect sphere, which would allow the connections between all of the different segments to flow naturally and much smoother than normal.

Last, and probably the most important difference, was that instead of Mana Cost, he was including a Stama Cost element to the formation. This was because he wasn’t planning on using Mana to initially fuel the Fusion, and it would be maintained by ambient Stama – just like his other Fusions used ambient Mana.

There were three Effects that he was using in his formation, the first of which was the same void carrier camouflage he’d used on his other Fusions, as it would hide what he was creating from prying eyes. While it would be using Stama instead of Mana, any Mage would be able to see the Pattern Cohesion he would be investing into the Fusion, and he wanted to avoid anyone noticing it; thankfully, they wouldn’t be able to see Stama being absorbed from the nearby area, so it would essentially be invisible.

The second Effect was based on the Void Pocket he’d created earlier, with the flexible net that contained the storage space inside the Fusion. Instead of it being used in the void, it was instead going to be used to contain all of the Stama in his body inside of the Fusion. Since it would be powered by Stama and framed with Pattern Cohesion, he figured it would be strong and flexible enough to handle all of his Stama – as well as any that might be added in the future.

The last Effect was modeled after his understanding of Stama Subjugation, Mana Control, and even Pattern Manipulation. Because Stama was a bit volatile and had a mind of its own, especially in large, concentrated quantities, this Effect had two purposes: 1. To release the Stama in smaller quantities, adjustable to 5 different Magnitudes with mental phrases and 2. Exert mental control over the smaller quantities of Stama released and have it go where he wanted it without it taking over his body.

This was the portion that was the hardest, because while he had a basic understanding of how Stama Subjugation worked, he’d never actually been able to do much more than influence it slightly. Still, his experience controlling his Mana and his Pattern Cohesion filled in some of the gaps, though he knew it wasn’t going to be perfect.

At least at first.

Which was the reason for the different Magnitudes of releasing his Stama. He was well aware that even with this Fusion, it couldn’t replace a Skill in its entirety, but having smaller amounts of Stama to work with would be much easier than trying to subjugate his entire Stama pool all at once. It was with this method that he would be able to slowly release Stama that he could manipulate and slowly increase his Stama Subjugation Skill over time, eventually allowing more and more Stama to be released over time as his control improved.

Adding in an Input for detecting mental phrasing, Variables for the different phrases, a Permanent and a Reactive Activation Method, and 1 through 5 Magnitudes, he was all set.  Assembling it with his mind’s eye inside of his chest was difficult at first, but his familiarity with his own body made the process easier as he constructed the spherical Fusion around his pulsating Stama pool, and he took special care to ensure that it was connected correctly and all of the Stama pathways would allow the energy to flow freely.

It was at this point that he realized he should’ve practiced both creating a spherical Fusion and using Stama to power on something that wasn’t the inside of his chest, but he pushed that aside as he finished the last of his triple-checking for any errors. When there didn’t seem to be any issues, he took another deep breath and concentrated on the Mana barrier around his Stama pool.

He could feel the sweat dripping down his cheek as he performed the most delicate portion of this entire process. After discovering that his Stama was surrounded and contained by his Mana, he realized that he could easily pierce through it by using his Mana Control to make a hole in the barrier; of course, doing that without being able to subjugate his Stama could be a disaster, especially as he’d seen before that his Stama was destructive and liked to force itself out of any cracks to escape completely. He had originally thought about the Effect he eventually put in this Fusion as a way to let out tiny amounts of Stama to see if he could subjugate those amounts, but it was just too dangerous.

But now he was doing it on purpose. Piercing the Mana barrier in a tiny area right around where the Stama Cost section of his Fusion was located, he mentally winced as his little hole ended up popping the barrier completely, like a soap bubble poked by his finger. He was suddenly glad that he hadn’t attempted this without preparation, because he wasn’t sure what would’ve happened – he might have even died.

As it was, though, his Fusion greedily sucked in nearly all of the Stama that was released, a lot sloppier than when he funneled Mana into a formation. Some of it drifted outward into his body, and he suddenly felt an intrusion of foreign Stama in his body as Torge rapidly corralled and pushed the wayward Stama back into the Fusion; the Drekkin couldn’t actually see where he was pushing it since he couldn’t observe Pattern Cohesion, but he certainly felt something when the Stama he had pushed into Larek was sucked up as well.

The Senior Instructor gasped in surprise, but Larek was too involved with maintaining the integrity of the Fusion to pay attention to outside distractions. As the Stama was absorbed into the Stama Cost section, the volatility of the physical energy showed that it wasn’t exactly meant for this kind of activity; it immediately began to try and break apart his formation, shaking the entire thing like it was trying to escape through whatever means it could find. His hyper-focused state was the only thing that allowed Larek to keep it all together, forcibly holding the formation in one cohesive whole without letting the Stama get its way. He belatedly thought that if he had tried this even a month ago, the formation would’ve shattered from the internal pressure; as it was, his focus and Skills were just barely enough.

It also apparently took massive amounts of Pattern Cohesion to withstand the internal pressure, as thousands of his Cohesion streamed in from around his body and into his new Fusion, to the point where it began to worry him that he’d bitten off more than he could chew. Even as more ambient Stama was absorbed from the environment and sent directly into the Fusion, the drain on his precious resource continued. 5,000, then 10,000, and finally 15,000 Pattern Cohesion moved into the formation within 30 seconds; when it reached 20,000, he began looking for a way to make it stop, as he currently only had 23,940 Pattern Cohesion, as he wasn’t wearing his boosting Fusions because of his previous training.

It was a mistake he wouldn’t make again if he lived through this.

Thankfully, at 22,000 Pattern Cohesion consumed in the creation of the Fusion, he felt the absorption of Stama into the Fusion slow down, before stopping altogether. As his Stama began to gather in his pool again and with the Mana barrier gone, he had to hurry. Struggling to keep the entire formation together as it felt like it was going to explode at any moment, he attached it to his internal flesh, which mostly settled over his heart. When it was as perfectly placed as possible, he forced it to finish as he delicately let it go.

Rather than the normal *click* as it settled where he wanted it without exploding, there was a deep *thump* that he could feel throughout his entire body, followed by an invisible shockwave of energy as all his Mana and Stama was expelled from his body simultaneously, disturbing the multicolored strands of light that permeated the environment.

It was only the Senior Instructor’s hand on his shoulder that kept him upright as his vision went blurry and a wave of exhaustion flowed through his entire body. He slumped in place, too tired to move and too mentally strained to check on his new Fusion.

All that mattered at that point was that he was still alive and it hadn’t exploded, so he figured that it had been at least a partial success.

“What… what did you do?”

When he was finally able to gather his thoughts and sit up again without wanting to collapse into a pile of exhausted goo, Larek sought out to answer that same question for himself.