Strongest Nova: Path of Vengeance

Chapter 14: Hold Back

Stanley woke up to a loud thud in his room. He quickly looked around with drowsy eyes, trying to find the source of the sound only to see his brother in the room.

"Brother, what are you… did you use your powers to get in?" he asked.

"How else would I have gotten in?" Bradley asked. "Why are you still asleep when you were the one that asked me to train you."

"Uhh… can I sleep for 5 more minutes, please. Just 5 more… no," he quickly got back up and got out of bed. He jumped up a few times to wake himself up.

"Let me go wash my face. We can leave after that," Stanley said.

"Take your stuff and come along," Bradley said. "We're going by the open ground next to the old mill to train, so you can wash by the stream there."

"Oh, okay," Stanley said and grabbed a few things before leaving.

The sky was bright and as such the town had somewhat woken up as well. However, since the direction the sun rose from was in the direction where the two cliffs met, it took some time before they actually got to see the sun.

The old mill was on the other side of the 4th quadrant, and it took the two brothers just under 10 minutes to get there with how open the roads were this early in the morning.

They arrived by the mill that was next to a rather large stream that made use of the vast quantity of water to run a water wheel that was used for running the mill to crushing giant ores up by the 2nd quadrant.

The two of them walked across a small wooden bridge and arrived on the open grassland that was on the other side.

"Wash up, we will start afterward," Bradley said and the two brothers went to the large stream.

Clear water flowed through the stream at quite a force. Stanley crouched by the edge of the riverbank and cupped his two hands to pull up some water.

As he did, he remembered what he had done yesterday. He let go of the water and looked at the palm of his left hand.

There was a barely visible red mark that itched a bit if he pressed on it hard, but there was no pain or discomfort otherwise. The burn he had suffered yesterday had somehow almost fully healed.

"Brother, do you think I could have a healing power?" he asked absentmindedly.

"Healing power? What makes you think that?" Bradley asked while washing his face.

"Because of this," Stanley showed his palm. "I had burned myself on a pot in the noodle shop back in the 3rd quadrant yesterday. It was a bad burn, but somehow within 15 minutes it was almost completely gone."

"Huh?" Bradley looked at his palm and came up close. "You're not lying, right?"

"No, of course not," Stanley said. "I'm being serious, brother. I might have healing powers. It's either that or the Mayor's healing power has a residual factor."

"After 3 months? No way! That can't be…" Bradley said softly. "And if it is your power then how do you activate it?"

Stanley paused and shook his head. "I don't know," he said.

"You don't know?" Bradley asked. "How can you say you've awakened a power when you don't even know how to activate it? If you really did, you must know the activation ritual. Try and think what it could be. You should know what it is instinctively."

Stanley closed his eyes and tried to check if he knew his activation ritual. However, he couldn't really tell if he had any. Did that mean that he hadn't awakened his powers and had in fact used what the Mayor had left behind?

But as his brother said, it had been 3 months since then. Could it really not be the mayor's powers then?

If he hadn't awakened and wasn't using the Mayor's healing powers, then why was he healing so quickly?

'Maybe I don't have a ritual? What if my activation ritual is getting injured?' Stanley thought. However, he himself couldn't believe it at all. Everyone simply knew their activation ritual when they got power, however, he didn't know at all. Then was that not his power?

"Hurry up, so we can start."

Bradley went back and started stretching a bit while waiting for his brother to come. Seeing Stanley walking his way, he pulled out his sword and pointed at his brother.

Stanley looked at his brother. "Are we using real swords?" he asked. "Isn't that dangerous?"

"You want to fight the Crawlers, don't you?" Bradley asked. "Then you need to train with real swords. A wooden sword and a real sword have different weights and different balances. Any small variation that you're not used to in a fight can result in death, so you need to be trained for it with your actual sword."

"I see," Stanley said and took out his sword as well. "What do we do now? Just fight?"

"How does your… thing work? What do you have to do to get it?" Bradley asked.

"Those instinctive feelings? Umm… I don't know if they have a special trigger, but they usually happen when I fight," Stanley said.

"Well, then we have no choice but to fight then," Bradley said. He got into a fighting stance and dashed toward his brother with his sword. The dash speed was slow since Bradley didn't want to hurt his brother accidentally, and Stanley understood that too.

He swung to the side and parried his brother's sword with his own.

Bradley felt force behind the hit and was surprised a bit. He used the force to turn and block the incoming strike only to be surprised by the force again.

"Stop! Stop! Stop!" Bradley quickly said and moved back. "Are you trying to hurt me for real or what? You don't have to strike so violently."

Stanley gave a confused look. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"Why are you hitting so hard?" Bradley asked. "You need to hold back a bit."

"But… I am holding back," Stanley said. "Quite a bit too."

Bradley's eyes narrowed. "What? Are you saying… that this is you holding back?"