They were fighting? What could have happened for things to get so serious? It had only been a few short minutes since Aiyanna had seen them having a nice conversation, yet now they were at each other's throats. The captain even seemed like he was angry. That slap was pretty heavy-handed. Was Keros ok after that?!

Catherine in a fragile state, and while she was still upset at her brother, it pained her to see him get knocked across the room.

Catherine and Aiyanna were stunned. Aiyanna couldn't step in because it involved the captain, and Catherine was too scared at the moment to speak up.

They watched as laid on the ground with blood at his lips and a pained expression. Tears started to coat his unclear eyes. They watched as his expression warped and his eyes cleared. He stood up.

The other spectators observed him. They recognized the look on his face. It resembled his face yesterday when he bellowed those words about crushing everything. Rage, arrogance, and a bit of superiority. What was up with the kid? Had the captain knocked him senseless?

-

Keros stared at the Captain. His mind was blank. He wasn't thinking about anything, and he was engrossed in his emotions. The trauma from the mental stress of everything had been agitated by uncle Rod's slap and caused an explosion to occur within his being. He had lost control.

Uncle Rod returned the stare. His anger had subsided a bit, but now this kid was giving him such a look as if to say 'You're beneath me.'.

'You haven't had enough? Fine, I'll teach you some humility!' Uncle Rod thought. He had lost his temper and used too much strength. He assumed Keros would have been done after that, but he planned on continuing. Uncle Rod seemed as if he was upset by this, but deep down he was excited.

Keros didn't move from his position. He stood with a stance that displayed a lack of concern even though his opponent was just a few meters away. His body was angled in such a way that his left shoulder was directed at his opponent. His arms were at his sides, and his left leg was forward. His head was turned to the left so he was facing uncle Rod. He was waiting.

Uncle Rod displayed a similar lack of concern, however, his body seemed tenser than Keros'.

'What's with this feeling?!' Uncle Rod thought to himself. When he looked at Keros he had the impression that he was facing a beast. Not just any beast though, a King among beasts. The arrogant calm that he exuded wasn't unfamiliar to uncle Rod. He had felt it a similar feeling once before when he was younger. His troop had come across a terrifying beast, and they only left with their lives because the beast seemed to view them as nothing more than ants. Uncle Rod felt that once again today.

He wasn't the same person he had been, and he knew his opponent. He wasn't going to back off today as he had all those years ago just because Keros had the same aura. Since Keros wanted this fight and he wasn't going to engage then uncle Rod would!

Uncle Rod began to stride forward, and the closer he got the more guarded he became. It was a reaction when confronted by the aura Keros was giving off. One stride, two, three!

Keros moved! His hips twisted the right, followed by his torso. His arms bent and raised as his right leg lifted off the ground. He pivoted on his left foot and swung his body the rest of the way around. His knee came up high and his right leg extended as he pressed off with his left leg. His right leg struck at uncle Rod at an incredible speed, aiming directly for his stomach.

Turning sidekick!

*BANG*

The kick struck uncle Rod, who had brought his arms down to guard the kick. His feet lifted off the ground and he flew a meter or two back before he landed on his feet and took a few steps to steady himself. His arms were stinging, and his breathing became deep. That was an astonishing attack!

Uncle Rod looked at Keros. His right leg was already back on the ground. His eyes seemed clear again and he seemed unsteady, swaying lightly. His face contorted in pain when he swayed to the right and pressure was put on his right leg. Eventually, he collapsed to the floor, unable to continue.

Uncle Rod relaxed his body.

-

The moment Keros executed the kick, the sound of something dissipating rapidly rang out in his mind. He immediately sobered up and his eyes cleared. Pain shot up his leg, feeling as if it was being shocked continuously. He must have overexerted himself!

He wasn't sure what had happened to him. He didn't even know how to perform that kick! He had only experienced it executed in his dream, and he hadn't been in control of himself at that time. He felt similar to how he had in that dream as if he was a bystander watching from a first-person view. He had no control but he felt everything. The emotions, the way his body relaxed and tensed seemingly at random and the tingling sensation that followed. He even felt an empty feeling the moment his body acted. It felt as if it was trying to draw on something within him, but there was nothing there.

When he lowered his leg and put pressure on it he felt excruciating pain. He was swaying from exhaustion, and he would feel that pain every time he swayed to his right. Soon, he couldn't stand to put pressure on his leg anymore and he collapsed to the ground.

-

The fight had ended, but the tension in the atmosphere was still high. It was quiet except for the heaving breathing coming from Keros.

No one had expected the argument to escalate to such a point. The fight had quickly grown in seriousness and the bystanders had worried that could soon escalate into a deathmatch.

Uncle Rod started to slowly walk towards Keros. The people in the room finally began to speak up out of fear that he would kill Keros. They yelled at him to stop and started towards him

"Shut up! It's over, I'm not going to attack the kid!" He yelled

Uncle Rod was still a bit agitated by that kick, but he had no intentions to hurt Keros. He was both impressed and worried about Keros. He had only been testing Keros, but it devolved into a brawl and got out of hand. Keros had lasted longer than he thought he would, and he adapted well in the fight. He had tried his best not to overdo it and hurt Keros too much, but it was a fight after all. He worried that he had gone overboard. However, what impressed and worried him the most was that final exchange! That kick was amazing, and it had incredible power for someone who hadn't even begun cultivating. However, the consequences of Keros using it were apparent.

He walked over and squatted down by Keros

"Are you alright kid?" Uncle Rod asked

"I'm fine... I just can't put pressure on my leg." He said with heavy breaths

Uncle Rod helped Keros up and put his arm around his shoulders. He led him over and the other team members flipped the couch back over so he could sit. Uncle Rod helped him sit down, before plopping down beside him.

Uncle Rods' face was still a bit red from the knee earlier.

Keros on the other hand was quite the sorry sight. He had lumps all over him, and a bit of blood on his lip. His shirt was torn open at the buttons, and his arm was still bleeding a bit.

"Whew, that was intense." Uncle Rod said with a grin

"Intense? For you? I couldn't even put a scratch on you..." Keros said mocking himself.

"Well, yea. You didn't hurt me much, but that throw was pretty good. You even resorted to kneeing me in the crotch you little brat!" Uncle Rod replied.

They were speaking to each other quietly, so others couldn't hear them.

"What did you expect? You were beating the crap out of me and I couldn't get away." Keros said without remorse.

"It was dishonorable!" Uncle Rod replied

"Who are you to talk about honor when fighting me?" Keros switched from mocking himself to mocking uncle Rod.

Embarrassment briefly flashed across uncle Rods' face

"I had my reasons." Uncle Rod said with a snort. He continued

"You were being a little brat. I had to teach you to show me some respect. Plus, I wanted to see how far you would go to stand up for what you cared about." Uncle Rod said nonchalantly

"I will show you respect when you show it to me. You're constantly calling me a brat, so I'll call you an old dog." Keros replied in the same nonchalant tone. He didn't need to explain anything else since he had already shown how far he would go to defend his beliefs.

"Fair enough. I guess... By the way, I didn't want to punish her." Uncle Rod said as he stretched his legs out

Keros adorned a confused expression and looked at uncle Rod, urging him to continue

"She was upset about how she acted, so I gave her the least severe punishment I could think of so she could forgive herself quicker." Uncle Rod explained

"That's... An odd way to handle the situation. Why didn't you just say that from the beginning?" Keros asked.

"I wanted to test you to see how you would act to the thought of her being punished unfairly, and how far you'd go if it upset you. Also, it was kinda fun messing with you." Uncle Rod admitted.

"You're a jerk." Keros said flatly

"Haha. Hey now, don't act like you didn't get anything out of it. You seemed to be agitated from the moment you walked in here. Letting off some steam helped right?" Uncle Rod chuckled and said

Keros didn't reply. Uncle Rod was right, he had been in a bad mood. Bottling everything up recently was making him irritable and gloomy. Though he wouldn't be happy at a time like this, he was more relaxed after the fight. He might have had to pay a heavy price but he thought it was probably worth it.

"Keros!" Catherine exclaimed as she ran over

Keros looked to his left and saw her running towards him while crying. What was she doing here? wasn't she supposed to be in the office saying goodbye?

"What's wrong? Why are you in here?" He asked as she leaped over and hugged him. He grimaced from the pain.

"I heard some noise and went outside because it was bugging me. I told Aiyanna and we came to see what was going on. Why were you fighting? You got hurt again!" She cried out.

"It's okay. Uncle Rodney and I were just sparring. Sorry, we didn't mean to disturb you." Keros said as he rubbed her back.

Catherine looked over at uncle Rod and gave him a hateful stare. She was angry that he had hurt her brother, and she blamed him for disturbing her too.

"Alright, alright! I'm sorry. Please, stop looking at me like that." Uncle Rod said with a defeated look on his face.

They both took turns comforting her and assuring her that it was okay.

"Go back and spend some time with mom and dad." Keros said as he released her.

-

Aiyanna came over to get Catherine and lead her to the office, and uncle Rod got up to follow and spent the entire walk apologizing. They let Catherine go into the room alone and shut the door behind her.

Aiyanna began to head back outside to get her cleaning supplies, but uncle Rod stopped her at the entrance.

"You've done enough already. Go get ready for the funeral." He said

"Captain? I thought I was supposed to clean the entire barracks?" She was confused.

"You don't deserve to be punished. I think you represented this squad well and displayed everything that we stand for. I should have been able to find those words to say last night. So enough, go get ready."

Aiyanna was surprised. It felt nice to hear those words. She saluted and left the building to go back to her troop barracks and get ready.

She returned an hour later. Keros and captain Rodney were gone, but the lounge was still lively with the other team members joking about the event. They were still cleaning up the last of the mess that was left. She helped before taking a seat and joining the conversation.

"I didn't think little Vao would get so upset." One person said

"Yea, he let the captain know how he felt." another said with a chuckle

'What do they mean? Weren't they sparring?' Aiyanna thought. She thought it was a bit weird that it seemed so serious, but she didn't think too much into it earlier.

"Did you guys hear when he told the captain that his reputation wasn't worth crap, and called him an old dog? It was so funny that I could barely contain my laughter!"

"Haha, yeah it was pretty funny. Though things got a bit out of hand. I started to get worried at the end. They looked like they were going to kill each other."

Aiyanna was confused and didn't like being out of the loop. Eventually, she spoke up.

"What do you all mean? What actually happened?" She asked

"The captain and Keros got into an argument. I didn't catch the beginning, but I think it was about your punishment. Eventually, it caused a fight. It was pretty tame at the beginning but it even started to worry us toward the end." They told her. They knew since she was cleaning with a toothbrush that it was a punishment, but they didn't know the specifics.

'They fought over that?!' She thought with a frown. The captain must have told Keros about her punishment, but why would that cause a fight? Did Keros think the punishment was too light? No, that didn't seem like him, plus he had forgiven her last night.

'Then... Was he defending me?' She was as confused now as she was before.

"I guess little Vao might have a crush on you if he was willing to fight with the captain." One of them joked

'Surely not. He is just a kind person' Aiyanna blushed a bit.

-

Keros and uncle Rod were at the Special operations med bay. They were getting Keros examined.

His leg was scanned, and shortly the results were displayed to the attending physician. The physician spent some time looking over the results on the display before turning and speaking to the two.

"There are some fractures, and the muscles have quite a bit of damage. The channels that would normally allow Qi to flow through your leg have also sustained a bit of damage from overexertion. Luckily it's nothing major and with our help, you should be good to go in a day or two. However, you need to understand that the biggest issue here is your ignorance." She said before continuing

"When you use your Qi it flows from your Dantian to the other areas in your body through channels, hence why we say 'Channeling Qi'. Think of it like a river or a circuit, and what happens when a river overflows, or a circuit is overloaded? Irreparable damage can be caused if you overload your channels. Luckily you had no Qi, so your channels were only over-exerted when your body was trying to channel your non-existent Qi." She explained

She began treating Keros. She helped him undress before locking a band over the bend in his arm. She pulled a cart over that had a long cylindrical machine on it that had a padded hole on it, and unlatched the locks on the side. She folded down the part of the bed that supported Keros' legs before lifting his leg high and rolling the cart under it and placing his leg inside the machine with the upper part of his thigh resting on the padded crescent. Keros whimpered a bit at the pain.

She locked the machine back together with Keros' leg inside before she began to make adjustments on the display. The padding began to inflate and bulge, tightly locking around Keros' thigh. Soon Keros felt something wet and viscous filling the machine on his leg, and he felt a momentary sting in his arm as if he had been stabbed by a needle before it was quickly withdrawn.

"The bulky mechanical band on your arm serves to allow us to inject some medicine, and then monitor your vitals. This big machine on your leg seals your limbs inside and is flooded with a medical concoction. The medical properties will be absorbed through your skin. This is the best way to target a specific location to apply the treatment for and injury such as yours." She explained as she was working.

Soon she finished and told them that he would need some time to absorb the medicine before leaving the room.