Tanner woke up with Grace using him like a teddy bear. Her arms we wrapped all the way around him and she was pulling him against her chest with force that was likely to bruise. Still, it did put him in a good position. He had to wiggle a bit to free a hand enough to pull up her shirt but then he had free access to her breasts. His cock was throbbing with its normal morning fever and he sucked one of her nipples into his mouth.

 

Grace didn’t react quickly, but after a good dozen seconds of kissing and sucking she finally rolled over onto her back letting Tanner nestle between her thighs. He pressed himself between her folds but didn’t enter her. Instead he just rubbed himself against her, letting the feeling of her growing wetness and raising desire wash through his sexual empathy. Her desires came through muzzily, likely because she was asleep but she was enjoying herself so Tanner was happy to continue. He was honestly amazed at how long it took her to wake up.

 

 He had to have been working on her for at least five minutes, and her whole body was rocking against him. Her eyes finally fluttered open, at first confused, then she grinned and her legs wrapped around his hips with crushing force. Next Grace showed off some impressive gymnastics and truly massive core strength. She lifted herself up off the bed using only her legs and Tanner’s body as leverage then made a scooping motion with her waist and impaled herself on him.

 

Tanner hissed as he was enveloped by her but his arms went around her and he held her up on his knees. He stood, hoisting her up with their chests pressed together and took two steps to press her against the nearest wall. They smiled at each other as she rocked on him. Grace just felt so damn good. Not just the sex, but the connection. They matched up in a way that he didn’t with any of his other lovers. Specialist Morals, was sexier, more sensual, and a fireball in bed but he and Grace just worked. Her head fell back as they both neared their climax and her smile faded into the serious expression she always got right before cumming. That’s what did it for him, he tried to hold himself back but she felt too good, too right.

 

“GRACE!” He cried out as he started to cum, he did his best to keep pumping and she followed him over a moment later with a spasm that nearly cracked his hips. They both tried their best to keep going but it was impossible with how hard they were shaking. Tanner managed to fall back onto the bed with her until the climaxes ended and they came to a stop, both sweaty, exhausted, and laughing.

 

“That’s the best way to start a morning.” Grace said dreamily, basking in the post-coital bliss for a moment before she untangled herself from him and stood up. She started digging around for her clothes. Tanner watched her dress with a predatory eye but he knew trying to drag her back to bed would be pointless. Grace was like that. She was more than happy to fuck your brains out but when she was done, she was done, and any cuddling was on her terms.

 

Tanner started looking for his own clothes, but gave up a moment later and just wrapped a towel around himself. He might as well go shower first, rather than put on something dirty just walk to the bathroom. 

 

Grace gave him a kiss then walked out and Tanner went to the shower. He only had one mission for the day and that was to talk to Sandra. Unfortunately he was pretty sure her off day wasn’t Friday but she might have been given a break too, most of the soldiers had.

 

He went to grab breakfast then tried to track her down. It took most of an hour, before he found out she was running laps around the base. He waited for her to lap the front gate, then fell in beside her. She wasn’t using a light-jog, and even with Tanner’s speed he had to push himself to keep up with her.

 

“What do you want?” She snapped as she looked over and saw him. Tanner looked at her and sighed. Her dark hair looked good in the morning sunshine and her ass was amazing but he forced his eyes not to wander as he looked at her. That wouldn’t help the situation and he was here for a favor after all.

 

“I need a favor.” He told her. She looked at him incredulously but her stride didn’t slow.

 

“You can’t be serious!?” She hissed. Tanner just shrugged.

 

“Sandra, we’ve known each other for most of our lives. We’ve had fights before. Yes, I said some things I regret the other day, but you insulted someone to my face that I care about and we both know you did it just to piss me off. Well it worked and I snapped. Even so, You’re still my friend.” Tanner said.

 

Sandra didn’t say anything and Tanner sighed but continued. “Look, I need some information and even if I thought someone else would know as much as you I’d have come to you anyway.”

 

“What do you wanna know?” She asked reluctantly

 

“Tell me about Ki.” Her eyes widened. “You know I’ve been testing out mana empowerment, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ve got no fucking idea what I’m doing. Not surprising really, since I was trying to figure it out by myself, but I’ve gotten to the point where I’m pretty sure I’m no longer on the right path.”

 

“Mana, just doesn’t really interact all that well with the human body. It’s alien.” Tanner had to take a few deep breaths after all that. He had enough Vitality to talk while jogging, but it wore on him.

 

“So you want to try Ki instead?” Sandra asked, the anger on her face now gone and looking actually curious.

 

“Yes and No. Like I said, mana just doesn’t interact all that well with the body. My guess is… and this is just a guess. That it needs something else to bridge the gap between whatever energy state it is, into something that actually interacts with someone’s physical body.”

 

“And you think that’s Ki?” Sandra asked.

 

“No idea, but it’s my best guess.I don’t really know what Ki is, but it’s my understanding that it’s sort of the body’s vitality in energy form.  My thought is that you need to mix the two together to make a sort of Super-Ki and that’s what you're supposed to use for real mana empowerment.”

 

Sandra thought about that then shrugged. “No idea… I can’t use mana but I can explain Ki to you. Ki is…. Well, think of it sort of like your body’s stamina in energy form. It’s more than that. It’s your life, your consciousness, even your willpower, but we’ll try and keep this at grade-school level for now.”

 

“Basically it’s you… but as energy. Most of the time that energy is just spread all over your body, although it has a tendency to pool around your largest muscles or your heart. Anytime you do anything physical you’re using up your Ki, just in tiny amounts. Sometimes however a person can use up more by accident. If you’ve ever jumped a bit higher than you thought you could, or put on a burst of speed even you didn’t expect to avoid a defender while running a football, you were using your Ki.”

 

“My training just revolves around controlling, and harnessing that energy we all have and use, but more on purpose and more concentrated. It lets me do things like this.” She said, then as she took her next step she bent down and leapt up and forward. She cleared the top of Tanner’s head easily, and did two front-flips before landing back beside him, her steps still perfectly in time with his.

 

Tanner gave her a golf clap but was impressed, not just with the power of the leap but the control. That wasn’t something anyone could do, even if they had the raw athleticism to try. 

 

“Alright then, sounds sorta like what I need. What does Ki feel like, and how do you use it?” Tanner asked. Sandra was breathing harder after her stunt and Tanner’s eyes did wander down to her tight uniform. She didn’t have the chest of Grace, or Marcella, or Janel, but Tanner was a firm believer that all breasts were fundamentally good. Although in Sandra’s case some of that was her pecs instead. She looked like one of those hard-core crossfit women. The ones with muscles on-top of their muscles. 

 

“Stop looking at my tits.” Sandra snapped and Tanner pulled his eyes back up to her face. She was scowling at him, but it seemed pretty half hearted. “You asked for my help not to ogle me.”

 

“Noted.” Tanner said, not apologizing.

 

“Ki feels like…” And Tanner was stunned to see her blushing a little. “ Baseball.” Tanner blinked. 

 

“Baseball?”

 

Sandra sighed and shrugged. “Baseball, but like, all of it. The sun overhead, fresh-cut grass, the smell of cooking brats, and hotdogs, and beer. The crack of the bat, the roar of the crowd. It’s hard to explain. You’ll only know if you ever find it yourself. I’m guessing it's different for everyone.”

 

“Oooookay.” Tanner said, with obvious disbelief.

 

“As for using it. I’m not sure how to explain that. Took me years to get the hang of it and I’ve got a system to help.” Sandra said.

 

“Well, it’s a lot more than I had.  Thank you.” He said sincerely. The two made small talk until they reached their starting point and Tanner dropped out while Sandra kept running. It was only mid-morning and the bright sun and snow made being outside nearly blinding. He wondered if he could buy some sunglasses. Was he even getting paid? He’d never asked. There was a store on base but he’d never bothered looking into his money situation. He’d have to ask his dad about it.

 

Soldiers were supposed to be paid based on the amount of demons killed which was then divided up among the soldiers. He imagined the amount a foot soldier still in training made was miniscule, but considering the sheer number they were killing it had to have been adding up a little. Besides he should be getting base-pay as well.

 

Tanner walked to his favorite spot in the training yard and sat-down in his meditation pose. This was the first time he was actually going to meditate. He had no idea how he was supposed to try and feel Ki, but meditation seemed a decent place to start.

 

He closed his eyes and tried to block out all his distracting thoughts. With his sex-buffs newly renewed it proved to be fairly simple. He could feel the pocket of mana burning behind his sternum but he was looking for Ki. How did one go about finding something that had always been part of you?

 

He tried to feel around his body, searching around his heart and the quads in his legs but it was useless. He wasn’t getting anything so he stopped looking for anything and let himself breath. The air moved in and out of his lungs, bringing air to his blood. He slipped into a strange state as he could almost feel his blood circling around his body, bringing life to his muscles and organs. He sat there and followed the blood with his mind's eye. Carrying its payload of life, being used up, and brought back to the heart and lungs to be refreshed once more. It was beautiful in its simplicity. Yet that simplicity was just on the surface. A single system made possible by dozens of complex interactions and the blood, was just a single part of an even larger whole.

 

He took a mental step-back so he could view all of himself. The blood, muscles, tissues, organs, lymph-nodes, each separate system part of the living breathing whole. Then he felt it. It moved around all the systems, but didn’t seem to stay anywhere for long. It was like thin smoke, winding its way around and through every part of him. He tried to focus on it and got a flash of bare concrete, of the sound of knuckles impacting a heavy-bag. The smell of dust, sweat, and cold air. It was bobbing movement and swift jabs.

 

Tanner blinked his eyes open and gasped at the pain in his legs. He was frozen and a half-moon shined down from above him.  What time was it? How long has he been sitting on the ground freezing. He tried to stand but he’d been sitting cross-legged for the entire day and they weren’t having it. He crashed to the ground, freezing, starving, and unable to stand.

 

“Oh for fucks sake.” He groaned as he rolled to his hands and knees. It took a bit of crawling, but finally enough blood got back to his legs and his muscles uncramped enough for him to stagger to his feet and head back to his room. Tomorrow it was back to training.

 

***********************

 

Tanner’s training sergeant stood in front of the remaining 10 conscripts. “You have had a hard couple of weeks. You’ve fought battles, lost friends, and been pushed to the edge of exhaustion and beyond, but it wasn’t in vain.”

 

“The UEA has always had a very simple method of advancement. You survive three fights on the wall. You’re a Private, ten and you’re a Private First Class. So, as of Today you all are promoted. You are no longer conscripts and your pay will reflect that from today forward.” He called each of them forward and handed them a stack of cloth patches.

 

“For the time being, your daily life on base will change very little. In another two weeks however, you’ll have passed your initial training. You’ll be assigned to another squad where you’ll have an official watch on the wall.”  

 

Tanner actually felt proud. He was finally a real soldier. Pride wasn’t an emotion Tanner had much practice with. It wasn’t like he was severely lacking in self-confidence. Tanner knew he had been decently athletic even before his system. He’d also been a much better technical fighter than nearly all of his classmates. It was only the lack of system that had been dragging him down.

 

He hadn’t been popular but he hadn’t really tried hard to be either. He had been lonely but now he was having sex with at least 3 incredible women on a regular basis and still picking up some strange on the side from time to time. By any possible measurement of a 18 year old boy his life fucking rocked.

 

Still, none of that was really a reason for pride. Tanner didn’t really see himself as someone defined by his sexual conquests. Yes, sex was now a major part of his life but he saw it as more of a hobby, and helping people, and leveling his system. It was honestly a triple-whammy of awesomeness but still, he wasn’t proud of it.

 

Fighting however? That he was proud of. Yes, he knew all the propaganda about how amazing it was to fight demons was just that, propaganda, but demons really were a huge problem. There weren’t ever enough soldiers and demons were just… well not evil, a thing couldn’t really be evil without some malice and most demons didn’t have enough self-awareness to be evil.  Still, they wanted nothing but destruction and the extinction or corruption of all life on earth. That was something worth fighting for.

 

Most people did their 2 years then retired, before heading back to civilian life, Tanner could see himself going longer, his system was sorta meant for the front lines. The stress from combat gave his SP’s a major boost and he’d already gotten at least 2k SP’s from just killing demons. 

 

Tanner took his sword as everyone found a space in the training yard and started to practice. Their training sergeant, as well as another few weapon’s teachers. walked around giving advice and correcting stances. He’d found he wasn’t a bad swordsman. He wasn’t great, especially compared to that tiny Asian girl. She was half-Korean, at least he thought she was. He was terrible with ethnicities and with most of the Asian countries it was pretty damn hard for his Caucasian self to tell Korean from Japanese or Chinese. It was something in the cheekbones he thought, but again he wasn’t going to guess for fear of offending her.

 

Only her name would have given him a decent clue but her dad had been American and Kira Hartford was pretty damn generic. Still, she was a menace with a wooden sword and Tanner could hardly touch her, even with his high speed score. He was pretty sure she was cheating with a sword-based system and core ability but that was one of the problems with having a support system. 

 

Unless he really figured out how to use Mana-Empowerment he was always going to be at a disadvantage against other people. Hell, even if he did figure it out it would only be a tool. He had no illusions of being able to bridge the gap against people with multiple combat-based abilities. Still, the demons were the enemy not people.

 

Tanner had just worked up a good sweat when the Sirens sounded out again.