Lukai took the hologram to the OFF arena.

  They had recreated the old design of the Sect’s fighting arenas; no improvements were needed. It was protected by natural energy layers; the training was safe. Others could watch what was happening inside without being bothered by any sparks of energy.

  They were alone. Lukai informed his Leader, Yura, that he wanted to evaluate a new device. He didn’t tell the details and highlighted that he wished to be alone.

  Yura had not been curious; he said he needed to leave the camp to train for his next run. The OFF Leader was a fanatical runner. Hilarious—and suspicious.

  He and Si had already tracked Yura’s schedules and movements. But now, Lukai let Yura go. They agreed with Si on the plan for this morning.

  Lukai wanted to have the e.i. device for himself. He was curious.

  The hologram, seeing the arena, nodded.

  They agreed to spar. Lukai mentioned that the arena was fully charged, and without any questions, the hologram approached the protection layers and absorbed energy.

  It was intriguing to observe.

  Gradually, Lukai could see this man with more details; his features improved in quality second after second.

  “I haven’t been that charged for a long time; I can feel,” the hologram said aloud. His voice was also louder, easier to hear.

  “What do you mean?” Lukai asked.

  It wasn’t clear what it could mean. However, there was no answer.

  The hologram finished charging himself and turned to Lukai. More details were visible; he looked more like a real person.

  Older than him, with no signs of bad aging, his look was mature and experienced. Masculine but borderline rugged. With a slight feminine side added to his looks. The figure was slender, with muscles not prominent, yet Lukai sensed strength. His long ponytail was an interesting addition to the look. A beauty, but now, charged and with all the details visible, looked as sharp as a knife.

  “O, I miss showers,” the hologram said.

  “What does it mean?” Lukai asked.

  No answer, again.

  Lukai felt more and more annoyed by the behavior.

  The hologram started to run toward him and then did a somersault in the air just above the ground, smoothly, entered the slide, and made a circle with his leg, leaning on his hand. With the other, he scooped up some earth from the arena.

  “What a showoff,” Lukai thought. “A dancer. This was why Luna danced. But she was trained to defend herself; we trained together. He isn’t just a dancer.”

  He didn’t say aloud any of his thoughts; he only observed and noted them for later analysis.

  “May we spar? Are you charged enough?” he asked.

  It was curious what this hologram would say and do. What could he do?

  “Correct, I am charged enough,” the hologram said.

  Finally, some answers.

  “Can I kill you during our sparring?” Lukai asked.

  “No. You can kill my energy version, but not me. Fight without restriction. And you? How good are you?” the hologram asked back.

  “What a question. You fight the best you can; I can heal on the spot,” Lukai said, feeling more irked than before.

  “Improved healing. I would like to see it in action. This you developed further from what I am aware.”

  “What does it mean?” Lukai asked and received no real answer again.

  The same as the day before, some remarks that this e.i. device was sharing aloud were getting on his nerves.

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  “What weapon do you choose?” Lukai asked another question. Eased his tension.

  “My own.” That was the answer; no further explanation.

  Lukai did not comment this time.

  No point, he decided. Soon he would know either way.

  He took a simple blade, no energy weapons; he wanted to assess this hologram’s technique and skills.

  The hologram joined him in the center of the arena. Lukai had a thought. He certainly needed to be soft and only probe the skills of this device. Scratches were allowed, but he intended to do nothing serious, not to damage Luna’s e.i.

  In fact, he already thought it was not as simple as a device. It had to be something more; the hologram was too human-like, looking and acting too human.

  Too moody to be just a device.

  Lukai also noticed that Si didn’t treat the hologram as if it were only a dataset. Si used the name, Taj, from the moment the hologram materialized yesterday.

  It was something to consider sooner rather than later.

  He was aware that there were various experiments conducted back then. Lukai started to think that Elders truly succeeded in inserting someone’s bit of consciousness into the Crystal device called e.i., but… what could it mean? What could this bit think, feel, and do? And who could this person be? Who would agree?

  The hologram said he was a dancer, but Lukai was certain that he was a fighter. Luna was trained too well, and Lukai was aware she didn’t train with any Unio teacher. This e.i.—was this device a teacher of sorts? The knowledge and skills stored in Crystal for the Sect Members’ future lessons? It could be.

  The hologram stood still and visibly waited for him to make a move.

  As Lukai decided, he wanted to start by trying what he could do. He used a basic attack, but the hologram dodged. The second move was faster and more focused, but again, a fluid dodge. The third was the same—another dodge. As if this hologram were dancing with him.

  “Does the teacher teach fighting but not fight himself?” he asked himself.

  At that moment, the hologram made a sudden move, anticipated Lukai’s defensive tactic, and managed to hit him in the nose. It wasn’t a hard hit, a slight one, but it had to be healed because the nosebleed was bothersome.

  Lukai was a little surprised.

  “Was it that easy to breach my defense?” he wondered, saving the thought for later analysis.

  “A note, as Song would say,” the hologram said and added. “Fight as if you mean it. If you have questions, ask. If you want to train, train.”

  Lukai nodded. They looked at each other in silence for a moment.

  “No soft probing then.” He thought and attacked again.

  This time, he struck for real; the hologram had to dodge very deeply, but still, he dodged. And again, the e.i. didn’t attack.

  Lukai’s blade scraped his arm. “He is not that good,” he said to himself, but then the hologram made his move.

  Not the way Lukai expected.

  Instead of using any regular attack technique, he slid to Lukai’s left side, as if to bypass him, rather than attack from the front. The slide was smooth; Lukai tried to reach him with the blade he had in his right hand; he managed to cut his face and arm again, but this hologram, he seemed not to care. He did a partial dodge, allowing Lukai to hit him.

  Just then, Lukai felt a powerful tug under both knees from behind.

  The hologram had a weapon!

  Lukai fell on his knees, but despite the pain, he reacted fast. The hologram didn’t have an opportunity to dodge when he was grabbed and pulled closer, then heavily kicked in his ribs. Lukai wanted to knock the weapon out. For this reason, he broke the hologram’s hand, turned over quickly and smoothly, and tried to catch the other hand to defend himself as well, if the e.i. had any weapon hidden there.

  The hologram surprised him by jumping on Lukai’s back.

  He jumped on his back and held him with his feet.

  Lukai was already partially immobile, but in this position, this hologram risked heavily. Lukai took this opportunity; he pulled him closer and broke his elbow in addition to his already broken hand.

  “And he allowed this, but why?” Lukai thought.

  Just then, he saw it.

  It wasn’t a regular weapon. It was a kind of spike, a sort of blade, added to the hologram’s hand.

  That was surprising.

  Could he change his hologram as he wished? When Lukai thought about it, he knew he had lost because the other hand, which had caught him when the hologram jumped on him, had been a normal hand. He felt the touch; there was nothing strange about it. Lukai was sure he would manage to break this one too, and that would be it. But now he could feel it was right on his throat—the second blade.

  The hologram changed his other hand already.

  “You lost,” it was whispered to Lukai’s ear. “Let me free; I am hanging on you; this probably you would rather not last longer.”

  In the final attempt, Lukai tried to throw the hologram off. He was aware it would hurt; he would break the hologram’s arm more, but Lukai would still have a chance to win this spar by doing this move.

  They both fell.

  The hologram didn’t make a sound when Lukai damaged his bones; he moved slightly to place himself in another position.

  “You lost again. And I am free to go.” Even with his injuries—broken arm, hand, cut face, battered—the hologram managed to place the spike a millimeter away from Lukai’s eye.

  Lukai was very aware he could be killed now, as this was not something he could heal easily. And it was the second time the hologram could strike him, not the other way around.

  … He was allowed to think he had a chance; the hologram allowed Lukai to beat him that much to win at the end.

  The hologram moved away and sat to check his hands and arm. He also changed his hand back to its normal shape. Touched his cut face, grimaced.

  Lukai thought that even if he was an energy hologram, he said he could feel; it should feel as real for him. But it looked like he didn’t care. Lukai also sat; he was not heavily injured; the hologram was in the worst state.

  Yet, it was Lukai that lost.

  He already healed his legs, so he started to heal this hologram’s injuries.

  “It should work; energy is energy. Let me,” Lukai said. He was curious—would it work?

  He was aware that in the old times it worked the same as now. Abilitiers always could heal others; Shadows also could. But Crystalers could heal themselves only, and slowly. They couldn’t use their artificial energy to pass to others. This could only be done by a person with natural energy. Currently, it was very fast to heal, which made it truly difficult to injure someone seriously.

  The hologram was silent.