Emperors War

Upon getting up he didn"t realize how tired he had been but upon stretching himself he felt strong and energized and ready to go.

As he stretched, he looked around and didn"t see anyone so he figured he wasn"t going to be getting out of his cell anytime soon. Since he didn"t want to waste time, he picked up his knives and began running through his sets. His body had a chance to recover last night and with a good long rest he felt it was easier to move through each set.

By the time he was getting ready to go through his 100th set Vance showed up. He had actually showed up while Aker was in the middle of his 95th set but he didn"t want to interrupt him. First, he wanted to see what type of practicing Aker was doing and secondly, he wanted to see how much he had improved in his movements and combinations.

Vance couldn"t help but once again be reminded that not all people are the same. Aker"s movements again after only one more day of practice had taken a leap forward. His slices and cuts were starting to smooth out. When he attacked it was fast and precise, he was learning to make every movement count.

He had thought that in a few years he might be able to reach an intermediate level with the knives and within 10 years master them. Watching the improvement of Aker once again he realized he might have to drastically alter his thoughts. At this point he may be talking months to reach intermediate and only a couple of years to master. Could someone master weapons that fast?

"How did you sleep, are you feeling better today? You look like you"re doing pretty well." Vance called out after it became obvious that Aker had finished his set and was in between getting ready to start the next one.

Aker had been visualizing his fight with the Kulga and as such was completely enthralled in his battle not noticing the encroachment of Vance to him. Hearing his voice, he was a little startled but very happy.

"Master, I was beginning to think you forgot about me and was just leaving me here. I thought because I didn"t share my food with you yesterday you were upset and abandoning me."

Aker had thought about it last night and decided he just couldn"t let it go yet. That master of his can go get food anywhere at any time and he couldn"t just eat that little bit of food that Aker had made and was presenting. Was this man even fit to be his master?

In truth eating that food was a pretty traumatic experience for Aker. While it may not have been as bad as being kidnapped, experimented on and forced to fight, the fact that he was even contemplating comparing them shows just how much of an impact it had.

Brilliantly ignoring Akers statement Vance replied with "Let"s go you need to head over to the Medic Station."

Vance would not acknowledge any statements in regards to Aker"s cooking. In fact, he had already resolved to not step foot in the kitchen again, instead dropping Aker off at the door and not stepping in for fear that his disciple might try some underhanded plot.

Without Vance engaging Aker had no recourse and again his only option was to drop it, but not before he once again resolved himself.

"Fine then, I will make something so great that all people of this world will want it and I will gladly share with them, a smile plastered on my face, a laugh in my bell as I give it to everyone but you!"

Aker must have had a ridiculous grin on his face because Vance prepared himself to slap Aker across the back of his head. Seeing Vance get in position Aker hopped too calling out to Vance "We should get going I have to go test with Senior Brother."

Aker sprinted past Vance still laughing in his head as he thought about his master"s face when he refused to share with him his cooking in the future.

Showing up at the Medic Station the first thing he did was pester his Senior Brother to give him the test. In reality there was no test, Fenton had made it up to just get rid of him and discourage Aker. Since he had told Aker he had to pa.s.s a test Fenton was forced to come up with a dozen or so questions on Anatomy and Field First Aid.

Fenton, who had been in the medical field for a number of years immediately walked over and started rereading the anatomy of basics and field medic books he had Aker read. Never had he been so embarra.s.sed and so discouraged in his life. Question after question he asked Aker resulted in the most detailed explanation he had ever heard. There was no way he learned all of that from those books. There were concepts and ideas that Aker was answering with that Fenton didn"t even know. If it wasn"t for Dr. Life & Death being in the general earshot, he would have failed Aker for simply making it up.

When Dr. Life & Death instructed Fenton that all of Akers answers were 100% correct Fenton felt like his world was collapsing. When He told Fenton that it wouldn"t be long until he was calling Aker Senior Brother Fenton could almost feel the tears forming in his eyes.

First how much older was Fenton than Aker. Already that kid was calling him Brother which was irritating him to the point that he wanted to scream at the kid. But now his idol was telling him that it wouldn"t be long until he was calling this small, ignorant kid Senior Brother...could there be a reality where that was possible?

When Fenton asked Aker how he knew so much he simply said "I read those two books you told me to read and it explained everything so well."

That was it, Aker had simply read those two books and he could answer the questions Fenton was asking to a higher degree than even Fenton knew or understood.

Fenton told Aker to read Identifying Illness and Disease as well as Ancient Medical Diagnosis & Treatment. One book was based on modern medical identification and treatment of illnesses while the other was based on using natural remedies, checking pulses, breathing and other indicators to determine illnesses and cause. Most doctors didn"t subscribe to Ancient Medical Diagnosis & Treatment do to its slow recovery and difficulty in learning, however, some of the most prominent doctors in the galaxy specialized in Ancient Medicine.

Being excited to continue studying medicine Aker immediately ran off to get his books and began studying. While Fenton was skimming through the anatomy and field first aid book, he couldn"t help but keep muttering "where did he see the answer to that question...where did he see the answer to that question".

While Aker was immersed in studying his medical book, he was interrupted by Vance to go to the Blacksmith and work with Mavis.

When Aker saw Mavis, he couldn"t help but frown slightly. Standing next to the anvil and pointing to a hammer that was double the size of the one from yesterday he was telling Aker it was time to "just swing the hammer". Without saying a word Aker walked over and picked up the hammer.

As Aker picked up the hammer Mavis walked over to the bellow and began pumping. Aker walked to the front of the forge and began calling out....

"It"s just turning red."

"The fire is getting bigger."

"The fire is getting smaller."

The words came out of Akers mouth without hesitation and without really paying attention.

After the ingot was again perfectly a scarlet red, using the tongs he pulled it out and set it on the anvil and began pounding it. As his hammer collided with the metal a clank.... clank...clank.... sound rang out through the room.

As if though he was caught in a loop his hammer hit the ingot at a 20% rate and he had to listen to Mavis call out "Use your heart to aim" "Use your heart to aim" Use your heart to aim".

Over and over again Mavis called out to Aker. Each time the words would ring out Aker would cringe and miss the ingot.

"if you would stop yelling at me to use my heart to aim, I would hit it more often.... how is it that a great blacksmith master like this could make no sense when he talks? Everything he says should sound mysterious but instead sounds idiotic. What do you see in the fire? I see fire.... what am I supposed to see in fire except for fire?"

Aker couldn"t stop from having the same thoughts over and over again. First, he would complain internally about what do you see in the fire and then he would complain about aim with your heart. He would complain so much in his mind that he didn"t even notice has he finished his 6,000 swing and out of habit just switched hands and began swinging again.

As Aker was closing in on 8,000 swings of the hammer Vance once again showed up to lead him to the kitchen.

Aker walked over and put the hammer into the corner where he had found it, used the towel to dry off and then just as the day before stepped outside the forge, turned to a red Mavis and called out "See you tomorrow Teacher Mavis!"

The reasons Mavis was red was because he knew what was coming. That boy didn"t say a word the whole time he was swinging the hammer except to call out what he saw in the fire. Mavis appreciated a blacksmith who swung the hammer without talking so he would never have any complaints about that.... but he just knew that brat was going to wait until he left to greet him for the first time and make it as teacher instead of master!

Mavis was looking down at his shirt thinking "am I really going to have to eat you? No... never, I will never let that brat get the better of me.... I will get him tomorrow, let"s see how much energy he has left when I give him a bigger hammer!"

And just like the day before Mavis started planning against the mischievous disciple of his. He would wear him out and make him beg for rest.... Aker would never get the better of Mavis.

From the blacksmith to the cafeteria again Vance and Aker crossed the whole foyer. As Vance had promised to himself, he did not step foot in the kitchen sending Aker on his way from the door that led to the kitchen.

Walking in, not a single person paid attention to Aker as he made his way over to the reject station.

As Aker stood at the reject station, he was staying cognizant of the other disciples coming over and throwing their trash into the waste pile. What was difficult for the waste pile is it did not differentiate between actual trash and rejected food, well because rejected food was still trash.

As Aker looked into the waste pile a curious question hit him. Why were these ingredients considered trash?

Holding up a Daikon looking ingredient he stared at it and stared at it. For several minutes he rotated it in his hand and stared but he couldn"t find any reason for it to be considered trash.

Setting the Daikon ingredient down at his station he picked a bell pepper type ingredient and stared down at it. Again, he rotated it and carefully examined it. After several minutes of looking it over he again came to the same conclusion. He had no idea why this would be considered waste.

Since Aker was not allowed to move from his station, he couldn"t go ask anyone and the disciples who came over never got close enough for him to ask as they just tossed the ingredients over.

Instead of cutting and hacking at the ingredients like he did yesterday he decided to watch the cooks he could see. From this position the stations he could see were the frying station, flavoring station and one of the specialty stations.

It was specifically one of the disciples in the specialty station that kept coming over and tossing his failed ingredients into the waste pile.

As Aker watched that disciple, he noticed that he would periodically sharpen his knife as he was moving through what looked like many different types of vegetables. Depending on the type of vegetable he would cut it differently. In some cases, the disciple would chop, putting the knife over it and rocking the knife back and forth.

In other cases, he would slice through it at an angle and with each being roughly the same thickness. On what looked like a carrot he would put his hand over it with his fingers tucked back pressing his knuckles down and use the knife to chop quickly.

After chopping some of it up he would bunch it together and put the knife over it and mince it real finely.

As Aker watched he was impressed with all of the different ways that the apprentice was cutting and mincing up the vegetables. With the leafy vegetables the apprentice would mince it up. With the thicker vegetables it would be sliced up. With the medium vegetables it could fall into two or three different categories.

After chopping up the vegetables finely he mixed it with something that looked like milk, added a couple of spices and boiled it on the side. He had taken the thick cut vegetables and seemed to be grilling them over a fire with something that looked like potatoes and some kind of meat.

With the medium type of vegetables, he put them into a stir fry pan, added some oil and fried them up. He had thinly cut up the carrot looking vegetable earlier and was treating it like a makeshift noodle.

Once the stir fry food was done, the grilled food was added and the sauce was poured over it.

Even from here Aker could smell the heavenly food and felt like his tongue would melt from just the aroma.

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As the apprentice tasted his complete work, he became extremely upset with himself, threw his new creation into a bag and began walking towards the waste pile. Without looking at the waste pile much less Aker, he tossed the bag and walked away.

Aker, seeing food fall from heaven or in other words heavens food...he jumped at it with more ferocity than when he was fighting the Kulga.

As Aker opened the bag, he could barely contain his excitement....his hands shook as the aroma of the meal tickled his nose and wet his appet.i.te.

As he had no utensils, he reached into the bag not caring if anyone saw his pitiful but uttermost happy state and put the nectar of heaven into his mouth. Angels began singing and the world brightened up. With this taste the words of Sampson yesterday when he was discussing the impact food had on a starving person resonated in Akers mind.

"HE ONLY SPEAKS THE TRUTH!" Aker shouted in his mind. This is what"s possible when someone truly starts cooking.

As Aker was having these thoughts it never even occurred to him that the food he was eating was considered a failed product by its creator.

After quickly gobbling up the miracle in a bag Aker ravaged through The Pit and after about 30 minutes of looking finally found a sharpening stone. It was worn out and would barely work but in finding it Aker was elated.

Taking the sharpening stone back to his reject station he grabbed his broken knives and began sharpening them carefully. If he wasn"t careful enough, they just might break and Aker would be devastated.

After delicately sharpening his knives Aker rummaged through the waste pile and found all the different vegetables that he had seen the disciple use earlier.

He then began with his first cut. Yesterday when he tried to slice and cut through the vegetable it resulted in a mushed ending, today however the knife slid through producing a viable slice. He then tried a second, a third and so on. By the time he finished the whole carrot looking vegetable he had completely sliced it up much like the disciple did. The pieces were not even, they were not smooth and he had broken a couple but it was enough that it was recognizable.

As Aker kept cutting, slicing, and mincing he would improve just a little bit. He was discovering that if he put his hand in certain fulcrum points the knife generated more pressure at specific spot resulting in a cleaner cut, or faster movement or more minced than diced.

For hours he simply experimented with his knife and cutting. After a little bit he would grab his sharpening stone and carefully sharpen his knife and then get back to it. Because of the food that was thrown away, Aker didn"t need to focus on cooking anything and he simply focused on cutting.

He had been so lost in his cutting that he didn"t even notice that a disciple was standing in front of his station.

"h.e.l.llllloooooo...do you hear me!" the disciple called out. That disciple had been working his station and was trying a new idea when he was told to come get this kid and have him report back.

Aker hearing someone call out to him finally looked up and saw a young man standing before him waiving his hands.

"Hi Senior Brother...Did you come over here to help me? I"m so glad to have someone finally come and offer help. I have so many questions. First, when I...." Aker was so enthralled with his cooking, upon seeing a disciple of the kitchen he couldn"t wait to start asking all of the questions he had thought up.

"No....I"m in a hurry.... I was sent to tell you that it"s time for you to go report back. Don"t ask me what that means, I"m a.s.suming you know what it means. Now that I have relayed the message I"m leaving; I have my own work to do." The disciple had brilliantly interrupted Aker as he was asking the question.

"Time to report back, does that mean it"s time to go fight in the arena again?"

Aker who had just been consumed with cooking put down his cooking knives and the smile that was plastered across his face when he was talking to the fellow disciple when he was thinking he was going to get his questions answered was gone.

He now exuded a cold and merciless intent as he lifted his head up, and step by step walked out of the kitchen towards where Vance would be waiting for him.

It was time to go back to what he was really here to do.... It"s been awhile since I had the chance to make those people mad. The cold and merciless intent disappeared just as quickly as it had showed up and was replaced with a smile.

Every time he thought about himself surviving in the arena and making all of those people mad, he couldn"t help but smile. Every single day he was getting his revenge.