[ A record of year's 2-5 spent with Khnum ]
Khnum's unease had only deepened as Max moved on to the second stage of mastering the Way of the Water, [ Shapeshifting into water ]. His arrogant smirk had gradually faded, replaced by a look of grudging respect that he carefully masked under a veneer of scorn.
Max's challenge now was to transform his body, or parts of it, into water. The first few weeks were brutal. Every attempt was painful as his body resisted the unnatural transformation, akin to a rubber band stretched to its limits, threatening to snap. This pain, coupled with Khnum's snide remarks, further fuelled Max's hatred for the god.
"Are you done playing yet, mortal?" Khnum would sneer whenever Max would writhe in pain. "The real masters of water are laughing at your pathetic display."
Despite the barbs, Max did not let the humiliation deter him. Every insult, every mockery, was transformed into a resolve that strengthened his determination.
He knew the process by now since he could already learnt to transform his body into wind and fire which made him realise the process required to transform into water.
Because he knew the method, The first successful transformation came after about three months of relentless effort.
Max managed to turn his right finger into water, maintaining it for a few brief seconds before it reverted to its original form. Although the success was minor, it felt monumental.
Khnum's eyes widened in surprise but quickly narrowed, a clear sign of his growing unease from then on, his training sessions became harsher, almost as if he was trying to halt Max's rapid progression.
Through all of Khnum's abuse Max was unfazed. He trained harder, honing his skill with an intensity that only made Khnum feel more and more restless.
Months turned into years, and Max's transformation extended from his finger to his arm, then to half his body
It was agonising and exhausting, but he persevered. He spent hours, sometimes even entire days, in his water form, enduring the gruelling trials Khnum set for him.
After three years into the second stage, Max achieved the final transformation, his entire body becoming one with the water. For the first time since his training began, Khnum fell silent, his eyes wide in disbelief.
Max had just achieved a feat which should have taken decades, if not centuries, for a mortal to accomplish. His rapid ascension not only contradicted everything Khnum had believed but also stirred a restless anxiety within him. Max's potential seemed to be an enigma that the water god was struggling to decipher.
What heart Khnum's pride was not that Max was talented, he knew that Max was talented even before he met him from his reputation amongst Angakok and Kremeth, No, what hurt his pride was Max never complaining or groaning about his gruelling training.
Khnum was a genius too, a once in a millenium genius who was the first individual to master the way of the water in the last 5000 years, yet, he hated every minute of his training under his mentor back when he was a kid like Max.
Coming from a school of water benders, his talent brought the attention of the institute's principal on him who made him train thrice as hard as his peers to make sure that he shined like the diamond that he was and Khnum cried and whined throughout the process.
Now that he did the same to Max, the boy struggled too but he grit his teeth and kept working hard without complaining and this made Khnum realise that being a genius alone was not enough, one also needed to have resolve and character, things that Max had but he did not.
However, Khnum's pride didn't let him admit his surprise or the growing worry. He scoffed, saying, "Well, well, seems like the little mortal has finally done something worth noticing."
Max had expected the disdain and smirked, revelling in Khnum's visible discomfort. The gruelling training was paying off, and his mastery over the Way of the Water was progressing at a pace that surpassed all expectations.
His mastery of the second stage was no easy feat, but Max was not content. He knew he had more to learn, more to master. He couldn't afford to rest on his laurels. His success, as sweet as it was, only served to remind him of the journey still ahead. He had yet to master the third and final stage, [ Ascendancy ], where he would truly become one with the water.
As the god and the mortal stood on the precipice of the final stage, the tension between them was palpable. The struggle for mastery over the Way of the Water was only getting more intense.
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[ A record of year's 6-12 spent with Khnum]
Year six of Max's intense training marked the beginning of the final and most challenging stage: Ascendancy.
In this stage, the water was not just an element to control but an integral part of his being, a partner in combat.
This was where Max was to learn to put everything he had trained for together to piece it into combat applications that would catapult his prowess to the next stage.
Max quickly grasped that Ascendancy was not just about transformation but also about utilising water's fundamental properties in combat.
By compressing water he could turn it solid far above it's freezing point and by agitating it constantly he could turn it into steam.
Notably Max learnt three combat moves that put together the knowledge of his previous two stages perfectly.
His first offensive move was the Hydro Pulse. By concentrating his water-formed hand into a condensed wave, Max could release a concentrated pulse of water, the impact of which could be compared to a wrecking ball. This provided him with a long-range attack that could potentially devastate opponents from a distance.
The second move was the Rain Dance.
An attack where Max could convert each droplet of rain water into a piercing icicle that would cause any battlefield to turn into a bloodbath.
The third move, called Tsunami Rush, probably the hardest move to master as Max learnt how to create a tsunami from scratch by gathering all the moisture in the air on barren lands without a water source and still manage to summon a tidal tsunami in such a place.
Khnum watched Max's progress, his smug demeanour gradually softening as the years passed. His sharp words were replaced by gruff advice and his contemptuous scoffs by reluctant praises.
He began to see Max not as an arrogant mortal daring to learn the secrets of the gods but as a young man, talented and determined, willing to dedicate years of his life to mastering an art few dared to attempt.
By year nine, Max was no longer the unskilled boy who had first approached the water god. His control over water, coupled with his newfound combat abilities, had turned him into a formidable force. His transformation into a warrior was nearly complete.
By year twelve, Max had fully mastered the Ascendancy, merging his consciousness with the water, understanding its flow, its rhythm, its very essence. His combat techniques had been refined to an art, each movement graceful and deadly. With the Hydro Pulse, Rain Dance, and Tsunami Rush, Max had become a warrior to be reckoned with, a force as relentless and unpredictable as the sea itself.
Khnum, the once arrogant god, watched Max with an expression that bore an uncanny resemblance to pride. As he observed the young man, now a warrior, effortlessly execute a sequence of his water techniques, Khnum grudgingly muttered, "You have done well, mortal."
Khnum sighed, feeling an unfamiliar emotion tugging at his heart. For the first time in his life, the water god had found a worthy disciple, and perhaps, an unexpected friend.
The gruelling years had changed them both, and as they stood at the edge of the cliff, staring into the vast ocean, a silent understanding passed between them.
" With the knowledge I've passed down to you, I have no doubt you will pass the tier6 promotion test with above 90% understanding of water - " Khnum said with his voice choking a bit from all the emotions.
" Thank you old man, Although you were cruel, I could not have done it without you" Max said as he admitted that the water god Khnum did a good job tutoring him.
" Since this is our last day together, let me leave you with something that you should ponder on if you ever want to go beyond the 90% mark…. " Khnum said as he began explaining something to Max that he never thought he would, something that was outside the scope of his teaching duties.
" To cut stone, one uses a harder stone. To sharpen metal one uses diamonds, the hardest mineral found in nature, however, do you know how diamonds are shaped and cut? " Khnum asked, his voice content and happy.
" They cut diamonds with water!
Water is both gentle and harsh, if it flows fast enough it can cut through anything, while if it's slow it will harm nothing.
It can take any shape, it can take any form, it's a building block of life! However it can also destroy, it can devastate and it can kill.
After all these years of trying to understand water, what I've understood is that the right answer to the question of what is water?
Is that it's anything you want it to be… " Khnum said as he patted Max on his back before walking outside of the time chamber, leaving Max to ponder on his profound wisdom.
In this way, in just 12 years 3 months and 17 days Max completed his way of the water mastery and had successfully progressed towards the next stage of his training with the element ' Ear
th '.
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/// A/N - Bonus chapter for hitting the grow a tree target, good job everyone! ///