Who Needs A Sword? - The Wh- Red Room

September 3rd, 792

Nemo suddenly found himself standing in a blood red room, the room that the Oracle had whisked him away to after his fight with Raptor. Sapien stepped out from behind a large boulder that sat in the middle of the room. "Why am I here? I'm supposed to be heading off to school right now!" shouted Nemo.

"I wanted to have a little training session with you, so I had the Oracle summon you here..." said Sapien, walking up to Nemo.

"What made you think I'd want training from you?" asked Nemo.

Sapien shrugged. "I dunno, maybe it's because you're weak?" responded Sapien. Nemo growled and then punched the air but only a puff of black energy came out of his fist. Sapien's smile turned to a smirk. "Never used your powers without that sword before?"

Nemo bit his lip, now that he thought about it whenever he used his powers he always had his sword attached to his hip. He didn't have it now since he didn't have time to grab it before the Oracle so rudely summoned him here. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Oh, you don't know what that sword does, do you?" asked Sapien.

"Cut stuff?" Nemo answered. That was what swords were made for after all.

Sapien put his palm to his face and sighed. "It does much more then 'cut stuff'," said Sapien, imitating Nemo's voice. "It amplifies the abilities of the person using it, greatly I might add..."

"Whatever," said Nemo. Sapien was trying to say that without the sword he was nothing. "I don't need the sword to be strong."

Sapien raised an eyebrow. "Oh really?" he said, then with blinding speed he moved back to the boulder and placed a hand on it. "Break this boulder then and prove it..."

"Alright," Nemo said as he cracked his knuckles. Then he charged towards the boulder and punched it, releasing as much energy as he could hoping he could shatter the rock and prove Sapien wrong. There was a little puff of dark energy and the rock wasn't even scratched. Nemo punched the rock again, the same thing happened. He did it again and again but it wouldn't break or even dent. After every punch the skin on his knuckles split only to heal a couple of seconds after Nemo stopped.

"I told you so," Sapien quipped, a little smirk appeared on his face.

"Shut up, I'm just off my game is all..." said Nemo looking down at his bloody yet undamaged hand. Then Nemo clenched his fist, focused all the energy he had into his fist and punched the rock. The energy exploded, causing a dent in the rock but not breaking it. Nemo collapsed to his knees, breathing heavily. It's not possible... That had been all of his energy and all he did was dent the damn thing.

"Give up?" asked Sapien, staring down at Nemo. "Here if you can't break it, I will..." Sapien flicked the boulder and it exploded in a burst of light that nearly blinded Nemo.

"Did you do all of this just to make me feel weak?" asked Nemo, realizing how weak he was without his sword and compared to Sapien.

Sapien smiled down at Nemo as the rock regenerated behind him. "No, I did this so that you'd be encouraged to get stronger. That sword of yours is a crutch, only use it when it is absolutely needed or else you'll never beat Raptor. Now stand and keep trying to break this boulder," said Sapien, offering a hand to Nemo.

Nemo took Sapiens hand, and Sapien used it to pull Nemo to his feet. He then spent the next several hours trying to break the boulder, only managing to dent it a few more times before Sapien stopped him. "That's enough for right now," said Sapien. "School just ended a little bit ago,"

Nemo gasped, he'd forgotten all about school. Ursela was so going to kill him. "Crap! I have to go now!" exclaimed Nemo. Suddenly, a ball of light enveloped Nemo and whisked him away from the red room.