Michael had been on the edge of finding something more in terms of power for some time now, but he'd just had no luck breaking through this barrier of found himself at. He had seen others time and time find some kind of inner strength with in, yet he for the most part been relying on his luck and sway over it. But luck only took him so far, he had to actually have some kind of power if he wished to continue to ensure his freedom. He was normally rather paranoid someone out there would eventually try to dictate what he can and can't do, or worse even force him to do what they wanted. While Tsubaki was such a person that could do these things do to their contract, he believed their friendship was the reason he never tried, that and the terms of the contract.

 He'd been hearing news of what the Majin had been up to and it had him dreading not killing the thing and showing mercy to the creature, something he wouldn't find himself to repeat if they crossed again. But that stated as it might be, that creature's strength had been told to of increased greatly since then. What ever this barrier he now faced inside of himself, would surely be useful for when their paths crossed.

Over the last few months he'd been training his body further with the same Harsh training he had done in the White desserts of the that purgatory he'd been trapped in barely four years ago. He had set up several earth elementals and a few wind ones to be sparing partners, each nearly as strong as himself. He had them go all out against him for weeks trying to push him harder. The mighty hits the Earth elementals could produce even had his dead nerves send some kind of signal to his mind briefly and the speedy Air Elementals had him distracted and trying his best to keep up.

But what had finally pushed him was some deep meditation. He had been thinking over himself and how he squared up with others. While it was true he fared pretty well against most, his ability to super condense energy into his attacks seemed to help for the lack of strength behind his blows, he always seemed to be outpaced up close and personal with other fighters such as Owain and Cryo who both had the might to shatter mountains with their bare hands. The Might of his Magic even got overpowered by their sheer might.

 In his mind he tended to use them in his mental practice as he ran mock fights.  He fought them and lost to them both. While Owain had shown to have a weakness to Mike's energy attacks Cryo was something else all together, they seemed to morph forms rather often and each one seemed hold more power then the last. His energy even burnt out Michael's own, though just the immense ammount of power and energy they held.

He was running the mock battle with the Changeling in his current meditation. He was currently backed into an energy barrier as the other lobbed concentrated blast into the cracking walls. Mike was struggeling to keep the barrier up as the changeling threw out a wave of energy and Orbs of ki began appearing through out the area.

 Mike Tried bracing himself but his mana was wearing thin. As the orbs bared into the walls of the barrier he tried holding out but the walls shattered after the fifth sphere crashed into it. He jumped into action, as he tried avoiding them, but the seemed to home into his energy.  He was leading them into one another but the sheer amount of them made it difficult even for his quick reflexes and his sway over luck wasn't something translated well into these kind of battles.

As the first one hit him, he felt his mental resolve shake , remembering the type of pressure it had put on him when this attack had last was used on him. He shifted as he tried to focus on his energy over his hands as he was barely able to deflect once into another but the explosion from caused a chain reaction which blasted him off his feet.

 He gasped as he was jolted from his mock battle, another loss to the phantom. He breathed heavily as he tried to regain his composure.  He was furious with himself, he had been at this for a few days and never once had he won against the changeling.  He smashed his hand into the ground as a small hole was formed in the ground. Pulling his fist out of the ground he got up and  instantly used his control over light to form a clone of himself.

 As he looked upon his visage he felt his annoyance raising as it was turning to rage. “What the fuck am I doing wrong, Am I just fucking stupid because I can't see the error in combat.” He yell at himself before the clone seemed to animate and mimicked his stance before lurching forward   throwing out a charged blast which Mike easily dodged know he would do that, having the Clone fight like he would.

 As the fight progressed on wards and he was pushing his clone back, but not with out damage done to himself. The tactics were solid but they focused to much on being close up. Which while not his strong suit the damage done outweighed the risks for the most part that's where his luck normally aided him.

 He felt a bit foolish to rely so solely on his luck but kept him afloat. He switched to try to rely more on himself and what he could do. He pushed the clone back with a volley of blast but they charged forward with a speedy counter with a heavy punch to his chest. He stumbled back  which gave the clone a chance for a close follow up kick and then punch. Michael had to switch to the defensive as the clone wasn't letting up. <Fuck. . .I. . .I need to use . . .No No I got this. . .I don't need to rely on luck> he though to himself trying to hold his resolve firmly, and that was when something exploded through his energy system

 His energy began to raise up along with his power. He felt things slow down slightly as his focus was heightening further then it had before, seeing an opening he took it and punched the clone away. He yelled out as the punch connected and felt Energy wash over himself as the barrier he'd been banging his head against inside of himself was finally broken through. The power radiating through him was fading though. He watched as the clone shattered into light fragments.

Mike fell to his knees feeling his energy nearly instantly falter as the energy used up in that heightened state was like nothing he'd experienced before. Slowly he got back to his feet and looked at his hand and clenched it. “It's  a small step. . . nothing more, I still need to work harder to control such a state” he said to himself as he was determined to preserve his own Freedom, and to do that he had to work harder to improve himself.