For several long petals, none of them said anything, just staring at the hunters. "I'm not doing this all bloody night," Aero said before flicking his blade and drawing blood." Now are you going to talk, or are we going to make some graves in this medow!"
"There was another moment of silence, and Aero reached for his damaged bag of decay powder. "We're here to observe your actions in our country. If you think no one has noticed your strange actions, you're blind."
"Oh, I realized people would show interest, aero started." I just didn't care!" he stepped closer, he kneeled down, grabbing her by the face," It's your country's business when I make it your business."
Twisting their neck uncomfortably, " just like when I set every country leader on this planet clothing. "Whatever political maneuver you think this is. It isn't, I really have bigger problems, "like the thing that woke up an acneint monster just to kill me. Something that has sent and will probably send more hordes."
"You should start thinking about how our planet is heading towards an open planet, which means we will get visitors from the stars." Stepping back, he swirled his blade as he walked over to the other supposed wather." Or how about the fact that ancient giant creatures are real and just live somewhere unknown."
"But no, let's watch some teen train and prepare, that's a great use of resources!" Aero huffed, bending forward and back to stretch and release some tension. "Part of me really wants to just bury you. But politics are annoying, so you're going to live." The air around him changed as he called upon his power.
He wrapped it around their pride, squeezing harshly. He saw one of them tremble as damage started to form throughout their pride. The strength in their eyes was weakening, "You are going to tell whoever sent you. I'm not a part of whatever power play is going on between the nations; I don't want to. Whether I help or hurt one has nothing to do with the policies between them or any other factor than my own thoughts and maybe the thoughts of those I care for."
"Now I bet you're going to think you have to control my friends and family. But I assure you, any action to hurt or inflict on them will only enrage me. Do it at the danger of lives," he turned to idit to see if she had anything to say. "You know, he makes a great point; you are wasting resources. We haven't even tried to hide the fact that we're out here training. You weren't hiding that well, either."
"So try, Galia commented," you've just succeeded in making some possible enemies. " She leaned back, keeping her weapon at the ready." What even was your plan? Capture us and try to torture us. maybe steal something we might have had written down." Privately, the first would be less effective; sometimes, as a hunter, you get bitten. It was horrifying and painful, but a large part of their training was dealing with pain. Working through it so you could win and wrap your wounds.
As for something written down, she still had the book. Sometimes referenced it in her training, but it was hidden at the bottom of her supplies. You wouldn't find it easily. She was going to make them believe that they wouldn't find anything at all.
Though she wondered if it was appropriate for them to spend an entire five petals just insulting them. Maybe they were cranky about being woken up in the middle of the night. Aero was definitely cranky. " Let's get back to bed." Flipping the tool around, she slammed the blunt end into the back of their head several times until she was sure they weren't getting up.
The rest were similarly disabled, all quickly bound and tossed out of the camp." Is this really the best plan we have?" Aero was already climbing back under his quilt. " If this doesn't teach them to leave us be." Drawing blood will." Then he pulled the quilt over his head and worked on getting back to sleep.
It took much longer than he would have liked to think about what had just happened. Someone had decided to use resources to spy on him. Part of him realized they had decided he was important enough to do so. Which tickled his pride. But another part of him was just plain annoyed.
He did not want to spend time dealing with spies, nor politics. He's already seen how tedious and complacent they were; that was just with his own home country. Adding another was a headache waiting to happen, 'I'll try and send a letter soon,' cause he couldn't ignore this problem. Is that right, helper?'
"Of course, my lord, if they do not face consequences, at least it must be brought up so they are wary to try again soon. " Aero knew the helper was right, people were like that. he knew from experience that people would not take no, until he punched them so something. Now he needed to send the political equivalent of a warning punch, ' how is a question I'll have to answer.'
Dureel probably knew what was going into the letter, but that was for the morning, Aero clenching his eyes tighter closed and trying to get right of the buzz of the fights. Another reason he would curse the would-be spies.
The next morning, when Aero woke up, he immediately checked out the pride energy around him, finding no groups of spies inside his range.' Well, at least I can let my guard down.' There was still the very real danger of being randomly attacked by some kind of creature. But that was something he put out of mind as he did his morning exercises before going to the nearby stream.
"Ugh, haa!" letting out a breath, he took the moment to just enjoy the slight peace he found around himself. "ACHO!" so much pollen. After dunking his head underwater, he headed back to camp. With a cool head, he started going through the routine he's repeated over the past days.
The hardest part was always channeling his mental/ emotional energy into physical effect. Manipulating light was an exercise; he mostly worked on generating the light. Grabbing the light from the air, at this rate, I'll apply it to battle sometime soon.'
Grabbing his staff, he focused on the energy around it, causing light to gather at the end of the staff. Slowly, he waved it through the air, getting the slight to spread down the staff. Dimming the light so it wasn't impairing his vision, he started going through his stances.
"You know that very pretty," Galia spoke up. Aero whipped around to face her." What are you talking about?" he dimmed the light, and she gestured to it with a flower she picked. "The light around your staff, the way it moved, the way you danced with it, was beautiful."
"Huh, "I guess it might be." It was kind of hard to see from his perspective, "I'd rather it be dangerous first." She shrugged, "There was nothing wrong with it being beautiful as well." Aero mummbed as he summoned the light back and started training again, moving his staff rapaibly.
Galia watched, shielding her eyes at the part; the light really was beautiful. Bright though, with his shift multiple color spectrum. She watched for a few petals before sitting up and beginning to meditate. Pulled out threads of heaven and earth energy from the world. Feeding them into her body.
To her core, where all of the energy was stored and filtered, becoming hers. Then she worked that energy outward, into her body, her muscles, bones, skin, and carapace. It was a slow, technical, and at times painful process.
But not without results; bit by bit, she could feel her body changing. How? She would learn one day when her body would no longer accept any more energy, she would stop. Turning back to watching Aero, who had switched to doing kicks. Light wrapped around his feet.
'Oh, that is going to be hell to fight,' especially when he increased the light intensity when he struck his imaginary opponent. Yes, she wasn't looking forward to sparring with him if he was going to burn her eyes with that.
'Maybe I should plan a counter,' if this was going into his fighting style, he was going to use it in the field. If it caught her by surprise like that, 'acutely it's bad if it got the entire group blinded.' thumbing her hand against the soil, she tried to think. 'Maybe Sam could give us a warning; it'd be better if they could defend against the light.'
The best options she could think of were some kind of anti-light melody, which Gailia didn't know any, or the use of their heaven and earth energy. Which she knew even less about. 'Well, I guess the question is, who do I send a letter to for light-type melodies?' The teachers at school, maybe.
Setting down his staff, Aero splashed some water on his face, trying to return moisture to his skin. Trying to beat the general heat of the sun, after shocking most of the drops from his face, Aero started drinking until he was feeling better.
Setting his water down, Aero started some cool-down stretches before lying down on the grass and flowers. Closing his eyes, letting his pride energy spread out. Letting it flow through the air, vibrating with the light in the air. Which he grabbed hold of. Lifting his hands into the air, he pulled light together until he had an eye-sized ball of light.
He held the ball for a long moment before he had it revolve around his hands. Maintaining the shape even as the petals started to pass... bathing in the light of the sun, " damn it!" inna roared as a small gust passed Aero. Blinking, he sat up, changing the light's path to circle around his shoulder as he went over to her. Gallia coming along.
"Something interesting happened." Inna huffed before brushing some petals off her head. "Trying to practice wind control, I think I've increased my energy pool enough for some simple things." She thrust her hands, and a small but unfocused breeze burst from her hands." That's all I got!"
Inna thrust her hands a couple more times before sitting on the ground. " Like I'm away, I should be pleased I'm able to do that at all. But Zaltess! We've got things coming at us! We need more than some gust of air!" She waved her hands, knocking loose some petals.
Gaila sputtered as the petals blew into her face," That one use right there." Aereo stated with complete seriousness. "I see," Inna commented before blowing a petal-filled gust into Aereo's face. He swung his staff through it, trying to knock them off course.
It only made them more chaotic. Sputtering, he focused on his hearing more. Using it, he heard the crunching of the grass. He swung, without hesitation." Wow!" Inna quickly caught the staff, her other hand wrapping around his wrist.
With a twist, she forced him to drop the step and pull him closer. Aeros' eyes opened wide as they dived into an impromptu spar. The first few petals were notihgn speacil between them, trading fast-paced, close-combat blows. Landing light hits on each other here and there.
Then, on an unseen single, they stepped back and grabbed their weapons and were on each other again. Aero uses his staff of defense, blocking or deverting his teammates' strikes. Creating an opening for him to punch or kick her.
He advanced around a good amount of those, but also used the opportunity to counterattack. At another unseen signal, she blasted him with a gust of wind directly in the face. On complete reflex, he shut his eyes for a moment." Ugh!" Her fist immediately sank into his gut.
Letting out a cough, Aero grabbed the offending limb, bringing her into a knee to the face. "Come on out!" Quickly, he concured a ball of light, throwing it right into Inna's eyes." Ah!" Grabbing the blinding light, he pulled the light away from her eyes and kicked out at Aero's knee. It buckled.
"nah!" With a grunt, he hit the ground, quickly rotating his knuckled innai's legs from under her before they went into full combat against each other. wreasting amounst the flowers, Aero even ripping up a few to throw their pollen into her face.
"AH!. zaltess and zalts, you can fight dirty."
"I didn't always have the strength you see today!" Aero stated. Even now, depending on the circumstances, Aero wouldn't mind fighting dirty. The spar against Inna wasn't that big or important. They continued to wrestle with each other for a long while.
Until they grew tired enough, they pulled apart, "Good work, you two." Gailia tossed them their recently filled water skins. aeroset his over his face for a petal, letting it cool his body off before drinking from it.
"So we've both got a new ability that kind of revolves around attacking someone's vision, right?" Aero nodded, turning on his side. "Yeah, Gailia has pointed out that this will probably negatively affect our teammates. It only took her a moment to nod in agreement. They started talking about how they could work around this; it boiled down to two major plans. Better control over their powers.
The other plan required their teammates to train around these problems. Not that the two fighters weren't going to put in some work. After two hours of practicing with his staff and his bare hands and feet, Aero moved back to practice this time with the image of his team fighting around him.
'Oh, that would smart.' After accidentally flashbanging one of his teammates, in theory. Really, they were all close combat except their melee use, and tended to go for vital organs like the head. So they crossed into his line of ire here and there, "at least I've made progress focusing the path nd intensity of the light."
He was flash-banging himself less, "just have to get it down to nothing, or minimal." The proud male sighed through his cool-down stretches. Stopping as he bent back until his hands touched the ground. "Ugh, they're back!" grumbling, he straightened his spine.