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Chapter 23 - The competition starts

"Wow, another one for you guys," Kigen said as he made a mark against Nina's name. The competition was in full swing, and the mother tree had become a hive of activity. Mostly just a lot of prey being flown in. 

For more than four days, this had been going on. The entire competition was based off of one of Mistress Kering's tales about the competitions that happened in the Faye city. 

According to her, there was a famous competition that usually happened in Faye city, where the juniors of the various clans would be sent off into a resource spot to have a hunting competition. 

The various animals in the forest would be graded according to size, ferocity, danger, ability, and ease of hunting, or huntability. Each beast was ranked and assigned a number. If one managed to take down the beast, they would be accredited these points. 

The group was totally enamored by this story, eager to try it. Now, instead of moving as a whole group, the fairies had formed various hunting packs. 

For fairness, the points for the beast that was felled was distributed across the entire group. However, sometimes, the group members could assign the points to one person, usually the main competitor. 

In this case, the stronger competitors were forbidden from forming one super team. Hence, they were forced to include several juniors in their teams. Eventually, the whole thing devolved into a competition of the top seniors, with the support of the juniors under them. 

Luita was killing it. He did not bring down the big-ticket items, but he was pretty adept at taking down any small prey or predator he came across. Most of the times, juniors under him were left with the task of collect the body after it died. 

However, he took the time to train them. Even the smaller ones, the recently born fairies, were taught how to hunt insects and other bugs in the forest. In some cases, he would pretend to be like Kigen, hovering in the background while the juniors hunted, ready to swoop in in case of any danger. 

Tande was quite muscular. While not as old, he had already begun to form a sturdy wooden body and a thick bark. He liked taking on anything big and terrifying. 

Most of the times, he would go after mighty wolves roaming in the forest. The powerful beasts proved to be powerful opponents for him to temper his body. Unlike his siblings, he did not use any weapons, favoring to take on his problems with his fists.

He had this amazing ability of inflating his fists with his wood element. He could grow his arm exponentially. With Kigen's example, he had trained to harden his fist, making his strike to pack quite the punch. 

Kigen had secretly learned that skill from observing Tande. Luckily, he had better control over the wood element, which meant that his fist packed a heavier punch. 

The juniors around him were all so enamored by his skills that they were actively training the same skill. Some even learned how to charge at a target. He seemed to have formed a group of muscle-fairies. Even the lady fairies in his group also looked buff. 

A close competitor, Foli preferred to strike using the rod. He was quite handy with the weapon too, and with the help of the team, they were able to do sizable damage to the animals in the forest. 

Nixa was the most excited of all. Normally, she did not participate in these kinds of competition, but this time the stakes were too high. Kigen had said that the winners would be included in the trip, while the losing teams would be left behind to guard the mother tree. 

She could not afford to be left behind, period! 

Most of the fairies under her saw her as an idol. They too were curious little things and loved to move around, figuring things out. They were all excited to go on this amazing journey.

Kigen did not restrict them on the number of fairies per team. It all depended on the charisma of the leaders, and how much influence they could garner. As such, he tried to remain as impartial as possible. 

However, a clear winner had emerged. The eldest, save for the guardian. She was lithe and nimble, very beautiful, but also extremely powerful. She moved with amazing speed, zipping about like a bullet. 

She had been there when Kigen took on the stone bear. She saw Kigen take on the green snake. She had taken all these lessons and absorbed them all. She was a powerful warrior, and she had excellent control over the wood element. 

Unlike the others, her thing was speed. She had started working on this when she saw Kigen's attack on the bear. Since then, she would find the weak point of the enemy, and attack that with all the force, venom and speed she could muster. 

Her approach had amazing effects. She could take down almost any animal that crossed her path. Be it the huge and scary black bears, the speedy jaguars in the jungle, even the armored armadillos and the elusive deer could escape her attack. 

She never used any weapons, preferring to attack solely with her body. She could transform her body into an aerodynamic shape, cutting through any weak point, leveraging on her strong points. 

She also had a secret weapon. After her entanglement with the green snake, she had gained quite the affinity with poisons. This was something not even Kigen knew. 

Her team were also the speedy kind. However, there were some that specialized in weaponry in her team. She was quite capable in training her team, and her warm compassion brought the group together quite nicely.

Kigen watched all this unfold with interest. He was quite happy with the various young and budding personalities. Each of them was proving to be quite the good leader. A small smile appeared on his face. 

A surprising effect was that with the increase of prey being ferried in, the mother tree was quite literally teeming with life. It had grown quite huge, and there were several new buds forming. 

Soon enough, there would be an influx of several new fairies in the mix. Kigen wondered if this was part of Mistress Kering's plan when she suggested this method of training. 

By now, Kigen was beginning to view her as a close ally. Not that he forgot about what she did, but he couldn't begrudge her, since he quite liked life as a fairy. His only takeaway was to be wary of her, since she had proved to be quite cunning. 

"Senior, what about you," as everyone was gathering, a sweet voice was heard. Kigen turned, half expecting it to be Nixa causing trouble again, but to his surprise, it was Nina. 

Of all the fairies in the place, only she had the nerve to tease Kigen. The two had spent quite some time together, being firstborn and second born, which meant that they shared a bond the others did not. 

To wit, Nina got to experience Kigen before he became this larger-than-life guardian. To her, he was still that big brother, the one who looked out for her. 

"What about me," Kigen's expression softened as he turned to his sister. 

"Are you really not going to hunt?" she pressed. 

"I am not part of the competition, remember?" he said proudly. How can she think to place him in the same category as they were. 

"But still," This time, it was Nixa. She had been a little late to the party, but she was fearless. She wouldn't mind knocking Kigen down a peg. "We want to see you hunt." 

"I wonder, is there a beast nearby that can offset all your progress thus far," Mistress Kering spoke up. The woman had made a makeshift tent nearby, where she'd been staying. 

Kigen glared at her. She too was egging on.

"In fact, one such beast exists," Foli spoke up. He didn't seem to catch the mood, he was simply showing off his knowledge. 

"Are you speaking about the serpent at the bottom of the waterfall?" Tande asked, understanding Foli's meaning. He too had thought of it. 

"In the territory controlled by the fairies, a single monarch remains, defying the rule of the fairies and challenge our authority. The poor beast, how it has miscalculated, for it has earned the ire of the great guardian of the forest, the firstborn among the fairies!" 

"Hear ye, hear ye, the mighty guardian shall take action, bringing this offending terror to an end, once and for all!" Luita shouted, his face fixed with such seriousness. 

He was totally ripping off a story Mistress Kering had told them, but he was doing his best to remain in character. It all seemed decided. Kigen would show down against the mighty serpent.

"Okay, tomorrow, I hunt a serpent!" Kigen proclaimed, elucidating a chorus of cheers from the fairies. It was going to be an epic showdown.

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