Aether Beasts

Chapter 8 - 8

Zirani's plan to get out of the warehouse was worrying. I understood the plan well enough. She wanted me to use what I'd learned to make my way through the forest, and back to town.

"This will be a good test," She'd said when I'd asked her why. It made sense, I suppose, but my mind kept flashing back to the image of that gale wolf tearing that hunter's throat out like it was nothing. Zirani could tell I was worried, but she was confident that I'd be fine, and if I'm being honest, it did help, knowing that a four-hundred-year-old aether beast believed I could, but before we even tried any of that Zirani wanted to spend some a few hours making sure I'd learned the techniques properly, and basically just double-checking I was ready. While she was confident, it was clear she didn't want to send me out unprepared, not that I thought I could be prepared, but I was sure as hell gonna try my hardest.

We began with the techniques. She asked me to repeat each technique ten times in a row without a mistake, which I was surprised that I was able to do. It was actually becoming easier each time and some actions almost happened without me even needing to do anything.

"That's what you want with everything," Zirani said when I told her. "You want it to become instinct, especially for this affinity and what I'm teaching. The principles for these techniques will be used for many others, so it's important we set the right foundation now."

Once again, I couldn't help but think about how lucky I was to have Zirani. She was a teacher, encyclopedia, and comfort to be around all in one.

The green pulse was the hardest of the three techniques to do ten times in a row, but after an hour an half, I finally managed it. The technique had so many actions and certain timings that had to be done right, and when Ziranai told me that eventually, she'd teach me to do this with my feet while fighting, I stared at her in mild shock.

She laughed at my expression. "This is just the beginning. Your views on the arcane and what's possible are shallow. If only I was able to show you one of my battles when I was at my previous state. I once saw an arcanist lift a hill into the air, heat it so it turned molten then bring it down with enough force to crack the earth and send tremors around for a few miles. I don't expect that from you anytime soon, but things get a lot more powerful than you probably think."

That image was quite the sight to think of, and I knew Ziranai was right. Just in these past two days, I'd had plenty of revelations.

"It's not going to be as easy as I think is it?" I asked.

She shook her head. "No, but you're not gonna let that stop you, are you?"

"No," I said. If anything the possibility of having power like that just made me want to work harder. With power like that, a simple gale wolf couldn't kill me and I wouldn't feel so helpless.

After the techniques, we moved on to the sparring. She only had one requirement for this. I needed to last half a minute. She would be holding back of course, but she would still actively try and beat me.

It took seven tries and I barely managed it the seventh time, but using the vine I kept her at a distance as best I could and used bark armor to take hits that would have taken me done for sure. Even so I still only lasted thirty-one seconds, but that was enough.

After recovering, and eating another one of those meat porridges, which I was really getting sick of, Zirani approached me with a small bag in her hand.

"Supplies?"

She shook her head and pulled out another grey packet of porridge, opening it up. I was about to protest that I wasn't hungry, but then she opened the smaller bag and poured some greenish-looking powder into the porridge, and handed it over to me.

"That's a simple mix of a few herbs I found that should let you recover faster. We don't want to leave when it's night or be out when night falls. You don't have any form of night vision and I haven't taught you to use green pulse from your feet yet, so eat that and take anything from here you want."

I nodded and hesitantly dug in. The powder made somehow made the porridge taste even worse, adding a bitter flavor to the meal. I wolfed it down and quickly searched through the warehouse seeing if there was anything I would need.

Apart from the tons of metal, there wasn't much else of value. Although I could return to sell the metal. It was all in very good condition and would fetch a good price, or I could sell the location, that was a possibility, but apart from that there's was nothing for me to take with me when I left.

I headed over to Zirani who was waiting for me by the door to the clearing.

"Not taking anything?"

I shook my head. "Nothing of value."

"Not even the meat porridges?"

I made a face, and she giggled. If I never had to have one of those meat porridges again it would be too soon. I couldn't wait to get some real food when I got back into town.

"So do you remember what you need to do?"

I took a deep breath and nodded. "Use green pulse to check for any dangers and to find a path through the forest, while using bark armor to blend in and the lashing vine to move onto trees when needed."

She smiled, pleased. "Good, but remember if it comes to a fight?"

"Show no mercy and be uncaring like nature."

"Good, then I'll be heading back into our core. I'll see you at your home."

She faded and moved back into her core, leaving me alone. We'd decided that I wouldn't let her out unless we were in private as she would panic people and raise too many questions, not to mention that'd she said some people would kill me to try and take her.

That thought sent a chill through, and I resolved myself to get stronger so that I could stop anything like that from ever happening.

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