Spirit Taming

The path out of the city was expedited. Many of the guards and other officials had taken positions to safely guide those who were not residents out of Terra. While it seemed rushed, it was just for the best. Terra would always do this when their city was at risk.

The odds were low that anything bad would actually happen since the massive cave was always dry. Even during the worst floods, the caves around had caused water to flow away from this one main space. However, taking the proper measures for any situation was necessary. No one could fault this.

"You may all wonder why we are doing this. We could easily use influence to stay since you all won your tournaments. I also have my own connections in this city. However, that would leave us at a disadvantage. Terra city locks down until a situation has resolved. That means a full month here without access to dungeons."

The information from Professor Wright was enough to make every single one of them realize that they had not considered the time and procedures that Terra City had. They had a gap in knowledge concerning this. Even Isa had not been familiar with such actions.

"That would have slowed our growth a lot..." Since Maria was so proud of her ability to advance lately in strength and healing, she knew that this would have stopped her completely. How could she work on healing during battles if she was cooped up? How could she work on gaining more energy crystals to help the jade worm hatch? What was the point of stalling everything?

"I would have still had ores to forge with. That would be fine." Ralph’s natural annoyance came from leaving the city that had plenty of available practice for him as a blacksmith. He had just had a harsh training day and felt that he was stronger. Naturally, he should tone that strength by forging more.

"And the costs of those ores would go up and up as long as they are locked down to only residents. We would burn all the savings I have put aside for when we build our own mansion." Isa’s plans spilled out a little as she yelled at Ralph.

The idea that she would construct a mansion with the facilities for the group to conduct business and also to live was a good one that everyone dwelled on for a little while before they managed to rise to the surface and sense the natural energies outside.

"This brings us to the next reason we are leaving. You all underwent training. You have better strength to learn resistances. Specifically, to resist natural storms that would kill off those too young and inexperienced in the wilderness. None of you have faced this before, follow me and learn from what I do." Since Professor Wright had taken charge of this group, she would teach them. It was part of what she promised to do since she had her own reasons for supporting the group.

While Clark had for some reason forgotten the fact that the storm might be going on for a few days, he was hesitant to think about what this would mean. He had originally thought that they would have the chance to talk about the advances they had all made in training. That they would have the time to be able to ask their personal questions and talk about their next moves. He had been pretty wrong about it all.

When the entrance to the upper city appeared before them, all the group saw was torrential downpour. Rain that seemed to never end but suddenly shift to the side. The wind that was paired with this storm was enough for them to all understand that if they did not remain vigilant, that they could be hit by something carried by the wind.

"I like this." Clark’s voice was just loud enough for everyone, including professor Wright to hear. They had not imagined that any of their fellow group members would be interested in this.

There was a theory in Professor Wright’s mind that Isa would be more comfortable in this because of her elemental relationships to beasts. She could fuse her body with them because of her unique binds and physique. There was also a small chance that Ella would do better because she also had multiple elemental beasts. However, these beasts were from a wisp base that grew to be so, therefore, it might not be the same as Isa.

"What do you mean?" Professor Wright’s question didn’t seem to reach Clark who was in his own head.

It was the flowing storms moving meditation technique that was making Clark’s body react in this way. He felt more energized just watching the storm change. It was as if he was seeing a small glimpse of what he might be capable of.

This sudden flare of energy that Clark had made the entire group wonder just what might be going on. They had seen this when he was training and knew it to be some form of technique that Clark had trained. Yet, this time, there was a much higher degree of control when the energy flowed through Clark’s body.

The mixing energies seemed to be coming from around him and not from his beast bonds. As if the water and wind energies were allowing him control of them. Naturally, Clark could sense that this was all due to Crim. The fact that Crim had come from the bone marrow of a particular species of dragon was what caused this.

Crim had been unique from the start. Nearly as unique as Devi was, but differently unique. A dragon that had come from the death of another dragon but carried the potential to use the unique energies that the originating dragon once had. Something hard to grasp but clearly capable of the uniqueness and strength of dragon energy as a whole. The kind of extremely adaptable energy that everyone saw as top of the world.

Crim just had to think for an instant to supply enough dragon energy to Clark to assist this unique change that the flowing storms meditation technique naturally wanted to use. Pulling energies from around him wasn’t even what Clark actively thought of doing. Instead, he let the bonds and the meditation technique act on their own. To flow naturally.

Therefore, Clark stepped in to the abandoned upper city of Terra and found that he was barely shaken by the storm at all. He felt like a fish in water. He was at home in it while the rain tried its best to beat him down. As the wind pushed at him trying to make him move with it.

"Professor Wright, I looked at the maps and have an idea of where we are going. Mind If I take the lead?" Taking the lead here would be a little forward, but Clark felt that it would help him continue to understand the new meditation technique that he had reached. It also seemed to be the ideal way of training his energy control so that he could last longer in battle while using less energy where he didn’t need to use it.

"Show us what you can do. Do not exhaust yourself out in the open." Professor Wright saw that the rest were looking at her and how she prepared herself. Clark was always the outlier and it didn’t matter what happened from there. She was confident that he would take care of himself.

As the group left the abandoned upper city behind them, they all had their own thoughts. The time there had been great for training. Maria had found the beast that she would raise to help her learn alchemy. That would give her and the others a greater strength on the future.

There were also the additional relationships that they had built. Ones that gave them allies to potentially gain control of Nova city from the families that kept it underneath their thumbs through cruelty.

These things would not be easily forgotten. Greater still were the rumors spreading. The beast plans sold at auction and outside with Isa’s mark on them proved that the business she ran for beats planning held higher knowledge than many others. The quality of these plans greatly trumped existing plans.

This would start a chain reaction that would make them valuable through more cities. It was the start of a more sophisticated beast planning rumor. One that could easily spread even in terra which was not known for being the most connected to politics and rumors to start with. Yet, if they spoke of these things, then it was clear there was a reason for it.

The storm raged on as the group took to trails and began to learn from professor wright. The mountain passageways that would be their path toward the open fields and lava fields where Lunar and Solar academies clashed along the borders would eventually show themselves to the group. It was just a matter of making it through the storm and training their resistances to nature itself.