Andy had a similar situation. He was standing in front of the proud azure dragon. The only difference was that the dragon was clearly telling Andy the requirments for a contract.
" The way I understand it. Each one needs to have a similar temperament. If my powers had resonated with byakko I would have needed to be ferocious, with you I need to be prideful, and so on. I think we all already have those attributes. " - Andy
" You do. However, it's hard to maintain and display them in front of us. For example when you came here. The first thing you felt was how proud I was, this suppressed your own pride and made you get a lot more humble. I need you to display that pride. You still aren't prideful enough. "- azure dragon
" I don't get it.... You don't look like someone full of pride. I have a friend who is a lot more prideful despite him having nothing compared to you. "-Andy
" You are misunderstanding pride. Real pride is something that comes from the depths of the soul and has sunk into the bones. It's not something for outward display, but rather is a form of confidence. It is that confidence that can create miracles or even change fate. That's what real pride is about. Not that display royalty would do. "-Dragon
Andy felt shaken by what he just heard. He had confidence and pride in his speed as well as swordsmanship . He didn't need to always brag about it, but when he started fighting they automatically get displayed and his power soars. Andy gripped his sword and drew it. In a moment his gaze transformed to become a gaze that looked down on everything as if only his sword existed and everything else is fake.
"Nice. You did a good job. Your manifested pride can even rival mine. You might be able to walk the sword Dao to the end." - Azure dragon.
They established a contract. The contract made the divine beast transfer some of their flame powers to him increasing their quality and quantity while also gift him a secret technique. This technique is the core technique that made them rise to their current position. In exchange any life forms killed by the contracter will have some of their spirit power absorbed but the dragon.
The contract benefits both parties. They both get stronger without any disadvantages. The knowledge about the special technique isn't gone, while humans can't absorb the spirit powers of who they kill anyway so it would have been wasted. As for the flame energy transfered it's like stamina and gets recovered quickly.
"Do you know among my friends who will suffer the most?" - Andy
"The guy who gets paired with his majesty" said the dragon sarcastically. " well I'd say the guy being paired with suzaku. He's the vermillion bird. His dominant trait is being graceful. However, he is also majestic. In the sense of the royalty I spoke about before. He's arrogant but unlike them he's actually the strongest so he sort of haves the qualifications. "- Azure dragon
" It might seem someone graceful is a good match but in fact just like how my pride suppressed yours it makes the ungraceful part appears as the graceful part gets suppressed. When the darkness awakes and you humans are specially prone to that."
"He starts becoming even more overbearing and makes life hell for the contractor. Among the four of us he has the lowest accepted contracts. By a large margin at that. If you have a healer he should be paired with him. "-dragon
" oh then Kei is the one who gets paired. In that case I'm not worried. The most likely scenario is that Kei will bully him instead of the opposite. "-Andy
"... ". 'he didn't hear what I just said right.' - dragon.
Andy returned to the trial region in high spirits. His life ring had changed. It had a dragon insignia on it. He focused his flames on the ring and the flames that were usually the size of a finger covered his whole body. It blazed with a saffire blue color instead of the original light blue.
Being bathed by the flame he found his understanding towards all the sword forms rise exponentially. He could now use all of them without any limitation. 'I'm not just a sword wielder. I'm a sword user. I know how to use he sword and not just randomly swing.'
The monsters rushed toward him and were about tear him with their fangs and claws. 'absolute swordsmanship, the ruler series : 3rd form, submission' Andy held his sword backward and made the tip face the ground.
This move broke the monsters will to fight and made them submit. They all stopped moving and knelt down. 'Azure dragon dashing technique' blue light appeared on his feet and in a flash he had moved through them and killed all of them. He then proceeded to go out thinking he was the first.
The sight that greeted him was "Finally I thought you were planning to spend the night there."-kei. By that point he had countless ice cream packets around him.
"How are you the first to finish? I thought you had the hardest time with making a contract."-Andy
"who do you think I am? I am a genius. I don't need to contract with anyone to pass this trial." - Kei said while adjusting his glasses.
"you say so but I can see the life ring has changed and has a Phoenix like insigna on it. And your flame got darker. You probably had a terrible trial and you just came out,but you just want to continue with he act. I bet you only healed your skin but you're filled with internal injuries. " - Andy
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Yato was in an ever changing environment. It was the sea a moment an earthquake the next moment and a Volcano after it. Sometimes he's in the middle of a falling glacier and the other he's on the top of a train.
"Stay steady. It's your job. You should be an unmoving fortress" - tortoise. Yato was being thrown around by the constant changing scenes yet he still tried to hold himself with every changing scene.
After a day of constant changing gravity and whirlpools and various other maps that make losing your footing easier he went back. " it has been one second. Now that I finished my illusion let's see if you are still so unsteady." - tortoise.
The aura became even more Radiant and yato found himself losing his footing but remembering all the times he fell in the changing environment he managed to stand. An aura burst out of him the floor cracked where he was standing and yet yato gritted his teeth and said " I'm not falling again no matter the situation. Much less if it's on solid ground. "
"congrats. We can make a contract now. You're steady enough" - tortoise. After making the contract yato appeared in the trial region.