"It's nice that we have a place to stay away from the rain but what will we do about the monsters when night falls?" Steven asked.
"That won't be an issue. I used an illusion spell to make a fake wall so the monsters won't be able to detect us from the outside. That includes sight, smell, and sound. We'll still be able to see them though but I don't think that'll be an issue. I used this same spell at the waterfall cave as well." Bea said with a proud look on her face.
"So the monsters won't be able to hear us?" I asked.
Bea nodded her head with a prideful smile.
"Steven, let's get some training done. We'll be here for a while and there's enough space for the two of us to fight. I'm sure if you can learn to control your aura, taking down these monsters will be a piece of cake!" I said with a smile, unsheathing Genki.
"Alright then." Steven said, an excited smile crossing his face as he pulled out his spear.
"Wait, what? Why are you two fighting?" Bea asked. She had a frightened look on her face as she looked at the two of us.
I let out a small laugh, "we're not actually fighting so you don't need to worry. We're training so we can be better prepared to face those monsters."
"O-oh. Well please be careful not to hit the illusion. If you make contact with it, it'll be destroyed."
Steven and I nodded our heads at Bea before focusing our attention on each other.
Within seconds, Steven and I were already within striking distance from each other. Steven thrusted his spear forward, only nicking the side of my cloak as I sidestepped his attack. Using this chance, I horizontally swung my blade near his face. Making it look easy, Steven bent backwards to avoid my attack.
"You're still doing too much thinking for you to activate your aura like that. Just let your instincts guide you!" I shouted, raising my blade for an overhead swing.
"Let my instincts guide me?" Steven asked, not sounding too sure of himself.
Steven closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he reopened them, I could see a small sparkle appear as he pulled back his spear and slashed forward. I quickly jumped back to avoid the attack but Steven closed in and this time went for a piercing attack.
I quickly brought Genki down on Steven's weapon, slamming it into the ground. When I looked up, I saw that Steven had a dark aura surrounding him. The pressure of the aura made my hair stand on end as I watched Steven pull back his weapon.
"Let's see what that aura of yours can do!" I shouted, activating my own aura.
With how far away we were from each other, I was completely out of his range of attack. That's what I originally thought before I saw him pull back his spear as if he was going to thrust it forward. I didn't know what he was doing but out of instinct, I took up a defensive stance. That move seemed to be the right call because just moments later, a giant dark pillar shot out from the ground towards my direction. Using Genki's beam to hasten my attack, I cleaved the thing in two.
"So Zi finally found himself a new user." Genki said.
"Is that the name of Steven's Genmochi?" I asked.
"Yeah. Zi is arguably one of the strongest of our kind but is incredibly picky with those he chooses. His ability is-"
"Nah don't tell me. I want to figure that out on my own!" I said, cutting off Genki.
I rushed towards Steven at full speed, side stepping each pillar that shot towards me. As I got closer to Steven, another pillar shot out from the ground, forcing me to slide underneath it. While sliding, I created a small explosive orb near my open hand and pushed it into the ground. The small explosion sent me back up to my feet and directly put Steven within my attack range.
I tightened my grip on Genki and swung my blade horizontally. Right before my attack could get anywhere, a dark wall shot up from the ground and blocked my attack. The sturdiness of the wall almost caused me to lose my balance but I planted my feet back into the ground.
"So it works as an offensive and defensive aura?" I asked, slashing the giant wall multiple times in the hopes of breaking it.
"Do you want me to explain how it works now?" Genki asked with an annoyed tone.
"Not yet!" I shouted, firing an explosion near the base of the wall.
The sudden crack of the wall soon led to the entire thing collapsing, finally allowing me to see Steven just as he was about to thrust his spear forward. Thinking quickly, I raised my right leg and created a small explosive orb beneath my foot before slamming it into the ground. The impact alone knocked the two of us off our feet, deactivating Steven's aura the moment he hit the ground.
"That was way too close!" I said, breathing heavily.
"Everything hurts." Steven said, laying down with his back to the ground.
"Woah! What were those flames that were coming off of you two?" Bea asked, running over to the two of us.
"Those flames you saw are called aura… wait, you can see that?" I quickly raised my head up and looked over at Bea.
"It was kinda hard not to see them." Bea gave me a confused look as she tilted her head to the side.
"You shouldn't be able to see those unless you've already activated your aura once. When would you have done that?"
Bea simply shrugged her shoulders at my question and looked over at Steven who had passed out from exhaustion.
"I'm with him on that one. I think that's enough training for today."