"so what, the beast isn't trapped?" idit was the first to speak, bringing up a worry point in Aero's statement; his answer wasn't as reassuring as she hopped," The beast is trapped but is continually trying to break free. Even now, I know they're trying to break free."
"Yeah, that's going in my dreams." Lior spoke, " So, what can we do?"
"The chains I've used to bind the beast are forged from resonating pride, so the more and stronger I can make them, the less I have to worry about them." the girls looked at each other, completing what that meant. "well, I guess we have to see what we can do!" inna said holding out her hands. one by one the rest of them linked hands before looking at aero.
"We don't have to link hands," he stated to make a fact before joining them before focusing less on the material world and more on the energy of their pride. Each of them had different sizes and densities, a different form and flavor. But still, minor attributes connected them.
Their pride in their ability to fight, their pride as hunters. Each solid as rocks or greater. A tiny bit of difference in them. But as he reached out with his own fighter pride. There's responded the same.
With harmony and resonance in the middle of their circle, the new energy condenses, which means there is some merit to this hand-holding. Aero wasn't sure how he felt about it. Didn't feel bad holding their hands, but he focused back on the power.
It was intense, double what he could produce with inna and gailia. It made sense since they were double the people. But other qualities about the energy were different, 'like the attributes of pride are mixing together. ' that was a theory, but there was definitely more than what he currently understood; he knew it would take time before he managed to completely understate this.
But instead of focusing on that, he started leading the energy away from their circle towards the prison of the beast. Who sensed the encroaching energy and struggled against his binds at full force. Breaking a few of the links before Aero could infuse the energy.
The energy flow was repaired before strengthing the chains, ' I wonder how much energy we can generate.' if it was strong enough, they wouldn't have to worry about the beast for a while. So he kept pouring on the power, reinforcing the chains to the beast's rage.
After several petals, he returned to check on his team, "How are you doing?" weird was the general feeling; they didn't know how to describe how they felt completely. They could feel their mental states being changed in response to the drain of their energy. But they could hold on, so with thanks, aero kept pumping more power into the chains.
After half a flower, he decided that was enough. It still felt like they had the energy to give, but he had no intention of draining his teammates. It looked like there was enough power to bind the beast for now.
So he redrew his energy, ending the resonation and allowing the girls to relax before asking them how they felt." weird and a bit less confident some?"
"pride is a form of confidence, so losing the energy will affect both." aero reapplied." As far as I currently understand, the best way to recover the lost energy is to meditate or focus on the things that give you a sense of pride."
They nodded, and Aero started doing that; a lot of recent events flashed through his mind. Battling a creature older than his home planet. so he was doing pretty good to be going like this,' if I live long enough, I'll figure out how to beat them permanently.' but for now, he was going to remind himself he won each battle they've had.
They may not be one-sided victories, but he's won, and that was something to take pride in from the bottom of his heart. In fact, every day he continued to live was a small victory for the beast. That was something to take pride in.
He felt his energy return to him quickly; he didn't feel how it was a bit denser before. His realization of his victories against the beast helped him grow a bit stronger, strength he would need in time.
The group rested in the two for two days before heading off to the lake they chose. It was quickly apparent how different this land was from their own. The shape of the tree, the noises in the air, and the temperature. It was different enough that they couldn't help but notice, 'Well, I already want to go home.'
He pushed his desire down for the time being and focused on getting to the lake. Which, from the maps they purchased in town, wasn't that far and kind of used as a swimming hole despite being a two-day trip. And possessing a few hostile creatures in the water, hopefully, which meant there were probably few people there.
Whatever his thoughts were, it was a two-day trip, and he paid attention to other things. His teammate and a few stories he bought plus whatever the helper brought out. They also gave him reports from Qoqax and the stats on his debt. Which has been partly paid off by his sale of pride energy. More will happen soon.
The lord of greed wanted word to spread so there would be more buyers, which sounded like a solid plan. So he was staying quiet on that front. So that left some matters closer to his home planet as his current concerns, which there weren't many.
The night they stopped after the first day, something tried to steal food from them, and Inna fought it with everything she had. It was small and almost too fast for her to track; it would have lived if it had given up on the food.
"We might use more decay powder than we planned," Tilia commented as the body rotted at a rapid rate. "you say that like it's a new problem," hunters were always using a lot of their powder. So it wasn't strange for them to run out of it. That's why all of the Aero's teams carried several stones worth. which was a considerable amount considering how light and low little powder boosted the decay process.
So they didn't concern themselves with the matter too much; it wasn't like they could race back to town for more. beinists of a close location they were going to use for training. The second day of travel was similarly uneventful, and they arrived at the sandy shores of the lake.
"Oh wow, this looks a lot better than it was described." Galia smiled, walking toward the edge of the water and inspecting it. Near the shore, it was mostly clear but got darker the deeper the water got. From what she shared, it was only about a building deep.
The darker the water, the more creatures were living in it, which got as big as aero. They are swift for their size. So, something they would have to be ready for, turning around, she helped everyone set up their camp for the next, however long it took them to train.
After everything was in place, Aero stretched before rushing into the water. The water didn't go above his knees before he started running. On the way, the young lord asked about water training. Cause he's never done it before, only to find there was more to train than just underwater combat.
So that was one of the things he did for the next few flowers until her legs were killing him; they shook as he walked back to dry land,' I haven't had a workout like this in a long while.' as far as he was concerned this trip was already worth it. He was definitely finding a decent body of water back home. Or finding a melody that had the same effect.
"Have a good workout." Tzillia asked, poking at the wood she set up for a fire. " yeah, haven't been this sore in a while." Tzillia hummed. She wasn't sure how safe it was to work out, to the point that your legs shook as you walked. Saying something wouldn't have any weight coming from her, as she had done it. From how it left her legs feeling each time, she tried not to go that far.
That didn't stop her from copping aero training method, and man, it took more out of you than you first thought. 'if this is just running, then training underwater is going to be harder than I thought.' this sentiment quickly spread through the rest of the group. But none of them backed down from the challenge.
So, in the next few days, they got the lay of the land and got used to working in the water, moving deeper as they adapted. It was slow going and, maybe, a bit centuries, but Aero made use of the helper's connections for stories and exercising in many tasks.
Days turned to a week before Aero fully submerged himself with his staff. Though he worked with water up to his shoulders, the fact he had to hold his breath was an added challenge. he worked slowly in his movement, prioritizing control and smoothness over speed. He could build that, but.
'the lack of solid ground is going to be a small problem when I dive farther into the water.' but for now, he worked on what he had, with frequent breaths to fill his lungs; Aero didn't feel like he was making the most progress. But he was working; it was a little less dull when his teammates joined him, and they started sparing.
The worst part of fighting underwear was that Aero kept expecting to be faster. Fast enough to counter what was being thrown at him, he adjusted. He is trying to work out his habit of countering and focusing on defense or offense in the spars.
It was taking days, but they were getting faster in the water. Aero would love it if things were going faster and he wasn't so drop-dead tired at the end of each day. 'I just have to work hard, and then I can take pride in the results.' This notion helped push him forward, along with the belief that he would be one step closer to reaching the stars.
The days stretched and blurred, mostly broken up by the random creature discovering them. Ignoring or attacking. Along with the trips, one of them had to head back to town to collect certain supplies. They decided not to bring too much with them since they were so close.
"They're gossiping about us!" Inna commented as she and Galia came back from town." who cared." was Aero's immediate response from where he was warming up by a small fire. The water was a bit cool and let a chill in their bodies. "well, if you don't want people to come to check up on us, then you probably should." she replied. Aero huffed, pocking the fire before looking up.
"the only thing they're going to find is our training, but I doubt it's going to go as well as I would like it." which was them finding their own zaltess damned business! "you got that right, there commenting there were forcing you out here." aero laughed, not a sparkle of humor in his voice.
"they'd be closer to the truth, saying I'm forcing you out here. I know none of you would be here right now if you weren't training to go into space one day!"
"maybe I might have done something like this to hunt aquatic creatures. But how are we doing in our training?" aero paused, "we're still training with solid ground, but we're doing well either way."
"that's good."
The girls had been right and over the course of the next few days, multiple groups showed up, trying to convince Aero that this was dangerous. he let the girls deal with them, staying away from the people as best he could cause he knew his temper wouldn't last that long. at best he would throw someone in the water. At worst, the water would turn red.
The girls did their best to keep them separated, something Aero thanked them for multiple times. He wished he could return the favor by turning to violence. 'how stubborn are these people. Also, how dare they think they know what is best for me? Not only do they not know me! They have the arrogance... I wonder?'
Shifting his focus, he could see the over-inflated pride of the people. While he couldn't do anything about the other emotions they had, taking a chunk of their pride was definitely something he could do. 'It will probably take some of the fire out of them.'
Studying his targets, he determined while large on a varying scale, none of them had the most durable pride. So he had to be gentle if he didn't want to hurt them permanently, and since they seemed to lack any actual durability. His preferred staff probably wasn't the best idea. 'I can put some practice into energy manipulation.
'I simple image that I can make multiple times, just the power inside it for each of them.' he decided on a simple skinning knife like the kind hunter carried if needed. Aero found it worked decently as a throwing knife. With the image set, he forced as many as he could, 'I thought I would be able to do more.' he gazed at the four that actually looked like knives and not lumps of energy.
With the four knives, he focused on them on the four largest prides, analyzing their energy. To make sure he wouldn't cut off too much. '...now. Fire!" the knives flashed off, striking their pride, with only offered a moment of resistance before breaking.
The loss of pride quickly had an effect, the fire in their eyes weakening. 'good,' Aero thought before moving on to the nest ones, taking it slow but still managing all of them.
The next time the girls tried to talk to them, the words managed to pierce a bit deeper. Which was precisely what the young lord was hoping for. It also left him with more information on how pride affected people's actions. 'My lord, you are aware of how dangerous this path is, right?'
'how so?'
'cause power like this could corrupt your heart, and that will not do for a lord of sin.'