It took Divyat another twenty minutes before he learnt how to focus on one of his senses. The first thing he did was shut his eyes, and place his palm over his nose. He ignored the feeling of the wind over his skin as he left all attention to his hearing. At first he could hear everything, it was louder than the voices of a thousand disciples during their morning exercise or during the sect's TRI monthly assessment exams. And in all of that chaos he had to pick out the sounds he was listening to, one echo after the other.
First he started with the wind, the ravine was not a cave, just a hole in the ground. The wind was still finding ways to sink into it, blowing with a fierceness that was severely reduced from the very obvious blizzard blowing outside of it. To Divyat it sounded like a song, and then the next sound that came was the one that echoed when the wind hit the walls of the ravine, from there it was the smooth slithering through the leaves and petals of flowers and herbs and weeds. Then there was the resistance it made as it met the beat of the bat's wings, or as it moved past the creeping insects and their small chirps. The sounds of snakes slithering through a mole's burrow, and a horned rabbit some distance away going into a bend and into a hole, right into the waiting jaws of a giant spider.
He heard them all, understood them all, and could form a complete image of what was happening just from listening to it. And then he eliminated all of the sounds that were not of worth to him, focusing and subduing his hearing and in so doing not realizing his sense of touch was now normal, at a level that he could manage. And then he removed his hands from his nose, taking in a deep breath as the scents within the ravine assailed his sinuses. There was the scent of musk in the air from over a dozen different beast species, each and every single one of them marking their territories, yet not knowing that the wind carried the scent forwards. From the deepness of the musk, and the trace amount of Qi found in the scents, Divyat found he could tell just how long ago the markings were made, which direction it was coming from, and approximate size of the beast that left it, and it's strength based on how thick and vigorous the Qi left behind was.
It was a perfect melding of all his prior knowledge and now bestial senses and instincts, all coming together to create the mind of what was most definitely an apex predator in the making, but even Divyat himself had no idea about it. The flowers, herbs and weeds did much to mask the scents of most other beasts, those of them that were at least smart enough to use them for that purpose. But it was not strong enough to mask the scent of blood in the air, or of steel, and definitely not the odor of humans not more than a day old and disappearing into one of the tunnels close to the end of the ravine. He couldn't tell who the 'scent/odor' belonged to, if said person was still alive, or if said person was even a survivor from the sect. Either way there was no need to rush about it, all he had to do was take his time and master his body and his martial technique, by this point Divyat had mastered his sense of smell.
He opened his eyes, and very much like an eagle, his eyesight seemed to zoom right towards where the bats were hanging and flying about. In a motion more fluid than anything he has ever mustered in his life, Divyat picked up his bone bow and knocked an arrow before releasing it all in the same breath…the arrow arched into the air, moving at three if not four times the speed he has ever been able to muster when shooting. The power was seamless, the accuracy however left much to be desired as the arrow completely missed it's target. Divyat took a deep breath, drawing in Qi as he did so and calming his mind, reigning back his eagle like vision until he could see normally. He recalled the lessons on the [Heart-Seeker] technique.
The bow like any other weapon was an extension of it's user, but it was a tool of killing, much like the sword. The bow was not a weapon for extended altercation, the moment you pull back on your strings, let it be without a doubt that you're taking a life. Death in an instant, to the heart of your enemies. And three moves, gives your arrows the power they need to be one hit one kill tools of death.
[Heart-Seeker: One Breath Spike] >>> [Heart-Seeker: Spiral Needle] >>> [Heart-Seeker: Five Breath Needle]
Divyat picked up his bow again and drew an arrow, he took one deep breath, drawing Qi from the depths of his stomach, chilly with ice and death and let it build up, very much like a catapult being pulled back. It took him three breaths, but he let the arrow loose, his hands shaking as the string of the bow let loose a loud 'twang' while the arrow flew forth, a trail of icy blue qi following behind it as it flew through and went straight through the chest of three bats, freezing their bodies in the process as Divyat's spirit root of ice, took over the release of the skill. He watched as three frozen bodies fell from the sky, to smash into the ground with a loud crack, as frozen bits of flesh and blood and innards spilled everywhere. Each and every single one of those bats had a wing span of at least a meter and had bodies of almost the same size…the amount of frozen gore on the ground was significant.
[Heart-Seeker: One Breath Spike] was a technique that rapidly drew Qi and shot it out through the bow and arrow, giving it a faster speed, hence faster penetration in exchange for power. It was a sure kill technique that focused mainly on speed. But Divyat didn't have as much control over his Qi, and he did not have enough familiarity with the technique. Hence it had taken him 3 seconds and quite a few of his Qi was wasted, which was why a trail was left behind and the bats were frozen solid on hit. But beyond that, Divyat was extremely shocked, being able to cause such elemental reaction was only available to cultivators at the elemental manifestation stage, yet his Qi could take on the properties of his spirit roots elements… at least one of them anyways… this required some more practice….. Divyat raised his head and looked up, a pensive look on his face as a thought came to him.
"Come to think of it… aren't there too many beast bats? I should thin the herd just a little bit… that way the ecosystem would not be too affected." With his very righteous reason finally set, Divyat raised his bow once again, it was time for some target practice.