The whole day went by, and each of the students did not make much progress except managing to make the flame as big as the palm of their hand. However, the objective was to envelop these flames around their fist, and they were far from their goal.
"It's nearly getting dark, and I'm starting to get tired and hungry!" Ryoto asserted.
"Yeah, I'm freaking hungry, isn't there something to eat over here," Yumiko complained.
"We won't be able to train efficiently if we are tired..." Saeki said in a disinterested tone.
"I agree," Nanako replied, "there is a small house over there I guess, we can stay there for now,"
The six disciples walked to the wooden house and realized that there was no food, wood for the fire, or bed.
"This house is empty, there are no furnitures, it probably wasn't used for a while," Erina stated in a soft voice taking a peak in the house first.
"Well then, we'll have to go into the forest for food, leaves for the beds, and wood for the bonfire," Nanako said, "Ryoto and Saeki, both of you collect the wood, Erina and Ryu, hunt for the food, and Yumiko and I will search for the leaves in order to make beds,"
Everything was available in the forest, and the disciples set off to search for what they needed.
Ryu and Erina's job was the hardest because they had to find food before nightfall.
As they were walking, Ryu tilted his head toward Erina and saw how she walking fast with a cold expression.
"Umm, so what are we hunting for?" Ryu asked out of curiosity.
He was just following where Erina was going without knowing where he was going.
There was a moment of silence before Erina answered while still walking, "It is dawn, meaning that rabbits are out searching for food,"
"Well, we don't have any equipment to catch a rabbit..." Ryu replied trying to keep up with her pace.
"We have qi, so even a stick would do to pierce through a rabbit if we infuse enough qi inside it," Erina answered.
"That's quite smart of you!" Ryu said smiling at her, "using your environment to your advantage, those are great survival methods you have!"
Erina was unphased by his compliments and continued walking deeper into the forest.
She collected a few sticks and Ryu did the same thing. They collected thin sticks so that their hands wouldn't be stacked.
"Get down..." Erina whispered after she crouched near a long and large log.
"What's going on?" Ryu asked getting near her and crouching.
"Rabbits," She replied peaking over the log and seeing three rabbits eating berries, "I get the two on the left, and you get the one on the right,"
She infused her qi in two of her sticks and placed the other sticks on the ground. Ryu only infused one of his sticks and closed one eye to aim properly at the target.
With a rapid swing, both disciples threw their sticks at great speed, hitting their targets, however, one of Erina's targets managed to run away.
"Damn it!"
"One target is better than none," Ryu said.
She glared at him before walking toward the rabbits. She crouched and grabbed one of the rabbits by the ears. As she lifted it, she realized that the rabbit had long fangs sticking out of her mouth.
"Shit, baby fanged rabbits," Erina exclaimed, "We shouldn't have let the other rabbit escape, now its gonna~"
She was abruptly interrupted by large ground shakes which were getting closer and closer. They looked above and saw trees collapsing one after another. As the stomps were getting closer, they could clearly see that the trees were falling without lifting their head anymore.
When all the trees had collapsed, they saw that the cause of it was a large fanged rabbit with big eyes.
"It called the mother..." Erina sighed.
Ryu froze, and glared at the rabbit without looking away, "So what do we do?"
"If we're gonna bring the rabbits back for food, then we should take care of the rabbit,"
Suddenly, the rabbit charged at Erina, and she side dashed to avoid the charge. It seemed that the rabbit had picked too much pace, and she was going to crash into the trees, however, she stopped dead, and rushed back in Erina's direction who dodged the dash again.
"Ryu, I don't have enough time to strike with qi cloak, so I'll tire it, and you'll have to strike it at the right time!" Erina exclaimed still dodging the incessant charges.
"Alright!" Ryu exclaimed as he already enveloped his fist with a qi cloak.
He waited, and waited longer until the rabbit stopped to change direction and pace in Erina's direction once again, however, this time it delayed in its dash, and Ryu took the chance to throw a powerful strike at the rabbit.
To his surprise, the rabbit's thick fur protected it and only a mere stain appeared on the rabbit's fur. She then dashed once again this time hitting Ryu head-on propelling him away and hitting a tree landing brutally on the ground.
"Argh..." Ryu groaned in pain looking back up to see what was going on.
Erina was still dodging his attacks and occasionally striking back in vain. His fur was too thick.
"He's going so fast, and so brutally but he's still able to control his trajectory, we might think he's gonna destroy everything, but since then, he hasn't even touched a tree yet... He has control of such devastating power,"
Ryu suddenly widened his eyes, as if he found the key to something.
'Maybe I should try this...' Ryu thought as he painfully stood back up.
"Erina! bring him in my direction, and move and the last moment!"
Ryu's idea astonished Erina who nearly got hit because of her reaction, "Are you crazy!? He's gonna~,"
"Just listen to what I say!" Ryu said.
He bent his legs, put one arm behind and another in front, and flexed the arm that was behind. He closed his eyes and started concentrating qi on the fist of the arm that was behind.
"All you gotta do is release it, but without losing yourself, like kicking a ball with all your power, but well enough for it to go in the net..." Ryu whispered.
Suddenly, his fist started to release white qi flames which spread behind him uncontrollably.
"Now is not the time for your stupid experiments!" Erina shouted following Ryu's plan.
Swiftly, the flames dissipated and reappeared smaller around Ryu's fist. It resembled that of sensei Takimoto only with the color as a difference.
Ryu smiled in excitement, "No shit, I actually did it!"
Erina was close to Ryu when she side dashed, and Ryu saw the rabbit pacing towards him. When she was close enough, Ryu gave a powerful punch right in between the rabbit's eyes and above its nostrils pushing it backward.
The rabbit stayed static for a moment and started scratching the part where Ryu hit her before collapsing on the ground and falling unconscious.
"Finally down, I guess we will have food this night!" Ryu said lifting the two dead baby-fanged rabbits on the ground, "how the fuck are baby rabbits as big as an adult normal rabbit!?"
Erina stared at Ryu with an amazed expression. Her eyes were wide open and her jaw was fully open.
'He managed to master qi release in less than a day...' Erina thought, 'and that, at a critic situation when we most needed it...'
"What are you waiting for? We've made the others wait for too long..."
"Oh... I'm coming," Erina replied, "Yokoyama Ryu, one thing's for sure, you are without a doubt a prodigy...'