BUERN AND ESTELLE'S TRAINING
Meanwhile, Buern and Estelle were at another portion of the Farm. They prepared to train as well.
"So do you have anything in mind for your training?" Buern asked Estelle.
"I was thinking of how the elders of the Phoenix Clan said the offensive power of the Warrior Class is needed to breach Souryu's impenetrable scales" Estelle said.
"I have been thinking of that as well" Buern admitted.
"As a Warrior like yourself, I could help boost your offensive capabilities" Estelle said.
Buern smiled.
"You have been boosting our offensive strength in our fusion Psychorage" Buern said.
"I think we'll need to spend some time working on enhancing the precision of our Joki control" Estelle said.
"By learning to focus our Joki, we can greatly amplify the destructive capabilities of our attacks" Buern realised what Estelle was getting at.
"We'll also have to work on syncing our wavelengths to one another at the moment of an attack. If there is an imbalance in the syncing of our wavelengths, elemental affinities and joki output strength, the offensive strength of our attack could be greatly reduced or even nullified" Estelle said.
"That's true plus in the Armoured Golden Phoenix Fusion Psychorage, we're currently able to utilise uniform elemental affinities. In a sense, our current capacity for varied elemental attacks is reduced in our fusion Psychorage since we can't seem to fuse psychorages of different elemental affinities without inflicting wounds on ourselves" Buern said.
"See that rock over there?" Estelle pointed to a rock in the distance.
Buern nodded.
"We can practice our timing by attacking that rock from opposite sides. If we focus on enhancing piercing attacks, which is most likely the sort of attack we'll need to breach Souryu's scales, our attack should bore a hole right through the rock assuming the output of our joki is strong enough and at par with each other. If our attacks are too weak, we won't be able to bore a hole all the way through and if too strong...we might end up hurting each other" Estelle said.
"You worry too much Estelle. We'd only hurt each other if one of us was significantly stronger than the other. You and I are evenly matched in both experience and physical strength. At worst, our attacks will get deflected and bore a hole through the rock at the wrong angle. Our aim is to bore a straight hole right through the rock. Any other hole at an angle other than one-eighty degrees will be considered a failure" Buern said.
"Let's get some practice" Buern said as she and Estelle stood at opposite sides of the rock.
"What element are we attacking with Buern?" Estelle asked.
"Let's go with lightning since it has tremendous piercing power" Buern suggested.
Buern and Estelle altered their elemental wavelength to lightning and focused their joki to their feet.
"I'll attack in three seconds Estelle" Buern said.
Both Estelle and Buern began the countdown in their minds and when three seconds passed, they attacked. Cracks spread throughout the rock and large holes appeared at either side. Both girls inspected the holes their punches had made in the rock.
"Our attack spread over a wide surface area however the penetrative power of our punches is almost zero. Look, the holes are shallow" Buern pointed out.
"That's true. Plus our aim was a little off. The holes are not exactly parallel to each other meaning even if our punches were strong enough, we'd have made two separate tunnels through the rock instead of a single tunnel connected by a path created by our punches" Estelle noted.
"We've not only got to sync elemental affinities, wavelengths and output strength, we've got to focus our joki and make sure that the impact is focused on a single point instead of spread out over a wide surface area plus we've got to sync our aim as well. It may look like a simple task at first glance but there's much more to this than simply tunnelling a single path through the rock. It's definitely the sort of training we need to enhance our offensive strength as Warriors" Buern said.
"In a sense this is almost like the twister we had to build up to counter Aeros in the Continent Of Deserts" Estelle said.
"That is true. I do see the similarities between this training and that time" Buern said.
"But how do we sync our aim? This rock obstructs our view of each other" Estelle said.
Buern thought deeply.
"Hmm, I haven't quite figured that part out yet" Buern admitted.
"Hey Buern" Estelle said with a laugh.
"What is it Estelle?" Buern asked.
"Doesn't this situation kinda resemble you and Josec's battle against Master William's Killer Ghost Concealment?" Estelle asked.
Buern opened her eyes in surprise.
"Now that you mention it, it does" Buern said.
"To defeat Souryu, you and I will have to sync our strength to Josec's vision. We'll basically be using Josec's eyes to effectively inflict the Light's Wound Limit Break. This might actually be the perfect sort of training to start practising for that moment" Estelle said.
"So how do we go about this? We could generate a field around the rock with our joki. That could help us correct our aim. Let's try it" Buern suggested.
"I'll attack in three seconds. Let's do this" Buern said.
Estelle and Buern channelled joki from their feet, through their waists, up their chests and into their fists. They focused on the image of a drill around their fists and punched the rock with all their might. This time, their entire fists were buried in the rock. When they removed their fists and inspected the holes, they realized that the holes they had made were slightly deeper than the impact their first punches had made. Their attacks were a bit more focused however, their punches were not parallel to each other so instead of a single path through the rock, they had drilled multiple paths. Their aim appeared to be slightly better than before though because thanks to the field they had generated around the rock, they could sense to an extent where the other was going to punch a moment before the blow actually landed but that moment was not enough to completely correct their aim.
"We should widen the field around the rock. That should lengthen the amount of time between when we sense each other's attacks and the moment of impact and allow us to correct our aim to an extent before impact" Buern suggested.
"That sounds logical. Let's try it" Estelle said.
Estelle and Buern expanded the field of their synced joki around the rock and practiced making the joki around their fist as sharp as a drill. Their aim did improve after multiple tries however, maintaining their synced field of joki around the rock while attempting to correct their aim was exhausting for them and caused their joki to run out quickly.
"The field of synced joki we generated around the rock certainly does correct our aim to an extent, however it's not exactly an efficient way to train. We're exhausting our joki much quicker than usual and I doubt in actual battle against Souryu, he'd allow us to generate a field around himself. Even if he did, it's one thing to use this method on a stationary target, it's entirely another thing to attempt this on a moving target" Buern admitted.
"You're right. We need a way to maximise our ability to correct our aim, sync elemental affinities, wavelengths and joki output strength while minimising the amount of joki we expend. We need a more efficient method" Estelle agreed.
"We could try drawing extra joki from the Joki Storage and Sharing Planes" Buern suggested.
"I wouldn't suggest it. The joki stored in those planes though immense is not inexhaustible and chances are when Souryu finally makes his move, the entire Phoenix Clan might have to battle him. We'll all be drawing strength from those planes so we can't afford to utilise techniques that waste joki" Estelle explained.
"That's true" Buern admitted.
Estelle sighed and the two girls dropped to the ground to rest. After about forty minutes of rest, the girls began to converse again.
"If only there was a way we could sync wavelengths without wasting joki in setting up a field around the rock..." Estelle muttered.
Buern shut her eyes and began to think of any possible ways to achieve this.
"Well channelling my joki through Josec's Zone Of Absolute Defense did grant me extrasensory abilities" Buern said and then she suddenly sat up.
"What's up Buern?" Estelle asked.
"Channelling my joki through Josec's Zone Of Absolute Defense..." Buern thought as she recalled Josec's battle against Master Luna, his mother.
"I ionized the particles of air surrounding me and slightly altered their wavelength. If there is even a slight difference in the wavelength between you and me, my attacks will be effective. You've just been stunned by the ionized air around you. Even if you were to raise your shield now, the air within your shield will remain ionized plus...I also created waves of lightning similar to paths between you and myself. These paths are of the same wavelength as your lightning and since lightning typically chooses the path of greatest conductivity, long range attacks are nullified as well. If you fall within the range of the ionized air, you will be stunned and immobilised thus short range attacks are impossible and if you attack from outside this range, the waves of lightning in the ionized air will conduct your attacks away from me. This...is my Zone Of Absolute Defense" Buern recalled Master Luna's words.
"Master Luna and Josec's Zone Of Absolute Defense alter the wavelength of surrounding air for defense and offense. What would happen if instead of altering the wavelength of surrounding air, I synced wavelengths with it? There are charged particles of air flowing throughout the atmosphere so I can maintain my lightning affinity...hmm...I wonder..." Buern said and altered her wavelength to that of the surrounding air.
In an instant, immense images of the entire Hidden Phoenix Village filled her mind. She could see almost everything happening in the realm within the Book Of Jo-lan in amazing detail. She could see many of its realities and how they paralleled events occurring in the Physical World and on top of that she could also see the joki strength, elemental affinities and current wavelengths of many people within the Hidden Phoenix Village. Buern altered her wavelength and the images faded from her mind. She was breathing excitedly.
"Estelle! You've got to see this! It's so amazing!" Buern exclaimed excitedly.
"See what?" Estelle asked with a puzzled look on her face.
"Why don't you try syncing wavelengths with the surrounding air, you'll see what I mean" Buern said.
Estelle obeyed.
In the next instant, Estelle was just as excited as Buern was.
"I could see your joki strength, elemental affinity and current wavelength by focusing my vision. So this is the ranged perception the elders spoke about. But it appeared as though there were some blindspots the further away from us our vision extended" Estelle said.
"Those must be areas where the wavelength of ionized particles in the air differed from the wavelength of ionized air surrounding us now. We can see a lot but we can't see everything and we don't need to see everything. For now it's enough that we can see each other's elemental affinities, wavelengths and joki strength. This gives us enough time to adjust our joki output strength to match each other and allows us to sync our aim correctly. Let's try again" Buern suggested.
Buern and Estelle resumed their training. Their greatest hurdle, their inability to accurately aim at the rock and create parallel punches had been corrected. Their aim was now flawless. All they needed to do now was sharpen the joki around their fists even more. With every punch, their joki became sharper and the depth of the holes created by their punches gradually increased till their fists eventually connected at the centre of the rock. As Buern had said, they were at par with each other and by the end of the day, when their fists finally connected at the centre of the rock, the deflected discharge of joki was so great the rock was divided into two horizontal halves.
"Training complete" Buern and Estelle said with satisfied grins.