"Let me tell you something about the earth-sage transformation son."
Right now, both father and son were sitting under the scorching sun of Uehara's mindscape. Still in the mountain region, Volkarin was sitting on a rather tall obsidian boulder while Uehara was sitting cross-legged on the ground, leaning against his own boulder.
"In your case, the earth-sage transformation is quite different from the rest of the sage transformations. The reason is, most of your ancestors possessed an affinity for earth, making it so that when you enter the earth-sage transformation, it will be more powerful than normal."
Uehara was quite surprised by the information. But then, a lot of things cleared up for him.
"That explains why I was blind…"
"Of course. Unlike the other times when you previously tried to access the sage transformation, you were able to glean more strength from it, which went out of your control. This in turn, forced your brain to take away your sight so that it would be able to handle the increase in strength."
"But then, father? What is so different this time from the other previous times?"
Volkarin snorted.
"I'll be crass here son. You were piss-poor when it came to accessing your sage transformations. You only managed to get your imperfect flame-sage transformation because fire is your dragon-given affinity and your water-sage transformation because it is the easiest sage transformation to acquire. But for earth, it was troublesome for you because accessing the transformation also allowed you to tap into the instincts of your ancestors. But because of how poorly you harnessed the energy and how you always went against your instincts, it caused a clash, which in turn made you unable to control the transformation."
A look of realisation flashed upon Uehara's face.
"So everytime I tried to use it, I always…"
"Yes son. Fighting against your instincts was the same as denying your body the ability to breathe. This caused a whole cacophony of unwanted reactions, causing you to be unable to control the transformation. But now, you can perfectly enter the sage transformation. That little mishap where you absorbed too much nature energy can be rectified."
Uehara faintly smiled.
"It seems all that training with my flame-sage transformation paid off, father."
Volkarin got up and jumped down from his boulder. Causing a minor earthquake with his landing, he entered his own earth-sage transformation.
His hair turned rusty-red and spiked up due to the intense copper-brown aura pushing it up. His eyes were golden in colour while his physique noticeably bulked up.
Giving off a slight smirk at his son's noticeably widened eyes, he spoke.
"Although you can access the transformation, you still cannot comprehend how powerful you are in this form. Now get up. Enter your transformation and fight me."
"Yes, father."
Getting up, his expression became focused. Closing his eyes, he increased the intake rate of nature energy while also increasing the ratio of earth chakra in his body. The change was more gradual than before, giving him enough time to adjust to the changes in his body.
The skin under his torn clothes stretched to accommodate the growing muscles. His messy hair neatly clumped together under the compulsion from the sage chakra flowing through it. This caused it to spike and from an outsider's perspective, look like an upside-down jagged mountain."
Peeling off the tattered remnants of his coat and shirt, it gave rise to his toned physique that would make dwarves gulp in awe. The bronze-coloured aura gently swirling around him like a tornado was something anyone would feel apprehensive about., especially since the crushing aura that he was emitting.
This pressure was causing a whole slew of rabble to float due, something Volkarin chuckled upon.
"Reign in your chakra son."
Awoken from the power-high by his father, Uehara hesitantly reigned in his chakra and kept it contained. Although the aura around him did not disappear, it was much calmer than before, forming a fluttering outline around him.
"Good. Now, I will explain some concepts and benefits that come with this sage transformation, benefits that you did not utilise in our previous session."
Uehara acted oblivious to his father's gaze, taking an interest instead in counting the number of obsidian shards on the ground.
Volkarin sighed and extended his hand.
"The transformation doesn't just boost our ability to manipulate the earth element. You become one with the element, giving you nigh total dominion over it. For example…"
Nothing happened and Uehara was getting confused a bit before an uncomfortable feeling invaded his body. It was almost like dozens of ants were gnawing at his foot.
Volkarin noticed his discomfort and gave off a nod of approval.
"You have total dominion over the land within a radius of five-kilometres. Very good."
"Dominion?"
"Yes, dominion. Don't confuse it with sensing range. Dominion means all earth within a radius of five-kilometres will be under control. That means you can make an earth pike five kilometres away from yourself or increase the amount of gravity within a five-kilometre radius."
Volkarin could swear he saw his son's eyes sparkle with excitement at the facts he mentioned. But as always, he shut him down.
"Now before you get excited, I still have to beat into you what that exactly means."
"?!"
Performing an action which was instinctual at this point, Uehara fell backwards and sank himself underground. If he had hesitated just a split-second later, his face would've become acquainted with a fist covered in obsidian.
Volkarin wasn't willing to play hide and seek with his son. So with a quick stomp, Uehara was brought back to the surface, earning a look of confusion from the boy.
"Lesson number one. Use the earth around you."
BOOOM
A rock in the shape of a normal fist rammed into Uehara's face like a high speed bullet, breaking in the process.
With the boy effectively stunned, Volkarin surged forward. Slowing himself intentionally, he wanted to gauge how fast his son would recover and counter. Not disappointing him, Uehara recovered in less than a quarter of a second before ducking down and releasing a double horse-kick.
Blocking the kick with his arm, Volkarin noticed how a pillar of earth rose from the ground.
[Oh?]
Seeing as the pillar was about to strike his midsection, he shielded his abdomen under a layer of dense obsidian ribs.
Feeling the ribs crack due to the force of the impact, Volkarin smiled as he backflipped away.
"Good. If you'd sent a pillar like that to me before, you would've escaped the water prison while I was distracted."
"Mm-"
BOOOOM
Faster than he could react, Volkarin had punched Uehara so hard the boy was sent skidding across the jagged landscape for the next three-kilometres. It wasn't until the ten or so-dozen skids that the boy finally regained consciousness and righted himself.
Sensing the presence of his godfather towering over him, Uehara backed away and got into a stance before speaking, correcting his earlier mistake of humming his response.
"Yes father."
"Good. Let's continue."
Swoosh Swoosh…CLASH
Bashing forearms with his father, Uehara turned the earth his father was standing on into a mirror. Closing his eyes, Uehara took advantage of his father's blindness caused by the sun reflecting off the mirror to land a chakra-infused fist to the gut. Then following with a swift kick to the chest, Volkarin was sent flying.
BOOOM
"..."
With the godfather crashing into a rocky hill, Uehara couldn't believe his eyes. He triple-checked his chakra network to see if his father had pulled a fast illusion over him. But when he found no traces of foreign chakra, the situation cleared up even more when his father got up from the rubble.
Clearing the debris on his clothes with a wave of his finger, Volkarin nodded to himself.
"A good punch. Look's like you're gradually learning how to-"
As he was about to commend his son on his ability to quickly capitalise on an advantage, he was met with the visage of his son having a single tear flow from his right eye.
"Son?"
Unfortunately for Volkarin, Uehara was in a daze.
"I…I did it. I finally…did it."
Clenching his fist and jumping in excitement, Uehara cheered.
"I did it! I finally got a hit in!"
And for the first time in history, Uehara acted like the child he was.
(AN: Here are some changes that will happen. I didn't and won't upload on weekends anymore due to the fact that I've set aside those two days for much-needed studying into programming. That aside, college is closed for a one-month holiday and so I had travelled back home yesterday. This doesn't automatically mean I can upload daily as well. Tomorrow, I'll be working with my father at the farm so I probably won't update tomorrow as well.)