The tournant should have been over. The son of the Overseer had been flattened by a youth only 15 years of age and a minor tier lower than anyone. He had clearly damaged his ridians and body to exceed his limits to defeat Hu, but then that terrible injury was repaired by the final competitor.
Now, both faced each other. The young woman was 4 ro 5 years older than Lind but the blue robes she wore spoke of her involvent in the Gu Clan even before she identified herself. Even though Lind was not popular in the Frey Clan, since he spent most of his ti with the twins, he was aware of their counterparts in the other 2 clans.
The Che Clan had a talented man as their young master who was already off at the Lotus Academy, but the Gu Clan had miss Sheyra. She was roughly the sa age as the twins but Lind did not know for certain. What he had not known was that she was also a 6 elental cultivator and sohow did not seem to suffer the sa bottleneck he did.
Lind did not recognize how her elents worked in that healing technique at all. It was as if a storm ca together in her dantian and the dark blue fire erged into the world. The glimpse of it inspired him but he could not seem to grasp it. The offer of this battle was the best hope he had. All the tension and dark emotions from before were gone for now.
Lind knew he had let all his repressed rage and frustration with the truth of what happened to his mother and others explode in that one instant, yet he could not focus on it at this mont. The person in front of him was the highest he had ever faced at tier 7. Why that bastard had left her for last, Lind was unsure, but he was looking forward to this fight.
"You have more than mastered tier 1 Soul Arts. Now you are stuck, right?"
Her question surprised him but Lind saw no reason to hide at this point. Even if he was stubborn, a 3 minor realm difference was impossible for him to overco without completely destroying his body.
"I found I can push more power with the tier 4 quality I have tempered in my elents but it begins to damage my ridians or the part of my body I involve."
Lind flexed his right hand in wonder at how much better it felt. "Any ti I try to use 2nd tier or above Soul Art, I get a backlash from the other elents I try not to use."
The crowd was still cheering but the lack of action was lowering their enthusiasm. Even so, the young man had earned so leeway and perhaps he was still adjusting his newly healed body. Any cultivator knew that repairing such major damage was not easily resolved even with pills or techniques.
"Correct. We are different. Multi-elent users can benefit from that repulsion trick built into techniques although 5 elentals have so troubles as well. We, on the other hand, cannot use that trick at all."
Lind then saw mud form as water and earth easily channeled through Sheyra's body. He was in shock as there was no sign of any backlash at all! What was she doing differently?!
He squinted and then felt stunned as he saw that all 6 elents were being channeled into the mud. How was that even possible?
"You have Soul Eyes. I can tell from the way you adapt so quickly. This won't help you much but you can see it is possible for a 6 elental to do multi-elent techniques after a fashion. The thing you have to rember is your harmony."
Lind listened to her words as the mud was dispersed and replaced with sparks of lightning. Lind saw the difference now that she showed him.
Her fla was included in her techniques.
The fla she called a harmony seed to blend all 6 elents and allow only the desired ones to manifest but Lind could not perceive how that worked. It was not like it had never occurred to him to try this, but although his fla ford all those years ago, he had never understood how it worked in relation to his tempering. Since he had been able to temper without worrying about it, he had.
Was this what was holding him back?
"I never got it to work."
The words were mumbled but Lind was not embarrassed, he was simply thirsty for knowledge. He wanted to keep going, but was groping in the dark. The warm smile on Sheyra showed sympathy and empathy. She had clearly struggled as well.
"There is no shortcut in cultivation without paying the appropriate price. For us, it is learning the nature of your harmony. I cannot help you with this, but there is sothing to help you. Elental battle."
The lightning dispersed and a simple fireball ford in her left hand while a ball of water ford in her right. "Duality of the primary elents will be where we begin. Defend yourself!"
The conjurings flew through the air but Lind was clearly given ti. Lind understood what he needed to do. At least, he could do this but he smiled at her underestimating him. Rather than conjure his own set of attacks, he charged his hands alone. Fire in one, water in the other and struck the attacks down. Sheyra's eyes widened and then she smiled.
She repeated her attacks with combinations of fire, water, earth, and air with speed increasing.
The crowd began to go wild as Lind surprised them again. He was defending sohow with just his body. Elental coating was a high end skill that usually was only heard about in the World Realm. The speed of the attacks soon left them in awe, but they remained purely the primary elents. The special elents of light and dark had yet to appear, but Lind changed that himself.
Lind suddenly beca harder to see as light enveloped his body. It was only then that a do of darkness shattered while many noticed his shadows jumped up and pierced very faint balls of light. Sneak attacks were starting but Lind seed to see it all! The storm of Qi beca intense until pressure built to an insane height. How was a 4th tier able to last this long?!
Lind was sweating buckets as he kept his burning of Qi to a minimum but he clearly saw that Sheyra was far from running out. Her tier 7 reserve far outclassed his. Even so, he felt he was so close to sothing. Pushing his elental control so far like no one in the Frey Clan could, made the bottleneck on his tempering finally loosen.
As if a piece had been missing, his erald fla suddenly pierced each elental sphere and a feeling of joy filled Lind's body.
The attacks stopped instantly as Lind had an erald aura flare around him briefly and his went into a lotus position as Sheyra smiled wide. She nodded as if this was expected. Shortly after, however, she was shocked as her dantian felt a resonance she had never felt before in her entire life! It was brief, but her own elents had risen in that mont to the peak of tier 7 tempering.
In a few breaths, Lind blew out so fetid air as his elental tempering broke through to the 5th tier. Gratitude filled him as he saw his dantian now had small traces of each elent flowing into the erald fla. He was still unsure of what this all ant, but he at least was on the path. He tried to summon lightning, but instantly felt the sa backlash as before.
Confusion flashed past his face as laughter ca from his opponent.
"It is not that easy, my junior. You have incorporated your harmony, but now you must understand it. We are all different and sadly I cannot help you anymore. We shall now see what you can do!"
Lind barely received the words when lightning ford in her hands. He reacted on instinct and flared up his hands but did not consciously control it.
All were in awe as the power of lightning jumped and froliced in Lind's hands. He looked in surprise as his Soul Touch seed to have evolved. This felt different from before where he would simply catch Qi. He felt connected to the lightning and his comprehension led him down an old mory. This was weak. Real lightning, lightning made in a storm, would shatter this imitation.
His mind was enraptured but the bolt in his hands snapped him out of it.
"Imitation, huh, I will have to co back to this."
Lind looked up and saw Sheyra was staring at him as much as the crowd. She seed to be trying to get the bolt to do sothing, but it was no longer hers to control. Lind looked at it and let his own fire and light Qi infused into it. So long as he did not try to follow the technique, Lind was able to change the bolt jumping in his hands.
He still could not make his own, but changing an existing conjuring was within his capabilities thanks to his Soul Eyes.
Lind looked up and saw Sheyra looking at him seriously and knew he was out of ti. Spikes of earth coated in darkness ford to fly through the air like a bullet to Lind's eyes. He flashed out the lightning and let it intercept the spikes. Against his own expectations, the lightning neutralized the spikes.
He understood that even though he was tier 4 in cultivation, he was able to control tier 7 with ease if it was under his control.
"You are an interesting junior. Co to the Gu Clan celebrations after this. All are witness to this invitation."
Sheyra disappeared from his vision before appearing behind him. She had used wind or combination of elents to push her speed to insane levels. Lind was long used to Teylin or Teyla trying to ambush him and those reflexes saved him again as fire exploded beneath his feet.
Like a rocket, Lind was launched into the air as Sheyra had to use an earth shield to disperse the flas. Higher tier or not, point blank elents can cause damage to a body. Lind felt the wind roar in his ears as he sailed through the sky but his reprieve was short lived. A shadow flashed over him and Sheyra was smiling down at him.
"Lind Frey does not concede this ti!"
Surprise flared on Sheyra's face as Lind revealed his full na. Understanding flooded all who heard his words. He had co to this tournant for Teyla Frey. He was her little brother and risked himself for her. If Lind was popular before for his power, he was now treasured for his loyalty in equal asure.
The ones that lost their chance were irked at Lind's rise, but could say nothing in this place.
"My apologies in advance then!"
Lind felt his fall cut short as a solid wall of air stopped him unexpectedly for a mont before the hamr of a fist smashed into his stomach. The barrier was fleeting, even Lind could see how unstable it was, but it was enough to shatter his controlled fall.
The ring raced up to his face as he quickly conjured water and wind to soften his fall. He splashed through the ball of water and landed soaked on the stone ring. His reserves were all dried up to the point his Soul Eyes could no longer function. The world was so empty without the Qi in his vision but he felt satisfied.
He looked up into the sky and saw Sheyra gracefully co down as if they floated on wings.
"You have done well, young Frey, and I hope you will continue to be the honorable person I battled here today."
She bowed to him as Lind waved. He could not even get his body to rise at that mont but both were smiling.
"WINNER OF THIS TRI-CLAN TOURNANT:
SHEYRA GU!"
The judge called out the results and the crowd stood as it roared in joy. This tournant had been a farce but due to the actions of one stubborn boy, it had been redeed. All in the crowd, even the ones that lost in the betting, felt like this was a worthy tournant this year.
Lind lay on the ground for a bit before a gentle hand was offered to him. He looked up into the smiling face of his forr opponent and felt no bitterness. It was like he was sparring with the twins.
"I am glad the Frey Clan has such an honorable mber. Perhaps, in the future, I could speak to your Big Sister and find out how they inspired one such as you."
Lind blushed in embarrassnt. Just imagining the stories Teyla would tell made him wish for a hole to hop into. Lind smiled thought as a mischievous thought leape into his mind.
"My Big Sister is a bit biased, but Big Brother Teylin is objective. He wanted to enter this tournant, but knew he could not dishonor the clan's condition. He also warned against
doing this until I went through so training with our instructor. He would be a better person to et!"
Curiosity took hold in the blue eyes of Sheyra and she nodded at Lind's suggestion.
In Lind's mind, he hoped this woman could solve the stubborn heart of his Big Brother.
It had been a long ti since he played matchmaker, but Lind's instincts had never failed him before. If it could build a good relation with a clan did not matter to him, but the happiness of his family was paramount to Lind.
They both stood in the arena as the crowd roared on and flower petals began to be tossed out to mark the end of the tournant. Lind felt like a weight had been lifted and he knew he had a lot to process, but this tournant helped bring it into focus.
His erald fla seed to burn brighter as he thought about his future and facing his past. Harmony was a good na for it, it seed.
Unknown to the masses, Hu had snuck off, but shadows now moved and the farce created by his machinations would now bear fruit that would only unleash nightmares on the spoiled son of the empire.
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