Chapter 33 – Understanding
Emrys stood outside the tribe, the guards watching from afar, alongside adow and Victoria and her hound.
He beca conscious of their eyes on his back, but nothing of that destabilized his focus.
His eyes were closed, his perception pushed to the max in order to sense the flow of GeumGeum around him alongside the ruffling of the wind on his skin.
Using his basic mastery of the Way of the Wind, Emrys made his GeumGeum flow steadily inside of him, trying to match the sa pace as the wind around him.
His brow furrowed softly.
It was a daunting task, but after so ti, with sweat trickling down, he slowly began to get the hang of it. Once he succeeded at that step, he inhaled sharply — his stomach sinking inside, throat and nose constricting — before exhaling.
But his exhale... was laced with arcs of grey lightning.
Just like that,
SZZZZLLE—!
Emrys’s whole body beca shrouded in crackling, sizzling, spitting grey lightning. It embraced his whole fra, giving him a strange but stunning look.
’This... this is different.’ He thought, sensing how he felt stronger than before, his reflexes, speed and all enhanced to a whole new level.
Only then did Emrys finally understand how his skill worked — at least, the basics of it.
His skill caused his exterior body to beco enhanced by lightning, causing all his stats to jump higher.
It sounded simple — it was simple — but simplicity didn’t equal less powerful.
Emrys was new to this world, but he could probably guess that a skill that could improve all the stats of a being except GeumGeum must not be an easy one to co across.
After getting the hang of the skill, he summoned his weapon — his long needle — and grasped it tightly in his right hand.
’A needle... now that I think about it, why was a needle the perfect weapon for ?’ Emrys wondered as he felt the cold yet smooth touch of his weapon.
If it was a sword, or dagger, or even a spear, it would have been sothing he could probably train with quite easily. Especially if many people used those weapons.
But a needle?
Emrys knew he was on his own.
So he started, letting his instincts guide him into how to handle the weapon.
Just like that, Emrys Frost began his training, watched by a bunch of guards and two won with a hound.
adow’s smile deepened the more she watched Emrys, earning her a confused glance from Victoria.
The little girl still didn’t understand why adow was always smiling at Emrys. And sohow, she wished to know, but was too shy to ask.
So she swallowed her curiosity and played with her hound, watching Emrys from ti to ti.
’Clumsy...’ Victoria mused, thinking how her father would have beaten Emrys to death for such a sloppy performance.
Suddenly, her purple eyes shifted for a mont, taking on the sa bestial eyes as her hound. She instantly snapped her head towards it, and shot a hard glare.
’Not here! Not yet!’ She yelled at it through their link, causing the hound to shiver, whimper apologetically, and lie down beneath her feet.
Victoria sighed, then ruffled the fur of her bonded beast. ’Raya, father warned us. Too early to be one. Too early, okay?’
Raya only wheezed in acknowledgnt.
Victoria smiled thinly and looked back at Emrys. He was moving quite fast, but a trained eye could easily spot that he was not used to such speed, causing him to sotis lag or miss his strikes.
His strikes were only pierces and thrusts, for his weapon could neither cleave nor cut. It was a weapon that required speed more than anything, and Emrys had the perfect affinity for it.
’He thrusts, I cut and cleave with my claws.’ Victoria was already thinking of her compatibility with Emrys, and what she noticed pleased her.
She watched him for a mont, but then suddenly twisted around, sensing sothing with her sharp nose. High on the wall of the tribe, Old Navy stood smoking his pipe. Elder was at his side.
Noticing her gaze, the old man shifted his attention to her, then spared her a big toothless grin with smoke billowing out of it.
Victoria returned the smile shyly and hurriedly turned back to watch Emrys.
Minutes later, Old Navy proposed a small duel between Victoria and Emrys.
At that ti, Emrys managed to learn how long he could activate the skill, and the effect of being drained of GeumGeum.
The sensation was weird, as if his body was siphoned of all water, leaving him like dried fish under a glaring sun.
He would naturally recover, but with the Way of the Wind, the recovery ti would be greatly reduced.
There was also the use of a potion. But Elder had warned him about the rarity of GeumGeum Regenerative Potions, so he was quite reluctant to use one.
Little by little Emrys began to grasp the chanisms of his power, and learned afterwards how lacking he was while dueling Victoria and her hound.
At the end he lay on his back, beads of sweat trickling down his temple, chest rising and falling in erratic motion, looking at the hound with its mouth twisted into a sneer.
Emrys’s lips twitched.
"I swear one day I will wipe your damned sneer out of your mouth." He spat, and the hound sneered even more.
"Lad, oh Lad, get up for another!" Old Navy bellowed, laughing.
Victoria appeared, looming over him, giving him a hand.
"I-I will go... easy." She said, nodding to herself cutely.
Emrys’s face twisted. "Hell no, you were soft, even. Go harder."
"W-What?"
"I said go harder." Emrys said, unwilling to show any sign of defeat.
Victoria was silent for a mont, then slowly,
"Okay?"
The hound grinned.
Emrys regretted his decision soon after.
—End of Chapter 33—
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