Back on her feet, Michelle rubbed the back of her neck.
"That fall hurt my neck..." she groaned.
To relieve the pain, she stretched by tilting her head from side to side.
It was accompanied by the sound of joints cracking when gas bubbles popped inside them.
"It doesn’t seem like you got seriously hurt," Lucas concluded after watching how Michelle moved.
"But you can go have it checked out if you wish so."
Michelle shook her head.
"It’s just a bit tight from the impact. But otherwise, everything’s fine."
After that, she returned to the training.
With another kick of her legs, she did another handstand, determined to keep herself up for as long as possible.
So, the whole day, she kept doing handstands and then falling down.
But she made sure to no longer plant her face into the ground.
When evening ca, her arms were completely sore, but she was able to hold the handstand for a good while.
Lucas was also satisfied with her progress.
They agreed that she would start walking on her hands the next day.
If she wanted, she could stay on the training grounds throughout the night, but much more was recomnded she rested.
Of course, Lucas only recomnded that because he didn’t know the full extent of Michelle’s physique; that she was able to go on with extre training for days straight without rest.
So, Lucas left for the night while Michelle remained in the training grounds.
She didn’t feel like going to sleep.
Of course, throughout the whole night, she wouldn’t train constantly all the ti.
But she would train during at least a part of the night.
Or so she thought, but her little snake woke up in the middle of the night, announcing its wakefulness by squeezing around Michelle’s throat to get her attention.
Michelle dropped to her feet from the handstand and got up.
"You slept the whole day, little one," she took the snake off her neck and looked at it through the darkness.
She didn’t know whether the snake could see in the dark, but she could since she possessed the dark elent spirit energy.
Her guess was that the snake could also see her.
When the contract between them got ford, it felt like her energies all got copied into the snake, so it most probably also possessed the dark elent spirit energy after that.
And with the dark elent, it should be able to see her.
The snake rubbed itself against Michelle’s hand, acting cute like a child that was about to ask for sothing.
It made Michelle narrow her eyes.
"I hope you aren’t hungry again. Are you?"
When the snake shook its head that it wasn’t hungry, she could continue guessing what the little creature wanted.
And the result was actually quite surprising.
The little snake wanted to learn to use its spirit energy.
The reason for Michelle’s surprise was that as far as she knew, beasts could use their spirit energy instinctively without needing anyone to teach that.
Were the Skinwalkers an exception?
Or was it because of the contract the little snake had with her?
Either way, she had to teach the little snake to use the spirit energy in its body.
And also how to cultivate it.
If it didn’t know how to use the spirit energy, it was completely impossible for it to know how to cultivate it.
So, instead of training herself, the whole night, Michelle was teaching her little snake.
When the morning ca and Lucas returned to the training grounds, he saw a scene quite bizarre in his eyes.
The little snake he had only ever seen asleep around Michelle’s neck was on the ground, its head stretched up to gain as much height as possible, gathering spirit energy on the tip of its tail that was flexed up behind it.
Not only was that a strange pose (or rather technique) for a snake, the spirit energy the snake was using was also strange.
Never once in his life had Lucas seen a snake use the ice elent spirit energy.
But the little snake was using just that.
Because Michelle’s most developed elent was the ice elent, the snake also inherited the most of it through the contract.
So, when teaching it to grasp the basics, Michelle taught the ice elent.
And the snake followed along with ice elent.
"Your little friend is very exotic," Lucas said as he walked into the training grounds.
Noticing him, the little snake instantly put his guard up, stretching its neck up even higher.
A clear threat that if Lucas tried sothing against Michelle, the creature would act.
Well, it was more of an attempt at a threat, because the thin little snake looked very cute in that position, even with its jaws open to show its sharp fangs.
And the ice on the tip of its tail only made it look more adorable.
Michelle walked over to her snake and picked it up.
"Teacher Lucas is a friend of mine. Don’t worry about him."
She petted the snake in a soothing way, trailing her finger along its smooth scales.
"You were here the whole night?" Lucas asked, seeing the ice gathered in so spots of the training grounds.
Michelle nodded.
"To my surprise, this little one can’t instinctively use its spirit energy. It needs to be trained."
"Oh? Then it’s a fascinating little thing. Most beasts can do that," Lucas was instantly intrigued.
He was no beast expert, but even he knew that beasts used their spirit energy instinctively; at least when they were still cubs (which the little snake was).
As they grew up, they naturally learned to use the spirit energy consciously, but they could still use it without the conscious thought.
That was why so beast hunters refused to approach lairs where beast cubs were known to be growing up.
The little creatures, when sensing danger, could cause much more harm than older, more powerful beasts.
Because the little ones completely disregarded the safety of themselves and others when instinctively using their spirit energy, while the older ones restrained themselves.
Thanks to that, capturing cubs was nearly impossible.
Actually, this instinctive use of spirit energy that cubs showed also affected pregnant female beasts after so point in the pregnancy.
If, during the pregnancy, the beast mother showed distress, the cub she was carrying could react, sending its own underdeveloped spirit energy.
To that, the mother’s body would also react.
For an unborn cub to use spirit energy was dangerous, so the mother beast’s body would react and compensate the baby’s spirit energy.
Basically, the mother’s body would act like a battery for the baby, and the baby, if the mother was still distressed, would keep sending waves of spirit energy out.
And that raw, unconscious spirit energy could cause quite the carnage if not stopped.
All those factors were dangerous but they still let baby beasts use spirit energy.
The fact that Michelle’s little snake couldn’t use spirit energy like that was definitely unusual.
But Lucas wasn’t all that interested in beasts to stay on that the for long.
Instead, he focused back on what he ca to the training grounds for: Michelle’s handstand training.
"My guess is you didn’t train at night thanks to the snake, right?"
Michelle nodded.
"But I wasn’t planning to train the whole night anyway..."
So, Michelle’s training resud while the little snake remained on the ground, continuing its own training.
So, while Michelle was doing handstands and finally started walking on hands, small icicles were flying around the field.
Every now and then, one would hit Lucas with a small prick, but he barely even noticed it.
Michelle went through the sa, but she noticed it thanks to her position.
Her arms were strained in the handstand, so when the icicles hit her, it stung more than it normally would.
But she didn’t react to it either since it didn’t affect her training.
Lucas stayed around to make sure Michelle didn’t fall dangerously.
When he saw that she was steady on her hands already (well, steady enough), he went on to prepare the two machines.
Even if she wasn’t completely steady on her hands, the machines would force her to improve.
When the machines were set up, Michelle went up (on her hands), to align herself with the one she would receive hits from.
In the anti, Lucas made the second machine recognize and lock on her so its shots would follow wherever she moved.
A while later, Lucas started up the first machine.
Michelle first had to learn to at least be able to not fall because the second machine could be added to the training.
Michelle thought it was more of a chaos than training, but she kept that to herself.
So, a mont later, a shot of spirit energy connected with her abdon, nearly making her fall.
But as it was a quite weak shot, she was able to keep herself up.
The following shot wasn’t as optimistic.
It was just a bit stronger, but it was able to knock Michelle backwards, making her tumble to her back.
Lucas didn’t stop the machine, so she had to get up and let it shoot her again.
And again and again and again.
It took Michelle a good while to get used to the shooting, but the strong shots were still making her unsteady.
Keeping herself upright was still a difficult challenge.
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