Just as Yuni had finally predicted Celes’ movement and sent a bolt of lightning towards where she knew Celes would teleport to, another body flickered in front of Celes, only to be directly struck by the bolt of lightning.

“Ouch! That still stings you know!” Kiso was rubbing his arm where the lightning had struck, while Celes was staring at Kiso eyes wide and jaw open.

Chapter Six –

“Kiso! It’s only been two days and you’ve already been able to perform the Skyshadow technique! I, Celes, could not hope for a more brilliant son. You truly are my pride and joy.” Celes was swiftly walked towards Kiso as she opened her arms to hug her son.

Just as she was about to clamp her arms down around him, she had a sudden thought, “Kiso, where exactly did you just teleport from?”

Kiso would not hide anything from his mother and smiled as he replied, “Hehe, mother, I don’t think you would be able to guess! I won’t play guessing games with you this time though. Actually, I teleported here directly from where I was training, some two hundred fifty meters into the forest on a small island in the middle of a small lake.”

“Two HUND…” Celes knew her son was talented, and she was even shocked beyond words that he was able to have two innate abilities, but to be able to teleport further then even she could after only training for a day and half, was beyond her wildest dreams.

“Kiso tell mother, how many times have you teleported prior to appearing before us?” It must be said that the further one teleported, the more difficult it would be, as the spiritual pressure near the perimeter of a spiritual pressure zone would be weak and hard to detect.

“Mother, my appearance just now was my first attempt actually. I must be quiet lucky, at first I could not even detect nature’s energy at all, but after I had a dream last night, I was able to combine my two energies in my core and detect the nature energy in one go!” Kiso exclaimed.

Celes could only sigh, it would seem she needs to stop looking at her son as if he were a normal child. “Is this child of mine a reincarnation of some legendary figure who retained their memories or just ridiculously talented? I cannot use common knowledge to judge his abilities and comprehension skills. Perhaps he could even learn the third application of the Skyshadow technique. No, I don’t even doubt it anymore, I’m sure he can.”

Celes was about to retrieve another portion of the ancient scroll in her ring when a gigantic explosion was heard less then a mile south of them. That explosion was followed by several more explosions, each a little bit closer to where the three of them were currently standing.

When the explosions reached a visible distance, Kiso could see two human silhouettes fiercely attacking each other with powerful bright blue bolts of lightning. Each time their lightning collided a powerful explosion would sound out and a shockwave would spread out pushing them closer and closer to Kiso’s location.

Celes was originally worried, however when she saw the current battle, the fear simmered down and she lost her thoughts of hiding.

Yuni on the other hand had already run behind Kiso and was viciously glaring from behind Kiso’s shoulder towards the two human figures rapidly approaching.

Just when one of the two men seemed to get the upper hand and sent the other flying back, he stopped chasing, standing firm.

That man called out, “You three! You had best clear out! Don’t blame me for being merciless should you try and help that scoundrel!”

Celes shook her head and called back to the man, “You, sir! I do not know what your enmity is with this man, but here in the Thunderblack valley, I, Celes Black, would not bow to a lowly servant such as yourself!”

The man was shaken for a moment, there wasn’t a single person in the valley that did not know of Celes Black, however currently she should be within the Thunderblack Castle, and certainly would not be wearing such shabby clothes as the woman before him. Thus he retorted, “Miss, do not think that you can get away with using the missus’ name so wantonly!”

The man called out again, “This is my final warning, the three of you had better clear out or else, if I don’t end all four of you, my name isn’t Grimjaw Black!”

Grimjaw began to gather spiritual pressure in his fingertips to attack when Kiso stepped forward and called out to him, “Grimjaw, my name is Kiso Black, my father is Han Black, I believe you can understand what that means. Perhaps you would consider giving my mother and I a little face, we do not wish to intervene in this matter if this man truly deserves your wrath.”

Grimjaw was startled, “Oh? The little sh*t has actually shown up so easily?” Grimjaw’s face betrayed his inner thoughts and Kiso immediately knew something was amiss.

The bloody, half dead man laying in front of Kiso had overheard Kiso’s prior words and was attempting to gather the puny remainder of his spiritual pressure to send Kiso a mental transmission. Although exhausting his last bit of spiritual pressure would leave him at the mercy of the gods, his mission was to warn the young master in front of him of his present danger.

“Kiso!” A voice rang out in Kiso’s mind, “My name is Quincy and your father sent me to find you. This man is part of your uncle’s sect, sent here to kill you! Your uncle wishes to remove you from the picture so that his son will reap the rewards.”

Kiso glanced at Quincy staring for a moment deep into his eyes and he couldn’t detect any shred of deceit. “So that’s how it is huh..Uncle, I will not forget this.” Kiso made a vow in his heart to take revenge on this rotten uncle of his.

Noticing Kiso glance at Quincy, Grimjaw instantly connected the dots. Without wasting a breath, he burst forth the already overflowing energy in his fingertips once more. He was aiming for Quincy, attempting to prevent him from revealing any more secrets he may be aware of.

However, how would Kiso allow one of his father’s men to die right in front of his eyes? Kiso had already spread his spiritual pressure outside his body and thus had detected Grimjaw’s spiritual pressure being focused in his fingertips this whole time. The moment Grimjaw’s lightning began its journey towards Quincy, Kiso had urged forth his own spiritual pressure into his fingertips.

Grimjaw had a devilish smile as he watched his lightning bursting forth as a white light suddenly blinded him and he felt his entire body go numb.

The difference in power between Kiso’s white lightning and Grimjaw’s blue lightning is simply too vast. Trying to compare the two would be like comparing an ocean to a pond!

When Kiso’s white lightning met Grimjaw’s blue lightning in midair, it didn’t stop and create shockwaves like when Quincy had traded blows with Grimjaw, but simply kept going. Kiso’s lightning completely overpowered Grimjaw’s and struck against Grimjaw’s chest.

Lucky for Grimjaw, he was a member of the Thunderblack clan, or he would sure be dead right now. Even so, he was paralyzed from head to toe and he fell face forward into the dirt.

Kiso’s body flickered and his reappeared standing beside Grimjaw. Using his leg to flip the burly man over, Grimjaw’s face was revealed as one could see white foam oozing from his mouth.

Kiso frowned slightly, this was his first time causing another human harm. He turned and faced his mother, “Mother, what should we do with this fellow? Do you think he will die? Should we take him and head back to the castle?”

Celes was still slightly dazed as the previous scene of her son’s ruthless actions played over and over in her mind. “This…This fellow will likely be incapable of ever again forming a single thought Kiso…Although he isn’t dead, he is no longer Grimjaw Black.” She sighed and continued, “Your father and I always expected your uncle to send some people after us, although I hadn’t thought he would send them this quickly. We will leave him here for the birds and continue towards our destination.”

Kiso nodded slightly, looking back at the body of Grimjaw. He didn’t know why his mother was willing to leave Grimjaw here as he could clearly sense his spiritual pressure still intact. “Maybe mother cannot sense his spiritual pressure? Oh well, I do not wish to murder a defenseless man, it seems Grimjaw’s luck hasn’t run out just yet.”

A man or woman would not die or be made a dumb as a chicken as long as their spiritual pressure remained. This was a fact Kiso had long been aware of.

Yuni was currently crouched by the side of Quincy, a troubled look in her eyes.

“Yuni, don’t think to much of it, Quincy was lucky to run into us today, his luck is quite good!” Kiso walked up behind her, resting his hand on her shoulder.

Yuni nodded then glanced towards Celes, a look of anticipation in her eyes.

Celes sighed, then smiled and walked over as well.

During Yuni and Celes’ sparing, Yuni had been injured once as a result of tripping over a rock. She had suffered a broken ankle and was deeply depressed since that would mean her journey would likely be over. However, spiritual pressure is an amazing thing, its uses are unlimited and naturally include healing techniques. Although the healing techniques are extremely useful, they take several tens of minutes to complete and are therefore not useful in a battle.

There are a few clans with innate healing abilities that allow them to heal themselves almost instantly, but they are a few and far between. The majority of healing techniques are of the universal, basic variety.

Celes, being a talented member of the Winyon clan, naturally knew some healing techniques, and was able to heal Yuni’s broken ankle in just one hour.

Celes crouched next to Quincy, lowering her voice and warmly comforting him, “Brother Quincy, please rest, I will heal you back to full strength, just be patient.”

Celes urged her spiritual pressure outside her body and scanned through Quincy’s body a few times before muttering to herself, “This Grimjaw really did a number on Quincy, his skin has been severely burned in several places and his organs are on their last leg.”

A milky white cone of light spread from Celes’ open palms down onto Quincy’s body, rebuilding his skin cells before continuing deeper to nourish his damaged organs as well.

Kiso was currently observing, considerably interested. “This sort of technique would certainly come in handy, I must have mother teach me the principles behind its application later.”

– – – – –

Five hours later, Celes’ forehead was dripping with sweat as she finally withdrew her hands and laid back taking deep, exhausted breaths of air.

Quincy, who had been previously asleep in a miserable state, although still covered in his own dried up blood, now seemed to breath steady and was sleeping peacefully.

“He should be fine now, his injuries were quite bad, if I hadn’t healed him he would have died.” Celes sat back up and shifted her gaze between Yuni and Kiso.

Yuni spoke first, “Mr. Quincy is lucky the madam was here to help him. You should get some rest, even after healing my little injury you still slept for hours, I know you must be exhausted.”

Celes faintly laughed, nodding her head she replied, “Indeed, I nearly used up all over my spiritual pressure this time, I’ll need to rest the rest of the day and night this time. Before I do however, Kiso, I’d like you to take a look at this.”

Celes raised her right hand, and a single piece of ancient looking parchment replaced the empty air previously atop her palm.

Raising a single brow, Kiso queried, “What is this?”

“This is actually the last segment of the Skyshadow technique. It is the offensive application of the technique and also where it gets its name from!”

To Be Continued!