Sai meet Albert by the bend in the river, shields attached to his arms and a rope wrapped around his wrist, only usable when Sai had a moment to shift all of his body to throw it.

Albert raised his massive sword in front of him. It couldn't be seen which of the two moved first, but they both reacted quickly. Both seemed to take a defensive stance while still meeting each other in the middle of the battle field.

Sai was obviously pushed back from the blow, Albert had completely followed through with his defensive downward slash, almost as if he had changed tactics mid swing. Sai could feel that he was stronger than the last time they clashed, instead of being injured each hit despite blocking, he was only bruised. Sai muttered his rudimentary healing spell and attacked again.

Sai became less concerned with blocking and more concerned with striking, he knew that he would be hurt, even injured in his sparring sessions, but he still blocked against death blows or anything that would not be healed in a moment with one of the weakest healing spells in the world.

Sai went to strike Albert, this time he held one side of his shield in front of him like he was going to bash, the other was to his side but the bottom was facing Albert, Sai had left himself partially exposed on his dominant side. Sai knew that this was a risky move.

Albert saw the clear shot and stabbed toward it. Silent moved his arm in the way of the stab, the shield then took the brunt of the force, knocking Silent back in the middle of his pounce. Albert easily had the upper hand, Silent was prone on the ground.

Silent slowly got up, he muttered another healing spell and went back to attack Albert once again. The two continued their duel until they were tired, the battle lasted a couple of hours. It was very clear that Albert was the most physically powerful of the two, not only in martial strength, but in technique. Sai became determined to beat him at some point in the future. Sai spent the next few hours with his parents, who set aside this time for being together. Whether it was to teach Sai about their family or to just rest.

Lilith started dinner near the end of their time together. The three ate their fill until a knock came to the door for the third time today. Sai then reached out with his mind, “What is it?”

“Is it time for magic?” A voice that Sai didn't recognize came from the door.

“It does seem to be that time,” Sai said with his mind to the person at the door. Sai stood up from the table and headed to the door.

“He's coming!” Excited whispers reached Sai’s ears before he opened the doors. Sai pulled the door open and saw the entirety of Albert’s people waiting outside Sai’s front door.

“Well, we can't do magic here, let's go,” Sai said as he made his way through the crowd towards an area that was more spacious. When the group arrived at a large clearing, Sai turned to look at the eager faces of children and teenagers, adults of all ages none of whom wanted to ever feel threatened or subjugated again but more importantly, they wanted to feel capable and make their lives just a tiny bit simpler.

“Spread out everyone, but at least ten steps between you and your neighbors on either side,” Sai told them all the group complied then Sai began by showing them the most basic motion, it was a simple punch that looked like it merged with the massiveness of the earth.

“Feel the strength of the earth,” Sai loudly spoke to the group. The group continued to punch, again and again while Sai watched, each and every person. If an outsider were to look in, they would be baffled at the sight of a child mentoring this slew of people.

“Feel the earth under your feet, if you need to, take off your boots.” Sai told the group, pushing them to feel even the slightest hint of the profoundness of an earth based dao. Sai walked between the people of Albert’s village, modifying their first move until he was satisfied.

Sai headed to the front of the group again took a place where everyone could see him, then he performed the second step in the process of learning earth magic. Sai theist out his second fist, repeating the first step prior. Sai allowed both of his arms to stick straight out.

The group however seemed to miss this almost completely as a whole. Some struck their fist out at odd angles, some retracted their first fist. Some were completely lost. It felt to Sai like the group had completely ignored what he had shown them.

Sai repeated the first and second step two more times before everyone finally caught on. Sai them went into the group as before and began to give pointers to those who were struggling.

The group as a whole began to understand the second move, there were many that were waiting impatiently to learn a third motion, while others had just gotten the second. Sai could feel that everyone was in a powerful stance for the manifestation of earth essence. Sai could only tell that their stance was strong currently, he could not tell if they were able to manifest the essence of a dao of earth until they completed the next step.

“Watch now for the next move,” Sai said to the group. After everyone faced him, Sai started doing the first two moves once more, then followed by bringing both arms in simultaneously where both palms faced each other. Sai did not allow any elemental essence to be summoned however. He wanted the group to find that on their own.

The group once more began to follow the motions, this time there were only a few messed up movements, people would clap or leave their hands too far apart. Sai corrected all of these but had not noticed the feeling of earth essence being drawn out from the area. He had not seen the telltale earthy golden glow. Sai had felt something was missing.

Sai watched again and again as Albert’s people failed. Sai ram through the morons in his mind, this lasted almost a quarter of an hour until suddenly Sai felt it, someone else could summon the essence of earth. Sai looked at their entire body and realized he had forgotten one of the most important steps.

Sai returned to the front, not acknowledging the one person who mastered it without this sudden realization brought about by that same person. “One last thing to show you all tonight. You must stand like a stone pillar while doing this, until you reach a higher level, you will have to be stone.” Sai told the group as he stood as straight as possible then performed the three steps, two punches out and converging at the heart.

The group all stood as straight as possible, then Sai have them all separate help depending on their need. As he passed the young person who he remembered the correct body alignment from, he saw that their stance was perfect, despite having a large hammer attached to his waist. “Carl, you did very well, you have learned all that I can teach directly. Now you must improvise moves that help you to use your particular dao better.”

Carl looked a bit sad when Sai told him this, so Sai added, “You are by far the most adept to earth power, how could I teach a genius like you.”

A smile crept onto the face of the young child. Sai then told him one final thing, “This motion, once mastered will not be needed to draw in the elemental essence of earth, but until then, keep using it because that will be the only way you can get stronger. Also, as soon as you can use earth magic, do so, you need to wear out your reserves.” The little boy listened closely and nodded vigorously. He then ran home, caring his hammer that was originally strapped to his side.

The next person to understand the dao was Kayla, Sai told her the same thing he told Carl and she too ran to that same house as Carl. The rest of the group understood at various times, in all, nine people could draw upon the essence of the earth.

It was past dark when Silent finally went home. Sai knew that he would have a long day ahead of him tomorrow as well, he likely had nine weapons to make, this alone would take all day if any of them need to be steel. Sai felt very peaceful and happy cultivating in his new village, waiting patiently for himself, Kayla, and Carl to reach an age where they wouldn't be killed on sight for cultivating.