The hazy outline of the unusual creature seemed to sense danger from the evershifting ball of energy that Sage sent towards it. The Wind Elemental was just as fast as its namesake and it quite easily avoided the incoming symbol. Unfortunately for the elemental, the Seal was still under Sage’s control and it made a perfect 90 degree turn, forming a right angle in the air as it changed directions and shot towards the elemental’s new location. The creature shifted position again, dodging away from the new trajectory. The Seal swayed once more, tracking the elemental. It continued to flee, but then its big arms slashed forward and it sent out a pair of wind blades. Sage’s hand twisted and the Seal took a curved path, dodging between the two blades without slowing down.

The Wind Elemental lifted both its arms into the air and held them there for a moment. Sage could feel wind laws gathering above it. When the Seal had closed within a dozen yards of it, it threw its arms forward and unleashed a volley of small tornadoes. The twisters were cylindrical in shape, as they were not created upon the ground. They moved strangely, like eels balancing on the tip of their tails and dancing over the surface of the water. Sage had never seen such a weird sight, but he had once seen an illustration of such a scene. It was actually a place that was part of a somewhat famous Hidden Region, the Forest of Eels. Well known as it was, it only barely qualified as a Hidden Region, because the local powers held exclusive access and only those who gained their permission could enter.

When the flurry of cyclones flew towards the Seal, Sage smiled widely and then stomped the pathway, sending himself rocketing into the arched doorway and into the energy cage. As he ran his hands moved, directing the Seal to dodge the cylindrical vortexes. These attacks had the same property as the Seal in that the elemental’s hands were swaying back and forth, controlling the attacks to chase after the Seal. It seemed to notice him rushing forward and a pair of the tornadoes changed direction and flew towards him.

While Sage ran a strangely thick and viscous fluid welled up in front of his abdomen. It grew larger and larger like he was carrying an invisible vat filled with tar and mercury. His fingers were bent in a specific shape and glowing as he directed the Seal’s evasive actions. Then, for just an instant his fingers relaxed and he thrust his palms forward, slapping the huge mass of fluid in front of him and sending it flying in front of him. Then almost instantly his fingers formed symbols once more and he recovered control of the Seal making it zig and zag through the air to skirt around the vortexes trying to surround it.

The viscous fluid flew out and coalesced into a dozen human sized bodies. The silver formed into a skeleton and the black oil became its flesh. The Blacksilver Pawns were tossed towards the elemental, spreading out to form a staggered line, rushing forward with arms outstretched to grab for the creature. It was at this time they ran into the first snag in the plan as Sage reached the end of the path and had to come to a stop. It was also at this time that two of the tornadoes were dragged apart by the flying Blacksilver Pawns, while the others flew towards the elemental. It had to change direction again, but that gave the Seal a chance to slip through the others and rush towards the main body.

Adding to the onslaught, Sage opened his mouth and brought forth the Stormsbreath. He quickly infused it into the Divine Breath, an ancient technique derived just for it, and released a thunderous wind blast. He wasn’t sure what a Wind Elemental might fear the most, so he chose to fight fire with fire and provided some support for the Blacksilver Pawns and the Seal he’d spent hours creating. The Wind Elemental was fenced in with attacks from three sides, sending it towards one edge of the huge spherical energy cage. At this point there was the second interruption in Sage’s offensive. The Blacksilver Pawns couldn’t fly and had only been thrown with great force. Once they reached the end of their flight they wouldn’t be able to continue chasing after the elemental.

Sage shot more air bursts from his mouth, causing booms as they broke the sound barrier and thudded against the body of the elemental. Then a couple of the Blacksilver Pawns caught a corner of the Wind Elemental’s ‘body’, only to feel nothing between their fingers. Then a moment later they were struck by the invisible force of the wind and flung away like ragdolls. Well, that didn’t work.

He watched as the pawns had no way to right themselves and so he chose to double down on fighting with quantity. The Red Comet appeared beside him and he leapt on, flying into the air to get closer in order to apply more pressure to the elemental. At the same time as the red leaf was flying through the air, figures with buzzing wings and black armor appeared in his wake. Sage released Dragoons as he flew, rapidly flooding the interior of the energy cage with fluttering wings. The Wind Elemental was enraged by this change, and it swung its arms around, using them along with the tornadoes they still controlled to knock the Dragoons flying by the dozen.

Sage had chosen to use the Dragoons over the Purple Mist Sect because of the difficult environment they were dealing with. Even if the Purple Mist Sect was many times more powerful, they couldn’t fly. None of them used Wind Laws. The poisonous miasma had pushed them all onto the path of studying poison laws almost without exception. It was very good for their further study as there was quite a bit of overlap with all of their laws and gave them some leeway to share experiences. In fact, they even had hope in pioneering a true poison law legacy, something that was something of a legend in this world and that Sage felt was a secret of this world’s higher powers. Having methods to train understanding of laws and not just blindly hope to stumble upon them was extremely valuable.

As it was now, becoming a Nascent Soul was basically up to luck and the larger a group was the higher their chance of producing more Nascent Souls. Large groups remained in power due to their vast size which made it more likely to have continuous Nascent Souls appear. Small groups, on the other hand, would rise and fall with the appearance of every Nascent Soul. When that great figure passed on, so would their power. When someone rises to that level, they will choose to join a great power for resources, or carry their own group up along with them. If the Purple Mist Sect really could create their own training path to a poison law then they would open a door to the next level of power.

It was a shame that Sage had to call upon the Dragoons, but he needed their wings. He had no idea what that energy cage would do if it was touched and he didn’t wish to risk the lives of the Purple Mist Sect giving it a try. Instead, he made the painful decision to sacrifice Dragoons. They flew out in high volume, flooding the whole area with bodies to distract the elemental. As their number increased, the elemental became unable to strike them away fast enough and they had time for their armor to come to life. Glowing formations lit up around groups of them, and the groups flew together to combine their strength. The Wind Elemental flew over and bashed them with its huge hands, knocking the formation into two pieces and sending a few stragglers flipping through the air on their own.