The very ground underneath them trembled. Large, hulking beasts emerged from the soil around them, releasing distorted roars as they inspected the trio. They came in many forms, but the large majority of them had some sort of reptilian appearance. Lizards, alligators, and even a person-sized granite turtle stared them down, but nothing compared to the winged monstrosity standing before them.

It towered above its brethren, onyx eyes gleaming in the intense sunlight. Sharp obsidian scales covered it from head to ginormous tail, rippling as the beast rose to full height. It opened its bone-crushing jaws, and another boulder shot out… before being promptly blasted by a fireball.

Rynn was already leaping forward, but it looked like a bit of flame wouldn't be enough to deter the attack. The stony sphere rocketed towards him, and despite his best efforts, he went flying to the side.

The other rock monsters moved towards the downed man, but Seira appeared in front of him, a shroud of flame enveloping her frame.

"Can you understand me, sir dragon?"

The creature snorted, opening its mouth for another attack.

"Good news!" she shouted. “It’s not a dragon, it’s a drake!”

Whatever it was, it swiftly blasted another boulder her way.

With as much effort as a man lifts a slip of parchment, she hurled Rynn out the way, stepping on the attack in order to propel herself forward. She arced across the air, but was intercepted by a man-sized talon. Without missing a beat, she reached into her pocket, revealing a glowing talisman. The claw impacted, but instead of ripping his sister to shreds, the drake was the one who went tumbling back.

She used the opportunity to conjure flame into the beast's eyes, blinding it while she landed on top of its horned head. She let out a cry, and a blinding fist plowed into the creature's cranium. Kiro let out a sigh of relief. Seira could handle this. The other monsters seemed to follow the drake’s lead — if she defeated it, they would go away.

The drake grumbled, and a casual shake of its head threw her off. Where Seira’s most powerful attack had landed, an attack that he had seen singlehandedly demolish reinforced walls, a single scale fell off. The rest of the monstrosities turned back towards them, growling. Kiro’s eyes widened.

Seira had barely scratched the drake, and even if these stony creatures weren't a tenth as strong as it, he had no doubt that they could all mangle him without a second thought. He instinctively drew on his mana, and this time it willingly obeyed, the fear of death driving off the mistakes of inexperience. He dashed towards his sister’s fallen body, only to realize that she was back up and running towards Rynn.

Only, Rynn was also back up. He flared his aura, and suddenly he was also surrounded by flames. Then, as if there wasn't a horde of monsters trying to grind him to paste, he sat back down. The pack of turquoise-studded lizards near him hesitated, confused by his behavior.

"Rynn! We need to flee!" Seira shouted.

The man didn't acknowledge her statement. His aura flared once more, and the flames disappeared. The drake plodded towards the easy prey, not even bothering to use its ranged attack.

"Rynn!"

Kiro rushed towards him, but Seira was faster. She grabbed the seated man’s arm, and was promptly pushed away by a forceful gale. The earth under them trembled once more, but this time it felt different. It was weaker, but it was also familiar, human.

Kiro stopped his stride, but Seira latched onto his wrist, pulling him in the opposite direction. When had she come back to him?

"Kiro! Let's go!"

He nodded. Right. Whatever Rynn was doing, he was sure Aer would intervene if need be. Right now, they needed to focus on surviving.

***

After nearly an hour of running, Seira motioned for them to stop. They settled under a particularly large tree, looking back, only to see that their assailants had finally given up on catching them. Seira squinted into the distance, trying to make out their tiny campsite among the sea of green.

"What do you think Rynn was doing?"

"I… I don't… know," Kiro replied, chest heaving. He had thought that he had decent endurance for a Sun, but he supposed that all the mortal training in the world paled in comparison to a mystic's power.

"I don't think Aer ever came down. Do you think that gust of wind was her?"

"It might… I don't think… though."

She turned to him, pushing his shoulders back in a poor imitation of a meditation technique.

"There you go. That'll help you recover your breath and your mana."

"Right. Thanks. Wait, you said my mana?"

Realization dawned on her face, and she sat him down.

"If you're going to participate in combat, you'll need to learn how to recover your mana. We're safe for now, so I'm going to teach you. The good thing is you handled that basic channeling pretty well, so this might be easier to learn with age."

He nodded. Maybe his latent talent wouldn't affect him as much as he thought.

"Rynn mastered it in two hours, so you aren't that behind him."

He tried to resist the urge to slump over. Right. Even amongst other Suns, he was untalented. He didn't even want to know how long it had taken her to master this technique…

"Ok, so the first step to cultivation is sensing the ambient mana around you. Can you feel it? The sun is shining on us, and every second that we're exposed to it, it gives us a little bit more mana."

He nodded again. At least this part was easy. He had spent so much time researching the cycle of fire mana that actually sensing it was like traversing a maze he had long since memorized.

"Cool! So now you need to focus on it, and draw it into you."

He frowned. "How do you do that?"

She stared at him blankly.

"Uhh… I don't know. You just kind of pull on it, you know? Like you did with the mana that Aer channeled through you?"

That made a little more sense. However, pulling from the air felt nowhere near as easy as pulling from the mana already inside of him. He struggled for a few moments, before thinking back to the trance he had entered when he first cultivated.

What was it? Two in, two out. Two in, two out. With every inhale, he tugged at the mana surrounding him, bringing it just a tiny bit closer to him. With every exhale, he mimicked the purification process, going through the motions of expelling non-existent impurities. He felt the first bits of mana seep into his body, flowing into his channels to join with the coursing stream already inside him. He leeched off the excess, guiding it to his half empty core in an already familiar process.

He could feel the mana gathering around him, the gradual increase in heat as the sun reached its peak…

The earth trembled again, and this time it wasn't just the ground around them that erupted with life. As far as he could see, stony monstrosities climbed from the soil, shaking as they emerged from their Saints-knew-how-long slumber. Worse, though, was the silhouette on the horizon. The drake was coming for them.

They exchanged a look, and promptly fled.