Eian had made sure to position himself to properly see all the enemies, that was very important, never let them ambush you from behind.

Eian dodged another wolf golem as it leapt at him, then quickly tossed himself sideways.

Another wolf zoomed past, that was the trick, keep moving or they take you down to the floor.

He quickly repositioned himself to see all the golems, at least partially.

It was almost impossible to dodge four forever, but with all that practice he could managed slightly for a while.

"'Kay. Well ye as ready as can be. Time's almost up." Ul.

"FUCK!! ABOUT TIME!" Eian complained.

"HA! Fer now, wait till them wolfies die te ye. Ye'll love me. Plus we got alot o stuff out a da way too." Ul.

"Can we please get this over with!" Eian just wanted to get out.

'Fuck this karate-shit! It hurts!' Eian thought vehemently.

"Shet yer trap boy. All ye do is belly-yak. Am trainin' ye fer free 'ere." Ul.

"........" Eian had learnt the hard way not to push Ul too much, he had spent another hour buried under stone.

"Good. Let's get rock-armor out o the way. Ye ready?" Ul.

"YES!" Eian.

"Good. Here." Ul.

Ul tapped the floor and it encased Eian in stone.

"WHAT?! WHAT THE FUCK!?" Eian.

"....*sigh*....Relax boy, this is part of the training. Ye have to levitate the rock with yer head and body te fight in it." Ul.

Looking close Eian realized he was practically encased in some sort of rocky body suit, it had no joints, nor helmet however.

"How am I supposed to move in this?!" Eian.

"Same way ye move dirt an' stone. Try movin' yer body an' desire the armor to move with ye. It will still be a bit heavy even levitating as much as ye can. Go on try it." Ul.

Eian tried to move quickly, but it was almost impossible.

He was moving too slow.

"I can't." Eian.

"Good, now close yer eyes and concentrate on yer spirit well." Ul.

Eian did.

"Alright imagine takin about a tenth o that power and separate it in two parts." Ul

He did.

"Next, ye imagine a circle around one part, holding it back." Ul

He did, strangely the circle stopped power from passing through, once it filled.

"Ye feelin the resistance?" Ul.

"Yeah I think so." Eian.

"Good. Now force the other half into the circle." Ul

Eian felt the cirlce resist, which was weird as it was imaginery.

He forced it and he felt the circle burst.

A flood of power surged through Eian.

He felt a slight strain throughout his body, not unpleasant, but like lifting a medium weight very quickly.

"GOOD! Now try movin' like before." Ul.

He instantly felt the rock respond alot faster than before.

He had to mentally tell the stone to move though, or he'd freeze up in his movements as the rock remained still.

At first his movements were very stiff and frigid, but soon he was moving a little more naturally.

"Just takes some practice. After a while ye can do it easy. As ye get stronger in spirit ye won't need it fer regular rock armor." Ul lectured.

"Right so this is rock armor? What about my head?" Eian.

"Nah. This is so ye can know what it feels like movin in it. The actual rock-armor does protect yer head." Ul.

After about a minute the surge of power faded and Eian once more had trouble moving.

"Ughh.." Eian.

"Yep that's how ye move in it. Its a basic charge-burst. It's called empower. NOW LISTEN! Never use more than half yer entire well on a charge spell. That means a quarter goes in the circle and another quarter to force it to break. The ratio of body to spirit can only handle that, any more and ye'll hurt yer channels some and even experienced healers have trouble healing that kind of injury." Ul.

"Okay." Eian had no intention of causing permanent harm to himself.

Ul tapped the floor and the armor encasing Eian broke apart.

"Now to actual rock armor. Also before we begin, use this only when yer in a tight spot fer now. Ye can probably summon it once and move in it fer 'bout five-minutes before yer spirit runs out. Then it'll crumble. Out'a juice, so make sure ye use maybe four minutes just te be safe." Ul.

"Alright. Can we get to it then." Eian getting was desperate to get out.

"Yep. First though here." Ul snapped his finger.

Eian felt the strain he just had and his spiritual fatigue vanish.

"Now take half yer well and split it in two, just like before. Don't force it yet! Draw the circle around it though." Ul.

Eian almost did use empower, but he stopped himself in time.

"Now focus on the plane o earth like I taught ye." Ul.

Eian closed his eyes and opened his connection to the earth.

"Good. Now focus on the image of armor. Thick, covering yer whole body. Place that image within the circle." Ul.

Eian used the image of the armor he was wearing, but added it to cover his face.

"Good now! Force the other half inside!" Ul.

Eian felt the circle resist alot more than previously.

He strained, if the previous was like lifting a medium weight, this one felt like moving a mountain.

He felt the circle crack.

"MORE FORCE IT!" Ul.

The strain was actually uncomfortable this time, like a burn after a heavy exercise.

He felt himself covered in stone completely.

*****

He blinked and found himself in his tiny makeshift cave, with an air-hole again.

He had dug pretty deep inside and reinforced the entire thing to ensure nothing could crawl inside.

He was glad to know it had worked.

'I'm beginning to hate that dwarf.' Eian thought as he sighed, remembering another person he hated even more.

He decided he had rested enough.

He began to dig to get out, his body was feeling hungry and the griffin was outside ready to be eaten.

There was the matter of water, so hopefully he'd find some of that as well.

It took a little more effort getting out than digging in because the entrance had been re-inforced but he made it out.

He looked up and saw the sun was still out, but it was defintely passed mid-day.

He heard noise up ahead, by the griffin corpse.

'Shit! Should I go back in again? Are they wolves?' Eian thought.

Then again he did have practice against wolves, so that wasn't a bad problem.

'I also have rock armor to fall back on. I spent the entire three hours pretty much training. So I can use it now.' Eian thought.

His belly rumbled and the decision was made, lousy wolves wouldn't stop him from eating.

Eian left his make-shift cave and headed towards the griffin carcass.

He scanned the surrounding and saw several wolf carcass's near the griffin, more than he had killed.

At least three more lay torn apart in pieces.

"SHIT!" Eian hollered as he laid eyes on what was there.

It was a gigantic bear, it was clearly smaller than the griffin but still much arger than a normal bear.

Eian turned to run and heard it stomp, then give chase.

He ran for dear life, but suddenly he went careening sideways and collided against a tree.

Dazed, he managed to get up and move remembering his training.

Keep moving.

'Shit that things too big to fight normally!' Eian thought as he ran.

He took half his spirit energy, split it in two and pictured the armor in the circle.

Desperation driving him he forcefully followed Ul's instructions.

He felt himself succeed, shortly before being knocked to a side heavily and sent flying again.

Midflight he felt himself become encased in solid stone.

He also felt the strain on his body the rock-armor put.

Surprisingly the rock-armor cushioned his impacts.

He couldn't move quickly and he remembered empower.

He forcefully carried it out.

Power surged through him, and he felt something collide into his armor.

This time he only rolled two paces.

He oriented himself and could somehow see through his double layer of armor.

The rock-armor appearently went untop of his regular armor, he felt each arm was the size of his waist.

It also probably added over a ton to his over all weight.

He saw the bear through his visor and the opening in the rock armor.

He lifted his arms and leaned into it's mighty swing.

The blow sent him staggering backwards, but did practically no damage to himself, though he felt chips of stone broke off the armor.

'Shit! My sword is stuck in here with me!' Eian thought.

The bear charged him and Eian ran forward then aimed a heavy punch at it's face.

Eian felt something in the bear's face crack, then they impacted and Eian staggered backwards as the Bear's charge halted.

He felt chips of his armor break off as well.

He willed the armor to weld itself, and it did, he felt the empower weaken however.

'So the armor can hold itself up, if I use extra power.' Eian thought.

"ROAAAAARRR!!" Bear.

Eian saw the bear stand on two feet, completely dwarfing him at 15 feet tall.

Eain quickly backtracked.

'Ginormous. Right training, I've covered some of this. Gotta hurry.' Eian thought as he saw the monster.

The beast got down and charged.

He tossed himself side-ways, evading its charge and ran to a thick tree.

The beast charged again, but stopped it's charge to not collide unto the tree.

Eian set off another empower, as he hid behind the tree.

He felt his body strain more than the first time, but still no-where close to summoning the rock-armor.

He felt stronger and faster for a short time.

It was following him behind the tree and Eian jumped it.

Eian managed to wrap his arm's around it's neck before they both went stumbling foward.

Eian focused entirely on holding unto it, it was thrashing, even with his added weight he felt it almost dislodged him several times.

The thing probably weighed three tons at least, they were wrestling on the floor by now.

He squeezed at it's neck and dug the armors pointly fingers into the bear, its was supernaturally tough.

He beast thrashed violently attempting to dislodge him, Eian felt it's claws rake against his armored back.

The beast was slowly losing it's strenght, he clung unto desperate it like some overgrown koala.

'Hope this works.' Eian thought.

Eian got a good grip and set off another empower.

With the added strenght he twisted it's head.

CRACK!

It died.

Eian himself was feeling the after-effects of the third empower.

He quickly crushed the bear's skull to be safe, it was a tough bastard.

He let go of the spell and felt the armor crumble to small pieces off himself.

'Fuck. That was intense. Gotta grab some food and water.' Eian thought.

Eian pulled his two-handed sword and ran to the griffin.

He noticed his armor felt severly dented in some area, which caused discomfort when running.

He carved out a chunk of cooked meat and ate.

The tasted some-what like chicken.

'Heh. I'd kill for fried chicken or pizza right about now.' Eian thought.

Some clouds had covered the suns, casting darks shadows across the area.

He climbed the hill he had slightly dug out and looked.

He thought he could see smoke rising up far in the distance.

'Is that them? Do they want me to go to them?' Eian thought.

The more he thought about it the more it made sense.

They couldn't know where the griffin would fly, or that it even died.

They might even think he was dead.

'Heck I almost thought I was dead.' Eian thought.

They might have decided to make a signal for him to find them, if he was still alive.

It was something they might have thought, instead of just running off into the wild.

Kind of a jerk move, but it was the safest alternative he could see them having.

'Well for sure Sarah started it, so they have to be close to it. Problem is. How long will they wait? Go or wait?' Eian thought.

It would take him a few hours of walking to get there and currently he had already expended most of his spirit.

'Fuck. I don't think I have much choice.' Eian though morbidly.

The longer he was alone, the longer he had chances of dying.

The bear had been chewing on the griffin, so he hoped it was unlikely he would stumble into another one randomly.

He could also handle a few wolves, if he encountered any.

He also needed water and he remembered there was a stream around they had drank from previously.

He headed towards the smoke, marking the trees as he went.