I am so sorry for the late post I have been busy as hell and I would have posted 12 hours ago but my computer crashed and took all the progress with it, I then got angry and went to sleep... so enjoy and comment if it pleases you.

Chapter 8: Preparing for the future

Ares was a little upset as she was ignored too much and didn't get a chance to show her status window, she scowled at me and said "You will look at my skills too right!!!" She yells feeling left out and envious.

Bzzzzzzzzzzz

Bzzzzzzzz

Guuuu

Status WindowNameAres ViltrisAge17GenderFemaleLevel10(17%)ClassCountryside GirlStrength110(15)Vitality140(15)Agility104(15)Resistance120(15)Intelligence50(15)Magic Resistance45(15)Skills

Gathri Guardswoman in training(passive.)+5 to all stats

Basic Training(passive)+10 to all stats.

Special Skill

None

"Wow level 10 impressive" I said smiling but thinking she would be a hassle later on

"T-thank you, I am not very strong but I am a little experienced." Ares says blushing a little.

Since we were low on time with the recent raid on Gathri village, We all decided not to waste too much time to check the goblin camps in the area, however Paul said he didn't want us to be unprepared so for today we would all test our skills and see where our limits were.

This was to train our skills before taking on the goblins as most of us didn't know what our new skills did and we also wanted to know how many times we could cast these skills before becoming exhausted as Yui told us that would happen if we used up too much mana.

This was important as our status window's didn't show us how much mana our skills cost and how much mana we had in our reserves.

I sit down and get in a meditating stance and the rest of the group looks at me and Brooke walks up next to me and asks what I was doing via sign language, I respond with "using my soul corruption skill, I need my mind to be in a state of peace I think..."

I had explained my skill to them as I can control less intelligent creatures however the longer I stay in a creatures body the quicker my individual consciousness fades.

Brooke sat down to my right as she didn't want to train and wanted to watch the others train first... maybe it was so she could train alone later so she wouldn't hurt anyone.

Ares sat down on my left watching the other heroes use their skills.

I kind of understood how long I could be in my spirit form by using it twice, I could stay in my soul form anywhere from 3 minutes to 8 minutes.

If I just flew around in my soul form I could stay that way for a relatively longer time, but when I took control of a body I seemed to return faster which lead me to believe that I used up more mana the longer I was in my soul form.

[I may explain them one at a time however the training happens close to the same time, except for Shiro and Brooke who train last.]

I use my soul corruption and the first thing I hear is "that's so cool did you guys see that blur just now that must be what Gabriel looks like when using his skill." Anastasia says with an excited tone.

Well I guess I'm not invisible I probably just look like a distortion in the space I occupy, that's good to know.

Anyways I search for the closest living thing I could find so I could speed up the consumption of my mana, I end up coming across a Riv(Rabbit) not even 10 seconds later, after about 25 seconds I had to switch out of its body as I was starting to lose my consciousness.

So I abandoned the body and took control of a Filt(snake) I found heading for a tree, I didn't understand how to move as a snake until about 20 seconds after I had taken over its body however my consciousness had started to fade after about 40 seconds of being in its body.

So I left the body of the snake, returning to my soul form.

Kwaak!! I heard a loud sound originate from where the group was and thought they were doing something incredible so I headed back in the direction to see what it was.

4 seconds after the first sound, there I hear another sound, Baaaaaam! I hurry as I fear for the worst, and when I get there I see everyone looking at Paul with mouths gaping as he stood over a tree that had collapsed.

So naturally I was forced to find a new body to occupy and it took about 10 seconds before I spotted a Gin-Sura(vulture) I was trying to understand why when I was in a rabbit my consciousness started to fade faster than when I was in a snake.

I came to the conclusion that rabbits were smarter than snakes therefore I assumed that rabbit's were harder to keep control of in my soul form.

After taking control of the Gin-Sura I had no consciousness problems for close to a minute and a half and even then I lost consciousness at a really slow rate.

Maybe birds really are as dumb as people think they are.

I left the Gin Sura after I started to lose consciousness faster and when I was flying around looking for another soul to corrupt about 4 seconds later I lost control of my soul as I was violently pulled back towards my body.

When I came back to my body I wasn't tired or exhausted I didn't understand why I still had mana when I was forcefully sucked back into my body but I passed it off as maybe my body kept a tiny bit of mana in reserve so I would not be fatigued.

Once I was forced back into my own body I waited about a minute before casting it again and what I saw was the tip of Anastasia's sword glow blue and penetrate a tree as if she was holding a hot butter knife and the tree was butter, I then see her glance at Paul and see her disappear and instantly appear behind him...

I laughed a little at how impossible something like that was and so I went back to using my skill as I tested my limit and used it again, not even 15 seconds later my soul began to lose consciousness at an alarming rate and so as I was already heading to my body at an alarming rate and come in contact with my body and I am sweating profusely and I feel as if my body was stiff, heavy and sluggish as I couldn't even use my strength to stand up.

I noticed Brooke sitting next to me with a worried face and I signal I'm okay but after using what strength I had left I just gave up and laid down on the floor looking up at the azure sky.

I spoke in a loud tone, "Hey stalker knight in red armor how long was I sitting here for without moving?"

"A little over 4 minutes, and don't call me Stalker knight, my name is lucreille Vamol, "luc" if it suits you.

I don't want to watch over the heroes as some type of stalker... but an order from the king is something I can't refuse." Said the knight clad in red armor who had a very deep voice.

"I see, well feel free to relax as we have no intention of doing anything at this time except for finding and rescuing the villagers of Gathri. "

"I see, well I will take you up on that as I wanna watch what the kid hero can do." Lucreille said excited.

PAUL'S PERSPECTIVE

Looks like Gabriel is going to meditate, what a waste of time. Oh that tree over there looks pretty thick I wonder how cool I would look if I managed to put a dent in it, then again with over 250 strength I should be able to, I walked to the left towards the biggest and thickest tree in the immediate area and placed my fist against the tree then pulled my fist back breathed in a deep breath and punched with as much power as I had just wishing I wouldn't break my hand.

KWWwwwwwaaaaaakkkkkkkkkkkk!!!

Oh my god did I just split the tree in half?

"Guys look at this, I freaking split the tree in half!" I turn around and yell it at them in complete surprise however everyone was already looking over here with gaping mouths, I guess they heard the sound, the only one who didn't see it was Gabriel, he is probably out peeking on hot girls with his ability... so lucky.

The right side of the tree stands straight up as if it wasn't effected at all however the left side of the tree creaks and slowly leans to the left and I notice the ground start to rise as if the roots underneath are being forced to the surface, it didn't even take 10 seconds for the left side of the tree to fall.

BAAAMMMMMMMM!

The tree created a small earthquake that shook everything in a small radius.

That was pretty freaking cool maybe I will see what my singularity does. It will probably be cooler than that punch just now.

I look at the part of the tree I just destroyed and said "Singularity" while pointing my right hand towards it.

Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

it makes a sound as if its sucking things into it like a vacuum, and then after 5 seconds.

Kuuuuuuuuuh!!!

A loud explosion occurs and the singularity disappeared but by instinct I had raised my hands and covered my vitals as I didn't expect such a violent explosion.

Parts of the fallen tree had been picked up by the singularity and shot in all directions because of the explosion and a piece of the broken tree pierces my arm, arghhh damnit of course my ability can hurt me what was I thinking!

I look around fast to make sure no one else was injured, (phew) no one else was injured I breathe a breath of relief.

I walk towards the bag with our supplies before removing the shard of the tree, as I didn't want more blood to gush out, I open up the bag with my right hand and grab a bandage and alcohol, I brought the supplies over to Brooke and placed them in front of her as I showed her the wound, (I take it she already knew as she was looking in my direction when the singularity exploded) I signaled her that she should first pour the alcohol on the wound then bandage it as to make sure it doesn't get infected.

she nodded and I removed the branch she poured alcohol on the wound and wrapped the bandage around the wound.

I say thank you with 1 hand as moving my other hurts and return to my previous location to continue using my skill to see what my limits are.

By now about 2 minutes and 45 seconds have passed and I return to see Anastasia using her sword very skillfully.

She is in very good shape and very healthy, I can tell by the way she hasn't broken into a real sweat and is diligently striking the tree as it was a target her size.

I better get back to testing my limits.

I raise my right hand and use singularity again 5 seconds later it exploded again this time I was farther away from the group to not hurt anyone, but I realized how dumb I was as I didn't take cover this time either I just hoped I wouldn't get tagged by a piece of debris.

Once again for the third time I aim my right hand at my target this time its farther and I position myself next to a tree so I can hide behind it before my singularity explodes.

Vrrrrrrrrrrrr!

It sucks in a lot of debris from the fallen tree and I hide behind the tree, as I wait for the explosion

Kuuuuuuuuh!!!

I check the other side of the tree I was hiding behind to see if any debris from the singularity had reached the tree and to my liking it did not.

I feel really tired though... I guess 3 is my limit.

"I guess you use up a lot of stamina when you have reached the limit of mana you can use."

Anastasia says as she noticed he was moving sluggishly after his 3rd singularity.

I walk back to the group and sit down beside Ares and I guess she didn't want me so close as she moved closer to Gabriel, this made Brooke's face scowl for a split second... Lucky bastard is gonna have a harem I swear...

I look at Anastasia as she is covered in sweat... damn I wanna see Hannah.

ANASTASIA'S PERSPECTIVE

She didn't listen to my explanation of my skill so she looked at me funny when I sat down to meditate, Well I'm not sure if she looked at me funny as she looked away while I was explaining.

So Gabriel is just going to sit there? His idea of training is to meditate... no wonder he is so weak probably only does yoga(a type of stretching as exercise) as exercise.

When seconds later she noticed a blur quickly emerge from his body which made her back away at a quick pace, oh well I guess that's his ability.

She followed the distortion with her eyes as the distortion went further into the forest.

I was bored and didn't want to train as I felt it was a little hot and I didn't want to get all sticky, so I sat down with Shiro who looked a little sad he was looking at his hands expecting something that never came, as he kept staring 20 seconds passed and still nothing his face became more depressed as he was clearly trying to do something.

So I said "Hey Shiro what are you trying to do? what was your skill again?" I asked as if to get him talking and brighten up, he responded with "I was trying to summon a blade but I don't understand what I am supposed to do..."I say "well maybe I can help, well I am not sure if this will work but you can give it a shot.

Calm your mind and think of nothing, and when you have reached a state of peace of mind I want you to imagine a blade being constructed and pieced together right in front of you." I said while trying to encourage him and help him out so his face turns serious and right as he's about to.

We both see Paul stand up and walk over to the biggest tree in the area and seconds later he hits it (KWAAAAAK!!!) and I look towards Shiro and his eyes are wide and shining but he is also smiling wide as if he just woken up on Christmas morning.

within 6 seconds BAAAAAAAAM!

I was startled by the sound and turned around and noticed that the tree had split and the left side fell.

My face got red with anger while thinking how can this joker be so damn strong!

I whispered in Shiro's ear words of encouragement and got up to walk towards a tree in front of me when Shiro yells "You promise?" and I say yeah while smiling at him.

I proceeded with approaching the tree I readied my weapon and I started striking it, I pictured Paul standing there with his smug stupid smile on his smug stupid face!

Kuuuuuuuuh!

Startled I look in the direction again immediately I strike down a piece of debris that was flying towards my left side, and see a bleeding Paul from the direction of the explosion as he looked around probably scared someone saw what he did.

[She imagines the tree being Paul, so she attacks the tree not Paul... as to not confuse anyone.]

I unsheathe the blade and slice across Paul's chest, starting from the left going up diagonally to the right, then quickly stop the blades motion in the air and turn my body as I slice horizontally to the left cutting where his neck would be.

As if this wasn't enough I pulled the blade back and readied it in a stabbing motion with 2 successive strike to where his heart would be...

I take a step back and breathe ready my sword again I pretend to block a blade coming from my left side and within a second I motioned the blade to strike diagonally from right to left downwards as I would have cut Paul's thigh and quickly pull the blade back and ready it as if to stab and with 1 quick stab I pierce the center of Paul's chest and step to the right using all my strength and speed and the blade follows me, as if it would cut through his ribs and reach his heart.

I back up again and take a 5 second breather by now 3 minutes have passed and I continue taking in deep breaths and I hear Kuuuuuuuh! again...

This time I don't see him, "He's such a loser he left so nobody would see him fail again." I say this as I believe he left because he was scared we would make fun of him if he hurt himself again.

I ready my blade and... Kuuuuuuh! I hear an explosion in the direction Paul went

"Tensei Haru!" I pierce the center of the chest 2 times and do it again 2 more times, and against 2 more times... so all together 6 stabs to the chest in under 4 seconds, not bad I think to myself.

"Ken Tensu!" After the barrage of stabs I twist my body and deliver 3 quick slashes to the waist area and end up in a crouched position as I ready the blade in another motion to stab.

"Tensei Haru!" 2 stabs to the heart, 2 more stabs to the left kidney, and 2 more stabs to the right kidney. very nice, very nice, looks like I am getting faster.

I ready my blade one more time this time I hold it on the right side of my body and the blades almost perfectly horizontal with my breasts and I whisper.

"Sousei Nir~" The tip of my blade glows bright blue and I deliver 1 lightning fast strike that penetrates the tree all the way through as if the tree separated and created a path for the blade to travel through as there was no pieces of wood that shot out of the back of the now open tree, it looked amazingly powerful and she smiled wide, at the power she just displayed, she inspected the hole in the tree she just caused and noticed the path the blade followed was scorched but there was no fire almost as if the blade moved so fast it gave the tree a friction burn.

However deep down I know that I instantly disintegrated the path before me as the blade travelled through.

I turn to the side and see an exhausted Paul oogling me and this makes my face redden and I blush and become quite angry as I looked down and noticed all the sweat I accumulated.

I scowled at him and he pays it no mind so I became angrier (She thinks he ignored the look but he was actually thinking about his Fiance Hannah) and I whisper under my breath

"Shadow master!" I disappeared and reappeared right behind Paul, this was possible as we were in a forest with a lot of shade, my skill specifies that if my shadow touches any shadow, that shadow becomes infected and any infected shadow infects other shadows and I am able to teleport to any place marked by my skill.

"Keep looking at me like that and I will have your eyes!" I say this to him with a very threatening aura, and he starts laughing and says "Damn you were fast."

a second later a blade falls right in front of us and shatters.

SHIRO'S PERSPECTIVE

I watch Gabriel, sit down in a meditating stance and was surprised as I didn't expect him to be that kind of person but when I saw the blur appear from his body I understood why he needed to meditate, as he probably needed complete focus to release his soul from his body. My Dad used to meditate all the time...

I miss my family as I sat down figuring in order to summon a blade I should first understand the concept behind it.

I sit there and stared at my hand as I try to imagine a blade materializing in my hand.

I stare at my hand for at least 20 seconds and... nothing, I frown because I thought it would be easy.

Anastasia walks up to me and sits down next to me and says "Hey Shiro what are you trying to do? what was your skill again?" I smile to make her think I'm not sad anymore and then I said "I was trying to summon a blade but I don't understand what I am supposed to do..."

she looks at me with a face that implied she was thinking when she looked at me again "well maybe I can help, well I am not sure if this will work but you can give it a shot.

Calm your mind and think of nothing, and when you have reached a state of peace of mind I want you to imagine a blade being constructed and pieced together right in front of you." she said smiling (Nee-san is so pretty)

I start thinking and as I begin to focus on my hand again and...

KWWwwwwwaaaaaakkkkkkkkkkkk!!!

I flinch and look up and the only thing that I see is a line being drawn up this really big tree and as the line hit the top of the tree, the tree split in half and the left side started leaning to the left and a smile appears on my face as I think I want to be that strong one day.

BAAAMMMMMMMM!

Taken by surprise again I look up and see the tree has fallen and my determination skyrockets.

I begin focusing on my hand again and Anastasia leans into me whispers something in my ear and I look at her and say "You promise?" and she says "yeah" while smiling.

I begin focusing on my hand again and after 20-25 seconds I materialize a handle in my hands (Kuuuuuuuuuh!) I flinch and look towards the sound and see Paul onii-san bleeding from his left hand and he has a small sign of pain on his face but it goes away pretty fast.

I then look toward Anastasia onee-san to show her that I created a handle but I see her looking at Paul and I frown and look back at the handle and think I'm so stupid, she doesn't like me, she's just being nice since I'm so young.

I go back to focusing on materializing a blade when I get the hang of it more and more.

The handle only took 3 seconds this time instead of ten and I slowly add a blade to the hilt and as its almost done the blade shatters as a leaf touches it... as soon as I saw that I wanted to cry.

I keep working on materializing, and by now 3 minutes pass and I hear another Kuuuuuuuuuh! sound, Paul's onii-sans so lucky he's strong Anastasia onee-san would pick him over me anyways since he's so strong. "I need to get stronger I want to get stronger!" I say to myself while focusing on my materialization.

Kuuuuuuuuuh!

That's the third one, how many more explosions can he make as I look over to him and he looks like he can barely stand.

I make another sword this time it only take 14 seconds to completely make a sword instead of 22 seconds.

However this time I was able to make the blade stronger, but it was still really weak. After 4 minutes had passed I got up and ran to Anastasia to show her my progress when I saw her holding Paul from behind and I became angry and charged him and was gonna attack him but I tripped and dropped the sword and it flew through the air and all I hear before my sword hits the ground is Paul say " Damn you were fast ."

Huuk(the sound of a sword shattering)

Anastasia sees that I fell, she let go of Paul right then and ran to me and asked if I was okay.

I said "yeah, but I made a sword you saw it right? so please keep your promise."

SHIRO PERSPECTIVE END

After all of that everyone calmed down and said they could use their skills pretty well and they understood what their limits were.

Brooke hadn't tried to use her skills yet as she wanted to wait until everyone had left, because she didn't want to hurt anyone.

Everyone kind of understood this except for Shiro who was too busy smiling and looking at Anastasia.

Paul said "ok, were all set tomorrow we set out for Goburi Forest" lets go back to the village and get some food, entertainment, and sleep."

Paul walks over to me and offers his hand and I say "you guys go on ahead and Lucreille go with them, I want to stay with Brooke so she gets home safe."

Paul laughs and says "haha alright, just don't do anything to her I wouldn't do."

"Just go!" I shouted at him and I glance over and look at Brooke who has a face that is shaded red.

"Alright then I guess were going later bro" Paul said

"I want to stay with Gabriel!" Ares yelled from my left

"Do what you want." Anastasia responded

They all left

BROOKE'S PERSPECTIVE

Why did Gabriel stay, so far since I have come here he's been the only real person who hasn't treated me indifferently...

Does he like me? or is he just sticking with me so I won't be alone? or maybe he doesn't think anything and is just in too much pain to move? He hasn't eaten yet has he? he must be hungry that's what it is, I wonder what kind of food he likes, he's American so Burgers, Soup, Pizza, or is he the type that will eat anything? etc.

she goes into deep thought

... and Ares obviously has feelings for Gabriel, but is it because he saved her, treated her normally after being 'Taken' by goblins... well no one talks about it so we aren't even sure if she was 'taken' by them in that way...

It's too hard to ask her like if she was, I wouldn't want to bring back those terrible memories... or maybe she just feels like he is the only one who can protect her?"

[She constantly keeps overthinking]

"Maybe that means I have a chance? Does that mean we would end up holding hands, and kissing and then touching all over and then kissing all over and then... and then..."

She finally cracks under pressure and points her right hand in the direction of the Giant tree which Paul split in half and with her other hand she held her face to hide the flushed red blush painted acrossed her face as she shouted "FIREBALL. FIREBALL. FIREBALL. over and over again in her head.

BROOKE'S PERSPECTIVE END

After the first flash I leaned up to see what was going on I see, Brooke holding her face almost as if she was in pain however with her right hand she was pointing it away from humanity so there's that however the level of destruction that occurred fireball after fireball made the hair on my neck stand.

I have to do something she's in pain! I thought aloud in my head

I looked around and saw Ares standing behind me terrified as she didn't understand why Brooke was suddenly firing off her magic and looking like she was in pain.

So I did what any idiotic man would do in my situation

I got up to my feet fast and placed my arms around her and said "it's okay I'm here, nothing can hurt you, I will protect you I promise!" I said it in a calm but confident tone

The fireballs stopped and she tilted her head up to me and I swear I almost pissed myself as I expected her face to be full or anger and rage but all I saw was the most beautiful face that was completely visible because of her ruffled short black hair, I saw the most beautiful baby blue eyes I had ever seen and with small tears gathering at the corners, and her rosy red covered cheeks, and her small light red lips.

She then looked in the direction she was casting her magic and saw the carnage she created... she then turned pale.

She was only thinking about 1 thing after that incident 'Did Gabriel ask me out?'

I was only thinking 'if she gets mad at me no magic can make my body move fast enough to outrun the speed of those fireballs...'

There would come to be a rumor of a dragon wandering around the woods of the Village of Qi, that wreaks havoc on anyone that dares cross its path.

2 questions for readers

1. Sex scene? will they get me banned? there wont be one anytime soon as I want to build romance with the characters.

2. Should I go back and forth between real earth and Planet Kol? talking about how they are getting closer to understanding the disappearances?

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