“So,” said Rosie when they had finally got out of Shingle City and on the road to Quartz Creek once more. “What were you guys smiling about back at the floatation tanks?”
“I’d like to know too,” Ravena added. “But also I’m concerned about these trances you keep falling into Brand. “They’re fine right now but you make yourself extremely vulnerable when you enter them. We were really struggling to wake you up - if it happens in the field you’re not just putting yourself in danger, you’re making yourself a liability for us as we’ll have to protect you.”
Brand was taken aback. The idea that he needed protecting stung a little bit. After all, hadn’t he always been the first to put himself on the line for others? He was tempted to tell her and the rest to just leave him if that happened, to take care of themselves and not risk their lives for his, but luckily he saw how ridiculous a request that was in time before saying it. It would be insulting to bring it up to the others, especially since Rosie and Ravena already were risking themselves to protect him by accompanying him and partly because he didn’t want them to leave him there to defend themselves, even if it meant risking their lives.
He had things he wanted to do. Things he needed to be alive for.
And besides, the group were something of an impromptu team by now. Ravena was a little more temporary and outside the group than the rest, but she was still part of it. And telling team members to put themselves first was an easy way to break a team down from the inside. It was also advice he knew he’d never take himself.
All in all, he decided to swallow his anger at being protected because he accepted that he did need and want their protection. They all had goals they wanted to achieve. They wanted to achieve them together. Brand, Tommen and Rosie had sworn on it.
“I don’t know what gets me into the trances,” said Brand, “but I haven’t entered one yet without a strong sense of self-reflection. Bear in mind there’s only been two, but I still reckon I won’t enter into another one randomly. I’ll be mindful not to think too much though,” he laughed. “As for the floatation tanks, I don’t really know what happened…”
“Of course you do.” Said Tommen flatly, hitting Brand with a bemused look before turning to Rosie and Ravena with excitement. “He manifested his Element! He set fire to the air with just a thought!”
“Woah! Really?” asked Ravena. “How is that possible? Just what were you doing in that floatation tank?”
“Well you said it would be a good experience.” Brand shrugged. “ I just focussed on the flame inside me. And I have a mid-rank Element Stone, which probably helped.”
“Alright that helps, but still! That’s unheard of! I take it back, enter those trances whenever you want,” Ravena laughed.
“That’s amazing Brand!” Rosie said. “Can you do it now?”
“I’ve been trying this whole time we’ve been walking.” Brand told them. “It hasn’t happened yet so I imagine not.”
“Well it’s difficult to multitask! We should stop so you can give it a proper go.” Rosie told him.
“She’s right,” Ravena added. “Let's walk a little longer to get somewhere a little more secluded though. In the meantime you can tell us all about what you were thinking whilst in the floatation tank.
So the four wandered on whilst Brand filled them in on feeling the void and the fire, the orbit he felt around him and the oneness of himself and the fire. Ravena told him that the research in manifesting elemental power in the physical world showed that most people have a differing self-conception of themselves and the element within them, but that a self-conception of some kind is almost always associated with wielding elemental power. Oftentimes humans could use Techs that their Databeasts could under certain conditions. If a Tech was used enough and the Databeast hit a certain level then it could “load” the Tech and their Tamer partner could use it.
But certain adventurers could wield element more freely, manifesting it as they wished. It was very difficult to be able to do and almost unheard of at the lower levels and without massive amounts of training. That Brand could perform even the bare minimum of that skill was incredible.
When they’d got a bit of privacy, Brand sat down to get into a more contemplative state and try to summon the ball of fire once again.
“You just told me not to try this while we’re out in the field,” Brand said to Ravena.
She had the sense to look a little embarrassed, but laughed at the joke. “That was then and this is now. Now get meditating!”
Tommen, Rosie and Ravena stood around Brand whilst he relaxed and focussed on his breathing. They were to look out whilst he tried to focus and recreate the small ball of fire he’d made just earlier in the day.
And that’s what they did. No Databeasts came to bother them, no people passed by. They all just sat there.
Brand sat there meditating for over half an hour but nothing he did could stimulate his energy in the same way. Perhaps it was the flowing wind that settled on his bare arms, perhaps it was the rustling of the leaves or the tapping of Tommen’s foot. He’d learned to differentiate between the breathing and Rosie and Ravena. He realised he liked the gentle noises of his groupmates shifting around.
He also realised he couldn’t summon fire whenever he wanted. He couldn’t even begin to, and he didn’t understand how he had the first time.
“I’m calling it here guys. I can’t do it and we’ve got places to be. I love Excoria at night, but I prefer the beds at Silverstar Inn. And I want to get moving to the ruins tomorrow if possible.” Brand said, getting up and dusting his arse off. “Every second we spend doing something functionally useless right now is seconds we don’t spend defeating Databeasts. Getting more levels is a viable method towards drawing out your element.”
“Couldn’t have said it better myself!” exclaimed Tommen. “We can focus on meditating in your downtime.”
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“Can you teach me how you did it when you do stop to meditate?” asked Rosie. “I don’t want to fall even further behind you guys.”
“Sure,” said Brand. “Though I’m not actually sure what triggered it.”
“If you want to do something now, you can focus on feeling and cycling your energy through your body.” Ravena told Rosie. “To be honest, it’s great practice and we should all be doing it. You’ll just feel slightly more tired when we get into a battle with a Databeast. Given the strength of the ones around here, we should be okay. We won’t do it whilst scouting out QBEA or the ruins.”
“Okay, I’ll practise that,” said Rosie.
Brand continued circulating his energy also. He had been doing it whilst meditating, but it was more difficult to do whilst walking. It was like using two entirely different sets of muscles to do two different things. It was like rubbing your tummy whilst patting your head, except one of those required an entirely different arm made of psychic energy.
Still, he was just about managing it. At least until they encountered their first Databeast, an Authorn. The large cow-plant Databeast stomped threateningly as they approached it, but Ravena has asked the others to take a backseat on this one. She had Clerk run up and dodge the attacks of the Authorn whilst she brought out her bow. She took half a second to channel energy into it before firing a powerful thudding arrow into the cow Databeast. It bellowed, enraged, and changed from its attempts to squash Clerk into paste and reoriented towards Ravena.
It made it about halfway towards her before the second arrow pierced it and went out the other side as it transformed into aether before their eyes. They all rushed forwards to absorb the BITs, EXP and energy it released.
That was one problem with range. In theory you could defeat Databeasts from very far away with projectile weapons but if you were too far away you simply would not be able to absorb the spoils of war.
But Ravena and Clerk needed practise and it was quicker for Ravena to defeat the Databeasts with her bow than it would be if they all got involved when the Juvenile Databeasts roaming the tree-studded plains were so easily put down by her and she didn’t necessarily need a frontline.
That would change as they went through the ruins and the outskirts of QBEA, but for right now it was easier for all of them.
Besides, Ravena’s shortbow wasn’t being used from an extremely long range. If they moved quickly the party could still absorb much of what they needed to.
Ravena defeated a few more Authorns in this manner before they decided to partner up to defeat them. There seemed to be a whole herd of them just scattered about, so it was a fairly perfect training scenario and gave them a good chance to get used to fighting with Ravena, and her with them. They would go into partners of two and then switch up after defeating an Authorn each.
First Brand was up with Tommen. Their battle was fairly standard, as they were already used to fighting alongside each other. Tommen moved to the side just right when Brand went to capitalise on an opening. Brand kept the Authorn fighting him face on when he could tell Tommen wanted to move and reorient himself around the Databeast. They supported each other smoothly.
It felt better to Brand than it used to. The both of them had clearly improved, and the morning in the spa had clearly treated them right. Brand’s shoulders were still sore but he quickly forgot them in the heat of battle.
They defeated the Authorn fairly quickly but still found Rosie and Ravena waiting for them. The two girls must have brutalised their opponent in no time at all.
Next Brand was up with Ravena. They briefly went over the plan. Brand was to take the Databeast straight on whilst Ravena circled to get a good shot and then he was to not move once she started aiming.
Brand felt comfortable taking on that role. He charged the next Authorn and got a few cuts off before it started trying to take his head off. Then he kept his shield firmly in its face and stabbed only at the best opportunity. Ravena was circling as soon as he’d started his charging and in less than a few seconds she’d shot and the Authorn dissipated.
He looked at her a little dumbfounded and she chuckled and waved as she walked over to absorb the EXP. It was as simple as that. One shot, one kill. His minor damage to the Authorn’s HP had been enough. He looked over to Tommen and Rosie as they ground down the Authorn and defeated it. It was still quicker than how he and Tommen had done it, but it was much slower than Brand and Ravena defeating the Authorn.
He then switched partners once more to join Rosie. Their plan was fairly simple: all out attack the next Authorn they saw with wild charges and crazy attacks in a pincer movement to try and defeat the Authorn before Tommen and Ravena did.
They failed at that, but they were still damn quick in dispatching their Databeast. Tommen and Ravena were watching, amused. They rotated partners like that until they had defeated most of the scattered Authorns in the field. Then Ravena pointed something out to the rest of them.
“See that Authorn over there? It’s a lot more red than the rest of them. Especially there, around its neck.”
Brand looked and Ravena was right. It wasn’t immediately obvious from this distance but once pointed out that one was clearly different from the rest of them.
“That must be a boss. It’ll be why there’s so many Authorn here.” Ravena told them. “It’s in the Emergent stage but we ought to be able to take it no problem.”
“It’s as strong as that Anugent? And the Flungeon?” asked Rosie, unsure.
“Yeah but there’s four of us here. This will be good practice. If we can’t take this, you guys can’t manage QBEA. I’ll send in Clerk to distract it first, using his Tech. You two guys run in and lock it down. Rosie will pincer from the right, I’ll go from the left.”
“I’m in,” said Tommen.
Brand agreed also, though he was somewhat apprehensive about their ability to take it on. It was rather large and the only reason they kept the regular Authorns at bay was because they could shut down its movement. This one might be able to shrug him and Tommen off with no problem. Still, he agreed.
They got in close and Ravena ordered Clerk to transform. In a second he looked like a little monster with slavering jaws ready to attack any one of them. Clerk charged the Emergent level red Authorn whilst yapping. It drew its attention and the Authorn turned its back to them in order to battle Clerk. Ravena took the opportunity to shoot, hitting it in the back as Tommen, Brand and Rosie moved in.
It turned, immediately enraged. Red vines covering its body pulsed like angry blood vessels straining at the skin. Brand crashed into it, bronze shield to its nose and bronze sword into its side. Tommen used his staff against its horns, threading it in such a way that he could use the staff as a level to manipulate its face and stop the charge before it really started.
Rosie started hitting one side of the Databeast with her long two handed axe as it struggled to gore her against the best attempts of Brand and Tommen. Another arrow embedded itself in the beast’s side. Rosie hit it again and the Emergent Authorn shoved Brand backwards, lifting his feet off the ground as it did so.
It then shoved Tommen back and turned to face Rosie, who was shifting. Brand dived forward and stabbed the Authorn from below. Another arrow thudded into it and just like that it disappeared into aether.
Clerk dropped and landed onto the ground with a soft thud. He had been holding onto the Authorn with his teeth and when it disappeared he had nothing more to hold on to. His transformation had run out now, so he looked cute and cuddly again.
Ravena walked over to them, looking smug.
“That was easy, wasn’t it?” she asked.
And it was. Brand had been concerned initially but no longer. A Databeast on the same level as the Anugent they’d faced, defeated just like that.
He was excited to see what the ruins and QBEA had to offer him.