But there was something holding him back. Not being entirely present in the moment made a crucial difference. Purpose came into question as sloppy blows came towards Ulfrik at frequent and predictable intervals. Although he was completely debilitated by a thousand cuts on his back and a severed dominant arm, the only fist he still had was all he needed to dispatch clumsy, average warriors without elemental affinities like his opponent. For people whom weren`t able to tap the Elemental could only be ill of mind to face him head-on.
Dodging another frontal attack, the minotaur saw an opening in the distraught man's defenses and seized the moment.
Pain.
A clenched fist had found its way to Jin's navel. Heedless of the light armor tied to his body, the shock ripped through all leather and metal as if they were made of glass. Every muscle tensed to meet the attack he was too slow to dodge in time, his feet dragged on the grass, marking the earth with the friction that kept him still upright.
He wanted to breathe, but all the air had been expelled from his body, and now his lungs were stunned so much so they shrank like an emptied air balloon. In the attempt to catch his breath, he landed his hands to his aching area, but Jin felt as if the firm blow had traumatized his respiratory flow, the air escaping from him as if it were allergic to his nostrils.
"You'll pay for what you tried to do to my brother!" He shouted, the pain flowing through him being the only impulse for his voice to echo.
To Jin’s surprise, the animal responded. And so a grim, low voice replied. “Before rambling nonsense, be mindful of my kin boy... What about the suffering that the humans have brought upon mine and countless other clans? Others races hunted to extinction as if they didn’t belong in Ravnos.” He continued, as if Jin was guilty, guilty of it all.
“Yet the Sages of Elba have twisted Azazel's teachings for centuries, reshaping the venerable past with falsehood and deception. Men determined to cast aside truth—for humans were but a minority in the greatest Empire there ever was.”
Jin sensed a thousand meaning to his words, yet understood none of them. Up ahead, Ulfrik channeled his elemental. The chains of his convictions held for hundreds of years gave rise to sheer hatred for the one who opposed him. A clueless human who stood for everything he condemned.
Before Jin could get up, a kick came towards him and his body bounced forward. He wanted to find the proper words to retort, he wanted to say everything he thought about the accursed injustice that befell this continent, but all he felt was a bitter taste reach his lips. His own tongue was drowning in a sea of blood which raised with every waking moment. He felt besieged. Entrapped but there was no fear.
Because this time he knew who to call, and if by any means it worked, he too could call himself an elemental warrior. Closing his eyes, he tried to ignore the approaching ten-foot humanoid and called out to her.
Focusing his thoughts on the red-eyed figure, he recalled the name he'd read with an odd sense of familiarity earlier.
『Isabella Bahaerys- Give me strength 』
When a made elemental warrior whispered those words, something happened within their core. The affinity they had engrained in their nucleus since birth pulsated energy like a heart pumping blood; it acted as a catalyst for what could not be seen, a beacon of the elemental. Once the mental blockade was surpassed, it awakened, like a buried treasure forgotten in the sand, just waiting for someone to dig deep enough to find it.
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And it was through a ritual in the Hall of Trial in which elemental barriers were usually surpassed for the fortunate, the true potential finally blossoming in the face of danger. Although some believed this to be a gift from the gods, it was now clear to Jin that they were certainly not the only ones able to unlock these barriers.
And in that way, he was finally able—for the first time— to tap the Elemental, as his father Alaric had in the past; as Viktoria and Eliza in Sanctum in front of him. However, he had a feeling that this was not the only source of power that rose before him, as what was about to happen was not in any song, in any book, or in the testimony of his colleagues.
Vocalizing an unsung heed to the world, Jin felt like a baby who was opening his eyes for the first time. In his vision, new colors and entities filled the environment, closely resembling what he thought to be another plane of existence. All around him, millions of bright lights curiously drifted through the air like a starry sky, but they moved strangely as if they held a consciousness of their own.
The reality that Jin knew was out of line with what he was experiencing and the perception brought him more questions than answers. His vision wasn't the only sense of Jin's that had completely changed when touching this power source for the first time. Hundreds of thousands of disembodied voices interspersed, sighing in his ear and screaming in the long distance. A realm he was blind to all this time, yet nonetheless a figment of reality as real as any. His body shivered, reacting to the cold and snow that was gone and to come. Bodies from other ages traversed it, people laughing and talking like he wasn't even there. A thousand winters come to pass. A dimension he could not comprehend. He didn't belong there, and he felt as if his sanity was declining with every passing second, his head about to explode with impulses that should never have been received. Reaction without cause.
And it was at that moment that one voice out of thousands could be singled out, her soft tone familiar to Jin making her the easiest to focus on. It repeated itself in his mind, over and over until they solidified in his mind and could be fully understood.
"Lend your ears for the sagacious who came before."
Lights of all different types and colors roamed the air, at intense speeds and other incredibly slow ones. Rays of varying geometric shapes flickered, going from blue to green, to red and blue again. All the lights vibrated in uniquely magnificent frequencies and hues. And while some didn't seem to notice Jin, others seemed to vibrate with his nucleus, pulsating in tone with his presence. The auras drew closer, almost resonating with his dormant nucleus until they came as one.
It had captivated Jin with its splendor, the aura around it had seemed solid and orderly. Slowly closing the distance, it flew over his shoulder and hovered close to his ear. And then he opened his ears and lowered his defenses. And a voice from times when minotaurs roamed the continent aplenty showered Jin in its light.
For clan Kantoff already had the reputation among the three great families of demihumans; certainly amongst the authoritarian and wealthiest clans of demihumans in Ravnos. However, at that time his weakness was well known, and as those wise words were spoken to him, he nodded and gained the encouragement he needed. The knowledge he most sought. Recognizing the way the vocabulary of the voice was composed, Jin finally named the voice he heard. Isabella Bahaerys supported him mentally. Whispering in his ear somehow, it seemed like he the tide had changed, a reminder that he wasn't alone in this fierce fight.
Coming back to himself, facing the danger he needed to move. Placing a hand on his knees, his body weighed heavily. But with calm, his breathing had returned to normal. And from now on, the real battle began. With the barriers broken and his limits as a regular human surpassed, he was finally an Elemental Warrior in body and soul.
Feeling the elemental energy flow through his body, he brought the energy to his feet, more specifically, directing the flow to the ground he was on. Energy was concentrated in the ground and was beginning to interfere with the earth itself, in such a way that elemental energy was propelling the ground to move.
『Impulsus』
Almost immediately, a block of earth detached itself from the tangle of stones. Like a flower blooming in the shallows, it climbed under his feet and propelled Jin forward. Following the flow of the wind, no hesitation held him back. Holding the blade steady in his hands, he boldly advanced, approaching the horned beast at high speeds.