"Everyone, gather on the ethership in ten minutes! I'll be announcing the plans for this continent and our expectations for you!" Samantha's voice rang out. Caeden was fascinated by how she moved the sound so that it reached all their ears without disturbing the grieving families. It was a complex and subtle display of aura manipulation. Caeden's control over his thorns and spikes paled in comparison.
"Well, there you go." Caeden looked toward the Turtle Fortress hovering overhead. "It looks like we're leaving soon. I don't think we were originally supposed to be in this city for long anyway."
Everyone nodded. They flew back up to the ship, Caeden riding an icicle with Lily and Erik riding behind Cat on her Spectral Pegasus. Caeden could only effectively fly with his incarnation, which he didn't feel like summoning when Lily could get him up there in seconds. Erik couldn't make it at all, as the hull of the ethership was infused to prevent shrouds attaching to it, including his Stitch. Erik was the least flight-capable of the four of them.
Once they were on the deck, they saw that most of their fellow students were already here and waiting. This monster hunting exercise included all 100 of the top-ranked students, but not all of them were on the same ship. There were only twenty students here. If Caeden had to guess, he figured each of the five ships that made up this expedition carried one faction leader and their core group. The rest of the twenty were from all different factions, but it couldn't be random. If the dispersion of students across the ship had been left to chance, Caeden doubted all four of them would be on the same ship, and he would expect to see at least one person from the core groups of the other factions. Since neither was the case, he had to assume they had been divided deliberately.
It made sense. Unlike the Academy grounds, where the whole point was to throw them against each other, this mission was to teach them about what their eventual jobs would be. Infighting would just get in the way. So they were left with a random smattering of other people, none of which Caeden recognized. They were all obviously powerful if they were in the top 100 ranks, but no one he knew.
Samantha stepped forward before the ten minutes were up, probably because all the students were gathered already. "Good, all of you were quick. I'll keep this short and simple. In a bit, we'll be creating groups out of all of you based on previous gatherings to form hunting parties. Each of you will be assigned a faculty member as supervisor who will oversee your actions. Each group will take an etherskiff and travel to a designated area. From there, it is your job to find and eliminate all the monsters in your designated zone. Your groups will have absolute autonomy to decide how they will do that."
"Your supervisors will not interfere in the process whatsoever. If you lose a team member, too bad; finish anyway. That's what'll be expected of you in the field when you graduate. I will say this. There is no time limit on this mission. Feel free to go as slowly and carefully as you deem necessary. If a monster is too powerful or difficult to deal with, you are allowed to and obliged to retreat. The supervisors will be assessing both your combat ability and your judgment. Sometimes pressing on in a losing battle is the wrong choice. Act wisely, and respect the danger you are in."
She looked over all the students, letting her advice sink in. "That's all, dismissed. Your supervisor will find your group members and explain the finer details to you." She casually jumped over the railing and fell a few feet before white and green light swirled around her legs, and she shot off through the air, heading for the shrouded manor overlooking the city from where it sat higher up on the mountain.
'Well, this ought to be interesting. Think we'll end up in the same group?" Erik asked, looking around.
Everyone turned to stare at him.
"What?"
"So, who do you think our supervisor will be?" Lily asked, ignoring Erik's confused, slightly hurt look.
"I'll give you two guesses, and the first doesn't count." Caeden nodded toward a figure rapidly approaching them.
"Oh."
"Students! Your sensei is here to guide you!" A boisterous voice shouted over the general white noise of conversation coming from the other students. Blaine Bladeson, Swordmaster and Caeden and Lily's martial arts and Ki teacher, stormed up, smiling widely.
"Oh, I'm so glad I managed to convince Sammy to let me be your supervisor. We can continue your training even while we're on the mission! Isn't that great!" Blaine was a man of average height, only an inch shorter than Caeden. Much shorter than Erik's lanky frame. He had a worker's tan; the kind one gets from being out in the sun for long hours. His deep smile lines perfectly matched the happy grin he constantly wore.
Blaine had a zealot's drive for teaching and training. He loved it more than anything else, always excited to advance his own skills and impart more knowledge to the younger generation. Caeden had learned from another teacher and one of Blaine's friends, Aiden Bludrichte, that Blaine's greatest goal was to teach another Swordmaster that could defeat him.
He had taken Caeden and Lily under his tutelage after recognizing their potential. Neither was particularly skilled with a sword at that point nor had they shown great aptitude. No, the potential they had was for Ki.
Ki was the fundamental energy that all shrouds used. A shroud would take in Ki, then flavor it with their domain, but the energy remained the same regardless. This made Ki uniquely neutral, as well as something technically any shrouded could create with the proper skills. Skills that Caeden and Lily didn't have.
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Their ability to make Ki came from the unique nature of their shrouds. Caeden's Sharp, when properly utilized, could sever its own domain from the Ki that powered it, leaving the pure energy behind. Meanwhile, Lily's Cloud shroud was evolved, which made it conceptual. Whereas before her Fog shroud had been limited to the bounds of an object-type shroud, Cloud had no such limits.
Object shrouds could only create an inanimate substance. Modifier shrouds like Caeden's could only modify things that already existed. And creature shrouds could only affect living creatures to create or modify. A conceptual shroud was freed from those limitations, capable of doing any and all of the above. This heightened state made Lily's shroud capable of separating from its Ki.
It had been six months since they started learning, and both of them were now capable of reliably producing small amounts of Ki at will. It still wasn't something to be used freely in combat, requiring a moment of intense focus to activate. Lily had found it useful in a few key situations against fire adjacent shrouds. Her Cloud and Ice were at a disadvantage, so the neutrality of Ki became a huge step forward, allowing her to pull off surprise attacks that would have been impossible with her base shroud and splinter.
Caeden had found no such opportunities. His fighting style was a study of opposites, either attacking at range with Sharp or getting in close with Physical Enhancement. Neither style had shown any benefits from trying to force Ki Creation into it. He continued to practice, knowing that it would become much more of a boon when he could use it in larger amounts and with more immediacy.
Which was why these last few weeks on the Turtle Fortress had been great. Caeden and Lily were just as enthusiastic to learn as Blaine was to teach, and all their free time had turned into training time. That meant they could really focus on advancing a previously neglected aspect of their growing skill sets. Much of their focus had been on more immediate gains for the last six months rather than the distant power Ki training offered.
So, when they found Blaine standing before them, smiling widely and offering more training even as they completed their assignment, they both smiled back, genuinely happy to see their slightly eccentric teacher.
"Great! I'm feeling really close to getting the next amount, but it keeps slipping. I'm glad I won't lose the chance to keep working at it." Caeden said. Lily nodded in agreement.
"Oh, You both are progressing at a good clip. Continue refining your basic forms. More insight into the sword will make the process easier, even if you aren't capable of using environmental Ki yet." Blaine laughed lightly, patting both of them on the shoulder affectionately.
As a Swordmaster, Blaine could use Ki from the world around him, completely unassisted by his shroud. His understanding of the sword was so complete that he willed the world around him to manifest Ki around his blade. He was capable of Ki Transformation, taking that base energy and giving properties wholly separate from his shroud's domain. They had seen examples of his sword arts and even sparred with him. Blaine was an untouchable ghost and an immovable mountain at the same time when he had a sword in his hand.
With just a sword and never touching his shroud, he could fight both of them simultaneously when they used every attack they had. It was mesmerizing to watch and terrifying to experience. A single sword fighting off blows from Caeden that could shatter rock and deflecting a storm of icicles sharp enough to carve steel. He anticipated every blow and blocked every attack with effortless confidence, all while calmly explaining where they had gone wrong. Blaine had long ago earned their respect as a true master of his field.
"Hey, sword guy! I've been wanting a rematch; you got time?" Erk immediately jumped in. He was the only one in the group who could claim to be any kind of martial expert. Erik had taken to unarmed combat like a fish to water, naturally and with gusto. He had already started on the true path of shrouded martial artists, forming his own style. He was constantly testing himself against the myriad skills of the teaching staff, trying to improve and refine his Binding Fist.
Blaine was all for it. "Erik! Of course. You've got some tricky moves on you; I'd love to see what you've come up with this time! Have you managed to find your inspiration?"
"Yeah, I got an answer for that three step combination with the rising swing at the end. I think you'll like it." Erik casually punched their teacher on the arm. "You really stuck it to me with that one last time. I'll get you yet."
"Oh really? I'd love to hear where you sourced it from this time! It's nice to talk with someone that has such a different philosophy to mine." The two actually started to wander off, discussing esoteric aspects of their different fighting styles as they headed in the general direction of one of several staircases leading below that were positioned across the massive deck of the Turtle Fortress.
At the last second, before they disappeared down the steps, Blaine's head whipped up, and he looked back at the three watching him and Erik with bemused expressions. He grabbed Erik's arm and pulled him back across to where they were standing.
"I almost forgot!" Blaine rubbed the back of his head, looking self-conscious. "One of you will need to report to the vehicle bay and learn how to drive an etherskiff. It's part of the mission."
"ME! Totally me! I got it!" Caeden shouted before anyone could say otherwise. He was extremely interested in learning more about ethertech. It was the field that had spawned off of ethersmithing, after all. Much ethersmithed material went into ethertech, and he wanted to see how it worked.
"..." Everyone stared at him in complete silence.
"It's my thing; I won't apologize." Caeden tilted his head up, unwilling to let their silent judgment affect his passion.
"Well, I guess Caeden is going to be our driver." Lily giggled. Cat smirked while Erik laughed. Blaine just shook his head.
"Might want to start in on that training," He suggested, "I have no idea how difficult it is."
"I think I'll manage," Caeden responded absentmindedly, already lost in imagined concepts of how the flight engine operated. It was an old question of his, one he had spent far too much time thinking about. Now he could finally get an answer.
"Have fun, I guess. Make sure we have a ship that can hold Snowball." Lily reminded him.
"Don't worry," Caeden snapped out of his daydream of ether combinations and infusion patterns. "I'd never forget our big fluffy boy." Then he bolted, heading for the vehicle bay.