Nolan stood shirtless atop a platform of spiritual energy that he had just conjured, fresh air enveloping his strong-featured face as a rough, cold breeze filtered past him. He stood high up in the sky above the villa that he had forcibly seized after killing the chamberlains Connick and Daren just a few days back, his altitude level with the low-riding clouds that characterized the clear, temperate afternoon. If there was one thing about Venara that constantly threw him for a loop, it was the fact that weather conditions weren’t constant across the continent. That is to say, biome formations weren’t consistent with what he was used to on Earth. Take the Easterly Kingdoms for instance; the kingdom of Verdure was mainly deciduous while Hauss was temperate-deciduous, the majority of the Dragon’s Tail mostly coniferous. Farther North, the kingdom of Ridgerock was temperate-deciduous, and then the Northern Wilderness was more like an arid desert with cooler temperatures.
The area where Tallgate resided was mostly deciduous, as seen by the vast amount of healthy flora that surrounded the city for hundreds of kilometres in all directions, an odd pocket of healthy landscape amidst the desolation of the Northern Wilderness. What did this tell him? Either this continent was far removed from the poles of this planet, or the unique energy compositions that characterized different areas that he’d travelled through gave life to specific environments that varied based upon said energy compositions rather than geographical location.
The weather today happened to be particularly beautiful, with hot, tropical winds and a strong, unyielding sun amidst a sky pocked with fat white clouds that floated around in a lazy, sporadic manner. After cultivating for days on end, Nolan and the others had decided to enjoy an afternoon of leisure in light of the coming conflict between them and their most recent enemies, Tems of the Falling Rain Sect and Merchant Lord Kalvin of the Continental Merchant Association.
“Are you going to jump, or what?” came a booming voice from over a kilometre beneath him.
We don’t need to take turns, Nolan said to his friend via sound transference talisman. Look how big that pool is. Do you really think we need to do this one at a time?
Haha, I’m drunk. Leave me alone!
Ian flew up from the healthy grounds of the vast estate below, where he had been idling with the rest of their friends by the giant pool that centred the southern side of the villa’s grounds. True to his word, he wobbled this way and that as he made his shaky ascent, the young Varai clansmen having already put back several cups of the delicious amberwood ale that the group had picked up in the seaside town of Elmer prior to their participation in the Falling Rain Sect’s tower climb.
Arriving at Nolan’s side, the two stared down at the giant mass of water down below with mixed expressions of excitement and relaxation. Nolan had erected a large barrier around the pool that effectively raised its walls by fifty metres on all sides. Afterward, he’d troubled Nyla to help him fly up into the sky where the two of them harvested the water from several expansive clouds, siphoning it into the pool below so that it seemed like a giant cube of water were inexplicably standing in a rectangular shape without any walls to help it hold its form. Now, he and his friends planned to take turns leaping into the water from high up in the sky in a manner that put the cliff-divers from Earth to shame.
“Go at the same time?” said Nolan, who stretched his lean, muscular body in preparation for a potentially painful belly flop.
“Wait.” Ian produced two tiny cups that were similar in size to shot glasses, both filled to the brims with golden spirits. “Cheers, my friend.”
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Nolan clinked cups with him and downed the spirits before letting out a satisfying sigh. Internally, he sensed a small stirring of energy within his dantian as well as within his spiritual space.
“Alright,” he said, putting about a hundred metres between him and his friend before raising his voice with an eager smile. “On the count of three—one…two…three!”
Ian cancelled out the flight technique that all Genesis-staged cultivators were capable of using, while Nolan simultaneously dismissed the energy that his platform was composed of, the two of them falling from the sky like aircraft that had suddenly lost all power.
“Whooooo!” Nolan yelled with enthusiasm as he gradually began to build up speed. Wind battering his body from all sides, he pressed his arms against his sides to make himself more aerodynamic and quickly closed the distance between him and the pool. A moment later, his vision became disoriented as if through the point of view on a go-pro that had just been submerged in the sea, feeling an exhilarating rush as he drew a long line from the top of the pool to its mid-to-lower levels.
Elsewhere in the water, a long line of displaced water traced down from where Ian had landed, the young man having fallen a few metres lower than Nolan. Seemingly satisfied at having plunged deeper than his friend, Ian sent him a look that said ‘can’t win them all’ before he swam to the top of the pool with a few powerful strokes of his arms.
Rolling his eyes, Nolan exhaled and allowed himself to sink to the bottom of the pool like the protagonist of an artsy music video, light shimmering within the water as he came face to face with some of his friends on the other side of the translucent barrier.
Giving Nyla a playful wink, he sunk a little lower and then pushed off the floor of the pool with his right leg, surging to the surface and then exploding upwards with a violent shower of water that mimicked the effects of an explosive that had been detonated underwater.
Nolan slicked his short hair backward as he conjured another platform to stand on for a few moments, leaping off of it to land beside Nyla and Esteban where they stood along the side of the pool’s centre.
“He was right,” said Ian with a face flushed from overconsumption. “That was surprisingly fun!”
“Everything’s fun when you’re that far into your cups,” came his sister’s smart retort. Walking over to her brother with a slow and confident gait, Lyra grabbed Ian’s arm and dragged him over to a nearby table where she had been playing a drinking game with Sean and May. “Come, it’s your turn to play riddle master.”
“What the hell do I know about riddles?” Squinting his eyes in disapproval, the blond-haired youth produced a thick robe and draped it across her back in a half-joking manner. “Come on, Sister. Show some modesty. Just because Nolan says that the people of his world wore bathing suits like that doesn’t mean you have to wear them.”
Looking down at the standard one-piece bathing suit that she was wearing, Lyra tossed the robe from her shoulders and said, “What do I have to be self-conscious about? Either come and play or go do something else.” About a head shorter than Nolan, she had a perfectly-proportioned body that exuded more maturity than most women could display, her long, blonde curls bouncing with her every step.
“If she wants to wear it then let her wear it,” came Sean’s impatient comment. “Now hurry up. I’m getting thirsty over here.” The young man hadn’t shaved in a few days, his appealing, angular face appearing a bit more haggard than usual as he wiped some sweat from his short black hair.
Nolan ran over to join in on the fun. “Yeah,” he agreed. “If she wants to wear it, let her wear it. Don’t ruin it for everyone else.”
Ian rarely hit his friends, though the exception was when they alluded to the attractiveness of his sister. Nolan was abruptly sent flying into the pool, shattering the walls on both sides as he flew about a hundred metres away from the pool where he quickly dug his feet into the earth and slid to an abrupt stop.
Nyla was quick to repair the walls, assuring that only a minimal amount of water spilled out onto the surrounding patio. She gave Nolan a sharp look that told him not to expect her company in his bed tonight, though he didn’t care much considering how much he was enjoying himself.
Hey, hey, don’t be like that, he said to her as he purposely looked her up and down. You look the best in that swimsuit, after all. Hers was black, a perfect match for her dark eyes and hair. As her skin had a naturally light tint to it, she gave off the image of a gorgeous girl that might be seen on a busy beach in some famous resort destination back on Earth.
She rolled her eyes and then turned her back to him.