Azura spent two hours at Toren’s home. By the time she left they all looked a bit more cheerful. Good deed done for the day, she figured she could now go be bad for a bit. After all, you have to balance your life. Quickly she made her way to the smuggling tunnels near where Hamal lived. He at least didn’t even seem to notice the changes. Or at least he acted like he didn’t. It was hard to tell with that guy.

“So you’re not hunting then?” Hamal asked as he stacked some illicit goods.

“Nope, just training,” Azura confirmed. “Did you hear about Martel?”

“I found out last night. I was going to check on Toren. I assume you already did that. How’s he doing?”

“Better now. I spent some time there. You should go cheer him up.”

“I think I will,” Hamal agreed turning around to stack a few more items.

“I hope I run into a mage. I would love nothing more than to kick them in the nuts for what happened,” Azura said slamming her fist into her palm.

“Be careful. The mages have been acting weird recently. Something’s up. We haven’t been able to find out anything yet.”

“Probably some boring magic stuff,” Azura snorted. “And what do you mean be careful? I’m always careful.”

Hamal just stared at her.

“What? It’s true. I’m the most careful kin of all!”

Hamal just continued to stare.

“They’ll erect a statue of me. A perfect manifestation of carefulness. Perhaps a ballad?” Azura mused. She was confident in this destiny.

“Uh huh,” Hamal grunted.

“What you don’t believe me?” Azura asked askance.

“Uh huh.”

“Beneath the statue they will even have a placard praising my caution and my brilliant mind,” Azura stated with all the confidence and honesty of a politician as she turned and walked away.

“Will they mention how humble you are?” Hamal inquired as Azura headed down the smuggling tunnel.

“That will be the second golden statue,” she yelled back.

“Uh huh,” Hamal chuckled as Azura left his sight.

It took almost no time at all to reach the mana forest. It felt like for every one step she took she moved five and she wasn’t even trying. A quick check of the area and Azura found what she needed. A rather large boulder sat not far away. Before that she calmed her mind and examined herself closely. Her entire body had been re-forged. Her organs were lined with ki, the same with her muscles and bones. This was far greater than the body enhancement she had with mana. Azura returned her focus to the challenge in front of her. Steading her breathing, Azura centered herself and lifted the boulder high overhead.

At least, she tried to. She lacked the leverage and ended up pulling herself over. The problem was that no matter how strong she was she lacked the mass to lift anything so large.

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Azura sat down thinking the problem over.

What she needed was an anchor. Some way to attach her feet firmly to the ground. A way to create her own leverage. Well, she had one tool to use. Might as well try it. She focused on her ki swirling inside. Immediately she noticed the increase in ki production due to her proximity to the mana forest. Still, it was minuscule drops in a puddle. This would take years. Decades? Letting that go she instead focused on her circulating ki. As it continued to flow she tried to move it outside her body, below her feet.

Success! It flowed briefly before returning to her. So now what? Her ki was acting, in a limited fashion, outside her body. How much control did she have? It was flowing down from her paws about a foot underground before cycling back to her. Azura tried to change the flow. Instead of having it return immediately she altered the flow so it did a horizontal spin staying in the earth before returning. Then she used that spin to seal her paw in place. It was awkward, but not difficult. Her years of controlling her mana made such a task trivial. Experimentally she gave her paw a tug. When her foot raised easily she sighed in defeat. That was when she noticed the clump of dirt stuck to her foot. Surprised, she tried shaking it off. It wouldn’t budge. Where her ki was, the earth was unmovable.

Azura grinned as she released her ki. The dirt instantly fell.

Perfect.

Azura took a deep breath seizing control of her ki. She then planted both feet firmly on the ground. Exercising her will she sent the ki out in a wide spread beneath her.

How thin could she make it?

How far could it go?

The answer was about 10 feet radius from the point it left her body. Beyond that her control got weak and the ki returned to the flow. The return was done without any effort on her part. It naturally wanted to return. Perhaps her core was pulling in like it did the ambient mana? That will do nicely. No worries about ki drifting away when it was out of her body.

Her ki spread out Azura turn to her metaphorical opponent. Then she tried to lift the boulder again. And… instantly found another problem.

She couldn’t grip it.

The hand holds she used broke. It was obvious now that she thought about it. She couldn’t expect to grab a tiny part and have the whole thing to remain intact. That would be like trying to hold up a falling tower at a single point. Would that point have enough strength to support the whole thing? Of course not! However, ki to the rescue! Copying the paw technique she sent her ki from her hands, this time into the boulder, spreading the force out. Now she lifted. Azura blinked. It had actually worked. She held the boulder above her head. It was the size of a small wagon. It had been… easy.

This was scary.

Even now as she tested the weight it didn’t strain her much. A check on her ki saw a small usage. The exhausted ki flowed to her core where it absorbed the collected mana restoring itself.

The amount of mana used restore the ki was far less than what it took to make new ki. But doing so did interrupt creation of new ki. However, being so close a dense mana supply the amount of mana used was quickly replenishing her exhausted ki. It was restoring faster than she was using it.

Ki was amazing!

She could hold up the boulder till she got bored of it!

“I AM THE GREATEST! MAGES FEAR ME!” Azura yelled.

Next test… toss the rock!

Azura threw as hard as she could and immediately regretted it. An incredible tugging sensation pulled at her as she failed to release the ki cycling through the boulder. The boulder, herself, and large chunk of earth traveled ten meters before crashing back down. Her hand was still stuck to the rock and her paws to the center of a rather impress chunk of earth. Azura hung in midair caught between the two.

“Ow,” Azura said lightly.

She then released the ki in both and fell to the ground. The earth that had been attached to her paws toppled on top of her, burying her. A moment later Azura’s head popped out looking like a disturbing vegetable from the collapsed earth. She was sincerely glad she was alone. Her friends would have mocked her for months.

Azura climbed out of the kin-sized anthill shaking off the soil, thinking.

Practice. That was what it came down to.

Calming her mind Azura started toward the mana forest. With each step she sent her ki below her then released when she took the next step with the same paw. Progress was… agonizingly slow. She had her arms out for balance as she failed to release with her intended steps nearly topping. It was like learning how to walk again. With her arms flailing about she slowly entered the mana forest, nearly toppling with every step.