Aero light manipulation was going well, oh, he still hadn't figured out how to protect his eyes from the light he controlled. The only thing he had succeeded in doing was getting used to the brightness. 'I'll pray to the Zalts and Zaltess that I don't lose my vision.' That would not fly with him.
That plan required him to figure something out. His best idea at the moment was forming some kind of shield around his head or waiting for science to advance to something that would protect his face. That didn't seem like it would be going well for him; they had improved in chemistry.
Pulling the towel off his eyes, Aero brushed off some petals and stood up. Rolling his neck, he watched away from the patch of burned plants heading back to camp, passing other patches. The closer he got, the smaller the burned patches.
Arriving at the camp, he worked on caring for his hands, treating the burned tips, soaking them to dull the ache in them before treating and wrapping them." I think you should stop practicing that." AeroAero looked up at the sound of his teammate's voice.
"It's a good control exercise. Besides, if I get it right, it'll be a good attack method. " He's using it, though he'd have to up the power and intensity by a lot. For the moment, it was used to distract people and creatures. Either by blinding them or burning them, other than that, he was working on a plan to manipulate pride energy.
Seeing as he was capable of manipulating energy to affect other materials, he was partly going to experiment with what he could affect, according to the doctor and the helper. He needs to find what the limits were, did the energy do better with certain materials or worse with others? This would affect many things for him long-term.
So he was working, passing the energy through things at the same time, practicing giving it shape and form for combat. It was also a bit of fun, raising a hand, he formed an image that vaguely resembled his mother. Twisting his hand, he saw the image change to that of his cart and then himself before doing a simpler few shapes before turning back to more detailed things. Trying to make them larger than him.
"Just another leaf, he focuses on the tree that was head taller than him. It was slowly something of a work of art, for a beginner, but he was proud of the work he was creating. Something that reflected in how the energy was holding up, too bad no one else can see it. 'as it's not on a normal light spectacle."
He worked for another few petals before it hit him," which I can change." Focusing, he slowly made his creation start giving off soft light. Until he had a softly glowing tree, I can do better than this.' With slow, delicate focus, he changed the light of the trunk while giving the leaves something similar to the twirling light of the stars.
"What the zalts!" This was not what she was expecting when she came back to camp. But she wasn't going to complain, "This looks like it could be presented to the Zalt and zaltess of arts."
"Uh, thanks!" That was high praise, the man who crafted a thousand pieces and the woman who crafted works so great they might just start breathing. She took a seat as he continued working, even adding color. By copying the color around them, thankfully, the field was full of options.
He painted the trunk the dull colors of the soil. Decorating some of the flowers, followed by doing the leaves. Which was a pain; he had to color each one individually, or it would look wrong. Doing so with every bit of strain he could feel building up with each action, but he didn't stop. Fueled by pride and passion, he let his energy flow through each inch of him.
"Just a bit more, he thought, coloring a life red, a pale red. He picked a brighter one for the next leaf. The strain on his mind increased, and his hand started to shake from the spiritual wound burn. But he kept going. He didn't want to stop.
As he reached the last half of the leaves, aero force. The strain was simply too much for him to continue with the nausea. It hit him like an overwhelming wave. He barely had a moment to turn around and lose his stouamch contents on the ground." Ah!" his teammate recoiling and scotted back deptie the serval feet between them. "you okay." aero shock his head.' i
iv'e pshed myself too far haven't i', the didn't need the helper to confirm this. 'yes, but you've already worked enough that you've increased your energy and mental stats. It caused a rebound in your physical stat.' Areo would have nodded if he hadn't felt so sick with it. Instead, he straightened out his back and took deep and slow breaths to try to calm his stomach before anything else.
"tzilla brought over some water to him, which he took slow slips of." Feeling better?" a little, "I overstrain myself with this project," he quested to the tree. It was starting to fade away, no longer able to focus on it.
"I see, well, it was beautiful while it lasted. I'm sure in time you'll make something even better without barfing." Aero gave an affirmative gesture before standing up, "We brought some anti-nausea medication, right?" She nodded, and they looked through their supplies. Finding the pouch with a small spoon. He mixed the powder into some boiled water. The slightly bitter liquid helped his stomach.
One that had calmed down, he decided to settle down to a nap; he's more than earned one, and frankly, he was tired. So he rested, letting the colorful visions come to him. The sky was dark when he woke up, but he got out and stretched. "Okay, not a hundred percent, but I won't hurt again." As long as he didn't push it, sitting down, he realized beyond the nausea and pain, he felt fine. No noticeable change to his personality.
"So I could suffer mental and physical side effects..., I really hope I can't suffer them at the same time." But he didn't think that was likely. He could overstrain himself while draining his energy. Moving into meditation, he forced some chains and bandages, applying them where they belonged.
Letting out a sigh, he rested back against the ground, watching the sky and the stars. 'How am I going to complete a tree?' he knew there was no urgent reason to try again. But he liked doing it, and he wasn't interested in letting it go unfinished. 'Still, the question is how I'm supposed to do it?' he couldn't maintain it long enough with the growing and ongoing focus it needs. Especially when he started adding colors. Sighing, he wondered how long it would take for him to reach the point where it wouldn't be a problem.
'There has to be something more efficient to use,' maybe a technique or ability he could apply to this.' I'll have to consult the helper and the doctor. ' was the man back from his break. Either way, he had the helper make note of this for when the scientist came back before they made use of the helper's records about energy manipulation, physical strain warning signs, treatments, and possible long-term problems.
A quick check over with the help of a medical article determined that he hadn't managed to permanently strain himself. But the treatment requires materials he couldn't reach, each for a few methods, but those required another person with some leave of energy manipulation and certain types.
"I guess I could wake her up. But it doesn't feel urgent, so I guess it could wait until after." For a moment, Aero watched the stars and guarded their camp until he felt tired enough to go back to sleep. It was less restful than his early one, but you work with what you've got.
"so how are you feeling?" sh asked as they had there first meal of the day. "better," not a hundred percent but better." i might need to rest today,: he paused as he looked at the water atrubited women," or i might ask for your help." he looked away from her, but's its not nessary."
"Nope, I want to know how I can help." Aero huffed before speaking, explaining how he strained himself and how it could be used. Of the options, the one he had access to was her water-affiliated energy being used to soothe it.
"Alright, she dusted off her hands and stretched."How is this done?" Really, Aero had this vague idea, but he explained it to her the best he could while holding out his arm. Despite his growing trust in her, he wasn't sure if he wanted anyone but his mother that close to him.
She didn't comment on the distance as she took his hand, focusing on the energy within her. Turning it like the soothing of a cool river. It came to her with surprising ease, focusing on the tips of her digits, carefully she massaged his arm. Feeling the cool energy soaking through Aero's body.
'Okay, just need to feel out the damage. She had no idea what she was looking for. Even as the energy spread through his muscles, she didn't know that. They vaguely felt different from his carapace and his bones. "Ah," Aero sighed, feeling the chill spread, numbing the ache. She slowly worked up and down his arm.
'This isn't as hard as I thought it would be,' she thought, rubbing her thumb into the point aero was able to identify as an energy line. She followed it up to his shoulder towards his other arm. Aero was slowly calming down as she worked.
The other teammate had moved out to the medoy and was working on absorbing more energy. After spending half a flower like that, she decided to practice using it. Spreading the energy through her body, she went through some simple weapons stances. The movement audibly tearing through the air as she steadily spread up.
Until she slipped on the grass and fell on her face. immeadly she jumped back to her feet, gaining more air than she expected," Okay. More training is needed." Moving into a new stance, she went through some stretches before breaking into a run, jumping higher than she had managed before the heaven & earth energy.
"wowowo!" panicking just a bit, she tucked, landing in a roll right into a bush of flowers before jumping to her feet. Through the flowers, leaving petals all over. She quickly brushes them off before she returns to her other training. Moving through motion unilt the extra force becomes a part of her.' It didn't drain too much power, but still, I've got some work to do, like how it was making her arms ache afterward.
When she returned to their camp, Sight Aero was into his own training, so she began speaking with the other heaven and earth energy cultivator. They traded experiences about using the energy. 'It's probably a large part because of the attributes we mainly absorb."
"Yeah, I guess that would have long-term effects," she spoke about how it was to touch the energy inside another person to soothe their pain. How the energy within Aero was very different from heaven and earth energy, and how it rested within her. "My own pride, it's strange we weren't even actively doing anything, and yet it still happened."
"Is that the nature of pride, her teammate responded with a start." How the zaltess would I know!? I barely understand a lot of what's been going on. Kind of just been rolling with it for a while." Oh, that she definitely understands. It was so much that she had just started to come to terms with the fact that there was life out there.
More was just a bit stressful, so she was going to think about that less. Like the beast of pride, cause what? Just what was that all about? A living, thinking being made from the pure energy of pride. Something largely considered a problem across the universe. Which was so big! She stayed up all night, sometimes thinking about it!"
Taking a moment, she drew in a breath, held it, then let it out, calming herself down. 'Let's not have my thought consume me.' There were more immediate things she could concern herself with, like her training or Aero asking for a spare. 'Actually, I can do both with one stone. Shurrging, she turned and walked up to him.
They both took a stance as their energy flowed throughout them," I have a bad feeling of some kind," the third teammate mumbled. That bad feeling turned out to be right, when Aero unleashed a flare as his opening move blinded his teammate before rushing across the feet, flowing a fit into her gut before she grabbed the limb and twisted it. "Up!" he dead lifted him off the ground, turning, she swung him back down.
Landing on his back, he coughed for a moment before spinning around and knocking her feet from under her. Even as her back hit the ground, he stopped Aero, arms from wrapping around her neck. Rolling to keep him from mounting her, "That's not working!" Aero didn't respond to her taunt, instead bracing his leg and exerting his torso to slam her head into the dirt.
Sitting, she rammed her elbow into his gut before biting his arm. In return, Aero bit her. For a long few moments, they locked their jaws, trying to wait each other out. But they quickly and already knew the other was stubborn. So she activated her heaven and earth energies with it, she could stand despite one arm occupied and Aero on her back, he swore!
He swore tripply loud when he pried him off her back, swung him around tisce bfoer trhowgin him further into the medow. After falling out of numerous trees, Aero knew how to land from a great fall, though it's not often he was thrown by someone. Hitting the ground in a tumbling roll, he used his carapace to protect his face." Spitting out a bit of dirt, he stood up." Guess we're not going easy on each other," he couldn't resist smiling as the light around him started to warp.