Aero wasn't surprised to learn a negative of his new technique. He had burned his own hands; the intense light was bad enough to cause light burns. They treated them with a dry powder, mixed it with some water to make a paste, and then covered them with bandages. He sat back and waited for the sting to fade enough that he could continue training. 'I should probably hold off using my hands for the next few days.' But that limited his options for spending time. Worse, it required him to rely on others.
'Do you not think your teammates will assist you?' the helper asked. Aero rolled his eyes." Just because they might doesn't mean I'm happy about needing it.' Doing his best to keep his hands relaxed, he stretched out his legs, bending them a bit further than he usually would. It helped calm him, but he still needed to get something right. For the moment, that was going through some messages with the helper.
There were a lot; most of them were from the scientists and the auction house. The latter was about what he still owed them; they weren't pressing him to pay. But they definitely weren't going to let him forget it. 'Should I prepare more energy to sell or something different?' he thought back to the light sublture. He didn't consider him a heavy art person.
But he liked it all the same; he also knew art had a high value. If he could find a way to save the work, he could probably sell it. using his finger tips, he started drawing in the air, a simple work of light. "Do you think I could sell light artwork?"
'Yes, the helper immediately answered.' Light art is a powerful form of media among creatures that can perceive light. even more so those with greater light prespation,' areo nodded before asking if that meant there were ways to save such creations," thoust that are not mechanically created. Yes, there are machines or techniques. I will begin research.'
"Alright, thank you." For a moment, he focused on doing more bits of art around him. doodles that floated mid-air. eventually whipping them aside to draw out stars and star formation around him.
"If I didn't think he backhand him," Inna commented," I would tell him just how good he looked at this moment. The stars' light shining down on him, his small smile as he watched them, as if he was at peace resting among the stars. It was the most beautiful she had ever seen him. They spent a moment watching him watch the stars before he turned to look at them." See something interesting?"
"Yeah, those stars are amazing," Areo stated, dismissing them," a little change to maintain them, but not a bad kind." Something relatively minor for training, he thinks he can do that. Ideas other than stars started popping into his mind, "Yeah, I think I can do them more, but not tonight." The dull throbbing in his head was enough to tell him that. Nor did he want to worsen it.
drinking some water, which helped a bit, he focused on resting and more physical activities. Aero found a routine for this the next day, keeping the things over would over stress his brain to the limit of the day, so when it was possible, it would give him a headache or migraine, it wasn't something that would slow him down all day. He made sure to keep the headaches light, just in case something attacked them.
They were still out in the wild and had been attacked twice in their last outing. He wasn't going to be reckless! turning on his aide, I reached for his leg, trying to finish his cool-down exercises. The cool winds of the setting day brushed over him as he looked at the sky. thinking of the stars he painted yesterday.' I could probably do some consolation, couldn't I?'
"You look like you're thinking hard," Gailia stated, coming with a water skin. taking sips of it while she watched him work, today had been pretty hot even under the shade of there little camp." i am, thinking about the things i can paint it light." she hummed because that immeaidtly sounded interesting," what are your thinking of doing." cause I'm wiling to model." Aero paused looked at her and titled his head." possuaitly for forlatre." he decvied before looking up at the emregings stars." I'm acutely thinking about constations. There are probably so many!"
"well, " she started, i know a few off the tops of my head but not for this part of the world." Aero nodded before saying something that shock her." she didn't know why it woudln't, it was just one of thous things that you didn't think about until someone said something." how many constations are there through out creation?"
Galia looked at the sky, wondering the same thing: how many planets looked up to the stars and named them. Was she looking at the same stars as others who gave them different names? Did the stars play a part in their constellation's host life? Gaila couldn't help but wonder. It kind of scared her just how little she knew, but at the same time, she wanted to learn. She wanted to know more about it. It was amazing.
"I guess there are as many as there are people, too, and the stars name the constellations." Aero turned to look at his teammate." Yeah, I guess." Standing up, Aero looked at the ground, stretching and rolling his shoulder. He jumped to his feet, reached for his feet, rose up, and looked at her. clicking on her. "Mmm, no, I don't want a flower sandwich." his face dropped, before clicking again. taking a moment longer." Yeah, I would like to learn them." clicking a cheerful noise.
She knew it was something positive, but the exact word eluded her. Moving closer to the fire, Aero tried to teach her the words for stars. not names, just different ways you refer to stars, suns. Then he started going over some famous stars and constellations, like the sixteen star clusters, which were used to generate solar power. Then he had to explain Solar Power to her.
"We need that," Inna commented from where he was half sleeping. "It seems much better than that foolish fuel stuff you mentioned. aero nodded, opening his mouth." Enough with the clicking," he chirped at her." Where did you learn to make these noises?"
"Lots of practice," he answered in their native tongue. before chirping at them." followed by a clicking again, Inna sighed, leaning back and going back to her scroll. Gaila continued to make an attempt to understand what he was saying, Inna, listening to them, doing her best to memorize.
The next day, nothing particular happened, or the day after that. Aero found his creations a little easier to manage, though most of the time, it still left him with a headache. "Well, it's getting better." Spinning the little ball of light over his finger, he focused it a bit harder, shifting the center before firing. He missed what he was aiming for and tore apart the flower behind it." But I'm getting the hang of heat over light." Focusing again, he summoned another small ball of light, shifting its contraction to heat. He launched it again.
Panting a bit, he waved his finger for a moment; thankfully, it wasn't burned.' I've got to figure out some skills that run less risk of injuring myself,' but he didn't have any ideas at the moment, which left him with little other choice but to practice the skills he had until they weren't a risk to himself.
Generating these orbs of light and heat further from his body was currently the best solution he had. But the further they were from him, the more focus he had to put into creating them. which he saved for the later part of his training. creating an orb of light a foot away from his current position, letting it hover in the air. dismissing it before creating another orb a bit further, doing this until he couldn't create an orb in a self-created time limit.
Wiping a bit of sweat off his face, he pulled at his clothing to try to cool down. "Man, this is hard." Taking some water, he pulled back from this to stretch his limbs. But I'm getting it down, before long I should be able to pull off some pretty neat tricks.'
Going back to his training, he decided to try the previous exercises with more complicated shapes than a sphere, moving onto spheres." That looks good." Focusing, he straightened it out. dismissed and then summed it further away." damn it," it was lopsided again." Fixing it, he wondered how he had noticed a problem like this when there were multiple lights." Is it just the cubes? Or have I not noticed?" grumbling, he created other shapes and found that in some, yes, they were a little lopsided.
Copying his weapons went almost perfectly; he knew it so well he could create with his eyes closed. Use it blind. The construct had a slight problem when making noise, which is that it couldn't make any. 'When I find out how, I'll fix that.' In the end, he found it was a simple actualization between visualization and manifestation.
The only solution to it was pure work, which is what I've already been doing. to improve my contract creation." Why did I focus on this?" he couldn't help but wonder to himself, even though the answer was clear when he actually thought about it.
Pride, Aero was taking pride in his creations. His pride was blinding him to his faults a bit, but now that he was aware, it was less of a problem.' I'm going to have to change the way I look at these creations.' I will not let my pride blind me or way me down. Though it did explain how few side effects he was suffering from with all the energy he was spending in training.
"Actually, now that I notice," the amount of energy his body was generating and holding was more than before. "Is this a cause of training, or is it because I have new things I take pride in? Either way, he's grown. A small smile formed before he pushed it down. "Don't let it control you or cloud your judgment."
He spent the rest of the day doing that while training, repeatedly pointing out the point of improvement he needed. When his focus wavered, the orbs' light output shifted. Growing dimmer and brighter, they also bobbed. He was holding himself to higher standards than that, so he had to work on that.
The next day, after he sparred with Gailia, who rightfully complained as he continuously threw light into her face. followed by striking at any opening he spotted. Gailia started adjusting to this, even being able to block some of his strikes." Okay," how are you doing this?"
"That's between me and the zaltess," she responded, blocking an attack. She quickly wrapped her hands around it to pull him close before slamming her head into his. "Ah!" his ears rang from the impact as he hooked his foot around her, and with a pull, she fell to the ground, dragging him with her. not that it stopped him from wrestling her.
When her eyes recovered enough, she tried to pin him in an armbar." He pinned her leg. When that didn't work, he bit her enough to draw blood." Aah! She didn't let go, even as Aero could taste her on his lips. "I'm not letting go, so remove your teeth," she pulled harder, trying to pop his arm out of its socket. But it wouldn't be the first time he had a dislocated shoulder, and it wouldn't stop him from fighting. He removed his teeth to bite somewhere else.
"Damn it!" she cried, twisted his arm as he tried to wiggle it free or get it in a position to hurt her. " Come on, you can't be this determined to win!" he was, but I'm not being affected by it. Changing the wavelength, he gathered his pride across his skin. Slowly, heat began to emanate from those locations. temptations that quickly went from warm to sting.
"What are you two doing?" Inna asked, walking into camp from her own training. aero stopped for a moment." Sparring." Coating his teeth in pride energy, he shifted to generate heat. When she bit her again, his teeth burned the flesh. Galia let out a high scream and almost threw herself off Aero. Only at the last moment, she twisted so her leg was crushing Aero's throat.
"Don't look like it." Inna commented," What do you mean?" Inna quested to them," You look like you're trying to kill each other." They paused and looked at each other. Aero licked some of the blood off his lips. "Maybe we are going a bit too far."
"You think," she commented watching them as they started a staring contest, waiting for the other to cease there action." inna watched them for a while, before sighing." alright then." if any one had been close enough to hear them would have heard the struggle of three differnt people one trying to sperreate ther others who was just being difficult at this point.
"What are you even trying to solve at this point?" Aero plainly stated it was largely about pride to him." She defeated several of my new techniques. I'll need more to combat her better." For Gailia," he's using that flash bang too much!"
'Oh man, I've got to figure out how to counter the flash bang myself,' inna thought. before turning to her tent. lying down before it, while Aero used his power to start the fire. something he was growing progressively more skilled at. It only took him a few petals to get it right this time; it took half a flower long before. aero meaited boefre the fire, cheacking onth e beast, magning his spirita wound.
"Maybe I can focus my energy to heal this," cause again. This shit hurts; he's gotten used to it. But if he could heal it, he fucking would.' sighing, Aero turned his attention outward toward the extra store of energy he had hovering around him at all times. "Let's see if I can do something with this," he's let the energy sit around him for a while. But he knew more, had a better feel for his power.
There was still much undiscovered potential.