"I want the three of you to now ask the trees what beasts are in the area and see if any would be a challenge for you." Lana told her apprentices.
While the girls were busy asking the trees for the required information, Lana decided to ask if there was any news she needed to be aware of. They showed her a vision of a tall blond entering the other shelter.
Lana opened her eyes to see all three girls staring at her.
"Did you get a new destination?"
Mandy nodded and Fiza responded, "just a bit south of here are some more beasts like these. Do you want us to attack the same ones?"
Lana nodded, "practice makes perfect and that is the direction I want to go."
About thirty minutes later, the trio of girls peeled off from the party to fight more cockadrons. Lana continued to observe her apprentices. All three got hurt this time but their fighting got a little better. They then healed each other.
Lana decided to teach them stage-2 armor. As she put her stage-2 on, she described the feeling she experienced as well as how to visualize creating this set of vines that rise from her feet. Dawn looked confused. Fiza got it first try. Mandy had it after a few tries.
Lana decided to place her hand at the base of Dawn's back and share the feeling of the energy with her so she could try to find that feeling within herself. While she worked on that, Lana fed the babies and changed diapers out.
"Do we need a food break?" she asked the group. I'm not really feeling setting up the kitchen right now unless everyone is hungry."
Shalt gave it a minute to think. "Actually, you specifically need to eat right now. If you don't want to cook, grow something you can eat raw."
Others seemed to agree so she did. Not long after she finished eating a few carrots and passing some out as well. Dawn got it. Lana smiled at her spiffy new rose armor.
Lana asked the girls to lead the way to the area the trees directed them to. Lana also listened to make sure they were actually hearing correctly. She was actually quite proud of how well these girls were doing. They needed practice now more than anything.
Not long later they resumed their trek south, they ran across the same type of beasts the girls had already faced. These were a little bigger and faster but essentially the same other wise. Fiza finished her beast off within moments having learned really well from the previous beasts. Dawn struggled. Fiza stood by to help just in case she was needed. Mandy got injured again and lost use of her left arm during the fight but she came out victorious. She joined Fiza watching Dawn with her fight.
Soon, Dawn stood there gasping for air but the beast had fallen at her feet. Lana was standing back, observing what had taken place. Martial arts training was definitely a must to be used with her ability. She also noticed the girls were not doing enough Qi training. She wasn't exceptionally worried yet because their bodies were still relatively weak. She was already strong and fast by the time she found Qi so it only made her better.
"Dawn, you need to work more on your martial arts. You all do, but your stamina isn't high enough to deal with the faster beasts. Also, keep practicing on your armor. You got hurt so badly because it's not tightly woven. You'll get it with practice."
Dawn nodded as the girls all healed each other.
Lana was making notes of all these things because she wanted to design a kind of road map to efficiently train her family members. More martial arts were needed. An hour a day wasn't enough. The question was, who would be the teacher. Her hands were full. She couldn't even teach every day the way she wanted to.
Half of Lana's day was spent in training as it was. Simply put, she had too many goals to accomplish everything on her own. She was also too much of a control freak to relinquish any of her tasks.
After the girls extracted their crystals, they continued south. They passed the tree that told her about mother. It congratulated her on finding the sword and bowed some branches toward her. She returned the bow and continued on.
The group finally reached the edge of land before entering king-tier territory. Lana decided to remind her team of her plans.
"Remember, I want to test my soul weapon. I only have an idea but I need a big enough beast to try it on. If I am correct, small beasts ….. It would be too cruel. Stay behind me. Only get involved if the danger looks to be too much."
With that, she turned toward the newer area and headed out. She was excited. More king-tier gear would be good but more so, she had another idea. She thought Caser should be allowed to eat some as well. She had a king tier robe but no clothing. Eating the beast's crystal seemed to evolve Caser. They both needed such trips.
To make things easier, the group just headed due south. All they would need to do was just turn around and head straight back. This area was a plains area but the grass was a pinkish-green. Lana was enthralled with the beauty of the area.
After about 2 hours of walking and the babies getting a bit fidgety, Shalt informed Lana he heard something approaching but he had no idea what based on the sounds he was hearing. He described it as a thump, hiss hiss.
Lana looked at him incredulous, "you're saying there is a club-wielding 2-headed snake coming?" She chuckled at her joke. "Make sure to stay behind me, everyone." She got her soul weapon items out and got prepared to fire.
Lana laughed when she discovered her guess was fairly accurate but she didn't have time to laugh too long. While it did have two snake heads, it also had arms that resembled snakes which both wielded a single club that looked to bug for its body. By too big, it was three times bigger.
Lana placed the round metal piece in her palm and held it there with her fingers but was careful to not get her fingers in the way. She fired off the sharpened log weapon she had developed before and it went through the metallic device that was one of her items. The beast in front of her disintegrated. The crystal fell to the ground not being able to be destroyed in such a manner.
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