The four Lizards collected quite a number of other Lizards for my training. There were more than twenty of them waiting at the open area. "That is quite a lot, I hope you have loads of food", I said. One of them smiled, "We should be fine. How do you want to proceed?". I thought about it for a bit, before giving him an answer. "The four of you are the strongest here I assume. Each of you will take four Lizards from that group, whatever is left will become the fifth group". They agreed to those arrangements, and chose their teammates.
The first group stepped forwards. "Are you ready", the Lizard asked. I nodded in response, while releasing my Aura. They all placed their hands onto the floor, and Formations appeared left and right. This time though, they were actually attacking me. I broke a few of them, before realising I was being trapped. 'It would be much easier if I could actually attacked them…', I thought. Of course, that was not the purpose of my training.
Before I knew it, a few Formations managed to wound me slightly. I had to become creative. Using my Aura to make weapons or whatever, wouldn't work that well when I faced a lot of opponents. I needed something else. A sort of area of effect skill, that could affect multiple Formations at once. Although I had a certain idea in mind, I had no time to test it out.
The four Lizards became exhausted, while my body was littered with small wounds. "We will take a break, I want to test something out", I said. Before I faced another group, I tested out my idea. It was rather simple in concept, but when I tried the difficulty was beyond hard. My idea involved creating a domain using my Aura. The idea was the same as me releasing my Aura, and affecting all opponents in certain radius. The difference this time, was manifestation. I wanted to manifest a domain, a sort of area of effect attack which would encompass all my opponents, but with the strength of a manifested Aura.
I released my Aura, but this time tried manifesting it all around me. I quickly realized my Domineering Aura was too weak to achieve this. I tried with Bloodlust Aura, and although it was stronger, the effects were the same. I couldn't create a domain around me. Only when I combined both Auras, did I see some effects. A few areas around me, had a materialized form of my Auras. The Auras looked like flakes, not snowflakes, more rugged and ripped. As if my Aura was trying to rip the reality itself. The amount was small, while their sizes were rather tiny, but those flakes were the very condensed form of my Auras.
The Lizards had no idea what was going on, as they watch me experiment with my Auras. After my successful attempt, one of them asked, "What was that?". I explained to them what I was trying to achieve, and they agreed it was a good idea. I wanted to test one more thing before I faced another group.
'My Auras are simply too weak to achieve that now, but what if I created a smaller radius?', I thought. I tried to make a domain about five meters in radius. I didn't expect it would be this difficult, as five metres seemed rather small to me. After testing it out, I decided to halve the radius and figure out what would happen. To my surprise, the flakes turned into large patches, but not complete domain. There were loads of gaps, through which something might go through.
'So the smaller the radius, the more complete this domain will be. However, if the radius is too small, I will not be able to affect more distant Formations', I thought. Even so, I tried a metre and half a metre in radius. Only at half a metre in radius, the domain became mostly completed. Although the radius was very small, it was a start. 'There is another problem. Such use of Auras depletes my energy at an astonishing rate. I can't simply walk around with that at all times. I will have to use it only when necessary', I thought.
I decided to test that out during my next practice session. I wanted to know what effects this would have on Formations. The next group stepped forwards, and proceeded to attack. At first, I evaded and broke the Formations as per usual. When I found myself in a pinch and unable to escape, I tried utilising the Aura domain. As soon as the Formations appeared inside my Aura domain, they collapsed. A more fitting description would be, they became packed so densely from my Domineering Aura, and pressured so much by my Bloodlust Aura, the Formations kind of imploded and disappeared.
It wasn't without costs. The energy consumption left me with barely forty percent of my energy. I wasn't at my peak by any means, but from my estimates, this one use of Aura domain cost me about eight to ten percent of my energy. It was very taxing, but effective. I couldn't last as long as the Lizards that time, and exhausted my energy first. The four Lizards approached me. "That idea of yours is really effective, but it seems you also pay the price for using it", one of them said. I agreed, but with practice and familiarity, my Auras would become stronger and able to cope with such consumption.
We repeated the same process many times. I would face usually two groups, eat, face two more and then sleep. I had no idea how much time passed, but when I asked, they told me its been about four days since the training began. Just as I trained with one of the groups, Alicia came for a visit. I stopped, because Alicia wouldn't bother me if it wasn't anything important.
I walked up to her, but she asked to go somewhere private. I told the others to take a break, before following Alicia. When we arrived to her private room, she said, "I haven't received any news from the Delegate. This is worrying, as he would reply after receiving such a message, even to make sure it was truthful". I asked, "Can he be busy with something?". She shook her head. "The Delegate stays outside of Hatmandor. That is the person we contact if we wish to exchange something from them. Only a few people have access to this method of communication. Us Grey Lizards, the Royal Lizards, Voltars and Atols. Not even Shades have the ability to contact the Delegate. Maybe perhaps Eterians have that ability too, but they of course wouldn't contact them".
"In other words, he was taken out?", I asked. She shook her head again. "If he was, Hatmandor would learn about it. Each and every Delegate has a special item or something with them. Remember the statuette I gave you? We can also use it to determine if someone is in trouble. Hatmandor has more advanced Formations than we do, as soon as the Delegate dies, they would find out". I thought about it some more. "In that case, he was captured. They couldn't kill him, because that would alarm Hatmandor. If they allowed him to use that item thing, again Hatmandor would be notified. It can only mean, that guy was ambushed and imprisoned".
She nodded, "That is the most logical conclusion. This is bad though, we can't contact Hatmandor, and what you said seems even more real. If Hatmandor doesn't help us, the Hydra might get released again". It was bad, but I needed strength in order to stop Bramans. If I went there at my current strength and lack of equipment, no one would listen. 'I need strength, overwhelming strength. Stop the war, and make sure everyone fights against Bramans. It is no longer about who is right or wrong, this is about the future of the North', I thought.
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