**[Back in the Savannah region]**
The energy within Michael's body was drained rapidly as Taming's Power Share was unleashed to the fullest.
He released threads of Extraction in the surroundings that connected to the streams of origin energy all around him. Extracting and annexing the energy in the surroundings via Extraction allowed him to make up for the drainage of energy to a certain extent. Unfortunately, it was not enough to replenish his energy storage.
'Power Share consumes way too much energy. I feel physically much stronger than before, but how am I supposed to use Power Share properly without affecting the utility of my other Soultraits?' Michael wondered for several minutes before they reached the nearest border settlement in the Kitsun Lord's territory.
The Golden Stinger Wasp would soon be back from its courier mission, which meant that they use all kinds of tricks to deal with the Kitsun's settlements.
But before they attacked, Michael had to make sure that he replenished his energy storage a little. Hence, he retrieved one of the Energy Nourishing Pills from the Elemental Empress and consumed it. The energy within the pill was released in waves as the layers of the pills were removed inch by inch.
With his eyes firmly shut, Michael practiced the Pandemonium's Requiem technique to aid the digestion of the Energy Nourishing Pill and the annexation of the energy stored within the pill.
Several minutes passed silently before Michael opened his eyes once again. The Power Share between Michael and Sun Demos ended, and the Blood Oath Demon Monkey King spoke to him telepathically.
["I killed the assassins. Thank you for guiding me in this fierce battle, Master!"]
Michael was not sure what he did to receive Sun Demos' gratitude because it had been Sun Demos who unraveled the Power Share function of the Taming Soultrait. Nonetheless, it was a good thing that Sun Demos had been able to take care of the problem in the Untamed Jungle.
["I'm glad that you survived. I hope you could avenge some of your fallen brethren. If you and your troupe are confident of continuing with the guerilla warfare tactic, you can do so. However, I think that you should retreat to reorganize your troupe, and ensure that everyone's wounds have been tended to before you come up with a new plan. They know that you move around in small groups, and I doubt that the Kitsun Lord sent out only one group of assassins."]
According to Sun Demos' earlier reports, the reinforcement consisted of 20,000 combat Summons, and several hundred Awakened. It was basically the Kitsun Lord's whole army. After all, the Guards and Awakened stationed in the border settlements couldn't just abandon their posts and leave for war.
Michael never thought that Sun Demos and his monkeys were strong enough to deal with the entire reinforcement. The guerilla warfare tactic was merely a means to stall the reinforcement and enrage the enemies to force them to make mistakes. Through provocation, Michael hoped to outwit the Kitsun Lord sooner or later.
Maybe, he had already outwitted the Kitsun Lord. But that was still questionable – especially after the majority of Michael's army had been eliminated even before the war between them began officially.
["If you want to continue fighting, retreat in the evening at the latest. The Kitsun Lord might change his plans and send the reinforcement over to our territory. In case that happens, I want to be informed the moment the reinforcement changes their trajectory. You and your brethren can stall time in the worst case scenario. After all, you can use my Soultraits to a certain extent now – even if it's just for a short time."] Michael ordered before adding a few more commands.
His mind was racing, and plans were formulating like crazy. Unfortunately, making use of most plans was quite difficult, and the scenarios were unlikely to happen, in the first place.
Nonetheless, it was better to be safe than sorry.
After all commands had been sent out whether it was to Sun Demos, or Blaire and the main scout team – which Michael had left at the base to stay vigilant and report anything that looked and felt suspicious –, Michael used the next five minutes to test out something.
He first tried to use Power Share on his own. Since Sun Demos could use it subconsciously in a fit of desperation, Michael hoped that he could use it actively and intentionally now that he had already felt the sensation of Power Share once before.
Trying to replicate the feeling of Power Share a second time was not easy. Activating it intentionally was different from feeling it from the bottom of his heart – Sun Demos' heart, to be precise. Michael closed his eyes and entered his consciousness where he moved to the Symbol of Taming. He began to insert traces of energy inside the Symbol of Taming by activating the Soultrait.
But instead of trying to manifest a third taming circle, or to communicate with Sun Demos or the Elemental Empress, Michael focused on the two taming bonds that were anchored in the deepest parts of the Taming Symbol.
Sun Demos' taming bond was thick and firm. It was much easier to perceive than the Elemental Empress' taming bond. Thus, Michael began to channel more energy into Sun Demos' taming bond. He tried to send a portion of his consciousness to the monkey king to recreate the same feeling from before.
Sun Demos' consciousness within him had been much more apparent when Power Share was activated. Thus, Michael did exactly the same. The energy inside him surged toward the taming bond, and something began to change. Michael felt his physical strength increase and his thoughts become more violent.
Sun Demos' wrath and anger about the death of his subordinates flooded Michael alongside the monkey king's superior physical strength.
'So emotions will be transferred as well when Power Share is activated? It feels like my personality is being affected as well. My thoughts feel…wilder than before. Are our emotions and instincts overlapping?' Michael fell deep in thoughts, wondering what else Power Share affected.
'It feels like our beings are being fused to a minor degree. A temporary fusion of power…that's great, but also weird…'
It was obvious that the Power Share function required way too much energy to be maintained over a long period. Three minutes was the maximum limit of the fusion, and that didn't take into consideration that both Sun Demos and Michael had to utilize their origin energy to use other Soultraits and consume it to enhance their body as well.
'I wonder if our physical features change through Power Share as well.'
Looking over to the Elemental Empress, Michael decided to end his experiment with Sun Demos.
His taming bond with the Elemental Empress was not that firm and strong like with Sun Demos, but Michael's perception was well developed. He pinpointed the taming bond and inserted traces of energy into the taming bond. Alongside the energy, Michael channeled a trace of his consciousness through the taming bond.
All of a sudden, the Elemental Empress screamed aloud, startling Michael just as he felt a faint connection to the Elemental Empress' fire attribute.
He looked over in worry and stopped his experiment at once. Michael felt that the energy consumption upon activating Power Share had been extremely low, but the pained expression on the Elemental Empress' face showed him quite easily that the prerequisite for Power Share was a firm and strong taming bond.
"Sorry for startling you. I hope it didn't hurt too much," Michael said as he rushed over to her.
"So much information…what are you? So many powers…" The Elemental Empress blabbered, looking at Michael as if he was a monster.
'Looks like she is not hurt. That's good.'
Michael smiled lightly in response to the Elemental Empress' words, but his train of thought changed quickly.
'Could it be that the energy consumption increases with the distance between the two targets? Or is it the amount of power that is being shared at once? But then again the Elemental Empress has great powers even if she is currently Tierless.'
At the end of the day, Michael had to do a lot more experiments to find out how Power Share worked and how to decrease the energy consumption. Michael was not discouraged by the thought of experimenting with the Taming Soultraits. On the contrary, it was quite exciting.
If Taming had a variety of other functions that would be great. Furthermore, with Taming possessing functions that had to be explored, his other Soultraits were probably just like that as well. The information one receives upon fusing with Soultraits was merely basic information and innate inferior proficiency.
To put it in simple terms, one learned how to use the Soultrait upon manifesting, or binding it. However, the more in-depth your comprehension and understanding of the Soultraits' complexity, their powers, origin and foundation, the more functions could be unraveled.
He had known that Reinforced Sword Qi and Extraction could be used in different ways than it was 'supposed' to, given that the information he received was different from the way he used these Soultraits right now. However, it had been quite natural for Michael to manifest Qi Swords thanks to the fact that his brother had always played around with Qi Swords.
As for Extraction, it was a power he couldn't quite understand. It felt like he could Extract anything he wanted to as long as he possessed enough energy. But that didn't really sound feasible. After all, Extraction was not a God-like power. It was currently only a 6-Star Soultrait and Michael didn't even know how much longer he could upgrade it.
Was there even a limit to upgrading Soultraits? Did some Soultraits have a limit, or would they all evolve at some point?
What if Extraction became a 10-Star Soultrait? Would he be able to extract the Origin Expanse itself? What was the limit of his Soultrait?
Could he upgrade Extraction past 10-Stars? Would he break the laws of the Universe that way?
Each question was worth researching. They were interesting and Michael desired an answer to all of them.
However, the answers were not something he could acquire just because he wanted to. It would take a while before he reached the level required to find an answer to the questions.
But that was fine. Michael had a lot more to do aside from researching.
He was in the middle of a war, after all!
**
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