Chapter 521: Training Against Cliffs of Injustice

Other than the one fight, their trip back to Deadwaste proceeded smoothly. The trainees really did seem to interact as Kai had hoped: they had forged strong bonds through their common struggles, thus gaining the allies he'd had so few of. On the other hand, they viewed him at more of a remove as a benefactor, which he supposed was appropriate. Even though they were of roughly the same generation, they were on very different paths - Inafay and Cragrila felt like his peers in a way that the new trainees didn't.

It wasn't all trainee progress, though. Kai had reached C-9 Physique, though not the absolute peak he wanted before breaking through to B-rank. His surprising advances had been his cultivation, which had increased by 15%, and the Savage Heart, which was growing rapidly from their new resources. He was actually getting close to 950 Power, though he hadn't yet felt the limits of his soul.

Meanwhile, Zae Zin Nim was cultivating by leaps and bounds, though she had a much further road to travel to Sky Soul. Her Blackblood Physique had also risen a couple levels, and she hadn't neglected her Coldfire Corona or Pure Yin Shroud. All her self-satisfaction was entirely justified.

Omilaena had grown the least of the three of them, but that was because she was focused on new experiments. She was working on using the pill cauldron and other resources from the vault, as well as contributions from them and help from Juray, in order to produce results that she said would be uniquely powerful.

Kai had actually been helping her with one of those in the middle of the night, a different sort of dual cultivation, when he noticed. Usually he slept hard at the end of the day, his body strengthening itself after all his training, but because he was awake at an unusual hour, he heard the sounds of metal clashing.

He used his stealth ability and padded silently to the deck where he heard the sounds. There, to his surprise, he saw Tori Quondan and Ankrastor of the Undertow training. Ankrastor had been a regular part of all training sessions, struggling to reach D-rank, but Tori kept Kai at bay with Irunian reserve, so he was surprised that she'd go for a midnight training session.

As he watched, he began to understand why.

Ankrastor had over 225 Power to her 150, but he dominated the sparring match even more than the gap would suggest. If he hadn't held back his blows, he would already have struck her on two occasions. His fires moved unnaturally, thick and flowing like water, but they could still pack a punch appropriate to his level.

Tori, on the other hand... she was trying to use the Irunian metal shaping art in direct combat, and it just didn't seem effective. She had a whip that looked like liquid bronze, but it moved sluggishly. It was easy for Ankrastor to dodge around it, then he unleashed a wave of fire directly into her chest.

Frowning, Kai started to take a step forward, then he saw that Tori didn't need medical attention. Her Irunian robes had burned away, but she wore a layer of metal armor underneath. It seemed to have multiple layers, and it was remarkable that it had resisted the attack... but he could see that it was melting under the power. Even if it didn't harm her, it obviously couldn't stand up to such attacks repeatedly.

"That's better than last time," Ankrastor said.

"Not enough." Tori heaved a sigh, more animated than she had ever been in the group sessions.

"You want to try again?"

"The armor is a lost cause for tonight." Tori placed one hand on her stomach and gradually stabilized the armor into a smooth layer, though even that took time. "We should continue with offensive techniques."

They began to spar again, Ankrastor no longer using fire techniques directly. Tori attempted to reshape her whip in mid-combat, but the Irunian shaping technique was simply too slow and she couldn't keep up. At a critical moment she slipped a bronze sphere from her sleeve and hurled it.

Her throw was good, and the sphere of Irunian bronze pierced through Ankrastor's liquid fire to reach him. When it got close, the sphere suddenly expanded into vicious spikes - they could have done some damage, but Ankrastor closed his hands around it and jaws of flame melted down the new formation.

It was almost the same trick that Kai had used to survive the attack by Anaelina... Tori was clever, she was just restricted to lower rank metal.

And, as was obvious to everyone there, it wasn't strong enough.

"Thank you for training with me." Tori bowed as she spoke, but even Irunian discipline couldn't hide how disappointed she was.

"Any time." Ankrastor looked like he wanted to say something more, but there wasn't much to say.

While the two of them chatted awkwardly, Kai examined Tori's soul again.

<

Name: Tori Quondan

Total Power: 149

Path of Steel: Bronze 9 (18)

Unformed Metal Chakra (20)

Physique: E-2 (86)

Soul Level: 5 (25)

>

She had unlocked the Path of Bronze, just as he had. Kai had given up on it and burned out that potential in his soul, whereas she had retained it. Maybe this was a confirmation that he'd made the right choice, yet Kai didn't feel any satisfaction, he just felt for her. Tori had made extraordinary progress, only to be blocked because fate granted her a weak metal.

When the two trainees were about to split, Kai stepped forward to interrupt them.

"We are only training," Tori said with a hasty bow.

"He knows, he was watching." Ankrastor shook his head. "Nothing wrong with extra training, right?"

"Of course not," Kai said, "but I wonder why you feel the need to do it in secret, at night?"

"It is... because I am ashamed." Tori bowed even lower. She looked nervously toward Ankrastor and, after a moment, he nodded and slipped away. Kai wasn't sure exactly what had passed between them, and even though he'd gotten to know the trainees better, he couldn't trace all of their relationships.

As Ankrastor headed to the lower cabins, Tori picked up another Irunian robe and placed it over her cooling armor. She stepped back and leaned against the side of the cabins, so Kai went to join her. Not too close, and he didn't say anything, just stayed there staring out at the night. In the darkness it was like the Clanless was a bubble of light in endless shadowy clouds.

"You once did the Irunian trials," Tori said quietly.

"Yes."

"I heard about it. That you went down for three spheres. I couldn't at first, but I trained in the first pool instead of finishing the trial, and I was able to do the same thing."

Kai frowned, wondering how exactly she had heard about him, but he didn't want to interrupt her story.

"I managed to bring back three spheres." Tori raised her palm and bronze began to pool in it. "When I awakened the Path of Bronze, of course I was disappointed, but I persevered. First I trained the ability up to the ninth level, hoping that it would evolve into another metal. It did not, even when I received special dispensation to interact with the metallic pools again."

"That's admirable determination. I can see why you're-"

"I didn't give up then. I continued training, hoping to transform the ability into something more useful. Bronze may be weaker than the other metals, but it can be formed somewhat faster. I have many ideas for creative use of the ability, but... as you saw, it is too slow, too weak."

"Yeah."

Tori hesitated, blinking at him as if surprised. "You aren't going to try to encourage me?"

"The world is unfair," Kai said simply, "and I know how false encouragement doesn't help. We'll do our best to help you, but I don't have any answers."

"To be truthful, I don't think I deserve to be here. I have reached this stage, but it seems unlikely I will ever reach 200 Power. You should spend your time training those like Ankrastor, who have more talent and potential."

"As I see it, all of you got unlucky, and you're just unluckier than most. Ankrastor's abilities might be mismatched, but his Flameborn capacity is still powerful. The fact that you have a harder problem to solve doesn't mean we're going to give up on solving it."

"I..." Tori turned away and brushed at her eyes. "Thank you. But is there really any hope?"

"I won't offer false promises, but I think so." Kai resisted the urge to turn toward her, so he just gestured as if to her soul. "I saw that you've been absorbing metal chakra like we asked. Eventually you'll be able to turn that into an ability from Cloudspire, so the two should be able to reinforce one another."

"Your wife told me that there are many metal-shaping abilities, but... would it not make my Irunian metal simply irrelevant? Should I remove it from my soul and focus on chakra?"

"Not yet. The more we understand, the more synergies we find, so we might figure out something." Kai smiled, and when Tori looked at him and smiled nervously back, he straightened up and gestured to her. "But until then, we should focus on training you. I have a few ideas, and you can get that Physique up."

Tori's eyes widened. "I have never been skilled with Physique. Even reaching E-rank is only because of your extraordinary island, so..."

"When I'm done with all of you, D-0 is going to be the minimum standard. Come on, if you're worried about whether or not you have what it takes, this is the way to prove it."

After a long pause, Tori's expression broke into a relieved smile and she went to join him.

She must have told the others about the experience, because after that the training became even easier, the trainees being more personable with Kai. Despite the gap in their strengths, they did have a lot in common, and Kai was glad to work more casually. There were still over a dozen he didn't know well, and he was now convinced that Mariyay was actively avoiding him.

Kai couldn't get too distracted by that, however, because Omilaena finally finished her pills: one qi pill for each of them, built from a base of Brightwind vault materials and specifically formulated with their trio's power. She hinted that she and Juray would have potions as well, before the end of the trip, and then went back into her lab seclusion.

It was a shame he couldn't chat with both Omilaena and Juray, since they were getting along so well. In fact, Kai realized that he had been neglecting the others, like Inafay and the Tonjin brothers. They had been training just as hard as anyone else, but since they had clear plans, he'd focused on the trainees. Unfortunately, there was only so much time left before Deadwaste.

Then one morning they saw the speck on the horizon, and he realized that the journey was almost at an end.

With the continent approaching, Kai went to the front of the Clanless to watch, and he wasn't the only one. Zae Zin Nim and Omilaena joined him first, standing at his sides but lost in their own thoughts. Cragrila and Nirka were straining at the railing, since they hadn't seen Krysal in so long, and the others filtered in as well.

While they were still some distance from the coastal city, Kai was the first to realize that something was wrong. Of course any Krysali city would have various airship traffic, and he saw plenty of flying vessels, but one stuck out like an elegant thumb.

There was a Cloudspire ship floating off the edge of the city. And, even as he watched, cultivators began hurling qi against the barrier.