Chapter 353 - Progress... In a way.

And so on training continued for about an hour with a few breaks in between of course because even after the noticeable upgrade on Stamina it would still deplete his entire Stamina if he kept a Fire Shield going. One reason behind it is that the Fire Shield naturally drains more Stamina and the second reason is that he didn't master yet, meaning he uses even more Stamina just to gain the required concentration.

Throughout the exercise, Eric noticed that Fire does indeed tamper with his raised Fire Shield, for example it doesn't give the cracking effect like everything else does. Honestly this is not at all what Eric expected, he expected to handle it swimmingly actually.

The way it interfered, it broke through the barriers and made the shield shake, well more like wiggle. This effect was mostly achieved when Mogranius was a few feet close and blasted continuously lasting Fire against Eric's shield.

And of course, another move that shattered the Shield almost every time with ease, was a concentrated blast. Meaning, Mogranius would pile up some fire in between his palms and unleash a pole like shot. This shot was slender, a few feet long depending on the power given on it but most importantly broke through Fire Shields with ease, due to the fact that it is concentrated.

This of course started pissing of Eric more times than he can count or comprehend, because his confidence was built up the first few times when Mogranius failed to break the shield.

But when the Shield started breaking effortlessly, Eric of course gained reasons to be mad. He is a powerful Electus yet his shield kept getting broken, however due to the fact that he kept his rage under control, he managed to progress on taming his Inner Demon of Rage even if those steps were small and minor.

I mean, the Inner Demon of Rage has already descended to Level Two, eventually Eric could beat it permanently. And if he manages to tame the Inner Demon of Self Control as a side effect with exercises that aren't meant for such a task then it would be in all ways a win.

"Common!" Eric complained with a mild shout, not wanting to yell but sick of having his Fire Shield broken all the time. "Can't you throw another shot?"

"What's the matter?" Mogranius asked, with his face remaining firm. "Is the Electus giving up?" Using titling can indeed taunt one to work more, depending on the mindset at least.

"Never!" He answered confidently, as he cracked open a new Fire Shield with King Michael's method as an aid. "But it became well known that a Concentrated Blast can break my shield, can't we try others?"

"You want to skip towards other exercises... Even after you know that you aren't resistant against a Concentrated Blast?" He makes a point, but yet he doesn't. Fire Controllers are rare, and the ones he knows don't oppose him.

"What's the point? There are no Fire Controllers who oppose us." Eric dared to point it out, in the pure aim to get rid of this exercise. His tone rose a little bit, although he didn't intend it that way.

"But it is a weak point." Mogranius insisted with his point and afterwards explained a deeper reason to this exercise. "See Eric, by the time when you will become a Grand Master accompanied by the extra power any Electus gets on any of the eight, you will have the opportunity to form almost indestructible Fire Shields. But until then..." He tried to finish his sentence.

But Eric interrupted, "The Weak spots have to be gotten rid off." Well at least now he understands what the point is.

Now his motivation arose a little bit, he is willing to handle this exercise over and over again but the failing part doesn't really sleep with his subconscious considering the fact that him being powerful has been imprinted on his mind. So he asked, "I want to continue the exercise, but can you at least give me advise on how to withstand the Concentrated Blast?"

"Hhmmm. You might have a point." He answered as if he was cooperating with Eric here but quite the opposite he is debating with himself.

"Alright so you will need to focus on giving a bit more strength to the part where you see the Concentrated Blast coming, at this case your front view." Trying to dumb the move down, so Eric can understand him and do it properly. He furthermore added, "Focus your power on the front, as if the other sides don't exist."

"If you say so." He answered with motivation, although sceptical about this move. But he would rather do this than fail again!

And so, Mogranius started off the power move by placing his hands horizontally half a foot away from each other. By doing so, he can start forming a little orb in between them. This is the Source of the concentrated, highly penetrative Blast.

The Orb expanded in a matter of a second, and when it reached his fingers it signified that it is ready to be unleashed!

So, with a swift movement he placed the orb in front of his left palm and placed his right palm over the left one. And now to finally unleash the move by raising his left heel a little bit and tapping it against the ground.

Giving it a bit less power this time, this concentrated blast stretched 3 feet long only. As it hurled its way through the air elegantly, making an Impact with Eric's shield fast than the eye can blink and the momentum even making Mogranius' robe bounce.

But what did they find their selves in to? Eric opened his eyes and saw his Shield at front cracked almost completely, you would think that a leaf blowing with the wind would crack this shield if it landed on it. Thankfully there barely are any trees here.

"Looks like you gave in a bit too much power at your front side." Mogranius pointed out, but furthermore glad that this is progress.

The ways of the Fire Shield are interesting, Eric put in more power towards the front side yet the shield did not increase in thickness. Seeing a bit around him, Eric noticed that the rest of the fire shield is gone. All that is remaining is the one at front, transparent.

"It worked didn't it." He answered, with his confidence meeting a rather considerable bounce upwards. His shield is almost completely shattered but the shot was stopped, this signifies progress if not perfection.

...

Meanwhile down at the Underground town, Ada is connecting to her new passion. Well she still loves Horses, but she has found the Kastarian way of hand to hand Combat both beautiful and inspiring. She is in love with the combat art named Mantek.

At the beginning, Commander Alia just taught her so Ada can kill some time but now? In no time Commander Alia will run out of moves to teach and she knows it.

The move she has been struggling to learn this month, is one called "The sliding snake." Odd combinations of words since snakes don't usually slide.

But the point of this move is to evade an opponent's forward tossed ranged weapon or blade by sliding underneath the person, be it on the sides of the legs or in between the legs.

But the issue here is not touching the opponent at all, sure hitting one of the legs will both help evade blows and damage the opponent too but the point here is to entirely escape an opponent's sight, buy a few seconds and strike from behind.

Ada managed to get the sliding part right, although sliding in between the legs became difficult at first and still is. But what she can't do correctly is stand up fast enough.

If she knocked an opponent off balance while sliding across the ground, she would buy herself a lot more time to unleash a second attack. But here? All the opponent has to do is turn around and take the swing he or she previously missed.

At first, this move gave in the hint as useless. But the more she slides, the more she can understand the move. It isn't really usual for Ignites as an example, to find a proper way of hitting an opponent, if that opponent just slid down near by.

The confusion and the fact of inexperience, would help on defeating an opponent because the moves would be unleashed randomly after the sliding, well at least in most cases.

"Common Ada, use your legs!" Commander Alia tried to advise, after seeing this move fail for about 7 times... Today.

Alia even recommended to leave this move for later training, when she can get a better grasp of the Mantek Art. But no, Ada insisted with all her guts to try it again and again until she learns it. She is a fair definition of hard headed when it comes to training, which is weird because she is possibly the most reasonable person everyone here met.

"I'm trying!" Ada gave out a mildly high in tone reply, and wondered if this move would be done easier if she slid faster. "Any other advice? I'm just not fast enough... Yet."

"I admire your motivation Ada, but I don't think there is another way to be faster here. At least not more than you and I know, we should stick with the current method until you can become faster." Commander Alia remained dead honest, knowing that someone like Ada wouldn't be motivated in any way.

"Now let's take a break, food helps attain a bit more energy." And from the looks of it, they might need it. Ada isn't letting Commander Alia go until this move is properly mastered.

"Well okay." Ada answered, using reason again. She wants to learn this move, but when it comes to exercising it is well determined and noticeable as well that Commander Alia is Superior. "Maybe it can help me think of an idea how to handle this."