Chapter 868: The second day of the evaluation trial (part 21)

Seeing her head pat time being over Nina couldn’t help but think that all good things come to an end, but while she is indeed right, that doesn’t mean that another good thing can’t follow right away, as she was about to realize due to Aster’s next words.

"I can pretty much guess what you four would ask as a reward, but I think it’s a bit too early for swordsmanship sparring sessions and we just had breakfast so a picnic in the forest wouldn’t feel as nice as it would for lunch, let’s make it like this instead", said Aster as he walked towards Sarina to then whisper a few things to her, which made the blond roc mother softly laugh.

Aster gave Sarina some space and then under the surprised eyes of quite a few girls, a majestic pair of feathered wings spread out of the blond roc mother’s back, aside from those that had slept in the same room as Aster, no one else has seen Sarina spreading her wings in this place before, so this indeed surprised a few of them.

"I thought miss Sarina’s innate abilities were the capacity to create and manipulate electricity as well as higher physical strength, but she also has a spirit beast trait like Alice... isn’t that a bit too much", mumbled Agnes from the side.

The sportsy sun diamond princess was having a headache trying to figure out how to use the "diamond" trait of her constitution, because the light part being an energy related one, meant that at mortal level chances were that it would only work for support like it happened with Iris and Nerissa.

Agnes being the competitive girl she is, couldn’t help but feel a bit envious of her sister Valentina who still has a chance to get to use her lightning as a mortal, like it happened to Sarina, not to mention that the latter also gained stronger physical strength thanks to her lineage as well, and now Sarina revealed to have a beast trait, namely wings too.

All of the previous has a good reason to be though, the storm roc mother and daughter pair were already princesses from their respective lineage branch, and then Aster pushed them a step ahead of that during their awakening, courtesy of the blood that Ley and the other Tempest family bastards "donated" back then.

Also Sarina has almost caught up with Lilia in terms of lineage maturity, so Agnes shouldn’t really feel like she is falling behind, if the sportsy sun diamond princess had reached a similar state with her Fey lineage which is linked to her soul constitution, she would be on equal standing as Sarina, just like how Valentina is actually around the same level as Sarina currently, because while she has no access to her lightning, the other trait of her soul constitution which is related to her monstrous pure technique capacities and her Fey lineage had been developed to a similar level to the one Sarina just reached.

’Aster told us that little sportsy girl had openly declared she liked him, but to think she is this competitive before even formally joining us like Camila, how cute’, thought the blond roc mother as she giggled to her insides, to then flap her wings and soar high into the air until she was floating at the same height at the top of Nim’s tree and Esmeralda’s jade mountain.

Speaking of Esmeralda, Aster turned to see her with a teasing smile as he said.

"Since a certain someone shamelessly sneaked away even after losing the spar, we’ll do a group "flying session" training for a reward", Esmeralda feigned ignorance about the part where she escaped before she could receive a head pat after Aster defeated her in the spar, but she understood the idea behind of Aster’s words.

And so, the spirit wind girl turned into a current of green wind that then entered Aster’s body, as a result Aster was enveloped by a soft green breeze.

"There, are you happy now?", mumbled the spirit wind girl from within Aster’s body, to which the black-haired dragon youth chuckled as he also raised from the ground.

"Woah, you see Espi, big brother can also fly too!", exclaimed Kana as she saw Aster raise into the sky, until he reached the same height as Sarina.

"Hisss!", to which the little wyrm answered something along the lines of "I want to try it too!", which was the whole point of this idea Aster had come up with, it was to entertain those little girls and also to help with both Sarina’s flying training as well as Esmeralda and Nim’s possession training.

"Thanks for coming up with something like this for my training, darling~", said Sarina as she softly pecked Aster’s right cheek.

’Mmm, we don’t share sensations directly, but this feeling of warmth transmitted by that little girl’s mother, doesn’t feel bad at all’, thought Esmeralda.

While possessing someone, Esmeralda didn’t directly experience what the one she possessed experiences, but she can get some influence from the connection established by the "possession" if she allows it, well normally it’s up to her, but when it comes to Aster, the one to control what happens inside his body, is him, courtesy of his extremely easy to trigger "proudful" dragon lineage, which retaliates at the slightest "provocation".

This also meant that Esmeralda’s possession is meant to be used on allies, which is understandable as her ability to do so comes from her capacity to establish a contract as a spirit element, though when she is the one in control like it would normally be the case, the spirit wind girl can use it to restrain enemies too, it’s just not the main purpose for it.

"Alpha... Aster, I also want to participate", said Nim as she joined those three in the air, she can’t possess humans, but that didn’t mean Aster didn’t take the chatterbox runic oak into consideration like previously stated.

"I was just about to call you, I have a special task for you and miss Regina", said Aster as he looked at the giant eagle who was resting on top of Fawn’s left shoulder.

"Chirp?", Regina softly chirped as she pointed at herself with her right claws, she has been sharing points of view with the brown-haired potential princess a lot, lately, so she has improved in her understanding of human language by bounds and leaps, in fact the giant eagle has almost caught up with Guardian in that aspect.

Such was the helpful effect of her connection with Fawn, which wasn’t limited to them using their techniques to complement each other, but because of Fawn’s profession which is falconry master and her talent as a potential spirit tamer, according to Aster’s estimation.

With Aster’s nod, Regina also soared into the sky but she landed on top of Esmeralda’s jade mountain because Aster and Sarina had descended there, accompanied by Nim.

"You two will have the most important task, which is to watch over the flying training session to make sure that there are no accidents, Nim can possess her tree and make new branches with lots of soft leaves that can catch up someone just in case, and if needed she can even crate cushions of grass all over the area", said Aster which made the chatterbox runic oak’s pretty eyes glow for a second as she entered her tree which was connected to the ground to then proceed to do exactly what Aster had said.

"Naturally Nim is there for passive safety measures while she trains her possession ability, miss Regina is the one in active duty, given that she can carry humans though the air without any problem", added Aster.

The giant eagle was strong enough to fly with ease while carrying up to two adult humans, the only problem is that they had yet to create the equipment needed for the travel to be comfortable for both Regina and the one being carried by her, but that problem will soon be solved.

For now, in case of an emergency Regina could catch someone falling on the spot while Nim created a "safety net" and a "cushion" below for further safety.

"Chirp", listening to the soft sound produced by the giant eagle as she nodded, Aster then added.

"Of course, I’m not planning to take away time from your training with Fawn without a proper compensation in mind, Nim let’s run a little test before the real thing", said Aster, as Esmeralda came out of his body.

"I’m ready", with the chatterbox runic oak green light and under the slightly worried expressions of the girls, Aster’s legs tensed as he jumped a dozen of meters above the jade mountain from its top, to then... fall downwards.

Now, an object of around 90 kilograms in free fall, would take around 6 seconds and a half to reach the ground from a height of 200 meters, and that is more than enough for Nim and/or Regina to react according to the situation, however the vicinity of Esmeralda’s jade mountain doesn’t "satisfy" the conditions for a free fall.

You remember the soft green currents of wind that are visible at the top of the mountain right, well, they aren’t not there for aesthetics only, it’s a safety measure that the spirit wind girl placed in case a girl was to slip while climbing the mountain or fall from the top.

As a result, Aster’s fall was slowed down around three times, and that gives us almost 20 seconds for him to reach the ground and with way less momentum to worry about than what it should be the case.

"Rustle", he hadn’t even fell for a fifth of the total distance between the top of Esmeralda’s jade mountain and the ground, when a strong and leafy branch extended from Nim’s tree and caught him, there was a soft rustling sound produced as Aster landed on the soft leaves of Nim tree’s branch.

"Perfect, now, miss Regina please give it a try, don’t worry and hold onto my shoulder as hard as you need to prevent any problem", said Aster as he stood up to then jump from the safety of Nim tree’s branch.

"Scree", this time he was caught a dozen of meters after jumping down, by the giant eagle using her claws which could pierce through steel to hold onto his shoulder.

Naturally, Regina could do the previous because Aster’s body is monstrously tough, but if it was an "average" girl of the sect, she would need to put some care into how much strength she can exert with her claws, on the other hand, the girls are quite lighter than Aster too, so it was a tit for tat kind of situation.

Feeling the jealous gaze coming from Fawn down at the ground, given that she has yet to be able to actually soar through the sky with Regina, because well, her body as a mortal is not monstrously tough as Aster’s one, to allow her to be comfortably carried by the giant eagle without posing a problem for the latter as well without any equipment, made Aster chuckle.

"I’m pretty sure that I would be fine even if I actually fell from the top of Esmeralda’s jade mountain, a couple of cracked bones aside, but let me try out the last safety measure, Esmeralda move the wind away in my path, Nim, place a cushion below me, please", said Aster, to which both nodded.

"You can let go now miss Regina", he added to which the giant eagle also nodded as she let go of Aster’s shoulder, not without keeping the same kind of focus she would put in descending as fast as possible upon a prey, on Aster just in case she needed to catch him before he hit the ground.

"Thud", the patch of grass on the ground cushioned Aster’s fall, so the impact only produced a soft sound, before Aster got up, he was perfectly fine.

"Even Vivian would only get a few scratches if she fell on that cushion of grass, the flying training session is good to go now", said Aster to then point at the potential brown-haired princess.

"Since miss Regina is taking some time from her usual schedule, Fawn will go first for Esmeralda’s "possession", Sarina can choose from Kana, Espi, Dahlia, Nina and Lina and then change every ten minutes until they have all had a turn flying with both methods", he added.

"Thanks big brother~", said the little girl who was then picked up by Sarina and brought up high into the sky by her mother.

"Hisss~", the little wyrm happily hissed as she climbed up through Nim’s tree until she reached the top to be at the same height as Kana.

Fawn didn’t say anything, but her bright smile as she was possessed by Esmeralda to then soar into the sky accompanied by Regina, made it obvious of how happy she was right now.

"Now that the entertainment for the "little" ones has been settled, let’s take care of things on the "grown up" side", jokingly said Aster as he gazed at Valentina and the others.

"I’ll stay here and watch over Kana, that little snake and Lauren", said the ligress.

"Grrr", Guardian softly growled as she said something along the lines of "me too".

The pair of "kitty besties" then used their claws and agile legs to climb up to the top of Nim’s tree.

Valentina and Alexandra were also about to excuse themselves, until they heard Aster saying.

"Since I don’t want Thomas and miss Tamara to think that I’m neglecting my friend Alexandra, why don’t we spar for a bit, Esmeralda is busy, but we can test your defense against my swords and I have some work to do on your lance, and speaking of that, miss Valentina needs to tell me the specifics for her sword too".

Since earlier Aster noticed the slightly troubled expression on Agnes’s pretty face when Sarina spread her wings, so he also had something in mind for her.

"Agnes can join Alexandra too, it will be fun", he added to which the sportsy sun diamond princess smiled, some of her favorite activities were swordsmanship training, and swordsmanship training with Aster after all.

’This tease-loving guy, he did it on purpose... on the other hand, he is doing it for Agnes’s sake so I can’t even consider that hobby of his as something negative’, thought the purple lightning princess.

Aster never does something without a proper reason, while Alexandra and Agnes hadn’t really interacted much, since that pink grayish eyed girl has mostly gotten closer with either Mylene and Eris due to the slumber parties, Felicia after that funny time during their date, and Camila when they fought together, she has also shown interest in Esmeralda and that will extend to Agnes.

Because in case you haven’t realized it, they share something in common, it’s just that Agnes hasn’t been able to show it, namely the "diamond" part of her lineage, which falls in the physical reinforcement category just like Alexandra’s specialty, which she is able to use at mortal level currently unlike the sportsy sun diamond princess.

In other words, Aster paired them up to give Agnes some inspiration, and well, in Alexandra’s case for her to have some fun with others, since Tamara and Thomas asked him to help their daughter have some fun and relaxation, given that they couldn’t giver her a happy childhood due to their circumstances.

"Yo, brother, I’ll be training to control my voice with Sophia, and since sis is not here, and mom had a lot of fun with that pink grayish eyed sister-in-law back then, let her tag along with you all hahaha!", said Erick in his usual thunderous voice, which took Felicia by surprise a bit, but not Aster as he said.

"Sure, I was going to ask miss Felicia to come too, since I’ll be making proper attack type gauntlets and I need some measures for the select few that use them".

"Perfect don’t forget to give some attention to sis later otherwise she’ll be... ouch!", before Erick could finish his sentence, Sophia gave Alexandra an apologetic gaze, given that her muscle head of a boyfriend had casually declared her one of Aster’s lovers, when Alexandra clearly started her friendly relationship with a misunderstanding, something Sophia knew thanks to joining the slumber parties later, to then drag Erick away from his ear.

"Sister Eris, sister Mylene can you lend me a hand to organize the girls to prepare the areas needed for the thorny bush and the pomegranate tree?", said Angela to which those two nodded.

"I’ll be waiting for the candy making session at my workshop later", jokingly said Mylene.

"Pay a visit to the combat unit training area at noon too, with Nim’s help things will get quite interesting", added Eris.

And that only left Mikaela and Lieze, amusingly both were from the white sword faction and were pretty much neutral in their attitudes as well, at least normally.

"Since Valentina will be busy during the morning, I’ll take over her duties for now, I know it’s not a "candy" but help me request a few bottles of strawberry wine from Mylene", said the core elder from the white sword as she left to avoid feeling embarrassed over wanting to have a nice drink at the end of the day, one of her most cherished hobbies, which she has been unable to do since they entered the trial road.

"I... want to tag along and watch you using your sword, if you don’t mind", added Lieze.

The fiercest swordsmanship Lieze has ever seen belongs to Aster, and she needed to "learn" how to take the initiative to go on the offensive, contrary to her usual style which pretty much required her to be attacked first before she could counterattack the enemy.

"Sure, in fact you can participate too, both you and miss Mikaela stayed behind to watch over the sect both during the attack of the bear and this time, so you deserve a reward for that", said Aster.

And with that the plan until for the morning was settled, Valentina and Felicia were coming to have some measures taken and discuss the details of their weapons, while Agnes, Alexandra and Lieze were coming to have a little spar with Aster, this while Kana and the others had flying training with Esmeralda and the others.

...

With those five following Aster, they soon arrived at his private working area, which was large enough for them to have a little spar without any problem.

"With Nim’s ability we can return the area to its original state, so there is no need to restrain ourselves as usual, so feel free to fight seriously", said Aster to Agnes, Alexandra and Lieze as he grabbed two swords and mounted them on his back, before taking one more to wield actively.

Agnes and Lieze nodded as they also grabbed a sword from the ones Aster had in his private working area, they didn’t want to wear down their actual weapons after all.

Alexandra on the other hand, had black metal small octagonal plaques cover her hands and certain areas of her arms in preparation, after exchanging gazes, those three’s eyes became sharp.

"Now!", with Agnes giving the signal, the three of them charged at Aster who solidified his stance as he welcomed Agnes and Lieze’s sword slashes with one of his own, and the same applied to the metal clad punch thrown by Alexandra.

"Clang!", those three felt slightly "provoked" as they saw Aster not being pushed back by the combined impact of their attacks, though they understood that Aster was the one with the toughest defense in the whole camp.

’Is this what it feels like to fight against me?’, thought the pink grayish eyed girl, as she saw her black metal clad fist being equaled by Aster’s bare fist.

Under normal circumstances the title of the one with the toughest defense would belong to her, but in this place the special "limitations" of one’s lineages were decreased to the limit or outright eliminated, in exchange for the decrease in their usual power.

For example, both Alexandra and Lieze had troubles in terms of taking the initiative of attacking, for different reasons, Alexandra mostly reflected the enemies attacks right back at their faces or used the stored impact to attack, in a sense her only strong capacity to attack without having engaged in combat before was to add more power to her black heavenly gold to overwhelm the enemy’s attack, but that was also more of reacting to, rather than taking the initiative, outside of that, her attack power was really low when compared to her realm and actual battle prowess.

The only exception to the previous so far being the lance that was created with the help of Camila’s ability, but just like others without access to energy once her metal plaques separated from her, they lost most of their power in her mortal state.

Lieze on the other hand didn’t have her attack power reduced directly like that, but prior to meeting Aster, she couldn’t use any other weapon besides her inherited sword, and her fighting style was a counterattack type one, because of her constitution, and now that such things were not in play, she was a bit lost in how to proceed from that.