Now that Ikol and I had completed our trials, we got to practice and train while we waited for Onilin, Zagzin, and Vndrglz to complete theirs. Unfortunately, training to use often resulted in me panting for my life after ten minutes of training because that way of using my halos along with my was draining. My body kept screaming at me after pushing how far I could go without needing to breathe as much. In the several days I had practiced it I gained maybe an additional five seconds before I collapsed needing to breathe again. Progress was going to be slow if I wanted to improve that time by more than a handful of seconds.

  Building muscle and endurance were steady improvements, not massive leaps. Ikol practiced his while steadily improving the speed he could carve the stones into spheres while we waited. Vndrglz surprised me by finishing his trial before the dragons finished theirs, so he joined Ikol and me in just practicing different . He attempted to fight against once before concluding that he was absolutely no match for it. The fact that Vndrglz was completely and utterly overwhelmed by put a massive smile on my face that didn’t fade for a few hours. Alternating my halos more effectively was something I struggled with because I hadn’t practiced it sufficiently.

  Would it ever be possible for me to use five or more halos at once? It was a struggle using four continuously, let alone five. Four at once felt like a limit, but that might have been a limitation of me being young; there was no way for me to get older faster than letting time pass. I imagined as I got older my physical abilities and would improve. Huh, that was a thought. As I grew, I knew my bones, body, and muscles would grow as well. I could use to adjust my size but like with all the better the base the better the final result.

  Onilin and then Zagzin completed their trials about half a day and three quarters of a day respectively after Vndrglz; neither were brave enough to spar me unfortunately. Something about the dragons was different that was hard to put my claw on. They seemed to be a bit more, what would the word be?, at peace? Overall, the two of them seemed to be more relaxed than before they started the trial. It didn’t make any sense to me. That being said, all of us were now done with the trial of King Ilrymax so it was time for us to leave back on our path toward Elijiah.

  “The five of you have grown during your stay in the Kniclad Mountains, and I am glad you all have seemed to grow while you were here. I hope you all continue to learn and improve on your .” King Ilrymax told us as we stood huddled up on the side facing towards where King Elijiah was.

  “Thank you, King Ilrymax.” We all said in unison with polite bows.

  “None of you slack now; this has been a tiny step on your path in life. You all still have much room to grow.” King Ilrymax lectured us gently.

  “Yes sir.” We replied in unison.

  “Now, it is time for you all to be off! Please remember what you have learned and the advice you have received as you continue your travels. Good luck, all of you.” King Ilrymax continued, looking each of us in the eyes.

  “We will.” I assured him while nodding. The others nodded in unison as well.

  “Farewell!” King Ilrymax declared in a bellowing voice, much louder than before.

  Apparently, part of the goodbye involved getting to see the true power of the King as King Ilrymax unleashed all his . A massive storm materialized from nowhere, shaking the world with the thunder as the winds turned into gales. King Ilrymax grew to what was likely his true size because he now towered over us before flying up into the air. A small orb appeared in front of him, giving us the briefest glimpse into his . gave me a good sphere around me, but it might as well be non-existent compared to what the sphere showed us while rain began pouring in sheets around him. The entire world shook and swayed in the storm until King Ilrymax flapped his wings once, instantly clearing all the skies and quelling the winds, revealing the sun in the middle of a clear blue sky. Rainbows now decorated the mountains as well as the surrounding plains. The others looked in awe as I wished I could compete with that level of power.

  With that note, I used and resumed our trek towards King Elijiah; it felt good to be making progress once more. I set a solid pace so we could try to cover some ground before the sun began to set. Onilin and Zagzin were flying overhead, getting a break from us flying on them because they had the least amount of time to recover from their trial. Maybe we should have stayed to recover for a day more, but King Ilrymax seemed to believe that it was time for the five us to get a move on. I knew if I asked he would have given a reason; however, I had been trying to be more respectful overall and questioning a King didn’t seem to align with that.

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  No point in overly thinking about things that couldn’t be changed. I liked moving across plains more than the mountains as it was easier to see long distances without using something like . Just how many miles was his if he really tried? I knew I would likely know the actual answer, my only real option was to train mine as far as I could and then leap high into the air and stay there with to approximate his. I shook my head as I knew I needed to shift what I was thinking over. Which were the most effective to work on first? likely would be the most useful in a duel, but that was a combination of several other so training the pieces that formed it would improve the combination.

  Was it better to work on my halos, , or my general fitness? I had a finite amount of time for training each of them. Maybe rotate between which of them I was working on? That might keep them at least even in their growth. Would that work? Was that smart? I sighed while shaking my head a bit; I wanted a better answer than that. Oh well. For now, I was going to have to rotate training them until I had a better grasp of which was currently limiting me the most. With that in mind, could any of them be practiced while we traveled between Kings?

  Some portion of my brain felt irritated remembering what King Ilrymax saying the Miril might have had a point about her approach to teaching me. I absolutely refused to believe that Miril was not motivated mostly by malice in how she taught me. I took a few composing breaths to reduce my annoyance because we were traveling across beautiful plains now. I needed to focus on what I could immediately work on which was something as we traveled. That was a starting idea at least, even if I was not using them to their full potential keeping them engaged should start to build up my ability to use them. Miril was pretty strict about not using them unless absolutely necessary, so training them at the moment likely would hinder me in the long run.

  That just meant I had to engage my halos as we traveled to build up how long I could keep them on without problem. Now we just had to reach the Aethrus Desert for our next set of trials. I wondered what King Elijiah was like; was he closer to King Ilrymax or Miril. I shuddered as a realization hit me. That was such a depressing thought. It took all my willpower not to begin crying towards the heavens about how unfair that was. She was beyond a shadow of doubt going to give me some awful, difficult trial just to torment me. Was I allowed to bring another King as a witness to keep her from bullying me some more?

  “What’s wrong, Chef?” Ikol probed, breaking my train of thought.

  “Uh, nothing.” I deflected. I wasn’t sure how to word being concerned with how much of a bezka his mother was.

  “But you look sad.” Ikol pointed out. He could pick up on that but struggled with when and when not to call me Chef.

  “I was thinking about the trials.” I clarified a little. I definitely was trying not to specify which specific trial had me concerned.

  “We can see King Ilrymax again. I also think we got this!” Ikol chimed happily.

  “What makes you think all the trials will be so easy?” I inquired as I had no idea what gave Ikol that impression.

  “Because we can!” Ikol exclaimed like that clarified anything.

  “Can?” I asked, hoping Ikol got the hint I wanted a more elaborate answer from him.

  “Trial one down! If we can do one, we can do them all!” Ikol stated while nodding his head enthusiastically.

  “You have a good point.” I agreed. It was a better assumption than I was expecting.

  “I know!” Ikol said cheerfully, looking mighty pleased with himself. I could feel the deadpan stare of the other three, so I glared at them.

  “If we can do one, we can do them all.” I backed him up while staring down the less useful ones.

  “Yes Chef.” They sighed in unison.

  “That didn’t sound enthusiastic.” I pointed out. Onilin shook her head slightly as she cringed internally.

  “Yes Chef!” they tried again, this time sounding much better.

  “Now we just need to reach King Elijiah!” I directed them, checking again with we were on the right line.

  “I wonder what they’re like.” Ikol added. Huh, I assumed Ikol somehow met all the Kings previously. I looked at the other three, wondering if they had any useful insight.

  “King Elijiah is the youngest and newest of the Kings. This is their first .” Onilin informed me.

  “Ah.” I quipped. I never really put a lot of thought into that, but now I was a little curious.

  “Hopefully, being a newer King, they have a reasonable and fair trial.” Vndrglz replied. That would be the hope, we just had to reach them and see.