How did you do sharp turns with
? I was staring at the path I needed to take, realizing this stretch was way worse than I initially realized. The rest of the running path might as well have been a warmup compared to the beast that I was currently looking at due to some of the turns being even sharper than I thought. Seriously, how? Why is this section so jagged? I imagined the previous method may not have been as effective for this part. How do I approach this? Nothing immediately came to mind on how to even begin to approach this. Well, I had no need to try this section specifically at the moment, so I moved along to attempt the other parts of the lap needed. The rest couldn’t be as bad as the jagged, sharp turn sections.
I began using along the path, wondering if any other parts of the trial were going to be like that particular stretch. After a few moments, I reached where the height of the footholds varied vertically. Of course, this section was not so easily done. Decreasing the height of was fairly trivial, but if I wanted to go back up or out from that position it was difficult. Trying to climb with was difficult because that level of speed did not change directions easily; whenever I aimed up, I overshot my intended position by a substantial amount. This felt quite more doable than the jagged section because I was at least able to almost do it, or at least partially able to do it on my initial attempt. How do I do this? The vertical shift in speed felt possible, just needed to find some method to do it well.
What can I do for the climbing motion? I needed to clean up the descending motion to not be as difficult on my body and as disruptive to the motion, but for gaining height in a smooth way was baffling me. So, what should I do? Was there some method I could do to control the increase in height? I tried doing a few up, overshooting the intended landing spot each time. Seriously? Even the gentlest attempts at landing overshot by twenty feet; I sighed as I knew there had to be a method to make it work smoothly, consistently. Miril could effortlessly wherever she wanted at full speed which only reinforced that the idea was possible. Did Miril really change height at all when she demonstrated the ? No particular stretch came to mind in the few short bursts I had seen with Miril.
Were the changes in height necessary? I looked at the section carefully, wondering if it was possible to maintain a more even height across the stretch; to my dismay the geography made the generally even height impossible. It almost felt like the lap around the Kniclad Mountains was designed to be as annoying as possible to run swiftly across. I could probably add in to decrease the amount of height I needed to get per bound, but I imagined that was more of a stopgap than figuring out the actual method required. Miril’s sole piece of advice was adjusting myself with when using . Is that everything? Extending and compressing my body adjusted the length of the bounds, tilting my body adjusted the side-to-side motion quite well, but what about vertical motion? Or sharp turns for that matter. Tilting down helped me fall quicker was all I had figured out on the vertical motion.
I began using again, trying to use to shift myself up; the result was lackluster needless to say. I kept trying to do the simple up, down, and then up again sequence, adjusting my for each attempt. My mind was going blank on how to improve the because this was clearly not working. What was I going to do? The current strategy was undeniably not correct for accomplishing what I wanted. How on Tenebrae was I supposed to do this? I guess Phestia currently though that’s not relevant. Before I got too frustrated with my failure, I sprawled out on the plains to take a breather. There has to be something I can do. My mind was going completely blank each time I tried to think of something new.
Where was Ikol? Maybe the musclehead might be useful for this, or at least a good break from slamming my head against the current wall. I used to run over to where Ikol was, seeing him attempting to carve stone with . I landed softly behind him because Ikol was focused on the task at hand. In the distance Onilin and Zagzin were struggling with their trial as the wind with the weight was making it difficult for them to fly properly. No idea where Vndrglz currently was, but I imagined he was somewhere in the mountains hard at work. I noticed next to Ikol there were what I imagined were failed attempts with large cracks going through them where the stones were looking like he was trying to carve them into smooth spheres. After a few moments the sphere Ikol was attempting to carve shattered into several pieces.
“Drat.” Ikol grumbled as he tossed the failure onto the pile.
“You’re getting there.” I assured him. Ikol turned around, lighting up upon seeing me. Good, loyal musclehead.
“Chef!” Ikol chimed happily with his tails wagging behind him.
“I needed to take a break, so I came to check in on you.” I informed him. I sat down and stretched a bit.
“I am getting there, Chef!” Ikol told me happily.
“That’s good.” I replied while looking at him happily prancing around me.
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“How goes your trial?” Ikol asked back. He was cheerful from my presence alone, which was nice.
“Decent. I have two issues to work on.” I answered, still wondering what the trick to them was.
“What are you struggling with? Chef is so skilled.” Ikol praised me. Good Ikol. He understood I was the best.
“Sharp turns and changing the height of the .” I explained begrudgingly.
“I see.” Ikol quipped as he nodded his head along.
“What are you struggling with on the carving?” I deflected, not wanting to reflect on my inability to make the work.
“It keeps breaking.” Ikol replied like that clarified the issue.
I grabbed a rock, trying to carve it into a sphere like Ikol had been trying to. After a bit of effort, I was able to at least carve the outer sphere. Originally I made the blade a bit thick, but once I made it razor thin like Nil enjoyed doing, the effortlessly carved through the rock with no effort. Of course, his method works for this. This was a challenge of finite control, which was an area Ikol struggled with. Ikol was looking at me with his jaw agape with a bit of a stunned expression at how easily I did it. Part of me was irritated that Nil’s method of making blades so effortlessly completed the task. Cheater with his bonus knowledge and experience. The thought he could likely figure out the issue I was having with really made my blood begin boiling in annoyance.
“How did you do that?!” Ikol checked in a tone of awe. Before I could clarify, King Ilrymax landed next to us.
“Do not answer that, Lux. He needs to figure it out on his own.” King Ilrymax told me immediately. How did he overhear that? Where did he even come from?
“Yes sir.” I replied begrudgingly. Ikol drooped a bit, clearly sad I wasn’t going to give him the answer.
“She made it look easy.” Ikol grumbled. I wished I could give him a hint at least, but I didn’t want to test it in front of King Ilrymax.
“There is a reason this is your trial and not hers, as it is a skill she already possesses. Trials are meant to be a challenge for the individual, not everyone they know. You shouldn’t measure yourself by the abilities of others.” King Ilrymax instructed the two of us.
“Onilin and Zagzin have the same trial.” Ikol pointed out weakly.
“Because they both need to be able to do it, and neither of them were able to.” King Ilrymax told him gently.
“Where did you even swoop in from? You descended so fast.” I wondered, trying to figure out how he shot in out of nowhere.
“I was doing small laps around the Kniclad Mountains to check on how all of you were doing. As for descending that fast, I repositioned my wings to dive. It is quite simple.” King Ilrymax informed me as he showed how he angled his wings. Hmmm, that was interesting thought. He positions his wings and pulls them in to dive.
“When you take off, how do you angle your wings?” I asked. King Ilrymax extended his wings and changed how he angled them.
“Usually a few flaps to get height and then using my and wing positioning to lift.” King Ilrymax answered while continuing to show how his wings moved.
The biggest issue was that I didn’t have wings to angle like that; something in what King Ilrymax did held the answer, I could feel it. It was only figuring out how to apply it to my . The underlying principle had to be consistent at least, I hoped. Ikol was trying to give King Ilrymax his best pouting face as he wanted the hint or explanation from me to help him with carving the spheres. King Ilrymax was having none of it as he gave him a stern glare in return once he noticed. We stood there awkwardly as King Ilrymax clearly wanted to guarantee I didn’t try to slip Ikol any hints about how to accomplish the trial.
“Come on, you two need to focus. Get back to your assigned trials.” King Ilrymax ordered the two of us. He clearly was taking no chances I helped Ikol passed that little demonstration I just did.
“Yes sir.” We replied in unison.
Ikol gave me a small nuzzle before I used to run back to the vertical stretch of the lap. I had no wings, so what could I do to mimic them? I ran in the open field, trying to vary my paws and extension of my body to no avail. It influenced , just not the way I needed them to. What could I do? Think Lux, there has to be something to mimic it. Could I create wings out of ? That seemed like an awkward solution to the problem I was having more than anything. What should I do? I was flicking my tails in irritation while thinking over how to mimic the wings. On one of my tail flicks I noticed some of the dust kicked up from me moving them around. Hold on, would adjusting my tails work like King Ilrymax adjusting his wings? Or at least close enough to function?
I began focusing on the position of my tails as I ran, realizing I kept them straight back as I ran. What happened if I fanned out my tails? I had all my tails fanned out as much as I could to exaggerate the effect and began using which gave me an immediate answer on how effective the method was. Crack. I slammed my head into the ground after an amazing backflip as I felt the force on my tails flip my body. Okay, it at least works. I was also seeing stars currently because I was not ready for such a violent, sudden flip. My head was absolutely ringing while I remained on the ground. Okay, we’re going to stay while I heal for a minute while I learn how much I need to adjust my tails. At least I had the start of an answer.
It took several minutes for the pain in my head to subside as I finally stood up. My body was shaking a bit from how hard I just slammed myself into the dirt. With that lesson learned, I took the starting position from where I was practicing . So if I fan them out and up it flips my entire body. Let’s try some simple side motion to get a feel for how much adjustment of my tail moves my body. My tails were positioned straight back as I got into the groove of using the , I extended my right most tail to the side, feeling my body pivot into a turn. Hold on, did the tails also solve the sharp turns? I did a few test attempts, realizing my tails were the solution to both problems. That’s it! Now I just had to practice the amount each tail moved me when using !
