The good news was that while I was learning to control it used a different part of my brain than . Granted, it was not the most enjoyable sensation alternating the type of agony I was experiencing. That would be an amazing set of to have the basis of even if I wouldn’t be able to master all of them before I left, but I imagined not all would be as understanding or helpful as King Ilrymax. My head was currently attempting to split itself in half as I laid on the ground while I recovered. Something to distract myself from the crushing headache that was currently trying to crack my head in two.

  I needed to figure out more of the halos, but I had no idea what their names were. As much as I was loathe to admit it, Nil’s nerdiness was more ideal for troubleshooting that particular endeavor. Did I feel like practicing my some more? Both were works in progress at least, granted was currently functional, not sustainable. I needed to practice maintaining it more than anything else; my stamina was currently the limiting factor for it by a large margin. was figuring out how to control it without overwhelming my brain. That likely meant he either learned to deal with the headaches from it or had some method of processing the information.

  What else did I have wise? There was

  , , , , and . What else? and were things I generally had down as well. I could combine and , what happened if I tried instead? With that idea, I got to my feet and entered before attempting again. To my dismay, it really didn’t change much. Why did speed it up but didn’t? That particular mystery was not one I was going to bother trying to figure out.

  Maybe as I waited for my

  to finish their trials I could see what else I could combine just to kill time. involved dissolving myself into light and moving around like that. Oh, that’s probably why didn’t do much with . Wait, made that odd little what was the word for it again? Mat? Mattress? Matrix! It made that matrix around me. What if I combined and ? I tried to dissolve into light, feeling the world around me. I remade the matrix around me and made some strings of connect to it so I could expand what I could sense around me. To my surprise, my brain didn’t explode from the information as I could see and hear a larger zone around me. What if I removed the matrix now?

  OW, AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH! FORLING LORDS ABOVE! OWWWWWW! I retracted the strings as I clutched my skull. That was a truly awful idea. Maybe the matrix limited the range and controlled the amount of information I was getting bombarded with, but the two did combine. I writhed on the ground in agony for a bit as the pain in my skull subsided, thinking of what else I could combine. I got back to my feet, making the tunnel for before doing a little test bound. I could make a few tunnels around myself, seeing I could bound in any of the directions I wanted technically. It was just easier to go in the same direction after the first one. What was Nil’s idea for his ? I needed to create a matrix around himself to control ? What if I tried that? The structure of combined with the others?

  I created the structure for , dissolved my body with , attached to it with , and let it sit. I had a space around me I could sense and see my surroundings quite well as my senses were cranked up from the . I used , realizing I could contain it within my before kicking off to a different spot. I added in a bit of while I did a bit more kicking off. I formed a while maintaining the sphere, kicking off as I kept my assault going. Unfortunately, I could only keep it up for about ten seconds before I was on the ground panting. My head was in a whole new kind of agony as I was sprawled out on the ground; that idea needed some improvement, but it definitely worked.

  How could I build my stamina more? It was currently woefully short of where it needed to be in order to maintain the I wanted. Why was my stamina so awful? Three years ago it needed to be improved, and I trained for three years with Ikol, so why was it still this bad? My and stamina were simply woefully short of what I needed them to be. How did three years of training still fall so short of what I needed? Were these that taxing? Was there something I could do to adjust my approach to reduce how taxing they were? What would that be?

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  I didn’t like the idea of being completely wrong with my approach to using . Maybe it was not the fact I was completely wrong, but something I was doing was wrong. How many did I currently have? I turned around, seeing I was at ten. Shield, thorns, rain, sun, and lake were the five I knew; sun and thorns might be helpful but not what I needed. The issue was whether or not one of the other five I had did that. Which order to try them?

  I activated the sixth halo, feeling the around me swirl and gather rapidly. Well that was helpful for supplying the immense amount of I needed to maintain the . I turned it off, making note that halo six juiced me with . I tried the seventh halo, with no obvious effect. I tried running with and tired out at roughly the same rate. Nope, that one wasn’t it. I recovered some more, attempting the eighth halo. How about the ninth? Time for number ten.

  I sprinted around, feeling myself not tire out in ten seconds before I excitedly stopped where I had been practicing. Yes! Success! I did a few happy hops as I celebrated my success. I was getting stronger! Sweet, beautiful progress! I did some stretching, wanting to take another nap before trying this out for real. I just needed some practice to get the methodology down. Before I shot back, King Ilrymax landed in front of me.

  “Uh… King Ilrymax?” I checked, not sure why he landed in front of me.

  “You need a little spar to combine those .” King Ilrymax told me bluntly.

  “I was hoping to take a nap first.” I admitted.

  “Napping now will do you no good. You should work on that habit of yours of relaxing once you make any form of real progress.” King Ilrymax lectured me.

  “I am not much of an opponent for you.” I pointed out. King Ilrymax gave me a deadpan stare.

  “Unlike a certain merciless taskmaster, I know how to hold back against someone weaker than me sufficiently.” King Ilrymax stated. I sighed as I knew I was about to spar him.

  “Fine.” I conceded. King Ilrymax gave me a disapproving stare.

  “Most beings would be happy to get to spar a King.” King Ilrymax retorted with an amused expression.

  “I am thankful for the opportunity for the spar, King Ilrymax.” I tried with a smile. King Ilrymax began laughing his butt off.

  “You are slowly getting there Lux.” King Ilrymax chuckled as he jumped a bit away.

  “I have been trying to get better sir.” I admitted, trying to smile.

  “Progress takes time. Now, let’s see what you can do.” King Ilrymax told me as he began flapping his wings, shaking the plains with the gusts.

  I created the combined again while engaging the sixth, tenth, and sun halo this time. It also gave me two different ways to train to get stronger to work on. King Ilrymax was as patient as Miril when it came to fighting, as he instantly launched a barrage of wind blades at me. I dissolved my body, using to instantly close the gap on him and swinging with . I could see all the angles around him, so I kicked off of him to dodge the follow up because I could tell he was subtly casting some behind him where I was about to be. Luckily, I had practice against the blasted bird and Nil. King Ilrymax smiled as I got out of range of his . Thanks to the matrix around me I saw he already began the next several where I was heading towards. I dodged around the scythe of wind he made as King Ilrymax rushed me full speed, trying to ram me. I saw him coming while I pivoted around him, hooking on him to try and redirect King Ilrymax into the ground.

  Unfortunately for me, King Ilrymax was quite used to that strategy being attempted against him. Several feathers slashed against me, giving me several deep gashes that I began repairing. I added in the shield halo as I fixed my , feeling the strain of maintaining four of my halos. I likely was cutting the timer I had down even further, but it was necessary against King Ilrymax. He effortlessly adjusted to my next lunge like he saw me coming in slow motion despite the speed of . I used my tails to adjust in the air, arcing my body around him as I tried burying a in his side. King Ilrymax didn’t even look directly at me as a wall of roots blocked the attack. I imagined that was a common for , not that realizing that fact now did me much good.

  “You will need to do better than that, Lux.” King Ilrymax taunted me.

  “I’m working on it, just wait.” I retorted as I thought of how to practically use this combination.