Talented lavels

What Hasilo did not know was that as he went down, the punch he had thrown found its mark, knocking out all the Bamboo's chest, as it hit the rib cage. There were a few broken ribs, but Bamboo was still conscious. On his side, Hasilo was down.

As he got up, he noticed that another opponent was barely a stone's throw away. He quickly charged at him. Seeing the impending threat, the opponent dodged expecting Bamboo to lunge at him, but to his shock, the lavel lifted his paw and aimed at him. Following which, only what could be described as thunder, the kind he had has seen when a storm brew, struck at him. Not that he had much time to ponder, as he was out in an instant.

When Bamboo decided to show his power, he decided that he would make a fine showing of it! Now that his secret was out there, time to show the world just how formidable he was. Cornered, the third turned and attempted to flee, but Bamboo was faster. With increased movement speed came increased pace, and he outpaced his opponent without a struggle. Finally came the strike, and the lavel was down.

The spectators couldn't contain themselves after such splendid performance, and the cheers in the night could be heard even from nearby settlements.

Dane had watched as Bamboo's train of thought during the with a chuckle. He knew Hasilo was not in control of his faculties, and he was in a state of enlightenment. At the point of breakthrough, one would no longer be in control of their actions and they would move by instinct. They would have perfect control over their new ability but without conscious thought, it was all but wasted.

Since a breakthrough usually occurs when there's a great need, there is only one thought, really, a guiding principle that guides the mind of the user. Dispel the threat, or whatever caused the need, for what followed after was a state of a deep sleep, where one's body would assimilate the new ability. Therefore, whatever power-up that was granted by an ability had a time limit, and one had to dispel the need before the time expired. It was a sad fact that many had died due to passing out before the need was fully met.

Bamboo's ability was thunder based. He could sense the ionic charges of the elemental particles all around him, especially now that he was in a thunderstorm. With his ability, he could detect and change the positive and negative charges of ions all around him, which led to him giving off a burst of static electricity. With the right charge, he could channel a lightning strike at an opponent, or infuse his body with lighting charges and strike at the opponent, as he had done with Hasilo.

Maple was in tears as she watched his performance. Every strike had been like a work of art and seeing Bamboo resplendent like the noonday sun had always been her dream. Now everyone would see what she saw. Yes, she was a proud lavel. Her only regret was that she couldn't be there to share that moment with him. Stupid rules!

As the fight was done, the spectating lavels would dash in the clearing which served as the arena to congratulate the victors. The one in the front lines was none other than the clan head. He was beside himself with joy as he hadn't expected such a boon. Both Hasilo and Bamboo were treasured for his clan, and he wouldn't let anything happen to them. He could almost taste the victory, as his clan took the helm in leadership, and escaped the obscurity of mediocrity.

Yes, that fight had caused a few lavels to take note. The head of the settlement, in particular, began to take note. Some unknown lavel had somehow awakened a power, and not just one but two from the same clan, same family. This was indeed very curious.

For starters, though it wasn't completely unheard of for a lavel to awaken an ability, many had been great rulers in the past, whom stories were told before sleeping. Sadly, there hadn't been any awakened ability in centuries, and many would have believed they were myths if it hadn't been for the vasils with powers.

Lavels had been at a disadvantage in many ways, and since they didn't know that the sun now favored them, they still thought they were inferior to the vasils. Yes, a deeply ingrained feeling of inferiority complex had crept over them over the years of being downtrodden, and being sold as slaves didn't help either. Well, times were changing, and it would have taken them quite a while to realize this, but now there was Dane.

Khalia slipped off the perch he'd been watching the fight from and ran all the way home. He was stunned by the power exhibited by Bamboo and Hasilo. So far, he had thought only he had gained such a boost. A sense of complacency had grown in him in the recent past, and he hadn't bothered to train much as he thought the victory was a foregone conclusion. Now, he wasn't too sure.

Once he was in the forest at night. Hungry and tired, he had gotten lost and couldn't find a way home. To his utter misfortune, he had encountered a gang of bandits... Luckily, he was upwind, thus he detected their scent long before they detected him. He hadn't seen them, but judging by their scent alone, they must have been at least 20, and each had to be a mean fighter to be a bandit. These would take him for sure, for at that time he had been a kid, a perfect age to turn into slavery.

Seeing this, he willed the wind to not change course no matter what, and as he hid in the bushes until the morning, there was only one wish in his heart. Let the wind not alter course. All night it blew, but all night it never altered cause. As the bandits left, he passed out and slept for what felt like an eternity.

Pangs of hunger woke him up. He gazed around looking for any form of delicacy he could eat. A very noisy bird sang up a tree, and since it had volunteered, he wouldn't refuse the offer. Lifting his hand, he had willed the wind to push the bird towards him. Somehow, he had known the wind would obey, just as it had done before. He understood deep within that he had a connection with the wind, or as Dane would say the air element. To his joy, the bird flew right into his mouth.

He returned with enough catch to his clan, only to realize they had moved. It seemed their decision had been a rush one, which usually meant that they had spotted bandits they couldn't handle. They did live marks behind to any of the members they left behind to follow. The bandits too would follow, but they had to let their people know where they had gone, hence they needed to go somewhere that would dissuade the reason for their moving, which in this case was bandits. This usually meant joining a settlement.

The long walk to the settlement had been dreary, and he almost wandered into enemies. Luckily, as a lavel, even though he was still a kid, he was at the top of the food chain. This did not mean that other predators, including lavels and vasils, wouldn't hunt him, but at least he had less to fear.

A lone bandit had ambushed him. He was probably a spotter, for he had a bow. Most lavelian bandits usually traded with vasils for weapons in exchange for food and lavelian slaves. They usually had a pile of weapons which they then traded with other lavels with. All in all, they were well-armed.

The assailant had a nonchalant look about him, as though little Khalia didn't pose any threat at all. He seemed as though he was taking time to swat a fly, which was why he didn't need to call for help from his fellow bandits. What a fatal mistake.

One of the reasons why he was so lethal even while hunting had been that he would throw stones at prey. He was such a good shot and he could use the power of the wind to accelerate and increase the power of his attacks, making him a lethal shot indeed.

With a well-aimed attack, a stone was buried deep in the lavelian bandit's forehead. He collapsed without knowing what hit him. It took a moment for Khalia to register the treasure he had just gotten, especially one that resonated with his ability so well. Coincident, as Dane would say, I think not!

A bow and a quiver of arrows, which were just 10 arrows. Picking them up, he had made his way through the cover of trees, and with excellent marksmanship, he had whittled them out in the cover of darkness. He would even play around with scents to misdirect his opponent, a true guerrilla, one who was able to hunt down an entire gang of bandits all by himself. They stood no chance.

Khalia did not spit at his good fortune, rather, he collected the wealth of the bandits. There were a total of 50 weapons, and 6 kids that had been abducted. Seeing their savior was their age mate, the kids readily agreed to follow him and were adopted into the new clan, which had become part of Bamboo's settlement.

He couldn't believe his luck when he realized that the settlement he was in allowed weapons in the Farriga festival. There weren't many that did. This rule had been put in place to help a talent-less lavel who happened to be the son of the then head of settlement gain power. Like the rule about lavel females not fighting in the festival, this rule also stuck, and this time, it would boost Khalia to greater heights.

Dane had considered taking Khalia as the leader of his subordinates back then, the position that he now reserved for Bamboo, but he decided against it. He wanted an individual who owed all to him, as people usually remembered those that helped them when they were down, not those that came after they rose to power. As such Bamboo was much more suited. Khalia and the others would be part of the pack, but only Bamboo would lead.

In another dimension, a young lavel was busy munching on the meat of an unknown source. It was part of a reward given by Kendar for mastering part of the fire element. At the moment, he could produce a flame and even throw a fireball. He could heat any part of the body, and he was never affected by weather anymore, he was at ease in the cold and in the scorching sun.

The meat he was eating was an astral beast that had a draconian bloodline. While Dane was learning his space element skills, he had encountered a hunter who hauled a large astral beast, the kind that could devour worlds. The one had hunted was actually an infant, as when fully grown, this species of astral beasts could even consume stars.

A bargain was struck, he would create a spatial artifact big enough to hold three-fourths of the astral beast, and should he deliver, the remaining quarter was his. He worked tirelessly, straining his abilities to the limit, but he finally achieved it.

A quarter of the astral beast was still bigger than some moons, hence even making a spatial dimension where he could store it was a nightmare. Luckily, for storage, he didn't need to infuse any elements as it only needed space. Though getting that much space into a spatial dimension was hard, it wasn't as difficult as it would have been to add elements such as time or air. Spatial dimensions with no other elements are the best at storage, as spatial artifacts required some elements to manage its access.

Dane had been eating the astral beast meat and even sharing it with his confidants. It was until he transformed into a dragon that he realized that it might be cannibalism to eat that meat. Since it was still good meat and in his spatial dimension it would remain fresh until it was used up, he decided not to dispose of it. He could use it to nourish his subordinates, as he was doing.

The draconian bloodline in the astral beast made it quite well suited to nourish the energy levels in fire type and thunder type mages, and Alie was enjoying the meat. All told, it was a good day for the lavels, just as it was for one vasil.