Chapter 13 - Weak?

The night went by really slowly and Takumi was awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of footsteps from the hallway leading to his resting place in the library.

"Hey Takumi, wake up man." Misao's sharp voice made him jump from his slouching position, rubbing his eyes he asked what she needed, "let's get some training in before we leave." she requested.

"Oh my, training is for those who have no natural talent," he replied snickering, "but for a genius such as I, there is no need."

Misao immediately exploded with rage saying that just because he thinks he's the greatest in the world doesn't mean he doesn't need to improve but as usual Takumi could care less about anyone's opinion besides his own and eventually Misao gave up and stormed out.

"You know, she's right, she already reached the fifth scale of her fire and wind elements while you're just at the second scale of the water force." Kage opted to talk some sense into him but was also ignored.

***

"So, how's it coming along with you and Takumi?" Luna asked Ichika as they walked towards a carriage pulled by a pair of arions, which was a mythical horse like entity clad with plates of armor naturally embedded in it's skin and was said to posses healing blood.

"Takumi and I?" Ichika replied, "whatever do you mean?"

Luna chuckled under her breath from the entertainment she received from taunting Ichika about her ever slow growing relationship with Takumi, even more so now that she had already made a mark on him.

As the conversation grew in depth, Ichika felt slightly irritated by Luna's constant prying and begged the dragons for a way out, not even making the excuse of tending to the arions could get her out. She would eventually get a path to redemption though.

"Damnitt! I fucking hate that guy, I wish I could just break his head with that annoying little smile right off!" Misao came out in the open area ranting on and on about her hatred for Takumi and his arrogance and Ichika took the god sent opportunity to get away from Luna.

***

"*aaachooooo*" Takumi sniffled, "hmmm, someone misses me."

***

"What did he do this time?" Ichika asked as she ran towards the fuming Misao who then began to vent her rage in more hateful words repeating the same concepts related to Takumi.

Her anger was so intense that she unconsciously activated her fire dragon force and raised the surrounding temperature significantly and that made the arions upset.

"Oh no, I'm sorry horsey!" She noticed the commotion with the beasts and rushed over, her rage along with the intense heat that accompanied it seemed to have completely disappeared from the sight of animals, which she loved dearly.

Misao calmed the arions with a gentle rub and a whistling technique she learned while taking an ancient martial arts journey back on their home world.

Lancelot also emerged from the main building, headed towards the gathered travelers who questioned the whereabouts of Aegis.

"She's still asleep," he said. "However, there is someone I'd like you to take along the journey. Aiko!!"

Looking around there was no one by that name to be seen for a while, until a high pitched voice was heard coming from the main building entrance followed by a very tall young lady wearing a black and white jumper and a red backpack running out. She had skin of a slightly dark colour, chipped knees and a round face which was decorated with a pair of pink spectacles with rectangular frames that hung a bit below her eyes.

As she ran towards Lancelot, she tripped from her feet entangling each other and took a nasty fall making her slide across the ground.

"Ouuuchhhhh!" She exclaimed, Ichika and Lancelot rushed to help her up and brushed off her blue pigtails which got dusty from the fall.

"I'm sorry," she said as she found her footing, "as you all can see I'm a little klutzy."

Misao had to find every source of power in her body to stop her from laughing and decided to start a conversation. She asked what the reason was for her joining them which was clarified by Lancelot saying that she was good with maps and had highly developed the [Water Dragon | Sixth Scale: Healing Spring] so finding the clan's base would be easier along with helping them on their overall endeavors.

"Wow! Your almost at the tenth scale, we can get along girl," Misao praised, They took the time they had to get acquainted with each other while preparing for their departure.

All was well in terms of having a good time with just talking normally until Takumi strolled over to them, totally destroying the mood.

"Greetings my subjects, the man of the hour has arrived!" His appearance was a bit different in terms of his hair, which was tied in a shining silver ponytail which was nicely complimented by the rising sun, his straight cheek bones and small lips just beamed as he stated his self proclaimed might.

Everyone joined in sighing unpleasantly and an immediate silence set in, it was brutally broken by Aiko's high scream of joy as she made visual contact with the narcissist.

"It's…it's Takumi…I'm in heaven!" She fainted momentarily from seeing him and everyone, even Takumi who would naturally expect a reaction like this was confused.

Lancelot had an expression of someone just remembering something and began to laugh with a palm on his forehead.

"I forgot to mention that our new friend Aiko has an extreme crush on Mr. Lin here."

Misao walked away as soon as she heard that while Ichika couldn't say a word, Takumi however, put on a conceited smile and helped his admirer off the ground.

"Tell me more about how this crush arose."

As she extravagantly explained how it was love at first sight, she was totally tuned into him, so much so that she couldn't even hear the others calling her to enter the carriage.

With Luna being the driver a crack of the reins started their journey, Ichika went into her cat form and hopped on to the top of the carriage. They went through the Hallow Forest once more and emerged in a wide flat area known as the Hallow Plains, it had the same rainbow coloured nature as the forest and gave off a very fairy tale- like feeling.

Takumi was basking in the comments of admiration from Aiko who was leaning on his chest looking at him dearly, this made Misao gravely regret saying they would get along, she bore a grimace at them that could make even the jade demon queen herself tremble.

"Hey, you damn leech, quit sucking onto that bastard and start navigating!"

Aiko felt like she was being hunted by a mature manticore; (a four legged, black beast with long fangs and a stinger for a tail) and fearfully followed her orders, she took a large map out of her bag and moved her glasses closer to her eyes.

"We're supposed to come to a canyon soon," she said peering at the document, "be careful though, there's supposed to be a sphinx guarding it."

No sooner said than done they arrived at the described location, the canyon was a tall landform, bearing a dark coloured rock that contrasted well with the preceding landscape, they each exited the vehicle and scoped the area.

"It looks too narrow to take the carriage, get the arions and we'll use them alone," Aiko suggested.

As they untied the steed and loaded the luggage a loud screech was heard from the skies, a large winged creature flew over their heads and landed in front of them.

"Answer my riddle, thou may pass, if thou fail, today is your last!"

It was a sphinx, the drawings in the book of creatures was clearly inaccurate compared to what stood before them, the female sphinx possessed a magnificent wing span, her snake eyes sliced through the travellers minds with a terrifying glare and her body which had the tail of a lion's from neck to toe was covered in thick fur.

"These guys are really strong," Luna whispered as they huddled together, "We'll be in a lot of trouble if we get the riddle wrong."

Takumi walked towards the beast and taunted her to let loose her riddle, her eyes glowed yellow and her riddle came.

"Thou art something humans love or hate. Changes appearances and thoughts. If thou takes care of thyself I will go up even higher. To some I will fool them. To others I am a mystery. Some creatures may want to try and hide me but they shall fail, no matter how hard thee tries I will never fail. What am I?"

Everyone's jaw fell to the floor from the high intelligence this question required, everyone except Takumi, his eyes had a carefree expression as he lifted his head as if he was a king.

"The answer you ask? My superior mind laughs at this, the answer my dearest sphinx is beauty."

Everyone on the field had no idea what to think, they hadn't the slightest clue whether it was wrong or right but Takumi was as confident as Hercules.

The air was still until the sphinx gave a faint cackle, which grew louder each passing second.

"Incorrect!"

Takumi and the others were astonished and began to panic, the sphinx flew upwards and took a deep breath. Aiko who had prior knowledge of the sphinx quickly shouted at everyone to activate the protection scale of their dragon force and with Takumi's lack of training, he did not posses this.

An ear splitting scream came from the sphinx's throat just as the other's protection scale was activated which made a ball of energy encase their bodies respective to their elements. Takumi let out a howl of unbearable pain before collapsing and as the sphinx flew off thinking her target was destroyed, Misao came over him glaring at him in complete disgust.

"Arrogance without anything to back it up is stupidity." and that was the last thing he heard before blacking out.

***

"Ugh, my head, what happened?" Takumi found himself regaining consciousness inside the carriage with Aiko and Ichika sitting over him, he sat up quickly which made him feel lightheaded.

"Hey, you should rest, if it wasn't for Aiko's healing scale and the arion blood you would have died." Ichika advised while she wiped the tear that trickled from her eye.

As Takumi laid his head he felt like a nobody, his useless arrogance almost cost him his life. A tear escaped his eye as he finally found his resolve.

"No more shall I be this way, I'll only be conceited unless I have something behind it."

He got up from his resting place and went outside to Misao who was playing with an insect.

"…Misao, please train me."