Chapter 39: The Day After the Storm.
A group consisting of eight individuals was sitting in a circle on the middle of the campsite outside the Korale Village.
Currently one dark haired with a ponytail female was speaking while a short dark haired individual was at her side passing her various papers while she spoke.
"...At least ten sacks of salt were spoiled by the water, we can't use them to sell, so we're going to be using it in the campsite. At the same time our ovens need to get dry for a day or two before we start utilizing them again." As the dark haired female continue giving the reports with the help of other individual, the people around shared a serious look.
"We lost one of the boats in the making as it was taken by the receding waves before we could do something about it. And last but no least, thirty six workers were injured during the whole ordeal, some of them might not be able to work for a month at least as they broke some of their limbs." As she finished her report, the female looked over one individual with long brown hair, who was sitting on her left side, there was a tired look on his face as it was visible to everyone to see.
The man then spoke with a heavy sigh in a different language than the one used by the female,"It's better than I thought at least, we're going to extend our stay for four or five days more, at best, to recover from the losses." As he finished the female seemed to understand his words as she nodded her head.
"But we need to know when did more Noxians reinforcements arrived, there wasn't any sign of them days prior and the sudden appearance of those ships only meant that more troops were deployed somewhere we have yet to know." He continue saying while the female nodded, agreeing with his assessment.
She then added "There may be more ships we weren't able to see in the meantime or days before, so we can't rule out the possibility of another large army somewhere we aren't aware off, there's also the other islands of Ionia we aren't taking into account."
As her words escaped her mouth, the various individuals could finally get a little bit of clue what they were talking about, since they could understand her.
"We don't know their destination, but we know the direction they were coming from, we can start working from that, and later, when we regroup with the recruits and the rest of the wind School, we can start cleaning towards that direction." Suddenly one blonde haired female with various tattoos on her shoulder and legs said, making everyone agree with her.
"Ymir is right, we already knew of the noxian presence on this coastline and more possibly, in the west, we have to decide something in this regarding, or the moment the noxian army walk on the coast those remaining soldiers would add up to their numbers, or worse yet, the Ionians themselves." A dark purple haired young female added, pausing briefly for careful thinking while then continuing.
"At this point they are already aware of our presence on the area, if we not control this region before they start acting, then we would only fail on preserving our operations here while at the same time crippling our supply line." What she voiced out was in the heads of everyone here.
the long brown hair man added, "We have to divide our group in two, one taking care of moving the troops in two weeks, while the other staying behind ensuring the safety of this settlement alongside the various villages under our wings, it is now that we have to prove our capability to protect these places, while at the same time giving enough deterrence to the remaining Noxians to not attack." As he eyed everyone, a moment of silence prevailed around the circle, while a few seemed to look thoughtful, others wondered what he just said.
"So Renzo, how are we going to divide our group? And under what criteria we will do that also?" Asked the dark haired female.
The man pointed out as Renzo reply to her "Strength, capabilities and insight. We have to asses our strength once again so we can decide well how are we going to deploy ourselves, you and I will be in the same group, that much I can assure you, but the rest is up to see yet. Tell them that and let's prepare ourselves to continue training, we need to be up to the task." As Renzo finished, he raised on his feet, while the dark haired female nodded her head and start conveying his words.
A white coloured two tail tiger-like cub jumped on Renzo's shoulder while the later walked away towards the beach.
The group after hearing the words conveyed by the female, stand up on their feet, six of them following Renzo while another retreating towards the camp direction.
"So we are going to fight against each other to asses our strength or what?" Asked one ash haired female.
"That's one way, but you have to keep in mind that some people, like Irelia, is more fit to kill rather than fighting, it's not the same with her holding back while fighting against you, than seeing her in the middle of a battle killing five to ten enemies with each of her attacks." Replied to her the dark haired female while they continue following Renzo.
"And what other things you would use to examine us?" Inquire one tall half-vastayan young man with both hands behind his head.
"I was thinking about hunting some Noxians to see that, we're going to keep training for another week before I'll start the official assessment. Until then, we need to get ourselves stronger while at the same time receive more intelligence regarding other noxians positions alongside brigands on the roads." She answered his question while also giving an insight on their future.
' Although Renzo hadn't said anything about it, I believe he was thinking something among those lines, while doing this we also ensure the safety of the road and we can start doing our job as a faction.' She thought to herself while continue looking the back of Renzo with a light on her eyes.
Ymir smiled when she heard her words as she couldn't help but exclaim with a wicked tone "Finally! I was started to think that we'll keep remaining doing nothing towards those dogs!"
Hearing her words, the ashen haired female chuckled while she added her own words "What is best to test our strength than the good old noxians? I wonder how strong I grew after all these days training under Renzo." She put a finger on her mouth while seemed to be thoughtful.
Like that the group continue as they finally reached Renzo's position on the beach. The later looked over them and nodded his head while saying "I wasn't able to finish yesterday's training, so today Karya and Sett are going to put the double efforts to make up for the lost day! There's no such a thing as not being able to train for an enemy attack or the likes, unless you are bedridden, then there's no excuses for skipping training, am I clear Karya!?"
As Renzo roar reached her ears, Karya opened her mouth in disbelief, ' What the hell is he saying?' she thought to herself.
Seeing her nor answering, Renzo looked over her while shouting again "I'm not hearing your response Karya, AM I CLEAR!?"
"Stop screaming you idiot! And yes you are clear for Janna's sake!" Karya replied back with an annoyed expression on her face while giving him a death glare.
Renzo nodded his head in approval while he looked over the rest of the group while thinking,' The majority of them didn't properly rested nor eat enough for another training session like yesterday, might as well do something more light for them and tomorrow go hard for it again.' He then decided the remaining exercises of the day in a brief moment.
Thus, after making Karya know of his decision and making her explain them to the rest, they started working out.
He decided to start with Karya and Sett, the first doing the same exercises as yesterday, but with the difference that not only she has to meditate and train using her own magic abilities, but also suffering from Renzo's tremor running amok her body.
By the time she finished her part, her whole body was tensed while laying on the ground, her eyes closed too tired to even open them. Parts of her body muscles sometimes twitching involuntarily.
The next one was Sett, who at first got cocky when Ymir said the exercises he would be doing, something he has done multiple times already to build his current muscular body.
Yet, the moment Renzo started tearing apart his muscle fibers from his arms, shoulders, chest, legs, and abdomen, he understood that this would be much harder than he first thought.
By the time he finished, he wasn't it better position than Karya as he was already sleeping on the sand, too tired to even maintain himself awake.
The rest of the morning was uneventful as Renzo made the remaining four members run alongside the shore while finishing the whole thing tearing down the remaining healthy muscle fibers on their bodies.
It wasn't an understatement to say that if they properly eat and rest, their strength in a matter of months would leap in ways they couldn't imagine.
'I could easily make them train while only placing my palm on their backs and making them sit, but it's funnier seeing them doing all these things.' Renzo amused to himself while looking at the tired group in front of him.
'Although ingraining this kind of workout would surely be helpful for them when I'm not around.' He concluded while preparing for his own training.
Although his body was getting under constant strain all the times, due to his every being creating tremors and rupturing his muscles fibers most of the time, there was a lot of things he needed to properly train.
What he was most commonly used to do, was meditating and visualize his power, in that way making easier for him to utilize it during battle.
He wasn't seeing anything nor did he have some sort of special sense, it was just a mental visualization he was giving himself all the time, in that way he was able to will and utilize his power in such control that was already showed multiple times already.
How can he see vibrations? How can he distinguish between the bones, muscles and various tissue in the body? It was all by visualizing and making the image on his head with the information he received by various stimulus and what his senses received.
In that regard, he was also making use of the same vibrations to actually visualize the terrain around him. However the effectiveness of such thing was at low percentage, mostly because he wasn't that much trained yet on that regard and that it also require a heavy focus he couldn't permit himself at the current time.
What he often did, however, was gathering rocks on his arms, closing his eyes, sitting on a circle draw on the sand and throw them up in the air, then he channeled the vibrations and perceived not only the air, if he could, but also doing the same once he heard the knocks of rocks hitting the sand.
Then he would try sense their location and using one finger to trace the path towards said rocks. Most of the times, he would success after making an erratic path. Other times, he would fail without being able to properly located.
All of this was due to his current inability to correctly asses and visualize that information right on his head.
After all, how can he train himself in a matter of weeks to distinguish the differences on the waves that returned to his body after hitting some objects? It wasn't an easy feat, but he was on his way to be able to correctly use such method, and by consequence, be able to put out a countermeasure against assassins and enemies that could attack him from the back.
Then he would train his combat abilities, mostly by hitting a wooden pillar that was cut a few days ago, he was using such pillar to properly train his boxing abilities alongside other techniques.
However, after today training he started considering pass next towards a rock pillar since he was starting to destroy the current one with his physical strength and leaving behind deep marks on it.
Thus, it was clear that his next training dummy needed to be of a more resilient material if he wished to continue honing his combat skill.
And the last thing he did for training, was meditate to actually try bring out something he hoped was also given alongside the devil fruit.
The Haki. A wonderful technique that was from the world of One Piece, which could give the user three different primary abilities, Observation, Armament and Will.
The observation Haki being useful for predict enemy attacks while also giving other abilities, such as seeing the future if it's trained enough.
Armament Haki was the ability to engulf the user body in a black coating that was thick as iron and could hit things like fire, smoke and other intangible elements. If it was properly trained, it could make the user bones strong as iron itself.
And the last one was The Conqueror's Haki, it was the ability of intimidating other people with the user will, sometimes incapacitating weak willed people by the mere presence of such individuals.
As far as Renzo knew, it was an ability that wasn't trainable unlike the two first. And something he wasn't sure if he was capable of using. Thus, he has been spending various days trying to see wether something deep inside him could respond in such ways.
Sadly for him, there wasn't any advance on any of the three different Haki, nonetheless, he didn't give up and diligently meditate while trying it everyday.
Under the belief of "Persevere and you will triumph", he wasn't planning on giving up anytime soon. It has to be at least a couple of years before he finally gave up trying to awake such thing.
' I've been already Isekai'd, how can I allow myself to not believe in the Haki too?' That was his thought in the matter regard.
After doing everything on his part and also patting his little cub for mimicking his training, he approached his companions once again that were still laying on the ground, some of them sleeping while others simply chatting among themselves.
Gazing at each one of them, a smile was plastered on his face while he started carrying four of them on his arms. Given his current strength, this wasn't a problem.
Walking back to the campsite, he let them down on their tents and then he returned back to retrieve the remaining individuals, after getting everyone here, he went towards the campsite kitchen, looking for a certain individual.
"Indah are you here?" He asked as he looked around the wooden building that was acting as the camp kitchen, at least half dozen of people working on making the lunch for everyone.
It was then he saw the fluffy droopy ears of a vastayan female pocking over the door frame.
"Are you looking at me Ren?" Asked an smiling female with a gentle look on her face while eyeing Renzo.
The latter automatically smiled her back and nodded his head while answering her "Yes, can you please do the lunch for us? We need a lot of food and yours is the best I ate until now."
As Indah hear his compliment, a loving expression appeared on her face as she simply said to him "Thank you Ren, just wait a few minutes and I'll prepare something delicious for you."
As she said that, she didn't wait for him and moved back her hear, continuing cooking. Meanwhile Renzo felt his appetite open at the thought of eating her food.
Returning back to the group position, he notify to the one's awake "Indah is cooking our lunch, it'll be ready in a while." As soon as his words reached their ears, some of them opened their eyes wide open while a grin plastered on their faces.
"Finally Indah's cooking once again! I was thinking I'll be dying after not eating yesterday!" Exclaimed Ymir with an enamored expression on her face.
"I have to gather my strength back so I can fetch another bowl today!" Said Irelia with a determinated expression as she looked the sky and tried raising her fist.
"You need to correct your accent a little bit, but everything else is okay." Karya commented to Renzo as she opened her eyes.
Renzo upon hearing her words simply smiled and replied briefly "I'm glad to hear it, then I hope you have time to teach me a little more..." Leaving a clear innuendo towards her.
Karya looked at him briefly until her face flushed and she looked away, embarrassed after getting the message.
Meanwhile, the rest of the group were slowly trying to get up off the ground, their bodies screaming in pain and voicing out some complaints.
The only one still asleep on the ground was Sett, who was clearly exhausted after training.
'It is not surprising though, surely he never had to train like this, nor did he have to demand so much from his body.' Renzo thought to himself as he briefly observed the half-breed.
Suddenly, Hyuna's voice snapped him out of his thoughts as she asked, "Renzo, you still haven't told us about what happened in the fight! Spill the beans and tell us until Indah brings us the food!"
Hearing the energetic tone in the tone of his voice, Renzo sighed and began to narrate the events.
As he finished with the count, Indah finally appeared with the various bowls of soup in her arms, "Excuse me, here you got guys, I hope you like it!" Shee said briefly as he served each one of them with a gentle smile on her face.
"Thanks Indah! Sorry for the inconvenience for making you serve us!" Karya thanked with a smile towards the energetic Vastaya.
"That that, thank you Indah!" Hyuna added with a loud exclamation as she wasted no time and ate voraciously.
The rest also thanked her while they had lunch in harmony and tranquility, while Renzo continued narrating with the help of Karya as they continue eating.
Indah was in charge of waking up her boy after bringing him his plate of food, the young man offered no resistance as he clearly ate the lunch half asleep.
As they finished, Renzo finally finished narrating the events before the watchful eyes of his group, who finally understood the complex situation that occurred the previous day.
However, the young Irelia was the one who highlighted a clear problem, "So you mean that your powers cannot be used openly in the sea or a bay either? You certainly have quite a few limitations."
Hearing her words and the lively tone in her young voice, the group nodded in agreement as they looked at Renzo waiting for his word.
The latter let out a sigh as he nodded his head and added, "It is certainly quite limiting, however it is something that can be easily overcome with more training and control. I guess in a few weeks you will be able to see what my training does, and I can only say that I am training my body all the time. "
When Karya relied his words while dropping that bomb the group couldn't contain the surprise and looked at Renzo with a new founded gaze.
"You mean you're putting up with 'this' all the time !?" Hyuna exclaimed as she pointed at her body, referring to the accumulated fatigue and exhaustion she was suffering.
However, it was Ymir who answered while saying "It makes sense, don't you remember that the first days on the squad his appearance was not the best? I mean, he always ended up going to sleep as soon as we finished dinner HAHAHAHA." Ymir laughed as she remembered certain moments when the squad chatted around the campfire, and as always Renzo was not there as he was sleeping.
Tahru chuckled in amusement upon hearing Ymir's words as he added his part on the matter,"Not only that, that elder healer spent more time tending to his wounds, which he never showed to had, than with others wounded people in the village. Ye and Mao always joked that Renzo had fallen in love with this old lady. " As he finished recalling, he couldn't contain his heartily laugh.
Renzo looked around them with a nonchalant expression, years of mock for shitting his pants on school has prepared him for withstanding such moments.
Hyuna and Ymir started laughing hysterically, as they began to recall more anecdotes and memories as they took turns for saying them.
The group continued chatting and remembering moments before the eyes of Irelia and Renzo who remained silent, the latter being the target of bullying by Ymir and Hyuna. While Karya and Tahru also contributed other anecdotes from other members of the old squad, Irelia just laughed at the more funny stories.
Sett slept the entire time after finishing his lunch, oblivious to the chatter going on around him, the only change being his satisfied face after eating the tasty meal of his mother.
Ymir, after glancing at his position, showed a mischievous smile as she said in a low voice "Hey, how about we do something with Sleeping Beauty?"
Hyuna, being her partner in crime on these ocations showed a bright smile while asked her "What do you have in mind?"
Ymir didn't said anything as she got up from Tahru embrace and started looked around the campsite. Then she seemed to spot something as she stopped looking around and said with a devilish tone "Isn't the Scaled Snappers shit quite annoying to deal after it stick into your body? I say this young boy here may need a new mustache."
When the group heard her words, different reactions passed through her face, Hyuna seemed eager to try that, Tahru looked at his lover with a complicated expression, Karya furrowed her brows and was about to chastise her, while Renzo and Irelia thought the same thing.
'That's a little bit too much.'
"HAHA THAT'S AN EXC-" Hyuna couldn't finish her words when Karya voice resounded "No, think about another thing." Her voice tone giving no room for negotiation.
Ymir pouted and scoffed at her words, while returning to her previous position in Tahru embrace.
It was then that Renzo voice out his idea "What about putting him on a raft and sending him in the ocean?" Since Karya was the only one who understood him, she looked over him with a disbelief expression on her face, what Ymir wanted to do was pretty much tame compared to this.
"Are you crazy!? No! That's too much, why can't you guys tone out your pranks!" She began to reprimand him with a stern look on her face, while Renzo smiled wryly looking towards Hyuna and Ymir.
The two females shook their heads while making him understand that nothing came to their minds.
"He doesn't know to swim! What will happen to him if something goes wrong while he is on the on sea!? What the hell is wrong with your way of thinking!" As Karya continue her rightful rant at Renzo, Hyuna took advantage of the attention directed towards the duo and grabbed Sett on her shoulder as the latter just continue sleeping.
Then she began to head towards the beach, while Karya remained unaware of this, however Ymir, Tahru, Irelia and Renzo saw the whole ordeal and shared a look with each other.
After two minutes, when Ymir spotted that Hyuna finally found something to act as a raft, she pointed out what the later was doing to Karya "Ehm Kar, Hyuna just took Sett and is now putting him in the ocean, can we go to see?"
As Karya heard this, her eyes opened wide open and shouted "That freaking bitch! Is her head only filled with Worax shit!?" She then started running towards the beach, while the rest of the group smiled at each other with a knowing smile and chased behind, amidst the heavy groans from Irelia and Tahru.
While they were passing, they didn't noticed the various workers looking around towards the Korale Village direction, as a group of villagers started walking towards the beach direction with various things on their hands.
"Oh they want to give offerings to the sea spirits! Shouldn't we do the same?" exclaimed one worker while the rest shared the same thought.
"Yesterday's event must be a warning from the spirits! We've been fishing and building our things without giving too much in exchange, that's must be the reason for that tsunami!" another one voiced out as more and more started to agree with this notion.
It reached the point where Tomura received complains of the people working in the forest that they didn't wanted to continue cutting trees. And asked for wood weavers to continue the job in their stead.
Wood weavers were individuals that convinced the trees to change their shapes into houses or other buildings, in that way they didn't needed to cut the trees and just needed to ask them to change their shapes.
With them making the building, they didn't have to fear for the spirits to unleash their wrath upon them, like the day before. They could also complete the task in a day or two after the wood weavers finished with their part. The only problem was that there weren't any wood weaver in the campsite nor the korale village, thus they needed to search for them in other villages.
With this problem at hand, Tomura tried to search for the group, only to find no one in their tent circle, only Morpheus who was sleeping peacefully besides Renzo's tent.
It was then that he heard Karya's voice resounding near the beach, as he headed towards that direction while also stealing glances at the villagers procession towards the shore.
Meanwhile Sett was already getting washed away by the waves slowly under the angered face of Karya who was scolding Hyuna for her doing. The later just smiled wickedly while seeing the retreating figure of Sett.
"You are going to be the one that will retrieve him back, do you understand?" Karya asked with a stern tone at Hyuna who moved her hand nonchalantly while replying "Sh, sh, sh, yeah I already heard you, now let's enjoy his reaction!" She then turned around and looked at Ymir who raised her thumbs at her.
Renzo just smiled at the evil face of Hyuna while pondering on his head ' Should I stop with these things?' Questioning over this kind of pranks that he sometimes pulled when he was younger with school friends.
Be it, writing over their faces, shaving their eyebrows, waking them with ice on their necks, etc. They were assholes actions but surely make him laugh. And he was also in those situations too, something which he at the moment was piss off but now were memories he laughed at.
Nonetheless all their laugh stopped when they noticed the various villagers approaching the shore with various things on their hands and back.
When Irelia saw this she murmured "Offerings to the Sea Spirits..." Making the group quickly understand and look with solemnly at the peregrination.
It was only Renzo that was at bit lost, but didn't asked anything and continue seeing with curiosity written all over his face.
Whatever was about to happen, seemed to be of extreme importance.
****
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Xerstoren
Xerstoren 4.7k words.
Hey there! I'm back.
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Sorry for the short unannounced break!
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