Seed Of Speed

A black boat dipped into the water and pushed up onto the shore. Diego and his team jumped off the ship, sporting their weapons and armor, Tovao carrying his new glaive and Diego was in his custom-crafted armor from Silverflame. The Core Disciple team would be waiting in the Meeting House at the center of the island and could not prepare any type of magical defense until they laid eyes on their team. This was the saving grace for Diego's team as it would allow them time to set up the battlefield how he wanted.

"Flowingrock and Silverflame, make us a cave before master retracts her {Invisibility}. Stromblade, Rainshower, Moonfall, let's start building the storm," Diego said. Jalu gave a huff and pawed at Diego's head. He chuckled and scratched the little fox's chin, saying, "Alright, you can help, too."

The five nodded and started building their spells. Shadowbolt would only grant them three minutes of {Invisibility} at her strength, since Diego's and Moonfall's version could likely be seen through by Hawkeye, who specialized in long range scouting and flying. This was their last chance to safely setup any spells without alerting the other team, although the sudden storm rising up would announce their arrival.

Flowingrock moved the sandy beach like water, creating a massive hole, while Silverflame came behind her, solidifying the edges of the tunnel. Rainshower had the strongest affinity with storm magic, focused around water, wind, and thunder, but the rest could still help fuel her storm with simple spells.

Thunder crackled overhead as the sky seemed to boil with dark clouds that formed at an alarming rate. Although she completed her first storm spell, Rainshower immediately started building another. Their goal was to create a storm strong enough to ground Hawkeye, or at least cover their advance.

"Time is almost up," Shadowbolt reminded.

Rainshower and the rest released their spell and the whole group moved into the freshly made cave. Flowingrock and Silverflame were still pushing forward, slightly descending and had already created fifteen meters worth of tunnel. Moonfall pulled out a tiny, bird shaped golem and tossed it out of the hole.

"Spinelli is out and searching for the Meeting House," Moonfall said.

"Good, it won't be long until the storm starts to fill this tunnel, so we should start heading up," Diego said.

Flowingrock nodded, but since no one but he could see her, Silverflame said, "Understood."

"Too bad no one has the 'nature' affinity with earth, or we could tell where the tree line starts," Diego commented.

"You already have two 'holy' elements and 'gravity', isn't that enough?" Rainshower teased.

Diego smiled and squeezed her hand before following after the rest. They were nearing the surface when the small crystal in Moonfall gave off a pulse of light.

"Spinelli has found the Meeting House," Moonfall said excitedly.

"Good. Build your illusions around the stone and make sure nothing is leaking out. We don't need that giving us away before we get close," Diego said.

"The way is open," Silverflame called out, but it was not obvious as, while they were underground, the sky had grown black except for the occasional flash of lightning.

"Pull back, just in case," Diego said then pulled Jalu off his head. "I need you to go check outside, especially the sky. There might be someone like us flying around and we don't want to be caught yet."

The white fox gave a w.h.i.n.e which made Rainshower giggle, since as her master, she could understand Jalu.

Diego placed the fox down and pulled out a violet gem as he said, "If you do well today, I'll give you another five of these."

There were stars in the little fox's eyes and a bit drool dripping from its mouth as it stared at the gem in Diego's hand. He chucked and tossed it to her which she caught in the air and swallowed it whole. She flicked her tails happily and trotted through everyone's legs then out the hole. After a few minutes, the white fox returned and gave a small bark.

"She says that she can't see anyone," Rainshower translated.

"Alright. Moonfall, you lead the way. We are running dark until we know we have been exposed then we'll break into our teams and rush towards the Meeting House. Once I can see the building, I'll start my new Spell-Song while you guys need to get into position. We will need to combine our strengths if we are going to split them up," Diego instructed.

Everyone nodded then they charged out into the storm. Rain lashed at their bodies as it was whipped by the high winds. They were roughly five meters of the palm tree forest which was swaying wildly in the wind, but they rushed in with little fear. Even without the use of chi or mana, everyone's body was more that strong enough to resist whatever the storm could throw at them.

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Thunder rang through the sky, shaking the building through the shockwave. The head of every Core Disciple snapped up and a few chuckled.

"I guess Brightmelody likes to make an entrance," Radiantspear said with a smirk.

"He must be trying to ground me," Hawkeye said, walking to the door.

"This storm will effect more than just you," Rosepetal huff as she followed. "Who's going to help me clear up this storm?"

"We can't. No magic until we've seen his team, Hawkeye's flight is one of the exceptions," Radiantspear reminded.

"But how can I use my pollen field in a storm?" Rosepetal complained.

"That is part of the challenge. It may not rain often in the desert, but it still happens. Everyone, let's move outside, so we can act the moment Hawkeye finds them, but our first priority will be to weaken this storm," Radiantspear instructed.

The rest of the group made their way outside just as the wind was picking up. Hawkeye jumped up into the air the second he stepped outside, a sky-blue quiver appearing on his back and yellow horn bow in his hand. He zoomed up into the sky and could see the storm building rapidly in the south. The veins around his eyes swelled as he activated his {Eyes of the Hawk} which magnified his vision greatly and allowed him to catch the smallest of movements, but with the wind from the growing storm, that was not much help.

With no luck with his eyes alone, a pair goggles appeared on his face which had a much more advanced form of the 'Analyze' enchantment. He scanned the southern beach for the smallest amount of mana fluctuations, but he still came up empty. It was not until a large wave crashed against the shore that he finally noticed the large hole and realized they had gone underground.

Hawkeye pulled out his token and said, "They slipped underground to the south. Self-created tunnel."

Radiantspear felt the vibration from his token then took it out and listened to the message. "Keep your eyes peeled, they won't stay underground for long. Watch the tree line," he sent back.

Hawkeye did as he was told, but with the storm just growing in strength, he was having difficulties keeping his position in the air. His unique flight magic relied on a combination of lowering his weight through gravity manipulation and controlling the air current around him. Normally, this would grant him far more grace than he had on land, but the storm was quickly growing out of control.

Lightning charged through the sky and shot at the nearest object to it, Hawkeye. He barely managed to charge his body with Thunder Mana before the bolt crashed into his body, but he was mostly able to shake it off. For those down below, they looked on with various degrees of concern while Lightningrush just chuckled, wanting to jump up and meet the lightning head-on as well.

Ten minutes had passed since the first bolt of lightning rang out when Hawkeye finally caught sight of them. He pulled out a special arrow and aimed it towards Brightmelody's team which had reached within a hundred meters of the Meeting House. The moment he released the arrow, it screeched through the air with an ear-ringing whistle, alerting both his teammates and Brightmelody that the duel had officially begun.