Azaroth took another bath. He had already taken a bath early but he took another cold one, relaxing his muscles in the bath.

"That buffoon," Azaroth frowned, he splashed his face with water in the stone tub. "He stopped the Captains when they were about to get into it."

"I should have punished him.." Azaroth smiled and came out of the stone tub naked. Trailing water as he entered his room to dress. "I will punish him."

Azaroth didn’t know Catena was so smart..."No, that’s not cleverness I saw in his eyes. It was passion, he wanted us to fight a duel."

"I wondered where he came from," Azaroth mumbled as he put on his new black training uniform and made sure his sword was by his side. "All of them, even Alex, especially are not what they seem."

He walked down the corridor, taking his time. He had heard the others going down earlier and he now strolled unbothered. Touches were lined at intervals on the wall, driving the darkness away a little.

He went down the stairs and joined the others in the corner where the dining was. The tables and the chairs were made of a large grey stone that must have been carved from one large stone.

It was covered by light food and drinks.

"... I didn’t know Catena could move so fast! When did he master putting essence on his leg like that? And putting it in his two hands to block the weapons!" Alex said, shoving a piece of cake into his mouth.

Stallus looked at Alex in disgust. "At least cover your mouth when speaking."

Alex shot her an annoyed look and dusted his mouth before turning to Catena. "How did you do it?"

Azaroth took his seat and drew a plate of small meats towards himself.

Catena brought a cup to his mouth and drank deeply. "Just like Kael taught us."

"But we only covered our fist with essence! That’s what he trained us on." Alex said and pointed at Kael who had a cup in his hand and was looking at them. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Catena shrugged and yawned. "Is that not the same thing? If we had more essence then we would have covered more than one body part."

Alex looked at him stunned as if Catena had just revealed an important piece of information he had been looking for.

Stallus rolled her eyes and kept eating the cake in front of her

Alex looked at his raised hands, narrowed his eyes, and channeled. Essence rolled over both hands like mist on the tip of a mountain.

"Woah! See Stallus! I can cover both hands now and I have a lot of essence still!" Alex shouted, he shoved his hands forward towards Stallus. "I bet I can do this with my legs too!"

Kael Hound sighed. "You can but you shouldn’t."

"Why?" Alex asked.

"Well, it’s hard to channel to all limbs at once and it takes practice. Also to balance the amount of essence you put into each body part," Kael looked at Catena. "Which made what he did very impressive for a first time."

Catena shrugged. "Isn’t it all about how you visualize your essence?"

"Yes... that does take a large part of it and even for skill it takes a lot of visualizing but still it was pretty good. Moving like that." Kael tapped on the stone as he looked at Catena.

"So Catena," Stallus pointed her fork at him. "What did you visualize?"

Catena grumbled, avoiding Stallus’s eyes. "That’s not important."

Alex grinned. "Is our Catena shy? Not after you took the spotlight today by declaring a challenge!"

Catena grunted and muttered. "The mountain and what flew at its top."

"You visualized the mountain?" Stallus asked in confusion.

Azaroth stopped eating and started paying attention to Catena even Alex was paying unusual focus to the tall boy. Azaroth could almost feel Kael’s eyes as he looked at Catena.

"No. I am the mountain, unmovable and unshakable. I am what flew at its top, the eagle, swiftness that struck without mercy." Catena muttered.

Silence descended as everyone digested what he just said. It was such...an unexpected thing to come out of the tall boy.

Azaroth frowned. mountainn, is slow to move and change but the eagle is swift like an arrow and always changing.

Was that why he was so fast and Darian couldn’t remove axe even when he used all his power? The mountain indeed.

"That was such a deep visualizing...deep and simple," Stallus said after some time.

Catena shrugged. "I am a simple boy."

Azaroth was getting increasingly interested in this boy who had stood like a mountain with the swiftness of an eagle on hunt. Where had he come from?

Alex clapped. "I should find my phrase too! The powerful beast that conquers all!" Alex stood up and stuck a pose, frowning angrily and showing him teeth.

"More like a clown that won’t keep shut!" Stallus snorted.

Azaroth frowned slowly. Should he form one too? He shook his head. He didn’t need all that to channel essence. How does it even work? Does Catena see himself as a mountain when he starts channeling essence? Azaroth decided not to bother himself.

Kael had stopped tapping the stone and was now looking at Catena, his shoulder was rigid beneath his clothes.

What’s got Keal Hound in a twist? Azaroth thought.

"What’s your Elemental technique again, Catena?" Kael asked.

"The Earth Elemental technique." Catena frowned.

Kael stiffened, his hand clenched tight.

They all started at the Captain, confused.

"And since when have you been visualizing like this?" Kael asked his voice carefully devoid of any emotions.

"Since I was little," Catena replied.

Kael said nothing but they could all feel as the air tightened.

Azaroth frowned. What has Catena’s visualizing phrase had to do with his technique? An eagle and a mountain...and his technique is Earth Elemental!

It clicked then. The technique fits his visualization as if it had been picked specifically for Catena but that was impossible. Catena chose it himself.