87 || Fighting Nobility! Expertise On Display!

The starry woman thinks for a moment before nodding. This does seem like a good plan to facilitate a stronger foundation. Opening the Gates would allow Tara to have smoother transitions into the other Body Altering Stages, especially the last three. And the easier it is for Tara to advance the more likely the starry woman will get her body back.

"Give her these scrolls after seeing where the three Nodes set. They aren't a part of the memory because of their difficulty but if she uses her Clones to create each section, then the array will work. Who knows she might even surprise me yet again."

The two scrolls that appear in Msireta's hands have a rousing wave of Solar energy and a drowsy pulse of Lunar Energy. Opening them, her eyes open wide in shock. The two arrays will take Tara's aural and Twin Sphere energies through large qualitative leaps. Right now the threads, though channelable, are considered transparent and intangible. This will allow them to go to the next great realm of being Wisps, something that barely begins during Navel Enshrouding and Eye Illuminating.

Before she can reply, the two figures sense Tara's return to their world from the other plane. Something's been changed about her, but they can't place it. And is that a Soul Brand...? Msireta leaves the starry woman without a word of thanks or leave, which the woman expected. She's simply glad for the visit.

Tara awakens in the Stone Chamber like before, finding that Msireta is not immediately present. She has the thought to finally check what the Nodes do, when her new guardian finally appears before her, looking a little distressed.

"Are you okay?" Tara questions with concern. Msireta doesn't immediately respond as she sweeps over Tara's body and energies. There doesn't seem to be any obvious difference but something feels off about Tara's body and mind? The Soul Brand is powerful and ancient but formed as a protective seal, so whoever placed it meant to aid Tara not harm her. But how did she and the starry woman not realize it was there? Did something happen on the other plane that they aren't aware of?

"I should be asking you! What occurred when you went to the other plane? Why do you feel stronger than when I left you, it's only been a night?" Msireta is now combing over Tara like a mother lioness and her cub.

Tara blinks owlishly, amazed that Msireta can sense her change into an Expert. With her new processing speed, it doesn't take her long to come up with an acceptable answer. After considering it was best not to mix information about both worlds, Tara settled on having achieved enlightenment after forming her Nodes.

Msireta does some more body and energy prodding before relenting. It's likely the truth and all the more reason Tara should focus on the Gates next. However, the young girl needs to settle her Nodes' placement. The coating of her aural ports is just the initial level, for them to be fully formed they need to be created elsewhere in the body. They could be considered as vestigial organs that can produce a fusion of an elemental and an aural energy.

"However, it takes some time, so we'll focus on that later. I'd also like to explain a few more things to you. Right now, though, you don't want to be late for your match with those noble brats." Msireta reminds Tara, who recalls the challenge she had accepted.

The timing couldn't be more perfect as she'll need to do some adjusting her virtual body to her new strength. Plus, she spent time figuring out how to link her Blade plays with her Body Arts with Tanisha. Her aunt had also insisted she do so while practicing force concentration in her hands, which led to not being able to get the timing or power usage correct. The linking would fall apart if either wasn't right. Now she saw the perks of virtuality, as in the natural world, it would have taken longer to get it correct.

Tara heads to the Lightning Spear sparring grounds, a crowd of all the students and some teachers parting as she arrives. Her [Obscure] Skill has grown to level 5 thanks to the change in her energy's quality and quantity due to awakening her Bloodline, so most only read her as late stage Bone Crystallization. Only the teachers sense a discongruity in her presence, but chalks that up to her variant bone structure.

While she's been walking, Tara's mind has been reviewing her growth from the start. Mostly she's realized that her conjuring Ember Gather and Drop Scatter was actually a very basic Manifestation technique. Wolyung before was simply taking the principles of the two Arts onto her weapon with Moonlight Cleave. It's all about the proper focusing of energy to a point.

If she thinks about it that way then, a Strength Expert's force concentration is just a manifestation of her physical and kinetic energy.

And if she were to condense it like Elemental Raiment?

Before she could ponder some more, she arrived on stage beside Frae. Across from them are the Nukura twins in Lightning Spear gamboge yellow outfits. Both had identical longswords at their hips, with genial smiles on their faces but eyes blazing with disdain.

"I'd like to save you some embarrassment, and offer you to forfeit. As you are the Headmistress's direct disciple, I'm sure the Academy will ignore the bet. As for Raji, she can become your servant just like your little bodyguard." Xialian proposes gently.

It was clear to everyone that the two long standing nobles looked down on Tara, her family, even the Headmistress's decision of taking her as a personal student. They didn't believe in any of the rumors or stories surrounding Tara. How could a child be so strong? It was too ridiculous.

Frae is about to take a step forward and retort, when Tara places an arm out in front of the older girl. Frae stops and calms down but still glares at Shidon and his sister Xialian. Tara returns the grin with her eyes flashing intensely.

"Why don't we change the bet? Nobody has to leave the Academy. Instead, I'll fight you both on my own. If I lose then I'll share the secret that changed my family with you."

Shidon laughs but his eyes change from disdain to greed. "And if, somehow, you were able to beat the two of us?"

"I'd like a meeting with your Patriarch." Tara says simply, catching everyone off guard. The Nukura Family is the Kingdom's most talented potion and pill refiners. What could she want with them?

"Our Patriarch isn't going to come to the mountains to meet your--" Xialian is about to disagree when Tara cuts her off.

"Don't misunderstand, I meant me specifically. And actually I'd like Frae to come as well. I heard she has some affinity with pill-making unlike certain folk." Tara chuckles as she recalls some of the information Niven had told her earlier. This was part of the reason for the bullying. The twins inability to go beyond Novice in their family's talent was a huge sore spot for them.

Instead, they were stronger in combat. In order to make up their reputation, the twins desperately sought to get into Dark Saber. That way they weren't ignored by most of their family. Getting into Lightning Spear was a given as nobility but being in Light Shield or Dark Saber was a sign of real potential and notice.

As for Tara's reasoning, well, she could use some guidance in pill making. Her forging techniques were fine and her inscriptions could be made stronger with the Ethereal Script. It wasn't that the Academy's Pill Masters weren't good but rather the Patriarch had nearly 200 years of experience as an Eye Illuminating aurator. The average life span, depending on how far one advances in the official final stages of Body Altering, is 500 years. 250 was considered one's Peak age, so the Nukura Patriarch had nearly 50 years until he had to make a breakthrough.

"Sure then it's a deal. Everyone is a witness to our words. Actually, should either of us back down, we'll have our fight recorded!" Shidon snarls, excited by the idea of watching Tara's failure on repeat.

His sister pouts with a harrumph, the two of them getting ready as they draw their swords. They activated their auras, cherry red for Shidon and carnelian pink for Xialian. The two's presence, while not yet mid stage Bone Crystallization, is close to becoming Billowing Muscle. They had not been slacking in the slightest in the two weeks despite not thinking Tara as worth their time.

The crowd goes silent as they are all watching intently, especially her family. Niven has come up besides Frae at the edge of the arena, as the girl's friend and as Tara's bodyguard. Neijin is the only one who senses something off about Tara but can't figure out what.

Tara for her part doesn't use her aura nor does she pull out her daggers. Instead she takes the starting position of the Solar Body Arts. Left fist forward and right palm facing upwards but close to the hip, while her legs set apart and bent low with her feet pointed outward.

'Who does she think she is to look down on us?!' Both the twins scream in each other's head as they share eye contact. Shidon makes the first move by rapidly sprinting forward to those below Bone Crystallization. Unfortunately, Tara would have been able to read him easily before becoming a Support Expert. Tara doesn't even need to use Pinpoint to see the gaps in his defense nor weak spots in his aura.

Unlike Shidon's movements, Tara's are hard to capture for even the Marrow Sparking teachers. Tara's quick execution of a powerful punch to Shidon's shoulder seems dreadfully slow, but in actuality what they witnessed was an afterimage!

None of them even catch the flash of violet as Tara uses her earlier idea of using Raiment coupled with her Expertise's force concentration. If not for Shidon's aura, his arm would have been blown clean off. Instead, it was merely pushed out of the shoulder in a gruesome fashion. The air pressure from the attack forms a spiral, catching Xialing and those behind her to lift off their feet nearly two meters off the ground.

Despite this shocking display of just physical strength that causes everyone's jaw to drop, Tara frowns. She had initially been aiming for Shidon's chest, and while she's glad her aim was off because he might have died, Tara doesn't like how her accuracy drops from her attempt. It looks like it'll take more practice.

Shidon doesn't even scream in shock as his protected arm is disconnected and mangled. How strong is she that Hufang Tara ignores his aura completely? His eyes roll back into his head as he faints, Xialing tapping lightly beside him the moment he falls backwards. Xialing had finally gotten her bearings when her brother was out of commission.

Before she can utter "Brother?" aloud, there's a different rush of wind as Tara just appears from the duo. Anyone closely paying attention would have seen another flash of violet upon Tara's legs. This wasn't an actual Retention Technique nor a footwork, instead it was merely Tara using force concentration on her legs to propel herself forward. The wind only occurs once she stops moving.

Xialian can't react as Tara gently places a palm on her chest. The young woman is flung off the stage into the crowd, her aura shattered like glass on contact. Her fellow students do catch her, a good ten of them, but even then they all slide back several steps together before stabilizing their bodies.

The area which had only just begun cheering was dead silent. Some in awe, but many more in fear. Tara had defeated two Lightning Spear ranked nobles in two moves, one for each of them! They might not be as strong individually as Light Shield and Dark Saber students, but even Tara's peers wouldn't brag about ending a battle in a blink of an eye.