The Second Blessing (2)

"You got lucky."

Hestia's voice pulled Hex out of his thoughts. Looking up, he saw her grin at him teasingly.

"Lucky my ass. I went through life and death for it." Hex sneered, after a moment of feeling embarrassed at being caught staring at his glyph.

'I really put my life on the line, both times. I guess I can never have it the easy way,' Hex thought, lamenting his fate. But soon he threw it to the back of his mind.

He wanted to discover what new powers he gained by becoming a double Blessed Squire. Sadly, there was no equipment close by to test the increase in his strength.

"We are back!"

Just as he wished to test his powers, a loud rough sound reverberated through the small cave.

The owner of the voice was the giant-looking Knight, Oron. Only when he moved did Hex move the long-legged girl behind him.

She looked at him with her beautiful eyes. He had heard from Hestia that she had helped during their rescue.

"Lira was nowhere to be found. We have taken ointments and restorative potions from the checkpoint. With this we can apply first aid."

Oron gave the bag with the supplies to Hestia. As a nature element user and control type Knight she was the most adept at providing first aid.

The ointment and potion seemed to work instantly. Gorge's face gained quite a bit of color and his breath sounded calmer.

'There is not much I can do about it now. Better to leave it to the expert,' Hex thought with a sigh.

"You guys need to step up your game. We are at the bottom of the ranking." Oron grumbled at the two other Knights. "Well, you two are. I am doing excellent," he said as an afterthought.

Hex listened about the rankings. He asked about Clannad's team and looked pensive when he heard that neither Clannad's team nor the twins' team had reported in yet.

'What are you planning, Clannad?' He didn't believe that Clannad was performing worse than him. His grandfather should have planned something to aid him.

After worrying for a while, he let it go. Brooding wouldn't be of any help. He walked toward the exit. It was better to concentrate on his own strength.

The night was dark, without any stars in the sky. He wandered through the thickets and bushes, till he found a spot, offering enough concealment.

It was at a lower elevation from the cave, but the trees and bushes between the cave and the location acted as a green layer of walls.

It was too early to alert the enemy. The Knights were keeping an eye on the other Squires, especially Aran.

They wanted to see if they could catch his accomplices or superiors. But not for long. He had to pay for what he did. Hex swore he would make sure of it.

'Let's see. My first Blessing is the glyph, providing me with the essence of the bear,' he started to gather everything he knew about his Blessing.

'The essence lets me gather energy faster, enhances my strength, provides me with a shield and increases the rate with which my body heals.'

'Coupled with the bearhanded sword technique I can unleash power multiple times more than an average Squire.'

Hex stood in the hidden place with his first Blessing activated.

There were not many bushes on the ground and the rocky landscape held a few smaller rocks and one giant boulder. Even someone like Hex couldn't move it without straining himself.

The smooth cloak around him was thinner now, but it felt denser.

'It seems the increased Blessing allows me to channel even more energy through my body. Let's see what the second Blessing does.'

By now he was used to sensing his glyph quickly. The second Blessing didn't differ from the first as far as sensing it went.

Woosh.

The moment he activated the second Blessing, the stream of energy increased even more. The cloak thinned even more. But its density shocked Hex. It wasn't just double.

'It seems the shielding it can provide now can freely block the burst damage from a triple Blessed for a while.' Hex felt exhilarated at the feeling of safety the shield gave.

But that was not all. As he experimented he soon noticed that he didn't need much focus to activate it. It activated at full strength in a fraction of a second. There was no time lapse needed to increase its sturdiness.

And finally, it provided explosive strength. He discovered that he could move the cloak now. When he focussed he could compress the cloak into gloves around his hands.

'Let's try it out.'

It took a second before the glove formed around his hand. It was short but not short enough. He needed to train and decrease the time.

Not far from him stood a massive boulder. He stood in front of it and punched the boulder.

BOOM!

With a loud bang, the boulder exploded. He was extremely pleased with the strength it gave.

'My ultimate strength has nearly doubled. I am sure I can light up to eight, maybe even nine crystals on the testing equipment.'

Looking at his hands, he saw that the gloves only seemed to have become a bit thicker. 'Does it transfer energy to cause an explosion?'

It was a wild idea, but something he couldn't shake off from him. He looked around. There were no boulders left. There had only been one.

The only thing usable to test on was the ground. He decided to test on it.

He jumped and threw a punch to the ground. This time he was trying to 'throw' the energy wrapped around his hands.

Bam.

The sound was muffled. A web-like fracture appeared on the ground. His cloaked-turned-gloves had only increased in thickness.

'Not good.'

Although he didn't get the desired result, he was convinced of his theory that by unleashing that energy at once, he could get the maximum damage.

His unwillingness to give up motivated him to keep training and trying.

Bam.

Bam.

Bam.

.

.

.

Muffled sounds could be heard continuously. Hex tried, again and again.

'Wait. I keep trying to unleash it after the punch. What if I unleash it together with the punch.'

It was hard to focus on two things at once. Punching with control took focus, unleashing the energy also required focus. Thankfully, from the very start he had focused on control.

Hex stood still. With a deep breath he jumped up.

His punch landed on the ground. He let his body take the movement over and focused on releasing the energy.

With a flash the energy spiraled out his hand.

BOOM!

The impact crumbled the ground beneath him. There was even a shockwave spreading out, causing the thickets and bushes to shake wildly.

The ground had caved in. Hex looked at the effect of his punch.

A crater had formed with the point of impact as the center. The crater was about one meter deep and three meters in diameter.

Seeing the destruction caused by his strength, Hex laughed loudly.

"Time to hunt!"