Trial of gold, One of us

"Elders we must help them somehow, we cannot allow the future generation to die here!" One among the eastern group significantly younger then the rest of the old men wished to assist the young men fighting for their lives in the lake.

"What can we do? You know as much as we do, look at the old one over there, he cannot leave even if he wishes too. Did you not see what happened to the leg of the one who tried to interfere with this ritual? I too wish we could help, but we cannot simply do so without knowing the consequences first" the first and oldest among the elders spoke.

"The children aren't going to die so easily, they have been trained since they could walk to fight, they can only rely on themselves at this moment" another elder slightly younger then the last added in.

"What about them?" The third eldest among the elders pointed in the direction of the amazonian woman.

"They have not stopped chanting since before, do you think they are trying to achieve something with witchcraft?"

The youngest among them looked in the amazonians direction.

"That's it! Use your sun stones, check the aurs of their bodies"

The elders reacted like they had forgotten something.

Each took out a black rounded stone, the stone was polished and clear enough that light could pass with ease with it being about the size of a human eye.

They put the stone up to their eyes and looked in the direction of the amazonians.

A layer of light surrounded the bodies of each woman, this light closely covered the woman being no more then an inch thick with no gaps to be seen.

The light lifted to the sky gathering into a single strand that hovered above the womans head.

"Warrior's glory! These woman aren't so simple" the second eldest looked towards them with caution.

"Incredible, all thirteen among them young and old have the might of a warrior. This makes us look bad by comparison" the fourth elder spoke up for the first time.

"In this era only you, the youngest amongst us has achieved any progress in this regard" The second eldest looked at the youngest among them.

"Just where did these woman come from?"

"Most importantly how did so many of them obtain the might of a warrior, it requires more then simple courage in battle to obtain" the fourth elder was a little interested in them now.

"Even among our generations only a handful ever achieved such a feat, those woman behind the witches can't be older then thirty" the third elder closely examined each of the woman from afar.

The third elder called the older woman of similar age to himself witches.

"Not just them, the youngun over their aswell" the eldest one among them pointed in elder Qez's direction.

The others looked towards elder Qez with the stones still to their eyes.

"Well he's not that young looking, probably around fifty-five or early sixties" the third elder said, he himself was in his late sixties as such he couldn't agree with the 'young man' part.

"His aura is incredible! Do you think you can beat him?"The second eldest looked toward the eldest.

The eldest among them took a hard look "I'm not sure, the worst case scenario will be if he has achieved mastery. If he has I fear we may have to give up this opportunity"

"A master!? If he has truly achieved such a feat then why are all those young-uns so weak?" The fifth (the youngest) among them commented.

The group looked collectively in the direction of the children brought by elder Qez.

"This..."

"How is this possible?"

"I must be getting too old, I'm seeing things now"

"Then we must both be getting senile now"

Looking through the black stone one could see thin strands of light moving about the children's bodies.

This light could not be compared to the one surrounding the amazonian woman, one was honed and controlled the other speratic and chaotic.

Yet even if this was so, the fact that the children had any semblance of warriors glory as they called it was simply shocking to these old men.

"Is there some secret to obtaining warriors glory that we do not know off?" The youngest asked while shifting his eyes elder to elder.

The other elders had a look of confusion as well.

"If that man is truly a master, then it might make sense. In the past it was said that there was once a period of time when tens of thousands of warriors roamed the world, these warriors had not lived long or even entered many battlefields yet they held strength comparable to veterans of sixty years" the eldest recald a story told to him in the past.

"Are you saying that masters have such powers? To grant others strength I mean" the fourth eldest felt a little bitter, he had lived sixty years striving to obtain a power unlike any other and now someone tells him that that power can simply be given to anyone.

It was simply ridiculous to him.

"No, I'm not saying that they can give others power but that they know how to obtain such a power" the eldest corrected the fourth elder.

"Then if one of us were to achive mastery, we could bring the empire back ourselves without the need to rely on future generations" the youngest said.

"If only it were so easy" the second said.

Among the amazonians one of the younger members gave the old men to the east a side glance.

She unlike them could see the light surrounding their bodies without the assistance of any tools.

The first and eldest among the elders had a three inch thick light surrounding his body, the second and third both had both achived a two inch thick light, while the fourth and fifth only had a one inch thick light.

'Four old warriors and a young one, they must be the last among their people to hold such strength' to a degree she held respect for such accomplished man, yet seeing that only one seemed to be a part of her generation a hint of pity entered her mind.

"What do you see sister, are they going to be trouble?" Someone behind her nudged the womans arm.

"No, I only see the embers of dying men" she turned in another direction.

"That one howerver, it will be difficult to fight him without taking a loss or two"

This judgement was given to elder Qez whom had not moved an inch since the ritual ceremony began.

His light was different then the group of old men to the east, his light did not simply present itself as a barrier around his body but instead it looked like fire grasping at the surroundings.

"Those he brought along, they are much like our girls. If we had such numbers I too would wish to teach as many as possible, unfortunately we do not have such an option" both the amazonian girls and elder Qez's group had similar levels of energy surrounding them.

Although their ages differed this did not impact one's development in Qi gathering, young or old both had equal opportunities to improve.

"Unfortunately it seems that he was premature in bringing such young children to this place" she gave a pitying look at what remained of elder Qez's group.

Bran Ai picked up a spear that had been left behind by one of the missing.

The spear only a little taller then himself wasn't heavy, made of wood with little to no smooth sections he gripped onto it tightly.

'I hope I don't have to use this, this leg injury is bad enough any more and I don't know what will happen to me' the water slowed his pace as he made his way closer to another group.

The group ahead was running back to the shore not carring to look back to see if anything was chasing them.

Bran Ai was shaking from head to toe, even as he moved into shallow water he had already fallen into the cold lakes water twice, paired with his rising heartrate he found it had to control his emotions.

'Did the elder know this would happen? Did he bring us here to die?' looking in the elders direction a little bit of darkness entered his eyes.

'No, I can't be sure of this, why would he give us gifts if he simply expected us to die? When he lifted us high in the air could he not have simply dropped us then to get rid kf us?' Bran Ai tried to rationalize the current events, if he didn't he felt he would lose his mind.

So far while the kids panicked none had broken down or cried, the situation was simply too sudden and so bizarre that they simply didn't have the mental capacity to try and understand it.

Even now as they ran away in elder Qez's direction they simply did so because it was an instinct to get away from the unknown.

A lack of knowledge toward death or the possibility of death had kept the children just sane enough not to have meltdowns given the current situation.

Bran Ai on the other hand had no other choice but to believe that everything would be alright, that nothing was wrong and that no one had died.

He held the spear, each time readjusting his grip as the rought texture of the wood made it difficult to hold onto for extended periods of time.

Keeping a close eye on the water both to his sides and behind him he made his way closer to the others.

'Finally they stopped, I thought I would never catch up'

He looked back one more time just to make sure absolutely nothing was behind him.

In the distance a lone figure stood standing still looking down on the water as if it was curious about something.

Bran Ai recognized this figure, it was the first boy who had gone to check on the golden statues under the water.

Soon more of the missing kids appeared from below the water one at a time.