Chapter 24: Elemental Aura And Resonance

"Ah, there are my little ducklings!" I smiled as I watched the ragtag group of fifteen enter the clearing. The sight of Akari waddling behind the group with a pink dusting on her cheeks was too cute.

Charlotte standing beside me, who would no doubt be walking funny herself in a few moments narrowed her eyes, it seems she noticed something off with the girl. It wasn't really that difficult to tell there was something up with her especially when her azure eyes kept making hasty contact with me before turning away. The blush on her cheeks grew brighter each time she glanced at me, her eyes taking in the sight of my muscular body in a white tank top and black sweatpants.

The other students however were too busy gawking at the giant chained skeletons standing in the middle of the field. The sound of their bones creaking like a tree branch about to snap filled the air as they struggled against their restraints. Fear filled the student's faces, and I couldn't help but smile at their terrified looks.

"Akari, can you tell the class what an elemental aura is?" Interrupting the girl from her most likely lewd thoughts I asked her a question. The students quickly turned away from the giant phantoms and looked at her with a questioning look.

Fumiko gave her a suspicious glance, and the little half-yokai Yuzuki sniffed the air and gave the redhead a scandalized frown. Tsukasa stared waiting for the encyclopedia of knowledge that was Akari's brain to get her one step closer to her revenge quest. Akari herself looked like she wanted to dig a hole and bury herself in it as her blush grew to cover even her ears.

"E-elemental aura is geist channeled through a humor node and then outside of the body through [Geist Release]. This gives the geist the elemental property of the humor node it was circulated through by a process known as [Transmutation] and allows for the easy activation of elemental techniques." Her voice began with a stutter but by the end she was back to her usual monotone self. Damn, I was hoping for her to be all shy and cute!

"Correct, elemental aura is the energy you create when you wish to use an elemental technique, but it also gives away how a geist user might behave. For example an aura of earth surrounding someone usually indicates that they're a methodical and stable geist user. Their attacks will most likely be straightforward and direct, but don't let their lack of trickery fool you. If an exorcist has survived without underhanded tactics then that means they're pretty damn strong." As I spoke geist flowed through my circuits and into the earth humor node around my stomach, and since this would be the first time using an element outside of my affinity I decided to take it easy.

Raising up my left foot I channeled the newly created earth aura through my circuits and down my leg into the sole of my foot. Then my foot stomped into the forest floor sending seismic tremors through the earth as the ground rose up in a wave of dirt and rock. The path of destruction spread further in a cone shape as the wave of earth hit the treeline. Roots snapped, and trees fell as the thundering boom of their collapse filled the air. Several birds scattered cawing as they flew from the area, and I was left staring stunned.

I just meant to shake the ground a little!

"W-wow, how did you do that!? I thought your affinity was dark aether?" Miura Chizue excitedly spoke, her normally stoic face was replaced with a curious look of wonder.

Chizue was tall, in fact she was as tall as me. She had shoulder length light brown hair and hazel eyes. Her face unlike the other girls of her class was more angular, but it in no way detracted from her beauty. Speaking of beauty, her long slender neck was a breathtaking piece of art that would act as the perfect sheath for my cock. My mind instantly went back to my first interaction with the girl and I realized something, she was pierced in more places than just her ears and nose wasn't she?

If I could catch her with more contraband I could give her after-school detention. Having her alone with just me and Charlotte would mean I'd have ample opportunity to blackmail her. She's not a noble girl, the way she carries herself making that plain as day so messing with her won't be an issue. My eyes drifted down to her long slender legs covered only by a pair of black skintight shorts. The gap between her thighs gave me a perfect view of the outer lips of her pussy as the spandex clung nicely there.

"Ms. Chizue I'm assuming you're a first-generation exorcist if you've asked me this question." Snickers filled the clearing as the snobbier students began chortling like idiots, it almost ruined the pleasure I got seeing her reaction, key word being almost. The crushed look replacing her curious grin made me smile, ever since I pulled those earrings out of her ears a sadistic urge grew in me when it came to her. Like a shark who smelt blood in the water (literally in this case) I wanted nothing more than to bully and harass her until she broke."But to answer the question the reason I'm able to use earth aura is because like every human and half-yokai here we all have the same six humor nodes."

From my shadow I pulled out a portable dry erase board and began drawing a hexagon. Each point around it had a circle with a different symbol and contrasting color inside of it.

"This is the elemental aura affinity chart, and by the end of your education here you will know every intricate detail hidden within it. Let's start simple, what're the six elemental auras?" I pointed to the pudgy boy Takahiro, his nervous pleading look garnered no sympathy from me as I waved at my hand for him to go on.

"Uh,... let's see you've got earth, fire, water, air...light aether...and uh dark a-aether?" Despite being a total idiot this time he got it right and I couldn't really nitpick the annoying pauses his brain took trying to catch up. Who thought it would be a good idea to let this kid become an exorcist?

"Correct, earth is green, red is fire, water is blue, yellow is air, purple is dark aether, and the golden symbol at the top is light aether. Can you tell me why they're arranged in this way though, Mr. Hachirou?" I used my finger to point at each of the colored circles, the kids following along bobbing their heads in understanding.

"T-the opposite aura of every element is the furthest one away. Is this an efficiency chart?" Hachirou spoke with the same skittish voice as always. His hands still nervously picking at his flak jacket, and his eyes refused to meet my own. I guess he's still spooked about yesterday then.

"Right on, this right here is about to be a massive truth bomb so get ready! Charlotte can you hand the kids the notebooks I asked you to bring?" A teasing smirk grew on my face as Charlotte waddled toward the gawking crowd of students with bowed legs. A faint blush dusted her otherwise stoic expression as the anal beads in her ass began to vibrate, a clever use of [Shadow Puppet] doing the work.

Chihara Yuzuki blushed when she was handed a notebook by Charlotte. Her sensitive hearing picked up the soft squelching sound of the shadow-infused beads churning in the blond girl's ass as she walked by. All of my cum was still corked inside of her, the sensation alone driving her wild as the front of her yoga pants grew damp from her arousal.

Fumiko gave me a lopsided grin when she noticed the sopping patch growing on Charlotte's pants, her eyes trailing the petite girls body when she walked by. Her delicate fingers grabbed a handful of Char's pert ass, the girl whimpering at the sensation. Her amethyst eyes clouded with lust gave a glare at the girl before she harrumphed and waddled away.

Akari's ears turned red as Charlotte handed her her notebook, the petite little minx letting a soft moan out for just the red head to hear. Her sashaying hips told me she enjoyed teasing the girls, and by the way my cock uncomfortably pressed against the leg of my sweatpants I was liking it too. Tsukasa well she didn't really care, she just huffed at Charlotte with narrowed eyes. She really lives up to the honorary Uchiha title!

"Okay, class get ready to copy these charts because this is the only time I'm going to do this! Ms. Chizue give me an element." My eyes landed back on the lanky girl, the urge to bully her grew when I saw her nervous expression. I'm going to have fun with her this year, and she'll come to enjoy it eventually too.

"W-wind." Ah, I think the records Nozomi cooked up for me said she had the wind affinity. In terms of elemental aura personality types, I don't think it fits her but it's not like the personality assessment is meant to be used as an accurate tool for determining a person's behavior. Think of it as a superstition, like the full moon bringing out all of the crazies. Well, in this world that might be true.

"Excuse the poor handwriting, writing on whiteboards is not my strong suit, but here it is. Wind is apart of the yang half of the taijitu unlike it's counterpart, earth which is associated with yin. The ability to use light or dark aether will depend on your alignment along the taijitu unless you already have an affinity for those two elements. Any questions?" I asked as I watched them write in their notebooks, Fumiko stuck out her tongue cutely when she wrote.

"Sensei your affinity is dark aether right?" Takahiro asked his chubby arm flailing as he raised it...Don't you know you're supposed to raise your hand before you speak?

"Yeah, and?" I motioned for him to speak, my impatience growing. I have to draw five more charts fatso so for the love of God please speed it up!

"What does your element's efficiency chart look like?" Ah, thank you Takahiro I never doubted you!

"This is why and don't take offense to this but the two aether nodes are considered to be superior in terms of versatility. As a dark aether user I have access to every elemental aura giving me the ability to use techniques to better counter my opponents. In this world, elements are used to play a deadly game of rock paper scissors. Most fights will begin with neutral geist techniques and probing attacks, in this phase martial arts are used to their fullest. The second phase is to either respond to your opponents elemental aura release or you are currently the one on the backfoot and need to use your aura to bridge the gap between you and your opponent. The third and final phase is hardly ever reached as most fights are finished during the first and second phases, but if you both have released your auras and are still at a standstill this technique that I'm about to show you is one of your lucky outs."

Walking towards a nearby tree I paused, my breathing slowed down and I could feel the pulse in my veins thrumming through me. My fist clenched, a purple aura radiating from it as dark aether cycled from the humor node near the eyes and down toward my arm. Clearing my mind of all unnecessary stimuli I was now just a fist hitting my target.

"[Psuedo Resonance: Dark Aether]!" The feel of bark against my skin was the trigger, all outside interference at that point had faded away allowing me to feel the individual grains of the tree. The purple aura coating my hands flashed brightly before tearing through the bark sending splinters flying everywhere. The shadow of the tree had shattered, like [Shadow Puppet] the repercussions of an object missing its shadow dictated that it mustn't exist so the world corrected it. The splintered wood faded to ash, as matter was returned once again to its base form.

At that moment I commanded reality itself and it obeyed, the euphoria of being Geist's chosen tasted like the finest wine. The students gazed on at the spot where the tree was erased from existence, their jaws slack. Charlotte looked on with a proud smile, and my own grin threatened to split my face in two. My aura had matured, an evolution occurring in my subtle body as my dark aether node strengthened. The feeling of geist flowing through my circuits felt faster than ever, and it felt like a conscious burden to maintain control of my geist had lifted. I had become stronger. This was what I hoped to give to my students, a power-up that only the MC and the main heroines got in the canon timeline.

[Elemental Resonance] is an incredibly hard skill to learn, and the danger of failing to properly use it can spell doom for a geist user. In essence, it is an all-in attack where a user will gamble their use of elemental aura, and should they fail to release their aura within 0.009 seconds of contact with their target their main affinity humor node will be sealed for the amount of time they gambled. That means the power of [Elemental Resonance] can vary widely, in my case, I had gambled away a day of dark aether use.

The effect it has when activated is of similar concept to a mantis shrimp punch. The cavitation created by the shrimp's punch creates a super-heated air bubble under the surface of the water, and when the water collapses back in on the air pocket it unleashes a tremendous amount of force. [Elemental Resonance] in a similar manner creates a bubble of aura that pushes out the ambient geist in the atmosphere, and when it collapses it creates a distortion in space dealing massive damage to the target of the punch.

Even with geist-enhanced reaction times, it would still be nearly impossible to repeatedly activate [Elemental Resonance]. 0.009 seconds is faster than the blink of an eye and during the heat of combat while someone is actively trying to kill you it would be impossible to consciously activate [Elemental Resonance]. But if we were to set conditions for our use of the technique, like losing all awareness of everything except for your fist and the target we can create a 'pseudo zone'. This is similar to how professional athletes describe their experience with total concentration, and will reliably allow you to activate a [Pseudo Resonance].

But just like with any restriction this comes at a cost. A truly unconscious use of [Elemental Resonance] will generally increase the damage you do by around 10 times, but our [Pseudo Resonance] restriction brings that down to just 3. On top of the decreased power, you also have to contend with the limited awareness gained from being in the zone. If you can only see your fist and your target that means any unknown variable outside of your perception could attack without you even noticing. Another limitation of [Pseudo Resonance] was that the understanding one gains with [Elemental Resonance] is weakened and until one taps into its full potential, their evolution won't be fully completed.

"So, today after we finish writing up our charts we're going to begin image training to work on achieving [Pseudo Resonance] as it takes tons of concentration to pull off. We'll follow it up with some sparring with the Gashadokuro, and then we'll call it a day. Does that sound good for everybody?" I got quiet nods from the stunned class. Power commands respect and when you casually wield a technique capable of altering reality you are pretty damn powerful.

The enthusiasm of the students was palpable, my display made them wish for similar results. What they didn't know was that had I punched any other thing that has more geist than a tree or an untrained human then my [Elemental Resonance] would've done less damage. It still would deal lethal damage to an exorcist or Sin-eater it just wouldn't erase them from existence like the tree.

If these fifteen could gain the powerup of at least [Psuedo Resonance] it would make any future challenge much more bearable. Hell, I planned on teaching these guys every busted ability I knew. If Ueda Daichi is out of commission and traumatized then we'll have to make do without his OP ass.

***

Affinity Charts:

Water:

Earth:

Light:

Fire:

Garridan's Elemental Aura Personality Types:

Disclaimer: Assumptions about someone's personality based on their affinity is the equivalent of believing in zodiac signs or blood type personality tests, to believe in it blindly and take it into battle with you could spell instant death. Take this analysis with a grain of salt!

Fire: This is the aura of hot-heads, people who want to take charge and dominate. Another key component to their personality is their burning obsession. Something drives them and they have to have it no matter what.

Earth: Stoic, methodical and cautious. These types are blunt and direct, they'll act toward their goals with near single-minded focus. This generally leads them to be selfish and stubborn as they aren't prone to compromise, especially with what they desire.

Wind: Vivacious, playful, and teasing. Someone with this affinity is prone to being pulled around by passing interests. Their desires often change with their mood and they are often easy to distract.

Water: Adaptable, and yielding, someone with this aura is a nondescript face in the crowd. Water aura users are prone to bouts of depression and somber moods, and are much more willing to shed their own desire for a perceived greater good.

Light aether: Charismatic, these are the Type A personalities of the exorcist world. They're highly social, desiring attention from the one they love. Similar to the religious concept of devotion people with the light aether affinity tend to hold an idealized view of the person they care for and cave an almost religious zeal for this person.

Dark aether: I wouldn't know, it'd be too hard to describe my personality so I'll just leave it up to you.