Nascent Teamwork

The killing Intent from the dragon stifled their higher senses while their visibility was zero in this dark purple miasma.

The battle extended into the nighttime while the darkness made it seem as if they were stuck in time. 

This was due to a new trait the poison revealed at night. In the evening, the poisonous mist became an even greater obstacle because it did not reflect any light.

They were surrounded by pitch-black darkness without the ability to see the sky. Were it not for their ability to sense the general location of the dragon's corpse they might have gotten lost. 

Nevertheless, they were able to adjust. In this sort of environment where visibility and higher senses were suppressed, one's technique and mental resilience would be tested. No attack could be an inch off, and no movement could be a second late. There was no room for error. This was why Will's precise warnings were important. 

But everyone struggled with one issue. How did Will know when the creatures became tangible? 

Little did they know that Radiant Energy's passive trait allowed one to sense life force. Normally this required Will to be in physical contact with the target, but within his Mental Energy field, he could sense all life forces! 

The life force signatures were like burning flames emitting waves of life force. As the creatures became more tangible, their force was becoming more concentrated. Will already knew the level of life force they needed to reach to become fully tangible and could use this to sense when the creatures would materialise. 

But this was incredibly taxing. The suppression from the dragon force became stronger and the increasing demand on Will's mental energy control did not help matters. 

Will had to split his mind up and multi-task to a great state. This made it impossible for him to use any high-level skills and hence he was stuck in a state where he could only use basic skills. 

Jingsung Ha too this chance to reappear. He materialised behind Achilles in Will's vision and began lecturing as if he had never left.

"Now we are in the second stage of training. Incorporating the traits of your Empyrean Intents into your Area!" 

As the group charged forward, clearing a path and battling the surprise attacks from the ever-stronger Wailing Banshees, along walked a calm Jingsung Ha with his long navy blue hair dancing in the winds and his hands held behind his back. 

As he spoke he looked ahead as if he was talking to thin air, "Empyrean Intents are the highest class of Intent usable by creatures. They are an ability one can only be born with and are the sign of a mind that has the potential to reach SSS+. 

Bloodlust is the Empyrean Intent of the Metal element. Radiant Energy is the Empyrean Intent of the Water Element. Your situation is an odd one, as these two rarely exist within the same person as they are polar opposites. One is about death and is more spiritual, while the other is about life and physical. Nevertheless, your Spirit Gate allows your body to polarise energies and you can hold conflicting powers. 

Normally this would have no advantage besides having a unique set of abilities but when used within your Area, the possibilities are endless! 

You have just been using the basic abilities of these Intents, you didn't even use their greatest abilities.

Before this, your area was like a bowl of water, clear and tasteless. But now, your Empyrean Intents are ingredients that turn your ordinary water into an elixir that can turn the tides in battle! 

Now all you have to do is focus on using these passive traits without activating the Intents and emitting them. This will slow down your ability to infuse the passive traits into your Area."

He talked without looking back at Will. As if he didn't need to look to know that his instructions were being listened to, "Now that I've dealt with that, let's talk about the other reason we had you approach the Area of the corpse. 

As you can see, the Dragon Force is constantly attacking your Mental Energy Field and trying to erode it. Under normal circumstances, you could resist this by infusing Radiant Energy with enough Life Force to counter the erosion, or you could use your own Bloodlust to corrode the poison itself and counterattack. But your ability to finely control each one is so poor you can't do that. 

But this Dragon Force suppression is also your best friend. Because right now your Mental Energy Field is like a blade in the middle of being forged. The Dragon Force and your mental exhaustion are like hammers purifying and refining your Mental Energy Field. 

This refinement will speed up the fusion between your Area and your Intent. Allowing your flavourless Area to become an elixir in the truest sense.

This will lead to future skills such as being able to heal others at a distance so long as they are within your Area or being able to use Bloodlust to see through the spiritual pathways of your opponent. Of course, these are still too far away from you but you can at least dream."

As Jingsung Ha spoke, Will did his best to focus on the task at hand. He was pleased by his ever-improving Area. But he was still disturbed by his inability to cast stronger and more mentally demanding skills. 

"You must be annoyed at the fact that you can't cast high-tier spells and skills that require you to use your head. If you are thinking like that then you are shaming your Master. 

Modifiable low-tier skills such as waterblade or fireball have no rating because they are fully malleable by nature. You can control them qualitatively and quantitatively. This makes them the perfect type of skill to test out new support abilities. 

So now I want you to use the next water-type visualisation method I'm about to teach you. This will turn your ordinary Water Blade into a true weapon!"

While Jingsung Instructed Will, the others attacked and defended with tenacity. Eventually, Banshees with long-range attacks had manifested. 

The team was able to adjust to this thanks to Achilles. He had a powerful shield with a unique skill that made him an ideal tank. Guardian's Call! 

It was a single-target skill that allowed Achilles to pull a creature's aggro, forcing it to attack him for the next 5 seconds. This also depended on the level of the target, but this was easy for the born warrior. 

Tsimikas' first local focused on the long-range Banshee that would attack with projectiles. Achilles would defend with his shield, which was covered by a thick dense aura of Truth that had been created by Lydia. The Drqgon Force suppression reduced how much Truth Lydia could use, but the Spectralian mage proved her worth. 

Achilles was not skilled enough in Truth to finely apply it in such a manner, thankfully, Lydia was a Truthseeker who could buff  others through Truth and Light-related spells. Thus Achilles cemented his position as the team's Main Tank

But there was nothing he could do about the other long-range attack the spiritual creatures had. After all, there was a reason the word 'wailing' was in their name! 

Some stronger Banshees released sonic attacks that covered a large area. No one wanted to face these, but the group did not panic, as they had long expected this. This was Palmer's time to shine!