Formation

"Soul Blades!" Foren shouted retreating explosively.

"Flaming Burst!" At the same time Noku called out his strongest ability and charged up two in a breath, looking towards the sound of the voice.

However the blood soldiers didn't seem to react as though it wasn't an enemy there.

"I-I mean no harm, I'm the spirit of the formation, I've come to greet you, masters." Looking at the voice all they saw was a little girl, not even four feet tall, red hair and a few small freckles on her face, making for a strange combination between her words and her size.

"The book didn't say anything about a spirit being made from the formation." Noku whispered.

"I don't know either, this is my first time too." Foren whispered back.

"Actually masters, I can prove I am the spirit of the formation, watch this." At that the girl then reached our her hand into the sky and the slowly rotating bone came down and onto her hand, after which she disappeared.

"I am the spirit of the formation and I live in here." The sound of the girls sweet voice came again, but this time from within the bone.

Shocked and bewildered Foren responded, "I see, then could you get rid of all these blood soldiers?"

"Of course, Master." Then the soldiers disappeared.

"Now bring them back." Noku said excitedly.

"Understood." Then they were back exactly as before.

This went on for a while before they could finally accept that the little girl was truly the spirit of their formation.

"Then would you be more powerful if the range of the formation shrunk to perhaps just around out stone house?" Foren asked.

"The smaller the formation the less soldiers I can produce, but the stronger they will be, so it would be stronger then yes." The core replied.

"Then let's do that." He said.

Just as the core was about to get to work another voice spoke, "And what should we call you? It can't just be core or girl right?" Noku said.

"Then what would you like to call me?" The core said.

"Well, uh, uhhhh..."

"Aima, for blood in Greek, I read about it in the community library a long time ago, so hows about Aima?" Coming in with the save Foren smoothly put in his suggestion.

"Ye-yeah! Aima sounds really nice to the ears, hows about it?"

With a bright smile showcasing all of her nice white teeth she responded, "Aima, then I will be called Aima from here on out." happily she then bowed and turned around, the sounds of her whispering her new name, echoing around.

So cute! Noku and Foren both thought, though if they were to see the little girls face right now they not be thinking the same things.

To be brief, her face right now twisted in the way a fanatics would twist when their god gave them something.

Complete ecstasy.

---

As soon as she reached her bone all the blood soldiers disappeared into the ground and the formation around the village began to shrink with it just covering the stone house and the immediate area around it.

By now the sun was long gone and the night had taken over the landscape.

"To sleep then." At this point the two had had a very wild day, waking up in the middle of a very powerful beings den, then barely escaping, fighting a summoner and barely surviving by the skin of their teeth, and then at the very end creating a formation using the malice and evil intent of others, though it goes without saying, the moment they touched the bed, it was lights out.

Unbeknownst to either of the two, the core of the formation, Aima was staring at them using its own powers of observation, using a blood soldier she tucked them in.

Meanwhile far away in the sky a pair of silver eyes looked through the clouds at the formation, observing not only the formation but the two inside, its eyes seemingly able to pierce through all sorts of protection.

The night passed quietly with a few beasts attempting to break into the formation though quickly subdued and killed by Aima, in total six beasts attempting to break in and not a single one able to make so much as a sound before dying without so much as a struggle.

The souls of the six beasts used to nourish the formation, causing it to grow stronger over night.

Like this the night passed.

Morning.

"Ahhhh!" with a mighty yawn Noku woke up first, closely followed by Foren.

"So soft, twenty more minutes." Just like this Foren slept for three more hours meanwhile Noku had gotten up and walked down stairs.

"Whats with the smell of fresh blood?" Noku asked out loud.

"Six beasts tried to break into the house last night but I killed all of them." Aima said, appearing behind him like a specter, speaking happily, her round eyes staring right at him as though asking for something.

"Good job." Noku knew that look well enough considering he used it regularly when begging for food, so he gave her the praise she wanted as well has patting her on the head.

Wait a minute? Why is she so short all of a sudden? It was only now that Noku noticed the difference in his view, the three foot tall girl was now two feet below him.

"I GREW!!!" Excited beyond what you'd expect he started jumping above and knocking things all over the place.

Though Aima caught all of them efficiently using her blood manipulation through the formation.

"Awooooo!" Running outside he let loose, howling and barking in happiness, remembering all those times he got called a runt by his siblings and how his parents said he would never amount to anything before abandoning him.

A slight tear rolling down his face he continued to howl, his heart feeling lighter.

It was also then that Foren spoke at some point having arrived at the back door completely dressed, "You've gotten huge! You ought to be a lot stronger now!"

From Foren's point of view Noku was now over fight feed tall, his fur a much more slight and soft red, his eyes sharper and his muscles more developed and powerful, an altogether upgrade.

Hearing this Noku walked over to the tree line followed by Aima and Foren, looking around for a bit he found a good looking tree, yellow leaves and a thick trunk.

Grrrr!

Taking stance he growled and then send a slap towards the tree.

Thwak! Hong!

In the next breath the tree had snapped and hit the ground with force, "Its True!!! I've gotten much stronger!"

"If I got stronger than you should have gotten more powerful as well right?" Noku said excitedly looking towards Foren.

Imitating Noku, Foren also found a suitable looking tree and punched out, utilizing his soul blades.

Sssshhh! Hong!

Not a breath later the had been sliced completely in half and slide right off slamming into the ground.

"We ought to have both increased power by at least three times!" Foren said, feeling out the power coursing through him right then.

"Aima said she took down six beasts last night that tried to attack us so maybe a portion of their souls came to us?" Noku said, closing his eyes to check out his soul fire.

Foren too closed his eyes looking at their fires.

Within the darkness both of their fires burned brightly, easily the same strength as the summoner, Amrey from the day before, and around them was a flame about half the size of theirs orbiting.

"That should be Aima's spirit connected to ours." Foren said out loud.

"She's already so powerful after a single night!" Noku responded happily.

The two of them couldn't see each other inside of this space where their soul fires orbited, but they could still hear things around them so this was the only way they could speak.

Meanwhile these two spoke Aima stood to the side gripping the sides of her skirt with a blushing expression, feeling embarrassed by the sudden praise.

"Then what should we do next?" Aima said, taking this moment of silence to ask.

At this however she was simply met with silence from both of them, the two now sunken in their own thoughts.

I need to study the magics in that book thoroughly before going out, the world is too dangerous and I don't have enough information regarding it, This train of thought belonged to Foren.

I need to build my power in order to keep master safe! This was naturally Noku's train of thought.

"Then I'll take this opportunity to say that i'd like to fortify the village and rebuild it, since we are living here now it should at least look nice right?" Breaking the two from their train of thought was Aima who noticed her two masters indecisiveness.

"Then I'll study the magic in the beginner guide." Foren said.

"I'll help with the defense of the village then as well as clearing out the undead around here." Noku said.

Looking at each other they each nodded before returning to the village each of them with plans in mind for the future.

"Good luck!" Once they arrived at the village each of them set off to the tasks they had decided on.

Over the course of the first week Foren had realized that not only his muscles and soul had improved but his memory as well, allowing him to memorize the entire book of beginner magics as well as to get a deeper comprehension of magic in general forming his own theories about it.

As for Noku over the course of the week he had hunted down and destroyed every single undead as well as marking the entire area as his territory, killing anything that trespassed without permission, with this his strength naturally increased because of the souls of those he killed, and by extension Foren's soul also got stronger.

Finally Aima after a week of being operational had gained a large chunk of power already being powerful enough to contend against both Noku and Foren at the same time, if she so felt the impulse to she could break free from their control however she did not, and rather stayed loyal.

The village itself now looked completely different, after giving Aima control over herself and the area while the other two were off doing there own things she had decided to clean up the village using the blood soldiers, and within a week of this project the tree's all around the village had been cut down and used to build back the previous houses as well as building a massive castle like house on a small hill overlooking the village.

It was after the first week that all three of them came together to properly talk about their progress and the different things they had experienced.