Together

James didn't bother to check the contents of the ring. He had made quite a bit of noise and merely grabbed some more meat and fruit before heading back to home base. He didn't feel comfortable leaving those two all alone for so long yet.

His shallow wounds had already healed, with the exception of the large gash on his waist that had turned into a painful scar that had yet to fade. This wound couldn't slow him down though.

He had barely recovered two thunder streaks which were more than enough to get back to his home base. He was nearing the barrier to the 9th stage bone fusion after this fight, and he was hurriedly trying to get home and power through to the ninth stage so he could finally step into the true cultivation path.

A figure flashed through a wall of shrubbery and appeared in a valley under a highway. This character, of course, was James. He panicked slightly, before peering inside to see both of his friends sitting across from each other, eyes closed, with sweat dripping down their forehead.

'damn... looks intense,' James spoke to Conor through their mind.

"And now you can appreciate me doing this 24/7," Conor spoke triumphantly. James became a bit flustered, not knowing what to say. It wasn't as if he was forcing Conor to do this! Granted, if it weren't for that, things probably wouldn't be turning out so well.

James sensed the auras of Alex and Whit, from which he could tell they were at the fourth and fifth bone fusion stage respectively. "You guys must have been training pretty hard!" James woke them up from their meditation with a slap on their shoulders. Although when he checked his watch, he realized he had been out for far longer than he had anticipated.

Whit chuckled and looked up with a helpless face, "What else can we do man? I don't wanna die..."

James' face hardened immensely, "That won't happen..." His face lightened up, "Because I'm too much of a badass to let anyone hurt you guys!"

Laughter erupted from the three of them, one could almost assume they weren't frantically struggling for their lives in what could only be called an apocalypse. James asked how their spars had gone, only to see Alex get flustered with embarrassment, "Th-they went alright but... I don't think I have the talent to keep up with the tw-" Alex was cut off.

"Shut it, you'll see what happens when you truly become a cultivator," James didn't bother to explain more, as Alex's strength would lie in his consciousness power. It was obvious that Whit had a stronger affinity for body tempering, as he already had a stronger body.

James turned to Whit after doing a crappy job at consoling Alex, "I have two gifts for you, I'd give something to Alex but I haven't found anything fitting yet..." His voice trailed off as he drew out the spear from his storage ring and handed it to Whit.

None of them had any weapon experience prior, but James assumed that a spear would be good for Whit with his indomitable attitude and straightforward thinking. He was currently looking for an assassination dagger or sealing chain for Alex. he had no idea if there were such a thing as magic wands or staffs, but those could work too.

Whit swung the spear around and stabbed the air a couple of times, injecting what little fire essence he had into the spear, lighting the spearhead on fire, and giving it a feisty glow. It seemed like the spear had no attribute, and was probably just standard soldier gear mass-produced to be compatible with any element. Unfortunately, this meant that there was no significant boost in strength for specific energy types, but it couldn't be helped.

Wanting to try his new toy, Whit tried to drag Alex out to the sparring ground, which they had dug out to be a flat ring roughly 3 feet deep into the dirt outside. Alex was reluctant, as he didn't like the thought of being stabbed without a weapon of his own.

"Your opponent will be me, Whit," James spoke up. Shushing his friend when he was about to complain, "I'll restrict my strength to the bone fusion fourth stage," Whit had run out of excuses, so he could only drag himself out to the budget arena.

They took their stance and James brought out his sword and teased his opponent, "Your move..." Whit was hesitant at first but soon charged forward with his spear, James moved at a slower speed than Whit, but managed to intercept the spear blade, letting it narrowly miss his chest. He released a punch to Whit's stomach, launching him back a few meters, but it wasn't anything serious.

'He's restricting his strength, but he's pretty comfortable with a sword, I need more practice..." Whit thought to himself. He suddenly straightened his stance and bowed to James, "I get the idea, thanks for the pointers."

There was truly no point to keep going on with this spar. Whit wasn't stupid, he could already see the point James was trying to make. Whit straightened himself to look up at his friend, whom he now felt so reliant towards, only to see that his figure had vanished into their cave abode.

'it looks like they dug out a much larger space, three rooms, about 20 square meters each, over 2-meter ceilings... I guess it will be nice to have privacy' James scanned the room and new workspace. He intended to practice for a while in seclusion before going back out because he still felt like he wouldn't stand a chance if he was sieged by numerous high-level warriors.

he plopped down in the center of the room and let Conor focus on body tempering, while he gathered extra essence energy to condense into lightning streaks. Right now he was comparable to a sprinter, he could unleash ungodly amounts of energy and power for almost a minute straight, but he had to wait a couple of minutes for his lightning essence to recharge.

Right as James was about to condense another lightning streak, his focus was interrupted by a growling from his stomach. "Right... I guess getting food was the reason we left in the first place," James walked out only to see Whit and Alex still cultivating in their respective rooms. 'I feel embarrassed. They're still cultivating so hard but they're probably as hungry as i am.'

"About that... Haven't we had three fights today? From your house to the guy at Whit's place, to the guy in the store. I think we deserve some chow" Conor rebutted James' statement and James' face immediately brightened up. He was clearly proud of himself.

Whit and Alex stood up upon hearing James' call to come help with dinner.

Whit: "About damn time!"

Alex: "I don't know, I'm not very hungry."

With a small bit of firewood and Whit's weak fire essence, the three friends made some hot dogs and beans over the fire.

Life was cruel, whether it was to the invading army, the slaughtered families, or these sole surviving children. But at least these three had each other, that was enough...

There hadn't been a break from the sounds of eating, until finally, a short silence allowed space for some words, "From what it seems, these people have a lot of Eastern customs, so I guess in their eyes, we'd be sworn brothers, right?" Alex spoke up with some sarcasm in his voice as he raised his root beer over the fire, met with Whit's hand holding a can of Pepsi, and James' hand with a Coke.

Whit and James responded in unison, "Right!" and so the kids drank and ate, something they might not get to enjoy as much when they got stronger...

After dinner, the group of kids split back into their rooms. They could enjoy more nights out together when they weren't fearing for their lives at every given moment. Despite the looming threat, it was highly possible that they would all sleep tonight. Although a tempered body made sleep less essential, it was still a hard bodily need to shake.

James resisted the urge to just lay down and sleep and focused on condensing more thunder streaks. He had a plan of progression pathed out for himself, and that involved a lot of sleepless nights.

The next morning, James woke up to find that the thunder streaks in his body had increased to twenty, and his tempered body was inches away from the peak of bone fusion. He was thoroughly surprised by the amount he had gained from one night and was almost excited to practice his swordsmanship all day. 'How long did I last then, last night I mean?' James asked Conor, only to be met with silence. 'Odd,' James thought to himself this time, 'let's check on our little split cultivation partner...'

Despite having meditated throughout all of last night, James didn't hesitate to sit down once more. He wasn't meditating to condense lightning streaks or temper his body, but rather to enter his own consciousness realm. It didn't take long, as he had been taken to and from there before by the Storm Dragon, and it was like a river that once dug, wouldn't just clog back up unless someone did it manually.

He was a little irked to find out that Conor was fast asleep on the floor in his realm of consciousness. Even if it wasn't real, there was still a bed and a couch in here! James shook his head and wished that Conor wouldn't overwork himself like that. Upon further thinking though, James realized that he really couldn't stop him. They would probably peak at the ninth bone fusion stage when Conor awoke later in the day.

Standing up, he noticed that he wasn't hungry for breakfast. James assumed that the longevity and lesser needs of a cultivator were already starting to affect him with his tempered body using energy far more efficiently, and using his qi for energy when possible.

James walked past the rooms of Alex and Whit, only to see that they were still asleep, not that it bothered him...