Chapter 77 - Azure

After the Six Blades plus Kai Xin finished eating their breakfast, they lazed around and cleaned for a bit in order to prepare for another grueling day of training.

While Yin and Suna were sparring, Oliver was watching them intently, of course, he was cheering Suna on. The baby panda was waving his bamboo shoot in support of Suna.

While the two of them were going blow for blow, Kai and Zachary had a separate place where they trained.

Both of them were in a plain field.

Kai raised his hand and pointed towards Zachary.

"What do you think is the most important factor whenever you cast spells, Zach?"

The S Rank Fire Slayer posed a simple question to the young man.

"Your Anima cell count? The more your Anima cells are, the stronger your spells will be when they come out, right?"

Zach answered with no hesitation or delay, he was locked in.

"That does hold some merit, but it is not the only factor that plays in your spellcasting.."

Kai expounded on Zach's answer.

"Then what should it even be?"

Zach's eyebrows met and were starting to wrinkle.

"Focus, my student. You have to focus. With enough training, a Slayer's Anima cells can indeed be exponentially increased significantly, but – the most important thing is your focus and state of mind."

Kai Xin said as he took out a grimoire of his own.

"You do not need to be so hard on yourself as of now, I understand Gavin had to leave in haste and you were left with figuring things out on your own, but there will be a time where doing things smartly will not pan out well for you, especially in combat. In that single moment when you throw the fireball white it is in your palm, focus all of your energy and Anima cells into the palm of your dominant hand. Go on, try to cast the Whirling Fireball."

He added.

Zachary flipped his grimoire and focused on the page.

"The Whirling Fireball…I can do this, there is no way I am losing to that knucklehead simpleton Yin!"

He thought to himself. 

"You know, I actually managed to master that spell when I was like ten or eleven or something. I could barely even remember!"

Kai exclaimed.

Zachary did not even notice his presence, that was how focused he was.

After taking deep breaths, inhaling and exhaling with focus, Zachary finally pulled his right hand back and targeted his palms at Kai Xin.

"Fire away. It is not like anything or any spell you can hurl at me is going to land, hell, I do not even think it would graze me in the slightest if it ever landed."

Kai was mocking Zachary.

"We will see about that, Kai."

"Whirling Fireball!"

Zachary exclaimed as a circular fireball was hurled from his open palms towards the seemingly disinterested Kai Xin. 

Zach's jaw dropped.

Kai Xin's eyes were wide open, staring at the fireball casted by his pupil.

The fireball – it was blue.

Kai leaped upwards and dodged the attack.

"D-Did that really just happen?!"

Kai exclaimed.

Zachary took a close look at the palm of his hands.

He was very taken aback.

"H-How did I do that?!"

Kai quicky marched towards Zachary and hand both of his arms on top of his shoulders.

He shook Zachary in excitement.

"You did not tell me you had blue flames! Holy crap that was dangerous, man. If I did not dodge that I would have seriously taken some legitimate damage!"

"T-Tell you?! I did not even know I had those blue flames up until now!"

Zachary retorted back.

The S Rank Fire Slayer raised both of his hands in an open palm, Zach did the same.

They high fived as sparks went flying from their palms.

"I guess you are some sort of anomaly yourself, Zachary Lancaster."

Zachary grinned.

"It seems that is quite the case, Kai."

They both went on with their training until the afternoon finally ended.

After that, both Kai Xin and Zachary walked back to where Yin and Suna were.

"Hey! I have something to show you two!"

Zach shouted from afar.

"A bit too early for you to show off, is it not?"

Kai mocked him.

"Oh, shut up. I am sure I've earned this!"

Yin and Suna made their way towards the both of them as they sat down in the table outside.

Oliver followed to two of them as he waddled.

"Why are you walking with two feet, Oli?"

Suna asked him while caressing his head.

"By the way, Oliver, can you heal my legs? They are a bit numb…"

Yin asked the baby panda's assistance.

To which Oliver's eyes glinted with pride.

He took out his bamboo shoot from his backpack and folded it into a weapon.

A weapon of healing, as opposed to destruction, in fact.

Oliver began slapping Yin's legs with it.

"Ow!"

Yin exclaimed at the very first slap.

"Do not be such a wuss, Yin."

Suna said.

"I am not! It is just a weird feeling, you are getting healed yet he is doing it so by slapping the crap out of you with that thing!"

Yin responded.

Zach ran a few meters north to get some logs for target practice.

"So, Kai, what is he trying to show us?"

Suna asked.

"I promised I would not tell, I believe Zachary is going to have to show it to you guys himself."

Kai answered back.

"Did you finally manage to teach him how to use his grimoire book efficiently?"

Yin shot another question at Kai.

"Nah. I think I was awfully useless today, sooner or later, without my aid and assistance, I am sure he could have discovered his own powers by himself."

Kai Xin said as he laughed.

A few moments later, Zachary was back.

He placed five large logs in front of them from about thirty meters away.

Zachary ran back towards them and took out his grimoire.

Yin and Suna were quite amazed, in all the days that their impromptu training camp had started to become a part of their every day routine, this was the first time Zachary did not have an annoyed expression etched firmly on his face.

The leaves were sent flying as Zachary planted both of his feet to the ground.

He flicked his pages and was dead set on casting his spells.

"Azure Whirling Fireball!"

Zachary lifted his dominant hand, which was his right in front of him, while his left hand held the grimoire steadfast.

His palms exuded a focused spinning blue fireball from out of it.

Yin and Suna, even Oliver, gasped.

Zachary, who was so sure that he was going to hit the three logs which were his targets, turned around and faced his team members.

"Pretty cool, isn't it?"

Suna pointed her finger at his back.

The blue fireball did not even reach thirty meters.

It evaporated and vanished into thin air.

Kai Xin had the most victorious laugh out of all of them.

Suna and Yin followed with no hesitation.

Zach clinched his palms in embarrassment.

His cheeks were obviously turning rosy red.

"How dare you insolent fools laugh at me! The goal of this was not to hit the logs, but to show you that I am a special type of Fire Slayer, idiots!"

Zach exclaimed.

"Did you see the look on his face?!"

Kai asked Yin.

"Yeah, he even had that proud look on his face like he really did what he wanted to!"

Yin nodded and responded with a huge grin.

"I have got to admit, Zach, that was pretty funny."

Suna said.

It took the three of them a grand total of five minutes to stop laughing.

It could have been ceased a lot sooner than that, but every single time Kai, Yin, and Suna actually caught up to their breaths, someone repeated how Zachary was overly confident asking them if what he did was indeed 'pretty cool.'

"Are you finally done?"

Zach asked them.

The three of them nodded as though they shared a single brain cell altogether.

All the while Oliver was still attacking (healing) Yin's feet and legs.

"But seriously, Zach, you are like Yin."

Suna said to him.

"What?! How am I like that simpleton?!"

Zach overreacted.

"Because you both have special affinities, idiot. With his black lightning and your azure flames!"

Suna shouted.

Zach scoffed.

"Hm. Is that so? I never thought of that. Now that I have shown myself to not be a generic Fire Slayer, I can safely say I will cast all the spells I want to in combat effectively!"

He retorted.

"Is that why you were not confident in using your affinity a few weeks ago?"

Yin pressed on.

"No, I just thought my physical capabilities would carry me to the top. But seeing as we have a monster of raw physicality of our own here, I will focus on what I have instead of what I wish I had or thought I was."

Zach said in a light manner.

"Look at you, growing up so soon! My pupil has finally shed his smart ass demeanor!"

Kai Xin rushed in to hug Zachary, to which the latter sprinted away from.