That same day, each group in which they had been divided continued training as they had been established, at noon they had their rest and at dusk they stopped for dinner and sleep, following this sequence another two days passed in which Mayla could notice that the other young women had improved their physical endurance and strength in combat and Dreik noticed that Shiko controlled the magic of the water dragon better as well wielding his shadow powers.
After these four days of training had passed on the night of the fourth day Dreik decided to give the order to continue advancing to where the next guardian they had to defeat was.
-Dreik: Well... Four days may be too few days to train, but it seems that some of you were already used to a certain way of training. Ignoring that, we only needed a little experience to defeat the missing ones, since the problem is in mismanaging our magic... Once the ten guardians are defeated, we will have more days of training so that we will be able to fight against the "menace" that torments us.
-Lyn: Good! Apart from that, we have Shiko who is our winning ticket!
-Mayla: It's like Lyn says, but despite that we must give him a hand as much as we can, so let's try!
-Zene: I had an idea. I think it would be wasteful for all of us to fight against a guardian at the same time since due to poor coordination, some techniques of some would spoil the techniques of others. I think that only a certain group must go against the guardian and that the rest look for the location of the next guardian, and if they don't think they can explore further, they can continue training somewhere else.
-Shiko: You're right... So let me decide who is going to be my company against the next one.
-Asuka: Shiko has spoken!
-Shiko: Asuka... sorry to say it but I think that this time you need to stay, you have already faced many fights and you need to train your way of combat better... being the only one who has not played some way to improve your physical condition you are the one who gets the most tired and spends the most energy... so don't fight this time.
-Asuka: Eeeeehhh!?
-Alba: Asu, Shiko says it for your sake... the truth is that I think the same... Lyn has developed great physical condition because in training she commented that she does sports, I have developed endurance because of the training I received with my sisters, but you are not very good at it.
-Asuka: ... I got it...
-Shiko: Then I need Dreik to accompany me to be able to apply what we have been practicing, Lyn will be our shield and Alba who can heal and support us, aside Dreik also has healing powers so in that part we are fine. The others may look for ways to continue training.
-Zene: Since you have decided to leave this place, I can take you to a good place, I know.
-Mayla: Well, we got it!
They all split up as Shiko said. Once those who were going to train with Zene left, Shiko's group said goodbye to the Kiman and left the forest. The moment they came out, Hydra's voice suddenly resounded in Shiko's head, who told him:
-Shiko! Sorry for having days without communicating with you, I have explored the areas a little and the next place I recommend you visit is the scaly lake, where the guardian that protects the waters of this continent is located. In that place there is a wall which has a story which seems to be a prophecy... I think you should read it and defeat the guardian of the area. That said, I'll be in touch with you when I hear something new!
After Shiko heard Hydra's words, he asked Dreik about such a lake to which they did not hesitate, and they took their way there. Dreik used teleport to take them to such a place, since he knew the place, he could return at once without having to walk.
Once there, they saw that it was a huge lake, which had a stone path that led to a kind of temple that was in its center. They didn't think twice about going over the stone bridge to get to the temple and once inside it, they found the wall that Hydra told Shiko about, with a strange symbology and drawings that seemed to carry a sequence.
Once everyone saw what was embedded in the wall they were amazed.
"Young ones, I know you don't understand the language of this world, so I'm going to read to you what it says in this story."
Dreik addressed his group and as he looked at the wall, he began to translate the story.
"Shadows, you will be the first samples of the powerful beast that will save this world, the day it is time to do so, stars... These will be the ones who guide our Savior to his destiny, the approval of the ten guardians must acquire so that his strength may be worthy, the approval of the people of such a world must acquire so that his value may be worthy, and finally, the blessing of his own person will test his wisdom, so that it will be worthy... Once the hero complements himself, he will be able to free us from the evil that threatens us."
Dreik finished reading the stories on the wall, leaving those who accompanied him speechless. After thinking about it, Shiko said:
-Shiko: This story... speaks about the guardians... they talk about the people he would meet here... but what does he mean by being trained by the stars? To find myself? What do they mean to complete all my power?
Dreik: That is the message that this old scripture gives us... It leaves many doubts, but there is no choice but to have to continue the journey to clarify them.
-Shiko: If you are part of the approval of the people here... I guess you have no choice but to continue helping, according to this talking wall it is your obligation Hahaha!
-Dreik: You take advantage of that, don't you? Hahahaha!
-Alba: We all support you, Shiko! Although there are still doubts to be cleared up, we will fight together for the clear objective: To help you restore peace of this strange world!
-Lyn: Well... Now all that remains is to find the guardian.
The group of young people decided to leave the temple to which they saw something come out of the lake that did not make their presence when they entered, in front of them was a huge sea serpent which seemed to have been observing them for some time.
"Hello group of young ones, my brother Hydra told me that you all were coming, so I had to wait for you to come in and know the story to introduce myself! I know you're going to ask, "How is a Hydra a sea snake's brother?" It turns out that our species can interbreed and before we became guardians we used to live with our families! Our parents were a Hydra and a sea serpent. And not to forget, my name is Hargon! A pleasure!"
All the team were speechless when the sea serpent presented himself so cheerfully.
-Shiko: How can you say that you are a sea snake!? Sea snakes don't fill almost an entire lake with their size, nor do they have scales so huge that they protrude from their body, nor do they have so many teeth or scales! You're more like a sea dragon!
-Dreik: What are sea snakes like in your world?
-Lyn: Oh... very different, believe me.
-Hargon: Seeing that you finished doing your duty, let's begin the other reason why you have presented to this place.
-Alba: I'm surprised that you can continue in that form for so long! According to my suit it says it's level seventy.
-Shiko: Analyzing our levels, I've risen to level seventy, your level forty according to my suit, Lyn stayed at level thirty after the fight against Deaby and Dreik has unknown level, I think we can fight him.
-Dreik: What a strange way to analyze your enemies.
-Alba: It's a mechanism that Mayla added, he he.
-Hargon: Very good! So, let's start our fight!
All the team were on their guard, to which starting the battle Dreik and Shiko decided to make their strategy. The young swordsman swallowed a portion of Dreik's water, causing his shadow-bending powers to awaken along with his water-bending powers and giving him the transformation he had obtained, thus sharing energy with his partner.
"Remember that your limit time to be able to be in that form is only twenty-five minutes, only ten minutes more added to last time, so we must plan a way to defeat him quickly".
Dreik said these words in a serious tone to Shiko, letting him know that they should save enough magic.
Without giving them more time, the guardian with whom they began combat decided to bend all the water in the lake creating a huge wave capable of drowning them in one blow -Oceanic world! - exclaimed the sea serpent as he dropped the great wave on top of the group of young men. Dreik stood in front of everyone, raised his hands towards the big wave and with his handling of the water he was able to divide it in two preventing it from impacting against the party, and at the moment he did this, Shiko jumped very high activating his "Boost" to have even more extra power. He made a strong cut, causing many gusts of shadows to come out of his sword directed towards his opponent -Lightning of shadows! - He exclaimed, being these bursts so fast that they hit Hargon. He was so big that he couldn't move very fast.
"Good one, but it won't be enough".
Hargon raised his tail which was at the other end of the lake making it go against Shiko to impact him from behind, making him unable to react to such a blow, being so powerful that it not only hurt the young man, but destroyed a huge portion of the stone bridge that led to the temple. The moment Shiko was hit by the monster's tail, Alba jumped towards Hargon's tail to start running down the rest of the snake's body that was out of the water, until she reached his head and hit a quick bolt of lightning against him. -Toxic beam! - The attack was so strong that she herself was propelled and fell on a part of the stone bridge without hurting herself as she used her magic to avoid taking damage when she fell. Once the young woman fell on the stones she used this beam once again, but this time Hargon managed to push it away with his tail making her head towards the water.
"Ha! You have fallen into the trap, now that you have deflected the poison beam into the lake you have made all the water toxic, thus damaging you more and more. And the best thing is that once Shiko comes out of the water, I will be able to purify him since I know the antidote to this type of poison!"
Alba spoke in a confident way towards her opponent. And so, the battle against this guardian began...
To be continued…