Chapter 18: Hard to catch
Of course, they missed. Elehago took a backstep at the right time, and another to dodge what followed.
-'If you do not keep the light spot on my face while moving, you are just wasting your energy.'
The senior commented.
That was easier said than done, however. Continuously following a moving target with the reflection was extremely hard, let alone doing it while making an intense effort.
-'Brother, just focus on blinding him. I will chase him down.'
-'Ok.'
However, as they tried this new strategy, Elehago did not seem troubled in the slightest and plainly played with Lauren, letting her come close and creating distance again when she tried to surprise him.
-'Little brother.' He said after the girl crumbled in complete exhaustion. 'Your effort is commendable but futile. You only project light where you can see. I just have to lift my hand to block you. When your sister cleverly tries to use this blind spot to her advantage, she gets between us and you become useless. This will not get you anywhere. Learn to use your skill on places that you cannot see.'
Moss thought about it. Was it even possible? He could not do that immediately anyway. But that deserved to be tried. There was a mirror in the high building and the old man suddenly thought of a way to put it to good use.
-'Sister Lauren.' He said. 'Senior brother has a point. I have just thought of a way to step up the training of my skill.'
She took some time to recover.
-'Let's stop here for today then. We need to be in condition to train later anyway.'
They wished a good day to their senior and moved away to speak privately.
-'Is he going to stay there all day and all night ?' The sister asked.
-'Well, it seems so.'
-'Do you think that you could sneak on him with your shadow technique?'
-'I just started yesterday, but maybe in some time.'
-'Okay. He does not appear to use any mind related skills, maybe I can subdue him in some time as well.'
-'Train well, sister. I will come back and check on your progress in a few hours.'
-'See you then.'
Moss went for the high building while Lauren returned to their place. What the commoner had in mind was simple. He needed to sit in a place where he could not see the big mirror of the last floor but where he could see the light reflected in it.
With this in mind, he settled against the same wall as the mirror, after having moved a cabinet furniture in front of it. While doing so, the thought struck him that he was now a lot stronger than he had been less than two weeks before. He had climbed those five floors as if it was nothing and the massive closet had required nothing more than a few grunts from him to move according to his wishes. It was great to know that even at his age he could improve his condition to that point.
Compared to the senior brother, he was still as weak as a child. But he knew that he had it in him to progress. Maybe not enough to best him, but he wanted to try. At this point of his life, he wanted to know his limits.
-'Focus.' The commoner told himself.
Using his reflective power was hard, even when he could see everything. He had to summon that weird energy drawn from the moon and tweak it. Moreover, his action was indirect. He was not directly doing something but setting things up for it to happen.
With his eyelids shut, he tried to create a representation of the surroundings in his mind. His progress in that field had been tremendous. It was now almost as if he could look around with his mind's eye. For four hours, he attempted to manipulate his power as intended. It seemed to him that he succeeded for an instant but he was not sure if he had not imagined the task of light on the cabinet back.
Lauren was improving as well. When he came back and sat to let her project her mind on his, he could immediately feel her presence and receive things she emitted, like emotions, and less frequently words. She also showed him that she could suggest postures to small plants. For instance, with some time she could make a flower bend in an unnatural direction.
That may have looked like a small achievement, but she loved talking about everything she experienced when creating contact with vegetation, to the point of making Moss resort to tricks to change the subject.
Once their physical practice was done they gave up on the idea of having a second round with the senior brother that day. The fatigue had accumulated. They also realised that he had never promised to prevent the wolves from coming in. It was a big risk that they had taken by fooling around on open land like that.
-'Practice well that night, old man. Tomorrow I will try to subdue his mind. You may try your new tricks as well. These high grades sets will soon be ours!'
-'What tricks ?! My cultivation art is serious. Can you see at night? I think not.'
-'Yeah yeah, your power is so cool.'
-'When I complete my technique, he will not see me coming at all!'
They japed and laughed for a bit before going to sleep. On his roof, Elehago heard it all and made faces while hearing their boasts.
-'Who do you take me for ?! A clown? Just wait for tomorrow, you rascals! Subdue my mind? Sneak on me? You are three hundred years too early for that.'
In truth, he had held the wolf pack out of the fiery flower sect quarters the whole time. If they were so confident in their skills, then he guessed that he had been overly cautious. The more the merrier, they said.
Jokes aside, with their fast cultivation speed, he thought that the challenge would be appropriate. Bended flowers and kid tricks were good, but time had come to make them explore the true power of their techniques.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone