Capítulo 8: Contract (Edited)

Sipping on their tea, the village chief questioned the two beastkin. "Now then, would you care to tell us what exactly happened for this little duel of yours to occur?"

Looking at the gloomy-faced dragonkin beside him, Noxtis looked towards the stern-faced trio across from them. "It was all my idea, I..."

A sudden lightly tanned hand with calluses on its fingers and palm blocked Noxtis from saying any more. "Noxtis stop. I appreciate you for accepting my selfish request but don't go lying to save me okay?"

Surprised that Ember would defend him considering that they had only just met, Noxtis sat back down and nervously touched his teacup.

Heartwarmed by Noxtis' trying to take the blame for who was essentially a stranger, Ember steeled herself as she told the trio about her peeking in on Noxtis' cultivation practice and how she brashly challenged him to a spar. As for the large crater that she had formed due to her admittedly overeager use of her bloodline strength, she shyly just touched her index fingers together and apologized to the Village Elder.

Chuckling, everyone looked over as Grandma Reah laid back and threw a blueberry into her mouth. "It's just kids being kids, leave them be. Besides, its not like any real damage was done and the two clearly agreed to fight one another."

The Crimson Scale elder interjected. "But..."

"No buts mister, don't think I don't know that you've had your fair share of rambunctious actions in your disciple days Gundlach. I've known Tribe Leader Flint for the longest time and he's told me all about the little antics you used to get into."

Defeated, Elder Gundlach's shoulders drooped as he sent the two beastkin away.

Glad that they had gotten away with their attention-grabbing spar, Noxtis walked towards Grandma Reah's stall while Ember followed behind him.

On the way there, Grandma Reah peeked at the two younglings and smiled when she saw that despite their very...rough...sparring, the excitement that was radiating off of the dragonkin lass was palpable. Even the normally recluse adoptive grandson of hers was a bit more giddy than usual.

'Ahhh youth...I remember myself back in those days...'

"I can take care of the shop myself, you two can go. Just make sure to not make so much noise next time and perhaps do your 'sparring' inside." With an emphasis on the sparring part, the old turtlekin snickered as she walked with surprising agility towards her stall to most likely go back to napping.

Rolling his eyes at the play on words that he was used to by now, Noxtis looked over to the dragonkin beauty to see her with a furious blush on her cheeks.

"Let's go, we can head back to my not-so-secret training spot."

Nodding and following Noxtis back towards the forest, after a bit of time when there was only the two (or I guess three with the phantom Mirko) were left, Embervesent spoke up.

"Are you forgetting something Mr. Catkin?"

Hearing the snide tone in her strong and beautiful voice, something about the question irked him. "I am an Onyx Panterkin miss fire lizard. At least that is the best guess that Grandma Reah could guess."

As if she had heard thousands of different bloodline slurs slung her way, Embervesent just smiled.

"Ahhh yes, the tribe of black cats that no one has seen in thousands of years suddenly appearing in a tribe of turtlekin.

Bloodline aside, I'm pretty sure that I won our little wager from earlier."

Pausing half a second and then suddenly gripping the earth with his clawed feet, Noxtis sped towards his training area.

Shocked at the speed and abruptness of the pantherkin, Embervesent's smile widened. Despite this beastkin being quite a few stages below herself in body tempering, his swiftness combined with the crafty attack pattern made for a deadly combination.

She knew she had only won due to it being a spar and catching him off-guard.

But a win is a win, and Embervesent planned on collecting what she was due.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Inside the hovel that was built beside his training area, Noxtis was lying on his bed staring into the ceiling.

'Why did you suggest that contract or whatever? That reptile is clearly stronger than I am.'

'Well, I had to say something to get her attention. No one would believe us if I just offered to teach her a cultivation technique that doesn't really exist in this world for free.

So the contract is a way I convinced her would allow me to better transfer my phantom self to her mind space easier as transfer a suitable cultivation technique to start her cultivation journey. This isn't exactly untrue, but it would just take much more energy on my part.

As your Master, I did warn you to not underestimate her. Besides, anyone can tell that she is a beauty and finds you interesting.'

'I didn't underestimate her! I had my blade at her throat!'

Sighing, the phantom Mirko shook his head. 'My young disciple, if there is one thing you have yet to learn, it is fighting against a cunning enemy. As much as you can kill the beasts in the forest and spar against my clones, they cannot be a true experience for when you will face others in your world.

Many will be your enemies, acquaintances, and even friends. But never let your guard down against any of them because the heart and mind are fickle and greedy things. There are many who would throw away any of their morals or kinship for power or wealth.

Besides, you said it for yourself. She is indeed of a higher body tempering than you and has very powerful bloodline abilities. But despite that, you were able to leverage your own skillset to take her down.

Plus the contract is only of equals and will only make sure that neither of you can betray the other. The whole 'control' aspect is something I made up.'

Thinking deep over his master's words, he realized that if he were more guarded against the dragonkin, he could've avoided being taken down.

Submitting to his fate and admitting he was largely at fault for being so careless, something that he would rarely ever do against the beasts he fought against. 'So what do we do now? What is the whole contract thing require?'

'I already have prepared the materials, they weren't too difficult to get since this is a simple contract. She is here already anyway so let's get started.'

Getting up from the bed and searching around frantically, Noxtis quickly caught sight of the surprisingly quiet-sitting dragonkin across his room.

"Wha...!?" Almost falling off of his bed, Noxtis heard a giggle coming from the other side of the room.

"I only just got here, but to think that the beastkin that almost beat me would be so careless."

'Both of you, let's get this over with. I have already prepared the contract materials. Noxtis, make sure to copy down the markings as I have shown you and make two, one for the both of you.'

Nodding and picking up a bundle hidden in his side desk, a set of brushes, parchment, and a stone receptacle for the ink. Pulling the seal off the small vial of ink, Noxtis carefully poured the shimmering black liquid into the stone receptacle and carefully replicated the delicate contract sigil onto two pieces of parchment.

Fascinated by the whole process, Embervesent watched on quietly so as to not disturb the concentrated focus that Noxtis had. In very little time though, the entire process was finished and Noxtis wiped his brow that was beginning to sprout some beads of sweat.

"I much prefer fighting to draw these sigils, they take so much concentration and energy."

Laughing in his disciple's mind space, the Phantom Mirko had practically prepared a lot of the materials as well as the brush strokes to take to inscribe the companionship contract. Despite that, successfully creating even a simple contract such as that did require a decent control of one's spirit qi which is actually quite difficult even for human students that practice the art solely.

Of course, he wouldn't tell that to Noxtis as it wasn't something that the beastkin youth was interested in nor something worth teaching since sword cultivation was their focus.

Carefully handing one of the talismans to Embervesent, Noxtis briefly instructed on what they needed to do next. They each held their respective talismans close to their lower belly, right on top of where their dantian (or where it should be if Embervesent had one).

Detaching himself from Noxtis' body, the Phantom Mirko appeared within the small hovel and channeled the requisite spirit qi into both of the talismans, initiating the contract between the two younglings.

Receiving the spirit energy, the shimmering ink shined brightly, and the entire paper began to stick seamlessly to their bodies and slowly begin to be absorbed into their dantian spaces.

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