Chains Of Pride

3 weeks had passed since the mass awakening took place. New problems arose, where many things had to be taken into consideration. Such as the living quarters for the nearly 60 new Taliums that had joined them.

Food gathering from the forest had to be doubled in effort many times over. Luckily, with the reasoning being the word 'Taliums' everything eventually worked out. However, there was another problem that they had no way to overcome, not even if they all came together.

That was the instructor from hell, the demoness known as Amachi Rikona who was putting them through a level of training that they never knew existed.

They had simulated battles, a training regimen, and mandatory meditation sessions. They had thought Zutto Shu was rough, but the beautiful leader in their dreams was worse than that scar-covered silent type who could easily qualify as nightmare fuel. Where was the logic in this?!

"Aarrgh!! Ha!!!"

Shouts of battle were coming two figures currently embroiled in a fight. No in'essence were employed between the two, but it was obvious that even though one displayed exceptional skill, the other's body had gone through several realms of augmentation and could keep up through liberty of that alone.

"I don't believe it, someone is actually fighting that demon instructor!"

"Nothing makes sense anymore, I heard he's from the batch of mass awakened."

"Really? I thought we were at least stronger than them, looks like I was fooling myself."

Over 70 Taliums were currently arranged in a circle. Granting a large amount of space to the combatants within.

As of now Rikona was squaring off against Hokori Nehone, the crimson-haired Talium who was one of the first to be awakened.

His level of growth was impeccable, in the three weeks since he was awakened, he had already become a Genesis. As of now he had nearing the bottle-neck of a Genesis Prime.

"Ugh!" He was knocked back once more, the force alone caused his feet to dig two trenches in the ground as he went.

Stabilising himself, he dashed forward once again, and using his arm like a blade, he slashed towards Rikona once again.

She executed a cross block to push him off, before throwing a punch to his c.h.e.s.t. He meticulously side-stepped her punch, though it was much faster than anything he should have been able to dodge.

"There it is again! That same strange movement technique, what is it?" Her thoughts were in a whirl, as he dodged her fists and landed his own.

When he came in close, using his Genesis level strength, he executed around 4 stabs with his hand before Rikona was finally able to react.

"Krgh!"

She then sent him flying with a backhand, crashing several metres away. He looked pretty miserable as he stared at her in shock.

Rikona sighed when she saw this, "Let's leave it at that for today, it's getting pretty late." She looked all around before she dismissed everyone. " Everyone can return to rest, Nehone, you come with me."

All the Taliums dispersed, leaving only the defeated Nehone who was hurrying after Rikona who was walking away.

"It seems I still can't defeat you," Nehone said as soon as he was close enough.

"That's only because of a difference in our realms, if you were an Avartel, hell, even if you were a Supreme Invata, you probably would have been able to defeat me." Rikona said with nonchalantly.

Nehone didn't comment on this, so he decided to ask, "So where are we going? Are we doing 'that' again?"

"The energy you told me about, the one unique to your bloodline. Is it causing any further problems?" Rikona asked.

"No, since I stopped circulating it, it hasn't become too much of an issue," He answered.

Rikona sighed in relief, "That's good. I won't force you, but are you sure you can't tell me anything about the energy in your body or where you learned those strange techniques?"

"I can't, I'm sorry. My clan is one bathed in secrecy, and years before I was...taken." His face scrunched up as he said this. "I took an oath to carry the secrets of my clan to the grave. No one can violate this rule unless the clan head deems it permissible." He stopped talking at this point, not wanting to say anything that he shouldn't.

Rikona only walked on, she realized that she was able to feel the strange energy within him. It was faint and she was less attuned to it than in'essence, but it was there. After every fight, she would bring him with her to inspect the changes in his body.

There was a past incident where the energy in his body mixed with the in'essence. The new melding additional augmentations in his body. The resulting energy created was extremely berserk and hard to control.

During that time, in a moment of confusion and panic he had ended up severely injuring a number of Taliums, before he was stopped by Rikona.

Ergo, Rikona had made it her duty to make sure that after every training session, she would check the energy in his body herself.

"Hey Nehone, you're finally done?" Gin came running towards them both.

Nehone's face brightened when he saw his old friend, "Hey bro, what's up?! Yeah we just finished, just heading for another inspection session."

Nehone and Gin were apparently childhood friends. According to their story, Gin's ancestors were extremely close with the Hokori Clan and as such, both families were extremely close. This allowed for Gin to be one of the privileged few who knew who and what the Hokori Clan.

However, because Gin's ancestors had always passed down these teaching, and because of the blood oath that was made back then. Gin could never talk about anything in regards to the Hokori Clan, knowing that it was a great taboo to do so.

"Oh cool, I'll come with you guys." Gin stated. Rikona didn't mind she simply walked forward lost in her own thoughts.

"Hey, where's...what's his name, Mr Makoto?" Nehone asked. When the woman in front of them heard this name her ears perked up.

"Makoto? Oh yeah he's with Yang Min compiling all the Taliums who's finally become a Genesis," Gin answered.

"I like him, he's really funny, he reminds of my cousin Argon."

"Oh yeah! Remember that time we…"

As Rikona heard them talking about old times, she was immediately reminded of her younger sister and how they would do the same things at random points in time.

"Here we are, get in Mr Hokori," Rikona said with a smile.

Nehone didn't complain, he simply walked in the room. Rikona went in after. followed by Gin.

Having gone through this process more than once, Nehone already knew what to do. He went in the small and empty room, with Gin standing to the side, he took of this shirt.

His body was extremely toned, as if his body was pushed beyond the limits of humans. Even as a Genesis, he was like a new breed all on his own.

Banishing these thoughts, Rikona began to concentrate to see if she could send the energy inside him from a distance. It was vague and obscured, if she didn't know beforehand, she wouldn't have attributed this to being a different type of energy, especially since he wasn't circulating it.

She came close to him and pressed her soft hands on his lean c.h.e.s.t and closed her eyes.

'Gasp!'

Nehone couldn't help blushing a bit at this, "Rikona was so beautiful, Mr Makoto is lucky. I heard her younger sister doesn't lose out at all and is even more beautiful, so Gin is lucky too, I wish there was another Amachi sister." He shook his head trying to steel his warrior heart.

As Nehone's thoughts were running all over the place, Rikona's hands retreated as she looked at him with a hint of worry.

"Any problem?" Gin asked when he saw her expression.

"This strange energy is kinda agitated, there shouldn't be any trouble going forward if he just doesn't use it, but it's like he can't help it. This is new so I don't know what to make of it, and there's not much equipment here for me to make use of either," she explained.

"That's gonna be troublesome, my fighting style integrates this energy into my moves. So foregoing years of training is kinda hard," Nehone stated. "Plus, even though I try to stop it, I'm at a level where it automatically circulates on it's own, though it's slower when I fight against it."

"What's the problem? Sure, the energy back then was pretty berserk, can't he just learn to control it?" Gin shrugged his shoulders, not seeing the big issue.

"Because, the energy felt like mine from back then." Rikona said her face dark.

"What's the big deal, if he's walking in your footsteps then he's bound to become powerful in the future." He said, obviously confused.

"Because!" Rikona shouted, "It was back when I had practically become a fallen."