"Alright, is everyone here?", Master Jii said, "Yes sensei, just waiting for Akira and Ling, Takeshi has went to call them out", said Aaron and soon the three of them arrived, "finally here huh? Took you long enough?", Meral said as she moved closer towards Takeshi with an angry grin, "He..hey, you know I'm not familiar with this place yet, on my way back I got lost as the sects are too big and there are hell lot of parks, finally I got my eyes on Ling and Akira and I went to them immediately, that's how I came back, so are we cool?", Takeshi told Meral in a clam tone, without saying anything Meral went back to the group, "Wow, seems like Meral has grown quite closer to you huh?", taunted Akira as she gave a side eye to Takeshi, and before the banter would continue, Master Jii continued," Ahmm! Now that everyone's here, let me cut the chase and move to the main talk, in 25 days from now we will be participating in the grand shrine monarch tournament held by the sect leaders of Elentalus, it's going to be a grand event and if anyone wins the tournament, they will be gifted the imperial crest of the jade dragon, which contains not one but 6 different antics more like accessories that help in one's control over their elements", "so basically, we have to prepare for a grand tournament with little to no practice, and most of all how are we going to defeat the competitors?", Takeshi asked Master Jii, "that's why we will be continuing with the training, we will try not to outperform the competitors but atleast make them know that even with little time to practice, we are still formidable, is it clear!", Master Jii instructed the group.
And the very next morning the training continued, but this time the training revolved around fusing elements with physical fighting, "Takeshi I see that you've improved your moves and have gotten a good grasp over the air element, show me what you can do", said Jun Tao as he took a step back, *exhale*.. *inhale*"Alright here I go..", said Takeshi as he slightly distanced his right leg, moving his hands in a flowing manner, slowing breathing and again made his hands lower down to his waist and swiftly moved his hands forward, a sudden silence followed his move, *sigh* " I think we need more practice on your moves Takeshi, let's not be demotivated on the first step right, let's check out on Darek", Jun Tao reassured Takeshi about his elemental moves but little did Jun Tao and Takeshi knew that the move he carried out might not have been visible but the move was strong enough to cast a crater shape on the adjacent wall, *hah!* *huff* *hah*, "You just might get exhausted if you do too much Darek", said Jun Tao as he and Takeshi walked up to Darek who was doing push ups, "huh? What are guys going on about? I have enough stamina to go on about 4 hours straight", Darek boasted about his stamina as he looked at them, " well let's put your stamina to work shall we?", asked Jun Tao and directed him to show him what he has practiced so far, *sigh* "alright, just so you know I might gets the counting incorrect but I will try", Darek said and then he bent down touching the ground with his fingers and a bright redish circle formed beneath Darek and his eyes glowed bright red and a sudden surge of red wave followed towards the tree that was situated far away from where they were, as the red wave continued spreading it showed significant effect on Dareks body, *cough* *cough* "Da..damn it, I still need to do go.." *thud*, Darek told to himself as he fainted on the ground and red wave came to an end, "I told him not push himself too much, now look", Jun Tao said with disappointment, Darek rested on his lap before he woke up short after, *ugh* "what happened.. heh.. did i finally do it", Darek asked with a smirk as he slowly came to his senses, "Well no, your wave couldn't even reach half of the area, and you fainted, sadly you need to put in more work, I know you are good in hand to hand combats but you need to atleast master one skill of the element to be called truly yours", Jun Tao explained Darek, after some time of rest Darek and Takeshi went back to practice, with a relief Jun Tao went to check on the others, *scream* "Kyaaa!.. Meko help me "*sob* *sob*, Lia asked for help from Meko, while Meko sat there all zoned out, "I won't.. Lia you did pretty good in handling the roots but you need to work on your concentration, you got distracted and the roots lost control that's why you're stuck like this", Meko said as took sip from his tea, "Say's the one who drinks tea at any point of time and yet doesn't want to help his struggling students", Jun Tao said as he walked into the big varanda, it had a pleasant scent which elevated the atmosphere, *tch* "Lia take some rest and get back to practice again", said Meko as he undoed the roots and let Lia free, "Th..thank you Meko, I promise you I will practice more", Lia said as she left the varanda to get some rest, *oof* "How is she doing, seems like a progress to me", Jun Tao asked meko to which he replied, *scoff* "better than those two you have been training", both shared a friendly laugh before going back to their respective areas.
To be continued...