Limits

Unfortunately, Alicia wasn't there. I could only move on with my plans without my new weapon. I said, "We will be going Suly. I have loads to take care of, and the war is still in full swing". She asked disappointed, "Fox is going as well?". Fox replied teasingly, "Why, you will miss me?". Suly showed Fox her tongue, then said "Bah! As if! Leave already, you are annoying". Fox wanted to retort, but I stopped her. "We should go, I still need to return to Sedon later".

Fox asked me to wait upstairs for a while. I thought she wanted to say goodbye to Suly privately, which surprised me a bit. 'It seems they grew closer over that time' I thought, and left. Fox took her time, but when she finally appeared, I knew I was wrong. "Did you think I would make a new armour for you alone?" she asked.

'No, I thought you and Suly… Anyway' I said to myself. Her armour was impressive. Not only did it fit well showing all her curves, the design was even better than mine. The stitches were almost invisible, and the armour had a different sort of layering. The layers were round, and stitched together to make one full piece of armour. It was also black in colour, but had blue elements that highlighted certain areas. Her mask was different as well. Still that of a fox, but much darker, and also with blue elements.

Her whole body was covered by the armour. Even her neck was tightly wrapped in it. She had a cape as well, but much different to mine. Not only was it black in colour, it also looked cleaner. The design was rather plain, but the cut was different. The cloak covered her right side, including her arm. Mine extended across my shoulders.

She asked teasingly, "Are you staring because I look that great?". I replied, "I must admit, you look good. Although armour is not about looks, it's about defence… But, since you and Suly grew so close, I'm sure she placed some Formations on it too". She replied with a laugh, "Although the materials are worse than yours, it's a very good armour. As for its Formations… Who knows, maybe I will show you if you ask nicely".

I turned around while replying, "Let's go". She just made a simple "Tch" sound, and followed. While we walked through the streets, I asked curious. "This is your improved mask, I assume?". She nodded while replying, "Yes… You want to know Formations on this as well? Tough luck, you just ignored me not too long ago". I gave up, and continued walking. We left Olrad, and headed towards the Land of Sands. The journey would take us a few days, which meant I had time to practice some stuff. I made Fox practice as well. Just because she had an armour, that didn't mean she was invincible.

For some reason, she didn't complain much this time. 'I wonder why?' I asked myself. While Fox trained her senses, I tried to produce new Form of the Power of Ice. The glove Suly and Fox made, gave me an idea I could use… a few ideas to be honest. I extended my right hand, and willed the Power of Ice to appear. It would always appear in a Mist Form, 'What if I try to manipulate it? Would I be able to produce a ball?' I asked myself.

That is exactly what I tried. The mist slowly formed into more of an oval shape, but I didn't not a ball. I wanted to make a ball, not oval shaped mist. I tried harder and harder, until the mist formed a ball on top of my hand. 'This is so hard! To think I would have such a hard time making a ball out of this mist' I thought. The first step was completed. A misty ball floated on top of my hand. While strands of the mist escaped my hand in a spiral manner, continuously feed the ball from below. I tried making it a bit bigger, but the size didn't increase that much.

'In that case, I need to condense it now' I thought, and closed my fingers... claws a bit. The ball of smoke began shrinking a bit, and a tint of blue appeared. 'I can do more' I thought, and continued condensing it. A while later, the ball of mist condensed to a point, where its colour changed to pale blue. 'Alright, let's try this' I thought, and tried throwing the ball.

I swung my hand as hard as I could. To my surprise, the ball of mist left my hand. It didn't travel quickly though, probably because it was a ball of mist after all. When it landed, I stared in shock. "Creak! SHIING!". The area on which my ball of mist landed, became a huge pillar of ice. No, it wasn't just a single pillar, it was a few pillar stuck together. 'If that was the Merged Form of Mordars, it would freeze three times over' I thought.

Fox herself stopped the training, and took a look at the commotion. "What the hell did you do?" she asked shocked. I laughed drily "Yea… It's something I came up with". She just shook her head, and asked "What a monster... Are you sure you are Human?". I didn't doubt who I was, but that power wasn't really mine. It belonged to Frosty. 'Just what the hell is that Lizard… What entity would make Frosty hide for his life?' I asked myself. This wasn't even Frosty's full power, I just borrowed a portion of it. I didn't know how big of a portion, but still.

I woke up from my thought, and said to Fox. "You can go back to your training now". She stared at the pillars of ice for a while longer, then shook her head again before returning to her own stuff. 'Alright, this proved I can throw this thing, but it's too slow. The ball of mist has to be heavier… or more condensed. Otherwise, this attack is too slow, and can be easily evaded' I thought.

This was something I had to work on, but I decided to test something else out. I extended my right hand again, and willed the Power of Ice to appear. I formed it into a ball again, but my intention wasn't to throw it. I didn't condense it either. Instead, I extended my left hand. The Formation in my glove activated, and fire appeared on it. Although it wasn't a ball, Suly told me it could be a ball.

'This means, I can manipulate this Formation to a certain extent' I thought. I tried controlling the shape of the fire, but it was difficult. 'I wonder if I can increase the intensity. Suly didn't say anything about that, but what if I pour some more energy into that Formation?' I thought. I didn't go crazy though, and increased the energy output just a bit. The flame indeed intensified. I added a bit more and more, until my hand was blazing.

'This should be enough, let's try now' I thought, and tried to control the flame. Due to the increase in intensity of the flame, I was better able to manipulate it. That didn't mean the task of manipulating that flame, was easy. After a few tries, I managed to make a somewhat ball of fire. 'Hmm, can this be actually thrown?' I asked myself. The only way to find out, was to actually throw it. I had a perfect target for my test. With a fast swing, the ball of fire did leave my hand, and flew through the air. It was much faster, compared to the ball of mist. My target? The pillars of ice I created earlier.

"Boom! Swoosh!". When the ball of flame made contact with my ice pillars, it exploded. The strength wasn't that weak either, not only did it melt the ice, but it also shattered the pillars. Fox again stopped her training, and asked. "Will you stop? I get it, you have great skills. So shove them, and stay quiet!". I just nodded, and told her she could continue. 'The power is not that bad at all. If an enemy unit was hit with that, it would suffer some damages. Not only that, it would bring disorder to the unit, which was always a great way to finish them off' I thought.

There was one more thing, I wanted to test. 'I shouldn't go crazy though, I will only use a bit of fire, and check how it works' I thought. The ball of mist was still in my hand, but it weakened a bit due to loss of my focus. I activated the Formation in my glove again, but this time didn't make a ball, not increased the intensity that much. I clasped my hands together. I wanted to produce mist. In other words, a type of smokescreen, which could hide me and my allies. A sort of supporting Form.

"Boom". A quiet explosion sounded, while a lot of mist was produced. My hands were jolted backwards, but I didn't sustain any damage. 'It seems Fox had enough of it' I thought, when I left the mist and saw her disappear. She was going after me. Her stealth was actually on par with mine. That armour aided her stealth by a lot. I lost track of her for a while, when suddenly my instincts flared up. I jumped back, and said "Alright, alright. Calm down will you? I'm not gonna test anything else out". She replied still hidden somewhere. "Let me punch you once, and I will stop".

'As if!' I thought, and evaded another attack. But then a multiple attacks headed my way. 'What the?' I thought, but there was no way of escaping. I didn't want to harm her either, but then I recalled something. As the blows were about to connect, I made sure to activate the Shell Form on my chest piece. "Boom, boom, boom". Three fists appeared around me, then merged into one in front of me.

Fox grabbed her hand, and exclaimed "OOOWW! Not fair! You used that stupid Shell of yours!... Why did she make it so hard?". I replied with a laugh, "Why would you aim for my chest then? It's your own fault". She wailed in pain, her blows were rather powerful. I came over and comforted her, "Look here, some medicine. You will be fine". I gave her some medicine, then said "That armour of yours is not bad at all. You are no longer that weak". She grabbed the medicine, and used it immediately. I let her take care of that, before we left.