Jasper crouched and inspected the decaying, dead spirit. He glanced toward his injured spirit and gestured to the corpse. The flesh caterpillar crawled up to the body and began disecting the corpse with it's mandibles.
After a minute or two of quiet chewing, the spirit had a small golf ball sized glowing orb in its mouth. It looked up at Jasper as if asking for permission to consume it. Jasper crouched down and pet his spirit.
It seemed to enjoy his touch as the spirit core disappeared into it's mouth. Spirit cores were basically the spirit's heart. The amount of energy stored and condensed inside determines the spirit's energy density.
Jasper pulled his spirit box out and scanned the dead spirits body. 'Foliage Beavrel' was the spirits species type. He looked over the species before jotting a few notes down in a notes function the spirit box had. It's convenient and let the user pull up info they learned about a spirit years later.
If he had used the spirit box before the fight, he would've known about the tail trick. Jasper tucked the spirit box into his pocket and looked down at his spirit. He pulled it into his spirit arsenal and began to walk through the forest. He wanted to look at this whole cluster of trees still. His spirit would heal faster inside him than it would walking around with him.
He strapped his spear to his backpack and pulled his short sword off. The handle spun in his hand as he stalked through the trees. A gentle breeze shook the branches above him. He turned quickly as some of his education activated.
He remembered one of his elite instructors had given him a tip. 'Not everytime. But a breeze is an indicator of an air spirit. Breezes pop up all the time if there's an air spirit in the area.' Jasper recalled. Suddenly, a quiet whistling pierced his ears.
His eyes widened as his legs pushed off the ground. He ducked under a low hanging branch and sprinted toward the road. He was deep enough into this cluster of trees that he was nearly 2 minutes of running from the road. There was a slicing sound as the branch he ducked under hit the ground.
He spun on a dime and raised his shield. A blade of air deflected off the tough metal and made a cut in the tree next to him.
Jasper hissed as the attack left his arm sore. He was fortunate his father invested in high quality equipment. Otherwise, his shield would be two pieces right now. This spirit wasn't a Pygmy, or even the tier above. Chrysalis spirits tend to be defensively minded. This spirit was Ethereal.
That was above his current pay grade. Jasper scanned for where the attack came from and found a tornado moving around in the trees. Air spirits were some of the fastest out there. Within the tornado he heard monkey sounds and saw it's form harden slightly. The spirit's form was monkey like but its lower body was straight tornado.
It was about the size of a 12 year old and held power that could kill Jasper with ease. Jaspers mind raced. If he turned his back, it'll attack him. Spirit taming was a dangerous sport. He calmed down slightly and called on the powers of his spirit. His skin turned grey as small dust particles began falling off him. A weak black necrotic energy leaked off both of his weapons as his body felt slightly stronger.
He was activating spirit possession, which effectively was manifesting his spirit inside his own body. This was a common technique used by spirit tamers to increase their own power during fights. It was used when someone preferred getting in the battle themselves.
It gave the user a slightly watered down version of their spirit's abilities. Jasper began stepping back carefully, trying not to trip on the forest floor. The monkey banged on it's chest as it hooted at the young man. Jasper broke line of sight with a thick tree trunk and shot into a run.
He bought himself a few seconds as he darted behind another tree as he felt a breeze pass him. A slice blasted through the tree causing wood chips to shower on Jasper. 'Shi-'. His foot caught on a root and he went tumbling to the ground.
He maintained as much momentum as he could and threw himself to the side. A groove was carved into the ground as another wind blade blew dirt into the air. Jasper was on his feet again as his arms waved. His balance was off right now and it was about time for another blade to come.
In a gamble, he spun, his short sword swinging with all of his power. It clashed against a wind blade and was blasted out of his hand. He grimaced as he felt it rip the skin on his palm. He grit his teeth as he roared. Another blade bounced off his shield and into the ground.
Jasper scrambled for his sword and avoided another blade. "You're too strong." He shouted as he rolled behind another tree trunk. It looked like a mad lumberjack had been striking trees only once or twice before moving on to the next.
He even got a few chops at the ground. Sweat rolled down his forehead and into his eyes. "Aw shit." He whispered as he he wiped his eyes. The only positive right now was that he could guess the approximate time the spirit attacked. His intuition was feeling out its timing. 'It'll be getting an angle right…' He counted in his head and watched both sides of the trunk carefully.
His back was pressed against it as he listened for which side the spirit had rotated to. It sat in the branches and rained hell upon him. It never closed the distance but instead chose to just find a different angle. It seemed as though the branches were its habitat.
His hand hurt like hell from the torn flesh, but he gripped the short sword regardless. A rustling of leaves on his right side gave him the signal to shoot foward. A wind blade struck where he was standing.
Jasper could finally see the edge of the forest. He ducked under another blade and used a tree to block the last one. As he broke through the line of trees he began backpedaling rapidly. His shield danced in front of him ready for any attack.
However it seemed as though the monkey was only prepared to attack while Jasper was in it's territory. Jasper didn't take his eyes off the large clump of trees until he was fully back on the road. He got a few strange looks for looking like he'd just fought for his life, but he ignored them.
Finally, he breathed a sigh of relief. He'd made it back. His whole body relaxed as the adrenaline wore off. He looked down at the torn flesh on his hand and sneered. He'd almost got his journey cut short. Seeing a Ethereal spirit this close to the city was unlikely. The high foot traffic meant that spirits were just less likely to be there. There were also city guards who'd come out and kill stronger spirits to prevent spirit waves.
Jasper sat on the curb of the sidewalk and took his bag off. A trail of blood followed him to where he sat. He began searching through his bag for his medkit with one hand.
As he failed to find it, he noticed a group of people. "Hey solo, we've got healing spells if you need it." A female voice said. Solo was a term used to describe solo spirit tamers who had no clan or group. He turned around, his eyes quickly assessing this group. 6 people who gave off an experienced aura stood in a semi circle around him.
The woman who had spoken to him was in her early 20s and had a powerful energy. She had a bright smile on her face but strong features. Her eyes were a piercing dark blue and her hair hugged her lean shoulders. Jasper could see tough muscle in her forearm as she extended a hand to him. A headband held her long glossy auburn hair back.
She had strong eyebrows and a lean, powerful physique. Jasper, a little skeptical, grabbed her hand with his clean one. She pulled him to his feet and gestured to one of her companions. A similarly aged girl with teal colored hair fashioned in a bob walked up to him.
She placed her hands on top of and under his, and intently focused. Green spirit energy coated his hand. It was cool and smooth feeling as it absorbed into his body. He felt his life force grow and speed up his healing. Curiously, Jasper watched the process with sparkling eyes. "Isn't that?" One of the group members seemed to realized something.
Jasper looked around making eye contact with each of them. Some of them recognized him as the Lord's youngest son. Embarrassment took hold of him as he averted his gaze. "Thank you." He said.
The girl who had originally spoken to him stepped up. "We're with the Rio Clan. I like to help out solos when it's no inconvenience to us so we stopped. You don't gotta repay us just spread the Rio gospel." She said playfully. She raised her hands as if praying to a god during the last sentence.
Jasper stared at her.
She coughed awkwardly and said, "While your hands getting healed, what tore your hand up so bad? The trail on the sidewalk was quite long." Jasper looked back at the sidewalk and saw he did leave quite a significant blood trail. He hadn't been thinking when he made it back to the sidewalk and had walked a few dozen meters.
"Oh, I got attacked by an Ethereal spirit in the tree clump over there. When I deflected an attack with my short sword the force ripped it out of my hand, ripping my hand in the process." He explained.
"An Ethereal there?! Huh. What affinity?" She asked. Her finger rested on her chin as she considered the unlikelihood.
"Air, I think." Jasper said.
She looked over to the girl healing Jasper's hand. "You want it Luna?" She asked.
"Uh maybe, was it pretty strong? Describe it, maybe one of us knows the species." She looked up at Jasper with her hands still clasped over his.
He blushed slightly, and looked up as if he was thinking. "It had this air monkey upper body and a tornado like bottom half that it used to move around in the trees quickly. It fired these air blades that could gouge pretty decently through trees." He described as he relived the moment.
Luna shrugged and turned to the other girl, "We can check it out." She removed her hands from Jaspers as it had healed completely. He stretched and closed his fist. He poked it and rubbed his hand as he got used to it. The skin was a little prickly and sensitive. He felt like he was feeling the cells in his finger.
"We're gonna go check that out. You wanna see us destroy the thing that hurt you?" She said with a devious smile.
Jasper shook his head. "I don't wanna go back in there." He said simply.
"Oh. Well that's ok. We're gonna go check it out and be back to tell you what happened to the thing. By the way, the names Arya." She said.
"I'm Jasper. That'd be great, thank you." Jasper flashed a genuine smile. He was afraid of that clump of trees. He didn't need to see it happen to know the spirit was finished. It will be tamed by the Luna girl, or be a spirit orb. The leader girl waved as the group turned and jogged away. Jasper stared at their backs, his mind in a jumble.