Ash had been going through the forest for a few days now finding new shelter each night to rest. The spirit didn’t know his plan exactly and asked him where he was going and what was he going to do since he hadn’t even mastered the fire completely. Ash told the spirit that he mastered the fire to the normal extent and going even forward would be easier thanks to his potential so he could leave the fire mastery for some time. The spirit advised him to try to master it along with however element Ash thought of learning next. Ash understood the piece of advice and said that the element that he wanted to learn next would help a lot with the fire element as well. The spirit asks him what element had he thought of learning next. Ash’s response was simply the fact that he already learnt a bit from that element through a technique, the air sphere, a defensive technique that involved air. Since air mastery was really similar to fire Ash could learn that element further and master it faster by combining his fire style training with the air style training. While fire was fuelled by rage and anger, air was fuelled by calmness and clearance, but both needed really good precision in order not to get out of control.

  One night Ash began a conversation with the spirit on this theme on how would he know how had he completely mastered an element to its full extent. The spirit decided to give Ash a few hints to see if he was as smart as he was strong.

  “Does inferno sound familiar?”

  “Yes, the beast told me about it and he also told me that you will teach me.”

  “I will, but first what do you think it is?”

  “It sounds like a technique, but I am not sure what it can do.”

  “It is tied to fire mastery.”

  Ash thought for a few moments and an idea popped in his head.

  “Does it have to do something with physical strength or elemental strength?”

  “It has to do with both but mostly with elemental strength.”

  “So it’s like a strength multiplier for fire abilities?”

  “Yes! Answered the spirit with proudness in his voice.”

  “Every element has a multiplier for itself and it can be taken up to huge amounts like 10 or even 20 the only limit being your energy reserves and your strength. Like I said fire has inferno while air has storm. You don’t need full mastery to learn or use the multiplier just to be able to control it to around the average level.”

  Ash then understood that inferno was like rage, a technique thought in the war that turns raw emotions into pure rage that amplified their strength, but they lost control most of the time. Ash had mastered the rage technique and knows how that kind of multiplier worked and since he was used to that feeling mastering the elements multiplier would be easier for him than it had been for others.

  The next few days Ash decided to fly to his next destinations since it was faster, but chose to fly during the night so no one could see him. The place Ash needed to reach in order to learn the air element was a few more days away so he had to be patient since he managed to travel almost half the distance on foot, but there were going to be huge mountains that would slow him down on foot so he flying would be the best option to get over those obstacles. Ash didn’t want to reach an Air Kingdom since there wouldn’t be a lot of fighters, mostly soldiers that prepare for wars or invasion so he wanted to find an air temple since those had a lot of elemental masters and monks that could teach him the calmness required to use the air element. As the days were passing Ash managed to cover a lot of ground, during the day he was moving fast so no one could see him not even other travellers and during the night he was flying like a phoenix searching for a new place to rest the next day. When he was low on food he went hunting to have provisions in case of anything, even though he avoided travellers he stopped to help the ones in need or the ones that didn’t have enough food. Even in a world with people that could control at least one element didn’t mean all of them were masters or that they could use them to huge extents, they were kind and all of them were thankful to Ash’s help, even when people didn’t ask for help Ash knew when someone needed it. While making a stop to go fishing the spirit began to teach Ash useful ways to use the fire even under water. If he combined the air sphere but this time making it smaller and concentrating it on his hand he could use a flame attack and get the fish half cooked and Ash managed to do it but he used a weaker flame to just kill them and not cook them since a fish not cooked enough could lead to food poisoning.

  Ash was flying one night while the spirit was looking through his eyes to see what he sees and then Ash quickly goes down and finds a place to stay hidden. The spirit was confused and asked Ash why he hid, Ash told him that they reached a border that leads to some nearby temple and that is guarded by some air masters that float up in sky and are hard to see but Ash managed to sense them before crossing the border. Ash knew he couldn’t get past it so he decided to wait until morning when they come down to see if they would let him pass. Ash made a little fire in a cave to keep himself warm for the night and slept in his clothes that needed a wash very soon since they were stains of blood from hunting and the smell of rotten flesh from staying besides dead animals or monsters for too long. In the morning Ash went straight to the border to see if he could cross it or not. The masters stopped him and began to ask questions.

  “Who are you and where are you coming from?”

  “I am Ash and I am just a traveller that wishes to go and see the beauty of the Air Kingdoms.”

  “But where are you coming from and how do you know how to fly?”

  “I come from a Fire Kingdom and like I said I want to visit the Air Kingdoms, and for the flying someone taught me.”

  “Do you come on any military based business?”

  “No, I come in peace and don’t wish any harm to anyone.”

  “Alright you can pass, have a wonderful travel.”

  “Thanks!”

  Ash went past the guards and noticed that one of them was tracking him in a way, he was paying attention to see where he was going, Ash knew that he was going to look after him or send others to see where he was going so he took a longer route to leave them in dust. After making sure no one is looking after him anymore he went straight to the temple that he could barely see in the distance. During the day Ash flew low so he couldn’t be seen by anyone and when night fall came he went so far up into the sky that he could barely see the ground. When he was close to the temple he decided to drop straight down rather than flying at a high speed since he didn’t fully master flying so that would just put him in even more danger than dropping and starting to fly before he touches the ground. Ash was at the side of the temple and went for the entrance so that he didn’t just barge in and be considered a threat. At the entrance in the temple there were two monks, before going to close to them Ash rolled his sleeve up on his right arm revealing the fire symbol in order for the monks to know that he comes in peace. The monks saw Ash’s condition and let him in, telling him that in the morning he will have to meet the grand monk to see if he could stay there for a longer time or not. Ash slept in a shelter for travellers that night thinking of what is he going to tell the grand monk.

  The next day Ash was woken by monks telling him to come to the grand monk. Ash went with them and entered the temple where he saw the grand monk waiting for him.

  “Why have you come here?”

  “I have come here to train and learn your techniques.”

  “But you are from the fire kingdoms, what business do you have with our techniques?”

  “I will be glad to tell you if we are left alone.”

  The grand monk then makes a sign for the other monks to leave the temple and close the door to hear what Ash was going to tell him.

  “Now that we are alone could you tell me why have you come here?”

  “If you come near me I can let someone speak to you so you could understand better.”

  “If you say so.”

  “Now what?”

  “Now this.”

  Ash placed his hand on him and connected him to the spirit so that he could understand why he came there. After a few minutes Ash took his hand off the grand monk breaking the connection and asked once again if he could stay there to learn the air element or not. The grand monk told him that he could stay and learn the element, but asked him why did he tell him or let him know all that. Ash smiled and said “I know you won’t tell anyone since this depends on world peace and the air people always wanted peace with the other kingdoms, am I right?” The grand monk smiled back and agreed with Ash’s words, he told him that he could stay in an old house so no one suspects him. Ash agreed and moved right there, he washed his clothes and he took a bath to get rid of the dead flesh stink. Ash knew that his training is going to be intense, but he first needed to find someone to teach him, the monks were out of question, even though they were strong, they couldn’t understand a fire warrior so he decided to find a person his age and knew right where to find one. He went to the training area in the mountains nearby and looked for a potential teacher. Although all the kids seemed strong they weren’t around Ash’s level, he needed someone strong enough to handle one of his strongest attacks. Ash decided to look into their military to see if there was someone good enough. When he got to the tents where the soldiers were sleeping he saw a familiar face. He got closer to see if he was right and then when he was sure it was the right person he took an arrow and threw it full force at him. The boy managed to dodge it and looked back to see who threw the arrow, but saw no one. When he turned back he was greeted by Ash’s face, he went back a few steps out of fear and sees Ash laughing. He asked what was so funny and Ash told him that it was great to see him again, the boy didn’t understand at first and wondered what he was talking about. Then Ash decided to stop playing games and asked him “Are you Dan?” The boy was stunned how he could know his name. He wondered if he had some tag on him with his name, then asked Ash how he knows his name. Ash with a serious face said “Maybe you remember me from my nickname, Silent Reaper” Then Dan understood and went and hugged Ash saying “It’s good to see you again old friend”

  After some bonding Ash told Dan to go to the temple to his new home to discuss some things. In his new home Ash asked Dan something else before he revealed the truth.

  “When is the next military meeting?”

  “I think is next week. Why?”

  “I need to borrow a carrier bird”.

  “I will lend you mine, but first tell me why.”

  “I made a promise to a village that has no military protection and is constantly visited by darkness followers.”

  “But couldn’t you wait a week before coming here to do that yourself. From what I remember you have a really high rank in the military and not to talk about your nickname.”

  “I will tell you the reason I came here after.”

  “All right I will bring my falcon.”

  As Dan went to get his falcon Ash began to write the letter that requested to send help to that village and to start training the people to make sure no one would suffer again. When Dan came with his falcon Ash had a map already placed down, he showed the falcon where to go and to look for a girl with long black hair and ruby eyes. The falcon understood its journey and flew straight out the window. Dan asked if that’s not the usual looking girl in the fire kingdoms, Ash responded with the fact that most have black hair and red eyes with exceptions, people were either born with different colours of hair or eyes, as example he had a combination of crimson and rose red eyes, Silver had an intense crimson colour and Hunter had a combination of scarlet and ruby, the same with Charlotte she had an intense combination of both ruby and rose. As with the colour of their hair most had a darkish hair colour ranging from a darker brown to an intense black, and Silver had silverfish hair thanks to something that had to do with her potential as said by an elemental master at her birth. The same with the air people, they had combinations of green eyes and their hair colour ranging from light brown to a dark one, the water people having different shades of blue and hair that ranged from blond to dark to white. Each element had various hair colours and also their hair colour could be the colour of their element, red for fire, blue for water, green for air, brown for earth, light blue for electricity, and black and white for light and darkness.

  After those explanations Ash began to tell Dan the truth and why he came there, the beast, the phoenix, the spirit and the guardians and his duty. Dan looked a bit surprised and that was expected since that would be a lot to take in for anyone, but he understood what he had to do and was honoured to teach the next guardian the air element. Dan was told not to share this with others since only he and the grand monk knew the truth, if word spread out that the next guardian is training then darkness would come looking for him to end him. Dan nodded at Ash and told him with a serious voice, like a teacher “Training starts tomorrow morning so get some rest and explore the temple for a bit” Ash spent the rest of the day wondering through the temple and talking with others avoiding the real reason he was there. When night came along Ash was sitting on a rock looking at the stars knowing that help would come to that village to keep them protected as he promised. Dan was looking at him from a distance and thought to himself “Since we were kids I knew he had a great future planed along, even though the suffering he went through wasn’t supposed to happen shows that even through war he still finds ways to smile through suffering if it means to keep others safe, you haven’t changed a bit old friend” Dan then slowly walked away letting Ash have some rest before he started his training. In the morning when Dan came to take Ash to the training spot he saw him already there waiting for him.

  “Are you used to cold weather or something?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “From what I know you can stand up to thousands of degrees, but when talking about negative you should only stand up to a couple. So what’s the deal?”

  “When having reached a certain point in mastering fire you can use your energy to stay warmed up and to go even in frozen water.”

  “So you mastered fire huh.”

  “Not completely, I only mastered it to the normal point and I have to take it even further for complete mastery.”

  “So than why go for air if fire is not mastered completely?”

  “Because they are similar, they require calmness to control them at will and both have some similar fighting styles, except that mine is more aggressive while yours more passive or offensive.”

  “So that means you could teach me to control fire?”

  “If I chose you as an apprentice or student, then yes.”

  “Great so let’s stop wasting time and get to training.”

  “Alright!”

  Dan dashed to Ash to hit him in the chest but Ash was quick enough to get out of the way and punch Dan in the stomach. Dan was taken by surprise and let his guard down and Ash managed to get a few more hits that made him fall on one knee. Ash was ready to do a last blow but Dan was just playing him using an air wave to push Ash way and then trapped him inside a sphere telling him the lesson he had to learn “You need to have a calm nature when fighting and air warrior so that you can anticipate his moves, I especially let my guard down to get you to come closer, now you will have to escape from that sphere” Ash smirked and looked Dan in the eyes telling him “I knew that I just wanted to show you something” Then Ash destroyed the air sphere in an instant telling Dan that he learned that some time ago and knew how to get out. Dan was shocked, but appreciated Ash’s style, he thought about what the opponent could do and instead of countering it he let him do his tricks and managed to weaken him knowing that he could escape, if he didn’t know how to escape he would have most likely done something that kept a good distance between them and countered his attacks. Dan wanted to know how fast his reflexes could be and decided to throw a few rocks at him at high speeds. Ash managed to dodge the first ones, but the next ones were faster and Ash was struggling with because of the strong winds that were in those areas and when he saw a rock approaching him that he knew he couldn’t dodge he blasted it with fire until there was nothing left. Dan knew that Ash wasn’t used to weather like this and needed to find a way to make him adapt to it. Dan advised Ash that if he wanted to learn balance in those conditions he would need to go to the top of the mountain and stay there for a couple of day so that he could move quickly. Dan suggested the top since if he loses his balance he would fall down and would have to climb again. Ash agreed and asked him how to get there, Dan showed him and Ash went straight to business. The first days Dan stood at the bottom to see if he fell, when he saw he didn’t fall even once he went on with his days, but still checked on him from time to time. The only thing Ash had to worry was when he drank water, since the winds were so rough if they spilled his water he wouldn’t be able to stand much longer. The days seemed to get longer and longer for Ash, but he knew he couldn’t give up and managed to adapt to the strong currents. After the days passed Dan tested Ash’s reflexes once more, this time Ash managed to dodge all the rocks during the strong currents in the morning and did the same during the night, he couldn’t see the rocks so he needed to feel them through the currents around him to sense if they were disturbed, if they were then something was coming, if not then he checked the others. It took some time before he managed to get used to sensing something without sensing energy, but it was getting easier by day.

  While Ash was training the falcon managed to get to his kingdom a few days before the meeting. The falcon managed to find Charlotte and gave her the letter Ash wrote, the letter said “Dear Charlotte, I am writing to tell you that I made a promise to a village in the east that has no military protection and I know a meeting is coming soon. So please tell your dad to tell them about this in the meeting and to send soldiers there as soon as possible since other stuff may happen there. PS: I am fine so don’t worry about me, tell Hunter I said hi and that I am training with Dan, he will know who he is.” Charlotte went in an instant to her father to show him the letter, the king understood and knew how to persuade them to send them in that village. After that she went to tell Hunter about the letter, Hunter was happy to hear Ash was okay and that he was training with one of their old friends. Charlotte begun to write a letter to send him back and the falcon took flight as soon as it got the letter.

  Dan was preparing Ash to teach him some techniques that required calmness. Ash was ready to learn them and knew that he needed to control his temper in order to be able to use them. The first thing Dan begun to teach Ash was the air shockwave, a technique that pushed its opponents away or to at least create some distance between the fighters, it required calmness because if you put too much energy into it would not only push the opponents far away but also destroy the surroundings and that wouldn’t count for stealth which you need in battle. Ash first looked at Dan’s movements to understand how he needed to maintain the energy and how to expel it. Dan’s shockwave managed to move the rocks around them, that’s how strong it was, when Ash’s turn came he began to use the same movements as Dan, but didn’t know how to expel it. He tried to expel it slowly, but that would have just made it last longer and he told Dan to duck before he made a shockwave that opened all the doors in the temple. Ash knew he wasn’t ready for attacks like that and needed to learn others first to help him understand the element better. Dan understood Ash’s decision and decided to teach him some basics like, the air waves that helped the user fly through rough winds, the tangled tornado, a mini tornado that was formed around the user’s arm and would redirect projectiles, and the air sphere but Ash had already learned that. His training to use this abilities took him some time to use and master, during most days he trained with Dan, but during the days when Dan couldn’t train him he trained with fire to master his base element as well as air would also become part of his base elements.

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  One day while training with some fire techniques Ash sensed something approaching the temple, the presence seemed inhumane, like a beast was approaching the temple. He didn’t warn or say anything to anybody so that he didn’t create panic, he went behind the doors to the entrance in the temple yard and expected them to be opened at any moment. When the doors didn’t open, but the monstrous presence felt like it was behind it Ash decided to go over the wall to see what was happening. Over the wall at the entrance there was no one, not even the guards. When Ash got closer he heard a knock on the other side of the door, he slowly opened it with his shaking hands and behind the door there was nothing, just an empty void, Ash turned around and he was flying in an endless void. Then he heard a voice that said “You won’t live long guardian, you will fall like the last.” Ash woke up sweating like crazy, it was all just a dream, but he knew as well as the spirit that saw his dream that darkness knew where he was and that his disciples would come for him. Ash stood all night talking with the spirit to see what he could do to avoid others getting hurt. The spirit told him something that made Ash question what to do “Since he knows you are here he will definitely send his disciples, but it will take them some time to get here, around two or three weeks, so enough time to master air and get out of here”

  Ash was devastated, he couldn’t think straight and couldn’t rest, he stood up the whole night just thinking about what to do. In the morning when Dan came to take him to training Ash was in the same spot as last time, but this time he was training with fire, he was using the emotions that indulged him last night to make his fire stronger and push not only his body, but also his abilities and strength beyond their normal limits. Dan didn’t approach since he knew something was wrong so he waited in the distance and looked at Ash until his energy seemed to had ran out, but before Dan could get up and go to him Ash created a fire so strong and massive that it could had lit up the temple for days, that was when Ash’s energy ran out. Ash was exhausted and stressed, he tried to throw another punch, but his body was too weak to move at all and he collapsed to the ground, Dan quickly went over and took him back to his house to give him some water to wake him up. He had never seen Ash like that, he only knew about things like that thanks to Hunter who had told him some time ago that he did that under extreme stress. Dan thought it was because of his training routine and blamed himself, little did he know Ash was stressed because of the darkness disciples that were coming for him. Ash wasn’t worried about himself, he was worried about others, Ash knew what darkness was capable of and knew that he had no mercy, that he would do anything to get to him. Ash was asleep for a few hours and managed to restore his energy before he woke up, when he woke up he saw Dan standing by him and asked him if he was okay to continue their training, Dan nodded, but before he left Ash told him with his weakened voice “It’s not your fault, I am not stressed because of you, remember I carry a lot of burdens so don’t blame yourself, please” Dan was happy that Ash was not like that because of him and knew that something was wrong, but he didn’t ask and went outside to wait for him. Ash was struggling to stand up, his legs were still weak from his outburst, he grabbed a stick to use as a cane to get up he knew his outburst would take a toll on his body, but it was happening to slow, the toll should have started before he woke up, that meant his body hasn’t fully recovered physically, but he wouldn’t let that slow him down. On the training field before their training Dan began to ask Ash to get some answers to see why he was stressed.

  “What happened to you? You weren’t like this yesterday so something wrong happened, what is it?”

  “You don’t have to worry about that, I’m okay.”

  “You are not. You either tell me or I figure it out myself.”

  “If I was hiding something I would have told you.”

  “No, you never want help.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “I know you, something is wrong.”

  “It’s nothing and even if it was it might be just a memory that I carry.”

  “It’s not, if it was your outburst wouldn’t have taken such a huge toll on you. Now tell me I can help you.”

  “You can’t help me even if I wanted.”

  “What do you mean, you don’t want help?”

  “No, I need help there’s a difference.”

  “It really isn’t.”

  “Look, there are two types of people, people that ask for help but don’t need it, and people that need help but don’t ask for it.”

  “Then if you don’t want help at least tell me what’s bothering you so that we can get over it.”

  “All I can tell you is that we are in danger and unless we speed up our training or everyone will be in danger.”

  “You can tell me later let’s start our session and see what is missing.”

  Dan didn’t understand what was happening but knowing Ash he figured out that something terrible was coming and he needed to speed up his training. Since Ash’s body was still weak he decided to teach him some new techniques that could be mastered easier n just a few hours. Even though Ash was weak he kept training and trying through the pain knowing what was approaching he didn’t want to risk anything. His body tried to make him stop but Ash kept going even when his body was barely responsive on his actions, he learned the techniques and tried mastering them until night fall. During that night Ash couldn’t withstand the pain anymore and collapsed and knew that he needed rest to recover and continue the next day, Dan took him to his tent and put him in his bed to let him rest since it was closer than his house and stood by him the whole night looking out for anything that could harm him. In the morning before Dan woke up Ash was already trying to master the techniques he learned, after doing so he started to master some fire techniques taught by Silver. A few hours later he was training with air again and went through the same schedule, dodging, resisting the strong winds and learning the control of temper and emotions. This training went on for almost two weeks, in the morning before training with air Ash trained with fire, during the day until night he trained with air, he learned new techniques and tricks to help him in fights and was getting close to both air and fire mastery, but so were the darkness disciples that wanted him dead. During that time Ash received Charlotte’s letter and was happy to hear that everything worked out like he promised and that the villagers would always have protection.

  When the third week was about to start Ash knew that he couldn’t keep it to himself much longer and pulled Dan aside and told him what was coming, Dan wasn’t shocked by the fact that darkness disciples were coming for Ash, he was the guardian after all, he also knew that winter was coming, the toughest season for the air kingdoms, the winds were stronger, the air so cold that no one could survive outside more than 2 minutes. All the air temples had shelters build deep underground to stay until spring came. Ash was sure that the disciple would arrive before winter and that he needed to take the villagers inside the temple so that he could fight the disciples in peace knowing that others wouldn’t get hurt. While training Ash realised that he became stronger, his fire got hints of blue or violet in them, his fire was stronger than when he faced the last disciples. He trained all day altering between fire and air, at night fall he decided to meditate to see how far he had reached and how close he is to complete mastery. The spirit told him that he was at the point to be able to use both fire and air multiplier and decided to teach him both. As Ash was being taught by the spirt in his mind Dan stood by him and watched the sky knowing that whatever was coming and how much would it be he would fight alongside his friend like the old times when they could hang out together without a war going on. Before going to sleep Dan talked with the grand monk, he had asked Ash if he could talk with him to protect the others and he agreed. In the temple Dan told the grand monk everything that he knew, the grand monk knew the possibilities and that they wouldn’t stop just at Ash they would kill everyone to make sure no one that was taught by him is left alive to continue his journey. They made a plan, but didn’t know when to apply it since they didn’t have an exact date or time when they would arrive. In the morning Ash was training with the multipliers to master them partially so that he could use them for extended periods of time, he knew that just throwing punches into air wouldn’t help him much and asked Dan to spar with him. Dan agreed and was curious to see how those multiplier worked, Ash started by using some basic and weak fire attacks that Dan managed to dodge easily, but when Ash used a simple multiplier it became harder for Dan to dodge and when Ash threw a fire wall combined with the inferno multiplier it became impossible to dodge. The attacks might have been strong enough to kill someone, but since Dan trained with Ash daily he got stronger too and withstood all his attacks. Dan wanted to see the air multiplier as well and Ash decided to get a little payback, he went straight to Dan and the multiplier made him faster and when Dan turned around to look at him he trapped Ash inside an air sphere and pushed him near the edge of the mountain, showing not only his strength with a weaker multiplier but also his control over his abilities. They sparred until night when they were so exhausted that they couldn’t get up to put on their robes to be warm, but little did they know far in the distance the disciples were approaching, reaching the dense forest that was close to the base of the mountains. The distance between them and Ash was bout two day worth of travel. Ash was able to sense them when they reached the gap between them and knew how many there were and how much time they had left before they arrived.

  The next day Ash warned the grand monk about how close the disciples are and they should start evacuating the villagers in the temple immediately so that they wouldn’t be slowed when they arrive, the monk agreed and told everyone to come into the temple and that they were allowed to leave after three days so that they would make sure they stay there in case the fight takes too long. Ash spent the whole day meditating to rest and think of what to do when they arrive, the spirit guided him telling him to take the fight away from the temple, but Ash refused. Even though the temple would be in danger he had an advantage, he adapted to the conditions and knew where the strong winds were so that he could throw some of the disciples of by leading them in those places. Ash knew what the risks were, but also knew that his advantage would help him a lot. Ash the disciples got closer Ash managed to sense how many there were, five disciples each with closer power, strength couldn’t be sensed but their power could and it was stronger than the ones Ash faced. While Ash was planning what to do Dan was resting to get his energy back and to be ready when they would arrive. In the morning Ash told Dan to take of their weights, they trained all those weeks while wearing weighted clothes, and Ash even wore weighted bandages instead of his normal ones over his scars and wounds. They wore them for two reasons, one was to get stronger but not the main one, and two to be easier for them to fly in those conditions so that the strong winds wouldn’t blow them away. Both of them spent the day planning, eating and resting in order to be fully prepared for the disciples.

  The final day when the disciples were supposed to arrive felt like a normal one, the villagers were inside the temple while Ash and Dan stood outside looking in the distance awaiting their opponents. The disciples stopped at a point to discuss who would they fight and how would they know who the guardian is.

  “So how do we know which one is the guardian? We are not Darkness to know how he looks like.”

  “From what he told me he looks like a teenager and that he would be an easy target since he has only air.”

  “What if he doesn’t have only air?”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “What if he came from somewhere else and knows more elements than we think?”

  “Then the fight will take a little longer, he is just a teenager probably weaker than the ones we enslave.”

  “He is a guardian after all, remember what happened the last time others thought they could win in a fight against them and they were not fully trained or knew all the elements. Even one if he knows one element better we are already in trouble.”

  “Let’s not worry about that, he is still young and probably doesn’t have any experience fighting. Why do you say that?”

  “I think he is responsible for the deaths of the disciples near the fire kingdoms.”

  “You mean the ones near that canyon?”

  “Yes, they were killed by someone and the only people stronger than the weakest out of all of us are full experienced elemental masters or guardians in training. And knowing that if we go south we will land near that village doesn’t stand right with me.”

  “Oh come on, there’s five of us and only one of him.”

  “From what I am sensing he is not alone.”

  “We will take care of the others after, you worry too much.”

  “If you say so.”

  When they arrived at the temple they saw Ash and Dan on the ground, Ash knew that his katana wouldn’t be useful in that battle and let it inside his house along with his other weapons. They knew that none of them knew that Ash was the guardian and flew to them to see what they would do.

  “Why have you come here? “

  “To kill you isn’t that obvious.”

  “So which one of you is the guardian? We really need to see him.”

  “Figure it out ape.”

  “How dare you speak like that, you know we will kill all of you, don’t you?”

  “They look dumber than I expected.”

  “Trust me the last ones were dumber.”

  “The last ones? What do you mean by that?”

  “The last disciples that I killed, they didn’t know what to expect and neither do you. “

  “So you are the guardian. It will be fun getting rid of you.”

  “Your arrogance will be the path to your doom.”

  “Let’s see you fight boy.”

  Ash prepared his position and so did Dan, the disciples were amused and prepared attacks ready to kill them. When they threw them Ash and Dan blew them right back at them, the disciples dodged and Ash took the opportunity to take all of them down to the ground. He pushed all five to the training area creating a crater, Ash and Dan went down in an instant ready to continue the fight. The disciples thought that since they were fighting only defensive that they couldn’t hurt them enough or even kill them. Ash knew that fighting all five at once would be harder and decided to make things equal by using fire to make huge clouds of ashes to cover the area. The disciples weren’t impressed and could sense them easier, but that wasn’t Ash’s plan. He stood in the smoke while Dan prepared massive boulders to throw at them. Ash was dodging the disciples attacks one by one and landed a few hits when he got them all closer he shouted for Dan “NOW DAN” Dan threw the massive boulders while Ash backed up and threw a fire ball to turn the pebbles after the boulders crashed into lava. The disciples were taken by surprise and got hit by the boulders and burned by the fire, they got tired of their games and cleared the smoke. When they looked around they could only see Dan, Ash was above them ready to use a fire tornado, the disciples used a shield to have around them. Ash knew that the shield wouldn’t last one of his phoenix attack, but it was too risky and decided to throw a massive fire blast. Dan was prepared in case the disciples wanted to run, the shield didn’t withstand Ash’s attack and so the disciples backed up and prepared multiple attacks that were able to destroy entire armies. Dan locked the temple with a huge sphere to keep it safe while Ash put down some fire walls to tank the blasts. Each disciple fired two blast and Ash put down four walls, the last two blast were deflected by Ash and thrown into the sky. The disciples understood that they had underestimated Ash’s power and that they would get defeated soon if they didn’t think of something. One of the disciples threw an attacks that looked like a snake projection straight to them. Ash caught it while Dan was trying to throw it, the disciples took the opportunity to rush them, three went for Ash and the other two for Dan. Ash was thrown into a rock and Dan was thrown towards the temple. The disciples threw several attacks on Ash, but he managed to escape them using his speed. Dan knew he couldn’t harm the disciples enough, but knew he could weaken them enough for Ash to kill them, he took flight and the two followed him, Dan went to the strong winds up at the top knowing that they would fall all the way down. While Dan was guiding the two to their fall, Ash was fighting on equal terms with the other disciples, he was trying to balance the fight but kept getting jumped by all of them. The disciples thought they had an advantage, but Ash was soon fed up with them and used inferno with a higher multiplier to push all of them back and trap them inside air spheres which he filled with his fire. Dan managed to get the other two into the strong winds and pushed them down and one of them got impaled on his way down and died, there were now four against two. The others sensed it and managed to escape Ash’s attack, but got hurt a lot and couldn’t leave, Ash was burning up energy while Dan was looking from above ready to unleash a storm on all of them, but got caught by the leg by a rope made from darkness that dragged him down. When Ash saw that his temper was at its limit, but right before he could say anything Dan got dragged towards the disciples which impaled him with a sword made from their own energy. After Ash saw his friend down to the ground bleeding, with little light left into his eyes his power went beyond any limits, the scream he let out scared everyone and was followed by a massive fire explosion. The disciples ducked to get cover, but when the fire disappeared and the smoke cleared they wished they had died in that explosion. From the flames Ash came out looking like a new being, his body covered by fire with a symbol on his chest, the fire symbol. He looked at them with a stare that was able to melt even the strongest metal known. That was no longer Ash, it was the spirit of fire using his emotions to connect to him, the fire mastery form that the spirit was telling Ash when he taught him the multipliers. He went and killed each disciples telling them “You have failed and so will your master” After all of them had been dealt with Ash went and used the mystic fire to heal Dan, when he opened his eyes he knew that was Ash and hugged him with tears in his eyes, when he opened them again Ash was back to normal and fainted, his energy ran out and his outburst was starting to take a toll and him as well. Dan took him to the grand monk and begged him to help Ash. The monks gathered around him and shared their energy with Ash to wake him up, at first he didn’t move a finger, but after a couple of seconds he woke up feeling weak and light headed. When he saw all the villagers and that Dan was alive, he knew that they had succeeded in killing the disciples.

  After part of his energy was restored Ash went to look at the lifeless bodies of his opponents wondering what had happened, he didn’t remember what he did and he didn’t know about his transformation. He knew that the spirit had an answer and went to his house to meditate to know what had happened.

  “What happened spirit? How did I kill the disciples?”

  “Remember what I told you two days ago?”

  “About the complete mastery?”

  “Yes, you have completely mastered fire and unlocked the fire spirit form, your emotions acted like a catalyst and connected you with the fire spirit completing your journey for fire mastery.”

  “What about air?”

  “That journey doesn’t have much longer either.”

  “But I don’t remember anything, I couldn’t control myself.”

  “Because of your emotions. The mastery form are like huge doors, but each with a different key to open them, but one key is universal but doesn’t completely opened it, strong emotions are that key. You barely unlocked the form and were weakened by it, it will take some time to get used to it and access it at command, until then focus on mastering air and I will help you unlock its form so that you don’t have to go through a traumatic event each time, your memories are enough to access them.”

  “It sounds cruel, but it’s true. At least now I know what to do.”

  “Great, but before you go and rest which element are you going to learn and master next?”

  “You will see.”

  Ash went back to the real world and rested, since now all that’s left is for him master air and chose the next element. Ash and Dan spent all day resting, with their minds clear knowing they had defeated the enemy. But far away into the darkness kingdoms was Darkness who knew his disciples were defeated and felt the true power of the guardian, but now he could sense him and knew the area where to find him thanks to the curse he had blasted upon him before he was born. He knew that in order to kill him forever he would have to send his strongest disciples, so he called upon them.

  “Zain, Veyron, Malrik, Dreven come here.”

  “Yes master!”

  “I have a mission for you.”

  “What is it master?”

  “I will give you the ability to sense where the guardian might be, it’s not fully precise you only know the area not the exact location.”

  “What do you want us to do master?”

  “Kill him and make sure not even one drop of blood is left or he will find a way to come back into the world of the living.”

  “Yes master!”

  “Now go, he will leave soon so try to guess where he would go next and ambush him.”

  “Yes sir!”

  The next day when the sun was shining brighter than ever Ash didn’t feel like that. He didn’t feel victory knowing that he couldn’t control himself and that he could had harmed Dan meant that his power was rising every minute, but came with the consequences of not being able to control it immediately. He knew his time was running short, since winter was close and he needed to master the element faster, because there wouldn’t be anyone left to teach him. He waited for Dan so they could start their training and see what he had left to learn and what he needed to control his fire mastery transformation. When Dan arrived they began with easier techniques since they were weakened from their battle the day before. Ash hesitated to ask Dan what he had done when transformed, but Dan didn’t know Ash wasn’t in control so he didn’t want for him to feel scared around him. The next few days were the same, but Ash kept training harder like his usual training before the arrival to master air quickly so that he didn’t catch winter when he wanted to leave, he barely adapted to those conditions and if tougher ones were coming he didn’t want to be caught in them. One day while taking a bath in a lake Dan noticed something on Ash’s back, something that looked like a symbol.

  “Ash you have some weird mark on your back or a symbol.”

  “Where?”

  “Bottom right.”

  “I will asks the spirit to see what that’s about since I can’t look at it myself.”

  “Spirit what is that symbol on my back?”

  “It’s the fire symbol.”

  “My fire symbol is on my arm not back.”

  “I don’t mean your kingdom symbol, I mean the fire symbol the one that you had on your form. After mastering each element and unlocking it’s form a symbol appears on your back that represents that element. They form a circle, with fire,water,air,earth,electricity, being around the circle light and darkness being at top and bottom and the yin and yang symbol in the middle connecting everything together showing balance between all the elements.”

  “So that everyone knows I am the guardian?”

  “No one remembers what that means stay calm, but you should cover it, Darkness doesn’t know how you look like but if those symbols get exposed you are done. Being hunted until you defeat him or die.”

  “I understand, so bandages.”

  “Yes!”

  Ash soon bandaged up almost his whole back to make sure not one symbol could be exposed after unlocking them. His training came to normal once they both fully recovered, Dan was training day and night with Ash knowing that his strength would not stop growing. During the night Ash trained with the spirit to understand his fire form and how to control it but also how to unlock the air form as well. The days were flying by and Ash knew that he needed to plan which element to master next since air was almost completed. Each day he spent he figured out its flaws in training or especially in overtraining, when overtraining his body would take a huge toll and he would need at least a day to recover, the day when he should be training he spent resting instead of normal training with breaks between them growing much stronger than overtraining or training until his body failed. In the last few days Ash managed to master air and thanks to the spirit he unlocked his air mastery form as well, he still couldn’t control it at command but it would be easier than last time. He knew that he needed to leave and since winter was a rough season for the water kingdoms as well he had one more option left.

  On his last day Ash went on and thanked the monks for accepting him in the temple and for believing in him in defeating the threat. He thanked the grand monk for giving him a place to live and he thanked Dan for helping him train and master the element. Before his leave Ash gave Dan a gift, a little statue made of a rock from the fire kingdoms that when lit on fire it would create a shadow of a dragon, the long ancestors of fire. After receiving the gift Dan wished Ash good luck on his journey. As Ash flew into the distance towards east, a smile was on his face, one that faded years ago.