Morale 25: Taco Colosseum
"Here we go. The newly upgraded Commando II!"
Commando II
Slashing Resistance (Medium), Piercing Resistance (Medium), Fire Resistance (Medium), Light Resistance (Medium), Automatic Blood Cleaning, Feather Fall (Small), Auto Repair.
Flores looked at his upgraded armor. Along the rim were the feathers of the Atorie. It also had an odd sparkle effect he couldn't put his hands on. That was until Cadenza told him it was the magic dust from Azriel.
The upgrade also gave it a few new effects. Feather fall would reduce damage from falling, while auto repair slowly repaired small damages in the armor. The bigger ones, however, would require professional repairs.
With his new armor prepared, Flores strapped it to his bag. He then grabbed some monster parts he was carrying in a separate bag and gave them to Cadenza.
"Is this!"
"Monster parts from the wave. I wanted to repay you in some way, so I took something out using the hourglas- omph." Flores was suddenly hugged for the second time today. But whatever Cadeza did was way more devastating than Hollow's tackle, and no matter how hard he dug his feet into the ground, he was still tackled through the wall and into Cadenza's storage room.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you! The Ken'bitch militia has been so annoying when it comes to distributing these. Who knows of the chaos I can cook up with this!" Cadenza got off of Flores and continued her cheers in a euphoric state.
"Godfather, are you okay?"
"I've taken worse. Now about that staff, Cadenza?"
"Hehe, oh?" Cadenza dropped what she was doing and slapped her head.
"Right. I almost forgot. S-sorry about that."
And here returns the shy fox. Flores grumbled.
Cadenza lit up her forge and grasped Cinder's hand with her tail. Holding the fox up in the air, she took several different metals already on the table and threw them inside.
"Five-tailed Litsune. 5'1, 92 pounds, and body mass index of… 17.4. Three sizes are-"
"Hey! That's going a bit too far!" Cinder blushed.
"Don't worry, it's not like you have a measurable bust anyway." Cadenza chuckled.
Suddenly. A beam of fire hit Cadenza and launched her across the room.
"Thank you; I needed some of that."
Casually picking up the fire from her clothes, Cadenza condensed it into a ball and shoved it inside a metallic orb. She then closed the entrance and wrapped the orb with some white cloth.
"There we are. Your very own Hex Sphere." Cadenza tossed the sphere over to Cinder, who failed to catch it. Flores then went over to pick it up and muttered an appraisal spell he heard from one of the snakes.
Hex Sphere: Flames
Fire Damage Up (Large), Fire Intensity Up (Medium), Flame Control (Small), Magic Attack Up (Medium), MP Up (Medium), Mana Recovery Up (Small). Form Shift, Flare Charge.
"The hell? How is this so potent? In such a short amount of time too?"
"I had some leftover material from Tommy's request. The sphere is made out of Durrite, a very magic absorbent metal. Since I threw your flames inside, it will be perpetually charged. Want it to get stronger? Slowly add flames overtime."
"But I asked for a staff. This is an orb!" Cinder shouted.
"After adding some of your magic cloth, you should be bonded with it. Try calling it to you."
"Okay? Get over here, orb." Holding out her hand. The orb began to float and made its way to Cinder."
"Good, it reacts to your mana. Now envision it becoming a staff."
Doing as instructed, Cinder held out her hand and thought of a staff. The ball began to float and then released the contained flames, and they flowed down the orb and formed itself into a flaming pole. When Cinder grabbed it, it was solid, and she felt no heat coming out of the staff. The flames on her tail even flared up, indicating the buffs on her were working fine.
"Very nice. Everything is working well."
"I still find it unfair that she gets a weapon and not me." Hollowtrix pouted.
"You're an unarmed fighter like Fonhare. You don't need a weapon."
"Besides. I already enchanted your clothing. And with the blessings of the Ceraptor and Bundrill father, you and Fonhare were already ahead of her. This is just to level the playing field."
"Yeah, piss off." Cinder spat out her tongue. And Hollow couldn't do anything about it as Fonhare held her back effortlessly.
"They're enchanted too? Show me the stats, so I can see what's new."
Magic Clothing of Hollowtrix
Agility Up (small), Speed Up (large), Strength Up (small), Feather Fall (medium), Aerial Meneuvering (medium), Adrenaline Surge, Auto Repair
Magic Clothing of Fonhare
Defense Up (large), Piercing Damage Up (small), Strength Up (medium), Resistance Up: All (medium), Magic Defense Up (Medium) Tremor Sensing, Auto Repair
Magic clothing of Cinder
Fire resistance (large), Magic Attack Up (medium) MP Up (Small) Magic defense up (all) Fire damage up (small), Warmth Aura, Auto repair.
Flores looked at each of their clothes and was impressed at the boost they gave. Cadenza thought Hollowtrix was going to become a pegasus, so she focused on speed and aerial buffs instead of magic ones. The special ability on the clothing though was called Adrenaline Surge. It was converted half of her attack into her speed. Although she would get weaker, her speed would be boosted to insane heights, making it a very useful ability in order to get out of situations.
Fonhare's basically made him into a tank. And with his path of the Bundrill father, his defense became even higher, making him extremely difficult to damage. Along with a boost to his strength to make drilling through things easier, tremor sensing would allow him to see from underground, much better than before.
And finally, Cinder's boost was similar to her Hex Spheres. But her warmth aura would produce a field of warmth, similar to that of his refrigerate special effect. Flores was glad she got this, as his blanket would usually be stolen at night due to the fox not being able to handle the cold.
"These things are very great. Remind me to bring you more monster materials next time I return."
"Please do!" Cadenza's eyes sparkled at the request, her legs running in place as she thought of the potential uses.
/~/
Cadenza became too hyper to calm down, so the party left quietly as she was in her crazed crafting state. Stopping by some of the local markets, Flores shopped for supplies, getting everything he needed before heading towards the gate. That was where he met up with Tommy and the others.
"Mister Flores!" Tommy called out. He and the construct from earlier ran up to him. Jay was also there, but he hid behind Leo, only peeking out on occasion to see what was going on.
He noticed a change in clothes. Specifically a teal shirt and brown poncho that just barely hid his rifle.
"Thank the Accessory Tools, you're okay. I thought something serious might have happened to you."
"Yeah, the snake kind of messed me up. I'm curious how you escaped though?" Flores asked.
"It's a long story. But it made me realize so many things about myself. Speaking of."
Tommy was preparing to introduce the construct, but he pushed to the side before he could get a word out.
"No need, brother, allow me." The boy took off his cap and spun it around his finger. "I am the construct born from the power of another world. The Charme of Detonation. Clay!" Flipping his hat back into his head, a miniature explosion of light flashed behind Clay's head as he finished his introduction.
I don't remember this season of Love Chunibiyo.
"Isn't he cool? He was born after I reforged my charm of light!"
"Very cool!" Cinder cheered.
"You know it." Clay smirked. Running off with Cinder. Both of them played around, trying to outdo the other in generating explosions. Tommy decided to join in on the fun too, overshadowing the two pretty easily.
"So. This is where we part ways once again." Leo started. "It was nice seeing you again; this week was pretty fun."
"You sure? Besides Phantom, it seemed like you were overworked this whole time."
"That's why it was fun; I enjoy the work. Tell no one I said this, but I'm pretty much the de facto leader of this place. Even when Sis is here."
"I'd believe it."
"Thus is the curse of being the oldest brother." Leo chuckled.
"Tell me about it." Flores laughed with him, but his eyes widened as he realized what he just said.
"Wait, your older?"
"Only for a few months, but yes!" Leo Tail wagged as he smiled.
"Hold on. Inu, Tenko… Riala is the youngest, which explains… a lot."
"Alright, alright, don't fry your brain. You have a festival to attend after all."
"Right. Thanks for everything."
"No problem. Alright Jay, be nice to Mister Flores."
Jay looked over at Flores, then back to Leo and nodded. In a flash of cyan, Jay had hopped from Leo to Flores back in an instant. Flores could still feel the static electric from Jay as he latched onto his leg.
"He may be a bit hard to understand. But he's a good kid."
"Starting to think I was summoned to be a babysitter and not a hero."
"What can we say? You're a great one."
"Ugh." Flores grumbled.
"I wish you safe travels. And don't be afraid to come back here; you're always welcome." Leo waved.
Everyone except Cinder waved back, the fox shuddering instead.
"Oh and Flores!" Leo shouted.
"Yeah?"
"Keep up the great work. You're an amazing hero!" Flores and a few members of the gate guard cheered him on his way out.
Flores tried to hide his smile but couldn't help but give a grin. Waving back, Flores gave the group the biggest smile he could muster.
"Waypoint Banner!"
/~/
Flores appeared in a flash of light to his where he last left his waypoint. Instead of his room, however, it was in the middle of the dirt field; all around them were people in the stands of what seemed to be a colosseum, all of them cheering them on, or so Flores thought they were cheering him on.
There was a group of five fighting against a bunch of discharge wolves. That was when he himself was suddenly tackled by one of them. Hitting the ground, Flores rolled back and kicked the wolf off of him and into the air. Getting up quickly, he used a skill and tossed his flag, decapitating the wolf midair.
"And it seems like the pack leader was taken out by—is that Flores?" A familiar voice announced.
"Lizen. You are the type to use monsters to train." Flores grumbled.
"Well, would you look at this? The prodigal hero returns." The crowd watching them began to cheer, clearly ignoring the insult Lizen just spat at him. That's when Flores took a better look at his surroundings.
"What in the nine circles of hell is this?" Cinder swore.
"This is the Warriors Cup, the second-to-last event of taco fest where soldiers can show their might to the captains of Foo."
"Gladiatorial combat, huh. Eh, I can use the stress reliever. Ketsu right?"
"Indeed. Glad to see you back, sir."
Ketsu and Flores nodded to each other. Quickly putting on his armor, Flores spun his flag around, giving the audience a quick show before placing it into the ground.
"What a plot twist, everyone. The Morale hero is performing in his first ever taco fest. This is a once in a lifetime experience, everyone!"
The crowd cheered, but Flores scoffed at Lizen's comment.
"Please. If I didn't want to participate, you would have locked me in anyway."
"You know me so well. Since the arena has more fighters as well, ALL FOURS ROUNDS LETS GO!"
The gates to the colosseum opened, and people pushed in four cages encased in a magical barrier. Once the gates closed, the barrier fell, and the monsters broke out.
"In this corner, a powerful scorpion of flames. The scorch-pion!"
These names are getting worse by the day. Flores grumbled. "Fonhare, Tommy, Clay. Mind handling that?"
"Yes sir!" The three nodded as they ran forward.
"Taking command and new party members, I love it. In this corner, a creepy crawler of freezing ice. The frost arachnid."
A massive white tarantula with blue spots burst out of it's cage and immediately fired out two spikes from its mouth. Cinder, however, stepped forward and burned it all away with ease.
"I call this one!"
"Same here!" Hollowtrix cheered.
"This is my fight too." Ketsu stepped forward and grabbed a spiked ball on the ground. Tossing it up in the air with no difficulty, Ketsu jumped up with it and grabbed the long chain that came out.
"It's about time I show my improvement."
"Cool it, Ketsu. I don't do the promotions."
"Sorry captain!"
"Don't apologize to him."
"Watch it, Flores; we still have two monsters left."
"You're a fucking sadist!"
"And Riala's a masochist. Why do you think we stayed together for so long? In the next corner, a creepy, speedy crawly. The Centi-Spede!
Breaking through its cage. A green centipede rose into the air and circled around the group of soldiers that were left to face it.
"That's going to be a problem. We gotta kill this thing fast so we can focus on the-" Flores was about to attack, but Jay stopped him and took out his rifle.
"You're going to handle this?"
Jay nodded his head and began to load his gun.
"Alright then. So that leaves me to fight."
A bolt of lightning fell from the sky, destroying the box in front of him. Shielding his face from the shards of wood. Flores uncovered his eyes to witness a massive wolf standing in front of him.
"You heard of discharge wolves. Now be ready to face their father. The thunder wolf!"
The purple would howl, sending down many bolts of lightning upon Flores. Weaving his way through the strike, Flores closed the distance and attacked. But before he could hit the wolf, it opened its mouth and shot a violet beam of plasma at Flores. Flores blocked the hit, but it was more potent than expected. The beam pushed him back into the middle of the field, but after some time, he successfully launched the attack away.
"Two arachnids, an arthropod, and a wolf. What is this enemy composition!?"
"Cry about it. Let the final round begin!"
/~/
Fonhare grew in size and caught one of the scorpion's pincers with his ear. Effortlessly dodging it's other pincer twice, he caught it with his other ear and jerked his head back, flipping it over his body and slamming it into the ground.
When the scorpion got up, it attempted to escape Fonhare's grip. But the bunny had already tightened its grip, making its escape very difficult. Even when it burst into flames, the rabbit held firm, not flinching in the slightest.
As a last resort, it attacked Fonhare with its tail. But Fonhare responded the same, sending his drill tail and catching it's stinger as well.
"Great going, Mister Fonhare!"
"Just kill it already, please." Fonhare grumbled.
"Will do. Detonatation!" Tommy threw his charms at the scorpion, hitting and blowing off its two pincers with their power explosions. Fonhare took the attack as well, but only received slight burns on his ears. Tommy was apologetic but ended up losing focus while apologizing.
Empowering the flames on its tail, Fonhare was forced to let go due to the increase in heat. Once it was freed, it swiped its tail, launching a wave of flames at the kid. Tommy responded with his charme, creating an explosion that dissipated the flames. He then threw several more at the arachnid but missed when it lunged into the air.
With its stinger raised, the scorpion fell towards Tommy, ready to stab the child. It never reached its target, however, as a charm from behind knocked it off course. Once it crashed to the ground, Tommy shifted his hands, making several more curve downward and crash into the scorpion. Once the smoke cleared, everyone saw the damage to the scorpion and was shocked. Its exoskeleton was cracked. And the flames it was once producing were starting to weaken. All done by a kid.
"Was that a Charme? What did Riala do?"
"She kidnapped me by accident, Mister Announcer!" Tommy answered.
"Of course she did." Lizen planted his head on the table as the scorpion began to get back up. Not knowing what to attack, it stuck its tail into the ground. The ground around it began to heat up rapidly. And Fonhare and Tommy were forced to retreat, as they were unable to handle the heat.
Now alone, the scorpion increased the heat of the area, with flames rising from the ground and forming themselves massive spears. Fonhare swiftly got in front of Tommy and spun his ears. The drills swirled, gathering wind around them. And when the scorpion finally launched its attack, Fonhare thrust his ears forward, blasting the spheres away with a power whirlwind.
"Clay! Now's your chance!"
"On it, bro!" Planting his foot on the ground, it exploded, and Clay was launched forward. He was unaffected by the heat and pushed forward, but the scorpion noticed this and directed all his flames at the construct.
Flames rose from the ground like geysers, and balls of flame fell from the sky like meteors. The scorpion was doing everything in its power to keep the Clay away, but it was all futile. The construct sped through the burning land, blasting away the flames and blasting himself closer and closer to the scorpion.
Once he finally reached it, he launched himself into the air and came down with an axe kick. The scorpion pulled its tail out of the ground and moved away. But when Clay hit the ground, he made another explosion that propelled him toward the scorpion once again, and this time his foot connected with its face.
"This is the end of the road for you!" Finishing his kick, Clay leapt on the scorpions back and touched it all over.
"Delayed Detonation."
Clay landed on the ground, posing with an arm over his chest and one in the sky. Mixing both the salutes of Foo and the Sanctuary together. Seconds after he posed, the scorpion exploded. And he held that pose despite the powerful shockwave that followed.
"Too easy."
"Nice one, Clay."
"You too, Tom." Tommy and Clay ran up to each other, both doing a sloppy handshake they made for each other.
/~/
"Hyaa!" Ketsu chased down the spider, it narrowly weaving through his barrage of heavy blows. Blocking his path with a wall of ice, the spider shot out a web that floated in the sky. The web then shot out several lances that followed Ketsu wherever he went, but the soldier didn't run and instead pressed forward, destroying every lance of ice that blocked his path.
"Lifeweave: Morning Sun!"
Finally reaching the spider. He dropped his flail, and his gauntlet glowed light blue as he threw a punch. The spider moved out the way, but the pressure of his punched hit the side of the arena, cracking the wall and blowing the spider away with the intense wind. It barely recovered before a chain wrapped around it's leg and pulled it high into the sky.
Swinging his chain back towards the ground, the spider was launched back into the ground and crashed into its web, breaking it instantly.
"Lifeweave! Afternoon Daylight" Ketsu came back down, punching the spider and making an even bigger divot in the ground.
He then kicked the spider, sending it across the area. The spider slid across the ground and crashed into the coleseum walls. It didn't even get a second to look up as Ketsu's flail came down from the sky, ready to finish it off.
"Moonlight Gale!"
Quickly making a pillar of ice, the spider intercepted the flail, but not for long. The soldiers strength was too much for the spider, and it quickly broke through, crushing the spider with ease.
"Heh. Too easy." Ketsu faced the crowd as he spun around his flail in celebration. Instead of cheering, however, the crowd was instead telling him to turn back around. Confused, he did so, but that's when another spider latched onto his face and started to bite him.
"Agh, why is there more!" Ketsu exclaimed.
"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is our new hotshot soldier." The crowd laughed, and Ketsu was finally able to peel off the spider on his face. Looking around, Ketsu saw the ice on the spider melted and was being formed into baby spiders that immediately began attacking everything in sight.
As the legion of babies marched towards him, a massive blast of fire engulfed many of them, incinerating them in a quick burst. "Alright flail, man, it's my turn."
Cinder pulled out her Hex-Sphere, and spun it around. Without muttering a word, flames danced around before being unleashed into the air and crashing down to the surface below. All five of her tails were stretched out, and firing beams of fire that blasted away many of the small spiders.
A few of them were able to avoid the flames and rush Cinder. Firing two shards of ice at her, the attack connected, lodging both shards through her chest. It was all a ruse, however. The image burst into flames and launched itself at both spiders, killing them both.
"Hehe. I can get used to this. Jinx Flames!" The fires left off Cinder's tail and formed themselves into five copies of herself. Mixing herself in, the group began to circle the puddle and launched fire attacks at the spawning spiders.
Some connected and burned them away. Others passed through harmlessly, then suddenly turned lethal for others. Attempts to attack the clones failed, as the original stayed hidden within. And every failed attack only leads to an ever stronger retaliation.
Unable to counter the fox, the melted spiders seeped back into the puddle and reformed their original selves. Immediately on the defensive, the spider stomped the ground, sending waves of spikes that stabbed through each of the clones and barely hitting Cinder, the ice just barely grazing her face.
Gathering her Jinx flames, she combined them, ready to attack. But a flaming sphere came from the sky and crashed into the spider. Carrying it up into the air, the flames dissipated, revealing Hollowtrix to be inside.
Her flying skills were very sloppy, and she struggled to keep her balance in the air. But she pushed through the struggle and threw the spider high up.
"Wing Attack! Or something. I'll work on the names later." Bringing her wings together, she began to fall, but ended up launching her feathers and hitting the spider with them.
The arachnid cried out in pain, but it composed itself and fired out a massive shard of ice. But Hollowtrix smirked as her wings glowed.
On the spider's side was a mark that glowed in unison, and in a flash, both it and hollowtrix swapped places. The spider realized its position and hastily made a wall of ice to defend itself. But the wall failed, and it was stabbed by its own attack. Crashing into the ground, the spider began to melt into water once again. But Cinder was already above it, with a ball of rainbow-colored flames in hand.
"Attack the puddle, Hollow!"
"I'm well aware, Cin!"
"Ultimate Illusion!"
"Rainbow… Blast…"
Unleashing both attacks, the mini spiders were quick to burn, and screams of the Frost Aracnid were heard as the puddle slowly evaporated. Hollowtrix gracefully landed, posing for the cheering crowd. Cinder, however, wasn't so lucky and fell right on her face.
"I thought those flames were fake."
"No, they were real. You just fell for the illusion." Cinder explained as she picked herself up.
"You think Master needs some help?"
"Nah. Godfather will handle it."
/~/
"Attack attack!" A big muscular man held back the centipede with his shield as another soldier ran up to it with his spear. Dropping his guard, the shielder took the centipede head on and held it down in a grapple. As it tried to escape, a spearman came in from the side and stabbed it in the head, making the centipede shake violently.
Using it's legs to pick out the spear, the attacker was knocked away by his own weapon. The centipede then jerked its head, escaping the shielders grip, before smacking him with its tail. When the shielder landed, he narrowly caught the centipede by the manibles. The weight of the monster, however, was starting to become. And just before it could take a slash of wind came from before and cut into it's back. It didn't cut that deep, but it did catch the attention of the monster.
The mage and archer fire off their weapon and spells, dealing some damage but not enough to take it down. In a matter of seconds, the centipede dashed over and bit down into the archers arm.
Grunting is pain. The archer grabbed one of her arrows and stabbed the centipede in the eye, making the centipede screech in pain as well. But after she did, the arthopod swung her around, hitting the mage with her body. The centipede then dashed towards the mage and hit her with every leg on its body, sending her into the coliseum wall. Afterward, it tossed the archer up and to the air and stood up with its mouth open, ready to eat her whole.
Falling towards the centipede's mouth, the archer forced her injured arm to knock an arrow and took aim. Before she could shoot, however, she was grabbed out of the sky, just before she and the centipede met.
Gently being placed on the ground, Jay handed her a cup of milk before running back into the fight. After drinking it, she felt invigorated. The bite on her arm was fully healed, and she felt as if she just had support magic placed on her. Ready to get back into the battle, she picked up her bow, only for the centipede to rush at her again.
Before it could hit her, however, the shielder appeared in front of her and took the hit. Struggling to hold it back, the centipede was swiftly knocked away by a kick from Jay. Both shocked at the strength of the boy, they watched as Jay walked the centipede down, firing his entire clip into the creature before reloading and doing it again.
Flores at the moment could only take short glances before having to get back into his fight. He heard that guns Miguel attempted to introduce weren't as effective as the ones in his world. But the one Jay wielded was pretty potent. Each shot was as powerful as the kick he did earlier, and they kept coming, keeping the centipede at bay.
Though it didn't last for long. At one point, Jay had messed up reloading and dropped his clip on the ground. The centipede took this moment and immediately attacked. Opening its mandibles, it lunged the young Adrene-Lion, who was shaking and seemingly was too scared to move. The crowd looked away, fearing for the boys safety. But instead of hearing the pleas of help, they hear a painful screech from the monster instead.
Turning back around, they witnessed Jay holding the centipede up, his arm bulging, and a blade from his gun sticking into the monster's face. Pulling his bayonet out, Jay walked forward and planted his foot on the monster's head, pinning it to the ground. No matter how much it thrashed, it couldn't escape from the kids overwhelming strength. All it could do was watch as Jay finished reloading and placed the barrel of the gun right on its head.
"Lightning Shot," Jay whispered. No one in the crowd heard what he said but instead watched as Jay fired a single bullet into the centipede's head. A loud boom of thunder was heard as if lightning exploded from the monster's head. And Jay stood atop the kill, wiping himself off as if nothing happened.
"Nice one kiddo!" The knights all surrounded the kid and hoisted him into the air.
Jay obviously was not enjoying the praise and curled up to the fetal position as the knights paraded him around the colosseum.
/~/
Flores stood his ground, slowly walking towards the thunder wolf, batting away bolts of lightning effortlessly. As soon as he got closer, however, he put his flag away and took a deep breath. The wolf saw his weakened state and began to howl. Everyone's hair in the rink stood on end as purple energy flowed into the air, forming a ball of lightning.
Flow your lifeforce; feel the lifeforce of your enemy. Match it, and redirect it.
The wolf stood on all fours and, in a bark, launched the ball at Flores. The hero held out both hands and intercepted the ball. At first he held it in place, but he wasn't able to move it away. He struggled in his attempts to deflect it and soon succumbed to the attack, being blasted into the coleseum walls as a result.
The crowd gasped but let out a collective sigh of relief as Flores came out the rubble, pretty much unscathed.
"Welp I tried. Wild Winds is not for me." Dusting himself off, Flores stepped back into a running position as his feet started to glow.
"Augmentation: Legs 30%"
In a burst of speed, Flores ran forward and lept into the air. Raising his weapon high, a bolt of lightning struck his weapon, making it crackle with electricity.
"[Electro Flourish!]"
/~/
Journal of Flores: Paths
Paths are a system in this world used to grow in this world. If you don't have a path, don't even think you're getting past level 10. Monsters are the exception. Although they could get a path, their stats are already set to grow in a certain way. There are also some monsters in the wild that can go beyond. I, however, do not have the interest or patience to figure out how, so instead, I'll be going over the advanced paths Leo explained to me at the end of the Path ceremony.
Faerie Fire: This is the easiest of the four to explain, and it's currently wieldest by the cutest Litsune ever, Cinder. The requirements for this advanced path are to have a magic path and a fire attunement. The path allows the user to conjure up fake flames called Jinx flames and make illusions out of them. They can phase through you, make illusions, and even burn you like normal flames.
The path also allows the user to control the temperature of the flames they produce, leading to some pretty wacky scenarios like a fireball knocking you over but not burning you.
Magic Infusion:
A magic weapon is a path that allows you to infuse your weapon with your magic attunement. The prerequisite for this path is the balanced path.
This path is not really favored. Infused weapons do both magical and non-magical damage, leading to a weird gray area where both martial artists and magicians refuse to touch this path with a ten-foot pole. Martial fighters who have bad magical stats decide it's better to increase their physicals, while mages who have bad physical stats decide to increase their magical ability. That leaves the balanced path as a gray area for those who want to be balanced in all categories of combat, like Lizen.
With Jay, however, he already has outstanding physical capabilities as an Adreni-Lion, meaning he doesn't lose out on much. The path allows Jay to infuse any spell he casts into an object. The infusion spell requires an increase in lines; however, said lines are designated in order to set the activation requirement for the infused object. That in Jay's case, being whenever his bullet hits something.
For the rare amount of people who take this path, they tend to use a spell that'll last longer, leaving the one-time use spells for final attacks to preserve mana. Jay, however, takes a different approach in the matter. Since he uses a gun, he loads all his bullets with powerful single-use spells. So whenever he needs to use powerful magic attacks, all he has to do is load in a clip of those special bullets and fire them.
Bundrill Father:
This is a path most likely influenced by the flag. Since Bundrills aren't guaranteed to grow into a father, the flag forces that growth upon them instead. Now Fonhare is bigger, doesn't have to connect both ears to activate his drill anymore, and is much more tanky now, having a defense that can soon be on par with the inu twins.
His drills are also much more powerful, making its grip difficult to escape from. He can also spin them fast enough to create tremors in the ground or create small whirlwinds in the air. The only downside is that Fonhare likes to be small. So a loss for him.
Ceraptor
Also known as Alicorns to the fans of my little pony, or that one pony show equivalent in your world. If Naruto is inevitable, so is that.
The ceraptor path is another path influenced by the flag but needing the blessing of both the pegasus and unicorn first. If Hollowtrix didn't have both, then it would have been impossible for this path to happen. This gives the user the appendages of both species and allows them to use all their abilities. Any other unique effects, however, are unknown to me.
/~/
Author Kun: The Flores alone mini-arc comes to an end next chapter. (Despite it supposed to be ending 3 chapters ago.) So thanks for reading through.
Also some editors notes. The lifeforce style Hanzou was changed to Augmentation, making three ki fightstyles known.
Thanks for reading!