Axel's gaze was focused on the meat in front of him, suspended by sticks over low heat, roasting, the sizzling sound of flesh and the smell made his stomach growl.

But he couldn't be bothered about that, a distant expression in his eyes, he was lost in thoughts, thinking about how best to power up.

Escaping didn't really cross his mind yet, not without civilization in sight, his biggest bet was Imu.

Speaking of the devil, that was exactly what he was thinking of.

The Gishiki was well, not exactly something he could depend on, at most it was sharp, he could use it, but it wasn't exactly bonded to him, so he couldn't use its abilities, at most it would help him at whim but otherwise that wasn't something he could depend on.

That left the thread of continuity, and he looked towards three crystals shimmering on the floor, blue, red and green.

The green significantly bigger than the others. He picked up the red one, that feeling from before, he had absorbed it, but it didn't look like he could redo it again, no matter what he tried.

And most importantly, he was hoping he'd get at least affinity to the elements or use the abilities of the creatures, if he found a way to absorb it of course.

"But what element would I place the red crystal," he muttered frowning, "it couldn't be that it just healed could it?"

Although a skateboard, dark red, could it be earth, he hadn't been able to follow the fight for long after all, it's hard to watch after getting electrocuted right.

Speaking of which, that made the blue crystal lightning attuned, and the green wind or something like that.

"Or should I try cooking it?" He was contemplating that at this point.

When it worked before, he was injured, holding the Gishiki and what else.

"Could it be the Gishiki?"

But he was still holding the Gishiki when he picked up the blue one, "wait," his eyes widened, the initial shock when he touched it.

Could that have been it, he had ignored it at first, but what if it wasn't just an extra effect.

He picked up the Gishiki and reached for the wind crystal, but nothing happened, no effect.

Injured, Axel gulped hard, he clenched his jaw and looked at his hand, then he stabbed it, hissing at the pain, but convincing himself it was worth it.

He picked up the crystal again, and this time he felt a certain type of cold and a prickling sensation within his skin.

Then it stopped again, that confirms it, injury and the gishiki were the factors.

But why injury, his eyes widened, what was common in both situations, is blood of course and anima required contact with blood to bond, if this was related to Zvezdan, doesn't that mean it's something similar.

But why wasn't it working anymore? It was just a small amount required, has he gotten the ability to manipulate wind, lightning and earth, he sure didn't feel like it.

Visualization perhaps, he held out his hand, imagining lightning, but nothing happened, wind, a ball of wind, nothing.

He couldn't exactly say which element the deer had though, so he didn't know what to visualize.

Or perhaps I need more, well in any case, he picked up the blue crystal and bit it.

His teeth couldn't go deeper, stopping at the smooth surface, it felt like biting diamond, impossible.

"Well," he turned the meat, "that just means I need a pot, let's see what happens if I properly cook you."

Since that was a dead end for now, the only other alternative would be the thread of continuity or the pond.

No, the pond didn't seem to give him extra boost after he soaked in it for two hours, or perhaps he needed to drink it again, nope I'd rather not, at least not yet, I won't want to pass out naked.

So the thread of continuity, he had to increase the speed of usage, and the rate.

"I have to be able to use it at least three times in a row, reduce time of visualization to an instinctive thing."

I need experience, repeated usage should help.

Aside from that, I shouldn't waste the other abilities should I, pinning a target to a spot and stitching it out of space, that'll be a big help during the fight.

The ideal way would be to repeat visualization, and then fuse it with action almost instantaneously, but that would take quite a bit of time.

And he had a week, so for now he was going to cheat, use body cues as signals to teleport, rather than taking time to visualize, each time he made that cue such as exhaling, the image automatically forms.

That's the idea, but now he had to link it, make it a reality, while being careful to still be in control, it wouldn't be right if anytime he exhaled, he'd just teleport, although that'll be good, but for now he needed a cue.

I'll do that in a bit, for now, time to eat.

***

Axel closed his eyes, his middle finger curled, the cue and the threads appearing, the visualization.

Then he teleported, still at his time of two seconds, the cue hadn't really worked, the work of visualization still done consciously.

"I need to do it almost unconscious, while having that conscious thought of wanting to teleport," he grimaced, that's really complicated.

"Let's focus on one first," he closed his eyes finger twitched, threads, and he was gone.

"Still too slow, not in sync," He muttered, "again."

Again, and again and again. The cue almost syncing, teleporting occurring almost automatically, but there was still that lag, it wasn't perfect yet.

Axel stopped, gasping for breath, he wasn't getting it, and he had almost hit his limit, although it had increased from his first test to about double his limit.

The test wasn't really going anywhere, each time the time reduces but not by much, rather than automatically teleporting, each time he curled his finger, the thought just flashes in his head, fast, he teleports but not fast enough, not perfect, the time had reduced to at least two seconds but it still wasn't enough, that was enough time for the bolf's jaw to snap him in two.

Axel sighed, "more practice it is then."

He looked out of the cave, "let's test in real life, perhaps the thrill of danger might just be the push."

Unfortunately, it wasn't, Axel sat on the floor, after running into those flying bat like creatures from before, he kept leading them around, they weren't too fast to the current him, but not too slow either.

And he wasn't exactly trying to kill them, so he'll wait, till they were really close, then he'd curl his finger, disappearing the next second, it wasn't perfect but it had its perks.

He had reduced the time to a second, the thrill indeed reducing the time.

Axel felt it was okay for now, a second was good, if used strategically, he could deal with most things, scratch that.

Now the issue was when the forest would revert to the wasteland, he hadn't exactly thought of that, what if it doesn't, does she expect me to head to the dragons nest.

Nope, Axel nodded, I'd rather die, and how would I know if it's been a week. I really need a clock, my circutrain cycle has been messed up too, I can't depend on that.

But at that second, as if on cue, the forest ruffled, the leaves at the entrance of the cave started retracting, slowly but steadily.

Axel chuckled, for now let's get info on the dragon, this is not a fight, it's a hunt.

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