Chapter 36: Formations

“Thank you ... Zax”. A middle aged woman with a combed black hair and a bit of weight around her waist walked toward him with hands down and holding one another.

“You shouldn’t, Mrs. Inoki “. Zax shook his head. The woman was the mother of his childhood friends, Weysey Inoki.

Mrs. Inoki came to stand beside him, but her view was on the large group of children having the time of their life fighting the living snowmen. “Our home is at the periphery of us, newcomers’ huts. The hut next to us is where that ginger girl lives with her family”. She pointed for him to see. “Willy”, her nine years old, “Has a small crush on her, but is too timid to approach to other village’s children, much less try to speak with her”. She did not say more; only look how her youngest was now side by side with the girl he likes, acting gallantly as they played in the same team.

Zax also remained quiet and kept watching the kids, as well as his snowmen. Everything evolved as he wanted and he was gratified. This all Invaders game he instigated was more than just him fooling around. It had two goals. The first who made him think of the idea was the desire to test his small accomplishment in dark attribute energy formations...

A day after he decided his cultivation path for the time being, Huland provided him free entry to the stock of formations scriptures in Green Snow village, which were divided to three categories: Mist Formations, Soul Formations and Bodily Formations.

Of the bodily formation there was very little to read with nothing that he could not recognized at a first glance as below inadequate. It was the aspect he was most versed in, in this world that placed more attention on the soul and mist energy. Whether his original creations, such as the Dark Titan Storm form or Dark Blast, were of any worth was not up to debate since regardless they were cream of the crop at least in Ercas Mir. Even others’ techniques of attribute physique could not really be compared since it was highly likely that Zax was the sole cultivator in Ercas Mir who attained his, through the combination of only dark attribute energy and the body.

Soul and mist energy formations were the field he put his finger on. Dark attribute energy can be used by all aspects as is or as a boost to the unique capabilities of each aspect. Zax wanted to advance his understanding in soul formations, but realized that his inability to currently utilize mist will make half his studies a waste of time; he chose the former type of usage of dark attribute energy.

The Control formation was a little something he came up with and was put to a test run via the snowmen. Despite having a lot more templets of impressive concepts in his head for experimental dark attribute formations, he dedicated himself to reestablish his foundation and start from small, to avoid the tiniest blemish on later works. Besides, this was also the first time that he delves deep, for a long period of time, to the field of formations on his own, without his Master or Grandmaster to contemplate together.

The second goal was to make the scenery he, Mrs. Inoki and quite a few nearby adults were so much happy to watch.

Since their arrival to Green Snow, the interaction between the young generation of Kingdom Earth’s newcomers and native young generation of the village was too restrained by both parties and being put in designated place for themselves made the integration even more difficult on the Kingdom Earth’s children’s part. As for the village’s children, even though they were curious and friendly, most felt uncomfortable entering the area set aside for the newcomers and initiating interaction with the new group of children seemingly already fine on their own.

Zax’s instigation managed to bring both parties together, a feat their parents failed to achieve but right now were grateful to spectate.

About two and a half hours after the battle began; the snowmen stopped regenerating and the last ice Core Zax imbued in each snowman was shattered to dissipating fragment. What took a very short time for the children to realize as a game was over and they all were hot and sweaty, lying on the snowy earth.

They got up gradually, smiling and still energetic. One of the youngling beasts raised its head and roared.

“Green Snow village is saved!” An eleven years old girl shouted triumphantly.

“We beat all the snowmen!”

“Good job, our parents are saved!”

“We should be awarded with no homework for a month!”

“Yeah!”

“Yeah!”

...

The hubbub went on as the group of over twenty children and juvenile beasts seemed to forget the reservation they had.

Zax did not interrupt them – he did not need to.

“Us who already accepted being ordinary people and find it too hard to alter the foundation he was can’t stand in the cold for a long time”. Mrs. Inoki noted and turned to Zax. “How about you join me for hot chocolate?”

“I will love to”. Zax took the invitation without hesitation, as this was his first connection toward rekindling his old childhood friendships. As of now, he had yet to speak with anyone of his longtime friends. Anet and Take were the exception only because she was romantically involved with him and he was his big sister’s Tal.

In the hut that was sizeable, furnished and not the least lacked the air of common living standards as in any home in Kingdom Earth, Zax sat alongside Mrs. Inoki, Weysey and his longtime girlfriend, Mr. Inoki and two more of their Weysey’s siblings.

Mrs. Inoki summoned everyone. The initial atmosphere in the room was awkward, but Mrs. Inoki thought that it is even more ridiculous that if children can, apparently, so easily get along, they, adults, will struggle to also do so. Hence, she domineeringly forced the ice to break.