Like this both his skills and the kid's training advanced at a steady pace.
He hadn't been willing to leave the grove yet as its sudden appearance would undoubtedly attract attention. Now he was just waiting for the enemy to make a move.
Several days after they had begun training the children it was raining heavily and Chronos had to cancel outdoor training.
"Do we really need to be outside for today's training?" Gorvak asked while Chronos wrote down the method for him.
"No, but we do need space. Today I was going to help them start forming a circuit between them and their weapons, but there is a chance of accidental discharges. Especially early on in their training. Here." Chronos replied as he handed over the complete Guardians Steel breathing method.
Looking at the manual Gorvak came to understand what they had been doing even better.
"I see, over the past week they've learned how to breathe properly, relaxing the death grip on their weapon, and how to unlock their jaw keeping breathing pathways open. It seems simple but it's very important for using the Guardians Steel method without having blockages or skips in recovery.
Next is closing the internal loop to keep it steady and prevent energy from leaking out. That's not going to be easy, forming habits always takes a while and their bodies might reject the habit if it's not done right." As Gorvak reviewed the instructions he started to realize just how impressive this method really was.
Any method could help someone develop aura and learn techniques, but this one went beyond that to create helpful habits that could improve their development throughout the rest of their lives. Not just help them in combat.
"Yeah, once they can close the loop, they'll have an aura. Not much but enough to begin real combat training and learning techniques. That's why the third step of the Guardians Steel method is about how to use it in combat. That involves recovery in between exchanges, while walking on patrol, and the most important step is the impact sink.
The impact sink is the only real technique in the Guardians Steel method before the mastery level. It allows you to catch and divert a portion of the incoming attacks power in another direction. Once they learn this technique, they are considered graduates of the method ready to enter combat.
There are three more techniques at the mastery level beyond that, but they don't need to learn those to graduate. I've included them in the manual for those that want to learn them." Chronos explained.
Gorvak stared at Chronos for a few minutes before speaking, "Are you sure it's okay to give this method away? Not only is it used in combat, but it encourages rapid growth throughout the rest of their lives. And provides techniques for survival.
Anybody that learns it will be able to learn almost any technique or method at nearly twice the speed of other people."
The rapid recovery could drastically cut down on the amount of rest a person needed before they could practice again and Chronos hadn't realized that until now.
He had just assumed that his own rapid recovery was due to his werewolf regeneration but perhaps his uncle's method had compounded with his natural recovery speed allowing him to develop much faster than other youths in the clan.
He had always been stronger than the others from a young age, but he had also learned the Guardians Steel method when he was only four years old. He had been a precocious child and learned it in secret before Uncle Bruar had caught him.
"It should be fine." Chronos hesitantly said.
When Uncle Bruar had taught it to him he had said that it was just something he had come up with so it shouldn't be too big of a deal to teach it to more people. It wasn't like he had been told not to teach it to others.
"Just in case we'll talk with Aunt Freydis once she arrives. Her husband is the one that invented this method."
"Commander Freydis? Alright if your too busy, I'll ask her about it." Gorvak said.
"Well for now have the kids keep practicing their breathing, I'm going on patrol." Chronos said.
"Hm, it's still early morning, is there a reason for the patrol?" Gorvak asked.
"No, just a bad feeling." Chronos answered as he left.
Gorvak's eyes narrowed, while Chronos might not think much of his instincts everyone around him had learned to value them. He silently decided to gather all the orphanages members in the central building before Chronos returned.
Moving through the heavy rain Chronos couldn't see very far and scents were obscured but he extended his senses anyway trying to find what was making him uneasy.
However, even after an hour he still couldn't find it.
Turning back towards the grove he slowly made his way home double checking the surroundings once more. That's when he saw it. A figure standing on the side of a hill a little off his path that hadn't been there before.
Creeping closer he snuck around the hill that he had passed by earlier. After sneaking halfway around it he saw a door set in the side of the hill, getting a little closer he realized that it was heavily reinforced.
"Probably a bunker that was made in secret." Watching the hill, he tried to understand how he had missed it during his patrols on other days.
The man standing outside was wearing a black robe and seemed to be arguing with someone inside the entrance, then the entrance shimmered beginning to fade away before the rain washed the shimmer away.
"Illusion magic! So that's why we can't find the black robed priests. But the rain is making it hard to maintain an illusion right now. Lucky us. They're most likely using something to mask their scent as well otherwise I would have caught it before now." Chronos thought.
He was just about to leave when the black robes stopped arguing and several abominations that looked the same as the one in Birk's village left the bunker followed by knights and priests.
"Five abominations, a dozen knights, and four priests. This isn't going to be an easy fight; I need to warn the others." Chronos took out a short-range whisper bird.
Giving it a quick message he sent it towards the grove and silently followed the group of black robes.
Following the black robes wasn't hard but a knight wielding twin swords whipped around to stare behind them. He conversed with the others for a moment before continuing on their way.
"That was close. That's the same knight from the fortress battle." Chronos muttered from his position lying flat on the ground. "I'll have to be more careful now."
He hung back for a few minutes until he could barely see the black robes in front of him then continued following them. The path they took would place them to the north of the grove; there was a weakness on the northern side that Chronos thought they would attack.
An opening in the trees where the thorn vines had died and they hadn't regrown them yet.
But when they reached the weak point, they passed right by heading further into the swamp.
It took a few minutes for him to realize that they were making for the swamp hags' home, not their grove. Apparently even the black robes weren't crazy enough to attack a holy grove that had appeared from nowhere.
No wait, they were turning back now? Maybe they were crazy enough to attack a holy grove.
Looking at the grove Chronos was barely able to make out the figure of the swamp hag entering the main building's door.
"So, their tracking the hag herself? How are they doing that? It shouldn't be possible to track a hag inside of her bonded land."
Tracking anything bonded to the land should be impossible as the world protected such individuals yet somehow these black robes were doing exactly that. Chronos could see them taking position to attack the northern border of the grove now.
Chronos took his own position behind them and waited for the attack to begin.
The black robed priests kneeled down and began drawing a ritual into the ground as the knights moved around the abominations to stand guard on the sides.
Like this both sides waited for an unseen signal to start.
Just as the rain started to let up half an hour later the priests finished their last check on the ritual circle and began to softly chant. The circle began glowing as the abominations let out a roar and charged at the grove.
The knights charged with them thinking that this would be an easy victory once more. Unfortunately for them the grove was ready.
Spells flew out of the grove at the abominations, but the abominations ignored the spells pelting their flesh forcing their way through. The knights weren't as fortunate and two of them were blasted backwards by attacks from the hag and matron.
The others took evasive action waiting for the abominations to create an opening in the grove before they pressed the attack.