Successor of Kukulkan

Chapter 187

Annoyingly, they hadn’t had much of an idea about what to do to get Farid into the air with TJ, besides to maybe have the Indian man try to ride the flying TJ like a long, skinny horse, or pegasus, he supposed. Regardless, TJ wasn’t particularly willing to go up and confront the Elite monsters without any backup, given what had happened to him the time before. Even if the thunderbirds weren’t able to get the drop on him again, they were more than a little dangerous in a straight fight, given their speed and general threat. He’d only seen three of them, but they seemed to be a communal creature of sorts, so if they were going to bring several more of their number against him in this next fight, he would absolutely need backup.“Won’t you be able to do more if you make a storm? The boost to your Attributes should be good, plus there’s the boost that I’ll get as well. Maybe they’ll get something too, but there’s no guarantee, right?”

“I will get those boosts,” TJ disagreed, “but I know that they have better control over lightning than I do. If I end up making a storm that they can twist against us, it’s gonna be worse for us even if we end up having higher Attributes.”

“If we can’t even get into the fight in the first place without the storm, then does it matter?” Farid shrugged as he asked as much, and TJ squinted at the other man. Then, while TJ was still contemplating his options, Farid asked, “Can’t you change the storm? Like, I feel like you’ve done some storms that have more lightning and some storms that have more rain, right? Plus, the storm doesn’t have to be that strong to count for the boost or your Skill or whatever, right? So just make it not have lightning.”

“Well, I can change the storm somewhat.“ TJ hedged. “That said, I can guarantee that any kind of storm will help them. They’re birds, they’re used to being up there, and we’re going into their habitat to start a fight. They’re able to make lightning out of a clear day, so even if whatever I make’s entirely a dust storm, I’m sure that they’ll be able to twist it somehow to their advantage.”

“More than however much of a boost you get from being in a storm?” Farid’s tone was genuine, and TJ thought about it for the half of a second that the question needed.

“No, and it isn’t going to be close.”

TJ didn’t say anything else as he squinted up at the sky to try to figure out what kind of storm would be best at not giving the thunderbirds an advantage. He could probably try to do a sandstorm of some sort, he’s seen plenty. But those pretty frequently had lightning, more than gentle showers of rain did. There wasn’t very much moisture in the air right now, but he could pull the moisture from the lake to make it just a gentle rain storm without enough of the fury to call down lightning. But they were sure to be able to make a thunderstorm out of a weak rain, so he turned his attention to other ideas instead. 

Now that he thought about it, though, TJ didn’t know a whole lot of different types of storm. Rain, haboob, thunder, what else? Blizzard, hail, sleet, and maybe windstorms were all that he could think of off the top of his head. The thought that he’d never seen a snowstorm with lightning cross his mind. That said, he hadn’t seen much snow in his life so that didn’t mean a whole lot. Even so, a part of him felt like it was harder for lightning to be formed in a blizzard. The thunderbirds would definitely be able to form lightning in a gentle snowstorm, but he got the impression that purely introducing lightning to that storm wouldn’t be quite the same as doing it in wet storms. Plus, they wouldn’t be able to focus on creating the lightning blizzard as he and Farid hunted them.

“Would there be any problem with making it colder here? Or, you know, making it snow?” TJ verified as he continued to consider the possibility.

“I… don’t know? I’m not really the guy to ask. You’d probably know better than me.” Farid shrugged.

“Then probably not. I mean, besides people getting cold. Shouldn’t be too bad though. Farid, you go ahead and tell people that it’ll get cold and snow for a little bit, though I don’t know if the snow will even stick down here. Even so, it’ll probably fall down here. I'll go ahead and get a storm going for the next couple hours.”

Farid nodded in assent as he turned and walked away. TJ threw his mind into Stormcaller, feeling the Skill reach out into the skies. The clouds, scattered and far off as they were, seemed to giggle in excitement as he extended his consciousness heavenward. When he asked that they gather together, that they become fat with moisture and begin to freeze, they seem to resist it. His Domain was in Storms, not in snow or in freezing or in cold. The clouds were more than happy to gather together and prepare to rain under his command, but when he asked for gentle, lasting snow, they resisted, wanting gentle rain and light thundering.

TJ wrestled with the heavens, forcing out the electricity when it made itself manifest while attempting to freeze the vapor as it gathered into larger, darker clouds. When the heavens turned black, he twisted them to a softer gray, and when they wanted to break into torrential downpours, he forced them back together. For what’s that like hours, he convinced the clouds in the light of the setting sun to do just as he wished. When finally he pulled his consciousness out of his Skill, he realized he’d already recovered most of the thousands of resources he had put into the Skill’s activation.

As he opened his eyes, he saw that hours had passed. It wasn’t early afternoon, but instead, early evening. He still sat a short ways off from the rest of his followers, but all the grass around him crackled with contained electricity as he moved. As sparks discharged into his fingers, he took note of the lightning that had refused to surroundings. Somehow, in his head, he understood that he had taken all of the electricity in the storm and grounded it in himself. There were a couple flashing System notifications in his eyes, but before he could acknowledge them, a voice called out.

“I’m pretty sure I know what the answer is gonna be, but you OK?” Sarah‘s voice called over, and as TJ looked, he saw her and Farid stood together, not more than 15 feet away from him.

“Was just using Stormcaller, but because I was trying to make it snow instead of rain or anything, it took longer, I guess. I thought it was just me feeling like a lot of time was passing, but it actually did. Everybody OK? And why did you think I might be hurt?”

“For the record, I didn’t think you might be hurt, but you started crackling with electricity so I figured I’d ask. Almost looked like… What are they called again? Tesla coils?“ Sarah looked to Farid for an answer, and he nodded.

“There was kind of a constant line of lightning coming down at you from the sky. You didn’t react at all to it, and it was only barely visible, so we didn’t worry about it, but it was there. A couple people thought it might be the thunderbirds attacking you, but when I told him that you were using a Skill, everyone just ate that right up. You’re welcome for that, by the way.”

TJ pursed his lips, but he also didn’t have any real response to that other than, “OK, thanks. What would I do without Farid taking care of all my problems while the Valkyrie looks on? Sorry for the delay.”

“No problem.” Farid answered. “You still wanna go right now? It’s starting to get late.”

“No, the moon’s gonna be full and both of our Perceptions are high enough that we don’t need to worry at all.”

“Whatever you say, TJ.”

“Just let me check my notifications real quick.”

TJ didn’t wait for a response as he looked at the System’s flashing windows.

Class Experience acquired. Minor Divine Trial success recorded. Silver (II) tiered evolutionary requirements complete: 1/5

You have advanced one rank in a Copper (I) tiered Divine Authority. Domain: Storms. Progress towards Divine Authority evolution to Silver (II) tier: 1/5.

“So what exactly was the evolutionary requirement that I completed?” TJ mumbled the words to himself as he squinted at the display.

Silver (II) tier advancement requirements progress:

Expand a Copper (I) tier Divine Authority.

Though the System wasn’t detailing specifically what exactly had occurred as a result of the little experiment he had just done with Stormcaller, he could understand more or less what he’d been able to change. At Copper tier, his Divine Authority only allowed him to take what was immediately available in the nearby atmosphere and create a storm out of it. He’d already learned that, without Stormcaller, he’d’ve been able to develop the ability to create a storm eventually with just his Divine Authority. It was a bit of a chicken and the egg problem right now, about if the Divine Authority got him the Skill or if the Skill would be upgraded by the advancement of the Authority, but that didn’t matter. Instead, he focused and helped himself to understand this step that he’d taken towards Silver tier Divine Authority.

Instead of merely being able to create storms out of what was naturally occurring nearby, at higher tiers, he would be able to form a storm of anything he could force control over. A glimpse into his possible future showed him a storm of not just rain, but actual waves of water, or stones, magma, or even more esoteric concepts. Those things were far beyond his reach in Copper, Silver, and probably even Gold tear, but as a god in the Ruthenium tier, he’d be able to create storms beyond mortal comprehension. Perhaps that was the real step that he’d taken towards Silver right now, understanding just how little he understood about true Divinity. For a moment, he was tempted to allow himself to descend into Meditation, and he started to pull himself out. After all, he called the storm for a reason, and it would be stupid to just waste the resources that he’d spent to create the storm. Then, something inside of him screamed at that thought. He could always create more storms, but this was a moment for enlightenment, and Meditating would help ensure he didn’t lose the opportunity.

“I’m going to meditate. I don’t know how long for, hopefully it doesn’t end up becoming a tribulation.”

TJ didn’t say anything more, but just before his Skill fully numbed him to the world around him, he heard Sarah and Farid both giving instructions to people to steer clear. With a smile to himself, he lost all awareness and threw his mind into understanding his Authority.