God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Cain exhaled a breath of hot air as he placed the needle down beside him. On his skin was a glowing red tattoo that created a nice compliment to the gloomy dark surroundings. There was pride in Cain's eyes as he admired the rune he had engraved into his skin.

Since it was a {Rune of Swiftness}, he had engraved it onto his leg. The red glow eventually faded away, leaving only a group of faint lines that could barely be seen on his skin. He had used a few other agility runes before, but this was the first one he had created, so it was special. It had taken him roughly thirty minutes to complete the rune. However, he wasn't done yet...

He was certain he could draw runes, but his goal was to create an array. An array is a complex rune created by combining nine runes of the same type. For example, to create a {Rune of Swiftness} array, he would need to draw nine runes of swiftness on his skin, then connect them to form the array.

And since runes were upgradeable, he would be able to increase their quality over time. The seven basic types of runes are those that affected physical strength, agility, vitality, defense, stamina, regenerative abilities, and mana.

The first basic rune array he was going to make was the array for agility created from nine runes of swiftness. Since he had already used three runes of swiftness in the past, plus the one he had drawn just now, he had five more to draw.

He picked up his rune pen and began drawing again...

***

A serious look flashed in her eyes as she spoke, "Controlling mana isn't all too hard. Just follow the flow." Jenny gazed at Li who had a ball of flames engulfing his right hand and a torrent of wind on his left.

Somewhere on the Island, Li, Jenny, Stan, and Sue sat around in a clearing with their weapons by their sides.

A dark air and tension were hanging over their heads, creating a gloomy aura that covered them. This gloomy aura was created from the realization that they currently weren't strong enough to battle opponents like the {Flame Devil}, and the {Broodmother}.

Libya's stressed and exhausted look on his face as he tried to gently combine the squall and conflagration he held in his hands together. His eyes widened all of a sudden and he let out a yell as he flung his arms upward.

A ball of plasma was flung toward the sky, reaching a height of 300 meters before exploding violently. The flames were boosted by the wind, creating a massive explosion that blew the leaves off several trees.

"Hmph! Those who don't know how to handle fore shouldn't pay with it." A sassy comment was made by Sue who was controlling a ball of flames with absolute finesse and grace.

"Shut it!" A look of frustration and anger appeared on Li's face as he avoided looking at Sue who looked at him with contempt...

Stan on the other hand had a look of worry on his face.

"Stop pushing yourself so much. You haven't had a wink of sleep in three days! You should get some rest."

"I'm not resting till I get this stupid thing right!" Li had a cold countenance, different from his usually relaxed look. There was an odd light in his eyes that hadn't been there a week ago. A fire that had just started to burn...

"Stan is right... Mana control isn't something that can be learned just by trying hard. Your magic skills are complemented by your martial arts, so that should be enough for"

"It's not enough!" Li let out a yell I frustration as he summoned a fist full of flames and wind once again. He once again tried to combine them, but this time, the opposite happened. The wind ended up being too much for the flames, and the skill ended up being snuffed out, leaving him with a sullen expression and a hand full of nothing.

"See? Such a skill is something out of your capabilities. Best give up now and save yourself the stress." Sue said as she controlled the ball of flames in her hand into numerous shapes before it exploded into a shower of sparks.

"Why are you so keen on improving your mana control anyway? As it is, yours isn't bad." Stan said with a look that said he wanted to get to the bottom of Li's intentions.

"Right now, the only thing stopping me from being as powerful as those bastards is my poor mana control. I dare not use too much mana with my skills, or I'll end up killing myself." Li said through gritted teeth as he once again tried to combine the torrent of wind and flames.

During the fight with the {Flame Devil}, he had created a skill, {Plasma Burst}. What this skill did, was heat up the air he produced magically, yet keep it compressed. The particles would end up being so agitated, that when he threw out a punch, an explosion would occur as the compressed superheated air would be released.

However, since the skill was extremely powerful, it was only natural it came with its back. The mana control needed to handle the skill was something Li gravely lacked. This placed a huge limit on him as he was only able to use the minimum amount of mana required to perform the skill. Yet, the skill was still extremely powerful.

Seeing how powerful of an attack skill it was even with such a small amount of mana, Li could only dream of how powerful the skill would be when he pumped more mana in.

Unfortunately for him, since his mana control was lacking, there was nothing he could do. Which was why he convinced Jenny to help him train to increase it.

"So that's it..." Stan had a look of understanding as a dark look settled in his eyes.

"Since you weren't in the fight, you two couldn't possibly fathom how powerful the dog guy and Cain are..." Li said with clenched fists. His eyes were bloodshot due to lack of sleep, making his expression a bit scary to look at.

"While they may be powerful, this isn't a competition. We are currently a team, so I doubt them being powerful is a bad thing." Jenny said with a frown.

"Well, what about when we stop being a team?" Li dropped a question that made Jenny, Stan, and Sue stop in their tracks.

Seeing that his words had effects on them, Li continued,

"Let's not be too optimistic. Right now, the only reason we all get along is because our interests align. Should we ever have a difference in opinions, we would either have to leave them and work on our own, or we would have to fight to show that we are superior... Should something like that happen right now, we are going to lose!" Li said agitatedly.

"If you keep thinking like that, I'm assuming you have reasonable cause to believe that we will have a conflict of interest shortly..." Jenny said in a low voice.

"I do... There will be times we won't think fighting is a good option, but because of their confidence in their strength, they will force all of us off the deep end. And because we are weaker, we just might become collateral damage."

Although what Li said was a bit unhinged, it was more or less, nothing too far from the truth. Should they engage in a battle with extremely tough opponents, the weaker ones might not be able to bear them and would end up just being fodder for the stronger opponents to kill...

"You might think you are strong, but those guys are stronger. They have a healer, and three of them can hold their own against creatures as strong as that giant {Flame Devil}. The others are also strong in their rights. If push comes to shove, do you think we can face them the way we are?!" Li had a livid expression as he stared Sue down.

"When you put it like that, I guess you do have a point..." Sue said with a nervous expression.

"I don't think things will ever reach that point. I'm sure they will see reason when things get to that point." Stan said.

Hearing what Stan had to say, Li opened his mouth to reiterate but was cut off by Stan.

"However, I also think you are right about one thing. We do need to become stronger. I was nearly killed by a giant shellfish for goodness sake!" Stan had a weird expression as he recalled how he was almost killed by the {King Lobster}.

"Stan is right. We need to get stronger, but we have to do so with the right intentions. Thinking so far into the future with such thoughts will do no one any good..." Jenny said as she jumped down from the tree branch she was seated on.

"Let's train together. The best way to improve is through battle..." Stan yelled out with a fist pump towards Li who has a perplexed expression on his face.

"But... But..." Li struggled to get the words in his throat out but failed woefully.

"Hmph! I don't know why you are so eager about it! If you want to get stronger, train on your own. I'm going to have some rest!" Sue said in a huff as she turned around and stomped her feet on the ground.

A light suddenly lit up in Li's eyes as he put on a weird smile on his face.

A shiver ran down Sue's spine as she slowly turned around to witness the frightening smiling face of Li as he slowly approached her.

"Hehehe... My wonderful and lovely sister..."

"Wha-what do you want from me?!" Sue took a step backward as his face scrunched up in disgust and fear.

"Hehehe... This useless brother of yours was just wondering if you would be so kind as to show him how you attained such superb control of this strange energy!" An obsessed light raced through Li's eyes as he rubbed his hands together as though he had just discovered a stash of gold buried in the ground.

"Get away! An imbecile like you couldn't possibly-"

"Pleeasseeee!!!" Li fell down face first to the ground holding onto Sue's feet and nearly tripping her to the ground.

"Kyaaaaa!" Sue let out a frightened screech as she tried to free herself of Li's clammy fingers.

"Let her go..." Jenny struggled to hold tears back as she watched Sue struggle away from Li.

"Hahaha!" Stan had no such inhibitions as he cackled at the top of his lungs.

Seeing that Li had no intentions of giving up, Sue finally relented,

"Fine... But you will have to call me master from now on!" Sue said with her face flushed red and her hands violently pushing Li's head away.

"Really?!" Li had stars in his eyes as he looked up at Sue.

"Why not? I can also use you to train my accuracy..." An evil smile appeared on Sue's face, causing Li to rethink whether he had just made a good call or one of the worst decisions he could ever make in his life...