Chapter 1263: The Lightning Bolt
Ning and Byron walked together toward the edge of the city, a few hundred meters to the side of the port.
Byron had a boat attached at the very edge of the port, which he quickly untied and got onto it. Ning jumped and slowly landed on the boat as well.
“You wanna paddle?” he asked Ning.
“Sure,” Ning said and started paddling as the two left the shore.
Ning looked at the sunny sky that was slowly being covered up by clouds. It was afternoon, and at any moment it would start raining.
“Any moment now, the first lightning strike will hit,” Byron said. “We have to be there to catch it.”
Ning nodded. “But how will we catch it exactly?” he asked. “How do you want to use the Lightning Essence Crystal here.”
“You will see,” Byron said with a mysterious smile. He couldn’t wait to show something amazing to this amazing man.
“Okay,” Ning looked forward to whatever was going to happen next. “Next question then. How are we going to call the lightning?”
“Oh, that is easy,” Byron said. “Once it gets sufficiently cloudy, I’ll show you. Although, just for the sake of it, stay away from me when it gets too cloudy, okay?”
Ning nodded and continued paddling his way out into the ocean on a tiny boat. “What is the nephew of the mayor doing with such a small boat? Shouldn’t you have a larger boat?” he asked.
Byron gave a rueful smile. “I might be the nephew, but that doesn’t mean my uncle does much for me,” he said. “I wasn’t originally from here. I was from 2 cities over and used to live with my own family.”
“However, they died when I was a young boy, so my uncle took me in. In exchange for taking me in, however, he took away everything my parents left behind after they died too,” Byron said.
“As I grew up, I was given a place to stay and food to eat, but aside from that I was given nothing else.”
“I had to go out on my own and steal my cousin’s book to try and learn anything,” he said. “I somehow managed to learn a lot from that, but I also got bullied a lot by my cousin because of that.”
“Thankfully, I learned how to use Conversion as well. Thanks to that, my uncle opened me a shop and let me helm it,” he said. “However, he still kept the ownership, passing it onto his son so he could reap the benefits of my shop.”
“Damn,” Ning couldn’t help but say. “Your uncle sounds like a true piece of shit. And your cousin doesn’t sound any better.”
“They aren’t,” Byron said. “I bought this boat with what little money I could find. I spend my time outside of the shop by helping the Crystal shops figure out the quality of heir crystals that they get shipped every once in a while.”
“I do what I can to survive,” he said.
Ning shook his head. “Awful,” he said.
Byron shrugged. “I guess I’m used to it now, but I like complaining about them to outsiders once in a while,” he said.
“That’s not a bad thing,” Ning said. “Get your stress out. However you can.”
Byron nodded. “It truly does help qu—” he paused for a second when a distant light flashed. He turned in the direction away from the town and heard the distant rumbling of the thunder.
“It’s coming,” he said and quickly pulled out the lightning Essence crystal that Ning had given to him. As soon as it was out, he started injecting Essence into it, which surprised Ning quite a bit.
“You’re putting Essence into it?” he asked.
“Yes,” Byron said, focusing as much as he could to keep his Essence inside of the crystal without letting it slip out in the least.
Ning was confused and wanted to ask more, but he assumed that he had to let the man do what he wanted to do. He could ask his questions later.
As he focused his Essence inside the lightning crystal, he created something with his Fire Essence at the same time.
A fire bow appeared in the hand that he held the stone. While focusing on the stone, he pulled onto the bow string, which caused a fire arrow to appear onto it.
Ning frowned a little, having even fewer ideas as to just what was going on. The curiosity inside of him was killing him and he was a moment away from asking the system, but he wanted to see whatever was going to happen here happen first.
The young man pulled the arrow as much as he could and let it go.
The fire arrow flung out from the bow that dissipated the moment it was let go. It flew into the sky with a ferocious speed, flying all the way up to the clouds with the speed it kept.
At the same time, the man held onto the crystal with the maximum amount of Essence it could hold without blowing up.
“Any second now,” the man said softly. “Get ready.”
Ning was even more excited than the man.
Then, as the man had said, it appeared at the next second.
A lightning bolt.
Ning looked at the lightning bolt, surprised at its appearance. Most lightning bolts were jagged in nature, with no real path as they zigged and zagged as they made their way to their destination.
However, this lightning bolt was straight and from what Ning could tell, it had followed the path of the arrow that the man had launched into the sky.
‘It was a guidance arrow,’ Ning realized. ‘To show the path for the lightning bolt.’
Time had slowed for him as he watched the lightning bolt fall onto the man. And just before it fell on him, he pushed just a little more Essence into the crystal.
The crystal shattered instantly, the the Lightning Essence inside of it sought the only familiar thing they could find in that area.
The lightning bolt.
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