The Odd Dragon Out: Reckoning of the Cinder-Born

Placed firmly over the redhead's arm – to her peers' surprise – was a buckler, shining in a pale blue hue that almost seemed brighter than the light from the windows.

Of course that couldn't have been true, but the sheer fact that no one else had managed to conjure a proper shape with their Kardia, while Caron had already gone ahead and formed a full shield with startlingly realistic features, brought on the illusion.

Ginger gawked in awe, while Reiss predictably gnashed his teeth.

"She's actually doing it..." Ginger said, a small smile creeping on his face.

Professor Lyall, while visibly impressed, wasn't rude enough to cast away the comparatively unimpressive specimen she was currently giving pointers to. She remained in place while analyzing the buckler in Caron's hand.

"Quite the shape..." she said in a mildly excited voice.

This wasn't as bland of a comment as it seemed, however.

The only other person to truly understand what she meant, was Caron herself.

Most of the students in the class hadn't realized that Caron's buckler, while riddled with incredible detail, seemed to have an odd personal touch to it. Though made with a singular expression of color, it featured a curved umbo at its center, which had the distinct design of a simplistic cat on it.

"Impressive," Professor Lyall said, her lips drawing wide. "I was right to assume you have immense talent as our only Total-typer this year. How solid is it?"

Caron gave a polite smile that quickly disappeared, and then she made to touch her buckler with her free hand.

It phased through seamlessly.

As expected, the Custos Zoe wasn't solid at all.

Professor Lyall showed no signs of disappointment. In fact, she seemed empowered by the fact that she was still dealing with a mortal after all, not that having a genius who could accomplish something so complex so quickly would be a bad thing.

"That's quite alright. As I said before, your job is to form a definite shape. Don't be disheartened when your Custos isn't quite ready to handle the charge of a Blighted just yet," she said in a kind voice.

As it had been during the Second Burning, Caron's result invigorated the students from both classes, and they began to work fervently, churning out their Kardia while making efforts – with obscene faces and atrocious body gestures – towards replicating what Caron had done.

Ginger kept staring at Caron who kept pushing her hand through her buckler.

It was curious how she formed a shape like that so quickly. The umbo, shaped like a cat, gave the impression that Caron had fashioned the Custos Zoe out of something she had seen or held in real life. Something likely not from the Ample Forge.

But a buckler?

Why a buckler?

As far as Ginger had learned from Equipped Armament Creation and Usage, dragons didn't normally resort to using such tools, especially with how advanced everything was here. Even in Ravi, bucklers would be deemed relics of the past. Outdated.

Ginger was only knocked out of his theories when he saw the look on Reiss' face.

The light blue haze of his Kardia had been summoned to his hands, spreading boldly around them. Affixing Kardia was usually limited to forming a stroke around the user's body if they weren't holding something it could cling onto, as it couldn't spread far out like Alien-type Kardia. This was still enough for a Custos to be formed though.

Reiss looked like a lumpy muffin with the deep frown he had on at the moment, creasing his large forehead obscenely.

Ginger imagined that he was spurned by being outdone by Caron again. The thought of being bested twice must have struck a nerve.

Smiling lightly, he thought Caron inspired a feeling of shame in him for waiting for Professor Lyall instead of making an attempt on his own at forming a Custos.

'I can't afford to waste my Kardia. If I slip once, I won't be able to try again. Pulling back my Kardia after setting it loose hasn't gotten any easier...' he thought, giving himself an answer.

During the course of his hesitation, Ginger saw and heard other students accomplishing what Caron had managed, though with more flimsy and less impressive products.

Most of them were those that had already been attended to by Professor Lyall, with the exceptions having Vassilis among them.

The young dragon managed to conjure a simplistic chest plate and bracers as his Custos Zoe.

As it so happened, most Affixers from the two classes were inspired by Vassilis.

Varying assortments of Custos Zoe, most manifesting as battle armaments, began to pop up among the Affixers while more dynamic sets spawned among Alien-types – users of Alien-Type Kardia. Because their capacity for Permeation was naturally greater than the rest, it wasn't strange that some of them followed Professor Lyall's example, creating simplistic domes around themselves which quickly turned into a trend.

More talented Alien-types, like Abela Mires – the girl with bushy brows – who was also in First Red, shocked her peers when she manifested a hazy humanoid figure almost three times her size on top of her. It mimicked her every move, keeping a vivid shape, but unfortunately, she couldn't maintain it for long.

That didn't stop her from wearing a big grin though.

Ginger grew impatient. He felt the urge to wring out all his Kardia Alien-style and make an attempt to conjure something like hers.

'Maybe I should try using pooling. That way I won't lose much Kardia, right?' he thought.

Poolers, as Reiss had mentioned before, seemed to have difficulty conjuring Custos Zoe because their capacity for Permeation was even worse than that of Affixers.

However, this didn't mean that they were completely hopeless.

As Ginger looked around at the Poolers he knew – those attended to by Professor Lyall, that was – he found some of them wearing satisfied smiles despite there barely being anything around them. He saw faint flickers of hazy blue over specific portions of their bodies, but with no shape or design to boast.

But wait.

There was actually something.

On one of the students, Ginger saw a mark, more like a luminous tattoo glowing over the back of her hand. It was shaped like a little bird – the kind a four-year-old would draw.

The Custos Zoe of Poolers was more like Supplementum Soma. It was nearly impossible for them to project a form of Kardia outside their bodies, however, they could pool their Kardia around a specific spot, and with the right intent, a mark on their skin would show that they were applying guard.

Naturally, pooling the Kardia could simply activate Supplementum Soma with the wrong direction, thus Ginger had noticed that Professor Lyall seemed to have told the successful Poolers – a few – how to distinguish their application of Kardia between Supplementum and Custos.

"Ginger."

The plump dragonling was startled when the thickly Professor finally reached him. He had been so absorbed in the surroundings just now that he missed her from sight.

"Yes, Professor," he said.

"Seeing as you have two options – the nature of your Kardia and all – how would you like to approach forming your Custos Zoe?" she asked.

Professor Lyall had barely finished asking when Ginger suddenly said:

"Can I learn both?"

There was a twinkle in the older dragon's eye which was reminiscent of the one she had given the plump dragonling when he had popped out of the Rebounding Seether. Professor Lyall seemed to have expected him to say this.

"It certainly is possible. But for today, how about we focus on one? Which flow do you feel comfortable with so far?" she asked.

Ginger narrated his predicament dejectedly, outlining how he wasn't sure letting his Kardia loose would do well with how little he had, not to mention how little control he had over it once it gushed out of him.

"I see. Many Alien-types struggle with this. Unfortunately, there is no advice I can give for this except for you to make your Kardia submit. Kardia tends to be as stubborn as the dragon it inhabits. For now, I recommend learning a Pooling-type Custos. Will that do?"

Ginger nodded greedily. While his desire to form a Custos like Abela's was slaughtered for now, he was happy he had an alternative.

Professor Lyall went on to tell him the 'secret' she had been telling the other Poolers and Ginger beamed. It was straightforward and obvious, yet a little complex.

Professor Lyall reassured him that he didn't have to master it during this lesson. The whole point of having today's compound lesson – as far as her course was concerned – was for her to provide a single, vibrant experience for everyone all at once during their first time learning the basic Pieyro as she was unlikely to carry over the same vigor when forced to repeat it, class by class. Unfortunately, this was only mostly successful.

Shortly after, Professor Lyall left Ginger who got stuck thinking about which part of his body he should attach the Pooling-type Custos to.

Halfway through his consideration, he was distracted by Reiss who had conjured a strangely thick pair of gauntlets that turned faint at intervals. The dwarfish dragonling had a diabolical smile on his face as he looked at his likely unfinished Custos.

Ginger imagined that he was thinking they would go well with his hammer.

The next fifteen minutes of the class followed Ginger making four unsuccessful attempts at conjuring his Custos. After deciding on what shape he wanted, he continued to do as Professor Lyall said without having his determination trampled by failures.

'Skin. Focus your Kardia into the skin around the spot you want and spread it out as far as it can go.'

'Don't let it all slip into your flesh. A decent portion of it must remain in your skin, otherwise, you will just be conjuring a Supplementum instead.'

Ginger felt his skin toughen, but not as much as he thought it should each time he tried.

This was hard work but he was happy he was finally getting a grasp on his Kardia.

Perhaps he had been focusing on its Alien-type capability a bit too much, therefore limiting his potential.

Pooling, while limited, was far easier.

The results of his hard work finally showed right before the lesson ended when Ginger saw a faint glow in the middle of his palm.

Perhaps because he had seen this shape countless times and had a funny connection to it, he had been able to succeed sooner rather than later.

He wore a giant smile as he saw the crooked depiction of a pointed hat in his hand.