362 10.3

"The wind, and water greats if I remember correctly," I enjoyed the surprise on her face, "Having an Archaic fight side by side with the pillars of the military's might should have changed things, but instead it was buried, and I was stuck in an underground bunker to be used as a test subject. Had I failed to escape they would have another powerful enemy about now, or a dead dragon. This whole guild would have fallen." I let that sink in for a little while as I pretended to think, "They really wouldn't have stood a chance without me here to negotiate with the lizardmen. Sure the lizardmen could have repelled that spider queen on their own, but they would have waited until this settlement fell before taking her down if it weren't for me."

I shrugged as it was just an afterthought.

"Then their own soldiers wouldn't be at risk fighting an unknown enemy," I paused, "I've grown to like a few of the people here so that would have sucked."

I waited for her to speak.

"The military knows you exist, and already has footage of you?" Emily spoke quietly to herself.

"They probably didn't want anyone finding out that there's an Archaic out there that's willing to fight side by side with humanity," I kept my expression serious, "But actions speak louder then words right? So I'm going to make an offer. If anyone out there needs help I'm willing to offer that help." I kept the smirk off my face, "But I must warn you if you plan to lure me into a trap." My face tugged down slightly into a frown, "I don't go down."

I didn't need to say anymore, but I didn't want to end it on that threatening note.

"Do you have anymore questions for me?" I smiled lightly.

"Yes," Emily swallowed, "How did you manage to finish off the spider queen?"

"That," I didn't want to tell them about my venom, "Was a coordinated effort between the guild, the lizardmen, and myself. I'm not sure how big of a part I played in the battle."

"Can you tell us more about your specific part in the battle?" Emily asked.

"I'd rather not," I looked down almost bashfully, "I'd rather keep a few trump cards for myself while the military still considers me an enemy."

I winked at the camera with a cocky smile replacing the bashful one.

{I didn't know you could act,} Savannah mocked, almost disrupting my flow.

{It's a lot easier when I'm not using my real face,} the whole exchange took less then a second.

{I find that surprising for someone who used to be an open book,} she cut in again as Emily was about to ask me another question.

It took every fiber of control I had not to lose control of my expression.

"I'm curious is that large scaley body your true form?" Emily smiled.

"Yes," I nodded calmly, "It actually costs me a good portion of mana to maintain a human form. I'm using enough mana to wipe out an entire building right now, just to stay in my human form."

Emily swallowed nervously.

"Not the worst thing to use mana on," I chuckled, "Don't you think?"

"Much better then levelling a building," Emily chuckled back nervously.

"I think that's enough for today," I was a little worried about how pale she was starting to get, "I need a break, and I've got a few training exercises to work on."

Only half of that was a lie. Emily was the one that needed a break. I smiled briefly at the camera before walking away.

"That concludes our first interview with an Archaic," she smiled nervously, "I would like the thank the dragon known as Nix, and I hope more interviews like this become possible in the future."

I'd already moved outside of the warehouse, and was only half listening to what she was saying. I stretched leisurely. I didn't care how people reacted to that interview. Not really. There was going to be a falling out.

Public outrage was going to be the theme of the month.

{Don't mention our bond if you decide to get interviewed,} I sent out a general communication to all my bonded.

I thought it would be better if they got interviewed as well. How they met me, and just about anything else they were comfortable talking about was free game as far as I was concerned. Folks wouldn't understand that our bond wasn't one of control. Just me being in their heads would come out as a negative. There was no way I was going to be the one to let that secret out.

My muscles tensed as I debated on returning to my true form. I could stay in human form for a bit longer. I sat down on the curb, and started on the exercise Regala had shown me. It was much harder now that I wasn't in the inner world. I kept at it using fire until it started to feel as if my mind was mush.

I still couldn't control more then five for very long. It wasn't the number that got to me. It was the increasing number of rotations. Each additional one had to go faster then the last. Each making one more rotation then the last.

All without speeding up any of the others, or slowing down the newer ones. Regala was right that this wasn't all that complicated. It was just hard to do. She was right about it helping to advance my affinities as well. It forced me to focus on my element intensely.

That intense focus was enough to do some serious leveling up. I needed to level them up so I didn't complain about the headache that was starting to come back with force. Maybe I should try making an elemental crystal. It didn't look dangerous when Regala showed me how to do it. I let a spark of lightning jump from the tip of my finger, and started working on compressing that lightning into a single point.

Like Regala had done. Pushing the lightning closer together with force as I poured more lightning into that single point. This was taking much more mana then I thought it would, and the lightning was fighting me. It wanted to spark off in any direction but where I was forcing it to stay. I had to force it to stay in place.