Blast (solo)

The ball of green pulsing light flickered and then vanished. Stratus closed his mouth and groaned. Frustrated he flopped down to the ground sending a small cloud of sand into the air as he did so. Moldale clicked his tongue in disapproval.
"Come on kid, that wasn't even close!" the older hollow spoke as he pawed the ground. They had been at this for hours now, not like they had a clock in which to tell. Even the horse hollow's patience was at it's breaking point. He had brought Stratus to the surface to practice a skill he would need to master; Cero. Had told the newly formed Adjushas about the power that Menos Grande used and that he too could do the same. Excitedly he had asked for instructions in preforming the ability and now they were busy trying to perfect it. Things weren't going well. For the most part Stratus was a total brute when it came to fighting, his control of spiritual power was limited to his ability to surpress his signal while hunting or hiding. Unfortunately that wasn't enough for this exercise. He needed to pool his energy and was having a very terrible time at it. It wasn't until this more recent tries that there had been some visual manifestation of his power. The minimal results had taken their toll on the hollow he was exhausted.
"Shut up! It's harder than it looks!" Stratus retorted. It wasn't often one saw a hollow sweat, but Stratus was almost glistening after his last try. Seeing the small globe of green light form bigger than the one before was encouraging. He was making progress, but not much. Moldale had told him of the destructive power of this attack that alone was enough for him to want to learn, but now he regretted it. This was indeed harder than it looked. Suppressing his signal was like holding your breath, this was more like inhalining air through your mouth while exhaling through your nose at the same time. In this case both actions was the controlling ambient energy and internal energies.
"Bring it in, push it out, and hold it." Moldale instructed once again. "How many times to I have to repeat myself?" Stratus wasn't fond of the tone, but he was in no position to argue. The other hollow was taking the time to teach him, he should be grateful.

Gratitude was something Stratus was know for, he sighed and tried to catch his breath. His energy seemed to replenish quickly on the surface. Moldale has mentioned as much, but Stratus had doubted those words. Something about minute spiritual particles or something. Stratus had already forgotten. Regardless the was right, that was all that mattered. That alone was the main reason he listened to the other hollow. Feeling less tired he stood up to resume the practice.
"Breathe in." he muttered and he prepared himself mentally as he physically exhaled. Focusing on something you couldn't see was very difficult. Just as difficult as grabbing as something you couldn't touch. "Breathe in." he repeated and began to move his own energy. Rather than pushing his energy down pulling it out felt so alien. The energy bubbled up inside Moldale noted the change in Stratus's power
"Now Breathe out!" he barked. Stratus wanted to glare at the other hollow, but his concentration wouldn't allow it. He did as instructed and pooled the energy forward. A green spark appeared as he opened his mouth and was joined by others. The sparks rushed together forming a ball.
"KEEP GOING!" Moldale yelled trying to cheer him on. Stratus planned to so as much and tried to ignore the noise. He locked his eyes on the small orb and tried to push more power into it. At fist the ball flickered, but then more sparks danced along the edge of the globe as it doubled in size. First it was a golfball, then a baseball, a softball. Once it became the size of a basketball the flickering stopped and even Stratus could feel the heat coming off the sphere. If he could smile it would have been as wide as his face. Holding the orb in place was tricky. It was the familiar holding your breath of suppressing energy, but this was like being strangled. The discomfort on his face prevented Moldale from praising Stratus on his effort."Now will it forward!" he shouted pointing his horn at the empty horizon. With joy Stratus took aim and complied.
CERO The energy roared as it was released and jet forth like a bullet train. The beam lit the otherwise white sand emerald. It impacted with a dune in the distance and detonated. The area was bathed in green light as the shockwave sent tons of sand skyward. The explosion was large dome of green fury amidst the wind gusting at them. The explosion died down, but the smoke didn't clear. Stratus and Moldale coughed on the dirtied air. In moments the cloud vanished and they surveyed the damage. There was a huge crater here the dune had been. The whole area sat scorched as if burned by an intense flame. Stratus grinned as he admired his handiwork his body weak from the whole experience.
"Not bad." the horse whistled and noded. It truly was an amazing sight the amount of destruction a single blast was capable of. "That was good now let's do another one" Stratus grunted and dropped to his back in exasperation.

Hours later

There were now six craters in the ground. Each successive shot was harder to form than the last. Stratus was beyond tired now. He could barely stand let alone move. With much effort he pushed himself up on his elbows to look at the very please Moldale.
"What the hell are you smiling about?" Stratus snarled quite aggravated by the other hollow's smug appearance. Silently he wished he had enough energy to perform one more cero at the damned horse. Even with the recharging aspect of the desert, he couldn't muster much more than a fart at the moment.
"You did good kid." Was the only reply he got as Moldale swished his tail through the sand.Stratus clicked his tongue and laid his head back down to rest.