《Tale about fire》


 Prologue

    In a time, where time itself wasn¡¯t aware of Its own existence, four mighty beingsclashed against it other. They fought uncountable number of battles in the void and the results of those is the universe we currently know.


    But again, for what purpose? To free themselves of their own boredom I say. To fill the silence and the darkness with both life and sound so their existences would be no more empty nor lonely. No more meaningless.


    But yet, how? They were birthed alive by the void itself but could they birth life on they own? Fortunately yes, and they did.


    The new lives were good to keep the elements entertained and like a show they watched mortals fight, die, prosper and decline for a good amount of time without never interfering, until Fire decide that watching the mortals was not enough anymore. "They needed a ruler" it said, "someone that will show them their true purpose, their potential as one". Lies, claimingto work for their best when it wanted nothing but more chaos, it saw their lives like nothing but wood to be burned for its own satisfaction.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    That was when Water and Earth interfered, they would not watch when Fire burned the life that they created.


    This fight was later called "First War" by the smaller beings. The "war" broke fast and fierce, but it was a lost battle to begin with as the four are similar in strength. Fire had no chance at all, not alone at least.


    Fire lost, and so peace came once more, it was the calm before the storm a few said.


    Fire was in rage, but nothing could be done, his enemies were too strong and asking Wind for help was of no use. "Happy enough drifting through space while watching mortals doing absolutely nothing" it blamed, but it was still not ready to give up, not without trying and an infinite lifespan gives you plenty of time to put some plans to work.


    Fire gave life to a little blaze, it was small and feeble but still a true born of his own flames with the potential to one day reach the amount of power that would help him against his enemies. A gamble if you ask me, as the act of creating such a being will not only deplete its own energy but the being will probably never mature but well, gambles are known by their risks, right?

 1.1 - first breath

    ¡°It must be around here¡± I mumble nervously to myself while looking for the damn horse that should be somewhere close. Everything that I could buy for my escape with the little information I¡¯ve put my hands on as a ¡°son¡± of the raining skies family, a better name for slave if you ask. They give us, people of no birth a ¡°home¡± as ¡°sons and daughters¡± of their glorious household but in the end we are nothing but livestock to them, living to serve their disgusting needs.


    But no more.


    Sold some information to a rival family, a few relevant dates and names, how the security shifts work, maps and such. Nothing much, the crucial things will never get on our ears, and even so, it took a whole year of work to get this deal. A year of lurking in the shadows and a lot of heinous favors for only a single horse and a few days of food and clothes, what brings me back to the start. Where is the damn horse?


    Time pass fast and I¡¯m nowhere closer to find it than I was half hour a go... should I try my luck and escape by foot? I ponder nervously while cursing the other party, it''s quite the walk but in two or so days I should be able to get far enough to steal something, not the best but better than keep...         ...losing more timeI finish, knowing too well that my escaping plan has already been cut down.


    With my eyes momentarily closed by regret I turn to greet the sole reason of it, both the regret and the failure, and see myself facing the sixthson of the raining skies that came all the way here for the Four knows why and now stops a few meters far from me with a rotten smile on his face.


    ¡°Hello brother, what are you doing here, so far from home, are you lost perhaps??¡± The odious voice cuts through the wind, the words carrying an almost tangible scorn that I receive easily, scorn being the last of my worries. Better focus on why is he here, and how can I make him leave.


    I put my best fake smile even if my body screams me to leave, to run and hide, as I know pretty well that doing so would bring me nothing but an early death or worse in pain.


    ¡°Little lord, I wasn¡¯t expecting to see you here, I¡¯m just doing some shores that the esteemed master charged me, no need to waste your time with this one" - I speak, trying my best to show confidence but failing miserably at it, my voice cracking and coming in a shameful high pitch.


    A smooth start, maybe next I should just explain my entire plan and behead myself to save them the work - I think to myself at the same time that he starts grinningat me, the kind of grin that people do before whipping you and the one that says that they will actually enjoy doing it, forcing me to realize that there is no time to self-blaming or sarcasm.


    Cursing internally for being so slow I also realize that there is only one possible reason to someone like him be this far from the city, and withmy hands shaking In fear I try move back slowly, doing what I can to get some distancebetween us while also praying for him to go away or to instant combuste in a ball of fire, any of them fine by me.


    Any of them, please.


    Not that I have that much of time to actually pray with each of his steps bringing us closer and the air colder, one of the signals of a water user. The water in the air rushing at him, moving at his command like a docile sheep and soaking my clothes, thankfully he can''t really control it like the elders or I would be dead in the instant that I got wet.


    No more than two meters far he stops and I stare at his eyes, the only emotions reflected in them being disdain.


    ¡°Little lord?¡± I ask, not knowing what else to do but to still cling to some kind of hope, just to receive a smirk as answer.


    I force myself to calm down, saying words of reassurance to myself as my breath and heart refuse to slow down. I knew the risks, people tried before and they failed before, they died sure but at least they did by their own will, so I wait, savoring the few moments of freedom soon to be paid with my life in a trance like state.


    "It''s funny how stupid you rats can be, selling information to someone? You think yourself smart don''t you? You stupid rat, that''s just the way we make ungrateful treacherous shits like you to put your heads out of the shadows so we can crushthem, and they fall for it every single time ha ha.


    But it won''t so be so easy, no, we''ll make you suffer hell and more before killing you. I''ll bring you back and you''ll be tortured in the dinning area to everyone see, then they''ll know how foolish is to go against our orders. Aren''t you happy? In the end you''ll die being of use to us what is the best non practitioners like you can ever dream to accomplish"


    The words fall upon me but the fear they cause seems far, almost as a sound that can be heard but is easily ignored. Like if sunken in a cold river I feel myself far, more like watching things than doing things I could just let myself go, but no, filling me there is anger, anger caused by their arrogance, their disdain and their so said superiority and it overwhelms me.


    The fury is fulled by years of suffering and it burns me like a raging fire causing no small amount of pain, it white my thoughts clear and my fingers crack in a fist, leaving me with nothing but a calm mind and cold rage.


    "I knew the risks from the start" I say, words crawling out of my dried mouth with venomous hate.


    We all knew andI''m happy that I''m the one here, I''m also sorry that I could not free you from your burdens my people, but let me bear at least this one more - I contemplate to myself whilegetting in the best fighting stance that I can, taking out my favorite kitchen knife and praying to hidden powers to burst alive transforming me in a born to be killing machine, or to the instant combustion plan just in case the Fourneed some getaway.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    "I''m not going back and I''ll not die a slave" - I say and my voice once more cracks in a higher tone that I would like but the resolution in the words is clear, I''m not going back, not without fighting and not to be a slave anymore.


    ¡°You want to fight me? AHAHAHAHAHAHA...  you wantto fight me, a second level water practitioner? I was planning to give you just a beaten, to not stain my hands with a low blood trash like you, but I changed my mind. One less or one more, who cares anyway"


    He says, eyes turning colder as he realize that I''m serious and the laughs die, a joke that is no more funny and started being a nuisance, that''s what I''m to him.


    I grit my teeth at the last part, fury tempting to burn me once more as so many faces blurry my vision, faces of true family, one truly worth dying for and yet seen like disposables tools or worse by them.


    In the middle of my distraction a wave of essence burst from him, invisible at the eyes of a non practitioner it crashes against me in a small bump that causes no damage but the sudden and unexpected force throws me out of balance and I fall on my back.


    He just starts laughing once more, insults flying from his mouth as he gloat in my weakness, happy to toy with my life before taking it I suppose. Tired from years of the same abuse I block my ears, nothing will be gained by hearing, and not will be by dying I remind myself. I need to come with some kind of plan, even if I''m okay about dying doesn''t mean that I will not fight to live.


    He''s looking down on me for a good reason but even so, ins''t he looking me down too much? Arrogance should have a limit, he is just there, more than a thousand meters far from the city, no guards seen, not even a weapon in his hands. It shames me to be seen soo low and it hurts more to know that it is probably nothing but truth.


    Although water doesn¡¯t look that dangerous, even a single drop with enough speed can be lethal, especially if we are talking about a normal body like mine, to speak true he can just break my neck with his bare hands so why would he make the effort to carry a weapon?


    A shiver runs through me and I choose to believe that it''s because the cold and watery air and not because the previous thought, and above all not because he finally stopped talking and started taking steps in my direction.


    My eyes catch a throwing motion done by my ¡°brother¡± and one instant later I''mon my knees before even understanding what happened, half dodging and half kneeling asthe little things cut through my hair, close and fast enough to cold sweet drench my already wet clothes.


    No more than droplets but as dangerous as an arrow at this distance, the water missed me by little and I see myself saved by his arrogance and bad personality as no other attacks come to claimmy life.


    ¡°One attack and you will start the begging already, what a shame to the family¡± - he laughs at me showing his satisfied face, the rotten smile making his face uglier, a feat I was not sure possible.


    Desperately, I heck my brain for something, it has to be some way out, it always do and I refuse to believe otherwise, but I need time to find it.


    ¡°Yes lord, please have mercy of this low one¡± I got on fours while listening to his arrogant laughs, head against my hands, bowing. Not the most honored of the actions but what is the use of honor when you are a dead body?


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, what was it? "I''m not going back"? I think it''s better to just jump the torture part and kill you now, you know pretty well that my sister doesn''t like the screams and hanging your body in the walls would serve as example just as fine.


    It''s not like the elders really care right?"


    With his words doubt breaks in and fear makes me involuntary stop as I''m once again dominated by it, apparently not as fine with death as I thought myself. The previous anger generated confidence leaves me and my throat dry even further, my eyes losing focus for asecond, only to be reassured by his next words,


    ¡°Why did you stop, won¡¯t you make me change my mind? I may give it a second though if you are a good boy¡± he says, giving a long look to his own feet, insinuating what wants me to do. As if I were an animal, toying with my life and pride before killing me, but his words make a gust of relief pass through my body nonetheless.


    Not that I believe in his words for even a second.The relief, like a bath of cold water sobers me as I get something close to a idea done.


    Punching or fighting head on would be like hitting a human shaped stone sure, but after years of being beaten I¡¯ve learned that the human body is weak in a lot of parts, that¡¯s something you want to learn fast, especially if you desire to keep living. And better, he just presented me with a way to get close enough to actually hit something like that.


    "Y-yes, than- thank you for the mercy oh, sixth master." It''s no hard to fake it, fear and hope are feelings that I''m truly feeling but for different reasons. Soon the small distance of less than two meters is closed and I take his extended feet in my hands, slowly.


    A small pray to the Four and my muscles tense up, I jump in motion, my right hand extended as I aim to his jaw as my left pull his feet while both getting him out of balance and speeding me up.


    A small voice of surprise escape his mouth as he rush for a instinctive block, but it''s done too late and from out of position, my arm finds his chin with solid impact and his voicetransform itself in a long inhuman scream.


    His mouth is dripping blood like a fountain but I give myself no time to appreciate my work and start kicking his crotch as hard as I can, not stopping until he¡¯s lying on the ground in a mess of both blood and other fluids.Why don''t you laugh now?


    "I would wait for a good bye, but I think it''ll take sometime until you can actually form words again, worry not, we are both brothers and need no formalities, so to speak"


    I laugh while his babbling curses and screams fill the air, head light with the rush of fear and adrenaline as I once again run for my life leaving my so said brother with a few more words of taunting, time is precious but I can''t hardly contain myself this time.


    Sure, after a few minutes my blood cools down and fear and relief fight to assume me, one side happy for what I did and the other fearful of the repercussion. The fight seems to end in a draw as a creepy laugh breaks out my mouth and I dash towards Briddell, my fresh start, light and free.


    Before running away I got my hands in every scroll about cultivating that I could, years of effort to get those pieces of papers, easily find in every room of my ¡°brothers¡± but denied to us.


    Not that took me years to get it, stealing would be easy, a matter of minutes in fact but stealing the scrolls means months of beating to everyone and death to the culprit.


    I could not just run away with it and let my people suffer so transcribing was needed, saving small bits of information at time and then carving the texts in wood. An ungrateful job but after a few years of it I got my hands in almost everything that i need.


    I''ve also left a few sets hidden with the ones that stayed even if that makes me no less bitter that they will have to deal with the mess of my escape. But nothing could be done,Briddell is too dangerous and failing escaping would be even worse than the beasts.


    witch is why I''m heading there, not the first shot if you¡¯re looking for a runaway slave as going there makes actually no sense, just level 2 practitioners or high would try their luck in Brideell and even them would be prey to some of the beasts that hunt there so who in their right mind would search for me there?

 1.2

    The black silhouette is finally in sight, an almost impenetrable wall of treesagainst the setting sun thatblocks my path as I ask myself ifIShould enter the forest now or turn and find a place to pass the night.


    By one side, entering the forest cuts the chance of getting caught, on the other, most of the beasts hunt at night and something says me that the best I can do against a beast is to pray for a clean and quick death.


    My ¡°equipment¡± offers little help in a real fight as I only carry a kitchen knife, a jug of water and a few pieces of bread. It was not supposed to be like that but there is little that i can do about it, my little trade turned itself to be a trap and I had all my chips on it. Stealing something was an option of course but it would either get me caught or give away my position and both are too risky to be worth.


    It¡¯s not that I¡¯ll encounter a beast just by entering the forest of course, even I know that they don¡¯t hunt close to the borders, usually at least. I even talked to a few people that work harvesting wild herbs around the forest bothers, it was a good and bad knew at the same time. Their words proved the forest safer than I thought but they also made the plan of staying in the borders and far from sights way harder.


    I consider for a while more, finding myself weighting more to the side of not entering just as if to give me the last necessary push I hear a not at all inviting howl and a deep scream coming from the forest. They cut the silent soon to be night like a hot knife and my body freezes, hand desperately seeking the knife as I got the answer of my question.


    I stay there with the knife in hand, waiting completely still as the seconds pass, the cold winds seeming even colder while I keep trying to hear something in the silence that followed the scream in a not so racional fear that whatever cause it is now coming for me.


    Noteven inside the forest yet and blood has already been shred,a bad omenI can¡¯t help but think as I get a hold of my feelings, decided to not enter the forest at least for today.


    ¡°I pray for your soul, may the Four guide you into a safe rest into their arms¡± ¨CI start the rites in low voice, prepared to leave after ending them, trying to remember if I past by a good camping place but even before the first sign was made the words are suppressed by thunderous laughs and I stop, my mind fighting to put the recent pieces of information together in a way that they make sense.


    The howl came frominsidethe forest but both the scream and laughsnot,close from it, but definitely not from inside, I trust my hearing and the laughs are nothing but loud, I just didn¡¯t paid enough attention to notice in the first time. The chances are that a group of mercenaries is camping close, either to enter the forest by dawn or to rest before moving to another place, both serving me right at the moment.


    Meat shields to be used against murderous beasts or a perfect camouflage to escape just needing a little persuasion, and I hardly think that it¡¯ll be hard to prove myself better alive and close than dead, I have a lot of expertise doing that after all.


    With a new plan set and withoutlosing time I start the easy task of tracking the origin of the sound, with no much time passing before the light of a campfire with six robust men sitting around it get in sight,sevenmen¨C I correct myself as a small, almost frail looking one revels himself by standing. He says something to the others and turn his back while doing some strangemotion with his arms, just to receive another round of loud mockery.


    At least they seem strong, no weaklings would be so loud and casual this close to the death forest Briddell right? But it could be that they are just arrogant, and I didn¡¯t get this far to die like this. I need to get closer, get some information before revealing myself, who knows what kind of people they are.Even if the risks are small, in the end and after all that I did I don¡¯t want to be killed because I bumped in some group of crazypsychopaths or some friends of the raining skies without knowing, small possibilites but is better be safe than sorry.


    I move to the side of the small path, taking the high green and low light as cover as I move closer making sure that I¡¯ll not set my foot on a dry branch and get myself discovered, the experience gained while sneaking my way in and out of the manor put at use while I chose to ignore he latentanxiety born by my choice of stalking seven full-armed mercenaries.


    Nothing better than despair to make someone discard some of their self-preservation so I just keep going while thinking about dozens of talks that may or may not happen as I get closer and closer. Maybe start with some casualconversation? Offer myself to carry some of their things? Praise their strength? Ask forapprenticeship and pray for the best? Maybe play the weak and lost card?This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Actually I probably should ju-  ¡­Oh,he¡¯s pretty close.


    ¨C


    ¡°Damn those wolves and those mercenaries, how they dare laugh at me? And damn you uncle, why didn¡¯t you not said anything? I¡¯ll sure remember to explain how did you just accepted in silence as those people insulted the family to the elders when we come back just you wait¡± ¨C I speak to no one in particular, venting my rage and shame while the cold wind bites my skin.


    I had no time to get warmer clothes but the coldstill is a better treatment than beinglaughedat, I just hope that this don¡¯t get on others ears, it would need only a single of my peers knowing it and tales of a coward one fearing little wolves would be sung for months.


    All because this damn trip, I hate everything about it, hate the fucking forest, the fucking wolves and now this fucking cold. ¡°Fighting against beasts a necessary experience to every practitioner, with the plus of getting some essence cores in hand¡± they said,and I believed.


    ¡°A strong practitioner going to Briddell, ready to make a name to himself and bring honor to the family, their eyes will look you with awe and envy, will youlet everything go just because of some little beasts and few days of traveling? No you¡¯ll not! Go there and show them why you are the first in line for succession¡±


    I can¡¯t help but remember as my judgment was blinded by their talk, intoxicated by their sweet promises of how all my dreams were at reach and waiting for me, everything seemed perfect, all the bitter training finally going to pay itself off with only a single more step before it.


    And then reality crashed at me like a whole herd of blind horses,my sweet dreams breaking like a sheet of paper cast into the fire. Not that I believe they lied, the Family would never lie to me, the ones to blame are those mercenaries.


    The nightmare began at the third day of traveling when I met my new ¡°companions¡±, thick muscled idiots with almost none, if any, sense of hygiene and nothing to eat besides dried meat, rough bread and cold water. It was bad enough already, but the Fourare kind right? Of course our carriage had to hit a rock and break, leaving us to walk the latter half of our travel.


    Sure we wad a bit of bad luck, we couldn¡¯t wait for the carriage to be repaired and I couldn¡¯t just turn and leave, I accept that those things gave us little number options but what kind of idiots do not carry extra wheels?


    And still they act like they are doing us a favor, full of their sarcastic remarks and cold treatment, it enrages me to be treated like that but uncle keep saying to endure. But not anymore, today was the last drop in the bucket, I¡¯ll not accept being laugh at like that from anyone and I know that father would agree.


    A small voice on the back of my head says that I¡¯m again losing control and that I should focus on the important things while another say that I have no time for that now, unfortunately the latter is not mine and is pretty hard to ignore so my walk comes to a halt.


    Earth itself telling me about a danger ahead, it¡¯s a big enough of a treat to my life to make it start contact by itself so I really can¡¯t let myself distracted with self discipline now. My mind rushes, both with the strange images received from the earth and with small questions like how something like that is here? I¡¯ve been walking in the opposite direction of the forest and no beast should be around here, above all one that dangerous, however with it at door the last of my worries is how it came to knock.


    I let my eyes wander, looking at the dark road ahead my head still, giving no sign of being alert and hopefully baiting it into a mistake, a decision soon proved the right one as I¡¯m rewarded with a movement caught with the corner of my eyes andmy body freezes, ready to sprint and trust my blade in the heart of whatever was fool enough to think itself more than a prey to me. Ready to take the perfect chance given by the Four to prove myself and wash away the recent acquired shame, the first blade to see blood, an honor that I won¡¯t let escape after it was so timely given.


    And yet some sense kicks in, there is no guarantee of being just one beast and even if it is why should I take such risks and run straight into it? Again another mistake almost made by not controlling my temper I take note, promising myself to let myself meditate in the problem before sleeping and calming my breath.


    My body urges me to fight,completelyembracing the possibility of being a pack instead of a single beast as i demands me to bring the battle on them,to make them suffer and regret challenging me, to let them fear the Earth. I feel the thoughts empowering me, my essence bumping like blood in my ears as the pulses get stronger with every second and step, giving me clarity and yet blinding me just as much.


    My hands itch as I fight the urge, struggling to keep calm,no battles are won by panicking,I say to myself.Control is the word you know that, use the power, do not to be used by it¨C I continue.


    Really slowly I merge my conscience with the earth itself as the familiar mantra invades my mind, guiding me. My eyes no long seeing, my ears no long hearing, and yet feeling every single thing around me. The magic feeling of being one with nature invades me and seeing by the earthen eyes of The Mother Old I confirm my enemy position, one single beast ¨Ca shame ¨Cconcealing itself in the dark, unaware of being already caught, ready to be slaughtered as soon I get in range to do so


    And I hope it will be a wolf, it¡¯ll make finding inner peace easily.

 1.3

    ¡°You should be more sensible with Eagan, it''s normal to be on the edge before entering Briddel, even more if for the first time.Now you¡¯ve hurt his pride and I have to get him back in the middle of the night." -Do you know how cold the nights in Briddel are?


    "Not my problem, I¡¯ll control my boys when we enter the forest, too dangerous to get distracted in that place, but until there they are free to laugh at anything or anyone they want to. And it''s not like there was no reason to, doesn''t it?" - He says, silently challenging me with his eyes.


    In a lapse of focus I glare at him, all my feelings amplified by the wind itself as the air howls at distance, calling me, whispering at my ears. I could threaten them all, use thefamily power so to put them beneath my feet, it would end all this facade and the need to keep it up. The ideia intoxicate my mind for a second, i could, would be easy and no repercussion would come back at me.


    But I stop myself, I''m not alike those people that use their family strength so to cover for their own lacking skills and if I let myself do it once I''ll let it a second and third time, this kind of easy way out of things can be a addictive and that''s not what I want, that''s why I asked to be here right? To free myself.


    I''ll not be satisfied with a fake strength, not like those weak brothers of mine.


    I force the wind to stop taking a hold of my emotions but it''s only after a fewseconds that I''m able to, the air itself fighting against my will, unbound and free as urge it to cease. Once more reminding me that the air of Briddell is not like the ones in the cities, it''s older, stronger and tameless. But so should it be, I placed all my hopes in this place to help me level after all.


    ¡°Well said chief, a sheep scared of some puppies has no right to be respected anyway"-The voice cuts in and I focus on its owner, Brod, a mercenary that I have yet to exchange words with even after all this time. He''s too headstrong, refusing to admit our presence even for a second just as any attempt of conversation, but I''ve yet to give up, not finding a single mercenary to help me all this will make all this be for naught in the end.


    My mood lightens, not naturally but forced with a quick circling of essence as I tell to myself that just like the wind those mercenaries will eventually open themselves for me, I just have to keep trying until I succeed, no matter how much it takes, and then I''ll be a step further in the path of power.


    So I put a smile on my face and try again - ¡°Why can¡¯t you make things easier? What''s the need to mark the boy down like that, we all were young and naive before, you know it.¡±


    I watch Brod for a few seconds, waiting for an answer or even some acknowledge of being talked to come, but again, nothing comes until the chief talks.


    ¡°Being a mercenary is a harsh job, we are actually doing you lot a favor by throwing some sense in this nephew of yours, bringing him to the hunt like this will make more harm than good to us both. He is a weapon without control, who knows what kinds of danger he¡¯ll put my men in, I said before signing the contract didn''t I? "Money will not buy our lives frasan", don''t let yourself forget.¡± - He says, a few voices of agreement coming after him.


    Talking like this will get you killed some day.Not something that I''ll say aloud of course, even if the words hold the truth I have no way to bear them without getting killed and I''m not stupid enough to believe other way, for what I know I wouldn''t even be the first. But still, what do you gain, did you not paid much already for acting that way? I''ve seen people dying for less, and a knife on the back cares little for how strong you are.


    Still, they are right when they say that he is a weapon without control, a dangerous and unstable weapon that I have to deal with to get access to the only thing close enough to a wind hunting ground in this damned side of the continent nonetheless.


    I was ready to start a counterpoint, I need the peace to focus on my own cultivation and that can only be done if they don''t hate that idiot and accept dealing with him while I do my own things, favors that I''m pretty sure will not be accepted if things continue in the way they are now.


    Like i said, I was ready to but I never got the chance, the dialogue was cut off by a plea of help. The urgency and fear in the voice transforming the sound of laughs and discussion in a bustling symphony of steel and leather as we all prepared for whatever caused it.


    The plea make my spine shiver as I instinctively take my knifes out, it was made by a familiar voice, more familiar that I wished for. Eagan was in danger.


    We rush at it and a few seconds later we find ourselves staring at the small trail that leads to the road with weapons in hand, essence weighting the air around us as I once more prepare ready myself to talk, Eagan can''t die no matter what happens and I need those people to believe it. A needless action as despite the chief''s clearly expressed spite we started running as fast as we can towards the cry, not a single word needed to make them fight, it''s the way they live.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    As we run I start to watch the group better, not even when the contract was signed all the members were all at the same place, the group of three level two and the chief, a level three, all running like that, our presence should beenough to scare any animals or most beasts.Normal ones at least.


    ¡°How can your nephew give us problem before we even enter the forest?¡± - I hear between the sound of leather kicking earth, the voice low and the speaker unknown but still calling my attention back as choose to not answer, my cheeks burning with shame. Thankfully I do not value face that much or I wouldn''t be able to recover, it''s a valid question though, how did he get in trouble? He¡¯s also a level 3, even if by not convencional means, and should at least be able to run from the most of dangers.


    ¡°Maybe some Ceithir got him?¡± One of the mercenaries says again in a low voice, he clearly tried to bring it with a joking tone but instead did it in an slightly fearful, almost inaudible one, it flew against the louder sounds making me miss a step, a men eater beast appearing is a horrible possibly to consider no matter the situation.


    ¡°Keep your stupidity to yourself Brot. There is nothing like that this close to the cities. Now get your shit together, we have a ladto save.¡± -The chief shouts, and the reason behind his words tranquilizes me, even if a little. He¡¯s right, no Ceithir have been seen for almost 14 years in Briddel, and if it¡¯s really one,it''s too late to start running anyway, better use my time with some useful stuff like running faster and praying for not be one.


    ¡°HELP¡± - The voice cuts once more, closer this time. He¡¯s probably running to us, better yet, he''s probably safe. A "genius" killed in your watch is not the better way to get the family¡¯s good graces, a good way to get killed in the middle of the night though so it''s good that he''s fine, for both of us. Also,whatever he¡¯s running from is not that big of problem at least, no ceithir would let its prey run for that amount of time.


    Maybe it¡¯s not even something dangerous at all, his reputation of an scared sheep proved well deserved many times already even before coming to this place. Can¡¯t stop myself from being happy, those genius nurtured by the family are nothing more than pampered boys. Pretty flowers to put in exhibition or big dogs to scare the peasants, they¡¯ll never get past the middle levels, too scared to bet their lives for true power.


    It serves them right, the family, to choose who to support based on their affinity alone is a great mistake and I''ll prove them that people like me that make their way without the fancy herbs or expensive food are the ones that thread in the way of true strength, and the ones that should be nurtured.


    ¡°Right here!¡±


    Back to reality I caught Eagan on my sight, and blood, a lot of blood. All my previous happiness gone as my heart ache, the boy is hurt and the fault will be mine to bear. My mind races, the family will kill me for that, what if the damn idiot fails at the tournament? I''ll be tortured, crippled and left to root until my last days, hoping them to come to an end faster.


    No, no, no please, please be alright.


    ¡°Eagan don¡¯t move, we need to stop the bleeding¡±


    ¡°Of course we need, he¡¯s dying, move faster you idiot¡±


    Eagan answers in a high pitched voice, pointing to something in the dark. I stop, confused. ¡°He is?¡± I ask backin reflex, almost making some mercenary crash with my sudden stop and not even realizing that the little golden boy actually called a family member of idiot.


    Ignoring the lot of not so important things and squinting my eyes I notice that there are no wounds that would explain the blood, even in the dark it would be impossible to lose something big enough to explain that amount. "He''s dying" the words sink in, the blood is of course not his, but who''s? An assassin?


    Before I can start formulating theories or even start asking anything the chief acts, moving in the way that only the ones connected with the earth can. Like if the ground molded itself so to make a better support for their feet while they run. He orders the healer to come, and ready to heal or fight so the situation make necessary they dart in the direction that Eagan came, the poor healer burning his essence to not get behind.


    Not much far and a few seconds later me and the rest find i, a covered in blood child with earth essence still easily detectable in his wounds fifty or so meter ahead. The fact that there is no other energy to be felt in his body marks him as normal child, incapable of threatening any practitioner and now bleeding to death by the attack of one.


    The healer is already at his side and even before he touches the floor we can see water moving around his body, coming from a surprisingly amount of hidden recipients as he forces the water itself against the wounds, stopping the fast flowing blood.The boy was hit by three to four earth spears in the gut, it''s bad, truly bad and even if he could close the wounds i don''t think that this kid will survive.


    But even if the chances are slim we were the ones that did it and so, ourresponsibility to try.


    ¡°Is he going to die?¡± - Eagan looks at me, looking almost fivecentimeters smaller, the stupid boy. His mistakes are heavy and he knows, fear and regret easily seen in his face. But what is the use to regret now?


    ¡°Probably, he¡¯s not a practitioner, and your spears could injure a level three and easily kill someone in the levels below if taken by surprise."


    ¡°It¡¯s my fault¡±


    YES, YES IT IS AND NOW WE ARE BOTH DOOMED YOU DAMN IDIOT. I want to scream, but making an incredible effort of self control I stop myself. Eagan takes my silence as some kind of disapproval instead of blind rage and disgust what is also good.


    I take a few breaths before trusting myself and then, making the best to keep my voice calm, speak - ¡°Yes, it is, and the Four will not stay quiet about it. To kill someone that doesn¡¯t cultivate is a grave taboo, every practitioner knows it, and so do you. Now, let¡¯s pray for his recoveryor prepare for the consequences¡±


    Let''s pray indeed because if he dies, I''ll kill you even before the Four can act and run to another with the money got by selling the expensive herbs and protection stones that family gave you.


    "don''t worry, even if worst come to worst I have a plan. You trust me doesn''t you?"


    "Of course uncle, we are family"


    "Of course we are"


    I smile.

 1.4

    I¡¯m one hundred percent blaming them. I¡¯m blaming them for shooting me down with a chunk of rock, for the burning pain and above all of it, I¡¯m blaming them for the itchy bandages.


    They did it on purpose I¡¯m sure, rolling it bare against the skin, don¡¯t even need to take it out to know that beneath the rough cloth I¡¯m filled with bruises. Well, I did get shot because I was sneaking in the shadows like a maniac, maybe that was not the brightest of the ideas and being fair, I suppose that I could claim half of the blame, but what in the world is fair? I¡¯m one hundred per cent blaming them.


    They said that after I passed out ¡°Eagan¡±, the guy who shot me, called for help and they did best they could to save my life, it was quite a surprise for them when five days later I opened my eyes. Can¡¯t blame, yesterday they changed my bandages and the wounds were pretty ugly, half of what I drink goes through gaps in my belly. If you asked me, would say that anyone with that kind of injure was bound to die, but what do I know?


    My wounds are indeed ugly, and the pain is fucking hell, but its healing faster than any other that I have ever saw. Skin growing by day, wounds larger than my fingers being closedlike they are small cuts. They are giving me large amount of food every day, even if only soup, claiming that healing put a huge burden in the body so I need to replenish the energy. That¡¯s one of the problems actually, they are treating me too well.


    And why would they use healers to some nobody that was half dead? Remorse? Hard to believe, no one does good deeds without wanting something back, and I have little to offer. No plans of escaping this time though, tried to walk yesterday and my legs were like two green branches, bending beneath my own weight. What was probably a good thing, after observing them for a while it¡¯s easy to understand that even with my legs fixed and a whole night aheada couple of hours - or less - would be enough to catch me back.


    fortunately, I have a lot of things to keep me distracted, like Morning Interrogation fun time with Eann.That¡¯s the fifth time in less than two days that he comes, being harder and harder to send him off every time, things are close to turning ugly and I have yet to even know what he wants.


    But still, even if I did, it''s not like I can do something about it. And here we go again.


    ¡°Hello boy, ready to say something? To start simple, from where did you came would be good¡± - he says,carrying that amiable smile in his face, one of the most faked smiles that someone can ever put in their faces, but at least he''s still trying to not use force.


    ¡°Benefactor, I want to say, I really want, but I¡¯ve truly forgotten, my head is foggy and I can¡¯t remember a thing at all¡± - I say blatantly, lying without even bating an eye just like I did all the previous times. What should I do? Tell him that I''ve run? No, thanks, I''ve seen enough executions and it''s not the way I want to go.


    Mostcitizens think that practitioners can detect lies, throwing every bit of information at the first stare or word, and eventually most practitioners started to think that they actually can. So, even if a risk, lying is not that hard, and it usually comes down as how arrogant and full of themselves they are, believing them so powerful that no one would dare to.


    And in the most cases, centuries of servitude build them enough arrogance that most will not even try to verify what we say. It''s not the people''s fault of course, we sufferenoughin their hands already, better tell or do everything they say than be found dead in the next morning.


    After lying I see myself staring at the man, a sturdy and cladded in leather one, with green eyes and brown loose hair and beard. He stands no more than 175cm tall, carrying a par of blades and slowly considering what I said until with a last scratch in the shin he says.


    ¡°Well,that is not unheard in some cases, maybe you lost too much blood and that is some of the residual effects; your wounds, how are they?¡±


    ¡°My wounds are better by the day benefactor, I think that in two more I¡¯ll be able to walk, I thank benefactor for the caring¡± - Again, I lie, how should I know how much time it will take? I never that big of wounds and mostly, I never healed that fast. But even if it will take more it''s better to not give them a reason to give up the treatment, I don''t think that I''ll be fine on my own this time.


    ¡°Good to hear that, Eagan was really worried about you, he blames himself for being stupid and I hope you can forgive him, he¡¯s too green in worldly matters. I¡¯ve send him to stay alone and meditate until you recover as punishment, maybe that disaster will turn for the better, who knows?The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Actually, I¡¯ve been talking with the chief and¡­ well, our opinions diverge.You see, I''m glad that you arerecovering and everything butI don''t want tolet that gameof yours continue so now I''ll ask you once more, and I hope, for your well-being, that you''ll cooperate. You see, I''m busy and you are making me lose time."


    He says, and after he did the first thing that caught my attention was how the world changed, the vivid green colors turning grayish as his tone changed, the carefree man not there anymore, his fake smile gone, leaving only a cold and cruel one in its place. In the back of my head I understood what happened, a sudden release of essence, strong enough to be seen by non-practitioners and strong enough to affect the world around us.


    I even vaguely remembered seeing something close when the Capital¡¯s army was collecting the annual tributes, the demonstration of power puta head ofone entire family on his knees. ¡°Give me the gold or I shall take it with your head as interest¡±, the message was clear even for people like us.


    In the middle of all of it he slowly pointed at me, forcefully calling my attention back as the air became heavy, pressing against my chest like a rock and taking away my breath, eventually my eyes started to see less and less, it was early in the morning but no more lights could be seen.


    I used all strength that I could muster to inquire, confused by the sudden change -


    ¡°W-hy?¡±


    And like that cold air from the winter, the answer came.


    ¡°I know that you are lying to me, and now, I want the truth¡± - he said simply, his voice carried by the world itself, pulsing in my ears, powerful and demanding the truth directly from my own being.


    I don¡¯t know what was preventing me from breathing, the fear, the guilty or the weight smashing my lungs, probably a bit of everything I shrug mentally as I Open my mouth trying to say something again, soon I realizing that doing so was mistake, the precious air was leaving and I didn¡¯t have much to spare, nor a way to get some back.


    ¡°Now, I¡¯ll give you a chance of a new start, talk¡± - I hear the words but my mind ignore them, going for the so much more precious air as the pressure was sudden eased for a second. I used all my energyto inhale, but it was another mistake. Itcame back, stronger than before.


    ¡°I remember saying you to talk, not to breathe¡± - the voice said back, pushing out from my lungs all the air that I previous got.I once heard that air users were all fucking sadists, looks like it was truth, I can only think as I fight the lost battle of breathing.


    ¡°I¡¯ll give you another chance, who are you?¡± - The voice finally says, bringing my conscience back from the darkness like a thirsty man goes to fresh water. A not so far from the reality example.


    I¡¯ve been overestimating myself, he knew that I was lying from the start and he played me, letting me have hope. Pitiful, like I ever had a chance, all the big plans about escaping, all the dreams, in the end, it¡¯s all about strength, be it money, connections or power, I have none.


    How could I ever think that I could change it?


    ¡°I¡¯m a runaway salve from a small family not too far from here sir, the Raining Skies family and nothing more¡± - my words come, cutting against my throat, sadly not because of the lack of air.


    After that he eyed me for a long time, I faced his eyes in the beginning, showing that I¡¯ve no fear, at least I would not die by the hands of the people that I hate. I tried to humor myself, remembering the crying face of that idiot on the floor, bleeding by my hands, it help but soon I gave up, he just looked me back, no signal of emotions on his face.


    After what could be five to fifteen minutes I gave up staring at him too, no one will ever know about me, if I was brave or not, so why bother? I just waited.


    ¡°I¡¯ll talk true with you boy, I have a good eye to this kind of thing and my instincts are saying me that you are not dangerous. That you are indeed, just someone fighting for a better life, I want to believe you, but I have duties. You are not a practitioner, but there is no need to be one if you want to poison someone or to slice a throat in the middle of the night.


    Eagan is the next heir of a big family, maybe you were sent to kill him by some revengeful clan or another family that doesn¡¯t want ours to keep flourishing and maybe you were not, it¡¯s a small chance, but it was done before and it¡¯s better be safe than sorry. No risks is still better than small risks you see.


    But like I said, I want to believe you, your story would be actually much like mine, someone fighting against their own destiny, refusing to lie down and accept what life threw at them, even if the price to fight is a premature death or a bitter failure.


    In fact, I''ve only sent Eagan to camp a little ahead so you had no way to harm him and to give me some time to probe you, but things are not going like planned, things are going too slowly. The mercenaries are being too selective with the asking methods and that is slowing us down for too much, a week lost already only because of you, and the situation is, we cannot wait.


    In a few weeks Eann will participate in the yearly regional tournament and because of you we are late in the schedule already even in the best scenario, we have yet to enter Briddell and fill our quota. Worse, if he get a serious wound, even with the best healers the time is too short, and we have only one, it''s too risky.


    Not only that, we know nothing about you and who knows how much time proving your story true will take? Bringing a potential assassin so close to our ranks in a place like Briddell would also berisky beyond words so,after some thinking we got to one solution. It¡¯ll be quite hard but if you succeed all of our needs would be covered.


    We need you to cultivate to level in less than four days.

 1.5

    ¡°As I said, the world of practitioners has a lot rules, we can roughly divide them in the man-made rules and the onesset by the Four. The man-made rules are easy to deal with, there are very few places that one need to be careful to not break them, mostly where one of those super powers have a lot of influence, and even if you break them, just make sure that no one ever knows andit will be fine.


    On the other hand, the other set of rulesare commonly known as ¡°Heavenly laws¡±, it¡¯s said that they were set by the Four themselves so to keep the balance of the world and that they take great rage against the ones that go against their will. Those rules are impossible to cheat and breaking them will bring instantly, and impossible to escape of, punishment.


    The punishment will always come by the element that the faulty practitioner cultivate on, so for exemple, if a wind practitioner breaks one of the heavenly laws the skies will turn dark and clouds will roar, followed by some kind wind related retribution. The most commons are things like thunderstorms, breath stealing and being smashed by air pressure but there are others types, they are rarer and only seen occasionally.


    One of the reasons that we are impelling you to cultivate it¡¯s because one of those rules actually. But not just because of it of course, life was a hammer to you boy, striking as hard as it could, unceasingly. But you did not break, you got stronger, even you think that you didn¡¯t.


    Hear me kid, cultivation it¡¯s not a gift, it¡¯s a trade. We are giving you a chance to change your destiny but we¡¯ll also be takingany chances of going back too, a new life for an old life, that¡¯s always the price.


    So, what do you say?¡± - I finish, watching as the sun lazily sets, noticing that after all that was spoken not even half of the promised time spent yet. Still, it was a good deal, one single hour of suffering everyday to get the mercenaries owning me it''s way better than doing all the work of getting friendly with them.


    ¡­


    ¡°Good, with that we are done with the basics and can start for real¡± - I say after a few instants of silence, continuing the lecture as the boy is too scared to talk while I give him my back. I intend to create the image of a stern and stoic teacher to keep the boy from asking things or interacting with me in general, just the idea of having my cultivation interrupted by some stupid question is too horrible already.


    ¡°The Four¡¯s energy is part of everything, the wind, the earth beneath our bodies, the heat coming from the sun, the clothes that we wear, the food that we eat and every other things that you can think of, those things have some small, intangible particles made of pure essence.Some places will have more and or purer essence though, like a sea will have more and purer water essence than a puddle, or a forest will have more earth essence than a city.


    Those small fragments are important because we use them to cultivate for the most of time, they are called "ambient essence" commonly, we do have a true name for it but it''s harder and lengthier so its hardly used. There are other fonts of essence that can be used to cultivate but again they are rarer and only used occasionally so we''ll ignore them for now.


    To use the ambient essence to cultivate is the basic method and consist in a two steps, the first it¡¯s to connect with the world, find the elements particles and then break them, the second is collecting the now free essence for yourself, later setting it into your body.


    After that you pretty much have crossed the bridge of no return and can call yourself a practitioner already"


    Technically -I omit the last part, mostly because explaining would be take a few more minutes that I don''t want to keep speaking, the time that I can just let him do his own thing getting closer as the explanation hits its "end".


    "But before breaking and collecting essence first you''ll need to find your element, and as one can not absorb more than one kind of essence so it''s extremely important to not be wrong while doing it, a practitioner that took the wrong one and later discovered having higher affinity with other will live in regret for the last of his or her life.


    And for the Four''s sake, don''t try, in the best of cases you''ll be a cripple, never able to properly cultivate, in the worst your body will explode"andrender all this suffering for nothing. - I say, turning to stare the boy and again omittingthe last words.


    I put some weight in the last part, making sure that he''ll not try something stupid just because I said him not to. Nothing much, just a single quick circling of essence in the air, after the previous pressure that I put him into the small reminder should be way more than enough.


    And it is, I confirm with a quick glance, finding the boysitting in the same position that we started, now with his back curved in fear of the pressure that did not came and too scared to even breath.


    Satisfied, I continue -


    "That aside, choosingan element is different for everybody, some will find it hard, while some will find it an extremely easy choice to do, so the only help that I can give it¡¯s to share some of my past experiences.


    I¡¯m in the group that had an easy time, I¡¯ve always wanted to do what I wanted, to roam the world and live a free life, to not be shackled by anything or anyone, to be like the wind as some would say, making it easy for me tohear its calling.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    Eagan is another example, he like stable things, he¡¯s strong willed and at the same time gentle, so Earth choose him, he was compatible with it and so it called.


    Finding your element is a lot about two things, finding who you truly are and what you truly want, and about hearing it. One of The Four will call you, they¡¯ll choose to make the connection, your job it''s just to ask and accept, remember it.


    Now close your eyes and start, we lost too much time already¡± - I finish the painfully long lecture, finding to my horror that it all took only about twenty minutes, a third of the daily time promised.


    Thankfully when I turn to stare at the boy he''s already in deep "cultivation", what is impressive, to find peace this fast. Maybe he was even able to understand something that I said, pretty good to someone like him I suppose.


    Not that it matters if he has some good talent or not, an average person will take about one month of meditation to start feeling the particles, then, about a week to know what kind of energy they are suitable to cultivate. The deadline of four days was never something possible to begin with, only somethings that I said to not blatantlyrefuse the mercenaries "plea".


    Still, better for me if he is somewhat talented as I can now leave him by himself earlier than I thought I would, leaving him to "assimilate" my teachings while I do my own things is completely acceptable, one can meditate for hours after all.


    I''m also thirsty after all the talking, so I turn and leave, once more satisfied by the way things have gone.


    -


    He started talking non-stop about cultivation and whatever, it was hard to hear, I tried to speak but it was of no use, there was almost no air and my mind was dizzy. Before long I started to get sleepy, it was hard to keep myself conscious.


    I remember him asking me something, it was a chance to speak, an end to the interminable monologue. The effort was immeasurable, I was dying and I knew it, a slow and painless death but still dyingnonetheless. Before I could even muster a word he just started again, not aware of my situation at all.


    I tried to move, to make something and catch his attention, but my already weak and wounded body was useless, I tried to raise my arms butthey didn¡¯t even wiggle.


    In the mist of promises of revenge and hallucinations I remember thinking ¡°maybe he¡¯s doing it on purpose, getting me in the right setting to cultivate, aware of nothing but aware of everything¡± yes it was that, it could only be, I thought.


    I tried my best, closed my eyes and started to feel the world, I felt it clearly, the touch of the soft grass licking my legs, the wind pushing against my body and for a second I even felt the moist water coming from east, but the clearer of all was the heat, it bathed my body, in a painful yet gentle way.


    After what felt like an eternity and at the same time, not time at all, I could see it, the small and shiny particles that I heard the far foice endlessly described, they started few but with no time they were countless, made of all colors and shapes asI tried to do what was said, break them and absorb its essence. The first step.


    I broke the first, the biggest particle I could find and instantly my body was filled with pain, a kind of intangible pain that it¡¯s hard to describe. My head felt like it was being squeezed like a fruit, I think I started screaming at that part.


    I tried to fight the pain, a practitioner¡¯s body is stronger than the average human, they said it¡¯s because the essence so it made sense that hurt while the essence was making its way inside. I closed my mouth and clenched my teeth. I remembered the laughs, the mercenaries are a tough group and couldn¡¯t demonstrate weakness. Not if I wanted them to accept me as a member eventually.


    The pain was getting worse, my heart like a hammer, bringing with every heartbeat a new wave of excruciating pain. At some point it stopped.


    -


    I can feel it, he''s using power against him, it''s subtle but I can feel it now that I''m close enough. It''s hard to notice, the flow of essence almost completely natural, so natural that I wouldn''t have noticed if I didn''t come to look at the boy''s progress.Not that I believed that it would have any, he started for half an hour at most but I needed to move my legs or I would have gone crazy.


    Thank the Four that I did, and now, I know why.


    The air was sparse, again, it was only by a almost undetectable amount. Not the kind of thing that a practitioner would find a problem with, a little less oxygen in the air could hardly harm us, but to a normal person? Then things chance.


    I knew we shouldn''t believe in people of a big family but I didn''t believe they would be so low,war almost broke up when they suggested to make a beast end the boy''s "suffering" so I thought they learned their lesson, the dishonest fucks, always searching loopholes to escape the heavens.


    Looks like I was wrong.


    We should never even get that contract if not for the need for the money putting us against a wall, only now I notice that even working for beasts would be better than associate with their worthless kind, but In the end we needed the money and did what was necessary.


    But if they think that we''ll just let ourselves being stepped on while they do what their want they are dead wrong. Dead, wrong. They can press us with their family, but better they know that their last threat will be that their precious family will avenge their deaths.


    And it can try for what I care.


    I usually contain myself in consideration for the others as I know that I few have their families under the cities of big families, but after that? The Boss will not be happy. I would almost pity them for dying in the hands of an out of his temper boss if not for the increasing in clarity flux of essence as I run closer.


    It''s a shame thought, It would''ve been good if things had gone smoothly, Boss was able to force the Eann guy into a vow of teaching the boy to cultivate, it was a nice play, we could teach him ourselves but our way is too dangerous, too stupid, better if he was able to learn with them.


    Not that I have the time to feel for it, I don''t even have the time to curse not bringing my shield as I rush through the last seventy or so meters. The scenario blurring as the cold energy in my legs push me into a inhumanly fast spring. It takes me no more than a few seconds to eat the distance up and see myself in the clearing we made to them practice in peace, just to find the boy soaked in sweat, with blood coming from his nose and ears, his skin in a sick bluish-pale.


    For a second I think myself to late, but luckily the boy proved myself wrong once more, his life like a hard fire,unwilling to stop burning even in the darkest storms.


    Relief turned into anger and my rage emerged, and like a torrential rain it covered the skies, Eann had gone too far. He had gone before and I tolerated, but not anymore. He made a vow and he had broken it, and although I don''t know why the Four did not see hissins, they are not the only ones with the power to apply the punishment.


    But that can wait, the boy needs me first.

 1.6

    ¡°You know, I choose thethis life because it was easier, push, slash, block and repeat. Pretty simple right? But now I¡¯ve got my hands in such complicated matters that I don''t even know how should I start dealing with them.


    New vows confirmed his innocence -most of it -but the kid was clearly hurt by air and no one else here except him can use it. Even so,I had no other way but to accept his innocence proven - even if I doubt that a family member can ever be called that - as the man''s claims were backed by the Four themselves. No chance that he could evaded guilty with a play of words as I made the questions myself making sure to search for any guilt, small or big, but finding nothing still.


    His "innocence", faked or not, tied my hands good nonetheless, the signed contract preventing me from actually doing something without taking the ire of the whole family to all of us without having a really good reason to. The best thing that I could, and did, was to put the boy as one of the band so the contract would also protect him in case Eann was really at fault and tried to do something again.


    Now, tired and pained after a full night of questioning and heavy thinking I still have a camp to put in order, a boy to heal again and to deal with the fight that almost broke alive inside my own lines. All this because I¡¯ve accepted doing work with the Frasan family, their extra coins not so inviting anymore with the amount of bad luck and problems they seem to carry, a discovery made too late. Briddell sounds almost fun at this point.


    A question persists though, did Eann really found a way to fool the Four? If so, why would he actually revel it for such small matter? No, why would he revel it at all? Makes no sense, he would gain nothing by doing so and I''m pretty sure if someone ever discovered a way to actually do it they would make sure to keep his or her mouth tight shut. But if he is saying the truth and really did nothing, who did?


    The boy definitely wouldn''t be able to do something like that by himself even if he wanted to, not when he doesn''t have a single spark of essence within him. And even if he did, again so, why would he?He almost died, no guaranties that someone would actually come close enough to feel the danger he was in, and yet, the frasan insists that he calculated everything, with every single step perfectly planned and made so to fool us into a bigger plan.


    That from the beginning he knew his death would not come, aiming to something that we can''t see yet. What is, of course, one of the most absurd things that I''ve ever heard, simply making no sense no matter direction looked at and yet being backed up by several vows of truth.


    Leaving me, as you can probably imagine, in a not so good of a situation.


    And then, just when I thought that I had enough problems already, I got two of my bestmen fighting at plain sight, stomping at my face by breaking the rules.¡± I finish, my voice growing into a loud shout at the final words.


    Making a show of ruling over my false rage I move essence to the point of my fingers, controlling the branches in huge swings with fast and sudden flexes of my hands, adding some weight to my point while making sure that they are both awake and listening.


    It responds instantly and at my will, the 2-3 stories high tree come alive, raging in both earth and air as the previous resting branches start moving like whips, dancing in the air at the fattest speed that I can make it non-lethal, taking the best of the rare chance to apply some punishment. A good wayto make everyone remember their position in the camp and to free myself from the ever growing stress of the last few weeks.


    Chance that I intend to enjoy while I can.


    I make it go faster, slowly freeing the caged essence as the branches cut the air in loud explosions of sound, the hot power flowing inside my blood bringing with it the typical burst of excitement. Normal branches would crack and break, not even getting close to do such movements, but mine? Mine can do way more than just that.


    In the midst of my little act I hear their screams, but oh, the explosions were so loud that it took me a few minutes to notice, how distracted of me. I slow down, stopping to hear what my so much loved comrades have to say.


    ¡°We are sorry chief, we did in the heat of moment, a little slip with no harm done, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes boss, no harm done, we best friends already¡±


    ¡°Yes, best friends, like sword and shield, inseparable¡±


    ¡°We know our wrongs boss, so can we go down please?¡± - They scream, their voices coming loud even after the distance of forty or so meters high, making so that I can hardly ignore their pleas this time.


    Crossing my arms while I stare them "down", I give them a few seconds of what I try to be an ice-cold stare and then, with the most polite and gentle voice that I''m capable of muster, say as I once more control it to go faster.


    ¡°You want to come down? Sure, good fly¡±


    And then, it stops. Of course, at thehigher possible point, and of course, freeing them from the branches at the same time, throwing both in the air. I watch as they both fly, fall, and eventually hit the ground.


    Brod goes a little better, softening the earth before falling with a small thud, the ground itself taking him in its arms into a soft embrace. Fliytchon the other hand, takes it hard. There is not enough water to stop the fall nor to soft it, so he sends blood to the legs, giving it a kind of rosy red color, taking the route of breaking his fall by sheer power.


    The legs,hardened by the extra blood turn bigger,with veins popping and bulging as he takes the groundhead on, stopping the fall using muscle strength alone, gritting his teeth while doing so. Quite a sight, but it¡¯ll a better one in a few minutes when the post pain starts, the small price that water practitioners pay for such gifts.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.


    A fast movement catches my attention however, making me turn to the Brod that started running, afraid of another round of punishment, what a fool¡­ why would I do that? Let him escape I mean. I lift my finger and roots crawl outof the ground like snakes, interlacing his legs as the sudden force and entangling gets him on the floor once more.


    ¡°Time for some light education punishment" - I say, I do not intend to hurt them of course, I understand what they did, and why they did but I needed them to calm their heads and to make some display of punishment to the frasan, holding them hung into a tree that can be easily seen from kilometers far was just convenient as it did both at the same time.


    Still, even because they have a good reason to act doesn''t mean that they act like idiots and put every single other member in risk without talk or consent first, so they truly need to be punished in some way, I just have to think of how yet.


    The sound of screams and flesh getting hit fills the air, not that it bothers me, it¡¯s just like white noise at this point, it gives my mind a strange kind of calm that helps to think. It''s not really hurting them though, the show nothing but an act. But still,I take some time savoring the feeling, with no hot baths and other small luxuries in the woods, if something, I could use some relaxing time.


    After the job is done and a little sense was hammered down their heads I get myself walking to the boy, he¡¯s not far, a bed at the side of the fire in the middle of the camp - at sight of a single of us at all times - , the healer said that the heat would make him good, probably right as he truly looked a little better after put close to it.


    Not that looking a little better was a hard thing to accomplish, the constant injures and healing making worse to his already in poor condition body, a meter and fifty at most with almost no meat in his bones to start with. With hope that will be the last rushed heal that he¡¯ll have to do in while, unfortunately that¡¯s not likely, we¡¯re going to Briddell after all. We intend to give him a chance of not going of course, but although not as dangerous as entering the forest itself it¡¯s not like it¡¯s the best solution either, but that''s for later.


    The boy gets on sight, sleeping with an old sleeping sack that we got from of one of the boys, some like to bring extra resources just in case although most find a waste of energy to carry doubles of something, good thing that some don¡¯t.


    I take some slow steps and sit at his side, the sudden motion and sound setting him awake as he half consciously and half not tries to get up to his feet and dodge a hit that was not coming, an instinct of his body already, a sad sight but a handy skill to havein our world still.


    His body fails him at the sudden strain, turning the cat like jump to his feet into something close to a lateral roll, eyes focusing with understanding as he does so and soon finding his way to a cross legged stance like mine. I take the opportunity to send the prying eyes away with a few hand signs, giving the boy a little privacy, no need to constrain or making him even more uncomfortable.


    It was embarrassing enough when he first woke, the oxygen deprivation got his brain messed up and he thought himself a cultivator already, poor thing, betrayed by even his own mind, his joyful face melting like ice in a hot day. War almost broke again at that time, even I got my blood rushing for a moment to talk true.


    No doubt why the boys take a liking to him tough, in the end, and after all that happened he did not lose his fire, even if it''s smaller now it still burns, easily recognizable in the way his eyes move, in the way he calmly searches for the "hidden" knife and so on. The boy clearly a born fighter.


    A good thing that he is as it would be a shame to go so far as to make a blood binding and then having him give up from the practitioner''s way after what happened, but again, that''s for later.


    The talk started badly, he was angry with us, with himself, with the world and probably with the Four themselves, hardly in the mood to trust a group that almost got him killed twice.He was also afraid, even if masking well, but with patience and after a few more tries I got him to speak, and the talk proceeded smoothly, ¡°smoothly¡± I say, I asked and he answered, nothing more.


    I Almost got him scared into a run when I brought up a info recently heard by Ainmh on his last trip to a nearby village, the boy mistaking my intentions as I inquired about his story. It matched with what he heard, there is indeed a bounty to a runaway slave in the regions close, a bountiful bounty in fact, leaving me only to imagine what the boy did in his way here to deserve it as I was sensible not to ask too much, focusing more on what he remembered from the day prior and what Eann did.


    As he told the tale of what Eann done at our backs fury filled me, forcing the boy to speak when I strictly saying to go slowly, even using force while doing so, it all just confirmed what I thought, he did in someway cheat the vows. The only two things that kept me from exploding in rage was the fact that I was still sitting with the boy, and the fact that was his words against one of a big family, a hard fight to just bite like that.


    He did lie to me however, and that alone demanded retribution.


    As we talked a plan was quickly forming inside my head, I would wait, using the recent events to force Eann to teach the boy for longer and to delay our entry into the forest, squeezing every bit of information before we set a single foot inside it.


    The delay will overlap with our already lateness and the pressure of time would slowly set in on them, they are the ones in hurry after all. Then, when we finally enter the forest, they''ll try to hurry, their haste bringing alive a mistake. That''s when I''ll pay them back, not even needing to break the contract and make a entire family of enemies.


    Of course, before entering the forest I will aso give the boy a chance to choose to stay with us or to take his chances alone. I first thought of asking some favors, maybe a merchant group to take him away, but with that newfound big of a bounty it¡¯s too dangerous, people rarely give up in free money after all and I don''t have people of trust that I can rely on.Not anymore.


    We will try our best to help him sure, as we already talked he¡¯ll take combat lessons with me by the noon and cultivate until night with Eann from now on - although now only at our sights -, his body still a little weak but I intend to start with combat theory so it''ll be fine and in a week or so we can start for real.


    He looked a little brighter when I said about the armed practice, the thoughts of learning how to fight filling him with enthusiasm and desire. A feeling that I could understand well, I felt the same a lot of years past when pa taught me the sword - even if I never came to be good with it - but just like I did he soon will find out that fighting is a lot less about glamour and lot more about not dying.


    He got a little pale when I said about the cultivation practice though, thanks the Four that he didn¡¯t seemed to get a trauma, again, after all that happened he is definitely not the kind that gets easily broken.


    For the later part, which is not a decision that most will like, he got a little pale, but there is little to do as Eann''s vows are still up and it''s not a job that we can help with, better force him to do a good job than do a bad ourselves, we just need to give him the right encouragement to make sure that he''ll not try something.


    After I finished explaining everything that I had in my mind it was already late, the sun close to set against the high trees of the forest, so I let the boy to himself, everything set for the soon to come days as I waited for a hot meal and a deserved sleep. And with some luck there''ll be no others problems.


    A man can only hope.

 1.7

    The weapons were well made, even someone like me, who doesn¡¯t know much about things like weapons could say that. Their surface was smooth at the touch, their forms simple yet beautiful, their weight perfect in the hands.They were weapons made of wood sure, but still good weapons, and they were mine to choose one.


    It was a tough decision I¡¯ll not lie,and it took me a few minutes of silent indecision before I choose de sword of the so many others. The reason was that everyone has once brandished a stick as a sword or made a swing imagining yourself brandishing one and I¡¯m no exception, so it was the weapon that I was more comfortable with and thus, my choice.


    Again, not that it was an easy one.


    I got quite tempted by the spear and its extra range; the mercenaries also said that it would be the easier and faster to learn to some extent¡­ but it didn¡¯t felt right, even the thought of using it felt strange, the wooden blade too true in my hands to chose anything aside it. And so I did, even if the bigger range was a little more appealing that I would like it to, it was simply not enough to change my mind.


    And it still doesn¡¯t, Ican say for sure as here I am looking at my opponent¡¯s weapon, a bigger spear than the one that me was offered and still thinking that I made the right choice.


    What brings me back to the reason that I got to a weapon choose in the first place, today is the first day of armed practice and one was needed so I could, well, practice. An offer that I¡¯ve accepted gladly as knowing how to use a weapon is a good status to have pretty much everywhere.


    Learning how to, unfortunately, means that you have to do a lot of fighting and my teacher, being a two meters tall bear of a man that carries a spear even bigger than himself does not look inviting at all as my sword, although a beautiful piece of dark red wood, will hardly make me a better fighter by being pretty.


    To be honest, I¡¯ve been thinking aboutall thisfor a while¡­ that if we fight I¡¯ll just got hit before getting close enough to land a single strike at every try, what is pretty much the reason that I¡¯ve been standing here for minutes already.


    Also unfortunately, staying still like that gets me going back to all the scenes that I¡¯ve been trying to not think about, all the dire situations and how I was impotent to fight back, and all the fear and despair that I¡¯ve felt while I had no say at all in my own life, and of course, all the regret that came with it.


    I¡¯ve been trying to not think about it, to ignore them, but this time, this time the thoughts simply refuse to go away, burned alive against the back of my eyes and there to see every time I close them. My dream of being a practitioner proving itself to be harder and harder every time I try to move in its direction.


    I know that it¡¯s not so bad, I¡¯ve almost died like twice but still, I¡¯ve found that most of the mercenaries are nice people, people that are willing to accept me like one of their own without asking for any kind of compensation, but no matter how many times I say that to myself I can¡¯t seem to believe in my own words.


    I also know that after everything that happened I should be extremely eager to start my training and ¡°break the shackles of destiny¡±, to get control of my own life, I used to think like that but now I can¡¯t help but fear it all the same. I know that I still want it, all of it, the power, the freedom and everything, but I really want everything that comes with it?


    All of that about trading an old life for a new one, it all seemed so nice at the first time that I head, trading a life of serving for one of power, not that bad of a trade. But it is really that literal? All of those men have huge scars, some have ears or fingers missing, will I have the power to bear the prices of the power itself?


    The other option, running for really far place and never looking back? After a few years they would forget about a ran way slave for sure, maybe I could even change my appearance a little, find a remote place to cultivate some grains and live a calm and simple life of honest work.


    Butis there a place like that, or even, is okay to me think about running away? To be powerless to ever fight back against my problems? To forget my promises made? To let my people suffer while I hide? No, not after the chances they gave me.


    It keeps me going after every time I wave, their faces, their voices. Their screams, their crying. If the fear is burnt in my eyes than theirs screams scorched directly into my very being, never to be forget.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    And that¡¯s why I must not keep going, no matter what costs.


    ¡°Ready¡± ¨CMy voice cuts the long silence, going heavy with resolve and will.


    ¡°Glad you are, thought that you¡¯d mistake this for a stare concourse¡± ¨C He answers, a casual sarcasm in his voice while taking the spear of his back into a single handed grip to his side.


    I ready myself and start a slow walk in his direction, mirroring the single handed grip with my own as I considere what should I do, or better, what should I not. First, no crazy running attacks or things like that, I¡¯m not faster than him, nor I¡¯m a better a fighter or have the longer weapon. Second and most important, I can¡¯t make a fool of myself, the last hing I want is to leave them thinking myself to bothersome to train.


    As I make my way closer there are a few things that could give me the victory that pass through my mind, all of them being some kind of dirty trick of some sort that hold no meaning in a practice and would do little to make me a better fighter. I hardly thing that winning by doing things like throwing dirty in the opponents eyes or going for his crotch would bring put me in good lights anyway, chance is that they would kill me for tainting their faces.


    Although they do not help, some are truly good so I keep them for later. Who knows, maybe they¡¯ll come in hand eventually.


    ¡°You a snail boy? What are you waiting for?¡± He says in a low shout, bringing me back from the not so noble thoughts while urging me to walk a little faster, what I do, soon cutting the distance of ten or so meters with hurry. The only thing worse than showing myself too bothersome to teach would be showing me too afraid to learn, the mercenaries made a notably little effort to hide their disgust towards Eagan when I told them that I came to find them because of the scream, and following laughs.


    When I judge that I¡¯m almost in his range I stop, what is something about three meters far, not that I¡¯m safe but at this distance he¡¯ll need a huge trust to hit me, and huge movements are slow. I choose to ignore the ¡°Are they slow enough?¡± question in my mind as I have not leisure to concentrate in other things.


    I could try to come closer but a quick glance to the mercenaries chief eyes tells me that doing so would be a mistake, soI focus on his shoulders and arms, waiting for the attack that I know will eventually come, the planto parry and strike, using the precious seconds brought to maybe hit something important.


    It¡¯s the best plan that I can think of.


    But things rarely goes according to plans. The world goes crazy for a second, the sky and ground trading places as I see myself lost, taking me a few seconds and a heavy fall so to understand what happened, i got taken down.


    Soon as I understand I try to move, to get up and back to position but with a slow thud the lance stop gently in my chest,marking the end of the round and my death. I look up, looking for some kind of disappointment or even satisfaction and find none. The blank face telling me little of his thoughts.


    ¡°One death for you and two points for me kiddo, now get up and prepare for another round, I have bet with Brod that I could get hundred before lunch¡± ¨C I take the hand that he extended, lighter, knowing that my failure did not cause any anger.


    According to the rules the round ends when one is ¡°dead¡± or¡°disabled¡±, killing someone gives 2 points while disabling gives one, there quite a good thinking behind those rules actually, to kill someone is harder, having to hit either head or heart, so it gives more points as to disable which is easier, give less points.


    I¡¯m not quite sure if he deserved that two points though, the first hit ¡°cut¡± my legs already so the round was lost before he could kill me. Normally I would not care for such little things as I give no value to face or so, but I also have a bet to win this time. Even if said bet was pretty much forced into me, apparently by the same person that bet with the chief of the mercenaries.


    I can¡¯t really see the reason that he did it, and I don¡¯t know much about his personality to be sure that there is one, I¡¯ve seen people bet only for the sake of betting before and that sure would explain the unbalanced odds. If I win I would be given whatever item I chose from the entire camp, no exceptions, if I lose I would be owning him one. Simply a too big of a prize for such low price .


    Still, even if I don¡¯t know his reasons I still want to win, both because I¡¯m already in the situation and wining is the best way out and because I really want a lot of things that they have. Even if they go back on their words I should still be able to ask for something like the sleeping bag, finally owning my own place to sleep would not be that bad of a start.


    But that¡¯s a talking for after, and if, I win, thing that I do not believe myself able to.


    My legs don¡¯t even hurt, meaning that he had time to slow down the tip so to not hurt me,meaning,that I couldn¡¯t even see the hit when he was holding it back. I could understand if I was looking to the spear itself as it is harder to keep track of, but I was looking his arms and hands, even if a could not react in time I should at least be able to see some movement.But i didn¡¯t.


    He¡¯s faster, stronger and a better fighter to the point that is scary, but so what? I knew all of that already.


    I brush the dust of, grab my sword with resolve and start running.


    If I¡¯ll fall either way, better try using my body as a Battering ram while at it, who knows, maybe I¡¯ll break a bone and get him unable to score more points, at least he¡¯ll not win.


    Wait, is that any better? What they¡¯ll think if I truly win like that? Well, no way to know. I¡¯ll just think while it goes, a hundred is pretty far anyway.


    Even more if he stops cheating.

 1.8

    I loose my grip to a position where I can support the sword mostly with my shoulder, moving forward as the spear hits me in a full lateral swing, the loud sound of wood hitting wood exploding a second later. But that¡¯s it, almost no damage done to the flesh.


    The impact forces me a little to the side but my stance was solid enough to not be pushed for much, and I have little time to care about a few centimeters lost, the window too small to focus on such things. I throw my body against the spear, pushing it back with all my weight and strength at the same time that I keep moving closer, my shoulder cracking in protest as I force it to withstand the pressure that it was not made to.


    The healer sure will not be happy about it of course, probably giving me another long lecture while working but that''s not a problem to think about now. The chance of it breaking is also pretty low, so I can hardly bring myself to bother.Give flesh to crush bones, right?


    I keep going until the surprise effect is lost, it did not last for long actually, but my was work done nonetheless, the small moment of distraction enough for be to buy two steps in. Not much,but enough,damage done already as the range advantage switched, the spear now too close to be moved at will. That is, if I can keep myself from being pushed back.


    What I try to.


    My two feet press hard against the ground while I do the best that I can to keep myself in place, to keep myself in a position where I can at least put some kind of a fight. But even doing so it''s incredible hard already, and to my plan succeed I still need to get even closer. He although, does not seems that will give me the opportunity.


    For the next few moments we fight in a battle of strength alone, one where I can¡¯t get closer nor I can complete the initial attack, also, one that I''m unfortunately losing. But I have yet to, and battle will be over when it is.


    The good thing is that my initial idea still worked - even if not completely - so my situation is still better than when we started. He has no room to a swing and pushing the spear back to another strike will open space for an attack of my own - or to me to get even closer -, and then, my sword that is a lighter weapon with an easier grip will fall hard on him.


    Plans need to be changed though, a smaller swing will be needed, but so be it, no need to be greedy. A point still is a point and I can hardly be picky when I did none yet. Still, that''s a talk for when, and if, I can find the chance to deliver such blow.


    He could just throw me a few meters far with a single push if he really wanted of course, finish the battle at any time - The thought cuts my mind, distracting me.But that doesn''t matter, because he¡¯ll not, he can¡¯t, the Four will not let him - I finish, grinning to myself as the now so familiar rush of battle fills me, giving me the strength to push even harder while at the same time freeing me from any fears.


    We stare at each other in a kind of tug of war and stalemate, almost a minute after we first stared but yet in the same situation, each of us waiting for an opportunity to take the upper hand and turn the table to its own side. Well, at least I do. Even without using of superior strength I''m pretty sure that there are other means that he could use to deal with the situation so I don''t really know why he''s waiting, but as I keep forgetting while in the heat of battle, this this is not really one but a practice, so he must have his reasons.


    Well, be whatever they were I don''t think that they matter anymore because thechief starts stepping up the pressure with no mercy, abusing of his taller figure and strength to press me down. My back bending while I fight the mountain like weight, and lose.


    He¡¯s serious, suppressing me at the point that my body rages in pain by only keep me standing, but I force it to keep going once more, refusing to let go of the chance that I created with such effort. The chief, going easy or not, is not someone who can be pushed over by having some half-assed resolve or without being willing to pay some prices while at it.


    Unfortunately, what I can do with only determination and resolve is limited and after a few seconds a Spasm of pain makes me involuntary flinch. The moment he was waiting for.My legs go soft for half a second and my stance cracks up, I''m still able to counter attack from such position but the weight that was most evenly distributed is now pressing against a single leg alone, a matter of time before I give him the break to safely swing the spear again.


    Knowing that I must get myself out of this situation fast I muster strength in my upper body, trying to push him back even if for a little. A second and I would be able to get in stance again, bringing us back to the stalemate where I hold advantage, but he gives me no chance.


    If not bad enough the shameful bastard starts kicking me, slowly and strong the kicks come in and I can do little but suffer in silence. Jumping back will lose me the little advantage that I fought so much for - even if it''s already really close of being lost - and with it, the opportunity to win. No better, if I get one of my feet to block I''ll have no way to fight against the spear pushing me.


    He has no face? That''s not what practitioners should care the most? Every single mercenary watching while he fights with a little completely normal, 50cm smaller kid and he stills fights like that. I don''t know if I should feel glad or sad about this treatment to be honest.


    No time for that, I remember, seeing myself close to a small distraction that I can''t afford.


    I also see myself on the brink of losing and no clear rout of escape, so I try to do something about it too. I force one of my legs down and put the heavy burden of supporting myself on the now wounded front foot - blame his kicks - as I use the still in good position other one to do the task of stopping them. The bad thing is, doing this costed me one of the two steps that I previously bought, giving him more space and freedom in case he decides to attack.


    I look up and he smiles, a smile that I''ve come to know very well and so, I prepare myself, knowing well that it will not help. A second later I Bark in pain as my foot feels like is being hammered, but I like to think that at least I did with some dignity. To be true I could take this amount of pain without making a sound, just as I could make enough sounds to seem like I was dying, but I see no reason to do such things here.


    Sadly, I have not time for self-pity so I get my other foot pressing forward in a desperate attempt to not be pushed back, either I did that or I backed off, and my body can''t keep going for much more. The tool of the sixty or so seconds of constant effort way more than I thought it would be, no chance that I''ll make safe for him to break apart our weapons by backing off on my own so better go for the risky gamble.


    Seeing my poor position he changes the low grip that he was using to an ample one, judging to be easier to bring me down with a lateral push than with a vertical one. Probably right as after no time I start sliding, desperately trying to find something to support me as the earth and grass tears beneath me with no success.


    On the back of my head I hear the mercenaries shouting at me a mass of intangible words and curses, most of support instead of the mockery. A funny group they are, they remember me of my people in a few ways, like in the way that they areready to sheer for a nobody that they know for so little over their boss with years of companionship on his back.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    Probably because no one likes to be hanged in a giant tree - the thought comes like a fast bird through my mind, earning me a half smile. But no matter how true or how funny I think it is, I can''t let my focus slip so Iconcentrate, letting the unnecessary things flow pass me.


    This time though, the unnecessary things are not only my thoughts.


    My hearing goes and so does my sight, my conscience diving deep inside my body as the silence and darkness overlap me. A-staigh, the only thing that I grasped after all this time in the cultivation practices, a nice trick but nothing more, it can show to the user his body in all details, fractured bones, bruised skin, torn muscles, the blood rushing inside the veins, pretty much everything.


    It¡¯s a good way to know what you want to concentrate essence after a life and death situation, or even to see how much your body is compatible with it in general. In this case it¡¯s also a good way to know which part of your body you can still trust. Eann also said that it has a lot of more and magical self-informative uses, but I feel that it¡¯s not the time to get distracted with them.


    With everything needed to see, seen, I bring myself back, the world of darkness and pulses gradually turn itself normal once more, no more than a fraction of an instant past with the only difference being that I now know exactly which part of my body I should avoid putting weigh in, and witch part will not flare up in a huge ball of pain as I go for a last push.


    I take a breathe, seeing every single movement that I''ll need to do in my mind a few times until satisfied, the rush still strong as it leaves me with no need to care at the pain that I know I''ll start feeling soon. Soon, but not now, so I can still calmly focus without distractions.


    With nothing more that I could do coming in mind I give the Four a praying and let my body go totally loose. No strength in the knees as my body give away and starts falling, the spear that for so long has been pushing against me now finds itself with no resistance and it slides through the body of my sword, its movement too fast to stop and mine sudden to react, even for him - while holding back at least.


    The spear flies high above my head, missing me and freeing my sword at the same time, so with hurry I bring my body back alive, mustering all strength of my own and of his last push so to pivot around. My wounded feet like hell as I use it to turn, but my thinking going only to how to move faster, there¡¯ll be time to feel pain later.


    And so, I attack, aiming for his torso - or legs, hard to know when you did the attack while spinning. But it doesn''t matter as evenbefore my eyes can grasp the situation I hear the results of it.


    I¡¯ve been slower.


    I let myself fall once more as fatigue consume my tired body and lay on the ground as all that I¡¯ve been ignoring come at once, my breathing hard against my throat, the sweat wet in my body, all the pain in pretty much everywhereand of course, the sound of wood hittingwood that once more, exploded.


    While in a mist of thinking, I hear Brod arguing with his chief, saying that he broke his word, using more strength that he said he would.


    He did not, he vowed me that he wouldn¡¯t and even I know that vows are not to be taken lightly. And as the sky is not black and raging, it¡¯s obvious to everyone that he didn¡¯t. Brod is saying that just to make feel better, making it obvious by being loud - thing that I quickly learned that he rarely does - only to make sure that i''m listening.


    That was probably the best chance that I had since we started so I''m kind of disappointed, I¡¯ve always knew that it would not hit sure, how it¡¯s possible to? I¡¯m not an experienced fighter nor a kind of never seen genius. But still, in the inside I hoped to be, I hoped to hit.


    Although, it''s hard to feel bad when you have someone doing such things to make you not so I take a few breaths to calm myself, of mind and body, and after putting my feelings in place I talk.


    ¡°Can you give me a hand?¡± - I say to the shadow blocking the sun.


    ¡°Sure I am kiddo¡±


    I¡¯m greeted with that smile of him, a strange blend of friendly mocking and sincere concern. It¡¯s hard to not like Brod - even if he is a practitioner -, an opinion for what I saw that most have in common if you take out the chief from the list. Their "friendship" would be like of an old cat and dog, they don¡¯t really like each other but both are used to it already.


    Brod is also quite talkative to me so I think we are somewhat close, what is strange, in a lot of ways. He is a practitioner, but not acts like one, treating me normally even at the point that I would say treating me well. Still, he -they- works for people that almost killed me twice.


    Noticing that I''ve been dwelling in such thoughts for a good while, and feeling the bad mood that I created by staring silently at the nothing just after losing I throw them to the back of my mind. For now i I''ll just give things a chance, even if I feel unsure about them, the mercenaries still deserve it by the things that they are doing for me.


    I again, take a breath to clam myself, and seeing none of them really sure in what to say I take the job to lighten the mood as my own. It¡¯s something that I usually did a lot so it''s not hard. I get up, slowly taking the dust out of my clothes as they stare, finally giving them a huge grim as I finish.


    ¡°So, that¡¯s one point for me, right?¡±


    I say, not really loudly but high enough to be easily heard, and Brod starts laughing while again loudly voicing his opinions on the matter. It doesn¡¯t last long and the commotion quickly dies, a few stares and some ¡°Do you lot have nothing to do?¡± from the chief ends it but the job is done already.


    They quickly disperse, the chief making sure that they have something to do, leaving me alone to think about my recent failures in, pretty much everything.I cannot stop thinking how about things were so much hard than I thought, my plans seeming so childish now, hoping for everything to go right, even my countermeasures and preparation nothing but narrow viewed.


    In the end, even after everything I was the lucky one, but what about my people? The ones that will come after my ¡°success¡± in escaping? They will have the same luck?I promised myself that I would come back for them, but how much will die before it? How much time will I take to really do it?


    Was I the right person to be the lucky one, or did I take the chance from someone that would help them better, faster. Someone that would not probably f-


    ¡°what you thinking kiddo?¡±


    The chief calls, cutting my thoughts and bringing me back to reality as he waves to me get closer. We sit on the floor as usual, eating some hot food, rice and meat with a few roots and edible plants found around the forest.


    We do not talk much while sparing, but we always share a few words while eating like this, most are about the practice itself but sometimes we talk about personal things. I didn¡¯t really want to talk about myself on the beginning but the chief is a good ear, - and the aura of power gives little run to deny talking if he asks. Hewill listen and give his opinion if asked, but if not he''ll just silently hear.


    This time though, we eat mostly in silence until after a few dozen spoonful of food, he stares at me and speak.


    ¡°Do not let it goes up your head boy it was a good try...  but a with some bad luck you would have broken your ankle and lost right there, a stronger opponent would not only have stopped you but would have knocked ya on the floor before you had the chance to even try something too. It was a good try, but it was dangerous, you have to correct that about your style, you are too reckless on combat.


    Too much needless risks in your fights, trying to put me against the wall so to settle the fight in a single moment it¡¯s good but not if risks weights more than the chances itself. You are a good learner and have a lot of talent, progressing with the sword fast but ready to discard all of it and fight stupid"


    I take the words in silence, they are the truth. But I know that he wants more, wanting me to express my thoughts too, it''s indeed strange but I''m used already so I do.


    ¡°I know, but no other chances came in mind and the plan looked good in the heat of it. I know that you¡¯ve said that after I got essence it¡¯ll get better and the real training would begin, but¡±


    ¡°but?¡±


    ¡°But I¡¯ve made no progress with cultivation at all, so I have to do what I can¡±


    There are six days from the day that we¡¯re entering the forest they said, two weeks past after the first day I first awoke already, and I¡¯ve heard Brod cursing at a few people after they declined to wait more. I do not blame them sure, why would I? They own me nothing, pretty much the opposite, they have no reason to wait.


    He looks directly in my eyes for a few seconds before talking again.


    "You worry too much, we still have time." - he says, but both of us know how untrue those words are, I can see in his eyes. Still, there is little to be gained by letting the food go cold so we just focus on eating, no more talking for the time.


    As I said, for now I''ll just give things a chance, no matter how unsure I''m about them, and hope for the best.

 1.9

    I sit at the fire, savoring the warm blazes as I urge Life to grow beneath me, the earth answering my will with a large root that jumps out of the ground and twists itself like a snake, slowly turning into a perfect place to rest my back.


    Such ¡°extravagant way of using essence¡± of mine earns me a long stare from Fliytch, one that I can only answer by raising my shoulders, a poor response, but it¡¯s indeed extravagant. Although, a needed extravaganza I would say. Fighting while using but a fraction of my strength all the time is more tiring than I imagined, and after a week and a half of it my muscles need a deserved good rest.


    Again I see myself hoping for a hot bath, it would make wonders for both my body and mind to soak in a almost too hot water for a few hours. But the closest place that would have such luxury stays at least a week of traveling, so I can do little more than hope for it.


    A shame that none of the two waters practitioners here have the kind of gift needed for heating the water as we could just create our own particular hot baths when desired, but I suppose that if it was something common to have they would not pay so much to bring the fire people from their desert.


    So, sore - and having accepted that this will not change soon - I take the jug of cheap wine at my side and give it a drink, it tastes horrible, but the alcohol makes me a little better. The taste is also a good way to fight that old habit of mine, drinking to forget is useless way to lose both time and money, and I refuse to fall for it again. Denying the desire to drink though, will only make it worse, so I just feed myself with the the worst tasting wine until I can''t even smell it without wanting to throw up.


    Probably not the most best method but what works, works, I suppose.


    Those two buffoons and they damned family are the ones to blame this time, selfish to the bones they are, unwilling to wait even a single week more even after everything they did for the boy. Twice they almost killed him, and twice we let it slide without any real compensations, still, now that he needs only a little time they pay him by hushing us all.


    dishonored bastards they are, all of them.


    If the boy could get at level before going things would not be so bad, essence would make his body strong enough to survive a few hits or to run away if needed, just as it would make healing him faster, the essence no longer being rejected as Eisg worked.


    But no, they refuse to, and the contract obliges us to obey, to follow. And so it does to the boy. I put his name myself on the contract after all, once more I acted first and thought later, and once more put the life of another at risk because of it.


    If not enough problem, a non-practitioner entering Briddell against all odds with almost no training or experience, we''ll be entering it to hunt, and fighting will be not an option. We''ll try to protect him of course, but it would be ingenuity to believe that nothing bad could easily happen.


    If only I held more strength, one that would not bend against any other, things would have not gone this way. But I don''t, and they did. So here I''m,gain reminded of my weakness, of my roots that dry by the years, and of my stagnated strength.


    To touch the earth, to control it, to be one with it, and to be part it. Small words that represent enormous walls in the way of an earth practitioner. How many people died while trying to surpass those walls? Too many to count, their strength dried out, never to grow anymore.


    Will I join them Four? Will I continuously be forced to watch people die while seeking a power that should be shared but it''s not, until the rest of my days, only to die regretting it all? Is that everything that you have for me?


    Can¡¯t stop myself from thinking back, for the first time and to the very beginning, when Fa first told me about the wonders of practitioners. I remember barely sleeping that night, the moon going high on the sky as I lost myself in fantasies of strength and power. But after all this time? Twenty years after all that fighting and blood, and I¡¯m still so weak that I can¡¯t even rebuke a third-rate practitioner just because he has the backup of a low class big family.


    In the end, we¡¯ll go, wanting or not, and that¡¯s the harsh truth. The world is no fair for the weak. The power of a family easily able to crush the group and I¡¯ll not put that weight on them, not when they have theirs lives to live and families waiting for them at home.


    I''m really sorry for the boy for putting him on this, for taking from him the right to choose take the risk or not, but the best that I can do for him now is to promise that if he lives, things will change. Take the time that it will take I''ll grow stronger, strong enough so I''ll not be pushed back anymore. So hear my words Four, hear my words and crave them in stone so to never be forgotten, because such is my vow.


    I just hope that the price for taking that decision will not end being another life.


    Who knows, maybe I''m just over thinking and worrying too much, the boy will let himself die so easily, maybe I should be thinking on what I''ll do with him after we leave the forest. Maybe I should just him back with me and keep his training while doing mine. Ma is always complaining about not having grandchild to dot on, doesn¡¯t she? It¡¯ll be good, the farm is too lonely for her alone and I haven¡¯t come back in a while anyway.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    Ther-


    My thinking is interrupted as the trees hum in my ears, not with the urgent usual tone but with warning one that informs that there are people coming in my direction. Anyone that comes closer than a hundred meters will be easily detectable with the amount of trees around, so it''s not a surprise - and one of the reasons that we kept ourselves on Briddell. The higher levels camps are not secure as this one for us -If we can ever call Briddell a secure place of course -they have better cores naturally, but as here I can simply sense the beasts from afar the number of cores we get covers for their lower prices.


    With a fast circling of essence and willed thought the humming stops, their job done as I already know who is coming, Eisg and Ainmh are back..


    I¡¯ve asked them to get some good game today, its costume to have a nice eating before going in; we did the same in our first raid together, and in the next, and the next after that. It became a kind of tradition and a happy memory to us all. Unfortunately, and because whatever it is, be it the wine or my bad mood, the prey in their hands, something that should only remember me of good things, does not.


    It''s is a normal hart, a male, easily seen by his anthers. It''s quite big and will serve us all, but it''s hardly enough to glut us with meat.Usually I would¡¯ve asked them to bring some rock wild boar, those beasts are one of the weakest and most numerous that you can find in Briddell, they are almost the same in power as a level one practitioner, going all the way to two meters in length with a weight of four hundred kilos or so.


    Their name, rock wild boar, come from the fact that they do not form a core and absorb all essence with their muscles and hide, as it¡¯s most earth essence, their hide turn in some kind of rocky, hard fur. They are not that strong, but they move in packs and have strong defense against normal or not covered in essence weapons. If you add all that to the fact that no matter how much of them you kill there is no cores to be gained, they are an opponent to avoid even for us. The blood will attract other beasts and then, you¡¯ll find your group tired, with a floor full of bodies that will give you nothing and hoping that there are no other beasts hidden, waiting to take your lives.


    If there is something good about them it¡¯s the meat itself, it tastes quite good and can help non practitioners to build up affinity with essence. Rich people will feed their kids with meat like of those boars, the essence in the flesh will be lightly absorbed by the one eating while making the compatibly with it better with time. Rock wild boar is not the best option of course, their meat have too much impurities in its essence while having a low concentration of it at the same time, making needed to eat a thousands of kilos to see some progress. No, the riches will use higher quality meat, coming from higher level beasts.


    But higher leveled beasts are hard too kill, too hard, still, the low birth people seeing the difference between their kids and the rich ones that ate essence for years, and fearing that their children would have the same life of servitude that they had, got their weapons and fought, knowing that even if little, they would be helping.


    They were normal people, normal non-practitioners just like the boy is, going against beasts so to get a better future just to their blood despite the fear and the obvious fact that a lot of them would die. And they did, but they managed to kill a single beast, a golden cat, a small feline of no more than a meter and a half by theprice of thirty lives.


    The bloody meat in their hands and the promises of a better future in their mouths was the only compensation to the wives and children that had no more fathers and husbands.


    Later that night, I¡¯ve come to know how unfair the world truly is.


    It was a small village a little far than most of things, there was no practitioners and only a few people have even seen one. Only the ones that have gone to a city to sell and buy materials or some other small necessities. And there, they¡¯ve heard of eating beasts flesh.


    That¡¯s how everything began. And then, after all the prices paid, we ate.


    To put it simple,some ate the meat slowly, in thin slices and others, ate fast, in big mouthfuls; For whatever the reasons that they had, to get stronger fast and get a better life to their mothers, to avenge their fathers, to whatever reasons or dreams that they had, they died without a chance to fight for it.


    That¡¯s it, the only difference in the ones that lived and the ones that not was the fact that we ate slower. They died because to digest beast flesh there is the need to be a practitioner, or to soften its essence with expensive herbs


    And that''s why today we will not eat rock wild boar, but a normal animal.


    I get up, the sudden movement calls me some attention but they quickly come back to talking among themselves as I give them not attention. I move, fighting the nausea as I make my way to my tent, a comfy construction of fluffy hide and essence grown wood, hoping for the comfort of it, or the comfort of what is in it.


    The inside is way warmer, a huge and welcomed difference from the cold winds that come all the way from Briddell, I fight the urge to let myself fall on the floor and stay there for the rest of the night as I walk in the direction of the small wood chest on the corner, soon seeing what I came for. A small jug, strongly sealed so the sweet sent will not attract any unwanted attention.


    After a few seconds of doubt I open it and take a sip, a long sip, letting the bitter taste of memories go away as the sweet wine falls through my throat. Sadly I free myself from the wine, there is too few of it, a single jug for the though days and I feel that there too much of those ahead.


    I could bring more sure, although it''s expensive I have little to spend in, but that would make little sense as I have problems with wine, wouldn''t it?


    I seal the jug again, the sweet but not long lasting taste of wine already leaving me as I stride out of the tent, soon being again greeted by the sight of all the mercenaries around the fire. My mouth sour as I watch while Brod cleans and prepares the deer using a largevariety of herbs, I notice, but quickly shrug it off as a little spoiling to the group before the harsh days ahead will be good.


    The herbs will also make it easier the task of forcing the food down my throat I suppose.

 2.0

    I take the snake in and with a swing of my hand a clean cut appears in it, separating body and head of the creature as keep going, knowing thatthere is still work to be done before I can stop and rest.


    The next to be cut is a wild ¨Cand of previous unknown specie for me¨C bird, it has dark feathers that shine with a strange, almost iron like glow as I give myself a few spare seconds to study them. Not only that, but they are hard as dry leather against the skin but still as light as any other ¨Cif not more ¨Cin my hands,giving it the feel of a beast¡¯s more than one of an animal¡¯s.


    It is not of course, but only because it¡¯s too young to have fully absorbed enough essence to be called a beast, still, as true born of Briddell that would be only a matter of time, so it¡¯s no surprise that it already shows some changes even if it¡¯s not one yet. That aside, the six small night-black claws and its golden eyes complete the small figure of the little ¨°ir bird.


    They said that its name comes directly from the language for ¡°gold¡± and was given because of its golden eyes ¨Ca distasteful choice I would say if asked as I can think of about five better names in a few seconds, but practitioners are practitioners.They told that the word was discovered a few dozen ten-years ago when a variant Earth practitioner got it as her true name, and since no beast of the bird species had ever crossed to the middle levels and got to understand or speak our tongue to let us learn its given name, people just started calling it ¡°gold bird¡±.


    And they started doingthatsimply because it was easier to warn others of the danger that the black, golden eyed bird carried if it had a name. They said that this small bird, if given a few more years to fully mature and enough time to absorb enough in its claws and wings to level, would be able to cut through both air and iron alike, too fast to follow with the eyes, and too small to properly hand a hit as it cut through armor and flesh in small and not more than a few centimeters deep gashes again and again until its prey fall prone, be it by pain, blood loss or resignation.


    Well, that¡¯s what they said at least, and although I¡¯ve heard stories of how fearsome beasts are, I¡¯ve come to know that they tend to be a lot more in them. Still, here, inside the death forest itself I can hardly keep myself from shivering, the thought alone making me nervously glance around in search for what beast could be preying me, hid, and waiting.


    But I soon shrug the thought out, even if there is a beast hiding out there it¡¯s not like I would be able to see, or react to it, so I just give myself back in the task of cleaning the bird. Not that I stop thinking about it, it¡¯s a monotonous task and I can hardly move my thoughts of how a simple bird can turn into a deadly killing machine of a beast.


    On a side view however, I should not be surprised with a bird that turns into a killing beast by absorbing essence as I¡¯ve seen people turn into worst things by doing the same for years. That¡¯s simply how essence works I think, it¡¯s only a shame that people won¡¯t naturally turn into practitioners just by living long enough like animals do, because it would sure make it harder for those people make us slave if they couldn¡¯t stop us from being practitioners ourselves.


    Harder, but far from impossible,I correct myself.Even if we could absorb essence like the animals, the amount of time needed for them is in the decades, and for what the chief said, mot simply don¡¯t live long enough to turn into beasts, dying long before even getting close to it. We would simply be less lasting slaves.


    Again, giving things another glance, animals have it hard too. They are just like us, the weaker ones, unable to fight the beasts back and left to live on fear and to hope that they will eventually turn into beasts themselves, only to die because the chances are too small.


    Small, but a chance still, and if by luck one eventually succeed its descendants would find easier to do so, and so would find the descendants of the latter, until after some time a new species of beasts would be birthed. Born true from the womb, with strength and wisdom towering its original species by far and with a name to call their given by the Four themselves they would make hell on wherever they born, until either they get killed or killed everything slow enough to not adapt to the new rulers, as the chief said.


    Just like us, it seems that animals have their dreams too. It¡¯s almost make me sad for the two that we¡¯ll be dinning tonight but before I can start the pitying the cold and characteristic winds of Briddell bite my face, suddenly blowing hard and non-stop even this close to the fire, calling my attention to therealproblems such as the dead bird in my left hand and not the delusions of a wandering mind.


    Going back to work I finish plucking the bird, cutting cleanly its head soon after as the wet sound is followed by the dry one of the knife finding the cutting board. Afterwards and in quick succession I gut the bird, taking out everything inedible and taking it by the legs, hanging him ¡°head¡± down so I can drain it¡¯s blood.


    Usually it would have been done right after the killing as it would have been easier, now the blood is already idle and moving it will take a longer time. Thankfully they are both small animals with not really that much of blood in them to begin with, but still, doing it will not only make cutting the meat easier but the blood can be used to flavor the food later on.


    That, and as the mercenaries had nothing close to a stand or table I can only prepare things seated down, using the only cutting board as a make do and needing to hang the animals to make space, wanting or not, doing things that way let me gain something with it. I¡¯m pretty sure that the chief of the mercenaries could make one table of wood in seconds if he wanted, but as he said nothing about it I can only believe that he either can¡¯t, or don¡¯t want to.


    By thinking about them I can¡¯t help but let my eyes fall at the mercenaries, all of them are sitting comfortable even in the middle of Briddell itself, the mountain like, dark-brownish trees that pierce the sky doing little against their nerves. With their leafs blocking the sunlight we find ourselves in a constant state of not only darkness, but directionless and still, they joke and laugh around like nothing, truly a remarkable feat.


    A few starving eyes instantaneouslystare me back like hungry wolfs, urging me back to work as they casually shot their glances to the big pot at the fire, but they can do little more than that, one of the reasons that I learned to cook in the first place. I should not test them however, sodisregarding my aching muscles I stand up. I search in the leather pouch that contains our supplies, easily finding the few tasty roots that the mercenaries packed, they will give the stew a nice and deep flavor and the cutting-working motion that those people want to see.


    Absent minded I take the blade in hands once more, the perfect balance and the comfortable grip wins me a smile, even if the same work they make it a world of difference between the small, pointy like pieces of iron given me in the manor to clean the vegetables, still, the working is not that different and soon everything is cut and thrown into the boiling pot, sweet smell of good food soon filling the air.


    The smell earns me a few more hungry glances with small sparks of curiosity in them, truth is, those people know not how to cook, not even close. They can pretty much do the basics but any other usage of the ingredients if not the most obvious is far beyond their reach, resulting in the same dry, crude tasting dishes, repeated again and again.


    Of course, I¡¯m not a master of the kitchen myself and even if the food was a little bland, it was solid, hot and overall pretty delicious ¨C to be honest I would settle for solid and hot only¨C but that was not good enough for a certain someone and in the end, my little experience and amount of free time earned me the position of cook.


    Andalthough I¡¯m glad that I¡¯m now of use and earnedmyself a reason to my presence,I usually would not just volunteer for such consuming time work when I¡¯m in the middle of level two hunting ground and have yet to get at level, nor did the chief accept that kind of behavior but, to put it simple, the one that was complaining was Eagan, the guy that shot me down and the guy that can put us all dead with a few words to the patriarch of his family.


    Because of that and the time used moving I¡¯ve found myself with much less time than I would like to have. Practices were put to early nights, but after a long day of walk, even with them going slower I¡¯m still just a normal person without essence to boost my body or nurture my muscles, even with the help of Eisg and his healing when night falls I¡¯m much past my limit already.


    Not that working past my limit is something new, but I have yet to truly get a good rest and that¡¯s weighting heavier with the days. Every night I¡¯ll throw myself on the sleeping bag, tired and sore, wanting nothing but to give in to the cold embrace of sleeping and yet, I¡¯ll not. The fear of beast entering the camp in the middle of my sleep and taking my life before I¡¯ve even know of its presence terrifies me, I tried to force the thoughts out but they¡¯ll come back, again and again until I give up and sit myself to cultivate.


    Cultivation will not help though, and nor it¡¯ll progress, so the process will repeat itself until either I eventually black out of pure exhaustion or the early light wakes the rest to another long day of work.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    ¡°All because the little young lord can¡¯t eat the same of us all.¡±I hear my tired mind whispering, pushing me into throwing all problems in Eagan¡¯s account, of how all of this it¡¯s his fault and so on. And as much as it¡¯s and he¡¯s indeed at fault, this is not totally right too, just how I could blame him for hurting me he could blame me for not making my presence known in the middle of the night in a never ending cycle of blaming that I¡¯ll help in nothing.


    Not that I¡¯ll not blame or hate him, but there are simply more people that truly deserve to be hated and blamed, and things that I need to do to make they pay back for everything that they did to us, so I can¡¯t keep small grudges like that slowing me down.


    He also made the decision easier as I felt his genuine concern and regret about what he did when we talked, making clear that he didn¡¯t do anything with intention to cause me harm. I could almost say that just like the mercenaries he is not the bad kind of practitioner, but to sum up, he has no common sense ¨Cbetter saying ¨Che has the common sense of the riches ¨Calthough I don¡¯t which is worse.Every time that one of the mercenaries tried to talk him up we got a problem, be it because he can¡¯t understand that they can¡¯t actually do what he wants or in the way he wants, or because that¡¯s simply not how it works.


    That¡¯s pretty much how, and why, I ended up with the task of cooking.


    I take my eyes out with a depressive sigh, despite their strength there is little that even they can do against a whole family. But still, theychoose, they were paid for it and they could have refused. Even now, they do not obey Eagan, they choose to work him out because it¡¯s easier and despite doing so, they could have said no. Repercussions apart, there is no one that can order them down.


    To be free, it wasn¡¯t for it that I risked all? So what I could not get at level until now and so what I¡¯m in the middle of the death forest itself? I survived worse, andI¡¯ll attain strength to never be ordered again, I¡¯ll bring freedom to my people and swear for the Four that I¡¯ll burn down every single family that stands on my way while at it.


    Wait m-


    ¡°Hey kiddo, you alright? You staring the void for a while ya know?¡± ¨C The voice cuts and my eyes and thoughts focus on the brown haired mercenary in front and smiling at me.


    ¡°Did you get it Brod?¡± ¨C I ask, changing topics.


    ¡°I sure did, who do you think you¡¯re dealing with? I¡¯ve moved like a shadow, in and out in no more than a few seconds, and I can affirm that he¡¯ll only know late enough you can be sure¡±


    The mercenary speaks, the light joking tone in his voice showing nothing of worry or concern for what we ¨Cmostly him¨C are going to do. He bet with me that I would not have the guts to use a especial thing in tonight¡¯s dish, one that I could never actually get my hands on in my time in the raining skies and one expensive enough that most would not dare to use in such common dish, one that I wouldn¡¯t dare too,if it was mine.


    I smile back at him, a small but real one. After those weeks I can say that Brod is a friend already, even if one that likes fooling around and betting too much, but I¡¯ve come to know that so do I.If only every practitioner was like him, things would be great,but they are not ¨CI say to myself, shrugging the thoughts off.


    ¡°Well, let¡¯s be fast so, the blood is hardening already¡±


    He has a mute question in his eyes as how do wine and blood can actually taste good but chooses to ignore it just as I chose to ignore his reasons to the bet. Both knowing that the other has a good one, or at least hoping it. It¡¯s too late to regret accepting anyway, the sweat sent of wine coming masked within the sweat smell of the stew itself as we¨C I ¨Cput more and more of it on the pot, first in small mouthfuls but soon enough we find ourselves with less than half jug in our hands. What can I say?


    As fast as they came, both the jug and Brod are gone, making his way time saying a joke to a friend, an excuse to another, all of that while favoring his right leg just a bit more than the left. Maybe and old injure aching, maybe a recent painful twist in the tricky ground of the forest or maybe, concealing a little jug in one of his pockets, how would I know? I¡¯m just the cook, moving my stew carefully to not let it burn.


    Now with the characteristic dark-red color of the wine, the smell and taste are nothing to be compared and soon, the wine will boil and flavor the stew up. There¡¯ll be no way to hide that we used wine of course, and when they discover there will be no doubt of whom we used it, I¡¯m just trusting that Brod really has a good reason.


    In the back of my mind I hear that whispering voice saying that this is a trap, that he¡¯s doing that so they¡¯ll get angry with me. But that would go against everything that I¡¯ve been seeing for more than two weeks already, and I hardly think that they really need that much if they wanted to kill me in the first place.


    I hear the voice laughing at me, mocking my thoughts but I ignore it, ignoring the mocking of others is one of the things that I can do better, not saying the mocking of a voice that can¡¯t hit you. That¡¯s probably because I can¡¯t find my sleep, I¡¯ve seeing shadows moving on their own for the last few days, now I¡¯m hearing voices, and just like the shadows they are simply not real.


    Still, I need to something abou them fast, but I just don¡¯t know what to. I talked with Brod before about how freeing my mind in meditation has become harder and harder in those last days, with worries about the forest, what to do, and so on but he didn¡¯t really helped. He said that it¡¯s no uncommon to actually hit a wall while cultivating, most find, or will find themselves like this, Brod is in such situation himself he said, no matter what he does his affinity will not go up, blocking his way to the third level and caging him on the second no matter how much his essence grows.


    Again, from what he said, people like Eagan that can attain such high level this fast are either the small portion of genius or rich enough to fill the gap with resources. Why lose months of meditation searching for a single insight so you can fuse deeper with your element when you can buy a magical herb that will boost your affinity in a few days?Well, sadly those herbs are not only absurdly expensive but finding one on sale without the right connections is a hard job itself, not a good solution to my problem.


    But does it matter? I can¡¯t help but ask, what if I truly get at level a week ago or at the next week? Nothing, it takes years to get in a level like one of the boss, and even so, it would be still not enough. The raining skies have hundreds of practitioners, the strongest being a level for. I closed myself to the truth, no matter if I actually rushed there soon after leveling, even if I could enter and leave without being noticed, how many could I save and how many I would let to suffer?


    Fact is, even I did all that, even if I asked the band for help and they actually accepted, in the best of the scenarios we would be hunted, bounties in our heads, living in fear while trying to move further and further from everything and everyone. On the worst, they would send the high troop soon after discovering our act and all of us would be hanging to public torture before dusk.


    No matter what I do it¡¯ll take time, and it¡¯s unfair to you that while you suffer I¡¯m here, wasting time with little trickery and pointless bets while making excuses to my failures. But we know pretty well, right? That the world never claimed to be fair.


    Sorry.


    Sadness and exhaustion overtake me and I take a glance to the pot, seeing the watery texture it¡¯ll take about twenty min before I need to take it out of the fire so I breathe in, out, in, out, letting myself go, letting everything that I can go, hoping only to go away from my own mind.


    As the usual, the hearing goes first, the wood cracking on the fire, the voices of the mercenaries, the wind against the trees and grass, everything slowly going as I enter in A-staighand so, one by one, my senses are gone, sadly leaving me with nothing but my thoughts.


    Nothingness, the first state, where one can feel nothing but oneself.


    Connection, the second step, to connect one mind and body with the world, and so, with the four themselves.


    Submersion, to let the body and mind to not only connect, but to bath in essence, to turn itself in part of it and then, change.


    I¡¯m stuck at the first of course, I can¡¯t feel the particles of essence within the world no matter what I do, the reason, my state of nothingness is not clear enough Eann said. That in turn, can be because a lot of reasons being the most likely one the lack of concentration.


    I¡¯ve done the same dozens of time already, kept fighting my own mind against the thoughts that rage the void so this time I let it wander, it doesn¡¯t matter, I won¡¯t be able to run anyway. Like torches in the night the thoughts shine, attracting my focus and filling what should be the void, blinding me from the Four.


    I let them, knowing that fighting is futile and only concentrating on keeping the filled with thoughts void from crumbling, time passes, I don¡¯t know how much, but I know it does. I should open my eyes, the stew will burn if I don¡¯t, but I don¡¯t want and I can¡¯t bring myself to go back yet.


    The thoughts slowly turn easier and easier to ignore ¨Cto accept-, the torches slowly turned in candles, fireflies, sparks, and then, nothing. I stare at the total Nothingness for long and yet, for little.


    Soon the fireflies are back, shining hard against my skull, burning eyes that should have been closed, I endure it, pain was never something that I was afraid of, worse than the the pain I feel the panic, afraid of losing the state clearness soon after finding it I force myself to calm down and ignore everything once more. But the lights refuse to be ignored.


    As I battle against the pain I hear the whisper once more, it laughs loudly at my attempts, mocking me for falling for the same thing again. It¡¯s not much said, but enough to distract and my sense of touch comes back as I doubt myself.


    hot pain burning my body, and I feel my fingernails digging deep in my knees, the hot sweat covering my back, my eyes shut with strength, all that, transmitted and discarded in hurry as desperately try to go back with the void. The whisper lies, it has been laughing since I first heard it, I can¡¯t let myself lose the chance because I heard it.


    Please Four,I beg the elements as my recovered sense is soon lost again. But so does the void, so I sit there with my eyes still closed as a myriad of feelings fills me, sadness, rage, agony, bitterness and so on, one second of distraction enough to me lose the closest chance that I had after all this time.


    Unfortunately without A-staigh I know exactly how much time is passing, so I get up, maybe I can still save the stew and make the day not a complete disaster. I soon notice two things though, the first is that it¡¯s no longer day, it¡¯s too dark to be, even for Briddell. The second, and the most noticiable one, is thatgreen that greets me are not the dark one of the leaves, but a light, almost whitish one.


    With hurry I look at the mercenaries, all of them in their sleeping bags, and with a little effort and I see the brownish, blueish and once me green lights in them, my legs lose strength and I see myself staring at the ground in fours, the soft earth being the same light brownish color, only a bit denser.


    Then I laugh, really hard and really loudly until I see myself crying and for a second I stop to see if the mercenaries were awakened, but they were not, so I just keep going, breathing lightly for the first time for long.


    I don¡¯t actually keep going for much because as soon as I calm myself a little I notice that I¡¯m too hungry and too thirsty to keep laughing like that. But most of all, I notice that I¡¯m too tired so I just lie on the ground, and gain for the first time in long, I sleep.

 2.1

    I stare at the beast¡¯s eyes, its small pupils shining like gems against the night as we both take position. Kid has been in the deep for hours already, with essence circling him like flies as he does, attracting any beast or animal close enough to sense it and causing us no small amount of inconvenience.


    Despite that, for some reason all those crazy mercenaries refuse to wake him and free ourselves of such problems. They said that no practitioner should have his insights interrupted, that we need to protect him while he searches the deep for them, and a number of other things that I can¡¯t remember while both angry and risking my life.


    I¡¯m not like them, those bunch of monsters that are happy to fight with every single living thing inside this damn forest, but they care? Even worse, what kind of answers would one find when he has yet to be asked? Yeah no, that¡¯s bullshit, one so big that I can¡¯t force myself to eat up, they probably are fighting simply because they want to, and fuck the others that don¡¯t, it¡¯s not like they already caused me enough problems right?


    But even though I¡¯m tempted to continue pointing how stupid our ¨Cmy ¨Csituation is, my blabbering is cut down as the beast makes its move. Its hinder legs contract and explode in movement, compelling the huge scaled body in a leap of dozen meters using nothing but muscle strength alone as the creature bleeds the night, its shining armored scales reflecting the sparse silvery light of the moon as it moves in perverse speed towards my direction.


    Moving without essence leaves it noticeable only by sight ¨Cnot exactly, but true enough I suppose¨C and its dark scales fuse with the night making it really hard to follow, it would easily kill a slower or distracted practitioner, but thankfully I¡¯m neither, so I have enough time to prepare myself.


    And I do so doing the complete opposite that it did, staying completely still and allowing essence to fill me, soon feelingthe unnatural urge and strength coming alive and bathing me in power. It orders me to fight the beast head on, to crush it beneath my sword, to flood the earth and teach those beasts their place, that, and a bunch more of stupid thoughts that are promptly ignored.


    Even after all those years the small shadow of will contained within the essence still rings on my mind from time to time, but that¡¯s not a problem that I can solve and nor it¡¯s time for trying, soI free my sword from its sheath. It cuts the air aiming to the flying-in-my-direction beast that flies in my direction, the awkward two handed grip turning itself in a one-handed one as my left arm leaves the pommel, the extra unexpected range caching the beast unsuspecting and chopping it in two with a clean and perfect timed counter.


    Or so I would like it to.


    The beast does a grotesque caricature of a smile, eyes shining with intelligence as it reads my attack and uses the body of my ¡°deadly steel¡± as platform to change ways in midair and jump once more, now coming for my throat while sneering at my weakness and slowness.


    ¡°Oh no, what will I do now?¡±-I drop my sword and mimic the same grotesque smile of cruel satisfaction and scorn that the beast gave me with one my own, half in joke and half not as the words of power leave my mouth and essence is brought forth with vigor and speed that I could never replicate on my own.


    The world shine with the bluish aura of my element, small fonts that could be used against my enemies all over the place, but most are either too far or too small. Most. The small dozens pots of leathered metal hidden in my clothes burst in a single spear, the hardened liquid piercing the scales and heart of creature in a single motion as I stare at its eyes once more, now with its life escaping them.


    It struggles in mid-air for a few seconds but soon both of us reach our respective limits andthe raging flux of essence is gone, the lizard falls, blood gushing from it in small intervals as its pierced heart refuses to stop, its strong muscles working against itself. I try to command the water back into the pots, they are no simple tap water and I would like it back if possible, but unfortunately and to my displeasure I¡¯m too tired to force it back, the high in essence blood of the beast making me use more essence than I actually can to get it both separeted.


    I suck it up, what¡¯s gone ¡®s gone, and such is life. Trading control and sustain for raw power was my choice in the end, so this time I can¡¯t blame anyone else for it. I could blame the ones that made me fight in the first place I suppose, but that would only bring me back to the beginning so I give the dead beast a glance, quickly calculating the gains and losses that the battle brought me.


    I close my mouth in a grimace, thescales could fetch a nice price, but I would need to carry them for weeks before finding a city to sell them, and I don¡¯t believe that those scales weight less than fifty kilos, making the task almost unworthy of what¡¯ll get for them. That aside I can¡¯t think in any other way to use the body, the meat can be smoked for later in a quite tasty jerk but that¡¯s pretty much it. On the losses side though, I¡¯ve used the last of my pots and it¡¯ll take days to replenish them, this particular beast also has no core, making it for a quite bad of a trade where the effort surpass the profit.


    With a big sigh and fighting a soon to be headache I take my eyes of the big lizard, freeing my mind from such materialistic worries as Ideep in for an instant, slowly looking through my reserves of both essence and endurance as I savor the few moments of rest before searching for someone to help or some other beast to deal with, thankfully finding none of both. Not true of course, I actually find a few of both, but my essence is close to its end and there is no one that really need treatment in rush, some cuts and bruises but I couldn¡¯t care less, I¡¯m too under paid already.


    I chose to fall back a little and give myself a well deserved rest time, leaving the few beasts remaining to the others, their number is way smaller now so it should not be a problem. Seeing myself free for the first time in hoursI let my eyes wander, stopping right on the cause of all this, part because the image of a completely calm boy meditating is quite a contrast with the bloody scene of mercenaries killing beasts right and left, and part because I want to avoid eye contact with said mercenaries, last they notice that I¡¯m idle and task me with something.


    The boy did not even move since it started, he still sits there, oblivious of all, and every trouble caused. Not that it surprises me, it has been like that since thisnightmare began with that faithful night.


    Everything was going well, we had a few problems with transport but it worked for me, they pay for the day and I¡¯m used to walking, it worked so well that even before entering Briddell I had already made two deichs without even having to lift a finger, a promissory start to a promissory campaign. Both the Frasan and the freumhan were pretty well known, in one side a big family, known for its weaponry business and their strength, being the fourth strongest powerhouse in the entire city. No complains there, they would pay well because not doing would be showing weakness and a loss of face, the chance is that they would pay more so to show off ¨C no complains there either.


    On the other, one of the most successful bands, with nine whole years without a single loss and with gains that outnumbered bands with twice the numbers. Even if they didn¡¯t want to pay me for day like the Frasan I would still be taking a part of the total in the end, and every healing done to the mercanciares would also be paid me back. Everything smelled, tasted and looked like jackpot,what could have gone wrong?Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    Those were my thoughts exactly, what indeed? Maybe some beast that evolved in silence, shutting itself on a dark corner of the forest so to not caught attention until strong enough, a small but plausible chance that could sure turn this fortune into disaster.We could be its first preys, caught with our pants down, and if some of the Frasan died then so would we. No better if one the band died as my reputation would be gone and no one would contract me anymore, the healer that managed to let a band that had no deaths in almost a decade die, I would have to flee in shame to who knows where, begging for some coin until the rest of my days. My wife would kill me.


    But that was if the worst situation possible came to the worst possible ending, a chance within a chance, and small ones to start with. I assured myself that was just my anxiety talking, the biggest contract ever, I was nervous and just that. Sure, I was, and until now there was no evolved beast jumping from a brush, but with this dog shit luck if one actually did it would be no surprise, and I¡¯m almost thinking that a beast would have been better.


    The boy came, dressed in blood, with wounds big enough to make me feel like throwing up as I forced myself to work. The stones lost power inside him and filled the wounds with earth and dirt, his guts were a messy hell of blood, shit and earth, one that I had to do something about. It took me hours of work and more than half of my pots simply to make the wounds clean and enough skin to just superficially close it, but it was not enough for them, I was worked to death all night, pressed by both the Frasan and the mercenaries.I did the best I could of course, I¡¯m a healer because of the money and have no shame in saying it, but I¡¯m a healer and I do my job.


    Tired and essenceless I went to sleep leaving the kid to the Four and his own luck as exhaustion overtook me. There was nothing to do anymore, if he was going to die or live only time would tell, and there was nothing that I could do to change that. It was too much blood lost, the wound was too big and him too weak, I was certain that even after all my work it would still not be enough, that when I woke up in the next day I would find the Frasan gone, rushing back to their family in hope to find something to protect them from the heavens, and I sincerely wished they did, because when they failed I would be on their black list, marked to die, so better if they were far.


    But of course, that was something to think about when my head was not being hammered by the invisible strikes of fatigue, so I let it go, it was set, and I would deal with the problems when it was time.It didn¡¯t come to happen like that obviously, but at the time I had no way to know, and so, without conscience of time I slept for two days. The time was proof of my effort put and essence spent, and although it was a little longer time than the usual, it was not surprising. What was in fact a surprise was finding the boy alive and breathing, skin a little paler than normal but still way better that it should be, wounds way better than I thought I left them.


    It made no sense, no sense at all, so I told myself that I did a better job than thought I did, it was dark and the last hours were blurry after all. Looking back there was a lot of those small and strange things telling me that he was not normal, I just failed to see them at the time.


    Like, how can a boy, no older than my own son not scream when I¡¯m touching his insides with bare hands, pushing and squeezing it to stop the blood and other things? That¡¯s not even the point, he shouldn¡¯t be able to keep himself awake for that long, not one should, no with that wounds. Even if for some reason the rush blocked the pain, what about the nights and days later on, I slept at his side and even tired, there isn¡¯t much needed to wake me up, one of the reasons that I kept my life for this much in that line of work.


    Again I convinced myself of a reason after I worked more on him that day, broken bones, fractures, missing nails, buns, small cuts, big cuts, we found them all, more if the scars were counted, it was scare and I found the craving to throw up a second time. I now pretty well that life is not a flower garden and I¡¯ve seen my share of blood and gore but it hit me hard nevertheless, I couldn¡¯t help but think about my child, no one that lived for so little should have that amount of wounds and scars. They gave us a little reasoning of how the boy was able to deal with the pain though, he was used to it.


    Fired, I worked until my body gave up and was once more filled with exhaustion then I crawled my way to sleep, this time satisfied with the healing progress and sure that the boy would not die in my hands. He was no healed, the wounds were hard and his body too frail, it was also a bothersome and slow work, to start the healing I needed stronger essence than the ones that wounded him, a hard job for itself as the other was in a higher level. But not only that, I needed to be careful enough to not destroy his body while destroying the residual essence within it, like I said, a slow and bothersome work.


    The circle repeated itself, wake up, meditate, eat, heal, meditate, eat, heal, meditate and sleep, so after a few days in it and after another one of the treatment sessions with the sleeping boy I was gone to rest again, sure that in the next day I would find another new old wound in need of work like the days before, a circle of never ending, under paying work. I didn¡¯t know for much I¡¯ve slept, my body was still tired and my essence was still gone but I opened my eyes in rush nonetheless, exploding in motion, searching for the familiar hilt and pommel as something woke me, instincts and experience solidified in an alert. I jumped to my feet searching for the potential treat as the morning light of a new day welcomed me, just as did the now awaken boy.


    It made me happy to seem him awake, we all knew that he would not die, but still made us glad, for different reasons. Mine was that now he would recover naturally within a month or so! No need to keep rushing his body to heal. The end of my problems right? No. The boy still needed work, like the two groups of people made clear.


    It took me a few more days but I finally left him in top notch condition, ¡°top notch¡±. He was skin and bones but that was a small price for the amount of healing that I did. Now, I sure was free right? Although high leveled healers could use their own essence to nurture the body and skip the eating part I was not even close from doing it, so with the risk of taxing his body too much and without like threatening wounds to heal I was not necessary to over work anymore, right?


    Well, yes. For two days. The boy that I literally fought death for was once more dying, and I didn¡¯t even know how. They just shook my poor tired self out of my deserved rest and forced me to once more save the damned boy¡¯s life.


    Actually I still don¡¯t know how they managed to almost kill him again, at the time I was too tired ¨Cand too rushed ¨Cto ask and after the healing I¡¯d gone to sleep without knowing. Later after waking up people refused to talk about it and when did just keep complaining about the other side, giving me little real information about what happened. Another one small hint ignored, if only I cared more at the time and was not fearful to inquire such people I would not find myself in such situation now.


    But well, I did, I ignored it. The boy was now in ¡°top notch¡± condition once more, and I was pretty clear to not let it suffer another wound or his body would not hold the treatment, he would need at least two weeks to even walk, two weeks at least of free payment and more if the band kept the plan of helping him. In the end, it would be a good trade. Right?


    No.


    I breathe deep once more, counting until fifty before calming down. It would be a good trade if those people were not a bunch of crazy monsters. Just as I healed him the chief of the fucking band started teaching him, just as did the representative of the fucking Frasan. Not that they teaching him was a problem, I was happy when they said they would, the actual problem was when after half the time that I gave to the boy, to like I said, ¡°even walk¡± he was already able to started taking armed practice with the chief, and I was left to heal every kind of wound that he inflicted on him.


    Thinking it back now, that fast recover was again unnatural, but that one was more easily explicable, he was young and had more than enough food to fuel his body so I let it slide. The combat practices gavehim the need to eat an enormous amount of food to replenish the energy use on healing and to build up muscle mass, what of course, make needed more hunting and more going inside the forest, task that I was not spared from.


    Animals are not stupid as most think, even if they are not smart one can hardly say that they are stupid. Every day we needed to go further inside the forest as the wild game got harder and harder to find, mostly if you talk about enough normal game to sustain seven practitioners. I almost cried of happiness when they said that we were short on time and needed to enter the forest soon, it was finally over I thought.


    And it was. For two days.


    Little did I knew that a crazy horde of beasts would be waiting.

 2.2

    Camp was packed early, the quick cleaning done yesterday did nothing to help with the carcasses that reeked not only of blood and death but of worse, the foul smells lingered strong in the air as the rising sun did little to make it better. The bodies started to rot and waiting would only make it worse, we all knew, and even if we moved them - more - it would simple not be worth the effort - there were a lot to move after all, it was better to just get our tired asses off and start searching for a new place to stay.


    Not that people were -are -happy with this, half of the camp has yet to sleep as the fight took most of the night before we literally cleaned the forest out of animal and beast alike. The ones with good luck got to sleep the latter half of it, but sadly for the unlucky they got to keep watch over another wave of possible beasts, it was harsh but it¡¯s better be tired than dead. Saying that earned me a few angry glares though, maybe because I was in the bunch that got the big sticks and was able to sleep, or maybe because my little stealth act of growing said stick with essence was not so stealthy. In the end we¡¯ll never know.


    That aside, normally going awake for a night would not weight so much on them, the body of a practitioner is way stronger than the norm and can take on small things like that easily, that is, if you have essence to back you up. They didn¡¯t, but fortunately the air was soaked with it after whatever the boy did so keeping yourself awake was not that hard, in fact, even after only sleeping most woke up to find that their reserves actually increased - fora little.


    Obviously, that only served to add up the feeling of curiosity, surprise and resentment that filled the camp in the morning, although the later came mostly from a small group. In general people simply wanted to know what the boy did -and how he did- to the essence go crazy like that, and if what happened was an event that could be replicated or not.


    And I can hardly blame them for their curiosity,to have someone''s reserves of essence grow only by a few hours of sleeping it''s unreal, and to cultivate in such heavy filled essence air would be even more, sadly we could not, but what if someone could actually find a way to replicate, and control those events at will? They would be able to turn years of cultivation into months.


    But although I can not blame them for being curious, I was ready to step in case someone would be to enthusiastic, "someone" being pretty much Eann, of the frasan, as he was the one that gained more with what happened, and had already proved time and time again his lack of honor. I worried for nothing however, the boy was already awake in the morning, seemingly yet to sleep, awaking from his meditative state deep into the night and making company toFliytch since then.Fliytch, that pretty much used his night shift to ask every possible question about what happened that he was able to think of, but found no answers.


    No that the others cared, so they joined him, searching for said answers as new questions surged and old ones kept pending, what of course, was only like throwing oil into the fire as they kept trying to unveil some kind of universal truth or insight about the Four. I pretty much gave up in the moment that I glanced over the boy though, excluding myself from such pointless act of pestering someone for answers that he clearly didn''t have. The boy was still essenceless, and as those fools know, only essence can move essence, meaning that whatever happened had little to do with him.


    As they talked chaotically between each other in search for answers that they would not find I used the time to do something useful, like taking my breakfast and filling the rest of my essence reserves. One would think that in ambient with so much of it that would be an easy task, but for some reason the essence that came to the boy was of Wind and wind alone, so although the task of replenishing my used reserves was not hard, it was also not easy, simply normal.


    When I was done with both eating and meditating they were still at it, wasting time, so I took my hands to my face, a big breath and loudly shouted them back into order. Not that I was trying to take away from them the chance of getting a good insight, or even somehow understand how or what happened, I''m the kind of man that will never force someone to give up an insight, but that was clearly not a situation of enlightenment. They were simply running in circles, blindly searching for something while having no clue on where to even start, all that while seventy or more bodies rotted right around us, attracting who knows how many possibly beasts.


    I ordered the boys to prepare to move out, Eann tried to say something about waiting but I gave him no ears, he did not wait for the boy did he? It served him right, so what we were in a place that some would kill to cultivate in, it was not of our element, so why would I take the risk? Better, this time the contract was on my favor so he had to either move with the rest or break it and suffer its consequences, both fine for me.


    I put the ones that rested through the night to harvest the cores from the beasts that had one, and useful materials from the ones that didn''t. I told them to priorize the lighter materials like horns, eyes, fangs and the like, but we still ended with a lot of cargo to carry. Still, the tedious work served to calm things down, giving them the time to think things through, most coming to the same understating that there was more in what happened than the boy alone.


    After the bloody work was done I let them get a quick breakfastand we leaved, so here we are, cutting our way through the forest and searching for new place to camp, this time way deeper inside the forest than the previous spot as we meet -and surpassed -our quota of level ones in one night. A pleasant surprise that made almost three weeks of delay jump back all the way up to a little over a week and a half. We are still behind schedule but it''s definitely not as bad it was, like they say, opportunities and dangers truly walk hand on hand.


    We are moving slowly, weight and fatigue pressing us down to a turtle pace as we force or way through the dense vegetation, no one wanted to leave the hard fought prizes behind to be eaten and they cannot be blamed for it, but it weight us hard nonetheless. Again, normally I would just move the green out of our way and we would not have to suffer all this, but my words still ring true, better be tired than dead. Last night events were too flashy and our group is not one of the stealthiest so if something is coming I want to be in the best condition that I can, unfortunately that means that we are stuck to keep moving in the traditional way.


    Even if the traditional way is disgustingly slow.


    -


    I¡¯m tired, no I''m not tired. Keep moving, one, two, one, two. Smile, back straight, look up -I repeat the mantra in my head, time pausing and time accelerating while changing tones and lengths of words so to keep myself distracted, anything to keep me moving. My legs hurt and my arms weight dozens of times more than I thought possible, but the worst and real problem is keeping myself awake, a constant and unwinnable battle where any second of distraction is enough to make me trip, black out, or both.


    The only thing keeping me going being my mom¡¯s voice on the back of my head, soft words of encouragement and heavy words of responsibility that were both burned in my soul and body as a proud member of The Frasan. I cannot shame the family and I will not, - not more - so I grit my teeth harder and keep walking while not showing any speck of tiredness or discomfort. Such is my responsibility and pleasure.


    That said, I want to sleep so much, holy Four, why did I volunteer to take the watch? No, I did it because it was the polite thing to do, and they should have declined like every normal person. I said that I wanted to be on watch out of politeness! You should¡¯ve reacted as such and brushed it off while trading some flowery words about how I fought valiantly, about how I was a beast among men or whatever, don¡¯t you know anything about social interactions? -I hate this, I want to go home.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    How I hate this fucking trip, everything is going exactly on the opposite way that they said it would be, the battle is over and all that left is more walking, more carrying and more pain. Where are the recognition and the glory? I want to cry, and I want to sleep, holy fuck I want to drop on the ground and never wake.


    Maybe not the last part.


    Although sleeping in the ground proved itself to be not as bad as thought it would, who knew you could actually use essence to make the earth soft and comfy? It¡¯s so good that I almost want to replace my bed with an actual bunch of free soil. Not the most respectable idea but I think I could pull it off, mom and dad would not approve literally replacing that kind of expensive bed for, well, earth. But maybe if I did some kind of napping¡­ place? I could actually use one of the private training rooms, and if someone gets suspicious I could just say that it is for practicing, who could prove otherwise?


    I keep the thought of a napping spot for later and do a mental note of it, also a side note to maybe pack some of the earth from here too. I¡¯m not a hundred percent sure but I think that there is something different with it, the way it responds at my will it¡¯s just, faster and more natural. Who knows if sleeping here feels good because of it? Better be safe than sorry as I don''t know when I¡¯ll come back.


    Soon the state championship starts and when I win I¡¯ll have to move to the capital of Talhamn, and although it''s not an impossible distance to move it is not one that I can just cross to bring some bags of soil. Also¡­ thinking about it, that is the kind of thing that it''s better that if I do, I do it myself. Don¡¯t want people thinking that I have some kind of weird inclination and starting some nasty rumors, I can¡¯t even think of w-


    My thoughts are cut as I dump into something -someone,too distracted with my useless thoughts to notice that the chief of the band called for a stop.The mercenary that I bumped into looks over his shoulders, Ainmh, he looks at me with a silent question in his eyes, looking neither annoyed nor angry as usual. He is a silent type, he is also one of the few that don''t eye me with hate for what previously happened and the one that told me the earth trick, so I rush an apology.


    He accepts it easily, shrugging it off without a word and pointing at the reason that we stopped, or so I believe. At the movement I force my tired eyes to search for whatever it is, I catch uncle and two of the mercenaries talking ahead, what is not common, but that aside nothing that could give us a reason to stop.


    I could use essence to see further,it would not even use that much of it to do so, but I choose no to. I''ve hurt people before, of course I did, I''ve been in dozens of spars before, I have even hurt people when I didn''t want to, that''s happen, it was what I thought. But after what happened I came to understand that I should take more care when using essence, because if someone dies, there is no amount that gifts that can buy a life back.


    Of course, using a little essence in my eyes can hardly be compared with using essence to attack someone without thinking, but as dad said once, "there is no half vows". And even if my reasoning is somewhat extreme, what if I killed the kid? I would not only have taken a life but I would also pay its price with my own, what would be of the family then? They had put all their efforts on me for years, and I would pay them back by dying.


    I need to take my power more seriously, I want to be a practitioner of the highest level, I want to be someone that people will look up to, that will be talked with pride and envy, not fear and hate. Not only for me, but to repay what the family did for me.


    I-


    "Seeing something?" He asks, for the second time bringing me back to reality as I lose myself in thoughts.


    "No"


    "Well, if Fr- boss made the stop sign than he must have a reason, for now we should just enjoy the early rest" - He says, already throwing whatever he was carrying and sitting on the ground even before ending the last word. Ainmh was one of the three that ended with the night watch so I can understand the feeling, because so was I, and I''m pretty tired myself.


    Remembered how tired am I, I shake the previous thoughts for later and take glance to uncle, he''s still talking with the two other men and will probably have no problems settling whatever made us stop by himself,so with excruciating calm and grace I free myself from my backpack, my muscles screaming in pain as the heavy burden slowly finds the earth, followed by me, as I find myself a sit on the ground.


    I fight the urge to give myself in into the earth, fall asleep and again, never awake but that would be a loss of face, so I start meditating, the second best option. I free myself from the senses of a tired body, embracing with open arms the cold world of darkness and pulses.


    At least until the eventual, but no far, time when I''ll again have to again get up and keep walking. But I refuse to think about it for now.


    _


    ¡°So, it is it?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure that yes, we stumbled on an almost two decades old ne¨°inean although I still don¡¯t know how it survived for so long, maybe because the forest¡¯s beasts are predominately of Earth and Wind but, two whole decades old? It would be naivety to think that no one eyed it for the pure burst of essence alone after all this time.


    Obviously there is some kind of top dog that has keeping it protected while waiting to it mature more, but even so, two decades is a lot of time, it should have eaten it long ago. I can only say that are lucky.¡±


    ¡°Can you estimate its strength?¡±


    ¡°Hard to say, it could be a level three but it also could be a level two variant. There is no way to know that the creature is doing it because of some kind of instinct or if it thought the decision of waiting by itself. One thing that I¡¯m sure however, is that no matter if it''s by instinct or not, it would not get far from the flower for long no matter what, not if it has been protecting it for twenty years¡±


    ¡°Okay, do not harvest it yet as we don¡¯t know its strength, I don¡¯t want a crazy beast on our backs because of a flower no matter how much it is worth¡± I say, dismissing the surprisingly knowledge in flora healer.


    About ten minutes ago we saw a clearing through the woods, it was about fifty meters large for what we could see at the distance, and one of that size this deep into the forest would be a beast''s den eleven out of ten times, so I brought the representative of the frasan - as the contract bounds me to - and Fliytch, so I could hear their - Fliytch''s - thoughts on the matter.


    We could not see the beast, but it could have caught our trace before we saw the clearing and gone to hiding, so we needed to decide what would we do. We ended choosing to fight it on the clearing as it was the best place if it was truly hiding, and one just as good if it was truly away. It would also let the boys rest and recharge some essence.


    As we entered the clearing it became obvious that it was truly a beast den -not that I doubted, the ground was filled with tracks and the place had a faint smell of wet fur all over it. It was a good place though, and as I said early today,opportunities and dangers truly walk hand on hand. Not only we found a new place to camp but we also found a rare herb that can be sold for quite a coin.


    It is not much, but it would help, every coin would help. But the flower will not run, so first things first. I find my way back to the middle of the band, most know what''ll say already, if the clearing was not enough of a sign to let them know than the tracks were, but they''ll be happy to know that the fight will at least gain them something.


    I raise my voice -


    ¡°Hear me out you bunch, I have good and bad news, the good news is that this nicely patched piece of place will be our camp for now.¡±


    No reaction, soI continue -


    ¡°Not only that, but we also found a two decade old ne¨°inean sunflower with the estimate price of 2 cheuds or more¡±


    This time my words find true and I see some cheering, it''s a good new after all.


    ¡°Said that, the bad news¡±


    ¡°¡­¡±


    I smile.


    ¡°Both this place and the flower are being protected by a at least level two variant beast so get the fuck up and make a protective circle, we are fighting it¡± - I finish my little speech, the cheers dying as soon as it started to spread.


    "Common, move faster you lazy buns, you''ll be able to rest when the work is done, or when you die"


    As a level three variant I could kill it fairly easily, no matter if it was a level two variant or not, or even if it was a level three as I would outrank it nonetheless. But I''m not that greed, no, the opposite in fact, I''m a man of many virtues.


    And I would not dare to take from those people that searched so fervently for insights just this morning the chance to fight with a stronger enemy.


    How could I? It would simply hurt me so much to do so, everyone knows that the best way to gain insight it''s to have your back against the wall after all. And what would be better to than fighting a stronger foe while being both tired and with your reserves of essence low to do it?


    If there is, I truly can''t think of such a thing.

 2.3

    ¡°Why, in the name of the holy Four we had to encounter this damn beast now of all times¡­¡± Eisg mutters ¡®beneath his breath¡¯, starting another wave of swearing to ¡®himself¡¯ as we make our way through the forest.


    Just as I¡¯m, and if not more, the healer is clearly nervous about leaving the band and has been showing it by mumbling like that since the chief ordered us to move away from the clearing. It¡¯s a feeling that I understand, but the chief said that our group encountered a beast¡¯s den, and that both he and the rest of the mercenaries had no essence to spare, being unable to fight while protecting me. And if the level three practitioner says that something is dangerous and that you should withdraw then I¡¯m satisfied already by doing exactly that.


    Eisg from what I caught of their talk and deduced is here because he was the best choice to go with me as a healer would not cause that much damage to a high leveled beast to start with, and healing per se takes too much time to be done middle combat. Still, he is a practitioner, and I¡¯m sure that having him fight would be better than not, so the fact that they still chose to do so even after I discovered that the reason for the pile of bodies that I woke too see was me makes me both glad and doubtful.


    They could blame me, they should¡¯ve, but they didn¡¯t, and I can¡¯t help but ask what they gain by helping me time and time again. Even now they keep doing it, moved by some kind of goodwill that after all that happened I can¡¯t help but accept real, and promise to pay back when I can.


    That said and back to the important things, we should be something close to half a kilometer away from the clearing now and yet Eisg keep moving forward, not slowing in the slightest. I don¡¯t know how far he intends to keep going but nor do I know how fast can a high level beast cross the distance of half a kilometer, so I keep my mouth shut and both my eyes open as we move.


    I know that I don¡¯t actually need to, he will notice if something is close way before me, that is, if I do notice something. But even if I know that, right now, walking without the band the forest demands my attention, it seems bigger, almost oppressive as we cut our way through it. The trees are large, able to hide two men side by side and with no doubt able to do the same to a beast; the greenery is also dense and takes meters of sight from my eyes, all that summing up to create a suffocating feeling that grows inside my chest, no matter how much I fight it.


    Thankfully I do not need to fight it for long, just when the thought of how Eisg is able to know where he is going without any kind of markings cross my mind he calls for a stop. I lost exactly count of how much we walked, it could be a little more than one kilometer just as could be a bit less, on thing that¡¯s obvious however, is that the last meters were weighting more and more on Eisg, and I doubt he could keep going for long.


    It¡¯s strange, the image of a practitioner that I always had has been changing since I met the mercenaries, since I can remember I never saw a practitioner show weakness or tiredness, not of this kind, I¡¯ve seen them come back wounded sure, but they always healed, they always seemed¡­ more. Not that I ever once believed on the kind of things that some did, I¡¯ve always knew that they were less than they claimed, but now some things are even clearer.


    I see myself starting drifting in not so old memories and on thoughts of revenge, but fail to go far as Eisg snaps me back to reality, we are here, wherever here is, and it¡¯s not time for daydream. He uses his hands to open us a way through a few thorny brushes that I can only presume be the reason of our stop as they are the only different thing from other spots that we moved past before, he moves fast, compelling me forward and deeper within it as the thorns hardly do something against his skin. Unfortunately I can¡¯t say the same for myself.


    After a few meters we find ourselves completely surrounded by such brushes, they stand tall, getting at my shoulders with ease and growing tangled enough to be compared with a natural wall, a wall with a lot of curvy little thorns. I don¡¯t quite know how Eisg knew that they had, or why such brushes have a convenient clearing in the middle of it in the first place, but they do, sadly my curiosity keeps unanswered as I hardly think that¡¯s time for asking.


    Not that he gives me the opportunity to.


    ¡°I¡¯ll deep in, I need to get some essence back in case someone gets badly hurt¡­ in the meant time don¡¯t cultivate, don¡¯t move and don¡¯t make any sound or I swear that I¡¯ll drown you myself. We can¡¯t afford another situation like the last one, not now, are we clear?¡± ¨C He turns and locks eyes with me, speaking with a commanding tone.


    ¡°Of course, you¡¯ll not even notice that I¡¯m here, you can be sure about it!¡± I say, the words coming easily with the practice of saying similar lines for years.


    He stares me for half a second in search for something that says that¡¯ll not follow his words before giving up and sitting with crossed legs on the ground, ready to connect with the water essence in the forest and absorb it as his own.


    As he does and I see myself ¡®alone¡¯ I busy myself pondering if he chose this place because the thorns will keep animals away or because the thorns will keep me from escaping, or moving too much in general. I can¡¯t really think of a way to go back without doing enough sound to wake him up, nor can I think of an animal coming while doing so, so it serves for both I suppose. My mind also wander to the question if such thorns would help keeping beasts away, but in the end I drop the matter as I know too little about beasts to find the answer, the fact that everything pointed out to such answer be a no having nothing to do with it.


    Seeing myself winding up in pointless thoughts and with my legs tired I find a seat on ground too, the brushes offer good protection against the cold wind and I find myself more tired than I thought I was, unfortunately hungrier too. I¡¯ve become too pampered I judge myself, mere five hours without eating anything and this hungry already. I blame the mercenaries and their three meals a day.


    With nothing to do I keep waiting for what I think is half an hour when I judge that my stomach is close to breaking Eisg¡¯s rule of ¡°no sounds¡± so I stand up once more and I start searching the thick thorny brushes for their little fruits. I saw flashes of their little orange while moving and finding some more in this side should be easy enough.


    It is, taking them though it¡¯s proving itself to be quite a challenge. The thorns are curved like a hook and the little things are hid deep inside the dense brushes so it takes a lot of time to actually get them without getting hurt or making too much noise, both things that I want to avoid. After another something close to what I believe be ten minutes the brushes are emptier and I¡¯m sitting on the ground with a dozen or so of the small round fruits in my hands.


    I throw one in my mouth hoping that its flavor will pay for the small cuts and scratches gained by picking them, the thorns say that the fruits are not poisonous but it would be a shame if they tasted horrible. To my surprise however the fruit is fresh and sweet with the pleasant surprise of the seeds being something close to pepper, giving it a nice contrast on the right amounts. The taste makes a smile involuntary appear on my face and I can hardly stop myself from throwing all of the rest of them inside my mouth in gluttony after eating one.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    I force myself to eat it slowly though, not because of the usual reasons, but simply to appreciate them with the calm that they deserve. While at it I also leave a few seeds with plans to let them dry to be used later, after the last night events our stock of fresh meat sky rocked and with no time to smoke it I have to make something fast or they¡¯ll go bad, and that¡¯s a big no.


    But that¡¯s for later.


    -


    ¡°GET ITS LEGS, I¡¯LL GET YOU A CHANCE¡± - I shout at the top of my lungs, as I far as I know an order can never be too much loud on a battlefield, it can only be louder.


    It has been exactly twenty six minutes since the beast appeared running at top speed, probably after catching our smell, and we - they - started fighting it. I¡¯ve been only watching since now, letting the boys to fight the beast on their own. My hope is that one of them actually encountered some insight while fighting but the chance that it happened is small, letting them keep going would put them in a risk that I¡¯m not confident enough to take however, so it¡¯s time to end things.


    Sadly to keep myself out of the fight I had to negotiate with the frasan and the time was bought with the need to give their young ¡°the honor¡± to deliver the last blow. I easily took the offer at the time, it¡¯s not like delivering it will give something especial, it serves only to inflate some kind of sick ego that those people have.


    It was a good trade still, even if they did not found an insight I¡¯m sure that they at least got closer, and being a spectator made clear a lot of things that I would find hard to notice if I was also fighting. Things like how close Fliytch is from leveling, needing only the last small push to cross the wall, push that I intend to give by pressuring him now that I know that I can. Things like how Ainmh¡¯s movements are now better and how he can be now trusted with harder tasks and son. Sadly there were bad things noticed too, like how, no matter for how much long the fight kept going the young frasan would not be able to end the beast on his own.


    But a vow is a vow, so we are going with a new plan.


    With no spare time or chance to see if my order got through I trust the band and our years together to believe it did and start my part, I speak the language, my voice not my own as I say the familiar words of power and earth essence fills my body, then, the earth beneath me. As fast as it came the sudden boost of essence is gone, leaving me only with the mess it made inside my body and the dozen roots that now fight to lock the beast down.


    The beast, four meters tall with maybe six or seven of length and who knows how much weight of pure muscle fights the roots back, it breaks them just as fast as they grow back, crashing around while using its own gift to keep the others far enough and unable to attack while it does. For a few seconds we fight to a standstill, roots against muscles as my blood boils at the sight of challenge after so long, sadly and to my displeasure our standstill quickly crumbles, even a mixed-breed cannot go against the difference of levels for long.


    Concluding the same the beast stops using its winds to keep the others from getting close and completely focuses on cutting and breaking my roots, for a few more seconds we fight to a standstill once more, now roots against muscles and wind. I tinge of sadness runs through me as I see myself wanting to keep fighting it, to let it live and let it come challenge me once it¡¯s stronger, but again, a vow is a vow so I shake off the feeling.


    I pour more essence into the ground, my roots multiplying as I devour everything around myself to overwhelm the beast using my full power, the least that I can do. Trees whither and the ground dries as their essence is taken from them by force, the beast notice the wrongness happening around it and starts fighting back with more hurry, but it¡¯s already of no use, its realization too late.


    I will my essence into a last strike and the roots follow true, the beast is pinned to the ground by a dozen and more, unable to move.


    ¡°NOW¡±  - I say, and the infused with essence word travels fast and heavy in the air after leaving my mouth, not exactly on purpose, I just burned enough essence at the time that some escaped with my voice, but it¡¯s not like it matters.


    As I wait for the others true to their name the devouring roots devour, they dig the beast in while its hard muscles and hide do little to stop the wood as it find its way deeper and deeper into flesh. Not ready to give up the beast howls in rage and pain and so does the wind, it calls for its gift once more, the air answering with a number too hard to count of wind blades that crash again and again against the roots that cage it. Differently from the last time though, the wind blades are not able to cut the roots more deep than half of their width and that¡¯s a damage that I can simply ignore by devouring more of its blood and essence, as said, it¡¯s of no use, too late already.


    With the corner of my eye I watch as Fliytch moves fast and heavy in the direction of the now forced still and unprotected beast, his muscles as large as the roots that I made with a deep purple consuming the reddish-pink of his skin, his gift used. He throws his shield aside, wielding his sword with the two hands and jumping high in the air, only to fall a second later as his sword bites deep into the beasts flesh.


    The beast gives a low howl in response to being cut and a second later Eann¡¯s and Ainmh¡¯s attacks arrive, a spear of earth and a blade of wind, both aiming at its eyes. The beast however barely tries to dodge the strikes, all the blood taken by the roots leaving it weak and drowsy. It still tries though, the beast throws its head to the side and the strikes find its shoulders, they pierce a few centimeters deep but fail to inflict real damage as the force behind the level two attacks is absorbed by the beast¡¯s fur.


    But those were meant only as distractions.


    The earth moves beneath my feet not by my will as I sense it before seeing, the ¡°giant¡± earth spear brought forth by the young frasan and Brod¡¯s combined efforts. The plan was to use him as support ¨C counter measure - to deal with the fact that the young master¡¯s essence is too erratic and chaotic to be controlled in a real fight.


    From the brief research done before accepting the contract I would never believe that a big family like the frasan would be so stupid as to over-feed their seeds with herbs only to gain a little boost of essence at the price of not even being able to use the gained strength, even more as said research showed that said seed is one of the best that they have, but they did, and that¡¯s reason that no matter how much chances the boys gave or give him, they would simply not be long enough.


    My roots however, are able to overpower the beast for the unrealistic long time that he needs to gather essence and will it into an attack. Unrealistic time that eventually came to an end.


    The beast had no chance, unable to move the spear easily found its side and pierced hide, flesh and heart of creature in a single movement, leaving only my roots preventing the beast from falling down right away as it took the last moments of its life.


    -


    We both gave a sigh of relief when we found that there were no big injures nor any deaths in the fight. Like an invisible set of shackles the tension left my body and I felt lighter, finally free from the worries that consumed me in the back of my mind without my notice.


    We came only a few minutes after the battle ended as Eisg was somehow able to accurately know the exact time to come back if someone was in danger, as I said however, they were not, and that made us focus on the next more important thing. Not that it was an easy to ignore one.


    My eyes fell on the huge mountain of a beast that we first saw at the distance, now closer, and focusing on the details. Its fur is more of a messy ash than the silver grey that I first thought of, going almost black at the top of its back and head. The body is a blend of wolf and some kind of feline for what I can tell, being something like a small structured giant wolf or a big muscled golden eyed furry cat, giving the beast the feeling of being both agile and strong.


    I keep staring at it for few minutes more, unable to shake of the feeling of awe and fear that it gives off, trying to imagine how it looked alive, how strong it really was. I follow the now uneven ground and its scars gained while both sides battled trying to recreate what happened inside my head with finding no success until I finally give up with a last glance towards the giant earth spear that killed it, promising to soon be able to wield such power myself


    As I make my way back to the center of the clearing I notice that most of the mercenaries is either doing some camp work or being healed by Eisg - with a few exceptions here and there - so I busy myself with something too.


    I¡¯ll let cultivating for later as I hardly think that the group would survive another huge fight like of the last night, and even if they did, I don¡¯t think that their good grace for me would.