“What in the name of Allfather is it?” Arjun asked, trying to hone his senses onto it in order to determine its exact nature, which was proving to be oddly difficult, though by all rights it should be just the opposite. “An incredibly dense concentration of essence.” He frowned, thinking aloud. “Yet, it’s not kernel.”
James didn’t seem alarmed. If anything, he appeared amused, though the earlier discussion had left behind a lingering sadness, something Arjun’s mental talent enabled him to sense. “And what does that signify?” asked the Cleric.
The answer was obvious, yet the solution to this mystery wasn’t. “It’s not inside any living being, of course.”
Then, like a bolt out of the blue, the answer presented itself. Seems his days spent secretly poring over Thurma’s cache of old books hadn’t been a complete waste, after all.
“Natural Manifestation!!! Still in the process of forming.” Arjun lurched to his feet, ready to dash off into the forest to investigate. “Never thought I’d be able to witness one myself.”
“Hold your horses.” James put up a warding hand. “Or rather, hold both ours. I’m going to walk. There aren’t any Clerics around for miles, or any human for that matter. But still, this is like a beacon for anyone with essence senses. You can’t satisfy your curiosity if you’re dead.”
And so, more than half a bell later, with an impatient Arjun complaining about their slow and deliberate progress through the dense underbrush, the two of them finally stepped into a clearing. Ahead, inside a narrow aperture leading underground, probably an abandoned den of a badger mole, the object of their search glowed a luminous blackish ocher, totally blotting out his essence senses, so great was the brightness.
Before James could utter another word of caution, Arjun hurriedly approached, bent down, then trusting his eyes more than his senses, fished the iridescent object out of the hole.
Then promptly dropped it, and began trying to Heal his scalded palm, only to notice with his eyes that they looked pristine, when he could’ve sworn his flesh was about to melt right off his bones.
“Sigrid’s Balls!!! What’s going on?”
“Impetuousness of youth.” James shook his head in disappointment. “Don’t trust your essence senses so near a Manifested Gem still forming.”
Arjun looked down in embarrassment. “Reflex action. Couldn’t help myself.” Then, peering down at the object of his fascination, he said, “What’s its attunement? Can you tell?”
“Yes. And so can you.” James tied the reins on the trunk of a nearby neem tree and came over. “In fact, this will be a good exercise for the future, although the prospect of encountering another one in the wild is remote.”
“Have you seen many?” asked Arjun, as his Crown Chakra began to gradually sort through all the contradictory information being received through his senses.
In a small region around the multi-faceted fist-sized spherical Gem, the very nature of essence was being fundamentally altered. The wet soil, the humid air, even the few mosquitoes buzzing around hoping for a quick snack, all seemed to want to morph into what the Gem represented, into its essence. The golden wisps of kernel the tiny insects possessed resisted the invasive effects with more success. Any essence not attuned to living beings – that is to say, not kernel – fared much worse. Even the air warped around the Gem, sending out waves of essence, messing up all his senses.
“My second in the wild. But I’ve been around a while,” James said, standing opposite him. “Seen a dozen or so in Alchemical Labs. Those are refined though. Much safer to handle. As for its attunement,” he cocked his head, “close your eyes, begin filtering out the Gem, and then, try to sense the surroundings.”
Easier said than done, but hoping the rewards will be worth the effort, Arjun did as instructed.
At first, he wasn’t getting anywhere.
Sensing his frustration, the Cleric said in an encouraging tone, “No rush here. Take it slow and tell me what you sense. Even the most trivial feeling might hold the key.”
After ten or so blinks, Arjun felt something. “I sense the ground.”
James grunted in agreement. “That is to be expected, given your affinities. How is the soil being altered in the vicinity of the Gem?”
“It’s compacting the particles further away, and reducing the density immediately underneath it.”
“And what is replacing the soil particles that are being moved away?”
“Nothing,” Arjun said, brows furrowed and eyes closed. “Well, air I suppose, but I can barely sense it.”
“What’s stopping the Gem from sinking into the ground as if it’s quicksand, then?”
Arjun was about to repeat his earlier answer, when he grinned, opening his eyes.
“The air isn’t behaving like a fluid. It’s acting as if it’s as solid as the surrounding ground. Air-attuned Manifested Gem, as rare as they come.”
James shared his grin. “Precisely.”
“Can I keep it?” Arjun asked, a bit of avarice leaking into his tone, though not for gold, but for power. The duel with the aditaru had left an indelible mark on his mind.
“Since you sensed and found it first, it’s yours,” James said, “once it’s finished forming, which should be any blink now.” He walked over to Ria, and after rummaging around for a bit, produced an intricate metal box from deep within his pack. “Put it in there,” he said as the Gem stopped altering the laws of nature around it and decided to settle down.
With a feeling of apprehension in his heart, Arjun picked the Manifested Gem up. Unlike before, it appeared almost innocuous now, just a weirdly beautiful Gem that glowed soft purple. After he’d placed it in the box and closed the lid, he asked, “I sense... vibration, even now.”
“Essence Nodes, or simply Nodes,” James said, confirming his suspicions. “Cosmic Nodes, some call it. Freshly formed, anchoring this Gem to the fabric of the Cosmos.”
“Do the Alchemic Gems also possess these Nodes?”
James gave a wry smile. “Unfortunately, no.” He took the box from Arjun and placed it in his own pack. “For safekeeping. Till we reach the Uni. Some of the Artificer Masters may want to take a look at this.”
“Of course,” said Arjun, unable to hide a happy grin. “This day is turning out to be illuminating, sometimes too much for my eyes, and Chakras, to bear.” Then the grin vanished and his head turned sharply to the south. “And the excitement isn’t likely to abate any time soon, though I think I can live without excitement of this sort. There are a score or more people behind us, one hiding his tread.”
“Are you sure? How far behind are they?” James sounded skeptical, probably because he didn’t sense them himself.
“I’m sure. They must have picked up our trail again, or they’ve somehow sensed the Gem. About two miles, just inside my range of earth senses.”
James looked at him with something close to approval. His own range was about one and a half miles. They had discussed earth sense and ways of improving it yesterday.
Every Cleric had an inherent sensory range, whether through earth, air or any other medium. It varied widely from barely a few feet to several miles, with the legendary Ascendant Leopold having a reputed range that spanned both the known continents, though Arjun personally thought it’s more likely just an example of the mists of time obscuring and glorifying the past. But perhaps being an Ascendant, normal restrictions didn’t apply to him. They certainly did to Arjun, and since the only known way of improving the range was practice, he’d been at it since ten. His father didn’t even have to prod. Arjun enjoyed passively observing his surroundings. Knowing, without letting anyone know.
“I can feel them now.” His ever-cautious nature ensured James hadn’t yet unpacked their gear, perhaps anticipating the blazing beacon, otherwise known as a Manifested Gem, would attract unsavory attention sooner rather than later. “You take Ria’s rein, I’m going to run. Need contact with the ground. We’ll head north through a deer track that I found while hunting. Try your best to keep up,” he said, and then exploded into a burst of enviable speed like a tiger, promptly vanishing between two neem trees. Other than the minimized vibrations inevitably caused by his running feet, he might as well have an apparition himself.
Taking Ria’s rein, Arjun followed on his own horse, slightly bemused. How can James keep pace with a galloping horse? It would be him that would be slowing them down, not the other way around.
Arjun’s doubts soon turned to astonishment and shock, as he had to urge both horses to catch up with James who not only was sprinting as fast as a horse, but didn’t even seem winded.
Seeing the amazement clearly visible in his features, James gave a smile. “You still have a heck of a lot to learn, kid.”
Arjun couldn’t help but grin in return. So he did.
After about one mile, they came out of the forest into a paddy field that stretched as far as the eye could see, with a narrow raised earthen path bisecting it.
“Not being able to create shields is going to hamper your defensive capabilities.” Seeing the glum expression on Arjun’s face, James added, “As your father demonstrated throughout his career, it’s not an insurmountable barrier to becoming a good Battle Cleric.”
This made Arjun perk up in pride. His father often claimed the greatest flaw a prospective Cleric could possibly have is not lack of ability, but lack of desire to overcome any lack of ability.
“Try to take the attack to them before they get a full measure of your capabilities.” James must have sensed their enemies and seemed worried. “How fast can you make a wall out of soil? Soft soil like this here.”
“Never timed it, but I’m almost as fast as my father, at least in short bursts. Why? How many are there?”
“I sense a full squad of soldiers and one Cleric. They have changed course to intercept us. There’s also another squad and possibly an Earth Cleric behind us, but further away. I’ll have to incapacitate or kill the Cleric first, and quickly. You must slow down the soldiers till then. They’re riding fast, a quickly built wall will be very effective. Wait till they commit, then build a knee-high wall.”
“I’ll try, but I’ve never really fought anyone outside a practice ring before.” And never anyone other than his father, as it would raise too many questions.
Until now, Arjun hadn’t fully grasped the enormity of the challenge lying ahead of them. James’ warning brought home the fact that he had no choice but to fight – and Aimin forbid – kill another human being. The hands holding the reins of Ria kept losing their grip due to sweat, and all the fluid exiting his pores seemed to be coming from his throat region.
No, he told himself, fighting may be mandatory, but killing definitely isn’t.
“Just remember, they won’t hesitate to kill, or worse, capture you.” James looked hard at him for a time before taking out his shortsword.
Arjun tightened his signature and managed a nod, still nervous.
“Why is capture worse?” he asked, just as around the bend ahead in the path, about twenty soldiers, not lowly Guards but Imperial Troopers, came into view. After catching sight of the two of them, they kicked their horses into a gallop. One Cleric in his distinctive brown cloak stayed back.
Arjun’s heart was hammering inside his chest so fast he thought he could hear it. Wiping the perspiring palms, he did what Thurma always said one should do in crises. He took a deep breath, released it, then kept repeating the process. James had offered him a spare knife the other day, but he’d declined, not really accustomed to fighting with one. That may have been an unwise decision. Fortunately, it was only one squad. The natural physical advantage of being a Manipulator with three Chakras Awakened and another three opened or dormant should be more than sufficient, he reminded himself.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
When the galloping soldiers were seventy or so feet away, three of them unslung heavy crossbows and started firing yard-long strelenium-tipped iron arrows, all of them at James. It seemed they’d already figured out James was the more dangerous foe and had to be eliminated first.
All the arrows hit something invisible about a foot in front of James and clattered to the ground, arrowheads bent out of shape.
Invisible to the naked eye, but glowing a pale bluish-yellow in Arjun’s essence senses.
His eyes widened. That’s as dense an air-essence construct as he’d ever seen. Not even strelenium was able to punch through. His father could form something similar, but they always stayed attached to his Palm Chakras or gloves, while creating slight perturbation in the air that often gave away their nature to the discerning eye. This one was connected to the Cleric’s rapidly moving figure by nothing more than a thin barely discernible thread of essence.
The soldiers showed not a hint of surprise, though. Apparently this trick, although new and wondrous to Arjun, was known to the Imperial Troopers. Even outlawed books were suspiciously devoid of any details about the fighting prowess of Battle Clerics. Far too much speculation and not enough concrete details. As such, just the opening salvo itself was quite illuminating for Arjun. But, all his excitement was smothered by the quivering anxiety ahead of the impending clash.
As the Cleric in brown cloak stepped forward to engage James, all twenty Troopers swerved and headed toward Arjun.
Quieting his thundering heart, Arjun ignored the faces of his swiftly approaching enemies and concentrated on judging distance. When they were less than fifty feet distant, he scurried down from his horse and placed both his Palms flat against the ground, facing the oncoming Troopers. With four secondary Chakras aiding him, a five feet high earthen wall formed in front of them in a blink. The first row of ten horses slammed right into it, causing the riders to go flying through the air. Most never got up when they came crashing down to earth. One was trampled by Ria and one, although apparently suffering from a broken arm, tried to attack Arjun with a truncheon, strangely enough.
The second row of ten managed to jump the earthen wall only to crash face-first into an essence-construct. None of them got up.
Apparently, there were some tricks that even veteran Troopers hadn’t seen before. For instance, an invisible wall made of air that doesn’t require the Cleric to actively maintain it. Not even using the thinnest of threads. Arjun sensed the essence-construct dissolve away only a few blinks later, but it had done its job with more efficacy than his earthen one. But no more attention could be spared for the injured Troopers or air-shields as Arjun’s own foe was already bearing down on him.
After a blink of hesitation, he managed to evade the truncheon partially, suffering a glancing blow to his right forearm in the process. The man’s injuries seemed to be hampering his movements, because Arjun dodged his next two strikes with relative ease, and on the third, as the Trooper over-extended himself and lost his balance, Arjun delivered a blow to the back of his neck with the side of his palm. The man went limp, knocked out cold.
Degenerative Healing was far more effective when your opponent can’t put up any form of shield.
That left only three others, one of whom, the squadleader judging by the single laurel on the right shoulder of his warded leather armor, uncorked a dark-green vial and chugged the contents down in one go. Within a blink, his dislocated left shoulder popped back into place with an audible crack.
His fellow Trooper seemed to have come out of the ordeal with only a few scrapes and bruises. Together, the two battle-hardened warriors took out their batons, and cautiously approached him from opposite directions.
Arjun’s eyes darted to the swords at their waist in confusion, but any thoughts of asking them the reason for their choice of weapon fled as the third Trooper, still coughing up blood, managed to rally his flagging strength one last time to shoot a quarrel at Arjun’s back. At the same time, the two baton-wielding warriors pounced.
After his initial bout of nervousness, Arjun had fully come to realize one undeniable truth. Fighting a Manipulator, especially one who could affect both earth and body, was a foolhardy endeavor for even the strongest of mundane warriors – unless they ganged up on him, and even then, the cost to take the Manipulator down would be steep. Every single Chakra opened or Awakened offered physical benefits, with time the only limiting factor for the upper bound of those benefits. Someone as young and inexperienced as Arjun would still be far too much to handle for three mundane warriors, even if they were the cream of the crop – which these were. But his earlier moment of hesitation, one caused by his previous fight with the aditaru, which had ended with him killing another sentient lifeform, made Arjun decide to prolong this fight. A short fight would end with more death.
A sharp signal from the Sole Chakra of his right foot created a thin but extremely sturdy earthen wall that deflected the quarrel, sending it careening toward the aghast squadleader who had no time to react. In the next blink, lowering his head and leaning to the left using an earth-induced push from his right Sole, Arjun evaded the thrust from the second Trooper, and in the process, delivered a gentle open-palmed strike to his abdomen, knocking the man out instantly using rapid degenerative Healing. Then, with a swift kick of his left Sole Chakra, he disrupted the still-standing squadleader’s stance, sending him sprawling to the ground, where he was buried alive, though still conscious, with a quarrel sticking out of his left thigh.
Slowly ambling up to the groaning man’s side, Arjun bent down and placed his right Palm on the injured Trooper’s head. “Disappointing,” he said, putting him to sleep by disrupting the kernel leading to his Crown. A quick glance at the archer revealed his attention would be unnecessary, as the man had already slipped into oblivion, though thankfully not the permanent kind.
Barely fifty blinks had passed since the Imperial Troopers had been sighted, and now, most were either unconscious or dead. Arjun didn’t know how to feel about that. Not that he was looking forward to fighting more.
Further ahead in the paddy field, now slick with blood, a solitary moaning figure could be discerned, the only casualty of the air-wall still among the living. But Arjun decided upon examining the man that he wouldn’t be a threat to a kitten anytime within the next week. He then glanced around, trying to locate James, only to find him locked in a closely-fought battle with the Cleric.
Arjun had always wished to see a Cleric-duel with his own eyes, not just through his father and mother’s stories, which he now understood to be based on firsthand experience, although sanitized for an eleven-year-old child. The duel was both exhilarating and frightening, as it was raw, unfiltered, and unedited.
And a glimpse into his own future, he hoped.
To Arjun’s untrained eye, they seemed to be equally matched in terms of both strength and skill.
By now, less than a hundred blinks after the start of their duel, the ground in the immediate vicinity of the two was all churned up, looking more like coastal southwestern Aiminia after a spring cyclone had made landfall. There were broken bits of earth everywhere, even pieces of tree trunks lay haphazardly around, providing treacherous footing, not that it seemed to be bothering either of them, each moving with the grace of a tiger, using earth Manipulation to hasten, slide, or push their steps. The debris also provided ample opportunities for hurling projectiles, which the enemy Cleric did on every chance he got. With preternatural close-range senses, James effortlessly glided through the storm, the earth and essence mesh he’d spread throughout the area tracking them all with unerring, and often uncanny, accuracy. The few sticks and stones he couldn’t dodge, James blocked using small air-shields loosely tied to his whirling Palms.
Frustrated by the evasive maneuvers, the enemy Cleric formed a massive cylindrical column that tapered to a sharp point, made from packed earth, and tried to spear James with it. It crashed into an invisible shield, but the sheer momentum knocked James backward, where he landed on a quickly-made air-shield that arrested his fall. His precaution proved life-saving since as soon as his feet touched ground, it became quicksand and he started sinking like a boulder. James recovered swiftly, somehow reforming the soil, then stabbed the earth with his sword. What followed was an incredible burst of speed where he attacked his opponent with his gloved hands, leaving the sword behind which was promptly and inexplicably swallowed up by the ground.
Somewhat taken aback by this strange tactic, the enemy Cleric tried to duplicate his previous success with the earthen column. But James, who had anticipated just such a move, using a mighty burst of brownish-ocher essence, created an earth Manipulation induced thrust, enabling him to leap ten feet in the air, narrowly evading the deadly column. The Cleric’s senses must’ve picked up the dagger-like constructs hidden beneath the smooth surface of the column. Arjun’s own senses detected them just a shade too late. Had it been him instead of the battle-hardened veteran, he would’ve resembled a porcupine after that exchange.
Next, as the two battling Clerics came closer together, with only a distance of about five feet separating them, a blur of motion followed where each tested the other with lightning-quick jabs that were blocked by even faster transient air-shields no larger than Arjun’s head. Creating full-body shields like Enfolders was, of course, too inefficient for even 5th order Battle Clerics, consuming far too much essence and kernel. And stamina.
Then, something unexpected happened. A display of earth Manipulation the exact mechanics of which escaped Arjun’s keen but inexperienced eyes, even the other Cleric’s far more seasoned ones.
The old sword suddenly reappeared right in front of James on the ground, with the hilt pointing toward the sky. The Cleric blocked the subsequent stab with his own shield and grunted in pain, surprised that the sword had all but penetrated his defenses.
Eyes wide in bewilderment, Arjun saw that the shortsword now sported a narrow bluish-purple band along the inner edge, an edge that seemed to come alive as a huge burst of kernel and essence entered it through James’ right Palm Chakra.
An essence-conductive sword!!
The odd metal was quite literally the opposite of strelenium. How in the name of the Creator was the sword even structurally sound? Their opposing nature should’ve by now started breaking down the edge, at the very least. The steel it was mostly made up of was no ordinary steel, but made by expert Smiths. Yet, here it was, gleaming a clean deadly blue with a hint of occasional purple, the tiny sigils on it glowing like heavenly fireflies. Besides looking formidable, the edge also facilitated air-blades, a fact that the Aiminian Cleric was in the process of finding out first hand.
A grin of sheer delight appeared on Arjun’s face. James truly was a WeaponsMaster!! And one of considerable skill. Last couple of week’s practice with the man had already informed Arjun that the Cleric was also a certified CombatMaster, though he preferred fighting with a sword.
However, Arjun’s delight was short-lived. The enemy Cleric’s warded-armor, a leather vest glowing a steady blue from all the sigils, had managed to block the worst of the blow. Not surprisingly, it looked to be of a superior quality than the ones worn by the Troopers. Arjun’s rudimentary knowledge in sigils indicated it somehow smoothened the flow of kernel inside the torso, apart from providing an additional layer of physical protection, which he’d only needed once thus far due to his shield.
I really need to learn how to create this air-shield. It could come in very handy, Arjun thought to himself, silently cursing his own lack of affinity for the element which was arguably the most useful of them all, since it was all but ubiquitous.
But the strike and simultaneous subtle earth Manipulation that broke the man’s footing had served its purpose. It had distracted the Cleric for a blink. And in closely-fought battles such as this one, a blink was an eternity.
Taking the opportunity provided by this lapse in concentration at the crucial moment, James continued his attack with increased vigor, thrusting the heel of his left hand toward the enemy’s chest. The hand slowed slightly after encountering the shield, as both the Palm and sigils flashed brighter.
Then, after a long, drawn-out moment of struggle, the hand smashed through, hitting the Cleric square in the chest, swiftly dissolving the armor, sigil and all. What followed was a sickening crunch of broken ribcage. In the next blink, a crimson left hand came out of the back, spraying blood and gore everywhere. The macabre sight reminded Arjun of his own battle less than a week ago, one that still kept him awake at nights.
The man’s kernel signature broke apart, and he went limp, tumbling to the ground. But before Arjun could even heave a sigh of relief, he felt a sharp sting around his neck. Brushing the area with his right hand, he found a tiny red dart.
“Oh”, Arjun murmured, then slumped to the ground, having lost all feelings in his legs.
Paralyzing toxin, his Crown Chakra supplied. He couldn’t move a muscle, not even to cry out and warn James about another Cleric standing right behind him. A tall thin Cleric wearing a muted green cloak with a cruel smirk on his face.
But James’ situational awareness was honed through decades of combat, and he turned just in time to block a knife thrust to his abdomen. Then, using the momentum from a rapidly thrust out column of earth, he jumped away and landed into a crouch.
As the fight took the two Clerics outside his field of view, Arjun cursed inwardly, being unable to even move his head to follow the battle. This must be one of the more accomplished Battle Clerics of the Order, as Arjun sensed all the eight secondary Chakras, as well as six primary ones, with three of them Awakened, their state, and density eclipsing even James’.
Arjun prayed to the Allfather for his traveling companion’s safety and his own, then concentrated on trying to ascertain the exact poison coursing through his system.
Maybe Allfather does listen to helpless young men trying to flee murderous Clerics.
The poison was Jamrag’s root extract. He knew it. He knew how to get rid of it, purify the body, and remedy the damage. So he set about doing just that. Within a fraction of a bell, though it felt like a lifetime to the heavily perspiring Arjun, he’d managed to convert almost all the poison into harmless waste, most dissipating through sweat.
Finally, being able to, Arjun moved his head. What he saw before him opened up a bottomless pit in his stomach.
James, it seemed, was faring rather poorly against the Cleric. He was buried up to his thighs and bleeding profusely from three deep gashes to his torso.
The cloaked Cleric leaned down toward him, his back to Arjun. “Where’s the Tome of Time?” the man asked in a voice dripping with perverse pleasure. “What about the location of the other Artifacts?”
Even helpless as he was, James eyed the Cleric with disdain, but remained silent.
“The way I see it, you have only two choices. Either you answer here and die quickly, or you answer in the Blackhold, and die slowly. Very, very slowly. I myself am hoping for the latter.” The man gave a wicked smile. “The boy comes with me either way.”
Sensing the Cleric’s next move, which would undoubtedly send James’ soul to the Eternal Halls, Arjun moved his fingers, then arms and coughed, sending a low vibration through the soil, which sent the clearly-surprised Cleric toppling to the ground. Taking advantage of the momentary distraction, the Battle Cleric leapt out of his vertical burial chamber, sword in hand, and just as the cloaked Cleric staggered to his feet, in one swift two-handed horizontal motion, James decapitated the man using the sharpest air-blade Arjun had ever seen.
“Cleanup will be messy,” he mumbled, still in shock.
With blood squirting from the headless corpse, the rest of the body slowly tumbled to the ground beside the absolutely tapped-out Battle Cleric, who paid it no heed. His tired gaze was locked onto Arjun.
“Cleanup will have to wait. Can you handle the Troopers? Only one squad left.” Seeing Arjun’s hesitant nod, the Cleric gave a wry smile, “You handled yourself well. But everything has a price. Especially success.”
Arjun shuffled his feet, forcibly averting his gaze from the headless man. Thank Aimin I’m not prone to anti-peristalsis.
“What will you be doing?” he asked after an experimental swallow.
“Resting,” replied James, then unceremoniously slumped to the ground, unconscious.