Oros was a hard worker.
His vision grew blurrier and darker as the sounds of the world outside muted. His own breathing grew faster, yet his mind remained sharp and his focus honed into an even sharper point on the glowing green stone underneath him as he held the plank position with a weight above him.
Specifically on his back, weighing five hundred pounds.
His muscles burned, his joints shooting with sharp pain as the constant abuse on his skeletal system began to be felt. Yet he could not lose focus on the channeling stone underneath him as he held his plank strong above it looking down upon it.
His reflexes warned him, and he momentarily lifted one arm up and off the ground, going into a one armed plank position for a split moment as he shifted his body to dodge the rock that was aimed for his nether regions, all while taking special care to avoid jostling the weight from its position on his back.
His soul burned bright and he felt the familiar feeling of its light misty energy course through his muscles. The stone began to hum as a yellow glow began to expand outward from the center, covering the green, and as the yellow expansion crossed the first marked circle on the stone he strained his mind with a burst of mental intensity that began to make his head spin, and his efforts were rewarded as he felt the energy burn just that little bit stronger than the last time as the expanding yellow glow reached just over halfway to the second circle of measurement on the stone.
“Two-and-a-half… if I push it just a bit more…”
His intentions were foiled by something solid striking him squarely in the nose however.
“Krk!”
His nose crumpled inwards slightly at the force of the rock, his arm almost instinctively came up to his face which threw his plank off-balance.
The yellow expanding glow disappeared as the stone returned to glowing a mere green and he fell onto one hand as the weight finally got the better of him.
He threw it off his back immediately and strained to roll out of the way. And no sooner than a split second after, an impact dug into the dirt where his head previously was.
“An acceptable enough expansion… for someone of your talent” came a biting remark, although one with no venom. As though the facts were merely being stated.
He hastily drew the wooden blade and intercepted the following strike which hit with force enough to make the wood creak dangerously and break his guard, leaving him open. The follow-up blow towards his neck was a feint he read correctly, and instead he ignored it and brought his blade down to offset the less obvious thrust that came his way into the ground.
He flashed out a thrust of his own, muscles exploding with second stage aura to propel the blade as fast as he could, only for the strike to be offset, his blade caught in a bind, his opponent sliding the blade down the length of his own to bring both their hilts close together from where he nearly received a pommel to the face which he barely leaned sideways out of.
At such close proximity he let go of his blade and tried lashing out with an aura enhanced fist at Master Venithius’s face, only to have it redirected in a textbook display of the Testudo Fist style the man was known for and to receive a counter-punch in the face for his efforts which sent Oros tumbling a dozen feet backwards to the ground.
“While every part of your body is a weapon and unpredictable attacks should be relied upon, simply throwing the attack and hoping for the best will only lead to your death,” the stern voice lectured. “Even when throwing a desperate move, even when strained to your limits… always be ready for the counter. Have a follow up ready.” He was correct of course.
He hopped back up and hefted his sword once more and nodded at his instructor, “I understand… let’s continue Master, I’m good to go again.”
Master Venithius eyed him up and down, eyeing the numerous bruises over his body from their previous spars in the day and then stared at him in the eyes for five long seconds. Which was his polite - or as polite as could be expected from him anyways – way of saying no.
“Do as you do, I’ll be back to whip you around some more tomorrow Oros.” And with that Master Venithius turned and began working with the next nearest initiate.
Oros didn’t say a word and instead walked over to the weight and hefted it overhead, continuing his tireless work. Mutters, chuckles and whispers from the surrounding initiates going ignored.
“You just can’t quit with your cliché protagonist work ethic can you Oros?” asked a voice from behind.
Flavius Cucuphas, a decently talented but middling initiate held back by his lack of work ethic and desire to improve. Friendly enough man from a good family, he always treated Oros well despite him having no last name of his own. He was a friend.
“Not all of us got in due to having natural talent and a good family name Flav,” uttered Oros as he began pressing the weight overhead, straining with each repetition yet still concentrating on the stone on the ground in front of him. “Besides… multi-tasking is more efficient and leads to greater aura capacity gains if one can be bothered to put themselves through the strain.”
“You don’t have to kill yourself though… you could still make a decent rank as an officer in the city guard once you’re out, or even the legions… which is usually unthinkable for a born first stage orphan who’s a civil exam inductee”, replied Flavius with an almost sympathetic tone. “You certainly work hard enough that you’ve already surpassed a lot of expectations.”
“Perhaps… but why would I ever settle for just that when I haven’t yet seen the limits of where my hard work can take me?” Oros fired back. After all, it was the one thing he could control.
Flavius walked in front of Oros and pulled his own channeling stone out, the rock immediately turning orange, only a scant inch from crossing over into red. “I admire that work ethic, I do… but isn’t the starting line a bit unfairly different?”
“Hard work beats talent. With enough time, the starting line matters less than the pace you go at.”
To his credit, Flavius looked almost contemplative at the words, as though he was just now realizing his own talent and how much more he could achieve if he worked hard. Unfortunately, one of the reasons for his lazy attitude came barreling in behind him providing a most unwelcome distraction to Oros’s training.
“Well if it isn’t my two favourite people!” exclaimed a bubbly voice as the owner wrapped her arms around Flavius and began kissing him in an unsightly display of public affection that had Oros rolling his eyes.
Oros never had a family. But if he ever were to have an annoying younger sister Viria Carina would be exactly that. While Aura users like Flavius and himself were initiates of the Xuldivia School of Aura Studies, Mages like Viria were initiates of the Osthagos School of Magic Studies just across the road from them, both under the same academy however different branches.
“I’m surprised he’s still one of your favourites after he was eying up that ‘archer bitch’ yesterday?” Oros instigated and smiled as Viria’s smile faded and she levelled Flavius with a cold look that had him sweating and glaring at Oros in equal measure.
“Ah yes… that hussy knew exactly what she was doing showing him ‘proper archery form’… dumb slut doesn’t know her place anyways. Why would Flavius ever want her when he has a real mage?” Viria arrogantly replied. Mages were on average seen as having a higher status in the Kingdom of Hallourith, so her arrogance was understandable if a bit unsightly. His thoughts must’ve shown on his face however. “I see you’re having no fun as usual Oros,” drawled Viria as she stuck a tongue out at him from over Flavius’s shoulder which she had her head leaned on. “Tell me you’re halfway done at least? The Auxlavian Festival is tonight and I want to go meet the visiting soldiers from Anthamar, I want to see what their initiates look like,” she complained.
“Well, he received his last beating for the day just now, so he’s almost done after… three more exercises?” asked Flavius, looking to Oros for confirmation.
“Aye… seventy-eight more of these, and then a set of a hundred throws and a set of a hundred weighted jumps.” Said Oros. “And of course, ten weighted laps and forty regulars around the outside of the arena.”
She sighed. “We’ll see you at the Arkanos Plaza at midnight for the moon ceremony then, our usual spot,” said Viria as she resigned on getting Oros to be done on any semblance of time. By any semblance of her time at least.
“Try not to work yourself into the grave Oros, you have all the time in the world for that,” muttered Flavius as the two walked off hand in hand leaving Oros be.
“Finally…”
----------------------------------------
The training concluded well enough, with Oros having made one more millimetre of progress towards the second circle of the yellow stage on his aura. Slow, tedious and gruelling work, but work that would one day pay off. It had gone on a bit longer than expected as he stayed back a few more hours than necessary and it was now nearly midnight.
He had thought of going to see the old man back home, but realized he had no time to make it there before the moons aligned so decided to do that tomorrow. Hopefully he’d still be at the quarry as usual.
He now found himself walking down towards the Arkanos Plaza, towards the usual spot where his friends would meet, the crowds bustling with activity to the point that it was hard to walk without bumping into someone as all manner of people walked about. People from all corners of the known world were here today. Understandable since while tonight was a yearly festival where the two moons aligned, two months from now the Traxlavian Festival would be held here where all three moons would align and that was a once in ten thousand years event. Given the auspicious event two months from now, seeing the smaller event of two moons aligning beforehand was a necessity.
A majority of the population of the capital city of Areslon were human, but there were also a sizeable population of Dwarves; typically miners, craftsmen, merchants, warriors and mercenaries as expected given their close ties with the crown. There were quite a lot of Dwarven warriors in attendance today though, perhaps Emperor Thudrum sent a delegation this year? Oros thought as he nearly stumbled over some of the shorter Dwarves in the crowd on his way to meet his friends.
Other races were in attendance too; a few visiting elves, likely wanderers or a merchant or emissary or two from the enclaves of Eltalen, mainly here to observe the magic of the moons’ alignment or trade some of the rare few things they allowed outside of their enclaves. He thought he spotted a fairy or two flitting about as well, alongside some green indicative of orcs, but it was rare for them to travel so far north aside from special occasions such as this. There were likely some people from other races in attendance, but their number was too low for Oros to pick any out in the crowd.
The Arkanos Plaza was a massive marble tiled open area spanning a length and width which would take an unawakened horse more than a full minute to cross even if galloping at full speed. It was a square area which had three colossal towers on three of its sides, the Grand Towers, with one side overlooking the Odorous Sea below giving a decent view, if the plaza was empty, which it never was. Of course, thus the plaza had a few viewing towers interspersed within the open area, no more than a few storeys high, allowing people to get a better view if they so desired.
Of course, with the festival going on space atop even the viewing towers was at a premium, so Oros was lucky to be friends with Flavius whose brother had managed to reserve their ‘usual spot’ for them officially.
It was five minutes to midnight, and Oros made his way through the bustle of the plaza to the roof of Viewing Tower III to finally find Flavius and Viria in their usual spot. Viria waved him over.
“I’m surprised you came at all! Be honest… how many hours did you stay back to work yourself to death?” She asked while levelling Oros an unimpressed look.
“I came over just now in all honesty,” he replied, getting an incredulous look from Viria and Flavius too.
“I’ve known you for a while now and can vouch that you’re certifiably insane and have some serious issues, but at least try to live life and enjoy yourself like a normal person from time to time…” Flavius remarked.
Oros rolled his eyes and just took a seat beside them on the marble bench. That’s why he hung out around them for.
“Isn’t your brother running the City Guard’s security detail for the Plaza tonight?” Oros asked.
“Why yes! They gave the honour to Lucius even though he’s the youngest officer on the City Guard. As expected of course, given that he was the top ranked Initiate of his class and personally slew two fire drakes single-handed during a raid last year,” Flavius proudly mentioned, as though Oros hadn’t heard it a dozen times already. But still… being proud of his family wasn’t something Oros would ever make fun of him for. He never had one himself.
Flavius then pointed to the guard tower near the center of the plaza right near the central stage and gestured for Oros to look. And he could see Lucius there, gleaming almost-glowing silver armor, halberd glowing with occasional flashes of emerald coloured aura in an impressive display meant to show prowess and assure the citizens that they were safe. He did look the part at least and made every regular guardsman around look like a grunt despite the fact that the plaza guards were all hand-picked honour guards with especially impressive looking armor.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
The plaza was surrounded by three towers on three sides, and one of the towers, the Royal Tower was connected to the palace and was also where the royal family was situated, a magnificent view of the plaza Oros was sure. And the light show from there was something to behold. There were plenty of magical lights all around the plaza, but it was still nighttime. The royal tower could make one forget that fact.
The royal family sat in makeshift thrones which were glowing, and they themselves flashed their high stage auras periodically to dazzle the masses. The King was sat atop his throne with a glass of wine in hand, the Crown Prince sat to the right of him, a quiet and contemplative man from the looks of it which was what the rumours said as well. The Princess was seated to the left of the Crown Prince and the Queen was to the right of the King. The royal family looked splendid and quite powerful individually, probably at a very high Mana or Aura core stage. However Oros was most set on-guard by a strange man who stood directly behind the King.
The Royal Guard were the very image of elite soldiers, glowing with barely suppressed energy, powerful and in a league beyond most people, however they still stood at attention and deferred to the King.
This strange man was almost leaning on the throne in a lazy manner, with a strange confidence and danger to him that Oros was sure others sensed too. The man likely exuded the feeling on purpose, something a lot of powerful people could do. He was pretty sure the man was Dashiin Valorus the fabled ‘Silver Claymore’, the Kingdom’s finest warrior and one of its most powerful military assets and a sort of check and balance which made the other powers wary of trifling with the Kingdom of Hallourith carelessly.
Oros recalled rumours stating that he could lay waste to an entire army by himself if he so desired and was said to be an eighth stage Aura user.
Without looking he was about to grab Flavius’s shoulder to draw attention to Dashiin when he realized he had laid hands on the wrong person. His hand was quickly shucked off as he also turned to look at the person who he would apologize to.
“Watch where your hands go young one.” The heavily armored Dwarf had a hood over his face, and spoke sternly as though he was impatient and couldn’t be bothered to waste time with Oros. The hand he shucked Oros’s off with drew his eye though.
A dark, sinister looking bracelet of strange make, certainly not Dwarven. It looked almost similar to some of the illustrations of Voidspawn artifacts he’d seen during lessons.
The Dwarf noticed his gaze and swiftly brought the cuff of his overcoat to cover the bracelet. He turned and walked away without a word or look.
Any further observations he might have made were cut short with a bang.
He looked up to see the Royal Magicians had launched a battery of flashy spells into the sky which created a spectacular display for all to revel in, and as the moons finally aligned the Auxlavian Festival was officially started.
The cheers and cries of the crowd drowned out much of Oros’s attempts to communicate with his friends, but he did manage to shout “Flavius! You think your brother can get us a better view from the Guard Tower?!”
“No! I asked earlier! Look at how busy he is up there! So much movement going on!” Flavius had to shout.
Oros looked over to the tower to see a lot of movement indeed. Flashes of aura… a body falling off the tower.
A body falling off?
Oros looked closer to see Lucius engaged in battle on the tower, and suddenly realized that cheers were starting to turn to screams and sounds of battle, not only atop the Grand Towers, which were far too distant to hear very much from, but from the crowd around them. A lot of the sound was being masked by the firework battery still being launched above… but it was unmistakeable… there was fighting going on.
Oros shook Flavius and turned to see the looks of worry and fear on his and Viria’s faces.
They needed to get out of there and report to the nearest officer for direction on what to do, those were their orders as Initiates, however neither of them had been in a true battle before and were accordingly worried.
Oros took the initiative and grabbed them both by the arm and started looking for the guards each Viewing Tower should have, only to suddenly have his world turned upside down.
It was an impact, and it was far harder than any Master Venithius had given him. His vision was upside down and as he was flying through the air he saw the Viewing Tower where he was, erupting in lightning from the epicenter, and he could almost swear he caught a glimpse of the Dwarf from earlier at the center of it.
“Urf!”
He fell four storeys onto the plaza floor below and thanked his second stage aura for allowing him to survive the shockwave of the attack. He was certain people nearer to the epicenter were not so lucky.
“V-Viria… Viria h-help!” he heard and turned to see Flavius on the ground, shaking madly as blue lightning coursed through his body. He’d been hit.
“Flavius! Hold for a moment! You’ll be alright, but you need to get up now! We have to get to the Guard Tower where your brother is!” Oros roared in his ear. He then placed a hand over Flavius’s chest and flooded the man with his own aura. It took a lot out of his meager reserves, but he at least managed to expel the lightning coursing through him. Flavius’s aura was at the third stage, he’d survive.
Flavius gasped for air as though he was drowning. “Oros… Oros! Where’s Viria?!” He frantically asked while his eyes flew everywhere.
“I don’t see her anywhere!” he shouted back. “We need to move Flavius!”
And as soon as he shouted the words he saw something in the periphery of his vision.
He rolled to his feet and avoided the sword that would have taken his head off. He drew his longsword and redirected the follow-up swing from the man that meant to kill him. Instinct and training took over and he returned three more attacks of his own, two of them high and meant to expose his opponent’s guard, the third a thrust meant to stab through the man’s leg or force a backwards step.
The man stumbled off-balance during the backwards leap to avoid Oros’s thrust and his neck lay exposed. The following swing from Oros took his head clean off as purplish aura fizzled out the exposed throat alongside blood spurts which painted the white marble red.
He had just killed a man.
And he did not have time to care.
The man, an Anthamarian soldier by the uniform and thankfully a second stage aura user like Oros, had attacked them. And by the looks of it, plenty more Anthamarian soldiers were partaking in this butchery of the people in the Plaza. All around, innocent people were being slain left, right and center by Anthamarians and Marrokian Dwarves. The air was lit up by spells, auric blasts, gunpowder and magical arrows and axes. And in the background, terrible shockwaves could be heard throughout the rest of the city.
And he wasn’t sure when it had happened, but the entire top half of the Royal Tower was gone.
Flavius had come to his feet, eyes wide open at the display and appeared frozen.
Oros had no time to speak to him and instead grabbed his friend by the arm and began dragging him to the Guard Tower at the center where it seemed the City Guard had gained control and many bodies of Dwarven and Anthamarian attackers littered the ground at the bottom. Lucius Cucuphas stood atop the tower, emerald aura flashing as he threw the final Marrokian Dwarf’s body over the top and shouted orders to his men.
The coast to the Guard Tower seemed clear, and they sprinted and were almost halfway there when a blast of blue electricity landed just to Oros’s left, cracking the marble and sending him stumbling to the right as an arc of lightning hit his arm.
Pain shot up his hand and he gritted his teeth and stifled the roar of pain as his arm seized up as the lightning. He flooded the arm with aura as best he could and turned around to see a figure on the roof of Viewing Tower III, the same Dwarf from before, eyes blazing blue with mana staring him down preparing to hurl another spell.
Oros thought he was done for, if not for the fiery figure he saw emerge from behind the Dwarf Thunder Mage.
Half of Viewing Tower III was obliterated in a display of sheer power as Viria smote the unfortunate Dwarf and descended down upon the Plaza next to them in a display of power on the upper end of a fifth stage mage.
“Flavius! Oros!”
“Viria! I thought you died!” Flavius cried out and ran to embrace her.
“Heartwarming as this is, we need to move and get to your brother,” Oros interrupted, and Viria’s face turned serious as she nodded and the trio began moving towards the tower once more.
The coast which was once clear now had new enemies blocking it, two Anthamarian halberds and a musketeer focusing his gun with aura and aiming it at them.
Flavius drew his sword and shield and stood in front, charging up an aura barrier to take the shot. His barrier shattered upon impact however it slowed the shot down enough for it to merely clink off his shield. Viria responded by demolishing the three Anthamarians in a display of fiery vengeance. A Dwarven Rhino Rider came in charging shortly after was dispatched with similar ease by Viria’s furious flames.
The group finally arrived at the tower and were ushered in by the City Guard holding the door who recognized them as Initiates. They were quickly marched to the roof where the City Guard had set up a sort of impromptu base of operations on the plaza level.
“Flav!” a voice exclaimed, and Flavius was suddenly enveloped by a towering set of glowing silver armor.
Lucius Cucuphas looked weary, and a part of Oros did not have much confidence in the outcome of all this if one of the most powerful members of the City Guard looked so shaken up.
“Are any of you hurt?” asked the man, eyes wandering over them.
No answer came from any of them, but whatever he saw was enough to satisfy Lucius it seemed.
“Oros and Flavius, I know you are but Initiates, but times are dire and we will need your blades to survive the night. I know not why the Marrokian Dwarves are committing such treachery alongside the Republic, but we cannot falter here. The response from the Legions has been suspiciously small as well…” Lucius spoke and gazed upon the ruined remnants of the Royal Tower and now it made sense why he appeared so apprehensive. Where was Dashiin Valorus and the royal family?
Lucius was a sixth stage warrior himself and one of the Kingdom’s finest. If he was so worried…
“Carina… you’re artillery, set up here and blast any formations or high threat targets. Leave loose soldiers to our archers and musketeers, save your mana,” Lucius ordered and from the way he spoke to her Oros’s suspicion that Viria worked with the Guard in the past due to her prodigious talents was confirmed.
“Oros and Flavius, stay here and guard Carina.”
The next twenty minutes went as well as a battle of this sort could. Lucius and his soldiers sometimes sallied out from the Guard Tower to smash a formation of Dwarves or Anthamarians before returning for a respite, or Lucius himself leapt off the tower to slay a high stage warrior or mage of the invaders.
Viewing Tower IV nearby seemed to also be a bastion of allies as the City Guard alongside some Orcish warriors from the Confederation had it fortified and were holding strong and repulsing the attackers.
Viria herself was a storm of fiery death that smote any Rhino Riders that attempted to charge the gate to the Guard Tower, had spell exchanges with enemy ranged troops and provided covering fire for Lucius and his City Guard whenever they sallied out to smash a formation.
Flavius kept a constant aura barrier up in front of Viria and Oros himself assisted the archers and musketeers by using a nearby barrel of javelins to harass any attackers who tried their luck scaling the Guard Tower and even managed to kill two second stage soldiers and dissuaded a higher stage shield bearer who tried shield ramming the gate with brute force by hitting him in the face with a throw during his charge.
And as the battle went on, Oros came to the uncomfortable realization that help was likely not coming… and that the invaders were trying to secure the central stage the Guard Tower was overlooking.
They were the target.
And as soon as he had that realization, the source of the terrible shockwaves that could be heard in the background came crashing down onto the Plaza’s central stage beneath them.
The Guard Tower was knocked to pieces and Oros was suddenly flying a hundred feet in the air with the wind knocked out of him.
He regained his bearings upon a hard landing and noticed two figures upon the central stage. Dashiin Valorus laid upon the ground and above him holding the largest axe Oros had ever seen was... Bulin Ironthane?
The Mountain-Breaker, the mightiest warrior of the Marrok Empire was here as well?
Oros frantically looked around for Flavius and Viria, yet they were nowhere to be seen. Either underneath the rubble or knocked father away than he was. He approached the central stage and ducker under the overhang, peeking his head out to see what was going on. As he was he logically had no hope of even standing in the presence of these juggernauts who were both in the eighth tier at least.
“And so falls the mightiest son of Hallourith…” spoke Bulin with what sounded almost like sympathy and sadness in his voice. “You fought well Valorus, I am honoured to have had the chance to match blades with a warrior of your caliber… if there were another way I would take it… but alas our paths are too far set in stone.”
The Silver Claymore, bloodied and battered as he was simply smiled and closed his eyes before speaking. “The doom that comes for us… you truly think the blessing you shall receive will be enough to stem the tide in time?”
“It must… for we are out of time altogether… the Traxlavian Festival is so soon.”
“And you should be the one to receive the blessing?”
“Who else but me, the mightiest mortal to walk this side of the world? I speak not with arrogance but with simple truth… which other mortal would be capable of handling this blessing?” Ironthane spoke as though uttering a simple truth.
“The blessings of the gods are a fickle thing Bulin… it may turn out to be not what you expected… and the gods choose themselves who to bestow their gifts upon. Some consider their gifts a curse,” replied Valorus calmly.
Bulin Ironthane looked as though he had heard enough as he stepped away, apparently considering Valorus no longer a feasible threat. He reached into his pocket and withdrew a glowing purple stone.
“I would not normally counsel this, but the gods can only commune with us this way,” spoke Ironthane as he dropped the purple stone on the very centre point of the centre stage.
He then dragged Valorus over to the stone and raised his fell axe in the air. His intent clear.
Oros knew he stood absolutely no chance against Ironthane… he knew the mere shockwaves from his more powerful attacks could turn Oros into a mist. Logically, he knew all of this.
Yet his body moved anyways.
If Bulin Ironthane appeared annoyed by the longsword that was attempting to stab into his eye, he did not show it. Not that it would’ve done anything as the blade simply bent at the tip when matched against his high stage physique which was probably far stronger than most of the lower tier metals and even mid-tier metals on the continent.
One moment Oros was standing with his longsword stabbed into Bulin Ironthane’s eye trying to do even the smallest bit of damage. The next he was on the ground, choking on something warm and wet.
His own blood.
Ironthane raised his axe and brought it down upon Valorus, and the resulting explosion of aura powered the stone and suddenly reality shimmered as a purplish portal opened up.
Whispers and terrible screams and horrid noises which mortals should not hear came through the other side.
Oros struggled with all his might to live. His vision darkened due to the lack of air, however he flooded his lungs and body with aura to compensate, to gain just a few more minutes, and then he desperately tried to hold the cut in his throat shut with his bare hands, desperately trying to flood the wound with aura allowing it to heal.
His meager reserves finally ran dry from the strain and use of battle.
Yet as his vision darkened and his body began to fail him, he still strained with such intensity, with the last dying bit of effort, squeezing his soul as hard as possible to get even a bit more aura.
He felt a small trickle, likely the effects of aura expansion itself in an extreme situation and he directed that to the wound, and as he continued running out he clamped down on his will and pressed his mental energy and willpower onto his soul, squeezing it harder and harder for just that small bit of aura as the seconds trickled on.
His mind felt as though it would crack under the sheer strain of the intensity of his focus, his head feeling as though it would explode, yet he continued to push still.
And then, he felt… watched.
He couldn’t open his eyes, yet he did not need them to know something was looking at him.
A rush of something hit him, his soul feeling as though it might explode, yet he desperately struggled and strained to keep that integral part of him, his own self, his personality, intact against all the odds, against the excruciating pain.
And before his vision went black he felt something take root.
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Oros was a hard worker.
His vision grew blurrier and darker as the sounds of the world outside muted. His own breathing grew faster, yet his mind remained sharp and his focus honed into an even sharper point on the glowing green stone underneath him as he held the plank position with a weight above him.
Wait… what?
He lost focus, the channeling stone under him lost its glow and a rock hit him squarely in the nether regions, causing him to drop to the ground with the weight still atop his back.
“Guh!”
He threw the weight off and immediately stood up.
“Sloppier than expected from somebody who works as hard as you Oros,” Master Venithius spoke.