Toren Daen

The grohd opened its mouth, a familiar swirl of green wind growing in its throat. I leapt to another branch hastily, stumbling as I righted myself. Behind me, the branch I had been on was obliterated by a sphere of compressed air. I could hear the would crack and shatter, sending splinters flying in every direction. I retaliated with my pulse pounding in my ears, quickly summoning a fireball the size of my fist before my hand.

It rocketed towards the lizard, who was still latched onto the tree with its tail wrapped around the trunk. It opened its mouth once more, another ball of wind rocketing toward my spell. They collided midair in a burst of heat and light, covering my vision.

My senses screamed at me again, but I didn’t have time to locate another branch. I leaped anyway, dropping the twenty or so feet to the ground and rolling fitfully. Thankfully, my mana shroud didn’t shatter this time, but my will-o’-wisp spell winked out as my concentration failed for a moment, leaving me to scramble to my feet in the dark wildly. I hastily recast the light spell, only to be greeted by an even worse situation.

Another grohd was latched onto the branch I had escaped from, and now both of the creatures watched me from above with predatory eyes.

I couldn’t let them snipe me from above. I considered booking it to the stream, where the terrain was flat and the monsters would be forced to fight me on the ground.

That would be smarter. But the entire point I had entered this forest was to grow and test myself against things that would be immensely difficult otherwise. I needed to face these beasts head-on, in their own environment and beat them. And I was confident I could do it.

The beast closest to me opened its mouth, the orange spines on its back beginning to glow slightly. Undaunted, I thrust my hand into my pouch, retrieving a handful of stones. The other grohd skittered up the tree, momentarily out of my sight.

A sphere of wind thundered towards me, surprisingly quiet for the power I knew was in it. I gathered mana in my legs, heightening the strengthening more before weaving around the oncoming projectile, Lady Dawn’s teachings already coming into play. In the same instant, I used my tried-and-true telekinesis to blast the mana beast with a shotgun shell of stone.

The stones pelted the monster with satisfying thunks, also knocking small holes into the clarwood tree the beast was perched on. It toppled off the branch with a pained screech, falling to the forest floor two stories below.

I sensed another sphere of wind hurtling toward me from above. I dodged to the side, but the impact of the wind on the ground blew me farther than I expected. I tumbled slightly, but this time my will-o’-wisp lights didn’t vanish.

Good.

The beast I had knocked from the tree was struggling painfully on the forest floor, a few small wounds caused by rocks leaking bits of blood. I hadn’t done as much damage as I wanted to because of the distance, unfortunately. Unwilling to let it recover, I conjured another fireball, letting it blast off at the prone grohd. It impacted, burning the creature in a cacophony of pained snarls.

I had to dodge another wind ball from the forest canopy again. It was easier this time, but I still didn’t know where the other was in the upper branches of the trees. A quick glance to the other grohd revealed a smoking corpse, charred by my spell. I grinned slightly as I scanned the treetops.

I focused on my other spell, a sound grenade. I poured more mana into this one, focusing on creating as much of a disturbance as possible. A small orb of solid mana appeared in my palm, about as big as a baseball. The inside rippled with colors that made my head hurt slightly.

When the next sphere of wind came, I hurled the sound grenade into the canopy with enforced strength in the direction the attack came from. I jumped to avoid the wind sphere, but not in time. It collided with the ground, blowing me into a nearby tree painfully.

The grohd fared far worse. With an echoing boom, my sound grenade detonated in the air. My ears were shielded by mana, expecting the sound. The lizard beast, unfortunately, was not. It tumbled out of the trees, screeching as it hurtled to the ground below. I watched it tumble through the air, orange spines flashing weakly. Then it impacted the ground with a painful crack.

I waited a moment, the blood still pumping in my ears. The forest had seemingly gone silent with the exceptional boom of my sound grenade, the wind itself deciding to quiet. My side ached slightly from impact with the tree, likely bruised. But nothing was broken.

The grohd was a painful tangle of limbs. I could see bone jutting from a few of its bark-skinned legs where they had impacted the ground. Its eyes were still open, but the predatory glint had vanished in death. Blood pooled around the body, the coppery smell especially potent due to my enhanced smell.

I was safe.

Then I heard a snarl, somewhere in the far distance. I realized in horror that my sound grenade must have alerted everything within half a mile of my location. I would have to get out fast. I was willing to face down two barkskin grohds in their home territory, but not a dozen.

I darted into the trees once more, beelining for where I knew the stream to be. I extinguished my will-o’-wisp spell, leaving me in darkness, but I felt confident in at least navigating the trees to the creek. The sound of rushing water beckoned me forward; I was even more thirsty than before that short scuffle.

I left the treeline after a minute, finally able to see the water. The stream wasn’t too big, maybe five feet across and only as going up to my shins, but it might’ve been the most welcoming thing I had ever seen.

I carefully scanned the treeline, watching for mana beasts. When none made themselves known, I carefully stalked to the water.

I knelt down, filling my water skin first, before taking heaping gulps of the clear liquid. It was refreshing and cool, soothing my parched throat like a balm. I opened my eyes, gazing up into the sky in some relief.

I was immediately taken aback by what I saw. A million stars glittered across the sky in a beautiful display of cosmic wonder, unnamed constellations and suns far in the cosmos grinning back at me. A dozen different hues illuminated the night from on high, small blues and purples dancing with oranges and reds. They seemed to waltz in the black of night, streaming their light on my small stretch of land here on a distant planet. And standing proud amidst it all was a moon, familiarly pockmarked and dotted with craters.

I gasped in awe, momentarily overwhelmed by the stellar beauty before me. I had never seen such an aurora of stars before; in my previous life, smog and pollution had blocked out the stars in all but the least populated areas. In Fiachra, light pollution from all the street lamps and city life dimmed what would otherwise be a wonderful display. Out here in this forest, I could truly appreciate the unfiltered sky.

As I gazed into the depth of space, my body relaxed just the slightest bit. I realized how tired I really was. I had been up for about sixteen hours now and had been training strenuously for the past ten of those. As the stars winked down on my earthbound body, I felt how distant I was from my previous life.

None of the constellations on high matched with those from Earth. No Big Dipper, no Sagittarius, no Aries, and no North Star. I was in a different world.

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I blinked away tears and exhaled with a shudder, shoving those thoughts to the depths of my mind. I wasn’t thirsty anymore, but I could probably eat an entire horse from how hungry I was. Crossing the stream, I jumped back into the trees with a telekinesis-assisted pull. A single firelight assisted my vision instead of many as I grew more comfortable navigating in the dark across the trees, keeping my senses peeled for any sign of danger.

I spotted my quarry from my perch in the trees. Three skaunters were devouring the body of some other creature, one I hadn’t personally encountered yet. I couldn’t make out too many details of their prey, but I could guess. Toren knew some of the common mana beasts present in the forest outskirts, and I had a hunch that what the skaunters were eating was a wild wogart.

They were the same doe-eyed mana beasts that ascenders farmed on the first level of the Relictombs. Truthfully, they weren’t difficult prey.

I pulled a rock from my pocket, aiming carefully. Simultaneously, I snuffed out my candlelight, then conjured a fireball. A couple of the rat-lizards perked up for the barest of moments, sniffing the air with their strange snouts, likely sensing me somewhat. But I wouldn’t let them find me until it was too late.

With an exhale, I fired my attacks at a skaunter each. The pebble nailed the first creature straight in the skull, killing it instantly with only a dull thwack. The second tried to dodge the fireball with a leap backward, but the flame burst, singing its face and causing it to yowl horrendously with its strange screech-snarl. The third skaunter hissed, spinning toward the direction the attacks had come from.

I jumped from the treetop, landing the twenty-foot drop with ease. Then I dashed for the beasts, mana pumping in my legs. I beelined for the mana beast that had been burned, leaves crunching under my feet. It got the bright idea to jump in my direction, even though its eyelids had been practically seared shut.

It cried out in anger as it sailed in the air, razor-sharp teeth ready to rip me to shreds. The second skaunter elected to do the same, launching itself with a choreographed screech. With my senses and reflexes heightened by mana, it was remarkably easy to sidestep the first creature. Before it could sail past, I clenched my fist and swung it in a backhand, my mana-clad blow closer to a hammer than anything else. The backs of my knuckles collided with the skaunter’s ribcage with a satisfying crunch. The fur of the creature was course and bristled beneath my skin, but it did nothing to cushion my blow. I could feel the ribs of the dog-sized creature break under my knuckles, sending it careening to the side with a choked whimper.

A split-second later, I flared my telekinesis crest, swiping my hand down to aid in casting. A white fluctuation of mana slammed into the back of the second creature’s neck, forcing it into a downward tumble instead of an agile leap. I moved out of the way as it ate the dirt with a muffled screech, its four limbs struggling to right itself.

I drew my dagger for the first time, briefly admiring the clear polish of the blade. I channeled mana into the weapon, happy with how well my strengthening of its structure held. Not wasting time, I aimed the point for the disoriented creature’s heart, then thrust.

I was immediately surprised by how easily my steel slipped between the mana beast’s ribs, like a hot knife through butter. Blood seeped from the wound, coating the ground as I cut the monster’s life short. As I withdrew the blade, the creature stilled its fighting quickly.

I shuddered at the sensation of stabbing the skaunter. The flesh giving way under sharpened steel, the sticky wetness I could almost feel as the blade slid through…

I suppressed a wave of nausea. I had killed several beasts so far, but all had been at range. Be it by pebble or fireball, I had killed. And I certainly caused more gruesome deaths: two monsters had their skulls blown apart because of me.

But I didn’t feel kill those beasts with my bare hands; didn’t feel the skull explode like an overripe melon over my fingers. The sensation of killing with the blade ripped any joy I had previously at owning one at all.

I slowly walked over to the last mana beast. It lay slowly dying, blood leaking from its mouth as it twitched on its side. I suspected that when I shattered its ribs, one of them must have pierced a lung or hurt it internally. It spasmed weakly.

I stabbed my blade once more. I would have to desensitize myself to that kind of death. I flicked my dagger free of blood, cutting off my flow of mana into the steel. I sheathed it solemnly.

I hadn’t used the dagger so far, because without any instruction it was just as dangerous to me as it might be to an enemy. I knew some old weapon forms from my previous world as well as some from Toren’s memories, but as Lady Dawn’s footwork lesson proved, there were stark differences when superspeed and strength were involved with fighting. Now it would be even more difficult to use the blade.

I gathered a few sticks next, then some larger branches. Haphazardly, I built a small campfire around the area I had slain the skaunters. Surprisingly, they hadn’t bled too much after death. I had no doubt predators could find these corpses if they wanted to, but I was tired and I needed to eat.

I lit the fire with a spark of mana, then hauled over the least wrecked of the skaunter corpses. Toren of Alacrya knew how to cook meat safely: after all, he regularly had to provide for himself and Norgan. But I would have to be creative if I wanted to actually cook this thing.

I drew my dagger once more, the flickering of my small fire reflecting off the polished surface. I threaded my fingers through the knuckle guard, gripping it tightly. Focusing, I channeled mana into the steel once more, enhancing its durability and sharpness. The steel seemed to glow from the infusion of power, hinting at the strength under the surface.

I brought my weapon down in a clean swing across the skaunter’s leg, severing cleanly through skin, tissue, muscle, and bone. Cutting something was easier for me to stomach, I realized with morbid amusement. I didn’t know why.

The body and leg leaked a bit of blood, but I was able to cauterize the flows to deter any more predators. I held the… paw, for lack of a better term, over the fire for a long while. It slowly cooked, a tempting aroma filling the air. There were certainly a million better ways to do this: flay the skin, separate the meat, and properly prepare the strips. But I didn’t know those, so I brute-forced it.

The Unseen World washed over my vision, the darkness growing even deeper under the night sky. Lady Dawn stood across my small fire from me, inspecting my work without any notable expression.

I turned the leg, trying to get an even coverage of heat. “What do you need?” I asked tiredly, the exhaustion threatening to overcome me.

“You hesitated to run the final beast through,” Lady Dawn said, her question unspoken. Why?

I watched the embers of my fire crackle upwards, dancing into the air much like the stars that gleamed above. They were comforting: something I knew from both lives.

“There was no energy to manipulate in my previous world,” I said, watching the tongues of flame as they licked at my eventual meal. “No mana. No ki. Though I’m willing to bet aether still formed the world, none could touch it.” Lady Dawn was silent, letting me speak. “We humans… We love to fight. Whether that be over ideals, petty squabbles, or just because some of us enjoy violence. But without mana, we needed to find new interesting ways to kill each other.”

This was the most I had spoken in one time since I had arrived in this world, I knew. But I wasn’t just tired in body; I was tired in the mind as well. I was used to having people I could speak to vent my frustrations and fears; to release all my pent-up emotions. All I had here was Lady Dawn.

“We evolved past swords and spears. Instead, we used guns. It made fighting easier for everybody. Point the weapon, pull a trigger, and the target was dead from ten feet away.” I sighed. “Those became the norm, not just because they enabled better slaughter, but because it made the death impersonal.” I looked into Lady Dawn’s blazing eyes with my own somber ones. “People just held a trigger on a device no larger than my arm and ended the lives of a dozen at a time. Very few of the humans of my previous world knew what it felt to drive a blade through another’s flesh.”

I looked back at the fire, noting how it was beginning to burn low. I tossed a few more sticks for fuel in as silence stretched between the asura and me.

“You call us lessers,” I finally said into the yawning silence, “Because humans are weaker. Because they die to the slightest touch, compared to the vastness of asuras.” I took away the leg of the beast, turning it over to inspect how well-cooked it was. “But there is one thing in which we are your equal.” I looked at the corpses of the skaunters around me, slowly going stiff in death. Their eyes held no life any longer; nothing but emptiness. “We can kill indiscriminately just as well.”

I stared at my meal somberly for several more moments. It was ready to eat, now. The fur had mostly burned away, leaving scorched skin. I drew my dagger once more, ready to shave off slices of the leg like a kabab. It truly wouldn’t be the worst thing I had eaten in either of my lives, but I felt far less hungry now.

“There is another thing lessers surpass the asura in,” I heard Lady Dawn say quietly. I looked back at her, surprised to recognize a glimmer of emotion in her starlike eyes. For once, her voice wasn’t so monotone. It held a note of sadness to it, something I knew well. “You recognize the value of your lives better than we do.”

The darkness of the Unseen World washed away, and I ate my meal under the silent watch of the stars.