Arson was glad that he’d arrived in Origin as the sun began to rise. This gave his current task a reasonable amount of time to be completed. Or so Arson thought.
The bow he held was dense, far heavier than any he’d ever used before. While the arrows in the barrel that had been given to him were like that of the mana stones his mother used to weight train.
What in the sparks are these things made of…?
Once Arson tried to fire his first shot, and merely pulling the bowstring proved to be the most difficult thing he’d ever been tested with, he knew that becoming master Acu’s trainee was no simple matter.
“What, the, bloody, sparks…” squeezed out Arson as he strained to draw the bow through gritted teeth. He managed to get the bow to bend, barely pulling the weighted weapon back far enough to fire, feeling the pressure become slightly easier once he managed to get the elbow of his drawing arm well behind himself. He struggled to keep the bowstring drawn, and took the time to aim, waiting for an available target.
Come on Arson, you got this, he’s not even firing at the edges of the forest since you stepped up beside him.
The closer targets were obviously the easier ones, but after he caught sight of one of the many flying mimics, loosing the arrow as he would have for any other shot, Arson began to doubt his ability to complete what he’d been told to do.
The arrow was successfully fired, yes, but anywhere near to the forest, no. His first shot disappeared, burying itself in the grass just beyond the limits of the stone ground of the manor’s edge in the lawn.
He looked over at Acu, who was smiling. Arson didn’t know if the man was trying to snuff out a laugh before it erupted from his chest, or feeling validated by just how little faith he believed the UnionForce had in finding capable candidates for his training.
“These arrows are expensive, boy. You may have to retrieve the ones that you miss with, and that too takes time.”
Arson nodded and lifted another arrow, doing his best to take aim once again. Things continued in the same manner for a while, and Arson was eventually forced to focus purely on gaining distance, rather than trying to accurately hit a target.
Eventually, Acu was forced to help Arson with the abundance of mimics trying to escape the edges of the forest; the bowman lifting a handful of arrows all at once.
Acu whispered an indecipherable phrase to Arson’s ears and fired. The high arcing torrent of projectiles, exploded at their apex above the tree line’s edge, raining a storm of smaller arrows down on the gathering mimics.
“Wow, now that is something I would love to learn how to do…”
Master Acu looked over to Arson, grinning as he shook his head, continuing to fire without pause as if he had eyes in the back of his head.
“You have to hit your target first, boy…”
Arson once more nodded, lifting an arrow, and almost tried to fire again, but a thought occurred to him.
Could I use my Closed Eye Dominion to help me aim?
Arson closed his eyes and focused; the world around him shifting as twin tribal suns flickered to life like tattoos centered on his eyelids, both moving as his senses stretched beyond their normal limits.
The dominion around his body didn’t stretch farther than a mere couple of meters around him, making Arson wish he used the skill more. As then he would be able to sense the motion of everything moving within his dominion's limits. Only something else was shown to Arson that changed his potential with a bow by an unfathomable degree.
Within the limits of Arson’s domain was Master Acu’s every movement. Although the man moved faster than Arson could see with his eyes, his dominion slowed everything down.
Arson stood captivated even further by the master bowman, taking in every detail that his mind captured. Energy flows, physical motion, and even the finite placement being used by the bowman.
Gotcha…
Arson opened his eyes, smiling as he looked between Acu, and the motionless Ocean who seemed to be staring at Arson for some reason.
He ignored the elderly man’s strange stare and turned back toward the forest edge. Arson took a deep breath and with a movement that was like a snap of lightning, he did his best to copy the technique of the master beside him.
His first attempt made a sound that made Arson jump back in surprise. If master Acu’s bow sound was like that of a dragon’s roar, Arson’s was equal to that of a baby drakling. Even still, this was the most absurdly powerful shot Arson had ever accomplished in his life.
No, the shot did not make it toward a target in a dazzling showing of increased skill as any true prodigy of the bow would be capable of after witnessing Master Acu shoot in the way Arson had, but it did manage to fall but a few feet short of the tree line. This shot gained Arson an odd look from Acu, and Arson felt proud of himself as grandfather and grandson looked toward one another, giving an identical nod of approval one after the other.
“Don’t get distracted, boy, keep firing, you don’t have all day.”
“Yes, sir.”
Arson’s next few shots became more and more easy to perform, Arson pausing to close his eyes and take in more of the man’s capabilities, gaining more and more with each time he did so.
Finally after emptying his entire barrel of arrows, Arson hit his first tree. The young Cultivator was so excited, he missed the shocked faces of the two beside him, grabbing the empty barrel, before darting off back down the hall he’d been escorted through.
“I’ll be back!”
With the barrel on his shoulder and a chest full of adrenalin, Arson was soon on the lawn picking up numerous arrows. It actually didn’t take him as long as he thought it would to fill the barrel, and only then realized after it was full that the barrel wouldn’t be as easy to bring back up through the manor as it was to bring down. Regardless he wrapped the container in a bear hug, and trudged back slowly; the stairs proving to be an exercise in dedication.
“I’m sure my mother would be glad to know that her body building practices actually have proved useful…,” said Arson through gritted teeth.
After making it back to his position on the balcony, he resumed his practice without hesitation. It was by the time that he reached halfway through his next barrel, turning a few trees on the boundary of the forest into pin cushions, that he stopped focusing on distance and pushed for a more accurate shot.
Arson was having the time of his life, but looked around at the sky when the shadows of the trees grew long, and the sun grew distant.
This isn’t going to work… Arson’s arm dropped to his side as he had the realization that his skill wasn’t growing fast enough for him to hit a target without something to aid his precision. He stood there in thought so long, that Master Acu opened his mouth to speak, but stopped as a droplet of electrified water dripped free of the arrow Arson held.
Arson aimed before he even lifted the training bow to shoot. The arrow in his hand thrummed with power as the water of his Conductive WaterOrb saturated the projectile.
Hopefully this works…!
Arson had seen his own orbs turn slightly in the air while erupting toward his targets. He’d assumed that it was because of the connection to his mana, allowing a sort of guidance as they travelled, but now he hoped his orbs weren’t being shifted through the air by force of will or wishful thinking, but instead by a force of magnetism of similar energies.
Come on…
A mimic emerged from the tree line and Arson fired without a single moment of thought. His every action a flow of instinctual ferocity.
The smooth maneuver was like that of a swordsman’s coup de grace. No less deadly than a beheading being delivered in one clean slice.
The shot knocked Arson off his feet, blowing him backward far enough to smash into the wall beside the entryway to the balcony. He tried to shake off the delirium caused by his head striking the wall as he slid into a sitting position at the base of the wall, but regardless of all his senses being rattled, he still heard—
“By the Demon's River, he actually did it…”
The sound of arrows clattering down through the forest edge met Arson’s ears, and he smiled as he rose to his feet.
“Man, that would have sucked if I didn’t make it, the sun almost set and everything,” said Arson looking between the stunned family members beside him.
“Do that again boy,” said Acu, and Arson tried not to scowl at the master, feeling as if the man would try and go back on what he’d said earlier if Arson didn’t manage to hit another target.
Arson again walked to his position, this time lifting the training bow while aiming, waiting for a target as he saturated the arrow he’d chosen with the electrified waters his mana produced.
This time, when the target drifted above a tree top, Arson’s strike was even more fierce, his excitement manifesting into a flood of mana that flooded the arrow.
It wouldn’t have mattered if Arson missed. Not that he would have noticed, once more smashed into the rear wall of the balcony by the concussive force of his shot.
Arson was slower to rise, and Ocean’s laughter was hearty. He didn’t enjoy being laughed at, and it wasn’t until he stood that he saw the true reason for the man’s laughter.
“Well, sparks, that isn’t healthy for the forest, gonna have to learn how to dial that down a bit, sorry.”
Arson apologized for the burning tree that lay obliterated, threatening to spread flames through the nearby trees.
“You think,” said Acu, the man staring back at Arson with a raised brow.
“Does that mean I pass?”
Arson grew nervous that the man would want him to shoot again, worrying over his limited mana since entering the runic Skyscraper of Maelstrom. Luckily for Arson, the man gave a solitary nod of confirmation, before sending him to go and put out the fire he started.
The instructions were simple and before he knew it, Arson was running buckets of water from a nearby well, back and forward toward the quickly growing flames.
…
“Why do you think he is really here?”
Acu turned toward his grandfather to see the older man shrug.
“Maybe to spy for Carter, or something nefarious intended for the bank, but he hasn’t lied to you thus far, he is who he says he is, what bothers you, River?”
“Did you not see how quickly his skill grew? It was as if every shot he took was compressed into a decade of training or more, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Ah, it seems that you’ve encountered your first genius student. You won’t get very many of those. Even your father had sworn off teaching the bow until he saw you shoot, happens to the best of us.”
“Happens to the best of us, I’m sure my father didn’t have to worry about me burning down a bloody forest by teaching me how to shoot better,” said Acu gesturing toward Arson running back and forward in the distance below them.
“Some tasks are grander than others. You are the only one who seems to believe your father was the better bowman, while I and others see things differently, I believe that with that young man’s talent, you are the only one who can teach him the bow, otherwise he will simply wreak havoc with the little he managed to gain from you thus far.”
“Noticed that too, did you…?”
“Yes,” said Ocean nodding.
“His perception is limited in range but incredible, after this morning alone, his stance with a bow is only missing a few details that would make his form while shooting identical to your own.”
“Looks like I will actually be taking on a student,” said Acu after sighing heavily and watching Arson for a moment.
“Yes, it seems you will, you gave your word, and I didn’t raise you to lie, nor will I accept you growing into the habit while I am around. So what will you do first, take him into the forest?”
“Maybe, maybe not, I’ll have to teach him how to build a bow first,” said Acu. The pair both paused, looking over to the bow that now sported a hairline fracture from top to bottom of the spine.
“Probably a good idea, he’ll need something hearty and resilient to magical wear and tear,” responded Ocean.
“Where else will you find better materials than the bowman’s forest?”
“The stealth guild is opening their dungeon at sunrise tomorrow,” said Acu, looking down toward Arson with a smile.
“I think it will be the perfect introduction to testing him and teaching him how to build the right kind of bow. Those idiots in the stealth guild don’t even know what they uncovered.”
“Oh really, and what is that?”
“Our city’s first Ad Infinitum.”
“Aren’t those supposed to be mere myth? Dungeons with limitless instances are…”
“Only possible in places on the edge of cataclysm, yes, I did not curse my home earlier without reason, Grandfather. This place is on the finest edge of disaster, only held on by the potential left untapped by all those that live here yet to become Cultivators, or tap into their ancient bloodlines.”
“Your time in Endless has taught you much, River, but be careful what knowledge you speak of so freely. The fates have a way of forcing us all to push unknowingly toward the words we shed free from our conscious and subconscious minds.”
“As you wish, old man, but I am doing what I can to prevent this for as long as I can, the sleeping primordials we know as the Primes may one day return to power if we the living continue to feed them our ascended souls, and that would be a far worse fate than the loss of any one city or people.
“May the maiden hear your prayers and guide you. Growth and grace, my dearest River.”
Acu turned as he walked free of the balcony to meet Arson on the lawn where he’d nearly put out all of the fire, speaking once more to Ocean as he left.
“Growth and grace, Grandfather. May your path lead to Endless and beyond.”