Juth did not think much of my spear skills. “We have a lot of work to do,” were her actual words. Then she added, “I will tell Alistern you will be hunting the stone tablets on my team so we can keep practising, and I can watch you in action.” To me, that sounded more ominous than helpful.

We moved out with Zeek leading the way and Suda watching our rear. Alistern and Pok roamed the sides. Twenty-four of us entered this Trial, and we are down to twenty-two. Twenty-one if you discount assistant Walter, who is severely traumatised and won’t leave the main group.

We are twenty if you remove Barnard, who only has one arm. I watch him walking ahead of me. I wouldn’t count him out yet, as he has rigged up a hook thing on the stump at the end of his arm and is practising with it. He is a historical weapons expert, so he probably has some tricks up his (empty) sleeve.

On the plus side, everybody has levelled a lot, and we have four new advanced classes among us.

I am particularly pleased with the new skills Tāwai has. He is a lot harder to kill now and more dangerous.

“Hey, Tāwai.” I throw my voice at him. He is flying above us, watching for danger from the higher branches.

“Chirp,”

“I heard you and Myantha discussing Air Manipulation. Air can carry poison in a cloud form, and you have the poison skill. Have you tried that?”

A negative chirp.

“Air also carries sound, and you have two sound skills: Mocking Call and Excruciating Screech. You should be able to use your air manipulation to focus and perhaps amplify them.”

“Chirp, chirp.”

That was Tāwai’s way of saying, “Thank you, Marvin. You are the most awesome and intelligent person of them all. You are also supremely handsome and skilled, and I am forever in awe of you.” Yeah, right. At least he keeps life interesting. I like him.

It took us two days to find the exit portal. It was inside the trunk of one of the massive trees about two-thirds of the way up. There was a crack in the tree, and hidden inside was the exit. Nothing seemed to guard it. You just had to find it. The guard took care of most of the monsters that attacked us. We helped a bit, and I noticed Tāwai practising his focused Excruciating Screech. He needs more work, but it is still better for his allies.

We went down about thirty meters to a large branch and set up a semi-permanent camp. I used my Onyx Carver to carve some wards in the trunk above and below us and then out on the branch. What I needed was to learn wards where they will be set off if something gets close. However, at this point, it is only by touch.

Juth would not let me rest without an hour of spear training at night and got me up early for an hour in the mornings. Brightlance was attuned to light, so I also played around with my Light Manipulation with it. It was not as easy as it was with Lightreaver and Shadowbane, but it was significantly better than a normal spear. My Basic Spear technique did level, but it has a long way to go. Juth gave me a set of exercises to do at least three times a day to build muscle memory and familiarity with the spear.

I ran through the spear exercises again, but this time, I was experimenting with light. I ran the colours of the rainbow down the spear, from long wavelengths to short wavelengths: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet. I did it twice, but it seemed awkward, so I reversed it. Short to long, yes, that seemed better. Darker colours first and then through to the reds. I did it on every thrust of the spear. I was practising in front of a branch, so at full thrust, the tip of the spear was just penetrating the bark.

Thrust, step back, defend, flick the spear butt, defend, slash with the head, thrust, thrust, step back, defend, twist, slice with the point, defend, move the feet, slice, thrust. And on and on. I am on the edge of discovering something with my Light Manipulation. I can feel it.

However, it was not coming tonight. I settled down to rest and figured it was time to review my full status. Sometimes, that triggers me to try something new. It did when I was creating Frostshade Rend as I compared how my other shadow skills worked.

Classes/Attributes

Name: Marvin Wygon Age: 24 Race: Al'rashian Level: 16 Sub Level 8 Class: Seeker 6 /Spectral Slayer 8 / Pilferer 2 Profession: Performer 6 / Wardweaver 2 Health: 880 Stamina: 880 Mana: 560 Strength: 43 Agility: 65 Dexterity: 56 Constitution: 45 Intelligence: 56 Wisdom: 45 Perception: 2 Endurance 1 Free Attribute Points: 0 Free Skill Points: 0 Companion Bond Tāwai (Kea Parrot)

Skills

Precision Throw 6 Thrust 7 Crushing Blow 3 Parry 4 Holy Strike 7 Create Dart 3 Chop 3 Slash 4 Block 1 Bloodletting 5 Long Slash 2 Quick Strike 5 Create Arrow 1 Shield Bash 2 Death Strike 3 Shadow Phase 3 Burning Strike 4 Nights Embrace 3 Power Throw 1 Piercing Throw 3 Ambush Strike 2 Shadow Strike 2 Radiant Strike 4 Frostshade Rend 2 Acid Strike 1 Auras Provoking Aura 3 Rejuvenating Aura 5

Techniques

Razors Edge 6 Grappling 4 Basic Axe 5 Basic Blunt Weapons 3 Blade Storm 2 Steel Serpent 5 Basic Archery 1 Basic Spear 4 Purifying Dance 4 Three Steps 4 Basic Shield 2 Serpents Blade Dance 2 Basic Unarmed Combat 10/Max Basic Small Blades 10/Max Basic Longsword 10/Max

Movement Skills

Quick Hands 6 Climb 7 Ambidextrous 3 Acrobatics 4 Free Runner 5 Cat Reflexes 5 Steady Footing 4 Light Speed 4 Charge 2 Sleight-of-hand 2 Swimming 1 Muffle Sound 2 Feather Fall 2 Shadow Stealth 1 Stealth 10/Max Dash 10/Max Dodge 10/Max Clever Hands 10/Max

General Skills

Bronc Riding 2 Appraisal 6 Identify 8 Agility Riding 1 Mimic Sound 3 Voice Throw 2 Animal Care 4 Sewing 5 Harvesting 8 Butchering 2 Weave Ward 2 Unravel Ward 1 Tracking 7 Scribe 1 Herbalist 1 Mining 7 Leadership 2 Skinning 1 Maiming Decoy 1 Onyx Carver 1 Create Trap 10/Max Disarm Traps 10/Max Detect Traps 10/Max Riding 10 Max Throwing 10/Max Pickpocket 10/Max Lock Pick 10/Max

Armour

Light Armour 4 Medium Armour 6 Death Resistance 3 Toughened Skin 5 Fire Resistance 5 Toughened Body 4

Mana

Mana Disruption 5 Mana Strength 4 Mana Sensitivity 8 MicroMana Manipulation 5 MacroMana Manipulation 2 Mana Web (Sensing) 3 Mana Syphon 4 Mana Manipulation 10/Max Mana Control 10/Max Seeker Seekers Intuition 4 Pathfinder 3 Lore 2

Vision

Observant Eye 7 Spectral Vision 5 Mana Sight 3 Nightsight 4

Abilities

Light Manipulation 8 Minor Regeneration 3 Storage 6 Shadow Manipulation 4 Farsight 2 Map Death Manipulation 2 Spectral Cloak 4 Assessing Eyes 3 Helping Hand 2

Charms

Spark 4 Self-Clean 7 Self-Dry 4 Trim 5 Mend 1 Trickle 1 Wither 1 Glow 1 Dim 3

Spells

Burning Light 3 Copy Image 7 Flash 7 Project Image 8 Animate Image 6 Cutting Light 4 Eclipse 2 Umbral Cold 5

Summons

Name: Rob Race: Greater Lizard Health: 880 Stamina: 880 Mana: 560 Night Sight Adaptive Camouflage Acidic Poison Saliva Sprint Crushing Bite Viscous Tongue Suction Paws Tail Smash Regeneration

Bond Attributes

Name: Tāwai Age 12 months Race: Kea (Parrot) Level: 13 Health: 400 Stamina: 400 Mana: 200 Strength: 20 Agility: 40 Dexterity: 24 Constitution: 20 Intelligence: 20 Wisdom: 12 Free Attribute Points: 0 Abilities Air Manipulation 6 Poison Resistance 3

Skills

Pickpocket 8 Adaptive Camouflage 3 Claw Strike 5 Peck 6 Wind Blade 4 Mocking Call 6 Gust 5 Weaving 2 Poison 2 Lacerating Claw 4 Dive Attack 4 Slash 2 Heal Wound 2 Darksteel Feathers 2 Tough Bones 2 Excruciating Screech 1 Camouflage 10/max Movement Skills Swift Flight 7 Silent Flight 5 Vision Dark Vision 4 Hunters Eye 2 Charms Self-Clean 1

I have the light show and the colours, but I am not damaging anything. Radiant Strike does damage. Cutting Light does damage. Light damages in two ways. Radiating out and concentrated down into a point. That is what the spell, Cutting Light, does. The spell concentrates the light.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Radiant Strike is different. It is like the radiating light has a short ongoing effect after the strike. I checked my other strike skills, and acid, death and burning all had the same. This made them a little more powerful than the other strike skills.

So, what am I trying to achieve with this rainbow stuff? Radiating or focussed cutting? Focussed cutting has always been my strongest ability.

I pick the light band with the shortest wavelength, violet. I bring out Shadowbane and concentrate on the violet light in the blade. I try concentrating it on the edge to see if it enhances the cutting power. I tried a number of times, but I can’t seem to get it focused enough. Cutting Light is actually a spell, not a skill I can generally use with weapons. Does it need to be a spell to get the concentration?

I can focus Cutting Light on Shadowbane and Lightreaver, but is that because they are soul-bound? I tried it on Brightlance and couldn’t make it work, so I think it is an advantage of the soul-bound weapons, which are also light and shadow-attuned. Brighlance enhanced Radiant Strike, but that was my only light-based weapons skill.

I tried different things with light manipulation, and it was easy to hide the spear by wrapping light around it. This will help me use it when I am hidden in a Spectral Cloak, and it will trigger an Ambush strike, etc.

I have made spells before. Eclipse and Umbral Cold are examples. It is frustrating that I don’t know what I am doing.

A Radiant Strike is a bright light that strikes with the weapon and has damage and short ongoing damage from the radiation. What if I break up the Radiant Strike into separate colours? That is getting somewhere.

I use Shadowbane and practice against the tree, splitting Radient Strike into separate wavelengths.

I was barely making progress when we were called to a team meeting. Predictably, all the guards volunteered for the hunt, so they were staying in their normal squads. Juth was taking command of Squad Two, and we were down a mage due to Norm’s demise. To make up for that, they got me, Myantha and Austin, the healer. Alistern and Zeek would lead Squad One. Hilke was going with them. One armed Barnard was in charge of the base camp.

Both Joe and Suda were in Squad Two, along with Ryan, Wella and Hist. All three started with a single class slot, and all three had started with the Warrior Class. Ryan and Wella specialised in Swordsman and usually used swords and shields. Hist was a Spearman and, like Juth, used a spear and shield combination.

Suda, our nature shifter, was the scout and archer. Joe, our Steel Warden, was our heavy defender.

Juth had us all spar before we left, and she made me use Brightlance and start with Hist, although she rotated us around.

“The Lieutenant is heading down that direction for their one,” Juth said, “where do you think we should go?”

“I want to go up. I think there is one near the canopy, and with Myantha and Tāwai, we are good against what I think are the birds up there.”

Joe didn’t like that, but Juth had us head out as per my directions. Pathfinder was a great skill