Chapter 4 – Life 2 – The Air

The swordsman’s teachings were both strange and effective. We traveled across Nihon, killing monsters and liberating camps and villages. It was amazing to see my master in action, swirling through crowds of monsters, dealing their doom in every motion. He explained that every time one kills a monster, one should focus on the feeling one gets when looking at the Air Moon.

The Air Moon, he said, may make one anxious, but it stems from the total awareness of the space around you, and the desire to move through it. He trained me to look at the Air Moon for longer and longer without feeling discomfort, although he also insisted, I never give more than a passing glance to any of the other harbinger Moons.

While I learned his fighting style, I focused on hunting animals while he hunted monsters. Sadly, killing animals didn’t give the same feeling that killing monsters gave, but it was good practice. I found that while I could fight with the sword decently, my archery was where I really shined. My master encouraged me to go down that route, and soon began to weaken monsters to a point that I could shoot them and get the final kill.

According to my master, the difficulty in which you faced to kill a monster mattered in how much power you got from it. Still, monsters were in no short supply. I found myself getting faster in my movements and more able to tell where creatures were nearby. Once, while my master weakened a large boar, I felt movement in the distance. Without even thinking, I spun around and shot an arrow at the Tengu behind me. It attempted to dodge, but somehow my arrow’s path bent around towards it, striking it in the eye. Its shriek alerted my master, who quickly finished the boar off himself and came to help.

After the fight, I explained that it felt like the air itself bent to give my arrow its true path. My master nodded. “I have felt something similar with my sword strikes, the gusts of wind pushing me in the right direction. It is the true power of the Air Moon.”

With this knowledge in mind, I soon started to hunt monsters with impunity. I became almost as famous as my master after saving a village in the ruins of the city Kyoto from a pack of 9 long-fingered humanoids that could pierce the toughest of armor. They called me Silver Arrow, as my hair had turned an unnatural white. The effects of age, stress, or of the Air Moon? Who could say?

My master grew older and started instructing other disciples instead of fighting. None of them had as much success with the powers of the Air Moon as I. They were fearful of me, and of the monsters around them. But I knew that in time, they could do well, if they just had faith in themselves, and the strange power humanity had been given.

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Eventually, I received summons from a large camp in the north. An unnatural fog had settled, and people were disappearing in the night. I travelled there and found the fog to be strange. No matter how much I called upon the forces of the Air, draining myself of energy day and night, the fog refused to part. I considered telling everyone to leave, but apparently the camp had many valuable supplies. I eventually agreed to work as part of an expedition into the fog. This was a mistake.

3 of our number disappeared in the first hour. 7 more the second. We were down to just me and 2 others, and we were very lost. I kept trying to rely on the air around me to warn me of monsters, but it didn’t seem to matter. Not until the very end. One of the other warriors stumbled and fell onto a wall, only for his torch to reveal that the wall was… scaled? Then we heard a thunderous *ROAR* and realized just how outmatched we were. The fog gave way to a gigantic lizard, only for it to breathe out more fog from its gullet. One of the remaining warriors tried to run, only for a smaller lizard to fall from who-knows-where right onto his head, and it began to gnaw on him fiercely. The man screamed, but I wasn’t in a position to shoot the thing off of him.

Instead, I took a look at the giant monster’s open mouth and formed a plan. I nocked an arrow and concentrated on a gust of wind not to guide its path, but to push it forward, giving it more power. The thing didn’t even seem to notice what I was doing until the arrow was launched, hitting the roof of its fog-spewing mouth. The *ROAR* it gave was even louder than before, but it was far from dead. I realized my remaining companion had fled. Honestly, I was glad that someone might make it out of this alive. I loosed arrow after arrow at the beast until it closed its mouth, then I started aiming for its eyes. I got one eye, but it began to thrash around at the thing that was hurting it so. I tried to call on the Air to push me out of the way, but my energy was drained and weak. The thing knocked into me with one of its claws, then turned its one good eye to face me. I spat.

“You may kill the Silver Arrow, but more will come! More will learn of the power of the Air Moon, and then the other moons as well! Humanity will never-“

*CRUSH*

Mother, I hope I made you proud…

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You have died as a Rank 1 Wind Archer (Yang).

You have killed 18 Water Demons in this life.

You have killed 23 Earth Demons in this life.

You have killed 9 Metal Demons in this life.

You have killed 47 Air Demons in this life.

Calculating…

Your connection to the Water, Earth, and Air will be improved by 100% for the next life.

Your connection to Metal will be improved by 50% for the next life.

You have killed over 50 Demons in one life.

You have wounded your first Rank 2 Demon.

Calculating…

Your affinity with all Rank 1 elements is increased by 25%

Your chances of forming a Rank 2 Element are permanently increased by 10%.