Several tentacles shout out of the water, where two swiftly wrapped themselves around young master Providence who stood with his back toward the water. He was yanked into the air with a scream as uncle Walker seemed to be struck by the third glistening appendage, only to disappear in a scattering of leaves. The older man reappeared out over the stream, holding the great conjured leaf as he drifted in the air and took stock of what appeared below.
From the water rose a huge bulbous body, at least four meters in diameter. Its skin was a slimy, stringy dark green, the central mass of the body dotted with small, beady eyes looking in all directions. At the top of the body, four petal-like flaps were peeled back to reveal a huge mouth with circular rows of teeth and a multitude of small, fleshy tubes. It had four long tentacles emerging from beneath the water, each ending in a flatter section covered with spikes, and seemed unaffected by the streaming torrent it had erupted from.
WWJS (What would Jason see?)
[Monster] Catcher of the Rapids
Rank - bronze
As if that wasn’t enough, three smaller lumps had started lumbering onto the shore towards Kite. Each of them had only one tentacle, but they too sported central maws with multitudes of teeth and one of the weird, fleshy tubes. Fortunately, their auras was of iron rank.
[Monster] Catcher spawn
Rank - Iron
Kite heard uncle Walker shout over the splashing of water and the roaring waterfall further upstream.
“I will try to save him! Try holding them off and prepare a landing spot for me!”
In the next instant, he released the leaf glider and dropped toward the monster as it moved the tentacles holding the screaming young man toward its mouth. As he plummeted down, he conjured a curved green sword seemingly made from a slender, stiff leaf. If one looked closer, you could see both veins and venules along the weapon, reinforcing the organic look. After seeing his Walker in action during their journey, Kite knew that the blade was terrifyingly sharp and only one of the many tricks up his uncle’s sleeve.
Uncle Walker’s essences were sword, hunt and plant, which produced the domain confluence with a clear inclination towards forests. Most of his awakening stones had themes of nature and forest, with a whole of nine awakening stones being of the leaf. After completing his full set of essences well into adulthood, he chose to remain a free agent in the Autumn lands, as his confluence essence lent itself well to long journeys in the vast forested valleys. Over his many travels during iron rank he found one awakening stone after the other of those varieties, with leaf being the most common followed by vine, which led to his path being locked into one of a forest walker.
Unaligned adventurers like him were usually called outcasts, and since he didn’t have any additional sponsorship he had made the best he could with what he had. Now being at the very peak of bronze rank, his experience made him a force to be reckoned with as long as he remained in his favored environment among the forests.
Kite only had another split second to see how a swarm of smaller leaves of every color manifested around his uncle during his descent, before one of the smaller monsters opened its mouth. The fleshy tube at the center of the gaping maw contracted before shooting a magical projectile of pressurized water toward Kite.
Snapping back to his more immediate concern, Kite just managed to mumble “Ward” under his breath. His barrier sprang up and scattered the watery projectile, but the other two quickly joined their companion, adding more projectiles. Kite took a steadying breath, channeling mana to keep his barrier up with the help of his racial gift evolution, Steadfast channeler. He could hear the scraping of the projectiles that missed, which cut shallow but noticeable grooves in the stone of the riverbank or cliffside behind him.
His ability to channel mana into ongoing effects, both his own and those of others, to reinforce them and keep them going had multiple facets of use, but all very situational and depending on which ability Kite kept going. Most often he had used it with his own barriers, but as it required a fair bit of concentration he had trouble fighting effectively while channeling. His aunties had assured him it would become easier with the increased cognitive functions as he rose in ranks, but at the moment it could mostly assist him in remaining defensive for an extended amount of time.
Kite used this time to take stock of his situation. The monsters seemed content to blast away at his barrier. During the seconds of observation, Kite tried to get a feel for the rhythm of their attacks. There seemed to be a few seconds delay between each spurt of magical water an individual beast could produce, and as the monsters kept firing as fast as they could the barrage had a kind of uneven cadence.
*Frsshh—Frsshh—-------Frsshh—----------*
*Frsshh—Frsshh—-------Frsshh—----------*
While Kite could keep up the channeled protection for quite a while at the current rate, remaining defensive got him nowhere in assisting uncle Walker. Waiting out one more rotation of water projectiles, he acted.
Letting the barrier remain just long enough to block the first of the next trio of attack, he simultaneously dashed forward and to the side to dodge the second. The third was his opening, its timing was a bit removed from the other two. As it came at him he swung upward with his hand as his javelin appeared in it, intercepting the projectile and scattering it into droplets through his pattern-shattering counter. The droplets still had quite a momentum, but became scattered by the interposed weapon and lost the magic which kept them a solid projectile. They became a slightly stinging rain instead of a flesh-rending torrent, not stopping Kite as he reversed his grip on the javelin and launched it at the middle one of three monsters.
The draining roots and vines shot out to ensnare the trio, which became even more agitated. Tentacles flailed about, but the flexible limbs were not well suited for dislodging the entangling tendrils. Their oversized maws were slightly better at chewing through the magical plants, but having neither necks to aim with nor much intelligence to guide their efforts, the process of freeing themselves would be slow. Most creatures of iron rank could usually free themselves before Kite could cut down whole groups of them, but the anatomically challenged monsters would probably be unable to do so before the ensnaring effect ended on its own.
Kite fell upon them, slashing at the flailing tentacles when opportunity arose but mostly thrusting with the spearlike top of the halberd while aiming for their main bodies. Their skin was rubbery and thick but surrendered to the piercing point of his weapon. Since his special attacks lent little help in dealing damage to these creatures he had to rely on his own strength. This made for grisly, methodical work as he ended the trapped creatures, one by one.
----------------------------------------
Walker ran along the side of the bulbous body as he leapt over one tentacle before sliding beneath the next. All the while he mentally directed his cloud of razor sharp leaves which struck out against the myriad of beady eyes all around him like a swarm of green, surprisingly intelligent bees. From inside the mouth, tens of fleshy protrusions fired projectiles of magically pressurized water against him, giving him yet another reason to keep moving.
Now gripped in only one tentacle, he could see the struggling form of young master Providence as the tentacle was well on its way to the great maw located top and center of the monster. The young man, to at least some credit, had stopped simply flailing and had instead started to wildly slash at everything nearby with a conjured sword made of solid light. It left searing marks on the tentacle, but the monster paid it little mind as its bronze-rank resistance made it hard for the young master to even pierce its skin as his position didn’t provide much leverage.
Walker was closing in steadily, but a third tentacle tried to intervene with a sweep along the whole top of the beast. He dove to the side, off the monster’s lumbering body and down toward the rushing waters. In the last moment he completed his flip, and just as his toes would touch the water they instead landed on a big, conjured lily pad. The magical plant seemed strangely unaffected by the rapids and buoyant enough to let Walker both land on it and leap off it. He took three more running leaps, leaving a trail of similar plants floating serenely among the rushing water and splashes caused by the monster.
His last leap carried him upward, once more landing on the monster. He had touched down right next to the tentacle which carried the young master, and he swung his blade without hesitation as he channeled a special attack. The limb was severed with an unerringly straight slash as the attack, called deforestation, was especially well suited for severing both objects in the environment and limbs of enemies.
The tentacle, now severed, spasmed wildly as it fell and the young man caught in its grip took the opportunity to break free. He tried leaping off the tentacle, moving with surprising speed due to an activated ability, but failed to account that the falling limb would be a less than ideal place from which to initiate such an escape.
Young master Providence almost fell short and down into the waiting maw of the beast, but was saved by a conjured vine from Walker who dragged him to the dubious safety of the monster’s body.
The monster still flailed, wild with pain, and the young master seemed equally wild, frantic and disoriented. This led to him lashing out against uncle Walker with a wild swing of his glowing sword, eyes darting all around as he acted in panic. Walker ducked in close, dodging the swing and slapping the young man hard across the face.
“Regain your focus, initiate, lest you shame your sect and benefactors whose names you so readily invoke” he growled, before looping his conjured vine around the man’s waist.
Dazed and still from the slap, the young initiate's eyes widened again as Walker spun twice. The vine extended like the string of a sling before releasing, turning young master providence into the metaphorical stone as he was launched toward the riverbank with bronze-rank strength supported by the magical might of the vines.
“One less to worry about for now.” Walker muttered as he turned back to the three remaining tentacles. The monster had recovered enough to make at least a partially coherent effort of smashing the annoying little thing scuttling about its central mass, although this effort was further hampered by the fact that many of its eyes were damaged beyond use.
It still had plenty as the beady orbs dotted the whole humongous creature, but its coverage had steadily worsened as Walker’s swarm of leaves had kept up the attack.
Vines sprouting from one arm and blade low in the other, Walker dashed to meet the oncoming tentacles with a small smile on his face.
----------------------------------------
Kite stood in awe as he watched uncle Walker go all out. While he had seen him fight occasionally, nothing they had met together had been of this scale. He suspected that this monster was at the peak of bronze rank, but he did not have enough experience to tell for sure.
As the fight progressed, uncle Walker battled on and around the big monster. As it lost another tentacle, it began employing its barrage of water projectiles as fast as it could fire them. Walker kept moving and weaving through the hail of danger, but Kite quickly realized that he and the other young man who stood equally frozen beside him were in danger of becoming collateral damage.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Young master Providence had been quite winded as he landed on the rocky shore, barely noticing as Kite helped him to his feet and then just remained standing there beside Kite as the fight unfolded.
As the projectiles started flying wild, Kite stepped in front of him and whispered “Ward” as he raised his barrier and continued to channel mana into it. He glanced back and saw young master Providence was looking at him with an expression that was hard to read before was brutally returned to looking at his fore, when a stray projectile crashed into his barrier.
The attacks of the iron rank monsters had been quite manageable for his conjured barrier and would have lasted several barrages even without Kite actively channeling mana into it. As the stray blast from the peak bronze rank monster collided with it, at an angle no less, it almost shattered instantly. Kite groaned slightly as a lot of mana left him in short order to keep reinforcing the barrier. He realized that he would not last too many of these hits, especially if the monster would attack him directly. However, as there were no places to hide on the riverbank, he remained resolute to give his all before considering more options.
“One’s path is tempered through adversity and strife. Thus does it gain the strength to carry oneself towards the heavens.” he mumbled to himself, reiterating the lesson that uncle Walker had given often and liberally during their many hours spent together the last months. He blocked one projectile, then two. His reserves were dwindling and he felt slightly light-headed when a third projectile struck, leaving Kite on his knees with a pounding headache.
Kite had felt the effects of low mana before, but had been rather spared from it all due to his abilities rarely demanding that much from him and his vortex increasing his own recovery.
“I don’t envy my opponents.” he thought, as his thoughts drifted to his own set of powers and their potent mana-draining. He felt that a fourth hit would leave him unconscious, and sent a silent prayer to Warrior to give uncle Walker the strength to finish the beast thrashing in the water in front of them.
In the end, no divine intervention was needed. As Walker had fought, more and more razor sharp leaves whirled around him and more lily pads and other conjured plants floated around the now desperate monster. Only one tentacle remained and many of the water-spouting protrusion had been damaged or severed. Walker dodged one last swing from the flailing limb as he landed with a spin, letting it carry him into several more steps that looked more like a ritualistic dance with controlled, rotating movements.
As his dance began, all of his conjured plants dissolved into even more of the razor sharp leaves which joined the sizable swarm. The leaves started moving in tandem with uncle Walker, swirling ever faster as his pace increased. Suddenly, all the leaves took on a deep crimson sheen, speed increasing dramatically as the great cutting vortex contracted. The red color deepened as it was joined by a fine mist which, according to the shrieks and fading movement of the monster, allowed Kite to make quite an educated guess as to the origin of said mist.
Uncle Walker landed on the riverbank beside the younger men, dismissing a freshly conjured leaf glider. Behind him, the storm of petals gradually dissolved, leaving behind only a mound of shredded flesh which colored to stream a deep red for kilometers downstream as the blood was carried away by the moving water.
He looked weary but had the ghost of a triumphant smile playing on his lips, before schooling his expression into formality. Both younger men looked quite spent, both in body and spirit.
“Young master. I believe you had some issues with my rulings in addition to questioning the honor and integrity of my student?” he asked impassively while locking his gaze onto the initiate.
Brilliant Bloom of Providence paled. He regarded them both, and was apparently exhausted enough that even Kite could see some conflicting emotions radiate from his aura. In the end, he gave uncle Walker a low bow.
“I extend my apologies, senior. Those were words spoken in haste and anger.” he said before bowing a bit more shallowly toward Kite.
“My apologies to you as well. I questioned your honor while you showed complete trust in mine.”
“Your apology is accepted, Brilliant Bloom of Providence, and I hope both you and my student carry lessons from this encounter.” uncle Walker replied with a nod. He reached into his dimensional satchel before retrieving a small scroll sealed with a clear crystal. Walker gazed intently at it with obvious focus, relaxing as the clear crystal changed colors to a swirl of green, yellow, orange and red which reminded Kite of looking out over the woodlands of the Autumn lands.
He reached out and gave the scroll to young master Providence, who winced slightly before accepting it.
“My mentor will thank you for your evaluation of the clash, senior.” he said, reluctance clear in his voice.
“It is only my duty, young master, and I assure you that I have made a fair assessment. I will handle my student’s evaluation personally this evening”
“Then I will take my leave, senior. May your path take you to the heavens and beyond” said Brilliant Bloom of Providence as he gave Kite another long look before turning and leaving along the riverbank.
Walker looked at the retreating figure before nodding toward a small pool next to the cliff side, almost forgotten.
“Don’t forget your prize, little Kite. You sure earned it.”
WWJS (What would Jason see?):
[Awakening stone of Erosion]
Unranked - Rare
An awakening stone containing the power of gradual but inevitable sundering.
----------------------------------------
As evening fell, Kite sat looking into the warm glow of the magical heater uncle Walker had brought along for the journey while weighing the new awakening stone in his hand. Both men sat leaned back against their own tree, facing one another. Around them, uncle Walker had placed a rope loop with wards etched into wooden plaques spaced evenly along its length. It was a simple but effective tool to help mask their auras to casual observer, but Walker had warned him that it would not hold up to concerted effort.
“Uncle Walker?”
“Yes, little Kite?”
“What did the young master mean when he said I placed complete trust in his honor? We didn’t really get a chance to talk so how would he know?.”
Walker was busy crushing some herbs with mortar and pestle, but stopped his work to give Kite more of his attention.
“Think about it some more, Kite. What could have given him that impression?”
Kite creased his brows in thought. He went through their short initial exchange and the hectic aftermath. They had barely interacted at all. Kite had barely had the time to even look at him except-
“Was it because I shielded him?” Kite asked incredulously. “Why wouldn’t I, when I could? He was rather rude, but that should matter less during such a situation. Shouldn’t it?”
Uncle Walker gave Kite a weary but warm smile.
“It is quite uplifting to be around those of you who have lived in the more remote villages in these lands. Among the bigger cities and proud sects, such assistance is seldom rendered without compensation or social gain. Especially not to a person who you perceived has wronged you. And make no mistake, little Kite. Our young master, while polite at the end, probably still carries a good share of resentment towards you.”
He chuckled. “But you probably muddied those waters a bit there at the end. I couldn’t spare you more than glances, but I saw you shield him. But I think what stunned him the most wasn’t the shielding in and of itself but something else.”
“You shielded him with your back wholly turned to him.” Walker finished, as if that explained it all.
“Well, I had to look forward and stay focused”
“Yes. But what if he had attacked you while your focus was elsewhere?”
“What. But… Why in the heavens would he do that?”
“Wouldn’t that leave him free to grab the stone and abscond?”
Kite looked even more incredulous. “But he had agreed to the rules, and I won.”
“There are many different people and paths in this world, little Kite. While many will obey rules and laws, there are many who will not. A lot of people will even use said rules as a tool to be used only when it suits them while doing whatever they like when they think they can get away with it.”
The younger man was silent in thought for a while longer before replying.
“So when I turned my back at him…” he trailed off.
“You made it clear that you counted on him being honorable. That you saw him as such.”
“But if he had been dishonest, that wouldn’t have mattered”.
“Indeed it wouldn’t have. But young master Providence showed that he possessed plenty of a certain characteristic in our early exchange. Pride, Kite. Pride is a dominant trait among many of those who come from means or swear allegiance to the sects. It can be used as both weapon and shield, but is a rather brittle tool.”
“Isn’t the saying that pride comes before fall?”
“Indeed, little Kite. And that lesson should probably have been clear to the young master after the result of your rather short bout. Pride led him to his fall, but the same pride wouldn’t let him betray the trust you showed him. Young master Providence probably views himself as many things, but I wouldn’t expect backstabber or thief to be one of them. His pride would not let him stoop so low. So in the end, his pride got him into trouble but it also helped him make the honorable choice in the end.”
“It sounds like being prideful must be quite exhausting.” Kite mused, which prompted a laugh from his uncle.
“Truer words have rarely been spoken, little Kite. Speaking of the young master also reminded me that we have our own evaluation to go through. There is plenty for us to discuss”
----------------------------------------
As Kite awoke the next morning, the sunlight of dawn filtered down between the foliage above. Last night had been a thorough evaluation of the short duel, with mostly amused praise from his uncle. He did press one issue, repeatedly, in that his was as fortunate an encounter Kite would get in such a duel. Not all essence users would make the mistake of underestimating Kite so thoroughly, and even fewer possessed such a spectacular and costly attack that the duel was effectively over as it failed.
His last words before retiring to his bedroll was “We will have you fighting plenty more duels in the future, little Kite, so don’t you go and absorb too much pride from the young master. Stay true to your path and see it through.”
Before continuing their journey, there was one more thing left to do. This had Kite checking and double checking a magical diagram he had drawn around him using powdered chalk. As he found it to his satisfaction, he lit a stick of special incense which he carried around the diagram several times before sticking the still smoking stick into the nearby moss. He could feel the ambient mana settling down, and after a steadying breath he went to work.
It was the first ritual of awakening which Kite had wholly performed himself. Auntie Crow had drilled it into him before leaving, but he still wanted to be doubly sure that he had made no fatal mistakes as the consequences would be quite spectacular.
As the diagram lit up, he felt his heart calm down a bit. The light had the correct color, and not long after it was done as the stone seemed to erode down into sand which entered his body.
WWJS (What would Jason see?):
Kite Flown in on Winds of Fortune has absorbed [Awakening stone of Erosion]
You have awakened Negation essence ability [Discarnate Erosion].
[Ability] Discarnate Erosion
Special ability, aura. Cost: None Cooldown: None Current rank: Iron 0
Effect: All hostile magical effects affected by your aura start to erode, reducing the duration of ongoing effects and lessening the impact of spells and special attacks within the area. Effect increases the longer the hostile effect remains inside the aura.
Kite could feel the changes to his aura as it became a lot more stable and connected to him with this addition. Apparently, uncle Walker could notice the change as well.
“Well, little Kite, congratulations seems to be in order. Wielding your aura is an important tool if you are to be regarded as a proper adventurer worthy of your path.” he cheered while clapping a hand to Kite’s shoulder. “And it gives us another thing to practice in the evenings. Believe an old man when I say that you will never regret time spent working on your aura control”.
Kite spent the upcoming hours of walking by testing out the new and improved control he had over the unseen part of him. What before had felt mostly like another sense now also became a way to interact with the world more directly. It still felt awkward and clumsy, like using a non-dominant hand for a task requiring care and coordination, but Walker assured him that he would get there as long as he continued to practice.
As Kite looked out over the path through the woodlands ahead, he felt the excitement still bubbling inside his chest. He had traveled further than ever before. He had fought his first duel, learning lessons both martial and personal. He had witnessed natural wonders. He had awakened another power, one he felt meshed well with the other aspects of his path as it took form. Kite reveled in the feeling of being on his way toward something, something unknown yet exciting. He wondered what lay beyond the next valley, quietly vowing to keep his momentum.