Liam could feel his consciousness slowly starting to come back to him as his body began to stir. His hearing was filled with a low hum. A muffled vibration rippled in his ear drums every other five seconds as the sensation those vibrations brought were felt across his body. Liam slowly opened his eyes to see a blurry view. After blinking several times, Liam’s vision had returned.
Liam’s slowly looked around the area, confused on what had happened. He was sprawled out across the ground, back, slightly prompted up in at an angle on something hard. Around him was uprooted trees, broken vines and flowers, disheveled and torn up pieces of dirt, and more.
Liam wasn’t sure where he was or how he had gotten there for a few seconds before it all came back to him. His body tensed as he swiftly stood up and looked around. The object that had prompted him up was a torn up petrified root. All around him were torn up pieces of petrified roots. Mixed in with them were broken up pieces of flowers, grass, dirt, and even branches.
Something caught Liam’s eyes not too far away from him to the right. Liam peered at it to make sure it wasn’t something dangerous. After zooming his sight in and refocusing, he was able to make out two hooded figures sprawled out on the ground. One was face up and the other was face down.
Liam watched to see if there were any signs of life coming from the two. Signs like breathing or sudden body twitches. He didn’t see either signs. He activated Mana Sight to make sure they weren’t using any magic to conceal their signs of life but saw nothing. The only thing he did see, besides the equipment on them were spots of red stains and pools of red liquid close to their bodies.
A sudden explosion not too far off in the distance caught his attention. He swiveled his head to look at that direction and froze. He still had his Mana Sight activated and what he saw through it was both amazing and terrifying. Thick and heavy Mana colors lit up the area the fighting was coming from. The power that radiated from the attacks reminded Liam just how far he still was from being able to say he was strong.
Liam gritted his teeth. He wasn’t sure if the people fighting had meant to come in when they do or if they had arrived after he was captured, and they didn’t know he was trapped. Either way, he didn’t like to feel that he owed someone he didn’t know anything. He didn’t like it mainly because he didn’t know these people’s personalities. He didn’t know if they were the type of people who would use it as blackmail or if they were the type that really didn’t care.
Deciding he didn’t want to stick around and find out, Liam ran over to the two dead bodies and searched for anything he could take. He didn’t see any pouches or small bags around the bodies telling him that either they didn’t have anything, or they were snagged by the other people.
He pulled the hood off the one that was face up and got a better look at him. It was the Beast-kin. He had wolf-like ears and the teeth he was able to see through the open mouth showed sharp canines. He wasn’t able to look for much longer as he felt a powerful pressure slowly making its way towards him.
Without thinking, Liam grabbed one of his daggers and cut out the symbol on the cloth. He wasn’t sure why he had decided to do it, but figured he could use it as proof to Uncle Naro when he met up with him and the others. Liam paused after that thought. He didn’t know how long he had been out. How much time he had taken while his Battle Zen was activated. He needed to hurry.
Liam placed the cloth piece he had taken and placed it into his inventory. The buildup of the pressure was starting to get heavier by the second telling him he needed to get out now. Not wanting to wait for whoever was responsible for that power he turned and made his way in the direction of where his teammates ran towards.
However, before he disappeared into the large foliage created by Kala’s powers, he froze. He didn’t freeze because the powerful pressure had grown so much it rooted him in place, no. He froze because the power that had washed over him felt like it was nudging him away. That nudging feeling also felt…familiar.
He couldn’t really say how or why it felt familiar. Everyone he knew so far in this world and had come across were either those who wanted him dead, his old friends, or his teammates. And this power didn’t feel like any of theirs.
Liam turned around to see if he could get a glimpse of the person it belonged to. However, when he turned around he froze as he felt a cold chill running down his spine telling him that would not be wise to do. Instead, he face forward once more and continued to run.
. After running for so long he sensed familiar presences making their way towards them. Their scent was the first thing to reach him as the sound of their feet hitting the ground filled his ears. Finally, after a few seconds their forms came into view. It was Uncle Naro and the rest of his team.
Liam could see the range of emotions race over their faces. Concern, worry, relief, joy, then…anger. That last one gave Liam pause. He almost tripped over his feet as he saw Uncle Naro’s angry look on his face. It told him everything he needed to know. He was in trouble.
Liam came to a halt as the others slowed down to approach him. He opened his mouth to say something, but was stopped as Uncle Naro shouted, “What in Ursa’s paw were you thinking?!”
The others winced at Uncle Naro’s shout. It looked like he had taken them by surprise with how angry he sounded. Even Liam winced as he tried to think about what to say. However, he didn’t get enough time to think of something as Uncle Naro pressed on.
If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
“Didn’t I tell you to come back if things looked bad?” Uncle Naro questioned as he stared Liam down.
Liam nodded. He couldn’t find his voice for some reason as he averted his gaze from the giant Bear-folk. He didn’t really understand why, but he felt like a child being scolded for doing something really dumb.
“Then why in Ursa’s name did Avery, Blair, Mercer, and Roman return back without you?” Uncle Naro waited for Liam to reply. When he didn’t he pressed, “I was told what the levels were of those creatures that surrounded you guys. I was also informed about how you managed to create some kind of diversion and opened a hole for not just you but two other groups.”
Liam nodded, still not looking the man in the eyes. Uncle Naro’s anger remained as he asked, “So you did do that? Then why did you stay behind instead of running away with everyone else?”
Liam suddenly felt annoyed. He had realized how his body language looked. Like he was being submissive to the man. Did he respect Uncle Naro? Yes. Did he not want to disappoint the man and make him proud? For some damn reason, yes. As the feeling of annoyance grew and grew he did something he hadn’t done to an adult figure in a while. Like a bad reflex, Liam snapped back, “Because I was trying to hinder them further and make sure they were slowed in case they snapped out of what I did to them.”
Uncle Naro stared back at Liam. His expression never wavered as Liam continued, “Was it stupid that I thought I could hinder them and try to slow them down some more? Yes. However, something happened when I did it and it triggered my Battle Zen to activate on its own. When it did I felt like there was something I needed to learn from it, so I kept it going. Wanting to know what it wanted to teach me.”
Uncle Naro’s angry expression slipped a bit after hearing this. However, that slip was only for a brief moment as he asked, “Oh? And what was it that you learned? Or thought you needed to learn from it?”
Liam thought back from what he remembered that had happened when his Battle Zen activated. He remembered the positioning of his body. The way his senses rotated between one another to sense any signs of attack. He also remembered the way he growled.
Liam didn’t think he was capable of growling like the way he did. As he thought about it more he felt the way his body was positioned during that time was telling him something, showing him that he had more capabilities than he knew. He felt something resonate within himself. Thinking back on how he had looked, he would say he probably looked like a feral beast…no. Like a feral cat with the ears and tail on his shadowy cloak.
Something else came to mind as he thought about this. It was how his body moved while in the Battle Zen. It was completely different than the other times he had gone into a trance-like state. The times before when he fell into it, the trance-like state felt like it was guiding him, showing him what he was capable of while pushing his body beyond its capabilities even if that meant he had a long recovery afterwards due to all the stress it put on his body.
This time his actions showed him something that he could do through what his body could handle. He was still a bit sore afterwards, but the stress this time was lighter than the other times. This is what a Battle Zen was truly like. It allowed him to enter a battle-like trance using everything he had without pushing himself beyond what he was capable of.
Liam blinked a few times as everyone stared at him. He was snapped out of his thoughts as Uncle Naro asked once more, “Well? What was it that you learned or needed to learn?”
“How to properly use my heightened sense while in a fight,” Liam said as he fully grasped what it was his Battle Zen had him doing. “How to properly use my heightened senses like a Beast-kin.”
Uncle Naro’s eyes widened at that proclamation. Out of all the things he could have said, this was not one of the ones he was expecting. His brows then quickly scrunched as he thought about his recent talk with his Patron Bear Deity. If he had somehow knew Liam was so close to understanding what he needed to learn the most to inherit the Field of the Beast, however basic and fundamental it was; Then that would make sense why he was so pushy about him going.
However…did he know the level of the creatures they had to face? Was he aware of the dangers that were waiting for these young ones? Yes…maybe…probably? He didn’t know. He wouldn’t claim to know either. It wasn’t his place to try and read the minds of someone like him. What was his place, though, was helping these newly arrived young folks to understand the world was dangerous and they needed to learn how to get stronger and watch out for them.
Thinking about danger, Uncle Naro asked, “Were there any other enemies besides armored skeletons?”
Liam looked hesitant as he heard the question. Uncle Naro noticed it and was curious what it was that Liam was thinking about. He didn’t have to wait for long as Liam said, “There were several hooded figures actually controlling them.”
Liam heard Ariyana gasp as Artem tensed up. He could see the half Orc started to ball his hands into fists. Gimmel looked confused as he looked at the others. Avery, Blair, Mercer, and Roman looked pissed off as they thought about the hooded figures.
“Hooded figures?” Uncle Naro repeated. “What were they part of some cult or something?”
“I think it’s some sort of Order,” Liam corrected, trying to think about what Steve had mentioned before getting backstabbed. “Here. I cut this off their robe to show you.”
Uncle Naro was about to make some snarky comment as Liam rummaged through his inventory, but the moment he locked eyes on the symbol his mouth closed tightly. Liam felt power start to channel and churn all around Uncle Naro. He wasn’t sure what was going on or why Uncle Naro looked so pissed.
However, after a couple seconds of silence, Uncle Naro asked, “You said you got this off their dead bodies. Did you killed them?”
“I didn’t,” Liam said. “I woke back up after getting knocked out. When I awoke two of them were dead and there was a powerful pressure and explosions off in the distance. Some battle was going on. After I felt the power wash over me, I cut and grabbed this before skedaddling out of there.”
Uncle Naro’s brows furrowed as he asked, “Powerful Pressure? What Powerfu…”
Suddenly a powerful wave of power washed over them. A wry smile grew on Uncle Naro’s lips before straightening his facial features and asked, “Was that the same powerful pressure you felt?”
Liam nodded.
“Well, you actually did something I had asked you to do,” Uncle Naro teased Liam. “But you were right to leave. In fact, we all need to get out of here right now.”
Liam was shocked and surprised. He noticed Mercer was surprised as well. Not wanting to fight Uncle Naro on the subject, Liam followed him and the others back to the teleportation circle. After they arrived and saw no one was around, they quickly made their way to the area they needed to leave the island. After a few minutes, Liam and the entire group had left, leaving behind a battle he might have loved to watch.