It was greedy to return and get the syringe in his backpack, but he just couldn’t let the heart blood go to waste. That was the first beast that had the same strength, no Clay was sure that from raw essence it was even stronger than himself.
Like he suspected, it didn’t take long before beasts were drawn to the powerful corpse, but they were trivial to deal with compared to the fight he just survived, so he was able to retrieve the heart blood and safely return to the city.
After making sure that Mia was doing okay, he returned to the room he used for the time being. Well, thanks to Mia’s mask they didn’t have to change houses every month, so the room was beginning to feel like home.
Undressing himself, he threw his bloodied clothes away before turning his attention to his chestplate. There were some superficial claw marks from his fights, but most striking was the gaping hole in the stomach area, almost big enough for his hand to fit through. Well, he had to repair that later.
Looking at his chest, he noticed that there was still dried blood on him that began to splinter. Moving to the bathroom connected to his room, he grabbed some towel, dunked it in the water basin and cleaned himself. Under the crust was his pristine skin, revealed without a trace of any injuries.
Slowly stroking over his skin, it was smooth, yet firm. It was confusing to think that only hours ago he was at death's door, or was he? What was the limit of his healing and what exactly changed about his body.
The obvious facts were that his hair turned from blond into a bright silver, all sorts of imperfections like scars, pimples, stretch marks, moles, skin tags and so on all but vanished. Besides that was of course his increased healing capabilities and enhanced stamina.
Most noticeably was that his body, even without him having to burn any heart blood, was enhanced in various ways, there weren’t that noticeable on their own but the moment he began to circulate even a little essence inside his body they became that much more apparent especially concerning his stamina and regeneration.
With this inner circulation, he would only need four hours of sleep, and it would be like eight. In the past that was only six, but with his control over essence increasing he was able to keep up this inner circulation even in his sleep, which he couldn’t do before. He could probably even push his sleep down to one or two hours, but he didn’t know how long he could keep that up.
His stamina in general also regenerated fast enough for him to practically never tire. The only question was what else he could achieve with this circulation. After burning at full force, he realized that he may be able to enhance his body with only his embers.
He just had to focus the energy at one point and not circulate it around his whole body like it naturally does. The problem was that essence seemed to always move, so it was hard to force it into once small point it always needed to be a circulation…
Thinking about it, he suddenly realized that he may just try to form a smaller circulation. It was hard to force essence into one point, but what if he just guided it along a smaller region like his arms instead of his whole body?
Concentrating inwards for a moment, he guided the flow of essence that was refined from the spiral in his heart into his right arm before directing it back. He could ‘see’ the river that usually flowed through his whole body thicken along his arm, and he could feel the immense power that came with it.
Feeling the energy he had the urge to release it and without much thought punched the wall behind him causing a spiderweb of cracks to dance along the wall. Tiles broke and cracked, parts splintered loudly on the floor, while his fist almost vanished into the wall.
Well, that wasn’t his smartest idea. Pulling his fist free from the debris, Clay could see his bloodied knuckles healing. Because there was no pain, he almost thought his fist was unscathed, but of course it wasn’t. Opening and stretching his fingers, he was sure that the wound already healed.
Before he could contemplate further, he heard the door being banged open as Mia rushed in with a pan as her choice of weapon. Seeing her expression turn from shock, to concern before ending in confusion in a span of a few moments, he couldn’t help but laugh.
After earning himself a kick to the shin, his laughter died down real quick, though. Damn, should he keep up a shield even at home now?
***
Pulling the last threat through the patch of leather over the hole, Clay overlooked his work and deemed the chestplate as functional again. Tightening his fully repaired armor, he secured his sword on his hip, then stored the chef's knife he got from the kitchen into the sheath on his belt. He just haphazardly sewed it together this morning.
The boar attack was only yesterday, but he wanted to make a quick trip around the city to make sure everything was fine and still free from any stronger beasts. An ambush on their home was the last thing that he needed right now.
After his preparations and rather half-hearted repairs, he was sure to look over them again once he deemed the surrounding as safe. As he planned to stay in the city, the safest spot for Mia was by his side, so she joined him on this short examination.
Once the lock clicked into place, Clay rested his hand on the hilt of his sword. It somewhat became a habit to have the blade close at hand. With a deep breath, he concentrated inwards, pulling some of the essence circulating inside him outwards to form a shield.
Like usual, it took some time to gather the needed essence to form his shield, but in a minute the circulation would be in place and in a few minutes the density would thicken to the usual strength.
Before he opened his eyes, there was a tuck from his belt, so Clay turned around. “What is it, Mia–?”
Instead of Mia, he saw the sheath he made for his kitchen knife float upwards as if gravity turned upside down. “What the fuck is this now?” Clay asked himself more than anyone else. In curiosity, he tried to push the sheath down, but before his finger could even come close, he felt a resistance. It was formless, almost like when you pushed magnets with the same poles against each other.
Furrowing his brows, he tried to grab the sheath, only to be stopped by the same repulsion. The more force he used, the greater the force of rejection. Tensing his arm, he swung at the sheath, only for his hip to be jerked backwards, causing him to almost lose his balance and fall.
Stopping in a half spin, he noticed that there was a ripple in his aura. “Mia, could you try to grab the sheath?”
Having witnessed Clay struggle with grabbing his knife, she hesitantly moved her fingers closer. She came closer and closer until she finally had the sheath in her hand and felt the cool leather. Pouting, she punched Clay at the side. “Stop making fun of me!”
Barley feeling the punch, he shook his head in defense. “I’m not making fun of you, could you pull the knife out for me? Make sure you have a firm grip around it, okay?”
Confused, she hesitated for a moment, but eventually nodded and pulled out the knife. “Okay, and now what?”
Nodding, Clay explained, “Now take a few steps back.” Doing so, she looked at him with a questioning gaze. “Good now you take the knife and throw it at me.”
Mindlessly staring at him, she didn’t seem to register what he just asked. “You want me to–”
“You heard me. Don’t worry, just throw it, even if I’m injured it will just heal in a few seconds, okay?”
Looking at the knife for a moment, there was only a sigh before she threw it rather haphazardly at him. When it was around the height of his thigh and only a few centimeters away, there was suddenly the same repulsion and the knife got flung away to the ground followed by a loud clinking.
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Bending over, he reached with his arm closer to the knife and the moment it touched his aura, another clink resounded as the knife slid over the ground. Looking with wide eyes, Mia asked, “Is that some magic trick you are practicing?”
Straightening his back, Clay pulled out his sword and flicked it with a finger, causing a sound similar to a thud compared to the ringing you would expect from metal. “Let's go, I want to use the daylight.”
Dumbstruck by being ignored, she was frozen a moment before she came back to reality and quickly caught up to him. “Hey! What was that with the knife?”
“I’m not quite sure yet, but I will tell you once I’m certain,” explained Clay while he messed up her hair, which she tried to prevent to the best of her abilities.
Protecting her hair with her hands, she ducked away and switched over to his left side. Reaching over with his left arm, he completely missed her head. He had forgotten, for a moment, that there was only a stump where his left arm used to be. “You cheeky little…”
Laughing was the only response he got as Mia ran off.
***
The rest of the month flew past peacefully. In this time, Clay didn’t dare to venture deeper into the forest than the borders he was used too and knew by heart. It was impossible for him to secure the whole forest, so instead he began to specifically focus on an area.
The goal was too somehow mark a territory so that other beasts would avoid it. The problem was that he didn’t have a scent or anything else animals normally used to mark their territory, so he just adopted to carve a curved cross with a vertical line in the intersection into the trees surrounding his ‘territory’.
Most mutated animals did get smarter, and at some point they should realize that anyone trespassing over these marks dies. Well, and in the worst case, he just used the trees to let some frustration out.
This territory which he wanted to mark mainly referred to the west side of the city where the poison originated from and the path to the village Jim laid buried. In the future they will probably move to that village as it is a smaller territory to defend and also far enough from the ever-growing veil of death.
They never lived close to the center of the city, as Clay preferred the option of retreating to the village than to barricade in the center, which would be consumed by the poison eventually. Even though Mia was immune to it, and he was able to heal it rather easily, he still rather preferred to avoid it. Alone, the housing and food were reason enough, with how quickly they rotted under the poison.
The focus of his travels was the old road leading from Churchville to the small village, with him killing every beast he encountered, and making a few marks on the spot where they died.
Walking along the path, there was a sturdy stick under his left armpit which was held in place with his stump, while he used the obsidian dagger, which he burrowed from Mia, to sharpen the stick.
Having learned the hard way how helpless he was without weapons, he started to make several spears and stored them along his territory so that he could retrieve them if needed. After the fight with the boar, he realized how effective a spear can be, even a shabby wooden one.
Well, they were meant to be used only once anyway, so he cared little about quality. It would have been best if he could also use some metal weapons, even if it was just a kitchen knife. This now proved to be rather hard, at least if he still wanted to use his shield, and by now he refused to dissipate it. It was up at all times, while he was in the forest, worked on the house or slept. It didn’t matter.
Absorbed in his thoughts, Clay didn’t notice that he was already back home. Opening the door, he heard hurried footsteps from above as Mia rushed the stairs down. “Clay! You are finally back! I’m so bored! Can’t you take me with you?”
“Mia, I told you that you can only come once you are able to form a shield. I’m just worried about your safety, you remember the viper, right? Also, why are you at home if you are supposed to be at the tree?”
Fidgeting with her fingers, she looked down. “It was just so boring. I was only for an hour, and the poison is not even one street away from us, so I could just have run back if some beast came.”
“You should use the time to train your aura. Holding it in place is the first step in getting your shield, so why don’t you practice when you are so bored?” Clay asked with a sigh.
“Well, I can already hold my aura and I didn’t know what else to do, so I just came back,” explained Mia with her head still held low.
What, so suddenly? She needed a little over three months just to feel essence, and from what Clay could tell the last few months were pretty fruitless with little results to show for. “Show me.”
Nodding, Mia closed her eyes and concentrated inwards, while he did the same making sure that he fully concentrated on the flow of his own aura to detect the slighted anomalies and after a while there was a faint ripple so small that one could mistake it for imagination, but he knew better than to ignore something like this.
From the faint ripple, he finally confirmed at least one thing. Mia, like him and the boar, was awakened. He guessed as much from the strength of the poison he survived. They had to be similar in strength, else he wouldn’t have almost died.
Now that this fact became clear, maybe he should allow her to drink the heart blood of the boar. He originally retrieved the blood for Mia but didn’t dare to give it to her in fear of harming her. He still remembered vividly what happened to Emma.
Even after almost a month the blood from the boar lost little essence which just proved its potency. He didn’t hunt much the last few days and their storage of heart blood was consumed by now, so he could at least buy some time with the boar’s blood to hunt for more.
Being poked by Mia interrupted his thought process. He almost forgot she was still there. “Clay, did you feel it?”
Smiling, he replied, “Yes, you definitely have an aura now, congratulations.” After she made a small jump of joy, he continued, “Could you tell me how you suddenly were able to hold your essence?”
“Oh, I almost forgot! That damned tree tried to absorb my essence, I could clearly feel it being dragged away. Of course, I didn’t want that, so I just held on to it for dear life.” She replied with a clenched fist to emphasize her point.
“Haha, that was very good thinking,” replied Clay while laughing awkwardly. Maybe she just needed a little push to figure it out. He couldn’t quite recall how he was able to form his aura, as far as he remembered he was always able to do it. It was natural.
But the thing with the tree was concerning. He seemed to have underestimated the danger it could pose to her, or him in fact. He should reevaluate.
***
Summer came and with it came the annoying insect that followed this season of the year, each one being spared mutations. Not that Clay cared much, with his shield, they could not muster the strength to pierce his skin. He never imagined he would use an alien energy, from who knows where, as simple mosquito protection.
Well, more important was that the blood of the boar gave, like he hoped, enough energy to last Mia for the whole month. This gave them the time needed to move yet again, which would be hopefully the last time.
In fear of the tree and surrounding wildlife, Clay decided to accelerate his plans and moved with Mia to the village closest to Churchville, where her brother rested. The surroundings were already secured and marked, so he wasn’t too worried about being ambushed, not that he dared to let his guard down.
Quite sad when he thought that the old house slowly began to feel like home, but there was nothing he could do. So with another circulation of essence in his arms, he rammed the axe deep into the trunk of the tree he was cutting, ripping the axe free he moved close to his cheek before his shield pushed the metal away and added to the force of his swing.
Well, like with the mosquitos, he found an unconventional way to use his aura shield. He knew that discovering that metal was being pushed away from essence would come in handy, in one way or another, but he hadn’t expected to use it to cut down trees.
Something like a sword or knife are almost impossible to use because the metal is too close to his aura, but an axe had enough length to use it as an advantage even if it was only used for woodcutting. This meant that he potentially could use metal spears. Well, he didn’t have any, so the wooden ones would have to do.
Lost in thought, he just hacked away at the tree, an activity he found to be quite relaxing. After some arguing, he and Mia settled for a quite luxuries two-story house with attic and cellar near the center of the village.
The idea was to use whole logs to build a sturdy wall around the house to act as fortification. It was finally time to secure a house for years rather than months. After some measuring, he decided on a length of close to five meters and a width of half a meter. Being surrounded by an oak forest, it wasn’t that hard to find such trees.
No, the biggest problem came after cutting them, because then began the process of clearing the trunk of branches and leaves, removing the bark and shaping the tree in a somewhat straight form while also sharpening the tips. With the rope snugly secured around the finished trunk, he moved the essence from his arms to his legs in one smooth motion before dragging it home.
Around their house was already a small trench that he dug the last few days, by first breaking the road open and then digging a bit further into the dirt. The trunk was then lifted into the correct hole, before being secured by some gravel. He actually had no idea if that worked, but from what Dennis told him – a friend who had a knack for woodwork – it should.
After a full day only two trunks were placed and seeing what still lay before him, he could only sigh. This could well take the rest of the year, but not that he complained. The work kept his body fit, trained him in his circulation of essence, prevented him of thinking too much or being bored and in the end he will hopefully have a secure wall that will keep any unwanted visitor out.
Taking a deep breath, he nodded while looking at the setting sun. He will make sure to make this a good place for him and Mia. Everything will be just fine.