Hammer of the Earth

I sat in the room for a while after the fight. My wounds had long since healed, but I felt their presence as if they were still fresh. The battle was fresh in my mind, every moment of it replaying as if I was watching a movie. I was a vampire, physically I was always the most powerful being in the room. I’ve always felt that way, since the day I was turned. With what I now knew of my bloodline, it was more true today than it had ever been before.

Yet, I had nearly lost. If Saevel had held a Mask that gave him command over fire, if he had been able to prepare and know how to fight a vampire, I wouldn’t have won. The way he fought with his skills was unlike anything I had seen before. It was seamless, his Mask was part of his entire being.

I was approaching the Third Investment, and with my vampire heritage I was used to punching above my Investment. But beasts were one thing, they might be equal or even stronger than me, but ultimately an animal was still an animal, no matter how cunning. A person utilized their Mask in ways that I hadn’t imagined.

Fourth Investment elf nearly killed an Elder Vampire at the Third Investment. I hadn’t really understood how Investment improved people. I knew that based on Mask they became faster, stronger, and Saevel’s Mask was clearly combat based, and had improved his speed significantly—enough to be able to match a vampire. My Mask didn’t improve my physical attributes to the same degree because it was spread out across all three—Physical, Weave, and Esoteric.

I had always won battles because I was a vampire, not because I was better—this battle made that clear to me. Now that it was over, I had so many different thoughts about things that I could’ve done. I haven’t even used the skill I got from Shadow, which was probably my most powerful one right now.

I had to start practicing with my skills a lot more. I had a lot of versatility, my meta skills like [Overburn Skill] and [Swap Profile] helped my limitations a lot, but I still didn’t have a concrete path.

Still, it was frustrating to realize that I wouldn’t have been able to win if I wasn’t a vampire.

“Query: Are you alright Mari?” Saia asked. “Your vitals are outside the normal range.”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, then let my heart beat. It calmed me down, there was no reason to dwell on what I couldn’t change right now.

“I’m fine,” I shook my head and stood, looking around. “He didn’t leave a body,” I commented. “Wonder why that is. The beasts did.”

“Input: It could be because of the nature of what he was. A copy of a real person would not possess the essence that your Mask requires in order to create a copy within your soul space.”

“So, you think that he was a copy too.”

“Feedback: It seems the most plausible, based on his words and the nature of this trial.”

I nodded, glad that we agreed. “Yeah, you’re right. The beasts could probably be real, the Grand Spell could’ve just transported them or had them in storage somewhere. I guess that it didn’t transport real living people because it would go against its desire to see people get stronger. Copies of the dead are apparently on the table.”

Saia didn’t respond to that, she was slowly repairing the damage to the armor I was wearing, Saevel had done a number on it. It wasn’t the final version of Saia’s armor, the thing that Ke Erzi would wear in battle. It was just the part that would augment their physical attributes, which I figured would be better. This was our first battle where I had the opportunity to really use it.

“How did the armor handle?”

“Report: I’ve been able to augment your physical strength by 5% on a constant base, and boost that to 15% in crucial moments, though the energy drain on your body increased by 80%.”

I grimaced; I did feel a bit hungry. I walked back to my supplies and pulled out a gourd filled with blood. I took the opportunity as I drank my fill to think. Having Saia in armor mode during this fight wasn’t at all the right move. It slowed me down, not because it was restrictive but because I wasn’t used to fighting with it.

“You should change back into your drone form, for now. I think that you’ll be more useful that way.”

Saia flowed from my body and reformed into her dragon form. She was getting bigger, not large enough to ride just yet, unfortunately.

“Statement: I agree, numerical advantage will provide more beneficial in the near future.”

With that, we moved over to the rewards. The usual gemstones were there, though this time it had two extra utility gemstones, one black with a white dot in the middle, and the other white with a black one—both were D grade by their shape. The white one would change a skill from passive to active, while the black one would change the skill entirely.

I put them aside for now and looked at the extra reward I’d gained.

I picked up a dark blue crystal and showed it to Saia. “It’s the same as the fire one, want to bet this one is lightning based?”

“Feedback: That would be a poor bet,” she touched it, her eyes flashing. “You’re correct.”

“Any chance you can use it for an engram?”

Saia tilted her head. “Feedback: Yes. The alterations I’m doing to [Plasma Shot] will allow for change of Source-Weave type.”

I blinked. “Lightning Shot?”

“Feedback: Potentially.”

“Have at it then,” I offered her the crystal and watched as she swallowed it whole.

Then, I glanced back at the entrance, I couldn’t hear the water climbing up behind us. We’d gotten quite a lead on it. We still had over a day in the trial, so I decided to take a short break and figure out my profiles and skills. I also had a big supply of gemstones. I rummaged through and counted them up, realizing that I had enough to merge the lower ones and have enough D grade stones to push one to C. I swiftly started pushing them together, until the pile became a lot smaller, with a few dozen random D grade stones and a single C grade Metal gemstone.

I looked it over, thinking about which skills I could put it in. Currently, my [Lesser Constitution] held an E grade gemstone, making my skin just slightly tougher than it ordinarily was. I didn’t know how much of an upgrade a C rank would be, but out of all my skills, that one seemed to be the most compatible with the stone. [Blood Empowerment] might work too, but it didn’t feel quite right.

I pulled my Mask out, then focused and pulled out the old stone out of the skill. It shattered once removed, but I had expected that—the stones were single use. Slowly I pushed the new C grade stone and focused on my [Lesser Constitution] skill.

Once that was done, I replaced my other stones with D grade ones. For [Mist Step] I merged an Air and Water stones, turning them into a single Mist stone. I pushed it in and then tested the skill out.

I turned to mist, a larger volume than before, and then reformed after a step. But a Mist remained, not too thick, but clearly there. I narrowed my eyes as something occurred to me, and I started running around. The new cooldown for Mist step was five steps, and as soon as it ticked down, I stepped as mist again. I repeated it five times before there was enough Mist around me that it was slightly harder to see.

Then I changed my movements and danced.

[Scarlet Moon Style; Dance of the Shifting Mist]

The Mist responded, far easier than the one in the test, this one felt even more a part of me. It shifted, following my movements, gathering and thickening around me, obscuring me. Then as I changed my pace, so did it, following my will. It swirled around me, quickly with powerful momentum in a protective sphere.

Then my skill ran out as I took a wrong step, and the mist slowed and spread out, returning to being just normal mist.

I stepped out of the mist and smiled; this was a good thing. I could work with this. With [Quick Swap Slot] I replaced my [Lesser Strength] for [Mistshroud], then activated it.

Black mist rose from my body, completely enveloping me. It felt like a second skin, one that was under my control fully. Shadow had told me a bit about how it worked, and what it was. The skill was versatile, high tiered one.

The Mistshroud could protect me, though its defense wasn’t equal to even Saia’s armor. It could hide me, though that was more useful in an area like Asha Kai-ni, which was always misty. Here it would make me slightly stronger, but I could also send it away from my body, have it act like a double made out of mist. Which was how Shadow used it most, as an improved version of his Mist clone illusions. His Mistshroud was more powerful, of course, as he had many more skills that tied into it which I lacked. His had a physical weight if he wanted it to, it could injure, and act more like a double instead of an illusion.

I would have to settle for a distraction. But, as I activated it within the mist created by my [Mist Step] I felt connected to the mist. It felt as if it was a part of my body, and I could feel sensations within it. Saia, for example, was standing at the edge of the mist, tendrils of it touching her side, and I could tell that.

As I realized what it meant, I grinned. Saevel had shown me how to combine and utilize skills, even though I had never felt anything or been able to recognize what he was doing—it was obvious in the results.

Now, I was taking the first step toward figuring out how to weave my skills together too.

----------------------------------------

I climbed ten more floors, each occupied by a beast or containing a learning puzzle of some kind. They were more difficult, but while beasts were more powerful than me they were not Saevel. I did lose hours on them however, and the water caught up to me.

It felt like it was accelerating, so I knew that I wouldn’t have much more time. I used the beast fights to refine my current profiles and put in gemstones in skills.

As I rested after a fight with a Fourth Investment beast, drinking its blood and healing, I glanced at Saia.

“Can you show me my Mask stats?”

Marianna Rojas (The Star That Dances In Blood Beneath the Light of the Broken Moon)

Mask of the Blood Reaver (Physical, Weave, Esoteric):

Second Investment; Ninth Carving

Ornament of the Revelator of Secrets (Weave, Esoteric)

First Investment; No Carving

Ornament of the Practical Student (Physical, Weave, Esoteric)

First Investment; Fifth Carving

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Attributes:

Physical: B

Weave: E

Esoteric: B

Skills:

P1-No bonus

[Mist Step] - Mist (D)

[Mistshroud] - Mist (D)

[Lesser Constitution] - Metal (C)

P2-Combat bonus

[Double Strike] - Primal (D)

[Triple Thrust] - Lightning (D)

[Pulverizing Smash] - Primal (D)

[Swap Profile]

[Overburn Skill]

[Blood Gout] - Nature (D)

[Quick Swap Slot]

[Blood Empowerment] - Primal (D)

[One Truth Verified]

[A Lesson Remembered]

[Practical Learning]

[Scarlet Moon Style; Dance of the Shifting Mist]

Not all of my skills were compatible with the stones that I had, and I didn’t want to use the two utility ones to change them. Not when I wouldn’t have the time to get accustomed to those changes. I’ve used the beast floors to get comfortable with the improvements that the stones made, and they were significant enough to be noticed. I’ve also gotten another carving, which was a lot slower than before. But I was approaching the next Investment so I guess it made sense. I was drinking a lot of blood, but not nearly as much as I had in the last trial.

Some stones changed the way skills worked slightly. [Triple Thrust] became something more akin to what Saevel’s attacks had looked like, tinged with lightning, while [Blood Gout] seemed to provide me an initial burst of healing when I drank the stolen blood, before my natural healing kicked in.

My waybound skill though was not compatible with any of the stones, not even the utility ones. It meant that such skills couldn’t be augmented in any way, which did make sense. It wasn’t a skill given by the Grand Spell, but by the Way itself.

I finished drinking and healing from my last fight and glanced at Saia as he completed repairs on her drone and the consumption of the beast’s biomass. I felt the sensation of my skin being spread tightly over my body, and the pressure inside. It was getting worse, but I hoped that advancing to the next Investment tier would banish it. It felt like I was about to burst. But as the thirst consumed and fed on the blood, the sensation dissipated and settled in the background. Not gone, but dormant.

Once I felt well enough, we gathered our things and headed up to the next floor. As soon as I entered, I knew that this room would be difficult. On the other side, once again, stood a person. He stood straight, his hands folded over the head of a large two handed warhammer as it rested on the ground with its pommel against the ground. The top of the hammer came up to his chest, which already would’ve made it a tall weapon, except that the person was close to three meters tall. He towered over me and was at least twice as wide. He was bulky, muscled, wearing combat robes with armored pieces over his shoulders and upper chest. On his hips was a plated skirt that came down to his knees. Elaborate markings swirled over the pale green metal pieces, the same vibrant orange color as his robes.

I recognized his race from Shadow’s retelling. His skin was dark green, with vibrant red hair, both on top of his head and on his face. He had two horns that rose from his temples and curved straight upward.

The man was an Oni-yi, one of the three races of YoKai-ni, along with Tengu-gi and Kitsu-oi. The Oni-yi were the people that Jiyun had stayed with when she had been sent to Asha Kai-ni as Exemplar.

Both her and Shadow had called the Oni-yi a brutish people that cared only for war. Nothing that I saw now screamed that. Instead, I felt danger on a level I hadn’t felt from anyone but Shadow and my sire, perhaps not quite as intense, but enough that I knew that he was better than me.

I took a step into the room, Saia following behind me in dragon form.

“Foe.”

His voice rumbled as if the earth itself was moving, it echoed against the walls of the room and made my bones shake.

I swallowed. He was stronger than Saevel was, a lot stronger. He had to be in his Fifth Investment, and looking at him gave me a sense that I was looking at an indomitable pillar of the earth.

“Greetings,” I said respectfully. This man frightened me, and I was not used to that.

“Gratitude,” the giant rumbled. “Even in death, the Last Intent grants me a challenge.”

I blinked, the Last Intent was one of the names used for the Grand Spell, but it was one that was used by the Vim, the Ancient Ones who had died long before the YoKai-ni arrived on Kirios.

“You know you are dead?” I asked slowly.

The Oni-yi inclined his head. “I am an echo, but it matters not, I am here, and you will not pass beyond me. Your climb ends here stranger.”

I tilted my head. If there was one thing that could anger me, it was someone telling me what I couldn’t do.

“Confident, are you?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I trust that the Last Intent would’ve offered me a suitable challenge, but you are not highly Invested. You do not know yourself, and your Masks does not touch upon a truth. You are a child, but even children can offer lessons. I look forward to learning whatever it is you have to offer, before I defeat you.”

I narrowed my eyes, that was such a mess of a compliment wrapped around in an insult, but that was fine. He didn’t know about vampires; he didn’t know about me.

The rumbling of water behind me told me that I had little time. “Well then,” I gripped my serpent-tongue spear tightly and settled into the first Kata of the Veiled Mist Assault: From the Mist, Strike.

“That is a Tengu-gi style,” he rumbled, his eyes narrowed. “You are not of YoKai-ni, you are not Tengu-gi nor are you Kitsu-oi or Oni-yi. Their kind does not share their teachings with those not of their blood.”

I didn’t expect him to recognize my style just from a single stance. That was… bad actually. But I had no choice. I almost rushed him with no notice, but at the last moment decided against it.

I pulled back from my stance, then I put one leg a step behind, bent my knees slightly and bowed at the hip while keeping my eyes on his.

“I have the honor of being known as The Star That Dances In Blood Beneath the Light of the Broken Moon.”

The Oni-yi’s eyes widened in surprise and shock. For a long while, he didn’t react at all. I waited, keeping my position. Then, he moved, mirroring my stance and bowing to me.

“I have the honor of being known as The Pride of Hasha Who Breaks the Earth Under the Shade of Hearth Home.”

We both raised from our bows at the same time, and his eyes narrowed. “I did not expect this, but I see now. You are of her line.”

“Her line?”

He opened his mouth, then paused, and I knew that he couldn’t speak about it. I assumed he meant Shadow’s mother, my mother too, I guess. He’d told me that she was infamous, I didn’t realize that someone like this would’ve known her. I had no way of knowing how long ago Pride died, but then again Shadow had said that his mother had been alive before the Grand Spell took their world.

“We are here for a purpose, to fight,” Pride said. “But customs must be followed. Do you exercise your rights under the Old Tree’s Hearth?”

I paused, remembering that part of the giving name ceremony. I was afforded a day of peace, to talk and find common ground.

Sadly, the rumble of water behind me told me that I wouldn’t have even an hour. I shook my head. “No,” I answered him. “Let’s do this.”

I returned to my stance and glanced at Saia. “Stay out of this.”

I wanted to test myself, to see if I could match him. I had entered the fight with Saevel unprepared, was too arrogant. This was going to be a lot different.

The air crackled with anticipation. Pride nodded, his grip on the hammer tightening. "Then let us begin." He flipped it over and put it in both hands.

With that, the world exploded into motion.

Pride slammed his hammer into the ground, and the earth surged upward, a jagged wall of stone erupting between us. I leapt back, barely avoiding the earthen spikes that shot from the floor. The arena was no longer a neutral space - it was his domain, and he was its master.

I darted forward, taking a step and mist swirled around me. Pride's hammer crashed down, but I was already gone, a trail of mist left in my wake. I reappeared behind him, my serpent-tongue spear flashing towards his exposed back.

But Pride was faster than he looked. He spun, hammer deflecting my blow with a thunderous clang. The impact sent shockwaves through my arm, numbing my fingers. He pressed his advantage, a flurry of blows that forced me back, each strike shaking the ground.

With every attack he grew closer to splattering me across the ground. And with each step I grew closer to escape. As soon as my cooldown was up, I stepped, turning to mist.

I leapt around him, weaving in and out of his reach. Each strike I landed was met with a counter that rattled my bones. I was fast, but he was somehow just as fast. It was infuriating, the fact that somehow, he could match an Elder Vampire’s speed. I was strong, but he was unyielding.

The room started to fill with mist as I kept at my hit and run tactics. Then once there was enough that he couldn’t quite see me perfectly, I executed my plan.

First, [Mistshroud], the black mist rose from my body, mingling with the mist all around me, letting me know exactly where he was.

Then, I started to dance.

[Scarlet Moon Style; Dance of the Shifting Mist]

I moved, and the mist moved with me, it gathered around him, and I sent the black mist flowing from my body, charging straight through holding a copy of my weapon, attacking straight at Pride. Meanwhile, I stepped to the side, then from his blind spot I attacked.

[Swap Profile]

[Overburn Skill—Lesser Pounce]

[Triple Thrust]

My serpent-tongue spear flashed with lightning; it stabbed forward at the Oni-yi’s large back.

[Earthform Shockwave]

The mist was blown back, along with me. The ground shattered, cracking and breaking into pieces that were blasted in all directions around him, pelting me and breaking bones.

I crashed on the ground, rolling and groaning in pain.

“I see now how you know that style. But I am a son of Asha Kai-ni, I’ve lived in the mists for all of my life.”

Right, I cursed myself for forgetting. I literally tried to use a combination attack on a person that had probably spent their entire life fighting in similar conditions. Stupid.

I pushed myself to my knees slowly, as Pride hadn’t moved from his position. My painstakingly gathered mist had been banished, but at least I’ve kept my grip on my weapon.

I narrowed my eyes on Pride.

“You won’t triumph,” he told me. “You show promise, but you lack the tools to win against me. You have great physical strength, greater than even mine, despite being on such a lower Investment. That is impressive, but even the strength of a Sixth Investment is nothing if you don’t know how to use it properly.

I tried, very hard, to take his words as advice in the spirit it was intended. At least I had a rough estimate of my physical strength now. He said that it was equal of a Sixth Investment Masked, probably a physically focused one. That was good to know. It gave me a ranking of vampires against the Masked of Kirios.

“I’m not giving up,” I spat a glob of blood. My wounds healed, bones cracked back into place and mended.

Pride inclined his head and readied his hammer.

I looked at him, then grabbed my revolver. A part, a very small part though, felt like this was cheating, dishonorable. But then I realized that the man can literally crack the earth with a tap, so I said fuck it. My gun was part of my power in the same way my Mask was.

I aimed and fired, the trigger presses were no longer necessary to fire, they were there just to tell Saia to trigger her mechanism in the rounds, and to turn the drum. I pressed four times in quick succession, half the drum gone in a second. The first two bullets hit him in the chest and penetrated into his chest. He grunted, surprised, then he reacted. A wall of earth rose faster than the bullets could fly, catching the rest.

I dashed to the side, opening my line of sight. I aimed and fired again, but he was ready now, his wall turned into a sphere around him, protecting him from all sides. I clicked the last time, emptying the entire drum and only getting two shots in. I tsked but decided that it would have to be enough.

Just as I was trying to decide how to break the wall, it shattered on its own. His spherical wall of stone broke in all directions, and I used [Overburn Skill—Lesser Charge] to get closer, swinging my weapon to shatter the projectiles, getting pelted by smaller debris. But I didn’t care, I was in the middle of the fight, there was no defense.

As I reached him, the ground beneath Pride erupted, a geyser of stone and earth flinging him into the air. He roared, his hammer flashing above me as he prepared to swing down.

I pointed my arm at him, made a sign that I had prepared with Saia, and then leapt up to meet him.

Inside of his body, the two pieces of Saia, the bullets, reacted as she activated the simple instruction. When we made the new bullets, I got an idea. They were part of her, and she could control them. Sadly, such small pieces of her couldn’t contain enough mass to hold processing units, which meant that they could only receive simple instructions from the control unit. Namely, return to the whole.

The bullets ripped free of Pride’s wounds, making him grunt, his attack halted. I grinned as I met him in mid-air, my spear a blur. He managed to block one blow, two, but the third found its mark. It pierced his shoulder, a fountain of blood erupting

[Blood Gout]

The blood flowed into my open mouth and my spear stabbed forward with [Double Strike].

Pride's roar turned into a choked gasp. The Way shuddered. My weapon found his body, and bounced off.

[Flesh is Metal]

His skin darkened, and his hammer fell, smashing across my shoulder and sending me into the ground. I hit hard, bouncing off, my shoulder shattered, my weapon lost somewhere else. As Pride landed near, I reached for my chest with my good hand and pulled out my Mask.

I placed it on my head and roared.

[Blood Empowerment]

I rose to my feet, drawing my dagger and charged at him. His blood in my stomach burned, and healed me in equal measure. The shattered pieces of my shoulder ground against my flesh beneath the skin, sending agony lancing through that side, but I ignored it all.

[Overburn Skill—Lesser Acid Spit]

I spat at him, the hissing and the pain immediately assaulting my mouth. The spit in my mouth left it, but what remained burned a hole through my tongue. Fuuuck!!!

I hadn’t thought that the skill would work like that, but I didn’t have the time to even think about it. My blood bubbled up in my mouth, healing the hole that it had made in my tongue and cheek.

My spit landed on Pride’s chest, sizzling and making him curse. He stepped back, and I followed, swinging my weapon.

He blocked with a forearm, my dagger barely scratching his obsidian skin.

Then he moved, he kicked my legs from under me and dropped his hammer on my chest, pinning me to the ground. I felt a skill activate, and suddenly the weight of the hammer might as well have been that of a mountain.

I tried to move, but it was too heavy. I raged, waving my hand and trying to cut his legs, but he had too much reach on me.

“It’s over,” he said calmly as he wiped off my acid spit from his chest with one hand while he gripped his hammer with the other. “You fought well, surprised me even, but you can’t win.”

My cooldowns went down, I could swap my profiles, I had enough room to kick off the ground and turn to mist. I could… I sighed, I knew that he had won.

I should be glad that he didn’t smash me to paste when he had the chance. I looked up into his eyes and saw something that I hadn’t expected to see—respect.

“I yield,” I said as my mouth healed enough for me to talk.

He inclined his head, then stepped back. I got to my feet and bowed my head to him.

“It was a good fight,” he only said.

And it was. I learned a lot. I glanced around and found Saia walking over with my serpent-tongue spear in her mouth and my backpack on her shoulders. Water was bubbling up from the entrance.

It was time to go.

“Thank you for the lesson,” I told him and bowed again, deeper.

“May you walk in the shade of the Old Tree,” he said.

I didn’t know if his words were part of any customs, so I elected not to say anything. Saia and I walked to the other side of the room and the plate on the wall. She wrapped herself around me, and with one last look at Pride, an Oni-yi warrior, I put my hand on the plate, and left the trial.