Ed opened his eyes, feeling cold drops run down his forehead. Snowflakes were slowly falling onto his face, melting upon making contact with the skin.

He got up, feeling his stomach rumble, complaining at the yesterday’s torture. The raw meat was completely tasteless and structured like rubber, difficult to chew and even harder to swallow. On top of that, he didn’t even have a blade to help with the skinning process…

There were ways to circumvent this problem, but they involved ripping the skin open with his fingers, inserting them into the body, and pulling away the skin from the muscles by force. All in all, it was a tedious and very unpleasant process. At least he could rinse the meat in the stream after, getting rid of small traces of dirt that managed to stick to the slimy surface.

In his professional opinion, Edward wouldn’t recommend the experience.

He shuffled the pine cones, sticks and needles on the ground with his feet, covering the empty spot he cleared up for his ‘bed’. It probably wasn’t necessary, but covering his tracks made him feel a bit more comfortable right now.

Before setting off, he cleaned himself up a bit in the current. The cold water soaked through his brass hair and ran down his face. He cupped his hands together, taking several large gulps of water. This could very well be his only chance to satisfy his thirst for god knows how long. If he gets lucky and the snowfall continues, that could serve as his last resort at least.

‘Surely eating snow can’t be worse than eating a raw rabbit…’

Ed shook his head, making water droplets fly all over the place. He pulled on his white shirt, which probably shouldn’t be called ‘white’ at this point, and since there was nothing to pack, he simply started walking forwards once again.

***

At some point the journey became very draining. Not physically of course, but mentally. With each kilometer he felt a bit safer, but now the pressure of the previous two days finally caught up to him. He needed something to take the edge off. His mind kept coming back to the unforgettable fight with the Legend. The newly awakened ‘feat’ was what his attention stuck to the most.

‘It happened at a very opportune time nonetheless. It almost feels like somebody was watching over me…’

The last time he used this new ability, he did it instinctively. And since then, he didn’t really have an opportunity or space of mind to experiment with it.

‘Well, since I’ve got nothing else to do right now…’

As far as he knew about this technique, his personal theory was that it could be possible to use it, even without a sword.

‘Even without ‘the’ sword… The one father gifted me… the same one I just lost…. shit’

All right, the time to worry about it will come later. For now it would be better to handle one problem at a time, and to finally test out his cool new power.

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The reason he thought he could do it even without a blade was because of two things. One, the golden arc came to existence by detaching from the sword, which made him think that a blade was simply a medium. And the second is because of the nature of legends and feats.

‘You receive power when Valhalla recognizes your accomplishments. Your legends and feats can be considered sort of an anchor. But legends are not mathematical equations, they can’t be clearly defined. Which means there is probably some space up to interpretation, when it comes to how the wielder can manifest its power.’

At least that’s how Edward saw it so far. He wasn’t really an expert yet, but the theory seemed solid to him.

The young warrior halted his steps. He first looked around for a suitable target. A thick branch, covered in a thin layer of snow entered his eyes. There wasn’t anything special about it, it was just the first one his sight landed on.

He extended his hand, straightening his fingers, trying to mimic the shape of a blade as well as he could. He ignited the spark in his heart, and brought out his aura. Feeling it reach the tips of his fingers, Ed tried to imagine it forming into a golden arc, and swung his arm downward.

He widened his eyes in excitement but nothing happened. His hand was still covered in a golden glow and the tree was unharmed. Edward frowned.

‘Well it couldn’t be that simple now, could it?’

A single failure wouldn’t discourage someone like him. He closed his eyes, trying to recall the feeling of using the technique the first time around.

‘Hmm… there was something different about the aura covering the sword back then. It seemed sharper and more solid in a way…’

He repeated the process of surrounding his hand in a golden glow, but this time he waited before releasing it. He kept pouring more energy into the same area, until the aura started vibrating a bit. But there was still something missing. He tried to compress it, hoping to make it more solid, and give it an edge.

‘So the sword was probably helping with shaping it at this stage…’

It took him a while, but finally he managed to get it to a point where it seemed correct. Only then did he raise his hand, slashing it down, and trying to let go of the pressure at the right moment.

This time he heard something getting hit, but it wasn’t the sound of snapping wood…

Edward opened his eyes, looking at the perfectly fine tree branch. Something right under it drew his attention a moment later. A deep groove was left in the ground.

So he missed… But he did manage to release the technique.

‘Eh, I think we can count it as a success of sorts. Now let’s try this again.’

He repeated the process once again. As he brought the hand up, he observed the sharp shaking edge of the golden aura. He swung his hand diagonally this time.

The sharp energy followed the movement, but when Edward tried to release, it lagged behind, sticking to his body a moment too long. The beautiful curved blade launched right in the direction of the tree trunk.

‘Ahh… shit.’

The golden arc sliced right through the thick tree, dissipating a couple meters further. Edward froze. For a while, nothing happened, but then the wood started creaking a bit. Under the warrior’s squinted gaze, the huge tree toppled right over. A loud thump resounded throughout the forest, scaring away the nearby birds.

‘Well… I’m sure nobody would notice, right? I mean, trees fall all the time, don’t they? Surely that’s nothing unusual… There’s no reason for anybody to investigate, is there?’

Ed turned away from the crime scene with a blank expression.

‘Yeah… I’m sure it’s totally fine…‘

After a moment of silence, the young man started running away towards the distance.

‘You know what? Better to be safe than sorry…’