by Dante King
I activated Compress Ash, and razor-sharp ash hardened around the Sundered Heart, turning it into a lengthy polearm. I swung the ash-coated blade down at the monk as he came into range. It cut through his aura and dug into his collarbone. My enemy howled, shattered the ash blade with his dagger, and I rammed the Depthless Dream into his gut. The prongs bit into his flesh but didn’t puncture into his organs. I shifted my grip on the Depthless Dream, stepped to the right, and placed Nydarth against the trident’s handle.
“Together!” Yono urged Nydarth.
Crashing Wave blended with Untamed Torch and hit the monk square in the chest. The man whirled through the air and smashed into the stream at the other side of the clearing. Boiling water hissed out from his crumpled form as the monk’s aura battled the flowing water.
“To your right, Master!” Choshi shouted.
A demon’s serrated sword flashed toward my throat, and I parried the blow with the Sundered Heart. The monster bared a mouthful of shark-like teeth at me, snapped its jaws shut, and redoubled its attack. I turned aside another blow, but I moved a fraction too late. The demon’s sword ripped a cut into my upper arm. I sprang back to create some distance and so I could study my opponent. Mottled black fur bristled over the demon’s body as it stabbed its sword straight at my heart. I blocked and countered with a sturdy thrust to the creature’s heart. Its fur acted like armor, and much like the monk before it, I couldn’t puncture past its skin.
“What is it?” Choshi cried. “Haven’t you fought these before?”
“These are Greater Soldiers,” Nydarth replied as I parried another wild strike. “They’re stronger, faster, and more resistant to Augmentation than their brethren from Hyng’ohr Valley.”
“Then it’s good I’ve had an upgrade,” I said with a fierce grin.
I changed up my tactics with a stomping kick to the demon’s knee. My physical Augmentation crushed the creature’s joint with a snap, and the demon howled in pain. I charged the Sundered Heart with flame, cut the sword from its grasp, and impaled its throat with the Depthless Dream. I poured Vigor through the trident, created a spiked ball of ice around the prongs, and ripped the creature’s head off in a shower of gore.
I didn’t take the time to congratulate myself. My friends needed help.
I chased down the next demon just before it could swing at Faryn. I hooked the demon’s blade with the trident and turned the monster to face me. The demon snarled as I summoned a Magma Burst from my sword’s tip. Boiling rock pulsed from the Sundered Heart and caught the demon in the chest, reducing it to a screaming pile of viscera. A strand of magically fortified water splashed across my skin, healed my minor injuries, and chased away the fatigue of combat.
“Thanks!” I yelled to Kumi, but she was busy singing her Song of the Sea. Her technique was ensnaring a demon in liquid ribbons while Faryn used a thick net of Strangling Roots on the same demon.
“Keep holding them back!” I said to them both. “And where the hell is Tolin?”
“Here,” replied Tolin from within a tree at the edge of the clearing.
“Are you going to help us or stay behind cover and scratch your saggy balls?” I said.
Tolin chuckled but didn’t leave his perch in the tree.
A stream of Kumi’s water sliced past a demon’s fur. The smell of burning flesh filled the air as it screeched in pain. I summoned a spiked Plank Pillar underneath it, but my makeshift spear didn’t puncture the creature’s armor. The monster sailed into the air with a howl, and I activated Flight to jump after it. Untamed Torch burst into life around the Sundered Heart, but I changed its direction and slashed downward. A razor-sharp arc of white-hot flame shot away from the sword and caught the demon as it fell through the air. I created two small stepping-stones with Flight, exactly how I’d done it back in the monastery, and jumped down toward the stunned monster. It raised its blade to intercept the Sundered Heart, but it couldn’t keep the Depthless Dream at bay. Yono hummed a pleasant tune as I formed a spear-like construct of ice around her central prong and pierced the demon’s skull with a rapid jerk.
“Swordslinger!!”
I turned to see the monk climb out of the stream. My elemental attack had reduced his robes to tatters. Steam hissed off his skin, and silver flame danced at the edges of his eyes as he stalked toward me. I rapidly took stock of the situation. I hadn’t expected the fight to be easy, but if the monk turned his attention to Kumi and Faryn, they wouldn’t stand a chance.
“Tolin!” I called again. “I’ll handle Mr. Teapot over here. Help the others.”
“Fine,” Tolin grumbled. “Don’t say I never do anything for you youngsters.”
“The ancient one’s arts are useless against the power of the gods,” the fallen monk snarled. “As are yours, Swordslinger. You cannot kill a conduit of the divine.”
Tolin limped across the clearing and sat beside me in a meditative position. The monk froze and stared at him with raw hatred. Tolin closed his eyes, placed his hands on his knees, and exhaled sharply. A cold, lifeless sphere of clear air circled the old hermit, coiled for a moment, and then, Tolin flicked a single finger.
“Saggy balls, indeed,” the old man muttered to himself.
My Vigor froze in my veins as Tolin’s technique rippled through the air and found the surviving demons. Their rusted, serrated blades changed shape in the span of half a second. The demons snarled and looked down at their weapons of choice. Fish, sea snakes, and in one case, an actual live crab sat in their hands. The sound of demonic screams filled the air as Faryn and Kumi banded together to capitalize on the monster’s lack of weaponry.
I stared at the flopping creatures in the demon’s hands.
“What is this corrupt sorcery?” the monk said with a soft hiss.
“The sorcery of a man with saggy balls, apparently,” I said with a grin.
“Speak not of your false gods,” the monk spat, “in this holy place.”
Tolin caught my eye, and we both grinned.
“Swordslinger, I have a suggestion,” he said.
“Well, it’s about time,” I said as I placed the Depthless Dream back into my harness. “I’ve been waiting for you to get off your ass all day.”
“Show our little zealot here just which gods he should have placed his faith in.”
The monk screamed in a high, tearing voice and sprinted at us with huge steps. I reversed my grip on the Sundered Heart, called upon the power of fire and earth, and stomped my foot downward. A Ground Strike rumbled forward, and I struck the earth with the Sundered Heart’s tip. Fire followed the wave of dirt in a shockwave of flaming grass, scorched earth, and fist-sized pieces of ash. The monk raised his arms to block the attack, but the sheer power of my technique staggered his charge.
I rushed the monk, filled my body with strength, and slashed at him. He ducked under the blow, but I caught him with a rising knee that catapulted him upward. Fire danced over the Sundered Heart, and I hit him with a roaring Untamed Torch. The monk laughed as the flame washed over him and propelled him higher.
I jumped into the air, called Flight to my aid, and tackled him in mid-air. The clearing vanished beneath us, and branches tore at my face and hands as we hurtled through the canopy of Danibo Forest.
The monk sliced open my leg, but I caught him in the nose with the hilt of my sword as we fell. He grabbed a nearby trunk to stop his fall, his fingers hooking into the bark, digging into the wood, and pinning him in place. I whirled through the air, activated Flight again, and landed lightly on a branch like it was a platform in a video game. The monk glared at me and scrambled higher up the trunk until he found a foothold.
“You bring shame upon your mantle, heathen,” he spat.
“I didn’t summon a pack of demons and feed the locals monster flesh,” I replied. “I didn’t betray the Wandering Path. And I definitely didn’t attack the guy sent by your boss to bring you back. Be honest, do you really feel proud of what you’ve done?”
“I—” he began.
I sprang from my perch, my Flight technique changing the dense foliage into solid footholds and giving me a burst of momentum. The monk ducked as I slammed a kick into the tree, right where his head had been a moment before. My reinforced body smashed a burning hole in the trunk and filled the air with splinters and ash. I slammed the Sundered Heart into the tree as a handhold, just before the monk swung at me with his dagger. I caught his arm on mine before he could bury the blade into my neck.
I knew I couldn’t match his strength, so I stretched up and kicked at his face. The monk snatched my ankle and hauled me away from the trunk. The Sundered Heart came free of the wood with a whipping crack, and I caught myself in mid-air with Flight before I could plummet to the forest floor below. I rotated my body, slammed my shin into the monk’s shaven head, and forced him to release his grip. He snarled as he dived at me, but I levitated myself upward and released the flow of Vigor through my Flight channels.
My feet crashed into his back, and we plummeted toward the ground. I stepped into the air again just as the monk smashed into the forest floor with enough force to crater the earth. He grimaced, hauled himself out of the hole in the ground, and glared up at me. I perched myself on another branch and balanced the Sundered Heart across my knees.
“Not so tough in the air, are you?” I said.
“Your reliance on basic Augmentation simply shows your lack of training,” the monk snarled. “I spent centuries refining my body to physical perfection. Learning how to channel the forces of the universe most efficiently.”
“And how’s that going?” I asked with a gesture to the shattered ground around him. “You’re getting busted up by a kid with a handful of parlor tricks and inferior experience. Maybe you should have spent more time out in the field.”
The monk tore a chunk of stone from the ground and hurled it at me. I leapt aside, and the boulder ripped through the tree beside me. The mighty oak groaned under its own weight and gave way in an ear-splitting crash. I stepped off the air, bounced from branch to branch, and charged up a hail of Stinging Palm thorns. A hundred tiny splinters ripped from my free hand and buzzed toward the monk like a hail of bees. My technique hit the aura of pure heat around him, filled the air with ashes, and blinded the monk for a fraction of a second.
“You need to do more,” Nydarth encouraged. “This foe will not fall to regular Augmentation, Master.”
I released my flow of Vigor. As I hit the ground, the monk charged out of the ashes and drew his arm back to throw his dagger at me. I switched my physical Augmentation channels from fire to water just as the monk threw his weapon. The knife hurtled toward me like a bullet, but I swayed to the left and snatched it out of the air.
“Running out of ideas?” I asked.
The monk sprinted at me again with a screeching howl, and I reached within for the powers of earth and wood. Plank Pillars erupted from the ground, and I stomped downward with a Ground Strike. My makeshift spears flung out of the earth from the force of the strike and smashed into the monk. They blackened as they struck him, but the force and size of the projectiles were too much for him to anticipate. A length of wood the size of my shin ripped into his gut and slammed him into a tree. I fed my body with more Vigor and sprinted after him like the world’s best track runner.
I slid the Sundered Heart back into its scabbard and yanked the Depthless Dream from my harness as I ran. The monk snarled at the piece of flaming wood in his gut and looked up. His eyes widened as I drew my warhammer.
“Nail, meet hammer,” I said.
I screeched to a halt, switched up my channels again, and used every ounce of momentum, strength, and gravity at my disposal. The monk couldn’t have stopped the blow if he’d tried. Choshi yipped excitedly as my warhammer smashed into the fallen monk. The tree behind him came apart in an explosion of splinters, and the monk disappeared into the woods like a cannonball. Trees came apart like paper around him.
I stepped back into the air with a burst of Flight and ran over the branches after my enemy. The dizzying effect of using too much Vigor swirled at the edges of my vision, but I couldn’t stop now. The monk crashed into a boulder with a sickening crunch. Chips of stone scattered into the air. Still, the man hauled himself up from the impact.
“How did he get up from that?” Choshi asked.
“I don’t know,” I replied, “but let’s see him get up from this.”
A Mud Geyser burst from the ground underneath the monk and threw him high into the air. I opened the palm of my free hand, activated Crashing Wave, and pulled the water within the geyser toward me. The monk spun haplessly through empty space toward us, and I hefted my warhammer for one final blow. I pulled a full somersault as the monk came in, just for some extra punch, and hit the monk with everything I could muster.
He vanished into the trees in a ball of silver flame.
“Surely that’s enough?” Choshi asked.
“You know, I don’t think it is,” I said.
Chapter Seventeen
I sprinted through the leaves with feather-light steps. I half-smiled when I realized that I was moving exactly like the heroes of a kung fu movie. My Vigor ebbed dangerously as I followed the burning wake of my enemy. The sounds of battle filled the air and alerted me to the fact that we had returned to the clearing around the Lost Shrine. Kumi wore a determined expression as she fought off a demon’s grasping claws below me. She flowed around her opponent, filled the air with her Song of the Sea, and attacked with her streams of purifying water. Her butterfly daggers scraped uselessly off the demon’s hide, and her water only slowed the monster down.
But I had to trust that she could handle things because I spotted the corrupted monk who should have been dead. The bald, crazed guardian of the Lost Shrine stumbled out of a deep furrow in the ground. Blood leaked from his shoulder, and a chunk of wood the size of a baseball bat jutted out of his gut, but he seemed only a little slowed by the mortal wound.
“What does it take to kill this guy?” I muttered.
The monk sprinted drunkenly toward Tolin, who hadn’t moved an inch since we had left the clearing. Tolin opened an eye and lifted a bushy eyebrow in an expression of distaste as I raced to protect him. Cold energy filled the air again, and the fiery streams of Flight under my feet vanished. I plummeted toward the ground with a curse, landed behind the monk, and turned to face him.
The monk was almost frozen in place.
His muscles stood out in stark relief as he tried to haul himself through the air, but it looked as if Tolin had slowed down the playback on a movie to a crawl. I took advantage of the opening and sprinted around the frozen monk until I stood between Tolin and his attacker.
“That’s a neat trick, old man,” I said, astonished.
“Did you just acknowledge my superior talent?” Tolin wore an expression of mock disbelief.
“Couldn’t you have done it earlier?” I asked.
“I haven’t had to exert myself like this in years,” he muttered. “It’s not as simple as it looks. Oh, he’s slipping out. You’d better—”
The monk returned to normal speed in the blink of an eye. Silver fire engulfed his whole body, bursting from his eyes and mouth. Tymo’s teaching echoed in my mind. The monk was bypassing his pathways’ natural barriers. I couldn’t let him turn into another Hamon Wysaro with centuries more experience. Choshi yelped as I whirled the Demure Rebirth around my head and clocked the monk across the point of the jaw. His legs buckled under him, but his momentum carried him straight into my clutches.
I ducked under a wild swipe and slammed my shoulder into the monk’s gut. The silver flames of his aura burned my skin as I pushed fire through my physical channels. I scooped him up, rushed across the clearing, and slammed his back into the rocky bed of the stream. The water bubbled and hissed from the sheer heat of the monk’s aura as I smacked my warhammer’s handle into his teeth.
“You really need to cool off,” I said.
The m
onk’s hand darted out and caught me by the throat with a crushing grip. The tendons in my neck flexed under his fingers, and I dropped a knee into his chest to drive the chunk of my Plank Pillar deeper. A strangled, half-drowned grunt gurgled from the monk’s throat, but he didn’t relinquish his grip. Spots danced around the corners of my vision, my lungs burned for air, and a grimace tightened on my face at his strength. I shifted my grip on my warhammer and levered it around the monk’s arm. I found the monk’s elbow joint and arced backward with a savage effort.
His arm snapped, and his grip vanished from my throat.
The monk was bleeding, tired, and on his last legs. Even then, he was still the most dangerous foe I’d faced. But his single-minded focus on destroying me was his undoing. I rammed the Demure Rebirth down into his throat and leaned on it with everything I had. The monk’s face vanished under the water. His body writhed underneath me, but the stream ground out his aura and protected me from the worst of his Physical Augmentation. Steam hissed off the surface of the water as I fought to keep the monk’s head submerged.
“Keep going,” Choshi urged me. “I can feel him; he’s almost done.”
The monk’s struggles ceased, and the burning power of his Physical Augmentation vanished. But I didn’t take any chances. I counted to 60 before I finally stood up. The monk’s corpse half-floated in the water and bobbed with the gentle current. The silver fire of his Physical Augmentation was nowhere to be seen. I hefted the Demure Rebirth, dipped into my pool of Vigor, and smashed the hammer down on the corpse. The Ground Strike hurled water and stone into the air. The monk’s skull burst under my warhammer’s stone head, and only then was I satisfied that I’d killed the guy.
