by Dante King
The princess looked back over her shoulder at me, laughed, and increased her pace. I ran faster, determined to keep up with her and not let her leave me behind. I reached out and tapped her on the bare skin of her back as I drew level with her. Kumi put on a final burst of speed as we took a hard corner and hit the final road out of the city.
A barricade of farm wagons and spare planks barred our way. Guards stood around it and watched the marshes beyond. They looked perturbed as we approached, their faces cast into strange shadows by the light of a single oil lamp.
Kumi didn’t even slow as she approached the makeshift wall. Instead, she leaped, landed with one foot on a cart, and propelled herself up to the top. I matched her movements, and for a moment, we both stood on the top of the barricade to look out across the mist-wreathed marshes.
White clouds of mist closed around us as we left the banquet and Qihin City behind.
Chapter Eighteen
Kumi and I ran along a trail of logs into the marshland. A huge moon bathed the Vigorous Zone in pale light as I followed my beautiful escort.
I lost sight of Kumi behind a cluster of reeds, but she appeared ahead of me. Her laughter echoed over the waterlogged ground and through the scraggly willows as they sagged over pools of dark water.
“You’ve got quite the talent for running,” I said as she finally slowed.
“Not all of us can conjure fire or ice,” she teased as she leaped across a swampy patch to the next trail over.
Shapes moved in the night around us. Some were just trees and bushes swaying in a gentle wind off the ocean. Others moved with more purpose. Animals, birds, and monsters pursued their prey through the night as we strolled through the marshes.
“So, what part of these marshes interest you so much?” Kumi asked.
“Nearest to the water core. It’s where the zone’s power is strongest, so that’s where I need to meditate.”
“I know the place. If the spirits smile on us, perhaps we’ll be spared the indignity of a battle without our weapons.”
“The spirits don’t often smile on me, then.” And I didn’t have the Sundered Heart with me, either. Perhaps it had been a bad idea to leave it behind, but Kumi’s challenge had blown caution to the wind. Besides, I hardly needed a sword when I was able to conjure the powers of wood, fire, water, ash, and sap.
“Perhaps you could show respect,” she said. “Show them your power without killing their creatures.”
“So, what, just wave my magic in front of their faces until they die of sheer panic?”
The princess shook her head with a smile. “Discipline them, if necessary. Unless you’re looking to hunt for a new technique through their cores?”
“Didn’t bring my knife.”
She slid her arm around mine and squeezed it gently. “Then you have no need to destroy them.”
“Weren’t you more than happy to help us kill them on the beach before?”
“Suffice it to say I was far more interested in a certain hunter there.” Kumi winked.
My blood warmed as she gave my sleeve a playful tug and withdrew her arm from mine.
We moved further down the track until the sound of squelching mud and a cloud of mist surrounded us. I summoned Ice Armor around myself and readied myself for an attack from where shapes were moving in the darkness.
Kumi stayed closed behind to watch and wait. I’d seen fog like this before, so I wasn’t surprised when a pack of lampreys blocked our path to the water heart. A trickle of hisses and the moonlight’s reflection against needle-sharp teeth gave away their position to our left.
I summoned a handful of Stinging Palm thorns and threw them at the nearest lamprey. The wooden projectiles skewered the creature through the leg, and it lost its balance, fell off the path, and hissed into the marsh below.
“I’m not used to pulling my punches,” I said as another lamprey appeared behind us.
“I’m sure you’re not,” Kumi said mischievously as she dodged a swipe of claws.
I launched another barrage of thorns at her attacker. The thorns caught it in the shoulder and spun it around. The creature screeched and clutched the wound. I sent it back to the marsh with a savage kick to the chest.
I summoned an Ash Cloud around a pair of lampreys as they tried to take advantage of my exposed back. Kumi danced around the attacking monsters as I dashed toward them. They flailed blindly as I knocked two heads together. I kicked one lamprey into the marsh and peppered the second with a spray of thorns across its back. It yelped in alarm and turned to face me. I summoned a Plank Pillar beneath its feet and flung it into the swampy ferns.
“You’re quite the Augmenter,” Kumi said. “I’ve never seen anyone mix elements like this before. It’s… well, it’s exciting.”
“I’ve got tricks, but that song of yours?” I said. “I wish I could do something similar. You’ve bailed me out of trouble more than once with it.”
A lamprey jumped out of the swamp to our left. I waved my hand and channeled the Crashing Wave technique. Water fountained from the ground to slam into the beast. I laughed in amazement as the lamprey went flying and spun off across the swamp to land with a splash 200 feet away.
“That works a lot better when you’re not trying to move the ocean,” I said.
“It took Father the better part of a century to learn the sea’s movements,” Kumi said with a smile. “And here you are, trying to hit the stars with an unfortunate swamp monster.”
The admiration in her voice was unmistakable, but I changed the subject to learn more about her.
“I guess you spent a lot of time out here when you were younger. Catching frogs or chasing lampreys or whatever Qihin kids do for entertainment.”
“It’s true,” Kumi said as we walked on past the injured and cowering lampreys. “Labu and I would often venture out in search of adventure—sometimes into the swamps or the mountains, more often along the coast, and most of all into the glades. We would get into fights with the other Wild Augmenters who lived in places like this, then use our powers to protect ourselves.”
“So, we need to watch out for being attacked by random strangers?” I asked.
Kumi looked embarrassed. “We weren’t that bad. It was mostly the Wilds who started proceedings. The ones who live out here and in the Isles don’t have a good relationship with the city. They get angry and frustrated, and it leads to trouble.”
“You’re defending the people who tried to kidnap you?”
“Be quiet, bold adventurer.” She elbowed me in the ribs.
The mist dissipated as the lampreys retreated. Kumi opened her mouth to say something, but shut it when a tentacle brushed her dress. She jumped back just as a pair of starsquids emerged from the marsh.
I called on the power of wood, sent it down through the ground in front of me, and made a Plank Pillar appear beneath one of the starsquids. It slid off the wooden pole effortlessly, but I summoned more Plank Pillars to cage it in place.
The remaining starsquid came toward us with flashing tentacles and its mouth wide open. Two more emerged from the water behind it.
I held my hands close together and summoned fire between them. It grew and spun in place until it became a slender whirlwind of fire. I parted my hands, and the Burning Wheel shot away, past the starsquids. There was a hiss of evaporating water where its fiery wind touched the damp ground.
The starsquids turned to run after the vortex of fire as it vanished into the distance.
“Those things really aren’t that smart, are they?” I asked.
“We’ve been lucky. These marshes are usually much more densely populated. The creatures’ attack on our city must have depleted their numbers. ”
There was a screeching sound. Kumi started at the noise, stumbled on the uneven ground, and laid a hand on my arm to try to steady herself. I caught her around the waist before she could topple into the mud. Mist clouded around us in the darkness.
“Thank you,” Kumi said softly a
s she looked up into my eyes. “You’ve done me a great service.”
Her mouth fluttered open as she reached up for my face.
“Fog means lampreys,” I reminded her. “Raincheck?”
“Why would you want to check for rain? It falls as it wishes,” the princess said as I pulled her to her feet. “Cover your ears. I’d like to show you something I’ve been practicing.”
She swayed side to side as I jammed my frost-armored hands against my ears. I could faintly hear her Song of the Sea, but this one was almost like a lullaby, and my eyelids started to droop.
The surrounding waters reached for the lampreys and swarmed over them. At first, I thought Kumi was just giving them a wash, but then their movements turned sluggish. One by one, they fell down in the marsh, soundly asleep, until only one remained.
Kumi’s hand on my shoulder told me it was safe. I pulled my hands away from my head and kicked a barely conscious lamprey into the ferns.
“Color me even more impressed,” I said.
“It’s something I’ve only just managed to learn. It’s rather difficult to direct. You, of all people, must know the difficulty of using a technique you’ve not practiced.”
“Maybe you should practice it more. It seems quite useful.”
Kumi’s hands traced the edges of my Frozen Armor. I let it fall off me to the logs beneath our feet.
Her teeth teased her lip before she shook her head. “I’d rather not have people falling asleep in the middle of a fight, Ethan. Come; the core of the Vigorous Zone awaits us.”
She led me along a series of winding trails past windblown trees and tall stands of rushes. We strolled around deep pools and deeper patches of mud until we reached the shore of a large lake. I’d been happy to simply enjoy Kumi’s company rather than taint the air with idle chatter.
The waters of the lake rippled out in concentric circles as if a large stone was constantly being dropped into the middle. A pillared shrine on a small island awaited our presence as we stepped around the shore of fine sand interspersed with reeds and willow trees. Ducks drifted on the glassy water, and fish poked their heads out to snap at passing insects.
“The water core is out there,” Kumi said.
“It’s beautiful,” I whispered. “Shouldn’t there be more monsters guarding it?
The princess laughed. “We slew them in my father’s halls. The anglers take their time to populate a Vigorous Zone again. Which is good for you.”
Kumi walked out into the lake. The water rose around her legs and caused her skirt to float on the surface. I swam after her and found it was surprisingly mild and soothing. The remaining aches of the past few days faded away. It was almost magical, and I wondered whether these waters carried some kind of Vigor.
Kumi shot through the water like a fish as she used her whole body in a waving motion rather than just her arms and legs. She sprung onto the island like some kind of dolphin and wrung water from her braids.
I pulled myself onto the bank and walked up the island’s grassy shore. An ethereal glow shone from the center of the shrine, and the water of the lake stirred as we approached. The water core rippled with a surface of liquid light that I couldn’t look at for too long. The orb reminded me of a miniature sun that glowed a deep azure.
“Very few people make it this far into the Vigorous Zone,” Kumi whispered. “You’re quite the honored outsider, Ethan. I’ve only ever been here twice before.”
“I’m surprised the guild hasn’t come for it. It seems like they’ll grasp at anything if they think it will give them power.”
“The guild members are extremists, but even they haven’t lost their minds. They must know that if they take the water core, the Vigorous Zone will stop creating the monsters they need for techniques. Without it, their power would wane.”
“You’ve grown in power without consuming cores,” I said. “Wild magic isn’t to be underestimated.”
“That’s a different sort of power. One that I’ve been cultivating for years and that only allows me to touch my surroundings, rather than draw it from within.”
“That just makes you all the more impressive. I’ve seen a lot of magic in my short time here. Yours outmatches some of the most impressive I’ve witnessed.”
“You honor me.” She smiled up at me. “It means a lot that such a powerful, trained Augmenter thinks such a thing.”
She kissed me on the cheek and filled my face with warmth. Her lips brushed the corner of mine, and as my hands found her shoulders, Kumi’s lips parted even more, and a quiet moan escaped them.
“You said that you wanted to create a new core,” the princess said as she cleared her throat and stepped away from me. “What does that entail, exactly?”
I walked over to the water core and reached my hand out until I was almost touching it. Power pulsed beneath its surface and beckoned to me. But Kumi and Nydarth’s warnings of tampering with a Zone Core held me back.
“In the Ember Cavern, I combined wood and fire to gain ash. Now, I’m going to combine fire and water, for whatever that makes.”
“Acid,” Kumi said, and then, when I looked at her in surprise, “I thought everyone knew that.”
“I thought you said you didn’t know much about trained Augmentation.”
“I dabble in the knowledge. Not as seriously as Labu, but I know a few things.” Kumi frowned at me. “I’m surprised you don’t, actually.”
“Like I said, I’m not from around here. Can you watch my back while I do this?”
“Don’t worry; I’ll keep you safe. Just as a Swordslinger’s wife would.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “You’re a princess with your own city. Surely, you’re above such things.”
“I’ll make an exception for my city’s savior.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
Kumi blushed and turned to examine the lake.
I closed my eyes, slowed my breathing, and emptied my mind. Using the techniques I’d learned at the Radiant Dragon Guild, I let my mind drift free. I was no longer in my body, in a marsh on the Diamond Coast. I drifted through the space between realms.
Reality came back into focus in an unfamiliar landscape.
The ground around me was like a marsh, but instead of stands of reeds, tiny gouts of flame rose out of bubbling water peppered with algae. The sky tumbled with swirling clouds that flashed with brief bursts of rain. The raindrops hissed as they hit the ground and stung my skin when they fell on it.
A path led to a bridge across a river that bubbled, steamed, and, every so often, flickered with embers. But not everything here would melt my flesh. Regular water streamed away from the bridge’s river of acid.
I walked along the path and onto the bridge. It was made of solid, black stone pocked with ash-streaked indents. As I halted in the center, my spiritual sparring partners appeared.
The familiar fire spirit rose out of the bridge behind me in a pillar of flame. It didn’t waste words or time as it sprinted toward me. Out of the corner of my eye, a skeleton of ice formed from the running water into the water spirit.
I ducked under a punch from the fire spirit and countered with a right hook. My fist snapped the fire creature’s head back, but it recovered quickly and drove in to tackle me to the ground. I ignored the blistering heat that radiated off the monster, smashed a knee into its gut, and caught it under the arms.
My clothes singed as I gritted my teeth and pivoted my hip into the creature. The fire spirit tried to grab my head, but I tucked my skull into my shoulder and hurled my opponent off the bridge. It crashed into the water spirit in the stream below. A tremendous gout of steam hissed from it as I vaulted over the bridge and into stream of regular water.
The fire spirit sputtered like a dying candle as it fought to stay alive while half-submerged. Cold arms snaked around my legs and threatened to topple me as the water spirit hit me from behind. I spun and threw a blind elbow into its skull. A crack like a gunshot echoed ove
r the stream as the water spirit lost its grip and collided with the dying fire spirit. Steam washed over the surface and threatened to boil my skin as the two creatures melded and canceled each other out.
“You don’t get any smarter, do you?” I climbed over the edge of the bridge and watched as the acid spirit began to take form.
The clear stream began to take on a green tinge, and it soon turned to acid to match so many other bodies of water in this realm. A head rose from beneath the surface, but it had no eyes, mouth, or ears. It was a faceless entity made of glowing, green ooze. Bits of flesh dripped off its body as it rose from the stream and calmly ascended the bank. The ground melted beneath its feet, and smoke drifted from its footprints as it made for the bridge.
I strode to meet the spirit, picked up speed as I went, and slammed straight into it.
My skin burned with pain the second I touched its skin. My new opponent staggered back, and I went with it, carried by my own momentum. I managed to right myself and take a step back. The spirit leaned against the side of the bridge as I fought off a blazing bolt of agony.
The side of the bridge melted at the acid spirit’s touch. A section crumbled and fell into the river.
The spirit righted itself and charged me in turn. I leaped aside, and it slammed into the other edge of the bridge. Again, stones melted at its touch and crumbled into the fast-flowing streams below. What had been regular water was now a mass of broiling acid. I needed to get the hell off this bridge before it came crashing down.
I kicked the spirit in the side as hard as I could. My foot stung like hell as I knocked it down. A chunk of acid flesh went flying, and the creature gurgled out its discontent.
I couldn’t keep delivering blows like that. Each one scorched my skin and left my mind further fevered by pain. But, at least, it had told me something about what I was dealing with. The acid spirit wasn’t solid. It could be battered at, broken apart, maybe even diluted.
I ran off the end of the bridge to the side the spirit had come from. It lumbered after me, and sections of the bridge gave way as it ran. Some of the debris fell with a hiss into the burning river as others thudded down on the bank in chunks of warped and melted rock.
