by Aaron Oster
“You mean that King Herald is descended from the first King?” Morgan asked.
“Yes. In fact, King Herald is the only person alive who knows the mysterious being who changed the world on that day. After that battle, no one gained tremendous power overnight anymore. The status screens began to show up, mana and chi were born, and people could only control a very limited amount of their power. The first beasts were soon discovered and people began to learn that power had to be earned, and would no longer be handed to them. However, only a few people could still wield the true power of the world and they became known as the first supermages.”
Gold finished speaking and Morgan’s mind was awhirl with questions.
“How is it that I’ve never heard this story before? If this is our history, then shouldn’t it be more well known?”
“A good question,” Gold said, nodding appreciatively. “This knowledge, like that of supermages, has been very well hidden. There are very few people alive today who know of this history, but it’s important for you to know, as it will give you a better understanding of your own abilities.”
There was a loud chime then and Gold seemed to start, looking up at the clock in surprise.
“Looks like our time is up for today.”
“But I have so many questions,” Morgan complained.
“Well, unless you’d like to miss your lunch, I would recommend holding off on those until tomorrow.”
Morgan debated skipping lunch, but his rumbling stomach and the promise to meet Sarah, decided him against keeping the lesson going.
“One last thing before you go. I want to hear all about your abilities, attributes and skills. Be exact, as I will need to understand exactly what you can do, in order to best teach you.”
Morgan sighed as his stomach growled once again, but he listed out everything Gold wanted to know.
“I have one more question for you,” Gold said, as Morgan rose painfully from the plush chair.
“Do you know how to use a mage shield yet?”
“No.”
Morgan shook his head. “Sarah showed me hers, though, and I really want to learn how make my own.”
“Good. Then that will be the focus of our lesson tomorrow. You are dismissed.”
And with that, Morgan turned tiredly towards the door.
He now had a twenty five minute walk back to the house and he wasn’t excited about it.
21
Morgan groaned as he sat down on the hard stone bench. His entire body was in pain and it hurt to even move.
Sarah sat down next to him with a similar protest, but she was a lot more vocal about her discomfort.
“I’d like to make that asshole run around a room for an hour,” she grumbled, as she stuffed steaming spoons full of chicken pie into her mouth.
Morgan grunted in response, shoveling equally large spoonful’s into his mouth as well.
He was too exhausted to talk right now. All he wanted to do was eat and then go take a nap until their next lesson.
“Are you alright?”
Morgan turned to Sarah, who despite her bad mood, looked concerned.
“I’m fine, just really tired. I think I’ll go to sleep when I’m done eating.”
“That sounds so nice right now!” Sarah exclaimed. “My last lesson wasn’t exactly taxing, but I still feel like I could sleep for week!”
The two of them were quick to finish up their meal and headed back to the house.
Checking the clock on the wall, Morgan could see that he had a little over an hour before their next lesson.
Sarah was already taking off her boots and threw them unceremoniously on the ground, before entering the room and closing her door.
Morgan debated going into his room, but decided to nap on the couch instead. He sighed in contentment as he sank into the soft material and within a few seconds, was out cold.
∞
A light tapping on his forehead brought Morgan out of a deep sleep. He blinked a few times and squinted up, at the smiling face of his instructor.
“Oh good. Finally awake, are we? I thought I’d take the liberty of waking you. Our next lesson will be in ten minutes, best get prepared.”
With that, he turned and left the room.
Morgan could hear Sarah cursing away through her door, so he knew she was awake. He tried sitting up, then cried out as his entire body throbbed in protest. He fell back against the cushions, feeling as though every muscle in his body had been tied to knots.
He gritted his teeth and forced himself into a sitting position, wincing as his cramped and aching muscles slowly stretched out.
He now very much regretted taking that nap.
Forcing himself to stand, he began going through the stretches that Gold had shown them for loosening up their muscles. He grimaced with every new pose, but forced himself to hold them for a full count of sixty before switching to a different one.
By the time Sarah shuffled out of her room, looking disheveled and half asleep, Morgan was feeling a whole lot better.
“You should do those stretches Gold showed us this morning,” Morgan said as she winced in discomfort. “It’ll help with the pain.”
Sarah didn’t answer, but did as he suggested. She ran through the various poses that he’d just finished. By the time she was done, Gold had walked back into the room and was nodding in approval.
“Good. I see you’re ready to go. You will be fighting, so if there is anything you need, now is the time to get it.”
Morgan was about to say he didn’t need anything, when he remembered the shin guards sitting in his room. He quickly dashed in and grabbed them, rolling up his pants to strap them on underneath. He then pulled on the fingerless gloves that would protect his hands and tightened them around his wrists.
Now he was ready.
“Do you need to get anything before we go Sarah?” Gold asked.
She shook her head and Gold nodded, pulling something from his pocket. It was only then that Morgan realized how differently the man was dressed. His usual garb normally consisted of a long robe that was split down the center and a loose fitting pair of pants.
Now he was dressed in a black leather breastplate, leather bracers and greaves and a pair of the same canvas pants that he and Sarah were wearing.
Gold noticed him appraising him and grinned.
“Didn’t think I’d go into a Beast Zone wearing nothing but a robe did you?”
Morgan shrugged.
It made sense after all. Why would he wear a robe in a combat zone?
Gold finished fiddling with the item he’d pulled from his pocket, then shoved it into something and twisted. Morgan’s eyes went wide and Sarah exclaimed in surprise, as a tear in space opened right in the center of the living room.
“What the hell is that?” Sarah yelled.
“That is our way into the Beast Zone,” Gold answered. “This a portal and the only way to reach our destination. Now, after you.” He motioned Sarah to go first, but she just shook her head.
“There is no way I’m going through first!”
Gold turned to Morgan and gestured to the portal. Morgan shrugged once more, then walked straight through the tear in space.
There was an odd feeling of vertigo and then he was standing on a path before a massive rocky plain. The sky was gray and cloudy, and the air smelled, oddly enough, of salt.
He heard the sound of boots scuffing over stone and turned to see Sarah emerging from the tear. She wobbled for a moment, then walked over to join him.
“Where are we?”
There was awe in her voice as she took in the surrounding landscape.
“No idea, but we’re definitely not in the Central Kingdom.”
“Right you are!”
They both turned as Gold materialized as well and walked over to join them.
It didn’t escape Morgan’s notice that the tear in space slammed shut behind him, leaving them effectively trapped.
“In fact
, we aren’t even in the five kingdoms. Right now, we have entered a Beast Zone, which is located in an entirely different space! No one is quite sure how they function, but that’s just the way it is with some things.”
“So what you’re telling us, is that no else can enter while we are here?” Sarah asked.
“Exactly! I am the only one who currently holds the key to this zone. If someone else wishes to come here, I would first have to open the portal in their location.”
“So what exactly will we be doing here?” Morgan asked.
He was eager to begin.
“You will be fighting and killing beasts. I am here to supervise and will only intervene if you are in mortal danger. However, seeing as this is a rank 3 Beast Zone, the only real challenge will come at the end.”
“Would you mind explaining exactly how this place works before we begin?” Sarah asked. “And what do you mean by ‘rank 3 Beast Zone?’ Does that mean that all the beasts are rank 3?”
“I’ll be happy to explain the function of Beast Zones and how they work. These zones are rich with the energy of the world and therefore a very many beasts will be found here. They will also be reborn a fixed amount of time after they are killed. Even if you kill every single beast in here today, they will all be back tomorrow.”
“All Beast Zones are given a rank to match the level of difficulty based on the highest ranked beast. That means that the most powerful beast you will encounter, will be at rank 3. All the beasts have cores, you will collect them and hand them over to me. At the end of your lesson, I will split the cores in half and hand each of you your share.”
“I expect you to assign all the energy from your cores at night and tell me of your progress. I also expect you to hand in the remains of the cores once they have shattered. The academy has need of core dust and requires any student using a Beast Zone to hand it in once the cores have been used. One last thing before we go.”
A warning note entered his voice. “There is one exception to the maximum rank of one beast in every zone. This beast is called the Zone Patriarch or Matriarch. That beast will be far more powerful than the others you’ll be facing, so use caution when fighting it. I think that about sums it up. Any questions?”
Morgan and Sarah both opened up their mouths, but before they had a chance to ask, Gold cut them off.
“No questions? Great! Then off we go!”
He walked past them and entered the rock strewn plains, whistling as he did so.
“If he wasn’t going to answer, then why bother asking?” Sarah muttered as the two of them followed.
It only took about five minutes of walking to come across their first beats. They stopped as they saw a small flock of sheep grazing in a small patch of open ground up ahead.
“Well, there’s your first challenge,” Gold said with a grin. “Go on and attack them.”
“Those are beasts?” Sarah asked, incredulously. “They’re just a bunch of sheep!”
Morgan on the other hand, just did as he was told. He ran forward, covering the distance between him and the animals and gearing up for an attack.
As he drew closer, he could see that these were no ordinary sheep. Their wool was thick, gray and wiry; almost as if it were made of some sort of metal, not at all like the white fluffy sheep back home. They were also slightly larger, coming up to about waist height.
He skidded to a halt in front of one of the sheep and lashed out with a kick to its side. The sheep let out an angry bleat and whirled around; its rear hooves coming up and smacking Morgan square in the chest.
It didn’t hurt, as his canvas shirt absorbed most of the damage, but he was stunned at the lightening reactions of the seemingly harmless farm animal.
The sheep turned to glare at him and Morgan could see that it was completely unharmed. At first, he was confused at the lack of injury to the animal, but then it clicked.
Of course! The wool must have absorbed the force of his attack. Since it appeared to be made of some kind of metal and seemed to be quite springy, blunt attacks wouldn’t do much to hurt them.
A grin touched Morgan’s lips as all six sheep turned to glare at him.
This was going to be fun!
22
Morgan got into a fighting stance as the first of the sheep ran at him.
If he was going to use blunt attacks, he would have to aim for spots not covered by the wool. On the other hand, he could switch over to his mage abilities. His wind blade could probably tear through the wool with no problems, but he liked the challenge of meeting them head on.
He shifted his weight to one leg in preparation to pivot out of the way, when a spear of ice slammed into the creature from the side, killing it instantly.
Morgan turned and glared as Sarah dispatched another two of the sheep in short order.
“Hey!” he called out as she readied another icicle spear. “What are you doing”
Sarah turned to look him, a confused expression on her face.
“What?”
“I was going to kill them! It’s not okay to just butt in during someone else’s fight!”
The other sheep had stopped at the sight of their downed brethren and were now looking back and forth between the two of them, as if deciding on who they should attack next.
“Fine,” Sarah said, holding her hands up. “You can have those three.”
Morgan nodded and turned back to the other sheep, who had by now decided that he was the easier of the two targets.
One of them launched themselves at him with an angry bleat, eyes rolling and baring its teeth. Morgan dodged quickly to the side, lashing out with one of his fists and hearing the satisfying crunch of bone as its head caved in. He stepped back as a pair of hooves flew at him and turned to lash out with a kick of his own.
The heel of his foot slammed into one of the sheep’s legs and it went down with a bleat of pain. He quickly stomped down on its head, feeling the skull flatten under his boot. When he pulled it away, he grimaced as blood, bits of bone and brain matter clung to the bottom.
He turned just in time for the last sheep to land on top of him. He was so surprised, that he caught it by reflex, feeling the rough, metallic wool press into his fingers. He grunted with effort as the sheep began to gnash its teeth, trying to bite him.
It was much heavier than it looked.
With a surge of effort, he threw the sheep high into the air, hearing a bleat of panic as it soared high. He waited for it come down, then spun and kicked it in the side as hard as he could.
He smiled in grim satisfaction as the shin guards, along with the steel woven canvas pants absorbed the impact and watched as the sheep’s body was slammed into a nearby boulder. Despite its dense coat of wool, the impact was too much for the sheep to handle. There was a loud splat and the sheep fell to the ground, leaving a bloody smear on the rock.
Morgan turned to see both Sarah and Gold staring at him; her in annoyance and him in amusement.
“Though I will give you points for creativity, that took way too long and required way too much effort,” Gold said as he approached them.
“I got the job done, didn’t I?” Morgan said, feeling a bit defensive.
“You did,” Gold conceded. “But Sarah killed three in the time it took you to kill one. If you’re going to fight, then you have to learn to use your skills. From what I just saw, you fought without using a single one. If you want to fight using your fists, that’s fine by me, but I’d like you to keep at least one skill active the entire time we’re here.”
Morgan nodded, concluding that Gold was probably right. He thought over which skill would be the most useful and decided on using tailwind.
He liked the huge increase in agility and it would help him finish fights faster. He could, of course, have gone with his heavy handed skill, but he liked the idea of precision over brute force. That was not to knock it; brute force definitely had its place, but here he could afford to use other means of fighting.
“Alrig
ht, now go and get those cores,” Gold said, handing each of them a slim metal rod with a small button on one end.
“What are these for?” Morgan asked, as he and Sarah each accepted one.
“These were designed for the sole purpose of fetching a core. After all, I’m sure that getting yourselves covered in gore isn’t too fun, so this will do it for you. All you need to do is shove the pointy end into its chest and press the button. Go on, give it a try!”
He gave them both a shove toward the sheep corpses which almost knocked them off their feet.
Morgan bent down next to one of the sheep and did as Gold instructed. Shoving the rod deep into the beast’s chest cavity, he pressed the button. There was a clicking sound and he felt a slight shudder go through it.
Pulling it free, Morgan saw that three tiny prongs had extended from the tip and were now wrapped around an acorn sized core.
Taking the core in his hand, Morgan opened his status to view the core’s properties.
Name: Ironwool-sheep core
Rank - 0
Total available energy - 14/14
This core was taken from an Ironwool-sheep and has no special properties.
Only 14 energy?!
Morgan closed the screen and glared at Gold.
“You didn’t tell us that the cores would give so little energy!”
“Well, what else did you expect from a sheep?” Gold said with a shrug.
Morgan sighed and walked over to retrieve the rest of the cores.
Sarah didn’t look nearly as disappointed as he was. She’d probably known to expect that amount of energy from the sheep.
They handed the cores to over to Gold, who placed them in a pouch by his waist. He then showed them how to clip the core retrieval rods to their belts.
So that was why he’d insisted they buy belts despite their uniform’s ability to do without one, Morgan realized.
“Don’t look so disheartened,” he said, patting Morgan on the shoulder. “The beasts will grow stronger the further in we go, and the Patriarch of this Zone will give you a nice sized core. But we’ll only get it if we make it there in the next three hours, so let’s hop to it.”