by Dante King
I ignored the tutor and continued toward the cave. The rest of the class watched as Kegohr and Vesma followed me, right up to the edge of the darkness.
“Effin, what are you doing?” Kegohr whispered.
“Getting the first shot at any sprites that turn up,” I said. “If we can kill them as they come out, we can get the ones we need before anyone else does.”
“I like it.” Vesma stretched her arms and took a fighter’s stance.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Kegohr said. “But what if there’s swarms of them again? It’s one thing to take down our share, but if we try to take on everyone’s, they could overwhelm us.”
“Would you rather risk a tough fight or guarantee failure?” I asked.
“Tough fight,” Vesma said.
“Looks like I’m outvoted this time,” Kegohr said with a smile. “All right, then.”
Vesma stood to my right, her fists level with her chest. Kegohr towered over my left shoulder, his furry hands gripping the two-handed mace that had killed more than a handful of sprites.
As the steady whispers and a few half-hearted cheers from the other initiate teams reached my ears, I wondered if the rest of the class would join us at the mouth of the cave. If they did, it would undo the advantage we had gained. But it seemed that most of them shared Kegohr’s worry. They held back, still positioned behind their lures at the edge of the slope while they waited for the sprites to come to them.
A patter of small feet came out of the cave, and the bright fire that marked the joints of ember sprite bodies glowed in the darkness. One first, then another, and another, until a small crowd of them was edging toward us.
I flung the lure into the cave. As it clattered on the ground, the sprites let out a collective hiss, but still, they held back.
“Come and get it.” I tugged slowly on the cord and drew the lure back toward me. The object was a glowing teardrop against the smoke-blackened ground, and the sprites stared at it hungrily.
A sprite broke into a run to reach the lure before it got away, and the others rushed after him. The round creatures tumbled over each other as they tried to be the first to the bait. I guided their movements by adjusting the direction I swung the lure, and they followed after it without hesitation.
“Now!” I yelled at my teammates.
Kegohr plowed through the pursuing sprites, and they tumbled in all directions like bowling pins. They soon recovered and leapt onto him like they’d done to me earlier. Vesma rushed to help him, every kick and punch well-timed and powerful. I continued using the lure as a distraction so that the pair could gain some easy kills. The sprites seemed far more interested in the potential prize than the guild initiates attacking them, and I thought this would be a simple task.
And it probably would have been, except one particularly speedy sprite grabbed the lure and tore it apart with its claws. With the item rendered ineffective, the rest of the creatures turned their attention on us.
I dropped the lure’s cord and drew my sword before a sprite sprang at me. I shoved the flat of my blade between its jaws and delivered an elbow to its cranium. It released my blade and fell to the ground, but it didn’t stay down. The creature latched onto my leg and buried its teeth in my thigh. The pain was like fire flashing through my veins, but I used meditative techniques to focus my attention away from sensation and into will.
I punched down with the pommel of my sword, and there was a crunch as the creature’s skull cracked open. The sprite’s jaw widened, its grip slackened, and it fell to the ground, dead. My sword pommel had succeeded where my elbow had failed.
I raised my blade as another sprite leapt at me, and this time, I was fully prepared. The creature’s black flesh hissed as my blade sliced through its abdomen. The two halves tumbled through the air and rolled along the ground. A pair of sprites stared at the truncated corpse and squealed before they both fled toward the cave. I lifted my left palm, channeled Vigor through my wood pathways, and activated Stinging Palm. A volley of wooden splinters shot through the air and punctured the sprites as they fled. The wood burned up almost immediately on impact, but it was enough to slow their retreat. I sprinted to meet them as they continued their flight into the cave. Before they could cross the threshold, I cut them down.
I glanced back and saw that none of the other initiate teams had decided to venture this close to the cave’s entrance. They simply watched as Kegohr, Vesma, and I battled. Some were re-enacting my Stinging Palm technique, and I wondered how many of them had ever seen anyone channel wood before.
Well, I was happy to give them a show. My teammates, however, looked like they needed my help.
Kegohr yelled in frustration as three sprites latched onto his back. He tried to reach over his shoulder to grab them, but they evaded his grasp. I was about to help him when he suddenly wheeled around and threw himself against the walls of the cave. Three consecutive bashes against the stone forced the sprites to release their hold, and he crushed their heads with three swift stomps.
Vesma let out a dry gasp as a sprite wrapped its arms around her neck. She sank to her knees, gasped for breath, and scrambled to pry the beast from her body. I rushed to her and grabbed hold of the creature’s arms and yanked hard. It squealed as it came loose from around Vesma, then lunged at me. The sprite’s teeth gnashed as it tried to bite me, but I still had a good grip on its arms. I swung with all my strength and slammed it into the cave wall. There was a crack, and it went limp.
Kegohr seized the last of the sprites, flung it hard into the ground, and stamped on it with his clawed foot. It died in a spray of ash and sparks.
“How many?” Vesma rubbed her neck.
We cut the cores from the bodies and counted them as we went.
“Including the ones we got outside, that’s 24,” I said.
“Not bad, not bad,” Kegohr said. “Another two each, and we’ll all have Flame Shield.”
I looked out at the rest of the class, who were still waiting. Some tried to encourage others to join us, but no one seemed interested or brave enough. Except for Hamon, and he just stood in the center as he glared disdainfully.
“How am I meant to catch salamanders now?” he shouted when he noticed my gaze. “You’re scaring everything off.”
Just knowing it annoyed him was reason enough to stay there the rest of the day. But I had a better idea.
“You two take the cores,” I said to my friends. “That’s more than enough to get you Flame Shield.”
“No.” Vesma folded her arms.
“Right, right, right,” Kegohr said. “We all shared in the fighting, we should all share in the spoils.”
“I insist.” I handed over the cores I held. “I can get more later. And besides, I’ve got a better idea.”
I strode out of the cave and joined the rest of the initiates to a chorus of murmurs. Some cheered my name, but they were quickly silenced by cold glares from Hamon.
“Are there any more salamander lures?” I asked Rutmonlir.
“You’re meant to be on sprites,” he said.
“The sprites were too easy. I want a real challenge.”
Rutmonlir looked from me to Hamon and then back again before he grinned. “Here.” He threw me one of the larger lures, a metal cage around a bright, flaming orb. “Maybe some competition will encourage his lordship here to catch more than one.”
I used the leather cord that ran through one side and tied the lure to my belt.
“Only one salamander has come out so far!” Hamon’s pretty face crumpled with indignation. “I haven’t had a chance.”
“What’re you gonna do about it?” Rutmonlir raised a bushy eyebrow.
“I figure he’ll be following me,” I answered for Hamon before I sprinted toward the mouth of the cave.
“Hey!” Hamon shouted. “That’s not how this works!”
“Says who?” I shouted back.
As I looked over my shoulder, Hamon was running after me and thrusting the cord from
his own lure through his belt. With the other initiate hot on my heels, I dashed into the cave mouth, past Kegohr, past Vesma, and into the Ember Cavern.
Chapter Nine
As I ran deeper into the Ember Cavern, the downside of my plan hit me. I was running away from the light into the darkness beneath the vast stone weight of the mountain. How was I going to see my prey, never mind hunt it? I couldn’t go back empty-handed, not after having made a big display of running in with Hamon on my heels. But how I was going to succeed down here in the darkness was another matter.
I ran around a corner, slowing down as I left the last of the daylight behind, and the answer became clear.
Ahead of me, the walls of the cavern were glowing. More accurately, parts of the walls were glowing. Long cracks in the stone shone with a fiery light that turned the tunnel from a dismal darkness to an artist’s vision of Hell, all red glow and deep shadows. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t religious, I’d still been seeing those sorts of images since childhood and been filled with the dread they were meant to inspire. I squashed aside my fears that the pit would swallow me up forever. I couldn’t lose my cool when a new martial technique was available to me.
The heat was starting to become uncomfortable, and I untied my robes and tucked them into my pants. Sweat made my chest glisten and my hands grow slick while my pulse throbbed in my temples. The further I went into the cavern, the hotter it became, but it wasn’t quite unbearable. I could feel the Vigor inside my body working hard to keep my core temperature down, and I reduced my pace a little to preserve as much energy as I could.
While I slowed my running speed, Hamon rounded the corner behind me. Without missing a beat, he swerved past me and raced on down the corridor, his pale face turned demonic red by the glow from the walls. Whatever his failings, he was nimble on his feet and confident about where he was going. He bounced across the uneven ground without so much as a stumble as he headed deeper into the mountain.
I wasn’t going to let him get away from me. From what we’d seen, there weren’t that many scorched salamanders in the tunnels, at least not within range of our lures.
I took a deep breath and quickened my pace as I pursued Hamon through the fiery glow. The ground was rough underfoot, and I almost tripped several times, but always managed to save myself by shifting my weight or pushing off the wall. Soon, I was gaining ground on Hamon.
The deeper we went, the brighter the tunnels became. It was like walking through the embers of a vast bonfire, not just in the mixture of blackness and red light, but in terms of the heat. I had to pace myself and attempt to regain my Vigor. Luckily, Hamon also slowed down but continued to be just a little faster than me.
The tunnel split, one path heading down and to the left, the other straight on and to the right. Hamon, still a dozen yards ahead of me, went right.
Should I go after him, rely on his stronger instinctive knowledge of the element of fire to help find the beasts? Or should I go my own way, where I wouldn’t have to compete for prey?
I’d never been much of a follower. With little thought for how isolated I might become, I headed left.
Within a few steps, the tunnel widened, then opened out into a 50-foot cavern with tunnels breaking off in every direction. The place was filled with flickering light coming from crystals in the ceiling that glowed red, orange, and yellow. Near the far end, molten lava bubbled up out of a crater a dozen feet across and ran in thin streams into a channel before vanishing down one of the tunnels.
As I entered, I saw half a dozen ember sprites drinking from a stream of lava. The salamander lure didn’t draw them to me like the other lure had done, but a curious sprite ceased feeding on the lava pool and stared at me. I could probably sneak past the creatures and move into another channel, but that one pesky sprite had both eyes on me. I made a single step forward, and the sprite went into action. It waved its arms and hissed as it ran for me.
The rest of the pack remained behind, more interested in the lava feast than the newcomer to their cavern. The lone sprite sprang toward me with claws poised to attack, but I swung my sword around and caught the sprite with its deadly, bright tip. Ash flew, the creature screeched, and it fell to the ground, twitching and writhing. I hadn’t come for ember sprite cores, but that didn’t mean they weren’t worth having, so I knelt to finish off the beast. But before I could pull out the core, something else drew my attention.
At the end of the room, the lava rippled and ran in fresh cascades down the side of the crater. With a gloop, the surface parted. A long snout appeared with thorned frills extending from a neck, then a pair of lizard legs and a long body covered in scales. The faded scars across its scales and its muscled limbs told me this was a more ancient and more dangerous salamander than the one Hamon had killed.
The mighty beast sniffed the air, then looked at me. Its bright eyes glowed against ash-black skin. From its wide maw, a tongue flicked out, its end speckled with tiny flames.
I raised my sword and shifted into a defensive posture when it broke into a run. The salamander raced across the floor, thickly muscled legs giving it a surprising turn of speed. I tossed the lure a few feet to my right, and the salamander pounced on it. It tore apart the cage and gobbled up the bright orb that was my lure.
While it was chewing, I aimed my sword for a decapitating slice, but the salamander suddenly shifted around and sprang off its hind legs. The creature’s hardened skull slammed into my stomach before I could complete my attack, and I fell head over heels.
I scrambled to my feet as the clatter of claws against the stone echoed around the chamber. I had less than a second before the lizard would strike, so I steadied my breathing and gathered my Vigor. I knew wood techniques were almost completely ineffective against fire beasts, but I’d already attempted and succeeded with thinking a little creatively.
So, I got creative.
I lifted my palm and summoned a Plank Pillar directly in front of the salamander, but it dashed to the side just as the wooden beam appeared from the ground. The pillar immediately caught fire, the heat inside the cavern too intense for the combustible plank. I produced a second pillar, and instead of leaping around it, the salamander burst straight through it. A cloud of embers covered me in ash, burnt tiny holes in my robes, and seared small patches of my bare chest. With all the Vigor flowing through me, I didn’t feel a thing.
I had one last shot before the salamander would be on me, so I used Stinging Palm. Rather than fire at its body, I aimed my thorns for its right eye. All but one wooden spike hit its head and fell off harmlessly, but the successful thorn punctured its eyeball. The creature stopped immediately and reached up at its eye with its clawed paws.
I raced toward the salamander and brought my sword around. It recovered while I was in mid-swing, and I felt the heat of the salamander’s passing claw as it tore across my stomach. My swing continued, and as the blade hit, the scorched salamander jerked aside.
Pain flared from my burning wound as I summoned a Plank Pillar beneath my feet. I used the wooden platform as a springboard and somersaulted a few feet behind it. I looked down at my stomach and saw four shallow slashes across my flesh. The salamander’s burning claws had cauterized the wounds, so there was no chance of bleeding out, but they hurt like hell.
The salamander growled, and I noticed that I’d left my own mark upon its body. A nasty scratch ran across its flank, and its punctured eye oozed lava-blood. The salamander opened its mouth, and a bright orb showed behind its forked tongue. I dove to the side as a scorching sphere of fire the size of a football rocketed out of the creature’s mouth and through the cavern with a rush of air. It exploded against the far wall as I jumped to my feet.
Another fiery sphere split the air, and this time, there was no dodging it. I summoned a trio of Plank Pillars so close to each other that they would be three times as thick as a regular one. The fireball broke through the final pillar, but it had been reduced to the size of a golf ball, and I easily e
vaded it. My breath came in heavy gasps, and I realized my Vigor was running too low.
A croak came from the salamander, and it seemed to be choking on something. I smiled at myself.
“All out of gas?” I asked. “That makes both of us.”
I rushed toward the lizard and gripped my sword in both hands. I raised the weapon, but the salamander knocked it aside with one claw and slashed at me with the other. I staggered back just in time to avoid having my gut sliced open. We were at a stalemate, neither able to get the better of the other without our magical abilities. I knew I could gain back some Vigor with a little breathing room, but I wasn’t certain if the salamander could do the same. It was a risk I’d have to take.
Rather than attack the salamander, I focused my efforts on simply blocking its claws. It lunged toward me a few times, and it even tried to body slam me when I opened up my guard. I continued dancing around it while I preserved my energy and centered my mind. I let Vigor flow through the channels I had carved inside myself and let the power of wood envelop me. It raced along my limbs, down into the ground, and back up again.
“There,” I said with a smile. “I’m all filled up.”
I blocked a swipe from the salamander, jumped back, and lifted my left palm. Wood magic surged from my center and along my arm before infusing the air in front of me. A Plank Pillar burst from the ground, and a heavy thud sounded as the salamander struck the other side of the wooden wall.
“Didn’t burn it this time, buddy?” I said. “You must be getting tired.”
The creature hissed furiously, and the planks shook as the lizard gouged at them with claws and teeth.
I let the Vigor flow again as the wooden wall fractured beneath the salamander’s onslaught. It snarled as it sprang toward me, and I brought forth another pillar. This time, it appeared beneath the salamander. It was the tallest, widest, toughest Plank Pillar I had ever summoned. The wooden creation struck the salamander in midair, and I continued imbuing the pillar with Vigor. With the constant stream of magical energy, it continued climbing upward until the salamander wailed as the pillar smashed it against the ceiling. There was a crack of bones breaking as the creature went silent.