by Dante King
“I wonder if he knows about the monastery. Or if he’s connected with it.”
“Time will tell, Master, although you would have an easier time setting fire to water than to wrangle a secret out of Tolin. He does possess strength, of a kind, but he does all he can to hide it from the others. You and he are worlds apart.”
“I’ll have to ask him about it,” I decided.
“Perhaps you will.”
I finished off my snack, sheathed the Sundered Heart at my side, and gathered the others before we left the small plateau behind us. The path dipped down again into a slope of jagged slate, loose gravel, and brightly colored weeds. Faryn inspected one of them as we went and tucked a sample into her satchel. Mahrai stomped along beside her with a bored expression. She looked a lot better after Faryn’s herbs, and I made sure to speak with both of them as our journey carried us over razor-edged ridges and into the early evening.
The sun sank behind the mountains when the energy in the air changed slightly, a constant prickle on my skin and a buzz in my ears. Chunks of slate rose up from the ground in spiked formations and hissed steam from hidden gaps around us. Kegohr and Mahrai lit lanterns as we paused.
“A Vigorous Zone,” I said, feeling the Vigor in the air.
“It is,” Faryn agreed. “We should watch out for monsters.”
“Where are the guards?” I asked. “The Wysaro Clan protects Flametongue Valley, so they should guard the borders and entrances of Vigorous Zones.”
From what I had learned, they did this so that monsters wouldn’t venture out from the zones and non-Augmenters wouldn’t accidentally enter them.
“Maybe they don’t want to come all this way,” Kegohr said. “It’s a long walk from the castle to this place.”
“This Vigorous Zone isn’t on the map,” Vesma said as she looked it over. “But it borders the location where the monastery should be.”
Kumi bit her lip in thought. “Perhaps the monks use this Vigorous Zone as a safeguard for their monastery. The swamps to the north of Qihin City are an enormous barrier to any invaders looking to besiege our walls.”
“Works great until someone leaves a door open and the monsters attack,” Vesma reminded her.
“Maybe the Vigorous Zone appeared like the monastery, from out of nowhere?” I suggested. “All the same, we should be on our guard.”
I tugged the Demure Rebirth Warhammer from my back and gestured for Mahrai to join me at the front of the party as the others readied their own weapons. A smirk settled onto Mahrai’s face as we led the way cautiously forward.
“What’s the worst that could happen?” she asked. “We fight off a flaming panda or two?”
A black shape fluttered overhead in reply, followed by three shadows gliding in silent circles above us. It was hard to see exactly what we were up against, but they could fly, and this being a Fire Province, they could probably breathe fire.
“Those don’t look like pandas,” Kumi said nervously.
I surveyed our path and grimaced. We were sitting ducks on a narrow trail with a steep slope on either side of us. A winged predator would have no issue picking us off one at a time with concentrated attacks from the air. I scanned ahead and caught sight of a larger plateau down to our left.
“All right, on three, we slide down there and get ready to fight like hell.”
“How the hells are we supposed to get them out of the sky?” Vesma asked.
I flashed her a grin. “I’ll think of something. Three!”
Choshi shrieked in my head as I launched myself off the path and hit the sharp decline like a surfer. Gravel slid around my feet as my weight carried me away from the path and toward the battleground I had chosen. I adjusted my trajectory, then swung my warhammer into the loose stones and dirt. Hidden Burrow tore open the ground under my feet, and I vanished into the darkness of the earth.
I burst out of the ground 20 yards away and jumped from the river of gravel toward the plateau. My sandals hit the cracked slate, and I turned to watch my friends. Kumi and Vesma landed beside me while Faryn effortlessly stepped over the slope with Mahrai in tow. Kegohr was having the worst of it, but he was still nimble for a big guy. He forged forward with long, confident strides before he joined us.
With the party assembled on the plateau, I glanced up at the flying creatures.
“Vesma! What are we fighting?” Kumi asked since Vesma seemed to be a walking bestiary.
“I can’t quite tell.” She squinted into the sky before she yelped. “Spinedrakes, I think! They haven’t been seen in the area for years. I think Ethan’s theory of this Vigorous Zone appearing out of nowhere makes sense.”
“What the fuck is a spinedrake?” Mahrai asked.
“Mini-dragon, lots of spikes,” I guessed. “Does that sound right?”
Vesma stared at me. “Wipe that grin off your face. Those beasts are some of the most vicious that have ever haunted this valley.”
I hefted my warhammer over my shoulder, and my smile widened. “I want whatever technique they can give us.”
“Master, are you really sure I’m able to do this?” Choshi asked.
“I know you can. It’s just like before with Yo Hin. Follow my lead,” I replied.
I scanned the skies. One of the flapping shadows twisted in the air. Thorned scales glistened like black oil in the moonlight. Long, wide wings tucked in against the monster’s body before it dive-bombed straight toward Mahrai. I shoved her out of the way at the last second, and a glittering maw of teeth snapped at the air a few inches away from her head. The others scattered outward as Mahrai and I tumbled over the slate. We rolled over until she was lying on my chest. Her hair tickled my cheek as she stared down at me in shock.
“How did you see that coming?” she demanded in a whisper.
“Gut instinct,” I told her. “Get back up there. We need all our heavy hitters on the field.”
“I’m on it!” Mahrai said.
I twisted my legs, propelled her to her feet, and rolled to my own feet again. The spinedrake’s wings buffeted the air as it gained altitude. The creature didn’t shriek in disappointment or turn in for another attack. It simply took to the sky with silent patience that made my skin crawl.
Mahrai rammed her staff into the ground and released her Vigor. The stony floor of the plateau rippled, and the gravel stitched itself together in the familiar skeleton of her Greater Stone Golem.
“We’re vulnerable,” Kumi called. “We can’t stay here, Ethan!”
“We’ve defeated cultists and demons,” I said. “A few little dragons shouldn’t be a problem. Besides, new cores mean new techniques.”
I wasn’t dooming everyone for my own greed. This wasn’t a fight we would lose. Kumi’s overreaction was understandable though. After all, she hadn’t faced fire monsters before.
“Split into groups of two,” I said to everyone. “Kumi, you’re with Kegohr. Vesma and Faryn, see if you can draw another one of them away. I’ll stay with Mahrai and her golem. We need to force these assholes to land.”
Stone grated against stone as Mahrai’s golem finished piecing itself together. I swung the Demure Rebirth in small circles, waiting for the next opportunity to strike.
The spinedrakes glided in lazy rings above us, but they had made a key mistake, and they didn’t even know it yet. Mahrai’s golem was our heaviest hitter, and I was confident that she could use it to bring one of them down to our level. We had a trap, and the rewards for our labors would be beast cores.
But any good trap needed decent bait.
And that bait was me.
Chapter Eight
A spectacular light show would draw the spindedrakes’ attention to me and allow Mahrai’s golem to snatch one from the air. I explained the plan to Mahrai as I took up a position on the center of the plateau, drew the Sundered Heart from my hip, and channeled Vigor into the blade. Flames burst from the edges of the bright steel. I held the sword over my head and spun it around in my hand befor
e I fired off an Untamed Torch into the sky.
“Come and get us, you horror-show rejects!” I shouted. “We’re right down here! Delicious, nutritious, and fucking armed to the teeth!”
“How eloquent,” Nydarth observed. “And perhaps not the wisest course of action, Master.”
My technique lit up the night for a moment. One of the spinedrakes swept away from my gout of flame, tucked its wings against its body, and came for me like a heat-seeking missile.
“Now, Mahrai!” I shouted.
The ground shook under the golem’s steps as it lunged to my side and caught the spinedrake in mid-air. I leapt back, sheathed my sword, and yanked out the Depthless Dream from over my shoulder.
The spinedrake twisted around and smashed its snake-like head into the golem, but the golem barely flinched. Mahrai twisted her staff through the air and ordered her minion to smash the spinedrake into the ground beside me. Bony wings flared out as the spinedrake tried to take to the air again, but the golem held fast. The drake’s wings slashed at the golem, and chunks of gravel ripped away, but the golem tightened its grip on the other creature’s wing and kept it grounded. The drake snapped its jaws shut and kicked at the golem with its hind legs. The golem swayed in place and dropped to a knee but didn’t relinquish its crushing grip.
The two other spinedrakes barreled down toward the plateau to help their brother. Sparks danced over the slate as their claws dug into the ground and skidded them to a halt. Vesma, Kegohr, and Faryn circled around one drake while I sprinted toward the other.
It was time to get some new cores.
The spinedrake twisted its neck to face me. Glittering red eyes narrowed in rage, and it gnashed its dagger-like teeth at me. The monster had to be the size of a large van, twice as long, and covered in more spikes than a porcupine. It definitely wasn’t what I would call a ‘tiny dragon’.
A tidal wave of white-hot flame streamed from the drake’s mouth toward me. I raised my weapons and called upon the power of ash. An ashen cocoon wrapped itself around my body and absorbed the flames. Despite my Fire Immunity technique, my skin burned at the intensity of the attack, and my feet skidded over the slate as I fought to keep myself from getting turned into an extra-crispy Swordslinger.
“Such power,” Yono murmured. “This will be a good challenge indeed, Master. But you will not prevail by playing to its strengths.”
I found my water channels and blasted the spinedrake with a Crashing Wave. Steam hissed off the spinedrake’s scales and didn’t even slow it down. The spinedrake twisted again and hit me with the edge of its flailing wing. I grunted as I slid across the plateau from the sheer force of the strike. The ground gave way to the edge of the cliff, and I stabbed the Depthless Dream into the slate as a handhold.
“It’s coming for you!” Choshi shouted.
I hauled myself up just in time as the drake opened its wings. Its spines shot toward me, igniting midway through the air, but I threw up a Plank Pillar. The flaming projectiles pounded into my wooden wall and set it aflame.
The drake circled around the burning pillar, but I was ready. As it dove toward me, I thrust my trident into its scaled abdomen. The prongs only penetrated half an inch, but it was all I would need. I channeled through the trident and produced a Smothering Mist. The technique poured out from my weapon and filled the drake’s insides with magical liquid. The spinedrake screeched as its body bloated like a water balloon and dropped to the ground. I used Compress Ash to create a dagger, black as obsidian, and stabbed it through the monster’s skull.
“One down,” I said as I scanned the plateau.
The first spinedrake ripped itself free from the golem and scrambled toward me. Its maw snapped at my face, and I rammed the Depthless Dream into its mouth. The drake’s teeth closed around the trident’s handle, and the monster tried to rip the weapon from my hands with a flick of its neck, but I maintained my grip and used the momentum to pull me away from the edge of the plateau.
I stomped the ground with my right foot and activated a Ground Strike attack. The spinedrake’s teeth released my trident, but the monster had no time to escape my technique. A crashing tide of splintering stone impacted the drake and reeled it back toward Mahrai’s golem. It spread its wings and took to the air but remained only ten feet from the ground.
I caught my balance before I joined the earth and water pathways within me. Twin Mud Geysers erupted from the ground beneath the drake, and viscous muck splattered over the spinedrake’s scales. The mud weighed the creature down and made flying impossible. It dropped to the ground, trapped in the mire I had encased it in.
The magma channels within me flared to life, and a mass of molten rock exploded from beneath the monster. A Magma Burst crashed into the spinedrake’s left wing, burned through the fleshy membrane, and cut through the spinedrake’s tail with an insidious crackle of heat.
The spinedrake hissed so fiercely that every hair on my body stood up.
“So, you’re not invulnerable to heat,” I said, drawing the Demure Rebirth and advancing on the creature. “Just fire. Good to know.”
It lashed out at me with its undamaged wing, but I ducked under the swipe and struck out with the Demure Rebirth. My warhammer crushed the drake’s injured wing with a crack. I maintained the momentum of the strike and sprayed the side of the creature with another Magma Burst. Lava splattered across the spinedrake’s flank and filled the air with the smell of cooking flesh.
I ducked beneath a swipe from its other wing and jabbed my trident forward. A Smothering Mist expanded around the melting scales, hardened the lava, and a wave of steam punched out in every direction as I melded my techniques together.
The spinedrake sagged, twisted its neck to face me, and opened its maw. A flare of intense flame jetted out of the spinedrake’s nostrils, but it jerked back as Mahrai’s golem wrapped an arm around its neck, caught hold of its upper lip with its other hand, and wrenched violently in opposite directions. Scales, flesh, and bone came apart under the golem’s hands, and what remained of the spinedrake went limp, a heap of superheated scales and dead weight.
“That’s one for each of us,” Mahrai said as she leaped onto her golem’s shoulder.
“I wouldn’t say that,” I said with a smile. “I earned at least half a kill.”
“Should we help the others, or let them achieve their own victory?”
I turned to see the final spinedrake grounded, bathed in water by Kumi’s Song of the Sea. Flowing aquatic tendrils wrapped around the monster and drenched it in extinguishing liquid. Faryn whipped leaves around the struggling drake, cutting its armored scales with her razor-sharp technique.
Fighting off Kumi’s water technique, the drake opened its maw and belched a torrent of fire, but Vesma caught it on a Flame Shield. Sweat streamed over her face as she held off the blistering jet of fire. I was about to help them when Kegohr bounded toward the drake, leaped into the air, and slammed his mace onto the monster’s head. A deafening crack sounded as the stone weapon split the drake’s skull asunder, spraying my friends in bone and brain matter.
“Gross,” Vesma said as she wiped gore from her robes.
Kegohr slapped her on the back and grinned triumphantly. “We did it!”
“Sure did,” I said as I approached them.
“Now, it’s time to get even dirtier.” Vesma wiped her hair out of her eyes and grimaced as she drew the knife that she used to remove monster cores.
The core, as it turned out, was situated at the back of a spindedrake’s throat. It didn’t take long before we pried them free of their skeletal corrals. Fist-sized stones shone a bright red light from within the black protective membranes.
Kegohr whistled appreciatively as he weighed one of them in his huge paw. “These things are huge! Vesma, do you know what technique they give?”
Vesma shook her head. “No. I don’t know whether we even have enough for one of us to learn a single technique, let alone all three of us.”
“
We should get into to the monastery before we absorb them,” I said. “That might not be the last of them, and I can’t have you guys falling over from Augmenter’s Sickness.” While I had the spirit weapons to help me with the weakening effects of absorbing a beast core, my friends didn’t.
“That’s wise,” Faryn agreed. “Store them for later. You’ll have plenty of time to discover a new technique once we’ve settled in.”
Kegohr wrapped the spinedrake cores into a soft blanket and carefully stashed them into his rucksack.
Kumi hummed a soft tune, twisted her hands, and used some of our drinking water to mend our injuries. Cool water splashed over each of us, and the abrasions from my slide across the slate closed over, leaving unblemished skin in its wake.
Mahrai dissolved her golem into dust behind us, and we climbed back onto the mountain path with fresh reserves of energy and the satisfaction that came with victory.
I kept a look-out for any more spinedrakes or other monsters as we continued our trek into the night. We rounded a twist in the track and found a set of neatly carved steps leading upward. A surge of fresh energy flooded my body at the sight. It wouldn’t be long before we found the monastery. The stairs led up a steep hill, wound around small shrines to gods I’d never heard of, and finally brought us to the front steps of our destination.
I froze in astonishment when I saw the Dying Sun Monastery.
Curling gold leaf shingles spilled over the edges of the pagoda roofs. Dragon statues flanked enormously wide steps that led to a gigantic front door. Ancient script of the Immortals hung on scarlet banners, and one brushed past me as I started up the last of the stairs to the entrance.
“It reminds me a lot of the temple back on Earth,” I murmured to Nydarth. “It has a similar architecture to that structure, as well as the Unwashed Temple.”
“It does have an echoing familiarity about it,” she said. “Be on your guard, sweet man. Perhaps here you will find the answer to your arrival on this plane.”
I halted at the doors and took a deep breath to center myself. Excitement, confusion, and curiosity warred in my mind as I waited for my friends to catch up. Vesma and Faryn stared up at the monastery in awe. Kegohr guffawed while Mahrai actually wore an impressed smile.