Immortal Swordslinger 4

by Dante King

  “Was that really necessary?” Choshi asked timidly.

  I slung the spirit weapon back over my shoulder. “I hit him with everything I had, and he still kept coming. And I’ve seen enough movies to know that unstoppable monsters like to lull their prey into a false sense of security.”

  I glanced over my shoulder to check the situation with the demons. Faryn and Kumi kept up a valiant offense on the monk’s creatures. Tolin sat in exactly the same spot in the tree, his eyes closed as he muttered to himself, seemingly lost in his own world. I drew the Depthless Dream from my back, heard Yono’s breath hitch in excitement, and dipped the head of the trident into the water.

  “Yes, Master,” Yono sighed. “Finally, a welcome respite from dry land. And just for that, I’ll give you a little tutelage for your gift to me.”

  “Is this really the best time for swimming lessons?” I asked as I summoned a thick blanket of Smothering Mist around the demons closest to my friends.

  “Channel the Crashing Wave technique,” Yono said. “But rather than push or pull it to your will, focus on the stillness of the water. You’ve done this before. This time, I want you to reach out with me.”

  I took a deep breath and reached out to touch the water around my knees, sending Vigor down the corresponding pathways for Crashing Wave technique. Instead of pushing or pulling it into a roaring tidal wave, I pictured a still pond and trusted Yono’s words. The Depthless Dream trembled in my hand, and I drew it out of the water.

  Ice sparkled in the low light around the trident’s prongs. A frozen greatsword stretched out from the head of the trident, a yard long and a foot wide, and my eyes widened at the sight. I’d channeled ice through the Depthless Dream before, but nothing like this. I hefted the blade experimentally. It barely weighed more than the Demure Rebirth.

  “Now let water flow through you,” Yono whispered, “and cleanse the evil of this place.”

  She didn’t need to tell me twice.

  With a flick of my will, water flooded my physical pathways, and I sprinted out of the stream. The ground blurred under my feet as I crossed the distance between myself and the nearest demon in a second. The demon half-turned, its scarlet eyes wide, and my ice greatsword tore through it like paper. The armored fur of the Greater Soldiers couldn’t hold up against the power of Yono or the strength of my Augmentation. Viscera splashed over the grass as the demon collapsed into two messy halves.

  Another demon ripped through Faryn’s grasping roots with a set of razor-sharp claws and leapt at her with a maw of dripping teeth. I gestured, and a wall of Plank Pillars rose in a defensive shell around Faryn. The demon crashed uselessly into the wooden pillar, tearing and scraping, and I rammed my huge blade into the center of its chest, cutting through its spine and covering me in black, foul-smelling blood.

  “I take it your quarry is no longer with us?” Faryn asked as she appeared from behind my Plank Pillars.

  “He went for a swim,” I replied as I turned to bail out Kumi.

  The Qihin Princess whistled a bar of music, and a strand of falling water struck her enemy’s back. Hissing steam and the acrid smell of burning flesh wafted up from the demon. I activated Hidden Burrow to get closer and appeared beside Kumi in a small eruption of dirt and grass.

  I charged my veins with fire and grabbed a fistful of the demon’s hair. Its claws raked over my robes as I tore it away from Kumi, but its natural weaponry wasn’t enough to pierce my reinforced body. I tossed the demon up into the air, grabbed hold of the trident with both of my hands, and activated Crashing Wave. A razor arc of water sprang from the icy edge of my improvised weapon and caught the demon in mid-air. It howled as one of its arms spun away from its body. I kept up the momentum of the swing and smashed the Depthless Dream down onto the demon as it landed. The trident-turned-greatsword cut clean through the demon’s neck and slid deep into the earth from the force of the blow.

  The demons backed away slowly from us toward the river. A quick glance told me that Tolin was still caught in his meditative trance. I’d seen what had happened to the corrupted monk when he’d tried to interrupt it, so I decided not to bother the old man and focus on helping the others.

  I joined Kumi’s side and offered her a hand up. She took it, rose wearily to her feet, and grimaced as she glanced over our surviving enemies. The five demons weren’t outnumbered, but without their weapons, they couldn’t hope to match us.

  Animal instinct glittered in their eyes. Some turned to glanced at the treeline, and their limbs flexed experimentally as they weighed up the simple equation. Fight, and die. Or run and live to fight another day.

  “If they hit the treeline, we won’t be able to catch them,” Kumi said.

  “They won’t hit the treeline,” I assured her. “Faryn, lock them down!”

  Faryn wiped blood away from her face with the back of her hand and slashed her sword toward the monsters. Strangling Roots burst from the ground around the demon’s feet, snared their ankles, and triggered howls of fury from the monsters. I pointed the Depthless Dream at the ground around the monsters and poured Vigor through my earth and water pathways. A yawning swamp of Mud Entrapment opened up around their feet to slow them down even further.

  I activated Hidden Burrow, skated underground in a whirl of darkness, and appeared beside the trapped demons. Their eyes widened for a second as I advanced on them. I probably looked like a swamp monster from their worst nightmares, with the biggest sword they’d ever seen. I decapitated two demons with a single swing, and their heads tumbled off their shoulders in a burst of black blood. Two of the demons clawed free of their restraints as I injected a little more water vigor into my body.

  Faryn thrust her sword forward, and a whirlwind of Smothering Leaves hurtled into their midst. I activated an Acidic Cloud and shaped it into a wide, thin screen of poisonous mist. Faryn’s technique whipped through the acrid haze that added an extra edge to the razor-sharp leaves and crashed into the demons. The small blizzard of greenery plunged into their fur, and the acid Augmentation added to the damage of the attack. The demons writhed in agony and tore at their fur with clawed hands. But try as they might, they couldn’t tear away the corrosive leaves.

  I dispelled the thin Acidic Cloud and ripped the head off another demon with a savage thrust of the Depthless Dream. An Untamed Torch roared from my hand and baked the mud around the demons into clay. Kumi’s song joined the screams of the hellish monsters, and a soothing streamer of water brushed past my face. I paused to watch the tendril of magic slide straight into a demon’s open mouth. The creature spasmed as Kumi’s healing power invaded its throat and poured deep into its body.

  Black smoke hissed from the demon’s orifices as the creature exploded into chunks of fur-covered flesh, bone, and gore. The last demon pried itself free of the mud and wood. It dropped to all fours like a dog and bounded toward the Lost Shrine. I slammed the Depthless Dream into the ground, spun around, and drew the Sundered Heart in a flash.

  “Fly true,” I said to Nydarth.

  White-hot flame shimmered from the steel blade as I poured fire into my muscles, drew back the sword, and hurled it like a spear at the retreating demon. It didn’t even sense the Immense Blade, not until it was too late. The Sundered Heart speared the monster from behind and pinned it to the Lost Shrine. Flames billowed away from the demon’s melting corpse, and the blackened altar of the profaned rituals caught fire with a roar. I ripped the Depthless Dream out of the mud and shattered the huge blade of ice with a flick of my thoughts.

  I tore into a sprint to save Nydarth from the blaze. She was an Immense Blade, sure, but I knew she wouldn’t appreciate contact with the demon’s rotting organs. The dragon spirit sighed in relief as I yanked her sword out of the altar and kicked the demon’s corpse into the flames.

  “Thank you, Master,” Nydarth purred. “Their lifeblood is delicious, but the stench is unimaginably bad.” She paused as I slid her into her scabbard. “Well, you’ve certainly made a fine me
ss of your little quest. Dead demons as far as the eye can see, your quarry dead at your hand.”

  I looked around the clearing. Half of the grass bubbled with power from my Mud Entrapment technique. Steam hissed from the stream as the last of the heat washed away from the corrupted monk’s corpse. A foul stench radiated from the dismembered body parts of the demons like a thick cloud. The burning shrine behind me filled the air with black smoke and cast strange shadows over the once-peaceful clearing.

  Kumi and Faryn helped a muttering Tolin to his feet. I joined them at the center of the clearing and almost keeled over as the fatigue of Augmentation finally kicked in. I dropped to a knee, reached into my pathways, and started a breathing exercise to recover my Vigor.

  “Your victory was a mighty one, Master,” Yono said. “It has been some time since I have been wielded in such a manner. I must say, it truly is exhilarating.”

  “Thank you,” I said as a little of my strength returned.

  “Well, you’ve come a long way since handfuls of thorns,” Tolin said to me.

  I looked up at him with a grin. “And you’ve been holding out on me, old man. You never told me you could bend time, or even matter, to your will. What kind of Augmentation is that?”

  “One you’re not ready to learn,” Tolin said gruffly. “The monk might have been a barrel full of proverbial cats, but he wasn’t wrong in some respects. You certainly rely a lot on party tricks to get the job done.”

  “Do you see me turning steel into sea creatures?” I countered, recalling how Tolin had transformed the demons’ weapons.

  Tolin huffed in annoyance. “It was efficient.”

  “I think you like showboating just as much as Ethan does,” Faryn said with a sunny smile. “Wouldn’t you say, Kumi?”

  Kumi flicked black blood from her butterfly daggers. “I’ve never seen such a great warrior so still in a battle such as this. I am honored. . . but confused.”

  Tolin cackled through his beard. “At least you’re honest, princess.”

  Faryn pulled a glass vial from her satchel and offered it to me. I finally caught my breath and accepted it with a nod. The red potion derived from thimbleleaf caught the light of the fire and highlighted the glinting specks of silver within. I unstopped the potion, tilted it gratefully in Faryn’s direction, and drank the whole thing in one go.

  Vigor filled my body like a raging inferno. Energy and vitality flooded my blood, tore into my pathways, and burned a searing trail down into my pool of magical energy. My tongue twitched at the bitter aftertaste, and I sprang to my feet. I’d had my time with Red Bull and coffee, but Faryn’s potion was some godly combination of the two.

  I took a deep breath, found my center, and looked around the clearing.

  “The Hierophant needs to know about this,” I said. “That one of his monks fell from the Wandering Path and enslaved the locals into reliance on demons for survival.”

  “The villagers must be taken away from this place,” Faryn urged me. “They won’t survive for long so close to a Vigorous Zone. Without a protector, they’ll be slaughtered mercilessly.”

  “That’s why I’m leaving you three to handle it,” I said. “Tolin knows the way back to Wysaro City from here. If you’re attacked, I can trust you to handle yourselves.”

  “And what are you going to do, eh?” Tolin asked flatly. “Walk back to the monastery and tell those silver-tongued hermits that one of their number has been corrupted? How do you think they’re going to take that, Swordslinger?”

  I stepped into the air and activated Flight with a twist of thought. “I had a gut feeling something was up, but this is just proof of it. If one of them’s fallen, then the whole monastery could be compromised.”

  “You can’t fight them all on your own, if that’s the case!” Tolin shouted as I raced toward the treetops. “You barely survived one, Swordslinger!”

  I left the old man to his doubts and ran upward through the air until my feet brushed against the canopy of Danibo Forest. I pushed through it until I balanced on the top branches of the forest.

  Moonlight bathed the uppermost leaves of the trees, causing them to sparkle like an expanse of emeralds. I took a moment to study the mountain range at the edge of Flametongue Valley. I had a full tank of Vigor and a long way to go. But if I was right in thinking that the monastery had been corrupted, then I needed to get my friends—Kegohr, Vesma, and Mahrai—out of there.

  I took off in a blaze of fiery streamers, starting the long run across the tops of the trees, toward the monastery.

  Chapter Eighteen

  I arrived at the steps of the monastery just as dawn broke.

  “You need rest, Master,” Nydarth insisted.

  Fatigue tore at every inch of my body as I finally released my grip on the last Flight footstep and landed in front of the doors. Spots danced in front of my vision, and I forced myself to breathe deeply. I pushed the front doors open as quietly as possible, shut them behind me, and crept through the main hall. I propped myself against the wall to stay upright and limped down the hallway to find my cell.

  I pushed open the door to my quarters and dropped my traveling pack to the floor at the foot of my bed. My Vigor ebbed dangerously low as I pulled out the satchel with Faryn’s Vigor potions.

  “Rest, Master,” Choshi begged. “Please. You’ve just done the impossible.”

  “All in a day’s work,” I said.

  “Master, she’s right. You’ve drained too much of your Vigor,” Yono said. “I will be the last to doubt your power, but you should rest. Your friends are safe, and the monastery is whole. Confront the new day with fresh Vigor and energy, please.”

  “I have Faryn’s potions to restore my Vigor,” I said.

  “Potions are unreliable,” Nydarth said. “And if you use them too much, you may become an addict.”

  “I’ll remember to go easy on them,” I said.

  I didn’t want to become reliant on the potions, but after last night, I couldn’t afford to confront Tymo if I was running on fumes. I removed the stopper on one of the vials, drank its contents, and grimaced as the fierce flow of Vigor swam through my veins and replenished my magic. I changed into my Radiant Dragon robes and buckled on my Immense Blades.

  “Faryn and Kumi won’t be back until evening. Until then, I have to speak with Tymo.”

  I stepped quietly into the corridor and ghosted into the main hall. The clash of weapons, hiss of Augmentation, and the voices of Vesma, Kegohr, and Mahrai echoed through the monastery from above. I stretched my stiff muscles as I walked toward the main altar.

  I jumped into the air, activated Flight, and bounced from air pocket to air pocket until I found a spot on one of the main hall’s mighty pillars. I settled into a meditative position and focused my breathing again. I scanned the main hall as I practiced expanding my elemental pathways and considered what questions I might ask of the monks. I didn’t do much meditating or thinking before a rustle of robes drew my attention to the altar.

  Tymo appeared with a box under his arm and replaced several of the gutted candles in their gold saucers. I quieted my breathing and watched him closely. Tymo's brow furrowed in thought as he lit the candles. I didn’t catch any of the radiating menace that I’d come to expect from Straight Path practitioners, but people in the Seven Realms were rarely exactly as they appeared.

  “What’s your read on Tymo?” I asked the Blades.

  “Nothing about him strikes me as out of place,” Nydarth admitted. “It’s possible that he hasn’t the first idea about his fallen brethren. You’ll know more when you talk to him about it, Master. I would advise against a combative approach though, even if your suspicions are true.”

  “That’s strange advice, coming from you,” Choshi said dryly.

  “Quiet, little one,” Nydarth growled. “When you have faced as many enemies as I have, fought all kinds of monsters in human flesh or not, you will learn when caution is necessary.”

  “Tides shift and ch
ange all the time,” Yono said. “The corruption of a single monk could be the stone cast into the midst of a still lake, Master. They may have all fallen. Or this monk you fought could simply be yet another wave washing over a beach. Present one moment, gone the next.”

  I thought over their words, but Choshi echoed my thoughts the best.

  I ceased my meditation and spoke aloud.

  “Morning, Tymo.”

  The Archpriest’s robes flared as he spun to look for the source of the noise. His centuries of experience were keen enough to find me after little more than a second. I nodded a greeting to him but didn’t make a move to get up. If things went sideways, then I wanted the height advantage and the space to use Flight.

  “Swordslinger,” Tymo said in astonishment. “I didn’t expect you back so soon.”

  “What can I say? I’m fast on my feet,” I said. “I ran into a problem with your missing monks, actually, and I wanted to hear your thoughts.”

  Tymo folded his arms into his sleeves. “Of course. Were you successful in locating any of them? Are they on their way back with Princess Kumi and Master Faryn?”

  “No, they’re helping a brainwashed pack of villagers return to society,” I said.

  Tymo tilted his head. “I’m afraid I don’t follow.”

  “One of your brothers went apeshit,” I said bluntly. “He summoned demons in the depths of Danibo Forest, had them slaughter the local monsters, and told the local villagers to eat the corpses. Demon worship, if I’m not mistaken. I guess the guy ‘restored’ the Shrine, but it wasn’t in the way you intended.”

  Blood rushed out of Tymo's face. “You must be joking.”

  “No joke,” I said grimly. “I killed him. I thought you’d want to hear about it.”

  Tymo swallowed, composed himself, and met my eyes with a grateful look. “You did the right thing by informing me of this, Ethan. I can’t think of how one of our order would fall in such a way.”