by Seth Ring
“Umm. It is 11:43.”
“See, it's still morning. Definitely too early. Anyway, what was your question?”
“Ah, right.” Seeing that Master Sun was changing the subject in embarrassment, Thorn moved on to his question. “Yesterday, when I was fighting against the earth elementals, I could not even hurt them. With a weapon that is supposed to rely on pure force, what do I do when my force is not enough?”
“Eh, that’s your question? Get stronger, of course. Listen, kid, the tetsubo is a man’s weapon,” said Master Sun, pointing to one of his massive arms. “If you can’t crush someone or something, you practice until you can. Now, part of your problem is that the weapon you are wielding isn’t heavy enough for you, but, where direct strength fails, use a force multiplier.”
Standing up, he walked over to a tree and put one of his hands on it.
“Look, if I push this tree from a stationary position, the amount of strength I can convert into force is minimal at best. But what if I use a force multiplier, like speed?” Stepping back, Master Sun threw a lightning fast punch, sending splinters flying.
“See, by multiplying my force, my destructive potential goes up exponentially! If you are having trouble crushing something, you first try crushing it harder. But, if that doesn’t work, find a force multiplier.”
“Ah, so speed is actually the key,” mused Thorn.
“Exactly. Anyone who uses a tetsubo is someone who is confident in their strength. But what sets apart the masters from the scrubs is how quickly they can swing their weapon and how smoothly they can transition between forms and grips to make use of their force and counterforce.”
“Thank you, Master Sun.” Thorn bowed again.
“I thought I told you that it is too early for that sort of stuff? Whatever. When you think you are ready, head over to the gorge. You still need to get across it.”
Bowing again, Thorn picked up his tetsubo, and, beginning to practice his spins and hand positions, he left for the gorge. Having been there before, the way was still marked on his map, so it did not take him long to get there. Like the day before, the gorge was quiet and peaceful, but Thorn knew firsthand that appearances were deceiving. Taking a deep breath, Thorn mentally prepared himself and then stepped forward, throwing himself at the awakening elementals.
That evening, Thorn dragged his bruised and aching body back to camp, collapsing in a heap by the fire pit. He had actually made less progress through the gorge than he had yesterday, but he was not discouraged. He could feel his swings getting smoother and his transitions getting quicker.
Over the next four days, a strange sort of mania set in. Rising early, Thorn would practice the various tetsubo moves at the camp before running over to the gorge to smash himself against the earth elementals, then hobbling back to camp to recover from his wounds. Each day, he pushed further into the gorge than the day before, if only a little. Slowly, he was refining his practical understanding of the whirling tetsubo forms.
On the fifth day, he arrived at the gorge and dove in, unaware that two figures watched him from a ridge.
“Crazy, huh?” muttered Hamm, staring down at Thorn, who was deflecting massive stone fists as he pushed forward.
“Crazy doesn't even begin to cover it,” responded Master Sun. “That kid is a monster. A certified monster. I mean, look at him. He can take a full force blow from an earth elemental without falling over. That, in and of itself, is enough to make him an absurd warrior. But when you add decent comprehension and unreal strength to the mix...” He trailed off, his eyes fixed on Thorn, who was struggling with three earth elementals which had come at him together.
Hamm smirked, saying nothing.
“He might have a chance,” said Master Sun abruptly, earning himself an incredulous look from the sword trainer. “Listen. That kid is new to this whole fighting thing. In fact, based on his movements, it’s pretty obvious that he is holding back for some reason. Look at his awkward attacks. For some reason, he is subconsciously afraid of using his strength. If he ever learns to let it out and gets his hands on a decent weapon, woe be upon anything that is in his way.”
“There’s no way. No one can fight that thing. All of us working together couldn’t beat it. He might be big, but there’s no way.” Hamm shook his head.
“Hmph. Wait and watch.”
In the gorge, Thorn had fallen into a strange rhythm. Each step he took, each spin of his weapon, seemed to fit into a violent dance. His partners, the earth elementals, still roared their challenge at him, but there was a joy underneath the gravely sound. Together they danced back and forth, this way and that.
That evening, when Thorn got back to the camp, Master Sun was waiting for him, a massive pack sitting next to him.
“Hey, kid, I’ve got to get going. I’ve taught you what you need to know, so now it is a matter of practicing it, alright?” Master Sun took a swig from his bottle of wine.
Despite his exhaustion and bruised body, Thorn stood in front of Master Sun and bowed.
“Thank you, sir,” he said.
“Haha, don’t worry about it.” Standing, Master Sun finished off the wine and tossed the bottle to the side. Picking up the huge pack, he adjusted it on his shoulder and smiled at his enormous student. “Oh, one other thing. My classes cost 10 gold a day. We’ve been at it for six days, so that’s 60 gold. You can pay Hamm.”
Thorn’s mouth dropped open in shock.
“Haha, or,” said Master Sun, dragging it out, “you can get to the end of the gorge. I’ll waive the fee if you can pass all the way through by sunset tomorrow. Anyway, see you later, kid.”
With a wave, Master Sun disappeared from the camp, leaving Thorn in stunned silence. Sixty gold? It would take forever to work that off! Even killing Gargish, a unique boss monster, had only given him 10 gold! Resolving once again to get through the gorge, Thorn lay down. Tomorrow his body would be healed, and his motivation was stronger than ever.
Unlike the previous days, the early morning sun found Thorn standing outside the elemental’s gorge. If he was going to get through it in a day, he needed as much time as he could get.
‘Alright, let's do this.’ Psyching himself up, Thorn gripped his tetsubo and rushed forward, not waiting for the first elementals to form. Getting as far into the gorge as he could before the elementals were together was a dangerous bet, but it was the only thing Thorn could think of to give himself an advantage.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Rumbling to their feet, the earth elementals roared out their gleeful greeting and rushed toward him, fists swinging. The first elemental to reach Thorn was tossed aside with a deflecting blow, as were the second, third, and fourth. But, as the fifth set of fists came in, Thorn found himself unable to fully deflect it in time.
Accepting the blow, Thorn angled his tetsubo to throw it off course and jumped back, using the momentum as it glanced off his weapon, trying to minimize the damage as much as possible. Escaping the crush of bodies, Thorn tried to dart around the group, but by this time, there were too many earth elementals around him.
The gorge was not that long, only half a mile in length. Yet, somehow, those 2600 feet seemed to stretch on forever. The earth elementals had large bodies and created a natural stone barrier as they crowded around to try and get a blow on Thorn.
Finally, after a few hours of struggling, Thorn backed out of the gorge. Reaching the other end by rushing through was not going to work, so Thorn sat down and ate a bit as he thought about his experiences. For some reason, the last few days had been harder than the first couple of times he attempted to get through.
It was almost as if there were more elementals now. A quick count revealed that there were the same number as always, so why did it feel like there were more elementals in the gorge than before? Laying down and gazing at the cloud-dotted sky, Thorn tried to remember his first fights. When he had first entered the gorge, he had taken a lot of punches straight on, since he had not mastered the constant m
omentum that Master Sun taught.
Over time, he had gotten much better, but, at the same time, the punches seemed to come faster and thicker. What was going on? Despite thinking on it for twenty minutes, Thorn made no progress in figuring it out, so he shrugged, got up and headed back into the gorge. Still distracted as he faced the first earth elemental, Thorn missed his deflecting blow with his tetsubo!
The earth elemental’s stone fist caught Thorn in the chest, causing him to stagger back a couple steps. Frustrated and angry, Thorn growled, letting loose with a furious swing. As he began to pour power into the strike, he did not think about his form or his follow up, smashing out with all his strength.
[CRACK!]
With a sharp roar, the elemental crumbled to the ground, pieces of its stone body bouncing off the valley floor, leaving Thorn staring at his tetsubo in shock. As he had let go of his form, a strength that he had never felt before surged through his arms into his weapon, completely crushing through the earth elemental, leaving it in pieces on the ground. However, as he watched, the elemental’s head continued to tremble, and the bouncing pieces of its broken body began to reform.
Seeing the yellow glow in its eyes, Thorn realized that he would have to crush its head to kill it. For a moment, he hesitated, his tetsubo raised. Lowering it again, Thorn could not bring himself to take the swing. The elementals had been his sparring partners for almost a week, and something in him loathed the thought of actually hurting them.
That moment of hesitation cost him, as the second earth elemental came roaring in, fists swinging. Jumping backward, Thorn instinctively deflected the blows, whirling around and unleashing another wild strike.
[CRACK!]
The second earth elemental shared the same fate as the first. Instead of backing up, Thorn, feeling like he was on the edge of grasping something vital, threw himself forward into the oncoming wave. Striking out with wild abandon, Thorn found at least half of his strikes either missing or glancing off the elemental’s stone bodies. However, for every strike that missed, another laid an earth elemental low.
Soon the familiar back and forth dance turned into a slow slaughter. Thorn pushed forward again and again into the waves of elementals, crashing through them with swing after swing, only to be pushed back as the stone fists pummeled him.
In the midst of one such exchange, Thorn felt something click for him, and he instinctively switched between the whirling defensive forms he had been learning from Master Sun, swinging out with a formless strike, smashing through an elemental’s body. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a massive fist coming toward him and, with a neat turn, spun back into his defensive form.
‘This is what Master Sun was talking about!’ Thorn thought, as he warded off the elemental’s strikes. ‘Defense turning into offense!’
Excited by his discovery, Thorn tried to replicate the process, only to miss a block and take a punch right to his face, sending him reeling back. Swearing to himself, he squared up again and smashed the offending elemental into pieces. Working out the balance was a slow, laborious, and above all, painful process of trading blows, yet little by little, Thorn began to find his equilibrium.
The sun was starting to sink in the sky, the tall pines casting long shadows across the gorge, when Thorn finally pushed past the last elemental. About halfway through the gorge, the first elementals he had fought had finished reforming and roared in to attack him from behind, forcing him to defend for a couple desperate moments. He quickly regained his balance and continued smashing his way through the elementals until he reached this point.
As the dust finally began to settle, Thorn found himself at the other end of the gorge, on a slight slope leading out from between the hills and into the trees. Taking a moment to breathe, Thorn looked back over the field of pulverized stone and glowing elemental eyes. Though sore, he felt good. Very good. However, as he began to turn around, a subtle vibration sent the settled dust hopping into the air. His brow furrowed as he saw the yellow eyes of the elementals he had put down blur and begin to gather.
The unnatural vibration seemed to draw the elemental eyes in, yellow glowing dots leaving streaks through the air, all gathering together into a ball. As the hundreds of eyes piled into each other, they began to compress, growing brighter as they did so. Faster and faster, they collapsed into each other, until they formed a bright glowing dot that floated off the ground. The yellow glow had gotten so bright it was almost too bright to look at.
Putting up a hand to protect his eyes from the glaring light, Thorn tightened his grip on his tetsubo. After a moment, the brightness faded, and Thorn was able to look at the elemental light, which now resembled a polished piece of amber. As he watched, the gem floated toward him, pulsing with light.
Watching the approaching gem, Thorn considered trying to knock it down with his tetsubo, but, just as he tightened up his grip for a swing, the floating amber pulsed, and a deep, gravelly voice rumbled in his mind.
“Greetings, great warrior!” the voice boomed. “You have shown strength and ferocity but, also, compassion! For that, I thank you!”
“Uh, yeah. No problem,” said Thorn, still holding his tetsubo ready.
“Hah, no need to be concerned, young warrior. I bring you no danger! I am Terberus, the Earth King! As great Terra commands, I must reward those who defeat my daughters!” Here Thorn could almost see a barrel-chested old man waving his hand at the piles of rubble Thorn’s rampage through the gorge had left. Thorn lowered his weapon and scratched his head.
“Ah, sorry about that. I hope it is not too much trouble for them to put themselves back together.”
“Do not worry, young warrior. It is their honor to be challenged and your honor to have triumphed! For the mercy of sparing their lives, you have my thanks!” rumbled the voice, like two boulders being ground against each other. “As the victor, you have every right to collect their cores as spoils, but by showing mercy, you have earned yourself a great favor! Behold, I grant unto you a boon! Your path will be long and treacherous, but the powerful embrace of the earth will be your shield, Friend of the Earth!”
Before Thorn could react, the floating piece of amber spun and drilled its way into the center of Thorn’s brow! Horrified, he tried to block it, but the stone slipped through his hand and seeped into his skull! Feeling no blood, Thorn looked around, but the light was gone, leaving only the echoes of the rumbling voice as evidence that it had ever been there.
For a moment, Thorn had no idea what to do, but everything in the gorge had gone back to normal, and the voice was gone. Seeing a blinking icon indicating an update to his status page, Thorn opened it up to take a look.
Name: [Thorn]
Race: [Titan]
Health: [93%]
Mana: [100%]
Titles: [Battle Mad], [Wolfsbane], [Lord Greymane (locked)], [Friend of the Earth]
Conditions: [None]
Abilities: [Wolf Lord’s Howl(locked)]
Seeing a new title, Thorn opened it up to examine it.
Title: Friend of the Earth
You have earned a boon from the Earth King, Terberus. As one of the four elemental kings, Terberus has granted you the favor of the earth. This may come in handy in the future.
Grumbling about Nova Terra’s useless explanations, Thorn waved the windows away and sat under a tree. It was getting dark, and he was exhausted. He had spent the afternoon smashing through almost a hundred earth elementals, and his body was aching. The hits from the elementals had not been too bad, once he got used to them, and, frankly, most of the blows had been deflected away, as it was.
Rather, the pain in his body was from overusing his muscles for almost eight hours of straight swinging. While the game mechanics made the weight of the tetsubo negligible, he couldn’t get around the fact that he had been swinging it as hard as he could over and over again. His shoulders ached, and he could feel a burning pain in his arms.
As was his habit, Thorn thought back over the last
few days. Master Sun had opened up an astounding path for him, providing a practical style that used his mighty strength and endurance to stunning effect. The martial arts training that he had gone through over the years had been useful for killing corrupted wolves and gave Thorn a strong foundation from which to build, but his size became a hindrance to him in using a sword to maximum effect.
On the other hand, Master Sun’s unique style was better suited to his size and strength. Frowning, Thorn realized that he didn’t actually know what the style was called. Musing for a couple minutes, Thorn tried to come up with a good name that was not too cheesy, but, after rejecting ‘Raging Storm Strikes,’ he quit trying. Coming up with names was not his strong suit.
His combat against the elemental had been a growing experience. Their blows, though powerful, had not been too dangerous. Thorn shuddered as he imagined what would have happened to him if they had been swinging sharp claws, instead of blunt, rocky fists. Gargish, while not as strong as the earth elementals, had brought him much closer to death because of the piercing nature of his attacks.