The Desolate Mountains (The Divine Elements Book 2)

by Daman

  *Slash*

  The bear’s huge paw was just a hair’s breadth away from his face, when Calron instinctively started to lean towards his right. He was no match for the bear’s speed without the use of the Blood Mist Step, so the best alternative was to nimbly lean away from the attacks instead.

  Time seemed to slow down for Calron as he stared at the massive claws nearing his face.

  Five inches.

  Three inches.

  One inch.

  *Whooosh*

  A cold smile spread across Calron’s face when he realized that he had successfully dodged the grey bear’s claws.

  “ROOOAARRR!”

  The Mountain Ash Bear furiously roared as it saw the human escape from its grasp, and a sudden burst of orange flames erupted from its skin.

  “Oi… that’s cheating… “

  The elation within Calron immediately died down when he saw the enraged bear release its essence. Dark orange flames spiraled around the bear as its grey fur started to take the color of the orange flames.

  This was the reason why the beast was known as the Mountain Ash Bear! Its natural fur was usually dark orange but when its flames died down after a battle, it transformed into the ash-grey color.

  “FOCUS!”

  The Voice’s abrupt yell instantly shook Calron out of his daze.

  “Yes, Teacher!”

  Calron quickly replied, as he gazed at the beast’s movements with an intense concentration.

  After a single second, the bear angrily stomped the ground and raised its claw to launch another strike towards Calron’s chest.

  However, this time the bear’s claws were enveloped with scorching flames.

  “This is going to hurt… “

  Calron muttered under his breath and once again prepared to dodge the attack.

  “ARGHH!”

  Calron suddenly dropped to the ground on his knee while painfully grasping his stomach.

  A large burn mark was etched onto the side of his stomach, as the skin around it was still sizzling under the frightening heat.

  “Teacher… I want to kill it… I promise I won’t use my essence or the legacy until you give me permission… but just against this beast… let me kill it!”

  Calron murderously rasped, as a storm of blue lightning violently crackled within his eyes.

  It appeared as if even the Azure Lightning wished to destroy this insignificant beast that had dared to injure its host.

  “Sigh… this will be the only time I will permit this, kid.”

  The Voice responded in a resigned tone, as it withdrew its soul energy from around Calron’s core.

  The Voice knew that even if it tried to stop Calron right now, the Azure Lightning would not remain submissive and would have eventually broken his layer of soul energy enveloped outside Calron’s core.

  I will just have to find another way to train the boy…

  The Voice inwardly thought as it began to contemplate other training methods.

  “Thank you, Teacher.”

  Calron softly whispered as he slowly stood up from the ground.

  Looking down at his bleeding chest, and along with the burnt skin near his stomach, Calron gradually lifted his head to look at the grey bear.

  Suddenly, the massive bear started to feel its instincts warning it to run away. As it gazed into the wrathful dark eyes of the human, a seed of fear started to take root within its heart.

  “Beast… Have you ever felt true pain?”

  Calron coldly asked as his dark black eyes started to slowly transform into an eerie grey color.

  “Let me show you a never-ending nightmare!”

  Calron frostily whispered, as his eyes abruptly glowed with an unnatural light, and a mysterious white symbol flickered on his forehead.

  ……………………..

  A series of miserable cries echoed out within the small forest until it slowly died down to absolute silence.

  *thud*

  Seeing that the beast had taken its last breath, Calron slumped down onto the ground in utter exhaustion as he suddenly lost his consciousness.

  However, the most shocking fact was that the dead bear did not even have a single wound covering its body!

  Chapter 5 – White and Grey

  *chirp* *chirp*

  A family of sparrows fluttered their tiny wings above the trees while they scrutinized the ground for some tasty worms.

  “Uhh… ”

  Calron painfully groaned as he gingerly rubbed his forehead.

  His mouth was dry and his tongue seemed drained of any moisture. With a raging headache, Calron tried to gradually regain his composure.

  “Elias should not have passed on that technique to the boy so early. He is not yet ready for it.”

  The Voice quietly muttered as it materialized next to Calron on the ground.

  “Kid, are you alright?”

  “My head hurts, Teacher… it’s the same as last time… ”

  Calron hoarsely whispered as he began struggling to sit up.

  “Sigh… kid, you need to control your temper. That beast was a creature of instinct and it did not really harbor any ill intentions towards you, as it was simply angry. The way you killed it is what bothers me.”

  The Voice seriously stated as its smoky eyes bore through Calron.

  Calron knew within the depths of his heart that he should not have used that technique, and he had promised himself years ago that he would not ever use it, but his anger had completely clouded out his rationality.

  “You’re right, I should not have used that technique to torture its mind.”

  Calron responded in a regretful tone as he glanced at the carcass of the grey bear.

  The technique he had previously used was one of the abilities of the Divine Perception, which had been passed onto him by Elias before their untimely separation.

  During his first month in the Desolate Mountains a few years back, Calron had released his essence for the first time since the battle after the tournament, and the moment his essence coalesced around him, a sudden jolt of pain had pierced through his forehead.

  Soon, the Voice interjected by telling Calron that it had something to do with what Elias had done to him while he was unconscious in the school.

  Curious about what that foreign sensation was, Calron decided to send his consciousness into the symbol on his forehead. Immediately, he felt a strange stream of energy slowly enter his enter his brain, and then his eyes.

  It felt nothing like either the source energy or the lightning essence.

  It was a very gentle and soothing sensation.

  Suddenly, that strange energy rushed into his core without resistance and started rotating within it. However, the most surprising fact of all was that the Azure Lightning did not even attempt to stop that strange energy.

  Trusting both his instincts and the Azure Lightning, Calron had not resisted and let the strange energy continue to circulate throughout his body and core.

  It seemed almost as if the strange energy was familiarizing itself with Calron.

  After several minutes, a bizarre burning feeling started to well up inside his eyeballs, but astonishingly, Calron did not feel a single jolt of pain! Immediately, he shut his eyelids close in the hopes that it would rid him of that weird feeling.

  Unknown to Calron at that time, his eyes had already started to turn into the unnatural grey color of Elias’s eyes.

  When Calron next opened his eyes, his vision had turned entirely into shades of white and grey. No other color existed before his sight besides the various tones of white and grey. Some objects appeared to glow brighter than the others, while some just remained a dull grey.

  It was just then that Calron realized what he was seeing: it was the world and its essence seen through his Master’s eyes.

  The surrounding trees glowed a pure white, while the rocks and the dead branches glowed a pale grey color. Calron could even detect a few beasts and small creatures fu
rther away who seemed to glow the brightest.

  However, Calron was unable to determine the elemental attribute of the beasts. When he had first met Elias, his Master had instantly seen through his lightning element and even knew the exact rank of his cultivation! Calron realized that he had only barely uncovered the secrets of the Divine Perception.

  Gradually, the strange rotating energy within his core stopped moving and began to slowly withdraw back into the white symbol. It was as if it had just finished familiarizing itself with Calron’s elemental core.

  However, right then, Calron’s vision abruptly changed and within the world of white and grey, he started to see tiny bolts of lightning!

  To be more accurate, he saw the flashes of tiny bolts circulating within the beasts.

  Calron had been stunned speechless when he discovered that traces of lightning seemed to exist within each and every one of those beasts. Instantly, the white symbol on his forehead flashed with a white light, and a string of images darted towards Calron’s mind, and began imprinting a technique onto his soul.

  It was the same sensation Calron had gone through when the Voice had imprinted the second stage of the Thunder-Bird technique.

  Immediately after the process was over, Calron could feel the presence of the tiny bolts of lightning within the beasts as if they were a part of his own element. However, unlike the lightning contained within him, these tiny bolts of lightning all seemed to be rushing towards the brain of the beasts.

  Slowly raising his arm towards one of the nearby beasts, Calron activated the new mysterious technique and willed the small bolts of lightning to rapidly charge into its brain. The poor creature abruptly stopped still in its tracks, and began to miserably scream out gut-wrenching cries of agony as it bashed its head against the ground.

  Shocked by the reaction of the beast, Calron had instantly forced back the strange energy while he cried out in pain similar to the beast. Tears poured down his cheeks, as Calron doubled down on the ground in pain and continued to scream. Tightly clutching his head in agony, even his Teacher’s loud yells in the background were completely drowned.

  It was as if Calron was sharing the same tormented emotions as the dying beast.

  After that gloomy day, Calron had refused to channel the lightning within other beasts and put that experience behind him.

  However, Calron had not realized that after using that technique, both his soul and heart had been changed forever.

  The technique was never named and it hid itself within the deepest part of Calron’s consciousness.

  …………………

  Calron jerked his head as he felt the bile welling up inside his throat. The feeling of disgust and revulsion spread throughout his entire body, as he bent towards the ground and started to vomit the bile out. His eyes had already returned back to their pitch-black color.

  He did not know what came over him, as he had never been this angry over an insignificant matter, but his actions had brought out the technique that he promised himself that he would not use until he was ready.

  The last time Calron had used that technique, he experienced the same tormented emotions as the beast before it died, and the feeling of that cold suffocation was not something that Calron wanted to relive through.

  He did not know the true extent of this technique or whether it varied from cultivator to cultivator, as Calron guessed that the ability to control the tiny bolts of lightning might have come from his element, but would it be the same for a cultivator of a different element?

  This was what Elias had meant back then when he said that Calron was not yet ready for the God class technique.

  “Put this behind you, and let’s get out of here. The smell of blood will soon attract the other nearby beasts, so grab that bear and quickly return to our cave.”

  The Voice stated as it brought the boy out of his brooding thoughts.

  It did not know the exact experience that its student went through, but it could guess that it must not have been pleasant. For Elias to harbor both an inheritance like the Blood Legacy and this God class technique, his background must not have been so simple.

  “Master, what is happening to me?”

  Calron softly whispered as he grabbed the hind leg of the massive bear.

  Gliding over next to his young student, the Voice gently responded.

  “I don’t know, kid, but it’s time to put that behind you and continue walking towards a bright future.”

  “A bright future… ”

  Calron muttered under his breath as his mood became lighter and a slight smile escaped his lips.

  “I think I like the sound of that.”

  Chapter 6 – Rise of the Beasts

  *whooosh*

  “Control your heartbeat!”

  The Voice quietly whispered within Calron’s mind.

  “Yes Teacher!”

  Calron replied, as he swiftly grasped the tiger’s incoming paw with a steely grip and immediately sent a powerful palm strike towards the beast’s jaw.

  Seeing the human so easily suppress its attack, a hint of surprise flashed across the black tiger’s eyes, as it opened its jaws wide at the nearing hand.

  A slight smile slipped from Calron’s lips when he saw that the beast was attempting to bite off his hand. Taking in a long deep breath, Calron suddenly bellowed out.

  “HAAH!”

  Instantly, numerous veins popped up across his arms and neck, causing the individual strands of muscle fibers to unnaturally stand out.

  Just as Calron’s palm was about to come into contact with the beast, the black tiger opened its mouth even wider as it revealed its sharp fangs, and waited for Calron’s hand to approach its proximity.

  Without missing a beat, Calron calmly twisted the tiger’s paw that was held in his other hand, and continued to push his other arm straight into the beast’s throat.

  Once the human’s hand went inside its mouth, the black tiger instantly snapped its jaws shut as its fangs began to pierce into Calron’s skin. However, before the fangs had barely even penetrated the human’s skin, they abruptly met a resistance and were unable to pierce any deeper.

  Fiercely glaring into the beast’s eyes, Calron softly whispered.

  “Time’s up.”

  At that exact moment, Calron’s hand located the long bone at the back of the beast’s throat and crushed it within his palm!

  Letting out a low whimper, the tiger slowly collapsed onto the ground.

  “You defeated a fifth rank black tiger in under two minutes… not bad, kid! Looks like the training that I put you through the past few weeks really helped. Let’s do it again!”

  The Voice proudly exclaimed as it materialized next to its student.

  Calron shuddered in reflex the moment he heard his Teacher’s suggestion of going through that training routine again.

  —A Few Weeks Ago—

  After his incident with the Mountain Ash Bear, the Voice had made him undergo a barbaric routine of punching massive rocks with his bare hand until his bones cracked.

  Although the Blood Legacy would quickly start the regeneration process, the sensation of one’s fist striking against a solid rock with full strength was not something that Calron enjoyed or looked forward to.

  The first time his Teacher had suggested punching rocks in order to harden his skin and bones, Calron had immediately refused. However, the Voice had then threatened to make him resume fighting against the mid-ranked beasts, and that made Calron’s decision for him.

  Resigning himself to his fate, and after several broken knuckles, Calron miserably continued to endlessly train for several weeks until bit by bit, his bones started to become more resilient and tougher.

  The experience with the grey bear and the will to control his own emotions, all surged within his heart each time he struck a punch against a rock.

  However, the torture did not seem to end there, as his Teacher still wanted him to increase the toughness of his muscles, and
its plan was to have Calron intentionally let the low-ranked beasts snap their jaws at his body.

  “NO! I can understand punching rocks but I don’t want to be humiliated with those rascals trampling all over me!”