by Ivan Kal
Or he could choose to follow a different way. He had studied many ways of the spirit arts, both because he was curious, and so he could get an advantage against other artists. His vault had held scrolls of hundreds of different ways, and he remembered all of them. Enough at least to recreate their techniques.
He would need to decide soon, but not immediately. It had taken him three years to even attempt the third step, and two more to finally achieve it the first time. With his knowledge and the abundance of aura on this world, he was certain that he could do it faster, but it would still take him a lot of time to accumulate enough ki for the next step.
* * *
Vin left the Mercenary Guild’s building a bit disappointed. Ashara had told him to sign up as someone who was looking for work; only, because he had no references, he had been put on a low-priority list. The list was the one was put on when people’s skill were not, as they said, “guaranteed.” Vin had of course offered to demonstrate his skills, but was told that that was not their policy. People here called anyone who was willing to work for coin without being a part of an organization a mercenary, a concept that Vin was familiar with. Many spirit artists had sold their services to other clans.
He walked out into the street, still not used to the sheer amount of people surrounding him, and pointed himself toward the east gate of the city. People inside the guild had informed him that he had received a single offer for employment, one from a hunter needing a partner for a short job. Vin had put down several skills after he consulted with Ashara, most of which involved fighting in one way or the other. Although being a spirit artist didn’t involve only fighting, he hadn’t known how to translate his other skills to this world’s peoples. Hunting, thankfully, had been one that he could identify. He had hunted often on his world, both for fun and for the spirit cores that could be found in those rare beasts that had managed to live long enough to develop them.
Vin looked at his surroundings and counted the streets carefully, following the directions he had been given back at the Guild, and finally he reached his destination: a small inn close to the eastern gate of the city by the name of Crooked Tree. He entered and cast his eyes around the room, which was littered with tables. He spotted the man that fit the description he had been given and made his way across the room to his table.
The man sitting at the table was older than Vin—or at least older than this body. He had lines and marks on his face that indicated he was well past middle age, yet he seemed fit and strong. His hair made him look younger than he was, as it had no grays and it shone black, though with almost a different shine to it. But it was his eyes that Vin took note of—they carried a weight to their golden hue. He was dressed in simple garb, a dull brown tunic and trousers with a green cloak. He held what appeared to be a staff in his left hand that was leaned back on his shoulder—but upon closer inspection Vin realized that it wasn’t a staff at all, but rather an unstrung bow.
“Are you Master Sabin?” Vin asked as he stepped to the man’s table.
He looked up and gave him an inviting smile. “Ah, you must be the one the Guild sent. Just Sabin is fine. Come, sit, sit.”
Vin took a seat. “My name is Vin. I was hoping that you could tell me a bit more about this job. There was not much detail given to me at the Guild.”
“Of course,” Sabin said. “There isn’t much to it. A few farmers out east close to the mountains had a few of their livestock go missing. They found trails leading to the mountains, so it was clear that some animal must’ve moved into a new territory. They hired me to find it and kill it. From the few tracks I could find, it looks like an unusually large cat, probably one of the mountain lions that live deeper in the mountains. They come down from time to time. None of the farmers know much about hunting such a beast. They did try, but only managed to get one of their own killed.” Sabin shook his head. “Foolish bastards. And I need someone to watch my back—going alone is foolhardy. The pay isn’t much, but one has to eat. It is why I was looking for someone that comes cheap.”
Vin nodded. A simple task, one that wouldn’t take much of his time, but would allow him to see a bit more of this world outside of the sea and this city. “I am willing to accept—if you are content with me, that is.”
The man looked at Vin for a moment, then nodded. “You do look like someone that can take care of himself. And I take it that you are not from around these parts?”
“No,” Vin said. As he had been told by Ashara and had seen for himself, his features looked a bit exotic to the people here—the same way that they looked to him. “My land is far away. It is why I have no references. But I assure you that I am well skilled.”
“You do have an honest look about you. Very well. It is agreed, then?” Sabin asked as he extended his hand toward Vin. It took him a moment to realize that the man wanted to shake his hand, as was customary in this world. Vin extended his hand quickly and shook it. Ashara would not be pleased by his almost forgetting her lessons.
“Good,” Sabin said. “Meet me outside of the eastern gate tomorrow at first light. You have a bow?”
“No, only a short sword,” Vin admitted.
Sabin nodded. “I’ll get you one of my spares.”
They made their farewells, and Vin walked back home. It struck him as he was walking how quickly he had started calling the small room he and Ashara shared “home.” It wasn’t much, not even the size of the closet he had in his own home on Orb. The bathroom was strange as well, with magically altered pipes that heated or cooled the water, and a system that drained the bowl and the bath—similar to his own home. On Orb, only the wealthiest would have such luxuries, and they didn’t have magic to make it easier. Instead, a fire room was needed to warm the water. Here on this world it seemed like their magic had made things much easier, yet it seemed to have also taken away much. There was no art in the things he saw, only functionality. It made him somehow sad to see it.
Once he reached home, he settled down and started cycling his ki, waiting for Ashara to arrive.
* * *
The next morning found him walking through the tall gate of the city. Yesterday, he spoke with Ashara, who had been excited that he had gotten a job. If he performed well, he would have at least one reference for his skills, and perhaps would be one step closer to getting hired to protect a caravan. Once he passed the gate, he saw Sabin waiting for him with two horses, and he made his way to him.
It surprised him still that many animals that existed on his world existed here as well. In his talks with Ashara they had found at least a few that she was unfamiliar with, however, as well as a few that he was unfamiliar with. Whether that was only a translation issue, an actual difference, or just her ignorance, they didn’t know.
“Good morning, Sabin,” Vin said. It had taken a great deal of restraint from him not to slip into his usual manner of speech, but Ashara had insisted that he had to fit in—so he had taken to the less familiar way of speaking that the people in these lands used.
“Ah, Vin. Good morning. Come on, get on! We have a lot of ground to cover.”
Vin got on the horse and they set off down the road. They rode in quiet, which was fine by Vin. It allowed him to watch his surroundings and admire the nature. Everything on this world looked larger, even the trees. He knew that mountains surrounded the valley that was the Kingdom of Tourran, but now that they were out of the city, he could see them all around piercing the sky. It only served to illustrate how tall the mountain range truly was, if he was understanding the distances correctly. From the talk of the people in the city he had gotten a better grasp on just how massive this world was. His own world seemed tiny in comparison, something that only made his task that much harder, he knew.
They rode for the better part of the day, riding mostly on the main road until the last trek where they took a smaller road into the forest and toward the southern side of the mountain range. Eventually, they reached a small hunting cabin. It looked so much like the hunting
cabins of his own world that he felt a small pang of homesickness. They tied their horses and set up inside. Sabin gave him one of his bows and a quiver with arrows. Vin tested the bow, finding it functional, but like everything on this world it was also unnecessarily bland. He fired a few arrows to get a feel for them, and then nodded. Sabin gave him one short spear, one that was barely half Vin’s height. Vin had also brought the sword he had been given on the Norvus, which was sheathed on his hip. Once they were ready, they set off toward the mountain, moving through the thick forest. Eventually, they reached a point where Sabin stopped.
“This is as far as I tracked it. I didn’t want to get too close to its lair alone. Here, look.” He pointed at the ground. “You can still see the tracks.”
Vin crouched and looked. Sabin was right; the tracks did look like those of a cat, or at least they looked the same as the tracks of cats from his world. And they were large. Larger even than the tracks of tigers from his world, the largest cats that lived there. He put his fingers in the imprint, noticing its depth. “It is a large animal, heavy.”
“Yes,” Sabin agreed. “Too heavy for a mountain cat.”
“Any idea what it is?”
“The least probable possibility is that it is in fact a mountain lion, an unusually large one. But I doubt this. I have never seen nor heard about a mountain lion of such a size. It could be something else. I have heard stories over the years about beasts that live deeper in the mountains, where there are no passes and where people don’t go. Something like that could make this print—that’s if the stories are true. Most likely, however, it is a beast from down south. I hear that there are tigers in Amaranthine. One of them could’ve gotten lost in the mountains, and somehow managed to get through to here.”
Vin nodded. At least he now knew that tigers existed here as well. He tried to see if he could discern anything with his sight, but there was too much aura everywhere—a drawback to there being so much of it everywhere was that it was far harder for him to sense anything at all around him. “What is the plan?”
“We follow the tracks. Hopefully we find its lair, catch it sleeping and kill it with no problems. The cattle all disappeared at night, so I assume that it is a night hunter.”
Vin agreed. “Let’s go.”
They made their way through the forest, following the tracks. It took them higher and higher, until they reached the base of the mountain and a rock wall, where the tracks ended.
“Think that it climbed up to the ledge?” Sabin asked as he squinted at the rock.
“Possibly,” Vin said as he moved closer. Then he noticed claw marks in the wall and pointed at them. “There.”
“Right. Up we go, I guess,” Sabin said, and they started climbing.
The wall was maybe twice Vin’s height, and wasn’t that hard to climb. Vin pulled himself over the edge first, and then helped Sabin up. Once there, they looked around. The ledge wasn’t all that large, but there was nothing there. No sign of the animal.
“Hm…” Sabin looked around, walking to the other end where another rock wall stretched upward, far higher than the one they just climbed.
Vin turned his eyes back to the forest, looking at his surroundings. Out in the distance, he could just discern the city. It looked far too small for its actual size. Sabin walked over to him and tapped him on the shoulder. Vin looked at him and saw him hold a finger over his mouth, indicating for him to be quiet.
“I found something,” Sabin whispered. He led him back to where he was looking, and behind a side wall, between the rock wall and the platform they were standing on, there was a dark hole leading down. It was large enough for both of them to drop down at the same time and most certainly large enough for an animal of the size they were hunting. Sabin pulled out a rod with a rag covering it and Vin realized that it was a torch. He ignited it and then gave it to Vin as he started climbing down. It didn’t seem to be too deep, so once he was down, he gestured for the torch and Vin dropped it down to him. Soon after, he started climbing down himself.
The inside looked like a cave tunnel that led deeper into the mountain. Sabin readied his spear in one hand and kept his torch in the other. Vin did the same, taking his spear in both hands as he walked close behind the other man. He pushed a touch of ki to his eyes, activating a bending technique, and suddenly the darkness abated and he could see far better.
Holding a spear in his hands brought unwanted memories to his mind—memories of his own blessed arms, and most importantly his Thundering Spear. It had been his prized possession, won from an old spirit artist in a duel. The old man had been a spirit artist of the sixth step, and probably the greatest opponent Vin had ever faced—it had been his honor to fight a man such as him. But now that spear was in the hands of the Arashan. He shook his head of the memories. He needed to move forward, the same way Ashara was. He could not look back and allow himself to be chained by foolish memories if he was to stop the Arashan.
They walked deeper into the cave, until suddenly Vin noticed a change. Sabin did as well, and he stopped. Both of them looked around at the walls, which were no longer just made of simple rock.
“This is strange,” Sabin whispered.
“You didn’t know that this was here?” Vin asked, looking at a clearly man-made stone tunnel that they had just walked into.
“No,” Sabin whispered back. “Must be a remnant from long ago. I’m surprised that no one found it yet,” he said, and then he gestured for them to keep going.
Eventually the tunnel led them to a large room. It looked almost as large as the warehouse where Ashara worked, with a tall ceiling and large round openings in the walls close to the top. There were a few archway-shaped openings that led outside of the room as well. Vin cast his eyes around the empty room as they moved in. There didn’t seem to be anything at all in it, except for some collapsed stone from the walls and rubble in the corners. When they reached the middle of the room, a pile of rubble drew Vin’s attention. He took a second look, and realized that it wasn’t rubble at all—but animal bones.
He turned to Sabin, who had moved a few steps away toward the wall. A glint caught Vin’s eye and he Surged forward, colliding with Sabin and taking both of them to the floor—just as a massive shape leapt from the round opening near the ceiling. Keeping the Surge active, he came up to his feet, his spear ready, and stared at the beast across the room. It was massive, far larger than any tiger he had ever seen. He didn’t know what it was—it looked like a cat with tiger-like stripes, only instead of orange and black, this beast had dark blue and black stripes. It growled, and the air around them shook at the intensity of the vocalization.
Sabin got up on his knee faster than Vin thought a man without Surge could move, his bow unslung from his shoulders and ready. Before Vin could even react, Sabin let an arrow fly toward the beast. It roared, and a wave of aura blasted from its body, shattering the arrow, confirming what Vin’s eyes already told him—this was a spirit beast, and a powerful one at that. It pounced at them, and they jumped away, evading—Vin jumping right, and Sabin left. Vin hit the ground and rolled, dropping his spear in the process, and unslung his bow. He drew two arrows and fired them with a burst of speed from his Surge, one after the other.
The beast erupted with ki again, shattering the first arrow, but the second passed through its ki and grazed its shoulder. The beast roared at him and fixed its glowing blue eyes on Vin. The rage and intelligence in those eyes surprised him.
It raised a paw and swiped at him from across the room. Vin barely had a moment’s notice to drop to the ground as a blast of blue ki flew over his head. He rolled and got up, glancing for a moment at the wall behind him. Four gashes dug deep into the stone across the length of the entire wall. The beast crouched low, preparing to attack, when an arrow punched into its back thigh.
Sabin pulled another arrow and let it loose. The beast roared in pain, shivered and then disappeared, Sabin’s arrow passing through empty air. The beast reappeared instant
ly on the other side of the room, away from both of them. Vin recognized the ability immediately—the Wind Step. The fact that this beast was capable of it only told him that this was an old and powerful one indeed. Vin’s mind worked tirelessly, trying to come up with something to help them. He was on the second step now, and was much more powerful than he had been just a while before. He cycled quickly, putting his hand in front of him, and Shaped.
An arrow of pure ki flew from his hands and at the beast. Again, a wave of ki exploded out of its body, but Vin’s attack punched through, hitting it in its side and staggering it. An arrow struck it in the shoulder as it was distracted, and again it roared in pain.
Vin dropped his bow and cycled again and stepped to the side, getting out of the Wind Step close to Sabin, the familiar burning sensation spreading throughout his body. He drew his sword and readied it. “Distract it,” Vin told Sabin, who was notching another arrow. He stepped again, moving across the room in an instant. He cycled his ki and pushed it over his sword, arranging it over the blade, giving it a pale white glow.
The beast was bleeding, and its sight was focused on Sabin. Another arrow flew and this time it Wind Stepped aside, jumping at Sabin as soon as it finished the step. Its jaw opened wide and its claws extended, but Vin stepped forward.
He came out of the Wind Step beneath it and stabbed with his sword upward, impaling his sword through its neck and into its head, sending a powerful ki blast through the sword and into the beast. The force and the mass of the beast wrung the sword from his hand, and it crashed to the floor hard as Sabin dodged its strike.
Sabin walked away and retrieved his torch, then both Vin and Sabin approached the beast warily. Vin gazed down at the incredible beast, watching as the light left its eyes, followed by the beast’s life.