He shivered, finally forcing himself to look down at the massive rent in his armor, and realize just how damn close he had come to killing himself, embracing his favorite mad stunt.
Castling might be his final trump card, but if he were to mistime his foes for even a heartbeat… he could be gored, disemboweled, or chomped up in an eyeblink.
He had trained damn had to learn the skills and techniques needed to best his foes at the academy. He resolved right then and there to start using them to the utmost before he ever tried anything this stupid again.
On the plus side, with his boosted Power Healing, he could regenerate an entire pound of flesh in just under a minute, though he forced himself to look at the savaged rents in his armor, to endure the agony of his mangled foot literally growing before his eyes, before pulling a fresh reinforced boot out of storage, promising himself this was one lesson he would not let himself forget.
As an emergency defense, nothing beat his ability to port into his ring. Using it offensively, however? That could all too easily get him killed.
Only in the direst of situations would he ever try charging down a beast’s gullet again.
An Li was shaking her head, eyes dazed with exhaustion, but Alex was truly grateful to see that her breathing had eased, and she had properly placed his compress.
“How? Just… how?”
Alex blinked. “How what?”
“How did you do that? How did you kill that monster? You jumped down it’s throat like a madman or a berserker, and then you were gone!” She paled. “But we still felt you through the link. We still sensed your life-force!” She paled and shivered. “Even now, we feel your cold claws within our minds. We know what you could do to us, whenever you like.”
Alex frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“You’re exactly what I feared!” She hissed, rubbing away frightened tears. “A creature out of legend, a member of the very damned race we were trying to escape when we first fled to this world, a thousand years ago!”
Alex felt a cold chill race up and down his spine. “What are you talking about?”
“Your forehead. It gives it away. My people know what to look for!”
Alex gave an angry shake of his head. “You’re not making any sense. From the moment you saw my forehead, you seemed to hate me. And what did I do to you back then? Nothing! What have I done to harm you since then? Not a damn thing! The only thing I did was risk my ass keeping you idiots from getting killed!”
Both of them stiffened at that, before deflating and lowering their heads.
“He’s right,” Yohan whispered. “He risked his life for us, and I honestly can’t say why.” He then paled. “Then when I foolishly offered that link—”
“—not foolish at all. There’s no way we could have timed that strike and counter without it,” said Alex.
“He could have claimed our lives with a thought!” Yohan hissed. “Or worse, far worse, enslaved our minds like a Dark Master!”
Alex scowled. “Yeah, I’m going to pass on enslaving people’s minds for, like, ever.”
An Li nodded. “Our lives were in his hands. They are, even now. But he doesn’t hold us in contempt. If anything, he pities us.” Her cheeks flushed and she lowered her gaze. “I don’t need your pity, Alex. But if it means you’ll extend us mercy…”
Alex winced, unaware that emotions traveled through the link.
“Only yours,” Yohan quickly explained. “You have a master node.” He paled, flinching when he caught Alex’s gaze. “Of course we can now taste your feelings like a scent. That’s unavoidable. Your mind’s so potent that our nodes can’t help but to pick it up. Only your wife or children will be able to read your thoughts, however. I mean, besides your random surges that are so easily deciphered. You’re not exactly the most sophisticated of thinkers, if you’ll forgive my saying so, Alex. Except of course when you get those weird surges of… something. Insight? That you’re experiencing right this second. Those send such shivers down my spine. I’m sure it’s not natural, whatever odd path of power you are contemplating right now.”
Alex blinked. “You mean the Eternal Fox technique I’m using to regenerate? It feels perfectly natural to me.” He shook his head, just trying to take it all in. “So that’s why you were so frightened when we first met. You thought I had some master node ability to, well, enslave you.”
An Li nodded. “Or destroy us with a single surge of will, if we were stupid enough to link up with you.” She paled. “Which we sort of um… did. And, well, I was right. You could kill us with a thought.”
Alex winced. “Well, I have no intentions of destroying or enslaving anyone, as should be obvious by now. But that still doesn’t answer a very important question.”
Yohan blinked. “And what would that be?”
Alex grinned. “Why are you two heading towards the temple?”
Both frowned, tilting their heads curiously. “Wait, you don’t know? I thought, being a fellow Ruidian, it was obvious.”
Alex slowly shook his head. “I’m hoping they offer better rates on beast cores among other things. You can get considerably more for them in Yidushi, for one thing.”
An Li paled. “Yidushi? The city at the epicenter of our people’s original colonization efforts, and the sight of so much tragedy and death? You’ve actually been there, and they didn’t try to kill you on sight?”
Alex smirked. “It wasn’t that bad.” But it was pretty close, he thought to himself.
Yohan nodded, as if agreeing with Alex’s unspoken words, which Alex found extremely unnerving.
Yohan snorted. “And you can kill me with a thought. So who should be feeling more unnerved?”
Alex scowled. “Okay, at this point you’re not even trying not to read my mind.”
“Please don’t be wroth, Drott,” An Li soothed. “Many in my clan are unusually… gifted. It lets us get a better feel for traders and merchants. My cousin means no harm.” She gave a rueful shake of her head. “And he sensed no malice from you. If only I had listened… we probably wouldn’t be here, sitting in the rain and mud, covered in wounds, nearly killed for all our trouble.”
Alex grinned. “Well, on the bright side, you guys are now up six beast cores!”
Yohan bowed. “Your band is grateful, Drott.”
Alex frowned. “Who’s this Drott?” Before the information clicked in his mind, the term equating with battle leader or war chief. He shook his head. “Never mind, I figured it out.”
An Li flashed a rueful smile. “I am grateful to fight beside someone able to kill a greater spirit beast from the inside out. I have no idea how you even managed to move like you did, but of course the powers of Dark Masters are lost to legend.”
Alex smirked. “I’m no Dark Master. I’m just someone with a knack for body cultivation.”
Yohan paled. “A Ruidian cultivator? That’s impossible.”
Alex smirked as they all took in the massive pile of corpses at their feet. “You sure about that?” His bemused smile hardened. “First thing’s first. We have to decide if we’re better off setting up camp here, or heading back to the city and risking the displeasure of the Defender’s Association. Because those were some ugly wounds you suffered, An Li, and even with my potion…” His words trailed off, blinking in surprise at the sight of her jewel actually glowing as ugly, half-healed wounds closed before his eyes.
“But… how?”
A surprised Alex quickly flipped to his matrix in the corner of his mind’s eye, beyond awed to realize he actually knew what she was doing. “You’re using your earned experience to heal yourself!”
An Li smirked. “I’m channeling some of the life potency of the creatures we claimed to reset the portions of my body that were damaged. Same as you, Alex. We’re not completely helpless, even if our nodes aren’t quite so absurdly advanced as your own.”
Alex blinked at that, not even knowing where to start. If he didn’t know better... “So, you guys a
lso earn experience points with your kills? I mean… you can actually sense it?”
The pair frowned thoughtfully before slowly nodding, as if translating the words in their mind.
Alex felt a sudden chill. He could form a party, sense the rank or level of their crystals, and they gained in potency via experience, just like he did.
If anything, he suspected it was even more efficient, his Power Healing incredibly fast compared to his normal rate. But even so, he was tapping into a beast core, because one thing he wouldn’t do is tap into his own earned experience out in the open, fearing that he would be temporarily incapacitated and a surge of unbridled potency would flood his psyche all at once. But who was to say that was even the case? Considering how far he had already come as a Bronze cultivator who had achieved Rank 9 in Eternal Fox… who was to say he couldn’t channel the potency of his kills to repair injuries via Power Healing just as well as he could tap into a beast core?
He shook his head. He definitely needed to test this. And considering how much more fragile their bodies were than his own… if it worked for them, why wouldn’t it work just as well for him? He made a point of studying An Li as intently as he could, made all the easier by their present hyper-strong spirit link.
By the time she finished healing herself, revealing what now looked to be months old scars with a satisfied nod, Alex was almost positive he could do the same as well.
That was when Yohan flashed a gleeful satisfied smile that Alex found strangely familiar.
“You look like you just leveled up,” Alex said with a grin, the confused look he was expecting not showing at all when his companion gave a pleased nod.
“Wind Wall is now Rank 5! When I get Rank 5 in Whirlwind and Power Gust, I’ll finally be able to hit level 5! Then I’ll be able to research the arts of Lightning Strike and Wind Flight!”
An Li groaned. “And I’m so close to Flame Strike Rank 4 and finally leveling up and matching you! If that damn wolf hadn’t almost torn out my throat...” She paled and shuddered, frightened hazel eyes gazing into Alex’s own. “Alex?”
“Yes?”
She licked her lips, flashing an apologetic smile. “Thanks for saving my life.”
“You’re welcome.”
“And thanks as well, for not, like, killing us, or enslaving us, and actually sharing the beast cores. And the… how did you think of it? The experience points.”
Alex blinked, not even aware that he could have somehow hoarded it, if he had so chosen.
“That’s right, give him ideas,” Yohan snarked, before cricking his back with a groan. “Alright, what’s our plan for tonight? Head straight to the temple and seek shelter there, double back, or find some place to set up camp?”
An Li paled. “We almost died tonight, cousin. In all our time as hunters and gatherers, never have we come this close to death. Never has the forest seemed to reject us so utterly. I say we press on as fast as we can, hopefully making it to the temple before midnight.”
Yohan nodded. “I have no problem with that. Alex? Since you’re technically our party leader...”
Alex shrugged. “Sounds like a plan to me. Besides, I’m curious about whatever adventuring opportunities this temple might have for us.”
An Li smiled. “I think you’ll like what they have to offer, Alex, especially since you know your way around a double-bladed poleaxe pretty damn well.”
Alex smirked. “Thanks. But we’re calling it a fangtian ji, in this time and place.”
An Li blinked. “That’s right. Sorry...” she frowned, strangely confused. “Wait. We’re conversing in three different languages right now, and one of them I don’t even know. So how is that even possible?”
“Shh… I think I heard something. Let’s a get a move on. Quietly! I can pretty much see in the dark, so I’ll lead. An Li, watch our backs.”
And before either could protest his epically awesome distraction, they were off.
“English? What kind of language is that? He knows we’re still reading him, right?”
“He’s a bit strange, isn’t he?”
“What was that you two were saying? I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you over the spirit beasts hunting the tasty, noisy Ruidians who can’t leap into trees in an eyeblink like I can.”
The pair snorted but otherwise remained thankfully silent, and Alex pretended they didn’t suspect a thing.
Even when he shuffled them under a convenient nearby pine, miming trouble heading their way, before dashing back for the kills.
“Alex?”
“Yes, Yohan?”
“Why did you insist we stop and hide under cover while you went racing back to the clearing? We could have all gone back together, you know.”
“It’s not like we can’t tell when you’re lying, thanks to the link,” said An Li. “And we sense how far away you are at all times, since we’re partied together. No predator was actually heading our way, were they?”
Alex flashed a cheeky grin. “Yes, but then I would have had to make up a terribly boring lie as to how I made a dozen spirit wolves, one of them as massive as a house, suddenly disappear. This way, we can pretend it was wild animals that ate them down to the bone. Or better yet, you all can forget to bring it up at all, when we head back this way again.”
He then passed them a handful of glittering prizes. “And here is your half of the beast cores. As promised. And you didn’t even have to go hacking apart their skulls to retrieve them. You’re welcome.”
An Li’s eyes widened. She smiled with relief. “Thank the makers! We wanted to say something, but...”
Alex grinned. “I know. You were afraid I’d make you pop open their skulls. Am I right? Risking your life facing down spirit wolves is one thing, but you totally draw the line at actually popping out these pearls of sweet, sweet power. Good thing you have your friendly party leader to help you with that!”
Yohan winced. “Of course that’s not what we were actually thinking...”
“What, you were afraid I’d suddenly go all Dark Master and ‘how dare you challenge my authority, reminding me I’m leaving an absolute fortune behind!’ before making you recite your most embarrassing childhood memories I could then tease you with unmercifully, whenever we went out drinking? Not that you’re allowed to drink in the city at all, Ms. Flame-Top, so you might as well get your drinking on here!” Alex then winked at a flustered An Li before seeming to pull out an exquisitely fine bottle of rice wine from his backpack.
An Li blinked, speechless, before taking a pull, eyes alighting with approval. “That’s a fine blend, Alex, thank you! Just a sip, though. Best we keep our senses sharp.”
“I totally agree, though that was a heck of a lot more than a sip!” Alex teased. “Not that I blame you.”
He then gave Yohan a friendly clap on his shoulder, passing him the wine, pretending he hadn’t made the man wince in pain. “From here on out, I give you both express permission to let me know whenever you think I’m acting like an idiot, or overlooking the obvious. As my old master used to say, it’s okay to play the fool sometimes, as long as you learn from your mistakes.”
He couldn’t say why, exactly, he got such a kick out of leaving An Li and Yohan in a constant state of flustered befuddlement. Maybe it was good-natured payback for how close their stubborn fears had almost come to gotten them killed. Maybe it was because they reminded him so much of classmates going LARPing with him a literal lifetime ago, if he didn’t look at their foreheads too closely. Maybe it was because he could allow himself to speak and think in English, and the nodes would do all the translating, so his mind was naturally flipping to his more playful self he had to suppress so rigidly, while trying to survive in this dangerous, treacherous world as a fiercely focused and disciplined cultivator, or not survive at all.
It was a bit stupid, and he knew he would immerse himself in his more reserved Bronze persona as soon as they stumbled across any cultivators or natives, or finally made it to the temple by the lig
ht of the brilliant moon now shining through the foliage, the storm long since passed. But for this brief flicker of time, he enjoyed the fantasy that he was really just out for a lark with his buddies the summer before Senior Year, savoring a time lost to him a thousand years ago.
15
Patter aside, they made their way through the woods as quietly and quickly as they could. And though the path’s incline first gradually then abruptly steepened, there was no change in the natural song of the forest; hooting owls, hunting hawks, and rustling mice all proceeding with their lives, unmolested and unperturbed by the trio of adventurers journeying ever deeper into the arboreal wilds.
Alex occasionally sensed hungry spirit beasts approaching his sixty-foot sensory radius, but nothing disturbed them for the remainder of the night. Not until they finally emerged from the trees, finding themselves in a clearing before what appeared to be a massive ancient crater, its once-craggy lip covered by moss, foliage, and overhanging vines, with the soft echoes of a distant waterfall trickling down the far surface, what must have been at least half a mile away.
Alex took a quick look back as his companions, now collapsing in exhausted heaps behind him, feeling just a bit of chagrin. An Li’s pretty hazel eyes were almost bulging as she took deep, life-giving gasps of air.
Yohan wasn’t much better, coughing and clearing his throat as he tried to sip from his canteen between ragged gasps.
“Looks like you two need to work on that Vitality stat!” Alex teased. “People always love playing the mage, until they reflect upon who’s really in shape to have fun all night and catch the eyes of all the hot chicks. And trust me, I don’t care how mega powerful your windstorms or firebolts get, nothing feels quite so sweet as sleeping in the arms of your girl after scoring for the varsity team.”
Alex laughed at his companion’s groans and mock-glares, and he meant every word he had said. Only someone who had lost it all could appreciate the sweet vigor of youth in a pristine pain-free body that glowed with health. A state of body and mind where racing, sprinting, and tackling felt almost effortless, until one finally built up a delicious burn, and a post workout sauna session left one feeling as relaxed and luxurious as a dream. And what a fool he had been not to appreciate just how perfect his life had been, before a car accident and cancer had taken it all away.
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior's Oath: A LitRPG/Wuxia Novel - Book 4 Page 22