by Todd Herzman
Now that it’s trapped, maybe we should—
He cut off the thought. They wouldn’t run.
Huon stepped forward as the dome constricted, closing in on the beast. The thuds—the serpent’s thrashing—came more frequently. He couldn’t imagine what it must be feeling. When he’d heard they were hunting beasts today, he thought it would be like hunting animals—he never let the animal suffer if he could help it, always killing them swiftly.
This serpent was not dying fast. It thrashed faster and faster, but even though it was stronger than them, it couldn’t break through the wall with two Knights surging into it.
Step by step, the dome grew smaller. Step by step, the beast thrashed less. Huon didn’t know how much stamina the serpent would have. He didn’t know how small they’d have to make the dome before it died.
The beast finally stopped moving as Huon ran out of his last drop of earth essence. He surged breath, putting his ear against the wall. Without earth essence in his core, he couldn’t sense every vibration within the dome. ‘Is it dead?’
‘I don’t know.’ Jamison’s hands were still against the wall—it wasn’t surprising he had a larger reserve of earth essence. It had always been his preferred surge.
Huon’s forehead creased. ‘We can’t leave it to chance.’ Technically, it would be best to harvest the beast’s core while it was alive—he’d seen Bern do the same, back in the Deep Wood when they’d defeated the sabre-tooth. But Huon didn’t want to prolong the beast’s suffering, nor risk leaving it alive.
So he put his hands on the dome, triple-surging fire, heating the rock.
When they opened the rock wall, the beast had been cooked to a crisp.
Chapter 3
Cutting out the serpent’s core was… unpleasant.
It glowed more brightly than any core Huon had seen—brighter even than the sky-eagle’s core. Huon touched it, feeling the strength of the essence within. Beasts didn’t follow the normal advancement levels of human surgecallers. Their essence could advance at different speeds, rather than all at once—a beast could have Knight-level speed and Squire-level stamina.
The lead pair had taught them how to use their Knight-level perception to better identify essence levels through the use of surge-gems. It was difficult to tell with the higher advancements—anything above Knight-level felt basically the same to Huon, even though he knew a Champion’s essence was a world apart from that of an Immortal’s.
But the skill came in useful when he held the serpent’s core in both hands. His eyes closed, he sensed everything within it.
Its speed was higher than Knight-level—that he’d known already. But the acidic venom it had surged? That, fortunately for them, was Knight-level. Huon opened his eyes, handing the core to Jamison.
Jamison clutched it in his hands. A moment later, he let out a breath. ‘We could cultivate this—develop a new surge.’
Huon frowned. He looked at the dead beast, crushed, curled up and ashen. A venomous surge… He looked down at his armour, careful not to touch where the acid had. He hadn’t even noticed in the heat of the fight, but it had eaten right through, all the way to his skin. His body had instinctively surged stamina to heal the wounds the acid wrought. ‘I never imagined developing a surge like this. How would we cultivate more of it?’
‘I’m not sure. I don’t know how that works.’ Jamison looked at the sky. ‘We still have more time to hunt.’
Huon nodded. They’d been given eight hours. Barely two had passed since then. Huon wasn’t aware of any limit to the amount of surges someone could hold in their core—theoretically, a surgecaller could have hundreds of different surges. The reason they tended to specialise in one of the eight natural surges was because most natural surges were far easier to cultivate.
Jamison stashed the beast’s core in his pack. The essence would hold inside it for a while, dissipating slowly over time. As the reserves within it were Knight-level and above, it could probably retain the essence for months before needing to be cultivated.
The two Knights ventured deeper into the forest, but they never encountered any beasts as powerful as the serpent they’d fought. Despite how stealthily they walked, the beasts seemed to avoid them. Both their cores were veiled, so the beasts wouldn’t be able to identify their strength. Humans are the most dangerous beasts of all, Huon thought. With the amount of surgecallers who went core hunting, many beasts had surely learnt to avoid humans by now.
Over the day, they harvested five more cores. None had essence higher than Knight-level, most only as strong as Squire. Huon wondered where they might find more powerful beasts. The wolves he’d faced back in the Queendom of Arisalon… he was sure they had been as strong as Champions.
Champions. That was something he tried not to think about. The surgecallers in his realm were far weaker than those in Arisalon—he’d experienced that first hand when he’d met a thirteen-year-old Knight, and sixteen-year-old Champions. How would the Honourbound army stand a chance?
But what Jakob said came back to him. Honourbound are enhanced. Not that Huon had seen any evidence of that—he certainly hadn’t been enhanced with anything more than training.
Perhaps he’d find out soon.
The first time he’d encountered the Immortal of Fire since becoming oathbound, the man had given Huon, Liona and Jamison Immortal-level essence. Was that what would happen? Would they be given a bandoleer full of surge-gems when they marched on the enemy?
The enemy…
Why was Arisalon the enemy? He didn’t understand the Everlasting King. He already had a realm, why did he need to expand it? Why did he want to take over everything? Enslave the entire continent?
He’d enslave the entire world, if he could.
Of course, Huon knew the answer. The man wanted power, and he would do anything to get it. And he wanted to stamp down the power in others, so no one could stand against him.
Huon understood wanting power. He wanted power, after all. But… not like this.
By the time the eight hours were up, and Huon and Jamison returned to where their Squad had entered the forest, the fighting pair had six cores, three of which held a unique essence type. The acidic venom from the giant serpent was the only one they were sure of. It was hard to tell if the beasts they’d fought had surged their unique essences—the fights had been too quick, too easy. Hopefully, the lead pair would be able to identify what the different surges were.
The other fighting pairs returned with roughly the same amount of cores. Aran and Yilda had found eight cores, something that didn’t surprise Huon, considering he’d first encountered them hunting for cores in the Green Way. Matti and Vanson, brothers in their twenties who shared the same white-blond hair and hailed from Kamhaloth, had collected five cores. Ellie and Bria, Knights who looked almost as young as Huon and Jamison and came from Tarlanc, one of the smaller cities in the realm, had collected seven.
The lead pair had twelve.
Champion Jesalla ordered them to recultivate speed and stamina before heading back to the war camp. When they returned to the camp, Jesalla had each pair lay out the cores they’d harvested in front of them. Jesalla and Ranil inspected the cores one by one, seeming to order them in a strange way. Then they did something Huon hadn’t expected—they divided the cores they’d harvested themselves between the pairs. By the end of it, Huon and Jamison had six unique surges to choose from.
Champion Jesalla stood at the front of each pair, who were seated in front of their collected cores. ‘There’s only enough essence in each of these cores to survive one cultivation, which means you must choose which new surges you develop wisely. We could choose these for you, but the surges a surgecaller develops should be unique to their goals as fighters—only you know best what your goals are. Usually, you would have more time to decide which to choose. But again, we are working on a limited timeline here.’
Huon stared at the six cores in front of them, won
dering which he would choose. Jesalla had identified each of them. The first, the one they’d harvested from the giant serpent, was perhaps the hardest of the six to cultivate after it was developed, as it would be difficult to find the same essence type. Acidic venom, she’d called it. The second was perhaps the easiest to cultivate, acute sight. That one, Huon would find incredibly useful. A Knight’s sight was already strong, but to be able to enhance it further? He wondered how it worked. Did he have to look at things to cultivate sight?
He shook his head, peering at the next core. This had come from a beast with the sharpest talons Huon had ever seen. It was a cat-like beast, similar to the sabre-tooth but considerably smaller. It had only been Squire-level, yet its scratch had pierced the outer layer of Jamison’s rock armour. Sharpness. It wasn’t an active surge, only able to imbue essence into other things.
The third was one of the stranger ones, though he could see how it would be useful. According to Jesalla, it worked in a similar way to illusion essence. Except it didn’t project an image that everyone could see—it projected specific images directly at others, and only of their fears.
The lead pair had taken down the beast that held the surge. Apparently, the beast had looked different to Jesalla and Ranil. To Jesalla, it had looked like a giant spider. Huon wasn’t sure what it looked like to Ranil. He simply shook his head when he was asked, taking on a dark look. When the Champions had defeated the beast, the images it had projected on their minds disappeared.
The beast had ended up resembling an ordinary monkey.
Huon touched the core, feeling the essence within. Instantly, he identified the fear vision essence. Even touching it with his mind made him shiver. Though he knew it could be useful, the last thing he wanted was to have to cultivate fear—that sounded… well, terrifying. Given the chance, he’d make Jamison take that one.
The fourth and fifth were similar to the acute sight surge, and identical. Jesalla called the surge acute hearing. Huon was glad to have this one. He hadn’t even known these types of surges were possible. Anything that improved his natural senses was a good thing. Could I find essence for all five natural senses? It seemed like a good enough goal.
Looking at all these different surge types made him wish he’d observed the fights at the Justice Arena in Caralor more often. The Champions and Legends there must have all sorts of unique surges… but they were never able to use them against Huon or Liona, as the higher advanced fighters had been restricted down to make the fights more fair.
The sixth core contained a surge that Huon couldn’t pass up.
It came from a sabre-tooth.
Huon had been surprised to come across the beast so far from the Green Way, but he’d relished the opportunity to fight it—because it had been so easy. After they’d killed the beast, a sense of regret filled him—not only at the beast’s death, but at how he’d enjoyed the fight. He’d been hunting beasts because it was necessary for him to grow stronger, not because he wanted to. It shouldn’t be something he enjoyed.
The surge was the opposite of fear vision. In fact, it was something that could counteract it. Huon’s hand hovered over the core, shaking slightly. How had he not known something like this existed?
Fearlessness.
The surge could… take away one’s fear. It’s what made the sabre-tooths such ferocious creatures—it’s what had kept the sabre-tooth, who’d been Squire-level, fighting two Knights even after it realised it was outmatched.
With that essence in his core, would it really be as easy as surging stamina or strength to… take away his fear?
I need this. If I’m to do what I need to do…
‘That would be dangerous,’ Jamison said.
Huon pulled his hand back and glanced at his partner. Partner. That’s the first time I’ve thought of him that way. They’d trained together for the entire week, and he’d grown more familiar with being around Jamison again. But hunting beasts alone in the forest, facing that giant serpent and having to work together lest they lose their lives… maybe having someone he could trust to have his back in battle wasn’t such a bad thing—even if he were fighting in a war he didn’t believe in.
‘What do you mean?’ Huon asked.
Jamison shook head his. ‘Our fear helps us know what we should and shouldn’t do. It helps us… not get killed.’
Huon clenched a fist, old anger rising up. Of course Jamison would say that—he’d been too afraid to escape with Huon and Liona, so afraid he’d come after them. ‘Fear shouldn’t stop us from doing the right thing.’
‘You can have that one.’
Huon stopped himself from snatching the core from the dirt. His anger dissipated slightly as he thought about Jamison’s words—there was some wisdom in them. Being fearless hadn’t done much for the sabre-tooth, after all.
But Huon was smarter than a sabre-tooth. He could use such a surge wisely. Couldn’t he? What if it made me attack an Immortal before I was ready? What if it made me blind to the dangers in this world, because I no longer feared them? He let out a breath.
Did he really fear… not being afraid?
The more he thought on it, the more he wondered if he even needed the surge. Being fearless as a boy would have gotten him killed…
I could have it, and only use it when completely necessary. Huon picked it up, and placed it close to him.
They each took one of the cores containing the acute hearing, then there was just acidic venom, sharpness and acute sight.
Huon looked at Jamison. ‘You wield a hammer.’ He bit the inside of his cheek. He didn’t want to be too obvious, but Huon wanted that sharpness surge. Surging venom was not what he wanted to do.
‘Could you imagine if my hammer was blunt and sharp?’ Jamison wrapped his fingers around the hilt of his hammer, which sat beside him. With a surge of strength, he hefted it from the ground. ‘I could smash and slash through enemy armour with a single strike.’
Huon touched the pommel of his sword. ‘You could, but shouldn’t we work to our strengths?’
Jamison smirked. ‘Perhaps.’ He glanced down at the core, then looked at Huon. Dinner was an hour away, and they were expected to cultivate the essence from each of the cores before then. The other pairs had already finished dividing their cores.
‘If the two of you cannot decide,’ Champion Jesalla said, appearing out of nowhere in front of them, ‘then you’re welcome to spar for the privilege.’ Her face was mostly blank, but there was a hint of a smile on the side of her lips—something uncharacteristic for Jesalla, at least in the week Huon had known her.
Huon swallowed. The last time he’d fought Jamison… he’d lost. More than just a fight, he’d lost a possible future. He’d been taken by the Immortal of Fire, forced to murder someone. Losing to Jamison was the whole reason he was here.
The core still glowed brightly. There was a slight green tinge to it.
Huon was more than happy to fight for that surge.
Chapter 4
Huon looked at the crowd. More than just Huon’s Squad had gathered for the sparring match.
Hundreds of Honourbound surrounded them, creating a makeshift fighting pit in the middle of the war camp. The war was the next morning. Huon couldn’t see into their minds, but he imagined they were glad for a distraction.
Champion Jesalla presided over the match, and though they could use their weapons and heal any damage done later, she’d made it an unarmed fight. The two Knights wore only their martial arts robes, and since she didn’t fancy them doing any damage to the war camp, she’d restricted them to physical surges.
A thrill ran through Huon, one he was surprised at. This felt different to any match he’d ever been in before. It felt… friendly, fun. Like it had been when he’d first met Bern in the forest. His life wasn’t on the line here. If he lost the sharpness essence, he could no doubt find it again later.
Physical surges only. He could do that.
Jamison stood across from him, a smile forming. ‘That surge is as good as mine.’
Huon couldn’t help but smile back, assuming his own fighting stance. ‘You really think so?’
Jamison sprinted forward, a great big grin on his face.
Huon stood his ground. The other Knight only took a moment to reach him. Huon blocked a punch to his head, countering with an elbow—but Jamison was just as fast. They both triple-surged speed and strength, and they’d advanced to Knight at exactly the same time. Their elemental surges might be at different skill-levels—with Jamison having trained in earth far longer than Huon had trained in fire—but their physical surges? They seemed evenly matched.
But there was one thing Huon hadn’t been able to catch up on—one thing he never might—pure hours spent training and fighting.
Jamison had far more time sparring other surgecallers than Huon.
It’s not about how much you train, it’s about how smart you train. Huon strode back a step, then dropped down, sending a sweeping kick at Jamison’s legs. Jamison leapt into the air, smoothly dodging the sweep. He leapt high, his triple-surge taking him above Huon’s head.
Perfect.
Jamison couldn’t manoeuvre in the air. Up there, he was far slower than Huon was on the ground. When Huon had sent that kick, he’d been hoping the man would jump. A grin formed on Huon’s face as, surging speed, he wrapped a hand around Jamison’s ankle as the man was in the air.
Then he slammed Jamison straight into the ground. Jamison’s back crashed into the dirt. The strength of the impact formed a crater in the makeshift fighting pit—one that almost looked like it had been made with earth essence.
Something cracked in Jamison’s back. Huon had less than a moment before the other Knight’s stamina would kick in. Knights healed such injuries incredibly fast.
Huon dropped on top of Jamison, striking him with a downward elbow as he fell. Jamison slipped his head out of the way just in time. Huon’s elbow strike created another small crater in the ground.