Immortal Swordslinger 3

by Dante King

  The land around me was still and silent as death.

  Chapter Nine

  Inside this new spirit realm, bones were everywhere, jutting not only from the water but from the dry dirt surrounding it. The contrast between the two environments was stark, with the earth parched and cracked despite the water a few feet from it. Only a narrow borderland showed the joining of the two, a slender strip of mud marking the transition from one element to the other.

  So, this combination realm was dedicated to the mud element.

  This was the fourth time that I had entered one of these spirit worlds where two elements joined to make something new. The challenge was always tougher than in the realm of a single element, but at least I knew what to expect now. First, I would have to face the spirits of the individual elements, which I would have to defeat either separately or together. Then, a third spirit would appear, and I would grapple with the essence of mud. Only once I had done that would I be able to form the mud core within me and channel the power it could provide.

  Sure enough, something strode toward me across the cracked and barren plane, appearing out of the heat haze blurring the horizon. An earth spirit, exactly like the one I had faced in his own realm, with a near-featureless head, muscular body, and four powerful arms, all made of flowing sand. With every footstep, he left a little of himself behind.

  There were no dry banks I could scramble up this time to get out of his way, no broken stretches of dirt and rock I could send down on his head. I was going to have to find a different way to beat him.

  Something shifted in the water to my left, and I caught a glance of scales and of flexing muscles as a body shot toward me, the light gleaming off its silvery flanks. The surface rippled, and a water spirit burst out of it straight at me.

  He was a creature made of pure ice and water, just like the one I had faced in the water realm. The face was human, with finely sculpted features beneath strands of translucent hair, and his body was human too. But beneath the waist, scales replaced ice-sculpted skin as his body tapered into a giant fish’s tail.

  The water spirit slammed into me, wrapped his arms around my chest, and knocked me off my feet. I was flung into the water, the body of the spirit weighing down on me, and we grappled for advantage.

  But while the creature had a good grip around my chest, he hadn’t pinned my arms; I was free to fight back. I hit him hard on the back, then slammed a knee into his midriff. The creature let go and shot back off through the water while I got to my feet.

  I was closer to the bank, almost within arm’s reach of the earth spirit. There was a flicker in the water. This time, I was ready. As the water spirit leaped up at me, I braced and shot out my arms. I knew from before that unlike with the earth spirit, the head was a vulnerable point on this creature. As the water spirit slammed into me, I grabbed him by his frozen head and twisted. As I turned, I flung the water spirit past me straight at the earth spirit.

  The water spirit shattered as he hit his earth companion. His waters flowed across his counterpart, soaking into the sand and forming a thick mud. On each side of the newly joined spirit, arms morphed together so that only a single pair remained. The face of the combined creature sagged, and a mouth opened, strands of mud hanging like thick spittle between lips of coagulated dirt.

  The thing opened wide and let out a groan that shook the surface of the lake.

  I backed off into the water, giving myself room to maneuver. I was hoping that the lake would dilute the spirit, thinning his form to make him softer and more vulnerable. The water around the creature darkened as mud swirled up from the bottom, but he seemed as solid as ever.

  It looked like I was going to have to do this the old fashioned way.

  I ran through the water and launched myself in a flying kick. My foot slammed into the spirit’s chest, and mud spattered as it skipped across the water’s surface. I landed, twisted, and started punching. I hammered repeatedly at one side of the mud spirit’s body, hoping to wear it down. The more I punched, the deeper I got into the thick, goopy body, and soon, I was elbow deep in mud.

  The spirit slapped me, a blow so hard that it lifted me off my feet and flung me into the water a dozen feet away. I was briefly submerged, and when I got back to my feet, I saw the mud spirit lumbering toward me. Where I had taken chunks out of his side, the mud was reforming, flowing from the bottom of the lake up his legs and then his body, replacing everything that was lost.

  I backed away, buying time while I looked for a plan. As I went, I noticed a two-foot long leg bone protruding from the lake bed. I tore it from the ground and hefted it like a club, feeling its weight. A crude weapon, but better than no weapon at all. I swung it from side to side as the spirit stalked toward me.

  Being in the water seemed to strengthen him, and his body rippled as more mud flowed up. I would simply have to do damage faster than he could recover.

  I charged and hit the mud spirit in the shoulder with the bone. Mud flew from the force of the blow. I struck again and again, sending clods of mud flying. On the fourth strike, the spirit blocked with one hand and swung a punch with the other. He caught me in the chest, and I staggered back but managed to keep hold of the bone.

  I backed out of reach, then ran up to the bank, through the mud at the water’s edge, and onto dry land. When I turned to look back, the spirit was pursuing me through the water. He stopped in the shallows, and we stood facing each other.

  For a while, neither of us moved. Then, the spirit reached down, scooped up a thick handful of mud, and flung it at me.

  I dodged the first lump of mud, but a second one caught me on the foot. It was unnaturally thick and heavy, like glue binding me to the ground. I struggled to free myself, even as the spirit flung more mud my way. I dodged and weaved on the spot. All the while, I strained at my trapped leg, trying to wrench it free.

  At last, the mud gave, and I jumped clear as another clod landed where I had been.

  The water had worked to the spirit’s advantage. Now, the mud was working that way too. I didn’t know if dry land would be any better, but it couldn’t be worse. I had to try to get the spirit out there.

  I picked up another long bone. Dual-wielding the macabre weapons, I advanced to the edge of the dry ground as dust swirled around my feet. The spirit stood in the mud, just close enough for me to hit. As he bent for more mud, I hit him in the back of the head. He raised an arm to defend itself against another strike, and I battered at that too. The creature let out another low, trembling groan and looked up at me.

  I hit him once more, leaving a dent in his viscous face, then backed away, tempting him to follow. He stood still, so I darted forward and slammed him with both bones before backing up again.

  This time, the creature stumbled out of the mud at the lake’s edge and onto dry land. He bellowed as he pursued me. I kept backing away to draw the creature from his place of safety. He left a trail of muck in his wake, but unlike the earth spirit, he didn’t seem to be deteriorating, just making this space more his own.

  Twenty yards from the lake, I stopped. It was time to see how this thing fought on dry land.

  The spirit lurched toward me. I waited until the last moment, then sidestepped. As the creature charged past, I brought both bones down on his left arm. The limb tore off in a shower of mud and fell in the dry dirt, leaving dark brown spatters across yellow sand.

  The creature wheeled around, bringing his other arm about in a slapping motion. I ducked the blow and brought my weapons up again. They hit the arm from opposite sides around the elbow. Mud fountained around me, and most of the arm fell to the ground, leaving only a stump.

  I straightened and raised my weapons to finish the beast off. But his mud form was shifting and reforming. Another left arm emerged and caught my next hit. A forearm grew from the severed stump and blocked another attack. Everything I had achieved had been undone in a matter of seconds.

  The spirit had hold of both my weapons now. He used them to dr
ag me closer, then let go and flung his arms around me. He pulled my face in tight to his chest, and I was smothered by the thick, muddy body.

  I pummeled at the spirit, trying to force him to release me, but he only squeezed tighter. I was drowning in mud, unable to catch the slightest breath. My pulse pounded, and my heart raced, but for all my strength, the spirit was stronger, and I had no special move to break clear now. In the human realm, I could have shot him with fire or thorns, could have summoned protective ice or an ash dagger. Here, all I had was my bare hands.

  I sank to my knees, hoping to pull myself clear, but the creature sank with me, maintaining his deadly embrace.

  My lungs were aching, but I kept pushing against the spirit. I let go of the bones and wrapped my hands around his arms, trying to pull them away. At last, I slid out onto the ground, gasping for air.

  The creature knelt over me, one fist raised and ready to strike. In desperation, I grabbed a fistful of dry, sandy dirt and flung it in his face.

  The dirt didn’t blind the spirit as I’d hoped, but something more interesting happened. Where the sand hit, the surface of the mud spirit became drier and more solid until tiny cracks showed.

  At last, something I could use.

  I rolled clear in time to avoid being grappled again. Now that I knew what I was looking for, I saw dried, cracked parts appearing low down on the spirit, where it had touched the earth. I grabbed more dirt and flung it at my opponent.

  The creature bellowed as the dry dirt hit him. Clearly in pain, he slapped at his cracked skin, only for chunks to fall away. This time, they didn’t regenerate.

  The spirit stopped beating at himself and turned a malevolent gaze on me. I grabbed one of the abandoned bones and rolled to my feet. I swung the bone at a dry patch on the spirit’s arm, and the limb shattered. Earthen clumps sprayed through the air and scattered across the ground.

  The mud spirit charged at me, and I stepped aside and cracked one of his dry patches with my bone weapon. While he had his back to me, I snatched up more dirt and flung it. The dirt struck his back, and the skin dried out and split.

  The whole body of the spirit was thickening. Mud that had previously run across his surface now oozed with glacial slowness. His exterior was dry and cracked from his feet all the way to his knees, as contact with the ground used up his liquid. He kept charging at me, but I didn’t even bother striking anymore. I just flung sand at him and backed away, easily able to avoid his increasingly lumbering progress.

  At last, the spirit seemed to realize what was happening. He turned his head toward the lake and heaved his crumbling feet around. I put myself between the spirit and his destination. I had both bones in my hands again, raised like a pair of swords. The spirit groaned and lifted a hand to fight me, but he could barely move. He had become so dry that everything was slowing down, while the heat of this desert land baked him solid.

  “Ready for the big finale?” I asked.

  The spirit opened his mouth, and I could see the desperation in his eyes. But he would not have shown me any mercy, and I had none for him. I swung the bones inward with all my strength, and they hit the spirit on either side of his torso. In a shower of dried earth, his body shattered.

  I closed my eyes and felt the spirit realm recede. When I opened them again, I was back in the cave, listening to the snoring of my students.

  I sat in the darkness and brought my attention to the power inside me. The earth and water channels were stronger than ever, almost overflowing with Vigor. Some of the magic that made up the spirit realm had come back with me.

  I drew a portion of each element away from the main flow and gathered them in my gut. They were like two weights bearing down on me, each solid and separate. Slowly, taking a deep breath with each push, I started to meld them together. The power didn’t want to go, each pool of Vigor trying to retain its own unique nature.

  But my battle in the spirit realm had earned me the strength and the understanding to do this. I squeezed and squeezed, using all my Augmenting power, and at last, the two forces merged. I kept on tightening, and that pool of power hardened to become the solid, pulsing point of a mud core.

  Mud power flowed through me for the first time, thick and rich and glorious, and I almost laughed out loud.

  “Well done, Swordslinger,” Yono said, her voice as soft as silk inside my head. “Do you know how many Augmenters even bother to try to learn to work with mud? Almost none. But here you are, mastering it in a single night.”

  “What will it let me do?” I asked.

  “For now, two new techniques,” she said. “First is Mud Geyser. This creates an enormous pillar of mud shooting out of the ground. It takes a lot of Vigor, but the results can be positively explosive. It will blind and debilitate targets, giving you a chance to take them out.

  “The second technique is Mud Entrapment. Choose a target and direct this technique to the ground around them. It will create a pool of mud like quicksand, from which it is almost impossible to break free.”

  “So, mud is all about slowing down my opponents?”

  “That is when it is at its strongest, yes. It’s not an offensive element, like fire or wood, but one that is used to enhance your other maneuvers. And it can be used in surprising ways. A gifted Augmenter can use Mud Entrapment to soften the ground ahead of them when they use Hidden Burrow, the technique Tahlis uses to dart around. Used through such soft ground, Hidden Burrow becomes even faster and lets you take enemies completely by surprise.”

  I hadn’t learned Hidden Burrow yet, and I wasn’t sure how useful it would be against the cultists in Hyng’or. I’d managed to defeat Mahrai’s golem, but I figured that had been mostly due to the element of surprise. Mahrai would know that I was an Elementalist now, so she and the rest of the cultists would likely be better prepared next time we met.

  Still, having Mud Entrapment and Mud Geyser in my arsenal would provide us with a critical advantage.

  I returned to where the others were sleeping, put my weapons down, rolled out my blanket, and settled down. As I closed my eyes, I reached out to touch the Depthless Dream one more time.

  “Thank you for your help tonight,” I said.

  “It is always a pleasure to help you, Swordslinger,” Yono replied. “As it is to help any friend of Kumi’s. Your princess is as dear to me as she is to all the Qihin people.”

  “I wanted to ask, why are you bound in that trident?”

  “I did things the other demigods didn’t approve of.”

  “What sorts of things?”

  “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

  A brief image appeared in my mind—the face of a beautiful woman, winking at me. It made me laugh, but it still wasn’t answer enough.

  “I’m serious,” I said. “I’m only going to help you get free if I know you’re a safe person to let out into the world.”

  “Trust me, Swordslinger, I would do nothing to harm you or any innocents. My crimes are not ones to which you would object.”

  “But how do I know for sure that I can trust you?”

  “You don’t. That’s how trust works. But think of how I’ve helped you so far, and of the fact that King Beqai brought us together. Isn’t that enough to win me some consideration?”

  “No,” I answered honestly. “Why hide the truth from me if I don’t need to worry you might be dangerous?”

  “I am not hiding the truth. I am merely postponing its revelation.”

  “You will tell me before I find out how to let you out of the trident. Or you’re not going anywhere.”

  “A reasonable arrangement,” she answered.

  I didn’t want to risk sleeping while the initiates were on watch, so I spent my time meditating. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust them, but I preferred to be safe rather than sorry.

  I centered myself while the sound of snoring became like a metronome. The internal pathways I’d created by creating a mud core became familiar to me as I pushed Vigor through them and o
ut of them. I practiced forging and channeling but never actually implemented the two new techniques.

  Hours passed until I felt the steady breathing of someone in front of me.

  I looked up to see thee Choshi crouching beside me. She had her spear in her hand and a worried look on her face.

  “Master Ethan,” she said. “I think we’re in danger.”

  I jumped to my feet, grabbed my weapons, and followed Choshi to the entrance of the cave. Zedal stood there, quarterstaff gripped between her scaled hands as she looked out across the valley.

  The sun had just risen across Gonki, bringing the valley back to life. Stone outcrops cast deep shadows over the parched land, as did the cairns outside our cave, which sent dark fingers groping along the valley side. Crows and vultures, recently woken, circled in a clear sky, looking for any carrion that had died in the night.

  “What’s happening?” I asked quietly, aware of the other initiates still sleeping in the cave.

  “There.” Zedal pointed down the valley toward Hyng’ohr.

  The first thing that I saw was a few scattered travelers, individuals on horse and foot moving fast up the road. Before I could work out who they might be, or why Zedal and Choshi thought they were a threat, I caught sight of what was following them. A column of people, so orderly that they surely had to be troops, marching out of the city gates and up the road toward us.

  “They’re coming for us,” Choshi hissed. “They’re going to string us up, just like they did my brother.”

  Her eyes were wide and her hands trembling.

  “It’s going to be okay,” I said. “You’ve trained for this. We all have.”

  “You don’t understand.” Choshi looked straight at me. Her skin had gone pale, and her voice rose higher. “When Saruqin orders something, there’s no mercy. No taking prisoners. No asking questions. No swift deaths. If they catch us, they’ll torture us to death. I’ve seen it happen. I can’t… I won’t…”

  “Take a deep breath.” I laid my hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eyes. “You’re stronger than this. You’ve fought on before, and you can do it again.”