CHAPTER 31 – ELEGANT DESTRUCTION

  For a few seconds, Duncan just stared at the notification he’d gotten the moment the giant buzzard was dead.

  “I swear…” he heard Phevona mutter to herself as she walked over to the dead bird. “I can’t believe those two sword maniacs never explained any of this to you.”

  Finally pulling his attention away from the words, Duncan looked up at Phevona for answers.

  “We won’t always get realm coins for kills inside temporary realms. Sometimes it’s just the most dangerous predators and the primes that reward them. When they are rewarded, though, it will give everyone who participated in the battle an equal reward. If more than a typical six-person team participates, the rewards will be split based on contribution. So, the two coins we each just got would still be two for each person in a six-person team.”

  Before Duncan could ask another question, Phevona cut it. “And before you ask, we didn’t get any coins from kills during our Subject Trials because we didn’t have a Subject Interface for the realm to interact with. You’ll notice the coins didn’t actually appear; they got deposited directly into your interface.”

  Deciding to confirm it for himself, Duncan pulled up his current realm coin balance.

  He’d only had four tier one coins after their shopping spree in Kunora.

  “This is nothing,” Phevona said, once again dragging Duncan’s attention away from his Subject Interface. “Wait until we get the clear rewards. The Adventurers’ Guild may reward 50 tier one realm coins for a mission like this, but most of our value will come from the rewards for clearing the realm.”

  Duncan was starting to realize just how single-minded he, Cinder, and Neta had been. Every moment of training had been dedicated to forging him into a perfect sword, and the O’Leons tended to focus on family bonding and a few too many pranks during their free time.

  “And…” Phevona dragged the word out as she began inspecting the carcass,” There’s always the possibility of finding valuable resources.” She continued moving around the body, determining if anything was worth harvesting from the creature.

  Instead of joining her, Duncan placed his hand on the buzzard’s beak and sent the entire carcass into [Quintessential Armory]. The bird was around half Duncan’s size, so it didn’t take up too much of his eight cubic meter storage space.

  “I’ll store what I can until we’re out of here or regrouped with Sonny,” Duncan explained at Phevona’s questioning expression. The team’s scout was much better than they were at processing monster carcasses. “We shouldn’t let our guard down too much in here, especially since we’re split up and don’t have a full team to begin with. I probably shouldn’t have let the rewards distract me.”

  Phevona stood from where she’d been inspecting the buzzard. “Good point. Let’s keep moving along the edge of the plateau.”

  They proceeded along their earlier route, this time making sure to pay close attention to the sky. Duncan led the way, watching ahead and above, while Phevona’s gaze swept their flanks and back.

  For 30 minutes, they proceeded like this, not running into any new monsters, but spotting plenty of normal, tier zero animals and insects. Duncan recognized some of them as similar to creatures from Earth, while others were utterly foreign to him.

  He could name and describe every monster native to Corvelin due to his mother’s training and the Academy’s lessons, but Corvelin was just one nation on one realm.

  As they proceeded along the cliffside, looking down into the canyon below for signs of activity, Duncan suddenly felt a slight mental tug, signaling he had a notification.

  They’d already tested Sonny’s Ability to share his map on their journey to the first realm entrance, so Duncan knew what to expect. As soon as he willed the notification closed, a transparent map icon appeared in the corner of his vision. All he had to do was mentally select the icon, and a three-dimensional map would appear in his vision. He could even customize the dimensions, location, and transparency of the map.

  “You get that, too?” Duncan asked.

  “Yeah,” Phevona replied, pausing beside him. “Hopefully, he found a prime.” A few moments of silence followed as she checked the map while Duncan kept watch. “Looks like it’s a few kilometers that way.” She pointed into the plateau’s interior, almost perpendicular to the cliff top they’d been traveling along. Large boulders and a smattering of plants broke up the landscape, preventing them from seeing too far in any direction other than down into the canyon.

  Duncan took a second to examine the map’s details for himself, keeping the three-dimensional image transparent and in the corner of his vision so he could stay on guard. The map showed almost no detail of the route he and Phevona had taken up to that point, nor the land directly between them and the two slowly blinking green dots that signified Sonny and DJ.

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  As Duncan willed the map to zoom out for a wider view, some of the dark, empty background filled in with color and detail. A clear line of vibrance showed what he assumed was Sonny and DJ’s path from the realm entrance. The only other spot of detail was exactly where Duncan and Phevona were standing.

  “Looks like we can fill in details for Sonny while he’s sharing [Map Of The Realms],” Duncan said as he closed the map, which turned back into its transparent icon in the corner of his vision.

  “Convenient,” Phevona muttered, her eyes distant as she started to factor the new information into her plans. “Let’s hope the details we provide stay after [Point The Way] runs out.” While Sonny’s Fusion Ability was convenient, it was by no means a permanent effect. It still took a steady stream of mana to share his map with his packmates.

  It didn’t take them long to cover the distance between them and Sonny as they decided to opt for speed over stealth. The moment they jumped onto a large boulder close to the center of the plateau, the map icons they’d been occasionally referencing disappeared from their vision.

  “Over here,” they heard, turning to find Sonny sitting on top of a boulder of his own just ten meters away. DJ lay behind him, providing the wolfkin with a large, shaggy backrest. “You two run into any monsters since we entered?”

  “Just this,” Duncan replied, hopping down to the sandy ground between the boulders and summoning the buzzard’s remains. “Dove on us early on. Not too strong, more of an ambush predator if I had to guess.”

  “DJ and I saw a couple of those as well,” Sonny said, standing to allow his bonded beast to jump down and sniff at the carcass. “We found two of them on the ground, tearing into something already dead. I didn’t want to stick around there long enough for more than a quick investigation.”

  Phevona stepped up to DJ and scratched at the midnight wolf’s ears as he continued sniffing the carcass. “Any signs of a prime?”

  “I think so,” Sonny said, pointing in the opposite direction from which Duncan and Phevona had come. “I could sense a large gathering of mana almost dead center of the plateau. It has to be pretty strong if I can do that as a fresh tier one with no dedicated mana-sensing Ability. Maybe more than one prime, or one of the primes has found something worth guarding.”

  Phevona perked up at the possibility of a valuable resource being in play. “I got close enough to have a quick look, but didn’t see more than a large fissure cut into the ground,” Sonny continued. “I didn’t want to risk getting too close without you two here.”

  “Alright,” Phevona replied. “Sounds like that fissure might be our best option at the moment. Let’s go see what we’re dealing with.”

  Duncan sent the buzzard back into [Quintessential Armory], then began advancing toward the fissure. Phevona and Sonny took up positions a few meters behind and to either side of him, while DJ trailed the group as rear scout.

  After two minutes of steady walking, they arrived to find precisely what Sonny had described. A large fissure nearly three meters wide and 100 meters long waited for them in the middle of the plateau. The closer they got, the easier it was to feel the heavy blanket of mana emanating from the fissure’s depths.

  Just as Duncan reached the edge of the scar in the ground to look into the darkness below, he heard a short, loud bark of warning from behind.

  He immediately retreated from the fissure's edge, putting at least ten meters between himself and its sharp drop. When he finally stopped, Phevona and Sonny were there, flanking him on either side and ready for battle.

  Glancing back at where he’d heard the bark, Duncan found DJ staring up at the sky, his teeth bared and his hackles raised. Duncan followed the wolf’s gaze, and his heart began to drum a quicker beat when he saw what had caused DJ to raise the alarm.

  Close to 15 buzzards, just like the one that currently lay dead in Duncan’s spatial storage, were circling in the sky directly above them. They were slowly descending in wide circles, coming closer and closer to the ground and the group of outsiders in their territory.

  “Sonny, your bow is our best offensive option here. DJ, you’re on guard duty. Make sure nothing gets close to Sonny. Duncan…” Phevona looked over at her brother. They made eye contact, and he knew exactly what she wanted. She needed a distraction. He nodded, making sure she knew he trusted her, then ran.

  He ran straight for the fissure, then jumped the three meters from one side to the other. There was more open space on this side. He’d need room to move since there wasn’t any good cover close to them. He sent the arming sword he’d been holding in his right hand back into [Quintessential Armory], summoning his second short sword in its place. He’d need to be fast.

  Seeing one of their targets split off on its own, the buzzards decided it was time to act. They dove, pressing their wings into their bodies and angling themselves nearly straight down for maximum acceleration.

  Duncan’s breaths came in a deep, steady cadence. He took one last moment to scan his surroundings, then took a stance full of grace and anticipation.

  Most of the attacking buzzards did little to slow their rapid descent, merely leveling their bodies perpendicular to the rocky desert floor. They stretched their talons out, grasping for their solitary prey with speed no ordinary tier one could hope to escape.

  Duncan O’Leon was no ordinary tier one, however. He was the direct student of Cinder and Orneta O’Leon, two of the greatest wielders of the sword in Dintarnum, and possibly in existence. He’d been forged through the heat and pressure of ceaseless training and an unmatched passion for swordplay. He was THE QUINTESSENTIAL SWORD.

  It took a mere thought to activate [Sword Kin], his mana levels dipping to cover the Ability’s moderate mana cost. In an instant, his body surged with new capability, the bonded short sword he’d chosen as [Sword Kin]'s target granting him its characteristic celerity.

  The first buzzard to reach him was also the first to die, its extreme speed doing more harm than good as Duncan used his newly enhanced quickness to sidestep the buzzard’s attack. Instead of sharp talons meeting human flesh, cold steel split feathered mass, leaving two halves where there had once been a single whole.

  The first was not the last, and buzzard after buzzard dove from the sky in groups of two and three. The temporary realm’s yellow sun brought bright spots to Duncan’s eyes as he forced himself to focus on his adversaries up in the sky.

  He met each attack with a combination of peerless footwork and merciless retaliation. He was swiftness incarnate. Grace personified. He danced to a tempo of elegant destruction, his swords eager for blood and death.

  Sonny’s arrows soon joined the twister of feathers and talons circling and diving around Duncan. Bodies fell from the sky, some dead and others too wounded to stay aloft. Those that survived to reach the ground soon found themselves surrounded by a prison of growing plants. The little mana the buzzards held in their bodies was syphoned, allowing the vegetation to expand more rapidly.

  Before a minute had passed, Duncan stood alone in the dirt and sand, carcasses covering the ground around him, some dead by his swords, others pierced by Sonny’s arrows. A few beasts still lived, squawking and squirming in Phevona’s plants like insects caught in a spider’s web. A few quick stabs put an end to their struggles.

  The silence after the wild skirmish was uncanny, and Duncan’s heavy breathing was nearly deafening as he scanned for additional threats. Soon enough, [Sword Kin]’s timer ran out, and he felt the speed that had filled his body just a moment ago vanish. He instinctively knew the Ability’s two-minute cooldown had begun the moment the boost had ended.

  Another minute passed as everyone remained quiet, waiting for something to come and check what had caused such a commotion. Nothing arrived, however, and they all began to relax as the others joined Duncan on the other side of the fissure.

  Sonny whistled, his eyes widening in admiration. “I know I’ve said this before, but you are a true savant with a sword in your hands.” The wolfkin looked down at the duel short swords Duncan held, both covered in blood. “Or swords, in this case.”

  Duncan smiled at his friend, summoning a simple rag from his storage to wipe his swords clean. “You did some nice shooting yourself.” More than half of the bodies on the ground were pierced by Sonny’s arrows, leaving little doubt who’d done most of the actual killing during the fight.

  “If you two are done complementing each other?” Phevona walked up to Duncan and began checking him over for injuries. While there was nothing too serious, he hadn’t escaped harm entirely.

  Phevona pulled her wand out of its thigh holster, triggering the minor healing Ability enchanted into its structure. The effects were immediate, yet slow. Shallow cuts along Duncan’s arms, shoulders, and back slowly began to close, relieving some of the pain he’d been ignoring since he’d received the first injury.

  Phevona sighed two minutes later when she’d finished, ignoring Duncan’s nod of thanks. “It’s so much slower than my old wand, and I can’t even use my own mana to increase the effects.”

  Duncan patted his team leader on the shoulder. “First Ability Slip we find that has any chance of unlocking a healing Ability is yours.” Sonny nodded in agreement.

  It took them nearly ten minutes to sort out the useless carcasses, and Duncan ended up storing seven more buzzards in [Quintessential Armory].

  “So,” Sonny started, looking down into the fissure that had drawn them to this place. “What now?”

  Phevona moved over to the edge, and soon a circle of plants began sprouting from the ground. Branches and roots slowly grew up and out from Phevona’s [Leach Trap], while one vine in particular lengthened much quicker than the rest, reaching down into the fissure, like a rope leading into a dark abyss.

  Nothing was said after that, Sonny and Phevona looking at Duncan expectantly.

  Duncan let out a sigh, reluctant acceptance plain on his face. ‘I’m always going to be the one to go first, aren’t I?’ he complained to himself.