XVII

  Ashenblood

  We left before dawn. We had to, for our larger party required more discretion and thus travelled slower. But it did wonders for our battle prowess.

  Leila’s spear snaked between enemies, thrusting through their craniums without issue. The other two girls were no slouches either, though not as skilled as Leila. Duke was an artist, literally. High notes rang from a darkwood flute edged with rubies. Essence channelled through the instrument and called formless waves of fire into being. His music was invigorating. It lessened the strain on your muscles, softened the pressure your brain exerted on your skull. Entrancing, was what I would call it.

  One time he caught me watching him play during battle, and he winked. I did not watch him after that.

  Our increased combat potential had another benefit: there was more time for me to study Ashwing during battle. How her energy flowed. The way she preferred to attack in battle—ambushing her prey from above, then using a combination of powerful kicks and well-timed flame cutters. The careful study paid off.

  ‘She has no core.’

  Not in the classical sense. A core was the seat of a cultivator’s power. It could grow and be enhanced. The shard within Ashwing couldn’t. And a shard it was. Whenever I summoned a creature, part of the energy stored within my shard became theirs and formed a ‘core’ in the centre of their body. It wasn’t a permanent base of power.

  That shift in understanding: my power instead of theirs, changed everything. Suddenly, I was doing nothing more than manipulating my own essence.

  I couldn’t yet call Ashwing’s flame cutter on command, but I grew closer to it.

  My attention also fell on another ability of the cinderwings: Agility. The circulation required for flame cutter was complex. That of agility less so.

  Judith fired a blade into one of two prowlers charging us. Ashwing hovered over the second. I closed my eyes and raised my hand. My mind honed in on my shard and travelled through the invisible line connecting me to Ashwing.

  ‘My energy.’

  The essence within her surged through her body, spinning faster and faster until it became a whirlwind.

  Beside me, sword essence condensed. Judith echoed a warning.

  I cut down without opening my eyes, using Ashwing’s senses to guide the attack. She broke through the sky. The prowler turned, but by the time it did, her talon’s were already at its skull. Its head burst like overripe fruit, and the floor underneath with it. Blood and brain matter seeped into the cracks.

  Storm-Cutting Prowler lvl. 7 x 1 slain. Extra experience gained for killing a higher level enemy. 49 RP earned.

  The harpy’s wings furled. Her talons released the ground and squelched out of the prowler’s flesh. Winds ruffled her crimson feathers, which only grew a deeper shade of red from the blood she spilled.

  I exhaled the pressure building up within my chest. That attack had been faster than any the summon had ever launched herself.

  Judith let her spell fizzle out. She glanced from Ashwing to me.

  Other sets of eyes regarded me too, among which was Duke. He looked thoughtful.

  The rule was that the cores of monsters you killed were yours. But since no one needed the corpses, they were mine if I could use them.

  I absorbed the four prowlers we’d killed. Fuel for the cinderwings. Their tree was growing well. A quarter of the way to the next stage, perhaps. Not that getting there would achieve much. Ashwing cost twice the shard energy of a chick. Logically, her evolution would also increase by the same amount if not more.

  That’s why I spent some of the energy on cultivating the lower branches of the tree instead. The chicks could still be used in battle, especially now that I could command their agility. But there was also the danger of losing one randomly like last night. Having a store of them would be beneficial.

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  ‘Three or four will do.’

  Noon passed and the realm reached the middle of day. We camped, and I used that time to incorporate my gains. Energy rotated. Cycles passed. Each pass through my body widened my core. The difference was minute. So minute that you wouldn’t be able to see the progress with the naked eye. But it added up. From when I started at level 1, my core had already grown a quarter in size. I’d need to quadruple it again to breakthrough into the Adept stage.

  A breakthrough with your core size doubled was the minimum required to be considered decent…but being decent was not my goal.

  I aimed for an increase of two hundred percent. It was the maximum your core could take before you were to ascend, lest it broke from the strain.

  Ashenkeeper - lvl. 4 -> Ashenkeeper - lvl. 6.

  6 free stat points gained.

  Vitality: 10

  Strength: 10 (15)

  Dexterity: 9

  Fortitude: 18

  Perception: 8

  Arcane: 14

  Free Points: 0

  Finally, after outlevelling the entirety of Judith’s party, I saw fit to put points into arcane. Three in total. Two went towards vitality and the remaining one into dexterity. I’d level my strength once dexterity hit 10.

  After I finished meditating, our party got a move on again. A strange wave of calm washed over me with every step closer towards the range. One that I couldn’t quite explain. Before I could parse the feeling, Craig’s Pass lied ahead. Twin peaks stretched into the sky. Straight through them was the pass, so neat and sharp that I would’ve believed it if you told me a blade had carved it.

  What drew our attention weren’t the looming mountains though, but an encampment on the horizon.

  “That’s the Everfrost flag,” David said.

  Rows of tents were arranged in a cluster. A blue banner displaying a crescent moon surrounded by snowflakes hung from the tallest among them.

  I leaned Judith’s way and pointed to another flag. “That’s your banner, isn’t it?”

  “Yes. But not the one from the main clan.”

  Lookouts around the camp called us to a halt. They ushered us inside once they spotted Judith and Duke. Duke excused himself and trailed off towards a tent flying his colours as did David. I followed Judith, Ray and Jake.

  More than two dozen disciples loitered around the grounds, cultivating or idly chattering amongst each other. They shot glances our way as we passed by.

  ‘Why are they all here?’

  Two disciples standing guard outside the Heaven Weapon Empire tent saluted as we approached. They pushed aside the flaps, revealing a boy standing at attention. The first noticeable thing about him was that he wore a silver breastplate over his robe. Second was his size. He was a head shorter than myself, but twice my width, and carried a claymore on his back.

  The boy went to his knees. “Lady Judith, I am at your service.”

  She raised her hands. “Spare me the rituals, Garen. What’s going on? Why are all of you here?”

  “We’re launching a concentrated attack.”

  I jumped out my skin. Behind me, the flaps of the tent closed as silent as the cultivator which stepped between them. She wore nothing but a light blue dress despite the weather, leaving her long, silky smooth black hair on full display. It fell past her neck, past the blade inside a wholly blue scabbard, from which a small amount of fog oozed permanently.

  [?]

  I blinked. No level or class?

  Judith and the others inclined their heads. I followed suit. With my head down, a shiver crept over my neck as the girl stepped past, David right behind her.

  “It’s good to see you, Aurille,” Judith said.

  “The sentiment is reciprocated. You’re just in time.”

  “For the attack? Who are we attacking?”

  Aurille glanced at Garen. “It was the idea of your vassal.”

  The big man chuckled, the expression of mirth deep and rolling. “Lady Everfrost made it possible. Without her, the other clans wouldn’t have considered joining our banner. It is my desire to push through the pass together instead of in individual groups.”

  Ray nodded. “A fine plan. It’ll keep us safe from the Dragonflight.”

  “The Dragonflight?” Garen said.

  Judith relayed our experiences.

  Garen frowned. “We didn’t see any of their brood, Milady.”

  We mirrored his facial expression. My scouting had let us circumvent any encounter with the drakes and it was true that I spotted them less and less the more we neared the range. What were they doing? It made no sense not to block the pass if they were really out to hunt us down.

  ‘Could be that there aren’t enough on this side of the range.’

  Which quickly became the predominant opinion on the Dragonflight’s lack of action.

  “Whatever they’re doing,” Garen said, “I’m convinced our forces can handle it.”

  The truth, if Aurille was as powerful as her spirit let on. She couldn’t yet be an Adept as the realm didn’t allow those above level twenty-five to enter, but she must be the closest thing to it.

  ‘Just like Uncle warned.’

  Our plan was to leave early the next morning. That gave us three days to cross the valley and reach the gates to the second trial.

  “Where are the gates anyways?” I asked Judith after we sat down near a campfire.

  “Some are underground, others halfway up one of the peaks; ours is right underneath the Eastern peak.”

  Entering the valley would see us pass the Southern peak. From there, we needed to cross a bridge onto the Eastern flank of the valley.

  We settled into meditation. I was far from reaching the next level. The ashenblood tree less so. It had gestated the egg for the last three days and fed on multiple corpses. Now, it was finally ready.

  My mind travelled into the garden just as the egg cracked, or perhaps it cracked because it sensed my arrival.

  Both of the chicks and Ashwing flew overhead the ashenblood tree and cawed. A feral scent whipped up from the tree itself like a roar, and claws ripped the egg into pieces. The summon fell from its branch but landed on its feet.

  Fiery-orange fur striped with black. Embers sprouted from the feline’s crown—air snapped around it intermittently—and the earth smouldered underneath its long nails.

  [Ashenblood Cub - Grade: F | Rarity: Normal | Stage: Early]

  ‘This is supposed to be a cub?’

  It was half my size in length. Not that I would complain.

  I stepped up, the tiger eyeing me as I did so. Since it was still licking its fur clean, petting it wasn’t an option. But I smiled.

  “Welcome to the squad.”

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