The sound of blades clanging off of each other echoed off the thick stone walls around me as I exchanged lightning-quick blows with the latest weapon master to arrive at our mountain fortress.

“You are quick, young Heller, but you have no eyes. Your sword is blind.”

He moved slowly as he thrust his blade at me at an odd angle, and it was only when I moved to parry that I realized that I would have to use the ambient Qi around me to speed myself up again. Was he forcing me to use my powers?

I didn’t have time to reply to him, and I was still having a hard time understanding exactly what was happening. Jesvae had told me she was going to bring in a famous warrior from the Shieldwall – a place that, under normal circumstances, was under such constant threat that no commoners were allowed to leave voluntarily.

A journey to the Shieldwall was generally considered to be a one-way trip for commoners; nobles, on the other hand, almost always had specific sentences that they had to serve there before being allowed to leave. In some ways it was like prisons back on Old-Earth, but the sentences were not given in terms of time… they were given in terms of merit contribution… which generally meant they had to provide a certain amount of supplies, wealth, or directly earn merits by contributing on the front line fight against the beasts.

There were also a lot of commoners who were born at the Shieldwall, and for them there was only one possible means of escape – to become a noble by joining one of the Great Houses and excelling as a cultivator. No nobles were really stuck anywhere in our society, at least not formally, unless they were currently serving a sentence or had accepted a commission in one of the armies (deserting was never allowed, no matter who you were).

“One can hear neither where things are, nor where they will be, young Heller. One can only listen to the past. Close your ears, for they betray you.”

He had spouted out a good half dozen sayings in the few minutes we had been sparring, if you can call it that, and I was starting to catch onto a theme. I suspect that they were meant to make you think, and to challenge set thought patterns and beliefs. It was kind of neat, in a way, but I had no idea what he was getting at.

I kept my Qi flows active, and tried to take a closer look at him. He didn’t seem to be a cultivator, but there was… something going on, I think. It somewhat reminded me more of what I could sense from Jaws when he was really focused at the forge – but if that was the barest of tickles, then this was more like a gentle touch. And by that, I mean that while the first one you could write off to an overly active imagination, the other was tangible enough that I could be pretty certain it was real.

A sharp stinging sensation suddenly broke my focus, and with a start, I realized that when I moved to strike him, the weapon master had somehow evaded as if we had choreographed the exchange, and before I knew what was happening he had slapped his blade across my forehead.

“The rumors about you appear to be true, young Heller. I have never seen such speed as yours, not even from a Nascent Beast at the Shieldwall… except... the Merrik.”

His tone darkened at the end, although his expression remained the same, and I could sense that there might be some history between him and the Merrik (although I strongly suspect that, whatever the issue, it was one-sided).

***

House Spiritwind cultivators were insane. Well, maybe not literally insane, as I suspected they were aware of the consequences of their actions, but weaponized avalanches were about the craziest thing I had ever heard of.

An important part of what the warriors and guards stationed here in the mountains did was to keep the beast populations down. There were thousands of valleys scattered between the interconnected mountain ranges, and while it wasn’t possible to simply travel from valley to valley (mountain ranges didn’t work like that, as they were almost never composed of neat individual mountains that thrust from the earth, and were instead generally long sprawling uneven ridges of rock that randomly cut across the land as far as the eye could see), there were usually lower spots that formed naturally passages.

It was kind of like looking a gigantic maze when I examined the maps that House Spiritwind had made over the years. In order to travel north, you would often have to start by heading east, west, or even south, until you reached the lower pass that went to the next leg of your journey. All in all, travel times were exponentially longer than they would be on flat land, not to mention a whole lot more dangerous.

That is… unless you could cheat. The more powerful cultivators of House Spiritwind (skilled warriors with 20 or more years of cultivation, or just about any adult noble) were able to breathe easily in the thin air up high on the mountain ranges, and the abundant snow and ice made their journey easier, not harder.

Which leads us to our current circumstance. I hadn’t changed into my body of ice yet, but despite the many thick layers I was wearing I felt like I would have to soon. Wulfric, Tetra, and I were all using the Flameward cultivation technique to keep warm, but it was a constant struggle – we all had a lot more experience with fire than ice up to that point (when it came to cultivation, at least), and we would need at least a few more months before we could switch over to Spiritwind’s technique and adapt to the cold instead of fighting it.

Jesvae, looking quite comfortable in her form-fitting armor, had joined the rest of the House Spiritwind warriors in summoning snow and ice around us, preparing for what I was told (repeatedly) would be the most fun I had experienced in my entire life…

Avalanching. Which was riding an avalanche. Off of a mountain, all the way into a valley that contained enough beasts that it wasn’t considered safe to enter normally. Basically, we were ambushing them with an avalanche. What could possibly go wrong? Oh, let me count the ways…

But apparently it was a time-honored method of attack, and was by far the quickest and easiest way for House Spiritwind to bring the cold with them into a battle… and, apparently also the most fun. They needed to have at least two squads of experienced cultivators, plus at least one noble, to ensure that they could not only ride, but actually guide the avalanche where they wanted it to go. The preparation was key, however, as it would take a LOT more than two squads to turn an avalanche if it was headed entirely in the wrong direction.

Jesvae and the three of us had only arrived a few hours ago, but the two squads had been preparing this ambush for over a week now, and we were here to participate and gain real battle experience in what was considered a relatively controlled environment. Our instructors, who were meant to watch us from afar and get a better idea of what we could accomplish with our powers, were down much lower and on an entirely different mountain range on the opposite side of the valley. The chance of our avalanche starting another one in a nearby location on the same range was low, we were told, but not zero…

Jesvae was moving around the large circular construct of ice that we were standing on, making minor adjustments here and there until she was satisfied. Accidents did happen (though they were rare) but the benefits that the mobile favorable terrain would bring to the coming battle far outweighed any risks.

“Heller! Tetra! Wulfric! Ready yourselves for the fall, prepare your defenses.” Jesvae then suddenly let out a rare smile, “And enjoy the ride.” I think she even looked a little excited… I felt my pulse speed up, and suddenly the cold wasn’t quite as bad as before.

My friends and I exchanged quick glances, nodding to each other; Wulfric looked focused but worried, but Tetra just looked excited. We had been asked to hold off on our preparations as long as we could, and while Wulfric looked to be handling the cold well, both Tetra and I were getting pretty chilly and were almost ready to jump down the mountain ourselves if they had taken much longer.

I summoned my powers and turned my focus inwards, feeling the rush of energy course through every part of my body and shift my physical body into a living incarnation of ice. I could suddenly feel the ice and snow around me, and I almost moaned in pleasure as the bitingly chill wind morphed into a comfortable embrace. Something was shifting around us, and I could sense the energies of House Spiritwind doing something to a surprisingly intricate latticework of ice buried deep in the snow of the mountaintop.

CRRRACCCKKKK!!

I let out a low rumbling yelp of surprise as an astonishingly loud sound echoed around us without warning, and I saw a flash of indigo as Tetra’s shield absorbed some of the energy from the sound before it could damage her hearing. Wow… it was actually loud enough to be counted as an attack!? That was pretty wild.

I was alright because I didn’t really have ears in this form. I could hear the same way I could see – mysteriously; more or less because the complex rules of my cultivation technique stated that I will still be able to see, hear, and talk, as what was functionally an intelligent ice golem. Well… that, and the fact that whatever hidden rules the universe had, they worked in my favor this time.

I could actually move my seat of consciousness through my body at will, similarly to how I could in my soul-form, but it was disorienting as all heck to move (or fight, spirits forbid) while ‘seeing and hearing’ out of my kneecap, so I generally kept my senses safely in my head.

It took a moment for me to realize that we had even started moving, but once momentum started to pick up we kept gaining speed at an alarming rate. I didn’t have to worry about keeping my balance, being able to easily fuse my feet with the ice below us, but Wulfric (now in his body of iron form) was swaying dangerously as he fought for purchase. Tetra looked to be doing alright, however, and I suspected she was having almost as much fun as Jesvae, so I turned back to my large iron friend.

Wulfric was trying to circulate the Spiritwind technique to help him maintain his grip on the ice, but every time he lost his balance his concentration slipped. I tried to call out to him, but the wind whipped my words away even as the rumble of the avalanche around us drowned me out.

I opted to just silently create a sturdy railing of ice for him to grab onto, and Wulfric reached out to grasp it almost as soon as it started to appear. After he had steadied himself he was able to better focus on his cultivation, and before long he was able to keep his balance even without my help.

We exchanged wordless nods with each other as he looked back at me, and then we both focused on the rapidly growing treeline that was still far below us.

Things were about to get mental…