Chapter 10 Yes apparently I'm into caves

She woke up before the sun rose and looked confused into the horizon. ‘No nightmares again…’ she happily thought before looking at what was left of her camp below. She finished what the unknown beasts started and made sure that even an experienced tracker would need some time to recognize what he was looking at. Some tracks couldn’t be erased after all.

Then she walked north. Leaving the forest behind her, she entered the rocky and largely uncharted terrain. After walking for several hours, she encountered her first northerner. A white tiger like creature, freezing the ground wherever it threaded. “Breathtaking…” she said as she let her pack fall to the ground and readied her halberd for the approaching predator. Its blue eyes fixated on her and It pounced. She couldn’t keep up without her power and blocked the paws with the pole of her weapon, sliding back over a meter. Her tattoos started to show as she slashed towards the retreating tiger.

They circled each other moving in and out without one of them getting the upper hand. After she dodged one of the beast’s paws she managed to get a slash in on one of its hind legs. It instantly buckled and growled at her. She took a firm stance and slammed the back end of her weapons into the ground. A loud clunk resounded as she fixated her eyes on the beast’s while she circled her power through herself. It broke eye contact and showed its back while walking away.

“Good boy…” she said, using a similar tactic she used on some wolves before. She didn’t doubt that she could kill it but there was no need and she thought it a beautiful creature. ‘Very old too…’ she thought as she looked at the beautiful fur. When the thought of a comfortable blanket reached her mind the beast was already gone. She walked on as the winds got stronger and the temperature colder. The mountain range to the northeast was impassable but even here she could see the terrain rise to a height similar or higher than the mountain Dunewatch was built next to.

So she climbed and soon found the first snow she’d seen that year. Dunewatch would soon be covered too but another month or two would be needed. ‘The latest time at which they’d lose my tracks…’ she thought as she looked down over the terrain she had traveled. She couldn’t see the forest in the distance anymore. The sun was setting as she turned around with a smile and covered her face against the cold.

She found a small crevice after a quick search and got into her sleeping bag. It didn’t help much against the cold as only the wind was blocked by the crevice. ‘Need to train it anyway…let’s hope nothing is stupid or strong enough to walk through this storm…’ she thought as she activated her power. The cold immediately vanished as the tattoos became visible. Eleonora kept her power active for several hours as she ate and tried to sleep. After unleashing one’s magic, at least with an internal one it would need conscious will to not use it anymore so it was technically possible to sleep while it was active. Few did this because simply having it activated was a pretty inefficient way to train and one would suddenly wake up with a horrible headache.

It was necessary in this situation though, otherwise Eleonora would likely freeze to death, even with her improved body. Considering her recent awakening even having the power active would improve her ability by a good margin. She found sleep after only a couple minutes and had a nightmare free night in the northern storms.

Eleonora woke up to darkness and after a quick panic she punched through the snow in front of her and came out on the other side after digging for half a minute. Only after getting out did she realize her power was still on and she didn’t have a headache at all. ‘Interesting…I’ll have to test further once I find a safer place to do so.’ She thought as she deactivated it, dug out her pack and halberd and continued on her way north.

The sight of the sun rising over the snowy wild lands was breathtaking and the next hours of walking were very enjoyable to Elly. She wasn’t confronted in the morning by anything but had to hide for a while when a couple dangerous looking birds flew towards her. She didn’t know the species but wasn’t confident after feeling their power. Her magic was activated on and off while she tried to get used to both her normal and empowered new body. Her weapon was surprisingly not much of an issue, the weight and length difference to her wooden staff nearly unnoticeable to her.

She travelled like this for several days, fighting when she had to and trying to keep her energy active as often as possible and for as long as possible. She didn’t manage to reach the point of having a headache but she was cautious too not to overdo it either, let a stronger beast attack her.

The storms were vicious and sometimes prevented her to travel even with daylight. After nearly two weeks of this she found the entrance to a cave system. The change was welcome as she entered the frozen cave. She didn’t feel anything inside and could neither see nor hear anything alive. It went deep and she couldn’t explore all of it after a couple hours. ‘This will do and I guess I can run away in different directions if I have to.’ She thought as she found an open part of the cave with three tunnels leading away from it. Eleonora stored her things on some nearby rocks and again focused on feeling and hearing anything that might be a danger to her. There was nothing.

So she started to train. Her power flaring to the highest possible output she managed at the time. The light of her tattoos was reflected by the ice on the walls around her as she twirled around with her halberd, slashing and dodging against an invisible foe. After an hour of this she started to attack parts of the stone wall and was surprised by both her strength and durability of the halberd. ‘This weapon is much better made than I suspected, although I’m no smith so that is a given…’ she thought as she tried to remove the now deeply stuck weapon from its new sheath.

Eleonora stayed in her little part of the cave for over two weeks, no animal or monster made itself seen. She couldn’t make a fire as there was no wood but she had realized soon after reaching the snowy mountains that her new body wasn’t as picky with what it was given. She ate raw meat from the beasts she had killed on her way to the cave but her rations were coming to an end.

The pain started after five hours of active use and she could tolerate the pain for another three. “Take that Jonathan…” she said when the pain overwhelmed her for the first time. He proudly proclaimed once to be able to continue for two hours after he reached his normal limit. Luckily the cave wasn’t cold enough to kill her in her sleep. She had tested that when painfully staying awake in her sleeping bag for six hours straight.

‘I need to hunt.’ She thought as she finished her meal and saw there was only one more piece of meat remaining. ‘So let’s see what else this cave offers…’ So she tried the two ways she hadn’t went into before. One of them went on for around three hundred meters before she reached a dead end. Bones littered the ground. ‘Peculiar…’ she thought as she saw something behind the ice on one of the walls. She took her halberd and smashed through the ice. Her normal form now close to as powerful as she was empowered fighting against the six adventurers only a couple weeks prior. Her progress was astounding but it wasn’t enough for her. She was several years behind after all.

She knew of course that few her age would be able to stand up to even one gold level warrior but she wanted to go to the most dangerous places, and fight the most powerful beings. That was the goal of any adventurer, or it should be she thought. The thrill of the fight and the feeling of discovering a long forgotten ruin or new species of plant or animal. The legends and history books she had read fueled her in her pursuit. ‘Maybe I’ll even discover some old recipes…’ she thought as the ice shattered before her and revealed a tattered old flag. She didn’t recognize it and there was nothing else apart from the flag.

The color had long faded from the fabric but a distinct symbol was recognizable. The flag was fastened to the wall, the metal used crumbled as soon as she got through. The fabric completely frozen, still held by the ice around it, sat there and stared back at the two green eyes looking at it. ‘There were people here then, either an expedition or someone a long time ago. Perhaps there is habitable land after this endless white land of ice…’ her adventurous nature awakened again to its highest she ran back to the intersection she trained at to try the last tunnel.

She followed it for half an hour ‘This is weird…’ she thought as she noticed the walls were becoming more and more even. ‘Somebody built this…’ she concluded and her assumption was confirmed when she reached an open circular room. It was less cold than the tunnels before and she could feel magical energy in the walls around her. There was a door on the other end of the room, shut tight with glowing symbols on it. More importantly though there was a figure standing in the middle of the room.

It was a two and a half meter high humanoid looking statue. Intricate lines and symbols covered all of its body and magic periodically pulsed through it. Eleonora walked around the room and didn’t notice a change in any of it. She closed in on the figure and immediately fell into a defensive stance as she felt magic from the walls of the room flow into it. Blue eyes started to shine on the statues head as ice started to crack around its body. Then it moved. ‘Fast’…thought Eleonora as her tattoos flared up and she blocked the one edged nearly two meters long sword. Her arms trembled as she tried to withstand the pressure. After another three hits she knew there was no chance of her winning. She dodged another blow and moved backwards more and more, towards the exit.

As soon as she reached the elevated platform, the statue stopped and went back to the center. Its eyes stopped glowing as it returned to its previous posture. She breathed out and sat down. “Wow…you’re one hell of a beast….” She remarked. She sat there for a while “A test maybe? Or a guardian?” she remarked. “I could simply destroy the magical sources in the walls…but where’s the fun in that…” she smirked as she approached the statue again. It reminded her of the knights that guarded the capital city of the Empire. She’d only read descriptions but it seemed similar. ‘Full plate armor and a hair like addition to the helm.’ She got to full power as the statue charged her again, this time it was upon her even faster. She smiled as she blocked and dodged as well as she could. After two minutes a block nearly knocked the halberd out of her hands.

She laughed out loud as she retreated and saw the knight move back to the center. “This is PERFECT!!” she exclaimed and instantly ran back to the intersection, getting all of her supplies. “A warmer place to stay and a training partner.” She realized halfway back that she still didn’t solve the food problem, which dented her mood a little. She moved her stuff into the round room and reluctantly went back out, this time to hunt.