‘Heck, these guys are no joke. Even after catching them off guard we could barely damage them.’

I plopped myself down after my reserves became exhausted. The ground beneath me began to stir,

“No, no, that’s enough. I’ve got nothing else up my sleeve, promise!”

I assured Marden while shaking both of my hands. The moment the magician’s shoulders drooped I whipped out my last dagger from my sleeve and threw it at him.

“Why you-”

Marden growled as he caught it mid air and launched it back at me, slightly grazing my cheek. Well, can’t say I didn’t deserve it. I turned to see how Cato’s fight is going,

‘Hey, not ba-’

‘Oh’

‘Ouch'

Within moments Cato placed Barth in a lock that should spell victory for him, only to be launched across the clearing. Straight into a tree.

‘Poor tree, I mean- Cato’.

“Hey Marden, what do you think?”

The knight called out with a smug smile to Marden,

“I told you it was a good idea to take them in.”

Marden replied while healing Cato’s injuries.

“What do you think about them getting a job and paying for the repairs?”

‘Oh no, no no no. This better not be going where I think it is.’

“Have them leave us alone? Why not, not to mention our duty shall be finished.”

“Just what is your duty?” I asked the two.

“Each of us have to take in at least one apprentice and train them until they match or surpass us in strength” Came Marden’s reply.

“And who is this for?” I questioned.

“The same place you’ll be given tasks, the guild.”

Barth spoke up. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

“Hey, are you feeling alright? There’s no need to be shakin in fear, the place isn’t that bad.”

Marden tried to calm me down. But it wasn’t fear.

‘Cato and I are going to become actual, motherfucking ADVENTURERS!’

‘My god, life just can’t get any better!’

I started trudging towards Cato who had recovered enough to sit up. He caught a glimpse of my approaching figure and frowned.

I ignored the scowl,

“Guess what, we’re going to join an adventurer's guild and start doing jobs for them. Explore the world beyond and fight magical monsters!” I exclaimed.

“No.” Came the reply. He was stare was boring into me.

“What do you mean, ‘no’?” I asked him.

“Eagle, did you forget? I don’t care what this guild is and unless you can explain to me how it will help us find Asher or our way back, then there is no reason for us to join.”

‘The stubborn fool, he doesn’t see the glory of exploring!’

I placed my hand on my forehead and broke it down,

“Right now we are lacking strength and knowledge. The former is acquired through experience and the latter through communication, research and exploration. Now tell me, how can we do both at the same time?”

I looked at Cato who remained silent.

“The guild will give us missions, often times to eliminate threats, guard caravans and other miscellaneous tasks. Not only will we be gaining money, but also experience. As we travel to our destinations we will learn more of this world, slowly figure out where we are and how to get back. It’s exactly what we need right now!”

I exclaimed to drive the point home.

“...Fine, but as soon as we understand what’s what, we’re leaving.”

Cato stressed the last words as he started into my eyes.

“Great, I’ll let the other two know that we can leave right away.”

I turned around and pretended to not see the look of surprise on Cato’s face,

“So when are we leaving? Cato and I can grab some stuff from the cottage and be on our way.”

I shouted to the pair who were discussing something amongst themselves.

“Just go get your stuff and come here, we’ll be leaving shortly. The journey should take several days.”

Marden sent me off and started discussing some things with Barth. I was excited to the point of skipping the entire way back to the cottage.

‘Too bad the explosion ruined most of our stuff.’

However, Cato had a feeling that my latest experiment could backfire and decided to store the weaponry and electrical components in a chest across the hall. And that’s where I’m headed.

Without slowing down I bounded down the hall, pocketed a pair of P226’s, some spare clips, my laptop and two ear comms. With that my satchel was filled, this left Cato to hold some canteens, rations, and other miscellaneous items to help with camping.

Once I returned Cato was on his two feet and having a laid-back spar with Barth. Another marvelous idea came to me.

“Think fast!”

I shouted and lobbed Cato’s satch at him. He widened his eyes and just managed to grab it as it sailed over his head. A brief flare of anger flashed across his eyes.

‘No wonder we became friends, being on the edge is something he does daily. I just happen to give him a reason not to stop.’

“You might not want to drop that, we’ll need it for our trip.”

I called out to Cato. He took a peek inside and placed the strap over his shoulder. Barth eyed us over and let out a single grunt, signalling for our group of four to head towards the lands beyond. Not even an hour of silent walking later Marden gave in to his curiosity and started asking me countless questions.

How did you do this, how did you do that? What made you decide to go against my advice? A stream of countless questions poured out of the old guy. No matter what I told him, nothing made him more shocked than my initial discovery, brought on by Cato.

When he found out that I didn't isolate my fire but fuelled it with surrounding air, well, flabbergasted would be the best description. He even asked me several follow up questions just to make sure. Turns out that the sole reason for creating spells inside the box was to prevent outside interference. Essentially, unless a perfect vacuum was created, most were unable to understand what they were working with.

This also explained why I failed to create anything at first without isolation. I also had to demonstrate my flame, which was a perfect ghastly blue that burned an incredible amount of essence to sustain, compared to a yellow one. With it, I gave a half-assed explanation of fusing the fire with an amount of air that felt right. Marden just shook his head and started to work on his own flame.

The rest of the day was spent traversing across a single road, to each side of which were abundant trees. I could only imagine nature activists on Earth losing their minds over such a place.

We took a few breaks and as the last rays of light disappeared, we made camp five minutes from the road. Barth and Marden offered to take the two night shifts, leaving the next ones for us.

********

[Cato’s Perspective]

I cracked open my eyelids and gritted my teeth while raising myself up. A distant bird’s song livened my morning routine as I performed a few stretches and lightly kicked Eagle awake. Seeing as how he was oblivious to his surroundings, the night was dull and little happened.

It took ten minutes for everyone to have their gear packed up and we resumed our journey through the endless forest. During this time I continued to practise imbuing my body parts that I knew best with essence; for now it was the chest and muscle area. There were vague recollections of their names, pectoralis major, deltoids, brachialis but mainly I remembered the various diagrams presented on Eagle’s laptop.

A slight rustle to my left caught my attention, and another one to make me signal for everyone to stop. Not a moment too late as a husking body of a wolf leapt onto the middle of the road and stared straight at us. A feeling of unease settled into me but for the most part I ignored and took out my knife. Despite all the training, I still feel most comfortable with shorter weapons.

To my surprise the horned wolf turned around and bounded across to the other side of the forest. I relaxed and looked over at Eagle who was visibly shaken.

“Wh...what was that?” He uttered.

“What? It was just a wolf.”

“No, that feeling of dread that came from it – that’s not natural.”

As I sheathed my dagger I rememberd the slight sense of unease,

“Not sure what you’re talking about – just ask Marden.”

I suggested and continued walking. Eagle began to talk with the other two while I zoned them out, their language remained gibberish to me. A short while later Eagle caught up with me and started on another lecture,

“Hey, remember that strange feeling coming from the wolf before?”

“Yea, what about it?” I asked.

“In a way, it is referred to as killing intent or savagery. The basic principle is drawing up your desire for bloodshed, cruelty or personal experience with death and imbuing it with essence to project it around you or a specific area.”

Eagle piqued my interest. ‘Killing intent? Sounds familiar…’

“So why would someone waste their essence on that, it seemed pretty useless.”

I shot down Eagle’s excitement to have him demonstrate the utility of such an action.

“The reason it was ineffective is because we have either killed far more than the alpha wolf or our mentality is tougher than what it could throw at us. To prove it…”

Eagle abruptly stopped and snapped his finger. A ten ton weight crashed down on me without warning. My legs began wobbling, struggling to keep myself standing all while immense fear seeped into my very being.

Around the edges of my vision things began to grow dark, see-through figures raised themselves from the ground and began to approach. I started cycling my own essence in response, to strengthen my body. The weight lightened significantly and I could raise myself somewhat.

I turned in the direction where the feeling was coming from and stared Barth straight in the eyes.

‘Trick me once, shame on you, trick me twice, shame on me.’

I paused, thinking back to the pressure he must have exerted in the clearing.

‘Killing intent huh? Well I could probably count the number of people I have killed directly in the thousands on my fingers, but if one was to include explosions, grenades, gas attacks, well, I’d need a couple more hands…’.

An odd sensation enveloped me and I could feel a wicked grin forming. I embraced it, recalled the most brutal missions carried out by me and imagined projecting it onto Barth. No longer restricted by fear it was my turn to take revenge on the fool.

I took a single step and shock was all over his face. Another step and shock was replaced by worry, followed by fear.

‘I guess that’s enoug-’

I stopped my onslaught to be met by a wide-eyed Eagle.

“What the Fuck was that?”

Eagle shouted out.

“What do you mean? You wanted to show me the power of killing intent, well you definitely did!”

I chuckled a bit and patted him on the shoulder.

“God damn, I swear I saw the incarnation of the damn reaper himself inside you. If you fucker do that again I will personally hand over your soul to him.”

Eagle joked but I could tell that he was shaken up.

“Was it that bad?”

I asked and took a look over my shoulder at the other duo.

“When you gave off that...aura, Ignatius’ bark would seem like a whimper in comparison.”

Wheew

I let out a low whistle when Eagle told me that.

“Eagle, emoc here.”

Marden called out, I got the general jist as it was only simple words. At once they entered into a complicated discussion that I zoned out on, instead turning my attention inwards and continued practising infusing various organs with essence.

I lost track of time as we walked before Eagle caught up with me once more.

“So I talked with the others,”

Eagle started only to be interrupted,

“Yeah I could tell.”

“And saying that they were shocked would be an understatement, they went on a barrage of questions about our past. I did my best to stick to the agreed upon story, but it was clear they didn’t buy it.”

Eagle wasn’t hampered by the interjection in the least. I narrowed my eyes upon hearing the last part,

“What did they say?”

“Nothing, they just accepted my explanation and warned you to never do that again until you learn to control it.”

Eagle finished and placed his hand on my shoulder,

“And I agree with them, that shit was seriously messed up.”

“Yeah, yeah, no more killing intent for a while.”

[Heelp…..theem.]

A frail and feeble female voice rang through my head. I spun around in search for it,

“Did you hear that?”

I asked Eagle but he returned a blank stare,

“No, nothing, ar-”

I raised my hand and stopped him,

[Please….save….them.]

I was sure now, and felt the direction the plead came from.

“Eagle, give me a comm and take one for yourself. Warn those two that should they follow us, any trust between us will be ruined, if that doesn’t work think of something else.”

Eagle tossed me an ear-comm from his satchel,

“Where are we going?”

“Don’t know, someone or something asked for help in my mind, I just have a general feeling of where it came from.”

I responded and took off in the direction that felt right. Several shouts came from Barth but were soon cut short.

[“Stay hidden unless I give the signal.”]

I spoke into the ear comm. As I raced through the forest, I enhanced my entire body to avoid the incoming branches and tree trunks. I knew my speed approached a horse’s gallop and consumed essence at a rapid pace but I didn’t care. A sense of foreign urgency overwhelmed me.

After a minute I could hear various growls and yelps of pain. Following the noise I came across a pack of wolves led by an alpha from the side. The group was surrounding something backed against a tree. I turned towards Eagle and motioned for him to wait. Not wasting a single moment I grabbed my dagger and dashed forward with as much power as I could muster.

[Save….them.]

I caught one of the wolves by surprise and slit its throat without stopping. I managed to take out another one just a bit ahead in the same manner before the pack noticed me. The group of ten or so wolves broke into two and began to encircle me as well.

I still couldn’t tell who called out to me telepathically and fighting while surrounded was rather disadvantageous. I tried to make a breakthrough but the wolves would jump at me all at once, forcing me to back off or be completely shredded.

I evaded countless lunges while slashing any that overextended.

‘Dammit, I don’t have time for this!’

[Please….hurry.]

The voice rang across my head, this time barely audible. I thought back to my fight with Barth and remembered the feeling kicking off of pure air.

‘Hell, why not?’

I embued my calves, quadriceps and hamstrings with an enormous amount of essence to crouch down until my hands touched the ground and kicked off in a single spontaneous motion.

The wolves couldn’t even react as I shot upwards. At around the three meter mark I leaned toward the source of the voice and prayed to the gods for this to work.

I brought my knees in and imagined the surface tension of the air increasing hundred fold before kicking off of it. Caught off guard, I shot forward like an arrow over the wolves and had to complete another somersault to land perpendicular to a tree. I fell onto the ground with a thud and looked around.

The wolves all stared at me in shock, hesitant to approach. I took the opportunity to glance behind me and saw the most stunning creature in my life. Its figure reminded me of a tiger with heavy muscle in the upper chest, neck and paw area.

What seemed like the collapsed parent was being protected by two cubs, all of them were bleeding profusely and barely able to stand. Rage swelled inside me.

“You fuckers just try to get past me.”

I spoke with a deep, threatening tone at the wolves and they fell into a defensive stance. My interference was met with a resounding growl from the alpha.

“Now!”

I shouted for Eagle to help me out and all at once the wolves dashed forward.

I didn’t wait for them to start, instead tossed my knife upwards and pulled out a throwing knife in each hand. Coating them with essence, I whipped them at the two closest wolves who dropped dead in an instant. Their skulls pierced between the eyes.

I grabbed my air-borne knife, coated it and with a swift lunge pierced another wolf’s throat. The fourth one bit down hard on my left hand. Pain flared through my body, I turned on my left foot as a pivot and punted the overgrown dog with my right. It let go of my arm with a yelp as it was catapulted into a tree.

As I was recovering my stance from the movement, another two jumped at me but were filled with holes as soon they got within a meter. Saved by Eagle’s icicles I gave him a mental thanks.

My arm became coated with blood as it flowed through the fang wounds. But I knew I came out as the victor. Within several seconds, we took out more than half of their pack. Hesitation formed within the survivors. The alpha wolf came forward and they all parted, making way for him.

We didn’t need to exchange words to understand what the other was thinking; our actions more than self-explanatory. He leapt a bit to my side with speed beyond what I expected-

‘Shit, is he going to avoid me?’

I hastily turned to intercept him but he turned as soon as his front paws touched the ground and dashed straight at me, fangs bared. Unprepared, I could only sacrifice my left arm once more to stop the attack, hoping to finish with a knife to the jugular.

Eagle shot forth several more icicles but they bounced off his coat harmlessly.

As the alpha bit down, it brought its hind paws in and kicked me in the stomach. My knife was about to pierce his neck but the impact sent me flying a few meters. I skidded to a halt and gasped as another wave of pain rolled over my body from the long gashes in my arm. I dashed forward, but I was too late. An opening was created and the alpha took it.

One of the cubs tried to jump at its neck but was batted away without effort. The second one’s front paw gave out and it collapsed. Before the little one could be devoured the parent’s magnificent tail whipped out, taking the cub’s place and was gnawed on instead. The striped tail was coated with a sliver of essence, but not enough. Blood filled the wolf’s mouth and flowed down its chin.

I threw my dagger straight at its head. The wolf let go and twisted its neck to avoid the knife. However I had one last throwing dagger that I pulled out. The alpha seemed intelligent enough to try and avoid my charge with a metal weapon.

I smiled to myself as I realized its build didn’t allow it to jump backwards fast enough while its sides were blocked by the parent and dead bodies. In a last ditch resort the alpha leapt upwards but I saw that coming and followed with ease. From below I had the advantage and finished the job as I originally planned.

I yanked the knife out and blood spurted out from the jugular. The few remaining wolves ran off with their tails between their legs at the sight of their leader’s body collapsing.

[Thank….you.]

I turned to the parent, its eyes closed and the body no longer moving.