As Riyxia remained transfixed upon her own thoughts, a second howl echoed in reply to the first. Taking reflection of the sound, she realized that simply ignoring it as background might not be the best course of action.

Riyxia got up and started making her way back with a sense of urgency, but it was too late. No more than a few steps later, she discovered she was in fact surrounded by a pack of beasts. Unless there were more hiding behind the rocks, which was certainly a possibility, she expected there was no less than a dozen of the things, maybe even a score. Gray manes cloaked their presence fairly efficiently, while her own colored outfit stood out as plain as day, making it very obvious why the hunters frequently opted to wear gray colors. The beast stood on all fours, though she wasn’t going to fall for such expectations twice, she knew better than to expect they would remain on all fours at all times. It wasn’t the same kind of beast either, which alone was fortunate given the numbers. First of all, these things stood no taller than her thighs, and would still be a bit shorter than her were they actually capable of standing on their hind legs. However, they looked fast, seemed keenly capable in claw and fang, and had her vastly outnumbered.

The first of them charged her, keen on testing her abilities. This beast found itself suddenly slowed in its approach, getting a rising kick to the snout once it was in range, followed by a descending kick in its reversal. She then decreased its resistance to kinetic force, and kicked it into the air, sending it flying abnormally far down the mountain face, to then shatter on impact with a protruding rock. That was one down. A second charged her, along with two friends. The concept that her gift could be reversed was something she was becoming keenly aware of, she could grant or withdraw strength, grant or withdraw speed. Endurance, resistance, many such things she could give or take away. However, her gift was also capable of giving healing, mending wounds. She turned her gift on the middle of the ones charging her, which suddenly convulsed before her, knocking down it’s peers, before otherwise dying unexpectedly. It had a wound set open the entire length of its body, the whole thing unmended, it’s life pouring from it rapidly in no less than a moment. While it’s peers staggered, so too did she, a wound like that would have taken a lot to mend, and it likewise took a lot from her to unmend. Her moment of weakness, and the faltering of the few sent to charge, was enough to inspire the rest of the pack, as she found herself suddenly swarmed.

With no ability to lead with her gift, she led with her form, jumping into the air over a couple of them and spinning around to strike them from behind. Without her gift, the wounds were not so dramatically fatal, but her natural ability was still remarkable, having removed a beast’s leg in that single strike. Without alternative, she set into her foes like a feral beast herself, tearing her foes apart with a natural ferocity, practically snarling herself in the process. Before the beasts could regroup, they had 5 more dead, 3 critically injured. The last two visible that remained yet unharmed started to back away slowly, suddenly not liking these odds, the three critically injured were hardly able to move at all, whimpering in pain. Riyxia took the opportunity to catch her breath, waiting to see if they were trying to have her drop her guard, or if they would really retreat. One of the injured close to her though tried to snap at her, getting its head dislocated instead. The other two started to cry out.

Suddenly leaping before the two unharmed beasts was one measurably bigger, spanning well over her own height even on all fours. It didn’t take much insight to be aware that this would be the pack’s leader, a beast which looked visibly enraged, snarling at her with a venomous glare. She backed away from the two injured at her feet and adopted a pose ready for a strike. This one looked tough enough that she couldn’t expect her casual strikes to be as effective, she would have to make use of her gift in order to achieve any results at all. The leader in turn stepped beyond the injured, visibly protecting them from further harm. She considered this personally unjust, they were the ones who attacked her, even if most of them were dead as a result. She didn’t even want to stick around anymore, but no one was letting her go.

The beast charged at her, fangs bared. Riyxia went for a drop in durability and speed, striking the beast with a fist right in the snout, a crunch sound resounding on impact. The beast skittered backwards in pain, not having accounted for such considerable strength. The beast charged at her again in feign, followed by a claw sweep of her legs after dashing to the side. Getting caught off guard, she opted for the defensive, reducing its strength so that the swipe didn’t even penetrate her clothes. Riyxia was certain that she really didn’t want to do this right now, and wished the stupid thing would just let her go. She backed off and started making her way towards the hunter’s shelter, which only invited her opponent to come charging towards her. When it got close, she slowed it down to a crawl, a spin kick slamming it in the side of the head no matter how it tried to feign her. The blow however had no additional impact, devoting her gift at that time to dominate with speed, so the beast’s skull endured the blow completely, only leaving it slightly dazed for a moment. In this moment, she turned her fury and frustration on it, snarling at it in a visibly feral rage. The beast actually stumbled back at this, even if she was but a short elf with an elven voice, there was something in that moment that actually instilled a sense of fear, even in such a great beast. She resumed backing up carefully, the beast sitting it’s distance away, watching her closely. Once she had gone far enough, it turned away to attend to its pack, leaving her alone.

Somehow, she had managed to convey that she only wanted to be left alone, and that it should get lost. More so, it had even allowed such, possibly because by that point it was about as interested in keeping going as she was. This might be a lesson she would need to consider in the future, not to let her guard down while in the mountains. The place was filled with ravenous beasts, waiting to jump someone showing even a moment of weakness. Considering their last two encounters, the situation seemed especially dangerous, herself having been taken out without warning right at the start because she had left her guard down. Being on her own like that, if she had fallen for the same thing, she probably would not have survived.

She arrived to find Sryine and Vwyx worried, a bunch of hunters with them, including Dhyinze and Nuiqhyx. The group had looked like they had just formed up a rescue party and were about to set off to find her. Sryine’s expression was especially scolding, as Vwyx sighed in relief. She waved casually, the blood on her hand of her foes dripping from it in the process, not especially helping the situation. Vwyx was all over her as a result, making sure she wasn’t injured. All things considered, she probably looked like a rather grim sight, considering all the blood she just swam through. In consideration of that, she really wanted to go get cleaned up. Once Vwyx had completed enough of an assessment to be sure Riyxia was alright, Riyxia headed straight to the shelter, so that she could get cleaned up. Vwyx and Sryine shrugged at each other, still having no idea what they had just missed while their back was turned, but hopefully whatever it was, Riyxia had gotten things worked out.

Dinner proceeded soon after that, with Riyxia heading for bed early. She wanted some extra physical rest after the day, and wanted to also be sure to compensate for her night’s plan. In the middle of the night, while everyone was fast asleep, she awoke her body and clambered off to a different room for a short rest. Leaving her body there to return to slumber, she exited the shelter spectrally and took account of the night’s sky. The city itself had gone pitch black, and the clouds had cleared up completely, leaving the stars fully exposed. She tried to climb a few taller boxes to gain a better vantage, only to discover that her body was actually better at climbing than her specter. The concept of having things to hold when climbing probably accounted for most of that. Finding an alternate spot, she just relaxed, taking in the sights.

Colors were so much harder to spot in darkness, but she knew they were there. Darkness was when life got to hide or rest, whichever it felt fit its fancy. In darkness, you could never tell what was alive and what was dead. The city looked colorless from here, its colors hidden by nightfall. Both grass and stone appear black at night, making it impossible to compare life and death. The black night and white stars, colorless features appearing of death, but only because she couldn’t see the life. The mantle of night was a shroud to conceal the truth between life and death, when everything needed to appear as death in order for life to preserve. It was much like her recent encounter with the beasts, in order for her to bring life, she had to appear as death itself. The beasts had refused to let her go until she took upon herself the mantle of death. The pack itself only backed off when she had shown herself capable, the pack leader having more demands but with much of the same requirements. Life and death walked hand in hand, such is why her healing was actually capable of causing harm.

Even knowing this, she did not find it the most comfortable thing. Hiding the state of life and death, such secrets could harm in ignorance just as they could in knowledge. Her friends had been worried if she was okay, not having clarity in her own state of wellbeing. The pack leader had approached clearly troubled in its own ignorance between the future life or death of its pack. Night hides the colors of the living, but only ever for a time, as everyone needs day to come to make them certain that life still remains. She turned to look upon the stars, still looking lifeless from this distance. It was a feeling she herself might take for granted, as even the cycle of night and day did nothing to raise her ignorance of the stars. She needed to find a way to get such knowledge for herself, hopefully someday. She needed to learn what beyond the world she lived in really was alive, where laid the boundary between life and death of the stars.

It was a lot to think about, but fortunately her nights provided a lot of time for thought. She continued to tend to her thoughts in the serenity of her scenery for a while longer, then woke up her body once again and made her way back to the more comfortable bed for the remainder of the night. Having over-rested, she found herself awakening well before anyone else, so she returned to her body and just awoke for real. With some extra time to spare before obligations, she set her mind to rest actually doing things physically in preparation for the day’s lessons.

Sryine was the next to wake up, still before the appointed time, but much later than Riyxia. She had also gotten to sleep a bit early, having worn out her options in boredom. It was a bit concerning that Riyxia wasn’t around, more so when Riyxia couldn’t be found in the spare room either. A glance around showed no sign of Riyxia’s spectre either, meaning she was either in her body or out of range. Sometimes, she wished she simply had Riyxia’s quality of sight in this regard, being capable of seeing spectres at all times when close enough sounded way better. She looked around for Riyxia until people started to wake up. She then returned to her room to find Vwyx awake and Riyxia returned. Riyxia was getting changed in the darkness, Vwyx had very obviously just woken up.

“Oh, Sryine, you’re back. We were wondering where you had wandered off to in the middle of the night.” “Me, I.. but… Hey! I had only gone to find Riyxia, who wasn’t here when I woke up.” “She was here when I woke up, you must have just missed each other.” Vwyx let the matter drop, noticing Sryine was getting flustered. Both of them had fallen behind Riyxia in getting ready for the day. Sryine turned on the light just after Riyxia wanted off again, leaving Sryine and Vwyx to rush to catch up. They both got into a set of the colourful uniforms which Sryine had prepared for them, eventually making it into the common area after their morning preparations were completed. They scanned the room for the color tones Riyxia wore, typically making her easy to spot in the sea of gray, but with no success. Vwyx found Dhyinze in the meanwhile, someone who had hopefully seen Riyxia.

“Hey, Dhyinze, have you seen Riyxia anywhere?” “I’m right beside you?” “Ah!! Riyxia, totally didn’t notice you there. Wait, why are you wearing such an outfit? It’s so bland and colorless.” “Yeah, but it can be occasionally refreshing to change things up a bit. At least I didn’t go slate gray, right?” “But solid black? You look like a blob of darkness, really hard to spot too. When did you get that done up anyway?” “This morning? I even managed to keep the star thing you came up with as an emblem.” Vwyx tried to ask where Riyxia was, only for the conversation to be immediately interrupted by Riyxia and Sryine. Dhyinze shrugged as Vwyx sighed. Riyxia felt like this was quick proof of her overnight thoughts, people worry when they are so uncertain. The color didn’t appeal to her greatest of interests either, but she still felt this was a valuable opportunity.

Training began with combat, but this time they would be pitted against a hunter using practice weapons using their style of choice. The stipulation of not being allowed to use the gift was an added touch, even despite Sryine’s protests that an illusionary weapon could totally be designed to not cause any injury or even harm. Vwyx would even consider that her ability to reshape materials would be fair if the given material was already soft, but such inclusions wouldn’t be fair for Riyxia. Riyxia’s gift was probably the only one that just simply caused an advantage, that’s what the whole purpose of it was. So Sryine was given a rapier foil that buckles on contact, but otherwise works like a Rapier. Vwyx opted for a soft hammer, feeling that such would make more sense in her hands than a soft axe. Riyxia was given some soft gloves, to weaken the impact of her punches, an option that was better than silly shoes. The three of them took to their makeshift arena, facing off hunters who were far more experienced than them, but did not favour the exact style they were working with.

Sryine and Vwyx took up their weapons and faced their opponent. Through a couple of matches, they actually fared reasonably well, suffering occasionally when their opponent applied strong angles of experience, but accomplishing some results by their natural ability. Vwyx’s physical aptitude gave her an even better advantage, occasionally being enough to outmaneuver her opponent even when they were being clever. Sryine was mostly certain that she would do far better holding weapons that were even more her own style, even if they were only illusionary mock weapons.

Riyxia faced off against her opponent, also wearing the strange gloves. She took a deep breath, glancing around the wide room. Her opponent tested out a few punches in the air before approaching her. Starting the first round like that, it was quickly a win from her opponent, a clean jab against her shoulder, having her sprawl backwards. Already, being caught so unexpectedly had worked against her, having her lose again instantly. The thought aggravated her, her fury rising. She set up for another round, and her opponent came at her with another jab. She backed away instantly and switched off to the side, her opponent losing her instantly in the darkness. Suddenly showing up from her opponents flank, she howled ferociously, her opponent freaking out in terror and taking the blow without properly blocking. Even with the padding, her opponent went flying through the air and landed a distance away, unconscious. She rushed over to check things out, discovering her opponent had suffered a light concusion on collision and a severely torn muscle from the punch itself that left some internal bleeding. She had connected with her opponents upper arm from the side.

She discarded her gloves and helped with providing suitable healing, but they would have to call things off from there. Frustrated she wandered towards one of the nearby heavy armor dummies and vented her frustration on it with a direct punch. The strike shattered the metal, sending a number of metal fragments scattering everywhere as the other half of the body collapsed against the wall behind it, the solid slab wall also damaged in the impact as a large chunk fell to the ground and the whole building shook. Riyxia wandered off to go cool her head as the others watched her leave. Vwyx made sure to complete some repairs on the damage left behind as Sryine was seriously questioning why she wasn’t allowed to use an illusion here.

There were tales later among the hunters when Riyxia’s black shroud fumed out of the room like a shade of death. Riyxia was already back into her regular uniform long before lunch, ready to participate in other forms of training.