Rushing back to the tent, I pushed through the flaps to find Toria already climbing to her feet, assisted by Darina.

“I take it you heard that?”

“It was loud enough to deafen a Focus stage, so yes, we heard it, Hunter.”

“I’m going to go with the guards, I don’t know whether Reff and Riffa will still be there, but we know that all the unconscious should be.”

“You need to rest, Hunter; we all do. You’ll be no help if you run out of energy again, or suffer a major wound while I’m not around. You relied on your healing to carry you through whatever idiocy you got yourself into, but it's still supressed, and you’re injured.”

“Darina is right... Hunter. You cannot be everywhere, cannot fight every battle. You are no god, or even an Apex. You, like us, are merely mortal.”

I stood a moment in mild shock; these were not sentiments I could recall hearing from either of them before, or from anybody, really, since my arrival. Every time I had met a fight that needed fighting, I had waded in, and those with me. It had never been a question, unless the fact of a fight was itself a question.

My first instinct was to dismiss the urges away from the battle, but though I could indeed be an idiot, I liked to think that was not who I was. Who I am. So, I paused in the entrance, thinking.

I was at full strength, from the potion I had almost drowned on, but large parts of me were still fairly burned, even if I was in much better shape than Toria, or even than I had been earlier. Several healing pills and hours had taken the most painful edges off my injuries, but I had not even fully recovered from my broken ankle and arm yet, and I thought my right hand might need attention from Darina to stand a chance of being fully functional again.

On the other hand, I had a mission, and a threat hanging over me; as vague as it was, I had no idea what might constitute a wilful lack of effort on my part. And, really, I had no interest in letting innocent people die, if I could prevent it.

I was about to open my mouth, to say I was going when Darina interrupted me, the look on her face and the tone of her voice stating clearly that she knew what I was about to say, and that she was trying to persuade me otherwise.

“Hunter. Reff and Riffa will be fine, they’re strong, and regardless of whether they are at the Guard headquarters or the City’s Edge, they’re inside of a fortress. Come with us back to the inn, we’ll check if they’re there and you can perhaps work on your channels.”

Toria frowned at that, looking confusedly back and forth between us, though it was a little hard to gauge her expression give the lack of eyebrows and general damage to her face. Ignoring the look, the apprentice healer went on.

“Your Praxis reserves should be full, and we have another bottle of the potion; you may not be in this position again for a long time, Hunter. If you burn your energy fighting in this battle, you may not have chance again for weeks. Or longer.”

She made a good point, and we both knew it. For a normal cultivator, recovering from a fight might take some hours, but for me, who went through as much energy as I did, it was the work of days, and with as hectic as the last couple of days had been, and with the state of the city and the threat of the Risen Throne and the sects, it really might be a long time before I could do anything about it, with my reserves sinking lower and lower until I was useless. I could not rely on the Guard giving me an endless supply of the bottles; they seemed to have a bunch, but I had no idea if that was truth or illusion. If they ran out, or needed them elsewhere, or simply chose not to give any more to me then I would quickly find myself screwed in any prolonged period of battle.

“Fine. We’ll head back to the inn and see if Reff and Riffa are there. If they are, I’ll work on my channels.”

If not, I was heading to the Stone; there was no way I was leaving my friends to face some unknown attack without me.

“... Why are you working on your channels, at the Path stage... Hunter?”

*

***

*

We made it back to the inn about ten minutes later; after disassembling the test, we found all the Guards gone, with the dragon’s corpse, mysteriously. We had limped back along the streets, and thankfully encountered no more raving citizens, as I was keen to keep my energy topped up, and only Darina was really in any shape to fight.

I half expected to see the City’s Edge abandoned, with everyone gone off to hole-up at the Stone, but I should have known better; Loneth was not the type to abandon what was hers, even in the face of a dragon about to walk over it.

The owner greeted us at the door with a look that was half smile and half scowl; she had apparently seen us coming from one of the lookout windows and come down to let us in, thank us for stopping the dragon, and grumble that we had returned.

“You moved everyone over to the Blood and Bones, why are you back?”

“We paid? Also, our beds are probably more comfortable than the floor at the Stone... so...”

“Stone? Never mind. That’s what your friends, the risi said. Fine, come in. Again.”

Apparently, what the Blood Guard called their headquarters was not known to the general populace; it seemed strange until I considered the general secrecy under which the Guard operated.

“Reff and Riffa are inside?”

My voice sounded eager, and that made me feel terrible; I really wanted to work on the new patterning for my channels, but I also wanted to head off to battle; I felt bad for not going, not just for valuing my progress over helping, but for enjoying it.

Loneth did not seem to notice my tone, it might have all been in my head, a product of my sort-of-guilt. What she did do was nod sharply, before gesturing us past her, inside.

Squeezing past the woman, I watched Darina help Toria inside, and the proprietress close and lock both sets of doors behind us. The inside of the City’s Edge felt strange empty without the crowd of sleeping people; they had only been there for about a day, but I seemed to have grown used to them.

In place of the sleepers, my other two friends sat in their over-sized chairs, each reading a book, from which they looked up as we entered. At first, they both gave small, risi smiles at the sight of us, but seeing Toria, they both stood with worry written in subtle lines on their face.

“With deepest regret, you appear to be seriously hurt, Toria. I am sorry we did not come to assist you, we only recently returned from transporting the sleeping ones...”

“It’s fine, Mountain’s Rage. You would likely not have arrived in time anyway. The dragon was not... young.”

“With curious guilt, what stage was the dragon?”

“It was at least high Foundation; the limping idiot was the only one capable of keeping up.”

“Yeah, I think it was probably early Pinnacle. It was fast for something so big. For anything, really.”

“With muted shock, a Pinnacle dragon? How did any of you survive? The Blood Guard should not have arrived that quickly. Faen went ahead of us to mobilize them, and we saw them pass us, but even so, against a Pinnacle...”

Reff’s voice was as close to dumbfounded as I had ever heard it; outside a bit of healthy rage, the giant was usually unflappable in the face of pretty much anything. Even when we had been faced with beast Elders, he had been pretty calm.

“Well, first we had a nice chat. It was fairly polite, for a giant city-smashing engine of destruction, but it seemed to really enjoy the aura that was around the place, which was a bit concerning, and was unhappy that it had been cut off. I tried to explain that it was another group, but it was pretty keen to smash.”

“With curious confusion, you had a chat with a Pinnacle dragon? Which colour was it?”

“Kind of-”

“If you don’t mind, I’m going to get Toria to a bed. Can you get the door?”

Abashed, I hobbled over to the relevant hidden door and slipped my key in, unlocking it.

“Reff, Riffa; I’m going to help them upstairs, and then I’m going to spend some time, uh, innovating? I might be a while. I’ll catch you up when I’m done?”

Both of the siblings gave me a strange look, and I realized I was probably being coy for no reason.

“I’m going to make some changes to my energy system that should help me with my energy issues. Wish me luck!”

“With doubtful deliberation, is that wise, Hunter? You already have far more extensive channels than a normal cultivator, and while reducing them might save you energy, it would also reduce the amount of energy output you can attain, and as I understand it, you have only survived some situations because of that?”

“Uh, I’m not reducing, I’m actually increas-”

“Hunter.”

“Right, sorry. I’ll be back soon! I’ll explain then!”

With Darina glaring at me, I hurried up the stairs to unlock the other doors as the healer carried the acolyte up after me, finally settling them in one of the rooms, where Toria lay back down with a sigh.

I hesitated at the door for a moment as she fell into sleep, exhausted from the pain of moving about so much, and I felt bad again for getting caught up in my conversation with the siblings; I really was not used to people who were not me getting seriously hurt.

“Hunter. Good luck, don’t be too much of an idiot and blow yourself up.”

“I’ll do my best... no promises though.”

I offered the healer a weak grin and left before she could respond; as excited as I was to make the change, I was so very nervous. I had died a lot when doing my arm, and who knew how many times when doing my first set of channels? Doing that, again, but more? It felt like madness, but necessity is by definition... necessary. And I simply could not go on as I was with any hope of survival, long term.

Walking back to my room, I entered and stripped off my clothing, thankful that my burns were not so raw as they had been, and settled onto my own bed with a sigh, though one not quite so deep as Toria’s.

Already sweating in anticipation of the pain, I pulled out the vial containing the Phoenix elixir, and the bottle Toria had already given me. I set the bottle down by the bed and with a deep breath, connected the vial to one of the syringes that came with it and injected the mildly glowing liquid into my shoulder.

The sensation I so vaguely remembered from my first days on this world soaked through me, bringing memories of torture and pain to the fore, but I pushed them aside, knowing that what I was about to go through would be much worse than anything V had done to me. Once the warm sensation had finished covering every inch of me, and as my wounds itched, I closed my eyes and delved deep into my centre, checking my Praxis was still full – which it was. With a sigh of relief, and the thought that I should have really done that first, I reflexively checked my Exemplar, to see with some astonishment that the available capacity had risen to an almost inconceivable sixty percent, a whole twenty-percent increase since I had last checked it. That was a huge increase, and at maximum increase would represent an additional six times my normal speed, on top of what I had before. It was not something I had considered, but as I lay there, doing some quick and dirty maths in my head, based on my observations, once I reached total integration of my Exemplar and began to form my Foundation, I would be looking at a one-thousand percent increase in relative speed. On top of the increase from moving past Praxis to Veritas.

Mind blown, I lay there for a moment in shock, but quickly came back to myself when I realised that I had no idea how long the Phoenix elixer would last.

Gritting my teeth, I flexed my will, took hold of my Praxis, and got to work, my world whiting out with pain.