Chapter 11 Break through or break down

I could hear insects chirping around me as I carefully trekked through the beast forest. Edjudan had made a game of moving his campsite around and having me track it down.

I hiked deeper into the forest than I had ever gone before. There were broken twigs lying around but no tracks or animal droppings. It seemed I was on the right trail. I heard a loud clicking noise ahead of me. The sound echoed and my legs stiffened.

What made that racket? I began to parse through the possibilities. The clicking grew louder and I started to hear variations in the noise. I scrambled up a large tree and slowed my breathing.

Multiple noises, hmm pack animal. Sounds like stone on stone. Not from hoofs. Jaws smacking together, loud enough to be noticed, no pauses between….so not prey.

 I narrowed it down to a few beasts trying to gather more information. Sweat beaded on my forehead and I caught a glimpse of one of the beasts.

It stood almost 2 rods tall, body composed of pink semi translucent hunks of stone. The creature looked hewed from stone itself, it had narrow limbs and frame which still gave off an expression of raw power. It gave me the impression of a stone dagger come to life.

Not from the central plains…hmm nearby. Could be from western mountains.

I almost clapped my hands. Yes of course, Agrodosils better known as stone munchers. The beasts were scavengers and had rows of flat teeth to smash apart the earth type animals of the mountains.

By the four goddesses what are they doing here?

The beasts fanned out around the base of the tree I was hiding in. I counted three of them and the tree swayed and shook with a loud crack as they took turns ramming it.

Why would scavenger beasts be this far from their territory, be this aggressive? Not important, options… options. To fast to cleanly outrun…hmm

The tree dipped and its roots were ripped from the ground. I leapt from the tree and rolled as I landed. I sprinted toward the trail that I hoped would lead me to Edjudan.

The three beasts followed after me, quickly closing the gap.

A smaller one reached me first and I lunged forward and to the right, its jaws speared and missed my back just to the left. The next one chomped at me on my right and I dug my toe and spun around it.

I was now facing the third stone muncher and I darted towards it. The beast came at me and I shifted my weight to my back foot and spun my body again. My fist whipped out by habit. I heard a crack and saw the beast knocked off course as some pinkish flecks fell from its hide.

Globs of blood dripped from my hand and a faint white glow radiated around my fist. My eyes were wide and focused on my hand. The beasts surrounded me and I began to back up slowly. Two beasts then lunged at me from my right and left. I started to swing my body and spin, the left one got to me first and made contact with it's snout, barreling into me. I used the impact to spin around the other beast.

I clutched my side. Ughh I, felt my ribs radiating intense pain, broken. I continued backing up as the three beasts took turns lunging at me. Despite the I was somehow avoiding the blows carving the earth with each slide and step I took.

The onslaught continued, but even from multiple directions the stone munchers couldn’t get more than a glancing blow. Neither of us could do any real damage to the other but the balance shifted as my energy faded.

Without warning the attacks stopped. The beasts backed off and bolted into the brush. I fell to my knees panting and wheezing holding my side.

“About time old man.” I said through clenched teeth.

Edjudan emerged from behind me. “That’s oh great master, oh great master not old man.”

“Why did you do that?” I asked.

“Save your life, who knows?” He replied his smirk draped across his face.

“Bring those things here, make them attack me. Some combination of the two.” I replied. My scowl interrupted by the occasional wince from the pain.

He raised his hands and tossed me a healing salve. “ Hahahah now why would you say that?”

I took in a deep breath before I gulped down the salve and poured the rest over my wounds. “Scavenger animals not from the area or acting normally, crazy old man. It adds up.”

Edjudan let out a sigh. “Well you got halfway on your own I guess I can clear it up for you.” He grabbed me by the arms and picked me off the ground. “Focus all your energy into your hand and hit me.”

“No problem.” I replied and threw a right hook at the old man.

He caught me by the wrist and held me there. “ Need I say more?”

 I didn’t pull my fist back, I just stood there and stared at my hand. My hand pulsed with a white glow.

“Congratulations on step two and step three.” He let go of my fist and continued. “ You maxed out the limit of your normal muscle growth. Right now they are at peak efficiency that was step two.”

That explained my bottleneck, the limit of my physical capacity.

Edjudan looked at me but kept explaining. “ Step three is a bit trickier, so the easiest method was to put you in a life or death situation. Your muscles can only generate so much power, that glow you see is your internal energy the power of your breath manifesting on your body."

I shrugged and started looking at my fist but the glow dissipated. I started throwing punches trying to make my hand glow again.

“ Ok ok tadpole.” He stroked his beard. “Think of your body as one of your buckets, it can only hold so much power so much water. That glow enhances your physical strength but think of it as another bucket filled with its own water.” He was laughing now.

Everything clicked into place and I started to formulate questions. “How do I use this and can I fake an element with it?”

The old man rubbed his temples. “Wow master thank you for helping me get this far how can I ever repay you.” He said, pausing to see how I reacted. “Ugh ungrateful little.”

 I got on my knees and interrupted. “Sorry master and thank-you.” I plastered a wide smile then continued. “So Can I fake an element with this?”

“Hmmpf, with this alone it may be tricky.” Edjudan started pacing back and forth. “ As you know this plane has two types of element users, warriors and mages. Warriors use their elements to enhance their bodies and sometimes their weapons. They can also specialize in a specific area. That short kid who keeps beating you is definitely a fire attributed pure speed type.”

I was aware of the concept, and nodded.

 He continued on. “The mage type are much more varied they not only specialize in whatever skill they were born knowing but can also learn and customize a number of spells or skills based on their elements and affinities. That girl, the somodunamologist’s[1] ideal is one of those.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Soma-what?”

 My body reacted and I ducked, a book still struck me in the temple not quite knocking me down.

“ When I give you a book to read you read the damn book! Anything else you skimmed or forgot?”

I rubbed my head. “

You keep giving me things to read, I’m supposed to remember all of it? Where do you keep getting these books from anyway.”

I really had tried but in the last 60 days the old man had demanded I read tons of books. Tactics, beast compendiums, topics I never heard of and even ideas that did not pertain to my plane.

Edjudan was mumbling something but I couldn’t hear him. “ You better absorb the information by reading it or I will beat the knowledge into you.” A sneer spread across his face.

I trembled a little. Probably a joke, but not something I wanted to test.

Edjudan walked towards me and put his hand on my shoulder. “ With the skills you have now you could join a village school in a few years and might be able to fake enough to not be viewed as a simpleton. Your speed and strength are just too lacking to be a warrior and your lack of any spells are a dead give away to not being a mage.”

True at best I was weaker than a warrior and lacked the versatility of a mage. My heart started to beat faster . “ Is there no way then?”

Edjudan paused “ Hmm we will have to stop taking it easy. Let your Mother know you will be staying somewhere else for the next half a year.”

Taking it easy?

What part of anything I had done was easy. “There is a way then?”

Excitement shook me to the core, the prospect of being strong. The anticipation evaporated quickly though as I remembered what the old man said… No more taking it easy. What was I getting into.

[1] Somadunamology- Is a concept from another plane. It is a science or pseudoscience that states a persons elemental affinities or gifts can be ascertained from their physical appearance.