Young Flame

A week has passed since we climbed into the Lower Elevation and only now do the mountains breach through the glacial plains. The steady slope of ice continues undisturbed around the peaks that breach the surface.

Despite what should have been the easier path — following the rather flat glacier — the Titan never veered from its line. As the number of mountains increases ahead of us, so too have sections of glacier been carved away. Whenever the Titan passed a mountain, it left an immense amount of molten rock to melt through the surrounding ice.

Due to the vast alteration of the landscape, we can no longer travel beside the path.

No creatures have blocked our path since the panther tried to sneak up on us. Most likely sticking to the tunnels in the ice. I’m surprised even the bats do so; they have wings, so why not use them?

Every so often, Jav flies over the path to watch for anything that might be too big to take the tunnels. Considering how long we’ve already gone without a fight, I feel like he might be wasting his time checking.

My team has warned about how we’ll likely come across Middle Elevation creatures on the way up, but so far, it’s been disappointingly quiet.

The panther that tore Grímr’s neck apart was a Lower Elevation creature that populate many of the higher mountains of the region. I’d asked Grímr about his body and while he’d been hesitant, he told me he had taken the panther after he lost his previous body in a fight six months ago.

He didn’t specify many details beyond that, but it must have been from the same time they lost their mage. I wonder what they faced that split the team as it had.

Bunny readjusting her pack drags my attention. She’s taken out another unique weapon and stored the short axe she’d been holding for the last few hours. The new weapon has two short, curved blades protruding from a central grip.

“What is that?” I ask. Not for the first time, either. I’ve asked so many times now that I swear she chooses the ones I don’t know simply to show off.

“This is a haladie. The Wyle kin created them in Laverna long before the Henosis Empire absorbed the country.” She spins the blade in her hand. “These blades aren’t the best in a direct confrontation, but they are great for techniques relying on deception and trickery.”

Well, either it’s to show off, or give herself the opportunity to talk about the weapons she loves.

“Martial styles using the haladie rely on feints and sleight of hand to breach an opponent’s defence. I would love to meet the people of the Wyle kin, but since they lost their homeland, they’ve been impossible to find.”

“Why do you carry so many different weapons, anyway?” I ask. “Couldn’t you take only two or three and not worry about that massive pack?”

“No.” She twirls the curved double-blade in her fingers. “Who knows when I’ll need a specific type? It’s better to be prepared and not need it, than need it and not have it.”

I mean, I understand what she’s saying, but as I look at the bag, I can’t help but feel she is a bit too prepared. Exactly what kind of situation would require one type of blade over another?

“Then, if you could only have one weapon, what would you choose?”

“Don’t ask such impossible questions.”

“You don’t have a favourite?”

“I have too many favourites.”

“There has to be something that sets one weapon apart from another, right?”

“Of course. The quality of make means everything. I’ve learnt how to craft my own weapons, but nothing beats a true professional at their craft.”

I remember Jav’s reaction when he heard that heqet trader had been trading — what was it again? — Riparian weapons. Were they made by professionals?

“Are Riparian weapons good?”

“In a sense. The Riparians are abhorrent weaponsmiths, but their inscriptions are unparalleled. It is almost impossible to get your hands on one of their weapons. The Riparian clans aren’t often open to trade with outsiders.”

“Huh. I guess that trader must have been lucky to get his hands on some,” I ponder aloud.

“What?” Bunny stops dead in her tracks. “What trader?” she turns and pulls me off Grímr’s back, holding me in her grasp.

I just barely hold down the pressure screaming at me to burn her arms off, to escape her grasp in whatever manner I can. My body doesn’t lose control, but I still feel an intense anxiety rise the longer her hands grip my shoulders.

“Where did you meet a trader selling Riparian makes?” Her eyes are as intense as her tone, boring deep into me in her desire.

Remus’ tentacles slap her arms off me, letting me drop to the thin layer of snow. Once again, I’m grateful for Jav’s gift as it blocks out the slush of frozen water. Bunny appears confused by Remus’ actions before she looks back at me and has the decency to look embarrassed.

“Where is that trader?” she asks again. This time keeping her hands to herself.

“Jav and I met him back at the garrison.”

“Jav knew and didn’t tell me?” for the first time since I’ve met her, she actually looks angry. She clenches her fists so hard I can see the muscles in her arms bulging.

“Oh, I can’t wait till he gets back,” she says as she turns her attention up the Alps.

Almost as if summoned by her words, Jav flies over a mountain crest ahead of us. After noticing him, it is only a moment until he rejoins us. As soon as he touches down, he’s speaking.

“We’ve got a—”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Bunny is immediately in Jav’s face, glaring at the volan.

“Huh? Tell you what?” Jav blinks at her.

“That you met a trader with Riparian weapons.”

Jav glances my way with annoyance plastered on his face.

I raise my arms in question. How was I supposed to know I shouldn’t have told her?

“The trader only had words to show, no weapons. He was a heqet; no doubt in my mind he was lying.”

“You still should have told me.” Bunny huffs and steps away from Jav. “If there’s even the possibility of meeting someone in with the Riparians, I need to try.”

“He was—” Jav cuts himself off as he looks toward the mountain ahead of us where he just came from. “This isn’t the time. We have a dahu ahead of us.”

That got a reaction from the team. Bunny immediately cut her complaints and dug through her pack while Remus and Grímr’s stances grew straighter.

Bunny returns the haladie and takes the large hammer from the bundle. She drops her pack on the ice behind her and swings it experimentally. One side of the hammer’s head is flat while the other concentrates into a sharp point.

“Solvei, sky again,” Remus orders. “Try to stay over the ice. Don’t fly near any earth you can see.”

I begin the change while he hurries to organise the rest of the team.

“To think the first mid tier we come across is a dahu.” I hear Grímr grumble underneath me as my wings form.

“Are they that dangerous?” I ask.

Grímr drops his own packs to the ice beside Bunny’s. “Yes. They’re slow and have weak bodies, so they aren’t exactly the worst. But reaching them is a pain in the a—ah, behind.”

Remus jumps in as he tightens his gauntlets at the ends of his tentacles. “Fortunately, we have the benefit of ice below our feet, so we’ll have more time to react to its attacks.” He looks up at me as I take to the sky. “Solvei. This is your first time seeing what something from the Middle Elevation is capable of. I want you to stay far from the fighting, alright? This isn’t a beast to be taken lightly. Oh, and remember; don’t fly more than a hundred metres above the ground.”

I hold eye contact with him for long enough to know how serious he is.

I want to at least try to help them. To prove my worth, not just to my team, but to myself. Against Hirsh, I’d been unable to do anything, and he wasn’t even intentionally trying to fight. How will I ever get strong enough to defend myself if I don’t fight?

I need to find ways of dealing with my weaknesses, both water and my fears. Currently, both are crippling. Even the smallest of either takes me out of a fight.

Consuming strong beasts will only help me so much. I need to discover for myself ways to improve. Bunny is teaching me the spear, but I’m nowhere near ready to use it.

Really, the only way I can think of improving is to participate in fights like this, but as I look at Remus, I see he won’t budge on his position.

Reluctantly, I nod and rise a few dozen metres.

My eyes pass over the mountain looking for the dahu we are waiting for. It takes a few minutes, everyone patient and unmoving until the creature crests the ridge of the mountain protruding from ice.

I don’t know what I was expecting, but a small goat-like creature was not even close. It treks down the mountain, either paying us no mind or not having noticed us.

My team below me stands as still as they can, ready to rush forward at Remus’ command. Before he can though, the goat halts its steps. Unnervingly, its head swivels toward us. Its glowing amber eyes clear even from such a distance.

“Go!” Remus shouts as he flings Jav straight towards the dahu.

The goat bleats. The sound isn’t loud, nor does it echo, but I can hear it as clearly as if the creature were right next to me. Its mouth opens; each tooth has the same amber glow as its eyes. The dahu’s eyes turn away from my team as it lowers its head to the earth underneath it.

Jav tears through the air, closing the distance before I can blink. His tiny bladed wing-tips angled to slice through the neck of the goat as its teeth dig into the ground.

Just when I expect to see blood gushing, the earth around the dahu explodes. Massive spikes of stone throw dirt and loose rock far into the sky as they pierce the ground in a ten metre radius of the goat.

Jav glides back amongst the rest of the team.

“Sorry, I wasn’t quick enough,” he says as Remus wraps a limb around him once more.

“It’s fine. We’ll just do this the normal way.” A flick of the limb sends Jav above the dome of stone spikes.

The dahu has encased itself in interlocking jagged stone. It can control rock? At least it seems limited to only a ten metre radius around it.

Nearly the instant I think that, towering spikes tear through the ice right below where my team is running. The glacier cracks and groans as the stone pushes through it with little resistance.

Fortunately, my team’s reaction is quick and each of them is out of the way of the spikes coming at them. They don’t slow for a second.

The dahu doesn’t seem pleased that its attackers aren’t dead. The blue tint of the glacier darkens to grey. I can hardly comprehend what I’m seeing, but thousands of giant pillars spike through the ice. An irrefutable jungle of stone rises from beneath the glacier.

My team evades the spikes nearest them, but they can no longer charge toward the dahu with the speed they had. Grímr slows the most; his large body unable to move between the dense congregation of pillars. Both Remus and Bunny take to using the very pillars to traverse. Remus slings himself from pillar to pillar, but Bunny takes the lead, rocketing off each pillar with powerful kicks.

Above, Jav glides, waiting for an opportunity to strike and keeping an eye for any unexpected occurrences.

They seem to have no issue. At the pace they’re moving, they’ll reach the goat’s protective dome and shatter their way through in no time. Even with hundreds of metres to climb, Bunny is preparing to swing her hammer already.

Her feet press into the stone pillar, ready to bounce forward. As she does, her foothold sinks away, burying her leg deep in the spike. Bunny is off balance for only a second before she brings her hammer down on that which holds her leg.

She bounds forward the moment she touches the cracked ice below. Each time Bunny or the others come into contact with the stone, it crumbles, trying to grasp them. Her hammer swings remain effective. Even as the stone tries to collapse in on itself before the impact, the pillars still shatter.

The dahu somehow knows exactly where my teammates are. I’m not sure how, considering it has blocked its own sight with the dome it built around itself.

Things change the moment Bunny reaches the border between the glacier and mountain. She charges through the last of the thousands of stone spikes and sprints up the steep incline. The forest of pillars lean toward her, fracturing the ice as the thousands of tonnes of earth force its way through. A constant deluge of shattering and groaning resounds.

“Volley incoming!” Jav shouts over the deafening sound, but loud enough that Bunny hears.

She abandons her climb and throws herself back down the cliff just as the entire forest of stone spikes throw themselves out of the ice toward her.

They hardly travel fast, but the insane mass behind the volley of stone projectiles leaves a terrifying image as they curve through the air.

Below, where the spikes once were, is a devastated region of glacier. Much of the ice drops into a new depression. Like a miniaturised mimicry of the Titan’s path.

Neither Grímr nor Remus are in the remains.

I only barely spot them amongst the airborne spikes as they smash into the mountainside. An explosive bang slams through the air from the impact. Each spike splinters against the cliff with such force, the ground appears to ripple.

Somehow, Remus and Grímr escaped that. They roll down the mountain before coming to a rest beside Bunny. Did they get swept up in that barrage or did they intentionally ride it? I’m not sure which is worse.

They all seem okay, even after having toppled a hundred metres down the slope.

A rumble echoes through the air as they begin their sprint up the mountain. Despite only having restarted their run, they are forced to split and run for the sides. Above them, the cliff face the volley shattered against destabilises. The entire stone shelf moves.

A massive rockslide bears down on my team from above.