Chương 17: As always, a matter of judgment

"Ward!" Kite snapped as a barrier appeared before him in the nick of time. A flaming greataxe crashed into it, cracks spreading over the translucent surface. The axe rebounded, flying back through the air to Dragonfly who caught it in a spin, using the momentum to launch into another throw. Over the course of their spar, Kite had gotten plenty of first hand experience with the new power awakened by her awakening stone of animation.

She could now throw the flaming greataxe with quite good accuracy as the new magic compensated for its normal lack of aerodynamics, even returning to her after each throw. As she had proudly described it beforehand, she even had hopes that it might evolve to fight on its own in the future. Dragonfly also showed how her recent training excursion with her master had paid off, not only in power but in guile. She hammered one more throw into his barrier and flung the axe once more.

Kite, knowing that the third hit would break his barrier, instead dodged. The barrier broke with the sound of glass as Kite had moved out of its way and begun sprinting toward her in an attempt to seize the initiative. However, as soon as it passed by him, the axe disappeared as she released the ability. To his chagrin, Kite saw that she was already flying through the air towards him, having leapt even before her throw broke his barrier.

Having learned from many previous spars, she didn't even bother to conjure a new axe, since that would mostly be a waste of mana against Kite in close quarters. Instead she opted to go at him unarmed, her enhanced strength making her quite formidable. Kite usually won most spars since the matchup simply was skewed too much in his favor, but one of her victories had been when she had foregone her weapon and instead grappled him in a crushing embrace.

As she was now hurtling towards him through the air, Kite foresaw a similar conclusion unless he managed to intervene. Fortunately for him, he could." Wall!" he chanted as he drew his hand in a straight, horizontal line before him. The gesture helped him determine where his newly awakened ability would appear, and the inbound young woman's eyes widened as a wall of force ten meters across and three meters tall sprang up before him.

It had the same visual look as his personal barrier, with the almost translucent surface covered in signs bearing subconscious meaning. While Dragonfly's momentum was quite decent, it was not enough on its own to break through his latest addition to his arsenal. She crashed against it full force, landing in a stunned heap. As the bout was effectively over, Kite dismissed the new spell before he went over to check on her.

"Heavens, when you told me about that ability I must admit that I didn't see that particular use of it…" she groaned after a while, rubbing her arms and shoulder which she had managed to turn just in time to avoid jumping face-first into the barrier.

"It does seem to have many uses, albeit requiring judgment. Yet another one of those kinds of abilities to my path, I suppose." Kite said with a smile as he helped her up and held her steady. Kite's new ability had come from the awakening stone of the wall he and Uncle Walker had bought before their unscheduled meeting with the branch director. The resulting power wasn't surprising in the slightest, but Kite could appreciate it as another interesting tool added to his arsenal. WWJS (What would Jason see?): Kite Flown in on Winds of Fortune has absorbed [Awakening stone of the Wall] You have awakened Barrier essence ability [Leyline Warding] [Ability] Leyline Warding Spell. Cost: Moderate mana Cooldown: 30s Current rank: Iron 0 Effect - Iron: Create a solid, translucent barrier anchored to a surface. The barrier can be up to 3 meters in height and up to 10 meters long. The length can be split among multiple barriers. Only one casting of this spell can be active at a time.

The pair unclipped their sparring bracelets and returned it to the society functionary on the way out from the training area. They had rented a space up on the Adventure Society campus, where the bracelets allowed for something close to full-contact sparring between lower-ranked essence users. Connected to a major magical power source, the band could provide a shield and burst of healing if the wearer reached critical damage to lower the risk of mishaps.

Accidents still happened though, as was bound to occur when people were throwing bolts of lightning at one another, and the society was clear that it took no responsibility for such accidents. Kite had heard of the mirage chambers employed around the world, but the low mana-density of the Autumn lands meant that the expense for running such a facility had simply not been deemed worth it.

"Talk about bad luck with the timing though. I'm finally back and now you're leaving for a couple of months." Dragonfly sulked.

"Yes, it is most unfortunate." Kite agreed.

"I had looked forward to taking some group contracts together. Would you mind taking Serene along for some action while I'm gone?"

"Of course! You won't even recognize us when you return, as we will be stronger than you could imagine. Besides, that will give us plenty of time for some girl talk!" she answered with a grin.

"And there is no chance of me being named honorary girl so that I can join you?"

"Nope, sorry. Those are the rules."

"Isn't the so-called 'girl talk' more about feelings and such? Why would that exclude me exactly? I think it is important for everyone to be able to express themselves to their friends." Kite muttered, feeling a bit excluded.

"Hnnggg, see that would be the problem. You're so earnest with these kinds of things. It would make me all flustered. The giggling is an important component after all. Lightens the mood." she explained sagely.

"I guess I'll have to practice my giggling then." Kite answered, smiling at the thought. Dragonfly seemed to remember something as she changed the subject.

"Before I forget; would you mind lending me your books on aura control while you are away? Master Force keeps insisting that I read to supplement my practice." she said, the last part with some chagrin.

"Of course. Come pick them up right away. It's even on the way to the dumpling restaurant I told you about." As Kite fell asleep that night, he felt happy that he'd had the time to see Dragonfly before he set off toward the home of this master Stone. He'd missed her passion and energy while she had been away, and he felt pleased about how ecstatic she had been over the good food they had shared.

"Bonds truly are important." he thought, dedicating it to his birth-parents. He then thought a bit about the stack of books he had lent to Dragonfly. Kite had accumulated a small collection by this time, mostly about aura control and meditation. He didn't even remember all the titles, but let go of any other thoughts on the matter. There surely couldn't be any danger in lending them to her.

"Fortune, guide me along my path in the upcoming days." he sent as a silent prayer before sleep overtook him. At the same time, a young woman was wrangling her pink curls into submission in an attempt at a ponytail to keep them from obscuring her vision. She was going to try to 'expand the horizons of her mind', as Master Force had said ever so often lately, by reading the books she had borrowed from Kite. The problem was that most titles seemed rather off-putting as she went through the pile.

"A Treatise on Iron-Rank Auras and Their Capabilities. Maybe. The History of Aura Techniques as a Basis for Cultural Analysis. Nope. Meditation and You - Overcoming the Mind-Body Separation. Meh." The Dyadic Tempering of Auras. Nah." She was just about to put the last on top of the rejected pile as it slipped from her grasp. As she picked it up, she glanced over the open page, stopping.

When gazing upon the rather detailed imagery therein and glimpsed words like 'unity' and 'entwining' or phrases along the lines of '-as the participants share their bodies with one another, remember to-' Dragonfly realized that this book was quite unlike the rest. Three days later, Kite found himself running through a frosty forest. He heard the heavy tread behind him and the angry snorting of the monster as he weaved between the trees, frozen moss crunching beneath him.

"There was a clearing ahead. I need to-" he thought, but was interrupted by a tree root which had risen to grab at his leg. Fortunately for him, its controller was only iron rank and Implacable motion made sure that the root failed to find purchase on his wooden armor. His pursuer was closing in however, and Kite knew that he needed to get to the more open ground if he was going to negate a fair bit of the disadvantage he was in.

While he had hoped to save it for later, he decided to activate the charging ability of his belt. The burst of speed carried him the rest of the way out into the clearing on the crisp winter day. Frosty red and orange foliage surrounded him and the sky was clear, now open above him in the meadow. He quickly turned toward the pursuing sound and chanted " Wall".

Five barriers, each two meters across, sprang up in a line before him, the more recently awakened Leyline Warding being employed in an attempt to shore up his defenses. Through their translucent sheets, he saw his quarry come barreling out from the forest at great speed. It was a rather huge monster, at least for iron rank, with four stubby legs and a solid body with thick, hard skin. Its head was even further reinforced by a rounded bony plate covered in a multitude of horns.

He could see the small, beady eyes gazing out from between the bone ridges, as the root-slinger rhinoceros charged at him. The beast was a rather exotic monster at the top end of iron rank, and Kite had picked up its contract in a village far to the north of Gilded. He had once again felt ever-fortunate to be in Uncle Walker's care, as he had a contact with a flying magical mount who was going on a delivery to the north.

Kite had been welcome to tag along, and had therefore spent the last three days on the back of a giant azure sparrow, gazing down in wonder at the forests and cliffs below. The courier's destination had been only a couple of days' travel away from where Kite was going. It saved Kite at least three weeks of traveling, and he had stopped to go through the rather full contracts board in the village where they had landed.

Most had been rather routine hunts, but the root-slinger rhinoceros had been a different challenge. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Kite had read up on it beforehand in the living document of the Magic Society, so he had known it was mostly dangerous due to its charging attack and plant-controlling powers.

It had been something else entirely to see the beast hurtling through the forest against him, trees simply bending out of the way of the charging monster, roots even reaching out to increase its speed as they helped fling the monster toward Kite. Now it shot out of the canopy like an avalanche, colliding with the first of the layered barriers Kite had conjured before it. The first two simply shattered like panes of glass. The third slowed it slightly, as did the fourth and fifth.

Kite summoned his personal barrier as well to prepare for the impact, as well as activating another of his latest abilities which had come from one of the two awakening stones he had been given by the Adventure Society. WWJS (What would Jason see?): Kite Flown in on Winds of Fortune has absorbed [Awakening stone of Solidity] You have awakened Resolute essence ability [Unyielding] [Ability] Unyielding Special ability.

Cost: None Cooldown: None Current rank: Iron 1 Effect - Iron: Become highly resistant to all hostile effects that would move or displace you, including physical momentum. Any additional damage that would be dealt to you by the canceled momentum will instead be transferred to the environment. Additionally, this ability may be activated for a cost of moderate mana to give increased damage reduction from external sources of damage for a short duration.

While Kite had been able to feel and use the effect of Unyielding during the contracts leading up to this one, this was the first time he was truly able to see the scope of its effect. The monstrous rhinoceros crashed through his final barrier before hitting the shaft of Kite's raised spear. While much of the momentum had been spent going through the barriers, it still collided with Kite carrying a terrifying force.

Kite felt a painful jolt through his whole body, but where he before would have been thrown away if launched by a catapult, he only slid backwards a few steps. The surrounding ground was not as lucky, as great gouts of frosty grass, dirt and moss were sent flying. From above, one could see how a conical area behind Kite had been torn apart as his magic transferred the force through the environment instead.

Kite still felt the effects of the attack quite thoroughly, and if it hadn't been for the damage-reducing aspect of the ability, he was certain that relying on the barriers alone would have left him at least partially broken. The monster seemed quite taken aback as its momentum was halted rather abruptly, its heavy body careening off to one side as it came to a halt. Some roots emerged from the ground to steady it, but as that happened, Kite was already on the offensive.

He lunged forward with his bone spear, its wicked point trailing gray vapors and streaks of nothingness as he aimed for the eye of the beast. The rhinoceros managed to throw its head to the side, and the point of the spear missed the eye, instead sinking a bit into its hardened head a couple of centimeters behind the eye.

It snorted and howled in pain as the spatial tears of Void-Sunders-Firmament appeared in chaotic patterns around the head of his spear, cutting deep grooves into the bony exterior and hurting its insides. As the vulnerable eye had escaped his attempt to injure it, he gave a quiet prayer to Fortune as he activated the power inside the bone spear. As the mana left him, it traveled through the spear and into the skull of the monster.

He heard and felt a grizzly cracking sound as the bone of the creature's skull warped around the point of impact, becoming a mess of sharp spikes pointing in every direction. His investment paid off, as one of the warped spikes pierced the monster's eye and tore it free from the beast. Kite felt a shudder of revulsion as the gruesome weapon did its work, but it did not stop him from pressing the advantage. The monster was quite slow except when charging, and Kite took full advantage of its partial blindness.

It thrashed around wildly, as Kite tried to stay on its blind side as much as possible while thrusting against what looked like softer parts and gaps in the thick, hard covering of skin. He tore through its body with his spatial tears as often as he could in addition to all of his other special attacks. Unfortunately, most were rather inefficient against the more physically gifted rhinoceros, their damage rather small.

He did make progress, as the beast was slowing from the mounting injuries and the gradually increasing curse from his spear. The monster soon realized that it was outmatched and attempted to plod away in a straight line, gaining speed. Kite had injured its legs as best as he could, but the rhinoceros-monster was quite tough and still managed a decent, albeit limping, attempt at escape.

He struck a parting blow as more spatial tears carved through the monster, before a javelin struck it and conjured roots attempted to hinder its flight. While the roots proved mostly ineffective, it still gave Kite an opportunity to use another of his more recent additions to his arsenal. During the whole battle, Kite's familiar had remained manifested where it floated like a dark circle behind Kite's back.

Unless otherwise instructed, Sage remained close to Kite's body where it constantly gathered remnants of spent mana. That was why he had even bothered using the more inefficient attacks, and Kite could feel that the astral gatherer now carried a decent amount of power. As Kite gave a mental command, Sage floated up above Kite's left shoulder, its lines reforming as a light seemed to be flowing out from the void that was the familiar's form.

The light gathered into a thin beam of white light which hit the retreating form of the monster. The resonating force of the beam carved through the tough skin and ravaged its insides. It dealt a good amount of damage, but to Kite's chagrin the monster managed to continue staggering away, albeit a good deal slower.

"Sorry Sage, I'll have to work on my timing a bit more." Kite quipped to the familiar as its power was spent for now without having dealt the killing blow. Gripping his spear, he pursued the monster to finish what he had started. At the end of that day, Kite left a thankful village with an empty contract board to travel on foot for the last leg of the trip. He realized that he was further north than he'd ever been in his life.

While he wasn't entirely sure, he thought that the trees grew a bit more sparsely here while the cliffs continued to densely cover the landscape as far as he could see. He had been taught that the Autumn lands eventually gave way to the Gray tundra, a cold and desolate landscape with even lower magical density than the Autumn lands. His destination was not that far up north, however.

Even from this distance, he could see an area to the northwest where the cliffs stood close enough to almost form a small mountain range. Apparently, that was where Unyielding Soul of Stone resided. Uncle Walker had provided Kite with instructions as to how to find the reclusive master, so Kite set off in high spirits. His bag had plenty of provisions brought from Gilded, and he had bought additional in the village he just left. During the next two days, Kite mostly traveled and took in the landscape around him.

It was often clad in frost and rather beautiful. Kite himself was not bothered by the chill, courtesy of a magic item he had bought for the trip. It was called a hearth bracelet, a small metal band into which he fed some fire quintessence every now and then to recharge it. He had been told that such bracelets existed in many different varieties across the world, such as the oasis bracelet used in the warmer regions or windwheel pendants to fight off extreme humidity.

His hike had not been without interruption however, as he had gotten some more demonstrations of the ability his peculiar familiar had when absorbed into his body. Sage apparently did something to help trigger certain, minor magical manifestations more frequently in Kite's vicinity. This 'vicinity' could be several kilometers away however, so close was a relative term.

Kite did not have anywhere near a perfect understanding of the process, but through the sense provided by his ability and him asking Sage and trying to interpret its broad, vague way of answering, he had a rough idea. Apparently, Sage was rather sensitive to the magical saturation and was sometimes able to 'nudge' events already close to triggering over the metaphysical edge.

Guided by Sage and the often visible rainbow vortex, Kite had happened upon freshly manifested iron rank monsters of different varieties, but also some small collections of quintessence. Plant and earth dominated as usual, but he had also found the slightly rarer ice quintessence.

"Well, you will certainly make my life a bit more interesting." Kite said to the familiar on their second day of travel as he sat down to rest. He had just fought a small pack of galezards, courtesy of Sage as he had seen their manifestation from afar. As it was only five of them, he had no compunction of engaging them by himself. It even gave him another opportunity to test out the last of his newly awakened abilities. WWJS (What would Jason see?): Kite Flown in on Winds of Fortune have absorbed [Awakening stone of the Wave] You have awakened Negation essence ability [Ripple of Cancellation] [Ability] Ripple of Cancellation Spell. Cost: High mana Cooldown: 30s Current rank: Iron 1 Effect - Iron: Release an expanding wave of magic-canceling energy. Creatures or objects hit by the wave will have one random beneficial magical effect canceled. If that effect came from a magical ability, the ability will be unavailable to activate again for a short duration.

If multiple targets have the same kind of magical effect active, there is a higher chance that it will be the one which is canceled. Magical projectiles hit by the wave will be negated, as will temporarily summoned creatures and the ability which fired will likewise be unavailable for use for a short duration. Projectiles or creatures of a higher rank or creatures from modified summoning rituals might not be entirely negated or dispelled.

During his consultation with the Adventure Society scholars, they had picked out an awakening stone of the wave in the hope of giving Kite the ability to affect a bigger area. Once again, his power set gave him something a bit more niche. As he was used to this by now, Kite remained optimistic as he had tried out the spell in different ways.

Named Ripple of Cancellation and often associated with the negation confluence, it was not the easy-to-use area attack Kite might have hoped for, but he still found that the ability could turn certain situations in his favor rather drastically. His quick altercation with the galezards had proven that. The pack of wind lizards usually remained at range, attacking with their wind blades. They only closed in if they suspected their prey to be weakening or pinned in place by the barrage.

If Kite advanced them with a raised barrier, they would retreat and scatter. While not impossible to deal with, it was both more time consuming and sometimes dangerous as he might find himself surrounded by a scattered pack still able to freely continue their barrage. His new spell had proven effective versus the numerous opponents relying on their single magical ability.

He had waited for just a few seconds with his barrier raised before casting the spell and immediately following the wave with the charging power of his belt. It had caused a rippling distortion through the air in a wide cone ahead of Kite, attacks winking out as they came into contact. As the pack was gathered, the sudden negation of their latest wave of wind blades and Kite's sudden charge spelled a quick end to the battle.

He could down three of them before they could scatter, and mopped up the remaining two without much difficulty in short order, since the monsters greatly relied on their numbers to compensate for their rather fragile physical bodies. At the moment, his familiar was busy floating around inspecting the environment, seeming especially interested in the light vapor rising from the puddles of hot monster blood hitting the frosty ground.

Kite knew it would dissipate into the foul-smelling rainbow smoke in a while, and tried getting as much of it off his armor before that happened.

"Come along, Sage." he called as he absorbed the familiar back into his body.

"I think we'll reach our destination tomorrow morning if we can keep up the pace." Kite stood dumbfounded as he looked up at what was, without a doubt, his destination. When Uncle Walker had told him about this reclusive master, he had envisioned something along the lines of a mountain hermit, living in an austere cave while meditating on a mountaintop. He had not expected a veritable palace carved out of the cliff side.

It had a grand stairway leading high up onto the mountainside where a sprawling courtyard led up to a grand pagoda tower, eight stories tall. The complex even had smaller waterways, with bridges for crossing, which ended in small waterfalls as the water flowed over the edge of the platform where the buildings resided. And it was all carved out of stone, down to the many trees and bushes which were tastefully arranged around the courtyard.

Most of it was made of the gray stone of the cliffs, but there were plenty of decorative elements using other minerals. There was no gate to hinder him, but Kite still stood frozen on the final step of the grand stairway, both in awe and the sense that him being made of flesh and blood would somehow sully the inanimate beauty of the place. His reverie was broken by a deep voice suddenly echoing out over the courtyard.

"Boy, get moving and come in already. Standing there until the wind turns this place to dust will do neither of us any good." Kite could not see the speaker, but felt the pulse of a silver rank aura as a way of greeting. It felt solid and at the same time unyielding like a rockslide. After a moment of focus, he could get a feel for its origin at the top floor of the pagoda. He took a steadying breath and stepped up onto the courtyard. As soon as he did, he felt a new sensation.

The air felt more comfortable and easier to breathe and he could almost feel his body drinking in what could only be a higher level of ambient magic. The difference was not enormous, but definitely noticeable as he crossed the courtyard and entered the bottom floor of the pagoda. The inside was sculpted with equal care, both pillars and furniture being made of stone.

However, there were also items of comfort or decoration which did not consist of hard minerals, such as the piles of pillows crowding the couches or the colorful drapes and tapestries. A stick of incense stood smoking on the table, giving off a pleasant and discrete smell.

"Take a seat, boy." said the same deep voice as a human man came walking down the stairs leading to the upper floor. He was huge in every dimension, built as the mountain he lived on. His voluminous white robes and long sleeves did little to hide his muscular frame, his steps, voice and presence sending tremors through the stone surroundings. He had an amused smile as he gestured to the still dumbfounded Kite to have a seat on a nearby couch as his frame dominated a whole couch for himself when he took his seat.

As Kite sat down, he reflected that the face really matched the aura in this man. It was all hard angles and prominent lines, further exposed by his deep black hair being tightly gathered in a knot atop his head.

"Welcome, boy. I assume you are Walker's little whelp? I am called Unyielding Soul of Stone, and it sounds to me like we have some training to do." he said with an expectant grin.