Chapter 6: Chapter 6: Bad luck

They had run for hours. They were exhausted and dirty. Caked in sweat and dirt, and panting heavily. “Ok I think we’re safe.” Azura wasn’t entirely sure, but he figured even if they weren’t they were too exhausted to run much more.

“We better be. I've never run so hard in my life.” Katy managed to get the words out in between gulps of air. She fell backwards and rested on the floor.

“You know, it’s not healthy to go from heavy exercise to resting without a cool down.” He said, managing to start slowing down his breathing as he walked slowly around. Her response to his true statement was to show him a certain finger. Rude.

“How long can we afford to rest like this?” Her breathing was starting to return to normal too.

“I don’t know. We covered a lot of ground just now. Even if we just stay here until night and then make camp, we still will have gone farther than we planned to today.” He looked down, and grimaced at how filthy he was. “On the other hand if we keep moving now, we might be able to make it out of the forest before nightfall tomorrow.”

A low gurgling sound filled the air. “Sorry I burned a lot of calories in that run.” She would normally have acted embarrassed at that but they were too tired for that now.

“I’m pretty hungry too. I’ll go find some fruits we can eat.” He began to walk away but she cut him off.

“Can’t you hunt a deer or something? It feels like weeks since I’ve had meat.”

He rolled his eyes. “Katy, it's literally been 2 days.” He heard her grumble something but decided it wasn’t important. Apparently he had a deer to catch, honestly the edible fruits in this forest were pretty bitter anyways.

After walking around the forest for a while, he finally spotted his query. A herd of deer all drinking at a small pond. He pulled out his bow, the bow extending into the proper shape as soon as it left its clip. There wasn’t a string, but he didn’t fire physical arrows anyway. He put his hand on the bows riser, and as he pulled back a dim silver light appeared forming into the shape of an arrow.

He couldn’t risk it attracting their attention so he held a tight control over his mana. He would also like to avoid repeating the incident from earlier in the morning. He picked his target, a large buck that looked to be in its later years. He took a deep breath. The buck fell pierced through the back of the head by the silver bolt. The rest of the animals scattered fleeing for their lives.

“May your soul find peace in the next life.” While he wasn’t particularly religious, he at least believed that if he took a life, the least he could do is give them a proper send-off. Shaking off his thoughts he grabbed the buck by the legs and with a little help from his mana hoisted it over his shoulders. He looked in the direction of the small clearing they stopped at. He should hurry back, or they won’t have time to continue on before they need to sleep.

***

The walk back had been really peaceful. Helped Azura clear his mind of a lot of things, even let him forget how dirty he was. If only for a little while. “Ok I brought the deer, but how do we make it edible.” He dropped the buck as soon as he entered the clearing.

“Wow you really didn’t learn any survival skills did you?” Her tone was more surprised than mocking.

“Of course I did, magic and physical combat. If those aren’t survival skills I don’t know what are.” Katy just glared at him.

“You know what I meant.” He did, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t give her a hard time as vengeance for earlier. Besides, being able to fight was as important to survival as being able to get food, out here and even more important in the kingdoms. “You being an idiot aside, I luckily do know how to make it edible but it will take a while. We won’t be able to go any further today.”

He winced, guess he should have just grabbed fruits and other edible plants after all. He decided it was too late, and he would just have to accept being stuck out here an extra night.

“Ok you do that then, and I’ll make beds and walls.” She turned to him.

“Don’t make a ceiling. If you do, we will end up dying to the dangerous enemy known as smoke.” He was going to have to deal with her patronizing him for a while it seemed. Likely because he didn’t know what to do with the deer.

“Will do.” His sword once again appeared with an orange glow. “You know it’s funny I’ve had to use my rock shard more on this trip then the rest of my life. Rock isn’t really an element I typically go for.” He plunged it into the ground 4 sheer rock walls appeared in a square around them, 15 ft. apiece.

“That’s because you have only practiced in combat.” She said while skinning the deer.

“That’s true. Rock is just slow to cast and can’t be used offensively very well. Ice is faster and more adaptable, even if it's a little less durable.” He focused, sword still plunged into the ground and 2 flat rock slabs raised out of the ground. His sword retracted and the glow disappeared. “Ok now for the fun part.” He unattached his enchantment kit, opening it and pulling out his spirit pen.

“That won’t take all night will it?” He guessed he hadn’t ever really explained how enchantment works.

“It only took so long last time because I didn’t know how to accomplish what I wanted. I had to create an array that did what I wanted. Now that I already have the array, it should only take me 15 minutes tops. And even that is only because I don’t have a lot of practice with this branch of enchantment yet.

She nodded. “I’ll have the deer prepared to be cooked by then.”

***

After they ate a dinner that lacked flavour but was filling and well cooked, they prepared to sleep. Katy looked absolutely shocked when she felt her rock bed, and it was indeed soft. He was proud of the enchantment, he managed to make a rock as comfy as his bed back home. He felt much better having a full night's sleep.

“Don’t blow up the walls this time please, or at least not super loudly.” She glared at him.

Azura nodded. “Yeah, yeah it was my bad ok let it go. I was tired.” His sword extended blue glow running down its length. The electricity crackled along the blade. He moved the blade in front of his face and took a deep breath. He took a thrust and exhaled. The blade released a miniature lightning strike that pierced through the wall relatively quietly. No clapping thunder this time.

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She sighed in relief. “Surely there is a better element for that than lightning.”

“Not unless I want to use a lot more mana.” He put the sword through the hole the lightning made. An icy blue glow taking the place of the darker blue. Ice began spreading out from the whole until it was just a little bigger than he was. His sword retracted, as he pulled his hand back. He then punched the ice causing the frozen section of rock to shatter.

“The last shelter is in enough pieces that it doesn’t matter, but I wonder if anyone else will ever use this shelter.” She put her hand to her chin in deep thought.

“Maybe. If they do I hope they enjoy the beds, I worked hard on those. The walls were pretty easy though.” They walked through the hole he had made.

“That’s true, I suppose anyone with an earth shard could do that just as easily. Getting out safely is the hard part, as you demonstrated yesterday.” She held back a laugh as she made fun of him.

“Can we let that go already?! Please!” He desperately pleaded. She laughed for a second then gained a serious expression, hand brought to her chin.

She took a deep breath and said “No.” She spoke calmly, laughing when he deadpanned.

“Ok if it’s going to be like that I’ll just remind you of the time you blew up.” His smirk was venomous. She winced.

“Ok, ok, fine i’ll let it go. You're no fun.” She pouted.

He laughed, her joining in after a second. They began travelling once more, walking in companionable silence. The light filtering through the leaves guiding their path forward. They would have to travel the rest of the day and a chunk of the next before they would finally exit the forest. From there the academy was another 2 days of walking, but the terrain would be much easier.

“How much further is it to the guiding river?” He turned towards her considering her question.

“We should run into the ‘Genesis’ river, slightly before nightfall.” He put emphasis on the name of the river.

She rolled her eyes. “Who cares what the river is called? It will guide us to the academy won’t it?” She wasn’t wrong per say, but names are important.

“It does, and it might not matter right now, but knowing the names of locations is extremely important. You never know when you might have to give directions. Or plan out a strategy around an area. Names make communication easier.” It occurred to him as he spoke, that those words were his strict noble training and not standard thought process.

“Isn’t it fine so long as others know what you're talking about?”

He thought about her words for a moment. “Yes and no. It’s less so you can tell others and more so you know what others are talking about. When something serious is happening every second counts. So wasting time explaining is generally a bad idea.” Noble or not the idea was sound.

She nodded along. “Yeah I guess that makes sense.” She then looked forward again. “Still, before nightfall is pretty vague. Is there a reason for that?” She glanced at him.

“You got me. The monsters in this area tend to be more aggressive, and even aside from that there is at least 1 we are going to have to fight.” He sighed. Just his luck really.

“What do you mean? To know there was a monster we would need to fight, someone would have already had to fight it and survive to spread the knowledge.” She seemed genuinely confused.

“Katy what fought that salamander?” his expression darkened.

She paled. “You can’t be serious! Why do we have to fight it?!” She frantically shouted before he shushed her. She calmed, if only slightly.

“It’s a water spirit. Corrupted or not, there is only one place I can think of that it will definitely appear. And of course given my luck is what it is.”

“The Genesis river. Our destination, should have known.” She looked more resigned than angry now. “Can’t we avoid it? What if we take a longer route.” Her voice became a little desperate. Not that he could blame her, this was a little out of their league.

“Unfortunately the academy is on the other side of the river. We have to cross it, and even worse if we go enough out of the way that the spirit is unlikely to sense us it would add at least 5 days to our journey.” He was resigned to their fate at this point. They would get past it or die trying.

“Which would make us too late to apply for the trials. Just great.” She kicked at the dirt in frustration. “So what's the plan? Even with your unique magic escaping a water spirit will be nearly impossible. I can’t exactly sneak past it, in it’s own domain.” Her frustration obvious in her body language as much as her face.

“You're right my copies would be little more than a distraction unless I filled each one with enough mana to use powerful spells, but if I did that I would be running on empty. This is a bad matchup for us. It will be immune to melee attacks, And most magic can just be shaken off. We might be able to take it out if it was farther from a major source of water, but as it is.”

“So you're saying we’re screwed?” She looked genuinely scared, but he knew it wasn’t fighting this thing that scared her but rather the results of failure.

He smiled nervously. “I wouldn’t say that.” Her eyes darted towards him. He gave a nervous laugh. “We have 2 possible ways to get through this, though one is an absolute last resort.” Her gaze intensified. “Ok so the plan is…”

***

They crouched behind some bushes in front of a cave. In the cave a huge monster was sleeping on its side. It was a huge wolf, easily 10 ft tall and 25 ft long, not counting it’s tail. It was white with a gray patch of fur thicker than the rest. A mantle of fur led from it’s head in both directions and its tail was almost as long as it’s body.

“Remind me why we’re here again?” Katy whispered to him.

“We aren’t going to be able to take out the water spirit by ourselves. This is the guardian of this forest. Though it looks like a monster, rumor has it it’s actually a spirit that chose to reside in this world, so it might help us.” Azura wasn’t particularly fond of running on so many maybes, but he figured the fact that it was a wolf was good luck.”

She shook her head. “Ok, and what if it’s corrupted like the water spirit?” Her wary gaze turned towards the wolf and she bit her lip.

“Then we’ll piss it off and run towards the river. Then hope they fight each other instead of ganging up on us.” If they did, then there wasn’t much they could do. He had his trump card, but he wasn’t confident it would be enough to take on 2 corrupted spirits.

She didn’t ask what would happen if the spirits teamed up. She didn’t have to, his expression said it all. “You’re crazy, you know that right?” She had a resigned smile as she spoke, accepting his plan with far more trust than he probably deserved.

“Like I could ever forget with you reminding me all the time. This is a desperate gamble, no doubt. If you have a better plan I am more than willing to hear it.” Her silence spoke volumes. “Well no time like the present, you stay here. You're my backup.” She nodded at him, face resolute. His eyes took on a determined edge.

He walked out of the bush towards the cave, no longer trying to be quiet.The wolf sturred. “So are you and your friend done discussing now?” Azura froze the deep echoing voice that seemed to speak directly to his soul, impacting him just as much as the words. He worked up his courage and continued forward as the wolf rose to its full height.

“So the rumors are true then? You are the guardian spirit of this forest?” He spoke, forcing his voice to sound confident. Hours upon hours of lessons drilled into him, finally coming in handy. Even still he couldn’t help his gaze becoming transfixed on the piercing blue eyes of the wolf, which gave off an unnatural glow.

“To some. Only the worthy and pure may count on my aid.” The wolf gazed into his very soul, or at least that’s what it felt like. He considered the words for a moment. “So are you worthy. If you accept my challenge and prove it, if not leave now and no harm will come to you.” He wanted to laugh. It wasn’t the spirits fault but that wasn’t really a choice. He couldn’t afford to fail.

“Well let’s see it then, this test of yours.” A feral smile made its way on his face. He would succeed here, or die trying. The ground shook as a low rumble echoed throughout the cave. An interesting approximation of a laugh coming from the spirit.

“Very well test your valor. Come closer.” He stepped closer, as instructed. The wolf moved its head close as if to eat his head. He didn’t flinch back. Its nose reached his forehead and everything was engulfed in a bright light.