Chapter 5: The Two Towns (I)

A hoary ancient fortress of a tree stands proud and tall as it's the only one alive among the melancholy ruins of carcasses that are strewn about.

Its canopy is made out of a solemn hue of Eden-green leaves. With pointed tip and rounded lobes, a gentle breeze gentle rustles the trees before dying down a mournful sigh.

A breath of fall has already arrived as one of the leaves of a tree has turned an apricot-orange. While the sides have already begun to wither up into thick curls.

A second gnawing gale brushes all too slightly against s the leaf as it breaks off the branch and sorrowfully falls to the ground where a loud crunch soon follows.

And with that begins a new day.

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 Տ: 𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕿𝖜𝖔 𝕿𝖔𝖚𝖓𝖘

There is one thing I wanted to confirm. With my hands pointed into the air, mana began to flow out of my channels and into the crisp autumn morning as an azure orb of mana began to gently hover inches from my ring finger.

A faithful bright blue orb of mana slowly hovered above my fingertips as it gently rotated all throughout. Suddenly, I slashed out with the orb against a nearby tree. Small string mana followed suit as it had done honorable damage. 1/3 of the tree had been cut through which was could considerably powerful.

Not only could my ability freeze simple water, I knew there was something much more than just that.

Incredible. Just incredible.

And with that, a new training regime would be situated. I would split my day into two. In the morning, would be sword training, and while in the afternoon was actively hunting training.

Though it worked out fine as I had no complaints with training swordsmanship as each time, I felt a tick of more experience in fighting and I could now get to the point where I could create my own techniques. There were, of course, a couple of misses.

During the afternoon, using my ability was incredible as I relied on my newfound power as my unclear sanctuary. Though this time of training was also more grueling and put a mental strain, none the less carry all the physical fatigue from early morning.

Of course, there were no more beasts to hunt as the wolves, the panthers and all the small beasts not even worth to be mentioned were far too easy. With no other choices, I headed up to the more northern and high layers of elevation in search of more beasts.

Although, with my new ability everything felt it was like another part of me. As if I instantly knew how to communicate with my own ability and use it to the maximum efficiency. It was as if it was there all along but I could never tap into the broad new world.

Standing in front of an ancient tree, its rugged bark stood groves of armor that surrounded the tree to surround it. Its branches gnarled and knotted like forks of lightning. While time-worn leaves slowly drifted down as the fall's malevolent winds gently clashed against the trees.

It was the oldest tree in the forest as far as I knew and it had survived to catastrophic disasters that destroyed every other tree but this. And yet the hoary trunk of a tree stood proud and defiant after all this time.

The tree, was my new target practice as all the rest of the trees fell with a single slash to the trunk— quickly becoming timber.

I wanted an archaic and timeworn tree, something that no one would care if it fell. Even so, its roots are because helms of time, and would take a considerable amount of effort to destroy. That is what I wanted. A tree that could withstand my strength and would be feasible enough for me to train against without it falling.

Letting out a cold icy breath, I pulled out my blade with two hands clasped on the grip. Bringing it from my shoulders, it swung it through the air onto the tree as it slashed at the tree.

Drawing back, my premonition was right as its bark was only merely crushed in as a tiny waft of sawdust fell from the messy apparition.

And with the waters cleared, I went full out.

Quickly coating my sword with aura, I slashed the tree from left to right and then ducked. With the utmost focus, the tree soon faded away into an illusionary enemy.

Side-stepping, I pierced the bark as a heavy block rattled the trees. A single bittersweet leaf fell from the hoary tree, as I split the crackled leaf into two before leaping up into the air. Slashing the tree, a sickening crack could be heard as the trunk of the tree began to slowly split apart.

Landing onto the ground, I summoned shards of ice that flew through the air as a faint thwack resounded through the tree.

Suddenly an imaginary punch flew through the air as I leaned back as the fist whizzed through the air— leaving his underside exposed.

Instead of using my blade, I counterattacked by manifesting a glistening azure aura and slammed my palm into the entity. A powerful aura exploded from the invisible contact.

Continuing, I made two diagonal slashes into the air, as two crescents of azure aura flew through the air as a cardinal leaf that soberly fell from the tree was diced into four before the aura continued. towards their journey.

Upon contact against the hoary tree, two indented lines appeared on the bark as I lunged towards the tree.

With a single vigorous and potent lacerating slash towards the tree, a large part of the bark was severed into two, as the outer edges of my attack began to freeze into layers of glacial ice around the tree.

Silent orbs of azure and cerulean blue orbs fluttered around the bark— in a similar manner to the azure butterfly as the frosty area of ice began to greatly enhance

Pouring everything to that one attack, I finally pierced through and sliced through the rugged bark as all of sudden the centimeter-thick layer of ice suddenly expanded and pushed out with a niveous passion.

Whilst a powerful ray of azure light exploded within the tree, piercing more and more until it hit something else that was outlandish. Bursts of wind crashed against the tree, as dust and debris flew into the air.

In a single screeching metallic jangle rang out as fragments and remnants was flung into the air.

Eh?

A shimmering light reflected off as a soft chord of light revealed my shocked face from a single shard of metal. The shards vehemently twirled and spun around, until it too fell next towards the rest of the fragments of metal.

That had lied littered in dozens of scrapped metallic shards.

My sword had shattered into pieces.