trial by fire

1

The storm weaving tribe had many powerful warriors, all with lightning marks covering their bodies.

The marks where greyish, with some being more clearly marked than others. It was a rite of passage for the newly born to be scorched with pure ether, strengthening their skin and making them accustomed to ether at as early as possible.

This ritual would help them greatly in the years to come. They would be as powerful as a regular teenager from most other tribes before they were even one year old.

The only downside to the baptism was the high mortality rate, meaning the tribe was never able to become very big, and often they would be forced to either kidnap children or claim children as spoils from conquering other tribes. The survivors of the baptism would be raised in the most brutal of environments, where they would fight each other until they were strong enough to fight beasts instead.

Like this the children of the tribe would spend their youth fighting day in and day out, death at every corner and the stench of blood had become the closest thing to family most of these children had.

There was an age barrier of sorts, between twelve and fifteen where the highest mortality rate stood by far, half the children would die before they reached sixteen.

The reason for this terrible tragedy lay in the trial of fire, where the children would have to slay an undead beast before they turned 16 to prove that they were true warriors of the tribe, or fail and live as workers, if they survived at all.

On a boulder breaking out of the ground like an angry fist sat Ace, five days ago he had just turned thirteen and was in the middle of his trial by fire years.

Ace wasn't a big kid, on the contrary he was a scrawny las though he was around the same height as most of the other boys, and a bit shorter than most of the girls his age, he was thinner and less muscular than the other trainees.

His body was clad in fur and skin from animals he had hunted, and only his arms were bare, exposing his grey skin and the ether scars running down his arms.

The scars seemed much clearer on Ace than most other children, and the tough leathery skin full of vigor indicating a successful baptism was nowhere to be seen on him.

His body was weak and fragile compared to the others, if anything it was like many of the prisoners from the nearby villages.

Ace had a childish face with a charming innocence in his smile, it gave people the feeling that he was gullible or naïve, but that was his greatest weapon.

His dark brown hair was very uneven in length since he cut it with a knife whenever it came too close to his eyes.

Although the storm weaving tribe was much smaller than the rivaling tribes and clans around, they still held the title of supremacy in strength, and the warriors would often go out and hunt people down and use them as practice targets for the young trainees, it was less costly for the tribe to have the children learn to kill on outsiders than on each other.

A refreshing breeze washed over Ace, and he sat comfortably enjoying the moment. Before the trial, all he had been doing was fight the other kids, and it had never been easy for Ace since he didn't have a proper baptism.

Being weaker and frailer than everyone else was incredibly hard and dangerous, and ace knew better than anyone how much he had sacrificed and struggled to survive all the way to now.

The breeze felt nostalgic to Ace and it reminded him of his childhood before the trial.

The only way for Ace to have a chance against the other kids without a baptism was to become better than them in everything else, and the only way to become better was to train harder and more intense than anyone else.

It ended up becoming the new norm for Ace to wake up covered in wounds and bruises after losing, and the pain soon became a feeling of comfort to him.

When the other kids got hurt, they fled to a secure place to heal, but Ace never stopped. Like a machine made only for combat he continued again and again, even when he lost and got beaten to near death, he still stood up the next day and fought.

The years had passed like that until last year, when none of the regular kids wanted to fight him anymore, and they even moved away every time he came close.

Without the bruises and pain from battle Ace couldn't sleep, the feeling of danger had become his norm.

Even though all of the other kids were stronger than him, he was better at fighting and he wasn't afraid to use weapons or traps either.

That's when he started fighting the kids able to manipulate ether also called ether hunters, something he couldn't even dream of acquiring with his own broken body, and suddenly he was back to waking up near death again.

His reminiscence was abruptly stopped as a cry broke out over the jungle, he moved his head in the direction of the sound in an attempt to figure out what kind of creature made the sound, and how far from him it originated.

The sound was deep and powerful, not something made from a person.

This was a creature used to using its voice as a weapon of fear ace determined, he had found the noise to be north east from him, and the direction told him that the creature was the undead beast bear lord, a very powerful beast with tremendous voice and aggressive personality.

Ace judged that someone must have entered its territory and probably without realizing it, something that unfortunately was a common death in the jungle.

The bear lords had quite a large territory, and there were several of them in that area.

A bear lord was a very powerful undead beast and not something warrior trainees should even attempt to conquer, especially since many of the adult warriors would not dare to fight one.

But everything had an exception and if enough warriors went out to hunt, then even bear lords wouldn't be a threat to them.

This was also the reason Ace jumped down from his boulder and started packing his gear lying spread around on the ground, it was time to check out the scene of the crime, and maybe take advantage of the situation.

To many of the young warriors their bodies were their weapon, and symbol of respect. Most would have only a single weapon on them and some wouldn't even have any, they found it a bother with their bodies already being more powerful and durable than any armor they could make.

while the ones who could manipulate ether had little reason using weapons that wasn't made from ranked beasts, since they could destroy most regular weapons with their bare hands infused with ether.

Hence the mark of a true warrior trainee was to wear no armor at all and completing the trial without a weapon was a sign of respect and strength.

Then there was ace, wearing countless pieces of leather and fur covering most of his body, and dozens of spears, knives and arrows made out of either wood, stone and a couple made of steel he looked like an animal more than a human.

On top of that hung five skin pouches tightly closed with string and full of different liquids, three of them were poison, one full of urine from an undead beast called boar king, something perfect when making camp to scare off most animals in the jungle.

The last was full of what Ace could only describe as storm water, his final card if he needed to get out of a sticky situation. He wanted to acquire much more of the storm water, but it seemed incredibly hard to come by since Ace had only found the small amount inside his pouch, and the bit he accidentally set fire to and almost died from.

The massive amount of equipment was no bother to Ace as he had been carrying it for over a year now, and he ran with quick pace in the direction of the sound while always keeping an eye on his surroundings, being attacked while distracted was normal in the jungle and a very easy way to die.

Ace knew this part of the jungle like the back of his hand, it had been his hunting grounds for a year now. He had chosen it because it was much more dangerous than many of the other places, namely because many of the undead beasts around was unusually powerful and fierce.

This didn't mean that Ace stood a chance against such powerful beasts, but he hadn't chosen this place to hunt undead beasts, but to study them.

Instead of blindly running headfirst into the first ranked beast he saw like many of the other kids did, he wanted to find out their habits, how they hunted, where they slept and especially what their weaknesses were.

For a year he had been doing nothing but studying the mighty kings of the forest, learning from them, although it had not been easy and several times Ace had been at so close to death he could practically taste it.

over time the territories and the routine of the beasts had become engraved into Ace, and now he could sprint through the jungle with little to no worry of running into one of those terrifying beasts by accident.

The only creatures Ace fought was monkeys and hyenas, they weren't ranked beasts but still very dangerous and more importantly, quick.

They were perfect training partners, as they usually came in groups, and they both had very high intelligence to the point that they would lay traps and ambush their pray.

The monkeys even used weapons and tools, making them incredibly unpredictable.

Sometimes though, an undead beast of their kin would act as the leader of those groups, and Ace had more than once found himself in great peril because of that.

The last time he only by incredible luck accidentally ignited a puddle of liquid he would later name storm water resulting in the hyenas getting scared and run off, although the storm water still wounded him greatly, he was alive in the end.