The First Conflict
BOOK ONE: The New World
CHAPTER 3: The First Conflict
Arkyn made a hard chopping motion with his hand, whipping the string of earth-infused mana still connected to his arms. The tether pulled shards of stone out of the wall and dragged them across the beast's face.
The two bears cried out in pain and surprise, ducking their heads to the side to shield their faces, but they didn't run.
Arkyn started to enact his other idea, inhaling deeply to fill his lungs. He held his breath for a moment before leaning down at the bears.
"AAAA-A-A-A-A-A!!" Arkyn screamed at the bears at his max volume before it started to triple in intensity, kicking up rocks and imitating some kind of behemoth of a creature.
Arkyn had circulated some mana around his chest and transformed it into air magic. When drawing in the natural air elements into his expanding lungs, he was able to amplify it with ease. The end result was an enormous scream that caused the rattled bears to finally flee before Arkyn ran out of breath.
They ran in the opposite direction of where they came, leaving Arkyn with half his capacity of mana and Dusk finally relieved.
"Bears are not typically territorial unless you're way too close to their dens. They are best dealt with using their fear instead of fighting or fleeing."
'You are strangely well informed for someone who never left the castle nest.'
"I've only read about them, but the huntsmen of the castle had their fair share of encounters. They always liked to share stories on how you can fight off predators. Make yourself seem bigger than the animal or unleash something the enemy would find foul.
Bears in particular have a hatred for certain potent odors and loud noises. Encountering such things with their sensitive senses typically causes them to steer clear. The question is why were they so aggressive at the start?"
Arkyn scanned the area from his new vantage point, not finding any sort of den but eventually spotting a strange mound hidden by the uneven terrain. He climbed down his defensive post and walked towards it.
The stench of rot returned and grew intensely as he got closer.
'Well this might explain why that group of excavators was shredded to pieces. The new neighbors don't like trespassers so close to their food cache.' Arkyn tried not to gag while holding his shirt over his nose.
There was a collection of half buried animal parts peeking out the mound of dirt. The bears appeared to have stored multiple prey there over the years, Arkyn even noticing an old harness meant to fix horses to a cart.
It was torn and brown from old blood stains, but there was a distinct shape of a skeletal horse still attached.
'I didn't even think about how all those people traveled up the mountains, the survey crew must've taken carriages by horse and they were the first to get mauled back then.
'Do you think those bears were what attacked that tent and the humans inside?' Dusk asked, the smell not bothering him at all.
"Definitely a bear attack, but they seemed a bit too small to kill so painfully. The bears that ran were almost identical and rather young." Arkyn thought aloud while walking back to the pavilion for his boots.
Had Arkyn personally known the scholars that were mauled by the bears that now live near the main road, he might've felt bad about the cruel story behind their bones. Sadly, he was more curious about the strange beasts.
Being secluded to the Royal Blackguard forge and its endless training for most of his life, Arkyn never strayed too far from the Castle of Odbrane. All his training and necessities for survival were taken care of inside the castle.
He had spent most of his life researching and crafting. His knowledge about the world was mostly secondhand and came from books. It was the first time in a long time that he was learning something new.
The farthest he traveled was a few steps beyond the main gates and down the trail that lead to the beach. His curiosity was peaking at what became of the world.
"They might be from the same litter, living with the parental bear and such. I think they can have more than a few cubs per birth."
'Okay, so are they missing a parent?.' Dusk asked.
Boom! Boom!
"You just had to ask." Arkyn sighed and touched the pillar with his hand.
The stone column Arkyn made was still infused with a lot of his mana, it would take hours for so much to fade. Until such time, the rock and stone was under his control if he were to make contact with it.
He saved himself the trouble of flinging strands of mana from his body and used his palms to inject his dominance.
A set of footholds formed that spiraled up to the top, becoming a simple staircase for him to climb. From the heightened spot, Arkyn saw a third beast emerge from the thin cluster of trees.
"Is that . . .? Oh, that's surprising." Arkyn squinted at the bear with [Mage Sight] activated. "I've only seen such a creature in sketches and paintings. There was never a stuffed one in the castle."
'What is it, a bigger predator?'
"Somewhat, this one is an Elemental Beast."
Much like how a human could learn to manipulate their mana circuit to affect external elements, other animals could become a sort of mage as well, known as 'Elemental Beasts.'
The full-sized bear that appeared was bigger than the previous two. It was covered in large scars and bite marks that healed over with a dark grey skin. It was stomping as it charged, fully intending to knock over Arkyn.
When getting closer, Arkyn could see sparks of green light falling off the bear's hide, a dead giveaway that it could use magic, specifically earth mana.
With stronger bodies and larger volumes of mana in their circuits, animals learning any sort of instinctive magic were considered a dangerous force of nature.
A bear that learned to affect the earthly elements was considered a 'Quake.' A term associated with landslides and ground-based disasters.
Arkyn began explaining the concept of the Quake to Dusk, who was not listening. 'I do not care to learn the powers of the bigger bear. How do you intend to scare this one away?'
"I can't." Arkyn said earnestly.
'Are you just messing with me again?'
Arkyn shook his head as he knelt down, send his mana outward to create more columns of stone around the pavilion. He even took over the arches of the old [Gate Network], Building obstacles for the Elemental Beast.
It did not matter though, the bear charged a shoulder into the first layer of defensives. The collision exploded with a flash of green light and the first layer of stone was gone. Nothing but rubble remained after impact.
The beast roared as it began swiping at all the little posts Arkyn made, knocking them down with ease and eventually closing the distance to him.
It began taking chunks of rock out of the base, leaving four gashes deep in the column with each swipe.
Arkyn had to hunch lower to maintain his stability. He was spending most of his focus now to keep the whole thing from falling over.
The Quake seemed frustrated, not liking how Arkyn was still out of reach. It stepped back and began a hopping motion with its front legs, making the whole area shake. Each time it hit the ground, a pulse of mana made a shockwave that travel in every direction.
Birds flew off the surrounding trees and dead trunks began to topple in the distance.
'This is a pissed off mother,' Arkyn thought to Dusk. 'She could tear a horse in half with no issue. Fleeing will not work because any hunter that tried running from a Quake never came back to the castle alive.'
'So we are dead then. We made it half a day before dying to an overgrown bear.'
'If we did anything right now, most definitely. But it's an animal, it doesn't think to pace itself.'
With [Mage Sight], Arkyn could see parts of the bear's mana circuit starting to lose intensity. Each thrash and charge was full of strength and power, dulling the green and white colors of mana in its body. Signs of exhaustion were becoming evident now.
The last jump of the paws were no longer packing the force to shake half the mountain.
Arkyn took that as his moment to act, he let go of everything holding his tower together. It began to tilt away from the bear.
He scooped up his bag from the side and jumped. His falling path was about to land him right atop the bear.
At the same time, his feet were still branched into the tower via mana tethers. Arkyn curled in his knees, retracting the mana and yanking the large mass of stone to fall in the same direction as him.
Directly atop the bear.
Arkyn reached into his bag and pulled his hammer out by the handle. Arkyn held onto the tool with as firm of a grip as possible and brought his body forward. He slammed the hammer down just above the bear's brow.
The impact gave a not-so-resounding gong noise that was muffled from the fur. The beast was dazed from the force and a gust of dust erupted from the sudden weight surge hitting the ground.
Before it could recover from the stunning strike, Arkyn rolled off the side, letting the entire column following behind him land on the Quake. That combination finally stopped the rampage.
The blow was just enough to knock out the beast, but Arkyn certainly didn't have the strength to kill it in a single blow.
Arkyn was not going to stick around to try and finish it off, he fled while checking that Dusk was still alive inside the bag.
'I'm a blacksmith, not some inhuman soldier.' He told Dusk. 'My reckless abandonment for my health and safety died the moment we stepped out here.'
Arkyn touched the amulet underneath his shirt as he ran. It would keep him alive, but no longer save him from getting maimed and killed. There was no room nor time to construct the whole [Mending Matrix] once he pulled the [Cinder Spark] from the Heart.
He figured once he learned a bit more of the new world, he could setup a safe place to recreate all the old arrays. Immortality and Self-repair would make his goal easily obtainable.
Arkyn didn't have to check to know his mana circuit was down to barely a quarter now. He wasn't going to spend time inspecting the brightness of his mana circuit and continued running.
Hammer in one hand, and boots in the other.