Mentor

That night, Icarth made his way to the border of the Boan forest once more. He had plenty of time to think of the offer during the day and he had finally come to a decision.

'I really don't have enough time...' Icarth thought bitterly. All the events happening around him were speeding up now. Danger was approaching. This time it was what Icarth had concluded himself. The mysterious cloaked man, the insane woman, the forest guardian making a move to train him, and.....his sister's incident.

Something told Icarth that they were connected. Or maybe none of them were connected and it was just the delusions that he brought upon himself. But Icarth had a feeling. Deep inside his soul, something told him- no, screamed at him to get stronger.

Get stronger so he could hold his own against the coming tide.

Icarth took a deep breath of the night air in the forest. A refreshing scent of freshly rained earth entered Icarth's nose as he gazed around.

The forest in the nighttime was buzzing with activity as usual.

Moving with muscle memory, Icarth dove into the forest and headed to the clearing where he had met the forest guardian for the first time. Stepping over broken branches and ducking underneath the hanging ones, Icarth slunk his way into the forest. This time he wasn't trying to pick a fight.

Testing out his stealth skills, Icarth made sure to cover his presence while he made his way through the forest.

Through the eerie darkness, Icarth's pale red eyes just barely stood out. Taking in as much information as possible, Icarth moved as naturally as possible.

A soft breeze blew past Icarth diagonally. Sensing it, Icarth corrected himself to be downwind of the wind. Keeping his senses alert, Icart preoccupied himself with smelling the scents on the breeze.

If he would catch something peculiar, Icarth would circumvent it and keep moving.

Due to putting his entire focus on the wind, Icarth failed to see or feel the almost invisible wire of string that he broke through.

An unknown presence started to follow Icarth from downwind so that Icarth wouldn't notice.

Suddenly feeling a spike of danger shot out from behind him, Icarth jumped forwards and barely avoided the claws swung at it.

Icarth whipped around, activating his partial transformation, and faced the creature that had attacked it.

A large monkey-like creature with long arms was hanging from a branch staring at Icarth. Or to be more exact it was glaring at Icarth, assessing the strength of its prey.

Sucking in a deep breath, Icarth prepared himself for the fight that was to follow.

The monkey was the first one to react, suddenly swinging itself up on the branch it disappeared.

Icarth raised his guard to the maximum. Just that moment, Icarth felt something flying at his back.

Icarth swiveled to dodge the sharp branch and grabbed the monkey's hand that was swung at him.

Despite sinking his claws into the monkey's hand, the beast didn't even react in the slightest.

Acting as calculated, the monkey suddenly whipped its tail and activated the trap that it had planted with its gift.

A series of razor-shard strings suddenly went taut and encircled Icarth from all sides cutting off his escape routes.

A smug grin formed on the monkey as its trap was set.

But to the contrary, a beastly smile adorned Icarth's face instead of fear.

Tightening its grip on the monkey, the beast suddenly felt an ominous premonition.

Struggling fiercely, the monkey tried to wrench its hand away but to no avail.

"Big mistake," Icarth whispered, slowly pulling the monkey closer to him through the window of string that had formed around his arm, threatening to slice the monkey apart with its own trap.

Feeling that its end was near, the monkey released the string in front of it that was just inches away from cutting through its arms.

Taking the opportunity, Icarth used his other arm to grab its throat while grazing some of the other string which cut through Icarth's body easily.

Ignoring the claws of the monkey digging into his arms, Icarth gripped harder and finally snapped the neck of the beast. Blood dripped from his arms from where they grazed the string. Arm's stinging, Icarth held the same position so as to not touch the other string.

Dropping the dead monkey, Icarth waited for the string to dissolve, exhaling to try to take his mind off the pain. While the string was strong and sharp, it would dissolve quickly if not supplied with universal energy.

And so Icarth moved onwards towards the clearing, sometimes fighting and sometimes avoiding the beasts.

Exiting into the clearing, Icarth waited, confused about what to do. His clothes were already in tatters, covered in blood from the battles that he had fought.

'Maybe I have to call it.' Icarth thought.

"Forest Guardian, I'm here about your offer," Icarth called out softly.

The silence continued in the tranquil clearing. Just when Icarth thought that the guardian didn't hear him, an airy voice sounded out to him on the wind.

"What have you decided child?" the forest guardian's soft voice entered Icarth from the passing wind.

".....I will become your student," Icarth voiced his answer to the emptiness.

"....why have you accepted my offer child?" Suddenly the forest guardian asked another question.

'Aren't you the one who wants to be my teacher?' Icarth thought confused but didn't say it out loud.

'Ah, never mind the confusing things,' Icarth shook his head, clearing it of unnecessary things.

"I want to get stronger. And you are the only strong being that has offered to teach me directly," Icarth answered truthfully.

A pause, another breeze flowed through the clearing, only this time stronger.

"Why do you seek strength?" the forest guardian's voice resounded, its gentle voice shaking the trees around Icarth.

Icarth paused as he had been asked the same question before by Shui.

That time he didn't have any answer, but this time he had one. At least a resemblance to one.

"I want to act freely. I want to protect the people close to me as well," Icarth gave two answers.

"...Quite a contradictory answer."

"Maybe. But I want both," Icarth shut his eyes thinking about how he was cooped up in Aster City for his own safety. About how he was powerless against the strong to protect the ones he wanted to.

Icarth opened his eyes to find the forest guardian standing in front of him. How did it appear so quickly, Icarth didn't know. But Icarth repressed his surprise.

Instead, he stared straight into the blue pearl that he considered the 'eye' of the forest guardian.

In response, the forest guardian observed the boy in front of it.

Young, immature, and many other words could be used to describe him. But the boy had the making of something else. Over the long years, the forest guardian had seen many travelers passing through its forest, each had a different personality. Some were strong, others were weak. Some were determined, and others were cowardly.

Some had a purpose, while others just wandered aimlessly.

The one thing that differentiated those fated for greatness from the rest was that purpose.

'He had already found a purpose...' the forest guardian thought as it gazed into the blazing red eyes of the boy. No longer pale red, Icarth's eyes took on a proper red colour, almost similar to his sisters' yet different at the same time.

"Very well child. You are now my pupil," the forest guardian spoke, this time its voice was gravelly like bark scrapping together just like the first time that they had met.

Icarth nodded, and unknowingly a strand of universal energy, invisible to both Acacia and Icarth descended into Icarth's head, going straight for the memory space.

Inside it, a sentence started to form.

"Mentor : Acac_+0(#*#@*(()@!:"->"-<>>":>{:>{P{<P#+{P@__)#_________"

Suddenly stopping, the strand of memory was corrupted by a black source coming from a crack in the space.

Glitching out, the strand of universal energy unraveled and scattered, driven away from the black energy.

Feeling that its job was done, the black energy retreated back into the crack leaving the pristine white memory space with only two sentences like always.

"Icarth Struze"

"Beast Merge"