Chapter 120: Start of The Hunt

The Hunters' camp was hectic as always. The war was raging on, and both sides were committed to screwing over the other. Lately, things had gotten even worse, with the rate of casualties increasing. The leaders of both sides wanted to boost morale so they had agreed to limit the fighting for a few months.

Not everyone liked this decision but overall people were happy to get a few moments to catch their breath. The problems came when the realization came, that they were in a danger zone.

Sure the camp was safer than the inner reaches of the zone, but now and again beasts wondered in and reminded the humans that they were guests here. Some of the Hunters got overconfident, having only fought humans for the past year, and decided to wander further into the Tundra.

Some were lucky and died instantly. Others were still preserved as rations for the winter. The beasts that occupied the inner regions of the Tundra were simply monstrous. The area was rich in resources, both mundane and magical, but the weakest beings there were of Rank Four, and

those were the young, practically babies.

The pugilist was one of the few that could wander there and come back, but even he only did so after completing his preparations. Of the nine times he had gone there, four he came on the brink of death, and three he came with a few limbs missing. It took him and the healers he hired weeks to get him on his feet, but that never discouraged him to go back there again.

Today was like any other. Multiple groups were getting ready to go out hunting when a Rank Two Hunter came crashing into the camp. It wasn't an unusual sight, many rank Twos tried to bight more than they could chew and ended up just like him.

"We, huh, we ran into, huh huh, him." He said, still panting. The run from the fight to here wasn't enough to take his breath away, but the fear the boy would hunt him down had taken its tow on the man to the point he was physically exhausted.

They looked at him with some amusement before he caught his breath and clarified.

"Ciaran Clades, we ran into him, he killed the others from my group. I was the only one to get away." He said and piqued the interest of almost all of the Hunters.

For most it was nothing personal, they just wanted the reward. For others, it was more than just a hunt, he had insulted their masters, and he had to pay. The third group was the least members, and that was the people who just wanted to meet the famous boy.

No matter which group it was, they all wanted to find him, so they set off, forcing the man to show them the way.

He brought them to the fight scene, but all they found were two corpses, and a message written in blood.

' I got bored waiting for you. I am in the Tundra, awaiting all challengers.' And at the bottom, it was signed Ciaran Clades.

The Hunters were amused by his challenge. From what they heard he was barely in the second rank, and yet he had challenged all of them. They had no doubt that he was now an Apprentice as well, but since most weren't mages, they had the desire to crush the pride of the magical brat.

Very few people were wary of the boy. One was the Rank Two who had seen him kill with a big smile on his face, and the other was the priest.

The man was a Rank Four and a Grand Mage. His senses were sharper than the rest, and he could feel something from the blood the message was written by. He knew it was magic, but not what element it was. The other thing he could tell was that there was genuine excitement in the words.

"The boy is either truly adventurous, extremely stupid, or is starved for blood." The man said, to the group that was willing to listen to him.

"Option one is viable, as he is known to love exploring and researching. Option two is nothing short of laughable, he single-handedly changed the whole continent, and he was only nine years old then, he is now eleven. And option three is also viable, he is here because of his complete disregard for human life."

The priest gave them a rundown on his analysis of the boy. He wanted them to be prepared for the worst. Despite what Diana thought, Archpriest Vest wasn't part of the imperial supporting faction of the church. He was a proud supporter of magic, but he also supported science.

His radical views got him on the mission he was today, but he never regretted it. Now he was even presented with the unique opportunity to educate one of the brightest minds in the younger generation.

'I need to get to him first. If the others catch up to him, it will only bring misery.' He thought. Unlike the rest, he didn't ignore the fact that the boy had been here for a year, but only now they had caught wind of him.

The old man knew the boy was challenging himself, and that he would use their flesh and blood to sharpen himself. Most Warriors did the same, but he knew for a fact the boy was more of a mage and if he could take down three Rank Twos without magic, he could probably kill most Rank Threes with it.

The man didn't even entertain the idea the boy could be a Mage. No sane person would, and that was his biggest mistake. He didn't have command over every Hunter, but the people still listened to his advice. He split them up, and in every group, there were at least five Rank Threes and some were led by a Rank Four.

There was not a single Rank Five in these groups, as they were too proud to hunt down a boy yet to even reach his teen years. There were however a few Mages, willing to earn themselves a good reward.

As the Hunters were about to set out, the boy had just settled in his new base.

It was a large cave in a mountain covered with snow. He shared it with legions of bats, and a giant white bear.

The boy didn't know their ranks, but the bats were mostly interested in insects and fruit, while the bear found him too small even for a snack. Since the boy always kept himself clean and odorless, they didn't mind him sharing their home with him.

Ciaran couldn't care less they were there either. Well, strictly speaking, he cared, because normal humans would never come this deep, and even if they did, they wouldn't challenge the cave. But the animals themselves were very ignorable.

The mountain itself provided him with a great environment to practice his new abilities. A blizzard was always raging there, and it was, in a way, also part of his element.

He tried for days to imbue his Storm into his body but failed every time. First, he tried to bring it within, but the storm refused to go near him. Then he tried to surround himself with it, and this time it complied, but it felt clunky and out of place.

Experiment after experiment failed. He even tried to make a spear around himself to debuff his enemies, while empowering himself, it worked, but not how he wanted it to. His body couldn't conjure enough Storm to do that, but his soul could. In the end, he created a new spell for himself but, made no progress for his body.

"Why am I so incompetent?" He sat on a rock and sighed.

"You're not, you're just a pup biting a lot more than he could chew." To his surprise, the bear spoke.

It shrunk itself to less than even a normal polar bear until it was as big as the boy. It didn't want the kid to feel threatened by its presence. The bear was one of the overlords of the mountain, but as all powerful creatures, it was plagued by The Incurable Sickness – boredom.

"Look!" It said as it embedded itself with Ice.

"You want to do this, but the element is too strong for your body. It knows it, and it's protecting you, by refusing your calls. Don't call all of it, just a fraction at a time, test your limits, and improve from there." It said as it sat down, and observed.

Ciaran wasn't even surprised by this. He knew a lot of powerful people at this point, and all of them wanted to meddle out of sheer boredom. He even got his mentors because of that.

He chose to head the advice of the bear and asked for just a whiff of Storm to enter his body. This time it agreed, but it warned him that it was a violent energy, and it would hurt him before he learned how to handle it.

And so both his training and his descent into masochism began.