Chapter 6: Gathering wood

MAX

I wake up to the sounds of waves in the distance and the feel of water lapping at my feet. I open my eyes to a beautiful evening sky and the sound of flying animals. I feel my strength slowly returning, and I manage to sit up.

I find myself at the shore of a sea; the water must have washed me here when I fell. Extremely tall trees line the area behind me. I take time to gather my strength before walking towards the trees.

My clothes are torn and burned, and there's barely anything left of them, so I peal them off my skin, which is somehow perfectly smooth; I find no sign or scar of wounds. Ranok mentioned it, but it was surreal to see healing, just like magic. I chuckle.

Ranok insists that what we wield isn't magic but rather an innate talent and ability that are who we are. So instead of wielding storm and lightning, I am storm and lightning.

I tie the scraps of clothes together to form something remotely decent. After that, I walk among the trees till I reach a clearing, where I plop down to rest against one of the trees. I have gathered most of my strength, so I decide to do a little test on all the things Ranok told me about.

I stretch my hands toward the sky. I clear my mind and reach towards the sky. I feel a connection form between me and the clouds above me. It takes multiple seconds, and I try to get used to the feeling. I feel it the moment my mind grasps the lightning and it swirls around my palms.

I open my eyes to see a blue and white lightning bolt the size of a fist arcing around my fingers. It crackled, wanting to be set free. Slowly, I moved it a few meters away from me. It's harder to control now, but it's safer just in case I lose control of it.

Raising my other hands, I try to split the bolt, but I can't, or at least not at my current tier. I finally let it go, and it rushes out in a million directions. I nod at my observations.

I do a couple more tests, calling lightning and trying to manipulate it. It does get a little easier to call it as I get used to the feeling, but I make no progress in manipulating it. After a couple more tries, I try to create lightning instead; it's much harder to do, but I finally understand it, and, in a few seconds, a white gold lightning bolt manifests in my palms.

This lightning is easier to manipulate and control; its movement is almost liquid. I manipulate it around for a while as I get more familiar with the sensation of control. I direct the bolt at an opposite tree, and it causes far more damage. Excitement bubbles inside me at the prospect of tiering up and increasing my power.

After a while, I try to manipulate and use my storm talents. Swirling my fingers, I try to form a storm, but the wind just swirls faster around me. I hear the voice of the wind like chimes; its melody is symphonic. The wind whispers to me, welcoming me, and it's like coming home. I smile at the feeling, and although the wind is not as strong as the lightning, I manage to make a gale that manages to rip a few low-hanging branches from a couple trees.

I spend an hour more testing and familiarizing myself with my talents, and excitement bubbles within me as I explore this ability I've been given.

It's dark when I finally let myself gather wood for a fire. I walk around the forest, looking for something to eat. I see a couple fruits, but I don't trust that they aren't poisoned, so I decided to find an animal instead. Nothing ever goes wrong with meat.

I search for an hour before I come across something resembling a rabbit; it had blue fur instead of the white fur of normal rabbits, and it was also bigger than normal rabbits, almost twice their size. I hide myself behind one of the larger trees and stretch my fingers towards the animal, waiting patiently. In only a few seconds, the monster is in my sight.

Three streaks of white gold lightning fly out of my fingers and hit the monster so fast that it surprises me. I walk to where the monster is now lying on the damp earth as smoke swirls out of a hole in its chest. Elated after my successful hunt, I carry my dinner as well as the stack of dry wood I was able to gather and return back to the clearing.

It's already dark when I get to the clearing, so I put a couple sticks together and try to make a fire. It takes a couple tries before I finally get it. I manipulate the wind around me, and the fire responds, crackling merrily.

I gather a few stones around the fire so I can keep warm while my dinner works its magic. I play with the wind while I wait, trying to make it swirl as gently as possible. The wind is quick to oblige; it plays and whispers to me. I don't hear its words, but I get faint expressions. Before too long, my dinner is a burst of mess, but I devour it until there's barely anything left.

When I'm done, I gather the stones around to form a makeshift pillow; it's not comfortable, but it'll do. I sigh as I lie on the ground and stare up at the stars above me, still so numerous, even with a few branches obstructing my vision.

I stretch my hands to call lightning, but I keep my eyes open this time. It's harder to focus, but I want to see what happens. I see lightning flash in the clear sky as it streaks down towards me, but instead, this lightning isn't the white or blue kind I called earlier but a bright yellow. I don't understand the difference in color and what it means, so I focus on manipulating and controlling it.

With every practice, it gets easier to manipulate. I call the lightning a couple more times, each time a different color, and I wonder what their colors mean and what they might represent. After so many tries, I'm finally too tired to continue, so I close my eyes and let sleep take me.

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I wake up to the sound of cracking roots and a scream of absolute horror. I'm on my feet in seconds; the fire is out, so I stretch my hands to call lightning, and it's pure white this time. Ferocious and excited, it brightens up the clearing, and I'm finally able to see.

The screams echo, and I walk closer to the sound. This would be the first human I would meet in AEFLYM; I don't intend for them to die. Stabilizing myself, I slowly manipulate the lightning until it is just bright enough to see. I nod as I observe that it has gotten easier to manipulate.

The sound of running feet is clearer now that I'm closer, and seconds later I see the panicked man trip and let out a decidedly unmanly scream. "Roal, eternally save me," the man cries as he scrambles to his feet. Turning, he throws fist-sized balls of fire that do nothing but singe the furs of

Fear grips me as I stare at the monster attacking the man. As big as an elephant, with black and silver fur, the monster faintly resembles a bear. It jumps towards the man sprawled on the ground. As fast as I can, I call on the wind and send it against the monster.

The wind is just barely strong enough to alter the monster's path slightly; he scrambles back to his feet, his eyes wide with terror.

The monster turns black eyes on me, snarling. It races towards me with incredible speed. I try to call lightning, but I don't have enough time to focus before the monster is before me. Its claws rake along my thigh, cutting me.

White hot pain lances through me, and I scream as I fall to the ground, black teeth on what little clothes remain on me as I try to roll away, but the monster pins me down, black claws digging into my chest, and the realization of impending death drives me crazy. Pushing past the pain, I snarl, "I am lightning; I am the storm."

Raising both hands, I clasped the monster's paws and directed myself into the monster, or at least it felt like directing myself. White gold lightning rushes out of me, unbridled and untamed. I don't manipulate it; instead, I let it be according to its nature; it ravages, rushing into the monster and splitting in a million directions.

The monster seizes us for a second before it lets out a howl of pain so primal that I sympathize with it for a fraction of a second, but I don't relent. In seconds, the monster's scream is cut short, and all that's left of it are patches of burnt skin clinging to silver bones. I feel utterly drained, and I just lay beneath it, trying to catch my breath.

Arcs of lightning still swirl around me, and the air feels charged. The air around me swirls with menace, and it takes a few seconds before it subsides. I slide out from under the now-dead monster after a few seconds while the wind swirls around me, comforting me.

I stare at the wounds on my chest and thigh, still breathing heavily. I feel my lightning talent tier up as new strength rushes through me, my senses growing sharper. I smile as I breathe in deeply. I'm alive, and I have grown stronger. I'm alive, and there's a whole world left to explore.

​​​​ UNRID

I stare up from the ground where I lay sprawled and injured, looking up at the now-dead monster. Silver claws do not belong in these woods; for years, nothing above an enhanced monster has been seen in these woods.

I look back at the dried husk of the monster that had evoked such primal fear in me; all my attacks were useless against it. I see the kid carefully slide out from beneath the monster's claws, shaking with suppressed laughter.

I sigh in relief. "Eternals! Praise ROAL!" I whispered to myself, my body trembling with the realization that I could have died. Manic laughter burst out of me, relief overwhelming me. "Thank you," I say after gathering myself, and the kid just nods at me, still exhausted.

I fall back to my feet to savor life. The fact that I could be dead right now, ravaged, never to see my wife and son again, makes me sigh, pushing the fear back down.

"What class are you?" The kid asks, and he's almost naked, "Sorry, if that's impolite, the way you fought was—"

I nod, waving away his worry. I remove my coat and throw it at him; he doesn't hesitate as he makes himself decent. "I'm a class one fire talent," I point at the richtclaws, "that's an early-tier class 3 monster."

The kid looks back at the monster a few feet away from him. I see something akin to realization in his eyes. He frowns at the monster for a bit before he replies, "I don't know my class yet, but I just hit tier 1."

The gravity of the boy's words hit me like a ton of bricks, and I'm gaping at him. I remember the feeling of power I felt as lightning completely destroyed a class 3 monster, frying all of its insides in less than a minute at tier one.

"How old are you, kid?" "If this child was a shatterer or slayer, then I definitely want him associated with me."

"17," he replies, and I nod. It was almost perfect.

"My son turns 17 next month; would you like to maybe come with me?" He stares at me for a time before he shrugs and stretches his hands to the sky. I watch as red lightning arcs down and settles on his palm.

"Ah, red, this time," he turns to me, "it's not the brightest, but it'll do."