The First Encounter

BOOK ONE: The New World

CHAPTER 2: The First Encounter

Arkyn's statement was very literal, the road had ended rather abruptly. Once it was at the pavilion structures, no other roads connected to it. Only the rocky terrain and a few miscellaneous trees were surrounding it. 

In the short few hours they walked, they hadn't escaped the mountainous environment. They still had a long way to go before they would be in the actual forests East of the mountains. 

There was no obvious indication about where they should go next.

Dusk asked what the purpose of the roads were when they just stopped at archways. "It seemed senseless to just end the castle roads while still remaining deep in the mountain." 

The Fractal Snake wondered if all humans were odd in the head like he was.

"These are the [Gates] to the other cities." Arkyn replied while looking at each archway with [Mage Sight].

'You mean the one thing that could have gotten us out of the mountains with ease if they worked?' Dusk asked while understanding this was the fabled structure Arkyn talked about many times before. He was still holding out a bit of hope that they would work and he could escape the cold air.

"Some of them would have gotten us past the mountains, not all of them. Each one used to lead to a major city in Odbranian territory, they were collectively called the [Gate Network], but it looks as though time has broken all of them down." 

Arkyn saw not a single strand of mana creating runes between any of them.

There were nine total, and they only had traces of earth mana in them that was typical to any normal rock someone would find. He wasn't disappointed, Arkyn knew the enchantments on the archways could never have survived all this time without proper maintenance. 

'Why is it your people chose to make these [Gates] for their large nest in the mountains? Why not just bring all your cities together without it?'

Arkyn touched a hand to one as he and Dusk passed through one of the nine thresholds. "We had a castle high in the mountains for the sake of safety against the enemy, but the war left a lot of people isolated to their regions and still scattered about the lands of the Continent. 

The king needed to communicate and direct his people from the castle, and this was how his authority could reach them.

It was actually the first generation of Royal Blackguards who suggested making a fortress in the mountains, hidden from the world, and shortening the travel via magic afterward. 

That plan would have been one of the biggest failures of the kingdom, if not for my parents cracking the rune sequences for safely collapsing space between two points."

He traced a finger along one of the dead runes that was engraved along the surface, he vaguely recalled its purpose before stepping away.

"It was an incredibly risky choice. So much of the kingdom's resources and time went into developing a magic that didn't exist yet, but my parents managed to perfect the fundamentals of [Gates]. 

Suddenly, they could create a series of them, allowing rapid travel between the major cities and the capital. The struggles of communication and troop deployments among the main cities became nonexistent. Travel became simple and instantaneous."

'So it was all possible, but then why was there still a war? Could you not use it to invade the enemy's nest?' Dusk pondered the very same question that many citizens of Odbrane asked as the war dragged on.

"There were a lot of limitations to constructing a [Gate], but they were doorways that could be used at both ends. They could have been used against us in the worst of ways. Not to mention, when constructing such a device, the process was as dangerous as a storeroom full of leaky oil barrels and firelit lanterns. You needed a lot of mages to complete it."

Dusk was now feeling rather glad the [Gate Network] didn't work anymore. It was one thing to complain about traveling through the cold mountains, but the chances of exploding in an inferno of magical stone shards had his future comments all dry up.

Arkyn was about to step off the platform and to head where the lights were once shining, but froze after the first step. 

The ground felt odd for a moment, like it had trembled. He thought it was something with his boots, but then he heard it continue; making him wonder if there was another array with a siren nearby. He was about to kneel down and feel it with his hands, but the smell of animal carcass rot filling his nostrils told him it wasn't manmade magic.

A guttural roar in the distance instead told him they were about to meet the source.

'That sounds like a predator, we should run.' Dusk declared rather loudly in Arkyn's head.

He quickly stepped back into the center of the stone platform and glanced around the mostly-open area. He spotted something large and brown approaching from where the trees condensed into a patch of forest.

'Definitely bigger than a man. I think that was a roar of challenge.' Arkyn pondered as he began kneeling to fiddle with the laces of his boots. 'But still plenty far away.'

Dusk didn't like how calm his thoughts were, the only behavior that seemed frantic was the process of taking off his boots. It hardly seemed like he was keeping his eye on the approaching mass. 

Something did catch his peripheral vision when he got his second foot free, and Dusk felt the glimpsing thought from Arkyn through their connection.

'There is another one.' Dusk scanned and spotted the second beast approaching from the left, barreling just as fast towards them. Now he was expecting Arkyn to run.

'Uhh, are you going to do something about this? Why are you not running?' Dusk's worried tone was not hidden in the slightest.

Arkyn was still too calm and his mind seemed almost blank. He seemed rather fixated at how his barefooted stance felt.

"Don't worry, I am nearly done." Was all he muttered before his face started to go flush. He shut his eyes and held out both hands.

The creatures were close enough now that they were clearly visible. They were charging on four, stocky legs that shook the ground and shook the forest debris out of their shaggy coats of fur.

They were bears.

It was two, large mountainous bears that were breathing heavily as they ran. Clearly they were agitated enough to come at the human with instant hostility, and Dusk could not help but worry about the long claws at the end of their paws, kicking up dirt as they were almost atop the stone pavilion.

Just when it seemed like Arkyn was going to be tackled and torn to shreds, He stomped a foot down and was suddenly out of reach.

He had swung both arms up, and rose upward from a pedestal of stone beneath his feet, releasing a plume of dust in every direction.

When the pillar appeared, the two bears were too close to slow down. Their collision shook the foundation, but Arkyn hardly felt his magical feat wobble. He made sure it was reinforced by his magic.

The entire time he had stood still, Arkyn was tensing his body until his mana circuit began cycling from his lower half and then into the ground. Once the ground beneath him was under his control, he took a bundle of mana tethers with each hand and yanked them upwards at the last moment,

He had even gone so far as to remove his boots to pour as much controlling energy as he could into the ground with less resistance. 

The bears were not deterred, merely stunned, and began clawing at Arkyn's structure. Unfortunately for them, all that effort he managed in creating the sturdy tower meant the bears could only dig up bits of gravel and leave shallow markings. Their paws might have normally stripped tree bark with ease, but it hardly did anything to the stone. 

'You could have warned me this was your plan. I was about to jump out the bag and leave your corpse for them to enjoy alone.'

"Well I figured I should get back at you a little for your rather snarky attitude." Arkyn wheezed.

It had still been a while since he used magic to such a degree. He felt his Mana Circuit thinned considerably from using so much magic in one go.

Arkyn looked down at his hand with a quick flicker of [Mage Sight] to see the natural flow of mana that traced his veins were about half as bright as before. The natural mana in the surrounding air started to slowly draw towards his mana circuit, recharging.

Mana did not come from nothing, a mage would naturally assimilate the surrounding energies of the world, so long as it wasn't hostile. Their bodies would slowly attune the energies to match the mana circuit. The mana seeping into his skin would replenish slowly for the next few hours.

'I think I managed to save about two-thirds of my energy after that stunt. Better not exhaust myself before the long hike.' Arkyn grinned as he looked down at the bears with more than one idea about what to do next.