บท 129: Hunting Grounds (Part 1)
As soon as Ezra stepped out of the bounds of the rune the itching rage came back, it was manageable but it was annoying.
"So, I guess we'll leave you here," Ezra talked to Rycharde and party.
"Yes, milord, we hope you have a good hunt today," Rycharde bowed and so did all of his vassals.
Ezra and Reitz set off immediately moving toward the centre of the grove, jumping on branches and the gargantuan trunks.
Uric stayed to scout the ones who stayed while Heinrich went and tailed Ezra and his father.
After a few minutes of hopping and sprinting around they encountered Felwolves, but surprisingly it stared at them and just left.
"That's odd," Reitz touched his chin, "normally felbeasts attack on sight." He shook his head, "I hope you are not bored."
"Not in the slightest, dad," Ezra still suppressed the gut feeling. That was what he was thinking of and not the actual event. Thankfully it just remained constant throughout the trip.
They pushed forward. Then Reitz suddenly slowed down.
"Easy now, Ezra, this is where I and my father first saw a Precantae," Reitz said as he gestured.
They now crept further and snuck away, light was still hitting the floor below. Ezra released his aura, every day he kept it suppressed and this was the first time in six years that he displayed it in full blast to scout the area.
'GREAT OMNIPOTENCE! IS THIS CHILD A PRIMARCH!?' Heinrich's mouth was agape. The brilliance unfolded in his eyes was like a dozen dazzling swirling suns. Luckily, he was wearing a magic cloaking cloth underneath but he still had some doubts about the fabric, he prayed that he would not be sensed. This child was definitely someone not to be trifled with. He held his breath as the aura swept his way.
'This is definitely huge news! I might even get promoted for this report! This piece of information alone is sufficient enough for the magic crystals and cores we paid,' he waited and kept still as possible as any movement might alert Ezra.
Ezra then retracted his aura.
"Dad, there seems to be a creature over there." Ezra pointed.
Sweat beads came forming on Heinrich's forehead. 'Have I been caught? I can't handle Ashbringer, definitely even more so that monster son of his.' His eyes filled with horror.
He held his breath.
Luckily the path Ezra pointed was just in the same direction but what he pointed was on the ground below.
'Whew,' Heinrich sighed, 'this magic repressor cloak saved me, the seven thousand gold I spent on this was worth every coin,' he breathed.
'Seems that my magic is draining more than normal,' Ezra mused, 'is magic correlated with willpower? I'm definitely using some to curb that distasteful emotion. I have to investigate this phenomenon, psychology was never a field I studied enough, too much subjectivity in my opinion, but I need to develop this field if I want to know more about magic, but I don't have enough tools or read enough journals on the subject, maybe if I develop something akin to psychometrics?' Ezra 's mind wandered off.
'I guess I'll just write about all the books I read about that subject then outsource it to other people.' Ezra scratched his head.
As they walked towards the area where Ezra pointed, they saw a small clearing. A twelve-foot lynx was prowling. It growled at them and starred cautiously. They noticed a shining crystal was on its head, it was pearly almost silvery white.
"Looks like we meet our first kill," Reitz spread his feet to take a stance, lowering his centre of gravity. He slowly conjured his fire amour.
It fascinated Ezra every time his father did this, he just couldn't get over the mechanics of it instantiating like that.
"Ezra, I think you should do the honours, first kill goes to you," nodded Reitz.
Ezra was wearing full armour and his APR boots with his magic gloves. The knuckles were infused with a stronger metal than all of his armour, spikes protruded out of it, but it was padded with shock absorbing cotton stuffed leather. It was somewhat like a boxing glove inside. He made sure that all the materials he used were either organic or steel. Any other materials would either get affected physically by magic, for example, stone or concrete blew up when it was near the fire alloy as he condensed his magic.
Ezra prepared his own stance and held steady footing on to the ground. He had practiced enough to have a controlled burst of power in the direction he chose. Hovering was still virtually impossible but quick movements were manageable.
The fellynx stared at them cautiously.
Ezra widened his feet, he was going to put power into his right boot to burst forward and support it with his left, more complicated manoeuvres of his boots had already been in his toolkit.
BOOM!
There was an explosion.
"GREAT OMNIPOTENCE! WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THAT!" Heinrich swore in his mind and even made a little noise as he ruffled the leaves in astonishment. He was too high up and the two were too focused on the lynx for them to notice.
It seemed that it was a great thunder had struck the place where Ezra was positioned.
'Is that a secret spell passed down to the Blackfyre heritage?' Heinrich observed still sweating profusely as his heart rate increased further, 'Bren is obviously hiding the prowess of this child. The level of secrecy that the Blackfyre's employ' Heinrich rubbed his chin. 'they must be grooming him to become a Primarch . . . no Rex Imperia, the next emperor! All of this planning, new products and new processes, new ideas. They are planning to shake the entire foundations of the empire! This might change the dynamic of our whole cartel and the whole system as a whole!' Heinrich's heart beat even faster as it raced to his conclusion.
'I've got to report this to her imminence immediately!' Heinrich thought, 'I must pry open the secrets of Bren even further, I doubt the sleepers could even parse together the natural conclusion of this intelligence!' He distanced himself just enough so that he could see the battle.
'If I'm caught, they'll definitely execute me on the spot, I must stay away as far as possible within view of the battle.' Heinrich forcefully slowed his breathing.
Ezra miscalculated and went beyond the expected distance, in effect the lynx leapt and opened its mouth, from it came a whirlwind.
Ezra chuckled, "Are you kidding me?" He became unhinged he didn't try to curb the anger anymore and used it to the full extent. He infused his magic with the Pyritanium and used the Aerellium to propel it in the direction he chose, but he magnified the intensity of the aura in the Pyritanium the resultant effect was that the fire exploded in the mouth of the lynx propelling him away from Ezra.
Ezra did a backflip and landed on his feet.
'WHAT! ALL OF THAT WAS CHANTLESS!' Heinrich was now utterly dumbfounded. He tried to concentrate and look at how Ezra cast the "spell" he didn't dare analyze it with his aura as he would be discovered. "That seems to be a different way to cast spells, something is off. It's not like the other spells mages would use."
Ezra charged once again with a burst of his boots a propelling him 100 km/h to the lynx that was still dazed.
He cocked his punch as he shouted in fury, he infused as much magic as was possible to Aerellium alloy as it was about to connect to the torso of the Precantae he ignited the compressed air as his punch was about to land.
BOOOM!!
Ezra was launched into the air by the shockwave, most of the force was directed to the lynx but he didn't expect it to garner such a recoil. It was hard to calculate magic perfectly and most of the time he just groped around and learned from inference or experience.
The lynx's body exploded and its head and tail were all that remained.
'WHAT IN THE BLOODY FUCK IS THAT SPELL!' gasped Heinrich, 'It doesn't seem to fall to any spell that I know of,' Heinrich pondered, 'Is this the realm beyond Archduke? Primarch?'
Reitz clapped.
While Ezra panted as he subdued the anger boiling inside once more.
"Impressive, fifteen seconds, you killed the thing in fifteen seconds," Reitz shook his head. He then moved forward to rub his son's head, "You truly are a genius," he smiled.
"I killed my first Precantae in twenty minutes with help from my father," Reitz looked at a distance reminiscing.
"Well I kind of cheated, you know," Ezra said shyly.
"No all that was on you, it's both your wits and power that won you this, battle. Come let's get even further. We'll definitely break the record."
'Cheated? Did I mishear?' Heinrich pondered. "Nevermind, I'll just keep on tailing them"
. . .
The sun was already setting and they hadn't seen from their lord yet. Evered and Rycharde were talking merrily with the other knights, however, Caspian was just sitting whetting his swords.
The serfs on duty gathered wood and started a fire.
Hearth was silent. He was contemplating on what he could do, he was still ashamed with his punishment and so he decided to do some rounds. He tried to avoid the other knights as he still was not comfortable with Rycharde and Evered.
He stood up from the log he was sitting and started to walk out of the circle.
"I'm coming with you," Caspian said as he sheathed his sword.
"I kind of wanted to be alone, you know," Hearth said softly.
"Nah, its stated in the field manual Lord Ezra developed that patrols should consist of at least two people," Caspian walked casually.
"Okay then," Hearth nodded.
They trotted along the periphery wondering 100 meters from the camp's position. But even then, there was no conversation between them.
A towering Felbear stared at them and roared as it started to run.
Both of them took on their stances. Hearth propelled himself toward the bear donning his earthen fists. Caspian prepared his [Scalding Blast] ever since that time he had practised he had successfully streamlined the spell making it smaller but it was even hotter now. Ezra told him that it when he cast it was at boiling point from the get-go.
Heath smashed the head of the bear. It brushed it off but it was stunned for a bit. This gave ample time for Caspian to direct the spell at the bear.
The [Scalding Blast] connected.
ROAR!!
The bear charged furiously at Caspian. Hearth then charged again and smote the bear. The momentum caused it to stagger. This opening was seen by Caspian who drew his sword and stabbed the stomach of the bear.
But instead of slowing down. It became even faster and even more furious.
"Looks like, what sir Rycharde said is true," Hearth gasped for deep breaths.
"Yeah, night beast rage increases the endurance and combat ability of felbeasts," nodded Hearth.
"But their movements are simple enough though," Caspian said as he cast another [Scalding Blast]
The bear didn't charge at Caspian anymore even though it howled in pain at the spell. It was eyeing Hearth's movements.
"Hearth, I have an idea, Could you engage him for a few seconds? I'm going to use my other spell,"
"Okay, this thing is tough at night, I have no problem dealing with knights but this thing seems to absorb my hits for some reason," Hearth nodded.
Hearth charged forward as he bobbed and dodged the swipes of the felbear as it seemingly got even faster and even more furious.
"Are you done yet?" Hearth said as he dodged a bit that almost grazed his stomach, "I'm kind of in a pinch here you know, this doesn't seem to be a normal felbear as well, from the stories of sir Rycharde, a few knights could handle a lot of these things," Hearth panted as he dodged another charge.
"Yep, It's hard to get the visualization right for this spell, I tried to rework it to consume less magic as per Lord Ezra's advice."
Caspian rushed forward charged with his spell, he punched forward where he had previously wounded the bear. Water gushed out like a firehose the pressure was too overwhelming it formed into a blade. Hearth saw Caspian and grabbed the bear's head as he tried to subdue it. The [Water Blade] pierced the insides of the bear, Caspian angled it so that it would strike its heart. After a few seconds of struggling the bear stopped and dropped dead.
"Whew, well that wasn't too hard," Caspian said. They gave each other a high five, Ezra taught them this and he told them it was a sign of a job well done.
"SHIT!" Hearth shouted.
"What?" Caspian was bewildered.
"Run!" Hearth grabbed Caspian by the sleeve.
Caspian looked back at what Hearth saw. Shadowy figures along with Felwolves were charging.
Hearth dragged Caspian as he ran using his augmented earth shake.
The arcanists were coming.
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earldennison
earldennison Hi Readers,
I made this chapter longer than normal, almost two chapters in length as I might not be able to post as much anymore in the future. I ask that both those of you who are new and who have been reading this since the beginning, give some reviews about what you think as you have seen the novel progress.
Thank you for supporting this novel thus far. I didn't expect this would get such an audience.
Again my humble thanks,
Earl
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