Soul of the Warrior

A couple more days passed as the three companions climbed The Dagger. The appearance of Wyverns was infrequent, but the higher they climbed, the more often they were attacked. Not only did the number grow, but the size of the reptiles did, as well. Reivyn's Sense Threat Skill notified him that their size was directly related to their Level.

The runts and the young were the ones at the lower parts of the mountain, and the older, smarter Wyverns lived closer to the peak. Reivyn didn't understand why the monsters would separate themselves in such a manner, at first, but after they began reaching the top of the mountain where the air was thinner, it became clear.

Reivyn, Kefira, and Serilla didn't have any trouble breathing the thinner air, and the cold didn't bother them either. The Dagger might be a very large mountain relative to the mountain range it was situated on, but there was a reason The Sword Peaks were named swords and The Dagger was named dagger. The Mana density played a role in allowing the three to live comfortably, but their own inherent strength is what allowed them to take advantage of it.

Reivyn didn't understand the intricacies involved, and Kefira and Serilla said they hadn't learned about it in their education, but the vibrancy of the Mana density did something to allow the air to be more efficient for those that could take it. A mountain of similar height in a Tier 1 Region would actually be more difficult to ascend, and ironically one would need to be even higher Tier in order to climb to the top.

Reivyn walked along with Kefira between himself and Serilla, the mountain pass being wide enough for more than three people to walk side by side. They were walking along a more horizontal level leading up to the next incline, and Reivyn spotted some boulders inexplicably rolling down the hill in the distance. A loud screech from above caught his attention, and he looked up to see a couple of Wyverns diving toward the boulders.

The large rocks suddenly sprung up into twelve-foot-tall behemoths and swiped at the Wyverns lashing out at them with their claws. They were icy blue, much paler than the dark blue of the Wyverns, and Reivyn could see their ugly visage from well over fifty yards away. They had tusks protruding from their lower lips, and he could see saliva dripping off of them to land on the ground where they instantly solidified into ice.

They had swirling patterns on their naked bodies, their modesty only covered by a tattered loincloth. Their muscles bulged, and they roared back in defiance as the Wyverns swooped away, out of reach. The Ice Trolls made to roll up into disguised boulders once more and continued on their path, but another set of Wyverns came charging down, halting them in place once more.

The battle between the two trolls and the four Wyverns that traded places in pairs lasted for about ten minutes, with neither side making any headway until the trolls turned around and clambered back up the incline.

"I guess that's why the higher Level Wyverns are further up the mountain," Reivyn said. "It's not a hierarchy, but self-preservation."

"Luckily for the Wyverns, those were young trolls," Kefira remarked. "If they had been a legitimate hunting party, just the four Wyverns wouldn't have been able to stop them from trespassing into their territory."

"How do you know that?" Reivyn asked, glancing at Kefira.

"There are two reasons: One, there were only two of them. A real hunting party would have half a dozen; And two, they were only twelve feet tall. That means they're like older teenagers. The fully grown adults are fifteen to eighteen feet tall.

"I would guess that they were testing their mettle on a little adventure."

"Are they smart enough for that?" Reivyn asked.

"You've mostly encountered lower Tier Region monsters, and even in Drallo, the monsters you fought were either nuisance creatures or Dungeon monsters. Only the snake people have a bit of wisdom, but if you pay careful attention, you would notice that they're far smarter and more organized than the orcs of the Tier 1 Region. The higher the Tier of the Region, the smarter and wiser the non-nuisance monsters will be.

"These trolls and Wyverns don't have a society as we would understand it, but they're not stupid."

"Yes, I see. That's definitely something to consider. If that's the case, then why are they always so hostile to humans and don't set up trade relations and try to live in peace with people?"

"There are versions of the monsters in Regions that do so, just like the lizaldons. Though it's not exactly fair to refer to them as monsters. A good comparison would be how humans and apes are similar to each other. The lizaldons and the feral nuisance lizards down in that cave are only slightly related.

"One thing that all monsters seem to have in common is extreme xenophobia. Not just toward humans, though, but toward everyone else. They will enslave or use other monsters, but they'll never be allies with them."

"Then what about even higher Tier Regions?" Reivyn asked.

"That's one of the reasons it's so hard to get an established empire above Tier 4," Kefira said, "The smarter monsters have their own little kingdoms, so their opposition to human intrusion is much fiercer. It's not just that they're inherently stronger, though that is also a major factor."

"Good to know."

The two of them ended their conversation as they drew closer to where the battle had just taken place. They weren't going out of their way to move stealthily and hide, but they also weren't advertising their presence. They had been speaking in a low voice, but now that the monsters had dispersed and there was no additional sound to mask their conversation, they stopped talking.

The Wyverns seemed to care too much for keeping an eye on the Ice Trolls, so they weren't bothered by any air dives from them, and there seemed to be an invisible border where the Wyverns wouldn't easily cross. The Ice Trolls seemed like they weren't moving very fast, now that they were trudging up the peak, but their considerably longer legs carried them much further with each stride. They eventually outpaced the trio and were out of sight.

"I think if we're going to fight some Ice Trolls, those two should be it," Reivyn said after a moment. "We can rush ahead real quick and engage them before they rejoin their tribe, or whatever it's called."

"Sounds like a plan," Kefira said. Serilla unsheathed her sword and nodded. "Did you get a chance to use your Sense Threat Skill on them?"

"High Tier 4 or low Tier 5," Reivyn said. "It's still not accurate enough to pinpoint such a large gap."

"That sounds about right. They're almost adults, but not quite."

"Let's go."

Reivyn also unsheathed his sword, and he dashed ahead. He knew that they were supposedly nearly immune to Magic, but he readied a couple of Fire-attuned Spells anyway. Even if the Mana didn't harm them, the heat should, and he knew from talking with other Adventurers that fire was a weakness to trolls of all kinds, so it should be doubly so for the Ice Trolls.

Reivyn ran up a steep incline and rounded a bend, and he immediately ducked down low and launched himself forward into a roll. His Divine Sense had picked up that the Ice Trolls had known about them all along, and they had hidden behind the curve of a wall to ambush them. They couldn't escape his Perception, though, and he baited them into attacking him.

The two girls launched their attacks at the exposed Ice Trolls, Serilla slashing her sword deep into the meat of the arm that had tried to pound Reivyn into the ground, and Kefira shot out a blade of pure black Space. It was similar to a Wind Blade, but it was infinitely sharper, literally as thin as possible.

Reivyn watched as the Space Blade made contact with the forearm of the first Ice Troll, and it seemed to wink out of existence, absorbed by an aura surrounding the troll. It did nothing, though, and a thin line of blood trailed from a shallow gash. The line that had been opened in the troll's skin sealed back up, visible to the naked eye.

The damage that had been done to the second troll by Serilla was much more severe, though her blade had bounced off of the bone of the troll's forearm. It screamed in rage and pain, and it flung its arm into Serilla's chest, sending her catapulting back down the incline they had just charged up. She flew through the air, and then tumbled and rolled for a bit after landing, a small rock arresting her movement.

She threw her head back and stifled a scream, a look of agony on her face. Reivyn didn't have time to go check up on her, though, and he lashed out with his sword at the same wound that Serilla had initially caused. The troll's arm had moved completely to the other side, exposing his back to Reivyn, when it had backhanded Serilla.

Reivyn released two 1,000 Mana Fire Bolts, concentrated to as small a point as he could make them, as his sword slashed halfway into the bone of the arm. The first Fire Bolt followed his blade, and, like Kefira's Space Blade, it seemed to be absorbed into an invisible aura. It had been pumped with much more Mana, though, and it lingered in place for a couple of seconds before disappearing.

As Reivyn had hoped, the fire itself, and the intense heat given off by it, worked to destroy the regenerative properties of the troll's body where it made contact. The gash on its arm and bone stopped healing at a visible speed, and it once more screamed in pain. It didn't wildly attack Reivyn, though, but it instead cradled its mangled arm against its chest, looking down at it.

The second Fire Bolt had been launched at the other troll's face, more in order to keep it under control than to do damage, but it also let out a piercing howl. After the fire dissipated, Reivyn saw that its face was partially melted, and it wasn't healing.

Kefira took the opportunity to launch another salvo of smaller Space Blades directed at the face of the first troll, and to Reivyn's and Kefira's delight, the aura surrounding its head seemed to have been weakened by the fire. Instead of winking out of existence after leaving a small scratch, the myriad Space Blades left countless lacerations on the troll's face, even going so far as to completely destroy one of the eyes.

Reivyn was inspired by the finding, and he activated his Elemental Weapon with his Fire and Plasma Affinities, overlaying them to get maximum heat. Plasma and Fire weren't exactly the same thing, and Reivyn didn't know if it was the actual Fire Affinity that did the damage and weakened the aura, or if it was the heat of the fire. There was a bit of Fire Affinity Mana motes contained in each flame one could find, so it wouldn't be a stretch to believe that even mundane fire could hurt trolls because of the Fire Affinity itself.

Reivyn's sword blazed to life in a deep red, fire and sparks spitting off of it, and he laid into the second troll that he and Serilla had targeted. He wasn't trying to do actual damage, though that was a definite bonus, but he was instead working to hit as many exposed places as possible to destroy the Magic Immunity aura and eliminate as much regeneration across as large an area as possible.

The troll had never experienced such torture before, and it was clear that it didn't know how to react. Its instincts didn't immediately kick in, the inherent fear of fire paralyzing it in place momentarily, but it went berserk after just a moment. Its upper body twisted and jerked about, flailing its arms all around as it screamed in defiance into the sky. All the while bloody gashes that didn't heal were left all over its torso, arms, legs, and neck.

It turned toward Reivyn and stared at him with a baleful look. It took a huge step forward, but then it suddenly stopped as a sword suddenly pierced through its lower abdomen. It stopped and looked down at the sudden intruding metal, not understanding where it had come from, and Reivyn nodded to Serilla that was on the other end of it. He had seen her approaching with his Divine Sense, and he had gone all out to capture the troll's attention, not just weaken it.

Serilla pulled her sword back out and nimbly dodged backward, weary of a similar attack from the backhand of the troll. The troll half-turned toward her, and Reivyn took the opportunity to leap forward and stab it in the exact same wound with his flaming blade. He pumped as much Mana as he could into the sword, letting it explode up and out, into the body of the troll.

The troll threw its head back and screamed louder than anything else they had heard yet, and Reivyn could smell the disgusting stench of its flesh and internal organs roasting. Serilla was quick-witted, and she also dashed forward to stab it again in a different spot. There seemed to be a pop that Reivyn could only perceive with his Mana Sense.

The two humans pulled their swords out and backed away from the adolescent troll, watching for its next move. It had only been a couple of seconds since Reivyn had started thrashing it, and Kefira was keeping it busy by jumping around and launching Space Blades at its face.

The troll that Reivyn and Serilla had been attacking suddenly charged forward at Reivyn with tremendous speed, taking him completely off guard. He didn't have time to dodge out of the way, and he was tackled to the ground by the hulking monster. He felt a pain in his back and ribs as he was momentarily stunned, pinned beneath the troll.

Without thinking about it, Reivyn transferred his Elemental Weapon from his sword to his body, and he wrapped his arms around the stomach of the creature. His legs couldn't get all the way around the beast, so he settled for wrapping them around one large leg, the size of a small tree trunk.

The troll immediately realized its mistake as it began to try and get up and away from the burning man, but Reivyn held on, not letting it go. He infused Gravity Mana into himself, causing his weight to exceed what the troll could easily lift from its position.

Serilla sprinted up from behind and began hacking at the back of its neck. One, two, three, four times. She stopped just in time from completely beheading the troll as she felt her blade sever the spine, decapitating it and ending its life.

It had already lost its Magic Immunity aura from when Reivyn had pumped Fire and Plasma into its insides, and it hadn't been regenerating since then either. It had never experienced such a thing before, so it hadn't even fully realized the extent of the damage it had suffered. Added on the full body blaze that Reivyn continued to cook it on the outside with, it had weakened enough for Serilla to chop its head off.

Reivyn ended the Mana coursing through his body, and he used his arms and legs to heave the creature off of himself. He didn't know if the corpse would regain its regenerative properties. Something in the back of his mind told him that if it wasn't burned to ash, it was very well possible. Now that it was just a dead body and didn't have the Magic Immunity, Reivyn conjured more Fire and Plasma and set the whole beast on fire.

Serilla didn't stop to catch her breath, and she immediately ran over to join Kefira in harassing the other Ice Troll. It saw what happened to its companion, and it screamed in rage, wanting to rush over and kill Reivyn. Kefira prevented it from effectively moving where it wanted to. Serilla was much less mobile than Kefira, so she followed behind the monster and took the occasional potshot at it, waiting for Reivyn to join them and add more Fire to make it vulnerable.

Once the dead troll was thoroughly cooking all on its own, Reivyn cut off the Mana and reignited his sword. The three of them together made short work of the other troll, having learned how to deal with it from their defeat of the first one.

The three stood panting, looking at each other as Reivyn idly burned the second corpse. Reivyn suddenly grinned and laughed out loud. The two girls shortly followed, and the three of them laughed the tension out.

"Well, that was something, wasn't it?" Reivyn said. "I can definitely see how the fully grown ones in a hunting party would definitely be in the category of 'not fun.'"

"Yeah, these two didn't seem to know how to use their strengths effectively," Kefira nodded. "Maybe they're younger than we thought, and the fully grown ones are even larger than eighteen feet tall."

"That's a scary thought," Reivyn said. "Let's hope that's not the case."

Serilla couldn't take it any longer, and she let herself slump to the ground. Kefira was at her side in an instant, and she helped her get out of her armor to check the extent of the damage on her back. The rock that she had slammed into hadn't looked like a good way to stop one's momentum.

Reivyn walked around the corner of the wall, out of sight, and moved a distance away so that his Divine Sense didn't pick up the two, either. Technically, he could see everything at all times through people's clothes, but it was obscured by the contact of the clothes with the skin. It was hard to describe, but basically, Reivyn wasn't intruding on people's privacy on accident. If someone wore loose enough clothing, however, that was a different story.

Luckily for everyone, besides some of the villagers they had interacted with, that had been around Reivyn, everyone had been in armor that hugged their bodies. Kefira and Serilla knew about his Skill, but they didn't know the extent of how detailed it could be. They hadn't thought to question whether or not he could see underneath, and they had just taken for granted they he was only seeing them as they were.

There was no way he was going to inform them of the truth, for their peace of mind. He was sure Kefira would get over it very quickly, but Serilla might take some exception to it. It wasn't like there was anything he could do about it, though. All he could do was move away from the two to allow Kefira to inspect and deal with the wounds without him being nearby.

After several minutes of sitting in silence by himself, Reivyn saw them come up to him through his Divine Sense, and Serilla gave him a nod in thanks after walking up to him. Reivyn simply nodded back before looking to Kefira.

"Ready to keep going?" He asked.

"Yup."

The three didn't engage with any more Ice Trolls on their way to the top. The Dagger was large enough in circumference that there was plenty of space for them to move about without intruding on the domains of the monsters. There had been a couple of close calls when boulders had suddenly come to life next to them, but they had always been able to jump away to safety thanks to Kefira.

It took them another day to reach the peak of the mountain. The last little bit to the top wasn't that high of a cliff, and Reivyn had convinced Kefira to just climb up the normal way. Reivyn lassoed a rope over a protrusion, and the three climbed up the final stretch.

Reivyn turned around and extended a hand to give Kefira some assistance, as she was next in line. Serilla brought up the rear.

As Reivyn was pulling the girl up, his Divine Sense picked up two people materializing out of nothing behind them. He didn't have time to think, and he used his full strength to bodily haul Kefira to the top as he spun around, pulling out his sword in one smooth motion.

Kefira stood next to him, momentarily stunned by the rough handling and not recognizing what was going on right away, but after a second, she noticed the two people standing there as well.

The very top of the Dagger was like a pillar about twenty feet in radius, and on the far end from where Reivyn and Kefira ascended, a point jutted into the air in a sharp point another fifty feet or so up. There was no good way for one to stand on the tippy-top peak of the mountain, so everyone recognized this final spot as the final top.

Standing in the center of the circle were a man and a woman. The man had long, flowing hair to his waist, and it blew in the breeze. His face was gentle and his skin was unblemished. He stood proudly with his chin up and shoulders back as he turned his head about, taking in the sight of the peak of the mountain.

The other person was a young woman who looked similar to the man. Her hair was tied in a bun with an intricate hairpin, and she was hugging a sheathed sword to her chest.

They were wearing matching white and blue robes without any apparent armor. The robes were similar to the ones that Reivyn fancied, and they didn't look like the garb of a Caster. The two of them appeared to be of a similar age to Reivyn and Kefira, but it was hard to determine sometimes.

The girl stood a little behind and to the side of the young man, and she stared at Reivyn and Kefira as her companion looked around. She didn't look like she was ready to fight, but Reivyn got the sense that the sword in her arms could come out much quicker than expected from how she was holding it.

"What a breathtaking view," the young man said. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "The air is crisp, though the Mana is a bit sparse."

The Mana is sparse? Reivyn frowned. What is this guy talking about?

"I see that we're not alone on top of the world," the man's eyes opened and focused on Reivyn.

Reivyn was standing at the ready, sword out and prepared to strike. The two sudden interlopers didn't seem to care, though, and they directly ignored the implied threat of violence. Serilla popped up, and she immediately unsheathed her sword as well.

"Ahh, another one. Welcome!" The man smiled at the appearance of Serilla. "No need for hostility. We're not going to attack you or anything."

Reivyn slowly stood up and sheathed his sword. He didn't get the feeling of danger from the two, and he had mostly been surprised at how they had just suddenly been there from nowhere.

"Forgive me, but you just appeared out of thin air," Reivyn said. "I was startled. How did you get here?"

"Oh, we teleported," the man answered cheerfully.

"Are you sure about that?" Kefira questioned. "I didn't feel any Space emanations or Mana fluctuations."

"Of course not," the man laughed. "I'm not at liberty to give details away, so I apologize for that, but I'm not lying when I said we teleported here. Anyway, how rude of me not to introduce myself. My name is Szaine, and this is my Junior Sister, Virna. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Likewise," Reivyn automatically responded. He mentally shook the cobwebs out. "My name is Reivyn, and these two are Kefira and Serilla." Reivyn gestured to the two in turn. Kefira nodded her head in greeting, but Serilla maintained her stance with her sword out, eyeing them warily.

"As much as I would love to stick around and chat, my Junior Sister and I must really be going," Szaine said apologetically. "Hopefully we can meet somewhere more civilized in the near future."

The man turned and walked to the edge of the cliff, his "Junior Sister" following behind... and they just kept walking, stepping out into the air. Reivyn fought to keep his jaw from dropping as he watched them descend in the air like they were walking down a flight of steps. It only took a couple of minutes for them to be far enough away that they were nothing more than dots in the sky.

Reivyn turned to an equally astonished Kefira and Serilla.

"Well..." Reivyn said, arresting Kefira and Serilla's attention from watching the two depart, "that was new."