Discordant Note | TBATE

Chapter 15: Preparations

Toren Daen

When I reached the stream closest to the exit–the stretching flow of water where I had my second battle with skaunters–I barely took the time to check my surroundings before ripping my battle-torn clothes off and cleaning myself with fervor. The water was cold, especially as the month of November took hold. The temperature had continued to drop on average, and while enhancing my body regularly with mana helped me ward off the chill, soon it wouldn't be enough.

Several new scars marked my body: one nasty cut stretched across my abdomen where a flying ape had nearly disemboweled me. A jagged trio of claw marks stretched from my upper back to my shoulder, evidence of how I escaped the jumbo panther on the forest floor. It took a while for me to get used to physical pain, but Toren's experiences helped harden me to it.

I lathered some of my lye soap over my arms, noting the vibrant red chain tattoo that wrapped from my palm to my upper chest, stopping dead over my sternum. It appeared too bright and contrasted strangely with my skin, seeming to be overlaid a millimeter above my body rather than formed of actual ink. There was truth to that, I supposed.

As I looked into the sky, I appreciated the clarwood trees. Instead of losing their leaves in the winter months, they shifted to a pale white color. They weren't quite there: at a cream-colored orange right now instead of pure white.

I was interrupted from my bathing by a trio of skaunters stalking from the woods. The rat-lizard creatures issued their usual snarl-screeches, stalking forward with attempted menace. Now, however, I was far beyond them in power.

With a snarl, I pushed outward with my killing intent–called King's Force by the asura–and slammed it into the beasts. They froze midstep, their rodent-like ears flattening against scaled heads. They quickly retreated into the forest, whimpering in terror.

Killing intent was more complex than The Beginning After the End would have had me believe. In essence, it was similar to normal conjuration magic: enforcing your will–your intent–over the ambient mana. But while the intent to kill was easy to project, the effect varied based on a number of factors, as I had discovered. My own confidence in my abilities, the actual number of beasts I had killed, and the raw power at my command all played a role in King's Force.

What I was doing was forcefully conveying the total weight of my power onto another creature. All I had slain, my own belief in myself, and the purity of mana in my core condensed into one solid message: 'You will die if you fight me.'

I had killed enough monsters beyond skaunters, and enough skaunters themselves, that my killing intent was enough to cow them.

With a sigh, I went back to washing myself in the stream.

It feels good to finally be clean, I thought to myself as I watched the water being tainted red and brown from all the filth being washed off of me. Cleanliness was what separated man from beast, and I was the closest I had ever been to beasthood in the depths of that forest. Now, as I entered back to civilization, I washed myself not just of the grime, but of the mindset as well.

When I was finally clean, I donned my final set of clothes. I wore loose, dark trousers that nicely complimented an unembroidered gray-blue long-sleeved tunic. I cinched my dagger to my waist with a dark leather belt before securing my sling bag over one shoulder.

With that done, I vaulted back into the trees, zipping along at speeds that a normal human would never be able to manage. In a couple of minutes, I reached the edge of the forest. Sparing my home for the past weeks a final glance, I set off toward Fiachra.

—

I looped around to the West Gate this time, which added another twenty minutes to my journey back. I didn't want to be predictable, however, so I avoided the South Gate. Blood Joan was certainly still keeping an eye out for me, so I needed to be stealthy here. I knew very little about Blood Joan, while I wouldn't be surprised if they knew everything there was to know about Toren Daen.