Rise of Tyrus

Blood still streamed in the cracks of the cobblestones when the roar of battle faded. The square reeked of scorched moss and metal, the silence following as sharp as the clash before.

The greater hardscale lay collapsed in its ruin, the beast's massive body sprawled like a toppled fortress. Its cracked plates gave off faint heat, smoke still drifting from fissures near its throat where Tyrus's lightning had burned through.

Tyrus slowly pushed himself up from the blood-slicked cobblestones, head still throbbing from where he'd struck the ground. His body still tingled from the paralysis, nerves slow to obey. While in the middle of recuperating, his vision kept darting back to the beast, half-expecting it to twitch and lunge again.

Instead, Grant's rough voice filled the space. He was pulling himself away from the corpses of where the creature's tail had sent him flying.

"Everyone alive?"

"Barely," Reo groaned, pressing a hand more firmly against the gash in his stomach. Blood continued to seep between his fingers, staining his leather vest dark crimson.

Fiona straightened from where she'd been leaning heavily on her staff, sweat beading on her forehead. With a grunt, she said, "Right, everyone gather around. We need to tend these wounds before we do anything else."

When everyone's heads were turned, inching toward Fiona, Tyrus withdrew a small crystal vial filled with a silver liquid that looked bland enough, like slightly dyed water. Swiftly, he uncorked the vial and took three careful sips, just as the healer had instructed. A cool, soothing sensation spread from his stomach through his pathways. The prick of discomfort in his mana heart faded almost instantly, replaced by a gentle warmth.

What would have been excruciating pain months ago was now just a minor twinge, easily corrected with a few sips of medicine. His body was growing stronger by the month, his mana heart more resilient. It was remarkably simple, really. There were no intricate rituals or extended downtimes where he couldn't use magic; instead, it was simply a gentle nudge to be cautious and a fast fix if he overexerted himself.

Focusing his attention elsewhere, Tyrus noticed Grant lurch forward, his shield arm hanging uselessly. Where the beast had hit, his armor was dented, and his shoulder was clearly dislocated. Blood still trickling from his nose, he knelt before Fiona without a word of protest. Reo followed, limping, his face glistening in the sunlight.

Of the five of them, Grant and Reo fared the worst. Without them, the group might have been skewered or smashed flat and suffered a defeat. So many ways things could've gone wrong, and a lot of opportunities when Tyrus's life could've been snatched away if none of them had the skill set needed to stall the hardscale long enough for their plan to come to fruition.

It took just five sorcerers of their level to fell a greater magical beast and receive the injuries they underwent. Just how powerful were the beasts that ranked higher than greater? The gap between standard and greater was big enough, but what about greater and elite? Comparing them would be night and day.

After what Tyrus saw today, he felt uneasy at the thought of fighting them in the future.

Uneasy... and a little excited.

From another perspective, this meant his strength was thriving. He used to be unable to kill even a proper rock spider, but now, with practice and time, he could take them down himself. Though he was capable of handling lesser and standard beasts, he needed help to defeat the stronger ones, and he was fine with that. So long as he was improving, he didn't care how they were defeated.

Quietly, Tyrus watched in fascination as Fiona worked, her hands glowing with soft light. He'd seen healing magic before at the academy, but never up close during actual field conditions. Most students could barely mend gashes, yet here was Fiona preparing to handle serious combat injuries without a second thought.

She tended to Grant first, her face hardening as she assessed the injuries. Stripped of his armor, his left shoulder was visibly dislocated, maybe even broken, and dark bruises bloomed across his chest where the massive hardscale had hit.

Placing her hand on his shoulder, clear liquid flowed from her fingertips, washing away blood and dirt while cooling the inflamed tissues. Then she switched to earth magic, her hands glowing with light as she carefully realigned the dislocated bones. Grant's jaw clenched as the bones shifted with audible pops, settling back into their proper positions.

Finally came the light element—soft golden radiance that seemed to read the damage and weave the torn tissues back together according to their original pattern.

Under her careful guidance, the bruises faded, angry purple giving way to a healthier skin tone as the light magic knitted everything back into working order. Once she was done, Grant stood up and rotated his arm around.

"Thank you, Fiona," said Grant.

With a smile, Fiona turned to Reo, whose wound was still bleeding freely despite his attempts to stanch it. The stone spear had carved a deep furrow across his stomach, slicing through muscle and coming dangerously close to vital organs.

"You're lucky," Fiona muttered as she began another water flush, clearing away blood and checking for internal damage. "A few inches higher and we'd be having a very different conversation. And by that, I mean I would be speaking to a corpse."

She followed with fire, just enough to sterilize the wound and cauterize any severed blood vessels that the water hadn't sealed. The smell of burnt flesh was sharp but brief. Then, the light element flowed from her hands like sunshine, knitting torn flesh back together with cautious care. Tyrus could see the concentration on her face, the way she bit her lower lip as she worked. The gash slowly closed, leaving only a thin pink line that would fade completely within days, though his leather remained ragged.

"How are you doing this?" Tyrus asked, unable to keep the awe from his voice. "I mean, I know you have a light affinity, but this is..."

"I'm just that good," Fiona finished with a slight smile. "Light is my third-best affinity, after earth and water, but I've put a lot of work into it. Most students can barely manage basic healing because either their affinity for the element is low or they don't have a good understanding of medical care. You need at least an average affinity just to train seriously, and the light element itself is notoriously difficult to master."

Next, she checked Igneal; his wounds were mostly superficial burns from their joint fire attack and a few cuts from the scattered rubble. A quick application of healing light sealed the wounds and soothed the burns.

Finally, she turned to Tyrus, examining the knot on his forehead where he'd struck the cobblestones. Her touch was gentle as she channeled healing energy into the injury, the throbbing pain receding.

"There," Fiona said, stepping back and swaying slightly on her feet. "Everyone should be good as new."

Grant immediately steadied her. "How's your mana heart doing? That was a lot of mana used in a short period."

Fiona waved him off, though she accepted his support. "I'll be fine. Just feeling queasy after saving all your asses. I expect to be compensated fairly for my services."

"Of course she expects tribute," Reo said. He tapped the spot where her healing had sealed the wound. "Well, not often I say this, but you did a great job, Fiona."

She blinked, then gagged. "Ugh. Coming from you, that's creepy."

Reo lifted his eyebrows and shrugged. "Alright, since you're so brilliant, mind explaining what the hell you did back there?"

Stolen story; please report.

Fiona's eyes lit up at the question. "It was actually pretty straightforward once I figured out the creature's physiology. The water sphere wasn't just meant to knock it down. I needed to drench the hardscale completely so water would seep into the porous sections of its stone-like armor."

She gestured toward the massive corpse. "Once the water was trapped inside its body, I had Igneal help me apply intense heat through our combined spells. The trapped water turned to steam and expanded. All that pressure building up inside its armor plating with nowhere to go..."

"Created structural weaknesses," Grant finished, understanding dawning in his expression. "The steam was cracking its armor from the inside out."

"Exactly. After that, it was just a matter of someone taking advantage of those fractures to deliver a killing blow." Fiona turned to Tyrus with a wink. "I was counting on you to figure it out and act quickly. You've got the best destructive element for the job, after all. Lightning is perfect for exploiting weaknesses in armor."

Tyrus's cheeks warmed. He looked away quickly, muttering under his breath.

"Your tail's wagging," Reo said. "You really need to get that under control if you don't want everyone knowing exactly what you're feeling."

Desperate to change the subject, Tyrus focused on something that had been nagging at him. "How did you know that heating water trapped in stone would create enough pressure to crack it? I've never heard of that happening before..."

For a moment, Fiona's expression faltered. She let out an awkward laugh, her gaze shifting away from the group. "Oh, well, I had to learn a lot about rocks and minerals when I was younger. Family expectations and all that..."

The vague answer only made Tyrus more curious. He opened his mouth to press for more details when Igneal's voice cut across the square with obvious impatience.

"If you're finished chatting like academy children," the noble drawled, "now's the time to reap our rewards." He gestured broadly toward the battlefield, where the corpses of their enemies lay scattered among the debris.

Reo immediately perked up, his earlier fatigue seemingly forgotten. "Right! I almost forgot about all our kills. I'm interested to know what happens when an apprentice absorbs a mana core from a greater magical beast. That kind of concentrated power will definitely speed up my Karti Tree."

"How close are you to advancement?" Grant asked.

"Really close. I'm hoping this might finally push me to my ninth branch and let me reach adept. Being surpassed by you two when we started as sorcerers around the same time pisses me off."

Tyrus blinked in surprise. "Wait, Grant and Fiona are adepts already?"

Fiona nodded, puffing out her chest. "I just advanced recently. The explorer work really speeds up development when you're constantly in combat situations and have access to mana cores."

"I've been an adept for a while now," Grant added. "Working on my tenth branch currently. To become a royal knight, training as many times as possible without hurting the body is a requirement."

Seventh-year students were expected to reach adept level by graduation, but these three were already there before their final year had even begun. The explorer work really did provide advantages that classroom learning simply couldn't match. Becoming an explorer and taking on contracts that involve battling beasts really does show a difference in growth compared to those in the academy.

However, Tyrus already knew this when he sensed the first-years' mana all those months ago and compared them to his. Fighting beasts wasn't just about survival or collecting cores, but one of the fastest ways for growth through one's Karti Tree. Risking one's life in the name of improvement really did work.

He'd seen it himself: his progress had catapulted since he'd left the academy's relative safety to hunt in the wild. Beasts strengthened his Karti Tree in ways drills and sparring never could. The academy offered structure and safety, but exploration fostered growth and experience.

Thinking back to Headmaster Freschlain's words when they first left the academy for their rank promotion, he mentioned that Blue Dawn was the second group in the academy's history that became explorers during their tenure. That meant that as long as the academy was functioning, the vast majority of students avoided becoming explorers. Maybe they thought accepting contract work was a waste of time or too dangerous while they were students. Tyrus could understand that they'd rather focus on their studies than risk their lives fighting beasts.

Still... that got him thinking. Before Blue Dawn, which group at the academy aspired to be explorers? Did they have the same motivation, aiming for the adamantine rank? Or was there some other reason?

"The beast hunting helps," Fiona said, interrupting his thoughts. "Constant combat experience plus regular access to mana cores for absorption or sale. It's why we're ahead of most of our peers."

Reo was already moving toward the nearest corpse, eager to begin the harvest. "Well, let's see what our hard work has earned us."

They spent the next hour doing the grim but necessary work of dissecting the fallen beasts. The cold draft that occasionally swept through the basin provided some relief from the increasingly warm sun, but the work was still hot, bloody, and exhausting. They cut open hardscales first, cracking plated shells, prying at joints, hunting the glimmer of mana within. Blood seeped into their boots. Guts spilled in heaps that steamed in the morning air. Even with experience, the stench was overwhelming.

By the time they were done with the hardscales and spiders, they had a small pile of loot: six crystals, one orb. Fiona counted them with satisfaction.

"Seven mana cores. Not bad."

Reo clicked his tongue as he counted the haul. "I mean, seven is great and all, but I was hoping for more from thirty beasts. Maybe some cores got destroyed during all the fighting? We should have hunted them one by one instead of letting them tear each other apart."

"We still have the main prize," Fiona interrupted, gesturing toward the massive form of the greater hardscale. "And that one is going to be worth more than all the others combined."

The group fell silent, eyes drawn to the carcass. Up close, the damage from their coordinated assault was even more apparent. The front was charred black from the fire magic, with deep cracks running through its armor plating where the steam pressure had done its work. The throat area, where Tyrus's Lightning Spear had struck, was a mess of torn flesh and shattered stone-scale.

"Who wants to do the honors?" Fiona asked.

"I'll take it," Tyrus volunteered, drawing his sword. "I've never tried butchering something this big before."

Tyrus stepped forward, sweat dripping from his face. Grant joined him, and together they set to work. With augmentation flowing, Grant hammered at weak points while Tyrus pried. It took a minute, their arms aching, before the scale gave way.

Afterward, Tyrus closed his eyes and extended his mana sense, searching for the concentrated energy signature that would show the core's location. Soon he found it, deep in the chest cavity, nestled near where a human heart would be. He carefully carved through the remaining tissue until his fingers closed around something smooth and warm.

The core came free with a wrench. It was the size of a man's head, slick with blood. Its radiance made his skin prickle.

He froze, memory flicking back to the rock spider matriarch's core he had once taken. Similar in size, but the power here was different. There was something familiar about the energy signature, something that reminded him of... the Wildwood sanctuary? The connection was vague, but he couldn't quite place it.

He almost couldn't look away.

"What should we do with it?" Tyrus asked, looking up at the others.

"It would be a shame to sell such a magnificent specimen," Eaubrus whispered in his mind, his mental voice practically drooling with desire. "The power contained within... I can almost taste it from here."

Tyrus flinched, then blurted aloud, "You are not absorbing another mana core without permission!"

Fiona raised an eyebrow. "Who were you talking to?"

Tyrus mentally cursed his slip. "No one. Just thinking out loud. So, should one of us absorb it, or...?"

"I'll take it if no one else will," Reo said immediately, reaching for the core with eager hands.

Fiona pushed him back with her staff, shaking her head firmly. "We're selling it. A core this size from a greater-rank beast will fetch enough sil to fund several more expeditions."

"But when will we ever get another chance to absorb something this powerful? This could advance my training by months!"

"Suck it up," Fiona replied unsympathetically. "We're here to make money, not to gorge ourselves on mana cores."

Grant chuckled and patted Reo on the back. "Don't worry. Next greater rank core we find, you can have it."

"What are the odds of that happening again anytime soon?" Reo grumbled, but he didn't argue further.

Fiona stored the valuable core in her ring, then clapped her hands together with obvious excitement. "Right, now let's strip this thing of everything else of value. Quality materials from a greater beast are basically a pile of wealth just waiting to be harvested."

The next hour was even messier than the first as they systematically deconstructed the enormous creature. Scales that could be fashioned into armor, bones that could become weapon components, organs that had alchemical value—nothing was wasted. By the time they finished, three of them looked like they'd murdered an entire colony, which they essentially had.

The sun was directly overhead when they finished their grim work, the heat causing their blood-soaked clothes to cling to them unpleasantly. Tyrus used the back of his hand to wipe his forehead, smearing another streak of blood across his face. He'd have Fiona clean it for him later.

At last, Fiona announced they were done. They surveyed the wreckage, neat stacks of harvested parts and packed cores surrounding them. The great hardscale's carcass was hollowed out and broken, its worth reduced to nothing more than a meat bag for any lucky scavenger. With nothing left to search, Tyrus, Fiona, and Igneal divided the parts among their rings, and Fiona took all the cores.

"Well," Fiona said, rubbing her ring with satisfaction, "that should keep us funded for quite a while. But our work here isn't done yet."

She turned toward the looming structure at the far end of the square—the cathedral where the greater hardscale had emerged.

"Time to see what our friend was guarding so carefully in there. After all this effort, it would be a shame to leave without investigating its lair."