Soul of the Warrior

Reivyn watched his men as as they formed up. The NCO's walked up and down the lines making sure everyone had all their gear and were prepared for the patrol. The officers and NCO's had everything in hand. They verified everyone had everything and moved on to touching up the camouflage over everyone's armor. Even though everyone had the Skill, the camouflage was hard to distinguish in the pre-dawn darkness on one's own.

"Nothing shiny, nothing bright," Reivyn could hear one of the senior NCO's extoll for the fifth time. "Tie down your straps and anything else that can make noise. Limit what the enemy can perceive with their Stats as much as possible. If we're going to get into a fight out there, we want to have the initiative."

Reivyn wasn't too surprised the camouflage his company used wasn't spreading to the other regular soldiers. They took too much pride in how they looked, and they weren't willing to cover it up. Reivyn had no such qualms about not showing off his armor, and he made sure his men didn't, either. If they wanted to show off, they could get a non-service uniform like he had worn in Magron. If they were showing off, it would be to impress their friends and allies, anyway. Their lethality in combat was all he needed to impress his enemies.

Two platoons were going to go on the patrol. One of the platoons was off and the other would stand guard on the wall, just in case. They knew from the cavalry scouts that the enemy line wasn't too terribly far away. They were out of range of dedicated siege Spells, but they were close enough that it wouldn't take too long to get there and back. They were hoping to get eyes on the enemy camp shortly after the sun came up and be back long before the regular time of an enemy assault.

Reivyn frowned as he looked at his troops. There was something nagging at the back of his consciousness, but he couldn't quite place his finger on it. He carefully inspected everyone with his Divine Sense until the issue popped into focus.

Everyone's internal Mana acted differently than the ambient Mana. When he finally put his finger on the problem, it stood out like night and day. Even with all the camouflage in the world, the change in Mana would stand out to anyone with a sufficiently high Sense Mana or Mana Sight Skill.

Reivyn inspected everyone's internal Mana. It was compact inside everyone's bodies, mostly concentrated at a core in their abdomen. Not all of it was stationary, though, and everyone had their own unique channels that at least a small portion constantly flowed through even without them actively using their Mana Circulation Skills. The ambient Mana, despite being pulled to the East, was more saturated.

Reivyn thought about it and looked inside himself. His Mana was equally compact, though he didn't have a Skill to sense Qi, yet. He knew it was there, but he couldn't detect it. Likewise, Xudrid and Vyria didn't have a compact core of Mana in their abdomens, though their bodies still contained trace amounts of Mana.

Reivyn wasn't going to experiment on his soldiers, so he reached within himself with his will. He needed a solution that he could replicate with the others, and he knew that almost everyone under his command didn't have the type of Mana Manipulation Skill Level that he did. Instead of using his internal control of his Mana, he reached out and ordered the Mana inside his body to disperse throughout his body and mimic the surrounding ambient Mana.

He felt a tingle inside of himself. It was like a small jolt of electricity, but it quickly passed as his body acclimated to the feeling. He continued to order the Mana about while inspecting it until it behaved in a manner he was happy with. Just to be sure, he summoned his Mana into the palm of his hand, and he hadn't lost any functionality. When he let go of the Mana, it returned to behaving like the rest and floated about inside him like a cloud.

It wasn't perfect, but there was no longer such a jarring difference between himself and the ambient Mana.

Reivyn kept an eye on it as the to soldiers in the two platoons finished their preparations. The NCO's returned to their positions, and the officers in turn looked to Reivyn for the next orders.

"Simple patrol mission," Reivyn called out. He didn't raise his voice, but he still infused it with Commanding Shout. It didn't reverberate off the walls, but everyone could clearly hear him speak. "The actual scouting of the camp will be done by just one squad, but we're going to move in force. We haven't been doing regular patrols for a while, so we don't know what might be between us and them. Keep your heads on a swivel when we get out there."

Reivyn kept it short and to the point. The officers faced their men and gave them their facing orders to March out of the barracks. Jekle took the lead, setting the pace, in the first platoon, Reivyn took his position in the center, and the second platoon commander took his place at the front of his platoon. The other soldiers who were remaining behind watched them go with solemn expressions. There was no cheering or shouting.

The March through the city to the walls was uneventful, and they were quickly outside the protection of the fortifications for the first time in what felt like forever. Reivyn looked off the the north and south and could make out the shapes of other platoons from other companies also setting out for their own patrol missions.

There wasn't much to see until they reached the tree line. They had all stared at the ground for many hours over the days as they repelled enemy assaults. Once they reached the trees, though, they shifted their column formation to their combat formation. The trees made it so that they occasionally had to slightly split their ranks as they moved forward, but the forest wasn't so dense that it was a problem. Reivyn could tell that some of it had been thinned out by the invaders over time, as well, to facilitate easier travel through the trees.

Normally, Reivyn wouldn't march his company through the wilderness like this on a simple patrol mission. The soldiers would spread out to get a wider vantage, but they would remain close enough together that they could collapse into a proper formation if they contacted the enemy. This time, however, they moved as if they were expecting contact with the enemy at any time.

Over the course of months of patrolling in the woods near Piori, the mercenary soldiers had developed the Sure Step and Silent Step Skills. It hadn't come naturally to them like it had for Reivyn in the desert, but after tripping over roots and branches and trying to walk quietly through leaves for months, it would have been more of an accomplishment not to have unlocked the Skills.

The mercenaries moved silently through the forest. The light of the dawn sun began to cast shadows through the canopy, and the movements spotted out of the corner of the eyes of the men had everyone on edge. They had all fought against the veteran soldiers, and they were prepared to face a tough enemy at a moment's notice.

The forest wasn't huge, though, and they after only walking through the trees for half an hour, they emerged at the opposite tree line. Stumps of trees could be seen stretching into the distance before palisade walls blocked off their vision. The sun was fully peeking over the horizon by the time they made it to the other side of the trees, and they could easily see the enemy camp.

It was massive. Reivyn could tell there were multiple camps, and they stretched to the nort and south considerably further than the city walls they had occupied. There was no telling how deep the encampments went, either.

Reivyn softly called for the men to halt, and he had the platoons form up side by side fifty yards inside the tree line. He could see watch towers constructed along the palisade walls in the distance, and he feared that if they moved any closer, the enemy would see the movement and alert to their presence. Reivyn waved Jekle and the other officer over to himself.

"Have your fourth squads convene on me," Reivyn whispered.

The two nodded their heads and walked over to the squad leaders in question. The last squad of each platoon peeled themselves away from the rest of their platoons and made a semi circle around Reivyn. The third and fourth squads were specialty squads geared for unusual circumstances, and they had been equipped for the clandestine scouting mission. They still had armor and weapons, of course, but they had been adjusted for ease of movement, concealment, and silence more so than the rest of the platoons.

"Everyone knows their mission," Reivyn began. "Spread out, move slowly, and worm your way across the field to see if you can't get close enough to see or hear anything else. We've already verified the size of their camp and their basic fortifications, so anything else is a bonus. I don't want anyone unduly risking their lives, here. If you hear an alarm sound, or you get suspicious, get back to the platoons."

Nobody answered verbally, but they all nodded their heads.

"One last thing. Everyone hold still for a moment. I'm going to do something to your internal Mana to help you blend into the ambient Mana even further. You'll feel a slight tingle, but I've personally tested it out and there won't be anything else. Don't put up any resistance."

None of the soldiers batted an eye. They all trusted Reivyn with their lives.

Reivyn didn't need to close his eyes to concentrate or anything. Reaching out to command the base Elements was second nature, though he did have to press harder to grasp their internal Mana within his control. It felt incredibly slippery and not at all like it had for his own body. He could sort of grasp it for a fraction of a second, but try as hard as he could, he couldn't command it like free Mana or his own.

Reivyn was about to give up when a thought occurred to him. Instead of trying to command the others' Mana, Reivyn instead gave it a nudge. A suggestion.

"Relax your hold on your internal Mana," Reivyn subconsciously whispered.

It the mercenaries a few moments to figure it out, but with the feeling they were getting from Reivyn nudging their Mana, they each, in turn, relaxed their instinctive hold on their Mana. Suddenly, it was like Reivyn had smashed a group of balls that were tightly packed together, briefly reminding him of another past-life memory, and the internal Mana within his soldiers scattered within their bodies.

The velocity they moved was just as noticeable as a solid core, though, and Reivyn had to fight to continue to suggest to their Mana to act more like the ambient Mana. After almost half an hour from start to finish, the two squad of soldiers' were concealed both in and out as much as could be accomplished.

Reivyn's attention came back to him and he sat back, panting. There was sweat dripping down his forehead, and a quick glance at his Status told him he had spent almost half his Mana simply coaxing the internal Mana of a couple dozen subordinates who were actively trying to help him.

It's not going to be a viable strategy to disrupt someone's internal Mana in a fight for a long time, Reivyn mused. I'll have to stick with wrestling for control of an already established Spell in that case.

"Alright, you're good to go," Reivyn said. "I have no idea how long it will last for all of you. My own Mana when I tested it on myself remained scattered for almost an hour."

The two squads of men nodded their heads and immediately turned to go. Reivyn watched them go, and while he could still perceive them in his Divine Sense, they seemingly disappeared from his normal vision a few steps away as they activated their Stealth Skills. If Reivyn actively used his Observation Skill, he was confident he would be able to break through their Skills, but he hadn't developed it to a point where it was subconscious, yet.

Now we wait.

Reivyn didn't move further forward to try and observe the men he sent out. There would be no point to it, and he might give them away. He hadn't exactly kept up with his own Stealth Skills over the years. It hadn't been nearly as a high a priority as all his other Skills, but since laying a perfect foundation and getting a lot of the necessary Skills to the required thresholds for his Class advancement, he might be able to find some more time for a lot of his other Skills again in the future.

Time slowly ticked by as they all waited. Every second felt like a full minute to Reivyn. He was simultaneously confident in his men and worried about their safety. A conundrum any leader who cared about his people faced. They heard no sounds of an alarm being raised, though, so Reivyn kept an optimistic mindset.

Reivyn kept abreast of the time passing, which was probably the main reason it seemed to take so long. After about twenty minutes of waiting inside the tree line, a powerful thrum reverberated in his heart, and his Danger Sense exploded in his mind.

"GET DOWN!" Reivyn screamed.

He followed his own advice and threw himself to the floor while also erecting a giant Mana Shield around himself and his men. He pushed as much Mana as he could into the Skill, but there was no time for fancy weaves or knots. He wasn't even able to infuse it with any kind of Affinity. The amount of Mana he was able to force through himself at a moment's notice, however, was considerably more than he had ever been able to do while still in Tier 2.

With his Divine Sense, he saw all of his men instantly obey his orders without question. It filled him with a spike of pride for a fraction of a second until a tremendous force crossed from one end of his Divine Sense to the other so quickly he almost didn't even register it with his half-Divine Skill.

A tremendous roar soon followed the force, and the entire swathe of forest they were hunkered down in was torn asunder. All the trees were ripped from their roots in the ground and tossed through the air. Many of the trees simply disintegrated into ash while flying through the air. Hundreds of splinters rained down on the prone mercenaries, but they were deflected by the Mana Shield hastily erected by Reivyn.

After the last splinter collided with his shield, Reivyn looked up in the direction the force had come from. There, standing on a branch almost at the very top of a tree as if it were flat land, a man in a black cloak stood with a bow in one hand. He casually surveyed the damage he had wrought before reaching behind himself to draw another arrow out of his quiver.

"RUN!" Reivyn ordered. He infused his command with Commanding Shout.

All of his soldiers lept to their feet and took off sprinting back toward their city. Reivyn accumulated Mana in either hand and infused one hand with Eternal and the other with Plasma. He had transcended the four base Elements, but even with their Level and special Ability, it wasn't as powerful as his Plasma Affinity, which wasn't too far behind in Level.

Reivyn stood his ground as the cloaked man drew his arrow back, aimed for a split second, and released. Reivyn's Danger Sense screamed at him again, though considerably less intense than the last time. He threw up another barrier with his Mana covering himself and his fleeing soldiers. Even with their elevated Stats, they simply hadn't had enough time to get very far away, so he didn't have to strain too hard to cover them. The Eternal Affinity added a bit more confidence to Reivyn as he shielded everyone once again.

This time, there wasn't a supersonic single arrow. Instead, the arrow flew out a few dozen yards before exploding into a thousand projectiles. There were no more trees to block the archer's area of effect attack, and the projectiles crossed the distance in a flash. Thousands of impacts struck Reivyn's shield. Almost all of them simply bounced off, but with each one, the shield faded just a little bit until it winked out of existence.

Less than a hundred projectiles made it through the Mana Shield, and most of those didn't strike anyone. Some did, though, and that's all that mattered.

The projectiles pierced straight through the armor of the mercenaries. They continued through their bodies and pierced through the front of their armor as well. Twenty men dropped to the ground from the strike, though Reivyn was relieved to see that none of them were fatally wounded. Their mates nearby instantly reached down and helped them back to their feet, and gritting their teeth, they continued to flee.

A couple of projectiles also made their way toward Reivyn, but he was able to erect a much smaller, more Mana-efficient, Mana Shield to block them. The force of the impact, though, still knocked him a step back.

Reivyn didn't think. He just acted. He threw his other hand out and a giant lance of concentrated Plasma flew through the sky to the cloaked man. The opponent didn't try to take the hit or block it. He turned and casually leaped thirty yards away to another tree.

Reivyn felt a surge of rightness as he turned to face the danger as his men fled. He felt slightly empowered by his own actions, both mentally and physically. A fleeting thought swept through his brain.

"Hero (2): You're a Hero." So that's what that means.

Reivyn felt like he finally understood his foremost Class Skill. Acting as a Hero came naturally to him, and when he did, he would be empowered.

The Plasma Lance skewered right throw the top of the tree where the man had stood. The treetop exploded in splinters and fire as the Spell continued flying through the sky unabated. The tree was knocked back almost half way to the ground before it whipped forward again with tremendous force. Fiery splinters and molten Plasma accompanied the movement of the tree, and the forest was showered by flaming debris on either side. The heat and dryness were a terrible combination, and Reivyn noted that multiple fires instantly broke out.

Reivyn had no time to worry about that, though, as the cloaked man already had another arrow knocked. He released another shot, and Reivyn dove to the side while putting up yet another Mana Shield. He didn't have to cover his entire platoon this time, though, so he was able to save on expenditure. Even so, his Mana pool was already getting dangerously low.

People entered his Divine Sense range from the direction of the enemy camp, and he was relieved to see it was his own men. They had been alerted by the explosions and given up all pretense of hiding. A horn sounded within the camp, and Reivyn glanced over for a split second as he stood up to see the gates opening up with a legion of soldiers already lined up and Marching forth.

"Go, go, go!" Reivyn shouted to his men as he waved them past him.

Doing something familiar yet foreign, something he had done a hundred times but never before, Reivyn infused his body with his Qi. He didn't think about what he was doing. He didn't actively reach for his Qi instead of his Mana. It had just happened naturally.

He felt empowered like he never had before. Time slowed down for him. His running soldiers seemed to moving at half speed, and the archer flying through the sky in another jump seemed to move in slow motion. None of Reivyn's movements were slowed, though. He was still moving as if time was moving at the normal pace.

He took a quick peek at his Status and noticed that his Qi was draining at an alarming rate. It had only been activated for less than two seconds real time, and it had already drained by 50 points. If he continued to spend Qi at that rate, he only had forty seconds of real time before he reached zero.

Without hesitation Reivyn zeroed his focus on the archer descending to another branch on a different tree. He subconsciously calculated the timing and threw himself forward in the fastest sprint he had ever achieved. He coupled his tremendous speed with the Traveler Affinity, and he crossed the hundreds of yards to his destination in one real-time second.

He leaped into the air. The power of his jump carried him to the top of the tree just as the archer was reaching the branch. The cloaked archer slowly turned his head and Reivyn could see the shock and fear in the man's eyes as he realized that Reivyn was already upon him. Reivyn channeled even more Qi into his sword.

Pathways for where and how to strike the man lit up in his vision. There was almost no spot where Reivyn could execute his attack and miss considering the archer was helpless falling in the air. Reivyn instantly decided upon a strike and lashed out with his sword.

The Qi empowered sword struck the man in the throat and exploded. Fragments of metal went showering everywhere, most of them embedding themselves in the man's skin. Reivyn was still moving in augmented time, though, and he was able to see that his strike had not decapitated his enemy. Instead, remnants of a shattered Mana Shield entered Reivyn's vision as a thin line of blood appeared on the man's neck.

The force of the strike couldn't be fully stopped, however, and the man's body was launched into the woods as Reivyn slammed into the top of the tree. The tree groaned and shook as it bent enough for Reivyn to fall off the other side toward the ground. He thrust out his off hand and launched a powerful gust of Wind-attuned Mana at the ground, slowing his descent.

He landed on the ground and allowed his legs to give way as he rolled onto his hip to absorb the fall into more of his body. It wasn't a devastating fall for someone with his Stats, but it was enough that he could have suffered a slight injury if he didn't take it seriously. Any kind of mobility impairment in this situation could prove lethal.

Reivyn didn't wait around and turned on his heels to sprint back to his men, only turning of his Qi empowerment as he caught back up with his men. They had stopped for a moment to let the other squad members catch up to them, and once they were all together, they took off running back to the city once again.

Reivyn looked down into his hand where he still held the hilt of his Mana Sword that had followed him for years. It had never even needed much maintenance over the time he had used it, but now the only thing remaining was the hilt in his hand. He suppressed the sense of loss and stowed it away in his storage pouch.

Reivyn looked up to the surrounding mercenary soldiers as they ran through the trees, and he noticed that the ones closest to him were staring at him with wide eyes and slack jaws. One man even ran face-first into a tree before he came out of his astonishment.

"Pay attention to where you're going!" Reivyn reminded them.

They all closed their mouths and turned their heads back to the front.

Moving at a sprint, the distance back to the city wasn't long. Behind them the sounds of war horns filled the air and the sky was already filling with the smoke of the fire from Reivyn's counter attack. Reivyn felt relief as he laid eyes on the city wall, but his vision began to grow dark around the edges.

Reivyn had experienced this before, but he was confused as to what could have caused it. He knew that he was losing consciousness, but he couldn't figure out why. He hadn't bottomed out on his Qi, and his Mana was still at safe levels.

He checked his Status.

Health: 4,766/11,480 (+310) Stamina: 17,082/22,020 (+410) Mana: 3,884/12,935 (+50)

Qi: 112/1,000 (T4/Li)

Reivyn was momentarily confused at the huge drop in Health. A spike of pain pulled his attention to his stomach, though. An arrow was embedded in his side and poking clean through his body.

"Huh, where did that come from?" Reivyn muttered as the world went black.