We travel for half a day before we have to stop and take a break.
Not because I'm tired. Rotar's pushed himself to the edge and beyond, and it's when he starts panting loudly with his tongue hanging out of his mouth that I decide he's had enough, and make us stop. I get him so of the water Mari so generously provided, then set up a nice bed of leaves for him to collapse into.
"We need to pace ourselves better," I tell him out loud. I mostly just an he needs to pace himself better, but I figure he won't feel as bad if I say 'we'. "We'll get further faster if we pace ourselves. Push too hard and we'll spend too much ti resting."
"I know. I'm sorry." Rotar looks down and away. "I just..."
"It's fine. You don't need to tell ." I sigh, and sit myself next to the crow. "I can probably carry us both a good distance, if you don't mind that."
Rotar looks at . "Are you that strong?"
"He wasn't a few days ago!" Ahkelios replies cheerfully for . I roll my eyes and agree, albeit with an exaggerated sigh.
"I guess the Interface is everything it claims to be, then," Rotar says, sagging. "Wish I got picked."
"No, you do not," I say almost imdiately, with a touch of ferocity in my voice that surprises even . Rotar even flinches away slightly from when I speak though he steadies himself again.
"It'd make things easier," he insists. "If I was like Naru..."
"If you were like Naru," I say. "Would you be helping him, or helping the village?"
Rotar makes like he's about to respond, and then falls silent as he actually considers the question. I wonder if he was around early enough that he t Naru before he was picked for the Trials.
In the silence, I make it a point to look around. We've made it a fair distance now from the Cliffside Crows, and everything here is... different. The forest is sparser here, with a little more space to see everything around not that I recognize anything regardless. The plants here are all unfamiliar to , with the exception of one that looks a little bit like a giant venus fly trap.
I resolve not to step near that one.
"Ahkelios, can you keep a lookout?" I murmur to the mantis. He wordlessly hops up onto my head, saluting with a single insect armblade, and I allow myself a small smile at his antics.
Then I close my eyes, and sink into myself.
The Void Inspiration has been surprisingly inactive. Even the one ti it spoke, back when I was selecting a new Inspiration, it hasn't tried to take over. After the first mont where it hit with the hunger, and I cowed it with my will, it hasn't done anything.
Part of it, I think, is that it was sleeping. It feels a little like that now dormant within , waiting for sothing.
Waiting, I think, because I made it a promise.
Its sibling is not nearly so calm. The Accelerator flits around within , always curious, always excited about every little thing; it would be distracting were it not only noticeable when I focus my attention inward. I haven't experinted with the Void at all, and the Accelerator is new to .
I consider that I might be afraid.
It's not a conscious emotion. The Void to strikes as almost... childlike. Consud by its hunger, yes, but also curious and eager to listen. It's possible that others only fell to it because the sheer force of its hunger was able to overwhelm its users, but I haven't felt any of those effects...
Yet, I remind myself. It does no good to allow myself to beco arrogant. I should take an opportunity to test both the Void and the Accelerator soon, to be sure that I can handle them when I need them and at the thought, I almost swear the Void... shivers.
I narrow my eyes slightly, but I let it go. There's not much I can do if it's monitoring my thoughts, and if it's planning sothing...
My thoughts trail off, and I glance around again.
It's strange, now that I think about it, that everything is so silent. That the forest is so empty. There should be wildlife. There should be birds in the trees, insects chirping or flying into my face.
"Why is it so quiet?" I mutter, half to myself. The words capture Rotar's attention anyway, and he sits up, looking around.
"That's weird," he says. There's a lilt in his voice that makes the statent sound like a question. "There's usually more animals around here. I rember getting attacked by a bear once."
"A bear?" I repeat, a tinge of incredulity in my voice. "Is this a translation thing? This has to be a translation thing. You don't have bears here."
"Large mammals that can maul you half to death?" Rotar says. "Five eyes, hexapedal, enough Firmant in a claw to tear down a tree?"
"Okay, it's a translation thing." I shouldn't be feeling relieved. This sounds much worse than bears. "Can we call them sothing else?"
"The village crows call them lightclaws. Because their claws glow when they're preparing to strike, and because you can use the claws to light fires."
I rember Tarin telling about the Integrators' use of Hestia for their Trial, and how the introduction of monsters into Hestia's ecosystem has ssed things up for them. Possibly permanently, now that I think about it. "Are they... an Integrator thing?"
"Oh, no. They're a normal Hestian species." Rotar frowns for a mont, thinking. "The claw thing might have co from the Integrators arriving and doing their thing, though. A lot of local species did change dramatically when Hestia was Integrated."
Well, that doesn't bode well for Earth. My mind flashes back to the mantis-monster and the harpy-monsters both of those are clearly different from the other monsters I've encountered, like the Forest Slis in the Hotspot or the Fractured Guardians in the Fracture.
But more importantly... there are no lightclaws here. And that worries more than it should.
"Are you feeling better?" I ask abruptly. "We should probably get going."
"Uh, sure," Rotar says. He looks around a bit nervously, sensing sothing about my voice. "Sothing up?"
"I've learned that the absence of sothing can be as dangerous as the presence of sothing," I say dryly. I don't want to stay here longer than I have to
Rotar stands up. The act of standing up saves him, because a fraction of a second later, an arrow thuds into the leaves, flying through where his head had been only a mont ago.
Alright. Now's as good a ti as any.
Accelerator. Quicken Mind.
I feel the Inspiration take hold, the buzzing presence within suddenly expanding and gripping on to the skill that is Quicken Mind. I can almost imdiately sense the dizzying Firmant strain as the Accelerator starts sucking up everything it can to power itself, and in turn, Quicken Mind speeds up... and up... and up.
The Void reacts, but in my Accelerated state, even its reaction is slow.
The problem now is that I can't move nearly as fast as I can think. But that's fine I only need a mont to think. To trace back the arrow to where it was fired from.
There's Firmant embedded in the arrow, but I hadn't sensed any Firmant while we were walking, which in itself should have been a warning sign. Now that it's been fired, I can sense a thin trail of leaking Firmant as it traveled through the air, though it'll dissipate in an instant. That's more than enough, though, because it draws a clear line for to follow.
I'm worried about leaving Rotar alone. There's no guarantee that whoever fired the arrow is the only assailant we have. I also can't bring him with , because at the speeds I'll be going I'm worried I'll snap his neck. Firmant skills don't have nearly as many secondary protective effects as they should.
Okay. Plan of action.
Hexfold Shield.
Firmant drains out of , and I see hexagonal panels unfold around Rotar, a thin barrier of blue Firmant. It drains less than I'd expected it to I suppose that's the whole point of this particular skill. I use Hexfold Shield five more tis, feeling the barrier strengthen as it reinforces itself with every additional burst of Firmant.
I have about half my Firmant left, still, even with Accelerator's drain. It's so much more to work with than I had before. I turn off the Accelerator, turn towards the line I traced back, and
Warpstep. Warpstep. Warpstep.
I don't know exactly where whoever attacked us is, but I need to disorient them so they can't track . I flicker towards the source of the arrow, tracing a zigzag pattern and gritting my teeth against the disorienting flash of imagery that bombards with every teleport. I need to look around for long enough to secure a safe spot to teleport to, but I make sure I'm not looking where I intend to land.
I might be overthinking this, but considering whoever attacked us stayed perfectly hidden, and nearly killed Rotar...
There.
There's a flash of white up in the trees. It's well-hidden, so much so that I wouldn't have spotted it if not for a telltale hint of Firmant. One mont, there's nothing, and the next there's just the slightest fragnt as it's nudged into an arrow.
And that's enough for .
Warpstep. Amplification Gauntlet.
Purple Firmant wraps itself around my fist, but I don't give it ti to finish forming before I send it crashing into whatever's hiding in the trees. There's a ti for talking, and that ti is long past when you start off by shooting an arrow at my friend not in the least because, although I hate to admit it to myself, I'm afraid of losing this loop.
There's a sharp crack. It doesn't sound like bone. I feel my fist slam into sothing solid, throwing it out of tree and down into the open; I hop down after it, letting Tough Body absorb the impact and staring at my opponent.
I can't tell who they are. They're clad completely a strange tallic alloy that borders on ceramic-white; it's made of segnted panels that conform perfectly to their body. They're humanoid, I can say that much, but any features they might have are completely obscured by the helt they're wearing.
The panels expand and contract, almost like they're breathing. Every ti they contract, they reveal a thin stream of ominously black Firmant beneath, and it's the only ti I can sense any Firmant from the construct in front of at all; when they close again, they're completely dead to my Firmant senses.
What is this?
They're standing still, one foot stepped half-back in a battle-ready stance. They're... waiting for ? The bow they're holding is broken in half that's the crack I heard earlier. Either they tried to block with the bow, or I just happened to punch them through the bow.
The armor looks... mostly clean. Untouched. I didn't crack it, even with the Amplification Gauntlet.
Stay calm, I tell myself.
But for the first ti since receiving it, I feel the Void Inspiration within stirring.
And it is hungry.
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