I always find myself getting lost in thought when I run, in some ways it's why I do it. Recently Aiden even joined me on my morning run, and we even spared in the mornings, and while I always won, Aiden was improving by the day. Even now as I could see the clearing at the rest stop we had come to I could see Aiden and Sir Braedon were already up and seemed to be doing a choreographed spar. Glancing at them I wondered a bit if this was how my brother felt training me.
He had been the best at everything, hunting, fighting, learning, teaching. He was going to be the greatest prodigy of the clan and raise it to new heights, and yet he was willing to offer a paw to me, the slow learner. Sometimes I feel like if he hadn't been so kind he would still be alive.
I shook my head to shake away the dark thoughts as I sped up. As I ran I could see the others were hard at work.
Kaelen was jogging on a much more modest track, stopping once to throw up before continuing at a slow but steady speed. Liora stood in the air, seemingly trying to meditate as she floated but she seemed uncomfortable. Selene had taken her morning potion, and grabbed the remaining two prepared ones as she practiced mutations on parts of her body. At some points strange things would happen, like her ears growing in size as she held them trying to block noise or her legs would become covered in strange red tendons like extra muscles, but she seemed to be slowly getting the hang of it. Thalia seemed to be practicing with her strings, using them to lift a clump of firewood off the ground.
Everyone was hard at work and practicing. In a strange way it felt like we had started a race as a group with Selene and I starting ahead of the others. It had been easy to take the lead in the beginning, but the more I looked back, the more I could see the others catching up despite the late start. To be fair, I hadn't been working as hard as I could. I was getting drunk, and eating to my hearts content, and sure I train in the morning, but I'm lazy for the rest of the day, in some ways it feels like luck that I'm still ahead in the proverbial race.
I ran an extra lap, coming to a stop with heavy breathing to find the others sitting at camp. Breakfast was cooking on a pan, the smell of sausages was enticing, and yet there was that remnant feeling of slowness as Kaelen waved me over.
"Jax, you ready for breakfast?"
A part of me jumped at the chance, arguing we had even trained extra, so extra sausages to reward myself, but another part kept saying we needed more, that something was wrong and we needed more strength.
"Almost done, just need a moment to finish up and Ill be right over."
I said giving a fake toothy grin. Kaelen nodded as Liora used her magic to sneakily grab one of the sausages and bit into it, crying out and fanning her mouth as she realized how hot it was. I made my way over to a nearby tree.
Taking a centering breath I took my stance and began to strike the tree. As I did I fought to keep my mind from wandering, and yet my thoughts kept drifting. To my life, my brother, Hopestone, and even that terrifying being Red who appeared in the dungeon. As I did I struck, as if each strike of my paws could seal a memory and clear my head. Over and over again until finally I was out of breath and stepped back panting. The tree was covered in paw shaped divots from my strikes as the system appeared before me.
Your soul stirs
From your restless soul a skill develops further
You have upgraded Martial Arts(E) to Martial Arts(D)
I looked down to my paws, wondering if I would see a large change before out of curiosity I decided to test something. When I had become level 10 I had taken a skill called Powerful Strike(E). Apparently it enhances the next attack I do. So as I took a moment to concentrate I felt the skill activating. The surging rush of force that went to my paws was stronger than it had been when I used the Iron fist skill, but I wasn't done. Holding the force back I took a moment to steady myself and activated the Iron fist skill.
The white energy around my paw took on a silver hue as the force in my paw grew and sharpened. I lunged forward, striking out as my paw struck the thick trunk of the oak tree. The wood buckled as I felt the weight of the tree shift as the towering tree cracked and popped and fell to the ground in a cacophony of noise. I stared at the tree for a moment before I glanced back down at my paw, the system helpfully appearing.
You have used skill Powerful Strike(E)
Your next attack is enhanced
You have used skill Iron Fist(E)
You have done 52 damage
You have done more damage than you have HP +1000 XP
I looked down at my unharmed paw as to my surprise, I saw Aiden and the others running over to me, all looking startled with weapons in hand. Even Sir Braedon ran with them.
"Where's the monster?"
Liora asked as they looked around the clearing still on edge. I looked around with them confused for a moment before it clicked.
"No monster, training ranked up one of my skills so I wanted to test."
I said grinning. The others looked at me, and back at the tree as they seemed to pale slightly, except for Sir Braedon who I couldn't see anything about. He never removed his armor even to sleep, and for some reason it unnerved me. Like dude, at least take a shower or something.
After a moment Kaelen grabbed the sides of his head as he yelled.
"Fuck, the sausages!"
As he went sprinting back towards our camp faster then he had run all morning. It only took a few minutes for us to get back to camp. Returning back there were several people leaving who seemed to have wandered over wondering about the group that suddenly rushed off after the falling tree.
Sitting down everyone was served partially burned sausages, but since everyone had been training we were all starving. I chowed down as if I had never eaten before. However as we ate, I couldn't help but feel Sir Braedon looking at me. You're just jealous because Aiden's training with him instead of you, a part of me said, and yet It wasn't the training that gave me the weird feeling.
Sir Braedon had this feeling like he was missing something. What exactly I had no idea, and yet there was a feeling of wrongness. A part of me wanted to ask about this, and yet I held back.
We ate and we packed up and headed down the road, Sir Braedon sleeping as we drove. However even in his sleep he seemed to be eyeing me. I ignored this and watched the scenery as minutes stretched to hours, until we were coming to a stop in a small clearing in the woods. As we unpacked I shuffled my way over to where Liora was washing clothes using some water from the jugs we kept on the car. He he, jugs. Focus damn you! I thought shaking my head.
"Hey Liora, need some help?"
I asked hoping she would get my meaning. I had made a big point about hating anything pertaining to cleaning, so as Liora looked up at me surprised she seemed ready to make a snarky comment before she saw my eyes and nodded. I started to pass her terribly smelling clothes using my mouth as she asked.
"What's wrong, your acting weird."
"I'm honestly not sure, just feeling uneasy, does Sir Braedon feel weird to you?"
"In what way?"
"I don't know, thats the problem, he just gives me a strange feeling."
Liora looked up with smug look, no longer as tense as she asked in a mocking baby voice.
"Aww, is wittle Jax feeling wonwy without his sparring partner?"
I shook my head and said a bit too defensively.
"What no, why would that be an issue, that's no issue."
Liora chuckled as she said.
"Relax, new person who seems to be taking your spot, if anything I would be surprised if you were ok with it, were dropping him off in 3 days, so just bear with it for now."
I wanted to argue, but I kept my mouth shut and silently nodded as I turned to walk back into the woods where I gathered twigs for tonight's fire.