Hardcore: Qi Worlds Chapter 22: Vaugend Trial 4

 Ailen POV Mining Guard short battle  

 Ailen ran down to the tree Benzhi had indicated, this terrain was different, although there were some trees, it was steeper and much more grass in the valleys compared to other forests, even a forest in the mountains. Checking his bow and arrow supply he was ready. Benzhi had yelled the funniest stuff at the men in the mining camp, it was sure to make them mad and hopefully come running over the hill like idiots. Benzhi could probably handle the dozen all by himself, these men were not adept let alone qi masters. 

 He had twenty-four arrows, best not to miss and take care with each and every arrow. There would be no replacements, however, when they won he could retrieve any that were not bent or broken. The qi layers should prevent that from happening. The distance was up-hill and almost at maximum for a guaranteed hit a small moving target. The wind was low and, hopefully, the terrain would prevent the men moving too much. The flight time would allow a skilled guardian to dodge an arrow, where they aware of its approach, men, probably not. All this mattered not, he wanted Benzhi to be impressed with him and invite him on more adventures. If he let Benzhi down now, he would take Talila instead of him. 

 Predictably, the men fell for all of Benzhi's taunts, 'nuts that will make a good story,' Ailen thought. Benzhi was cunning, he hid behind a boulder as the men started to make their way down the hill. 

"Wuch one has the dick up ass?" he yelled mimicking Benzhi as best he could.

They didn't even look around and came straight towards him, 'Nuts!' Ailen squealed to himself. These men were dumber than rodents high on shrooms. Benzhi was brave, strange or stupid, as Gisael used to think. Now she thinks he is the brave stupid genius, she has it bad for him. First ever guardian to show her up, even their spars Benzhi held back not wanting to hurt her and she could tell, which just made her angry at him.

  A second group of men came over the hill and Benzhi waited for them to pass him before attacking. There was seven in total, three in the first group and four in the second. Benzhi was attacking the group of four. It was obvious what Ailen had to do. Before the first group turned to face the commotion Ailen had his arrow nocked and summoned his qi. He had been training daily, harder than he had ever in his forty years of life. His lack of contribution against the troll still hurt, Benzhi could have died. Benzhi trained hard every day. He didn't even take a day off when injured, just trained with his left hand! Ailen's qi arrow had improved immensely and now was the time to show it. The target was the back of the head, their backs were covered in shields, their heads were unprotected. 'Was it laziness or idiocy?' Ailen didn't know.

The people, wood elves, were qi adepts and masters, they could dodge, enhance their senses, and easily stay hidden due to tree-running another qi ability. Other races were able to protect themselves with qi, hardening their skin. Men were good at building things, making things. There were a few qi adept and masters amongst men, but they were rare and certainly not common guards. So men should use their armour to protect themselves because as they had little else and were good at it. These idiots had protected themselves well, from the neck down. Their heads were fair game.

 The skull of a man was sure to be thick, it was obvious from their lack of brains. Without thinking, he layered the arrow in qi, finessing to the sharpest, finest point. Fly. Focusing his qi, keep the arrow straight, thwack. Good. One down. Double shot this time, Benzhi had kicked one down the hill who was getting up and the other two had crossbows. Draw, aim, focus qi, twang both arrows fly. First one on target, Ailen guides the second with his qi to hit the downed mine guard. Two more down. That was the first time Ailen had completed a double shot in an actual battle. Ailen exhaled and drew in a breath. Benzhi had dodged the crossbow bolt from the third mine guard who was now reloading, so slow, Ailen thought. Ailen drew, focused his qi, aim, fly. The mine guy had presented the gift of; the top of his head, 'this was easier than licking bark off a tree' Ailen thought. 

 The fight was over unless more came over the ridge, Ailen jumped down from the tree and started up the hill. Before he could retrieve any arrows the prophesied three more came over the ridge. These three panicked and ran back over almost immediately. Ailen ran to the ridgeline as fast as he could, leaping, scurrying and quick stepping. 'Quicker to the top, the easier the shots' he thought. He bridged the ridgetop. Drew in a breath, nock, focus qi, aim and fly. Layering the arrow in qi came naturally, but the more he practised the sharper and truer were his marks. Repeated twice more within a few heartbeats.

 He had not let Benzhi down, Ailen smiled to himself all was good with the new world.

Benzhi POV continued...from chapter 21

 The pair skirted the mine, on high alert for any redcloak guards. Benzhi and Ailen hiked east then headed north, Ailen used tree-run it was an ability that, for wood elves, came as second nature. It did not use much qi to maintain as it was part of their natural circulation. Benzhi conserved his qi, qi blade used some and if he had to heal it used substantial amounts. Unlike Ailen tree-run wasn't something that came to him naturally, Benzhi engaged the qi ability as needed, he could also apply it to his hands which assisted in tight spots. After crossing the third, what was now a mountain ridge, they both halted, startled.

 Below them, in the valley, was a troop of over one hundred soldiers, men. It wouldn't be long before this mob were alerted of the two and their escapades. Dropping low, watching the soldiers, they appeared to be patrolling, en masse. This was the sort of force that worried Benzhi. They were well armoured, of a much higher standard than the mine guards. Benzhi had not yet tried to cut anything substantial with qi blade and doubted he could penetrate a steel cuirass easily, as some of the better-dressed soldiers wore, probably officers. The mainstay wore cuir bouilli leather armour with a metal helm and held spears with shields. Almost half wielded crossbows with backup sword and shield. They all had cloaks, but there was an array of colours including red, blue and white. Benzhi chuckled to himself, 'the good ol' red, white and blue. Except these were the bad guys'

Taking down such a force, and delivering a blow to the men from Vaugend that they would not soon forget, was something Benzhi immediately desired. It would require planning and allies. Allies such as the barbarians, Benzhi prayed they were as adept as the wood elves.

 Benzhi and Ailen spent days searching the mountains. The wood elf qi ability tree-run was an amazing asset, the task of searching the mountains would have been much more difficult and slower without it. The mountainous terrain gradually became more severe. Sheer rock faces, snow covered mountain tops, freezing temperatures, blistering high-speed winds, icy paths, dangerous animals like wildcats and Benzhi was pretty sure he saw a yeti. The weather was becoming unbearably cold for the two, Benzhi had his new clothes but they were extremely thin where Ailen was almost naked per the wood elf custom. Each night they lit a fire in the hopes it would attract some wandering barbarians and mainly to warm themselves. The damn red cloaks came in handy during the cold nights and they had to keep each other warm through the night, 'but you know, what happens in the mountains stays in the mountains' Benzhi conceded. 

  Despite the size of the force, they spied a few days ago, there was no way the soldier could attack the barbarians in this terrain. The force would perish, in numerous ways, from scaling these mountains. That was probably the reason why the mine was at the entrance to the mountain range and not deep within the mountains themselves. It was a distinct advantage the barbarians could use, something the forest did not have. In comparison the forest was susceptible to attack, it was easily accessed and could be destroyed. The natural defences of the mountains were forbidding, if you could live here it was quite safe, you just had to put up with unforgiving terrain, lightning storms, blizzards and death by cold.

  Benzhi and Ailen scaled another mountain ridge, so many now they had lost count, it was not difficult for them to climb thanks to tree-run, but the wind and biting cold was not pleasant in the least. Benzhi took the opportunity, while they were at such a height use qi sight. They were unable to find barbarians so far, probably due to the massive scale of the mountain range and the relatively few barbarians. Qi sight may give Benzhi some insight into finding living creatures and or a barbarian tribe. Benzhi closed his eyes and layered qi over them. He vision savoured the majestic beauty of qi streams which crisscrossed the mountains, they had power themselves, the gigantic monoliths, just as the tree root structure of the forest did. It didn't take Benzhi long to sight movement of a group of small qi cores, relatively because of the distance, they could be barbarians or something else just as dangerous.

 Benzhi opened his eyes and scanned the area he noticed the qi cores. He could not see anything. He pointed and Ailen scanned the area. He shook his head as well.

 "Let's head down there, they may be underground, visible to qi sight and not regular or enhanced," Benzhi explained.

Benzhi had not trained his qi senses properly, qi sight was a wonderful ability which allowed him to learn qi abilities, he would be lost without it. It was something he had to rectify when he had time. Ailen, on the other hand, had trained to enhance his senses with qi. From the little Benzhi had learned, senses were not limited to the five as he understood it from his old world. They were included, but, it went further. The fae understood there to be thirteen senses. Thirteen! Not a measly five or six.

 The two arrived at the area where Benzhi sensed the cores and searched. It was rocky, snowy and, well, not much else. Benzhi engaged qi sight and searched again. Above them! The sheer face was an optical illusion, there must be a ledge, Benzhi ran up and Ailen followed.

 "Greetings," Benzhi said gleefully, they had finally found some fucking barbarians in this cold hell.

 The were four barbarians, who were wearing an assortment leather and furs, were taller than the fae ranging from five and a half feet to over six. The three men were muscular and were adorned with an assortment of scars and tattoos. The one female was almost six foot, she was also fit and toned, she looked to be about eighteen years old. Benzhi was a better judge of a humans age than a wood elf. The barbarians were men, just mountain men and not city dwellers and from what Benzhi could determine, they were adepts with qi. Their pools and circulation looked like the average qi adept user, while the female looked more akin to Gisael, she was quite talented. They all had twin picks hanging loosely at their sides, not a miners pick, they were a rock climber's pick. The picks had a meter long slightly curved wooden shaft and a, well over half a meter long, curved, serrated on the underside, metal head. They were akin to a large sickle or small scythe they looked useful for climbing and a deadly weapon. The weight and point looked suited for piercing a metal helm right through a skull and into the brain. The picks had a strap, most likely so the user did not drop it.

 Benzhi held out his hands, palms out. "We came to talk, look," he pulled out the seven red cloaks, from underneath his clothes, and quickly threw them on the ground, "we killed these bastards. We hate them as much as you do." Benzhi said with vehemence. He didn't know for sure the barbarians hated redcloaks, but he was willing to bet a deadly skirmish on it. 

 Three of the barbarians looked at the tallest and oldest male. He nodded and spoke, "Aye, we hate them, but that ain't meaning we are kin." He waved his hand back and forth from Benzhi to himself.

 Benzhi nodded, "But it does mean we can talk and may be friends."

 "Talk is cheap," the leader responded.

 "That is true." Benzhi pointed to the red cloaks, "actions speak louder."

  "We have been watching you for awhile now ..." the leader paused not knowing what to call Benzhi.

 "Benzhi and this is Ailen," Benzhi introduced.

 "Aye, I bein Ulfgrim, this here be Glum, Hurak and the lass be Reyas," Ulfgrim replied. Glum was the shorter of the men with a countenance that suited his name. Hurak looked to be Ulfgrims right-hand man, standing at his side ready for action. Finally, Reyas raised an animal attraction from Benzhi, she was young fit and well built. There were repercussions to Benzhi having evolved over the last month and he was sure glad he had pants on because a leaf would not be able to contain his natural reaction right now.

 "Ye have been determined to find us, haven't ye. Ye didn't give up easily and are surprising us with ye climbing. How ye have not frozen to death has us befuddled. Wait. Wait. Do not answer right the now. Let us go somewhere warm and talk," Ulfgrim said.

 The barbarians, or was it mountain men, Benzhi thought that they probably didn't think of themselves as barbarians. The mountain men led the pair through some windy trails and after several hours hiking arrived at a cave entrance.

 "This be a resting place, tis not our home," Ulfgrim informed them.

 "We appreciate it," Ailen thanked him, "we have been freezing and I would give a nut to get warm all the way through."

 They settled down and started a fire which provided warm, the mountain men burnt something which did fill the cave with smoke, it blew out of the tunnel as quickly as it rose to the ceiling. They threw some fur blankets at the pair. Benzhi offered some trail mix, which was waved away by the mountain men, with a snort of laughter.

 Benzhi started, explaining who they were, where they were from, the logging camp and his visit to Vaugend. He then waited for Ulfgrim to do the same.

 "We are Gaels," Ulfgrim started. So not barbarians but Gaels. "We be living in the mountains and highlands always. But we are new to this world," Ulfgrim waved expressing their surroundings.

"We left our home, for the lack of food, for our people to thrive and come to this new unsettled, untamed place.  A few clans came." He paused taking a sip of a drink and continued to explain what clans were.

"A clan is all kin, a family ye would call it, our clan be the Staggan Clan and I be the Clan Chief. Not only the Staggan Clan but the Bravrak and Trovas Clans came to the new world. We are all friendly like, with each other," Ulfgrim qualified, "If there bein fifty of ye, there bein a few hundred, if ye count all the clans, of us. Where ye be havin a Mother, like ye explained, we be havin the Seer who sees over all the clans, not just the Staggan Clan." Ulfgrim matched Benzhi, every piece of information that Benzhi had shared Ulfgrim had done the same in regards to the Gaels.

 "The men from Vaugend. They are..." Benzhi began but Ulfgrim held up his hand for a halt.

 "I have been thinking if ye did find us, if we were inclined, there is a way to test if ye be friendly and ye words be true," Ulfgrim informed the pair. 

 Benzhi asked cautiously, "and what would be the test?"

 "Not a test, in the sense of it, tested. Ye can visit the seer. I can take ye to him. The seer will test ye" Ulfgrim explained.

 Benzhi nodded slowly. "That is great." He replied. Aside from the unknown test and what it entailed. Meeting the seer was a boon. If they were to gain allies, three hundred strong compared to their low numbers, then the seer was probably the fastest way. Benzhi had nothing to fear, did he?

 "Let us rest and travel to the seer on the morrow." Ulfgrim proffered. 

 Benzhi and Ailen agreed wholeheartedly. It would be nice to get warm. Reyas came over offered the two some dried meat. Ailen just looked on in horror. Because Reyas was comely Benzhi accepted and thanked her. He gave the meat a sniff, Ailen shook his head and whispered, "Are you sure, that is meat from an animal."

 Benzhi shrugged and ate it, 'he wasn't a wood elf, not really and it would be rude to deny the host wouldn't it?' Benzhi thought. Two bites were all he could handle, the third made Benzhi feel sick in the stomach.

 When they all started to set in for the night, Benzhi began his meditation, with the Gaels looking on in fascination at the strange behaviour. They then curled up in their own furs to sleep. Benzhi used to drink from the sacred pool each day to replenish his body and his qi. It seemed that as he was evolving he was able to take in qi from food and the surroundings. It had begun to slowly replenish itself all the time. When he meditated it replenished at extremely fast relative to normal activities. He was drawing in the qi from his surroundings through meditation he was syphoning what were tiny amounts from the streams running through the mountains. He no longer needed to rely on the sacred pool.

 The next morning the party consisting of four Gaels and two forest guardians hiked to the seer's cave. The Gaels were flabbergasted with the guardians' ability to just walk straight up a sheer cliff. It was cheating. Benzhi and Ailen still hugged the wall and climbed up more like Spiderman, but, that was only too keep out of the cold winds as much as possible. Ulfgrim eventually gave away his pride and handed Benzhi a rope to tie off at the top to allow the Gaels to climb quicker. The Gaels had already established a network of carabiners driven into the rock, at well-travelled locations, which Benzhi could loop the rope through as he climbed. Benzhi took the opportunity to use qi sight on the Gaels as they climbed.

 The Gaels were incredibly strong and were capable of feats of strength and speed that was more than what training and conditioning could achieve. When watching them with qi sight Benzhi was rewarded with the source of this strength. The Gaels had the natural ability to strengthen or enhance their body. Enhance was a better description because when they layered patterns through their muscles and bones it improved their function, not only strength but speed. It may be possible they enhanced toughness, stamina and agility as well, Benzhi was not sure, yet. And if not, possibly finding a different pattern would. It opened his eyes to what meeting different beings and studying them enabled him to do. 

 Benzhi had learnt from the Fae, a troll and now he was studying the Gaels. The Gaels climbed and moved extraordinarily fast given the terrain, with their enhanced strength and speed. It was just keeping up with someone who did not need to find purchase, who almost defied gravity, was impossible no matter your strength and speed. Benzhi continued to take every opportunity to study the patterns of qi in the Gaels. Especially Reyas, as she was gifted and her patterns were elegant, to say the least.

 After a days travel they had crossed what seemed like half the mountain range into some of the most forbidding terrain. Ulfgrim led them into the seer's cave, giving presumably what were the correct observances, which the guardians did their best to imitate. 

The seer greeted them, "I have been expecting ye," of course he would say that.

Chapter end