Chapter 136: Elemental Resonance
Evan slipped into that state again, and hazy images surfaced in his mind — beastmen closing in from every side, some with horns rising from their heads, others with feathers sprouting across their backs, each stranger than the last. The trees atop the hill glowed with a faint green light, branches and vines growing wild beneath it, weaving themselves into a great net that bound the figures in Hollingburton robes tight. The beastmen dragged the net, prisoners and all, toward the far side of the hill, while distant shapes moved across a hilltop somewhere beyond.
Evan came out of the state and looked toward the distant hill, thick with green. Jessica caught his gaze. "You think they went to that hill?"
Evan nodded. "The trail leads straight to it. Let's head down and keep following the tracks."
Jessica nodded, and Evan took the lead. This time he didn't move slowly — he pushed forward at speed, his focus absolute, each stride nearly identical to the last. He'd slipped into a particular state again, one that had nothing to do with ordinary magical cultivation — something he couldn't explain the origin of, though everything within several hundred cubits seemed to surface clearly in his mind as he moved.
What Evan didn't know was that in magical terms, this state would be called elemental resonance — though different from the usual kind. He moved now like a fish gliding through water made of pure element, every step naturally avoiding whatever lay in his path, and where avoidance proved impossible, the trees and vines themselves seemed to draw back and let him pass. Evan's grasp of elemental will had always run differently from anyone else's — he'd never truly believed the elements existed as independent things in their own right, and some quiet part of him had already begun to suspect that what people called elements were simply energy, distinguished from one another by some underlying difference in information, energy itself being the true foundation beneath it all.
He only sensed, faintly, that his own understanding of the elements might differ sharply from traditional doctrine, without thinking much of it. As his pace picked up, Emma and Jessica exchanged a glance and cast Haste on themselves. The students followed suit, and the whole group surged forward at a speed that made tracking any trail impossible.
Still, Emma and Jessica both felt certain the path was right, though neither could say how Evan had determined it. In his state of elemental resonance, every trace of passage lay open to his mind. He felt, in that moment, like a machine running at full speed — no personal feeling left in him at all, only the faithful execution of a fixed program.
An hour passed, though the ground they'd covered would ordinarily have taken the better part of a day. Evan came to a stop, already drifting out of the resonant state, and found the students behind him gasping for breath — that single hour had clearly worn them down badly. They'd reached the base of the hill, and he'd stopped because he sensed people nearby.
The moment he stopped, though, that heightened awareness receded like a retreating tide, and within moments he'd fallen entirely out of the state, with no idea how to call it back. He understood, in some vague way, that he'd let a genuine opportunity slip past — under ordinary circumstances, spent in careful cultivation, he might have studied the sensation closely. Now there was no chance left for that.
He waved a hand and spoke quietly. "People ahead. Get ready to fight."
The group startled. Whatever questions Emma and Jessica had been sitting on were forgotten at once as everyone readied themselves. Neither woman noticed that Evan himself showed no sign of exertion at all — no quickened breath, no racing heart. He waved again, and the group understood, scattering quickly for cover. In an instant, everyone had vanished behind the trees, while Evan himself flickered forward like a thread of smoke, disappearing behind a trunk a moment later.
After a while, two figures approached — one with deer antlers and hooves, the other with long donkey-like ears and a single eye, standing nearly half again as tall as his companion.
Neither noticed anyone lying in wait, both carrying flails, muttering to each other in a language none of the group understood.
Evan had no intention of casting his comprehension spell just yet — this close, even a small ripple of magic might give them away, and alerting the two would cost far more than it was worth.
The pair had no idea they were walking straight into an ambush, stepping unknowingly into the circle the group had formed. The moment they came within reach, Evan let a thin wisp of black smoke flicker out, spreading into a net that dropped over them. Neither had expected an ambush at all — one looked up just in time to see a figure standing there, startled, flail half-raised, before the black smoke settled over him and everything went dark. He collapsed to the ground.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
When they came back to their senses, both found themselves bound, a group of strangers gathered before them. They strained against the cords without success. The one-eyed giant opened his mouth to roar, but only a muffled, wordless groan came out.
"Don't bother struggling for nothing," Evan said. "Tell me — have you taken any captives like us recently?"
He'd already cast his comprehension spell by then. The one-eyed giant tried to shout again, his voice coming out far too weak to carry. Confused by his own failure, he stopped. Evan smiled. "I told you not to struggle for nothing, and you wouldn't listen. Don't hope for a rescue — under a Weakening Voice charm, you could scream your throat raw and never carry past thirty cubits. Since my words meant nothing to you, you can take the consequences instead."
He pointed, and a snake of black smoke dropped onto the giant, drawing an immediate scream — thin and weak, but a scream all the same. Something seemed to crawl beneath his skin like a rat burrowing through muscle, flesh rippling and swelling. Watching his companion's suffering, the horned one began shaking all over.
Evan turned his attention to him with a smile. "Your turn to talk. What's your name?"
"I— I'm Dier. He's Graydeman," Dier said, giving up his companion's name along with his own without hesitation.
"Good. Now tell me — have you been holding a group of captives?" Evan asked.
"Yes, yes — we caught a large group a day ago. Under our king's divine art, resistance means nothing," Dier said.
"Ah. Your king uses divine art. How many of you can wield it?" Evan pressed.
"Our king's divine art is powerful — a gift from the goddess herself, they say. No magic can touch him; he can break through anything. He has thirty-six loyal followers, all taught the divine art. We're only lowly laborers — we were never taught any of it," Dier said.
"And the people you captured — what's become of them?"
"They're being kept for now. Tomorrow they'll be offered to the goddess. Then we eat the meat."
"What?" Evan's shock was genuine.
Graydeman spat out, savage and vicious, "You can't escape this fate either. I'll chew your bones to splinters myself."
Evan turned a cold look on him, a flicker of killing intent in his eyes. He pointed again, and another thread of black smoke appeared, drawing another thin, muffled scream.
"Have you eaten human flesh before?" Evan asked, an odd question.
Dier seemed to savor the memory for a moment, smacking his lips. "Delicious!" His mind clearly worked in ways very different from a human's — he seemed not to grasp that Evan and the others could do anything to him at all, perhaps even expecting to be let go.
Evan showed no anger, only asked, "Has anyone come here before?"
"About three years ago, someone came through. Five of them, that time. We ate them all, of course — offered to the gods first, and once the gods had their share, we took the meat," Dier said.
"Where did you hold those five?" Evan asked.
Dier, honest to a fault, laid out everything without holding back — the terrain, the details of their arrangements, all of it. He seemed to lack ordinary intelligence, not quite behaving like a normal sentient being. Once Evan finished questioning him, he thought it over for a moment while the others watched anxiously, their eyes on Dier now carrying the look people give a man already dead.
Graydeman could only glare at Evan by then, unable to speak, his voice sealed by the Silence charm, reduced to wordless groans. Fire seemed to burn behind his single eye as he fixed his hateful stare on Evan — at least his mind, Evan noted, still seemed intact.
After a moment, Evan said simply, "Kill them."
The words had barely left his mouth before several students, unwilling to wait any longer, picked up the fallen flails without bothering with magic and swung down hard. Two wet cracks sounded as the weapons struck home. Dier's eyes went wide with disbelief, as though asking what he'd done to deserve this.
Once both were dead, Graydeman's body showed no change, but Dier's did — fur sprouting across his skin. He didn't transform fully into a beast the way old Chinese legends described such creatures reverting to their true form, but something in him regressed all the same. Watching it happen, Evan found himself wondering — were these so-called beastmen something closer to demons after all?
The students disposed of the bodies. "Professor Wang, what's our next move?" Emma asked.
"We wait until it's darker, then slip up the hill and get the captives out. Let's divide the work. Emma, Jessica — take the students and handle the rescue. I'll draw their attention elsewhere, especially their so-called king. I'd like to see what he's really made of," Evan said.
"Isn't that dangerous, going alone?" Jessica asked.
"I'll be fine. Even a legendary mage couldn't hold me if I didn't want to be held — whether I'd win against him is another matter, but leaving is never in question. There are precious few people left in this world who could keep me somewhere against my will," Evan said, entirely confident.
"And me too," Xiaoshuang added, pumping her small fists from Evan's shoulder. "I want them to know — you don't mess with me, Xiaoshuang!"
"Take care of yourself out there. Where should we regroup?" Jessica asked.
"We don't know this ground at all, so gather back here if you can manage it. If not, send up a signal flare and I'll come find you. Give me a few signal arrows too," Evan said.
Emma handed him a few flares. The group settled into the dense undergrowth to rest and wait for nightfall.