Mythshaper

I had to admit there was a huge difference between sparring with a man and fighting a monster. Despite the centipedes being no more powerful than my sparring partners, they kept me on the edge. Many a time I failed to maintain my calm, swinging my blade at the monsters as though I had a blood debt to repay.

There was something about demons and the killing. I was not used to both.

Yet I dispatched them faster than anyone on the team, and some of them were even regular in the pits. But that did not make me any bit happier, knowing that I was not fully under control, that half of my moves were mindless slashes at the first sign of threats. The sword forms I cultivated so painstakingly were almost obsolete if I only used the same slash repeatedly.

One might argue that the simple move got the job done, but what happened when a tougher opponent showed up? It could turn out to be a fatal flaw.

I needed to carve my instinct. These centipedes could do me no harm. Hell, even if an elite one came up, it could not break through [Vigil of Protection], as much as I could scratch Father in a spar.

There was no need to feel overwhelmed. I knew that to be true, but when I faced the deranged creatures, all my instincts said I had to kill it before it could plunge its teeth in my flesh, even though that was highly implausible.

"It is a common folly for most," Father said as I confronted him with my problem. "Unfortunate as it is, you have already faced demons far stronger than these dregs. You can take all the courage from that, but you have spent too little time plunging the cold blade into those hideous monsters to be comfortable with it. The other kids with you, they might not be as strong as you, but they kept their composure far better. . . Well, a couple of them, at least, did."

He eyed Tellus, the boy with heavy armour, a mace and the shield. And the other one was a brown-haired girl by his side with a foldable bow hanging on her hips, packing not one or two but three quivers full of arrows. Both of their gaits radiated an aura of confidence, comfortable with the surroundings and everything on their bodies. I could not say the same about Marcus and the other girl. Only gawking at them for a moment, I could tell that they were not even used to the gear on their bodies, much less to the job.

Solas bless me, is that how I look to them, too?

"Trust me, Pumpkin, you could have done a lot worse out there." Mum tousled my hair. "You could have frozen. Now that might not be as easily solvable as what you are encountering."

"What do I need to do?" I asked, standing straighter.

"There is nothing much to it really, other than getting used to it," Father said. "Spend more time out there. It is more a mental clog than an actual problem with your training."

"And we all know you are not deficient there," Mum said. "The way I see it, you may get better at it in as little time as a couple of hours."

That brightened my expression.

"Actually," Father said, "You can do one more thing."

I perked at him to see he was shooting a measuring glance at Mum.

"You see, son, you actually have too many tools for one thing, while that is amazing, it also clogs your mind to see through the most optimal solution to a problem. On top of that, if your mind hallucinates to make you feel there is no time to act, your instinct becomes no better than that of an animal."

I could not help but believe how true that was.

"You can solve it by taking a moment, but that is only if you remember to." Father patted my shoulder encouragingly. "But we are not going to do that. For the next couple of bouts, why do you not restrict your essence and only use aura to fight?"

I raised an eyebrow and sneaked a glance at Mum. Surprisingly, she had no complaints about it.

"This will also allow you to train your aura more. You can go for all kinds of forging methods, but I tell you, there is no alternative to pitting your aura against a thousand demons."

"Enough of lecturing," Mum pulled me from Father to grasp both of my shoulders. "While I agree with almost everything your father said, we should leave the pitting your aura against a thousand demons for. . . hmm, how about for never?"

With Father's insistence, I agreed to rely only on my aura for the next few battles. Yet when the next time I smelled a monster, I instantly pulled towards my essence threads unknowingly.

A lot of them came on this occasion. Well, it was more like we went to them, but that made little difference when the other party was a flock of insatiable demons.

Taking a deep breath, I let go of the primal force and brandished my aura over the blade. There were over a dozen monsters I could pick out in the dark, while many more must be lurking beyond. Elnar stayed nearby to limit the number of those monsters that could attack simultaneously, as all five of us lurched into movement.

At his command, we stood in a spearhead formation. I was not at the forefront of the formation, only the next step behind, with Tellus to my left.

The long blade struck the centipede, as fast and true as last time; however, it could not cleave through their segments as smoothly. Before, the blade was akin to an instrument of shaping. I was channelling essence, which transmitted into empowering the razor edge of the blade. Aura could not be channelled that way. Even still, I was not completely awful at it. I merely needed to reinforce my control over the resonance of Sharpness with every slash I made. This made the battle a little more challenging and a lot more drawn out.

There was a big difference between chopping leaves and the tough carapace of these demons, to be sure. I had to implement all of my aura to have a substantial result.

I think staying in formation helped in quelling my nerves, as all I had to do was swing my blade and enforce my aura. That left a lot of headspace to maintain where the blade was going. After my third kill, I found it was easier to pierce the centipede's rigid skull once I pinned them against the ground. That was one obvious thing to figure out, and yet it made all the difference. Moreover, I did not have to look after my back. Tellus had that covered. And every once in a while, a sharp projectile plunged in to end any demons that got dangerously close to someone.

Although my eyes failed to see him, I deemed Elnar was doing his work. So far, Tellus, Valeria and I required little of his help, as most of his attention was on keeping the other two safe.

They were definitely not bad, merely inexperienced. Marcus's blow was easily more potent than anyone else on the team, except that he was not high on alacrity. The girl, Lauren, had well-rounded attributes compared to him, but in her case, she seemed to spread them far too thin to be of much use unless she was using her gift actively.

Tellus went in for a complete defensive build, and it was working for him. Whereas Valeria was agile and sharp as the arrow she wielded. The number of her kills was no lower than mine.

Huh, only then did I notice that my heartbeat was not soaring high. It was still raised to a degree, but not as unbecoming as the other times. Dispatching a couple more of the demons on my way, I noted it was my aura that was pushing the clog off my mind.

As I was attending to my aura control, the monsters did not unnerve me as much anymore. I could not believe it. The trick all along was to pay as little attention to them as they deserved.

Now, I did not believe I had solved the problem completely. I would still be prone to go for the base instinct if something fast and stronger came along, but these centipedes--they were not it.

My heart grew calmer with that realisation. It did not sharpen my blade so that I could sever a metre-long centipede in one blow, but I was more at ease, even when more than a couple of them leapt at me.

The art was as much controlling my movement as it was controlling theirs.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"Brace yourself, I'm sending a few more." At once, as Elnar's voice echoed in the surroundings, it was soon swallowed by a collection of high squeaks. More demons surged at us from all directions.

"Blighted hell," cursed the archer, "they sure can shriek."

I maintained my stance, letting the monsters come to me. The number of demons had risen, but I did not see that changing my approach was necessary. I merely moved from a two-handed grip to single hand, as it allowed my sword to reach a little further and gave more freedom of movement in exchange for power.

I compensated by enforcing more aura. With each strike, my blade met a wretched creature, the colour aura of the blade rising to bloody red.

That was when a centipede almost sneaked past Tellus to strike at my back. Instantly, I twirled on my foot to send it reeling, only to notice my instincts had pulled the [Vigil of Protection] into existence, forming a thin layer of forcefield over me. Pressing my lips, I let go of it and pushed forth against the demons with my aura alone.

As much as I wanted to fell them in wild abandon, I took a deep breath to restrain myself. If we really needed to kill these demons as fast as possible, then there were better alternatives to us in Elnar and my parents.

I worked at my own pace, perhaps even slower than what I was truly capable of if I utilised the Levitation Boots. Now, that surely would be of immense help against the hideous things leaping from the high walls.

After clearing the monsters in my way, I went to help the others under pressure. By then, the number of them had come down by half.

"Excellent work, everyone," Elnar said. "Your teamwork may need some more work, but I am glad to see everyone is getting the hang of it."

Half of us were sitting on our bottoms as the battle finished, with dozens of mangled corpses scattered all around us. I was not spent by any means, but I was not spared from the disgusting ichor smearing all over me. The worst off was Lauren, who appeared no better than the monsters we felled.

Looking at her retching, I promised myself to ease the clog off my mind as soon as possible, so that I could go back to fighting with the forcefield on. As much as the relic's reassuring presence was encouraging, I liked the fact that it blocked all the filthy spatter out of my way.

"All right, gather your spoils from the corpses," Elnar commanded, moving to do the same. "We'll move in five."

"Nobody touches my kill," said Valeria, the archer. "My arrows have struck eleven. Do not think you can swindle a scrap of my spoils."

Nothing of the giant centipedes' carapace, appendages or inner organs was of much worth. The only thing salvageable from these centipedes was their demon core. Even then, it was not something expensive, though still highly sought after due to it being the primary material for essence cells. The elite and higher-classed ones were used in those energy blasting lances and pilum, so naturally they sold for a higher price, a far higher price.

If elite demon cores went for gold Leafs, these peanut-sized nascent cores would only amount to a few silver chips. Still, that was some sum for a few grams of dark essence shell. I imagined their prices would only go up as people found new ways to use them. For example, genuine essence cells were not a thing merely a decade ago.

A refined dark essence core usually absorbed any essence you imbued on it and kept it sealed for a long period of time. People had been using that for small miscellaneous needs for centuries, until a nameless pupil at the Oracle Academy accidentally came across a way to raise their effectiveness. Then, after years of research and experiments, we were finally at a stage where a regular essence cell could power up attacks that could eviscerate high buildings without effort. Before that, mostly Prestigious class Awakened were capable of such a thing.

Fishing out my dagger, I crouched next to the corpses and began prying open their hideous skulls to bring out the small black core smeared in thick black ichor. If I could get a hundred of such cores, perhaps I might have enough materials to create the cells required for Eran's set, not that I knew how to make essence cells.

Well, I knew the theory, and it was more lethal than actually difficult to understand. First of all, the process of refining dark essence alone could taint my own essence. Then there were corrosive metallic liquids and agents required to be used, and if anything went wrong there, it could be hazardous not only to me but to anyone in the vicinity.

I think we needed some special permit to even try it. As I was considering all that, I noted Marcus and the noble girl present in our group were not taking their spoils, as if the few coins were worth nothing. They stood by the side of the wall, cleaning themselves of the gore marring their plate armour and hands. While I abhorred the grimy ichor as much as, if not more than, them, I stopped myself from going on a washing rampage until the dirty work was done here. Wait. . .

It was only then that it dawned upon me that I was a shaper. And a blighted, foolish one at that.

Father insisted that I restrict my essence during battle, but he said nothing about the collection. Why was I getting my hands dirty?

I felt like face palming, but that would only spatter more filth on my face. Instead, I stood up and channelled my essence threads. I implemented a neat trick with kinetic force and compression weave to dig through the demon skulls and used another thread to grab the little cores out from the gorged wound.

"You could do that?" Tellus asked, doing the same beside me with a dagger. His fingers were rather fastidious at working through the rigid heads, something you do not earn without working through it for some time.

"I can be wasteful at times." I smiled. The whole trick alone took more effort than doing it with a dagger.

"Why didn't you use that during the fight?"

"Umm," I took a moment to answer him. "A little training I am undergoing to not be too dependent on my shaping."

The burly youth shot me a look before his eyes darted to my parents. "Makes sense, I guess."

***

There was a dire blunder in our following battle. So much so that Elnar had to bail out a couple of us in the middle of the fight. No, there was no elite monster that came up during this fight; we merely performed worse as a team. Lauren was struck down by a giant centipede and was soon surrounded by a number of them. To help her, Marcus jumped without notice, only to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of them. At that point, most demons left us to charge at the easier prey.

"All right, boys and girls," Elnar called, clapping his palms. "Before we move down further, let us go through some team-building exercises."

The noble pair was still shell-shocked to have any opinion. They sat there in silence as we talked among ourselves about each of our merits. I also got to learn a little more about everyone's background. Tellus and Valeria were actually part of the Monster Hunter guild. Well, their families were, and they were still trainees. Whereas the other two, Marcus and Lauren, came from some prestigious families of Victoria. While they were still far from the dominant patricians, their families were wealthy and well connected enough to secure them the spots here.

Well, I would imagine a true patrician house would have enough powerhouses in the family to not require any outside service like that of the Monster Hunter guild.

Before we moved further into the chasms, Elnar divided the tasks for us. This time, Marcus and Lauren stood together in the centre, but they were to move only along with the team. Tellus was on defensive duty for them, while Valeria was not far from them. She would be on the lookout to clear any threats that could move past me or be of any threat to me when I drifted through the air and dispatched any of the monsters that lurched from the high walls. With all that, we were all asked to be more verbal during the battle. Nobody saw us becoming a seasoned team where everyone could rely on each other, but we had to do better so that we would not require much babysitting.

Personally, I liked the task I was given. Ignoring the mental clog, my preference would always be to have the freedom of movement during a battle.

Elnar began deploying a smaller number of the demons at first, and slowly increased the amount as our chemistry grew.

Valeria led the team through the demon-infested regions as her gift allowed her a wide view of the surroundings, and she was not shy about barking commands. That hindered her in showing off her archery, however, but I got that covered. With the boost of the Levitation Boots, I dispatched one monster after another, sometimes even stealing kills from the tip of her arrow. She did not like that.

About half an hour later, after dispatching a couple dozen more demons, the spell's sweet voice echoed into my ears.

[Congratulations, Demon Hunting (Lesser) II (253/250) is complete.]

[+2 to all attributes.]

[Attribute points are held off for Arcane (Greater).]

And it was almost the end of today's expedition. Finally, I wasted no more moments to shape water to wipe my face clean.

"Does anyone else need water?" I asked.

I did not need to ask twice, as all of them flocked to me to clean themselves, except Valeria, of course. But if nothing, she was rather practical. After shooting a glare in my direction, she joined the others when I sneaked off to my parents.

They had been relegated themselves to the background for most of today. I was going to ask how I did, only to notice they were already talking amongst themselves.

"He really has improved a lot from the little kid I knew," Mum said.

"Yeah, he seems to have a steady head."

It was only when Father turned towards Elnar that I knew they were not talking about me.

"He's almost like a spitting image of his father," Mum said, with a curve on her lips. "Well, not in a physical sense, but their personalities matched quite alike."

"And you did well too," Mum said, tousling my hair. I quickly stepped apart towards Father before anyone noticed. Unfortunately, it did not go unnoticed by her. "A few more days here and you will be perfectly ready, but more than that, I like that you have made new friends, Pumpkin"

I turned in the direction she was looking, and my eyes met with the brown-haired archer. She did not forget to glower at me.

Mum, I do not think that was a look a friend gives. She really did not like how I stole her kill. Even giving her a part of the spoils had not earned me forgiveness, it seemed. Unfortunately, I could not help it. Once I got too concentrated on the work, all I saw were the demons I could kill.

The day almost came to pass, though there was no change in our surroundings. It was still stale air, a damp atmosphere and the gloomy darkness all around. We finally turned the way we came from without meeting a single elite demon after eight hours of venturing into the chasm.

Well, we did not enter the more dangerous, demon-infested regions, but I would imagine there still would be a few elite centipedes to the hundreds of dregs we cleaned.

A few more minutes later, we noticed not an elite centipede, but something bulkier than that, munching on the corpses we had left behind. It looked like a demon golem made of stone, standing over twelve feet tall.

"A Stonegorger," I gasped. Not just because it was an elite demon, but also because the rich materials we could loot from its corpse were enough to make two Prestigious class fabricators.