Three days had passed since the carriage departed the gates of Ravencrest. As dusk settled over a quiet forest trail four days away from the imperial capital, the caravan established a perimeter camp beneath the towering trees.
While the eight guard knights tended to the horses and pitched leather tents, Iver sat alone on a mossy log at the edge of the campsite. He maintained a faint, passive swirl of Presence Erasure while absorbing some cores of monsters they had hunted along the way, silently refining his spirit flow while keeping his senses turned outward.
Suddenly, a high pitched, desperate scream shattered the quiet evening air.
"To arms!" the knight captain shouted, his broadsword clearing its sheath with a sharp hiss. Four guard knights immediately drew their steel and charged toward the sound from where the scream came from, while the remaining four formed a defensive ring around Baron Lucian and Lady Adela.
Iver didn’t react or draw attention to himself. His form simply blurred, vanishing into the shadows as he glided silently through the dense foliage behind the charging knights.
Fifty yards deeper into the woods, a gruesome scene unveiled itself. An overturned merchant wagon lay smashed against an oak tree, surrounded by the mangled remains of half a dozen guards.
Standing over the bloody debris was a towering Tier 3 Ironclad Chimera a ferocious beast with dark metallic scales, a lion like frame, and a massive, thorned tail. Its jaws dripped with fresh blood as it pinned an elderly, richly dressed woman against a broken wagon wheel.
"Hold the line! Protect the survivor!" the knight captain yelled, raising his shield as he and his men rushed forward. They were far too slow. Before the knights could even cross half the distance, a flicker of distorted air materialized right beside the monster’s towering neck.
Iver materialized out of empty shadow, dropping silently onto the Ironclad Chimera’s massive shoulder. He didn’t waste a breath on a battle cry. He drove his blade down into the narrow gap between its metallic nape scales, the only unarmored flesh on its upper body. Flame Mastery. Heat exploded from his blade, searing directly into the monster’s flesh.
The Chimera roared, a sound like grinding iron plates and reeled backward away from the trapped old lady. The sudden pain bought the fraction of a second the knights needed.
"Move!" Captain Vance roared as he used water surge to render the monster immobile as his three men closed the gap. Two knights thrust their heavy broadswords forward, sending high pressure torrents of freezing water wrapping around the Chimera’s lower legs and massive paws. The fourth knight swung upward, summoning a cutting wind vortex that swept over the beast, driving the temperature down and locking the water into jagged, icy bindings.
The cold hit the monster’s dark metallic hide right where Iver’s heat had just scorched it. CRACK. A web of brittle micro fractures shattered across the beast’s metallic scales under the intense thermal shock.
"Kid, get clear!" Vance barked, raising his blade for a heavy cleave. Iver was already ahead of him. As the Chimera’s thorned tail whipped around to crush the intruder on its back, Iver triggered Stealth. His body dissolved into a wispy blur, the massive tail smashing through empty air and shattering the oak tree behind him instead.
The steam rising from the collision of Iver’s fire and the knights’ freezing water blanketed the clearing in thick, white fog. To the knights, Iver had simply vanished into the mist. To the Chimera, his scent and aura had completely died.
Confused and enraged, the beast snapped its primary lion jaws at the four knights holding the perimeter. The ice around its legs cracked as its raw Tier 3 strength began to overpower the knights’ spellwork.
"It’s breaking free! Keep pressure on it!" Vance yelled, sweat beading on his brow as he pushed his spirit core to the limit. From beneath the billowing curtain of steam, a shadow darted between the Chimera’s anchored hind legs.
Iver slipped under the creature’s massive belly, totally undetected. He looked up at the brittle, cracked metallic plates on its underbelly, the damage caused by the thermal shock moments earlier. He didn’t try to overpower a Tier 3 beast with raw strength. Instead, he channeled his fire mastery into the precise tip of his blade.
He drove the blade straight upward into the fractured chest plate. The superheated steel pierced through the weakened metal, igniting the dense cluster of muscle right near its heart. The Chimera shrieked, its body convulsing as internal fire met external ice. It reared up on its hind legs to crush whatever was beneath it, exposing its throat and soft underbelly completely to the knights.
"Now!" Iver’s voice echoed from behind the beast as he rolled out from under the falling weight, vanishing into the foliage once more. Vance didn’t hesitate. "Blade of the Tempest!" With a synchronized roar, all four knights released their compressed wind and water attacks into a single, massive wave.
A pressurized blade of liquid air shot across the clearing, striking the exact weakened seam in the armor that Iver had opened up. The high pressure wind sheared through flesh and bone like a guillotine. Read the latest chapters at novelping . com.
The massive Ironclad Chimera stood frozen for a single beat, its glowing yellow eyes fading, before its towering body collapsed heavily into the bloodied mud. Silence returned to the woods, save for the hiss of steam rising off the monster’s carcass.
The four knights lowered their weapons, breathing heavily, their eyes wide as they scanned the foggy tree line. A shadow shifted near the overturned wagon, and Iver stepped out, casually wiping black blood from his blade before sheathing it.
’That kid is a monster’ the captain thought, a cold sweat breaking out on his neck. No wonder the Guild Master recommended him...
Without saying a word, Iver used his blade to slice open the beast’s body, extracting a dense, glowing Tier 3 Spirit Core. He tucked it into his leather belt pouch, a valuable harvest for his Basilisk core later and stepped down to check the surviving old woman.
The woman, a wealthy merchant from Solace delivering luxury goods to the border, was sobbing in shock. "T-Thank you... oh gods, thank you...that demon killed everyone... if you hadn’t come..."
She moaned softly as a knight helped her up, weeping over her lost crew. "It’s my fault... I rushed them through the night to deliver the goods on time..." She looked at Iver with profound gratitude, bowing repeatedly. "Thank you, young master..."
Later that night, as the merchant was given medical aid and a spare horse by the knights, news of the encounter reached the central campfire.
Adela sat beside her father, sipping warm broth while surreptitiously glancing across the fire at Iver. He was sitting cross legged, chewing on roasted meat with an emotionless expression, completely indifferent to the hushed, respectful whispers of the guard knights.
"Is he... really that good?" Adela whispered to her father, her golden eyes wide. Baron Lucian chuckled softly, taking a sip of wine. "As expected of Leonard’s personal recommendation.
...
Four days later, the grand stone gates of Solace rose before them.
Iver looked out the carriage window as they entered the Imperial Capital. To him, it was far more vibrant than Nilheim, full of cleaner, more civilized people, neat stone houses, green fields, and noble carriages filling the paved roads.
The carriage eventually turned onto a private stone driveway, pulling up before a grand, sprawling estate surrounded by iron gates and botanical gardens. It was a massive, luxurious estate, far grander than anything Iver would have expected from a simple Baron.
Upon stepping out, they were welcomed by the estate’s staff. The head butler, an elderly man named Thomas, Before his duties officially began, Baron Lucian gathered the guards in the training yard.
"Ares," the Baron called out, standing on the observation balcony alongside Adela. "My head knight, Sir Vance, wishes to test your mettle in a friendly duel. Are you willing?"
Sir Vance, a tall, Tier 2 veteran warrior clad in full plate armor, stepped into the ring, holding a heavy wooden broadsword.
"Begin!"
Sir Vance lunged forward with impressive speed for a heavy knight, swinging a sweeping arc aimed at Iver’s flank.
Iver didn’t use flashy sword arts. He activated Basalt Skin, turning his forearm into hardened, dark stone to deflect the heavy wooden sword with a sharp CLANG! Sir Vance widened his eyes in surprise, immediately pressing the offensive with a flurry of strikes.
Iver played the defensive, dodging and deflecting using a combination of his stone skin and precise bursts of Fire Mastery to blast himself back from heavy strikes. To the onlookers, it seemed like a tight, high intensity duel between a skilled knight and a fire element prodigy.
Then, Iver ended it. As Sir Vance committed to a heavy overhead strike, Iver’s body suddenly blurred into thin air. Presence Erasure. Sir Vance’s sword hit empty dirt. Before the knight could turn around or raise his guard, he felt the cold, sharp edge of a steel blade pressing lightly against the side of his bare neck. Iver materialized directly behind him, his red eyes completely devoid of emotion.
Sir Vance swallowed hard, feeling the razor sharp edge against his skin, and slowly lowered his wooden sword. "I... I yield." From the balcony, Baron Lucian clapped enthusiastically. "Splendid! I honestly didn’t expect you to win so cleanly, Ares! Look after my daughter well when you both leave for the Radiant Academy."
The next morning, Baron Lucian instructed one of the head maids to take Iver into the capital’s high end district to get his clothes and official guard uniforms measured. As Iver stepped onto the porch, Adela rushed out, wearing a fine ruffled dress and holding a parasol.
"I-I’m tagging along!" Adela announced loudly, crossing her arms and turning her nose up in her signature. "Not because I want to hang out with you or anything! But as a noble of House Zephra, I need to make sure you understand the capital better so you don’t embarrass us!"
’Eek! Getting custom clothes together, touring the capital... is this... is this a date?! No, no, no! Adela, pull yourself together!’
For the next few hours, Adela led him through the bustling shopping districts of Solace, proudly showing off the city’s sights while trying to hide her enthusiasm. They eventually stopped at an upscale tea shop, enjoying tea and berry cake. Adela took a small bite of cake, leaning forward.
"So... where are you actually from, Ares? Do you have parents? And... what is your spirit animal?"
She, like the rest of the world, assumed he possessed a high tier Fire Spirit. Iver took a slow sip of his tea, his expression unreadable. He offered vague answers about his origins and death of his parents, but remained completely silent regarding his spirit animal, refusing to reveal a single detail. Adela pouted at his secrecy, but didn’t push further.
Late that evening, after returning to the estate, Iver laid flat on the luxurious feather bed in his private guest room. He stared up at the painted ceiling, his hands resting behind his head.
’This is going to be tiring’, Iver thought, a cold thread of calculation running through his mind. He knew that within the Radiant Academy and House Zephra, eyes would be watching him constantly. He couldn’t afford to let anyone discover his Basilisk core or his ability to steal and carve runes onto his spine.
’While I’m here’, Iver decided, letting his eyes close slowly into the dark, ’I’ll strictly stick to Fire Mastery, Basalt Skin, and Presence Erasure’. Once we step into the Radiant Academy... the real harvesting begins.
...
Common standard for regular knights and mercenary alike is tier 2, breaking to tier 3 means you manifest the spirit animal you had a ritual with at 10, but for that to happen, one needs to be in harmony with his spirit... like you need to acknowledge you are one with it and its not an external power, and it depends on luck anyway... Btw, they don’t say the name of their attacks out loud...