[Severed Divinity] 65. Steady Gains

Classes remained engaging, though sometimes Isen found his attention drifting to more important matters than his well-rounded, elven education.

Freyan and Arthum had walked on metaphorical eggshells around him the entire day. When they all walked over to the cultivation lesson, Isen decided to apologize. “I’m sorry if I worried you both, but it really wasn’t a big deal.”

“We tore into your room and saw you half-collapsed and covered in blood,” Arthum stated, crossing his arms.

“Little scrapes,” Isen said. “It did rattle me a bit, but that’s all.”

The two half elves looked like they wanted to say more, but they held back. When they arrived at the main ring, Jorin sent Isen over to Meridia to learn additional shadow techniques and flow through the Femera sequences with the tier ones.

When Meridia handed him a paper with the shadow step technique, he struggled to contain his excitement. Shadow cloak was cool, and shadow fist had obvious utility, but shadow step was still his favorite after seeing Freyan’s demonstration.

Shadow step was more similar to shadow fist than the other techniques, but had its own unique pattern Isen needed to learn. He held his shins, focusing on the flow of energy through his meridians. It almost reminded him of a slipknot, the energy weaving in on itself.

He sensed Jorin’s approach. The other cultivator sat next to him on the dusty ground. “Isen, can you explain what it’s like to flow energy through your meridians?”

He had the distinct sense that Jorin was simply curious. “First, I draw the energy in. Then I send it into my hollow core, where it passes through my rings. From there, it shoots off into my meridians. As for the flow of energy... It’s easy to think of it like water, slipping out of your grasp when you try to control it.”

“Indeed.”

“That’s how I thought of it at first. Then I started to think of it as something I could hold, that would wind all throughout my body. A—” he frowned. “Water snake?” He’d been inspired by one of the monsters he’d fought on the shores of the radiant lake while learning his energy ball technique. It had been long and slippery, almost like a cross between a fish, snake, and a worm. Hideous, too, but most of the ugly had been contained to his mottled head. Ros had called it an eel.

“You envision the energy you cycle as a living creature?” Jorin asked, sounding slightly incredulous.

“It’s just how I think of the energy,” Isen said, “flowing like a beast, rather than crashing around in chaos.”

“Is that really sufficient to capture all the undulations of energy in a single technique?”

“Of course not,” Isen said. “That’s why I envision multiple. Lots of little water snakes, coiling around one another, sometimes merging together, other times splitting apart.”

“Thinking of energy like that is unusual. I’ll need to ponder on it.”

“How do you do it?” Isen wondered. Jorin had said that he and Isen had the same control over energy, at least according to the clan’s assessment.

He huffed. “I think of thread and needle,” Jorin said. “The needle leads, the thread follows. I always lose some energy from the thread the longer the technique’s pattern of flow. With yours, what kind of loss do you experience?”

“Energy always comes off them when they travel through my meridians, though that’s normal, I think. It tempers my body.”

“Similar to mine, then,” Jorin murmured. “Hmm. Thank you for enlightening me.”

He muttered something indecipherable under his breath as he returned to Freyan and Arthum.

Isen figured out shadow step ten minutes later.

Technique recognized: Augmented movement. Aspect: Shadow.

Dark energy coated his legs like boots. He looked up, but nobody seemed to have noticed. He took a deep breath, then stepped forward.

He nearly tripped as the world shot past. Disoriented, he realized he’d traveled about two feet forward. Not exactly impressive, but it was a start.

He did it again, and nearly puked, his core depleted.

He quickly learned shadow step’s one unfortunate truth.

It looked way cooler than it felt.

***

After the lesson, Isen restored his energy in the cultivation cave. By now, the other tier twos in the D-rank chambers were used to him, though they still gave him curious looks. It was honestly distracting, though he tried not to feel self-conscious. Their attention was irrelevant once he slipped into the groove, the world falling away.

With his energy largely recovered, he returned to the archery range. A few minutes into practice, Julra appeared behind him.

“Don’t you have more important things to do than help me?” Isen asked after releasing a shot at the mid-distance target. Bullseye.

Julra gave him a sidelong look. “Keep your elbow up,” he chided.

At the bell’s next tolling, Isen took a break. “I’ve never seen you fire an arrow,” he said.

Julra raised an eyebrow. “Are you asking for a demonstration?” He chuckled and ducked out of Isen’s section, returning with a massive recurve bow a few handspans taller than Isen’s. It was incredibly ornate with multiple visible enchantments. It shimmered like a half-manifested shadow cloak.

He grasped the bow and nocked an arrow. The string was like a thread of shadow, dark gray and difficult to see in the practice alcove. When the mundane arrow pressed to the string, a shadowy shimmer encompassed it, turning it translucent.

Eyes wide, Isen watched as Julra aimed, muscles in his back, shoulders, and arms rippling, and let the arrow fly. Isen could tell that Julra hadn’t added any of his own energy to the release.

It soared to the furthest target and sank deep into its center.

“Isn’t it hard to aim with only one eye?” Isen wondered.

“Takes practice,” Julra said.

“What does the shadowy magic do to the arrow?”

Julra’s lips cracked into a smile. He brought an arrow to the bowstring, pressing its shaft to the mystical sinew. “Come see for yourself.”

Isen caressed the arrow, his fingers running over the feather fletching. It felt like a normal arrow. The main difference seemed to be its appearance. Maybe if Julra actively engaged the enchantment, he could make the arrows invisible for a time, before the energy dissipated. Like a shadow cloak.

“Shadow aspected energy isn’t explosive. It’s tricky, and you have to be smart how you use it. But it can have a few interesting effects.”

Isen saw the ambient energy move around the bow, drawn in by the enchantment. Suddenly, the arrow slipped through his fingers. Julra was ready for it and clamped the arrow to the bowstring with a finger.

“Shadows are intangible, transient,” Julra explained. “It’s very difficult for a person to turn themselves intangible, but objects of small mass, like an arrow, are easier. The effect only lasts for a moment, but that’s all you need.” Julra nocked the arrow and aimed it at the closest target through the edge of the alcove, which was made of solid wooden boards. He released it, and the arrow flew straight through the wood, sinking into the close target.

Julra was correct that intangibility only lasted for the briefest instant, but even that had enormous utility. He could shoot through walls, or even other people. Isen could imagine Julra standing behind a defensive line and not needing to worry about friendly fire.

He nocked another arrow. “I can also opt for invisibility. That effect clings better, lasting a full second.” When he fired at the furthest target again, the arrow was impossible to see. The arrow Julra had shot earlier split in half. A moment later, Julra’s new arrow appeared, the culprit behind the other arrow’s destruction.

“Can I do that?” Isen asked. He looked down at his bow. It didn’t have shadow enchantments and Isen doubted it would be possible to add them.

“In time,” Julra said. “This bow enhances the effects of my own shadow energy, allowing me to fire more arrows, faster. The enchantments aren’t necessary on their own.”

“Can I try one of the techniques now?” Isen asked, eyes wide and pleading. The techniques seemed to be extensions of the basic shadow cloak.

Julra leaned his bow against the wall and gave Isen a thoughtful look. “Show me your shadow cloak.”

Isen grinned. He was right about the connection. He took in a breath—

“Stop,” Julra interrupted. “Hasn’t anyone told you off about breathing so obviously?”

Isen blinked. “... No.”

“It’s important not to develop bad habits,” Julra continued. “Against unintelligent monsters, how you breathe is unimportant. Against intelligent races, however... Well, any clue you give to your opponents can be used against you.”

“What about when firing the bow?” So far, Isen had always breathed deliberately when firing, in accordance with Julra’s teachings.

Julra cocked his head. “Did you notice me breathing when I fired these arrows?”

Isen realized he hadn’t. He shook his head.

“You’re just starting with the bow, so breathing obviously is okay for now. With cultivation, for you to be a tier two, you must have been at it for a while. You shouldn’t need to breathe so audibly—it’s a crutch.”

“Let me try again,” Isen said. He breathed normally, though focused on inhaling the mist. He realized with a start that Ros almost never deliberately drew in larger breaths, even when cycling.

He suddenly understood what Julra meant when he said breathing was a crutch. Breathing to fill his lungs needn’t be coupled with inhaling the energy into his hollow core. He tried to suck in energy, but it felt counterintuitive after a year of always breathing to take in the mist.

“I see your point,” Isen said. “For now, I’m going to do it the way I’m used to. But I’ll do better next time.”

Julra nodded. “Just so you know.”

Isen took in a deep breath and focused on how it felt to draw in the energy. He cycled it through his body and shadow cloak manifested on his shoulders, wrapping around his body. He’d been practicing it, so while it still wasn’t close to Jorin’s in quality, it covered him in a fairly uniform manner, turning him nearly transparent.

“How long can you hold that?” Julra asked.

“Twenty seconds,” Isen said.

“That’s enough then,” the archer replied. Isen released the technique. Julra grabbed an arrow. “Now, watch carefully. Let’s see if you’re as good of a student in cultivation as you are in archery.”