Dominic watched two blue dots move ever so subtly in the distance, their images plastered over the scrapper. He fought the desire to shift the shape of his Sense to cover the building. His other responsibilities took priority. The men around him could relax because they knew he would give them warning of any impending danger. So, as his mind delved into his Sense, his eyes followed the only indicators he had of his friend’s status.

  “Still white,” Dominic answered as he sensed Seth’s head tilt slightly towards him. A slight nod was the only indication Seth gave that he heard, though his head continued to hang as if asking for more information.

  “Given the two dots have started their downward movement it is likely we will be able to enter.”

  With that Seth’s head turned back to the men before him, his body moved subtly on the balls of his feet.

  The men were speaking and laughing, their words too quiet to reach Dominic as he watched over the blue dots. If he struggled, he could probably Sense what they were saying. That would take most of his focus, however, and leave the camp at risk so he let it go. Still, Dominic wondered how they could be so jovial in their position. Was it ignorance, indifference, or a sense of submitting to fate?

  Their bodies were being slowly altered as the Eather took hold. Sure, it would take months before the poisoning would become untreatable and most soldiers lived well after four years of service. That didn’t mean there wouldn’t be those who wouldn’t succumb to the poisoning. He’s heard of many cases when he was in the academy.

  The poisoning wasn’t anything to scoff at either. Most of the time the person died of growths that formed on or inside their body. Those were the lucky ones. Dominic’s thoughts moved to the incidents he read about in his studies. A man whose body suddenly burst into flames; his screams heard for an hour before someone finally killed him. Then there was the woman they kept alive for a few years in a tub as her body would slowly expel any liquid inside of it. She eventually took her own life.

  Dominic forced his mind off that subject afraid of the pictures he would drudge up. Instead he moved his thoughts back to the soldiers’ jovial nature and lack of apparent fear. It wasn’t something he could quite grasp given the Eather wasn’t dangerous to him and in fact made him stronger. As such he was oddly more comfortable on this walk than then he would be on a jaunt through the main square.

  That wasn’t to say he would prefer to live in the fog. While he’d considered being a mist monk once, he has come to understand that life wouldn’t be for him. There was too much in the shell he had come to prefer, such as food and housing.

  “Trouble,” Dominic said as his subconscious pulled him from his musings. Chalk up another reason to live in a shell. He thought as his body began to move into a fighting stance.

  “What floor?” Seth asked as he turned towards the scrapper. The man’s body was in motion the next second leaping down the hill.

  “Huh,” Dominic mumbled as it took a few seconds for his brain to catch up. “Wrong way, the trouble’s on us.” He yelled down the hill. Seth's body pivoted on his front foot in the next instant. Dominic turned away to face the other side of the hill though he could still sense the gaze the man gave him.

  “Two beasts from behind,” Dominic began to clarify as he Sensed for more information. All the while his own body was in motion to get out in front. He was the Shield; he would act as such. “

  Rearrbs, One six years, and one four years.” He continued as he understood the information.

  “Support position Alpha,” John ordered as soon as Dominic finished his description. “You’ve all fought these before, nothing to be concerned over.” Instantly a few of the soldiers acted, drawing the rest into motion. Soon there were two groups of five in a wedge formation. In the center of each wedge was their Sargent ready to give orders.

  Scale. Dominic pulled out his blade and steel kite shield as a thin blue flim began to form upon his body. He took mental note of his current eatherial reserves before he focused on the two presences racing towards him. With eighty percent Eather at his grasp there was no reason not to go all out. Dominic let out a sigh and reigned himself back in. These beasts weren’t much of a threat, as most squads of soldiers could easily kill a few by themselves. There is more of a risk of their commotion drawing a bigger threat than for someone to get hurt by one of these beasts.

  Soon his HUD picked up the beasts and translucent red dots formed in his vision. The beasts darted towards the hill, the grass in their wake barely registering the movement. Dominic pulled back his sword and waited, his shield before him. His eyes watched the dots looking for any pattern in their movement.

  A large beast launched out of the grass a hundred or so paces downhill, its shape very similar to the Cascadian breed of rabbits, though its tail was longer like that of a dog or rat. The dot above it slowly bleed into an outline of the beast a second before it landed. It wouldn’t be long before they closed the distance, even uphill. As if to prove himself right Dominic launched forward with his sword only after a few more seconds.

  The sword sliced the top of the grass as it moved out in its arch. The tip of his blade cut shallowly into the rearrb’s underbelly as it had launched itself into the air an instant before Dominic’s blade closed in. Out of reflex he brought his shield up to protect his face. The beast kicked and clawed at the chunk of metal before it was again in the air. Dominic spun ready to deal with the beast’s next attack.

  To his surprise the two beasts landed and tore off into opposing directions.

  “Fog,” He heard Hank yell, and his mind soon came to the same conclusion.

  “Foggin, downhill.” Dominic yelled as he spun, his eyes scanned the ground. He let his body flow into a battle state as he put all his focus into his Sense.

  “There,” he mumbled right as the reptilian head crashed against him. Years of training was all that drove him to place the shield between himself and the threat.

  “Racer, age twenty-two.” Was all he could get out as the creature’s massive jaw wrapped around his shield and whipped it into the air. Dominic flexed his left hand as he was dragged along with the piece of equipment. An instant later the shield freed itself from his arm and sent him into an upwards arc. A crash and roll later saw Dominic landing back on his feet, sword out to his side.

  Dominic charged, closing the gap. In response the racer flexed its jaw, shattering the shield in its maw. All the while it lifted its body revealing its tall snake-like frame. The brown and green scales of the beast shown with a metallic luster and the red dot formed into an outline of the foe. The beast’s eyes met Dominic’s and for a moment it almost felt as if it was questioning his presence. The pause only lasted for an instant before the beast hissed and struck.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Mist. Dominic thought, anticipating what was to come. He felt his eather drain as a type of steam burst out into an expanding dome around him. At the same time a thick blue film grew on the bottom of his outstretched foot. Once it landed, he propelled himself into a slide, increasing his speed by a significant margin. He kept his eye on the body as he felt the racer’s head propelling itself towards him. The head slowed as it hit the fog, though not nearly enough for Dominic’s comfort. As such Dominic shifted his weight to his other foot as if skating on the downhill slope. The increase in momentum brought him just ahead of the crushing maw.

  An explosion of dirt and grass flew as the creature’s head collided just behind Dominic’s skating body. Dominic twisted his weight enough to close in on the beast to strike. He held out his blade arm and applied as much pressure as could, dragging the blade along the racer’s shiny scales. Sparks flew as a mid-sized gouge was etched along its underside.

  A pained roar echoed a moment before Dominic jumped. The creature’s tail having lashed out to crush the being that dared hurt it. Fortunately for Dominic the steam like mist slowed the appendage enough for him to easily clear the hurdle. As he landed, he pivoted to sidestep the crushing force of the follow up tail blow.

  Unfortunately Sense or not he wasn’t able to dodge the next flick of the tail. Blue scales cracked under the force with a few completely shattering. A grunt left Dominic’s mouth as he was once again flung into the air. Dominic hit and let himself roll. He followed the motion through which brought him up into a standing crouch.

  “I know I’m injured.” He said as he muted the blinking of the paperman, most of the chest having gone yellow. “Don’t need you to tell me that.” He continued through gritted teeth.

  The creature moved steadily towards him, clearly angered at the injury it sustained. That worked well for Dominic as he wanted to keep it focused on him. The beast rose up into the air preparing once again for a strike.

  “Come on,” Dominic taunted, having mostly recovered from the earlier attack. He moved the eather inside his body preparing for another mist. “Can’t you be more original in your attacks.”

  Suddenly the red outline of the creature began to flash. “Fog, I was just joking.” For the life of him he couldn’t remember what it was that racers gained at the age of ten. Whatever it was, it was best he be moving.

  Given his men now flanked the creature he only had one direction to run, uphill. As he turned, Grass Breath popped into his mind and he was only more confused.

  “What is Grass Breath?” He asked himself as the flashing red in his HUD stopped. The next instant the racer let out a hiss and tens if not hundreds of tiny steel-like blades of grass materialized in the air.

  “Not good,” he yelled as he picked up his pace. The blades of grass pounded into the dirt behind him as if shot out of a bow. Try as he might he just couldn’t outpace the breath and in the next instant he was knocked to the ground, the scales on his body cracking under the strain. Mist. With no other choice he released the skill he had prepared earlier in the fight.

  The steam erupted out and slowed the grass. Hopefully it will be enough. Dominic thought as he watched his eatherial reserves drain rapidly doing everything it could to repair his damaged armor. 38, 36, 30, 27, 20. He didn’t know how long the breath would last, but he knew couldn’t stay here letting the beast get in free shots.

  Dominic launched himself into a roll breaking most of the grass blades free, though a few caused more cuts along the way. He stopped on his knees and prepared to dive once the need arose. The next thing he saw, however, was the creature’s head as it fell to the ground in an explosion of fire. He didn’t need to wait for the smoke to clear to Sense the few spears pierced into its side nor the friend jumping off its head. A second later the outline of the creature faded signifying it’s death.

  “Clear,” Dominic shouted as Seth walked out of the smoke. Cheers erupted from the soldiers around them, most of whom were still on edge.

  “Not a bad way to pass time,” Seth said as he patted Dominic on the shoulder. “Let’s see if Bethany and Tylor are back.”

  Dominic let out a sigh as he halted his battle state. Once again, the lethargic feeling flooded his body. He was just glad that the area had grown to low orange, increasing his Eatheral recovery by just a bit more. Still, a smile graced his face as he followed Seth.

  “Sorry,” Dominic said as he paused next to Seth on the crest of the hill. Seth turned to him, confusion in his eyes for a moment before comprehension hit him.

  “It was my fault as well,” Seth answered as his gaze shifted back towards the returning knights, half a naut away at the base of the hill. “We need to come up with short phrases so that we understand each other better in the future. Trouble, while quick, doesn't give much information.”

  “Agreed, I will try to be much clearer in the future.” Dominic answered. He knew that fight would’ve been a lot easier had Seth not ran the wrong way in the beginning. By the time the fight began the knight was out of position and had to play catch up.

  “Just remember Vistan’s words.” Seth answered. “A mistake you can walk away from is a lesson you can learn from.”

  “And an injury healed is a lesson learned.” Dominic answered by finishing one of the famous man’s sayings. “You know I always thought he could make them a bit catchier, or at least have it rhyme.”

  “You remembered them well enough.” Seth retorted and Dominic found himself chuckling with his friend at that moment. The stress has finally passed them by.

  “Only because he made them extra credit questions on tests.” Dominic said through his light laughing.

  “If by extra credit you mean no extra conditioning.” Seth said through his own laughter. Memories of hours spent in hellish conditioning sessions filled Dominic’s mind. “Not that it did much good, we still saw our share of practice for one reason or another.”

  “And who's to blame for that,” Dominic answered. “Honestly, I think you just enjoyed the punishment. I know you still do the dichava every other morning.” As he said those words, he felt his Eatheral reserves finally peak over half freeing him up to send out his Sense father then a few tens of paces.

  “It does a body good,” Seth answered as he started to stretch. “You really should join me more often than you do.”

  “Twice a week is enough for me at the moment.” Dominic stated as he nodded his head behind them. The two turned towards the captain who was making his way up the hill.

  “At least the men are a bit more relaxed.” Captain Prescott said with a nod of his head. The two students turned towards the racer and smiled as they saw the soldiers preparing their kill. “Are you sure you want none of it? It was mostly your work.”

  “Nah,” Seth answered, his perfectionist attitude having slipped. “Let them enjoy their profits. We’re still considered students so we would get no money from the mats, only points towards our grade. As we’re already considered honor students by a fair margin it would have little benefit to us.”

  Prescott turned towards Dominic as if asking if he agreed. “As Seth said, it’s not like we would take first from that kill. I am not even sure if it would be enough to raise any of our standings.” Dominic answered honestly. “For those men, it would at least buy them a drink or two.”

  “Probably more than that,” Prescott answered. “Racer hide is in high demand for scale armor. I bet each one of them will walk home having sold it for more than a month’s earnings.”

  “All the more reason to let them have it. Far more valuable to them than us.” Dominic replied.

  “I see you had all the fun without us!” Bethany yelled from down the hill.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Dominic answered. “You guys got to do the whole stealth thing.”

  “Take it down a notch you two, don’t want to attract any more fun than we have too. We will talk when you’ve made it up the hill.” Seth ordered putting an end to the lightened mood.