The Sword that Binds (Book of Worlds 1) (14 page)

Sarena let go of Tyrus’ power, sagging for the short moment before he flooded her with his power once again. He focused on the thread within her that he knew granted strength, as well as putting a fair amount into the thin red strand that he had first experimented with. Uckey said the weight it gave was a side effect of the toughness it granted her. Boosting two of her lesser attributes was the limit for Tyrus, taking all of his concentration to maintain. She would have to deal with the rock ogre using her own skill, with no benefits besides the strength and durability he could give her.

*****

S
arena felt an incredible strength rushing through her, followed by a sense of immense weight, as if every step she took could shake the world. Her boots sank down half an inch into the dirt road beneath her, and she felt like she could pull one of the fully grown trees out of the ground with her bare hands. Yet even with the assurances of that power, she wasn’t sure it would be enough to take down the monstrosity in front of her.

Standing nearly nine feet tall, with skin the color and texture of granite, the rock ogre stared at Sarena. Muscles bulged all over its body, which was displayed in all its glory for her to see, aside from a dirty and ripped loincloth. Its face was full of sharp angles, with two sharp fangs jutting up from its lower jaw. There wasn’t a strand of hair anywhere on its body, and in place of ears it just had two small holes. Even its eyes were tiny specks, feeling completely out of place on its massive frame.

As soon as the ogre saw Sarena standing in the road, it focused all of its rage and confusion on her and slowly charged, swinging its right fist at her as it did. Even without Tyrus’ help, Sarena was trained to be a warrior and easily side-stepped the ogre’s clumsy fist. She swung Tyrus down on its arm with a two-handed grip, smashing the blade into its elbow. A screeching sound erupted in her ears, followed by a feeling as if she had just struck a steel wall with her blade. She immediately jumped backwards, feeling a tug from Tyrus when she did so. The ground shook slightly when she landed several feet away, and shook even more at the howl of pain that the rock ogre gave afterward. Even with the resistance she had felt when she attacked, Tyrus had still managed to cut almost halfway through its arm, causing it to hang limply at its side.

It looked like the rock ogre wasn’t used to feeling pain as it clutched at its ruined arm while continuing to roar in pain and anger. Seconds later Sarena watched as its eyes gain a red tinge, and with a burst of speed she would never have expected from the beast, it launched itself forward and swung its left arm at her in the same manner it had before. Sarena was barely able to scramble out of its path and raise Tyrus up, but was caught unaware when, as soon as it missed with its lunge, a solid leg shot toward her and landed a direct hit in her stomach. She felt a dull impact where it hit, followed by a burst of pain as she was lifted off the ground and flung backwards several feet from the blow.

Her eyes were somewhat blurry when she looked up and saw the ogre bearing down on her again, arm outstretched in an obvious attempt to grab her. Fighting off the pain from being struck, Sarena rolled as quickly as she could to the side, seeing the ogre’s arm crash into the ground where she had lain before. She jumped forward from a crouch towards the side of the creature, extending Tyrus forward in an attempt to skewer it. Since it was impossible to cut its arm off even with her full strength, Sarena knew her best chance was with to stab it.

The rock ogre hadn’t been expecting Sarena to actually dodge its grab, and was slow to recover. Tyrus stabbed deeply into its side, directly into its armpit. Sarena could feel it was a fatal blow, but it would take some time for it to weaken. She pulled on Tyrus, expecting him to slide out of the creature, but instead she found that he was stuck fast. With a pain filled howl the rock ogre staggered back to its full height, tearing Tyrus from her grip. Sarena stumbled backwards as the power within her suddenly left, causing her to trip and fall. She watched in horror, unable to lift even a finger as the ogre took an unsteady step toward her, Tyrus sticking out of its side, dark brown blood leaking heavily from its wounded arm. Ever so slowly it reached her, looming over her with its beady red eyes. Time stretched as she waited for the blow to land. All it had to do was fall forward to crush her.

A rushing sound filled her ears as a dark red blur flashed past, smashing into the chest of the ogre with a great cracking noise. Time rushed back to its normal speed as Sarena saw Uckey bounce backwards from his abruptly ended charge, his left horn shattered and left with only half of its length. The monstrosity staggered back from the impact, another great howl escaping from its lips as it lost its tenuous balance. Sarena could feel the earth tremble beneath her as the stony creature crashed to the ground, weakly struggling to rise for a few moments before falling still.

“That was the most foolish battle I have ever seen!” Uckey shouted to Sarena as he used his head to shove her towards the blade protruding from the ogre. “What possessed you to actually stab the thing? You had to have known you wouldn’t be able to pull it out afterward! What if you hadn’t landed a fatal blow?”

Sarena could only silently endure the ungraceful handling from the glow horse, her mind becoming increasingly fuzzy the longer she was separated from Tyrus. It wasn’t until she had been unceremoniously rolled within an arm’s length of the hilt that she suddenly felt power rushing back into herself, her mind clearing and able to comprehend what Uckey had been yelling.

“I couldn’t even cut its arm off with my full strength. How else was I supposed to kill it?” Sarena asked as she grabbed Tyrus, feeling strength surging through her body once again. She placed one boot on the fallen ogre’s side and pulled with all of her strength. The blade finally started to pull free after a few moments of struggle.

“We could have just run,” Tyrus said. “It’s not like it could have caught us. Even Uckey could have just run past it easily enough. The big lug probably couldn’t move faster than a walk.”

Sarena could feel blood rushing to her face as Tyrus spoke, realizing he was right. The thought of retreat had never entered her mind. Battle lust had taken over everything.

“Look at my horn! Completely shattered! I don’t even know if it will grow back!” Uckey complained.

Sarena lowered her head. “I’m sorry. I...” Her voice trailed off.

Silence followed while Sarena seated herself on Uckey’s back. None of them suggested finding Ropal and telling him the way was clear. Explaining how she was able to defeat a rock ogre would have been too much trouble.

“It wasn’t all a loss at least,” Uckey said. “I wasn’t expecting you to even be able to hurt it. Even in my prime I would choose to go around a rock ogre instead of facing it head on. To be able to kill it using converted pure mana is an incredible feat. The conversion process leaves you with only around a tenth of the original power that Tyrus has.”

“So Tyrus is strong. We already knew that much,” Sarena said.

“Not just strong!” Uckey exclaimed. “I couldn’t wield even a quarter of the power you have, Tyrus. Even after converting your mana you could match a Highmage in strength. That kind of power was practically unheard of, even in my time.”

“I thought my mana was only converted when Sarena draws on it herself,” Tyrus said.

“No, no, it is always converted when you transfer it. Pure mana is almost never used to directly affect the physical world. It requires tremendous amounts of power to do anything, which is why it took you several days to recover after using Sarena’s stone magic just once. Internal magic isn’t nearly as draining for a mana mage, but it still requires you to convert your mana into an element that will enhance her,” Uckey explained.

“Let’s go Uckey,” Sarena said, impatiently. “This ogre smells worse than a latrine. I don’t want to spend any more time here than we have to.”

“Not yet! Get down there and cut into the area right below the back of its skull,” Uckey said. “A creature of this strength should have a core there.”

“What?” Sarena asked in confusion.

“A core! Monsters with a strong affinity to an element have one form at the base of their skull. Mana mages are able to use them to enchant objects. They don’t last forever like a bound elemental does, but the power in them is enough to go on for a few generations at least. Some of the more powerful ones can last thousands of years even!” Uckey said. “Once Tyrus is free from his enchantment he should be able to make a new sword for you with it. Obviously not as strong as he is, but it will better than a common weapon.”

Sarena scrunched her nose in disgust as she leaped down from Uckey’s back. She reached down to the rock ogre and braced herself before lifting with a great heave, using all of her strength to roll the dead weight onto its side. More blood leaked from the wound on its side as she did so, releasing an even more pungent aroma into the air. If Sarena hadn’t already experienced the same smell from the blue beast in the forest she would have been gagging by the side of the road.

Without wasting any time, she thrust Tyrus into the nape of the ogre’s thick neck. The blade only penetrated half an inch before she felt it strike something even harder than the ogre’s skin. That must have been the core that Uckey was talking about, and within just a few moments of work she was able to pry it loose. A ruddy brown orb the size of her thumbnail fell to the ground before her, covered in the sticky blood of the ogre. When she saw it appear it jogged her memory of what she had found in the blue beast before.

“Wait, didn’t we find one of these in the Godwoods before, Tyrus?” Sarena asked.

“I think so, it has a similar feel to the one we found. Although this one is much more clear feeling,” Tyrus said.

Sarena used some water from her roughly made skin to wash off the blood from the orb, then reached into the pack she had made and pulled out the clear orb they had found within the blue beast.

“Uckey, is this one of those cores too? We found it inside of the creature that gave us all of this fur. Tyrus couldn’t figure out what it was, but we decided to keep it anyways,” Sarena said.

Uckey looked carefully at the crystal-like orb in Sarena’s hand, “Yes! By Nurazor, that’s an actual time core! I didn’t think they existed!”

“Does this mean Tyrus will be able to make an even stronger weapon for me?” Sarena asked excitedly.

“I have no idea!” Uckey replied. “Nobody has ever found a time core before, so I can’t tell you what powers it would grant to the object it enchants. For all I know it won’t do anything at all. Theoretically that core shouldn’t exist at all. Only creatures with a strong affinity for an element will create a core, and the only being that can even use time magic is Ankaros. There’s no telling what a weapon made with a time core in it will do.”

After putting the cores into the pack and washing her hands of blood, Sarena jumped onto Uckey’s back again. The trio set off to the north again, Sarena’s blunder with the ogre already forgotten in her own mind.

“I
’ve done it!” Sarena exclaimed, interrupting Uckey and Tyrus’ arguing.

Both of them had been at odds for the past five days since Sarena had killed the rock ogre. Usually they spoke silently to each other to let Sarena focus on the gateway, but occasionally they would forget themselves and she would hear snippets of their conversation. Most of the time it was Uckey complaining about his broken horn or the lack of ale, but sometimes the matter would be more serious. At one point she had overheard Tyrus trying to argue about expanding channels, and Uckey had seemed livid about the subject. She didn’t really understand it - although it sounded familiar for some reason - and decided it was best to leave it alone.

All of that was forgotten in the face of what Sarena had just done. The gateway she had been so fervently trying to find and breakthrough for days had finally been conquered. Almost as soon as she spoke, she gasped as she felt the inner core of Tyrus. Her eyes were closed as she had focused inward in her search, and her mind was barely able to conceive what she had encountered. A massive ball of brilliant golden light filled her mind, overwhelming everything. Wisps of blue power would rise up and wind around it lazily before entering back into the ball. A deep thrumming sound pulsed all around her as she was mesmerized by the sight, causing her to lose track of her surroundings.

A faint whispering sound wriggled its way into her mind, interrupting her from the trance she had entered.

“Sarena! Wake up!” Tyrus’ insistent voice finally broke through the cloud in her mind, causing her concentration to fumble and abruptly pulled her back to the real world.

Her eyes snapped open as she gasped. Her lungs felt empty, starving for air, while her body had fallen forward and hung limply on Uckey’s back. After a brief struggle to gain control of her tingling limbs again, Sarena managed to sit up and finally regain full awareness.

“What just happened?” She asked.

“You let yourself get trapped by Tyrus’ core! I should have known that this would happen,” Uckey said. “Normally entering a trance like that is fine for a mage, as long as they don’t completely neglect their body by not eating and drinking. But your spirit must have almost entirely entered Tyrus when you passed through the gateway! You were only gone for a minute, but your body can’t survive for much longer than that without you.”

“Aren’t you the one who told me I need to find his core though? Why didn’t you warn me that would happen! What if Tyrus hadn’t been able to pull me out of that trance!” Sarena could feel her temper rise as she realized how close to death she had come.

“It wasn’t his fault, Sarena,” Tyrus interjected quietly to Sarena. “He didn’t know that would happen. As smart as he thinks he is, Uckey can’t predict everything.”

Sarena could feel her face turning red in frustration as she tried to calm herself. Uckey constantly aggravated her with his half-explained manipulations, risking hers and Tyrus’ life whenever necessary to satisfy his research. But she couldn’t do anything about it. Without him they would have no way to find the grimoire, and he was the only one that had any knowledge about the bond they had created - at least as far as they knew. She was tired of having her fate decided for her. Tyrus didn’t seem to mind that much, but he also didn’t have to deal with having his entire life decided for him from the moment he was born.