PreCursive

  I found Venix waiting for me exactly where he said he would. The inn had a small practice yard behind it. I’d eve a few times for some basic practice, with or without my panions.

  He was standing patiently in the middle of it, his four arms crossed and his eyes closed. It didn’t look like the Antium man had moved an in hours, with how still he was. I couldn’t even really see his chest rise and fall from breathing.

  It was still dark out, as Tarus had yet to cross the horizon. But I could tell, just by the slightest fluctuations in enviroal Aether, that his physical form was ing soon. Out here, it acked with people who had e to watch the show. They lined both the deck that overlooked the small yard, as well as the baly above, sitting cross-legged patiently while they were teo by the staff. It looked to me like most of the residents and guests were taking this duel as m eai.

  That included my other panions.

  The three of them were waiting just ihe building by the door leading outside. None of them spoke, seemingly unwilling to break the patient silehat filled the atmosphere. Azarus ied my minimally equipped form and sounded a grunt that sounded vaguely approving before he cpped my shoulder. Renauld, meanwhile, gave me ahusiastic thumbs up.

  Liora just rolled her eyes but still gave me a nod in aowledgment.

  None of them attempted to stop me.

  This, I think, was just part of Veredenese culture. In a society in which personal strength mattered so much, duels were a very accepted method of resolving flict between people.

  All of them moved to join the crowd, as I stepped off of the veranda and onto the dirt of the practice yard. As soon as my feet thumped onto the earth, Venix opened his eyes and fixed them on me. Slowly, his arms lowered from their crossed positions. One of his upper arms reached up and removed his hat, slinging it beyoo the waiting crowd. I didn’t blink as the spinning bamboo hate whizzed past me, but I did hear it impact a palm.

  “Alrigh’ then,” I heard Azarus say, nonplussed, but I didn't look at my friend. I just kept my eyes locked on Venix’s as I sloroached him. Eventually, I stopped about te away from the Antium man.

  The world was silent around us for a moment, the only sound that of bamboo chimes gently rattling in the wind, hanging from the deck.

  Venix broke the silence first, in his usual manner.

  “Mountains tremble still,

  Beh scales, old winds linger-

  Turn back from the storm.”

  A frown grew on my face, and I shook my head sharply. “No,” I said simply. “I will not. You, more than most, know what this ce means to me.”

  Venix hen aed two of his hands on two of his four bdes. I noticed that he wasn’t actually wearing all four of them at the moment, only the two that his chitinous hands rested on. A spike of irritatio over me at the observation. Was I not good enough to face him, when the swordsman was using all of his bdes? I squashed that thought, though. It was useless.

  Instead, I copied him, resting one hand on the hilt of Terractus. It wasn’t my preferred on, but I wao meet the Antium man in his own field of specialization.

  Sword to sword.

  “If you will not listen to pleas,” Venix said uedly. “Then perhaps you will listen to reason. Gorenzan has taken the lives of warriors whreater thah of us. This includes my own former master.”

  My brow furrowed at the ued segway, as I heard an almost excited murmur arise in the background.

  “In much the same way that you were taken as apprentice by the Shadowed Sun,” He tinued, causing another brief stir from the watg crowd. “I, too, was taken in by a much greater warrior, upon my ing to these isles. By a man of firm vi and eveer might, known to this nd as Gozen of the Twin Fangs.”

  That caused a greater rea from our onlookers. ht whispers broke out all around us, as shock paihe faces of those I could see. Some of them ht bowed from their sitting positions, at the sound of that name.

  I blinked, knocked out of my serious mien by that.

  Venix didn’t stop speaking, unbothered by the rea to his annou. “I was freshly exiled to this phose decades ago, an asset unneeded by the Hive. Upon my arrival to Vereden within the walls of Elderwyck, I blindly stumbled onto the first boat that would take me. I ended up here, in Hinaga. On the rain-slicked day of my arrival, my master saved me from an ignoble death iters. I was ready to simply drown in them, before his outstretched hand found mine. I devoted myself to him, pletely, from that moment on. I served him faithfully for many, many years, eventually finding worth in the bde he taught me.”

  “And then I failed him when he needed me most.”

  The yard went silent, then.

  Venix finally broke eye tact with me, looking up at the sky. The horizon was only just starting to shift colors, but the green period had yet to e.

  “I served Gozen for over a decade, ever faithful. First as his student, and then as a full samurai, part of his cohort. And then the Imperial court called for a Ryūmetsu Matsuri. Tatsugan was on the brink of reag his apex and thus o be culled. My master immediately volunteered to be part of the force that would sy the wyrm, and I followed with him. I will not,” He said firmly, looking back down to pierce me with an uedly fierce look. “Describe the battles that followed. I will not speak for my brothers that fell that day. To do so would dishonor them. I will say this. Wheime came to sy Tatsugan, my master led the charge. I was injured by that time, and could not fight at his side. Shamefully, I could only watch as my master gave his life selflessly to sy the wyrm. I survived, my honor forever tainted by my inability to follow him into death’s embrace. Upon our return to Hinaga, I petitiohe Emperor for the right to follow him, so I may atone for my failure. I was denied.”

  My mouth opened slightly in shock at his words. If…I uood him right, then Venix was saying he had wao…

  I took a deep breath, suddenly finding it difficult to meet the stoic gaze of the Antium man.

  Venix sighed heavily then. “I wandered for years after that, a ronin without a master to call my own. My bde had no will behind it, no cause to call its own. Until eventually, one day, I found myself ba Hinaga. I inteo petition the court once more, but there was a curious ti being hosted as guests. The Academy of Mystic Arts had e calling, and Grey of the Shadowed Sun was in attendance. He listeo my shameful plea to the Emperor and interjected. He would take my life for his own if I had no further use for it. If I could not muster the will to use my bde for the good of Kawamara, he told me, then it would serve all of Vereden instead. Lost, I saw my master within the Shadowed Sun and took his hand in much the same manner. I have served him ever since.”

  The practice yard grew silent, then, as Venix finished his speech. To my surprise, I thought I heard weeping from some of the onlookers in attendance. Risking a gnce over my shoulder, I was surprised to see it was ing from the heckler from st night, the man Lady Saeko had called Yorinobu. Even the proprietress herself was dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief.

  I took a deep breath then and turned back around to meet the firm gaze of Venix. “I…see,” I said slowly.

  “Perhaps,” Venix said, ining his head. “Perhaps not. But do you see this? Why I do not wish for you to veo that den of evil? My master was a near legendary figure in Kawamara, even before his feat in sying the test ination of Tatsugan. He neared Grey’s own might and was sidered a possible didate for Paragon. A, he fell before the wyrm all the same. The danger for us…it is simply too great. Turn back from this path, Nathaniel Hart.”

  I was silent for a moment….

  Before I firmly shook my head.

  “My will has not ged,” I said with finality. “Nor have my iions, despite the tragedies you speak of. I ot be dissuaded. The wyrm is not at full strength, even if he has returhe dangers are not too great for us to brave together. e with us, Venix,” I said, extending one open hand to the samurai. “If you fear for our lives, then fight at our side. Together, we overe this.”

  Venix gazed at my hand thoughtfully for a moment, and I momentarily thought I might have swayed him. Eventually, though, he slowly shook his chitinous head.

  My heart sank, even though I was unsurprised.

  “No,” He said with finality, as Tarus finally crested the horizon behind him. As the world was cast in emerald light, he shifted the hands resting on the pommels of his two swords to their hilts.

  And tightened his grip, meeting my eyes.

  “Ready yourself, Hart. We shall go to decisive victory.”

  I took a deep breath and nodded sharply. I lowered my stance, gripping Terractus as the crowd seemingly held their breath, now that the duel was truly going to happen.

  The world went quiet once more, as the green period of the Veredenese m stretched oher Venix or I moved an inor did we draw our bdes.

  Slowly, the tint to the m light began to fade, and as it did, I saw Venix’s hands tighten on the hilts of his on.

  My eyes narrowed.

  The light shifted, and warmth rolled over the nd.

  I immediately activated Might of the Wyrdwood, drew Terractus, gripped it in both hands, and sprang at Venix in one smooth motion. I cleared the distan an instant thanks to the enha power of my evolved Skill.

  The world felt like it had slowed around me, and through that enhanced perception, I thought I heard the audience gasp at the abrupt movement. It could have been that, or…

  It could have been how I had started to glow a faint crimson, the light of innumerable phantasmal thorny vines crawling over my entire body. They curled and twined all over my body and robe in unduting waves, occasionally shing out at the world.

  This was the new, sedary effey upgraded Skill, Might of the Wyrdwood. A form of active defense, beyond the increased efficy of the strength the Skill gave me. I’d used it several times now, especially on the Oni Hunt I’d been on. Whenever a hit was directed against me, the vines would bunch up before the impact site to mitigate the hit. And it worked very well. I had gotten up close and personal with an Oni Prime on my hunt, and taken a direct haymaker from the furious monster.

  The vines had stopped the hit cold, exploding deliberately on the impact. The creature had been so stunned by that I’d been able to lop his head right off.

  A far cry from the minimal damage redu that Thorn Cloak gave me.

  Hopefully, it would work well to stop Venix.

  I’d find out soon.

  Venix met my eyes pcidly, in the split sed before I reached him. I saw a slight twit his right shoulder.

  Impact.

  In an instant, Venix had drawana on his left hip and interposed it betweewo of us to block my blow. The collision of our bdes produced a small shockwave that rolled out across the practice yard, kig up dust and rattling the teacups of the onlookers. Our swround against each other for a moment as I tried to push against his, leaning into the blow suspended in mid-air. Over the point of impact, I could see sparks begin to fly from the crush of our bdes, but I paid it no mind.

  Venix held me off with one arm along, our eyes locked the eime.

  The moment my feet touched down on the dirt below, I pivoted, shing out with a scything kick from my right leg, trying to break his root.

  He simply raised his lower left arm and blocked it, the impact of the limbs creating another shockwave.

  It was a testament to either my growth or the evolved strength of Might of the Wyrdwood that saw his retaliation.

  Saw, but wasn’t able to react to.

  Venix’s upper right arm nced out in a straight punch aimed at my chest. The ethereal vines of my enha Skill swarmed in front of my to block it, but it didn’t matter. They exploded at the blow, but the blowback didn’t stop it pletely.

  His chitinous fist impacted my sternum, and I felt the bone flex.

  I think it didn’t shatter only because the blow was mitigated.

  Instead, I was blown backward myself. Luckily, I mao find my bearing in midair, flipping to skid backward in the dirt. I panted in surging adrenaline from how close that was, my eyes wide.

  I’d had a glimmer of hope that I might be able to get through this. After all, I had dueled Longstripe ba Elderwyck, and he had supposedly been around the same strength as Venix was. I had nearly eked out a win against the General when I was much weaker.

  But that single exge had robbed me of that notion.

  I don’t know why the differeweewo of them was so stark, but I had no ce against Venix.

  A…

  Venix hadn’t moved from his position, even after striki was out of character for him not to follow up like that, in my experience. Instead, he was looking at me thoughtfully. “You truly have grown, Hart,” He aowledged, sounding almost proud. “You would have died from a blow like that only months ago. Your dedication is admirable. However,” He said, slowly drawing the sed bde on his right hip. “It will not be enough. cede, and this be over. There is no shame in submitting to a superior oppo.”

  I ground my teeth at his words.

  No.

  I would feel shame.

  I was not going to let this ce slip me by.

  If the jaws of defeat were closing in on me, I was just going to have to find a way to pry them open.

  I struggled to my feet, getting bato my sword staerractus gripped in both hands. I didn’t say anything to the Antium man, simply meeting his gaze with a gre.

  Venix gave a slight sigh and nodded. “I see. We are truly alike, Hart. We both o learn the lesson…the hard way.” For the first time in the duel, Venix got into a stance himself.

  And advane.