A year had passed since their combat training began, and the courtyard resounded with the familiar clang of staves, each impact biting like metal on bone.
"Again!"
Kael's voice cracked through the morning haze.
Arden staggered backward, staff trembling in his aching arms. His sparring partner—Miren, older by a year and stubborn enough to fight through exhaustion—lunged again. Instinct kicked in. Arden raised his hand instead of his staff.
Kael swept in before the strike landed, knocking both boys flat with a casual flick of his own.
"You defend with your arms," he said, voice flat as cold iron. "But your legs? Decorative. Fix that."
He offered neither of them a hand. If Kael believed you could stand, you stood.
Arden pushed himself upright, chest burning. Kael paced before the assembled trainees—thin as a reed, powerful as a coiled storm, contradictions stitched into flesh.
"Staves up," Kael ordered. "If your arms shake, let them shake. Pretend readiness until you learn it."
The six Vaelorian youths complied—tired, bruised, but unbroken.
Kael walked the line with hawk-like scrutiny.
"Your grip, Nale. Too soft. It's a staff, not a baby rabbit."
He moved on.
"And you, Lira… too tight. If the staff had lungs, it would be begging for mercy."
A few strained laughs broke the tension. Kael's smirk lasted half a heartbeat.
"Form up. Drills again."
Arden's arms burned. His legs felt hollow. But training under Kael carved something steady into his bones—discipline, purpose, and a ruthlessness tempered by humor that always surfaced at the worst possible moment. The mysteries of the Tower, the glimmers of curiosity, even the memory of that horizon-wide Barrier… all of it had begun to fade beneath Kael's relentless demands.
But then the ground shifted.
A slow, unnatural tremor rippled beneath their feet. Kael froze mid-stride.
"…That's new."
Another tremor. Stronger. Dust sifted from the eaves of the training hall.
"Is that the Barrier?" Miren whispered.
Kael didn't answer. His expression, for once, wasn't amused.
"Break," he ordered. "Wait here, hydrate. And sit somewhere that won't collapse if the earth decides to throw a tantrum."
He strode toward the inner hall without looking back.
---
The Inner Hall
The Elders stood in a circle, channeling stabilizing arcana into the air. A sigil hovered before them—a Resonance Map. Lines of glowing mana traced through Vaeloria like rivers of light.
One segment buckled violently.
Deep underground.
Near the ancestral tunnels.
Near the reserve chambers.
Near the mana vault.
Elder Rhyden's voice broke the tension.
"The disturbance signature matches a burrower-class beast. Quite advanced—and dangerous—if not dealt with quickly. Highly sensitive to mana. Attracted to large concentrations."
"Impossible," another Elder muttered. "The vault is sealed."
"Unless we underestimated the brute force of an adult specimen…" Rhyden murmured, eyes narrowing.
The sigil convulsed—hard enough to crack the air itself.
That was enough.
Artifacts were gathered. Sealing scrolls strapped to belts. Lanterns lit. Thaleus arrived fully armed, Kael at his side, both radiating an energy that meant trouble.
They descended into the tunnels.
Arden watched them from the training courtyard. Kael glanced back once, meeting Arden's eyes with a strange heaviness—half warning, half apology.
Then he vanished into the earth.
---
The Vault Beneath
The descent felt endless. Dripping stone. The metallic scent of dormant glyphwork. And then—the first sign.
A tunnel carved through solid bedrock.
Wide. Smooth. Spiral.
Rhyden exhaled sharply.
"A mana-feeder worm. These tunnels… it dug its way toward the vault."
Kael poked the carved wall with his staff.
"Efficient. If this thing ever gets bored, we could hire it for renovations."
Thaleus ignored the remark, stepping ahead. His staff glowed faintly, breathing silver light into the cavern. Elder Marath's expression tightened—not with fear, but calculation.
The tunnel opened into the mana storehouse.
The vault had been breached—its stone cracked, its wards dim and sputtering. And there, coiled like a nightmare birthed from subterranean hunger, lay the beast.
A giant worm—but no creature of mere earth.
Its body was plated in crystalline segments.
Its veins pulsed with stolen mana.
Its mouth was a ring of shimmering teeth grinding against fractured vaultstones.
It slept. Or seemed to.
Rhyden's voice trembled.
"The reserve is our solution to face the Choosing. It feeds our strength. Our lineage cannot function—cannot hope to win—without this mana supply. If it drains too much—"
He stopped. Strangely, he did not mention anything about the Barrier.
Kael noticed, frowning. But before he could speak—
The worm's small, glassy ember-blue eyes snapped open.
A blur—
a whipcrack—
the tail lashed like a spear.
Marath moved first.
His hand carved a sigil through the air.
A dome of force slammed into existence, the tail shattering against it in a spray of sparks.
Thaleus surged forward, staff spinning, arcana spiraling around him like coiled lightning.
Kael laughed—sharp, wild.
"Oh, finally."
The cavern exploded into violence.
Thaleus struck first—staff sweeping low, leaving a trail of burning runes that detonated beneath the worm's plates. Kael vaulted over him, twisting mid-air, staff cracking against the worm's flank with a burst of concussive force.
The worm roared—a sound like collapsing stone.
It lunged.
Marath thrust both palms outward.
Invisible force crushed the worm mid-charge, pinning it to the cavern wall. His eyes burned with deep, ancient power—older than the empire, older than the Barrier.
The worm writhed, crystalline plates groaning under the psychic pressure.
Kael darted in, carving quick incantations into the air.
"Thaleus! Left!"
Thaleus moved in perfect sync—slamming his staff down, a wave of silver force ripping through the cavern floor. The worm buckled. Kael followed with a spiraling strike, embedding a glowing sigil into its hide.
"Marath!"
Marath's grip tightened.
The sigil detonated.
Cracks tore through the worm's crystalline armor. Light spilled from its wounds. Its body thrashed, the mana it hoarded leaking in violent bursts.
Thaleus leaped, striking the final blow.
The worm collapsed, convulsed once, then stilled—its core dimming to ash.
Silence.
Only ragged breaths filled the cavern.
Kael leaned on his staff, grinning crookedly.
"Well. That was invigorating."
Rhyden was less amused.
"It breached the vault," he muttered. "This could have destroyed us. We must determine how it entered."
They retraced the burrowed path—its tunnel twisting deeper than any Elder expected.
Until the passage opened into a natural cavern.
A hidden ecosystem.
Pools of glowing moss.
Clusters of crystals.
Creatures scuttling across stone—small but vicious.
A narrow passage led directly toward the valley forest.
Rhyden paled.
"This must be sealed. And these small things exterminated before they attract anything… larger."
Kael's eyes brightened.
"Or—and hear me out—we let the kids do it."
Rhyden stared at him as though Kael had grown a second head.
"Absolutely not."
Thaleus crossed his arms.
"Why not? Controlled environment. Weak monsters. Supervised. Their first real combat."
Kael nodded enthusiastically.
"Educational."
Rhyden whispered, "Why was I born into this battle-drunk family…"
Marath exhaled, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Very well. But only the shallow tunnels. Only the weakest beasts. And if one child dies, Kael, I will personally unspool your soul."
Kael saluted.
"Understood."
Marath turned to Rhyden.
"Report to me after you measure how much mana we lost to the beast. Once everything is dealt with, I will seal and fortify this passage myself."
---
Later That Evening
The Elders resurfaced long after sunset, exhausted and dusted with glittering crystal residue. Kael appeared last—sweaty and wearing a grin entirely too pleased—as they entered the courtyard where the trainees waited.
"Good news, trainees," he announced. "We found something interesting in the caves."
Arden's stomach tightened.
"And bad news," Kael added, raising a finger.
"Interesting things tend to attract… other interesting things. Its about tim....."
Before could continue. Elder Marath stepped forward, lowering Kael's raised finger with a controlled, effortless motion. "Ordinarily," he said, "your first field trial occurs months from now. But fate has granted us a contained hunting ground. We will not waste the opportunity."
His gaze swept across the young faces.
"Rest. Tomorrow will ask much of you."
---
The Next Morning
The keep buzzed with restless anticipation.
Meriel found Arden outside the dining hall, her braids loose from nerves.
"Is it true? You're going into the tunnels?"
"Only the shallow ones," Arden said. "Kael said it's just for experience."
"Experience," she repeated, pale. "With actual monsters."
"Small ones," he offered.
She did not look reassured.
They joined the others in the gathering yard near the iron gate that descended into the old vault. Arden spotted his father among the instructors, offering steady words of guidance to the trainees.
The air carried the scent of cold stone and dormant mana. When Thaleus noticed him, he offered a brief, encouraging nod before motioning for Arden to fall in with the rest.
All six trainees gathered—Miren vibrating with excitement, Lira pale with nerves, the rest caught somewhere in between.
Kael leaned lazily on his staff, robe wrinkled, hair wild.
"There you are," he said. "I stayed up guarding this entrance all night. Nearly fell asleep twice. If anything crawled out before you arrived, I'd die of disappointment."
He straightened.
"Today—real staves. Not training rods."
They selected from a rack of carved staves inlaid with silver conduits.
"These let you cast basic spellwork," Kael said. "Minimal chance of blowing your face off. Minimal, not zero."
A few gulps echoed.
Mariel let out a small, fearful sound, but Kael paid it no mind.
He paced.
"You're not going deep. You'll face only what wanders near the entrance. Skitterlings, tunnel pests, maybe a swole-rat. Actually—avoid the swole-rats. They bite ankles. And pride."
Thaleus chuckled.
"And do not touch the glowing crystals. They're beautiful. They're deadly."
Arden's pulse hammered. His staff hummed faintly—alive in his grip.
Kael pointed toward the descending stairs.
"Your first hunt awaits. Show me everything I've beaten into you."
The iron gate groaned open.
Cold air rolled out.
Arden stepped forward—fear and exhilaration warring in his chest—as he descended into the hollow beneath the mountain.
Toward the first real taste of the monster-slaying he had always dreamed of.