As Diven ran through the mist, toward the monster as its shape revealed itself to him. It was a massive fish. Its light blue scales blended into the snow and mist of the rift. Its back was covered by a dorsal fin that towered over Diven, but the most worrying thing was the long spear-like appendage sticking out of its face.
It could have been easily mistaken for a spearfish if it wasn’t for the myriad of little feet crawling underneath the beast.
Closing in on it, Diven readied his strike and put all the strength of his charge behind it.
When his spear landed on the monster’s scales, it was deflected and slid across its body.
Pulled forward by his momentum, Diven struggled to stop himself and crashed into its body.
Pushing himself away from it, Diven took a few steps back and observed. His first strike failing like that was a problem. He had to be ready for the fish’s counterattack.
The spearfish recovered its bearings after its failed ambush and started slithering toward Diven.
It was fast, just like it had been underground. Its acceleration was faster than Diven thought possible.
Not wanting to get impaled, Diven ran in circles around the creature to prevent it from charging at him. Given its massive size, the spearfish needed a wide berth to turn. He intended to use this to his advantage.
While doing so, he looked for an opening. If his spear couldn’t pierce through the monster’s armored scales, he needed to find another way to kill it.
But as he ran, Diven realized his mistake.
The mist hadn’t lifted. The disorienting effect that prompted him to build his snow tower was still affecting him. Now that he could barely see the beast through the fog, it felt like it was moving parallel to him. Yet seconds later, he had to leap to the side to avoid being run through.
Thankfully, Trap Detection was working. Maybe because he couldn’t tell where the attacks were coming from, his skill warned him about them. It was far from perfect since he didn’t know how he was supposed to dodge them. But at least he knew he had to dodge.
As the spearfish grazed his shoulder, he tried to counterattack by aiming for different parts of the monster’s body. But his strike was off. It wasn’t hitting where he was aiming.
It wasn’t normal. He still had a long way to go to master the spear but he shouldn’t be missing by this much.
Diven was convinced that the fog was altering his perception. It didn’t make sense otherwise. Both his Spear and Spearfishing skills were working in tandem to improve his aim. He shouldn’t be missing so much.
Still on the defensive, Diven kept his eyes glued to the spearfish’s movements. He was giving his all, trying to decipher them.
Each time he dodged a charge, it was by a hair’s breadth. So close he ditched his shield to make himself lighter. Once again, it proved useless against large creatures. Really, the creature’s spear would simply pierce through the wood. Diven doubted it would dampen the blow.
His muscles and mind were growing sore. If walking around this rift was already straining, fighting here was even worse. His head was a mess, he didn’t know where he was. All he could do was barely keep track of the fish coming and going.
Yet, he had to.
Focus.
He didn’t understand how the spearfish moved. Appearing and disappearing at places it shouldn’t be able to reach.
But it didn’t matter.
All that mattered was that it was doing it and Diven had to exert all his senses including his new Trap Detection skill to avoid being skewered.
Once, he was too slow in pushing himself aside and his left arm was slashed by the monster’s spear, ripping his clothes and drawing blood in the process.
The pain almost froze him in place.
It was so much worse than all the little injuries that had accumulated on his body.
His arm wasn’t responding well to his commands.
He wanted to cry.
By sheer will to survive, Diven pushed beyond the pain and continued to fight. The sight of his blood tainting the snow only fueled his anger.
He wasn’t going to go down before he could see Kheiron again. And especially not before he ended this beast.
His eyes wide open, he stared at his target’s barely exposed underbelly and prepared to strike. He refused to blink, afraid he would miss it.
As usual, the creature was skittering on the snowy ground that had turned to ice after being trampled by the fight.
Its movements were unreadable, unnatural.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
It charged Diven once again, and once again, Diven’s strike missed its target, hitting the beast’s impenetrable scales. In retaliation, he received a deep cut from the fish’s dorsal fin on his cheek.
Ignoring the pain as best as he could, Diven kept trying to understand what was happening. The only thing in his eyes was the spearfish crawling on the snow. The mist wasn’t going to block him; he would see through it.
Another wound to his thigh.
Feline had told him to see through the mist. If it was at all possible, he had to do it now.
He narrowly ducked beneath the bone spear, nearly getting trampled by the monster’s myriad of little feet.
He felt he was close. He convinced himself he was so close.
Just a little more.
The spearfish pierced his right shoulder, pushing him down to the ground. But Diven leveraged a spear strike near its eye to break free.
A lucky hit, he had been trying to hit the belly.
But a hit was a hit and Diven needed the break.
Clutching his arm, he kept his eyes locked on his target as it was gaining momentum for another charge.
His breath was ragged, his body heavy. Each step tortured him, pushed on his bleeding wounds, rekindled the pain.
The hole in his shoulder told him that, even if he beat the beast, he wouldn’t make it.
He wasn’t going to let that stop him. He wasn’t going to give up. He wasn’t going to forgive the spearfish. If he was going to die, they would die together. Their bodies would rest in the icy rift forever, their respective spears pierced through each other in a macabre spectacle for future explorers and monsters alike.
His heart wouldn’t let him stop. His anger flaring, he stumbled forward, toward the charging monstrosity. It wasn’t the only one with a spear, Diven could do it too.
With the added power behind the combined charge of Diven and the spearfish, the latter’s scales would break.
No doubt about it.
He would have to sacrifice his life to land that hit. Even if he somehow managed to slip past the spear, the massive body of the beast would slam into him.
It was unavoidable. At least, unavoidable if he wanted to pierce the scales.
As the moment of his charge stretched into what felt like a lifetime, he felt something was different.
As if he was seeing the spearfish for the first time. Relentlessly rushing toward one another, Diven met the beast’s eyes.
He could see it move.
He could follow it.
He was seeing through the mist.
It clicked. As naturally as if it had always been like that, the mist covering the rift was gone, revealing the real landscape filled with pine-covered mountains that reached into an immaculate deep blue sky.
With unreal precision and calm, Diven stepped to the side right as the spearfish was going to reach him and drove his spear right into its stomach. Unable to stop, the monster charged through the spearhead, opening a deep gash on its side from which its guts flowed out.
Running on a trail of bloodied snow, Diven threw himself after his prey. He was limping, he was bleeding, but he was filled with determination and soon reached the twitching body of the beast.
Not wasting a moment, Diven gathered what strength he had left and pierced the spearfish’s side three more times. The beast tried to crawl away. But along with its blood and some of its organs, its strength left it and it came to a complete stop a few meters away from the teenager.
In his head, Diven shouted in relief, glory, and joy before slumping to the ground.
The adrenaline came down, bringing back all the pain he had somehow managed to ignore. His wounds weren’t light. The hole in his shoulder was especially concerning. He tore a piece of his clothes from what little he had covering his body and pushed them on the wound to prevent more blood from flowing out.
He was about to stand back up and make his way to the stone when, for the first time, he truly took in the landscape. The change was disorienting. Gone was the mist, gone was the flat, endless, snowy plain. Now he was in the middle of a valley surrounded on both sides by mountains and pine tree groves.
Had it been there the whole time?
The mist had been more than a blinding force. Mouth agape, he took in the implications of his discovery. How had he not bumped into a single tree or rock over the past days?
The snow tower that took him so much effort was gone. It was fine, he didn’t need it anymore. In a way, it had served its purpose.
The ground had been messed up by the fight, but he could still see his footsteps winding a path that would lead him back to the stone. It wasn’t straight at all. Instead, it turned and twisted so much it barely looked like a path.
It was like the mist had been forcing him on this weird path. Completely suppressing his perception of the wider environment. He had pierced through the veil and had been rewarded for it.
Instinctively, he knew to visualize his inner garden. The endless field of grass was now split in two by a winding dirt path that started from the cursed tree.
Skill Acquired: The Fifth Direction – Basic – Lv1
The skill wasn’t like the ones he already had. Those were simple and self-explanatory. Spear made you better at wielding a spear. Simple.
The Fifth Direction… It had to be related to him finally seeing through the mist. He needed to return to the black stone and ask the guardians.
Aside from the new, unknown skill, a lot of his pre-existing skills levelled up. The changes reflected in the garden by their respective representation growing. Trap Detection’s ivy was spreading further along the ground surrounding the tree, already overlapping with the newly created dirt path. The bamboo Spears were taller and already uncountable. As for Spearfishing, the level up had widened the pond a little but the biggest change was in its depth which had almost doubled.
Skill leveled up: Trap Detection lv1 -> lv2
Skill leveled up: Spear lv5 -> lv6
Skill leveled up: Spearfishing lv1 -> lv2
The branch from Facet of the Survivor wasn’t fully grown yet.
It was close.
He just needed a little more, and he knew the issue.
Facet of the Survivor. He had beaten the spearfish, but he hadn’t survived yet.
He wasn’t dead. Sure. But his injuries were so severe he wasn’t sure he would live.
With no idea how to take care of a wound as bad as the hole in his shoulder, he stood back up and limped toward his only potential salvation.
The guardians.
He didn’t know if they would help him. But if anyone in this rift could, it was them.
He just had to convince them.
Name: Diven
Bloodline: Rot Heart
Titles: Rotten Sun
Current Facet: Facet of the Survivor
Previous Facets: Facet of the Hoplite
Skills:

Spear – Basic – Lv6
Shield – Basic – Lv4
Spearfishing – Basic – Lv2
Trap Detection – Basic – Lv2
The Fifth Direction – Basic – Lv1