The Homeseeker: An Elemental Adventurer LitRPG

Chapter 22 - The Mind of Madness

The travelers continued their way on the path, the lush grass opening to some sparse trees in a lightly wooded forest. At first, Zalan found this shaded area a welcome improvement until he noticed the way that his companions began watching the trees for ambushes, drawing their weapons even though there was no immediate threat. Zalan drew his own sword, just to be safe. When a few minutes went by and a trap wasn't sprung, they mostly relaxed except for Gorb. Zalan kept his sword out and tried to imbue it with his Elemental Power again, focusing as hard as he could to keep lightning running up and down the blade while also making sure he didn't trip anywhere.

"Trying to imbue your weapon? Did the siblings teach you about imbuing?" Rep asked him, curious.

"Yeah, this should be so much easier since metal conducts electricity," Zalan complained, his face strained in concentration.

"Right," Rep said slowly, not understanding the string of words Zalan said. "Sir Kilile taught us to try and start with a single point on your weapon and to maintain it that way."

Rep demonstrated by creating a tiny candle-like flame at the tip of his sword and moving it around, trying to keep it lit. He swung it once and it went out, to his disappointment.

"Is that what you've been doing?" Zalan said in surprise, lowering his sword to watch Rep try to light another flame at the tip.

"It is already difficult to manipulate your Elemental Power once it leaves your hand," Rep explained as he slowly moved his sword. "It is best to get an understanding of what it feels like to maintain a small level of your power before you go larger."

"Like training a muscle," Zalan said to himself. It should have been obvious, especially when they referred to this Elemental ability stuff as a "mind-muscle" previously.

Zalan pinched the tip of his sword with his free hand and cast out lightning. He removed his hand and focused, able to keep the spark erratically dancing on the tip for all of half a second. He beamed, not having been able to do anything close to that before.

"I think I get it!" Zalan said.

"Well done," Rep nodded.

The two continued to practice imbuing their swords as they continued on their way. Zalan tried different tricks like holding his sword at different angles or placing an even smaller piece of lightning on the end of the sword, but nothing helped more than simple, rote practice. Rep was making good headway, able to swing his sword once and still maintain the tiny flame at the end of his sword. Zalan admired the progress, until he bumped into Gorb who had stopped walking, his eyes focused on something in the distance beyond the edge of the forest.

"Do you see that?" he asked, speaking quietly.

The other travelers peered out, squinting their eyes as they tried to make out the shape at the distance. It was floating high above the ground, looking like a blimp to Zalan. The circular shaped black object was growing steadily, making no rush to come to the forest, but certainly getting closer. It seemed foreboding, like it was coming with bad news, even when they could not make out any features. Zalan swallowed hard, not sure why he felt so nervous.

"Is it a dragon?" Yelsa whispered.

"We would have seen the wings," Fran rejected.

"It does not feel like a dragon," Gorb added.

From the dark circle, two black, opaque spotlights scanned the floor for a moment, then stopped. The other four travelers tensed in fear as Zalan tried to make out exactly what he was seeing.

"Dear God. Here? So far from home?" Rep asked.

"What is it?" Zalan asked, watching the circle emit another two black spotlights to the floor. The spotlights were so dark, it was like a flashlight of shadow, completely overpowering any light it touched.