Chapter 55
Day 10 of Training
"GET UP!!"
Markil opened one eye.
Maren was standing over him with the energy of a person who had never heard of the concept of sleep.
"It's not even sunrise," Markil muttered.
"Sunrise was ten minutes ago. You missed it."
"Then I missed it. Goodbye."
Markil pulled the blanket over his face.
Maren grabbed the blanket and threw it out the window.
"WHAT THE HELL!!!"
"You have five minutes. I'll be outside."
Markil stared at the open window.
My blanket is gone.
He sat up.
Ten days.
Ten days of this man waking him up before sunrise. Ten days of training that made his previous fights look like naps. Day One — Maren had made him channel fire with one hand and defend against lightning with the other. Day Three — blindfolded. Day Six — while running. Day Eight — while running, blindfolded, and being shot at by Maren's ice magic from above.
Markil looked at his hands.
A small flame appeared between his fingers.
Perfectly round. Perfectly controlled.
He extinguished it instantly.
...Okay. Fine. Maybe this pervert knows what he's doing.
He got up.
---
Outside the inn, Maren was leaning against the wall eating a rice ball, looking unbothered.
"Where did you even get that?" Markil said.
"I made it."
"When??"
"While you were sleeping."
"You made a rice ball while waking me up??"
"I multitask." Maren smiled. "Walk."
They walked.
Out of the city.
Through the fields.
Up a long dirt road.
Markil looked around. Nothing but rocks and dry grass.
"Where are we training today?" Markil asked.
"You'll see."
Markil narrowed his eyes.
Every time he says "you'll see," it means something crazy is going to happen.
"Last time you said that, you made me fight while falling off a cliff."
"And you survived. Great training."
"YOU PUSHED ME OFF THE CLIFF."
"I said fall. You didn't fall fast enough."
"THAT'S NOT HOW TRAINING WORKS!!"
Maren just smiled and kept walking.
Markil followed him, grumbling under his breath.
The road kept going up.
The air started getting warmer.
Markil wiped sweat from his forehead.
...It's really hot today.
The path narrowed into rocky ground. Maren was ahead of him, walking fast.
Markil was examining the strange rock under his feet, dark and cracked with thin glowing lines running through it.
Is this... mana rock? What kind of place is this?
"Hey wait up!" Markil called out.
"Hurry!" Maren called back from ahead.
Markil sped up. Maren had gone around a large boulder.
"Hang on, I'm coming!!" Markil shouted.
He turned the corner.
He stopped.
His brain stopped.
Everything stopped.
In front of him was a massive, active, fully erupting volcano.
Orange lava was flowing down the slope.
The crater was roaring below.
The heat hit him like a wall.
Markil's white hair was being blown back by the rising hot air.
He looked down at the narrow rock platform he was standing on.
He looked at the glowing lava thirty meters below.
He looked at Maren, who was standing perfectly calmly a few steps back with his hands in his pockets, watching Markil with a relaxed smile.
Silence.
A small rock by Markil's foot crumbled into the lava below.
They both watched it disappear.
Am I... on a volcano right now.
AM I ON A VOLCANO RIGHT NOW.
Markil turned toward Maren.
He made the face.
The full, complete, perfectly crafted expression of a man who had been deeply, personally, specifically betrayed.
Eyes flat. Mouth straight. One eyebrow slightly twitching.
"You asshole," Markil said. His voice was completely calm. "I thought you would train me here."
He gestured at the volcano.
"HERE. A VOLCANO. THIS IS WHERE YOU BROUGHT ME."
Maren started laughing.
Not a small laugh.
A full, loud, completely delighted laugh that echoed off the volcanic rock.
"YOUR FACE—!!" Maren wheezed, bending forward.
"I'm glad my near-death experience is entertaining to you."
"Hahahaha!! You—the FACE!!"
"STOP LAUGHING AND EXPLAIN YOURSELF!!"
"Okay, okay—" Maren straightened up, wiping tears from his eyes. "Listen. Fire precision. You've been training in safe environments."
"SAFE ENVIRONMENTS ARE GOOD."
"Boring," Maren said simply.
"MAREN."
"You need pressure. Real pressure." Maren pointed at the volcano like he was pointing at a training dummy. "Nothing teaches fire control like being surrounded by a lot more fire."
Another rock crumbled off the edge near Markil's feet.
Markil watched it fall.
The volcano rumbled below, deep and slow, like it was satisfied with itself.
Even the volcano is laughing at me.
"What is the exercise," Markil said flatly.
"Channel Ashen Dominion at thirty percent. Hold it steady for one hour. While I throw things at you."
"While you WHAT."
"Throw things. Rocks mainly. Some boulders later."
"BOULDERS."
"If you lose concentration and release an uncontrolled burst, the volcano will amplify it," Maren explained in the calm voice of a man describing the weather. "You'd have about three seconds after that. So try not to do that."
"THREE SECONDS?!"
"Four if the wind is good."
"MAREN!!!!!!"
Maren grinned.
"But listen. If you succeed, dinner is on me. That place you liked with the grilled meat."
Markil stared at him.
...He is bribing me with grilled meat to stand on a volcano.
...This is the greatest teacher in the world.
He sighed heavily.
"Fine," Markil muttered. He turned back to face the open crater. "But if I die, I'm haunting you."
"Deal."
"Specifically you. Not the 12 kingdoms. Not Roric. YOU."
"Understood." Maren smiled. "Now channel."
---
Markil planted his feet.
He closed his eyes.
He breathed.
And he reached inward.
Ashen Dominion.
Thirty percent.
The fire rose around his hands, embers drifting upward. Around him the air shimmered double from the volcano's own heat rising below.
Hold.
He held it.
WHOOSH.
A rock hit him in the shoulder.
"DON'T BREAK CONCENTRATION!!" Maren called.
"YOU THREW A ROCK AT ME!!"
"I said I would!!"
"I THOUGHT YOU WERE JOKING!!"
Another rock flew.
Markil ducked.
The Ashen Dominion wobbled — he felt it spike toward fifty percent — he crushed it back.
Thirty percent. Held.
"GOOD!!" Maren shouted.
Third rock. Faster.
Markil tilted his head. It grazed his ear.
Still held.
The volcano rumbled beneath them.
The heat was insane.
Sweat poured down Markil's face.
But the flame in his hands was perfectly round. Perfectly still.
Thirty percent.
Not thirty-one.
"INCOMING!!" Maren shouted.
Markil's Kareno Eyes snapped open.
Not a rock.
A boulder.
A FULL SIZED BOULDER.
CRACK—
Void Movement.
BOOM!!
Markil reappeared three meters to the left, crouched on a narrow ledge, one hand on the hot rock.
The boulder crashed into where he had been standing and disappeared into the crater below.
Silence.
Markil looked at where he used to be standing.
He looked at his hands.
The Ashen Dominion was still there.
Thirty percent. Completely stable. Had not moved a single percent during the dodge.
What...
Maren started laughing again. Louder this time.
"THAT'S IT! THAT'S IT RIGHT THERE!!" He was pointing. "Your Kareno Eyes activated automatically!! You didn't even think — your body just MOVED — AND you kept the Ashen Dominion stable!!"
"YOU THREW A BOULDER AT ME," Markil said.
"Your instincts kicked in on their own! That normally takes years!! You did it in ten days!!" Maren looked genuinely shocked. Almost proud. "Kid... this is crazy."
Markil looked at his own hands for a long moment.
...Did I really just do that.
He looked up at Maren.
And then, despite everything, despite the volcano and the rocks and the boulder and the fact that he had almost died three separate times in the last hour—
He smiled.
Just slightly. Just at the corner of his mouth.
But it was there.
Maren saw it.
He grinned.
"I knew it," Maren said quietly.
---
The walk back to Zephyros.
Evening. Sun going down. Orange light over everything.
They walked side by side, not talking much.
Maren had his hands behind his head.
Markil had his in his pockets.
His whole body ached. His hair smelled like smoke. He had a burn mark on the back of his right hand from when the Ashen Dominion had almost slipped during the fifth rock throw.
It had already healed.
"Hey," Markil said.
"Mm."
"You asshole."
Maren snorted.
"I thought you would train me somewhere normal," Markil continued. He turned to look at Maren with the exact same flat, dead-serious, one-eyebrow face from earlier on the volcano. He had been saving it for this moment. "I thought — hey, day ten, maybe a field, maybe a sparring ground, maybe anything else in the entire world." He pointed at Maren. "But no. A volcano. You took me to a VOLCANO."
Maren completely lost it.
He stopped walking.
Bent forward.
Actual tears.
"THE FACE—!!" he wheezed. "I WATCHED YOU BUILDING THAT FACE THE WHOLE WALK DOWN—!!"
"I have been saving it for forty minutes."
"IT SHOWS!! HAHAHAHA!!"
"I almost DIED," Markil said, maintaining the face with absolute dedication.
"But you didn't," Maren said between laughs.
"A BOULDER."
"A NECESSARY boulder!!"
"THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A NECESSARY BOULDER, MAREN."
Maren laughed even harder.
Markil stood there, arms crossed, watching the greatest warrior in the world cry-laugh over his suffering, and the stupid face he had been holding finally broke into something he absolutely did not intend.
A laugh.
A small one.
But it came out anyway.
Maren caught it immediately.
"Ooooh!! He's laughing!! He's actually laughing!!"
"I'm not laughing."
"YOU WERE LAUGHING."
"I wasn't."
"I heard it!!!"
"Dinner," Markil said firmly, cutting the conversation off. "You promised. Let's go."
Maren straightened up, wiping tears away, still grinning like an idiot.
"Right. Grilled meat." He started walking again. "Extra portions. You earned it."
Markil walked beside him.
Quietly, under his breath, so Maren absolutely would not hear it—
...Yeah. Maybe this pervert is an okay teacher.
The city lights of Zephyros flickered on ahead of them.
The volcano behind them was still erupting, completely indifferent.
(Chapter 55 Finished)