I slid my sword into its scabbard. “We should invite them in and see what they can tell us about the situation in the city.”
“Eventually, sure.” Tahlis grinned, and his forked tongue shot out to taste the air. “But I want to test them first, see how they’re learning after months without a proper master. You want to help?”
“Sure.”
“You won’t need to hold back. These few are initiates, but they really ought to be disciples by now. I want you to give them everything you’ve got.”
“Everything?”
“Well, maybe not everything. Keep your other sword in your pants.” Tahlis laughed at his own joke. “Seriously, though, you keep them on your toes. Just don’t kill them. We’ll need all the help we can get.”
“Got it,” I said.
“Excellent. I’ll hold them at the top of the stairs while you get around behind them.”
Tahlis walked over to the top of the steps and stood, arms folded, stiff-backed, and expectant.
I looked down the mountainside. Below the stairs, the rock sloped steeply away. The rock face was uneven, with plenty of places that could conceal me from the initiates as they passed, but getting safely down to them would be tricky. I had some experience as a climber, but what I didn’t have with me were climbing shoes, rope, or any of the other gear I would have wanted for such a difficult descent.
On the other hand, I did have Augmenting.
I shot a thorn using Stinging Palm technique. Instead of focusing on large thorns or clusters of them as I did in combat, I made it a single, narrow spike, as hard as possible. It hit the rock face below me with all the power of a shot from a nail gun and buried itself halfway into the cliff face.
Perfect. I fired more shots like that, making a series of foot and handholds down to a crevice in the rocks beneath the stairs. Then, I lowered myself over the edge and climbed down, taking great care with every step. If I slipped or one of the thorns gave way, I would plummet to my doom. But the thorns I’d summoned held strong, and my old skills held true. My muscles tensed as I clung by my fingertips to the cliff face, but soon, I was hidden against the rock while the initiates walked past above me, puffing and panting from their long ascent.
“Where have you been?” Tahlis called out as the initiates neared the top of the stairs.
“In the city, Master,” a woman replied.
I quietly shot another thorn into the rock above me and started pulling myself up. There were some foot and handholds I could use, but whenever one was missing, I created it using my Vigor. Quietly, carefully, I climbed up toward the steps behind the initiates.
“And why were you in the city?” Tahlis asked. “I was here, and you’re my pupils, aren’t you?”
“You were cast out, Master. We didn’t know what to do.”
“You could have tried to stop them casting me out. Or is that too obvious for such a sophisticated mind as yours?”
“We’re sorry, Master. We didn’t know what to do about-”
“Blah blah blah, excuses excuses. You’ve all simply been sitting around braiding each other’s hair and hoping this would go away, haven’t you? Except Fig there, who looks like he’s spent the whole time eating.”
“Hey! You don’t know that! Er, I mean, you don’t know that, oh respected Guildmaster.”
I reached the top of my climb and slid onto the steps behind the initiates, who stood with their shoulders slumped and heads hanging.
“We’re sorry, Master,” the leader said. She was a tall human, thin and gawky, with a spear strapped to her back. “We just… We didn’t… You know we’re not very…”
If this was the most outspoken of them, it was no wonder these guys had struggled to make their voices heard or to find a place in the guild. But they seemed sincerely sorry, and I could see something more than mischief in Tahlis’ expression.
“I believe you, Choshi,” he said. “And I don’t blame you. It was safer to keep your heads down. No point throwing your lives away by fighting at the wrong time.”
“Thank you, Master,” Choshi said as her head lifted. “We want to do the right thing.”
“And so I suppose you’ve come to train with me again?” Tahlis asked.
“We have, Master,” they replied.
“Ha! Bullshit! You’ve come to see the Swordslinger, not me, haven’t you?”
They all shared guilty looks.
“Oh, yes, I know why you came.” Tahlis said. “And your first task is to take him down.”
The initiates glanced nervously at each other and started readying their weapons.
“Where is he?” Choshi asked.
“Behind you,” Tahlis said with a grin.
As they turned, I was already charging up the stairs. The initiates went scurrying up the steps away from me, grappling with their weapons as they ran. They shot past Tahlis and onto the open ground outside the temple. The guildmaster stepped aside, laughing to himself, and let me past to face them.
The initiates had spread out across the open ground, not making any concerted effort to work together or back each other up. Closest to me were a slightly chubby elven woman and a short, dark-skinned human with a pot belly.
The elf flung her arms wide and summoned a Sandstorm, less impressive than the ones Tahlis used, and flung it at me. I dashed sideways, and the blast of sand rushed past before falling uselessly across the top of the stairs.
The human crouched and punched the ground, creating a Ground Strike. A shockwave rippled toward me, lifting earth and stones. The moment before it would have hit, I jumped forward, over the advancing wave, and landed in a forward roll that brought me up only a few feet from the pair.
As they reached for their swords, I flung up an Ash Cloud around their heads. It billowed blackly around them, obscuring their view.
