Halfway to the temple steps, we stopped to rest and rehydrate. As we sat gulping from our water skins, Zedal turned to me.
“Swordslinger, could we not ambush the army now?” she asked. “We’re well ahead of them and have time to prepare.”
“Yeah,” Onvar said. “We came out here to help fight back. We’ve hidden and run enough.”
I couldn’t help smiling at their spirited approach. But I also couldn’t help imagining what would happen if we took on that whole army now. These initiates had struggled in the face of monsters. How much more would they struggle to fight with all their strength against familiar faces? Half of them would surely freeze up, and none would be at their best. This wasn’t the time to risk their lives.
“Patience,” I said, using my best approximation of a master’s tone. “We’ll get back to the temple to make the most of our people and the terrain. Then, you’ll get your chance to fight.”
“You’re the great master,” Choshi said after they’d discussed among themselves. “We will follow you.”
“Let’s get going again.”
We’d only been walking for another five minutes when I saw something in the dunes to our right. The sand shift ever so slightly, following a path that ran parallel to us. Someone was following us using Hidden Burrow.
I stopped, closed my eyes, and focused on one of my newer powers. Vigor oozed through me, heavy, thick, and powerful. I directed it into the ground around where our pursuer was hidden, turning sand into the dense quagmire of Mud Entrapment.
A figure burst from the ground, spluttering. He wore the familiar robes of the Steadfast Horn Guild, caked in mud. He wiped it from his face and glared at us.
“Well, well, well,” he said. “Here are some familiar faces.”
“Trohai,” Choshi said with a small, nervous bow. Around her, the other initiates had frozen in place, hands clenching their weapons more tightly than usual.
“So, you kids have thrown your lot in with a traveling pack of idealists,” the mud-stained Augmenter said. “I always knew you’d end up dead of stupidity.”
“Who’s this jerk?” I asked.
“Trohai, a disciple from the guild,” Choshi said. “Be careful, Master Ethan. He’s a strong Augmenter and deadly with that sword.”
“A disciple of the Straight Path too, I’m guessing.” I placed my hand on my sword as he reached for his own. We were far enough away from the enemy army, so I didn’t have to worry too much about my Augmenting attracting attention.
“I have found the righteous path,” Trohai said as he dragged himself out of the mud. “And now, it seems I’ll have to teach it to you.”
He stamped a foot. An Earth Strike rippled out through the ground toward the initiates. I moved fast, grabbed Elorinelle and Fig, and flung them clear. But the others, still frozen by the sight of a familiar and daunting foe, were hit by the full force of the strike and flung from their feet.
I reached deep inside for my new powers again. This time, I called up a Mud Geyser. The Vigor flowed through me, down into the ground, and across to where Trohai stood. It burst out, forming a pillar of mud that engulfed the Straight Path Augmenter. It took a lot of Vigor, and I could already feel myself starting to run low, but I needed to put some courage back into my pupils, and the best way to do that was to show how little they needed to fear.
“What is this shit?” Trohai sputtered as he tried to push away the mud all around him.
I pulled forth a more familiar element. Heat blazed down my arms and became a flaming ball through the power of Untamed Torch. I flung it at the mud-covered figure, then summoned another Torch, and another. As each one hit the mud around Trohai, water hissed away in a cloud of steam. The mud was baked hard by the heat and turned it into a solid clay shell.
Trohai grunted and strained, but a last Untamed Torch turned even the mud around his feet into a solid, unyielding mass. He was like a human statue, frozen in place by the combined strength of my techniques.
“You bastards!” he growled through a gap in the mud. “I’m going to fuck you up for this.”
“Sure you are, buddy,” I said. “Just as soon as you finish your stint as a garden ornament.”
The initiates laughed shakily as they picked themselves up off the ground.
I looked them in the eyes, each in turn, before I took the Sundered Heart in both hands. “Now, Trohai, you will die.”
I swung the sword in a wide arc, and Trohai’s head toppled from his shoulders in a fountain of blood. The initiates gasped, and I wiped the blood from my blade before I sheathed it.
“Let’s be clear on one thing,” I said to them. “You might have friends and family inside the city, but I don’t. If you can convince them not to fight alongside the cultists, then I will spare them. But should they choose to stay with my enemies, then they will fall before me.”
This was my most important lesson to them. We’d had our fun killing monsters and camping out in the desert, but this was different. This was a war between those who would do good and those who would do evil. My path wasn’t the Path of Peace but the Path of the Swordslinger. I didn’t really know what the latter entailed, which is why I planned on carving it out for myself.
“Come on,” I said. “We’ve wasted enough time. We need to keep moving.”
None of the initiates spoke; they simply followed as I made for the mountain steps leading up to the Sunstone Temple. The faster pace got the initiates’ blood pumping, and they were far more serious and determined after I’d
