I nodded. “I’ll do my best.”
“Do better,” Tymo said and left me to join the others for dinner.
Chapter Twenty
I knocked on Kegohr’s door a few hours before sunrise. His snoring cut off abruptly, but I didn’t hear the crashing and moving that I’d expected. Even Kegohr’s massive form was capable of a little subtlety when he needed it.
Vesma opened her cell door behind me, and Mahrai joined us a minute later. We snuck through the main hall, soundlessly, and slipped out into the freezing dark of the Vigorous Zone.
Fresh air washed over us, chasing away the scent of incense and dust, forcing the fog of sleep away from us with a jolt. The flaming spurts of the mountaintop around us illuminated the pathway. We walked until Dying Sun Monastery was barely visible behind us. A flash of fire illuminated the weapon on Kegohr’s back. It wasn’t the same as his trusty stone-headed mace, and I couldn’t help but stare at the thing.
“Where’d you get that?” I asked him in astonishment.
“Master Berrin made it for me,” Kegohr said. “He said that my old club was a little too unsophisticated for my power now, so he made me this one.”
Kegohr tossed me the huge mace with a laugh. I pushed fire through my Physical channels and caught it with a grunt, surprised at its weight. Even with magically assisted strength in my veins, the thing must have weighed more than me. A polished wooden shaft, almost five feet long, stretched out and curled into a mighty steel head. Flanges curled decoratively up around the head, and gold runes glinted in the firelight. The flanges and sheer weight of the thing gave Kegohr an edge against both flesh and armor. Coupled with his enormous strength, it was a hell of a weapon. I hefted it in my hands, impressed at the workmanship of Kegohr’s teacher.
“What do they want you to do, knock down Wysaro Castle with this?”
“I probably could, too,” Kegohr said with a laugh. “It’s amazing.”
“Did they give you any new weapons?” I asked the others.
Mahrai snorted. “Apparently, my greatest weapon is my Augmentation, not a staff I can belt people around the head with. So, no.”
“Same old spear,” Vesma said. “Nothing new yet. Maybe they’ll give us new weapons after we finish training with them. If we don’t get kicked out.”
I cast my eyes back to the monastery. “There’s no way they can hear us out here. And they seem to sleep pretty heavily. I haven’t had any issues with waking anyone up.”
Mahrai raised a saucy eyebrow and chuckled. “That a fact?”
“If they can sleep through my snoring,” Kegohr assured us, “then they won’t have heard us leave. Any luck with your Environmental Augmentation, Effin?”
I shook my head. “Nothing. Half of me wonders if Tymo is stalling me.”
“I doubt it,” Vesma said. “Look what you can do with Physical Augmentation.”
“Well, Kegohr seems to be the expert these days,” I said with a smile. “Want to show us what you can do, big guy? How about a rematch?”
Kegohr grinned. “You’re on.”
“Oh, this’ll be good,” Mahrai said as she sat down on a nearby rock. “Try not to break the mountain while you’re at it, boys.”
I unbuckled my weapons and handed them to Vesma. Kegohr laid his new mace beside Mahrai and turned to face me. My mind flashed back to our little bout a few weeks ago. Kegohr had been confident then, but I’d quickly managed to turn it around on him. But there wasn’t a shred of doubt on his face anymore.
Kegohr cracked his huge knuckles with a ripple of reports that reminded me of gunfire and raised his fists in a basic fighting stance. The Spirit of the Wildfire flooded through him, and flames burst from his skin in their usual orange color.
“No blue?” I asked as I advanced forward.
“Just wait and see,” Kegohr replied confidently.
I maintained my Augmented strength and opened up the sparring with a flying kick. Kegohr caught the blow on his forearms and shoved outward. I used his momentum to turn a backflip in the air and find my feet. But Kegohr took advantage of the opening with a punch that I barely managed to duck. His mighty fist whizzed over my head, trailed fire, and crashed into a boulder behind me. The rock cracked at the blow, leaving a cloud of dust and debris.
I fired off a couple of rapid body shots, but Kegohr just laughed and clipped me with a backfist. My feet left the ground, and I shot into mid-air. I fought through the fuzzy lights, caught myself with a burst of Flight, and landed in a fighting stance.
“Damn, big guy,” I said as I rubbed my shoulder. “That’s terrifying.”
Kegohr slammed his fists together, and blue fire washed through his usual orange. It wreathed itself around his body, flared around his hands, and burned brightly enough to hurt my eyes. He came in like a wrecking ball, and I instantly switched my Physical channels from fire to water. I couldn’t match his strength, even at Spirit of the Wildfire’s base level, and Kegohr was shifting versions of his technique like this was some kind of anime.
Kegohr threw a jab, but I ducked around it and replied with a roundhouse kick to the inside of his leg. He didn’t even flinch from my kick and responded with a hook powerful enough to take my head off. I leaned back, and Kegohr’s massive fist whistled past my nose by a fraction of an inch. His knee crashed into my gut and lifted me from the ground. The air vanished from my body, lights danced in front of my eyes, and I gasped as he caught hold of my leg and swung me around like a rag doll. I tumbled over
