Morning loomed on the frozen, silent plains across the horizon as far as the eye could see. The vast forests that dotted the landscape seemed to come alive when the sun finally rose from the east. The animals of the taiga went about their business and all manner of acts occurred; some ate, some hunted, and others observed from the shadows. Life trudged along with the beginning of a new day.
As for Reed? He watched it all unfold from above upon a cloud. In a literal sense. In the past week, since Reed started his solo act, he did a great number of things. Various expeditions, hunting missions, and a lot of training out in the wilderness.
The result: Total freedom, as he described it to his friends. He'd made leaps and bounds and had improved upon his already astonishing abilities. One of his favorite things to do as of late was 'cloud watch' as he had termed the act.
He'd fly up into the sky, sit on actual clouds and pass the time watching the events transpired down below with his supernatural vision. Even at over six-thousand feet in the sky, he could see what happened down on the ground with relative ease.
Lu'um sat beside Reed and twirled her hair as they stared at a particularly interesting event. It was Astor and company; they were about to ambush a pair of Razor Wyrms, ferocious lizards that looked like a cross between a dragon and a centipede; these beasts were not trifling, unlike the Reel Fishers that even skilled mortals could hunt.
They were war machines, born out of the harshest conditions of the North. These draconic berserkers were territorial to the extreme and more than often, encroached upon smaller towns — a horrifying disaster for mortals. Every couple of years, a town ended up vanishing off the grid. It caught the attention of the ministry of intelligence, so they sent their investigators to the towns that'd gone silent.
An in-depth investigation by the empire's officials brought the grim truth to light. They discovered the missing towns — all in ruins, overgrown and abandoned — destroyed by an unknown creature of considerable ferocity. Evidence discovered in these towns pointed towards the theory that an overwhelming force destroyed the town before they even could even call for assistance.
After that, they gave Razor Wyrm hunting missions priority alpha designation — requiring immediate attention, A.S.A.P. There were high risk, high reward extermination bounties for the fearsome beasts that only contenders could accept given the deadly nature of the targets. For mortals to hunt a Razor Wyrm was tantamount to suicide; only the likes of a superhuman contender stood a chance against them.
Reed noticed that Astor and the rest looked tense; it was most likely their first face hunting something this dangerous. The creatures regularly stood at over five meters and had a body length in the range of ten meters. Covered in a thick hide that resembled muddy, hardened steel in appearance, they looked like walking mountains at a distance, if not for their numerous sharpened claws sticking out of their shells.
Lu'um laid down Reed's lap and said, "Not going to help them? I'm sure they'll get mad if you interfere in their hunt, though. They're trying too hard, even if they want to get stronger..."
"No. We'll let them handle it themselves, but if the fight progresses the point of catastrophic failure, I'll step in and give 'em a hand. I won't watch them die, even if they get mad at me afterward," Reed said. He watched them struggle against the pair of Razor Wyrms with great difficulty.
For Reed, killing Razor Wyrms was a simple job. He cooked them alive from the inside themselves or tore them apart at a distance by the joints until they were completely immobilized. It was a simple, if not a tedious task, but it worked every time he fought them. He'd long since considered them overgrown bugs that only looked threatening at first glance.
Of course, Reed's perspective couldn't be trusted, given his extraordinary abilities. For normal contenders, Razor Wyrms were a nightmare to deal with. Even for genius contenders like Astor and the group, it was still a challenging ordeal that required serious concentration and planning.
Contenders didn't tear apart Razor Wyrms by their joints, or experiment on them to find the fastest way to kill them like Reed did. He was unique in the way that he violated common sense wherever he went, often to the frustration of the people around him.
By the time he had finished yawning, Astor's team had already finished crippling one of the Wyrms. He whistled in surprise and said, "Looks like they're out for blood today, eh? I took my eyes off them for a second and look at what they've already done."
"From the way they attacked, it looks like they knew about the creature's weakness beforehand. Not that I expected anything less from them," said Lu'um as she glanced at the fight for a moment. "They attacked the creature's joints and took out the first one before it even realized what happened. But it looks like the second one's caught on to the trick..."
The remaining Wyrm immediately locked its joints in place and sacrificed its freedom of movement in return for an impenetrable defense. It couldn't whip around and strike with its characteristic ferocity; instead it adopted another behavior.
When something threatened its weak points, it'd lock up and bury its foes. It'd rush toward its prey and grasp onto them with an insanely powerful grip, using dozens of claws to secure its unfortunate victim.
What followed was a quick descent into the ground, in an attempt to suffocate its prey. It'd bury its opponents and leave them underground until they died. A nasty way to go by all means of the imagination. The team seemed aware of the Wyrm's behavior and rushed towards it in desperation, shocking Reed.
It was a ballsy move, that was for sure. Even Reed didn't dare get up close and personal with an enraged Razor Wyrm. They ran right up to the living mountain of claws and immobilized him with an artificial gravity field, a basic technique that required minimal understanding.
The move wouldn't have normally worked on the beast, but it wasn't used in the usual way. Astor, Horatio, and Sebastian all simultaneously conjured up their fields and they overlapped on top of each other to great effect. They had locked it in place with the overwhelming power of numbers, leaving it in a vulnerable state.
Astrid took the opportunity and conjured a massive lance of heat and light that instantly set everything in vicinity ablaze. In a single move, she took the lance and shoved it down the wretched creature's mouth. It was one hell of a way to kill the beast, but it did the charm. The lance burnt its way through the Wyrm's insides and it stopped struggling after a couple of seconds.
"That was a risky plan, but it worked, I suppose. I still don't like it though, it hinged too much on them keeping the Wyrm in place. God forbid it raged around and broke free out the field..." Reed said.
"Fortune favors the bold, Ka'an. They took the initiative and reaped the rewards for doing so, their lives and a hard-earned victory. What more could a warrior ask for, other than living to see another day?"
The pair had been watching over Astor's team for the past week now and then when they had the time. Reed thought it wouldn't hurt them to have a guardian angel watch over them. They wouldn't ever know and he'd have some peace of mind knowing they were under his care, albeit for a short duration.
The majority of his time was spent exploring the North, taking on priority alpha missions to secure funds for the future, as he described it. His early retirement plan of sorts, that'd he use to buy a nice home, grav-ship, and maybe, a cute dog. He would enjoy the slow life one of these days, he thought to himself.
Lu'um did as she always did; she tagged along and followed Reed around, making sure he didn't do anything too ridiculous. That didn't work out all the time, given Reed's inherent nature. Trouble came around their doorstep, whether or not she tried to stop it...
A few weeks of this hectic lifestyle later, it finally ended. Everyone had been called to the spire for an announcement by Axtorius through their tomes. When all members of the class arrived, Axtorius walked out of the void, looking a bit tired and grumpy.
He glanced around for a second and then started speaking as he conjured up an image of a distant scene. It was an empty land that looked rife with corruption and darkness.
"We've finished the preparations for the final part of your training. This shattered, forsaken hellscape will be the location where you will be tested," he stated. A grimace formed on his face and he paused for a moment before he started speaking again.
"This place... is called the Outer Reaches. It's a term used to describe the edges of the continent where the Infestation lies, our greatest enemy. It's time you kids finally learn the whole truth. You've earned the right since you've committed yourselves to the duty of becoming contenders."
"We, contenders and conquerors, have been at war with an enemy for eons now, something we've kept hidden from mortals since ancient times. The Infestation, as we've called it. The natives that existed on the continent before us called it, The Grand Mistake, apparently. Why they called it that is something for the scholars to find out. For us, we have more... urgent matters to attend to, as you'll soon learn."
He waved his hand and an image of various horrors appeared in front of them. Grotesque figures that far, far removed from what life should look like. The mere sight of them made the entire class feel a dreadful hostility that rose from inside them, as if looking at the twisted monstrosities was absolutely intolerable for them.
Anima waves raged across the auditorium and a frightening storm of pressure washed over the spire as the class unconsciously drew upon their powers. Axtorius snapped his fingers and the image disappeared. Then he tapped his foot and a shock-wave startled the class out of their bloodlust.
"You're all wondering why you suddenly went berserk, right? The answer's simple: your Alma reacted to the sight of the Infested and influenced you. The Infested are the remains of something that we've been researching for millennia; who they are-, er, or rather who they 'were' is the big question."
"What's left of them is a shattered joke of an existence; these abominations are twisted expressions of what was once a living thing, now turned into... something else. They're hostile to all living things and bring with them their corruption, rendering anything they touch permanently uninhabitable."
He snapped his finger and an image of the continent winked into existence for all to see; it was the normal world map that everyone knew about. All four empires, their counties and, finally, their borders. "I presume you're all familiar with this standard world map, yes?"
The class remained silent; no one dared speak a word. Axtorius's face looked heavy and tired. There was something frightening about that. This man, who often looked invincible and indifferent, like a hero out of legends now looked so feeble and small right now.
Reed, in particular, was distressed beyond belief. That man was one of his world's pillars, someone he could always depend on. Why did he look so fragile? It scared him. He felt his heart beginning to thrum out of his chest. Lu'um grabbed one of his arms and pulled him in close, out of concern.
"Let me show you all... the real truth about this world," he whispered.
He snapped his fingers and the world map changed.
That day, Reed and his companions finally understood why the path of contenders was described as a tremendous burden, and not a gift...