The Storm was rebellious and disliked being confined even in Ciaran's body. Every time he put even a whisp of it inside his body, it went ballistic.
The pain was horrendous, but it was the least of the boy's problems. Every time he failed it left him broken and paralyzed. He had to lay on the mountain, blizzard all around him, praying he doesn't get killed while he couldn't move.
The bear was nice enough to give him a hint, and not to eat him, asking it for more would be too egotistic. The bats still didn't bother with the boy, his scrams were loud, but not nearly as much as the blizzard outside.
After a few days of unsuccessful experiments, the boy had to give up and go back to the safer regions of the Tundra. He had no choice, he was hungry. He put on his mask and changed his appearance to that of the Hunter White.
He was weakened, but he could still catch most prey in Rank Two and below. As he came out of the inner regions he started to run into hunters.
"White, have you heard? That brat Ciaran has been spotted. Want to look for him with us?" They asked him.
He refused, saying he got injured on the hunt. No one blamed him, as they saw where he came back from. White and Silver were two of the most famous of the Hunters. They were one of the few who had actively challenged a Rank Five beast and not only lived to tell the tale but also won.
Very few Hunters ever messed with them, and even tho Silver was known to be stronger, White was known to be a crewer. There were multiple accounts of him skinning his enemies alive, and allowing them to warn the others, before succumbing to a slow-reacting poison. The fact he pulled the same thing multiple times was more than a little disturbing, but the fact he was still chatty and kind at the camp is what got their skin to crawl.
The man was vicious and merciless, but he usually didn't start fights, none that they knew about anyway. In fact, he had helped many of the Hunters survive in the Tundra. They feared him, but most liked him. He was cruel but only to those who actively provoked him. There was even a time when a Hunter stole his kill, but the man just let him have it and hunted another one.
"I don't really like the idea of hunting down a child, but how about this, I will notify any Hunter I come across if I see him. That way at least I can be somewhat helpful in your hunts." Ciaran offered.
When they were gone he headed to a Rank Two hare. The thing was fast and cautious, but Ciaran had snuck up on its kind multiple times.
Before he could get into range however the snow bunny ran. The boy was startled, but in a second he killed it with a wave of his hand. He was starving, and there was no shame for a Mage to be hunting with magic.
He picked up his kill, which was an amusing sight as the hare was as big as a normal ten-year-old child, and started a fire so he could cook it.
While waiting he took out some Rank Five jerky and eat a little. His teeth weren't so strong that he could eat a whole meal out of it, and his stomach would digest it for at least a week, but for now, it would keep the hunger away.
He would have liked to soften the meat further, but he was lacking in tools, and in time. His Water and Wind magic were not gone, but the voices of the elements were and with them the control he held over them.
From his stealth to his alchemy, everything he once was, was now gone, replaced with something new.
'I can't believe I have to spend time "Finding myself". the mear thought of that disgusts me.' He thought as he was preparing the meat.
He had skinned and chopped the hare into tiny pieces, added a few wild vegetables, and placed it in a wooden bowl he had carved out himself. It wasn't going to be his best meal, but without Diana, he didn't feel the need to show off his culinary skills.
Without his control over Water, it took him more than two hours to prepare the meal. Before, he would have been done in minutes.
'Relearning things is also on the agenda it seems.' He sighed. The boy had a lot of work to do, and only one of his tasks was straightforward.
'Getting to Rank Three would likely need a few operations. Understanding his magic was going to be extremely hard, as I don't even understand the nature of my element. In comparison, killing a few Mages will be simple enough. It would be hard, but as long as it bleeds it could be killed.'
He was thinking about how to tackle his tasks most efficiently when he heard a noise.
"Look at what we have here boys, a lone hun-"
Before he could finish his sentence, all seven Hunters in his group died. They were just some low-ranked chumps so Ciaran didn't feel like interrupting his meal. He just cast his Storm in their way and told it to shut them up. As he was chewing on his meal, he noticed something in the way his element chose to kill.
It sucked the life out of them, while simultaneously ripping them to shreds. It was crew and vicious. It had the means to be efficient and it was when necessary, but often times it chose to be showier and dramatically extra.
"I don't get influenced by you, do I? You are just the magical way my nature is manifested." He asked, and the connection deepened. He then looked at the pile of meat and bones that had been scattered all over the nearby trees.
"Even though you were worthless in life, you found your purpose in death." He said to the soon-to-be rotten flesh and laughed.
He wanted to begin testing his theory right away, but he knew better. He was still exhausted and in the middle of enemy territory. His experiments had to wait, but that didn't mean he couldn't have an after-meal workout.
Challenging a group of Hunters would usually be hard, especially with the arrangements of the priest. Ciaran was strong, but they weren't weak either. Fighting off a group that had multiple Rank Threes was no easy task, and that was why he decided to go for the fools first.
Not everyone liked the idea of sharing the rewards. Some decided to hunt for the boy in smaller groups, or alone. And Jasmine, a tall Hunter, who preferred to use ranged weapons like bows and crossbows was one of them.
She was tall, about one meter and ninety centimeters ("six foot two point eight). She had short hair and scars all over her body. She was in her forties, and in the third rank, and sadly for her, she was too proud to hunt a boy down with a group of other adults.
She was still hunting for Ciaran though, pride was one thing, but money was another.
'Dealing with her will be easy. Killing her before someone else notices a Storm, not so much.' He knew he had to be fast, but he didn't have confidence in killing a Wind user as efficiently as he would other element users.
He felt a familiar calling from her, like an old friend he hadn't seen in years. He knew what she was, and what she had, but he also knew that she had to die.
He took off his mask and changed his appearance to that of Ciaran Clades, and then he entered stealth. Without the Wind, it was much harder to hide his scent and to cover his noise, but he managed. Or so he thought before a barrage of arrows came flying toward his head.
She felt him creeping in on her and shot before asking questions. When she saw it was the prey she was hunting, she prepared to finish the job quickly, lest someone comes and steals her kill.
"If you live through this, tell me how it felt." He said as he activated his new spell, Storm Field. In a sphere around him, the Storm had taken over. This was his newest spell, and he just found a great guinea pig to test it out on.
She shot her arrows but to her shock and horror, the wind was sucked out of them, and they fell to the ground tight after being fired. She wanted to run away, but she found that her body couldn't listen to her. She was about to begin begging for her life, but before she could, the boy grabbed her two cheeks and twisted. Her neck made a pop that the boy found satisfying, and she died.
"Alright, experiment number one was a great success." He cheered, as he left the crime scene.