At the end of a long day, a young man wearing a glowing exoskeleton was embroiled in a clash against a Fiend that resembled a large bear. The only evidence that this thing wasn't an actual bear was the four large talons that stuck out of its gnarly paws – and the fact its head was missing. A beautiful blood-red flower poked out of the bloody stump that served as the Fiend's neck. The flower almost shone in the light of the setting sun.
Ducking under a swing as the Fiend swung its mighty paws. The boy outstretched his hand, a beautiful knife made of ethereal amber light appeared in his hand in the next moment. Slashing at the Fiend, three bloody marks were left on the Fiend's skin.
Having stepped close in order to attack the Fiend, the boy had left himself open to attack. Moving faster than its first attack, the boy was sent flying as he was struck by the Fiend's attack.
Recoiling, the boy's master shook his head.
"Tut tut Lauri, if you leave yourself open every time you go in for an attack you might be able to finish off your foe, but they might just be able to finish off you too."
Not hearing his master's wise words, Lauri bounced across the grass, leaving dirty smudges across the sea of green. As his bounces came to an end, Lauri slid slightly further.
Her Aegis protected Lauri's body, having summoned the armour's helmet Lauri's head was – mostly – protected from the impact. Getting onto his knees, he waited a moment to let the dizziness that had built up inside his head disperse.
Tilting his head, he glared at the Fiend through the slits in his helmet.
'That hurt you bastard…'
Dashing forward, he held his hand out, his light knife had been knocked from his hand during the Fiend's attack, currently resting somewhere in the grass. Allowing the knife to disappear in a shimmer, another knife appeared in his hand.
The knife rested in Lauri's hand for only a moment.
Stopping, Lauri held his arm up, a glistening knife held tightly in his grasp. During his walk home with Laurence, Lauri had tried to think of ways he could utilise [Light's Edge] that would give him an advantage over others. One of the ideas he had come up with was simple. If he could create a surplus of weapons at a moment's notice, why not just throw them?
Swinging his arm down, Lauri sent the knife flying towards his foe. Intending to hit the creature in its neck – at least what remained of its neck – Lauri's aim was slightly off. The knife still hit the Fiend snugly landing into its shoulder.
Hissing, Lauri held his hands up.
'My aim still needs some practice.'
A recreation of Laurence's staff appeared between his fingers.
Laurence had set his apprentice upon this Fiend for two reasons: One, this Fiend was uncomfortably close to the place they called home. Without their intervention, the Fiend would begin to smell the normal people who lived there, so it had to be dealt with. Two, Laurence wanted to see how far his Apprentice had come. The Fiend was of the same rank as Lauri, a Risen Beast.
'Another test, ugh.'
Tightening his fingers around the staff, Lauri met the Fiend as it charged towards him.
Lauri and the bear with no head were of the same rank. The only difference between them was that the Fiend had no intelligence to speak of. Being a Risen Beast, it was only threatening towards mundane humans. Even to the inexperienced Lauri, it should not be much of a problem to deal with.
The bear rose up onto its haunches, both of its paws rose into the air, giving Lauri a good look at its underbelly. Blood-red vines spread across the underside of the creature's body, the vines seemed to spread across the Fiend's body. The fur on its underside was relatively bare showing parts of its patchy skin and the vines, the vines continued around its body continuing into the fur. The vines weren't the only thing Lauri noticed, protrusions of sharp crimson bone stuck out from the creatures' underbelly, these spikes seemed to be made out of the same material as the Fiend's large claws.
Lauri's lip turned up in disgust.
'What the hell is this thing?'
As if reading his mind, Laurence began to speak. Sat beneath the shade of a beautiful tree, a lazy smile spread across his lips as he spoke.
"Did you know, you're not actually fighting the bear, you're fighting the flower sprouting from its neck."
Jumping to the side, Lauri rolled under the Fiend's attack as it brought its claws down on him. Righting himself, Lauri was ready for the Fiend's counterattack, the Fiend swung again, but this time Lauri rolled under the creature's body. Swinging his staff, Lauri smashed it against the creature's leg.
Gritting his teeth, Lauri scowled.
'Why did I think this was going to work…'
Struck by another attack, Lauri was again sent sprawling away. Bouncing a few times, he came to a roll close to Laurence.
"The flower is actually a kind of parasite. I thought I had eradicated them, but it seems I missed a few. What luck we came across this one on our leisurely stroll home."
On his hands and knees, Lauri glared at his mentor.
"Leisurely? Leisurely for who?"
Laurence shrugged.
"I'm having a nice time."
Rolling his eyes, Lauri got up to his feet once more. Turning his ire back to the Fiend, Lauri scowled.
'I don't know how I'm supposed to beat this thing. Sure it can't seem to deal a scratch on me because of Her Aegis, I really lucked out on getting an Awakened armour. Especially since nothing weaker than an Awakened can even leave a scratch on it.' Rubbing his sides, Lauri's scowl grew deeper. 'Pity about myself.'
As Lauri thought to himself, the sun had finally set. The final amber light of the day vanished, leaving the world in near darkness, and with this dusk came a surge of power within Lauri's soul.
Feeling this new strength, Lauri's scowl lightened.
'Right, [Brightest night] how could I forget.' Raising his hand, Lauri hesitated for a moment. 'If [Light's Edge] uses light to create weapons, what happens during the night… Well, I guess I can still see, so there's still light.'
Lauri summoned his comically shaped sword, unlike before, this time the light comprising the blade was a pale white. Staring at it, Lauri frowned. 'I need to see what a real sword looks like, I've only seen them in kids' books.'
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Lauri dashed foward, raising his sword. Lauri again met with the Fiend. A surge of power ran through his body as the creature raised an arm, Lauri raised his pale blade.
Blade and arm met in the air, and the blade won.
Slicing through the Fiend's arm with relative ease, Lauri wasted no time in taking a step back. His sword slashed again, slicing the Fiend's other arm off, causing the creature to slump to the ground now it was unable to support itself.
Raising his sword into the air, he gripped the hilt with both hands as he pointed the blade down. Considering the end of the sword wasn't as sharp compared to his knife, it took Lauri a moment to push it inside the Fiend's body. But the Fiend continued to move.
'What… Oh, right. I'm fighting the wrong thing Fiend.'
Turning his attention to the blood-red flower growing from the bloody stump. An idea crossed Lauri's mind.
Letting go of his sword still half stuck in the Fiend's side, Lauri moved his hand to the flower. Wrapping his hands around it, the Fiend began to move.
"Nah."
Boosted by [Brightest Night] Lauri pulled on the flower with all his might. Lauri's attempt was met by a loud cracking sound as the flower was pulled from the Fiend's body. Taking a step back, Lauri continued to pull as a length of blood-red vines came out after it.
An amber-coloured blade appeared in Lauri's hand, slashing the vines, Lauri let go of it.
The vines writhed for a minute before stopping, the petals of the flower slowly began to close.
[You have slain a Husk-Born Beast, Crimson Vine.]
Dropping onto his butt, Lauri reached up to his face. He sighed as his fingers were met with the cool chitin of his helmet. Dismissing it, the helmet disappeared in a swirl of strings. Rubbing his brow, he heard footsteps walking up behind him.
"It wasn't a Risen, it was only a Husk-Born Beast."
Rubbing his jaw, Laurence squinted.
"I suppose that makes sense. The body is Risen in rank, I suppose the Crimson Vine didn't have time to grow yet." Clapping Lauri on the shoulder, Laurence laughed. "We'll get around to it sometime in the future."
Sighing, Lauri looked back at the corpse, his eyes lingered on the pale sword sticking out of its side.
'It's interesting.' Holding up the knife he was still holding, he observed the white light that had been used to construct it. 'So the type of light I use to construct my weapons affects how they look. Just like how the light of the setting sun had turned my weapons orange, so what's giving off a white light?'
Looking around, Lauri tilted his head, high above, so high, higher than anything else in these lands. The pale surface of the moon filled Lauri's eyes.
'Oh, that'll do.'
Turning to see Laurence, he blinked as Laurence expectedly watched him.
"Uh, sorry, did you say something?"
Laurence himself blinked a few times.
"I asked if you were ready to get moving, we're almost home after all."
"Oh right." Jumping to his feet, Lauri dismissed all of the constructs he had summoned. Lauri enthusiastically nodded.
"Well, alrighty then, let's go."
As the two were about to set off, Lauri paused.
"Wait," Turning back to the corpse of the Crimson Vine's victim, he pointed a finger at it. "Aren't we forgetting the soul cores?"
Laurence turned back, his smile stretched across his lips.
"Forgetting? They're not mine to worry about."
Rolling his eyes, Lauri walked back to the corpse, summoning a new knife for the job.
Gathering soul cores was dirty work, but someone had to do it.