The Tower of Emnu

Aaron hurried back to his camp, passing by landmarks in quick succession as he tried to create a map in his head. If his exploration had been sufficient and he had not missed anything, then this terrain of rocks and hills and small rivers filled with ice and snow stretched for a few miles at least. He could spot movement in the trees all the way to his camp, could see the light of torches and hear shouts.

The first thing he did was check his butcher site to make sure they had not found his base yet. He covered the bloody snow with a layer of fresh one with his bare hands, while frantically scanning the treeline. He half expected a whole army to burst out of the foliage, or rise from the snow like undead out of their graves. But nothing happened.

Aaron retreated to his base before anyone spotted him and decided it was too close to the forest. He extinguished the fire and took the half smoked meat with him. He left most stuff where it was besides the essentials. Health potions were first priority as well as the fire starting kit.

He packed everything into his backpack and then sped deeper into the hills, looking for another hideout. As temporary as it might be. Aaron discarded a few locations before he settled on a small, almost diagonal crevasse that ran through dark rock. The wall loomed above him, so close now it felt like he stood on the bottom of a bottomless pit. He actually felt slightly sick looking upwards. It felt like looking down an almost infinitely tall building and even though Aaron was not afraid of heights, it made his skin crawl.

With a slight shudder he squeezed into the small opening and made sure the meat would stay dry, by covering it with the water proof tent. He also stuffed his new provisions he had stolen underneath the tarp. In the end these pouches with dried meats and bread might be more valuable to him than any manastone could ever be. It all depended on how thorough they were able to trap him here and how easy it would be to escape.

He looked up at the sky and determined it was past midday and he still had hours until nightfall. He would use this time to cultivate, to fill his dantian as much as he could with some of the stolen manastones and then he would see if they had really trapped him in these hills or if he could fade away.

Aaron sat with his back to the rocky, uneven surface, crossed his legs and closed his eyes. Slowly he tried to calm down, tried to focus on his breath and the here and now instead of the problems looming above him in the future. He needed focus and at least a semblance of peace of mind to exert his will properly. He followed a deep breath with his mind, felt the air expand his lungs and saturate his blood with oxygen and mana.

The mana concentration here, close to the wall, felt slightly higher, in fact after a few breaths he realized that the mana seemed to fall on top of him like rain. It was as if he was sitting inside of a stream of mana. Aaron extended his nebulous mana detection sense that he neither understood nor fully trusted, as useful as it had been to him ever since he had discovered it. He could feel the mana flowing off the walls like a great big waterfall, saturating the surroundings and making his every breath feel like he was submerged in pure mana. When he did not focus on his senses or the mana, the difference was barely noticeable. Like a different temperature that was only 1 or 2 degrees different from anywhere else. But it was noticeable. He wondered how the Tower worked. The great master had told him mana was created in some sort of boundary effect of Qi leaving one universe and entering another or something like that?

If that was the case then how was he unable to sense the Qi that was produced by all things? Should it not be easier to isolate the Qi that had to be there, than go through all of the effort to create Qi out of mana and then cultivate with it?

Aaron pushed those thoughts aside, ignored his hunger that was gnawing at him like a slow acting curse, he was getting distracted again. He focused on his blood, felt the QI in it and started the slow act of drawing the Qi into his dantian before cycling it. Only after he was done with one full cycle he opened his money pouch and got the half absorbed manastone out. Without flinching he cut open his hand and pushed the dimly glowing stone into the wound.

He could feel his blood absorbing the mana, how it pulled on the stone, sucking out the energy with great speed. The first area where the mana pooled was his chest, where he had been struck with the arrow. His healed and reformed cells absorbed the wild stream of energy ceaselessly, but it was not the only spot where the mana formed small pools in his metaphysical senses. Every spot where he had been injured, his leg, his arms, they all became centers of absorption. Aaron was tempted to let his body have his fill, but he doubted it would make much of a difference if he actively cultivated either way.

His little attempts at making the Qi that was created flow to his will were overall more of a drop in the ocean. Or at least they would not slow down the Fiend-god art that was trying to restore an Qi equilibrium throughout his body. Healing did apparently use up the Qi that was stored in his cells. At least that was Aaron’s conclusion from his observations. If he was correct that also meant there was a limit to his ability to heal. What if a second arrow would have hit the same spot after he had just healed himself? He was not sure if the Health Potion would be enough to keep him alive in that case. He had seen it heal the female mages throat way back when he had ambushed their group, but it had been slower and way more inefficient than his brand of regeneration was. Aaron was still fairly sure that the Health Potion had helped as his body undoubtedly had used the potions energy to fuel the regeneration as well.

Aaron would have loved to do some tests and get a definitive answer or better, ask the great master about the peculiarities of his cultivation art, but that had to come later. For now his only task was to refill his dantian.

The half emptied manastone melted away before long as Aaron guided the Qi through his cultivation cycle and into his dantian. The first manastone followed a second and eventually a third. The unintended consequence of his injuries was that he was able to cultivate for a far longer time before his body stopped absorbing mana. He also found out that he could continue cultivating after that point and slowly deplete the Qi in his body by storing it in his dantian instead. The problem was just that the process was glacially slow. If he had to guess it was probably because he had to work against the Fiend-god art and was actively unbalancing the Qi equilibrium his cultivation art sought to create.

But it was still an important discovery and meant he could actually spend a long time cultivating, then refresh his body's Qi stores with manastones, while never stopping with the slightly addictive task of filling up his energy reserves.

When Aaron finally stopped it was already dark and his legs had fallen asleep. Wincing he stretched and did two repetitions of the Rejuvenating Fist kata before he stopped, basking in the relaxation of the technique. His body felt refreshed and whole again. Any signs of the injuries he had sustained just earlier that day had melted away with the manastones he had used and the kata had helped his body relax. He felt so comfortable, he was tempted to go to sleep. But his grumbling stomach reminded him of his priorities.

So he sat down and had a meal. A big meal. The meat had smoked nicely over his improvised smoker and although the wood he had used did not imbue the meat with any great flavors and he had no salt or pepper or god forbid spices, the meat had still turned out great. Or he at least he did not care for the imperfections in his ravenous hunger. Realistically the meat was half done and not very smoked at all. The fire had been too hot at the start and had seared the outside of the meat too much and the inside was only just cooked to barely raw. Still it was better to eat the meat now before it would spoil or grow moldy in the coming days. The cold did preserve things nicely, but it was still damp, always damp and not as dry as he would have liked. The nicely dried bread and jerky he had stolen would be much easier to keep and take with him.

Aaron was not planning on sticking around after all. He had seen the amount of people closing in on him and it was time to find a new temporary home. His short term plans were to flee with the least amount of Qi expended and slowly accumulate enough Qi until his dantian was filled to the brim and he could return to the great master for further instructions. He had enough manastones and beast cores to come back from his visit to the Cultivators and trade for a plethora of new techniques and knowledge he could leverage to his advantage.

Only then he would start thinking of how to permanently evade and secure a place in the tower for him. Climbing seemed like the most reasonable way, but if what everyone had said was correct, then climbing the tower alone was a very tough challenge, especially because Aaron’s power would basically stay at his current level for a long time. His only source of improvement in his combat power would come from techniques, knowledge and experience.

Aaron slowly crept through the hills, using all his senses and studying the terrain for any potential ambush sites he could use in case he was being chased into the hills. He did not plan to get discovered, but if experience had taught him anything then it was that most plans did not survive contact with the enemy. Not just in war, but also when trying to kill people in general.

Sometimes just a small deviation in the timeline of his plans was enough for everything to fall apart. So it was better to be prepared. Still conscious of his Qi expenditure he climbed up a steep, almost vertical wall, instead of using wind steps. It was louder, took a long time, but it did at least not tire him out. His improved physique made him more than strong enough to help him up almost any rock surface. He did not have any fear of falling at this distance, since Wind Steps would easily buffer his fall.

Aaron paused mid step. Actually he would never have to have fear heights ever again he realized, while he hung on a tiny ledge in the darkness. With Wind Steps he could jump off a mountain without ever being at risk of falling to his death. That sudden insight made Aaron smirk as he leapt upwards to another small ledge. He barely reached it and pulled himself up with his fingertips. His grip was unnaturally strong, so much so that the weight of his body was not really a problem anymore. Feats of athleticism that would have been the result of years of dedicated exercise were simple to him now and that was an empowering feeling. Aaron had never really enjoyed rock climbing, but now it was fun. Even in this absurd situation he could not help himself and frown at his own emotions.

Since when did he have fun while he was on the job? He had to focus and leave behind any distractions or he would die. This was really not the time for introspection either.

Aaron slapped his face gently to wake himself up once he had reached the top of the plateau and looked towards the nearby forest looming up in front of him. Lights broke the darkness, throwing long shadows up the tall trees and Aaron could smell the scent of fire and grilled food as well as a hint of alcohol on the wind. The winds strange regularity in the tower made it easy to guess exactly where the smells came from. Slowly Aaron crept from rock to rock, hid in between ledges and ducked behind boulders to give his profile the least amount of contrast compared to the surrounding terrain while he peered into the bright light of torches.

A string of campfires ran along the edge of the forest and his pursuers had set up torches at equal intervals in between the hills and the first trees. Where the forest was basically part of the hilly terrain they were actually cutting down trees. He could hear their axes bite into wood in the distance and there the torches were even up in the trees. Some as high as the highest canopy. He could also spot guards posted behind the row of torches all along to the horizon. Men and women with bows or crossbows, clad in leather or mages in their robes were watching the darkness, alert and ready while the rest of their team relaxed at the nearby communal fires.

Aaron crept closer to the edge of a plateau and found an angle where he could directly look at one of those camp fires. A dozen people were sitting there, talking, eating, playing what looked like dice or sleeping in bedrolls.

There was noise in the night and it felt more like a group of college kids going camping than like a military operation. Which was good for Aaron on one hand, but the sheer precision and organization required to set up camps and torches and camp fires that would cover each other in a few hours was a sign of someone coordinating these groups skillfully and that was terrible news for him.

Honestly, this was beyond anything he had expected and Aaron was not keen on trying to fight his way through this perimeter. The atmosphere at the camp fires suggested that they did not fear him. But the preparations were extensive.

So what did it mean?

It meant someone with experience and a lot of organizational talent was leading this little army of at least a few hundred people, if every camp had the same amount of guards.

Aaron scoffed to himself and let his gaze wander along the line of torches and camp fires behind them. He would see how good their organization really was. He really doubted that they had surrounded the whole area with this level of outposts and people. It was just a matter of time, patience and observation to find a weakspot.

He chose one direction and started to creep along the edge of the plateaus in the darkness, slowly scouting the people who had set up camp so close to him.

Over the next hour he went almost all the way to the end of the siege where the hills smoothed out and the wall closed in. The torches and camps at first had looked all proper, but the further away from the center he got, the easier it was to spot some irregularities. A torch a bit further away from the others, two camp fires too close together, leaving dark gaps beyond the torch light. The quality and alertness of the guards also told him a lot about the teams that had been stationed there. Aaron really wished he had binoculars or something. But his eyesight was definitively better than it had been before.

Still he would literally kill for some night vision of any kind. But his small scouting mission was still successful. He noted 2 distinct weaknesses he could exploit. And the entire time he scouted he thought about this current problem, thought about how to best break out and get away cleanly.

The most important problem was that he could not discern if the irregularities towards the end of the line was a trap laid by whoever had designed this encirclement. If he tried to exploit the weakness and run into an ambush there was a 90% chance for him to die horribly. No, tonight was probably not the right night to escape, no matter his food situation.

First and foremost the enemy did not know about his hunger. Quite the opposite, the team from Ambition he had ambushed earlier that day would report that he stole a bunch of supplies from them and for a normal guy that would probably last for a week at least. So they probably were not planning on starving him out. Although in reality that would be the best strategy against him.

No, whoever created this little impromptu siege was clearly planning to trap him here for a while. Hell he would not be surprised to wake up to some walls they built over night or something. Which would be stupid considering he could just jump over or on top of walls and obstacles were more help than hindrance for him. The enemy knew that too. So what was their plan?

If Aaron had to guess then they would tighten the noose and move into the hills slowly, clearing the outer perimeter as a huge group during the day, moving slowly and over all obstacles. Then they would hunker down in the night and then repeat this. But maybe he was wrong. There was a chance they would use a magical solution, like sending a bunch of spells at him. Indirect fire would probably smoke Aaron out of his hiding spots. He did not trust any hideout he had found so far to withstand something like a giant fireball.

So how could he deal with this? Ideally he would sneak away unseen and unheard in the night. Leaving all of these guys here for days on end while Aaron was happily exploring the first floor. That would be the most optimal outcome. But that was not realistic at this point. Not without setup, tactics and a bit of luck.

Slowly while he scouted out the terrain towards the other direction, towards the stairways, he had an idea. Back in the army they had lectures on military history. It had not been very interesting to Aaron for the most part, but a few things had stuck. Like the lessons learned from the pacific theater of World War 2. The Japanese had been terrible enemies although almost all of their equipment was inferior and their supply situation terrible. How? They had scared the ever living shit out of the Americans. Night attacks had been really common and nobody had ever used snipers like the Japanese. They would leave behind snipers behind enemy lines so they could shoot them from behind, even though it would cost the snipers lives. Aaron was not planning to go down that route, but the whole terrify your enemy part he could agree with.

Because there was an inherent flaw in this enemy formation. If Aaron attacked at one point unexpectedly then logically the whole line should move up to support them, right? Or if they had a quick relief force they would send that. Either way an attack would scare, wake up and disrupt probably everyone trying to surround him, or if he was lucky the entire line.

If he managed to lure them into the hills in pursuit he could use that hole in the perimeter and the thinning line to break out at another point. If they did not move, he could simply murder his way through at a single target, but that was unlikely.

If the enemy reacted correctly and stayed put, waiting for him to come out without getting baited in, then Aaron was free to attack them to his hearts content.

There are few things more scary than knowing that someone is out there to kill you, that he could attack you at any point in time and that if you are unlucky you are dead before anyone can help you. That kind of terror would spread, it would keep people awake and if not today then tomorrow night the whole enemy camp would be sleep deprived, anxious and terrified. All things that made men less attentive, less effective.

His probing attacks would also tell him a lot about the enemy plans and give him more information to escape eventually. All Aaron needed was a good way to attack.

And as it happened he had snatched a whole quiver of arrows just earlier today. He was still not entirely confident with his bow, but this was the perfect opportunity to train and he had a literal shooting gallery lined up and ready for him.

It was time to see if he could not get the hang of this whole archery thing.