1 02: Breath

staring at the face of death, Adam smiled, his fist opening, and his flaming sword coming to

pierce the lions throat. Adam knew this wouldn't do much much but stun it, so he leapt out of his makeshift hut, grabbed the branch above him, and catapulted himself to almost a quarter of the way up the behemoth of a tree. he had a few minutes before the lion would even discover his location, so he pulled two arrows from his quiver, launching them at the lion in a spiraling manner, his magicka leaving a red and blue trail as the arrows sped through the air, the lions thick and dense skull was pierced by both arrows, and it fainted from a combination of pain and the narcotic effect of the arrows. Lions were built much like one of your worlds tanks, especially in that there are few fully vital organs, so it is difficult to kill one. Adam knew his position was now compromised, so he quickly killed the lion by tearing out its spine and main arteries, then took its eye before speeding off into the forest.

…

It was about three trèkæ now, and Adam was Exhausted, but he forced himself to stay awake long enough to find a steel-wood branch, and made an alter from it as quickly as he could: Looking somewhat like an anvil, the alter was now fitted with the best ornaments he could muster -considering the circumstances- and Adam began engraving the necessary runes along the edges. After completing this he lay the lion's eye down on the alter, along with a flame leaf, a lightning fish, still slightly flopping(he had kept it alive in a bucket until now), a live shadow rabbit, tied so as to not escape, as well as a dead maknell. He then placed them in the proper positions, with an ornate gold laced glass orb at the center.

"afíste ta technourgímatá mou na kathodigithoún apó ti fotiá kai ti thysía mou gia na schimatísoun éna néo kai pio ischyró antikeímeno." he chanted, then lit two candles on the left of the alter.

He then continued to chant, now in a seemingly different tongue, "artificia mea flectantur ab igne meo et sacrificio meo ut res novas et validiores formas.."

He now lit two more candles, this time to the right of the alter. All the candles being lit, he then cut his hand deeply, and bled into a bowl which he then dumped into a blazing alter flame, all the while chanting: "Jeg gjør dette offeret for at min magiske kan bli guidet til disse objektene for å skape et nytt objekt"

Now he knocked one by one all of the candles over, the flame catching the cloth, then the entire alter. The flames were hot and immensely spectacular to behold, and a glowing fluid rose through Adam's skin, flowing into the fire. Bored, he went to sleep to wait for the fire to burn out.

…

When Adam awoke (still night), he rustled through the ashes, searching almost panicked for a few seconds, until at last he felt the familiar cold of glass, and he picked it up, looking at the mana flowing within. At his stimulus , the mana seemed to awake, and began to take the shape of a dragon, which then growled, signifying the start of a dominance battle. Adam was transported to an expansive burning plain, with dark clouds looming overhead. he saw a slight aggressive glow coming from the ground now, which made him smile a bit. He had experienced far worse then this, but this had a very powerful feel to it, and it even almost made him feel afraid. He looked up at the dragon looming over him, being at least thirty-two stories high, and back down at his now fully recovered body.

"You don't have to do this, the pain can stop." Adam said calmly to the beast, yet in response it only whined slightly in pain then roared at him with all the force it could muster, which, at this point, wasn't a lot, but the ground beneath Adam's feet still shook so violently he almost fell. Instead he calmly walked forward, the image of an unnaturally large smile briefly flashing above him, and the dragon's vision darkened to near black, Adam was now on the beast's snout, and his weight forced the creature's head to bow immensely. he pressed his head against it's, showing it his intentions -his carrot and his stick- and it bent all four legs almost like a bow. Adam sat down with the beast in the fire for a while, giving it companionship, and the flames died down greatly. The beast was much less pained, and a slight sad smile grew in Adam's face as he lay against it's incomprehensibly massive head, a magicka bond now forming between the two.

…

Adam grimaced slightly as he put the orb in his pouch, then moved into the cave he had spotted about a mile back -a huge opening with a constant lava flow coming from the mouth.

He had chosen this cave because of the immense energy density, which he knew would cause mental strain, but was more focused on the training opportunities, so he sat down far enough from the entrance he could feel the pressure, but close enough he could smell the forest scent. He breathed in, feeling the energy flow into him through his skin, then held, letting energy seep into him, as he breathed out he let the energy flow through him freely, then repeated this about 12 times. Now he moved to stage two, which involved resting the energy to not harm himself, pulling it to his heart, then pushing it to his limbs, this he repeated 5 times before moving to the third stage. The third stage is difficult to describe, but involves setting the energy on fire to burn out the impurities and transform it into something new. After this he simply meditated until morning.