Chapter 22: Tuji’s Advance

Tuji smiled down at the Raven before giving the elf a gentle shove, sending the little bird on his way. Ferow the Raven had turned out to be a pitiful creature, unwilling to do battle even after Tuji offered him time to recover from his serious injuries. Injuries that Hoplite had inflicted upon him with relative ease, if Tuji had heard the humiliation in Ferow’s tone correctly. Ferow had been a legend that Tuji had wanted to face since he was a child, but now… Tuji crossed his arms as he stared at the retreating back of the limping Raven. If Hoplite was able to reduce such a capable assassin to this pitiful state…

He smiled. Surely such a mighty warrior would accept his challenge? Even if Hoplite knew that Tuji was Pillar-Born, a warrior such as Hoplite would not shirk such an opportunity to test his mettle, surely. Hoplite indeed would know just what he faced once the challenge was proclaimed; a battle among mighty warriors such as they should be honest after all. 

It was what his third father would want of him.

Tuji briefly wondered if Hoplite himself could also be Pillar-Born… another son of Zodd perhaps? Based on the injuries Hoplite had been capable of inflicting on Ferow, he would certainly be descended from the Pillar of Might. There was always the chance that Hoplite was just an incredibly strong human, perhaps enhanced with a bit of Foundation to increase his strength. No matter, Hoplite would need to draw on as much of the Golden Flame as he could in order to beat Tuji, as was fair in a duel between titans such as they.

Tuji smirked as he turned his back to Ferow, walking over the field of bloodied watcher corpses. Some still lived of course, when Tuji ended up disabling an opponent without killing them, he never finished the job. What was the point if you had already won the fight? There was no honor in killing someone who couldn’t continue to fight back. If they insisted on continuing the fight however… it would dishonor him and his opponent if he did not go all out, even if they were essentially helpless. 

Tuji walked by the groaning bodies with barely a glance, they all avoided his gaze, eyes wide with the fear a Pillar-Born instilled in mortals. Would he be the godling to bring an end to Decuma? Perhaps, he’d rather not end the age, but Tuji had no intent on giving up the quest to ascend. He would be the fifth to rise to the Pillar of Might, and then he would challenge his father to a duel, and then the rest of the gods after that. Just for fun of course, the gods could not die after all. Or could they? Tuji supposed that he would find out once he destroyed the the other Pillar-Born on Ahkoolis.

“Scum…” A wheezing voice said from the ground next to Tuji’s path “You will… not escape this forest alive.”

Tuji stopped to stare at the slowly rising form of Muro, the captain of the night-watchers. His left forearm had been crushed nearly flat, Tuji having crushed it before tossing the captain high into the air. Tuji crossed his arms as his smirk deepened.

“I got in easy, leaving will be just as trivial.” Tuji told the night-captain honestly “Now… do you wish to continue?”

He glared into the elf’s eyes, leaving his emotions completely open for Muro to read. Projecting sheer killing intent. The faekin didn’t even flinch beneath Tuji’s gaze, and the godling’s admiration for the night-captain grew ten-fold. Tuji himself could not read the elf’s emotions, his impure elvish blood muddying the Dok-Ah. Though, he did know of other half-breeds who had unlocked their own Dok-Ah through great effort… but would that be worth the time spent training his eyes?

“Pillar-Born,” Muro spat “You will not be suffered to live, have at you!” Muro shouted, darting forward with a fist raised.

Tuji sighed as the night-captain came upon him, knowing exactly how this was going to end. The godling sidestepped the oncoming blow, and drove his fingers through Muro’s ribcage, gripping the bones and ripping them free of the faekins torso with an explosion of bloody gore. The faekin collapsed to the grassy field, face in a rictus of agony and his eyes going dead. Tuji would have let the fool live had he just let Tuji walk away… but the faekin had wanted to continue the fight, and Tuji would not dishonor the brave elf by sparing him.

Tuji flicked the blood from his hand as he walked away from the body, his eyes on the tree-line. There were no elves there waiting or watching, all had fled. More would return, and braver watchers would likely try to stop his escape… something that would be impossible unless they could channel Foundation. Even then, they’d have to be a particularly powerful mage to challenge Tuji and live.

Now then… time to run. Tuji began sprinting as fast as he could toward the treeline, heading directly west, in the direction of the Fiendwall. From what he had heard, Hoplite was there now to help rebuild the wall after it had been damaged. Tuji would go there, fight Hoplite, and after Hoplite’s defeat… since Tuji would be in the area, he would venture into the Fiendwood to face Kazon, The Lord of Hatred.

The thought of defeating such a legendary figure as Kazon excited Tuji so much that he upped his pace. The sooner he defeated Hoplite, the sooner he’d be able to battle Kazon! Small holes were punched in the dirt as he ran, kicking up the soil with every single step. An easily followable trail true, but Tuji would face anyone that would deign to follow it.

Word had likely already spread that a Pillar-Born was in the Bastion; watchers had a way of spreading info to the Harkhall quickly. Tuji wasn't quite sure how they did it, but watchers must have some kind of ability that allowed them to communicate to the Harkhall from anywhere.

Either that or they could teleport directly to the Harkhall, he wasn’t entirely certain. Oh what he wouldn’t give to battle the entirety of the Harkhall… especially fire-eyes Terlin. Tuji collided with a tree shortly after entering the tree-line, the trunk splintering as he went. Tuji had barely noticed the obstacle until he had finished passing through it, hearing the tree fall to the earth with a loud crash of crunching branches. Tuji felt a pang of guilt at destroying the tree, he hadn’t meant to do that… He needed to keep his mind on track, the target now was Hoplite, Kazon and Terlin would come afterward. 

Now that he was focused purely on the sprint, Tuji was better able to weave around the trees. If he had really wanted to, he could have just ran straight through each and every single one that got in his path. It would have barely slowed him down, but trees couldn’t fight back, it was dishonorable to destroy a living thing that could not fight back. Killing an ant would have been more honorable than destroying a tree.

He sped past more elves, not watchers, just citizens of the Bastion going about their business, living in their moving trees. They all screamed in terror at seeing him, but Tuji did not intend to harm these faekin. These were not warriors and they certainly would not accept any challenges from him, best to leave them to their lives. He found it hard to distinguish the mobile tree-creatures from the immobile ones at times, often having to adjust his course to avoid smashing into the moving homes.

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Fighting one of those may be honorable… they could at least fight back, but then, were they really trees? Tuji was not certain, though they certainly looked the part, save for the writhing roots that they used to move about. The sun was still high in the sky, meaning that the watchers out right now would be wearing those color shifting cloaks. 

That was why Tuji didn’t notice the crossbow bolt flying out from a high branch above him. The bolt hit him in the throat, causing him to gag and stumble in his stride. The bolt hadn’t pierced his steel flesh of course, but having a crossbow bolt fired at his throat had triggered his gag-reflex. He looked above to see where the bolt had come from, digging his heels into the dirt to stop his momentum. Twin trails of dirt followed his digging heels until he finally came to a stop, and he strained his eyes to see where the attacker could be…

After all, Tuji took the ambush as a challenge. Ambushes too were completely fair in initiating combat, it had been Tuji’s own fault that he hadn’t been properly prepared for one. That had been something he was taught in the jungles in the north. The people of the jungle had been wise teachers, making sure to paint Tuji with the scars he currently possessed for every mistake he had made in fighting them. That was before his steel body had fully manifested of course, but the lessons had still stuck with him.

He squinted as he tried to find the challenger, but damn his eyes, for he could not see them! These watchers' color shifting cloaks put the camouflage of the jungle warriors to shame. Had Tuji just been lucky in finding that first day-watcher? Perhaps, but even still he would not back down from this elf now. Tuji had been formally issued a challenge, it was his honor on the line if he chose to flee and give this watcher victory.

Tuji had only ever lost once in his life, he’d not lose again if he could help it. The watcher surely must have changed positions by now, not wanting the bolt's trajectory to give them away… so that begged the question… where were they? He strained his eyes to the best of his ability, but no matter where he looked Tuji simply could not place where the watcher could be…

Then he grinned, digging his hands deep into the soil at his feet and flinging it towards the tall branches. The soil flew high and landed cleanly on the bark, and Tuji threw more and more until finally… 

On the tree to his left, the dirt seemed to hover above one of the branches. Tuji jumped high, coming face to face with the watcher before he lashed out with a kick. His foot collided with the watcher's chest with a crunch, and the watcher gave a rasping cry as he was sent flying into another tree far behind the one he’d been perched upon. Blood exploded from the near invisible form of the watcher, painting the bark in crimson as the body slid to the base of the tree. 

Tuji turned and continued his sprint, another victory tallied in his mind. How high had that branch been? Twenty paces? Thirty? Tuji was still getting stronger it seemed… just the month before he’d only been able to jump ten paces high…

Other challengers appeared on his path, slowing his advance toward the Bastion but all succumbing to his might. His footprints and a trail of broken faekin bodies marked his path, hopefully warning away any new challengers. Tuji really wanted to reach Hoplite quickly, before the man left the Fiendwall. These new challengers had been welcome of course, Tuji hadn’t wanted to dishonor them, but he wished they’d just cower away so he could get out of the Faewood quicker. 

Out of the hundreds that challenged him on Tuji’s path, only a few were left that were still alive afterward… barely alive. They could not fight back, therefore the fight had been concluded for it would bring dishonor upon him to finish off the helpless. More victories tallied up until he reached the Bastion, standing before the looming wall of writhing brown roots. Tuji would need to do this as he had before… which was to say as quickly as he was able. His hands gripped one of the wriggling roots and he launched himself skyward before the roots could tangle themselves around him. Tuji repeated this motion until he was at the top of the wall, the roots now beginning to whip angrily at his flesh.

To a normal man, perhaps these blows would have fractured bone, but to Tuji they felt like mere bugbites, little itches on his skin. Tuji stepped quickly to avoid the snaring roots trying to drag him below. He may be strong, but he was not sure how he would escape the wall of roots once he was fully engulfed within it. The Ilum tree still loomed far behind him, far taller than even this massive wall of magical roots.

Other than the Ilum tree, Tuji was still able to see well over the tops of every tree in the Faewood. It would be a more pleasing sight to him had he not been busy trying not to be engulfed by the Ilum’s roots. Once he reached the edge, he readied himself to leap, intending to land on the forest floor far below feet-up.

Yet, one of the roots managed to wrap itself around Tuji’s ankle as his feet left it. Tuji was then sent spinning end over end, laughing with glee as he went. The root that had tangled around his leg snapped off during the jump thankfully, otherwise more roots may have been able to entangle him further. 

Tuji hit the ground six seconds later, landing on the top of his head and creating a small crater where his skull had impacted. He groaned as he adjusted himself, coming to sit upright while cradling the top of his skull. He would have been fine had he landed on his feet… Now he was dizzy and his head hurt a bit… Ah well. He stood from the ground, gave his cheeks a good wake-up slap, and began running again.

It took a while before the dizziness fully faded but once it did he ran faster, excited to face off against Hoplite. To the Fiendwall he went! Hopefully the armored warrior would still be there by time Tuji arrived. Their battle would shake the earth beneath their feet, Ahkoolis would weep with joy at the worthy blood being shed upon her soil, and Zodd would smile down with approval on their duel!

 

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