Dao Divinity 2 Chapter 29 (Patreon)

Dar wasn’t quite sure what to think about Rex’s comment. Rex had clearly meant it as a compliment, but Dar wasn’t sure how comfortable he was with that.

He’d like to rationalize it as a clear choice; the monsters were threatening his village, but Dar also had to admit he still had paused when the village was attacked when he’d first come to the world. Something in him had changed.

That thought lingered as he left to go meet up with the girls for another training session near the northern woods.

“Hey Dar.” Mika waved at him as he stepped around the trees. She already had a sheen of sweat covering her, as did Marcie and Amber. They’d started without him.

After saying hi, Mika turned back to Marcie and Amber, continuing where she’d left off. “Here’s how you break someone’s leg.” She thankfully demonstrated it slowly.

So far in their lessons on the training styles Mika had learned on the Mahakhlan islands, Dar had determined that it must have been a brutal place to live. The fighting style was brutal.

There were basic strikes with weapons that seemed pretty standard, but when they got to hand to hand and weapon practice, Mika’s martial arts had turned to a more gruesome focus of breaking bones and destroying joints.

Dar felt a shudder threaten to rise up his spine as he recollected one of their earlier training sessions. Mika had wanted to show the moves at full speed and asked that he work to reinforce his body for the hits. He could still feel the ghost of pain in his knees after her attacks.

“Now that you are stronger than even a trained soldier, you can snap the low kick like some of the demons I used to know.” Mika pulled a fallen branch from the ground. It was a solid few inches around. She stood it up and raised her knee up parallel to the ground before flexing her ankle and snapping her foot down in such a way that it almost stomped against the branch.

Snap.

“If you hit it like that, you can break their leg just above their ankle.”

“Oh.” Both the maids nodded, carefully paying attention to every move Mika made. “I can see how that would be useful. It’s a pretty quick move. If you can catch them distracted with something high, then…” Amber stepped hard on a twig, snapping it under her foot.

While they were becoming slightly terrifying in their techniques, Dar was also pleased that his women would be able to defend themselves and their family. “Why do I get the feeling that if I leave you three alone too long, you will snap all the branches in the forest?” Dar joked as he walked further into the training area.

Marcie blushed and bowed to him. “Afternoon Milord.” Amber was quick to join her.

“Afternoon.” Dar replied as Cherry and Sasha walked up to join as well. He turned to speak to all of them. “Perfect, I’m glad you all got here okay. Today is the last day we will practice out here. Ettercaps came out of the woods today; for everyone’s safety, I think we need to be a little more careful.”

“But.” Amber started to argue and cleared her throat before trying again. “Milord. We practice to become able to protect ourselves. You wouldn’t keep us from fighting, would you?”

Dar paused, taking in the hurt on her face. “I am proud of the progress you’ve made and all you can do, but it doesn’t mean that you couldn’t be overwhelmed by their forces. Taking on an army is more than we’ve practiced.”

That seemed to mollify the two of them slightly, so Dar continued. “Plus, after the ettercaps leaving the forest boundary today, we’ll most likely have to push them back in the next couple days. Think of it as resting up before we go into that fight.”

The hurt on their face turned to a mix of excitement and panic. “You think we are going to go into the southern woods so soon?”

Dar nodded, looking to Cherry. “I think I’m going to miss dinner tonight. Would you mind bringing a message to the other leaders that I plan to try and push back the ettercaps in the southern woods here shortly?”

“Where will you be?” Sasha asked, her eyes narrowed in a look of concern Dar knew all too well.

“I think it’s about time I learned the dao of combustion.”

He took them by surprise. Up until that point, he’d been putting off meditation, and he hadn’t quite told them why.

A part of it was that it had wiped him out, and he needed his abilities to prepare the town for winter, but that hadn’t been the main reason recently.

After Bellhaven, his head wasn’t in the right space to meditate. It seemed risky to take it on when it could have dangerous consequences, and he knew he wasn’t ready. But something with the recent ettercaps he’d killed had helped him at least deal with the slaughter a bit. The ettercaps were a threat, and he’d eliminated that threat to his village. Bellhaven hadn’t been so different. It had just been hard to see that in the moment.

“You do look a lot better. Coming to grips with what happened in Bellhaven?” Mika asked.

“Working on it, and I think getting there. I killed two of the three ettercaps that came out of the woods today, and Rex said something about having no hesitation.” Dar answered.

Mika nodded, waiting until he continued. “I really hadn’t killed on the offensive before Bellhaven. But just because I didn’t wait for them to strike, doesn’t mean it was wrong. I did the best I could with the information I could in the moment. I accept that.”

Dar wasn’t quite sure it was comparing apples to apples, but he’d take what clarity he could get. “So, I think I’d like to meditate on combustion. And you two,” Dar pointed to the maids, “Are going to come with me. We are going to see if you two can meditate on a dao.”

“Really?!” Amber jumped up and down.

He checked with the rest of the girls, not seeing any concerns on their faces. “Yes, that’s the plan. But after, I suspect we’ll be going to battle, so take this seriously.”

“Of course, Milord.” Marcie tried to reign Amber in, but the redheaded maid practically vibrated with energy.

Mika smirked. “If you are so full of energy, then you should spar with me first. Now line up. We are going through strikes again. Cherry, would you make everyone short swords?”

Cherry got to work as her response, and vines began snaking out of the ground in the rough shape of a wooden sword. They each reached forward to the sword near them, picking up their weapons and following Mika through a series of strikes and blocks. She would shout out the name of the move as they completed it.

When the group had each movement down, Mika called their names one at a time. The person called would step forward and complete the sequence, flowing through the attacks while Mika corrected from the side.

Mika had turned into quite the drill sergeant when they were training, and Dar had a feeling she’d done it before. She seemed to be a natural at teaching the moves. It was either that or she’d been through way too many trainings herself and was able to imitate past trainers.

“Overhead block.”

“Thrust. Put your hips into it, Cherry.”

Cherry let out a frustrated groan and threw her weapon down. “This is stupid. I’ve humored you long enough. I don’t need to learn how to swing a stick, metal or wood.”

Mika glowered at Cherry. “Fine, then. You’re first. We start sparring now.”

“Hands only.” Dar reminded Cherry, who turned and blew him a raspberry.

Mika came at Cherry quickly, but roots erupted all around Cherry and twisted in the shape of a massive fist before punching Mika and smashing her to the ground.

“There. I used my fist. Happy?” Cherry buffed her nails against her shirt with a smirk.

However, Mika was far less than amused as she got up and wiped the dirt off her face. “What happens when you run out of mana? What happens when you fight another grand demon?”

“Uh.” Cherry paused. “I just won’t run out of mana. And fighting another grand demon isn’t exactly the same as fighting in hand to hand combat, anyway.”

“There are parallels.” Mika said, eying the large fist of roots that was still hovering above the ground. “Dar, what would you do if you fought that giant fist?”

Dar shrugged. “I guess first see if I could cut through it with strength and enchanted weapons. If I get caught, see if it’ll catch fire.”

Cherry spoke up, “He’s not the first person to threaten me with fire. You’d be surprised how hard it is to burn fresh roots. I just fight with my fists differently.”

A small hand of roots rose out of the ground and jabbed at Dar playfully while Cherry smirked. “See?”

Mika gave Cherry a brief glare, but continued on with practice. They spared in pairs without using any dao. Mika insisted that it not even be used defensively; they needed to harden up against pain as part of the training.

Dar sparred with his women, enjoying that they’d gotten skilled enough that he didn’t have to hold back if they weren’t using daos. And he didn’t. The more prepared they were, the less likely he was to lose them.

When he had flipped Sasha over his head and threw her in the dirt, she’d scowled, but he could only smile and remind himself that it was the best for the family. Even if he knew, he might pay for it later.

“You are all making me do laundry daily now.” Sasha huffed, getting up and dusting off her pants. She had given up wearing dresses to training after the first day. Mika had pulled the dress over Sasha’s head and tied it together to prove just how ineffective the choice was in battle.

“Better some extra laundry and a few bruises than losing any of you.” Dar muttered mostly to himself, but Sasha’s expression immediately softened.

“You’re right, it’s a trivial thing. But you’ll still be punished for that move later.” She gave him a simmering look.

Dar smiled, not sure he was sorry about it anymore. “Well, in that case…” Dar moved over and lifted Sasha up onto his shoulders, pretending he was going to throw her and enjoying the squeals she let out in response.

“You will put me down this moment, Dar!” Sasha demanded, between her laughter.

“I don’t know. I think you are my bounty for such good fighting.” Dar crouched like he was getting ready, feeling her brace against him, before he slowly let her back down until her feet touched the floor.

Sasha smacked his butt as Mika cleared her throat, her serious trainer persona back in place as she ordered them back into formation.

Cherry managed to make up for some of her earlier behavior as they continued. Despite her protests, she was actually quite skilled. Dar suspected she had far more experience than even Mika, but no sort of formalized training.

As they finished training, they headed together towards the central hearth. But as they neared it, Dar pulled the maids aside. “Are you two ready?”

“Should we eat first?” Marcie asked, her stomach rumbling to punctuate her opinion.

“Sure. But this will take a bit of time, so we should get started. Grab something quick and meet me in the salt cave.” Dar wasn’t feeling hungry, so he decided to go ahead of them and form a boulder to rest near the entrance, to seal it off while they meditated.

When the girls came hurrying, Dar wiped a bit of food off Amber’s cheeks. “Come on.”

Leading them inside, he shifted the bolder in place, sealing them in as he lit a torch for them to see. “Okay. I am going to start. I want both of you to watch what I’m doing and feel it with your mana. Here’s the character for combustion.”

Dar had already set up the cave for meditation. Sasha’s book was stashed in the stone floor; he drew it out of the granite and flipped to the correct page. “While I’m meditating on it, I want both of you to try and study it some.”

“It’s blurry.” Marcie frowned. “And it hurts.” Her frown deepened.

“I know. Don’t push yourselves too hard, but do try to get to the point that you can see the character fully if you focus on it.”

Both of them nodded, and Dar sat down cross-legged on the cool cave floor. He could feel himself settle into a calm he hadn’t felt in a long time. He centered himself with slow, steady breaths.

Peeking out one eye, he checked on Amber and Marcie, who were watching him with rapt attention. He explained what he was doing. “I’m just clearing my mind with a meditation technique in preparation. I’ll walk you through it later. Now, I’m going to need that dao character.”

They slid the book in front of him.

“I focus on the character and see it clearly, then find the right pattern to cycle those same strokes through the meridians, the channels in my body that carry mana. While I’m doing this, my concentration breaking can cause me physical harm, so please avoid making noise or breaking me from what I’m doing.”

After both girls nodded, Dar worked to push them out of his mind as he focused whole heartedly on his meditation technique.

The character for combustion became clear on the page, and Dar let his mana cycle through a few times before trying to form the shape of the dao.

As he closed his eyes, he could feel the power of mana circulating through his body. His body hummed with the power.

After a few cycles, he began to work to direct the mana flow. It took a few tries to get the strokes right, but soon mana was flowing into the combustion character.

Remembering last time, he focused hard on the shape, making sure not to let it break as he started to speed it up, chasing the tail end of the cycle to make the character a solid figure in his body and mind’s eye.

Pain began to bubble up across his body as it strained to contain the dao character that Dar was trying to imprint upon himself. Spikes of pain began wracking his body; it felt like his very blood was starting to spark and boil under the strain of the technique. But this time, he wasn’t worried. He knew his body could weather the storm. He needed to keep his focus and ignore the pain.

He called upon his existing daos of hard and strength to reinforce his body; he continued the meditation, pushing through the pain. As he sank deeper into himself, focusing started to become more difficult. Within his mind’s eye, the dao character began to compete with the flashes of faces. Mark, Margret, and the Tints all floated through his vision.

Working to ignore them, Dar doubled down on his meditation, feeling sweat prickle along his skin as sudden doubt blossomed in his mind.

A small voice in his mind wondered if he was worth the power he was trying to achieve. If he could be enough for their town or if he’d destined it for failure. As the small voice lingered, small cracks started to form in the dao character. They split a small bit further, threatening to break the character.

Determination washed through Dar as he crushed the small voice in his head. He’d made the right choice, and he stood by it. He would not let them limit him.

As he felt conviction in that decision, he watched the cracks disappear, as if it was never there. The little voice was gone, and Dar was left with his dao character, cycling his mana through it.

After a few more cycles, the character for combustion was complete, imprinting into his mind and body. Feeling the sensation wash over him, Dar soaked it in before opening his eyes and taking deep breaths.

The girls startled. “Are you okay, Milord?” Amber asked.

“I’ll be fine.” Dar took inventory of his body. He felt terrible and stiff, but he was nowhere near as weak as last time he finished cultivating. He smiled at the progress, although his smile was weak. He hadn’t been expecting the doubt in his mind to creep up on him like that. He’d need to remember that for the future.

“Maybe you should go grab some food before we start? Maybe clean up your face a little?”

Dar wiped at his face, wincing as he came away with a bloody hand. Dabbing at his face, he realized he had a nosebleed. “Thank you.”

“No. Thank you. I had no idea how hard this was.” Marcie commented, looking at him with respect.

“What do you mean?” He asked.

“Milord. You whimpered like you were dying, and we’ve never seen you covered in so much sweat no matter how hard you work in a day.” Amber clarified.

Dipping his head, he realized he might have scared them. “It can be hard. But I’ll be here to help both of you. Give me a minute, and I’ll be right back. You were right; I should eat something.” Dar headed out of the cave and down to the cave with food stores. Grabbing a bowl of oats and a bucket of water, he headed back to the cave.

“You weren’t gone very long.” Marcie observed.

Dar poured some water into the oats and used his dao of heat to cook the mixture while he splashed a little water on his face to clean off the blood. “I figured I could just make my meal here.”

Taking a bite, Dar continued. “Now, you two need to sit down. Cross your legs and focus on the sound of my voice. Clear everything out of your mind. Focus only on my voice.”

Dar took a sip of water. “Feel for your heartbeat and focus on that. Feel the depth of each beat across your body. It’s your internal clock. Feel that pulse carry life from your chest out to the tips of your fingers.”

He became quiet as he watched them settle into relaxed poses, their bodies subtly twitching as they cleared their minds.

Softening his voice, Dar tried not to break their concentration while he coached them. “Good. Now, when your mind is clear, open your eyes and look at the page. Find the dao character, and begin to trace it in your mind and in your meridians.”

Both girls settled back into a trance, meditating on the dao character. Dar quietly started to eat while watching both of them.

He could feel the mana flowing through their bodies as they made the character appropriately. It took Marcie a bit longer, but soon they both were flowing dao through their meridians in the pattern of the combustion dao.

Dar’s pride was short-lived as he began to feel the chaos and the storm that brewed alongside the character inside of them. The dao was starting to damage their bodies, and their bodies weren’t holding up to the onslaught very well.

Quickly setting his food down quietly, Dar moved himself behind them. Holding out his hands, he placed a palm on both of their backs and worked to infuse them with his own dao of hard and strength.

Kicking himself, Dar continued to try to give them enough to push through the pain. It had been too risky to have them do this so soon.

Amber was the first to cough up a mouthful of blood, but Dar could see the profile of her face as she grit her teeth and pushed through the pain. Marcie cried out, but it turned into a shout of battle as she pushed through as well. Dar braced himself, hoping they wouldn’t curse him too badly when they made it out.

The two of them were strong, but his method of walking the dao path was harsh and crude. He would experiment with techniques more before having them try again.

Amber’s fingers reached forward, distracting Dar as she sank her nails into her knees, drawing blood. But both she and Marcie pushed through, continuing to cultivate in silence, only broken by a few small whimpers.

Dar stayed there, kneeling behind them, his focus entirely on helping them protect their bodies as they cultivated. He would have stopped it if he wasn’t so worried that stopping the process partway would hurt them more than letting them continue.

Hours passed, and Dar started growing more and more concerned, although he could feel them getting close. Exhausted from the use of his dao, Dar needed them to finish soon or he may not be able to continue fortifying their bodies.

A few minutes later, Marcie finished first, gasping for air and falling to her side. “Milord?” she said weakly. Looking around, Dar realized the light had gone out and Marcie probably couldn’t see much.

“I’m here, but stay quiet. Amber’s almost done.”

“Sleep.” was all she said before he heard her heavy breathing.

Sure enough, Amber finished soon after, crying out in pain and clutching her gut. “How did you get the courage to do that a second time?”

“Need.” Dar answered. “Let’s get you two some food and water.” Dar pulled over the bucket and let Amber drink while he woke Marcie and fed her some of his reheated oats.

“Thank you, Milord. We wouldn’t have survived without you.” Marcie spoke in a barely audible whisper.

Dar still felt guilty for putting them through the process before he’d made it safer, but he was proud of both of them. And they seemed pleased under all the exhaustion. “My pleasure. Let me go get you two more food.”

“I can stand.” Amber argued, tottering to her feet only to grow unsteady and lean against the wall. “Well, maybe not walk.” She corrected herself.

“Lean on me. I’ll take you both down to the hearth.”

But as Dar rolled aside the rock to help them both exit the cave, one of Glump’s dao companions came charging into the cave, breathing heavily.

“Have either of you seen Kro?” she asked. Based on her bright red hair, Dar had often assumed she was Kro’s mother, but he wasn’t sure.

“No, I haven’t seen him since breakfast.” Dar answered.

Amber quickly shook her head. “Is everything okay?”

“I don’t know. I can’t find him. He isn’t with Sam, nor has anyone seen him.” Taking one last look around the cave, she turned to leave, but Dar stopped her.

“Where have you looked so far? We’ll help you.”