50th of Season of Fire, 57th year of the 32nd cycle

  The beast was unlike anything Newt had ever seen. Hadrosaurus were large, docile herbivores; wild beasts beyond doubt, too massive for common folk to tame, but sometimes used by first realm cultivators as beasts of burden.

  The monster that appeared before the group was massive, nine feet tall and twenty-five long, but that was where the similarities with the rest of its species ended.

  Instead of the unassuming camouflage scales of grayish-green of its genus, the spirit beast’s skin was the bright-red of blood. Instead of an unassuming, duck-like mouth, a pair of saberlike tusks hung from its upper maw, threatening the young cultivators. The beast’s eyes were bright yellow, its black, vertical pupils widening as it spotted the group just as they saw it.

  The bipedal dinosaur sprinted, flaring fire-attributed spiritual energy with every move. Newt observed the technique or to be more exact, the utter lack of one, as the energy bled into the environment, hardly a quarter of it used to enhance the creature.

  The frothing giant opened its maw, aiming for the closest member of the group. Ready, Obsidian hefted his stego mace, his muscles bulging as he whipped it like he did in the practice match with Newt.

  Unlike Newt, the hadrosaurus neither dodged nor resorted to trickery. It met the strike head on, believing it would overpower a fragile little creature which matched its realm, but only amounted to one fiftieth of its bulk. Obsidian’s mace glowed earthen brown, hardly any energy wasted, and smashed the fire-attributed hadrosaurus in the temple.

  The elements collided, the outer layers of heavily condensed earth burning before the scattered explosive flames, but even if one disregarded the difference in concentration, fire was the second-weakest element in terms of defense. The flame barrier yielded, and the spiked mace smashed into the dinosaur’s thick skull with all the weight of a mountain.

  Blood sprayed, but the blow dealt minor damage to the thick, massive skull. While staggered, the hadrosaurus ignored the flesh wound and stabbed at Obsidian’s torso with its massive tusks.

  Newt’s glaive appeared out of the spirit beast’s blind-spot, its tip found its eye when the monster’s massive tooth was a foot away from goring Obsidian’s chest. The hadrosaurus reared, moving back, trying to avoid the pain, but flames exploded beneath Newt’s feet. Lightened by the hot air, he soared up, harrying the retreating monster.

  For a moment, it looked like the hadrosaurus would escape its fate with merely a serious injury, but moving back, it lost its balance from the sudden change of direction and stumbled over its own tail. Newt pressed his attack, his glaive sinking deeper. Disoriented and in pain, the hadrosaurus toppled and died as the glaive pierced its brain.

  “Great job antagonizing and binding it, Obi!” Newt said as he drew his weapon out of the third realm spirit beast’s skull. “It hardly used any spiritual energy, the odds are its core is still intact.”

  The potential prospect would have made Newt grin ear to ear half a season ago, but as things stood, a third realm core was next to useless to him, barely a grain of sand before his crippling debt. What mattered more was the bright smiles and excited glint in the girls’ eyes. And even Obsidian smiled like a madman.

  “Excellent strike!” The big man beamed. “I thought people used glaives for slashing, not for stabbing because they are too massive, but you wielded it like it was a light spear.”

  “Thanks. I had a good teacher.” Newt drew his shortsword and got to work just as Jasmine and Obsidian drew their daggers.

  A few slashes in, Obsidian put a hand on his shoulder.

  “You’re doing it wrong. Step back and let me do it.” Obsidian took over. “You were hitting its ribs too often, you should…”

  Obsidian parted flesh and broke bones, digging his way to the core, explaining what he was doing and why with every step. Newt found the demonstration educational and to the point. Digging through velociraptors a fraction of the size was easy, and the ankylosaurus was a packed mass of armor where finesse mattered little. The hadrosaurus was an excellent beast to practice butchery.

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  Unfortunately, the effort did not pay off. Newt thought the core was whole, but the monster’s bulk must have obscured the flare of its shattering.

  Obsidian shook the blood off his hands and glanced at Newt. “Don’t look so disappointed. That’s how life is, you have to check every time, and once in a while you get lucky.”

  The big man then moved towards the giant’s rear legs and carved strips off of one thigh before moving over to the belly.

  “Are those valuable?” Newt asked.

  “No,” Jasmine shook her head, “but they are tasty, if you know how to grill them right.”

  And, as it turns out, Obsidian did know how to grill them right. Or at least make the meat smell right. Newt salivated as Obsidian prepared the meal on a mesh he kept rolled up in his sack.

  The group barely moved half a mile away from the scene of battle before stumbling across a solitary tree, but smoke, smell, and noise were not an issue in the Valley of the Lost. A horde of spirit beasts could be running rampant, or fellow cultivators could fight for their life two hundred yards away, and there was no way to tell.

  Newt glanced at his companions, the girls were doing all right. The stress and fear were mostly gone from their faces and shoulders, the victory had the expected effect, even if it came later than Newt would have wanted it to.

  “Obi used to run a grill, back when we were outer disciples.” Jasmine broke the silence as she met Newt’s gaze. “His stall was one of the most popular ones, even though we mostly just had fish.”

  “I wish I had some proper seasoning, but grilled meat with a tad of salt can be delicious enough if it comes from such a high realm spirit beast.” Obsidian flipped a strip of meat with his dagger and prodded the branches burning into embers a good foot below his mesh. “And a couple handfuls of coals would be nice, grilling over a fire is bound to burn some of the food, not to mention the extra smoke.”

  Newt considered the words and looked up at the gnarled, old tree under which they had decided to take a break. It was an outlier, since the forest was a full day’s travel away.

  He did not know why he was hesitating. He had already made a grilling spell formation before.

  “You know, I could scribe a spell formation for us, to help with the grilling.”

  Newt expected several reactions, awe, surprise, confusion, yet he was the one confused by Obsidian’s response.

  “That sounds great,” the big man said, taking Newt’s words in stride, as if it was perfectly normal to arrange a cooking spell formation out in the field. “We’ll use it next time.”

  Obsidian then focused on his grilling, and tantalizing aroma filled the air.

  “Why does it smell so good?” Newt asked. “We don’t even have to eat all that often, and I’m not even hungry.”

  Roselilly spoke up again.

  “It’s the same reason spirit beasts eat each other, even though they could live just fine on ambient spiritual energy and common prey. Their flesh is infused with a much higher concentration of spiritual energy than the environment, and our bodies crave spiritual energy. Spirit beast flesh is like low-potency pills, with no drawback, since the absorption of spiritual energy happens naturally.”

  Newt gave a slow nod, taking in the information before smiling.

  “You’re trying to say that Obi isn’t skilled, he just has good ingredients?”

  “Hey!”

  “More or less.” Roselilly smiled, and Jasmine covered her mouth with her hand.

  “Hey!” Obsidian turned around and hissed at his sister. “Traitor.”

  All four burst into laughter before Obsidian turned around and resumed fanning the coals and half-burned branches.

  Newt kept mulling over his idea. “I think there’s a problem, spirit beasts native to the Valley of the Lost would find the spell formation from a distance, since it causes a disturbance in the ambient spiritual energy. But we could use it to lure them into traps.”

  Roselilly shook her head.

  “Not worth it. Their range of detection is too small, and if you’re making spell formations to grill the meat of the ones we slew, the odds become even slimmer, since it’s unlikely that two spirit beasts roamed the same general area without meeting each other. But even if we use them as beacons, their range is too small to be worthwhile.”

  Roselilly’s reasoning was sound, but Newt was not easily dissuaded. “What if we carried a spell formation with us, it would make it likelier for us to encounter spirit beasts?”

  “And why would we want to do that? Our mission is to harvest misterium, not to kill roaming spirit beasts. They are an obstacle, not the goal.”

  Newt disagreed. He had a feeling his master had arranged the mission in the Valley of the Lost specifically for him and for his team as a bonding experience or something of similar nature. That meant the more monsters they fought as a team, the better the end result. Still, it was only his opinion and a conversation in which he explained his hypothesis that they were in a danger zone to better integrate him into the team sounded like it would hurt his cause more than help.

  Eventually, Newt nodded in agreement with Roselilly, hoping the regular spirit beast population would prove enough to serve his master’s purpose.