The Exalt [Cultivation Fantasy]

"Gol-4, look at this," Oscar pulled out Gol-4 to show him the large mine shaft that reached up like a tower to a new area. The place above should surely be another district of Tectusen since they had walked on the same level the entire time. The chamber below resembled the bottom of the Ataer Pit, a vast open area with many tunnels across the edges and makeshift platforms for other levels.

"Nice find. I thought it would have taken you far longer to find one of the mine shafts, but this is a pleasant surprise." Gol-4 responded and looked around. "It seems we're on the second level. Jump down but be careful of dangers."

"This head needs to stop jinxing it." Orden cursed and leaped off the edge, his large body stomping on the ground with a loud thud. He waved Oscar and Gol-4 over to join him.

Landing on the ground floor of the central hub, Oscar peered around to all the dark tunnels, trying to see if anything was hiding. "It's strange that we haven't found any ores in this place."

"That's not too strange. This mine must have been depleted long ago, and the people must have moved on to other areas. I'm not sure if the Forest Heart Clan had the time to explore the mines fully, but we could still find some good ores." Gol-4 made sense of the situation. "Now it's a good means of moving around Tectusen."

"Hopefully, we don't have to stay in the mines for long," Orden grunted. "Finding ores is great, but time is more important, and I do not want to waste it. We've explored quite a bit. Should we rest here for the time being?"

"There's no telling what may be waiting for us up there." Oscar gazed upward, but the mine shaft's walls did not allow him to peek into the area above. He took out his mattress and lay down on it to rest. "Sleep is important. Can you start a fire?"

Orden took out another small vial and crashed it onto the ground, and the liquid burst into a bright orange flame. He sat down and started wiping his beloved hammer with a towel, satisfied and content when he could see his reflection from its black metal. Then, with a sudden thought, he turned to Oscar, "Oscar, can I see your hammer?"

"No," Oscar flatly refused and readjusted his position on the mattress.

Oscar sighed and turned his face toward Orden's hammer. It had a wide handle, hard for anyone to grip except for Orden with his overgrown hands, and Oscar could see his reflection across the metal surface, though slightly distorted by the red cracks. He reached into his space pocket and tossed out his hammer, black with blue swirls, toward Orden, who caught it gleefully.

'You won't find out Reis Forging from just looking at it. If that could be done, my master wouldn't have needed to look for Aunt Rosett for her skills every time.' Oscar knew Aunt Rosett's techniques were secure and turned his attention to the hammer. He sat up and tried to hold the hammer, but his fingers could not wrap around the handle. But with a fearsome grip, his hand lifted the heavy hammer. "A good hammer. Did you make it yourself?"

"No, my master created it for me, saying that only this hammer could suit me for the big lunk that I am." Orden laughed with the roaring of the flames. "But this–" He juggled around Oscar's hammer. "This one is interesting. Did you make it?"

"No, that was my master's friend." Oscar smiled, recalling his many interactions with Aunt Rosett.

"Seems we've both had good fortunes in our lives. Though yours might be greater than mine because you got this far as a Grade Four."

"I wouldn't say that," Oscar rubbed his nose to relieve some tension. What he became now came at a cost or a future danger, such as his Reis. Seeing Oscar's tired expression, Orden decided to change the topic.

Orden tapped Oscar's hammer on the boulder and traced his hand across its surface. "It's beautiful. I can tell whoever made it had incredible skills and used an unorthodox method. I don't suppose you can tell me what that is."

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"Nope, that's a trade secret." Oscar looked at Orden's hammer. "Did your master just cram a large number of materials into this? How on earth did they make it so compact."

"Trade secret." Orden laughed, making Oscar laugh in return. He stretched out his large arms and looked over his torn uniform. "I should have brought some spares."

"Only for it to get torn again." Oscar quipped.

"Well, if you are alright with going on naked, that's on you. But I am a proper person." Orden tossed back Oscar's hammer.

"Strangely unfitting for you." Oscar threw Orden's hammer at him. "Let's head off to sleep. I feel tired."

"Aye to that." Orden nodded and dropped down to his large mattress, which he had brought to fit his body.

As time passed, Oscar closed his eyes and fell asleep with Gol-4 next to him. However, in the middle of the night, he slowly woke up, not from any sound or disturbance but from an instinct that something was wrong.

'Orden? No, if he wanted to act, he would have done so long ago. Thankfully my bulwark is still in my hands, but what is this?' Oscar furrowed his brows while keeping his eyes squinted to appear asleep, waiting for whatever was coming. Then, within his peripheral vision, a gnarled wooden hand creaked and dripped water down as it came closer to him.

"Bastard!" Oscar shot up and swung his bulwark, breaking off the hand, which spewed out green blood, and he gazed at the sudden intruder to find an entire group of Grovekeepers. Hearing a groan behind him, he turned to face the ambusher, but a large gray hammer smashed into the Grovekeeper's face.

"Tricky little shits!" Orden smashed his hammer onto another Grovekeeper. "I was sleeping nicely until these idiots came by. Oscar, are you ok?"

"I'm fine, but what are these Grovekeepers?" Oscar gazed at the Grovekeepers that came out from the tunnels. They looked like the Grovekeepers from the outside, but with one stark difference, they wore miner clothes; some even held up pickaxes. "Gol-4, what the hell are these things? Why do they look like miners?"

"Incomprehensible." Gol-4's blue eyes gazed around the room. "Fight for your life, and I can try to see what they are."

"They can't entangle us, or they would have used it while we slept. These are not the typical Grovekeepers in the forests." Oscar turned his body constantly as the Grovekeepers approached. The Grovekeepers walked slowly, their footsteps matching together and reverberating to Oscar and Orden, who went back-to-back. Then once the Grovekeepers were a few feet away, they stopped.

The wooden faces with glowing green eyes surrounded Oscar and Orden. With sweat flowing down his brow, Oscar gripped his bulwark tightly and summoned his deer anima. Then the Grovekeepers turned to a tunnel, and out of that tunnel came out a large Grovekeeper, twice as large as the norm.

"Gol-4?" Oscar asked.

"This is unusual," Gol-4 responded.

"That's a big one," Orden stated with a frown for the first time.

The large Grovekeeper towered over the rest and reached its large arms to one of the platforms, smashing it into pieces and throwing it at Oscar and Orden, who blew it away. It roared and smashed its fists on the ground like a drum as the mass of Grovekeepers stomped their feet in response. The drumming of fists and feet unnerved the two Exalts.

"GOOOOHHH!" The large Grovekeeper pointed at Oscar and Orden. At his gesture, the mass crowd of Grovekeepers rushed at them like a mindless tide of puppets. They groaned and shot forward with their wooden arms.

""As if!""

Oscar and Orden brought about their full power, unleashing their spells and might to destroy the waves of Grovekeepers. Earth spikes covered the area, impaling many Grovekeepers, mini-silver stars shot out, exploding and shooting out shards everywhere, and Oscar and Orden fought with their weapons and animas. The hammer and deer demolished several more as Oscar and Orden smashed into the mass.

However, despite their efforts, the Grovekeepers kept coming in. From the tunnels, they strode forth and leaped down, adding to their numbers, replacing their fallen brethren who were now mere scrap wood on the ground that began to become green from all the blood.

'Continuous Flowing Mountain'

Oscar chained together his attacks into a continuous swirling of Reis that kept ramping up from the constant fuel of Reis that came from the Grovekeepers' onslaught. In a final blow, fast approaching his limits, Oscar tossed his bulwark and swung it across the room in an ever-enlarging circle.

Orden smiled and tossed his hammer to follow suit, destroying all the Grovekeepers Oscar had missed.

""Eat this!""

Oscar and Orden convened their ranged attacks on the last Grovekeeper, the large one that started this whole mess.

"GOOOHH!" The large Grovekeeper smiled, sending shivers down Oscar and Orden's spines. With two massive fists, it slammed down on both of their attacks.

"Kuh!" Orden spat out blood as his hammer anima had been cracked from the sheer might of the Grovekeeper.

Oscar clenched hard and pulled his bulwark back. "Orden, you ready?"

"No need to ask me," Orden willed his hammer anima back to his hand, wiping off the blood from his mouth. "Let's bash the hell out of this thing."

Together they rushed out and charged amongst the piles of wood scraps and bodies of the Grovekeepers. They leaped straight at the large Grovekeeper with a thirst for survival and desperation in their eyes.

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