A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

Chapter 11: The Price of Power - Part 5

But whilst Dominus' words held truth – they were a truth that didn't apply to Beam. For the curse that he bore, such progress was meant to be beyond him, and yet here he was, mere days after receiving the blessing of Claudia, rocketing forwards so quickly. For anyone else, it would be understandable – it would even be expected, especially after receiving the blessing… but for Beam, it was an unbelievable feat.

Dominus could hardly understand it. Every time he thought he'd put a finger on the pulse of Beam's situation, the boy would do something and it would completely shatter any conclusions that Beam had come to. Why could he suddenly progress so quickly despite the curse that he bore? Could Claudia's blessing really have made that much of a difference?

Even if it had, it was not meant to be so easy to navigate. This here, this stage that Beam was in, this process of evolution – it was the most painful period in many a knight's life, a time when they lost many things. Yet Beam hardly seemed phased by it. It was as though his psyche was a calm river, merely reacting the bare minimum to the world around him, simply flowing and remaining balanced all the while.

"Beginners progress?" Beam repeated with a smile. "It feels… It feels super good to progress that easily."

Dominus glanced at him – that was exactly how normal people progressed, at least at the start. For him to value it so highly warmed his heart, if only a little. He knew not what to say in reply, so he merely grunted and directed him towards his next test. "You will run again today," he said.

Beam nodded and followed along after him.

The further down the mountain trail they went, the steeper the paths grew and the more disorderly. The path would go up for the span of a few minutes, only to go immediately down again for the same length of time.

The vegetation was thick too, still filled with all the vitality offered by the summer sun, only just barely beginning to show signs of withering. Their long limbs stretched out over the path, and the thornier ones snagged at their clothes, but Dominus merely marched through like a juggernaut, oblivious to the impedance.

After far more walking than Beam felt up to – though it was only fifteen minutes or so at that point – they caught sight of the river once more, at the bottom of a deep ravine. Opposite them was the smooth stone of vertical cliffs, with a pine forest struggling to cling to the top of it.

Dominus glanced around, checking for something, before nodding to himself.

"You'll run here today," he said.

"Where..?" Beam asked, looking around. The route up ahead looked almost impassable. The route behind them was only in slightly better condition, after Dominus had battered through it and Beam had stamped it down afterwards, but even then the footing looked perilous, and it was beyond hilly. It would be a miserable time attempting to run it all the way back.

And then he was tired on top of that. His limbs were incredibly achy from the rock lifts, even though they had finished early. He had gone well beyond his limit that day, and beyond what his body was used to, and he could already feel the recoil building up.

His hamstring kept threatening to cramp and his back and stomach felt so tight that it was difficult to breathe. His hands too were red raw from attempting to grip the stone. If he hadn't built up all the calluses on his palms after so long working with a spade, then things would have been much worse.

"There," Dominus pointed to the forest on the other side of the river, and Beam's eyes widened.

"There!? But there's that river in the way… Not only that, how am I meant to climb that cliff? It's vertical! I'll die!" Beam protested.

"And if you fail to meet my expectations, you will die all the same," Dominus reminded him.

"…But if I try to meet them, then will I progress again, like I did on the stones?" Beam asked, excited by the prospect. Never in his life had he been able to progress so quickly in anything.

But Dominus just shook his head in reply. "No, not exactly. At least not straight away. Well, far be it from me to steal that hope from you. You'll find out for yourself. Enough talking. Get running. Do it three times."

Beam smiled at that, thinking that Dominus was merely tricking him again. In his mind, each time he thought back to the stones, and the progress he'd reaped on them in only a matter of days, his heart beat in a new wave of excitement. 'What if I could do that in everything?' He thought to himself.

'What if I could improve my speed just as fast? What if I could get better at fighting, too? Then in a month... No, even in a week, I'd be stronger than most men in the village. I'd be faster too. Better in a fight. When I'm there… Damn… When I'm there things will be so much better. I'll finally get the opportunities I'm searching for. I'll finally get to shoot for the top.' Beam clenched his fist as he thought that to himself, the possibilities of progress and the hope that came with them drenching his youthful mind in wild dreams.

He looked up at Dominus with fire in his eyes, feeling gratitude, even before he'd truly felt the results of the progress he'd envisioned.

Dominus caught that look and shook his head once more. 'He'll find out for himself what I mean,' he thought to himself, before raising his voice in a shout. "RUN!" He commanded, as loud as he would a soldier on the battlefield.