FL - Chapter 85: Frostmane Tundra Hares

Early autumn brought a dry, biting chill to the Northlands. Low shrubs and yellowing grass bent in the wind as several warhorses raced past.

Frostmane Tundra Hares were timid but blindingly fast; too many hunters would only send them fleeing. Louis had brought seven knights and no more.

Three miles took the knights only a few minutes to cover. Louis soon led them to the location named by the intelligence.

"A magical beast—over there!" The lead Elite Knight reined in sharply and spoke in a low warning. "Gray-brown fur, blue-gray growths… Frostmane Tundra Hares! At least three of them!"

Louis raised a hand at once. "Stop."

Everyone immediately pulled rein. The warhorses were tethered behind the nearby shrubs. They dismounted in complete silence.

"Don't make a sound," Louis whispered. "These hares have extremely acute hearing."

The seven knights advanced with the silence of stalking cats and took cover behind a high outcrop. Louis crouched, braced one hand against the stone, and peered through a gap.

There, in a hollow amid the still-unwithered brush, three gray-brown Frostmane Tundra Hares were foraging—alert and watchful. Their short ears stood upright. Their hind legs tapped lightly against the earth. Thick furred pads on all four paws let them move across the dry, hard ground without a whisper of sound.

And what drew the eye most of all: the three clusters of Frostmoss Berries drooping from the ridge of each spine, radiating a faint blue-gray sheen that quivered gently in the early-autumn sunlight.

"Adults… and all of them bearing berries." Excitement sharpened Louis's whisper. *Thank you for the gift.*

Frostmoss Berries could enhance a knight's Battle Aura. For Louis, on the verge of breakthrough, this was nothing short of a heaven-sent opportunity.

Frostmane Tundra Hares were far warier than common beasts. They avoided straight paths, worked their way upwind to catch the scent of danger, and kept to the thin shadows beneath grass and rock. The rustle of a single leaf could send them bolting.

This hunt, then, would not be a test of courage. It would be a test of patience.

"A direct approach will only guarantee they vanish before we get close," Louis murmured. "Prepare the bait lines."

"Yes, my lord!"

The knights drew small pouches of Cloudmoss Powder from their packs. The processed moss gave off a scent favored by many herbivorous magical beasts, including Frostmane Tundra Hares. Louis carried it on every expedition for opportunities like this one.

Following the direction of the three hares' movement, the knights crept forward and sprinkled a winding bait trail across the ground. The trail led, at last, to a slight natural depression—a hollow basin where the grass grew thick and men could be hidden on all sides. A perfect ambush site.

"Split into groups. Conceal yourselves around the hollow. Wait until they draw close." Louis directed.

Then they waited. Time passed until the sun began to sink.

The Frostmane Tundra Hares followed the trail exactly as expected, noses close to the ground as they tracked the lingering scent. Now and then, one pawed aside a scrap of grass.

"They're moving. Ready." Louis's eyes gleamed.

Three. Two. One.

"Now!"

Capture nets whipped out from every side, cutting off the hares' escape routes. Immediately after came flashes of silver needles, sinking into the hares' spines with soft, wet thuds. The prey tried, briefly, to struggle and leap—but the paralytic agent had already taken swift effect. Their bodies slackened and collapsed where they stood.

"All three secured!" Louis let out a breath.

It had taken a little more time than he'd hoped, but the harvest was more than worth it. Three Frostmane Tundra Hares. Nine clusters of Frostmoss Berries.

Louis stepped forward, his eyes falling upon the blue-gray berries along the hares' backs. They looked like some kind of frost-condensed fruit, the color close to ice crystal, the surface traced with a pale rime of white frost. But in truth, they were fused with the hares' flesh and blood. They were clearly not botanical in structure, but rather a product of the magical beast's internal energy.

"They call them berries… but they're more like growths of living flesh and blood."

He touched one cluster. It felt cold and elastic beneath his fingertips, with a faint pulse of power buried inside.

"A truly wondrous thing…"

Frostmoss Berries contained intensely concentrated energy. For a knight trapped at a bottleneck, they could provide the spark that broke it open.

"Take them to camp. Have the cook prepare them as a soup," Louis ordered.

"Yes, my lord!" A knight immediately departed with the spoils.

Night soon fell. The only sound in the camp was the crackle and pop of the fire.

"Hare stew—coming through!"

Louis sat cross-legged inside his tent. He accepted the steaming bowl from the cook. The broth was a shade close to ice-blue, shimmering faintly in the firelight. Fine flecks of Frostmoss Berry residue floated on its surface. He lowered his head and breathed in the scent—a strange fragrance somewhere between frost and medicinal herbs, with a faint undernote of wild beast's blood. Not unpleasant.

He took a sip. The soup melted across his tongue with a delicate sweetness.

But in the next breath, the cold transformed into searing heat. A torrent of wild energy surged like a tide from his throat into every limb and every bone!

Louis's eyes sharpened. He immediately upended the bowl and drained it in one go. Then he crossed his legs, set the wooden bowl aside, closed his eyes, and began cycling the Tide Breathing Art.

Within him, his Battle Aura now surged as though driven by a rising tide—swelling, churning, hammering against the final gate that barred his path to Elite Knight.

One wave. Two waves. Three waves…

The energy inside him grew fiercer with each pulse. His bones gave off faint, trembling vibrations. His muscles throbbed as though ablaze.

And then—suddenly—an invisible gate was blasted wide open.

*THOOM!*

Battle Aura burst through like a flood breaching a dam, erupting from his heart and raging through his veins.

Breakthrough! Early-stage Elite Knight!

Louis opened his eyes and released a stream of white vapor. His breathing steadied. Sweat had soaked his clothes, but every part of him felt renewed. The energy within him had grown denser, and faint ripples of Battle Aura shimmered across his skin.

"Finally… the breakthrough. So this is what it means, to stand in the realm of an Elite Knight."

The breakthrough left him with an indescribable lightness, freed from a burden he had never noticed carrying. Before, sustaining his Battle Aura required three synchronized steps—focus, guidance, and breath. Now it circulated at a thought, flowing through him like a tide and nourishing bone, flesh, and blood even while he stood still.

But what elated him most was not the breakthrough itself.

It was what happened in the instant of breakthrough—somewhere deep within him, a long-dormant power had finally been jolted awake by the surging torrent of Battle Aura.

"This… this is a bloodline awakening?!" Louis murmured, his voice trembling with excitement.