Torin exhaled a deep breath, seeming to have come to a decision, before commanding Brakk and Raskar.

  “Raskar, Brakk, buy me a second. I have something in store.“

  All he got in response was a grunt and a nod before those two threw themselves at the massive figure, their trust unwavering. Yet not even a moment passed before,

  *crack*

  The bear swatted Raskar away like a fly, the sound of his bones breaking echoing in the process. Brakk, despite the danger, tried to save his friend, but all he saw was the muzzle of the beast as the massive lug lunged.

  His pupils widened at its speed, despite its massive bulk, before his head was crushed like a rotten egg. Brain matter spilling through the bear's teeth.

  And Torin…

  He was gone, running for his life.

  ‘This was the only way’ He kept saying in his head.

  Without him the race’s chances would’ve been gone and they would have had to stay but a mere prey for the rest of their existence.

  Not to say it didn’t ache. This was the first thing that hurt this bad. It was like an ever expanding void opened in his stomach. An emptiness, a bitterness.

  The feelings he felt could be likened to losing one's one and only friend, or being disowned after being adopted, or someone pretending to help you just to screw you over afterwards.

  In other words it hurt so much because he got it just for it to be taken away.

  ‘I’m truly a wretched king’ he thought to himself. The pit in his stomach expanding with every stride he took, the surrounding forest turning into a blur.

  At some point by accident or by instinct he entered a shallow ice cold spring, using the last fragments of clear thought he walked in it making sure he masked his scent and hopefully his tracks, his feelings notwithstanding.

  ‘Why do I have to endure? Why? Why? Why!?WhyWhyWhyWhyWhyWhyWhy!?’ A voice kept echoing in his head.

  The coldness from the spring slowly creeping into his body and his soul fully engulfed by the chill from within.

  *splash* *splash*

  He kept slugging through the faint current. Like a frozen glacier ever so slowly moving forwards, despite the faint traces of energy leaving his body.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Every step took more and more effort, his body hurt more and more, like needles piercing through his skin the coldness became so much he couldn’t even let out a sound, just barely shifting his legs forward.

  *plump*

  He fell to his knees, the frigid water claiming more of his body. Any sane being would stop now, accept the hopelessness of the situation, the ironic joke of life.

  But he kept going, clawing his way forward, some hidden desire or instinct running his empty body, pushing it just one more stride, one more pull forward.

  Unfortunately that flame wasn’t enough, the spark smothered..

  As the last wisp of resistance disappeared, so did the coldness finally submerged his vessel.

  And with that the need to endure disappeared, only acceptance was left. Acceptance of all the wrongs, of all the unfairness, of all the pain and coldness.

  Acceptance of the freezing void that was inside him.

  ***

  He woke up face upwards, his body flipping over at some point in his untimely nap.

  As he opened his eyes he saw the blinding light in the sky, the first thought coming to his head was that he was dead, which was quickly disapproved as trying to move his body caused a wave of pain to go through him.

  After barely lifting his chest he splashed back down again.

  ‘Splashed? Ah, yes, the cold spring’ strangely the cold spring wasn’t so cold anymore. It was more like it was as warm as a nice spot on the sun, comforting and warming.

  This was one of the benefits of breaking through, yes, breaking through. The vast emotional turmoil providing enough change to get Torin started on the true path of power.

  Not just some physical changes, but access to the mastery of jak itself, in whatever different flavours it might be. This being the path of cold, right now manifesting as ice or even more specifically a ‘glacier’s physique’.

  A physique of specific type only being able to be obtained when both soul and body harmonize at the point of breakthrough, it’s not an eventuality, but a bonus, a bonus to those worthy, increasing all their physical capabilities by at least twenty percent as a baseline.

  The fluvian version of this being their inherent affinity for water. Every single one of them possessing at least some skill in water manipulation, of course in exchange they don’t even have the chance to get a special physique, at least not in the first tier.

  You could think about it like this. A sapling is born with enough energy to grow big and tall, but that energy and growth limits its final height, potential.

  Torin in this case would be like a person building a mound. He starts from nothing, slowly gathering insights from the world around him and building it. Days after weeks after months after years, until that little mound grows into a mountain, in theory it has no limit, it could grow endlessly.

  After a few days of familiarizing himself he noticed its additional benefits as well.

  Of course we have the increased cold resistance alongside that his skin became more brittle, but has more defense towards slashing weapons, like claws, spears, knives and so on.

  His metabolism slowed down significantly, now not needing to expend resources to keep such a warm body temperature.

  He also attained a degree of mastery in manipulation of ice itself but as it was right now it pretty much had no function, barely being able to freeze a drop of water.

  Now done checking his abilities it was time to figure out how to proceed.