Tale of the Mythical Beast Tamer

**Chapter 6: The Tree of Thorns**

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### **The Trial Begins**

The world dissolved into roots and fire.

Kai stood in a cavernous hollow within Elias Thorn's tree, its walls pulsing with veins of amber light. The air hummed with ancient magic, thick as syrup, and the Phoenix Down hovered above a pedestal of intertwined branches. But between Kai and the feather stood three figures—not beasts, but *shades* of Tamers long dead. Their eyes glowed with judgment.

**[Trial of the Old Growth]**

**[Objective: Survive the Guardians' Verdict.]**

**[Failure: Assimilation into the Tree.]**

Selene cursed, her serpent hissing at the shadows. "Thorn's ghosts. They'll test your worth as a Tamer… and as a human."

"What kind of test?" Kai asked, his Stormforged rune flickering uneasily.

"The kind that breaks you," Selene said, her scar twitching. "I've seen it before."

The first shade stepped forward—a woman in tattered robes, her skeletal hand resting on the skull of a decayed dragon.

**Guardian of Dominion:** *"You command beasts. But should they command you?"*

The ground split. Vyr and the Azure Songbird vanished, swallowed by the roots. Kai lunged for them, but the roots coiled around his ankles, dragging him into a vision.

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### **Memory of the Conqueror**

Kai stood on a battlefield drenched in blood and twilight. Before him loomed a Tamer clad in obsidian armor, riding a three-headed hydra. Soldiers cheered as the hydra razed a village, its flames devouring screaming villagers.

"This was Elias Thorn's rival," the Guardian intoned. *"A Tamer who saw beasts as tools. He conquered nations… until his hydra devoured him."*

The scene shifted. The hydra, now gargantuan and feral, tore the Tamer apart, its roars shaking the earth.

**Guardian of Dominion:** *"Dominance is a lie. What will you sacrifice to avoid his fate?"*

Kai's Stormforged mark seared. "I don't want to dominate anyone. I want to *survive*."

The Guardian sneered. *"All humans say this. Prove it."*

The roots tightened. Kai's mind flooded with the hydra's rage—its pain, its forced servitude. He gasped, clawing at his chest as the beast's memories merged with his own.

**[Human Evolution Path: Stormforged – Risk of Corruption: 58%]**

"I'm not him!" Kai roared. Lightning erupted from his mark, shattering the vision. He collapsed back into the tree's hollow, vomiting ash.

Selene stared at him. "You resisted assimilation. Impressive."

"Where's Vyr?" Kai rasped.

"Alive. For now."

The second shade approached—a child with hollow eyes, cradling a wilting flower.

**Guardian of Empathy:** *"You feel their pain. But will you heed it?"*

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### **The Price of Compassion**

The roots seized Kai again.

He awoke in a sunlit glade, his body small, fragile—*human*, but not his own. A rabbit trembled in his hands, its leg snapped in a trap.

*"Kill it,"* whispered a voice—Selene's, but twisted, venomous. *"Its pain is weakness. Your survival is all that matters."*

Kai's hands shook. The rabbit's heartbeat fluttered against his palms, its terror mirroring his own when the village mocked his sparrow.

"No," he said.

*"You'll starve,"* the voice hissed. *"Mercy is a luxury."*

Kai set the rabbit down, splinting its leg with a stick. "Then I'll starve."

The glade darkened. The rabbit glowed, transforming into a luminous stag with antlers of crystalline fire.

**[Luminous Stag (Mythic) – Bondability: 100%]**

*"Compassion is strength,"* the stag said, its voice like wind through leaves. *"But the world will punish you for it."*

The vision shattered. Kai returned to the tree, tears streaking his ash-coated face. The Guardian of Empathy bowed, dissolving into petals.

Selene's fists clenched. "Sentimentality will get you killed."

"It just saved us," Kai snapped.

The third shade emerged—a towering warrior with a face obscured by thorny vines, a spectral wolf at his side.

**Guardian of Balance:** *"You walk two paths: human and beast. Which will you forsake?"*

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### **The Stormforged Choice**

This time, the vision was Kai's own.

He stood atop a mountain, storms raging below. To his left, Vyr and the Songbird—evolved into Mythic titans, their eyes loyal but distant. To his right, a human army bearing Windspire's banners, led by Elder Vorn and Hela.

*"Join us,"* Vorn said. *"Wield your beasts as weapons, and humanity will reign eternal."*

*"Remain with us,"* Vyr growled. *"Evolve beyond their fragile flesh."*

Kai's Stormforged mark blazed, his veins crackling. **[Human Evolution Path: Stormforged – Complete.]**

The vision offered no middle ground.

"I choose neither," Kai said.

The mountain split. He fell into darkness, the tree's roots catching him.

**Guardian of Balance:** *"You resist evolution. Why?"*

"Because I'm both," Kai said. "Human *and* beast. I won't abandon either."

The Guardian's thorns retracted, revealing Elias Thorn's face—gaunt, weathered, and sorrowful.

*"A worthy answer,"* Thorn said. *"But the Phoenix Down demands a sacrifice. Will you offer your storm… or your humanity?"*

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### **The Sacrifice**

The tree's hollow trembled. The Phoenix Down glowed, its light searing Kai's eyes.

"What happens if I choose the storm?" he asked.

*"Your humanity fades. You become a force of nature—unbound, unfeeling."*

"And my humanity?"

*"The storm dies. You remain human… vulnerable."*

Selene stepped forward. "Take the storm. It's the only way to survive what's coming."

Vyr's voice echoed through their bond. *"Choose yourself, Kai. We will endure."*

The Songbird trilled, nuzzling his cheek.

Kai closed his eyes. "I choose… balance."

He seized the Phoenix Down. Fire engulfed him.

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### **Rebirth and Betrayal**

Agony. Then clarity.

Kai awoke on the Ashen Wastes, the tree gone. The Phoenix Down pulsed in his grip, its warmth soothing his Stormforged mark. Vyr and the Songbird stirred beside him, unharmed.

But Selene stood over him, her dagger pressed to his throat.

"You should've taken the storm," she whispered. "Now the Phoenix Down is mine."

Her serpent struck, fangs sinking into Kai's wrist. Paralysis spread like ice.

"Why?" Kai choked.

"Because I need it to evolve *myself*," she said, her eyes blazing with Stormforged lightning. "You're not the only one with a hidden path."

She vanished into smoke, the Phoenix Down clutched in her hand.

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### **The Council's Wrath**

Garren's hunters found him an hour later.

Kai stood, his Stormforged mark dim but unbroken. The Songbird's feathers blazed azure, and Vyr's frost swirled with unnatural heat.

"Where's the Phoenix Down, boy?" Garren snarled.

"Gone," Kai said. "But I don't need it to finish this."

Lightning and frost collided with molten fury.

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### **Epiphany in Flames**

After the battle, Kai knelt in the ashes, Garren's broken hammer at his feet. The Stormforged mark on his wrist had shifted—a phoenix now intertwined with the stormcloud.

**[Stormforged Evolution Progress: 34% – New Ability: Ember's Resurgence (Heal mortal wounds once per lunar cycle.)]**

Vyr nuzzled his hand. *"What now?"*

Kai gazed east, where Elias Thorn's tree had vanished. "We find Selene. We finish this."

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### **End of Chapter 6**

**Author's Note:** Kai's refusal to forsake his humanity costs him the Phoenix Down but unlocks a fragile equilibrium between man and storm. With Selene's betrayal revealing her own Stormforged evolution, the hunt becomes a deadly race against time. Next chapter: The Frostspire Mountains, where Selene seeks the Glacier Core for her Mythic ascent—and Kai must confront the truth about his father's disappearance.