“From here on out, my word is law!”

The gruff voice of Alewife’s commanding officer, Alexander Grady, rang out onto the patch of farmland where the assembled group of soldiers had gathered.

“If I say jump, you jump. If I say run, you run. Don’t make me have to talk to the Temple Authority about getting someone out here to do funeral rites!”

There were seven of us there, Grady included. Two of them were the men I had fought the day before; the other four were strangers I had seen around the Alewife but never interacted with. We were all in various stages somewhere between excitement and nervousness. There was a nervous energy to the air. The tension felt palpable.

We’d left early in the afternoon and followed the sea for the better part of an hour, headed toward a local wharf. That’s where we’d lay our trap.

Over the course of the past month, an unusually large turtle had been spotted roaming in the waterways near Lille. Although it sounded unremarkable, Grady was convinced the beast was a Horror. He’d hastily put together our little hunting expedition to make the most of the boost of strength those who killed a Horror gained. He assured us that he chose only the promising and the skilled. If everyone had faced the same barriers to entry that I had, I believed him.

“Yes sir!”

The three members of our group, the ones who were Enlisted, echoed back. I was technically an Enlisted, even though my start date wasn’t for another two weeks yet. My time at Alewife was supposed to get some dirt under my fingernails before I went off to the legion. I guessed that killing a turtle would help accomplish that. Or, more accurately, killing a Spineback.

I shifted uncomfortably in my armor. I wasn’t used to how the weight of it felt on my body. It was restrictive and surprisingly heavy.

I’d had a batch of equipment provided for me for just this occasion. It consisted of a shirt of mail chain, a leather gambesson, a traveling satchel, and a scabbard for a two-handed sword. Delta gave me a weapon that was as practical as it was ugly. It was true steel, the first weapon of its type I had ever used, but that didn’t change the fact that its handle was just rawhide leather strips bound tightly over a reinforced tang.

With the sword, the armor and my size, I probably looked more intimidating than I felt.

Our plan was simple: Grady was going to piss the turtle off something fierce, it was going to chase him onto land from the sea, and he’d lead it to where we sat waiting with nets of rope and chains of iron. Once it was restrained, we’d whack the life out of it.

I had the least dangerous part of the job. Grady was using himself as bait whereas I wasn’t even holding one of the nets. Still, I couldn’t help the feeling of unease that crept along my spine.

“Grappler, are you ready?”

“Aye, boss.”

The man who responded was very short and very, very buff. He looked like he was more muscle than man. He wore no shirt, only a belt and trousers, and his entire upper body looked like a statue that had been chiseled from marble.

Grady nodded back at him.

“Right, and so we begin. Stay sharp.”

The Centurion left the location of the ambush and made his way down onto the rocky beach to the shore. He went slowly, and spent a lot of time scanning his surroundings. I couldn’t help but wonder if it was because the man was nervous. I knew I’d be if I was in his shoes.

It wasn’t entirely clear to me how he was going to enrage the Spineback, just that it was going to happen. That specific detail within the plan hadn’t been questioned, and I was too afraid to ask.

The shoreline consisted of many large, rocky outcroppings that were partially submerged within the tide. I couldn’t figure out where the turtle would be coming from.

After reaching a point deep enough in the water that his knees were submerged, Grady stopped. He reached down and started digging for something in the surf. The water splashed around him. A few seconds later, he held a large ovular rock over his head. It was about the size of a tire.

“Get ready.”

One of the men waiting next to me cautioned in a low whisper. I turned and looked at him, confused. He must’ve known something I didn’t. His gaze was locked on the water.

I turned my eyes back to Grady, who was now shaking the rock. Massive clumps of brown sand sloughed off of it and gave way to the color of cream underneath.

My jaw dropped. That wasn’t a rock; it was an egg.

If the egg was that large, how big were its parents?

I didn’t need to wait very long to find out. A groan that sounded like a mixture of the cry of a bird of prey and a nasty wheeze echoed through the air. The strength of it was so much that the rocks vibrated as it passed. Grady bolted towards us, egg still in hand, moving with a quickness only possible by a man who was greatly enhanced by the System.

Then, the beach exploded. A huge amount of sand, rock, and seafoam was sent spraying into the air as a rocky outcropping the size of a small hill began to move. Each impact of its mighty feet caused the ground to sink beneath its weight.

The Spineback was a true colossus. Its shell spanned easily the length of wingspan of three men and its maw was wide enough that it could swallow one whole. The spine that it was named for ran across the center of its shell, pointed chunks of bone in the shape of spikes making its natural armor all the more intimidating. I looked like a child next to this thing. I felt like one, too.

I understood for the first time what was meant by ‘Horror.’ If the System could make gods of men, what could it do to animals?

The short, buff man chuckled.

“We’re gonna need a bigger net.”

I gulped.

The turtle ran at Grady with speed unbecoming a creature of its size, knocking over the handful of trees that dared to stand in its way. The lumbering beast was not faster than him but it was closer than I would’ve liked.

The Centurion sprinted hard. He made it to the nets in the nick of time, the turtle bowling just after him.

“Deploy!” He yelled as he ran through the shoot.

And deploy they did. The four men assigned to net duty let loose their bindings and coated the Horror in a mixture of rope and metal and then immediately secured them to nearby rocks. It violently thrashed against its newfound prison. The pitch of its groan shifted from a sound of outrage to a sound of anguish. I readied my blade and took a deep breath. Then, the unthinkable happened.

The ropes made of fiber made a creaking noise against its weight. It sounded like they’d hold. With an underwhelming ‘pop’ they snapped. I watched in dismay as the spikes on its back tore through half of what held it in place. Only the metal chains remained.

“At will, men!” Grady called from nearby. That was the signal to begin the process of actually killing the thing.

I rushed forward and entered the fray. I didn’t trust the metal chains to last and I needed to cause what damage I could. I was closest to one of its front legs, and although they moved, it was like hacking away at a wriggling tree in front of me. I’d have to try to miss.

The stout man had evidently come to the same conclusion,

“Boss, the chains aren’t going to hold it!”

He was hacking away at the pseudo-knee opposite me with what looked like a meat cleaver. The edge of his blade glowed slightly, and it sheared off little bits of flesh with each impact.

I sent an [Empowered] blow towards the leg and found that it felt like I was striking a block of stone. My blade bounced off, leaving it virtually unharmed except for a blemish on the scale. I kept sending [Empowered] strikes into it, and the scales surrounding where I was hitting began to crack, but I was woefully ineffective.

Someone shouted, “Y’need to aim for the creases! Where the leg bends!” over the sound of combat.

I wasn’t sure if I was the intended target, or if someone else had been having the same problem and decided to share their solution. I decided to give their suggestion a try. I rotated around to the side of the leg I was hacking at and approached the task from a new angle.

Sure enough, I began to do meaningful damage to the Horror. With each strike from my [Empowered] steel, the gash I created grew larger and the flexibility of the leg lessened. The Horror seemed angrier now. I wondered if it realized that its life was under threat.

Elsewhere, Grady was engaged with the head of the Spineback. It rapidly snapped at him as he dodged and weaved in front of it, delivering his own flurry of blows to the sides of its mouth. The region of the maw seemed extra tough- almost entirely void of soft tissue, the edge of its chin formed a sharp ‘V.’

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Despite that, he seemed to be winning his fight against the face. He’d managed to land at least one decisive strike against an eye. The jelly of the pupil oozed out thick and black onto the cheek below it. I hadn’t realized that was possible. It was gross.

“Fuck!”

I heard someone scream. I watched as the tail of the thing swung and caught them flatfooted, slammed against their chest, and launched them from the ground. Due to the sheer force of the impact they flew a handful of yards through the air and skidded on their chest to a stop on the beach. They didn’t get back up. Things weren’t looking too good.

The situation went from bad to worse. The chains, which I thought had lasted impressively long on their own, finally gave way and freed the beast. Its mobility had been significantly decreased from when it had chased Grady, but either way it was still a multi-ton turtle with the running speed of a man.

Grady took charge of the situation, “Scatter! Avoid the legs! Don’t give it the chance to step on you!”

I disengaged by taking a few long steps back. Despite it being free it had a singularly minded focus on Grady. He had stolen its egg, after all. He was the source of its ire. I wasn’t even sure if whatever bestial intelligence it had noticed when the rest of us stopped slashing at its limbs. We’d each created as much distance as we could from the monstrosity.

The Spineback chased after him. I was forced to circle around, opposite where I had been before. I only narrowly managed to dodge when it brought its legs forward. I was now on the same side as the downed warrior.

His next words didn’t make a lot of sense to me.

“Prospero, crack its skull!”

The man with the cleaver, Prospero, sprang into action. He lept into the air, began to fall, and then propelled himself forward off of a platform that wasn’t actually there. The ability he’d used was a famous one, [Wind-step]. He landed with a rough sounding thud against the shell of the turtle, clutching one of its spikes with his free-hand. His cleaver occupied the other.

He scurried like a squirrel over its shell, using both hands to find grip holds and put himself onto its forehead between its eyes. Meanwhile, Grady continued his assault on the face.

Prospero started thwacking downwards on the region above its nose, his blade still glowing softly. I wondered what that ability was. It seemed to be a step-beyond what [Empower] could do. Huge chunks of tissue were torn away with each strike.

Unfortunately, this was something the Spineback noticed. It reared back onto its hind legs, exposing its underside to the open air, and wildly shook its head. Prospero was thrown off. His small frame went flying, but he recovered by [Wind-stepping] to safety. Grady tried to strike its underside but found no purchase.

The Spineback whirled around midair, the movement of rotating its body whilst on its hind legs a clumsy and unnatural one. It fell back to the ground with a thump.

It didn’t matter because no one could punish it for its imprecision. It wasn’t a swordsman. It wasn’t the kind of combatant Delta had best prepared me for. It was a beast.

And now, it faced toward where the man lay still. His only sign of life was the slow rise and fall of his chest. It’d turn him into paste without even slowing down.

I was the only one on that side. No one else was in a position to do anything about it. I could maybe reach the man, but what then? Would I have the time to drag him to safety? I had to do something. I couldn’t just leave the man to be stomped into non-existence.

I threw my blade aside and ran for him, squeezing every ounce out of my Dexterity II attribute. I hoped the System was on my side. I’d need to scoop him up as I went if I wanted any shot of getting us both out of there. The Horror began its charge back towards the water.

For the next few seconds, reality seemed to move in slow motion. I ended up reaching the incapacitated man first. I struggled for a few seconds in a feeble attempt to get him off the ground but the sand made it difficult. I made the mistake of turning my head, saw the monster barrelling towards me, and promptly lost my shit. I felt myself panic and I began wondering if this would be the end of Ghul.

In a last ditch effort as the form of the turtle cascaded over me, I threw my hands up above my head, palms flat like I was carrying a heavy load. I had accepted my fate. Cali would need a new bodyguard, and Delta a new student. I hoped someone would tell my father that I had died trying to save someone.

Just then, something strange happened. I felt an impossible weight begin to come down on my body. My muscles strained like they never had before under the weight of the Spineback. Only, I wasn’t crushed.

I held the oversized turtle in place above my head. Its stampede had been stopped cold. My body screamed in agony, my spine bent in a brand new way. It blotted out the sun above my head.

The chime of a System notification echoed through my consciousness.

*Worthy adversary detected. Vestige: The Behemoth activated. Nanites surrounding System User supercharged.*

Welcome, young User, to the fold. The role of the Behemoth is a great one, fraught with both power and danger. It is the System’s response to a world where leviathans lurk and prey on humanity, an attempted correction to having made them in the first place.

You are of Tyr’s blood. It has been approximately: 286 years, 3 months, 0 days, 12 hours, 51 minutes since this Vestige was last successfully activated. Use it wisely.

*Error; System User; Ghul. does not have required [Authority] to activate Vestige. [Authority] temporarily requisitioned from nearby Administrator. Ticket created.*

Above me, the turtle screamed. Below me, the man still breathed. To their credit, both Grady and Prospero didn’t let their surprise stop them from capitalizing on the situation. With the Spineback held up as it was, its neck was exposed. The both of them cut through it like a hot-knife through butter.

A veritable deluge of blood cascaded onto me and the ground that surrounded me. The horror made an ugly gurgling noise, and then went limp above me.

It took everything I had and more to not collapse under the weight of the corpse. The System had stepped in, and I didn’t understand the implications of the help it had lent me. Thankfully, Grady noticed my struggle.

“He can’t move it! Prospero, Casper, help me lift!”

I felt the weight begin to shift above me and not a second too soon. My knees buckled. The turtle was being held up by all five of the other men, and still they struggled. At least three of them activated an ability and over ten agonizing seconds they moved its body to a point where it would not crush me or the other man when they let it fall.

My arms fell to my side. In fact, I wasn’t sure I still had the ability to move them. They felt like someone had stretched both of them until they snapped, and then stretched them some more. I was now on my knees. I didn’t remember falling.

I looked down at my chest. At some point, the tanned leather of my shirt had begun to split. Damn. It had been uncomfortable, but it didn’t deserve that. With a crash the Spineback fell to the ground, and I very quickly found myself surrounded by my comrades. Many of them came at me at once, speaking over each other.

“How in Zeus’ name did you manage that?”

“You saved Kent’s life!”

“Are you able to stand?”

The last came from Grady, and I tried my hardest to answer him. It was difficult. My mouth tasted like blood. My nose smelled like blood. Oh, I realized, my nose was bleeding. An unintelligible noise came out.

“Nuhhhhhhh-chk”

By some mercy, he seemed to understand.

“Everyone, give him some space! We don’t want to finish what the beast started by suffocating him!”

They all backed off. I began to fall, but Prospero caught me. Today, he'd been an impressive example of a warrior. I hoped to one day be able to do half of what he was capable of.

“Easy lad. You did good today, even if I’m not sure how you did it.”

From a few paces off, Grady quickly barked out another command.

“Men, brace. Influx of nanites incoming.”

The System notification came like a deafening clarion played directly into my brain. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever get used to it.

*Greater Adversary defeated. Massively increased density of Chrysalis nanites detected in proximity. Beginning absorption..*

A few seconds passed.

*Absorption completed. Survival requirements for greater progression met.*

Might III -> VI

Arcana - -> I

Intellect II -> III

Dexterity II -> IV

Requirements for permanent Chrysalis met. Chrysalis altered. Traits unlocked.

Strong

Durable

Abilities unlocked.

[Inflame]

*Chrysalis enhanced.*

Prospero was still holding me up when my eyes regained focus.

“That was a big one, wasn’t it?”

I managed a weak nod. I’d think it over later. I was pretty sure that literally every number had gone up. I hadn’t realized it before, but I was breathing heavily.

“How about you close your eyes? It’s okay. The battle’s over now. Time to rest. We’ll make sure you get back to Alewife in one piece.”

His voice was soft and reassuring. I wasn’t sure that was a good idea. What would Delta think if he found out I slept immediately after battle? He’d probably have a field day coming up with creative ways to lecture me. But Prospero was so convincing, and my body felt so heavy.

I began to protest. It didn’t get very far. Grady walked up and [Commanded] me. His voice sounded funny.

“Ghul, it’s time for you to sleep. That’s an order.”

I closed my eyes.

* * *

That day, on that beach near Alewife, was the day I took my first significant step on the path toward becoming Ares. It was my first triumph, and the beginning of my legend. Contrary to popular belief, the Massacre at Concord was not when I gained use of my trademark [Inflame]. I had earned it within three weeks of the unlocking of my System, and it had nearly cost me everything. Looking back, it feels like giving a child a sharpened sword and telling him to have fun.

An astute listener will recognize the name Prospero, largely due to the services he provided my household later in life. I count him among one of my oldest friends and closest allies. He was there for the beginning of my story, and I expect he’ll be there for the end of it.

Not everything that happened that day was good. Despite the significant boost in my power, I also made my first real enemy. Beluga. I wasn’t yet aware of him, but he was aware of me, and he was coming.