John Hammond’s hands were shaking, which meant his staff was shaking too. He tried to control it, but his emotions were running too hot.
He felt a bit foolish, being here. He was the lowest level out of the lot of them at Level 20. He should be higher level than that by now. He wanted to be. But he didn’t head outside the base’s walls as much as he should have.
Since the moment John had been saved from the invaders by Xavier, he’d been wanting to be useful. He’d tried to organise the other survivors, the first citizens of Xavier’s base, get them to practise drills and learn skills, but it hadn’t really led anywhere. Honestly, he hadn’t really know what he was doing.
He wanted to give back. To Xavier. To the world. But he couldn’t help but feel this sense of fear deep within him. Something that stopped him from making the moves he needed to make. Something that prevented him from running into the fray.
John wasn’t a coward. He’d been in plenty of fights and had gone into each of them knowing the potential consequences. When a fight happens in the street or in a bar, the consequences can range from getting sore knuckles, thrown in jail, or even dying when some bastard pulls a knife or gun.
Or maybe you just fall wrong, hitting the pavement just so, and die instantly. Just like that.
John realised, after the integration, that his life? It had been a mess. The fights he’d gotten into? They were all manifestations of the anger he felt against himself.
But now the world was a very different place. Now, he would need to let himself feel that fear—the fear of losing control.
The fear of killing someone accidentally, like he did before the integration—seconds before, actually.
I’m not a killer, he told himself, and yet a killer was exactly what the world now needed him to be.
“How do we do this?” John called after Xavier as the man strode forward, purple mist flowing out from him. John had seen that mist before. It seemed even more potent now. Thicker. Reeking of power. Of danger and strength.
Not for the first time, John thought of how glad he was that this man was on their side and not someone else’s. Glad that the man who’d been gifted, or had earned, so much power was nothing like him.
“Move forward,” Xavier said. “Follow behind me. Attack when I tell you to.”
Melissa nocked an arrow. The woman’s head was on a swivel, darting left and right, her gaze boring into the darkness as though it wasn’t there at all.
John strode forward, following after the others. Though his vision couldn’t penetrate the gloom for more than a few feet—the glowing moss attached to the walls simply wasn’t enough for him to see by—he could see the different auras scattered out there. He tried to count them but figured that wouldn’t be the best use of his time.
“How are we supposed to take down these enemies?” Melissa asked. She jutted her chin toward one of the auras.
John tried to scan it, but he wasn’t able to. Too far away, or too obscured by the darkness.
“That thing is Level 60,” Melissa said. She raised her bow, the arrow pointed toward the aura. Apparently she could scan whatever it was. “It’s heading this way.”
Allegra drew her blade. A two-handed sword with a dull green sheen to it. There was something foul about the blade. Something that made his stomach churn. He wondered if it was the blade itself, or some spell she’d cast upon it.
“I know.” Xavier grinned. “I asked it to.”
John blinked. Then he grinned too. The first time he’d seen the man use his purple-mist spell, it had controlled every single invader in the camp where he’d been a slave. There had been a man that day. Someone who’d used a device that had interrupted Xavier’s spell. Something told John they wouldn’t have to worry about that here.
John narrowed his eyes as whatever the beast coming forward was neared. It took a long moment for him to make it out in the darkness. If he were here alone, he knew his fear would have won out. When the beast came into view, John’s eyes widened.
It was… a rock?
The rock was about the size of a large SUV. A large SUV that stood on it bumper like a transformer. Its features were difficult to make out, but once he looked for them, he could see the slits in the stone that suggested its eyes, its mouth. The protuberance that was a nose. The jagged, jutting bits on either side of its head that were its ears.
It didn’t have limbs as far as he could tell. Which wasn’t surprising, given the fact it was a rock, for god’s sake.
He scanned the beast with his Identify skill. Before they’d headed here, Xavier had encouraged them to use the skills and spells they most wished to advance in ranks, the ones they wanted to form the basis of their fighting style and their next class.
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{Granite Constrictor – Level 60}
Granite Constrictors are a form of rock elementals that can control the earth and stone. To the untrained eye they appear as nothing more than rocks in the landscape. They trap their enemies to the ground, uncurl and show their true height, then lumber over to their enemy before curling over them to crush and suffocate them to death.
They do not bring a quick death, only an inevitable one.
Oh, well, that sounds pleasant.
A few notifications popped up. From scanning that one beast, he’d gained two ranks in Identify.
“Attack,” Xavier said.
John swallowed. One reason he had chosen to be a mage was because he always enjoyed playing them in video games. When he’d been presented with the different spell choices, he’d decided to focus on the Summon spell.
A part of him knew he would have been more suited as a brawler. He clenched his fists—they’d gotten him into and out of enough scrapes in the past. But he wanted to put his past behind him, and maybe if he controlled a Summon and wasn’t fighting in close quarters, it might make it easier for him to control his emotions in a fight.
John cast Summon Beast, the spell it had upgraded to. Once he’d begun his training outside of the wall, he’d learnt he needed to tame a beast in order to use the Summon Beast spell. It wasn’t an easy task, nor a pleasant one, making a beast submit to his will. When the beast wasn’t in use, it was contained in a dimensional space within him. He could always feel it now.
He was looking forward to a time when he could tame multiple beasts, but his dimensional space could currently only house one.
The beast materialised beside him. A wolf that stood almost to his shoulder. The beast was huge and had a wild look in its eyes. Flames flickered into life about its fur. When he’d tamed it originally, the wolf hadn’t had control of any elements, but the beast had changed. The relationship between Summoner and beast, John was quickly finding, was one of great influence.
He hadn’t realised that when he’d chosen the class. He’d wanted to be a summoner to stay out of the fray.
If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans.
That was something his father always said. Usually said slurred somewhere after his tenth drink of the night.
The moment the wolf had been summoned, he felt the effects of the transformation. He knew, in part, this was because of the type of Summoner class he’d chosen—Symbiotic Summoner. He just hadn’t really known what that meant.
John looked down at his fingernails as they turned into claws. Felt fur push out of his pores and sprout all over his body. His teeth sharpened, elongated. It was as though he was turning into some kind of werewolf. He supposed he was.
It didn’t go as far as changing and breaking his bones, something he was glad for.
“Huh,” Allegra said beside him. “Can’t say I’ve seen that class before.” The woman from another world gave him an appraising look. “A little too furry for my tastes.”
John snarled at her. He hadn’t intended to. When the transformation was in play after he summoned a beast, it was always like this—the beast brought out the strength of his emotions. Made it hard for him to hold them back.
That was where the fear came in. That was why he was still shaking. He was always afraid of what he might do.
“Whoa, sorry big guy.” Allegra put up her hands and grinned.
John had trouble trusting Allegra. The woman from another world. Though she hadn’t been a part of any of the forward invasion forces that had been on their world, she’d been a part of their armies.
Still, if Xavier trusted her, then he should.
He turned his attention onto the Granite Constrictor. Melissa had already loosed the arrow she’d nocked on her bow. It glanced off the rock beast as though it were nothing.
The woman scratched her head, nocked another arrow, and pulled the string back. This time the arrow took on a glow. He could feel power in it.
Swoosh.
The arrow loosed. It flew true. Slammed into one of the rock beast’s eye slits. The Granite Constrictor’s head moved backward about a centimetre from that attack. John doubted it did much damage, but supposed it had to do something.
I’m not even sure if I’ll be able to hurt that thing.
John bounded forward toward the enemy monster with long, loping strides. An anger built up in him with each step. He cast Fire Element and his body bloomed with flames. Without the wolf summoned, the spell would cast fireballs. With the beast, it was an entirely different experience. Having the beast summoned changed the way he fought. Changed everything about him. He knew that would be true when he had other beasts to summon. Knew that his fighting style and needs would shift with the different fights he was in.
He embraced that and leapt at his target, his Fire Wolf leaping up at his side. They slammed into the Granite Constrictor at the same time, claws tearing into it. He didn’t think they did any damage to the damned thing—it certainly didn’t budge—but they kept clawing with their flaming claws until eventually there were a few small scorch marks on the thing’s surface.
“Allegra, you’re up,” Xavier said in a casual voice.
The woman stepped forward, that same grin on her face. She sprinted then leapt straight up into the air, even though she was too far away from the monster to reach it.
Then she… disappeared. At the same time, he heard a sharp pop and saw her appear directly in front of the beast’s face, stabbing her sword into one of the eye slits, leaving a slight scratch.
She kicked off the thing’s head, flipping in the air, then landed smoothly on the ground, flicking her hair up out of her face until it was behind her.
“Well, that was fun, though I hardly seemed to hurt it,” the woman from another world said.
Xavier tilted his head to the side. He took a step. His scythe-staff appeared in his hand. He disappeared—a teleport like Allegra?
No. He was just moving so fast John couldn’t see it.
John blinked. Xavier was back where he was standing. He was sure barely a second had passed. But something had shifted. Changed. A notification popped up in his vision, telling him he’d defeated the Granite Constrictor.
He looked over at the beast. It looked exactly as it had before—no. There was a thin line across its neck.
The beast’s body swayed one way, then the other. It was tilting to one side. Its head began to slide off its neck.
Craaaash!
The Granite Constrictor slammed into the hard floor of the cavern. The noise echoed around the area.
Level notifications assailed John’s vision. His eyes widened as he felt a rapid shift in his stats. His muscles twitched. His vision sharpened. His awareness broadened. His mind expanded. His magic… strengthened.
Everything about him was changing.
He’d just gained five levels from a single kill.