Falldwell and I may not have been active Adventurers or Guardsmen in the last few years, swapping our old Powers out as needed, but we have enough Powers and combat experience to make a difference!

Falldwell with his swords placed onto his body looks like a pin cushion as he flies towards Falgus, spinning in the clear blue sky his blades swing towards him, being blocked by a Force Wall but still causing damage to Falgus, his skin glowing a lighter shade of red as it absorbs the damaged launched by Falldewll’s True Strike Power.

I am midair and hovering to the side while Falldwell swings his swords into the Force Wall, slowly increasing the damage dealt onto Falgus. Let’s make things a bit trickier for him shall we?

I chant “Gladnach’s Power and Mana Anchor!” letting Falldwell know the invisible Power is in use, as Falgus sneers at me while blocking Falldwell’s swords he faces me, ignoring the damage and swords and I feel the heat on my skin only for a moment as it disappears into a dark orb that hangs behind me, I use Mahobriand’s Advanced Instant Teleport to move out of the way, I don’t know what this Power is but I get the feeling I should not get in its way. The Teleport feels slightly different, as if hesitating for a moment.

As I move behind Falldwell and on the water, he sees me in the corner of his eye and sends an Astral Arm through the small of his back and makes a hand sign letting me know his plan, his ring finger sticking up in his closed fist. Guess he decided to make things even harder on Falgus

With the activation of this Power unknown to Falgus he continues his attack, Falldwell’s Astral Arms arrive in force, glowing a yellow colour as they grab onto weapons, elongate and start to move around Falgus attempting to score direct hits onto him.

The Force Wall wraps around Falgus into a cocoon shape as it weathers the attacks, but damage is still being done. Falldwell is a natural with weapons, in another time he would be a Master Swordsmaster, the Powered swords activate their Powers, ripping into the Force Wall and slowly slanding hit upon hit. Directed Force, Lightning, Razor Sharpness and more ripping and effecting the Force Wall.

Falgus is not doing so good, we can see him panicking, sweating from the constant barrage of sword blows, we may not be equipped Power wise for a fight but we are definitely powerful enough to take him down.

I get a feeling in the back of my mind as another tuber jumps out of the dark green water, I manage to strike it with the flat of my halberd, knocking it up into the sky where it flops about before splashing into the water. I keep my eyes on Falgus however, watching him to see if he tries to escape.

Falgus suddenly smiles a manic grin as he crosses his arms and lowers his Force Wall, Falldwell seizes the opportunity to capture him as the Astral Arms back off a little to give us the room to apply Luminous Shackles.

“Fall” Falgus says in a deep voice, suddenly all of Falldwell’s Powers cease to be, Astral Arms disappearing and dropping the swords, swords stuck to his body fall away and the Flight Power drops him back onto the water, landing hard as if falling onto concrete but not going below the water. The fallen swords landing either on or stuck in the water, as if stuck into the ground, moving slightly up and down with the waves.

Falldwell quickly gets to his feet, having only taken a slight amount of damage. Falgus standing in the air looks down upon us,

“Fools, I have Power Analysis, with my skill I can rip apart any Power I see! Truly, I am the greatest mind in the world! Hahaha!”

Falldwell struggles for a moment but an astral arm appears from his back again, giving me the same signal as before, the Power is still in effect or he has re-cast it. Either way it’s my turn.

I raise my halberd above my head, as if about to slice down, teleporting up into his face I let go of my halberd in the air. I have a pleasant moment of seeing his panicked face before I disappear again next to Falldwell, Falgus’ eyes following my teleportation, all attention on me. My Halberd starts to fall, getting faster and faster. It slams into Falgus’ shoulder, for a moment it appears that it breaches through the Damage Translocator and into the collarbone, snapping bones and pushing inwards but it quickly is covered in a deep red colour and bounces away, leaving no apparent damage but moving Falgus from the force. Moving back and stretching his arms he turns to me, halberd forgotten as it falls to join the swords on the water.

“Where is your bite? Where is the man worthy of being called The Monster of Felworth!? Screams Falgus at me, placing his hands out front of him. He quickly teleports behind us and places his hands on me and next to Falldwell. We teleport away as soon as we notice him, both of us move to different locations at different distances.

A teleportation race occurs, with Gladnach’s Power and Mana Anchor active thanks to me Falgus cannot shoot attacking based Powers at a target as it will be anchored in place, however at close range it does not work as well.

We teleport away, Falgus chases after us, we teleport again, midair, on the water, upside down even, a deadly game of trying to get the upper hand, getting close enough for his Powers to affect us while we attempt to capture him and hopefully break this Access Dimensional Space Power.

His focus slowly shifts to Falldwell, he may be noticing the effects of Falldwells Power that he had activated, it is strange though, I’m starting to feel off, slightly different. Maybe it's the effects of this space, maybe the strange Power he had used that seems to only heat our skin, maybe a mix of both, however at our current rate we will eventually run his mana reserves down.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Eventually the teleport race slows down, we end up stopping for a moment breathing in and out trying to catch our breaths a little and recoup what little mana we can from the atmosphere. Falgus however seems to be doing worse, he’s definitely not used to this kind of combat, or any kind of combat outside of a research station.

“Strange don’t you think, that for some reason I seem to get damaged harder when fighting Carson than against you Naaf, why is that I wonder?”

“Why are you doing this, Falgus?” says Falldwell.

“Why? Oh you mean the OutWolder, yes well that's just standing orders for this kind of thing, we find an OutWolder we capture him.” He says, waving his hand as if to say that it’s situation normal.

“What about the Shae-Eq?” I ask him.

His face changes, maniacally grinning, like he's thrilled, excited. “The Shae-Eq is a different matter entirely, you of course know of the great barrier, the one that must be crossed to breach into the highest ranks of Power, to become Basbron ranked!”

Basbron Ranked is what Michael calls S ranked, only very few reach this and higher ranks due to the great barrier to entry that must be breached, many do not go beyond this level and most, including myself, settle at Neonnot Rank (AAA Rank) in skill and amount of Powers (17 Powers). Michael really needs a better system to understand the Powers in play…

“Do you know how close I have come? So close to the Gié, so close to my Masterpiece! Did you know that Shae-Eq can be used to increase the overall level of Powers, their overall strength! I suspect I am using the very same base Powers you are and yet I have upgraded those Powers simply by consuming tiny amounts of Shae-Eq, forcing my body to take in and make changes to the mana signatures of the Powers themselves!”

“Think of it! A creation Power that utilises the Shae-Eq to increase the base of all Powers, a man may become Basbron Ranked quickly, easily, the life expectancy alone would grant people near immortality! Surely such a small breach of laws warrants my research, this would allow people to live for centuries, travel between domains, maybe even breach the barrier and travel to other worlds like the OutWolders!”

It is silent for a moment, the only sounds are from the waves until we hear a deep rumbling sound from behind us, a massive tidal wave rises behind us. We all turn to look at it, the dark green water moving towards us at massive speed, quickly covering the tiny by comparison pink coral which is sticking out of the sea. Within seconds it closes in on us, just behind the wall of water I can see a massive maw of circular teeth, it’s a massive version of those tuber creatures that were attacking us which speaking of appear to be in front of it, jumping in and out of the water in the wave as if running away or directing it towards us.

Falldwall, Falgus and I teleport away, into the sky in different directions, however the creature under the waves seems to have decided that I’ll be its lunch, massive fins break through the water, as it gets closer. Its dark blue top and white bottom breaches out of the wall in a massive spray of water, a maw a hundred metres in diameter, millions of long, thin needle teeth promise a painful, quick death.

I am on the opposite side of Falldwells and Falgus’ teleport, my teleport Power only will give me 60ft of movement per teleport, factoring in each of the teleports and its necessary cooldown time I don’t think I can get out of its way, especially as it seems to be able to turn exceptionally well.

“Well, well, well, I’m in a tricky spot aren't I? Environmental Bureau, I hope you don’t have too much of a fuss…” I say to myself, a small joke to calm my nerves a little. This could be close.

The giant tuber creature bears down on me as Falldwell and Falgus move out of its way, teleport race back in gear and our little discussion is firmly broken by this creature. Falldwell knows I can get out, otherwise I would have contacted him to help.

Standing on the water I place my hands above me, as if I am holding a two handed sword in both hands overhead as I pull on my mana reserves, this will take quite an amount. I begin to grin like a madman, gods I have missed this feeling, this excitement of battle and uncertain odds!

The massive amount of mana is pulled into my hands as I prepare to cast it, “Summon Greater Weapon!” I scream out, a massive golden glow emanates from my hands and up into the sky, taller than the tallest building I have ever seen, taller than some mountains even.

A massive sword has appeared in the sky, a slight backwards curve to it and thin, the blade itself made entirely of water giving it a dark green look, almost black at the edge due to the density of the water there. The handle is the perfect size for me, as if I am holding a normal sword hilt.

As the giant creature swims towards me on top of the water I steady myself, preparing a downward strike, “Greater Weapon Control” helping me keep the sword upright and hold what feels like an ocean's worth of water at bay. My mana control is breaking, there is too much!, far too much!, I may just run out of mana at this rate. I drop Gladnach’s Power and Mana Anchor and almost every other passive Power as I prepare myself.

It’s fast approaching, an avalanche of water and teeth, all white from the spray except for the dark blackness of its stomach. I clear my mind of all unnecessary thoughts, close my eyes and wait, Greater Weapon Control will guide my hand. I hear the fighting, the roar of the sea but close that off as well, moving into an old phase, a meditative phase I have not entered in some time.

I feel it! I place all my strength, feel, weight and Power into my swing, bringing the sword of high pressure water down into the creature, as it touches its head the high pressure water in the blade edge shoots out, a massive, long jet of water that would rival a Power all on its own, that would cut through even the toughest steel!

The wave of water and creature rushes past me, blood and gore fly past me at speed as the massive creature is bisected lengthwise, I am now holding the blade to the ground but the tip of it still has not reached the creature, showing how massively long it is. Both sides slowing in the water as it slowly comes to rest, momentum is all my blade needs to cut the rest of the creature in twain. The massive water blade dissipates from the air and my hand, giving the surrounding area a heavy, then light rain for a minute.

The massive creature is dead, I am standing at about the middle section of it, the dark red blood colours the sea as if a green dress was dyed with a lake worth of red colouring. As I stand there for a moment, mana almost fully spent I stand there, waiting, waiting for Falldwell to let me know that this is finished.

Falldwell’s Power he had activated, signalling with his Astral Arms was Scrupulous Duel, a Power that would damage a target if they attack someone other than the caster, which is why Falgus was taking more damage when attacking me.

I feel horrid, the only Power I had active, Springverns Greater Increase Physicality has been turned off from the lack of mana left in my Network and Well. I feel nauseous, like my stomach is twisting twine, my eyes cloud a little and I feel strange all over, this is not mana exhaustion, I know what that feels like.

I turn to where I can hear the fighting continue, but the massive creatures corpse is in the way, bobbing in the water. Guess I'll stand here then, on this strangely solid water. I rub my head a little in an attempt to remove the incoming migraine.

I feel my head a little, before looking at my hands, puffs of my hair cover my hand. What’s going on here?