“Hello Sam, I have been trying so hard to meet you,” a soft yet sinister voice purred from the mouth of the creature who now occupied Nara’s place in the chair.
"Naris, I presume?" Sam asked, her guard up.
"Yes," Naris hissed, and quicker than Sam could react, he grabbed her by the neck, sinking his claws deep and stabbing them at her mind core.
Sam felt the blight's claws scratch across her core as he tried to penetrate it. She wanted to stop and push him away, but she was mesmerized, held helplessly under the spell of his endless black eyes.
“Yes…” Naris continued to purr. “Look into my eyes…let me in…open yourself to me.” His charm spell was working on the mentally defenseless pathfinder much better than he had hoped.
"How?" Sam asked, unable to look away from Naris's cold black stare. A small voice inside her screamed for her to snap out of her trance, but it was only a small one. A much bigger and louder voice told her the truth; Naris only wanted to help her; he was a friend, and he needed mana to help her, so she should give him some…
"Open your mind. Let me sense your pain, and I will make it all disappear. I can take your pain for you; you don't need to be afraid of me. Just relax your defenses and let me in…" Naris's voice was like a soothing balm. He could sense her emotions coming from the small core he was gripping tightly in his claws. Then he felt it open to him when Sam relaxed her mind, allowing Naris to draw on her mind core just a little.
Naris grunted the instant Sam allowed him access to her mind core, his evil grin nearly splitting his face in half. He dug his claws into her core and activated Mana Siphon!
Sam's mouth opened in a silent scream as her vision started going red, and the same sense of wrong and dread she had felt when she was converting her health into mana washed over her soul. She still could not move; she was no longer under Naris's charm spell but was now paralyzed by pain and fear. "St—stop—" She managed to whisper as the last vestige of hope left her.
Naris only growled and yanked Sam forward in the chair, his fangs sinking into the soft flesh of her neck as his jaws closed around her throat.
Sam's vision faded; the red that started at the corner of her vision was now all she could see as the Moonblight drained not just her lifeforce and mana but all the thoughts and emotions that made her who she was.
***
Naris moaned in pleasure as he felt the massive amount of power flowing into him from Sam. “Not just power,” he thought as he greedily absorbed her energies, “thoughts and emotions too. Is this what a mind core holds?” Naris hadn't known there were mind cores. He had always drunk from the mana channel clusters in his victim's throats, where their mana and lifeblood flowed beneath the surface. If he had only dug his claws in a little higher up his victim's skulls, he would have found their secondary cores and been able to drink from their sweet emotions as well. “This is true power,” Naris thought as he consumed Sam’s fear, "I regret not knowing this before, but no matter. I might be able to break free of the accursed worm I'm tethered to with this power."
Naris pulled one of his hands from Sam's neck and jammed it into her chest, his mana cutters easily cleaving into the woman's body. He was at full power now with a sea of mana at his disposal; there was no way this pathetic human could resist him. His hand closed around Sam's soul core, black claws punching deep holes in the woman's outer soul. Naris growled into Sam's throat as he drank his fill; soon, all her power would be his, and once it was… “Nara will be no more.” Sam's body jerked in the chair as Naris siphoned her energies even harder, hungrily draining all she was.
***
“Wake up!” The voice of reason pleaded in Sam’s mind, “You have to wake up and resist!”
“Go back to sleep…so tired…just go…back…” Sam's thoughts were sluggish, and she felt like they had to funnel through molasses before she could think them.
“NO, NO, NO! Let me out! I am the only one, the only one that can help! Listen to me, reason!” A raging voice screamed from Sam’s mind core.
“You will never stop if you are released. You will never allow yourself to be balanced again.” Reason replied in a desperate tone. “She, we will be nothing more than the beast killing us. Take me with you, and we can defeat him together."
“You cannot even wake her! How could you help me? There are times for you, I know that now, but this is not one! There can be no thought, only action to defeat the enemy! Only rage! Time is short; our soul is being devoured! Release me now! Release our RAGE!" The voice of Sam’s rage was desperate but determined.
Sam’s inner reason knew the only chance at survival was to release all control and let her rage flow freely. “Promise you will—”
“I promise to WIN! Nothing more!” Rage screamed into Sam’s mind.
Somewhere in the chaos of her mind, Sam knew the voices she was hearing were just her way of talking to herself. Somehow, since she had been granted access to magic, she now could bifurcate her mind and watch as an external observer as her emotions discoursed between themselves to resolve problems. To be sure, it was a strange feeling, and being even vaguely cognizant of it felt unnatural yet not impossible.
“Fine!” Sam thought to the voices in her head. She unleashed her rage.
***
Sam's eyes popped open, her violet irises blazing until the white of her eyes were glowing orbs of deep purple. She grabbed Naris's lower jaw with one hand and his upper with the other, pulling his mouth from her throat with strength that only came from pure fury.
The blight dug his claws deeper into her chest and head, tightening his grip as Sam pushed his head back. There was a crack as one of his fangs snapped beneath her grip, and Naris screamed.
Bunching up her legs, Sam placed her feet in Naris's chest and kicked him backward so violently his claws were ripped from her cores. She screamed in fury from the pain as they both flew in opposite directions from the force of her kick, destroying the chair they were in.
Naris was slammed into a tree, his agile body contorting, so he hit the tree feet first with a resounding crack. Bark was blasted away from the impact, but Naris didn't notice; he was locked in on his prey. Like a snake uncoiling when it strikes, Naris pushed off the tree, launching himself back at Sam, who was angrily tearing herself out of the collapsed tent she was tangled in. Her kick had sent her rolling into the side of their new tent, collapsing it around her.
Naris dodged around a tent pole Sam threw at him and leaped at her from the side. He dug a deep gouge into her left leg, trying to sever an artery, but Sam's knee caught him in the shoulder, knocking him off course.
As Naris caught his balance, Sam fired arcane bolt after arcane bolt at him. Although Naris dodged many of them, he could not evade every bolt. He retreated into the forest, reinforcing his body with magic to keep Sam's bolts from doing too much damage as he tried to create some distance from the raging woman.
Sam was in a blind fury, screaming as she chased after the retreating blight. In her rage, she sent blades and spikes flying after Naris. They cut through trees and shrubs, clearing her path forward.
Realizing he couldn't get away from the crazed woman, Naris ran up a tree and kicked off back toward Sam, dodging two whirling discs of magic that would have sliced him in half as he did so. The discs hit the tree he had just kicked off, cutting it down. It crashed behind him just as he hit the ground, running at Sam and the dozens of magical projectiles she was launching. Naris kept running toward her, dodging more disks and spikes as he closed the distance until he was finally in range. He ducked under a strike from Sam and slipped behind her, stabbing his hands into her lower back, punching holes in her kidneys and liver with his black claws. These two human organs were particularly difficult to heal. His plan was to wear the Pathfinder down enough so he could overpower her and finish his feast.
A pulse of pure mana threw Naris back several meters. Sam, now glowing purple and screaming, whipped around in his direction and sent a beam of pure arcane magic streaking across the forest from two outstretched palms as she turned. The air split from the arcane magic, cutting through it, causing a crack like a bolt of lightning to sound through the dimming forest. The beam of magic wasn't well aimed; had Sam not been out of control, the purple laser would have ended the fight then and there with a bisected Naris. As it was, though, Naris was barely able to jerk out of the beam's path enough, so it only severed his left arm at the shoulder and part of his left foot. Naris screamed as his arm fell away; he stumbled and fell. Sam collapsed to her hands and knees with purple steam rising from her body from the massive mana expenditure. Trees severed by Sam's beam attack began falling over; most were on fire from the heat of her attack, creating an eerie backdrop for the two combatants.
Seeing his chance, Naris crawled toward the exhausted Pathfinder. His mana reserves were running low, and he needed to finish draining her to hopefully attain her healing ability so he could regrow his arm and foot. He was almost to Sam when she jerked her head to look at him. Naris stopped his approach and recoiled at the sight. Sam's eyes were still glowing with magic power, even after the attack she had just made. The look on her face was of mindless fury. The beam attack burned most of the flesh from her arms, and all the skin on the front of her body was red and puffy from the heat. She looked like she should be dead, and Naris had no idea how she wasn't. Still, Sam stood up and stalked toward him, a short sword appearing in her hand even as the flesh and skin knitted itself together around her fingers. For the first time in his life, Naris felt fear. He was no longer the predator here.
Sam quickly closed the distance between them. Naris tried to crawl away, but Sam was too fast. Standing over the blight, Sam kicked away his hand when he made a feeble attempt at defending himself and stabbed a mana spike through his palm, pinning his hand to the ground. She did the same to his legs, using her mana threads to secure the spikes. Getting down to her knees, she straddled his chest, raising her sword with the tip pointed at Naris's forehead where a black symbol, identical to the blue pentagram on Nara's chest, was etched into his grey skin. Sam’s eyes flared again, and she didn't hesitate to bring her sword down into the blight's head without a word.
***
Sam stared into Nara’s wide blue eyes. The expressive blue orbs were wide with horror and surprise. A trickle of blood from where the sword had entered her forehead threatened to drip into one of her eyes as it found a path down her face from the wound.
Nara blinked, making no other motion, fearing the sword's tip, which was barely a few millimeters into her forehead, would suddenly finish its journey into her brain. She could feel the pain from her severed arm and couldn't wiggle the toes on her left foot. Hence, she knew Sam had likely been forced to go all out, but that didn't explain the look of pure anger and hatred on her friend's face as she pressed a sword into her temple with enough force that Nara was afraid the blade might break her skull at any second.
“Sam?” Nara’s voice was the faintest whisper.
"Eyes of blue…" Sam's voice was choked with barely checked anger. "Is it you?"
"Yes," Nara continued to whisper. "He's gone now. Naris can't—"
Sam growled in anger at the mention of Naris's name, pushing just a little harder on the sword. Nara remained motionless, afraid Sam's anger would get the better of her. Thankfully, Sam let up just a little, asking again, "Eyes of blue, is it you?"
With tears welling in her eyes, Nara again answered, "Yes," but this time, she added, "It's me, Nara, your friend."
Sam's eyes flared, and she moved the sword away, dismissing it to her inventory. Leaning down, she growled through clenched teeth into Nara's ear, "Listen to me, you little piece of shit, I know you can hear me. Suppose you ever come out without Nara's permission again. In that case, I will rip your soul out of her body and destroy you to the last nanoscopic particle. Are we clear? Let her tell me."
“Tell the Pathfinder…I…understand.” Naris’s voice spoke into Nara’s mind.
“What have you done!?!” Nara mentally screamed back at Naris. When he said nothing, she searched for his presence and found him coiled up against her core. He was afraid…he was scared. “Good!” She thought and removed her presence from the frightened blight.
"He understands," Nara told Sam, tears pouring down her face. "I don't know what he did, Sam, but I am so sorry. I thought I could keep him back as long as I stayed topped off with mana, but he broke free anyway. Please tell me you're okay. That we're okay…are we okay?"
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Sam's rage-filled eyes dimmed, and tears welled, unbidden, as Nara spoke. Looking at her friend, Sam was horrified at what she had done to her. She quickly dismissed the spikes, holding Nara down, and let out a little sob when the Tenarian let out a little mew of pain as she dismissed the constructs. Gathering her friend's torn and broken body to her chest, Sam began healing her as quickly as she could, only stopping for a second to drink a couple of mana potions. She completely ignored her own injuries until Nara placed a hand on her back.
"I'm good now, Sam. Focus on yourself for a while. You can rebuild my arm later." Nara turned in Sam's embrace until she could look her in the eyes. "I'm serious, Sam; you should heal yourself now. You are weak and hurt, and we're still in a dangerous forest."
Sam sniffled and nodded. She looked at Nara's partially grown stump, and tears welled in her eyes again, but Nara gently turned Sam's head back to face her with a hand on her cheek and smiled, "I'm fine, Sam. You can keep holding me, but please heal yourself."
Sam complied, starting with her organs. She didn't even want to look at her cores but knew she had to. Turning her mind's eye inward, she mentally winced. Her cores were severely damaged, purple energy leaking from deep gouges left by Naris's claws. “How do I even fix this?” She thought. She tried to use her mana repair skill on the gouges, but it wouldn't activate. Before panicking, she noticed one of the smaller lacerations on her mind core close on its own. Hoping her cores would fix themselves, she returned to healing her body.
A quick glance at her stat screen showed Sam her energy bars had at least two-thirds of their color blacked out. She asked Nara what it meant.
“Your cores must be damaged,” Nara said with concern in her voice, “please tell me you can fix it.”
“They are getting better. I checked,” Sam responded.
“Good,” Nara said with relief. “Damage from a blight cannot always be repaired.”
“Fucking blights man," Sam said. "Can't you just get rid of him?" She was pretty sure Nara would have done it long ago if she had been able to, but she had to ask.
"Our souls are intertwined," Nara said with a sigh, "if one of us dies, so does the other. As far as I know, there is no way to remove a blight from a soul."
"I guess it's good I didn't kill the little shit then," Sam said with a bit of heat in her voice. "If he ever retakes control without your express permission, I swear I will—"
Sam was cut off by the sound of a tree crashing to the ground. Nara pushed back from her position against Sam's chest, and the two women looked around, taking in their surroundings for the first time since they had come to their senses.
“Well…shit,” both women said in unison.
***
"Sam, what did you do?" Nara asked as she stared down a path of destruction leading to the river. Burning stumps and trunks of trees were scattered down the path Sam's beam cut through the forest.
“I—I’m not actually sure,” Sam said. She quickly checked her notifications for anything that would explain what happened.
'Bing' Congratulations! Core cycle overclock has been achieved. Your cores are now operating at a much higher cycle rate, increasing the potential of all magic-related functions. Warning: continued use of Overclock will cause extensive damage to your cores. Damaged cores are not easily repaired. Excessive use of Overclock may cause core destruction.
Warning: Soul Core rupture detected. You have ruptured your soul core using an unknown method to overdraw mana. Cease this action immediately, or your core will be destroyed.
After reading those two notifications several times, Sam looked at Nara and shrugged, "No idea."
“You’re lying,” Nara said.
"I don't want to talk about it," Sam responded, then pointed to the fires, "I'm going to go make sure the forest doesn't burn down." She guided Nara off her lap and stood up, offering her a hand, "care to join me?"
***
Sam relaxed by the river, kicking her bare feet in the cool water as she watched the brilliant reds and oranges of the clouds reflecting the sun's light as the burning orb rose in the sky. Nara was asleep, curled up against her, exhausted after spending the night helping Sam put out fires and salvaging what they could of their ruined camping gear. Sam smiled down at the Tenarian's no, the Moonblight's peaceful face as she lightly stroked Nara's hair, not saying anything. The warmth of the small fire Nara had built near the river's edge contrasted nicely with the cool temperature of the river's calm flow.
Sam ignored the remnants of chaos surrounding them, such as the tendrils of smoke wafting on the breeze from the few still smoldering tree stumps dotting the path of destruction from the previous evening, the fishy smell from a Deep Hunter's corpse lying lifeless on the river's edge, and their mostly destroyed camping gear. Instead, she focused on the positive: Nara's arm and foot were healed, they still had the Blade Tail's pelt, and some of their camping supplies, including one of their oversized chairs, remained safe in her inventory.
Turning her attention back to her cores for the first time since the previous evening, Sam frowned. Her mind core was fully healed as far as she could tell; there wasn't purple energy leaking out of it anyway. Her soul core, which is what she now knew it was called, was an entirely different story. Purple and now, for some reason, black mist continuously leaked out of a gaping hole in one side of her core. She knew this had been her fault, not Naris's. It was apparent the hole in her core had been blasted out from the inside. Plus, all the claw marks left by the blight had healed, so she knew it must be damage she caused when she overclocked her core cycles. “How was that even possible? They cycle like ten times a second normally,” Sam didn't know, but the thought that she may have done some permanent damage frightened her.
Sam pulled up her interface and saw her energy bars were still forty percent black. “Shit,” She thought, frustrated at herself for being so reckless. Her energy levels now more closely resembled Nara's, and she was a full eleven levels above Nara. The health and stamina she could deal with, but Sam had over a thousand points of her magic power she couldn't access now; it was disheartening. “I guess it’s what I get for being so reckless all the time, but it was either go all out or die yesterday.” Even the thought she had no other choice didn't console her. She knew there may have been another way to fight the blight. She and Nara should have prepared for Naris's inevitable arrival instead of ignoring the elephant in the room. In Sam's defense, she had never even seen the blight. And if she was being candid with herself, she had almost forgotten he was even there, nestled inside her new friend, just waiting for an opportunity to break out.
Sam sighed as she continued to stroke Nara's hair. Looking at Nara's peaceful, innocent face, it was hard for Sam to believe there was something so vicious and ravenous coiled just beneath the surface of the small woman. “It’s like two completely opposite personalities complete with their own physical appearance and abilities contained inside one little package.” Sam thought.
Turning her attention back to her interface, Sam used her thirty free points to bolster her magic. She knew she would need it more than her other attributes. The others would simply have to wait until her soul healed…if it ever did. Looking at her stat screen, Sam could not help but be disappointed.
Samantha Alecto Moura [S.A.M.]
Race: Human; Mortal [Level 21]
Class: Arcane Pathfinder [Level 22]
Health: 765 (1274)
Stamina: 573 (955)
Mana: 2084 (3473)
Attributes:
STR – 45 [46]
VIT – 63 [71]
END – 46 [52]
AGL – 52 [53]
INT – 70 [71]
WIS – 87 [176]
Free Attribute Points 0.
Abilities:
Spatial Inventory
Loot
Linguistics
Cartography
Mana Manipulation
Mana Sight [Level 13]
Class Skills:
Mana Crafting [Level 26]
Mana Repair [Level 24]
Mana Caster [Level 9]
Racial/General Skills:
Identify [Level 13]
Resilient [Level 23]
Meditation [Level 12]
Class Spells:
Arcane bolt [Level 5]
Racial/General Spells:
None
Resistance(s):
Pain [Level 17]
Heat [Level 9]
Poison [Level 38]
Cold [Level 25]
Mental [Level 6]
Sam groaned out loud at the loss of her power. She tried to think back to what level she was now equivalent to, "The last time I was this weak was before I met Nara…what was I then? My level was around fourteen or fifteen, I think. At least my resistances and skill levels weren't affected, and I have a new resistance. I wonder what 'mental' resistance does…other than the obvious."
Nara stirred when Sam groaned. Sitting upright, she looked at Sam with concern written across her features. "How bad is it?" She asked, following with, "And don't lie to me. If it's too bad, we need to head back to the city and see if we can find you a healer."
Sam resisted the urge to brush Nara off, but she knew Nara could easily look at her stats in their party menu and was just being polite in asking. Sam told her the truth about everything.
Nara patiently listened as Sam explained what happened, starting from the beginning when Naris took over and went up to the hole in her core and her loss of vital energies. Once Sam finished speaking, Nara took her time to think about her reply. Nara still felt responsible for everything that happened and told Sam so. Sam assured her she did not consider the hole in her soul core to be anything other than her own fault, saying, "It was bound to happen one day."
After some thought, Nara said, "I am truly sorry, Sam," she held up a hand to stop Sam from interrupting, "I know, I know, you don't think it's my fault, but that doesn't mean I can't at least feel bad for what happened." Sam closed her mouth and let Nara continue. Nara thought for a moment more and said, "I think we should return to the city. With your…handicap…well, I don't want you to suffer—"
Sam shook her head and asked, "Do you remember the evening we met?"
"Of course," Nara replied, unsure where this was headed.
"I am still just as powerful as I was then, if just barely. In fact, I hadn't even assigned any free points since the fight with the bandits up until today." Sam said with a forced smile. She didn't want Nara to see how worried she actually was.
"Seriously?" Nara searched Sam's face for a moment, but seeing no lie, she conceded. "Okay, then we will continue and complete the contracts," she waggled a finger at Sam, "but if you get any worse, promise me, we will go back to the city for help."
“I promise I’ll let you know if things don’t get better,” Sam agreed, dismissing the uncomfortable subject. “Now, how about we get going?”
Nara nodded, stretching as she stood up. She jumped when she noticed the octopus monster lying near them.
Sam noticed and chuckled. “I killed it while you were sleeping.”
"I fell asleep leaning on you—how did you—never mind, I don't want to know," Nara said. She went through a series of stretches and movements as she did every morning.
Sam watched the attractive woman flex and stretch. She asked curiously, "Is there a name for what you're doing?"
“Huh, oh this,” Nara was mostly tied in a pretzel as she responded, “it is a form of combat called Roka. It relies almost exclusively on speed and flexibility.” Nara untied herself with several pops as her joints slid back into place. “I can teach you if you like.”
"Maybe some other time," Sam said, wincing as Nara popped and snapped her joints, continuing to contort her body in what Sam considered to be impossible positions. “Although it would be nice to be able to turn my head like an owl…among other things,” she thought.
***
Sam and Nara had spent another hour pouring water over all the stumps that were still smoldering and checking around to ensure they hadn't missed any remains of their camping equipment before continuing their hike toward their destination.
They arrived at one corner of the area they were contracted to survey within a few hours. Sam climbed a tall tree to better view the terrain and let her map fill in. After climbing down to where Nara was waiting patiently, Sam explained how her mapping skill worked and pulled out a sketchbook they purchased strictly for mapping this area.
“Your skill is fascinating,” Nara said as Sam got to work drawing out the area in the book, “Everything you do is fascinating. I bet you can make some decent coin with the cartography guild. That could help pay for getting your soul core repaired.”
Sam put the charcoal pencil down and looked at Nara, “I completely forgot to stop by their office! I remember you mentioning it now.”
"We'll make a point to stop by when we get back," Nara said. "In the meantime, would you share your map with me?"
Sam gestured to the paper she was filling in with the type and average height of the trees in the area. The job required a detailed map along with information on the local flora and fauna.
"No, not that," Nara said when Sam turned the sketchbook toward her, "I mean, display your map so I can see it. Here, look." With a wave of her hand, Nara displayed a projection of her stat sheet in front of her, explaining to Sam, "It takes a slight amount of energy, but all you have to do is think about displaying something from your interface for others to see."
Fascinated with the idea, Sam did just that with her mini map and was almost as excited as Nara when it worked.
"Wow," Nara said, staring at the displayed map, "this is amazing, Sam! I bet this is an extremely rare ability. I wonder what you could sell it for if you manage to find someone who can copy it to a skill book or scroll. You would definitely be able to pay for your soul core repair—" she trailed off as she continued to stare at Sam's map display then pointed at a spot on the display. "What does that say?"
"It says uncharted cave," Sam replied, zooming in on the cave as much as possible. The cave was a good distance away, so she could only get a little detail on it besides its location.
"You can read that? What language is it written in?" Nara was still staring at the map in fascination as Sam zoomed in and out, checking details on what she had seen from the tree. Nara pointed to three tiny red dots surrounding a grey dot on the map, asking, "What are those?"
Answering both questions, Sam said, "It's written in English, one of the languages on my planet, and," she zoomed in on the three red dots, "this is three hostile creatures surrounding a dead creature." The dots were close to the women's position, so Sam's map had a lot of detail in that area. The dots took shape as Sam zoomed in, turning into a real-time display of three wolves surrounding a dead Lightning Cervidae. Each wolf had a small tag with the word 'hostile' floating over it. The fact it was in real-time surprised Sam just as much as it did Nara.
“You can track enemies with this? Why haven’t we been using this the whole time?” Nara asked.
"I—I had no idea," Sam stammered defensively. She was just as surprised as Nara and said, "It hasn't always been like this. I think it got better, but," she checked to confirm something before continuing, "I don't know how it could have improved. The ability doesn't level."
“Just because there isn’t a level quantification doesn’t mean abilities, skills, or spells can’t improve. It only means the System does not or cannot track them.” Nara explained helpfully. She then said, “I think we can skip drawing out the map in the book if you can display this to the clerk when we close the contract.”
Sam agreed; artist or not, she didn't particularly care for painstakingly drawing a map that was already clearly displayed in her interface, so she minimized the map and asked Nara, "Do you want to go sneak up on some wolves?"
Nara flipped through some screens in her interface before flicking her hand in Sam’s direction.
‘Bing’ Nara Evander is requesting permission to view a display of your cartography skill in her interface. Confirmation of this request will result in the cost one mana unit per minute per meter of distance separating you. Would you like to accept? Y/N
“Hmm, that’s neat,” Sam thought, selecting 'Yes.'
Nara smiled and said excitedly, “Perfect! Let’s go hunting!”