The heat shimmering around the Boss was enough that it prevented James from assaulting it head-on, in another infuriating situation in which his short-range abilities were mostly countered.
But the truth was, the increased STR Thakinetic Empowerment gave him was not limited to punching harder.
With a grunt, James picked up one of the logs he had hidden behind and, keeping the Boss’ location in mind with Awareness, swung it around, building momentum.
“What the fu-” Lauren’s exclamation was interrupted when he let go, the Treant’s trunk sailing through the air, hitting the mutated badger and bowling it over.
Without a moment of rest, James picked up another log and started swinging in a circle again until the speed was such that it took to the skies in a perfect parabola and hit the just recovering Boss again.
Seeing that it was almost done for the count, James picked up one last trunk and approached the monster. It looked at him in defiance, still emitting enough heat to deter him from coming close.
Instead, he gave a nod of respect to the creature, as it had shown enough will to live to deserve it, and started whacking it with the trunk, each hit powerful enough to crush the skull of a grown man.
This time, it did not rise.
Only when the notification of his victory over a [Mutated Badger - Fiery Fang] resounded did James finally relax, letting go of the log, which thumped against the earth loudly. He allowed himself a smile, satisfied with his work and the rewards.
He had been close enough to level twenty that he had sailed right through it, the Boss giving him enough to reach level twenty-one. James now had four stat points to assign and was one step closer to his goal.
“Man, that thing was tough, eh?” Maria said, approaching it with a stick. She poked it a couple of times, letting out a sound of surprise when the wooden branch caught on fire, the Boss’ corpse still hot enough to burn.
“Badgers are generally very stubborn and resilient, especially the Honey Badger variety, but this took the cake. It almost ignored all the traps.” Ezekiel commented, observing the creature “We might have to leave it as is for a while. It’s too hot to move around for now.”
James hummed, looking further into the woods, in the direction the badger had come from “It’s lucky that we still have a dungeon to clear, then.”
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Getting some cold drinks after spending the better part of a day hunting for murderous bird flocks was truly an unbeatable feeling, James decided.
After defeating the Boss monster, team 0 started scouring the rest of the dungeon, hoping to quickly finish it up and return home. Unfortunately, the monsters’ territory was quite large. While the Treants had been easy enough to identify and defeat, since they really couldn’t move much, the birds had been a different problem altogether.
Clearing a dungeon meant completely eradicating the mutated wildlife, or there was a risk the mana would continue pooling in a circular effect and start changing the fauna again, thus spawning another dungeon.
While this was relatively easy to accomplish in places like the Montauk cave, where the entire run could be done in a straight line, in an open forest it meant having to scour every hiding place.
Eventually, however, they managed to find the last flock and easily dealt with them thanks to their tried and true strategy of hemming them in with fire and slowing them down with debuffs, making them easy prey for Lauren and James.
All in all, the clean-up after the Boss fight netted them all another level, so they couldn’t really complain about it, even though they really wanted to.
“If it wasn’t for the surprising amount of EXP those things gave, I’d consider them the worst monsters so far.” Maria complained. Her role had been mostly that of containment, and though she had dutifully kept up with it, it was obvious she much preferred fighting the Treants, against which she could unleash her full power.
“A level is a level.” James commented as he opened up his bag. They couldn’t take their phones and other things during a dungeon dive, so they left them with the driver, Mr. Robinson. He didn’t expect to have received many notifications, as his grandparents knew he was working and the few friends he still was in contact with from high school would message him through social media, which he only occasionally opened since he had Awakened.
Surprisingly, there was a little red icon next to the green message app, showing that someone had, indeed, looked for him.
The moment James saw who it was that had looked for him, he stopped being able to hear all the others. He must have stared at the name at the top of the list for at least five minutes, because he felt a hand shake him. “Oy, everything alright?”
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Yes, sorry. Just heard back from someone I didn’t think would answer.” He said distractedly, ignoring Lauren’s worried look.
As they piled into the car, eager to get back to New York, James felt his phone burn a hole in his pocket. Still, he kept his cool, going through the car ride and then the debrief at the AA while trying not to freak out.
Only when he had gotten back home, reassured his grandparents that everything was fine and that he hadn’t been badly hurt, and entered his room, closing the door with its lock, did he allow himself a moment to release his pent-up emotions.
Grabbing a pillow, he smushed his face with considerable strength and screamed into it, loud and for long.
Once he had gotten that out of his system, he dropped onto his bed, feeling much more exhausted than after completing the dungeon.
I should wait a little bit. Make her feel like she did to me.
Unfortunately, those thoughts didn’t help him, and he managed to resist only a few minutes before his hand gripped the phone, opening up the messaging app almost without his direct control.
There, still red and unopened, sat Sally’s message.
James took a deep breath, steeling himself. The possibilities of what she could say were almost endless, and he didn’t want to get disappointed by raising his hopes up.
“Hey, James. Sorry it took so long to answer; as you might imagine, things have been pretty difficult. My treatment was expensive, and Dad had to reorganize some things to be able to afford it. I’m better now, and after thinking about it for a long time, I think I owe you more than an apology via text. I’d like to meet you if you can. What do you think of Kaiser Park, at our bench, tomorrow at 10? We could get a coffee and talk.”
That was all the message said. James reread it three times, trying to grasp all the subtle implications that might be hidden.
His first thought was that it was high time she answered him and that yes, a simple apology wouldn’t make things right. He could understand she had been traumatized, but ignoring him for a month was too much.
His second one was that it was too good to be true. While he would never think Sally would fall so low and lead him into a trap, other people might have.
Any Guild member, even the weakest H-ranks, could forcefully take her phone. And he knew someone who would really like to get him somewhere out of the way, alone.
If this is Callum Wright, I swear to God I’ll kill him. He might kill me first, but I’ll come back and haunt him until he kills himself.
Already, the idea that this was a trap was solidifying in his mind. James had been through too much to believe this was exactly as it looked. Or he might be paranoid. But was it paranoia when they were out to get you?
With a thought, he brought up his stat sheet and assigned all the banked points, knowing in his heart that he had already decided he would go.
He’d take precautions, like using all his attributes, alerting his teammates and Miss Walker of where he was going and to expect a text from him at certain times, but he’d go.
On the minor possibility this was honestly Sally trying to make amends, he couldn’t not try.
STATUS WINDOW
Name
James Summers
Age
19
Awakening
1st
Talent
Thakinesis
Title
Level
22
MP
110/110
STR
16
VIT
11
AGI
12
SENSE
16
MIND
12
STAT POINTS
0
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That morning, James woke up very early. It was a rest day since they had spent the previous one fighting through the New Jersey wilderness, and he usually would have luxuriated in the peace and quiet.
He’d sleep until mid-morning, stumble downstairs still not fully awake and eat enough pancakes to feed a family of four. Instead, he had spent the night twisting and turning, afraid of what he’d find the next morning at Kaiser Park.
He had read and reread the message Sally sent him enough times it was imprinted in his brain and he could recite it by memory.
More possibilities had come to him, from his once crush needing monetary help to pay for her Elixir treatment to her needing to escape an abusive home. She could have been kidnapped and he was being contacted for ransom. She might have gone insane and decided to assault him with the excuse of apologizing.
All his worrying did, in the end, was make him more tired. He mumbled some excuse to his grandmother when she asked why he looked so exhausted and started eating, shoveling as much food as he could stomach in, not wanting to worry her further.
When the time for the meeting started getting close, James sent all five texts he had prepared, one each to his teammates and Miss Walker, and set off.
He’d ignore their requests for clarification for the moment. They understood that if he didn’t text them again about something only they could know about by 11 AM, they should start looking for him at Kaiser Park, and that was all that mattered.
James sincerely hoped to be proven wrong, but he wasn’t so foolish to risk getting ambushed. The situation between the AA and the Guilds was very tenuous at the moment, and it wouldn’t surprise him if some of the less intelligent Awakeners started thinking they could take matters into their own hands.
It didn’t take long to reach the park, and since he had gotten there early, he didn’t find anyone, as expected. Instead of simply walking to the bench and sitting down, James set up next to the waterfront, behind the running track, and waited.
His SENSE was high enough that even without using Thakinetic Awareness, he could see everyone who entered the park. He observed them further, peering deeper to see if any of them were Awakeners.
No one suspicious came by, though, to be honest, not many people at all were out and about. A couple of young men were using the track and giving him weird looks, but he couldn’t be bothered to explain himself.
He knew his fears could be entirely divorced from the truth, after all, and to someone who knew nothing of what was going on, he’d sound insane.
That was, until something pinged his skill. Entering the park from Bayview Ave, a presence more substantial than the rest stood out to his senses. It was vivid enough that he was sure it must have been an Awakener.
James grit his teeth and turned to take a look, ready for the disappointment.
He was startled to see that the Awakener he had felt turned out to be Sally.