A blast of air knocked Ben’s flight off kilter, but it wasn’t enough to cause harm. He looked down at the figure in blue, whose arms were raised to protect the prone form of Jey from danger.

Ben wasn’t sure why Herwen was being so protective, considering how much fight seemed left in the other Knight. Apparently, neither was Jey. She growled and released another wave of ugly Mind, which battered Herwen’s ghostly armor. He didn’t even budge, the armor flashing in response to the force.

“What are you doing here? Go back and deal with the stupid cult.”

“I could feel the effects of your injury from all the way over there. You’re leaking Mind like a rusty pipe.” Herwen waved nonchalantly. “Besides, Muweh is dealing with it.”

Another voice shouted, shaky and hissing, drawing Ben’s attention. “I am dealing with nothing. Whatever gave them strength is only becoming more potent as we speak.”

Muweh’s hissy shout was nearly drowned out by the roar that followed. The cultists - the Lemonholm Betterment Club - were hot on Muweh’s heels as she sprinted towards the destroyed building the Knights were in. Even Jey’s rage gave way to an emotion Ben interpreted as disbelief. One cultist, a man he didn’t know the name of, already bloody and battered, ran forward as quickly as a trained soldier, waving around a thick club. Without missing a beat, Muweh turned her pistol on the man and fired, catching him in the stomach. Miraculously, the man only doubled over for a moment before continuing the chase.

Elofan’s swamp was really effective when it came to weaklings. Maybe that’s why Ben had stood a chance all this time? He didn’t dwell on the thought, because Muweh was pointing her gun in the air now. Straight at him.

“This Ability must be the work of that fernen. Prioritize killing it. I will assist. Jey, work with Herwen to mow down this crowd, until your Mind Collapses if you must.”

With those words, she fired, but bullets were no match for Ben at this point. As if he wasn’t already fast enough to dodge them comfortably, Elofan’s Ability made it beyond easy. They had to protect her, or they would never win.

Another shot flew by, and Ben watched it go past. And he watched it. And he watched-

He barely dodged another shot. Annoying! Why did he keep watching that other bullet? He could feel the hive buzzing, thinking. It was obvious: Muweh’s Ability. Moments from the past few days flashed by in Ben’s thoughts as the hive reasoned things out. How long did it take the group to tear their eyes away from Yojer Sawah’s twisted corpse back when they first found him? How about the cultist sneaking around in the night, who Beelzebub couldn’t help but watch? There was the plank of wood. The message. The mask in Seyorohon’s store.

Whatever Muweh’s Ability was, it didn’t seem dangerous by itself. It was almost as if it drew attention, pulling it forcefully, without remorse. What were the conditions? How extensive was this power?

The only hint was that it could definitely work on objects, and maybe something else. Information? It was strange how quickly the hive decoded the message for two specific solutions, both of which were extremely important to the case. Ben had no idea about any of that, but he knew one thing: against this team, such an Ability was next to useless. And it was all thanks to his looking. His range of vision was wide enough to see all over the place, even if his attention was somewhere else. And thanks to the Link, he could warn the others and even share what he saw.

He puffed out his chest and smiled as he dodged another bullet. With Herwen joining the fray, he wouldn’t be able to hold Jey back so easily, but he could still help!

“Guys, this is great! We’re figuring out their Abilities, the cultists are distracting some of the Knights, and my looking can counter Muweh’s weird Ability. We got this!”

While Ben triumphantly pat himself on the back, Grehn fell to the ground, white nearly blinding his vision as he clutched his leg in pain. He’d desperately tried to land a kick on Meyara after she deflected his sword at close range, but the leg he encountered was like kicking the base of the Rotor. And she’d been off balance!

He was glad that so many mysteries were being unraveled, but in his opinion, the most concerning one was the Ability of the relentless titan he was so desperately trying to fend off. Despite her not using her Mind to reinforce her leg, he suspected his own had broken to some degree after just kicking it. And now she was making another advance towards the other two.

On shaky legs, he rose, relying on Ben’s superior sight to get his bearings. If only the Mother’s healing Ability worked so well on the humans. They’d tested it extensively, and it did work, but oddly enough, the healing ‘juice’ originated from the Linker bee attached to other creatures’ napes. The result was a healing effect, but one so subdued it barely mattered.

He shook his head, clearing the fog. So much of his Mind was being fed into the adrenaline-boosting Lock that it was borderline sickening. The sight of Meyara walking towards the stoic form of his companions set Grehn ablaze. Maybe some part of it was ‘encouragement’ from the hive, but he didn’t need them to manipulate his feelings. He was sick and tired of being under the Mother’s control, but he wouldn’t allow harm to come to Vlugh or Elofan.

[Streaming Fragmentor

Level 7

Acquired by: Your study at Master Garlen’s Academy of Swordsmanship. Your personal interpretation of the Master’s teachings resulted in adopting the properties of water to further expand your prowess.

Activating the Ability allows for the calmness, patience, and destructive power of water to infuse your blade. Attacking will cause a stream of water to fly from the blade, its speed, power, and size determined by the amount of Mind used.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Level up: Continuous, ???

]

His Ability was inadequate. Meyara could deflect his blades of water without so much as a glance. Beyond Level 5, an Ability gave much sparser instructions on leveling up, requiring some revelation or deeper understanding to even unlock a hint. He didn’t understand his own. But here, pumped full of fake energy, life on the line, bleeding and battered and watching his companions under threat, Grehn began to understand what he was missing.

He couldn’t stop. If he wanted to protect Vlugh and Elofan, if he wanted to fend off Meyara, if he wanted to one day save Yelah and become free of the bees, he couldn’t afford to stop. He had to fight. Continuously.

Grehn poured Mind into his blade, careful to keep the flow steady like a stream. It glowed blue as normal, but he didn’t send the water to distract Meyara. That was not enough. He let his Mind move through his sword, out into the world, back into himself. Flowing. The blue glow intensified, sparkling like a pristine lake.

He charged.

Meyara, for the first time since her target changed, looked at Grehn and his sword. She met blade with blade, splashes of water flying from Grehn’s sword. He wasn’t sure if she was surprised at all, but she didn’t immediately knock his sword out of the way to kill him. His Ability had leveled up. But it wasn’t enough to win. Even now, as his sword clashed against her bayonet, Meyara’s strength steadily won out, with Grehn struggling to keep up. But it was something. A spark of hope that they could last just a little while longer.

A guttural roar escaped Grehn’s throat as Vlugh’s own scream signaled a stream of orange fire. Grehn didn’t let up; Meyara was still cautious of the flames, so he moved his sword with grace, as he’d learned. But now the flow of his movements was smoother, steadier, and stronger than before. His blade was the water. A close strike was within Meyara’s reach, so she had to block with her bracer, but Grehn did not relent. The water encasing and flowing through his blade extended outward, meeting Meyara’s defense before his sword did. The result was a double blow of water and sword, and it was enough to knock Meyara’s arm away.

Grehn was stunned. But he didn’t stop. He ignored Meyara as she spoke even while continuing the dance.

“This battle was enough for your Ability to level up? I can’t believe this.”

She spoke quietly and calmly, curt and quick to the point. Her next use of her mysterious Ability was the same. Grehn felt Mind, such incredibly potent Mind, explode from her bayonet as the blades met again, and he watched with wide eyes as her small blade hit the water, then in the same spot, after fractions of a moment, the water was sliced as if cut by invisible blades. One of the invisible blades met his sword before the apex of his attack, and Grehn’s arms shook from the force, his sword nearly being knocked from his hands again. The only thing that kept it in place was the force of his Mind, intent on not losing his weapon a second time. But his hands were brutalized by the attack, the bones in his fingers and wrist and elbows left feeling like dust.

She’d already adjusted to his newfound strength. And the result was the same fight as before, the only difference being that Meyara now had to use a bit more Mind to fend off Grehn’s attacks. Hope drained from his body, but he didn’t stop. No, she hadn’t adjusted. Her attacks, her defenses, her moves, they were all the same. Just… more.

Ben watched Meyara’s even more furious assault on the newly invigorated Grehn, and his elation turned sour. Grehn had leveled up a whole Ability, and all it would do was tire Meyara out some more? To be fair, that was sort of the game they’d had to play this whole time, but it was still insane to think of how bad the situation really was.

Crimson red dominated Ben’s vision. Huh? The sudden sensation of being squeezed like a stuffed toy overcame Ben’s senses. His breath left him before he could react to the sight of red, and a single word echoed in front of his face.

“MINE!”

The red came from Jey’s eyes, which had suddenly appeared in front of him. He had seen her jump to his position several meters in the air and begin squeezing him, but his brain had barely been able to keep up. Red completely overtook Jey’s body, infecting her injury, her eyes, even her armor. The red veins reached past her neck, up to her forehead. Whether from the venom or a severe overexertion of power, her nose and eyes were bleeding. Ben realized it was all because of her Mind. What had felt like an eruption only a minute prior paled in comparison to the cataclysmic explosion of Mind he now experienced.

It scared him.

“JEY! What are you doing?!” Greyan’s voice echoed from his helmet and the distance. Ben saw him emerge from the house Beelzebub had knocked him into, a minor dent where his jaw would be. He was moving his arms in a calming motion behind him, into a house Ben could see wasn’t empty. There were people inside.

“There are still innocent people in the town. We cannot cause wanton destruction. Take control of your Mind! If you can’t, leave the perimeter immediately and wait for us as the predetermined rendezvous. Our duty is to protect innocent citizens of the kingd-“

His words were cut off by the sound of metal clanging against a stinger. Beelzebub had flown around him, towards his back and attempted to land a decisive blow, but her aim was thrown off by the bullet he still held in one hand. Thanks to the attention-stealing power of Muweh’s Ability, Greyan was able to react in time, blocking her attack with a slanted portion of his armor. It was still enough to make him stumble back into the street.

“Up yours, dumbass. And up yours, MIS agent. I don’t give a fuck about that.” Jey hadn’t stopped glaring at Ben. “I want to mutilate these fucking bees. These bastards stung me! Everything is their fucking fault.”

Ben heard something crack and felt the healing power get to work immediately. Jey’s hand wasn’t big enough to wrap around his whole thorax, though not for lack of trying. She brought him close to her face and sneered.

“You know… Ben. My Ability allows me to hear things. Not just sound. Many things beyond sound. Emotion. Thoughts. Weaknesses and strengths. Plain old sound, of course. But all I can do is hear them. You think knowing rumors about some pompous Knight Initiate is enough to rise to the top? No. Fuck no. I learn things. I hear them. But that’s not enough. I had to get creative, so I used my Mind. You know, Locks are like a type of Ability. They can do anything you put your Mind to. Most of my Mind is dedicated to dozens of Locks, each with their own tiny, imperceptible purpose in battle. I can react to things as they happen, as I hear them, so instant it almost seems like I’m telling the future.”

She laughed. Ben struggled, desperate to find a way out of her grip. But the power she was exerting now was completely unlike her previous strength. The crashing red Mind buffeted Ben’s own, making him nauseous.

“It’s amazing! The Locks make me move, attack, react, think instantly. Faster than instantly, I respond to what I hear. Your fucking friend’s attack was too sudden, too fast, unknown enough to result in this Person-damned sting. All I knew was danger, but not what kind. You know, you bastards don’t deserve to die quick. You’re killing me slowly for shits and giggles. I’ll do the same. Oh, and your Ability is like mine. Yet you haven’t figured out the creativity for yourself? Why even bother with your Ability? You sicken me!”

With those words, Jey wound up, still floating high in the air, and launched Ben at the town below. He was angled enough to crash through several houses, breaking through hard wood, soft beds, and something… squishy before eventually coming to a stop. He couldn’t get his bearings before something slammed into the ground nearby.

“I DON’T CARE ANYMORE! IT’S ALL BECAUSE OF THE BEES.”