“Yates, get your ass over here and help me grab Bill!”

“He’s dead. You need to get what kids you can and move. Now!” Steam spilled from his own mouth as [Raging Breath] brought in new billows of refreshing energy.

The rage surged through Jonathan’s veins like liquid fire and he felt as if he could feel and hear each heartbeat in the base of his skull. He felt like he was teetering at the edge. It would be so easy to embrace the rage and kill the brainwashed children turned into weapons who had killed his teammate and were trying to kill more.

No.

His muscles trembled with the effort of containing his anger. These children were the product of something more sinister.

I’m here to save lives.

Turner’s body lay crumpled nearby, blood still seeping into the stone floor. The man’s dead eyes stared upward into the void. Jonathan’s own wounds throbbed in time with his rampaging pulse, and each beat brought a fresh wash of bleeding red into his vision.

“Everyone out! Now!” Hayes barked as she moved to coordinate an exit through the surrounding combat. Her voice was sharp and carried a commanding tone that would get immediate results from most. Her spear flashed as she blocked a clumsy sword strike and whipped the butt end of her spear into the teen’s temple.

Despite her order, Jimmy stood his ground. “I can keep my distance, Jon. Cap, lemme help him!” His bow continued to move with precise movements, and after seeing the accuracy of his weapon, the boy soldiers were hesitating any time the bow was raised in their direction.

“You don’t understand,” Jonathan said through gritted teeth. His voice came out deeper than normal, and he bent over at the waist to tense his muscles further. “You haven’t seen-” He cut off as another wave of fury crashed through him.

Blood dripped from his side, and the red mist encroached further into his vision. It was an uphill battle, and even with his increased Willpower, he knew he wasn’t yet strong enough to hold back the {Rage}.

Hayes stepped up and helped one of the kids stand and began to usher them toward the door. “Jon, focus on my voice. We need to get these people out. Fight it.”

Distant screams echoed down the corridor, and most of the people on both sides of the conflict in the room paused. Young voices were mixed with inhuman roars. The loud clang of metal could be heard, followed by more monstrous calls bouncing off of the stone walls.

“The holding areas…” One of the Untethered graduates said. "They’re releasing everything. B-but, they said they were coming back to help us fight.”

Panic began to rise and Jonathan struggled to split his focus to pay attention. He felt his perspective change as he grew another inch, and all of his vision pulsed.

A young recruit, barely out of his teens, stared at Jonathan with wide eyes. “Wait, you’re that guy. The Crimson Warrior from the videos. You’re why I wanted to be awakened.”

The words cut through Jonathan’s consciousness, and he groaned as he wrestled with his own emotions. Even here, among the imprisoned children and released monsters, the weight of responsibility weighed heavily upon him. Some of these kids looked up to him and thought he was some sort of hero because of how the news was portraying his suicidal Rift dives, which led to these kids being recruited by a radical group that promised the same taste of power.

More screams echoed through the hallways deeper into the complex, toward the arena. The sounds of running feet and scraping claws grew louder, and Jonathan knew they were running out of time.

Control it. Control it. Control-

A massive serpentine form crashed through the cracked doorway at the far side of the open room. It hit the door so hard that it broke the barrier, and it flopped uselessly by a single hinge. The serpent wove to the left and right, its scales sliding easily on the stone, before coiling itself to look around the room for a target. Its scales gleamed a sickly green in the torchlight, and its jaw unhinged to reveal rows of needle-like teeth.

Behind it, more monsters poured in, and Jonathan saw flashes of salamanders that were the size of cars with toxic-looking barbs and a tree that seemed to move on two legs.

Jonathan’s greataxe was in his hands before he consciously reached for it. The weight felt good to him, a natural part of him. The nearest salamander creature lunged, and he met it with an overhead strike that split its skull. The impact drove the beast and his axe into the stone floor, leaving spiderweb cracks in many directions.

You have slain Bog Salamander - Level 9

He breathed out, letting [Raging Breath] fuel his swelling muscles. He reveled in the feeling of power and exertion that came with swinging his greataxe.

“Move! Move!” Hayes’s voice cut through the chaos. She was herding the kids toward the door that they’d entered through. She held her spear at the ready in case any of the monsters came for the backs of the retreating children. Jimmy’s arrows found their marks, dropping smaller creatures that tried to flank the group.

Jonathan wrenched his axe free and spun. He caught the oversized snake creature mid-lunge. The head of his axe was lodged in its jaws, and he felt it grate against the many fangs within. Slamming the axe down, he dislodged his axe before pulling back his leg and sending the snake flying with the force of his kick. It sailed across the room and connected with the far wall with a wet crack.

You have slain Marshscale Asp - Level 5

He saw blue motes rise from both bodies and drift toward him. Dismissing the windows in his vision, he looked around as his battle fervor grew.

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Each impact felt good- too good. The rage was feeding on the violence, and it grew stronger in their internal battle with each strike.

A blast of ice magic shot past his head close enough that he could feel the temperature change. Three adults entered the fray from behind the monsters. Two were melee fighters, and one was using a skill that allowed them to shape or shoot ice from their hands.

Jonathan yelled to vent his fury and charged. His muscles burned with the power, and he felt a thrill as he pushed off the ground and ducked through two monsters on his way to the Untethered. His fist connected with the first attacker’s chest and sent him through a support pillar. The blow connected and he felt the man’s chest cave in and felt the stone beneath his feet rumble as he crashed through the pillar.

The second managed to use a skill to close the distance between them and sliced a knife across Jonathan’s lower back. He spun, twisted his hips, and brought his axe down in a diagonal arc into the man's shoulder. He cut through the collarbone and into his chest, stopped only by the deep muscle and bone of the sternum and ribcage.

The scene was gruesome, and one-half of Jonathan felt sick at the brutal efficiency of his rage, and another reveled in the freedom of carnage. He had to yank several times to dislodge the weapon from the man’s limp form.

You have slain Warrior - Level 7

“H-holy shit.” The woman held her hands up. The spell that had been glowing broke from her loss of concentration and overwhelming fear. Recognition appeared in her widened eyes.

He risked a glance toward Captain Hayes and the others. Most of them were at the exit and were filing through with Jimmy still on the stairs for an elevated position to cover their retreat. The sight helped him cling to that last thread of control, even as he felt that the red mist was becoming a tunnel and he could only see through an opening in the middle of his vision.

The tree monster moved with unnatural speed and used its twisted branches to reach for the fleeing children at the back of the group. Jonathan abandoned the mage and intercepted the monster, his axe cleaving in the wood with a thunk. It was an oddly normal sound of an axe connecting with wood compared to what he was becoming used to. Two more swings and the beast stopped thrashing; it let out a death knell that echoed off the walls and caused several of the kids to cover their ears.

You have slain Dryad - Level 12

With each kill and each impact, Jonathan felt his grip on rationality slipping. The {Rage} was winning, but he was so close to holding out until they were all out.

Just… get them… out…

A slow clap echoed through the chamber. “An impressive display of Strength. I didn’t realize you’d joined up with the enemy. Otherwise, we may have tried pushing to reach out to you a little harder.”

The unfamiliar voice carried a lazy, confident sort of authority. Jonathan turned to see a man striding through the broken doorway, glancing at it casually as if it had insulted him. He wore a black set of robes with purple accents that seemed untouched by the dirt of the swampy Rift and the chaos of the battle. He held a wand in his hand and let it swish around as he spoke.

Jonathan’s axe swing would have split a normal man in two, but the Untethered leader caught it with a barrier of shimmering energy. The impact still caused the man to bow at the shoulders, but the shell around him held strong despite the floor cracking under his feet.

He grunted but didn’t lose his smirk. “Sandra told me about your… conversation. We have much to discuss, Mr. Reeves. We have a lot that we can do to help you with your goals. Just for starters, we can tell you about your son. About his final moments in that Rift.”

The red in Jonathan’s vision pulsed.

Marcus.

“The official report was incomplete.” He grunted again as Jonathan continued to apply heavy pressure against the magical shield. The overconfident facade began to droop, and he hesitantly pointed the wand at Jonathan as if unsure. “We could help each other, you and I. There are forces at work beyond-”

Jonathan felt something inside of him snap. The mention of Marcus and the casual way he wielded his death like a bargaining chip. While all sense may have pointed to him learning more, finding out what information the Untethered knew- all sense had fled. The {Rage} he’d been holding back exploded through every fiber of his being.

His roar shook the foundation of the pillars around him as his consciousness began to slip away.

The last thing he saw was a System notification appearing in his vision.

----------------------------------------

Jonathan’s eyes cracked open to a world of pain and exhaustion. His muscles screamed as he rolled onto his side, and he spit onto the stone floor in an attempt to get the taste of blood from his mouth. Through blurred vision, he saw destruction everywhere. Several walls and parts of the floor were reduced to rubble from where the support pillars of the upper level had been shattered.

He tried to push himself up, but his arms trembled. Pieces of concrete shifted under him as he moved. The chamber, once a depressing sight of dark cells and torchlight, had morphed into a scene from a horror movie.

Bodies lay strewn across the chamber. Some wore Untethered robes. Others were twisted monster corpses. The leader in black and purple robes lay motionless near a collapsed wall, and his wand lay snapped in two beside him. Other figures were scattered about; some were whole, and others… weren’t. He could see humans and monsters as he unsteadily pushed himself to his feet.

System notifications crowded his vision, but he could barely focus on them through the pounding in his head. He closed his eyes tight and groaned. When the ringing in his ears subsided enough to hear, he could hear Hayes shouting.

“Over here! I need those medics.”

Jimmy was crumpled against the far wall, and much like the Untethered’s wand, his bow lay snapped a short distance away. Blood matted the man’s hair, and his right arm was bent at an impossible angle. Hayes knelt beside him and applied pressure to the large slashing wound on his side. The sight sent ice through Jonathan’s veins.

“Jon.” Hayes’s voice was carefully neutral as she noticed him stirring. “Stay where you are. Please.” Her hand tightened on her spear and the gesture didn’t go unnoticed by him.

A small team of Hunters Association members entered the chamber wearing blue bands around their upper arms. Two moved quickly to Jimmy’s side, and the others looked at Jonathan warily. They turned to the side and whispered before casting him a final glance and helping to move Jimmy onto a stretcher.

“I…” Jonathan looked down at his hands, covered in blood. His clothes were in tatters, and his greataxe lay embedded in a wall across the room. “Jimmy, did I…?”

“He’ll live,” Hayes cut him off, her voice distant. “But it’s bad. The gash needs immediate attention. Med-evac is coming. You should go wait outside. Now.”

He stumbled on his feet. His enhanced Strength and regeneration long fled his system. Walking toward the door, he passed Jimmy as he was loaded onto the stretcher by the medics and began to get carried toward the Rift exit.

“I tried to stop you,” he whispered. “Put two arrows in your leg but couldn’t slow ya down. You just… kept comin’. But don’t worry, Jon. We got all of the kids out. All of ‘em. That was the mission.” Jimmy held up his left fist and winced.

Jonathan let the group pass and stayed in the room alone. He glanced around and thought about Jimmy’s broken form. No longer able to hold it in, he leaned against the wall and threw up. The muscles in his abdomen burned with each wretch.

He knew his trait had influenced his actions, but he didn’t feel like it was an excuse. People had counted on him, and he hadn’t been able to control the power.

This is not how I want to protect people.

Jonathan slowly retrieved his axe, noting how much heavier it felt now compared to during the fight. He began the slow trek toward the Rift exit, letting the weapon drag behind him, too tired to carry it normally.

The only thing that he could think about was that he’d almost killed children and his team because he couldn’t control his emotions.