(Nathan)
Dorian rubbed the back of his neck. “I… didn’t realize I was lying.”
Nathan waited for Polygraph to trigger again. It didn’t. He sighed, confirming that Dorian really did exist in a reality of his own.
“Listen brother,” Dorian said. “I’ve never run into a problem or a monster that went easy on me because it was more powerful. And you’re right, that’s unfair sometimes, but that’s part of being an adventurer. We take jobs that others can’t.”
‘Mother send him to the Pits,’ Nathan thought. ‘I hate that he’s right.’ He clenched his jaw and conceded, gritting his teeth, “Fine.”
Dorian narrowed his eyes. “Really?”
Nathan sighed, already regretting his decision. “Yes. But remember: All our dedicated menders are away on contracts.” He jabbed a finger at the unstoppable elf. “You’ll have to show some restraint.”
“Excellent.” Dorian pumped his fist. “Go get your gear and let’s meet at the training yard in an hour.” Instead of heading to either the dorms or the armory himself, he bounded off suspiciously toward the guildhall.
> Dorian
>
> [ dawr-ee-uhn, dohr- ]
>
> noun
>
> an unstoppable, irresistible force.
>
> verb
>
> to move unimpeded while immune to consequences.
Nathan blinked, watching Dorian unabashedly be himself. “Is he… skipping?” He couldn’t guess what his brother was planning, but he was sure it would land them in trouble. Shaking his head, he sighed and made his way to the armory to don his armor and collect his weapon.
The training field was usually packed, but Nightshade canceled classes during initiation trials, allowing instructors to take on contracts and pursue their own adventurer advancements.
An hour later, both brothers found they had the entire field to themselves, which suited Nathan just fine. He didn’t want witnesses to the beating he was about to receive from his younger brother.
The groundskeeper had recently reset the field; it was pristine, except for half a dozen burned patches of grass. The field usually took a beating from the powerful abilities unleashed, transforming it into an impromptu obstacle course with random craters, pools of lava, and lakes of ice, which added realism to their training. Terraforming abilities were frequent enough to keep the groundskeeper busy.
Nathan dropped into a low squat to get his circulation going. “How long did you reserve the field for?”
“Uh…” Dorian looked up from his lunge, feigning a look of innocence. “Of course I reserved the field.”
[Lawful orb]: Lie detected.
“Uh-huh.” Nathan sighed, giving up; they’d end up in trouble no matter what.
Nathan wore his scaled leather armor, crafted from bog hydra hide. The deep myrtle-green scales shimmered faintly in the sunlight, a design choice to camouflage his elven blood—handy in battle to hide when he was injured. Not that it’d help him in a one-on-one fight.
Dorian wore his titanium breastplate, which did well to protect his core. His arms were bare and unrestricted. Nathan was pretty sure the breastplate came from a lootbox and was common-ranked, another disadvantage he’d have to overcome during the fight.
Dorian cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders, signaling he was ready to fight. Nathan wrapped up his own stretches with a few torso twists to loosen his back. Dorian approached and tossed Nathan a healing potion.
He watched the green vial as it sailed through the air at him. ‘Why does he insist on throwing around expensive items?’ he wondered as he caught it. Nathan wasn’t worried about dropping it—the vial was impact resistant and would survive much worse in a fight. Even so, it was the principle of it all.
Dorian held up a vial of his own between his thumb and index finger. “If either of us has to use one, we stop the fight. Deal?”
Nathan held up his own potion to the light, examining the bottle. “Are these from the potions Runemist restocked?”
Dorian hesitated before offering a weak smile at the mention of her name. “You, uh… want me to answer that?” She was one of the few people that carried any weight with him.
Nathan sighed, knowing they were definitely going to get in trouble for this. “No.”
He slipped the potion into an open slot on his belt while Dorian did the same with his.
“Remember,” Dorian said. “Drinking the potion will stop the fight.”
“When do you want to start?” Nathan asked.
A haze shrouded Dorian’s form. A wave of inadequacy washed over Nathan under Dorian’s judgmental gaze. If Nathan could feel the effects of his brother’s aura, that meant Dorian now considered him a threat, and the fight had already begun.
“Take the first shot.” A smirk crept across Dorian’s face. “And make it count.”
The leather creaked as Nathan flexed his grip on the one-handed crystal hammer in his right hand. The hammer’s thick, diamond, sledged head refracted sunlight brilliantly. It only had a half-length shaft, but that was by design. A small chain wrapped around his wrist, attached to the end of the handle. It prevented him from getting disarmed, but more importantly, it allowed him to drop the hammer, freeing his hand to cast abilities at a moment’s notice.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
A longsword, his weapon of choice, sat in Dorian’s right hand. He wielded it single-handedly, but the pommel allowed for a two-handed grip when he needed extra force. He angled it down at his side. There was a savage orange mark on the guard that Nathan didn’t like. It glowed and pulsed slowly.
‘Ability or enchantment?’ Nathan wondered, and then frowned. Either way, marks like that always made it more dangerous. He’d have to get rid of that longsword. It was probably common-ranked as well.
Since Dorian wasn’t going to stop him, Nathan cast Gambler’s Touch on himself. [Gambler’s Touch] was a Chaos ability from his Prismatic framework. It boosted a random attribute by one rank.
He wasn’t sure which attribute would be the best to boost for this fight, but Chaos would decide that for him. He didn’t think a single boosted attribute was enough to make up for their difference in rank. Besides, for Dorian, it was all a game.
A flashing technicolored display of energy cycled through the various buffs before landing on yellow. For the next hour, his swift attribute rose from unranked to common. Which meant he was now faster than Dorian, if only by a little. Nathan had been wrong; any other attribute boost wouldn’t have made a difference in the fight, but swift might.
Wedge taught him: if you cannot beat them, outrun them. That was back when he still attended combat classes, which was something he’d have to return to if he wanted to become an adventurer. Wedge focused on teaching the basics of fighting. Sometimes simple yet always dependable in any situation—that was Wedge’s way.
After basic training, Wedge would arrange mock fights, like they were doing now, to help guild members refine their fighting styles and focus on their strengths. But those fights had a mender nearby and Wedge to step in before things got out of hand.
Triage showed Nathan that his brother was in perfect health. There wouldn’t be anything medically relevant he could exploit. Not that he would, normally, but he needed every advantage he could get.
Dorian grew impatient with waiting. “Come on.”
Nathan closed his eyes on his brother, took a deep breath, and opened them to see his opponent. The hammer fell as he released his grip; the angle loosening the chain. He snatched onto the last few links, just before the hammer’s head touched the ground.
With the rotation of his wrist, the crystal hammer spun up, whirring through the air. He timed the arc and released, launching the crystal hammer at Dorian and opting to use the range attack mode of Throwing Hammer.
[Throwing Hammer] was a Melee ability from his Ranged framework. It allowed him to use a hammer in melee or at range. His crystal hammer’s design functioned well in both roles.
The hammer didn’t spin or twirl like a throwing knife. It was top heavy, powered by magic, and it sailed straight into Dorian’s smug chest. True to his word, he didn’t move. The impact resounded, but that was all. The crystal hammer deflected off the breastplate and buried itself deep into the ground with the remaining force. Not that Nathan could tell, because Dorian’s aura shrouded him in shadow.
“Nothing?” Nathan was fairly sure the attack didn’t even leave a scratch.
While Dorian was about to taunt him, the crystal hammer suddenly dislodged itself, sailing back through the air into Nathan’s open hand. [Recall Weapon] was the passive ability from his Ranged framework. It allowed him to bind to a weapon, granting the ability to call it back to his grip telekinetically, at will. That earned him a grin from Dorian, who then charged at him.
“Drop it!” Nathan’s voice echoed with Command. [Command] was a Willpower ability from his Lawful framework. It compelled a target to act, dealing mental damage if resisted.
Dorian didn’t stop, but the longsword clattered to the ground, forgotten behind him. Nathan moved quickly, taking advantage of his speed to maintain distance.
The ground exploded upward as Dorian roared. Nathan had been there barely a moment ago. Dirt, pebbles, and tufts of grass rained down from Dorian’s sonic attack. He hadn’t expected his unranked brother to be faster than him and undershot the attack.
Nathan spun up his hammer and launched it, but hitting Dorian while being chased proved impossible. Not that it would’ve mattered—a direct hit hadn’t even hurt him. Lifeforce still showed Dorian at full health.
The unstoppable elf had already unlocked his entire powerset, which meant he had more options than Nathan. To even the odds, he’d have to take those options away. He only needed a moment with a clear line of sight to Dorian for the next step in his plan. This maneuver would cost him valuable ground, but he had some to gamble.
Nathan took a spinning leap into the air, casting Energy Leech half-way through the maneuver. [Energy Leech] was a Void ability from his Lawful framework. It doubled the mana cost of abilities to the target, restoring that mana back to him. He didn’t need to get close or land a hit—just a clear path to the target. Nathan landed, pushing hard to pick up his pace. Now it was time to burn through mana.
“You’re really fast,” Dorian called out to him. “That’s going to help—a lot.”
A rainbow pyre erupted around Nathan as he activated Flame Shell and Debt Collection on himself. [Debt Collection] was a Balance ability from his Ranged framework. It displayed a collection counter, increasing with each missed ranged attack. The next ranged attack to hit would have its damage multiplied by the counter.
Technically, it was a net loss of damage, but Nathan used it for a couple of reasons. First, it might allow him to front-load enough damage to get past Dorian’s toughness. Second, it was effective with elusive targets.
He wished he could cast Life Shield on himself, but he couldn’t. At least, not at this rank. That was fine; he had other ways to dump mana, even with his incomplete powerset.
He wasn’t much faster than Dorian but stole enough ground to spin up his hammer, leap, twirl, and launch another attack. There wasn’t much time to actually aim, but Debt Collection didn’t care. As long as he attacked with intent to harm, it added to the counter. He had to keep pushing hard to stay out of Dorian’s reach.
He could count to six, almost seven, between each cycle of attack, recall, and run. Respiteful Regeneration made it difficult to spend his mana fast enough—he was still above half. Of course, none of his attacks hit Dorian, but that wasn’t his end goal; merely a bonus if it happened.
Debt Collection hit (7), and both Energy Leech and Flame Shell would need to be refreshed soon. Two ranged attacks with his crystal hammer later, and the counter hit (9). It was time to test a theory. He slowed, catching his breath while letting Dorian catch up with him.
Finally in range, as Dorian closed in, his eyes lit up as he made a fist and sucker punched his brother in the obliques.
“Ooph,” Nathan grunted as the meaty punch forced the air from him. Flame Shell took some of the edge off, but it was still weak and needed more hits to power up.
Dorian hesitated, glancing down at his fist as he flexed his hand, noticing the effects of Energy Leech.
Nathan had accomplished his goals: refreshing Flame Shell’s duration and leeching some mana back. His mana was just about topped off, but his health was down to 82% from a single punch. There was no way he could take that kind of abuse all at once to finish powering up Flame Shell. He’d have to get creative.
A different sonic attack radiated from Dorian as he took advantage of their proximity. A sharp pang raked through Nathan’s ears. Reflexively, he covered them, interrupting Recall Weapon in mid-activation. The unguided missile soared between the both of them, and then the counter struck (10).
Nathan blinked away the pain, wondering, ‘That counts as an attack?’
Dorian’s radial sonic attack hurt much less than his punches. Unfortunately, it didn’t interact with his Flame Shell, and its timer hadn’t refreshed. The exchange, however, sparked an idea. Nathan reapplied Energy Leech and dashed away, disengaging from the melee. He needed a bit of space and wondered if Dorian really was going easy on him. Or if faster opponents were just a weakness of his.
After half a minute of being chased, he gained enough ground to try something new. He spun up an attack and launched it at Dorian. The collection counter hit (11), as expected. Then he recalled the hammer just after it sailed past Dorian, but this time he released the recall mid-flight. The collection counter hit (12) as the crystal hammer flew past Dorian in the opposite direction.
‘Close enough to count as an attack. Excellent,’ Nathan thought with a grin.