Ethan scrambled backward, Glenn struggling to get off of him, while also escaping the four huge clawed hands reaching for him. They were both shocked when a wide, steel form settled above them, the crab Familiar using its broad shell as a shield. The two men had an odd moment of confusion, as they had to decide whether to leave the relative safety, or risk being crushed by a thousand pound metal crab.
The decision was made for them as the huge ape-bird grasped the snapping claws with its two sets of power arms, and lifted the Familiar off the ground. Glenn and Ethan retreated, grateful to see that the seemingly endless wave of smaller simiavus had slowed. Just the stragglers plus the giant, terrifying one to deal with. Easy.
The clearing was transformed from the fighting. Most of the downed trees had been knocked to the edges of the wood by Valanor’s heavy strikes, and everything was soaked from Maggie’s water attacks. She was doing better now that she only faced one or two monsters at a time, and her axes were hard at work.
“Glenn! Take my position!” Valanor cried, charging at the ten feet of fury and muscle that made up the Dusk rank monster. He was just in time, as the massive ape was tearing a steel arm from the crab, which disappeared abruptly. In its place, the relentless knight leaped through the air, his warhammer crashing into the beast’s chest, sending it staggering backward.
Glenn did as ordered, his two handed sword coming out as he ran to the other side of the portal, intercepting the handful of ape-birds still emerging from the woods. Ethan, on the other hand, had no idea where he was best used. The departed crab had left a gap in the line that he could fill, but Maggie and Glenn barely let anything through.
Instead, he turned to the target he should really be running from. For the first time, Valanor was struggling. He intercepted every blow, including the occasional blast of force fired from the beast’s enormous beak. The knight couldn’t seem to do enough damage, however, as the simiavus used its four arms like a martial artist, slapping the warhammer away while it shifted its bulk.
Ethan took a breath, then planted his spear. At least this bastard is too big to miss, he thought as he flung his first dagger, the searing orange of [Internal Combustion] spreading out from the wound. A second dagger followed, and a third after that. He’d been able to conserve mana since they left the road, and now he put it to good use.
At first, the beast seemed entirely unconcerned. The blades were tiny, and irrelevant on their own, and the Dusk rank monster just kept hammering on the knight, clearly trying to reach the weaker, squishier targets Valanor protected. Soon though, the affliction began to stack up, and the creature was aglow with firefly light, its veins scorching it from the inside out.
Feeling his limited reserves running out, Ethan mentally thanked Maggie for turning the clearing into a damp rainforest, and switched tactics. He had to get his timing right to avoid Valanor, but fortunately the beast was continually moving back and forth to avoid the warhammer.
On its next step backward, a small blade stuck into its chest, but this time it exploded with tremendous force, as [Volatile Infusion] made use of the stacking weakness to fire attacks. The monster roared in pain, a fist-sized hole in its massive chest appearing.
Ethan didn’t let up, sending three more knives in quick succession, one even embedding in the giant’s neck. The explosions rang out, one after another, each taking a chunk out of the creature’s flesh. It was bleeding judiciously now, but Ethan’s mana was gone, and he was learning a valuable lesson about what the difference in rank really meant.
While the Dusk rank simiavus was hurt, it hadn’t slowed, and its own attacks were coming faster. Thankfully, Ethan had bought time, and before the creature could redouble its attacks against Valanor, twin axes began slashing at the back of its legs, tearing through tendons and causing it to wobble and slow as it attempted to move and dodge.
Ethan realized that Maggie had dispatched her last opponent, and Glenn was only a minute behind her. Just like in the arena, each team member went to work in their own way. Valanor refused to allow his opponent to ignore him for even a second, his warhammer crashing into bone with every opening, and punishing each attempt the beast made to grab the Dawn rank knights.
Maggie used impressive agility to stay behind the towering ape, as Glenn’s sword bit into wrists with deadly accuracy. It wasn’t long before a huge, clawed hand tumbled to the ground, severed from repeated strikes. Ethan wasn’t idle during this time, as small monsters were still emerging from the rift.
He had his spear braced in front of him once more, and did his best to dispatch the beasts each time one appeared. Lost in his task, it was a complete surprise when he heard another voice. Hungry, it said, and he whirled around, shocked and looking for who had spoken.
He turned back to the rift, confused. Okay, I may have internalized Dean’s voice a little more than is strictly healthy, but he doesn’t usually ask for snacks. Ethan kept fighting, glancing occasionally at the practiced smoothness of the knights with envy, then trying to improve his own clumsy form.
Hungry! The voice said again, and again Ethan spun halfway around, looking for the source of the voice. Only when he turned back did he notice a tingle on his chest. He only realized it was there because it faded when he moved away from the rift, and returned when he did.
Looking down, he saw a faint glow coming from his first Bond Rune. The mana of his Flare Bond was depleted anyway, so with a thought he channeled Dimension. The voice–if it was a voice, it seemed to be just as much a feeling, or an impulse–grew in intensity. HUNGRY! It seemed to roar, and he felt the pull toward the rift.
Ethan glanced over, seeing that the fight with Dusk Monster was coming to an end. It only had two hands left, and could no longer rise from the kneeling position it was trapped in, its legs a mass of bleeding slashes. Ethan looked back to the rift, just in time to move his spear into the path of another Dawn rank simiavus.
He stabbed a few more times to make sure it was down, then moved toward the blue-white light. The feeling in his mind, and the urge in his soul dragged him forward, the hunger far beyond anything physical. He didn’t realize what he was doing until he felt the cool bite of energy where his hand pressed against the rippling surface of the rift.
All at once the feeling changed, from desperate hunger to overwhelming gluttony. He could taste the energy flowing through him as the portal warped and dissolved. The familiar blue-white light crackled and sparked, and his chest throbbed as if he had a second heartbeat. Finally the rift seemed to lose whatever held it together, and it winked out of existence.
Ethan stumbled backward, sated in a way he’d never before experienced. Even the dim emptiness that he’d felt since Bonding Flagras seemed lessened, and he grinned, basking in the moment. A heavy thump drew him from his reverie, and he turned to see the giant beast collapse in a ruined heap.
“What happened to the rift?” Glenn asked, panting and leaning on his sword.
Ethan grinned, noticing his system rune blinking furiously, but not needing it for an answer. “Dimension Devourer,” he said, pushing his armor aside to look at his first Bond rune, which had grown to match his second in size and complexity. “I think my littlest Familiar is all grown up.”
Valanor walked over, limping slightly and drenched in demon blood. “Your Familiar truly ate the rift? Are you able to summon it now?”
Ethan shrugged. “Good question. Before I do, should I try to get an ability from the demon?”
Glenn shook his head. “Definitely not. Demons and the monsters of our world don’t mix. No telling what you’d get.”
“You may as well loot it though,” Valanor said. “Then we should really get back to the wagons before resting.” Ethan nodded, then went and gingerly poked the sparkling mess with a toe. He ignored the system messages for the moment, trusting the shield knight’s instincts that they were better off away from here. He followed the other exhausted warriors as they left the clearing, idly nudging demon bodies for more loot as he went.
***
The Familiars had done their duty well, and the battered group returned to find their mounts alive and well. Valanor insisted they move at a trot for some time, looking for a more defensible location to take a break. There was no telling how many more demons might have come through the rift.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
An hour later Ethan found himself leaning against a rock in a wide clearing, having already washed himself in a small river flowing peacefully nearby. The forest was thinner here, and they had good eye-lines in every direction. Nonetheless, Toby and Kit were patrolling the perimeter, ever watchful.
At last Ethan was able to let out a breath, feel his heart rate slow, and go over the messages from the Mad System.
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Attention: [Dimension Devourer] has absorbed sufficient energy to awaken!
Dimensional Bond has stabilized!
New abilities may now be unlocked!
Existing abilities have stabilized!
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Ethan grinned. It was a relief to know that he wouldn’t be saddled with a broken Familiar Bond. Could something similar have happened to Valanor? Putting the thought aside, he was going to do what he’d been wanting to do since he first saw the unusual egg in the mountain. He was finally going to see what’s inside.
“Dimension Devourer,” he called, and there was only the briefest hesitation before he felt the presence of his first Familiar. He followed the sensation that linked him to the creature, finding it floating in the air above him. He squinted against the sun, then stood to get a better look at the creature.
It was surprisingly small, barely as long as his arm, and it was thin and sinuous, covered in deep purple scales. It was also flying, but without wings, seeming to writhe and twist through the air like a snake, though it had tiny fore and back legs, ending in tiny black claws. Ethan knew instantly what the creature would be called on his own world.
It was the closest thing to a dragon he’d seen since he arrived here. Though it was much more like those depicted in Japanese, or maybe Chinese artwork, save for an obvious exception. He leaned closer, and the little creature spiraled and twisted through the air to examine him in turn–with both its heads.
They were identical, and seemed to move independently. Each had spikey manes–not quite hair–that flowed from their foreheads down their backs, in the familiar white-blue color of rifts. Their eyes were the same, and lacked any other visible color or pupil. Their twin mouths gave some hint of their nature, being absolutely filled with little teeth.
“Damn, you are awesome, little guy. Guys? I don’t know how this works.” The little creature continued to swim through the air, though oddly its heads remained stationary as the long serpentine body coiled and moved.
“Whoa,” Glenn said with shock, walking up from the river still dripping water. He was pulling a towel from the wagon–apparently Glenn liked to come prepared–when he cocked his head. “Hydras are truly rare. I’ve never even heard of a hydra-wyrm before. Wait…” He came closer. “It has tiny little legs! What is that thing?”
“Something extremely rare,” Valanor said, walking past with a glare for Ethan at the word ‘rare’. Evidently he was still angry about the ticking clock they were under.
“Let’s see,” Ethan said, ignoring the dour knight. “Twins, white hair, this one’s easy. Dante and Virgil it is.”
“Oh, you might want to reconsider that,” Glenn said.
“What, you know those names?” Ethan asked.
“No, sorry. I mean you might not want to name them separately. It’s one being, just with two heads.”
“How could you possibly know that?”
“Because we’re trained to fight hydras,” Maggie said from where she was resting under the wagon. “You attack one head, the other one knows it.”
“Oh…that’s surprisingly logical,” Ethan said with a nod.
“And that’s not the only reason, you understand he’s Dawn rank now, right?”
“Sure, I guess. Why?”
“Familiars evolve, remember?” Valanor called out. “What do you think happens to a hydra when it evolves?”
“Oh…he’s gonna get more heads?” Ethan asked?
“Probably a lot more,” Glenn confirmed. “Bigger, and more heads.”
“How much bigger?”
“Thank the Goddess you don’t need to feed him actual food bigger,” the knight replied.
Ethan looked at his tiny Familiar and wondered what Twilight, or even Master rank might look like. “Dimension Devourer, indeed. I’m going to need so many names…” he reached out an arm and the little creature happily wrapped around it. “Okay, compromise. Dante and Virgil, D and V…Deevee?” The two sets of white eyes watched him impassively.
“Tacit acceptance! I’ll take it. Now, there’s something else I want to check out.”
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Ability: Rift (Dawn Rank 0: 4%)
Type: Dimension
You may create a rift that allows one-way travel through linear space! Mana cost increases with distance traveled. This ability requires an anchor point for precise targeting, and may have unpredictable results without one. Familiar [Deevee] may act as a target point. You may additionally assign objects as temporary anchors for a small mana cost.
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“Oh that’s a big relief,” he said. “This plus a thousand years of therapy, and rifts may become less of a terror-inducing nightmare.” As Ethan was reading and idly petting Deevee’s scaly hide, his eye caught something unexpected. The bow and arrow symbol of Apollo was faintly glowing once again.
“That’s unexpected,” he said aloud, running his finger over the rune. He’d been forcing himself not to think about it since he’d realized it stopped working. The possibility that all his medical knowledge had been swallowed by magic that may be broken had been too painful to consider on top of everything else.
Now that it was mysteriously back, however… “Hey Glenn,” he called. Glenn seemed like the most likely of the three knights to answer questions–without demanding a backstory that might get Ethan killed. “Do you know how Skill Runes work?”
“Skill Runes? Of course. I don’t have any myself though, they tend to be used by tradespeople. A few months pay to turn my mediocre cooking ability into a magical mediocre cooking ability? Never made sense. Why?”
“I have one for climbing. It’s pretty impressive, but I don’t understand how it works. I could use it before I was Bonded, where did the mana come from?”
“Oh, I get it. Yeah that’d be a dangerous one to use without understanding. You could fall off a building or something.”
“Or something…yeah,” Ethan answered, absently touching a scar, one shaped like the key to a honda civic.
“Well they absorb ambient magic, so they’ll charge over time. Faster in regions with higher magic density. You shouldn’t have to worry anymore though. Now that you have Familiars, the rune will be able to feed off of your own mana.”
That finally cleared things up…mostly. He must have been burning through the mana of a weakened Deevee, maybe even damaging something with how much he’d poured into the injured Revan. Now the little Devourer was awake, and generating mana properly again. Ethan breathed out a sigh of relief. If my rune was dark much longer, I might have resorted to crystals and sage.
With that put to rest, he went back to the system, curious what other messages it had waiting for him.
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You have looted [Dusk Rank Simiavus]
You have received:
* 28 Dusk Coins
* 873 Dawn Coins
* Girdle of Simian Power (Dusk Rank)
* Silent Strider Boots (Dawn Rank)
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“Hey guys, we got some goodies from that ape-thing. There’s a ton of currency, and something called the ‘Girdle of Simian Power’. It’s Dusk rank, do you want it, Valanor?”
The normally sour knight actually perked up a little, though he didn’t quite smile. Apparently fresh loot brought out the best in everyone. “Let me take a look,” he said, and Ethan tossed him the thick, brown leather belt.
“There’s also something called ‘Silent Strider Boots’. Looks like they mute any noise you make while walking.”
“You take them,” Glenn said, while trying to get Deevee to play some kind of chasing game with his finger. “We use heavy armor; we’re not meant for slow and sneaky. Better that you wear them, keep you out of trouble and make our job easi–ow!” He pulled his finger back, waving it around.
“I think that means you lost,” Ethan supplied helpfully. Looking down, he realized there was a final message from the system. Big day…
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Congratulations! New Title Earned!
Note: [First Title]
Titles are the result of the system utilizing unusually high levels of released magic to shape beneficial effects! Can only occur when the soul has been made malleable by extraordinary circumstances!
New Title: Fools Rush In
By dealing significant damage to a [Dusk rank] opponent while still in [Pre-Dawn rank] you have gained a new effect: attacks against higher ranked opponents are slightly increased!
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Ethan grinned. “I think I’m starting to like you, system.”
“Ethan, stop talking to yourself,” Valanor called. “It’s time to mount up and ride on. We’ll be at our destination by nightfall. I want you Fully Bonded by this time tomorrow.” Ethan’s grin widened.