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Fatebringer
Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Fatebringer

You have been chosen to effect great change in the Shattered Realms. As a Fatebringer, you will face perils and adversity from those around you and those you have yet to meet. But fear not as you will also encounter allies and support as your journey takes you toward your own Fate. Cultivate your friends and woe to your enemies, for to cross a Fatebringer is to court a fate worse than death. As you level and experience the trials and travails of the Great System, you will learn more of what it is to be a Fatebringer. Good luck. Hope you survive.

The Fatebringer’s Primary Stat is Wisdom, and the secondary is Willpower. Every level you will gain a plus two in your Wisdom and Willpower stats. This hidden class does not grant you additional free points to distribute.

At Level One, you now have the Skill [View Fate]. You will gain one free Skill every time you level up.

At Level One, you have now learned the spell, [Bind Fate]. At every five (5) subsequent levels, you will be allowed to choose a new spell from the list of spells available to you.

Class Talent: The Fatebringer gains the Class Talent, [Inspect (Epic)]. Upon viewing a being, you may see the System Information about the subject such as Class, Level, HP, SP, MP. Upon viewing an object, you may view information such as Damage and Durability. Upon touching a being, you may further see information such as Skills, Spells and Statistics. Upon touching an object, you may learn information such as Enchantment(s) and effects. This Talent will improve as you level, providing more information on higher level beings and objects.

Skill: View Fate

This Skill allows you to see and interpret a being’s Fate. As this skill advances you will be able to unravel and understand more of a being’s Fate.

Spell: Bind Fate

At the cost of 20 MP and 20 SP, you may Bind a Fate to a being that has not yet reached Level 25 and activated their Fate.

Shane took a deep breath. This was all so crazy, but he decided that rolling with it was better than feeling completely insane. He pulled his attention from his screen and was immediately struck by the change in his best friend. Brom had been a large man before. He was a football linebacker, six foot four and about two hundred and twenty pounds. Now though, his face seemed tighter, and he filled the space more. “Dude! Did you get bigger?”

Staring at his own hands, Brom grinned broadly, his blue eyes flashing, “Oh Hell yeah!” He looked back at Shane, “My Boon did this.” He grinned at Shane, “Dude, you have no idea. I’m a total badass now.”

“So, spill. What did you get?” Shane was used to asking Brom to elaborate on things.

“I took the Titan Ancient Lineage. It gave me a plus two Strength and Endurance and two inches in height and generally made me thicker. I get another plus two in Strength and Endurance every five levels as well as another two inches in height! Dude, I’m gonna be so massive!” He was almost vibrating with energy, “Oh, and I got something called Titan Skin that gives me natural physical defense that also increases as I level.” Brom calmed down for a moment and focused on his sister. “So, Brynn, when I took the Champion Class, it required me to be the Champion of something.” He paused to make sure she was listening. “I promised that I’d protect you, so my official Class name is Champion of Brynn. That means that I get bonuses to fighting when I’m protecting you.”

Brynn, eyes already damp from before, unleashed another torrent of tears as she tried to climb over the seat to hug her brother. As she awkwardly wrapped her arms around him, she looked at Shane and then her gaze shifted to beyond him, and she let loose a violent scream.

Shane spun in his seat as something crashed through the window. He flinched as shards of safety glass scattered everywhere and a hand grabbed hold of his shirt. “Holy shit! Get off!” Shane grabbed the arm with both of his hands and tried prying it off, but it was slick with water and damned strong. As he was battling the invading arm, he saw that the person it was attached to was trying to climb in through the window. The person seemed focused solely on Shane and his eyes were glowing red. The man opened his mouth and a loud moan emanated from it, shocking Shane into immobility. A notification popped up in his view.

Willpower check failed!

Status: Stunned. You are stunned from a Fear effect. Duration 10 seconds… 9… 8…

Vaguely he could hear yelling in the car and a lot of motion, but his limbs would not react, and the man continued trying to climb through the window and bite him. Suddenly there was a presence beside him, and a fist flew past his head and smashed into the face of the man. This caused the man to release Shane and fall back away from the car. Shane could hear Brom yelling and feel him shaking his shoulders until finally the counter reached zero and Shane could move again.

“Shane! Dude! Snap out of it!” Brom yelled while pulling Shane away from the broken window.

“I’m good! I’m good!” Shane called back trying to extricate his feet from under the steering wheel.

Everyone was yelling. Brynn was crying in terror and had managed to wedge herself into the foot well of the backseat, desperately clutching her teddy bear backpack. Kenzie was pushing Malcolm away from the driver’s side of the vehicle, practically stacking him on top of Brynn while trying to yell over everyone.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Malcolm yelled out, the fear and panic in his voice causing it to rise a few octaves, “Is that a fucking zombie?”

“How the hell should I know?” Shane yelled back, just as panicked.

Kenzie finally caught Malcolm’s attention, “Stay here!” She demanded as she opened her door.

Shane, horrified scrambled after her, “What the fuck are you doing? Don’t open the door!”

Kenzie with steel in her voice calmly answered, “I got this.” And shook off both Shane’s and Malcolm’s grasping hands. As her door opened, the wind whipped the rain into the car, soaking her seat and letting out the rest of the warm air. The temperature plummeted inside the car, then she slammed the door shut.

Shane made for his door as he could see the figure of the man standing up from where he had fallen from Brom’s punch. He was wearing jeans and a blue flannel shirt. Both were waterlogged but what stopped Shane cold was the large blood stain on the man’s chest. As the man staggered to his feet, Shane saw that his chest had been caved in. There’s no way he can be alive with a wound like that. Kenzie’s shout snapped him out of his panic just a bit.

“Hey, asshole!” Kenzie stood in the downpour in her jeans and hoodie. The back of which depicted a smiling cartoon dinosaur with meteors raining down around it and it said, “Today is going to be a good day.” The walking dead man turned his attention to Kenzie while Shane fumbled to open his door.

Suddenly, a spear appeared in Kenzie’s hands, leveled at the oncoming man. “You need to step back!” Despite her sharp and angry voice, the man stumbled forward, arms outstretched for her, and a low moan escaped his lips. Kenzie took a step back, settled her feet then spun the spear in an arc, smashing the blunt end into the man’s temple. The force of the impact slammed him sideways and into the muddy embankment. Breathing hard, Kenzie stayed where she was, watching the man groan and begin rising to his feet once more.

At this point, Shane had finally managed to open his door and step out of the vehicle. Malcolm and Brom continued shouting for him to be careful and to get back in the car. He stumbled a bit in the mud with the rain lashing his face but righted himself and pushed off the SUV towards Kenzie. “Are you crazy?”

Kenzie answered without taking her eyes off the wounded man who had managed to regain his feet and was turning once more towards her. “No! Maybe! Probably!” She shifted her stance and again leveled her spear at the man.

Shane stood back a few feet from her, somehow not wanting to interfere with her fight. He could hear a commotion from the car and saw Brom climbing out the passenger side, much to the frightened screams of Brynn. He turned his attention back to the man with the glowing eyes, but this time he focused more fully on the man and a notice appeared.

Human Zombie – Level 1

HP: 14/20

“Whoa!” Shane shook his head and willed the screen away.

“Whoa? Whoa what?” Kenzie practically screamed.

“It’s a level one zombie!” He had to yell a bit to be heard over the rain and wind.

Kenzie turned her head, an incredulous look on her face, “Are you shitting me?”

From inside the car, Shane heard Malcolm’s muffled voice, “I knew it!”

“No, I’m not. I have an ability to see stuff about… things!” His flustered tongue was not helping him much.

“Then it can die!” Both Shane and Kenzie turned at Brom’s yell to watch in shock and horror as he swung a glowing two-handed sword at the man. The sword cut cleanly through the man’s neck, severing the head, and sending it bouncing into the mud where it rolled under the car. The body stood for a second, then limply collapsed with a splash onto the ground.

Brom stood still momentarily looking at nothing, then a grim smile crossed his lips, “Hah! Critical hit!”

This shocked Shane back into the moment, “Brom! What the fuck dude?!” Shane’s attention to Brom was suddenly halted by retching sounds as he turned to see Kenzie on her hands and knees in the mud, vomiting. He quickly dropped to her side, he tried to soothe her with his voice, but the wind and rain did nothing to help. He looked up at Brom who was standing in the rain, seemingly unaffected by the fact that he had just decapitated a man. No, not a man, a zombie he had to correct himself, although it seemed a bit like playing with semantics at that point.

Brom slowly spun in place, looking for any other dangers before checking on Malcolm and Brynn in the car. Once he was satisfied that they were both alright, he returned to the kneeling Shane and Kenzie. “Guys, I hate to say this, but I think we need to get away from here.” He knelt on the other side of Kenzie and helped get her to her feet, he then grabbed her spear where she had dropped it and handed it back to her.

“You killed that man.” She spoke with shock in her voice.

“Nope.” He answered matter-of-factly, “I killed a zombie.” He then looked to Shane, “Right? You said it was a zombie.” A little fear began to creep into his voice.

Shane, still struggling to take it all in answered, “That’s what it said. Human zombie.”

Brom seemed to take that as affirmation that he was in the right, and he bounced his shoulders and rolled his head and neck as if loosening them up. “Okay then.” He placed a hand under Kenzie’s chin, “You hear that? I didn’t kill a person. It was a zombie.” He gestured towards the body only to watch as it began to fade into motes of light and disappear.

The three of them stood for a moment until Shane said, “Well that just happened.” Snapping out of it, he went back to the car, opened the driver’s door, and pulled the key from the ignition. He then went to the hatchback and unlocked it.

Kenzie came around while Brom went back to scanning their surroundings, “What are you doing?”

“Yeah, what’s going on?” Malcolm asked from the back seat.

“Brom’s right. We can’t stay here. The car is toast and with the window smashed, it’s not safe to stay in.” He began rummaging through all the duffle bags and suitcases in the back until he came up with a red and black backpack with a patch consisting of a white circle with a red cross in the middle. It was Shane’s EMT emergency bag. He also grabbed the tire iron from the back.

“But the cops will come right? Or the fire department or someone?” Brynn’s voice was small and delicate and full of fear.

Shane shook his head, “I’m sorry Brynn, but I don’t think so.” He stopped and addressed the group, “Hey, I don’t like this situation any more than the rest of you, but we can’t stay here. We need shelter and warmth and eventually food. We are at least thirty miles of mountain and hills away from any city and it’s going to be dark real soon.” He scanned the sky with its leaden gray clouds still dumping water in buckets and the relentless wind flinging stinging rain into his now very cold skin. “There’s a roadside fruit stand with a house just up the road maybe a mile or two. I think we need to get there so we can plan our next move.” He paused and then added, “And frankly, I do not want to be outside after dark.”

At this point Brom came around and he too began picking through his belongings. “That’s the plan then. Everyone, get your shit together. Grab clothes, toiletries and a single bag or backpack.”

“But what about my costumes?” Brynn had poked her head up from the footwell as Brom began shoving her various bags over the headrest and into the backseat. The group had been on their way home from a weekend long comic book convention and Brynn had loved every minute of the attention she received from the con-goers while wearing her various anime character costumes.

“Sorry Princess but I suspect the days of Comic Cons and cosplay are over for a while. Make sure you grab your coat and put on some pants. You’ll freeze out here in your skirt.” Brom said as he added a few bottles of water to his bag.