I looked at the bloodthirsty faces approaching me and had to wonder how I got to this point. The full amount of fighters to attack once Tom fell unconscious was twelve. Twelve full Grade Ones, just like myself, all hyped up on the strange energy of the room and ready to get me. Except, only ten of them were “mine”. They all had my attention, but only two of them held it for now.
“I didn’t expect this, to be honest,” I told them while weaving between the various attack forms of the Fledglings. I genuinely couldn’t say for sure whether I had even thought about either of these men since… Well, since the last time I met them. Which was the first time I had seen them. Initially I struggled to even place their names to their relatively ordinary faces.
“You steal my woman and don’t expect me to retaliate? Get him, Gaz!” Frederick would have slipped into just about any crowd with more than three people. A few inches shorter than my six-two, wearing a chequered shirt and brown chinos. The most interesting part of him was the fluctuating mana around himself. I had never seen that before. The larger man, Gaz, swelled with magical power, not dissimilar to an Infusion. For his part, he looked uncomfortable, like he wanted to speak.
“Wait, what?” His woman? I thought we might leave sexism in the old world, but alas. Considering women could level just as easily as men, it was doubly strange to hold onto that tired energy. Even though his meaning was obvious, his words were also so confusing I had to double-check. “Do you mean Julianna?”
“Of course!” The dude actually had spittle flying. Like actual teeth grinding, spittle was something I thought only happened in movies. Despite the discourse with this angry stranger and his more physically aggressive bruiser, the Fledglings never stopped their assault and even began to assist Gaz’. Naea had trained them well, almost uncomfortably so. I heard her cheering encouragement towards the sneakier members, ruining their stealth but improving their confidence.
I turned the Alternating Armament into a pair of gau and started matching the swollen Gaz blow for blow as I spoke. Each time a Fledgling approached, they found a concussive Mana Bolt aimed for a vulnerable spot. These hits hobbled knees or winded the attackers, but no lasting damage was being done. Treating them like they weren’t worth my time was truer than pretending otherwise. If they couldn’t get past the first barrier, they didn’t deserve my true attention. “And what does the lady herself think? Because I doubt she knows you’re acting like this.”
“No! I never told her, it was supposed to be a special thing and you ruined it.” Not only was the guy practically foaming at the mouth, something else was off. There was a feverish glint in Frederick’s eye. Had my overt and powerful display of Dao caused an on-edge Frederick to absolutely lose it? I shook my head and activated Infusion.
“Look, I extra don’t have time for a drama from a telenovela. Why are you in on this?” Asking Gaz a direct question, I managed to catch the nearly invisible thread of mana between him and Freddy. Infusion was not as simple as just making me stronger. A stream of mana was obscuring it from view, but I could guess what the purpose was. “Got a nasty little skill there, Freddo.”
I didn’t know exactly what was going on, but I made a decision anyway. My first instinct was more drastic. The thought of killing him came far too easily, so I had to choose something else. However, I didn’t want it to be much less permanent. There were people watching who wouldn’t understand but it didn’t matter. Whatever the case, explanations could come later. I had no time for this nonsense.
With a flurry of activity, the weapon in my hands shifting forms between attacks seamlessly, I bonked all of the Fledglings. With my speed, the most important part of my action was holding back enough not to do lethal damage. When I didn’t hold back, they moved like snails compared to me. Through our connection, I signalled for Naea to come and move them somewhere safe where she could start healing their cracked skulls.
Gaz wouldn’t stop, even as I attacked the others he aimlessly chased me. The awkwardness of his movements was highlighted now I knew to look for it and my disgust only grew. “Got any physical stats there, Fred?” Instead of hurting the mind controlled giant of a man, I went for the source.
With a sprinting tackle, I scooped him up. As I suspected, his attributes weren’t heavy on Fortitude. Will or Mental being the obvious choices, I felt the brush of a skill against my mental defences. Compared to a single revenant of Badaila, it was nothing. I had faced a planet of this. My own strength was given a spotlight by the ease at which I crushed his attack. Then his arms.
A wail of pain caused most of the humour to flee the training arena. Even when the Fledglings had been knocked out, there had been laughs. Now everyone was quiet. All eyes on me. I wish I knew how they saw me, but it was better they knew I could defend them. I wouldn’t let anyone control me, and I wanted the people of Ascentown to know this. I wanted them to feel the same.
When an opportunity like this presents itself, I might as well use it.“This man,” I proclaimed while kicking the zombie-like Gaz away hard, bouncing him off the floor into a far wall to pick himself up when he could. I pounded my chest with a single, gauntlet twice before holding the first in the air in an impromptu salute. “ This man has that other one under mind control. I’m sure you all remember how terrible being controlled against your will felt.”
Like a collective Dao, it was the aura of the crowd that now pressed onto us. No one was against me anymore. There were a few bloodthirsty cries that I couldn’t judge. It was a battle against my own willpower not to fry the cretin right there. The differences between now and the situation with the murderer were too stark for me to comfortably take the life in front of me.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
I would take something else instead.
The ability was one of my least used, despite its ridiculous strength. Costing nothing but physical contact, the attack imbued me with skills, power and more. I didn’t have any negative associations with the ability or anything, it just felt like overkill most of the time. For the most part, fights just didn’t require that level of attention, and the ones that had, I had been stubborn. If I had faced the claimant duo with my draconic dao and skills, the fight would have been immensely simplified.
Anything I survived wasn’t truly a mistake, but I wouldn’t hold back anymore. I couldn’t afford to. There was a looming shadow over the world and dangers unlike anything I could imagine waiting to attack. It scared me, but there was nothing to do. As much as I wished to, I couldn’t protect anyone from the future itself. I could protect them from the monsters at home, though.
Drain.
Glad for my experience in Badaila, I shuffled through the senses and memories that pressed into me. I was still getting the hang of this ability, and before I could tighten the sluice gate, I was inundated with information I had no interest in. Oh wow, I thought sarcastically, Fred really thought he was cool as a teenager. How old was he again? Like thirty five?
I concentrated. Drain did not need to just grab anything and everything, even if that was the most efficient use. Against a dungeon boss without a true life behind it, draining everything at once was ideal. Against this weirdo, not so much. I focused my range and aimed specifically for his magic, and I found it easily. Even as I crumpled his wrists to powder, he attacked me with his skill. It was like a beacon to my own skill. My dao latched on with claws of onyx, and heaved.
I expected far more resistance, and for a moment doubted that I had succeeded with my idea, but then I received two System prompts. There was an almost imperceptible snapping within the weave of magic. Halfway across the arena, Gaz fell to the floor. The more obvious proof was the ungodly caterwaul from the insipid leader of Newtown. Probably not going to be in the leadership role for much longer, I expected.
I dropped the side of my foot across the screaming man’s face and he was knocked into unconsciousness. “What the hell is going on?” I winced at the voice. This probably looked super bad. Okay, it definitely looked terrible.
I spun in a circle, but stayed where I was. “I’m guessing you just arrived, Julz?” Even after saying it, I knew that using a pet name was not going to make things better. Though, I didn’t think anything would help this scene.
“Yeah, get the fuck out of here with that Julz shit. What’s happening?” The Fledglings were still on the ground for the most part but were all pulling themselves up. The crowd was quiet, apparently content to let Julianna continue the drama. It must have looked like I was going on a rampage. The scene was completely ridiculous. So much so that I was torn between horror and humour. While I struggled to find the right words, Gaz stirred.
Julianna went to help him up, with Naea joining her. The crowd, sensing that this was no longer a spectator event, began to file away. More than a few people copied my chest bumping salute, throwing up a hand in solidarity, letting me know they approved of my action. I remained vigilant over the unconscious body of Frederick, even though I knew he wasn’t going to be a problem any more.
The next few minutes, during which the arena cleared and we moved into the Guild hall, were spent explaining things to Julianna. She didn’t fly off the handle and overreact to the scene, instead listening to what I had to say, and eventually Gaz’s story when he could tell it. Gaz explained that for a while now, he had been awake behind his eyes, unable to control his own actions. I was quickly cleared of wrongdoing. Frederick was still unconscious, with no one in a rush to heal him. He’d be fine. Probably.
After an impressively long string of expletives, Gaz and Julianna spoke for a while about what to do next. Like it or not, Frederick was a huge part of the reason Newtown had survived. His quest rewards had been able to upgrade the city without cost the System credits that were still difficult to earn for most. I left them, waiting in my office with the addled Frederick.
He woke up before the other two came in, and upon seeing me sitting calmly nearby, immediately passed out again. “Yep,” Naea nodded, fluttering nearby, “you definitely broke that one.”
“That one was already broken before I did anything. I didn’t even really know who he was before today other than a name and face.” If he hadn’t come after me, Frederick could have festered into a real problem. If he hadn’t put down some private, chauvanistic claim on Julianna, I would have know nothing about his powers. I probably wouldn’t have even looked at him twice. I supposed I had to thank misogyny for the save on this one, which felt gross.
“Humans are weird,” Naea accused.
“That they are,” I agreed.
It didn’t take much longer for the Newtown pair to come into the room, joined by Stephanie. She looked like she had been crying, but she also held a positive energy, which suggested they weren’t necessarily tears of sadness. Julianna was the one who spoke, her voice serious in a way I hadn’t heard before. I liked it. “We’d like to talk about joining our factions.”
I resisted the urge to give my best gangster impression with an olde time New York accent and a “you don’t say,” instead I just flipped one of the System prompts I had received upon my “victory” around to them. The other one was private, and wouldn’t help people feel safe around me.
Faction Absorption
By defeating the leader of another faction in single combat, and due to there being no laws governing the land, you may now take control of that faction. The faction, Newtown, will be subsumed into The Ascent.
Would you like to absorb the faction?
“I didn’t want to choose no because I wasn’t sure if it would do something bad.” I could easily see the faction being dissolved if I didn’t take over in this situation. I shrugged. “Does anyone have an objection to me doing this? I would definitely appreciate you all keeping your positions if I did.”
That seemed to surprise Gaz and Stephanie, but Julianna gave me a glare that said she knew I just didn’t want to do administrative actions. They still all gave their assent. I could only smirk at the beautiful dark-skinned woman and give her a wink as Newtown joined The Ascent. Now I had two terribly named towns to rename.
“How the hell did I end up in this position?” I asked Naea. I had only planned to have a conversation with the members of The Ascent and somehow it had resulted in multiple full-power fights with people.
“World went crazy and you rolled with it the quickest. Does that mean you're the most sane or the most crazy yourself?” Naea answered simply, with full honesty. I blinked hard, looking for an answer and not finding one. The fairy cackled at me, and I just shook my head before looking skyward. It was barely lunchtime.
“Today is going to be such a long day.”
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Achievement Unlocked - Dao Breaker
Just as the cultivator becomes stronger by grasping the Dao, when that understanding is shattered, the path is severed.
Effect: Greater Resistance to Dao Influences
Greater Dao Influence Upon Others