After the twenty-sixth time he was sent hurtling past Everest, Ross finally began to wonder if his beating was cathartic for his grizzled mentor.
“Keep your feet on the ground!” called Everest with a smirk, leaning against a nearby tree. He’d lured a relatively small localized boss to Ross just over 15 minutes ago. It had an oddly curved body - like a hunchback on steroids - and fuzzy tan fur. It had a shrimp-like tail that seemed too flexible, only the end showing carapace like a sort of makeshift club. This was a feature it utilized all too soon, leaning back on it like a stool. Its hands and feet were hairless, showing chitinous bone instead of skin that held blues, greens and reds in abstract patterns; the feet were long and thin, but sturdy and held sharp claws instead of toes. There were, blessedly, only two feet on this monstrosity. Its hands were a different story, if you could even call them ‘hands’. The palm - or, at least where the palm was supposed to be - was nothing but the end of the arm, which looked like the end of a bone. It didn’t have fingers, but its arms did have three segments to them, allowing for oddly devastating, omnidirectional attacks to lash out at Ross.
He hadn’t managed to dodge a single one.
After the first rapid onslaught didn’t knock Ross back, it lashed out rapidly. It was all he could do to refill the shields after each blow, unable to let much regen in. After a few strikes, it managed to sweep Ross’s feet out from under him then strike him, which sent Ross ricocheting around the clearing’s barrier of trees. He sat at a single HP as he let his AP regeneration work its magic, but hadn’t even healed a quarter of the way before the beast before him - Everest had called it a Shaklokan - began its assault in earnest. Its beady, black eyes seemed to stare right into Ross’s soul, and its mammalian mouth aided by two mandibles on either side did nothing to sate his fear of it. Its ears were small and shelled just like its hands, feet and tail club, which did no favors for its triangular and near-alien face. All in all, Ross would have been happy to never see anything like this again.
His observations were cut short with a swift kick that blasted apart his shields, flooding him with more AP. His health leapt up another 50 points before he had to pour the AP into his shields once again, barely managing to block another bone-crushing strike.
“I thought it pissed off a god the last time I did this!” Ross screamed at Everest, his shields shattering again. He paused long enough to regain 100 more HP, then re-instilled his shields to deflect a fierce punch that heated the air between the combatants for a brief moment. “Why am I doing it again!?”
“You need AP and it’s the fastest way, gods be damned.” Everest called back, lazily scratching the scruff growing around his chin and neck. Another shield break, another 200 HP regenerated, another blocked onslaught. “He’s already mad, and unless you use some other power that he despises, you’ll be fine!”
Ross shot back a string of pseudo-expletives as he kept up the rhythm. Break, regen, block. He was nearly at full HP again, which meant he’d need to let this thing smash into his ribs before continuing the pattern once more. It leaned onto its tail before delivering a flurry of kicks that not only snapped the shields away, but broke Ross’s right arm. He cried out in pain, stepping back. He let himself regen - 400 HP now - and his arm went from concave to normal in a fraction of a second. He instilled his shields, gritting his teeth.
“Why did you have to get something so damn…” Ross started, before it once more balanced on its tail and sent an upwards kick that launched Ross a solid 30 feet away. Much to his pleasure, however, his shields were still intact. Nearly broken, sure, but still active nonetheless.
“Strong?” asked Everest after Ross didn’t respond for a moment.
“Ugly!” Ross bellowed, taking another massive upwards blow that sent him bouncing off of a tree trunk behind him. He reinstated his shields after fully recovering his HP.
“Goddamn, this is nightmare fuel!”
He took another rattling kick, shields faring far better than before. A few more did eventually shatter it, and an unseen punch blasted through all of the regen he’d achieved, but by now there wasn’t anything the behemoth could do to actually kill Ross. His regeneration had reached the point that he’d fully recover every second, and Everest made a motion with his hands for Ross to keep going.
“Build up AP a few more times, then show me what your abilities do! Might not need the training equipment after all!”
“What would it even be for?” Ross called to his mentor, enduring another cycle. Break. Regen. Block.
“Well, it grants you pseudo-unlimited energy without letting you deal actual damage.” Everest explained. “It lets me see what your abilities do and what you need to learn about them. You don’t use mana or stamina - only AP - so the equipment would have been a stretch anyways. No clue if it’d work on your glitchy subclass’s energy or not.” Break. Regen. Block.
“Furthermore,” he continued, “I thought you had limited AP. Like, I dunno… a few hundred. Limitless AP means you can build up a metric fuckton and show me what you can do!” Everest, barely visible out of the corner of Ross’s eye, pulled up his protege’s character sheet. “Let’s start off with a… Huh. Let’s see…” Break. Regen. Block.
Everest snapped his fingers. “Oh! Try adding some AP to an attack against that thing. Give it, I dunno… a thousand AP? The bastard’s got well over 10k health.”
“With what opening!?” Ross screamed as he tried to desperately sneak around the rapid blows and land a hit. The shaklokan’s offenses were rapid and brutal as ever, and even at a shield break, Ross couldn’t find an opening. Break. Regen. Block. This time, Ross set aside 10,000 AP for messing around with his abilities.
“Ah, fair. You don’t have any real fighting experience, huh, kid?” Everest inquired with a smirk. “That was a rhetorical question by the way,” he added quickly, “So you don’t need to answer it. You clearly haven’t fought a day in your life. Try using a quick burst of your Dex - really go ham on it - and throw in a punch using AP to crank its damage up to the shaklokan’s next attack. You have that ability that lets you see how much average damage the thing deals, right?”
Ross could have facepalmed if he wasn’t the only one trying to smack himself in the face. He thought about the True Absorption’s passive effect, and a prompt popped into the corner of his vision.
[Would you like to toggle {Damage_Reader} from your {Full_Counter_ERROR} Ability {True_Absorption_ERROR} to {On}?]
Ross mentally accepted, and the next few punches had bright red numbers floating over them. They didn’t fully match up with the damage done to his shields, which could now withstand a mildly impressive number of hits before cracking apart, but they were close enough that the estimated 12,500 points of damage was well beyond acceptable estimate-wise. Next, he prepared a punch and poured 15,000 AP into it, causing his fist and arm to glow with a faint orange and violet aura. He then focused on how it felt to run full-bore from the wolves and called upon that quickness for his next attack.
In a flash of heat and light, time slowed down.
Ross felt the high dexterity score draining his energy rapidly, hunger bar going down at an unpleasantly fast rate, even in slow motion. He saw the hybrid boss prepare its next punch, and he replicated the action. He felt that the motion wasn’t flawless, but it was close enough to make him feel like he could punch just a little bit harder. The limbs lashed towards one another in slow motion, Ross letting his attack fly early to ensure they’d meet in the middle, at the peak of their punches. He couldn’t punch as fast as this thing, but he could at least anticipate its speed. His fist made direct contact with the shaklokan’s arm-club, and despite expecting a broken hand, Ross’s attack had deflected the hybrid’s own, triple-segmented limb folding fully before bumping into the thing’s side. He had taken 200 damage from the exchange, which was already rapidly regenerating, but the boss had tanked well over 2,000. Without a similar regeneration method, it was left clearly surprised and enraged.
“I’ll be damned!” Everest cackled as time began again at its normal speed. “Not too shabby at all, kid! Take a look at the arm you just hit - the carapace is crackin’!”
Ross nodded as he poured all but 20,000 AP back into his shields, trying not to get too excited. He looked briefly at Everest for guidance as the shock wore off of the shaklokan, just long enough to give his mentor a pleading look. His eyes whipped back to the beast and, sure enough, the first segment’s carapace looked like bulletproof glass that had been rattled with an AK47. He grinned to himself, keeping his ears open as he hunkered into a better counter-attacking position.
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“Alright, kid. Use that Grazing Blow ability. I wanna see how that looks.”
Ross nodded, preparing for a painful attack as he lowered his shields. Sure enough, the shaklokan threw a wild haymaker with its undamaged arm at his chest. This time, much to Ross’s surprise, the number shown above the nightmare’s fist was only 10,000. He mentally willed Grazing Blow to trigger and, as he did, his body moved on its own to reduce the sheer impact of the blow, having it hit his side away from any internal organs or ribs. As he did, his HP once again dropped to 1, regenerating back up to 1,020 before he could properly react. Though he should have gained 1,019 AP, he only claimed 510. It seemed the system always rounded up, which he couldn’t complain about. Yet.
He felt his fist shake with energy, and his whole body seemed to glide down the length of the shaklokan’s arm. He felt as light as a feather, noting his hunger bar deplete a little bit more in a short burst. It was down to about 60% now, which had him mildly concerned, but he focused on his next attack. He shot a fist into where he assumed the thing’s gut was and, sure enough, it doubled over for a few precious seconds. Everest hooted and hollered from the sidelines.
“Now let it break your shields again! After that, let it mash you back down to a single HP, and as it throws that attack, shove all but 8,930 AP into the shields. Pour 2,000 more into your fists for the next attack, then quickly activate Grazing Blow and Overwhelming Reversal! It’s a complex move for sure, but keep trying it until you get it, kid!”
For the next twenty-three minutes, Ross kept trying to time the combination properly. Each failed attempt was a few more points from his Hunger bar gone, and the AP he poured into the shields kept making the assaults and attempts take longer and longer. Finally, on what had to be the seventeenth try at least, he realized he needed to lean into his dexterity score once again to get the timing right. Once he did, he shoved 2,000 AP into his fist and activated Grazing Blow, yet again having the punch hit a non-vital spot as he slid through the impact. The moment he felt the apex of the strike, he activated Overwhelming Reversal. Instead of just his fist erupting with an orange and violet light, it was his hair, eyes, fingernails and toenails. A swirling geyser of energy burst forth from within him, seemingly multiplying the AP already loaded into his prepped fist.
In a single punch that felt surreal on account of its speed and power, Ross struck the hybrid boss with enough force to shatter all of the chitin on its belly, then felt its spine fold in half at the point of contact. As he followed through on the attack, almost of his body’s own accord, he felt a massive gust of wind rebound from the monstrous creature. It was launched directly into a nearby tree before exploding like a bug against a windshield, green sludge for guts and all. Everest screamed in wild excitement, reminding Ross of Pa Olsen whenever his sports team won. Everest's hands were thrown in the air as he grinned maniacally, whooping and hollering. Out of the corner of Ross's eye, he noticed all of the boss's remains dissolve much like the kanpodomelis's corpse did - now he could see it shatter, almost like a hard-light projection being broken apart.
“Kid, that was incredible!” Everest gushed, childlike wonder plastered on his unmoving smile. “You can’t usually get that kind of force behind a blow without being at least level 70 or so!”
Ross simply gave him a death glare, hunger bar at a measly 2%, clothes a bloody mess and face spattered in his own blood.
“Thanks.” He replied through gritted teeth. Any serotonin that would pump into his brain as a result of winning was quickly dissolved as his gut felt like it was eating itself.
Everest just gave him a thumbs up before pulling a few sandwiches out of his inventory, seemingly enjoying the betrayed look that Ross gave him.
“You had those the whole time!?” Ross said.
“Sure did.” Everest replied.
“So where were they when I was eating old kanpodomelis meat, back at the boss corpse?” Ross asked.
“In my inventory.” Everest shrugged. “You never asked.”
Ross glared at Everest before snatching a sandwich out of his mentor’s hand.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For the rest of the day, this pattern continued. Everest fetched another Boss monster, watching Ross fight it and offering new ability combinations. Ross would, in turn, take the time to achieve each combo at least once, and he continued to build his stores of AP. As he did, streaks of his hair began to glow a familiar violet and orange, something which Everest took note of as ‘interesting’. His protege had managed to get his AP to over 500,000 over the rest of the day, and based on the horridly glitchy system Ross was dealing with, Everest was sure it would show itself as a boon or a bane soon enough. After each boss was defeated, they’d sit and eat some more. After the first two, Everest didn’t have much - never really eating more than a few hunks of bread and cheese here, maybe some fruit there - but the same couldn’t be said for Ross. He’d eat anything Everest put in front of him, as long as it looked and smelled like food. After the sixth boss, his mentor had run entirely out of fresh ingredients and the Terraegnus equivalent of gas station sandwiches, which led to far less savory adventurer rations. Everest, for his part, gave Ross a mildly comprehensive evaluation of his performance against each boss after the first.
Not a single one of his analyses was positive.
After the tenth boss, the pair sat themselves next to the campfire that Ross had prepared by himself, though his mentor did have to reinforce the rickety structure of it a few separate times. They ate rations of jerky and hardtack with an odd liquid Everest called “Everflow”. From the look, taste and effect, the best thing Ross could equate it to was supercharged gatorade. Except it actually hydrated you, too. He chugged down a third bottle’s worth of the beverage as he devoured the hardtack, forgetting to breathe for a moment.
“Well, kid-” Everest began.
“Can I just-” Ross interrupted, before pausing, coughing, and swallowing hard. “There. Can I just have this moment? I beat a bunch of bosses today and I don’t need your snark about how much I need to improve. I know it’ll take awhile, and I know I’m inefficient.”
Everest shrugged and smirked. “Guess you don’t wanna hear the good then, kid.” He took a massive bite out of his hardtack with a loud crunch that hurt Ross’s teeth to hear.
“Wait what.” Ross said.
“Hey, I only tell my students the positives at the end of the day, when they gain their rewards and such from the system. If I did it while they went, they’d be more inclined to focus on the positive. For example, if I told you that your aim with Overwhelming Reversal was getting exponentially better, you’d get smug and overconfident. You’d stop practicing it.”
“You said it was the worst performance you’ve ever seen!” Ross shot back.
“Yes, performance referring to the punch itself. Not its accuracy.”
Everest pulled out a flask that Ross was ninety percent sure had some form of moonshine in it, taking a quick swig. Everest blinked a couple of times, then shook his head for a brief moment.
“You throw a punch like a flamboyant toddler trying not to chip a nail, but I’ll be damned if they aren’t accurate. You didn’t get some accuracy skill, either.”
He took another bite of hardtack. “That’s impressive, kid.”
Ross simply looked away as he felt his cheeks heat up, and Everest continued.
“On top of that,” he said between swigs of his flask, “It’s actually incredible how quickly you adapted to this world. I assume you played those games on Backwash that have these kinds of stats, huh?”
Ross nodded, looking sheepish. His cheeks grew even warmer, and Everest groaned.
“Kid, just take the damn compliments. I’m a hardass, but I give credit where credit is due.” He shook his head, finishing off the hardtack with one final hit of his beverage. “The last good thing is how you’re finding your limits already. You’re a very careful person, and that’ll keep you alive here. Just don’t be afraid to get creative and mix up abilities, okay, kid?”
After a long moment, Ross nodded.
Everest squinted his eyes before busting out in laughter.
“No fucking way you're crying!”
“I swear, I-” Ross began before Everest interrupted him with an outstretched hand, chuckling.
“Kid, cry all you want. I couldn’t care less. Hell, with all those annoyances you’ve been through…” Everest’s words and laughter petered out at the puffy-eyed, yet withering glare Ross gave him.
“Right… With all the ‘tribulations’ you’ve been through, I don’t blame you for getting emotional at someone telling you you’re doin’ something right. Take it in stride, and lemme know what you get from the system in the morning.” He paused, holding up a finger. After a few moments, he pointed it at Ross, and his alerts simultaneously popped up.
A lot of alerts.
“Sort through ‘em tonight or tomorrow, up to you. We’ll start teaching you how to punch tomorrow, kid. And do me two small favors?”
Ross looked up, raising an eyebrow.
“Stop being a prick for your situation. It’s unfair, it sucks, I get it. Let it go and move on!” Everest’s face betrayed mild concern. “I’ve never seen a motherfucker hold onto something with such fervor before. It’s unbecoming. It was a freak accident, and you’re here now. You can’t go back to Backwash or you’re dead dead. You gotta be at least level 100 to do that.” Everest sighed wearily. “Just… accept it and let it go. For both of us.”
Ross sat for a long moment, unmoving. Finally, he let go of the breath he didn’t know he was holding before responding. “The other thing?”
“Be sure to get some rest tonight, even if you do decide to delve into those alerts. Gods only know you could use some beauty sleep.”
At this, Ross actually felt himself smirk.
“Why should I? You don’t follow your own advice.”
The two broke out into quick bouts of laughter before Everest got up to check the perimeter of their camp one last time. With a shake of his head and a growing feeling of guilt, Ross trudged through the alerts before him.