Zalia walked over to Boreal as the few people near the gates of the city made room for the six giant cats. She gave Boreal a hug, sinking her face into the clean, soft fur of her friend.
Boreal (Bonded Ally) - Gold rank.
“Oh, Boreal! You finally reached Gold!”
Boreal purred, the deep vibration pulsing through Zalia’s chest.
“Of course, I don’t advance slowly like some of us.”
Zalia pulled away, giving Boreal a long-suffering look.
“Well, unlike you, I have to advance two classes and a unity class instead of just one set of abilities, so excuse me for taking a little bit longer.”
Boreal bumped her shoulder into Zalia, nearly sending her stumbling with her weight, before padding past to greet Ember as well. Boreal’s five children, Frost, Rush, Breeze, Prance and Pounce, now almost as big as Boreal was, all came forward to say hello to Zalia and she found herself drowning in a puddle of cat. Each of them were on the cusp of reaching Silver rank through what Zalia knew to be Boreal’s close guidance.
“You’ve all grown quite a bit,” Zalia managed to get out between mouthfuls of fur.
Pounce was the only one of the five to be waiting patiently, sitting aside as the others bumped into Zalia. She meowed quietly in greeting, then walked off towards the house.
Zalia eventually extricated herself from the cats by depositing them on Ember and walked with Boreal towards the house as well.
“So, what have you been up to?”
Boreal, who was now amongst some of the most powerful people in Endaria, moved lithely with the dexterity of a Gold ranker, each effortless step perfect in their efficiency.
“Violence, mostly.”
Zalia rolled her eyes, though she hadn’t really expected otherwise.
“So, are you going to share your new abilities with me?”
She already knew what Boreal’s passive Feline Eyes did, as it was the passive that was shared with Zalia through their ally bond.
Passive 2 - Feline Eyes - passive - body enhancement
Tin - the sharpness of your vision is dramatically increased.
Iron - when activated, you may see heat in addition to your normal vision.
Bronze - you are now able to see vibrations in the air and ground around you to a much more significant degree.
Silver - Your gaze inflicts terror on those it is focused on. You can see invisible creatures.
Gold - When focusing, you are able to see in the astral. The terror effects of the Silver rank effect of this ability are extended to any type of perception you have, instead of just your normal gaze.
It had been an integral part of Zalia’s own ability to perceive all manner of enemies, especially the Astar. The new Gold rank effect wasn’t super useful to Zalia as she already had a method of seeing into the astral and inflicting terror wasn’t really her thing, but Boreal’s.
Boreal complied with Zalia’s request, sending a mental description of one of her more recently upgraded abilities.
Blending Shadows becomes Assault Through The Shadow
Active 2 - Assault Through The Shadow - spell - channelled - body enhancement
Tin - You are able to blend into shadows, using their darkness to hide yourself. Enemies are more afraid of you when aware of your presence but unable to see you.
Iron - When blended in a shadow you can move directly into a nearby shadow as you move. When doing this you may have a brief illusion of yourself appear in an enemies peripheral sight.
Bronze - While blending into a shadow, you can now manipulate the shadows around you. This enables you to stretch or extend shadows as well as creating shadowy movements that mimic your shape.
Silver - You may extend this ability to hide nearby allies. The shadowy movements that mimic your shape are more defined and can inflict wounds with strength similar to your own.
Gold - Shadows made to mimic your shape are now able to leave the patch of shadow they were created from for a small length of time, able to inflict wounds equal to your own strength.
It was a strong ability that wasn’t dissimilar, Zalia recalled, to an ability shared by Hidey, their shade friend. He had once captured them all by the use of vast darkness from which limbs would appear and attack them. As they had been very low rank at the time in comparison to Hidey’s Gold rank, the fight couldn’t even really be called as such.
They arrived back at the house as Zalia read through the next few upgrades that Boreal had received. She sent a telepathic question to Boreal.
“Hey, did you tell your children about Rozestrazix?”
“They met, briefly.”
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Zalia switched back to normal speech, no longer needing to keep Rozestrazix secret from the younger cats.
“Oh, excellent. Have you thought any more about if you are going to take up the job?”
Boreal dipped her head, ears flattening on the back of her head.
“Unsure still. I don’t want to leave you.”
Zalia smiled, a warm feeling in her chest.
“Well, I might have a solution for that.”
She shared the upgrade of Druid’s Grove with Boreal, noting the part where she had three extra Groves to create.
“I was thinking that I could place one in the north, somewhere between Glemp and Zen’s home and Rozestrazix’s mountain. You and the little ones would be able to visit the north anytime you wanted, even stay at the northern grove should you want to. The rest of us will be just one step away through the portal.”
Boreal looked to consider it. Zalia was going to set one up near Zen and Glemp either way, wanting to reduce how long it would take to go visit them.
She checked through another of Boreal’s abilities while she waited for Boreal’s reply.
Active 1 - Cryokinetic Pounce - spell - body enhancement
Tin - When charged, pouncing on something will cause it to be coated with a layer of ice and snow.
Iron - When charged, your pounce will have greatly increased strength and weight behind it.
Bronze - When charged, your pounce will now grant you a body tight magical icy shield that will protect you from one attack, no matter its strength. This can only trigger once every so often.
Silver - The icy shell can now resist two attacks and negates momentum. When landing, the layer of ice and snow created is significantly larger, as well as applying Frostbite
Gold - The shadowy forms of yourself created by Assault Through The Shadow are now able to use Cryokinetic Pounce, gaining all effects of the ability. The icy shell created by this ability can negate three attacks and eliminate all afflictions that would have been inflicted by them.
Just as Zalia’s abilities had been doing ever since she had gained magic, Boreal’s abilities were slowly developing to intermingle their effects. Nateysta had described the process as the slow advancement to Ascendent rank, with all your powers slowly combining until you had what was essentially one, big, chunk of power rather than multiple separate, but synergistic, abilities.
“That sounds like a good idea,” Boreal finally said.
Zalia nodded her agreement, mentally ticking off one of the available Groves. She would save one for the eventual push into Cormaine as well, leaving only one.
A few places came to mind, somewhere near the Astar nation or perhaps even farther north if Ember agreed to go check out whatever it was that Rozestrazix defended against. Near to the capital was also an alright place, though Nature’s Reclaim was already relatively close.
Where it ended up could wait for later however, she would need to make a trip north first.
Ember finally found her way into the house followed by four of Boreal’s children. Prance had already come in and found herself a comfortable spot. Watching the many cats, Zalia wondered if Boreal had any siblings out there somewhere.
“I really want to see you in action, Boreal.”
She was admiring the remaining abilities, their power in line with what she had come to expect from Gold rank. The first time she had seen someone of the same level fight had been Larel as she methodically tore apart a massive stone, metal and lava elemental. That fight was still embedded in Zalia’s memory, the feeling of sheer power coming from both the elemental and Larel beyond anything Zalia had seen up to that point. She was at the same point that Larel had been that day, the peak of Silver with a few abilities already ranked up beyond to Gold.
“When we go back north I can fight something for you?” Boreal suggested.
Zalia nodded.
“Deal.”
Aylie entered the front hall and plopped herself onto Boreal’s side, nearly making her stumble much in the way Boreal had done to Zalia. The lanky girl hadn’t stopped growing in the year since their fight with the Astar had ended and she was now significantly taller than anyone else in the house. Despite how often they fought against others and even the combat training that Zalia often went through with her, Aylie was yet to put on muscle of any kind.
Despite that though, the young Druid’s strength was not to be overlooked. She was very capable of killing you from the soul outwards.
They eventually got everyone shuffled into a room as Zalia altered the house around them to fit the whole family into one space. It had been a while since they’d had everyone together, minus Lumin of course. They hadn’t seen Lumin for quite some time, Nateysta looking after their advancement as an Ascendant with severely reduced power.
Zalia remembered the first incarnation of the starlight wolf and their followers who had sacrificed their power and memories to bring Nateysta from Cormaine and into Endaria, simultaneously saving him and bringing him into the fight against the Monarch.
As they all gathered around, Aylie and Ember at a little table eating breakfast together, Zalia and Boreal lounged on a series of beanbag-esque piles of soft leaves and the five younger cats either playing or curled up with each other, Zalia brought up going north once more.
“Ember and I have been talking about possibly going north past where we have gone before, as there is some kind of threat that the dragon Rozestrazix has been keeping at bay. Not only could it be a good chance at increasing our ranks faster, but I personally want to know what’s out there that we have to be worried about. We aren’t decided on anything yet but I’d like to know if any of you have thoughts about it.”
Boreal’s kids, in a distinctly uncharacteristic manner, stopped playing around to listen as Boreal spoke.
“Good. I agree.”
Not surprised by Boreal’s quick agreement, she turned to Aylie.
“Do we know what kind of threat it is? You haven’t told me much about Rozestrazix but I know enough to understand they’re powerful. Would we stand a chance against whatever it is that’s out there?”
“We don’t, which is why I’m yet to agree,” Ember said, looking at Zalia.
“We won’t ever find out if we don’t go have a look. I’m going to go north to set up a Grove there which should help mitigate any issues with travel at least. Maybe while I’m up there I can go have a look?”
Ember sighed.
“Oh alright but please be careful, and… take Boreal with you please?”
The second part of the sentence was directed more at Boreal than Zalia, who looked more than willing to go along.
Zalia smiled, happy that she’d been able to convince Ember even just a little bit with Boreal’s help. Even though part of her mind was still reeling at the fact that she wouldn’t age any longer, Zalia was beyond excited to finally reach Gold rank. There was a feeling of control over her future that increased each time she ranked up and Gold was what she considered to be the point at which she would truly be strong. It was the point where almost everything, in Endaria at least, would be below her rank.
Still grinning to herself, Zalia snuggled deeper into Boreal’s fur as she made plans for the upcoming journey. She would finally get a chance to explore further outside of Endaria.