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Alpha Desert Urchin - (2)
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Gray Wastewolf - (3)
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Rusted Shank Stomper - (2)
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Daniel read the tags on the strongest creatures chasing Tlara and frowned. In addition to there being two level 3s in the crowd of around thirty monsters, the variants listed weren’t along the standard progression track for those monsters. If the Collapse was unlocking all of the possible variants Hunter’s awakening had implied existed, it was going to make the escalating threat even worse for the people of the Octyrrum due to the variety. Also, while he wasn’t an expert, he’d never heard anyone mention the wastewolf monster. Were entirely new species spawning?
“Horde, incoming,” he called out to the others. “Looks like a mix of level 1s and 2s with a couple of 3s.”
“Oh, gods!” Silora cried out, hiding behind Rait in the wrong direction. The two of them were the most afraid, while everyone else tensed.
“How far, Guy?”
“Kilometer and closing. There’s something else. I think Tlara’s being chased by them, either her or a monster she’s piloting.”
“She’s alive!?” Willow exclaimed, making for the dune Daniel was standing on. He honestly hadn’t thought much about the Beastmaster since coming to Aughal after she disappeared from his life, only considering her as he listed who he still knew in the region. If Willow weren’t here he’d just save her and point her in the direction of the city, or take her as far as Threst’s border if he was in a good mood.
“Yeah. We’ll have to rescue her monster. It’s that spider thing she calls Spinner.”
Willow gasped. “They’re both alive!”
“Seems like it.” If she’s so worked up about it, could Spinner be like Hunter? “If we’re going to fight this, I’m going to need to-“
“Let out your wild side? No worries Guy, just try not to be a jerk this time.” Thomas reluctantly accepted a bow from Khare as he yet again broke from his preference for pacifism. “Otherwise I’m going to have to find some extra water to spray you with.”
“How do you know so much about cats?”
“Family had some pets growing up.” Thomas’ joking mood darkened and his light grip on the bow became firm. “Alright, Guy. I’m good to kill some stuff today.”
“It’s a good thing Beast Mode gives me melee powers,” Daniel commented, putting off the transformation for at least a few more sentences. “The rest of you are archers. Khare, you’re good in a melee to some degree, but maybe not with all those things coming at us. I’ll have to draw their attention so there’s no one to bail you out. Let’s give those three at least something to defend themselves with.”
“What?” Silora looked aghast as Khare offered her one of their remaining heliorite daggers. “I can’t… oh, this is quite nice.”
“Silora, would you rather have just your hands if a monster gets to us?” Rait asked tensely.
“I’d rather have you stand in front of me.”
“If I find the man who told me working for a Fate would be a cakewalk…” Rait muttered, trailing off as he also accepted a dagger.
Daniel checked the auras again and saw the horde would reach Spinner before Spinner reached them. “I’m going to have to go out there. Khiat, you might be able to hit them from here once you see them. I’ll draw them close enough and then really engage. At least, that’s what I’m planning now.” He used his only hand to pick a blast marble out of his bag of holding, hoping his bestial self would at least remember he had these. “Everyone ready?”
Seeing nods, Daniel closed his eyes and activated his ability. There was a shift in his mind, and then…
Daniel opened his eyes and tilted his head upwards, basking in the warmth of the sun. He spared a moment to take off his shoes, which his feet still fit in tightly after the addition of fur and clawed toes. The anxiety and tension had melted away. This was freedom and more, the exhilaration he’d felt while under Murdon’s Tactician buff was back in full force. It was a high, the knowledge of a nearing fight making his eyes dilate and his heart race.
The duel with Gtoll had been thrown, and even if the rush of awakening had colored it, it hadn’t been a real fight. Either the giant had been given secret orders to give up after a certain point should Daniel survive that long, or the dusker had felt he was strong enough no matter what the Tyrant said. It didn’t matter now, he was ready to fight for real.
He scented something odd nearby and his head snapped towards it, Cloak appearing in the sand below him and out of sight of the others. “I’ll try to shield them in the worst case, but I’ll have to unidentify their memories again. It’s better to avoid repeated uses of that kind of magic, especially close together. You understand?”
“Get out of my way,” Daniel growled, annoyed at the interruption more than the offer and implied threat. Cloak vanished and Daniel spared a moment to look behind him. None of them had heard the exchange as he’d expected. Willow’s eyes were fixed on him, clearly having watched the transformation with baited interest. It wasn’t personal, not in that way, but that of an ardent believer seeing proof of their faith. Neither was it the power itself, Tak had one that was similar, but where it had come from that spoke to Willow.
He gave each of them a cat’s grin as his muscles flexed. “Time to hunt.”
…
Daniel raced ahead of the three other active combatants, covering the distance between the approaching monsters and himself far faster than he expected. A few moments after he’d taken off he’d entered some kind of meditative rhythm as he alternated between running and sprinting on all fours depending on the terrain. The underlying structure of his body had slightly changed, even if outwardly he looked humanoid. Moving using all of his limbs didn’t feel completely natural, but he could do it.
While this was happening, he was still perfectly aware of his surroundings. Well, what was in front of him at least. All of his senses were compressed into a cone ahead of him, and while they didn’t improve over their base state, the borrowed Keen Senses power allowed him to keep track of every approaching monster even if he didn’t get the fine details of Identify Creature. The experience in his upgraded body made it clear that Hunter had still pulled his weight. Daniel wasn’t quite beating the original murder cat radar despite being two levels higher than Hunter had been originally.
Stopping on a closer dune, he realized there’d been more than runner’s high to what he’d experienced. Another awakening had already added information to his mind, though he’d only now realized it.
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Longstalker’s Stride (Feature, Dexterity, Domain: Enchantment, Trance, Level: 2):
You possess the Power to enhance long distance movement. While actively using the benefits of this feature, you may enter a light trance while your travel speed improves. Direct combat, complicated tasks, or interrupting travel breaks the trance and removes the benefits of this feature.
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He knew the easy awakenings would come to an end at some point but relished the feeling all the same. The approaching enemies would allow him to get at least one more as well. The giant chimeric spider that was Spinner was scampering across the sand. It was bleeding in places where spines from the rolling balls of flesh had shot into it. A sickly looking pale gray wolf was also hanging onto one leg jaw first. Despite being the strongest monster here, Daniel didn’t get a sense it was that tough and became wary of a trap.
The least fearsome and annoying enemy was the shank stomper variant barely keeping pace with Tlara’s beast. They looked mostly normal but had a red tinge to their arm blades. A distant Earth memory advised Daniel to keep anything metallic he liked away from them. There wasn’t much of that left after all of his heliorite weapons and armor had gone up on the Eye.
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He needed to get the enemy pack off of Spinner. A shot by Khiat winged one of the enemies but didn’t kill the level 2 monster. She was too far away for accurate shots, even with whatever new power hitting Casia with the sun arrow had unlocked. A sly grin formed on Daniel’s altered face and he held out a furred hand as if to accept an award. Now, if only he had something that could affect a lot of enemies at once.
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Grounding Roar (Ability, Charisma, Spell: Sonic, Domain: Transmutation, Cooldown, Level: 2):
You possess the Power to issue forth a Sonic assault on your enemies for a small Mana cost. This ability deals no damage but inhibits the movement speed of affected enemies by a degree scaling with your charisma, and inversely scaling with the enemies’ Wisdom and Level. This ability has a cooldown of ten minutes after being used. This is a Magical Ability that does not function in an area of Magical Suppression.
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There it was. Daniels’ roar kneecapped the level 1s in the throng, while the wastewolves seemed barely affected. Also, the slowdown wasn’t permanent and had a decay to it. It was unfortunate that this ability could only be used every ten minutes as it was just the thing to cut the legs of running prey out from under them. Oh well. He shelved Keen Senses and Flash Jaunt, not needing either. He’d take hits, but his healing would do more than wasting mana on an expensive dodge ability would. Instead, he took Lion Charge back and added Springing Strike, knowing he could combine it with Jump to turn himself into a missile for relatively low mana cost.
Daniel’s grin grew as he eagerly opened his mouth, combining the two abilities and taking to the sky. It was the first time he’d made a committed attack and felt like his body was on autopilot, unable to change course in the air even with the mobility features he still retained from Totem Warrior. He was on the wastewolf clinging to Spinner before he consciously recognized it, tearing off the head from the body with his sharpened claws. He didn’t go for a bite as he was still wary of some hidden trick.
The head of the body remained latched to Spinner like a tick after he passed by, and the smell he got from the neck was indescribable. He was sure Hunter could have put it to more words and silently thanked his friend after the fact for the power as he threw the body at an urchin that was priming itself to fire. The spines hit the flying body as it crashed into it, further impaling the dead monster.
Daniel didn’t hesitate, cutting into the second wastewolf and tearing it in half with a forceful down swipe of his claws. He was again confused by their weakness, the monsters barely putting up any resistance. His instincts didn’t indicate any rot or poison on them that his Regeneration would make more effective against him, and yet neither did they do anything but stare at him with pale eyes as he destroyed them. Eliminating the two wolves took only moments while the general flow of the battle led towards his allies. He put them out of his mind in favor of the enemies still living.
Another prick hit his back as he squared up against the shank stompers that could actually threaten him. His new body was a touch more resistant to damage due to Fusion Aspect, which he’d heightened the moment he’d entered this state. The pain barely reached him as the projectiles from the level 2 creatures penetrated through his fur and a few centimeters under the skin. Each time he struck a monster they were pushed at least most of the way out anyway due to Ferocious Healing, and what was pain to an alpha predator?
The long gash opened in his side toned down his arrogance, just a little. The blade had sailed right through the old leather armor he’d kept around but didn’t hit anything important. Neither did the red blades do anything special, and Daniel guessed these monsters were more a terror to Knights than whatever he was now.
The fire support became far more effective as they got within a hundred meters of Khiat and the rest, though he wasn’t worried by the proximity. By now, he’d torn apart most of the level 2s and just had to deal with the level 1s that had recovered from his roar. Still, if he had to compare himself to the horde faced on the mountain, he’d put the then level 2 Gadriel above him since he’d fought now with the help of his friends and Spinner, who occasionally discharged lightning from its spines while keeping up its flight.
As the fight began to wind down, he knew that his human self would have been decimated trying this. Lack of arm aside, he got too caught up about thinking to take action and couldn’t push through pain or react to the same degree hybrid Daniel could. Part of it was undoubtedly his new archetypes and Mantle of the Hunter, but he liked to think the abject refusal to fail in his mission to save Hunter was playing just as large a role.
At the end of the fight he was panting slightly and found himself licking some blood off his arm. He looked at it thoughtfully and wasn’t disgusted by the act. It felt natural, just like how he was getting used to the slightly loping run on all fours. If there was any downside to all of this it was that his massive advantages from his bond would likely negatively affect his advancement rate, just like the ballista at Roost’s Peak had hobbled the garrison.
“How’d I do?” he asked the rest of his team, already knowing the answer. He’d gone through them all without needing to use Lion Charge, though his fur was standing on end from the built up energy. If he didn’t fight anything soon, it would all bleed off.
“Better than you did against Gtoll,” Thomas said, just before Khiat exploded.
“That was amazing! We didn’t need to do anything.”
“They were weak prey,” he shrugged, still smiling with the compliments. A very faint purr escaped him that he stopped immediately, but the humorous light in Thomas’ eyes told him the Cleric had caught it. Oh well, that was human Daniel’s problem. He didn’t care about the jokes about how awesome he was. “I think I’m stronger than Hunter now.”
“Nah.” Thomas smiled as he discovered he still had ways to get under Daniel’s fur. “So, Tlara’s still kicking. Or at least Spinner is.”
“She’s possessing it,” Daniel replied with a little bit of annoyance in his voice. He turned to the massive beast and regained some of his flighty enthusiasm as he wondered what Tlara must be thinking of him. Wherever she was. “Tlara, you missed quite a day. I guess you’ve been busy too. We’re going to Threst, and you’re lucky your sister’s here or this is all the help you’d get. Where are you hiding?” He stared at Spinner and waited for a response, snarling when none immediately came. “I know you’re in there. Kinda wonder if you and Spinner have something like Hunter and I did. He’s dead, by the way, but I’ll get him back and show you just how wrong you were about him.”
“Clump.” Khare gestured with a vine hand up, and Daniel noticed both that the grisly wastewolf head was still attached to one of the legs, and that there was a mass of webs on top of the beast. Probably something it’d taken as dinner, which might have been the inciting incident behind the monster horde. He hoped the questionably sentient monster hadn’t picked one of the wolves as prey as he did not like the look of the blackened silver flesh when he broke the wastewolf’s head off Spinner.
“You did survive,” Willow said shakily, making her way up the dune while Rait stayed behind to calm a panicked Silora. Had the Fate ever seen a monster up close before? “I was worried, for both of you.” Daniel’s thoughts about the weak Fate were interrupted as he saw Willow lay a hand on the monster with tears in her eyes. “I’m so sorry I brought her to you. There is something special in you, isn’t there? Please forgive me.”
One of the partially humanoid upper arms touched the hand. It was more of an articulated pincer than a hand but that was more than the lower six legs had. His still slightly dilated pupils widened as he read the expression that formed on Willow’s face. He wanted to ask something incredulous but another part of him stopped himself from interrupting the moment and he instead shot Thomas a look before he said something.
“What just happened?” Willow asked, a rapturous glow to her face and voice that her race made only more apparent.
“You’ve bonded with Tlara’s monster.” Daniel almost laughed, imagining what she’d think about that. He wondered if the bond had broken the Beastmaster’s hold over it. “Welcome to the club.”
Willow’s look grew troubled and then disturbed as she better explored the innate senses her bond was giving her. Even if she’d forsworn advancement to level 1 as part of Aughal’s nobility, something that he’d encourage her to change, her seventh sense hadn’t been stunted like his was. She wouldn’t get some Encyclopedia entry, but enough of a sense to use the bond. He didn’t have to wait long before she explained her sudden change in emotion.
“It wasn’t with Spinner. It, it’s with Tlara? Something’s wrong.”
Misery was currently into pairs as another completely unexpected awakening hit Daniel and a new sense gave him a clue as to the wastewolves’ secret weapon.
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Sense Astral (Feature, Wisdom, Domain: Astral, Level: 1):
You possess the Power to better sense Creatures and other Concepts related to the Astral. This feature acts as a unique sense and does not benefit from other powers enhancing general senses unless otherwise stated.
- Level 2 (Automatic): Allows you to sense various kinds of Astral Remnant. Acquiring this power at level 2 has automatically improved it to level 2. No Mana is required to gain this benefit.
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An energy was escaping the remains of the wastewolf’s head, traveling back to the general area where he’d killed the level 3 monsters. One was already standing back up as their bodies reformed and the faint, noxious smell from them intensified. His instincts and his new senses told him everything he needed to know. These monsters couldn’t be killed, and they got stronger every time they died. With a diva of a Fate in tow, there was no way his group could outrun them.