Daniel shook himself out of the memories as they ended at another blank point. The unidentification affecting him did not yield entirely, only revealing a new section he had leveraged up with the sight of his face changing. Relieving the memories hadn’t been as long as it had taken to make them, but the process had had a significant effect on Daniel. It wasn’t the revelations that made his breathing ragged and fast, it was himself.
The feeling of helplessness the memories invoked echoed the defiance he’d channeled into his oath bond. No, it didn’t echo it, this was where the seed had been planted. Hammer’s complete disregard for his own will and, worse, his meekness in the face of it directly clashed with his current personality. His oath. It was the same feeling he got whenever he thought of all the times he’d been awkward or unsure in conversations magnified into an experience so intense, he felt another power awaken within him.
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Defiant Rage (Feature, Charisma, Domain: Enchantment, Rage, Level: 2):
You possess the Power to enter a rage, empowering Attributes: Physical at the cost of Attributes: Mental. This effect scales with your receptiveness to the effect. All Attributes receive an additional bonus when there is a nearby Aggressor of a higher Level than you. This is a Magical Effect that does not function in an area of Magical Suppression.
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His mind clouded as the rage took effect. The detection range of Keen Sense dropped dramatically as his self-control slackened. The fury had flared out of nowhere and it was impossible to suppress. His only option was to direct it. “Daniel, what are you doing?” Thomas yelled after him, though the Cleric didn’t follow. The hint of fear in the voice suggested his current state was visible to the others.
Daniel forced the words out, the sense of responsibility he had for his friends giving him enough to stop from just charging off. “Going to kill something. Stay here.”
“Wait!” The world sharpened as Daniel activated Longstalker’s Stride. The trance was different while he was consumed by fury. He could feel the land speeding by, and yet he wasn’t moving fast enough. No one else in his group could have hoped to catch up as the enhanced physical attributes and single-minded focus almost gave him enough momentum to leap from one dune to another.
His target was the only level 3 in the immediate area, which had been close to his detection limit before the rage kicked in. Everything else was weak enough that it wouldn’t threaten his friends, leaving him free to vent his anger and denial of ever being as powerless as the memories had suggested. In what felt like both minutes and hours, Daniel found his quarry and combined both Jump and Springing Strike as he launched into the air.
The monster sensed him coming but even at a higher level it struggled to defend itself in its surprise. Daniel landed on its somewhat broad head and dug his teeth and the claws of all four limbs into the creature. The rampant desire to tear this thing into pieces that very moment was denied by reality as all he accomplished with his rush attack was taking gouges out of the neck and upper back.
He Jumped off just before something would have collided with him. The promised overall improvements from fighting an enemy had come, but the mental attribute enhancement was as focused as his mind was during his movement trance as it primarily boosted his killing instincts. It also made him realize what he’d gotten himself into. Any concern that Fearless had been altering his subconscious was dimly pushed aside as Daniel caught up to what he was doing. Immunity to fear hadn’t made him reckless, but this rage power did.
The level 3 opponent was not alone. A cluster of ten shank stompers was around it, the different varieties unlocked by the Collapse evident. Only three were the normal alpha, with the rust variant taking up half of their number. Another was slightly smaller but had a green fluid slowly dripping from the blades that Daniel’s nose indicated as something other than poison. The final one had four arms, though each blade was smaller and more awkwardly positioned.
Their leader took the most divergent course from normal shank stomper evolution. Daniel hadn’t seen a veteran variant before but knew this couldn’t be it. The joints of its primary arms appeared reversed, pointing its blade arms down to stab into the sand. These were four times as large as the standard monster and were used more to propel the beast than scythe out.
The hulk, as Daniel quickly termed it as he sized his opponent up, bellowed from the mouth that could fit one of its smaller kin as it flared out eight smaller blade arms along its torso. By the placement of its limbs and the way it moved, it seemed to run down and spear prey with its primary arms before dragging them in to be eviscerated by the others. This wasn’t a fake level 3 opponent whose main power was in self-resurrection, this was a true threat.
He wouldn’t run, not when his future and his friends were counting on him. Even more, this was the perfect opportunity to let out the anger in him. Looking at the stronger opponent Daniel felt an echo of Hammer in his memories and the urge to kill rose. As the pure ferocity eclipsed reason, he barely acknowledged another awakening.
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Mark Prey (Ability, Intelligence, Spell, Domain: Destruction, Mark, Level: 1):
You possess the Power to mark a creature for the hunt through the use of a modest amount of Mana. All powers related to Archetype: Hunt will function to greater effect while you are actively engaged with your prey. You can only have one mark from this ability active at a time. A Creature affected by this ability will know your intent on sight. This is a Magical Ability that does not function in an area of Magical Suppression.
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His instincts were further honed as he placed his mark on the hulk, and while the cumulative physical bonuses didn’t push him to absurd limits like Gadriel’s Momentous Strikes, he was able to lean out of the way to avoid a green blade that suddenly shot towards him. The apparently acidic shank stomper revealed itself to be a ranged variant capable of striking from about ten meters away.
While the level 3 was his focus, even his diminished mind knew he had to take care of the smaller ones first. Fortunately, all but the acidic shank stomper and the slower hulk had rushed out to meet him. They were staying close together in a tight pack, hoping not to get picked off one by one. Foolish.
Daniel dove headlong into the group as his fur began to slightly stand on end. Lion Charge had begun building, and like last time he’d save it for a bigger blast against the hulk. For the prey on his level he lashed out with a Cleave-empowered attack, the anger inside him somehow intensifying with the wild joy doing so gave him. He could have used Claw Strike along with it as a spell/attack combo, but had rejected the transmutative ability thus far like Hunter had. It didn’t feel right, and were he thinking more deeply he may have considered if it would disrupt the enhancements Fusion Aspect gave him.
His right claws cut clean through the neck of his first target as the power extended them. The damage wasn’t too surprising given all the advantages he currently had, from attribute improvements to enchanted claws. The swipe continued with less momentum and only made it halfway through another target, though a spectral attack finished the trajectory. It was similar to Scatter Shot’s effect, though in this case, the echo carried less damage.
The reprisal from the initial hit came before he could Jump away. Daniel hadn’t considered his mana being locked while the echo attack carried on and stumbled for a moment when the ability failed. In the next second he swapped out Springing Strike for Hunter’s Evasiveness, though this wasn’t enough to completely avoid injury with everything coming down on him.
His body took several deep cuts as the massive blades raked across him. He should have either Jumped away or traded for Flash Jaunt, but in his rage Daniel attacked again. Two of the rust stompers died and his wounds twisted together, though the damage wasn’t enough to completely heal him in kind. He might have risked more if it wasn’t for the acidic blade that struck him from behind accompanied with the ground trembling with the hulk’s approach.
The burning in the small of his back could have been ignored, but the sudden trembling and loss of feeling in his legs brought him up and out of his anger enough to retreat with Flash Jaunt. It was expensive, but the damage to his body was such that he couldn’t have Jumped if he wanted to. Acid wasn’t one of the direct counters to regenerative abilities, but the ongoing damage it dealt overcame even his impressive healing speed.
Daniel gasped on the ground as the pain broke through the haze. He wasn’t as weak as his human self, but it was the most intense injury he’d ever taken from an enemy and that counted the arrows that Rogue had hit him with. He might have died if that acidic shank stomper had been level 3, and as it was the attack had penetrated deep into the muscle and had injured his spine. Beast Mode was still on cooldown so there was no chance of swapping to save himself as a last resort.
It pained him to rely on what he’d made with his Artificer class, though Daniel had once again dug himself into a hole by ignoring his rational side. The rage power was still active and he was still committed to the death of the hulk stomper, but the degree of damage had reminded him he wasn’t prepared to give his life to do so. He pulled out one of the original green blast marbles and flinched as he remembered Lion Charge was active, though the electricity coursing across his fur didn’t run into the ammunition. Balefully eyeing the approaching pack, he threw it at the acidic shank stomper’s head.
Even though his rage power enhanced his dexterity, the attack didn’t fly straight. It did impact one of the bone blades of a normal shank stomper, causing cracks with the explosion but not a full delimbing. Daniel hissed in frustration, knowing the ranged powers of his Artificer class could have brought down far more with the wasted ammunition.
He briefly considered chucking the hunk of crystal which had grown more purple over time, but decided on another course as he began to regain control of his legs. The acid could only dissolve so much before it lost its potency and the burns from it weren’t as severe as from fire where Regeneration was concerned. Knowing his best bet for regaining mobility was to deal damage, Daniel grew out a full barrage of feathers on his arms and let them loose.
Quantity of quality worked, to some degree. The hulk’s leather hide ignored the feeble level 1 attack entirely like Gtoll before it, though the majority of the pack took some damage and one that had been hit by the spectral Cleave twice fell over. He felt at his back and hissed again when he prodded the injury, but he’d gotten back in fighting shape. Even better, enough of his mind was on board to prevent another reckless strike into the heart of the enemy. Hunter hadn’t fought like that, not without backup.
Daniel began warily moving around the approaching enemies and threw himself behind a dune to avoid another acid blade. He was beginning to suspect the hulk was enhancing the pack’s coordination as it hadn’t shown any other kind of power yet. It had to have something as monsters without any notable powers just got a huge boost to physique, like the greater skink. The hulk was sturdy, but not something on that level.
Now that he wasn’t blindly rushing in and leaving himself open to the acid, the hulk was keeping its pack closer. Time was on his side as his wounds continued to heal, but he was also leaving his friends exposed out there in his absence. Guilt from his sudden abandonment of them fueled his rage and he almost charged back in, barely holding himself back. Defiant Rage gave him impressive benefits, but it was proving a difficult thing to keep in check.
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When he became confident enough to Jump without being thrown off course by his injured legs, he rocketed toward the last rust shank stomper and dealt it a grievous wound with a passing swipe. Both the hulk and the acidic one tried to hit him during his flight, but he was moving too fast. In the end, they were still monsters with only instinct to guide them. Daniel had turned too far away from his own mind and had almost ended up like the rust stomper, led to his death by his instincts.
In the end, the hulk only protected the acidic stomper by sheltering it under its hunched over frame, leaving the rest of its lesser kin to soak up Daniel’s mana with their deaths. The two alone made for a fearsome combo, enough ranged pressure to keep him on the edge and a tough hide his limited ranged abilities couldn’t crack. Cleave provided an opportunity to at least injure the green monster through its protector, but it would open him up to easy reprisal like the first two times he’d used it.
No, to defeat his prey he’d have to get as brutal as Tak did whenever the Totem Warrior went into his own form of Beast Mode. Shank Stompers as a whole were categorized as beasts, meaning they shared many of the common biological weaknesses of mortals. He’d already done some damage to the nape of the hulk’s neck, and digging in further would open up a path to victory. Once the hulk was down, the acidic shank stomper wouldn’t last seconds.
Daniel looked at the handful of blast marbles remaining in his bag and palmed them all. He had thought about saving one to find out what metal it was made of in case that was a clue for his memories, but right now killing that fucking monster was more important. He Jumped high, not combining it with Springing Strike so he could control his movement. The hulk lifted its huge blade arms to catch him, but he used Graceful Fall to reduce his fall speed and end up above where it had expected him.
The impromptu airstrike caused another shriek of pain as Daniel threw the marbles from a range his poor aim couldn’t miss from. It wasn’t a finishing blow but it was good enough. He Jumped back immediately after landing, catching the hulk in its moment of weakness. He used Imbue Astral along with Cleave in the hopes it would further improve his damage, but it didn’t seem to have the effect he was looking for.
Abandoning powers altogether and falling into his rage, Daniel just tore further and further into the monster until he broke through the shattered base of the monster’s skull. As he unleashed the built up Lion Charge into it, he realized the hulk was using a power of its own. The lesser arm blades on its side rotated in their joints and extended outwards suddenly, coming down at all points across its back. He felt a very faint fluctuation in the mana of the monster due to his proximity, though it was nothing like a mana burst a level 4 or higher creature would produce.
The trade did kill the hulk, but four of the arms had an angle on Daniel and the attack had gone out before his. He managed to turn in time to avoid the upper two from biting too deeply into his chest, but the lower two cut most of the way through his abdomen as a feeling beyond pain replaced the draining rage.
His one consolation was the squelching sound as the collapsing hulk killed the acidic shank stomper it had been protecting, though he was still most of the way to being cut in half. There was no feeling at all in his legs as he fell with the monster, and his general perception of the world began to fade with blood loss.
A dull terror filled him as he realized he was dying, and there was still half an hour to go until Beast Mode was active. Would he revert to his human form on death and permanently lose this body, or was true death waiting for him? He’d been so stupid, coming here alone. Khiat, the sniper on the team, could have picked off the acidic shank stomper while it was under the hulk. Sobered by his wounds, he realized he’d kept making the same mistakes ever since coming back from wherever Hammer had taken him.
Lying with the remains of his kills, he couldn’t help but despair. There’d always been a chance to learn from his mistakes, but now there wouldn’t be one. With him, any hope of finding his wayward friends or getting Hunter back would…
Would…
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Unyielding Tenacity (Feature, Endurance, Domain: Restoration, Level: 2):
You possess the Power to resist death. Upon taking a fatal injury, you have a chance of surviving so long as your body is at least partially intact. This effect scales with Attribute: Luck. If this power is required to ensure your survival from significant injuries, your natural Healing rate will be severely penalized and this effect will not trigger again until you have fully recovered. This is a Magical Effect that will not trigger in an area of Magical Suppression, but once it has all effects if this ability will persist until it is reset regardless of any attempts to suppress it.
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The awakening was more than metaphorical as Daniel regained his senses. How he’d survived he had no idea, even with the power now in his head. He could see places where he’d been disemboweled, and his spine had to have been fully severed in at least one place. Given how long it had taken Hunter to recover from the lightning bolts exploding next to him, he could be laid up for at least a month. Plenty of time to learn from his mistakes.
“How are you still alive?” the voice of Cloak asked. Daniel tried to respond but his lungs wouldn’t work. Thankfully Beast Mode was off cooldown and a tremendous relief flooded him as he swapped to his mostly whole human body.
“I fucked up,” he replied when he was able to, seeing the robed god appear. “My friends, are they alright?”
“I don’t know, I ran after you as soon as you fell to your rage power. Tricky things. People can get like that when they first awaken them. It’s always something we considered restricting, but the effects on expansion rate…” Cloak shook his head. “How far did you see?”
“That’s what you’re asking me about!?” Daniel stood uneasily and tried not to look at what was under him. He had no desire to harvest those bodies even if the level 3 bone would be useful.
“It’s important. Enough that I would sacrifice this region to ensure you lived, though it seems you’re more than able to see to your own health.”
“Because I have a Spoke?” That revelation had been kicking around in the back of his head, suppressed by the fury that had overcome him. “I saw up to the point that I was about to leave my room. Hunter’s body was there but my Foci weren’t.” He didn’t ask anything about that, knowing the knowledge would be taken from him as soon as Cloak told him.
“Hmm. In all my time I’ve never seen one like you. It’s more apt to say you’re a Spoke and a person combined.”
“Just like that Dual Soul thing then.” Daniel sighed and gave an abbreviated version of that part of his history, seeing a glint of understanding light in Cloak’s eyes.
“He really went all the way. Full commitment to his plan, false reincarnation and everything. He must have timed it at the exact moment you crossed over,” he murmured, and again Daniel didn’t ask. “Yes. In your case the Spoke in you functions independently, though you share some benefits as it is melded into your soul. There are some ways you can access it, though the direct route is blocked in your mana structure. Unfortunately several of my contemporaries referred to the other ways you can influence it and you haven’t met them yet, so to speak.”
“Alright,” Daniel sighed and looked around. He had no idea where his friends were, but thankfully his map could lead him back to the road they were on. “Question for the road. How can Khare get a real voice? Actually, why can’t gestalt talk normally?”
“That’s what you’re asking me about?” Cloak repeated Daniel’s earlier question, though with a more formal affectation. “You recovered memories from your meeting with a god and you ask about a gestalt?”
“I just abandoned my friends and if it weren’t for a hidden power that would have been the last time they saw me. This conversation isn’t about me.”
“Alright. I suppose there’s no harm in telling you about the Illustrious since it sounds like you’ve had dealings in the past.”
“I think so. There was this old guy who swapped out one of my powers and gave Hunter a voice.” He still had reservations about that encounter, though it might not matter now with Hunter dead. “They were behind the Grafting right? If he could do that, then you should be able to use god powers for Khare even if it’s just a level 1 illusion.”
Cloak seemed to think on that as they walked, but ultimately shook his head. “There’s no good way to make that work without revealing myself to the gestalt, and even then it would be a hollow thing. Do you know the meaning of the word gestalt?” Daniel nodded his head. “It’s a more fitting name than you know. Gestalt aren’t mortals, not exactly. The other races are, but they’re different. They don’t have a full set of archetypes.”
“What?” Daniel looked to Cloak in shock but the god wasn’t lying. Then again, could he tell?
“They were the first races created during the Illustrious’ experiments. I wasn’t too involved since Hammer and… another god were heading the project.” There was a flicker of true sadness in Cloak’s eyes, like the one before. “It was all a charity case the second was determined to finally crack after genius on a level none of us had seen before manifested among the mortals. It was a good first step, but the initial Grafted races had no proper souls and couldn’t contain a full set of archetypes.” The god scratched his head at Daniel’s incredulous look and almost blithely said, “They ironed that out with the later races. There was discussion on allowing them to die out but in the end none of us were that cruel. To put it bluntly they are a step between mortals and monsters, not fully on either side.”
“But Hunter was a monster that became a person.”
“Yes, but something different happened with your ringcat.” Daniel’s breath caught as it became clear Cloak knew what had happened to make Hunter a real boy, so to speak. What’s more, Cloak didn’t hold this knowledge back. “Since it might be relevant with the Astral domain returning, you should know that not every soul in this world is intact. For one reason or another it can splinter or, far worse, fully break into remnants. If it survives, it is incomplete and referred to as a ‘spirit’, at least in the language of the Octyrrum. Spirits can’t invest themselves in a mortal as souls do, but-“
“They can in monsters!” Daniel exclaimed, coming to a sudden stop. “Not every monster, but some of them. Spiritualists!”
“Yes, and if they die, they are unable to pass on and instead are reborn into a different monster. Like bonds, that truth cuts deeper than the Octyrrum, hampering both Torch and I’s ability to fully suppress it. We will need to discuss the Spiritualists later, but with your defeat of their local forces there is time to later. Your monster friend had a partial soul, or spirit. You managed to awaken a full set of archetypes in it and fully restore his soul. This will be harder in a gestalt due as the deep bond they share with their kin serves as the patch for theirs, effectively making a soul when what they have wouldn’t otherwise count as one. They aren’t missing something you can cleanly give them.”
“But it’s possible?” Daniel asked with some hope that his bond with Khare could help overcome this.
“It’s been done before. There’s an air gestalt in the region you’re heading to that’s managed it with the aid of a bond.”
Daniel nodded, feeling slightly better about both himself and Cloak now that a path had been revealed to help Khare. “Any advice?”
“Improve your bond. You’ll need to at least overcome the strength of the gestalt’s inborn one. But as always it’s easier to say than do. Your status doesn’t give you any advantages there because bonds are beyond the Octyrrum. Outcast is an interesting relationship to form one off of, by the way, but I can see that connection.”
“Huh.” Daniel had honestly thought almost dying and finding out he was connected to a Spoke were the biggest developments he could make today, but discovering there actually were monsters running around with soul fragments shook him. Hunter had really been special, but not unique or fated to him. It had just been some lucky random encounter, and if it had been a normal ringcat they’d have never formed a bond. “Hey, if monsters find us again, can you hide the group like you do yourself?”
“If they aren’t more powerful than the ones you just killed, yes,” Cloak replied unevenly, “But your friends will notice being ignored.”
“I’ll tell them I awakened a stealth power with the advancement I got from that hunt,” Daniel said, seeing that his struggles had at least netted him two more potential. “And I’ll only need to do that if it comes up. If we’re lucky, it won’t.”
“Reasonable. I suppose it’s a good thing you’ll be stuck in this form for now.”
“Yeah.” Daniel tapped his phone and committed both points to wisdom, hoping that when he eventually recovered, that would help him resist falling to the rage. He smiled despite it all, glad to be alive, before his thoughts turned to the hell Thomas would give him. “I guess cat-Daniel gets to avoid all the responsibility. That’s so like him.”
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Your Wisdom is now 24! You have gained Ability: Identify Item.
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Identify Item (Ability, Wisdom, Spell, Domain: Knowledge, Level: 2)
You possess the Power to identify any Item at or below your Level. This power only works on crafted items and does not reveal the identity or property of unworked materials. Enhancements on Forged, Enchanted, Brewed, or Crafted items will be revealed if the item is at least one level lower than you, or if these properties are already known to you. This is a Magical Ability that does not work in an area of Magical Suppression.
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