Victor's confidence drained out of him like water through a sieve. The right side of his face is covered in Eli’s blood splatter. His body just launched away from the stranger and burst like a cask of ale flung at the ground. No this is too much. He ran.

  “No don’t run. Son of a bitch, must be the new titles effects.” Deacon said as Elle and Armand ran up from behind him.

  “Are we giving chase? We can’t just let him go.” Elle said.

  “Hang on. I want to try a new ability I got from that fight back in Everhart. I know you could track him easily, just give me a second.” Deacon replied while putting his hands on one of the dead bandits. He activated SAYance. A very solid, albeit green tinged, version of the bandit he was touching stood up out of its own body. It tilted its head looking around in confusion.

  “What happened?” said the bandit.

  “You lost, now tell us where you keep all things you’ve been stealing from people.” Deacon commanded.

  “Who are you talking to?” Elle said.

  “Oh, you can’t see him, that’s right. I wonder if I push my aura around him if he’ll be visible to you.” With that stray thought his aura shifted to occupy the space the bandits soul now stood. There were two gasps behind Deacon that all but told him it worked.

  “It’s his ghost!” Armand said.

  “Yes, my new ability allows me to speak with souls. I now have an aura power as well. It was just a hunch that I could combine them. Looks like I was right.” Deacon said.

  “Well, what did he say?” Elle asked.

  “I was so caught up in explaining it to you I wasn’t paying attention.” Deacon relayed, “Yes you lost, where are you keeping all the loot?”

  “We found a dilapidated hut about 2 hours west of here. The ten of us called it our home base. Not too far from the road but far enough people wouldn’t stumble across it. Where is Victor?” the bandit asked.

  “If you mean the guy with jewel encrusted dagger, he ran off during the fight.” Deacon said. His words resonated with the newly dead spirit. It started to flicker from green to white. Deacon had no idea what that meant but figured it wasn’t good.

  “He left us without helping?!” shrieked the bandits soul.

  “Ok, that is probably enough.” Deacon said as he launched his hand into the soul and took a deep breath. The spirit just started draining away from a solid looking sketch outline into energy that seeped into Deacons body. That cool energetic feeling was back and Deacon didn’t realize how much he missed it. Looking around, he focused on his breathing and drew the two other souls into his being.

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  “What was that?!” Elle said.

  “What?” Deacon replied.

  “I just watched you eat that mans soul.” Elle responded.

  “Oh, that’s just my technique. It powers all my abilities.” Deacon said.

  “Wait you don’t use your mana? That blue bar under your health bar on your slate.” Elle asked.

  Deacon checked his slate. He didn’t appear to have a blue bar. Just his health bar and a green soul energy bar. It never occurred to him that people would have a different indicator. Now that he thought about it, traditionally in the games he played back home, there was health and mana bars. Guess it never occurred to him to question it.

  “I don’t have one. Just my soul energy bar and its green.” Deacon said.

  “You also said you have an aura now. That’s a potent ability if used correctly. We have elders in my home that can manipulate their auras in interesting ways. You may want to visit someday, gain some insight.” Elle said.

  “We can talk about how bizarre Deacon is later. If I’m not mistaken that ghost said there were ten of them. That means he’s not just running away but getting reinforcements. Let’s go. TY! Where are you?” Armand yelled.

  “Be right there.” Typhus said as he fell out of a tree with another dead bandit.

  “I need you to scout west. We will be tracking the fleeing bandit, but he’s headed to reinforcements. Should be another six of them including the one that’s running. They are holed up in a shack about 2 hours out.” Armand summed up for Typhus.

  “How do you know all that?” Typhus asked as he hustled up to the team from the trees.

  “Thanks to our young Nether Monk, I think we have a new way of gathering intel.” Armand said.

  “Why the bags of rocks?” Typhus asked as he reclaimed his traveling bag.

  “Needed to look like a juicy target.” Deacon said.

  “We could have just filled them with sticks. Would have been lighter.” Typhus replied.

  “You didn’t say anything about that when I was picking up all the rocks.” Deacon said with an exasperated look on his face.

  “How am I supposed to know what a crazy person is thinking?” Typhus said.

  “Let’s get going. Where is all this ice coming from? It’s a warm day.” Armand asked.

  “Whoops. Forgot to turn off my aura.” Deacon said.

  “He’s got a five-minute head start on us and we want to arrive simultaneously to prevent a coordinated response.” Armand ordered.

  Typhus took off into the woods ahead of the party as Elle began tracking the runner. Deacon was delighted to see several notifications waiting for him from his slate.

Skill level up- Pressure Palm has reached level two. You can now pinpoint and paralyze a limb of your choosing while in combat. This effect lasts for one minute unless the target has some physical resistance.

You have discovered an auric effect- By focusing your aura you can reveal things hidden from standard visual spectrums. This effect has many uses both known and unknown.

  Happy with his current gains, Deacon decides he should switch his focus from needing to train to needing to fight. He’s seen more growth from fighting than any other method. Speaking to Armand about it while they travel, he listed out the pros and cons. In summary, Armand said high risk situations whether you are fighting or not, usually return the most gains. That is why so many join a guild. To increase their personal power without being all alone in the wilderness. That conversation cemented Deacon's thoughts.