[NIERBURG IS ONE DAY’S TRAVEL AT OUR CURRENT PACE.] The unprompted note from C.H.A.D.D. was a welcome reminder of how far they’d come, and that this leg of their journey was coming to a close. Looking at the group, Kyle felt a mix of emotions. Their time traveling together had forged a bond, and other than the occasional group of beetles their travels had been relatively uneventful. On one hand, Kyle was grateful for a place of safety for their group, especially the little ones. Their pace had been significantly slowed because of the children, and Kyle found himself spending a good chunk of each day providing healing and care. The last thing he would want would be for them to have long-term repercussions as a result of being exposed to this rogue mana, and the sooner they got to safety the better. On the other side, Kyle also recognized that his time with the group was likely coming to an abrupt end.
He held little hope that he would be allowed to resume his duties with Central Health, and that hope dwindled each day as his levels kept growing. After the evening’s round of HEAL skills for the survivors, he felt the now familiar surge, an indicator that his level had grown yet again. This would put him at Level 48, and among the upper echelons of power within the old Central Authority. Ordinarily not a problem – except for his wanton investment in both Skills and Attributes entirely apart from what the Central Authority would sanction. He realized with a pang of guilt that he’d leaned into it far more than he had to, investing more and more of his free points into Vitality and Endurance, leaving them just slightly behind Perception and Intelligence. He found a quiet corner to enter meditation and reflect on the Attributes present in his center.
KYLE MAYHEW. ARTHRO-HUMAN CHIMERA, HEALER. LEVEL 48
VITALITY: 174
ENDURANCE: 174
STRENGTH: 56
DEXTERITY: 116
WILLPOWER: 133
INTELLIGENCE: 176
PERCEPTION: 175
FREE ATTRIBUTES: 4
Without even pausing to think, he allocated the motes of light to his Perception attribute, bringing him up to 179. He would start focusing on shoring up Willpower next, but the Perception gains and investment had proven instrumental in Kyle’s combat training, and he wanted to make sure that he was in a good position to continue on his own if need be. That was also why he’d continued his investment in his physical survivability. Talking with Garth, the best bet either of them had was that he’d be reassigned to become a field medic where he’d see frontline action on a daily basis. A far cry from the hospital environment he’d trained for. He’d be trading in hours in the lab for hours on the road, his comfortable flat near the town center for a bedroll under the stars. It wasn’t an altogether unpleasant idea, but it was a lot to take in. No matter how things went with rebuilding, his life wouldn’t look the same again. I wonder if this is what it was like for you, Grandpa. Clark didn’t often speak about his life before the Earth’s awakening, and certainly hadn’t detailed the emotional rollercoaster of knowing his entire way of life was gone, never to return. In a weird way, thinking about his grandfather’s struggles made him feel more at ease in the current circumstances. Just like humanity endured and adapted after the Awakening, he would figure out how to endure whatever would come next.
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Exiting meditation, Kyle stood and stretched. It was still early in the evening, and while they weren’t likely to start another full sparring session this evening, there was still more than enough time to review some of his fights with Garth and refine his footwork. Just as he was turning to C.H.A.D.D. to ask him to give the playback, the drone shot up into the sky a good fifteen meters, before descending as quickly as it rose. [DR. MAYHEW, THERE IS A GROUP OF TWELVE UNAWAKENED HUMANS UNDER ATTACK APPROXIMATELY ONE KILOMETER AWAY TO THE SOUTHEAST, PAST A THICKER AREA OF FOREST. PER PREVIOUS DIRECTIVE YOU ASKED TO BE INFORMED ALTHOUGH - ] Not waiting for C.H.A.D.D. to go off on one of his diatribes, he called to Garth. “Other survivors! Under attack by beetles, only a kilometer away. Let’s go!” Without a word Garth sprung to his feet, grabbed his well-worn sword, and fell in alongside Kyle as they sped in the direction C.H.A.D.D. indicated. The drone followed, but with all the progress Kyle had made over the last couple months the little guy could no longer keep pace. In less than a minute they’d covered the distance, the cries of combat clear in the air.
Kyle had expected a familiar scene, a swarm of beetles accosting a group of travel-weary refugees on their way to Nierburg. What he and Garth saw instead as they broke through the last tangle of trees was something different entirely – a group of six or seven refugees in a huddle, surrounded by a similarly sized group of armed men in mottled black and grey uniforms. All but two of the soldiers carried a plain-looking carbon fiber spear with a wicked steel tip, with one that was carrying an old world hunting rifle. The last man didn’t appear to be armed at all – his gaunt frame standing casually with his arms crossed over his chest, watching his men beat their captives. The refugees were clearly battered and worn down, Kyle having witnessed one of the soldiers striking a surviving man who attempted to stand with the butt of his spear, knocking him to the ground. All attention shifted to Kyle and Garth, and a surreal moment of silence came across the small clearing as each group took the measure of the other, both in shock at the unexpected sight.
The moment was broken as Garth snarled, the guttural sound snapping them all back to the present. “Carlyle you bastard, I’m finishing what we started.” With that, Garth drew his sword and exploded into motion, charging directly towards the gaunt man. For his part, the man – now known to Kyle as the Carlyle from the stories – burst into motion as well, a shimmering heat mirage erupting into being around him as he moved to keep the distance between himself and Garth. That left Kyle alone with five stunned spearmen and a much-less-stunned rifleman, who raised his firearm and sighted down the barrel straight at Kyle. Thunder cracked as the bullet split the air, barely missing Kyle as he’d dodged just in time. The sharp sound seemed to be the signal the other soldiers needed, and the group readied their spears as they entered a loose half-circle formation, fanning out to cover any flanking angles Kyle could take. The man in the back once again raised his weapon, and this time Kyle didn’t dodge quite quickly enough, the bullet slamming into his shoulder.
For a normal low-level awakened human, a shot like that would be a crippling, damaging wound. Few trained Warriors had enough Endurance to stop a gunshot before it hit vital areas, and of those even fewer had the Vitality they’d need to recover from a wound like that during the course of a battle. So it was a natural response for the soldiers to relax as they saw their opponent reel back from the shot, confident the threat was going to be neutralized in short order. Unfortunately for them, Kyle wasn’t most awakened.