FH 49

“Oh crap, look out!” Cassius Thorn screamed as a blast of fire veered out of his control.

If I did nothing, it would singe Lilith’s hair, and if that happened Cassius would probably die before anyone had a chance to intervene. Multiple prismatic illusions appeared between me and the fireball, then I teleported before the bolt of flames and my fist went from near my face in an arcing blow to the ground. Dirt and grass flew, and a miniature flash of rainbow exploded when my hand hit the dirt. The fireball got caught in the dramatic downward gust of wind caused by my strike and died against the ground.

When I looked up, I saw Cassius had a sour expression on his face, while Lilith stared at him with something close to contempt. Had he tried to hit my sister? Why someone would have a death wish like that, I don’t know.

“Nice moves!” Derrick patted my shoulder. “I barely even moved. You didn’t tell me you could target the ground with Dragonfly Strike, that was some fast thinking.”

“You should have let it hit me,” Lilith huffed at me. “Thanks though.”

“Why would you want it to hit you?” I asked, confused.

“Cassius is a real jerk, if he draws the teacher’s attention for attacking another student even his dad being the Mayor wouldn’t help him,” Aisha grumbled, while she also glared at Cassius.

The young man, a year older than them, trotted over.

“Good block, Metanoia, thanks. It would have been a shame if anyone got burned.” Cassius apologized with the sincerity of a practiced liar. He didn’t even bother to hide his disappointment as he glared at both my own and Lilith’s rainbow hair. Mine had a red dominant scheme, while Lilith’s hair had a lilac dominated array. Momma’s had an aqua base, but all three of us had glowing rainbow hair. It was hard to miss, even without a bully trying to make a big deal about it.

“Yeah, it was nothing. I see why you’re practicing out here though, a fireball that slow won’t be much use in a fight, so maybe you should get back to practicing.” I grinned at the slightly larger boy, as his cheeks flushed red, and his hands curled into fists.

“You can’t talk that way to me!” Cassius hissed in a quiet, threatening tone.

“You are right, my parents would be very disappointed in me. Good luck practicing your fireball.” Unlike Cassius, I knew how to pretend to be nice to someone, and it just made his face turn redder.

“Everything okay over here?” One of the practice yard observers asked. Cassius backed down, but the dolt didn’t even bother to hide his glare at me.

“Just peachy,” I said with a smile.

“Move along, Thorn.” The teachers assistant barked at Cassius. “Back to work, you lot.” We got told to do something constructive too. Not the most glorious of victories.

Cassius muttered something unintelligible and stalked off.

I wished something bad would happen to him.

He tripped on a rock, fell face first into the ground, and broke his nose.

Congratulations, Progenitor of Peril (Emerging) has advanced to Progenitor of Peril (Proficient). New Ability Unlocked: Tides of Woe. New Title Unlocked: Curse Lord (Level 1).

New Ability unlocked: Tides of Woe: Like the unceasing tides, woe crashes upon your foes. A random status affliction is applied to the target every twenty seconds with a duration of 30 seconds. Total duration: five minutes.

Title: Curse Lord: A master of misfortune and bad luck, you possess the power to bring calamity and despair to your enemies. You walk the line between fate and ruin, wielding the power to twist destinies and bring chaos to those who dare oppose you. Wherever you tread, disaster follows.

Title Effects: Calamitous Touch: The Curse Lord’s attacks have a chance (20%) to inflict a random affliction on the enemy for five minutes.

New Ability unlocked: Malicious Tormentor: The Curse Lord gains power from the misfortune of their enemies. Every affliction you have active grants you a two percent buff (stacking) to attack and movement speed.

Congratulations, Curse Lord.

Lilith elbowed me lightly in the side. “Stop smirking,” she whispered.

Two of the upper classmen were helping Cassius stand, while he bled and cried. The System communicated with me at a speed that wasn’t as tedious as other people.

The observer ran over to help cart Cassius off to the healer.

“Did he trip on the spot you blocked the fireball?” Derrick questioned, and I nodded.

“He sure did,” I agreed with a small laugh.

“So, what was the smile for?” Lilith elbowed me again. I poked her in the side back.

“You did look unnaturally happy,” Aisha agreed with Lilith, giving me a suspicious look.

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“One of my traits upgraded, and I got a second ability. I also got a title, and another ability with it. So yeah, I’m happy. Once I hit level ten, I’ll have at least four abilities, maybe five, depending on what sort of class I get. Do you think we could find another dungeon around town? You’re both close to ten, right?” I eyed Aisha and Derrick hopefully.

“I’ve been practicing a lot of traps with Aisha’s dad. Getting to try them in combat would be nice, maybe I could even get him to help me prepare a few extra powerful traps to take on a dungeon. He’s a softie when it comes to Aisha getting hurt.” Derrick attempted to tease Aisha.

Aisha though, with two older siblings, just laughed at him.

“Dad is a huge softie. I’ll pressure him, too. We could try to find another dungeon on our free days. I need to get more powerful if I’m going to have a chance of keeping up with you guys. Light magic and support magic are best when I’m with others.”

“You unlocked support magic and didn’t tell us?” Lilith gave Aisha a flat look.

“Mom bought me a tome from a wandering trader two days ago. I can’t believe you two keep getting all these traits and abilities without using tomes. Dad thinks if I can keep up with you two, and be partners with you, I’ll be set for life.” Aisha shook her head. “He’s crazy. I keep telling him you’re just going to get us in trouble, Alexander, but he won’t listen to me.”

“Me? What’d I do? Why not Lilith?” I pointed at her, but her glare made me drop my finger. She was far scarier than Cassius could ever hope to be.

“Lilith fixes the problems you start,” Aisha said with a roll of her eyes, and grunt of agreement from Lilith. I stared bewildered at the two girls, unsure how everything was my fault. They sounded very confident in things being my fault though, even if I couldn’t figure out why or how.

Ω

Lilith and I usually cut through a few alleyways between the Academy and uncle Arkaziel’s house. Winona wasn’t a huge town, but the safety provided by powerful protectors and the relative peace meant people were drawn here.

Fights in town were rare. Even without Arkaziel and Bobbi, there were ordinary people with a decent amount of power too, and a lot of teens and young adults trying to make a name for themselves. Mommy said other towns didn’t have as many transmigrators or reincarnations as Winona, and so weren’t great places to visit. We’d never gotten to go to another town, but when a fireball whished into a barrel in front of us and sent splinters of wood in the air, I guess that’s how I imagined other towns.

“Gotcha, Metanoia!” Cassius shouted with the garbled voice of a boy with a freshly broken nose. Apparently they hadn’t found a healer yet, since his face was bandaged. Two of his burly classmate friends blocked the far end of the alley, and Cassius Thorn and his best friend Chadwick were behind us.

“How’d you get me? You blew up a barrel.” I asked in confusion. Not even a sliver had hit me or Lilith, against the odds.

“Maybe he got a concussion with the broken nose?” Lilith asked with a great, but feigned, depth of concern.

“Shut up! Just shut up! You two always have to have the last word and make me feel bad, well I’m going to make you feel bad.” Cassius raised both of his hands and formed an actual combat fireball.

I activated Tides of Woe on him.

“I can’t see!” Cassius cried in shock as blindness afflicted him.

A sharp, crisp snap rocked the alleyway. Lilith had snapped her thumb and middle finger, and the fireball forming in blinded kids hands vanished. I wanted to ask Lilith when she got counterspell, but I didn’t tell her about my new abilities yet. Did she get hers today too?

The two kids who’d blocked the head of the alley ran away in the confusion caused by their leader getting blinded, and his spell failing so spectacularly.

Chadwick’s face took on an expression of panic. Clearly they’d done this kind of thing before, and it hadn’t gone at all like this. We’d have to ask around to find out how many people he’d done this too before. I knew he was a brat, but I didn’t know he was this violent.

“You’d better fix this! Don’t you know who his dad is?” Chadwick postured.

“Let’s see. Mr. Thorn is the nice man who comes for tea at Uncle Arkaziel’s, right? He’s also been begging our mother to craft the town more defenses, and keeps asking Aunt Bobbi to cater even one of his social affairs. That’s the Mr. Thorn you’re talking about, right?” Lilith asked with a smile.

“We don’t need anything crafted by one of your freaky moms!” Cassius hissed, then cheered as his blindness vanished. He immediately focused on conjuring another fireball, but the flames weren’t cooperating, and were a fraction of their normal strength.

“Oh, so that’s what enfeebled looks like.” Lilith laughed. “Uhm, Alexander? Did you use an ability that could cause any affliction? Doom could kill him, you know.”

I winced. I hadn’t thought of Doom, or Impending Death, or any of those variants. Why would a low level like me have access to them? But when I checked my Ability description, it didn’t list any limitations.

“Take it off, take it off! I don’t wanna die!” Cassius plead, even as I dismissed the Tides of Woe on him.

“It’s gone, but if you mess with us or anyone else again, I won’t take it off.” I bluffed.

Cassius ran away, and Chadwick went with him, but the glare in the latter’s eyes made me uncomfortable. I didn’t even curse him!

“We’re going to have to tell someone about this, you know,” Lilith said with a disgruntled sigh. Then she dusted her hands off and started to walk our normal path. I fell into step with her after a moment of watching the departing backs of Cassius and Chadwick.

“Do we? I think it’s handled,” I shrugged. “When did you get counterspell?”

“Today. At the same time as you got your new Ability. My Patron of Providence trait upgraded when you blocked that fireball in the practice yard.”

“That’s fantastic. We’ll be even more prepared for another dungeon than the last one.” I clapped my hands together excitedly, but Lilith rolled her eyes at me and scoffed.

“Think about it, Alexander. We need to hide how strong we are. Already Derrick and Aisha think we’re too strong for them, and it won’t be long before news of your ability to afflict people spreads. Do you want that kind of attention?”

“Uhm, yeah? Why wouldn’t I? We’re awesome, and people should know that.”

“You told me Mommy is the most powerful person you’ve ever seen, but most people don’t even know she’s anything but a blacksmith. Shouldn’t we follow her lead?” Lilith gave me a long, searching look.

“That doesn’t sound like fun?” I answered honestly, and she muttered about how hopeless I was.

“We can talk to our moms about it if you want, but I think everything’s going just fine.” I didn’t want to argue, arguing with Lilith didn’t lead anywhere, and it was so boring to rehash the same thing over and over again. Why couldn’t she be like the other kids our age?

“We’ll talk to them about it, and about getting permission to find another dungeon. Or did you forget that we got grounded for two weeks for going into the last one without telling anyone?”

“Yeah, sure. You do the talking then. After I’ve had my practice session with momma, all those moves she learned from that Monkey King are super awesome, and now that I’ve got a passive that generates afflictions, I might be able to hit momma while she’s stunned.”

“Idiot, it’s not going to work,” Lilith sounded exasperated, like I’d forgotten something very important.

“Why not?” I didn’t see why it wouldn’t work.

“Mommy’s scarf blocks all afflictions.” Lilith didn’t restrain her scorn for me forgetting something so important. It’s not like I cared about afflictions before today, though? Did she really remember everything everyone told her about their equipment and abilities, all the time?

“Oh man, that’s so overpowered.”

Lilith kicked me in the shin, then skipped ahead.