Two greants stood over the bloody, battered form that was so similar to her son. Mounds of crimson slush splattered beneath him. Jagged bones at odd angles poked through the skin of Herbert's left arm. Rage turned Adelaide's vision white melting clumps of ice surrounded by a miniature forest of saplings with vines frozen in the sudden blizzard.
Adelaide used Enchantress's Palate with its equipped [Create] perk to fill her mouth with ice cream that she filled with notes of grit, dexterity, strength, and healing. She swallowed it while she stalked closer to the greants that shifted in slow motion. Raw fury crystallized around her as she armored herself in the cold iron fist of winter.
More power flooded her Body of Frost.
Rick shouted something behind him along with that boy Herbert came with.
"Kill them, Moss," commanded the shorter greant as budding flowers grew along its branches and leaves. Glittering amber beaded on its bark as sap flowed out of its trunk. Her wrath grew at the sound of the greants talking of their death so easily. These fucking walking shrubs ruined everything ever since they appeared. Neighbors and cities reduced to cemeteries.
And it turns out they could talk this entire time? Could have reasoned or negotiated?
Moss tossed Herbert aside like he was a dirty rag too sodden to use. Herbert flopped in a limp jumble of twisted bones. Rootlike legs flexed out the bottom of its trunk as the mossy green pelt on its trunk grew until it coated the polished wooden grain of the floor beneath them. Blood and melted water vanished into the moss as fungal stalks rapidly grew from the plush moss stained scarlet. Branchlike arms split and grew again and again until eight stout clubs swished through the air straight toward her.
Adelaide shot out beams and waves of disintegration using Putramancer's Blight. Branches sagged with rot before they snapped under the weight and sudden motion. She walked closer while her blizzard raged around them. Beams carved into its trunk until molding fuzz leeched into its trun—
Mushroom stalks vanished then regrew in its crimson fields as straightened newfound vigor and unscarred bark. Its storm of lashing branches closed in as it cut through her beams of Putramancer's Blight with no change. Adelaide found herself flung to the ground as welts blazed in a diagonal line from her cheek to her left hip before Enchantress's Palate and Body of Frost healed her.
Howling winds lifted and rolled her as she swept to the side. Branches clawed and pierced through sheets of ice and snow as she dodged. Enchantress's Palate pulsed as she blasted out a never ending wave of boiling caramel drenching the giant mossy greant while it screamed. Then she enchanted it with Putramancer's Blight. Pain stabbed into her stomach from the whiplash of conjuring and enchanting food.
Moss and fungus died as the greant thrashed in the throes of agony as the sizzling caramel slowly disintegrated it. Caramel bulged and writhed as it tried to shed its bark or pry it off, but it wouldn't budge. Winter's Wrath true might descended as the howling blizzard solidified it until it was harder than concrete. She enchanted it again, so it was harder than pre-Initialization diamonds.
Cramps knifed her stomach from pushing Enchantress's Palate too far.
Floramancer's Synthesis Ev. 2 Rooted Superiority Ev. 3 Sovereign's Comfort Ev. 3 You may now select from one of the following options: Siphon Power Experience Gain a Power Perk Obtain Power from the Conquered > "Moss! By the pollinating sun, I curse you humans! You steal from nature. Kill and pollute. Create greants just to slaughter us like cattle?" The crowned greant screamed as the raging blizzard stopped. Massive flower bulbs blazed with light all over its branches and canopy of now golden leaves. "May you wither in the shade, Mother of The Creator's Companion!" Glowing flowers bloomed with a radiant explosion of light. Someone moved in front of her impossibly fast as they took the brunt of the impact without budging. Still, light and heat turned her snowbanks into reflective vapor as the heat sweltered all around them. Steam seared her skin as she gasped with agony. She tried to heal herself with Enchantress's Palate or Body of Frost, but it felt like her intestines were eviscerated and it was far too hot to create ice or snow. *** Rick's body shook as it vibrated with exhilaration. Energy Conversion broke down the photonic, thermal, and sheer power of the greant's attack while he continued to absorb the fading light and heat from the steam. Body of Force elevated him from merely superhuman to demigod as prepared to use the power slotted into Body of Force to kill the greants responsible for hurting his almost-son. Hatred crackled through his synapses at what it had almost done to Addy. He held it back while she fell before he used Body of Force to catch and move her with raw kinetic energy. He was beyond simple Telekinesis. "Romulus!" Rick shouted, his voice a thunderclap that he redirected away from his unconscious wife. Romulus joined them in a flash of ionic propulsive jets. He gently placed her in Romulus's arms. "Take her. I'm dealing with this." Light gathered, condensed, then fired from the greant's bodily garden of flowers. Rick flew forward while Storm Cloud churned in front of him, swallowing the light. He wrung the thundercloud out releasing a ratta-rat-tat cascade of hail sharpened into bullets that he amplified the force of. Wood pulp and sap geysered from a dozen craters before the Storm Cloud ran out of moisture and dispersed. Rick Newton had never struck someone in his entire life. Sure, he'd tussled with his cousins and friends growing up, was forced to learn taekwondo as a kid, but never before had he slammed his fist into someone else. Ever since the advent of the System and monsters, he's hurt and killed with his powers, but that was different. Now he was ready to beat the shit out of the greant who had not only hurt Addy, but had attempted to kill her. Pent up anger that had built ever since Dave and Sandra had managed to break out of prison and their lifelong sentence freed with a crack. He’d been helpless to stop Sandra from hurting them. From killing Eli. He wouldn’t fail again. Bolts of electricity from Aerovolt Shift sparked in a halo around his body before he used Energy Conversion to launch himself at the staggered greant. Friction ceased to restrain him while he blurred through the air as he neared the greant stained with bleeding wounds of amber sap like blood. Rick landed with a gentle brush of his shoes against the scuffed wooden grain. Rick squatted low in his stance while he slapped the greant's reaching bracharm out of the way with his left hand. Wood sheared, then exploded from the impact while he drew his right fist back. Stupefied yellow-green eyes widened as Rick held his clenched fist by his hip, before he plunged it into the greant's trunk with a twist. His fist plunged straight out the back of its massive trunk with barely any resistance, before the high velocity of his punch exploded the air in a sonic boom. Kinetic, sonic, and thermal energy raged around them, but every shockwave harmed only the greant. Energy Conversion and Body of Force made him practically immune to the cycling loop of backlash and force blasts. Amber sap sprayed in jets from the exploding then imploding body of the greant. Terror sparked in its unfocused eyes as its bloodlike sap doused his arm and chest. Rick gritted his teeth while he honed his concentration away from the familiar fear of mortality it shared with humanity. But Rick didn't care, not when it had placed his family, home, and species in the crosshairs of their monstrous genocide. Pinpricks of sizzling pain stabbed into his skin everywhere its sap made contact. Bubbles boiled from the sap as it darkened into a bloody orange. Rick hissed as his hand shook in the constant cycle of regrowth and devastation in the hollow cavity of the greant's trunk. Energy Conversion flailed in its attempt to assimilate then convert the chemical energy into something else, but he wasn't able to. Aerovolt Shift activated as lightning dispersed harmlessly through the conductivity of the greant's body. If he used his [Physiology] perk on Aerovolt Shift, he'd be fucked. He used Energy Conversion to turn electricity and thermal energy into kinetic energy, but his Body of Force could hardly keep up with the sap's acidity. Panic rose in his chest as the greant's eyes regained clarity as it spoke. "May moss be reborn… as my new heir… Fern." It spat sap into Rick's left eye, where it instantly sizzled into his blurry vision before it went dark. Nerves howled as the sap devoured through his skin and muscle, straight into the bone in his hand and arm. Numb relief iced the pain as his nerves dissolved. Light flashed through the flood of tears in his remaining right eye as it flashed into the caramelized shell of the other greant. Wooden fingers crusted in sap and Rick's blood pierced into his side at the same time a massive javelin burrowed into the greant's treetrunk legs with a buzz before it disassembled itself with a shattering pop. Shrapnel chewed through the greant's legs and its lower trunk. Thunderclouds burst into existence with an explosion that blasted them apart. What remained of Rick's brittle right arm snapped off as he flew backward through the air. Storm clouds continued to appear as they flooded off of him while he shoved all he had into Storm Cloud, Energy Conversion, and Aerovolt Shift into producing the most magnificent lightning bolt ever. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Electricity slammed into him as arcs grounded into the greant like a static discharge artillery. Meanwhile, his physiology flickered between pure electricity as Aerovolt Shift transformed him before Energy Conversion turned all of that lightning into kinetic energy which amplified into Body of Force. Moments later, Rick landed on his feet while he lifted his restored hairless, bright red right arm up at the greant that regrew from the smoldering piles of ash. Fires blazed in an inferno across the domed canopy cage behind it as it regrew. They narrowed their eyes while they prepared their powers. Aerovolt Shift charged up, and down, his now electrifying right arm shrouded in a drill of thunderclouds. Rick *pushed* all his powers again while he lowered himself into a crouch. Electrons stretched as they sparked in the air between him and his target. The greant's own arm grew as it sharpened into a spear of cracked ivory wood that pooled with bloody orange sap. He transformed into lightning as he kicked off the ground as he amplified and absorbed the kinetic energy from his leap. Energy Conversion turned the flood of energy into pure electricity as he moved to meet the greant's charge. Power consumed Rick's consciousness as darkness flickered across his awareness. Words etched themselves across his vision while he stared up from a massive crater of lightning scarred wood. Aeroshift Volt Ev. 1 You may now select from one of the following options: Evolve Power Slot Power into Stat N/A N/A> [Stats: Body: Force (Exponential Omniforce) Mind: None Will: None ] [Equipped Powers: Slot One — Storm Cloud Ev. 3/Lv. 14 Slot Two — Energy Conversion Ev. 1/Lv. 9 Slot Three — Aerovolt Shift Ev. 1/Lv. 10 (Maxed) Perks Equipped: [Physiology] ] [Unequipped Powers: N/A ] Rick smiled weakly at the deluge of level ups and that he had finally maxed out Aerovolt Shift. All that was left was to get that last level for Energy Conversion and then merge the two then he'd be one step closer to slotting it into Mind or Will. He read the next notification with a frown and growing sense of alarm at the greant's powers. Hemophloem Scourge Ev. 3/Lv. 5 Solarbloom Ev. 3/Lv. 18 Will of Reemergence (Progenitor's Propagation) You may now select from one of the following options: Siphon Power Experience Gain a Power Perk Obtain Power from the Conquered > *** Prismatic light rippled across a horizon banded with ephemeral smudges of detail. In the exact center, Herbert drifted unaware of everything around him. Lucidity ebbed and flowed with the swell of light and the reaction of shadows below. Thoughts un-congealed as an infinite amount of time seemed to pass in what might have been moments. Memories of pain accented by the sharp snap of bone turned the lights above a menacing red before the comforting chill below of the dark eased the pain. Herbert felt safe. He didn't have to count every moment of his fading life portioned out in incremental heartbeats and breaths as his death ticked closer. Sensation ceased entirely with no light to disturb his constantly moving eyes, sound halted its battery of vibrations on his eardrums. Smell was a memory of a time before this void of peace. Discomfort prickled his thoughts once he realized he couldn't taste. He tried to move, to brush his fingertips together, to run his hands through his hair, to *do* anything, but he couldn't. Thoughts and memories didn't have bodies, after all. Cold recognition flashed in the infinite reflections of the light above in the glacial depths below. Smears and dots of white and gray fluttered around him. Almost like snow and ice, but they weren't the real thing, but rather they were the unrefined idea. Movement passed in the light above as a blizzard scoured the distant place out of reach. It trickled down into the void he now rested in as it filled him with clarity. This is Icewraith Mind Darkness rose as it pushed him up toward the prismatic light as winter extended a hand to pull him out. Scorching sunlight devoured his salvation of winter as the light above blazed with furious ruptures of light. Fear and whispers of pain scratched at him before the darkness yanked him away from the light. As it sheltered him from the tribulations of fire and agony. Time seemed to pass as the light slowly dwindled into gray darkness. Awareness dimmed while Herbert sank into the comfort of the stretching void. All he knew was peace. Until electricity strobed above as shadowy mist iced over the horizon. Beads of moisture and flakes of ice bounced on the curved plane of light above. Darkness roiled beneath him as the void separated into light and dark again as the light urged him out of the void. Before he could pass back through, thunder shook the world with an explosion of power as the vision through the light spun until it came to a stop. Warmth spiked as the bits of ice and snow melted and the remaining water disappeared somewhere else. Darkness threatened to cloud over him even as two shadows warped over to him in the lengthening stretch between seconds. Whispering murmurs echoed as they lulled him back into the embrace of darkness before one of the figures extended a feminine hand and an avalanche of ice and snow submerged him. Herbert gasped as he snapped back into his body with a crash of sensory overload. Bones flexed as they sealed back together with glacial slowness. Torment eased as ice and snow pooled into his body until it reached a point that his awareness exploded outward. Notifications screamed as they buzzed into his eyes and mind while they demanded a response. He sat up with a thrash while he blinked around him at the gathered faces of his parents and Romulus. Heat pulsated in his body as if his body boiled from the inside with aches his powers wouldn't heal. "Oh my god, his eyes..." whispered Mom's voice as a muffled impact patted his shoulder. Herbert flinched away from it with unexpected strength as wood shattered beneath him. He found himself sprawled out on carpet while he tried to crawl away, but his nerves and muscles misfired with irregular strength and feebleness. "Did you see his eyes?" "Yeah... The iris was pure white." Les said as he knelt beside him. "Are you okay?" "I...I'm fine." He croaked as his throat clicked with disuse. "What happened?" "Well. Adelaide and Rick called for me to meet them at this entrance to a strange dungeon where they had followed you. From there, my sensors picked you up, and we went to the top of that mountainous tree and saw you get crushed, then thrown aside by that big greant." Herbert looked to the side where his parents' doppelgangers waited anxiously. Right. He had forgotten he wasn't in his dimension. "After that we fought to take them both down while Romulus used his enchantments and tech to keep us from getting swarmed by reinforcements and then he healed Addy so I could finish them off. Afterward, we checked for your pulse and you..." "You were dead, or almost dead." Les told him bluntly. "But your eyes seemed to move when we touched you. I figured it was because of our body water or something else. So I told Addy about your stats and to cover you in ice and snow and while you healed, we moved you back to our house. Adelaide and Rick's daughters were here with Roman's younger brothers, but we told them to wait outside until we knew what was going on." "You didn't call for a healer?" Herbert stared at them incredulously before he eventually noticed he hadn't blinked once. He did so. "Farbrook's best healer, Theo, said that you were physically fine and that we just needed to wait it out and see if this was a full-blown coma or not. Pure dream powers are mostly outlawed here. After the government tried mind controlling people, we don't allow them around, and he thought that'd be the only way to wake you up." Adelaide told him while she started to reach for him before she stopped at his wince. He wanted his mom and something in his heart broke at her trying to console him. "Mind control isn't real." Les grunted as if he'd said that multiple times. "Dream powers pull from the subconscious, but they can't actually mess with real thoughts. What you described was a Dream Illusion hybrid power, not mind control." "That doesn't matter." Rick said gruffly. "Victoria wants to close that 'dungeon' or to exterminate the greants. We're going to be hitting them hard before they can retaliate for us killing what I assume is their leader based off their 'Progenitor's Propagation' which had been slotted in Will. It said something about moss being reborn as its heir. So, I'm going to go help." "Rick, you can't just leave!" Addy protested before the door opened with a click as Lana walked into the room followed by who he assumed was Lyra, and the long dead ghost of Romulus's younger brother, Theo, who had died from terminal cancer that had resisted healing. Les flinched at the sight of him and the other younger boy who had never been born back home. "I'm helping too." Lana said with a firm glare that reminded Herbert of Maeve a bit. "What? No, you aren't! You're only sixteen. You're staying here and so is your sister." Rick and Adelaide protested as they spoke over each other. Lana just crossed her arms while Theo loomed behind her silently with his arms crossed. "I'm not going anyway." Lyra shrugged while she turned to Herbert with a frown. "Neither are you." "Excuse me?" Herbert blinked at the unflinching heat in her voice. "I know you're not him, but I'm not losing another brother who insists on rushing straight into danger." Lyra scowled at him as if he were anything like Eli. Herbert had heard all about how reckless he was. What kind of idiot throws himself into that many fights and situations after having the System for only a month? At that thought, notifications scrolled across his vision unwilling to wait any longer. Greant (x 290) With the powers: Sapling's Growth Ev. 0 (x 289) Blooming Blossom Ev. 2 (x 1) Springtide Growth Ev. 0 (x 1) Your powers surpass the evolution rank of the available powers> Blooming Blossom Ev. 2 You may now select from one of the following options: Siphon Power Experience Gain a Power Perk Obtain Power from the Conquered> Herbert grimaced at the actual power offering for Blooming Blossom. He didn't want it, but he also didn't want to ruin Winter's Tempest or Thermal Ionomancer with its experience. The penalty didn't apply when experience was used from weaker evolution powers, but he didn't think throwing it into Arctic Armory would help it much either. Adelaide and Rick continued to argue with Lana about whether or not she'd go help on the assault of the greant dungeon. Herbert decided to toss its experience into Arctic Armory anyway. He wasn't planning on putting it into his Will slot, that was reserved for Thermal Ionomancer or Winter's Tempest. He read the notification... then read it again while his eyes widened. Before he accepted, he checked his status with relief. [Stats: Body: Water (Hydro Authority) Mind: Icewraith (Icewraith Metamorphosis) Will: None ] [Equipped Power List: Slot One -- Winter's Tempest Ev. 2/Lv. 11 Slot Two -- Arctic Armory Ev. 3/Lv. 4 Slot Three -- Thermal Ionomancer Ev. 2/Lv. 9 ] Then he read the prompt he'd heard rumors of, but had never seen himself. Mind of Undead (Ice Necrosis) Mind of Lich (Icelich Metamorphosis) Mind of Unvanquished (Polar Revenant)>