ARC1/C14 – Synergy

Drake had assigned Bartholomew to track down whoever potentially killed Hans, not because of a need to exact revenge but because the individual clearly was valuable for their cause. Besides, none of them had known Hans that well; he had been a real loner.

However, Bartholomew and the other Therulians had now witnessed that the Earthling, Sam Slait, was of far greater interest and potential than they could have dreamed.

He was a walking powerhouse.

They had seen him use his abilities non-stop after only awakening, according to the base’s records only a few days previously. They had also seen him use not one but three abilities at the same time, namely [Telekinesis], [Pyrokinesis], and [Cryokinesis]. Also, it was very telling that his teammates had not batted an eyelid at this, suggesting he had shown similar feats in the past. Just what in the hell else could he do?

Normally this kind of information would go straight to the higher-ups for a decision, but nothing was normal anymore. The Seracians had seen to that ending their world. Now they were the higher-ups in what was left of the Therulian operation.

Drake had decided the guy could not fall into the hands of the enemy at any cost. So they had devised a not untruthful plan to get him off Earth and away to somewhere he could possibly be hidden.

This was why Bartholomew had got no sleep and had been waiting vigilantly outside one of the mirror realms portal devices, awaiting Sam’s return. He had been in there for hours, and dawn had long since come and gone.

The thing was, Bartholomew had no idea how to get into the mirror realm to follow him and so didn’t even know if he was living, dead, or had disappeared somewhere. Hence he was unable to leave his position. Thankfully, Lopez had come alone half an hour ago with some Earth beverage called coffee that they had all become rather addicted to. Apparently, he had found out Sam’s whereabouts from Maria, one of Sam’s teammates. But he had not relieved him; instead had headed back to Drake to get further orders, or at least that was what he had said he was going to do – Lopez could be a real sly bastard at times, but that’s what comes from being in the stealth division, Bartholomew figured.

***

In the mirror realm, Sam literally did a loop-de-loop when he hit another leveling milestone.

The [Kinetic Flight] was the real deal allowing him to fly around effortlessly, with a great degree of accuracy. He would have to leave the mirror realm to find out what it was like to jump.

[Psionic Drain Level 100 break through to Tier-F achieved]

[Processing… new abilities]

Well, now, two, in fact, as while he was figuring out what to do with the first, he received a second.

[Telepathic Illusions Level 100 break through to Tier-F achieved]

[Processing… new abilities]

He wondered why the first-level tier-up hadn’t triggered a choice of new abilities but found out soon enough.

[Tier-F abilities available:

[Energy Drain - Users can drain energy from individuals or objects. They can drain physical energy from a target or group, making the affected physically weaker or causing them extreme fatigue while gaining their strength and stamina, even to the point of death.]

[Psychic Energy Absorption - The user can absorb the psychic energy, while removing it from the source, into their body and use it in various ways, gaining some form of advantage, either by enhancing themselves, gaining the drained power, using it as a power source, either temporarily or permanently.]

[Telepathic Invisibility - The user can hide their presence from others, making themselves invisible by influencing their target's minds and, therefore, their target's senses.]

[Hallucination Inducement - The user can induce hallucinations, purely mental and sensory-based perceptive distortions that, while often only visual or auditory, can sometimes be tactile and even cause physical pain. They can be used as distractions because the target to go insane from wild sensations or even cause the target’s mind to collapse permanently.]

[Synergy detected processing… new ability]

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Shit! Sam had not expected that tier-ing up two abilities at once would cause something like this to happen and now really regretted not having all three or reaching threshold at the same time.

And was now kind of distracted but read through the other new abilities that had appeared before his eyes, all the same.

[Energy Drain] was the same as he could already do using [Psionic Drain], but now targeted Strength and Stamina, allowing the user to regenerate their own stamina, plus gain strength stats from their opponent. This would possibly be useful for Sam as he had not raised his Strength stat at all.

He had no idea how [Psychic Energy Absorption] differed from [Psionic Drain], so to hell with that one. Same for [Telepathic Invisibility]; he could already do that.

It began to dawn on Sam now that he would have to be far more prescriptive in his use of his abilities if he was to get useful abilities in the future. Otherwise, he would just get slightly powered-up versions of what he already had and not anything new.

[Hallucination Inducement] was a bit interesting, allowing for wider use of his illusionary ability. But he still waited with bated breath for what other new ability would appear.

[Opinokinesis - the user had the ability to manipulate the senses of others and oneself using Psionic energy.]

Bingo! And this ability puts [Hallucination Inducement] in the shade as it can do so much more. Sam was super pumped up at being able to try out this new ability, though he could see it would take a lot of experimentation, which reminded him that maybe he should be leaving soonish, although he had left a note for Maria before he left.

Name: Sam Slait Level 12

Health Points: 228/228 Skill Points: 312/312 Stamina: 144/144

Vitality: 22 Strength: 11 Endurance: 6 Agility: 10 Intellect: 100 Perception: 20

Free stat points: 0

Acquired Path: PSI Tier-F Strand: null

Abilities:

Tier-G

[Telekinesis Level 104] [Psionic Drain Level 100] [Telepathic Illusions Level 100] [Tough Level 5]

[Pyrokinesis Level 41] [Cryokinesis Level 41][PSI FLOW Level 23]

Tier-F

[Kinetic Flight Level 6][Opinokinesis Level 1][Energy Drain Level 1]

It appeared that he was only able to claim two new abilities, one for each that hit their threshold. He would have to make sure he remembered that in order to ensure picking the best abilities first.

He had wondered how the system would determine whether he was triggering [Energy Drain] or [Psionic Drain]. He hadn’t had that problem when flying as the difference between his ballooning with [Telekinesis] and the far more maneuverable ability [Kinetic Flight] was easily apparent.

First, however, he would have to find some life forms to try out his new abilities on.

***

Sam was relieved to see Sarah and Maria were both fully healed up and ready to go as he got back to base, flying slowly but perfectly smoothly. It was the first time he’d done it around camp without [Telepathic Illusions] activated and got a few strange looks from people wandering around the base. Sam was just glad he could actually get up to running speed now, with no problem – nought to twenty km in two seconds. The tier-ed-up abilities were no joke, and he looked forward to trying out the others shortly.

“You’re getting better at that. You almost look like you’re not going to crash at any moment,” said Maria, obviously slightly pissed at having to wait around for yours truly.

Sam kept quiet about his new abilities. For one, he didn’t want to piss off Maria any more than she already was.

“Fancy trying out your new abilities on some mobs?” enquired Sam, finally coming to a halt outside their tent.

“Mind if I come too.” Said Lopez.

Sam nodded in the affirmative, though he felt a bit weird about Lopez coming along. They would be hunting down Therulian, after all. That was something he’d wondered about quite a bit. Where are they different races or something? He couldn’t imagine Drake and the others as giant dog-beetle things.

Before they left, Sam would need to try out something [Opinokinesis]. He wanted to see if he could use its versatility to hide himself from selective prey/lifeforms only.

He found to his delight that he could see a barrier of energy form between himself and Maria, but not Sarah.

“That’s nothing new,” said Maria. “That’s nothing new,” said Sarah, looking puzzled at Maria.

It had worked. “Can you try and move so you can see me?” Sam said to Maria.

Maria did not react. Sam realized that not only could she not see him, but also she could not hear him. He would have to try and tinker with that.

“He wants you to try and spot him by moving,” said Sarah.

“Ok. That is new. You can see him, but I can’t,” said Maria running straight at Sam.

Sam thought of a better idea and moved out away from their tent to give them some space. He then circled around Maria, the barrier always remaining between himself and Maria. Perfect.

He turned off the ability and set down. Only to receive a punch on the shoulder from Maria.

“Tag.” She said, narrowing her eyes at him. “And when do we get cool abilities like that?”

“I can’t really say.” Said Sam, stopping short, realizing that there was actually a way if someone killed him. He seriously needed more defensive abilities. He would have to work out a way of leveling [Tough] more quickly.

Soon enough, they all headed off, after gearing up, towards the outskirts of the city where mobs had been sighted recently.

***

The mobs milled about despondently, with no real purpose now after the destruction of their world. Only the strongly ingrained sense of honor shared by all of their people allowed them to remain firm. But just like the Valkaries, even in death, they could do their part.

Seeing an enemy approaching from the sky above, they charged in their hundreds.

***

Sam had an interest only in leveling his new abilities [Opinokinesis] and [Energy Drain]. And all his previous worries were set aside when he realized he could just mentally choose these skills.

[Energy Drain] had one use only, so he flew over the mobs and triggered it.

His strength had more than tripled in a matter of seconds.