Sorin sat in the middle of their shrouded camp and had started looking around him as he always did when he was going try to push for a new part of his path. He brought up his HUD
Name: Sorin Ekart
Path: Pyromancer
AP: 1000/1000
Body: 50/50 (T2)
Mind: 50/50 (T2)
Spirit: 50/50 (T2)
Abilities:
1. Fire sense (p)/(a) - sense heat aether more clearly around you with the ability to look closer or further at a target depending on aether expenditure. Adjusting the view of your Fire sense shifts skill from passive (p) to active (a).
2. Fire manipulation (a) - You can manipulate fire aether in your immediate vicinity. May cause minor interference with another's NAF. (Natural Aether Field)
3. Ignition(a) - You can create fire from the aether around you. Intensity of the flames depends on environmental factors, will power, and aether control.
4. Absorption(a) - using your connection to the world you have discovered a way to draw in ambient aether. Normally you have to rely eating in order to replenish your internal aether reserves but no longer.
5. Aether revival(p/a) - A regeneration skill that restores the aether lost within your body. As cells become damaged they lose energy. This skill replenishes that energy for AP. Can increase the rate of regeneration through increased aether flow.
Sorin was frustrated. He wasn't able to push into Tier 3 but was given clues from what Cain said about the cores. He needed to expand his paths and core. He looked inside and saw his core. As he looked at it was odd. It sat just above his belly button and was almost superimposed over part of his organs. That didn't make sense as there was no actual space for an extra organ in the body, yet there it was. It must be an aetherial object that is not in the flesh but the spirit which is why the spirit rating determines my capacity. His aether was full and he needed to draw in more and expand his core and channels.
So, he reactivated his absorption skill and tried to pull more in. He was resisted. It felt like putting to magnets together with the same polarity. So be amped up the draw and pushed harder. The aether began to push in harder in all of his channels. It was slow, like trying to blow up a tiny balloon and it took all of his willpower and effort. He had to fight every little bit and the aether was forced it. It pushed each of his channels outward and stretched and eventually after what felt like an eternity, he reached his core and continued to push. The aether kept trickling in so slowly fighting him every second. His head began to ache until his focus slipped.
Sorin opened his eyes and reset himself. He couldn't push on that project any more tonight, so he turned to his next project. He needed fire to truly become his weapon. He closed his eyes and opened up his sense. In a moment he conjured a flame. It had become almost like breathing to create a flame, but now he wanted more and be able to weaponize it. Using his Fire manipulation, he pulled on the aether that was the fire in front of him and it moved, then went out.
There was a mass of fire aether in front of him but not enough to ignite. He pushed more into it and reignited it again then began to move it. It flickered so he pushed more aether. He slowly moved the flame back and forth maintaining the level of aether as he would the defensive barrier. He then began to push more aether into the fire before him causing it to burn hotter and brighter until he pulled some of it around him almost like a fiery serpent. It was slow work like training a new muscle. He finally wrapped the fire all around him and connected it back to the ball then evened it out creating a ring of fire that burned lazily. He increased the flow of aether into the ring and the flames began to become sharper and fiercer.
It began to take on a small hum like a tiny jet lighter from earth. He broke the circuit of the flame and configured it into a ball once again. He used his sense and saw the hole that was dug to hold the water if it rained and pushed with all his might on the flame toward that hole. To his surprise, it not only worked it went like a streak and exploded once it hit the bottom of the hole. Sorin was thrown backwards, and the tarps were undone. Cain was rolled into the wall of the bank and their gear went flying all from the shock wave.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
*bleep*
Sorin lay face down on the ground with his ears ringing. He felt hands turn him over as Cain was yelling at him. Linx was keeping watch all around. Sorin put his finger up and pointed to his ears. Sorin pushed more aether to his regeneration skill and the ringing started going down until.
*pop*
"Sorry. Didn't know that was going to happen." Sorin said. "Well shit at least you're sorry you dumb ass! Now everyone in practically a league around us knows where we are!" Linx said. Cain who was watching him looked equally pissed off. "What did you do?" He asked. "I was working on my fire control and had a ball of it. I launched the ball at our water runoff basin thinking it was just fire and would vanish on contact. For whatever reason the damn thing exploded." Linx and Cain looked at each other. "Can you teach it?" Cain asked. "Maybe? I'm using information from my world to do a lot of this crap and there is so much I don't know."
They nodded. "Are you going to continue? Cain asked. "I was planning on it. I need to be stronger especially now that our hill is probably known." Sorin replied. "Well, Go down in your new crater and practice down there. No more explosions!" Sorin looked over and saw that indeed there was a small crater like an artillery shell went off.
Sorin flashed them both a "thumbs up" and went down into the rather large crater and settled in again. He saw a blinking notification.
Congratulations
You have learned the skill:
Fire blast(a) - A dense orb of fire aether sent quickly into a target on impact all aether contained is released violently in an explosion. Range is determined by aether density and explosion lessens the further the orb is sent from user.
"Well, that answers that question." Sorin mumbled to himself. He had more ideas to work on and so he set back in.
He started with an orb of fire in front of him and rather than send it out he pulled a stream of the fire from his orb while maintaining the orb's aether level and kept pushing it out toward the bank of the crater. As he watched a torrent of flames show and looked just like a gentle flame thrower. He pushed harder on the stream and the orb, and first part of the flame turned blue getting insanely hot.
*Bleep*
Sorin released the flames and pulled up the notification.
Congratulations
You have learned the skill:
Firestream(a) - A low to high density stream of fire that burns the area directed. Short range and gets cooler the further from the user.
Sorin was pleased, but had one more idea for the night and he could definitely not test it near the camp. He went to the back side of the hill facing the lake. He conjured a flame in his hands knowing full well he was sky line-ing himself but screw it. If they heard the explosion earlier, they knew he was there, and they were about to see this shit. Oh, he was about to bring some planet earth to this place.
He compressed the flame down by his side with both hands tighter and tighter and tighter and began to live every 90's kids dream. when he couldn't pack any more aether into the ball and with all of his strength of will and forced a line of fire from the ball and fired it all downward into the lake.
Vreee— "ZING!" —ssszzzz
The forest was turned into day in a moment as the blinding white-hot beam slammed down into the water creating an ear-splitting explosion followed by a huge splash with steam billowing everywhere. The ground shook like an earthquake from the force of the explosion. Once the beam ended, the forest went dark again and all Sorin could see was popping lights in his vision and heard terrified screaming from down below and his team shouting from behind.
Warning!
AP below 10!
Sorin smiled as his vision began to go dark and fuzzy.
"Not the same color as your boy, but I tried. That one was for you Akira Toriyama."
Sorin fell backwards and knew no more.
AP: 0/1000
*Bleep*
- At the same time -
Kael and his team had been tracking the sons of bitches that cut him down and made him look the fool especially in front of his girl. They had lost the spare supplies they were going to get and even forced them to use two healing droughts in order to reconnect his tendons.
They were having a hard time following them and as it got dark, they had settled in for the night in the tree line near a lake. They were eating some berries and a few strips of meat they had cooked when an explosion ripped through the area. It echoed all around them in the trees and over the water.
"Those bastards are close. With luck they got themselves in trouble from another team." Kael said. "I hope they didn't. I want to make them suffer slowly for what they did." Phia said angrily.
Eldrin remained quiet. How had he got stuck on the team of these idiots? "We will get them at first light. They are either on that hill or near it." Kael said.
They settled in for the night, when movement at the top of the hill seen by the faint moonlight caught his attention. He tapped his team members and pointed.
As they watched a bright white orb flashed into existence growing bigger and brighter. They heard a distant shout and to their absolute horror, their night turned into day and hell broke loose. A beam of light came from a man at the top and slammed into the lake. An explosion of heat, water, and steam threw them back into the trees which were ripped out of the ground and thrown backwards. The earth shook violently not allowing them to regain their feet. After 15 or so seconds the devastation ended and they slowly got to their feet. They were burned and blistered from the heat of the blast, with cuts and scratches from debris. They had barely survived that single attack, even at a distance.
All they could do was stand there and tremble. The smell of urine hit Kael's nose. To his surprise...it was him. The primal fear of certain death was paralyzing.
"W..we need to get away.... now...." He said with a trembling voice. They searched quickly and snatched their back packs. They didn't bother packing anything back up and just left the other gear behind, running as fast as they could away.