Chapter 41

Taking Orders

Both of the men in front of me had come dressed for battle, they were both wearing full suits of no-nonsense blackened plate armor. I could sense that all of their equipment was enchanted, but I wasn't in the right state of mind to be interested enough to try to sense what the enchants did.

Ivo had a long sword sheathed at his side, and carried a shield that could do double duty as a vault door.

Pierce had a heavy two handed mace resting against his shoulder, held with one hand. The large weapon looked dangerous, even for my stony form.

After saying my piece, I waited, still as a statue for their response. My mind too, was comfortably blank. I didn't precisely shut down like I had before while channeling earth, I was simply waiting for something that required a response.

I was not sure how I looked, it wasn't something I deemed important, but I did know I was formed of hardened grey stone, my bones, teeth, and claws were made of metal. My claws were like short slightly bent pointed studs on the ends of my large stone fingers. My clothing was made of the same stone as my body, and had become a part of me.

My staff was the same stone as me, they retained much of their original shape, they were perhaps a little more craggy than before. I could feel a metal core running through their body, the spikes which were permanently on display in this form were metal attached to that core.

Ivo and Pierce took a little while to respond, Pierce moved first, lifting his mace from his shoulder. "If it's testing you want.."

My autoinspect went off, I was surprised to see a class listed, though it wasn't very informative.

Level 73 Raging Tyrant

Ivo held his arm in front of Pierce. "Wait."

The shield carrying man walked up to me, looking at me closely. "I don't sense anything from him, not even a ripple of emotion. Angel, what kind of ability is this?"

"Earth mana form, Aspect of the Golem" I rumbled out. I suppose I got exactly what I asked for in this form, since the name wasn't just something I came up with, it came directly from the System.

"I see, first test then, punch yourself in the face." Ivo said.

I saw no reason not to comply, it wasn't like it would hurt. I used my free hand, and hit myself on the face with a heavy fist. No harm was done, except perhaps some surface scratches.

"Stand on one leg." He said.

I did so.

"Hop." He said simply.

I thought that sounded silly, but I did so without complaint, without feeling anything was strange in doing so.

"Hand me your staff." He said.

My arm started to move, but I stopped myself, I had enough time in this form to mentally put limits on the extent of the concepts. I would do as I was asked, I would serve. But only people I considered friends, and only if they didn't contradict my values, or my contract.

My companion had always made it clear that they disliked being held by anyone but me. Therefore, handing them over went against my values.

"No" my voice rumbled.

I could see Ivo's eyes crinkle a little through the slif in his helmet, it seemed like he was probably smiling under the helmet. "Good, new test, I order you to behave like you would while not under this effect."

I cocked my head to the side. "I can try, but I will not succeed."

"Why?" Ivo asked.

I mimicked a blink, I was having a hard time putting the reason in words. "I am myself, if you are worried. Earth mana influence is… mentally austere. I simply lack many extraneous feelings and desires that would normally distract me."

"Explain the reason for using this form?" The empath's body language conveyed a little worry, probably because at the moment I wasn't having any emotional responses at all.

"Options." I said simply

Ivo actually facepalmed, or helmetpalmed? He was wearing a faceplate.

"Explain in detail." He ordered

"We will work together soon, my class requires the channeling of mana. Many Aspects would prove unfit for working with others. This one seems to show promise. I made the decision to test it. I will be compelled to follow your commands, to a point, as you recognized. I found this to be less than ideal, but fairly tolerable compared to some of the alternatives."

I paused for a moment to organize my thoughts in a way that he would understand.

"This form is strong, durable, and has much combat potential. The only mental influences I have to accept are a desire to serve, which I have imposed mental limits upon. A desire to protect, upon which the only limit is my own likelihood of survival, and earth mana's general tendency to desire stillness. I find the form adequate for its purpose so far, if mildly disconcerting. I do have other options, all including this one, require testing."

Ivo was silent for a moment, then shook his head. "We will have things to discuss later. For now, we can test like you want. Do you require instruction?"

"No." I replied.

"Fight Pierce." He said, the words obviously an order.

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Level 73 Raging Tyrant

The auto inspection fired off again.

I tilted my head to the side, then turned to see Pierce holding his mace.

I stuck the end of my staff in the dirt, with the idea that they just watch this round.

I began releasing my aura, much of it sank into the earth around me. But I found that I could direct some of it at Pierce himself.

Pierce was standing still swinging his mace, winding it in a figure eight in front of himself, I began to see a distortion around the weapon. The man had an ugly look on his face.

I used my aura to steal the stability from the dirt below his feet, and reinforce it beneath my own. The mana expenditure from aura use was intense, my earth core was half the size of my life core. I had to minimize my own movements, as any time I moved my body in this form it pulled mana from my core. I stood still and ready, absorbing the local mana with fervor to remain at half full while I worked my aura.

I used the aura directed at Pierce to carry the Concept of Heavy that my current Aspect contained, as well as the part of Durable that dealt with hardness. If he had lacked defenses he would have become a statue. But as it was, it only caused him to sink slightly into dirt at his feet that had become like loose sand. The swinging of the great mace slowed slightly, but the aura it was producing increased.

He began to try to move towards me, he did not do so easily, every step he took caused him to sink deeper. I still waited. He had started about ten feet away from me. When he reached five feet, and I was just out of range of the aura of his swinging mace. I restored and enhanced the stability of the earth around him.

He lurched to a surprised stop, his mace slamming down to the ground in front of him. I was struck by a shockwave that rattled me to the core. I had to retract my aura completely, and use the mana to reinforce my form, as hairline cracks ran through me.

I felt the rage of the earth take hold, and I fell on Pierce as he attempted to pull himself free.

I punched at the man below me, my blows were clumsy and lacked any real control, but they created large dents in his armor. I did damage to my own hands with each blow, the cracks I had received from the shockwave had created weak points despite my attempts to reinforce myself. It mostly just chipped away my outer layer, what would have been my fur were I not a stone facsimile of myself. I did lose some parts that would have been flesh though, one of my knuckles had broken to expose the metal bone below.

Pierce was certainly hurt in the pummeling, but he was not out of the fight. He roared in anger, as he attempted to throw me off of him. I was too heavy to be thrown, but he was able to push me back enough to get back to a solid surface. He stood unsteadily, I could see some blood dripping out of the bottom of his helmet.

Pierce reached out his free hand towards me, grabbing the air.

I felt as if something important was stolen from me, but I didn't know what.

I was still enraged, I went to attack him, my movements were sluggish, it suddenly required thought and intention to move any part of myself. It was as though I no longer really knew how I should move.

Pierce was growling, I could see his bared teeth through the holes in his faceguard. He dropped his mace. Defying all reason the man leapt onto me, and clawed at me fruitlessly with his gauntleted fingers.

His movements were ineffective with his form, I could feel the raw power that was building up in his movements, but he was only leaving scratches on my stone skin.

Meanwhile my rage was making me clumsy, I was already having problems keeping myself balanced, and the pure anger flowing through me made it impossible to focus. I wasn't able to find my balance and distribute my weight correctly when I tried to push the man off me. The two of us went crashing down.

For a whole second during the fall, his neck was right in front of my face, and I failed to take advantage of it.

The enraged man reared back and yanked off his helmet, before lunging forward to bite at my exposed stone neck. I was too slow to do anything in response, but I really didn't seem to need to. His teeth were harder than they had any right to be, but he was still damaging himself instead of me as he tried to get a bite to penetrate my rough exterior.

Meanwhile I had all the time in the world to lift my arm. Figure out how much it needed to bend to get to my target, and clamp my fingers around his neck. Unlike his ineffectual scratching, my clawed hands did damage.

I had no idea how much damage I was doing, as I received very little feedback from my body. But I was aware that my fingers met resistance, and were able to continue to close, with the investment of a lot of mana in the movement.

My core was running dry, as I had stopped eating mana without realizing it. I only knew there was a problem after Pierce's body disappeared from on top of me.

Running out of mana in earth elemental form meant I lost the ability to both move, and perceive the world. I was trapped as a mind inhabiting a statue.

Since I no longer had someone trying to attack me I realized how wrong everything was. I didn't understand how I'd been okay with this form, it was horrible. Nothing made sense anymore, I didn't understand why I was so okay with letting the mana run through me at all.

I didn't know how to switch my core, I didn't know how to eat mana, I'd always just sort of done it. As I laid, immobile, with only my mind to keep me company, I was freaking out about the whole of my current existence. In a flash I realized what Pierce had taken from me that was so important, my instincts.

It felt like forever stuck in that stone body, with no mana left to influence me, unable to do anything but think, and feel dissonance. But it was less than half a minute, perhaps it was 15 seconds before my instincts returned.

I immediately began consuming mana, the fallout from my time without them didn't just disappear though. I felt their effect on my mind after their return, I felt how they were assuring me everything was good. I fought the feeling. Then, as the mana rushed in, and my sight and mobility returned, I forgot everything.

I stood up, and faced Ivo who had removed his helmet at some point. He was staring at me, with an odd look on his face. I could not even tell what emotion he was showing, my mind was completely suppressed. I awaited further instructions.

"Angel? Are you okay? You felt… indescribably horrible, but now you're blank." There was wetness coming from the man's eyes.

I did not respond, it was not an order.

"What happened?" He said quietly.

I did not respond, it was not an order.

"Arena, reset." The man said.

Resetting

My mind lurched as the mana dominating it was removed. I collapsed to the ground, my mind was a mess, I wasn't sure what I was feeling, or why I felt it.

I moaned standing on all fours, my tail tucked under me. My staff touched me, they tried to tell me everything was okay, everything was normal. I was pretty sure it was, the time after Pierce disappeared was a confusing blur. I knew I had figured out that Pierce had taken my instincts, but the exact fallout was unclear. It only let me know just how much I relied on them.

"What the hell did I take from you, cat? That was the worst usurpation I have ever had, and there was one time I took a flaming body trait with no heat resistant trait to back it up." I heard Pierce ask, he sounded distressed.

I looked him in the eye, channeling my Pride of the Apex, though I never usually understood when I used that kind of trait.

He looked away.

"Bestial Instincts, you took my instincts. Whatever you felt, you deserved." I growled, my instincts wanting to move to round two after what he did to me.

"Since when are instincts a trait!?" Pierce seemed incredulous.

"I'm a Bestial Mana Shifter, my instincts let me function with a constantly changing body." It wasn't the full truth, but it was close enough.

"Didn't seem to work well for me, I felt like an animal, they made me act like an idiot." Pierce scoffed.

I felt a little insulted. I said "I am an animal." Before shifting to my Mana Beast form, and baring my teeth at him.

Level 73 Raging Tyrant

Was it wise? No. Was I just recovering from a traumatic experience that I didn't quite remember, and under the influence of instincts that had been turned up to 11? Yes. My instincts told me to be very angry with him.

Pierce looked tiny as I paced around him. I was pissed at what he had done, it didn't matter that it wasn't on purpose.

Then I felt the anger fade entirely, I felt my instincts try to stoke the embers, but it was futile, all my anger just flowed out of me.

"That's enough." I heard Ivo shout, he sounded livid.