Everything was hazy. Blurred and indistinct. My thoughts were too jumbled for me to even think clearly. There had been… We were going out to eat today. It was going to be nice. I was going with… Who was it again? Me and…

May.

I sucked in a deep breath, coughing as a mix of smoke entered my lungs dust. The endless ringing of tinnitus in my ears drowning out the sound of everything else. I could barely hear anything over it. If there were people crying or shouting around me I didn’t know.

“May.” I groaned louder as I wiped a hand over my eyes. They were sealed shut. I rubbed at them weakly as my awareness slowly came back and realized that the sticky stuff holding my eyelids shut was blood. Something hit me in my forehead and I was bleeding into my eyes.

“May.” I called out as my voice grew in strength. She was right behind me wasn’t she? Where did she..?

I had to shift my perspective as I rose on unsteady hands and knees. I was twenty paces further back in the restaurant, almost against the wall. The blast had thrown me back and I frantically scanned around for her. Smoke was still thick in the air as I searched the ground. Frantic to find some evidence of her.

Please. Please be okay…

I moved slowly through the debris of broken chairs and upturned tables. More due to my own injuries than my sense of caution. I crawled more until I caught sight of an arm covered in Sigmata barely visible under an upside down table. I’d seen that same arm work tirelessly to make the Sigmata I had on my body. I knew instantly who it was under there.

“May!” I called out. Coughing hard as I unintentionally swallowed a lung full of smoke. I stumbled as I tried and failed to get to my feet, even with my heightened dexterity I could barely keep myself from falling down. Instead I scrambled to the table and without thinking I gripped the table and heaved it up off of May. She was there. Slumped in unconsciousness with a slight glow surrounding her head and upper torso. I checked her over for injuries with trembling hands and aside from some nasty looking scrapes and bruises on her arms and legs she seemed fine.

I reached for her head and my fingers met a solid cushion of air that kept me from touching her face. “May.” I began swallowing hard despite the dryness in my mouth. “May please I need you to wake up.” I tried jostling her by pushing against the barrier but it pushed me away with a surprising amount of force. Abandoning that idea, I gripped her unprotected hands tightly as I kept talking to her. “Listen to me May. We can’t stay here.” I said my head whipping around to stare through the smoke where the outside of the store would have been.

The ringing in my ears drowned out almost everything else but I could still get some sense of what was going on outside. I could feel the vibrations of lots of people moving outside on the street. Was there anyone who was coming to help? There wasn’t anyone coming inside. Or was it…

“Oh God.” I whispered as the idea came to me. Had there been more places in the Murk district that had been hit?

I felt May rustle next to me and I shoved down those thoughts. They wouldn’t do me any good now. “T-Toby…” May said groggily as she stirred awake. Her eyes latching onto me and going wide. “You’re hurt!”

May’s fingers reached up to touch the gash on my forehead and I winced. “I’m fine.” I said brushing her hands away. I tried to get a look around me at my surroundings but the smoke still obscured so much. “Can you stand?”

“I…” May said as her barrier winked out. The skin under it standing out in stark contrast to the unprotected parts of her arms and legs. “I think so.”

“Good.” I said grabbing her arm and pulling her up. “Come on, we have to get out of here before…” My voice trailed off as the smoke cleared. Not completely but just enough for me to see what was around me.

Our server had been thrown from the blast as well, I could see her lying on the ground. A splinter as long as my forearm, something that must have been from the bomber’s table before it blew apart, was sticking out of her face. Despite the horrifying injury she was still alive, weakly trying to grasp at the wood impaling her head.

My breaths grew shorter and more shallow as I saw more bodies lying across the floor. Logic and rational thinking fled my mind as I returned to a different place, a different massacre.

The burning memory of a knife in my hands.

The world fell away as I stared at the room terrified that my nightmare had repeated itself once again. I knew May was speaking to me but I couldn’t hear her I couldn’t think of anything else. My brain was like a record stuck on a loop. I was on the verge of shutting down completely.

With a desperate twitch of will I opened up my Skill Trees, and knew instinctively I still had one Skill Point left. The one I had been saving for emergencies. I didn’t browse options, I don’t think I could have even if I wanted to. Instead I immediately opened up the Meditation Skill Tree and went to the one Skill that that scared me the most out of any others I’d seen. The one that I needed the most right now.

[Dead Calm: The emotionless void, suppressing all to achieve unparalleled focus during Mediation. Extended use can erode one's sense of self and emotional well-being.]

I shoved aside my fears at damaging my mind even more than it already was. So I picked up the Skill and flooded it with mana before I could stop myself. I couldn’t let myself shut down here. I needed to be able to move. To save May, to save myself.

It worked better than I could have hoped.

Once I began Meditating and the Skill activated everything fell away. One moment I was there and the next I was a puppet with all my strings cut. The fear of the bomb and another attack, the crushing guilt of knowing I’d had the chance to warn others and failed to, the shock of the dead and dying around me. All of it was gone.

“Toby!” I heard a voice say to me. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

It was no wonder Maybelline sounded so concerned. Without the weight of everything in my mind crushing me I’d fallen to the ground. I placed a hand on the ground and rose to my knees. Taking in my surroundings with new eyes. Untethered from the constant pull and push of my own emotions. It felt like being weightless. I turned to look at Maybelline and her eyes were full of concern.

I was still myself. Still Toby on the inside but Dead Calm broke every decision down to its logical core. Completely separate from the emotions that would have given my choices value. In the midst of the Skill, I saw May. Recognized her importance to me. But it was completely without the emotions I felt for her. I couldn’t even make myself feel a desire to protect her that emotions would have driven me to do instinctually. May’s importance to me had been reduced to a cost benefit analysis. Recognizing her value to me by the actions she performed for my benefit and not from what I thought of her as a person.

Inside the void of Dead Calm I could feel an echo of the fear and horror that wanted to run through me for thinking of May in such a way. But I couldn’t allow them back just yet. I needed to be useful.

“We need to leave.” I said out loud. The words were too calmly spoken, like I was talking about leaving a store rather than a bombed out restaurant. Grabbing May’s hand I got to my feet and immediately set out for the door, almost dragging her behind me with my high Dexterity.

We made our way through a patch of smoke and May removed her hand from mine as she gagged. I turned to see what was wrong and saw her staring with obvious horror at the still twitching form of our server. May’s hands over her mouth as if she were trying to hold in vomit or a scream.

“We need to leave.” I said again. “May.” I added after a second. Hoping to get the response I wanted.

“We…” May said weakly. Fresh tears brimming in her eyes. “We have to do something.” She said pleadingly.

My immediate reaction to May’s words was to tell her it was pointless. The woman was already on her way out and there was nothing May or myself could do to stop it. But I managed to stop myself before I made that mistake. Rejecting May outright would make me seem callous and unfeeling. During this crisis she would likely remember and think back on this moment. Not even trying to make a token effort at aid or compassion would likely sour her opinion of me. That would mean less opportunities for more useful Sigmata.

I felt another wave of the same fear and revulsion at my own thoughts trying to breach Dead Calm but I forced it down.

“I’ll see what I can do.” I said crouching down by the server’s head. Even within the emotionless void I couldn’t help a wince at the sight of the woman’s injury. The chunk of wood was like a giant splinter, long but relatively thin for a hunk of wood. Part of the bomber’s table that had been turned into shrapnel by the blast. It was probably one of those chunks that had hit my forehead, but thankfully that wound was no where near as severe as the one in front of me.

Thought Acceleration.

Dipping into the extra seconds of Thought Acceleration I examined the injury further without wasting time. The splinter had pierced the woman’s face through her nose, at an angle that would pierce the majority of her nasal cavity. The splinter continued down through the roof of her mouth and through the back of her throat. I took a moment to think hard on everything I’d seen from movies, documentaries, and TV shows about injuries like this. It was only after a long moment reexamining everything I knew that I let Thought Acceleration drop.

“The angle of the splinter means it hasn’t hit her brain and it’s likely just shy of hitting the spinal cord.” I said calmly but confidently. “We can’t remove it, she’d bleed out in a heartbeat if we tried.” I leaned in closer to the woman’s face, grateful that I couldn’t feel the revulsion at seeing her injury up close. “Can you hear me ma’am? Please respond if you can. We’re going to try to help you.” I said. She had been at least somewhat conscious a few minutes ago. I’d seen her moving on her own to try and remove the splinter. I snapped my fingers in front of her face but her eyelids only flickered, her eyes rolling underneath like a scarred animal.

“What do we do?” May said pained. Obviously feeling for the woman. I didn’t respond. The only option that made sense in this situation would be trying to stabilize her in some way and then handing her off to experienced doctors or healers. But we couldn’t stay here for much longer. The entire situation outside the restaurant was a mystery to me. We might end up being in more danger staying here than making a run for the nearest exit to the Murk district. The wounded woman weakly raised a hand up, shuddering as her eyes widened and looked at me, pleadingly before her hand gestured to her face.

May stifled a sob as she tried to comfort the woman and I frowned. The urgency in her gesture was clear despite how weak she clearly was. Was she gesturing to the splinter? I only had a moment to contemplate what she was trying to convey when she heaved one final shudder and stilled. Her hand resting just below her neck. Putting my finger to her neck to check for a pulse. I swore softly. Realizing too late what she’d been trying to convey. “The splinter must have blocked her airways.” I said as I clasped my hands together and began performing compressions on her chest to get her heart beating again.

“May.” I said frowning slightly in concentration. “Take my knife and cut a hole in her windpipe to breathe through. If I resuscitate her she’ll choke again without it.”

I kept up my first aid for a few heartbeats until I noticed May hadn’t even begun to move. She was staring out into space, her fingers trembling. “May!” I said consciously putting a bit of heat behind the word I didn’t feel. Her head jerked towards mine and I repeated my instructions to her. She swallowed and nodded. Taking my knife from my belt while positioning herself behind the server’s head.

“Below the Adam’s apple.” I said. Understanding I’d need to walk May through the process. “You need to puncture the cartilage, then we need to find something hollow to hold the cut open so she can breathe through it.”

May nodded and leaned forward to make the cut. After cutting through the cartilage she dropped the knife to the side and her Sigmata came to life on her arms. With the same determined focus I’d seen a number of times before she began carving Sigmata into the woman’s throat. Spinning something together what looked like a hollow tube that held the skin apart and left a clear path for air to pass through.

With a shuddering heave the woman’s eyes shot open as I ceased compressions and kneeled back. The woman was taking big deep breaths as tears fell from her eyes. Her eyes shining with gratitude she couldn’t convey through her ruined face.

“No. No, please…” I heard behind me and I turned.

A large Beast folk stumbled out of the are that must have been the restaurants kitchen area. He was a panther, immediately reminding me of my run in with the Maulers some time ago despite the apron he was wearing. His eyes were locked on the wounded form of the server as he came closer. He was wounded as well but not enough to keep him from moving.

“It’s alright.” May said wearily. “She’s breathing again. She’s going to be okay.”

As the big panther fell to his knees next to the server’s head I had already snatched my knife and palmed the hilt, hiding the blade with my wrist. Prepared to get the first blow in should he decide we were somehow responsible for the attack.

“I’m here Kaylie.” The panther sobbed taking the woman’s hand in his massive paw and bringing it to his lips. “I’m right here.”

Even with her ruined face Kaylie worked her lips to try and speak. But with the air leaving her throat instead of her mouth it was a barely audible wheeze. “D…Dayne…”

In a moment I’d sheathed my knife and grabbed May’s hand in mine. “Come on.” I said pulling her to her feet and leaving the couple behind in the smoke. Passing through the heart of the blast zone there were more unmoving forms that hadn’t been fortunate enough to survive the blast. A part of me recognized the bomber had chosen to sit as close to other tables with customers as he could. As I gave the victims of the attack on last look behind me, the sight of the large Beast folk rocking back and forth, weeping over the prone form of an innocent bystander something stirred inside me. Something that burned hotter than anything I’d ever felt. I almost stumbled even with my Dexterity at how it raged against Dead Calm and tried to break through the Skill, but I couldn’t let it out. Couldn’t allow myself to feel it just yet.

We had just cleared the debris that had been the entrance to the Lazy Angler when I got a clear picture of what had been happening outside on the street.

Chaos.

People running out of buildings and down the clogged streets, columns of smoke rising from other nearby parts of the Murk district, and what sounded like people fighting somewhere out of sight.

“We need to move!” I said grabbing May and helping her over the last of the debris and almost pulling her off her feet as I started running. Between the frantic jostling of humans and Beast folk running I pulled up my Mind Map and pinpointed the nearest exit to the other districts. “This way!” I said, raising my voice over the panicked clamor. I had to push and shove a few people out of the way before I could reach the alley entrance that most had passed over. May didn’t question me as she immediately followed me into the alley. The sounds of the fighting sounding closer but somehow more far away as the sound bounced off the walls. We took a turn, then two more as we reappeared out onto another street. Filled with primarily Beast folk as we joined the flow of the crowd. I was halfway through choosing which paths to take next when a lone human figure stepped out into the road.

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“Death to the Maulers!” he screamed as he flung his hands out towards the crowd May and I had joined. Burning red pinpricks of light forming over his hands as he grinned.

Thought Acceleration.

In the core of my being Mind over Magic, my long unused Class ability spun to life at the spell being formed. I could feel the structure of the thing come together as mana fed into it. In the space of a second I understood the spell intimately. How it altered the energy of mana to emit heat, the way the spell compressed the effect to spread over a large area. The name of the spell written in the very foundation of its construction. Flame Wave.

In the same instant I understood the spell I broke away from May to dash through the crowd separating me from the pyromaniac about to set us all ablaze. I still couldn’t reach the man in time, the people in the way slowed me down too much but I managed to get in front of the crowd just as the spell completed and a wave of fire sped towards me.

The only spell I had ever broken had been a simple Identify. Something that I still regretted even now in my emotionless state. But I’d had time to think on the experience since then. I recognized that breaking the spell in the moment, before I'd been discovered hiding inside a crate, had probably been the best choice I could have made at the time. The part that hurt me the most had been using the Spell Splinters produced from the broken spell without proper guidance.

So if I only needed to break the spell…

Leaping towards the blaze I crossed my hands in front of my face, the heat gathering even in the midst of Thought Acceleration. Following the same urgings I felt from my Class ability when breaking the Identify I focused on pushing against the Flame Wave. The Class ability’s instincts guiding my thoughts as I felt the spell’s resistance to tampering and its own built in safeguards. With ruthless efficiency I forced my mana towards points of failure in the spell. Even with my one success It was hard. My Wisdom was still at one. Not nearly enough to make up for my lack of experience. I felt a pounding in my head even through the relative peace of Meditation. I felt and heard a resounding crack. As the architecture of the Flame Wave broke against my will. I felt a spasm of intense nausea as I fought to maintain Meditation and failed, falling to the ground as the dissipating flames of the spell petering out around me well before they hit the crowd and May.

[You have broken a new Spell Form: Flame Wave]

[You have learned new Spell Splinters]

[Variable Ignition, Wide Area Mana Dispersal, Heat Reduction Layer]

The man stared down at me in shock as he took a step back and I got a good look at him. He was rugged looking, with a red mark or design on his cheek under his eye. “You!” He exclaimed stepping back in shock. “You’re the-”

In a heartbeat, with my Acrobatics and Dexterity I was on my feet. Without giving the man any time to think I drove a kick straight into his unprotected crotch as he doubled over in pain. With his hands over his groin and not protecting his head I spun in a textbook roundhouse kick and slammed my heel into his temple. Crumpling the man, no, the Redbrand to the ground.

With the immediate threat neutralized I ran back to May, the crowd parting around me without fanfare and grabbed her hand. Not even needing to say anything to get her to continue following my lead. We ducked into another alley and despite the state Dead Calm put me in my mind was racing with something almost akin to panic. Did they know who I was? Were they after me too? But that hadn’t been a Blackwater, they’d been a Redbrand. If they were looking for me too how much of the Syndicate wanted my head?

Before I could get my thoughts in order a man and several others appeared out in front of me as we turned a corner. He had flames dancing on his fingertips and was in the middle of shouting something to his comrades.

“Fall back!” He shouted. Throwing a crescent of fire into an open doorway as one of the others slammed the door shut. “We’ll regroup with the other teams and drive those fucking animals back where they belong!” He turned towards us and froze as he looked me and May over. And we did the same. Expecting another fight I rapidly identified the group.

[Class: Fire Mage]

[Level: 5]

[Class: Thief]

[Level: 4]

[Class: Arsonist]

[Level: 4]

[Class: Fire Blade]

[Level: 5]

In my mind I winced at the thought of breaking another spell again if we had to fight. I was still recovering from the nausea caused by breaking down the Flame Wave. The thought of rapidly breaking down multiple spells in quick succession was not one I wanted to entertain.

“Hey.” The man in front said as he looked at me. “Doesn’t he look fam-”

In the next moment, everything clicked together in my mind about the cause of the attacks. I’d chalked it up to some kind of terrorist attack in the beginning because of its scale but it was something else. We weren’t in the middle of a terror attack.

We were in the middle of a turf war.

The door that had been slammed shut just a moment ago, came apart in a shower of splintering wood as a hulking form tore through it and barreled into the man who had been speaking to me. One moment he was in the middle of the alley, the next he’d been slammed into the opposite stone wall of the alley with the audible sound of bones breaking as he met the stone. The hulking form of a lion Beast folk with gauntlets of stone on his claws and arms wiped blood off his hands as more Beast folk sped out the exit of the building and quickly finished the Redbrand. Beast folk who clearly possessed classes. Maulers.

“Fall into me.” I whispered to May just as the lion, the leader presumably, turned towards us. May, thankfully was quick to adapt and fell limply into my arms as if she were wounded and faint. “Thank the Akashic you’re here!” I said in a desperate panicked voice. Dead Calm helping me act convincingly as I mastered my facial expressions and body language. One moment I changed from someone ready to fight, the next I was someone who looked as weak as a lamb. “They hit the Angler. The Lazy Angler. It was horrible…” I said breathlessly, faking a sob as I held May up and looked pleadingly at the Maulers. “Dayne got hurt bad and there wasn’t anybody there who could help.”

“Damnit!” The lion roared as he smashed a fist into the wall making me and May flinch. My hand twitched for the knife under my cloak but relaxed just as quickly as the bear's attention turned towards the other Maulers.

“Wyzen! Yugo! Get over to the Lazy Angler. Help Dayne and anyone else you find.”

“Dayne’s been refusing to pay protection for years.” One of the Maulers spoke up. “We shouldn’t be-”

“People pay for protection.” The lion growled dangerously. “When they know they’re going to be protected.” He took a step towards one of the other Maulers and they flinched back noticeably. “So go do some protecting.”

With small nods and affirmatives two of the Maulers split off and down the alley we had just come out of. The lion watching them go for a second before turning to us again. “Thank you.” He said gruffly stepping over the bodies of the Redbrands as he went in the opposite direction. Likely to hunt down more Redbrand.

Despite sending help to the survivors at the Lazy Angler that quick decision hadn’t been born out of compassion. It disturbed me how easily I rationalized using Dayne’s name to insinuate I was closer to the chef than I truly was. How I instantly thought of playing a part to make myself look like an ally of the Maulers to avoid suspicion. I’d only had this skill for half an hour at most and I already felt like using it was starting to get dangerous.

I spared a look at the remains of the Redbrand in the alley and felt a very understandable shiver of fear try to push through Dead Calm. I couldn’t be sure if the Maulers were looking for me like the Redbrand seemed to but it was something I did not want to risk in the slightest.

Just a little longer. I promised myself. As soon as this is over I’m turning off the skill and never using it again.

I made to move but May was still slumped against me trembling with her arms around me. I worried for half a second that something was wrong before I realized what it was that was upsetting her.

“May?”

“Yes?”

“Just look up and I’ll guide us around the-” I stopped myself before I could say bodies. “-the obstacles.”

After a long moment of guiding May around the bodies of the Redbrand. I moved more carefully through the alley listening hard for signs of more Redbrand or Maulers fighting. I could tell through my Mind Map that we were getting closer to the exit to the Murk district I was used to taking. Just a couple more streets and we’d be free of this nightmare.

I peeked around the edge of the alley and saw the same level of chaos as before, only it was without the presence of Maulers or Redbrand duking it out. Even in the midst of Dead Calm I grimaced as I looked at the amount of destruction one gang had been able to cause in such a short amount of time.

There were the telltale signs of other places that had been bombed but the Redbrand hadn’t stopped there. They’d taken the time to set fires. A good number of buildings were in the midst of being devoured by roaring flames. A line of Beastfolk had formed to act as a water line passing buckets back and forth to staunch the flames. If the Murk district had access to the Skystream I could easily see these fires being put out quickly but no. The Redbrand had taken full advantage of the Murk’s vulnerability.

Underneath the placid surface of Dead Calm my emotions churned and boiled at the sight of the burning buildings and I almost lost control of it right then and there. I forced myself to look at the road and not the burning buildings. I had to get May and me out of here before I lost control of myself.

Without waiting another second I grabbed May’s hand and pulled her forward with me as I ran. The emotions growing stronger to the point that I could barely hold them back.

Don’t look up. Don’t look up! I ordered myself as I ran. Ignoring the cries and wails of the passerby.

“Water! We need water over here!”

“Get to the other well! We have to stop-”

“It’s too far gone! It’s not worth your life-”

I could have made it to safety. I know I could have. But there was one voice that cut through all the noise. Even the walls built up by Dead Calm as I stopped. The whole world seemed to stop.

“Please!” Falisa wailed. “Has anyone seen my son!? Pyga! Pyga where are you!?”

No… I turned numbly, seeing exactly what I feared most. The reason Dead Calm quaked so hard when I saw the burning buildings was because I knew exactly where I was. I’d taken this route enough times I could navigate it on my own without Mind Map helping me. The apartment building that Pyga and his mom called home.

In the same instant a memory bubbled to the surface of my thoughts. As clear as if I’d used Psychometry to see it. “How about I let you take care of that alright?” I said smiling as Pyga clutched the pot he’d been practicing his water Skills with for the past few days. “Really!” He said happily before growing dejected. “But Mom says I should give this back.”

“Give it back?” I said questioningly. “I don’t think you’re supposed to give back a gift are you?”

“A gift?” Pyga asked. “You’re giving it to me? But she says it’s expensive! It has those glowy lines and everything.”

“It doesn’t matter how much it costs.” I said trying to sound sage like. “What matters is that you’ll take care of it. A friend of mine worked very hard to get those glowy lines just right ya hear?”

“I’ll…I’ll take care of it.” Pyga said softly. Lowering his head and wiping something from his eyes.

“Promise?” I said holding out my hand.

Pyga smiled fiercely and took my hand, shaking it like he meant it. “Promise!”

Dead Calm cracked under the weight of that memory and I felt the Skill begin to splinter apart as the tide of emotions it had held back leaked through. He wouldn’t… I hoped desperately as my gaze turned towards the burning apartment building. Pyga loved his mother, he wouldn’t go running into a burning building for something I gave him. Not for something so simple and cheap.

But he would wouldn’t he?

Dead Calm shattered and everything the Skill had been holding back hit my mind all at once. The fear. From seeing so much pain and death and suffering. The revulsion. At myself for seeing a woman with an unimaginable injury, bodies burned and dying on the floor and feeling absolutely nothing for them. The rage. From seeing so many innocent lives ruined because of people’s worthless reasons for hating others. But one emotion overruled them all.

It was the guilt. At knowing I was the cause of so much pain. Those people in the restaurant would still be alive if I’d understood what my Danger Sense was telling me and warned them. I could have warned someone early about the bomb and the imminent Redbrand attack on the Murk district. If I hadn’t met May here she wouldn’t be in danger because of me. If I hadn’t met Pyga he wouldn’t have run back into a burning building to keep a stupid promise to me.

I felt almost completely disconnected from the world as I stared in horror at the burning building. At knowing that Pyga’s life was about to be lost because of me. I couldn’t hear the world around me anymore. Falisa’s desperate screams for help, May’s frightened jostling of my unresponsive body.

I turned my head in a terrified daze. There had to be somebody nearby. Someone who could save Pyga. There had to be. If there wasn’t I… I don’t know… I didn’t know! Maybe, maybe I could-

You could do what?

My heart stopped as I registered the voice. Amidst the frantic thoughts of my own mind his voice cut through like a knife.

Rykas spoke again. His words almost purring in satisfaction at my pain and distress.

That’s right. He said slowly, reveling in the words. Nothing. So just do as you have always done Kincaid. Sit back and drink. Give up and cry. Grab a knife and cut your skin until the pain drowns out the pain.

Then he laughed. As long and as hard as I had ever heard anyone laugh before in my life. Like everything I was made for the greatest joke he’d ever heard. It went on and on. Ringing through my head like it was on a loop.

I’d heard of people who made complete changes to their lives after traumatic events. Car crashes, the deaths of loved ones. This wasn’t anything close to that in scope. They were only words. Painfully true words but only words. I’d been called things and laughed at my entire life. But these words? That laugh? From that motherfucker?

They pushed me over the edge.

“May.” I said suddenly. Gripping her shoulder with one hand as I stared at the burning building with an unwavering focus. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

Before I could second guess the newfound fire in my heart driving me forward I gripped the bottom of my shirt and tore it until I had a long strip. Then I started running towards the water line moving buckets and pails of water towards the fire.

“What are you doing!?” May shouted at me in panic and I shouted back to her just as loud. “Fulfilling my obligations as a tutor!”

Reaching the line I unceremoniously dunked my strip of cloth into the nearest bucket. Earning a storm of swears from the feline holding the bucket I offered a quick apology as I tied the makeshift bandana over my mouth and nose before sticking my left arm up into the air. As heroic as I felt in the moment, running into a burning building at ground level was suicidal. At higher elevations though…

With a familiar thrum of mana I coiled back the Grapple Sigmata on my arm and fired it up high into the side of the relatively unburned building across the street from Pyga’s apartment building. Reeling in the line I practically flew into the air, my feet dangling with nothing but air beneath me before I braced my legs and landed against the side of the building. I heard shouts and a commotion from the people on the ground as they pointed up at me but I didn’t care right that moment. I reeled myself in the rest of the way, walking up the side of the building until I reached the point where the Grapple pierced the wall. I took a moment to unlatch it as I hung from a window sill. Acrobatics making me feel strangely comfortable with my precarious grip as I aimed my arm up the building again, before cursing at the bad angle.

I looked across the street towards the burning pyre of Pyga’s building, the almost living looking fire writhing inside it and checked how high I was against the other building. I was about four and a half stories of the ground now. But that wasn’t good enough. Not nearly.

“Thirteen.” I said to myself. “He’ll be on floor thirteen.”

Then I started climbing. A bit slowly at first, moving from window to window since I was mimicking the rock climbers I’d seen on Earth but then I started gaining speed as my confidence grew. I wasn’t on Earth anymore, so all the conventional wisdom was out the window.

I climbed like I was racing to the top of the building. And I noticed that the building wasn’t completely done yet. The upper levels of the building were unfinished, exposed wood planks and thick beams which I climbed onto easily. Then I immediately made the mistake of looking down.

“Hoo boy. This is stupid. I’m so stupid for wanting to do this.” I breathed out in a huff as I clutched a wood beam for support.

The people on the ground looked like miniatures now. Always a good sign when you wanted to know exactly how high “too high” was. I looked out across the gap again and aimed my Grapple readying another shot before firing it into the smoke and flames. I swore loudly as I felt the Grapple’s hook give way on the weakened wood I’d been aiming for and gauged my shot again. The building was almost fully engulfed now. Parts of the outside wall was starting to fall away to reveal the burnt out remains of blocks of apartments.

I was right across from floor thirteen. But without a solid grapple point to get across I’d have to…

I looked up at the extra two floors of exposed wooden beams and sighed. “Sure why not.” I said jovially. “Today is a day for all kinds of stupid.” So before I could give myself a reason not to I started climbing even higher.

Your actions are pointless yo-

“Fuck you!” I said with as much venom as I could manage while climbing onto a wooden beam. “Fuck! You! You psychic vampire ghost parasite shit headed motherfucker! I’ll kill you!”

“Argh!” I yelled rubbing my face at the heat I could already feel from the other building and the terrible Idea I had. “Fuck me!” I groaned before steeling myself and gauging the distance again. A good chunk of Pyga’s building was exposed now. How hard would it be to land on one of those protruding floors? I was on what would have been floor fifteen of this building had it been built yet. That gave me two floors of wiggle room to reach thirteen. That was good right?

Breathing fast and hard I walked back on the wooden beam until I reached as far as I could go. I had to give myself as much of a head start as I could to make it across. The beam was only about two feet wide. Something that would have definitely been impossible for me to run on top of just a month ago. And with Acrobatics and five Dexterity, I was faster and more agile than I’d ever been before in my life.

It would have to do.

Crouching down like a runner at a race track. I felt one last vestige of sanity and good sense try to tell me that what I was planning to do was stupid and I was going to die. I gathered my will and gave that traitorous sense of sanity my answer.

“Fuck it.”

Immediately I broke into a run across the beam. My steps keeping perfectly in line with the beam until my run became a sprint. I ran as fast as I could push my System enhanced muscles. Moving me faster than any human on Earth could have ever possibly moved.

Then I reached the end of the board, and I jumped.

For a magical moment, suspended in the air with the hot air blowing against me, I almost believed I could make it straight across to the fifteenth floor of Pyga’s building. I think I even heard someone scream down below. Actually, wait that was probably me. Then reality hit me as I fell towards the fourteenth floor. Fast. I crossed my arms over my face and at the last second I used one of my Class’s Spell Splinters the way they were meant to be used. Hopefully.

Heat Reduction Layer!

A spider web mesh of red fractals danced over my skin as I fell headlong into the inferno.