[Infinite Vitality]

[Soul Strength]

[Power of the Heart]

[New Osslinder Purity]

[Devian’s Constitution]

[Alysisus Natural Cell Reform]

[Purities Final Embrace]

[Hands of Vitality]

[Bearer of the Divine Soul]

[Healing Soul]

Caleb scrolled through the list of skills, reading over them one by one. Whenever a new idea for a power came to him, the list shifted in tandem with his thoughts. His eyes flew over the words, barely reading over their names and descriptions before moving to the next.

“It’s incredible” he whispered to himself.

[You still looking at the skills?] Kana said, glancing to him. He nodded, almost imperceptibly, his focus still fixed on the wall of text scrolling past his vision.

They sat with the others around a fire pit, a bundle of wood burning with soft blue flames, against the stone like ground by the river. The others all joked and laughed to each other as they ate the fruit, the meat cooking over the fire, it’s smell mostly gone. Their was an air of calm and security surrounding them now. Likely because of the skills.

[Caleb?] Kana said.

“Hm?"

[You okay? You seem out of it]

"Oh sorry. I'm fine. I just... I mean there’s just so many. You couldn’t even get through all of them in a single lifetime. Probably. With some of the skills you might be able to give it a shot”

[Have you found one you like?]

“Not exactly… but a few are eye catching” he muttered. “You found any?”

[A few. I’ve narrowed it down to two]

“Which ones?”

[Protective energy, and Healing presence]

Caleb frowned, looking back to his record.

[Protective energy]

[User gains the ability to manifest energies that amplify regenerative capability and ambient mana]

[Healing presence]

[Users presence becomes regenerative to all chosen organisms within a certain radius]

“Healing powers? That’s…on brand actually” Caleb said, smiling at her. She smiled back, then looked to the fire, her smile remaining.

[With healing I’ll be able to fight in my own way] she said. Caleb watched her for a bit, then looked to the fire nodding.

“You’ll be a great healer” he said. Kana's smile brightened as she continued to stare into the flames.

Caleb continued looking at the fire, then his record appeared again, scrolling over the skills as new ideas came to him. It absorbed his attention again completely, drawing him into the world of the skills, and descriptions. All the promising ones were all so vague.

There's got to be something here somewhere.

"Hey, uh... Caleb. I've been meaning to ask, but what's with all the tattoos?" Michael said, looking over to Caleb. Caleb paused, mildly surprised, then let the screen in front of him fade, his vision falling to everyone else. It shouldn't have been that surprising that someone would ask about it. He probably should've expected it.

"Uh... it was just part of a healing ritual the people we were with did" he said.

[Wait, you got hurt?] Mario asked.

"Yeah. It wasn't anything serious though"

"Well..." Ryan mumbled.

[Well?] David said, looking between the two.

"Your leg got broken. And Kana's arm I wouldn't exactly call that nothing serious" Ryan said. Caleb stared at Ryan for a moment, frowning, then looked back to the fire. He'd been trying to downplay their injuries, but maybe that wasn't fair to the other four.

[Holy shit] Mario said.

"So are you guys actually good fighters or not?" Layla asked. There was a beat of silence, and Caleb watched as the others sense of security slowly faded.

"We were fine against groups of things close to us in strength, but if we face an orc again we'd lose nine times out of ten" Sierra said. "The skills will make up for that though. You won't be as helpless as you think"

The others relaxed slightly at Sierra's words, though some of the nervous tension remained.

[Ah, I can't get stressed about all this stuff on an empty stomach. It's not good for my health.] Mario mumbled. [Is the food ready?]

The others looked to it, watching as the sword cut strips sizzled over the fire. Then David got up, and stepped towards the meat.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Uh, David?" Layla said.

[What?]

“You’re seriously gonna try it?”

[The smell’s gone. It’ll be fine] David said, as he carefully pulled a strip of meat off the makeshift tray.

Everyone watched with bated breath as he stared at it, frowning. Then he bit into it, and chewed slowly.

[Is it good?] Mario asked.

[Wow. Yeah. It’s great]

“You’re not just saying that?” Michael said.

“What meat even is it?” Sierra asked, peering at the food over the fire.

“That’s a good question” Ryan said. "Maybe it's from one of those eagle snakes we saw"

"Oh, maybe" Caleb said.

[Eagle snakes?!] Mario said.

"Yeah. They were huge with white scales and everything" Ryan said grinning.

"I don't think it'd be them" Sierra said. "I mean how would you even kill one of those things?"

[Then what is it?]

"Probably some random rodent or something. Or maybe goblin" Sierra said.

[I hope it's not human] David said suddenly.

"No way" Ryan mumbled. "Right?"

"Probably not" Caleb said, unnerved. "I mean they didn't seem like the kind of people that eat each other"

"David what does it taste like?" Michael said.

[Chicken?]

"It's probably chicken then"

"But everything tastes like chicken if you're not familiar" Layla said.

"It's probably goblin" Sierra repeated.

[Goblin?]

"Yeah, we killed a ton of them. They probably took the dead ones to use as food whilst cleaning up" Ryan said. "Makes more sense then people anyway"

[Jesus. Goblin... I don't want to eat goblin. What even is that?]

[It's fine] David responded.

[Nah, It needs to have a good sounding name or I can't eat it. It'll taste bad] Mario said.

"The meat's not going to change you idiot" Layla said, rolling her eyes.

[We can call it mystery meat. Make things exciting] Elena said chuckling to herself at Mario's expression. [We used have that for lunch on Monday’s back at school]

“Seriously? Is that even allowed?” Michael laughed as he glanced to Mario's horrified expression.

Suddenly Caleb froze. Everyone continued laughing and talking amongst themselves, the surroundings forgotten. But Caleb had been reminded. It was small, only a flicker on the radar of his new sense. But it was out there, in the shadows. And it was getting closer.

“G-guys?!” he said, panicked as he looked around. Everyone went silent and looked to him.

[What is it?] David asked.

“T-there’s something out there” Caleb muttered. “It’s close”

The others all looked too, spooked by his words. But their silence stretched out, for one minute to two, and the fearful faces turned confused, then doubtful.

“You sure?” Michael said, turning back to him.

“I…” Caleb trailed off, a seed of doubt in his mind now.

“I don’t hear anything” Ryan said. The others spared a few glances at him before, slowly returning to conversation.

[Are you alright?] Kana said looking to him.

“Yeah. I just… I’m on edge or something” he mumbled. Then Ryan’s head whipped around, his eyes widening and Caleb felt it. A shift in the mana landscape around him, a weight greater than even Michael’s with his skill.

Caleb turned slowly as he looked into the forest, looking straight for the disturbance. A distant set of red eyes stared back. They held for a few seconds, Caleb’s heart pounding wildly. But he didn’t dare break eye contact or move. And neither did the monster in the darkness.

[Caleb?] Kana said.

“Run” he mumbled.

[What?]

Suddenly the mana landscape shifted again and Caleb felt the weight approach him.

“RUN!” he roared.

But it was too late. A two headed tiger leapt out of the forest and flew forward with an unholy speed.

It narrowly missed Caleb and Kana but sunk it’s teeth into Jakob, the other head roaring as it slashed part of Elena’s side with its claws. Jakob shrieked loudly for a split second then the tiger head clamped its jaw shut and he was in two, his blood and guts spilling over the floor as everyone stared momentarily in shock.

Then the tiger hit the ground and skidded slightly, before growling as he turned to the others. Without hesitation Michael launched a ball of fire it. It hit the monster and it cried out, pulling back from the wash heat the fireball provided.

Michael threw two more, one hitting the beast and another missing. The stray fire ball, shot past and landed in a thicket of bushes nearby, the leaves instantly catching fire. Then Michael collapsed, David catching him.

The tiger roared, protected from the weak flames by it's own magic somehow. Then it leapt at the two of them, and just like that they were gone.

Layla screamed as the tiger’s heads crunched down on the bodies, blood spraying outwards. It clawed for her next but she stumbled backwards, and fell into the river, instantly pulled along by it’s current as the tiger growled, pulling away from the water.

By that time, everyone had already turned to flee except Markus who stared at his brother’s corpse, expressionless.

The tiger roared again and turned to jump Markus when a shield suddenly hit it in the side of the head. It turned to face Kana who stared at it wide eyed, glowing slightly in the darkness. She turned to run but slipped and fell as it pounced.

Caleb suddenly became aware of himself again, his eyes widening as he realised what was happening.

Then the tiger was crying out, a sword piercing it’s second head as it crashed to the ground, missing Kana. Caleb only registered the sudden whoosh of air, like a gunshot a moment after.

Sierra - somehow holding her sword through the tiger’s head - roared then pulled the blade out stabbing at the creature impossibly fast again and again before it swatted her away screeching. She flew back, hit a tree and didn’t get up.

The tiger roared again, then looked between the unmoving Sierra and Kana. It snarled at Kana as she scrambled to her feet and prepared to pounce. But Ryan roared, rushing forwards as his sword and shield appeared, and stupidly Caleb found himself rushing forwards too, sword in hand, screaming.

The tiger turned to them, and took a fearful step back, snarling at them. Ryan slowed slightly as it prepared to pounce at them now and Caleb realised he’d charged, stupidly, right to his death.

As it leapt at them his mind instantly went to the stat points and without a thought he split the two between strength and speed.

The stat points were like crack. He’d never tried crack, only seen others in the trailer park smoking it from their pipes. But investing the stat points was exactly what he’d imagined taking a hit must feel like.

The euphoria was instant and incredible. And for a moment his body felt weightless. Then his mind returned to reality and he felt powerful. Incredibly powerful.

The sword felt lighter in his hands and his entire body felt better. The feeling was so overwhelming that it took him a second to remember the two headed tiger was leaping at him, Ryan nowhere to be seen.

Caleb didn’t know what to make of that, but his attention was focused on the tiger. His entire body tensed as he started to raise his sword, his heart leaping into his mouth. But - as he watched it – he noticed it seemed slower now, ever so slightly. Still fast, but just slow enough that he could react.

He jumped, and then he was up, more than twice as high as he’d ever jumped in his entire life and the tiger shot past underneath. He landed, on the floor perfectly normally and froze for a second confused. He’d easily just cleared at least two, maybe three metres. He glanced behind him to see the two headed tiger roar again and turn to face him, charging.

But before it could reach him one of the riverside boulders flew through the air and slammed into it. He looked to the side to see Ryan standing by the edge of the river, looking down at his hands in surprise.

The tiger shrugged off the boulder its side dented slightly. It looked to Caleb, then to Ryan and snarled louder. Ryan wide eyed, scrambled back and jumped over the river easily with his new strength. The tiger looked to the water and snarled, then turned to face him and with a loud roar charged him.

It rushed at him again, but this time he didn’t freeze, or stare at it too distracted by his own new abilities. This time he just charged it too.

He skipped to the side as it leapt, dodging almost easily, then swung his sword as hard as he could, cleaving off its outstretched paw. It hit the ground, then squealed loudly, and quickly scrambled into the darkness of the forest, tripping over itself.

He watched it go before looking around. The jungle around the river was ablaze, the canopy one of the few places in the jungle dry enough for a fire to spread. He covered his mouth shielding himself from the smoke as he looked to the others, ignoring the mess of blood and body parts.

Sierra sat dazed against a tree, Ryan stood on the other side of the river in shock, and Kana knelt over Elena who lay near the river, unmoving as blood leaked from her side. Markus still stood over his brother’s corpse silent, and David was gone and the others.

Caleb looked down at his own hands, then over to the bloody tiger paw before rushing over to Sierra.

He stumbled slightly, not used to his newfound strength and speed, but managed to tone it down enough as he came to a stop by Sierra.

“Y-you ok?” he said. She looked to him quickly, then nodded, clutching her side tightly.

“You?” she wheezed.

“Yeah” he mumbled back. She nodded again, then she was up and moving to Kana. He followed behind her, slowing as they came to a stop behind her. Kana held Elena’s hand with her bad arm, as she laid her head in her lap, her good hand held against Elena’s side, glowing brightly.

Caleb stared at the magic shocked, then to Elena’s still paling face.

“Kana? Kana what are you doing?” Sierra said.

[I don’t know] she said, sobbing. [Just… it’s not working. I… she’s gonna die… I can’t… she’s gonna die]

A thud came from the rocks behind and he flinched, turning to look at Ryan, who knelt in the gravel dirt, having leapt back over the river. He stood and dusted himself off, before looking to the girls on the floor. They watched as Kana struggled and failed to heal Elena, the bleeding only getting worse.

Then suddenly Sierra violently yanked Kana’s hands away.

“Hey!” Caleb started forwards but froze. Kana bled from the nose, and blood had started to seep from her ears too. Kana cried out, trying to fight Sierra as she held her back.

[I need to heal her!] Kana cried. [I need to… let me heal her!]

“Stop it! Fucking stop it!" Sierra cried "You’re hurting yourself!”

Kana’s hands finally stopped glowing and she went limp, sobbing as Sierra held her. Sierra looked to the two of them, her face filled with silent horror. She didn’t say a word as she held Kana, whose sobs were louder than the rain around them.