Darkness washed over me as nearly boiling water surged around me, knocking me off my feet. The water gripped me tightly, holding me off the ground, then rushed backward, dragging me with it. Water surged in my ears with a rumble as the flow yanked me into the pool and pulled me down into it. I thrashed around, kicking my feet and slashing with my hands, but the pressure of the water held me as tightly as a net, keeping me from fighting loose and reaching the water above.
“It’s a spirit, John!” Sara said urgently. “You have to attack the spirit!”
“Try lightning,” Kadonsel said just as urgently. “Water spirits are usually weak to it!”
I stopped thrashing and closed my eyes. I could hold my breath for a while even back on Earth, and with my Vigor a fuckload higher here, I wasn’t in any danger of running out of air for a few minutes. Concentrating enough to cast a spell wasn’t easy, though. The current holding me whirled me around slamming me into the muddy bottom and sending water rushing up my nose. I did my best to ignore that distraction and reached into my center, tapping my storm spirit and drawing up a strand of its power. I guided that strand into the pattern I needed, then pushed it into my hands and out into the water.
The energy surged out of me as the spell took effect. Even as it did, I felt a sense of panic; I was about to electrify a pool that I was immersed in, which couldn’t be good for me! Electricity poured from my fingers and filled the space around me, lighting up the darkness with crackling arcs of power—and none of it came near my flesh. The lightning surged about me in a roughly spherical shape for a second or so before winking out, leaving me in darkness once more.
Pressure gripped me as I felt myself rushing upward. I burst into open air as I cleared the surface of the pool and soared toward the bank. I twisted as I fell, rolling with the landing, and while the stony ground bruised me pretty decently, nothing felt broken or dislocated as I rose to my feet. My spear appeared in my hands as I stepped back from the pool, watching as a blob of liquid rose from it and hovered above me, looming ominously like a huge wave about to crash.
“Freyd! Thank the spirits!” I risked a quick glance over my shoulder and saw Fifa standing about ten feet away with her back to me, still nude. Lumps of moving rock the size of beach balls surrounded her, rolling slowly toward her, while sudden gusts of wind batted at her body, swaying her back and forth. It looked like while the pool attacked me, the air and ground struck at her. However, like me, she wasn’t exactly helpless.
She raised her hands, and I felt power gathering around her. Her lifted hands began to glow, one with a tawny light like a luminous lion’s mane, the other the pale blue I associated with ice. Darts that looked like molten stone shot from her tawny hand and slammed into the lumps of stone rearing around her, burning into their centers. Weblike filaments of smoking ice whipped about her other hand, lashing the air around her and silencing the winds swirling around her. Fifa, it seemed, had matters well in hand—for the moment, at least.
I dragged my gaze away and turned my attention back to the wave looming above me. I could feel its power gathering, and as it did, I pulled up another strand of lightning and fed it into my spear. The wave surged forward, crashing toward me, and I danced back and sideways, thrusting the crackling spear into the water and activating Channeled Strike at the same time. The spear plunged into the dark wave effortlessly, and as the spell and ability activated together, a blast of lightning swept through the surge. A halo of bluish light flowed through the wave, which collapsed with a splash and flowed back into the pool. I used the moment to back even further away from the pool; I assumed that the spirit inside it could only go so far from it, and if I got far enough, it wouldn’t be able to reach me.
As I backed slowly toward Fifa, the wave surged forward once more, this time looking like a huge claw as it swept toward me. I threw myself sideways and stabbed at it from one knee, activating Spiritual Strike at the same time. The ghostly spear plunged into the watery claw, and the shape collapsed in a splash of water that drained swiftly into the rocks below.
I spun toward Fifa and rushed to her side, my spear swirling with superheated steam. I thrust forward, driving the misty spear into an onrushing boulder, expecting the crystal head to slide off the stone. Instead, the rock cracked as the spear slid through the hard shell and plunged into the interior. My spear pulsed, and the stone shattered in a blast of steam and a wave of heat.
Wind slammed into my back, knocking me forward, and what felt like hundreds of tiny claws scrabbled along my back and shoulders. I spun and swiped a backfist through the air, charging it with a surge of fire. My fist glowed bright orange as it swept through the air, and the wind pressing against me seemed to shatter and dissipate.
I turned back and moved in front of Fifa, jamming my now-flaming spear into a boulder rolling forward. Once again, the weapon cracked open the rocky exterior and sank into the depths of the stone, which erupted with a crack and a flare of orange light. My weapon darted into another boulder, gleaming with ice as it shattered the stone, then plunged into a third, flickering with a coating of swirling air. Each stab destroyed a boulder, but I guessed that just like at the mud pools, all I was doing was shattering their shells; the spirits simply flowed back into the ground and rose again with new earthen containers. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who realized that.
“Can you hold them off me?” Fifa shouted as she flung another blast of molten darts that destroyed a half-dozen boulders at once.
“Not for very long!” I called back, stabbing another pair of boulders. “We need to get back to the valskab!”
“They’re coming from the valskab!” she snapped back. “If you can give me a minute, I think I can calm these spirits or at least drive them away! Can you?”
“You might be able to do the same thing with Dominate Spirits, John,” Sara pointed out.
I’d forgotten about that ability—as well as most of my abilities, to be honest. I quickly activated Draining Aura; as surrounded by spirits as we were, it should be extra effective. See Spirits lit up the darkness with clouds of misty white and orbs of steel gray, showing me the spirits that swarmed us thickly. As I stabbed my spear into a swirling curl of wind, I pulled hard, and Spirit Drain sucked ten units of power into me in an instant, causing the spirit to shrivel swiftly.
“Yeah,” I answered Fifa with a grin. “Yeah, I think I can.”
“Good.” She stepped back and pulled out a knife, jamming it into the ground and drawing a swift circle around herself. She sat down in the middle of it and closed her eyes, her lips moving silently.
I wrenched my gaze free of her naked body—even in the middle of the battle, my body demanded that I satisfy one of its more primal urges—and moved to attack the spirits swarming us. My spear leaped and danced, darting out to intercept any spirit that approached. I shifted and spun, striking out in all directions, my weapon lashing like a serpent to strike my foes. Fire and lightning danced on the tip; smoke wreathed the shaft; ice glistened on the blade. Spiritual power exploded in my targets as Channeled Strike poured spirit energy into them, energy that came right back as Spirit Drain sapped the power from the creatures and fed it into me.
Gouts of flame and flashes of light struck me as more spirits swarmed me and were struck down. I tore their energy from them and fed it into my reserves, replacing the power I spent on Channeled and Elemental Strikes. Sudden spears of water sliced my skin, and plants rose up at my feet, entangling them and trying to drag me down. Smoke wreathed my head, and steam jetted up from vents to scald my hide. Each spirit fell in turn, drained too deeply of power to reform and attack me as my spear, stomping feet, and striking fists tore into them, ripping their essence from them.
I swore in pain as a stone spike jutted up from the ground directly beneath my feet as an earth spirit cleverer than the rest struck me. Without thinking, I reached out and grabbed the spirit with mental hands. I could feel its confusion and fear; something drove it to attack me, and it didn’t understand what. I wrapped it in my will, but the force driving it fought back, trying to whip it into striking at me. I snarled and pushed harder, crushing the thing in my mental grip, and I felt something in it snap as I tore it free of what controlled it. The spirit spread out beneath me as its will became mine, and it joined with my Swift and Steady spell to hold and stabilize both me and the earth beneath me, shielding me from further attacks from below. A wind spirit slashed at my face, and I grabbed it as well, using a similar effort to rip it free of whatever drove it at me, and a gentle breeze ruffled my fur as the spirit swirled protectively about me, trying to drive back other spirits that came near. I captured a gout of steam and set it to scald the wind spirits approaching me, while I dragged a lava spirit from where it hid in wait and commanded it to flow over the approaching earth spirits and melt them down.
I nearly stumbled as a sudden wave of power rose behind me, and I spun quickly to see the earth near the pool bulge upward like a blister. Water flowed up from the center, washing over the rising mound that swelled as high as my head. A tendril of stone erupted from the mound, moving like a tentacle to slam into the ground. Three more erupted around its sides, each crashing to the earth beneath. The tentacles surged, and the mound of earth ripped itself free of the ground below. The moss and grasses covering it shifted and wove around, spreading to coat it in a thick layer that looked oddly like fur, while a bubble bulged from the front, protruding outward and elongating into what looked like a muzzle. While I whirled and fought, driving the nearest spirits back, the huge form shifted and tumbled, stretching and bulging like a creature trying to force its way out of a chrysalis. I quickly activated Genius Loci, and while the information on every spirit in range slamming into my brain almost made me drop my spear, the only information I really cared about burned in my vision.
Unknown Spirit
Spirit Type: Elder
Class: N
Power: 466
Estimated Physical Stats:
Prowess: 81 Vigor: 93
Celerity: 72 Skill: 64
“Holy shit!” I swore silently. “Is that thing really that strong?”
“Yes, John. It’s an elder spirit, and a decently powerful one, probably about as strong as the one possessing that undottyar.”
Before I could react, another wave of power rose near me, this one coming from behind me. I spun to see Fifa reaching out with her knife and slashing through her circle, letting the power she’d gathered flow outward. With See Spirits active, the power looked like a softly flowing wave that dipped and crested outward in a circle, lapping against the surging spirits with deceptive gentleness. As the wave touched each spirit, though, they went still, and the containers they possessed fell apart. Frowning, I activated See Magic and blinked in surprise; a web of magical filaments filled the air, linked to every spirit except the ones I’d torn free and dominated. As the wave passed, though, the web withered and curled like a spiderweb touched by flames, shriveling up and freeing the spirits.
I glanced back at the massive spirit, and my heart sank. While it looked like the wave’s passage had severed some of the filaments binding it, far too many still linked to it. The creature’s shape had filled out, and it now resembled a massive bear with a lupine head, covered in mottled plants that lay against its stone-covered hide like fur. Flames burned where its eyes should have been, and water flowed and glistened along its body, making it look sleek and deadly. The things tentacles had shortened and thickened into legs that ended in vicious claws of ice, and while it moved slowly at first, its movements jerky and cumbersome, they swiftly smoothed out as it apparently got used to its new body.
“Fifa, anything you can do about that?” I asked tersely, putting myself between the woman and the creature while it adapted to its body.
“No,” she replied in a tired voice. “That’s an elder spirit, Freyd. Even if I hadn’t just used most of my available energy to still the lesser spirits, I couldn’t do more than hold it at bay. It’s too powerful.”
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“Can you call for reinforcements from the valskab?”
“No, I can’t. The last I heard, the entire valskab was being overrun with spirits, and even if they could spare someone, I can’t contact them.”
“You can’t?” I flashed her a concerned look. “I thought you could all talk to each other mentally.”
“That—isn’t working right now,” she said, and I heard real fear in her voice. “Whatever’s happening, it’s disrupted the fabric of the valskab, and it’s interfering with our ability to communicate.” She swallowed hard. “It’s just us. We need a circle, Freyd, and I’m too tired to make one strong enough to hide us from that.”
“What if it were weaker?” I asked slowly.
“What are you talking about? It doesn’t matter! It’s not weaker…”
“What if I could make it weaker?” I cut her off. “How weak would it need to be for you to be able to calm it the way you did the others?”
“As I am now?” She hesitated. “If it were maybe a quarter of its current strength, I might be able to still it. A third if Aeld were with me, assuming he’s not as exhausted as I am.”
“Then put your circle back together and try to recover your strength,” I said grimly, hefting my spear. “I’ll have to see if I can weaken it for you.”
“What are you talking about? You can’t weaken…”
“Make your circle, Fifa,” I interrupted once more, walking away from her toward the spirit. As I did, I turned my thoughts inward.
“Sara, that spell you made to empower me,” I began, but she spoke before I could finish.
“It’s possible, John. You could try feeding it from the high spirit. Its energy is a lot more fluid and malleable than lesser spirits; it seems to be able to become whatever the spirit needs it to be. It might also overload your system and kill you, though.”
“What are the chances of that happening?”
“It’ll all come down to your control, John. As long as you keep the power under control, you should be fine. If you let it get away from you, though, it might burn out your nervous system and rip your muscles to shreds. Remember, your stats are limited by your body’s physical capabilities, and there’s only so far I can push that without making substantial changes.”
I gripped the spear and took a deep breath, then pushed aside all my worries and fears. This was going to take almost superhuman focus and concentration. I couldn’t afford emotions getting in the way. My anxieties slid away as I relaxed the barriers I’d erected in my mind and pushed aside the mask I wore to hide my true depths. My body loosened, and I rolled my head around once, shaking my shoulders to loosen them. My fear was gone; the spirit was just a mark, and while I respected my marks, I didn’t fear them. They feared me.
There, in the darkness beneath the twisting spirit lights, the Faceless Man walked once more.
The spirit bear lifted its wolflike muzzle, and while no sound came out, its roar echoed through the spiritual plane and rang in my head. I ignored its challenge and began channeling power, wrapping myself in a thin layer of ice to shield my skin and pouring lightning into my spear. I called more wind spirits from the air and dominated them into swirling around me as a shield, then did the same beneath my feet as I cast Swift and Steady.
Finally, I reached down into myself and touched the blazing orb of power that had once been the spirit of Lerlauga. The energy leaped eagerly toward me, racing at my extended thoughts, but I slapped it down and gripped it fiercely.
“You belong to me!” I growled at the shuddering ball of energy with every bit of menace I could manage. “You’ll do what I say, or I’ll toss you out and laugh while you fade away!” I don’t know if it understood me, or if it just responded to the sudden press of my will, but the quivering orb of power stilled at once, and I drew the smallest strand I could manage from it, feeding it into the pattern for Spiritual Empowerment.
The energy surged into my body, and I shuddered as it soaked into my flesh. This spell worked with the beast spirit because, in life, that spirit had to animate a body, so it knew how to add to that, making me stronger and faster. I didn’t know if the high spirit had ever been alive or not, but it seemed to know a Menskallin’s body intimately and well as it flooded me. It sank into my muscles and drenched my bones, saturated my nerves and coated my tendons. It poured up my spine into the base of my skull and covered my skin. It touched every part of my body, strengthening and improving it beyond what the simple beast spirit could manage. I curiously pulled up my stats and smiled coldly at what I saw.
John Gilliam, Master of Beasts
Mental Stats
Reason: 35 Intuition: 37 Perception: 58 Charm: 27
Physical Stats
Prowess: 82 Vigor: 85 Celerity: 60 Skill: 66
The high spirit boosted my Perception and physical stats by 50% each, far more than I could possibly have gotten from the pathetic beast spirit. I wondered if I could tap it for all my spells, and what the effects of that would be.
“Unpredictable, John,” Sara answered my unspoken question. “This spell is a good example. It’s powerful, but it’s pushed your body to the very edge of what it can handle. You’re accumulating small amounts of damage every second, and those will build up. If you keep this going for more than a minute or two, you might cripple yourself.”
“Then I’ll just have to end this in less than a minute,” I said calmly. “Sara, keep an eye on the accumulating damage and let me know if I’m getting to the point of danger. Kadonsel, suggestions for dealing with this?”
“It—its vessel,” she said after a moment’s hesitation, and I could hear the awe and uncertainty in her voice. “Possessing spirits take on some of the qualities of their vessels, so anything that is especially damaging to the vessel will damage the spirit, as well. I see fire, water, ice, and stone in it, so lightning, light, and wind should be more effective.”
The spirit bear roared again, then lowered its head and charged toward me. Its icy claws dug into the ground, and the spirit animating its body drove it forward at ridiculous speeds. It was faster than I was, no doubt, but I’d seen its body tensing for the charge, and I moved before it did. I slid sideways, and as I did, I channeled a burst of energy from my water spirit into the ground. A jet of water shot up beneath the charging bear, slamming into its chin. The water wasn’t enough to injure the spirit or even knock it down, but it made the thing stumble and gave me time to get out of the way.
My spear darted out, faster than it had ever moved before, flickering and ghostly under the effects of Spiritual Strike. The blade slid through the armored skin and plunged into the spirit beneath, and the moment it touched it, I pulled, hard. The energy resisted for a moment, but I yanked on it with my will, and after a moment, energy poured back into me, helping to partially restore all the power I poured out.
The bear whirled, tearing my spear loose, and swiped a paw at me. I anticipated the blow from the way it shifted its weight and slipped beneath it, stabbing up into the creature’s armpit with a spear that crackled with lightning. The weapon bit a few inches into the creature, and electricity sparked and arced along its skin as I yanked in another ten units of power. The thing twisted and snapped at me with its jaws, distorting its neck in an impossible fashion to reach me, but I batted the blow aside with a swing of my spear that cracked against its muzzle and knocked it backward.
The bear sprang back, then slammed a paw on the ground. A wave of liquid stone rolled outward as the ground buckled and shifted. I set myself and rode the wave, held in place by the dominated spirits beneath my feet, although the force of the rippling earth nearly broke them free of my control. I had to freeze for that moment, though, and it used that to charge at me, bellowing silently in my skull as its paws slapped at me. I jammed my spear into its muzzle and set my feet, letting it drive me backward and counting on the spirits beneath me to keep me from stumbling. In response, it belched a gout of flames that rolled over my Ice Armor, leaving it somewhat thinner but me unharmed.
I slid sideways and let the beast rush past me, stabbing a Channeled Strike into its flank and draining more energy from it. A blast of water shot from its wound, shoving me back, and I let it. I didn’t want to fight this thing face-to-face. I might be stronger than it, but it outweighed me by a ton or two at least, and I had a time limit, here. I couldn’t slowly whittle it down; I needed to end it, and I needed to end it quickly. The problem was, it was too fast for me to maneuver around to get the perfect shot. I looked the thing over and smiled. Maybe I didn’t have to maneuver much after all.
The spirit bear whirled to face me and belched out another blast of flame, then slammed both paws into the earth. I dodged the fire and rode out the wave once more, although this time I was ready for its follow-up charge. As one of the surges crested beneath my feet, I ordered the earth spirits to release me and leaped into the air. I jammed my spear down at the bear’s head as it passed, using the weapon to pole vault onto the creature’s broad back. As I landed, I summoned the earth spirits once more, and they quickly bonded my feet to the spirit’s stony back. The beast screamed in fury, and the plants around me sprang upright as they began to stretch toward me, while a blast of water crashed into my back, etching my Ice Armor and trying to drive me forward.
Before the blast could tear me from the grip of the lesser spirits beneath my feet, I lifted my spear high, point downward. I jammed it down into the creature, activating Lunge, Heartstrike, Spiritual Strike, and Channeled Strike at the same time. The spear tore through the bear’s back and plunged into the very center of it, unleashing a blast of spiritual energy that ripped at the core of the elder spirit. It screamed again, this time in pain and fear as I pulled, hard, yanking power out of its core. The energy poured into me, and I in turn pumped it into my Ice Armor, rebuilding it against the scrabbling vines and jet of water pitting it. Despite the influx of energy, though, my spiritual power began to plummet, and I pulled harder, trying to suck more energy out of the spirit and into my body. The bear roared its fury at me, and I roared in defiance, hurling my challenge at the beast—a challenge that it answered.
I felt myself flung violently into the air as the hazy mists of the spirit world formed around me. A roar shattered the stillness before I could look around, and I glanced down to see a dark purple shape explode from the spirit bear and race toward me, massive and bestial beyond belief. The ursine spirit looked as big as a fucking bus as it swarmed toward me, swinging terrifying claws and gnashing its awful fangs.
Fear tried to pour over me, but I shoved it ruthlessly aside as I reached down and pulled power to myself. I felt my body swelling and expanding, growing to match the bear in size. Hardened feathers coated my skin, and ice and lightning crackled on my fingers. Wind swirled around me, and palls of mist and smoke shrouded me in their haze. The bear slammed into me, driving me back, but as it did, I grabbed its head and twisted, flinging it past me into the sky above.
It righted itself and charged down at me, and I raced up to meet it. I slipped past its snapping jaws and blocked a claw slash, then responded with a fist that drove ice spikes and arcs of lightning into the bear. It screamed its fury and bore down on me, trying to bowl me over. I let myself be pushed and shifted sideways, slamming a knee into its lower jaw and cracking an elbow down on its back.
The bear charged forward relentlessly, driven by savage fury and bestial rage. It fought without precision or skill, relying on its mass, size, and power to overwhelm me. That was fine with me. Back on Earth, I was kind of a smaller guy, and most of the men I’d fought were larger, stronger, and heavier. I’d had to learn to fight with precision, skill—and a certain amount of ruthlessness. I didn’t try to knock a person out by punching them in the head when I could take out their knee or elbow. I didn’t bother trading blows with them when I could take their back and choke them out or snap their neck. I didn’t fight for show, for pride, or even to win. I fought to cripple, to maim, and to kill. The people I fought were my enemies, and I didn’t leave live enemies behind me.
I fought the bear the same way. I didn’t try to match its strength or savagery; I fought to cripple and kill it as quickly as possible. My fists slammed into vital areas, weakening them so I could drive knife-hand strikes into its flesh. I dodged its blows and kicked out its legs, tripping it so I could scramble onto it and drive my fingers into its core and tear out hunks of spirit essence. I locked down its jaws and tore out its throat, accepting the claws that ripped through my spirit body in return for striking its vital spots.
How long the battle lasted, I had no idea, but we rose higher and higher as we struggled, floating above the spirit lights that writhed and twisted painfully in this world, floating above the misty cloud spirits, even rising above the distant, blazing peak that I assumed was Aldhyor. The bear’s fury never abated, even as its body began to dwindle and shrink under my blows. I sensed victory at hand and went for the kill, driving forward to grasp the creature, planning to pin it in place and rip away its essence at my leisure.
A sudden surge of power burst into the spiritual arena in which we battled, a blaze of light that blinded my spiritual senses for a moment. When my sight returned, I saw a web of glowing power wrapped around the weakly struggling bear, pulling it downward. I followed the web down to the earth, where I recognized a pair of glowing figures, each covered in a patchwork quilt of bound spirits. Fifa must have gotten Aeld, and the two of them had interfered in my battle, stealing my enemy from me.
I felt a slight surge of anger that I quickly dismissed. I hadn’t fought the thing to beat it or to prove I was stronger; I fought it to survive. It didn’t matter to me if I defeated an elder spirit, or how much doing so would impress people. Besides, I’d already claimed most of its power for myself; I could feel the blazing blob of power gathered within me, waiting to be tapped. That meant I’d taken part of the spirit, as well; I didn’t even know what would be left behind, and it didn’t really matter.
I turned away from the creature; once it was back on earth, combat would end, and I’d return to my body. I took the moment to look around and let out a silent whistle of appreciation. We’d traveled much higher than I’d imagined during the battle, high enough that I could see the entirety of the Haelendi stretched out below me. The High Reaches rose to the north, shrouded in spirits of ice, wind, and storm. To the west, the glowing spirit of the Haelendi ended at a vast sheet of sea green that stretched as far as I could see. To the east, a massive wall of turquoise bounded the Haelendi, much brighter and deeper than my own storm spirit, no doubt the reason that Kadonsel’s ship had to sail far to the north. Far to the south, another range of mountains rose, these less icy but littered with multihued spirits, including crimson and green hunt spirits.
I froze as a silver glow lit up the darkness beyond those borders. To the north, the High Reaches blocked my gaze, but to either side, vast, shimmering curves of silvery light carved paths in the green of the sea, stretching out to the horizon before sweeping back in and joining south of the southern mountains. Energy rose from those arcs in a curtain of eerie light, and I stared at it for a long moment before my brain processed what I was seeing.
“Sara, is that…”
“Yes, John.” Her voice was muffled and distant as always when I was in the spirit world, but I could still feel the concern in her words. “It’s a circle enclosing the entire Haelendi—and it looks like it’s complete. Whatever the Oikithikiim are doing, it’s going to affect the entire Haelendi, and it seems like they’re just about ready to do it.”