The Grand eGress – Chapter 05 – Soul Branch

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When Ambro received the long staff from Palma he was excited. To be told a second later that the, “special” summoned weapon he received was called a branch made him unable to laugh or cry. *

Now instead of thinking he was swinging around a cool treant staff he would be forever reminded that this thing in his hand was a branch.

“Whats with that look?” Without being able to hear Palma , Cassidy asked the same question.

“This weapon…its a branch.”

“And? You looked real happy with it just a minute ago”

“No its called a Branch.”

“You mean its name is branch? I don’t get whats wrong with that it is made out of some kind of wood right. Problem?”*

“ You don’t get it? Its supposed to have some kind of cool name. I will feel like some ancient school teacher disciplining his students in every fight.”

Cassidys face went through a couple of transformations and then he started laughing. Not the gentle kind of laugh. The infectious rolling in the dirt and tears falling out of eyes laugh.

Ambro dug his own hole. Without the imagery perhaps Cassidy wouldn’t have found it so funny. Now Ambro had to stand there hands wringing his staff waiting for Cassidy to calm down.

A long time later. The two young men traveled quite far and developed a strange pattern of behavior. Occasionally Cassidy would look over at Ambro holding his branch. Ambro would see Cassidy looking and his expression would change.

Seeing the depressed look on Ambros face would make Cassidy laugh every time.

“Look Ambro if the name bothers you so much you can just tack on the soul title in front of it.”

“You mean Soul Branch?”

“Yeah, Soul Bra.. wait”

Cassidy saw something out of the corner of his eye. His right eye flashed and he was able to see a floating flame flying at him at high speed.

He turned and pushed Ambro as hard as he could letting himself fall back at the same time. Something with a decent amount of weight rushed between them.

Cassidy felt himself getting angry. A burning heat built below his chest. Conditions had been met. Now his soul carrier was granting him his first ability.

As Cassidy struggled to his feet Ambro never fell. Using stable and swift footwork he shuffled backwards and threw Soul Branch into the ground behind him.

With quick reflexes he pushed against the ground and swung the staff up in a crescent roll. The move was aimed in the space in front of Cassidy. Not a second after extending his weapon there was a loud hollowed bell sound. Something emitted a garbled scream.

Seeing the downed Cassidy the opponent had not hesitated and made a second dive. Only it couldn’t have anticipated the quick reaction speed of Ambro.

When it had almost reached its prey a staff appeared in front of it. Surprised it still expected to power through to a meal. It was met with the repulsive knobbed end of the staff that swung up and blew it away. Speed was its best attribute but it had only a little  durability. It instantly broke apart.

Ambros left eye blinked.

>Defeat all of the ley guardians. 29 life forces detected.

“Ambro down!” Cassidy saw two more flames converging on Ambro.

Pure fury had built up in Cassidy. His face twisted in a scowl he extended his hands and a small ember orb appeared in front of him. Shouting internally Cassidy forced the ember orb to blast the nearest opponent.

The ember launched with frightening speed. It whistled with a high pitched squeak until it hit. Then a blaze erupted in the air behind Ambro. Immediately Cassidy readied another ember but he wouldn’t get it off quickly enough.

Ambro jumped up spinning Soul Branch from behind his back then swung it out  in a short arc. A green streaked flashed. With a loud hollow bong sound the opponent slammed into the ground.

Three more enemies appeared to Cassidy enhanced sight. With no time to lose he shot another ember orb. The foremost opponent he aimed at saw this and dove low avoiding the ember. This made Cassidy furious. With no thoughts but to pummel the one that got away he ran forward.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Ambro still had not landed from his last attack. The three opponents this time had appeared between him and Cassidy. When the ember orb missed it flew within range of Ambros staff.

Leaning so he would fall on his side. Ambro chocked up on one end of Soul Branch and swung at the ember orb with all his strength. Acting on instinct he made it so that the knob on the end didn’t touch the ember.

~Ping~

Rebounding with force the ember curved and slammed into an enemy on the flank. It burst into green tinged flames and fell.  That the opponents Cassidy faced was brought down from 3 to 2 didn’t faze him. He was still seething with irrepressible rage and focused on his goal.

Charging with all the speed he could muster he once again summoned an ember orb. This time  instead of forcing it away he held onto it. As he ran he compressed it as much as he could. When it felt like he could no longer hold onto the ember he swept both hands out wide.

The ember orb shattered and spread in front of him peppering the remaining opponents. The two attackers shuddered and crumbled to the grounds their remains smoking.

“Its not over Ambro!”

Feeling blood thirsty but somewhat passivised Cassidy charged  passed Ambro. He ran further into the forest eyes on his next target. Ambro not  missing a beat moved to follow but stopped as he sensed something.  There was more of the enemy rushing up behind him.

Feeling a chill down his spine  he punched soul branch into the ground. Vaulting straight up its length with his head towards the ground he stretch out. As he reached the crest he forcefully pulled soul branch up with him.

Now in the air he saw the motion blur of the opponent flash below him. He just managed to dodge the attack.

Ambro was feeling calm, calmer than hes ever been before. His focus was enhanced as were his senses. He could feel the life energy in this opponent. He could  also feel the one coming in fast from his right. His left eye blinked and turned green.

“Ambro find the source and call my name”

“PALMA!”

After shouting the soul branches two knobs glowed bright. He swung the staff and it picked up tremendous speed. The enemy before him tried to dive quickly to the left but Soul Branch was relentless.

>skill activated Seed Fall

Soul Branch locked on to its targets life force. Every move  Ambro made with his staff would putt it in position to do damage. The fast but fragile opponent didn’t stand a chance it crumbled to the ground.

Not pausing to check Ambro spun on the spot. Soul Branch held tight against his waist. He hopped into the air and kept spinning. Immediately taking another attacker out as it failed to ambush him.

> 20 Ley guardians life forces detected

Ambro ran to catch up to Cassidy. He ran past 2 more piles of ash before he caught up. Cassidy was standing front of a what appeared to be a small ancient out post. It’s walls were made out of large stones. Weeds and vines were slowly breaking the place down in this gloomy forest.

Cassidy was looking left to right his eyes blazing.

“Ambro there aren’t anymore in the forest I think the rest are inside.”

“You can feel that too?” Ambro didn’t know that his senses were fundamentally different from Cassidy’s

“Feel it? No. I can see some of them up there but nothing left in the forest.”

Ambro frowned In confusion. See? In front of them was a stone fort with no windows. How could Cassidy see them? Ambro also wondered why Cassidy seemed so mad but just summoned it up to the adrenaline rush.

“Heat I can see the heat their cores generate. Its like a small burning flame.”

“Oh”

“Just Oh?”

“Well ok, its kinda cool?”

“Just kind of?”

Before Ambro could grudgingly lay more compliments on Cassidy. The hole in the fort in front of them filled up with silhouettes.