Focusing on his breathing, Mike deliberately placed one foot in front of the other as he sought to put distance between himself and the shelter where the cubs lay. The cry of the vultures had continued minute after minute, slowly getting closer, and he was forced to assume that he had been found. As he reached the edge of the dune, a sprawling vista lay in front of him, and he thought he could just make out where the dunes finally ended. They had been all he could see for months.

To his right, several shadows raced across the dunes towards his location, and he was taken back to standing across James Baxter in the SEALS sparring sessions.

It had all started when James, a fellow green recruit, had overheard Mike telling another member of their squad about the guillotine hold. It had been Mike’s trump card in high school wrestling, enabling him to take state both his junior and senior years–this was before the extremely painful move had been banned.

“So once you have the legs pinned and the arm grabbed, all you need to do is lean back slightly, and it is impossible for anyone to get out. They will be in too much pain…” Mike had been saying to Lenny when James cut him off.

“That’s hogwash, I could easily get out of it. It only worked because you were doing it to someone your own size. Against a real opponent, someone with actual strength, it would be easy to get out of.”

“It always worked for me.” Mike said, trying to end the conversation with the much larger, and very hostile man. It was a wonder he had made it to SEAL training at all.

“Do it on me, and I’ll show you.”

“I really don’t think that is a good idea. If you are unfamiliar with the hold and fight against it, there is potential for you to pull something.”

“Yeah right. Do it to me. Or are you too afraid? Can you not back up your stories with action?”

Mike thought for a few seconds before finally replying, “Alright, but only because you are asking me to. I did nothing to initiate this.”

“Yeah, yeah. Enough talk, let’s show everyone what you are made of, Tiny.”

At the time, Mike had been only slightly over 5 feet tall, and waid around 125 pounds–much smaller than the 6 foot, 3 inch mountain. Still, he had performed the move more times than he could count, and with a compliant subject, it took only moments before they were sprawled out on the ground, James screaming in pain while Mike applied very little pressure in the hold. James tried to jerk free, but Mike held firm, knowing that the larger man would likely have bruises when he woke up the next morning. After only 30 seconds, his screams had turned into soft mewing, and Mike released him, standing up quickly to put distance between them. He saw murder in the downed man’s eyes, and he felt a momentary pang of regret. It wasn’t fair that he had been put in the situation.

The next morning, Mike had been called into a private room with all of the training officers, and he passed a smirking James as he made his way inside. They had begun to interrogate him, telling him that it was against the rules to have unsanctioned fights, and could lead to immediate dismissal. Apparently, he had jumped an unknowing James and put him in the hold for no reason other than to bully him. It had taken 20 minutes for the trainer to listen to him enough to call in the rest of the squad, who had all witnessed the events as they actually occurred. Lenny’s testimony was enough for them let Mike go, and James had been given a week of extra duties for lying.

It was a full two weeks later when things came to a head for the second time. Mike stood across from James in the sparring ring, and was confused why none of the trainers could see the murder written in the larger man’s eyes. It wasn’t training, it was a fight for his life against a much larger opponent. James was an excellent fighter, had 6 inches of reach on Mike, and at least 60 pounds. Still, not attempting a task was an automatic expulsion, and he refused to go out like that.

The match started, and James came in fast, attempting to end the fight before it even

began. Mike barely registered the opening and reacted in time, implementing the Jiu-Jitsu move he had learned from one of the trainers in a few extra sessions he had attended, and soon he stood above James, his hand resting lightly on his throat, the clear victor.

Face smoldering, James demanded a rematch, and the trainer allowed it, still completely oblivious to the very real danger that Mike had been in.

The second fight had been even shorter. James had come in just as hot, but with the additional anger he felt, he had been careless, and Mike counted the check boxes as he slowly led the man from one position to the next, until he was once again on the ground, whimpering in the guillotine hold.

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“Good form, Mayhew! That was very well executed. Point to you!” the trainer had said.

Mike released James and stepped back, wincing at the sound of the door slamming as the man stormed out.

As he watched the shadows approach, he felt much as he had back then. He was against a far stronger foe, and in this case, his enemies also outnumbered him four to one, but his course of action would be the same. He would rely on the techniques that had proven true, and do his best to survive. It was all he could do, and he refused to simply give up.

As he activated Tactics, channeling as much Strength and Toughness into Dexterity as he dared, he whispered to James, “It’s too bad you aren’t here now, buddy. You’d laugh about how these buzzards were easy to kill for a real man. I’m glad we were able to form a friendship in the end, even if it took you almost dying to get there.”

When the buzzards were one dune away, only about one seconds of their flight time, he activated Footsteps of the Wind and began running. Damage Premonition warned him as the first bird dive-bombed him, and he dodged to the side, causing the bird to slam into the sand with an angry hiss.

Stumbling from the force of the impact, he was force to rely on Tumble to bring himself back to his feet, before the next bird was upon him. This time he activated stomach surfing and shot down the face of the dune, dodging the predator with enough space that he heard, rather than felt, the impact of yet another bird ramming into the sand dune.

At his fastest speed, he was able to dodge the other two birds as they attacked him, and he was even able to wait out some of the decreased Dexterity caused by Footsteps of the Wind as he continued to ride down the dune, dodging a few more attacks. Their cries had gotten more and more angry as the low-leveled human had managed to evade them so easily, and he could tell that they were beginning to let the emotion guide there actions, much as James had done.

“Finally got them where I want them.” he said, as all four of the birds lined up and dove at him at once.

With no Dexterity, he simply tried to get comfortable before activating Unflinching Meteor. Thinking he had given up, the first bird reached him at a speed that had to be close to breaking the sound barrier, but instead of finding soft flesh, the bird smashed into his immovable body, its legs breaking and pancaking across him before its body followed an instant later. Being immobile, he couldn’t even flinch as the large beak smacked right between his eyes and shattered with the bang of a cannon.

An instant later, the second bird smashed against him, though he could only tell from the second booming noise since his vision was completely obscured by the first bird's remnants.

The noise of the third bird matched the second, and it wasn’t until the fourth bird that things changed. A gust of air cleared his face as the bird managed to change its trajectory, smashing one of its wings, but not dying as its peers had. Then his world was awash in pain, as energy from killing three creatures filled his body. It was far more energy than he had ever been filled with, and for a moment, his mind went blank.

Turning inward, Mike saw the energy that completely engulfed him, filling every channel to bursting. His brain turning towards survival, he fell back on the training he had been doing over the past few weeks, and pulled the excess energy towards the only sigil that glowed brightly and could be processed by his foggy brain: Unflinching Meteor.

Unable to expend the mental energy required to check how long the skill would remain active, he focused on gathering as much of the energy as he could, coating the fractal multiple times over with the speed and precision that only adrenaline can produce, before willing the layers to become one with their base. The glow the sigil emitted grew many times over, and Mike felt that somehow his mind would become blind.

A small crack formed, and he pulled more energy from the abundant amount that still ravaged his body, filling the crack, before it could expand. He saw the next crack appear, and was still filling it when another formed. Mentally growing, he dumped his remaining stat points into Intelligence, knowing that his predicament was balancing on a knife’s edge and could go either way. The 12 points represented more than a 25% increase in his mental capability, and more importantly, his ability to interface with the System and it was enough that he was able to keep filling the cracks as they formed.

The battle seemed to last forever, until at long last, his imagination seemed to quake as the sigil flashed one more time, a brilliant gold that eclipsed the sun, before fading to match the color of the rest of his channels. He ignored the notification, knowing that he had succeeded, and focused instead on the sigil that appeared in his consciousness, which pulled all of the excess energy from his body, leaving only enough left for his usual functions.

When the last drop had vanished, he exited his inner world, gasping for breath as he looked around. Two feet away from him, Ash and Autumn were happily eating the carcass of the fourth bird.

“So you two managed to actually do something, huh? Well, good for you.” He managed to gasp out, his neurons still telling his brain that he was in dire pain, despite him knowing that the danger had vanished.

“Make sure to save me one of those drumsticks, you own me that much.” he continued, “Actually, you ladies should just stop eating now. I have a recipe that will make you rethink your whole relationship with birds. Think KFC, but better, much better.”

They ignored him, and unable to move yet, he sighed in defeat before finally checking his notifications.

[Congratulations! Unflinching Meteor has reached Level 4.

Duration now increased to 20 seconds, with a cooldown of 8 seconds.

Due to not meeting previously set requirements, no new Skill Ability will be awarded.]