Three weeks of near constant meditation other than checking in on Logan and watching his training bouts has gotten me to a much better place. My control and understanding of my Affinity has started to develop and I can tell one day it might provide me with new, useful options for bolstering Skills and maybe even controlling Mana directly. For now, it’s still early days and I have no real idea how strong it could get, but my focus has to be on minimizing its impact rather than exploring its potential.

Unfortunately the chances of my Affinity affecting my Skills is directly correlated to my mindset. While I’m calm and focused I have no problem, but when things are hectic it’s not easy for me to stay in the mindset I need. It’s like learning to play hockey; you can only really focus on stickhandling and reading the play once skating is second nature. I’m just not there yet. Torrdok has been enthusiastically helpful by doing his best to smash me in training fights while I try to trigger various Skills at the same time, mostly failing to make them manifest properly, but I’m getting better.

Logan has exceeded my expectations with how he’s coming along under some real, structured instruction and focus on leveraging his abilities in sparring against his classmates. Together we decided to tell Torrdok about the intricacies of Logan’s Class. I even checked with Carter and Dana first. We’re worried about revealing them, but more worried that we’d waste this opportunity if Torrdok didn’t really know what Logan is capable of. After the initial period of surprise and adjustment, that decision has really paid off in a new training plan for Logan that leverages his abilities. He’s not at the top of his class yet, but has moved up to 4th in the rankings and doesn’t seem to be stopping there.

Before watching his matchups this afternoon there’s something I need to do for my own conscience, so I trigger Omnipresent and find Jeff. My mind is clear and there are no troubles with interactions between the Skill and my Affinity. Well controlled and smooth Skill use, just like I used to have. Staying cool headed in a fight is not always my strong suit so Sylvaeryn is continuing to work on other options for me.

I can see through the forming Portal that Jeff and a few others are fighting a group of large, hairy humanoids that are all surrounded by a red aura. The humanoids move quickly and lash out with fireballs and flame whips that crash without effect into force barriers and defensive Skills from Jeff’s group. In the distance I can see Jeff’s castle, he hasn’t roamed far. I manifest my Portal and step through behind Jeff’s group onto the soft ground. A burning smell hits me and the air is alive with roaring, crackling flames. Jeff is focused and his group is ruthless, efficient, with little wasted motion or Mana. They dart forward between portable shield generators and rip the creatures apart while others drive their barrier forward to split up and flank their opponents.

“Kill stealer!” yells Jeff as he spots me, or maybe I just appeared on his minimap. I laugh and stand watching, not moving to intervene. They don’t need my help and finish quickly then Loot the bodies efficiently. Highly practiced and smashing it, making the most of each other’s Skills and strengths. They’ve surpassed the teamwork we had as Sentinels by a small margin and I wonder briefly about grouping up again, then remind myself about the KCT.

The other members of Jeff’s group glance at me from time to time, but don’t slow their post-battle activities or say anything.

“Continue the perimeter patrol,” Jeff instructs them. “I’ll be with you when I can. Comms are open if you run into anything that’s big trouble.”

The group of men and women turns to our right and heads off at a good clip. There’s no questions or back chat, which surprises me since Jeff is not exactly highly disciplined in his approach.

“Bunch of robots you programmed?” I ask him with a grin.

“You’re such a dick, Bronwc,” Jeff replies with a smile and a shake of his head. “They’re focused on keeping things clear and on top of that, you might have noticed that Bronwic Cadimus appeared out of nowhere behind them?”

“They seem like a good team, mate. But… not your core team?”

“No,” Jeff agrees. “One of our top three patrol teams though. Well behind Brodie and Andiar and the rest, but we’re building a good strong force and we’re looking to claim the surrounding areas back if we can, then expand. Lost it over the last couple of weeks to a few big Monsters and a Teleport. We’ll smash them, dude.”

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Always positive and motivated no matter what’s happened. Love it, and remind myself to try to channel Jeff more. I grin at him and he hops over to give me a crushing bro hug, I’m betting to test me.

“Dumped a few points in Strength this time, eh?” he says. I laugh and then he shifts gears suddenly. The enthusiasm disappears and his strong, dark features frown at me with uncharacteristic seriousness.

“I didn’t know if you were coming back after you dove back into that fucking hellhole, Bronwic. I’m guessing whatever happened there wasn’t a walk in the park?”

“No, not exactly. Still recovering.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t see it through with you, man. The shit you can take is beyond what anyone else can even consider…”

He trails off and silence hangs between us for a couple of seconds. He has nothing to be sorry for but I definitely know what it’s like to play these kinds of things over and over again in my mind.

“It’s good to see you, Jeff. It’s good you didn’t stay, you’d be dead just like Jon. I’d love to reconnect and help with what you’ve got going on around here, but I’m offworld with Logan and trying to get myself back to fully functional.”

The comment about Jon keeps him in a sober mood and we both stand there thinking for a few seconds before he moves past it.

“Offworld with Logan? And what do you mean fully functional, Bronwic?”

I gesture to a hill in the distance and we move away from the battle scene. While we’re walking, I get him up to date with what’s happened to me and what I’m doing about it. He just shakes his head and it’s so clear that he’s happy I’ve made it that he doesn’t have to say it. Then, I take a leaf out of Taiwo’s book by pulling out a couple of comfortable chairs and some food for us, which I’ve finally gotten around to sorting. Jeff seems agreeable to stick around and chat for a bit, and also reacts the same way I have whenever Taiwo has done this for me.

“Why don’t I have shit like this in my Inventory?” he asks as he Inventories his armor and puts his feet up, reclining the chair. I know it’s a rhetorical question so we just sit in silence for a bit. Between us we have enough Skills and abilities to give him plenty of time to get his armor back on if trouble arrives. I only last a minute or two before I launch into why I’m here.

“Mate, you know I’ve been offworld for a few weeks and it looks like I might be for a while longer. What’s our situation?” I ask. “How is humanity going?”

“You’re not going to be around for a bit?” he asks with a grimace. “We could definitely use you. I’m in touch with a bunch of people around the world now… as shitty as what happened with Hvitserkur was, a good thing that came out of it was a tighter network of us. Nobody liked coming off second best and what happened there, it was a good reminder that we need to get stronger and together.”

I take a deep breath at the news. It doesn’t make me feel any better about what happened, but the most powerful humans working together more closely can only be a good thing.

“We’re going pretty well except for the most powerful Monsters. It seems like more and more of them are showing up and it’s getting hard, real hard, to put them all down. Especially without you. Some people seem to think you attract trouble, but most of us know it’s the opposite, you’re just throwing yourself into the biggest trouble you can find to try to bail us out of it.”

“How bad is it?” I ask. Jeff shrugs and sits up, putting his elbows on his knees and titling his head at me.

“At the top end, if this continues, we might not be able to avoid becoming a Bane World, Bronwic. Big parts of the Earth are overrun. Our Settlements, especially the big ones, are holding their own. But we keep losing our top fighters faster than they’re being replaced with others who are Leveling and joining the fight. If this trend continues, we’ll win lots of battles on the ground but we’ll lose the war. We won’t be able to hold back the tide. And then it will just accelerate; we won’t be able to hold our own even in the less dangerous areas.”

I take another deep breath and nod. I knew deep down it was going to be like this after the Influx hit. I didn’t want it to be like this. Reserved a lot of hope. Payed more attention to the wins and less attention to the losses.

“I still might be able to do something about it,” I tell Jeff. “There’s something like the KCC but bigger stakes and bigger rewards. It’s not great timing with the trouble I’m having with my Skills.”

“Seriously?” Jeff says. “Something bigger than the KCC? What kind of rewards are we talking about?”

“I’m not sure,” I admit. “But… maybe things that could drain off the really high Mana levels on Earth to reduce the Teleports and evolutions of high Level Monsters. Maybe enough Credits to buy sufficient defensive measures to turn the tables or get us all out of here.”

“That even possible?” Jeff asks with a scoff.

“Don’t know, but that’s what I’ve been told. Big deal.”

“Well, see what you can do, bro. It’s worth a shot if it’s legit. But don’t get yourself killed if you can help it, we sure could use you around to put down some of the really nasty stuff. And… I’ve gotten a bit used to having you around, so don’t go nowhere. Yeah?”

“I’ll give it my best go, Jeff. For all of us.”

“How about just for yourself, dude. You don’t owe us anything, though I sure am glad you keep acting like you do.”

We both laugh at that and I stick around for another few minutes before kicking him out of my chair and putting it back in my Inventory. It’s clear the stakes are high for Earth and if the KCT can help I’ve got to throw everything I can at it.