When my feet hit the ground I pull the creature’s Status and dart in with all my Skills activated.
Colossal Hiisi (Level 263)
Health: 15200/17680
Mana: 3720/4670
Conditions: Nature’s Wrath, Stone Skin, Greater Regeneration, Shadow Meld, Soul Siphon, Illusion Weaver, more…
As soon as I appear and the Portal closes behind me, the Hiisi pivots away from the main streets in Nikki and heads west, thundering at very high speed into the pine forest toward the Alasjarvi lake. More than a few Adventurer bodies lay broken in the rubble around the street and I flash back to Jon but put it out of my mind. I need to focus. A group of human Adventurers who look like they’re straight out of Asgard rips into the forest behind the Hiisi, but they’re all Mythic Class or high Level Advanced Class. It’s a powerful team that won’t have what it takes to put the Hiisi down and I remind myself that this is part of why I do this - to help people who fight despite impossible odds to protect others.
I stop rather than charging after it and trigger Omnipresent again to watch the Hiisi through the Portal. For a few seconds I think my Portal is malfunctioning because the Hiisi keeps disappearing and appearing at the edge of what I can see with my Portal, but my Skills all seem to click in at once and show me that what I thought is the Hiisi is actually some kind of illusion and it’s my Portal that is tracking the actual Monster accurately. I’ve seen a few similar things but never this good; it’s a powerful and dangerous Skill enabling the Hiisi to ambush anyone who mistakes the illusion for the real one.
The Hiisi blasts through more pine trees seemingly without effort. Cracks split the air, splinters fly, and trees crash to the ground. I’m amazed to see that the illusion is so strong it must have some kind of physical manifestation, because the trees that shatter are not the ones where the Hiisi actually is. A few seconds later the Monster stops and lays in wait for the Adventurers to catch it, crafty and either smarter than a lot of the Mana warped creatures I encounter or something with extremely well honed instincts.
Before the Adventurers can close I manifest my Portal and drop through straight onto the hidden Hiisi, my Swords called to my hands. They feel stronger and heavier than before and I like the feeling of density teamed with my enhanced Strength and Agility. As I swing down the Hiisi almost instantly seems to shift and melt into the shadows, but it can’t hide from my Perception and my Swords cut through even the shadow world. I feel them bite deep and slice all the way through the Hiisi and for good measure I carve it up twice more until I’m sure the death notification has come through. Tricky fucker.
I watch on my minimap and sense with my Perception as the Finnish Adventurers close in on my position. I’m keen to let them know the Monster has been put down so I dismiss my Swords and stand over the body after Looting it rather than putting it in my Inventory.
Stupid move. I’ve underestimated how on edge and pumped up on fear and adrenaline the Adventurers are and I flinch as dozens of spells and Skills hit me simultaneously. I raise my arm up in front of my eyes as fire appears all around me, lightning fries my position from multiple directions, spikes of rock shoot up and shatter on me, debuffs hit me to slow me down and poison me then slide off, bullets slam into me and drop to the ground, grenades explode chewing up the earth and sending shrapnel everywhere, spears made of light strike me and disintegrate.
Notifications pepper the corner of my vision rapid fire as the barrage slowly stops and leaves me standing there in the middle of a war zone. I could move but I don’t want them to mistake me for the Hiisi again and repeat the exercise, so I plant my feet and wait.
“Oh, shit! Bronwic!” shouts one of the first ones to appear a few dozen meters away, partially obstructed by the trees. There are some upsides of everyone knowing who you are. Another few attacks strike me but I brush them off, nothing has really made it through my Resistances with enough damage to drop my Health beyond what my Regeneration just takes care of.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“You guys done?” I call out as around 20 of them appear one by one in quick succession.
“Oh, shit…”
“You’re not even hurt…”
“Bronwic! Sorry, we thought…”
“Thank fuck that thing is…”
My Perception picks out a bunch of comments made at the same time as they realize the situation. They group up and manage to look somewhat guilty for hammering me with everything they have. One of the high Level Mythic Classers, a bit of a Thor look-alike, steps forward while the others watch. I wonder if he’s the leader or just drew the short straw. I decide to help him out.
“Hey, no blood no foul,” I say. “The Hiisi is dead, and I appreciate what all of you were doing and taking on despite the odds. That thing was no joke and had a lot of tricks up its sleeve.”
“But you killed it in like, two seconds…” says one of them, seemingly confused.
“Thank you Bronwic. It would have been ugly without you here,” agrees the Thor look-alike. “Would you like to stay for a while? We owe you our hospitality at the very least.”
“Appreciate it, but I’ve got a few more similar situations to take care of,” I reply.
“You go looking for fights like this?” a short Sorcerer says, and then looks like he wishes he could take it back.
I nod and decide this has been awkward enough so I trigger Omnipresent and open a Portal to the Queenstown MIS Hub and step through. Force of habit, plus I want to see if Tenebris has done anything with it.
Nothing’s changed and I look around, still content to let it go but at the same time wishing it was still mine and somewhere I could build back up. I sigh, knowing nobody including Tenebris is going to mind if I’m around, and open the unusual notifications that were pinging me when the Adventurers were hammering me with all their attacks.
Fire damage inflicted. Fire Resistance increased 0.002%.
Lightning damage inflicted. Lightning Resistance increased 0.003%.
Kinetic damage inflicted. Kinetic Resistance increased 0.001%.
Holy shit. There are more, a lot more. I pull up the notification about my SMI Evolution and re-read it.
Significant Event - Skill Enhancements
Due to a unique Evolution, Affinity dynamics may now be applied to both triggered and passive Skills in a pathway carved by your experience.
Likely enhancements to Omnipresent, Greatest Need, Regeneration, Greater Regeneration, Unbreakable, Imbue, Sword of the Sentinel.
Current effects unquantified, observation required for new Skill descriptions.
It looks like whatever’s happened to me is enabling me to adapt to whatever harm I’m taking. The increases are small amounts, but when I think about how much combat I encounter and that these were attacks that didn’t really even give me any trouble, I wonder how far this could go over a long period of time. Could I gradually build this up in a way to become invulnerable to anything I’ve been exposed to? If I use my Skills repeatedly are they going to get stronger? If I do a workout would my Strength and Agility increase? I have no idea!
Other than feeling fortunate, there’s one thing I am totally certain of; there is no way I’m telling anyone about this. If MIRI was after me before I can imagine something like this, if it is a unique Evolution, I have no idea what they might try to do in order to study it.
I close the notifications and trigger Omnipresent again, then scan the Earth for another dangerous conflict. I’m almost looking forward to getting into a tough situation to see what happens. After filtering and examining a few I decide on Shanghai and trigger a Portal to see what I’m dealing with. Before I can even figure it out my field of vision is taken up by a new notification.
Congratulations!
You have qualified for special entry into the Koldaavi Combat Trials.
You have the option to participate or withdraw.
If you withdraw, you will not be able to enter the KCT for another three cycles.
You have ten Earth minutes to respond and prepare yourself for transport.
Do you agree to participate in the KCT?
(Y/N)
Well shit - I haven’t even got my Level yet. Ten minutes? I hammer ‘Y’ and grit my teeth. Let’s see what I can get done.