Chapter 31: Its all in my Head_The Warlord

I woke to sun streaming through the window and rolled out from under the furs and blankets. Katlyn stood nearby looking nervous.

“How long have you been waiting there?” I asked looking her over.

“Ten minutes my lord,” she said. “I was sent to ask if you would like to have your breakfast here in bed or in the great hall?”

“I’ll take it in the hall,” I said. “In the future please just wait outside my room.”

She curtsied to me and left. I pulled on my clothes and sat on the edge of the bed.

“Why do you not breed with her?” A small feminine voice asked me.

I jerked my head up and looked around activating Bestial Senses but couldn’t smell, hear or see anyone nearby and my Foresight wasn’t picking up on any threats either.

“Who said that?” I asked.

There was a giggle. “I did silly.”

“Where are you?” I asked looking around.

“I’m inside out and all about,” the voice said in singsong tone. “I’m hungry when are you going to feed me?”

“What are you?” I asked continuing to scan the room for the voices location she seemed to whisper in one ear and then the other, but I couldn’t catch sight of her.

“That’s a mean question,” she said in a pouting tone. “There’s this other guy in here, he’s a real grouch can you get rid of him?”

A chill went through me. “Who are you talking about?”

“You know silly,” she said laughing. “The angry guy, he’s been trying to catch me but I’m to fast for him.”

“Karnen, can you hear me?” I asked.

“Yes,” Karnen’s voice snarled. “What is this thing you let into our Spirit?”

“First of all, mine not ours,” I corrected him. “I think the system said it was a voidling it got shoved in me when I was in the void.”

“I’m not an it,” she retorted petulant.

“Well people have names,” I said.

“I haven’t picked a name yet,” she sulked. “Are you going to get rid of this guy or not, he’s making me cramped.”

“If I could have gotten rid of him I would have tossed the both of you out at the start of this conversation,” I said.

“That’s not very nice,” she said. “Are you going to feed me or not?”

“What does that even mean?” I asked.

“I’m hungry,” she whined. “I got to eat last night when you were doing your scary speech, and everyone’s fear filled the room but I’m almost empty now.”

“That was incredibly disturbing and uninformative,” I said. “Karnen, can you translate?”

“No,” Karnen answered. “Can you hold her spirit still so I can devour it.”

“No, go back to shutting up,” I said shushing him. “Voidling, what do you eat?”

“Oh all sorts of things, fear, anger, hate, sadness, despair, hope, joy, jealousy, lust, if you bring that girl back in to breed I could probably get a meal out of that.” She said her tone brightening as she came up with the idea.

“Well, I guess I’m not having sex till your out of my soul then,” I said.

“Hey!” she protested. “But it would solve both our problems.”

“I would help you to release your frustrations,” Karnen agreed the two creatures suddenly on the same page.

“I know we’ve pretty much just met, but the fact that the two of you agree on this probably means it’s a terrible idea,” I said. “I’m going to breakfast you can snack on some emotions of the people around us.”

“But its so bland unless they’re really feeling something strong,” she whined.

“Don’t care, the two of you shut up,” I said finishing strapping on my few pieces of armor and gear and stepping out into the hall.

I sat down in the wooden throne Kaleb had sat at and wooden plate piled with eggs, bacon and toast slathered in jam was placed in front of me. I considered if it might be poisoned but almost everyone here was under my Dominion and I genuinely believed Jeriah when he and I had made the deal. Plus, if it was poisoned, I had Venom Resistant III to keep me alive.

I dug into the food and considered my next course of action. I needed to conquer the forest by defeating the seven powers of the region except I had no idea of what that meant. Jeriah walked into the hall and nodded to me stopping before me.

“What do you require from me today my lord?” he asked.

He seemed eager and hungry for action.

“Oh, he’s so tasty,” the voidling sighed in delight.

“What would you say are the eight powers of this region?” I asked him, ignoring the creepy voice in my skull.

“I would say we are one,” Jeriah said. “Next I would probably include the Myrmidon clans but there are only four of them.”

Katlyn stood beside a jug of wine in her hand as she filled a glass by my side.

“What say you, Katlyn?” I asked. “What would you describe as a power in this region besides this castle and the Myrmidon clans?”

Katlyn bit her lip nervously. “Well, have you considered the Beast Lords?”

“I didn’t know they existed,” I said. “What are they?”

Katlyn looked to her brother, and he took over. “They are powerful Gifted monsters in the region with sway over other beasts or in control of vast parts of the forest. There are only two that I know of. Your myrmidon woman would know more about them I believe.”

“Hmm she’s such a mixture of emotions,” The voidling commented in my head.

“What are the two that you know of?” I asked blocking out the running commentary going on in the background.

“The Lightning Pheonix,” Jeriah said then gave a shudder. “and the Hell Dragon.”

“I would think with a surname like Dragonbreaker your family would have taken care of it,” I said.

“It was our ancestor who earned that name,” Jeriah said. “He fought alongside the Champion of Velaria against the Champion of Thanadar.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I have no idea who you are talking about when you say those names.”

“Velaria is the Goddess of Eagles and Flight,” Katlyn whispered in my ear. “Thanadar is the God of Destruction and Greed and the creator of the dragons.”

“So, no one in your family has done any dragon killing since your great-great-grandfather? “I saw the Hell Dragon up close once, I couldn’t see its exact rank but it was still in Veteran.” I prodded him.

“It has been ten generations since our ancestor Kain Dragonbreaker slew the dragon,” Jeriah said. “And he fought alongside a powerful Champion at the time.”

“You seem very afraid of this dragon,” I said.

“Yes,” the voidling said. “Taunt him again, the pride mixes with the fear wonderfully.”

“It’s almost hero rank, I also have gotten close to it once, two years ago. If it’s still only in Veteran rank now it won’t be for much longer.” Jeriah said. “It’s also a hell dragon, its breath is even hotter than a regular dragon’s, capable of melting through granite walls.”

“Well, we’ll have to deal with it eventually,” I said watching as the color drained from his face.

Ha! the voidling laughed. the look on his face was hilarious, do it again.

“I have been tasked with a Quest by Kelesa,” I said. “I must conquer the eight powers of the forest, your father was one of them I believe the clans and beast lords are the others, I already have a connection to the Wolf Clan, so we’ll start there.”

I finished my breakfast and returned to my room and sat on the edge of the bed. I looked at the wall where weapons hung on hooks. Some looked functional while others were broken either trophies or mementos.

Now that I was Veteran rank, I had a lot of abilities for my Spirit Attribute that I could upgrade now that I hadn’t been able to upgrade before. There was Phantom Form, which was only rank ten, Heightened Speed also only rank ten. Dominion was my lowest at rank eight and I had only upgraded Black-rage to rank ten yesterday. I didn’t need to upgrade them all now, but I should probably upgrade Heightened Speed and Phantom Form considering how well they had served me, and Dominion had long been neglected by me.

“Karnen, I’m going to be busy for a while; make yourself useful and keep the voidling occupied,” I told him.

“I’ve been trying to eat her all morning,” he grumbled.

“Well try harder,” I said. “Raise Dominion to rank twenty.”

Dominion (Rank 9): A number of times per day equal to one-thousand-two-hundred-and-eighty plus your Spirit attribute, you can as a spoken command, force a creature not bound by another creature into your service. You can dominate a number of creatures at a time equal to your spirit attribute plus 45. A creature may choose to serve you willingly or may attempt to resist by opposing their Mind attribute against your Spirit Attribute. You can at will see the Abilities and Attributes of any creature under your Dominion. You may have a maximum number of creatures under your Dominion equal to your Spirit Attribute times 10.

The larger your Dominion is the more it grows in power, all Attributes of your vassals are raised by 1 when they in a group of fifty or more, every fifty vassals increases this bonus by 1 to a maximum possible Attribute score of 20.

Cost: 1 mana per five creatures

Upgrade this ability to increase how many creatures you can dominate per day as well as the multiplier for how many creatures you can have dominated at a time. Each upgrade increases your Spirit Attribute by 1.

I read over the first ability I had been given refreshing its details in my mind then dismissing the pop-up. With rank nine reached it was time to pick the second addition to this ability.

Congratulations you have raised an ability to rank ten, please pick from one of the three additional effects for your ability from the list below.

You can summon one of your vassals that you select as your bodyguard to your location as long as they are no farther than seven leagues from your location.

You can dominate twice the number of creatures at a time.

You can share an ability you select with one creature to serve as your lieutenant.

The options here were pretty meh in my opinion. The first one I disregarded right out of the gate, I fought alone, and I certainly didn’t need a bodyguard. The second one would be a time saver, but it didn’t affect how many vassals I could have so it was the lazy choice. The third option wasn’t super flashy but it would let me select one of my vassals and give them a power boost to make them more efficient at watching over the rest while I was gone.

I picked option three since it interested me more than the other two.

Please select the ability you will share before you continue.

Hmm, I had to decide now. I had lots of abilities, but which would be useful for anyone regardless of their other abilities? Phantom Form was an Ace up the sleeve, but it had drawbacks, Heightened Speed could literally cause a heart attack, Telekinesis was sort of a specialization. Troll Hide was good but very limited to doing one thing. The more I thought about it I kept coming back to one skill, Foresight; time and again this skill had come in clutch pulling me out of trouble or showing me exactly where to strike.

I mentally selected Foresight and the upgrade resumed.

Dominion (Rank 10): A number of times per day equal to two-thousand-five-hundred-and-sixty plus your Spirit attribute, you can as a spoken command, force a creature not bound by another creature into your service. You can dominate a number of creatures at a time equal to your spirit attribute plus 50. A creature may choose to serve you willingly or may attempt to resist by opposing their Mind attribute against your Spirit Attribute. You can at will see the Abilities and Attributes of any creature under your Dominion. You may have a maximum number of creatures under your Dominion equal to your Spirit Attribute times 11.

The larger your Dominion is the more it grows in power, all Attributes of your vassals are raised by 2 when they in a group of fifty or more, every fifty vassals increase this bonus by 2 to a maximum possible Attribute score of 25.

You can share your Foresight with one creature to serve as your lieutenant. The creature you share this with is not required to be your vassal and will have the exact same version of the ability as you. (Warning this cannot be taken away from a creature once given and will remain with them until they or you die)

Cost: 1 mana per five creatures

The scars along my body lit up as light began to shine from within me.

Congratulations, you have raised your Spirit Attribute beyond fifty, the Mortal Limit. Your body is undergoing changes to help you survive the changes to your Attribute.

Due to ongoing Soul Damage your Spirit can now manifest parts of your spirit in physical reality blurring the line between the ethereal and physical. (Warning) This may also make you more vulnerable to sprits and ethereal beings.

That was an ominous and unclear mutation for my spirit, but I couldn’t dwell on it now I had more upgrades to undergo.

I skipped the next four notifications not needing to see the minor changes from one rank to the other.

Congratulations you have raised an ability to rank fifteen, please pick from one of the three additional effects for your ability from the list below.

Once per day you can pick an ability from one of your vassals and gain access to it.

Your vassal’s damage is increased by one stage while in a group of fifty or more.

Your vassal’s damage is increased by two stages while in a battle you are personally leading.

The choices here were much better than last time. The first option was similar to the one I had taken last time but I could use it instead of using it on someone else. The second option would let my vassals be more survivable out on their own and the third was similar but would let them do more damage when fighting beside me. The third one was out since I preferred to fight alone so it would get barely used. The second one I disregarded since it was only a minor increase, and they could get the same from different titles. That left the first option, so I picked it.

Dominion (Rank 15): Ten-thousand times per day plus your Spirit attribute, you can as a spoken command, force a creature not bound by another creature into your service. You can dominate a number of creatures at a time equal to your spirit attribute plus 70. A creature may choose to serve you willingly or may attempt to resist by opposing their Mind attribute against your Spirit Attribute. You can at will see the Abilities and Attributes of any creature under your Dominion. You may have a maximum number of creatures under your Dominion equal to your Spirit Attribute times 16.

The larger your Dominion is the more it grows in power, all Attributes of your vassals are raised by 3 when they in a group of fifty or more, every fifty vassals increase this bonus by 3 to a maximum possible Attribute score of 30.

You can share your Foresight with two creatures to serve as your lieutenants. The creatures you share this with is not required to be your vassal and will have the exact same version of the ability as you. (Warning this cannot be taken away from a creature once given and will remain with them until they or you die).

Once per day you can pick an ability from one of your vassals and gain access to it. You will continue to have access to this ability until you pick another ability or the vassal holding the ability dies. (You must be close to your vassal to select an ability they have).

Cost: 1 mana per five creatures.

Some time during the last rank up notifications I had skipped the number of times I could use the ability had stopped doubling and now just remained at ten-thousand times per day. Granted the likelihood I would use the ability more than even a few hundred times per day was small, so it didn’t mean much. The maximum possible attribute score for my vassals had gone up again by five. That meant that with a large enough army my vassals, even the non-gifted could outclass many others with raw attributes as if they were decked out in magical stat boosting equipment. Of course, that didn’t mean much, I knew from my own battles that even if a creature was stronger and faster than you it was the strength and nature of your abilities that determined the outcome of a fight.

I now got to pick my new effect for rank twenty of Dominion.

Congratulations you have raised an ability to rank twenty, please pick from one of the three additional effects for your ability from the list below.

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Your vassals gain high resistance to mental effects of spells and abilities.

Your vassals gain high resistance to physical debuffs from wounds, abilities, spells or poisons.

Your vassals gain high resistance to spirit and magical debuffs from soul damage, abilities or spells.

A quick look over my choices showed that all my options were pretty similar; they all would give my vassals resistance to one type of effect. The first one would keep my vassals from falling to charm, mind or domination abilities, the second would help them to resist bleeding, paralysis and poisoned effects. The last was extremely interesting, it would help prevent soul damage; considering I was currently suffering from that it was fascinating but that didn’t mean I would pick it. While I was still suffering from Soul Damage I had only ever suffered it in a highly specific circumstance that was unlikely to happen to my vassals often if ever.

I picked option two since it seemed like it would be useful more often and help to keep them alive so they would probably appreciate it. Being mind controlled or charmed would probably suck but they were under my Dominion already so I didn’t think even when mind controlled they could even attack me so it wasn’t a concern for me.

Dominion (Rank 20): Ten-thousand times per day plus your Spirit attribute, you can as a spoken command, force a creature not bound by another creature into your service. You can dominate a number of creatures at a time equal to your spirit attribute plus 95. A creature may choose to serve you willingly or may attempt to resist by opposing their Mind attribute against your Spirit Attribute. You can at will see the Abilities and Attributes of any creature under your Dominion. You may have a maximum number of creatures under your Dominion equal to your Spirit Attribute times 21.

Your vassals gain resistance to physical debuffs from wounds, abilities, spells or poisons. Reduces the duration and effect of debuffs on your vassals by fifty percent.

Cost: 1 mana per five creatures

Dominion hadn’t gotten a max rank at rank twenty; now that I was here, I vaguely remembered Kelsea telling me back when I first picked my skills that all abilities would max out at rank twenty accept for divine abilities. I hadn’t realized what she meant by that but now I wondered what the max for Dominion was. It would have to wait for now, I had other abilities to rank up and Dominion was still low on my list of priorities, and I wouldn’t be low on my total possible vassals for a while.

“Raise Heightened Speed to rank twenty,” I told the system.

It had been awhile but now I could get a third addition to my heightened speed.

Congratulations you have raised an ability to rank twenty-five, please pick from one of the three additional effects for your ability from the list below.

For a bust cost of stamina, you can move so fast you can create personal wormholes to teleport short distances.

For a temporary increase in stamina cost you can cause your weapons to vibrate so fast they bypass 5 hardness of anything they strike

For a burst cost of stamina, you can cause your body to temporally be displaced so that objects pass through you without any effect on you.

I read over the three options, the first one looked like it would be a similar or worse effect than my boots. The second one was interesting, I was wondering what the counter would be to the hardness of my skin and it looked like with abilities or effects like this even my impressive natural armor could be pierced through. The third option looked like another copy this time of Phantom Form instead of my boots. I could double up with more options to teleport or avoid damage but I went with the second option. There was no point in even fighting if I wouldn’t be able to scratch my opponent.

Heightened Speed (Rank 15): You move faster and can react faster. Your body acts can instantly move at max speed without needed to build up momentum. The speed your body can move by is increased by x9.

You can run across water and other liquids as if they were solid ground.

Your metabolism is accelerated letting you process both beneficial and negative effects from herbs, poisons, potions, and illnesses faster. Your body will purify, heal and process materials x7 faster. (Does not affect your need to eat food).

At the cost of 5 stamina per second you can cause your weapons to vibrate so fast they bypass 5 hardness of anything they strike.

This is a passive ability costing 7 stamina per second will cost more stamina in combat depending on how fast you move.

Upgrade this ability to increase how fast you can move. Every upgrade of this ability increases your Speed Attribute by 2.

Heightened Speed had been one of the first three I had gotten and the only reasons I hadn’t maxed it out sooner was because it gave me two Speed instead of one per rank up and I didn’t want to increase its stamina cost past what I could maintain easily.

Congratulations you have raised an ability to rank thirty, please pick from one of the three additional effects for your ability from the list below.

You become a being of spirit as much as flesh, you can switch between using Mana and Stamina to power this ability.

You will deal one damage stage higher to your next attack for every one-hundred feet you run before striking.

You are immune to crowd control, paralysis, stun and lock down effects and abilities while moving at your top speed.

My rank twenty effects were each different and interesting. The first would let me move at my top speed in combat for longer without bottoming out my stamina which had always been a risk in the past. The second would give me a potential massive opener to a fight provided I had the room to pull it off. The third would let me run unimpeded as long as I was going full speed. While extra damage and straight up immunity to different effects were great being able to continue using the ability were more important. Plus, with my Storm Soul ability if I ever got into a lightning storm I would have a massive pool of mana to work with and could save my stamina for my other abilities.

Heightened Speed (Rank 20, Max Rank): You move faster and can react faster. Your body acts can instantly move at max speed without needed to build up momentum. The speed your body can move by is increased by x12.

You can run across water and other liquids as if they were solid ground.

At the cost of 10 stamina per second you can cause your weapons to vibrate so fast they bypass 10 hardness of anything they strike.

You are a being of spirit as much as flesh, you can at will switch between using Mana and Stamina to power this ability.

Final Rank Bonus: Your movement will cause winds to whip up around you, stronger winds the faster you are moving, that will disrupt attacks and push back opponents.

This is a passive ability costing 9 stamina per second will cost more stamina in combat depending on how fast you move.

Heightened Speed had an interesting final bonus giving me some sort of storm effect around me. I could bypass diamond hardness of armor, but it would be costly to do for any length of time with stamina or mana. I felt good to have maxed out all my original abilities, a milestone of sorts.

“Raise Phantom Form to rank twenty,” I said.

Phantom Form (Rank 11); Your spirit has grown in strength now equaling that of your body making you as much a creature of the ethereal world as that of flesh and blood. You can turn incorporeal for up to 5.5 seconds becoming immune to most types of damage but vulnerable to certain types, after using this ability there is a cooldown of 5 seconds before you can use it again. While in this form all your physical damage you deal is converted to soul damage.

You lose your vulnerability to Radiant damage and silver weapons.

You lose your vulnerability to Psychic and Soul damage while in this form.

Cost: 15 mana per use.

Upgrade this ability to increase the time you can remain incorporeal and reducing the cooldown time. Each upgrade to this ability to increase your Spirit Attribute by 1.

It had been awhile since I had upgraded this ability, so I read over the changes quick before dismissing the notification and the next three notifications. I stopped as the awaited message came up.

Congratulations you have raised an ability to rank fifteen, please pick from one of the three additional effects for your ability from the list below.

Your soul damage you deal while in this form is increased by two stages.

You lose your vulnerability to Holy and Curse damage while in this form.

Contact with your ethereal body will inflict a debuffs on creatures lowering their physical attributes.

The first choice was one I had gotten last time but the damage increase had gone up by one stage; if I picked it, it would probably go up again when I hit rank twenty. The second option was in line with the choices I had been making for this skill, I was pretty sure it had been either Holy or Curse damage that Kaleb had hit me with last night and I could still remember how devastating it had been. The third option was interesting and along the path of some sort of incorporeal undead.

I picked option two as I had planned to take any choice like it before, damage was all well and good and inflicting debuffs was fine but not getting one shot was the priority.

Phantom Form (Rank 15); Your spirit has grown in strength now equaling that of your body making you as much a creature of the ethereal world as that of flesh and blood. You can turn incorporeal for up to 7.5 seconds becoming immune to most types of damage but vulnerable to certain types, after using this ability there is a cooldown of 1 second before you can use it again. While in this form all your physical damage you deal is converted to soul damage.

You lose your vulnerability to Radiant damage and silver weapons while in this form.

You lose your vulnerability to Psychic and Soul damage while in this form.

You lose your vulnerability to Holy and Curse damage while in this form.

Cost: 20 mana per use.

Upgrade this ability to increase the time you can remain incorporeal and reducing the cooldown time. Each upgrade to this ability to increase your Spirit Attribute by 1.

I dismissed each notification for the next four upgrades without even looking at them until I came to my next choice for me to make.

Congratulations you have raised an ability to rank twenty, please pick from one of the three additional effects for your ability from the list below.

You gain resistance to psychic and curse damage.

You gain resistance to radiant damage and silver weapons.

You gain resistance to Holy and Soul damage.

I looked over the three choices, they were all the same but covered different damage types. I hadn’t encountered psychic damage before and I was unsure about curse damage. Radiant damage and silver weapons would probably be the most common types of things that could effect my incorporeal body that I would come across. The third choice covered holy and soul damage. I was still injured by soul damage and had no idea of how to fix it so anything that would make that less effective was definitely a priority and holy damage didn’t sound fun either. I picked option three and my ability finished upgrading.

Phantom Form (Rank 20, Max Rank); Your spirit has grown in strength now equaling that of your body making you as much a creature of the ethereal world as that of flesh and blood. You can turn incorporeal for up to 10 seconds becoming immune to most types of damage but vulnerable to certain types. While in this form all your physical damage you deal is converted to soul damage.

You lose your vulnerability to Radiant damage and silver weapons.

You lose your vulnerability to Psychic and Soul damage.

You lose your vulnerability to Holy and Curse damage while in this form.

You gain resistance to Holy and Soul damage.

Final Rank Bonus: You cannot be dealt a mortal blow while you are incorporeal and cannot be killed for the duration.

Cost: 25 mana per use.

I now had only one ability left to upgrade for the day. I could feel a heat within my flesh and bones the familiar burn of one stat being higher than all the rest as my Spirit now sat at seventy-one, twenty-one ranks higher than the veteran limit. I would have to get more Mind, Perception, and Power abilities to balance it out before the heat would go away.

“Raise Black-rage to rank twenty,” I told the system.

Black-rage (Rank 11): Every kill made by you increases your Might Attribute by 1.5 for the next five-minutes-and-fifty-five seconds, stacking with eachother, as you are filled with the singular desire to kill.

The damage from your attacks and abilities is increased by a moderate amount while Black-rage is active.

Your mass is increased pulling in the shadows around you obscuring your form making you more difficult to hit. This is magnified by every point of Might you gain while in Black Rage.

Cost: 1 stamina per/sec while active.

Upgrade this ability to increase the amount of Might increased by this ability and its duration. Each upgrade increases your Might Attribute by 1.

I reread my ability quickly before dismissing it. I then dismissed the next three notifications only briefly looking them over.

Congratulations you have raised an ability to rank fifteen, please pick from one of the three additional effects for your ability from the list below.

Damage you take while Black-rage is active is reduced by one stage.

Your rage is infectious infusing creatures around you who fail to resist your spirit with a rage equal to yours.

You only have to strike a creature drawing blood, ichor etc... to activate this ability instead of requiring a killing strike.

I looked over the three choices; the first was a good addition and very tempting, the second less so. I wasn’t actually sure what benefit it would provide me, it might make some attackers less effective but might also benefit others so it seemed pretty risky. The third option was one similar to what I had picked for Magma Heart(s) and I’d probably have to pick it for the same reasons. The might boost was good and all but in fights like I often had against solitary large monsters or a duel like that against Kaleb it would be useless to me since by the time it would activate the fight would be over.

Black-rage (Rank 15): Every kill or wound made by you increases your Might Attribute by 1.9 for the next six minutes-and-fifteen-seconds, stacking with eachother, as you are filled with the singular desire to kill.

The damage from your attacks and abilities is increased by a major amount while Black-rage is active.

Your mass is increased pulling in the shadows around you obscuring your form making you more difficult to hit. This is magnified by every point of Might you gain while in Black Rage.

You only have to strike a creature drawing blood, ichor etc.. to activate this ability instead of requiring a killing strike.

Cost: 1 stamina per/sec while active.

Upgrade this ability to increase the amount of Might increased by this ability and its duration. Each upgrade increases your Might Attribute by 1.

I dismissed the next four notifications and read over the expected pop-up.

Congratulations you have raised an ability to rank twenty, please pick from one of the three additional effects for your ability from the list below.

While Black-rage is active you are immune to hostile mental abilities, spells and effects.

While Black-rage is active any fear affects you create are twice as effective and are harder to suppress.

While Black-rage is active your attacks restore a moderate amount of health to you with each kill or wound you inflict with melee attacks.

The first ability was a classic berserker class skill. The second didn’t directly even effect this ability but would amplify the fear effects of other abilities I had, which I didn’t. The third would give me a vampiric life drain to my weapon attacks. The first one could be useful but other than Morgaine’s sleep ability I hadn’t really encountered anything like this and having high Mind and Spirit would do the same thing. The second could be really useful if I ever got a fear ability since I didn’t have one now but if I got one its effects would be doubled by this additional effect. The last would let me restore health by dealing damage but this was sort of already covered by Troll Hide, but doubling down on self-healing wasn’t a bad idea.

I didn’t lean towards any of the three options so I just chose randomly.

Black-rage (Rank 20, Max Rank): Every kill or wound made by you increases your Might Attribute by 2.5 for the next six minutes-and-thirty-five-seconds, stacking with eachother, as you are filled with the singular desire to kill.

The damage from your attacks and abilities is increased by a major amount while Black-rage is active.

Your mass is increased pulling in the shadows around you obscuring your form making you more difficult to hit. This is magnified by every point of Might you gain while in Black Rage.

You only have to strike a creature drawing blood, ichor etc.. to activate this ability instead of requiring a killing strike.

While Black-rage is active any fear affects you create are twice as effective and are harder to suppress.

Final Rank Bonus: While Black-rage is active you are immune to any ability, effect or spell that tries to affect your emotions.

Cost: 1 stamina per/sec while active.

Upgrade this ability to increase the amount of Might increased by this ability and its duration. Each upgrade increases your Might Attribute by 1.

The damage bonus I got while the ability hadn’t gone up so I guess the system did apply restrictions and maximums an ability could give. The final rank bonus was similar to one of my last choices I hadn’t taken but more limited only effecting things that would try to effect my emotional state.

“Are you done now?” the voidling asked.

“You didn’t catch her?” I asked Karnen.

“No,” he said sullenly.

“Fine, both of you shut up. I’ve got work to do today and I don’t need your psychopathic commentary running through my head while I do it,” I said pushing open the door to my room and leaving to find Syvia.

---

Jamis looked at the abandoned lumber camp, the spider webs still hung in all the buildings, but the area was completely abandoned by man and monster. Lord Telderen stepped foreword and began shaping the stone of the cliff behind the lumber camp creating a slopping path for the army to march on to the top. After half an hour they had all reached the top and kept moving marching alongside the riverbank. Mira flew down from the tree branches landing in front of the procession.

“What did you see ahead?” Jamis asked.

“Some sort of fortification by the river,” Mira said. “I spotted a few goblins inside it but no gifted among them.”

“Let’s check it out then,” Helen said nudging her horse forward.

They reached a large stone fortification stopping forty yards away looking at the seamless fifteen-foot-high walls. Something poked its head above the wall but before it could duck down again an arrow from Mira took it in the eye.

“We don’t know if they’re hostile yet,” Guinevere said looking side-eye at Mira.

“They are goblins,” Felrick said. “They are always hostile.”

“We should cull them to keep them from devastating the area and take one alive for questioning,” Helen agreed.

“Seems a bit barbaric,” Torvin said.

“When you’ve seen what a goblin war party does to a village or town; trust me, you won’t have any mercy for them either,” Felrick said.

The champions gathered outside the walls. Jamis ran forward his gauntlets outstretched and jumped catching the lip of the wall. A goblin appeared above him swinging down a spiked club. An arrow took the goblin through the throat but not before it smacked Jamis in the face. Torvin charged forward his lance aimed at the wall as he rushed forward, the golden tip of the lance struck the stone and a blast of light exploded from its tip. Torvin kept going and slammed headfirst into the scorched stone wall.

Mira flew above her arrows flashing down and creating tiny explosions wherever they hit. She shot inside the cave at the back of the fort with a special arrow a blast of light blinding everyone inside. She landed inside the courtyard as Jamis cleared the wall jumping down between ten goblins and his claws and fists splattering them against the wall.

As soon as the attack had begun it was over and only four goblins were left alive. Felrick dropped down from the wall and stalked forward grabbing one by the throat and lifting up the tiny green skinned creature.

“Where is the rest of your tribe?” he snarled.

“Gone,” the goblin gasped as the three others shrank back from the champion.

“Gone where,” Felrick pressed.

“Don’t know,” the goblin sputtered clawing at Felrick’s hand to keep from hanging and choking in his grip. “Left with the Warlord.”

“The Warlord?” Helen asked. She and the rest of the champions entering the stone fort, a sheepish looking Torvin getting a hand up.

“Yes, Warlord!” the goblin said excitedly latching onto the interest in her voice.

“How do you know he was the Warlord?” Felrick asked. “You’re not gifted you couldn’t have identified him.”

“He dominated the tribe, stayed here for many days then went north,” the goblin said pointing upriver.

“Why didn’t you go with them?” Felrick asked.

“I ran when he kill the chief,” the goblin explained. “We hid in the woods until they left then came here for safety.”

“What is this?” Torvin asked, looking around at the stone walls. “My attacks couldn’t even put a crack in this place, how did you build it.”

“The Warlord built it,” the goblin explained.

“Enough of this,” Felrick said. “I’ve had enough of these little shits talking.”

Guinevere caught his arm before he could finish the sword strike. “They aren’t a threat to us.”

“Not yet,” Felrick said. “But let them grow their numbers and they will be.”

“I don’t know,” Mira said speaking up against Felrick. “They didn’t submit to the Warlord; doesn’t that make us allies?”

“No,” Felrick said flatly squeezing his hand around the goblins throat and with a sickening sound crushing its trachea.

Helen stepped forward and silver light flashed from her palm incinerating the flesh from the other three goblin’s bones. “Its harsh, but this is what it means to stand up against chaos and protect civilization.”

Chapter 31: Its all in my Head

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