Jamis stroked the head of the bear as she groaned in labor. Felecia helped to guide the cub out, she had been a midwife before becoming a champion and helped the mewling bear cub out into the world. Setting down the bear cub that was no larger than a kitten and completely hairless against its mother’s belly. The bear cub immediately began to suckle hair visibly appearing on its body as it began to grow in size.
Felecia eased out another bear cub and then the third one. Jamis kept the bears docile as she worked. They left Felecia washing her hands of blood and birthing fluids.
“Well, that’s six,” she said.
“I’m ready to go look for some more bears,” Jamis said.
“You’ll have to go without me,” Felecia said. “I need to be nearby for my abilities to take effect. It’s a constant mana and stamina drain not a onetime cost.”
“You need anything from me?” Jamis asked.
“If you could find some plants to help with stamina and mana recovery,” Felecia said.
“If I see any I’ll grab them for you,” Jamis said.
“Have you noticed anything weird between Helen and Guinevere?” Felecia asked.
“They do seem to be walking on eggshells around each other,” Jamis agreed. “They had some sort of talk last night and have been on edge since.”
“Any idea what it was about?” Felecia asked.
“No and Helen won’t tell me either,” Jamis said. “I’ll let you know if I hear anything else.”
---
I sat up. My body didn’t ache thanks to Magma Heart(s) and Troll Hide. I stood and hiked the final miles out of the prairie. My Foresight was working correctly but I kept turning on Bestial Senses and looking about scanning for any ambush predators around.
Breaking out of the meadows I looked up at the mountains and spotted one that resembled a roaring bear. I started moving towards it. I entered a series of ravines that ran through the foothills. I sat down on a rock. I had things I had to that thanks to the constant ambushes by the plant monsters I’d been prevented from doing.
“Upgrade Chain Lighting to rank twenty,” I told the system. I skipped past the first three notifications.
Congratulations! You have raised an ability to rank five, please pick from one of the three additional effects for your ability from the list below.
· Killing a creature lets you chain longer.
· Targets metal armor take increased damage.
· Lighting is silent.
Looking over the three options I picked the first one. I rarely fought anything that wore armor at all so that ability was too situational. The third effect was for someone with a different fighting style than me; I wasn’t stealthy by any metric so reducing the noise my abilities I made was a useless cosmetic effect for me.
Chain Lighting: (Rank 5); You cast a bolt of Lighting at a target within 27ft that jumps to 6 other targets within 27ft of the first target. Deals a major amount of Lighting damage to the target, stunning them if they fail an Endurance check based on the damage the target receives.
Targets killed outright by this ability do not count against the maximum number of targets.
Cost: 20 mana per cast.
Upgrade this ability to increase the range and number of maximum targets. Each upgrade increases your Mind attribute by 1.
The damage for the ability had gone up, from Moderate to Major Lighting damage. If that kept up this ability would be perfect for destroying hordes of small weaker creatures since it could just keep traveling from creature to creature and as long as it killed its target it would keep going.
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.
· Can be channeled through weapons or your body limbs to deal Lighting damage on contact.
· Heats up any metal objects worn or carried by targets it hits.
· Chance to stun targets on hit.
The first option was tempting, and I almost picked it but I stopped myself. My melee damage was fine, this was primarily a ranged ability and I need to make sure it was a good ranged ability before getting some tacky extra effects.
Chain Lighting: (Rank 10); You cast a bolt of Lighting at a target within 42ft that jumps to 11 other targets within 42ft of the first target. Deals a Severe amount of Lighting damage to the first half of targets and major lighting to the remaining half; stunning them if they fail an Endurance check based on the damage the target receives.
Targets killed outright by this ability do not count against the maximum number of targets.
Targets who fail an Endurance check are stunned for 1 second.
Cost: 25 mana per cast.
Upgrade this ability to increase the range and number of maximum targets. Each upgrade increases your Mind attribute by 1.
The duration of the stun wasn’t that long but I hadn’t expected much there. Even one second of inaction on my enemies part would be enough to get in a hit on my part and it would probably go up as I ranked it 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 Lighting is invisible on all visual spectrums.
· Lighting has a random chance to double into two bolts on a kill.
· You leave spots of electricity for damage over time whenever you kill a target.
I liked all the options here. The first one was similar to the silent Lighting effect, but at least invisible Lighting would be harder to dodge. The second option would help me to clear hordes of enemies faster or just do more damage, but I was never a fan of random chance.
Chain Lighting: (Rank 15); You cast a bolt of Lighting at a target within 57ft that jumps to 16 other targets within 57ft of the first target. Deals a Severe amount of Lighting damage to the first half of targets and major lighting to the remaining half; stunning them if they fail an Endurance check based on the damage the target receives.
Targets killed outright by this ability do not count against the maximum number of targets.
Targets who fail an Endurance check are stunned for 3.5 seconds.
Any spot a creature has been killed by this ability becomes Charged* for thirty seconds.
*Charged: Creatures that enter this area take moderate Lighting damage and their movements are disrupted slowing them.
Cost: 30 mana per cast.
Upgrade this ability to increase the range and number of maximum targets. Each upgrade increases your Mind attribute by 1.
The charged effect was interesting. On a battlefield I could imagine electrified corpses acting like an electric fence.
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.
· Lighting fuses bit of nonmagical armor together when it hits.
· This ability can distinguish between friend and foe.
· Lighting drains minor amount of mana from target on a hit.
The second option stuck out to me. The biggest problem with a lot of my abilities like Helheim’s Scream was that it would affect my allies as much as my enemies. The other effects here I could do without the first was out for obvious reasons. The third would only drain a minor amount of mana and since this was the final rank that would never go up, also I wasn’t sure if drain meant I would get it or they would just lose some mana.
Picking the second option I finalized my decision.
Chain Lighting: (Rank 20, Max Rank); You cast a bolt of Lighting at a target within 82ft that jumps to 25 other targets within 82ft of the first target. Deals a Severe amount of Lighting damage to the first half of targets and major lighting to the remaining half; stunning them if they fail an Endurance check based on the damage the target receives.
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Targets killed outright by this ability do not count against the maximum number of targets.
Targets who fail an Endurance check are stunned for 6 seconds.
Pain caused by Chain Lighting is doubled.
Any spot a creature has been killed by this ability becomes Charged* for one minute thirty seconds.
Targets can be excluded from this ability to prevent friendly fire for an extra 20 mana per creature excluded.
*Charged: Creatures that enter this area take moderate Lighting damage and their movements are disrupted slowing them.
Final Rank Bonus: You are a creature of an energy as much as flesh, storms are more likely to generate in your vicinity.
Cost: 35 mana per cast.
I ended my Wrathful Meditation I’d activated while upgrading my ability. Immediately I felt the hairs on the back of my neck raise up. I was being watched. I turned ready to skewer whatever it was with a spearhead and blast them with Lighting.
A man in fur cloak looked down on me from atop the ridge. He held a spear but was leaning against it not threateningly and looked more curious than aggressive.
“Are you alright?” he asked some concern. “We saw you coming out of the Cursed Meadow.”
I could only imagine what I looked like. Covered in blood and green plant matter from head to foot with bloodshot eyes. I’m surprised the man hadn’t run or attacked on sight.
Taking out my cleansing cloth I injected it with mana and quickly removed the filth. I couldn’t do anything about how crazy my eyes must appear but at least I was clean.
“Are you a member of the Bear Clan?” I asked.
The man frowned. “I am part of the Ursine Clan,” he corrected me.
“Didn’t mean to offend,” I said with a shrug. “I am Mordred, Champion of Kelesa. I am here to speak with your chief.”
The man looked up above my head no doubt reading my description.
“I can take you to our chief,” he said with a nod.
The man was large, not as big as the Dragonbreaker’s but close. The only surprise was that I was as big as him. The increases to my attributes had dramatically altered my physicality I’d gone up at least a foot in height and my shoulders had broadened as my body swelled up with muscle.
Following him through the foothills gorges and canyons we traveled for about three hours before arriving in a canyon its walls honeycombed with caves that cut into the mountain shaped like the roaring bear head. Large men and women in fur armor and cloaks sat in caves along the cliffs. It was an intimidating image and due to my recent experience with constant ambushes I was a little on edge.
“How many people are in your clan?” I asked my guide.
“This is only part of the clan, we have tribes scattered throughout our territory in the Ancient Forest,” my guide explained. “We number six thousand in total but only a forth of that number is here in at the foot of our sacred mountain.”
“What makes the mountain sacred?” I asked looking up at the ice and stone visage or a roaring bear.
My guide looked at me for a moment. “Am I correct in assuming your not from our world?” he asked.
“That’s right,” I agreed.
“What do you know about the myrmidon?” he asked.
“I know your in clans that center around some type of animal or beast,” I said. “I’ve met the chief of the Wolf Clan and fought the Dragon Clan.”
“Has anyone explained mutations to you?” my guide asked obviously steering the conversation somewhere.
“No, is that relevant to your race somehow?” I asked.
“Very much,” he said pulling back his gums to reveal his back teeth and their razor sharp points. They hadn’t been filed to points but looked completely natural.
“Our abilities are tied to the clan’s sacred animal,” he explained. “We absorb pieces of it such as tufts of hair, old claws or broken teeth whenever we gain an ability. This steers our abilities and mutations in line with the rest of our Clan. You may have seen the fury wolflike ears of the Wolf Clan or the scales covering the skin of the Dragon Clan. The Scared Mountain is the home of our sacred animal a great bear who we guard and revere.”
“What happens if it dies?” I asked.
“If we cannot find an equally powerful gifted beast it would mean the death of the tribe,” my guided said. “But efforts are always made to ensure it has a mate and that their will be a successor. The Clan is watching over its cub right now.”
“Aren’t bears super murderous when you take their cubs?” I asked.
“Yes,” my guide said with a laugh. “But not the males, its mother died so we are raising until it is old enough to care for itself.”
He’d been leading me down the canyon and we reached the end and the opening to a large cave. It was flanked by two guards. They wore the heaviest armor I’d seen the myrmidon’s in, bits of plate armor and helms that resembled a snarling bear. They stepped to the side when they saw me and my guide.
“Are you super important around here or something?” I asked. “They didn’t even stop to question us.”
“I’m just a hunter,” my guide said. “You were analyzed as you came in the chief is probably already expecting you.”
“Well at least introduction will be short then,” I said with a casual shrug.
The walls of the cavern were covered in detailed cave painting depicting hunts of beasts and monsters. Sigils and glyphs were scrawled alongside the paintings. To my surprise I could actually read them, they were some sort of poetry or edda describing the scenes painted. We passed them to quickly for me to reach much and the cavern widened out. A man as large as Dragonbreaker sat on a fur covered stone throne. Braziers burned around the room giving light and warming the chill of the caves.
Kas’tu the Ursine War-Chief, Gifted- humanoid/myrmidon (bear), Hero, Rank: 458
“I greet you Warlord,” Kas’tu said bowing his head to me. “What mission of the goddess brings you here?”
“I have been sent to conquer this Forest,” I said. “I must defeat or subdue the major powers of this forest of which your Clan is one.”
“Have you come to challenge me then?” Kas’tu asked leaning forward a snarl forming on his lips.
I looked at above him at his description and rank. “That might be a bit of a tall order for me right now.”
Kas’tu sat back throwing his head back in a full-throated laugh. “You didn’t even flinch! Well done, my Clan will not submit to you for nothing however.”
“I’ve got to prove myself I’m guessing?” I asked. “Korsis said I’d need to prove myself in battle before he’d join me.”
“Indeed,” Kas’tu agreed. “I know you made it through the Cursed Meadow, a noble feat but being the Warlord is about more that killing powerful creatures. You must prove you can win battles against armies of humanoids and have the strength to destroy or dominate them.”
“Korsis also wanted to see about you helping him against the Dragon Clan,” I said.
Kas’tu leaned back in his throne slouching slightly. “He has sent ambassadors to me before about this.”
“Why haven’t you joined him?” I asked. “From what I understand the Dragon Clan have been allying themselves with outsiders and that’s a taboo for you guys.”
“I have seen no proof of this,” Kas’tu said. “You do not understand the stakes of a war with the Dragon Clan. Have you meet with them yet?”
“I’ve fought them once,” I said. “But I don’t know if I’d call that meeting them.”
“Then you haven’t seen their settlement,” Kas’tu said. “The Dragon Clan are the most powerful of the Clans in the Ancient Forest. My Clan and the Wolf’s number collectively around twelve thousand; the Dragon Clan alone is twice that in number.”
“How are they so big in comparison?” I asked furrowing my brow.
“They have embraced the trapping of civilization,” Kas’tu said spitting. “Planting fields and rearing herds of cattle. Also, they have absorbed the women and children from two other clans they defeated.”
“So, this isn’t the first time?” I asked.
“We often war with eachother,” Kas’tu said dismissively. “But the Dragon Clan have been unusually aggressive for the past four generations. There were two other Clans in this forest, the Stag and the Boar.”
“The Dragon Clan declared war on the Boar Clan, they killed many of their warriors at first but then they did the gravest of offenses. They killed the Clan’s sacred animal. This weakened the Clan and they proceeded to kill all the remaining warriors who would not surrender and join them. When they were done with that, they captured the Clan’s women and children adding them to their own.”
“The same thing happened with Stag Clan?” I asked.
“Close,” Kas’tu said. “The war against the Stag Clan was much harder for the Dragons. The casualties for the Dragon’s were massive although the Stag Clan suffered greatly as well. Finally, the Dragon Clan somehow found and eliminated the Stag’s sacred animal. After that they repeated what they had done to the Boar Clan.”
“And now their going to do the same to the Wolf Clan,” I said. “Or at least try. And what happens if they do, history is showing a pattern and if they only get stronger every time then your Clan won’t stand a chance against them.”
Kas’tu sighed. “You speak the truth. My grandfather often spoke of his regret for not coming to the Stag Clan’s aid. What of you Warlord? Where do your allegiances lie?”
“The Wolf Clan has done right by me, but my allegiance is to myself. I protect what is mine, that’s it. I’ll probably fight the Dragon Clan but I’m just as likely to fight you,” I explained.
“Bold of you to say while you stand so weak before me,” Kas’tu said with a growl.
I shrugged. “I believe in the direct approach.”
Kas’tu stroked his bear in thought. “I will make a pact with you Warlord, defeat the Dragon Clan and I and my Clan will swear allegiance to you.”
“You have yourself a deal then,” I said. “There is one other matter I must discuss with you. I have been given a quest by Kelesa to defeat the eight powers of the forest. I’ve already beaten two, the Bandit King and the Storm Pheonix. Three of them are the myrmidon clans which leaves three remaining, I think the Hell Dragon is one of them but that still leaves two unknown.”
“You seek to hunt our sacred animal,” Kas’tu said standing up. “Walk with me I must show you something.”
I followed Kas’tu through a series of caverns until we came to courtyard of sorts. A shaft of sunlight shone down from above and grass and flowers grew along the floor. A bear the size of large couch slumbered in the warm grass.
Rashu, Magma Bear Cub, Gifted- beast/magma-bear, Mortal, Rank 8
“That a cub?” I asked in shock.
Kas’tu laughed. “He’ll be much bigger when he’s full grown.” He walked up to the bear cub rubbing its short stony ear.
The bear didn’t have fur I realized just sharp points of obsidian rising up a orange glow suppressed behind them. It let out a growl raising its head, one side of its face was horrifically scarred but at least its eye was still intact.
“What happened to it?” I asked.
“His father has gone rabid,” Kas’tu said. “It is not unheard of for a male bear to kill its cubs, but Urso also killed his mate. Only Rashu here survived thanks to my intervention. I fear our sacred animal will descend the mountain soon and begin to attack the clan. It seems the goddess in her wisdom has given this quest to help both you and my Clan.”
I didn’t say that I doubted Kelesa cared one way or the other but just nodded in agreement. “So, your fine with me hunting it?”
“It as the goddess wills,” Kas’tu said. “You have my blessing; Urso the Prince of the Mountain lairs in the mouth of bear. He is an Earth Bear with powers that revolve around stone but also some sonic attacks.”
“I’ve experienced those before,” I said. “I’ll head up the mountain as soon as possible, also if your Clan has a dungeon, I could run I’d like the opportunity to do so.”
“Our dungeon won’t reset for another five days,” Kas’tu said. “But if you wish I’ll arrange a party to accompany you, how many warriors will you need for your hunt against Urso?”
I smiled. “I’ve got this, I prefer to do all my hunts alone.”
There was silence then Kas’tu nodded. “It is as the goddess wills.”
---
Arthur could hear the grumbling of his men. It had only been a day but already they were out of the little food they’d had left. His scouts had gone into the forest, but none had returned yet, he may not have had any gifts, but this Pierce was dangerously effective.
The army approached a town. They needed to take it to resupply, they’d sent word to their rear supply lines but it would be a week before they could reach their location. Enemy scouts had fled before them and warned the town. The gates were barred and men stood on the walls bows and ballista at the ready.
Arthur rode forward on his horse to speak with the town’s governor.
“I am Arthur….” He began.
“We know who you are prince,” the man atop the wall said spitting the last word out like a slur. “You aren’t welcome her turnabout and go back to your islands.”
Arthur grit his teeth. “I am here to offer you the chance to surrender; if you do so no damage to your town or harm to your people will take place.”
“And if I don’t?” the man laughed but his laugh was a bitter thing. “There are no friends of Camelot here prince. Your liberation you’ve come to offer us is not needed or wanted.”
“You don’t have the numbers to fight us,” Arthur said.
“Oh, I know,” the governor agreed. “But that’s not part of the plan.”
Smoke rose behind them and the men on the ramparts disappeared into it.
“Attack the gate!” Arthur ordered.
They broke down the town’s gate and stormed inside. Spreading out they searched the town but only found a few dozen people still inside.
“They set fire to any food we could have used,” Kay reported.
“So, their plan is to try and starve us,” Arthur said. “If they want to play at war like that then we’ll show them just how nasty war can get with a hungry army,” Kay said.
“What are you suggesting?” Arthur asked.
“Our mission is to take these lands,” Kay said. “We can’t let the lives a few peasants who forgot their place get in the way of that. No more marching across the land trying to peaceably take towns. We move like a storm and smash everything and anything that gets in our way.”
“There is no honor in that type of war,” Arthur said sternly.
“With respect Arthur,” Lancelot said. “You’re going to need to decide between the lives of your men or these people. One way or another one side is going to win here.”