Chapter 57 – Call to Arms

[Gurthoks' Rest]

[Sam]

Sam took careful steps through the mostly destroyed town of Gurthoks’ rest. It had become a ghost town ever since the other adventurers had shown up to wipe them all out with their quest. There were questionable signs that a few of the Xogon had escaped, but he couldn’t be sure.

He had checked the blacksmith’s house first; someone had turned it upside down, likely searching for any loot they could get their hands on. He had hoped at least the smith and his family had managed to escape. While the house had obviously been ransacked, there were tell-tale signs of someone who had turned their house upside down in frantic packing and fleeing.

Sam had checked all over the house, but his battle cane had either been stolen or the smith's wife, the enchantress, took it with her. With as powerful an item as it was he knew he would likely never see his battle cane again.

Luckily, Jack’s gun was still in pieces and mostly resembled junk unless you knew what you were looking for. After several hours of searching, Sam was able to find the remaining parts scattered throughout the boy’s room and piece the weapon back together. He kept the gun tucked into his belt. It still didn’t have any ammo, but it felt cool to carry around.

Sam threw a glance in the direction of the dungeon. It had been over three weeks now since Jack and Hannah entered the dungeon and the Tower locked them inside. Sameera was even starting to believe that just maybe they weren’t going to die in there. She seemed somewhere between curious and annoyed about that fact.

Their makeshift camp near the dungeon had turned into a far more established base of operations as everyone salvaged what they could from the destroyed city to make life more comfortable. Sameera insisted they be as close as possible to the dungeon for whatever might transpire.

While they waited, Sam had been training.

Piper, the rune mage, hadn’t been kidding about how difficult Hanks training was. The man had nearly killed Sam a hundred times over at this point, and it had only been three or so weeks. Their sessions had pushed Sam to heights he had never thought he’d be able to reach. It was much like Jack's crazy training regimine, but it had structure, purpose, and reviews on how to improve.

Sam took a look at the great sword that he hefted onto his shoulder.

Enchanted Steel Great Sword

Type: Weapon

Tier: Common

Enchantment Slots: 2/2

[Density - 1 Slot]

The weight and sturdiness of this weapon has been dramatically increased

[Self Repair - 1 Slot]

As long as 50% of the item remains, it will pull on surrounding mana to repair any damage.

A simple greatsword often used for training warriors.

Hank’s ideas on how Sam could best use his abilities had been a lot like Jacks. He wanted Sam to teleport to the enemies’ blind spots and deliver a quick fatal blow. Hank was insistent that using a greatsword was a far better option than the short sword or longsword Sam had been hoping for. Its size would pair much better with his teleport ability so he could flash in, swing down hard with a devastating attack, flash out. Rinse and repeat until your target is dead.

Sam had spent the better part of the week using the surrounding monsters of the Buxgrave Mountains to home in on that technique. When he wasn’t doing that, Hank had him chopping down trees with his sword.

Then something unexpected happened that set his training back.

Hank had pushed his [Teleport] ability to its absolute limits through the constant training, fighting, and dueling of other members of the party. He had improved the skill mastery to Adept, which triggered an ability modification. Sam checked what his teleport had changed to.

[Chrono-Warp]

Ability - Rare

Weave yourself through the fabric of time to travel back to any spot you’ve traveled previously. Mana cost based on how far back in time you travel. For an additional much higher cost of mana, you may also revert any wounds received when traveling backwards through time.

The ability had sounded ridiculous, and at first Sam thought it was insanely overpowered, but then reality started to kick in. He wasn’t actually controlling time, despite what the ability said. Wherever he walked, wherever he moved, he could only Chrono-Warp back to that position he held during that moment in time.

The rest of the world stayed the same.

He wasn’t actually turning back time for anyone but himself. It felt like he was teleporting, just with more limitations.

He could no longer freely teleport wherever he could see. This had bummed Sam out at first. He hadn’t really grown his teleport ability to really take advantage of its power and It honestly felt like a huge downgrade to the ability. But, after training, the perks quickly began to reveal themselves.

For starters, the mana cost was almost non-existent. At least it started small. If he Chrono-Warped to any location he had been within the past thirty seconds he almost didn’t notice the mana cost. This was of course extremely multiplicative. His teleportation wasn’t based on distance, but time. The further back in his timeline he went, the steeper the cost. So if he went 5 feet or 500, it didn’t matter. The implications behind that were interesting.

Five minutes in his timeline was as far back as he could travel, and that would drain his entire core.

Then there was the second part of his ability. Technically, it was amazing. Using the mechanics of time he could heal himself now. Or atleast revert back to a time when he didn’t need to be healed.

Despite Sam's protests, Hank insisted they cut his pinky off and see if he could heal it.

He could.

It drained his entire core, even though he waited only fifteen seconds in agonizing pain before [Chrono-Warping], activating the healing portion of the ability. He hoped that as he improved the rarity level and mastery level, that cost would go down dramatically, but for now the only thing he would be healing was cuts and scrapes, and even that came at a high mana cost for him.

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Sam hefted the great sword on to his shoulder and kept his creeping advance through the town. The name of the game these days was combat experience. With a healer, the group could go all out against each other with little risk of serious or permanent injury.

Sam still wasn’t sure he had mentally recovered from Hank having skewered him with his sword half a dozen times over, but Hank insisted overcoming the mental gap of getting injured was an important part of training. The Tower seemed to agree.

Sam was dueling Travis today.

Travis was the other warrior in the group and the one who had given Sam the greatsword. Sam found Travis leaning against a cottage in a small clearing in town, whistling without a care in the world. The man had spiky black hair and a powerful jaw. He had been a firefighter back on Earth and he had the physique to match. He looked all the more intimidating thanks to his shining U.F.E. plate armor and massively high strength.

Sam took a deep breath as he walked towards Travis, who spotted him instantly. He flashed Sam a smile before pulling out his own menacing looking greatsword. While Sam's sword was basic and utilitarian in nature, it did have the grace and curve of a well crafted blade. Travis’ was basically a giant metal rectangle that someone sharpened on all sides and randomly strapped a handle to. When he swung it, the backdraft alone was enough to knock Sam off his feet.

“Let’s see what ya got for me today, Sammy.” He said, a cocksure grin on his face.

Draw him out first, Sam told himself.

Travis obliged, stepping into the center of the clearing and taking a challenging stance. Sam didn’t waste anymore time.

As he had practiced a hundred times now, he cast [Chrono-Boost] on himself and instantly started running around as fast as his body would allow in erratic circles around Travis.

This was phase one of his new strategy – cover as much ground as possible, as fast as possible.

When he completed his first half haphazard circle around Travis, he stopped in front of the man and smiled.

“That was… an interesting tactic?” Travis offered a confused grin on his face.

Sam just smiled back.

And then he cast [Chrono-Warp].

It took him less than ten seconds to run around Travis. Now, he could teleport “back” through time to any of those previous spots. The best part was that his traveling back didn’t erase any of the now “future” spots he would have traveled to. In addition, any time he warped to a spot, it would “reset” the timer, and eventually he was teleporting to spots he had been standing less than half a second ago.

He created a feedback loop that allowed him to teleport in rapid succession all around Travis. He pushed the ability harder and harder, faster and faster. So fast, in fact, that Sam could see after images as he jumped from one spot to the next.

The best part was because he was only warping back through time half seconds, the mana cost was almost nonexistent. He was doing hundreds of warps and his mana core was only slowly trickling down.

He continued his rapid warping in a circle around Travis for several seconds. The warrior fell into a defensive stance, a look of deep concentration on his face as he tried and failed to track Sam.

Sam thought about firing off chrono-missiles from his warping frenzy, but he didn’t want to make himself easier to track. He needed to end this in one deciding blow.

During the half second of his warp, he cast another [Chrono-Boost] on himself. He warped as close as he could to a spot just inside of Travis’ blind spot and launched himself forward, swinging his sword as hard as he could.

Naturally, Travis was able to predict the attack.

He swung around, not even using his sword as he slammed the back of his fist into the broadside of Sam’s sword, sending it flying.

Sam had more moves left in his assault. Still empowered by the chrono-boost, he threw himself to the other side of Travis, and then started warping around the man again.

He reappeared at Travis’ side; flintlock leveled at his head.

“Gotcha.” Sam thought. He gave a small grin and pulled the trigger.

Click.

Travis turned his head and fixed Sam with a matching smile. Then he threw his fist forward and gut punched Sam so hard he almost threw up.

Instead of hurling in front of his new friends Sam opted to drain his core and warp back to moments ago before Travis punched him in the stomach.

“That’s not fair.” Sam grimaced from a spot on the ground. “If I had bullets, you would have been dead to rights.”

“But you didn’t. Therefore, I win.” Travis said matter of fact, reaching out a hand to pull Sam up.

“He’s right.” Came Hank's voice from somewhere behind Sam.

Sam let out a small groan. Hank was ever the dutiful instructor. That meant he rarely ever dished out compliments and worked Sam all the harder for any mistakes he noticed.

“Your strategy is sound…” Hank started to say as Sam approached. “But one AOE attack from Travis and then what? On top of that you only left yourself one avenue of escape. You need to be even more unpredictable with your movement. You tend to create recognizable patterns. To maximize the ability, you need to cover as much ground as possible, always be moving. Never stop. The greatest flaw of your chrono-warp is that should the enemy realize how it functions, they will be able to track you, remember where you’ve been. They will have a roadmap to intercept you. And then you’ll be dead.” He said in a chastising tone.

“Cut him some slack Hank.” Travis said, putting his arm around Sam. “You’ve gotta admit what he did was pretty cool. I was starting to feel like I was surrounded by a dozen Sams!”

Hank merely scoffed at that.

“Sameera has called a meeting. There’s news from the front lines.” Hank said, turning and walking back towards camp.

Travis and Sam looked at each other for a moment exchanging a worried glance and then chased after Hank.

The trio met up with the rest of the party who was already waiting, everyone sitting around the fire of their makeshift camp.

Sam noticed someone new had joined them. A woman was talking with Sameera. She wore white leather armor that had a smattering of gray that gave her a camouflaged look. A pair of daggers hung at her waist and a bow slung on her back peeked out over her shoulder.

Sameera didn’t look happy.

Sam sat next to the Hank and Travis and waited as Sameera finished talking with the woman before she turned back and addressed the group.

“The news isn’t good, so I’ll be blunt with it. The war effort isn’t going as we hoped. We’re being pushed back on all fronts. In addition, it’s reported that Gideon has sustained injuries and has been forced off the front lines by someone they are referring to as the Butcher of Crowen. Apparently several of our officers have been killed at his hand as well.”

There were several small gasps at that.

“Gideon is there? Does that mean Dragon’s Hope picked a side?” Sam found himself asking, drawing the eyes of everyone.

“Yes… The Crowen Kingdom was able to purchase the support of the Red Cross and their healers. In response, the Dragons Hope faction who had previously been there for refuge support ended up taking the side of the United Forces of Earth in response… Do you know Gideon?” Sameera asked.

“Sarah was in my tutorial village. We spent some time with her and Gideon before parting ways.”

“You know the Gentle Storm?” Piper asked, a whimsical look on her face. “They say one spell from her can change the tide of an entire battlefield. Her refreshing rains heal and restore everything they touch.”

Sam just nodded, the memories of Gideon and Sarah reminding him of Jack, and the fact they have to kill Gideon. Maybe Gideon dying in the war would be a good thing… Sam thought, feeling a little disgusted with himself.

“You and your little group just get more and more interesting…” Sameera said with a considering look at Sam.

“Either way. We’ve been called back to duty everyone. Pack up your things. We leave in the morning.” Sameera said as if the dungeon no longer mattered.

“Wait. What about the dungeon? You’re just going to abandon it?” Sam asked.

“Yes.” Sameera said matter of fact. “We have a duty Sam. If someone else gets the key – so be it. They still have to make their way to the Crowen kingdom to use it, and with any luck, we will be the ones in charge by the time they appear.”

Sameera stared at Sam a moment longer before continuing.

“You’re welcome to stay here Samuel. I hope, however, you will come with us. We need every one of skill with us on the front lines. I can assure you surviving Hank’s training is no small thing and despite his lack of positive reinforcement we are both quite impressed with you. Can I count on you to join the United Forces of Earth and the fight to save humanity?” She said, eyes almost pleading.

Sam stared at her for a long moment, and then back at the dungeon. If they left him here he would truly be alone. At least with the UFE he might be able to do some good instead of just waiting around for Jack and Hannah to escape.

He closed his eyes and nodded at Sameera.

He was going to war.