For a moment, he had forgotten what being rank-fifty meant. That attack hadn’t even been channeled - it had been as instantaneous as someone casting a flamethrower spell, but many times more deadly. The creature that had cast it was a yellow shade, and it was then that Tom noticed that goblins, unlike those that had been portrayed in books and unlike what his experience in the tutorial told him, came in a variety of shades and colours. He was pretty confident, based on the one example, that colouration was related to their elemental ability.
Another house exploded as blue flames consumed it. It was so violent and quick that he couldn’t tell if the person or people inside had escaped.
Despite the chaos and speed of the raid, the defenders were not caught flat-footed. They were clinically grouping up and responding to the threats, understanding the invaders’ nature. With an apparent minimum of communication and direction, they split into small groups to target the individual enemy clusters. Like that, the grouping of five was eliminated.
The yellow goblin gestured at the three humans approaching it. The sickly yellow gaseous cloud burst toward them, but a white light countered it hard and ripped it to bits. A different human waved his hands, and earth shards tore the goblin caster apart. One of the yellow goblin’s four companions, who had a dark grey shade, reacted to what was happening. A black ball of energy appeared above its head, only for the third human to gesture and have the black ball burst, killing its summoner and the other three monsters next to it.
There were similar displays everywhere Tom looked. A group of blue-skinned goblins, all with the same exact skin tone, was approached by a single woman. They faced her, and a stream of water shot out of one of their hands. It diverted around the woman instead of punching through her. Another produced a whip of water, and the third a shield. The unconcerned human continued to sprint at them. The whip fell apart when it got close to her, and the shield, instead of blocking her, snapped back and cut all four in half. It took him a moment to realize what had happened.
They had been water specialists, and she had a domain that gave her control of any water within a few meters of her. The moment she had closed with them, they died.
The same pattern was repeating endlessly. Wherever he looked, the humans engineered engagements where they countered the enemy hard and butchered them easily. It was so coordinated that, despite the occasional lost house, Tom suspected that the casualties would be few, if not zero.
Given this was a rank-fifty force, and the hundreds, if not thousands, had made it to the ground, the overwhelming success of the defenders were impressive. It was a victory forged from strategic superiority, not raw power. Which, when he thought about it, was what being a competition species meant. The diversity of the builds humans could wield was the main reason that, as a species, they could fight beyond their weight class.
The desperate explosive combat petered out to nothing in less than five minutes. The artillery was no longer firing. They had been inactive for a while, and, for over sixty seconds, there hadn’t been a single explosion anywhere in town. It was over.
People were everywhere, cleaning up the damage and collecting the dead bodies of the monsters. It was clear that the raid, or attack, or natural migration, was finished.
“Return to the orphanage.” Dimitri yelled out his tone, a clear order. “All children are to be confined until clean-up is completed.”
“But we’ve still got two hours,” One of the ten-year-olds called out.
“We’ll have an outside session next week,” Dimitri told her. “To compensate for this one being shorter. But, for now, it’s too dangerous to explore. Move it. I want to see you inside now.”
There was no arguing with that tone. If they made a fuss, they would lose their leave pass for future outside excursions.
“We’re doing this every time.” Briana declared.
“No. The rules are there for a reason.” Kang objected.
Tom looked between them and knew without a doubt that, if they were outside when the alarm went off, they would have stayed. Kang was mainly resisting the idea because he didn’t want to stand out, but the man had a pattern. If Briana, as a non-rencarnator, pushed for something unusual, he would yield.
They retreated back into the main gymnasium, and, given the time, headed toward either the obstacle course or dodging pits. It was difficult to tell, as the start of the route to both was the same. Briana was leading them, and while, knowing her, he could as good as guarantee that she was heading to one of them, he couldn’t predict which.
Apparently, she felt like challenging herself with the obstacle course. The play on the beetle must have inspired her.
Just before entering, Tom froze and stared at the nearest stairwell.
Eloise was there, beset upon by Joseph and his two friends. The now eight-year-old bullies loomed over her. She was trapped.
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“Finally, I’ve got you.” Joseph declared, smugly. “And there’s no adults to interfere. Your ring is depleted.” He laughed. “You’re mine.”
It was clear what was about to go down.
Suddenly, Kang gripped him firmly around the waist and rushed him forward into the obstacle course room.
“What? Stop that.” Tom protested as the door frame broke his view of the confrontation. “What do you think you’re doing?”
While he couldn’t physically see it anymore, he knew what was about to happen.
Burning anger started to rise.
He wanted to go check, confirm, and then intercede. He wrestled with Kang to try to escape his clutches and rush back into the corridor. His friend was having none of it. With a grunt of effort, Kang tripped him, then fell on top of him, effectively pinning him under his greater weight. Tom fought back half-heartedly, torn as to what was the right response. He was a little shocked at the development. His brain tried to understand what was happening. Was this an intervention? Then the primal emotions intensified once more and blanked out rational thought.
Those boys were going to bully Eloise. He couldn’t accept that. It was his job to protect her. He could feel the fury bleeding out to increase the strength of his muscles. While he didn’t want to hurt Kang, if he twisted and launched himself to his feet, he would be free to avenge the injustice happening just beyond his view.
“They’re not doing anything to her.” Kang promised him.
What? he thought and almost miraculously the words sapped some of his anger, and in doing so stripped away a chunk of the power infusing him. Kang was heavier than him, and without a magical boost, he lacked the leverage to dislodge him.
“They are, too.” He argued.
“No, they aren’t. Briana, can you check?”
Briana was standing in the doorway, looking out. “They’re not touching her. They’ve left.” She was clearly lying because her voice was monotone, and she refused to make eye contact. As an attempt at deception, it was laughable, but it was successful in creating doubt. More power left him.
“Get off me.”
Kang stayed exactly where he was.
“They’ve left her alone, so there’s no harm if I check.”
“Yeah, they have.” Kang agreed, but didn’t move to release him.
Tom thrust his hips up to try and dislodge the heavier weight, then he threw himself sideways. Neither technique helped in the slightest, and he knew Kang was not a kid. He had an adult’s mind, and would know every single one of the wrestling tricks that Tom did.
They remained in the stalemate position for five minutes, Briana watching at the door and Kang physically restraining him.
Finally, Briana left where she stood. “Let’s do some runs. We’ve got over two hours before dinner.”
Tom, finally released rushed, to the doorway and looked toward the stairway. Eloise and the three boys who had been potentially assaulting her were gone. The artificial anger that had dropped to a simmer fell completely away, and he sagged slightly in response to the release of the pressure. Even if it had happened, it was clearly over, and there was nothing he could do to fix the situation anymore. Feeling more than a small amount of shock, he processed the extent of the intervention. Kang interceding was expected, but Briana’s actions confused him. That lying had not been a spur-of-the-moment decision. She might be a genius with spell casting and fate, but she didn’t think that fast.
“Bri,” Tom said hesitantly. “Why did you do that?”
She shrugged, and only half paid him any attention. “You get angry when people are bullied. Your anger is no good. I spoke to Kang. This was our solution.”
Tom stared at her. Briana turned away and started running her chosen obstacle course. It was the fifth easiest. For her, that was the end of the conversation. He looked at Kang to see what he thought of her explanation.
The other boy shrugged. “She was pretty insistent.”
That answer floored Tom for a moment. Was the intervention seriously Bri’s idea? Kang had no reason to lie, and it was dangerous to discuss the topic further.
He let it go and instead threw himself into the course while thinking about Earned Abilities. There was absolutely no reason to hold anything back, and every time he was about to suffer a nasty fall he used a point of fate hoping it would do something.
The weeks blended together as he continued focusing on his development and stretching his weak, pathetic body as far as it could go. Static Spark has been long-since mastered, and he evolved two of the three sub-abilities that fed into Spark. Another month, and he was going to have that lynchpin spell back again. He had also maintained the momentum when it came to his healing spells, and, with April’s help, had managed to get Heal Lung. He was also more than halfway to getting all the prerequisites for Heal Organs, though both the potential lethal brain- and heart-specific spells still had to be perfected. These were probably the largest obstacles when it came to all the spells he wanted to learn.
“You know you don’t need to get every prerequisite to force a perfect cast.” April said as she sipped the coffee opposite him. “You have lungs, skin, liver, kidney and stomach. That’s enough of a base to jump straight to Heal Organs, and then Touch Heal will be easy to advance afterwards. To be honest, at this point you could probably evolve to Touch Heal immediately and skip the Heal Organs step completely.”
“No. I’ve already got two sideways evolutions on my organs. Think how powerful it’ll be to get something similar for my brain or heart.”
April nodded. “Pursuing passive evolutions was definitely the right choice.”
“Much better than I’ve expected. Iron Stomach is a great passive.”
“I figured you would like that, but, in my opinion, the upgrade to the liver is superior. Having your liver process everything three times as efficiently will be huge for you.”
He grinned. “They’re both great. I won’t be comparing them. But them being so good is also why I’m not about to take short-cuts. Building these spells from scratch was definitely the right decision. I’m giddy just thinking about what getting a passive ability on my brain will give me. Smarter, resistant to damage, possibly let me heal from mortal wounds like decapitation? The possibilities just feel too incredible to not try everything I can to get it.”
April smiled. “Do you want my help? Should I buy a guide?”
“Yes to help and no to a guide. My gut tells me completing it with the aid of a guide is a mistake. It might even stop the chance of getting a lucky sideway evolution.”
“Ooh, so my job will be to keep hitting you until I damage your brain?” She clapped her hands in what he hoped was mock-excitement.
“Yes, April that’s exactly what I want.” He said dryly.