I’d been quick to get into my appropriated clothes when hiding from the sun, but I was much faster getting out of them now, even with a gun still in hand - not an item I was going to be dropping any time soon.
The logic here was simple: put a cover over a lantern and the light is limited. All my skin emitted light, so I’d become that lantern. Time to let my light shine.
And yes, I had not yet had the chance to invest in underwear, so when we talk about my glowing body, I had radiantly veiny b –
‘God’s sake. Focus.’ I gave myself a verbal berating, pointing the gun back at my friends hovering behind my expanding pool of light.
Naked as the day I might have been born, I admired the impact of the sunlight skill. Way more impressive. The creatures hastily retreated as their friendly darkness gave way, and light radiated around us like a beacon of hope that brought a desperate change to our outlook. The demon’s forms, somewhat hidden by the night, had the shadows around them peeled back for the first time.
Seizing the opportunity, I made my move with my heart pounding like a drum in my chest. Raising the revolver, I carefully sighted my target and squeezed the trigger. The shot missed, veering wildly to the left, or right. Too hard to tell which. Without hesitation, I quickly cleared the gun and sighted down the revolver again, firing a second shot in rapid succession. The bullet struck the demon, but it didn't so much as flinch. Just like the one back in Oro City, it appeared impervious to bullets. Not good.
The other demon, the porcupine one, had a protective tentacle thing guarding its vulnerable area. But with Serpenthead and the boar, it wasn't apparent if their necks were the weak point. They didn’t look it, and I had few bullets to put the theory through any rigorous testing.
Yet, this dilemma paled in comparison to a more pressing issue: they could move, and I couldn’t aim. I couldn’t hit a moving target to save my life – literally, it seemed.
Gun ruled out, I threw it down on top of my clothing. It wasn’t like I could holster it now, right?
No, that left one thing and one thing only: somehow holding up my sunlight skill until the sun itself broke through. Which meant…
CHARACTER INFORMATION: JACOB BOSMA
Class: Arbiter
Level: 2
Experience: 164/200
Health: 12/16
Essence: 13/13
Statistics:
(2 points to distribute)
· Strength – 1
· Dexterity – 1
· Constitution – 2
· Wisdom – 2
· Charisma – 0
Titles:
Traits:
· Outcast (-1 to charisma while trait is active)
Skills:
· Sanction – Grant titles imbuing attribute increases.
o Each imbued stat costs 7 essence.
· Sunlight – Project sunlight from your veins and arteries of varying intensity. The projection uses sunlight essence charges, which are restored when in full sunlight.
o Sunlight essence: 17/20
Bonuses:
Not good. My sunlight essence drained way too fast, and I really wasn’t glowing that brightly. In fact, if I hadn’t removed all my clothing to uncover the extra veins, I’m pretty sure the creatures would have already grabbed me. While my current level of luminosity kept them at bay, it wasn’t going to last until morning. I needed some way to dim myself down, keep myself safe, and then hold out.
Content the creatures were not going to attack me at that precise moment, I tried to look at the murky environment and find something to offer some protection. A cave might work, if I could drag us into one. One particularly large tree stood out, but that’d only be useful for me. I’d have to leave the woman behind as there was no way I’d be able to carry us both up there despite her small stature.
My eyes settled on a nearby rocky outcrop, faintly visible in the gloom about thirty paces away. Could I make it? Maybe. There were no good options. It would have to do.
Without hesitation, I seized the woman by a boot and unceremoniously dragged her behind me – which was technically in front. Me walk-waddling backwards, dragging her, eyes fixed on the two defilers still hesitating on the edge of the light. If the woman was conscious, I hoped she’d forgive me – but then again, I’d really appreciate if she’d help me instead. So, fair is fair.
As I dragged her backwards, pace by pace, it dawned on me how strange my thoughts had become. So many irrelevant ideas – so much rubbish. Maybe a coping mechanism, or maybe I’d just lost the plot completely? Processing being kidnapped by demons shortly after ‘waking up’ could, or perhaps should, cause the mind to break.
But no, this moved me onwards. Unfocused focus, let’s call it that. The ability to distract myself from impending doom through irrelevance. It kept that terror I’d felt when immediately captured, at bay. It kept me alive.
Breathing heavy, sweating in places now exposed, and overall, just generally weak – I dragged that woman towards a solid rock outcrop jutting from the earth. Dragged her until my buttocks met a solid cold stop, and I could pull her right up against the rough wall.
Then I sat on her.
They weren’t going to take her if I sat on her. She didn’t complain, and besides, dragging her that far with only one point in strength... Well, I needed a break.
‘You’re damn lucky to be alive anyway,’ I told the woman. ‘So lucky.’
* You have granted the female currently residing under your backside the title: The Lucky One. +2 bonus to constitution for as long as this title remains.
Oh no, my essence!
For a moment I freaked out, thinking that her accepting would further drain my essence and cause me further complications… but no, she stayed unconscious and couldn’t accept right now, which was both good and bad. Great for my essence, as I didn’t pass out, but on the other hand, I’m sure the woman’s injuries could use a bit of extra constitution.
The system didn’t even have the decency to tell me her name. Bastard.
The demonic eyes just… watched. That’s all they did, as I sat there and fiddled with my system status, hovering just out of range at about a dozen paces now. Were they confused on what to do? Had they met someone like this before? What they thought I can’t begin to guess, but they didn’t seem to have a range attack after the other demon’s death. I mentally sighed with relief, as it meant no more trips riding on a demon. But it also exposed the problem. A dozen paces saw me wasting brightness, and therefore wasting essence. They needed to come closer.
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Ding.
New Quest: Don’t die.
Fucking thanks, quest system. Better be worth the reward considering what I was about to do.
‘I don’t want all the information, just…’ I willed the system to display the sunlight skill only.
· Sunlight – Project sunlight from your veins and arteries of varying intensity. The projection uses sunlight essence charges, which are restored when in full sunlight.
o Sunlight essence 15/20
Pierre said the system had in-built flexibility, responding to what you wanted. What I wanted right now, was for only the front side of me to glow. My glowing buttocks were not going to ward off the demons behind me – the rock wall did that on its own.
Immediately, half my veins went dark. Great, I had some natural control over my skill, which meant I could go to phase two. Fixating on my body, I methodically turned off ‘the light’ for ever part of my body not projecting it forwards. That should draw half the essence rate.
Stage 1 complete, I moved to the difficult task, and willed my light to dim to 75%.
It responded immediately.
The creature’s eyes locked on mine as they instinctively crept coming forward when their shadowlands extended. One shuffling pace… two… Serpenthead looked like he wanted to risk a third, before he hissed and waggled his tongue in anger.
I laughed. It was stupid – but I did it with no regrets, staring down that bastard who wanted nothing more than to get to me, and likely this time go in for the kill. I willed my light down to 50%.
Two more paces, which put them eight or so away.
‘That’s as close as you’re getting for now,’ I snarled.
And we sat in for the night.
With my back firmly pressed against the rocky outcrop and the woman sheltered beneath me, I steeled my will. The defilers stood there like statues now… doing nothing but watching, waiting for me to fail. Yet there was no other way. I needed to stare the bastards down and get the job down. One more step forward. Keep them in front. Watch them. Be prepared.
It was a battle of wills, a test of endurance, and I would be victorious until dawn turned into our saviour.
o Sunlight essence 13/20
Tick, tick, tick. The essence counter kept going down, but now it ran slower, definitely slower.
A part of me wondered if I’d make it to dawn, or if I should make a run for it to the town? Initially there were three defilers, but now these two remained. Maybe. I had no way of knowing if there were more than two in the darkness, and as I’d already seen, these creatures had no qualms about hiding in the dark and baiting you. No, none of that mattered anyway. I wasn’t getting up. I wasn’t adventuring out to try and run to Oro City or kill more demons. My path for getting out of this related to one simple activity – keep the light on.
I sat, stared, and passed time.
o Sunlight essence 10/20
At some point, I breathed a sigh of relief as the woman below me awoke, but she simply stayed beneath me, and started moving her lips in whispered prayers. Had her mind broken? I could completely understand if it had, but the woman didn’t confirm anything as she drifted in and out of consciousness with prayers and a few whimpers. Not much else could be done.
Alright, I did shift myself off her, so that I was more kneeling rather than sitting on her. And yeah, I probably could have done that earlier.
Time simply meandered on, and on.
o Sunlight essence 7/20
In the early hours of the morning, right when my body felt like it needed to drift off to sleep, the demon’s vigil changed.
From nowhere, Serpenthead charged the light.
‘Shit.’ Flare the sunlight!
It exploded out of me, excessively bright and for Serpenthead, excessively painful. Light was quicker than his steps, and it careened into the onrushing demon. He screamed – and I mean screamed. If he’d been overly guttural before, he now keened in the shrill way of someone experience bodily trauma, like the pain of stubbing your toe. The demon’s body bubbled, and that steaming effect present from earlier, now carried the distinctly unpleasant smell of roasting defiler. Yeah, I was burning that guy to pieces, and he flung himself ungracefully back out of the light’s range and into the night. The boar defiler was less effected, but forced to retreat as he felt the full force of the light as well.
Two feet. That’s how close he’d come to getting me, to killing me.
No, focus. Focus on what’s ahead. I couldn’t maintain the brightness, so I settled it back to the previous level as the boar and a crispy Serpenthead returned to their staring contest.
o Sunlight essence 4/20
That’d cost me, but it’d severely hurt the demon, which posed an interesting question. If I had the chance, should I try to kill it?
No, I didn’t have enough essence.
The early hours of the morning had brought on the cold – which physically hurt, and shrank a portion of the light on offer. Sleep deprivation hung over me like a cloud, and I longed for nothing more than to close my eyes and be done with this. The mental fatigue was brutal, but the staring match simply continued.
o Sunlight essence 3/20
Okay, time to genuinely worry… So I dimmed the light just that little bit further. Seven paces now, at best. Hard to tell as my eyes were slightly bleary.
Tick. Tick. Tick. And then I saw it – the first sliver of change on the horizon.
The sun. Finally.
I blinked heavily, and in the moment, the creatures left.
o Sunlight essence 2/20
Quest Completion:
* Don’t die.
You have earned 200 experience for finding a way to not die in extremely hostile conditions. I assume you are happy with that outcome?
Congratulations, you have reached Level 3.
* 3 stat points are available to distribute.
Gut-wrenching relief flooded me. There were tears too. It’s hard to explain how your very soul feels as it sees the sun again after hope is lost. I was condemned. I was going to die. And yet somehow, I’d overcome those odds to survive. The sun drove all the terrors away, revealing just a standard serene midwestern landscape, with scraggy sagebrush clinging to dry soil. A few more rocky formations poked their heads up beside cottonwood trees, mocking me as they indicated I had more choice of shelter than I’d initially believed.
None of that mattered. I was safe, finally safe. And now, I bathed in the sunlight as it came up, luxuriating in the warm rays cascading onto my body. Plus, it came with the added bonus of recharging my sunlight essence. My eyes twitched as that counter headed back the other way. It was that easy… that easy to ensure my survival.
What a god-forsaken miracle. That’s irony there, because I literally would have been God forsaken if the demons had managed to drag me back to the canyon.
A shudder broke out through my shoulders and goosebumps prickled my skin. That thought came too soon. Too raw.
Move forward.
Priority number one remained getting myself and the woman back to Oro City. Not only would that give me a lovely boost in experience, because that ‘optional’ quest was ridiculously difficult to execute, but she also needed medical attention.
In the harsh light of the morning sun, the woman looked beaten up. Maybe my body looked the same. In fact, from some of the throbs and aches I could tell my body sported a mass of bruises. Anyway, they were a lesser problem than the fact the woman had not regained consciousness, even as I gently shook her. Her pulse felt steady, and her breathing came in calm inhales, but she needed a medical intervention, and I was no doctor.
With the woman cradled securely in my arms, I set off to retrieve my clothing, which was a far more dignified approach than my night-time efforts of dragging her by the foot. I’ll admit, feeling a certain… paranoia, that’s the word, as I retraced my steps to where I’d rapidly discarded my clothes the night before. Well-justified paranoia though, if I do say so myself, given the horror I’d just been through. And I’ll be damned, and short on experience, if something killed this woman in the daylight, after what we’d been through at night.
I gently laid her form down and began the slow process of redressing myself. That task alone was surprisingly hard, and it rapidly became clear that a physical toll had been exacted – one that left me dreading the trip back, especially with a deadweight for a woman. Hunger gnawed at my stomach, and I can’t even really describe the cognitive exhaustion. You just didn’t appreciate the comforting embrace of a night in bed until you were denied it.
I pulled the duster cloak back over my shoulders, and I felt it – reassured. The worn fabric draped around me like a protective shroud, offering a small measure of solace in the midst of chaos.
One more thing to deal with…
The demon’s body remained on the ground nearby, slowly roasting in the sun. However, it seemed like the blood itself was the problem. Once the blood left the body – like say, through a giant hole in the neck – or had steamed away through bursting bubbles in the skin, well, after that the head seemed largely resistant to the burning.
My eyes fell upon the demon, and I considered.
Yep. We’re doing this.
Without a knife, I was forced to scrummage nearby for an arm-wide piece of deadwood.
Then I beat the shit out of that motherfucker until the last bodily fibre detached from his goddamned ugly head.
Pure, unadulterated, catharsis.
I may have punctuated each blow with expletives. Fair enough, as you can tell, I’m having an issue with those – but slack must be cut!
I took the head by its stupid grappling-hook-limb-strangler, wrapped it twice around my now somewhat black duster, so that I could sling the head over my back. Then I picked the woman up in my arms and started my journey back to the town.
Time to get back to the only home I knew.