Wade was slightly annoyed at the moment, which, of course, came at the detriment of the woodland population around the city of Lyra.
She and Alder had traveled all the way back here, back to this city specifically to help its populace and to help the spatial user, Kya. Or at least that was part of Wade's reasons for coming back here.
And how had either of these goals ended up thus far?
Well, the spatial user had seen them, run from them, been briefly captured by them, and then left them with the healer Rory and an unconscious dwarf of all things, to go off on her own. They had not seen her since then.
After that, they had all interrogated Rory for some time about what the hell was happening, and what exactly she had been up to for these past several days. Apparently there was a death cult in the area that had been trying at human resurrection in the basement of some guy's farmhouse, and nobody had noticed that?
Wade was still utterly baffled at that news. Then, as the unconscious dwarf began to stir, threatening to awaken from his stupor, Rory had said he needed to get him into the guild's custody immediately. They all followed inside where the knowledge clerk girls flagged them over, asking what all they’d learned from Kya, because both she and Rory had sped past her without saying a single word. Eventually Rory had rejoined them for a more in depth conversation on what specifically was going on, and the clerk had been absolutely incredulous at the news of the cult and the resurrection.
They’d then spent several minutes more waiting for Kya to come back down, but she had apparently slipped by them at some point, meaning all they could do at that point was go take a contract and hope for the best.
Well, the only contracts they had for their level were once way out in the far reaches of the territory, and each one would likely take several days of travel just to get to the location, let alone actually carrying out the quests, which were killing monsters that Wade would have been excited as hell to fight, but which Alder said were beyond us until she gained her next star.
So, here she was, as she had been for the last couple of hours, cutting down the rat population of the rose forest like a scythed farmer to a field of wheat. Alder was content to sit back and watch her work, running with her as they chased after new prey, and offering advice or observations on her technique, which while she genuinely appreciated, started to get tedious and borderline insulting after the first thirty minutes or so.
Wade had long since gotten her first war ability and her healing ability to their respective thresholds, it was this last singular ability that was giving her trouble, for the exact reason they were now facing.
She could feel, intuitively, what the ability was and what it did. In the same way she knew how to move her fingers and toes, she knew how to inhale a lung full of fresh air, she knew how to use her abilities. They were a part of her, and as such, were known to her.
The ability was meant for a long, drawn out campaign. It was called Consuming Carnage and it was simple in its execution, which gave it unparalleled power if she could just use it correctly.
So long as she channeled the ability, for every consecutive attack that landed, the following one would be slightly more powerful. Again, simple enough, and in longer fights it had proved its worth time and time again. However, in this gods forsaken forest where the only monsters available to hunt in large numbers were the simple common rats, which of course she could kill in a single hit, it was almost impossible to train. They’d had a moment of success early on when they’d found a whole swarm of them, a good eleven or twelve all in a bunch, and she had taken out her pent-up frustrations on them with a gleeful abandon.
But since then, some rabbits, some birds, some annoying wigglers, and lots and lots of rats.
Wade felt like the man who dies of thirst in the desert mere inches from the oasis of life. Her ability was so close to reaching its final point, and she just wanted to get it done and over with. It would happen tonight. She didn’t care if she had to stay out all night to make it happen, because it would happen.
What they really needed was another one of those reaping tigers she'd watched Kya fight. Wade wasn’t sure if there even was another one in the forest, as this was a relatively low magic region. She’d heard about a single 2-Star monster appearing here some fourteen or fifteen years ago, but since then, the best they could hope to find would be a 1-Star in the rare or epic varieties.
But as the name suggests… Those were pretty rare, and Wade was growing equal parts frustrated and impatient.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Kya was having an absolute blast.
Reentering the forest had been a slightly anxious prospect for her at first, she’d stood on the edge of the empty field that separated the forest and the city walls, looking into the darkened woods and wondered whether it was really a good idea to return to these woods. She’d sworn the whole place off as hellish and something to which she would never return.
And yet, with her aura, and her armor, and her twin daggers, and her abilities, it was feeling almost too easy. Inviting even. The absolute darkness of the cloudy night under a canopy of trees would have been hampering to her before, but now with her spatial awareness in her aura, she could see the beings all around her like pinpricks of light, painting a picture in her mind of exactly what was around her, and where.
Eventually deciding to go ahead and venture inside, it hadn’t taken long before she’d found her first monster. The pair of aggressive rabbits she had woken up from their peaceful slumber had not been very pleased with her and reacted, well, aggressively.
Wearing her new armor that enhanced her abilities, which would theoretically stack with all her other bonuses to spatial abilities, she’d given the rabbits an experimental push each before they could even come close to her, just to see what would happen.
With almost comical ease, she heard and watched with her aura as they were both launched at absolutely insane speeds until they smashed into the trees thirty yards away and put on a pretty good imitation of a pinata at the party of an unmedicated ADHD kid.
After waving away the notifications for killing both monsters, Kya checked her character screen for the first time in what felt like ages just to see what, if anything, had changed from killing the rabbits.
- - - - -
Character Screen
* Name: Kya Ophelia
* Race: Human/Founder
* Race Benefits: Loot the Corpse, Identify, Translation
* Class: {Space} - 1-Star - 32%
* Class Abilities: Push and pull - 96%
* Class Benefits: Aura, Inventory
- - - - -
As of yet, the same as before. She really hadn’t expected much of a change from just the two rabbits. She would need to find and kill many more of them, or much more powerful enemies to make any real headway.
Cracking her knuckles as she headed further into the forest, Kya thought to herself how fun this was going to be. A night of pure cathartic fun for the torment this place had put her through.
She was ready and able, and most importantly, eager to fight any and all challengers who came her way. She just hoped there wouldn’t be too much trouble locating the more elusive monsters that would give those bigger payouts she sought.
Shrugging both mentally and physically, she took off at a quick jog through the forest ahead, seeking out anything she could find to simply flatten out for all they were worth.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Sayrin had spent all day with his wife convincing her that she should come with him to his deployment. He had expected it to take time, and had prepared several arguments he thought to be truly compelling. From the simple fact that it would allow them to bond and grow closer together, to that he would need her by his side more than ever on a months-long deployment to a foreign country, one to which he’d never been.
What he hadn’t considered, and in hindsight really should have, was that this was where Mata’s people originated. Though she was born and raised outside of the peaks, it was considered a sacred rite of passage in their culture that no matter where you were in the world, no matter where you lived and no matter how much land there was to traverse, you should make the pilgrimage to the mountain tops at some point to pay homage to your ancestors.
Sayrin had known this somewhere far back in his mind, but he hadn’t really considered it in a great many years, not since Carcelo was still a young boy really.
With that matter settled, he felt like for the first time in a long time, that he was well and truly free. Free to just breathe, to act how he would. He had several days yet before he had to leave, his son was to be given his own assignment and his own mission soon, returning to the path they all walked as users, and there was no doubt the boy would earn his second star by the time he returned from his deployment, if not even sooner than that.
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This left Sayrin… almost restless as he was suddenly without any of the mental burdens that had for so long plagued him. Sure, he needed to still heal the rift in his marriage, and his son was… well, he needed to help his son as well, any way he could. But for the moment, he was free.
Yet, he couldn’t sleep, he couldn’t sit still, he couldn’t stay in the house even. Making the decision on an impulse, he rose and summoned a servant with the ring of a bell.
Hardly more than a handful of moments later, and a soft knock came at his door, before a butler walked in and knelt saying “Yes master, what can I do for you?”
Hurrying about the room gathering supplies that he would need, he said “Make ready a carriage, I’m going to the colosseum.”
The servant looked up hesitantly, and with obvious reluctance said “S-sir, are you sure that that’s… best at this late hour…?”
His restlessness making his emotions more bristled than he would have otherwise wished, he said “I shouldn’t have to repeat my commands to my servants, nor should I be questioned by them on the ideal course of action to take at any given moment. If I seek your advice I shall ask it. Go.”
Bowing his head with a quick sharp bob, the man rose and exited the room almost at a dash.
A flash of regret went through Sayrin’s mind, but after all, he wasn’t wrong. He’d apologize later, he decided with a shake of the head. For now, he had to prepare, yes, prepare. He just wanted to do some simple sword work, maybe some sparring would be fine too, should he find a suitable opponent.
...
Sayrin knew, in the back of his mind, that he would find an opponent. Suitable or no.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“There!” yelled Alder, “run in your two o’clock for about sixty meters, there’s a band of three higher tiered rats, protecting several common ones!”
Wade didn’t hesitate for a moment, altering her direction, turning sharply to the right and barreling on ahead, cutting straight through any trees in the way with her war ax before they could even hope to slow her down.
Another moment and she could feel them as well, there were nine of them here, not the best they’d found and not the best they could hope for, but hopefully the bigger and stronger ones would put up more of a fight.
Storing her ax into her spatial ring with a loud whoosh, she cracked her knuckles as she leapt into the fray. Using the flat of her hand, she activated her ability and hit the smaller rats with as light of an attack as she could manage while under the enhancement spells effects. It didn’t do any good, unfortunately, as her fingers punctured right through the beast as if it were no more than paper mache, and a heartbeat later, it erupted in a shower of blood and gore.
“One” she called out, before chasing down the next. Deciding to switch up her target, she went for the stronger monsters first while her build up was still in a weaker state. Hopefully they could survive the baser attacks and give her a few more uses out of the ability.
Approaching the three massive rats, Wade once more gave as light of an attack with the least amount of force she thought would be allowed. To her astonishment and delight, the monster moved with the attack, being shot a dozen feet away, where it lay twitching but not dead.
“Two! And it didn’t die!”
“Gods be praised, let's get this done!”
From there she did the same to the other two enhanced monsters, getting the same result on the second one, but by the time she went to hit the third one, her ability had built up too much force for her to contain, and it died in just a single hit.
That was fine. She’d gotten two extra hits on more powerful enemies. That’s all she could hope for. After a quick mop up of the rest, Alder keeping them corralled to this area so she could hunt them without losing them, she waited on bated breath counting her heartbeats…
Ten… Twenty… … Thirty… … … Nothing.
Wade let out a growl of frustration and punched the ground at her feet, causing shockwaves to ripple out for several meters around her, while Alder simply walked up and handed her a potion.
“You have to be close, Julia, but every little bit takes you one step closer. Come one, next time, for sure, you’ll get it.
“I fucking better, or else I’m going to tear this entire forest to the ground” she muttered, jogging off after Alder who’d already left.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“I’m tearing this forest to the ground!” Exalted Kya.
It did not matter what enemies she faced, they each died. All of them one after another, it was like lambs to the slaughter. For the past half hour, she’d been running around woods in a state of almost ecstatic glee, watching for anything that might offer more of a challenge.
She’d seen one of the ancient vipers, from whom she’d taken her venomous dagger, and which had almost killed her when first she’d faced it, but which was now killed in an instant when she pulled it towards her and onto her outstretched dagger with such raw force, it had split like a log at the saw mill. From snout to tail, directly in half, no struggle, no fight.
That one had raised her ability to ninety seven percent, and she’d guessed and hoped it had put it well on its way to ninety eight. However, since then, there hadn’t been much else of excitement, a couple more rats and a random little mushroom monster, but she hadn’t killed that one because… come on, it was a little baby mushroom monster. She couldn’t kill a lil guy. At least not until it messed with her, then she wouldn’t care. Cute or not, it would have to go.
She was starting to notice fewer and fewer monsters as she went deeper in, and she didn’t quite know why. She had assumed that different types of monsters would be out at night, not no monsters out at night. But truth be told, Kya wasn’t really bothered by monsters taking their time. She was just having fun being out here and running around with her abilities.
Though she would like a challenge of some sor-
“Speak of the devil” she thought, as she just felt what she imagined to be one of the isela flapping by overhead. Waiting just a moment more until it was a little bit closer still, she gave it an powerful pull and it dropped like a stone onto her outstretched and waiting dagger.
She was mildly taken aback when, rather than the feather four-winged form of an isela, it was a weird leathery bat thing that impaled itself on her knife.
Identifying it in the fleeting moments before it died and went up in smoke, she was able to get the following message:
- - - - -
*** NEW CREATURE IDENTIFIED ***
- Midnight Chiroptera - 1 Star - Common
- These small nocturnal creatures may look cute now, sure, but man does puberty hit them like a truck. Here’s your fair warning, kid: Don’t let them hit puberty.
- - - - -
So there were nocturnal creatures out here, that was excellent news, excellent news indeed. Now she just needed to find a bat thing that had grown up a little and she’d be in business.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The colosseum wasn’t nearly as dead as Sayrin would have thought for this time of night. There were far fewer people than at any other time he’d ever been, to be sure, but still more than he would have expected.
Down below in the sparring grounds where he’d sparred with Carcelo only a couple of days earlier. There were a good dozen or so warriors, several of whom were actively engaged in their own sparring matches, while the rest were alone and practicing sword movements against imaginary opponents or working with training dummies.
Eyeing up the options, he saw a warrior at the very end of the hall in red and black armor that, unless he missed his mark, would be a war user.
Grinning despite himself, he went over to the man's private arena and watched him practice his sword play for several minutes. He was good, very good. He held two swords, both uncharacteristically thin for enchanted weapons, not to mention they were different sizes altogether. The one in his left hand was a good hand and a half shorter than the one in his right. Nevertheless, he moved the two in a complex series of patterns, at times keeping them parallel as if they were one, at others he would separate the blades into intersecting and almost playful strikes that didn’t seem as though they would do any real good in actual combat.
After a minute more, the man stopped and sheathed both blades on scabbards built unto the armor along either thigh.
Turning, the man placed his right to his chest and said in an interesting accent that Sayrin couldn’t place, rolling almost all of the vowels of his words “Excuse me, sir, but rather than watch me alone, would you perhaps assist with a sparring match? I would like to get one more bought in before I turn in for the night.”
With almost unrestrained excitement, Sayrin said “It would be my pleasure.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“Sampson, have mercy on me, I’m begging you!” Wade bellowed up the sky until her voice went hoarse from the effort.
They’d found several more individuals or pairs of random monsters, a suddenly large amount of which were the chiroptera, and of course a whole lot of nothing.
Wade had just finished off what must have been the hundredth kill of the night, only to feel herself inch closer, ever so much closer to her goal… and yet still be just a hair's breadth away. She couldn’t go home, she couldn’t stop now, a primal part of her would break if Alder said to turn back now. She gave him an accusatory, almost predatory glare as he walked up, once more gave her a health potion, and said in a quiet voice “Come on. The next batch can’t be far behind these ones.” Then looking up at her, meeting her eyes under the pale moonlight fighting to break through the cloud cover, he said in an uncharacteristically serious tone “I don’t care if we’re out here for the next three days straight. We’re getting you to your next star. No discussion.” Then, for good measure, punched her lightly on the arm.
Letting out a semi-deranged laugh, she punched him back, and then they both laughed.
“Alright,” she said “let’s go find the ne-”
A high-pitched screech sounded overhead, and both of them looked up sharply, though it was Wade who sensed it first.
“Ohoho, this is good. This is exactly what I needed” And she took off running after it.
“Wade, I don’t know about that one, I might have to step in if it gets out of hand!”
“Then do it after I get my bloody star!”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Kya, after the past hour of running around and killing things like a kid with a magnifying glass who found an ant colony, was finally growing truly dissatisfied with the offerings from the forest. She knew that there had to be more difficult prey to hunt in the area, or else there wouldn’t have been those hundreds of contracts in the guild hall.
Unless they were all there for the simple reason of volume alone. Lots of little monsters bothering people all across the region… but that couldn’t be it, that can’t be it.
Besides, the forest had been harder when she’d been in it originally. Not just because she hadn’t had a class, it had straight up been more difficult, she was sure of it. Where were all the more difficult monsters? What happened to all the isela and vipers and tigers? And why did she just keep finding more and more of the little bat things?
Which, they were not only weird, but gross too. She’d pulled down the second one just to actually get a look at it now that the moon was finally out, and they were… wrong. A bird had two wings, one to flap on either side. Kya got that. The isela bird had four wings. Again, she got that, it made sense. Seems like it's a little excessive, but hey, she couldn’t fly, and it could. What did she know?
These bat things had three wings, and seemed to fly more like a weird jellyfish helicopter hybrid thing. Its entire body spun like a top as its wings propelled it forward by opening up and then snapping closed. Kya didn’t trust the physics of it at all, which meant it had to be some magic nonesens helping that things stay aloft.
Either way, there was just nothing natural abo-
Her thoughts were cut short when suddenly, at the very edges of her aura, she felt a massive presence unlike anything she’d felt since the Hellhound Alpha. It was moving at the speed of a runaway bus, and looking up and seeing its silhouette against the pale green moon, she grinned, finally finding the target that would put her over the edge.
Bracing herself, and taking a deep breath, she gave the single largest and most fierce pull she could muster in that moment, and the responding screech it gave made her smile like crazy and start chasing after where it was falling.
This was gonna be fun.