While still unconscious, Wade felt an almost ethereal sense of power. It was as if the entire world were at her fingertips, and she wondered if this is what it was to be a god. Limitless potential energy available to her, if only she had the will to control it. If only she had the power to harness it.
She tried more than once to do so, to control it and bend it to her will. But each time she felt it slip between her fingers like she were trying to hold back the tide, like she were trying to grab the sands in the guilds hourglass.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity of nothing, and then an eternity more, she was able to open her eyes. She hadn’t even realized they'd been closed, completely unaware and unknowing of the world and environment around her.
She wasn’t, however, back in the Rose Forest, but rather somewhere wholly exotic and unknown to her, and yet feeling so achingly familiar it was like looking at her childhood bedroom. There was so, so much to take in, and yet it also seemed so barren and lifeless all the same. There was a beautiful sunset, but unlike the familiar and comforting yellow and blue suns to which she was accustomed, there were two suns, similar in that both were bright red and shining brilliantly, like massive ruby's that had been set ablaze. The one on her left, however, was set apart from the one on the right by sheer sense of scale. Though both shone equally bright, and both held immeasurable power at orders of magnitude she could only just comprehend, the left one was simply… well, more. It was bigger, more powerful, more radiant and brilliant and it contained a completeness, a oneness that belied all attempts to understand or glean more information from. The smaller sun next to it, though, well it was diminutive by comparison. Incomplete and new, it had so much left to do and so much room left to grow. Wade could tell just by basking in their light, these were hers and she was simply ecstatic to have finally made it to this place she had heard so much about.
Tearing her eyes away from the sibling suns, she began to explore her surroundings, which again, were left rather wanting when compared to the glorious sky above. There was an open expanse of craggy stone as far as the eye could see. Not a building, plant, person, or animal in sight. Well, there were three structures she could see, but she already knew what they were and began to make her way towards them as quickly as she could.
But just like that, as if the whole world had rotated without her having to take a single step, there she was.
The only thing she could see for the countless miles around her, the three towering trees in the only patch of grass and life anywhere she could see. The two trees closest to her were thick, massive trunks of dark midnight red bark, their leaves so far overhead the color of wildfire, lavish yellows and crimson made it seem almost like the great heights of the tree was ablaze. While the third and final tree was an altogether disparate thing. It’s trunk was much smoother and bulged quite a lot at the base, splitting off into dozens of smaller but still impressively thick branches after the first five or so feet, filling that part of the sky with its cool emerald green leaves.
The small glade, such that it was, held only the barest of essentials for life to flourish. The three trees were each perfectly separated from one another, forming an exact equilateral triangle some three dozen feet from one tree to the next.
In the center of the grassy patch laid a small pond with water so clear and vibrant, it practically radiated vitality and energy. Small wisps of light even seemed to steam and dance off the water's surface, making it look all the more alien to her in its simple, calm divinity. Despite the trees being tall, despite their branches reaching out to cover the sky and their powerful, magisterial strength, it was the pond that truly made her feel a sense of awe and reverence.
She knew what to do next, she’d planned this out for a long… long time coming, and had long since decided what to do when arriving in this place, in her place. She went over to the first void red tree, the one closest to her as she knew it would be.
This tree had been with Wade the longest, and she could feel it. It was like an old friend, a constant companion for her since becoming a user, and she knew that without it, her life would have been wholly different to what it was now. She put a hand against its bark, and although she tensed when feeling how unexpectedly warm the bark was, she did not pull away. Eventually moving up to the tree, she wrapped both arms around it and rested her forehead against the bark.
It really was like an old friend, and she felt content in its embrace. Like all the world would be okay if she just had the strength to stay here, to hold fast and to outlast. In fact, even as she wavered in her conviction to take the next step, she felt strength course through her from the tree itself. Encouraging her, giving her energy and power, the resolve needed to take the next steps and the will to follow through on that desire.
Without taking even another moment to consider, Wade squeezed her arms together and the tree crumbled in her hands as though it were nothing more than a paper imitation, hollow on the inside rather than the solid wood it had been mere moments earlier.
“Thank you” she whispered to the tree, the sounds reverberating throughout the entire bleak landscape as she carried the tree, towering to the sky a heartbeat ago, no bigger than a small sapling by the very next.
Collapsing to her knees by the banks of the small pond, Wade looked at it one last time, before gently dropping the piece of wood into the ethereal glowing waters.
The remnant tree began to break apart almost instantly, and before she knew it, Wade looked again at the ethereal pond, seeming for all the world unchanged and uncaring of the infusion it had just received. Wade bowed her head, and sent a silent prayer to her god, before opening her eyes and turning around to see a new tree in the spot she’d just torn away the old. This one was as tall as the other two, but thinner and less stable in appearance. She would be able to make it her own, to grow it and nurture it just the same as the one before, but it would take a good amount of time, she knew this instinctively as sure as she knew how to move her hands and feet.
Walking over and placing a hand against the bark of the newborn tree, Wade felt its cool bark against her hand and stayed there for a long time, just as rooted to the spot as the tree next to her.
When, finally, she was ready to move again, she made a simple nod at the sky, and like that the ground fell away and she began to lose sight of everything around her, the last thing she could see were the twin red suns, looking at her like the eyes of a galactic giant and founder of worlds.
~ ~ ~
Wade came to herself, regaining the awareness of her surroundings in bits and pieces. First she was able to feel the grass underneath her, the cool bark of an ordinary tree at her back. Then she could smell the sweet scent of sap, of wildflowers and pine needles and leaves flowering on their branches. Then she could hear, sound coming to her in a rush all at once as the wind rustles the branches overhead, as the cries of some monstrosity echoed throughout the land, and as her friend Alder was in the middle of saying “-safety, I won’t put her in danger while she’s unconscious. It would be all too easy for the monster to take a swipe at her and kill her before she could do anything about it. No, better to use your ability to make yourselves both lighter and then get going.”
Last but not least, she was able to open her eyes, and see the pale blue light of Larian illuminating the trees around her, as well as the smiling face of Kya.
Rising to her full height, Wade said “I don’t mean to countermand you, but how about instead of taking me anywhere, we just knock this thing back to whatever nightmare it was created.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Kya was absolutely fucking ecstatic.
Wade being up and moving meant they would be able to stop this rushed shit of running or giving her a painfully literal crash course into the use of her new ability, and instead just focus on the actual thing itself.
It seemed that Alder, too, felt this shift in their momentum as he was grinning from ear to ear, utterly delighted to see her up and walking around again.
Walking over, they clasped one another on the forearm when Alder finally said “Bit of a rough go in their eh? Having trouble letting go of the old to make room for the new?”
Wade promptly hit him softly upside the head “Don’t be cheeky now, we haven’t the time for it. But you can already tell?”
He nodded, barely able to contain his joyous laughter, letting it out in a single bout of lilting giggles, “Why yes, yes I can. So what is the ne-”
Any further dialogue became impossible as the gargantuan form of the screeching animal they’d been running from for the last portion of the night appeared overhead, its massive maw opening as it sucked in an impossible amount of air for the size of its lungs. Kya just managed to shove her fingers in her ears when the concussive blast of air ripped through her entire body, and she felt as though it had just given her an X-ray, able to see anything and everything about her.
Though she’d managed to preserve her ears, her nose and eyes hadn’t been so fortunate. They still retained their function at least, being slightly less susceptible to soundwaves as her ears, but she could still feel them as they were shaken and rattles in her skull, as the blood began to drip out of her nose and her eyes felt like she’d been using them to play beer pong.
Staggering just slightly, she looked up and got just the barest of glimpses at the beast, and was therefore able to use identify on it and for the first time, see her first 2-Star monster.
- - - - -
*** NEW CREATURE IDENTIFIED ***
- Midnight Chiroptera Matron - 2-Star - Uncommon
- Did you ever get advice from your dad, advice at which you promptly scoffed? Maybe you told him he didn’t understand what he was talking about and that whatever he was saying didn’t apply these days or to you specifically. Then one day, maybe the next day or week, maybe years ahead, you reflected on what he’d said and you realized that he was one hundred percent without a shadow of a doubt right and you were just being a stubborn kid to not listen. But by that point, you’d already made whatever shity decision he was trying to dissuade you from, and it was too late to do anything about it. So you just had to sit there, knowing you fucked up and knowing it was all due to the choices that you’d made and no one else was even remotely to blame. That feeling right there, that’s how you should be feeling right now. You’d best pick a god and start praying your friends are up to snuff here, or else this thing’s going to absolutely ruin your whole night. In the back of your mind, just remember… you were warned.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
- - - - -
Alright, first of all, that told her absolutely fucking nothing so that was just great. Secondly, that entire monologue had been read in the tone of a disappointed dad, and frankly Kya did not need that kind of judgment from her own goddamn ability.
Although, she had to, and hated to, admit… this thing was just absolutely terrifying. She’d seen the infant form, no bigger than an actual bat from her world had been, although with the word jellyfish body and third wing that had thrown her off. Then she’d seen the juvenile form, the size of a small person with wings like front porch awnings, and now she was finally able to see the adult form in all its, well glory wasn’t really the right word. Horror? Dread? All it’s disgusting dread.
It was everything that made the juvenile form seem almost gentle and respectable, turned up to 11 and then put through a Lovecraftian filter. It’s translucent body had split open, allowing what she’d initially thought to be the internal organs of the thing to hand down like a horrific mass of writhing tentacles. The three leaf shaped wings that softly spun around to allow the younger forms the gift of flight had elongated and gained sharp, bone white talons at each joint in the wing, of which there were at least two more than even remotely necessary. The face, the fuzzy overgrown bat face of the younger form, looked to have been set on fire and then covered in skin grafts by a very inexperienced or simply downright malicious surgeon. It was pink and black, occasional bits of it covered in a slimy white substance that Kya surely didn’t want to go anywhere nearby.
Kya looked ahead at the two experienced and jaded warriors, and once she saw calm determination, almost excitement on both of their faces, allowed the unease that had been slowly laying claim to her limbs to recede back somewhat. This wasn’t going to be an easy fight, but it would absolutely be memorable. Kya brought out both her daggers, putting one in each hand. She let her aura spill out to its full extent, even as both of the others did as well, quickly overpowering hers.
In a quick flash of light, Wade and Alder were suddenly decked out in their full war regalia. Wade, who’d only taken off her helm, was now equipped in what looked to be brand new polished black armor, maroon accentuating the edges and points to make it look all the more intimidating, even while Alder next to her stood in radiant armor comprised of what looked to be solid sandstone, golden rivers of molten magma flowing throughout like the entire thing was about ready to melt into volcanic heat at any moment.
In their hands, Wade still had on the pugilist gloves with small but sturdy spikes on each of her knuckles, but more than that, she’d chosen to take out an absurdly simple yet powerful looking half moon battle axe. It had a deeply brown haft, leather wrapped handle, and shining metallic black blade with a crimson edge. It almost seemed to call out for action, as if the blade itself wanted to be used, wanted to be whistling through the air this very moment and was growing more and more outraged at the lack of inertia in its life.
Alder, for his weapon, had two identical war hammers, each with handles the length of his forearm, and heads like infinitely compact sledgehammers. Their weight and presence was so immense that even with Wade’s aura, even with her armor and the large ax over her shoulder, she wasn’t able to look anywhere else than at the all consuming depths contained in the flats of those hammers.
“You take the tentacles; I’ll take the wing joints. Once it hits the ground, I’ll make sure it doesn’t get back up.” Alder said calmly, in the same way someone might have asked their friend to pick up the milk from the store.
Nodding her head in agreement and letting out a barking laugh “You have no idea how I’ve longed for this day.”
The hammer in Alder’s right hand flashed and disappear as he raised his arm, fist lazily held up as he said, “Let's make your first 2-Star fight a good one, eh?”
Laughing more, unable to control it or contain it, Wade clanked her gauntleted fist against his and said “lets.”
“And don’t think we’ve forgotten you back there.” Alder said, Hammer reappearing in his hand as he turned his helmeted head towards her, “You can act where you feel appropriate, but don’t take any undue risks. If you need help or find yourself in a particularly tough spot, one of us will try and help you out as best we can. Just in case...” He trailed off for a moment before producing a small vile with a brilliant lavender liquid endlessly bubbling away within.
“That’s a more powerful healing potion than the ones I’ve seen you using. Again, just in case. Now then…” He trailed off as they all turned skyward to see the abomination of a creature that hung suspended there like some storybook demon.
“Shall we begin?”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Sayrin felt more alive than he had in weeks. Months. Years. Ever.
He was able to wholly and entirely dedicate himself to the fight with this strange mustached swordsman. This wasn’t some complicated situation with right and wrong being in question. He didn’t have to worry shout going too far, or putting on more power than an opponent could manage. He didn’t fear. For the first time in a long time, he was able to fully, utterly, and completely lose himself in a struggle for supremacy. And gods above was this man a talent among talents. It had been a long time since Sayrin felt himself on the backfoot in a fight against an equally skilled opponent.
They had both put on the glossy bronze cuffs that restricted their class abilities from manifesting, meaning it was simply a battle of auras and of techniques, and this man was a master at the dual sword style.
He employed techniques Sayrin had never seen before, equal parts using his aura as a spiked lance of distraction to throw off Sayrin's own, or dancing his twin blades up and down his own massive one, the fight had started out and continued on in an almost playful dance of back and forth, neither fully committing to the struggle as neither wanted to be the one to escalate it to something more than a sparring match, at least not yet.
This changed as Sayrin’s blood was the first to be drawn. It was an inconsequential strike, hardly more than a prick to the right shoulder. But the narrow enchanted blades of this unknown combatant were more like pointed needles than true swords of the Loterran style. This meant that when he wanted to, he could puncture with absolute impunity. He pulled the strike up short, only just breaking the skin and sinking the glowing yellow tip in by about a quarter inch until finally yanking it back out, sending fledgling drops of blood out across the sandy stone floor below.
After dancing back a few steps, he twirled his blades in the air, clearly showing off or maybe even taunting Sayrin, relishing in the accomplishment of drawing first blood, and even being cocky enough not to go full on with the strike. The man's face, for he hadn’t chosen to put on his helm, was glowing with utter delight and even contempt, a smile playing at his lips, making his thin pointed mustache tremble ever so slightly.
That, right there, the damn mustache, sent Sayrin over the edge. He just couldn’t do it; he could not hold back any more against a man like this cocky little shit. Exploding forwards as the river in his mind began flow ever faster, he brought down his massive, and for most purposes impractically large great sword in a diagonal strike. The mans face had gone so quickly from gloating to shock and a touch of fear, that the ghost of a smile was still there, even as one of his precious blades was bent wildly out of shape, then clanged uselessly to the ground.
The man’s face looked at first horrified, and then immediately overcome with a white hot anger and fury that made Sayrin's skin crawl and his own blood boil.
With a sharp gesture, the man’s helm appeared on his head, while a replacement blade appeared in his hand, and they began their fight in earnest, the choreography and artistry rapidly stripped away, leaving only the brutal savagery that was their blades meeting in a contest of strength, power, technique, and tactics.
The man was able to land a dozen smaller wounds all across his body, his armor never cracking fully, never breaking away as it was designed to do, and thus, never award the man any points for their match. This was fine by Sayrin, though he could feel what the man was trying to do. He was slowly but surely hitting each and every weak point on the human body, the wrist, the elbow, the shoulder, the knees, he was making it more and more difficult for Sayrin to even simply move his body around the battlefield let alone fight back against a slippery opponent like this. But the body of a 3-Star user was more durable than most people ever even realized, and he was firmly in the middle of the rank. He knew that, given a little more time, he would be able to- There!
Bringing his blade around and putting his off hand on the flat, he used it to shove at the man, forcing him back several steps and throwing both his sword arms wide. This flowed perfectly into the very next swing where he laboriously but efficiently maneuvered the blade up and then slashing straight down at his off-balance opponent. Taking an almost savage delight in seeing him panic, he was then almost tragically disappointed when he saw that the man managed to move mostly out of the way. Still, he caught him on the upper thigh, and like peeling a vegetable, took off not only the outer layer of armor, but a large chunk of flesh as well.
Sayrin, laughing with savage delight, made sure the fight carried on, and on, and on. The brutality of their movements, the intensity of their auras and the slight note of fear detectable in the other man’s were all blasted out for all to see and to feel. Slowly but surely, the other combatants in the arena stopped what they were doing to come over and be witness to the crazy fight between a captain of the military, and the unknown acolyte of War.
Sayrin, for his part, didn’t notice the crowd. He didn’t notice the growing uneasiness as they watched him brutalize and beat down his opponent. He didn’t notice the orange discoloration of the world around them as they fought on, and on, the river in his mind urging him ever onward, ever onward.
The next great blow came when the man dedicated both of his blades to a horizontal strike coming on from one side and aimed directly at Sayrin's neck, making as if to end the fight via decapitation. 3-Stars were durable, but not that durable. Sayrin didn’t know if it was simply a fear tactic to try and undermine his confidence, or if he was truly that desperate in the current circumstances. But, upon reflection, he didn’t really care one way or the other. The man was trying to kill him. Insolence like that demanded repercussions.
Using his helm, he whipped his head forward and to the side, knocking away both blades and earning him a set of disastrous looking cracks all along his helm that further occluded his vision. But that didn’t matter, as his sword was already in motion, already coming in like hell brought to their mortal plane, as it collided with the man and sent him tumbling across the arena, blood and gore flying up and away like some crimson mountain had suddenly erupted from the arena floor.
Sayrin, spreading his arms wide as if to bask in the sight, didn’t catch when the man launched his smaller blade directly into his arm, dashing and leaping after it, only to plunge the second one just above it into his shoulder.
The pain felt like a fleeting dream, there in concept, there in memory, but hardly real, or something that Sayrin really needed to be concerned over. Rather, he was vastly more interested in the man’s now bloodless gaping wound in the side. He was rather curious to know what technique he was using to keep the sap of his veins from watering the sands of the arena, but he could hardly stop now just to ask such an unimportant question.
They eyed each other warily; the man having withdrawn both blades and backing up several paces with quick steps until several meters separated them and both stood still simply eyeing one another from across the field.
One might think that this lull in the action was a chance to reflect, to catch one's breath and perhaps come to terms with their own accomplishments from the duel and call an end to it there and then.
Neither man felt that way. Neither man even had the thought cross their minds as, after a few moments more, they each brandished their weapons, holding them up for the other to see, Sayrin couldn’t know for sure, but he got the feeling that this man, too, was grinning wildly under his helm. At least he hoped the man was, a good contest such as theirs was so fucking hard to come by.
Once more flying at each other, and once more beginning their brutal strikes in an all out frenzy, it was hardly more than ten heartbeats later that Sayrin’s lungs were both torn into by the narrow blades, while his own landed with finality as it lopped off the swordsman's arm entirely, they both watched muted as it flopped to the floor with a wet squelching sound, before they once more turned their gazes on each other.
Sayrin wanted to go for the kill, he wanted to end this right here and now, it would be so easy to deliver one more swing, one more and his head would go rolling on the ground just like his arm. He should-
The spike of aura coming from the entrance of the arena caught both of their attention as they turned to see a young boy running at them, panicked eyes wide on his face as he was yelling… yelling something at them. The man let go of his swords and backed away a step, and then another. Reaching down to pick up his arm, he held it casually off to one side before giving a low bow to Sayrin, bending at the waist and all but presenting his head as a trophy.
It would be… just… so easy...
But then the boy was there, standing and shouting between them and… and that wasn’t some boy, that was his son. That was his own son ranting and raving, and it was so clear he was shouting so why couldn’t Sayrin hear any of the words. What was… what was…
A moment later, and both men fell to the grounds of the arena, unconscious. The last things Sayrin could hear as the world around him went dark were the finally clear cries of his child, as he shouted not at them, at least not anymore. Now screaming wildly, the words tearing themselves from his throat, he called “Medic!!! Isn’t there a healer on duty, someone get the medic! Please, I’m begging you, someone… the…”
Then all he saw, felt, heard, all he was became a black void and the dancing of the stars.
Of course, until the blessed nightmares came as they always did. As he longed for and welcomed.