by Ivan Kal
Klyn the Mutated Will LVL 1
Rank(Legendary)
Consume 1
Klyn is able to consume living organisms. Anything that Klyn had consumed it can replicate.
Morgan blinked at the ability. It looked powerful, and already he had some ideas about what it could do—he would need to test it out. He was also surprised that Sabila had to take control again, as he hadn’t felt her do it like he had last time. Perhaps it was a simple fix compared to what she needed to do last time. Still, his experiment has worked, and now was time to see what it could do.
“It worked,” Morgan said to Clara, and then told her the specifics.
She shook her head blankly. “I have no idea how you do these impossible things.”
He stood and walked around his laboratory, searching for a few things. He came back to the table with two items. One was a potted plant, a simple flower, and another was an animal claw.
“What are you doing now?” Clara asked, intrigued.
“Watch,” Morgan said, and willed Klyn to grab the flower. His slit opened and a single dark-green tendril, one of the ones he had designed so that they could inject poison, slithered out.
“That is weird as hell to watch,” Clara commented as the tendril extended toward the plant.
Consume.
Morgan activated the ability. The tendril split into hundreds of tiny threads and they all attacked the flower, consuming it whole in about ten seconds.
“What is that? You can feed with that thing?” Clara asked, confused.
Morgan didn’t answer. Instead, he told Klyn what to do. There was no intelligence there; the symbiont followed Morgan’s will completely, as it was a part of him now. The same tendril that was out now shifted, changing into an exact replica of the flower. Morgan had it move closer to Clara.
“Break it off,” Morgan said.
Clara blinked, but did as he asked. It snapped cleanly, the parts that were the flower were completely the same. His tendril regrew, and then Morgan had it go to the other item.
Consume.
The symbiont obeyed. It took a bit longer for it to break down and consume the claw, about five minutes, but then it was done. He ordered the tendril to pull back and then recreate what it had consumed. A dozen more small tendrils came out of his palm and then all of them wrapped around his fingers, and started to change. It was eerie to watch, looking like something out of a comic book—but the claw formed over his fingers and he moved them around, then stabbed into the desk, dragging his hand and leaving claw marks.
“I give up, Morgan,” Clara said with a heavy sigh. “I guess your insanity does provide results.”
“Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure I can make one for you as well,” Morgan said with an evil grin.
Clara blanched and he laughed. In the back of his mind, however, an idea did start to take form. That might be good for the future—the far future.
Two weeks later they were preparing to teleport back to Al’Valor. They had all spent the time training and practicing. Morgan had even gotten a few skill and ability levels. He glanced at his screens.
SKILLS (Main)
Elemental Alignment—Nature 19 (+one rank Guild buff)
Elemental Alignment—Metal 9 (+one rank Guild buff)
Hand to Hand Combat 6
Throwing Weapons 9
Sharpshooter 11
Energy Manipulation 17
Unyielding Will 4
Phytokinesis 16
Gravikinesis 5
Life Sense 7
Nature Seismic Sense 2
ABILITIES (Main)
Power Infusion 13
Power Siphon 9
Ward 6
Phase Shift 10
Arcane Mark 4
Touch of Death 4
Energy Blade 7
Vampiric Root Spear 8
Binding Roots 5
Root Wall 2
Mass Transfer 7
Gravitic Stomp 5
Momentum Shift 3
Accelerated Growth 3
Iron Skin 5
Klyn the Mutated Will LVL 3
Rank(Legendary)
Consume 4
Klyn is able to consume living organisms. Anything that Klyn had consumed it can replicate.
He had a few increases, he even managed to get his symbiont level a bit. He only hoped that it was enough. He glanced at the list of skills and abilities available for purchase, and didn’t see anything new. He had hoped that their training would make something new available but it didn’t seem like it did. He sighed and turned his attention to the teleporter, he took a deep breath and stepped up next to the others.
CHAPTER TWENTY
They arrived in Al’Valor on the day of the fights. They had arrived a day early, met with the Last Vanguards and looked at the brackets for the fights. They had been posted so late just so that people didn’t have a lot of time to prepare, obviously. Morgan wasn’t bothered; he knew nothing about the other teams and advanced knowledge of his opponents wouldn’t help him much.
The brackets itself was strange, there were five rounds, with the first being four matches between eight teams. The second round had winners of the first round fight against four teams that didn’t fight in the first round, and then the eight remaining teams fought against each other. The third was the winners of those eight matches. Fourth round was the semi-finals, and then the last round was the final. It was a strange order, and Morgan had no idea why the organizers decided to do that, but then again most everything they had done served their purposes.
At least they weren’t fighting the Last Vanguards first, although if Sky Force and they both won their matches they would meet up in the quarter final. At least with them, though, Morgan knew that they were friends. And their friends weren’t one of the teams that were fighting in the first round which was lucky for them.
The team that they were fighting first was one that Morgan hadn’t heard about before: Everstorm. A cool name, but didn’t indicate anything in particular.
It was the team that they would fight second if they won their first that scared him: Harbingers of Fate. Morgan didn’t know how he was feeling about that; true, he might get the chance at revenge, but on the other hand the Harbingers were strong.
Morgan tried not to think about it too much. As they neared the arena he could hear the roaring of the crowd, and once the arena came into sight he could see swarms of people surrounding it.
“So many people,” Ves said.
“Yeah,” Morgan agreed.
“Buahahah!” came Borodar’s laugh. “They have come to witness combat between ascended—it is a rare thing! And we must all show ourselves in the best of light. The world is watching.”
Yeah, no pressure. Morgan shook his head as they headed through the throng. They managed to fight their way through and reach one of the side entrances reserved for the competitors.
The guards allowed them in once they verified who they were with their adventurer badges, then led them through the corridors of the arena to the competitors lounge. All the way Morgan could hear the loud stomping of thousands of feet, the cheers and the yells. The Great Guilds had organized a few events to get everyone ready for the tournament, but Morgan had no idea what they were, since he had been focusing on the future fights.
But the sound of the crowd was so loud and deep and Morgan could feel it in his chest. Before leading them into the lounge, he led them to a smaller room, where he gave them each a small pendant.
“What is this for?” Morgan asked.
“It will monitor your body. If you lose consciousness or are hurt enough to be close to death, this will release a chime that will end the fight and allow the healers to come and get you. We don’t want any fatalities, and this is the best way to ensure that,” the guard explained.
The others all took their pendants and put them over their heads. Afterward, he led them to the lounge—a closed off and covered area with seats—and they were led to their secti
on. Everything around them was luxurious, with guards standing around and even food prepared. Morgan couldn’t even think about that, and he noticed that none of the other competitors had even touched the food either. Again Morgan wondered if this, too, was part of the test. The two Great Guilds had made strange decisions all the way, including the way the fights were seeded. They hadn’t done it by rank—they had just paired whoever they wanted.
As they neared the end and the opening through which one could look into the arena Morgan couldn’t help but feel small. He leaned on the wall and cast his eyes around at the filled seats. There were hundreds of thousands of people there, and everywhere his eyes fell there were people cheering. The lounge was halfway up the wall that surrounded the arena floor, below the seats themselves. All the teams were there, but each kept to themselves—it looked like Morgan’s group and Borodar’s team were the exception, as they stuck together.
“Great Lord, so many people,” Morgan heard Clara say.
He could only agree. Then he looked down below at the exhibition.
Morgan did a double take as he saw animals running in circles around what appeared to be a mammoth: one that stood on two legs and looked humanoid, however. The mammoth wore a belt over his brown fur and had a whip in his hand. His tusks were long and covered in accessories, rings, and chains, accenting the long, braided hair that tumbled down his back.
“Holy shit, that’s a mammoth,” Morgan whispered.
“I have never seen or heard about their kind,” Lucius said, and the others around him agreed, even the Last Vanguards.
That told Morgan that there were far more races here on this world than he had originally thought if these natives didn’t even know all of them. It was, in a way, exciting.
They watched the exhibition for a few more minutes before it ended and the trainer and his animals moved out of the floor. Then Ragnor walked out, and the crowd went insane. If he had thought that they had been loud before, he had been wrong. The entire arena trembled from the force of so many voices cheering. Ragnor let it go on for a few moments, but then he raised his arm, and the crowd quieted.
“Citizens of Al’Valor, of the world, I am Ragnor Raam of the Call Guild. I am here in the name of my own guild, and that of my close friends, the Erthirium Riders. I welcome you to our small gathering, we are here today to see ascended fight, to see them try to reach for that which is within the grasp of us all. The promise of the Great Lord: the Tower of Power!”
The crowd roared.
“Today, you will see adventuring teams from all over the world. You will see them fight for the prizes that we have promised them, and for the chance to join us on our climb of the Tower. Watch these ascended, see them, know them, for a few of them might one day be the first to conquer the Tower of Power! And now, without further ado, here is our first fight: the Dark Iron Dwarvar versus Fjordstar!”
The crowd chanted as the two combatants entered the arena, and Ragnor walked to the edge and climbed to a platform above the walls of the arena. Morgan saw that all the people who had been showing up previously were there: Ta’elara, Richard, Kalrak, and Evermou, as well as some he was seeing for the first time. Above them were white orbs floating, watching them, but there were even more out over the arena, all recording for later viewing.
Morgan turned his eyes away from them and looked down at the combatants. The Fjordstar had chosen one of their giants as their first fighter, and the Dark Iron Dwarvar were all dwarvar, as per their team name. Morgan wondered just how that fight was going to go. The dwarvar was tiny compared to the giant. Morgan assumed that that was one of the reasons why the Fjordstar picked a giant for the fight.
The dwarvar was wearing dark armor, full plate. Morgan couldn’t see any part of him that was not covered. In his hand, he carried a very long spear—and when he thought about it, it was a perfect weapon for a dwarvar, who didn’t have much of a reach. The giant was covered with a few plates filled in with furred garments, and a helmet on his head that allowed his horns to peak through. In his hands he had a large double-headed axe, as tall as he was, which was over three meters for sure.
Then Ragnor spoke out. “Fighters, are you ready?”
Both of them nodded their heads.
“Then, begin!” Ragnor yelled out, and the two sprang into movement.
The dwarvar ran forward, keeping his spear pointed at the giant’s heart. The giant took three steps and closed the distance quickly. Before the dwarvar reached him, he swiped his axe from below, and sent a wave of ice flying at his opponent. Morgan’s eyes widened, as he hadn’t seen any source of water near him. That could mean either that his skills and abilities were such a high level that they no longer needed a source, or his axe was enchanted.
Dwarvar jumped out of the way of the wave of ice spikes and rolled. Then his spear ignited, and he stabbed forward in the direction of the giant, sending a lance of fire at him.
The giant blocked with his axe heads, then spun around and swiped his axe from the side, sending another wave of ice in his opponent’s direction. The dwarvar didn’t have the room or time to jump out of the way, so he pulled his spear close and stood still. As the ice reached him, a wall of earth rose from the ground and entombed him inside. The ice spikes broke themselves against the earth.
As soon as the dwarvar had cut off his own line of sight, the giant was moving. Mid stride, his axe rose to the sky and started to glow. Raising it over his shoulders, he smashed down just as the dwarvar lowered his wall. Morgan couldn’t see the dwarvar’s eyes, but he could tell that he was surprised—the giant had crossed the distance in an instant. His size had made Morgan think that he was slow, but from the start of the fight the giant had been the one who moved faster.
The dwarvar had no chance. The axe came down and the dwarvar put his spear up to block, but it broke the handle and smashed into the dwarvar’s shoulder with a sickening screech of metal and bone, and then a bolt of lightning crashed from the sky and into the axe head. The entirety of the dwarvar’s armor heated up from its power and turned nearly crimson.
The giant pulled his axe back and the dwarvar collapsed to the ground as the crowd roared with approval. Morgan couldn’t believe his eyes—that attack had most certainly killed the dwarvar, and he was waiting for his body to disintegrate. But then a chime was heard and a moment later an elf woman with silver hair blinked into existence next to the dwarvar. She put her hand over him and an orange field surrounded his body. She reached into her satchel and pulled out a healing potion, then removed the dwarvar’s helmet. The crowed blanched at the sight of pink and nearly melting skin; his beard was on fire, and half of it was gone, along with his hair. But in the orange field, it almost looked like the fire was frozen, as if it wasn’t moving at all. Then the woman poured the potion down the dwarvar’s mouth, and in a few moments the skin started repairing itself. Soon enough the man was whole, albeit without half of his beard. He didn’t wake up, however, and the woman blinked away with him.
“The winner: Fjordstar!” Ragnor said, and the crowd responded.
Morgan could barely process what had happened; the fight had lasted barely a minute, not even. He had thought that it would be longer.
“That was brutal,” Clara said. “But effective.”
Morgan agreed, but he didn’t know how to feel about it, though the crowd didn’t seem to mind. Morgan wondered how close to death the dwarvar had come. He had known that they would have healers on hand, but this seemed a bit extreme. The giant stayed on the arena floor for a few moments longer, raising his axe and releasing a roar that nearly drowned out the crowd.
“Does anyone have an idea how he used ice without water?” Morgan asked.
None of them answered.
* * *
The next match started almost fifteen minutes later, and it was Wizards of the Sacred versus Ravenforce. Two humans, one a warrior with a sword and shield, and the other a caster of some kind, dressed in a robe and carrying two wands. None of them k
new who their opponents would choose for the fight, and both of them could change who went at any moment, so in a way it was a guessing game. Morgan glanced around, finding the Harbingers secluded in a corner, whispering among themselves, but Emily was looking at him. He wondered what she was thinking about; if Sky Force won their match, they would be matched against her and the Harbingers. He turned away, looking back at the arena. There was no point in thinking about the Harbingers before they even won their own match.
Ragnor announced the start of the match, and then the arena exploded into light. The mage leveled his two wands, and firebolts flew out of both of them, heading straight into Ravenforce’s warrior. The man raised his shield and started running, a wall of force surrounding him as he charged. Morgan realized that it was an ability as the firebolts struck the wall of force and were blown away. The warrior picked up speed, smashing forward directly at the caster.
The caster had the same realization, and twisted his wands, causing the firebolts to stop, and then he put his fists together and conjured a fire dragon that flew forward, and its maws opened and came down on the warrior. The two collided and fire surrounded the warrior, creating a small sphere of rotating flames around him. Then the fire was blown away, and the warrior was revealed, his armor smoking—some of his clothes were on fire, but still whole. His hands were spread wide and his head raised up. He roared and purple light coiled around him, enclosing him in it like a second armor. He gained size; it looked almost as if he had become an avatar of some kind, floating inside purple light that resembled him, only slightly larger. Then he charged again, crossing the distance in an instant. The caster crossed his wands and a shield blossomed around him, similar to the dome that Clara could use, only slightly silver in color.
