by Ryan DeBruyn
Ether Pool: 150/150
Class: Apprentice-(Azrael) Revenant
Level 1 Leader: Level 1 Strategist
Class Skills: Revenant Blade, Blood Mend
You have 1 stat points and 1 skill points to distribute.
Stamina
14
Strength
13
Agility
22
Dexterity
20
Intelligence
15
Wisdom
17
Charisma
19
Luck
7
Weak Skills
Combat Skill (Non-Class)
Common Skills
Endurance 5
Analyze 6 (+1)
Profession Skills
Skinning 5
Butcher 5
Skills
Revenant Blade
5/5
Soul Blade Class Skill Unlocked
Revenant Bowyer
0/5
Skill gained at 5/5 “Unknown.”
Soul Strike
Once you gain five points in this skill, you can use your personal Ether to cast Soul Strike.
Soul Strike increases the damage of your weapon strikes. Unlock the skill to learn more.
Skill gained at 5/5 “Soul Strike.”
Blood Mend
5/5
Once you gain five points in this skill, you can use your personal Ether to cast Blood Mend.
Blood Mend will increase your natural regeneration of wounds and damage. Unlock the skill to learn more.
Blood Mend Class Skill Unlocked
Blood Armor
Thicken the armor you are currently wearing by infusing it with the blood of your enemies. The skill will significantly reduce melee damage. The ability lasts 30 seconds per use.
Cost 50 Personal Ether.
0/5
Skill gained at 1/5 “Blood Armor.”
Skill upgraded to “Blood Shield” at 5/5
Blood Control
Learn the ability to increase blood flow in your own body or decrease it in others. This will cause your body to move slightly faster or your enemy to move slower. Skill last 10 seconds per use.
Cost 50 Personal Ether
0/5
Skill gained at 1/5 “Blood Flow.”
Skill upgraded to “Blood Control” at 5/5
The two skills were useful, and he almost selected Blood Control immediately, hoping to add some versatility to his abilities. At the last moment, he started and froze, having noticed a third filament which was now snaking from Blood Mend. It was leading to a space still covered by fog. Another filament from Soul Strike seemed to lead into the same void.
It might have been his imagination, but for a moment, the area seemed to swirl faster and darker. He blinked, and it appeared normal again.
My fixed eye is going to make me go insane before it helps me.
Regardless, he still chose to take that path because he had learned that in most games, skills which required two prerequisites were usually more powerful. Continuing to explore, Rocky stumbled upon his pet tab, smiled, and quickly opened it.
Pet
Azoth | Dread Chimera | Level 10
29 days, 14 hours, and 56 minutes until Chimera Poison is restored.
Due to Chimera Poisons immense potency, it takes time for a Chimera to refill its venom sac, slowly creating the poison and removing all dilution until the toxins deadly effects are perfected.
Highest Stat: Strength
When he opened Territorial Inventory, Rocky looked at the massive pile of wolf meat and hoped that Smith’s group would be able to add to the inventory stores. He assumed the five-thousand pounds of wolf meat would be enough for a while, but if they didn’t hunt monsters to help themselves, they wouldn’t survive long.
Territorial Inventory
“Steel” Wolf Pelt
Lesser Wolf Pelt x 8
Chimera Quill x 114
Level 3 Golem Orb (Cracked)
Level 10
Golem Orb
(Cracked)
Metal golem foot x 2
Crystal Ethers x 14
5511 lbs Wolf Meat
Metal golem claw x 2
Kayak Oar
Bottles of Chimera Milk x 3
“Skandranon” Chimera Pelt
Wood Ax
Hatchet
Survival Knife
Crossbow
Crossbow Bolts x 17
Hunters Pack
611 lbs Chimera Meat
Chimera
Claw
x 9
Access to this space can be granted to anyone the owner chooses. People who can access this ethereal space:
Rockland Barkclay (owner)
Selaphelia (owner)
Joaquim Smith (Partial)
After all of his preparation for the trip to Ottawa was complete, he chose to take the remainder of the day to train. Rocky was desperate to leave immediately but knew having Sela in combat form would be helpful, so he resolved to begin tomorrow as soon as he woke up.
The remainder of the afternoon, Rocky attempted to practice his sword strikes. Of course, he only managed a few moments where it looked like he wasn’t holding a baseball bat, and those moments were quite possibly accidental.
Exhausted again from a long day of an emotional roller coaster and physical exertion. He went to bed early after he finished eating and the sun left the sky. Before falling asleep, Rocky prayed that his family was still alive.
Chapter Ten
Groaning with damp stiffness, Rocky stretched his arms above his head and rolled on to his side, smelling the proximity of the slowly cooking wolf meat. He opened his eyes lazily with a smile that quickly fled his face as he was greeted with a terrifying sight. Through wide eyes, he could see a goddamn sabretooth tiger not five feet away.
Screaming, Rocky shot backward, attempting to pull his sword out of its scabbard and only managing to tangle himself into a shape similar to that of a pretzel. The beast bared its fangs at him and made a noise deep in its throat.
The tiger then crouched low on its haunches preparing to leap.
Blinking, Rocky sent up a final prayer, asking for his family to live longer than he had before the cat rolled on to its back. The noise which had originally been a purr changed to chuffing, which sounded so much like snorting laughter that Rocky couldn’t mistake it.
The monstrous feline rolling on its back and laughing was Sela.
It took a few moments before she got control of herself again, and then she sat in front of the fire, eyes sparkling with unshed tears of humor. Azoth had rejoined them and joined in on rolling around on his back. The Chimera had no idea of the context, however.
Now that Sela was sitting up, Rocky examined her more closely and was impressed with her size, which was on par with the biggest horse he had ever seen. Her displayed teeth were massive; the canines were protruding well down past her bottom lip and were at least two feet long. She was white with dark gray striping. The muscles of her feline body had terrifying bulk.
The eyes and her semi-transparency were the only features that gave away that she was something more than a large jungle cat. They were without question the eyes of Sela, which initially had begun as a faded white when she had just been an ancestral guide. Yesterday, though, they had been a startling blue of a tropical sea with swirling greens he couldn’t pin down, and he was staring into those same eyes now.
Azoth was dwarfed by her, his lynx-like size not close to matching the weight of Sela who easily, if fully corporeal, would have weighed over sixteen-hundred pounds, and Rocky immediately felt like this trip might be safer.
Say hello to my little friend.
Rocky was now fully awake, and his heart was circulating his blood in a dangerous staccato rhythm. He mumbled a sheepish good morning to the two and was rewarded with a jubilant licking at his hand from Azoth. Rocky smiled and pulled out a frozen
wolf steak for the Chimera.
Azoth happily carried it closer to the fire before dropping it on a wood plank beside another wolf steak which was almost thawed. This caused Rocky to laugh and point as he accused the birdbrain, “You sneaky little thief!”
Still laughing at his pet, Rocky headed over to the stream to wash so he could be cleanish before he ate.
Stripping his armor was a lot of trouble, but Rocky finally accomplished the task and began languishing in the cold water and scrubbing intermittently, just taking a moment for himself. Today would mark the official start of his journey to Ottawa to save his family members, and it would definitely increase the danger factor. They would be leaving the semi-protection of Algonquin Valley today, and he could feel his colon clench when he thought of taking that fateful first step.
Not long after, Rocky returned to camp sopping wet, wearing only his briefs and carrying his armor. The smell of the wolf meat made his mouth water. The man had noticed a massive increase in his hunger of late and had been eating more and more food to satiate it.
Holding the steaming meat with a stack of leaves that had grown to be the size of dinner plates, Rocky gorged himself on multiple servings of wolf steak. Sela took her food away to eat elsewhere, probably disgusted by his barbaric eating habits, and she was a damn cat!
Putting on his armor was harder and simultaneously easier. Since he had done it before, he understood parts of it, but when he got stuck and looked to Sela for a bit of help, she was forced to cat-mime at him until he understood.
After breakfast and donning Rocky’s armor, they began to jog directly east, knowing that Ottawa was in that general direction. Rocky hoped he would pick up some sort of landmark as they started getting closer but was broke from that thought. Tingles broke out over his shoulders the instant they crossed the boundary leaving Algonquin Valley and the safety the Territory offered.
Sela noticed Rocky stop and the wildness in his eyes. She surprised him a moment later by lifting her paw and pointing it at Rocky, then her own eyes, and finally, her paws.
Watch my feet?
Then she placed the paw in a place and moved forward with exaggerated movements.
Watch where I place my feet? Oh!
Sela wanted to teach him to run while making less noise, thus training his sneak skill. That was how he spent the next twenty minutes as they jogged along, blessedly distracted from the possible dangers. He was, at first, mirroring Sela until he got the hang of it or thought he had. Then he was attempting the same movements on his own.
The three of them moved like that for a half an hour when they came across their first stumbling point. In front of them was a mass of golems which had been created from the cars in the parking lot. Rocky knew the parking lot was pretty close but had hoped that the Transformer-like golems would have separated and moved away.
Instead, they were in a large group standing directly in front of the three of them. Sela made a motion with her paw, clearly suggesting that they move around the group and continue. Rocky decided to inspect the thirteen car golems first before making a decision. He started with the massive Chevy Cheyenne that could only have belonged to Smith.
Mechanical Composite Golem
Apprentice-Bad-Ass
Level 12
The rest of the creatures were level nine and below, so Rocky had to make a decision once again. This would be the first time he had time to make a decision before a fight, and he felt his body fill with adrenaline. Rocky turned to Sela, expression flat, and half drew his sword, which caused her to narrow her eyes and take a second look at him before she began to examine the golems as well.
After half a minute of thorough examination, Sela looked back at Rocky’s hardened eyes with her startling, blue orbs and then made nearly the same motion of go around, but this time, at the end, she flexed her claws out of her semi-ethereal paw.
Spread out then surprise attack!
Rocky nodded once in approval, then pointed at Azoth, gesturing right and sending Sela left with a similar motion. Sela took a moment to look at Azoth before the Chimera silently stalked off in his assigned direction, a few steps later, vanishing amongst the shadows of the trees.
How does that bumbling birdbrain move so smoothly and disappear like that!
Rocky held back a disappointed sigh when he realized he would have to learn from Azoth as well as Sela during their trip. Sela followed suit but didn’t blend into the forest as quickly as Azoth did, making Rocky feel slightly better about his skill level in the sneak department.
Smiling to himself, he attempted to move into the leeward shadow of a nearby tree and nearly fell over a few times because he attempted to move too exaggeratedly.
Grimacing, Rocky shook his head, knowing he was the weakest of them at stealth-like skills. Thinking of the upcoming fight, he glanced at his sword. The blade should be able to cut through them and might make him the most effective in the upcoming combat.
The levels Rocky saw meant they really weren’t drastically stronger than him. In fact, most were only double his height and were below his level. He silently mouthed a prayer, hoping that would be enough.
Only the Chevy Cheyenne was above his level, and a knot in his stomach told him he wanted a bit of revenge for his Ford Fiesta. That car had been a trustworthy companion to Rocky for the last year, getting him to all of his destinations safely and comfortably.
And it was still under warranty, goddammit! Do you think that acts of Gaia are covered?
Sela’s white paw poked out from behind a tree with three claws out. As he watched one nail withdrew slowly.
Alright, no turning back now!
Rocky pushed off hard and began his hastily planned route to his target. Even though he was faster than he’d ever been, he was still much slower than his two companions. They collided with their targets before he arrived at his. He heard high pitched screeches as organic claws tore through metal.
Gripping his sword tighter in preparation, Rocky hoped they had done enough damage to put down the two. This timing actually worked in his favor because his target turned in the direction that Azoth had been attacking from, leaving its back wide open.
As Rocky sprinted into range, he swung at the knee joint of his target golem, hoping he could disable one limb and slow it in the remainder of the fight. He turned with all his might and met no resistance. The surprise and his momentum forced him to roll or wind up prone, as his blade easily cut through the leg of the golem.
The roll brought him back to his feet, facing another golem’s back. The golem was just beginning to turn towards him, and he pushed off with both legs to regain some lost speed. As he passed by the silver painted golem, he swung through an arm at the elbow as it attempted to throw a counterpunch at him.
The severed limb brushed his shoulder as it sailed by, and that was when the surprise attack ended. The fight began in earnest, and Rocky took quick stock. He had injured two but now was forced on the defensive as the Chevy Cheyenne rapidly punched at him, forcing him to backpedal to avoid the fists that were moving far too fast. He could hear yowls and growls accompanied by screeching metal behind him, but there was no way he could take his eyes off the massive golem truck.
Rocky grimaced, feeling the pressure rise as sweat dripped down his face and arms. He began sensing an inevitable loss in the current situation. Eyes wild, he searched for a way out and realized he had one; the golem was only punching at his head level.
The massively tall truck golem was unable to reach down to its feet with its current leg extension. Rocky took an extra-large step back, then kicked off with all his might, diving at the golem’s left leg with his sword held out to his side.
As he flew by the left leg, his sword connected with the ankle of the Cheyenne. He easily took the foot off which caused the golem to tumble to the left. The tumble turned into a teetering collapse as the fifteen-foot-tall creature crashed to the ground.
Placing a hand on the ground, Rocky turned his head-fi
rst dive into a barrel roll along the ground. When he regained his feet, he was about six feet from the downed Cheyenne which was struggling back to a kneel. Rocky levered himself fully upright and ran at the golem, leaping to try to take off its head. Mid-jump, the air vibrated, and a moment later, he first heard then felt a massive crack. Just as quickly as he had moved in, Rocky was propelled back to the ground and then along it perpendicularly away from the Cheyenne.
With his head ringing and eyes unfocused, Rocky was lucky Azoth came and stood firmly in front of him, which allowed him to stagger to his feet as a debuff of a bone cracked in half flickered to life in the upper corner of his vision.
Dammit, that thing broke my ribs?
His eyes regained a bit of focus, and he saw a blue Honda standing over the Cheyenne with its hands clasped together in a double overhand chop.
Did that Honda just axe chop me like some sort of martial artist? I could make a joke about where it’s made…
His thoughts scattered when he coughed up a mouthful of blood. The only thing that had stopped it from breaking his back was the Chimera Armour. Rocky tried his best to ignore the pain and surveyed the battle since he had a momentary respite. Not a single golem was dead yet, but at least seven of the original twelve were looking much worse for wear, looking like they belonged in a junkyard more than a fist fight in a parking lot.
Rocky quickly used about half of his Ether pool to cast Blood Mend to increase the healing of his ribs. He screamed as the bones popped and cracked, rearranging themselves before the healing could begin. After that sharp moment of pain, Rocky felt his body numb as Blood Mend worked to deaden nerve endings in the area.
Rocky then hobbled, still not yet fully recovered, to each of the downed creatures as Sela and Azoth held back the rest. He finished off each one with a stab to the chest region, the head region, and then a decapitation, just in case.
