Equalize

by Ryan DeBruyn

  As he sat and waited for the hot broth to cool, he asked Sela about what he missed. She informed him that she had made the decision to send the survivors on to their Algonquin Valley. She had told them they could stay there and offered them what little safety she could.

  Sela had also told Azoth to stay and guard the Territory and the survivors once he led them there. Sela shrugged and told him that she assumed that any survivors they crossed from this point on would be sent to the Territory. Tilting his head, Rocky questioned her on that fact and told her he didn’t want to force people to go anywhere.

  Her answer was simple and sensible in a way he had begun to associate with Sela. “At current, Algonquin Valley is the safest place we know. People can go there for now and leave whenever they want. At least with a community and the protection that stabilized Ether will provide, they will be alive to make that decision.”

  Rocky grimaced when he thought about the infuriating cue ball, Derik. “Is there a way for us to check on the Territory to see how the people are doing?”

  Sela shook her head. “Unfortunately, right now the level of the Territory is too low to access from elsewhere. We just have to hope that Azoth can keep them in line for now and hurry back.” With her last statement, she looked off in the direction of Chalk River and Rocky nodded before falling silent, wanting speed for his own reasons.

  As they ate, and Rocky took second and thirds of the delicious rabbit soup, they talked. After a brief pause, he had continued to ask questions as they came to him, and Sela did her best to answer them. The ranks of classes were Apprentice, Journeyman, Master, Epic, and Legendary. It was unclear what level you would be able to ‘breakthrough’, which was the term reserved for an advancement. At least it had been during Sela’s previous lifetime.

  The class ranks were very odd as they often reset individuals to something akin to a weaker version of themselves. Some classes during rank up would offer multiple options for the next rank, and it was up to the user to decide what best fit. Sela used an example of keeping all accumulated stat points but leveling extremely slowly versus resetting more or all stat points but leveling faster. Each rank almost always gave more assigned stat points per level which helped balance out the choices at a theoretical future level.

  Skills were ranked from Weak, Intermediary, Moderate, Strong, and Greater. It seemed that there was a set point for these to increase, but Sela could only recall that it was different for each skill. When he pushed her for more information, she told him that the experience needed in each new rank was increased at each level, but it varied from class to class or skill to skill.

  As they began their journey again, Rocky was forced to stop asking questions because Sela turned back into a cat. Sela did mention that she had confirmed her hypothesis that her class didn’t store shapeshifting counters past the day and was only able to change a single time per day still. However, Sela was currently level sixteen and while she hadn’t gained additional shapeshifting charges at fifteen like she had hoped. She was four levels away from reaching a skill called Master Shapeshifter, which according to the description would allow her to change animal forms up to four times a day while also providing her a fourth form. In addition to her bird and cat form, she had also added an additional aquatic form at level fifteen through a skill called The Path of Water.

  Not long into the journey, the sound of combat reached first Sela’s feline ears and then Rocky’s. The noise was coming from the river, so they slowed down and continued on the path, keeping the river on the left and slowly listened as the battle got closer.

  It was coming from a forest directly in front of the two of them. Rocky leaned around the massive trunk of a conifer tree that seemed to be twice the size of any conifer Rocky had seen before. The size of the tree was unsurprising, though, because all trees were continually showing marked signs of growth.

  Forest Troll

  Level 45

  Journeyman-Basher

  The troll easily stood fifteen feet tall and had skin the mottled brown and green of a forest floor. Rocky figured he could have been even taller if he stood straight, but the creature was hunched over with legs folded and resting on knuckles.

  The basher was laying waste to hundreds of golems in the area. Every time Rocky thought the troll was going to be overwhelmed because a golem had stuck its large, nail like appendage through its body, the troll proved him wrong.

  It would just turn and bat the offending creature aside. The metal that was impaling the troll was left in place, and Rocky couldn’t even see any blood well up from the injured area. The injuries, which were mounting, didn’t even seem to hinder the basher in the slightest.

  Teeth clenched, Rocky continued to watch the fight and began to notice that any cuts on the troll disappeared quickly. When he reached for his sword, more for protection than an intention to attack, he felt a cool, semi corporeal paw rest atop his offending hand. Following the paw, he saw Sela shake her feline head. Rocky quickly glanced back to the monster, stunned at her unwillingness to fight a solo creature.

  This is not a battle we could win? Maybe because Azoth isn’t with us?

  In what seemed like moments, the fight was over, and the scattered remains of lesser golems that littered the opening were dominated by the massive troll who began pulling out the nails with muted grunts and roars. To Rocky’s evident surprise, even before the metal came to rest, the wounds had healed.

  The troll sniffed at the downed golems before deciding they weren’t edible and walked off through the field to continue hunting. As the troll was leaving, Rocky looked at Sela with brows raised. “Not worth attacking?” Sela smiled, showing her sharp teeth then walked over to the corpses of the golems and began jubilantly crushing the cores.

  Squinting in confusion, Rocky looked at her and then the corpses and suddenly laughed. She had just wanted the free quest items and had chosen to avoid a fight in case they were forced to retreat and leave the items behind.

  The two of them continued on their trip only stopping for a brief fight with what used to be a moose. Now the moose was easily the size of a garage, and its antlers ended in crystal-like spikes. Rocky dispatched the beast with a combination of sneak and Dark Cloak, almost managing to be on top of it before he nearly struck its head from its body with one swing of his sword.

  Unfortunately, the slash only half decapitated the beast because of its sudden turn and Rocky’s poor sword form, but it died all the same. After some skinning and butchering, the two continued until the sun fully fell before setting up camp.

  The moose meat was the best meal Rocky had tasted in this new world, but he realized he was starting to miss vegetables.

  Don’t tell anyone that.

  “We will probably reach Ottawa tomorrow. Sela,” Rocky sleepily mumbled to Sela before passing out for a well-deserved sleep.

  Chapter Sixteen

  It was an early start the next day because of Rocky’s anticipation and excitement. Sela, still in her cat-form, didn’t complain when Rocky poked her awake before the sun was even up. She had stayed in her cat-form because while her counter had reset to one, she was currently attempting to save it for emergencies.

  The early portion of the morning was strange and surreal as fog rose from the dew-covered grass, creating a smoke-covered landscape of fields of unkempt high grass and massive forests of humongous trees.

  It was quite beautiful, and Rocky felt his brow furrow in confusion. He could feel a deep connection, admiring a beauty that connected to his soul in a way he didn’t know he had been missing in the past. It was like something was reaching out and cradling his heart, lifting his spirit and creating a soaring feeling in his chest. Just maybe everything was going to be okay.

  Sela loped back from scouting ahead and raised a paw then tilted her head, clearly indicating a direction. She beckoned in a motion that was unmistakably a request to follow. Jolted out of his moment’s reverie, Rocky increased his pace and swept through the tall grass in t
he direction she had gone.

  A short sprint later, Rocky entered a clearing of trampled and destroyed grass. In the center, three young survivors crouched over a dead body in what looked like a war zone. There was a futuristic looking tank with a gaping hole carved into its side.

  Scowling, Rocky would have chalked the sight up to a monster hunt gone wrong, but a few things made this field of slaughter strange in his eyes.

  First, every human body was littered with holes that had been cauterized, and second, the ground itself was scorched in quarter size scorch marks. Using his sneak ability Rocky entered the clearing and knelt next to one of these scorch marks. Examining it, he discovered they were tiny, circular holes in the sandy soil that were burnt on all sides.

  Standing back up, Rocky frowned at something in the distance but continued his sneaking search of the area, not yet willing to walk over to the three young children he could see at the far side of the field. From this distance, it was extremely difficult to tell, but he thought they might be crying.

  As a frowning and weary Rocky continued his inspection, another piece of information jumped out at him. There were two types of bodies in this clearing: men wearing combat fatigues and another group wearing civilian clothing. The militant group had no holes in their bodies but had throats ripped out, skulls broken, or chests caved in.

  The civilian group appeared to be the only side of the fight covered in holes. They were more numerous if Rocky’s quick headcount was anything to go off. Some had a look of wide-eyed shock frozen into a rictus mask of death on their faces, leading Rocky to believe they were taken unaware.

  By this point, two of the three children had noticed him and were shaking the last boy who was despondently sobbing over an adult’s body that was most likely his parent. As Rocky approached, he held up his hands and tried to remove the sternness from his face.

  The two kids that had been attempting to shake the cryer reached out and grabbed the arms of the boy, physically dragging him off the corpse.

  Before they could run off into the dangers that were probably on their way, Rocky blurted out, “Please don’t leave. I am not going to hurt you.” He frowned and looked around because the death-strewn valley was probably already drawing in predators with the promise of a free meal.

  During his quick look, Rocky noticed a slight irregularity in the grass that could only be Sela’s bulk. The fact that she wasn’t behind him was good because he didn’t think the kids could handle the sight of a giant ghost saber-tooth tiger right now. It also saved him a further explanation.

  Turning back, he continued, “I can help protect you from the people who did this.” The children all froze like a deer in headlights, their big eyes shining with unshed tears and reflecting the rising sun.

  The moment vanished as they turned and took off as a group towards the high grass in the exact opposite direction of a wide-eyed Rocky. With Rocky’s increased speed he still could catch them, but he honestly didn’t know if that would help. Instead, he stood there, hands still raised and watched as a giant, white cat came out of the bushes in front of the children and growled menacingly.

  A moment later, the three kids were clutching his legs and trying desperately to hide behind him to avoid the cat who now lazily lounged in front of them. The sight of a ghost cat licking her paw and purring contentedly nearly made Rocky burst into laughter.

  However, the laughter wouldn’t come because Rocky could literally feel the children’s hands shaking as they clutched his torn-up pants. “Not sure you made this better, Sela,” he called over his shoulder as he turned and got to a knee to be on their level.

  With slow, controlled movements to not startle the kids, Rocky encompassed the children in his arms. It didn’t take much; once he opened his arms, they melted into his chest and continued crying, soaking his tattered shirt. Without jostling them too much, he lifted the three off the ground and slowly walked out of the clearing, following Sela’s swishing tail through the tall grass.

  A short walk later and enough shed tears to make Rocky seriously start to wonder about dehydration, Rocky spotted a solitary tree and moved towards it. Rocky placed the children down and faced them, attempting to break the silence again. “Do any of you know what happened back there?”

  Only the wind was his answer, and he glanced over at Sela, hoping for direction. Sela, for her part, just stared back at him and opened her mouth, making no noise and raising her cat eyebrows comically.

  “Yeah, not helpful! Some guide you are!” Rocky sputtered at Sela. She just purred and let out a low yowl.

  Standing there ruminating on what he should do next, he jumped when a shaky, high-pitched voice interrupted his planning, “The army men killed everyone who was trying to leave the city. They told them it was their last chance to turn around before they started shooting at us with laser beams.”

  Looking at the child in the middle who had just spoken, Rocky queried, “Why were people leaving if they were protected by the military, and why was the military trying to stop them?” Again, six red-rimmed eyes just stared back at him, so he tried again in the softest voice he could manage, “Did anyone say where you were going?”

  This time it was the boy on the left who said, “Daddy said we were going to leave and try to find another town that would let us keep our loot and hunted meat, maybe allow us to buy our own weapons.”

  Well damn, there was a lot of information packed into that sentence, and Rocky was a bit lost as to what to start with. Did the kid just imply that the “military men” were taking people’s hunted meat, loot, and weapons? Furthermore, buy guns from what?

  Sela walked up beside him and wrote in the dirt, “Shop!” Rocky glanced at it and felt his heart beat thunderously. Then he looked back to the children who were all now staring at the giant cat. “Is there a shop in Ottawa?” They all nodded once without removing their eyes from Sela.

  The cat laid down and rolled on to her side, trying to look less intimidating. Rocky, who now needed to know what a shop was, looked between Sela and the kids, wondering if he would have to wait until she could change or if he could get the information from the traumatized youths.

  A few more questions directed at the children made Rocky decide that it was going to have to be Sela who provided the information. He quickly started a fire and then started cooking some moose meat for the kids and himself.

  He asked the silent boy to watch the meat, and then in frustration, he chose to go through sword forms and footwork while he thought. Beginning with two hands holding his sword above his head, he balanced on spread legs, feeling his inability to move quickly in any direction due to his wide foot placement.

  He adjusted his feet and noticed his ability to move opened in one additional direction. Changing his footing again, he felt a new direction become available. As he continued to test his motions and step through forms, he thought;

  The city is in the hands of the military? The death of those people seems to point to something wrong about this particular military group, however. This group was also purchasing futuristic technology including tanks from a shop.

  I should probably go back and check on that tank if I can.

  His foot was placed poorly as he stepped forward to swing, and he recognized that by changing it minutely, he would be more mobile. He adjusted accordingly, attempting to make it possible to change a swing into evasion if necessary. While he improved, he continued his previous chain of thought.

  This group of murderers was able to buy a significant amount of laser weaponry, and it probably was from the loot of everyone in town. The question I need an answer to is, did this man keep the people as slaves or were the people in the dark about the truth?

  The children’s group had left to find a better place to live, and it had seemed that they weren’t expecting a fight.

  Rocky examined the battlefield in his mind's eye and saw the pattern of slaughter again. The people had been gathered to hear what the military had said.
<
br />   While this fact didn’t exactly mean that the people thought the leader they were following was benevolent, it did make Rocky lean in that direction. If the group he had just encountered had been slaves, they probably would have been in worse shape.

  Anybody trying to control a populace would have taken away all weapons and perhaps food. However, that brought up a whole different direction of thinking because the military was using the populace to hunt for food and collect loot. That meant the leader needed the survivors to be strong enough to kill creatures in the surrounding area.

  His mind was chasing its tail in circles an hour later as he ate his overcooked dinner when a loud yowl and kids screaming broke his mind out of the thought patterns. He turned to see Sela’s form shifting horribly on the ground, waves undulating over her white skin. Sprinting over, Rocky could hear her teeth grinding, and her claws were digging massive furrows into the earth below her.

  Growling, Sela turned her tear-filled eyes towards Rocky’s fear-filled ones. As the shifting continued to occur up and down the long length of her feline body, Rocky noticed his notifications in the corner. Frowning because he knew, from experience, he couldn’t do anything for the incorporeal cat, Rocky instead opened those first in hopes they at least carried an answer.

  Quest Update: Recovering Gaia Quest Timer Elapsed

  Total Golem Hearts Crushed 932

  Calculating Reward …

  Congratulations! You have destroyed the largest number of Golem Hearts in your immediate area.

  You have been awarded with one Greater Perk.

  250,000 Etherience added to each group member.

  200 Crystallized Ether will be awarded to the leader of the group to split.

  There was no information telling him what was happening to Sela. Frustrated tears came to his eyes, and his hands continued to sink through his Ancestral guide. Rocky glanced back at her face and saw fear tinging the human-like eyes of the cat. She was undulating with more frequency and seemed to be shrinking.