“What is Beyonder, by the way? Second time I’ve seen them show up in my messages.”
“Yikes. Sorry I asked,” Hawke said before waiting for the Soul Bond to start. In most games, that sort of thing happened on pickup. He shifted his grip on the sword and waited. Soon enough, a new prompt appeared.
Do you wish to bond souls with Saturnyx Demons-Bane? Y/N
He was probably going to regret it, but he said the word. “Yes.”
Eight
A shock ran up Hawke’s hand and arm and spread through his body; it felt like he’d been Tasered.
Images flooded his mind: he saw a naked woman with long hair – hair that was moving around with a life of its own. No, not hair, he realized as the vision focused on her, but thick strands of barbed chains that protruded from the woman’s skull. Her face was contorted in inhuman rage as she used the living metal hair and the talons at the end of her fingers to attack several men in Greek-style armor. She moved with inhuman speed and showed no mercy to her foes. Hawke realized the woman was Saturnyx, a Fury. She managed to be both incredibly beautiful and scary at hell; he mentally classified her as being on the wrong end of the Hot/Crazy Matrix.
The vision shifted: now the same creature knelt before another woman, a gigantic glowing goddess that radiated a sense of absolute power and wisdom. More images of slaughter followed, all involving Chain-Hair: battles, executions, murders, involving dozens of different cultures and peoples. The final scene was different: the creature knelt once again before her deity, but this time a huge sword lay between them. The blade seemed too wide and long to be a functional weapon, and it was made of some golden alloy; the hilt and handle were bigger versions of the remains Hawke had found. A wave of golden energy washed over Saturnyx; her body disappeared and the energy flowed into the red jewel on the sword’s pommel. At that point, the vision faded.
Returning to the here and now, Hawke examined the transformed weapon. It felt like an extension of his arm; he had a perfect sense of where the blade’s point was, and a few experimental slashes revealed that wielding the weapon felt as natural as moving the fingers in his hand. It seemed to be lighter as well, because even after a full minute of swinging it he didn’t feel tired and his Endurance bar didn’t go down.
“You know what I am?”
Hawke wasn’t surprised. Binding souls would reveal all kinds of information about each other. She’d probably had her own visions of his past. Hopefully she wouldn’t think less of him. He used his True Sight on the weapon once again. Besides the stats he’d already seen, he received more information:
Saturnyx Demons-Bane is a Fury, a divine spirit driven by vengeance and justice. Lawful justice is the best result, but when justice fails, only revenge remains. While bonded to Saturnyx, all penalties for Oath Breaking are doubled. Refusing those who ask for help to avenge a wrong will incur a -10% Experience penalty.
“Guess I shoulda read the small print,” he muttered. “If you are a Fury, why don’t you sound angry all the time?”
“And nobody likes you when you’re angry. I get it.”
Linking himself to the sword was probably the equivalent of running full tilt into a live minefield; no telling what might set off the talking sword. He’d better keep his word at all costs. And maybe he should be a lot more careful about making promises going forward. Despite all the weirdness involved, Hawke felt a little better. He wasn’t completely alone anymore, even if his new companion was a pretentious and murderous spirit trapped inside a sword.
A new prompt caught his attention. He opened it.
Sword Boons Available!
Congratulations! Now that you have bonded with a Soul Sword, you can select one of three available Boon Categories to awaken in your weapon. Choose wisely, for once it is selected, that Category cannot be changed.
A diagram appeared in front of Hawke’s eyes: three spheres hovering over a stylized glowing sword; the blade looked nothing like his current sword’s, but the handle was easily recognizable as Saturnyx. Each sphere described a different Category:
Battle Boons
Increase your physical prowess to superhuman levels by channeling the Soul Sword’s power into your body. Those who choose the Battle Category can become unstoppable killing machines or impregnable defenders.
Level One Ability – Battle Prowess: Double the Attribute bonuses granted by the sword at each level.
Level Two Ability – Undaunted: Health and Endurance are increased by 10% per level.
Elemental Boons
These Boons are meant to harness the power of the Elements – and eventually Primal Forces. This Category allows the Soul Sword’s wielder to enhance spells, gain elemental abilities, and control the forces of nature and super-nature. You must choose a Common Element to focus; additional Elements can be selected at level Fifteen, Thirty, and Fifty.
Level One Ability – Focus: Increase the effectiveness of the chosen element’s spells and abilities by fifty percent.
Level Two Ability – Resist Opposite Element: All Common Elements have an Opposite. Fire is Water’s Opposite, for example. Your resistance to damage and negative effects from your Element’s Opposite is increased by 1 per level or 1% per level, whichever is greater.
Executioner Boons
Dedicate your blade to the destruction of your foes. The Executioner Boons increase your strenght against your Chosen Enemies. You must select a Chosen Enemy (a Folk or Kind) at first level; additional Enemies can be selected at levels Ten, Thirty, and Fifty.
Level One Ability – Destroyer: your Soul Sword’s damage is doubled against your Chosen Enemy.
Level Two Ability – Avoidance: While wielding the Soul Sword, your Chosen Enemies’ attacks or spells have 1% chance to miss per level.
Hawke took a moment to think about his choices. All three Boon types sounded good. He discarded Executioner right away, though; he figured having a Chosen Enemy would have all sorts of unintended consequences. For one, people belonging to whatever group he selected wouldn’t be thrilled to have him around.
That left him with the Battle and Elemental Categories. The first one would make him a great tank or damage dealer. On the other hand, as a Paladin, he was a hybrid fighter-spellcaster, so dominion over Elements would give him a lot more effectiveness.
What would you do? Hawke asked Saturnyx.
Yeah. I guess Elemental Boons are the way to go.
Hawke selected the Elemental Path.
Choose A Common Element
Available Elements: Light.
Having one choice made that easy. His Unlimited Potential would provide a lot of new options down the line, he hoped. Of the two powers available, he picked Focus; that fifty percent bonus would greatly improve his healing, defensive auras and spell damage. That was too good to pass up.
After taking care of that, Hawke’s gamer instincts told him he should search the cavern thoroughly before leaving. Any ancient battle with a Legendary Artifact among its spoils should
have more loot. He put the sword in its scabbard, discovering that it was too long for it; a good three inches of the blade stayed exposed. The sword upgrade hadn’t included a new sheath.
Will do, he said as he began his search.
All he found were more pools of metal on the ground; his True Sight identified the materials: Adamant, Elementite, Elysian Steel, Infernium, Mithril, Orichalcum, and Titan Steel. He recognized some of the names and he was sure they were all high-level crafting materials. Worth more than their weight in gold. Problem was, the damn puddles had solidified right into the rock and he had no way of prying them loose.
“That metal is valuable, though.”
< I doubt many forges in the Common Realm can soften the higher-level alloys, let alone work them. The mithril, perhaps, being the lowest-ranked material among them. The rest? You’ll find no use for the metal until you advance much further along the Path to Power and reach the higher Realms.>
“Got it,” Hawke said, looking at the pools of solid metal. They gleamed like silver and gold, and his inner gamer couldn’t just leave them behind.
He decided to try something that would have worked in some of the games he’d played. Touching one of the solid pools, he willed it into his Inventory. There was a moment of resistance, and the pool disappeared! Opening his inventory, he found one of the slots had been filled by two ingots of Mithril. Jackpot.
It took him a couple of minutes to ‘drag’ every pool of metal he could find into his inventory. By the time he was done, he’d filled seven slots in his inventory with several ingots of high-level metals: Adamant (4), Elementite (3), Elysian Steel (6), Infernium (3), Mithril (9), Orichalcum (4), and Titan Steel (7). He also got a few ingots of precious metals that must have been used as decorations for the melted weapons and armor: Silver (2) and Gold (1). Even if he could not use the high-level alloys yet, he could sell the gold and silver as soon as he reached whatever passed for civilization in the Common Realm.
“If I’m figuring this correctly, the Common Realm is the newbie starting zone, right?” he asked the sword as he collected the metals.
“Who enforces those rules? The gods?”
Hawke remembered the first message he got when he was dropped into this messed up world. It had been signed by Arbiter Primus. It was good to know who was in charge. He had a score to settle with them.
“Listen,” he told the sword after he’d collected the last ingot of Titan Steel, clearing the cavern of all its valuables. “I don’t know if you’re going to believe this, but I’m kinda not from around here and there is a lot I don’t know.”
“That’s where I’m from. I’ve got a lot of questions I was hoping you might answer.”
“That’s great.”
“What Necromancer minions?”
The demon bones scattered all over the battlefield began to vibrate and fly together into complete skeletons, who slowly moved and came alive. Or Undead.
Crap.
Hawke ran.
Nine
Hawke glanced over his shoulder at one of the giant skeletons chasing him.
Reanimated Demon (Undead)
Level 5 Skeleton
Health 150 Mana 100 Endurance 0 (Tireless)
The demon skeletons were a good eight or nine feet tall. They had no weapons, but didn’t need any: the horns on their heads looked deadly, their fingers ended in sharp claws, and their mouths had about as many teeth as a great white shark crossed with a sabretooth tiger. There were three of them, and he didn’t think he could survive fighting a single one.
Why didn’t you warn me about this? Hawke asked Saturnyx with his mind; he needed all his breath for running.
the sword replied, sounding slightly apologetic.
Weak? They are three levels higher than me!
Hawke barely listened to the lecture as he reached one of the narrower spots and slowed down to squeeze through it. He tossed the shield through first to avoid getting entangled and hoped he’d make it in time. Behind him, he heard the clacking of bones and the sound of stomping feet, catching up to him. He resisted the temptation to look back and pushed through the spot. After grabbing his shield, he started running again.
No way they can get past that. They are all a lot bigger than me.
That’s just great.
That would slow them down some, at least. He had a few seconds’ head start on them and every extra bit would help. For a moment he considered making a stand on a narrow section; they would only be able to come at him one at a time. He ran the idea past his talking sword.
The sword had the knack of making the word ‘master’ sound like ‘dumbass.’ That probably came from being angry all the time. Okay, fighting was no bueno. Running would have to do the trick. He kept going.
By the way, do you know where we are going?
Which means that if I’d checked that tunnel instead of coming to get you, I’d be free and clear already.
The sword said nothing. Hawke would have sighed if he had been able to. It wouldn’t be the first time looting some fancy gear had gotten him in trouble. Or listening to a woman, for that matter. By the time he could see the main tunnel, he’d widened his head start by a fair margin. It took the skeletons a good while to get through each narrow tunnel section. He should reach the chapel long before they caught up with him.
He stopped and, sure enough, he heard the now-familiar buzzing-clicking sounds the Murk Arachnoids made.
Crap. How many?
Okay. Guess we have to go through them.
Undead demons behind him, Arachnoids in front. He slowed down long enough to cast both Shi
eld of Light and Aura of Light on himself. If he was going down, he’d go down swinging with everything he had. He drew the Legendary Artifact sword from its undersized scabbard. That was one unfair advantage that he planned to use for everything it was worth.
“Let’s roll,” he muttered and came out into the tunnel.
The spider-men had been walking past the tunnel’s mouth when he came out. The glow of his auras alerted them and they began to turn around. Their stats were identical to the one he had examined before:
Murk Arachnoid
Level 3 Warrior
Health 48 Mana 23 Endurance 39
Hawke didn’t give them a chance to react. The closest one had just begun to pivot when his swing connected with one of its rear legs. The augmented blade severed the slender limb; the impact felt like chopping through a stalk of tall grass. The arachnoid buzzed in agony and stumbled as Hawke stepped forward and bashed its arms with his shield, knocking the two-handed chopping sword it was holding off-balance. His follow-up thrust punched through the spider-man’s body armor with a metallic clink. He put his weight into it and inflicted sixteen points of damage on top of the eighteen he’d done when severing its leg.
The other two were coming from either side of the wounded Arachnoid. Hawke twisted the sword loose, and that was enough to finish off his target. He had to leap away from the dying Warrior before its buddies surrounded him.
Dammit! No more element of surprise and the odds were still bad.
The two Warriors pressed him hard, swinging their oversized swords as if they weighed nothing. He caught one blow on his shield and felt the wood crack under the impact. A moment later, the other chopping blade hit his armored shoulder. It was as pleasant as getting whacked with a baseball bat. Eight Health points went away even though the blade didn’t penetrate the breast plate.
One Arachnoid thrust at him with its weapon while the other lifted its heavy blade for another swing. Hawke went on the offensive, taking the point on his battered shield and stabbing the Warrior’s torso. Saturnyx’s point went deep, doing twenty-five points of damage.
Twilight Templar (The Eternal Journey Book 1) Page 5
