Edge had been counting the minutes until the Fear the Seasons finished digesting.

  Obtaining an Epic skill was a pivotal moment in the career of any hunter. An event that was guaranteed to change his life in a fundamental way. He stepped into his inner world and walked over to the power that was only moments away from joining his collection.

  For reasons he didn’t even pretend to understand, the digesting skill took the form of a giant egg that had been sitting in his central chamber for the past two weeks. The shell came in four distinct colors: green, orange, brown, and blue. The hues blended at the borders, forming a pattern that suggested the turning of the seasons, which the Gardener had been attuned to in both her monstrous and alien forms.

  Although they didn’t start out too much stronger than skills of other rarities, his Epics would eventually become the pinnacles of his collection, along with Manifest Chain, which also seemed destined for greatness. Better still, Fear the Seasons had been highly ranked before he’d Extracted it. It only needed a sliver of experience to reach rank two, and he could pick its first upgrade after stealing a single skill.

  Edge hadn’t made it to his central chamber in time to watch Intimidating Roar hatch and was intensely curious to observe the process now. I wonder if it will be smart like Chibime or more like the rest of my skills. His musings were cut off when the eggshell began to collapse, fading into shards of light and revealing the avatar within.

  Fear the Seasons (Epic) has finished digesting.

  He wasn’t surprised that the figure looked like a miniature version of the Gardener—the feminine ghost that had given him her skills, not the monstrous visage she had worn during the fight. Chibime had transformed into a cartoonish copy of himself after binding with his core, but this skill didn’t change shape—even after floating over to a pillar and locking into its socket.

  The avatar had elongated limbs and flowing white hair. She was wearing a patchwork dress, divided into four sections that were the same colors as her egg. She had a little black rain cloud that followed her everywhere, soaking the floor with water that vanished a few seconds later.

  Fear the Seasons seemed to be just as aware as Chibime, and apparently, she could fly. The skill jumped off the top of her pillar and glided over to land on Edge’s shoulder, staring up at him with exaggerated features that were remarkably cute.

  “Hello, new friend. My name is Edge. It’s a pleasure to meet you. Welcome to your new home. I look forward to working with you.”

  The alien avatar chittered back at him, in a cadence and pitch that reminded him of her former owner. Fear’s gaze revealed an advanced intelligence, which made him wonder why his skills felt so alive—along with all the magic of Ord, for that matter.

  Edge hadn’t drawn attention to the hatching skill, giving the avatar time to adjust to her new circumstances. But the instant his other powers noticed what was going on, the whole crew came running, surrounding the Epic power in a ring of welcoming gestures.

  Fear leapt off his shoulder to greet the other avatars, who were bouncing, squeaking, humming, and cheering. His skills didn’t communicate in words, but he could tell they were thrilled to have a new friend. If he tried to put what he was sensing into words, it would be something like, “Welcome to the neighborhood.”

  That all changed when Chibime arrived.

  Intimidating Roar took one look at Fear the Seasons and hissed like a cat, shocking Edge to his marrow. The Epic avatar bared her fangs and growled right back. Then they both pounced for each other and started to brawl while his other skills went running for cover.

  What the fuck? He had never considered the possibility that his two strongest powers wouldn’t get along. He had severe reservations about what that might entail, considering the unique nature of his inner world.

  Only a few seconds had passed while he processed the astonishing turn of events, but their battle had already entered a new phase. Fear the Seasons had pulled out a mallet, swooping down to strike as her rain pummeled Chibime. He took a hit to his head, then opened his mouth and Roared—momentarily paralyzing his opponent and sending her plummeting from the sky.

  She recovered just before she hit the ground. Her cloud vanished as the temperature began to drop, spring transitioning to winter in the blink of an eye. When Edge looked the other way, Chibime had grabbed Elemental Blade and was getting ready to make his move. Meanwhile, Fear the Seasons had produced a fucking scythe that was nearly twice her own size.

  Roar leapt, and she dove, streaking toward each other with weapons at the ready in a head-on contest of cold versus cold and blade versus blade. Just before they collided in midair, Edge jumped in and grabbed the tiny figures, holding them apart as gently as he could.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  He didn’t think they could actually hurt each other, but they needed to sort this shit out here and now. He didn’t care if they were friends, but disharmony in his skill village might lead to unexpected consequences, which he strongly suspected he wouldn’t enjoy.

  “I have no idea what your problem is,” Edge said in an admonishing tone. “But that isn’t how we resolve our differences. Now listen up.” Both avatars released their weapons and turned to face him. They were giving each other the side-eye but weren’t leaping for each other’s throats, which was a considerable improvement.

  “If you don’t want to be pals, there’s nothing I can do about it. But we’re all on the same team. If you cause a problem at a critical moment, I’ll die, and you’ll die too… I think. Moving on, this place is big enough for both of you. If you can’t play nice, promise me that you will give each other some space instead.

  “I’m about to get into one hell of a fight with the lives of my friends hanging in the balance. I can’t afford to have anyone distracting me once the battle begins. Can you please promise to work together, at least until Puppet Town is safe?”

  The avatars glared at each other for a solid minute before Chibime finally nodded. Fear the Seasons grumbled but then nodded too—a miniature sun rising behind her to take away the chill. “Thank you. I really appreciate it. Now, if you don’t mind, I would like to talk to the newest member of our team. Chibime, you can listen if you want, but please don’t get in the way.”

  The cartoon version of himself sulked a little, but it lingered nearby without complaint, which was a step in the right direction. Letting out a sigh of relief, Edge turned his attention to the avatar that had flown up to sit on his shoulder.

  “Now then, what are we going to call you? There is no way we’re sticking with Fear the Seasons. That’s a terrible name, and it’s too long regardless. How about Fear?”

  The skill avatar grumbled with a frown on her face. “Yea, I don’t really like that one either. Hrm… Fear the Seasons. Seasons. Sea. Why don’t we call you Sea?”

  To Edge’s relief, the avatar went for it. She jumped off his shoulder and began flying around with enthusiasm, twirling her dress and chittering her approval. He realized that he’d begun thinking of his Epic avatars as people rather than skills, which helped him appreciate just how bizarre this situation truly was.

  Shaking his head at the strangeness of it all, Edge fired up the tactical portion of his brain and began pondering how to integrate his newest power into his fighting style. To start, he called up his Guide and read through the skill’s description, adding the information to the knowledge that had been provided by the vision that always came when slotting a new skill.

  Fear the Seasons

  (Epic): Rank 1.

  This skill features two separate components, which are both influenced by the turning of the seasons. The passive component may be activated independently of the domain and provides a significant bonus to a single attribute. Manifesting the domain requires payment up front and costs a modest amount of mana to maintain.

  At Rank 1, Fear the Seasons provides the following benefits:

  Season Passive attribute bonus Elemental domain

  Spring Generation Deluge

  Summer Power Heatwave

  Fall Speed Maelstrom

  Winter Disruption Blizzard

  Additional powers may be unlocked as the skill advances in rank.

  The current season is: Fall.

  Before he left his inner world, he pondered everything he knew about the skill’s categories.

  Edge had never heard of a skill that belonged to three different categories, much less one with eight distinct effects it could manifest. Cyclical skills were a mixed bag. Each had its own quirks, but they all had separate components that were active during specific conditions and didn’t work at the same time.

  Passive skills like Sense Treasure and Regulate Temperature didn’t count toward skill combos and could be used freely with a core-wielder’s other powers—no matter how many passives they had. In exchange, passive skills drained a portion of their user’s Generation, and running too many at once could be prohibitively expensive.

  Edge knew next to nothing about domains, other than the info from his vision. Rather than overthinking it while standing inside his core, he decided to jump straight into the test drive. He bid Sea and his other avatars farewell and stepped back into his body.

  Since he was planning to leave the passive component of Fear the Seasons running most, if not all, the time, he wanted to get a feel for the magnitude of the attribute bonus along with its mana drain. Nerves alight with anticipation, he ignited his core and willed Fear to activate.

  In between the drawing of one breath and the next, his body sped up. The effect didn’t offer the increased processing time that came with using Warlord’s Mantle, which made it trickier to handle. He found himself moving faster than ever before, zipping across the room with no appreciable effort. Sasha, Mel, and Lilly cheered him on as he got used to his abrupt upgrade in mobility.

  Dealing with the extra momentum would take some practice, but with his current Perception, he was able to process his quickened state without it throwing him off his game. I should get some more Reflex and Control soon, or I’ll run the risk of moving faster than I can react once I add Warlord’s Mantle to the mix.

  On the mana side of the equation, Fear had a considerable drain, but it wasn’t too bad, all things considered. If he were to take a rough guess, he would say that he was receiving a 30% increase in Speed for about 10% of his Generation. He didn’t think the effect was scaling off his baseline attribute, but the passive’s bonus would improve and its cost would lower when he ranked the skill up, which would bolster his net gain.

  Any way you look at it, that’s a fair exchange. I can turn Fear off when I need to recover my reserves, but it should be okay to leave it on most of the time. Now that he had a good sense of how strong the passive bonus was, it was time for the main event—activating his very first domain and discovering what it could do.

  “You three might want to stand back for this one.” Edge turned to face the rest of his crew. “I’m not sure what’s going to happen, but I have a feeling it’s going to be big.”