Akira drops the traitorous guard, and he holds his throat while coughing on the ground. Looking away like the man means nothing he says. “Search him.” With those words guards from around the room step forward and start taking everything the traitor has.
Looking around the room Akira makes eye contact with everyone. “We are in a code black situation. All hands-on deck, traitors have betrayed us, and I believe they have outside help.”
“Sir!” A guard who is searching the traitor says. All eyes get drawn to him and he is about to speak up the traitor speaks first.
“Hahah, you can’t stop what is coming. Only the pure will thrive!” At those words the mans voice turns into a piercing scream and red runes appear on his body. Quickly the runes activate, and his body starts to bloat.
“Get back!” Akira shouts as his aura once again fills the room. It shoves the gaurds away and wraps the man in a cocoon of physical illusions. A second later there is a loud “POP” and the cocoon bulges for a moment before settling back down. Outside the cocoon it starts to get stained red and blood starts to seep free and onto the ground.
Everyone around the room stares in shock, but Akira. His face is a mixture of rage and horror. “EVERYONE FOCUS!” When all eyes turn to him, he speaks quickly. “I have things we all need to do. They need to be done fast and done well.”
Even if everyone was trying to show each other up, now they all know it isn’t the time. “First. Yoeko you will remain here. Ten guards will stay with you. I can only spare mid-tier 2 at the highest. If anything happens you will immediately send out an alert.” Making eyecontact with her, he waits for her to nod and carries on. “I need the mountain stabilized. Barriers ready. We can deal with balancing the eruption when everything is over.” Getting a final nod he starts leaving the room.
“Helo with me. Array experts, crafters, and earth affinity, you’re with Yoeko. Everyone else, follow me.” Leaving the building he starts to walk and talk. “Now Arata, grab your squad, find any and all people associated with the Bloodline Supremacy movement. Start from inside the mountain. We will be evacuating people here. Capture them, if there is any resistance. Kill them.” The man bow and takes off at a run.
Pulling out his tablet Akira almost throws it. “Shit, Ema and Daigo are occupied with a tier 3 rift.” Turning to his wife he asks, “Can you handle the reinforcement and evacuation of the towns?” Getting agreement from his wife he gets back on task. “Now all tier 1 fighters are to report to a town and join the defensive. Tier 2 and 3 will be entering hot spots. We need to kill and clear all tier 3 enemy combatants.”
Nobody likes what he says, but they all understand it. For tier 1 and civilians the best thing to do is find safety. The towns all have barriers and defensive enchantment. If a tier 3 enemy gets loose, they could devastate a city.
Everyone runs off to go take care of their business. Yuki starts coordinating with party leaders and guard captains. All tier 1 groups, she sends to the nearest town to join in the defense. Tier 2 she sends as reinforcements to cordon off higher tier areas. All tier 3 fighters are sent directly into the thick of it.
The Kashiwagi clan has over twenty tier 3 fighters, but only a small number have made any real progress into the tier. The ones who have made progress are Akira, Yuki, Kiyoki and the three generals. They are Arata, Daigo and Ema.
The other tier 3s are all minor clan leaders or crafters. The crafters have very little fighting experience and the tier 3 minor clan leaders are more like government officials. Only a few of them know how to fight well.
Everyone has their tasks and Akira turns to Helo. Grabbing his shoulder he looks into his eyes. “You take care of my daughter and god-daughter.” Helo nods his head and Akira continuous. “Bring them to reinforce Mayor Eliana’s settlement. They will be safe there, none of the tier 3 rift are near there and the tier 2 rifts are not close enough. Once we have a better handle on the tier 3 rifts, we will evacuate them to the inner city.”
“Yes Sir.” Hele keeps his answer short and turns to leave. Well, he tries to but Akira’s hand hasn’t left his shoulder.
Akira takes a box out of his storage ring. Taking a breath through his nose he looks Helo in the eye. “Tier 3 rifts are exponentially larger than tier 2. Teir 2 is the same for tier 1. This fight might take days to end. The first day should be pretty calm. Everyone should have adequate resources and mana storage. But by day two things will get worse. Take this as soon as you get to safety. It is a pill made from a high tier shadow attribute beast. I had this made as a gift, but this is too important to wait. It should be enough to stabilize your bloodline.”
Staring at the box with awe, Helo doesn’t know what to say. Instead, he gets smacked on the back of his head. “Go.” Akira shouts.
As he is running away, he can hear Akira talking on the phone. “Graham, I need reinforcements.”
From Akira’s order Helo takes off toward his house. Running through the hidden city, he is shocked by the contrasting dichotomy around him. Some people are running around and shouting. They are making the situation much more difficult. Others seem to care very little. Their homes are in location where people evacuate to. They are technically in the safest place. Well, as long as Yoeko stops the mountain from going up in hellfire and ash.
Then there are the guards, they are all over the place and tackling anyone that is wearing the Bloodline Supremacy clothing. But Helo doesn’t let his focus stay on any of those things for to long. Ducking his head he runs through the city as fast as he can. Reaching the exit, he can see a steam of people entering into the cavern.
Pushing his way though, Helo eventually shoves past enough people to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Bursting free the cacophony of noise that was filling Helo’s ears goes silent. The voices echoing in the tunnel made for a loud run. But now in the open-air Helo can finally hear normally again. With his hearing expanding Helo can catch the sounds of fighting all around the mountain. The booms from powerful combatants and the screams of the dying.
Pushing that all aside Helo forgoes the path and jumps directly down the mountain. With his high dexterity he easily lands between the trees and takes off toward the main courtyard. He can see it just in front of him. The massive tree that towers over everything is hard to miss.
Reaching the buildings in the courtyard Helo jumps up to run across them when he smacks his face on a blue ripple in the air. “Owe! Shit. What was that.” Looking up while holding his bleeding nose, he can see as his impact point ripples out like a rock thrown into a calm lake.
“Shit.” He says while getting back to his feet. Taking out his tablet Helo holds it up and the barrier lets him through. Owe. I forgot about that.
Getting to the house he arrives to see his team arguing outside. “We need to get you to safety!” Rocco shouts. Some others in the party are nodding as well. They know that going out into the woods it a death sentence. If it was only tier 1 rift breaks, it would be okay. Even low tier 2 breaks they could survive long enough for help to arrive. But tier 3 is asking for a stray blast to vaporize you without having a say about it.
“No! We need to help our people!” Alli yells back at him. She wants to help the people around her. Not be stuck in some bunker.
“I’m with Alli. These are my people.” Hinata says. With her words Carl and Gabi nod.
It is at this moment that Helo walks up. “We have our orders. We are going to Mayor Eliana’s settlement. We are to reinforce their defense until help arrives.”
“What! NO!” Rocco yells at him.
“We have our orders!” Helo yes back. “And the tier 3 rifts are to the south and east. We will be safe, once the tier 3 rifts are dealt with it will be easy for them to sweep through.”
As soon as Helo is done speaking Alli and Hinata start heading inside. This is what they wanted. Now they can help. It takes a few seconds but the rest of the party follow suit. They all head down to the garage and get on their golf carts.
While they are on the way Helo fills them in on what happened in the meeting. He also takes this moment to think about his team’s growth and to look over his status. Helo has continued to meet with his teammates to discuss their skills and growth. Many of them have gained a level or two over the last month and even more have ungraded their skills.
Almost all of the common skills that the team possess are now uncommon, and Rurgrim even managed to create a rare skill. This is barely even a rare skill but it is his most used one. It is called ‘Weight of the Mountain’ and it is a skill he uses for his axe when fighting and hammer when crafting. It increases the weight of his blows.
Helo’s skills haven’t changed, other than by getting stronger. Pushing his skills further into rare tier is incredibly difficult, lately he has been trying to get his ‘Mental Grasp’ to turn into a rare skill. He wants it to be more like normal telekinesis. But that would mean the skill turns more into a manipulation type skill. So, he isn’t sure if that is possible.
Helo is shaken from his pondering by a screech from overhead. Grabbing the railing Helo leans out of the cart and he can see a flock of birds that are diving toward their group. “Faster.” Helo says to Alli who is driving.
The birds are out of his aura range and his ‘Detect Weakness’ doesn’t show level. But from what is going on he assumes they are somewhere in tier 1 or 2. The cart picks up speed and the trees on either side blur past. Occasionally looking up Helo can only catch a glimpse of the bird through the canopy. “They are still following.” Helo say to his party.
“Well, that will be an issue.” This gets the group in the cart to look at Hinata. “This path leads us up past the tree line for about a kilometer before dipping back down.”
Everyone’s eyes open at that. They all have ridden this path before. Many times, over the last three months. But it slipped their minds that it could be an issue. Pulling out his tablet Helo connects to the other cart. “Get ready, were being tailed by a flock of birds. We are going to be exiting the tree line. We need to hold them off.”
Up ahead Helo can see the light between the trees and the rocky face of the volcano. Breaking past the tree line the group is now driving on the upper level of the volcano. Taking a brief glance around Helo can see the landscape around him, and from what he can see things are not going very well.
He is at the northwestern peak of the volcano and can see all around him. There is smoking rising in every direction and from above the tree line he can hear as roars and screams carry with the wind. He has spent his last few months traveling all over the area. The kitsune are secretive and the dryads are reclusive. There are small communities all around them that the party has visited. Now most of them are up in smoke. Helo just hopes that most people survive. The average of the people in the Kashiwagi clan are stronger than in the other clans. This is part because of their bloodlines, part because the home field advantage, and part because of the small size of the clan.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
“KAAAASCREeeee” At the noise Helo looks up and watches as a diving bird gets struck in the chest by an pure white arrow.
“Well, it seems like they are still in tier 1. Do we stop and fight?” Helo asks Hinata and Alli. From Alli’s face it seems like she wants to. But Hinata speaks first.
“No. We need to protect the settlement up ahead. No use fighting these birds when we can kill them from the walls.” At that they start sending out a varity of attacks to keep the birds at bay. They are not trying to kill them, but it doesn’t mean that they are not thinning out the numbers.
Only a few minutes later the group is plunged back into the forest as the barrel down the mountain at full speed. Arriving at the clearing near the settlement they can hear the sounds of fighting. Things look similar to the first time that they were here. They main difference is the blue shield that has sprouted from the wall. It creates a dome above the community. It has only been a few months but the community seems to be holding off the monsters.
Driving up they are about to head to the front gate where they can see a large group of monsters congregating, but a shout stops them. “This way!” Standing on the wall one of the archers is waving them down.
The group drives up and he speaks again. “Quickly, we don’t want to monsters to come this way.” From the side of the wall an opening appears. The wood that makes up the wall splits just enough for the golf cart to drive through.
From the other side many in the party looks back in surprise. The archer speaks up to answer the question on their face. “Unintelligent or instinct driven monsters tend to like soft easy targets. So, we have the barrier near the front gate lowered. The noise from the conflict draws them all to that side. Then we people ready to lower the barrier and split the wall. It makes it easy for civilians to enter safety is the monsters are drawn away.”
At the mans explanation Helo can help but think how smart that is. Especially for Mayor Eliana, her people get more experience, her barrier isn’t getting attacked on all sides, and people can enter more easily. It is Gabi that speaks up first as they are driving the short distance to the main house near the large central tree. “Damn, I might have a crush on Mayor Eliana.”
“He, thanks sweetie.” The mayor says from in front of them. She stepped into their path from the main road that splits the community. “But you’re a little young for me.” The normally boisterous berserker ducks her head in embarrassment.
“We have had people arriving to help for a while now. I’m sure by now most people are either in fighting, behind walls, or dead.” She says that last part with a saddened expression and she looks away. “Any news on how long this will last?” She is asking them because she knows that Hinata probably has more information than anyone else.
To her surprise everyone looks at Helo. “I heard Akira-Sama calling the BirghtMoon clan as I left. They will take about a day to arrive, so I’d say two days.”
This makes the mayor let out a relieved sigh. “That is a relief. Our mana reserves will only last that long.”
“I was told to prepare for more than three days.” Helo adds. With a shrug he says, “We shouldn’t rely on reinforcement. Act like we are in the middle of a siege.” He shrugs again. “Or don’t, this is your community.”
The causes the mayor to stop and think. Normally she wouldn’t listen to a teenager but this one is a bit special. Slowly shaking her head from side to side, she makes her decision. “We will need to cut back our mana consumption. I don’t have the cores to keep the barrier up at full strength for that long. The problem is we don’t have an array specialist; all I know how to do is turn it off an on.”
Again, everyone looks at Helo and the mayor raises an eyebrow. In her mind she thinks, just what is up with this boy.
“I can help. I have been training with Yoeko.” Helo steps off the cart and turns to look at the group.
“We will head to the gate. I’ll see you soon.” Hinata says.
“Rurgrim, Carl, Gabi, Rocco. Two of you on each heiress. And I might be a bit longer than expected. I was given a resource to take from Akira-Sama. He told me to take it as soon as I arrived.” Everyone looks interested but nobody asks what it is. “Be safe.” At that they all drive off to the gate.
Looking at the mayor, Helo gestures to the main house. “Lead the way.”
The mayor is still stuck in her own head from earlier. He said Yoeko. He can’t mean Yoeko Yamamoto. But I don’t know any other Yoeko.
“AHEM.” Helo coughs into his hand and looks at the mayor.
She is shaken from her thoughts and turns. “Oh, yes. Follow me.” Leading him toward the house, again Helo can feel the weak auras of many civilians gathered inside. To his surprise they bypass the house completely and walk up to the massive tree.
Eliana lets out a pulse of magic and it connects with a root on the ground. From that pulse Helo can feel as the tree seems to awaken. To his surprise a passage way opens up between the roots. He stops and stares for a moment. The mayor turns back and gestures him forward.
With a nod Helo follows her down a passageway under the tree. Once they have walked far enough that Helo thinks they are at the center of the tree’s truck, they enter into a room. Looking around the room, Helo can see how the walls are made from the roots of the tree and the ground is hard packed dirt. There are more doors leading to other places as well. “Where are we?” Helo asks with some awe in his voice.
With a faint blush the mayor speaks up. “Well, this is my bonded tree.” She pats a root on the wall lovingly.
At that Helo’s eyebrows raise. He remembers finding an awkward book in their library. It was about how some dryads will actually form a bond so close to a tree, that they mate with it. It shows a powerful connection to nature and their attunement. Where their biology transitions away from purely skin and bone.
With an awkward cough Helo looks around. “Ahem, Ah. So, this is where the central array is for the town?”
“Yeah…” The mayor looks away. “It is the safest place in the community.”
Slowly Helo because more comfortable. “Yeah, I can see that.” He looks around and finds very little ways to get in here. If someone were to try and force their way past the roots, the mayor would know.
“Okay, ill get to work. Are you going to stay?” Helo looks at the woman and she shakes her head.
“No. I need to get back to the wall.” Pointing at a doorway across from the entrance she says. “That is the array room. It is also a good place for you to take your treasure.”
At that the dryad turns and exits the tree. Taking on last look around Helo turns to the doorway and enters. Opening the door there are a dizzying array of glowing lines and runes. All of it connects to a large metal plate in the center of the room.
Shaking his head at how confusing this array is Helo just looks at the plate. It is built more like an enchantment and is something he has more experience with. Tracing the runes and pathways Helo finds the spot for the barrier. With little surprise it is in the very center and directly connected to the mana storage.
Looking over the array Helo quickly finds all the different ways that he can modify the barrier. It is at that moment that he freezes. “Ah. I don’t know what to do.” Looking around him, Helo doesn’t know what to expect.
“Dangit.” Getting up Helo leaves the room, then leaves the root system. As he walks out the roots start to close back up. “Wait!” He shouts at the tree with his hand out. To his surprise the tree stops. “Ill be right back.”
Turning to the main road Helo takes off and looks for the mayor. With the small town the gate is only about ten houses away and he easily finds her. A similar wall to last time is set up around the gate. On the wall Hinata, Alli and Mayor Eliana are talking.
“Are you sure we can last?” Alli asks.
“Yes, everyone is rotating positions and so far, there are a mass of tier 1 monsters and only a few low tier 2.” The mayor says back to her.
It is Hinata that notices Helo’s arrival. “Hey, are you all done?” Looking sheepish Helo scratches the back of his head and looks away. “What did you do?”
“What! Nothing! I just…” Looking at the mayor he says. “You left before we could discuss what you wanted to change.”
“Ohhhh.” The mayor says and looks at Hinata. “Any recommendations?”
Hinata bites her lip and makes a cute thinking face. “We need to limit mana usage. We would open up the top. There are very little flying creatures so far. If need be, we can just put the top barrier back up.”
“Yes. That is a good option. It will give the archers along the walls something to do. Also, we can weaken the barrier around the walls. They are not getting attacked.” The mayor says. She is still looking at Hinata for approval.
“That is a good idea. Will it be enough?” Hinata asks, this time she is looking at Helo.
“Yeah. The upper barrier should give us a day. I can show someone how to reactivate it. Weakening the walls will do the same. It should give us about four days’ worth of mana reserves.” Helo says while thinking.
They mayor looks around and grabs her guard captain. She tells him the plan and instructs him to have people stay out of the streets. They don’t want someone to get killed by a stray flying beast. She also has someone go with Helo, to learn about how to reset the barriers.
It doesn’t take long for Helo to finish his task. After that he goes to find Hinata and Alli again. It is about time that he took the pill given to him by Akira. Finding the girls fighting at the gate, Helo waits for them to be finished. When they are they direct him toward the house that they are staying in for the time being. The family that lives there are staying in the main house where it is safer.
Finding a secluded room Helo sits in a meditative pose and pulls out the box. Opening it for the first time he uses ‘Appraisal.”
Pill of Solid Black (Uncommon)
A pill formed from the core of a Shadow Monster. Crafter by a tier 3 alchemist and purified to leave only the darkest aspects.
Looking at the pill is surprising, Helo isn’t even sure if he should take it. He starts to wonder what would happen if someone who lacked his affinity took it. They would probably die a horrible death as their body disintegrated or something.
Starting his meditation Helo goes through one round of his bodies pathways and takes some time to study his bloodline. Helo takes a final look at his status. Especially at his bloodline that has been stuck at 4.9% for the last two weeks.
Name: Helo
Bloodline: Redacted (4.9%)
Tier 1
Class: Shaded Predator (Pseudo Tier 3)
Level: 35
Stats: 424
- Str: 27 (+5%)
- Agl: 72 (+15%)
- Dex:48 (+15%)
- Per: 53 (+30%)
- Vit: 86 (+40%)
- End: 27 (+15%)
- Int: 25 (+5%)
- Will: 86 (+40%)
Then he pops the pill.
At first, he sits there and he questions if anything is actually happening. He already has an idea about what he wants. His body is starting to transition from producing physical energy, that is then turned into things like stamina and vitality. Into producing life attuned energy. Normally this will turn into mutations, things like tumors, cancer, or odd growths.
But that doesn’t happen with Helo. He might not be able to handle the power of his own bloodline. But that doesn’t mean his body can’t use vitality and life force in replace of other functions. Helo believes that if his bloodline was never sealed, that he would naturally use life force for everything. Moving instead of draining his stamina, would drain his health. But his cells produce life force naturally, so he would just gain it back. At least that is what Helo believes he is turning into.
The issues are that he was never supposed to have a dark affinity. Now he does, and it changed his bloodline. So, it is supposed to be a natural part of him. But he isn’t totally sure where it fits in. What he has learned is that it is better connected to his own mental energy. But he hasn’t had much luck in merging the two. He can break his cells down and rebuild them with more of a life attunement. He isn’t sure how to do the same with his mental energy.
A few seconds go by and Helo doesn’t feel much from the pill he has taken. He actually has stopped feeling much of anything. It’s like the world around him is starting to slip away. With a jolt Helo realizes that this is the dark energy. The apathetic feeling that he gets from his bloodline, it is the same thing. But instead of affecting his emotions, it is his everything. It’s all slowing down and everything is starting be muted.
Clawing back with the strength of his will, Helo realizes that he might have jumped the gun. He should have made a plan before taking the pill. For the next few minutes Helo wages a war within himself. The dark attuned energy is starting to seep through his body, it’s weaking everything about him.
With what extra wisps of concentration he has, he remembers the definition of the pill. Specifically, the last line, ‘Purified to leave only the darkest aspects’. This isn’t a poison made to make him blind, or destroy his body.
No this is purified from a much higher tier beast than he is, to leave only core of what darkness is. Darkness can be viewed as one of the vilest of affinities. Mixed with death and you can do horrible things. Mixed with nature and you can make the world rot away.
Darkness is absence, silence, draining, control, fear, regret and so much more. Some people might even feel a sense of calm when they are in darkness. Many fear the dark.
Helo can feel all that and more while he fights against the purified silence in his body. It is trying to make everything still, weaking his body, slowing his thoughts, calming emotions. Ever since that night in the woods, months ago, Helo always thought he would die with a blade in his hand. Biting and screaming as the end came. He has even had a few nightmares about that.
He never expected that he was going to die as everything around him just ceased to matter. The dark energy started to sweep through his body. It speared down his leg and to his toes. It entered his arms and swept into his spine. He slowly toppled over as his muscles lost their tension.
Minutes went by like this as Helo’s heartbeat started to slow and he wanted to fight; he wanted to push all this away. But he just couldn’t find the energy to fight back. Why should I? What is the meaning of fighting back?
Like this the darkness slowly entered his heart and mind, and Helo slowly fell asleep.