Giving himself a moment to catch his breath, Helo crouches down. Ducking his head and covering his ears he counts to five. While crouches Helo creates a ‘Dark Blade’ with ‘Defiled Wound’. On five he jumps up and over the shield, as he does the barriers snap back into place. A lot of the hobgoblins are staring up at the tree in wonder. They weren’t expecting the branches to stop as soon as the barriers broke. In truth they expected the shield holders to fail. Instead, the tree went back to clearing away the other monsters.
Many of them let out a cheer, all except one. One of the rear shield goblins watches as Helo vaults over the shield wall. Helo makes eye contact with the goblin and takes a quick look around. Only one person spotted me. Damn the plan sucked but I definitely got lucky.
Helo dives forward as the hobgoblins shouts and struggles are covered up by the sound of its brethren cheering. Helo landed in between the goblin and its shield. He is crouching low, diving forward and up he jams his blade into the goblins throat. The goblin makes a wet gurgling noise before falling silent as the blade passes through its neck and out the top of its skull.
Finding his target Helo sweeps both his hand up and forward, his aura and telekinetic hold follow his motions and the blade that he had primed. The goblins around him can feel as the presence in their midst is revealed. At the same time his aura surges forward and makes the central goblin stagger. It quickly recovers but as it looks toward Helo, a barrier of wind springs up around it. Helo is surprised by the barrier, but he can see an amulet on the goblin neck breaking.
Single use defensive enchantment. Helo thinks as his aura weakens the wind wall, it isn’t much, but it helps. At the same time the dark cloud of mental energy starts soaking up all the wind that would be pushing the projectile away. By the time the mental bubble is gone the blade is only a foot away from the goblin leader.
A fraction of a second later the blade sprouts from the goblin’s chest. The wound starts streaming blood and the goblin staggers to its knees. A goblin shaman stands up and starts casting a healing spell, but the ‘Defiled Wound’ infliction eats away at the healing spell. By the time the spell has ran its course the wound has only barely slowed its bleeding. It’s at that moment that the projection dissipates at the stream turns into a waterfall.
Smirking at his job well done, Helo gets ready to run. The goblins surrounding him are glaring and they are all starting to pull their hands from their shields. They had both hands strapped in to withstand the tree’s strikes.
Doing a flip backward over the massive shields Helo starts booking it away. Normally he would have used the shield as cover and picked some if not all of them off. But he has a job to do, and it isn’t terrorizing a small pack of goblins. His job is a great reason to be leaving but the real reason is that “SHHHHHHHHHBOOM”.
Stumbling and rolling back up to his feet Helo looks back and the entire area is now a small crater. All four branches braided themselves together and stuck the group at once. From the side of the branches there as goblin parts seeping out. Looking at the goop with disgust, Helo shivers. “Man, I’m glad I got out of there.”
Before he left Helo was told that the tree has a hint of sentience and it is slow to wake, but when it does it can strike with a great deal of strength. The tree really is starting to hate the goblins. So, he was warned that she can hold it back from attacking for a few moments. But when the tree fully wakes up her control over her bonded tree is more like suggestions.
Running back into the buildings Helo gets back to his hunting. He has cleared all the monsters between the gate and the hole. Then he went all the way to the central tree. Not many monsters went past the tree because most of the civilians are taking harbor near it. So, Helo is sure he only has a little more work to do. It has been over an hour and he releases his ‘Bloodline Awakening’ with a smiling snarl of pain.
Stumbling forward Helo catches himself on a nearby house. His newfound balanced affinities and cultivation are really showing their improvements. Normally he could only hold his skill for about twenty minutes and when he did, he had some issues with his emotions. But now he can hold it for over an hour.
That doesn’t change the fact that the skill puts a ton of pressure on his channels, his body and his mind. Taking a second Helo can feel as his channels stabilize and they get back to semi-normal flow. The quantity and quality of his energy grow with the use of his skill and it stretches the limits of what his channels can take.
Feeling better Helo takes a deep breath and sets off. He only has a few monsters to kill. I can do it. I’m totally sure. He tries to convince himself.
A few hours later Alli and Hinata find Helo sleeping peacefully over a pile of monster corpses. The corpses are deteriorating faster than the others. Some people who were doing clean up and harvesting noticed, but nobody wanted to move him.
Nobody can see his face right now because he is curled up and his hood is still covering his face. But everyone still knows who he is. Most of the fighters were even saved by him and told everyone else that he earned his sleep. Even if it means the Bovine Beetles that he last fought go to waste.
It took over thirty minutes for news to get to a worried Hinata and Alli. They were worried, but they also had a ton of reports from people that Helo sent their way. One of the last groups even talked about how Helo rode on a raging tree. Which made Alli laugh, that is until Hinata told her that certain trees really can move. They are just normally sleeping; it takes a lot to wake them.
So, when they finally got to Helo, they couldn’t Helo but take a photo. They were also unsurprised to see Lelai make a nice bed for herself on top of Helo. She wormed her way in between his curled form and is sleeping happily.
“So, what do we do?” Alli says while taking a photo from a different angle. “I don’t want to wake him, but he shouldn’t sleep on a pile of dead bodies.” Alli says with a slight wrinkle on her nose. “Its gross.”
“Yeah, I guess we should move him. He trusts us. If we do it he might not even wake up.” Looking around Hinata catches the gaze of some of the people around them. Everyone who heard about it is now coming to look. “You should make a dome around us while we do it.”
Alli takes a look around and nods. “Yeah, that’s a good idea.” She can hear people gossiping about Helo. They are talking about how many monsters he killed and how many people he saved. She even sends out a few glares at the women who ask if he is single.
As she makes her dome Hinata stops and checks her tablet, she is getting a phone call from her father. “Sweetie! Are you okay. I heard about what happened. I’ll make sure that Diago is punished. It was his job to handle the containment. After we got work about what happened Arata sent out a familiar and found that a hole was dug directly under the tier 3 rift.”
“I’m okay, everyone is fine. Well.” She says in a sad voice. “At least my party is. A lot of good people lost their lives.”
“I know sweetie. I never meant for this to happen. With all the planning and prep, they must have been waiting for this moment.” On the screen Akira shakes his head. “Anyway, I had another reason for calling.” “BOOM”
The screen flashes bright white and Hinata jumps from the unexpected noise. Looking up she can see the flash from the explosion from the other side of the mountain. The tablet is glitchy, but it comes back into view.
“Honey, I have… go… Where is Helo? I sent him a message.” As Akira speaks the tablet stabilizes.
Hinata turns the screen around and shows off Helo’s sleeping form. “He is asleep. Everyone saw him.” She says with some annoyance.
“CLICK” Her tablet makes a noise and she can hear her father laugh. “HA I’m definitely showing that to Yuki and Kiyoki. Anyway, is he okay. I sent him a mission.”
“Your pill hit him a lot harder than he expected. DAD. He had no idea what to expect. You can’t give away a pill that strong as someone’s first cultivation aid.” She glares at her screen and Akira raises his hand on the other.
“Sorry love, but it had to be done. It is too important that he stabilizes. It isn’t a huge deal we can hold out for another few hours. But everyone is tied down fighting the tier 3 rifts. I need Helo to get moving soon. I’d send your whole party, but you would be spotted way to quickly.” He says and Hinata can see him looking around. “I have to go love. Wake him in five hours.”
With a click the call ends and Hinata looks up at Alli with some worry. “I know that Helo has some of the best presence concealment abilities. But he doesn’t have a visual stealth skill.” She walks forward and gets ready to set Helo on a second conjured construct.
In the last fight Alli was able to create two at once. “I know. But your dad is right. Helo should have left us all to clear the town. More people would have died and it would be horrible. But the only way to end this is to clear the rifts. With all the high tiers busy defending POIs and fighting, well someone has to.”
“Yeah… your right.” Like that the two girls carry Helo back to the house that they choose to stay in during the fight. Its not like the owners who are safe in the main house need it.
As Helo’s sleeping form is moved the faster degradation slows down. Only someone with Helo’s unique sight would have been able to see as the life force and dark energies seemed to seep from the corpses and heal him.
Four hours later Helo blinks into the wooden ceiling. Looking around he is surprised that he is no longer laying on the monster body. By the end of clearing the small town he was out of energy and his channels were shot. Looking at the back of the beetle-like creature he decided to sit down. Quickly sitting turned into laying and then that turned into closing his eyes.
“I don’t know why you thought the back of a dead monsters was a good place to lay down.” Alli says from he spots in a chair beside his bed. “But it made for some great photos.”
It takes him a second to process what she said but the first thing that goes through his mind is, why was I taken from my kill. Now Helo realizes that a thought like that probably isn’t normal. But he opens his mouth and almost asks where to monsters are. But at the last second he closes it.
Alli who is studying Helo’s reactions, tilts her head at his actions. Helo takes another moment before groaning. “Ahhh what do you mean photos?”
This causes Alli to smile and laugh. “Ha took you long enough to realize. They are already all over the web. My clan is sifting through all the posts and are making sure that no one directly says your name. But look at how cute you look.”
As she says that she gets up and holds her tablet up to Helo’s face. On it he can see a gory image. The scene is covered in dried blood and body parts from the beetles. In the center of the image three of the Bovine Beetles are together and on top of their massive back Helo is curled up and sleeping in the sun.
Groaning again, Helo looks up at the sky. “GAhhh I need new outfits. I can’t go out looking like this anymore.” Helo looks down at his hoodie and joggers. “They have to go.”
Stolen novel; please report.
“Nope. I worked hard on those sets. I’m not making you anymore.” Alli smirks at him and Helo can see the glee she feels within her eyes.
At that moment the door opens. Hinata steps inside and is followed by Luna and Aiko. Luna has a bunch of reports in her hands and Aiko is carrying some food. Looking at her smirking friend Hinata sighs. “I thought you were going to wait for me to show him.” After speaking she glares at her friend.
Alli just ducks behind Helo’s bed and Aiko steps forward to give Helo the food. Sitting up and eating he looks at Luna. She hasn’t taken her face out of her reports once. “What’s up with her?”
It is Aiko that speaks up. “She loves her reports and numbers. The mayor asked Luna to help out. With the rift breaks there are a ton of monster’s resources all over the place.”
“Ah.” There really wasn’t much else to say about that. Although Helo wants to ask about the cow monsters again. But he squashes that instinct… Instinct. Something about my bloodline likes Beetles? Oh please no. No hopefully it is the cows. As Helo is thining his face is going through all sorts of emotions.
Alli, Hinata and Aiko all watch as Helo’s face settles, they all make eye contact and wants to ask what is happening. But at that time Hinata’s tablet has a notification. Checking her tablet she quickly looks up. “It was my dad. He asked me to wake Helo now. Things are not getting better. Usually, a rift break means that a massive number of monsters appear, but then they trickle free. Oddly right now they keep streaming out.”
Alli nods her head and looks at Helo. “Mr. Kashiwagi wants to you starts clearing rifts. With your stealth you can kill the bosses and get out. He said he could send others but it would either have to be full teams, or critical tier 2 personal. Everyone is holding the quarantine or fighting off powerful monsters.”
With a nod Helo says. “So, a solo stealth specialist is best. With my ability to deal high levels of damage and my bloodline boosting my attack I could even kill a tier 2.” Nodding Helo starts to get up.
The girls all look worried but he just gives them a fanged grin. “It will be okay.”
Name: Helo Vital
Tier: 1
Bloodline: Redacted (10.2%)
Title: Nature’s Alpha (Epic), Spirit Blessed (???)
Gear: Alpha Wolf Hide Bracers (Epic), Boxers of Infinite Regeneration (Epic), A mother’s first gift, a father’s first lesson. (Mythic/Hidden) (Rare)
Aura: Null Presence
Age: 15
Class: Shaded Predator (Pseudo Tier 3)
Level: 36
Stats: 448
- Str: 27 (+5%)
- Agl: 74 (+15%)
- Dex:49 (+15%)
- Per: 56 (+30%)
- Vit: 94 (+40%)
- End: 27 (+15%)
- Int: 27 (+5%)
- Will: 94 (+40%)
Racial Skill: 5
- Greatly Enhanced Perception (Instincts) (Rare)
- Greatly Enhanced Natural Energy (Mental/Physical) (Rare)
- Regeneration (???)
- Major Vitality Siphon? (???)
- Dark Curse (???)
- Primary(N/A)
- Secondary(N/A)
Primary Class Skill: 5
- Forced Still (Rare)
- Dark Blade Projection (Rare)
- Defiled Wound (Uncommon)
- Bloodline Awakening (Rare)
- Dark Hand (Rare)
Skills: 2
- Nature’s Flow Meditation (Uncommon)
- Detect Weakness (Uncommon)
- Appraisal (Common)
Styles: 2
- Moon-Staff (Uncommon)
- Moonshines Afterblock (Uncommon)
- Twin Fang of the Beast (Uncommon)
- Attacking from a step behind (Uncommon)
Looking over his status Helo nods and starts stretching. He has been putting his free stats into Will and Vitality. Each stat point increases his reserves. To gain more control over the energy types he has to focus and train. But it is something he has been doing for a long time. His aura, mental, and physical energy, they are all part of the same whole.
Adding to his reserves means he can use his ‘Bloodline Awakening’ longer. It also means his bloodline energy recharges faster. One assumption he is making is that as his reserves increase it is easier for his body to contain his bloodline energy. He can use his aura longer and at a wider range, he can also use his skills more. He knows that he will have to start adding more to his strength and endurance. But he just doesn’t care as much about them. I’ll add more when my Will and Vitality get to 100.
Nodding to the girls, Helo gets ready to head out. The first thing he does is take some food and place it in his necklace. The second is to make sure his blades are all good. The third is to check on the array. After finding everything to be okay, Helo leaves as his party is about to head for their shift at the gate.
Thankfully, with the monsters cleared and the wave pushed back they were able to reseal the hole in the wall. With that the barrier got patched and now they only have to deal with the gate. One issue though is that they now only have a day left of mana reserves.
Looking at the sky he can see the moon high above. Turing to face Alli and Hinata he gives them a nod. “Take care of Lelai for me.” Then like that he jumps through a small hole in the barrier and into the night.
“Really, that was all he had to say.” Alli stares at where Helo disappeared with a frown.
“Yeah….” Hinata just shakes her head.
Mayor Eliana is standing near the girls and looks between them. “Are you sure he will be okay? Your father really asked a 16-year-old kid to solo clear rifts.” She says with some incredulity.
“He is fifteen. And yes, he will be okay. It’s nighttime out. Id be more worried for the monsters.” Alli says with a smile, like Helo’s accomplishments are her own.
Hinata just hums a response. Turning to the mayor she says, “He is and always has been not human. I’m not even sure if he knows it yet. But he is more predator than us beast-kin. He thrives when he is hunting, and he is most deadly at night.” Shrugging she turns to join the rest of the party at the gate.
Their limited tier 2 fighters mean that they have to constantly be fighting. So, they have all the tier 1 fighters cycling through and the tier 2 only join in when there is a tier 2 foe. Unfortunately, the wall’s destruction means that everyone is tired now. Plus, ever since that happened more tier 2 monsters have been arriving.
Because of this the stronger parties are constantly filling the gap. They are the tier 1 groups that can fight a low tier 2 monster. Along with Hinata and Alli, there is the party of three with Genny as the leader.
With a tired sigh Hinata takes her place next to Gabi and starts killing. Alli on the other hand lets out a “WHOOP” and summons a massive construct hammer. Swinging it around she single-handedly holds half the gate, she only lasts thirty minutes before she runs out of mana. But all the other defenders let out a cheer as she gives them a brake.
In the woods Helo can understand now why Akira asked him to start clearing rifts. There are monsters everywhere, it is almost like the mountain side has turned into a massive dungeon floor. He is thankful that all of the tier 3 monsters are being contained and killed. But there are still a massive amount of tier 1 monsters and a handful of tier 2.
Ignoring most of them Helo realizes that killing one or two, or even a hundred is meaningless when the rifts keep spilling out more. But he doesn’t think Akira would be upset if Helo stopped to kill a few of the monsters. Something about the way his ‘Detect Weakness’ skill and his new ‘Spirit Blessed’ title resonate with his ‘Nature’s Alpha’ title make it so that Helo can tell which creatures are part of a large pack with an alpha.
Due to this Helo starts to realize that being a system approved alpha is more than just being a leader. There is something spiritual about it. A resonance that covers your territory and strengthens your pack. At least that is what Helo thinks from his meager understanding of his ‘Spirit Blessed’ title.
Using the unique sight that the title gives him on different people, animals, beasts, and monsters. Makes him think that the spirit has something to do with the aura. Maybe they are the same thing. But he thinks they are different. From what he can see the aura is a representation of who you are that radiates around you. Even those without control over aura, still have one. But the spirit seems to be what creates the aura, it is everything about you, all kept within. Maybe it is the soul, but Helo isn’t sure.
All that he knows is that when he asked Akira, he was told that he would learn in time. Kitsune’s are spiritual creatures and have FoxFire, that is some kind of spiritual fire. But Helo is content to learn on his own. He already has a lot to focus on, adding spiritual training to that sounds difficult.
So, as Helo travels through the tree’s he keeps an eye out for any monster that has the unique spiritual presence of an alpha. He has yet to see an actual alpha, but he has seen different types of mammals, reptiles, avians and bugs, that showed a spiritual link to an alpha.
Quickly killing those creatures and watching their bodies die he is starting to understand how his ‘Nature’s Alpha’ title works. The connection, imprint or resonance, Helo isn’t sure what, that is left on the animal is absorbed by Helo through the title. Then that is turned into the extra experience he gains.
He doesn’t understand how it works at all, but he is starting to learn. Jumping down from a tree he was in Helo naturally lands inside the shadow of the tree. He isn’t using ‘Bloodline Awakening’ but he is using the pulling he has been doing for a long time. Pulling a portion of his energy from his bloodline to coat his weapons or wrap his body.
Staying in the shadow of the tree he is almost invisible, any type of signature that his body revels hidden from all but the most powerful senses. The only way for any of these monsters to see him is by visually seeing him. But, standing in the shadow of a tree and with his bloodline’s natural control over darkness, Helo is almost completely hidden.
After checking his surroundings Helo steps out from the shadow of the tree. It almost looks like he is being released from some dark hole in the world, as the shadows that are wrapping his body seep back to merge with the tree.
Quickly checking his tablet Helo can see that the first rift is right up ahead. There is a large grouping of trees and a small hill that is covering his view. Climbing a nearby tree, Helo uses it to see over the hill without having to actually climb to its peak. He is barely able to make out the images on the other side, but he is able to catch a glimpse through the dense foliage.
He can see the tear in space that still gives him the heeby-jeebys. With a shudder he also can see a group of monsters circling the area. Using the branches like bridges Helo slowly and carefully moves forward. His aura is able to silence any noise that he makes or the noises from anything he is touching. But if something falls or a branch makes an unnatural movement, he can’t cover that.
Getting to the top of the small hill, Helo looks down on the area. There is no clearing, but at the bottom of the hill the rift is flickering in and out of reality. With a tilt of his head Helo realizes that the rift seems to have grown. He didn’t clear this rift, but he did fight in it about two months ago.
Last time the rift covered the space between two trees. But this time both trees on either side of the rift are knocked over and the trucks have jagged tears in them. Based on the base it looks like the rift expanded and eat into the trucks of the trees. This caused them to topple over.
Does that mean that the rift got stronger? Helo thinks. With a shrug he doesn’t really mind. This rift was mid-tier 1. If it grew to peak-tier 1, it means he gets more experience. He is about to move forward when he realizes something. Pulling out his tablet he looks over the data that has been collected.
A group of people are artificially breaking the rifts. That is what Akira is doing to help them stimulate the reality after integration. But a group has been breaking all the rift. What if they are not just breaking, but increasing the level of the rifts. Turing around Helo makes a phone call to Akira. The call rings for a moment and Helo hopes that he answers.
“Click” “I have twenty seconds. Go.” Akira’s strained voice shouts out. Helo thinkgs that he can hear the fight Akira is in from his position on the opposite side of the mountain. One of the fights that has been a constant battle just went quiet.
Clearing his head from his wandering thoughts he says. “Are they forcefully strengthening rifts?”
“Good catch. We think they are, but we don’t know. We know there are way to do it. It is a dirty war tactic. But we have no research on it. We do know that some rifts when left alone will break, others will tier up, then they require a refill before they break again.” Akira’s face looks strained on the tablet. “Woah. It almost got away.”
“A rift I remember is at a higher level.” Hilo adds quickly.
“Yeah, we have no proof. Breaking a rift has to be done around the rift base or done from inside the rift. If you find anything call Yuki. I have to go, but try to remember any rifts that were at the peak of tier 1. If I was going to try to tier up a rift, id use one that was at the peak.” Akira says this then ends the call. From the other side of the mountain Helo can hear as the fighting continues.
Taking a second, Helo agrees with what Akira said. Looking over the data on his tablet he takes a moment to be annoyed with their lack of real time data. The saboteurs messed with the sensors to stop Yoeko from realizing that the mountain was going to blow. This had the unfortunate or more likely intentional effect of messing with the mana sensors. They only have their past data on the tier of the rifts.
Finding the closest rift that is peak tier 1. Helo marks in his map and plans to head thereafter. Going back to the rift, Helo studies the monsters. This is a beast type rift and Helo remembers there being a location similar to the mountain he is on. It is filled with beasts, and the boss is some kind of extremely violent badger and ferret mix. It had the agility of a ferret, with the ferocity of the badger. In truth, the monster even put some pressure on Helo. It was just pure violence.
The rift is surrounded by a group of high tier 1 ferrets. They are long and have bodies that can easily move to blows. They take very little blunt damage. He almost chuckles as he remembers Alli trying to fight them with her hammer. But this time the monsters are a step higher in tier and seem to have some kind of wind affinity. It is increasing their already fast pace. He wants to slip into the rift unnoticed but he doesn’t know if he can.
Sighing he gets ready to enter the fight. He wants to kill them without having to stress his body with the use of his awakening skill. He is going to have a long night ahead of him and he will need the skill ready to clear out bosses. He also has to worry because the time he can use it might have increased, but it still knocked him out after he cleared the town.
But first he has to come up with a plan that doesn’t include riding on a murderous tree branch at terminal velocity.