June 15th 2018

  Landing on the ground near the body of the tier 2 goblin scout Helo lets out a big sigh. “Hahhhh why couldn’t things be simpler.” He feels some resignation about not stopping the goblin scout in time. He is also annoyed about this entire situation.

  He took a pill that modified his mental mana, then he had to directly enter a fight. Falling asleep he woke up and had to leave to clear the rifts. It has been quite the few hours, and he is starting to get extremely tired.

  Now he can hear as quite a few enemies are charging toward his direction. Feeling a flash of annoyance Helo activates his ‘Bloodline Awakening’. Feeling the seal around his heart open wide, his body is inundated by a strong flow of energy. Stepping forward Helo uses the increase in agility to vanish between the trees.

  He has to stop for a moment to comprehend his surprise. He forgot that his bloodline focuses on Vitality and Will. With his new title boosting his body’s ability to use and produce these energies, he is feeling even less drain from his boosting skill.

  Feeling the flow of energy Helo wants to sit and meditate to see what has changed. But unfortunately, he is still being hunted. At the same time, he can feel as his entire being is now further in line with his instincts.

  In this moment as Helo is using his skill for the first time since he has gained his new title and reached 100 in vitality and will. He is consumed by his instincts; he has no clue what type of creature he is. His status still shows his race and bloodline as redacted.

  Sinking low Helo lets out an unconscious growl. He is in a state that he has been in before, but he has put a lot of work in over the last year to control his bloodline’s impulses. His body is wrapped in a swirl of dark energy that rises up with a darkness far thinker than usual. Stepping forward he puts his increased agility to good use.

  Leaping up and onto a tree truck, Helo uses his claws to hold himself in place. He is under a branch fifteen feet in the air. Underneath him a group of goblins are searching the area. The chanting and yelling have calmed down, but now the goblins are searching for him.

  As one of the green and arguably ugly humanoids walks underneath him, Helo lets go of the tree truck. Falling the sixteen feet, Helo lands on the back of the four-foot monster in total silence. Hitting the goblin with both his feet on the monster’s shoulder, Helo reached around with his clawed hand and covers the monster’s mouth. The first noise that can be heard of the attack is the cracking of the goblins bones that ring out in the area.

  Tilting his head to the side Helo sniffs the air. With his eyes closed he uses his other sense to approximate the location of any nearby enemies. He hears as the sound of rustling stop for just a moment. The goblins all freeze when they hear the sound of bones breaking. Getting a good idea about the enemies in the area Helo focuses back on his prey.

  With a grin Helo uses his left hand that is covering the goblin’s mouth to twist its head. His nails are elongated into two-inch curved razors points. At the same time his entire hand is wrapped in a swirling darkness that is silencing the goblin’s screams of fear and pain.

  When the goblin’s head turns enough to look him in the eye, Helo slips his hand down and rips out the goblins throat. Glowing red eyes and a fang filled grin are the last thing it sees before everything turns black. Breathing in deeply through his nose, Helo can almost feel as the vitality is released from the goblin and flows into him through his breath.

  As his eyes flash golden his tension is slightly lessened and whatever fatigue he felt is washed away. Hearing a noise to his left, Helo’s head quickly twists that way and his golden eyes stare straight into the black of the goblins. With a growl Helo takes a dive forward using the brief strength enhancement from his golden energy.

  While in the air his enhancement leaves and Helo’s eyes are back to being red. The goblin tries to track Helo’s jump but in the middle of his leap his presence entirely vanishes, and Helo disappears with a swirl of dark energy

  Holding out his left-hand Helo digs his claws into the tree truck in front of him and uses his momentum to swing left. As silent as an owl in flight Helo uses his burst of speed to appear behind the goblin. Before it can even react to his presence the goblins head is separated from its body in a spray of red.

  Like this the hunt is on. For the next thirty minutes the screams of the goblins within the woods are silenced one by one.

  Back at the town Hinata is having trouble keeping her eyes open. Due to the deaths from the wall being breeched and the increase of the monsters’ strengths they have had less and less time to rest between their shifts on the wall.

  As reports came back about certain types of monsters no longer appearing everyone cheered in joy. But when they realized that the strength of the monsters that remained was increasing, they realized that their time was limited.

  The few tier 2 fighters that are within the town are much stronger than everyone else. But at the same time, they are not given any opportunity to rest.

  “Ahhhhhahhhhh I just want to sleeeeeeep.” Alli says from the spot on Hinata’s lap. As soon as Hinata sat down Alli laid her head in her friend’s lap and tried to go to bed. But before either of them could nod off, they hear a knocking on the door.

  Aiko goes to check the door and opens it in the middle of the knocking. At the door is a man dressed in torn up leather armor and caked in blood. “Miss Aiko, it is a pleasure to be in your presence.” The man says with a bow.

  Aiko is too tired to give any kind of response and waves the man to continue. “Right, sorry miss. Alli-Sama and Hinata-Sama are requested at the gate again. The fighting has gotten more intense.”

  Within the house a chorus of groans and cries ring out from everyone in the party. Their party size is large, but that just means they cover two teams’ worth of room. Still not having spoken a word Aiko waves the man away.

  “Whhhhy this is horrible.” Alli complains to her friend.

  “It is what it is Alli-Chan. There is nothing left for us to do but persevere. All the high tier 2 and tier 3 fighters are either keeping the strongest monsters at bay or clearing the rifts. Eventually they will succeed and someone will sweep through and clear all the monsters.” Hinata says this while pushing Alli to her feet.

  Alli stumbles up and returns the favor. Getting their party back together, the group leaves the house that they commandeered. Stepping out the doorway everyone is dismayed at the sounds of fighting.

  “Do you think Helo is okay?” Alli asks Hinata.

  She does answer right away and takes a second to think about her answer. Wiping away some leftover blood on her armor Hinata hums. A few seconds later she says, “Truthfully, I think he is having a blast.”

  Alli just nods her head and strokes her chin like some kind of wise sage. The rest of the party, except Luna, all look at her in shock. They all have been with him for a few months now and know that he is a dangerous combatant. But they haven’t seen what the three girls have. Luna shivers while thinking about Helo casually calling out to them when he was fourteen. In the field in front of them, a group of corpses were in a bloody pile.

  Hinata breaks them all from their looks. “Helo has changed a lot since we first met him. But he is still changing. One thing that has never changed is that he loves a good hunt. Helo as a person loves it. His bloodline and instincts also love a hunt. I have considered in the past that he is some kind of feline beast-kin. Alli’s mother Cheyenne has a similar smirk on her face while hunting. But my father said that he wasn’t beast-kin.” At this Hinata shrugs and the group reaches the end of the street.

  The street is one of the many that reach this area in a semi-circle. This is supposed to be a staging area and entrance to the town. Now it is a warzone. There are mages all around the area reinforcing the wall that Mayor Eliana put up. It circles the town gate and is doing a decent job keeping the monsters at bay. The melee fighters are on the other side of the wall; they are keeping the monsters from streaming through the gate. At the same time, they are keeping the monsters within the gate area and making a kill zone. On the town wall and the new wall archers and mages are attacking into the kill zone.

  Walking to the center of the wall the party members stop before actually climbing on top. Alli and Hinata keep walking. There is a crude staircase leading up. The left side of the stairs are dripping blood and the girls make sure to keep to the right.

  Reaching the top the sounds from the fight are even louder than they expected. From the ground, on the other side of the wall, the fighting was much quieter. Slighting wincing at the noise Alli and Hinata look over the edge to find a scene of horror. The ground is stained red from the monsters and the people. There are corpses or pieces of them everywhere, and the smell is revolting.

  Alli has to hold back a gag as they make their way to the center of the wall. At the center there is a platform sticking back into the town. This is where the mayor and anyone of importance is gathered to organize their defense.

  Walking up they can hear arguing. “We need to make a break for it. You can protect those that are important enough and we can make it to the mountain city.” A pompus man’s voice can be heard.

  After that they hear a sigh, then the mayor speaks. “I already told you when this started. I am not abandoning innocent people. There is already someone out there clearing the rifts.” The girls reach the covered area and can see the mayor siting down. Her usual mature and beautiful image is marred by the lack of sleep and the amount she has overworked herself.

  “You think some child will be able to do anything! He is just some beggar that the heiresses picked up as a project. What do they know, their still children too.” After the man says this all eyes in the tent turn to look at who is entering.

  Eliana lets out a laugh. With a smile she says, “How lovely, if you have any issues why don’t you discuss it with them now.” Waving her hand at the girls, all eyes turn to the man.

  His face is red from embarrassment and anger. He keeps twitching, like he can’t decide what emotion to settle on. Before he can speak Alli does.

  With casual flick of her finger she says, “Guards take him away. I’m to tired for this shit.”

  Everyone looks at Alli with suprise from her language but they quickly look away. The two guards that were at the entrance of the platform enter into the tent and start to carry the man out. “What rights do you have! Do you know who I am!” The man screams as he is taken away.

  Hinata wasn’t is a poor of a mood as her friend, but the man’s words annoyed her. Before he leaves the area, she holds up her hand. “Wait.” Looking the man over his clothes look spotless and he seems clean. He also doesn’t appear to be a Japanese or American. Using her upgraded ‘Advanced Identify’ she looks the man over.

  Arron Erington

  Tier 2 Level 52

  Affiliation: Australia

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Class: Mercantile

  Her ‘identify’ is higher level than Helo’s and she upgraded it with a different focus. “Send him to the fighting. There are what?” She looks at the mayor and everyone around. “Five tier 2 fighters left?” Getting nods all around she looks back at the man. “Make it six.”

  Waving her hand the man is completely dragged away. Everyone gives her a weird look due to her actions. She is normally very calm and proper. They have never seen or heard about Hinata acting in such a way. She just gazes over the room and quietly takes a seat.

  Alli follows behind with a smile. “Ha! That was great!”

  “Do you know who that was?” Eliana asks.

  “Does it matter? He wanted to leave our people to die and spoke against the clan. Now he can help us defend it.” Hinata says without much change in her face. The only thing the others can pick up on is a flash of annoyance.

  “Well… He is related to the Australian Clan. They are one of the few clans that are in full control of their respective governments.” The mayor watches for Hinata’s reaction. Not getting anything she just shrugs. “Anyway, we asked you to come here because a new type of monster has appeared.” She pulls out a tablet that shows an image of a large snake. It has vibrant green scales with a black pattern down its back.

  One of the mayor’s personal guards who has been leading the defense speaks up. “We are worried because it doesn’t have an obvious correlation to any of the existing rifts. It might mean that one of the rifts has tiered up, mutated, or there is a new rift.”

  After the two girls got an explanation on the new monster type, they were shown to a portion of the wall that was filled with injured individuals. The guard that spoke earlier is the one who is leading them. “This is where the first snake attacked, everyone that is fighting here is poisoned and needs healing. This entire portion of the wall needs to come back. Your party was the only one large enough to cover the entire side.”

  “We understand. Hopefully uncle Akira can get this solved soon.” Alli says while stretching with her hands in the air. Bending her back she lets out a massive yawn. Standing back up she cracks her neck and just steps off the wall.

  “Helo isn’t the only one who likes hunting.” Gabi says before following Alli. Everyone else takes their positions as well.

  Arisah, Cody, Luna and Aiko stay up on the wall. Everyone is happy to see the healer, buffer and pretty control mage. But everyone gives Cody a weird look. Some of the guards knew from previous experience to give Cody some room. The party has worked with this town before in their training. Some of them remember how blisteringly cold it can be around the ice affinity archer. Everyone will learn about it with time though due to his ‘Ice Enchantment’ skill.

  Down in the field Alli is behind Hinata with Carl and Rocco on either side of them. Gabi, Rurgrim and Bibbin are supporting on the wings. Lelai is also with the group. She doesn’t help much, but she does spend her time charging up mist bombs. When there is a strong monster or a large group, she will let out a happy yip and watch as her attacks crumple limbs and toss bodies.

  In the midst of combat everyone is impressed. On the wall, Cody is like a siege machine all by himself. Aiko and Luna are using their relatively weak attack skills to distract and make space for their team, while also using their support skills to help. Arisah is using her powerful control abilities to maneuver the monsters and her team on the battlefield. She is like a conductor or combat.

  On the ground Rurgrim is using his prodigious earth skills to keep the left wing clear. He is sending out spears of earth and creating walls to stall and defend. Whenever his axe falls it hits with the strength of a falling boulder. On the other side Gabi is also wielding an axe. She is a mesmerizing swirl of attractive curves mixed with sprays of blood. Bibbin on the other hand is using his stealth to help and support in the field.

  In the center of the formation Carl and Rocco are defending the heiresses’ sides. Carl is a stalwart knight that takes as good as he gets. On the other side Rocco is like a wall of blue fire and sharp steel. His Foxfire bloodline deals spiritual damage. Every slash not only cuts the body but also the spirit. It isn’t as effective as when he fights being with large mana pools. But each slash creates mental trauma as well.

  In the center Alli and Hinata are having a pretty good time. Both women are wearing gear that was designed for them and wielding weapons that were specially made. Hinata is wearing a minimalist set of leather armor that covers what is important with hardened wood pieces. The rest of her gear is form fitting leather. Alli is wearing something similar but her gear is a little freer flowing with some extra exposed skin on her arms and legs.

  Both girls might not have the overpowering bloodline of Helo, but they have powerful bloodlines as well. Hinata has been focusing her first class around her illusion affinity. Alli has her first class based on her runic affinity. But both girls have taken Helo’s opinions into account.

  Hinata is a whirlwind of confusion as she dominates the front line of their party’s formation. Her katana is always visible and always easy to see. Thing is, nobody knows if it is the real one or not. But, at the same time it makes for a very obvious target to look at. Hinata’s illusion are on full display as she slashes into the falcon that is swooping down.

  The large bird swooped in from the top of the gate and attack straight toward Hinata. She can’t help but wonder if it has to do with her young kitsune bloodline. The bird dives straight toward her, the bird flaps its powerful wings to avoid a blade to the neck. Turning its body the bird avoids the critical hit and takes the slash on its shoulder.

  Unfortunately for the bird the sword goes right through its body and dissipates. Stepping free from her own image Hinata stabs her sword up and into the bird’s chest. As the blade is drawn free you can even see small whisps of blue fire swirling around the sword.

  It is nothing like Rocco whose sword is bathed in spiritual damage, but Hinata has been putting in some effort to learn as well. Foxfire comes easier to her than her dryad abilities to commune with nature.

  When the bird hits the ground, a goblin attempts to sneak attack Hinata. Before the dagger from the monster can reach her neck, an ornate blue sword appears and intercepts the strike. This is Hinata’s ‘Unconscious Shielding’ skill, over time she has shifted the skill to become a sword. With the change the skill became a peak uncommon skill ‘Illusion’s Parry’.

  With this skill upgrade it didn’t gain much in straightforward strength. But now the skill has a slight focus on defecting attacks and shifting momentum. The previous skill was a shield that would circle around Hinata. This new skill creates a semi-physical sword to deflect the blow.

  The thing about this skill that makes Hinata the happiest is that it is now connected to her illusions. So, the more she works on her bloodline and other skills to increase the strength of her illusions, the stronger the skill will be. This is one of the benefits to having skills, abilities, and bloodlines that all enhance the same thing.

  As the goblins dagger strike goes wide, Hinata doesn’t even move. The real Hinata wasn’t even close to the dagger and it was an illusion that was being attack. As the goblin spins with its over extension Hinata is almost standing behind it. Sending out a quick slash she easily lops off the goblins head and takes a step forward. As she does, her illusion takes a step back and the two seamlessly reconnect.

  This is something her father has instructed her to work on. He is an illusion mage with a focus on large scale changes. Hinata is focusing on smaller scale but creating physical illusions. Her father Akira told her that he uses that trick to help his mind understand his illusions better. Taking a step to disconnect and reconnect is a way to trick the mind into creating a copy and not a new illusion.

  As Hinata is fighting on the front line Alli is fighting from behind her. She has been itching to use her ‘Construct Hammer’ skill more but now isn’t the time to work on a new skill. She needs to cover her best friend. From behind Hinata, Alli is working on keeping the attacking enemies down to a reasonable number. The only other individual focusing on this is Arisah.

  The difference is Arisah is using large scale plant-based growths to control the flow of the larger battle. Alli is only focused on what is right in front of her. She is sending out attack after attack with a mix of elements.

  Her usually ignored ‘Mana Bolt’ skill has been upgraded to ‘Piercing Bolt’. It is still a neutral mana skill, but now it strikes like a rocket powered drill. Due to the relatively simple nature of the skill, it is incredibly low cost but does good piercing damage.

  Alli’s ‘Runic Construct’ skill is her main weapon. She creates a construct in the air that is in whatever shape she wants. Then adding whatever runes, she has memorized Alli is creating a plethora of attacks. Sometimes she is moving so quickly that her naturally chaotic personality slips into her runes.

  Watching as one of the snake’s slithers in from the gate, Alli wants to try to strike it down. “I’m going to hit the snake with everything I have.” This is more than she had last time, she has risen to level 43 over the day of fighting, and she has also increased the strength of her runes and how many runes she can make. Not only that, she is now able to create two constructs at the same time. Each construct acts like a platform to create her runic arrays on.

  As the snake slithers forward her party gives her an odd look. The snakes are tier 2 and have strong resistances due to their scales. Preparing her attack, Alli makes a construct on the ground in front of the snake. Due to the tide of monsters, it has very little room to maneuver. The construct is ten feet across and ten feet wide.

  When the construct appeared on the ground many of the monsters attempted to step off it, but as it stayed inert, they continued to charge forward. The snake reacted similarly. Ignoring the white construct on the ground the snake slides right over it with a random bunch of monsters.

  When the snake’s head is at the center of the construct it lights up with a rainbow of colors. Each rune is glowing whatever color is closest to its affinity. As the runes start to appear the glow brighter as they line up. Some of them slot into place, while others merge to create a more powerful effect.

  In the end Alli used fifty runes, all filled to the brim with mana. As the final runes are slotted into place the construct glows, then it erupts into a massive effect. On the outside the construct turns into a golden barrier. But on the inside, there is a conflagration of fire that sweeps up into the sky.

  As the barrier raised itself the body of the snake slid up into the air with it. With the head of the snake in the midst of a fire storm the body is writhing in the air. Above the body of the snake another construct appears, this one is in the air and shining down.

  Focusing intently Alli can hear as the people around her cheer at the fire rising into the sky. This make Alli happy because normally the dryad and plant like people in the Kashiwagi household don’t like fire much.

  With all the cheering her concentration is slighting messed with and her more chaotic tendencies creep in. Creating a line of runes on the second construct Alli pushing out a stream of mana. In her head she is naming all the runes as she makes them. Blade, Blade, Blade, Blade. Okay that should be big enough. Down, Down, Down, Down, Down. Okay now what… Weight, Weight…

  Her mental focus continues as she names all the runes that she will need. Feeling rushed due to the previous constructs effect almost being over, she lets her mind slip, just a little. The cheering from all around her distracts her focus and she glances at a dryad. Tree, Tree… Shit no, not tree. Damn I don’t have time to fix it.

  Watching as the barrier that is holding up the snake is about to fall, Alli activates her construct. “This better be fine.” She mumbles to herself. It was loud enough that Hinata wasn’t sure what Alli said so she turns.

  “Is everything okay?” Hinata asks her friend. Turning to Alli’s eyes she can see the intense focus in her look. Turning back to the fight Hinata watches as a massive tree shaped blade gets shot from the construct. It is a sharp blade with immense wight and cutting force. But the entire blade is shaped like a tree.

  The tree blade flies down and the trunk of the tree-blade connects with the body of the writing snake. Trapped between the barrier and the blade, the snake’s body is split in two. “Ohhhh, thank god it worked.” Alli mutters behind Hinata.

  As the battle field pauses to watch the tree-blade strike the ground Hinata turns to look at her friend. Squinting her eyes it only takes her a moment to realize what happened. “You got distracted by the dryads.”

  With a blush Alli looks away from her friend and to where the massive tree-blade split a line in the monsters in front of them. The creation was as thin as a blade, but the blade has a massive and sharp canopy. On their side of where the blade struck there are different monsters who were split in half.

  Ignoring her friend’s gaze she says, “Don’t you have fighting to do.”

  Hinata lets outs a clear and beautiful laugh, at the same time she splits in two and her illusion turns semi-physical and kills a monster. The real Hinata steps back toward Alli. “My illusions can fight for me. I know you Alli, you got distracted again.” Hinata smirks at her friend.

  The spend almost all their time together and most of it is fighting or training. Hinata knows just how chaotic but smart her friend can be. The tiredness starts to vanish for the two girls and they start to enjoy the fighting, even if it is late morning and they barely slept.

  There are even a few moments where Alli does something random or chaotic and it turns out just right. Most of the time Alli doesn’t even realize she does anything. A step to the left, as an attack that would have hit her blasts past. An oddly shot out attack that just happens to save a life on the other side of the field. Or a gaze that is looking at just the right place.

  These are all unconscious effects of Alli’s strongest affinity, Fate. Due to her more playful and chaotic nature she doesn’t notice many of these, sometimes she even laughs them off as an accident. But Hinata knows better, this is the effect of her Bloodline.

  Further up the mountain and just a little to the left, Helo is starting to wind down. With his new found strength and balance, his bloodline hit him just a little harder than he expected. Sitting in the middle of a group of goblin corpses, Helo has finished off all the enemies outside the rift.

  He can clearly remember most of his actions, but a lot of what he did, he barely felt like it was him behind the wheel. There were almost no conscious decisions, everything he did almost felt like an automatic reaction to what his senses told him.

  This is something Helo has experienced before, but it never felt so… right. All those other times he felt like he was out of control. Like something else was trying to drive. But this time… it felt like he was who he was supposed to be.

  He isn’t sure how to describe his feelings to others, and he doesn’t know if he wants to try. Damn, that felt good. He thinks as his bloodline starts to recede. The energy starts to flow back into his heart and Helo takes a look around.

  He is sitting in the middle of a pile of goblin corpses. He can even feel as all the energy in the goblin bodies flows into him with each breath. “Wow, even the way I’m sitting right now is an unconscious effect of my bloodline.”

  Taking a deep breath Helo can feel as his fatigue is washed away. But at the same time he is still extremely tired and needs to rest. He might be filling with energy and his injuries are vanishing, but his body has been under a ton of pressure. Not only does his bloodline energy put strain on his body, but it also increases his agility and strength to a place where it puts its own kind of pressure on him.