Beastborne

by James T Callum

  Hal and the creature broke free of the Shiverglade canopy shortly after.

  111

  The frigid air of the Shiverglades greeted Hal and stole his breath away. Somewhere in the tangle of branches and the thick canopy, his warming [Shardite] chain was ripped away and lost.

  With chattering teeth, Hal looked up at the Thesp. It gave him a quick glance and then veered sharply to the west.

  Flork me, I really didn’t think this through.

  He had thought the creature was just capable of accelerating its jumping. He didn’t think that they could actually fly. Struggling against the numbing cold and the weakness in his limbs - both essence and normal - Hal lashed out with the [Chain of Binding].

  As soon as it clinked against the purple-and-red mottled armor, he pulled himself in with his essence-limbs as he braced with the taut chain.

  Pivoting, Hal placed his feet against the side of the Thesp Leader. Tucked out of the way as he was, the only way the creature could hope to dislodge him would be to dive through the canopy again.

  This is going to suck, he thought to himself.

  Taking [Emissary] in one hand, he steadied the blade and dove it hard into the cracked carapace. It took several heavy strikes before the cracks widened enough. Hal was sprayed more than once, despite the precautions he took to get out of the way.

  The simple truth was, he couldn’t put enough power behind the strike if he wasn’t properly lined up.

  Worse, every passing second sapped his strength.

  His party menu went gray shortly after. But he already knew there would be no help coming from there. He had to down this thing and do it quickly if he hoped to join up with them again.

  Or even to find his way back home.

  Shaking the grim thoughts from his mind, Hal awkwardly sheathed [Emissary]. Despite the buffeting and knifing winds, he managed to summon Bomb Toss into his now free palm.

  The Thesp Leader seemed to sense something was amiss and began blindly beating with its ungainly claw near where Hal was hooked into it. It came close several times, which only served to spur Hal on further.

  Gripping the magical patchwork bomb in his hand, Hal thrust his hand - bomb and all - into the wound he had just made in its carapace. He retracted his hand as fast as he could and unfastened the hooked barbs set into the creature’s body with all speed.

  But it wasn’t enough. Bomb Toss, despite its appearance, was not an actual bomb. It was a spell that would blow up as soon as it came into contact with a suitable target.

  And thrust right inside the Thesp Leader was more than suitable. Hal felt the biting flames of the Bomb Toss but they were muted, his own mana hardly hurt him.

  That wasn’t why he was kicking off and dispelling the binding on his chain with as much haste as he could manage.

  The Thesp Leader bulged weirdly around the site of the explosion and for a second, as Hal fell away from the creature he thought he had made a mistake.

  His concern was thoroughly wiped away a moment later as the air exploded in a shower of purple blood, viscera, and steam that quickly turned to glittering shards of ice. It vaguely reminded Hal of those internet videos where people threw pots of boiling water into the frigid winter air and it froze immediately.

  Chunks of the Thesp Leader crashed into Hal. Its frozen blood formed spikes that impaled Hal’s leg and forced him to whip his essence-limbs back and forth in an attempt to bat the missiles aside.

  He was assaulted from the moment the creature died to the moment he fell back into the thick canopy of the Shiverglades. Every strike twisted him about and it took all of his strength and effort just to keep his vitals from being skewered by a spear of frozen blood.

  Hal was dizzy and turned about by the time he crashed through the thick boughs. Fortunately, the first few levels of web-like branches were much thinner than he was expecting.

  Whipping his essence-limbs about, their hooked tips seeking any hold he cold find, Hal broke through the upper levels of the forest canopy.

  His HP dropped precipitously, forcing him to tap Assimilation and drain as much of his MP and SP as he could just to stay alive.

  Hal’s vision was a blur of green and whipping brown branches that scratched and clawed at his face and clothes. He reached out an arm toward one of the branches.

  A sickening pop announced the dislocation of his shoulder as it caught between a fork in the branch he was reaching out to. The only silver lining was the sudden, and agonizing, halt of his fall.

  An essence-limb weakly stretched out and then another. Waves of nauseating pain fell over Hal as his arm was jostled and darkness closed in.

  “Wake up.”

  He started awake and wouldn’t have had the slightest idea that time had passed at all if not for the sharp slant of the sun through the trees. His right arm hung too far down on his side and even the slightest swaying motion made him nearly retch.

  His arm should have still been stuck in the branch… but it wasn’t. He didn’t remember moving.

  Taking a deep breath, Hal tried to sort out the sensations assaulting his body. He was in bad shape. At least two broken bones if not more. His thigh had, thankfully, stopped bleeding but it was enough that along with everything else, his HP was hardly a sliver.

  With less than 30 HP, he was no longer losing any HP but a slight breeze would be enough to kill him.

  His mind swam in a morass of confusion and pain. He tried to focus his thoughts. A glance down showed that he was at least a couple of hundred feet from the ground down below.

  Looking up, he saw why he was still alive. His essence-limbs had wrapped about the limb. Their hooked and barbed ends were gone but somehow they managed to hold on like he had parachuted from above and his harness got stuck.

  Focusing all of his effort on them, he reeled himself in one dreadful inch at a time. He couldn’t focus on any of the notifications that flitted across his vision like mirages.

  Thoughts started and stopped in fits and jerks. He had gotten enough EXP to Level Up from the Thesps, hadn’t he? He tried to Level Up by spending his EXP into Beastborne but even that simple thing was beyond him.

  He couldn’t Level Up somehow. He tried again, but executing the series of mental commands simply… failed. Never before had he encountered something so bewildering.

  Abandoning the task, Hal focused solely on getting to that branch above him.

  Everything but his immediate task and the pain of his many wounds fell away. Each breath felt like inhaling a cloud of razorblades and he was surprised that he wasn’t coughing up blood with every exhalation.

  Finally, Hal managed to get up near the thick branch his essence-limbs had wrapped around. The branch was large enough that he could have walked across it easily.

  Throwing a leg over it and careful not to move his right arm more than he had to, Hal clambered up onto the branch and laid there for a while. Time seemed to skip ahead because the next time he blinked, the sun was slanted farther in his direction.

  He had a vague memory of going west attached to the Thesp Leader. That meant… what, exactly?

  Shaking his head, which was a serious mistake as the world swam around him suddenly, Hal tried to gather his broken fragmented thoughts. He couldn’t manage the feat, and darkness washed over him again.

  When he awoke, his mind was a little clearer but the forest had plunged into dusk. Dusty beams of sunlight lanced like golden bars through the canopy, gilding the edges of wide leaves the size of hub caps.

  He made another attempt to spend his EXP into the very first Class available to him. He mentally shoved the EXP into Beastborne and was rewarded with a rush of revitalizing energy and strength that flooded his numb limbs.

  His breath returned to his lungs, icy and sharp but blessedly full. He hadn’t even realized one of his broken ribs was making it harder to breathe.

  Broken bones reknit, dozens of gashes and bleeding wounds closed with an intense itching sensation that made his skin crawl.
Before he lost the fight with the primal urge to scratch, the Level Up had done its work.

  Through the tattered, blood-soaked flaps of his [Shaper’s Coat], his skin was as whole and fresh as if he just spent a week at a sauna. The stain and the memory of blood and pain yet lingered, but the physical effects were thankfully wiped away.

  Beastborne reaches Level 20.

  You have 5 unspent Attribute Points awaiting distribution.

  Your HP, SP, and MP are fully restored.

  You have 1 Beastborne Perk point awaiting assignment.

  You learn Splice II.

  Splice can now utilize three separate monster essences at once. Stacking multiple essences from the same family increases the effectiveness of both essence and the spells of that family.

  You learn the Undead Killer trait.

  Gives you an edge when fighting Undead Family monsters, increasing damage dealt while decreasing damage taken. Adds a chance to Intimidate Undead.

  New Class Quest: Dark Communion.

  You have noticed that over time, as your Beastborne Levels have increased, so too has Besal grown. As your darker self, his bestial nature has been tempered into something more. You have survived far longer than most Beastbornes and attained a level of power that few have witnessed.

  Besal would have you heed his words, if you are amenable.

  Objectives

  Talk to Besal.

  Rewards

  Unknown.

  112

  As awareness and vitality came back in a sudden rush, Hal squinted his eyes at the prompt despite hardly needing to. Besal wanted to talk to him?

  The concept didn’t surprise him so much as having a Class Quest for it.

  It was true that lately he had been noticing the differences in Besal. But everything else had demanded his attention and he rarely had a spare moment to himself anymore.

  With a wry grin he realized that the truth of the matter was, he barely had a spare moment for himself anymore.

  Every other problem came first ahead of his own progress and improvement. Hal was far from conceited enough to think that his progress should take place in front of everything else that needed doing, but to completely ignore it as he had….

  He could only shake his head.

  Durvin had been right what felt like a decade ago back in that cave to the south of Murkmire.

  If he kept doing everything, it was going to run him ragged. And then what would happen to his people when he left or died, or something else? They needed to stand on their own without constantly seeking him out for every little thing.

  He needed more people like Athagan, Horald, and Angram. People he could delegate responsibilities to that he could trust to carry them out faithfully.

  That way he could retain his freedom without fully giving up control. Some control had to be sacrificed, there was simply no way around it. Hal shivered against the freezing, darkening forest.

  Even with his Darkvision, he couldn’t see the forest floor. Then he remembered he could now Splice three monster essences. Hal immediately added shadow into the mix.

  Shadesight instantly gave him sight beyond anything Darkvision could grant him. The world resolved into shades of blue and starlight. Many darker forms - nighttime predators no doubt - prowled the lower branches and the forest floor far below.

  Aside from goblin essence, shadow, aberration, and eldritch were his strongest essences. But he was curious to see what would happen if he combined three from the same family. He had two such families: arcana, and plantoid, each with three essence types.

  First thing’s first, he thought to himself, trying to organize his thoughts. It was easier than before but he still struggled. His fingers were numb and he felt chilled to the bone.

  A frigid breeze knifed through his clothes and cut straight to the bone. He vividly felt each rip, each hole in his leather-and-cloth armor. Much of it, he knew without checking, was already ruined.

  It was all so much like when he awoke in the goblin cave a lifetime ago. Only this time he wasn’t helpless, nor was he a prisoner. But he recognized the debuff on him without having seen it.

  Exhaustion was the reason he woke up with a sliver of HP still despite being knocked out for hours. And though he felt significantly better after Leveling Up, it didn’t wipe away his Exhaustion or the Biting Cold debuff. He wasn’t going to be able to regenerate his HP, SP, or MP until he warmed up.

  And with the durability on most of his armor dangerously depleted or in some cases completely bottomed out, that was going to be a tall order.

  Hal strained his ears for any sound from Steve or any other keinse but after several long moments of nothing, he gave up.

  Maybe the keinse had been scared off from the sudden appearance of the Thesp Leader in their airspace. Whatever the reason was, it hardly mattered.

  Getting warm was his first priority.

  “There are a great many beasts below us,” Besal said.

  Hal started at the voice. “I can see that.”

  “We could kill them,” Besal suggested, his voice velvety smooth. “All of them. You have the strength.”

  He tried not to roll his eyes. “Yes, and the commotion will bring even worse creatures.”

  “Then we will kill them.”

  Hal leaned over to look down at the shifting forms more than a hundred feet below him. He had been thinking about forming a sort of bone bowl to put some kindling into and attach it to the wide branch he was sitting on.

  But he had to admit that Besal’s way seemed so much easier.

  “I am alone,” Hal reminded Besal. “We barely fended off that Thesp that transformed and even before that. If we run into more I don’t think I’ll be able to take them.”

  “You are not alone,” Besal replied with a throaty chuckle.

  “What do you mean by that?” It didn’t sound like an idle observation, but rather that Besal might be capable of doing something… tangible.

  “Are you ready to talk now, then? Have I piqued your interest?”

  Hal made an impatient motion, then realized that Besal couldn’t see it. Or, if he could, it would be out of his own eyes. With a self-deprecating chuckle, he shook his head. “It’s not like my Exhaustion is going to get worse immediately. What did you want to talk about?”

  As Hal exhaled, a dark cloud funneled out of his lips. Before the shock could wear off, Besal sat across from him. He was not the bestial looking creature of that dripping black oily substance that Hal remembered.

  He looked much more like Hal, only made of shadow and starlight. Pinpricks of muted light shimmered just beneath the surface of his skin. His eyes were still ruby-red but now they gave off a lazy curl of blood-red smoke.

  Besal grinned, showing pearly white teeth with prominent fangs. “I appreciate this opportunity to speak, face to face,” he said in cultured tones and a nod of his head.

  Hal had expected him to reach out and tear out his throat. Besal chuckled as if he had read his mind and just as he did, Hal understood the Beast’s humor.

  There was no reason to fight Hal, at least not in Besal’s eyes. There was more to be gained by cooperating than by fighting.

  More importantly, Hal felt a faint twinge of guilt and shame for the way he acted before. It had the same intensity and ring to it that Hal sometimes felt when his brain thought it would be a good idea to remind him of something utterly stupid and embarrassing he did in the third grade right before going to sleep.

  Something that as a child, he wasn’t truly equipped to understand right from wrong. In much the same way, Besal wasn’t capable of understanding Hal’s way of life, or even that he was truly alive in the same way as Besal thought he was.

  “I was wrong,” Besal said smoothly, head bowed. Hal could feel the remorse coming off him in waves. It was disconcerting and alarming. Where was this coming from? “In my defense, I was young and foolish. There was no way I could resist the lure you put in front of me. But I have grown.”

&
nbsp; “Truly?” Hal said with a skeptical snort. Try as he might to doubt Besal, he could no more doubt that it was getting dark out than the veracity of Besal’s thoughts. Unless the creature found a way to lie and segment its own feelings from Hal’s.

  Something that didn’t seem likely.

  “You doubt,” Besal said lifting his head. “Good. You are often too trusting. Too gullible. I have watched you.” He pointed at his own temple. “From here, I have seen everything you have done.

  “The good, the bad, the utterly stupefying. You have grown and as you grew, so did I. I understood you better, dug through your memories to know every little weakness you had only to find that… you grew past them.

  “I did not lie to you when I said the Beastborne’s of eld were far more cooperative with their darker selves. Their Beast, their Khaeros. Theirs was a symbiotic relationship. I detest being locked away but neither do I wish to usurp control of your body.”

  “Then what do you want?” Hal asked. Despite himself, he was being drawn in. Not having to fight with Besal would be great. It was his greatest fear that, when using Beast Magic, he would one day fail to contain his Strain and those he loved would be in danger.

  “I seek Communion. We have spent much time separately, our synchronization is poor. You forego many gifts that make a Beastborne a truly frightening foe to face. With my help, those creatures down below would be child’s play.” He swept his hand below as he spoke. “You would have the strength to keep your new home - our new home - safe from the creatures that rise against you.”

  “What do you know of them?” Hal asked without even thinking. If Besal somehow had more information….

  Besal raised a hand of shadow and starlight to halt Hal’s racing thoughts. “I know your mind, Hal. I do not know the foe arrayed against us. Not any more than you do, at least.

  “But I can feel the bite of the wind. The sour tang on it, that subtle feeling of wrongness.” Besal chuckled. “Ironic, I know, considering what I am. What we are. Working together, however, we could push our power to new heights. Enough to stand toe to toe against the Shiverglades herself.”