by J. J. Thorn
As the claw of Energy advanced, the beast tried to dart away, but its legs held firm to the darkness.
And so, as every member of the team was either collapsed or near collapsing, the three ‘Talon’ strikes hit the black Talon and cut cleanly through its body.
It fell into four parts, as the monster’s yellow eyes turned dark for the first time.
Another large explosion could be heard as the Energy strike crashed into the wall at the opposite side of the cave.
Seeing the monster die, Tom and Lin collapsed to the ground. Holly dropped to her knees as her Energy was used up.
Only Griff was left standing as he looked around the chaos that surrounded them.
“Why is nothing happening?” he yelled. “Shouldn’t that mean we won?”
The others became slightly more alert as they also recognized that nothing had changed. The boss was dead, and they expected the lair to be finished as well. For a message to appear in their vision or an entrance to open up.
Tom and the rest started to look around frantically.
“Rana!” Holly yelled before the rest of us looked over.
On the ground next to her position was the Talon she had split in two with her arrow.
In all the chaos, it had crawled over to her position and was now lying next to Rana’s head. A trail of blood visible from its previous position but none of them had noticed until the main monster had been killed.
So it was in that quick moment that they watched the monster bite directly down onto their friend’s head all the way down to the neck. Tom and Lin couldn’t move as they both tried to will their bodies to get up and do something.
Griff ran as fast as he could but couldn’t do anything to get there in time.
Only Holly was close enough to make a difference as she grabbed a dagger off of Rana and stabbed at the half-dead monster.
The monster didn’t care as it finished the job it had been tasked with from the very beginning of their time in the lair.
Griff finally reached Rana to find the monster dead, but worked with Holly to get the monster’s jaws from around her neck.
They got them off as they tried to use their last health potion to save Rana.
Their efforts were in vain, as the health potion could do nothing to reattach a neck back to its body.
Holly screamed as she tried to use the last of her Energy to heal Rana, but nothing worked.
It was only then, as they all either went silent or screamed from beside Rana’s body that they finally received a message saying that the lair had been beaten.
They had won, and with that came the rewards of the lair, but no one cared.
No one even thought about the messages they were receiving as they could only stare in disbelief at the friend they had let die.
Rana Ranger.
Chapter 20 – Collaboration
“You guys would not believe how angry my dad was last night.” Britta spoke in a hushed voice, as we sat in the Dining Hall, surrounded by other students. “At first, he was super excited we found a Skink Mother, but when I told him about Gavin’s test, he freaked. He started talking about killing Gavin, how he was supposed to be his friend, a whole bunch of stuff. Eventually, mom calmed him down, but even she was super pissed. Gavin showed up a bit later and they went to a different room to talk. I heard most of it because of the yelling, but Gavin looked like crap when he left. Like super sad. I don’t think I’ve ever seen my dad that mad.”
“You should’ve seen Trish,” Cassie said. “She was so thrilled when I got back to our dorms. She was even crying! She’d been worried the entire time we were away and had barely slept. Jen and I had to reassure her we were okay. I don’t think she fully believed us, but we made sure to keep out some of the more harrowing details. If you see her, try and keep the details to a minimum. I want to get some sleep this week.”
“She’ll be okay. And don’t forget we have to train this week.” Jen pointed a finger at her. “We’ll rest today, but after we figure out our schedules, we get right back to it. Just because we’re back, doesn’t mean I forget everything we talked about. You promised.”
“Yeah, yeah. We won’t forget, oh fearless leader. We all know what we need to do now.” Cassie dug into her food again.
“What about you, boys, I bet you got some rest?” Jen asked as she looked at Zane and me.
“Ugh…” I started but didn’t know how to adequately express the conversation with John.
“Oh, don’t worry about it, Ren, you can tell them.” Zane turned to the others. “Ren was right about John all along. He’s an ass and he made sure to show his true colours before he left.”
“Not cousin hottie!” Britta wailed, which caused the others to laugh.
John had been very good at keeping his distance during the trip, so I knew it would be hard to convince them, but with Zane’s reassurance, I explained what John had said to me.
It had impacted me a little, like any negative comments might, but I wasn’t especially hurt. I had expected that from the very beginning, and honestly, it could have been much worse.
I went through everything we talked about, answering questions as they came. Zane hadn’t been too shocked the night prior but had accepted that he had been wrong in his judgement of John. Otherwise, the girls were shocked but stood behind me completely.
Even though she found him attractive, Britta even made a promise to punch him the next time they crossed paths.
Based on what John had said, and how Gavin had treated the group, I didn’t expect that to happen anytime soon, but you never know.
Eventually, talk of John, Gavin, and the trip died down. Trish even joined us as Zane and I were able to finally see our other friend as well. She looked relieved to see us all, and I was happy to know I had another friend looking out for me. It also reminded me that I needed to send something to my parents as soon as possible.
Talk progressed and we finally came to the main topic of the day. We held within our hands the list of classes that we could take. The list hadn’t changed much, with some slight variations appearing.
Applications of Affinities in Science
Alchemy
Animal Husbandry
Animals & Monsters
Biology 1 & 2
Blacksmithing
Body Anatomy
Conservatism
Construction
Cooking
Cosmology
Dungeon Economics
Dungeoneering 1 & 2
Economics 1 & 2
Enchanting 1 & 2
Engineering
Ethics
Evocations
General Crafting 1 & 2
General Energy Manipulation
General Fitness
General Healing 1 & 2
General Weapons Training
Geology and Mining 1 & 2
Herbology
History of Affinities
History of Crafting
History of Dungeons
Illusions
Magical Theory
Mathematics 1 & 2
Meditation
Monster Behaviour
Monster Tracking
Musical Theory
Mythical Creatures
Projections
Self-Enhancement
Strategies of War
Strategy
Survival
Tailoring
Theory of Crafting
Theory of Orbs
Theory of Skills
World History 1 & 2
“I’m just going to throw it out there,” I said, “but I liked going through our Skills on the wagon ride. I think we should be doing the same thing with our classes. Maybe there’s something we’re all missing about ourselves that everyone else can comment on.”
“I agree with you,” Jen said. “I think we should even take the same courses. We were scattered last semester and because of it, we had a difficult time planning training sessions. If we’re
actually going to be a team, we need to spend more time practicing. And not just sparring, I mean practicing our Skills as well.”
“I don’t think we can all take the same courses,” Cassie objected. “That doesn’t make sense for Zane or me. We won’t be on the front line like you guys.”
Zane looked up. “I think you make a good point, Jen, but Cassie’s classes need to be almost the opposite of what you or Terrence take. I propose we do what Ren says, get some classes picked out, and provide our opinions to each other. But to satisfy what you’re saying, we’ll try to make the classes around the same time each week. That means we might have to have a back-up class or two. That way we still benefit from the right classes, while also making sure we have a lot of the same free time.”
Jen pursed her lips. “I’m okay with that plan,” she conceded.
The rest of us agreed, hiding a grin.
“So, does anyone have an idea of what they want to do?” she asked.
I had already been thinking about my classes since the previous semester, so I decided to volunteer first this time.
“So, Weapons Training is a given and we already have Dungeoneering and General Magic Studies. So that leaves me with three courses to choose. I was going to pick Survival, but I’ll just ask you all a bunch of questions so I can pick things up. Instead, I think I should be taking Conservatism and Self-Enhancement. Beyond that, I’m having trouble with the last course. I don’t want to make the same mistake I made with Ethics, but even then, I found the content to be interesting. With that said, I’m curious about Mythical Creatures, Monster Tracking, Dungeon Economics, and Strategy.”
“Those all do sound like interesting classes, but why are you so sure of Conservatism and Self-Enhancement?” Jen asked.
I looked at Trish from the side of my eye. She was currently the only one at the table that didn’t know I had hit Rank 2, so I was wary of telling her.
As usual, Zane caught on.
“Trish, Ren, and I trust you implicitly.” He met her eyes, deadly serious. “Ren’s about to tell you something a bit crazy, but we need you to keep it to just the people at the table here. No one else can know for now.”
Trish laughed. “After what you all put me through over the break, I doubt you can shock me. But sure, you’re my closest friends and your secret is safe with me.”
“I Ranked up during the break. I’m now Rank 2,” I said quietly so only our table could hear.
“WHAT?” Trish jumped out of her seat. Britta and Jen grabbed her and stopped her from stumbling to the ground.
It took a few minutes to calm her down, but eventually, she stopped asking questions. I wasn’t willing to answer all of them but made sure to give her the gist about my new Skill and how quickly it had taken to reach.
“Now that everyone knows, I chose ‘Conservatism’ and ‘Self-Enhancement’ because of my new Skill, mostly. I had always been considering them after I took General Magic Studies, but this just guaranteed it. I can barely use my Skill right now because it uses too much Energy. Conservatism should help me with that and also with augmentations in general.
“And Self-Enhancement is something I think we should all be taking. Even Cassie. Our Energy is within us to use and we really need to start understanding how these augmentations work. General Energy Manipulation was a great start, but I want to learn more before Prep ends.”
Zane studied the course list. “Okay, then I think your last one should be Monster Tracking. Mythical creatures can be your backup. Britta already took Mythical creatures, so we have someone who already has some of that knowledge. And I already know a lot about Economics, so I probably have us covered there. I was planning to take Strategy as well. I think Jen and I should both take it, actually.”
“That makes sense.” I tried to hide some of my disappointment. “I really want to take Mythical creatures. I loved Monster Behaviour, but I think Monster Tracking will be a bit more helpful long term.”
Britta shot a glance toward Zane. “You’re also here to enjoy class, Ren. If you want, I’ll take Monster Tracking and you can take the one you like. After taking Animals and Monsters and Survival, I might get more out of Monster Tracking than you, anyways.”
“Okay, let’s stick to Terrence’s options for now.” Jen eyed the group. “Does anyone have any other suggestions for him?”
“None of you are considering the theory classes, but you can learn a lot from those,” Trish stated. Most of her first and second-semester classes would be for history or theory classes, so I didn’t expect anything different.
“Yeah, but we have to be picky,” Zane responded. “If we had a few more years, we would take all the classes, but we only get a year.”
He was right, I could spend years at Prep, but I knew my progress would be hindered because of it. Practical experience on our hunting trip had made me realize that study could only go so far. It also took a really long time to Rank up for most. Even though it was less safe, it made sense to get out there sooner rather than later.
“The only one I’d recommend is maybe Theory of Skills,” Jen continued. “You’re so good at thinking about how you can use your Skill in different ways. That class would probably help a lot, maybe give you some insights.”
“I honestly did consider that class a lot in the first semester. I’d sort of forgotten about it when I got my Rank Up. But maybe I shouldn’t…I really do enjoy theorizing what my Skill might be able to do. And I think that’s why I got the Skill I did. You know what, I think I’d prefer that to Mythical Creatures. Okay, I’ll keep Mythical Creatures as my backup and try to take Theory of Skills instead. Thanks, guys!”
My mind was made up and I was happy with my choices. I almost rushed over to the administration offices to pick my courses right away, but I remembered that I needed to go through the same process for each of my friends.
Cassie went next. She chose General Magic, Dungeoneering, General Healing 2, Monster Behaviour, General Energy Manipulation, and Evocation. And, after some a recommendation from Zane, she made Meditation her backup.
She had been most torn about the monster course she was going to take, eventually deciding on Monster Behaviour. The trip had shown her that she needed to increase her knowledge of monsters. She had felt helpless during our test, which we finally told Trish about.
She also expressed her concern about her Skill. Her Skill focused on ‘Pain’ instead of trying to identify the person’s issue directly. We had spent a lot of time discussing it, and I told her that this might be a blessing in disguise.
We couldn’t know for sure, but I gave her the suggestion to spend some time focusing on monster pain. And even though I hadn’t focused on it during Monster Behaviour, a lot of information had been available about how monsters reacted to pain or being hurt.
If she could somehow pinpoint their pain, she might even be able to start finding weaknesses that could be exploited during a fight. That way, even if she was a healer, she would be able to help us fight as well.
The other ideas had been about her fitness. She hadn’t appreciated the jabs, but she knew she needed to improve her fitness. I also considered taking General Training, but we all made a plan to exercise most days to compensate. Courses like that were helpful, but since we could do a lot of it ourselves, it didn’t take priority.
Next was Jen. With General Magic, Dungeoneering, and Weapons Training out of the way, I was in half of her classes, at least. Beyond this, General Energy Manipulation was a must. Past that, things got heated as we argued about her choices.
I argued for Projections first and foremost, since that would help her with her Skills. I thought she had taken it in the first semester, but found out she needed to switch because of a conflict. Since then, I continued to push for her to re-register for the class.
Zane thought she should take Theory of Skills with me, since her Skill was so flexible.
Strategy was thrown around, as were the economics and monster classes.
In our discussion about Jen, we also realized that we were giving up a lot of the utility some of the courses would provide. Geology and Mining, Cooking, and Herbology were all courses we would absolutely need some knowledge of, but we were doubling down on things that could help us grow our main abilities.
We eventually let that conversation go as we realized that we couldn’t do everything.
Jen’s final course choices were Projections and Strategy, with Theory of Skills as a fall-back.
Britta was a bit easier as she chose to take Weapons Training, General Energy Manipulation, Monster Tracking, and Self-Enhancement with me. Cosmology was her back up.
“Just because,” She said.
Zane was last and was probably the hardest to work through because of his scattered skill set. He was knowledgeable and smart but could also take care of himself in a fight. Despite this, his Skills didn’t lend themselves to fighting and he would probably reach a point where he might not be able to compete in a straight-on fight.
As a result, he wanted to focus on his utility side further. He enjoyed being our strategist, so he knew he would be taking that. So, to start his choices were General Magic, Dungeoneering, and Strategy.