Brace For the Wolves

by Nathan Thompson

  Finally, Breena explained that when I went from ‘Spark’ to ‘Flash’ every Trait I had spent time exercising would have been increased once more, as my stronger soul worked to reinforce what made me myself. Again, since my awful torture counted as exercise, everything was strengthened again by ten points each.

  It sounded like the most overpowered thing in the world. If I were in a table-top game or VR game, somebody would have thrown the gaming harness down or flipped a table over. But this wasn’t a game and the price I paid in sanity meant I still didn’t think my gains were worth it. Make of that what you will.

  Unlocking my Saga and Profession also provided me some more benefits that were already clearly described, so I didn’t ask about them.

  All in all, I had unlocked massive gains from undergoing my sixth Rise, by reaching the ‘Flash’ stage. I took it with gratitude, because I had already fought three people that were close to my level anyway, and without going through the same… process I had already undergone.

  As fantastic as this all was, I knew I still needed to get stronger. And I knew I needed to have strong people by my side as well.

  But for now, I needed to rise my skills and Traits. I took a minute or ten to think, then made my changes.

  Wes Malcolm

  Race: Human. Origin: Earth, Avalon (Challenger)

  Growth Level: Sixth Rise (Flash)

  (Path List Truncated)

  Saga: Unconquered Hero

  Act 1: Defiant Heart. +5 to Challenger’s Constitution and Will. Gain Increased Resistance to Fear, Despair, and Trauma. Additional effects unknown.

  Profession: Lord (Rank: Landed Knight) (+5 to Challenger’s Charisma and Will. Increased ability to manage groups of people.)

  Art: Forming

  Science: Forming

  Craft: Forming

  Vital Pool: 1200

  Stamina Pool: 1200

  Mana Pool: 1150

  Strength: 55

  Dexterity: 55

  Constitution: 60

  Intelligence: 55

  Wisdom: 60

  Charisma: 55

  Speed: 65

  Deftness: 59

  Wits: 66

  Will: 83

  Rise Points Remaining: 0 (can increase the six primary traits at a 1:1 ratio, or the four secondary traits at a 1:2 ratio.)

  12 skill points remaining

  Insight into the Following Ideals

  Earth: lvl 7 Initiate Level Unlocked: Mana Cost decreased

  Muddy Earth has been upgraded to Sinking Earth.

  Air: lvl 7 Initiate Level Unlocked: Improvement to potency, decrease in casting cost to all Air Spells) (Initiate Bonus Unlocked)

  Friction Slash has been Upgraded to Friction Slice. Increase in damage, area of effect)

  Lightning: lvl 7 Initiate Level Unlocked: Mana Cost decreased

  Shock Bolt has been upgraded to Lightning Bolt

  Skill List truncated (New Skill levels listed)

  Unarmed Fighting: 6

  Light Blades: 6

  Long Blades: 6

  Polearms: 6

  Dodge: 6

  Parry: 6

  Shield Use: 6

  Dual Wielding: 6

  Blunt Weapons: 6

  Pain Tolerance: 7

  Mental Preservation: 7

  General Mastery (Melee): 9

  General Mastery (Magic): 9

  Spell list truncated

  That done, I suddenly dropped to my knees as my body shuddered through the final component of my Rise. For a moment it felt like worms were twisting around in my brain, causing a massive headache on par with the bad days of my disability. At the same time, it felt like my heart grew three sizes in mere moments.

  Any children’s author that makes that last one sound nice and sweet is a liar, menace, and literary hack. Such a person should be fed piece by piece to starving goats. But that’s just my personal and informed opinion.

  After maybe half a minute, I realized I wasn’t having a stroke and heart attack at the same time. My heartbeat settled into a normal rhythm again, although beats were noticeably slower and louder. My mind, for its part, expanded. It became much easier to notice all sorts of random details without being overwhelmed by them.

  “Wes, are you okay?” Breena asked worriedly.

  “I think so,” I finally said, and a brief glance confirmed that the changes I made occurred without any issues.

  But then I got a flurry of messages.

  Pre-recorded message from Stell Starsown

  Wes, if you’re getting this message it means you’ve pushed your Constitution to your maximum safe limit. Breena said you would do this to one of your Traits but I didn’t believe her. So if you see her looking extremely smug and wearing one of my favorite t-shirts (fairy magic, they can shrink clothes, don’t ask) then that’s why. It’s also your fault. So feel bad. But aside from that, DO NOT increase your Constitution any further, at least until your next Rise. Just slow it down a little, okay? The good news is that this is one of your two safest Traits to test the boundary on. Just so you know: pushing your primary Traits past more than ten times your number of Rises is a bad idea after your fifth Rise. Breena argued you should know that specifically, even though she thought you’d abuse it. I argued that it shouldn’t be necessary because even when you were training in a way that left everyone frightened and exhausted all the time you never came within ten points of that limit. That resulted in another argument, which has apparently resulted in another lost bet. Tell her I said you could have one of the marble-chocolate cookies she won. They’re delicious and she doesn’t need all that extra sugar anyway. Again, unless something, has gone horribly, horribly wrong, don’t push this particular Trait any further. As long as you keep that in mind, you’re safe.

  I sighed. Stell had made these messages before the invasion. She had no idea…

  Pre-recorded message from Stell Starsown

  Wes, if you’re getting this message it means you’ve pushed your Wisdom to an abnormally high limit. Breena said you would do this to one of your Traits but I didn’t believe her. So if you see her looking extremely smug and flying around listening to my favorite reggaeton track (fairy magic, they can shrink musical devices, don’t ask) then that’s why. It’s also your fault. So feel bad. But aside from that, DO NOT increase your Wisdom any further, at least until your next Rise. Just slow it down a little, okay? The good news is that this is one of your two safest Traits to test the boundary on. Just so you know: pushing your primary Traits past more than ten times your number of Rises is a bad idea after your fifth Rise. Breena argued you should know that specifically, even though she thought you’d abuse it. I argued that it shouldn’t be necessary because even when you were training in a way that left everyone frightened and exhausted all the time you never came within ten points of that limit. That resulted in another argument, which has apparently resulted in another lost bet. Tell her I said you could have one of the buttermilk-and-strawberry cupcakes she won. They’re delicious and she doesn’t need all that extra sugar anyway. Again, unless something, has gone horribly, horribly wrong, don’t push this particular Trait any further. As long as you keep that in mind, you’re safe.

  Oops. Wait, not again…

  Pre-recorded message from Stell Starsown:

  Really, Wes? I mean, really? TWO Traits in the danger zone? Why? Why would you even? I mean I know you’re trying to fix your primary body back home but this is just ridiculous. Just stop whatever you’re doing right now and take a deep breath. I don’t care if you’re right in the middle of a Challenge. Because whatever you’re fighting can’t possibly hurt you at this advanced stage. In fact, just let the poor thing go, because all it probably wants to do now is to get away from the crazy person that’s keeping it alive just to make it hit him and raise his Shield skill, or some other nonsense. Then come back to Avalon and let’s have a talk, because you’ve clearly taken things too far and I need to make you see that. You do not need to train this hard.
It’s unnecessary given our timeframe, and it’s actually unhealthy. Just stop and come back. Ugh, I’m annoyed I even had to bother writing this. I’m going to go listen to my favorite reggaeton track now. Hopefully that wasn’t one of the things I lost to Breena for the day, or I’m going to be SUPER ticked.

  Worried about you right now,

  Stell, your friendly Starsown

  Why do I get yelled at so much here?

  Pre-recorded message from Stell Starsown

  Wes, if you’re getting this message something has gone very wrong. And I’m sorry. I know you were afraid of raising your Will so much, so there’s no way you pushed it straight past the limit on purpose. You probably raised some other stats to the limit too, and already got a message from me yelling at you, and I’m sorry about that too. I’m going to go ahead and warn you that raising your Will is dangerous, because it ties to your sense of purpose. And increasing your sense of your own purpose too much can actually make it hard for you to act, because you can overwhelm yourself with your own heaviness. I know you were worried about using it to bend others to your desires, but the good news is that that’s still impossible right now and it would still take a lot of magic that you haven’t even been taught to use yet. The other good news is that intense pressure from your environment or the Challenges themselves can actually help balance an over-developed Will. So you’re probably increasing it for the right reasons. You’re gonna be okay, Wes. I’m here for you. Unless something else has gone horribly wrong. Then at least Breena’s here for you. Tell her not to lose my T-shirts and reggaeton music. And that I love her.

  I care about you too, friend. Thank you for everything,

  Stell, your grateful Starsown

  Damnit, I swore. Dirt in my eyes again. Making everything blurry.

  Breena was hovering over me.

  “Those were the messages Stell and I had a fight about, weren’t they?”

  “Yeah,” I said after another moment. “Probably.” My mouth was dry for some reason as well. Must have been more dirt.

  Breena was quiet too, for a bit.

  “I miss her,” she finally said.

  “Me too,” I admitted. “I miss her a lot. And I hope she’s okay.”

  “She is,” Breena said in a small voice. “Me and the others will… feel it… if she isn’t.”

  A shudder went through me at those words. My vision blurred again, and I paced a few steps away, clenching, unclenching, and re-clenching my hands.

  “If Cavus even comes close to hurting her,” I said with a shaky voice. “I’m going to eat his face. And make him live through it. Then I’m going to kill him.”

  Breena said something. I couldn’t hear her, and I kept talking.

  “I should have never let him get away. That was a mistake. I had a chance to tear into him, and I didn’t take it because I was too angry at someone else.”

  Breena stopped saying whatever it was a second ago. She flew in front my face, blinking furiously.

  “Wes, what did you say? That first part.”

  “I said I let him get away,” I repeated, shaking my head at myself. “He ran and I didn’t chase. I went after the Earth-men instead.” I took another breath. “That’s on me. I messed up.”

  “Wes,” Breena began. “Cavus doesn’t run away. He doesn’t need to. Because he doesn’t ever lose.”

  I shook my head again.

  “No, Breena. I took him by surprise, but I still hurt him. And something about me frightened him. I’ll… talk to you about that later.”

  Because I wasn’t ready to bring up my dad coming to Avalon.

  “Something got knocked out of him, and he ran and sicced Rhodes and his other warlocks on me. But before any of that, Guineve fought him almost to a standstill. By herself. And he had to summon help from nearby Horde. I’m not saying he isn’t the strongest, scariest creature I’ve ever encountered. But I’ve seen him bleed with my own eyes, and I’ve seen fear on his face. So I’m either going to get strong enough to put him down for good, so that Stell and you don’t ever have to worry about him again, or I’m going to help her, and by extension you, realize that you can get strong enough to take him down yourselves. I’m still trying to figure out which option helps make me a better friend. But that’s my vow to myself, to Stell, and to you too, since you’re also Stell in some way I still don’t understand.”

  Something shuddered as I spoke. I couldn’t tell whether it was myself or the rest of the planet. But my mind-screen informed me that my saga’s Defiant Heart had activated.

  “Cosmic Challenge accepted,” Avalon boomed from the nearby mists. “Avalon bears witness.”

  “Wes…” Breena began.

  “I’m not changing my mind,” I interrupted. “If you didn’t want this kind of commitment from your Challenger, then you should have picked a different Wes Malcolm to save your worlds. End of discussion.”

  I shuddered again.

  And something inside me that still hurt, that was still suffering from everything that had happened to me, healed just a tiny bit.

  A tiny fist suddenly smacked against my shoulder.

  “What?” I asked, startled. “What did I do this time?”

  “That was for making me cry!” Breena said with a sniffle. The she wrapped her tiny arms around that same shoulder and nuzzled against it, her eyes shut tight.

  “And this is for being the best Challenger ever,” she sniffled again. “Thank you, Wes. Please never change.”

  Chapter 5: Territory Signs

  “It’s really not me trying to learn every style and thing there is,” I explained to Breena as we walked back to the others. “It’s me trying to have a style flexible enough to where I can quickly adapt to new scenarios.”

  “I don’t understand,” Breena replied. “But I’m pretty sure you’re just trying not to be called a cheater again.”

  “I thought we were past this,” I complained. “It’s not cheating if it saves the world, right?”

  “Still,” she started to say with a sniff. “But no, you’re right. Proceed to explain.”

  “Well, I realized all of the fighting styles have at least one global benefit. For example, when I get better at fighting with light blades, I get better at landing critical blows with any weapon, because fighting with a short blade is all about slipping past your opponent’s guard and striking something really important. That’s going to be at least a little bit applicable no matter what weapon I use. Fighting unarmed also conditions my body, especially my hands and feet, to handle impacts better, improving my overall resistance to damage.”

  “I still really think you should just focus on one or two things and just stick with them,” my fairy friend insisted.

  “Probably,” I replied. “But until I find the things that fit me best, it’s better to keep getting as many adaptable bonuses as possible.”

  “Fine,” Breena conceded. “You have a point. And if it keeps working I shouldn’t complain.” Her eyes narrowed as she thought for a moment. “Is that also why you kept so many skill points free? And buffed up your ‘General Mastery’ skills the most?”

  “Exactly,” I said with a nod. “There’s a lot out there I still don’t know if I need to know, like figuring out how to live out here in these ruins and woods. And figuring out how to be in charge of like a hundred people now.”

  “Yeah, that is a little scary,” Breena said with a nod. “I promise to help you with that however I can, though.”

  “Thank you,” I said, and meant it. “Right now it’s a scary thing to think about on my own.”

  “That’s the first thing I can help you with,” Breena replied. “You’re going to need a team of people to help you with things. Because even your flexible style won’t account for everything here.” She tapped a finger to her mouth. “You should start with those two women, Anna and Emalee. They can talk with the refugees for you, since you’re going to be busy with all of the fighting and protecting and saving everyone on the other
worlds.”

  “That’s a good idea,” I replied. “They’re probably more comfortable sharing their concerns with someone they already know. What about Karim and the others?”

  “Definitely,” Breena replied with a vigorous nod. “The Testifiers are a group that stretches across several worlds, just to preserve knowledge. Even the three that are stranded here should have access to all sorts of useful skills.”

  “Yeah, I noticed,” I replied. “They helped me get my group to safety. And I had no idea magic like theirs existed.”

  “Yeah,” Breena said with a nod. “Their magics take longer to get the hang of and don’t provide all the benefits Ideal magic provides, so we don’t usually take the time to teach it to Challengers. But each of their three schools can do things Ideal magic can’t.” She looked sad for a moment. “You’re going to try and learn all three of them now, aren’t you? And combine them with Ideal magic into some kind of super-complicated super-school of magic. Am I right?”