Descend- First Steps

by David Burke

  “Yeah, now I think there is only one more test. Can you touch it with another part of your body and see if it affects you?”

  She hesitated for a moment but then put her left hand against the transformed tissue. Even after holding it there for almost a minute there she told Jay that she didn’t feel anything and there was no temperature or color change.

  “I think we can say it is safe for you and that this technique may be a way to help protect you from damage that you might otherwise take. This really could be a life saver and who knows maybe as you get stronger the life-draining effect will increase. Did you notice any sensations while my finger was touching you?”

  “No not really, other than being a bit weirded out.”

  “Good, now I want to test another of my skill combos and then I need to learn about one of my new skills,” Jay said.

  “We’ve been at this for, what 3 or 4 hours? When do we get to take lunch break?” Amelia asked.

  “After these 2 things. Trust me, you will like helping me learn this new skill. It involves you throwing stuff at me.”

  Amelia’s face lit up with a bright smile that Jay figured made the morning all worthwhile in and of itself. “Well then what are waiting for, I just need to find some fruit to throw.”

  “First things first. I have practiced combining speed and strength enhancements. Using two stamina skills at the same time basically doubles how quickly it drains my stamina. Now I want to try out Hardened Body and then see if I can combine it with both enhancements.”

  Amelia apparently wasn’t paying much attention to him and instead was already collecting some small fruits about the size of peaches but bright purple and slightly shaped like an oval. Jay just shrugged even though no one was watching and then pushed Stamina into his Hardened Body skill. This skill was at a ranking of 5 whereas Strength was at 3 and Speed at 2. He hadn’t noticed much of a difference in stamina drain or impact between the 2 and 3 but he was curious if a 5 would be noticeably different.

  As he pushed the power from the center of his chest into the skill he felt his skin seem to grow tighter and then more pliable before finally settling in with a general feeling of sturdiness. He punched a tree lightly and didn’t feel any pain, just the general sensation of force rebounding from his impact back into his arm. His dad had always stressed that if you had to fight then when you punched you always pulled your hand back just as quickly as you delivered the punch. It was something about causing more damage that way and protecting his hand.

  With that remembered lesson in mind he increased the stamina he was pouring into Hardened Body and was able to double the effect. It was a truly strange feeling to tell that your bones were getting denser but he could absolutely feel the difference. Once he felt settled into the new body he threw another punch at the tree. This one was a bit harder and faster but without any enhancement. Oh and he remembered to pull his hand back this time.

  No pain but still a bit of a jarring sensation and he managed to scuff the bark and make a shallow indentation. It wasn’t exactly impressive, but it was an improvement. Next he pushed for a triple effect and felt his body undergo the same change, it was rather exhilarating once he got used to the oddness of it.

  Still he was frustrated when he tried to push past a third burst. None of his skills yet whether they be stamina or PSI-based had allowed him to go beyond that level and yet he had hoped since this skill was a rank 5 that it might be different. Internally he cursed, “No dice,” but didn’t waste much time on it. It was what it was.

  Once he added his strength enhancement he felt the stamina drain jump up and he went from something he might have been able to maintain even at the triple boost for a few minutes to something that he was gonna be lucky to hold onto for a single minute. Punching the tree with triple hardening and triple strength enhancement though was well worth it. His hooking punch dug a broad gash through the bark and into the wood of the tree beneath to a depth maybe three inches. Even his inexperienced mind told him that such a punch would likely have killed a normal human if it had connected.

  Behind him he heard some clapping. Rather than turn to hear whatever sarcastic comment Amelia had about trees not hitting back, Jay just pushed forward with his experiment. He could already feel himself running low on Stamina. The drain felt like an emptiness in the center of his chest, like the very core of his being was rushing out of him.

  When he added the triple enhancement to speed the stamina drain jumped up again and if at full he would only be able to hold onto this state for maybe 10-15 seconds. Whatever, he felt like a god of war and moved forward with full speed punching the tree. This time the punch split the tree as a section was crushed in its 12-inch diameter trunk. The portion above his punch toppled over and crashed into the nearby trees and bushes.

  Chapter 25 - Forcefields and Finger Guns

  Jay released the skills before the very last of his stamina was drained but when he turned to Amelia he saw her admiration rather than the mocking he had expected. “Okay, so I admit that was impressive.”

  “Thanks, but it takes a lot of focus. I’m still gonna have to practice more.”

  They stared at each other awkwardly for a moment before she said, “So when do I get to throw fruit at you.”

  “How about right now,” Jay said as he imagined a bubble around himself and pushed PSI energy from his head into the Kinetic Dampening skill.

  Amelia didn't have to be told twice as she flung the first piece at him. He was mostly able to dodge it at the last second when he didn’t feel his skill kicking in only to hear her protest, “It isn’t as much fun if you move out of the way.”

  Jay looked at the purple smudge on his forearm where the fruit had grazed him and said, “I better take my shirt off for this.”

  “Okay, but don’t think I’m gonna take it easy on you. Either you are gonna learn whatever it is you are aiming for or you're gonna get purple.” Her smile was a mixture of mischievousness and willfulness.

  Science was certainly not Jay’s forte but he had known enough to realize that the increased speed would have a dramatic impact on the power of his punch. He just knew that the Kinetic Dampening skill had to somehow slow movement. He focused his energy into that belief.

  This time as the fruit flew towards him he was sure that it slowed down. Of course he spent too long watching the fruit coming at him, trying to measure its pace that he let it hit him square in the chest. He stumbled backwards in his belated dodge attempt and groaned while Amelia laughed at the purple pulp all over his chest.

  “Okay, I thought it started to work that time,” Jay said even while thinking about how much harder his PSI skills were for him to use over the more physical skills. He managed to dodge the next couple of fruits but wasn’t sure how much they were slowed. Even if this wasn’t coming naturally to him he still was determined and it was that determination that caused a bit of a breakthrough. He felt as if the invisible channel from his head broke open more and the PSI energy flowed faster.

  Suddenly he felt a bubble of distortion around him. He didn’t know how else to describe it. It was almost like the space around him stuttered. Jay pushed harder and felt the bubble increase not only in size but in distortion. Whereas at first it had extended only about 6 inches from his skin now it was more like a full foot. The next fruit that was thrown at him came in with normal velocity and all of Amelia’s desire to embarrass him. That was until it hit the distortion bubble. Then it slowed visibly. He wouldn’t say it crawled but it was still easy enough for him to knock it out of the air.

  Encouraged, Jay burnt through PSI even faster as he pushed harder and hit the triple effect. The bubble pushed out 2 feet from his body and the next fruit was crawling through the air after it hit the field. Three, four, five fruit all thrown in rapid succession all experienced the same distortion. The fruit still crossed the bubble in half a second but as Jay thought about it later the movement seemed ridiculously slow compared to full speed.

 
Jay ran out of PSI with the tripled distortion field running but they spent the next thirty minutes practicing it twice more each time after he had regenerated completely. As with all the skills it became easier the more that he did it and allowed Jay to make some calculations. It looked like objects freely moving through the air like a thrown fruit was reduced in speed by about half for each level of the effect he maintained. At full power the distortion field cut the movement down to 1/8th. It wouldn’t be enough to save him from a bullet but thrown objects were no problem. If he could increase to a 4th or 5th level of effect it would drop to ridiculously slow speeds. Eventually, with enough levels it might even protect him from things like projectile weapons.

  The distortion field had less effect upon things that still had force acting upon them. When Amelia swung a big stick at him it barely slowed and only his hardened body saved him from a concussion. The sound of the stick cracking against his skull must have been distinctive enough to even make Amelia feel bad as she kept apologizing. Jay just told her it was part of the experiment learning about their abilities and eventually her pragmatic side came back and she reverted back to insulting him.

  Jay had a bit of an epiphany at this point as he tried pulsing the distortion field on and off so that it completely threw Amelia off balance while she was trying to attack him with the stick. This led to the realization that maybe his problem with Kinetic Bolt was the duration of the blast rather than the amount of power being applied.

  He had to wait for his PSI to regenerate but then after it did he tried using the same principle of just the briefest bursts possible with the most energy packed into each one like he had done with the distortion field. Whether out of silliness or from some misguided sense that it looked cool, Jay took to making a gun with his hand and bringing down his thumb like the hammer on a revolver every time that he projected one of the quick bursts of kinetic energy. They weren’t very impressive until he hit the 3rd level of the skill but at that point the bursts blasted half-inch-deep divots into the side of the tree. He hoped it would be enough to penetrate skin but wasn’t sure.

  “So what’s that called?” Amelia asked.

  “I guess force bullets…” Jay answered with uncertainty in his voice.

  “What from your finger guns?”

  Jay was certain she was mocking him now. “They aren’t as powerful as an accelerated rock but I can rapid fire them. Maybe with practice I can turn it into a good weapon or at least a way to deter a group of animals. Don’t always have to kill everything. We just need to survive.”

  “Whatever you have to tell yourself, but just more proof that boys never grow up,” Amelia said.

  Jay chose to ignore her and sat down in a clear area near the stream. He sent out another pulse of his Life Sense before determining that it was safe. With no large creatures showing up he felt comfortable getting out some of his rations and having a quick lunch.

  “Well are you going to share some with me?”

  “Are you going to stop making fun of me?” Jay asked in response to her question.

  “Fine, I didn’t mean to hurt your fragile ego. Now, are you gonna share your lunch with me? I’m hungry too.”

  Something about Amelia made every word she spoke, every motion she made from the flip of her hair to the way she stood there with one hand on her hip practically demanding that he share his food with her, so sexy. Jay didn’t know where that thought had come from. They had just spent the past few hours in close proximity training together and not once had he really thought anything about her other than a couple of heavy-handed jokes he made. He couldn’t put his finger on it but something felt different now. “You know you really need to work on your apologies.”

  Amelia sat down next to him and took one of the daily rations from him before responding with, “Who says I meant to apologize? Appeasing and apologizing are not the same thing.”

  Chapter 26 - Little Brain Thinking

  Jay simply looked at her. He thought about if it was worth the trouble to come back at her but the longer he sat there eating and relaxing the more he noticed the thin line of sweat running down her neck to her collarbone. It was such a shapely neck too. He saw the way that she breathed, the rise and fall of her breasts beneath her leather armor, breasts which he knew for a fact were a joy to behold. He stopped thinking about what to say and sent out another pulse of Life Sense to check the surroundings.

  At first Amelia responded in the way many a girl does when she knows she is being checked out. It is either time to preen or time to be standoffish. Between bites of food she kept shifting to show off more leg, moving herself closer to where Jay was sitting. “So do you think it would be safe for me to take a bath? I’m all sweaty.”

  “Well, I don’t sense any big life forms near us, which is kinda strange but maybe us being here is keeping the wildlife away. Thing is we don’t exactly have swimming suits or towels to dry off.”

  “It’s not like you haven’t seen everything already,” Amelia said as she began to unbuckle her leather armor.

  “Fuck, I don’t know. I don’t know if this is a good idea, out here, in the dungeon I mean.” Jay shook his head even as he spoke and thought, “What kind of idiot tries to keep a girl’s clothes on?” But he couldn’t shake the feeling that this was a bad idea even as his blood was practically burning in his veins for her.

  By that point her armor was off and she was down to that low-cut top along with her shorts. She bent over to take her shoes off and wiggled her ass. “Are you gonna join me or maybe you're the type that likes to watch.”

  Jay felt a conflict between the part of him that said this was stupid and dangerous and that part that wanted her more than anything. He couldn’t quite figure out the urgency but the drive he felt pushed rational thought out of mind. Before he knew it they were both naked and she was inviting him into the stream.

  Waist-deep running water flowed around them as his mouth found hers and all pretense of washing each other went out the window. Their hands still roamed over each other but it was more urgent, breathlessly needy. His tongue thrust into her mouth as he pulled her close, ignoring the cold water but shivering as he felt her breasts against the skin of his chest.

  Their passion and need fed off of one another and Jay couldn’t stop himself. One hand slid down between her legs where even the flow of water couldn’t remove the evidence of her arousal. As his fingers entered her he leaned in kissing her neck and she whispered in his ear with that tone of desire, “No, not this time. I need you in me.”

  There was a part of Jay that wanted to play with her again but a chemically induced state of urgency was drowning that out, just like it had the voice that had warned how dangerous it was to do this in the dungeon. As he pulled his fingers from her warmth he slid both hands under her ass and lifted her up. His new strength made it effortless even with the stream pushing against him. An urge kept going through his mind, one so primal that he had no idea where it came from, “Breed her. Make her yours.”

  Whatever it was about that thought was enough to shock Jay. He held Amelia tight against his body while trying to focus his thoughts. The voice had said to focus. He needed to remember that. But oh god how he wanted her. She wasn’t making it any easier on him as she had moved from simply kissing his neck and ear into trying to squirm her body downward. Apparently she got tired of waiting for him and was intent on impaling herself on him.

  Trying to buy himself more time, Jay swung her up so that he was cradling her sideways in his arms. Amelia responded by running her hands all over his shoulders and chest as she said, “Don’t wait. Take me.”

  Jay walked out of the water holding her still and said, “Something isn’t right. Why are we suddenly so horny?”

  Amelia had a confused look cross her face for a moment before smiling. “Duh, don’t be dense. It’s because you are so hot.”

  “No that isn’t it. I am beginning to fear that this is the buildup of whatever is in our water.”

&n
bsp; She gave him her best sexy pout and said, “Who cares? Don’t you want me?”

  “Yes, more than life itself, but don’t you see that doesn’t make sense. We need to survive the dungeon then we have all the fun we want tonight in the safety of a bungalow.”

  “I don’t want to wait? Why do you?”

  Jay set her down and was shocked at the look of hurt on her face. He almost lost his focus at that point and gave in to his desire. Then he felt that sense of danger. He tried to pull her out of the way, but the way she was trying to cling to him slowed him and a razor-sharp claw lashed out, opening a deep cut in Amelia’s side.

  She cried out as the pain caused her to let go of Jay, who was forced to let her fall to the ground bleeding in favor of dealing with the attacking lizard cat. A part of him once again swore that he would come up with a better name for the animal even as he subconsciously was boosting his speed as he pivoted sideways to avoid the creature’s lunge. Then he burst a pulse of his Kinetic Dampening field for just a single second. It was long enough to cause the cat to stumble while Jay leapt onto its back.

  Once there, he hooked his legs underneath to pin its rear legs and shot his arms forward under its forelegs to come up with his hands clasped behind its neck. It was an old wrestling move that he had seen called the full nelson. Immediately he transitioned from boosting speed to pouring stamina points into his enhanced strength. Just because the creature was still trying to lash out with its middle legs he boosted his Hardened Body skill. Those razor-sharp claws were nothing to laugh at.

  Jay started pressing down on the creature’s head, forcing it lower and lower in an attempt to snap its neck. Even with his greater strength and denser bones it was a struggle. He was bigger than the beast but as is typical it was much stronger than a regular human of its size.

  Then Jay looked over and saw a naked Amelia lying on her side clutching her hand to the grisly wound. Her form, which had a minute ago been the singular object of his lust, was instead now the source of the pity and anger rising up within him. Pity for this girl who wasn’t quite a friend, yet he still wouldn’t have wished a wound like that on anyone. Anger for this creature which was the symbolic representative of whatever fiend had stuck them all in this hellish place.