Grant

Taking a breath, Mathew continued. "We need to kill the Night Stalker."

"Sorry, did you just say we need to kill the baby skyscraper?" Ben's voice was heavy with sarcasm.

Grant scanned Mathew.

[Mathew - Fatebreaker

Otherworld Human/Carrion Beast Hybrid

Carrion Knight level 4]

Class evolutions were exceedingly rare but Grant did know of one prior occurrence. According to the interrogation of the Crispalid Knight, it occurred at the higher levels of a base class or was gifted.

"Yeah, we need just need to kill a baby," Mathew nodded. "The Night Stalker left protections in place because it is vulnerable. We have a window to take advantage of that."

"What makes you think that this will bring us safety?" Grant asked. "No offense intended, but it's only a matter of time until you fail ascension and lose your sense of self."

Grant felt the incoming notification from Mathew and let it through.

[Alpha ascension processing...

Individual authorized for ascension...

Territory title found: General of Texas

Knighthood generated: Carrion Knights

Class upgraded: Carrion Knight replaces Carrion Soldier]

How? Grant tested the notification for signs of deception. As he broke the message down, it crumbled into chunks of system energy. No signature of Mathew. In theory, it could have been a crafting from Ben but it matched the information in his direct scan of Mathew. Unless this was an elaborate ruse, he'd made it to ascension where the rest had failed.

Even at that, he couldn't be sure. Clare Jackson had shown up from the blue to fight off an Alpha. Sure some of the Hybrids might have still been alive in the wild. A few like Rinheart had probably carved out a slice of safety. But she spoke. If she retained her mind, everything Grant thought he knew might as well go out the window.

That, in particular, made him uncomfortable. Not having enough information to navigate always made him worry about being taken advantage of. Still, if this was true, that meant he may have finally found the golden goose. A Hybrid that could keep the land they lived in from becoming a beacon for Alphas to conquer.

If he could keep his sanity, that was. Just because Mathew had succeeded in achieving the next level didn't mean he would actually be more stable. In the long term, he could still fail and leave everyone right back where they started.

"How did you do this?" Grant asked. "Ascend where all the other Hybrids failed."

"I don't know for sure, but I think it was Amber," Mathew nodded. "Her Freedom magic."

Grants mind whirred. He'd been ready to chastise himself for undervaluing Mathew as only a Hybrid, but it was actually the combination between him and Amber that created this phenomenon. The same Amber he'd thought to rob and shrugged off the thought of her death. Grant had abandoned her.

For the first time since arriving in this world of threat and danger, Grant felt blind.

"I can't establish my Territory," Mathew looked at Amber. "The Territory of Texas, by the way, until that monster is no longer contesting the Territory."

"Well, when my home needs me, I'm gonna answer!" Amber beamed. "How do I help?"

"I don't know yet," Mathew paused "uh, you may not be able to. We don't have a fix fo-"

"You think I don't know!" Amber hugged her arm to herself. "I can still do something."

Buried feelings, buried empathy bubbled to the surface of Grant's psyche. He couldn't rely on his mission to keep his guilt at bay. Grant wasn't the torch of hope anymore. Instead, they were the future, and he'd let them come to harm.

In fact, he'd fed Mathew poison. Potent slow release poison to use him and leave him to die. Grant felt ill at the realization. Maybe Harper could make an antidote there was time.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I must bring up a complication. On the approach to the ruins, Mathew needed more reserves. So I got him some black tubers with high reserve values. Typically foods like that are laced with poison." Grant pressed on. "This wasn't supposed to be a problem as the effects usually take a week or more to set in. I'd expected you to have died by the time it became an issue."

Grant coughed. "I'm sorry."

"You're sorry for poisoning him? On purpose!" Amber glared and Grant felt a spike of danger.

"Yes," He held her gaze. "That isn't all I'm sorry for."

"You can take that sorry and shove it where the sun don't shine!" Amber yelled. "I don't want-"

"Amber!" Mathew snapped. "Bigger fish to fry right now."

"Fine," Amber's tone made it clear he hadn't heard the last of it. Somehow knowing he would pay for his choices made him feel better.

"What's the plan?" Ben asked. A touch of pride took the edge of Grant's pain. He had trained Ben well.

"You and Grant scout out the Night Stalker Alpha. After you report, we use that information to build a plan." Mathew said.

"Okay," Ben nodded.

What was the chance they could kill another Alpha? If it wasn't trapped in a room with little recourse, the chance they'd die trying was most likely. Growling, he embraced the madness that was a close companion he'd rejected for months now. He didn't have a better idea and likely wouldn't have a better chance in the future.

"Scouting, I can do that," Grant said.

"Okay, we'll be waiting," Mathew replied.

Stepping back out of the Hub, Grant channeled his excess passive magic into perception the star-lit night sharpened into a clear image. Shadows faded into the dark recesses of the cracks splintering the spire and the flats of the spire displayed their texture.

At the edge of his enhanced hearing, he heard Amber. "You can't trust him."

Mathew replied. "I'm the only one who can."

Grant wasn't sure what to make of that. Did he have a lie detection skill? That skill existed with a few of the Originals, but they hadn't been around long enough to develop system-recognized social skills. Again his discomfort at not knowing flared again. There wasn't anything to be done about it now, regardless.

Laughing as he began walking up to the peak of the spire, Grant felt an odd sense of freedom, knowing he didn't know enough to make good decisions.

Ben ghosted over the shattered rock soundlessly. "What are you laughing for?"

"I don't know," Grant answered, amused at the serendipity of the confusing but technically true answer.

"Are you okay?" Ben asked.

"No," Grant sobered with a sigh. "But no less okay than usual."

"Okay, let's go," Ben pointed. "If you sense danger, send me over the notification of the threat. Or if you don't know, send your information of the baby Night Stalker."

Grant nodded. Clearly, his time spent attached to the Hub had done him well. Ben had grown. What had Grant done since arriving here? Had he really grown himself?

Shaking his head, he focused on the present. Now was not the time... but isn't that what he always told himself?

Arriving at the lip of the well, Grant and Ben looked down. The starlight scraped ineffectually across a veil of darkness at the bottom of the well. Knowing it wasn't an issue with the light or his vision Grant tried scanning.

His willpower pressed out but nothing returned. Too far away.

"Looks like we have to climb down," Grant whispered.

Ben nodded.

Balancing his passive power between enough perception to navigate and further enhanced strength, Grant braced himself inside a seam of broken rock and began to lower himself down.

Maybe thirty yards down, the seam became too tight for him to continue. Leaning out over the drop, he had a full appreciation of how dead he'd be if he fell. In the event he survived the fall, he'd be pecked to death. Still, his danger sense hadn't ramped up yet, so with that confidence, he leaned out far enough to look for another nearby seam.

Wedging his arms tightly, he swung his leg over to the target seam and scrabbled to find purchase. His leather boots slid off the slanted stone and he dangled by his strained upper body. Shooting across his body, Ben's net wedged itself into the seam Grant had tried to swing into.

Grabbing the tether, Grant eased his weight onto the net. Hand over hand, he moved down to the next seam. Safely braced inside, he gave Ben a thumbs up.

This was how they lowered themselves into the domain of the Night Stalker. Still, he couldn't scan the beast. Grant didn't know what was wrong, but something certainly was.

Drawing on Ben's suggestion of sending over a notification, Grant engaged his deceptions skill and crafted one of his own.

[Something is wrong. I should be able to scan it from here.]

Sending it over, Grant waited. Ben also had an advanced deception skill. Grant was sure he'd be able to replicate the process without prompting.

Sure enough, an answer arrived.

[I'm going to try something new, be ready]

Again the disturbing mix of discomfort and freedom flitted in his guts. Not knowing what Ben was trying, Grant tried to trust him.

Looking down into the almost liquid darkness at the bottom of the pit, Grant saw it move under Ben's efforts. First, it rippled following Ben's hand wave. Then it tore apart. A hundred yards across and half again as long, the dark veil fell apart like gossamer dressing in a storm.

Curled in the bottom of the hole, the Night Stalker didn't even have its down feathers in yet. Scan.

[Night Stalker

Descendant of The Great Divide Night Stalker, this newborn holds the legacy of its parent. Its natural aggression against all other fliers is no less than its parent. Its vision is poorly developed and it has limited access to legacy memory of combat experience. Highest stat is agility. Lowest stat is strength

Increase skill to learn more]

One last look to verify that there wasn't any tunnels or secret caves, Grant decided they had gathered what they could. Pointing up, Grant crafted another message.

[Up?]

Ben nodded.

Reversing their descent, they climbed back to the lip of the broken spire. As they ascended, Grant saw a set of claw marks that were hidden in shadows before this. Uniform and precise, the many deep but short tears in the rock left a pattern. Its purpose was unclear so he continued to climb.

The exhaustion of the day began to catch up with him as he climbed. It was times like this Grant felt his age. Still, he'd provided threat detection to their scouting. Time and time again, Grant's magic showed its value. If this was the cost of utilizing it in this situation, he'd be glad to pay the price.

Dragging himself to the surface entirely, Grant joined Ben in returning to the Hub.

"How'd you remove that shadow layer?" Grant asked.

"Something I heard from Harper. Negative application of magic." Ben shrugged. "Even though I basically only use my magic to stealth myself. I can project it to cover others. So my magic isn't limited to myself. When Harper brought up using magic backward, I hoped I could too."

Grant thought about his magic. He'd never tried to share it with others, much less consider using it to oppose a threat. Could I share threat detection? Or weaken an enemy? Why didn't I try to figure this out sooner?

Not having an answer irritated Grant. Such oversight wasn't something he was used to. Grant was an over thinker, if anything. Still, this was a blind spot and he couldn't figure out why.

Thoughts of options he'd ignored flowed through his mind on the short walk to the Hub.

Returning to the gentle light of the magical lantern, Grant let go of his heightened perception, no need to hurt himself. Ben closed the door behind them. There was a sense of security to it. Even to his threat detection, the Hub was a clearly safer place.

"That was fast," Mathew said.

"Yeah, not a whole lot of information to gather, really," Ben replied. "It's like a baby baby. Not even fully covered in feathers yet. Huge like we expected but maybe this isn't totally hopeless. Grant, did you get anything?"

"Not much more than you," Grant mused. "Weakest stat is strength, so hopefully, it can't climb out of that hole. Highest stat is agility. Again, we'll be lucky if it can't climb out."

"Suggestions?" Mathew asked no one in particular.

Silence drew out.

"Seems like it's a fish in a barrel," Amber said. "Any reason we can't just start dropping heavy things on it? Or shoot it a bunch?"

"Can it get out?" Mathew asked.

"I don't think so," Ben shrugged.

"I do believe it can. I couldn't figure out the intention at the time but one of the walls had a checkerboard of holes drilled into it. I think momma Night Stalker built a way out." As Grant spoke, his sense of future danger slid further away from the present.

"One way up," Mathew tapped his chin. "Maybe we can work with that. Make the Night Stalker pay in health for every inch of progress."

"I can get to brewing again," Harper offered. "Our first crop came up already. They are shield mushrooms, but who knows what it can be rendered down into. Maybe we can choke the fucker out."

"That's dark for you. I like it," Mathew nodded.

"Sorry, I just feel like I've been to naive lately," Harper shrunk. "Here I am making hot tubs and all of you guys are fighting to survive. And Amber-" Harper cut off a sob and gave the other girl a hug.

"Shh, shhh, no worries. I could use a hot tub anyway." Amber spoke into Harper's hair.

Grant felt a gap between himself and the others at times like this. He had no trust and no one would find comfort with him.

"Maybe we should take a break," Mathew said. "Rest and recover. Harper, can you show us what you came up with?"

"Yeah, this way," Harper pointed down the hallway Mathew had carved down the side of the separate room.

Grant followed the rest. He didn't need rest as much as everyone else did. The decision to sidestep progress warred within him. He'd gotten so used to using people until they had nothing left that this seemed wasteful. Still, commanding troops to take a break was a wise tactical decision.

The gray stone gave way to a marble basin. Most of the room was taken up by a giant basin of steaming hot water.

"Tada," Harper spoke without enthusiasm. "I was going to make a washing machine but then I realized we don't have enough clothes for one. I'm probably the only one with any spares anyway. So I made the hot tub self cleaning."

"Don't mind me," Mathew stepped down into the water. "Ahhhh, that's excellent Harper, thank you."

Like a gate being opened, the rest of the residents climbed in. Ben unraveled his net from his back and set it to the side.

"You too, Grant," Mathew called.

Taking off his shirt so that none of his hidden powders got wet, Grant slid down into the heavenly water. An embarrassing cloud of dirt and grime spread out from himself. Scrubbing with his hands, Grant used the opportunity to finish getting clean.

Hygiene wasn't nearly as critical in Leternum as it was on Earth, so he'd ignored it as something that was only a distraction. The pool of hot water drew the cloud of muddy water away. For the first time in a long time, Grant felt human again.

"Where'd you get that bite scar?" Mathew pointed.

"This one," Grant touched his shoulder. "Shark-toothed sky snake. Nasty buggers have a habit of swarming. This was where my camouflage failed. If I killed it, the rest would have torn me apart, so I paid my pound of flesh and let the monster eat its fill. Lived though."

"What about those claw marks?" Ben asked.

"Bear attack," Grant answered.

"What are monstrous bears like?" Ben pressed.

"Monstrous bear? No, those scars are from Earth." Grant deadpanned. "Not much to say about it, really. Wrong place, wrong time. I was lucky to find myself a deep crack to slide into, so this is all she did to me. After a few hours, she got bored of waiting for me to come out."

Reminiscing got him thinking about simpler times. Alone in the mountains, occasionally taking some panned gold down to the general goods store. An honest to God general store that weighed gold for barter. He'd found an opportunity to live a life from a simpler time. Not quite as good as having her back in his life, but it was something he could understand.

They lapsed into silence, the fatigues and abuses on their bodies stealing the energy to be social. Soaking away the aches, Grant's tired mind got lost trying to find his sense of purpose. What did he want?