“Prepare to lose by a thousand points. Calvin Meteor Swarm!” Calvin shouted his special attack as he released the bowstring at the same time that he copied the arrow, aiming it at the target he and Baroke had set up in the woods.

Mass Splitting

Bent 6/7 remaining.

He was a little too early with the spell, and the arrows rained down in front of him, all twenty-five pounds of them. Twenty-five pounds of arrows came out to…more than Cal cared to count. His original arrow hit the 5-point outer ring.

“Ack, damnit,” Cal said as the shower of roughly five hundred practice arrows pelted the ground in front of him. He was still getting the timing of his spellwork down.

He knew it was possible for the momentum of an object to be copied, along with the temperature, so all he had to do was get the timing down and he’d have a handy little missile copying ability.

According to Karen, sometimes when you use two abilities together in a novel way, they got along so well that they made a baby. A new hybrid skill. Cal would have to have Archery at level five before that was a possibility, though. For now he’d have to settle for simply launching a swarm of arrows. Or, trying to.

“Okay, I’ll admit it.” Persei said, taking a sip of her wine. “That was impressive. If not in the way you hoped.”

She and Jinnei were waiting for their turn while Cal shot the target. Baroke had already nailed the bullseye, putting their team’s total score at one ‘o five.

“Bah,” Cal said, tromping back to the bench while the girls took his spot.

“It’s times like this I regret living in a backwater village with only two girls our age.” Baroke said, sipping his wine.

“Why’s that?” Cal asked.

“My cousin,” he said, pointing at Persei. “Your sister.” He pointed at Jinnei. “What could have been a fun afternoon of drunken strip-archery is instead competitive mudslinging.”

“Huh, bummer, I don’t think girls from Surrak would be interested in a three-hour cart ride to come out here and fool around, though.”

“Kala was,” Baroke said.

“Was, being the operative word.” Cal had spotted her walking around Surrak seemingly without a care in the world. If her father let her walk around the city unattended, surely she could come visit? Unless she didn’t want to.

Cal once again thought of the face she’d made, the sheer unbridled terror in her eyes as she struggled against the chains to get even a little bit further away from him.

I wish I knew what’s driven her away. On the other hand, it wasn’t like he had much of a shot with the daughter of the man who ran the country.

“Why the long face?” Persei asked, throwing an arm over his shoulder in a familiar way. He could feel the soft skin of her arm on his shoulder, and her hip pressed against him in a way that made him hyper-aware of her presence.

“We beating you guys too hard?”

What the heck is Persei doing out here, anyway? Isn’t she with Kort?

Cal opened his mouth to ask, then his Intuition caught up with his mouth, shutting it with a clack. It hadn’t been obvious to him three years ago, but now he knew that asking straight out why she wasn’t with her boyfriend was not the ideal tactic.

If the two of them are on the outs, then Persei is either:

Trying to move on and pick someone else. Trying to get back at Kort for something. Really friendly. Actually interested in Cal.

Cal worked through the evidence and realized it was number two. Kort had done something stupid and Persei was punishing him for it. Calvin had seen her glaring at him earlier in the day, just after she’d invited him to join her family for dinner the night before. I for one am not interested in their lover’s squabble.

On the other hand…

“I’ve just been so burdened recently,” Cal said, putting emotion into it with Acting. “My Calling is being decided by the elders, which is stressful. Together with with building the new house and helping Karen out with the farm…I’ve been run ragged, and it’s starting to build up.”

Cal glanced up at the sky and heaved a sigh before looking Persei in her brown eyes.

“Hanging out with you helps keep me sane.”

“Really?” Persei blushed, and Cal spotted the opportunity to put his hand around her waist, enjoying the feel of her soft hip underneath the wool pants.

“I’m just so pent up. I just wish I had some way to let off some steam and forget about my cares for a couple minutes.” Cal said wistfully.

“Well…” Persei started to speak when Jinnei rapping the back of his head with a practice arrow spoiled the moment.

“Your turn again. And quit messing with Persei,” she said, motioning to the target.

“Please,” Baroke said, giving Cal a raised eyebrow as the giant set his cup down and picked up his massive longbow.

Baroke nocked one of the scattered arrows Cal had made and drew his bow back, aiming at the target.

“Penetrating Shot”

Baroke released the arrow, and it shot forward, boring through the bullseye, the tree behind it, and a boulder behind that, sending cracks spiderwebbing outward through the stone.

Baroke had just recently gotten to level ten at Archery. The giant boy loved to go outside and plink arrows into haybales for hours at a time, and his hyper-focus had paid enormous dividends. If the village was ever attacked by a Warped monster from deeper in the woods, Cal was sure an ability like that would come in handy.

Cal, by contrast had spread his focus around so much that he only had two skills at level five, and all his secondary Mind stats wouldn’t reach their peak for a long time. On the other hand, when they did, he would outperform Baroke in every way.

Hopefully.

“I didn’t know we were allowed to use abilities for anything other than comedic effect like Cal.” Jinnei said, drawing her thin sword.

She waved her blade lazily and the distant target cracked, the lower half falling to the ground.

Damn. Cal blinked, trying to process what had just happened.

“I guess that’s the end of practice.” Persei said with a sigh. “Now we gotta actually do stuff.” The girl disentangled herself from Calvin and stretched with a groan. “Not looking forward to weeding for four hours straight.”

They’d been playing hooky with Cal while he watched Karen’s sheep, and the day was beginning to stretch into afternoon.

“We could just shoot trees,” Baroke said. Of course he was up for that.

“Nah, I’ve got stuff to get back to,” Jinnei said, then glanced around. “And Calvin’s gotta find the rest of the sheep.”

“Huh? Shit!” Cal glanced around and noticed that a ram and no less than three ewes had wandered away from the rest of the herd milling around behind them. They were nowhere to be seen.

“Son of a bitch!” Cal tried to locate which direction they’d gone, and spotted a trampled trail of underbrush leading to the south east, toward the deep forest and the snow-capped mountains beyond.

Your legs will grace my dinner table for this travesty!

“Take them back for me, I gotta track Roger down before they get too far away.” Cal settled his bow over his shoulders. Roger was the name of the errant ram that liked to run off, after a crochety old man Karen had used to know.

“uhuh,” Jinnei said, beginning the process of herding the rest of the sheep back to the village.

“You want some help?” Baroke asked, glancing toward the deep wood. “Could be dangerous.”

“I think it might be even more dangerous having your loud self tromping along behind me announcing our presence to the entire forest. Don’t worry, if I come across anything too big to fight, I’ll break Roger’s leg and run.”

“fair point. Be safe.” He said, before following after Jinnei.

“Are you really feeling that badly?” Persei asked once the others were out of earshot, her face radiating concern. She had a wide nose and large, full lips that complemented her dark skin.

Cal had been stressed that the village elders would decide he was a waste of space and kick him out on his birthday, even though that was practically unheard of. Cal wasn’t exactly the most reliable person in the village, though, and his foreign look didn’t win him any points with the elders, either.

“Yeah, it’s been rough.” Cal said honestly. “I don’t know if the village is gonna decide to keep me around. My Skills aren’t exactly geared towards being a productive member of society. Everyone else learned Farming, Planting, Animal Husbandry, Smithing, Carpentry, or the like. I can do tricks. I guess I kinda figured I’d be conquering cities by now. ”

Persei watched him for a moment, seemingly weighing something in her mind.

“Alright, sit down.” She finally said.

“Huh?”

“Sit.” She said with authority, pointing at the log.

Calvin sat, his heart slamming against his ribs as Persei knelt between his legs.

“If you tell anyone about this, I’ll hurt you.” She said, unbuckling his pants.

***Calvin***

Well, that was relaxing, Cal thought as he stalked through the deep woods as quietly as he could, aiming to catch up to Roger and the ewes. They’d left a path through the woods that wasn’t always clear, but Cal’s Hunting Skill kept him following their tracks, moving the right direction.

They’ve only been gone an hour or two, and the damn sheep are halfway across the forsaken continent! Cal thought as he crept through the forest, whisper-quiet. Stealth came in handy when staying safe in the deep woods.

A quarter mile ago, he’d seen signs of the sheep getting spooked and taking off at a trot. It might take him the rest of the day to find them and bring them back.

That’s it. Maybe they’ll make me Boros’ apprentice. I’ve got Stealth and Hunting, and I’m not terrible with a bow.

Woodsman Calvin….

Bleh.

Wizard-king for life. Just as soon as I chase these damned sheep down. Worse comes to worst, I can join the army.

Cal suddenly pictured Jinnei’s invisible slash and wondered what it would be like to be on the receiving end of a skill like that.

I could handle it with the right practice, he thought, ducking under a low-hanging tree as he glided through the forest.

A half an hour later, Cal had finally managed to catch up with Roger. The ornery ram was eyeing him with its typical belligerent gaze, standing between him and the three ewes. All he had to do now was calmly guide Roger back to the north-west, and eventually the ram would recognize the terrain and head for the pen on their own recognizance.

“Alright, Roger, Git,” Cal said, cutting a couple saplings and using them to irritate the ram into moving away, at which point, his girls would chase after him.

Call was in the process of leading Roger back to the path they’d formed, when he felt a gaze on the back of his head.

Cal froze, keeping his ears open. The gaze traveled down to the square of his back. Right over his heart. Cal lunged to the side and an instant later he heard a bow Twang! An arrow whistled through the underbrush and struck a tree in front of him.

Cal scrambled behind a thick tree, his panic causing Roger to break into a run to the southwest. Damnit.

“Kort, I swear, it was her idea,” Cal said, glancing around the tree. “And I mean, with your mom, I didn’t even know what we were doing…the first time.”

Rather than the slender, muscled warrior Cal was expecting, Cal spotted half a dozen savage Genosian cannibals from the snowy mountains to the southeast. The one in the lead was staring at his bow in disbelief.

They had ashen grey skin and had shaved their heads bald, and were surprisingly thick and muscular, inhumanly strong. They wore tattered hides and sported horn bows strung with monster guts.

Oh, thank the gods, it’s just cannibals. Cal heaved a sigh of relief.

Still a bit of a problem, though.

“Do you speak Gudveran?” Cal shouted in Gudveran.

“Markov?” he shouted in Karen’s home tongue.

“Trade tongue speak?” he shouted in Ilethan. Those people got around.

“Speak trade, boy. Want meat.” He heard the savage respond.

“You take sheep, I go!” Cal shouted from behind his tree, pulling his knife. If these guys weren’t feeling like reasonable adults, then Cal would have to make a run for it.

He hastily looked around for something to copy, but his belt was filled with things like twine and tinder, a bit of food, water, and a piece of flint and steel to start fires with.

I should take to carrying around a caltrop.

“We take you.”

Well, there goes that idea.

Cal heard crashing in the woods as one of them charged toward his tree. Cal jumped forward, staying low and keeping as much tree between himself and the rest as he could.

The Genosian bared sharpened teeth as he charged forward, aiming an obsidian studded club at Cal’s chest.

Cal lunged forward, slipping underneath the man’s swing. Cal’s knife wasn’t nearly long enough to reach him, but…

Splitting.

Bent 5/7 remaining.

The man’s wicked obsidian club popped into Cal’s hand and he whipped it upward, catching his opponent across the neck and chin, jostling his brain and tearing his throat to shreds.

The grey man stumbled backwards, choking out some words as he tried to stagger away, blood drenching the hand that he’d slapped over his throat.

“There, meat. I go now?” Cal said, pointing at the warrior slowly slumping to the ground before resting the bloodied obsidian-bladed club on his shoulder. Acting like you aren’t about to piss yourself is the basics.

The Genosians didn’t look amused. The one in the lead squinted at Cal’s club for a moment, then turned and called behind them.

A second later, fatter Genosian emerged from the woods. This one was important. Cal could tell by the size of his bone hat. That and the other Genosians preformed a quick kneel of supplication when the big one showed up.

I should take the opportunity to bolt, Cal thought, stepping backwards and fishing out his flint and steel. If he could make a wisp of smoke, he could copy enough of it to distract them and put some distance between them.

“In Nuak meh kora tua maje!” the one in the lead said, pointing at Cal.

“Maje?” The big one said, eying Cal critically.

“Ker Bada tur Nuak!”

The big man rolled his eyes like a long-suffering parent and held his hand up high, palm downward. Black Bent visibly passed through his veins and exited his palm in a swirl of green mist that seemed to coalesce into the skull of a…small man?

What in the hells am I looking at? Cal thought as the fat man repeated the process to create three identical warriors, each about as big as a nine year old, maybe ninety pounds, but fully muscled, and obviously adult.

Once the green mist passed, they looked perfectly alive, and angry, snarling at him with their shark-teeth and tattooed faces. The fat man passed small clubs to each of them.

“Well, that’s now officially the most interesting thing that’s happened today.” Cal said, bringing the flint and steel up.

Now just need a tiny bit of smoke and I can…wait a minute? Can I Split a spark?

“Kora.” The fat man said, waving a lazy hand at Cal.

The tiny men snarled and began charging at him, moving through the underbrush like the wind.

One way to find out. Gods I hope I get the timing right.

Adrenalin making everything seem slow, Cal tilted the flint toward the three sprinting…things.

Cal struck the flint with the confidence of years of practice, sending a shower of sparks outward.

He desperately seized on the largest spark that was heading straight toward the three charging toward him.

Mass Splitting.

Bent 4/7 remaining.

A small patch of forest in front of Cal exploded into flames as twenty-five pounds of white-hot steel flakes filled the air directly in front of the charging little men, setting everything on fire and melting their skin from their bodies.

The little men writhed for an instant before dissolving into green vapor.

On the other side of the fire, the fat Genosian shouted, his words too fast to make out, but from the way he was pointing at Cal and gesturing wildly…It couldn’t be good.

This seems like the distraction I need. Call thought, reaching out with his Bent and isolating a lick of flame before recreating it to fill the forest between them.

Mass Splitting.

Bent 3/7 remaining.

One mote of incandescent vapor was multiplied a hundred thousand times as twenty five pounds of fire sprang into being, forming a sheet between them. The small forest fire became a huge one in an instant, the sheer heat forcing Cal to stagger backwards.

Time to run.