Julia rested her back against the shell of the largest Lurker she’d encountered so far. Keeping her chin upright, and her posture as straight as possible. From mid-thigh down, her legs were a mass of pain, weird phantom pain. Rather than allow Pain Tolerance to sweep the sensations away; she opted to use it as a challenge to force the progression of Ki Meditation.

Floating her awareness in the movements of the Ki as it slowly recovered, was like floating in an ocean; relaxing, calming, and yet one had to be careful not to drown. Especially when the pain and odd sensation involved in regrowth kept trying to drag all focus under the waves. Julia let her mind move within the Ki’s ebb and flow.

When she had started her spring cleaning, the Lurkers' extermination experiments had started at the smallest gathering of Lurkers Julia could find. It wasn't a game, so it needed a better approach than punching them while playing tag. She’d made a bunch of discoveries early in her efforts.

1) Whatever energy enabled her Flight didn’t attract lurkers.

2) Use of Flight itself they didn’t notice. However, flying fast attracted attention. In contrast, flying at a slow walking pace or less seemed to be stealth mode on a Lurker.

3) Ki settling into her hands or feet, that it got them excited and attracted attention.

4) Ki flowing through her in pure meditation, did nothing to attract them. No matter how close she was to one.

4) Using Blink, Energy drain, Detect thought, or it seemed any ability that could have an external effect drew them like flies to a corpse.

5) Shapeshift was odd. The way it sometimes reacted to some changes, yet not others.

6) Blink was her new BFF, long may it reign.

Seriously Shapeshift down to the size of a teddy bear, well a large teddy bear, and still apply enough strength to punch into a Lurker’s shell. Yeah, it was Odd.

After some experimenting, Julia had figured out a tactic to handle Lurkers safer and easier than playing tag. The way their giant front pincers took up more space than their narrow bodies was a poor design. It allowed her enough space in various places to Blink in between its body and a lair wall, where they had no offensive option. It was like standing in the gap under someone’s armpit and having plenty of time to push in a knife, and they couldn’t close their arm. Blink putting her into that spot initially had only been a test, but she’s struck pay-dirt with it.

The various Lurker holes first went straight inwards from a crevice, and then after several body lengths of the one carving them, shifted direction to form a big loop. The formation of the tunnel's cul-de-sac allows the occupant to enter the tunnel either in reverse or head first and still position themselves to face outwards. However, given the breadth of pincers and shoulders, they couldn’t get close to either side of the passage. During her initial practice attempts in cleaning them out, she pushed Blink’s range of 30 feet. The skill's range was enough to reposition inside the lairs or get outside again.

Confining the fights to the passages let her deal with one Lurker at a time, in an environmental situation that they had set up but gave her control. That change in tactics for coping with the Lurkers had progressed perhaps too smoothly. She should have seen the incoming event from Murphy’s law in that success. However, while it had worked, it was on for young and old, till she made a ‘slight’ miscalculation.

Julia had successfully cleared out a few pits when the plain's still air had stirred, darkening sky proclaiming a storm incoming. So a large dose of too much confidence found her pushing her luck. Rather than doing something sensible like withdrawing to an already cleared, she’d pressed onwards.

The result was she’d become caged in by a hurricane loaded with chitin wrecking sand. It had settled itself overhead, even while she was still dealing with the largest Lurker in that Pit. The storm had been raising a racket and fighting inside a tunnel was noisy with the trapped Lurker scrapping shell on stone. Whatever the reason, she had missed the danger approaching until a new player announced its arrival.

Which they'd done so using something she had missed entirely until it had done so

7) Acid Shot wasn’t just used by Lurkers when fighting; they use it to carve or melt out the tunnels that form their lairs.

She had been beating the latest Lurker like a drum when its bigger brother came over to join the band. The first she had known about it, was when it smashed a pincer bigger than her most recent playmate through the ‘solid’ stone that had been so useful in protecting her flank. It's very first attack taking all support out from under her, literally.

The saving grace was that attack had cut so hard and fast it hadn’t kept a grip on her. Like scissors through paper, it had snipped off both her legs off in a single motion just beneath the crotch. The health indicator dropped from full to about twenty percent at the same moment.

An instant later, Pain Tolerance activated to give her surge of clarity, despite the flaring pain trying to break her. The absence of pain cleared her mind long enough for Blink to carry her across the original playmate. She had switched the skill off, but either Pain Tolerance had decided her plan no longer applied, or her subconscious had thrown up its hands and said screw that for a joke.

Improved Regeneration sealed the wounds, turning each of her stumps into rough plate-like shapes. The result had been uneven but had prevented her from bleeding out. Which she hadn’t known was demonically possible, though her dropping health indeed showed otherwise. A later check with a hand having its chitin removed, let her feel the roughness like scar tissue formed on the wounds.

The entire event had given her a new icon in the hud, while she had set a few via profile control, but it wasn’t one included by her. The outline of a body had appeared, initially showing legs that had been flashing black while her health dropped. Then, when it stopped falling, the missing body parts had outlined as dotted lines. She could only figure that she’s played too many Mech warrior games, and it had translated the information into something it knew she’d understand. As for her original playmate, their second attack had cut it in two as it struck towards her.

While she had escaped the damage from that second attack, it had come close to taking her apart as well. Losing her legs taught her another odd thing about Shapeshift. While she could Shapeshift new limbs, extremities and heck tendrils she’d certainly never had before. Having lost her legs, she couldn’t shift to a form of any kind that had legs, nor could she grow anything from her stumps.

Blinking to its side and holding herself aloft with Flight, the follow-up punches just kept bouncing off its armour. She had been desperate for a solution, only to be saved by pop culture. Its body was too well armoured on its outside, but Lurker’s like crabs couldn’t chew nor close their mouth all the way. Their mouth merely provided them with a location to ingest food, though they didn’t need it; it construction didn’t let them chew. Blink again, she landed on its shoulder, and growing tendrils from her sides tied herself around its thick, inflexible neck.

She had then grown more tendrils into its mouth, sliding into the gap that never closed. Sprouting an eye inside its mouth from the tendril inside it had been disorientating. After adjusting to the changed perspective, piercing up into its brain had been easy. A giant mass of coral-like spikes grown into its brain later and a Lurker whose level she still couldn’t analyse was dead.

Stopping Ki Meditation as her concentration was threatening to lose its grip on things. Julia finally just sat and listened to the surrounding sounds, the wind and blood dripping out of the dead Lurkers near her. Though she was sitting in a layer of black demonic blood, and she was just too mentally tired to give a rat’s arse.

How in the name of little green apples can I feel my feet hurt? I don’t even have anything below the knee really regrown yet.

Remember J assuming, makes an arse of you and me.

There is only one of us here.

Are you sure about that?

Great, now I’m trolling myself.

[Perception [B](16)]

Who asked you!!!

“Well, at least I’ve been increasing skills and levels, and yet more speaking Abyssal.”

At least I don’t think in Abyssal. I hope.

Why can’t I sleep?

Profile

Name

J

True Name

Species

Least Succubus

Level

5 (MAX)

(Variant: Hidden Mortal Soul - Cursed)

Shards

(300 / 100)

Class

Blood Monk

Level

14

Defence

35

Exp

(109,999 / 110,000)

Melee Attack Power

48

Health

304

Attributes

Strength

16

Faith

5

Endurance

22

Magic

21

Quickness

20

Intelligence

22

Ki

(2) 63

Willpower

33

Charisma

18

Resistances

Air (2), Acid - Improved (6), Cold - Minor (5), Fire - Improved (1), Mana - Improved (1), Mundane Materials (4)

Powers

Abyssal Adaptability [B] (6), Blink [Ap] (18), Detect Thoughts (3), Energy Drain (9), Flight [B] (10), Ki Strike [B] (15), Improved Regeneration [Ap] (12), Mana Sense (3), Shapeshift [Ap] (10), Soul Sight (6)

Skills

Active -

Acrobatics [B] (4), Analysis [Ap](2), Climbing [B] (20), Danger Sense (6), Disguise (9), Fly [B] (9), Haggling (1), Intimidate (1), Leatherworking(1), Ki Meditation [Ap] (7), Mental Resilience [J] (1), Pain Tolerance [J] (1), Perception [B] (16), Perseverance [Ap] (7), Profile Control (11), Sense Motive (1), Stealth (20), Tactics [B](4), Time Sense (9), Unarmed Combat [J] (9)

Knowledge -

Abyssal Lore (14), Arcane (3), Demonic Lore (16), Hidden Lore (1), Planar Lore (7), Planar Portals (7)

Available Skills Points

33

Available Knowledge Bonus

10

Languages

Abyssal, Infernal, Common Celestial, English

Inventory (2): Number Lurker Acid Glands, Lurker Membrane, Lurker Antennae, Lurker Shell Sections

Maximum Weight 20 Kilo (Inventory Full)

Lots of things have gone up. Wonder how much of it was from that last fellow. Guess I shouldn’t have ignored the combat summaries, but this place has been the Pits.

J.

That

Pun.

Was.

So.

Lame.

Analysis Blink

[Blink - Apprentice Level: Range increased to 55 feet (okay, roughly 16.75 meters, cause your brain insists). Duration and impact of disorientation of Blink will reduce further for each level, and stacking de-buff reduced. Limit of 7 repeated Blinks before the onset of dizziness.]

That explains a few things, also hurrah for rank increases.

Analysis: Hidden Lore

[Hidden Lore: Learn more things about people like you, and effects that prevent accidental exposure.]

Is that stopping me from speaking English at present?

[Perception [B](16)]

That’s a hint!

[Perception [B](16)]

I thought you couldn’t give hints?

Fine, have it your way. I don’t want to talk to you, anyway.

Looking down, ends of bones were poking out from under battered knee caps.

I must be brain dead; what does it mean I’ve maxed my species level?

[Improved Regeneration [Ap] (12 -> 13)]

Analysis: Least Succubus

[Least Succubus: As the name applies, these are the first and least demonic tier of progression for the Demonic Species referred to as Succubus. Possessing limited powers compared to more powerful Succubus (even Lesser) but are enough to allow them to serve their demon faction in many useful ways.]

Analysis: Demonic Tier

[Demonic Tier: Intelligent, demonic species have tiers that represent their maximum potential power, during a stage of their progression. The process can only start when they have sufficient accumulated demon energy to the maximum level for their current Tier.

Non-intelligent, or bestial demons, do not have Tiers and can continue to accumulate species levels as long as they continue to exist. Encounters with bestial types with levels over 9000, , aren't unknown.]

Great, now it’s giving me Dragon Ball Z jokes. What’s next?

Analysis: Ascend

[This isn’t a dictionary]

Grade A Arsehole

[Stop talking about yourself.]

Julia clenched her fists, before relaxing them and face-palming with both hands while sighing softly.

Analysis: Demonic Tier progression

[Demonic Tier progression: The process by which intelligent demons triggered their transformation to the next tier of their species. Excess demonic essence over the maximum speeds up the transformation and improves the resulting form.

Transformed individuals keep their original health, combat, defence, powers, mana pool etc. Species-level is reset to 1.

Activating this process occurs when the entity focuses on its accumulated shards and endeavours to compress their power. A powerful demon can also force the process to trigger for entities unable or unwilling to activate it. This allows a bestial demon to progress into different demonic type. ]

Okay. Well, I’m not going anywhere at present.

Looking at the shard count, she could only imagine it being was the Heat within her form. She’d felt it first soon after arriving in the Abyss, and the power rush from killing demons seemed to filter into it.

Mentally plucking bits of heat drifting around in her, she drew it around and around in circles. Slowing looping more of the ‘thread’, she formed in on itself; the process continued on and on. Minutes or maybe hours passed, it took so long, that she could feel the soles of her feet reforming, yet still, she was looping the thread tighter and tighter within her self. It struggled and strained to get free, but she mentally imagined winding the next line over escaping wisps and compressing it still further.

The heat radiated physically through her skin, pulsating like a living heartbeat. A beat that kept racing faster as she kept pushing it in on itself, and then finally when it clicked into place the ‘heat’ burned. She sensed rather saw reality splitting around her, as darkness dragged her into oblivion.