I was surprised not to have any dreams that night. With what had happened the last time there’d been a system change I had expected to have a meeting with Ren after each one. Instead all I awoke with was a vague sense of dread. Still, rolling out of my bedroll and seeing Patience sleeping just a few feet from me, helped me to put myself at ease. I had a big stretch and took a deep breath. The morning was cool, but pleasantly so, and I took a few moments to enjoy the silence before everyone else woke. Patience and I had been the first and second watch, which we’d used to not do a lot of watching. Nico was the last, but I didn’t see her. I assumed she was in a tree somewhere using her finely tuned senses to monitor the area around us.

I listened for a few minutes as birds chirped and bugs let out their morning buzzes, when I realized there was another sound. I could hear something moving through the brush. At first I thought it was Nica, but then I realized that if she was moving through a forest, I wouldn’t hear her. The movement was getting closer, and I had just enough time to draw my sword when a man appeared at the edge of the clearing and let out a roar.

The man was massive, more than a head taller than me, and as wide as a bear. He was covered in tattoos that were giving off a slight glow and he had a look of madness in his eyes. He saw me standing and started making a beeline right toward me. I took a defensive stance, but before he reached me, several arrows slammed into his chest and shoulder, as Nica appeared to my right.

The man wasn’t slowed by the arrows at all, and kept charging toward me. I cast invisible stair, summoning a single step in front of his knee, but he plowed through it without even noticing. I was caught off guard and had to use flash step to avoid a punch he threw at me.

I appeared slightly to the left of him, and he swung the arm he’d used to punch toward me. Even though it only had a couple feet to gain momentum, and his footing was bad for the blow, when the strike hit me I was thrown across the clearing, and into a large thorny bush.

The others were starting to wake up, but luckily the man was staying focused on Nica and I, rather than them. He ran toward Nica, making massive swings of his arms, which she was able to only narrowly dodge as he struck at her. I pulled myself from the bush I was in and ran to help, just as Tib, Millicent, and Patience got up and armed themselves quickly to do the same.

While his attention was focused on Nica, Tib ran at him full force and slammed his shield into the man’s side. He was momentarily thrown off balance, and at that moment Patience leapt in and started landing a series of cuts all across his body.

The barbarian let out another roar, and the force of it threw everyone backwards, clearing the space around him. He went to attack Tib while he was on the ground, but at that moment a coffin of earth burst from the ground, and sealed around him.

I looked around to see that Millicent had her hands placed together and was speaking in a language I didn’t understand, very quickly. Sweat was dripping down her forehead, and I could hear the man inside the coffin straining against its walls with wild abandon.

The coffin shattered, sending bits of rock and dirt flying all around the clearing. Zevrack chose that moment to unleash a torrent of fire, far more powerful than the one he’d used in the tournament, which blasted the man backward, and knocked him into the tree line.

Once he was there I let loose as much of a fireball as I could muster, which hit him square in the chest just as he was standing back up, smoke pouring off of him. Incredibly, he got up again, and I saw his legs flex as his feet dug into the Earth. Suddenly he was in front of Zevrack, and poised to slam his fists in a downward arc on top of him.

I moved without thinking, activated the rest of my flash step, pushed Zev out of the way, and placed the remaining four invisible steps between myself and the man’s fist. He shattered them easily, and his blow hit me square in the center of my back. I heard a horrendous cracking noise, and my body bounced off the hard ground after I struck it. I coughed up blood, and barely managed to turn around to see my companions let out yells as they all leapt at the barbarian before he could land another blow on me.

Suddenly, I felt my heartrate slow, and for a moment, I thought I’d be meeting a god for the second time, though this time it would be death. I was relieved however to see that everyone was slowing down, not just me.

Tristus was standing in the clearing with his hand up. I could see that his face was forced into a mask of calm, but his legs were trembling. I realized he must’ve activated some kind of ability that was affecting all of us.

The barbarian blinked, and looked around confused and even a bit scared. He looked at his hands, and then looked at the rest of us, finally finding where I was laying, still coughing blood and watching my hitpoints gradually fade. “What have I done?” he asked no one in particular.

Zevrack moved over to me, and flipped me over. He was worried about me, I could tell, and he was looking at my wounds in the same way he looked at his gear when he was working to fix it. I just barely managed to say, “Red potion. In my bag.” before everything went black.

…

I’m not sure how long had passed, but when I woke the sun was bright and high up in the sky. I blinked a few times, and tried to move, but found a clawed hand on my chest when I went to do so.

“Don’t move. The potion didn’t fix everything,” said Zevrack.

I relaxed a bit. “Is everyone okay?”

“Yes. No one got as hurt as you did. Though I would’ve died if that blow had hit me.”

“I would’ve too, but I used all of my invisible stair spell to soften the blow.” I grimaced. “Doesn’t feel like it was softened too much though.”

I heard heavy footfall, and tensed up as the shape of the massive man appeared in my vision. He no longer had the look of madness in his eyes, but instead looked sad and scared. He let out a sigh of relief as he saw that my eyes were open. “Thank Life you’re alright, and Death for not taking you.”

I let myself relax a bit, and lifted my hand toward him. “I’m Cor. Nice to meet you.”

He looked at my hand in surprise, but took it gratefully. “I am Rancor. I apologize dearly for what I did to you.”

I tried to shrug, but the pain kept me from completing the gesture. “Apology accepted. As long as you don’t try again. Don’t think I’d survive another hit. Are you okay?”

“I am now. Your friend Tristus used an ability to calm me from my rage. I’d been stuck raging for a week now, trapped in my own fury.”

I forced myself to sit up a bit, and saw my companions coming over. “How’re you feeling?” asked Tib.

“Swell,” I responded.

“You certainly look it,” said Patience, a crooked smile hiding the worry in her eyes.

I chuckled, but turned my attention to Rancor. “So, how did you get stuck in your rage? Is that normal?”

He shook his head. “No. I usually come down from it very quickly, and have at least enough control to choose what I’m attacking. I was cursed. Locked into the ability. I was meant to rage until something killed me, or I starved to death.”

“You’d been raging for days, haven’t eaten, and were fighting constantly?”

He nodded.

“And you still almost killed all of us.”

He nodded. “Well. I am Rancor.”

I looked at my companions in askance and Tristus spoke up. “Rancor is a well known adventurer and gladiator. He’s above level ten, and is sponsored by Dominus. He’s well known in Heracleum.”

Tristus added a little eyebrow raise when he mentioned Dominus. I assumed he hadn’t told Rancor about my recent incident. “Wait, you work for Dominus? So you were one of the adventurers he sent to face the dragon?”

Rancor’s eyes took on a look of dread when the word dragon left my lips. “Yes… It was the dragon herself that cursed me.”