As the giant bear dissolved, and the immediate danger passed, Kiara slumped to the ground and broke down crying. “I… I thought I was going… going to… to die,” she managed to get out through racking sobs.

I knelt down on one knee next to her, I placed my hand on her shoulder and said, “It’s ok. You’re ok.”

She looked over at me and latched her arms around me and clung to me fiercely and cried into my shoulder. I lightly wrapped my arms around her and just let her cry herself out. She was all by herself, only level six and just came face to face with a bear the literal size of an elephant. We all need to break down and cry sometimes. The stress builds up and needs some way to release or it can break a person.

I always considered it necessary to allow yourself to be weak at times, so you can be strong when you need to be. I knew the stresses of surviving in this chaotic world, not knowing how my family was, or if I could get to them in time were building up in me. There would come a time when I would need my own moment of weakness in order to remain strong enough to go on.

After a few minutes, I said in a low tone, “We need to get moving. Other beasts might be attracted by the fighting and the smell of blood.”

She nodded into my shoulder and slowly pulled away. “You’re right. Thanks again for saving me. My name is Kiara.”

“Nice to meet you Kiara, I’m John,” I replied.

Kiara picked up a torn backpack, patched together with duct tape and a small camp hatchet she put in a belt loop. I identified it out of habit.

Soul-bound Corrosive Sap Camp Hatchet

Quality: Above Average

Rarity: Uncommon

Durability: 29/30

Damage: 16

Weight: 2lbs

Magic effects: Corrosive- causes damage over time and reduces defense.

5 dmg per second for 10 seconds, -1 Defense per second for 10 seconds. Cost: 50 Mana

Mana Pool: 100/100

Mana Regen: 10/minute

Well, I now know what her first perk was used on, I thought. With the loot collected, injuries seen to thanks to Cody, and cub collared, we set off again.

As we traveled, we told each other our stories. How I was a trucker, how I met Magnus and then Cody and Rowan. Going through it, took a while and was enough to fill a book and a half with what we all went through.

Kiara told us about herself as well. She was a college senior at the Fort Collins campus of Colorado State University, majoring in Biological Science with a focus on Botonny. She was camping with her family over spring break when the System Initialized. Her family had just finished packing up their camp site when the first prompt appeared. She was supposed to be back in school the next day, but for obvious reasons, that didn’t happen.

“When the screen told me to choose my Path of Power, I didn’t know what Ki was, and while we were Christian, my family wasn’t very religious. My dorm mate loved to play those online games where you could be a wizard and stuff and would go on and on about it. I recognized Mana from her rants about other players and went with that,” Kiara said.

“When the class choices came up, I chose Artisan. I’ve never been in a fight in my life, and I wouldn’t say I was the sneakiest girl around, so that left Mage and Artisan. I was going to be a Biotechnologist once I got my graduate degree in a few years, so I went with the more crafting approach,” She added before pausing for a long moment.

I was about to say something to prompt her to continue, but she did on her own. “It wasn’t long after the world started back up that everything went wrong. We were out in the woods; my dad’s friend owned property further north and would let us use it for camping as long as we took care and cleaned up after ourselves.” Kiara paused again, this time to take a deep breath before going on.

“We hiked back to where we parked the car. It wouldn’t start and we were all getting worried. Our phones didn’t work anymore, the car wouldn’t start, nothing worked. My dad’s friend kept the place wild so he could use it for hunting, so there wasn’t any phones or anything out there.” Tears leaked from her eyes as she kept talking.

“We decided to hike back to the nearest town, it was only a few miles down the old dirt road. My little sister and brother didn’t want to, whining that it was too far. But our parents over ruled them and said we needed to get back. We were almost to that small town when the monster attacked us. It was some kind of two headed giant. It was over ten feet tall and used a sapling as a club.”

I thought I knew what monster she was talking about. In Dungeons and Dragons, there was a kind of giant called an Ettin that had two heads and fought using great clubs. They were nasty savage brutes, and I knew where this story was heading.

Kiara’s voice slowly turned flat, like all emotion was suppressed. “My dad yelled for us to run as he raised his old Winchester rifle. It belonged to his grandpa and was passed to his dad before it was passed on to my dad. He always took good care of it and brought it on our camping trips so we could hunt for our own food. The gun, the family gun, it… it just blew up. My dad, his head… it was gone. There was… there was so much blood.

“The monster roared and I, I don’t know what happened next. The next thing I knew, I was stumbling through the woods. I tried to find my mom and my brother and sister, but there was no one around. I didn’t know where I was. I think, I think I abandoned my siblings, my mom. I think I just ran; they might be dead… and its all my fault. I got away, but they didn’t.”

She looked at me, her eyes were vacant as she blamed herself for her family’s death. She looked shattered, broken beyond repair. I didn’t know what to say, how to make her feel better. She needed a therapist, but who knows if any managed to survive. The world would be full of broken people, if any of us managed to survive.

After Kiara’s demonstration of survivor’s guilt, the group fell silent and we kept moving.

After around thirty minutes of walking quietly, the hairs on the back of my neck rose. It felt like we were being watched. I brought the group to a halt and looked around. “Do you guys feel that? It feels like we’re being watched,” I said.

Magnus listened hard, Rukia sniffed the air and the rest of us looked. I pulsed out my Spiritual Sense but didn’t feel anything within range. I cycled Ki through my eyes, activating my Ki sight and looked at the flowing Essence around us.

I didn’t see anything at first, the air was thick with Essence, it suffused the plants and insects around us. Each growing more vibrant and stronger as time passed. I almost missed it during my first couple passes, but one tree in particular wasn’t filled with Essence, it was filled with Mana. The slight green tinge thew me off at first, since mana was usually blue.

I walked up to the Magic tree and inspected it closer, watching how the Mana flowed through the Tree and collected in its center. As I looked, I realized the tree was looking back. A pair of eyes formed on the trunk and were looking directly into my own. I stepped back in startlement as a naked woman stepped out from the tree. She was only five feet tall, her smooth pale skin glowed from within, like it had been polished with care using pure beeswax. Leafy Vines grew out of her head and flowed down her back.

With great eloquence and confidence, I boldly said, “Uhm… hi.”

She looked past me and my group, fear flickering across her features before she darted back inside her tree. I looked behind us and…

I was back home. I looked around in surprise and looked at myself as I stood Infront of the townhouse my wife and I rented. I was wearing my normal boots, blue jeans and a tee-shirt. My beard was clean and trimmed, my duffle bag of dirty laundry in one hand and my house keys in the other.

What’s going on? Why do I feel surprised? I just got home after my last delivery from Idaho… its home time. I get to spend the next four days with my wife and son. Wait, where is Rukia?

I looked around frantically for a moment, before I noticed her standing next to me. Her leash was in my hand. Gods I must be tired, what is wrong with me?

I walked up to my front door, a weird faint itching in the back of my mind. I tried to scratch my head, but it didn’t do anything. I shook my head at the weird sensation.

Right before I could insert my door key into the lock, the Door was flung open and my son Drake was standing there with a big grin on his face. His new glasses framing his purple eyes… Purple eyes? His eyes are blue. I looked again and it must have been a trick of the light, his eyes were back to the same shade of light blue as mine. They may shift in shade at times, like my own, but never purple. Why did I think his eyes were purple?

“DAD’S HOME,” Drake called out to his stepmom.

I reached out and picked Drake up and squeezed him tight to my chest. A strange ache filled my heart, like I hadn’t seen him in years, but I just saw him last month and talked to him over the phone frequently. My cheeks felt wet, and water collected in my beard. Why am I crying? I almost never cry. I must really need this time off. Maybe I should extend it to a full week? With Rose working, we could afford to let the truck sit for a few more days.

“Can’t Breath, world growing dark… tell my sister… I… said… hi.” Drake dramatically slumped over in my arms, pretending to be unconscious.

I chuckle and set him back down.

“Hey honey, glad you made it back safely.” Rose said with a smile. She held one of my onyx goblets in her hand and offered it to me. “How about a glass of mead? I had it chilling in the fridge since last night.”

The weird itchy feeling in the back of my head acted up again, feeling like ants were crawling around the inside of my skull. I scratched at it again then shook my head. “No thanks, I’m good for now,” I said.

I reached forward to put my duffle bag in to the couch, but… it was already there. When did I put my bag down? I looked between my hand and the bag on the couch, then I looked at Drake playing on the floor with Rukia. Did I drop it when I hugged Drake? Maybe he picked it up after I put him down? When did I take Rukia’s leash off?

“Something the matter hun?” Rose asked.

I shook my head. What was I thinking about? Meh, must not have been important.

I reached around Rose’s ample body and gave her a tight hug. It seemed like she had lost some weight while I was away. I need to get out more and exercise, I thought. I then gave Rose a big long kiss and a hard smack on the ass.

Rose giggled as we broke away. “Later,” she said with a wink. “You are just in time, I was just making lunch. You can sit down and have a bite.”

The next thing I knew I was sitting on the couch; boots were off and I was watching an episode of Forged in Fire. When did I…?

“Here you go love,” Rose said as she handed me a plate of Chili Mac.

I took the bowl and looked in it for a moment. It was weird, it looked like something was moving in it. But after I blinked, it was just a regular bowl of chicken alfredo with a peas, bacon and penne pasta.

I was about to take a bite, when a sharp pain spiked through my head.

Warning!

Stone Cave Bear, Energy Cultivation Rank 5 has been Slain

Aoife Mac Lir of the Sidhe has Claimed the Wellspring and its territory

All hail the new Queen

Defeat Aoife Mac Lir to Claim the Essence Wellspring and its territory

“What the Fuck,” I exclaimed.

“What is it, John?” Rose asked.

“I just saw… I saw...” I shook my head in confusion. Something was not right, my head was hurting and I know I saw something just now, something very familiar.

“Nothing, it was nothing. I’m just feeling off today,” I said.

“Here’s your Mountain Dew loves,” Rose said as she handed me a freshly opened can.

“Thanks babe,” I said as I took the cold drink. I looked down on it, it felt odd in my hand. My brain kept itching, enough that my vision blurred for a moment and I was holding a wooden goblet with a red liquid inside.

“THE FUCK?” I cried as I flung the cup away. I stood up and spun around, I needed to figure out what was going on. My head felt like it was splitting open. Without thinking about it I cycled Ki through my Mind Meridian to relieve it.

As soon as the Ki flowed through my brain, my mind cleared and with a lurch, I was back in the forest.

Mental Resistance increased to 50%

Glamour Broken

I looked around; I was surrounded. Magnus, Cody, Rowan, and Kiara were all lying on the ground unconscious. Even Rukia and Koda were knocked out.

Strange humanoid creatures stood in a circle around me. They had pointed ears, long angular faces with abnormally large emerald green eyes. They were all armed with bows that looked too large for their thin frames, but held with grace and confidence.

I felt bubbling, acidic anger rise up within me. It wanted to break free, rise out of my throat as I screamed in anger at using my son and wife like that.

Síogaí Archer

Level 15

Hp: 99/99

Stam: 198/198

Mana: 300/300

Defense: 20

The Fae Archers stood around me, laughing at my reaction to the Illusion they forced on me. One of them even spoke up in Drake’s voice, chanting the same thing over and over. “DAD’S HOME, DAD’S HOME, DAD’S HOME, DAD’S HOME.”

Another spoke up in Rose’s voice while holding a wood goblet of red wine “How about a glass of mead?”

I manifested my spear from my storage ring, the Fae surrounding me drew back on their knocked arrows ready to loose if I made any sudden movement. I stood there, my whole-body trembling, knuckles white. “My son, my wife. You used them to get to me,” I said quietly. The pressure was building inside, fighting to burst free. “If there is one thing I can never forgive, it’s USING MY FUCKING CHILD AGAINST ME!”

Ki burst from me in a wave, well beyond my conscious control. The fae staggered back for the briefest of moments before Loosing their arrows where I was but a heartbeat before.

I sprang forward, sweeping my spear around like a quarterstaff, the edge of the spear-head slicing through the held bow of the Fae that was using my son’s voice. I spun with the attack and the butt end of my spear clocked him in the temple and he fell to the ground, dazed at the least.

An arrow sprouted from the back of my shoulder at the same time as one dug into my calf. I roared from the sudden pain. I triggered the second stage of Grace in Combat and managed to knock another arrow out of the air with my spear while I spun around two others.

Coming out of the spin, my spear buried itself in the gut of the Fae that mocked my wife. I twisted it as I ripped it away, spinning to avoid the next flight of arrows. All but one missed. The one that hit dug into my side. My armor was holding up, but the arrows had just enough power to punch through and puncture my toughened flesh.

“YOU FUCKING FAE BASTARDS!” I screamed, slashing through the throat of one fae that was too slow to get out of reach. The fuckers were spreading out further now, making it harder for me to close with each of them. I leapt over Magnus’s body. I wasn’t sure if anyone from my group was alive or dead, and I was too pissed to check.

A red cloud slowly encroached on my vision as I moved faster than I ever had before. I wasn’t fast enough, though. Out of every four arrows fired at me at once, I could avoid three. The Agility and Dexterity of these fae fucks were too high even for me at my best.

The next arrow landed in my left arm as I let go of my spear with my right hand to grab a fae by the throat. The muscles spasmed and my spear flew from my weakened grasp.

Without hesitating, I drew Dragon’s Fang from my ring and severed the head of one bastard. Two more arrows penetrated my back in repayment.

“MY SON, THE ONLY SON I HAVE LEFT. MY GODS DAMNED SON, YOU MOTHER FUCKERS!” I was shaking harder. My vision fully tinted red; my Ki was rampaging through my Meridians out of my control. Blood dripped from my nose, ears, eyes and around every arrow stuck in my body. I didn’t even know how many were sticking out of me anymore. My legs trembled, and I fell to a knee.

In a moment of stillness, surrounded by turbulence. Something shattered like glass, tinkling down with little plinks. The world washed away in a tide of Blood.

Congratulations!

You have unlocked a Bloodline ability

Bloodline: Berserker’s Fury