The wind grew as strong as trees and as sharp as daggers while Stanis walked, better said pushed against the wind. He was making a simple move from the village to the Jaguar camp but the journey, so far, had fared far more difficult than he had hoped for.

He was quite the striking figure in the tearing winds, his body armoured like never before. Across his feet were monster-leather shoes. The leather grew thicker as it moved onto his legs, his trousers thick and hanging loosely off his waist. Across his chest was a mighty cuirass, the metal simple in design and yet as eye-catching as lightning itself. This was due to jagged bolts that would occasionally leap out of the cuirass, giving away the strength it was hiding.

His arms were bare with muscles corded around the bones. He, who had been normal at first, was now ripped all across his body, his muscles large and body shredded. His arms were sinuous and moved like snakes, perhaps giving away their hidden explosiveness.

His head, too, was without armour. His shortly-cut black hair struggled against the wind, his jaw clenched and eyes sharp. The amount of weight he had lost over the course of the apocalypse was obvious from one look at his face, his once chubby cheeks now lean and bony. His healthy yellow tan had become a less-than-healthy darker orange tan due to all the time he had spent in the Smithy. Nevertheless, this didn't take away from the sharpness of his face: his black hair and eyes as sharp as a blade.

Around his waist lay a sheathed sword. It was as long as an arm and quite slim for its size, it too giving off bolts like the cuirass did. Its scabbard was made out of leather and coloured a plain brown, not that this disguise would fool anyone though.

Hiding in between his shirt and cuirass was a dagger, its blade the length of a hand. It had a scabbard similar to the sword and one that did an equally bad job of hiding the blade's strength, if anyone caught sight of it that was. Unlike the sword, the dagger's bright metal was decorated with dark carvings that corrupted the blade. Anyone who, once again, saw the dagger would think of it as an ornate for but only a second due to the deathly aura it gave off.

It had been less than a week since Stanis had created his first imbued weapon. He had created and gifted Orena, Caleb and Sil with weapons of their own since then. Their relationship was now a strong one, although mainly held together by Stanis's strength. If they ever passed him, well, only the Gods would know how the rest of the play would act out then…

He had grown more proficient after crafting their weapons, creating even more test-runs after those before deciding to remake his Lightning sword. It had come out fiercer than before but at the hefty cost of 50 mana. Nevertheless, Stanis had carried on and created a Lightning cuirass two days later, and finally a Darkness imbued dagger yesterday. The cuirass had the highest cost at 70 mana, whereas the dagger had the lowest at 40.

Stanis had been thrilled when the dagger had come out. But his excitement hadn't lasted long.

Your allegiance with the Zelaro has been broken by the Zelaro.

Trait "Basic Dark vision" has been cancelled due to the broken allegiance.

Trait "Basic Transformation" has been cancelled due to the broken allegiance.

Trait "Basic Darkness manipulation" has been retained, despite the broken allegiance. This is because the user has sufficient skill in the trait. The trait has been converted into a skill.

You have a message from Gahlnym. Do you wish to accept?

It had been clear that he had already lost it all so Stanis had accepted the message, hoping it would shine some light onto this turn of events.

"Pathetic Human. It has been 3 months since the allegiance was set and you haven't completed the first mission. You are the only representative to not have even completed the first mission yet. You were always unfit to carry our banner, but now you are unfit to even lick out feet."

This situation had cut quite deep at first but Stanis had recovered within minutes. Now, he found the whole situation quite funny. They had stepped in and saved him when he had been at his lowest but now let go of him when he was at his highest. What was even funnier was the fact that Gahlnym compared him to other humans; he highly doubted the ability of other humans to beat him at his current.

It was only for the two traits he had lost that he felt truly regretful for. The shadows were now back to being dark, and his left arm was now back to being a human left arm. It being human had benefits, such as greater control and balance, but those lost out when weighed against the loss in strength and toughness.

In the end, Stanis had told himself to forget about it and move on. He was only getting stronger at the pace he was going at and so there was no reason to hold himself back due to a sudden cog in the works.

In all truth, he thought darkness manipulation as his strongest trait, anyway. He had previously thought the other two traits as powerful and his darkness manipulation as weak and redundant, but it was after he had crafted the dagger that he realised the truth. This was the reason why he was so grateful for retaining the skill.

****

Stanis drifted through the wind and eventually reached the Jaguars after over a day of walking. The winds had fully died down at this point and thus was, in turn, quite the welcoming gift. He was quickly told that both Serb and Niss had left, and so he went to Ragaar, the second in command, to get information. The fact that both Serb and Niss were now ahead of him placed an invisible pressure on him.

He talked a little with Ragaar before getting another Jaguar to guide him towards a good spot.

From what Stanis had heard, it seemed the Rashkars were far stronger than he had initially thought. In fact, according to the Jaguars, the reason why they had lost territory to the Jaguars was actually because they were currently fighting an equally strong enemy right now. If they sent a stronger troop to sort out the Jaguars, it would have far too high of a cost on the frontlines.

It was quite the sobering walk as the ground was covered with dried blood and the stones scratched and broken. The Jaguars had clearly sacrificed tooth and nail for every inch they had gained. He had gladly forgotten the viciousness of the battlefield but it seemed it had no rhyme or reason to forget him.

It was a short while later that Stanis caught sight of a three Rashkars. They were currently in the heat of battle against seven Jaguars and somehow winning despite the odds. Not that Stanis was surprised though, because not only were these Rashkars bigger than the ones he had fought but they also had stone-skins almost twice the thickness.

Nevertheless, Stanis threw caution to the wind as he unsheathed his sword. He could use his magic to attack and fight from a safe distance but he was already fairly proficient with magic. What he wasn't so proficient in was his physical fighting. It just so turned out to be that the Rashkars were just as good as whetstones for the Jaguars as they were for him.

The air buzzed around Stanis, quiet crackling sounds escaping the blade. The Rashkars quickly caught sight of Stanis and began desperately attacking the Jaguars. The Jaguars, who already had the short straw, had their straw further cut down as they were easily pushed out of the way, the Rashkars frantically running towards Stanis. They knew he was the real threat.

Stanis sucked in one last breath before increasing his mana flow into the sword. It needed a base amount of mana to be activated. However, if someone decided to pour any more mana in, it would further strengthen its powers.

He bolted to the left, the furthest Rashkars watching with wide-eyes as their brother struck boulders against blade.

*KZZT*

The lightning whistled while the Rashkar screamed, its boulder-fists sliced open. Out of its wounds sprayed murky-green blood.

Stanis struck again, his blade moving faster than before as he sliced towards its chest. This time it had no time to react in, struck off its feet as the blade hit.

Unfortunately, Stanis had no time to follow up as one of the other Rashkars hastily attacked, Stanis dodging before slicing outwards. His teeth were gritted all the while, his eyes fearing each and every attack as he dodged by the hair.

"RAARAARAAGRH" bellowed the final Rashkar, joining the assault on Stanis.

The Jaguar who had guided Stanis here had been told to be nothing more than a spectator by Stanis. However, it was seriously considering helping Stanis out as it saw him struggle more and more. This feeling only grew as Stanis finally ran out of luck, getting solidly hit in the chest.

Stanis had to struggle against his mind to get back on his feet and even then, that was only done in the nick of time as the ground he had been lying on was flattened in the next second. He growled, followed by several ice crystals making an appearance around his body. The numbers quickly grew and soon there were soon 6 floating around him.

All 6 ice crystal flew out and struck the closest Rashkar into the ground. It would have to struggle for at least a few seconds before it managed to escape its ice shackles. That would be enough.

Stanis leapt towards the last Rashkar, before rolling under its fist. He stabbed his sword upwards and willed death. Lightning surged out of his body into the Rashkar, before returning back to his body, and then into the Rashkar, and then into him again. This cycle was repeated 3 times before Stanis finally released the spell.

The Rashkar was burnt black with its eyes a solid white. There was no life in it whatsoever, its body burst open in several spots with blood and gore accompanying it. Stanis himself stood dazed over its body, his own body bloodied and shaking from side to side as it threatened to tumble over.

He managed to reawaken himself just in time to stop himself from falling. Closing his eyes and clenching his jaw harder than ever before, he forced himself to move. He used a combination of Blueshot spitfire and more Ice crystals to murder the second Rashkar, before moving onto the first one he had downed.

It had only rage in its eyes as he continuously cut into it, slowly but surely making progress as its head eventually lobbed off.

His head was plagued by disconcerting nausea but he still managed to wipe the blood off his sword before sheathing it back into its scabbard. He then wobbled over to the Jaguars, wheezing out,

"Take me back,"

He had awakened to mana circulation before almost every other human. He had spent weeks crafting his equipment, going further with them than any other human had done so at this point. He had stats higher than nearly every human on this planet, all his stats over 100 and his Lightning seed now an upgraded skill with Intelligence. And yet none of this seemed to be enough…

He had given himself a week as the deadline for his Grinding. If he was going to reach an acceptable standard by the end, he needed to be fighting for his life every hour in every day.

Luckily, perhaps the only ounce of luck he had, this was exactly what he planned on doing…