Mid-flap the giant hawk pauses. Mere moments ago, it was filled with dreams and ambitions. Emotions, large and small, were integrated into every aspect of its life. The sudden absence of those emotions creates a gaping hole inside it. This strange emotional phenomenon is what causes it to pause. Devoid of emotion, it apathetically plummets toward the ground, survival forgotten. Halfway to certain death, the part of its mind that rules its danger awareness awakens.

Similar to the way pain indicates a problem, fear indicates danger.

This hawk feels more fear now than it has ever felt before. Its heart pounds in its chest, threatening to burst. Saliva froths in its mouth, creating foam. On the verge of death, its eyes begin to roll back in its head. Despite all of this, a small, rational, part of it whispers in its mind. ‘You’re a bird,’ the voice insists. ‘You have flown all of your life. This fall is nothing compared to a dive at your top speed. Pull up.’

Deep in its heart, the bird hears this and knows it to be true. It doesn’t throw off the shackles of fear that bind it. It can’t. Instead, it does what needs to be done, regardless of the fear it feels. A common term for this might be bravery. Unfortunately for it, bravery can’t save it from Kandra’s desire to level up.

Bending her knees, Kandra pushes stored kinetic energy through the legs of her flightless bird form. The energy explodes beneath her talons, assisting her jump and causing her to launch into the air like an arrow. She uses her talents as a Boneshifter to lengthen and sharpen her beak. The end result resembles a bone spear. The tip of her beak pierces through one of the bird’s flailing wings. Bursting through flesh and bone, the tip of the beak curls into a hook. The hawk fights to dislodge the strange creature attacking it, but its struggle only helps the hook dig deeper into its meaty muscle.

Kandra’s bird form melts away into the shape of a blob with floating bones inside of it. Inside her body, those bones form together into sharp instruments of murder. As one, they shoot out of her nebulous form, impaling the helpless bird from multiple angles. The last ounce of life is robbed from the hawk when the pair smash into the ground, shattering its bones and with them, its bravery.

The force of the blow is easily absorbed and redirected by Kandra, one of the benefits of being a Kinetic Witch.

The thread of life force that flows from the giant hawk, into Kandra, would normally be cause for celebration. Part of that force is converted into Experience Points which fuel the levelling process. The rest of it is soaked directly into her Mana Bones. The bones expand ever so slightly. So slight that it is invisible to the naked eye. However, that expansion brings them that much closer to her next evolution.

This isn’t a normal situation.

Kandra feels a deep, abiding irritation itching at her the core of her being. That idiot she accepted as her Master is sabotaging her evolutions! Since she maintains the Title of Slime Queen, each evolution she gains is an evolution for her children. Therefore, that moron is destroying the future of her children! Stretch of logic be damned!

Snowflake is the only being she has ever heard of that can evolve on achievements alone. His rate of evolution could be infinitely higher than the slow absorption of life force and Source others must endure. A standard slime, on average, would have to slaughter a thousand equally powerful creatures before it could advance. Kandra’s Master only has to complete five achievements. The raw potential in such an easy evolution scheme is enough to kill for. For Kandra, if she could pass on that sort of evolution it would be enough to die for.

Initially, Kandra rejoiced when she heard of the achievement based evolution, because it meant her gamble had scored her the ultimate jackpot. Being soul linked to a being with such high evolutionary potential is all she could ever hope for. But soon, realization set in. Snowflake is an idiot. Sure, he gets lucky sometimes, like with this emotional stun spell he developed, but he still squanders his potential. In fact, he had the audacity to admit to her that he is converting his natural instincts to a more palatable form. Words cannot describe the fury she felt when she heard this.

Cores have a function. Their entire purpose is to become more powerful by consuming the life force of the host’s kills. In order to make that happen, they improve the host to make killing easier. Just ignoring the instincts provided by the Core is beyond stupid, in Kandra’s opinion. To make things worse, he is ignoring instincts provided by a Tyrant Core. Having a multiverse wide bounty on singular race is a sure sign of power. Power that Kandra refuses to believe solely consist of using Source to scare birds to death.

“This one didn’t die of fright either,” Kandra addresses the fool in question, reforming her body into something more solid. “Maybe blind fear isn’t enough. You said you evolved into a Lesser Empath, right? Does that mean your emotional powers hinge on empathy?”

The fool stares at her, blank eyed. He is probably processing the information and trying to figure out how to use it, but Kandra doesn’t care. She is busy trying to recall her past achievements and the most efficient way to lead this buffoon by the nose to achieve the same things. Snowflake evolving means she will evolve, and that is what she wants more than anything.

***

It occurs to me that Kandra and Honey have a lot in common. Well, they have one particular thing in common. They have this amazing talent of being able to crush my enthusiasm no matter how much better I get. I mean, so far, they’ve had solid points and they help me improve but… It weighs on me. A lot of things weigh on me.

You don’t just find out you are a fictional character, get ripped away from your friends and family, lose your memory, become so weak you’re practically crippled, and just come out of it mentally healthy. Honestly, it feels like I’m hanging by a thread here. My psyche is millimeters away from snapping. Nevasca and Quinn are really the only things holding me together. Nevasca’s unconditional love is what keeps me anchored to reality and saving Quinn from her plight gives me purpose. Don’t get me wrong. Honey, Mordai, Kandra, Wisp, and Legion are awesome, but it just isn’t the same. I’m nopt sure why it isn’t the same it just… isn’t.

Maybe Kandra has a point. As an Empath, I need to be more in touch with my emotions and the emotions of others. I need to understand before I can change. Hell, if I wasn’t so afraid of myself I would embrace a breakdown. A huge outpouring of emotions would be good for me, I think. To just let it all out and really feel it. Feel it and try to understand why I feel the way I do, but…

I’m fucking terrified. The more I open up to this Tyrant Core, the more afraid of myself I am. If I just let go… The Tyrant in me would take over. I’m sure of it. It sings an enticing song of power to me. A song I find myself lulled by more often than not. But, I can’t give in. The safety and comfort of giving my instincts over to the Core to control is too big a price to pay for losing a piece of myself. I MUST use this power. I WILL NOT allow it to use me.

It is just another thing to weigh me down.

Who knew emotions could feel so physically heavy? I hate to admit it, but that’s not even the worst of my problems right now. Lately I’ve been eating those cores I found. They’re full of concentrated energy, which is great cause my Blood just soaks the stuff up. It’s just that… well… well I’ve been getting hungry. I’m getting these dark, primal urges for raw meat and blood. I want to feel the warmth of a creature’s life blood as it dribbles down my throat.

No. I want to latch my jaws onto the neck of a struggling creature and feel its heart pump blood into my mouth through the hole I tore in its skin. I want to hold it down as it fights in my arms. I want to feel the last twitching struggles as life leaves its body.

The urges flood into me and it freaks me out. These aren’t MY thoughts and instincts.

The cores take the edge off for a while, but whenever my Blood Energy gets low, I can feel it. It haunts me. I’m not opposed to consuming the flesh of my enemies, but this is something else. This is a need that isn’t my own. Sometimes I catch myself thinking of Quinn and the way her neck is so delicate. All it would take is a kiss on the neck, then a bite. She wouldn’t expect a thing.

Just below my surface lurks two monsters. A Tyrant and a Vampire. I don’t understand either of them, but I do understanding they’re trying to make me into something I’m not. It is making wound up so tight.

I’m so fucking tense. It is like everything is out to get me, including myself. This is all without even calculating Quinn’s murderous husband in the mix. I just feel so fucking helpless. I can’t-

Wait. Helpless. Bingo.

If I combine extreme terror with a thread of acceptance, I think I can kill these giant hawks no problem. If the fear doesn’t kill them, I reckon the acceptance will keep them from fighting back as they plunge face first into this mountain. Okay. I like this train of thought a lot better. Let’s keep going. Fuck that moody shit. I’ll just bottle that up and deal with it later.

Um, why are the giant hawks afraid? Is it because they suddenly can’t feel any emotions? Are they smart enough to realize how terrifying that is? No. Probably not. That saying ‘bird-brained’ must be there for a good reason. Hmmm…

Is it because they can’t fly anymore? They spend their whole life flying and out of nowhere they suddenly can’t? I’d be fucking terrified if I couldn’t walk and I had no idea why.

That’s a good start.

So, the sudden emotion deprivation stuns them into falling, all-consuming terror locks up their muscles, and a thread of acceptance forces them into a state of helplessness. The perfect bird murdering spell. Yeah. I think Kandra was right. Understanding the emotions of my prey helps me solidify the effects of the spell in my mind, which strengthens the spell in turn.

I’m not here to kill fucking birds though. This spell is my only real chance at killing the Unmoving Mountain. If I can bypass all of its defenses and scare it to death, then I win. A creature big enough to carry a mountain on its back must have a giant heart. It should be extremely susceptible to a fear induced heart attack. If I could just understand what it is afraid and why, then I’d have a better shot.

Quinn takes this moment to break my introspection by shimmering in to existence right in front of me.

“I found the mountain!” She exclaims, wrapping me in a hug. “We’re a couple days hike away, but I found the only mountain that isn’t moving.”

She looks so excited. For the last few days she has been out scouting for the mountain, all alone. She has been in a lot better mood since Kandra’s training plan gave us some hope. I give her a big squeeze, finding a small measurement of comfort in her body pressed against mind. My tightly wound psyche relaxes, just a touch, a result of the miracle known as physical affection and/or comfort.

“How is the training coming?” Quinn asks me, between kisses.

I can feel my mouth twist into a huge grin, filled with sharp fangs. Quinn doesn’t flinch at my smile, she just looks at me in askance, her head cocked to the side. I chuckle, another burden lifting from my shoulders. Also, because when she cocks her head like that it makes he look like a curious bird, not that I’d ever say that to her face.

“I think I figured it out, just now.” I tell her. Turning my gaze to Kandra I ask a question that I should’ve asked days ago. “Kandra, what are these mountain things afraid of? Like, natural predators?”

“I haven’t heard of any natural predators,” she responds, with a quizzical expression. She looks at me, then at Quinn. It doesn’t take her long to put it together, her eyes widening in understanding.

“Everything in the Dungeon is afraid of dragons, especially the older creatures,” she tells me, her smile growing to match my own. Although, my teeth don’t glow the way hers do. It is hard to outshine that kind of smile. “Every century or so the Dungeon Master and his siblings fight each other for possession of the Dungeon. They occasionally snack on anything in their way. Their displays of power are immortalized in the minds of all who see them battle.”

‘Perfect,” my grin is so big that my face is starting to hurt. “Quinn, do you think you could make an illusion of a dragon?”

“Yes? Why?” Her wings flutter dangerously. I use my newly discovered skill of empathy to discern that she is probably feeling irritated about being left out of the loop. My poor, sensitive, Quinn.

“While you were gone I gained a Racial Ability!” I tell her. “It lets me scare others into submission, but if I pump enough fear into their system they die.”

“So, your plan is to make a creature, that is hundreds if not thousands of years old, so scared that it dies? With that much age and experience, it surely has a firm grasp on its emotions.” Quinn shakes her head, offering valid counterpoints. “We can’t challenge a Guardian with that sort of half-assed plan.”

She makes good points. I don’t give up that easily though. This is the best plan I’ve got, and I don’t see the star aligning to give me a better one anytime soon.

“Well, obviously we’re going to give it a test run.” I say, kicking the stone beneath me. “We’ll try to kill one of these other mountains with it first.”