Whittaker easily dispatched the first 2 Ursu that came at them, but the third slipped right past and headed straight at Alex. Trusting that he would be able to hold out long enough, Whittaker dove at the last Ursu, the Defiler. There had never been anything other than lower leveled Ravagers in this den before, so Whitt had no idea what the difference was going to be. As they reached the Defiler, it seemed to just vanish, leaving behind a cloud of vapour that made Whitts eyes burn and throat close up a bit. Years of battle honed reflexes made Whitt dive forward, letting the Defiler soar straight over their head. Rollong onto their back, Whitt saw the first major difference. Whilst the Ursu always looked skeletal, the Defiler looked truly diseased. Pustules and decay were visible all along the Defiler’s body, and what appeared to be some sort of toxin or venom was oozing from between its fangs. This was a whole new strain of Ursu that they had never seen before, as something like this would normally never be present in the Frigid. With no more time to ponder this revelation, WHitt tried to keep some distance from the beast. Whilst they outlevelled the thing quite handily, beasts didn’t have classes in the same way which meant that they generally had a stronger foundation for growth, so underestimating them was a surefire way to get killed. This beast also appeared to be far smarter than its Ravager varients, as it kept feinting and trying to close in on Whitt. Filling their hammer with power, Whitt waited for the Defiler to make its next attack. As soon as the Defiler vanished again Whitt backed to the wall and held their breath. A faint smell of putrid flesh preceeded the reappearance of the beast, and even before it had fully materialised Whitt planted the hammer directly into its distended maw. The power contained in the hammer launched the Defiler back into the roof of the tunnel hard enough to crack. It let out a hideous roar as it landed, trying to get its feet under itself. It began shuddering violently, and Whitt had seen enough to know it was getting ready to unleash some sort of final resort attack. What actually happened was more than even Whitt expected. The shuddering kept growing in intensity, and the Defiler started to visibly come apart. With little warning it exploded outwards in a shower of bile, toxins and body parts, completely covering Whitt and a large part of the tunnel. The exposed areas of Whitt’s body immediately began to bubble and burn as the acid ate its way through anything it touched. Ignoring the pain, Whitt looked over to see how Alex had fared and saw him on the ground, pinned by the corpse of the Ravager that had gone after him. Blood was pooling under his head, so Whitt ran over to check his vitals. Shoving the Ravagers pulped body off of him, Whitt was relieved to see Alex’s chest rising and falling slowly. Taking care not to get any of the foul Defiler gunk on him, Whitt hooked Alex’s arms and dragged him up and out of the Den towards the river.

Yet more pain… Alex slowly opened his eyes and saw the ceiling moving, and felt the ground sliding along under him. Fearing it was the Ravager pulling him deeper into the caves, he lashed out. His fist caught something hard so Alex pushed away with the remnants of his strength.

“Alex, be calm! It’s Whittaker, I’m getting us out of here! Are you okay to walk?” Whitt tried to calm Alex’s hysteria.

“Whitt? Holy shit… WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?! Those things were NOT what I had in mind for a ‘grind spot’!” Alex yelled, still feeling the effects of the huge amount of adrenaline pumping through his system.

“I’m sorry Alex. I swear, I bought you here because it should have been filled with level 9 and 10 Ursu. I personally cleared the entire den myself, and nothing that strong should have been able to spawn here.”

“So what the hell happened to those things then?! Because by all rights I should be dead right now! I had to fully freeze time to be able to even attempt to finish that Ravager off…” Alex managed to keep his voice level this time, even if it was still edged with hysteria.

“You froze time?” Whitt stopped for a second as the shock of hearing just how strong Alex already was set in. “Those Ursu had been mutated by an outside force. Ravagers generally take months of growth to end up that strong, and Defilers have never existed before to my knowledge. It had been infused with pure corrupted power, but I couldn’t even hazard a guess how.” Whittaker explained as they finally exited the den. They immediately ran to the river and jumped in head first to wash off the now very uncomfortable Defiler gunge.

Alex slumped back down with his back against a tree and took stock of his injuries. Nothing major was broken, but his head was still oozing blood, and it had started to pool around the neck of his bodysuit. He was covered in a mutitude of smaller cuts and scrapes, but nothing too deep luckily, and the smaller of them were already starting to scar over. He took a look at his HP and saw that it was hovering at about a quarter, but there was a faint bar covering the last third of his bar.

“Hey Whitt?” Alex called as Whitt’s head broke the surface of the water again. “Why had part of my HP bar got a block on it?”

“Generally that happens when there is a deeper injury that needs proper medical attention to heal. It could be from that head injury, thats pretty nasty.” Whittaker shouted back. “Or it could be related to you messing with time again. Maybe let’s not try that for a while until the block is gone.”

Alex simply nodded, his attention already focusing on the slew of awaiting prompts lined up on his HuD.

Ursu Ravager x3 defeated. Huge level disparity bonus awarded EXP+ 2500.

Ursu Defiler defeated. Huge level disparity bonus awarded EXP +1000

New Maelstrom Time skill unlocked: Stop Time. Does as its name suggests. Drains 30HP/s. Cannot reduce HP past 1. Chronos demands tithe: 30HP still owed.

Power +2, Vitality +7, Finesse +3, Mentality +4, Judgement +1

Please select class to assign EXP.

Alex immediately added all of the EXP he had gained straight into Combat Medic, bringing it’s level up to 8. He suddenly felt like his brain had been put through a spin cycle, but it was over almost before it began. His HP was now back to full, and had increased by an absolutely huge amount, now sitting pretty at 270. His Mentality had also just taken a huge bump as well.

Combat Medic level 5 reached. Metabolic Influx (1) now active. HP/s increased: Currently 1HP/s. Chronos’ debt paid off in 29...28...27

Alex let out a whoop as the main reason he picked up the Combat Medic class came online, and his survivability jumped. Whittaker came ashore and looked over, shaking their head as they read Alex’s new level. “How much XP did you just get Alex?”

“3500 because they were so much stronger than me. I gained 7 straight levels in Combat Medic and got my passive regen skill. Apparently, that grey block was a tithe to Chronos? And my regen is paying it back automatically for me.” Alex answered gleefully.

“Chronos themselves has taken an interest in you? That may not be a good thing Alex. The Realm Lords don’t generally take too kindly to outsiders taking that much power from their realms. At least Chronos seems happy to just tax your use, but try not to use that level of power often, especially from any of the other Realms.” Whittaker warned seriously. Frigid in particular didn’t like their power being used by anyone other than the Frigidians, because it meant that their influence was drawn out of their own realm, and essentially wasted outside of their influence.

“Yeah, those lords can bite me. I’m happy to share, but this stupid hoarding mentality needs to stop. My entire species was designed as a melting pot, so of course we are going to have to take their power. They can take it up with us themselves.” Alex fumed, already sick of the bullshit power imbalance his universe was being subjected to.

Whittaker wisely let the matter drop, seeing Alex was unwilling to bend on his admittedly right viewpoint. Instead Whitt helped Alex wash off the substantial amount of blood that had accumulated on his neck. “How do you want to proceed now Alex? I know we need to get you trained up, but there is no telling what else could be inside that cave now, and I am loath to risk your life. We should head back and tell the others, because this level of interference in our own realm cannot be a coincidence.”

“I would like to go in again. We came out here to get me boosted up, and had planned to use my time powers to grind it out. Instead we get stronger monsters that give more EXP. Let’s see if we can clear this place of filth before we head back to report. At worst we can run away, and ill try to collapse a tunnel or something.” Alex countered, already eager for more combat now that he had leveled up.

“I suppose that is acceptable, but if we fight again, are you able to use your Maelstrom class power to raise walls and create a chokepoint?”

Alex wasn’t too sure. His Maelstrom class hadn’t come with any Skills, just the ability to manipulate the elements. Instead of replying, he took off one of his boots and cleared the snow from a patch of ground. Placing his now bare foot onto the frozen ground was not a pleasant experience, but Alex pushed throigh the discomfort. Tuning out the distractions, Alex tried to feel a connection to the ground beneath them. Almost like an echo, he felt a resonance begin to build and like a blind had been lifted he KNEW how to get the desired result.

Maelstrom Ground skill discovered: Earthshape. Allows for the ground at target loaction to be moulded at will. Stamina cost: Low

Alex looked over to where Whittaker was waiting and imagined the ground beneath their feet risding up in a colomn. Almost immediately the ground started to quake and lift up, until Whittaker was stood on top of a little foot high platform.

“I guess that means yes then!” Whittaker laughed as they hopped back down off of the little mound and headed back towards the entrance to the Ursu Den. The pair swiftly made their way back to twhere the first encounter had happened, and saw that the bodies were gone. There were obvious signs of the corpses being dragged down one of the tunnels in front of them.

“Guess we know which way to go then…” Alex quipped as they slowly made their way down the indicated passage.

Taking far greater care this time, they managed to walk in almost silence for a good 15 minutes before the tunnel started to widen out. Slowly they edged forward until the passage opened up into a large chamber. Dotted around the chamber were packs of 2 or 3 Ursu surrounding a pit in the center of the room. In this pit was an absolute monster of an Ursu.

Dire Ursu Goliathun lvl 40

Alex heard Whittaker draw a sharp breath at the sight of such an absolute behemoth. It easily stood 15 foot tall at the shoulder, if not more, and was as long as a school bus. Even at this distance Alex could see the cords of muscle rippling along its body every time it moved. The other Ursu all appeared to both fear and worship the titan. Alex caught sight of Whittaker motioning back the way they had come, and followed them.

“This is impossible. There is no way that… Monster should be here. This entire continent is supposed to be a low tier area, it’s why the main Council established their compound here. It allowed all Fridigians to be able to come and go with little to fear…” Whitt breathed, trying to make as little noise as possible. Alex simply shrugged and peered back down the tunnel to the cavern.

“Well, its here so no sense in pondering right now my friend. How are we going to deal with this infestation? Did you bring any ranged weaponry at all?”

Whittaker shook their head wistfully, so Alex started backing further up the passage. Once they got back to the original battle site he stopped and looked around.

“Okay, so the big one cannot get down these passages, so we don’t have to worry about it just yet. How would you alter this room to provide us the best chace of inflicting max casualties?” Alex deferred to Whittaker’s greater military knowledge despite having a reasonable idea himself thanks to countless hours spent in-game.

“Firstly, closw off these other tunnels,” Whitt gestured to the 3 other openings, “just in case they meet up somewhere in that cavern. That will stop them from getting behind us. Second, along this main passageway, do you think you could create some pitfalls?”

“I can certainly try. Did you want me to see if I can line them with spikes? Maybe thin their numbers as they rush us?”

“Perfect. In this room, do you think you could put the room on an upward slant? Give us the high ground?”

“How about I go one better and create an outcropping that they shouldn’t be able to get up? We can just stand there and swing at their heads as they try to reach us.” Alex was proud of this idea. It was similar to one he had employed many times in any game with a building system.

Whittaker nodded appreciatively, “Well done Alex, I didn’t realise you would have some tactical knowledge already. This may not be as hard as I thought.”

Taking the praise, Alex set to work trying to coax the ground to follow their plan. It was slow going as the stamina drain meant he had to take multiple breaks, but a few hours later, they had completely transformed the battlefield. Pitfalls lined the main passageway and were spaced around the chamber they were in as well. Alex had raised the roof of the cavern slightly and created a stone ledge for them both to stand on. All that was left to do was draw the Ursu towards their ambush site. Alex also tried to come up with some way of dealing damage without having to get near the hoard of Ursu once they filled the room. His power over the ground was not fast enough to create spikes on a whim, but he tried combining his gravity manipultion with his earth powers and making little rock bullets. The first few attempts failed as trying to maintain both mental processes needed caused the projectiles to lose coherency or veer off wildly. Whittaker stood off to the side watching for a few minutes until they offered an alternative idea.

“Alex, instead of trying to propel them with your power as well as trying to steer them, could i potentially use my hammer to provide the initial thrust, and you just aim them?”

“That is brilliant Whitt! Let’s try it out.”

Immediately Alex noticed the difference in mental strain. Rather than having to levitate and propel the rocks, he could focus on just keeping the aim true. Also Whitt’s power bonus seemed to apply to the projectile as well, causiong them to fly forward fast enough to create a shockwave. Not prepared for the sheer power of the thing, they forgot to factor in the noise it would create, and in a similar turn of events as earlier, scratches and howls could be heard chasing down the passageway ahead of them. Turning to each other, there wasn’t a trace of fear this time, only a slight smile as they got themselves ready on the ledge. This time they were ready for it.

The first howl of pain emanated from the tunnel as the Ursu fell into the first of many pits filled with spikes. Alex had spaced them out so that there wasn’t a pattern, and they would hopefully catch as many as possible to reduce the amount that made it to face the pair. Seconds crawled by to Alex as his adrenaline drew his focus razor sharp, waiting for the last possible moment to use his last trick. The first skinless snout came into view down the tunnel, slavering and furious at the traps it had managed to avoid. It was just the first of many, as the number racing towards their chamber just kept growing. As soon as the first few drew close to the opening, Alex focused and narrowed the opening enough that they had to come through single file. They were mostly all Ravagers similar in level to the ones they fought earlier, but intersperced every few was another Defiler.

The first Ravager forced its way into the room and swiftly met its end as a shard of hardened stone pierced straight through its forehead, and exited the back of its skull in a spray of viscera. The improvised stone round also had enough force to punch through the chest of the Ursu behind it. This didn’t kill it, but it was soon crushed beneath the waves pushing behind it. The duo kept this up for a few minutes, sniping at whichever Ursu managed to make it into the room and either outright killing them, or injuring them enough to fall down and be crushed. All of a sudden, the narrowing started to hiss and bubble as a few of the defilers launched streams of acidic bile at the opening. This also served to melt away the corpses of the fallen which had also been helping to create a barricade. Now Alex and Whittaker simply couldnt keep up with the influx as 2 or 3 at a time started shoving into the chamber.

By his estimate, they had managed to kill 20-30 of the bastards, but Alex was unsure how many had been in the cavern, or how many they had killed in the tunnel with the pits.

Yelling obove the noise, Alex shouted to Whittaker, “Did you manage to catch an estimate of how many we would be facing overall? Because this is ridiculous right now…”

Whittaker just shook their head, and focused on trying just hit the stones without Alex’s help so that he could recover a little. Unsure what else they could do at this point, Alex tried to create little guiding walls to herd the oncoming horde towards the extra pits in the room. As he was concentrating on the task, Alex suddenly found himself face down on the ledge with Whitt’s hand pressing him under an acid blob that had been fired at them by one of the Defilers. Realising they had underestimated their foe again, Whitt stood and roared as they jumped high above the throng of Ursu and activated an ability Alex didn’t recognise. Whittaker hurtled down into the center of the writhing mass of bodies like a comet, creating an impressive shockwave that tore apart the Ursu closest to the epicentre of the ability, and blowing those on the outer edge off their feet. They then wasted no time in starting swinging. No accuracy was needed, with every swing of their huge hammer hitting multitudes of enemies. Alex watched on in amazement at the devastation Whitt was causing, and then in alarm as the smarter Defilers started to try and flank them. Alex activated his own Jump Charge and flew toward them, adding a spin in the air and reaching out with his blade-shield like a lawnmower. The blade extended to its maximum, and with the added power imparted by the ability Alex cleaved through the recovering group that had gotten behind Whittaker. Fighting back to back the pair continued to give it their all, but Alex got clipped numerous times. His new passive allowed him to mitigate some of the damage, but it was quickly adding up and his stamina was dropping at a prodigious rate. Noticing Alex beginning to falter, Whittaker slammed their hammer into the ground and activated Frigid Wastes. The entire area around the pair was immediately coated in a rime of frost, and every Ursu slowed down as their movements were hindered and their limbs began to freeze up. This allowed enough of a respite for Alex to regain enough of his stamina to keep fighting on.

Soon, only the strongest of the horde were left alive. These were mostly the smarter Defilers, but a few higher leveled Ravagers had managed to stay alive. Both Alex and Whittaker were running on fumes by this point, having had to fight continuously for such a long time. Alex’s regen had managed to keep him relatively healthy, and he knew he was going to have to use Stop Time again for them to stand any hope of surviving this encounter. Alex felt the familiar sensation as everything around him stopped. Knowing he had at best 3-4 seconds, he prayed his idea would work. He quickly created more of the stone bullets and hit them as hard as he could with his shield towards each of the remaining Ursu. As he had hoped, as soon as the projectiles left his shield they froze, retainign their direction and momentum. As he hit the final one, his vision dimmed. Glancing at this HP he saw that he was about to hit the 1HP cutoff for the ability. Time resumed its normal flow, and all of the stone bullets flew out to impact their targets. Nearly all hit home and at least disabled the Ursu, but Alex was completely spent and collapsed again. Whittaker took in what had just happened and realised what Alex had just done. Seeing him on his hands and knees, out of the fight, Whittaker activated their most powerful ability. A blue glow suffused their entire form, and the entire cave frosted over. The temperature immediately dropped to well below freezing, and the Ursu all basically stopped dead in their tracks. The damaged Ursu all perished as the radiating cold wormed into their bodies and froze them solid. The couple that had managed to avoid Alex’s salvo suddenly found themselves feeling multiple impacts as Whittaker unleashed everything they had.

Alex felt the chill in the air and lifted his head. Before him stood a vision of Frigid themself, channeled through Whittaker. Faster than his eyes could really follow, the remaining Ursu were taken apart piece by piece until the chamber fell silent once more.

“Fuck Whitt… Couldn’t have done that a bit sooner eh?” Alex smiled weakly to show he was joking.

“I had hoped to save that for the Dire Monstrosity down there, but seeing as you decided to borrow from Chronos AGAIN, I felt it warranted before you fell down for good.”

“Well, thank you. Yet again I am completely spent and you pull my ass out the proverbial fire… At least we should get some really good EXP from this… maybe enough to finish that Ursu Titan?”

“Maybe you might, I didn’t recieve all that much in real terms. They were all far lower level individually than I. I managed just one level increase overall.” Whittaker explained.

Alex paled at that, and pulled up his flashing notifications.