A screeching, jarring noise rent through the otherwise quiet air as the vehicle’s wheels caught the top of the wall and were torn completely free from the chassis. Alex and his friends were unceremoniously thrown from the vehicle, landing sprawled onto the street beyond the wall.

“Fuuuuuuck…” Alex groaned as he felt his ribs to check they weren’t broken. “Everyone make it okay?” He asked as he eyed over his friends, all in similar states of giving themselves a once over. He received a chorus of acknowledging groans as they all slowly rose to their feet. “I’m assuming this wall won’t hold the Captain back, we need to move!”

Alex flexed a crick out of his neck and headed away from the slowly smouldering wreckage without looking back. Making sure all of his friends were ahead of him he let Zerath lead them deeper into what was beginning to look like an abandoned housing area. Unable to shake the feeling that this all seemed wrong, Alex hurried his pace and drew alongside Zerath.

“Where are we Zer? This place is really starting to creep me out. This looks like an abandoned housing estate.” Alex questioned, head on a pivot.

Zerath didn’t slow but spoke to Alex out the side of their mouth. “I’m not sure where we are, honestly. I’ve been following some strange impulse ever since we made our escape. I am sure that this is the correct way, but I don’t know why I feel that way…”

Alex’s eyes widened incredulously. “Are you fucking kidding me? I thought you knew where you were leading us Zer! Now you tell me that I've been banking our escape on a gut feeling?” Alex blew out heavily through pursed lips and ran his hand through his hair before continuing. “Well, I have no better idea so I guess we carry on following your hunch for now.”

After giving the rest of the group a wan smile, Alex made his way back to the rear of the group. Every single shadow and noise had him tensing ready for a fight, but after another 30-40 minutes nothing had happened. Ahead, Alex noticed Zerath slowly coming to a stop before turning to look through a gap between 2 buildings.

“Alex, you need to come and see this…”

As the rest of the group crowded around, Alex made his way over. As he came around the corner, a gigantic warehouse became visible. Around the perimeter, guards could be seen patrolling in pairs. Each pair had what looked like a melee fighter and a ranged attacker from what Alex could see of their weapons.

“So, anyone have any idea what this place is? Zer? You seemingly lead us here for a reason, do you know?” Alex questioned quietly, his mind already searching for any weak spots.

Nieve, Whittaker and Eira all turned to look at Yas and Zerath. Their gazes full of confused scrutiny. Yas gave a small shrug and also turned to look at their old mentor.

“I don’t honestly have a clue what's going on here!” Zerath raised their hands in surrender, “As I said to Alex earlier, I’ve simply been following my gut this entire time. For some reason my subconscious seems to want us to come here, but I swear I am not trying anything!”

Alex frowned as he heard this explanation. “Okay Zer, I believe that you believe what you’re saying, and you haven’t done anything up to now that would paint a different picture.” Alex turned to the rest of the group, “We have no idea what is going on down there, but the fact it’s guarded means that whatever it is is important to the ‘council’ and I reeeeally want to mess up their day some more. So, here’s the outline of my plan.”

Over the next hour Alex laid out his plan to infiltrate the massive warehouse. They would keep a watch on the guards patrols and try to see if there was any point that was unguarded. If so, they would all hit it hard and fast. If not, Alex and Whittaker would sneak closer and create their entrance opportunity. If possible they would try to reason with the guards to see if their allegiance was aligned with the Council, or if they were simply following orders. If they were allied with the council Alex no longer had any reservations at cutting them down, and everyone would simply rush Alex and Whitt’s location. As far as plans went it was a bit lacking, but Alex wasn’t a master strategist. The only change anyone suggested was to wait until night so that their approach would be aided by the dark. Alex facepalmed pretty hard when he realised he had forgotten such a basic idea.

After the plan was laid out Nieve pulled Alex aside. “Alex, it was only barely more than a full day between our capture and you pulling off the rescue. How did you get so much stronger so quickly? Your level is so low, and yet you held your own against one of the Council’s elite Captains! And you killed one of the higher levelled soldiers by yourself in seconds. Not to mention you single-handedly took out Gaet…” Nieve shook their head in disbelief at how much Alex was capable of.

Unsure of how best to condense everything for Nieve, Alex just dived in. “Well, after you were taken I broke back into the Base to recover Yas’ sled so we could follow you. Had to take out a couple of lower levelled Soldiers, and escape from some asshole called Naelex who had a corrupted blade. Then I met Adareth through their avatar and received their blessing, so all of my nature based powers are able to draw fully on their realm. I tunneled into the town around the compound and following Yas’ direction we went to their old master’s workshop. Zerath was actually there, but reset, which was a bit weird if I'm honest. Yas was happy though. Then together they made my new BucklAxes.” Alex drew his weapons proudly, then sheathed them again after a few seconds. “Then we snuck into the compound in Zer’s crates, killed Gaet and whatever the fuck was posessing them and then rescued you and the others…” Alex dropped his head as he remembered he had failed to save them all.

Throughout Alex talking, Nieve’s mouth had slowly dropped open further and further at hearing the sheer ludicrous feats he spoke of as if they were nothing. As he finished, they could almost feel the waves of sadness as he remembered Iclyn. Placing a hand on his to draw him back from the edge, Nieve said, “Alex, what you have accomplished is beyond what anyone could reasonably expect of you. That you managed to save as many of us as you did is amazing. Iclyn knew that, and would not want you to let their death drag you into despair. Instead let their sacrifice provide the burning core you need to keep pushing all boundaries! That you got an entire Realm’s blessing is a feat none have managed here before…”

Alex looked up with tears in his eyes, but a small smirk on his face. “I actually got 2 blessings… Chronos gave me theirs as well, it's the only way I’ve managed to do what I’ve done so far, but the arsehole has blocked me completely until I help them with a task in their realm! I don’t know how I will defeat the other Council members, especially if they are stronger than Gaet was…”

Nieve chose to gloss over the fact that the man before them had managed to obtain blessings from 2 separate realms, and pulled Alex to his feet before wrapping him in a tight hug. “Alex, you aren’t alone. And the time powers you had were not the only reason you won. They were just the tool you used. So come up with another tool! Now, have you checked your notifications recently? They don’t activate until they are acknowledged.”

Alex let the hug continue for a few seconds before pulling himself back and slapping a hand to his head. How could he have not remembered to check his notifications for so long! He hadn’t even brought up his stats since before fighting Gaet, so he must have a huge amount of XP banked up, as well as raw stat increases which could have been the difference in the fight against the Captain! Giving a sheepish grin to Nieve, Alex opened his notifications.

Rewards for killing Councillor Gaet revoked by Veil (Ended mind altering effect).

Neth Fridigian Parasite x4 (Various levels) killed. Bonus awarded for killing something more than 10x your level.

NFP lvl 360: 7200xp x10 (72000) Gained.

NFP lvl 346: 6920xp x10 (69200) Gained.

NFP lvl 402: 8040xp x10 (80400) Gained.

NFP lvl 405: 8100xp x10 (81000) Gained.

Fridigian Soldier lvl 74 Killed. 1480xp Gained.

Power +7, Vitality +11, Finesse +13, Mentality +8, Judgement +9

Alex inhaled sharply at just how much XP he had gained for killing the parasites. Even without the bonus they would have given a decent chunk, but with it? He had earned over 300k XP. And he got a nice boost to his stats as well. Maybe it wasn’t going to be as hopeless as it seemed. Sitting with his back to the wall, Alex set about raising his classes. He started by raising everything to level 20, as it kept everything on his character sheet looking neat. With the rest of his XP he pumped it all into Field Knight, as it had the greatest impact on his survivability. He also unlocked level 4 in his Metabolic Influx passive for reaching Combat Medic level 20. This now gave him 100hp/s baseline, or 200hp/s with Infusion active. On top of now having over 5000 effective HP he felt their chances tip ever so slightly more in their favour. He brought up his stat block to give everything a final once over.

Name

Alex Colt

Stats

Class

Species

Human(Nexus)

Power

42 (50)

Field Knight 29: HP Gained 10+Vit, +2 Vit per lvl

Age

27

Vitality

95

Maelstrom 20: HP Gained 2+0.5Vit, +1 Pow +1 Ment per lvl

Level

69 (Bonus Active)

Finesse

28

Combat Medic 20: HP Gain 5+Ment, +2 Ment per lvl

XP

13880/20000 FK

Mentality

97

HP

4258

Judgement

20

Stam

345 (690)

Charm

2

RF

852

Alex felt suddenly dizzy as all of the changes finished taking effect on his body. After such a monumental increase, the difference was enough to knock him sideways a little. He hadn’t suddenly tripled in size, but he could feel the difference in how his muscles contracted. Feeling more like steel cables than flesh and tissue. The biggest change was in his breathing. Each breath was so much...more. It felt like he had been breathing through a straw for his entire life up until this point.

Nieve and Whittaker stood watching as Alex finished allocating his XP. Whilst he was in his own little word of rediscovery, the pair slowly turned to look at each other, eyes wide. He had nearly doubled his level in one go! The difference was plain to see for anyone who knew what to look for. In the space of a few days, Alex had almost caught up in levels, and probably surpassed them both in raw stats. A crash brought both of them out of their silent reverie. Alex had tried to stand up and with the huge changes to his body, he had managed to overexert himself and fell flat on his face.

“What the fuck?” He cursed quietly to himself as Whittaker came over and helped him back to his feet. “What happened to me?” Alex questioned.

Barely holding back their laughter, Nieve explained. “Alex, how many levels and stats did you just gain?”

“I gained… 34 levels in total, and more than 30 Vitality and Mentality. As well as doubling my Power… Ohhhh….!” It started to sink in.

Shaking their head in disbelief Nieve finished off the thought. “Exactly, you gained so much in one go that you’re going to need to relearn how to use these new stats. Luckily, with that much extra Mentality it shoulnt take you too long.”

So for the remainder of the afternoon Alex tried to acclimatise himself to his new stats whilst the rest of the group sat around watching and having a laugh at his expense. After the 100th time he fell over, he felt he was finally starting to get a grasp. The only prior experience he could relate it to was being almost blackout drunk, except instead of his reactions being sluggish, they were instead overly quick.

Once he felt satisfied, he asked Whitt to spar with him so that he could make sure he could utilise his new power safely in a fight, lest he become a danger to himself and his allies. Whitt agreed, although slightly reluctantly, which drew more chuckles from the group. Alex faced off with Whitt across a hastily drawn arena, but didn’t draw his weapons to start with.

After trading a few salvos back and forth, Alex leapt back before immediately activating Charge Jump and rocketing across the ground and poking Whitt between the eyes. He then jumped straight up more than 20 feet in the air before Whitt could retaliate. Utilising Earthshape, Alex pulled a few little pebbles free and set them to whizz around the area, effectively causing Whitt to have to hunker down and protect their face from the pelting bits of stone. None were big enough to cause lasting damage, but each hit felt like a big bee sting, and left behind nasty little welts.

“Okay Alex, I submit! There is no way I can keep up with you like this!” Whitt chuckled, happy to see their student had taken all of their lessons to heart.

Alex ended his skills, and pulled off a huge superhero landing, leaving small craters where he impacted the ground. Smiling he said “Thanks Whitt, I didn’t mean to start using all my skills at once, but something just clicked and I wanted to see how far I could push myself.”

Waving away his words, Whitt punched his shoulder. “Don’t worry about that! You held back enough to make sure you didn’t injure either of us but still made sure to use every advantage you have instead of slogging it out with someone with more combat experience! Now, lets rest up and get ready for what needs doing tonight.”

The pair walked back over to the rest of the group and grabbed a drink before running their last minute checks on their gear. An hour later everyone was back in the vantage position overlooking the warehouse watching the guards as the sun began to set. There hadn’t been a noticeable pattern to abuse, so Alex and Whitt were going to have to do it the hard way. Alex just hoped the guards were open to reason.

As night pressed in around them, Alex and Whitt headed towards the nearest pair of guards.