“You told me to do it,” Galota replied flatly. “Though, on reflection, after investing twenty points into Intelligence, I can see that you didn’t mean at this exact moment.”

“Yeah, no. I didn’t mean now,” I said, throwing my hands up in exasperation.

“I assume you didn’t consider that we all had a huge swath of experience from our last few days of battle?”

“Didn’t even cross my damn mind,” I replied, looking to Sania for moral support. On this occasion she was of little help, staring blankly at the six Nanooks.

“This was not a good moment for us to increase our levels,” said Natta, the only other Nanook to have reached level eighty-one.

“Well, yeah, mate, in a nutshell.”

He joined Galota and the others in looking northwards into the darkness. I did too. “You guys might want to Nanook on.” I said gesturing at their small human appearance.

They ignored me. But Galota turned back to face Sania and me. “You were right, about the Intelligence. It is as though I have spent my life with my eyes have been closed to so much. It’s like a mist has been lifted from my mind. If I’d… If..” Then Galota started crying. Looking at the other recently ascended Nanooks, all of whom chose not to watch their leader's mental breakdown, I noticed they all looked lost and teary-eyed.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck. We’ve broken Galota and the others. Now Stada’s going to show up. Fuck.” I babbled in Sania’s mind.

“This certainly didn’t go how I’d planned,” Sania replied, her eyes darting around nervously for signs of the Stada appearing.

After around ten minutes of trying to bring the Nanooks back around to focus on the potential immediate danger, I felt myself beginning to relax. Which, of course was swiftly preceded by the ground beginning to tremble.

“Everyone up, with us ready to fight!” Sania shouted.

“Nanooks, seriously. If you have the more powerful form, then now would be the time to activate it or whatever you do,” I added desperately.

“It won’t matter,” Galota replied. “Even in our Nanook form we will barely be a quarter the size of Stada. I’m afraid this is the end for us. You were right about our shortcomings, Clive. I can see that now. We all failed our clans, and this is a fitting end for our failures. This is why Stada comes. To relieve us of the burdens of our failures.”

I sighed deeply as the source of the shaking ground grew ever nearer. “Don’t start that shit, Galota. You owe it to everyone here to keep fighting.”

The ground shaking stopped suddenly. All fell deathly quiet. Moments later, a very angry man walked out of the shadows. He actually looked a lot like Galota in this new form. Dark curly hair and a bushy beard, of which the exact color was hard to tell in the light cast my spicy ball. He looked every inch like a grizzled mountain man. The main difference between him and Galota was that above his head he had:

Stada the Gran: Level 209, Protector of the North, Nanook (Nystiobek III).

“Clive,” he snapped, glaring at me. Eyes filled with barely contained anger. “Why am I not surprised to find you here?” But he didn’t approach me, instead heading directly to Galota, who bowed his head.

“Stada, I apologize for ascending.”

“Was it him who told you to?” he said thrusting a finger at me. I’d moved closer to explain as Galota answered.

“It was. He said he would help me if you came, although in hinds….

Stada backhanded me, with lightning fast speed and I discovered, as I soared through the night sky, for a very long way, that despite being in his human form, Stada the Gran still possessed most, if not all of his strength. I caught myself in the air and started building the golden spicy ball in my hand as I soared back toward them, screaming. “Stada! No.”

Knowing there was only one way I could deal with Stada, even despite the multitude of warnings, I’d received from people far smarter than me. I began adding ethereal energy to the swelling ball of power in my hand.

Stada was still only talking to Galota, but he had his hand raised ready to strike. His fingers thickened abnormally as wicked looking bear claws sprouted from the ends.

“Stada. You need to stop doing this. These are your own people… it’s fucking mental, man!”

“Never.” he growled.

“You know what this can do,” I said, coming to a hovering stop a few meters away from where they stood. “I will hit fucking chuck it at you if you don’t stand down. I don’t care who it brings.”

He turned and faced me without fear. “Do it then. I am ready.”

“You’re ready? What the fuck man. Just stop killing Nystiobek. Who knows, you might even make friends.”

“I can’t stop. You don’t understand. I can’t allow them to grow in power and suffer the same fate I have suffered. ”

“They won’t. I’ll make sure of it. If you stop, we can help you too. Work with us, man. We can work it out.”

I moved slowly closer now, but he really didn’t seem to care.

“Stada. Please don’t make me do this,” I begged.

“If you do throw it, make sure you kill me, Clive. Because I will kill everyone here if you fail.”

He lunged for Galota.

“Nooooo!” I screamed, letting go of the blast at the same time. It was filled with every ounce of Ethereal energy I had stored.

The world became filled with blinding light and pain as we were all blown back from my explosion. When that light finally died, leaving me blinking away dancing spots of light, I could see Stada lay unmoving on the ground close to Galota.

Sania now held a ball of golden Neuma giving us light to see. She watched me in something approaching awe.

“Are you okay, Clive?”

“Yeah, fine,” I replied, turning to the two Nystiobek who had been most badly injured from my Ethereal blast.

Galota was badly injured but still mainly intact and still moving. Stada who had taken the direct hit was a gruesome sight. His skin had melted away. All of his charred organs on display and the only movement I could see was his heart still beating within his ribcage. His eyeless skeletal face was staring directly at me giving the impression he could still see.”

“You stupid bastard, Stada,” I said, mournfully, but still didn’t waste time on what needed to be done. I moved over quickly, pulling my Cleaver from its loop, and hacked into his neck. Again and again and again, it took eight solid blows of my Neuma infused cleaver until his head finally rolled free.

Everyone else just stood and watched me like slack jawed zombies as I worked on not letting the crazed Nanook regain health and kill us all.

Without any ethereal energy left in the tank, he would kill us all without a doubt. Scooping up his skull, I took a few fast, short steps and hurled the head as far as I could. It shot off like a rocket into the night sky. When I looked back down at his body, I saw that his damn heart was still beating.

I actually felt tears in my own eyes now as I looked down on the mess of a body somehow still clinging on to life. I felt a surge of shame, to have killed something, someone so powerful. So clearly crazy. I’d always hoped we might be able to talk him around to our cause, and now I was the one who finally killed the ancient bear.

My mourning only lasted a few seconds as I noticed mottled red and purple flesh was beginning to creep over the bones from where some remained still intact on his back. Knowing I would have to go back to my gruesome work I knelt down by the decapitated carcass and reached into his chest cavity pushing up past the warm liver and lungs. Taking hold of his still beating heart I tried to yank it out. After a number of attempts, it continued to resist my strength, leaving me with no choice but to remove my hand and go to work with the cleaver. Again, My numerous attempts to hack through the ribs to get a better angle at the heart failed. The combined constitution and springiness of the ribs meant they just wouldn’t break. “Shit,” I hissed. Sitting back on my legs for a moment, my ragged singed furs now fully covered in blood. Growing frustrated at my inability to finish the bastard off I resorted to firing spicy balls at his chest and heart. It still continued to beat and the skin continued to regrow.

“Arrrrgh!” I roared in desperation.

“Try the claw of ascension,” Sania added, the panic in her voice clear to hear from the slight tremor.

IT was a good idea, the only idea left really, so I did as she said and brought my demon hand up in front of me activating the red glow.

Once again, I thrust my hand inside the rib cage, this time causing a lot more damage to the surrounding organs. At first the heart still wouldn’t come, but with a few vicious twists of my glowing red hand, I finally pulled Stada’s heart free.

I slumped back on the hard bare ground, heart still beating strongly in my grip while everyone stared at me, in something close to horror. I didn’t care. My sole focus was the heart. Once it finally stopped beating, and Stada the Grans life came to an irretrievable end, I let myself fall back, flat on the ground. Feeling more devastated than I could explain.

Sania crouched down beside me, only partially blocking a sudden gust of air as Wind of the Wild appeared. Morphing into Ewan, he came and stood by my side looking down sadly at the body.

Before either of us had a chance to say anything, I was bombarded with notifications:

Congratulations. You defeated a Level 209 Nanook for 4,090 Experience Points available.

+10 Bonus Experience Points for every level your opponent was above your own. 1710 Experience Points.

Hero for the ages! Legendary Achievement!: You struck the killing blow against a foe at least 100 levels above your own.

Legendary Bonus: 5000 Experience Points.

Special Achievement!: You struck the killing blow against a Protector.

Bonus Experience: 10,000 Experience points.

New title: Protector of the North.

Protector Attribute 1: Protectorate Awareness.

Your subconscious will be alerted to high energy activity that arises within your protectorate.

Protector Attribute 2: Protectorate Charge.

Instantaneous travel to any part of your protectorate. Singular mode of transportation. One outbound and Return trip within any twenty-four-hour period.

Protector Attribute 3: No level penalty will be incurred when defending your protectorate against lower leveled foes.

Total Experience Points: 20,800

Level up:

Congratulations: You have reached Level 59.

Congratulations. You have reached Level 60.

Congratulations you have unlocked - Singularity Upgrade:

Innate understanding of universal essence (Neuma).

Visual awareness Optional: Active/Passive Manipulate Universal Essence (Neuma) in the atmosphere around you.

(Sub-Level 1) Active.

Congratulations. You have reached Level 61.

Congratulations. You have reached Level 62.

Congratulations. You have reached Level 63.

Congratulations. You have reached Level 64.

You have 60 Points to allocate.

As much as I needed to deal with the present situation, I wasted no time in allocating the points until after a good think. My full expectation was to be visited by a number of insanely powerful, inconsolably concerned devotees of various gods at any minute.

Barely giving a thought to the development in Singularity for the moment. I scanned my present build. Constitution was fine and I had a fair amount of direct power through Neuma. A spicy ball could do more damage than I ever could physically. Despite the urge to pump Strength I knew without a doubt that I needed to stop getting hit all the damn time. I was getting better, but the general level of my enemies seemed to increase. My Speed was already decent, but without good reactions, it didn’t mean jack-shit. I gritted my teeth and without further ado I put thirty points each into Agility and Perception.

Level 64

Physical statistics:

Strength: 70

The capacity to exert and resist force.

Dexterity: 28

Skill and ease in hand-based activity.

Agility: 76

How effectively the body can move into a range of different positions.

Speed: 70

Rate at which the body can move.

Stamina: 58

Period over which the body can effectively sustain prolonged activity.

Constitution: 208

The ability to withstand physical punishment.

Mental Statistics:

Intelligence: 45

Knowledge and its application

Charisma: 38

Charm, coerce, inspire.

Perception: 66

Awareness of surroundings

Spiritual Statistics:

Ethereal Awareness: 0

Attunement with the Gods and spirits of Gulithea. (Necessary for Ethereally supplied magical ability.)

Internal Connection: 55

Attunement with oneself. (Necessary for cultivation of one’s own inner power)

Singularity: 25

Innate understanding of Neuma. Will increase with personal level. (Cannot be leveled by other means.)

Visual awareness Optional: Active/Passive Manipulate Universal Essence (Neuma) in the atmosphere around you.

(Sub-Level 5) Active.

World sense: 7.2% Knowledge of Gulithea.

Experience Points to next level: 180/3200

As I dropped the stats table, I screamed. My mind felt like it was being torn apart, in not so much in pain but shock. I was completely overwhelmed by how much I now absorbed from the world around me. The increase in Perception was clear. I could see further hear more, notice slight twitches in people and even became more aware of the cool breeze blowing from the east. But that was in battle with the new details my increase in Singularity had carved out in my mind. I could see power emanating from those around me in various amounts according to level. Grey from the Nystiobek and Wind of the Wild. Golden with a hint of gray from Sania. Beyond that, the hues in the air were more vibrant, forceful even. Overlaying my vision, making the darkness seem none existent. The eddies of universal power illuminated the ground in gray while the air itself, held faint iridescent blue sheen about it. If that was all, I would have been overwhelmed, but it was not. Suddenly the…underside of my mind was alive with flaring energies I couldn’t put my finger on. Like fish under water, teaming and whizzing around. I only just managed to comprehend that they were the uses of power across the North. My new Protectorate and I couldn’t bear their presence on top of everything else. Darkness seemed to close in. The last thing I was aware of was my body begin to spasm before my mind shut down completely.