Chapter 126

Lykan

Witnessing Perfection

After the first frost troll, the next became routine. Lykan would point out the mounds where the trolls would be hidden in, and Brenna would go in hacking and slashing. One time she managed to get a killing blow on the first swing. Striking the hidden monster in its head. Her subsequent tries to repeat the effect were not so successful as she still seemed to have no feel for qi. At least not the way Lykan did.

Meanwhile Lykan would play over-watch and watch for any trolls that sought to come and aid their comrades. Often disabling or incapacitating the charging monsters with quick strikes to the skull. Then once Brenna finished off her first opponent she would come over and quickly decapitate the downed opponent. Each time she killed a monster she gained a maximum blessing from the Gods. Each blessing making her strikes that much faster and harder to dodge.

Then finally at long last, the last frost troll died. Brenna was assured of this feat by the Gods who gave her yet another blessing for ridding the world of the frost trolls. The blessing itself did little for her, as she had already reached the fifty point limit that Lykan had told her about.

Panting.

Brenna was covered in gore and viscera.

“It’s over.” She said, more so to herself than to Lykan who had also gotten the blessing for cleansing the world of frost trolls. Though his was the minor +1 to all attributes, something he considered to be the participation award from the Gods. Still it was nice to know that he wouldn’t have to continue searching for the monsters.

“Yes.” Lykan agreed.

Brenna looked around, then down at the dead monsters. “It’s funny.”

“What is?”

“I don’t know, I just thought there would be something more. You know? Like you spoke of the fifty-point threshold like it was something amazing.” She said, but then just looked disappointed. “I achieve the fifty point threshold two kills back.” She said gesturing with her large war axe back at one of the dismembered four legged trolls.

Seeing this Lykan could only smile. “You might want to sit down then.”

“What? Why?” She asked. But before she could say anything else a glowing white light shone up around her. “What? What is…” she trailed off as the words of a blessing formed in her eyes. To Lykan’s surprise he too was able to see the blessing being bestowed.

Blessing Bestowed: Perfect Body Perfect Body: You have achieved the maximum bonus that the Gods can bestow upon you, by achieving +50 to all attributes. Your body has reached the state of perfection that the Gods could give you. Any further growth will need to be achieved on your own. Reward: Your attributes and previous achievements are locked. While you can still gain curses from the Gods, no curses will be able to lower your Attributes.

The blessing shone brightly, its light dwarfing the glowing effects that were overtaking Brenna’s body. Brenna for her part just began to drop to the ground and spasm. Lykan quickly dove in, making sure she didn’t fall on her double bladed axe, while also watching for signs of danger to her body. He held her upright, her head resting in his lap, as he watched the changes slowly overtake her body.

Lykan never remembered this part of the process. He never saw the changes occur, from his point of view one second he saw the blessing being bestowed. Then the next he had a perfect body. He remembered the change happening somewhat similarly to him as well. The blessing was bestowed only once he was done fighting monsters, and was momentarily safe. He felt tired from his battles so he sat down. Only now that he saw the effects and spasms overtaking Brenna’s body did he realize, he too likely passed out for a bit while the changes took place. This was a scary moment for Lykan as he realized the importance of having someone by his side. Just because the Gods waited this time to reward him, didn’t mean they would always look out for him. Also the thought of being vulnerable for so long was a bit unnerving.

Lykan watched Brenna’s body glow with divine radiance. He watched as her body took on a golden tan, no longer sporting the sickly pale glow of skin that never saw the direct sunlight for extended periods of time. Her hair became a lustrous black with red streaks throughout. This was a sign of her control over qi. Lykan knew that the more she improved her control over qi, the more her hair would turn from black to red. Lykan’s own hair was a blond and fire red mix as he seemed to master both qi and mana equally, at least as far as his hair was concerned.

Idly he wondered what color would hair denoting one who mastered psionic abilities take. Would it be black, or something even more profound? He didn’t know, though he knew that was to be his next journey. In fact when he finally broke through to the fifth echelon and was once again able to make an evolutionary change for himself, he felt he would go with Psychic once more. He felt that this being his third evolution in the same category would be fairly substantial. Just as he received an evolutionary change at the third echelon of his self-mastery, so too he figured would he gain an evolutionary change to his Psychic changes. At least this was what Lykan theorized.

He still had questions about who he was, and how he started life with the original evolutionary change. There were so many questions that remained unresolved for him. He looked for his father, only to find that there were no signs of him anywhere, he left Abberty Village, his home, before the invading forces arrived. But he never made it to any of the cities or countries nearby, neither did old man Roberts or the children and livestock he had. Thinking about this made Lykan realize he was alone. All records of his past were gone, eroded away by the tidal wave that was time.

Tingling.

Lykan felt a strange tingling sensation in his hands, letting him know the process was nearly complete. He looked down at the face of Brenna and saw perfection. He had already thought she was cute, but the changes made by the Gods only highlighted the parts Lykan appreciated. The freckles on her face were now darker dots, against her golden skin. Her face was now more heart-shaped, her hair also did a great job of fully accentuating her face.

Then her eyes opened, and Lykan felt his breath get sucked out of his chest as he viewed her glowing blue orbs. Lykan had brown eyes that had grown lighter since his transformation, but were still the base color he began life with. Compared to the two, he couldn’t help that her eyes that felt like ice were amazingly vibrant on her.

“Um…” Was all Brenna said. Her words instantly snapping Lykan out of his musings as he realized he was mere centimeters away from her face. Blushing slightly Lykan leaned back and then off into the distance as he tried to regain his composure.

Brenna stayed resting in his arms and lap for a moment before things began to sink in. “I take it I passed out.”

Lykan nodded, and then after a moment was able to regain composure. “You did. I didn’t want you to hurt yourself as you were spasming while the changes were taking place.” He said, and then gestured to her axe that was a few feet away, kicked away by Lykan to make sure she didn’t twist and end up cutting herself on the surprisingly sharp blades.

Seeing this Brenna nodded, then out of the corner of her eye she saw that her hair was different colors. Reaching up to pull the odd strands in front of her, she asked.

“Did I change a lot?” Brenna asked.

“Oh yeah.” Lykan said, looking at her as she suddenly stood to her full height. Seeing her rise Lykan too rose to a standing position, his hand out to help grab Brenna should she wobble or fall.

Lykan hadn’t noticed the full changes to her body, but as she stood up, he could swear that she was a bit taller. Then her body, which was already ample suddenly seemed to be even curvier. This was something that Lykan instantly noticed and then looked away embarrassed that he had been staring, or at least he hoped he stopped himself before he caught staring.

Brenna noticed his actions and couldn’t help but smile. She had always been pretty for a dwarf, but most of the men from Clevarall never caught her eye. At least none caught her eye the way Lykan had. She was well aware of the way males would gawk at her, and this was the first time that she elicited such a response from Lykan. Truthfully the thought made her heart pound as a slight smile came to her lips. But there was a chance she could be wrong, there was a chance she could be mistaken. She had only been around Lykan for close to two months at this time and wanted to make sure she knew this response.

“Do I look better?” She asked, it was an innocent question and one that could easily be deflected if he answered poorly. She still wanted to be with him, to travel with him and explore the world. He had already done so much for her, saved her, taught her how to grow and fight. Now most importantly, he had helped her achieve the perfect body from the Gods.

“Yes. A lot…” Lykan said, shaking his head, but still looking away as he was too embarrassed to look at her and get caught staring. Seeing this response Brenna smiled.

Then Lykan realizing how his words could be misconstrued, quickly continued. “Not that you were ugly or anything before the change, far from it. It is just that now… now you are truly… amazing.”

Seeing this side of Lykan was a nice change. He was normally so stoic and stand offish. To see him blunder in basic conversations was a relief to Brenna. It helped confirm that he was both mortal and fallible, two things she desperately hoped for, if there was to be any relationship between them. She saw him, in that moment she saw him. Or at least she thought she saw the real him. He was unbelievably strong and powerful, but he lacked confidence. At least he lacked confidence when it came to dealing with people.

She didn’t know what he had gone through for the past few years to make him like this, but she felt at least for this one moment that she truly saw and understood Lykan.

She was so caught up in this one moment of introspection, that she failed to notice the way Lykan involuntarily shook. One could say it was due to the excessively cold feeling of the biome they were in, but Brenna knew firsthand how the biomes offered little in the way of discomfort. In fact, the cold air, was barely more than a tingle to her perfect body. Meaning that Lykan likely felt similar. Realizing he was slightly trembling and uncomfortable due to how he thought she would take his words made her feel light.

Taking a moment she moved closer and then hugged Lykan. Even with the extra bit of height her head barely reached his chest, and Brenna had to focus to move her arms up so they rested on the small of his back and not where they would normally rest.

“What?” Lykan said, looking down to his side to see Brenna holding him tightly. He panicked for a moment, then relaxed as he saw the smile on her face. His right arm involuntarily draping itself over her back as he relaxed.

“Thank you.” She said into his chest. Brenna took in a deep breath and smelled the deep musk of qi, and something sweet on his person. It was a good smell, one that spoke of immense power. It was also one that Brenna made a mental note to always relate to Lykan.

Lykan for his part took in a deep sigh of relief. He realized only during the moment how important this moment was. He had similar moments in his past, moments where the status of relationships changed or were altered. Only after the fact did he realize how he had missed so many chances with people. Though with Brenna, he wanted things to work out, which was why he suddenly found himself so flustered. He was afraid she would leave him, especially now that she was extremely powerful. He knew full well just how powerful a fully blessed person could be, he was one of them after all.

They stayed like that for a moment. Brenna realized this was important, as she felt how fragile Lykan was, so she let him decide when to end their embrace.

Finally after a few more moments of just standing amid the corpses of their enemies in a frozen waste, Lykan took in a deep sigh of regret as he raised his arm. A sign that he was ready for the moment to end.

Brenna gave a slightly tighter squeeze, before she let go. Then taking a half step back she looked up and locked gazes with Lykan.

“Let’s get all the cores and any pieces of meat that look like they are worth saving. Then get out of here.” Lykan said.

Brenna nodded, then the two broke off to do the respective tasks. Each moving quickly and thoroughly. Hands going through sticky liquid that months ago Brenna would have been disgusted by, were now nothing more than a nice anecdote of a pleasant afternoon. She had decided that when she would later tell others of this day, this moment would be a key piece of their first true day together as equals.

Smiling to herself, squish, her hand went into the cavity of another frost troll as she dug around for the small core of the monster. Her hand grabbed hold of the core, and with a quick movement it was removed, with a sucking-slurping sound coming from the chest as her hand left the chest cavity.

Today is a good day, Brenna thought to herself as she gave a quick look back to see Lykan diligently going through a downed troll corpse to remove the core. Yes, today is a very good day.

***

The two collected the cores and choice pieces of meat in no time. In all, the only piece of meat that was determined to be worth taking were the back straps, which looked both saturated with qi and very tender.

With the cleanup done, and everything neatly packed in their bags. The two made their way back to the now oddly-quiet generation room. From there Brenna locked eyes with Lykan, as she jumped up and grabbed onto his shoulders. On reflex more than anything, Lykan caught Brenna in a princess carry. Then with a suggestive wiggle of her eyes, she had wanted for Lykan to begin to fly off with her. Instead, what she got was a slight cough, and blush before Lykan regained his composure and looked up over her to the open-air duct above.

Before Brenna could say anything, other than let out a slight chuckle the two were up and off. With the wind whooshing by, Brenna rested her head against Lykan’s shoulder and watched the stoic look of resolve return to Lykan’s face. Yes, today is a very good day indeed. Brenna thought as the two exited through the same passage they had entered from.