Rune Seeker

No sooner had the flames from Seena’s latest antsplosion cleared than another of her thralls rose from the ashes of the corpse. Despite being within the blue column of light in front of the tunnel entrance, no wounds appeared on the ant’s carapace—not even scratches—and the beast quickly charged up the tunnel.

Where it promptly exploded.

“Uh, sorry, are my pets messing with your test?” Seena asked.

“Not at all,” Hiral said. “Getting the experience is priority number one. Besides, I think I got what I needed from that phase.” He still felt a connection to Death Knell embedded in the ground. If he needed to, he could take control of it back again.

“That phase?” Seena asked, eyeing him while she casually tossed out another fireball to incinerate a newly formed group. “Did you notice these ants sort of just pop up out of the ground, like the dungeon itself is… spawning them?”

Hiral watched as, like Seena said, ant bodies literally formed out of thin air. To a normal group, the constantly spawning enemies would be a real challenge. But to the buff-stacked Seena, it was like an all-you-can-eat experience buffet.

“It looks like there is a spawn cycle to the ants. See where that one is forming?” Hiral pointed at one he was keeping his eyes on, another already materializing beside it. “Four more will spawn beside it, to make a pack of five, before the next group emerges.”

Just like he said, it only took a few seconds before five ants were charging into the fray, while a few feet away from the original spawn point, more ants were taking shape.

“Huh. Does it mean anything?” Seena asked, a flick of her wrist sending a fireball over to intercept the new group.

“No idea. Kind of reminds me of the way the constructs were formed in the Forge of Ur’Thul, though. The ones we practiced on when we got our Chords. Who knows? Maybe it’ll be useful to know later.”

“Yeah. Sorry for distracting you. What’s the next phase of your test?”

Hiral refreshed Shared Strength on Seena, then threaded solar energy into the Ring of Amin Thett to retrieve his newly modified Reinforced Blightsteel Sabre and Stormstrike. Both swords emerged from the space within the crystal ring floating at his back as if through magic—well, actually through magic—and glided over to hang at either side of him. Black energy dripped from the vertically hanging sabre on his left, while electricity crackled over Stormstrike to his right, the blade jagged like a lightning bolt had been frozen as crystal and attached to a hilt.

(Lost) Stormstrike – A-Rank

Effects: Grants user access to Ability – Stormstep and Ability – Lightning Strike.

Ability – Stormstep: Briefly become intangible lightning to dash in one direction. If an object or entity is struck before reaching destination, reform and inflict lightning damage based on Wis.

Ability – Lightning Strike: Release a lightning bolt in a straight line to inflict damage based on Wis.

Stormstep was the ability that had given Yanily inspiration to craft his own Skyfall technique, but Hiral hadn’t tested it out much. Having the strength of the abilities being based on Wis—one of his lower attributes—wasn’t ideal. Then again, with the significant bonus he was getting through the Party Interface, maybe it would be worth it.

“Can you do both of them at the same time?” Seena asked Hiral, pointing at the two hanging swords.

“That’s what we’re going to find out,” Hiral said, stretching out his hands, and the weapons moved with them. Unlike when he hurled the Emperor’s Greatsword, there wasn’t a tethered connection he needed to form. Instead, the swords brought out by the Arsenal of Amin Thett already had that link—and a stronger one at that.

A few test-flicks with his fingers had the weapons darting out, and while it was a bit of a mental strain to control both weapons at the same time, it wasn’t really any different than when he was learning to use paired swords. It’d get easier over time, but two was his limit. For now.

“What are you waiting for?” Seena asked. “The ants aren’t going to kill themselves…”

Just then, three ant-thralls charged over into a group of a dozen Soldier Ants and exploded in a gory mess of chitinous body parts.

“Okay, so maybe they are…” she admitted sheepishly.

“One more thing before that,” Hiral said, focusing on the weapons staying still while he moved his hands. Again, it took a little mental effort to sever the connection so the weapons didn’t follow his hands, and another thought brought them back in line. It wasn’t as smooth as it could be, but practice would probably help. “Wanted to make sure I didn’t lose my head if I had to scratch my nose,” he told Seena. Then he thrust his hands forward.

The two swords jerked through the air to follow his motion, each driving their blades into the closest ant. The BlightsteelSabre rotted the chitin around the wound, while lightning crackled through the ant’s joints from where Stormstrike struck. Rotating his wrists, Hiral twisted the weapons in the wounds, ripping the poor ant apart and draining its health bar in short order.

“Not bad, but nothing compared to your efficiency,” Hiral said to Seena.

“Is that how you would fight?” she asked him. “Just stabbing it like that?”

“No…” Hiral said, thinking of the nagging feeling in the back of his mind, like he was missing a key part of the whole thing. The swords moved like he was conducting them, every flourish and gesture creating a movement or effect, but right now, he was just blindly thrashing around. He was the conductor who didn’t know the music.

Unless I do.

Ripping the swords free from the ant’s corpse with a shrug, he pulled them back to his side and closed his eyes. Feeling the connection between him, the ring floating behind him, and the swords at his sides, he let out his breath and dropped into the first stance for the Chord of the Primal Echo. If this was the music he needed to follow…

The first otherworldly tone sounded in Hiral’s ears, and his eyes snapped open as he burst into motion. Out and around his hands shot, spinning the swords with him as he went. He twisted his body in a full circle, then slammed his foot to the ground, driving down both arms. Punching through chitinous armor like it wasn’t even there, the target ant’s head left its body before it even knew what had happened.

And before that head hit the ground, Hiral was already moving again, whipping his hands out to his sides while he twisted his wrists. The two swords immediately followed, spinning end over end like windmills of death to cut apart the nearest ants. By the time those bodies fell, Hiral began doing something reckless as he followed the guidance of the music: He charged down into the pit of ants.

“Left! Right!” he shouted as he went, but he needn’t have bothered; the Chord had already pulled on them, and the two doubles landed beside him.

Hundreds of ant eyes turned in his direction—though most ended up getting antsploded—and Hiral and his twins dashed forward.

Bringing the swords back in close, Hiral leapt into the air with a burst of Rejection, then spun like a top, his swords rotating around him like a deadly sawblade. Earth and chitin fell before the cutting motion, and as soon as his feet touched down again, Left and Right crossed in front of him, crashing through two more unfortunate opponents.

Falling into the music of the Chord like he’d dropped himself into a deep ocean, Hiral spun and thrust, punched and parried, each motion carrying with it a flying sword. When one ant got too close, like it’d been lured in by the music, Hiral briefly cut his connection to the swords, and simply dealt with the ant the old-fashioned way. Punches and kicks reinforced with his Rune of Impact were more than enough to deal with the poor creatures.

Thanks to his Second-Skin of Ur’Thul set bonus, his runes were hitting like C-Rank abilities against these Low-D-Rank enemies. The monsters simply had no chance.

As soon as the nearest monsters’ health bars dropped to zero, he quickly reforged his connection to the floating swords and continued the churning dance of ruin amidst the ant horde. Sure, Seena’s fireballs, antsplosions, and exploding thralls were far more efficient, but this was the practice he needed.

Moving through the swarm, his Lost Echo left exploding doubles in his place when he successfully dodged an attack, while his Regeneration+ easily kept up with any of the small wounds he took. And, to be fair, he took far moredamage than he should’ve against monsters of this level, as it required too much attention to guide the weapons around him.

If only he had an endless supply of weak monsters to hone the edge of this new technique…

Now it was his turn to laugh maniacally, and Hiral pushed solar energy into Stormstrike to activate Stormstep. The weapon swept in close, and then he and it merged into a single lightning bolt to shoot through the crowd. When he reformed at the other end of the movement ability, the Reinforced Blightsteel Sabre raced to catch up, and he tore into the ants from behind.

Hiral pushed like that for another four minutes, Killing Spree+ easily keeping him going, but then he felt the Shared Strength fade from Seena. Another surge of solar energy into Stormstrike brought him back to her side, and he quickly reactivated the ability on her. The moment that was done, he Stormstepped back into the crowd of ants like he’d never left.

Over and over he thrashed through the ants, refining the technique of controlling the weapons and darting back to Seena to refresh shared strength. The cacophonous booms of her explosions all around him slowly merged with the Chord of the Primal Echo, the percussion to his wind and strings, and he weaved through the fiery spheres like they were part of his dance. He pushed himself faster, wound his weapons’ motions tighter, and struck harder, doing as much damage as he could with a single attack.

But, if it was damage he wanted, the C-Rank Reinforced Blightsteel Sabre was a poor choice when compared to another weapon he had access to. While the Arsenal of Amin Thett could only hold up to A-Rank weapons—meaning he couldn’t use the Emperor’s Greatsword with it—he still had one more A-Rank sitting almost uselessly. A thought sent the sabre back in the ring while Hiral reached out with his senses and yanked Death Knell back to float beside him.

Solar energy threaded into the weapon, igniting the blue script along the blade, and the light spread to the razor-sharp edge as Sever Life activated. Cold blue on one side, and sparking yellow on the other. Looking it over, Hiral redoubled his efforts to push himself to his limits.

Controlling the weapons, his body, every breath and motion, put him on the razor’s edge of success or failure. It took every ounce of his concentration to balance it all, and only his high Atn and Dex made it possible to keep up with the ever-changing battlefield around him and the grueling pace of the Chord of the Primal Echo.

And… it was exhilarating.

Hiral couldn’t suppress the smile that spread across his face as he threw himself into the battle. Sure, the enemies were no real threat to him, but the training itself was just as challenging as anything he’d ever done.

Well, maybe not as tough as the Troblin Duke…

And the stray thought almost cost him his hold on the Chord, the note turning discordant before he strained to get himself back on track. Barely, just barely, he managed to keep it going, and he forced any random thoughts out of his mind.

Left and Right fell in line with the Chord, covering for Hiral when he made a mistake in controlling the weapons while also hitting their notes. Buffs and debuffs came and went, ravaging the ants while bolstering Hiral as he fought and tested. Piercing Shot blinked in the corner of his vision, but the swords didn’t seem to benefit from the buff, so he snapped one of his RHCs out in his left hand.

You have been buffed by Piercing Shot.

Your next ranged attack will ignore target’s defense and inflict additional damage based on Atn. Chance to pierce target and strike additional targets in a line based on Dex.

The instant his hand drew the weapon, the sword on his left snapped back in to hover at his side.

Can’t use the swords and RHCs at the same time. Too bad.

Lifting the Runic Hand Cannon in front of himself, three glyphed circles appeared in line with the barrel, and Hiral pulled the trigger after barely aiming the shot. Each of the glowing circles in front of his weapon sequentially pulled and pushed his blast as it passed through them, exponentially magnifying its power, and the single shot downed dozens of the tightly packed ants in the blink of an eye.

After reholstering the RHC on his thigh, Hiral zipped over to Seena to rebuff her Shared Strength before diving back into the crowd. Around and around his swords spun and stabbed, but suddenly the Chord reached for a crescendo at the same time a massive rush of Soldier Ants surged for him.

Something is different. The tone changed…

The Chord was telling him not to use the swords at his sides, and it was different from the RHCs too. Deeper, heavier, like the weight of the world sat in those notes.

Thrusting his swords away, Hiral reached over his shoulder and drew the Emperor’s Greatsword—igniting the energy blade at the same time—and charged into the rushing horde. Left and Right were at his side in an instant, ice crystals and purple fire trailing in their wake.

Then the two forces met, more antsplosions erupting on both sides like they were boxing the battle in. Fine by me. Hiral hit the first line of ants like a sledgehammer, the increased weight of his greatsword simultaneously crushing and cutting through any ant unlucky enough to get in his way. Right, at the same time, sent a horizontal column of infernal fire shooting straight through the mass, while Left froze legs and bodies as he passed.

But just seconds after the Chord had grown deep and heavy, it turned back to a lighter, almost playful melody. Following his instincts, Hiral returned the greatsword to his back and drew his RHCs, peppering the ants as he spun and pulled the triggers. The almost-one-second cooldown on each weapon made it harder to keep up with the press of bodies all around him, but Piercing Shot activated once, twice, three times to help thin the push.

Even then, it was barely a few seconds later—not even ten—that the tune suddenly raced ahead. Impossibly insistent, the Chord pulled Hiral to leap into the air, the final few ants spread out below him, but there was no way he’d be able to hit them all in the time he had…

Time.

Hiral sequentially activated the Runes of Time Contraction and Time Dilation, his body hanging in the air as the world around him ground to a stop. Like before, reality and the natural order of things pushed against the back of his mind, the pressure building, but he wasn’t going to hold it off for long. Picking his targets one after the other, Hiral aimed his weapons and pulled the triggers. With time frozen as it was, nothing happened immediately. At least, not until the effects of his runes ended.

Then, four shots burst out of each of his RHCs’ barrels in the blink of an eye, and eight ants fell to a blast through the head.

Hiral landed a second later, a dull headache lingering from pausing time, and he missed the next step in the Chord, the whole thing turning off-key like a dying cat.

“Time to go back,” Left said beside him, the double wincing like he felt the same discomfort.

“Yeah, you two good to make it back?” he asked, and the doubles nodded.

Feeling oddly drained by the furious melee, Hiral used Stormstep to return to Seena, then dropped to sit down even as she turned an amused glare in his direction.

“Pretty sure that falls in the reckless category,” she said. “Was it worth it?”

Just as he was about to open his mouth to answer, a notification window sprang up in front of his face.

Congratulations! Breakthrough!

Through a combination of your own imagination and the Seed of the Lost, you’ve forged a new path for yourself, should you choose to follow it.

Advanced Class: (Lost) Duelist of the Runic Cycle – Unlocked

Do you wish to evolve your current class to Advanced Class: (Lost) Duelist of the Runic Cycle?

Yes / No

Note: Some abilities will remain the same while others will evolve along with the class.

Note (2): Current attributes will remain unchanged, but class attributes and bonuses will evolve with class.