The Fool's Freedom

You have excessively exhausted and strained your body. Due to the effects of [Limited Vitality], your Vitality has been permanently reduced by 1.

The weakness lasted a few minutes, and Ashlyn’s panic grew. Then it was gone.

Alan took out his jar of water with a shaky hand and tried to open it, only for Ashlyn to snatch it out of his hands and do it for him, letting him carefully rinse his mouth of blood, before drinking.

“Is this…?” Ashlyn was pale, her eyes wide open.

“Yes. I… dealt with most of the weakness in my muscles, but the problem with vitality remains. It is an (Epic) trait in this world. I have a total of three Vitality left now, and I have it on good authority that zero means death.”

“Duh. Can’t you raise it?”

“It takes three attribute points for one fucking Vitality! It’s a waste!”

“Oh, so dying is better you stupid asshole?”

Alan sighed. She had a point and he had known it for a while now. He had to find a solution sooner rather than later as each extra point he had to spend on Vitality because of his fucking trait was a waste.

“You’re right.”

Due to [Limited Vitality] the effects of raising your vitality are lessened. You need [3] attribute points to raise it by [1]. Do you wish to proceed?

He ground his teeth and forced the three free points he had into Vitality.

With that, he was back at four, feeling no different than before. At least the class grew his other attributes, so not all progress was lost.

INFORMATION:

Name:

Alan Morgan

Race:

Human

Class:

Warlock

Level:

4

Titles:

Pioneer; Madcap; Slayer; Friend of the Spirit World

ATTRIBUTES:

Strength

36

Dexterity

33

Vitality

4

Will

64

Mind

52

Magic

58

TRAITS:

One Mind, One Body; Limited Vitality; Tongues of the four corners; Survivor’s will; Shadow Mind

SKILLS:

Warlock’s Body Mastery; Synaptic Failure; Shadow Slash; Ritual: Enchanted Bones; Mortal Peril

“Don’t look so down, we will find a solution. You fixed your other problem, right?” Ashlyn gently rubbed him on the back, reminding him of all the times she had been there, supporting him before he went for another diagnosis that was bound to hammer the nail even further in, or when he was feeling particularly terrible. She had been there when no one else had been.

“Yeah, sort of,” if he would be so lucky to meet another benevolent probably omnipotent being that could do that for him. But Alan figured he had already used up his luck. Not that hard work scared him, at least he could work harder now. Not without consequences, but it was an improvement.

He stood up, feeling a bit fatigued. He used [One Mind, One Body] to convert some of his leftover mana to stamina but that didn’t seem to be doing anything for the tiredness or the uncomfortable feeling lingering in his chest.

“We should probably head back. Sorry about that,” he said.

“Nothing to be sorry about. If something happens to you, I will have to find a way to bring you back so I can kill you myself for being stupid.”

“I love you too, Ash.”

“Fuck off.”

The darkness of the forest took them and Alan tied one of the moon beetle cages on the tip of his spear. Ashlyn seemed to have no trouble following whatever marks she was seeing and quickly led them through the forest. They kept the chatting to a minimum.

Alan was behind her, carefully trying to manage his body, trying to replicate the feeling of [Efficient Basic Movement]. He was missing the skill now more than ever. [Warlock’s Body Mastery] was great, but two of its three effects couldn’t be applied to combat situations. And if he forced mana into his limbs to strengthen them now, he would probably blackout or worse.

The boost was great for being surprise attacks or fleeing but did little for the clumsiness ingrained from years of struggling to move. Maybe he could learn the pre-advanced skill again? It was worth thinking it through.

“You think it’s possible?” Ashlyn asked in a low voice.

“What?”

“To bring back someone?”

That was a curious thought.

“Possibly. I am sure we will be meeting zombies or skeletons at some point or another, but if you are talking about true resurrection… I don’t know. I guess. There are certain things powerful enough to do things we cannot comprehend. Who knows what is possible?”

Ashlyn didn’t respond as they came upon some wailers stalking between the trees, but the monsters once again retreated. The echoes of the terrifying screams kept following them throughout the forest though, creating quite the atmosphere. It was a strange and worrying thing.

Alan didn’t consider them to be undead, but they got awfully close to the notion. The fact that they seemed to share a mind capable of intelligence was terrifying. If they kept adapting, even if some of the attempts were frankly terrible, they could become a true problem fast. He simply had to improve faster.

Ashlyn finally stopped in front of a thick tree, which was nothing different compared to the trees all around, no matter how much Alan stared at it. Her whole aura shifted though. Alan could tell when she was nervous, and he followed her gaze, using the light dangling off the tip of his spear to see what she was seeing.

Dead smashed beetles and broken cages.

Alan took a sharp breath and looked around.

“You think it’s the snake bastard?” he whispered.

“Yes,” she replied, “It’s the only thing that somehow moves without leaving a trace I can find.”

“What do we do?”

“Continue toward the Sanctuary and hope it doesn’t attack us. I don’t want you fighting in your condition.”

Alan had to agree with her. He had gotten a lot of his mana back, but that didn’t lessen the fact that his body felt like lead. He would be a hindrance to her in a fight against the horror. Once again, held back by his fucking body.

He said nothing as the two continued, watching every moving shadow, listening for any odd noise.

There was nothing.

Alan felt the tension leave him as they exited the forest and he saw the ruins marking the area of Sanctuary. The golden barrier was almost imperceptible in the dark, but he knew it was there – a path to rest and safety. It had to be before midnight, as they hadn’t spent that much time in the forest, so he would have time for a good night’s sleep.

He smiled and was about to speak when he noticed the silence. The sounds of the forest that had followed them all the way through, even during the fight with the wailers, were gone once again. No bird calls, no insects. Even the rustling of leaves seemed somehow duller.

Ashlyn turned sharply around a step faster than him, “Fuck!”

Alan saw her unshoulder her bow and load an arrow, before letting it fly into the darkness of the trees behind them with a sound that split the creepy silence.

“Run!” Ashlyn yelled, and run he did.

His body screamed as he poured mana into his muscles, pushing away from the ground with strength he was otherwise incapable of. Something hit him in the side just as both of his feet left the ground, sending him flying to the side.

Alan landed heavily on his left side and groaned in pain. There were no sharp rocks thankfully and landing on the thick grass seemed to have softened the blow. The moon beetles were dangling on the right side of his belt, safe and glowing.

His spear was gone, he stood up and saw Ashlyn shoot arrow after arrow while dodging in a series of movements that seemed almost impossible.

Snake-like tentacles whipped and shot at her, trying to grab a hold of a limb or squash her with their strength, but found only air.

The source of the attack was sitting in the tree line, reluctant to leave its hunting ground.

Two thick clawed limbs were attached to a wide snake’s body that rose in the front in a mockery of a torso. The twisted, smiling, human mask.

Alan ground his teeth, anger rising deep inside of him.

He took out his two daggers and walked toward the two, careful to not distract Ashlyn from her dance. He watched her throw the longbow to the side and take out her hatchet and large knife, slashing and ducking in a dance that seemed almost impossible. A few tentacles were cut and sent flying, but more replaced them.

Had it set a trap? Did it know they were coming? Was there a connection between the horrors and the wailers?

There was no rhyme or reason to the fight, as both the monster and the girl seemed to be acting solely on instinct.

Ashlyn was holding her own, but where one tentacle was cut, another took its place. Some looked akin to a snake’s tail, while others had jagged eyeless mouths, more akin to strange worms than snakes.

They were regrowing at a much faster rate than the wailer’s bodies did.

Alan tried to use the tree line to get close enough, but as soon as he was barely in range for a [Shadow Slash] a tentacle changed direction and shot towards him, its end split in a mouth full of sharp knives. Alan barely swiped at it with a dagger.

His strike managed to deflect but did little to no damage. There was strength and weight behind the limb that surprised him.

Was Ashlyn that much stronger?

Alan followed with a [Shadow Slash] at an awkward angle that made his back crack and almost took the air out of him again. The blade of shadows managed to cut the tentacle into two, and the horror retracted the remaining part.

Soon three more tentacles rushed toward Alan, which gave Ashlyn a chance to push back now that its attention was not solely on her.

Alan kept casting [Shadow Slash], trying to keep up a constant barrage that left no room for mistakes. It was all he could do to give a chance to Ashlyn to do her thing. He briefly considered [Synaptic Failure] but his mana hadn’t regenerated fully, and if horror was anything similar to the Wailing Carrions the risk was too big. His mana was running low.

Ashlyn was doing great though. Alan decided that if he didn’t drop dead in a few minutes, he would ask her to teach him how to fight like her. If it was a skill, then it was a damn good skill, but it probably had more to do with the girl herself.

She was soon upon the main body of the horror, and for the first time it moved. Its movements were clumsier than they had both expected. The limbs had long and thick claws that were built for grabbing trees and moving silently between them, struggling to have the same mobility on even ground.

Ashlyn’s hatchet finally managed to leave a long shallow mark on the horror’s body, eliciting a loud hiss from the tentacles attacking both of them and sending them into a rage.

Suddenly, it left Ashlyn alone, ignoring her almost completely.

Alan sensed what was happening but there was little time to react. He started madly slashing with his daggers as the swarm of tentacles shot at him.

He heard Ashlyn scream in rage, but he was too busy spamming [Shadow Slashes] in all directions. His mana was going down fast.

A tentacle swiped at his feet and he didn’t dodge in time, sending him sprawling on the ground.

Another tried to bite into his neck but he blocked it, using his newly enchanted left forearm to intercept the attack. He screamed as its teeth penetrated flesh and he could swear the knife-like teeth of the thing elongated, scraping at his bones.

He slashed with his free hand, cutting the tentacle, and saw Ash throw herself furiously at the thing’s back, sending a flurry of attacks. She was strong, but the thick body of the monster seemed to offer more than enough protection.

Another few tentacles wrapped around Alan immobilizing his right arm too, and lifted him slowly into the air.

There was a loud hiss as the beetles hanging from his belt did some damage, but a swipe sent them flying in the distance.

It took him all he had to keep his grip on the dagger in his right hand, but the horror didn’t seem to care at all.

Alan managed to take a deep breath before another tentacle wrapped around his torso. Flashes of the first time they had seen the thing appeared in his mind. How it had played with its prey, how it had decapitated it with no effort.

Was this the end of the road? They had wanted to hunt it, to kill it. They were confident after getting their classes.

Fuck.

Not like this. I refuse to die to you, motherfucker!

He saw Ashlyn trying to climb the body further, stabbing her blades into the uncaring thing for stability. With a jump straight up out of a movie she managed to reach the humanoid mask and her hatchet smashed at it, sinking to the hilt. She quickly let go and used her freed hand to grab a cage of beetles and smash it on the thing’s ‘face’.

There was a cacophony of hissing, much different and much stronger than those coming from the snake-like tentacles. There was also smoke and the sound of crackling as if the beetles were charcoal. The creature thrashed and threw Ashlyn to the ground, while still holding Alan suspended. He saw something shoot impossibly fast out of the mask’s smiling mouth and pierce Ashlyn’s stomach just as she landed, before retracting just as fast. Another tentacle hit her on the side, sending her flying.

Alan tried to scream, but the horror was holding him too tight.

The rage inside of him boiled like never before.

The monster pulled him closer, almost next to the mocking human mask it had for a face. He saw something wiggling in the depths of its gaping smile. A stinger, covered in blood.

Ashlyn’s blood.

The beginning of a headache caused by overdrawing his mana and boosted by the lack of oxygen started pumping in his skull.

The stinger came out slowly, unhurried. The creature had no reason to be in a rush. It had won. Now was playtime.

There was a snapping sound, distant and close at the same time.

Alan didn’t know if it was his wrist, his mind, or the dagger that broke first.

But the smiling mask followed.