When Maria finally made it to the entrance and saw the final two of her friends still standing, she let out an internal sigh of relief. She wants to run up to them and hug them, but she keeps mentally replaying what her mother taught her. You never show fear. Leaders don’t back down even when everything seems lost.
Standing behind Helena, Maria can finally get her head on straight, this is where she feels most comfortable. Raising her hands her mana starts to churn within her pathways. Then all at once her mana bursts free, a wall of wind appears in front of entrance. The disgusting bombs thrown by the chimps, and the birds that are attacking them all get blown back by the wall. It isn’t a static thing, but a stationary tornado that sweeps everything away.
Helena and Laura turn to her and smile. Helena isn’t much for tradition, so laughing she steps forward and wraps Maria in a hug. “Hahah! I knew you would be okay!” She smiles brightly and sets the smaller woman back down. Then she plants two quick kisses on her cheeks.
Maria tries her best to look serious, even though her face is furiously blushing. Turning to Laura, she asks. “What is the situation.”
“Alli and her party are about halfway to us. Their dwarven companion is digging up the earth to make a shallow trench. Then their Dryad companion is using her control over nature to shield their heads.” Luara says as seriously as Maria is attempting to look.
She wants to look around at everyone’s faces, but she knows that there are four bodies stacked up along the wall. Her blushing face is not the face of the leader they need right now. Taking a breath, she breathes in deep. I am so jealous of those two, not only do they have two clans to choose from, but they also have multiple races.
She wouldn’t change her party for the world, but her own party is made up of two races. She, Ana, Jorden and Laura are wood elves. Helena is an Amazonian. Wood Elves are closely tied to nature, but unlike dryads their control isn’t as powerful as someone like Arisah, they can’t just make vines and wood move. Instead, they have the ability to befriend animals and nature spirits.
Their affinities tend to be earth, wind and water aligned. Maria herself has all three along with a rare fire affinity. Jorden has an earth and water affinity and is a natural healer. Laura is a skilled archer with a wind affinity. Ana is a swordswoman and uses mana to enhance herself. For Helena, the Amazonians are a warrior race, with large sizes, powerful physiques, and a knack for just about every weapon they pick up.
Laura saw Maria take a breath, so she stopped speaking, but as soon as she breathed out, she continued. “With the Drawf and Dryad they are doing well against the Chimps and Birds, even if they are burning mana rabidly. Their main issue are the ants.”
“I see.” Maria nods. Finally feeling comfortable looking around she must hold back her tears as she looks at the four bodies. “We will honor them when we can. The wall is coming down soon. Defenders, get ready.” A slight pressure starts to emanate from Maria. It is the weight and power of her mana as she starts to burn it rapidly.
“Mana Burn. Enhance Spell.” After each chant the pressure increases as her mana gathers within her channels. Then using her own innate control over the element, which she trained enough to gain the skill ‘Elemental Affinity Manipulation’, she takes over the ‘Wind Wall’ she made and reshapes it.
This is a high-level technique. Not only is she manipulating the element. She is taking over an external spell, reshaping it, and adding a second element. This is one of the reasons that Isabella picked her up. Not only is her affinity for her four elements strong, she also is incredibly skilled in manipulating her mana.
“Combined Skill. Fire Storm.” Then raising both hands, she pushes at the ‘Wall of Wind’ with as much willpower that she can muster. The place that they are hiding under heats rapidly. The fire mana seeps from her channels in streams. She is using more mana than most of the normal students have in two weeks.
The ‘Wall of Wind’ that was guarding the entrance starts to heat. The wind that it radiates heats up slowly, until it reaches a critical mass. Suddenly the ‘Wall of Wind’, turns into a massive conflagration. The fire roars to life.
“AHHHHHH!” Maria screams. Then with a shoving motion, she pushes the ‘Firestorm’ from the entrance. The flaming tornado roars out and starts burning everything it comes into contact with. Maria can feel as experience starts to stream into her body. After only a few seconds she rises from level 43 to level 44.
Out from the entrance all that is left is burning logs and dead bodies. Birds, Ants and Chimps all die in the ‘Firestorm’. Looking out over the charred landscape she nods her head. “That should have worked.”
“Did you want to draw so much attention?” Laura asks. She is looking out from their hiding place and the majority of monsters around them stopped fighting and are staring at them.
“They were already looking toward us. You couldn’t see, but there was a large number of monsters trying to get past my wall. If I just dropped it, they would have surged in. Hopefully now Alli has a chance to break free from them and get here.” Maria says, sounding sure of herself.
Helena just rolls her eyes. She would bet her favorite shield that Maria only thought about that last part when she was already done. That is the issue with powerful people, sometimes they don’t think things through very well. But she has a job to do, rousing everyone around her, she steps back up to defend against the monsters that are now focusing on them.
As everyone gets ready to start defending again. Maria is looking out for Alli’s party, and Hinata. “There she is!” Laura yells out. She points out a cluster of people that are standing on the edge of the clearing. She is the party’s archer and has the best perception. “There are only ten people.” She says with some confusion.
Maria doesn’t respond, but she does have some ideas. It really must have been a setup; I bet the passage closed as they were leaving.
“Wait? What is that?” Laura asks. She is staring with wide eyes. She can clearly see the one known as Helo. “He seems to be stretching. His hands… and feet? What is that color around him? Is that coming from his skin?”
Maria and Ana are staring as well. Neither can make out the details as clearly as their sharpshooting friend, but they can see that Helo has a dark radiance around him, but at the same time he is lite by an inner golden glow, and he seems to be planning something.
Then they all watch with slack jaws as the stone under his feet shatters, and he starts to move. Twenty seconds later and Helena is watching as well. The monster horde was distracted by Helo and their attention turned away from the trapped group.
Eventually everyone was watching. Someone further in the area, someone who has no idea what is happening asks, “Is that some kind of Golden Wraith?”
His words snap Maria from her slack jawed stare, and she looks around to find that the only monster still moving on mass are the ants. At the same time, with no chimps and birds attacking, Rurgrim and Arisah are helping tear the insects apart.
Hitting Helena and Laura, she whispers aggressively. “Come on! Get everyone ready to move. We’re making a break for it!”
Standing in a trench Alli yells out. “DIEEE you filthy creature!” She is having one of her moments. Swinging her ritualized hammer, she is wreaking havoc on the ape population. One of the monsters almost hit her with a… bomb… So, she got a little upset.
The issue is that the bombs are much stronger now that the creatures are a tier stronger. It is the same with birds. This is causing Rurgrim and Arisah massive problems. The birds’ claws are easily strong enough to destroy their defenses. So, they are not able to help the group progress forward. Being stuck repairing and actively defending everyone.
Rocco, Carl and Gabi are having similar issues. Ants are a constant issue. Their exoskeletons are strong. This causes each person to attack precisely, or waste massive amounts of energy to break through.
“Come on!” Alli shouts as she slams her hammer onto the head of an ant. With the help of a well-timed earth surge, Alli was able to clear the chimps. Now she is leaping to the front and attacking the ants.
“How is she doing better than we are? She is a mage.” Gabi complains. She stepped back to make more room for Alli. Her body is riddled with wounds. For most people this would be a bad thing. But this is just part of her fighting style. Most of the wounds are minor and intentions. But there are a few that are much deeper.
Sighing in relief, she can feel Aiko’s soft hands caress her back. “There. How is that?”
“Gahhhh, we should get married.” Gabi says with a sigh of relief, that sounds suspiciously like a moan.
Aiko keeps a pleasantly trained smile on her face and answers like a proper maid. “Only if mistress Hinata permits, you never know if she wants to keep me pure to offer to her husband.”
Gabi freezes at those words. As a matter of fact, almost everyone freezes. “Aiko!” Alli yells from the front. She was almost bisected by an ant pincer when she stumbled due to what Aiko said.
“What?” Aiko says with a mask of complete innocence. “We all know who you want your husband to be.”
Alli wants to say more but before she can the ‘Wall of Wind’ that they were slowly approaching, starts to heat up. “Ah… Duck?” Alli says without much force and a lot of confusion.
Everyone ducks down into the trench that Rurgrim has painstakingly made. Then right before their eyes the wind ignites into a massive conflagration. The fire surges forth. Taking all the attention from the chimps and birds. At the same time, it kills a large portion of them.
Alli just smiles. She knows exactly who has that high mastery of magic in their year. It is Maria. “Well, it looks like my friend just took some of the attention off us.” Alli runs forward and slams her hammer on an ant’s head. “Let’s go!”
Gabi, Rocco, and Carl follow her with heavy steps. They leap from the trench and start cutting their way through the ant ranks. The monsters’ higher tier means that each fight is longer, harder, and takes more energy than they normally would.
But at the same time, Alli and Hinata’s party is made from elites, trained by elites. For them this just means a better fight and extra experience. The only person that would complain about the situation is Rurgrim, and that is just the angry dwarf’s default state.
Before long they are starting to approach the hiding spot that Maria’s group found under a pile of fallen trees. It took them a few seconds to break free from the ants. They expected to see Maria’s hiding spot overrun by monsters. Instead, they found most of the monster breaking off.
“Where are they going?” Alli asks.
Cody doesn’t say anything, but his massive arm comes into view, and he points into the sky.
“Is that Helo?” Alli asks in slack jawed disbelief.
Getting ready to pounce forward Helo tries to come up with some kind of plan. Unfortunately, all he has is a goal. Draw away the monsters.
Closing his eyes for a second, he can feel the gaze of Hinata and the rest of the group. He can also feel the gaze of a few others. It comes from where he assumes Maria’s hiding place is. The mouth of their tree-cave isn’t exactly facing him, so he never got a great view. But based on the ‘Wall of Wind’ and the sudden fire explosion. That is them.
Opening his eyes he bites down on the blood capsule. In an instant his eyes turn golden and Helo is off. The stone behind him cracks, fragments are launched into the air. But he is already gone.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
He has never fully done the math. He doesn’t even know how much of a boost his ‘Bloodline Awakening’ skill does. Nor does he know how much blood enhances his physical abilities.
But he would have to say that his skill boosts him by fifty-percent in all physical stats, maybe more now that his bloodline reached twenty-percent awakened. At the same time, ingesting blood seems to give him a massive boost in strength and regeneration, with a smaller boost in agility.
In the end, he would assume his agility goes from an impressive 85 to about 200. If you factor in the fifteen-perfect efficiency boost. His strength goes from 31 to almost 100. It isn’t as impressive, but it has a much lower baseline. In the end it is far more than any tier 1 should have on earth.
Maybe a suicidal boosting skill, or a detrimental boosting skill mixed in with some powerful concoctions could match him. But he doesn’t think there is anything like that on earth. In reality, at his best he could easily match weaker tier 2 individuals. Like how easily he knocked out Allen when he was trying to harass Ren in his store.
Shaking away his thoughts Helo tries his best to refocus. With the sudden and powerful increase in natural energy, his enhanced mental speed started to get away from him. But he is genuinely curious about how far he can push himself.
Smiling a fang filled smile Helo appears faster than the chimp can truly react to. Swiping out with his claws he slashes the neck of the chimp and pauses for just a moment, just long enough to bathe in its blood.
Breathing in deep, he refreshes his blood enhanced cooldown. The blood from the tier 2 chimp, pushed his boost to an almost uncomfortable level. Helo has no doubt that if ‘Bloodline Awakening’ wasn’t active or if the chimp was higher in its tier, the boost might have been too much for his body.
But as things stand, he thinks he went from a doubling of his strength to a two-point-one times increase. Plus, he went from the single boosted movement that the capsule gives him, to about ten seconds.
Like that Helo flashes forward in a blur of black and gold. As he kills more and more chimps, blood starts to flow on the ground. All the blood in the area creates a weird effect with Helo. Due to his massive boost, it is like he is almost tier 2, causing phenomenon that he usually wouldn’t see to start happening.
The mix of his aura and racial skill ‘Major Vitality Siphon?’ causes the vitality from the blood not only to flow into him as he breathes. Which is something he has experienced before. But to follow him in a visible trail of golden energy.
This trail follows his path on the ground as he reaps the lives of the apes. Then just as he gets close to Maria’s group a large bird swoops down from the sky. “CAWWW!”
It cries out and attempts to dive at him. But in a moment that it is about the pierce his body with its powerful beak, Helo grabs it with his bare hand. His claws are dark grey, and his hand is wrapped in a dark film that eats away at the destructive energy within the beak.
In the moment he had an epiphany. Using ‘Dark Hand’ on his own body. The skill readily complied and it seemed like the shadow energy that wraps him when he uses ‘Bloodline Awakening’ responded to his idea and shaped itself into his skill.
It doesn’t enhance his strength. But it does create a sort of energy resistant armor on his hand. Using his hold on the beak of the bird, Helo lightly jumps into the air and rolls onto the bird’s back. Keeping his hold on the beak, he pulls upward and forces the beast to fly into the air.
Once the bird’s upward momentum drains, Helo slashes its wings with his claws. As he and the bird fall, Helo encounters the misty golden cloud for the first time. It is very thin, only thick enough to be visible. He freaks out for a moment, thinking that he is under attack. But as soon as he feels the energy, he knows that it is pure vitality.
As he falls through it and breaths in, the cloud surges and enters his body. It moves almost like a part of him. It refreshes his blood enhanced cooldown, but by this point he is one-hundred percent sure that his skills have nothing to do with blood. Only the energy that flows through it.
With his vitality enhanced cool down now up to almost fifteen seconds, Helo rides the dying bird down until he passes another. Launching himself from the bird, its body gets forced down even faster and it lands with the sound of snapping bones.
Flying in the air, Helo sails from the cloud that was following him. Reaching out he latches onto the bird that flew past and uses his claws to slash its wings as well. As he does another tier 2 bird swoops past and shoots a wind blade at him.
“AHHH!” Helo yells as the blade rips open his back. His own blood sprays out and he starts to lose his grip on the bird he just injured. His own enhanced regeneration is already working on rapidly closing the wound. But the bird is falling after having its wings sliced and it’s spiraling nosedive is forcing him away.
Just before he gets launched off the bird, the golden cloud catches up again. It doesn’t fly fast enough to keep up with his jumps, but it can keep up with gravity. The golden cloud flies directly into his wounded back and his injuries are sealed almost instantly.
Reaffirming his grip on the bird, Helo only has a moment to feel amazement at what just happened. He has no idea what is happening. He never knew that vitality was attracted to him in some way. His status still has multiple question marks, and his race is still redacted.
He still doesn’t even know anything that is happening with this cloud. It follows him and flows into his body and injuries like it is alive. What he can’t see during the fight. OR he could see with his aura, but he doesn’t have the mental reserves to notice, is that any of the vitality that leaves his aura is dissipated into the air like normal.
Like this Helo does his best to draw attention away from Maria and Alli. He jumps from bird to bird and tears them apart with his claws. Then when no bird is nearby, he jumps down and does the same to the ants or chimps.
After five minutes, the cloud of vitality around his is so think that it is almost hard to see through, at the same time the swirling mass of energy draws the attention of all the beasts in the area.
As soon as Helo realizes that this new skill is also a magnet to monsters, he does a final lap around the area and dives into the jungle. He moves faster than the energy can keep up, as soon as it exits his aura, it starts to dissipate. But it is enough to draw them away from Alli and Maria.
After running for a few minutes, Helo is sure that he has brought the monsters far enough away. Now he just has to wait for the massive amount of vitality that he absorbed to finally exit his body. Until then, he must dodge the monsters that are chasing him.
“Stupid curse, blocking off one side of my abilities.” Helo mutters as he dodges a diving bird only to have to roll under the lunge of an ape. While rolling he rakes his claws from the apes shoulder down to its waist. At the same time his claws are coating in ‘Defiled Wound’. This causes the ape’s regeneration to be unable to heal the wound, and the bleeding to rapidly get worse.
He sighs as his Vitality Enhancement is refreshed some, but while dodging he does hear a “BING” in his head.
Back in the monster made clearing Maria and her group leave the tree-cave and meet up with Alli and her party. With Alli’s party here, it is easy for her own group of weaker students to break through the ants and make it to the tree line. There they meet Hinata, Inka, Lelai, and the eight normal students.
“WHAT WAS THAT?” One of the students is in the process of shouting as Maria and Alli arrive. He is smart enough to not shout at Hinata. He is just shouting to emphasize just how utterly confused he is. “What was that golden stuff? How was he so strong?”
Alli and Maria step up beside Hinata, everyone turns to look at the three girls. Some of the gazes are expectant, like they are going to get an answer. While others are just plain confused.
Hinata shrugs. “I don’t know.”
This leaves everyone slack jawed. They are all thinking ‘Yeah right. She knows.’ But the truth is, she isn’t totally sure. She is aware that Helo can boost his strength to insane degrees. But she has no idea why a cloud of what could have only been vitality, became visible and followed him around like a lost puppy.
Then the three girls start to walk back toward the spatial bridge. “So, what is going on?” Alli asks Maria. She is hoping that Maria might have some kind of answer.
“I have no idea.” She says. Behind them everyone naturally fell into line with Bibbin and Laura going ahead to scout. “But I assume it was some kind of attack. You should have seen it. At first the ants, apes and birds all attacked at once. They were soley focused on us, and I was sure that we were dead. Then things rapidly devolved into a four-way fight.”
“So, someone planned this? Your brother?” Hinata asks.
Maria can only shrug. She has no idea. “He wasn’t always like this you know. When we were younger, he had his sweet moments. But as we got older, he started to become more like our father.”
The group falls into an amenable silence. But before they get halfway back to the spatial passage, Maria suddenly disappears. “What?” Alli says as she looks around frantically.
Everyone draws their weapons and gets on guard, but they all quickly relax. Maria was no longer in her spot because her mother swooped her up into a high-speed tier 3 hug. She is frantically batting at her mother’s side while trapped within her bosom.
Gabi, having zero ability to keep her mouth shut, mutters loud enough that everyone hears. “Well, there is one drawback of having an Amazonian mother, or maybe a benefit. She is adopted after all.”
Everyone turns to stare at her in shock. She just said that well within Isabella’s range of hearing. But before they can all send up a prayer for Gabi’s soon to be departed soul. Chuckling off to the side draws their attention.
Isabella is chuckling at what Gabi said. Setting her daughter down. Maria’s face is revealed to be beat red. She quickly turns around to hide her face from everyone’s staring. “Well, I am glad to see everyone safe and sound. It took longer to get here that I expected.”
“What happened Tribal Leader Isabella?” Luna asks. Her voice is quiet and a little nervous. But if Gabi can talk about benefit of being smothered in Isabella’s breasts and still be okay, then she can ask a question.
Isabella grimaces. The gesture only lasts for a moment. But the most perceptive were able to see it. “Another ploy by those that wanted my husband to rule. Honestly half of them don’t even care that I am a woman. My husband is just easier to control.”
She looks at the group in front of her. “I am sorry for what happened today…” She is going to say more but she stops. “Where is the wild one?”
Hinata chuckles at Isabella’s phrasing. “You mean Helo?”
Getting a nod, she explains that Helo led the vast majority of the monsters away. Tilting her head Isabella sends out her aura. It sweeps through the land for miles and she easily detects Helo.
As soon as his vitality boost wore off, he was easily able to escape using his dark energy. Now he is one the way back. Isabella was easily able to pierce through his defenses and spot Helo.
“He is on his way back.” She turns, still holding onto Maria. Even if she is no longer clutched to her chest. “There is a new passage this way.” Like that she leads the group to the new area.
It is quite a way away, but as soon as Helo catches up, Isabella uses some kind of skill that rapidly moves everyone through the jungle. By the time they arrive night has officially fallen, but they still arrive much quicker than the students would have alone.
A lot of the students are looking at the passage warily. The most nervous appears to be Bibbin. The halfling is very skittish. After seeing someone get dismembered by the passage, he has no desire to go into another. He hops from foot to foot and plays with his clothing nervously. He keeps glancing back into the forest, like he is debating on if he will be better off in the tier 2 jungle.
“Ahhh give er up Bibbin!” Rurgrim says as he slaps the skittish halfling on the back. The dwarf might be only a little taller than Bibbin, but his strength could rival a half-giant like Cody. Bibbin goes tumbling forward and through the passage, head over heels.
Rurgrim chuckles to himself. He looks around in an ‘Oops. Did I do that?’ kind of way, but at the same time he checking to see who noticed what he did. As he looks, he finds Alli trying not to laugh, and he smiles in a victorious way. Then he looks further to the left.
He catches Hinata glaring at him. Jumping a little he stands straight and dashes through the passage. “We put in so much effort to make Bibbin comfortable.” Hinata says to Alli in a defeated tone.
Beside her Alli is doing her best to contain her laughter. “H… I mean. Haaa… No. That wasn’t funny. It just… Hahahah!” Alli starts to laugh under Hinata’s disappointed gaze. “Come on. Bibbin will be fine, he will just avoid Rurgrim for a while. I don’t know, maybe twenty years or so.”
“He is already scared of Helo, and Helo is the one that wanted him in our party.” Hinata points out. “He shouldn’t be scared of his party members.”
“I know.” Alli is a little more serious now. “It will be fine.”
“I hope so.” Hinata grumbles.
The two girls are standing with Maria as everyone exits the portal.
On the other side of the portal Helo found a decent log to sit on a little ways away from everyone. Noramlly he would be with Alli and Hinata. But with Isabella around, he wants to check his status in peace.
Name: Helo Vital
Tier: 1
Bloodline: Redacted (22.4%)
Title: Nature’s Alpha (Epic), Spirit Blessed (???), Yin-Yang Balance (Rare)
Gear: Alpha Wolf Hide Bracers (Epic), Boxers of Infinite Regeneration (Epic), A mother’s first gift, a father’s first lesson. (Mythic/Hidden) (Rare)
Aura: Null Presence (45 meters)
Age: 16
Class: Shaded Predator (Pseudo Tier 3)
Level: 41
Stats: 536
- Str: 33 (+5%)
- Agl: 87 (+15%)
- Dex:57 (+15%)
- Per: 64 (+30%)
- Vit: 114 (+50%)
- End: 34 (+15%)
- Int: 33 (+5%)
- Will: 114 (+50%)
Racial Skill: 5
- Greatly Enhanced Perception (Instincts) (Rare)
- Greatly Enhanced Natural Energy (Mental/Physical) (Rare)
- Regeneration (???)
- Major Vitality Siphon? (???)
- Dark Curse (???)
- Primary(N/A)
- Secondary(N/A)
Primary Class Skill: 6
- Forced Still (Rare)
- Dark Blade Projection (Rare)
- Defiled Wound (Uncommon)
- Bloodline Awakening (Rare)
- Dark Hand (Rare)
- Negative Weakening (Uncommon)
Skills: 3
- Nature’s Flow Meditation (Uncommon)
- Detect Weakness (Uncommon)
- Appraisal (Common)
Techniques: 2
- Moon-Staff (Uncommon)
- Moonshines Afterblock (Uncommon)
- Twin Fang of the Beast (Uncommon)
- Attacking from a step behind (Uncommon)
All alone in the jungle, with only a fox and a cub to keep him company, Helo smiles. He gained another level. Plus, something about how he was able to unconsciously make that vitality cloud, pushed his aura further. It also seemed to cause substantial growth in his bloodline.
He almost has a full percent of growth. Which is huge for him. Getting from twenty, to twenty-one took millions of dollars’ worth of resources. “Well it seems like battle will always be the best way to grow.” Helo mutters to himself.
“Yes. You are defiantly correct there.” Comes a voice from beside him.