Icarus Awakens

“No,” Hunter said firmly, barely needing Daniel to ask to know what he wanted.

“Come on!”

“No.”

“What, you aren’t strong enough?” Hunter growled and Daniel backed off. “Just wait, you’re going to get some kind of battle mount power and then you won’t have any excuse.”

“Hey, you two!” Evalyn called out ahead of them. “Let’s get moving.” It was just after noon, the day thus far taken up by last minute preparations. The time had come for Daniel and the others to start hunting again, doing so with an intent that hadn’t been there since Roost’s Peak. The thought of it made Daniel both nervous and a little afraid. His last fight still haunted him, though maybe taking out those feelings on monsters would help.

A second scouting pulse had revealed a pack of shank stompers that only numbered at about twenty, ideal in that there were only three level two variants among them. The lesser monsters posed minimal threat to the hunters, the disparity meaning their bodies would better resist the attacks. Evalyn herself currently had level disparity to endurance and would be in trouble if overwhelmed, but even she had some new tricks that would let her handle reasonable numbers.

Weaker enemies were an ideal opponent to test out recently unlocked powers on. The chance to gain advancement potential from them was low to the point they may not get anything, but Daniel had a secondary goal that would work regardless of the creature’s level. His tertiary goal, convincing Hunter to serve as a battle mount, had objectively failed before they’d set out. Next time.

“Is it alright that we’re heading out without a healer?” he asked as both he and Hunter rejoined the group heading in a generally northern direction.

Evalyn raised an eyebrow. “More than half of us have Regeneration. Khare and I will have to be careful, but in the worst case one of you just needs to run for Thomas.”

“It just seems dangerous.”

“We’re fighting monsters,” she reminded him.

“Yeah,” Daniel admitted. “I guess I’m more worried about how these will work out.” He lifted an arm, bringing a golden bracer fully into the light. Unlike the simple armor he’d made for the dragon fight, these fit over his entire forearm with a sloped box shape on top. They were less massive compared to the ones he’d originally seen in Murdon’s house and didn’t cover his hands, but were made with the same general intent.

Evalyn eyed the weapons dubiously. “You’re telling me Khare doesn’t have a bow or anything in that space? Those are more a weapon for a Knight than for an archer.”

“These are enchanted,” Daniel said like it wasn’t obvious. “And I don’t have practice with the bow. Sure, I have an autoaim power, but it’d take just as long to reload with me fumbling around with arrows.”

“They don’t have bows on your world?” she asked, piquing the interest of the others. For what seemed the first time, Daniel was traveling solely in the company of those aware of his origins. Tak had been brought into the fold with an honestly not too extreme reaction, all things considered. That being said, the rest of the group’s curiosity and his penchant for explaining finally had an outlet. Unless Hunter noticed a monster that had evaded Attune to Nature, there wasn’t much to do but talk as they made their way to their prey.

“Kinda? Most of them are made from fiberglass which is made with…” Huh. I can’t remember. “Well, we don’t have magic, Smiths or magical materials, so it gets a lot more technical than-”

“So is it complicated,” Evalyn spoke over him. “Or you just don’t know?”

Daniel frowned. “There’s a whole career out of knowing that stuff, but I didn’t end up going down that way. I know a couple of things, but even if I knew everything, this place doesn’t have the infrastructure or scientific understanding to back that up.” His expression turned thoughtful. “Is that why I got the Artificer class instead of Craftsman or Builder?”

“So, no bows?” Tak asked, only having followed part of the conversation.

“Honestly, there’s a lot to explain. Like, we don’t have monsters, our world isn’t flat, and we have oceans.”

“We have oceans!” Tak exclaimed. “Many!”

“You, uh, you do?”

“Oceans that stretch as far as the entire Thormundz ridge,” Evalyn confirmed. “It’s said the gods created new races just to settle the regions that encompassed them back when the Grafting was ongoing.” She left a small pause in there in case Khare wanted to comment, but they didn’t. Hunter had heard much of this before and also remained silent. “So, no magic, no classes, no monsters. It sounds boring if I’m honest.”

Daniel felt the smallest urge to defend his home. Sure, it didn’t have magic, but it wasn’t worthless either. “It’s just different. Most people where I come from have these,” he held up his phone. “If whatever happened that brought me here doesn’t change everything about them, you can use them to take pictures instantly, learn about the world, or contact anyone, anywhere, and that’s just one of the things we made.”

“But not bows.” Tak was still stuck on that point.

“We have bows! And crossbows. And guns but I don’t know if I can make those, or if I want to, so there’s no point. Let’s just talk about something other than weapons.”

“Gestalt?” Like a delayed reaction, Khare did cut in then. They’d heard the least of Daniel’s world and didn’t know what he’d already told the rest.

“Just humans.” Daniel shook his head.

“Like our world before the Grafting,” Evalyn pointed out. “Could it be possible you’ve traveled in time?”

“Uh, that’s possible?” Evalyn and Hunter stared at him. “What?”

“You have time magic.”

“Bad time magic,” Hunter added.

“You’re affected by it too?” Tak waved a hand and Evalyn raised an eyebrow. “Khare?”

“No.”

“That would be something. Why, though?”

“I’m not sure, but I think it has to do with the bond. I never saw the original description and I can’t find it in my phone. Hunter just started talking to me. That was right before I formally met you.”

“That explains a few things.” Evalyn slid down a dune, getting ahead of the others for a few moments. At the bottom, she continued. “Could you have been caught up in something powerful enough to send you so far into the future that we wouldn’t remember your time?”

“I doubt it. From what I know your world is flat. It could be that you’re wrong, but either way, my world doesn’t have magic.”

“And why can’t you be wrong about the shape of your world?” Evalyn challenged in a way that made Daniel cringe slightly.

“We’ve seen our planet from space. From, uh, so high up that it, look, it’s a lot to explain.”

Evalyn gestured at the endless expanse, broken up only to Daniel by the auras on the horizon. “We have time, and I always like a good story.”

…

The conversation that ended up taking two whole hours was, for the most part, both enlightening and confusing. Scientific standards of the world Daniel was currently in weren’t well developed or, at least not within the greater population. Daniel’s own understanding of topics such as gravity or satellites was limited enough that it buckled the fourth time Tak asked ‘How?’ consecutively, and things went downhill from there.

What was left unresolved was Evalyn’s theory about Daniel being from a time so far in the past that his world and theirs were the same. It heavily relied on magic being able to do anything, even appear or be created suddenly. It still sat wrong with him, if only because it reminded him of his earliest theory of being caught in some kind of twisted reality show. It just didn’t feel right.

The most unfortunate event to occur though was the movement of their targets. The group had hoped the monsters would migrate towards them, but the opposite had occurred. “They’re heading away,” Hunter commented, interrupting an explanation of atoms that had gone far worse than it had with Lograve.

“Flee?”

“Too far,” Hunter replied to Khare, both of them removed from the three-sided confusion. “Even I cannot sense them now.”

“Is there anything else we can go after?” Evalyn asked. “I don’t want to go too far from the village. They don’t have a way to contact us if they get in trouble.”

“Yeah.” Both Daniel and Hunter looked around. Strangely, though Tak was included in the Moment of Clarity effect, he couldn’t see the auras of Identify Creature. That might have been due to him not sharing the power, except Hunter had seen the auras before Daniel had figured out that aspect of their bond. “That level 3’s still keeping its distance at least. We shouldn’t head further west.”

“Scorpions,” Hunter growled, recognizing a small group of nearby enemies. “Not good.”

“Oh, those things? Very bad.” Tak winced, his memory of that last encounter somewhat hazy. “I think we keep going.”

“Well, if there’s nothing easy with a specific bounty, I guess it’s still worth it. You’re sure about that other goal though?” Evalyn asked. “Your enchanting, I mean?”

“Got us through the dragon didn’t it? I’m hoping my stealth power can get me close enough to scan them alive. Worst case if they spot me, I’ll wear the wings and fly away.” Daniel looked wistful for a moment, imagining it. “Just think of what kinds of stuff I can make if we keep this up.”

“Sword arms? You didn’t fight those things up close that last time, but they could cut an arm off easily.”

“Or a leg.” Tak looked worriedly down.

“Some kind of blade attached to a gauntlet could be neat. Like the melee version of these.” Daniel lifted his bracers again. “The only thing I got from them last time was a way to make things from monster bones, so it would make sense.”

“I don’t know if we should put those bone blades in Khare though.” Khare’s vines shivered as Evalyn planted the thought of the almost scythe-like blades passing through them. The gestalt had bladed weapons in him of course, but only those that could reasonably navigate the vines without injuring them. The curve of the shank stomper’s arms would make it more difficult for Khare to stash them without injury.

“I need to get a bag of holding,” Daniel said thoughtfully. “Not that I’d make one of those from bone.”

“What you need to do is learn how to enchant instruments,” Evalyn complained. “I know it’s possible.”

“If you can find one, I can!”

“If I can find one, what do I need you for?” She fired back challengingly.

“M, murder cat radar?” Daniel answered weakly.

Evalyn gave Hunter a playful, appraising look. “I suppose he’s cute enough to keep you around.” Hunter growled, and she laughed before abruptly cutting off as Evalyn became aware of who and what she was teasing. “Gods, I have gotten used to this haven’t I?”

…

As it turned out, the shank stomper pack had moved to intercept a small group of the lumbering sesels that, to this desert, might have been the equivalent of deer. They were somewhat plentiful, a target of both mortals and predators alike, and wholly unequipped to face scythe arms.

While the monsters hadn’t slaughtered the entire pack, they’d cut down enough to feast on, rest, and then wake to feast again. The shank stompers were by no means the apex of the desert but drew strength from their communal nature. Even if something significantly more powerful ambushed them, there was every chance at least a few would get away. Moreso, several had hit the threshold necessary to spawn others of their kind and needed the time to undergo that process.

The two level 0 Young Shank Stompers that joined the pack were defenseless on their own. It was a stark contrast to what Daniel had seen in the ringcat that would become Hunter which could readily maul something if given the chance. Moreover, the auras belonging to them were present on the lower abdomen of the level two variants present in the pack, suggesting the connection to kangaroos could be more than skin deep.

I still feel guilty about this. Daniel did not speak but transmitted his thoughts to Hunter, who was with the others fifty meters away.

Evalyn says, ‘They are monsters, get over it.’

Yeah but, don’t you feel bad? These are like kids, aren’t they? Even as he asked he knew he was directing his concerns at the wrong person.

They are prey. The forthrightness with which Hunter thought that made Daniel pause.

Sure, but you wouldn’t hurt a human child, would you?

If it attacked, Hunter thought with the mental equivalent of a shrug.

No! I mean, if they’re a threat maybe, but don’t kill them!

You didn’t say kill, you said hurt, Hunter replied defensively.

That’s fair. Alright, I’m getting close. If this works I’ll let you know and the rest can follow. If it doesn’t, well, you’ll know. Daniel, moving slowly up a dune, was doing everything he could to control his trembling heart. On the other side of the dune were the prey they’d come to hunt. Daniel’s Silent Movement feature had allowed a relatively easy approach to the unaware monsters who were not wise enough to trust anything but their senses. What he was attempting would be more difficult against enemies like ringcats which had Keen Sense empowering them, but these creatures just had the bone blades.

When he’d first dislodged a clump of sand Daniel had almost rocketed into the air, only to find that the sound from the flowing sand was as muffled as his movement. Now, he was just behind the rise. The function of his Encyclopedia that allowed for analysis of monsters worked like a camera in that he needed a direct and clear line of sight. Moreso, it had a maximum range of about 50 meters. It could scan multiple targets at once, and without alerting the monsters to his presence. At least, he hoped it didn’t. This would be the first time he’d used it on living enemies

Daniel carefully raised his phone above the rise with Telekinetic Reach, keeping his body below it and using the screen to guide his aim. Fortunately, the predominantly golden color of the Focus blended well enough into the background of dunes, and the majority of the monsters were focused on their meal. To his relief, they were all in range.

You have scanned multiple Monsters, listed below. You have met the requirements to unlock multiple Encyclopedia entries, listed below.

Scanned Targets:

• Alpha Shank Stomper, Living (Uninjured) - 3

• Shank Stomper, Living (Uninjured) - 18

• Young Shank Stomper, Living (Uninjured) - 2

Encyclopedia Entries:

• Formulae: Bone Claws

• Monster: Shank Stomper, Expansive

Hmm. Less than half as much as I hoped. Daniel’s initial monster scan had been a true haul, the result of scanning a pile of dead electric bats. Whereas the hundreds of corpses had unlocked six lore entries and formulae combined, a couple of dozen living shank stompers had only added two. In addition, Daniel hadn’t gotten any advancement potential since that first big burst. There’s got to be a trick to it. Oh well. Hey, Hunter, we’re good. He gave a thumbs up to emphasize.

It was at that point that one of the monsters, climbing the rise to investigate the flash of white it’d seen from the phone’s lattice pattern, shrieked.

It took Daniel a few seconds to react as he’d been just as unaware of the monster’s approach as it had his position, having been in the middle of looking up the new formulae. Instead of taking his picture, the monster used its moment of surprise to bring both of its arms down in an attempt to cut a good portion of Daniel’s torso off. If he had been more alert Daniel could have reacted with Dodge Roll, but instead, he could only try to amble away. His unenchanted leather armor provided little resistance against the blades that could have been used to harvest a field. His skin was tougher, holding up well against the level 1 monster’s attacks.

Even the arrows fired by that Rogue would have had trouble if they hadn’t benefited from Sneak Attack. The extra damage had converted into improved piercing as well as disruption to the afflicted flesh. With no such advantage, the monster’s blades could only cut so deep. The wounds were still immensely painful, made worse by Daniel activating his wings to get away. The sudden ascension dragged the blades across Daniel’s back to lengthen the injuries. The golden wings finally stopped the scythes before they fully flayed him, the durability of the enchanted item proving completely resistant to their cutting power.

By the time Daniel recovered from the shock and stopped screaming, he was a hundred meters in the air and gently gliding. The wounds bled freely but at a slower rate, his Regeneration already repairing the damage. Come morning he wouldn’t even have scars, whereas a normal human could have died from the weakened attack alone. I’m alright, I’m alright! he hurriedly reassured, only to realize the others were already charging in. Hunter and Tak led the vanguard, charging side by side in what had become typical for them during the various hunts they did alone. Evalyn and Khare followed, but not recklessly.

Could tell, Hunter thought, his words clipped as his mind went into a deeper, predatory state.

Of course I was screaming, I could have been dying! It still hurts like hell.

Dying doesn’t scream so loud, Hunter answered and then pushed Daniel out of his mind. Daniel felt only slightly irked before getting his head in the game. Just because he was currently out of range of all his weapons, didn’t mean he wasn’t in the fight. It was time for his combo attack.

Coordinating how they would use the attack had been difficult since both Daniel and Khare could initiate the ability. Without the ability to fully speak to each other, what they tagged and when they used Called Shot was difficult to communicate. Both Khare and Daniel had attacks that could greatly benefit from even the slightest boost. Khare’s Coordinated Strike should allow for Called Shot to empower each of the strikes made during the flurry of blows, while Daniel had a setup that allowed for a piece of ammunition to explode with damage relative to the punch of the initial shot.

Daniel being too far in the air to do anything else made the decisions easier at the start. Khare marked one of the level 2 targets and Daniel invested some of his mana to enlarge the red wedge, making it flash. If he made an attack or used a combat ability before Khare did it would spoil the effect and waste the mana, but Daniel didn’t have anything else to do but fall until he was in range of his weapons.

The offset of power between a mortal and a monster was not just in level. By and large, monsters had limited power sets and could be considered weaker than the average hunter. While Daniel’s team was on the lower end of level 2, they had experience both in fighting together and against greater threats. Tak and Hunter alone could take the pack, albeit at more risk than either would be willing to take.

An excellent example was how quickly Khare took down the targeted monster. They were still at long range and couldn’t use throwing knives, instead relying on the dual-wielded longbows to deliver stronger hits. Khare not only benefited from Called Shot but Evalyn’s Valor Song which gave a minor yet comprehensive combat buff. The first arrow took the monster in the chest, and the second, a headshot, finished the creature.

At the same time, Tak and Hunter used their combination attack Double Cut to slash a bloody X through the charging monsters. They dealt slashing cuts to any monster they brushed past and demolished whatever was standing where they intersected. While this left them in the center of the pack, both were mobile enough to reposition without getting swarmed. The few injuries they took in the process began healing immediately.

Daniel had been diving since he'd activated Called Shot and leveled out at ten meters above the ground, the wings on his back folding back out as he reengaged the effect. He took one moment to bask in how awesome this was before he raised one of his armed and hit the firing mechanism of the arm bow. The recoil of the powerful spring within the gauntlet might have spoiled his aim if not for Snap Shot.

The smaller bolt that fired carried less force than what his stolen crossbow could put out, but the combination of Scatter Shot and the enchantment on the bolt was enough to messily destroy the level 1 enemy from the neck up. Damn. Good thing I don’t need them intact. He fired with his off hand next, injuring one of the alphas, before pulling back on the rods jutting out from the top. It was hard due to how tense the spring inside needed to be to be reloaded, but his strength was up to the task.

By the time he’d glided down to the ground, he’d fired three more times with the last one finishing off the pack. Despite the crippling blow the shank stompers had struck initially, they were too predictable. Only once had Evalyn been threatened, which allowed her to demonstrate that she was more than a magically enhanced pretty face.

Evalyn had recently awakened the Songbolt ability with one of her dexterity advancements. While using the attack interrupted the effects of her active song, it allowed her to fire an energy projectile of a strength proportional to the mana spent while playing it. The minimal baseline damage meant she couldn’t spam the attack but had to invest time in each one. With a couple of minutes of song behind the attack, it had blown a hole more appropriate for a cannonball into a monster.

“Is there a cap on how hard that can hit?” Daniel asked shortly after landing. While moving his shoulders hurt, the bleeding had stopped.

Evalyn glanced at her instrument before responding. “No, I don’t think so. After a few minutes, the buildup becomes slow. Why?” She gestured to the stricken monster. “You want more than that?”

“Blowing it up entirely would be cool.” Daniel shrugged and then winced. “I need better armor.”

“Hunter’s the only one here with real armor, and you don’t see us complaining. Maybe,” she drew out the word, “You shouldn’t wander so close to ravenous beasts and turn your back on them.”

“That was not smart,” Tak agreed, his voice altered as the power that gave him the paws and jaws of a ringcat was still active. It was huskier, though it also wasn’t the demonic screeching of the other form the group was still afraid he’d randomly take. That he had fought in another battle without going berserk was a good sign. “But a good hunt! Should we harvest the kills?”

“Anything nearby?” Evalyn asked Hunter, who shook his head. The blood surrounding the ringcat’s mouth, as well as the bits of flesh stuck to the prolonged canines, did what the ringcat had fervently failed to do earlier in offsetting the charm power. No one could look at him as anything other than a killing machine. “Good. Everyone thank Khare again for agreeing to take this stuff. I couldn’t stand carrying a bunch of random monster bits.”

“What about the arm blades? I’d like to take at least a few back and Khare can’t take them.”

“You want me to carry them?” Evalyn asked incredulously.

“Just one! They look, and feel, heavy. I don’t think the formulae I got today is going to be too useful, but I could try making some of the special arrows for Khiat from them.”

Evalyn stopped the protest that was midway through her throat. “Well, if it’s just one that’s fine.”

“Good! I will go harvest,” Tak said, pulling out a small knife. Evalyn called out to stop him.

“Tak, that might be easier if you smooth over your feathers first.”

“Oh!” Tak brushed at the feathers on his arms which, up until that point, had been standing stiff as a result of one of his new powers: Sharpfeather. He could make the feathers of his body sharp. It wasn’t that complicated. They weren’t the equivalent of level 2 weapons and couldn’t be fired like Daniel’s ability, being a more melee-focused power. That hadn’t stopped them from shredding monsters that foolishly made contact with him. “Thank you!”

Tak went to make use of another new feature, Monster Scavenger, while Hunter feasted on the remains. He no longer needed to for Growth but he still preferred fresh kills for meals. “Tak needs to fix his intelligence,” Evalyn said to Daniel.

“He’s trying. Advancing at half the normal rate must suck. Doesn’t that put him at a disadvantage?”

“His strength improves twice as fast. I’d call that fair.”

“I guess.” Daniel pointedly didn’t shrug this time.

Evalyn noticed anyway and tsk’d. “That monster shouldn’t have been able to sneak up on you.”

Daniel looked away. “Yeah, you’re right. First those thieves and now this.”

“You should be more alert for someone with level 2 wisdom. Maybe you should be training more than your seventh sense?”

“I thought what I was doing with Hunter would help.”

“That’s taking a flood and diverting it. He’s too strong for you. What you need to do is learn to watch for ripples in a pond.”

“Are water metaphors appropriate for a desert environment?” Evalyn frowned at him, accidentally saw what Tak was doing to one of the monsters’ arms, and grimaced. “Oh, gods, Tak, do you have to hack at it like that?”

“Yes!” Tak answered, looking up from the thick cords of tendon attaching one of the bone blades to the body of an alpha. “The muscle is very, oh, thank you!” A golden dagger had sailed into the body courtesy of Khare, who was retrieving the very same weapons they’d thrown when the monsters had gotten closer. With a level 2 implement, Tak’s severing of the arm was drastically quickened.

“Do you think I should suggest using that bone blade to cut off the others?” Daniel asked, only to receive his answer in the form of a worried look. “Yeah, I guess not. I don’t think he’d hurt himself, Tak’s good at cutting up monsters, but the material might take damage.”

“I don’t see why you’re so interested. It’s not a magic rock or anything, just bone. Isn’t that harder to work with?”

“Level 2 bone,” Daniel said with raised fingers, then scratched his head. “I think that’s how it works, and though it’ll take an affix slot to use it sounds like it won’t give me any other penalty. I’ll have to go back to the village and try enchanting to know for sure. Hopefully that won’t take…”

The look on his face was easily read by Evalyn. “Monster?”

“Level 4, coming towards us. Khare, level 4!” A massive aura had lit up in the distance. It had only been spotted by Hunter’s passive perception, meaning it was far closer than they’d like. The sheer terror of the moment was diluted as surprise and confusion mixed in with what Hunter mentally reported. “Gadriel?”