Sharp

I am not sure I have ever had so many Blessings of the Reaper stored up. I would usually use them during the fight to enhance certain skills, but not this time against Iron Rank monsters. I could tell I was nearing the limit that my Spirit attribute could hold.

When the Roos started to turn into Rainbow smoke, I pumped them all into the Level 7 skill to see what it would do. I am sure Jabaris Harvest Skill delayed the bodies' dissolving, but I was not sure if her harvesting used some of the magic or not. There were so many of them I couldn’t tell. It would make sense that it did.

The first options to appear were the usual meat and fur. Iron-rank meat was better for me than bronze-rank stuff, which I was nibbling on. I was healthier, just like Ardisia and Kai were. Trying to go above your rank opens you to Mana poisoning. I started with some meat, but I was watching for other options. Quintessence were the next option. Quinestance of Jumping and Speed. I still waited to see if any other options would appear before the usual Monster core and Spirit Coins.

My patience paid off, and I am sure it was only the boost of the Blessings of the Reaper. I had the option of creating an awakening stone of Speed. It was a common awakening stone, but I formed it as this was a first for me. I suspect when I get to bronze, I will get awakening stones more often, but we will see. Apart from my initial pieces of meat, the Awakening Stone ate up all the magic available.

My Reaping Magic, Rend and Cutting Web all levelled from this. My Razor Sharp Skill was getting close to levelling. It might beat my Perception to Level 9. That will be unusual, but I do use it all the time.

Jabari and Val were collecting the monster cores from what the Roos' dissolving bodies left. They were only Iron-rank, but there were a lot of them. I went over to put them in my Hunters Pack. We would sell them and distribute the coins.

Jabari came over with an armful of pelts, “Could you please store these.”

I nodded, “Nine, that is fast work.”

“The skill helps.”

The pelts have not been cleaned properly yet, but that would be fine in my Hunters Pack.

As we headed back to the Skimmer, Jabari said, “Nkwe and I will run back. Siro will collect my share.”

Zesiro nodded, and the two took off in a fast jog.

“Talib will go with you!” Keon shouted after them and got a wave in acknowledgement.

On the trip back, I had all four Kais on my lap, feeding them raw meat. Chuki was acting like she was scared of a few rats. Zesiro was stone-faced and not reacting. Val and Keon chatted, but I was happy with the silence.

Silence helps me think about things. One of the things I thought about was the potion I brewed to give an iron ranker the runs. It was sitting in my Hunters Pack untested. I have some interesting thoughts. I have not practised those quick-hands games Kitten showed me back in Ironwood. Quick hands could be useful in a Poisoner.

That took my thoughts back to Ironwood, and that was not helpful.

I watched the farmland go by. My thoughts went to the Church of Fertility and the walled multistoried farms they maintain to feed everybody during the monster surge. It is not cost-effective to do it all the time, but it is essential for the few weeks of a monster surge and the time it takes to fix things afterwards. All this farmland could be destroyed in an instant. A gold-rank or even diamond-rank monster is not uncommon here during the monster surge. Even the collateral damage from that can be devastating for lower ranks.

Some churches have additional purposes than those popularly known. Fertility is well known. It is just ignored by the juvenile-minded. Death has an agenda beyond gathering souls and caring for those who have lost people. Few know the hidden campaign to seek out and destroy undeath. Would they be worried about the number of priests with the Death Essence, which is so powerful against the Undeath? It is interesting how many restricted combinations exist for some sort of undeath when using the Death Essence, and yet, in the hands of the goddess, it is so powerful against undeath. I am fully behind the Goddess of Death and the fight against undeath.

Other gods will probably have hidden purposes as well. A god’s purpose is the defining thing for them. It defines how they act in the world and interact with each other. I have realised that we may not know a god's full purpose. Therefore, how they act may appear out of character, but that is only because we do not know their full purpose. Therefore, their actions shed light on their character, yet mostly, we assume their character controls their actions. Both are true, but we miss growing our understanding of a god’s purpose when we don’t investigate their actions properly.

So, what is the purpose of the Moon Goddess? Publicly, she is the goddess of the night. She is a goddess over all nocturnal races. Leonids were primarily nocturnal. As we have become more civilised, we align ourselves with the creatures of the day, but we started out as primarily nocturnal.

Kekie adheres to some traditional customs, such as having a pride of females. They worship the Goddess of the Night and the God of the Hunt. Zesiro apparently has the Sun Essence as well, and it is traditional for the Sun God to be worshipped in parallel to the Moon Goddess. They are not in opposition. They operate in tandem.

The Sun God and the Moon Goddess. What is their true purpose? Zesiro is being given an opportunity to tell us about their gods in Intro to the Gods in a few weeks. Would he even know their purpose? They are not defined by their names like the Healer, War or Death. Their purpose may be more vague.

I feel this is important, but I don’t have enough information.

The question is, do I want to seek out more information?

Ignorance leaves an opening to be attached. My ignorance of politics is a clear example of that.

The skimmer rocked, and I looked around to see our silver ranker Syndra flying off to the side, tangled with another person, both moving fast. A third was chasing them with weapons drawn.

I absorbed two Kais and dove off the skimmer, avoiding a hammer blow that caved in the skimmer's body. I immediately went to blend in. The hammer had killed a Kai, and the other was in the grass, moving in the opposite direction of me. I sent it to look for Val, whom I couldn’t see.

I was regretting using up all my blessings.

I looked around and saw Chuki going flat-out, attacking or maybe defending against a bronze-rank attacker. Zesiro was picking himself up from where he had fallen. Where were Val and Keon?

Where was the hammer person?

There. The Hammer person was a bronze ranker advancing on Val with an unmoving Keon at her feet. A maddened shriek from above came as a swift brown shape left claw marks in the face of the Hammerman. That meant Jabari and Nkwe were coming fast.

I was moving even as I saw these things. Was it only two silver and two bronze? We were way outclassed even so. Now that I had orientated, I sent Kai to scout for others. Val was outclassed, and she was my first priority. I created a round shield and moved it with Quick Sharp and Mighty Oak at the back of Hammer Man. He must have heard something. Bronze rank senses are good, and he seemed to be in upper bronze.

What Hammer Man did not expect was a barrel of acid hitting his face. It was only iron rank. I had thought to make a poison from it. It was enough to burn through the more sensitive areas of his upper body, especially his eyes, mouth and nose. Blessings of the Reaper started accruing.

“Damage caused by using weapons created or enhanced by a Skill creates the Blessing of the Reaper,” was what I wrote, and I guess Reaping Magic is a skill. I never thought of that.

Val took advantage of the Bronze ranker's distraction from being covered in Acid and laid into him with a flurry of Skilled strikes. I went low and ripped a leg apart at the knee with my claws, using Rend, Mighty Oak, and the few Blessings I had accumulated.

Even as he fell to the ground, he swept Val's legs out from under her with his hammer. He was injured, but a bronze ranker's resistance to lower-rank damage is not to be underestimated. That is why I used my claws, which were enhanced by Kai, as they damaged up a rank.

Val was not put off by having her legs swept out from under her, and even as she fell, she disappeared using her teleport and appeared lying on the ground behind Hammerman, plunging her swords into him using her high mana execute skill.

Hammerman was moving as well, so only one of her two swords buried itself in his back but did go straight through his armour. The sword was ripped from her hand as he rolled and got to his one-working knee. He was still blind, but there were other senses he could be using.

He was lifting his hammer to bring it down on the prone Val when I did to his neck the same thing I did to his knee. The headless torso toppled to the ground.

I held out a hand to help Val to her feet. And looked around. Her sword disappeared from his back as she released the skill and re-conjured it in her hands.

“Thanks,” Val said. “Without the Acid…”

I just nodded without looking. The two of us were no match for a mid-to-high bronze. I pulled a healing potion and tossed it in Vals's direction without looking. “Keon,” I said.

I walked over to examine Chuki’s corpse. I committed her soul to the goddess. Then, I did the same for Zesiro.

I went back to help Val. Keon’s whole lower half was crushed. Somehow, he was still alive. Val had fed him the potion. Maybe that would keep him alive long enough to get help.

My eyes caught a movement from the direction the silver rankers had gone, and Sylvan was coming back. She was limping, and her armour was torn. She walked to the bodies first.

“Shit,” she said, looking at Zesiro’s corpse. “That is going to be a mess.”

“The bronze ranker that got away ran that way,” I said, pointing. “He is faster than Kai, so he has lost him.”

“One of the silver rankers ran after I killed the first one as well,” Sylvan said.

Then Nkwe appeared at the crest of the hill with Jabari hard on his heels. She went to Keon first as Nkwe sniffed, and Talib stayed with him.

“We need to get him to a healer,” I said.

“Who is the fastest among you?” Sylvan asked.

“Jabari,” I said without hesitation.

“Run to the city. Take this and get them to send a healer now,” Sylvan said.

“But,” I could see she was torn, but Sylvan was brutal.

“He dies if you are not fast enough. Leave the bond. We will protect them.”

She took off, and she was fast.”

“It will take her fifteen minutes to get there. What potion did you give him?” Sylvan asked.

“General Healing, high iron,” I replied.

“Good. I have a bronze, but we will only use it as a last resort. The effect on him will be worse, and the healers need to be close.”

Val and I moved Chuki and Vesiro’s bodies closer and then went to get the body of the silver ranker that Sylvan killed.

“Will the diamond rank father go to war over this?” I asked her.

Val shrugged. “Who knows? I think they may already be at war. Why attack and kill the son?”

“I guess he is the most vulnerable. Will this come back on us?”

“I have my family's backing, you have the church's, and we both have the Remore Academy behind us. Jabari and Keon? They will take the brunt of it.”

Ten minutes later, Keon was deteriorating, and Sylvan fed him the bronze-rank potion. He rallied for a bit, and then his soul passed into the care of the goddess. His familiar’s body melted into rainbow smoke, and my Reaping Magic gave me the usual choices. I chose feathers, thinking I could make Jabari a keepsake.

A gold-ranked healer landed five minutes later, but it was too late.