Sharp

In the veil of shadows, where fears take seed,

I summon forth the rats with urgent need.

Their claws, like daggers, rend the night,

With gnashing teeth, they hunger for the fight.

In the depths of darkness, where nightmares thrive,

They heed my call, ready to contrive.

Their hunger insatiable, their thirst unquenched,

They clash in the darkness, with no relent.

In shadows' grasp, their presence looms,

As they heed my summons in the gloom.

With every step, they echo dread,

The rats of darkness, by my words led.

Nine bronze-ranked Kais darted out from the ritual circle. This was a different and longer summoning chant. I was curious about the line. Their claws, like daggers, rend the night. I felt for what they could do. Yes, I felt they could now attack the incorporeal. That could be very useful.

I felt that their hunger and aggressiveness had grown. While they were here, I stroked them and then sharpened their claws and teeth. Kai is a good source of the Blessing of the Reaper.

All that was amazing, but I still felt there was more. “You fellas are incredible,” I said, feeding him a piece of jerky. I sniffed, and there was some magic happening when he ate. I fed him again and sniffed it out.

“Devouring Rats indeed,” I said in amazement. I was told some skills and summons don’t come to their full potential until the higher ranks. I had no idea Kai was one of those.

The next time we went into the Astral Space, I let Kai devour everything he could. Pukeko were nasty, flightless birds with wicked claws. Kai ate three.

Ardisia was the main instrument in the death of the Toetoe, a giant tussock plant monster with sharp-cutting leaves and white flower plumes that spread a suffocating toxin. Kai ate the remains.

We found a Hunter Spider, and Kai ate through the webs easily. This fight was nothing like the first time we came into the astral space. Sibs, Harry and I dismantled it methodically as Kai ripped through the webs. Kai devoured the carcass.

It was the Rock Panther that finally did it. Sibs had to bring out a big skill from her Empower essence to take it down, while Harry could barely hold it off. It was called a Rock Panther because of its shape, but it was twice the size of the largest bear I had seen. It had rock armour layered on it and spat rock shards.

My armour was torn and ripped, and my third shield of the fight was cracked. As Kai dug into his feast, I chewed on jerky to heal the bruises and broken bones. Everything had a workout in that fight and I pulled out stone shards from my flesh that even the piercing resistance of my fur couldn’t stop. My armour and fur certainly blunted the damage.

I was using Reaping Magic to create well-balanced, stone, throwing knives when I felt one of the Kais change. I watched closely as he lost his fur, and stone plating covered his body. He wriggled uncomfortably, getting used to the feeling. He still seemed to have a full range of movement. Maybe he was not quite as agile, but he was certainly more protected.

This confirmed what I had felt. The Kais had a chance to take on an attribute of something they ate. Permanently. Well, almost permanently. They would reset to the original Kai if they died and were rebred.

This was huge. I could potentially get an incorporeal Kai or one with wings or venom. There were so many options. I only had nine Kai, and they could each only have one enhancement.

I could feel their hunger. I wanted to feed them. This was awesome.

I updated my record.

Devourer Rat Summons (Kai) {feast stone} Bronze 1

Iron Rank: Summon four devourer rats. Chew and claw through any material of the same rank or less given time. Absorbed in summoners' claws and teeth, strengthening them. And enabling them to boost them up a level. They can breed to replenish numbers over time.

Bronze Rank: Nine rats - They can attack the incorporeal. They have a chance to get small permanent boosts from what they eat. Each rat can only have one boost. They lose the effect on death.

I was meditating after that big fight, and two other skills went to bronze. Rend was the first and added a bleeding effect. Bleeding was a stacking effect but could only affect things with blood. It caused ongoing health loss, so it would help wear down monsters with strong regeneration.

The claws also extended beyond the physical length, which was a surprise. I had hoped it would have changed to be available to other melee weapons, but I guess not. The more mana I poured into the skill, the longer my claws became, but the key thing here was that they were still classed as my claws. This meant the rank jumping boost that Kai gave my claws applied to my extended claws.

Rend {Claw Stone} Special Attack Bronze 1

Iron Rank: Use claws to rip open things. Claws reach beyond the physical to rend the incorporeal.

Bronze Rank: Use claws to rip open things of equal rank or lower. Adds Bleeding effect. Rend extends beyond the physical claws an increasing amount, causing greater damage. Extended range costs mana.

My fur was next. I gained an active ability to reinforce parts of my fur for a mana per second cost and mana per square centimetre cost. I have a growing resistance to other things as well. I could train that. I had acid there. Maybe I will be cautious about that. That can be painful.

Resistant Fur {Hair Stone} Bronze 1

Iron Rank: Fur becomes resistant to cutting and piercing.

Bronze Rank: Actively reinforce parts of my fur against cutting and piercing for a Mana/sec/cm² cost. Resistances to other effects can be gained and increased with exposure.

Kai was definitely the star of this show. What can I feed him to get the benefits? I wanted to go back to the dark astral space with the shadow beings. But I couldn’t. Letting Kai eat a troll could provide healing benefits. Haemir has left, or I could have asked for an arm to feed Kai. Is that horrible?

There is no guarantee. He didn’t get anything from the spider, the Toetoe or the Pukeko. There might be no guarantees, but I am sure I can skew the odds if I try.

“Hey, Theo! Half my skills are bronze now,” Val skited.

Grumble grumble. I was close. Nine out of the twenty, but she beat me. Again. She didn’t have a Kai, though!

“Theo, I want to introduce you to Marcus and Arabelle. Of course, you also know Saskia.”

We greeted each other.

“Marcus, Belle, and Saskia have just got their Adventure Society membership and want to be with us for the Adventuring course this semester,” Val continued.

“Ok, I guess. How do you know each other?” I asked.

“We are all on the same Arena Fighting squad,” Marcus said. “We want to all hit bonze this semester so we can enter the bronze rank competition next semester.”

I looked at Val suspiciously.

She put her hands up defensively, “I am not asking,” she said. “This is just adventuring.”

Yeah, right, it is. I looked at Saskia, “You too?”

“I think it is good fun,” she replied. “It is better than adventuring because it is not real. However, adventuring is better for levelling.”

I remember that Saskia had the Mirage Confluence and kept us hidden in the first Astral space. She would be an expert on what is not real.

“How do we all fit?” I asked.

“Our team specialises in speed,” Belle said. “I have the Bird, Swift and Wind Essences with the Soaring Confluence. Flying is my thing,” her face broke out into a grin. She obviously loved it. “I have a bond, Kirre, who is not here right now. She is almost always flying. She is a Royal Albatross with Wind affinities. I can also call up a short-term summons called the Flock. At Bronze, there are ten Kestrals summoned.”

“I am on the ground,” Marcus said. “Iron, Might, Swift, Juggernaut. Hard and fast. Unstoppable is my goal. Val is the Blade Dancer, and Saskia has a big bag full of surprises. She keeps life interesting.”

“Yes, I know Val and Saskia. So, I am the slow one. I get to stay with the vehicle, huh?”

“You wish,” Val said.

“How far are you all to Bronze?” I asked.

“I only have two skills to go,” Belle said, “Kirre is already bronze.”

“A bit under half,” Marcus said.

“And that is because you need to focus on using all your skills, not just your favourites,” Val said.

That sounded like an oft-repeated statement.

“You are getting predictable in the Arena,” Saskia said. “I have had to cover for you several times now. I am about halfway,” she said. “My Mirage skills are all Bronze. You showed me how useful they are, Theo.”

“Oh! You are that Theo.” Belle exclaimed, “That makes sense now.”

“This is Kai,” I said, changing the topic. “He is a recent Bronze level.”

“You never told me Kai was Bronze!” Val exclaimed, “You're a clever lad,” she said to him. “How many Kais are there?”

“Nine.”

“Wahoo, go Kai!”

“I can fill many roles,” I said, “Usually, I am a scout and melee combo, but I am guessing Belle and Kirre have the scouting sorted.”

“Yes and no,” Belle said. “A lot of things hide from the eye in the sky.”

I nodded. Kai and I were good at that.

“If we are all good, I have picked up our first contract,” Val said.

I frowned a bit. She was obviously pushing me into this. I reluctantly gave her a nod.

“This is in a nearby village, Farming Village #3. They are being plagued by fire sparrows. I figured that would be right in Belle’s sweet spot, and the rest of us could slack off.”

“Hey! No, you can’t,” Belle complained.

“They are bronze rank, so it will be a challenge for her flock, which is still in iron rank,” Val admitted.

And that is how we ended up in Farming Village #3. Belle flew here, and she and Kirre were up there somewhere looking for smoke. I still haven’t met Kirre.

My nose was telling me there was a layer of smoke everywhere.

Marcus was grumbling the whole way. Fire Sparrows was the exact opposite of where his skills lay. He liked one big enemy. Val was trying to coach him on which of his less-used skills might be useful to him in this situation. I suspect this was a strong reason she chose this contract. She was going to become a good leader someday.

The key people here are going to be Belle and Saskia—Belle for the flight and Saskia because she had the Water Essence. I really wanted more time to prepare as I suspect the Fire Sparrows will just burn through my nets. Fire is also not good for Ardisia. I pulled out my multi-pronged whip. Let's see how Troll Leather manages this.

I picked up a huge set of wings swooping down towards us and made out Belle. The wings were massive, more than twice the length of her arms, probably nearer three times. They were covered with black feathers. As she got closer, I could feel the air pressure change, and she tucked her wings behind her, landed in a light trot and came towards us. Her wings folded behind her and then disappeared.

“Sorry about the air pressure,” she said. “I am still getting used to the bronze levels.”

“Why air pressure?” Val asked.

“Air pressure is the key to soaring,” Belle replied. Seeing Val’s blank look said, “Never mind, we need to go that way as the sparrows are nearing the crops.”

We headed our vehicle in the direction.

“What’s the plan?” I asked.

Everybody looked at Val. That was interesting. Val never came up with plans when she was with me. Is she letting me do all the work? I also looked at her expectantly.

“Well,” she said hesitantly, “Saskia is on damage control. She can dampen down hotspots. Kirre is Bronze so she can swoop in and pick them off. The rest of us are here to keep them contained.”

“I think you are forgetting Kirre is not fireproof, and the sparrows are bronze, so that will hurt. Yes, her beak can crush shells, but still.” Belle said.

Val looked at me, “Come on, Theo, this is why I need you.”