63 Makings of a Class (1/2)

I stomped the ground and activated oppression. High pitched screaming echoed out around me along with a hailstorm of hellfire. The trees wilted in seconds, turning to dust. The brushes and birds and bees disintegrated, exposure the to the aura killing them in an instant.

Amidst the rain of blue bullets, I noticed something odd. Oppression was different, not quite like before. Controlling it was easier, like I didn't have to think about the intensity or range. Figuring out the difference would wait for later. The ascendant mana in my blood raged before they finished unloading their bullets. The blue gunk fell off my armor, hissing and steaming.

Plumes of heat blurred the air before I grinned with my armor. They’d burned through a fourth of my health, but the bullets wouldn’t be able to outdo my regen. I turned around, glancing at them,

“Looks like these bullets are designed to melt eldritch over time. Most of those monsters lack health regeneration from what I’ve seen. It’s a good strategy.”

The bullets fell from my armor, clattering against the ground,

“It’s just, I’m no eldritch. I’m something different altogether.”

One of them stepped forward and swung a knife towards my throat. I ducked under the swing and stepped forward. Dragging my fist behind me, I launched an uppercut into his stomach. His armor held him together, but my telekinetic implants let me create a hole in his skin and armor. A thousand needles from my armor shot into his body as he flew away.

His body split into pieces, first from the needles slicing him apart, then from the force of the blow. Blue blood splattered across the aliens and me, like smashing a smurf full of blueberry cobbler. A blade scraped against my back, so I unleashed a torrent of spikes behind me.

It wasn’t as difficult to mold my armor as I remembered it being. The swords of armor skewered the alien before two other FearFighters tried reloading clips into their guns. I pushed my two hands together, creating two telekinetic fields to smash their heads together. As their skulls slammed in front of me, my hands clapped with enough force to generate a shockwave.

Their heads crunched before the wave passed through them. They fell to the ground, the electrical joints and gear short circuiting. I turned around, finding three other members left. One of them sprinted away, the other two starting up their jetpacks.

I stepped forward, reaching out and clasping with my hand. A telekinetic tether formed between me and the guy running away. I pulled him towards one the guys jetpacking away, slamming them together. The jetpack member careened off course before slamming into a tree trunk in the distance. His body crumbled under the force of his propulsion.

I charged towards the falling guard as that happened, reaching him before tackling him to the ground. His body popped underneath me, blood splattering once more. As the final scout escaped with his jetpack, I decapitated the head of the guard beneath me by wrenching it off.

The ascendant mana flowed in a torrent as I launched the skull towards the fellow guard. The skull collided with his jetpack, destabilizing his line of flight. He flew in circles before slamming into the ground and exploding. These members were so poorly trained it was almost comical.

Killing them still presented a problem however. I didn’t want the FearFighters or whatever else to be an enemy. Hiding the bodies became a priority. I walked over and picked up a chunk of a body before sighing at the gruesome work.

Like a living nightmare, the arm in my hand melted into my armor over a few seconds. I stumbled backwards before landing in a pile of mush behind me. My armor soaked in the corpse, sending a chill down my spine. I lifted my hand, staring at it. The armor shook, pulsing with hunger. I frowned. Up till now, I never absorbed the corpses of normal people. It was always some variant of eldritch.

I didn’t even think it could eat the corpses of normal people. It horrified me, almost like a diluted version of cannibalism. It did present a convenient solution towards my current conundrum, however. I didn’t know if killing like this left evidence of who I was behind. If they figured out, I wouldn’t be able to know what kind of problems it could cause further down the line.

So with my teeth grit, I walked around and cleaned up the corpses. After that, I tested oppression once more. It was like summoning a force from me, not quite like mana or moving an arm, but it was in the same vein. I hadn’t been able to use it before because I was unaware of it, like having a hidden talent and never knowing about it.

Oppression’s range fluctuated bit, allowing me to change the shape of the aura. It had always been unleashed in a growing sphere, but now I could alter that shape. After a few minutes of trying out different things, I discovered an ability to condense the aura. As I did so, I opened my menu screen and checked out oppression to see what had changed.

The Charging Calamity - Gives unique ability IV Oppression | Current Damage: (15,000 + 48% of health/min) within a maximum of a 240 ft/73 m radius. Counts as physical damage to enemies and allies.

The range and scaling of oppression had increased, by 20%. The reason clicked in an instant; it was cosmic soul. The tree had given me the ability to handle oppression with greater ease. I molded my armor once more, stretching the tips of my fingers into long blades. Stretching them out was simpler and easier than before. Cosmic soul helped with the abilities that my armor granted me.

I shut oppression down before running through the forest again, lost in thought. I still searched for a deer as I pondered what my armor was. From what I could tell, and from what cosmic soul told me, my armor was just a change in my soul. If I controlled my soul better, then I could wield the abilities my armor gave me better as well.

Suddenly cosmic soul was an exciting prospect. My armor’s abilities were already very powerful. Making them stronger may make them overwhelming. I’d discuss it with Torix when I got back, but first things first. I had a deer to kill. I wasn’t about to let this fifteen-minute fight get in the way of the two hours I’d put into making the lunch happen.

So I dashed through the forest, keeping closer to the town. There may be more of those scouts around, though they were likely a group testing to see how hostile the environment was. I wasn’t going to take that risk though.

One thing I learned from all my near-death situations is that most battles take place before you meet in person. More important than raw power was the circumstances surrounding the fight, the time put into practicing, the raw effort to line things up in your favor. All those factors made a bigger difference than level.

Yawm and his followers had forgotten that. I already vowed I’d take full advantage of that weakness.

First came deer though. I found another wilderness trail, this one littered with bits of brown and white hair. Tiny signs showed themselves to me, but I could distinguish them. They became more and more prevalent once I homed in on a scent of a deer this time. I would rely on my sense of smell this time instead of sight.

My change in tactics helped me this time. A deer glanced at me in the distance before darting away. I out sped it, tearing through the briar brambles and underbrush. It kept weaving around obstacles, but I tore through them. This cut down on my travel time, letting me reach it in seconds. Once I reached it, I used telekinesis to snap its neck.

The deer’s legs dug into the ground, still trying to escape me. With the central nervous system severed, it could no longer make a coherent escape. Seconds later, it ceased movement. I reached lunging onto one knee and giving it a quick thank you. This wasn’t like killing an eldritch. The deer meant me no harm, so I tried being grateful.

I’m not the most spiritual guy, so it wasn’t long before I went to gutting the deer. I tore out two bits of my armor, making them into hooks. I attached them to the tree, and I hung the deer by its feet. I sliced a cut down its belly and field dressed the organs. After clearing out the innards and taking care with the nastier ones, I dug a deep hole and buried the organs. Otherwise, a bear would smell them and come running.

After that, I slit the deer’s throat, letting the blood drain out of it. Using a bit of telekinesis, I squeezed it from toe to head, speeding up the draining process. Once the blood no longer dripped from the deer’s throat in excess, I left a marker on my minimap for its location.

I was aging the venison, letting the muscles cool down and relax. If you didn’t do this to wild game, the meat would be harder to chew than strips of leather. Any excess blood dripped out during the process as well, making the meat taste less gamey. Considering how much meat there was to be had, this was the least amount of effort required for it.

Optimally, I’d rather wait a day or two before cutting into the meat. This would do well enough though. With that handled, I left out towards our current encampment. As I passed through the trees, there was a chill in the air. It was the first inklings of a cold fall coming. Glancing up, a few trees changed in color, the green leaved turning orange and red.

Winter was coming. Time was passing. Yawm wouldn’t be stuck for much longer, and the knowledge of his eventual resurgence hung around my neck like a noose. By the time I reached the encampment, I calmed my anxiety. I could do this, no, I would do this. Using the rift’s time sink would help as well, letting us make up for any lost time. Enjoying a few meals with someone wasn’t a cardinal sin after all.

With that in mind, I paced back up into torix’s home. My telekinetic pads kept my from breaking the house down before I reached him again. He still sat and dissected and insect, jotting down messy notes into a journal beside him.

I stepped in front of him and waved. He glanced up, setting down his knife,

“Ah, you’re back. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

I shrugged, “I met some scouts out in the surrounding forest. I ended up uh, taking a few out.”

Torix nodded, “Did you catch what they were called?”

“The FearFighters.”

Torix nodded, “Ah, a bit more militant than the steel legion, though far less widespread. You dispatched with the bodies?”

I nodded. Torix continued, “Then it should be fine. They aren’t the worst enemy to have on a galactic scale regardless. The real question is why they are here.”

I shrugged, “Seemed like they weren’t here to take over or anything crazy. The scouts were pretty weak honestly.”

Torix frowned, “Then they’re likely protecting a group of non-combatants. Why non-combatants would land here is beyond me, but they will likely reveal themselves soon.”

I nodded, walking back outside, “Who knows. Maybe they’ll help us against Yawm.”

Torix shook his head, “I doubt it. It’s much more likely that they’re here for research of some kind. Either that, or maybe it’s a group of bounty hunters looking to gather research specimens. Althea was one of those bounty hunters once upon a time after all.”

I shrugged, “Time will tell. Before I go, have you ever heard of a class?”

Torix rolled his eyes, ”Back to myths and legends again I see. Yes, I have heard of classes before. Only bits and peices in old texts. Nothing substantial.” He turned back to his note, ”Good hunting, Daniel.”

Once again, Torix blew off any discussion about the topic. If I wanted to learn anything, I'd have to learn it on my own. I made a mental note of it after leaving him. With those thoughts in my head, I went back out towards the forest. Figuring out how to control oppression and my armor had become my weekly goal. I’d focus on training them, honing them down till I could wield them effectively in combat.

So after reaching a hundred feet into the forest surrounding Springfield, I reached out with oppression. Up till now, controlling the distance of it correlated with intensity. If I wanted the full force of oppression, then I needed to move it out to the full distance. Now I could control the intensity without having to increase the distance as much.