June 17th 2018.

  Helo is looking down at the fight in the gate from the massive tree. It didn’t take him long to get back to the center of the town, now he has his legs swinging off the end of a branch and he is watching as large group leaves the town.

  Progress is about as slow as he expected. All the front-line fighters were lined up and the gate was opened. After that, things went surprisingly well. He honestly expected for a vampire to attack, instead the front line quickly pushed up to the gate. Then the back line bombarded the monsters from afar.

  It only took about ten minutes for the group to push the monsters back and clear a way. Then it was a mad rush as people fled from the town into the much more dangerous wilderness. That thought actually made Helo chuckle a little bit. They are happily leaving their town and running into the wilderness.

  His chuckle quickly turned into a grunt of pain. But it is probably for the best. He shouldn’t find the dichotomy funny, odds are, people will die. The front line continues to push past the monsters until they have broken through the other side. By this time monsters are all injured or dead. The front-line shifts and half their number fall back to reinforce the sides of the formation.

  With this the civilians are able to run through. This also means that Helo only has another minute before he has to get to work. As the last person leaves the town and enters the wilderness Helo takes a deep breath. Letting it out slowly he allows himself to fall back.

  Now normally he would have just fallen back and landed on the ground. But in his condition, that’s not happening. He has a belt tied around his waist. Using the belt and a rope tied to the branch Helo quickly slides down the tree. Getting to the bottom he unclips the belt and just leaves it.

  Making his way toward the two roots that he used previously to enter into the tree, Helo is using the cane and he is walking as fast as he can. Hobbling along he can hear as more monsters start to enter into the town from the now open gate. They can sense the residual presence of the people. At the same time there is a ton of food and things in the town that radiate mana or strong life energy. Like this tree.

  Helo is only guessing, but he would bet that the majority of the monsters that are rushing into the town are headed right for him. Well not him, but the massive mass of vitality that is this tree. Only taking a few more seconds he enters the hideout within the tree. He is rushing a little because he isn’t sure how close the monsters are. Entering into the room with the town wide barrier array he finds the runes that the mayor told him about. When the array got set up it was funded by the Kashiwagi family. But she essentially sold her employment as mayor to the family. In return they would modify the array so that in case of emergency the barrier can be shrunk to surround the tree and her home. This will make the barrier much stronger and also run on much less mana.

  They agreed to her proposal. She is a bonded dryad. Her home is her tree, and trees don’t move. So, they know that this town has a powerful supervisor. She doesn’t have a combat class but her class does empower all things made from wood within a certain distance of her tree. They only gave her one stipulation. This modification can only ever be used when the town is already lost, the people are safe within the smaller barrier, or the town is evacuated.

  Finding to rune Helo uses his ‘Stylus for the Mana-less’ and injects the rune with mana. He can’t see because his location within the tree. But the blue shimmer that surrounds the town dissipates and reforms surrounding the tree and the house that is right below it. This time it is a denser blue and forms much faster than when it was around the town.

  As the barrier around the town drops the monsters that were attacking the barrier finally get their chance to attack the town. Most of the monsters were at the gate, but there were still some that were attacking the walls or the back of the town. Now all of them climb the wall and enter into the town. There they find it completely deserted. Some of the monsters use this opportunity to ravage the town and steal or absorb all the different energy sources. But the ones that are hungry for blood search for a scent trail and take off after the fleeing group.

  Now within the much smaller and stronger barrier Helo starts getting ready to leave the town and follow the party. He told Hinata that he would be there before they even reached the tree line. That might have been true, but whoever Akira asked to store the mana didn’t do a very good job.

  It takes Helo about ten minutes to gather all the mana cores into his necklace and place them around the array in the correct locations. The mana gathering runes are all set up to gather within a certain distance. Whoever was tasked with placing the mana cores put them all on the same rune. The cores were over flowing and outside the range to absorb the mana cores.

  Finally done Helo gets up and slowly walks back into the main room. Being up and about is making him feel extremely tired. But at the same time, he also feels better. Part of that might be effect of the walking stick.

  When he gets into the main room, he starts to head to the stair case and toward the outside. On his way he hears something surprising. It sounds like scratching on wood. Tilting his head and tracking the noise Helo follows to the entrance that he was about to open.

  Taking a deep breath Helo holds up the ring that mayor Eliana gave him. It is similar to the ring that she was wearing. She said it was meant for her head guard. He had been working for her for a long time and it was a sign of trust. But he sacrificed himself to save the town, now it was just sitting in her storage acting as a reminder of what never was.

  The root system pulls apart as the ring sends some kind of signal to the tree. As it does a five-foot badger hops from the root and to the ground. Then it starts to scurry as much as a five-foot monster that is much too large to actually scurry, can scurry.

  Realizing that he is in no shape to actually take on this fight, but he still can’t leave the beast to tear into the tree. Eventually it will make it to the array room and the whole thing will be lost.

  Pulling out the vials of blood, Helo is about to open the closest one, before he can he catches the scent of the blood, and where they came from. The closest one came from Hinata. Shaking his head in humor he takes the second vial. He remembers Alli’s command about drinking hers first.

  Helo wanted to test out breathing in the vitality, but right now he doesn’t have the time. Downing the contents Helo’s eyes flash golden as a surge of physical power floods his body. Growling slightly Helo activates ‘Bloodline Awakening’. Now the blood he consumed is being used up at a prodigious rate. But Helo put a lot of thought into how to do this without hurting himself even worse. In the end, this is what he came up with.

  Absorbing vitality boosts his physical stats and fights against any poison, status effect or curse. So not only does it increase his lagging endurance, it also pushes back his pain and fatigue. Helo proves his idea was correct by standing up straight and vanishing the cane into his necklace.

  Now he still can’t use any skills or energy. But his boosting skill is more like unleashing his bodies potential. This pushes him closer to what his strength should be, not where he is at. Passing ten percent in his awakening was some kind of soft limit, where having the skill active doesn’t strain him anymore. He only feels strain when it is activated for too long, or when he over uses his skills.

  So, having two different abilities that both boost his endurance, Helo thinks that he can fight with his physical body and not do any more damage. “Well. Time to put my money…” Before he can finish the badger is almost on top of him.

  The thing is a true beast and still personifies what a badger should be. It is a large creature of pure and unadulterated violence. Lashing with claws and fangs the badger attacks Helo with everything it can. It is a relatively basic creature for its tier. But it is a tier 2 beast, if only early tier 2.

  Ducking a claw swipe, Helo jumps forward. He lands on the shoulder of the arm that just swiped at him. Meeting the beasts open jaw with his palm Helo stops the badger from biting a chunk out of him. Even with his own high stats and two different abilities boosting his physical might, he is still almost tossed away. That is fine through. Helo doesn’t want a test of strength. Any strain on his body will hurt him more. He was built for speed, so he will just be quick.

  Spinning on the beast back Helo lightly steps onto the opposite shoulder. Letting himself fall off the shoulder, he is narrowly missed by snapping jaws. While he falls under the jaws Helo lashes out with his own claws. He might be able to empower his blades with his bloodline, but in his state, it would worsen his wounds. His own body is a different thing. His claw’s part the badger’s neck with a clean slash. It’s thin fur and durable skin offered very little resistance.

  But this is a tier 2 creature, it isn’t done yet. Hitting the ground Helo rolls toward the creatures back. The badger rolls in a very animal like fashion. Now it is swiping at him with its hind legs. Helo dodges the swipes by jumping over the badger’s body and slashing its stomach with his claws. Drawing another deep cut Helo is pretty sure he will now be able to bleed the thing out.

  Unfortunately for Helo this is where his luck runs out. He can feel as his store of excess vitality is running out. Using the ring he closes the exit and dashing out of the badgers reach Helo enters into the array room. Locking the door behind him, Helo gets to the far wall just as his enhancement runs out. Before it does, he cancels his boosting skill and slumps against the wall. He has zero interest in feeling like what using his boosting skill would be like with his badly damaged body.

  Just a second later the badger hits the door with a loud and furious “Thump.” Sighing Helo now resigns himself to waiting the badger out. As he was tactically retreating… He noticed that the badger’s neck was still bleeding profusely. It means that the creature doesn’t have a regeneration ability.

  Based on the little Helo knows about the beast, he would bet it has some kind of berserking skill. He got in two clean and deep cuts. So, the badger should be able to keep up its strength.

  Sitting against the wall he starts to think about what his future will hold. He is going to be going to magic school in the fall. It will be a new experience, obviously. But from what he was told it will be a breeding ground of pompous jerks and superiority. As he is sitting there the growls and scratching sound starts to fade. Just before Helo is going to get up, the sounds resume. This time they sound far angrier and more powerful. “Berserking skill. I told you… Ah… Me.” Helo quickly realizes that he is alone and talking to himself. The pain he is in is making his head start to spin.

  Sitting on the wall he pushes himself up as fast as he can when a claw actually punctures through the wood. On the other side he can see the furious eyes of the badger as it relentlessly attacks the wood. Staggering forward Helo plants his back on the left side of the door and gets ready.

  His heart beat is starting to rise and he is really wishing that he never made the decision to stay behind. Waiting by the door for the beast to stop though Helo watches as the claws rip the door further apart. Eventually the badger has its head entirely through the door. As it furiously tries to push in further, the badger pushes over a piece of broken off wood, tearing open the hole in its neck further. Then the blood starts to pools from the badger, down the door and to the ground.

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  Pushing itself further and further into the room the beast is hanging half in the room and half in the other. Then suddenly, it stops. Listening closely Helo looks toward the beast and he doesn’t see any breathing. The berserking skill ran out and with the pure rage no longer flowing through it. The beast just died.

  Helo stands there looking at it and groans. “How am I supposed to move that, when I am like this?” He looks at his shaking hand and the cane he is holding. Dammit. With a sigh he breathes in deeply and inhales some of the vitality from the beasts blood.

  It takes him five minutes to finally get the door pushed open far enough to get through. Stumbling into the central room he goes back to the stair case. “Round Two.” Opening the exit again Helo covers his eyes for a second as the sunlight shines down on his face. Slowly climbing the stairs, he steps into the open air and looks around. It is a little past noon and Helo realizes that he is about thirty minutes late from when he told Hinata he would be there.

  But, looking up he can see that there are still a few monsters that got into the barrier before he had a chance to close it. “I can’t leave before I clear them out.” He says as he pulls out the second vial. Taking a breath Helo drains it in a gulp.

  The vitality floods his body and his fatigue goes away. Standing straight and vanishing his cane, he activates ‘Bloodline Awakening’. In the tree he can see three different birds that are sitting within the branches. With his eyes glowing golden he is unable to conceal himself and the birds are looking down at his leaping form and flapping their wings in a show of dominance.

  Cawing down at him one of the birds jump up into the air and starts to circle the tree within the barrier. Jumping from branch-to-branch Helo quickly reaches the resting spot of the first bird. It jabs its beak at him like a spear tip. In the air Helo twists his body and dodges the strike. Following through with his spin he summons his naginata and lops off the bird’s head, with a two handed over head strike. Spinning in the air he kicks out with his left leg and lands on the branch.

  Not finishing his spin, he kicks off as soon as he lands and leaps toward the second bird. He has to jump up to a higher branch to reach the second bird. As he is jumping across the third birds swoops in from the air. Beating its wings the bird misses Helo but the wind from the bird passing sets him off course. Sending his blade into his necklace he ends up using his claws. With his boosting skill being an awakening of what is sealed within him, it brings out his more bestial features.

  With his claws in the tree Helo starts to furiously climb. The two birds are overhead and one of the birds is still on the branch and the other is swinging around and getting ready for a second pass at him. Deciding against going for another jump, even if he is on a time limit. Helo steadily climbs the tree and as the third bird comes in for another pass Helo spins on the tree. Grabbing with his left hand he spins until he is facing away from the tree. Grabbing with his other hand he moves an entire body length away. The bird strikes where he was and Helo grabs the tree with both hands. Twisting he kicks the bird away.

  Hearing a crack as the bird flies away Helo starts climbing again. This time he pushes off and leaps up to the underside of the branch that the bird is sitting on. Once he shakes the branch the bird launches into the air. As it beats its wings and starts to elevate Helo swings up. Landing below the bird he draws both daggers from his bracers and throws the one after another.

  The bird cries out loudly and Helo jumps up. Planting his feet on the bird’s chest he rips out both daggers. Blood starts to fall and the daggers in his grip vanish. Helo then grabs the bird by its broken wings. He can feel as the small vial of vitality he absorbed starts to wain within his body. Reaching down Helo bites the bird in the neck. The bird’s vitality isn’t as powerful as Hinata’s, but it is enough for him to ride the bird to the ground. As he hits the ground the third bird swoops back in.

  Helo is surprised by the continuous aggression normal birds would have fled. Looking up as the bird drive down, he uses ‘Detect Weakness’.

  Stripped Hawk

  Weakness: Endurance, Aggression.

  “Huh.” He is surprised that the bird has troubles with its aggression. He hasn’t seen his skill show a behavioral weakness before. He has enough time to mutter, “Maybe it is evolving.” Then the bird is on him. It dives down and scrapes its claws along Helo’s chest. Falling back, he grabs the bird’s claw and uses it to swing it into the ground.

  As it hits the ground Helo jumps forward and quickly dispatchs it. With a sigh he looks around. He is in the middle of an open field and there are monsters surrounding his location. With the noise of his fight reaching past the barrier, all eyes are on him now.

  “Thankfully I planned for this.” Helo slowly climbs the tree. His vitality boost wore off and he can already feel that using his skill twice is starting to hurt him more. He pulls out the final vial. Alli gave him two because she wanted him to use her’s more than Hinata’s. “Thanks.” He mutters before walking to the end of a branch. It has a thick rope tied on and leads to the wall.

  “I always wanted to go ziplining.” Making sure the control ring is ready Helo gets his handle set up. Running forward he jumps off the end of the branch and into the air. Below him a pack of monsters are all following his movement.

  Zipping down the wire he flies down from the peak of the tree to the wall far faster than he expected. Below him the monsters are leaping below him to reach him. Many have the stats to jump high enough and some even have ranged skills. But Helo is going far too fast for them to hit him.

  One creature does end up landing on the line itself. This causes the entire apparatus to shake and almost knocks Helo off. The change in drop angle due to the creature’s weight slows down Helo’s decent. He actually is a little relieved because the previous speed was going to be a bit much for his hurt body.

  Reaching the wall Helo lets go of his handle and gets tossed over the wall by his momentum. Normally hitting the ground at this speed would be easy for him. But right now, he knows that this is really going to hurt.

  Hitting the ground Helo tucks in his arms and rolls with his momentum. He doesn’t even try to steady himself. Eventually he stops and he doesn’t move. “Ahhhhhgaahhhh fuck!” He says while groaning into the air. Hearing the cries of monsters from inside the small town he realizes that he needs to get a move on.

  Pushing himself up on shaking arms Helo runs in and pushes aside some bushes that are piled up near the wall. From inside the bushes Helo can see the hot pink pimped out golf cart. “I am so glad that Alli and Hinata over planned.”

  Helo just wanted to push through and make it work. But it was the two girls that convinced Helo to make more plans. Like a zipline to escape the town and hiding the cart. Just in case he takes longer to leave.

  Pushing his stylus into a charging crystal on the cart, he filles it with enough mana to make it to the underground city. Looking up Helo can see claws and arms as the monsters start to clear the top of the wall. Putting his foot to the ground he takes off.

  It only takes him five minutes to reach the jogging group. Everyone has levels, if only a few. But most people for their early levels like to spread out their stats. They are all moving together with fighters on the outside of the convoy. Driving up behind the group Helo can easily see the tracks of their progress.

  Behind him he can also hear as he is followed by at least fifteen monsters. Driving up he starts yelling, even if it hurts to do so. “Hey! I got at least fifteen behind me!” As the rear guard turn to face Helo, he is happy to see his own party and Rain.

  Helo met Rain before they left and all he can say is that he is a surprisingly friendly and noble dude. He expected him to act like some ‘Young Master’. Instead, he is a really nice guy that cares about keeping people safe.

  With a bolt of lightning Rain appears on the hood of his car. Smiling widely, he waves. “Good to see you kid!” Then just like the lighting he is so closely attuned with, he vanishes in another flash.

  Behind him he can hear the explosions of lighting and smell the burning of flesh. Luna runs out from the group. She jumps into the golf cart across from Helo. “Switch.” She looks at Helo with an expectant face. “Switch, you’re in no place to drive.”

  “Gahhh. Fine.” Helo grabs onto the roll cage. Unbuckling his seat belt, he swings around into the back seat with a grunt of pain. With a sigh Helo lays back and finally lets himself relax. If it wasn’t for the uncomfortable feeling of the constant bumps in the road he would have fallen asleep as soon as his head hit the seat.

  As they reach the backline Alli jumps into the cart next to him. “Hey. We got really worried. You took a lot longer than you said you would to get back.” She looks down at Helo with an expectant look.

  Helo looks back from his place laying on the seat and just sighs. “HAaaaaa. Yes, I am thankful that you over prepared. I wasn’t planning on telling you. But someone just really wants a compliment.”

  After he says that Hinata jumps in the front next to Luna. At the same time Lelai jumps on top of Helo. Petting the grey fox Helo just enjoys not having to do anything.

  Blinking open his eyes he wakes up to Lelai, Alli and Hinata looking down on him. “Hey there sleepy head.” Alli says with a grin. Sitting up and looking around they are in a cave and he is still within the golf cart.

  Opening his mouth, he is going to ask where they are but Hinata speaks up first. “We made it back. There were a few fights. But nothing major. Rain took care of all the monsters that were following you.”

  “Yeah! He was awesome. The lighting element is so cool!” Alli says with a grin. She enjoys how loud and flashy it is. Looking at her lap, she actually has a book on lightning element runes.

  “You’re trying to make a lighting hammer.” He says in a dry tone.

  She just looks at him with a smile. “YEP!”

  Helo just sighs and he can hear Hinata smack her face to his other side. “Weelll, it sounds like a great idea.” Arguing with Alli is an effort of futility. Taking a closer look around he can see that the cave has a wide opening into an even larger cave. “Where are we?”

  “We are at the edge of the underground city. The massive cavern has an entire city. But there are still caverns around the edge. We are in one of those. The city is filled and with the size of our party it is the best way to accommodate us.” Hinata says.

  “Yeah, they offered to kick other people out of their rooms or homes. But we opted to get a cave. There are multiple branches and we all have furnishings.” Alli smiles. It makes sense to Helo. Alli is a happy person and she wouldn’t want to displace people.

  “So, what is going on?” Helo asks them.

  “Well. We were the last town to be cleared. Now they are sending out large groups centered around strong parties to clear rifts.” Alli gets up from her spot on the cart.

  They all got their rooms set up while Helo was still asleep on the cart. Finally getting off he summons the fancy vulpine cane. Stepping further into the cave Alli gives the cane a glare but she still leads him to his room.

  The next few days are boring for Helo. He feels like it is an anticlimactic end for such a harrowing experience. But with the constantly rising strength of the rifts, and Helo’s own injuries, not only is he benched, his entire party is.

  Three days later everyone’s phones go off at the same time. Pulling out his phone he checks his notification.

  The rift breaks are over: An hour ago the final tier 3 rift was cleared. In the next few hours, we will be sending people back to their homes in waves.

  The notification is simple, but at the same time the mountain almost feels like it is shaking from the thunderous roar that echoes out. Everyone is cheering and rejoicing. Helo is feeling a lot better by now. He still needs the cane to walk without massive pain. But in the end, he is able to move around freely again.

  Hobbling from his room to the central room of their temporary cave home, he finds his party celebrating. He along with a few others got injured, but everyone survived. Not only did they survive, they also hit their level goal from before school started.

  Alli raises up a cup of what smells like juice. “To the Heiress Brigade!” Everyone was cheering but all at once they fall silent. Staring at Alli she just looks at them in confusion. “What?”

  “Heiress Brigade? Nope. Nahuh.” Gabi says while shaking her head.

  The rest of the party doesn’t actually say anything. It is usually Gabi that speaks her mind with no reservations. But their faces are enough to see their opinion on the party name. With a scoff Alli turns her head. “It’s perfect.” Then she looks at Helo.

  He doesn’t move, doesn’t breathe, and doesn’t blink. Truthfully, he doesn’t really care what their name is. But he really doesn’t want to be involved in this argument. Looking around he can see everyone arguing about the merits of the name. But oddly he can’t find Hinata.

  Hobbling back the way he came he knocks on the door of the room next to his. Nothing. Knocking again… Still nothing. Turning to Alli Helo asks. “Hey did Hinata go somewhere?”

  Alli was in the middle of arguing with Gabi, who had Cody backing her up. The man still never speaks but his face is very expressive. “Huh? Oh yeah, she left a few hours ago. She got some message asking for her assistance. Yah knows, Heiress stuff.”

  Nodding Helo takes a look around. For some reason he has a strange sense of unease. Looking toward Alli he takes her into consideration. She has a fate attunement. If something was wrong, she would feel it. Right? But at the same time she has yet to consciously activate it.

  “Alli. Can you think about where Hinata is for me?” He doesn’t know if it will work but he wasn’t her unconsciously activate her attunement.

  Turning to him with a puzzled look she asks why. “I just feel a little uneasy about her not being here.” Helo says and Alli starts to take him a bit more seriously.

  She actually sits down in the middle of the room and starts to meditate. “We had someone with a fate attunement in the past. She had a weak body and wasn’t a fighter. But she would meditate and have visions.” Falling into her meditation, the party stands around her and waits. Everyone is now feeling a little anxious.

  Minutes later Alli’s eyes flutter open with a silver light. “Huh… I just…. Get the feeling that she left the mountain.”