Chapter 25

  After his urges settled with his ability, that encouraged nefarious behavior. He couldn’t help but feel ashamed of himself. He, of course, could still see the girls in all their glory in his mind, but knew that if he allowed, he would turn into some pervert with no chance at redemption. After a few more minutes walking, he went to open his mouth and come clean, but Phony slammed her hand over his mouth. He hadn’t realized while walking with his eyes glued to the sparse forest floor that Dozel had already come to a stop. Her hand was up signaling for them to stop.

  Wes naturally held his breath and darted his eyes around, searching for what put the girls on edge. After Phony was sure that Wes understood her, she carefully pulled on Wes’s shoulder, steering him to the closest tree. She pushed down on his shoulders; his legs gave way, putting him into a deep crouch. After which she took a few steps to their original location.

  Wes looked back toward where Dozel was supposed to be in a crouch of her own and found that she was no longer anywhere to be found. In his search for Dozel, he saw that Phony was now wearing a great big grin, with her white teeth shining bright. Phony glanced over to Wes, her smile contorting slightly in his direction before she turned her back toward Wes.

  In the next instant, Wes heard a loud snap of a tree followed by a blur of movement rushing past him. Before he could blink, a spray of something dark shot up into the sky. Dozel appeared next to the huge figure that had sped passed him.

  The moment that Wes’s brain caught up to what he had been seeing. He caught the head of one of those large creatures with multiple arms he had seen on his awakening test, and hit the ground.

  The blood that had sprayed into the air came crashing down in the next couple of seconds. With the way the body fell, it directed most of the spray past where Dozel had stood.

  The creature's body collapsed between where Dozel and Phony stood. Phony still had her back turned to Wes; she hadn’t moved a lick, even with the massive creature falling behind her.

  Dozel, on the other hand, looked off to Wes’s right. Where he assumed her momentum took her. She held a long dagger that followed the natural bend of her forearm. As the blood pulsed out of the creature's neck, he couldn’t help but whisper to himself. “Badass.”

  Dozel turned around and flicked her wrist with the blade toward the ground before it disappeared. After her weapon was stored, her demeanor changed back into how he had always known her. Her shoulders went from hardened to relaxed. Her facial features softened, and her blue face seemed to become a lighter shade. She turned to meet Wes’s gaze before offering a small bow. “I am sorry for startling you, Wesley.”

  Wes laughed aloud before slamming his palm over his mouth. He looked around cautiously.

  Phony calmed his nerves by turning around and waving him off. “It's alright, we are alone.” She kicked at the creature on the floor. Turning it over with the kick, sending another large spurt of blood flying out in the process. “Good job, Dozel. Now I will not be as uneasy while leaving Wes to you.”

  Wes practically ran over to Dozel and grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to meet his eyes. “That was so bad ass. How the hell did you do that? I have been holding off on asking about your full status, but damn, that was amazing to see.” Laughing aloud again, “or I should say that was amazing to realize what I had watched. You are fast as heck.”

  Phony sighed, “Guess I get no credit for acting as the bait?”

  “Hey, none of that. I just didn’t realize you were acting as bait. How did you two coordinate that?” Wes asked.

  “Do you really think we were just scouting during our excursions together. That was an already agreed-upon attack procedure.” Phony replied.

  “Thank you,” Dozel replied.

  Wes noticed he still had his hands on Dozel’s shoulders. He pulled them while walking away in one motion. Saddling up alongside the body, he asked. “So is this a member of the Clans?”

  Phony poked at the body with the toe of her boot again while nodding.

  “Then I really was on one of your planets for my awakening,” Wes confirmed.

  “That is rare for anyone outside of our direct lines. Even then, approval is required. I should not be surprised by your cheat skills.”

  “Did you forget? I only survived thanks to my flawed logic and stupidity. If not for Rocen obliterating those hundreds of bodies as I lost consciousness, I would not be here.” Wes shot back.

  Dozel walked over to Wes’s right, “Do you think we are close to more members, or is this one solitary?”

  “It’s honestly hard to say. It really depends on the clan that this one belongs to. The larger they are, the more solitary they tend to be. Is this bigger or smaller than you saw on your awakening?” Phony pointed toward the body as she asked Wes.

  “I don’t know. I was so shocked at the first one that it felt like it was a thousand feet tall. It was for sure a lot more muscular. I remember its shoulders being twice the size of this one. And uh,” Wes tilted his head over to the creature's exposed genitals. “It covered up its bits with some type of cloth or leather.”

  “Oh, then that makes this easier. I forgot about that part of the Clan's history. The more battle-hardened groups became less and less enamored with clothing.” Smacking herself on the forehead, Phony continued. “Can’t believe I forgot about that. Sorry, even I forget things sometimes. The physically weaker Clans are usually more intelligent. A good indicator is the amount of clothes they wear. So in some ways, we lucked out finding this guy. If it's more of these guys, then it will be a little easier. They tend to want to ‘hunt’ alone.”

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  “Do the physically stronger ones attack in groups too?” Wes asked.

  “Only when their main home territory is threatened,” Phony replied.

  “But you wanted to say something before I cut you off?” Phony followed up.

  Wes felt the shame wash over him again. He rubbed the back of his head, trying to find the words that could explain what he had done. Not finding them, he breathed deeply before exhaling as slowly as he could. “Well, you see… uh. You know how I didn’t want to ‘test my last ability I got?”

  The girls offered a nod, “Well, I uh..”

  “Out with it.” Phony demanded.

  Wincing, Wes plowed forward. “In short, it allows me to see things I shouldn’t be able to see.”

  Wes could see Dozel turn her head at him in confusion. Phony was as confused as Dozel, but she only motioned with her hand to elaborate.

  “You know it allows me to see things.” Wes motioned toward the creature on the grounds genitals before motioning over Phony’s body with his left hand, and while looking Dozel up and down.

  Wes only caught a glimpse of Phony’s angry eyes before his world went dark.

  ___

  Wes felt the pain all over his body before he opened his eyes. He could feel his bones resetting themself. Under him felt wet, and sounds of cracking and crashing could be heard all around him. Wes opened his eyes when he heard loud booms. His jaw was setting itself, and his teeth were growing back as the world came into focus. With it not being Wes’s first time dealing with catastrophic damage, he was able to sit up as soon as his body finished healing itself.

  What greeted him was utter chaos. A row of trees, a couple of hundred feet had been folded over in front of him. Standing up slowly, he could see a clearing that was bathed in light at the end. Dust and blurs of movement swept over the opening that led from the dense forest of walls, leading up where Wes currently stood. Wes checked his body and saw that his clothing was tattered, but his boy underneath was mostly intact. Shrugging, Wes began to slowly make his way over to the opening. Halfway there, the sounds died down. The dust that saturated the air was still swirling, so he could not make out anymore than a few feet from the opening.

  As he got closer to the edge of his forest hallway, he saw the first body part. A foot of a clan member lay firmly planted. The rest of the body was nowhere to be found. As he got to the last few yards, he made out a red figure bathed in blood to his right. Her auburn blonde hair matted with thick blood. Dozens of bodies lay bisected around her. The ground had grown drenched in blood, boot deep. As soon as Wes stepped into the empty field of crimson, Phony’s Emerald eyes snapped over to him.

  Dozel appeared in front of Wes, standing just a few feet in front of him. Even though she had placed herself between Wes and Phony, Wes could still see Phony due to his height. Her eyes did not break from him for what felt like an eternity; her eyes began to glisten in the sun before she turned away. Walking in the opposite direction from where he and Dozel stood.

  Dozel seemed to relax as she left. But she too did not turn around. She walked across the newly made 20-yard field and sat against a tree. Her eyes were visible to Wes for the first time. A tear ran down her cheek as she made eye contact with Wes. But quickly she averted her eyes by looking down.

  Seeing Dozel hurt, he walked over to her. He did not use the short walk wisely, so by the time he got there, he had not come up with anything to explain away what he had done.

  Deciding to take ownership, he opened his mouth to offer some explanation, but Dozel beat him to it, “I am not crying because of what you did to me. I am crying because of what you have cost phony. For someone who implied that trust weighed heavily for you, you sure don’t make it easy for us to trust you. Please leave me alone. I will uphold my pledge, but I would like to be left alone right now.”

  Wes sighed to himself, “I am sorry, Dozel. I really don’t know what to say.” Turning toward the direction that Phony walked to he walked off.

  ___

  Contemplating what had just happened, Wes pulled up his status, but was berated with the message of choosing his next ability. He nonchalantly summoned and pulled the lever as fast as he could. Dismissing the notification panel with the skill name as soon as it popped up in favor of his regular status

  Name: Wesley of 29744C

  Race: Human

  Age: 27

  Unique abilities: Imperial over Metric, Back in My Day

  Abilities: Deposit, Eternal Spark, Cleanse, Stopwatch,

  Vigilant, Deviant, Symbiosis,

  Skills: N/A

  Achievement(s): Bloody Soul, Pragmatic Savant

  Trait(s): 3

  Current Status: Blessed

  Level 6

  Savings: 2,521,401

  Next Level: 7464.96

  Level 6 Exp Per Sec: .0144

  Current Exp: 12.096

  While looking over his status and doing the math, he felt he had gotten off easy. He lost a little under sixty thousand experience. Not knowing exactly what happened didn’t mean it wasn’t easy to infer what had happened. Phony had lost her temper rightfully and punched him over a couple of hundred feet away through dozens of trees.

  The roaming Clan members had heard the commotion, and Phony created more noise to draw their attention.

  Letting out a low growl, Wes said, “Fuck.”

  Dozel must have stayed by his side, protecting him even though she must have felt repulsed by him as well. The pledge forced her hand.

  A new realization slammed into Wes, “No, no noo nooo. . .”

  Wes picked up his pace, eventually breaking into a full-blown sprint in the direction he thought he had seen Phony go. In his haste, he failed to notice something jutting out from a tree. He slammed into the ground before his body naturally crunched into a roll. He came to rest at the base of a tree with half of his body resting up the tree and his upper half searching for what had tripped him.

  Finding a bloody leg running up to a dejected Phony, he quickly got up and ran over to Phony. Dropping to his knees, he said, “I am sorry. I don’t know how to fix what I did. Please tell me how I can make this right. I’ll do anything to make this right.”

  “Anything?” Phony asked.

  Wes picked his head up off the floor. Noticing for the first time that there were dried lines in the blood where tears must have fallen. “Anything!”

  Phony looked down over her body. “Clean this crap off me, would you?”

  Wes activated Cleanse, dumping his largest expenditure in running it in the process. He cared little for it as he saw her skin and beautiful face more clearly by the second.

  When she was fully clean, she scanned herself and grabbed Wes’s shirt, bringing his limp body up to her. Only stopping when their faces were inches apart.

  “I also get your first.” Slamming her lips into his so hard that their teeth clanked together, she held him steady until both their faces softened.

  After what felt like years to Wes, she pulled away and said, “This does not mean I forgive you. But it is a start. You have stolen something from me, and I have stolen something from you. We shall have to put you on some sort of payment plan to earn back the levels you have cost me.” She let Wes go before turning in the direction where Dozel was. “We should head back.”

  Wes stood up without saying a word and followed quietly. Thinking to himself, what the hell did she steal?