The rank upgrade came with some bonus SE – 220 coins, plus 118 from the deer kill. I didn’t put them into anything. Figured the best thing to do was to pick up as much SE from this run to Warminster, then figure out where to put the coins. I wanted to max the two traps I already had, but then there were the enhancements, and I really needed some offensive abilities.

  Thinking back to Darren – which felt like an eternity ago but was only the previous day – I wanted some ranged abilities. Up close and personal wasn’t really my style. That was a last resort type of thing. I was uneasy enough at how easily I’d taken to doing what needed to be done, but there was a marked difference between shooting down the wolves and the goons with my brother versus the crack I’d felt when I’d hacked into Darren’s skull with the machete, and the squelch when I whacked at his neck, and the difficulty I’d had in pulling the machete back out when it got trapped between his flesh. I remembered how it felt when Darren brutally stabbed me in my stomach and continued stabbing me. I recalled the pain of the blade sliding between my ribs, jabbing my organs. My body shuddered a little. Yeah, no – let’s leave up close and personal to Kian and his Brawler class.

  As soon as Davies was content there were no more deer, the soldiers that had crossed the road earlier, returned to the fields on the left, and we continued on in the same way – Davies and his four men ahead of me and my friends, with soldiers in the fields on either side.

  A few hundred metres up the road, we stopped again, Davies talking quietly into his walkie talkie. The soldiers on the left trekked over to the right again, but it was almost as if they were being even more cautious than earlier, making sure not to make a sound as they moved. Davies came back towards us and signalled the cars to cut their engines. The soldiers in the car got out and joined us.

  “Another herd of deer,” Davies whispered, “but they’re awake. Probably heard the gunfire. We’re going to walk up about fifty or so metres, take positions like before but the cars stay here. Don’t want to spook them into running. Follow me and be as quiet as possible.”

  He turned and with the other four, they led the way as me, my friends and the soldiers that had got out of the cars followed. It was easy to stay quiet on the tarmac road, but we moved slowly and almost on tiptoe anyway. Once we’d got to the destination, Davies got us all to take positions, moving me and my friends furthest from the trees to the right. We followed the lead of the soldiers, sitting on our arses, legs sort of shoulder width apart, bent at the knees. We held our rifles out, our elbows resting on our thighs, our heels digging into the tarmac.

  Davies put out the call on the walkie talkie, and as we waited for the soldiers in the field to walk up, I placed my [Gravity Circle] and [Frost Circle] next to each other, in front of the silhouette of trees on the other side. Then I decided that I would try to place my own [Time Circle]. I was slightly concerned about Davies and the soldiers seeing the effects of the Mana Stone, but they’d find out at some point anyway, and I needed to take every opportunity to get better with it.

  From my experimentation with Carmen, I knew I could place a [Time Loop] on a specific object, but I saw no reason that they couldn’t be applied as a trap of some sort. Like, if something walked into it, they’d be stuck in a loop for as much mana as I could spare. The mana in the threads eventually dissipated, so I reckoned it was a case of how much mana I could insert into the threads at the start that would dictate how long the effect lasted. Then an idea occurred to me.

  I concentrated on a spot next to the [Gravity Circle], and using it as a reference, I intended an anchor point that would act as the middle of the circle I wanted to create, putting it around a metre from the edge of the [Gravity Circle]. It worked. The little ball appeared, although half of it seemed to be hidden, with only a small sphere above the ground. Then I imagined three more anchor points, each a metre from the first one, with one of the anchor points touching the edge of the [Gravity Circle]. Between the middle anchor, and the other three, I connected them with that clear thread, and then a final thread that curved from one anchor point on the outside to the next one, and then the final one, so I had something that resembled a two-metre wide, three-spoke circle.

  “Get ready,” Davies said, after a small crackle from the walkie talkie. Quickly, I channelled mana – the time threads – towards the three anchor points on the outer edge. I wasn’t sure what it would do but thinking back to the [Time Loop] I had created, I was hoping for a similar effect. That’s what I intended for it.

  Then the gunfire boomed through the still night air, the muzzle flashes sparked up in our night-vision goggles. Those of us on the road waited, eyes on the shadowy trees. A little part of me prickled as I willed the deer to come through the trees into the [Time Circle] I had made, so I could understand it better and if it worked as intended. I made it thinking about how the other two circles must work. Or how I thought they did. I waited with a hint of anticipation and excitement. Gunfire could be heard from the fields. I waited. More gunfire. And waited. More gunfire. My eyes scanned the trees, saw the muzzle flashes, strained to see something, anything come from the shadows towards us. But then the gunfire ended, and Davies was on the walkie talkie.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  I swear there was some law when things like this happened. Like sod’s law or something. When you’re full of excitement for something that should occur but it doesn’t. I sighed, as I picked myself up off the ground, dispelling the [Gravity Circle] and the [Frost Circle]. Looking at the [Time Circle] – I’d figure out a proper name for it when I knew what it did – I wondered how far I could stretch it. I had a Divine stone, right?

  I looked at the three-spoke wheel I had created, and I willed it to be bigger, and it grew, the threads between the centre anchor and the three anchors on the outer edge stretching, and the circular edge growing with it. It stretched a metre, two, four, ten and then I felt myself straining as I tried to push it beyond that. My muscles tensed, my breathing became shallow. I was sure I could push it further. It wasn’t a limitation of the threads. It was a limitation of myself. I wasn’t ready. Not yet.

  I let go of the [Time Circle], and my knees buckled slightly. Carmen saw, standing on the left of me and rushed over the few metres separating us to prop me up by the elbow.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  I looked her way. “Nothing. I was testing.”

  Holding the threads for that long, stretching it that far had its costs. I should have known that. The resets cost me life. Of course, using mana would have its own costs, though it only seemed to be fatigue for now. But it made me wonder if it did have a life cost of its own. Or maybe it was the Divine stone that cost life to preserve and not the mana itself. Man, there was still so much I had to learn. I glanced in the direction of the cars that the soldiers were returning to – where the scientists still were. That’s why they were on this mission with us. To help us understand the System, Mana Stones and this new reality we were living in.

  Davies had also seen my unsteady balance, but he just gave me that universal look for ‘you okay’? I nodded, and after all the soldiers returned to their places, we began the march again.

  The rest of the walk to Warminster was like that. Walk a few hundred metres, set up either on the left or right, and take out what were much easier prey than the wolves we had encountered earlier. The prey changed. We tackled deer, sheep, cows, but though each were much larger than their Earth counterparts, at heart they were still docile herbivores. They weren’t aggressive in the least, and it was more a hunting massacre than any real danger to ourselves.

  During the journey, I was only able to use my abilities sparsely, and I didn’t use the Mana Stone at all. The fatigue of what I’d attempted earlier was settling in, along with the late hour of the night. When all was said and done, and we’d made it to Warminster, I’d managed to rack up another fourteen kills, though it was the lowest of the four of us. Not that we were having a competition, but I’d overextended, leaving me more tired than the rest – less steady, less quick, less capable. There was a lesson to be had there. The lesson I was learning quickly. I needed to get stronger.

  It was near two in the morning when we’d finally made it to a military checkpoint. Captain Davies spoke to the soldiers at the post, who, after some conversations, allowed us to continue on our way. Eventually, we made it to the military headquarters on the outskirts of the sleepy market town. It was teeming with military personnel, armoured personnel carriers and several tanks ready to go. Most were heading towards the southwest, as others stayed on standby near the barracks.

  Captain Davies made himself known to the local command, and after a few minutes, a soldier led us to a quiet residential street nearby, sparsely lit by streetlamps. The street was lined with semi-detached homes where the buildings were half as tall as they were long and not a light could be seen in the windows. Our convoy of cars parked in the street as the soldiers and scientists got out and we all stood in a loose circle around Captain Davies, taking our night-vision goggles off.

  “All of these homes are empty,” Captain Davies said. “This will be our base for now. There’s a perimeter set up roughly two miles around this location, so,” he turned his eyes on me, “we should know in good time if anything is headed this way. Everyone here knows who you are, and what the job is for us here.

  “I suggest everyone gets some rest. We’re heading out tomorrow at eight am. That gives you just less than six hours. You five,” he pointed at my team, “in the house behind me. My guys and I will be in the house next door. Everyone else, take your pick.”

  The house was what you’d expect from any semi-detached home in the UK. Three bedrooms, one bathroom, kitchen, dining, lounge. Nice little garden in the back. Two of the bedrooms were of a similar size, with double beds, wardrobes and dresser cabinets. The last was more like a closet with a single bed squeezed into the place with a tiny bedside table. Kaelyn volunteered to take that one, for which I was grateful.

  It hadn’t taken us more than fifteen minutes to grab our stuff from our cars, settle into our rooms and be in our beds, although there was a distinct squeak and squeal coming from Kian and Charlotte’s room, with muffled grunts and groans. Carmen and I giggled softly as we overheard, though she was also gently stroking my upper thigh.

  “Hold on,” I said, trying to check my loot. Those fifteen kills had given me 1770 SE coins, added to the 220 bonus from the rank upgrade. As I was trying to navigate the abilities, Carmen was gently drawing circles on my upper thigh with her finger that was mysteriously making its way further up.

  “We might not find a better time,” Carmen said, her hand almost at its destination.

  I dismissed the system, turning over to face Carmen and looked into her eyes with a smile. She was right. So much had happened so far to us, and the USP was only just getting started. Of course, we should take advantage of these moments when we had them. I leaned in for a kiss, my left hand reaching up under her t-shirt, and onto her smooth stomach as I moved it upwards.

  Spending my loot would need to wait until the morning.

  by SneakyFrog

  David died, broken in more than one way.

  Come and see how exactly the abyss might stare back.