Class Shift 3- Chapter 2 (Patreon)

Chapter 2- Ouch

As Tim got close to the spot which Captain Tanner had shown me on the map, he heard some feral growling. The Blind Patron’s Mask increased all his perceptions by fifty percent, but the real advantage was that his familiar, Mischief was perched on his lap sharing his much keener auditory and olfactory senses with Tim.

“You hear that?” No sooner had the words left his mouth than Tim regretted them.

“Uh duh. I knew you were only useful for carrying me around. Remember, you’re hearing them because of my ears not those ugly chunks of cauliflower on the sides of that round balloon you call your head.”

Tim sputtered. Everyone in the caravan bowed to his will on everything and walked around him on eggshells most of the time. It was annoying but when Mischief got going it almost enough to make him miss all that bowing and scraping… almost.

“Shush, you didn’t even know what a balloon was before we bonded.”

“Right, and now I’m a mouse of culture and refinement.”

“Somehow, I don’t think knowing about balloons counts as refinement, but whatever. Do you have any guess what we’re hearing?”

“It definitely doesn’t sound like myemar and their uh… peculiar odor is missing from the air. I can hear the sounds of something big crashing around but the only odd scent I’m picking up is that smell I associate with freshly fallen snow.”

Tim nodded. He wasn’t as good as Mischief was at deciphering smells, but he had to agree with that. They were downwind from the sounds they heard so if there was a large animal or monster there, he should have been picking up their scent. Instead, all he got was that smell from when you open the freezer.

Not knowing what he was looking at, Tim slowed down. Then he heard the sounds of clashing and heard a crackle and popped followed by a whiff of ozone. That had to be an electrical attack. Armon was addicted to using Electric Arc since Tim gave him that spell.

He settled for a compromise and raced forward but tried to do so stealthily. Of course, he’d given up the Master Stealth skill and a seven-foot-tall berserker in heavy armor was hardly stealthy. The metal plates in his vest clanged just enough that he wasn’t going to sneak up on anyone.

Then he broke through the brush alongside the road and came out into a large clearing. There were four homes in what was too small to be called a village. Hmm… what was smaller than a village? A hamlet maybe. Anyway, he saw the fight and got excited.

Whoever lived in the houses was dead. Their bodies strewn all over. They had to have been dead for hours and Tim didn’t get any scent of blood. It took him a second to realize why. They were all frozen like popsicles and then broken into pieces. Any blood on the ground was just as solid.

The monsters who were attacking his friends appeared to be large porcupines. Well, large as in the size of Shetland ponies and instead of quills they were covered in icy spikes. The air around them shimmered and Reggie’s breath was visible as he tried tanking all three of the monsters.

Tim quickly assessed one of the monsters as he took in the rest of the battle. Lacina was down on the ground, sprawled out on her back and a short, stout woman was leaning over her casting a healing spell. This wasn’t the same healer he had seen with them, so maybe they picked up a more permanent healer.

Reggie and Armon were trying to hold the monsters back, but it wasn’t looking good. The reason for that was obvious as the information about the monsters popped up.

Dir’glacericus Level: 16

Elevated, Hunting HP: 949/1440

The Silver Eagles were a solid, well trained and well-equipped group of Mithril ranked adventurers. That meant they couldn’t be above level fifteen. Fighting just one level sixteen monster would have been a challenging battle for them. Three was completely beyond them.

Lacina must have been hurt early on and thus they hadn’t fled. The team was far too tight would fight to the last man rather than abandoning one of their number. Not that they needed to worry about that now. A level sixteen was not going to be anything to me. My damage output had gone through the roof with all my upgrades.

Tim quickly cast Chains of Light as he ran the remaining distance. He didn’t shout a warning beforehand because their position was too precarious. It wouldn’t be wise to distract them. Sure, the spell was going to distract them, but it would do so by binding up one of the enemies so there was a positive trade off.

Tim would have started with a taunt by for two things. Reggie had undoubtedly already used his own taunt to keep them focused on him, and he wasn’t close enough at first. His speed rapidly closed that distance though and before either of them had more than time to be shocked at the sudden appearance of golden chains around one of the giant icy porcupines he had joined the fray.

Sadly, the creature was too strong, and Tim could see the chains already cracking. That was fine though. He just needed the spell to buy him a moment of respite. Now that they saw him, Tim shouted, “Buff incoming.”

Some simple experimentation had taught him that adding more than thirty Hardiness in a single instant threw off even many seasoned adventurers. Valorous Shout left his lips and Ihe slammed my axe down onto the beast who was immediately in front of Reggie.

The guardian knew his business because its attention was entirely on him. The attack critted and severed the beast’s head in a single stroke. Tim’s damage was boosted by so many perks now that once he activated Penetrating Cleave it sheared right through the icy armor and sent the monster’s head to the ground while delivering over three hundred damage.

It wasn’t dead. A monster, like a sojourner, wasn’t dead until their last HP drained away. They were creatures of magic, and it was magic rather than natural biological processes which kept them alive. Still because of his boosts from the new trait that Semona had gifted Tim’s damage had spiked.

Reggie pushed off against the beast with his shield as its body fell to the ground thrashing. Tim grinned as he saw the shock on Reggie’s face. It was one thing to get a notification that your Hardiness had likely just doubled or close to it. It was something else entirely to feel that extra strength in action. Reggie’s push off had ended up sending him back nearly a dozen feet.

Then the guardian grinned, and Tim knew that the man liked the feeling. Who wouldn’t want power coursing through their veins. Then Tim activated his rage ability and felt the urge to kill these beasts become a living thing within him. The unbound one tried to lash out with its tail in a whip like motion. The tail was as thick as Tim’s bicep and not something he wanted to be hit by.

He quickly stepped into it, his greater Flexibility allowing for him to slide underneath it. He followed up by lashing out with his axe. He quickly moved around the monsters making a deep cut into its right rear leg. Then moving faster than it could spin.

It kept trying to turn on him but all it did was enable him to land half a dozen blows against the its rear legs. Only half the strikes were criticals but that was all it too. A deep blue blood was seeping out of it and freezing the ground. All the while, Tim’s might grew the longer he raged.

The only near mishap he had was when he stepped on a patch of ground which was frozen by the beast’s blood. He started to lose his balance but in a feat of gymnastic skill he turned the fall into a flip and landed on his feet just out of the creature’s range.

It squealed in range and started to hum. Vibrations spread through its body, but Tim didn’t give it the chance. He pushed off the ground and launched himself forward. His blade came down with another Penetrating Cleave and bisected the oval shaped head. All the icy spikes covering the creature chimed and then shattered. Crisis averted.

Tim’s luck or timing couldn’t hold though. The golden chains on the last dir’glacericus shattered. Its body bristled and all the spear like icy spikes vibrated.

Armon shouted, “It’s gonna burst.”

Reggie triggered a movement skill and rushed in front of the downed Lacina and their new healer. He held his shield in front of him and a golden glow erupted all around him acting as a dome to cover them.

All this was happening in a fraction of a second. Tim didn’t have time to think about what he should do. Instead, he reacted on instinct. He shoved the elementalist to the ground and covered him with his body. Then there was a loud popping sound followed by what felt like dozens of hornet stings striking his body at the same time.

Each pinged away at his health for a surprisingly small amount. There hadn’t been an opportunity to really test it out but as Tim had hoped, with his Hardiness this high his skin was tougher than leather armor. Sure, the icicle spears had drawn blood from the exposed parts, but for the most part the were only going to leave bruises which would heal in minutes.

That didn’t mean they didn’t hurt. He felt plenty of pain even while raging, but still popped up right away. A quick glance showed him that Armon was breathing so being tackled couldn’t have hurt him much and as far as Tim could tell he had taken the brunt of the exploding icicles. He ran his hand over Mischief’s pouch to make sure the mouse was still okay but found it to be empty.

Panic hit Tim as he worried his familiar had been injured or worse, but his fear was misplaced. As he turned towards the dir’glacericus Tim saw that its hide was now smooth a glistening like wet ice. All the spikes much have been launched in the attack and somehow the beast looked smaller now.

Hanging on to its back was a now foot long Mischief in his battle form. He was biting down and flopping about as the beast tried to shake him free. Tim cancelled the electrical spell he had intended to fire off because he didn’t want it to hurt Mischief through conduction.

He took half a dozen quick steps forward and then took careful aim. He drove his axe down on the creature’s back cutting into its spine about halfway up the body. Its legs immediately went limp and its thrashing was dramatically reduced. Mischief let loose of his hold and leapt away from the beast to land twenty feet away.

As he flew by Tim he shouted, as much as a mouse could ever shout, “Do I have to do everything?”

Tim didn’t even respond because this was an opportunity. The dir’glacericus was a new type of monster and consuming new monsters often passed on new benefits. He delivered two more quick attacks with his axe to disable the beast but was careful not take the last of its HP. Consuming produced a greater benefit if the target was still alive.

He shoved his hand into the blue blood. Shivers ran up his spine and the cold was so intense that he could no longer feel his fingers. He worried about frostbite but figured magic could heal that.

You have activated the Crucible of Consumption. Your victim is still alive. This provides a new potential benefit to the ability.

You are consuming a Greater Fiend. You have the choice of gains that can be made.

You may gain your choice of:

Cold Resistance: 100

Ice Burst: 20% towards completion of ability.

Enhanced Cold Damage: +10%

Hardiness: +.5

Hmm… so half a stat point, a new type of damage resistance, an enhancement which would work with any of his ice-based magic, or one fifth of a new ability. He liked gaining abilities but had no idea how many more times he would encounter creatures like this. So, he took the safe bet and accepted the cold resistance. Being able to shrug off the first hundred points of cold damage was nothing to sneeze at.

As soon as the decision was made, Tim felt the thick, blue blood as it was absorbed into his skin. This was literally ice running through his veins. He couldn’t help but shake as his body was adapted. The magic of this trait forever altering him.

Before he stood up to check on the others, he had one stray thought. Tim was truly uncomfortable with how the Crucible called those he absorbed the blood of his victims. Was he worried enough to forgo this source of power? No, but it definitely left him on edge.