"Are we almost there?" Lucas groaned from a few paces behind Caleb at the back of the group.
They'd been walking the entirety of the day now and the sun was starting to dip below the far horizon, painting the peaks in oranges and reds, like bloody teeth. Besides a few fights that Caleb had promptly handled, the trek had been rather uneventful. Most people would consider that a good thing, but Caleb couldn't stop thinking about how much time he was wasting. He should be training, fighting, killing, getting stronger, not ferrying a group of people he didn't even like to the place he'd just left.
At least most of them had the wherewithal not to talk too much. Besides a few groans and moans of pain, Tyler hadn't said a word. He was currently holding onto Lucas's back, being carried like a child. He'd started out walking, but it only aggravated the wound in his thigh further. Even for an injured person, this wouldn't be an easy hike. Caleb had had to force him to get on his back so they wouldn't be setting a snail's pace. They still were, but now it was like a fast snail.
Angela had returned to being silent, yelping at the first sign of danger, and sniffling from the middle of the group. Some people, when faced with danger, rose to the challenge, others cowed and broke down. She was obviously the latter. Even if she got out of the Dungeon alive, and that was a big if, she would never adapt to this world.
The only one that wasn't actively annoying Caleb was Chloe. She walked beside him, silent, head on a swivel, and obeyed orders without question. A few times, she'd even spotted monsters before Caleb.
It really made Caleb question what someone like her was doing with the rest of her group.
"Hey," Lucas yelled, jogging up next to Caleb. Before the System had arrived, the few times they'd met, Lucas had been a couple inches taller than Caleb, but now he barely made it to Caleb's eyeline. Hooray for magical System bullshit!
"Did you hear me? The sun's going down. If we aren't nearly to wherever it is you're taking us, we should find somewhere else to camp."
Caleb glanced toward Lucas. "Scared of the dark? I thought you could handle yourself." He kept walking, not slowing his pace in the slightest.
Tyler groaned from Caleb's back. "He's right. We don't want to get caught out in the open, defenseless."
"You're not defenseless. You have me."
It quickly became evident to everyone that the plan wasn't up for debate and the rest of their protests died in their throats.
They were cresting the final cliff before the blue mountain would come into view. At their current pace, another three or so hours and they'd arrive. A cold, blistering wind ripped at them, sending up flurries of snow. Despite wearing basically no clothing, Caleb was unaffected by it. But that didn't go for the others.
Tyler squirmed his body against Caleb, like a weird fleshy backpack, trying his best to stay warm. The others were doing little better, teeth chattering, lips losing color, arms rubbing at their arms, desperate for an ounce of warmth.
Caleb stopped, staring out toward the blue mountain as it came into view. Something caught his attention – a faint flicker of cerulean blue on the mountain side. It appeared to be glowing. What the hell was that? He rubbed his eyes and squinted, trying to get a better look, but it was already gone.
Huh? Am I imagining things? I swear I saw something.
Whatever. Now was no time for daydreaming. The blue mountain was still roughly two miles away. Two miles of harsh, jagged drops and deadly steep inclines. They might not make it before serious frostbite sets–
"Incoming." Chloe pointed her salvaged boggart spear out over the mountain ridge – to the east, opposite where he'd seen the light, and Caleb saw them.
Boggart
Aether Level 8
Direwolf
Aether Level 11
Ice Troll
Aether Level 17
It was one of the largest scouting parties he'd seen yet. Well over a dozen boggarts, four grey wolves padding through the snow, and to top it all off, a troll, two thick chunks of solid blue ice in its hands. And they were headed straight for them. They'd been spotted. This should be bad – that troll was the highest level creature he'd face yet, but… why couldn't he stop smiling?
"See? See, we told you." Tyler started whining from atop Caleb's back, so he pawned the crippled boy off to Lucas, who then also started whining.
"Just stay here," Caleb growled. "I'll deal with this."
With a thunderclap of air, Caleb shot himself ahead, spirit arms materializing and slamming the ground, bounding him forward like a sprinting panther. He passed the distance in mere seconds, crashing into the scouting party and ripping two boggarts to crimson ribbons.
There was that beautiful sensation again. The same one he'd gotten from climbing during his life before. He was already starting to lose himself in the thrill of the fight, the euphoric adrenaline, and it had only just begun. Monsters surrounded him, rushing in from every direction, claws, teeth, and weapons ready to pierce his skin, bleed him out. He could feel it already. He could taste it on his tongue. Let them come.
A pulse of feeling thrummed within his being. Like someone had plucked the cord of a harp that was buried in deep his chest. It reverberated throughout his entire body before washing out of him in every direction like a burst of hot air.
The wave of invisible force crashed over everything around him. He watched as the boggarts stumbled, eyes going wide, tripping as the strength in their legs failed. Their faces hit the snow with pitiful squeals and puffs of icy snow. The wolves ground to a halt, their claws digging into the ground, ears going flat to their necks, fur standing on end like they were cowering mutts. All at once, everything stopped.
What the hell?
Everything except the troll.
It barreled forward, roaring and swinging both clubs of ice across its body like the blades of a pair of scissors. Caleb was too momentarily stunned to react in time.
The club from the left cracked into his knee, the one from the right, his shoulder. Caleb was sent spinning, pinwheeling through the air, as if he weighed nothing. He was thrown into a frozen boggart, breaking and smearing it to a red stain.
Throbbing pain beat throughout his body like a pounding drum, but he ignored it, too caught up with whatever had happened moments before. His enemies were still frozen, like their muscles had locked up, rigor mortis, but some were already starting to stir. He sat there, panting, breathless amid the field of enemies.
Was it some sort of aura… A wave of incapacitating power that rushed off me and overwhelmed their system. Like an EMP frying an electronics system?
How did I do that? It's not any of my abilities? Not Frenzy, not from my Inheritance as far as I can tell. Then what was–
Presence… The realization came to him. It was the distilled power of his aether, his spirit, his soul, whatever you wanted to call it. The full power of him had pressed outward, forcing its oppressive weight upon everything nearby. Presence. He could feel it lingering in the air like heat from a forge, like the tingling pressure before a storm. It wasn't a skill. It was him. Purely him.
And that power had knocked over a dozen monsters out cold. What more could it do? Was it based on the difference in power between him and them? Obviously it had something to do with how high his Presence stat was. All of a sudden, he was very glad that he'd been putting points into it – and that Presence was the second-highest stat for his Aether Level Up bonus.
The troll, unfortunately, didn't care about Caleb's enlightenment. Rude. It came on, bellowing, its massive feet cratering the snow as it raised both clubs high.
Caleb surged up with a grunt, leaping to the side as the icy bludgeons caved in the spot where he'd been kneeling. Frozen shards of dirt exploded skyward.
He spun back, grinning as the debris bounced off his skin. Based on the rate of recovery, there was maybe a minute before all of the other enemies were back in action. Part of Caleb almost wanted to wait for them to recover before starting the fight in earnest – maybe he could just dodge around the troll until then, but he knew that wasn't wise. Getting into the habit of making his fights harder for himself would only bite him in the ass later on. Don't play with your food.
His spirit arms flexed as he rolled his shoulders back. He grinned in crazed challenge at the pissed-off troll. Let's do this!
The two lunged toward each other.
An earth-shattering club slammed into his side, he rolled with it, sent a fist into the troll's gut. A blast of freezing air burst from the troll's throat as it wheezed. Another club came ripping through the air. Caleb caught it with one clawed spirit arm, redirected it into the earth, and threw another punch screaming at the troll's chin, shattering it.
They went blow for powerful blow. Strikes rained upon each of them. Bones crunched, skin ruptured. It wasn't a graceful fight. It was brutal, unthinking, animalistic – two titans beating at each other until one would fall.
Caleb felt one of his ribs snap, one of his eyes swelling shut. He felt frost creep over his skin wherever the troll's club slammed into him, numbing the pain. He felt sweaty chills shiver down his spine, rattle in his bones. He felt the troll's bones break beneath his spectral fists, heard the wet snap, smelled its nose-curling breath, saw its bloodshot eyes go wide.
It was a brutal dance that he never wanted to stop. Like he were dangling in the air, straddling the line between death and true life, true feeling. Blood poured freely from him, and he started to laugh.
His Frenzy skill was boiling hot within him, propelling his blows with more and more power with every passing second, but he knew his body was beginning to fail. But so was the troll's – it's attacks coming slower.
He ducked beneath a head-taking swipe and took one of the troll's legs out from under it. The troll crashed to the ground, had the wind knocked from it.
Caleb wasted no time. Aether filled his arms, culminating in his fingers as he activated his Bonebreaker skill. A white-hot glow emanated from them, shining like a sun.
The monsters in the Dungeon were soulless – Caleb knew that, but he could have sworn he saw fear in the troll's eyes during the brief moment of its death. His fist cracked into it's skull, caving it, shooting a beam of pure aether over a dozen feet into the earth, melting ice and vaporizing rock. There was nothing in its path that remained.
Rejuvenating energy rushed back into Caleb – not near enough to heal him fully like when he'd slain Bolvun, but enough to keep him from losing consciousness. He stumbled to the side, falling to one knee and breathing heavily.
Level Up!
And he could tell that wasn't far from another.
A boggart screeched from the side, came running in to stab him, and exploded into bloody mist as his hand met its sternum. The others met the same fate. He might not have been at full strength – not anywhere near, but he needn't be to crush bugs.
In a matter of seconds, every other enemy was slain.
Level Up!
He was now Aether Level seventeen. Caleb grinned through bloodied teeth. It wouldn't be long now until he was able to start hunting down the other bosses. Just a few more levels perhaps. Just a few more.
Or maybe…
Caleb reached down to pick up one of the troll's clubs, but as soon as his fingers touched its surface, they began to freeze over. A stabbing, icy pain searing his skin, it felt like he were sticking his hand in a tub of liquid nitrogen. He tugged his hand back with a muttered curse, skin already red. That was too bad. He loved using his fists to fight, but he had nothing against using a weapon. He had no plans to limit himself from being more effective, but first he'd have to find one that didn't make his hand go numb.
Muscles burning with satisfaction, Caleb turned to run back to the other four.
They were staring at him, frozen.