Chapter 22: Silent Anticipation

Chapter 22: Silent Anticipation

Leif flowed from one stance to another. The basic forms flew by and the exercise increased in complexity, speed and overall difficulty. He reached the peak of the intermediate training, from experience if he pushed himself the phantom would ramp up the difficulty again but Leif knew he wasn’t ready.

Instead he worked the movements into his muscle memory, and time flew by. His thoughts wandered to what the two humans had told him. It was a lot to take in, but it confirmed a few things.

Monster advancement milestones were very similar, if not identical to... what was the term? Awakened advancement? Human advancement?

Skills too seemed to be remarkably similar. Now whether this was true for all monsters or because Leif was an outlier due to his auxiliary class allowing him to break certain rules he wasn’t sure.

He had twelve skills:

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[Amber Blight Spriggan]

Gilded Body / Amber Awareness / Blight's Bounty / The Well Within I / Settle

[Noble]

Aura of Nobility I / Court Empath / Grand Action / Under My Protection / Legacy

[Brawler]

Iron Fists / Grounded Stance I

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But Leif needed to lower his total number down to ten using the newly unlocked skill fusion option. The system had said that the advancement trial’s difficulty would dramatically increase for every skill over ten. But did that mean if he had below ten skills it would be easier? Was there an advantage to succeeding a harder trial?

Leif had many questions, though hearing that Marcus had failed his first attempt had made him certain of one thing. He didn’t want to lose levels, that sounded miserable.

So. What skills should he combine? Leif considered his options as he trained. When his body flagged he and Sieg swapped places. Sieg quickly worked his way to the projection fight but struggled to get past the first minute.

Let's see... I need to be able to picture what a skill can do after a fusion. So which skills do I have that are similar?

[Amber Awareness] and [Court Empath] were both perception skills. What would a skill fusion of the two look like? And would a fusion keep both skills full capabilities? He suspected it wouldn’t be as simple as a clean merge. He found the time aspect of [Amber Awareness] fascinating, but the actual detection abilities from [Court Empath] were superior.

He considered [Amber Awareness] more closely. The core of the skill was its general perception boost... Or was it?

No, it wasn’t. Just because he was only just learning the full capabilities of the skill didn’t mean the time perception wasn’t the skills core. But he couldn’t be certain. This is probably a sign I shouldn’t fuse these skills. What else is there?

[Grand Action] and [Blight's Bounty] provide general attribute boosts. But [Grand Action] was very simple, [Blight's Bounty] had energy draining and healing mixed in. What would these two skills look like fused? [Blight's Bounty] but with a greater attribute increase? Or would it become focused like [Grand Action] was.

It feels like a safer fusion than the two perception skills at least. He mused

What about [Gilded Body]? [Iron Fists] could be a candidate. Leif liked the flexibility of being able to conjure golden limbs in any shape provided he could picture it clearly. Would a fusion with [Iron Fists] make them more solid? Or just go into the general strength increase [Gilded Body] granted? What about both?

Leif mentally opened the skill fusion window.

Initiate a skill fusion?

Primary skill: [Gilded Body]

Marcus pulled out the maintenance key and opened up the way back, all three quickly made their way through the winding maze of tunnels. Every thirty seconds or so the world would shake. After minutes of running they reached the camp, Marcus and Sieg quickly packed the tent and their other belongings while Leif examined the chamber.

Like the statue chamber there were two arches that indicated typical entrances. Though this room was lacking any statues. Instead against one wall was some sort of long raised platform. A faded mural depicting an armoured person wielding a sword a brilliant silver light was carved in intricate detail above the platform and into the curved roof.

“Could it be Hera?” Asked Sieg as the three moved to a non descript part of the wall.

“Unlikely. I mean, they would have contacted us if she had arrived, right?”

“So something else? What if-” Sieg was cut off as the chamber shook, dust fell from the ceiling, tiny flakes of powder illuminated by Marcus’s purple orb. Unlike before the light didn’t return, the Mythhold seemed to have lost power.

Then, all at once, every entrance into the room opened. Both standard entrances and three hidden maintenance doorways slid soundlessly apart. A pack of panicked goblins spilt out of one entrance as if they had been pressed up against the doorway.

They screeched in surprise and fell in a cluster of limbs and makeshift weapons. Heavy footsteps fell as a hulking figure barged into the chamber from the other doorway. It roared as it saw the two humans and singular spriggan. In one hand it held a wicked stone club and in the other a flaming torch.

“Troll!” Marcus called. Sieg stepped forward axe at the ready. The trolls roar seemed to shake the goblins out of their daze. As one they turned to Leif and the others, malicious cruelty in their eyes.

The chamber rocked again. As the trembles ceased the fight began. The goblins charged, scrambling forward. A field of chilling air washed out from Sieg with a wave of his free hand, the floor froze between the group and the goblins, in the same motion he swiped horizontally at the troll. A thin blade of ice sliced through the empty space. It impacted the troll's chest and made the creature stagger, a thin line of blood trickling down the hulking monster's torso.

“Gauntlet.” Marcus said, somehow commanding his skill. Purple energy flowed around his wrist and hand before solidifying as a gauntlet. Energy crackled between Marcus’s fingers as he pointed at the closest goblin. The creature slipped on the ice created by Sieg a moment before a thin line of purple struck it in the leg.

The skill singed the goblins skin and quickly ran up its body like a snake made of lightning. The creature screamed in pain and fell back. The purple energy then jumped to the next goblin, it too fell screaming.

Marcus gestured and pointed. Goblins fell as if he were a conductor of death. But more were coming. From both main doorways goblins streamed through.

Leif stepped forward. [Grand Action] focused his [Might] attribute as he kicked off the ground, it cracked beneath him. Two golden roots flowed from his knuckles, each hand now topped with a gilded blade-like tip ten centimetres in length.

He crashed into the goblins severing limbs and lashing out to crush bones. The green creatures struck back but what strikes found purchase against his hardened bark left minor scratches. For each blow Leif sustained that dealt noticeable damage [Blight’s Bounty] would steal the vitality from four or more goblins.

Leif fought in the way the training projections had taught him. But the addition of bladed tips on each hand made for greater versatility. He swept through the mass of green like how a boat parts the oceans waves, with every strike a goblin died.

But the battle wasn’t without difficulties, his twin perception abilities [Court Empath] and his innate vitality detection made his surroundings a blur of emotion and sensation. He focused and willed the effects of [Court Empath] to lessen, letting his feeling of the surrounding lifeforce fade away along with the intent and emotions.

Purple arcs of power danced through the clumped goblins. What monsters survived the energy coursing through and over them were left stunned and defenceless against Leif. His hand blades pierced the skulls of two goblins at the same time, they slumped to the ground dead. To his right the troll roared again.

Leif spared a brief glance and saw the source of the creature's angry intent. Sieg hacked away at the troll, his body surrounded by dozens of tiny ice shards. The troll’s legs were frozen to the ground and with every passing second frost crept up its arms.

It flailed in an attempt to escape. With a shattering sound one leg burst free and the troll lunged forward. Forward and right into the overhead blow from Sieg that split its skull in two. Shockingly the creature didn’t die. Blood and tissue began to rapidly reconnect around the axehead still lodged into the monster's brain.

Sieg yanked his axe free, cursed, then decapitated the troll. Even as its head hit the frosted ground with a dull thunk it continued to heal. The northman mentally called the iceshards surrounding him to strike at the troll's body as he continued to attack with his axe.

An arm fell, then a leg. The half restored head of the troll was removed, then Sieg backed away. He felled three goblins who were approaching him before focusing back on the troll. A metre long spear of ice formed in his hand before surging forward.

The troll was impaled and rapidly frozen. Sieg’s axe glowed with the white light of snow as he shattered the troll from foot to neck stump with a single blow.

Arrows started flying, loosed from shoddy goblin made bows. Leif ignored those that hit him, most fell off harmlessly anyway. Sieg had to retreat, he wasn’t as resilient.

“Shield.” Marcus's voice echoed from over the sounds of battle. A purple half dome of energy flickered around him. Arrows clattered harmlessly against the protective skill.

The man counter attacked with his arcane gauntlet’s power. The archers tucked away in one of the chamber entrances screamed as they died.

A minute later the room fell quiet, four dozen dead goblins littered the floor. The three surviving combatants waited in silent anticipation for something else to go wrong.