Brett watched from a safe distance as Felissa bounded down from an enormous cat tree and pounced on an innocent scratching post, mauling the neutronium-plated toy with her claws. In a few moments, the post was nothing more than a pile of kindling. The deity of cat kind closed her eyes as she took in a deep breath, held it for a moment, and finally released it. Then she opened her eyes and smiled at the deity of humans.
“My workout is done, thanks for waiting.”
Brett stepped forward as he eyed the other deity’s wicked claws, which still had not been retracted.
“Are you sure you’re done?” he asked.
Felissa nodded as her claws sheathed themselves.
“Sorry, usually it’s just me around here, and I’ve got people to handle any accidental damage.”
Brett nodded toward an old, beat up leather sofa that was missing more than a little leather.
“And that?”
Felissa grinned.
“That’s broken in just how I like it. It’s perfect! In fact, you should give it a try.”
The human deity sat gingerly on the couch, as if expecting the thing to explode or fall apart at any moment. When nothing happened, he allowed himself to sink further back into the pillows, sighing as he did and closing his eyes.
“All right, that is comfortable,” he admitted. A loud whump next to him announced the arrival of Felissa, who was already purring.
“See, you should listen to me more often! What’s a little cat fur when you can have luxury like this any time you want it?”
Brett wisely chose to stay silent upon the mention of fur; despite her joke, Felissa was rather sensitive about her shedding.
“So, what did you want to see me about? he asked instead, changing the subject.
“Oh, you know, this and that.”
“Are you sure it’s not the fact that you convinced me to make a Champion out of that boy who survived a plane crash, who definitely is not Champion material, and you’re planning to ask me to give him even more help?”
“Well, when you put it that way,” Felissa responded in a tone that contained not an ounce of shame, “yes, yes it is.”
So, what do you want me to do for the boy, exactly?” Brett asked, his right arm reaching out to scratch behind the feline deity’s ears.
Felissa didn’t bother responding until Brett removed his hand. She first reached up and tried to butt his hand, but the human deity pulled it back quicker than thought.
“Ah ah ah, none of that now,” Brett warned. “Be nice and tell me what you want, or I’ll get upset.”
Felissa laughed.
“That might work on Canius, but not me. But I will tell you what I want, nonetheless. I want you to give him a template. One that will guarantee victory for him and Chip.”
Brett grimaced.
“I think that I know what you have in mind, and it’s a big ask, Felissa. That’s a really expensive template, and I hadn’t planned to give it to any of my Champions yet. Besides, it comes with logistical concerns.”
“I’ll handle the logistics,” Felissa promised. “And I’ll owe you a favor. A really big favor.”
The deity of humans sighed.
“I’ll think about it. When are they planning to head east?”
Felissa tried not to grin, knowing that she had already won.
“In three days.”
Three days. That’s how long Charlemagne had been tracking the elusive scent of the pangolin Champion through the N’dali Nature Preserve special area. At first, he had thought to use his wings to bypass the majority of the Assassinadders, which wasn’t a bad idea, but flying above the tree line caused him to leave the Special Area, masking the smell of his prey. He then tried flying under the tree line, but after receiving multiple snakes to the face, decided to stick to the ground. Which is why, three days later, he was still on the hunt.
Individually, the adders weren’t even a threat, but their venom’s effects were cumulative, and Charlemagne had no way to avoid the lightning-fast initial strikes. He had even tried to stop and use his Identify skill on ever clump of grass, tree, bush, or hole in the ground, but the skill apparently wouldn’t work on monsters that he couldn’t see. Sad times.
Charlemagne would never admit it, but the taste of the snakes was growing on him. The venom added a sort of tingly, spicy sensation that originally made his stomach sour, but his digestive tract had adjusted after the first few dozen snakes. Unfortunately, however, that was the only thing he’d had to eat for the last three days, and the all-meat diet was not ideal when it came to being regular.
But the devolved rooster had more important things on his mind than the side effects of his diet. He had finally managed to sneak up on an Assassinadder, which was coiled up around a small tree. His Sneak skill had leveled up twice from all the effort he had made to be stealthy, and it looked like his practice was about to pay off. For some reason, he still couldn’t use his Identify skill on the monster, but he could definitely see it. The monster was taken unawares, not even budging as Charlemagne pounced.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The rooster was too confused to flap his wings as he somehow passed directly through the Assassinadder, straight through the tree, and finally straight through the ground below, falling directly onto a mass of squirming green vines. He landed with a thump, startling some of the nearby vines and causing them to rear up.
Oh, Charlemagne thought to himself as he realized what was going on. Those aren’t vines.
Over a dozen Assassinadders immediately latched on to Charlemagne, pumping his body full of deadly venom as more began to swarm all over him. In just a few moments, the rooster appeared to be a writhing green ball with yellow legs as the entire pit converged on his location. More and more toxins flowed into him through the hollow fangs of the adders, permeating his body and forcing his Mana Core into overdrive to repair cells that were doing their best to decompose on the spot.
Under the guidance of his level 10 Mana Core skill, magical energy reached parts of his body that had so far remained largely untouched. Doing so, however, took enormous amounts of mana, and even the activation of the rooster’s Meditation skill was not enough to combat the rapid drain on his energy reserves. The pain caused by the rapid breaking down and repair of his body was excruciating. It even vied with fighting the plasmodium Champion for the title of the most painful experience in his short life. The worst part of the whole thing was that he couldn’t just peck and claw his way out: there were snakes attached to places he wasn’t able to even reach.
That was when Zenrage activated.
Charlemagne’s consciousness retreated to the recesses of his mind as his primal instincts took over. His Mana Core began beating faster and harder than it had ever done before, pulling environmental mana out of the air and pumping it all over Charlemagne’s body. A mana shield that was fitted to his body began to form, the layer of mana far more intricately shaped than anything he had produced before. Then the shield solidified, slowly at first, but then gaining speed as the rooster’s entire body was protected by a thin but incredibly tough membrane made entirely of mystical energy. The Assassinadders, many of whom had been freely pumping their venom straight into his body, were now unable to further harm the rooster. Some of them lost their purchase and fell off, unable to reengage through the throng of their fellow snakes but unwilling to retreat.
But the temporary barrier didn’t mean that Charlemagne was out of trouble yet. The mana coating his body was incredibly difficult to maintain, taking nearly all of his available reserves and the entirety of his focus. And the venom coursing through his body was now rampaging freely throughout his cellular structure, causing almost instant necrosis of key tissues, internal bleeding, and nerve damage. With his flesh at the breaking point, the rooster wasn’t going to be able to hold his shield for very long.
Moments later, Charlemagne received the boost that he didn’t know he was waiting for. The powerful benefits from his class, Zen Barbarian, kicked into high gear.
The class abilities meant that he not only grew more powerful the closer he was to death, but he also received a bonus to his Mana Core once he had been in combat long enough. These bonuses were synergistic in nature, and the massive bonus he received to his Special attribute along with extra proficiency in Mana Manipulation (which was fused into his Mana Core skill), meant that Charlemagne went from barely being able to control the form-fitting mana shield to being able to do it in his sleep in the blink of an eye.
The rooster, guided by his Zenrage skill, did not let the opportunity go to waste. The mana shield grew denser yet again, and a blue glow began to emanate from the few small cracks where a snake wasn’t directly covering Charlemagne’s body. With an angry squawk, he poured as much mana as he could force into the shield. The air grew heavy as the ambient mana spiked to levels strong enough to kill weaker creatures outright. The snakes, which had been largely silent up until now, began to hiss and flail, clearly sensing that something was wrong.
The pressure reached new heights as Charlemagne strained with every scrap of mental strength he possessed, the blue light emanating from his body overwhelming the gloom of the dank pit and casting intense shadows across the dirt floor and earthen wall. A high-pitched whine pierced the air, quickly reaching a crescendo as the rooster prepared to unleash his attack.
With a bawk that echoed off the walls of the deep pit, Charlemagne let loose with everything he had. Mana exploded from the shield in both directions, sending the ball of Assassinadders flying in all directions. Not a single one of the Assassinadders was left alive. Pieces of snake went everywhere: the walls, the ceiling, the floor, and high into the air. The only thing that was snake-free was Charlemagne himself.
While the majority of the mana from the attack had been directed outward, a portion of the energy was flung deep into the rooster’s body, where it fought against the toxins still running free though veins, muscles, and even bone marrow. The mana neutralized the toxins and then moved on to rebuilding tissues that had been affected, spending a great deal of its energy in repairing damage at the cellular level. Had it not encountered so many issues to fix, the mana might have done more harm than good. As it was, however, the exposure to so many toxins finally pushed the rooster’s physique over the edge, purifying it in a way that healing along never could have replicated.
As the rooster collapsed to the floor of the pit, utterly spent, the squiggles rewarded his suffering.
Charlemagne wanted nothing more at that moment than to close his eyes and let sleep take him, but the squiggles had issued a dire warning. If he didn’t eat something to jumpstart his healing ability, he would die. So, digging deep and finding strength that even he didn’t know he possessed, the young rooster managed to drag himself to a small pile of pulped snake that had landed nearby, guided by his Special Ability. With the last dregs of his energy, he put a piece of snake in his mouth and chewed. Then he surrendered himself to the comforting embrace of unconsciousness.