Chapter 51

Etson National Forest, Etson - 11:46 PM

“Don’t worry, Jeff,” I said as I started walking forward. “Once I start fighting it, it’ll double down its focus on me.”

“I’m not worried,” he said unconvincingly. Kayla set a hand on his arm, causing him to jump, but he was rooted firmly in place. “It should be worried about me.”

I chuckled. “For sure, man, for sure. You’ve got a reliable one, Kayla.”

“I know it,” she said.

Generally, people reacted to fear in a few ways. Running away was one of the most common depending on the level of terror they faced. Flight hadn’t been in my wheelhouse for a long, long time but it was the most understandable. Freezing was common, too, as the body became paralyzed as your brain tries to decide what to do. Groveling and giving in to the fear wasn’t something I saw as often, but it still came up.

Then there was fight. Or, in Jeff’s case, protecting his wife and dog. Though, as I walked towards the trees and thought it over, I realized that really was just Jeff in a nutshell. This time just involved a much higher heart rate and a lot more sweating.

Tucking the Vague Stick underneath my arm I resumed flexing my fingers like I was trying to break down the demonic influence through exercise. The dull pain throbbed throughout my hands and I focused on that to help bring the fight response down to a manageable level. If I got too far from the clearing, I wouldn’t be able to help Kayla and Jeff as easily.

My thoughts were interrupted as the Vespae finally stepped into view. It was unnaturally thin and much taller than all but one of the other wasps. It was nearly two feet taller than I was, and that was even considering its hunched stature. Its clawed feet moved through the underbrush without sound, and its black carapace would have been impossible to see in the darkness if it weren’t for Clear Eyes or Serranras’ blessing. It stopped once it saw me, raising four arms. The bottom two ended in long, curved bone scythes, while the top two hands held a wicked halberd across its chest.

While most of the Vespae leaned towards humanoid, this one was far more alien in shape. Its overly large white eyes looked down at me, and I met its gaze. The aura of fear and oppression seemed to shrink around me until I was its sole focus. I took a breath as my heart started racing, but I held its gaze long enough for it to tilt its head at me in confusion.

“Yeah, buddy, that ain’t going to work on me,” I said, my voice unflinching. The feeling of dread got stronger before it vanished completely. I adjusted the Vague Stick so that it turned into a naginata and carefully shifted into a wide stance. The Vespae continued to stare before it shot towards me.

Even running, it didn’t make a noise. No footsteps, no sound coming from shifting its halberd, the weapon didn’t even whistle as it was thrust towards me. I Lifted the naginata and used it to push the halberd to the side with an open hand so that it wouldn’t skewer me with the point. The Vespae lifted the halberd into the air and brought down the axe, causing me to Lift my weapon to block it.

Instead of backing off and hooking my weapon, the Vespae took a step forward and forced the Vague Stick higher into the air. The bone scythes it had instead of hands, both as long as my arm, lashed out at me from either side. I activated Crash Test and threw my body forward into the wasp, dealing a clean 100 damage as it was tossed backwards into a tree. Its scythes cut into my chest as it was flung, causing me to sharply take in a breath but not causing as much damage as they were going to.

I didn’t let the Vespae get back up easily. Taking the Vague Stick in both hands, I gripped it as well as I could and ran forward. Once I was in stabbing distance I planted my feet and Pushed it forward. It was knocked aside and cut into the tree behind the target. As the Vespae stood I shifted the Vague Stick again, this time shortening the blade and slicing at the wasp.

The Vague Stick’s blade sliced through the enemy’s exoskeleton, causing it to open its mouth in a silent scream. Its clawed foot connected with my stomach, pushing me back and tearing away a part of my Seven-Tenner Bowling Shirt. “Rude!” I yelled. The enchantment would stay unless it was in complete and utter tatters, but I wasn’t about to let it get away with ruining my stuff.

I Pushed the Vague Stick towards the Vespae as it shot to its feet, but it was deflected again and embedded itself in the ground. Taking the weapon in one hand, it lifted its foot and broke it clean in two with a quick stomp. I Pulled the blade back into my hand as it tossed the shaft away and mentally commanded it to turn into a longsword. It narrowed its eyes at my blade before locking eyes with me again. The sense of dread came hard and strong before it lunged at me.

The look was only a distraction, but it was one that I had to throw off regardless. I backed away as I parried the thrusts leveled at me using Lift and Drop while adjusting the angle with my hands. I frowned; this fight would have been over already if I had full control of my hands. My eyes flicked towards the rest of the Vague Stick on the ground behind the Vespae. I Pulled it towards me, letting the sword rest in my hand.

Using Shield to stop the thrust, I shifted so that the broken point would hit the Vespae. Having not anticipated it, they couldn’t react. The other half of the Vague Stick pierced through the abdomen of the mantis wasp, causing it to stagger, before I stopped Pulling. I slammed the blade into it, connecting the two pieces into one whole again, and caused it to grow short spikes all around the shaft.

I backed up as the Vespae attempted to pull the Vague Stick out of its body only to stop once it felt the spikes. Luckily, the magical weapon had the ability to reform itself if broken. It wasn’t nearly as useful as only the longer side retained the shapeshifting ability of the whole, but it still had its perks like this one.

The Vespae raised its scythes to break the Vague Stick again, but I wasn’t going to allow that. I Pushed the spiked stick further into its body, causing the twin blades to narrowly miss as it ripped and tore through the mantis wasps’ innards. I Pulled it back towards me once it was safe, causing it to exit the gaping wound it created and fall to the ground covered in black blood.

The Ghost Mantis Wasp fell to its knees, dropping its halberd as I heard it for the first time. “Mercy,” it called quietly in a rasping, eerie voice. Its face was contorted in pain, its body quivering in fear.

“No,” I said with a quiet rage that nearly made me shiver. “I’ve seen you kill Serranras too many times for that.” Pulling the Writhing Belt Whip from my belt loops, I lashed out towards the Vespae’s neck. The whip wrapped around tightly and caused its eyes to bulge. Grotesque teeth began growing from the green leather and chomped down loudly on the neck. Its head landed on the ground and rolled a few feet away as the body collapsed.

My eyes darted for new foes before I stopped and took a deep breath. I felt my heartbeat race, and I attempted to calm down. After returning the Writhing Belt Whip into its belt form, I picked up the halberd and used it to cut free the Vespae’s bone scythes. I threw all three into my inventory along with the Vague Stick and a small black jewel that appeared at my feet. The real prize I was after sat next to where the jewel was: a black skill book with a single eye. I picked it up, opened it, and accepted it.

[Notice]]

You have learned the skill Tyrant’s Will.

[[Skill]]

Tyrant’s Will (Willpower): You can cause dread in an opponent with a glance. By looking into another’s eyes and paying a low cost of Mental Points, you can instill a feeling of fear and anxiety in them based on the difference between your willpower stat and their defensive mental stat. If they do not have a defensive mental stat, their resistance depends on their highest stat divided by two. At a higher cost, you can cause Tyrant’s Will as an aura that affects everyone inside a radius as far out as one foot per point of willpower. At your discretion, some beings can be spared the weight of your will.

I turned around and reentered the clearing. The Vespae had surrounded my allies and the box had been knocked free and shattered into several pieces, but the sapling still stood. A pile of dead wasps littered the ground in front of a battered, bruised, and bleeding Kayla and Jeff. Even Corwin had joined the fray and had pinned a Vespae down to the ground, teeth at its throat. My steps were calm as I walked towards the battlefield, but my grin was as predatory as could be.

Taking a deep breath, I unleashed my Tyrant’s Will aura on the battlefield with Kayla, Jeff, and Corwin being my only exceptions. Aura powers could only be seen by those who activated them, and the aura I sent out was a bleak gray. As it washed over the first of the Vespae in my path, they turned to stare at me before raising their spears in an animalistic frenzy. A moment later, they dropped their spears as the full weight of my will crashed down on them. I pulled my Writhing Belt Whip and let it drag behind me for the extra willpower boost even though my wounds were still open. The pain didn’t matter; if anything, it kept me sharp.

The Vespae started kneeling and placing their heads to the ground one by one as I approached. I could see them shivering as they recognized their leader’s aura coming off of me. Normally it wouldn’t be as potent as this, but knowing they lost their leader was a big hit to their morale and made them far more susceptible to negative emotions.

By the time I made it to the sapling, all of the Vespae warriors had fallen to the ground. Kayla, Jeff, and Corwin took breaths, their bodies heaving from the events they had to go through. Judging by the situation, it was a very eventful minute or so. “Ya’ll okay?” I asked, looking at the prostrated wasps.

“Feeling good,” Jeff said between breaths.

“Good. Kill them all, and I’ll get any who flee.”

Kayla and Jeff looked at each other before heading into the fray. Against the still enemies, critical hits and one shots were easy. They made it through half of them before the rest became scared enough for their lives to flee. Predictably, they all made a beeline in the direction of their hive. The very direction I laid my spikes, arrows, and spears in. None of the Vespae made it to the treeline.

“So, what?” Kayla asked as she returned her daggers and wiped blood off of her face. “You beat their boss and suddenly you’re the boss?”

“Nah, the boss was what caused that fear aura. It dropped it as a skill book, so now I have a fear aura, too,” I explained as she collapsed to the ground. Now that the danger had passed, I put my belt back on and put my hands in my pocket until they stopped shaking. My eyes darted around for new threats, but the wave was over. There wouldn’t be another one by the time the tree was done growing.

“Is it better or worse than the boss?” Jeff asked curiously, sitting beside Kayla. Corwin joined them.

“Someone’s getting a bath tonight,” Kayla said quietly before petting Corwin behind a blood-soaked ear.

I ignored Kayla, though her words made me smirk, and addressed Jeff. “Want to test it out?” I asked.

He tilted his head to the side as if contemplating it for a moment, then nodded. That was all I needed. Before he could answer, I activated Tyrant’s Will as I stared into his eyes. He bristled, half standing up at the feeling, but the feeling had already taken hold. I let it go before it could be taken any further and he shivered, shaking his whole body.

“Potent, but not as bad as the boss,” he said, releasing a deep breath.

“Skill books never are as potent as when the boss uses them,” I informed, sitting down in front of them. The tree was nearly three feet tall already, so it wouldn’t be long now. “It’s always watered down, though there are books later on that increase skills and synthesis pages that even combine them.”

“Oh yeah?” Jeff asked, leaning forward.

“Oh, yeah. Like if I had taken that Explosive Thrust skill. I already have Crash Test, which is similar, but I could get a skill synthesis page to merge them into Explosive Crash Test. There’s no explosion, sadly, but the numbers go up and that’s what matters. It’s to get rid of skill bloat while adding a whole new element to the system. Everything’s got a combination, even if it doesn’t make sense. That does mean there’s a lot of dud skills, though, so you have to be careful.”

“Huh, interesting.”

I offered them the Writhing Belt Whip for as long as it took to get back up to full health, and Kayla got first shot at that thanks to Jeff’s insistence. We settled into a comfortable silence as I let them breathe. We kept our eyes peeled for enemies, but after a few minutes the tree let loose one last burst of light before disappearing, a small token falling on the ground where it had grown.

Jeff cautiously picked it up. “Mother Tree Token?” he asked, examining the small disc in his hand. An oak tree was emblazoned on one side while the other had the texture of bark.

Standing up, I brushed myself off. “Yup, that’s how we transport it. Wherever you plant it, it’ll grow, so make sure it doesn’t fall to the ground.”

“Awesome,” Kayla said tiredly. “So we won the quest?”

“Almost. Remember, we have to get it to safety before the quest is over,” I said before I started heading towards the treeline. It was time to head back to the Kobolds.

“Man,” Jeff sighed. “I just want to increase my constitution. That’s just too much to ask for, isn’t it?”

I snorted in amusement, but didn’t say anything as I started leading them back to the camp.