Unbound

Hallow Rise is level 73!

Keratin Conception is level 74!

Beef groaned and sat back on a twisted tree trunk. Bedlam sat there, largely unused over the past several hours. It radiated a frosty mist, its head of ice entirely too cold for the rising temperatures in the swamp, and having it close was vaguely similar to standing in front of the A/C vent back home.

“Hot down here, huh?” Evie said, wiping her brow. “Dunno how you handle it, with all that fur.”

“It’s hard. Minotaur’s don’t sweat much.” Beef reached down and picked up Bedlam with a strained grunt. It was heavy as hell, and the tree beneath him creaked dangerously, but he got the icy hammer head into his hands and pressed it against his bare chest. Frost crackled across his torso but each second had it fading back into water. “Not wearing my armor helps.”

“Oh good idea,” she said, before summoning gauntlets of ice around her hands. Spiked monstrosities, they steamed into the warm air just as much as Bedlam. “Ah that’s better. Where is your armor, by the way?”

Beef jerked his chin into the distance. A little ways away, Hallow was perched atop a mossy stump, surrounded by a writhing pool of Jawless Terrors. Their chaos shifted to order though, as the blackened-green eyes of her Homunculus flashed. The eel-like fish began to make laps, orbiting her stump in ever-widening circles.

“Uh, what’s she doing?”

“Hunting.” Beef set Bedlam back onto the path with a dull thud and brushed the melting remnants of ice off his chest. “We need to practice our Hallow Rise Skill more, so she’s gonna find some new Bodies and eliminate any pests at the same time.”

“Clever. Nice that you can train multiple Skills at once.” Evie put her icy gauntlets against her lower back and stretched, eliciting a sharp popping noise from her spine. “Unf, that feels better. Dunno why all this building is so hard. It’s not like we’re fightin’ monsters.”

“Felix says it’s harder to create than to destroy.”

“I guess he’d know.”

Beef tapped his fingers against the roots, working through his thoughts. “Did you have trouble making your core space?”

“My core space? Yeah, at first.”

“Did Vess help you through it?”

“No, Harn did. Well, Mags laid the foundations back when I was a kid. Why?”

“Been thinking about what Felix said. About getting stronger. My core space is like, really cool now thanks to Vess and that Primordial Felix ate…but my Skills are still lagging behind. I’m close to Adept, but it just doesn’t feel…I don’t feel like I’m getting better, you know?”

Evie sighed. “You’re too close.”

Beef looked down and shifted his hooves away from her.

“No, you dummy—” Evie stifled a laugh. “For a long time my sister trained me from dawn til dusk, every day. I was…six? Seven? Somethin’ like that. Too young, far as I was concerned, and I hated every single second of it. Felt like I’d never get better, not like her. She was stronger and faster and tougher than me, and always would be.”

Without warning, Evie moved. Her hand snapped out, the chain unfurling from her waist to lash into the distance so fast that Beef only heard the sound after it was all over. A vine that had been dangling from a nearby tree dropped into the water, cut into pieces by the blades on her chain…only to seep a dark ichor into the water.

A giant snake? Beef hadn’t even noticed it.

“I’m better now than Magda was, before the end. Stronger and faster and tougher too. That’s due to more than a few lucky breaks, but mostly it was showin’ up. Puttin’ in the work.” She jerked her wrist, and the chain pulled back, collapsing into her hands until it was a short length of metal links. “Truth is, I was gettin’ stronger all that time, even when Mags was runnin’ me ragged. I just didn’t have the eyes to see it right. I was too close. To her, to her powerful friends, to ranked Guilders. Same as you, Beef.”

“I’m too close…to all of you,” Beef repeated, and understanding dawned. “When Isla found me in the desert, she got me believing all sorts of stuff. Unbound are special. We learn fast and grow faster. It made me feel…strong. Since I met Felix though, I started comparing myself to him. He was the only other Unbound I knew, and everything he did blew me outta the water.”

“The only worthwhile measurement is who you were and who you’ve become. Anythin’ else is useless.”

It was like a weight shifted from Beef’s chest, and he didn’t mean his hammer. It wasn’t an immense change, but it was noticeable. Maybe…Maybe I'm not doing this wrong, after all.

A foot-high wave splashed across their resting spot, heralding Archie as he slid up alongside the unfinished path. “Hey! What’s the hold up? I’m running outta places to practice.”

“Just resting and letting my Mana build back up. We’re low on Mana Potions, and my Resonance isn’t as high as I’d like it,” Beef explained. Bouncing from foot to foot, Archie was clearly eager to continue. “You…good?”

“I’m fine. Better than that, really.” The small guy laughed, and Beef thought it sounded nicer than usual. “Fel—I figured out a new way to use my Skill. It feels great.”

Beef stretched again, working a kink out of his thick shoulder. “Awesome. Glad you’re getting into the training.”

“Well. I can see the value.” Archie stepped onto the chitin and stone path Beef had made. He tapped his bare foot against it, and it was steady. “You’re getting better at this too.”

“Kinda. This swamp is nasty though. It’s so…soggy.”

“Freezes well enough,” Evie said. “You ready to keep goin’?”

“Sure.”

“Hey Evie,” Archie said. The warrior didn’t so much as look at him, but hopped straight up into the lowest branches of a nearby tree.

“Ready when you are,” she called back.

“I think she’s warming up to me,” Archie said, staring after her. He stroked his goatee. “What were you two talking about?”

Beef cleared his throat and stood up. Dried mud flaked off his bull legs. “Nothing important. Oh, hey, what’s your core space like?”

Archie glanced back over his shoulder. “Why?”

“Uh, I know Evie’s and Vess’. Someone told me about Harn’s once, I think. All of them are strong, and I’ve been fixing up my own like I told you before. I figure that uh, if you need it, I could offer tips?”

“Don’t need ‘em. Focus on getting us through this stupid swamp instead.”

Beef wilted. His scalp prickled with an uncomfortable heat. “Oh uh, yeah. Sorry.”

He could tell that Archie didn’t like him. He hadn’t had a lot of friends back home, and here…well, he wasn’t as oblivious as some of them thought. Beef knew he was annoying sometimes. The difference now was that people didn’t tell him to his face anymore. He was too big now, too important.

Whatever. Beef activated his Skill and the statue within his core space glowed with a deep green light. Not everyone has to like you.

Beef? Are you speaking to me?

Wha–No, Hallow. I’m busy. Mana burst from his hooves, flowing across the earth and down into the water. A pillar of chitin manifested there, building into a squared rod that sank deep into the soft bottom of the swamp. “Evie,” he murmured.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Bindings of the White Waste.”

While Beef couldn’t really see below the opaque water, he could sense it well enough when freezing chains stabbed out from the muck and into his pillar. The ground around it froze, and he was quick to extend the pillar up toward the surface again, thickening it all the while. As it breached the surface, he spun the chitin out into a flat plane that intersected the surviving bits of the Gloaming Way and mushed them together. Liquid magic oozed into moss and roots, using them as a sort of substrata to bind the stone and chitin together.

“Alright. One down.” Beef released his Skill, letting the first pillar and platform harden. He gazed wearily into the hazy distance. “A million more to go.”

At the rate he was moving, Beef was certain it would take him days to clear the entire valley let alone beyond it—more swamp, Vess had assured him. Still, Keratin Conception was a hair away from Adept Tier, and his speed had increased considerably. He also wasn’t wasting as much Mana as before, and his teamwork with Evie minimized any mistakes when setting the pillars.

Beef!

Hallow’s voice cut across his thoughts like a blazing arrow. Images flickered along with her single word, enough to draw his attention to the west where waves distorted the surface of the swamp…and the mossy islands that were creating them.

“What the heck?”

Six small islands, each easily ten feet across and replete with knotted trees, rushed toward him. Their approach was so rapid that Beef had barely a second before the first of them leaped fully out of the water and tackled him off the Gloaming Way.

“Kid, watch—!” Evie shouted, but whatever else she had was lost in the muffled chaos of the water.

Beef twisted, trying to get his hooves under himself, but the monster latched on. Beneath the water, the thing was far more than a moving island; it had a head bigger than his entire torso and jaws like a crocodile, and it was currently trying to eat him whole.

Mana flooded from Beef’s outstretched palm. A bar of chitin snapped into existence between the monster’s jaws, stopping it from chomping down onto Beef’s thigh. With a grunt of effort and a stream of bubbles from his mouth, Beef shoved even more power into the Skill, and the bar became a thick, triangular wedge. The monster reared back, ignoring him now in its drive to dislodge the object, and Beef hit the soft bottom of the swamp.

Hallow! What are they?

Lurkwood Crawlers! Get out of there! They’re surrounding you!

It was hard to see anything beyond the green and brown swirl, but he sensed enough. Vine-like tendrils cut through the water, most missing as he twisted about, but some striking his shoulder and chest. He stifled a pained scream as his Health dipped and blood poured from him like smoke. More mouths, each as big as the last, dove out of the murk.

Without warning an icy chill soaked through him, and purple-white chains surged from the mud. They stabbed up into the attacking Crawlers, seizing them in a net of frost as crystalline bolts slammed into their heads.

Keratin Conception!

Beef summoned a hexagonal pillar of chitin beneath his hooves and dumped a ton of Mana into it. He was shot up out of the water, hoisted aloft by his own creation so fast that the tendrils in his bare chest were savagely ripped out.

“Shit.” Beef rolled onto his side, clutching at his shoulder and pecs, trying to staunch the blood. He almost fell off his pillar as he did so, as the thing was only a few feet wide. He blinked water from his eyes, searching for solid ground. “Felix! Monsters!”

The man was standing, arms on his hips, but he wasn’t moving at all. As the water churned less than four feet below him, Beef watched Felix’s mouth harden into a fierce frown. The Fiend looked at the water and then back to Beef…before nodding slowly.

He—he wants me to fight them off? Oh, Beef realized as his Mind caught up with his Body. It’s training.

Below, the Lurkwood Crawlers breached the surface again, their backs spilling swamp water in all directions as their jaws snapped like thunder. Crystals shattered against their stony hide, though a few stuck into the greenery. Bedlam was back on the path, and Hallow’s attacks weren’t doing much. Beef had no weapons but his Body and his Skills. A grin split the Minotaur’s snout.

With a flare of his Will, a blackened green hammer roughly the size and shape as Bedlam formed in his grip. “Let’s fucking go!”

Beef threw himself off his pillar and brought the weapon down onto the first Crawler’s back.

The monster burbled in clear pain, its mouth half-submerged, as a deep crack was split in the moss, dirt, and stone on its back. No blood or ichor poured out, and there was no notification of defeat, so Beef swung again.

And again.

On the third hit, his improvised weapon shattered into a thousand pieces, each shard of chitin blasting outward in a ring around him. “Damn it.”

Vines snagged his legs, and the Crawler rolled.

Beef went under, trapped atop the split carapace of the monster by its tangled tendrils. The Crawler spun over and over, submerging Beef only to whip him out of the water at incredible speed.

Keratin Conception!

Two hammers formed in his hands, both of them smaller than Bedlam, but each with a deadly spike on the back. He flipped them around and drove them into the crack he’d already made. The Crawler shuddered, its tendrils suddenly loosening as if to throw Beef free, but it was too late. Beef wrenched on his hammers with all his Strength, shattering roots and rock until he found flesh. Ichor poured out, the thing’s protective shell now split, and the creature stopped spinning entirely.

It bucked, trying again to throw him off. Beef remolded one hammer into a crude hexagonal spike and using the other hammer, smashed it hard into the Crawler.

The chitin spike speared into its vitals, and the Crawler went nuts. Beef hit it again, and this time he flattened the tip of the spike, until it formed into a wide chisel.Dripping wet, he struck. Something gave way, and dark yellow-green ichor spat back up at him with the force of a geyser.

You Have Killed A Lurkwood Crawler!

XP Earned!

Thrown forty feet, Beef landed back in the water with a cataclysmic splash.

Status Condition: Dazed (Minor)!

Duration: 3 Seconds

Beef wallowed, just beneath the surface, as his thoughts fought for attention. He was fighting…? He had to move, he had to summon…something.

Status Condition Ended!

Clarity assaulted Beef hard. His Perception jabbed outward, hunting for threats, only to find another Lurkwood Crawler mere feet away. Its jaws were opened wide, ready to chomp, and Beef kicked his legs frantically. Its teeth missed, and the shockwave of its snapping jaws sent him tumbling before he fetched up against a bone-white statue.

The Dragon statues… Beef swam frantically, his hooves doing him few favors, but managed to get the coiled statue between him and the approaching Crawler. The beast didn’t seem to care though. It charged him, mouth wide, heedless of anything that stood in its way.

Keratin—!

Before he could mobilize his Mana, a legion of lamprey monstrosities descended on the beast. Eel-like bodies covered in poisonous spines leaped suicidally into the Crawler’s open maw, tangling among its teeth and tongue before their round, suction cup mouths filled with razor-sharp teeth latched onto the soft tissues.

The Terrors won’t do much to them! We need the first corpse!

The Crawler chomped down, killing six of the Jawless Terrors at once. Where is it?

It sank! I can’t find it!

Wait! Beef spotted an unmoving shape in the water. I see it!

He kicked off the Dragon statue, and it was rock solid. Beef surged through the water, and just for good measure he activated Relentless Charge. The space between him and the sinking corpse vanished, though the thick swamp water tried to tear him to pieces. The wounds in his chest reopened and cloudy blood got in his eyes. He waved it away, feeling slightly dizzy from the blood loss, constant motion, and lack of air. He needed to grab the corpse. Hallow Rise didn’t require him to touch the Bodies to claim them, but the connection helped when they were especially strong targets.

There! He’d overshot the corpse, but it was close. Beef kicked downward until he could grab a handful of thick, furry flesh. Hallow Rise!

A vibrant, blackened-green radiance poured from his hand and into the Lurkwood Crawler’s corpse. It swelled, filling with liquid light like a water balloon as a strange sort of life was returned to its thick limbs.

Hallow Rise is level 74!

It’s working! he said to his Companion. Take over! I need to—

From out of nowhere, another Crawler smashed into him, catching him against its huge snout as a hazy red light limned its massive form. Beef screamed, a flurry of bubbles around his head as they both hurtled through the swamp. He pushed against it, trying to angle himself just enough to escape its dire momentum, but this Crawler seemed stronger than the others. A frenzied strength suffused its flesh, and a mad red glow filled its eyes.

Tendrils shot out from its mossy back, tangling Beef’s arms and grabbing his horns as it dove down. Further than ever before, until the waters turned truly icy. Beef summoned constructs of chitin, but they were flung away by the Crawler’s immense speed as they descended into the depths of the swamp.

Get off me! Beef ripped his left arm free. Circle of Smash!

It twisted, catching Beef’s arm with its mouth as the Skill poured out of him. Earth Mana flashed, impacting its scaled snout and shattering several of its teeth, but it didn’t stop.

The Crawler snapped its jaws onto his left thigh, and Beef howled as something snapped. Bubbles boiled around them, air pressed from his lungs and icy water took its place.

Kera–Ker—Seismic—

Beef spiraled, twisted by the Crawler as the depths claimed them both.

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