Chapter 33: Determination (Patreon)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gENtVVakVYQvM7tDmFEuq4dLnoJbIKy1Par2y6ytlf8/edit?usp=sharing

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Cayden sprinted through the grass as he put his companions out of his mind. Aside from Jerome’s mistake, the siblings had so far performed admirably during the delve, and he needed to trust them with Elise’s safety; if he expected to live through the next few minutes, he needed his complete focus dedicated to the here and now.

As he neared the grouping of zepples closest to where his teammates stood guard around Elise, Cayden veered his path just slightly to the side. As he passed by the lead zepple, its tentacles twitched toward his running form as it and its companions slightly adjusted their course to chase him.

That was good, but not good enough. Any zepple that chased him would be one less for the siblings to deal with, but Cayden didn’t have the ability to kill or distract enough zepples to make a difference just by running around the dungeon. With how many zepples there were converging on his companion’s location, they would either need to flee or be overrun within the next minute – unless Cayden did something drastic.

Cayden dashed and weaved in the gaps between floating zepples, increasing the size of the train that slowly followed him. At his pace and with his skills, it was unlikely that they’d ever be able to actually catch him, not unless he broke an ankle or somehow found himself surrounded. As such, he immediately dismissed the zepples from his thoughts as he passed them, his eyes scanning back and forth in front of him for the perfect target.

Then, as he passed between two closer-than-normal zepples, the tentacles of the one on his right just barely missing him, he saw it. Isolated from any nearby zepples, it slowly bobbed in the direction of his companions but was far enough away to work for his purposes.

He hefted the spear that he carried at his side and sprinted towards his target, closing the distance in seconds. Then, with a thought, he activated his new class skill.

The Moment (channeled) (lvl 1): Slow down the user's perception of time by 50% and increase vitality, strength, endurance, agility, dexterity, and perception by 20%. Moderate mana cost.

Around him, everything dropped into slow motion as his spear cut through the air, the noises of his heaving breaths and the wind blowing through the grass sounding strangely deep to his ears. The tentacles of his target squirmed towards him, but his spear was longer, and in only a moment of his slowed perception of time, his spear met the zepple’s membrane. It sliced through it like a hot knife through butter, and then punched out the other side with just as little resistance – without destroying the core in the center.

Cayden withdrew his spear as quickly as possible, feeling as if he was in a dream with the way it felt to move with his skill.

Jerome had only had time for a single word before the first zepple’s explosion, so Cayden rushed to prepare himself. As whatever intelligence the zepple possessed realized that it would soon die, Cayden took a half-step back and huddled down, holding his spear close to the ground and away from his body. And then with bated breath, he waited.

The purple gas that comprised the majority of the zepple’s body shifted, changing color to an angry red as Cayden continued to wait. Belatedly, Cayden realized that he had activated [The Moment] too early. It was his first channeled skill, and with every second that passed it was quickly draining more of his mana pool. It was too late to cancel and restart it now, though, and he could only hope that he had enough mana for the stat boost to last through the explosion.

Then, after what felt like an eternity through his skill’s distorted perception of time, the zepple exploded.

Cayden could feel his skill was still active and knew his perspective of time was still slowed. But he wouldn’t have thought it based on how quickly the explosion washed over him.

It felt like he had stuck his finger into an electrical socket while someone banged a gong inside his head. He didn’t even really feel it happen: one second he was crouched and waiting as the zepple turned a deeper and deeper red, and the next he lay flat on his back several yards back, claws dug into the dirt and spear nowhere to be seen.

Groggily, Cayden pulled himself to his feet and fumbled with the pouch on his belt, pulling out and then downing the first healing potion he grabbed in a single motion. [The Moment] was no longer active, the skill automatically turning off when his mana pool emptied, but that was fine. His head was pulsing with the beat of his heart as the healing potion knitted his body back together. Aside from some redness on his skin that Cayden suspected was first- or second-degree burns, he had no outward injuries.

Inwardly, though, he felt terrible. He stumbled and then shook his head, attempting to bring his surroundings into focus. Now that he no longer needed to be worried about acquiring any more resistance skills, he had finally allowed himself to invest some of his free stats into vitality. If this was how he was feeling after being prepared for the explosion, with his vitality boosted by twenty percent and the damage reduced by thirty percent, Cayden couldn’t imagine how it might have felt if he hadn’t had [Resistance] or increased his stats.

He looked around at the hundreds of surrounding zepples, each of which was now slowly floating towards him, and a few even overlapping with each other. He squeezed his eyes shut and then rubbed them with his knuckles, and when he opened them again half the zepples had disappeared, leaving a much more manageable number.

He was both relieved and disappointed. Relieved, because he could now see a path out of the slowly closing encirclement, but worried, because he could now see beyond the first row of zepples to where a few of the monsters hadn’t been distracted from their advance on his teammates by the explosion. He’d certainly lightened their load, but it wasn’t enough.

Cayden frowned as he looked for his spear, but gave up a few seconds later. It could take minutes to find it in the tall grass, minutes that he didn’t have. So, after another shake of his head to refocus, he started running.

Instead of running directly away from his companions, Cayden instead ran perpendicular to the path he had been traveling. His goal was to distract as many monsters as possible from the site of the first explosion; creating more explosions further and further away in the same direction wouldn’t accomplish that.

It was harder for him to dodge through the lines of approaching zepples than it had been, both because of his disorientation and because the number of zepples had increased. He would have to keep that in mind; as more and more zepples were being drawn in, it would be harder and harder to navigate around them.

But he was still able to find a path, running in a crouch directly underneath one of the zepples that had for some reason bobbed much higher than its comrades. He escaped the encirclement where the zepples were all moving towards him. He kept running, moving easier as the health potion further did its work until he had circled perhaps another ninety degrees around his companions. Between the tall grass, the slight hills, and the massing monsters, Cayden wasn’t able to see his teammates, so he was relying on his memory and a bit of guesswork to determine where they were. Hopefully, the explosion hadn’t knocked his sense of direction completely askew.

Once he judged he’d come far enough, Cayden focused on a new target. It had only been a minute since he’d survived the first explosion, and his mana hadn’t recovered enough to reactivate [The Moment] for any length of time. But now that he knew the timing of the explosions, he hopefully wouldn’t need it.

He sprinted at his target as fast as he could, deeply regretting the loss of his spear. At around ten feet away, the tentacles twitched as he entered the zepple’s detection range, but he was moving quickly enough that they didn’t have the time to do anything more. And then, he lept.

Cayden soared through the air, higher and faster than the best Olympic high or long jumper. At the apex of his leap, he reached out and raked his claws against the membrane of the monster, slicing through it as if it wasn’t there.

Cayden landed heavily on the other side of the monster, taking two more steps to get as much space as he could before he dove forward to the ground and lay completely prone with his hands covering the back of his neck. His armor hadn’t felt like it had provided much in the way of additional protection during the first explosion, but Cayden’s neck was one of the least protected spots on his body; he didn’t want to risk it.

An instant later, the zepple exploded as heat and a wave of pressure washed over Cayden’s body. He was once again rocked, but he was a bit further away and better prepared this time. Even without the bonus twenty percent to vitality, he felt better now than after the first one.

Not that it wasn’t bad. Bile rose in Cayden’s throat as he once again pulled himself to his feet, but he swallowed down the gag along with another health potion. He couldn’t keep taking the potions indefinitely, as there was a limit on the number of potions someone could take without facing a backlash from the magically imbued healing, but he wasn’t yet at that point.

A small part of Cayden called for surrender, for him to just close his eyes and lay on the ground until the world stopped spinning. Or, failing that, to simply run away. To forget his friends and take the quickest path out of the dungeon, where he could be safe and comfortable.

But a much larger part of Cayden snarled rejection, ripping apart his desire for comfort with deep prejudice.

This was what he had yearned for. What he had desired out of his second chance in a fantasy world. He was fighting for his friend, for his teammates, against dangerous hordes of mindless monsters. Fighting not just for his life, not just for the lives of his teammates, but for their futures.

For Elise’s first chance at enchanting. For the siblings to make the money needed to support their shop. For himself, for the chance to grow beyond the challenges that faced him.

And for everyone else. Because each zepple he killed today was a monster that would never dungeon break. That would never devastate another town or family.

Cayden would rather die before he gave all that up for mere comfort.

His vision wavering, Cayden sprinted towards the closest gap he could see in the approaching monsters. He shook his head to try and rid himself of the blinking lights, only to realize that they weren’t a symptom of his likely concussion.

He focused on the blinking notifications in the corner of his vision.

Hardiness (passive): Increases vitality stat by 30%. Reduces debilitating effects of injuries.

Determined Mind (active): Focuses the user on a specified outcome, rendering them completely immune to any persuasions or manipulations against that outcome, both internal and external. Small mana cost.

Even through his injuries, Cayden’s grin returned.

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One more chapter this week, probably will be tomorrow evening.