Saturday October 7th, 2018.

  Kiyoki pouts at hearing her niece might not get a cute tail. She comes around as she remembers that there is a very high chance Alli will though. But before she can mention that, she changes the conversation. “You think Helo will turn into some cute animal? Like a squirrel?”

  Now this causes both women to stare at Kiyoki with wide eyes. Graham has yet to learn. Due to his… adverse reaction to his daughter getting close to Helo, Akira decided to wait so that Helo could see his reaction when he is told about Helo’s true ancestry.

  But Cheyenne is aware. Obviously, her best friends would share some secrets with her while they talk. Because of this Cheyenne speaks up. But before she does, she taps the privacy screen on the table. She doesn’t want her husband’s keen wolf senses to pick up on their words.

  “He is related to royalty… of the Divine Beast Faction…” She looks at Kiyoki with complete confusion. “You think he is going to be a squirrel. Like a Primordial Squirrel. Here before the dawn of time, born perfectly aligned with a powerful concept. You think he is a squirrel.” She giggles a little before she says. “Like, bow before the almighty ruler of nuts and chubby cheeks. Holder of the powerful fluff concept.”

  Kiyoki pouts as Cheyenne mocks her. “Fine, maybe not a squirrel… That beaver was cute.” She tilts her head and thinks about the aggressive beaver that Alli’s party fought.

  At this Cheyenne smacks her face and gives up. Yuki is covering her laugh with her hand. She is used to her sisters, flighty and whimsical personality. But the idea of a Primordial God being a squirrel or a beaver is pretty far out there, even for Kiyoki.

  Moving past her sister’s cute fantasy, Yuki asks. “So, do you think the girls are going to realize before he changes?”

  Cheyenne looks amused, but she clarifies. “Realize that he can change shape?”

  “Yeah. They have all the information they need to make the deduction. I mean, being related to a royal line in the Divine Beast Faction means that he is a True Beast. Born either as a Magical Beast, Mythical Beast, or a Spiritual Beast.” Yuki says.

  Kiyoki props her head up on her hand. “I’d bet on Mythical. No, you said that the mother might have been married in. Mother is a Magical Beast. Father is a Mythical Beast.”

  Both women look at Kiyoki with appraising eyes. That was a pretty impressive deduction for her. “Hey! I can be smart…” She hits her head back onto the table. They can hear a mumbled. “When I wanna be.”

  They are not the only groups having conversation about Helo. He has made strong impressions on all his teachers. His tier 3 teachers most of all. They are all sitting in the lounge with four different screens on the wall. Each one shows a group of students as they battle their way through the levels.

  In bars just like the one that Akira and Graham are in, other clan leaders and people of importance are watching. The few leaders that have interacted with Helo have strong opinions, good and bad. Everyone shows their interest, but there are two that have met him personally. Victious Starhaven has just as bad of an opinion about Helo as Isabella Cravalho has a good one.

  The other leaders that show their interest are Cleopatra from Eqypt, the Leader of the Chinese Sect, and Oliver Williams from Australia. They all have had children that interacted with him in some fashion.

  Helo steps into the stadium beside Hinata. Ryan continues to comment in his extremely bored way ,while they make their way to the platform. For the first time in a while he is walking without his Vulpine Cane. Getting the ‘all clear’ from Eriana was a weight lifted off his shoulders.

  He has been forced to fight on multiple occasions. Some were his own fault, but others were unavoidable. Each time he felt just a little regret that he wasn’t able to follow the healer’s orders.

  Walking instep with him Hinata is taking a final look at her status.

  Name: Hinata Kashiwagi.

  Bloodline: Mixed Dryad / Kitsune.

  Tier 1.

  Class: Mystic Sword.

  Level: 45.

  Stats: 407

  Skills: Illusion’s Parry (Uncommon), Illusion of Reality (Rare), Foxfire Imbuement (Uncommon).

  She is proud of her growth. Her main skill is ‘Illusion of Reality’. It is an upgrade and combination of a few of her previous skills. This new skill requires more skill, but it allows her to freeform any illusion she wants. If her connection with the illusion is strong enough, she can make it physical.

  Her other skills are great for increasing her defense, letting her fight while ignoring certain attacks. The last skill increases the power of her strikes, imbuing them with the spiritual flames of the kitsune.

  Everyone steps up together. They barely have time to plant their feet, then they are gone. They all smoothly land without any jarring movements. But the sensation of spatial travel is still uncomfortable for most. Aiko, Rurgrim and Helo in particular are affected. The three of them stagger a step before catching themselves.

  The only reason that Helo is affected is due to his enhanced senses and aura. More than the others, he can feel how space stretches and squeezes.

  Greenland is a vast landscape of snow and ice. But, due to the effects of the lay lines that travel beneath the surface of the earth. The center of the massive island is much different than people realize. It is filled with powerful monsters and flora that have adapted through mana.

  Greenland and Australia are similar in that regard. Except one is hot the other cold.

  As Helo looks around, he can tell that they are on the edge of the landmass. They are directly on the edge of an iceshelf and the ocean spreads in an endless blue. Turning around he can see that they are in some kind of natural safe area. Large ice burgs and rock formations form towering hills around them.

  “This is a nice place.” Aiko says while turning in a circle. “Great for a picnic.”

  “Focus Aiko.” Hinata corrects Aiko, but everyone can hear that she isn’t upset.

  “What are we here to eliminate?” Rocco asks. He is more serious than Hinata and is looking around with sharp eyes.

  As everyone turns in circles and finds nothing, Helo is staring into the water. He can feel something swimming just off the coast. “Helo-Kun? Do you see something?” Hinata asks. She is still standing next to him and lightly pokes his arm.

  “Yeah. There is something down there.” Helo gestures into the water.

  “Well, I for one am not gonna go get it.” Rurgrim says gruffly. “I’m already freezing my balls off. Dwarves are meant to live beneath the earth, where the heat from the core warms…” Everybody ignores him as the dwarf goes on a tangent about how he doesn’t like the cold.

  Helo doesn’t say anything, but he lifts his hand and traces an invisible foe as it swims beneath the surface. His finger is mostly pointing beneath the ledge where the rock and ice is covering. But as soon as his finger points up and further into the ocean, an arrow is launched.

  Cody stands behind Helo with his massive bow drawn. He can’t see what Helo does, but he has his own way around that. Cody doesn’t say anything, which is normal. But his arrow glows with mana and starts to split while in flight. Each split generates another ice arrow.

  The arrows seems to absorb the cold air, not only increasing the number of times that the original arrow splits, but also increase the strength of each one. By the time it reaches the water, there are over eighty arrows sailing into the ocean.

  They hit the water and slice through. In their wake the surface freezes. Nobody can see if the thing was struck. But they all shrug as Helo’s hand drops. A moment later they disappear.

  Reappearing further in land, they are now in an open area. There is sparse vegetation, and snow hills as far as the eye can see. Looking for their foe, it is Helo that spots it again. Looking down and to the left, there is a small hump within the snow. Again, Cody launches an arrow. Only this time the single arrow absorbs all the icy energy into itself, growing stronger as it flies.

  When it hits the snow, it penetrates like it isn’t even there. Cody’s own ice affinity is letting him seamlessly fire into the snowy ground like nothing is there. From the small hole that the arrow created blood starts to flow. It wells up and stains the snow around red. A moment later, they are gone.

  “Can we at least see…” Rurgrim starts to complain. “Clang!” Rings off his head as he gets rocked back onto his butt. Bouncing off Rurgrim’s head and back into the air is a large fish.

  Helo takes a quick look around and they are next to a lake. The water is in constant motion which is keeping it from freezing. But there are also large fish flying in the sky around them. Helo scans the fish that just hit Rurgrim’s helmet.

  Arctic Jumping Salmon.

  A variant of the Salmon species that has taken their propensity for jumping from the water a step further. Living within the cold north, this fish will leap through the air and sometimes inland.

  Weakness: Dex, Str.

  In Helo’s vision the Salmon’s oversized fins are glowing along with its head and heart. Using his aura, he can tell that the Salmon is close to level 20. Makes sense, this is our third foe, and they go up by five, starting at ten. He thinks as he watches the Salmon jump away.

  The party all stares at Rurgrim and the Fish. Then Rocco burst out into laughter. “HA! OH! HA! Oh, my GODESS!” He points at the fallen dwarf. “You just got knocked on your a… Butt. By a level twenty fish!”

  Everyone else chuckles as well. Rurgrim on the other hand, just glares are Rocco. “And it was broadcasted to the world!” Rocco finishes before clutching his stomach and laughing. The is obviously humor that really hits Rocco hard, normally his personality is much more serious.

  Rurgrim’s hand flexes on his hammer head. He glares at Rocco like he is a lump of metal that needs to be put into place, but then he turns aggressively. Using a unique application of a skill he has mastered, he leaps after the fish.

  The ‘Earthen Wall’ rises from the ground and launches the dwarf after the fish. Everyone stares in amusement as Rurgrim struggles to hit the leaping fish. It isn’t very dexterous, but it moves quickly after each leap.

  “Damn FISH!” He shouts before ripping out his hammer. Slamming it onto the ground he yells “Earth Spear!” Instead of one spear, fifteen launch from the ground. They sound like a flock of birds mixed with grinding earth as they whistle through the air. But they are far too quick for the much weaker fish to dodge.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  One of the fifteen spears strikes the fish in the side. The spear easily penetrates and tears the fish apart. “That was o…” The group disappeared as Rocco was talking.

  “Verkill.” He finishes when they land. The next few fights go by quickly and easily for the group. To everyone’s surprise it is Aiko that steps up to fight them. She explained that she rarely gets the chance to fight anything. So, holding her trusty mace she fights each monster until the level 45 creature.

  With five fights quickly dealt with by their healer they get ready for the actual battles. From here on out things are going to start getting much more difficult.

  “Well. We are prepared for this. Take each fight slowly, spread out the effort.” Hinata says to her party. They did prepare for this the day before. But after watching each of the other nobles. Unfortunately, she doesn’t really count the other parties, they all ended to quickly because they were weak.

  The same could be said about the noble parties like Adan, Isla, and Maria. But at the same time, they all ran out of energy. Adan lost members of his party, but it was mostly because he doesn’t consider their lives valuable. Isla is the same, but at the same time she didn’t lose a single person.

  For the noble parties, they all have a mix of people that can support one another in a fight. Alli would have won against the Minotaur if everyone in her party was fresh and full of energy. Instead, they lost because they had nothing left to give.

  They already knew that this would be the case. They watched and studied Jorden’s videos. But they never truly internalized it. Now, Hinata has. “We take this one fight at a time. Stick to the new plan.”

  As they appear before the level 45 creature, nobody is nervous. Each one of them could beat it single handedly. Working together this should be a simple fight. The only reason they are working together is to conserve and spread out the effort.

  A challenge like this should be easy as cake. Helo can easily absorb their blood and convert the excess vitality into darkness using his ‘Yin-Yang Balance’ title. The issue is, they don’t want to spread around knowledge of Helo’s ability.

  “AHHHHHHHGGHHGHGHGHGHHGH!” The seal… yell moans at them.

  “Is that supposed to be intimidating?” Aiko asks from her spot in the back.

  The only person to respond is the one next to her. Cody shrugs his shoulders and refocuses on the seal.

  Tunnel Seal.

  This seal moves by tunneling through the ice and rock around it. It eats just about anything that it can get its jaws on.

  Weakness: Wis, Per

  “It isn’t very smart and it has poor perception.” Helo says to Hinata. A few members of the party have a way to identify people and creatures. But Helo is the only one that has a skill that can directly ready stats, even if it only displays the weakest.

  “That sounds perfect.” Hinata steps past Helo and Rocco. “Rurgrim raise it up.” Hinata says. Then her mana surges. It isn’t an overwhelming force like Maria. Hinata’s mana twists and turns in the air, conjuring a false reality around the seal.

  “Rocco I’m going to try and lead it to you.” Hinata says.

  Rurgrim does his job, using his immense skill with his ‘Earthen Wall’ skill. He lifts the ground from under the seal. At the same time, it is blinded by an array of color from Hinata’s illusion.

  Then the illusion splits and the seal can see the ground in front of it again. The seal dives forward and tries to use its abilities to travel through the ground, only there is no ground. It breaks through the illusion and directly into Rocco’s sword.

  “Foxfire Cut. Whirlwind Slash.” Rocco calmly says. His sword is engulfed in pale blue fire. Mixing the two skills, Rocco slashes the seal a dozen times as it falls in front of him. By the time the seal hits the ground and attempts to tunnel away, both of its flippers are cut off and it is already bleeding out.

  Then when it lifts its head to bellow at Rocco, an ice infused arrow sinks into its eye with a wet “Thuck.”

  The team gets lucky as their next foe is on the lower end of the spectrum. Instead of a fresh tier 2 foe, they are facing a level 49 peak tier 1. Before they have time to spot their foe. Aiko steps through the group and taps Hinata, Rocco, Cody and Rurgrim. Each time she says, “Regeneration.” And the party members glow with a soft radiance.

  “Is this… helping my regeneration?” Rocco asks.

  Aiko smiles at her party. “Yeah, I didn’t know it before, but I tried it earlier when Alli got back, it doesn’t just help with healing.”

  “This is perfect!” Hinata says happily. She breaks her serious facade at the news. This skill should help them all a lot. “We are definitely going to beat the level 75 creature now.”

  As she finishes speaking the ground starts to rumble. It isn’t the heavy steps of a massive beast, but the constant rumbling of something else. Everyone looks around, but it is Cody that spots the creature first.

  On a hill near them a large monster is rolling down toward them. The creature is a hundred meters away, but each second it is gaining speed. In moments plans and ideas flash though Hinata’s head. The creature is only tier 1, so it’s stats shouldn’t be overwhelming.

  “I wish I had Carl to taunt it.” Hinata pouts. Most of the plans that she is making include the ability to direct the creature. As the creature draws closer Helo reads his ‘Detect Weakness’ out loud.

  Arm-a-Rollo

  An armadillo mixed with something else. It sits on top of hills and mountains. Once it spots its prey it rolls down with overwhelming force.

  Weakness: Dex, Vit.

  “Also, it is hard to tell with the speed it is rolling. But there is a gap in its armor somewhere.” Helo debates on using ‘Bloodline Awakening’. With the massive boost in speed, he thinks that he could spot the gap in its armor. Before he decides to Hinata speaks up.

  “Check again when it slows.” They only have a few seconds left when Hinata finally comes up with a plan. “Helo, try and draw its attention.”

  With a nod Helo runs away from the group and summons a ‘Dark Blade’. It rises from his shadow, with a skillful flick of his aura, the blade is lightly tossed into the air and in his hand.

  As he does, Hinata steps up to the rest of her party and starts to tell them the plan. The monster doesn’t follow his movement; it continues its way toward Hinata and the rest of the group.

  Tossing the skill made blade as hard as he can, Helo laces it with ‘Forced Still’. As the blade sails through the air, he feels some satisfaction. There was a time that using two skills together would have stressed his channels, adding a third could have done damage.

  Now, he can use four skills at the same time before he feels any pressure. Part of the reason is that with each point that gets added to Will, the more he can focus on at the same time.

  Before the blade can strike the creature. The side of its armored body starts to peel away. Then while rolling at an immense speed, an arm emerges from the side. Everyone freezes for a moment at the bizarre sight. The arm isn’t spinning; it is incredibly steady. Even though the body is attacked to is spinning rapidly. The arm seems to be made from some kind of shell and filled with a large amount of muscle. It stretches out to the side and flexes like it is posing.

  Helo can’t help but think. How? Why isn’t it spinning and how can it see? Is that why the ‘Arm’ in its name is separate? To him, this is one of the most bizarre creatures he has seen yet.

  To his surprise the arm flips forward and catches the blade in the air. It appears to be unharmed by the blade, but ‘Forced Still’ still activates. To his relief, the skill causes half the monster’s body to be sluggish, and it slightly veers to its right side.

  With the monster’s forward momentum broken slightly, it just barely skates past where Hinata and the rest of the party are. They were ready to defend themselves, but they were also trying to set up their trap.

  As the Arm-A-Rollo moves past it stirs up a powerful wind showing just how powerful its movements are. Running back to the party, Helo sighs. He is glad that worked out, he doesn’t have any kind of ‘Taunt’ skill. He was banking on the monster being affected by ‘Forced Still’.

  Before he can ask about the plan. The rolling creature makes a wide and fast turn. Then it rolls up a nearby hill. It is much shorter than where it was, but by the time it reaches the top, it comes to a stop. As its momentum bleeds away, it finally comes to a halt at the peak of the hill.

  The monster’s body slowly turns until it is facing them. Then with slow and delicate movements, the creature unrolls itself. It ends up standing on two stubby hindlegs and staring down at them from a few hundred feet away.

  The creature looks like an armadillo but instead of having two front forelegs it has two massive armored and muscular arms jutting from the side of its body.

  “Um… I guess it looks kind of cute.” Aiko says while staring up at it. She keeps tilting her head from side to side. She stares at it like she is trying to convince herself.

  “Sorry Aiko, but I am going to have to disagree.” Rocco says, “It looks freaky.”

  “I’m with the lanky shit.” Rurgrim says in a gruff tone.

  Rocco looks to the side with a glare, but the two of them are always picking at one another. Before he can say something back, the Arm-A-Rollo’s stubby hindlegs flex and the thing launches itself a surprising distance into the air. It then curls into at ball and hits the side of the hill with a thunderous noise.

  It leaves a crater in its wake, and its arms flick out its sides. Then using both arms, the monster starts to propel itself faster down the hill. “Alright. Get ready. Stay close.” Hinata calls.

  “Steady.” She says as Aiko starts to fidget. They are all standing on the cold icy ground as the powerful monster gathers its speed and draws closer. “Steady.”

  Helo is about to ask what is happening. The monster is seconds away and Hinata is still calling for them to be steady. “NOW!” She shouts.

  Two things happen at the same time. The icy cold air that was gathering due to Cody’s ‘Cold Enhancement’ flows forward and creates a large wall of ice. It blocks the monsters’ view, and their own.

  The second thing to happen is the ground beneath them falls away and they all drop almost eight feet. Each of them has plenty of stats under their belt. They all hit the ground easily. Up above the rolling monster hits the ice wall. It smashes through with contemptuous ease, and it rings out with a shattering crunch.

  Then the monster finds everyone gone. As it barrels overhead, it rolls past and suddenly the entire area shakes. The ground rumbles and there is the sound of grinding rock overhead.

  Jumping out of the hole, Helo looks to where the Arm-A-Rollo passed overhead. About ten feet away, the ground seems to have caved in, but that isn’t the surprising part. There is a hole in the ground the same size as the rolled-up creature.

  In the path that it took, there is a hole that seems to go on forever. Due to the downward slope, even Helo’s impressive night vision can’t even see the end.

  Hinata jumps up beside him. “You said it hits with overwhelming force. So, I assumed that there wasn’t much we could do to stop it. Well, other than wear ourselves out. So, using Rurgrims impressive use of his Earthen Wall. I had him dig a hole for us to drop into, and one for the monster.”

  Helo looks at the hole, “You had him angle it down and leave the roof intact, so the easiest way for the monster to go, was further down.” Helo nods. It was a smart plan, let the earth itself bleed away the monster’s momentum.

  The team has to wait a few minutes, but it is just a few minutes where Aiko’s ‘Regeneration’ can refill Rurgrim and Cody’s mana. But eventually they can hear a constant “Thud! Thud!” From the hole into the ground.

  A few seconds later the creature is back. It is using its two powerful arms to drag itself from the hole. Once it is in sight, they are able to finish it off quickly. The monster has nowhere to run and it can’t turn around. Its front is incredibly squishy. It might have high endurance with its shell, but its vitality wasn’t great.

  As the monster goes down to Cody’s arrow. The group teleports to their first tier 2 fight of the day. This time they find themselves in front of a monster that is different from anything they have fought before.

  This isn’t a natural animal that has been mutated due to mana, this seems to be a true monster that manifested due to the wild ambient mana. Its thick shaggy fur is an off-white that blends into the barren land. Its legs are arched and impossibly long. Lifting the monster a dozen feet into the air. Its arms are incredibly small and dangle below its body. The monster’s body seems to be all teeth, with a single large eye and a massive mouth.

  Helo stares up at whatever this thing is and has no idea what to think. To his side Hinata nudges him. “What does your skill say?”

  Yongeldeg.

  Long Legged Monster from the Lagar Galaxy. Used for long distance travel through open landscapes.

  Weakness: Dex, End, Wis, Int.

  “That is a lot of weaknesses.” Hinata mutters as she stares at the tall creature. Its two legs arc out and are over a dozen feet from one another. “Well, with low endurance we can just hit it tell it drops.”

  “Cody. Start us off.” Hinata says to the silent teenager.

  The tall half-giant draws back his massive bow and looses his arrow. As soon as it sails through the air, the monster is gone.

  “Wah!” Hinata says. Before she can look for it, she is tackled from the side. Helo hits her hard and they go tumbling away. She is about to yell at him but before she can, there is a loud dual “Thud!” From where they were.

  Looking back the monster landed where they just were. Rocco and Aiko managed to get away. But directly under the monster’s large all mouth body, Cody and Rurgrim are staring up at it.

  It’s two legs release and the monster’s ball like body drops down. Its single large eye gleams as it drops in its prey. Before it can latch onto the taller half-giant, he sinks into the ground. Infront of him, a wall of earth emerges.

  Cody isn’t used to being on the front line, but Rurgrim is. Thinking quickly, he used ‘Earthen Wall’ to do two things at once. Drop Cody and make a wall. Swiftly drawing his hammer, Rurgrim hits the ‘Earthen Wall’ as it rises into the air. “Earth Spear!” He calls.

  The large mass of earth that was already moving suddenly forms into a sharp point and sales from the ground. It stabs into the joint between the monster’s large leg and body. But before it can do any real damage, one of the useless looking dangling arms reaches out and shatters the spear.

  “It’s speed and strength are high.” Helo calls out as he studies the monster.

  When he says that Hinata feels a bit of self-recrimination. She heard what Helo said about its weaknesses and assumed it was weak. Not that its other stats were just high.

  Just as Helo is about to join the fight Rocco and Cody make their moves. From below the monster ice starts to form into its own wall. But it forms around one of the monster’s legs. At the same time Rocco uses ‘Reposition’. It is an interesting skill that speeds up Rocco’s movement based on the reason he is moving.

  Helo isn’t sure but he thinks it is some kind of weird spirit magic. But Rocco can increase his speed to insane levels if he is moving to cover a teammate. He can also move at fast speeds if he is moving into an advantageous position.

  With a use of the movement skill Rocco flashes pash Cody in a blur of blue fire. Then he lands twenty feet away. In the line of his movement, there is a deep gash cut directly where Rurgrim attempted to spear the monster.

  “GRRAHHHHEHERRRR!” The monster shouts as the wound burns more than its flesh. Its spirit cries out in agony, and the monster loses itself to the pain. Just as its focus is lost, Cody and Rurgrim strike together.

  With accidentally synergy. A dual earth and ice wall rises from the ground. The ground around them starts to sink, while the air warms up. By the time the dual attack is done, the Yongeldeg is completely covered in ice and earth.

  Rocco jumps up and lands ontop of the monstrous statue that his teammates made. Holding out a hand, he grabs his wrist with his other hand. Focuing intently, he starts to draw blue fire into his palm.

  As the blaze grows, they can hear a cracking noise coming from the statue. Then before it can freeitself. Rocco launches the pale blue blazing ball down. “Fixfire Spear!” Rocco calls out in a yell.

  At the same time as his attack lands and the monster’s spirit burns away, three teammates hear a “Bing” at the same time.