91 The Final Rif (1/2)
Hod raised his wings, “But Hod can fly. Harbinger not able to fly, so Hod go faster than Harbinger.”
I charged my runes, getting them ready for travel, “Well, I got this new skill that lets me move fast. It should level the playing field, and I wanted to see just how much a difference it made.”
Hod clasped his hands into three-fingered fists, “Then Hod crush Harbinger under talon foot...Hod not literally crush Harbinger. Hod figuratively crush Harbinger...Hmmm...What Hod meant-”
I raised a palm to him, “I get it Hod. It’s just some friendly competition. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
I opened my mini-map at the corner of my screen. Since the quarantine zone shrunk so much, we didn’t need to take the sewer for as long this time. We could have a reasonable distance for the race instead of just a few feet towards the nearest manhole. A shorter race suited Hod since he had no ramp up time. A longer race suited me since I got faster and faster with time.
So after letting Hod know where we were going, we both set into our starting positions. He ducked down, raising his wings and head up at a forty five degree angle. I set up in a sprinter’ stance.
“Alright Hod, whenever you jump up, I’ll start running too. Whoever gets there first wins.”
Hod nodded before shooting off the ground. I sprinted forwards right after. Once I got a few strides away from Torix’s lair, I shot off the ground. Leaving a quake and deafening boom behind me, I flew through the air. Hod already put some distance between us, though my leap closed that gap by quite a bit.
Once I dived into the earth and jumped again, Hod stopped flying faster than I was leaping. After the third leap, I closed in on him. Three leaps later and I passed by him. As I did, I passed within earshot of him,
“Who’s got wings now?”
Hod looked at me as I passed by him, a look of utter shock spread on his face,
“Hod not know Harbinger fly too. Hod fly longer though. Hod knows the sky, and Hod knows the wind.”
Hod flapped his wings, flying further up into the sky. By burning through his stamina, he raised himself far into the sky. I dived into the ground before making another leap. As I shot back up through the air, Hod glided downwards. He pressed his arms against his sides and built up speed before swooping up.
He shot over the tops of the houses, just above most buildings. With his maneuver, he shot passed me again. Not wanting a loss, I racked my brain for a solution. Over time, I would beat Hod regardless because of how fast he got. The race wasn’t much longer now though. We were almost to the sewer cover Torix set up for us.
With a split second decision, I landed on the ground before swimming through it. This was my final gambit for the race. Instead of flying out at a forty five degree angle, I kept the angle much closer towards the ground. This meant less of the overcharging was shooting me upwards and more was being used on going forward.
I shot out of the ground, drilling through a few tree branches and the walls of a house. They didn’t slow me in the slightest as my speed increased. The ground came back much faster this time since I wasn’t in the air as long as before. I slid into the ground before making another leap.
A bonus I hadn’t expected with this new method was wasting less mana. I could only overcharge my runes so much before they stopped taking mana in. Since my last stat boost, I couldn’t leap enough to disperse my mana in time. That meant some of the mana was wasted.
With more frequent leaps, the endless spring of my mana could be used to its fullest. I shot in and out of the earth. My speed built several times faster than before, ramping up at a rapid pace before a notification appeared on my screen,
Breakthrough Achieved! The coming Tide(lvl 3)-->(lvl 28)
It was a nice surprise as I slammed against the side of a skyscraper. The windows of the building shattered as my telekinetic wave wobbled the ten floor building. It wasn’t some massive building, but causing it to shift at all was a feat of strength.
Behind the skyscraper, the quarantine barrier went high into the sky. Far off explosions echoed. Bursts of blue and green plasma caused the spreading sounds. Gunfire gave everything a pattern of white noise, almost masking every other normal sound. Beetles drilled through nearby streets, racing off into the heat of battle. Some carried supplies and others were going to kill.
There was a war waging behind me. That knowledge put some fire under my feet. Beneath me was the manhole cover. I jumped off the side of the building, crushing the pavement under my feet like playdough. A minute later, Hod arrived.
He spread his wings wide, the drag on his feathers slowing him down before his feet dragged on the road. He dug two trenches as they tore through the pavement too. Hod turned to me,
“Harbinger fast, faster than Hod. Hod not know Harbinger holding back.”
I kicked up the manhole cover, snatching it with a hand,
“Naw, I just got lucky and got a breakthrough in one of my skills.”
Hod walked up to the sewer cover, “Ahhh. Hod understand. Hod get those all the time.”
He jumped into the sewer before I did the same. As we ran through the tunnels, I asked,
“What kind of breakthroughs are you getting?”
Walking up walls and shooting past concrete and brick, Hod shrugged,
“Harbinger know the easy ones. Hod get Flight skill, Dirk Mastery skill, even the Eldritch Infestation skill. Hod get all kinds of skills since coming to new world.”
I blinked at the sound of the last skill, “What is the Eldritch Infestation skill?”
Hod shook his head, “Hod not really know exact answer. Hod know it as rage. Hod let voices in head take over mind. Voice fight for Hod. Hod take back control after fight over.”
My stomach sank, “Wait a second Hod...you’re letting voices in your head take over your body...then they’re giving you back control?”
Hod nodded, “Hod not think about it like that, but Hod agree with Harbinger.”
I frowned, my brain setting off at the realization. If what Hod said was true, his whole mana poisoning thing hadn’t been mana poisoning. It was the eldritch taking over. If it finished, Hod would become a level 1000+ eldritch running around.
Stopping it wouldn’t be that hard though. Our group already had a resident who was under the constant threat of being consumed by eldritch. Using her as an example, I tore off a strip of my armor as we ran along. I made the strip of armor into a ring, using my flow of mana for added strength as I bent the metal.
After finishing the ring, I pulled out my grimoire from my own spatial ring. I carved a few runic letterings as we ran. Hod badgered me as I did,
“Hod wonder, how is Harbinger writing in book while running?”
I glanced up from the runic lettering, noticing the passing scenery. I glanced at Hod,
“Well, some things you do are very time consuming and difficult. If you can turn those hard things into skills, they don’t take up as much space in your mind. That lets you do more stuff than would be able to do otherwise.”
I stared back down at my grimoire, “In this case, I’m just running with my mythical skill, The Coming Tide. It doesn’t take any thought to make it work. Instead of looking up, I’m using my mini-map as a guide. That lets me write in my grimoire as I run. It saves me some time.”
A burst of white fog emitted from Hod’s eyes,
“Hod not understand how Harbinger so smart. Hod impressed.”
The complement threw me off from my runic carving. I never considered myself as very smart. I could get by with a bit of willpower and some brute strength on most occasions. Outsmarting my foes? That had never been my forte. With the surge in stats, particularly willpower and intelligence, my smarts grew quite a bit.
Interrupting my thoughts, Hod slipped on a vine before smashing into a concrete wall. I dismissed his compliment, remembering who it came from. Hod shook his fist,
“Vine outsmart Hod this time. Next time Hod outsmart vine!”
I doubted the likelihood of that ever happening. I shook my head, homing back in on the runic carvings. Once I finished the basic inscription for a conduit, I channeled a bit of my mana into the grimoire. The letters glided off the page before I imprinted them onto a ring I made for Hod.
Blood of Tribute(lvl requirement: 500) - This ring allows mana to be siphoned off to its creator, The Harbinger of Cataclysm. +5 endurance, willpower, constitution, and strength for one minute with the sacrifice of 100 or more mana. If ambient mana is controlling the wearer of this ring, then the ring cannot be removed.
The ring ended up doing what I wanted a bit more. I put my grimoire into my spatial ring, being careful with the precious artifact. I let Hod catch back up, tossing him the ring,
“Here Hod. Put this on. Whenever you feel like that black aura is choking you, just put the mana through this. My armor will just eat it.”