Rune Seeker

Hiral didn’t rush – or even activate his time runes – as the warthogs charged in his direction. They were far too slow to catch him, and the reduced gravity wasn’t helping their cause. It wasn’t affecting them much – they’d clearly resisted most of it, like a debuff – but it was there. Good to know. The next question was whether he could be selective about who the fields impacted. For example, he’d nearly brained himself on the ceiling before because he didn’t resist it in the least.

So, could he turn it off for himself?

A thought and an alteration to the solar energy connecting to his Edict, and Hiral Rejected himself up and over the incoming pigs a second time. Unlike before, he didn’t shoot uncontrollably up, but instead obeyed the normal laws of gravity, landing deftly behind the monsters even as they crashed into the stone pillars a second time. They really don’t learn.

But, Hiral had. He really could decide who the field affected and who it didn’t. On the downside, though, was the fact enemies could likely resist most or all the effects. Then again, even small debuffs could change the tide of a fight, though he’d have to watch the solar energy expenditure. It wasn’t breaking him, but if he combined it with a lot of other abilities in a fight, it would add up.

On the topic of other abilities, it was time to move on to the next test. More of those gravity bombs. What could he do with them quickly? His previous attempt had been pretty concentrated – and slow – but if he wanted to use them with his fighting style, they’d need to be much faster to activate. Almost like Banst and her finger snapping.

With that in mind – and resisting the urge to snap his own fingers – Hiral focused on the first boar to turn back around. Targeting the animal directly would result in it having a chance to resist, even partially, what he wanted to do. To counter that, Hiral focused the gravity at a spot just to the side of it, then released.

Once again, nothing happened. And this wasn’t the same case as last time where he just didn’t notice it – there really was no reaction. Why? Ah, because this time he’d focused on a single point. Previously, he’d created a tunnel.

It wasn’t like gravity was a suction, per se. Well, at least not when he did it, though Seeyela’s Gravity Wells were certainly like that. His previous success had come when he’d envisioned two portals in different places, with gravity being used to pull the distance together. That’s how he’d figured the woman’s portals worked. Sure, he’d been wrong about that, but it’d still created that strange result.

So, he tried it again even as the injured boars once more stomped in his direction. Reaching out with his rune and Edict, Hiral created two – much smaller than last time – points in space he wanted to bring together through gravity. While no portals appeared, he did feel the central point in reality rapidly build. Even better, it’d only taken a fraction of a second, and Hiral immediately released the small bomb.

The burst staggered the boar to the side, directly into the path of its compatriot, making them both stumble, and shaved off a good chunk of its health bar. Along with its shoulder. Both of the monsters were looking pretty beat up by this point, but Hiral still had more tests.

Reaching out again, Hiral this time created four points in space, with two more small bombs forming between them. No idea why they’re behaving like this, but at least it’s quick. Just as he was about to release the blasts for these though, movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. The Edict of Gravity had moved closer to the two monsters as he’d formed the last bombs.

He didn’t even know the Edictcould move!

They’d always appeared in the same general place to his vision, kind of like distant notification windows. They were always the same distance from him. Always the same height from the ground. So why did it move?

The question burned in Hiral’s mind as he released the two bombs, blasting the other boar in the side to rip more flesh from it and send it careening into its ally. Thanks to the damage done to both – and the force of the burst – this sent the entwined pair crashing to the ground. Hiral barely paid it any attention, immediately forming another gravity tunnel and the bomb inside. The Edict didn’t budge, so he released his hold over gravity in a small burst. Another attempt after that, but still no reaction.

Two pairs and their bombs? No change. What was it he’d done differently last time? He’d barely been thinking about it, and the two bombs had formed so naturally. It wasn’t any more difficult when he was concentrating on it, so why didn’t it work the same way? What was he missing?

While he mused it over, the two warthogs hefted themselves to their feet, pools of blood left staining the ground where they’d just been. The sight of that blood – and their depleted health bars – suddenly reminded him these were still Chimeras, and if he wasn’t careful, they’d get low enough they’d probably combine like the hyenas had. By the simple fact they hadn’t done it yet, despite the damage, there had to be a threshold. They were both around forty percent now.

Maybe it’s time to stop playing with these ones. Don’t want to risk them getting suddenly stronger.

Hiral walked towards them as the beasts took up the charge again, while he reactivated his Echo Aura. Casually tossing out half-a-dozen more gravity tunnels – and their associated bombs – ahead of the charging monsters, his eyes widened as the Edict of Gravity moved again, slipping into the space central to the six bombs.

He didn’t even have time to wonder about it before those bombs detonated, right as the Chimeras charged through. The resulting blasts tore chunks of meat from the beasts, and sent them stumbling in his direction. Another Rejection-powered leap had him up and over, while his Lost Echoes formed. A pair of punches and explosions ended the fight once and for all.

But Hiral was already running down the path towards where Left and Right had gone. The way those last bombs had formed – and their results – had given him a clue. One he’d been stupid to ignore before. Why hadn’t he seen it?

Seen it? He chuckled to himself as he vaulted one warthog body after another. It looked like the doubles were doing their best to make up for his slacking. When he finally caught up to them, the pair was engaged with seven of the hairy monsters, another two already dead on the ground.

“Bout time you showed up,” Right said, tossing out a quick jab that sent a boar staggering sideways into a dark, icy wing. From there, a quick slash from the Dagger of Sath toppled the monster over, its leg frozen and unresponsive. That created a barrier to prevent a second boar from sneaking up on the pair, and they in turn split apart to engage with new enemies.

Just a few seconds of watching, and Hiral felt himself get pulled into the music of their fight. The Primal Chord echoed just out of earshot, his doubles’ movements playing along perfectly with the tune. The boars, though they struggled, got tugged right along with it, each of their attacks, dodges, and pained grunts falling in perfect time like they were choreographed. And since Hiral could hear it so clearly, it only seemed right he joined in.

Falling into the rhythm, he let the music guide him as he crafted a pair of gravity tunnels on opposite sides of the room. To anybody who could see them – which nobody could, since they were basically invisible – they would seem wildly out of place. Away from the fight. Until, with the next beat of the Chord of the Primal Echo, two of the warthogs moved just the right way, and found themselves taking an Edict-of-Gravity-powered bomb to the face.

“Yes!” Hiral said as the Edict moved in perfect unison with the music to easily double the power of the small bursts. That was what he’d missed before. He didn’t need to see anything, he needed to listen.

Somehow – unsurprisingly, really – the Edicts could be connected to the Primal Symphony. Or, maybe it wasn’t just the Edicts alone? Maybe it was a combination of them and his fighting style? His Duelist of the Runic Cycle tapped heavily into the Primal Symphony, which could just mean it was an avenue he should use to control the power.

… like he’d previously controlled the flying swords.

Could he really do the same thing with something as powerful as the Edicts?

Only one way to find out! Testing.

And probably some explosions.

Throwing his hands out to his sides – his Coat of Amin Thettsnapping dramatically at the flourish – like he was preparing to perform, Hiral threaded solar energy through his runes and Edicts. What would they ask for? What would he need to do?

Listen, he told himself, breathing out slowly, then inhaling as the music filled him.

It came on like a wave, the power of the Primal Chord drowning out the other sounds of battle – not that he needed them – and he felt the first heavy thump already pulling. Out and to the side, Hiral twisted with Attraction and Rejection speeding up his movement, while a boar careened past. A Lost Echo didn’t form at this one, but that was fine, a flick of Hiral’s left hand calling on the Edict of Gravity to slow the boar’s movement. The effect was partially resisted, the monster only losing a few steps, but it was enough.

Another charging boar – one that had barely missed Right – couldn’t stop in time before colliding with its comrade. The two beasts went tumbling to the ground, and Hiral could’ve finished them both off with a single swing of his greatsword. Except, that wasn’t where the Chord was pulling him – like it knew that wasn’t what he wanted to do.

Leaving the two tangled boars for later, he instead wrapped his other hand in Impact. A turn at the hips, a lunge, and he thrust his fist out – straight into the forehead of a nearby warthog. The blow rang its brain like a bell, the thing staggering to the side like it was drunk, and Hiral swept forward with his other hand. Instead of Impact, Attraction and Connection filled his palm.

A tug on the Edicts’ power created a connection between the boar in front of him and another on the far side of the room. His next thread of solar energy solidified that connection with the power of Attraction – the Edict itself moving between the two animals – to pull them both off-balance. Like a tug of war neither knew they were part of, the movement of one hauled the other sideways. Not done there, Hiral quick-stepped around the closest one, then swept both hands to the side with a wave if Rejection.

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Dust and debris shot away like it’d been caught in a great gust of wind, while the boar itself stumbled sideways, pulling the distant monster along with it – and saving Right from getting gored. At the same time, the recoil of the action threw Hiral towards his next target. Music spinning around him as the tempo picked up, runes and Edicts flared to life across his body.

A twist and dodge snuck him around a sweeping tusk, and he struck with his palm. Sealing, Compression, Absorption,and Energy filled the blow, their power burrowing deep into the monster as two of the Edicts seemed to sear themselves into its sides. Unfortunately for the boar, Hiral wasn’t done there, clawed blades of Separation forming on his other hand before he darted past the animal.

Grievous wounds tore down the warthog’s flank as he passed, Breaking spreading the edges of the cuts so blood gushed out like a waterfall, and completely severing two of its legs. With the one attack, the thing’s health bar dropped to under ten percent, and a pained wail escaped its lips as it toppled twitching to the ground.

Once again, Hiral didn’t finish the creature off, instead sprinting right at the pair of warthogs that had earlier crashed into each other. At the speed he moved, they’d barely managed to untangle themselves when he arrived, hands lashing out in a blur of attacks. Resonating force tore through the pair’s bodies, punishing organs, tearing blood vessels, and shredding muscle.

Both warthogs tried to retreat under the assault, but neither got more than a step in the same amount of time it took Hiral to hit each with half-a-dozen blows. As they took their next step, the runes empowering Hiral’s hands changed with a thought, and he slapped them with Connection and Attraction, binding them to the poor creature he’d nearly eviscerated.

With the motion, the Edict of Attraction followed the beat of the Primal Chord, shifting its position to the center of the room – just a few steps from Hiral – tying five of the seven beasts to it. That just left two more, the Chord already building towards its crescendo and hauling Hiral along with it.

On both sides of the group of monsters, Left and Right circled and harried the beasts, keeping them off balance. Pushing them inward. Cutting, punching, and wearing down the health bars. Blows triggered buffs and debuffs in quick succession. Echoes of monsters from the Third Movement appeared in a burst of solar energy to thwack the nearest enemy before vanishing. To anybody on the outside, it would look like utter chaos.

To Hiral, though, it was all coming together, the Primal Chord resounding through the space.

Hands went to his thighs, RHCs coming off in a practiced motion with rings of Piercing Shot+ already extending from the barrels. It wouldn’t take much to punch a hole straight through a boar’s skull with a single shot at this point, but he instead aimed further back. A pull of each trigger opened a hole in one side and out the other along the boars’ flanks, blood spraying in a gush from each, and dropping their health down to thirty percent each.

As soon as the monsters staggered to the side at the sudden pain, Hiral connected them with two more ropes of Attraction. In the center of the room, right on top of the warthog Hiral had nearly gutted with his claws, the Edict of Attraction pulsed.

But Hiral wasn’t done. He could do more. On a whim, he added the Edicts of Connection and Gravity to the mix, the three glowing scrips pulsing as they circled each other. And, with each orbit around the others, Hiral’s eyes narrowed. The way the Edicts lined up to where he looked at them from, it was almost like they fit together. Like they were smaller parts of…

A snorting bellow from one of the warthogs reminded Hiral he didn’t have time to start daydreaming, the Edicts again pulsing along the tethers connected to each of the monsters.

Though the combination of Edicts didn’t physically pull any of the Chimeras – it would still be too difficult to do that – it drew their attention as surely as Nivian’s Infuriate would. That, coupled with their instinctual need to combine when their health dropped low enough, had the six boars charging towards the seventh.

And straight towards Hiral.

He smiled as he poured power into Attractionand Rejection, then darted in and out of the oncoming stampede. Runes keeping him just out of reach of the crazed monsters, and moving him like the wind, he weaved around every gore, charge, and bite. And, for almost every perfectly timed, dodge, a Lost Echo powered by Right Back at You appeared.

Within the brief seconds it took the warthogs to reach the centre of the room, more than a dozen versions of Hiral filled the space. Still, the Primal Chord demanded more. No, that wasn’t it. The Chord wasn’t demanding it.

Hiral was.

He’d been wrong all this time.

The Lost Chord of the Primal Echo wasn’t leading him. He was leading it.

He smiled as he stomped his foot down to the ground along with a heavy percussion booming around him, the Edict of Increase seemingly etching itself across the entire space. This… this was it, and Hiral launched straight up on a burst of Rejection.

At the same time his feet left the ground, three very important things happened in quick succession.

First, the six charging warthogs reached the seventh.

Second, fifteen Lost Echoes simultaneously struck.

Third, the combination of runes he’d left in the prone boar to seal and absorb the volatile power from its blood went off.

The cacophonous series of explosions shook the Hanging Garden and sent flames shooting through the space between pillars. A Violent End triggered along with the Lost Echoes, sending healing eruptions to wash over Left, Right, and Hiral, even as everything vanished in a sea of red and orange.

A second was all it took to disappear, the sheer amount of energy consuming itself and everything within it in the blink of an eye. And, when it faded, Hiral stood smiling in the air above, Coat of Amin Thett gently flapping in the swirling wind from the explosions.

He looked down at his hands, somehow feeling the music still eddying around him. How had he never noticed before?

“You had that planned?” Right asked, jogging over to stand under Hiral. “And, you coming down?”

A thought cancelled the Rejection and Gravity keeping him up, and Hiral dropped down to land between his doubles. “Totally planned.”

“How?” Left asked. “I felt the music guiding us.”

“Because we’ve been looking at it the wrong way,” Hiral said, taking a quick look to make sure there weren’t any more Chimeras around. In fact, according to the kill counter, the blast had killed more than just the ones in the room, with them up past thirty now. “The Chord isn’t a set path. Not like we thought, at least. It’s like a branching river. Each choice we make opens new choices.”

“But we’re still following the river?” Right asked.

“Yes and no. We can give the Chord a goal. A destination. It helps get us there by drawing others into the music. Think of it like this, like a painting. We outline the image we want – our plan or goal for the fight, even if its just a single move or two ahead of where we are. Then, the Chord gives us the colors to use as we move the brush – ourselves.

“If we stay within the lines we set out – even if we didn’t realize we drew them – we get benefits. Buffs or debuffs, for our Chord. We set the tempo for the fight, and that in turn helps control our opponent. Wait, what if I’m thinking too small about this?

“What was it Odi said when we first started the second trial? The Primal Symphony is the music the world—the universe—made when it was created. Some even say, the music that created the world. What if it’s not one or the other? What if it’s both? It’s cause and effect leading to the next cause, which in turn creates the next effect.”

“Like a dancer listening to impromptu music,” Left mused. “We follow how the music starts, but as we move, we influence the band, changing the tune and tempo to better fit the dance.”

“Exactly!” Hiral pointed at his double. “I’m beginning to think what we learned in the Forge of Ur’Thul was just the beginning. The Chord we got wasn’t the final fighting style, but instead the continued training tool. The first dance step. Almost like an instructor or a teacher who is always beside us. Evolving with us and our fighting style.”

“It would explain why it always incorporated your new weapons,” Right said. “And our growing strength. The things I can do now are way beyond what they were in the Forge of Ur’Thul.”

“Or any new enemy we fought,” Hiral added, considering his double’s words. It was true. They’d grown so much since that dungeon, but the Chord kept evolving right along with them.

“And it reinforces what we do right, so we keep doing that,” Left continued. “Not just the dance steps we’ve mastered, so to speak, but also by teaching us how to anticipate and influence what comes next. We’re simultaneously walking a path set out for us, and creating a new one as we go.”

Left’s words bounced around hard in Hiral’s head. Part of him had been worried about the Chord acting as just another tool for the PIMP to set out his path. But, if what Left said was true – and it felt correct – then could Hiral work within the bounds of both?

The PIMP had an important goal – ridding the world of the Enemy – but Hiral didn’t want to be a tool. He’d spent so long fighting for control over his life and the power of earning his class, that his heart had rebelled against the thought of the PIMP controlling him like that. To the point he’d even considered bucking the entire thing and going it alone. Realistically, it’s not like he could. He needed the damn system to continue growing, and his PIM was part of him.

Still, the dissonance in his head had caused him to lose his way a little. To question everything coming from notification windows, dungeon interfaces, and even himself. No matter how much Li’l Ur talked about how great the Emperor was, Hiral didn’t want to just follow in the man’s footsteps. If he was going to accomplish something, he wanted it to be because of him. Not some legacy.

Hiral looked at the Gloves of Amin Thett on his hands and the glow of the pseudo-aspect on his arm. So, he’d do both.

He’d take what was given to him – his class, his runes, his gear – as the music guiding his steps. But he’d dance to the tune his way. He wasn’t Amin Thett. He was Hiral. Elezad’s son. Nat and Milly’s big brother. Gauto’s best friend. Seena’s boyfriend, and a member of her party. Friends with Yanily, Seeyela, Nivian, and Wule.

The Everfail.

The things the PIMP had given him weren’t – and didn’t have to be – any more influential than any of those other pieces of his life. They’d all shaped him, sure, but he would choose where he was going.

Hiral let out a breath of contentment as the words settled in his head. Like he’d finally resolved a conflict raging inside him, a sense of balance rippled out along with his solar energy. Reality around him stabilized as he got a step closer to his concept of himself. He wasn’t quite up to Nivian’s level of ‘I protect’, but he was gaining ground.

“Looks like he’s figured something out,” Left said, and Hiral realized his doubles were patiently staring at him.

“Yeah,” Hiral said. “About the Chord, I guess, and about myself.”

“Does it explain the Troblins we summon sometimes?” Right asked.

“It’s not a perfect hypothesis,” Hiral admitted, smiling at his doubles as they both smirked. Smart asses.

“Which means there’s only one thing to do,” Left said, and all three of them smiled even bigger.

“Testing,” they said together, then dashed out of the clearing. There were more monsters – test subjects – waiting for them.