1.16 Yippy Ki-Yay

Chapter 16

My sword clashed against Barry’s, sliding down to his cross guard and forcing the weapon wide. I sent in a punch with my free hand, but he pulled his shield into place for a block, my attack clashed against the steel with a loud ringing bang!

His follow up slash came from below, and I leaned backward to dodge, the tip barely grazing the side of my cheek and drawing a thin line of red.

My counter hooked my sword under his shield and tossed it high, leaving him open for the kick I sent into his stomach and knocking him backward a few feet.

[Blood Manipulation – Lvl 2 – Beginner]

My mana stirred to life in my body, a tendril of it traveling up to my face and stopping the cut Barry had left from bleeding almost instantly. It was a use of my new skill that I had learned in the two weeks since I had been rewarded it in the Common Dungeon.

In the privacy of my own room I had practiced with the skill to the point that it had levelled up once, and I had learned I had a measure of control over my own blood flow. Letting me supply more oxygen to my muscles, or to stop my wounds from bleeding. These uses also hid the activation of my skill, as all the effects were internal.

Given my many lies around my abilities and skills so far, I couldn’t reveal the skill, not even to Barry. Which felt a bit wrong, as I knew I could trust the guy, we had talked a lot and trained together many times. He was a good guy, a bit naive maybe, with starry eyes and ideas of peace and prosperity for humanity that didn’t exactly align with my own.

But that’s what made me like him more. He saw the good in people.

I saw the evil in them.

“You are really good with your unarmed skills, but your sword technique seems to be lagging behind, that Mastery Skill giving you trouble still?” Barry said as he put away his equipment.

“Well, I learned martial arts before the System even came,” I said, putting my own sword back into my inventory. Our little spar inside the cave facility was now over.

Around us, many others still fought and practiced, skills and spells flashing about in the immense space. Far off to the side, Huwett, Francis and Norton sat or stood against the metal wall, watching. Vasquez was still off by himself, practicing his own magic.

“Wish I had trained before all this too, would have been seriously helpful and made me even better at this stuff. You have an Epic class, yet you are still as strong as all the Hunters with Mythic classes.” Barry’s armor vanished next, leaving him in the white athletic shirt and shorts that the military supplied to us.

My own armor went away too, leaving me in similar attire, but in black. “Looks like it was a rather good class fit for me. Except for the weapon choice, I don’t think a sword is my thing even with the Mastery skill. Maybe I should lean more into the rogue style and go for daggers?” I rubbed the back of my neck.

My words were only a partial lie. I was better with my weapon than I really let on, trying to downplay things, as usual. But I could still see that my talent with the blade was below what I saw from other melee fighters with their chosen weapons.

Francis was amazing with his axe, especially after his new skill. Huwett was almost magical with her bow. Even Norton, who was a healer class and not a fighter, could perform some amazing feats with his new staff.

“Perhaps, we’ll have to give it a try and see how they feel for you. Let’s rest though, I’m hungry.” Barry nodded towards the rest of the crew and I nodded in agreement.

I took a seat with my back against the wall next to Francis, Huwett standing to my left.

“Here you go buddy,” Norton waved a hand, and light-green mana flashed from his fingers. I felt the sting on my face quickly dissipate as he healed my cut. It was barely worth the mana he spent to cast the spell, but the large smile he got on his face from doing it made me only smile back and throw a thumbs up.

“Thanks!”

“For sure man!” He gave a thumbs up back, his large frame shifting from the movement. The guy was basically a grizzly bear wearing a nurse’s outfit. I shuddered at the thought of how powerful he would be with a class like Francis’.

“How are the others doing?” Huwett asked.

“Everyone’s still restless, upset. The delay on the vote is making them fearful from the uncertainty,” Barry explained between mouthfuls of a protein bar.

The congressional proposition vote had been delayed two weeks. Which meant we still had a few days to go before we learned if we would officially be classified as government property in all but name.

“I don’t blame them,” Francis muttered beside me. “My skin itches from the anticipation as well. I just don’t know what the right thing is here.”

“It’ll be alright, things’ll work the way they need to in the end,” Barry said.

“How can you be so sure?” I couldn’t stop myself from asking.

He smiled at me, “Because humans always end up doing the right thing in the end, even if it seems like we get it wrong at first sometimes.”

“I hope that’s true,” Norton said.

“I know it is.”

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“Well.” I stood and stretched, my knees popping loudly from the effort. “You wanna go next Francis? I wanna see what new tricks you can do with that axe.”

“Oh hell yeah!” He boomed as he jumped to his feet beside me. “I learned this new thing, it’s gonna knock your damn socks off, guaranteed.”

“Then show me, we’ll see if I need to start packing extra socks!”

“You asked for it, don’t say I didn’t w—”

“Attention! Emergency deployment! Proceed to the hangar bay!” A loud voice broke over the intercoms of the large training area. The voice was female, one of the many facility workers.

“What the?” I turned to Barry, Norton and Huwett, but they all looked as confused as I was.

“Proceed to the hangar bay!” the announcement said again.

We all ran toward the exit doors, three dozen bodies moving at superhuman speed. Vasquez found our group and joined us as we ran through the tunnels towards the hangar, and we all entered the bay together.