Chapter 11:

Caleb flew through the valleys. His body worked like a machine as he ran faster than any human ever had before. Faster than any olympic sprinter had ever dreamed, and with the endurance of an ultra-maration runner. Superhuman levels of fitness.

Unfortunately, now wasn’t the time to focus on his incredible athleticism – there were assholes that needed saving. Again. The glow from the crystal had long since died down and hadn’t shone again. He didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing. Maybe they’d accidentally activated it, or maybe they were all dead. He’d told them to only use the crystal for emergencies.

He saw several wandering bands of monsters as he ran, but didn’t even bother to slow down and kill them. The lower level boggarts were starting to barely even be worth the aether. When he killed them, he could hardly even feel a difference in how close he was to the next aether level up. Their deaths would be little more than wasted time.

I said I’d bring back a wolf for dinner. Whoops. Hopefully they’ll understand.

An hour later, the blue mountain loomed ahead. Its base rose into shadow and clouds up above, its summit crowned with the faint outline of the plaza, thousands of feet above. From here, he couldn’t hear anything but the wind keening through the cliffs.

He didn’t hesitate. Fingers dug into the stone, feet kicked off ledges, and Caleb climbed. He moved up the mountain face as though he weighed nothing, bounding and hauling himself higher with effortless speed, ascending almost as fast as he ran along the ground. Each throw and catch of his arms launched him upward.

Caleb crested over the edge, seeing the plaza at last – hearing it, too. Snuffling, snarling, growling, ugly, disgusting sounds. And yelling voices. The plaza was still covered in dead boggarts from his first real fight in this new world. But it was now also swarming with more living ones. Over a dozen were gathered near the center, around Bolvun’s giant body, digging their teeth into his cold flesh, while others had gathered near the cave entrance.

What the hell happened? Do they respawn after a certain amount of time? Shit, did I bring them back to a deathtrap and leave them alone?

He jumped forward, sicking himself on the boggarts distracted by eating the massive corpse. He didn’t even need to use his Presence. His fists tore through them reckless ease, sending bodies flying, bones breaking, and streaks of blood across the stone and snow.

It felt almost unfair, like he were picking on someone not even close to his own size. The thought only amused him. Boggarts may be small and weak to him now, but they were a deathly threat to the others. That must be what’s going on at the mouth of the cave. I need to finish this quickly.

His fist caved in the chest of the final boggart just as it tried to jab at him with its flimsy spear. It dropped to the ground with a wet gurgle.

Then he was off toward the cave, sprinting across the plaza and roaring to get the boggarts’ attention. He could hear yelling from inside the cave, but was unable to make out who. Again, he didn’t release his Presence. He didn’t have perfect control of it yet and the last thing he wanted was for it to cause someone to get killed by stunning them at an inopportune moment.

The boggarts turned toward him, one already jabbing a crude spear, spittle flying from its dirty mouth. Caleb twisted his body, the point scraping harmlessly against his ribs as a spectral fist struck out and took off its head. They swarmed around him. Spears struck, deflected off his hardened skin, points snapping. He could hardly even feel them. They tickled. A toothy grin carved its way across Caleb’s face and he lashed outward. The boggarts didn’t stand a chance. He was a tornado of death, ripping through them like a scythe through grain. Red mist geysered through the air.

Out of the corner of his eye, Caleb saw Chloe trying to wrestle the spear from a boggart’s grip. Her hair was matted, stuck to the side of her face by a streak of red, clothes ripped, a broken spear sticking from her thigh, face snarling with rage. She stood in front of the door the room Caleb had left them in, a ring of bodies surrounding her.

For an instant, their eyes met. Then, the monster she was wrestling with exploded.

Caleb pulled a dripping spectral fist back, the boggart’s body sloughing off it as he helped Chloe stand with one arm. As soon as he helped to support her weight, her legs gave out from underneath her and Caleb was forced to catch her. Her head rested against his chest, shoulder heaving as she gulped in breaths of cold air.

The fight hadn’t even lasted long enough for Caleb to feel Ferocity Passive ability.

He helped Chloe back to the crystal room and sat her against the wall. She mouthed a breathy ‘thank you’ then closed her eyes. Tyler and Angela were near the back edge of the room, seated. Tyler had a spear in his lap, dozens of cuts covering his body. Angela looked to be unconscious, but then Caleb saw the puddle of blood she was sitting in. He grit his teeth. Not unconscious.

The fire burned with a low crackle, light smoke gathering at the ceiling. For a moment, nobody spoke.

“What happened here?” Caleb asked, standing straight and glaring toward Tyler. There was a noticeable absence. “Where’s Lucas?”

Tyler swallowed heavily, wincing in pain at every slight movement. His voice was even weaker than it was before. “We told him not to,” he stammered. “But he insisted.”

“Insisted what?”

Tyler’s eyes flickered toward Angela. He looked away and squeezed them shut. “You told us to stay here and that’s what we were going to do. That’s what we did.” He placed a hand on his chest and looked to Chloe, but not to Angela. “But Lucas insisted that he could go out and train and it would be fine. He said it would be better if we were all strong and not just you. We tried to tell him to stay but he wouldn’t listen to us. He just grabbed a spear and walked out. We called you right away.”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Caleb’s heels scraped against the ground. “So he’s gone?”

Tyler nodded.

Probably dead, too, then. He was level two. There’s no way he’ll be able to survive longer than a few hours. Damn idiot.

Caleb glanced toward Chloe and inspected her. His brows rose.

Chloe Han
Aether Level 5

Aether Level five? Impressive. No wonder she was able to put up such a good fight against the boggarts.

He did the same to Tyler and was less impressed.

Tyler Brown
Aether Level 2