Rune Seeker

“Damnit,” Seena swore, the volume of her voice making the animals around her flinch. Luckily, it didn’t go beyond that, and Hiral eyed them carefully. None of them really moved, but their back-leg muscles had tensed. If Seena – or the others – proved to be any kind of threat, the animals would bolt. Then it’d be a stampede, with the party caught right in the middle.

“Drahn,” Seeyela said while gently patting the man’s cheek. “Drahn, can you hear me?”

If the tracker could, he didn’t respond, his body rigid and shaking, white foam oozing from between his clenched teeth.

“I should’ve never brought us down here without a healer,” Seena said. “How are we supposed to deal with debuffs like this…”

“I can remove it.” Hiral knelt beside Drahn and put his hand on the other man’s knee. But, before he could do anything, Seena reached out and grabbed his wrist.

“You take the debuff on yourself,” she reminded him. “When you did it for Yanily, it almost killed you. And we don’t have Wule here to get you back on your feet.”

“I have a B-Rank body now, and High-Speed Regeneration+,” Hiral said. “If anybody can take it, it’s me.”

“And if you can’t?” she pointedly asked.

“Then…” he took a deep breath. “I’ll Reject the debuff onto one of the animals around us. It’ll probably make them stampede, though, so I don’t know if that’s any better.”

“Can’t you use Shared Strength to give him your regeneration?” Yanily asked.

Hiral shook his head. “Because of how closely it’s tied to my body and my Cycling channels, I can’t share it.”

“If you’re going to do something, it’s going to have to be soon,” Seeyela said. “He’s getting worse.”

Under Hiral’s hand, the man’s muscles had completely seized to being practically rock hard while Drahn’s body jerked and flailed in the mud. Path of Butterflies didn’t work since he didn’t have any intent, but getting dirt on his clothes was the least of his worries.

“It’s fine, I’ve got this,” Hiral said, making eye contact with Seena.

Her hand tightened around his wrist. “Just… if it gets to be too much, get rid of the debuff. We’ll deal with the stampede or whatever else happens.”

“You got it, Boss,” Hiral said. But, before he took on the debuff, he braided energy into his Runes of Expansion, Restoration, and Increase. Almost immediately, some of Drahn’s seizing lessened, the restorative domain shimmering around Hiral boosting his body’s natural resistance to the debuff.

Hopefully it’d do the same for Hiral.

As an added benefit, the gentle touch of his runes also seemed to calm the animals around them.

Now for the tougher part.

With one more breath – he couldn’t wait any longer – Hiral activated his Runes of Attraction and Absorption, while concentrating on the debuff wracking Drahn’s body. He didn’t have to wait long for a reaction. Barely a second after he activated the ability, the bubbling blood around Drahn’s thigh practically leapt at his hand.

Streamers of the frothing crimson whipped out like they had a mind of their own, immediately latching on to Hiral’s hand and arm. Sizzling sounded over the dampened, falling rain, and Hiral had to force himself to keep his hand in place. Eating threw his Glove of Ur’Thul, the concentrated acid didn’t slow when it met his flesh. That vanished a second later as the predatory blood entered his system.

You have been afflicted with the Invasive Blood debuff.

Invasive Blood: As an artificial creation, this acidic ‘blood’ carries assimilation protocols, transforming whatever it possesses into another Chimeric entity.

Note: Effects can be lessened or removed through healing or cleansing of debuffs.

Note (2): Blood persists until overwhelmed.

Note (3): Failure to remove debuff before it converts all blood in target’s body results in the death of the host, which will then be reborn as a Chimeric entity.

Even as Hiral read – and shared – the debuff notification, more and more of the blood snaked its way out of Drahn’s body. This must be all the blood the debuff had managed to convert…

And, it was a lot.

Hiral’s restorative aura should be working to help replace the lost blood, but it could only do so much. It wasn’t healing like what Wule could do… and there’d be a limit. The only question was whether or not the debuff had infected too much for the man to survive being without.

“Hiral, how are you doing?” Seena asked, though she’d moved her hand from his wrist – uncomfortably close to the burning blood – to his shoulder.

“No problem,” he said. “It’s not even getting past my wrist. High-Speed Regeneration+ is too much for it.”

“What about your glove?” Yanily asked. “It’ll look kind of silly if you’re only walking around with one.”

“Tsk,” Li’l Ur said. “My gloves are far too powerful to be permanently damaged by something like that. As soon as my would-be apprentice has things under control, the glove will reform. Really, what self-respecting, reformed, legendary evil doesn’t have automatically repairing clothing?”

Only half-listening to the banter, Hiral kept his eyes glued on the blood running from Drahn’s leg to his hand. High-Speed Regeneration+ really was taking care of…

Hiral’s eyes narrowed and he added Connection to his sensory domain, then focused it on his hand. His regeneration wasn’t just combating the Invasive Blood, it was interacting with it somehow. Just what is it doing?

Pouring all his attention into the strange reaction in his hand, he prepared his Rune of Sealing in case he needed to stop the blood from moving any further up his arm. Focused like that, Hiral watched as the blood from the Chimera’sacid mixed with his own blood, stripping components and replacing them with some of the chimeric factors. But, it wasn’t changing all of it. It was like it was taking the “worst” parts of the blood – the weaknesses – and replacing them with something stronger.

Is that why the Chimeric Hyenawas a hyena instead of say, a puppy? It doesn’t just outright replace the source material, it improves it.

And that wasn’t all it was doing to his hand, as he sensed something else mixed in. It was a familiar sensation, but definitely something foreign to his arm. Where had he…?

The Glove of Ur’Thul!

What he was sensing, it was the glove’s ability to magically connect to external things. It was what let him manipulate things he wasn’t touching with more control – which, in retrospect, was wildly convenient considering how it interacted with the Arsenal of Amin Thett and his Duelist class. He’d need to ask Li’l Ur about it later, though, as the reaction in his hand hadn’t slowed. If anything, his High-Speed Regeneration+ was hijacking the Invasive Blood’s ability to improve the base substance running through Hiral’s veins.

At the pace it was going, it would only take a minute to completely repel the strange debuff. The question was… did he want to do that? Was this an opportunity for something more? Sure, testing on his own body was a bit risky, but he could already feel the Gloves’ magic better than he ever had before.

No, he couldn’t let the chance pass.

A quick glance showed the party watching him closely for any signs the blood was overwhelming him. For a split second, he considered telling them what he was going to do. Seena would say it was reckless, though, and she’d be right. The time it’d take to argue his side would waste what opportunity he had, so he instead dove right in.

Separation joined his High-Speed Regeneration+ to remove the components trying to corrupt his blood. Luckily for him, with his body already knowing what needed to be done – Maybe that was the assistance of the Rune of Restoration? – he barely had to guide the new rune’s power. His body wielded it like a surgical scalpel, neutering the danger of the blood as it entered his hand, and leaving only the small improvements.

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They weren’t much, really. He could feel the muscle of his hand strengthening, the bones hardening, and his blood felt like it carried just a bit more energy. Nothing revolutionary, but there was still that sense of the magic from the Gloves of Ur’Thul. It was in his hand, circulating there, but it wasn’t moving with the rest of the blood as he let that flow up to his shoulder.

If he didn’t spot any danger in expanding it up his arm, he’d let it move to the rest of his body. Thankfully, his innate abilities were handling that automatically – or maybe it was the assistance of the PIMP – so he concentrated on the magic of the glove. Why wasn’t it moving like the rest of the blood? Was it because the tiny pieces of the fabric stayed where the acid broke them down? Or, was it something else?

Looking at his hand squirming with streamers of blood connecting to Drahn’s thigh, Hiral threaded power into his Rune of Energy, and a sphere of soft light appeared.

“Hiral?” Seena asked at the sudden appearance around his hand. And, probably, at the nearly invisible threads gently waving within it.

Those are lines of Connection!

But, unlike the threads he’d found before – and the one they were following to track down Nivian – these threads seemed unconnected. How could threads of Connection be unconnected?

“Lingering magic from the destroyed glove?” Li’l Ur asked when it was obvious Hiral wasn’t going to answer his Mistress’s question. “They appear unanchored.”

“They look pretty anchored to his hand, if you ask me,” Yanily said.

Li’l Ur waved his hand like Yanily’s statement wasn’t really important, his small, blue-flame gaze locked on the gently floating strands. “It’s very strange, but the threads appear to be primed.”

“What does that mean?” Seeyela asked. “Is it bad?”

“No. They have partially sprung into existence because there is a potential connection – a very strong one – on the verge of being formed. Actually, with that many threads, there are numerous connections. Something has changed. Are you finally dying?”

“Hiral, are you okay?” Seena asked, worry creeping into her voice at Li’l Ur’s proclamation.

“I’m fine,” he replied, then reached over with his good hand to put it on top of hers. A gentle squeeze to thank her for her concern, and his eyes settled on the nearby white rune.

Wait…

A change that had to be from the blood. But the potential connections, they had to be something to do with the glove. And the glove was just one part of the Second-Skin.

“Ur,” Hiral started slowly, inspiration striking. “The gloves, do they only help control weapons? I mean, is that all the source magic can do?”

“I…” Li’l Ur said, oddly hesitant to answer. “I don’t believe so. That effect is just how they were used...”

That wasn’t enough of an answer, so Hiral quickly opened the description of the items.

The Lost Gloves of Ur’Thul – Wearer cannot be forcefully disarmed, and improves control of abilities that manipulate separate entities.

… separate entities.

He’d always assumed it meant weapons. The Boss in the Necropolis of Ur’Thul had used bones. Hiral used swords, mainly. But, entities didn’t have to be weapons. Had he… had he been looking at the Second-Skin wrong this whole time? No, maybe wrong wasn’t right. He’d been underutilizing it. Its main ability had always been about empowering anything inscribed on it, and of course he took that as nothing more than a convenient bonus. Something that just happened to be good for him.

The PIMP had done it before, so why would he think anything else? Except, what if the PIMP was actually playing a longer game? Something like…

With the blood coming out of Drahn’s leg thinned to almost nothing, Hiral didn’t have time to think or theorize – he only had time to act. The chimeric blood had the ability to combine the best properties of things, thanks to its interaction with his High-Speed Regeneration+ and his Rune of Restoration, and if he waited any longer, he’d miss his chance.

Throwing aside the risks – yes, the definition of reckless – Hiral cut off the sphere around his hand, and instead wrapped the now-invisible strands with Attraction and Connection, then linked them to the chimeric blood running up his arm. Immediately, he felt the threads jerk away from his hand and line his entire arm, along the same path his Meridian Line would’ve taken, if he had one. Interesting, but not his goal.

Next, and this was the important part – if it worked – he singled out one strand of Connection then threaded it through the eye of the needle that was the Rune of Attraction on his left forearm. Oddly, the process of guiding the strand was a lot like the work he’d done with the crystal roots underneath the Fallens’ towers. The only question was how long it would take if it…

The strand sprang taut like it had latched on to something distant, and an image flashed in front of Hiral’s eyes. There and gone in a fraction of the time it would take for him to blink, but he couldn’t stop the smile from spreading on his face.

That had been the Edict of Attraction, somehow displayed within the circle of the Ring of Amin Thett. No mistaking it. A quick check confirmed his theory – he’d formed a weak connection with the Edict, the thread running from his rune, through the Ring. While he had no idea how the floating device behind his back was connected, he couldn’t complain. It must’ve been like how the Rune of Energy interacted with the crystal construct. Whatever it was, it’d helped facilitate the process. It wasn’t enough to directly manipulate the Edict, not by any stretch of the imagination, but it should help him get through that wall he felt between him and the Edicts as a whole. It’d worked!

With no time to lose – or spare – Hiral fully immersed his attention back into his own body, releasing the seal at his shoulder to let the modified, chimeric blood circulate through the rest of him. As it moved, he linked unattached strands of Connection to his runes. Absorption and Decrease came one after the other, each one getting easier, as he followed the same internal path he’d taken while learning how to Cycle.

Almost like practicing that process and repairing the towers had created a blueprint for what he needed to do now, he effortlessly threaded the strands of Connection through his runes. Seconds was all it took for the practiced work, and just like that, every rune on his body was connected to their respective Edicts, their symbols appearing inside the Ring with each completion. Even better, he still had more of the potential strands stored away for later, gently flowing through his channels as if they were waiting for him to acquire additional runes.

It was done. Barely in time, with the last of the catalytic, chimeric blood from Drahn vanishing within Hiral’s hand. The instant the acidic concoction ceased, his regenerative ability quickly took over, the flesh and muscle reforming until his hand was whole and healthy. Another few seconds after that, and the black glove could be seen re-emerging from the sleeve down.

It’d take a little longer than his hand had, but not by much.

More importantly…

“How is he?” Hiral asked. While his progress with the Edicts was an amazing personal accomplishment, he could already feel it wouldn’t make a huge difference in the short term. He’d cracked a door in the wall between him and their power, but it wasn’t big enough for him to look through, let alone passthrough. It’d take more work, but he was definitely on to something.

As for the effects – the benefits – of the chimeric blood, he felt energized. Kind of like a shot of adrenaline, but more even. A flex of his fingers; a move of his arm; a shift of his weight; they were all just easier. It wasn’t like evolving from C-Rank to B-Rank, nothing so drastic, but it was also something more natural. And something he’d have to explore more later.

Right now, the injured party member and the pouring rain filled with a titanic Enemy were more pressing matters.

“Better, I think,” Seeyela said, though Hiral noticed Seena’s eyes weren’t on the tracker.

“How are you?” she asked quietly. “That had to hurt.” She glanced at his already healed hand as she spoke.

Hiral blinked, honestly having barely even noticed the pain. “It really wasn’t bad. Don’t worry. We can talk more about it later.”

Seena nodded and left it at that – for now. “Can he move?” she asked her sister.

“He’s still unconscious,” Seeyela said. “So, not on his own.”

“Mounts?” Yanily asked. “I know they won’t fit in this herd, but they move faster.”

“Hiding in the herd has kept us safe,” Seena said. “And after fighting that Enemy in the dungeon before, I really don’t want to be in the sky with more of them. Let’s carry him. Hiral, can you keep finding us a path?”

“Let me check,” Hiral said, reaching out into his sensory domain. And, it wasn’t just his imagination, but it was easier. The domain stretched a little bit further, the touch of it was just a tiny bit more precise, and he could actively feel more of it at once. It wasn’t some kind of OP ability that let him “see” everything in all directions at the same time, but sudden changes would alert him while he had it active.

It was also great for feeling the space between the Sprinters.

“Yeah, I can…” Hiral started, only to be interrupted by the ground shaking from what had to have been another tentacle smash on the small forest. Then another, and another.

The whole party shared a look, and it was clear it was time to get going. Except, Hiral’s sensory domain told him something else. By the way the Voltaic Plains Sprinters’ bodies were tensing and twitching, the party members weren’t the only ones planning to move.

They were about to be caught in the middle of a stampede.