{Congratulations, you are now a [Spellbreaker Juggernaut]. Two of your existing class skills have developed, and you have unlocked three new class skills! These skills are tied to your parent class, and their power will increase with your level in that class. Davrar applauds your choice, and hopes you will continue to survive and prosper.}
{Class skill Stamina:
You have unlocked the stamina resource! Stamina will accumulate during periods of rest, and can be spent to improve the speed and strength of your movements, or used for other skills or talents that utilize stamina}
{Class skill Brawler’s Indifference -> Juggernaut's Wrath:
You will be unflinching in the face of pain and injury, and serious wounds will enhance the intensity of your Rage. This skill will trigger your Rage without your consent if you are badly injured.}
{Class skill Antimagic Blows -> Antimagic Momentum:
Motion enhances your inherent antimagic, allowing you to break magical effects with your movements and blows. The greater the momentum behind the motion, the greater the enhancement. Effect is further enhanced while Raging.}
{New Class skill Raging Thrill:
You can voluntarily enter and exit a Rage state, where you will be immersed in the thrill of combat. This will rapidly consume stamina, but will increase your strength, speed and resilience to damage.}
{New Class skill Juggernaut's Inertia:
Your motions carry greater momentum, and it will be harder to stop or slow you, especially with magical effects.}
{New Class skill Unarmored Resilience:
When not wearing armor your body becomes more resilient to damage from all sources.}
{You have leveled up to level 32!}
Nathan took a few more steps backwards from the encroaching constructs as he considered his new class skills. He didn’t have time to fully figure them out - much less their interactions. But they seemed to fit the ticket for what needed to happen, because the one thing that the Heirs didn’t have was time.
One of these days I’ll be able to sit down and actually consider my class choice. Only 69 more levels to go until my next chance!
Between one step and the next, Nathan reversed direction. He sprinted towards the four-legged bugs as they skittered toward him. They showed no sign of surprise, just raising their cutting arms once more.
Right before Nathan entered leaping range, he triggered his new skill. His Rage skill. The world seemed to pulse, then slow down. Nathan’s vision narrowed and he looked across at the eight metal constructs. His foes. The one closest to Nathan executed the same aggressive leap as before but Nathan crouched and leaped forward, going low as the cutting blade whistled down.
Behind him. Nathan had moved more quickly than he ever had before and was underneath the bug construct. He was tempted to stay, to rip the metal limbs off the bug and beat it to death with them. But it wasn’t the constructs he was most pissed at. It was the bunker. Just sitting there, with magical beams that could stun people from a hundred feet away!
The bug reacted quickly, striking out with its back legs as Nathan ran out from underneath it. These legs were tipped with grippy pads, but the interior surfaces bore serrated edges. One impacted Nathan across the back of the left leg, and tore flesh. But a blow that moments ago would have torn his leg off instead left a deep cut. And instead of being swept off his feet, Nathan just staggered a few steps and kept running.
Another bug lunged at him from behind, the tip of its cutting blade slicing across Nathan’s back. It caught on his spine and jerked him sideways, failing to cut his bones.
Hah! I’ve got two different resilience buffs right now. Eat my dust, bugs.
Nathan jumped over an adventurer corpse and kept running. His thrill and fury had only intensified with each injury and it felt like he was in a tunnel, with only the bunkers present at the other end. There was a pounding of metal on stone from behind as the constructs gave chase. Nathan cared only for the bunkers and the street he needed to cross to get there. His chest came up, arms driving down. He flexed his feet with each step, propelling him forward with Stamina and all of the enhanced strength his Rage provided. For the second time, he was in a race against constructs trying to kill him and he was winning.
{Congratulations, you have developed the [Low-tier Sprinting] utility skill into [Mid-tier Sprinting]. Utility skill: [Mid-Tier Sprinting]: This skill will help you run very quickly in the future. Will not allow you to run in circumstances where you couldn’t otherwise.}
His gait had started uneven due to the leg-wound, but it smoothed out as the cut healed. His hand was mostly regenerated too. But the combined costs of the rapid healing, his Rage and continued use of stamina to empower his movements was beginning to tell. His stamina flickered down.
{Stamina: 105/420}
{High-tier Regeneration Rank 2 achieved!}
There wasn’t much he could do about it, except eat the invisible barrier that’d blocked Sarah’s arrow. Nathan noticed the turrets aligning themselves in his direction. He started dodging and weaving, since there didn’t seem to be much warning…
A metal bolt shot past Nathan as he juked. The one from the other turret hit him in the right shoulder. It pierced skin and sunk into bone, the tip barely emerging from his back. Nathan’s vision tinged red for a moment and he kept running. He grabbed the two-foot projectile in his left hand and yanked it free with a yell. His stamina briefly halted its race to the bottom as the glowing swirls engraved into the bolt flickered and dimmed.
{Low-tier Dodging footwork Rank 8 achieved!}
Everything here is magic. Speaking of…
Nathan impacted the barrier of force in front of the building. It was thick, with multiple strands of force mana layered over top of each other. But Nathan had been practicing against force mana more than anything but fire. He was moving at a speed enhanced by everything Stamina, [Raging Thrill] and [Mid-tier sprinting] could provide. And all of that speed was fueling [Juggernaut's Inertia] and [Antimagic Momentum].
{Mid-tier sprinting Rank 2 achieved!}
The barrier shattered into pieces, and Nathan greedily sucked in all of the force mana he could. Then he hit a second barrier, which suffered the same fate. The third slowed him down such that he didn’t slam bodily into the bunker he was aiming at.
Instead, he slammed hands into the spotlight-like magical constructs powering the stupefaction beams that were suppressing the Heirs. There were crystals of some kind inside, and Nathan yanked them out and dropped them to the ground. The emitters for the beams were arranged in three rows of two, about five feet vertically between each row. He leapt and clambered up the device housings to reach the rest of the magical constructs, ripping their innards out as he went.
A quiet whiiine pulled Nathan’s attention to the right, where the turret atop the other bunker was tracking him. He jumped up, pulling with his hands as he pushed with his feet. The bolt that had been aimed at his head passed just in front of his knees, skittering off the bunker’s metallic surface.
Wow. I can really jump with this [Raging Thrill]. Let’s crush some uppity magical constructs.
Nathan felt exhilarated as he landed directly in front of the other turret. It also began to whiine as it charged to fire. Luckily, Nathan could move faster than it could track, and he zipped around behind it and grabbed the base of the turret. It was solidly constructed, with a hard outer shell and a tough ring attaching it to the bunker. After a few seconds Nathan wasn’t making any progress, even tugging with all the strength of his Rage. He hissed, wrestling with the stubborn metal for a second and trying to rip the turret out of its housing.
He was keeping the metallic bulk between him and the other turret, which seemed disinclined to fire.
Darn. That would have been easy.
The constructs had reached the bunker and were attempting to climb it. Luckily, they didn’t seem built for it, and kept slipping off the near-vertical surface. Nathan’s stamina was starting to run down, having depleted the boost given by running into the barriers. He was about to reach inside the barrel of the turret when he noticed another sound had started up.
It was a harsh crackling, like a tesla coil. Nathan looked up and saw a crystal placed above the metal doors. It seemed to be the centerpiece of some kind of crest above the door. It was also clearly powering up, glowing with magical energy and occasionally sparking with loud cracks. Nathan hunkered down, holding tightly to the turret as it strained to rotate towards him.
For what we are about to receive, may we be thankful
His vision whited out as the crystal unleashed its magic. It was certainly lightning mana, but Nathan could tell nothing about what the spell looked like. Even through [Magic Absorption], his body seized and his heart skipped a beat as the lightning continued for a few seconds. Nathan could smell skin scorching as the metal underneath his palms went red-hot. He released the turret. It sat there glowing and smoking, no longer turning to face him. He shook himself and felt the residual shock work out of his system.
{Magic Absorption Rank 3 achieved!}
{Stamina: 395/420}
Then Nathan ducked down again as the other turret fired at his head. Now that he was up close to them, the turrets charging whine made dodging them a lot easier. He stood up and looked at the turret, feeling like it was time for some revenge. He took a few steps backwards for a run-up - then leapt from one bunker to the other, laughing maniacally as he flew across the twenty-foot gap.
He didn’t quite make it, but caught the edge of the bunker with his fingers and hauled himself up. Once again he skipped around the turret before it could reload and draw a bead on him. He looked up at the lightning-crystal - but it wasn’t charging up again.
No such luck
So, Nathan did the only thing that occurred to his rage-addled brain. He stuck his hand into the barrel of the turret and felt around for a moment. He scratched his hand on the tip of the loaded bolt, then found something that felt delicate. He grabbed and yanked, pulling out a thin enchanted piece of metal. The turret started jerking erratically and spun upwards to face the sky. It loosed a wild bolt high into the air, aimed at nothing.
Satisfied it was out of commission, Nathan looked down from the top of the second bunker. The emitters for the remaining stupefaction beams were below him, still focused on the Heirs. Surrounding him on every other side were the eight bug-like constructs that had harried him in the street. Nathan rubbed his hands together, calculating how best to jump down on them and take them out.
Wait a second. That’s not the objective here.
He took a few steps back from the edge, standing still for the first time in a solid minute to activate [Focused Mind] and examine the battlefield. It was a struggle to focus past the Rage. It looked like Khachi had gotten Stella out of the line of fire, but Aarl was still gazing blankly and Sarah was sprawled out in the street.
The image hit Nathan like a splash of cold water. He almost let go of his Rage, before clenching his fists and springing to action. He jumped off the bunker and landed on top of the two stupefaction beam emitters below him, striking with his heels as he landed.
The metal frames warped and deformed under his feet. Nathan’s plan had been to repeat the motion, crushing all six of the magical devices as he descended the bunker. Unfortunately, the buckling metal robbed him of his balance and he tumbled, scrabbling for a handhold.
He found one, grabbing onto the base of one of the beam emitters farther down with his left hand. It bent down towards him as his weight overrode whatever mechanism it used to aim. Nathan pulled on the handhold to swing himself up and punched his right hand into the adjacent magical spotlight. As he did so, one of the bug constructs leapt and slashed, grazing Nathan’s butt and scratching the metal of the bunker lightly.
If they dismember me and I’m pretty sure I can’t heal through that. But I NEED to get rid of these beams!
Nathan yanked at the housing of the device he was hanging from with both hands, feeling the strength induced by his Rage coursing through his muscles. He didn’t rip it off the bunker, but definitely bent the aiming mechanism into unusability. He’d also lifted himself up a few feet, dodging the next slash from the bug-constructs below.
Nathan looked down at his goal. Two more magical spotlights were aimed out at the Heirs. Below them, eight chrome-and-steel constructs waited with readied blades. Nathan’s lips skinned back in a rictus grin.
This. This Thrill is better than anything I’ve ever felt before. I’ve trashed whatever this place was. And here I am, about to leap into the jaws of shiny death for my friends. Who wouldn’t dream of such a thing? What a rush.
Then, Nathan jumped. He slammed his feet into the beam emitters below, hearing a satisfying crunch as his full weight bore down on them. He didn’t try for a clean jump this time, instead toppling forward towards the nearest of the bug constructs. It swung both bladed arms up. Nathan caught them on the outside of his forearms, roaring in challenge.
The blades didn’t cut his arms off, but they sliced to the bone. Then Nathan landed atop the central body of the bug. It staggered under his weight, almost collapsing to the ground. Nathan moved, not needing to look for incoming attacks to know they were coming.
He rolled to the side, falling toward the ground. All of his attention was focused on landing on his feet. Going down here meant death. Another cutting blade hit him in the ribs, carving a deep gouge and slapping him into the side of the construct he’d just rolled off. One of his feet landed on a metallic leg of that construct, which buckled under him. It upset his landing - Nathan landed awkwardly on one leg, already falling to the side. He tucked and rolled under another construct. There was a bit of wind as more blades whizzed over him.
Hah! Invincibility frames
{Pending utility skill: Low-tier Tumbling: You have used acrobatic tricks to dodge blows from dangerous opponents. This skill will help you use unorthodox movements involving rolls and handsprings to avoid blows in the future.}
Then Nathan was on his feet just behind a construct. It was already rearing back to strike with its back legs, but he didn’t care. That chump was behind him, and couldn’t stop him now. There was one more construct blocking his path, and Nathan took three steps and slammed his elbow unto the spot where all the legs connected to the body. He put his full body into the motion, pushing with his legs and bringing his hips up into the blow.
The constructs were quite sturdy. The legs spasmed at Nathan's blow - but nothing obvious broke except some of Nathan’s knuckles. All four of the construct's legs left the ground as the metallic bug lurched into the air.
Nathan ran forward, meaning to take advantage of the hole he’d made. Then a blade hit him in the side of the head from behind. He staggered, almost going down from the blow. Only his singleminded goal kept him moving past the burst of pain and confusion. And nausea, couldn’t forget the nausea.
Gotta Escape. Not dying here. Giantsrest will hear from me again.
Nathan wavered and wobbled, picking up speed as he ran. He knew blood was coursing down from the head wound. All of his attention was focused on the building the Heirs had retreated into. It was sliding back and forth, and Nathan’s balance was shot. He almost fell crossing the wide street twice, only catching himself by running faster.
Then he tripped over a corpse and ran headfirst into a stone wall. The cool stone of the street pressed against his cheek.
Skill text comparison:
{[Mid-Tier Sprinting]
This skill will help you run very quickly in the future. Will not allow you to run in circumstances where you couldn’t otherwise.}
{[Low-tier Sprinting]
This skill will help you run quickly in the future. Will not allow you to run in circumstances where you couldn’t otherwise}
Status:
Status of Nathan Lark:
Permanent Talent 1: Magic Absorption 3
Permanent Talent 2: High-tier Regeneration 2
Talent 3: None
Class: Antimagic Brawler level 32
Stamina: 23/420
Juggernaut's Wrath
Antimagic Momentum
Raging Thrill
Juggernaut's Inertia
Unarmored Resilience
Utility skills:
Mid-tier Focused Mind 9
Low-tier Earnestness 10
Mid-tier Sprinting 2
Mid-tier Spellsense 1
Low-tier Notice 10
Low-tier Identify 6
Low-tier Dodging Footwork 8
Mid-tier Enhanced Memory 2