Time Since Reckless Self-Endangerment: 0 Days 19 Hours

Goal: Kill 'Baby Boots'

He needed a defensive tool. In the last few days it felt like his instinct for battle had become ungodly sharp, every fight and every scrape honing him down until he could kill with ease. Something was wrong with the air in this world. Bloodshed and glory oozed through every breath, and he was growing at an obscene rate.

But his defense was lagging, and the monkeys had nearly defeated him by sheer numbers and a single slip-up. The gift of the boar’s bracer had saved him.

Now he would make something of his own to rely on.

Taking the remaining chunk of tortoiseshell, Nic began to guide it into a smoothed, oblong shape. The immense hardness of the material made every motion deliberate and slow. Ash cascaded down as he sawed away. There were huge, charred burnmarks left on the shell from its demise in the wildfire. They crossed the green blue pattern and made an elegant striped design.

When he was finished, Nic had a shield fitted to the shape and length of his left arm. He bored holes and ran straps of vine rope taken from the walls to secure it on. Then, he mounted the tusks onto the front, strapping the huge curves of pale bone into place. The result was a heavy and brutal claw, the natural curve of the tusks suiting them to slashing and rending more than punching forward.

Taking out the pen he’d received from Lady Nylea, Nic began to draw the Totemic Glyphs along one edge of the shield. They were difficult in a way he’d never encountered before. Rather than only conducting his own will into each stroke of the pen, each slash of ink, he had to grapple with a foreign mind that existed within the rune itself.

The farther he progressed on the complicated design of the rune the stronger the foreign influence became. It was an angry, destructive force. The spirit of the boar remembered Nic and had no intention of serving him easily. It tried to seize away control of his Essence as it flowed down the pen and destroy his work with every pen-stroke. Slimy sweat collected on his brow as he struggled to contain the rampaging spirit of the rune.

Until there was a cold, angry snort. The spirit’s resistance failed and the rune clicked into place, leaving Nic to flop back exhausted and cry out in relief. “Gooooood godddddsssss….”

“Very good, Nicolas. I’m beginning to think you could use your Moonseal Credit to purchase a crafting module. It could be very useful to you.”

Straightening up again Nic lifted the shield onto his arm, cinching it tight. It fit over the bone and leather of the bracer perfectly. The weight was reassuring and solid.

Within the shield he could sense the spirit of the boar. It had been defeated again, and this time it acknowledged his will. Its mind was an ember of angry thought in his hand. It had lived a proud life, and bent to no-one until Nic had brought it down. So long as he stood defiant it would stand alongside him.

Indurate Spirit-Claw (F)

Glyph of The Defiant Spirit

(100% Charged)

This heavy, claw-tipped shield bears the spirit of a monstrous boar, a beast that knew no rival in life before it was slain to make this weapon. For the space of three breaths you may summon an echo of that beast to aid you.

His first success was exhilarating. Every failure he’d ever suffered while slaving away to learn runework-

Every night it had all seemed pointless-

Nic brushed the thoughts away and knelt down, clearing his mind as he set to work on the saber-toothed tiger fangs he’d collected from the wildfire.

Filing them across their backs he dug a thin but deep slot into each one, using a single ‘guide’ tooth enforced with a simple glyph as his tool. Once they were ready that way, he began to drill into them from above, slowly boring holes that crossed through the slot and out the other side.

Then he broke away a piece of turtle shell and carved it slowly into a curved grip. Each one of these motions took dozens of minutes of patient, slow scraping, grinding away everything he didn’t need. The grip had to be strong but thin, fitted to the palm of his hand.

By the time he was done he’d shaved down three thinner sections along the crescent shaped grip. These grooves were where he attached the teeth, slipping the carved slot over the thinned-down segments so they fit together perfectly. Returning to drilling he made holes through the grip that matched the hole in each tooth and threaded a piece of dried gut-rope through each to tie the teeth on.

The result was a brutal punching dagger that would sit in his three-fingered fist, three curved fangs extending forward like a claw.

This time as he drew the runes, Nic knew to expect resistance.

It was a proud, imperious soul. A creature that had hunted and killed with impunity and spent long hours sunning itself after. The orange-black of its stripes was a primal sign of fear in the minds of its prey, and everything was its prey.

To lure the soul into his design he had to be equally parts challenging and flattering. As his mind grappled with the rune he tried to lure it down by challenge, demanding to see what it could do, while never once inviting its wrath to turn on him.

By the time he drew the pen back his face was dripping. He’d managed to add a flourish, a secondary glyph that would draw energy from the first activation to make him faster in combat while the echo lasted. Just that final extension had risked breaking the entire design and shattering the weapon, but the result was worth every risk.

Ferocious Jungle-Claw (F)

Fine Glyph of the Hunting Spirit

(100% Charged)

Secondary Glyph of the Hunter’s Companion

(100% Charged)

This finely carved punching dagger is imbued with the spirit of a proud monarch of the jungle, who brings fear to all who see them. Unleashed, the spirit will serve you for the space of three breaths, and enhance your speed greatly after being called forth.

A phantom roar filled his mind as he slid the weapon into his grip. The claw was a beautiful thing of grace and power. He could feel the eagerness within the weapon- his spear had been a dead tool for killing, while this weapon felt almost like a companion. Half-alive and full of malice.

An iron wall of defense for his left arm. A razor-sharp offense for his right. Two claws, two companion spirits.

He was ready.

---

Before he left the cavern Nic piled stones atop the kelpie’s body to form a rough burial mound. It was the best he could do, but maybe it would protect her for a time from scavenging insects and rot.

With a regretful look back, Nic dove into the water.

The map the gibbon had shown him included a second way into the cavern, although it was more dangerous by far. It was underwater, traveling down through numerous submerged caves to reemerge in the broadness and current of the river above.

The way had been littered with numerous tally marks where the scouts had died.

But Nic was half-aquatic, and as he dove into the waters, his gills opened for the second time in his new life. The feeling was wholly different than breathing air. His whole body seemed to draw in and out with each breath, expanding and contracting.

To his surprise he moved with more agility under the water than on solid land. Swimming came easily, and he effortlessly sent himself on coiling forward spirals with a flick of his tail and a kick of his legs. It was a whole new aspect of his new body Nic had never explored, and he took a few blissful moments to maneuver weightlessly, dancing beneath the waters in the cool, quiet realm of the drowned.

A huge fish with a jaw that extended into a pair of bony ridges like blood-red scissor-blades brushed past. Its beady eyes stared him down. Just for a moment, Nic summoned a flicker of the power contained within his claws.

The beast turned away and fled.

Following, Nic let the creature guide him through the dark passageways and drowned halls of the underwater complex. It was a temple he realized. Statues prodded up from the ground mired in algae and freshwater limpets. Huge mosaics covered the walls, turned black and unreadable by rot.

Something pulled him towards a distant hall- there was a Dominus Node hidden down here somewhere.

One he might even come back for.

Swimming deeper he found the main hall, a place where enormous pillars rose from the ground to the ceiling above. He could see the surface of the river through a gap in the roof, light shimmering on the waters like a patch of slick gold.

And below, the ground was littered with bones. A huge presence shifted through the hall. Its body was long and sleek and covered in raised, crystalline spines. It had the head of a crocodile and the long body of an aquatic lizard, with a curved horn atop its skull.

Nic shot for the ground but it was too late. The beast had seen him. It plunged forward, mouth yawning wide. Nic shot himself up by spraying out a Poison Mist breath and letting the force propel him backwards, guiding the movement with his tail. As the beast crashed against the pillars he swam desperately for the crack in the surface, the light of the river’s face.

Just as he made it through the beast slammed into the gap, jaws snapping, claws raking over the stone. Its yellow eye stared at him through the breach before it retreated back down into its murky lair.

Nic had a sneaking suspicion he’d just met the claimant of the Dominus Node.

River Tyrant. E-Class // Demi-Sapient. This enormous beast was born to guard the rivers of a sacred mountain, a degenerated off-spring of sea serpents. Once a true sapient race, they rebelled against Logos and were stripped down to the intellects of beasts.

Grimacing at the description, Nic continued up. The beasts of the river gave him a wide berth as he climbed up onto the edge of the forest. Water dripped from the hard curves of his new claws.

His eyes were cold.

It was time for revenge.