Raizus gripped his long sword tight and raised it in front of him with a nervous look on his face, “Andy, now might be the time to try to make an offensive spell…” His voice was slow and tight. Andius couldn’t blame him, all of them could practically feel the power radiating off this thing. It was nearly nine feet tall and was completely rippling with muscle!

Andius reached out to the shadows under what he assumed to be an orc and tried to make a spike come flying up at it, but the shadow just dissipated when it hit it’s skin. “No good, shadows aren’t solid!”

“Then make them solid!” Raizus called back as he looked at the orc who had started slowly walking towards them at a leisurely pace. It was clear to all of them that this man didn’t even see them as a threat, just a nuisance who had dared to hurt his soldiers. Raizus’ face went relaxed for a second or two before suddenly flame burst from all over his body, eyes glowing a demonic red color when he looked over at Andius again. The rage in his eyes spoke of insanity and blood lust, “Kill. Him.”

The flames were far more intense than before, his armor screaming in protest and turning red hot in an instant before he pushed off the ground with startling force, rushing at the orc at speeds that rivaled Andius’, which was saying a lot since he was all about speed! Even the orc was caught off guard by this and barely managed to block the downswing of the sword with his axes before shoving Raizus back. Raizus didn’t relent, swinging his blade down with ferocious force again and again only to be met by axes parrying the blade away.

Despite the orc clearly being better trained he was on the defensive, the flurry of blows was just coming far too fast for him to react without taking a blow. “Andius, what are you doing?! Help him!” Herald called out from the side, holding an arrow knocked and looking for an opportunity to loose it. What had he been doing? He’d just been watching the fight like an idiot instead of helping him, but what could he do without any offensive magic, his daggers were useless in a fair fight!

That’s when the idea struck him, mana has an effect on the mind, so why wasn’t he just letting it take over like Raizus was? With a thought Andius called forth all of his mana, he didn’t want to use it on any spells, he just needed it to course through his veins. His eyes went violet before shifting to a pure black, his skin went as pale as a ghost as black ichor flowed through his veins. All at once all of the fear and anxiety of the fight went away, replaced by cold calculations and logic. Shadows burst from Andius’ body, wreathing him in the lashing tendrils of pure darkness as he dipped his daggers into the vials again and rushed forward without a second thought.

The orc saw Andius coming and kicked Raizus hard in the chest, roaring in pain and anger as the hot metal and flames burned his foot but managing to send the raging man flying back a few feet. The orc opened his arms wide to the sides and sent them hurtling towards each other as Andius got close, but the small rogue just dropped to his back and slid under the blades and the orc in one smooth motion, gashing both of the monstrous mans legs as he passed under him, causing a cry of agony from it as the poison took effect.

Andius rolled forward to his feet and ran into the woods as he heard an arrow pierce flesh behind him. He didn’t have time to look, he had to set up for his next attack. The effects of the mana were getting stronger and stronger, why did he ever resist it? The feeling of complete control was intoxicating, he felt as if he was in complete control of this situation, calculations of the battle flowing through his mind faster and faster with each passing second.

Raizus rejoined the fight, once again hailing blows down against the orc but failing to get any sort of damage on the massive warrior despite the poison slowing him down. Regardless of the fact all of his blows were being parried, the Orc’s axes were starting to glow red from the heat of the attacks, how much longer could those weapons last? Suddenly the Orc stepped to the side and brought it’s axe to bear against Raizus’ side, cutting deep through the metal and making him scream out in pain and rage! The flames grew stronger, turning an almost white hot color and evaporating any blood that leaked out as the axe was pulled free. “DIE!” The vocalization made the flames around him explode out in every direction, sending the orc flying backwards a few feet.

Even in his emotionless state, Andius couldn’t help but be impressed. Either fire magic was just more suited to combat than shadow magic, or Raizus has been practicing a lot longer than he had. The orc landed on his feet and looked back at Raizus, the rage in his eyes matching the warriors as it’s skin shifted from gray to an ugly red color. “You… damned, HEATHEN!” it shouted as it reached into the only pocket on it’s loincloth and pulled out what looked like an herb and shoved it into it’s mouth. The transformation was almost instantaneous, the orc’s muscles bulged and became even more red, steam starting to rise off of it’s massive shoulders as froth started to escape it’s tusked mouth. “Pig-skins don’t have the right to use the sacred arts!”

Andius took this time to reengage in the fight, seeing as the Orc was too distracted by whatever rage the herbs had put him into. With quick but quiet steps, Andius snuck from the tree-line behind the orc, daggers poised to strike as soon as he got into range. The Orc warrior had other plans however, as just when Andius was about to bring down his blades, the orc turned and swing it’s blade so fast, Andius hardly even saw it despite his heightened perception of time. A kick sent him flying back from the battle and laying on the ground in agony, his arm was gone, severed at the elbow by the over-sized axes the orc was wielding! Completely on instinct, Andius made shadows wrap around the nub and solidify, crying in pain the entire time.

Andius blinked a few times, trying to think through the agony that his pain resistance skill only did so much for. How had he just solidified those shadows? He was acting entirely on instinct, but the shadows were holding firm like a bandage and keeping the blood from flowing out of him. Looking back over towards the fight, Andius saw that things weren’t going well; Raizus was on the defensive now, barely managing to hold off the warrior’s incredible speed and power. Herald was nowhere to be seen at this point and no arrows had flown from the forest in a few minutes. While he was thinking about this through the pain, Andius heard an awful scraping and bending sound, followed by a roar of pain and the sound of something heavy hitting the ground.

Raizus was on the ground, one of his legs cut cleanly off from his body straight through the armor! The orc was slowly walking over to his prey, the flames long since been quenched from Raizus’ armor. “You fought well, for a human. I will honor you by granting you a swift death!” The orc didn’t sneer or look on with disdain, it was the genuine respect of a warrior in his eyes as he slowly raised one of his axes with both hands.

For the first time since Andius had logged into the game, he didn’t think, he just acted. Instinct took over as the dark manna suffusing his body surged, his hand reached out to the shadows beneath the orc and vanished. Not even a second later a horrifying maw rose from the shadows and latched down hard on the orc’s calves, yanking it’s head around back and forth like a wild dog and throwing him from the spot!

The shadow rose from the ground without any order from Andius, revealing the shape of a massive wolf, it’s fur the a shaggy black color, shadows lashing about all around it. It’s maw lacked any lips, it’s obsidian fangs constantly bared. The most disturbing thing to Andius was that this wolf had two pairs of eyes, two on each side, that glowed with an unnatural violet color that seemed to bleed away like smoke. The wolf crouched down low and rushed the orc before he even landed, leaping into the air and tearing chunks of it’s flesh away before being thrown off by the orc.

The two got to their feet at the same time and started to circle one another, the shadow wolf snarling angrily at it’s prey while the tendrils of darkness of it’s coat started to thrash more violently. The orc rushed forwards with one of it’s axes, swinging the blade hard at the wolf, but the beast didn’t even bother to dodge the blow, instead just grabbing onto the orc’s hand as the blade passed through it’s body and biting hard, taking the hand off in one clean bite. The Orc recoiled in horror as it lost it’s hand, and that was it’s final mistake. While it was in shock, the wolf jumped onto the Orc and brought it to the ground, tearing into it’s throat with wild hunger.

Within seconds the orc was nothing but a puddle of flesh and blood, and the wolf began looking around for it’s next target. It’s ethereal eyes locked with Andius’ and it snarled horrifyingly, leaping at it’s summoner with reckless abandon. Andius thought for sure he was about to die when his mana bar suddenly emptied out, leaving him without the numbness of his magic, and the wolf vanished without a trace.

With his emotions back Andius immediately doubled over at the pain from his arm, the shadows had left now that he couldn’t sustain it which caused the bleeding to start all over again. “Herald, we need your help!” he called out into the woods, getting nothing but silence in response. Andius was bleeding out, but Raizus looked far far worse. His leg had been chopped clean off above the knee, and the blood was practically gushing from the wound. With as much strength as he could must, Andius crawled slowly towards his new friend “Come on man, wake up!”

He didn’t need to check his pulse since blood was still flowing from the open wound, but if he didn’t wake up soon and cauterize the two of them, they would both be dead in a matter of seconds. Not knowing what to do, Andius slapped Raizus in the face weakly, getting no results. He pushed on his armor trying to shake him awake, but the knight wasn’t budging. “Don’t kill me for this when you wake up…” Andius muttered softly, taking one of his poisoned daggers and pressing it against Raizus’ leg.

Raizus woke up screaming almost instantly, grabbing at his leg with wild eyes “My leg, oh god!” Andius winced at the sound of the screams, he knew that the poison might just hurt more than the impromptu amputation but he had to do it. Raizus looked at Andius with tears streaking down his face, the look of someone on the verge of snapping, “M-my leg…”

“Snap out of it! I know it hurts but it’ll grow back if we respawn. I know there are healers too, so just hurry up and burn the wounds!” Andius’ voice was panicked and rushed, it wasn’t like he was immune to the pain either.

Raizus looked at Andius like he was a crazy man, but then the light of understanding shone in his eyes, “Oh… y-yeah, not a bad idea…” The hesitation in his voice was completely understandable, he had to put himself through even more pain if he didn’t want to deal with a respawn which was sounding more and more tempting as the seconds ticked by.

Andius held out his nub of an arm and looked away while gritting his teeth, and a second later agonizing pain filled his entire being from his arm. He screamed out into the silent forest even as he felt something inside of himself filling. The pain dimmed slightly as Raizus pulled his flaming hand back from Andius’ arm and quickly pressed it against his own limb.

Fear filled his eyes the moment he did, looking over to Andius as if he had seen the devil itself, “I’m immune to my own flames…” His voice was barely a whisper, made heavy with the realization that he couldn’t fix his own wound.

An idea came to Andius, the reserve of power he felt when Raizus burned him was starting to feel unstable, it needed a release quickly. “Let me try something…” He pressed his hand against Raizus’ leg, coating it in the blood that was still gushing. He focused on his hand intently, trying to do what Raizus had did just seconds before. As soon as his intent was made clear, Andius’ hand burst into flames and immediately cauterized the wound before his flames winked out seconds later.

Raizus screamed louder than Andius had, the sound almost deafening as his wounded flesh was burned together, but the results were worth it, the bleeding had stopped. As relief spread across Raizus’ face, a notification flashed in front of Andius’ eyes. In fact, he had a bunch of notification waiting for him that had been delayed during the fight!

——————

Dagger Level: 12

——————

Light Armor Level: 7

——————

Dodge Level: 12

——————

Pain Resistance Level: 18

——————

Ability Mana-Form Unlocked!

By giving in to the power of your own magic, you’ve gained a new ability! Some of the most dangerous and feared magic users in history were those who gave in to their mana for the power it gives them, at the cost of the negative effects of their particular element.

Dark magic spells cost 10% less to cast and maintain while in Mana-form. Dark magic spells are now 10% more effective while in Mana-form.

While Mana-form is active you will act entirely on logic and without emotion or morals. Processing of information is 100% more efficient while in this state.

——————

Hidden Skill Shadow Summoning Level: 1

Many believe that Dark magic is tied to demons and evil entities, this long forgotten skill is one of the many reasons for this belief. Masters of this skill were known to summon hordes of nightmarish monsters to harass and slay entire cities!

X(1)+Y(23)% increased chance to completely control shadow monsters that you summon. Shadow monsters cost X(1)% less mana to control. Shadow monsters are X(1)+Y(23)% more powerful, where X is the level of this skill and Y is your charisma.

——————

Spell Summon Lesser Beast(Shadow) Level: 1

Summoning is rare in the world of Astrala, many believe that it simply isn’t worth the investment, while other believe it is a cowards tool. You have learned how to summon a lesser monster with the Shadow alignment, once again breaking the norms of this world and setting yourself on a rare path to power.

100% chance to summon a lesser beast that is native to the area you cast it in. 10+X(1)% chance to completely control the creature that you summon. Summoned creature will be a shade of it’s form rather than organic.

Cost:99 Mana per second (reduced by gaining levels in this spell.)

——————

Congratulations, you have reached level 8! You now have 15 attribute points to spend across your stats, and 9 skill points to spend on your skills!

——————

Andius blinked a few times at the massive amount of prompts that flashed to life in front of his face. Even through the immense pain he was feeling in his arm, the absurd skill gains made a stupid grin spread across his face, he had gained so much from this fight! The gains to his primary fighting skills were amazing, but what really shocked him was the fact that he had leveled up 3 times!

More notifications blinked at the corner of his vision, but these weren’t the usual gold color that skill gains and level-ups were, these notifications were a fiery orange color and were blinking far more rapidly than normal. Clearly this was something important. Andius looked over at Raizus and saw this his eyes were unfocused, clearly he was going through something similar right now, so he decided to leave him to it and look at the new notification.

——————

Congratulations! You have fulfilled the requirements to take a specialization! Specializations are rewards given to players who devote themselves to a specific path and unlocked many new options and abilities to promote that play style. Below you will find available specializations for your skills and abilities.

1.Umbral-Blade: Few things are feared more than a skilled assassin, chief among them is the Umbral-Blade, an assassin so in tune with dark magic that their very presence causes light to shy away. Holders of this specialization make even the most well trained assassins look like amateurs, their ability to hide in the shadows, to kill from afar and to massacre is unrivaled!

Umbral-Blades gain 100% increased movement speed whilst in complete darkness, their stealth attacks deal bonus darkness damage, and beings they slay from stealth vanish into the shadows. Umbral-Blades gain a hidden ability upon selecting this specialization.

Requirements: Reach level 10 in daggers and dodge, gain access to a hidden Ability related to dark magic.

2.Mana-Channeler: Mana-Channelers are by far the most powerful magic users in Astrala, but also the most unstable. Those who choose to take this specialization give into the power of their mana, letting it permanently suffuse their body, granting them incredible power at the risk of their own sanity. With this power, few could stand in the Mana-Channeler’s way!

Mana-Channelers gain 500% increased mana and 200% increase mana regeneration, as well as perfect affinity in their primary element. Damage dealt with their primary element is doubled and said spells gain additional properties. Mana-Channelers gain access to a hidden ability upon selecting this specialization.

Requirements: Gain the Mana-Form skill and access to a hidden magic skill.

3.Shadow-Caller: Warriors and mages win battles, generals and strategists win wars. a Shadow-Caller is akin to a general when it comes to Umbramancy, their ability to lead dark summons and manipulate the battlefield is unrivaled by any other dark magic user! Having not been seen since the elemental wars, the Shadow-Caller specialization has all but been forgotten in this day and age, but the stories of dark aberrations and monsters slaying all in their wake are still told to this day. Chief among their skills is the ability to summon shadow monsters with ease, but they also have abilities that make fighting unnecessary.

Shadow-Callers reduce the cost of summoning shadow monsters by 50% and controlling their summons is 50% easier. Shadow monsters no longer drain mana, instead reserving their initial casting cost from the casters mana-pool. Shadow callers immediately gain access to scout-class summons. Shadow-Callers gain access to a hidden ability upon selecting this specialization

Requirements: Gain the hidden skill “Shadow-Summoning” and have an affinity for darkness above 70%

——————

Just looking at these changes made Andius drop his jaw ion awe, these were the real ticket to power! Umbral-Blade looked like it was literally designed for him, it fit his play style perfectly and would do nothing but enhance his abilities! The movement speed alone from that specialization would make him incredibly powerful if he ensure to fight in complete darkness, which he was sure he could do with some of his magic.

The Mana-Channeler was tempting at first, but after seeing it would cause his sanity to slip he immediately threw that idea out the window; this game has already proven to be ridiculously realistic. The Shadow-Caller was also really tempting, it played entirely off of a hidden skill that no one else would have for a long time and would let him summon things like that wolf freely, which was a terrifying thing all by it self. The choice was obvious though, he would go with the Um-

“Well, well, well. Look at what we got here.” A voice called out, snapping both Andius and Raizus from their stupor of notifications. Four men wearing red leather armor walked out from the woods, one of them holding Herald in front of them with a knife at his throat, “Seems we found ourselves a little adventuring party~” Andius’ blood immediately ran cold, the Bloody Blades had found them, and they had Herald!