Through waves of cats Jason strides. A backhand clears the way as his steps purge the crawling carpet below him. Left behind is Lily and Rosha as he proceeds deeper into the swarms. The only connection to the others is a small stream of magic coming in from Courtney as she does her best to keep his health up. Next to her Peter shakes his head, “Keep the healing up. The longer he can stay like that, the better. My guess is that after this fight he is going to be even more ridiculous.”

Jason continues on, his entire body a weapon as cats try to attack from all angles only to find themselves blasted off by bursts of Energy. Below his feet death spreads as each step deals damage that chains through the nearby cats. Behind him a carpet of dead cats grows with each step. In this brief span of time he has killed more of them than the group had killed over the last couple days.

Up on the wall, the guards at first just sat back and watched the fun. Once things heated up though they couldn’t not join in. None of them wanted to be shown up by a couple of adventurers and a rabbit. So with great haste they deploy the weapon of choice to deal with this yearly plague. From behind the lip of the wall, they haul large metal grates up and over. With some effort on the guards part, they drop one after another all around the wall.

These grates don’t kill every cat, but it takes a significant chunk of the ones right up on the wall out. Then, with bulging muscles, the guards all drag the grates back up the wall by the heavy ropes that are attached. And again the grates are dropped on the cats and again and again. Over and over the large metal grates are released upon the cats until the swarms break. Hundreds of swarm cats are still alive but too spread out to form up again and so they flee.

As the cats flee Jason stands still unable to move as his stamina has run dry. He lets out a long breath and thinks to himself, ‘Well, that’s a thing. Who’d a thunk my first battle trance would be against some cats? I normally don’t do this but stuff like that is the always sought after way to boost yourself like crazy. Or rather, that’s how it was in my last life.’ “System, show me how much I’ve improved from that fight.”

{Level increased from 12.5005 to 13.4163

Strength increased by 5[Base] from 37 to 42

Toughness increased by 7[Base] from 49 to 56

Agility increased by 8[Base] from 45 to 53

Control increased by 4[Base] from 16 to 20

Stamina increased by 7[Base] from 25 to 32

HP increased by 36 from 70 to 106

Energy increased by 2 from 8 to 10

Title Gained: Combat Monk - Increase gains from mediation while fighting

Energetic Body Reinforcement increased from Apprentice 3.375 to Apprentice 6.6553

Energized Fleshes effect to hit the incorporeal goes from 39% to 48%

Desolate Traversal Technique increased from Apprentice 8.8031 to 9.3112

Blast Punch (Variant) evolves into Body Blast at Apprentice 1

War Stomp increased from Initiate 2.173 to 7.2232

War Stomp gains Effect: Clad - For double the expenditure and an upkeep cost, this skill can become a continuous effect

Knowledge Bonus Gained: +5% damage bonus against cats

Knowledge Bonus Gained: +5% damage bonus against swarms

Companion Lily:

Level increased from 12.9999 to 13.9999 Strength increased by 1[SP] from 18 to 19 Toughness increased by 1[SP] from 17 to 18 Agility increased by 3[SP] from 42 to 45 and has 1[SP] converted to [Base] HP increased by 5 from 40 to 45 XP overflow converts 3[SP] of Agility to [Base], 2[SP] of Strength to [Base] and 1[SP] of Toughness to [Base] Title Gained: Breaker of the Natural Order - effects of predator suppression decreased

}

As Jason goes over his gains, the others walk over to him before checking their own improvements. Courtney in particular has seen a massive increase in her healing skills from having to throw so much of it at Jason. Once Jason finishes he stretches out and sighs, “So uh, either of you have a stamina potion or some such? My tank is sort of running empty at the moment and that means either a long wait or someone will have to carry me into the outpost.”

Courtney rolls her eyes, “Of course your extravagant display would empty your stamina. Of all the pools to empty, you chose the one that makes it so you can’t really move around when low. Oh and of course it's the one pool that once empty takes forever to start filling again.”

Jason shrugs, “I wasn’t exactly thinking about that during the fight. Plus my one skill gained a boost but at the cost of an upkeep and can you guess what it uses?”

Peter shakes his head and laughs, “Of course you would develop your war stomp to gain the Clad effect. One of the most popular and yet at the same time most wasteful effects for a skill like that. At least you have a good way to train your stamina now. Though burst uses can help gain stamina, a continual draw just seems to work better. Anyway, here, have a stamina cookie. It isn’t much, just gives you five but at your level that should be enough to remove the slowness.”

While grabbing the cookie Jason yawns. “Down the hatch!” And he throws the small flower shaped cookie into his mouth. He gives it a few chews before his face scrunches up and the others can tell it is taking a lot of willpower to not spit the thing back out.

After a bit more work, Jason forces it down his throat. “Blah, the hell was that? That wasn’t the most vile thing I’ve tasted, but it definitely ranks up there!”

Peter takes a moment to stop laughing before he answers. “Oh my, exactly what I said! That was a stamina cookie. Cheap buggers because it uses the leftover dregs that get filtered out at the last step of brewing a stamina potion. Just enough of the potion remains in them to give you the boost. Sadly the reason alchemists leave that little bit is because one of the plants used to brew it has a very, hmm, well you just tasted. The plant is vile. Common as blue weed and perfectly fine to use as long as you don’t press on the fibers too hard. To avoid tainting the potions with that flavor, basically everyone agrees to just lose some of the potion instead by not extracting all of the potion. The stuff is fine to eat, healthy even, but that taste! You can’t get used to it.”