Talents work to subdue the unruly, but only when applied properly.

Wisdom of the Ancients, book 3

Johanna felt off, but she had little choice. Her… exchange with the Ancient, with Douglas Moore, had left her feeling off. It was as if her body was suddenly foreign to her.

When the goons from the Montana had ambushed her and Tom, Moore had used one of his weirdest abilities to replace her, bringing impossibly high Talents to bear. A few months ago, Professor Ernesto Gomez had explored how Talents were useable, but the Ancient spirit from beyond was clearly not bound by the same rules as they were.

And for a few moments, she’d been able to see clearly those. The one thing she’d seen was the speed at which “experience” went down. That was the label used for what Gomez had named “talent energy”. Levels, qualities – no, Stats, as they were labeled there – all those required that experience to increase, but Moore had burned through that to help them.

That’s why he can’t do it all the time. Why he doesn’t call me more often in that liminal dream setting of his. Why we grow fast, but only that much. He burns his stores of energy every time he interacts with us.

“Peter and Laura!” she realized.

“What?” Tom asked.

“While those five were trying to get at us, others were coming for them.”

“You ok?” he asked again.

“I could see it. It was more real than when he brought me to the Dream of the Ancient. I could see all four window openings… and through them, I could see an Earth Shaper, a Lancer, and a Focused Battler. At least three. I think they were starting to fight… they are probably still fighting!” she realized.

“Where?”

“Laura was trying to get some decorations. I think I recognized the street near the market, southward.”

She started running, startling people who had started to come out. After the way Moore had changed her into that weird version of himself, they instantly dispersed, letting her and Tom alone, and now, they could run across the street unimpeded.

Please let them be still there, she mentally repeated.

And fuck, Moore swore mentally as he watched the combat unfold.

While he had been scaring the bejesus out of the five goons ambushing Johanna, he’d been unable to watch anything else. Not only were the four windows into reality gone, but the entire interface had receded, feeling as if it was there, but out of reach, out of sight. Although he didn’t entirely follow the rules – the result of Exchange was more like a Changed beast than a person, he supposed – the limitations were there. He could only see and interact with the System while he was both less and more than a person.

But as soon as he’d relaxed, he’d been instantly expelled from reality, brought back in the Beyond, in front of Johanna’s perspective window. But he could see out of every angle, and he’d immediately seen the people starting to surround Peter and Laura.

Because, of course, there was a second team and simultaneous strikes on all four. He spotted two additional goons, a Tactician and a Fast Fixer coming out from behind Laura, just as Peter realized things were off.

Johanna’s seen it, he realized, as he saw her and Tom start running. Hold on, you two! Help is on the way!

Then he scrambled to see if he could allocate points. He had expended slightly less than anticipated and was still close to 8000, but was short of increasing another level to 9. He could raise one stat, maybe two.

Peter was the one to spot the suspicious-looking people coming up the street as Laura was looking at a store’s display. His first instinct was immediately to become unnoticeable, and they were looking at her rather than him.

He readied himself to move aside, but his feet refused to move somehow. He frowned briefly, then remembered back last year, in Valetta when Johanna had discovered the rooting ability – Earthbind – before her new specialization took it away later. He looked wildly and spotted a man who kept watching him with high intensity, in a way that reminded him of… Petra.

A Shaper? Earth Shaper? How? Who? were the thoughts that went briefly in his head, before he yelled at Laura, “Hey, we’re under attack!”

Someone keeping specifically track of him wouldn’t lose him to Reconnaissance. If he could distract the man, he could slip out… but they weren’t just coming for him. They were also coming for Laura. And neither had their Artifacts.

“How astute,” another man said, and he noticed the fourth person who pulled up a small sword.

Another made a move, a weapon coming out of his jacket where it had been carefully hidden, in a move that did not feel quite natural. And people in the street took notice.

“Your husband is neutralized,” the speaker added, looking at Laura. “You have no escape.”

“And what you would have us doing,” she replied.

“Come with us. We’ll split you, of course, but you won’t be harmed. The boss would prefer you to be mostly intact.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Your boss?”

The man ignored her and gestured to one of his acolytes.

“You come, and we’ll bring your husband after.”

Someone was coming behind the men, Peter noticed. He hoped the man knew what he was doing because he had no idea what those men had in the form of Talents. Those people had to have more than just one. He had no idea how, but he was not going to bet some thugs just happened to find an Earth Shaper. If they had obtained one Talent, they could have an entire profile. alone listed nearly forty useable, he remembered vaguely.

He crouched slightly since his feet were still glued to the ground. The local man reached the Earthbind shaper and made to grab him.

“What you think you’re doing,…”

The sword bearer turned and pushed his sword at the intruder, yelling “Stay out of this.”

Laura vanished.

She reappeared instantly next to the New Sandusky man, the light pokes from the blade being enough of a target for Succor. But she did not reach her hand to heal him, she pushed her elbow, crashing it into the bandit’s side. It wasn’t strong enough to do damage, but it was enough to break his concentration, and the pressure holding Peter’s feet on the ground vanished abruptly.

He wasted no time moving aside. All bandits had instinctively turned to find out Laura, and none were watching, so he mentally slipped into his Reconnaissance mode, moving first further aside, then heading toward his wife.

That was the kind of thing that would have been impossible a year ago when he slipped through an unsuspecting Valetta. But he knew, both personally, and formally, since Prof. Gomez had shown him the increase in tiers with each successive specialization, that his stealth was good enough. Not enough to run around invisible and unseen, but move decisively enough, at least. He’d tested extensively during the trip back from Washington.

Getting a weapon was the first thing, though. New Sandusky was a modern city. You did not walk around casually armed, and so they had left their weapons at home in the Talent House. His Heroic Talents all worked with weapons. Tom could use his fists, but he didn’t have that versatility.

One of the thugs, he noted, had realized they’d lost track of him, and was looking around. The anonymous citizen was trying to retreat, and one of the goons was grabbing Laura, trying to twist her arm behind. He lost his grip only for a fraction of a second, but that was enough, and she vanished again, covering the four feet that separated her from the lightly wounded man who flinched.

She looked around, trying to find Peter. While he was immune to her Falter gaze, she wasn’t to his Reconnaissance, but she also knew he’d be close to impossible to notice. She was still trying to run away, but two of the other thugs were angling to cut her off. She could keep on teleporting to the retreating person, but only if she was on her own. The moment they assured their grips, she’d be cut from that possibility.

“Watch out, her husband’s loose,” one finally called out.

Well, I’m next to you, Peter smiled.

He reached and placed two fingers on the blade strapped to the man’s calf while he was looking in the wrong direction. Any weapon held in hand was out of limits, but any exposed one was a legitimate target for Ambidextrous.

The blade was now in his hand, and he plunged it at the thug’s side, his hand minutely shifting to find the best place to do so. The man yelled, and the rest of them turned, finally taking notice of the small man. The man stumbled and Peter took a step to finish him, then his foot locked again on the ground.

“He’s not immune,” the one who’d watched him with intensity announced, as another man ran toward the wounded.

Yeah, I don’t have Succor, Peter noted drily.

That was another item they’d tested after that fight with the Aranea back in the East Coast zone. It didn’t matter if you couldn’t move your feet if you had another means of moving yourself.

He threw the dagger. Accurate Pierce was not a ranged Talent, but if you used a weapon for piercing – arrows did not count, somehow – and it would hit close enough, then the Talent would correct the aim. The dagger struck the Earth Shaper… in the face.

It wasn’t powerful enough to kill, just to wound, but the man yelled, raising his hand to his face, and Peter’s feet moved again, and chaos resumed. The running man was now angling toward the yelling Shaper, hand extended, and was probably a Fixer of some sort.

The thugs were now realizing they were not masters of the battlefield and they dropped all caution. The other three had their weapons out, one with a long blade, the rest with smaller weapons, and Peter was weaponless… for the moment.

The three men slowed down, and Peter spotted Laura, who had stopped running and was looking intensively at them, probably interfering with Falter. He made a quick gesture to tell her to run, but he wasn’t sure she’d spotted it. Or wanted to.

He deflected – or rather, Deflected – the first one’s strike, but the second thug was far more accurate, his move not quite natural. He probably had talents that helped. The strike sliced Peter’s jacket and left a nasty bleeding cut to his side, but he ignored it. His own hand rose on its own and struck back, even though he didn’t hold a weapon and the bandit’s digits briefly relaxed on his weapon, letting it briefly slip.

The sword was now in Peter’s other hand and he wasted no time striking. His own strike was perfect, deeper, sliding into the man’s side, and he stopped abruptly.

One down, he thought. Then he realized he was – again – stuck on the ground. But only briefly.

The Fixer jumped as Laura appeared beside him, elbowing the Earth Shaper. Peter started to sprint as Laura turned and ran rather than teleport again. He realized the bystander must have fled far enough that he was out of her range, and she only had him as an anchor point now.

She was also burning mana and would not be able to sustain the flitting all over the battlefield for long.

Peter Malik Donnall

Male human, 20 years

Deviser

Level: 8 (34000 XP needed)

410/410 stamina (+18 per hour)

0 unallocated skill points

XP: 6632 + 7792

STR: 18 (12604 XP needed)

Forced Attack (62)

AUT: 18 (8000 XP needed)

AGI: 20 (7935 XP needed)

Deflect (68)

Return Strike (68)

PER: 19 (12950 XP needed)

Accurate Pierce (50)

DEX: 22 (9795 XP needed)

Reconnaissance (96)

Ambidextrous (74)

EMP: 18 (5000 XP needed)

+9.6 Perception for skill checks

+11.8 Dexterity for skill checks

Accuracy, strength, and grip 74% better with off-hand

+6.2 Strength for skill checks

17% less wound depth

Laura Anna Donnall (Vogel)

Female human, 19 years, 11 months

Combat Minister

Level: 8 (34000 XP needed)

277/351 mana (+19 per hour)

0 unallocated skill points

XP: 4160 + 7792

STR: 19 (12956 XP needed)

Succor (46)

AUT: 18 (4560 XP needed)

Falter (44)

AGI: 18 (4584 XP needed)

Cleanse Toxins (26)

PER: 19 (7974 XP needed)

Regrowth (26)

DEX: 20 (7889 XP needed)

First Aid (68)

Field Resilience (48)

EMP: 21 (6780 XP needed)

Close Wounds (92)

Reduce the extent of wounds by 92%

Wounds clot 136% faster

+9.2 Authority for skill checks

LD50 increased by 260%

Instinctive knowledge of the gravity of a wound