Chapter Forty-Four: You Forgot…?

“Maybe we should wait until the Quest is over to go up the path?” Anna suggested, watching as Aiden slowly crept forward. After an hour of practice, he could only walk slowly.

“You know, the Miscellaneous Attributes made me think they wouldn’t give very strong boosts. It’s why I waited so long to invest in them. I thought it would be a waste, but I feel incredible. Learning how to walk again is frustrating, but everything is so clear, and when I move - it’s incredible,” Aiden gushed, a smile on his face.

“You increased Power by eighteen and Alacrity by twenty-seven. I don’t think that’s really a small gain. Even if it were incremental, your leap would make it noticeable. I don’t think anybody has had an issue adjusting to their Attributes.” Anna snapped her fingers, and two orbs of verdant energy stretched and morphed in front of her before fizzling. “Damn.”

“You’re getting closer,” he said, choosing to ignore the obviousness of what she said. “I’m getting a lot better.”

“Sure, but how long is it going to take for you to be able to fight again?” She raised a brow, biting her lip as she looked him up and down. “To be fair, I’m pretty sure you don’t need to move much outside. You’re a walking fortress, and Blizzy is turning into a little terror as well.”

Shaking his head, he smiled at her. “Now that I’ve got the Attributes and Mastery Augmentation, I would feel awful not using everything I have in a fight.”

“You min-maxer,” she scoffed. Slapping her hands together, she created a large ball of verdant energy that crackled unstably.

Aiden groaned, dreading what came next. She stretched the ball wide into a thin rectangle, and a wall of vines exploded towards him.

She’s going all out on this one! He backpedaled out of the way of the frontrunner vines, leaping away as they slammed into the ground at his feet. Thorns exploded out of the vines, pulping the ground.

He struggled to stop himself from teetering over to his side, catching his balance as he skidded to a stop. Bringing Silver to bear, he ran to his left as more vines slammed into his prior position, exploding into the ground.

Things were far from done. He could see the ground roil and churn as the vines chased after him from underneath. They converged on him. Glancing toward Anna, he could see her smiling at him, throwing a playful wink his way.

As the vines exploded from the ground, he leaped forward, crossing several feet instantly. He brought the knife to bear against the vines pursuing him above ground, casting an Ice Shield that attached to his arm before another vine slammed into him.

Twisting his body, he cast Arctic Gale and Hoarspike in rapid succession, blowing apart the massive amalgamation of conjoined vines that nearly turned him into swiss cheese.

Faster! He pushed off the ground, deflecting a vine away from his face with the large slab of ice. Contrary to his expectation, the thorns dug into the icy slab and started growing at a ridiculous pace.

Breaking the connection around his wrist, he brought Silver up to slice through another vine, watching as the split vegetation whizzed by either side of his face. Bringing to bear the weapon, he began to imitate a gardener, cutting her attacks into ribbons at a speed he could barely follow.

Shards stacked up faster than he could keep track. Intuitively, he knew that he could cast the ability, so he did. “Here I come! Glacial Fang!”

The shards slammed together and blasted forward toward the rectangular board of swirling green that spawned the vines. Throwing himself forward, he chased after it as fast as he could, stabbing forward with Silver.

Anna countered by creating a thick wall of thorns, causing a massive icy cloud to block all semblance of visibility.

“My win,” Aiden said tiredly, Silver’s point only a hair's breadth away from her neck. “Finally.”

Anna tilted her head. “You think so?”

“Okay, fine,” Aiden huffed as he felt thorns poke into both his sides. “A tie then.”

“A tie,” she agreed, waving her hand. The countless vines withered into dusty mulch, blanketing the ground with the smell of rotting vegetation. She wrinkled her nose. “I wish there was an easier way to dispose of those.”

He retracted his weapon from her neck, and she leaned forward, placing her hands on her knees. Letting out a stuttering breath, she squinted at him. “You improved a lot that time. I still think you’re not using the explosive potential Power can bring to bear, and you still need to hone your reflexes a bit.”

“Noted,” he said, pulling her to her feet. “It’s interesting to see how strong you are. I’m sure you’re not maxing your Attributes like I am, so what’s your secret?”

She rolled her eyes. “It’s not really a secret. I just didn’t go full meathead like you did. Have you put a single Essence into upgrading your skills?”

Oh, shit. That’s a thing…

“Clearly not,” she said, chuckling as the color drained from his face. “You’re relying on your Attributes, Mastery, and raw Discipline upgrades to push your strength. The amount of power you’re lacking - not that you’re actually weak - due to ignoring the ability to make individual spells stronger is... “

“I get it,” he grumbled. “Another thing for the list.”

“I can help you figure out a plan,” she offered, taking his hand in hers. “It sounds super fun. I’ve already got ideas on how you could make your ice spear or shield stronger, or that strange wind thing you do. Not only that, if you get even one Spiritual path, it’ll make things even stronger. You could be able to manipulate things a bit more freely.”

He nodded and rolled his neck, moaning at the cracks that shot relief through his body. “I think having some kind of idea of what I want to do is better than not, for sure. I just - it feels like I could be making myself stronger with more Attributes or unlock more abilities instead.”

She tutted at him in displeasure. “Just look at the fight we just had. My Attributes aren’t anywhere near yours, yet you didn’t overwhelm me. I think the more Attributes you have, the smaller gains they give. I’m also of the belief that upgrading your Discipline to substitute for actually upgrading your abilities is a fool’s errand.”

Aiden couldn’t help but agree. Upgrading the individual abilities was something he completely forgot he could do, and it made him feel utterly ridiculous when he spent so much time with Anna. She was always playing with her abilities, testing their bounds. Her progress, the way she controlled them, and the power she could pump into the things she did...

I’m an idiot sometimes. There were no two ways around it. He thought she had improved from finding different ways of using the abilities, but only now did he realize that was probably a small part of it. The majority of her power came from upgrading her different abilities, and then pushing them to their limits with the Attributes she had.

“So,” he started, rubbing his neck and looking away. “I’m thinking of upgrading Hoarspike. It’s my most-”

“Mnnn,” Anna hummed loudly. “What’s the one that allows you to empower Hoarspike?”

“Arctic Gale, but its cooldown is so long when compared to the time a fight lasts.” The thing took a whole minute to recharge.

“See, that’s the thing. Upgrading it could allow you to use it more often. If you upgrade that, you can increase the lethality of your Hoarspike more often. Then, once it's upgraded, you can also upgrade Hoarspike. Or…”

Aiden could hear the ideas proliferating in her mind. When it came to magic and different ways of applying them, he had yet to see an equal to Anna. She just enjoyed it so much. As far as he knew, she was the only one to take both Arcana and Spirit as their big two.

It’s admirable. For as much as she projected a calm, collected, and undisturbed facade, she was truly passionate about magic and feelings. If anything, he suspected that the only difference between Anna and Josh in that regard was their control. Anna seemed to have immense control, much like she’d dealt with the emotional rollercoaster they all faced regularly enough that she established plenty of ways to cope.

What was life like before all this? What have you been through? She stuck her tongue back at him playfully, waving her hand in front of his face.

“You should take a picture. It’ll last longer,” she joked. When he continued to stare, lost in thought, her cheeks started to redden. “You’re gonna make a girl insecure if you keep staring like that. So intense.”

The corners of his mouth tilted upward, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he had touched on some kind of deeper understanding of the intelligent, magic-loving girl. He winked at her, sitting down next to her - close.

She didn’t hesitate to lean her head in close. “I’m gonna take a nap. You’re my pillow now. We can talk more about upgrades and stuff on our guard shift and go up the mountain after.”

“Sounds good to me,” he agreed, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and pulling her closer. Outwardly, he played things smooth, but internally?

What am I doing? Things don’t make any sense! I was just saying - but now I’m doing this, and everything’s so confusing. Gah!

His internal turmoil went completely unnoticed by the softly snoring girl, her head resting against his side. Leaning back on the steps to make things more comfortable caused her to throw a leg over his and place a hand on his chest. She used his arm as a pillow, just as she said she would.

My heart’s gonna wake her up. There’s no way she can’t hear it! It’s like bass drums in my ears. Oh, man… This is -

Forming a coherent thought when her soft body pressed against his was literally impossible. It made him happy - he smiled against his will! It made him scared - relationships and the apocalypse and - and - and…

Blizzy stirred from her own slumber, sending him warm and comforting thoughts over their bond. She huffed a breath when she saw Anna curled against him, deciding that she wouldn’t be outdone. Trotting over, she curled up in the crook of his arms.

We’re laying on stairs. If we didn’t have Durability, this would be torture. He stared at the calming blue sky, admiring the strange oranges and reds. His breathing was heavy as he didn’t know what to think, only that he liked what was happening.

Isn’t that simple enough, though? Josh even said so… He started to consider the talk with Josh, wondering if he was being naive at the time. I like spending time with her, but I still don’t know her. Maybe if we survive the next week...