Ten days of running and following the river east, ten days of fighting these Hunters. They didn’t even have the decency to allow him a full night’s sleep before another shows up. It definitely didn’t help that his kills didn’t improve his mana pool. Every creature he had killed up until now had filled him with their mana, stretching the edges of his pool outwards. He realized after his second encounter with the Hunters that the usually automatic process didn’t occur. After an hour of meditation and with Aurora’s help, he was able to stimulate their mana and pull it in. But the mana was bland, tasteless and refused to mix with his. It settled on top of his own pool like oil on water. The feeling was gross enough and made him and his bond uncomfortable enough that he refused to try it again. 

The constant assaults had made him a better fighter. With each new Hunter he slimmed down his fighting style, trimming the fat, the unnecessary moves he found himself doing. He also became more efficient with his skills and learned to do minute activation of his skills only when he needed to. Activating Swiftstep when his feet touch the ground or Wild Strike along his hips and legs while he kicks an enemy. 

Leto leaned on his knees in a crouch, breathing deeply. A hunter was buried nearly a foot in the ground, the soft earth having split from repeated supercharged Wild Strikes. The porcelain chest was brutally cracked open and golden ooze dribbled from it in rivulets. 

“There has to be some end to these things.” He complained out loud as Aurora landed on his head. Her wings fluttered as she settled, exhaustion that mirrored his own coming across their bond. He let out a weak chuckle, accepting that she wasn’t going to be any help. 

“Alright, we better keep moving. Sun is still up and that means I can keep moving.” Already, his Solar Charge skill was putting in work to help refill his mana pool. Truthfully, without it, he would not have lasted as long as he had. This was a war of attrition and he had just a slight edge. But this wasn't a pattern he could keep up forever. 

He reached his arms behind his head and arched his back, stretching his whole upper body. Jogging in place for a second, he prepared himself mentally to keep moving East. Their river had pushed deep into the country, several hundred miles at least if he had to guess, crossing into Idaho. The forest had died out only a day into the chase, but the river crossed the rest of the hilly landscape. He had crossed through Boise yesterday, and as he pushed mana into Swift Step, images of the destroyed city crossed his mind. He had cried last night, the true loneliness of his situation finally hitting him. He hadn’t spoken to another human in nearly a month, and the constant pain and exhaustion was getting difficult to just push to the side. 

Standing on the edge of Boise yesterday, he had to make a decision. Run across the wide valley that made up most of lower Idaho, or try and gain a defensive position up in the mountains. The night had made his decision for him, the need to be somewhere still for just a moment overwhelming any thoughts of continuing his cross-country sprint. He headed straight north, into the mountains and forest. That was where he was comfortable now, where he had fought for his life nearly every day since the apocalypse had started. Being out in the open made him feel exposed and he was afraid of another of those white domes crossing into his dimension anywhere near him again. The greenery of brush and trees embraced him like an old friend, his newfound agoraphobia drifting away. The forest was dense with new trees that Leto had learned to identify by the energy they gave off, that of an excited toddler that had forced their way into their parent’s office to snoop. If the apocalypse had done anything, it was a wonder for natural growth. 

He reveled in the beauty of the forest for as long as he could, his sprint becoming a slow trot as he took in everything. Bursts of colorful plants he had never seen before, and he was pretty sure didn’t exist a month ago, were scattered all over. Movement in the brush set startled him, and he disappeared up a tree. Barreling through the forest was a pack of raccoons the size of border collies, chirping and playing. Some of the depression melted off of him as he watched them wrestle each other, and slunk back to the ground as they moved off into the woods. These weren’t the first animals he had seen to be radically larger or changed. Memories of the elk made him shiver, but along the way he had seen several other animals twisted and mutated. It seemed like the fauna either adapted and thrived, or were unable to and the magic in the air drove them insane as they were unable to cope with the changes to their bodies. He had seen a kingsnake near the border the size of an anaconda with wicked spines like a crown sprouting from its neck and a badger further west that its teeth had grown straight through its bottom jaw. Leto had mercy killed that one, unable to stand its horrible squealing. 

These memories brought him back to himself a bit, reminding him that this was potentially a very dangerous place to be. A nudge across his bond to Aurora sent her up into the air to keep watch and make sure nothing ambushed him. If the last few days were anything to go by, he only had a few more hours until a new Hunter found him. Keeping his head on a swivel, Leto pushed his way through the trees. A spike of panic from Aurora put him on edge, but she sent a quick image to his mind. There weren't any predators that scared her, but a roiling black wall of clouds in the distance. Lighting flashed ominously, illuminating the depths like a flickering lightbulb in a dark room. There wasn’t anything special inherently about the storm, but the last one Leto had been through had destroyed the world, so he had a little bit of PTSD about it. Another mental nudge from Aurora came through, urging him onward, finding shelter was a must if this was coming at them.

Home was a cave hidden from view by a protruding rock face on a small cliff. A little switchback path led down to a large clearing that gave them a view of any approaching enemies. A little fountain of cave water gathered in a pool near the back of the cave, and a beam of sunlight through a small crack allowed a gathering of moss and small plants around the pool. They had passed up several other options and were glad they had. But they were pushing it, the storm only a few miles away now at most. Leto passed Aurora some dried fruit he had scavenged from a grocery store in Boise. They waited and rested, sitting in the beam of sunlight as his mana pool refilled. Thunder crashed in the distance as the light dimmed, clouds in the distance beginning to blot out the sun. 

“Alright, I'm all charged up.” Leto opened his eyes, coming out of his meditative state. “Oh where’d you go?” Aurora had taken off some time while he was recharging, and she sent him a few images of the surrounding woods as she flew above their cave and kept an eye out. Leto nodded to himself and headed out of the cave, feeling the dampness of the air on his face. He sat on the edge of their little cliff, and surveyed the small glen that they had claimed before he closed his eyes and tried to focus on a skill that he and Aurora had been working on. Leto dove into his soul and followed the bond between them, trying to send his senses along the connection. His awareness wavered for a moment before a blurry scene appeared before him, the moving forest from the sky as Aurora saw it. 

“YES!” He shouted, his excitement breaking the tentative connection. Even if it was for just a moment, it illustrated huge growth for them. Aurora shot her own excitement down the bond with a dash of pride. He opened his eyes, a grin splayed across his face. But that joy was quickly scattered as a white form pushed through the treeline, gold light illuminating its face. 

“Aurora, we have company.” He stood, rolling his shoulders while retrieving his weapon and shield. The golden gaze swept back and forth, his sudden motion drawing its attention and its head snapped in his direction as the Hunter identified its quarry. Leto swung the club in a circle, loosening his wrist. 

“Bring it shiny.” He said and the Hunter’s legs shifted, its knees folding backwards into digitigrade like a kangaroo and it began to bound toward him with each step. At the apex of one of its long leaping steps, it met the cliff about four feet up from the ground. Its hands shifted into small scythes like climbing hooks and its feet sharpened to points as it began to climb. Leto put mana into Wild Strike and reinforced his leg and hips while stomping the cliff’s edge, sending rocks cascading down on the Hunter. They slowed it for a moment as it had to stop to swipe the projectiles from the air, but its ascension was inevitable. Leto braced his shield and stepped back, his club held back and above his head. His mana surged as the Hunter crested the edge, Wild Strike filling his body. In nearly identical motions, they stepped toward each other swinging. 

Leto dropped his stance, his initial blow a feint as he pushed the Hunter’s attack to the side and ducked under its other arm, coming up directly under its head. The tip of his club struck its chin, knocking its face skyward. He stepped again, around its back and delivered another blow to its side. In each of his fights with the Hunter’s he learned that they were susceptible to disorientation. Keeping their gaze off him and knocking them around a little bit usually netted him a good amount of damage before they could adjust to his flow. 

The Hunter stumbled forward, its legs trying to shift back to normal to better balance itself. The climbing hooks became longer and serrated like mantis claws and swept a large circle around its body, trying to get him wherever he came up. Leto leaned just past the blow and cracked the club against its elbow, again turning the Hunter away from him. Before he could step back again, the other scythe cut across his shoulder, sending a cascade of blood down his arm. A hiss escaped his mouth and he flinched to the side, putting some space between them. A heat shimmer surrounded his arm as Infernal Vitality got to work, but it was a deep cut and would take some time to heal. His anger at these creatures just wasn’t enough anymore, he was just tired. He could feel Aurora’s fear and urgency through the bond, speeding toward him. But she was nearly a mile away when the Hunter got to the clearing, unlikely to arrive in time. He had yet to be truly alone in one of these fights, Aurora’s presence usually making itself known in strafing shots of flame and talons as an additional distraction. 

The Hunter steadied itself, turning toward Leto as it shifted again. One arm drooped, becoming whip-like with barbs running along its length, the other forming into a cylindrical mace. The whip cracked out and Leto managed to deflect it off his shield, but sacrificing his line of sight. Hoping to surprise it, he rushed forward, shield extended, but was knocked down to one knee as the mace hand crashed into his defense. He accepted the blow, rolling to the side as the whip came down again, carving a furrow in the dirt where he had been moments earlier. It turned toward him, already swinging as it came. He turned his shield slightly to the side to push the club past him, and raised his club to interfere with another whip attack. The whip curled around his club and the Hunter wrenched it from his hand before he could reinforce his grip with Wild Strike. 

“Hey, not cool man! I fought a really ugly dude for that.” He ducked another mace blow and danced backward. His club rattled across the ground behind the Hunter as it released it. 

“I'm gonna get that back, and I'm gonna…” He stopped mid sentence, a pondering look crossing his face. “Do you have an asshole? I’m not sure where to threaten to shove my club if you don’t have an asshole.” The whip cracked next to his ear as he barely managed to dodge. 

“Could you make yourself an asshole?” He ducked again before rushing forward.

“I mean, you’re an asshole already,” He grunted as he slammed his shield against its chest, knocking it backward “But some sort of orifice would help my threats land a little better.” He grinned as the Hunter stumbled backwards and slipped on his discarded club. It was almost cartoonish how hard the white figure fell but this was life and death, and Leto was woe to let an advantage like this pass. The club was scooped up as he landed on the Hunter, Wild Strike thrumming through his arms. The club came down on it again and again, forcing it to sacrifice its weapon forms to make a double handed shield. Basically straddling the thing, he wailed on it and over charged each strike, damn the backlash. He felt it tense beneath him a half second before exploding outward in a splash of white, throwing him onto his back. The breath was knocked out of him as he landed, leaving him gasping for breath.

The hunter slid away from him trying to quickly reform while it had space, its body basically a ball of springs. It had been tensing them inside itself, using his own blows to absorb some kinetic energy before releasing to push him away. This was unsurprising, he had seen the other hunters drastically transform if they needed to, but it took a little bit and seemed to tire them out. He had a moment to catch his breath and struggled to his feet as it took on a semi-humanoid shape again. 

“You bitch.” He gasped out, “That really sucks when that happens.” Inhaling deeply, he prepared himself again. “You don’t have lungs though so I don’t expect you to get it.” 

His only reply was a steely eyed stare from the Hunter, not even a flicker of emotion. None of the Hunters had ever even spoken to him, so the banter was more for himself than anything else. He was way too tense without Aurora to back him up and he really couldn’t afford to tighten up and make a mistake. 

The wind had slowly gotten stronger as the fight had gone on, a pre-storm breeze becoming strong gusts that were starting to bend some of the smaller trees. They were protected in the little glen, the wind blowing from behind the cliffs. But the rain had begun, in a light mist, now actual drops falling to earth. The stony earth beneath their feet was becoming soft and muddy, their most recent exchange leaving each covered in a thin layer of mud. The Hunter had assimilated the mud, its formerly pristine white shade taking on a slightly darker shade. Leto pushed mana into Swift Step to guarantee his footing on this now precarious terrain. The Hunter’s legs became thicker and wider removing any distinction from feet to legs, compensating for being knocked over and the muddy ground. 

They clashed again, no longer fast strikes, but each heaving heavy calculated blows. The Hunter’s hands became thick hammerlike blocks that Leto had to dodge more often than take on his shield or deflect. They stepped in and out of each other’s range, the view becoming slowly obscured by the rain that became heavier each moment. Twilight Eyes cleared up a bit of the obstruction for Leto but with the gleam in the Hunter’s eyes, he didn’t think it gave him much of an advantage if it gave him one at all.

The flow of the battle continued, each landing a few good strikes in opportune moments, but nothing really changed for either of them. Worry began to creep in on the edges of his mind. Without the sun though, Leto was going to be at a disadvantage in this battle of attrition. With all of his skills running at once to compensate for everything, he was running out of mana faster than his pool could take. A cold, empty feeling was filling his center as mana drained to keep him going. 

Leto had thought about his weaknesses before. Combat had been his life for the last week and a half, he had to ponder it at some point. He really had no ability to hit above his level. Sure he could supercharge Wild Strike, but every time he did that it took a toll. He had started to notice that it took a little more time and energy to recover from his backlash. Healing wasn’t perfect, and he was collecting miniscule damage every time. Skills didn’t come from just anywhere though. Each time he gained a skill, it had been in a desperate situation, where his mana had granted him the thing he needed. Sure it was based on his own thoughts and needs, but he had no idea how to approach building a skill from scratch. 

As the fight went on, he felt that familiar tug, his precious mana being pulled to a corner of his soul to make something he needed even as it was being drained. Giving himself over to the flow of battle and retreating into a purely defensive stance, his mind drifted to his soul. Raking his mental constructs fingers over the forming skill, an impression of what exactly was forming was given to him. It felt similar to Wild Strike, a way to empower but also protect him. For the first time since the maze, not for lack of trying, Leto activated his final skill, Ruler’s Will. He pulled more mana from his pool, and Aurora sent some through their bond. It came with an impression that there was something else bothering her besides her wild flight to get to him, but that would have to wait. He imposed his Will on the skill, molding it to a better version of what it could have been. When it was finished, he released it with a smile that was mirrored on his construct and his actual face. In a whisper, he said;

“Retribution.” and a pulse of mana went through him as he activated the skill. A sheen covered his body for a moment, before the mana settled. It cost almost nothing to activate, and nearly nothing to keep it going. The price he negotiated with the skill was that he took the toll on his body with each attack from an enemy. He smiled as each hammer blow landed on his shield, the shock of each blow rocking his body, but more importantly, the energy. Tension built in his body, his body storing the energy from each. Patience was his ally, attrition was his enemy’s worst attribute. After nearly a hundred more blows, his smile turned into a huge grin as he spent the small mana cost to release the skill. Dropping the shield, he slipped between the hammers and threw a punch at its chest. Pouring from every inch of his body, the collected energy amplified his strike exponentially. For the first time ever, he saw the Hunter’s eyes widen with fear or surprise as from the point of contact the ivory body began to crumble and shatter as it was thrown back violently. Soaring through the air, it crossed the glen and collided with a tree before it fell to the ground in a pile of nearly dust. A few moments passed as the tension from the fight left him and exhilaration filled his body and he roared into the darkening sky. 

“COME AT YOU YOU PIECES OF SHIT!” 

Chest heaving, he placed his hands on his knees to keep himself upright. Hair hung damp in his face and obscured his vision further. A soft laughter rocked him, and he felt relief as a pulse of mana came from the woods. Aurora must have made it finally, and he was going to make so much fun of her for missing…

Moving the hair out of his eyes, he watched as one, then two, then four, then six Hunter’s stepped from the woods. Finally, one taller Hunter stepped in front of the crowd, a third black eye planted in its forehead. It studied the pile of former Hunter on the ground, before looking up the cliff at Leto.

“H256 out of commission. Subject located. Mana signature verified. Fifteen hunters eliminated by subject, extreme measures allowed. Capture or kill.”

Leto was stunned, so beyond fear that he had no idea what to feel. Resignation trembled at the back of his mind, and he fell to his knees. This was it. His fight had gone on for a while and he had done his best. These odds were insurmountable, an unstoppable force showed it face, a wall he could not see the top of. Darkness blocked out the Hunters as he closed his eyes, accepting the inevitable fate that was to-

A powerful surge stung his soul as Aurora raged in his mind. There were no words, but a fear unlike anything he had felt from her yet, and her message was clear. 

GET DOWN

Leto dropped from his knees to his stomach, his endless trust in his bond clearing his mind of the thought of death, the only thought left that he had to drop and ride out whatever was coming. 

Far above this little glen, and all across the world, a storm was passing over the entirety of Earth. Starting from an insignificant corner on a continent it brewed heavy, dangerous, and furious. A wave, spreading over every inch of the planet over the course of a day, a new wave of mana that spelled the doom of so many. Mana had built up behind the seal for so long, and the next layer had come loose. 

A pressure unlike anything he was used to descended, like the air itself had gained much more mass, like he was an ant beneath a flood. The stormfront had reached him, and it was angry. Trees bent at a wicked angle, tops of some brushing the ground a few meters from where their base was. Lightning poured from the sky like it was rain, and the rain was like solid sheets of water. Thunder was so constant and loud that it might as well have been the sound of the rain hitting the ground. Leto’s eardrums burst instantly, the sound held back before by the wall of mana. When he had a moment, he gazed toward his enemies. He watched as they twisted and screamed, the mana too intense for them. They simply faded, as if they didn’t exist at all. Foreign contaminants cleared by a wicked douse of medicine. 

Somehow, Aurora was with him as he began to crawl toward the cave, toward any form of shelter. It felt like he was going insane, each second stretching into minutes at a time as he pulled with all his strength toward the entrance. After years of traveling like a dying man, he reached relative safety. Sprawled in the entrance, the protruding rockface deflecting a large percentage of wind, and functionally deaf to the world, Leto released any grip he had on reality and plunged into unconsciousness. Aurora summoned what mana she had, enveloping them in a warm cocoon that would be their shield until the storm passed.