Unbound

Chapter Four Hundred And Fifty Three – 453

Chapter Four Hundred And Fifty Three – 453

"Faster!" Beef shouted, laughing over the swells. "Faster!"

Felix cut through the Leviathan Depths like a knife, his long, lean Body all but made for physical exertion. Like Beef, he was smiling as the waves rose beneath them. It was thrilling to push himself, to find out everything his Adept Body could achieve. Almost thrilling enough to distract himself from the murky waters below. Evie was to the side and rear of him, splashing with speed but little skill; it was enough to keep up, at least.

"Hah! I've practically reached the boat! You're all so slow!" Beef shouted back at them, turning so that he was doing an almost leisurely backstroke. His horns rose up out of the water, tiny masts that echoed the Manaships they were all chasing.

Evie shouted something waterlogged and exceedingly angry before her flailing kicks went into overdrive. She pummelled the rolling waters with her fists and feet, kicking up a spray like a turbo-charged manatee before shooting off after the Minotaur. She'd done something similar earlier, when they had first started the Endurance training but, Evie being Evie, had run out of steam fairly quickly. Since then it had been a back and forth between the two, both egging each other on with insults and wounded pride. Their competition was both amusing and effective at draining them both of Stamina, putting greater and greater strain on their Endurance. Felix, meanwhile, had lingered near the middle since theyd started. In the last two hours, hed only approach Beef when the kid started getting too cocky. Like now.

Instead of swimming atop the oncoming swell as the others were, Felix dove into it, plunging beneath the roiling surface with sure, implacable strokes. The endless crash and roar immediately silenced, resolving in a gelid, muffled vibration he could only feel with his limbs. Darkness expanded before him like an open door, darkest blue tinged with the faintest of purples as swirls of deepest water and almost-ice flowed in tireless currents. He swam as an arrow flew, cutting through the water with only a moment's pause.

Fish and monsters alike lit up in Felix's Perception, a sphere that encompassed hundreds of feet in all directions. It was easier to spot things under the waves, much to Felix's chagrinthere was living flesh and there was the sea, and little else between. His Mind idly tagged the position of anything that dared come too close, while he fought to keep his imagination from conjuring worse in the fathomless depths.

As he swam toward the struggling forms of his friends, he was reminded of his Hunger, and of his efforts the night prior. The abyss inside of him was quiet much like the Leviathan Depths and had proven quite effective at clearing his Mind of idle, anxious thoughts. In turn, that had allowed him to finally effect some lasting changes to his core space. Felix had decided to lean toward the idea of a black hole, at least in the abstract; his Hunger was at the center of his most effective abilities, after all. After firming up the structure of the Divine Treechanging its trunk from strange, crimson bark to a glassy, far stronger crystalline substancehe had expanded on the idea of his Hunger pulling things toward the center. Slowly but surely currents had formed within his core space, swirling and slow at first, drawing in the gritty detritus that lingered in the textured darkness between his Skills. When Beef had shaken him out of his trance, he had effectively devised a self-propelled cleansing system for his core, that even now was slowly clarifying the once-murky gloom. All in all, it had been a productive night. Using his Hunger to dull the frenetic churn of his Mind had been a great idea, and one that Felix was eager to attempt again soon.

First, however, he had to show these kids who was boss.

Above, Beef swam with steady, powerful breaststrokes and Evie was right behind him with the fastest doggy paddle Felix had ever seen. The rearmost ship of their fleet was looming a mere hundred yards out, and the two of them struggled mightily to be the first to reach its hull.

Without Skills or spells, Felix undulated his Body and kicked with all the Strength at his disposal, sending himself ripping through the waves like a rocket. He blasted past both of his friends, exploding up and out of the surface of the sea and straight into the air.

"Not fair!" Beef shouted, followed closely by Evie's garbled curse.

Felix landed nimbly atop the Manaship's deck, drenching several unsuspecting crew and Claw in seawater. Their alarm turned to bemused excitement as they realized who had landed on their ship, but Felix's grin was for his friends alone. He leaned over the railing and waved at them, affecting a bored expression. "Oh hi there. Were you swimming too?"

A rope ladder was tossed over the side by a forward thinking Yttin sailor, and Felix gave him appreciative nod. The man's armored appendages twitched in surprise and he bowed before retreating to a gaggle of his fellows, all of whom gave him solid slaps on the back and wide, sharp-toothed smiles. Evie clambered up the ladder, her diatribe on Felix's lineage only broken up by her wheezing gasps. "Good for nothin'...muscle-brained...idiot...shoulda...known...you'd cheat."

She flopped bonelessly to the chitin deck, followed closely by the hulking form of Beef. He at least was able to stand, though he was blowing like a bellows. His shaggy fur dripped onto the deck like a tiny rainstorm, soaking Evie's prone form in even more water. "Hey! Stand over there! You smell like the inside of a Guilder footlocker."

"At least I can still stand," Beef said, tipping his snout upward and putting his hands on his hips. "I've got Endurance for days!"

Just at that moment, the ship hit a wave and dipped, and Beef's legs buckled instantly. He fell to the deck face first, hitting with a wet splortch, like a sodden shag carpet. Evie's laugh was high and giddy, followed soon after by the rueful chuckle of Beef himself.

"Ah, you're not so bad for a walking steak," Evie allowed, still flat on her back.

"Yeah. You're cool too," Beef said into the deck, before rolling onto his side. "Never seen someone doggy paddle as fast as you, either. That was awesome."

"Doggy paddle? What's that?"

"How're your gains?" Felix interrupted before that conversation could go awry.

Evie lolled her head toward him, still unableor perhaps unwillingto sit up, let alone stand. "Smaller than a foundling's lunch. All that...all that effort for two measly stat points." Water splashed up onto the deck as the ship rode through another cresting wave, soaking her further and finally forcing her upright. "Blech. And you monsters. Just swimmin' out here like fish."

"Two points of Endurance at your level and stage of advancement is great progress," Felix said encouragingly. "That's why we jumped in the water in the first place. I wasn't exactly chasing our ships for the fun of it."

It had been fun, but that was beside the point. Felix and Beef had devised a few ways to train themselves that was a bit more interesting than sparring on deck. Among other dangers, sparring could lead to injured bystanders. At least in the sea they only risked themselves if more Fathom spawn attacked.

"I didn't earn any Endurance points, but I did get six whole levels in Swimming," Beef said. He was in an unsteady crouch, his shaggy fur still drizzling on the deck. "Getting close to Apprentice Tier on that one. Pretty sick, not gonna lie. I thought I'd reached my Skill cap back when this was all sand."

"Really? If you stick around, this one will have it so you're embarrassed to show anyone your Skill list," Evie said, jerking a thumb at Felix.

"And if you're lucky, you'll consolidate them all," Felix added.

"Consolidate? What, like combine Skills?" Beef whipped his head back, flinging dripping fur off his wide eyes. "You can do that?"

"With some help, yeah." Felix tapped his chin. "Hm. I've got some good ideas on new Skills you can get. How're your resistances?"

Beef shrugged. "Eh. Could be better. Got Pain, Fire, and Heat." He hesitated. "There are more?"

Felix grinned. "Lots more."

"Bah," Evie said, climbing to her feet. "You two carry on. I've had enough of bein' wet and cold. I'll go find Vess. I'd rather get beat down by that spear nut than train with two Unbound."

Felix's smile froze a bit on his face. "Is she sparring?"

"Yeah. Kicking the snot outta some of the Claw, from what I heard this mornin'. Before I went with you she was knockin' 'em down faster than they could line up."

"Tell her...tell her I hope she's okay."

Evie, for her part, didn't snort or smirk at him. She just looked over the prow of the ship, as if they could both see her around the swell of keel and sail. "She doesn't seem like she is."

"Did she talk to you about it?"

"Nah. But I can tell. We women got wiles an' shit." Evie waggled her fingers for emphasis.

"My dad always said women have better emotional intelligence from a younger age," Beef said. "Which uh, I gotta be honest: I don't know what that means."

"Sounded real smart. You sure you're not a mage? Your so wise." Evie snorted at her own dumb joke. "Well don't you worry about what us women are up to, Mr. Fish. You just focus on that swimmin'. You need the practice."

"Who was it that was shouting a few minutes ago? 'I'm drowning! My legs are cramping! Ah!'" Beef did a fair imitation of her, flailing on the deck like a drowning bear. His sodden fur flung arcs of chill water in all directions before he devolved into a snorting laugh, too loud for a normal Human's chest. It cut off with a curse as icy chains suddenly solidified around his chest and arms, the hair freezing into solid, blocky chunks. "Shit! That's cold!"

"It's to help you keep afloat, ya great big monster," Evie muttered.

"Enough, you two." Felix glared at them both. "No Skill use on each other, except for sparring. Got it?"

Evie rolled her eyes, but nodded. Beef did too, though it was hard to tell through all the shivering. He at least was able to smash the largest chains of ice with his meaty fists. Evie clucked her tongue. "All that muscle, wasted on a baffoon."

She fled across the deck before Beef even responded, too preoccupied with warming up his chest and arms. "Gah that was cold as hell!" He glared down the length of the ship, where Evie soared through the air in an impossible, Born Trait-assisted leap. "She's been hanging around those Frost Giants too much. Ice Queen. For real."

"Careful what you say there, Beef. She just about froze you solid because you irritated her. You don't want to be on Evie's bad side. For real." Beef glanced at him, but didn't reply, only shrugging a single shoulder before slowly standing up. "You want to continue the swim training?"

"Suppose so," Beef muttered, then brightened considerably. "Oh hey! I just got Cold Resistance!"

Felix laughed. "Perfect! We'll train that too."

"Sorry, what?"

The next several hours was a new kind of hell for Beef as Felix forced the teen to push his Body in new and agonizing ways. Swimming was predominantly an Endurance activity, but outpacing a fleet of Manaships? That involved his Strength and Agility in ways that the Minotaur hadn't quite explored. Felix made him swim to the end of the fleet before doubling back and doing it again, while using Rime Shaping to freeze the water around the teen until his lips were blue and chattering.

It all paid off, of course. They were Unbound, and this sort of low level training was easynot that Beef could tell. The kid nearly cried when Felix finally allowed him to climb back up onto the flagship, but he was the proud owner of two Apprentice Tier Skills: Swimming and Cold Resistance. They'd even put some headway into getting Pain Resistance a higher level, though it had stalled out in the early forties. The numbing effect of the cold eventually counteracted that particular plan.

Still, Felix wasn't a jerk. He conjured a mote of Cardinal Flame and asked a passing sailor to bring them some of whatever the cooks had made that day. So, as Beef rested his aching bones and bruised muscles, they were each brought a large stoneware bowl of steaming hot stew and extremely hard bread, both of which prepared from Tier II monster materials that seemed to sizzle with their own exotic seasonings. It was spicy and tangy, while the broth was salty and fulfilling. It was goddamn delicious, even the hardtack.

"Rest. You heal up fast like me, so we can keep going after a good meal." Felix wolfed down his stew between sentences, chomping right through the hardtack as if it weren't harder than some bricks. The benefits of Adept teeth. "Have you thought about what you want to do?"

"...Do?" Beef asked around a mouthful of stew. "Like, a job?"

Felix waved a hand. "No no, just a general idea of goals. I know you like magic, so do you want to follow that path?"

Beef nodded vigorously. "Yes. A hundred percent. Magic is so OP it's ridiculous! Even the best hammer doesn't stand a chance against a guy that can move things with his mind."

"I can't argue there, but I'm sure there's something to be said for a purely physical build. Harn kicks a whole lotta ass."

"Harn's cool and all, but he can't take down a hundred monsters with a gesture like you can." Beef shoveled another mouthful of stew into his face. "Like, you made it rain acid, man. That's so sick."

"That's why you chose necromancy?"

"Hell yeah, dude. It's a force multiplier, provides excellent control options, and let's me be my own tank." Beef set the stoneware bowl onto the ground, now fully empty. "It's the perfect setup to do some solo grinding."

"But you're not solo anymore. You're part of a team, now."

Beef just shrugged. "It keeps my options covered, though."

"I guess. It's your core space, after all." Felix gave the teen a sidelong glance. "Speaking of core spaces: do you feel comfortable showing me yours yet?"

"I dunno," Beef hedged, a familiar embarrassment crawling across his Spirit and bovine face. "It's not like...cool, or anything."

Felix tilted his head. "Who said they had to be cool?"

"Me?" Beef shrugged again, a touch surly. "Everyone? All those soldier guys've been talking about core spaces nonstop since we started sailing. Everyone has these neat ideas about their cores, about how it all comes together with their Skills and stuff. Just seems so much more interesting than what I have."

Felix smiled gently. "You're comparing yourself to natives who know how this world works. You've been here less than a year."

"So? You've been here the same time, and you've probably got like, a super magical lightning storm as a core thing." Beef deflated a bit more, and Felix could almost see the small thirteen-year-old boy inside of the hulking Minotaur. "I'm...I'm not all that good at all this. Games are great. I'm pro at games...but this is all real. It's too real, you know?"

"Yeah," Felix said, and reached out until he grasped the big teen on the shoulder. "I know exactly what you mean. But if you're not comfortable showing your core, then I won't push. We can focus on combat training next." Felix caught sight of a friend stepping out of the lower decks and grinned. "How do you feel about magic duels?"