The Composer
“Alright Carter, you ready to go?” We took a quick break after rocky’s fight just for people to get some rations and water. We’re almost through the second floor. I’m just really excited to see what powers he chose.
“Is it alright if I go last Mix?” Carter says tentatively.
“Sure…Any reason?” I question. Something’s up. I think most people mistake my brother’s straightforwardness for someone without guile and that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
“It’s a surprise.” A knowing smile on his face.
“You know I hate surprises.” I wipe my hand down my face.
“You hate surprises?” Rocky asks.
“Always have.” I shake my head. “Remember the time I almost punched someone at a surprise party?”
“Not like that. Tell the .” He says goading me. His tongue was actually in his cheek, the bastard. “Poor Aunt Agnes.” He hangs his head in mock grief.
“I didn’t mean to.”
“She almost had a heart attack.” He laughs.
“If she surprised you, of course she should be punished, Mas-Cousin.”
Everyone laughs at that, even Carl. Kohl audibly purrs. I’m glad everyone could laugh at Aunt Agnes’ and my pain.
“Alright folks, break’s over. Margarita… Are you ready for this?” I say, standing up. It’s not that anyone awakened can’t be a fighter. But she’s not like Bahati or even Gabrielle. She doesn’t have their grit in boatloads. It’s the determined look on her face, though, that gives me faith.
“Set them up.” She says her away goes her soft, customer voice and now is the commanding voice of the boss. All exacting standards and the queen of her domain.
“Ma’am, yes ma’am.” I lean down and brush the crystals.
The telltale sound of crab legs comes down the hall. Out of the massive bag she’d been carrying around all day, Margarita pulls a tv tray table and a mortar and pestle, a few jars, a portable hotplate, a spinning carousel spice rack, and a thermos. Somehow she’d fit so much in there I think she’d found a spacial item. I don’t know if she’s just this fast or if she’d practiced putting setting this up.
“Alright, I’ve got three orders coming up. They don’t seem to know what they want, so I’ll ask you all.” Soft voice is back on and like she’s behind the counter. It’s not fake, but it’s I didn’t know what was going on, but I’ll bite.
“How about something sweet with a bit of kick?” I say.
“Oh, that sounds nice!” She’s already moving, turning on the hot plate. Spinning the spice rack and grabbing things that feel a bit haphazard. She plops a few cubes of something in the mortar. A long drizzle of something else. Crunching the contents together with the pestle to a fine grain. Pouring hot water from the blue thermos, a gentle and comforting, woody scent comes from the mortar.
A small glow begins on the inside of her index finger. It’s obviously an ability use and I can only guess based on what Kohl said that this is the Mix ability. She runs her finger around the rim and the mortar takes on that same amber glow. Splashing it into and slapping a top on it. She gives it a little shake. The liquids still churning together and thickening.
Mix
Ability Type: Creation/Alchemy/ Magic
Dream Cost: 0
Level 1: Mix mundane and magical reagents together to create curatives, grenades, or other consumables.
Requirement: Alchemy
“Now it’s time to add a smidge of flash!” She says and a zap of her Dream signature runs up from her torso down her arms to her hands. The mixture absorbs the light. For a minute, I think it that will be all until a burst of light comes from the mixture and glows in the dark. “This is what I can do. My ability, Volatile, boosts the effects of every one of my brews.”
Volatile
Ability Type: Buff/Alchemy/ Magic
Dream Cost: 3
Level 1: Use your Dream to increase the potency of a brew you've made the same day. Reference the Volatile table for each brew.
Requirement: Alchemy, Mix
“This is sticky brew is made with some gum base and some tree sap. It’s a very simple brew, which is why I’ve done it for us now.” She tossed it like a football and it splashes within the group of them. “Now, I’d like something else requested by the audience.”
It quickly hardens and gets gummy. Each limb and appendage was stuck in the dark earthen color. Crab #2 even pulls one of its legs out of the socket. It’s a whole mess and I can’t stop laughing.
“Something burning!” Bahati says.
“That’s always a fun one!” She’s already started moving and in seconds, she lobs another grenade, this one sparks with a green light glow. It seems more like a flashbang that we all have to turn away from, except for Carter, because he has T-metal glasses and they’re transitions. Lucky bastard. Now that I think about it, Firewall’s psylink goggles are possibly T-metal too. I sigh heavily.
Watching Margarita concoct and use magic in front of me. She’s doing all the things I was going to do. And she’s better at it than I could ever be. It’s clear that I haven’t been building myself properly. I mean, they aren’t in real danger like I was, but they’re daring and so focused their point allocation and build. I need to refocus on what I do well. I’m spread too thin.
Finally, it’s Carter’s turn and I can’t help it. I’m excited to see what he’s come up with. Is he gonna be like a battlefield healer where he does fights and heals himself and others? Or maybe a surgical swordsman, using his knowledge of anatomy to dissect his opponents with every strike. Or maybe even cooler he’s got a thurim and gonna use sonic attacks to punish his foes! I know I’ll be happy with whatever he picks. I just want to see him be the person he’s always wanted to be, too. We certainly don’t always see eye to eye on things, but I want him to be happy.
At the end of the second-floor hallway, the emergency exit blazes in the dark. Three crabs bigger than the others creep out half hidden in from around corners and from apartment doors. Their eyes reflect the dim crystal light.
Carter walks forward in his brown slacks, a saturated canary button-up shirt, a matching vest to tie it together. Over all of that is a sparkling white lab coat. Rolling up his sleeves, he walks forward unbothered. All cool confidence. He extends his right arm and curls his hand to a fist. From his fist and down his arms, goes from smooth human to hard and shell the color of his skin. And from his back sliding out from under the white coat comes two head-sized pincers which snap and jab at crabs in front of him.
“What?!” I’m not the only one taken aback, but nearly everyone but Lukaelin joins me in shock at the transformation. I may have laughed in total shock, but one moment to the next, I’m unsure. I’m completely captivated by the scene before me.
Carter wades into them and using their own limbs against them. While he doesn’t know much about fighting like Rocky, he moves likes a monster, killing other monsters. Brute force and a headlong rush. Carter has turned into the monster on your side.
Carnage abounds as he grabs a crab, lifting it off the ground in his hands and his two extra pincers grip it. His fingers sink in to shell and tears it in half.
“Holy shit!” Carl says, eyes wide.
“My gods.” I say.
More of the shell fuses to Carter’s skin. And each time he comes in contact with him, he gets stronger. With each bash, some part of me gets colder. I feel goosebumps pop out of my skin. I know they’re not real and still some part of me finds this display horrifying. Maybe because I’m not fighting, but just watching the brutality from my well-meaning, if not always kind, brother kill with such abandon is hard to watch. Kohl stands next to me. His tail swings back and forth as we watch the horror before us.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“My ability is Chirurgeon is a mancer ability that allows me to control living tissue for a few different uses. It was suggested to me by The Minority for because of my knowledge of human anatomy and physiology. I would be the foremost expert in human and alien bodies. I also grabbed the ability Graft, which allowed me to take limbs and add them to my body and a healing ability but, that’s not pertinent to this conversation.” He says, pushing up his glasses. The blue blood spattered all over him is instantly expelled from his clothes to cling to the wall. It even flies past each of us.
Chirurgeon
Ability Type: Mancer/Life/ Control
Dream Cost: 0
Level 1: You understand the biology of In the last moments of life, you’re able to control the still living flesh of a body. This ability allows you
Requirement: None
Graft
Ability Type: Buff/Life/ Mancer
Dream Cost: 3
Level 1: Graft living limbs on to your body. Your health takes a hit whenever you do this. This may only last for 10 minutes before decay.
Level 2: When you graft a limb, you have the option to add some of the unit’s natural armor on to yourself. +1 Chevron per limb.
Requirement: Chirurgeon
“Well… that’s not the power I would have pegged you for, but holy shit, that was badass!” I want to be supportive. Kohl is right. If I push him away, it will damage our relationship. We still have our shit. That won’t change. We just have to figure our shit out while saving the world. Easy.
The telepathic order halts us all in place. There’s nothing weird about the door. I look to make sure the writing is legible and not just some approximation. Mimic precaution. Those things really sucked.
“What’s wrong?”.
“Alright team, when I open this door, we let loose. Keep explosions to a minimum, but give them hell. If you need help, let me and Lukaelin know. If you can’t speak, scream it in your head and Kohl will hear and pass that information on to us. Keep sightlines. Call your shots. I will label as I go and if you have questions, save them till the end of class!”
I kick the door in and it really is hell out there. My psylink headphones give me a pulse as my eyes alight on each of the giant enemy crabs. 37. Thirty seven crabs have infested the 3rd floor of my old apartment building. It’s way more than had been on this floor before. Did something happen with the Dungeon respawned? Is this normal?
No time for more questions. It might just coincide with the theory that Kohl had about this dungeon getting harder. I press play on some battle music and activate War Chant, so all my allies get a buff to attack power. Boogie Wonderland plays loud and fills the hallway. I start the show off by singing into creation my Beats and tossing them in to the closest enemies to give us some elbow room. It slices through two in one go.
Lukaelin zips past me and gets clear of the door. Stabbing into the head directly and crushing the skull, taking out the first enemy he sees. A heart beat later, Rocky comes from behind them throwing haymakers. Next is Carter, already pulling the blood from one cousin killed and hardening it and smashing it against another into a wall. Azra takes angry molten shots even before she leaves the door. Spraying bullets until a crustacean until it catches fire and bounces it to another one. Carl Sess unleashes a hailstorm of bullets. Unfortunately, it doesn't do much with him being unawakened. Thank the ancestors for the noise canceling function on my headphones because whatever little peace the music gave us, he shatters.
Bhati and Sess were great at finding places where the fighters of our team aren’t, making head shots like machines. Instead of training such a skill; I took to the ceiling. Didn’t want to waste the Dream on a teleport and I’d yet to try the mag cling feature other than some light wall running. I push off hard against the ground and adhere the magnets to the metal reinforcement in the wall. The Grav app pops into my vision with a thought and with another, it slides to my left eye. I see the outline of two footprints made of sky blue dots each was the indicator that we’re all magged up.
Each step is like well, like walking up a wall the slow way. It takes concerted effort to make each step and I can feel the strain in the back of my calves. When I finally reach the ceiling, I feel blood rush to my head. It’s almost a relief. I ran for the other side of the melee over the heads of my current team. I jump off from the upside and rotate in the air. Engaging the hover function breaks my fall and I can only hope someone is recording, and it looked cooler than it felt.
Slamming the sound sword as I land it reverberates, creating the sword. It sputters and roars with barely contained Dream energy. I lay into them, each slash rending shell and the next being the killing stroke. I slide one Bleeding Heart Beat out of my VoidWalkers throwing it with my left hand as I punish any that get close to me with my right. The CD cuts one in twain and a font of blood comes out. I see Carter pull it in and use it to pop three in the air.
Bhati shoots them full of lead and then a jar explodes in front of them with a spray of what looks like hardened pine needles.
Congratulations! You defeated Giant Enemy Crab Feeding Frenzy!
8 XP!
9 XP for your contribution and -1 because you’ve cleared this dungeon before.
We’re all a little worse for wear. I smile down at the newbies laying on the ground trying to catch their breath. They were completely tuckered out. Lukaelin was looking through the bodies and found a cracked disk and tossed it over.
Congratulations! You have found an enchantment!
You have found the enchantment, En Flame. En Flame adds your power stat (6) to your weapon attack once.
“Oh, this is a good one! Too bad it’s just a sample.”
“Tell me about it!” Margarita says, waving her arms above her slumped form. “I’ve got enough Dream enhanced crab eyes to last the rest of my life.”
“Do you not want anymore, ma’am?” Lukaelin says, his arms already laden with jars of the eyeballs. He is truly is the most polite demon in the world. “I can stop if you like.”
“No, no, Luka,” she waves him off. “It will help with this new recipe I’m working on.”
“Alright.” He tries to bow as he drops one, but snatches it out of the air.
I never told him to help her, but after she gave him a health potion, he was so happy he’s already started helping her with anything she needed.
I look around to harvest some of the Dream crystal for myself, but when I look over at the place where I saw a bunch of them glowing, I realize they’ve all been disturbed. Each of the little finger-sized were plucked from the dungeon’s linoleum floor and scattered around.
Kohl sprints over and Lu, realizing something is up and puts down the jar harvest and comes over.
“It looks like someone did this on purpose.” I whisper, keeping my voice down so the others don’t hear.
“Who would do that?”
I look at him strangely. “Wait-”
“I wouldn’t touch those.” A calm voice warns. All of us look at each other. An entire conversation happening between the three of us. We all turn around slowly. “They bring the crabs.”
A child stands there. Maybe seven or eight. He wears a dirty Power Rangers shirt and surely soiled jeans. He’s a little too thin, as if he hasn’t gotten enough to eat recently. His hair is a nappy mess, like it hadn’t been combed in a minute. But the thing that caught my eye first and the thing I wouldn’t be able to take my eyes off was the vizor around his head and covering his eyes. A spark comes off of it and flies into his hairline, where the already burned skin gets reirritated.
I didn’t know what to say. A kid is here in the middle of a dungeon.
“My name is Benny. It’s nice to meet you.”