Alton froze in shock, not only at the drake’s strike immediately stopping, but also at the silver and copper scales lining his arm. Several screens absorbed into his head at that moment, causing his heart to race as he backed away from the now startled drake.
Running away from the drake proved to be the smarter plan, as the front liners had finally gotten in a position to push the drake away from Alton, the drake seemingly forgetting about the dracotaur to focus on them. It gave Alton a moment to think, as he started processing that the bond he’d forged with Roge had some unforeseen side effects. Not only had some of his abilities and skills changed, but one of his classes and his race had changed as well.
“ROGE?!” Sean called out, snapping Alton out of his shock at what he’d absorbed from the species screen. It had only taken him a moment to understand what it said, but it took him a few seconds to register that the lion was racing over to him. “Are you… Roge?”
“No… I’m Alton…” he grumbled, looking down at himself. While he kept the parts of himself that had fur on it, anywhere that had skin now had a layer of silver and copper scales. ‘Time scales…’ Even his fur had turned a white-silvery color. “Roge is… He’s resting, but stable.” The dracotaur could still feel his dragon in the hoard, though his power was very weak.
“What does stable mean?” Sean grumbled, glancing over at the ongoing melee and giving a concerned look. “Can you use his aura?”
“No.”
Duration: Permanent
Effects:
Pulling up both the previous screen he’d gotten right before waking up, as well as its description, Alton shoved both screens at Sean, the lion obviously being able to see them with the improved bond. It was then that Alton looked at the fight, frowning as he noticed the fighters quickly losing. They didn’t have the improved resistance that Roge’s aura had given them, and Alton could feel that he didn’t have the power to pull out the aura without the dragon there. “They’re going to lose…” Alton mumbled, looking back at Marge and Hops with a searching look.
“Well… what skills did you get?” Hops asked, shrugging his shoulders. “We can see if you can hold that thing off, considering you should still have Roge’s resistance buff, right?”
“Yes,” Alton replied pulling up the many boxes and absorbing them quickly so he could hand them off to the elf.
“Not half bad,” Hops commented, Alton feeling a bit nervous at how close he was replicating Roge with the skill. “I grabbed a couple of Roge’s haste potions, so take it.” Alton nodded, seeing his haste resource at a measly eighteen points after doing what he did to slow down time in the hoard. In the end, it took all three potions to even bring more than half of Alton’s haste back, the points landing on eighty two.
“Do not a lot of people use haste?” Alton asked, frowning at how many potions the elf had been able to snag.
“Practically no one does. Glad you have a use for it. Hopefully you unlock the added effects soon. I’ve seen that alert before on Upgraded skills.”
“Now that’s a synergy!” Hops crowed, glancing down the rest of Alton’s character sheet. “We don’t have any large weapon you can use, but with your [Unarmed Weapon Proficiency], [Unarmed Armor], and those skills, I’d recommend going in now.” One more glance at the fighting, and the whole group flinched at several of the front liners having been pulled back for the healers to tend to their frostbite.
“Go! Now!” Sean yelled, looking very worried but pushing the dracotaur forward regardless.
~~~
Roge groaned at the sisyphean twist to the sub-ability he received, laying down in his hoard as he watched the battle unfold out in the real world. Alton was doing a pretty amazing job, using his increased cold resistance and protective skills to thwart the drake’s attacks. Unfortunately, the new dracotaur lacked the ability to decisively end the fight, the mana users doing a bulk of the damage, though the drake seemed to recover from it remarkably fast. ‘It’s using the blizzard…’ he thought to himself, letting out a whine at the wounds that were very slowly healing. ‘If only I could go out there… I could help…’
Roge felt so useless in that moment because he couldn’t help his friends, knowing that the storm was just going to get stronger and stronger the more they left the drake to do its thing. They might even have to evacuate the town or call in someone stronger, which to Roge, both felt like bad decisions for one reason or another. Another cough let out some more blood as he let himself relax once more. ‘I guess some wishes can’t come true…’
Roge blinked at the box in front of him, panic running through him at the thought of losing one of the abilities that gave him peace of mind.
Roge blinked in shock as he lay there, having not known that the system had been trying to get in his head that whole time. ‘I guess it was the only thing that could read me…’ he thought, suddenly feeling all of his bonds increase in depth. He could feel Alton’s desperation and guilt, the dracotaur wanting to keep his hometown safe. He could feel the protectiveness and strength of his trees, the beings instantly being able to read him in both mind and soul. The orange tree especially seemed interested in his wishes, offering up a deal with some level of excitement.
“Okay…” Roge groaned, knowing he didn’t like any of their other deals before besides the gem fruits. The dragon kobold had a sense of deja vu looking at the orange trees, watching their infinite possibilities shrink down into various orange-shaped gemstones. The energy that was taken from them, what looked like a dark orange light, traveled down their trunks and into the ground. The energy first passed through all of his flowers, gaining the pink-ish energy Roge associated with healing, before reaching Roge and making him gasp at the effects they gave him.
Feeling a little lightheaded, Roge at first didn’t realize what he’d done with the screens. When he did though, he gasped, finding the information contained within them instantly absorbing into his head. It felt like he already knew the information, like he’d read it before but was only now reminded of it. ‘So that’s how people usually use their screens…’ he thought, pulling up the information for his new class and skill.
Letting out an annoyed breath at the options presented to him, Roge took no time in searching through his ‘bondmates’’ skills and abilities, deciding to stick to the skills, deciding quickly with both Marge and Alton.
Sean and Hops were a bit harder to work out, as Hop’s skills didn’t seem to mesh with his very well or he’d be doing something he could already do better. Sean’s was hard because there were too many that Roge wanted, sighing as he realized that the limit would most likely go up later and picking the one that would keep him alive the most.
From what both Sean and Hops had said before, being able to manipulate health didn’t give you more of it. It did make hits individually do less damage, as your health was magically reinforced, and made it regen according to your strength instead of through natural processes. All in all, Roge was happy with the current skills, skipping over Hops’ for the time being. The increased bond with his [Status] also helped him immediately know the numbers of his resources without having to pull them up, grinning at how much he had to spend.
With a wide grin after absorbing the screens, Roge grabbed the snake doppelganger doll from his inventory, noting that his and Alton’s had combined in the bonding process. ‘Good to know.’ He then focused on manifesting himself, though he made sure to warn Alton before he initiated it.
~~~
“Roge…!” Alton yelped out, suddenly kneeling on the ground as his body was enveloped by blue flickering flames. “Don’t…!” The others looked alarmed at this, only taking one step forwards before freezing in shock.
The snake doppelganger doll was easy to recognize, the felt doll the size of a person something everyone had feared at one point. This time, however, Alton felt joy running through him as the blue flames were rapidly absorbed by the doll, its body changing to that of his dragon. Unfortunately, it seemed to disable any shapeshifting Roge had been under, his original emerald and sapphire dragon form manifesting with his wings outstretched to the sides.
Roge floated above the ground for what felt like an hour before he softly landed on the ground, his arms flopping against his sides. He turned around and looked at Alton kneeling, his blue eyes flashing as he gave the dracotaur a grin.
“Ready for round two?”