Montarg Polteg (Lord Montarg - Monty) - POV

  Monty watched the Rift Guardian approach as it let its miasmic fear aura seep out around it. As he took in the monster's approach, he sized it up. He was impressed by its physical size as well as the amount of mana it had already absorbed.

  His eyes slid across the Guardian's eyes and he felt a pulse from his suit as it blocked an attempted mental attack.

  Damn it. This is why I hate death rifts. Death rifts and their mental bullshit. Ohh Jack.

  Monty drew in some of the life mana that Jack had accumulated in the area; he activated his combination trait. He merged his [Heal] and [Shockwave] to create a burst of healing energy that would cure Jack of the mental effect and push back the fear aura for a little while.

  As soon as the wave had passed he shouted an order at Jack.

  “Do not look into its eyes. Stay in the bunker and only interfere if the smaller ones attack. Understood?”

  “Got it!” Jack’s slightly muffled voice said from inside the bunker.

  Monty activated his body enhancement and due to his trait that restricted his use of weapons, his strength, speed and durability skyrocketed as his armor further enhanced the effect and started to emit a slight green glow.

  Monty saw the smaller wolves following the rift guardian now and there were more than he had expected. He glanced over at the bunker with Jack inside; it should hold out. He would just have to make sure he was quick with the Guardian.

  He reached over and pulled a spear he had prepared earlier out of the ground. His trait still worked while using these as weapons; they were essentially just pointy sticks at the end of the day.

  He pulled back, focused on his form and launched the spear directly at one of the Guardian's eyes. It whistled away and the beast didn't even have time to react as it pierced straight through. At least that’s how it looked to Monty from front-on.

  Then he saw the mist fill into the hole the spear left and the creature seemed to reform. He knew this was not going to be as quick as he hoped.

  No, a phase skill as well. That is three skills. Stupid death rifts and their stupid skills. Between this, the mutated creature, and the Guardian here, this rift must be about to evolve or break. Okay. Think Monty. Gotta keep that thing away from the bunker; if it can phase, the bunker won't save Jack. I have about 400 meters I can draw on the mana we have here. Double that if I use my absorption.

  Decision made, Monty started to move away from the bunker, each step leaving a slight crater in the soft soil. As he moved away he made sure to draw its attention by sending two controlled shockwaves in its direction.

  The Guardian evaded the first and then phased through the second. It seemed to speed up as it was phased. He dashed away at the last second but made a note to watch out for that. It could be another ability or a trait.

  Has this rift already evolved while we were inside it? If it’s a fourth ability this is definitely a Tier 2 rift now.

  He was snapped out of his musings as he was once again under attack as a massive foul-smelling jaw appeared in front of him and snapped down. He dashed away a few more times until the bunker was almost out of his vision.

  He sent his sense out and pulled in some more mana to keep himself topped up. He had to try to end this quickly; in a drawn-out battle he would eventually run out of mana. The issue was most of his physical attacks would be avoided by the Guardian's phase ability. It would cost it mana each time it phased but in this rift Monty would run out well before it did.

  Gotta get the timing right. Hit it as it reforms.

  Monty sent out another weaker punch-shaped [Shockwave] forcing the Rift Guardian to phase to avoid it. As soon as it did, Monty pulled one of the sharp wooden stakes off his back and dashed forward channeling mana into his legs to boost his speed.

  He had anticipated the creature lunging at him while immaterial again and closed the distance quickly, launching himself into the air to avoid where it thought he would be.

  The creature became corporeal again as Monty was right above its shoulders; he turned in the air and stabbed the stake into the creature's body. It pierced into the creature's flesh and a foul black ooze pooled around the wound in place of blood.

  Monty let go of the stake and his momentum carried him over the shoulders and he turned to land, coming to a stop with one arm on the ground to brace himself.

  The Guardian turned toward him and howled as it turned to mist once more and surged towards him. The stake fell to the ground, dissolving by the beast's blood.

  Gotta stay close. I need to finish this with one big attack so it doesn't have time to adapt.

  Monty dashed towards the mist as it moved towards him, using his speed to get in between the mist before the creature could solidify again. He watched with his improved mana sense as its mana drained rapidly while it was forced to maintain the phase longer than it wanted.

  He let it move past him and reform. It was out of position and had its mana reserves drained, but it began absorbing more as soon as it could. Monty sent two more shockwave blasts in its direction, watching for its reaction.

  Again it avoided the first one and phased the second. It didn’t try to pounce at him, simply letting the phase last enough to avoid the blast. Monty filed that away.

  He looked around and saw a cluster of half dead trees close by, a plan formed in his mind, and he dashed towards them. The Guardian turned cautiously, watching as it continued to fill its mana reserves.

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  Monty dashed around to put the tree in between himself and the creature, then he made a quick one-two combo on the dead wood. He didn’t even activate [Shockwave], saving the mana and using only his enhanced body. Waves of splintered wood shot towards the beast at dangerous speeds.

  Monty didn’t stop to watch, having dashed to another tree using his incredible speed and repeated his actions. The Rift Guardian tried to avoid the wave of splinters shooting at it, but they were too spread out. It took a few splinters in its side from the first wave and howled in pain.

  As the second set came towards it, the creature phased. It was about to reform when another wave raced towards it, and another and another.

  Monty dashed around the phased beast leaving craters behind him as he dashed from tree to stump to tree, shattering every one he came close to in the direction of the wolf, keeping it under a constant barrage of attack.

  He glanced at it in between trees and kept tabs on its mana pool. It was about to be forced to make a decision, Monty wanted to make sure it did what he needed. The next tree he approached, instead of directing the attack at the creature's core he sent it wide a little bit, allowing a small opening to escape.

  The Guardian took the chance, dashing to the side and reforming as it avoided the last barrage of wood. It looked in the direction it had last seen Monty, but he was no longer there.

  He had dashed to the side and once more leapt into the air, anticipating the spot the beast would escape to. He landed atop it and stabbed the stake from his back into the nape of its neck.

  It didn’t have enough mana to phase yet but was rapidly absorbing from the area around it. Monty didn’t plan on giving it time to do so. Taking inspiration from the device he and Jack had put together, he sent his senses out and activated his [Absorption] primal frequency.

  He targeted the area closest to them and all of the life energy in the area raced in towards him, filling his body well past his normal capacity. He would be able to hold the mana in for only a few seconds, but that would be enough.

  He once again activated his combination ability and merged his [Grow] and [Imbue]; then he released that at the stake in the Guardian's neck. He channeled well over half the mana in his body into the ability.

  The stake that was previously the size of his forearm, grew rapidly. He kept his hands firmly in place behind it and as it grew to over three meters long and twice as wide it was forced down and deeper into the beast's body.

  As it grew, it started to glow from the inside faintly. Unlike when he built the bunker for Jack, he had not imbued the stake with the strengthening aspect of life mana. This time he had simply charged it with raw energy like he did with his log bombs, the difference here being it was already inside the creature.

  Monty held on tight to the stake while the Rift Guardian bucked wildly trying to remove him and the weapon from its back. It howled in agony as the stake stopped growing; as it reared back its head trying to hit Jack there was a shudder as the green glow grew brighter.

  Monty gripped the much larger stake with two hands as the stake exploded and the Guardian stopped its struggle; half of its neck was missing and its acidic black sludge-like blood was thrown all over the clearing.

  Monty jumped off the corpse as it slumped to the floor. He activated a few shockwave pulses from his body to remove the blood from his suit as he looked around the clearing.

  That worked well, a bit messy though. Probably not great for group situations. Gotta get back to Jack. He looked at the Rift Guardian's corpse, realising he should probably take it with him as it was guaranteed to generate some gear he could give to Jack. He shook his head at the size of it, the weight wasn't an issue but just the size was going to be a problem for lifting.

  Guess I'm dragging it then.

  He reached over and grabbed a handful of the creature's fur as he started to work back in towards the bunker, dragging the corpse of the massive Rift Guardian behind him as it toppled trees and uprooted stumps.

  Jack Davies

  He had only been leaning down for a minute or two before he heard the sounds. A strange grinding and crashing sound as if the dead forest around them was being bulldozed. He leaned slightly so he could get a better view and in the distance he saw something strange.

  He stared for a moment longer as he tried to make out the shapes approaching him. They were moving at a rapid speed. Eventually he recognised the smaller figure at the front as Monty, it looked like the Rift Guardian was chasing him and Jack's heart started to race again.

  Don’t bring it back here, he thought to himself as he noticed its movements seemed a little strange. Almost like a ragdoll being flung off stumps, trees and rocks in its path, there was no rigidity to its body. Then he saw Monty holding onto it with one hand behind himself as he raced forward.

  He relaxed slightly, the fear remained but was not directed at Monty. How strong was this guy?

  He decided not to get up and let Monty come and check on him. It was his responsibility to keep Jack safe after all, that had not gone exactly to plan either had it.

  Monty entered the area they had cleared out and let go of the Guardian's body, dashing quickly through the carnage and into the bunker where Jack was.

  “You alright Jack?” Monty asked as he entered the space.

  Jack felt Monty draw in some mana and then something tingled as it attached to his pathway. A cold wave of healing washed over his body and he felt some of his aches wash away and his body felt slightly rejuvenated.

  “Ohh you know how it is. I made a teeny-tiny mistake and blasted the wall from the inside. Panicked a bit and then just started blasting.” Jack said, sweeping his arm forward to the mess that was the bunker and surrounding area.

  “I can see that. I am sorry, Jack. You did great. I miscalculated a little bit with the Rift Guardian and this is my fault, I should have been here to keep you safe.” Monty said as he approached Jack.

  Jack looked up, his face red, but full of seriousness.

  “No… No this… I…umm.” Jack took a deep breath.

  “I don’t want to feel like that again, Monty. I felt helpless, weak. I survived, sure, but my first thoughts every time I started to panic were to wait for you to save me. I hate that, Monty, I do. More than anything I value my own independence, in my life before and even more so now.” Jack said.

  “We can talk about this later with Turrel when we are out of here and safer. I know my life can’t be simple anymore. I don’t want you to protect me all the time, while I appreciate it, I do. I want you to help me learn to protect myself. If I find myself in a situation like that again, I want my first thought to be ‘how do I get out of this’, not when will someone save me.” Jack said, trying to keep his emotions under control.

  “I need a plan, I need something to work towards. I am starting to understand myself a little better now. I am pretty sure if I was a normal person, I wouldn’t have made it through this.” Jack stood up and walked past Monty towards the opening in the wall, avoiding his outstretched hand.

  “Watch this, and tell me how many shockwaves this strong could a normal person at my tier manage in a row?” Jack stopped and held his palm out, activating [Shockwave] once more. Powering it the same as he had been when the wolves were attacking.

  The wave washed out into the darkness around him. As it did he felt a strange feeling in the back of his mind, like there was an itch there. He focused on it and his skills popped into his mind.

  SKILLS:

  —--------------------------------

  Mana Sense (Internal): Tier 0

  Purge Mana: Tier 1

  Shockwave: Tier 1 - Skill Upgrade available **

  “Oh, for fu... Serious emotional development will need to wait, Monty. I don't want to miss this upgrade chance like last time. We will come back to this and I am very serious about it.”