Tony reviewed his sheet with arched brows. Turned out that at least one of the many, many updates he had skipped had changed the formula used to determine his attribute gains per level, which had explained why he’d felt better than when he’d gone under.

  What he didn’t understand was all of this shard nonsense and how it was translating into “Divine” buffs while his whole kit was oriented toward the destruction of divine beings and their constructs. Where had this come from? Who the hell was Vahagn? Why had he felt so connected to the giant God in the desert?

  Questions for Auren and for later.

  “So? What’d ya get?” Esava asked.

  Tony decided to keep a lid on most of it, determined to keep at least some of the advancement secret. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust the strike team, but that he needed some answers that they likely didn’t have before he could really talk about it with any surety.

  “Pretty much all of my attributes jumped up… except Intelligence, I got some damage resistance talents and… this,” he said as he moved his arms. The golden snapping aura followed his movements in a hazy crackling trail, like the afterglow of a firework.

  “Think you could shut that thing off? It’s giving me a headache,” Vixie chirped.

  Tony closed his eyes and focused. He had learned considerable control over himself, the circuits that carried Essence and Lore through his body, and the connections that Legion's Lethis made into his system. He could control this too... right?

  He followed the crackling Essence limbing his body inward, following the rigid branching paths that made up his “essence circuits” toward what he could best describe as a lump of flesh-colored chewing gum wrapped around a barely protruding and jagged shard of molten sunlight. The branching paths of his essence circuits almost seemed to swarm over the surface of the “gum,” and Tony determined that had to be the physical representation of the I.A.A.M. but… if that were the case… what was this thing, this shard that was covered by it. Was that the power source for the Amplification Module or something else entirely?

  He saw the circuit that led out wreathed in the same crackling essence and pressed his Spirit against it, forcing the energy to settle and disperse. It felt like something was choking him, keeping him from keeping full breaths to do so, but he pushed through and the feeling receded.

  Vixie let out a sigh of relief and Tony’s attention shifted outward.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  “How many points?” Vasna asked. There was a hard edge to her voice, something that Tony couldn’t quite identify with a feeling.

  “Excuse me?” Tony retorted.

  “How many points did you gain through your ‘update’? How many triple-digit stats do you have now?”

  Tony could tell that the stony countenance of her words didn’t stem from jealousy, but something else, something more elusive.

  “I’m not going to tally up all of the points right now—” he started.

  266 points have been added to your various attributes. Orbis piped up from the corner of his vision.

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Not helping, Tony chided the small construct.

  “But I have three attributes in the triple digits… y’know, my primary class attributes. I’m sure you’ve got plenty of high attributes too—”

  ”UGH!” Vasna answered.

  “I’ve got three in the triple digits, s’not that big a deal—” Jak interrupted.

  “That’s not the point!” Vasna shouted.

  Before anything else could be said, a hollow bellow rang out accompanied by slamming, thunderous footfalls.

  “There’s a golem… thing coming,” Esava observed.

  Tony pushed past Esava, Jak, and Vasna. He was agitated and a large enemy to cut loose on sounded like the right kind of catharsis.

  “Don’t interfere,” he said over his shoulder to the whole of the Strike Team. “Let’s go Max.”

  “Yay! Fighty times!” Maximus howled.

  Tony’s assumption about the “golem” Esava said was approaching was correct. It was a near replica of Experiment 12 from the Haght’anak’s dungeon. When he’d fought the thing he’d been level 15 and barely made it through the fight without Vasna’s, at the time, most powerful buff.

  The amalgam spotted Tony, bellowed, and rumbled toward him. Tony unslung Legion and Eidolon from his back and unleashed a primal challenging roar of his own before he surged forward and activated Meteoric Impact.

  The previous times he’d activated the talent he had led and carried through with his Dreadblade; this time he brought Eidolon up in front of him and he heard her voice cut through the rumbling like a crack of lightning shouting her own challenge at the beast before them. The collision caused the floor beneath them to buckle and crater, the concussive force widened the hallway by several feet and the golem of conduits, flesh, and machinery stumbled back, nearly toppling.

  Maximus soared over Tony’s head, snarling and furious, he landed on the golem and forced it to the ground with his bulk before burying his muzzle into the things neck and thrashing it back and forth, slamming it along the floor and into the walls. The thing wasn’t “dead,” but it was clear Max had the situation under control.

  Just as Tony made the decision to relax, a pair of the same abominations lumbered into view.

  “Oh, we’re doing mini bosses as just regular mobs? Fine then,” Tony growled.

  He rushed forward again, surging past his canine companion to intercept the two lumbering behemoths. He shield-checked the first one, this time angling his approach more upward so he did topple the thing over despite Meteoric Impact being on cooldown. Tony whipped to the left and held Eidolon up, the large crystalline eye in its center flashed once with burning gold light as the behemoth unleashed a barrage of barb-tipped tendrils, the very same attack that had ensnared Tony months prior.

  Eidolon seemed to tug his arm in the direction she wanted him to block in and, while he could tell that he would be able to override it and block where he wanted instead, he let the sensation guide him, deciding that was probably the “auto block” function at work. He was proven right almost immediately; as soon as the first strike rang against the shield’s surface it made a series of micro adjustments to protect Tony from the rest of the fusillade of razor-tendrils.

  The hairs on the back of Tony's neck suddenly prickled, a sensation associated with the "Covered Back" set bonus from the Errant Knight's Cloak. He whirled, using the wicked point at the end of Eidolon's length to carve through the hulk attacking his front as he cleaved Legion out at the hulk to his back, its edge carved through the large hand reaching for him and removed the top four digits with ease. Maximus charged, ears flat against his head, and plowed straight into the ambushing hulk.

  A savage grin spread across Tony's face as he and his hound worked in among the growing number of hulks that besieged them. Between Eidolon, his cloak's ability, and Maximus, the pair of them went virtually untouched through the melee.

  Jak, Esava, Vasna, Embry, and Vixie watched on, not quite awestruck by Tony and Max's display, but appreciating their teamwork and flow.

  "Vasna, why'd you get so mad about Tony's bump? Isn't the Strike Team Leader being a beast a good thing?" Jak asked over the din.

  Vasna balked at the question, opening and closing her mouth looking for words and unable to find them for a moment.

  "Like, we should be glad that he can handle shit like this, right?" Jak prodded further.

  "I mean, sure. But just think about what we already tackled with him, the Cube? The stronger he gets the greater the burden the system puts on him... so I guess I'm not really mad at Tony, I'm mad about what the system is going to do to him in advance," Vasna explained.

  "And taking it out on him," Esava said.

  Vasna turned slowly to regard the rogue.

  "Yeah, I guess I am."