Date: Tuesday August 28th 2017

  They didn’t end up speaking about what Kenneth did. As Helo was about to elaborate, Kenneth came down stairs. Like that, the party had dinner and went to bed a little earlier than usual.

  Helo rose earlier than normal and went downstairs with a sleeping fox. Looking out into the dark valley Helo decides to spend the day like normal. Getting ready for a run, he gets his shoes on and steps into the chilly morning air.

  During the run Helo focuses specifically on his new skill ‘Dashing Lunge’. Now that the skill has upgraded into the high uncommon rarity, Helo is thinking of ways to incorporate his bloodline into it’s use.

  This is a physical skill and his dark energy doesn’t mix well into the skill. Due to this issue Helo is having trouble finding ways to mix them. He might have an easier time with his golden energy, but the only way that Helo knows how to access it is through the draining of vitality. Shaking his head Helo realizes that he will have to practice this aspect of his skill when he has something to drain.

  Interested to see any changes Helo stops his run for a moment and looks inward. Diving into his heart Helo can see the streams of power that make up his bloodline. A dark spiral this is suppressing the golden one. Helo now knows that the dark energy is actually some kind of curse that he adapted to. At the golden energy is what his bloodline should have been.

  Helo can also see smaller spirals of purple mental energy and red-gold physical energy. He knows from his own study that these two energies cycle in his body, as they pass his heart they work to fill up his bloodline.

  Drawing on his bloodline energy Helo can feel how easily it travels through his systems. It moves through his mental and physical circuits, having an empowering effect on both. It is only a small portion of the energy that his heart contains, but it already can do so much.

  Drawing his aura to meet the bloodline energy Helo start manipulating it. He can feel how this small manipulation slightly strains his body and mind. Aura is a manifestation of all your being. It drains more than your will. This is something Helo has been practicing for years. Otherwise, this small manipulation would have completely drained him.

  Coming back to the outside world Helo feels a bit better. Taking the time to meditate and further understand how his body and abilities work is always a good thing. Looking down Helo can see Lelai running circles around him. She is being very patient. But patience only goes so far for a fox.

  Continuing his run Helo completes a few laps before heading back to the house. Looking up he can still see that the sun has yet to risen. The horizon is only starting to brighten.

  Taking the now panting Lelai, Helo sets her on a patio chair in the back of the house. Stepping off the patio Helo draws his daggers and prepares to go through the katas for his ‘Twin Fangs of the Beast’ style.

  Helo spent some time practicing the basics of knife fighting. The technique book for his style had some basics to practice. So going through those kata’s Helo checks how the different from what Micah is teaching him.

  The naginata is about reach, slashing, and a mix of foot and handwork. Due to the long shaft you need to practice and learn the transitions between stances and attacks.

  With knives it is a mix of fist fighting and stick fighting: Short, brutal and quick. There are many ways to do either but ‘Twin Fang of the Beast’ style is about quick and efficient movements, mixed with attacking openings with aggression.

  The ‘Moon-Staff’ style is made for beast-kins with their instinctual fighting styles. But it is a technique to suppress their instincts desire to lash out, turning their instincts toward defensive fighting.

  ‘Twin Fangs of the Beast’ is the exact opposite. But instead of suppressing his instincts they get honed and focused. An animal’s ability to lash out and quickly strike is incredibly dangerous. But what if those same instincts were paired with precise and trained movements.

  Helo knows that he will always feel more comfortable using his dagger style versus the staff style. But Helo can admit that using the naginata doesn’t feel bad and is even a fun change. One of the issues Helo is having with his dagger style, is that it requires actual combat to hone it. Using the technical ‘Moon-Staff’ style can be trained and practiced alone and with a teacher.

  All fighting styles require actual combat, but the instinctual styles can’t be honed without danger. This is because there is an aspect of that style that is honing and training the instincts themselves.

  Going through his basic katas Helo practiced his stabs and slashes. He is mixing them with quick footwork to get in and out of range. Blocking a fake heavy blow with his left hand, Helo spins to the right and steps under the proverbial attack. As he is spinning his right blade is extended to quickly slash the abdomen. His next step takes him past and out of range.

  Move movements like this are trained to optimize his ability to make clean hits. While practicing a part of Helo’s focus is internal and trying to get his skill ‘Crippling Blow’ to mix with his bloodline’s energy.

  Stopping after an hour of constant movement Helo looks up to see the sun peeking over the horizon. Looking toward the house Helo can see Alli and Hinata sitting with Lelai.

  Looking back into the house Hinata says. “So, are we going to finish out conversation from yesterday?”

  With a breath and a nod, Helo steps forward and reaches for a towel to wipe the sweat from his face. As his hand reaches out a whirlpool like tornado swirls around his body. A Mist-pool or a Tor-Mist-DO… No that is stupid. Helo thinks to himself. This cleans him of sweat, but leaves him drenched. Looking at the smug face of the fox Helo realizes that she isn’t going to get the water from his body.

  Shaking his head Helo grabs the towel and sits at the foot of Hinata’s lawn chair. “So, yesterday.” Hinata says once Helo takes a seat.

  “Well… The massive fishman appeared.” Helo closes his eyes and leans back. Looking up at the sky he continues. “You shouted to run. I was fighting the smaller Fishman and Kenneth had just jumped across. We were the last two that reached the stairs. Kenneth was in front of me. But, instead of running up Kenneth looked down at me and seemed like he wanted to shove me back.”

  At this both girls look visibly angry. Alli even stands up and starts ranting. “That piece of crap, worthless blond Chad.” After a moment Hinata grabs Alli and pulls her back down. She looks at Helo and rolls her hand in the ‘continue’ motion.

  “Well. I didn’t give him the time to decide. My skill was still active. I had about two seconds left. So, I turned and ran up the wall.” Then Helo’s face contorts in confusion and anger.

  “Then a red glow interrupted my vision for a moment. I didn’t know what it was until I reached the top and realized that the fishman was following me.” Helo finishes with a shrug. “Honestly not a bad tactic. If I knew that Kenneth could do that, I’d have even told him to. But he is using the skill to try and kill us, or me.”

  “Yes. This is something that we will have to talk to BrightMoon-Sama about. We will also need to find someone who has the same or a similar skill to see if the red vision is apart of it.” Hinata says before getting up. “He won’t do anything in the valley. Also, we shouldn’t have to worry about the dungeon. I’m planning for the party to redo some previous levels.”

  With a nod the group heads back inside. It is now about 7:30 and Aiko is in the kitchen making breakfast. They all sit at the counter and eat whatever food she places in front of them while chatting.

  Eventually the rest of the group comes downstairs and they all get to their meditation training. After her large rock spear yesterday, Alli made some progress in combining her ‘Runic Conjuration’ and ‘Arcane Construct’. This will limit her ability to use both skills together. But in trade she will be able to empower her constructs and runes.

  She can add runes to her constructs to increase their defense. On the other side she can use her construct to stabilize her runic attacks. With this she can treat her runes more like an array and make more than spear or ball attacks.

  Hinata is still working on her new ‘Illusional Strike’ she wants the skill to hide her entire body. She is also thinking about making the skill hid her real body. Even if she moves but she might take a third skill to do that.

  Everyone else is making good progress with their own skills. Most of them don’t have a powerful bloodline that gives them a set path with a powerful affinity. The only person who is close is Cody. He is a frost giant and has an innate ice affinity. With thise he is working on making his ‘Duplicate Barrage’ create ice copies. Eventually he wants his ‘Heavy Shot’ to use ice to increase the power.

  The others are working on finding what affinity that works best for them. This can be a life long process, finding new ways to use an affinity.

  The rest of the day goes smoothly for everyone. Sparing is going well and they had no major injuries. Anything that did happen, Aiko was able to heal.

  Helo gained some decent experience in the dungeon ending with him reaching halfway to another level.

  Class: Shaded Predator Level: 13 (540,231/1,027,000) (3000 + 1,024,000)

  The day quickly ended and the party went back into the dungeon on the next. This time they went to the 21st floor and worked their way up to and through the 23rd. During this run Hinata, Gabi, Cody and Kenneth all gained a level.

  This brough Hinata to level 25, Gabi to 24, Cody to 22 and Kenneth to 23. The rest of the party drew closer to their next levels as well.

  The following day on Thursday, as the team had breakfast Micah showed up and ate with them. “Well let’s go practice.” Micah says as he finishes eating. Everyone but Helo stops what they are doing and looks at him. Just having him eat with them makes them nervous. Micah is a legend in the hidden community. His tournament record is undefeated for the last 30 years. He is known as the greatest combatant of the era.

  “You didn’t know? Well, I’m here to help you all train for a while. Ill be helping in the morning with technique and skills.”

  The group followed Micah out the door and saw that their field was filled with boxes on the ground. Each box had different golems meant to attack them. “These are some things to help your skills.” He speaks. Micah proceeds to set everyone up with different golems to help with their training. The training focuses on things like balance, strength, flexibility and reading an opponent. Each one is catered to the individuals fighting style.

  Kenneth is set up surrounded by spinning tops with arms. He has to watch how the tips interact with the ground to tell which one is going to strike. Then he has to block the attack while staying in a small circle.

  Cody has a similar set up. But he is shooting arrows before they can reach him. Gabi is working on her acrobatics while only letting herself get lightly touched. The arms that are attacking her have tiny feathers on the ends. She is only allowed to get touched by the feathers. Then she has to try to get her ‘Damage Empowerment’ to activate.

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  The support personal are dodging and attacking while having to focus on another set of tops that are outside of the ones that are attacking them. Each time one of those golems lights up a certain color, they only have a few moments to cast a spell.

  The rest of the morning is filled with the grunts of exertion as everyone wants to leave a good impression on Micah.

  After that training Micah has the exhausted teenagers running through their different katas and techniques. While doing this he is focusing on Helo and his naginata. He still won’t let Helo do anything but the basic stances and swings. Micah wants these movements to be instinctual before Helo moves on.

  It is the only way for him to suppress his aggressive instincts and learn the defensive ‘Moon-Staff’ style. As the morning comes to an end Micah claps his hands. “Well, you all have done really well. A few more weeks of this and you might have some really impressive growth.”

  All of the exhausted teenagers look and him and groan. Thay are more tired than even after they run the dungeon, and he wants them to do this for weeks.

  After this the team breaks to eat. They still have their sparring to do after lunch. Before Kenneth leaves, he reminds Helo that they will be going into the dungeon tonight.

  After an arguably pathetic excuse at sparring the team get cleaned. Many decide to not work on their professions and nap. Helo doesn’t get that chance, Elder Shelby is expecting him. He was able to do some more work on his runes and is excited to bring his work to the elder.

  After a session of learning with the elder Helo heads back home and gets ready to enter the dungeon. Saying goodbye to the girls Helo finds his way to the dungeon cavern.

  “Well kid.” Micah says from a chair in the corner. Helo is shocked and reached for a weapon. He didn’t even notice Micah casually sitting in the corner. “Ha. It is fun to spook you sneaky types.” Micah waves his hand and his chair disappears into particles of moonlight.

  Seeing Helo’s look Micah says. “My family has a natural affinity for the moon, runes, arrays and in some cases fate. Generally, someone takes one of those affinities and a secondary affinity to focus on. At this Micah waves his hand and a wall of earth rises from the ground. Another gesture and a water whip lashes out.

  “Just because it is outside of your affinity doesn’t mean you can’t practice it. It just takes some imagination and work.” Micah holds out his hand and shows Helo that he is actually using an array drawn into the air above his hand to control those elements.

  Micah then draws his spear and enters a complicated dance with abrupt sharp movements mixed in with a series of stomps. As he makes a final thrust a spear of earth rises under his own spear. Taking a breath Micah smiles. “That is a style called ‘Rumbling Dance’ it uses your stomping movement to control the earth below you.”

  Micah puts his spear away. “I just showed you this so that you know that there are many different ways to reach the same point. Also, some people might do something unexpected. They say that a man can do anything as long as he has enough will.” Micah shrugs. “I don’t know if I believe that but it is possible to use your will and force the world to move. But for those that need some help, there are techniques and spells.”

  After that short lecture Micah leads Helo into the dungeon and onto the 16th floor. This floor is an open plain and filled with singular large goblins. “I had to bribe Elder Anthony to make this floor taler to your training. Damn bastard took my last bottle of Australian Homebrew.” Micah mutters with a frown.

  He leads Helo into the dungeon and takes a step back. “Alright show me what you got.”

  With a nod Helo takes a step forward and summons his naginata. Walking forward he has his blade tip down and the shaft held behind him. As he comes up on the first goblin Helo stops and takes a breath. The goblin is taller than the pervious ones that Helo has fought. Other than the fire berserker. These goblins are leaner and look more intelligent.

  Entering the neutral stance, he plants the butt of the naginata onto the ground with a “Thud”. This draws the attention of the goblin. Making eye contact Helo uses ‘Identify’.

  Hobgoblin Warrior

  Tier 1 Level 16 Uncommon.

  This Hobgoblin is an advanced version of its lesser brethren. With high intelligence and weapon skill.

  Eyes wide from what he read Helo barely has time to draw the naginata forward and into the lower defensive stance. With his weapon in front of him Helo blocks the spear swing but gets pushed back as the goblin uses some kind of skill to increase the weight of the blow.

  As he stumbles back, Helo has to quickly jump to the side as a thrust comes in from the spear. Looking up Helo can see more intelligence and cunning in the creature than any dungeon monster before.

  As Helo lands he rolls to the side to get more room. Getting back to his feet he holds the blade over his shoulder in an upper offensive stance. With his left foot forward and the shaft held to his side Helo is ready for the creature’s next attack.

  To Helo’s further surprise the hobgoblin doesn’t attack right away. It sets its stance and waits for Helo to come. Helo takes that moment to look at Micah. Micah is standing off to the side nodding his head and looking pleased with himself. He makes eye contact with Helo and gestures to the hobgoblin with his head like, ‘Get on with it’.

  Shifting his footing and weapon so that he has the same foot forward as the goblin Helo lowers the weapon tip into the lower defensive stance and starts to slowly move forward. This is taking more effort than he expected. The longer the fight goes on the more Helo wants to charge and stab the thing in the throat. Helo didn’t have this issue previously because the dungeon monsters kept rushing him.

  As Helo and the Hobgoblin are within polearm range both attack at the same time. The goblins quick thrust is faster than Helo’s slash. With his blade tip down Helo stops his swing and awkwardly deflects the goblins thrust.

  Helo is surprised because he is used to being the fastest on the field. But these singular dungeon opponents have a higher stat pool than their group counterparts. These opponents are also uncommon rarity putting them almost even with Helo’s agility and with higher strength. Usually, Helo’s will and vitality give him an edge because he can use his skills constantly. But Micah told Helo not to use his skills.

  So, making room after his awkward block Helo steps forward again. He again approaches in a lower defensive stance. To Helo this stance feels the most comfortable shuffle forward in. The lower position of the blade reminds him of a crouching tiger.

  “Be patient.” Helo hears like a whisper in the wind. Startled for a second Helo looks at Micah and sees him nodding. With a breath and some more focus Helo draws close. This time Helo waits for the goblin to make the first move.

  The goblin steps forward into another thrust. This time Helo watches and acknowledges the goblins attack. Stepping left Helo deflects the thrust to the right and sliding his own blade along the goblins spear shaft Helo cuts across the goblins exposed side.

  Following through with the flow of his slash Helo slides his right foot forward and holds the naginata in the upper offensive stance. Slashing down Helo makes another cut across the goblin’s abdomen.

  The ‘X’ shaped cuts through the goblin’s torso are bleeding profusely. Taking a step back and entering the neutral position Helo watches as the goblin falls.

  Looking to Micah, Helo is excited about his victory. Making him feel better Micah gives him a thumbs up before saying. “It could have been better. But for only two days of training, you learn quick.”

  As they walk to the next fight Micah explains to Helo what he noticed. “You’re only using the basic stances and that is okay. You’re doing well with your training. The problem is the same that all beast kin have. Except you are far worse.”

  Helo looks at Micah a little affronted. “Far worse? I thought it was doing well?”

  “HA. Let me finish kid. Your issue is your instincts. You messed up you first attack because of two reasons. One, inexperience. Two, your inpatient.” Micah grabs Helo’s naginata and points at his back.

  “You read that goblins attack so well that you tried to get your own attack in. But its thrust was way faster than your own attack. You are used to your knives. If you were using them, you would have probably slipped the thrust before the goblin even finished its strike. You would have stepped into its guard and then it would have been over.” Micah holds up the naginata.

  “The naginata is not a knife.” He looks at Helo and waits for him to give a sarcastic nod. “The slashes that you preform with the naginata are good at keeping an opponent away. But its staff like qualities make it great for counter attacks.”

  He holds up the naginata and demonstrates using the butt to deflect an attack and slashing down with the blade. “Your attacks will be slower than a sword, knife or thrust. But your counter attacks are quick and deadly. Instead of smacking someone’s ribs with a bo-staff, you are slashing them open with a blade.” Handing the blade back he adds. “That is the core of the style I am trying to teach you. An amazing defense and then hit back hard.”

  They get to the next goblin and Helo prepares the same way. He stands in a neutral stance, moves into a ready stance and steps into the middle stance. Dipping his blade into the lower defense he starts approaching, he hears another whisper from Micah. “Your pre-fight ritual is cute and all kid, but start this fight in the upper offensive stance. Every fight starts in a different stance.”

  With a nod Helo slides his hand that is near the butt of the shaft up and into the middle position. At the same time, he shifts his other hand to the butt and twirls the naginata so the blade is in the air and over his left shoulder. “Good.” Helo hears in the wind.

  This hobgoblin is also wielding a spear. Helo steps up and makes a downward swing to get to hobgoblin so it moves. The goblin dances back and Helo follows through his swing to shift his other foot forward. Now with his left foot forward Helo steps up again.

  The goblin growls in annoyance from Helo’s distracting sweep. Lunging forward it drives it’s spear up toward Helo’s head. The spear starts to glow blue from skill activation. An extended blade materializes. Using his long reach Helo uses his own blade to deflect the goblins thrust to the left of his head.

  As the spear sings but Helo’s ear he smoothly shifts his hands and takes a step forward. Now he is in the same stance he started the fight, but he is in the goblins guard. The goblin jumps back but with his extended range Helo’s blade swishes down and creates a deep cut in the goblin’s chest. Quickly finishing it off he looks at Micah.

  “Better kid. Good job baiting it with that initial swing. Those rarely work on skilled opponents, but they can be annoying.” He steps forward and claps Helo on the shoulder.

  The two of them spend the next four hours walking from goblin to goblin. Each one has different skills and some have different weapons.

  When facing the sword wielding goblins Helo has to focus on their own slashing attacks. They can have faster consecutive attacks as well. So, Helo had to be careful not to over extend and find himself cut by the blade.

  Helo found himself with his own cuts on multiple occasions. Micah made it known that he is aware of Helo’s nutritional needs. He only looked on with a curious gave as Helo drained a sword wielding Hobgoblin of blood to heal a wound on his arm.

  The longer they trained the easier it because for Helo to rein in his instinctual desire to hunt and strike first. Counterattacking had its own pleasant feeling. The unfortunate thing about this situation is that Helo wasn’t attacking multiple enemies so his experience gain lagged.

  Finishing off another goblin Micah walks up and slaps Helo on the back. “You’re getting better kid. Soon ill start showing you more advanced techniques. Remember your naginata is a bit shorter than normal. So, ill show you some staff techniques that are geared toward quick consecutive strikes.” He leads Helo toward the dungeon exit.

  “Once you perfect a few of the more advanced techniques I will start showing ‘Moon-Staff’ techniques. Hopefully you will eventually even learn ‘Moon-Staff’ Energy Techniques.” As they are walking to the exit Micah stops on a hill and pushes Helo forward.

  Standing in front of him is a Hobgoblin that towers over the others on the floor. This goblin is seven feet tall and its body is full of compact muscles. It is wearing leather armor and has a spear in hand. It also has a sword on its belt.

  Hobgoblin Weapon Master

  Tier 1 Level 19 Uncommon

  This Hobgoblin is skilled in multiple weapons and is capable of wielding multiple skills.

  “This isn’t going to go well.” Helo says as he steps up to the goblin that towers over him by a foot. It must weigh over 300 pounds.

  “Goodluck kid!” Micah cheers with a happy voice.

  The Hobgoblin doesn’t let Helo get his bearings. Before Helo can get ready it lunges forward with an aggressive one-handed thrust. The goblins speed is a step above the others. The angle of the thrust forces Helo to dodge too to the left. This puts the spear between him and the hobgoblin.

  It draws the spear back and spins it around in a sweep toward Helo’s chest. As the blade circles around and aim directly for him, Helo has just enough time to enter the lower defensive stance. Hoping to deflect the blade up Helo braces. Right before the blade makes contact it glows a deep blue and lands with a “BANG”.

  Helo gets tossed back and end up dropping the naginata. Rolling to his feet quickly Helo feels for his blade but can’t find it. Grabbing his two-throwing blades Helo tosses them at the charging Hobgoblin. The goblin dodges on and deflects the other.

  This gives Helo just enough time to locate his naginata and make a diving roll to pick it up. Getting to his feet he faces the goblin with his naginata him and the goblin. This time the goblin charges forward with a two-handed thrust.

  Helo has enough time to dodge to the side. He steps into its guard and is hoping to slash down onto the goblin. Instead of jumping back to dodge like the pervious goblins, the Hobgoblin continues forward and drives its knee into Helo’s chest.

  Helo wheezes out all the breath in his lungs and gets set backward into the air. He is sent headfirst into a flip midair. Landing on his stomach Helo’s is saved by his enhanced senses. Hearing the goblins body move through the air, Helo looks up to see the goblin jumping through the air with its spear facing his back.

  Rolling away Helo get’s hit by a cloud of dirt. The skill empowered leap dug a hold into the ground where Helo’s torso just was. Gettig to his feet with some struggling Helo is surprised to see that he held onto the naginata the entire time he was sailing in the air.

  Sending out a wild slash into the dust Helo can feel his blade hit something. Moving back Helo makes as much distance as he can while trying to catch his breath.

  The hobgoblin walks out of the dust cloud looking just as strong as normal. Finally getting in a deep breath through his nose Helo can smell blood. Looking closely, he can see blood dripping off the goblin’s fingertips.

  Behind the goblin a trail of blood goes back to the spear that is still stuck in the ground.

  “Well round two.” Helo says with a cough.