-/-)) Travis ((-\-

He slammed a palm onto the table in excitement. The force of his strike left an indent in the weaker metal, complete with the outline of his good fingers.

Travis needed this. His people needed this.

Weeks of fighting beasts had taken a number of combatants from his forces, and weakened morale. That was further exacerbated when one comms specialist let slip that three outlying bases had been sacked by a single enemy, and they weren't even certain how he was killing them. Only a handful of recordings had captured the troublesome prince, and those videos hadn't shed any light on the man's magic.

Travis had made the intentional and controversial decision to not reinforce the outer bases. The stronger combatants and officers were still needed on the beast questline, and the barbarian was still top priority.

Another flurry of ice shards shot forward and took the overgrown jungle cat in the side. The pulse from an energy rifle burned off the tip of its ear. Travis cheered as it screeched in pain. The live feed was a ludicrous waste of resources - but it had merit. As soon as the battle was over, he would have it edited and shared with all forces in the space. Their morale would rise at that, and rise again when the beast squadrons returned to their bases to recover. Travis and his personal force would go after the barbarian.

In his mind, the plan was simple. Kill the barbarian, then regroup and rout the other bit of real resistance they faced. The cat-beast died, and Travis smiled as the free experience rolled in, followed by a greater wave as the questline completed. He applied 80% to himself, and doled the other 20% out to the main contributors in the fight.

He opened the new questline with great anticipation. They were finally here, at the beast lords.

His enthusiasm shrank as he read.

Stage 8, already. They only had 3 chances to intercept their quarry. Two if they didn't hustle.

Level 49. At the very height of F grade, he wasn't confident that they could kill such a creature without heavy losses. He had an inclination to what the plus represented, but sent off for the reference guide to confirm his suspicions.

He read as he walked. Troops ahead of him marched with a mix of excitement and worry. They had a destination, and at least one fight waiting for them.

)+\( Hugo )/+(

He ran his hand over the surface of the tree. Hugo was fairly certain this was one of the brown ones that had water inside you could drink, but natural colors weren't coming to him in the same way anymore. He tried to puzzle out what he was looking at by feeling his way over the bark. An attempt at familiarity he wouldn't have expected to need.

One of the latest rescues walked over to him on unsteady feet. She had a bright and energetic soul with a pulsing, swirling rhythm that reminded Hugo of a dancing fire. She was strong-willed, but thoughtful. Helpful and measured. Capable, and kind. She often found reasons to stay by Hugo's side. He didn't mind staring at her light.

"Do you need help?"

"I will accept the offer, thank you. Is this tree brown?"

She held out a glowing hand and ran two fingers along the bark until her hand connected with his. She lingered there for a moment, then pulled away.

"It's a dark brown, and the color looks like it drains as the folds in the bark sink into the tree. There are scars, stained with a white powdery substance where the tree has seen old damage. The base of every branch, high up, lightens in color. The branches themselves are striped, and they end in light green leaves with highly visible, darker veins."

Hugo caught himself staring, and coughed.

"Um... thank you."

#

#

The turret atop the watchtower barked as shots tore through the canopy. Hugo took cover behind a small mound, ignoring the bits of dirt and burnt leaves that kicked up and fell into his hair.

This was his mistake, and now he was paying for it. He'd ignored his normal sight for so long, he had trouble seeing anything that didn't appear within his Soulsight. The first few encampments didn't cause problems because the threat of each were the people that patrolled and lived there. He had now realized that part of his ease of victory was because he had attacked outlying camps. Now, closer to Belar's main operations, there were more soldiers, and they were better kitted.

Trees cracked and fell against a series of explosions to his left.

He let himself glance back towards Vidita. She had been the one to notice the cameras, invisible to Hugo's magic eyes. Now, she hid close enough to watch the action - and to act if she believed Hugo was in trouble. It wasn't the first time she'd ignored his orders, and he doubted it would be the last. Her first time had been when he ordered her to go to the settlement with everyone else. She refused and swore to stay with him. The thought gave him warmth. That warmth made him worry. He didn't have time for that kind of thing. Not here, and not now. His own feelings could wait.

An explosion close by threw fractured roots into the air, and they landed on Hugo's shoulders.

To get to a next time, Hugo needed to solve his current problem.

The biggest issue was the turret gunner. The second biggest was the one with the grenade launcher. Both were outside of his typical area of influence - but Hugo was motivated. He slammed his eyes shut and felt out with his magic. It thinned as he reached, until it was as fine as thread.

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He still wasn't there - and needed more. He worked through possibilities, and one stood out more than the rest.

Acting half on instinct, Hugo let his own light spool out of him and join the thread. It glowed with violent light, and gave a deeply unsettling feeling. It was both wrong and correct in equal measure - more importantly, it worked. Hugo's exploratory thread found the gunner, and it slowly spun around him like a spider's cocoon. He could feel the man's soul start to panic at the claustrophobic sensation, and squeezed.

Blasts of energy ceased as a scream erupted from the camp. Explosions stopped shortly after. Hugo made out a few words in the panic.

"There's no way he can use magic this far out"

"Fuck Travis and fuck this, I'm leaving"

"Willis, talk to me - what's he doing to you"

At distance, the soul took longer to wear down and break. It took longer to travel back to Hugo to start the slow absorption process. It was more difficult, and there was no way Hugo could handle more than one at a time.

But it was possible, and that's all he needed.

Hugo took a breath, and started spooling his magic around the next target.

#

#

Vidita gave Hugo a light squeeze on the shoulder to signal she was done. He put on a clean shirt, taken from Belar, and winced when the fabric pulled against his fresh stitches.

It would have been ideal to find a Vuxarinan with healing magic, but they hadn't been that lucky. Hugo's accumulating wounds threatened to slow him down, and it was only through her work they were beginning to properly heal.

"Thank you, Vidita. I don't know if I would be able to keep fighting if it not for your help."

Her light fluttered.

"I'm passable with a needle, and I don't know any of these plants. If you really want to thank me, take some actual rest to heal, and then I won't have to stitch you up so much." She pursed a pair of monochrome lips when Hugo started to raise his hands. Light folded in on itself, and she continued before Hugo could respond. "Yes, I know you don't have a choice, and its for our people, and if you don't keep going its the same as dooming them to death. I've memorized the point of each one of your stupid, eloquent, self-sacrificing arguments."

She let a breath out with a huff.

"I also know you're scared to stop, and you're too scared to admit that. You worry that the changes - that what your magic has done to you is permanent. You worry that stopping now will make the whole thing less important, somehow. You want to be as heroic and righteous in your actions as you think your father was, and stopping now, even for a moment jeopardizes that."

Hugo very rarely found himself at a loss for words. She continued in his silence.

"Your father is gone, but he would be proud of what you've done and what you're doing. Lesser nobles might not get much facetime with the king, but I saw enough of him over the years to understand that the man adored you. He - and everyone else you've come across in this place - would love you for your actions and caution you to let yourself mend. That would be true even if you weren't a prince. Your actions, they outshine your regency."

Vidita laid a hand on Hugo's forearm. "And the changes... have I told you about your eyes?"

Hugo shook his head from side to side in a quick, unsure motion. Vidita leaned in closer.

"They're a whole world to get lost in. Your pupils are the same color as the clouds that bring misting rain to thirsty farms. Your iris rings that cloud, like a shimmering circle of pearls and diamonds were forged together and given the radiance of the sun. Throughout the whole of it, there are these tiny currents of white glitter that shift and ebb and react whenever you look at something, or someone."

She shifted until they were nearly nose to nose. Hugo took shallow breaths of shared air. Vidita's words sped up as she continued on.

"When you're being your normal measured regal self, they swirl. When you're getting ready to attack a base, they churn. And when you talk about home, they dance. And you love home, and everything about it. It makes you happy. Your eyes dance when they look at me, too, and that's how I know - how I think I know. But I think I'm right."

Hugo's mind took a moment to catch up with him, and he mustered himself enough to pull away. "My first responsibility is not to myself, but to Vuxarina. Any of my feelings are... a secondary priority."

She made a little frustrated grunting noise behind him, and murmured. "Oh, you absolute dolt-"

Her hand gripped Hugo's bicep, and he allowed himself to be spun back around to face her. A pulsating ripple shot out from her center every half second. She wrapped both hands around the back of his head, and gently pulled him close. All the emotion and feeling that had built up over the conversation rushed back into him, and Hugo's sense of self-righteous sacrifice melted under their influence. He put one hand at the back of her neck, the other between her shoulder blades, and pulled until their lips met.

+ Reid +

NOTICE: Another faction can also access this questline

That single line had fucked up Reid's travel and affixation schedule, along with his plans to have Nyx teach him about conduits and junctions, and everything else he should've been free to experience and explore. Part of him had wanted to go find the nearest Belar encampment just to blow off steam. Nyx had talked him off that particular ledge, if only barely. Hugo was taking that work on anyway, so Reid tried to stay happy with the idea that the prince was making them pay. He'd certainly kept up a blistering pace of conquest over the company's bases, though there had been a bit of a gap recently. That was fine, everyone needed to rest now and then.

In the back of his mind, Reid had figured someone might catch up to him. They had their own questlines, of course - but they'd been fighting against low-level rats when he got into the tutorial. For them to gain this much ground, this quickly? There was a high chance that they had some sort of elite forces, either sprinkled amongst normal troops or as their own squad. If Belar was really that capable, the first base had to be something of a fluke. Or they'd focused on strengthening themselves once they'd encountered Reid.

No matter what had prompted their rise in power, they were now running the same race that Reid was, and it meant he couldn't afford to dally.

In a worst case scenario, Belar would defeat the next beast lord before he even got there. Even if they didn't, their involvement would mean fighting on two fronts at once, which was less than ideal. Maybe they wouldn't get there at all. Maybe they would arrive, be unable to kill the beast by the time he got there, and instead would destroy his chances of completing the secret challenges.

He had more wild thoughts than answers, and the only resolution was to push forward towards his target. His lone indulgence was a scant handful of stat points and a single resistance construct made for lightning.

Constitution: 585 Dexterity: 573 Intelligence: 575 Perception: 574 Power: 579 Control: 590

It was mid morning by the time Reid got close to his target. The area was a more sparsely populated forest, where each tree was thicker, taller, and more imposing. There was enough space between each to drive a pair of busses through the gap, and the creatures in the area were slightly different than what he'd seen before. Reid realized he truly hadn't been in this location before, and made a mark on his stolen map to note the area for future reference.

The sound of an explosion carried to him on the wind - along with strong scents of smoke, and blood.

Reid put away the map, and double checked the rest of his equipment was ready.

It was time to see what Belar's elites were capable of.

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