Stormblade [Skill Merge Portal Break] (B1 Complete)

Two hours later, the convoy was circled up, and I found myself face-to-face with Deborah.

And Angelo Lawrence. And Terrel Young. And most of the rest of the convoy's command structure.

The only good news was that Sarah Cullman had taken one look at the unranked, homespun wool-clad humans and announced that it was a wonder they weren't all dead from Earth's diseases or malnutrition or the various infections that Sophia had only been able to slow, not stop. She was currently doing her best to heal them. The screams were horrifying; they clearly thought she was a monster. Sophia was with her, and Jeff, Raul, and Yasmin were setting up our tent.

I had no idea what Ellen was up to, but she wasn't here.

That left me with most of the strike team/convoy leadership. I ran them through what I could, leaving out the parts I needed to keep secret, like Cheddar and Pepperoni. And then, the conversation started.

"Deborah, given this new information, do you still believe that a speed run down the 285 is the correct decision?" Angelo asked.

"Yeah, I do—even more than I did earlier. If we're in range of the portal, then we have two options. One, we can try to close the portal. The strike team might be able to do it, Angelo, but it'd leave the convoy in danger. And even for a team with three S-Ranks, we're gonna have a rough time of it. It won't be an hour-in and hour-out kind of operation. We don't even know where it is. Just finding it could take days. "

Deborah shifted, staring me down. I had no idea why she was focused on me, but I didn't like it. "Or two, we try a thunder run across the desert, go in fast and loud, and wipe out everything in our paths. The strike team goes first. You run at seventy percent, blowing a massive hole in anything that gets in our way, and we clean up the survivors. Then the B-Rank teams and two C teams wedge the trucks through the gap we make."

"That would be a lot of risk for everyone involved," Angelo said, "especially if the convoy follows me closely. Is Sarah ready to manage the aftermath?"

"She can do it. It's the best option," Terrel interrupted. "We can't afford to take it slow and get into a running fight. Speed and aggression are our best options. Everyone who signed up agreed to take risks and follow orders. This is the worst-case scenario, but everyone knew this might happen."

Angelo looked at me. "What do you think? Are you willing to take the risk?"

I took a deep breath. Then I nodded. "I am. We have innocents with us, though. Are they?"

"They don't have a choice," Deborah said. "They're in the wrong place at the wrong time, but being in a truck with a healer is better than being left behind in the desert or exposed to the Light of Dawn's power directly. Besides, they're portal monsters."

"They are not," Angelo said. "I would know. But what they are, I do not know."

"I don't think they're portal monsters," I said. "They seem like regular people. Maybe their world's just like ours twenty years ago, and they have no idea what's going on."

I would have said more, but Angelo stood up and nodded. "Very well. Tomorrow morning, we break for Carlsbad Fortress. It is an eighty-mile run. Expect four to five hours of fighting. Get some rest, Kade Noelstra."

"You'll need it," Deborah added. I didn't miss her implied threat, and I didn't respond, either.

Kade was so stupid.

Ellen stared off into the desert. The camp behind her was quiet and muted; unlike the energetic, almost festive meal they'd shared with the Monster Eaters, the mood was far from celebratory. It felt like everyone knew that tomorrow was going to suck.

She didn't see any way for it not to suck. They had to get to Carlsbad Fortress, and if she and Kade were right, the A-Rank portal break was between them and their destination. Maybe not on the road, but definitely somewhere in the desert near Carlsbad. What was with that spot on the map? First the Carlsbad portal break, and now this? It had to be cursed.

But Ellen hardly had the mental space to think about tomorrow.

Most of her focus was on Kade. On that stupid, reckless madman. He'd pushed himself too far to get into this convoy, and while he might not be showing it, he was hurting—and not in a way Sophia or the Spark of Life could help with.

And worse, he wanted to keep putting pressure on his core. He wanted to merge even more skills to open up a slot for…what? Something to do with his deviation from his Path. Something to do with light and shadow. And for that, he needed Ellen's help—which meant…

It meant something she'd been thinking about less as an actual option and more as an academic exercise in power. Kade could borrow her power, and she could borrow his. They'd already been setting up the groundwork for it—had been ever since their simultaneous skill merges had leaked into each other. It had happened again when she'd consolidated her D-Rank Law. She'd spent time at the Governing Council centers' libraries after that, digging into what had happened. And she'd found something.

Dual Skill Advancement.

It was rare. Typically, only siblings and married partners tried it. But not always. Sometimes, teammates gave it a go. The basic concept was simple. Instead of trying to push on in spite of the storm that threatened to overwhelm her during a merge, all she had to do was let Kade in. Not the storm, but Kade. And he had to do the same for her. They wouldn't just merge their two skills. They'd end up merging four—the two Kade brought, and Ellen's Dash and Energy Transfer. It'd open up more potential than a 5-merge build, but with massive risks. Most delvers wouldn't take them. Kade would.

But to do it, Kade had to trust Ellen. And he couldn't do that while she was holding out on him.

Ellen was sitting on a truck's bed, staring out into Roswell's streets to the south, when I tracked her down, the spellbook I'd stolen from the library in my hand. I couldn't learn anything right now—not with my core in the state it was—but I could study up for that future.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"They're going to do exactly what I thought they would," I said as I sat down next to her.

"You said it was the best play." Ellen swallowed.

I understood. While I hadn't said anything, I had no illusions about what could go wrong, following within a few thousand feet of the Light of Dawn while he was fighting. Recovering from this could be rough, even with Sarah Cullman's powers mitigating Angelo's. "It's going to work. Easy. Four hours, maybe four and a half, of sporadic fighting, and we'll be in Carlsbad. You don't need to worry about that."

"I'm not," Ellen said.

"Then what's up?"

Ellen took a breath. Then she stared into the city some more. "I can make your skill merge work and give you exactly what Eugene thinks you can get. He's right, but you're thinking about it wrong. It's not a new skill. It's a weird merging of old ones. But before I do, we need to talk. I haven't been one hundred percent honest with you: I've been trying to use you since we met."

I joined her in staring at the desert that was in the process of eating Roswell. The sage and cacti were pretty much invisible—the moon was only a sliver in the sky—and even the buildings looked ghostly and pale where I could see them at all.

Then I put a hand on her shoulder. "Something to do with your dad?"

"Yeah. With Bob. I'd been trying to figure out how to break free for a long time. I thought being a delver would be enough. Then I thought actually being a delver—clearing portals, fighting monsters, and all of that—would be enough. But it wasn't. All of that was just…opportunity…for him." Ellen spat off the truck's edge.

"And then you showed up in that portal. The Glade one. An absolute maniac. Who goes and tries to solo a boss at one merge into E-Rank? But there was something about you. And again, with the Roadrunners. I wanted to be like that, to be ridiculous enough to tell Bob to shove it up his…yeah—and to be heard."

"You saw me as a way out, huh?"

"Yes."

I kept looking out over the deserted city. My hand didn't leave Ellen's shoulder, even though she was shaking a little. I understood wanting out. I'd wanted out for the first three months after Dad died, when it had just been Jessie and me, gradually selling off what we had to make it another month while I struggled to get my build figured out and she struggled with…everything.

And I also understood Ellen's situation. Her dad was using her the exact same way every guild leader wanted to use me. She represented something he didn't have—that he couldn't have—and also an in for a brand new type of business. "I'd be itching to escape, too."

"I still am. But even more than that, I really like you, Kade."

"Same," I said. I let my arm snake down to Ellen's side and pulled her in for a hug. She let it happen, leaning on me, and we stared into the darkness together for a while.

"That's it?" she said after a while.

"What's it?" I asked.

"I haven't ever really dated. Are we…"

"Yeah, I'm happy with it if you are."

"Great." Ellen leaned in even more, relaxing completely. She sat there for a minute, then straightened up. Her shoulders tensed again. "Okay. So. In the interests of clearing my debt to you, here's my pitch."

"You don't owe me anything, I said.

"Yes, I do. Jessie and the eggs, remember? That was my fault, and you haven't let me do anything to make it up to you. I'll tell you what I know, and then we'll be even, and you can decide whether to take me up on my offer."

"Deal."

"There's this method for advancing skills. It's called Dual Skill Progression. Little-known, very rare, because it's got a ton of risk to it. Basically, instead of merging two skills, we'll merge four. We'll end up with a merged skill that combines my two unmerged—Dash and Energy Transfer—with whatever you've got."

"Energy Font and Brendan's Hymnal," I said.

"What we'll end up with is something with S-Rank potential, but a much harder time to advance. And since we're out here, there's no guarantee that the four skills are even compatible. If they aren't, it's going to be messy learning new ones, and it'll burn a few cores that aren't cheap, too. But there's a second problem," Ellen said.

"What?"

"It's Dual Skill Progression. That means two. We advance this skill's ranks together, or it doesn't advance. We'll be stuck together, at least as teammates. And that's going to cause some problems, because I can't keep up with you forever. I've been running extra portals when I can, and even with that, it's not enough, and—"

"Ellen," I said.

"You're not listening to me, Kade. We'll be stuck together, and I'll slow you down. It's happening with Jeff, and you're going to have to leave him behind, but you've known that. You won't be able to leave me behind."

"Ellen, you beat me to C-Rank. And even if I do get ahead of you, I'm with you for the long haul. Until you tell me otherwise, you're stuck with me."

"But what about—"

"Your dad? We'll think about how to manage him once we're back in Phoenix."

"No, not that." Ellen paused and stiffened. "Look, typically, Dual Skill Progression partners are people who know they're going to be together. Two brothers, spouses, a mother/daughter team-up. You and Jeff could have done it if he wasn't up against the C-Rank Bottleneck, because you've got a bond that's lasted a long time. I don't know if we have the same connection."

"You don't know if we don't, though."

What Ellen was offering was perfect. A chance to merge my skills with hers—and to pick up two skills that would actually be useful in the merge—was too good an opportunity to pass up. And she was right. It'd meet Eugene's requirements almost perfectly.

And of everyone I'd delved with—the pick-up groups and all the people Jeff had brought in for his attempts at running a team—the only person I'd want to delve with more than Ellen was, maybe, Jeff. It wasn't that she complimented what I brought to the team. It was that I could trust her, and she could trust me. And we both knew it.

After another minute or so, Ellen relaxed again. Her head bonked against my shoulder. "Ow."

I snorted. "Yeah, ow is right. So, Dual Skill Progression. What's the worst-case scenario?"

"We go our separate ways, and the merged skill stops growing," Ellen said. "We still get to rank ourselves up, but with an E-Rank or D-Rank skill that won't move, that caps us below S-Rank."

"Seriously, that's it? Right now, we've both got two skills stuck at the edge of C-Rank. They'll never grow more than that. I'm willing to stick it out until we get the new merge to C-Rank if you are, even if—" I gestured at her. "—whatever this is doesn't work out long-term. We won't lose anything, and we could both gain a lot."

Ellen nodded. "That seems fair. When you put it that way, it's very low-consequence. But if it is, then why don't more people do it? It should be common for teams to Dual Skill Progress all the time. We're missing something. Something obvious."

"How good is your research?" I asked.

"I've cleared out a half-dozen GC libraries. There's nothing else. Just the risk of interpersonal relationships ruining progression. That's it."

"Okay. Do you want to try it tonight? We've both got the cores for it, right?"

A half-hour later, Ellen sat back-to-back with Kade. She couldn't stop shaking. The odds of this working were…surprisingly high. The risk wasn't what concerned her.

No, it was Kade. And how accepting he'd been of her confession. It was almost like he'd known she was trying to use him, and for what, and like he'd accepted it a long time ago. More than that, like he'd decided to actively help her in her quest to get free from Bob.

And then there was her other confession. In retrospect, that one had been kind of obvious. Ellen had been looking for excuses to spend time with him. The Italian place. Her head on his pillow. All sorts of stuff. She blushed a little just thinking about it. But he'd also been such a gentleman about it, letting her sleep in his bed and taking the couch, stuff like that.

"Okay," she said, breathing and letting it out in a shuddering sigh as she centered herself on what they were about to do. "You're going to see my shadow in your merge. I'm going to see your storm. All you have to do is open up and let me in. I'll do the same, and we'll start Dual Skill Progression. From there, it should all click into place. That's what I've read, at least."

"Got it," Kade said.

Ellen took one more deep breath. Then she cracked the C-Rank core and started the skill merge process. Behind her, pressed against her back, Kade did the same thing.