The Bloodforged Kin

"Seriously man, I think someone's under there." Ethan pointed to the shadowed space under the interstate's overpass. They were traveling north on I-94 on their way to the Bristol Renaissance Faire. They'd run into others that were traveling there themselves and they wanted to meet up with a bigger group that they could fit into. They'd tried to join other groups before, but nothing had been a fit. Ethan and Patch knew they were the 'weird dudes,' always on the outside and never quite fitting in. They were on the extreme end of the nerd spectrum, even before The System, and had embraced it even more since.

Maybe it was the fact that Ethan dressed in full wizard's robes, the gold stitched stars and moon on his tall hat matching the pattern on his blue velvet robes. He suspected that as weird as he looked to everyone else, his best friend was the one that set everyone away from them.

Patch was tall and hulking, his fat squeezing around painted shoulder pads with large plastic spikes, a faux-fur vest that almost matched the furs on his arms and legs, and long plastic tusks. Patch was also entirely green.

His color wasn't a product of The System - Patch seemed to have an endless supply of the skin dye that he applied regularly. He'd always wanted to be an orc, and The System had made it a reality. Well, not a reality, since The System classified him as a Brawler, but he refused to drop the cosplay no matter how many times Ethan begged him to.

And yet, they had been best friends since childhood and Ethan wasn't about to abandon him for his eccentricities. The System had given them the ultimate cosplay opportunity and they were living in the moment, hence their journey to the Ren Faire. If they could fit in anywhere it'd be there.

They hoped.

"Me see nothing." Patch's voice came out in a slur as he wiped drool off the tusks.

Ethan considered asking him to remove them and just talk like a normal person, but didn't want to revisit that frustrating argument for the thousandth time.

"I'm telling you, something moved in there." Ethan waved his staff, the cheap replica having become real when his dream of becoming a real life wizard was realized. A small ball of light emerged from the purple glass ball at the top and shot into the tunnel, exploding in a brilliant display of light.

A figure stepped out of the light, rubbing his eyes. He was lean and well dressed in black slacks, a crisp white shirt unbuttoned down to below his thinly muscled chest, and a black blazer with the sleeves rolled up. He was shorter than both of the men but walked with a confidence that couldn't be ignored.

"Good afternoon," he said with a slight bow, his hands resting on the handles of two katanas strapped at his hip. His voice held a slight Japanese accent, like someone who had grown up in a traditional family but had been schooled in the United States. "I am Masaru Saito, but you can call me 'Ash.'"

"Uh, heya Ash." Ethan gave him a polite wave. "I'm Ethan and this is Patch. Uh, whatcha doing under there?"

"I am waiting for travelers."

"Any reason you're doing that?" Ethan gripped his staff tighter and he saw Patch wrap a huge hand around his cudgel.

Ash's smile was friendly and disarming. "We are all on a journey for greater power, and I seek those with power greater than my own."

Ethan and Patch shared a nervous look before turning back to the man. "Okay, gotcha. Not sure what that has to do with us though."

Ash's walk was casual and carefree as he approached. "Would you say that you are powerful? I have a skill that lets me see your levels and I see you have both achieved level 15 - decent heights at this level of the integration. I, myself, am only level 13. Would you say that you are powerful for your levels?"

Patch grunted and flexed - a useless gesture, as any muscle was buried in too much fat to be put on display.

"I guess?" Ethan replied. "Look man, we don't want any trouble. We're not bad guys, we're just headed up that way to join another group." He pointed north.

"Good. Bad. Those are terms for the old world. Now the only word that matters is 'power.'"

Ethan could feel the inexorable slide of the situation going sideways and knew there'd be no way of just walking out of here. He gripped his staff with both hands, channeling mana into the glass globe at the top. Patch pulled out a cudgel the size of a human thigh, the hard wood knotty and knurled. Ethan saw the telltale shimmer of Brawler's Armor settle over him before disappearing into his skin and knew that Brute Strength would be empowering his muscles.

Ethan cast Wizard's Shield and a small kite shield appeared in the air in front of him. It would move independently to block any attacks. He didn't have much in the way of defensive spells but it always gave him time to charge up his other spells.

"Come on, man, we don't need to do this. Just let us be on our merry way and no one needs to get hurt." Ethan didn't like killing, and suspected that he'd be at a higher level if he and Patch didn't leave people alive as often as they did.

"Getting hurt is inevitable, as is dying," Ash said. Rather than look concerned he looked interested, scrutinizing each of their powers.

Ethan could tell a spell was at work which was only confirmed by Ash's next statement.

"Brawler's Armor. Brute Strength. Wizard's Shield. The one you sent earlier was Illumination." His eyes moved left and right, the sign of someone reading a System description. "Interesting, and all useful. I am not certain I need both of you, but I will determine that as you reveal your remaining skills."

He stopped reading and focused his attention back on the pair. "Please pay close attention to what I am about to tell you, because it will be the difference between you dying and continuing to live on - after a fashion. When I have defeated you, at the moment of your death, you will be given a choice. You can choose to die or you can choose to live on inside of me. You will exist in here," he tapped his chest above his heart. "You will still be 'you' and will have access to your thoughts and abilities. You will even continue to level, provided you succeed in battles."

Ethan's mouth was agape, his expression mirrored by Patch. "What? That's fucking psycho, man!"

Ash shrugged. "Even so, this is what I offer you." His voice grew serious for the first time. "But understand this - if you do not prove to me that you deserve to live you will not be given the opportunity. This is your opportunity - your last one - to demonstrate your worthiness. If you want to survive you must show you are worth saving. Do you understand?"

The two men just stared at him. Even for The System, this was weird.

"You collect souls?"

Ash nodded, smiling.

"Is that why you call yourself 'Ash?' You have to 'collect them all?'"

Another nod, another smile.

"You're fucking weird, dude. Way too weird. I'm sorry man - we don't like killing, but I don't think we can leave you around to fuck with anyone else."

"Good," Ash said. "Then we understand the stakes. Let us begin."

Seconds passed and Ethan realized he should have acted sooner. He should have fired off a Magic Missile and Patch should have charged, but they weren't ruthless. It wasn't until Ash's transformation was complete that he realized he'd missed his opportunity, and that they were truly fucked.

Ash was still there, but he wasn't Ash. He looked like him, to an extent, but the features had changed enough to make it obvious that someone else was standing in front of him. The man standing in front of them, because he was most definitely an older man, was more heavily muscled. Lean, whipcord muscles pressed against his skin and his face was leaner. Even his hair seemed slightly longer and - was that gray streaked through it?

Ash-not-Ash bowed deeply, his voice lower and more heavily accented.

"I greet you. I am Takeshi Saito, swordmaster of the Saito Clan and the victor of 53 individual duels, 28 of which have occurred since the arrival of The System. Now you know me."

Ethan gaped and couldn't resist a slight bow in return, feeling embarrassed by it the second he did it. "I am Ethan and I don't want to be here right now."

The old man chuckled and fixed his eyes on Patch. The big man pulled his tusks out of his mouth, dropping them to the road and wiping his arm across his lips. "I'm Patch and I really don't want to be here either. Can you just let us go, please?"

A look of sadness and regret filled the man's eyes as he shook his head. "My apologies, but that moment has passed. Even should I wish it, it cannot be."

"What is he doing to you?" Ethan whispered, just loud enough for the old man to hear.

"Enough talk. Begin."

Ethan and Patch shared a look. This was the way of the world now, and as much as they hated it, they knew the rules. They knew the stakes.

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They turned back to the old man and sprang into action. Their experience in fighting as a team made the opening moves like oiled machinery. Ethan fired Illumination at the man's eyes, followed instantly by three Magic Missiles. Patch rushed forward silently, swinging his cudgel to take advantage of the man's blindness.

The old man seemed to have predicted their move, squinting his eyes and pulling both swords out faster than either could follow.

"I Cut All," the man said and his swords whipped up and sideways, splitting the magic missiles as they reached him.

Ethan's eyes went wide when he saw his spells bisected, their magic dissipating into harmless purple smoke.

"How?"

Patch was on him in an instant, cudgel swinging at the man's torso in a two-handed grip that bent the air in front of it. Rather than meet the strike, the old man bent backwards at the waist, the cudgel rippling his clothing as it passed over him. Patch was no novice to fighting, though, and Brawler's Speed activated, empowering each of his limbs to move faster. He punched, kicked, and swung his weapon almost too fast to follow, but each blow missed by a hair's breadth.

"I Move Through the Raindrops." The old man's speed picked up and he was no longer on the back foot. He was no longer stepping to move, simply twisting and turning his body and limbs to narrowly dodge every hit that came his way.

He looks like he's in the Matrix. Ethan thought as he fired off more missiles, moving so that he was firing at the old man's back. The man moved like he had eyes everywhere, dodging and cutting projectiles even as they came at him from behind.

"Lock him down!" Patch yelled and Ethan cast his last spell. Binding Step flashed out of his staff and a greenish blob smacked into the man's feet with a wet splat, preventing him from moving. Patch circled around him and swung for the only area he knew the man couldn't dodge.

A sickening crunch sounded as the cudgel slammed into both knees, buckling them. The old man grunted and twisted, but was unable to face Patch. Three more missiles slammed into the old man's back, bending him forward at the waist, the swords going flying as his hands hit the pavement.

The two men paused, still not wanting to kill. Patch stepped back to stand next to Ethan.

"Should we run?"

"I think so, man."

"It's too late for that." A voice that was distinctly Southern American came from where the old man stood. He straightened himself up and they saw that he was no longer the old man, looking more like an American version of Ash. He now looked to be in his mid-20's, Ash's previously dark hair was now a fair blond, his eyes a crystal blue. "Y'all really shoulda finished him off when you had the chance."

Ice of the clearest blue shot out of his hands into the glob at his feet, freezing and cracking it. He stepped out of the goo without a limp, his limbs fully restored. He waved his hands in a circle and a tornado of ice and snow appeared around him, obscuring their vision.

Ethan launched more missiles but they were deflected in random directions by the whirlwind. The guy in the center suddenly rose into the air, carried aloft by the winds. Then he was flying toward them, hands glowing with blue power.

Ethan and Patch leapt sideways as a blue bolt exploded between them, the ground around them freezing over in an instant. Ethan climbed to his feet and saw that Patch had one leg caught by the ice, frozen to the ground.

"NO!" His scream came after a crack of bone sounded. He stared, disbelieving, at his best friend, pinned to the ground by a spear of ice through his chest, his body slumping, yet held aloft by the jagged shaft as wide as his arm.

"How… how could you?" He was wracked with pain and loss.

"Ash didn't want him. He already has a fighter. You, he may still want, though. He don't have a wizard."

"How many of you are there?"

The man looked like he was about to reply but an internal struggle locked his jaw shut. After a moment he finally replied. "Sorry brother, not allowed to say. Supposed to tell you that this is your last chance to show him whatcha got though."

Ethan straightened, rage burning within him. He pulled all the mana he could and felt his skills cracking, ready to become more than they were. In his rage and sorrow he felt more power than he'd ever felt and he called on it.

The fight only lasted a few more seconds. Ethan found himself laying flat on his back, each of his limbs frozen to the ground. Ash stood over him - and it was Ash this time - recovered sword in his hand. He pressed the tip into Ethan's chest, drawing blood.

"You are almost worthy, but I see your potential. Join me and you'll continue to grow in power."

Ethan stared up into those dark eyes and knew that this was his last moment.

"Fuck you."

Ash sighed before transforming back into the old man. Ethan saw regret in the man's eyes as the sword plunged into his chest.

Name: Enhanced Identify
Level: 3
Description:
Enhanced Identify is an evolved scanning skill that allows the user to delve deeper into the abilities and attributes of those around them. As a Soul Domain Specialist, this skill has been finely tuned to extract more intricate details than standard identification methods.

Special Abilities:

Comprehensive Scanning

: The user can scan any target within range to discern their level and general capabilities. This includes the identification of any skills or spells currently being cast or activated in front of the user.

Detailed Skill Recognition

: Upon scanning, the user receives the names of all active skills and spells utilized by the target. For lower-level opponents, detailed descriptions of each skill, including potential effects, cooldowns, and weaknesses, are provided.

Level-Based Information Limitation

: The effectiveness of Enhanced Identify is inversely proportional to the target's level. As the level of the scanned individual increases, the depth of information retrieved diminishes. High-level targets may only yield vague descriptions of their abilities, making it imperative for the user to adapt their strategy accordingly.

Note

: Enhanced Identify evolves with the user, allowing for increasingly nuanced scans over time. Mastery of this skill can lead to the ability to glean insights into future moves, making it a crucial asset for any Soul Domain Specialist in the ever-changing landscape of combat.

Soul Domain:

Takeshi Saito: Level 15

I Cut All:

A swift and precise dual-sword technique that allows Takeshi to slice through incoming projectiles and attacks, demonstrating incredible speed and mastery of his weapons.

I Move Through the Raindrops:

A defensive maneuver that enables Takeshi to evade attacks by gracefully dodging them, creating the illusion of being untouchable as he navigates the battlefield.

Phantom Dance:

A spell that creates illusory afterimages of Takeshi, confusing opponents and making it difficult for them to land a hit as he gracefully moves through the battlefield.

Brady Jackson: Level 16

Frostbolt:

A basic spell that conjures a shard of ice and hurls it at a target, dealing cold damage and slowing them down upon impact.

Ice Storm:

A powerful area-of-effect spell that summons a storm of ice and snow to blanket the battlefield, dealing damage to all enemies caught within and significantly slowing their movement. Brady's control allows him to form the spell to his needs, including limited flight and shielding capabilities.

Crystal Prison:

A spell that encases an opponent in a block of ice, immobilizing them temporarily and making them vulnerable to follow-up attacks.

Haruki Saito: Level 1

No skills