The Original Beefcake

"…I don't think you are weak at all," Marcus started, but Janette wanted to stop him. Marcus shook his head and continued, "You are diligent, hard working, bright and skilled." She gave him a sad smile, "That isn't enough. Not today."

Marcus looked at her, unsure what words he should use. "You know…," he mumbled. "If you have… I mean… next time you have some crests, you might want to spend them on willpower." Spending crests was one of the most private things for any class holder. Most people don't share how they spent their crests even with their friends or teammates. It was that important.

Telling her to spend her crests in a certain way was improper for him.

Janette looked at him with big eyes for a few long seconds. "Has this something to do with your unorthodox fighting style?" Marcus felt like she had instantly seen through him. He wasn't sure what to tell her and what not. As he didn't answer she added, "I'm not asking you how or why, just if this is connected." Marcus nodded weakly.

She let go of his hand and he was about to apologize, when she put her other hand on her chest. A small light appeared and turned into a red symbol. Marcus watched her swipe the symbols until the bright yellow 'willpower' symbol glowed in front of her. Without hesitation she activated it. Then again and another and another. Four willpower crests sank into her body. She shook for a moment and looked at Marcus, who stared at her with an open mouth.

"What? You just told me to spend them on willpower!" She exclaimed. "YES. But I didn't think you would just do it. And not four! FOUR!" Marcus was upset and he didn't know why. "You can't just spend your crests because somebody tells you so. That is common knowledge!" Marcus felt the need to explain this basic wisdom. "You saved my life. And I don't think you would screw me over on purpose," Janette reacted with the same energy. Marcus was dumbfounded and also happy that she would trust him this much.

"Will this make me stronger?" Now she asks, Marcus thought. "It should. I don't fully understand how your Hawkeye ability works, but you should see a difference. You might need a bit to adapt though." He added.

She blinked a few times and then walked over to the window. She stood there for a while, Marcus could see her eyes moving over the landscape outside the base. "Willpower, eh?" She said with a soft voice. "I would never have guessed." Marcus watched her a bit longer and asked, "Does it make a difference?" She nodded, "If I get a few more willpower crests I'm not going to need a scope ever again."

Afterwards they talked about crests and attribute distribution a bit more. On a whim Marcus spent his three new crests on vitality in front of her eyes. With this he should be able to use the second ability 'Anchor', Marcus thought to himself.

They left the medical ward together. Marcus was already back to full health, even though he had been in a dire state when they recovered him with the helicopter. His 11 points of vitality on top of his strong base physique moved him from close to death to fully healed in less than two days. Marcus couldn't wait to start playing around working with his new ability. Janette on the other hand had to wait some time longer until she could wield a rifle again.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Before training and experimenting there was a big party for the two heroes, who had taken down three orks in a snow storm. The rest of the team had already heard the story from Janette's point of view and were eager to hear Marcus' tale. The gang was a great audience and they gave a lot of "uhhhs" and "ahhhs" at the right moments. After drink and food Russo took Marcus to the side. "Marcus, there are two things I would like to discuss with you. Actually, make that three. Would you come to my office later today?" Marcus agreed on the spot.

Feeling actually quite chipper, Marcus saw no reason to delay his new ability training. Nobody seemed to be worried about his health, and he remembered that Janette indicated the team was aware he had a huge amount of vitality. Once they heard he wanted to unlock a new ability (on level 7 believe that!) everybody, including Russo, followed him into the training hall.

"Are you sure you can unlock your second ability?" Pavel asked on the way into the hall. "Pretty much," Marcus answered with a short smile. He played it cool (or at least he hoped it looked cool), but on the inside he was extremely nervous. Based on everything he knew he should be able to perform Anchor, but getting it done in front of everybody… he regretted telling everybody. Marcus would have preferred to try his new ability alone. But then again, for Anchor a test partner was highly advisable.

According to current understanding, Anchor was the second and last known ability of the Fighter class. It was rated as a mediocre defensive ability. While active it made the user much harder to move, which is without a doubt a great boon for a tank who has to go up against a hard hitting enemy. The down side was that itn't only consumed a lot of endurance, but also made your own movement painfully slow. Like with Heavy Strike Marcus hoped that Anchor would turn out to be more/better than expected. "It might take some time to get it to work," he said after everybody was in the hall.

"Don't worry about it. We all have been there: Trying to figure out an ability and looking very silly while doing so," Lars said and the rest agreed like a council of wise old men, who have seen it all.

Marcus took a deep breath and went into a wide and fairly deep stance. Then he tensed up his muscles and imagined being stuck in place like a metal pole anchored in the ground. Nothing.

He tried a few more times and also had Lars push him to see if there was some increased resistance.

If first you fail… try again. Marcus wished he had such wonderful guidelines as the Paladins with the works of Kim, who had described the activation of every ability in detail. He tried more mental pictures, but no luck. He expected the others to get bored, but instead they tried to come up with new ideas to help him. Pavel's "You don't want to get moved so you kind of want to make yourself heavy." was a good line of thoughts. How does a child try to be heavy (from Kim the 'be a child' method)?

Marcus went onto his knees and wrapped his arms around himself and imagined to be a stone. I'm heavy. Unmovable. A stone. He tried to visualize these things. He felt a soft warmth growing in his guts.

Lars pushed him with one hand. Then he took both and slowly pushed him over. Thump. "How was that?" Marcus asked with bright eyes. "There was definitely an increased resistance." The crowd went wild. They repeated it two more times to make sure and Pavel and Janette also tried to push him over. Each time he felt some heat in his stomach area. Next step.

Now with a basic idea how to do it, Marcus wanted to get it done while standing. Once more he took a wide stance and concentrated. He left his muscles loose and instead imagined to gather a big ball of red energy in his stomach. Lars pushed and Marcus could feel the difference. Before Marcus could say anything else Lars said, "Brace yourself." The tall man pulled back his arm and punched Marcus directly in the chest. Lars had a good amount of strength for his level, and Marcus prayed his higher vitality would protect him against broken ribs. Smack. He didn't fall, only swayed a bit. It also hurt, but it wasn't as bad as he expected. Lars might have reduced his power, he thought.

Then he saw Lars' surprised face and the way he looked at his hand. "I might have broken my hand just now." Luckily it was only sprained. This was the foundation he needed! Improve it and make it combat viable next, Marcus thought.

After that everybody wanted to push or pull him over. It went so far that Pavel tried to make a Wind Walk to tackle him, but Russo stopped him. "Marcus might heal overnight, but if you shatter on his body like a raw egg you might need weeks to get back into fighting shape. We can't afford that, especially now." On that note the training ended and everybody went for lunch. Marcus had skipped (not by choice) several meals and tried to compensate for this with a particular lavish lunch. Filled and satisfied with himself, Marcus made his way to the team leader office.