The Bloodforged Kin

Chapter 252 - 244: Cass - Trials of Humanity

It started with a blur on the horizon.

Cass crouched low in the dead reeds, Soul Catcher humming hungrily on his hip. The wind cut cold across the the glassy, obsidian landscape of the trial zone. He smiled at the way things moved differently here - slightly outside of space and time. He'd found what he had been searching so hard for.

Speed. Raw, primal speed, earned through survival. He needed it - not just for the team, but for himself. Soul Catcher's hunger was a mirror of his own now, and every time it fed he felt more right. More real. He'd learned, though, that it was a broken tool if not used properly. First, the thing he captured had to be a real, living thing - not a System-generated NPC. Second, generic monsters left generic energy. Useful, to be sure, but often not worth the effort it took to get them. When he absorbed them he stole their soul in the form of System energy, which meant he got no experience or levels from the kills. If he was going to fill his Soul Catcher with power then it needed to be the types of power that would be most useful to him: strength and speed. Anything else was better taken as experience points.

The first phase of the Cryptid Challenge had ended a month ago and the residents of Safehold had been on a mission to collect anything and everything they could - all of it coming back to be assessed by Madison. Most of the items were able to be easily assembled into piles of trinkets and items, with a few core pieces being saved for whatever big thing she was building. She didn't know what it was, but she instinctively knew when something was a piece of the big macguffin that they were supposed to build. They'd initially assumed that this stretch of the Challenge would take 30 days as well, but humanity hadn't built all of the items yet - which seemed to be the key to advancing to the next stage. Even Madison, with her prodigious crafting abilities, hadn't been able to finish her piece. They'd received notifications that others had - albeit not many. It had become evident that they only got notifications for their relatively-local areas - a diameter that seemed to cover Wisconsin, the northern half of Illinois, and cut through Minnesota, Iowa, and a good chunk of Lake Michigan..

Milwaukee had been the first, their scientists building an emitter that generated a massive, stories-tall shield of pure energy that swung as the contraption did. Green Bay had been next, which surprised everyone considering the lower population. Their item was some sort of resonance weapon that fired pulses of pure sound that were able to disrupt anything caught in its path. Both of the weapons were too large to use for standard defense and had cooldowns that spanned weeks, so they were hidden away in protected locations for when they'd inevitably be needed.

Madison felt she was close - only missing a few key components - but the purpose of her item was locked away behind a veil of mystery and she couldn't even guess at its purpose. And, being Madison, she refused to guess until she had all the facts. The residents of Safehold had been scouring the local areas and beyond for new challenges and components. The more difficult the challenge trial was the more likely it would be to drop a component item. There were only a limited number of trials to be found, though, and the different groups of humanity all needed them. That meant that many of the challenges and prizes led to fights with people from other territories - all of it mostly show. People were willing to fight for what they'd found, but none had been willing to die for it. To Cass it felt like Māori hakas - a lot of threatening and posturing, but without the actual desire to kill. In the end most people fled, leaving behind the items they'd found. Not that it had mattered much anyway. In the beginning the members of the Vanguard had been true to their word - staying away from trials in an effort to support Safehold - something that had helped find a lot of interesting items and creatures, but not the critical items needed to build the Cryptid device. It had become evident that the trials weren't just a feature - they were a requirement. Realizing that completing trials was vital for the community was great news for the Vanguard and the members of Safehold who wanted to try to improve their levels and equipment since it meant that they were free to explore. Anything that wasn't required for Safehold was their reward to keep, and even if they weren't able to keep a specific item they could always trade it for something valuable that Safehold didn't need.

Fortunately, The System provided. The exact location of a trial was never a sure thing, but they almost seemed to want to be found. If you wandered long and far enough, and had the intent to find one, they almost always found their way to you. All of it was made easier with the onset of spring, the small warmth feeling like a bonfire after the months of brutal and deadly cold they'd experienced.

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Most only found generic trials - ones meant to challenge and outsmart the people that entered them, but not particularly deadly or beneficial. It had become obvious that only those who had risen to greater heights would find the specialized trials - the ones that configured themselves to the person or persons who entered them. Those were always difficult, always carried a severe punishment for failure, and always provided the best rewards. His mother had found the first - because of course she had. It had specifically tailored itself to counteract her power set, each of the creatures inside immune or unbothered by edged weapons. She'd grown too confident in that part of her build and had completely neglected her long-range weapons. Stupid. She'd beat it - because of course she had - and earned the first piece of the Device and immediate advancement of one full level. That had led to a modern-day gold rush, where every member of the Vanguard sought out trials with manic abandon.

The Misfit Toys had found the next. It looked like a collapsed subterranean mall loading dock - half-caved in, filled with gravity anomalies and flickering lights. The trial waited for all four to step inside together before it had delivered its cryptic message:

To access the component, you must sever the tether.

You are linked. You will remain so. But you must choose:

One to lead. One to listen. One to be sacrificed. One to be remembered.

The Misfit Toys may have appeared to be a motley collection of individuals that thrived in chaos, but they were only strong together. The trial had separated them, each taking a different route. It had permitted their HUD communication, but cut off all visuals - there would be no sharing what each Toy was looking at. Where one found a puzzle, the others found the clues. When he was telling the story later in the safety of Safehold Weeble had joked, his voice still shaking as he did, that it had been like trying to help your mother set up a new router over the phone. Their final challenge had them arrive at a room with only three platforms and a single message:

Three will leave, one will be sacrificed.

If The System thought to prey upon the fragility of the human psyche and the fear of death, it had found unwilling participants with The Toys. They didn't risk discussing the plan for fear that The System could read their HUDs - not that they needed to anyway. The Toys were so much more than a team, so much more than a family - they were bonded in ways most parties could only dream of and their ability to understand and predict each others' thoughts and plans were prodigious. It's what made them such a formidable team on the battlefield, and even more so in these trials. Weeble, Beyblade, and Rock'Em stepped onto the pedestals, overhead lights snapping on and the sound of a machine whirring up. The instant the lights shone above each of them Rock'Em spread his metal arms wide, catching Slinky's razored ribbons that he knew would be on their way. He wrapped them around his forearms, refusing to release her. When The System had begun pulling him out of the trial they had begun slipping anyway, sliding across his arms in sparking lines. It was only then that he'd sent the first message since they'd stepped into the room.

ROCK'EM SOCK'EM: Send them through me. Now.

SLINKY: But you'll die! I'm cool here - I got this!

ROCK'EM SOCK'EM: No time to argue! DO IT!

Slinky activated her final powerup and her razored lengths crawled across Rock'Em's body, puncturing him as they weaved back and forth through his torso. If he'd been able to scream he would have, but not one of the Toys missed the arch of his body or the way his masked face lifted to the sky in a hidden rictus of agony. When the last of her strands had weaved their way through his body he activated his final powerup, turning his entire body into the same material as Slinky's razors. They were one and the same in that moment and, to the fury of The System, weren't able to be separated even as they were ripped from the trial. It had taken multiple healing injections to repair the damage - and even then it was touch-and-go - but in the end the Toys had not only gained the Device's core, they had gained a full level advancement each. Even Slinky, much to her private shame. The Mehta sisters had tried to bring Rock'Em back to their home to recover, but Slinky refused to leave his side and they'd given up on the effort.

Their near-death trial had only fueled Cass's determination to find his own. His previous trial had netted him advanced skills, a class change, and the Soul Catcher. A deep part of him still feared entering, but a more present, ever-growing part of him desired the power and recognition they'd gotten.

That is what had brought Cass to this place - a trial for one who sought speed above all else.