**Ding! You have been Healed - Ray of Tender Recovery**
“Thanks!” he called, before he was forced to abort his advance as the targets of his spell recovered and charged towards him with a snarl on their bone-covered lips. He knew he’d done them damage—the tell tale blood on their fangs revealing the extent of the injuries storm and vibration had done to their internals.
Porkchop threw his weight into the pack—forcing them back with a barrage of smashing claws and jade-sheathed bites.
The three beasts who had focused on Kaius snapped their gaze over to his brother, but upon seeing the weight of bodies that occupied him, they continued their advance.
With the strength of his injured arm renewed, Kaius put up an adamant defence. His blade blurred as he smacked aside raking claw after raking claw, leaning on his bodily control and mastery of the sword to redirect the beasts’ strength, using their momentum against them.
Mana flared deep within the left most biter, its raised paw infused with an overwhelming sense of weight. An unknown variable, he lurched back.
Only for the pink skin of the middle biter to start to steam between its armour—the creature’s speed redoubling.
Before he could react to the flared warning of Uncanny Dodge, a raking claw tore across his chest.
His scale breastplate saved him from the worst of the wound—but he still felt his ribs crack, and the bright fire of the biter tearing open weeping lines in his flesh as its claws tore through his armour. Knocked back and off balance, with three biters bearing down on him, he knew he needed to move.
To disengage.
An Expedient Shunt blasted him back and up, his feet leaving the ground. As violent as the skill was—at least to others—the blast singed the delicate eyes and ears of the biters, forcing them back as they yelped in surprise.
**Ding! Runeblade Initiate has reached class level 79!**
**+3 End, Str, & Int, +2 Dex, Wil, +1 Vit, Free - from Class & Racial Traits!**
…
**Ding! Runeblade Initiate has reached class level 82!**
**+3 End, Str, & Int, +2 Dex, Wil, +1 Vit, Free - from Class & Racial Traits!**
**Ding! Class skill available for selection!**
Another burst of energy coursed through him. Eyes flicking over to where Porkchop was fighting, he saw the shattered body of a biter lying broken beneath his brother’s feet.
A hungry grin spread across Kaius’s face. Best he see if he could keep that momentum going.
Another wave of force erupted above and to the side of him, his trajectory violently altered as he shot towards the dying biter he had left bleeding on the ground.
He hit the beast sword-point first, his knees cracking painfully as he crouched to bleed off the force of his landing. Crystal and steel punched straight through the biters skull—piercing its brain.
**Ding! level 116 Bone Biter - Hunter of the Long Dead slain - Experience Gained! Increased Experience for slaying a foe of Significant Strength!**
**Ding! Runeblade Initiate has reached class level 83!**
**+3 End, Str, & Int, +2 Dex, Wil, +1 Vit, Free - from Class & Racial Traits!**
…
**Ding! Runeblade Initiate has reached class level 85!**
**+3 End, Str, & Int, +2 Dex, Wil, +1 Vit, Free - from Class & Racial Traits!**
Spinning back to the other three biters, he waved his hand—peeling thunder filling the air as he slashed at the group with another writhing band of lightning. Howling at his assault, smoking char coated the creatures’ carapaces as leaking fissures appeared in their flesh—resonant force tearing them apart from within.
In that moment of stillness, Ianmus acted.
Two rays of burning starlight burst the eyes of the beast closest to Kaius, the spell boring its way through the thin bone to ravage the fatty matter within.
Kaius felt Explorer’s Toolkit chime in his mind—an opening that he could not resist. Racing forwards, he used his last spatially contracted step to appear right next to his enemy.
Stamina flooded from his soul, the crystal fuller of his blade alighting in ghostly fire that burned from within.
Empowered by his Bladerite, he thrust his blade deep into the beast's open mouth. Crunching through the back of his throat, the point of his sword halted against its bone carapace.
It stiffened, before going limp as he severed its spine—but it didn’t die. The tough bastard.
Grunting in dissatisfaction, Kaius ripped his sword free, hurriedly spinning to block an overhead slam from the remaining biter—no longer stunned by his spell.
The paw hit his blade like a hammer blow. Shuddering force rocked his body, and as much as he raged against the enhanced attack, Kaius was forced to one knee—the edge of his blade cracking like a spider’s web.
Reacting on instinct, he spun his blade, pulling the beast's paw to the right as he rolled left.
Thunder boomed once more, magical lightning binding the beast totally. A secondary arc branched off—wrapping the biter he had stabbed in the eye in its embrace.
His primary target seized—chest heaving as it bent over and let loose a rancid mix of half digested meat and its own blood.
The other biter died—too injured to survive the lightning and vibrations wracking its body.
**Ding! level 118 Bone Biter - Tracker for the Hungry slain - Experience Gained! Increased Experience for slaying a foe of Significant Strength!**
**Ding! Runeblade Initiate has reached class level 86!**
**+3 End, Str, & Int, +2 Dex, Wil, +1 Vit, Free - from Class & Racial Traits!**
…
**Ding! Runeblade Initiate has reached class level 87!**
**+3 End, Str, & Int, +2 Dex, Wil, +1 Vit, Free - from Class & Racial Traits!**
The sea of bodies around him heaved, Porkchop calling out once more. The constant bay of the biters rose to a fever-pitch, his brother’s renewed skill seizing their fury with avarice.
In that moment of stillness, Kaius quickly dumped his accumulated free points into Vitality, as he had done with every level since he had placed fifty into Intelligence.
Porkchop was an anchor in the storm, the waves crashing over him—leaving him unmolested in his vestment of sacred jade. Not to say he was uninjured. Grievous wounds aplenty covered his unarmoured rear, but they writhed with uncanny speed—taking a life of their own as his regenerative skill sealed them at a pace that left Kaius feeling more than a little jealous.
With his latest artefact—the massive floating greatshield—he was even more of an unassailable fortress than before.