Mantle of the Gods

I ran as fast as I could.

I knew that after yesterday, I didn’t need to push myself as hard, but I wanted to feel the burn. I wanted to feel the pain.

So I ran like every monster on the floor was chasing me.

Justia sat out the first ten, but took her ax back and started helping on the last ten.

“Twenty!” The women cheered and I saw Justia and Ether glowing.

I had completely forgotten about the count, I’d just been running. I was already too far away, so I continued with the arc and angled back to the road. I heard the familiar rustle of grass as the snake chased me. Once I hit the road, I stopped. Then I remembered why I kept going.

The snake crashed into me and began to wrap itself around me.

“LOOK AT ME!”

Ether’s roar felt like she was shaking me. I realized what was happening the moment the snake began uncoiling. I had felt something similar before back in Zeb. Many times in fact. Ether had learned a taunt.

The snake turned its attention to a new target, but I rolled over, grabbing on to it so it couldn’t proceed.

The monster froze for a minute, then turned its head to look at me and vanished in a cloud of smoke as Justia took off its head.

“Thanks.” I got up and realized she was pointing at me,

“Minor Heal Wounds.”

My body glowed for a moment, then I could feel the bruises and cuts fading.

“You got a healing spell! Congratulations! I appreciate the healing, but you really should have…” I turned to Aelin and saw the bruise on the side of her face was gone. "You’ve already healed Aelin.”

“Sorry." Justia looked away. " You had more…”

“It’s okay, I was still wrestling a snake.” I pointed at her. "Why haven’t you healed yourself?”

“I’ve tried, it doesn’t work on the caster apparently.”

“Ouch. Well, we’ll see about getting you a better one once we get out of here.” I looked over at Ether. "And you got a taunt! Congrats!” I walked over and wrapped her in a hug, lifting her off her feet.

“I’m pretty sure it only works on one target.” Ether was smiling when I put her down.

“That’s still good. Now you can pull aggro.” I looked at her jumpsuit. "Though we probably need to get you some actual armor before we really start using it.”

The white-haired Tank nodded. Everyone still seemed a little down, but at least there were some smiles.

“Are you ready to go again?” I nodded at Aelin. "We only need twelve more, right?”

“Twelve more.” Ether agreed.

“Then let's get this thing finished.” I started jogging. "Maybe I can go fast enough that we finish in an hour!”

I took off and started running. I knew I wasn’t being taunted, but I couldn’t help but turn every time I heard Ether shout ‘Look at Me’. It seemed like they were able to finish off the snakes faster, since the snake would have to switch who it was targeting to go after Ether.

Which meant the one holding things up was me, but as fast as I ran, I wasn’t able to get any more than one every six minutes.

This time I paid attention to the count and on the twelfth one stopped and turned around.

Ether taunted as soon as it hit the trail, forcing it to slide as it tried to change targets. There wasn’t anything for me to do as Justia took off its head, turning it to dust. I felt a warmth wash over me and heard an almost robotic voice.

“Level two. Acquired spell pebble shot. Acquired skill dash.”