Hit and Run

John kept his steps slow as he marched towards Moira’s locker, the hall beginning to teem with people as they made their way to their next class. He pushed down the knot of nerves that was building in his gut and activated Arcane Sense. The faint auras of his classmates tickled his perception, none of them particularly interesting. What did catch his interest was the more vibrant energy clinging to his target.

It radiated with lingering heat, like the sand at a beach after a sunny day neared its end and John felt like it was cutting through to the very core of his being.

‘Man, if this is just the energy lingering on her stuff, how strong is she?’ John wondered, a mix of awe and terror joining the nerves already churning his stomach. The folded note cupped in his hand suddenly felt very heavy but John steeled himself and kept moving.

Another aura wafted into his sensory range. Unlike Aeolia’s gentle but noticeable breeze pressing against his whole body, this was more fleeting, like small streams coiling about before dancing past him. A second later, Beth rounded the far corner, confirming the aura as hers.

Setting aside any musings on auras, John readied himself for the incoming hit. As he neared Moira’s locker, his eyes locked with Beth’s and she winked as she moved her foot into his path, causing him to trip over her athletic leg. He fell, twisting so he was angled towards the row of lockers instead of the floor, and caught himself on Moira’s locker, the lingering aura making the steel warm to the touch before the flash of pain caused Arcane Sense to fade.

-3HP

John steadied himself, and as he did, slipped the folded note through the eye level slots. Nobody paid him any mind, and Beth had continued on her way without looking back, as they had planned. Don’t make a big deal of it, and fly under the radar.

'Still kind of hurts being left to flounder around though,' he thought with a sour grimace on his face. He shook off the negative thought and moved quickly away from the scene, not wanting to be anywhere near in case Moira stopped by her locker in the last few minutes before the next period.

'Right. Next period,' John thought with renewed nerves, a sense of foreboding washing over him. 'Gym class. Frank’s going to try something. Wouldn't be surprised if he asked Conroy if we could play dodgeball today. Easiest way for him and his buddies to beat up on people. Faculty sponsored too.'

He paused his steps, a thought cutting through his dark mood.

‘I’ve spent the last three days fighting monsters. I can handle a little gym class. And if there’s no one from the Abyss in my class, I think I might have a way to even the odds a little.’

Thankfully, the jocks in his class were more focused on their own mingling to harass John or anyone else as they changed in the locker room. Though the smug looks they wore spoke volumes to what would happen once they stepped into the gym.

‘I wonder how they’ll look when I manage to outplay them,’ John thought as he pulled his gym shirt on. Before he left the room, John willed the wooden ring off. ‘I’m not going to be using that much mana here so the boost isn’t necessary.’

Once in the gym, John stood a little away from the small groups that milled around waiting for Coach Conroy to bring them to attention. John let Arcane Sense activate for a second, checking for any prominent magic. Finding none, he smirked as Conroy emerged from the equipment storage room, a wheeled rack of rubber balls pushed in front of him.

“Alright, listen up,” the coach bellowed. “You kids got a nice two days of rest, so I think you’ll be ready for a whole period of dodgeball. I’ll be assigning teams, so when I call your name, head over to the side I indicate.”

Conroy began to rattle off the attendance list, directing the called students to one end of the court or the other. Given his last name, John was among the last group of students to be sorted but he already had an idea which team he would be assigned to given the amount of jocks on one team already.

“Newman, over there,” Conroy rattled off, pointing John to the team not filled to the brim with the athletes.

‘That was expected,’ he thought as he moved to join his team. There were some of the more physically gifted of the class but, likely by design, they were to John’s knowledge the second and third string members of their respective teams. ‘Guess this is so no one can complain that all the jocks are on one team.’

Once the final student was sorted, Conroy began to set the red rubber spheres of doom on the centerline, giving out his orders as he did.

“Alright! Instructions are as follows: You will start at your respective baselines. When I blow the whistle, the round begins. The round will end when one team has eliminated the other. We will then reset and play another round. Take your positions!”

John ambled with his teammates to the end of the court. He didn’t need any sort of sensory magic to know the mood; the mild panic was evident on most of their faces. On the other side, Frank and his jock buddies looked smug. The less athletically inclined didn’t look too thrilled to be on their team, knowing full well that they were likely to be used as cover by their ‘teammates’.

Taking a breath, John focused his attention to the wind spirit nestled in his aura. The light mental prod caused it to stir and John felt a sudden urge to move about. He held himself still, waiting for the coach to blow his whistle.

When the shrill bleat rang out, John shot forward and activated Rushing Winds. With the spirit unmanifested, the boost to his Agility was half that of what if was during the barghest fight, but seven points added to his already decent score was more than enough to propel him to the centerline on par with the athletes unlucky enough to be placed on this team.

His burst of speed was enough to reach a ball at the same time Frank reached one and the football player didn’t hesitate to launch the rubber sphere right at him. John’s arm snapped to deflect the blow, Frank’s projectile bouncing off the dodgeball held in his hand. John reeled back, cutting the flow of mana into his spirit. The drop in Agility didn’t leave him as flatfooted as before, but he didn’t want to burn out his mana pointlessly.

‘Short bursts should work,’ he quickly thought as the match began in earnest. Frank tore a ball from one of his teammates, his face contorted in rage. The bully ran to the line and chucked the ball straight at John. Reactivating Rushing Wind John easily stepped out of the way, the projectile sailing past him to bounce off the wall.

‘Now the counter attack,’ he thought, maintaining the boost as he moved to mid field and launched his ball. Frank, ever the bastard, shoved a teammate to take the hit. John grimaced as his throw impacted the hapless guy, knocking him out of the round. Frank didn’t show any sign of caring that he had sacrificed a teammate as he picked up John’s ball, fury etched on his face as he tracked John’s movement back.

‘He really wants to get me,’ John thought, imagining his RP score dropping to its limit. A quick glance to his mana bar showed he’d burned through around 40 mana. ‘That’s only 20 seconds worth of boost. I don’t think I’d be able to use Winds for less than 3 or 4 seconds a pop. 6 to 8 mana every use will drain me pretty quick. Let’s see if I can play without the boost for a bit. Worst case I get knocked out of the game. I’ve already hurt his ego.’

Frank lined up a shot and launched the ball at full power. John twisted out of the way, just barely avoiding the hit. A flash of red out of his peripheral vision alerted him to another incoming salvo and he jumped to evade the throw from one of Frank’s buddies, the ball hitting and bouncing off the floor.

He scrambled to pick up one of the balls, ready to return fire when a weak impact hit his side. John looked down at the ball that had hit him, then tracked it back to the slightly overweight guy with his arm still outstretched, a look of stunned surprise on his face.

“Newman, out!” Conroy shouted and John couldn’t help but to chuckle at the irony of getting knocked out by someone of his social strata. He dropped his ammo and walked off the court. As he did, he smiled and nodded at his eliminator. Once he reached the sidelines, a series of popups blocked his vision.

Achievement: Matador
Toro, toro! Drew the attention of someone with a small brain and too much anger and avoided getting the horns. Olé!
Reward: +1 Agility

Achievement: Controlled burst
Moderated the use of one of your abilities. No need to go full throttle all the time.
Reward: +1 Wisdom

Achievement: Gracious in defeat
No hard feelings from you for getting knocked out. What a nice guy.
Reward: +1 Charisma

‘Well, those are some nice boosts,’ John thought as he cleared the popups, eyes moving to watch the rest of the match. In his mid-game focus, he’d failed to track the number of players remaining and found his team had been cut in half by the time of his elimination. And the numbers were thinning fast.

‘Looks like round two will be starting pretty soon.’

‘Five rounds,’ John thought as he rubbed a sore spot on his arm. ‘That has to be a record.’

Each of those rounds had proceeded much the same way, with the jock stacked team eventually whittling down his team until sheer numbers made victory assured. Still, he had been able to remain in until the end of those rounds, even managing to take out a few of the athletes with lucky shots. But, even with buffs to Agility, he wasn’t able to win against such odds.

‘Hope that last hit was enough to cool off Frank,’ John thought as he slowly moved towards the locker room. The dull crash of a locker being slammed gave John a good idea of the mood of the room and he paused for a second. With all his gear in his Inventory as opposed to his locker, he didn’t need to actually change, but the only way back to the main halls, without circling back to the court, was through the locker room.

‘OK, need to slip past Frank and his goons. Really wish I had a Veil Bracelet,’ John groused as he snuck down the hall. He caught sight of Frank loudly complaining about ‘nerds not knowing their place’ and pressed himself along the wall to hide.

‘Think this through, John.’ The Gamer’s mind raced as he considered his options. ‘I can let them get me and suffer the beating. No thank you, not doing that. Is there any bit of hocus pocus I can do to get out of this?’

John ran through his options and, after a moment lamenting the lack of non Evocation based spells, settled on trying to use his wind spirit to cause a distraction.

‘Can I even use it without manifesting it?’

John focused his attention on the spirit and felt it flow out of his aura. It remained unseen, but John had an instinctual sense that its power was limited by its unmanifested state. Still, he willed the spirit to produce a breeze, frowning when the conjured wind was about as weak as someone blowing out a candle.

‘A weak wind, right. And unmanifested limits the power. But if I can just get it to the right spot.’

John peered around and saw an opened locker a row behind where Frank and company were waiting in ambush. Guessing the distance as less than eight meters, the range he could freely move the spirit, John willed it over. As he did, he swapped back into his uniform and made sure to equip the Tree Sage’s Ring. Once the spirit was at the locker, John tensed, ready to book it once the bullies were distracted, and channeled mana into the spirit. Aided by his mana, the wind generated had the strength to slam the locker door with enough **** to jostle the waiting jocks.

Like the instinctual animals they were, they all moved quickly to investigate the noise and John dashed through for the door, making it safely into the proper hall before any of the jocks returned from his distraction. He stopped to catch his breath right as the bell rang, the wind spirit floating back into his aura.

“Safe and sound,” he said to himself, a satisfied smile on his face. “And the boys are going to be cutting close for the next class.”

As John began to walk towards his next class, a popup filled his view.

Quest Complete: Stealth Informant
Message delivered without the recipient knowing you left it.
Reward: 1425(75) EXP, Mantle of the Disciple

‘Guess that means Moira’s at her locker,’ John thought as he glanced up at a clock adorning the hallway. ‘Not enough time left to slip into the bathroom to give the reward a look. And I need to let Vivian and Aeolia know about the Beth thing.’

As John continued to his next class, he summoned his phone and began to text Vivian about what happened.

So, did the thing. Got the reward. Had help from our guest from the other day.
She wants to sign on, more or less. Gave her the cliff notes version of things.
Didn’t dissuade her. OK to bring her around to talk?

His phone vibrated right as he entered his Geology class and he opened the reply.

Aeolia’s not thrilled about it, but she’s not vetoing it.
We can swing by and pick up.
Meet in the parking lot?

John quickly typed out a response as the teacher walked in, slipping his phone into his pocket once sent.

Sounds good. C u then.

“Alright, class,” the teacher, Mr. Wilroy, said, his voice as dry as the subject he taught. “Pens out. We’re going to do a little pop quiz to see if you kept up with the syllabus.”

John, along with everybody else, looked less than ready for such a task.

‘Well, that wasn’t as hard as it could have been,’ John thought as he walked out of Geology. ‘These boosts to Intelligence really helped me to remember parts of the text I only glanced at. I wonder if I’ll get to a point of just having a photographic memory?’

John’s steps took him to the nearest bathroom and he slipped into one of the stalls.

‘I’ll just take a quick look and study the Observe during class.’

He withdrew the rare item, a pure white cape that he guessed would reach to about his elbow with a gold chain to hold the front closed.

John left the sheet open as he stowed the cape away, used the restroom for its intended purpose, and made his way to his final class, Statistics. Thankfully, the teacher, Mrs. Hansberg, was the rambling type and didn’t really pay attention to what her students were doing, as long as it didn’t disrupt the class. Once inside the classroom, John made his way to the back of the class and reviewed his reward’s info.

‘How do I feel about having a god powered item? I mean it’s cool, but do we really need another god with their eye on me? Can I get Gaia to empower it?’

John pushed those thoughts to the side and began to review the Attributes.

Godly Infusion: The magical power of a god can charge this item, granting it access to effects unique to the donor.

Arcane Channel: Draw some of the god’s infused power to modify your spells. Uses 1 point from Godly Infusion per 10 mana used.

Aura of Devotion: While Godly Infusion has a charge, gain a boon related to the donor god. One point will be drained every 3 hours of wear.

Pilgrim's Shroud: While Godly Infusion is at 0, you may channel mana into the mantle to produce a protective barrier around you. Cost: 30MP. Duration: 1 minute.

Implore: Beseech a god to bestow some of their power into the Mantle. The sacrifice of an offering can be used to entice a particular god. Cost 100MP. 1 week cooldown.

John leaned back in his seat and mulled over the information.

‘At least it’s not completely useless without involving deities. And having a defensive option is cool, but it sounds like it’d only make a barrier my size. Good for me, not for anyone I’m fighting alongside of. At least if I want to power it up, I could without having to embark on some quest to the shire or something. Maybe Vivian has some info on how gods work?’

John closed the window and listened to the lesson for a minute, his thoughts drifting back to Beth and the meeting they would have with her later.

‘Hopefully things will go ok with that,’ he thought. ‘Aeolia really didn’t like her attitude before. Maybe we could try some sort of team building thing?’

John spent the rest of the period pondering that question, coming up with setting up a weak barrier to see what Beth could do and if she would respond well to criticism. He reasoned if she could follow their instructions and take their advice graciously, Aeolia would be able to tolerate her.

‘It’s not much of a plan, but it’s a start,’ he thought as he exited the class. ‘Now I just have to find Beth and…’

-4HP

His thoughts were interrupted when a muscled arm pushed him into a locker and pinned him to it. For a second the metal pulsed with warmth, but it quickly faded leaving only a cold surface.

“Hey, Nerdman,” Frank seethed. “Think you were being a hot shot back in gym class, huh?”

“It’s just dodgeball, Frank,” John groaned back. No one seemed to care that the football player was pinning him and a small spike of panic began to build within him. Without magic or his weapons, he knew he was still no match for the bulky jock.

“I think you need a reminder of the pecking order,” Frank threatened, drawing his free arm back, fist clenched.

“That’s a rather bold statement to make, Dickinson,” a stern, lightly accented voice cut in. Frank’s head snapped towards the voice and John was graced with his bully’s face growing pale as he took in the approaching form of Moira Brighton.

“Especially since you decided to make it right in front of my locker.”

Thanks again for reading this little story. If you liked the chapter, please hit that thumbs up, and if you want to support my writing, check out my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/ScrapCrow. Get access to my chapters before they’re published here and join my private Discord.