Lassus Animus - Part 4

For the rest of the shift, John made a point of trying to bear down on every detail he could think of. Stance, grip, balance, footing, all of it, as well as more conscious effort spent trying to keep an active eye on his surroundings. All the things that had become muscle memory he tried to put back under manual control. The results were... less than stellar.

John's mind was usually driven hard enough in high-level dungeons by his usual focuses in combat. Between general awareness, target-specific thoughts, and just trying to keep a running tally of all his spells and what they might be useful in countering—it wasn't like he was ever idling the engine that was his mind. Trying to re-learn everything he'd drilled into his body over the course of a year on top of that? It was overwhelming to the point of absurdity at first, then frustrating, and then... tiring. Beyond tiring, actually.

But it was worth it, in the end. He didn't have any more mishaps, and as much as his mind was starting to feel like mush, the results spoke for themselves. Clean, fast dungeons in which he only looked a little clumsier than usual due to his awkward attempts to think ahead on every little twitch of his muscles. Levels galore, too. By the time they finally reached their deadline, John had rounded level 50 once again, and the others were making plenty of progress too.

"This is quite the haul," John declared as the last of the completion bonuses faded away, piling their magical gains into his inventory. "Not as much as we saved up and presented you with before, but still good."

"Will it be enough for me to grow stronger, Creator John?" Aclysia asked, eyes flickering to the air in front of him, waiting on his inventory to appear. "Will I be able to assist you more with these items?"

"Yes, it'll be enough to make you stronger," John assured her, turning for the door without checking the final totals for their efforts. "Not as much as before, though. It's less material, and we all grow a little bit slower as we get stronger."

"I see. That makes a sort of sense," the artificial woman mused. "If doubling my power requires doubling my intake of magical material, it will quickly require a rather obscene amount of them."

"Well, let's be glad it's not that drastic."

It didn't take long for the group to make their way back home, even with the Nekos both stumbling over each other in their hazy stupor. The kittens were absent from the downstairs area again, either chased off by one of the adults or sleeping in their rooms. That meant that after John gave Aclysia her feast and she joined the Nekos in retiring to their respective rooms, John was left to his own devices. He soon wound up settled in on the couch, splayed across the seats luxuriously with a full plate of snacks cozily perched atop his stomach.

"Damn, that's nice." John heaved a sigh of relief between bites as he sank into the soft cushions. He wasn't sore or stiff, but something about finally getting to relax really settled his mind. "Even the food tastes better after a hard day's work."

John glanced at his phone briefly when the plate was half-emptied. It was already time for him to join the others, but given the way he'd left the manor the last time, John was in no hurry to depart.

"I'll give it a few minutes. Just to make sure Julianna is there. I don't need Moira and Kim interrogating me when we should be training for the war." With that justification, John let himself sink a little deeper into the cushions, hand idly reaching for another bite. "Just a little bit longer. If I keep Julianna waiting long enough... she'll be so impatient... she'll probably... jump down..."

The sensation of something brushing along his body made John reflexively jerk upward, surging back to awareness. That motion sent the plate that was already slipping off its resting spot fully launch into the air. John was too out of it and too busy trying to orient himself. He still should have easily had time to catch the dish, but despite the thunderous pounding of his heart, John felt unusually slow. It wasn't until the snacks were scattering onto the wooden floor that his senses started to speed up, and by then, all he could do was watch the food slide across the floor in slow-motion.

"Fuck, did I... did I fall asleep?" John grumbled to himself as he slid off the couch and started to clean up his mess. "No, couldn't have. I haven't fallen asleep without meaning to since Gamer's Body upgraded. Think I just zoned out... shit, how long was it?"

John hastily threw what was left of the food onto the plate, sweeping the crumbs up with a gust of air and tossing them haphazardly into a corner, reminding himself to clean them properly later. Then he turned to the matter of time. A brief search revealed his phone between two cushions, and thankfully, he'd only lost a little while. Around fifteen minutes, depending on exactly when he'd spaced out.

"I need to get going. They'll think something is up if I'm any later than this."

John could already hear the sound of footsteps from upstairs. No doubt one of the others was coming to check on the noise, and the last thing he needed was to explain another slip-up. John haphazardly set the plate down onto the coffee table, deposited his phone back in his inventory, and World Shifted away before he could earn himself another set of uncomfortable questions... or an impatient text from the other side.

Brighton Manor formed around John in a blink. For just a moment, he thought he was alone. But while he was mentally running over himself to make sure he looked at least halfway composed, a not-quite-gentle tap on the shoulder alerted him to the truth of it.

Julianna was there to greet him when he turned, with the others not far behind. Moira looked concerned. Kim was stretching out her legs against the wall and looked annoyed, but not particularly impatient, which made John grateful for his decision to wait, despite the wasted time. He tried to hide his relief at Julianna's presence—and especially the slight thrill he felt at the frown she wore.

"Do you often keep your allies waiting?" Julianna asked sharply. Despite the annoyance clearly present, her voice was a bit less cutting than the day before. "We are ready, John Newman. Let us begin at once."

"Apologies. I mean it," John said, giving placating gestures with one hand while he operated his menus with the other. "We took a little longer than I thought we would, and I didn't want to skip over a quick rest period before showing up. I would have messaged and told you to start without me, but I have to be present for the rest of you to get anything out of it anyway."

"All the more reason for you to be here on time," Julianna grunted. She strode over to a spot separated from the others, a one-woman faction within the small gathering. "Time spent away from my soldiers must be time well-spent, or I make for a poor leader."

"I'll be sure to let you know if we're facing any delays in the future," John begrudged as he finalized his selections. "We're going to switch tack and focus on undead creatures again. We're halfway through the week now, only three days left after today for training. Might as well get ourselves in the right mindset."

If Julianna had a comment on that, she didn't make it before the Barrier was being formed. There was no creepy facade of the manor this time. The building melted away entirely, leaving them standing on top of a small hill, surrounded by higher peaks and dotted with strands of mist lying in the lowlands. The sounds of wet, mucky shuffling and the occasional clink rose from below. Moira and Etriyya mirrored each other, each raising up their shield reflexively, lest a wandering bag of bones shamble its way out of the dense fog unexpectedly.

"I tire of standing around. I'll lead the way," Julianna barked, tone leaving as little room for objection as her forceful march.

"We should take the lead," Moira cautioned, already striding after the brash woman, with Etriyya following in lockstep with her superior. "Better for our shields to greet any surprise attacks than your body."

"I will return whatever harm I take tenfold," Julianna responded simply, already vanishing into the mist.

"You may empower yourself by taking blows, but better to avoid taking them at all! Our healers are not tireless, and…"

Moira's words began to fade as the mist swallowed up even her voice. Kim grabbed John by the arm and tugged him along as she followed in their footsteps. She swung her other arm about in practiced motions, flourishing her sword to stretch out her arm.

"I appreciate that you are being more mindful of your own well-being," Kim said quietly. She didn't bother to look at John as she spoke, her eyes always scanning the mist for any trace of movement besides the shadowed figures ahead of them. "But it would be better for you to prioritize our segment of your training schedule over the others, and I do not say that only out of selfishness."

"Oh, of course not," John remarked back, just as quietly. He'd meant to sound playful, but Kim's words wore a scowl when they returned.

"I said not only out of selfish desires," Kim seethed. "Arriving late risks tensions with an ally here. Besides, can your creations not train on their own? Do they not share some part of your abilities?"

"They can," John admitted, "but it's not like I did it intentionally."

"You have intentionally been ignoring your own well-being, and that is bad enough. You…"

Kim's hand slipped away from John then, releasing his forearm in a motion as smooth as the cut that cleaved an approaching zombie in two. The upper body of the creature continued to try pulling itself forward for a moment, one of its rotting hands reaching for the Slayer's ankles, but a stab through the skull quickly returned the creature to its eternal rest.

Ahead of them, John heard a pair of similar noises, led by what sounded like the heavier strike of Julianna's blade, followed by the quieter swing of Etriyya's sword. The meaty "thwack" of Moira's hammer that followed them both needed no thought to place. John stopped walking, his own blade at the ready. A beat passed, then another, but no further creatures approached, and the dampening effect of the mist made it difficult to tell if the other sounds he could hear were coming dangerously close.

"You may not have arrived late intentionally. You may even have good intentions," Kim allowed, her voice quieter now. "But results mean more than intentions."

"On that, at least, we agree," John grunted, taking a bit more of a relaxed stance, though his mind continued firing on all cylinders. "And right now, my results speak for themselves. We're strong, and getting stronger. I'll try not to piss anyone off tomorrow, so for today, can we just focus, please?"

A glint of silver menaced John, and Kim's blade abruptly leveled itself at his throat just a few inches away. Far enough to never place him in proper danger with her Slayer precision, close enough for the flat to linger under his chin. John's body jittered, torn between flinching back and freezing up. Kim only smirked, an unusually dangerous look in her eyes.

"You want to see me focused?" Kim asked. Her eyes finally turned toward him, and what he saw almost scared him. The length of sword she held began to glow with a dark, crimson energy. "I suppose I can do that."

Another of the undead finally stumbled its way out of the mist. An ugly thing, a vaguely humanoid creature clearly stitched together from a half-dozen corpses, with four arms, four legs, and each limb with the build of a professional weightlifter.

Where before Kim had not spared John a glance, now she refused to tear her gaze away from him, even as the gurgling creature strode nearer. John's eyes flickered uncertainly between the Slayer and the creature, not entirely convinced which one posed the bigger danger to him. The undead was nearly within arm's reach by then, two of its gargantuan limbs drawing back to strike, and John had just started to tighten his grip on his own weapon when it happened.

John was able to count just three strikes. Yet by the number of meaty chunks that crumpled to the ground, Kim must have struck at least half a dozen times. Muscular or not, the creature's flesh fared no better against the Slayer's blade than any other's.

The shambling monster now resting in pieces, Kim turned back to John with a look that lacked the Slayer's usual confidence. In its place was something far more dangerous, and a smile as sharp as her sword danced upon her lips.

"Well, if you're not going to take proper care of yourself, I suppose I have **** but to focus and really embrace my Slayer training. So, then, John..." Kim drew out her words, returning her blade to a ready position slowly, letting John see every drop of coagulated blood on its flawless surface before she cast it all away with a casual flick. "Just how focused do you want me to be?"

"Is there a safe answer to that question?"

"For you?" Kim shot back, lifting a brow. She paused, as if debating how to answer… then her smile grew and she started to walk off into the mists, leaving John behind.

John reached for some kind of comeback to her not-so-playful intimidation, but found himself fumbling. As the mists closed in around him, he found it difficult to turn his thoughts away from them. His thoughts felt... twitchy, almost. Restless, difficult to point in one direction.