-Jim Butcher

John had never tested his blade in proper combat, but the strike against the first golem's core had made him curious how well it would hold up. As the stone corridors became more crowded by the approaching golems, John targeted one that Maera had not engaged and charged directly toward the living rock, its arm slowly raising in what would surely be a powerful - but utterly futile - blow.

Futile because by the time the blow was in motion, John was already several feet up in the air.

He hadn't been intending to leap nearly as high as he had. In all honesty… John could not recall the last time that he tried to jump. It just hadn't come up often in his life, much less in combat, except where he was leaping toward something. Leaping up into the air, John felt his Strength score carrying him well above the golem's head, hanging several feet above it before gravity started to enforce itself once more. John pulled his blade back and readied it. The golem had noticed his dodge by that point, and was beginning to reach out toward John's falling body.

John's blade flashed in an instant. The length of the blade meant John could arc his swing around the golem's grasping arm and sever it near the elbow, but the joint was an incredibly thick and sturdy looking rock, nearly the size of John's torso. Were he to strike it with his former blade, the one he'd the Order had forged, he was sure his strike would have at best cracked the rock, and at worst shattered at meeting such an immovably resilient target.

The Fang of the New World cleaved the joint into two pieces so cleanly that John could see a flat line of untouched stone through the once-solid rock. The golem's arm fell away at once, the arcane lines running between the living stone's arms and chest fading away to let the inanimate rocks fall freely. John's descent continued with the obstacle removed, and John had plenty of time to reorient his blade. Maera was not with him, so he had no distraction to expose the core properly by forcing the golem to shift its focus. All John could do was remember where the core had been and touch his left hand to the Rune of Disruption while his right hand carried the weapon to - and through - the body of his foe.

The additional pieces of stone didn't seem to matter, nor did their proximity to the core itself. Even a lone, straggling boulder that strayed in front of John's sword could not sway his strike, the stone rippling apart like water before the Moon Clan craftsmanship. John's strike found its source, and the blade ripped in a wave of blue energy as the golem's bindings disintegrated in an instant.

147 Damage!
Rune of Disruption Activated: 62 Mana Used to deal 62 Damage

The pieces of rock that had once been a cohesive being fell away together, crumbling to the cave floor in a pile. John didn't pay much attention to the crumbling being, his eyes focused entirely on his blade. The blue glow was fading quickly, but even the very blade itself held his gaze now. With the sounds of combat in the background and a still approaching golem from the third hallway, John's senses remained entirely focused on the steel of his weapon. Its edge was untarnished, its runes unmarred. The blade looked identical to its original state, as if freshly drawn from its sheath, or freshly pulled from the cooling waters of the forge.

"This is… this power is incredible," John whispered to himself, pulling the blade back to a striking stance. He turned around, facing the remaining pathway and eyeing the golem steadily approaching him. Pride filled his mind, and a wave of power washed over him, though this one not from the blade itself.

Shard of Bishamonten Activated! [10%]
Rune of Resonance Activated! [10%] - +10% Damage!

“So that’s what that does,” John whispered. He’d been too angry the previous day when dealing with Lunaya and the butler, too focused on what he saw before him; he’d waved away the Shard’s activation without noticing the Rune’s that came alongside it. A damage bonus to his already amazing blade? It seemed too good to be true; it was less utility but perhaps even more power than his other runes…

But how had Koharu forged a rune that aligned with the shard? There were many questions John wanted to ask, but John knew no one who could give him the answers. So he pushed the thoughts away, and turned his mind back to the matter at hand. Despite the suspicion and curiosity, John was feeling… well, he was actually feeling great.

John felt self-reliant for once. A feeling that he hadn't experienced in a long time. For as long as he could remember, he was relying on others, whether to hide him away from the Cabal and the Albidians or to carry him through dungeons to regain the levels he had sacrificed. John's level cap was still a few levels away, and though the blade itself had been forged by Koharu, John had earned its price through his own will and negotiations, even if the bargain hadn't gone quite as planned.

Though Maera was dealing with one of the golems in the distance, John was without her as the next one approached. He felt no hesitance, no fear, only an awareness of his foe as its fist collided with the space he'd been moments ago. John stepped forward, past the blow and into striking distance of the golem's torso. Deliberately avoiding the golem's core John struck three times, severing both arms and the legs of the golem in rapid succession. His blade never wavered, and barely slowed passing through his rocky foe. When the rubble fell and the dust cleared the golem's core was intact, but its bindings slowly faded away.

129 DMG!
145 DMG!
136 DMG!

As the life ebbed from the golem, John smiled and said a silent prayer to himself as he looted the corpse and made his way back toward where he could hear Maera fighting.

"Thank you, to everyone, Moira, Kim, Gaia. I don't know if I can change the Abyss yet. But if I do… it'll be thanks to every single one of you. I'll repay you in any way that I can, someday. Until then… I'm going to take these gifts. And I'm going to use them. I'm done hiding. I'm done running. Anyone who crosses me, who crosses my family or my friends… they will meet the edge of this blade. And they will fall."

John approached Maera and her embattled golem with a confidence he had not felt since… well, ever, actually. Aside from on Raid nights. It was a glorious feeling, an erupting confidence that lit a fire in his eyes. This wasn't just a Barrier. This wasn't just a grinding session.

This was his fucking domain. And these golems were nothing more than temporary intruders. Though he had conjured them, they were intruders all the same, because they were trying to hurt his friends and family.

For that, they would suffer.

Shard of Bishamonten: 50% Integration
Overflowing Aura **** Level 0 Perk Removed!
Overflowing Aura can now affect all allies, all enemies, or both!

The next few hours were a blurring rotation of bodies and techniques, all concentrated within very similar regions. John tried to ignore how lewd that sounded. He eventually lost track of how many dungeons they all completed together after the sixth one, his mind favoring tactics and swordsmanship over tracking the number of times each golem had fallen before him. Sophia was the first to join them, so eager to aid John in his conquest of the golems that she sounded quite disappointed to have missed out at all, angry at herself for daring to gather food.

Seras showed up two runs later, having recovered fully from her very active morning and being more than eager to participate in the dungeon runs. Sadly her ammunition wasn't nearly as effective as John's blade, barely denting the rocks around the golems' core. Seras' disappointment was pretty short-lived, however, when she found out that her raw strength was enough to reduce boulders to rock shards in a single punch; at one point John watched her grab an incoming punch only to - with great effort - manage to throw the entire golem over her shoulder and smash it into the rocky floor of the cave.

John was so happy to be doing something more normal, more predictable today. Not only that, but having his family at his side and feeling secure in his strength as well as theirs… it was a strange feeling to be so comfortable in the heat of battle, but John couldn’t say it was unwelcome or unappreciated.

That being said, John did get one surprise from their training. After hours of killing, looting, and repeating, Maera tired of their training and departed from the farming trip, seemingly bored at last. John thought they were down a member… until Mithra showed up the next time the Barrier dropped after crushing their foes again.

"Myaster? Mithra can help?"

"Mithra, you want to help?" John asked, a bit uncertainly. The Neko hadn't been a part of many of their training missions since her pregnancy, and John wasn't sure aside from being with her sister that Mithra was ever all that interested to begin with.

"Of course. Mithra want to get strong too. And be with Myaster…"

Mithra emphasized the point by walking up to John and wrapping her arms around his waist, nuzzling her head into him affectionately.

"But what about the kittens?"

"Just fed. Maera watch them. Mithra fight."

She said it so certainly, so warmly, John didn't have it in himself to deny her. John pulled Mithra closer to him and smiled as he felt the Neko's warmth against his body.

"Just one thing, Mithra. We're fighting some really strong enemies. It's been a long time since you trained with us. I don’t want you to get hurt…" John hesitated, before a smile crossed his face. Mithra looked somewhat downcast, but when she saw the look on John's face, a curiosity lit in the petite cat's eyes.

"But I think I have an idea. Would you like to try out my new technique with us?"