Chris

The trip back was less chaotic than the trip there by a large margin. While the few levels I managed to pick up, along with the increase in my Law and Bloodline, made me more powerful, that power wasn't tested on my way home.

That didn't mean I was without any scars to show for it, just that none of what I faced matched up to the bear from before. A scratch here and a small gash there, but nothing too serious.

That feeling of something coming was still in the back of my mind, but it wasn't growing stronger yet. If it had, I would be sprinting back with all due haste, but the feeling remained constant and relatively dull. I wasn't in as large a rush as I first believed.

There was still a hidden urgency I felt, but not one that demanded rushing.

That gave me time to consider what the feeling was based on. It wasn't an impending doom or upcoming despair, so I didn't think it was a threat to Frostheim itself or my family, but it was close.

That greatly limited what it could be.

There wasn't much outside of a direct threat that would cause such a feeling, and I could only think of two of them.

Vanessa and Marcus.

Both Factions were ones I'd given my word that we would stand beside if it ever came to that, and with the worry that something was coming, I figured that would be tested soon.

Based on no messages from Abigail screaming to come back, I imagined there was still time. Yet another reason the sense of urgency was missing, I guessed. With that in mind, I had more than enough time to consider what it could be. I had it at about even odds between Vanessa and Marcus being the one in trouble, but I had been gone for a long time. I also wasn't privy to all of the details of what transpired at the Assembly.

Abigail had kept me abreast of the major details, but that didn't mean I knew everything.

After coming to that conclusion, I didn't spend much more time dwelling on it. We would figure it out when I got back. We would march to where we were needed and settle things by word or by hammer.

I imagined Zion was itching for another fight. The mad lad would charge his Bison Cavalry into anything I told him to without questions. The man was always looking forward to a battle. A good one, too, and considering I felt even the slightest bit wary, I imagined it would be a good one.

Or, by some people's perspectives, a bad one.

That was an entirely different can of worms.

Being on my lonesome for so long, with nothing to do most days but think, I considered what had happened in Lakeshore a lot. That and all of the major battles before it. Any that people would say were 'bad'.

The tutorial, the demons, the orcs, Lakeshore.

It was a trend I didn't think would end soon. Whatever this feeling turned out to be, our future tests and whatever the galaxy at large had in store would contribute to a list of 'bad battles' I didn't think would end.

Just like human history on Earth, there was always going to be another battle.

The next battle.

Whether in one year or ten, ten years or a hundred. If not one, then two hundred. With the lifespan I was expected to reach... There was always going to be the next battle.

It was something I had to make peace with, or it would eat me alive.

At first, coming out of the tutorial and the chaos it caused, I had been angry. Extremely angry. It took my father, it took much of my family, and it was a hardship I wouldn't wish on anyone. A part of me would always be angry because of it, and at the person who caused it, even at the System.

But that didn't mean it would ever go away. It happened, there was no going back to stop it, and it would be with me for as long as I lived.

The only options left were to dwell on it, feed that anger, and stoke it every time something similar happened, or make peace with it. One ate you from the inside while the other felt... wrong. It felt like giving up.

At least it had.

Before, I had thought of them as mutually exclusive. That I could only do one or the other, but in the months of solitude, I figured that didn't have to be the case. I had been simple-minded in reducing it down to only those two options. Not that my thinking now was particularly evolved, but enough time and thought had worn down those ideas. Now, whatever a battle was called, good, bad, ugly, valiant, that didn't change what it was. The adjective in front was subjective.

It didn't change it from happening, and it wouldn't stop it from happening.

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What will be will be.

It was a phrase my father had said a lot, and one I had a deeper appreciation for now. I could look back on the past with regret and anger, or remembrance and fondness. I could look forward with worry and anxiety, or acceptance and resilience.

It was a choice. A choice of what to dwell on.

So I chose to look forward to the 'good battle' that was to be had, even if I knew, deep down, that it would be the last 'good battle' for some I knew and cared for.

I snorted out a plume of frost.

Look at me being deep and philosophical. Austin would have a field day with that.

Sighing, I turned my thoughts away from that line of thought. Other than the propensity of my 'deep' thoughts, I also spent a lot of time just playing around. Playing with my skills, new and old, and my other powers. My Bloodline, most recently, as I still needed to understand and realize the changes it had gone through.

When I first imbibed the Bloodline, I could only call on it for a few minutes at most. With experience and strengthening it, I could call on it for half an hour to an hour, depending on the intensity.

Then, after fusing my heart with that of a Lesser Frost Giant, the time I could call on it lengthened. Growing from an hour to over two. At its height, before evolving, I could call on it for nearly three, if I rationed it right.

Part of that was because I didn't have any temporary transformations to power. People like Austin, who had wings to keep powered, burned through their Bloodline essence faster. It was partially why that option was considered more powerful, but in shorter bursts.

After gaining a temporary transformation of my own, that time decreased. It wasn't wings or anything fancy, but it still took power to make my body taller, stronger, and more resilient.

After evolving, that time dropped even more.

I wasn't an expert on the theory behind it, but I could take a guess based on what I felt happening during the evolution process. The Bloodline essence, the orb of liquid I pictured inside my core, was a lot smaller than it had been before. I had felt the energy I pushed into it had elevated the essence power-wise, but it also trimmed things away that were superfluous and unnecessary. While the overall power had gone up, the volume had gone down.

Until I learned to throttle it and regulate how much power I could call on, the amount of time I could burn it went down to match how much was there. I wasn't too worried. I'd done it once, I could do it again. It just took getting used to the increased power and additional changes again.

Calling on it every once in a while helped that.

I also started strengthening it and purifying it again. I wasn't sure where the limit for my body now lay, but I'd find it eventually. I wouldn't be able to evolve it again in this rank, but I could still push it further than where it was.

Other than my Bloodline, I also played around with my Skills.

During my many fights along the way, I had more than enough time to get used to my new skills, and there were many parts that needed smoothing out and working on. I knew fitting them into my current style would take work, but I just hadn't anticipated how much.

[Charge] and [Dash] specifically.

I didn't use [Wind Blade] enough because it was too weak for the things I fought, but I needed to get a better feel for the skill before I went and upgraded it.

The two movement skills, however, were in need of changing. The biggest issue was that I could not use one while the other was still active. The structure of the two conflicted if they were both in use, and the second would not activate if the first already was.

It was the same with [Glacial March]. I had tested it after finding out, but the skill was in the same boat as the other two, which was unfortunate.

My first thought was to merge them. [Charge] and [Dash] were close enough that a merge wouldn't be that difficult, but I had to think about whether that was what I wanted. They were different, and the process of merging them would force them to lose some of the elements that made them different. [Charge] was restricted to one direction, but it was a momentum increase, while [Dash] was more versatile, but only boosted speed. A straight-up merge would combine those elements, but leave it worse off than either one.

If I wanted to get a movement skill I liked, I would have to consider it more.

It made me think of others I knew about, and the movement skills they used. Mages usually didn't have them, other than a short-range blink like Rachel's [Flickering Flame] or Abigail's [Water Burst].

Hal had [Hunter's Gait] and [Wind Step]. Elliot had [Shifting Stance]. Jon had [Stone Footing]. Each had its own unique aspect, but even those weren't the best I'd seen. Those were in the hands of people with Styles. A factor I hadn't delved too deeply in, unlike some others.

They were people who studied and practiced certain weapon styles and gained a certain amount of mastery in them, like Anna's Wolf Style, but much more advanced.

I didn't ignore them because it was weak, but because I didn't have much talent in them. My fighting style was much too straightforward, and I usually didn't care for all the structure and embellishments the styles had.

I also hadn't found one that particularly called to me or one I liked.

But people who advanced them far enough gained not only the [Style] skill they studied, but also a complementary [Footwork] skill to go along with it. Things like Anders' [Shifting Snow Footwork] or Valerie's [Iron Bear Footwork].

A footwork skill didn't replace skills like [Dash] or [Charge]; they sometimes even required them, but they were a more comprehensive movement skill that did much more than just charge in one direction.

It was like [Power Strike]. It was a common base skill that increased the power of strikes. Simple, uncomplicated, and straightforward, just like [Charge]. But [Power Strike] could become things like [Heavy Blow], [Mighty Blow], or [Meteor Blow]. It could also be combined with things like [Pervading Cold] and integrated into things like [Hammer Reverberation].

If [Charge] was the base similar to [Power Strike], footwork skills were what they integrated into, and things like [Dash] and [Glacial March] were what they combined with.

I just had to forge it into what I wanted.

Which was easier said than done.

Thankfully, the first step was obvious. At least if felt that way.

I just had to combine [Dash] and [Charge] and use them at the same time. Just like I had learned to use [Power Strike] with those other skills.

And there was no better time to do so. Using them would speed up my journey home.

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