23.8

March 1, 2070, at 0739

Otherworld Seattle, Outer Wastes, Jungle Trap#6

Outside the Seattle city’s sprawl, Crystal upon exiting Rabbit’s body found herself in a peculiar situation.

"Did you know your ears are pointed now?" Fluffyfeathers clucked, her spirit chicken-enhanced feathers ruffling in the wind as she exited Rabbit.

“Pointed? What the frag?” Crystal said, her fingers brushing against the tips of her now pointed ears.

Fluffyfeathers flapped her wings, ascending into the smoggy air before her beady eyes started to glow with a dark neon light. "Crossing through the shadowy gate probably pumped you full of mana. It'd be surprising if it hadn't changed anything." She tapped into Crystal’s soul link, sending back information as she hacked into the local combat net, stealing control from the oncoming attackers.

“Little green men and taller yellow ones. Aren't those... goblins?” Crystal asked, her crimson eyes flickering over the images displayed in her view.

“More mana, more magic?” Rabbit queried in a mechanical, yet oddly curious, tone as it shifted into combat form behind Crystal’s shoulder, closed the door, and connected to the soul link. With Fluffyfeathers acting as a node, sharing the data burden made the process possible.

Standing tall, Crystal surveyed the approaching red dots that represented the goblin attackers, her longsword held ready. The blade, coated in shadowy energy, emitted a low hum, casting an eerie glow against the bright overhead sun.

Crystal’s eyes narrowed before, with a glance at her blade, she allowed the shadow energy to dissipate, replaced by her own lifeblood which seeped from her wrist’s pores. The longsword’s edge, within seconds, was now coated in a thin layer of super-sharp compressed blood. With a focus of her will, the blood formed tiny sharp barbs that wove and rotated at an incredible speed. The hissing sound of the liquid echoed in the air, reminiscent of an enraged snake, ready to strike.

“Goblins,” Fluffyfeathers hissed in disdain, her enhanced feathers ruffling as she accessed the enemy’s local net. Fantasy and technology blended in this strange world, as evidenced by the combat-ready technology in the possession of these goblinoids.

The chicken's eyes narrowed into slits as she sifted through the barrage of data streaming in, isolating communication channels and pinpointing the hierarchy of the goblin forces. The yellow, brawny goblins were clearly the ruling elite. A cluck of satisfaction escaped Fluffyfeathers as she locked onto the guttural voice of the goblin warlord orchestrating the assault. A few well-placed fake commands later, and she had successfully overridden his orders, sending the ranks of the approaching goblins into a confused disarray.

Rabbit, with its state-of-the-art sensors, detected the ensuing chaos within the goblin forces. Crystalline thoughts flowed as it analyzed the data, calculating the optimal moment for Crystal to strike.

The initial onslaught was swift and brutal. The first goblin didn’t even have a chance to register what was happening before Crystal’s blade effortlessly sliced through its crude leather armor, cleaving the creature into two halves. Its adjacent comrade, eyes widened in terror, turned on its heel in a futile attempt to escape. But Crystal was relentless. A graceful upward strike sent the second goblin soaring through the air, its lifeless body crashing to the ground with a dull thud.

A momentary pause ensued as the rest of the goblin horde hesitated, their beady eyes dilated with dread. The pause, however, was transient. A guttural battle cry erupted from the horde as the group continued charging at Crystal, crude weapons held aloft. But Crystal was an elf forged in the crucible of battle, and she met their charge with a balletic ferocity. Her blood edged blade was a red arc, slicing through goblin flesh and bone, leaving a trail of mangled bodies in its wake. Half the goblins fell before they realized the enemy was even among them.

“Elf!”

“Elf blood!”

“Blood Elf!”

The cries of the goblinoids grew frantic and their organized attack crumbled in the face of a butcher’s blade. As if to restore order, from the midst of the disintegrating horde emerged a massive towering yellow goblin, its hulking body crisscrossed with scars and its face twisted in a rictus of fury. In its meaty fist, it brandished an oversized club which it swung at Crystal with a roar that seemed to shake the very ground beneath them. But Crystal’s agility was unparalleled. She nimbly sidestepped the lumbering blow, and with a fluid motion, her blade glinted in the sunlight as it sliced into the goblin’s arm. The bone gave her blade no more trouble than a cleaver chopping beef, severing the arm from its body and sending the club hurtling through the air.

Without missing a beat, she leaped and swung her blade once more, decapitating the yellow-skinned goblin warlord. Its headless corpse crumpled to the ground like an inflated beach ball.

Emboldened by the adrenaline surging through her veins, Crystal pressed on. Each of Crystal's movements was a carefully orchestrated act of war, a testament to her speed and innate elven grace combined with vampiric talent. Her swordplay was not just combat; it was art, a breathtaking dance that blended precision and lethality in equal measure. Every slash of her blade, every pivot and twist of her body, was executed with an elegance that belied the brutal outcome of each movement. Her steps were a rhythmic cadence that harmonized perfectly with the swish of her sword, carving a bloody path through the battlefield.

The air was filled with the deadly melody of blood-spun blade meeting flesh, a gruesome symphony that played out in stark contrast to the graceful ballet that was Crystal's combat style. She was a maestro conducting a symphony of destruction, her blade the conductor's baton, orchestrating a macabre dance of death that left no room for error, nor for the survival of her enemies. The remaining goblins, now bereft of their leader and their morale shattered, broke ranks in a disorderly retreat.

But Crystal wasn’t one to let the souls of her enemy’s escape. She craved ascension and the power it brought her. Without mercy, her blade thirsted for more. Like a ghost her figure flickered and within moments, the entire clearing was empty, the only sounds the distant rustle of leaves and the heavy breathing of an ecstatic elf. Crystal retreated back to Rabbit’s side, her blade still humming with rotating blood, a triumphant smile on her face. She had won the battle, and the souls of the fallen goblins were fed into her own fueling a Level of ascension once more.

2100/9100 blinked at Crystal as she saw the level up message flow past.

But Crystal’s thirst was far from quenched. She closed her eyes, reaching out with her vampiric senses to feel the life force of the fallen goblins. The blood of their bodies, now free from their mortal coils, pulsed around her, a banquet of power that was hers for the taking.

With a thought, she summoned her blood magic, tendrils of crimson energy reaching out from her body, snaking through the air towards the fallen goblins. The tendrils connected with the goblin corpses, wrapping around them like a cocoon. Slowly, the tendrils began to absorb the essence of the goblins, their life force being drawn into Crystal’s body, fueling her power.

As the energy flowed into her, she felt her strength increasing, her senses sharpening, and her body invigorated. The once dense forest clearing seemed to brighten, the colors more vibrant and the smells more vivid. She could hear the distant heartbeat of a rabbit hiding in the underbrush, the rustle of leaves as a breeze swept through the trees, and the distant cries of birds soaring in the sky.

Bloodline Rank: Commoner 1/100 flashed in her mind’s eye with the clarity of a clarion call.

The process was intoxicating, and Crystal reveled in the power that was now coursing through her veins. The tendrils of energy continued to drain the goblins until nothing but empty husks remained. With a satisfied smile, Crystal withdrew her blood magic, the tendrils retracting into her body, leaving her more powerful than before.

Fluffyfeathers looked on with patience as she landed next to Crystal, her feathers now back to their normal color.

“Worth it?” the hen asked, her eyes glinting.

“Absolutely.” Crystal said as she solidified her gains. Lightning Reflexes had made dodging less a matter of thought, and more a matter of natural instinct. Single Weapon Fighting had empowered her blade granting her the insight to coat it with blood. Similar to the mechanical action of a chainsaw the rotating mana-infused blood had insane cutting power.

Slicing Blow was almost an automatic action providing even more pressure to Crystal’s attack. Knight’s Training gave her not only the experience of wielding a blade, but the ability to adapt and learn even faster than before. Meanwhile the combination of Weapon Specialization: Slashing, Greater Weapon Focus: Slashing, Tactical Combatant, and Precision were devastating.

She attempted to let her weapon dissipate into the aether as normal, but it didn’t work. “What the hell?” Crystal said as the weapon sent images of being blown away like dust in a windstorm. “I think the higher amount of mana means it can’t dissipate into the aether without risk of being cast away from me?”

Crystal looked down at her right ring finger in astonishment, an elegant loop of silver fitting snugly against her skin as it pulsated with a faint inner light. The images flooding her mind were strange and disconcerting – her weapon, her trusted companion in countless battles, being scattered to the winds like so much chaff replayed as if on loop.

She rubbed her temples as she tried to make sense of what had just happened. The mana in this world was potent, an ever-present force that seemed to pulse and thrum around her, invigorating her very essence. But it appeared that this very abundance of magical energy had fundamentally altered the way her weapon interacted with the aether.

Fluffyfeathers cluck broke through her thoughts. "This place is teeming with mana, like nothing we've ever experienced. It seems your weapon has adapted to these new conditions in order to remain tethered to you."

Crystal nodded slowly, a thoughtful frown creasing her forehead. "So instead of dissipating into the aether, it transformed into something that could remain close to me, bound to my physical form." She flexed her fingers, feeling the insignificant weight of the ring. "An intelligent adaptation, but one that I'll need to get used to."

“Can we pull anything useful from the green-skinned organic murder bots?” Crystal queried, casting a hopeful glance at Fluffyfeathers.

“Like a map to Seattle?” Fluffyfeathers suggested with a grin, seamlessly shifting from her typical chicken form to a more manageable baby-chick size before hopping onto Crystal’s left shoulder.

“Exactly, like a map to Seattle.” Crystal nodded in agreement, her movements exaggeratedly robotic, an attempt to inject some levity into the situation.

Fluffyfeathers ruffled her tiny feathers in response before settling comfortably against Crystal’s neck.

Crystal watched, fascinated, as Fluffyfeathers delved into the goblin tech, her digital consciousness interfacing seamlessly with the alien technology. She marveled at how the little chick was able to navigate through layers of firewalls and encryption, her beak moving in sync with the flow of data.

As the stream of information flowed before her eyes, Crystal couldn't help but feel a sense of awe at the sheer depth of knowledge contained within the goblin tech. These were no mere primitive creatures; they had access to technology that rivaled, and in some cases surpassed, even the most advanced human tech.

The holographic display flickered and shifted as Fluffyfeathers delved deeper, her digital consciousness working at an incredible speed. Finally, with a triumphant chirp, the display settled on a detailed holographic map of the surrounding area.

“There it is, the route to Seattle,” Fluffyfeathers declared, her tiny wings gesturing toward the glowing map visible through the spirit link.

Crystal leaned in closer, studying the holographic display with a critical eye. The route was clear, but the map was dotted with numerous markers, each representing a potential hazard or point of interest.

“What are all these markers?” she asked, pointing at the display.

Fluffyfeathers pecked at one of the markers, and a detailed description popped up on the display. “These are points of interest that the goblins had marked. Some are potential hazards, like toxic waste dumps or mutant creature nests, while others are resource caches or potential allies.”

Crystal nodded, her mind already racing with the possibilities. “This is exactly what we needed. With this map, we can navigate our way to Seattle and avoid the worst of the dangers along the way. And who knows, we might even find some useful resources or allies along the way.”

“We could always just nuc-” Rabbit said shifting back into optimal travel form.

“No!” Both chicken and newly minted blood elf replied.

“It was only a suggestion.” Rabbit said with a sigh. “If you don’t want to nuke this jungle to prevent problems later, fine.”

“Actually, that might not be a bad idea.” Crystal said glancing at Fluffyfeathers. “It would kill several lizards with one stone.”

“Really?” Rabbit replied with a hopeful voice.

“Indeed, but we don’t have any nuclear weapons.” Crystal said with a regretful tone.

“We do.” Rabbit said with a shifty tone. “Repurposed ones.”

“Repurposed nuclear weapons?” Fluffyfeathers said her jaw agape.

“Do I want to know where they came from?” Crystal asked as she climbed aboard the RV.

“…no?” Rabbit said hopefully. “They’ll be very effective though. Probably.”

“If we let you nuke this jungle, with your suspiciously repurposed bombs, no more discussion about it for a year!” Fluffyfeathers said driving a hard bargain.

As the RV started to move through the jungle crunching corpses underneath there was a long pause before Rabbit finally said, “Deal.”