I Choose the Skills Everyone Else Rejects

The young Vein Hound pulled Milo deeper beneath the roots.

His heel carved a line through the dirt. Iris locked both arms around his chest, but the creature had braced its six limbs against the wood.

The transparent tendril around his ankle brightened.

Milo convulsed.

"Don’t pull him," Holt said.

She dropped beside the opening with one hand pressed against her side. Blood slipped between her fingers and ran down her uniform.

Nate crouched behind the creature. The roots trapped most of its body, leaving only its back and part of its neck exposed.

"What happens if the tendril tears?" he asked.

"It takes part of his circulation with it."

Milo stared at her. "And my foot?"

"Maybe."

"That isn’t helpful."

"It wasn’t meant to be."

The Hound’s spine brightened again.

Milo’s head fell back against Iris’s shoulder.

She pressed two fingers above his swollen boot. Pale energy entered his leg and spread beneath the skin.

Pulse Medic.

Her eyes narrowed.

"It loosens between pulls," she said. "Only for a moment."

Nate drew the mercenary’s knife.

"Tell me when."

He pushed his arm through the roots.

The Hound twisted. Its teeth caught his sleeve and opened the skin beneath it before he dragged himself back.

The tendril tightened.

Milo groaned through clenched teeth.

Iris sent another pulse into his leg.

"Wait."

Nate brought the knife closer.

The creature fed again.

"Wait."

The light inside the tendril faded.

"Now."

Nate drove his arm into the hollow and cut beside the creature’s mouth.

The strand tightened around Milo’s ankle. Nate sawed harder.

It snapped.

The severed end whipped across his forearm, leaving a burning line from his wrist to his elbow.

The Hound forced its head between the roots.

Holt’s blade entered beneath its jaw.

The point struck bone. She changed the angle and drove it deeper.

The creature shuddered. Its limbs released the wood, and its body collapsed into the hollow.

Holt pulled the blade free.

Her hand shook badly enough for the metal to scrape against the roots.

Iris moved immediately to Milo.

The severed tendril remained wrapped around his ankle. Its transparent flesh had darkened beneath the surface, like ink spreading through glass.

"I can’t feel my foot," Milo said.

Iris pressed her fingers against his knee.

Her energy moved downward, broke apart near the ankle and returned in uneven fragments.

"Try moving your toes."

He did.

Nothing happened.

"Iris."

"I need you to stay still."

"Can you fix it?"

"I can keep it from getting worse."

"That wasn’t the question."

A distant cry passed through the forest.

The adult Vein Hound.

Nate recovered the rifle and struck the magazine into place.

The cry stopped.

The silence that followed lasted several seconds.

Holt looked north.

"He killed it."

Nate raised his head. "How long do we have?"

Holt used the roots to stand.

Her injured leg folded. She caught herself, waited, then forced it straight again.

"Not long."

Iris looked between her and Milo. "We can’t move both of you."

"You move him," Holt said.

"And you?"

"I’ll slow the mercenary."

Nate stepped in front of her. "You can barely walk."

"That makes the decision easier."

"You won’t slow him for long."

Holt’s gaze shifted to the trees behind him.

A faint pattern moved beneath her skin.

Nate had seen it after the train derailed. It had remained while she forced the manual brake, fought inside the coach and ran through the forest with an open wound in her side.

Even now, the current continued through her chest and legs.

"What is that Skill?" he asked.

Holt did not answer at first.

Another branch broke somewhere uphill.

"Deferred Collapse," she said.

"What does it defer?"

"The part where my body stops working."

Nate looked at the blood soaking her uniform.

"It doesn’t protect you."

"No."

"It just delays the damage."

"Yes."

"What happens when you release it?"

Her mouth tightened.

"I won’t be moving afterward."

Iris rose beside Milo. "Then don’t release it."

Holt reached beneath the cloth tied around her waist.

Her fingers closed around the fragment of the Clamp buried inside the wound.

She pulled.

The black piece came free with a wet sound.

Blood followed it.

Holt’s knees bent.

Iris caught her shoulder. "You may have opened an artery."

"The fragment was blocking the loop."

"You’ll bleed out."

"I was already bleeding."

Holt pushed the fragment into Nate’s hand, then took the rifle from him.

She checked the chamber.

One round.

Nate saw the state of her shoulder and held out the marshal blade instead.

Fine lines ran from the grip along the metal. When Holt closed her fingers around it, a weak current moved through the weapon.

"Get Milo farther under the roots," she said.

Nate did not move.

"Holt—"

"Calder."

She looked at him.

There was no anger in her face. She was too tired for it.

"Move him."

Nate grabbed Milo beneath the arms.

Iris lifted the injured leg without touching the tendril. Together, they dragged him deeper into the hollow.

The mercenary leader appeared between the trees.

Blood covered one side of his coat. A Vein Hound had opened his thigh, and dark fluid stained the armour around his ribs.

He still walked without support.

His First Circuit remained stable.

He saw Milo beneath the roots, then Iris and Nate.

His attention settled on Holt.

She leaned slightly to one side. Her left arm hung lower than the right. Blood ran from the fresh opening in her side and marked the ground beneath her.

The leader stopped outside the reach of her blade.

He did not mistake her for harmless.

His own weapon rose.

Two separate patterns began forming beneath his armour.

The first Node sent energy toward his right shoulder. The second gathered around his chest.

Holt lowered the point of her blade.

The faint circuit beneath her skin changed.

Until then, Deferred Collapse had spread the damage through her body, keeping any single injury from stopping her.

Now the Skill drew everything inward.

Her wounded leg twisted beneath her weight.

Her shoulder dropped.

The cut across her side opened wider.

For an instant, she looked smaller.

Closer to death than combat.

The mercenary advanced one step.

His first Skill had almost formed.

Holt’s second Node opened.

The two Skills linked.

Last Measure consumed everything Deferred Collapse had held back.

The ground broke beneath her foot.

Nate heard the impact.

He did not see her cross the distance.

The mercenary’s first Skill never reached his arm. Energy remained trapped between the Node and his shoulder.

His second Skill did not activate at all.

Holt appeared inside his guard.

Her blade entered beneath his jaw.

The force drove it through the roof of his mouth and into his skull.

His weapon remained raised.

The patterns inside his body flickered once.

Then they disappeared.

Holt pulled the blade free.

The leader fell backward.

His body struck the ground before the sound of her first step had finished passing through the trees.

Holt remained standing for one second.

The circuit beneath her skin warped.

A line near her injured side snapped. Another folded around her chest and collapsed inward.

The blade slipped from her fingers.

Nate reached her too late.

She struck the ground beside the man she had killed.

Iris crawled out from beneath the roots and pressed two fingers to Holt’s neck.

"Holt?"

No response.

Pulse Medic entered her body.

Iris recoiled.

Nate dropped beside them. "What happened?"

"Her circulation is breaking apart."

"Can you stop it?"

"I can’t tell which injury is doing what."

Blood continued to pour from Holt’s side.

Iris tore open the remains of her medical pouch and pressed a thick dressing into the wound.

"Hold this."

Nate put both hands over the bandage.

Warm blood reached his palms almost immediately.

Iris sent another pulse through Holt’s chest.

The energy returned in fragments.

"She’s still alive," Iris said.

"For how long?"

"I don’t know."

Behind them, Milo tried to sit up.

His arms gave way.

"I can reduce the weight."

Iris looked back. "Your circulation isn’t stable."

"My Skill doesn’t need my leg."

"It still needs your Core."

Milo closed his eyes and forced energy toward his Root Node.

The current crossed his chest, then faltered as it descended through his damaged leg.

The weapons and bags around him became slightly lighter.

The effect lasted a few seconds.

His breathing broke.

The energy scattered, and his head fell against the roots.

Iris moved toward him.

Nate caught her wrist.

"Holt first."

"Milo’s circulation is still leaking."

"And hers?"

Iris looked at the blood covering Nate’s hands.

"She may have torn part of her Circuit."

"Can the train help?"

"The emergency kits should have stabilizers. Maybe a suspension brace."

"Then we go back."

Iris looked toward Milo.

Then at Holt.

"With two people who can’t walk?"

Nate removed the dead leader’s cloak and cut it free from the armour.

Two branches near the roots were straight enough to support Milo. He pushed them through the cloak and secured them with straps taken from the mercenary’s equipment.

The stretcher sagged when they moved Milo onto it.

It held.

Iris tightened the cloth around his damaged ankle without touching the severed tendril.

"What about Holt?"

She had not moved.

Blood had already passed through the dressing and darkened the earth beneath her.

Nate crouched and slid one arm behind her shoulders.

Pain tightened around his ribs when he lifted.

His arms could not carry her properly. He adjusted his feet and let the weight pass through his legs and hips.

Holt’s head rested against his chest.

Her breathing was so shallow he could only feel it when he stopped moving.

Iris took the front of Milo’s stretcher.

"The train is at least two kilometres away."

Nate looked at Milo, then at the blood spreading across Holt’s uniform.

Behind them lay the bodies of the mercenaries and the creatures their Circuits had drawn from beneath the forest.

Ahead, smoke still rose above the trees.

Nate tightened his hold on Holt.

They started walking.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!