Moment of Clarity. Daniel’s first real power, if one he’d activated accidentally and at the cost of his entire mana pool the first time around. While its main draw was slowing down time to a degree that the movement of the world around you was normally indistinguishable, there was a second benefit in designating your next action. ‘Deciding what you wanted to do next’ sounded lame as a magical power until you realized that what that meant was that the microsecond time resumed, what you wanted to happen did happen.

  Bringing Hunter back to life would have been impossible without it.

  Remember what we need to do?

  Yes, Hunter replied, partially distracted as he was trying to hold onto the feeling of his connection to Tak. Something was telling him that was just as important as what he was doing here. I’m ready.

  The steps had been laid out for them by Daniel’s Spoke, costing them precious time for the privilege. The very first thing that happened when Daniel and Hunter returned to the mortal world and the Moment of Clarity cast by the Spoke as a Proxy was… Daniel using Moment of Clarity. There was no rule against chaining them together, other than it was a stupid way to exhaust mana. Normally.

  With step one out of the way, the plan moved on to what was needed from the new bond. There had been some sacrifices, but a lot of the old friendship bond had been preserved in Universal Link. It was essentially a combination of the Telepathic and Empathic Links, as well as the mind-hopping feature. Every aspect had received an upgrade and the latter was the most crucial, allowing one of them to harbor the soul of the other like how Willow’s bond had functioned. This solved the first of two hurdles the Spoke had mentioned as Hunter’s soul was smuggled back to the Octyrrum in Daniel.

  Re-entering reality, time slowed to the point where neither had functioning eyes yet, Daniel could just feel the body at the edge of his nearly dead fingertips. A rather complicated interaction was currently taking place with Beast Mode. For one, he’d lost all benefits of the oath bond. As the Spoke had attested, it couldn’t remove a fully awakened power even if he wanted it to, which meant Beast Mode itself was here to stay regardless of the bond having been its origin.

  What hadn’t remained was Strength in Memory and Inherited Vitality. As the Spoke had explained, Daniel couldn’t borrow Hunter’s powers anymore and was back to one health pool. Any damage taken in hybrid ringcat form was passed on to his human side, with lingering questions on what injury to his tail would do. What was extremely fortunate and unfortunate was that Unyielding Tenacity had triggered relative to the health pool that had been lost with the passing of the oath bond. The good news was that healing was back on the menu.

  The bad news was that Daniel still had a hole in his heart, along with profound damage across his body after using it far past the point of no return for over a minute. While his survival power’s debuff was no longer active, he hadn’t fully restored the damage that had triggered it, meaning it couldn’t activate again. Forget Hunter, Daniel had seconds left before his own soul was released into the Astral. This was where time manipulation became important.

  Also Blood Union. The slightly ominous name of their second new benefit was cut from whole cloth, unsullied by any previous benefit. Its effect was simple, yet more nuanced, and raised a fair number of questions. Thankfully, the Spoke had been able to lay out the relevant interactions for what they were trying to do.

  Blood Union allowed Daniel and Hunter to transfer any physical effect influencing them to the other person, positive or negative. If Daniel was poisoned, for example, he could shuttle that over to Hunter and ignore the damage for as long as the ringcat was willing to take it. This was different from Hunter’s bond with Tak, which was just straight damage sharing split down the middle, or the ringcat’s earlier ability to copy Daniel’s powers. Nothing in the new bond allowed for an entire power to cross the divide without cost, though. If Hunter wanted Regeneration, Daniel would have to give it up temporarily.

  Hence another interesting interaction with Beast Mode. It gave a physical change that Daniel could now shift over to Hunter, but only that. Changing Hunter’s archetypes was beyond the auspice of their bond, to borrow a phrase his Spoke liked so much, but the physical effect could still be singled out. What ended up happening if they did that, theoretically, was that Daniel would revert to his human body and class. The hybrid form was both Beast Mode’s Focus and means of changing his archetypes.

  As Daniel prepared the second casting of Moment of Clarity, two actions were designated. He prepared another casting of the ability, a gluttonous third, for after Hunter triggered Blood Union. Technically speaking, Daniel shouldn’t have had access to his time dilation power the second time, but the fact that he had been in his human form while within the odd soul space mattered. The Spoke had had access to his Artificer powers, and so had he, and it was in the moment of transfer when archetypes began to revert that he’d triggered the ability.

  This time, half of Daniel’s remaining lifespan passed by as he waited for Hunter’s side of the plan to be enacted. Human once more and faint vision now coming to him, Daniel used Moment of Clarity seconds before his death. So far so good. We’re almost there, one step left. I’ve got the left hand, you’ve got the right. They’re in the red leather bag, farthest on your side if you can feel it on my hip. Grab the one with a bit of gold mixed in with the green once you can move. It should let you take it based on what you imagine.

  Should?

  The Spoke said it would. It’s still going to be close. Remember, you’re unarmored. You just have to hit, I have the hard part.

  In his mind, Hunter approximated a snort. Sure you do. I only need to move a body that isn’t mine, then go into another that isn’t mine. Still thinking about Tak too. You’re only doing one thing.

  Again, Daniel said, immensely enjoying the banter, If you’d practiced more with this you wouldn’t have these issues. He wanted to let it continue, but even now time was passing. We need to move. Once we can see I’ll explain what’s going on. I need to know what happened while I was out before I get into it. See you on the other side, brother.

  Glad to be back, brother. Time resumed its normal course, and Daniel’s chosen action was not to pause it again. He was playing with fire given his human body still had stab wounds in his chest and legs, the cumulative damage both bodies had taken merging when the bond was lost. Instead, he used Telekinetic Reach to move an otherwise unresponsive arm down, close fingers around the lip of a bottle, and then hurl it upwards toward his face.

  Daniel’s life experiences had taught him a lot of things. For example, he knew that his face couldn’t scar because of Regeneration. That was very good. He’d also learned from William the Ranger that the fastest way to apply a healing potion was to just break it against yourself. While Daniel would have liked to drink it the normal way, that wasn’t an option right now.

  Ow, fuck. I think I got shards in my eye. Doesn’t matter, I can feel it working. Go Hunter, go! The level 3 potion, one of the limited few Daniel had purchased with his not unsizable wealth, worked with Regeneration to rapidly reverse his atrocious health. While he’d taken a lethal wound, it wasn’t as bad as completely missing his heart. Thomas could have saved him if the Cleric had been fast enough, even if he’d only had Healing Hands as an option.

  This was also important considering Hunter’s condition. The tooth his body had been transmuted into had reverted after passing through the rift, being placed adjacent to Daniel as he came out. The second hurdle of bringing Hunter back was creating a body that could sustain life for long enough for his soul to take root. His monstrous form had a hole for a heart, and was quite dead. Hunter existed within Daniel right now but could still influence his original body with Blood Union because he was astrally anchored to it. That was one of the reasons you needed a fallen creature’s body for Resurrection to work.

  Following the second Moment of Clarity, things had changed. The body was transmuted to the state the hybrid ringcat had been in. Doing this if Hunter had been alive inside of his body wouldn’t have changed things, but the body was just a thing. That changed how the rules applied to it. Healing potions wouldn’t work, and transmutation effects were more durable.

  As Daniel’s returning vitality attested, he had potions powerful enough to heal the wounds Hunter’s transformed body had. Time was still a factor, if only because their surroundings could be dangerous, and so as soon as Hunter felt he could control Daniel’s arm he seized a second level 3 healing potion and hit it against his own body.

  The magical liquid ran into it, as confused as a potion could be as to why anyone would use it on something that wasn’t living, which was when Hunter returned to his body and provided a spark of life.

  The entire process took less than ten seconds in real time but would have been impossible to accomplish without the Spoke giving them the heads up beforehand. And it had only done that because Daniel had specifically asked it to. When it said a plan was feasible it meant what could be done under the best possible circumstances, so Daniel and Hunter would’ve had to have just known what to do. That, or it had predicted Daniel would ask for instructions.

  Blinking, Daniel waited for his partially glass filled eyes to clear before bottoming out his mana with a fourth cast of Moment of Clarity. As he observed the room, he reached out to Hunter. Feeling ok?

  This body is strange. Familiar enough that I could forget it is not me. Falling doesn’t help.

  You still have your normal one. Daniel would ask where Hunter’s thoughts were on borrowing the hybrid form long term at a later time since they were now in a space where they could consider rescuing the other team members. There’s more to it, but there are two enemies here. Both are avianoids that have been corrupted, one by something wrong in the Astral, one by the monster god. The first one’s more dangerous but doesn’t have any powers, just really good attributes and weapons. The other one flies around and uses wind attacks. It has the insane Regeneration Tak gets whenever he turns, but we were wearing it down. Khiat, Tlara, and Sigron are here, you remember him right? A Rogue too, Shuni. Can’t see them though.

  There weren’t any auras in his line of sight, or bodies. Daniel did see one of the entrances to the room around them and frowned as he saw a security door had closed to seal it off. Why is everything metal? Hunter asked.

  So I’m still not entirely sure, but I’m about 70% confident this place is some kind of ship. We’re in Threst right now, or next to it, looking into ruins. The first time they’d come here seemed so long ago, and that was already after having spent a month in the region. There’s a connection to the Astral here, a lot of them actually. It’s how we brought Tlara back from the dead. Hopefully we’ll get someone who awakens Resurrection again soon, because both that and this was exhausting.

  Still have to fight now. Hunter’s mental tone indicated more than cynicism behind that statement. Daniel would have liked to swap to his view to see what he meant, but using that benefit of their bond required mana that was currently locked down by Moment of Clarity. I see the Astral one. It was bashing one of the doors, turning now to us. Wind on my fur too.

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  We couldn’t have been out of here for more than thirty seconds, Daniel replied in what was as much an attempt to reassure himself as Hunter. They can’t be dead. Alright, game on. I’m going to take a potion as soon as I can. You should still have all of your mana. Heighten what you need to. You can’t get Identify Creature anymore so I’ll mark both. Tell me if you need Regeneration or a potion, I still have some healing ones left. Absolute worst case, jump over to me. I’m not losing you to the Astral again.

  Same. I’m ready.

  You’re sure? Just come back from the dead in a new body and you’re ready?

  I’ve been waiting for this. Hunter’s voice had an eagerness Daniel would have called naive if he didn’t know better.

  Daniel landed on the ground with a roll, dragging a mana potion from his bag and gulping it down as fast as he could. Between the initial burst and the steady regen afterward he’d get a lot back, but it wasn’t as much as he’d spent since returning to the Arcadian. Spitting the empty bottle to the side and retrieving the blast bow, Daniel called out as he looked for the enemies. “We’re back, anyone need help?”

  See one. At Hunter’s callout Daniel switched his vision over just long enough to apply Identify Creature before returning to his body. He wasn’t used to Hunter’s view being so far off the ground, though the currently hybrid ringcat was hunching further forward than Daniel had in that body. Otherwise, the transition went smoothly, despite Daniel no longer having Keen Senses. Better.

  I have been practicing. That left both enemies marked, though only one was approaching. The corrupted avianoid was running toward him, while Hunter had seen the elite monster hiding near the top of the rift column. He could have sworn there was an arrow sticking out of its chest which was a good sign all things considered.

  What wasn’t a good sign was the sight of Sigron crumpled against a wall. A hastily placed aura confirmed the Knight still lived, but he was resting within an indent that could only have been caused by a heavy impact. Shuni, Tlara, and her active monster were all in hiding, which made sense, but where was Khiat? Hunter, can you sense Khiat?

  Concentrating on… no. Traces of her scent, but not her or her body. I can smell two others above near the monster. Not moving, alive, some blood but not enough to die from. They are all tense. Daniel could see the elite was still up in the top section of the power core, not moving but observing Hunter. He’d have let both retreat now if that was an option, but something had happened to cause what looked like a lockdown. Probably him.

  Whether he could lift it from the app or would have to get close to each door was a matter for a less stressed time as the corrupted avianoid was about to hit him with what looked like a maul made to break down the doors. Daniel was positioned a bit farther from the rift to greet her, while Hunter was keeping an eye on the elite to make sure it didn’t try and third party. While they were separated, that didn’t mean they couldn’t fight together.

  Throw me a spell, your roar should work. I want to try out the thing.

  Now? Hunter asked with some skepticism. We don’t know what it will do.

  I’ve fought this thing before, I’ll need every edge and you aren’t exactly busy at the moment, are you? Or is birdwatching too stressful?

  Fine. Daniel felt the last benefit of their bond get ‘loaded’ by Hunter, and he couldn’t help but smile at the corrupted avianoid. She was giving him the perfect opportunity to try out something he’d always wanted. A combo attack.

  Yes, he had one through his bond with Khare, but it wasn’t exactly a cool ghost clone cross strike that Hunter had. The Octyrrum had heard their ‘innate will’ as the Spoke had put it and given them two benefits to help revive Hunter while building off the foundations of the bond and honoring its next step. The last benefit was entirely Daniel’s fault.

  Might and Magic was the ultimate combo attack. Daniel couldn’t think of a better one at least. In the same vein as Blood Union there were a lot of mechanical gray areas they’d have to figure out now that he hadn’t had the time for the Spoke to explain, but he’d gotten the basics. The power had two slots, one for an attack ability, and one for a spell ability. Daniel and Hunter could contribute to one each, at which point a special attack would be generated based on that combination.

  If two Daniels threw Snap Shot and Scatter Shot into the mix, it would work exactly as it did already and be completely boring. While the prospect of combining his and Hunter’s powers was exciting, there was another aspect that opened the door to countless possibilities. Certain powers had specifications that limited them to particular weapons, like how Cleave couldn’t be used with ranged weapons. Might and Magic completely ignored that, allowing combinations others could never manage.

  The two fed Snap Shot and Fearsome Roar into the blender, Daniel grabbing the resulting special attack, and firing it through his blast bow at the approaching avianoid. He was using shotgun mode with lightning rounds, a theoretically powerful attack that had proved ineffective against the higher level enemy. Scatter Shot would have produced a large net of spectral explosions on hit that would have amplified the damage, though because of splitting ammunition not being able to support physical explosions with the spineshard enchantment the maximum damage potential was limited.

  Instead of Scatter Shot, this attack was charged with Hunter’s Fearsome Roar ability, a sonic attack with a chance to inflict fear. He wasn’t entirely sure what it would do, but-

  Loud! Hunter complained, and it was incredibly odd to look over and see him cover his ears with hands rather than paws. Daniel’s own ears might be bleeding a little, already abused by the elite’s earlier screams. On the plus side, the concussive force of the attack had managed to knock the corrupted avianoid off her feet. What is that weapon?

  New toy. Do it again.

  Can’t, has a cooldown.

  Lion Charge then, and hurry. As far as first tests went, it was an overwhelming success. Daniel’s guess was the fusion had made each projectile act as a source for the roar, multiplying the volume and sonic damage significantly. Against monsters on his level, it’d probably guarantee application of fear. If anything survived the hit. With another spell locked in, Daniel tossed Power Shot in and began charging it.

  There were drawbacks to this bond benefit. For one, they were both considered as channeling while contributing a piece of the combo. Hunter couldn’t use a spell or attack ability right now, which was mostly fine as the injured elite was hesitant to engage. Amid a pitched fight, though, it’d be difficult to coordinate abilities that could be instantly released. No less one that took a minute to fully charge.

  The corrupted avianoid got back onto her feet rapidly, giving Daniel the same wary feeling he felt from the elite. No fear, however, nor a sense that she was backing away. Her gear changed as she began to run, forming the same shield and trident combo that had doomed his earlier attempt to solo her while human.

  Fast. You need help?

  Maybe. Throw me Evasiveness until the elite attacks. Keep an eye on them. If you get a chance we need to get Sigron a healing potion. Daniel felt his body grow slightly more limber as Hunter gave him the benefits of his dodge-boosting feature through Blood Union. He’d need it, for he was going to try dodging her attacks again until Power Shot had enough charge. It’d failed miserably the first time, but with his friend, his brother here, Daniel knew this time would be different.

  Leaping backward after his ability began charging and trusting Balance to save him from a bad fall, Daniel tried to buy what time he could. There was no way he could out-backward hop the avianoid as she could crawl faster than he was going, but every second counted. As Power Shot continued to charge, he began to feel a static sensation from the weapon itself. The part of the overwrap made from fur also began to stand on end. That’s probably fine. Woah!

  The avianoid showed she could jump too by exploding into a horizontal dive, trident pointed for his legs again. It was essentially the same dilemma Khiat had saved him from last time, but she wasn’t here and Hunter was locked out of his powers. The ringcat was actively telling him this. Let me help! Elite isn’t moving.

  Just a few more seconds.

  Daniel!

  Seeing no way out of it, Daniel fired the blast bow when the avianoid was a meter from him and still closing fast. The addition of Lion Charge did not buff the lightning damage of the shot as he had anticipated. Instead, a secondary blast of pure lightning connected the blast bow and his target for a moment, the physical pellets from his ammunition contained within the beam instead of spreading out.

  The attack, already buffed by Power Shot at around 15 seconds of charge, hit even harder as it was concentrated by the otherwise relatively weak lightning strike. The avianoid jerked in midair as the shot penetrated part of the way through her, but as with everything else she proved insanely durable. Stabbing with the trident, the avianoid caught air as Daniel’s body began to blur and move forward in defiance of the laws of physics.

  One other point on Universal Link. Before, both Daniel and Hunter had to have the same power to activate it while in each other’s bodies, something they could accomplish by having Hunter copy a power from Daniel. That wasn’t an option anymore, but the upgrade of allowing the soul to fully cross over gave another. He wasn’t sure where the line was exactly, considering Tlara hadn’t been able to do this in Willow after she’d died, but now that Hunter was alive again it was as if his entire mana flow was brought along when he transferred, allowing him to activate any of his powers. There was just one problem.

  Very bad, Hunter thought as both of them reemerged with splitting headaches. Flash Jaunt had prevented the attack from landing, but the environment continued to make its use extremely hazardous.

  Sorry, forgot to mention that. He looked in concern at the elite monster, but it had yet to move since they’d come back. I think I know where at least Tlara is. She must be suppressing that thing, trying to take it over.

  You sound happy about that, Hunter commented with a hint of betrayal.

  She… it’s complicated. The hint of sadness and disquieting contemplation sent through the empathic part of the Universal Link, currently at low intensity for obvious reasons, was enough to make him drop the matter. Time enough later to go over all the details. All he said now was, There’s no one there to mind what she’s doing.

  Fine. The other one. We can’t beat her. Hunter was carefully making his way back toward Daniel as the elite proved to be a continued non-threat, unused to both moving on two legs and around ancient power stations. Too strong. Too fast. She’s like the big lizard as a person and we don’t have Gadriel.

  A part of him almost reflexively denied that out of bravado and a need to show dominance, but the gesture died as nothing within him rose to fuel it. The oath bond truly was gone, and for the first time in a while Daniel could think clearly. That same part of him still wanted to have some kind of epic duel between the corrupted avianoid and the two of them, using their bond to overcome her brute force, but there was no reason to risk that unless she went after Sigron. By all appearances, she could’ve killed him already but had been focused on getting away from the rift.

  You’re right. Get back to the rift. That sphere thing we came out of. Daniel pulled out one of the remaining walls and incanted, throwing it as he did so. “Bulwark.” The section flattened out like a frisbee in midair, Hunter’s head tracking it as it flew above him.

  Been busy?

  Had to pass the time somehow. When it had gotten close enough to the center, Daniel used Hover Object, a power he honestly couldn’t remember using since he’d used it to fix a curtain, to turn it into a mostly flat platform by the rift. Both he and Hunter jumped up, the magic able to sustain their combined weight. The fast approaching avianoid skidded to a halt when she saw what they’d done. “Just go! I know you can’t get near this.”

  Can she understand? Part of her head is… not head. As if reading Hunter’s thoughts, the avianoid twisted a spear into being and raised it as if to throw. Daniel stepped forward with his shield on one arm, blast bow on the other.

  “Want to make this a ranged war? Pretty sure I can win that. Fuck off!”

  Maybe you’ve been spending too much time with Tlara, Hunter said as the corrupted avianoid backed off under Daniel’s glare. The Artificer looked over to rebuke whatever it was Hunter was implying and at that point realized that Blood Union had only given Hunter the hybrid body.

  A crashing sound resounded as the avianoid remade her maul and continued trying to beat down one of the doors. Daniel first pulled out one of his rapidly diminishing supply of healing potions and chucked it at Sigron with Snap Shot. The woman attempting to break and exit glanced at the bottle in midair but made no attempt to intercept it or stop what she was doing. That handled, Daniel then withdrew a cloak and tossed it to Hunter.

  “You’re standing on two legs now. Can’t go around like that.”

  Hunter ran a hand across the gray fur and frowned. “Familiar. Wolves?”

  “I knew you were helping with that! Yeah, I’ve been using their fur for a lot of stuff.” In the distance, Sigron coughed up blood and roused, raising to inspect first the metallic arm that had nearly been split in half. That got the avianoid’s attention again, but Daniel shouted, “Touch him and I’ll make sure you never leave this room. Stay down Sigron, we’ve got this handled.” Brushing shattered glass off his face, the Knight nodded at Daniel, looked to Daniel’s side where Hunter was standing, and then grew very confused.

  The ringcat was figuring out how clothes worked when he turned around sharply. Daniel was about to ask when he sensed it too, if only through the vibrations of alerts on his phone. Something was happening to the astral rift.