Michael and Ollie continued travelling south along the Lake of Beasts. They had a few close calls with rift creatures, and an unpleasant experience with goblins, but overall it was a peaceful trip compared to what they were used to. In the mornings Michael would train and Ollie began waking early to spend time going over the notes and coiling his magicka channels. Michael tried to coil his own multiple times, but every time he tried he seemed to lose control of it. He seemed to be unable to picture them in a 3D space, but Ollie and his ability to multitask had no issues aside from the slow recovery each time he coiled them a bit more.

At some point Michael took a moment to look at his Titles and Deeds.

Titles:

Michael Mann

The Restored

The Wound Man

Seer

Champion of the Gods

Deeds:

Bridge Holder

Revenge Denier

Run Conqueror

Resilient Competitor

Fort Healer

Righteous Defender

Castle Taker

Baron Breaker

Rift Sealer

Warrior Mender

Titan Slayer

Blessings:

Cleansing Healing

Pain Transfer

Smite

Bless

Eyes of Love

Eyes of Judgement

The first thing Michael focused on was his new deed, his first since he'd gained his Champion of the Gods title.

Titan Slayer

When fighting an enemy larger than yourself grants:

Middling Strength

Michael smiled. It made sense between the horned men and the chitinous horrors he'd been fighting recently that he'd be given something like that. It was also something that he desperately needed given how many more rift creatures he'd have to fight once they reached Old Hume.

He turned his attention to Champion of the Gods.

Champion of the Gods

Grants:

Minor Strength

Middling Durability

Middling Protection

Middling Recovery

Middling Concentration

Minor Reaction

Minor Magicka

Seras's Favor- All spells related to barriers and shields use less Magicka

Blessing- Eyes of Love

Blessing- Eyes of Judgement

All feats and actions are in devotion to the gods and can strengthen this title

These actions can still reward other Titles and Deeds

Michael's eyebrows shot up. He'd gained higher recovery and concentration as well as an improvement to the boons of reaction and magicka that Nykas had granted him. On top of that Seras had given him yet another sign of her preference. With that and the increased magicka, Michael resolved himself to spend more time improving and practicing his barrier spells.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

He was getting stronger, and it was happening even faster than it had before. Back in Stent, Bayle had told them that those that acquire Titles and Deeds quickly from reckless behavior either died or became stronger than anyone else. It seemed that he'd been one of the ones in the latter category. If he kept up his momentum, he'd be able to fight nobility and titled beasts alone. In fact, he may already be able to. He'd been able to fight a number of heavily titled Burndan soldiers, though they were not used to their strength which had made things easier for him.

As Michael and Ollie reached the point where the Lake of Beasts began to curve they realized that they must be in Old Hume territory. They decided to begin travelling straight south away from the lake to reach a main road or a village so that they could better orient themselves. It was on the way south that Michael began to feel an intense sense of dread.

"There's a rift nearby," he said as he unbuckled his mace.

"Let's close it then," said Ollie simply, starting to stretch a bit with his staff.

Michael raised an eyebrow. "What, no comment about wasting our time? Or putting ourselves in unnecessary danger?"

"I'm not Marcus. I came here to help. I don't intend to just complain about everything all the time."

Michael kept his eyebrow raised.

"Ah you go me, mate. I have a new spell I want to try and I need to see how these new channels act in combat."

"I have some new things I want to try too," replied Michael. "Let's do it."

They began moving toward the rift, guided by Michael's divine senses until they reached what Michael believed to be about a mile from it. They left their packs behind and muffled themselves as they crept forward with Michael in the lead and Ollie watching his back. Eventually they began to hear what sounded like axes chopping wood. They approached the sound cautiously and crouched down in the brush as they saw a clearing ahead.

The sound they'd heard was in fact the sound of axes hitting trees, but Michael hadn't expected what was holding them. Wooden men, looking like slightly more detailed anatomical reference figures, were felling and processing trees all across a wide valley. Some were felling the trees, others cutting them into logs, and more were carrying those logs back through the portal. Their movements were oddly fluid as they moved, and many seemed to be acting in sync with one another. If Michael could play a song in 2/4 time it was fairly certain it would've matched up with the chopping motions of their axes and their steps as they took them.

Michael took a closer look at the rift. It didn't match any of them he'd seen previously, it was rust colored with the texture of tree-sap as it flowed. It was also very small, only allowing two or three of the puppets through at a time. He did a quick headcount on them and counted thirty-one.

"How should we play this?" asked Ollie.

The rift was in the center of all of the puppets so they didn't seem to have the option of sneaking closer. The puppets themselves didn't seem very strong. They were felling trees at the rate Michael imagined would take regular men, but their coordination worried him. If he took one down, he guessed that the others would all lock onto him immediately.

"How about you throw a big fuckoff spell and then I charge for the portal?"

"Yeah… that's what I came up with too."

Michael chuckled and he drew his mace and shield, waiting for Ollie to set things off.

Ollie muttered a spectacular string of curses behind him and Michael felt a tremendous amount of magicka start to build behind him, and then he started to mutter a separate spell at the same time somehow, causing another surge of magic.

As it was about to reach its apex, the puppets all very suddenly stopped what they were doing. In unison, they all turned toward Michael and Ollie, their expressionless faces somehow boring into them.

Michael moved forward with his shield and mace, summoning divine flame across both of them and smashing the mace in front of his shield to draw their attention.

They took the bait, and as one they began to run toward him in perfect lockstep and complete silence.

Ollie threw both of his fireballs as they got into a line, they went over the heads of the nearest ones, and crashed into where they were the most clustered. They exploded with concussive force and flame, shattering the puppets hit directly into splinters that broke against Michael's armor, and lighting the rest aflame.

Those that hadn't been completely destroyed, including the ones on fire, didn't even flinch.

Michael smashed aside an axe-stroke before crushing one of the puppet's blank faces with his mace. He shifted it into a sword on the upswing to literally disarm another of them, but was forced to adjust his footing when that one didn't hesitate to strike at him with its other arm, directly for his visor. He changed it back into a mace and shattered the creature's chest, lighting it with holy fire.

The other puppets all caught up quickly and began to swarm him. He smashed aside axes, arms, and legs furiously, but their attack was relentless. They clearly didn't feel pain, or fear, and removing limbs didn't slow them down.

Michael decided to mirror their example. He struck out with his mace and sword in a continuous set of strikes, using his shield more as a second weapon than for defense as he smashed the mannequins until they could no longer move. All the while he pushed himself toward the rift.

Ollie supported him with his cutting spells, bissecting them longways which seemed to be one of the few surefire ways to cease their movement. Eventually though, he was forced to turn his attention to the portal as well as more of the wooden men came through.

Soon Michael reached the point where he could feel the edges of the rift with his will. He grabbed hold of it, and started to squeeze.

The portal flickered, and more puppets began to surge out. The ones that had been hitting him changed their tactics and began trying to immobilize him, wrapping themselves around him and contorting to restrict his movement as much as possible. When the new puppet arrived, they focused on trying to wound him, one of them managing to pierce his greave with an axe while he couldn't move.

He focused on his magicka channels. "Círculo," he said, releasing his will and causing a perfect sphere barrier to expand all around him rapidly, knocking all of the puppets back for just a moment and giving him the breathing room he needed.

One of the puppets threw its axe at his head, but before it reached him a smaller portal appeared in front of Michael's face and the axe vanished before reappearing behind the puppet's head, hitting it with the handle and causing it to stumble.

"Fuck, it was supposed to be the blade," said Ollie as he tossed another fireball at the portal itself, launching a cluster of the puppets back just as they entered.

Michael smashed another puppet to side and clenched his fist. There was resistance as there always was, but it crumpled under his will, and the will of gods that was behind him.

As the portal slammed shut, all of the mannequins around them immediately went limp and fell.

Michael was happy to find that he was uninjured and not tired, though Ollie was panting heavily as he sat on a stump to catch his breath.

"Guess we cut their strings, eh?"