Time for a change of tactic. I reached for my Kitsune Persona and immediately experienced a cool wash of sensation over my body as the enormous Ironside armor shimmered and disappeared, replaced by the tight-fitting garb of the assassin. The tentacles lost their grip for a moment as I changed size, and that was all it took. I shifted through space, leaving the monster holding nothing but a puff of white smoke.
I landed on my feet, and now I rose slowly, looking at the wreck of the monster. Cara came over to stand beside me. The monster was dying. My two-handed axe had nearly destroyed it, severing the spine. It had lost all coordination in its limbs, and it lay in the middle of the green space, flopping and spasming horribly. I stepped toward it, thinking I would have to finish it, but at that moment a cloud of black mist lifted from the carcass of the hideous creature and the mutated troll stopped moving and lay still.
From the black mist there came the voice, the terrible, multitudinous voice of the Festering, ringing through the peaceful dale.
“Soul Binder,” it roared. “Soul Binder! You have conquered this time, but you shall not conquer for much longer. This land is mine, and you will learn it or you will die!”
The black mist was caught by a brisk breeze blowing in with the smell of the sea riding on it. With a last cry of pain and thwarted anger, the black mist that was all that remained of the Festering was swept away.
Chapter Seven
I heard Cara cry out with surprise and delight.
“You felt it too,” I said to Cara. “The Renown flowing into us from the battle.”
“Yes,” she said. “But I don’t have anything to spend mine on yet.”
But I did.
With a sudden rush, I realized that I was ready to level up my Persona again. As had happened before, there was a flash of light around me, and a far off boom like the sound of thunder. My power had increased another level.
“Look, Cara,” I said. “Here’s the options for the upgrades.”
We watched in awe as the air shimmered in front of us, images appearing like glinting models of the Personas I had acquired so far.
I reached up to my head. I was still wearing the Shinobi outfit, with the black cloth wrapped around my head and covering all of my face except my eyes. Now, I turned my attention to the headgear. I willed it to be gone, and it was. Now I could concentrate better on what we were about to do.
In front of me, I was presented with an image of the night black assassin’s garb which had come from the Kitsune Persona. That was on the left, and the armor of Ironside was upon the right. Above them both, there was what looked like a thick glass tube, tall and broad. It was filled to the brim with a glimmering light.
With slowly dawning excitement, I realized that the tall glass column and the light within it represented my Renown; it was full, and that was how much Renown I had earned to spend on upgrades.
I explained it to Cara.
“You must be right,” she said excitedly. “Which one will you look at first?”
“The Kitsune Persona,” I said. “Because I’ve already upgraded the Ironside Persona once.”
“I wonder how many upgrades you can get?”
“Let’s find out.”
I reached out and touched the assassin robes first. By moving my hand, I could rotate the image as if it really was a miniature model of the robes. I tapped it, and it expanded and disappeared, revealing three other options. On the left was an image of a black-robed figure running, in the middle two crossed tanto daggers, and on the right was a shuriken star.
I moved my hand back and forth in front of these images, and in the intuitive way which I was becoming used to with the Personas, I knew what each upgrade would do.
“This one,” I said to Cara, indicating the running figure, “represents the power of speed that comes with the Kitsune Persona. Spending my Renown points on this will upgrade my ability to move quickly in battle when I’m wearing this Persona. In the middle, the tanto upgrade will give me not only a better blade, but also the ability to dual wield with a tanto in each hand. On the right...” I trailed off. Looking at the Shuriken, I felt something particularly special.
“What about the Shuriken?” Cara asked eagerly. “What does that upgrade do?”
I hovered my hand over the shuriken star, feeling a slow rush of excitement building in me. “It’s something more. With this one, I feel that I’m being offered the opportunity to add elemental magic to my Shuriken stars.”
“Elemental magic?”
“Yes. I feel that there are three options: fire, ice, and air. The fire is producing a heat sensation, the ice a chill, and the air a tickling on my skin. This is. . . this is incredible, Cara.”
“It certainly is,” she replied. “Can you feel anything else? Do you know what they might do?”
“The magic is very intuitive; I get explanations almost as necessary. Let me see if I can discern their purposes by examining them more
