Taboo Online

As soon as the bird swept into Luke’s reach, he twisted his arm and slashed through it.

The blade met almost no resistance. Both halves dissolved before they could hit the ground, collapsing into dark liquid that splashed across the soil and sank beneath the surface.

[Enemy defeated.]

Luke kept his eyes on the spot. It was his first kill in the Dungeon of the Black Rain, but the creature had disappeared so completely that he half expected it to rise from the mud and attack again.

Nothing moved.

His other hand remained wrapped tightly around Lauren’s right hand. Once he was sure the immediate danger had passed, he loosened his grip to let her know he was fine.

Lauren understood, but she still checked the nearest futures for herself.

Luke had never been good at admitting when something hurt. If the bird had wounded him, he would brush it aside, keep moving, and hide the injury until his body gave him no other choice.

Fortunately, she saw no sign of that happening. In the clearest future, Luke remained beside her, breathing normally while the last of the dark liquid vanished beneath his feet.

The vision also showed his attack from another angle.

The bird had moved fast, yet Luke hadn’t panicked or swung too early. He waited until it entered his reach and cut it down with one clean motion.

A sweet smile touched Lauren’s lips.

Her boy had come so far.

Not long ago, Luke would have charged at the creature and trusted his endurance to save him from whatever followed. He still fought aggressively, but Mr. Mercer’s training had started turning that recklessness into control.

Lauren looked farther ahead.

Her blindfold did nothing to interfere with Oracle’s Glimpse, but the black rain crashed against the leaves, trunks, and soil so violently that it swallowed every other sound. Even Luke’s voice disappeared beneath it.

She could still pass visions through their connection. The harder part was deciding what to show him.

Normally, Lauren explained what each fragment meant and warned him which detail mattered. Here, she had to choose the clearest pieces and trust Luke to understand them without hearing a word.

Several possibilities spread out before her.

If they stayed where they were, nothing attacked them for the next few moments. If Luke stepped forward, the soil beneath his boot shifted. Moving to the left brought another shadow sweeping over the ground.

None of those futures ended with immediate disaster, but there was no reason to test them before they understood what surrounded them.

Lauren selected the clearest fragments and passed them to Luke.

His vision blurred.

For an instant, he saw himself standing beside her without moving. The image changed, showing his foot sinking into the soil, then shifted again as a dark shape passed over the ground to their left.

The visions vanished almost as quickly as they appeared.

Luke turned toward Lauren. She squeezed his hand once.

Stay here.

He understood.

We can’t communicate normally in this dungeon. That’s dangerous when Lauren usually explains what I’m seeing.

Her visions weren’t always easy to understand. A fragment that seemed meaningless at first could become an obvious warning once she gave him the context behind it. She had guided him away from attacks, traps, and bad choices before, but this time, he had to find the meaning on his own.

Lauren’s recent training helped. She had spent days learning how to shape brief visions before passing them on, while Luke had already learned from their previous battles that he needed to focus on the details she chose to show him.

They still needed practice.

There’s no time for a long explanation in the middle of a real fight anyway. If we can understand each other like this, we’ll be better when it actually matters.

Luke believed that.

Mr. Mercer allowed him to study a movement while demonstrating it, but once the sparring began, Luke had no time to break down every step, shift, or turn.

The older hero attacked too quickly and punished hesitation too harshly.

Luke had to trust what Mercer had drilled into him. His stance, grip, and footwork needed to react before his mind got in the way.

Hours of repetition had started turning those lessons into instinct.

If he and Lauren could do the same with her visions, a brief image or a small change in her grip might eventually tell him as much as a spoken warning.

Luke was about to examine the place where the bird had vanished when a translucent window appeared in front of him.

[Unclaimed clear rewards detected.]

[Dungeon of Truth rewards are now available.]

Luke paused.

He and Lauren had been pulled out of their first dungeon soon after defeating the Dread Devourer. Between Fated Javelin, the return countdown, and everything that happened once they woke up, they had never received personal rewards for clearing it.

Powerforge had apparently saved them for their next dive.

Another notification appeared.

[You have received the following reward: Truth Behind Motion (Skill)]

[Truth Behind Motion: Your perception pierces misleading movements. When observing a living target, you may sense the true intention behind its immediate physical actions. Effectiveness depends on the difference between your Perception and the target’s control, speed, and deception abilities.]

Luke read the description twice.

It wasn’t the kind of skill that shattered stone or sent magic flying across a battlefield, but that didn’t make it weak.

Mr. Mercer had already shown him how easily a skilled fighter could lie with his body. A shift of weight could suggest movement in one direction before an attack came from another. A lowered shoulder could bait Luke into guarding the wrong place. Even an opening might only exist because the enemy wanted him to take it.

Truth Behind Motion would help him catch those lies.

The skill couldn’t make his body faster. If an attack came too quickly, knowing about it wouldn’t be enough to save him. Someone with exceptional control or a powerful deception ability might still fool him.

Luke could work with that.

He didn’t need the skill to win fights for him. A little warning and one extra moment to react could be enough.

Mercer had proved that again and again.

Luke pictured facing him during their next training session. He imagined the small twitch before one of Mercer’s feints and the relaxed stance he used to hide how quickly he could move.

Catching even one of those tricks would feel incredible.

The skill suited everything Mercer had spent the past week teaching him. As Luke’s Perception improved, he would notice more. As he gained experience, he would know what to do with the information.

A grin spread across his face.

Mr. Mercer was going to hate this.