Frontier Online

Can I Borrow That? (2) Part 16

Rydr's stomps shook the foliage as he passed into the forest after Urginok and Syrna. Somewhere inside Rydr, he knew it was reckless because the extra noise would draw more enemies towards them. 

That voice was persistent, and by the time he caught up to his team, the giant stopped stomping. However, he could do nothing against the knot of emotions in his chest. Despite Rydr's best efforts, the air around him was heavy and dour when he pulled up behind Urginok and Syrna. 

Both normal-sized members of the team felt the brooding anger pouring off Rydr and let him alone. They both knew that Rydr would share if it was important and trusted him to handle it. 

A full group of adults expects each other to act like adults. Amazing.

In Rydr's experience, that was a rare occurrence. There was a good share of stuffy geniuses at his college and several in his classes alone. 

As he thought about classes, Rydr's mind turned to physics, as it always did after one of his episodes. It helped distract him, calm him down and take the edge off his rage. The giant looked down and held out his arms, marveling at their new shape.

Rydr wasn't especially vain in real life, but his avatar's body would make bodybuilders cry blood. His strength score was so high there wasn't an ounce of fat reflected on his body.

A while ago, it dawned on Rydr that he was strong. Stupid strong. At a certain point, physics broke down to energy and leverage. 

In the previous fights, Rydr noticed that not only did he deal serious damage, but his body was actually strong. He dragged thousands of pounds without significant straining and won primarily by wrestling monsters to the ground and snapping them in half. His physical presence in the world wrecked the environment, overgrown as it was, around him.

The giant admitted his avatar left humanity behind. It scared and thrilled him at the same time. Rydr's body turned into an engine of kinetic energy that he could leverage in almost any way, so long as he thought of it.

Rydr idly reached out, gripped a branch roughly as big around as his arm, and flexed. 

Syrna and Urginok's quiet chatter cut off when a thunderous crash of wood tearing broke the forest's silence. 

Both of them whirled around, weapons ready, to find Rydr blushing furiously and holding a huge branch.

"I-ah...I wanted to see if I could do it..." Rydr went to scratch his head and nearly beaned himself in the forehead with the leafy branch in his hand.

"Just...experiment a little quieter, okay?" Syrna's hand twitched towards her temples, but she stifled the response. She turned back forward, her long blonde hair swaying as she did, and threw out, "We're almost there anyway."

Urginok looked between Rydr and the massive branch and broke into a huge grin, "Got wood?"

Of all things, Urginok's joke snapped Rydr out of his embarrassment. 

Deflated, Rydr pointed at the tank with the branch, "That was bad, dude." 

Urginok raised his hands in peace, but his smugly gleeful expression ruined the gesture. Rydr's face became exasperated, and the tank turned around, chuckling to himself.

The beleaguered giant tossed his branch away and gave up on experimenting. His irritation from before still hadn't faded, and it made him restless. Every time Rydr ducked under a low-hanging branch bothered him even more.

Even the pristine forest, something Rydr would normally enjoy, did nothing to soothe the fuming giant. The urge to just swat every plant that got in his way grew with every step. His negative spiral was finally interrupted when Syrna called out.