novelraw Chapter 6-18
Chapter 6-18
Mind-altering Skills may only be legally used on someone of your Tier or higher. This is a stupid fucking rule, but Politicians are well-known for treating intelligence as a dump Stat.
There are additional restrictions for Merchants, of course, with every store required to maintain an up-to-date price book and make it available to customers. Shopkeepers aren’t allowed to use these Skills – regardless of Tier – on customers unless you initiate the bargaining first. So don’t fucking do that. Pay the listed price and move on.
Lots of arrogant baby Delvers think they can ‘take’ a Merchant when bargaining, like they could take them in a fight. Listen up, baby Delver – you fucking can’t. Imagine that Merchant thinking they could kick your ass because they occasionally play around with one of the swords they sell when they’re bored and no one’s around? Yeah, it’s like that.
- Delver’s Guild Handbook, Section 3.13 – "Restricted Skills”
Zaire remained unusually guarded around me despite my attempts to apologize to him. Frustrated, I finally asked Raylan to help me find out exactly why my accidental Intimidation had hurt our relationship so badly. The Knife Fighter visited my room on Saturday night while I was practicing Slow. He closed the door behind him and sat down on the extra bed.
“Az, I finally got the story out of Zaire. The manaborn have some bad history with Skills like Intimidation being used against them. I think he’s coming around to the fact that you didn’t mean to do it, but it’s a sensitive issue for him because of the way his people have been treated. It doesn’t help that you grew up in Sunland, either.”
“Well, shit! Raylan, I don’t even know anything about his people, other than they apparently don’t need to exercise and Clarice hates them.”
“I think she hates all non-humans, actually,” Raylan told me seriously.
“What? There’s a fucking dwarf on her team! How does that make sense?”
His laugh was ugly. “According to people like her, dwarves are just short, thick humans and elves are just skinny humans with pointed ears.”
“So… are you telling me it's just because Zaire looks less like a human?” I was furious.
“Pretty much,” he sighed. “I’m not a history expert, but even I know that dwarves and elves came out of dungeons just like orcs and cyborgs. But when you look at the trainee Squads, what do you see? Humans, elves, dwarves – nothing else.”
“Raylan, there aren’t that
many other non-humans in the school…”
“Exactly! Ever wondered why? You know, I asked Jayce, and they told me that at least 20% of LA’s population is non-human. But if we hadn’t showed up with Zaire, G’hala, and H’ruk, well, there’d only be a handful of them here. I want to know why we don’t see more non-humans in the Academy…”
“Arlo doesn’t seem to care,” I pointed out, and Raylan laughed.
“He’s an odd one, for sure. I think he only wanted to join up with us because he was excited to find another gun user here, but he doesn’t seem bothered by it. Tara… well, she’s trying at least, but it’s clear she’s still not entirely comfortable around the orcs.”
“She’s doing better than I expected,” I pointed out honestly.
“She is trying,” he agreed. “Speaking of her, though, how are your feelings doing?”
“Well, I’ve been working on Slow and – “
He raised his hands in surrender. “Fine, fine, you don’t want to talk about it. I get it. Go back to practicing!”
He stuck his tongue out at me as he stalked out of my room, pretending to be offended. At least I had learned something about why Zaire was still mad at me. Not that it gave me any brilliant ideas on how to fix it. Still, the manaborn Mage was keeping up the extra practice with his staff, so hopefully JJ wouldn’t get him kicked off the team.
On Sunday we walked to town again, more for the change in scenery than anything else. Aside from Arlo we didn’t have much money to spend, anyways. He had written to his family about getting pistols for us, but had no idea when to expect a reply. We left the Academy early, after breakfast, and were on our way back just before lunch when we ran into the Deathdealers heading the other way.
We stopped to chat with them for a few minutes. We were about halfway between the school and the town, and just about to part ways, when I heard a sound in the distance.
“Everyone shut up for a second!” I raised my voice, and the conversation stopped as everyone turned to look at me. I saw the realization on their Ranger’s face a moment later.
“Fuck, I think I hear the alarm,” Venkat spat out, and I saw the surprise on the faces of the others.
“It’s not stopping, either,” I added. “It’s the Tier 1 alarm, not Tier 0. We need a plan, fast.”
There was a quick, fierce debate about whether we should head back to Backhorn, stay where we were, or head towards the school.
“We’re not heading for the Academy,” I overruled my team’s desire to seek out the fight. “Not with a Tier 1 alarm. Maybe if it was the Tier 0 signal, but not now. We should run for the town, the guards there can definitely handle Tier 1s.”
Venkat was the Squad Leader of the Deathdealers right now – they had rotated the position around several times – and he agreed with me. We took off at a fast jog downhill. I kept us all together in a group, not sending out any scouts, so we could move faster.
We weren’t fast enough.
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We were on the steepest part of the dirt road, and off to the left side the terrain was rocky. Charging down it was a creature like nothing I’d seen before. Identify.
Monster: Quadrosaur
Level: 13
It had scaled skin, hugely muscular arms and legs, a long tail, and a ridge of spines running down its back. Its dark eyes were small, its head narrow and pointed. It was galloping down the rocks faster than we could sprint, huge claws raking the ground with each step. The only good thing I could think of was that I could only see one of them.
“EVERYONE STOP! We have to fight!” I screamed, hating the fact that we weren’t all in one Squad so I couldn’t rely on the Comms.
“H’ruk, Tara, Raylan, Bria – form a line! Owen, get your shadow on it now!!”
I scrambled to find an angle where I could shoot past our hastily assembled line of defenders. As soon as I cleared H’ruk, I started shooting. At least the size of the creature made it hard to miss, even from a hundred yards away. I ripped off all seven shots from my gun in just a couple seconds, which was all it took for the creature to cover a third of the distance between us.
Our other ranged attackers engaged as well – Sonic Bolts, arrows, crossbow bolts, and firebolts all rained onto the monster. Everything we threw at it just splashed uselessly off its barrier. I tore slugs from my bandolier two at a time, shoving them into the loading port, as an Earth Wall sprung up in front of the charging beast.
It smashed through the obstruction with a flare of its barrier, and then Arlo unleashed his Rapid Fire attack from the other end of our line. I saw the creature’s barrier flare, then finally shatter, under the Pistoleer’s barrage. At the same time, Owen’s shadowy summon leapt forward to attack. Raylan dumped his last magazine for his pistol as Arlo switched guns and I brought my shotgun up to fire again.
The monster’s jaws snapped shut, sharp fangs closing on nothing as it tried to get ahold of the shadow. An instant later, the summon was struck from behind by multiple projectiles and the friendly fire ripped it to shreds as it rematerialized. The enraged quadrosaur leapt forward, landing on an Earth Spike and flattening it without even seeming to notice.
Tara bellowed out a challenge using her Roar Skill, and the Tier 1 creature drove right for her. I couldn’t get a clean line of fire as H’ruk, Raylan, and Bria charged at its flanks. Unable to shoot for fear of hitting my friends, I infused Poison into my gun and watched helplessly.
Tara took a headbutt on her shield, the force of the impact throwing her back out of position with a scream, her barrier shattering. H’ruk, who was the only one of us as tall as the massive reptile, smashed his staff into its shoulder with a blow that echoed over the sounds of the fight. The quadrosaur spun, using the side of its head like a mace to smash the orc out of the way.
Its tail whipped around in the opposite direction, catching Bria with enough force to knock her two-handed warhammer from her grip and send it flying. Another shadow appeared, but it was helpless to distract the beast now that it was among us.
Zaire’s Earth Spikes were barely penetrating its belly before being ripped from the ground as it moved. Most of the other ranged attackers were also having trouble engaging. The creature was massive, but low to the ground for its size, so we couldn’t easily fire over the heads of our melee fighters.
Tara and H’ruk threw themselves back at the beast as Bria scrambled to find her weapon. Suddenly, the creature reared up on its hind legs, using its massive forearms to rake down my friends’ bodies, hurling them to the ground with blood streaming from their wounds.
BOOM!clickclickBOOM!clickclickBOOM!clickclickBOOM!clickclickBOOM!
I screamed as I fired my slugs straight over my fallen teammates, hammering into the scaled chest. Spurts of blood exploded out from each impact, and the monster finally howled in pain, its roar even overpowering the sound of my gun for a moment. Then it shrieked again as Raylan Quick Stepped into a Double-Impact empowered slash, ripping through part of its rear leg. He paid for his strike as the tail smashed him aside, then G’hala leapt into the air.
The Shaman flew over her brother’s body and drove her totem deep into its flank. I saw the glimmer of energy trailing behind it and knew she’d used Spiritual Strike. Driven by the entire weight of her three-hundred-pound-plus body, the spear sank in well past the head. Then G’hala was flung free as the quadrosaur whirled, her weapon left behind as she tumbled along the ground.
A pair of overcharged Spells smashed into the monster – Sonic and Fire Bolts staggering it. Arlo now had a pistol in each hand, ripping off shots faster than I could match. My fingers were flashing as I reloaded, one, two, three – good enough. I was out of slugs, but I added my shots to the barrage raining down on the creature. It was badly wounded now, but so were Tara and H’ruk, and both Raylan and G’hala were temporarily out of the fight.
Then Bria charged from the creature’s other side, and Venkat joined her, having traded his longbow for his sword. Their combined efforts pushed the creature back a few steps, leaving Tara and H’ruk on the ground, now free of the creature but unmoving.
“Balance!”
I heard G’hala’s roar, and braced myself just in time as my body exploded in pain. It felt like whips of fire had sliced my chest open, and I could feel the blood flowing from the gashes. My right leg felt like it had been hit by a hammer, and I dropped to my knee with a scream, barely noticing as Zaire did the same. My gun fell from my hands as I ripped open my medkit, finding my healing potion, and I downed it urgently.
I gasped in relief as the pain faded slightly, watching in astonishment as H’ruk heaved himself to his feet. He literally had to be in as much pain as I was, but he showed his incredible toughness as he charged back into the fight. The monster was bleeding freely from numerous wounds, clearly slowed by all the damage we’d inflicted as well as the huge spear still impaled deep in its side.
Siare, the Deathdealer’s Healer, sprinted to Tara, who was still down on the ground. Unwilling to let H’ruk be the only one from our team still fighting, I forced myself to reach out and snatch my gun off the ground. I loaded another three shells from my bandolier and grunted in pain as I shouldered the weapon. The butt of my gun was pressing right into one of the wounds in my shoulder, and I knew this was going to hurt.
I pulled the trigger anyway. FUCK! I screamed inside my head as the powerful recoil slammed my chestplate back into the bloody gash beneath my baselayer. I racked in another shell, forcing myself to ignore the pain, everything dropping away except for me and my target. I gently caressed the trigger, startling myself when it broke and my gun roared again. Then again.
As I reloaded, G’hala appeared at the edge of my sight, throwing herself at the monster and grabbing onto her totem. She wrenched it around with all her strength, ripping into the quadrosaur’s chest. Then she pulled her weapon free with a mighty heave, and suddenly H’ruk was there, driving his staff like a lance into the gaping wound his sister had made.
The massive creature roared in agony as fire seared its innards. Bria’s massive warhammer drove down onto its head, and I dimly registered the sight of an Earth Spike erupting right under its jaw. The impact of the hammer smashed the creature’s relatively small head down onto the spike, and the beast came to a sudden halt.
The wave of Essence hit me a moment later.