Well, fans always root for the underdog.
Pre-Fall sportswoman.
Johanna almost collided with a pair of city guards coming out of a side street.
“Whoa, Miss!”
“Attack. Near the market,” she yelled.
She didn’t recognize them, meaning they were not among the Talented guards of the city. But any support was better than just the two of them.
“Wait, what…” the guard yelled back.
In response, she simply flashed a flame – making her realize that, of course, all of Moore’s abilities had vanished back with him, and she was again a simple Fire Master.
Not that there was anything wrong with Fire Masters. Even if Moore hadn’t used the specialization at all.
“That’s her. From the Talent House,” the second guard told the first as the two started running again.
“The ones who gave Morris those Talents? Fuck,” she heard from the first as the two guards started running behind them too.
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Moore was busy comparing the two sets of perspectives, but he did not think it would be too late. Johanna and Tom, with the pair of guards trailing them, were still a couple of blocks away, based on his experience of the small town’s geography. Still, Peter and Laura had incapacitated the Lancer and Tactician already.
No, he realized, he’d got some experience already – now over 7000 – so they had killed them instead.
If the bandits were smart, they’d cut their losses like the first group, but of course, they didn’t know about the reinforcements coming. Neither did Peter and Laura, but they had taken control of the flow of the fight. The Earth Shaper had been “fixed” by the Fast Fixer, but he seemed not to have access to the handful of offensive Earth skills Moore had noted in his current knowledge base. He didn’t even have the Earth Master specialization, despite having enough level to use it. Not that Moore would complain about that.
Now, it was down to some form of Focused Battler versus Deviser. It should not be a fight that could be won decisively and extremely quickly… and the one who truly needed to win promptly was on the wrong side.
Even without a body, Moore could still smile.
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Johanna pulled out into the street and almost ran into Laura coming the other way. Her friend spooked and nearly turned away before realizing who was coming at her. She whipped her head and opened her mouth to warn Johanna about the fight, but the sorceress did not wait. She could already see the scene further down the street in any case.
Her hand was already raised, fingers cupped and aiming in the right direction, and she instantly fired into the back of one of the goons she’d seen while back in Moore’s realm. The Fast Fixer, she thought, remembering seeing the label in the windows there. She’d never seen those sort-of labels through their perspectives while she was in the dreamscape, but that deep into the mana realm, such information had been as plain as day.
His accomplice – was it the Earth Shaper? – turned wildly as the ball of fire exploded next to him, covering the first man’s back in flames. Then, a blur streaked past her, and the other man was flung aside. Tom might not have a weapon with him for shopping, but his fists were enough. The man landed hard on the ground, and Tom was already on him again, slamming and making sure the man was down. The crunch of bone was audible from Johanna’s position as the enemy was put down for good.
She simultaneously projected a Flaming Orb – the range was smaller than her projectiles, but she was close enough for it – and launched a new Fireball. She could not manifest an orb directly on the Fixer himself, only close by, but it was a distraction, and the man looked aside to the unexpected light and heat.
That was his mistake.
The second Fireball struck true, yet the man’s cry was cut short. Peter had grabbed a weapon, and he couldn’t really miss his strike. She saw the man fold as Peter jumped away to avoid the flames that had caught the goon’s clothes. At the same moment, she reached the first man, still rolling himself on the ground to extinguish the fire, and did not hesitate. Flame sprang in her hand, and she slammed it into the back of the head, the fire from her palm aimed down and burning true. Her enemy convulsed briefly. He might be a Fixer specialist, but there was some damage you couldn’t really fix fast enough, she hoped.
That was why they collected Artifacts for Laura, after all.
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She finally stopped, taking stock of her surroundings now that it seemed over. The street was a battlefield, she realized. People’s corpses sprawled, fires burning, and the four of them breathing hard in the middle of the mayhem. She felt a bit sick now that the adrenaline of the fight was receding. The bandit ambush last year after leaving White Meadows had left the same impression on her, even if those goons were far more dangerous than the would-be-bandits back then. Despite having more men, the battle at Kootenai had not felt that way, and she wondered what it said about war and battles compared to close fights.
At the edge of her sight, she saw the two guards that had followed them start moving, approaching cautiously. They had stopped when they saw the fight, she realized. She couldn’t really blame them. A fight involving Talented on all sides… was not something people could really apprehend, and she realized that was the first time it had to have happened. Talents had been rare until now, and enormously Talented people like Ranshao the Burning Walker or Elena of the Mists were a unique factor. Maybe people like the Erlangs, rumored to have far more Talents among them than any race on Earth, could entertain a duel between sorcerers. But in the Union?
You have brought power to the world, but only power can control power, the Skeleton had said in that dreamscape reminiscent of the training grounds at New Benton as ghostly Talented clashed against each other. She had the proof in front of her. Trained Talents were needed to deal with any rogue Talented people. You could probably overwhelm even them with untalented numbers, but you needed a large, massive force ready to take losses. Back when they’d fled, the squad sent after them hadn’t been enough because the generals at the Kootenai Garrison hadn’t really understood what really Talented were like.
And their own strengths multiplied. A good team of Talented people – like the one Moore had built out of them – was way more than simple individual Talented thrown together.
As she was taking deep breaths, another pair of guards came running from the other end of the street, the one from the market. This time, Johanna recognized the two of them – ones she’d provided with Talents a few weeks earlier. The Guardian captain and another, the one they’d offered the option of Vanguard Battler.
“What the fuck happened?” the captain said as he stopped, taking stock of the fallen.
“Someone decided to attack us while we were dispersed,” she replied. “Several someones. With Talents. And matched specializations,” she added.
He looked at her, finally recognizing her.
“Talents?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know they had specializations… they had to have some, right? Or the Talents wouldn’t be strong?” the captain asked, confused, before remembering their explanations about how Talented builds worked.
Johanna was not about to explain she’d briefly gained an Ancient’s perspective and knew precisely what levels and specializations they had. However, she realized now, the views had not offered her the actual Talents. She assumed that Moore might have a specific way of getting that information if he could see the rest.
“Yes. They had some, but they were not used to them, I think.”
“Not enough improvisation,” Peter added. “You can use some Talents in very non-obvious ways,” he said, and Laura winked at him.
“Fuck. That’s not something that should have happened. Not here, not in Sandusky.”
More locals were slowly coming out now that the battle had ended and town guards had arrived. The look on their faces was incredulous. She remembered her talk with the guards selected by the city council. New Sandusky had its share of problems, but mostly drunk fights and a homicide per year, nothing more. A scene of battle was definitively not what you got there.
“They got attacked before,” someone said behind her, and she turned and found it was one of the guards who had followed her.
“Before?” the captain – Flores, she now remembered – asked.
“Near Cross Street. People ran to warn us, but when we arrived, the bandits had fled, and they were running for their friends,” the guard explained.
Flores looked at her. Johanna was starting to get the chills as the adrenaline from the danger fully evaporated.
“It was a coordinated attack,” she explained.
“If you say so. I don’t understand how,” he said, looking at the corpses, two of which were still smoking. “You said you didn’t provide Talents outside the guards for the moment.”
“When I signed up for this,” the second Talented guard added, “that’s not quite what I expected.”
“Me neither,” Flores said.
“You’re telling me,” Johanna replied.
“Telling you what?” another voice said, and Johanna turned.
A half-dozen people were coming toward them with weapons drawn. The woman in the middle was looking at them curiously.
The captain immediately straightened and drew back his sword while the other guards raised their short pikes.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“If you’re Captain Flores, then I’m your boss.”
Johanna Marcia Milton
Female human, 20 years, 6 months
Fire Master
Level: 9 (55000 XP needed)
301/405 mana (+18 per hour)
1 unallocated skill point
XP: 2782 + 9517
STR: 18 (7410 XP needed)
Blazing Orb (45)
AUT: 21 (5531 XP needed)
Fire Handling (93)
AGI: 18 (4978 XP needed)
Cinder Circle (45)
PER: 18 (6005 XP needed)
Mana Sight (63)
DEX: 19 (4891 XP needed)
Flaming Blade (66)
Fireball (66)
EMP: 18 (4595 XP needed)
Steam Breath (27)
Bodily immunity to fire, up to 1230°F (665°C)
Detect mana flows & pools of 15.9 size or greater
Require 27% less oxygen
45% better sight
Sweatless
Tom Virgil Milton (Welter)
Male human, 20 years, 9 months
Battler Ace
Level: 8 (34000 XP needed)
365/365 stamina (+21 per hour)
0 unallocated skill points
XP: 7306 + 9517
STR: 21 (7500 XP needed)
Slam (50)
Double Tap (50)
AUT: 18 (8000 XP needed)
Grapple (44)
AGI: 21 (7929 XP needed)
Intercept (71)
PER: 18 (7736 XP needed)
Blind Fighting (62)
DEX: 18 (7740 XP needed)
Block (26)
EMP: 18 (4542 XP needed)
Optimal Strike (62)
Immunity to blunt assault, up to 250 pounds
Instinctive detection of incoming enemies (up to 710 yards)
Unshakable grip on a weapon under 62 pounds
+5.0 Agility for skill checks
+2.6 Strength for skill checks
+6.9 Perception for skill checks
44% more stable