“It’s nae the first time me arm were broken behind me Shield, but the first time since I learned the Matrix forms,” he admitted, clenching and unclenching his hand as muscles and bone moved visibly inside his forearm, straightening up and solidifying. “It were like the force of it were conducted right through the metal. If it were nae stealthslaked, I be thinking the lightning would have done the same.”
I blinked. “Like your Shield didn’t exist?” I asked warily.
“Aye,” he nodded, remaining silent until I removed my hand, then testing out his shield arm. “It be not the first time I’ve run into things that ignore a shield. The undead have some magical effect their elites know that blasts the force of a hit right through a shield, and some o’ the bigger creatures just slam the entire shield back with impossible mass, ye can’t stop it.”
“You got cap room to spend Karma and grab a Feat?” I asked him sharply.
“Aye, I keep a few Slots open in case there be an emergency. This be something I can Inspire for, instead?” he asked.
“You could, but it’s so obvious and universally useful I’m sure you’re going to take it regardless. How many of the Shield Mastery Chain of Feats have you taken?”
“The Mitharn stuff? I took Shield Focus, was saving on the rest, waiting for Storm Dragon Mastery?”
“Take Shield Ward for your Mastery for today. Ignoring the protection of a shield is equivalent to a touch attack against them, and Shield Ward uses full shield benefits against touch attacks and Reflex save spells.
“At Renewal, take Improved Shield Bash. You’ll get one free Bash for free once a round. You might want to Inspire for it right now, too.”
“Huh. The other Shield Masteries, too?” he asked, thinking that over.
I eyed Clan. “Hardened and Impervious Adamantine, but you’ve only gotten it to +III. I don’t know if you want to use it to intercept Bolts at the Incantor level, but it can’t hurt. If you get Reflecting Shield, you can turn them back on their source, once a round.
“I think the big thing now is getting that Ward up so the Servants don’t break your arm through your own damn Shield. If you take the Bash… then counter-smash their damn fists and try to sunder them.
“Also, next one, you Dispel their Stone and cut down their speed.
“In addition… if you had Weaponized Clan, you could keep its defensive prowess up with Shield Master, and then convert the entire magical bonus on the Weapon side to Defender… which those chorozite fists couldn’t ignore.
“Lastly, and I admit this is the first time I have ever recommended it, you may want to use Jadesmithing on your Shield, and get its Enhancement bonus up on the non-magical side. Chorozite only ignores the magical Buffs to your Shield.
“The problem is that it’s pricey and it takes a long time, and it takes a smith of superlative skill.” I tapped Clan. “QL 40 for Jade +IV, as high as it goes, 32k of goldweight equivalent in pure crafting effort. Probably need another three adamantine bosses fixed to it.”
He eyed me strangely, then flicked up Bunita between us. “This… be this Jadework?” he asked oddly.
“Yes. Kris only makes the utterly best with her Swords. Jadework on Armor and Shields is purely elective, but she won’t stint on a Blade.” I nodded at Clan. “That would be 32k of work. Even for her, that is five, six days of work, and you know how valuable that crafting time of hers is.
“But if you’re going to be fighting Hollows like this, you need it… and so does every Vanguard with a Shield.”
-FUCK!- Briggs and Kris /said together in Markspace, listening in on all this. The Mick couldn’t help but grin at their chagrin.
“It seems Mithar an’ His focus on shields be makin’ itself known again as something ye can’t ignore.” He eyed the emerald/orange-rainbow swirls of the Lost Light on his Sword narrowly. “The Lost Light didn’t seem t’ be workin’, either.”
“It’s a deflection bonus. It can’t push aside a chorozite weapon, either.”
The Mick’s eyes narrowed. “I can Infuse me Shield for now to a +III Weapon, and add Defender to it, aye?”
“That seems like a very wise thing to do, along with Bane to Constructs.”
“And Enmity to the Unnatural?” he added thoughtfully.
“But of course. I’d add Bane of Legends, but I don’t think you can stack more until you hit Artificer/16 effective Caster Level.”
“Fuck!” he barked shortly, and then laughed at himself with ironic chuckles. “So much more stuff t’ gain an’ learn!”
“And it never bloody ends, Lord Mick.”
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“Inspiring for the Shield Masteries,” he muttered, his eyes focusing. “Kris showed ‘em to me, so I know what they were supposed t’ do. Let’s see just what kind o’ difference they make in the next fight.”
---
“Well, you didn’t break your arm this time,” I noted, as I fixed his collarbone and carefully placed my hand on his shattered jaw.
He didn’t say anything with his jaw hanging there, just standing resolutely as Healing Reserve began its gentle effects. He did focus and swirl magic through his shoulder Pauldron and Helm, and the crunchy indents in both popped and crinkled as the magic repaired them, one after another.
The bones of his jaw knit up, torn muscles came back together, and missing teeth reappeared and regrew in place. He slowly tilted his head and popped his neck, saying nothing until he nodded at me and I pulled my hand away.
“Aye. Never seen an overhand chop like that afore,” he admitted. “It were like trying t’ block a flail.” Able to bend in ways no living limb could do, the Servant had crashed its elbow down on his shield, its glimmering fist whipping over to pound on the Mick’s shoulder one time, then sideways around the Shield and into his jawline another.
And that was after the Mick had discharged his Dispel Item into its chest and shut down the lightning charging it up with magical speed.
On the other hand, he’d shattered its left fist against the boss on Clan, throwing off its balance and breaking the chorozite effect there, robbing its left arm of force and the magic of Clan, the Lost Light, and his Armor once again applying to stop it.
The Fulguris actually hadn’t been nearly as dangerous. It could have been, were his Armor not as hard as it was, because the thing’s sickle-blades were effectively adamantine, as we’d discovered off the first one (and claimed as salvage!). If you didn’t have Armor and Shield rated at 20 hardness, it would cleave through your protection like cheese.
The Mick did, so the virindi couldn’t, which seemed to throw off its style of ripping and tearing somewhat, as if not quite believing that we could have such fine metal.
Then, between crits of his own and it being double-tapped with Imperil/Vuln, the Fulguris had gone down with commendable speed while my residual damage from stopping its spells and attacking with Shards from Arcane Fusion did their things.
“How’s your Mana?” he asked shortly.
“Pool is down half. I’m good on Matrix.” Continually throwing Gold-tier spells, even with my Mana Conversion, was sucking a lot of juice. I could step down to Coppers for the Dispels and perhaps save juice, but would give up doing any damage to do so. “If you feel up to it, I can stop the Arcane Fusions for double duty on Dispels and damage, and just neutralize its Casting.”
“Taking most o’ the hits on me Health an’ letting Combat Focus an’ Healing Edge deal with the Soak overload is keeping me about 300 fer now, but ye’re taking the lesser virindi out, an’ the Fulguris isn’t the threat in melee that its Minion is. Without magic, it actually be Healing me as I cut it down.”
The Lightning Elementals were serving the same purpose now, just getting him his Soak back at 1-8 points per hit.
“Try a fight with Combat Expertise active. Bunita is powerful enough to overcome almost any penalty you have, and if you can cut the Hollow Servants’ hit rate in half or more, even if the fight takes longer, it won’t matter.”
Shield Ward and Defender had made a very noticeable difference in the amount of damage the Hollow Servant was able to inflict, as had Dispelling its Sparking Stone Core. It was only a six-point swing in AC, but now his Shield was taking hits, and giving them back!
-It’s using a form of Power Attack based on flailing and leveraged motion, anticipating that an armored opponent’s armor and shield are going to be less useful against it. Use Elusive Target to shut that down, and its threat level should drop tremendously,- Kris /chimed in, taking time to watch this fight narrowly, even while out in the field training her Knights of the Lost Light. The Hollow Servants were by far the most dangerous martial combatants she’d seen here, a point echoed by Briggs. -As a Construct, it won’t change its fighting style from what it is programmed as, even if it keeps missing.-
The fact the Forsaken considered a creature that ignored magical defenses extremely dangerous was an irony lost on none of us. They liked their enchanted Armor and Shields too, after all.
On the other hand, she was now burning to fight one!
The Mick was starting to bounce eagerly, pumping himself up for the next one. “Gots me a good feeling now!”
---
The Director’s Whirling Blade hit Clan and bounced off like it had hit a mirror. The Master who had already seen its own Piercing Bolt put a hole into itself froze in astonishment as its own boss’s attack tore into it and ripped it open. The Mick stepped in, and Clan smashed into it and tore open the ragged gashes, spilling out whorls of virindi energy to be expended and consumed en vivus.
The Director stopped Casting and spun in on the attack, hand-scythes flipping out to reap. Both of its arms promptly went flying, flick-flick, the hissing appendages ending up sticking into the wall above the Mick’s head harmlessly, and then Bunita’s third flicker-strike opened it in a devouring, metal-eating slash vertically.
The Fulguris bowed its head to Cast, but Silver sparkles ripped apart its magic as the Acid Vuln flashed emerald around it, and the Mick was on top of it.
I used only two Arcane Fusions, the second when the Fulguris tried to get another spell off, dropping the Imperil down on it. The Mick chained three crits in a row to devastating effect right afterwards, and the Fulguris dropped with a humming whine of disbelief and astonishment, which ascended into desperate denial as vivus roared up and consumed it.
The Mick leaned against the wall of the jigsaw corridor there, breathing deeply. “Well, fuck me, that were easy,” he got out with a big grin, shaking Clan. “I think I love me that Reflecting Shield, lass!”
“Can’t imagine why, Lord Mick!” I returned, already Sifting for goodies. Adamantine hand-sickles, Virindi Amulets, Virindi Masks, and Sparking Stones for all.
It turned out that jacking his AC to the moon also made it easier to parry and reflect spells, to the point he’d told me to only Dispel the Fulguris, and he’d see if he could handle the Master and the Director’s War spells, all that while fighting the Hollow Servant.
The Servant was still dangerous, but Kris’ advice had been spot on. The Servant’s wild and powerful flailing was just that, wild, sacrificing accuracy for power. When the Mick adjusted his fighting style and focused on evading the creature appropriately, the entire pattern of his dodging changed, flowing with the motions of the creature and robbing it of the angles and resistance it needed to complete its attacks. Combined with a higher Armor Class and its own penalty to its attack for using such powerful blows, it had started bouncing impotently off his Shield, and when it hit, it was for much less force than previously, only able to overcome the Mick’s substantial Damage Reduction and inflict bruises, instead of breaking bones and denting Armor!