PART IV - LIKE AN ONION
“You received a second melded skill?” Reynard asked Callie with a combination of skepticism and eagerness.
“A perk, actually,” Callie confirmed. “Something called Effect Layering. We’ve been so excited and busy with the Turret that I haven’t even unlocked it yet.”
Thorn cleared his throat, putting on a polite but artificial smile. “If you would, perhaps, maybe look into that?”
“Oh! Right! Give me a second.”
Tell me about Effect Layering
MELDED CLASS PERK: EFFECT LAYERING
DESCRIPTION: This perk allows the caster to apply multiple skill effects to a single arrow. The effects are applied in reverse order of their intended use. If the casting or use condition for any effect fails, all effects are canceled and the caster loses all charges and mana used. Mana required increases significantly with each additional effect. Caster can apply the same effect multiple times, as long as they have enough charges and mana, and all castings are completed before the first’s effect dissipates.
This is a melded perk of TINKER + ADVANCED ARCHERY.
“This is a little weird,” Callie finally said to the eager five faces looking at her. “But I think it’s really powerful, too.”
“What does it do?” Jesca asked.
“So I’ll give you the description, but I think I understand what it does.” Nervously, Callie relayed the information to the others, being sure not to miss any of the details.
Everyone had a puzzled look as they turned the information over in their minds, with Reynard being the first to put all the pieces together. “Oh my,” was all he could mumble. “This is …”
“My stars!” Thorn exclaimed, figuring it out as well.
“Quickly, try something,” Reynard said eagerly just as Jesca finally wrapped her head about the description as well, her eyes widening as she gasped out loud.
Callie shook her head. “I’m really low on mana. I need a bit.”
“Here,” Thorn said, handing Callie a purple Rejuvenation potion from his belt. “We always carry one of these on the chance a recruit goes too far.
“Oh,” Callie said with a down expression, recognizing the foul-tasting elixir. She hesitantly removed the cork stopper and drank it down, her face scrunching up at the bitter, dirt-like taste. It would restore some mana, but not as much as a proper blue mana potion would.
Thorn raised his paw and whistled sharply. From seemingly out of nowhere, a Sprite zipped towards him. Before she could even get out a greeting, Thorn ordered, “Go and fetch me a Rejuvenation potion and as many mana potions as you can carry. Get another Sprite to help you.”
With a sharp nod of acknowledgement, a wave, and a fading ‘goodbye’, the Sprite flew off into the dim morning light. All eyes turned back to Callie.
“What should I try first?” Callie said, retrieving her toy bow from where she had set it in the shelter.
Reynard pondered a moment. “Rapid Fire and Piercing.”
Callie moved to the firing line, the trainers on either side of her. The other recruits fanned out to get a good view, both Koda and Pixyl still with perplexed looks on their faces, unsure what to expect. Centering her mind, Callie carefully aimed and touched the bow string. A familiar arrow of energy appeared, ready to be imbued with Ranger magics. She drew back the string, calling forth the powers.
RAPID FIRE + PIERCING SHOT
As the string slipped from her fingers, there was a loud ‘pop’ sound, and the arrow burst into a shower of sparks. Callie could feel the double-hit of mana loss, but also noticeably increased over what it would have cost to cast them separately. She also felt a charge of each spell being consumed, but nothing happened except a lot of sound and light.
Callie winced from the loud noise hitting her sensitive ears. “Ow!”
“What happened?” Thorn asked.
“I’m not sure,” Callie said, trying to get past the ringing in her head. “Did I do something wrong? I lost mana and charges.”
“What order did you cast?” Jesca asked.
Callie gestured at Reynard. “Just like he said. Rapid Fire and then Piercing Shot.”
“I think you did it backwards,” Jesca coached. “Remember? You have to apply in reverse order.”
Mulling that over in her head, Callie then saw the mistake and saw how everything worked. Layers, just like an onion! That was exactly what the perk was called, after all, Effect Layering. She had to build each skill into a layer on the arrow. When she loosed, the last one she put on it would be the first one to take effect, followed by each in turn. Adding Piercing Shot last caused it to be used first, which wouldn’t work if the arrow hadn’t left the bow yet. As a result, the entire casting failed.”
“I think she’s right,” Reynard said, having thought the issue through as well. “Try it the other way.”
“Sure,” Callie nodded. Once again she sighted and touched the bow string, the arrow appearing. Aiming for the fifty-meter target, she called the magic.
PIERCING SHOT + RAPID FIRE
She released the string and immediately, as expected, five arrows flew from the end of her bow in rapid succession. Each struck the far-off target, but instead of simply embedding into the straw, they blasted straight through it to impact into the hillside behind. Tiny pieces of straw fluttered slowly to the ground, visible through the larger hole created by five Piercing Shot arrows striking close to each other.
“Holy shit!” Callie gasped quietly.
“My stars…” Reynard said just as quietly as he gawked at the hole Callie’s shots had blown through the target.
“Try another,” Jesca cheered. “Maybe Multishot and Flare?”
Callie glanced quickly at Reynard, making sure that he at least didn’t disapprove. He returned a careful nod.
Aiming the bow skyward, Callie touched the string. She was just about to imbue the arrow with the two magical spells, but she stopped. “Wait a minute. I need to do this the right way. Flare would be the last thing to take effect, right? So it has to be the first one I use.”
“Oh, right!” Jesca confirmed. “Reverse my idea, then.”
Once again, Callie aimed upwards. Now at Bronze tier, the casting time of Flare had dropped from three to two seconds, and other aspects had improved as well, including being able to control the glow time anywhere from fifteen to thirty seconds, instead of a flat twenty. The other Rangers had told Callie about the new variable effect available on Flare, with Reynard clarifying that if one didn’t specify at casting time, the effect would default to the midpoint of the range. Multishot had also improved. In addition to having a new multiplier of four, it also had an increased aiming cone.
FLARE 30 SECONDS + MULTISHOT
The arrow flew, immediately splitting into four separate projectiles. As they reached their apex, the next layer took effect, each bursting into a brilliant light, illuminating the area as they began to slowly descend.
“There are four lights!” Reynard whispered loudly. “How…”
“I need to sit,” Callie said, rubbing her face, and staggering slightly. “I’m tapped out again. Sorry.” She set her bow aside and sat, leaning against the back wall of the shelter, having exhausted the paltry mana boost from the Rejuvenation potion. It was now obvious the additional mana required to layer more than one effect on to the arrow. If she had cast each of those six spells separately, she’d still have enough mana to keep going for a while longer.
Reynard and Thorn dove into a hushed strategy discussion and Callie smiled. Seeing Reynard excited, maybe even almost happy, was a welcome change from the gruff, cranky aura he usually had. Now he was almost like an eager kid with new toys to play with.
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Jesca and Pixyl sat down, one on either side of Callie. Pixyl leaned on Callie, who in turn leaned on Jesca. They’d been up early for a while now, and while the bouncy Jesca didn’t sleep much and was wide awake, the other two were tired and appreciated being able to rest a bit.
While Callie waited for her mana to recharge, she rolled through the different permutations and combinations in her head that she might be able to put together with this new perk. Could she combine Rapid Fire and Multishot? Sniper and Elemental? Heck, Rapid and Elemental Shot? Could she literally machine gun fiery death upon the enemies? Or combine that fire with her new Rain of Arrows? She visualized all the different base skills in her head, and started sliding the various combinations together into sequences, pushing a few around that felt like they were out of order. Then she remembered she could even use some of them more than once, and the number of possible combinations exploded.
Panting, two Sprites raced back to the range, fluttering to a stop in front of Thorn with an exhausted and gasping ‘Hello!’. They handed him a few potions they’d been holding tight to her chest, and he slipped a purple one back into his pouch to replenish his emergency reserve. He thanked the tiny Fae, who waved eagerly, adding a breathless “Goodbye!” before zipping off into the trees.
Thorn walked towards Caliie, handing one of the blue mana potions to her while he gave the others to Jesca to hold. “You’ll need a few more minutes before you can drink another, but when you’re ready, we have some ideas to try.”
“Okay,” Callie said, scowling at the mana potion in her hand. Blue ones should taste like a delicious Blue-Raspberry Slushie, not the boiled socks that they actually tasted like!
“I d-d-don’t understand the big deal with this p-p-perk,” Pixyl whispered, eyeing Thorn as he walked back to Reynard and Koda, who had joined the two trainers.
Jesca gasped wide-eyed incredulously at the Fae, not believing she didn’t see what the potential was.
Callie held up a hand before Jesca could start a rambling explanation. “You saw me shoot five Piercing Shots through that target with one attack. Normally we can only shoot one. Same with that Flare, but now there are four lights! Normally, we can only make one there, too. With this perk I can build my attacks in dozens, in time maybe even hundreds, of different combinations depending on the circumstances and it looks like I can put a lot more damage downrange.” It took a moment, but you could see the realization come over Pixyl’s face as she started to connect the dots like the others already had.
After a few more minutes, Callie scrambled to her feet before drinking her sock-flavored mana potion. “Okay, what’s next?”
Immediately, Thorn, Reynard and Koda started peppering her with various combinations to try. Callie waved them all off, deferring to Reynard for direction just to keep things a little organized. She had a couple combinations she wanted to try as well, but thought it best for the trainers to take point, at least for now.
So they tested, and they all learned quite a few things in the process. Rapid Fire and Multishot could indeed work together, but only if Rapid Fire was applied last, so it was first used. If the other way around, once again the casting would ‘pop’ and fail, eating up both the charges as well as the increased mana costs. They tried adding Flare once again to the sequence, layered first to take effect after Multishot and Rapid Fire, brilliantly lighting up the sky with a total of twenty slowly-descending lights. The combination of flares were so bright that everyone had to look away, finding the entire training field lit almost as if it was noon. The multiplicative drain of mana was even more intense with three skills layered together, though.
Twice, Callie needed to take another break to refill her mana, waiting the agonizing five minute minimum between each potion. With no watches to count the minutes, it was largely guesswork. Thorn seemed to have an uncanny sense of time, though, and knew instinctively when enough had passed for Callie to drink again without having to worry about potion sickness or side effects.
They tried combining Rapid Fire with Rain of Arrows, which dropped one-hundred sixty arrows into the targeted area, looking much more like the effect of Reynard’s Platinum Tier capability. However, it proved a mistake, as the skill was brand new to Callie with Bronze, and thus her mana efficiency with it was incredibly poor. Callie had already been a little low on mana, and coupled with the increased mana cost from her unfamiliarity with the spell and the layering the effects, she under-estimated what she would need for the total, running her mana slightly beyond empty. She collapsed in surprise with mana drain, and Thorn forced his purple Rejuvenation potion into her as soon as the time from her previous had expired, in order to counter any possible psychic injury before it set in.
With all the lights in the sky, and the cacophony of blasts from various combinations with Burst Shot, a few additional recruits and others had joined the spectators. This included Commandant Xera, who was on their way to their office after an early-morning shower, and Major Celeste, who was rather sour about not being able to sleep in for Homeday for all the racket. “Of course it’s you,” Celeste said mockingly, seeing Callie was the cause of everything.
Jesca raced among all the newcomers, filling them in on what was happening and gushing about what a big deal it was. Xera was intrigued by the Turret, and Callie called one up to show them, before resting again to take advantage of the last blue potion when she was finally off potion cooldown. Like all the others had been, Xera was fascinated by the clockwork machinations of the Turret, and quickly disappeared down a rabbit-hole of strategy with Thorn, Celeste and Reynard.
Eventually, Callie swallowed the last mana potion. By now, Reynard had largely run out of combinations to do, which was fine as Callie had one of her own that she had come up with and wanted to attempt. Her mana reserves now full, she once again took the line, touching her hand to the bowstring and calling forth her magic arrow.
“I don’t know if this one will work like I think it will,” Callie said, looking back at her friends and the audience of about a dozen recruits. She smirked, and added with a wink and a grin, “But, what the hell, right? Let’s see what happens!” She sighted carefully on the fifty-meter target as the crowd both giggled and seemed to instinctively take a couple steps backwards in concern. They’d seen that look on her face before.
BURST SHOT + PIERCING SHOT
The arrow released and flew true. As expected, it pierced through the target, diving deep into the bales of hay as always. But that first Piercing Shot layer had now been consumed, allowing the next one to be activated, triggering the Flashbang-like effect.
Unable to contain the concussive effect released inside it, the soft target literally exploded. There was a crash of sound and light, and then there was simply a huge gaping void. The pile had simply been blown largely apart, with chunks of it thrown in all directions, a fair amount slowly fluttering to the ground. A loud boom echoed around the field, reflecting off the forest surrounding it.
“Holy fuck!” Callie gasped in a whisper. She had thought maybe she’d get a cute boom, and maybe a bigger hole than with the quintet of Piercing Shots, but not this. Unbidden, her mind flitted back to one afternoon as a little girl when her dad had been watching an old Rambo movie with his band buddies. She didn’t remember much of it, but she now suddenly recalled the sweaty hero wreaking havoc against the enemy’s army camp before using an explosive arrow to literally blow up the big bad guy at the end. She slowly grinned to herself, quietly mumbling, “That one’s for you, dad.”
Reynard slowly turned from the carnage, soon followed by Xera and Thorn. The Ranger trainer opened his mouth to speak. Maybe he was going to congratulate her, or maybe chastise her for blowing up the target. Callie didn’t let him. She just had another idea and she was mostly full of mana, so what the hell. She grinned wildly at the Foxkin. Sighting far down the field, Callie clenched her lower lip with her teeth in concentration before aiming upwards. With a quick glance, she mischievously waggled her eyebrows at Reynard before tossing in a final wink for good measure and relished the tiny look of worry that came over her trainer’s face.
Callie began to cast, weaving layer after layer onto her arrow. This was probably going to cost her every spare drop of mana she had, but if this worked …
BURST SHOT + PIERCING SHOT + RAIN OF ARROWS + RAPID FIRE
This was Callie’s first attempt to combine four effects, and five arrows streaked out like a burst from a machine gun as Callie slowly swung her aim from right to left, moving the impact area with each new arrow that launched forth. Now, a volley of five arrows rocketed towards their apogee. Next, Rain of Arrows seized the chain of linked magic, each arrow splitting into four, before they all split again in two. The officers all turned to follow as the arrows flew overhead, and all told, two dozen pairs of eyes watched in silent expectation as the projectiles arced skywards, suddenly growing exponentially into a deadly swarm.
Callie's number-loving brain cackled in glee as she watched the morning sky dim. One arrow had become five, which then became eighty, which then doubled again. This was better than counting primes!
Callie immediately felt her mana reserves completely bottom out, though, and she slammed her bow into the soft dirt, using it to hold herself upright. She was going to see this through, no matter what!
One-hundred sixty arrows now flew ballistically, arching over and targeting multiple four-meter wide areas starting at the one-hundred meter target and moving left from there. With Piercing Shot next in the chain of spells, the arrows seemed to dive towards the ground with extra-deadly intent, ready to bury themselves deep into whatever they hit.
Sounding like the finale of the grandest fireworks display ever, and looking much the same, each arrow triggered its final layer a moment after piercing into the hay bales or the soft earth. Normally, one Burst Shot wasn't that destructive. It was just designed to be loud, bright and disorienting. But the Piercing effect caused them to dig deep before the last layer triggered, and this many confined arrows exploding within a few seconds in such small areas simply annihilated everything. Bales of straw went flying everywhere. Dirt and grass and rain-soaked mud were replaced by exploded-out holes, and then by growing craters, that each striking explosion dug deeper and deeper, flinging earth in all directions.
The flashes of bright light left stars in everyone’s eyes and Callie was forced to drop the bow to cover her sensitive ears with her hands to protect from the loud, concussive sounds. Without any support to hold on to, Callie fell to the ground, barely managing to land on her rear and remain upright, but having no strength for more than that.
The cluster-bombing finally finished after a few seconds, echoes of explosions rebounding off the forest and anything else that had witnessed the destruction. What destruction it was! The hay bales that were once the one-hundred meter target were simply … gone. All the grass for several meters around that was likewise torn up and flung aside. Fencing on either side of the range, designed to separate it from where other classes would be practicing with their own ranged spells, was ripped apart. The scene looked like a World War I wasteland of mud and bombed-out devastation.
Her ears ringing, Callie looked down the field as she struggled to stay upright, simply gaping in disbelief at what had happened. Above and behind her, a wide-eyed Pixyl sat atop the shelter, likewise gawking in wonder at what had become of the Ranger range. Callie saw Reynard and Xera simply staring at her in disbelief, while Thorn had both paws on his head, transfixed downrange, still trying to drink in what he had seen.
“Does … does this mean I am allowed to tear the grounds up again?” a distant and beautiful voice asked.
Callie turned weakly to look for who had spoken, having a vague sense who it might be, but from the ground, she couldn’t see her, The last thing she did see, though, was a brief glimpse of Loki trying to sneak off with her bow, before the world became fuzzy and then went dark.