Bloom Resonance like all Resonances possesses unique properties beyond the mere creation and use of a Card. One must look beyond the surface to find these properties. Bloom, the Resonance to which I have devoted years of study, is usually associated with plant life or the change of seasons from Winter to Spring. Yet as I learned from my time among the Vestra ‘Witches’* fascinating results can be garnered when one introduces various amounts of Bloom into other Resonances. In particular one can stimulate the growth of Resonance in the air or even Resonance crystals within a being.

*I resent the term witch that has been applied to these women even if they use it themselves. They are Botanists and alchemists.

-”Field” Journal of Lady Clataire Asley

Chapter 58: A Lack Of Vitals

Alabaster

Alley wasn’t usually the type to throw himself at his enemies, he preferred to use traps or tricks if he was somewhere familiar, or speed and cunning if he wasn’t. Today instead he found himself playing the role of the aggressor, something he would much preferred to have his hook in hand for.

Within a few strides, Darius had overtaken Alley. When it came to going in straight lines there really was no outrunning a Knots. The dark-haired boy could see his friend had already activated his Dealer, and the images of four little Trials Cards hovered near Darius' left hand.

The knight, which upon closer inspection was absolutely an empty suit of armor gripped its sword two handed and stepped forward to meet its attackers. The Blade deflecting Darius’ spear thrust, and slicing towards the Frostlander’s face.

Both boys split in opposite directions, Alley going left and Darius right as he ducked under the counter swing. Neither boy had discussed how they would approach this enemy, but they had been fighting and hunting together for as long as either could remember. While they had developed a shorthand code for quick communication, more often than not they didn’t need it.

There were a couple of ways to use a CoreSteel chain alone as a weapon, but most of them weren’t exactly appealing when facing an armored enemy with a sword. Alley could wrap one or both of his arms or fists and use the chain like an improvised shield. He could back up and use it like a whip of sorts, flicking the end of the chain at the knight’s face.

Both seemed like poor choices, so Alley had chosen option three; Wrap the knight up like he had the bone golem until Darius could deliver a finishing blow. Already having moved to stop the two boys from pincering him, the knight was clearly a more intelligent enemy than the golem had been. Still, he was also only the size of a man, so maybe Alley wouldn’t need a supporting pillar this time to subdue the undead man. He hoped not at least, as there weren’t any handy stone pillars or other objects within the garden he could use as an anchor.

Both of Alley’s parents had been proponents of some variation or another of the saying ‘ No plan survives contact with the monster’. In Alley's experience it simply wasn’t true, if a plan fell apart as soon as the action started it simply meant you hadn’t accounted for something. No, as far as the teen was concerned a better saying would be ‘no plan is so good it shouldn’t be abandoned when the situation changes.’

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This plan however fell firmly into the category of not surviving first contact. Using a second assault from Darius as cover, Alley whipped his chain out to wrap around the knight’s left arm. It turned out that despite being much smaller than the bone golem the knight’s strength was comparable to the monster’s. With a single jerking motion, the empty suit of armor yanked the chain and hurled Alley who still had most of it wrapped around himself flying across the garden.

The dark-haired boy let out a less-than-masculine shriek as he was flung but managed to catch himself in a roll as he landed. This plan was going to need some adjusting. The knight was both supernaturally strong and reasonably intelligent. Even as Alley recovered and dashed back into range, the armored undead kept circling and seeking a way past Darius’ spear.

Evidently the knight considered Darius the greater threat, as while it reacted to Alley’s presense and made sure not to get trapped between the two of them at least eighty percent of the knight’s focus was on the red headed boy at all times.

‘Should I be offended?’ Alley pondered as he made a lasso out of the chain and sent it looping over the knight’s helmet. The figure didn’t react or even seem to notice, which honestly made sense to Alley. Best he could tell they were fighting some sort of ghostly apparition that was animating an empty suit of armor. If that was the case then why would it care about its head? For such a being the head wasn’t more important than any other part of the suit. In fact, for a being like this one, it was probably less important than a limb.

The lasso wasn’t intended to actually cause the knight problems. Alley needed an anchor for his chain, and now he had one. Unwinding the last of the chain from around himself Alley began flicking loops of it at the knight. If nothing else he was absolutely going to get in this thing’s way until Darius could land some telling strikes.

The knight might not be a lumbering oaf like so many of the Undead they had faced but it still wasn’t what you would call graceful. Even now Darius was finding ways around the guarding sword. The problem was that there really wasn’t anything for the hunter to target. A fact he confirmed after activating a card appropriately called.

“Reveal Vitals!”

It was a good thing Alley’s chain had annoyed the knight enough that it was making efforts to unwrap the CoreSteel from itself as Darius paused for a second when the Card kicked in.

“It doesn’t have vitals” Called Darius as he jabbed his spear at the Knight’s chest.

“Well yeah,” Alley yelled back with a raised eyebrow. “What exactly were you expecting?”

The armored wraith had switched to a one-handed grip on its sword using the other to periodically pull at the binding chains, or swat at Alley. The boy had only needed one demonstration of the creature’s strength to know he could not allow himself to get hit and keep a healthy awareness of the knight’s movements. More than once Alley had to throw himself into a ridiculous roll or dive to get out of the way, but he managed to get ahold of the chain once more each time.

“Primal Forge: Maul!”

In his hands Darius’ spear shifted shape, not into a mighty axe this time but what looked like the sort of basic wooden club trolls in children's stories wielded.

“I don’t know!” Snapped the hunter as he swung the club at the knight’s knee.

“Sometimes you get lucky.”

Alley had to admit he was right, the boy had lost nothing by playing the Card, and had fortune favored him he might have learned something.

An ornate stone door next to the glass structure that Alley had initially taken as simply a carved bit of wall pushed open with a slow grind to reveal an unlit stairwell leading down into the earth. From this strange passage, two human-sized figures emerged. Each bore a longsword and clanked as they moved. It was a pair of armored knights with ghostly cloaks of Resonance flowing down their backs. These two didn’t have horns on their helmets, but otherwise, the were all but identical to the knight that had spoken to the boys in both appearance and movement.

Letting out a sigh Alley started calculating a viable way to respond to this new threat.

“and sometimes you get really unlucky.” Alley shot back with a wry grin.

“And sometimes you get really unlucky.” Darius agreed.