Chapter 148: For the Sake of Those around You
Ayaz landed on the water, feet sinking slightly into the waves as he triggered his water-walking ability.
“That sneaky bitch kicked me all the way back down.”
His polite pretense was gone, eyes bloodshot at the thought his own ship had been stolen away from him.
“Politely withhold your insults about my team members. For your own good, should you desire a respectable end.”
Ayaz’s eyes focused on a tall, strong looking adventurer. His frame was powerful, though not as bulky as his own. He had black hair, clean features that balanced elegance with strength, and piercing grey eyes that unnerved Ayaz. As if they saw what was within Ayaz and deemed it unworthy. Worthless.
“I’ll insult whoever I like, sir adventurer.”
“The self-assurance of a failure,” the adventurer said, with a smile that didn’t communicate anything of the sort. “A winner doesn’t need it. No matter what you tell yourself…” he tapped his neck with a finger, “You have a permanent scar to remind yourself of the truth.”
“Escaping death is hardly shameful,” Ayaz said. It wasn’t.
“If you thought you had escaped death, you are mistaken. She understands what she needed to prioritize, and it wasn’t you.”
He held his staff aloft, his posture and guard faultless. Ayaz knew enough to know he was outclassed, but he may win with the power of the sea on his side.
“She has her fight above. Now, you are mine to resolve.”
“Resolve? I’m not some problem,” Ayaz spat.
“What else would you be, pirate? You are nothing but a burden upon society.”
The two faced off, Ayaz pacing on the surface of the water around the adventurer, who patiently waited for him, unmoving in the center of Ayaz’s predatory prowl.
“You won’t attack?”
“I have no need,” said the adventurer, nonchalant.
“You underestimate me, adventurer! You always do!”
Ayaz swung his saber; the curved blade pulled the water of the sea to enhance the attack. The power of a wave in the swing of his blade.
He ended face up, back sinking into the water. He flipped up in a confused spring, righting himself as if he hadn’t just been humiliated.
What just happened? They should be the same rank, no, he should be further along bronze that this brat, this…teenager!
“Captain,” the adventurer said, his own politeness mocking, “You are not done yet, are you?”
Ayaz attacked again, gathering the power of the water into his saber. He watched this time, carefully, even more than he already had been against an enemy he knew was more skilled than he was.
The staff sweep wasn’t particularly fast. The heavy staff had an immense weight, this unavoidable pull that led Ayaz straight into its path. The staff flung him, far easier than it should have, as if Ayaz’s weight was no longer his own.
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Ability: [Weight Manipulation]
Special Ability
Cost: Low mana-per-second / moderate mana-per-second
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): Manipulate the weight of yourself or your equipment. This can increase or decrease the weight of weapons and armor, making them heavier or lighter to wield, changing their characterization from a heavy to light or vice versa. Allows for reduced or increased falling speed and water walking.
Effect (Bronze): Generate a field of weight manipulation centered around you, either pulling or pushing towards you for moderate mana-per-second. Targets can be excluded from this effect. Weight manipulation allows for gliding at moderate mana-per-second. The effects of slow fall, water walking, and gliding can be extended to others in very close proximity for an ongoing mana cost per target.
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Sen had a general idea of gravity thanks to John, and his abilities granted him the deftness to use the force even with incomplete knowledge. Nara also manipulated gravity without in-depth knowledge of the force, so understanding was not a prerequisite for most essence abilities, though it could boost the application. Even without knowledge, essence users figured out how to better manipulate their abilities through trial and error, like wind users pushing aside the air to decrease their wind resistance and increase their speed. They just needed to feel it.
Ayaz felt as if the adventurer dragged him in, like he was intentionally moving to get hit, like he wanted to get him. When he was hit, it was as if he had been battered by the raging waves of the sea.
The frightening staff swung again, catching Ayaz in the ribs, cracking beneath its massive momentum, he was flung back, slamming into the hull of his own ship, caving in the wood in a shockwave that harmed him as well.
“Get up, Captain.” The adventurer had not even broken a sweat. Posture easy and casual, though still at the ready. “Your move.”
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Ability: [Hero’s Sacrifice]
Essence: Zeal
Special Ability
Cost: Variable health
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): Sacrifice your health to enhance the power of special attacks.
Effect (Bronze): Special attacks deal additional resonating-force damage when enhanced with a health sacrifice.
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Ayaz threw everything he had at the adventurer. Powerful saber blows that had felled many before! Tendrils of water that whipped, grabbed, and stabbed, formless and impossible to parry! Raging whirlpools of water, lunging saber blows that would have ripped the mast of his own ship in half! Claps of lightning and thunder manifested from thin air, pure energy and magic as Storm’s mighty spear!
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Some of his attacks connected, but a sinking feeling grew within Ayaz that his enemy was picking and choosing which he would block and which he would allow through, for his own benefit. He swung his staff in flowing arcs, lightning and water redirected harmlessly away from him, and even back at Ayaz.
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Ability: [Karmic Return]
Special Attack (retributive)
Cost: Low stamina and mana
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): Enhance your weapon with significant resilience. If this attack intercepts another physical attack, inflict the damage of the attack as retributive damage identical to the damage amount and damage type of the intercepted attack to the original attacker. Reducing or negating the original damage does not reduce or negate the retributive damage.
Effect (Bronze): This attack can intercept magical abilities and incorporeal attacks such as spells with size and shape limitations.
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The young man was immovable. Not in physical movement, but in mentality. His eyes never strayed from Ayaz’s own, watching his expression and position with trained then ingrained acuity.
Ayaz suffered blow after blow, the piercing thrusts and smashes of the unbelievably heavy staff leaving painful welts and cracking bone. Ayaz felt like he was fruit, smashed apart bit by bit by a skilled chef, beaten into paste and submission.
Ayaz’s Seawater Regeneration couldn’t keep up with the adventurer’s consistent, heavy blows. Dread grew as he felt the youth’s power grow strong with each attack, while his own attacks inflicted less damage. The young man never recoiled from his attacks to begin with, an oppressive opponent of unflinching resolve.
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Ability: [Karmic Warrior]
Special Ability
Cost: None
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): Gain an instance of [Agent of Karma] when subjected to damage or any harmful effect, even if the damage and/or effect was wholly negated.
* [Agent of Karma] (boon, holy, stacking): The [Power] and [Spirit] attributes are temporarily increased by a small amount. Additional instances have a cumulative effect.
Effect (Bronze): Gain an instance of [Good Karma] when healing others, cleansing others, or suffering damage. Enemies that attack or take offensive actions against you are inflicted with [Bad Karma]. So long as any enemy has an instance of [Bad Karma], you have [Karmic Sacrifice].
* [Bad Karma] (affliction, retributive, holy): Suffer a small amount of retributive, transcendent damage when making an attack or other offensive action against anyone without the [Karmic Sacrifice] boon. Additional instances have a cumulative effect.
* [Good Karma] (boon, holy, stacking): Bonus to [Recovery]. Damage from enemies with [Bad Karma] is reduced. Additional instances have a cumulative effect.
* [Karmic Sacrifice] (boon, holy, heal-over-time): Gain an ongoing healing effect, with strength determined by the amount of [Good Karma] you have accrued. This effect immediately ends if there are no enemies suffering from [Bad Karma].
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Together with Battle Equilibrium and the effects of Nara’s aura, Sen had a regenerating pool of health he could constantly sacrifice for increased damage and unrelenting pressure. He was the type of opponent Nara was the worst at dealing with; he had consistent, high damage blows that were difficult to deflect, and no single attack she could dodge to avoid most of the damage. Before her afflictions and boons could scale Nara up, Sen usually defeated her first.
“Wait! Wait!” The pirate screamed as he desperately rebuffed blows that blew apart his defenses with constant resonating-force damage. “I surrender!”
“I accept your surrender.”
Sen held his staff steady, pressing it up close against the pirate’s throat. The glowing red blade his Staff of Duality sizzled as drops of sweat indistinguishable from the salty seawater evaporated on the blade, so red hot that the air warped. The glaive was burning hot, but Ayaz’s blood was sluggish and cold despite the rabbit-terror beating of his heart.
Ayaz quickly removed an object from his waterproof satchel, throwing it up into the air to detonate. Sen reacted, nimbly sliding backwards across the choppy water to avoid any explosion.
The object was a flare. It shone in sky, reflecting off of the water. The attention of all the combatants was briefly drawn upwards, a moment of quiet in the clamor, but fighting resumed as the flare faded with no result.
Ayaz and Sen waited, but nothing happened. What had happened? He still felt Shamsul’s aura on the ship. Why hadn’t the ritual activated?
Sen’s expression was almost pitying, “Was that for your ritual?
“You know about the ritual,” Ayaz said, his voice low with dread that he tried to deny.
“My teammate stabbed you in the neck from the deck of your own ship. You didn’t consider she may have been there the entire time?”
Sen held his staff aloft, preparing to swing.
“W-wait. What are you doing?”
“You had your chance to surrender.” Sen said calmly, like he was a farmer reaping another bundle of wheat, “There are no second surrenders.”
*****
The battle wrapped up above deck. Nahir had been joined by his teammate, Miray, a soft-spoken celestine with a mix of healing, wind, and water abilities.
Weapons were scattered across the blood-spattered deck, the air a mixture of fresh sea breeze and the coppery tang of blood. The wooden deck was splintered with long gouges and splintered craters, and it slowly began to repair itself from the damage with the strange, groaning creak of healing wood, sounding every bit the haunted ship.
“Captain Kezo was right. This is an expensive ship. How did these pirates get their hand on it?”
“It is not likely to have originally been a pirate ship,” Nahir said. “Stole it, like all the other sea thieves.” His dark eyes scanned this ship. “They would not have spared us, if we surrendered to their demands.”
“How do you know?”
“Pirates of this level are not only pirates. They may live normally otherwise, within communities.”
“They’re part-time pirates?”
“A strange expression,” Nahir said, “But accurate. Since we saw their faces, they would not want their identities exposed. But…It is speculation. They may come from the southern coast of the Tier-Media.”
“Why there?”
“The southern coast is tribal, filled with opportunistic raiders attacking the caravans of Atisalhaya and the vessels of the Tier-Media.”
Nara felt something, a sharp, hostile surge of a desperate aura.
“AAAAAAHHHHH!” A bronze rank pirate that had been subdued lunged forward, stabbing out with his dagger towards Miray, who was examining the still living pirates.
Nara teleported, intercepting the dagger in time. The pirate was weak-willed, desperate. The dagger clattered from his hands. She kicked him back, flinging him to the slick deck of the ship.
Nahir was there in a flash, trident raised.
“Stop! Nahir!” Miray shouted, her voice a clear ringing bell over sudden chaos. “Don’t you dare!”
His glare was a mixture of concern and fury. His trident shook in the air for a moment. Nara wasn’t sure he would listen, but he relented, lowering his trident.
“Why stop me, Miray!” he demanded, still volatile.
“Don’t pretend you don’t know.” Miray said, her soft voice stern. “Those hostages serve two purposes, for us, and for the pirates.”
“It’s no excuse.”
“It is.”
Nahir bolted towards Nara, grabbing her by the scruff of her robe and pinning her to the wall. She shook off his arm, slapping it down and shoving him back.
“Nahir!” Miray shouted again, “We’ve talked about this!”
Nahir’s gaze was steely. “That was one of yours,” he said. “Miray could have died.”
“She didn’t,” Nara said. “Even if that blow connected, she would have been fine. She’s bronze rank Nahir, not some porcelain doll.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Nothing happened,” Nara said icily. “If you’re going to rage at every near miss and every possible alternative, then you should give up adventuring now and let those with mental fortitude handle it.”
He glared, teeth bared in hostility.
“That wouldn’t have killed me, Nahir,” Miray interjected, her will just as unyielding.
“You don’t know that. You can never know that!”
They were both right. At bronze rank, essence users could survive injuries that would be fatal, but they would need immediate and powerful healing. As the healer herself, Miray was in some ways most at risk, if there was no one else around to heal her, and if the blade had punctured her throat. However, John was also nearby, and others could have given her a potion.
“You prioritize these pirates over the lives of your comrades?” Nahir hissed, “Are they worth it?”
“Nahir,” Miray admonished. “We’re adventurers. We protect people, even if it is the difficult thing to do. What about you? You kill all these people here, as if you wouldn’t stab another adventurer in the back to save any of your teammates.”
“I wouldn’t.”
“You would.”
“You’re a healer, Miray. They way you think is correct for your role.”
“The way I think is not defined by my role, Nahir, nor is it limited to my role. You don’t think only priests of Healers should think of healing, do you? My god would be very disappointed.”
“I’m not his priest.”
“Then you should be disappointed in yourself.”
At Miray’s words, Nahir’s gaze turned from Nara, unable to look at her or Miray.
“You got lucky this time.” Nahir said warningly. “You best remember the next time you show mercy, there may be a cost, and others may pay it.”
“I’ll keep it under advisement.”
“For the sake of those around you, I hope you do.”