While they were en route to the enemy stronghold, Jacob got Anton and the Witch together in the cockpit so he could interrogate them about their abilities.
“What’s your actual name, anyway?” Jacob asked the scarred woman. “Having to think of you as ‘The Witch’ is kind of annoying.”
“It’s June,” she said with a surprisingly soft smile. “I don’t actually know your name, either. I just know of you as the Hanged Man.”
“Oh, it’s Jacob Do— Jacob Sorenson. I’ll be honest, you don’t really look like a ‘June’.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah, but whatever. If you don’t mind, please tell us a bit about your Blessing and overall build. I think I get the basics already, but teamwork will probably be a big part of this, so it’s important that we all get filled in about each other.”
June nodded seriously. She sat curled up in her seat, legs pressed to her chest. “Okay. My Blessing lets me make fire. The more pain I’m in, the larger and hotter the flames. I heal quickly, too. The worse I’m hurt, the quicker I heal.”
“What is the name of your Blessing?” Anton asked, slowly spinning in his swiveling seat while shuffling through his deck of cards.
“Burn the World.”
As always, Jacob had to remind himself that the name of a Blessing didn’t imply anything about its level of power. But as names went, that was a good one.
“Does that mean you have to limit how much you burn?” Jacob asked after some thought. “I noticed that you’re affected by your own flames, so clearly that creates a positive feedback loop for you. The more you burn, the more pain you feel, the more you keep burning, and so on. But if you burn so quick that you fry off all your nerve endings, won’t that kill your momentum?”
June shrugged. “It was like that at first. The aspect helped with that.”
“What level are you now?”
“Three.”
“So you just got the aspect?”
“Yeah. Right at the start of that last fight.”
“What does it do?”
She smiled. “It just makes me feel more pain.”
“All the time?”
“All the time.”
Jacob winced a little at that. “How… much pain are we talking?”
“I don’t mind it. Either way, I don’t need to worry about my nerves going dead anymore. I feel it all.”
The way she kept smiling while saying all that made Jacob feel a little sick to his stomach, remembering her half-burnt to a skeleton. No wonder she had a ‘screaming problem’. She had to have a major screw loose if she didn’t mind a drawback like that to her Blessing.
Or maybe she was just a hardcore masochist.
“I saw you take some pretty heavy damage in that fight,” Jacob continued. “Like, down to the bone type stuff. What kind of injuries can you come back from?”
“Anything, I think. I told you, didn’t I?”
“You don’t die. Yeah, I remember. Most people would assume that’s hyperbole.”
“I don’t die.”
“Right, right. Well, your pain’s not an issue, I get that. But what about your sensory organs, or your brain, for that matter? How do they stay intact while you’re burning like that?”
“I’m always healing, so there’s always something left of me. But the hotter I go, the fuzzier everything gets.”
“Any risk of friendly fire when things get ‘fuzzy’?”
She just shrugged. “Haven’t fought around others enough to tell.”
“I see. And you’re a Symbiosis, I’m guessing? Aura Hybrid, maybe?”
“Symbiosis.”
“Pure Symbiosis?”
“Yeah.”
Jacob nodded. “You’ve got points in Vigor, clearly. What else?”
“Finesse and Senses. But mostly Vigor.”
“Senses. To boost your sense of pain?”
“Yeah. That was the idea. Don’t know how much of a difference it made.”
“Got it. Well, I think we’ve got a pretty good idea of your kit now. You’d see yourself as a front-liner, wouldn’t you?”
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“I think so?”
“As in, you like to be where the fighting is.”
“Oh. Yeah, I do.”
“Okay, good. Your regeneration and firepower are gonna come in real handy, I think.”
Thatch hadn't been kidding when he said that the Last Generation was strong. At least based on Jacob’s current sample size of one. He could see her easily being S-Rank level, especially if her healing factor was as good as she seemed to think.
Jacob went on to explain his own kit briefly, then talked about Fenris, then moved on to Anton. “All right, your turn, Sir Knight. No offense, but I haven’t actually bothered to learn much about your build.”
“None taken,” Anton said, still spinning. “When I draw a hand of three cards from Chance at Glory, an effect happens based on the story told by the combination of those cards. When I pull a hand, the effect triggers automatically, so I can’t keep pulling hands to get a specific one I want. I can pull as many hands as I want, but doing so removes any previous ongoing effect.”
“You told me it was strong. Give me some examples.”
“I haven’t found close to all the combinations yet, but so far the strongest ones I have encountered are ‘Hero slays the dragon’, which grants me a sword capable of cutting through anything for a short duration, and ‘Lightning strikes the tree’, which hits a target with an unavoidable ranged attack.”
“Are they all offensive ones like those two?”
“No, there are all sorts. There is ‘Flame flickers in the night’, which provides a bolstering of spirit to those I designate, or ‘Horse sinks in the swamp’, which does more or less the opposite. There is ‘Mother warms her child’, which heals one target I choose. Many more as well, but I take it you understand the concept.”
Jacob nodded. “I got it. Level?”
“Two.”
“Where did you put your points?”
“Intuition, Finesse, and Senses.”
“Gotcha.”
Jacob took a minute thinking up a strategy that might work. “Well, Anton, I’m sorry to say, but I think you’re a little too squishy to do any frontline work. Here’s what I’m thinking.
“We’ll wait until night. I’ll go into the stronghold on my own, track down Elyuk, and kill him while he sleeps. Then I’ll call in June and Fenris, and you’ll help me mop up the rest. Anton, you’ll stand by at range and work the backline. If I fail to kill Elyuk right off the bat, I’ll keep him busy while June deals with the fodder. Once they’re done, we’ll all focus on him.
We’ll have Danger stand by somewhere close-ish so that he can swoop in for extraction or fire support if needed, but ideally I want to keep the ship out of this. I saw what they did to the Dancer, and I just had this piece of shit refurbished. How does all that sound?”
June nodded her assent.
“I believe you misunderstand my abilities, Sir Jacob,” Anton said. “I can serve either role adequately, and I believe I would prove of greater use in the thick of it, fighting alongside you.
Jacob had predicted that he would complain. “I’m sure that’s true. But how fireproof are you?”
“Uh…”
“Are you faster than Steelfeather? More durable?”
“Well, but you see…”
“We’ll do it my way, okay? When you go on a solo mission, you can do things however you like.”
Anton was clearly unhappy with the outcome, but settled into compliant silence, finally stopping his incessant spinning.
They landed the Quickdraw a ways short of Foehowl Redoubt to avoid discovery. Everyone except Danger got out and headed across the surrounding wasteland to a flat-topped height of dusty sandstone, from which the stronghold was visible in the distance.
Foehowl was an impressive fortification, high walls of black iron crowned by spiked battlements. A gaping wound of a gatehouse yawned in its center, only shadows showing through. A wide, cylindrical citadel rose above the walls, blood-red banners fluttering from its peak.
June and Anton, both having points in Senses, tried to make out how many were inside, but couldn’t make out any activity. Jacob tried his Nethersense, and was immediately hit with a wave of death, easily made out even from several kilometers away.
All the urgeks inside were dead. Thousands of them. He only caught the outline of one living thing within, coated in the nasty, oily film of demonic power.
After the initial shock wore off, Jacob did not have any doubts as to what happened.
“He killed them. All of them.”
“What?” Anton hissed. “That Elyuk did? Has he gone mad?”
“Well, I can’t say for sure, but I only sense one person still alive in there. It has to be him.”
“Why would he do such a thing?”
“Let’s consult our sentient cheat sheet, why don’t we?”
Jacob expanded the Deady Bear, allowing Garugor to stretch his legs. He quickly caught sight of Foehowl in the distance and stared longingly towards it with his shiny little plastic eyes.
“It appears your good friend Elyuk is making moves,” Jacob said, clearing his throat. “We think he’s killed all your people. Why would he do something like that?”
Garugor slowly turned towards the humans. <
“I don’t see why we’d lie to you.”
<
“I guess that’s true. But we’re not lying. Elyuk killed them all.”
<
“That’s what we were thinking. But please, elaborate.”
Garugor turned back towards the distant stronghold, arms folded behind his back. The pose looked comedic on a teddy bear. <
“So Elyuk is boosting his own power as much as possible by killing anything around him, friend or foe?”
<
“He was already strong enough to beat you, and one of our greatest warriors, too. How strong do you think he’ll be now?”
<
“If we don’t stop him now, what happens then?”
<
“Considering his starting point, that sounds bad.”
<
“Bad for your people, too.”
<
“Good. And you’ll get it.”
Jacob was feeling increasingly uneasy about the entire premise. He would have to figure out a backup plan in case their combined power was not enough to take down the kinslayer.