Arpan was, despite being the highest leveled person there, continuing to prove his uselessness through his attempts to merge with the wall. If the Artificer actually had that power, and the mana to use it, he may have done so.
Even Farthest Run was ignoring him, focused now on Willow’s confession while keeping the other two contained. Telepathy was the only thing Daniel was sure they could get away with. The two Rangers were very perceptive, including things outside their visual field. Marky's formerly affable demeanor was gone as he stared death at Hunter. Only Taloran showed some hesitation at the weapons drawn against other hunters.
Willow’s explanation thus far had focused on her involvement with the Mirage, which she claimed was not as large or insidious as people thought. The other team took direct issue with that, but not as much as her other affiliation.
“My entire class is looked down upon because of your people,” Marky accused, momentarily turning his Tlara-level glare from Hunter to Willow as the forced interrogation turned to Spiritualists. The Druid didn’t shout, but the way he said it was far worse. Menacing without any sense of an attempt to be so. A quiet anger over a well of frustration and isolation that had just been uncapped. “How can you turn from the Octyrrum, only to worship the things that slaughter anything without a second thought?”
“That’s not what we are!” Willow objected, the only one in the situation able to freely move to some degree. She’d been stripped of her magical items by the one that had taken her, meaning the young avianoid was barely a threat. “We’re trying to find the monsters that can be reasoned with. They exist! One is right there. If we can turn them against the Crest-”
“We have Beastmasters for that,” Gordon dismissed.
“I, I know. My sister is one. I think what she does is horrible. Enslaving something that can think just like us. I’m not saying every monster is like him. The ones that only hate us should die. But the rest? Monsters can’t Grow under a Beastmaster, we can never find out their true potential unless we take a chance like Daniel did.” The Artificer winced, wishing that Willow wouldn’t be as familiar with him in the presence of the paranoid hunters. Otherwise, she was doing well. Maybe it was confidence earned from making similar speeches to others, though this was a particularly tough crowd.
“All your talking monsters have done tonight are slaughter hunters and innocent people.”
“That’s not, I mean,” Willow looked down. “I thought it was my Mom. She died, and something happened that meant she couldn’t come back, only she did. I thought what we were doing was important. She knew everything. It had to be her. It is her. But why would she do this?”
Some sympathy did cross the faces of Farthest Run when it became abundantly clear that if Willow had aided this invasion, she hadn’t done so knowingly. Well, except for Marky. “You think that matters? You think the Octyrrum has its laws for nothing? If this storm wasn’t here, you could hear the screams of the people you and your damned mother are ‘saving’.”
This is going bad. Tak?
I am running, but Gadriel is being slow.
Daniel blinked. You’re faster than Gadriel? I thought he was higher level.
He is bringing his date.
What? That took Daniel right out of the tableau. Are you talking about that singer from last night?
Yes. Tak sounded neither surprised nor too interested. Do not let them harm Hunter until they get there.
What about me?
You have Regeneration.
So does Hunter!
“That doesn’t fucking matter!” Marky’s shout brought Daniel back into focus. Willow, whose speech had devolved into a series of ever more pleading excuses, was now trembling before the Druid. The two Rangers seemed content for the man to have it out. Taloran was trying to join Arpan in the wall. “Gordon, how much longer do you think we have?”
The Ranger sighed. “At this point they’re probably looking for us. We can take them, but I don’t want to involve that shopkeeper. He’s probably not in this. The Bard we can find later.” The two swords at his side were now both out of their sheathes, and he brought one up now as if to swing it towards Hunter. Was he going to!? “Well, if there’s nothing else you have to say, I’m putting this one down.”
Time slowed. Daniel had put off using the ability since it wouldn’t make Tak run any faster and he was once again low on mana during a crisis. Now, they were out of time. He was nicer yesterday, Hunter complained, murder in his thoughts.
Shit. Ok. I have one idea but it’s going to aggro them. Hunter, you swap into me right after I use Claw Strike. You can’t use Flash Jaunt in my body, but we can do the Jump/Dodge Roll combo from before on me. You Jump, I cut your rope and Dodge Roll out of the air before they catch me. I’m pretty sure Qess isn’t using a power to keep me pinned, just better strength. It was the only thing he’d thought of that might not lead to one or both of them getting executed. We have to leave the other two. I don’t know if we can get away, but if we run towards Tak we have a chance.
They won’t kill the sad girl. I don’t care about the other one.
Fair. You ready?
Yes.
Daniel was about to release the power when a thought occurred to him. You didn’t complain about the time stop this time. Hunter just grunted a reply. Are you getting used to this?
No, Hunter replied unconvincingly. I still don’t like it. But it’s not the worst.
He’d been avoiding tracing the path of the sword, but now Daniel did. I’m guessing bisection is the worst?
Yes.
…
Gordon was good at many things, though he was not the highest leveled of their guild, nor of highest social prominence. As the earlier conflict with another team proved their inclusion of Marky in the team made them lower than average there, justified or not. But he was a solid hunter, reliable, literally willing to go the distance and help distant villages no one else wanted to spend a week getting to. Farthest Run, it was in the name. He was also good at hiding his true emotions, less a product of attributes and more his general demeanor.
Marky’s fury was true, but the Druid was specifically in a position where all he could do was verbally vent it. He and Qess were keeping their heads cool, constantly assessing the situation, treating this as a level-up hunt. The kind you went on when you wanted to advance at any cost. Oh, he was upset he had been lied to, which he was now sure was the case. Also frankly confused at how something like Hunter could exist. Most of all, Gordon dreaded how many lives had been lost and were being lost while they talked. He suspected Qess’ anger strayed closer to true, which was why she was holding down Daniel instead of watching the ringcat.
This attack wouldn’t be lethal. Gordon knew the ringcat was both armored and in the possession of the Regeneration feature. He’d seen an arm get torn off of it and get put back on moments later. That was actually where he’d gotten this idea. With Willow providing ultimately useless information, this was his last gambit before he’d ‘take pity’ on them and ‘decide’ to spare the ringcat. Marky would be furious, but neither was the plan to let them go. Hunter still may end up dead at the end of this, they all might share the same grave if the city fell, but if they could get any information-
His thoughts were interrupted by honed instincts reorienting to a new threat. Daniel, somehow, had escaped Qess’ grapple and shot into the air while effecting lateral movement. To one familiar with the beginnings of advanced power usage, it appeared to be dual-channeling of two separate movement powers. One they would have been ready for. Qess was leaping for the spot Daniel should have been, only for the Artificer to spin away. It was the same chain of powers the ringcat had used against Gtoll, only now the Artificer was doing it. What in the Crest is he?
The sandstorm quickly enveloped the two, which would have been a problem for another class. “I have some of his blood on my talon,” Qess reported to Gordon, indicating where her hand had dug into Daniel as he leaped. She reached for her waist. “Going for a Tracking Shot.”
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“I’ll copy. You two, stay with them.” Marky would have objected, save for the fact that he couldn’t hope to keep up with the two Rangers unless he assumed a Bestial Form. That wasn’t something the Druid felt comfortable doing right now. He ran alongside his avianoid partner, the familiarity of the hunt reflecting strangely on a home under fire. “Bolas me.”
Qess reached for her waist with a free hand but didn’t toss Gordon one. Instead, it appeared in his offhand. Daniel and the ringcat weren’t the only ones who’d developed a bond. He’d spent close to a decade hunting with Qess and they’d known each other before then. That had still left them developmentally at the same point as the other pair if they trusted what had been said on their level of bond. If true, that just reaffirmed how odd bonds were compared to the consistent power gain of advancement.
At the same time, the powers one gained from bonds could far overshadow advancement. “Now.” Qess launched the bolas into the air, needing only a second to spin before the launch. Gordon mimicked her exactly with Copy Ability. It had a shared cooldown, but otherwise let them copy any ability the other had regardless of level. Even among two of the same class, there was enough variability in powers gained to be useful. Each thrown weapon tracked a different target and could be followed even where their heightened senses and other tracking powers failed.
The weapons curved upwards as it soon became clear their quarry had jumped up to either side of the street. Neither Ranger had the Jump power, but they didn’t need it. Gordon simply climbed up the wall by using his shortswords to offend Builders everywhere, barely breaking his stride. Qess, on the other hand, showed her mastery of the power unique to her race by briefly giving herself wings, propelling herself upwards, and reverting them once enough height had been gained. Sustained flight was something she was close to but still working on, an aspiration driving her chase of advancement.
As he landed, Gordon’s bolas fell to the roof. He could copy Qess’ ability, but not everything she put into the throw like Extended Range. His hand pulsed as Qess tried to use their item swap power and he dropped the shortsword into its sheath. A small, flat stone appeared. Its appearance was deceiving, as this was worth lapis. The one item of actual quality they’d gotten from Arpan had a similarly disarming name: transcription stone.
The value was in that it transcribed thoughts, rather than words, and did so selectively. With the stone, Gordon and his partner had turned an already useful power into a communication method that worked over kilometers and could not be blocked by magical suppression. The brief message on the stone indicated that Daniel had jumped down into an alley, leaving the bolas to get tangled on a clothesline hung between the buildings. Gordon almost laughed when he saw that. Hardly an issue in the desert.
He cleared the stone with his mind and sent back his response: keep tracking. The only reason they hadn’t already caught up with their quarry was the need to track them in an urban environment. Also, through a sandstorm, but that was the lesser mitigating factor. Gordon had to deal with decreased effectiveness from his Terrain Affinity feature, which preferred natural environments, and the buildings gave the ringcat more options to throw off the trail then just jumping at an angle over the rise of a dune.
What confused him was that the two were headed towards the Spires, not away. It was possible they were headed towards allies, but how in the Crest would they know where anyone was? Assuming the two were involved in the Spiritualist conspiracy, the Spires should be one of the last bastions of Aughal’s defenses. Gods knew the nobility kept the best of the guard for themselves throughout the crisis which had led to Farthest Run serving as auxiliaries out in the city.
Ultimately the chase led back to the street, Qess reporting that Daniel was following in roughly the same position on a side street and trying to reason while on the run. The Artificer was tiring and Qess never would. The ringcat, on the other hand, was too adept with movement to catch with movement. Gordon had never seen a monster with this degree of intellect or variety of movement powers. At one point he was pretty sure the ringcat had teleported through a thin barrier of cloth to buy precious seconds. It begged the question, how had it received so many powers? Even holding the two bonds it had responsible, it had shown far too much for that to make sense.
Gordon frowned as another thought occurred. Hunter was definitely level 2. Weren’t level 2 ringcats huge? All it came down to was confirmation that something was wrong, and the most likely answer was Spiritualist magic. Gordon sent over the transcription stone again, signaling that he was going for a takedown. Copy Ability had come off its minute-long cooldown and it was time for them to really start abusing their bond.
The bond power was already good when it allowed him to use one of Qess’ powers that he didn’t have. Where it shined was when it let them double up on a power. Farthest Run had encountered power-stacking far earlier than most in their careers.
What happened was this: Gordon used both Copy Ability and Burst of Speed five seconds after the transcription stone was sent, the default gap both knew to use. Qess only used Burst of Speed herself, but that meant that the copied power overlapped on Gordon. You couldn’t normally use two actively maintained powers at the same time without dual-channeling, no less the same power, but bonds broke rules other powers observed. In this case, Copy Ability didn’t count as a channeled ability since it was mirroring the mana flow of his partner.
Only one of them could benefit from the stacked speed, but Qess was closer to her target. Gordon flew not like an arrow but a ballista bolt, benefitting from two speed enhancing abilities that also enhanced each other. A kind of synergy, as Daniel would call it. The movement power gave no better control, but the practiced Ranger kept himself steady as he bore down on the ringcat.
Both his swords were out - he was confident enough to sprint with them - and there would be blood now. Hunter was too evasive, and clearly practiced at avoiding higher leveled enemies. They’d wasted too much time and he didn’t like the thought of leaving Marky alone with Taloran and Willow for too long. The Ranger could see how that could go wrong in many ways.
Hunter’s loping gallop was interrupted as Gordon’s swords attempted to hamstring both rear legs. The Ranger knew exactly where to cut to disable important tendons and avoid major arteries. Beastmasters wouldn’t pay for a monster that bled out halfway back to town. Strangely, his swords seemed to stick in the flesh, not penetrating as deep as he would have liked. Armor wasn’t the problem, Hunter had limited to none on his limbs. Was this another power?
A heavy weight tackled Gordon, throwing off his second strike. Tak, legs bleeding, shrieked at him. Gordon felt a moment of fear, remembering what the Totem Warrior could turn into when infuriated, only to realize it was just the normal avianoid equivalent of a scream. An angry one, sure, but Tak hadn’t changed despite the emotion. Gtoll had been right on the money.
Gordon threw off the avianoid, somewhat difficult as his opponent’s class was strength specialized, only to throw up one of his blades and deflect a longsword that had come out of nowhere. Rather than come down in a follow-up strike, it flew back into the storm. He knew that power. Shit. Is everyone from the Thormundz compromised? Then a blast of sound split the storm and fully knocked him off his feet.
…
Daniel was on his front, pressed into the ground while one of his arms was wrenched almost to the point of breaking. It could be said that the one doing it knew exactly how far they needed to pull. He really preferred Qess’ earlier way of pinning him. She got me. Tell me you got there in time Tak.
Yep. We got him.
Thank god.
Which one? Daniel ignored that.
“I’m going to keep you here until I can use Gordon’s Suppression Rope. Move and I start breaking your arms,” Qess told him. “Then, you and that thing are going straight to the Hunter’s Guild. What’s left of it.”
“We didn’t do this,” Daniel said to no effect. It hadn’t worked the last ten times. When you say you ‘got him’, you mean you captured him right? The Artificer sighed in relief at the answer. He almost considered using Reassure for what he was about to say, but emotion powers could backfire easily if the other person realized what you were doing. “Hunter got to Tak and Gadriel. They’ve got Gordon just like you have me, so can we do some kind of prisoner trade and talk this out?”
“Bullshit.” Something small tore in his arm as it was twisted further. Daniel extremely disliked the fact that people knowing he had Regeneration meant they be less careful about his health. Everything still hurt! Earth-Daniel would have passed out by now. Part of him wished whatever contingency was being saved could be used right now, though his doppelganger must have felt the situation didn’t call for it.
“I’m not-”
“Shut up.” His arm twisted farther and Daniel did. He doubted anything he had could get him out of this hold. Flash Jaunt, sure, but Hunter couldn’t share his powers or use those unique to him while inhabiting Daniel’s body. For a bond that allowed them to share so many things, it did seem odd that that part was one way only.
After a few moments of prolonged agony, the pressure relented and Qess shifted her hold to have an arm free. She’d pulled out a rope and was waiting. Daniel couldn’t see her face but felt the grip tightening on his arm as time passed. Tak and Hunter were in his head, making their way to him with a knocked out Gordon, something he was definitely not going to share now.
Eventually, Qess spoke again. “If they’ve killed him, I swear your entire team dies.”
“We’re not evil! You’re the ones who ambushed us and stop breaking my arm!” The pressure didn’t relent. Daniel fought to keep his voice steady, drawing on memory and his approaching friends to keep a thin degree of calm. “We were going to help at the Spires. If you hadn’t come out of nowhere, we would both be helping instead of fighting each other! Why didn’t you even just try to talk first?”
“You see a monster, you put it down. That’s what it means to be a hunter. No hesitation.”
Daniel wished he could give Qess a piercing stare, though if they were face to face he doubted he could pull it off through the tears of pain. “You didn’t kill Hunter at first. So you did hesitate. Yeah, he’s not a Druid, but we only say that so people don’t kill him! He would die for me and I…” His voice caught for a moment. Would I? “I would do anything for him. We’re friends. We’ve been through worse than you.” That gave the Ranger a bit of pause, and Daniel a bit of pride. What’s more, he wasn’t lying.
Figures appeared out of the storm. “Put Daniel down!” Tak shouted. Qess blinked at the Artificer who was very much on the ground and partially in it as the storm deposited sand on him. “Uh, step away! Let him go and we’ll let him go.” This caused further confusion until Gadriel became visible, dragging Gordon along with him. The Ranger had a visible bruise on his face. As it turns out, once you knocked out a Tyrant it was all downhill from there.
One look at Gordon was all Qess needed to let go of Daniel. “Some Hero you turned out to be,” she spat at Gadriel. He only looked mildly offended in kind.
“I believe some form of misunderstanding is at play here,” he replied dryly. Both Daniel and Qess took a second look as the songbird walked up behind him, hand at her throat. The storm had diminished some of her appearance compared to the stage, though not by much. “Perhaps we could discuss matters now that show of arms has made the stronger side clear.”
“If the rest of my team was here-”
“We would still outnumber you,” Tak cheerily informed her.