Ray looked around, his eyes still wide. He didn’t have to search for long, though. The spear-wielder was already moving, tackling a slight figure wearing strange armour that looked like it was made of bones.
Gritty engaged her opponent with her habitual ferocity. Blood and bones sprayed everywhere, the spear-wielder’s counters meeting Gritty strike for strike.
But then she managed to land a deadly blow. Her hand reached out and grabbed the man’s wound, ripping the newly-forming arm free from its shoulder. The spear-wielder fell back with a loud scream. What? The man hadn’t even screamed when Ray had literally chopped his arm off. So unfair.
“What are you staring at, wingman?” Gritty shouted. “Come on in and help me kill this bastard.”
The spear-wilder had jumped back, creating some space between them. This allowed several others of their enemies to rush in and defend the guy Ray was quickly assuming to be their leader. He hadn’t noticed before, in the fury of the fray, but they were all armoured black like him.
Ray didn’t get to reply to Gritty. Everyone was cursing and shouting again, their voices melding together into a discordant cacophony.
He cast Lifeblood Soulform to summon up his constructs. They wouldn’t last long, but since he could impart life and intelligence into them without splitting his mind, he did so.
“Help, Gritty,” was his command, though they probably didn’t hear it. Not that they needed to. The two draconic maws got to work.
That ought to be enough.
Ray focused on the spear-wielder himself. His arm wasn’t coming back. Ray then understood that scream hadn’t been one of agony. The man was just annoyed as all hell that his Recovery was dry. At least, Ray saw no other reason why his arm couldn’t regenerate as it had done before, unless there was some ability from Gritty preventing him. Also possible.
Ray faced his opponent. He couldn’t help but grin. The tables really had turned. The guy actually looked frightened for a change, his relentless aggression from before now giving way to greater caution.
“What’s wrong?” Ray asked. “Need a hand?”
“You foul—”
Ray raised his arm and fired off another draconic maw laser. Despite the close range, the man could still dodge. He countered with his spears, with them coming in a storm again.
But there was a key difference, this time. He couldn’t attack as he had done so far. Too much blood loss. It was finally affecting him.
What was even better was the fact that Ray’s own power was still growing. Vengeful Plunder continued to be active, so the Spiritguard orbs shooting at the spear-wielder were raising his stats bit by bit. He was not going to be stopped.
This power was showing its effect not just in his rising speed and Resilience against his opponent’s attacks, but also in the way Ray’s own spells weren’t as easily stopped. The spear-wielder’s spinning spear shield couldn’t hold back the Spiritguard orbs any longer. Not when Ray made several of them attack at the same time.
The man was blasted off his feet. Bits of his exposed skin twisted and corrupted under the chaos’s effect, but he was mostly fine still. Apart from the bleeding stump of his missing arm.
Ray pressed his advantage. His arm turned into a draconic maw, courtesy of Primal Spiritcraft, and he fired off another laser breath. While the maw itself seemed mostly the same, he couldn’t help but grin at how the laser was much larger and fierier. The chaos roiled with vicious power.
Somehow, the man was still able to react in time. He sent another little wave of crimson energy. It crashed against Ray’s maw’s laser breath, setting off a powerful explosion.
Ray wasn’t daunted. This fight was his to win. He knew this.
He cast Soulstrike next. Two True Mana arms spread out on either side of him. Then he slammed both arms in.
The man still reacted. He jumped back, letting the black-red arms crash together. Then he summoned another crimson spear, calling them to rise up from under the True Mana arms. Both of Ray’s Soulstrike limbs rose, driven up by the spear, creating an opening that led directly to Ray himself.
An opening through which the spear-wielder and his spears rushed in.
Ray had his Spiritguard orbs. The orbs formed a wall of black-red energy. They didn’t last long, though, exploding as soon as the spears flew in.
The detonations were so fierce, Ray was forced to erect a secondary defence against them. Impervious Shell stood strong against the shockwaves.
Then the shell broke. The real spear crashed through, stabbing in with such force, that the pointed end got him. Agony burned across his chest. Blood welled, waterfalling down to the ground. That spear-wielder still had that much strength, even with the wounds he sported.
But Ray had strength too. Power that had grown faster and faster. Power, and the way he could win. He had used Primal Spiritcraft, but instead of turning his hands into draconic maws, he applied it to his head. His own head.
The chaotic energy gathered around his skill, clasping over his cheeks, mouth, and hair. It reformed his head into a Greater Windbane’s head. His senses changed too. Vision narrowed, hearing funnelled down to what he focused on, and his sense of smell became so sharp that he drowned in it. Blood, blood, and more and more blood.
Ray opened his long, wide jaws. Then fired his laser breath just as the rest of the Impervious Shell broke apart.
The man never found the time to dodge. He had expected the Primal Spiritcraft maws on Ray’s arms, so far as he had seen. That it would appear around Ray’s head wasn’t something that had occurred to him.
He took it right in the face and body. The sheer power behind it sent him flying back, his spear falling out of his grip, pulling out of the wound it had inflicted.
Ray didn’t give his opponent any time to recover. He pushed some Recovery to the chest injury and already had his wings on his back. Then he flew in, Soullife Cloak making his speed blurringly fast.
The spear-wielder, sans any spear, got to his feet just as Ray arrived. Only to face a gigantic draconic maw crunching into him.
Ray had pushed some extra True Mana into Primal Spiritcraft using the Mana Infuser ring and raised it by another couple of Tiers. This had caused the draconic head he had summoned—on his hand now, after he had dismissed the one around his head—to grow huge.
As soon as the oversized jaws closed around their screaming target, Ray unleashed the fiery breath.
The man’s screams didn’t last long.
“How are you doing, Gritty?” Ray asked, turning to the rest of the fight now that his part was dealt with.
She didn’t answer him. Probably because she was busy fighting a tall man with twin axes revolving around like a bladed cyclone. Despite moving fast, Ray was able to notice that he wore the same black armour of the others. He really had been targeted by Cory’s soldiers.
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He rushed in to lend his hand. She had already killed several of their enemies, but there were still enough left to overwhelm her. The fact that she already hadn’t been was a testament to her growth.
Ray took a ranged pot shot at one of the soldiers trying to attack her with javelins. The laser breath from his draconic head took the man square in the chest. Another kill for him.
That unfortunately alerted the rest of them to his presence. He was ready for it. After killing the spear-wielder, he was definitely buoyed up with confidence. Ray could take them all. He knew it.
But the problem wasn’t more fighting. The problem was that he had been discovered.
The problem was that they had decided to flee.
“He’s down!” someone shouted. Ray had a feeling the “he” was the spear-wielder, not Ray himself.
“Retreat! Retreat!”
That voice was familiar. It was the same one that had yelled out about Gritty’s arrival.
True to the shouted command, the survivors tried to disengage from the fight and get out of the warehouse. Ray was distantly surprised the whole place was still standing, despite the furious battle going on within.
“What the hell are you waiting for, wingman?” Gritty shouted. She pushed back the spinning axe man, bashing him back with what looked like a spade made of pure bone. The man went staggering back. “Kill them before they get away!”
For a second, Ray hesitated. Was he supposed to vengefully rush after pathetic fleeing idiots and kill them one by one? Was he supposed to turn into a ruthless monster and ensure no one made the mistake of ambushing him again?
Then his quickly-thinking mind reminded him of just how much trouble he was going to land in if those soldiers returned to Cory.
They had System chat, didn’t they? Cory likely already knew about it all. But this went beyond just fighting off and surviving. He had to send a message. Cory thought he could kill Ray by sending some soldiers? Well, he had another think coming.
“Fuck!” he shouted, then flew.
At least it wasn’t stupidly difficult. Ray managed to kill one of them before he even left the warehouse.
Another potshot with his draconic maw sent a laser blast that struck the man right on the back. The soldier tried to heal himself with his Recovery, even tried to protect himself with some kind of defensive skill as Ray fired again. But just as the compressed fiery breath connected, Ray appeared before his target with Spectral Step, still with the draconic maw around his hands.
It was a small matter to reach forward and crush the soldier’s skull with the biting force in his hand.
“You good?” Ray shouted.
Gritty had finished dealing with the axe-wielder and was now fighting off two other soldiers on her own, blocking their path to the warehouse’s exit. “Just go.”
Ray didn’t argue. He shouldn’t have even wasted time. Of course, he had already called up two flying draconic maws with Lifeblood Soulform and sent them rushing after the escapees. It was no great matter to impart just enough intelligence for them to carry out pursuit mission.
He got going, crushing another True Mana shard as he went. The flying draconic heads had caught up to their targets, who were fleeing together. Idiots.
Ray used Spectral Step again. His reappearance came alongside that of a Soulstrike True Mana arm, which he immediately swiped into his targets.
One of the trio, a woman, was able to dodge. The other two went flying back. Ray fired off the draconic maw on his arm at the woman, but she dodged easily, then swung her sword at him with a wild yell.
He jumped back, then cast Mottling Spiritguard, making all the orbs attack. She wasn’t anywhere near as skilled or powerful as the spear-wielder. It took no time for the orbs to overwhelm her defence and then destroy her. Her exploding armour preceded her body bursting apart, deformed violently by the corrupting chaos.
Someone screamed to Ray’s left. One of the soldiers had survived Soulstrike. But all he managed was one step forward before he too died.
The draconic maws crashed in, tearing him apart. One ripped off his arm. Another took his leg. Ray hadn’t even recalled giving them orders to brutalize his enemies. Especially because it would have been so much more efficient to simply fire of them laser breaths, even if that would have taken up a chunk of his True Mana.
Ray put the soldier out of his misery with one of the Spiritguard orbs turning into a short spear that stabbed through the man’s heart.
[Enemy Defeated]
Adamant Barbarian [Tier 3] Human: [Level 32] x1
Hoplite [Tier 2] Human: [Level 30] x2
Vanguard [Tier 2] Human: [Level 31] x3
Spear Culler [Tier 4] Human: [Level 35] x1
Essence: +27,100
Knowledge: +21
True Mana Restored: +2,200
Essence to Level 35: 68,140/90,200
Knowledge to next Threshold: 1,605/2,000
Ray added his free stats to his Intellect as he began hurrying back towards the warehouse. He wasn’t truly worried about Gritty. The more important matter was regrouping and then deciding what to do.
It was a bit of a shame he was leaving the soldiers’ bodies like that, but it couldn’t be helped. Better to hurry to safety than to pointlessly try hiding the corpses. Cory surely had to know about Ray and the assault on him, as well as the fact that it had failed.
Ray: Please tell me you’re alright.
Gritty: Didn’t I tell you not to contact me unless I contacted you first?
Ray: …seriously?
He received an answer in person, for just as he reached the alley with the warehouse, he found Gritty emerging.
“Let’s go,” she said, walking past him quickly. “We need to get you kitted up.”
“What?” Ray looked past her at where the warehouse sat like it hadn’t just had a battle raging inside. “What about the others? They dead?”
Gritty glared at him. “What do you think? I’m covered in blood.”
“Isn’t that kind of normal for you?”
She rolled her eyes, though there was a hint of a smile playing on her lips as she physically grabbed him by his new robes and dragged him away.
“Hey, careful,” Ray said. Trying to slap her hand away. “These are new. I just got them.”
Her bone armour was fading, revealing the same black armour with the hints of gold around it that the Everstead soldiers were fond of. Ray was starting to get an idea of how Gritty had gotten all the way to Cliff Two in the short time she had been here.
“You and your powers of infiltration…” he muttered.
She didn’t respond, only more or less carrying Ray single-handedly into the workshop where he had received the terrible intel. That made him straighten up and tense a bit. Time to find out just why and how he had been sold out.
The proprietor’s eyes widened in fear as Gritty and Ray entered. He looked like he wanted to bolt, though there was nowhere for him to run.
“Look, I—”
“You’ve got some nerve just standing there after you sold me out,” Ray said. He didn’t detect anyone else in the place with Primordial Guage, but that didn’t let the tension fall from his shoulders.
Gritty held up a hand. “It’s not what you think.”
That was directed at Ray. He frowned at her. “Excuse me?”
“There was a mistake. A misunderstanding… and it was kind of your fault.”
“My fault?” The sudden spike of anger jolted Ray a bit. “Also, what the hell are you even doing here, Gritty?”
“All in good time. First, we need to get to somewhere safe.” She faced the proprietor, who looked mightily relieved that she was taking his side on the matter. “Albert, is he still there?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Ray stared from the middle-aged guy to Gritty and back again. “Ma’am? What in the absolute fuck is going on here?”
“All in good time, wingman. Albert, open the door and prep for the others who are going to be here. You know the drill.”
The proprietor nodded like a schoolboy caught red-handed. He led them through the small door behind and into another alley. Gritty ushered him through and they were once more off. Ray did make sure to shoot one last glare at the now white-faced proprietor before he followed.
This alley was thinner and dingier. They had to climb over some walls and walk through trash and people’s clothes until they finally reached another doorway at a dead end, hidden behind some old crates.
“The longer this goes on,” Ray said. “The more I’m left suspicious of everything.”
Gritty grinned, then rapped a strange pattern of knocks on the door. About half a minute later, a different set of knocks returned from behind the door. Gritty hesitated for a second. A panicked look came on her face, which made Ray’s heart skip a beat, and then she grinned like a fucking demon.
“You gave me a heart—”
She interrupted him by returning the knock. It was correct, because the door proceeded to open.
Revealing the Holdstar trio inside.
“Ah, Ray!” Ram said. “You’re safe. I am quite glad to see you well.”
“Yes, yes, quite well,” Lam said.
Bam stared unapologetically. “Perhaps a little too well, considering the circumstances.”
Scowling after Gritty, who once again led the way forward, Ray followed into a small apartment. There was almost nothing inside, not even any proper lighting. Just a bedroll, a chair, and a window covered with slats that let in the least amount of light.
“You know, you’re kind of right,” Gritty said. “This is dodgy as all hell. If you didn’t trust me, I’d say you were about to get murdered right about now.”
Ray was having pretty much entertaining the same notions. He forced his thoughts to reroute back into a proper, productive line. “Are you sure we’re going to be safe here?”
“We have been safe and undetected here for the last few days,” Ram said. “I think a few more should raise no difficulties.”
Ray didn’t feel that certain, but it wasn’t like he could offer them a better alternative place to stay. And last few days? Ray himself had only been on Cliff Two for a few days. Just how long had Ram, Bam, and Lam spent here? How long had Gritty?
“Then I think we’ve got a lot of talking to do.” Ray turned to glare at Gritty. “Starting with what in the world you’re doing here on Cliff Two.”