Eventually the Alpha was subdued, and Ember dismissed her mega-owl to keep it from eating the body parts the beastman needed to respond to questions. Myria managed to lock him down with her mind magic, but she was unable to encourage the man toward providing any useful information. Since the Alpha wasn’t responsive to Myria’s good cop routine, Lito called in the big guns to serve as the bad cop.
A familiar level twenty-six Delver arrived atop a mighty alabaster hand, and took custody of the Alpha. Despite Lito’s protests, the blue-haired woman flew off with her prisoner in tow, her only response to complain loudly that “paperwork isn’t why I signed up to work for Central!”, and “if everything’s an emergency, then nothing’s an emergency!”
Cole and Xim had been kept busy trying to stabilize Quickwind during the battle. His condition had taken a nosedive with the arrival of the Alpha. The brawny beastman possessed some sort of tribal magic that caused the bodies of Chovali near him to react in different ways. For his minions, it made them a bit bolder than they’d normally be. For Quickwind, it aggravated his wounds and forced him into shock. A boon for his allies and a bane for his enemies. It sounded like an aura effect, and I wished I’d had time to ask him about it before he was taken away.
I also received a new notification after the fight.
Yer a wizard, Arlo! Keep growing out that beard, because all spellslingers know that it’s the one true path to thaumaturgical power. You’ve not only acquired intrinsic skills for all three magical schools available to you, you’ve also slotted and cast at least one spell from each. Because of your profound focus on annihilating foes through arcane means, you are offered the Archmage passive skill.
Archmage: The intrinsic skills for spells you cast will be treated as being 10 levels higher when casting.
+25% Maximum Mana
+25% Mana Regeneration
Oh yeah, that hits the spot. I took it immediately.
I now had three passive skills, Bonded Familiar, my aura Who Needs a Cleric?, and Archmage, leaving me with only one open passive slot out of four.
Taking Archmage was an impulse move, but I couldn’t imagine a better passive for my build. The passive gave me even more resources, and a big buff to my magical intrinsic skills. Bonded Familiar gave me a lot of utility with Grotto, who could also debuff enemies with his mental attacks and regulate my body in emergency situations, and Who Needs a Cleric? was raw health regen for myself and my party.
All I needed was either a purely defensive passive for classic tankiness, or one that helped me kick a little more booty. Maybe one that did both if I was being greedy.
I checked out my adjusted mana and regen.
Mana: 84/125
Mana Regeneration: 25/hour (Base Effect) 34/hour (Actual, +9 Dimensional Absorption)
It was looking pretty good compared to where I was coming out of the Creation Delve.
*****
When we arrived at the Chovali colony, the scene was grim, and few of the adults were left alive. Some of the women had been spared, and most of the elderly, but the Chovali who’d been able to fight were gone. It was possible that they’d been scattered and would return, but dried and tacky bloodstains spoke of a more tragic conclusion.
All of the children, however, were safe and well cared for.
We also found a dozen Hiwardian crewmen from three different vessels that would shortly be reported as missing. From what we gathered, the Alpha and his troupe sank several more as well, but other captains were less inclined to submit themselves to capture. The beastman leader failed to elucidate his reasoning for the attacks to any of the prisoners, and the surviving Chovali had little insight to provide either.
“All of the vessels we’ve been told about were destined for Arsenal, like ourselves,” Lito said after we’d spoken with the captives. “Which is either a coincidence, or means they have some sort of access to shipping records, and were targeting trade to the city for some reason.”
“Customs,” said Myria, “or legwork.”
Lito heaved a sigh and rubbed at his eyes. It was pushing toward the witching hour, and we still planned to disembark in the morning.
“With Umi-Doo carting off all our leads,” said Lito, “there’s not much I can do with this info. Pass it along through the slate, Myria. Then let’s get some sleep.”
“Hammerheads are Littan war-birds,” said Nuralie before Lito could start making his way back toward the Closet.
“That’s true,” said Lito. “Not enough to assume Littan involvement, though.”
“Arsenal is the main trade hub between Foundation and Port Sarsora,” she said.
“That’s still weak evidence.”
“I don’t follow,” I said.
“Port Sarsora is the main port between Hiward and the eastern nations. Nations such as Litta and Eschendur.”
“You suspect it might have something to do with the blockade?” I said, looking at Nuralie.
“Yes.”
“I don’t see that making sense,” said Lito. “If the Littans go scorched earth on supplies heading toward Sarsora, then their own trade would be disrupted. Plus, why would they risk military action on Hiwardian soil when they can just blockade the goods in the first place?”
Stolen novel; please report.
“Technically,” said Myria, “they can’t completely blockade the goods. After you mentioned my mushrooms getting cut off I looked into it. Hiward demanded concessions and Litta pledged to buy goods bound for Eschendur. Then they must resell it to Eschendur, after they’ve ‘inspected’ it. Goods coming out of Eschendur get the same treatment.”
“The fuck is the point of that?” said Lito.
“Economic attrition,” I said. “They mark up the goods from Hiward to sell to Eschendur, and then pay silvers on the gold for the goods bound for Hiward.”
“That’s right,” said Myria, raising her eyebrows at me. “Eschendur gets hustled both ways. Buying things costs more, selling things nets less. All without completely pissing off the sleeping bear.”
“And the sleeping bear’d be us,” said Lito. “I think I see now. If the Littans wanted to engineer a goods shortage without running afoul of the agreement, they might go after the ships in a more clandestine manner.”
“So they hired Beta-Bat for the job?” I said. I’d mentally downgraded the beastman from Alpha since he wasn’t Chad enough to stand up to Ashe, Ember, and Myria. “Why do that?”
“Maybe they wanted us to fight with the Chovali,” said Myria. “They have colonies at all the major river mouths with cliffs like this one. If Hiward went on a crusade against the Chovali, it’d be a nice distraction for Litta to get up to something.”
“Sure,” I said, “but even if that’s the case, why give them a Littan war bird? Might as well hand the Beta-Brood a Littan flag, right?”
“True,” said Lito, appraising Nuralie for a moment. “It almost looks like someone wants us to think it’s Litta. Regardless, all of this is pure speculation. For now, we report what we’ve learned, and get on with our job. Let Umi-Doo make the immediate connections.”
Nuralie didn’t look satisfied, but she nodded and turned toward the boat’s hatch. Her tail swung from side to side in agitation as she left.
*****
One of the best things about high Fortitude is that missing a few hours of sleep doesn’t mean shit.
I hadn’t tested the limits of my endurance yet, but risin’ and shinin’ after four hours of kip with the only consequence being a small penalty to my stamina regen for the day felt like a pretty good trade, if you ask me. I only ever used five to ten points worth in a fight, and I had 200+ of the suckers.
That was something I really needed to fix. I had a huge resource pool that I didn’t know how to use, aside from sprinting endlessly for Speed training. Not a bad way to use my stam, but being down to ten percent HP with ninety percent of my stamina left felt suboptimal, and that’s exactly what had happened in the Creation Delve.
I had, thusly, made it my day’s goal to do something about it.
I approached Lito above deck, where he was reviewing a small stack of papers transcribed from communications received from Myria’s slate that morning, a cigarette smoldering between his fingers. I was curious about what sort of things Umi-Doo and the mystery blue-haired woman had learned from Beta-Bro, but I had a mission. I stayed on task and ignored the urge to narcissistically seek out all relevant information concerning the events going on around me.
“Lito sensei,” I said, giving the man a Japanese-style bow. “I humbly request that you teach me the way of the hammer.”
The Guardian looked momentarily taken aback, but quickly regained his normally stoic appearance. He flicked his smoke off into the lake and stuffed the papers into his inventory.
“Sure,” he said. He was already walking toward the hatch.
*****
Lito looked around my training room with a critical eye. He ran his hand along the shafts of several of the floating weapons, then kicked his heel at the floor.
“Pretty sparse,” he said. “But it works. What’s the floor made of?”
“Some kind of metal, I think.” I appraised the strange material. “Actually, I have no idea.”
He grunted.
“Alright, show me what you can do.”
“Right,” I said, shaking off some nerves. I’d had a single day of embarrassing practice, but that was alright. Only way to get better was to just go and do the thing. Even if Lito thought I was beneath his ability to instruct, I would find someone else.
Yeah. No worries. Just do it.
I pulled the steel hammer down from the wall and took a stance.
I went through the few practice motions that I’d been shown. Quick strikes, followups, backswings. I moved to hold the hammer with the spike facing forward, moving through attacks intended to pierce helmets and joints on armored opponents. Several of the swings moved into one another, and a few felt more like physical exercises than anything meant to kill someone.
“You’re starting from an odd place,” said Lito, who prowled around me as I moved. “What do you know about the history of warhammer use?”
“Uh, nothing, I guess.”
He nodded, looking like he’d expected that answer.
“The most commonly used weapons in traditional warfare, historically, have been axes and spears, since they’re cheap to produce and easy to train. Swords are used often enough, but are expensive and have a high skill threshold. A well-trained swordsman wielding a well-made sword is a nightmare for opponents in a small skirmish, but on a larger battlefield those advantages tend to be lost in the face of numbers and, more importantly, armor.
“A knight in full-plate armor is mostly immune to mundane attacks made by one-handed weapons, especially swords. Swords don’t have a lot of weight, and their utility is best for cutting and piercing flesh. Take a one-handed sword to an armored opponent, it’ll bounce right off. Axes are a little better, since there’s some heft to them and the weapon’s designed to split shit anyways. Spears work if an armored opponent is charging you, but less useful if you’re both on foot.
“Maces, including warhammers, became popular once knights in heavy armor were common on the field. Maces are more effective against armor since the force of blunt impact travels through armor, even without piercing it. Any man learning to wield a shield can tell you how much it hurts to take a hit without properly deflecting the attack. The kinetic energy travels into your body, and can still break bones, despite those bones being protected by metal.
“The front of a hammer concentrates power into a small point of impact, increasing the force per square inch against a target. This increases the kinetic energy applied to a specific area, and also increases the chance of warping or crushing armor, which can debilitate an armored opponent, even if the strike doesn’t cause any internal harm.”
I thought about Varrin being stuck in his twisted cuirass back in the Creation Delve. He could barely breathe, let alone fight.
“The opposite side from the head of a hammer is the spike, which can be used to pierce through targets and also grapple them. This can penetrate an opponent’s helmet and brain. It can crack through joints and disable. It can be used to hook and pull targets off balance, and also disarm.”
I nodded as he spoke, absorbing the information. I began to ask a question, but he continued.
“So why do so many Delvers use swords as a main weapon?” I asked.
“Delvers use swords for three main reasons. First, they can afford to buy one and hire trainers. Second, most Delvers are concerned with fighting monsters, not people, and most monsters are soft targets. Third, Delvers have access to stats and magic. It doesn’t matter much what I’m hitting someone with if I have a Strength of forty. A sword wielded by a high-Strength Delver cuts through steel as though it were the belly of a newborn pig, even without weaves. Add weaves into the mix, now the knight may as well be wearing the air as armor.
“Now, you may also ask, why would Delvers use hammers, when monsters and beasts have soft hides ready for slashing, and when stats make swords so strong against normal armor? It’s simple, really. Delvers don’t always fight monsters. We fight each other as well.”