As soon as the word was given, Robert the chimp vanished. Will had been expecting the chimp to stealth, and wasn’t going to waste the time looking for him. He’ll appear when he attacked, and no sooner.
Amelia, of course, took to the air. The large bird, which Will thought might be some sort of kestrel or falcon, beat her wings rapidly to gain elevation. Like most flight capable combatants, her goal was to get above the range of her ground bound opponents.
Which was, of course, something that Will and Jeremy weren’t about to allow. Both of the members of the hastily named Team Purple rushed towards their opponents’ line, each with a different aim.
Will stopped as soon as he was within the range of his Mage skill, and launched two Thundershade Bolts at Amelia. Jeremy, on the other hand, used his signature Leap Attack skill to try and catch her. If he could drag her back down to the ground, she was as good as defeated.
They didn’t actually know what her favored fighting style was, but Will figured they had fairly good odds that she wasn’t going to be specialized in melee. Not much point for it, for someone who can fly.
Plans, however, rarely survive contact with the enemy. Amelia changed the rhythm of her wingbeats for a moment, and a burst of wind blew out and managed to deflect Will’s Bolts. He had no idea how the physics of that worked, but physics really weren’t as immutable on the Board as they were back on Earth.
While Amelia deflected Will’s attack, Robert showed up to fling a brace of daggers at Jeremy. The leaping lizard activated his Mirror Image skill as soon as he’d jumped, but there were enough daggers to hit all three of the images, which meant that one of them found its way to the real Jeremy, hit him, and somehow dragged him back towards the waiting chimpanzee.
A chimpanzee who was waiting with another, larger, dagger in hand, which he was clearly planning to stab into Jeremy as soon as the lizard was in range.
Not that he got the chance. Visible and standing in one place, Robert was an easy target for Miss Drill to attack. The summoned monkey’s fists, glowing with the light of Power Attack, slammed into the rogue’s kidneys.
Unfortunately, one of the disadvantages of Offensive Aura was that it couldn’t enhance the user, and only worked on allies. Still, the Power Attack enhanced fists were enough to break Robert’s concentration and release Jeremy from his pulling skill.
Seeing that his coup de grâce had been foiled, the chimpanzee did his vanishing trick again, leaving Miss Drill with nothing to attack.
But while Robert’s attack was only partially successful, it did manage to give Amelia the time to rise high enough to avoid Wills’ Mage skill and Jeremy’s Leap Attack.
Will, Jeremy, and Miss Drill, with nobody visible and within range, huddled together back to back, one eye looking on the ground for Robert and the other aimed upwards at Amelia. There was nothing any of them could do until their opponents made their move.
A move which wasn’t long in coming. Amelia, apparently, wasn’t much of a ranged combatant. Instead, as her chosen stage named implied, she relied on swift dive attacks, too fast for her opponents to defend against.
What the diving kestrel wasn’t counting on was Jeremy’s Gaze of the Basilisk. The lizard didn’t need to be able to hit her in order to stop her attack. All he had to do was lock his gaze to hers. And she couldn’t close her eyes while dive bombing.
Not if she wanted a chance to hit something, at least.
Struck by the paralyzing Gaze, the kestrel’s muscles locked up mid flight, and the bird crashed into the ground instead of hitting Jeremy talon-first.
Not one to let an opportunity pass by, Will ran over to attack the fallen Amelia. She was too close to him for a proper charge, but that only meant that she had no chance to shake off the effects of her rough landing before being attacked by the wombat’s heavily boosted claws.
Will, however, only had time for a single claw swipe before Robert showed himself again. This time, the chimpanzee’s knives were aimed at Will. And, of course, they were aimed at the only unarmored part of his body.
Which wouldn’t have been a big issue, normally, with the wombat’s naturally well padded and heavily cartilaged behind. Thrown knives could scratch his skin a little, but they barely penetrated. These knives, however, weren’t really there to deal damage. Instead, the knives were mostly a means of delivering a payload of stunning electrical charge.
And electrical charge had very little trouble with Will’s natural defenses. Stunned by the attack, Will had no way to prevent Amelia from slashing back at him with her talons. It wasn’t what he would call a very effective attack, since the kestrel was obviously depending on her speed to do most of the work, normally. But she did manage to hit his leg where it wasn’t armored, dealing a small, but annoying, wound.
The kestrel wasn’t about to wait around for Will to recover though, and after one attack she went back up into the air.
Meanwhile, Robert wasn’t getting out of the altercation unharmed. Both Jeremy and Miss Drill were on the chimpanzee the instant he’d appeared and attacked. They’d managed to land a couple of tail flail hits and some Power Attack enhanced fists before Robert did something that caused a blinding burst of light to erupt for him.
Miss Drill wasn’t affected by the burst of light, being Light aspected herself, but by the time Jeremy could see again, the chimpanzee was nowhere to be seen.
Will couldn’t recover from his stun soon enough to catch Amelia with any of his stronger Mage skills, but he still managed to send a pair of Thundershade Bolts at the rising kestrel before she could get out of range.
She did the same trick as before, raising a wind with her wingbeats to deflect the attack. But while she was blowing away the attack, she wasn’t climbing higher into the air. And as soon as Robert was back in hiding, Jeremy was free to join Will in attacking her.
The lizard, knowing that a Leap Attack would leave him vulnerable to another knife flurry from Robert, used one of his new tricks instead. Spinning his tail in a circle, Jeremy launched his tail flail at the flying Amelia. Boosted by a Throw skill, the weapon flew with far more force than Jeremy’s tail would normally be able to bring to bear, and suddenly Amelia had far more important things to worry about than Will’s Thundershade Bolts.
And something far heavier too. The kestrel’s deflecting winds couldn’t even budge the massive flanged mace head, and by the time she’d realized it, it was too late to fully dodge the attack. The missile caught her left wing, and Will could hear the bones snapping at the hit.
And with only one functioning wing, Amelia crashed landed. Again.
Will tried to capitalize on Amelia’s misfortune, but Robert showed his face again and started flinging a massive barrage of knives at him. There was no way the chimpanzee could carry this many knives, so there must have been a skill in play.
Whatever it was, however, it managed to keep Will away from Amelia for long enough that the bird managed to apply some sort of healing skill to bring her wing back to a functioning state, and she took back to the air.
Robert’s intervention wasn’t without cost, however. It’s possible that Robert didn’t know about Will’s shorter ranged Mage skills. Or it’s possible that he knew but that his own knife barrage skill had a range just as short.
But whatever the cause, Robert attacked from less than twenty meters away from Will. And while Will couldn’t get to Amelia, he could and did send a full Thundershade Volley at the chimpanzee.
Robert didn’t seem to have any serious defensive skill, counting on his stealth to prevent his enemies from attacking him instead. Which meant that all six Bolts could hit him and deal their full damage.
It wasn’t enough to incapacitate him, of course. Even a full Volley only dealt six instances of slight damage, which amounted to sixty damage total.
But six Bolts meant six chances for each of the four debuffs Will’s Thundershade offered to activate. As far as Will could see, the chimpanzee was hit by at least one count of stun and one count of disorient. There might have been blindness and mana disruption as well, or more than one count of something, but there was really no way to tell.
Before the stunned ape could even begin to recover, he found himself the target of a charging rhino wombat, a leaping monitor lizard (albeit one that was lacking his tail flail, for the moment), and a silently screeching summoned monkey.
There was, of course, no way for Robert to survive that onslaught, and the chimpanzee disappeared for the final time, this time teleported to safety instead of stealthing.
The two (and a half, maybe?) members of Team Purple turned to Amelia, who was struggling to gain altitude. Her wing may have been healed enough to function, but it was clearly not up to its full range of movement.
She still managed to deflect Will’s Bolts with her wind skill, but she had no way to stop Jeremy from just jumping at her, latching on with his claws, and dragging her down to the ground.
And once she was back on the ground, she had no chance against her determined enemies.
“And the winners of the match are Will the Wombat, and the brilliant Jeremy, the All Devourer!”
“Looks like old Manny is still mad at you.”
Yeah. Not sure how much I actually care about that asshole though. As long as he doesn’t try to stiff me on the prize, of course.
“I don’t think he could do that. The prizes are awarded by the arena itself, not the managers. I think all they do is set up the matches and announce things.”
Yeah, you’re probably right. Will and Jeremy got back into the purple entrance, and Will’s victory message popped up in front of him.
Victory!
You’ve won another arena fight, and are now officially part of the South Arena Bronze Tier!
Keep fighting to increase your tier and win more rewards!
Rewards:
100 XP
20 Bronze Arena Tokens
Nice. I wonder how this boosts my Arena shard?
Skill Shard: Arena
Tier: unique
Type: special
Cost: NA
Gives benefits according to the user’s rank in each of the four arenas.
Does not take up a skill slot
East Arena Bronze Tier: lesser increase to accuracy when facing precisely one opponent.
South Arena Bronze Tier: Lesser increase to accuracy when fighting with at least one ally.
West Arena Bronze Tier: lesser increase to accuracy when facing more than one opponent.
The roar of the sun, the sand beneath your feet, the glint of your opponent’s eyes!
“A little disappointing, for me,” Jeremy lamented. “I’m mostly fighting on my own, so it’s not a very good boost for me.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
It’s a decent one for me, I think. It seems to count minions as allies, so just having Miss Drill around will make it work for me.
“Nice. I might want to get myself one of those. Seems like a decent skill to have.”
Well, you’ve got a chance to get one now, I think. They don’t sell them in the regular general store, but the arena shop sems to stock some. I’m probably going to buy another part of the set now, since this reward gave me enough tokens for it.
“Yeah, I see,” Jeremy’s eyes were unfocused, clearly looking at a message screen of his own. “A hundred tokens though? I don’t have even close to that right now. Ah well. Something to strive for.”
Always the optimist, huh?
“Always, old chap. Anyway, it was fun fighting with you. The win was a nice bonus too.”
Heh. I’ve had fun too, Jeremy.
“I’m off then. Got some more training to do, before I’m up at the West Arena again.”
You do them regularly now?
“Yeah. There aren’t enough events for me to focus on just one or two. Can’t miss any fight if I want to be the champion, you know.”
Good luck with that. It’s a good goal to have.
Waving goodbye, Jeremy left the room, and Will went back to the shop screen.
OK, let’s see now. I’ve got some options here, but only enough tokens for one shard. Beacon has Defensive Aura, Damage Aura, and Support Aura. Defensive reduces damage, and seems to work on top of armor, which is nice. Damage is what that second fancy Lizardkin was using. Periodic damage to every enemy in range, but it’s only least damage. Support doesn’t actually do anything by itself, but will apparently depend on an aspect.
All are decent, but I’m not sure they’re worth the tokens right now.
Healing has a skill that removes conditions, a skill that gives heal over time. More healing than what I have right now, and it’s not limited by wound severity, but it’s slow enough that it won’t be useful in a fight. Last one is a group heal, which isn’t very useful for me right now, since it’s less mana efficient than just healing Miss Drill directly from the Wizard skill.
Wizard is interesting. There’s a skill that let me conjure armor, one that lets me conjure weapons, and one that creates a swarm of smaller beasts. The armor skill must be what Kevin was referring to when I was talking to him about armor for Miss Drill.
I think the armor skill is the winner here, really. I mean, I’d really like to have the slow heal skill, but I can use potions until I can get it instead.
Without giving himself time to second guess himself, Will chose the Wizard skill Mana Armor from the list, and used it. Once merged with Lesser Mana Beast, the skill looked very promising.
Skill shard: Lesser Armored Light (Mana) Beast
Tier: Advanced
Type: Wizard
Cost: Variable
Level 3
XP: 400/600
For 40 mana, creates Miss Drill, a being out of light aspected mana to fight for the caster.
Miss Drill has 20 health points per skill level and will remain until killed.
Miss Drill can attack for minor light magic damage.
If Miss Drill has any Armor Proficiency skill equipped, and the skill is at a high enough level, she will appear wearing the appropriate armor at no further cost.
Level 2: Caster can transfer mana in order to heal Miss Drill at a ratio of 2 mana to 1 health.
Level 3: Can transfer 1 skill to Miss Drill. While transferred, the skill isn’t available to the caster, and doesn’t count against their skill slots.
Skill behaves as if it was the same level as Miss Drill.
If the skill uses stamina and/or mana, Miss Drill gains that resource pool, with 20 points per level.
Miss Drill does not regenerate mana or stamina.
Caster can transfer mana or stamina to Miss Drill at a 1:1 ratio to refill its pools.
For 50 mana, creates a suit of light armor suitable for the caster or an ally. The armor is of common rarity and power.
Level 2: Can create medium armor as well as light.
Level 3: Can create single pieces of armor for 20 mana each.
What a thrill, I fell a chill, with this skill I call Miss Drill!
Aspect: Light
Tier: Basic
Level 1
XP 0/50
Changes the skill to Lesser Light Beast.
All damage is raised by one category.
Very nice. And I already have Medium Armor Proficiency, which I can merge with Power Attack and give her. But I’ll need to bring her back up to at least level four, otherwise I’m stuck with Offensive Aura in my own list. At least I have the XP for it ready.
Merging Power Attack and Medium Armor Proficiency didn’t give the skill any added benefits. It changed its name to “Warrior’s Strength”, and had the benefits of both of its components, and that’s it.
Miss Drill herself, however, was very visibly changed. The mandrill monkey was now wearing a full suit of scale armor made out of glowing blue light. It looked like a basic set of armor, but the glowing light effect made it somewhat more intimidating than it would have been otherwise.
Nice. Shaping up to be quite a respectable looking warrior there, Miss Drill.
It might have been Will’s imagination, but he thought that Miss Drill might have straightened a bit at the compliment.
Oh, and before I forget, we may as well give you the Fire aspect too. No reason to hold back, if I hadn’t even started to level up the aspect yet.
Aspect: Firelight
Tier: Advanced
Level 1
XP 0/50
Changes the skill to Lesser Firelight Beast.
All damage is raised by one category.
The changes to the aspect weren’t all that impressive. All it seemed to do was change the name. The changes to Miss Drill herself, however, were startling.
Where before the summoned beast was a light blue color, with maybe a hit of yellow in it from the Light aspect, she was now wearing all the colors of flame. Her torso, and the armor covering it, where bright red, shading through orange and into yellow on her arms, legs and head. Her eyes, in contrast, were the bright blue of really hot fires.
Very nice. I just hope you’re as effective in combat as you look, Miss Drill.
***
Will’s next move took him to Fili and Kili’s, where he sold off all of his accumulated monster drops for a thousand six hundred and ninety copper bits.
He then proceeded to finally buy the remaining skill shards of the Defender set. With Miss Drill around, he might actually get some use out of them, and finishing up the set would let him defend himself from the cold environment of the tundra Space and the rest of its cluster.
And to make up for the rising XP costs, he somewhat reluctantly spend money on some extra shards, which he planned on burning in order to level the skill back up to its current three.
The result wasn’t bad, really.
Skill shard: Defender
Tier: Advanced
Type: Defender
Level 3
XP 0/1200
Reduces the stamina and mana penalties for using skills while wearing heavy armor by 10% per level.
When exposed to an environmental hazard, increase the damage intervals by 20% per level
For 10 mana, shout a challenge at your enemies, forcing any enemy within fifty meters to attack you, instead of any of your allies.
Effect lasts for 10 seconds per level
For 10 mana, travel instantly for up to four meters per level, and interpose yourself between an ally and an opponent. Can only be used when an ally is being attacked, and the user will receive the attack instead of the intended target.
I’d sing the Safety Dance, but you’re probably so heavily armored that you can’t dance.
And if you can’t dance than you’re no friend of mine.
Aspect: Lava
Tier: Advanced
Level 2
XP 0/200
Mitigate all damage by one extra category, as long as the hit was on a part of the body covered by heavy armor,
Anyone hitting an armored part of the user’s body with natural weapons will receive least fire damage.
Level 2: Mitigate all earth, fire, or lava damage by one extra category, as long as the hit was on a part of the body covered by heavy armor
Reduce all environmental earth, fire, or lava damage by one category per level
Aspect: Ice
Tier: Basic
Level: 1
XP: 1/50
Anyone hitting an armored part of the user’s body with natural weapons will be slowed by a least amount for 5 seconds.
Reduce all environmental ice damage by one category per level
He wasn’t quite ready to link the aspects up to Expert yet, because he didn’t want to lose the second level of Lava or spend the XP to bring it back up. But just by having Ice in there along with Lava, he’d be able to weather the cold environment without any issues.
The one disadvantage of leaving Ice and Lava as they were was that he wouldn’t be able to get both benefits at once. Which was mostly an issue with the “on getting hit” part of the ability, since he probably wouldn’t need both environmental protections at the same time.
And in that case, I’ll probably keep it on Lava most of the time. It’s at a higher level, and gives more benefits anyway. No point in levelling up Ice for now either, since the Tundra only did least damage per hit.
Still flush with money, Will decided to buy some more skill shards to use as fodder. Twelve hundred Copper Bits went into boosting Defender up to level four, and sixteen hundred more maxed it out at level five. Compound Resource Pool got some of the same treatment, and was boosted up to level four for a total of two thousand copper bits.
Before heading to the other part of the dwarves' establishment for a hearty dinner and some much needed rest, Will took a look at his status sheet, to check out his progress.
Name: William Jackson
Race: Wombat
XP: 210
Health: 383/383
Mana 378/378
Stamina 378/378
Innate abilities
Dice Roll (2)
Skills 9/11
Name
Type
Tier
Level
Unstoppable Lance Charge
Cavalry
Advanced
2
Harvester
Harvest
Expert
1
Claw Proficiency
Beast
Basic
3
Least Cure Wounds
Healer
Basic
3
Defender
Defender
Expert
5
Compound Resource Pool
Resource
Expert
4
Thundershade Mage
Mage
Expert
2
Lesser Armored Firelight Beast
Wizard
Advanced
4
Boosts
Dungeoneer
Special
Unique
3
Arena
Special
Unique
1/1/0/1
Miss Drill’s Skills 2/2
Warrior’s Strength
Warrior
Advanced
4(1)
Offensive Aura
Beacon
Basic
4(1)
Attacks
Claws – Average (least) piercing damage, least armor piercing.
Bite – lesser piercing damage
Charge – Average (slight) piercing (bashing) damage (Fumble aspect), least armor piercing.
Equipment
Heavy Steel claws (Front claws)
Wombat Breastplate of Lesser Life
Horned Wombat Helmet of the Heavy Assault Unicorn
Wand of Vinegar Stream
Re-vole-ver pistol
Boots of the Beat
Inventory
3 minor healing potions
2 minor mana potions
2 minor stamina potions
1 Pickle Dead skill shard
1 Miner skill shard
1 Air aspect shard
1 Health aspect shard
1 Light Armor Proficiency skill shard
1 Bite Proficiency skill shard
2 Mastery shards
2 bottle of Wild Sage oil
1 Novelty T-shirt
1 gunslinger hat
1 wombat skullcap
2 Mole-o-tov cocktails
580 copper bits
8 silver marks
Status effects
Wounds
Minions
Miss Drill - Lesser Firelight Beast
Not bad. Even if I do say so myself.