“How are we on armaments?”

“Right,” Cid said, placing a stubby, large-bore launcher and several grenades on the table, freshly painted with different colored stripes. “One of the abilities I’ve chosen gives me a chance to identify an item and what it does, so I’ve found you several energy-based grenades that you can use to figure out the creature’s weakness…”

“Whoa, wait a minute,” Serra interrupted as she stepped up to the table. “Why are you saying ‘you’ scientist man? Shouldn’t you be the one doing all this testing stuff?”

“What?” Cid asked, surprise showing in every line of his body. “I’m a non-combatant, I can’t possibly…”

“I agree with Serra,” Eric said. “We’re going to need all hands on deck for this one Cid.”

“But, but…”

“Everybody fights, big man.” Serra said, her voice low.

Cid opened and closed his mouth like a fish gasping for air, looking back and forth among his companions, but seeing no give in their expressions.

“I do not understand what hands and wooden surfaces have anything to do with this discussion, but Serra is right, friend Cid,” Osar said softly, putting an arm around the visibly agitated scientist’s shoulders. “You are an adept now, and all adepts must learn to do battle.”

The bearded scientist looked shocked, his pupils wide and his breath coming in short, sharp gasps.

“You will stay at the rear, hear?” Eric snapped his fingers, getting Cid’s attention. “That is an order Cid: Your task is to be artillery and only artillery. You will fire your launcher from a distance and use your elemental-energy grenades to figure out the shardling’s weakness, and when you find what it’s vulnerable to you will shout it out to the rest of us so we can take the creature down.”

“With any luck my Flaw-Seeker ability should give us some insight on the creature, so you won’t have to do too much.” Serra said, still somewhat miffed that her ability apparently did not work through a projection. “If anything happens, I’ll be sure to heal you first, Cid.” She added teasingly, blowing the flustered scientist a kiss.

“I won’t let it get near you friend Cid,” Osar promised, his expression kind. “But every adept needs to learn to not only defend himself but also bring the hurt to the enemy. It is what the System was made for!”

Osar nodded, though his face had gotten a green tinge to it.

“Alright,” Eric continued. “We distract the shardling while Cid does his tests, but the rest of us will also be doing our own probing: We’ll use different attacks, hit it from one side and then another, try to figure out what works before that thing can find a way to kill us all.”

Cid had recovered from his shock somewhat, enough to hand Eric a strange weapon that looked like a long crystal spear encased in a sheathe of matte black metal. He also handed over a small case of beast cores. As Eric took the weapon, he could feel a subtle vibration running through the weapon’s shaft. On closer examination, he noticed a depressible stud that was probably the item’s trigger and a slight curve further down that was suggestive of a rifle butt.

“That’s a Ciquillian pain-lance,” Cid informed him. “It fires an energy bolt that attacks the nervous system of whatever it hits, causing extreme pain. Though the thing doesn’t look like it even has a nervous system at least we’ll know if pain will have an effect on it or not.”

Cid then turned to Serra, handing her a pair of what looked like one-inch thick wands.

“Those are spellwands, with a range of about fifteen meters,” One of the wands was made of dark wood while the other was made of ivory. “The wooden one should shoot out plant tendrils that will hopefully slow down or even incapacitate the shardling, while the other wand is supposedly able to boost healing abilities.”

“How do I even use these?” Serra asked, as she took the wands and began to study them. “Do I just wave them around? Is there a magic word I need to say?”

“I don’t really know,” Cid said with some embarrassment. “I haven’t exactly had much time to test them out, although…!” He suddenly exclaimed, hastily stopping Serra from trying to wave the wooden wand in the scientist’s direction. “I don’t suggest we try testing them indoors.”

Eric eyed the weapon Cid had given him, his lips tightening into a grim line.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to begin experimenting with new weapons in a danger-red situation,” He said as he disappeared the pain-lance into his ring. “Let’s try using our regular weapons first and then, if those don’t work that’s when we’ll start getting a little… creative.”

‘Sounds good to me,” Serra shrugged, twirling the wands with a flourish before they vanished into her ring. “What else do we need?”

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“Shouldn’t we each use battlesuits?”

Cid asked plaintively as everyone else took out their chosen weapons. The man looked out of place holding up an alien designed grenade launcher while wearing a bandolier of exotic grenades over a loose abstract-patterned shirt and khaki pants

“Not if we want to deal with this thing fast.” Osar said firmly, fiddling with the large ring he had taken from Lugthal. “Battlesuits require more time to claim or attune than most other artifacts.” The Urgan then produced a long scaleshirt, artfully made with overlapping red and orange plates. “We can however, use artifact armor instead which offers almost the same protection as a battlesuit but only requires some blood to claim and use.”

Osar began pulling out various suits of armor made from a variety of materials onto the table. A jumble of aether signatures and glows bloomed across Eric’s vision, and he looked out with amazement at the variety of defensive equipment laid out before him. After a few moments Cid and Serra began adding to the pile with armor from their own spatial devices.

“Vashanka’s ring also has several complete sets of armor, sir.” Pig suggested helpfully.

“Let’s see them, Pig.”

In the end, they had over fifty sets of armor to choose from, ranging from leather to chainmail, to full armored plate. Cid had commented at the amount and variety they had between them, and Osar had reminded him with a laugh that there was still more in not only the other rings they had not yet claimed, but also in the vaults of the Plunderer itself.

“The System has been in existence for a long time, and the universe itself is even older, though I wouldn’t care to guess by how much,” Osar said as he picked through the mound of armor pieces they had all contributed to. “War and fighting are constants wherever people gather in any significant numbers, and certainly most warriors want to have some form of protection when going against their foes.”

“What type of armor should we choose? I guess full plate would be an encumbrance, right?”

“Not really, friend Cid,” Osar said as he placed another table down and set the armor pieces he had chosen onto it. He then pulled out a small knife and casually nicked his finger and then began donning the pieces as he claimed them. “The enchantments put into the armor reduce weight by a lot so there isn’t much difference between leather and plate except in terms of the materials used, which of course influence the types of enhancements that the suit can contain and the abilities that it can support or enhance. Then there are the aesthetics of the whole thing of course.”

As he finished speaking Osar finished putting on the armor, spreading his arms wide for everyone to admire. The big Urgan had chosen a dark blue set of full plate armor, complete with pauldrons that rose up to form a ridge to protect his neck and a helmet that transformed his head into a snarling bear-mask. The entire ensemble fairly blazed with green and pale yellow aether in Eric’s Dragon Sight.

“What aspects does that armor have Osar?” Eric asked, eager to make sense of the colors he constantly saw. The big Urgan took a while before answering, his snarling bear-head helmet tilted a little bit to the side. Had he offended the Urgan? Eric wondered. Was asking about a person’s aspects considered vulgar or taboo?

“It’s lightning and wind Jad-Os,” The big man answered, his voice made deeper by the helm he wore.

“Information integrated, sir.” Pig said softly. Tags appeared over Osar and various other items scattered across the room, identifying them as either lightning-aspected if yellow, or wind-aspected as green, Pig’s analytic processors quickly discerning which was which by a process of minute observation and elimination. And just like that Eric’s Dragon Sight became a whole lot more useful.

“Is asking about aspects considered improper?” Eric asked as Pig fiddled with his sight ability, his military mind curious about Osar’s reaction. The Urgan took off his helm and faced Eric, his gray-skinned face serious.

“It is a bit impolite Jad-Os,” The Urgan admitted, tucking the helmet between his arm and side. “Remember, one's own aspects often dictate what abilities a person may select or use. Asking about aspects, in fact asking about specific Gens values in general, may be seen as intrusive at best and a declaration of hostile intent at worst.”

“That is… that actually makes sense,” Cid said from where he stood at the table, now fully decked out in armor. The scientist had himself chosen a set of full plate, a black and silver ensemble with a sleek backswept helm that actually made the scientist look bulkier and more menacing. Surprising, the grenade bandolier and launcher did not look as ridiculous on him now. “I can see how giving out your power set and potential abilities could be seen as a foolish thing to do.”

“My aspects are destruction, fire, and light… which the Captain already knew but now… well, now everyone here knows.” Serra’s face was hidden behind the delicate looking full-faced helm she had selected, made of what looked like white porcelain, though Eric was sure the material was actually much, much stronger than that. A halo of flickering, pale white flames blazed over the stylized crown that decorated the helm's apex. It wasn’t subtle, but Serra had never put too much importance in subtlety.

“I agree with Serra on this,” Eric said, still holding up a scale-mail gambeson he was thinking of taking for himself. “The four of us are a team, and teammates know each other’s strengths and weaknesses so we can all work together more effectively.”

He looked at each of his companions in turn, getting nods of acceptance from everyone.

“My aspects are hunger, destruction, and void,” Eric informed them all. “I plan to develop abilities that will allow me to observe a foe from afar, determine its weaknesses, and then either strike it down from a distance or figure out a plan to exploit said weaknesses. As Serra knows, my role in a squad was often as a spotter, sniper or field planner, and my strengths lie in that direction.”

Osar nodded, recognizing and understanding what Eric’s intentions were, but his mind was still grappling over the concept of sharing one’s own strengths and weaknesses: As a solo hunter and mercenary, he was accustomed to keeping his abilities close to his chest, for fear of being double-crossed by his employers or clients. Eric saw the hesitation on the Urgan’s face and redirected the conversation.

“This is something we can work out later after we deal with this shardling,” Eric said, choosing out more armor pieces to complete his set. “We’ll finish up in here, deal with the monster we need to get rid of right now, secure the fortress and then tomorrow, after we have a time to rest, we’ll go through everything we’ve gained today and see what we can do about our situation.” Everyone else nodded acceptance of Eric’s plan.

“Ok then, let’s see about cleaning out this house!”