You know… I’ll hover around, I’ll jump high, I’ll come falling down. I’ve seen the sky in many a virtual world, hung around it in a few as well, but… very rarely, counted on my hands in fact, does a game offer you true flight.
Oh yeah there’s good reasons for it, most people aren’t built to handle that sensation, and even with full immersion active, it still destroys the senses and causes… messes that need to be cleaned up after the fact, but… still. It’s very rare that somebody puts genuine flight in their game. Flight without any restriction, bound only by where you see fit to go.
Hah, I really am a hopeless romantic. Here I am, riding on wing-back waving a dozen or so angry adventurers bye bye!
“Hard pivot right!”
Grabbing on just a little tighter as Screech’s entire body shifts to the side, I can’t help but grin as a bolt of lightning goes flying past us. Even with reduced feeling, I can feel the power of that attack in the air, the static lingering and sticking to us, Screech’s feathers practically crackle against my gloves.
“How far up can you go?” I ask after casting another glance at the gathering crowd behind us. Screech can’t exactly go super speed at a size large enough to carry me, but we’re definitely making ground at a rapid pace. If Screech can’t climb high enough, she’ll start having to maneuver around the canyons, and at her size, I can’t imagine that ending very well.
Additionally, she’s also probably groggy? I dunno, seems like that’d be right given she didn’t wake up with full stamina. It’s proooobably safe to assume she’s not running at full capacity here.
“Weeeeeeeeellllllllllllllllll, it shouldn’t be difficult to get high up really the extra weight shouldn’t be a problem with most of my stats in strength and vitality. But will I be able to make it? It kind of seems like you made a lot of people angry!”
That’s… a fair concern to be frank. Maybe it’d just be best to leg it on foot? I’ve got a pretty sizable head start here, and everybody else has to take the peasant way down to the ground, so that’ll be at least twenty seconds to climb down for each person. On that note, I guarantee that I can make distance in that time.
Well…
“Mm-”
“YEah, noticed it! Screech, icicles coming towards us!”
“Ooo that’s a lot of them they really want you dead!”
They aren’t exactly fast, but there are a lot of them. All of which are aimed in an upwards arc, cutting off Screech’s flight path…
“Alright, down it is! Screech, dive towards the ground as fast as you can!”
“W-wha?”
“No breaks! I’ll [Recall] you as you’re about to hit the ground!”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea I don’t really wanna-”
“Mm.”
“Aw come on Jasper I know we haven’t known each other for long but can’t you take my side on this one pleee-”
“Mm.”
“She is right you know… I won’t mess up something that simple. Also, time, is, a wastin… you remember what I said about following my orders…?”
“A-ba-da-ba-da-fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine! But if I hit the ground I’m gonna-”
“If you hit the ground, you get whatever you want on demand.”
“Alright!”
And without another word of argument, she instantly nose dived straight for the path below us. So fast in fact, that I almost lost my grip on her! Ah hah hah… that would’ve been counterproductive.
Man, still though, from reluctance to straight up “I’m gonna off myself!” levels of speed? Really? I get the feeling I know what they’d ask for, but they do realize they won’t be alive after nose diving into the pavement with a hundred twenty health from this height, right?
Of course I won’t mess this up, so, not worth worrying about in the first place, but still!
It’s difficult with the wind pressing against me, but slowly I’m able to force myself up, propping myself against Screech as I brace to push off of her.
“Slowly” is of course subjective, this whole fall having only taken about two seconds so far, but it’s not like I can just instantly go against the death spiral. I’ve got a little bit more time, but it’s difficult work, Screech is dropping fast. Faster than I expected her to, but speed within reason either way.
You know, looking at the ground zooming towards me like this? It’s honestly better than looking at it from a hundred feet off the ground. I’d much rather be falling to my imminent death and know I have a way to deal with it than to be just hovering around with the possibility of death in one fall. Is that statement a little bit wack? Maybe, but I don’t care. It is what it is.
Alrighty, really hope physics and momentum and what not work the way I’ve figured so far. Abilities like Jasper’s teleportation carry momentum, so regardless of where she teleports to, if she was running at full force towards the north, teleported to the south and flipped around, she’d still be hurtling forward despite facing backwards and having teleported in the opposite direction. But for [Summon] and [Recall], they just seem to kill all momentum regardless of any condition regarding them. Which frankly works mostly in my favor given I can [Summon] anybody anywhere within my field of view for the most part.
Bla bla bla bla, gamer notes, gamer notes, they don’t need to be seen or heard, they just need to go do the laundry or whatever. Whatever! Point is… [Recall]ing Screech right here, a few meters from smashing into the ground as she is, shouldn’t have any adverse affect. Her momentum won’t carry over and crash her into a wall or anything, she’ll be just fine the moment I [Summon] her again.
And as of this moment… she’s also a solid object, and also also, [Summon] and [Recall] have precisely no cooldown.
Well, worst case scenario, Screech gets her back smashed by a hundred sixty pounds hurtling towards her at terminal velocity, but she’s like, twenty times bigger than normal so it isn’t as much of an issue.
Best case? Well, we’ll see I suppose.
…Alright, lock in.
[Summon]-[Recall]-[Summon]-[Recall]-[Summon]-[Recall]-[Summon]-[Recall]-[Summon]-[Recall]-[Summon]-[Recall]-[Summon]-[Recall]-[Summon]-[Recall]-[Summon]-[Recall]-what exactly am I doing, I hear the imaginary voices in my head ask? You know, I ask myself that all the time imaginary voices, really, what am I doing right now? Cause this is some wacky shit I tell you.
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[Summon]-[Recall]-[Summon]-[Recall]-[Summon]-[Recall]-[Summon]-[Recall]-[Summon]-[Recall]-[Summon]-[Recall]-[Summon]-[Recall]-[Summon]-[Recall]-[Summon]-[Recall]-There’s a certain point where force and velocity become damage. For example! Crashing into the floor with the force of a 2000 pound crossbow bolt? That becomes damage, a lot, a lot of damn damage.
[Summon]-[Recall]-[Summon]-[Recall]-[Summon]-[Recall]-[Summon]-[Recall]-[Summon]-[Recall]-[Summon]-[Recall]-[Summon]-[Recall]-[Summon]-[Recall]-But, let’s say you take just… a thousandth of that momentum, a thousandth of the power of something that could smash a boulder to bits. Well, you hit that boulder with it and… it doesn’t even crack.
It doesn’t take any damage.
[Summon]-[Recall]-[Summon]-[Recall]-[Summon]-[Recall]-[Summon]-[Recall]-[Summon]-[Recall]-[Summon]-[Recall]-[Summon]-[Recall]-
34!
And finally… we hit the ground, errrr, mostly unharmed! Hit Screech with a little bit of force on the final touchdown there, but oh well, mistakes were bound to be made this is unprecedented ground we are breaking here.
Now, I get that might’ve all gone over just a little bit uh, fast, it was kind of a blur for me too! I wasn’t actually sure if I was going to be able to spam the same skill like thirty times each in a split second, but hey, here we are!
Side bar; my head hurts; second side bar; back to the explanation!
What did I do? Well, it was something I honestly didn’t think would be possible, but also just kind of wanted to test out in a relatively low risk scenario. Worst case was that Screech took a bunch of damage, but she’d almost certainly be fine. No, this was a physics test.
Alright, alright, enough beating around the bush. In quick succession I [Summon]ed Screech about… thirty times in a row? And with each summon, I micro-managed the space between us! Sounds simple, right? Just, quickly summon her again and again, use her as a platform to cancel my momentum, [Recall] her before I have the chance to properly crash into her, thus preventing damage… repeat ad infinitum at rapid speed, slowly killing momentum with every few microseconds, yeah simple enough right?
Oh blimey I really am getting a biter of a headache here. Enough to start using british slang anyways. The human mind was not designed to coordinate space like that, nor am I used to doing it. Dexterity helps, but… that was a tech requiring my utmost focus. I don’t think I can replicate that on a dime to be honest, I don’t think it’d be a good idea to even try it again without at least doubling my dexterity in fact. More than that, in fact, it’s actually a goddamn miracle I pulled that off in any semblance. Screech is lucky I didn’t snap her spine instead of dealing a measly thirty three damage to… what is her health right now?
135/135
Hah? How the hell does that… oh, well, if her max health got higher and she took damage, cancelling her transformation, then I guess it makes sense that instead of taking damage to her original max health, it’d be applied to her higher health, and then go back to her base health… well, works out for me, so cool! Glad that’s the rule!
“Sorry about that, Screech, was testing a theory and, well, you got hit for it.”
“So I get anything I want right???”
“I mean, I said if you hit the ground you get anything you want. But, you did get ‘hit’, so I’ll consider it.”
She goes silent for a moment, and from what I’ve seen of her so far, very much so uncharacteristically so.
“...No it’s fine!”
“...Uh, huh.”
Is she trying to butter me up? It feels like she’s trying to butter me up.
“UHhhhhhhhwellllllllll we have things to do, places to go, most of which are far, far, away from all of…”
I eye the now more than a few dozen people rushing to get down.
“All of… them. Come on everybody, let’s get moving! And by everybody, I mean me, you’re all staying in the pocket realm!”
“Uhhhhhhh wait a minute please thank you!”
“...What?”
“Oh I just wanted to try something!”
“...Right now?”
“Yes!”
Ffhf-r-I mean, okay, screw it I’m down.
“Alright, hit me!”
[Morrigala Metamorphose]
“Oh I didn’t mean liter-