A familiar cowled figure waited for Eli at the entrance of the town, behind a clumsy barricade of hastily dismantled furniture. Wooden spikes jutted out from the wall, blocking off the street into the town where other robed waited with crooked spears and javelins. Twenty of them, to be exact.
Other robes worn with disuse huddled within the protection of the main tavern building he had seen before.
Roman stood beside them in a retro futuristic blend of mechanized plate armor that glowed with lines of power that led to various blasters, guns, and a set of sword swords sheathed in his gauntlets. It was a menacing suit of armor that thrummed with Dream-enhanced and powered tech. Roman's powers had improved vastly since they fought Sandra.
"What are you doing here, Eli?" Roman asked as he pushed past the row of bandits, who stared at Eli with their weapons held at the ready.
"They sent me on a wild goose chase to kill bandits and sent me to the real people of Fellton." Eli glowered at the line of robed spawn while orbs of light splintered from his body as each one instantly charged in preparation to fire. "Did they trick you somehow too?"
"What? No, they are the people of Fellton. I don't really know what is going on, but it seems like they've been overtaxed to hell during a famine. They're not bandits, they're just in rebellion."
Light charged inside of him as Eli frowned and pumped his perception full of power, so he had a chance to think.
He glanced at the frail line of tattered, robed people. This whole situation was weird.
At first, Eli had expected more of a simple dungeon format where spawn would appear and he would kill them with no questions asked. Then it became a game with decisions that ultimately didn't matter. He wasn't playing a story, he was playing a game to get the most points possible while not going too far.
Eli didn't want to come across as a maniac with spectators watching and because he didn't want to be a bully like Daniels or Tom.
A seed of a thought wriggled in his mind.
Eli grimaced at the realization that he had been treating this dimension like a game too. He closed himself off from everyone and pushed people away again. Sure, he knew he had been doing it the last couple of days since he spoke to Maeve and Hazel, but at some point he stopped considering anything else in his drive for power.
Time sped back up as he looked at the line again with the intent to see them as more than props made by the dungeon or the Delver's Dive staff. Frayed patches of uneven stitching swept across each robed as if a fang or blade had cut them. Scorch marks darkened some of their threadbare robes. Dirt and ash dusted every inch of the fabric. He noted the way they shifted their weight unevenly with a limp. He recalled that they had been lethargic earlier.
"Oh. Well, okay." Eli slumped as the weight of how much he'd been fucking up and regressed lately crushed into him. He had hoped that the mental aspect of Restoration being removed with the recycling would help, but he had done nothing to process his thoughts or feelings. He made a reminder to do something unrelated to powers soon so he could refresh a bit. Hopefully Dr. Simmons was okay with the arrival of spawn. Eli would probably need an appointment after all of this. "What's your plan, Roman?"
"I was getting a lay of the land and situation here. I want to finish this Stitching A Frayed Nation Together quest if you want to join." Roman said while he hovered over to Eli on propulsive jets. "What are you doing?"
"They sent me to take care of bandits and I came back here to finish the quest, but now that I get what's going on, I'll join you.” Eli reabsorbed his charged volley of photon shots he had prepared to fire into the crowd of 'bandits'. He honestly didn't know who was on the right or wrong in this fight, but he wasn't going to go against his friend and they were clearly the downtrodden comparatively.
He wanted to use his powers to actually do something more than lash out at spawn and people gunning to fight him or kill his parents.
Tribulations of a Murderhobo -> Stitching a Frayed Nation Together Quest Tracker: [Stitching a Frayed Nation Together (Progress: 5.4% Completed) - You have decided to side with the dissenters of a nation broken by a corrupt government who has turned their back on their people. Incapacitate or kill all oppressors of Fellton to complete. Bonus: Keep damage to infrastructure to a minimum for an additional reward. Reward: Rebel, Power: Inspiration Ev. 0, +80 GP]> "Yeah, that's fine. You've already been to the fort then?" Roman wobbled in the air while he floated beside Eli. He wished he had access to Warlock's Sanctum so he could get more of a feeling for the enchantment. "It's not too far if you can get enough speed out of that can of yours." Eli smirked while he flexed his radiance to smoothly ascend next to his friend. "Too bad I can't teleport both of us that far with lightning." "What? Why are you talking like that?" Roman's faceshield retracted so he could study Eli's thankfully not blinding face. "Because as you know I can't teleport others with lightning." Eli held up his hand while he let sparks of starlightning flicker across his fingers. "Since when do you—" Roman started to say before Eli interrupted him with a sharp jab of his elbow that dented the metal plating of his armor. Dream energy fizzed through it then it was restored. "Oh, yes, of course. Silly me, how could I forget? Let us fly there instead!" Eli rolled his eyes as they floated higher into the sky before they rapidly picked up speed as Eli led them toward the fort. It felt strange to him that he'd be heading into a fight with someone else, let alone Roman. They hadn't fought together since Sandra. Forest and farmland sectioned by winding roads blurred beneath them as they flew faster. Eli idly smirked at the realization that he was faster than Roman with his radiant reflection trick, but he could feel minute adjustments in the gears and machinery inside his suit with Stellavoltaic Nullspace as their performance almost equalized. Awkward silence stretched between them. It had been the first time they had really been alone since they had a fight about Eli not caring about going home enough. He didn't know what to say right now. Did Roman want an apology? Eli had pushed everyone away again, but... it wasn't like he would be able to figure out how to crack dimensional travel by himself in a couple of days. Eli didn't feel like he was in the wrong for any of that, but he had been treating his friend poorly. "Hey, man, I wanted to apologize..." Roman and Eli said at the same time before they stopped talking to laugh. "I'll go first." Roman said before Eli could continue. "After pushing my own powers harder this past few days, I get where you're coming from a bit more. It's hard. I also realized that I shouldn't expect or want you to do it alone. With enchantments and magitech, I can help boost you if we have to or borrow from your power so we can go back home ourselves. And well... I get it. This place is nice and I do like it here a lot, I got so jealous that you were fitting in better here and I took it out on you. It wasn't cool, man." Eli opened his mouth to talk multiple times before he stopped to actually listen. He didn't have to do this alone. So, when was he going to let people in to help him when he needed it? It felt nice to have his hard work seen and appreciated too. "It's okay." Eli said after a few moments. "I don't think I would have accepted your help before, to be honest. I wanted to solve this on my own. Just like I wanted to fight Sandra and all the other people after my family by myself. But, you helped me with that, so of course you'd help me with this. I'm sorry I pushed you away again." Roman's faceshield retracted as he cast a smirk at Eli. "At least it wasn't for nearly eight months this time." "Ha ha." Eli rolled his eyes before they laughed. "Not to distract too much from the literal death arcade game here, but did you ever hear from Scott and how he was doing?" "Kind of." Roman frowned. "He wasn't doing too well even after they moved to Rockford. He stopped talking to me, so eventually I stopped reaching out, but he was still active online, so I hoped he was doing okay. Would you be up to traveling over there to see how he's doing? Once we get back." "To Rockford? Sure." Eli shrugged. Mom and Dad had talked about getting his grandparents and bringing them back to Farbrook so it wasn't like Rockford wasn't that far away. Both cities were in the Midwest. "Good. I've been pretty worried about him and it would be nice if you guys could patch things up." Roman smiled. "Yeah... I do feel bad about how I left things and it would be nice to see him." They resumed their flight to the fort in silence. Only the buffeting roar of the wind was audible as they neared the decrepit fort rimed with ivy. Multiple ballista lined the walls along with numerous soldiers with unmarred robes layered over armor. Each soldier's gloved hands held a halberd or bow. This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Eli's balanced radiance shifted to molten hard light while he prepared a hail of photon shot bullets. Incandescent brilliance blazed in the pit of each orb of light before the outside reflected all that light back inside. He reached out with Stellavoltaic Nullspace while he prepared and lined up all his targets for his light and starlightning. Space would sunder as each soldier fell from a bolt of starlightning or radiance. Tension spiked in Eli's skull as Photon Shot almost seemed to resist him while it resonated with Stellavolatic Nullspace. His bullets of light were almost like s— "I'll take this one." Roman smirked at Eli as several plates throughout his armor withdrew, revealing the muzzles of multiple guns. Bullets chambered with a click as the intro of a heavy metal song blared from speakers hidden in Roman's suit. Eli blinked in shock at the perfect rendition of a song from their dimension that certainly didn't exist here. "I've been meaning to show you what I can do." "Lead the way." Eli nodded with a grin as he floated out of the way. "There's a barrier up, by the way." *** "There's a barrier up, by the way." Roman snorted at Eli's overly cautious tone. Multiple magitech sensors laced with Dream highlighted the way Eli's muscles tensed while he watched. He was tired of trying to keep up with Eli and waiting for him to realize that Roman was actually his friend. Eli needed to stop pushing everyone away. Roman was going to show him that he didn’t need to do everything by himself. After the past week of grinding out levels and scouring through Romulus’s detailed notes, he had pushed his powers to new limits. His build was even better now. He had come so far already since summoned his revolver to kill that horrible woman that had stranded them here. Roman had gone even farther since they had started this game. [Stats: Body: None Mind: None Will: None ] [Equipped Power List: Slot One -- Gearshift Constitution Ev. 1/Lv. 5 Slot Two -- Legion's Impact Ev. 0/Lv. 4 Slot Three -- Magitech Fabrication Ev. 1/Lv. 8 (Suppressed) [Cost: 100 GP] ] Roman had started off with a red band and only 50 points which he used to buy back Legion's Impact. Afterward, he had been shoved deep into an underground lake in a cave in the forest. He had to wade out of there while fighting off lumbering glacial golems. Every facet of their frozen body had been sharper than knives. He had to resonate and chain his actions with Legion's Impact each time he hit them with his mundane body. Fortunately, Legion's Impact let him echo any action he chose so it was as if it were done by multiple versions of himself. Simple actions like a punch, kick, or dodge were easy to chain upward to a dozen times. He could stagger each echo out or dole them out all at once. Then he could set that dozen as a single action and double all those blows for twenty-four hits and so on until it felt like his brain oozed blood and agony. The more he pushed Legion's Impact, the more it felt like Dreams consumed him as reality blurred under the onslaught of his actions. After the ice golems had been cave passage that led up to the surface. Roman had accidentally woken a giant sleeping badger that had been less than pleased with the interruption. In some twisted sense of fate, it had been a necromantic badger capable of summoning a horde of skeletal snakes that hissed from the ceiling and walls. That was when Roman learned he could stretch his range of Legion's Impact. What was the use of his elevated Legion's Impact if he had to use all the actions on one target? Cave walls had echoed with the furious roar of Roman's punches as he pummeled the skeletal snakes and their badger overlord into submission. That had been enough for him to get the 100 points he needed to unlock Gearshift Constituion which didn't only greatly enhance his physical prowess, it let him 'switch gears' on his physical state as he wanted. Plus, it let him store all his creations inside of his body as well as transform into any of his tech as he wanted. Relays in the neural processing networks of his transformed body primed while he prompted his magical AI to parse through all the combatants. Text glowed across the lenses of his camera eyes as aiming reticles flashed over all 225 enemies below. His AI crunched the data and training models he had enchanted into the script. Roman had never programmed a line of code before, but all it took was Dreaming it and then copying it into the software of his suit. Each reticle slowly shifted over onto the weakest point of each enemy available to him from his current altitude. Green flashed as his software confirmed that each target was locked and all weapon systems were ready. Six rifles, fourteen electromagnetic pulse blasters, and twenty sawed off shotguns all fired at once with a roar. Legion's Impact tightened around him as it cast the action into its mold the moment each bullet and E-Mag pulse left their guns. Processing units fizzed as circuits in his steel skull threatened to blow out from the strain. Fans spun in their brackets as cooling mist vented out with a hiss. The E-Mag pulse outstripped the following tide of metal death as it slammed into the barrier with a sparkling of light. Bullets sank into the golden barrier with a brittle crack as each bullet was stopped in its track. His first move wasn't finished yet. Roman activated the enchantments engraved in the composition of each bullet and shotgun pellet as they all doubled and split with an echoing snap as the bullets ripped a few inches deeper into the yellow tissue of the glowing barrier. A chain of explosions roared as fragment of metal shrapnel detonated, clearing a massive, gaping hole in the dome. Then Legion's Impact activated as that same action repeated a second time. Roman had hoped he would be able to push it farther, but he supposed it was too complex still. It didn't matter though, this was only his opening act. Heavy metal drumbeats thrashed from his speakers as he cycled and chambered the next bullet for each of his weapons. Legion's Impact tensed as it prepared to join in as he triggered the next round of mayhem. Death notifications streamed across his lenses while steel plates flexed in a smile hidden under the veneer of his mask. Fellton Soldier (x 86) [Game Point: +172 GP] [Game Point Balance: 202 GP] [Use of: Magitech Fabrication (-100 GP) [Game Point Balance: 102 GP]> Legion's Impact Ev. 0 You may now select from one of the following options: Evolve Power Obtain New Power N/A N/A> *** Chaos tore through swathes of the barrier below as Roman's second shot blew apart the barrier in a explosive gale filled with yellow motes of light. Eli watched through Stellavoltaic Nullspace as several of his chosen targets were torn apart as they were sniped then detonated by a storm of bullets. Voices howled below in time to the guttural growls of the lead singer in the music Roman turned up. They never even had the chance to use their siege weapons. "Ready?" Roman's faceshield mask withdrew revealing his gloating smile. "Sure. But it's my turn now." Eli smiled even while a part of him felt slightly relieved that he wasn't the only one treating this like a game. That or his friend had secretly lost it, but Roman was always the more even tempered of the three of them. Eli siphoned Body of Light into Stellavoltaic Nullspace as he empowered and charged it with as much light as he could before he teleported all his charged photon shots and blasted out waves of starlightning. Invisible pencil thin beams of light drilled right into exposed crimson eyes before they burst out the other side and disappeared in a teleport right into the next target. Waves of fire crackled as beams of light and tendrils of starlighting snuffed out soldier after soldier. Ribbons of silk unfurled from the courtyard as streamers of fabric snared around the castle walls before they snapped tight. The familiar form of the commander hurled toward them as they used their silk as a slingshot. Bolts of starlightning condensed out of nullspace to close in a pincer around the commander. The commander summoned sheets of fabric woven with a iron mesh that blocked his starlightning bolts before they could land. Eli gritted his teeth as the commander's whip unwound from their robed chest as it spiraled into a lance aimed for his throat. His heart thudded in his chest at the sheer danger he was in without Lumencloud Transfiguration and Warlock's Sanctum. Artificial sunlight glowed all around them as he felt it harmonize with his innate radiance. He flexed panes of light in front of the commander and grimaced as he broke through. Sharp phantom pains tore through parts of his body that didn't exist. "Want help?" Roman asked as a series of gears audibly whizzed inside his armor. Gun barrels twitched as they reoriented to track the rapidly approaching commander. "Not yet." Eli let strands of starlightning crackle around him as he inverted and charged the rising starlight current. He slid his radiance into the spool of starlightning with an internal wince. Stellavoltaic Nullspace strained as he embodied the starlightning. Distorted fields of nullspace bloomed around him as he felt the hybridized light and nullspace around him as an extension of his body. Knotted iron weaved scarves appeared with a flutter before they whipped toward Eli in a too slow attempt to snare him. Metal sizzled, then burst into vapor as it phased through him. Droplets of metal floated on oscillating currents around his charging web of starlightning. The commander dipped their lance as their robe restitched around them so they glided directly at Eli's starlightning radiant form. Eli didn't care. He fired all his charged radiance as he himself streaked forward in an invisible blast as he teleported through the starlightning directly into the commander's chestplate. Space clapped all around them as Eli penetrated through metal plate and a stitched body of fabric out the other side. Threads sparked in the burnt out gouged wound. Nullspace stretched deep into the sky and into the earth. A teleport later and tons of rock exploded in the commander's chest while all the compressed air slapped him down toward the ravaged landscape below. The commander plunged into the exposed layer of subsoil with a crunch. Reality crinkled as space popped and all that compacted earth erupted. Shrapnel whistled as it churned through the air. Plumes of dust and soil soared toward them. Prismatic bands stretched taut around them in a shield that reflected all the debris that came close. "And here I thought what I did was impressive." Roman sighed with a shake of his head. "What evolution powers do you have unlocked right now?" "Evo-0 and my stat power." Eli's radiance dwindled as the strain of reflecting away that much high velocity material wore at him. Bolts of starlightning nullspace solidified in a rail beneath his feet to catch him as he fell. "What you did was very impressive. I don't know if I could have matched that in quite the same way even with my full build." "You're joking, right? Eli. You literally pierced through an enchanted plate both in the front and back, then ripped several tons of air and soil out of the ground before blasting him with it. Legion's Impact lets me make a looping cascade, but I had to build or summon and enchant every bit of equipment I used." "Ah. Well. Okay then." Eli shrugged, unsure of what to say to that. It felt weird to have pointed out, but the commander didn't really compare to the Colossal Titan Spider at all. "Let's head to the mine." Eli checked his notifications with a wry grin. He'd save up more of his points before he bought the rest of the perks he wanted. Legion's Impact had definitely given him some further inspiration for what he wanted his light, space, and cloud themed power to do. But it would do that and so much more better. Fellton Soldier (x 126) [Game Point: +252 GP] Fellton Commander (x 1) [Game Point: + 4 GP] Current Game Point Balance: [Game Point Balance: 66 GP]>