Chapter 35 - Respawn and Perfect Loot for a Water Mage
As Palinus’s awareness rose with his reemerging physical form he recognised he was again waiting for his avatar to take shape again. It felt different this time, without a sense of urgency, and the time it took the nexus to gradually coalesce his avatar felt much slower.
He began to worry about what would happen if he didn’t have a form when the rift ended. Intellectually he knew that they weren’t in a hardcore rift and that he would be fine, as the thousands of delvers before him had been, but a part of him worried.
If he was remade in the rift, what was remade? Was he the same after the deaths of his avatars?
The essentia his body stored as he had tiered up meant that he was assuredly not the same teenage boy that struggled to survive mere weeks ago. As he thought about the ferocity of the 111s and their tier two forms he considered what they were giving up to take that power. Arruns particularly seemed to delight in his savagery.
Dwelling on the 111s made Palinus sigh, in the odd suspended state of partial reanimation the exhalation came out as a wet blurble.
From his cocoon-like pillar that gradually reformed his body he began to sense some of the outside world. Fierce shouting and grunts of effort came from nearby as various explosions and clashes indicated that the 111s were on the attack and trying to finish the rift off.
The edge of frustration in their voices gave Palinus a sense of pleasure as he waited for them to finish the nexus off. It seemed like he and his team had somewhat delayed the inevitable and he was proud of their achievement, to delay a team like that even for a little bit when they were putting all of their effort into a quick victory was a notable achievement. It wasn’t a win though.
Still waiting to be released he was forced to interrogate that feeling. Palinus had always enjoyed games and the various competitive elements of schola and his formative years at the gymnasium, they took his mind off his troubles and focused him on a simple objective but he had never been hung up on victory. Facing a defeat that they had almost expected he was surprised at the feeling of frustration.
When they got out he would have to apologise to Optio Magunuss, he had stuck his neck out for their plan, but it seemed like they had stumbled too soon and would lose what momentum they had gained. There was still a chance to delay the wider Inter Cohort Battle, but losing this rift closed the narrow opportunity to sneak a victory against the first cohort.
The sides of the pillar he reformed in began to feel constricting as Palinus realised he was close to respawning. The now familiar melting effect of the hole appearing in front of him was welcome relief to the claustrophobia he began to feel mixing with his frustration and anxiety.
Before he could step out to see what was going on he could hear an escalation in the voices of the nearby 111s.
“We should chase down the rat!” Arruns yelled.
“You know we need to retreat quickly to get to the next tower defence.” Vels stated calmly.
“Can we jump through their rift to rejoin the century instead?” Marnus suggested.
“That would mean we are leaving another team to pick up the hill tower defence.” Vels countered with a shake of his head.
Their argument didn’t make sense to Palinus, why weren't they happy with their win. As he stepped out into the circle of pillars he nodded to Vesuvia and Seline who had stepped out only moments before. They too shared a confused look.
Arruns spotted the team respawning first and began to charge towards them with a look the promised murder.
Vels and Marnus were quick to try and grab the big axeman but could only slow him as he ran past the nexus crystal and the portal now open beside it and towards the deepest room in the nexus, where the pillars stood.
As soon as he stepped past the broad circle of albumstone around the nexus crystal several beams of light shot from previously innocuous formations of crystals that Palinus had assumed was just for decoration.
The beams of bright red light did enormous damage and Arruns staggered as he tried to push past the beams. By the time teammates were able to finally slow him and pulled him back to safety he had already lost half of his health points.
“We can’t afford to delay. Do not let the sanguine taint control you, fool.” Vel scolded Arruns before turning to Palinus. “Warn your friend to avoid the middle lane as we retreat, a swift exit would be better for both of us.”
“Rufian and Bruchts lived?” Palinus asked his enemy stupidly. The conversation was surreal, it felt like moments ago he was being blasted apart by Vel’s fireball.
The red mage didn’t reply as he shrugged and dragged his teammate out of the nexus and back towards their own.
“What happened?”
“I think… I think we won?!” Seline guessed, pointing at the nexus crystal.
It was visibly damaged, but from within it glowed with a vibrant red light. It pulsed repeatedly and blasted a broad beam up towards the roof of the nexus building. The light within the rift had changed to match the red light, and the sounds of the rift were different too.
“We won?” Palinus asked his third dumb question in a row, struggling to understand what had happened.
“What happened Rufi?” Seline asked their friend in the team chat, “Oh, and avoid the middle lane. The 111s are retreating and they look mad.”
“I bet they are mad” Rufian crowed. “They couldn’t catch me, and I swung back to finish off the plan! It must have been pretty close but I finished off the tower and punched until the nexus went down, Deep Fist worked!”
The team cheered exuberantly and danced around the nexus. Palinus and Seline had to work overtime to try and convince Vesuvia and Rufian not to antagonise the retreating 111s. It was Bruchts who respawned a few moments later that convinced them.
“Don’t give any information away to the 111s!.” He warned as they quickly filled him in on their success.
They needed to wait for the enemy to retreat as part of their plan. Watching them disappear out of view down the middle lane towards their exit portal, Palinus couldn't help rubbing his hands in glee.
“I can’t believe this is going to work.”
“We are still relying on Magunnus and the 9th Century” Seline tamped down on his enthusiasm, but Palinus could see by her grin that she was pleased too.
“It might have been cleaner if they had jumped to the forest side tower.” Bruchts speculated.
“Vel’s a smart leader, he would be thinking about trying to defend the next tower. So he’ll likely take the hill side exit and rush to the next rift.” Seline speculated.
“They’re in for a surprise.” The team chuckled together as they walked to meet up with Rufian, ensuring that they stayed out of sight of the 111s in the middle lane.
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“Oh Pal, I found something!” Rufian beckoned when they met up in the forest near the top lane.
He led the team through the forest beside the top lane to a wide clearing. Within the clearing stood a peculiarly dried out patch of earth. As if they were looking at a creekbed which had not seen rain in months.
“We should probably get going.” Seline suggested at the unimpressive scene.
“Look.” At Rufian’s insistence they looked closer and used their essentia senses.
Creek Naiad 2235/2235 | Level 6
Water Elemental
Hiding itself in the thick mud a creature moved. Its watery body occasionally visible as its form oozed between cracks in the mud.
“Quickly then.” Seline sighed.
They didn’t need to be invited twice as they all let off steam by blasting the super creep with their full power.
As they began their onslaught the elemental surged out to meet their attacks, dragging clumps of the sticky mud up with it. It stood at nearly three meters high and looked like ropey streams of water that surged and fountained around itself into a vaguely feminine form.
It lashed out with splashes of water at Rufian, who was the closest with his fists burying themself into its watery form and splashing its body about with gouts of foamy water. Rufian seemed to be doing the most damage as they quickly dismantled the elemental. It had a draining attack that allowed it to replenish it’s body but was quickly dismantled by the full team.
“Phew, I’m glad I didn't try to solo that.” Rufian laughed as the super creep died.
The team stood around for a moment as the wave of essentia beads dropped in a flood. They were a good mix, but mostly blue and green beads that scattered. The team carefully picked up the essentia as they looked around the clearing for loot.
“Pal!” Bruchts yelled, summoning him over to a hole in the artificial bank the Naiad occupied.
“It’s perfect!” Rufian added as he stood nearby the discovery.
“It’s a water ability…” Seline questioned, “ That would be closer to Bruchts aspect… and even then it’s not-”
“It’s perfect!” Palinus echoed as he reached for the sparkling blue calculus.
Class
Water Mage
Ars
Thirsting Meander
Attunement
████████████
Cooldown
45 Sec
Compatibility
n/a
Skill Type
Shield, Buff
Slot
[Chest, Shoulder]
Slot Bonus
n/a
Description
Summon a stream of water that flows around the caster and shields for [250] damage. Drains nearby sources of moisture to add to itself and can be applied to a weapon to add [10] water damage, applies [Cold]
“But he’s not a water mage?” Seline remained perplexed.
With the calculus in his right hand Palinus fished in his pocket for the Attunement Shard.
Seline gasped as he pulled it out and stood with the two objects in his hand, a moment of hesitation overcame him as he began to doubt.
“What if it doesn’t work.” he worried.
“Oh it will Pal! I can’t believe you have a near perfect attunement shard!” Seline was poking at the shard in amazement and checking the calculus more closely now she understood. “This is a good idea, it’s perfect…”
“What if it-”
“Just do it Pal, we’ve got places to be.” Rufian encouraged, unsympathetic to his anxiety.
With a gulp Palinus prepared. He gripped the shard in his left hand and gingerly drove the point into the round shape of the blue gemstone. As the point touched the hard stone rather than a grinding of two hard objects instead the point of the shard pierced the stone as if it was made of wet clay.
With his thumb on the end of the shard he drove it all the way through the shard until it disappeared into the calculus.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then the stone began to get hot.
It steamed as it bubble and got so hot Palinus couldn’t hold it and tried to drop it.
The calculus kept returning to his hand as its steam turned to flame andignited, the blue stone turning quickly red and billowing a cloud of bluey green smoke. As Palinus dropped the stone for a third time trying to avoid the fiery object returning to his hand it finally seemed to finish burning itself and the bright red flame settled to a slow smolder.
The heat of the stone felt suddenly comfortable to Palinus. He could instantly tell that the calculus had reaspected near perfectly and he could feel a tug of his body hungrily responding to it.
Class
Smoke Mage
Ars
Smouldering Wisp
Attunement
████████████
Cooldown
45 Sec
Compatibility
n/a
Skill Type
Shield, Buff
Slot
[Chest, Shoulder]
Slot Bonus
n/a
Description
Summon a wisp of smoke that wafts around the caster and shields for [150] damage. Drains nearby sources of smoke to add to itself and can be applied to a weapon to add [30] fire damage, applies [Burning].
A slow trickle of smoke continued to seep off the stone, as if it leaked the smoke from within. It shone with a deep cherry red that shimmered through the seeping smoke. It no longer had a circular shape, where he had plunged the shard into the calculus the end of the stone was pointed and as if the shard had blasted the rest of the stone forward it had a bulbous shape which ballooned at the other end like a spinning top.
Palinus had a choice of where to place the calculus. He felt intrinsically that he could buff the shield component of the ars by placing it in his chest, and he suspected that the shoulder slot bonus would be a boon to the additional damage part.
A moment of thought later he plunged the point of the stone into his shoulder, it slid in underneath his clavicle with the ease of pinning it onto his shirt.
“But if you had more shield, you ca-” Seline started to criticise Palinus’s choice.
“A shield is pointless if the enemy is dead.” Palinus replied as he started walking. He was thoroughly excited now and he could feel the nervous energy reflected in the team as they walked together with Rufian recounting his heroics of dodging Agrippa and leading him on a merry chase as managed to win the rift just in the nick of time,
As they reached the edge of the forest Seline signalled for them to stop, she poked her head out of the brush and carefully checked their route.
“It looks all clear.” She said as she beckoned them forward. “Are you all ready to rift jump?”
They nodded and shared a look as they steeled themselves. They had stolen a win from the 111s, and now they were going to follow them out through their portal to the overworld, into enemy territory.