Jonathan Tillman Level 18 Son of Flame
Amelia flinched away, crying out at the sudden and unexpected magical reaction. For Tilly, however, time seemed to slow down. He didn’t know if it was due to Origin’s influence, but everything slowed to a crawl as he watched scattered tan fabric and clumps of freshly grown Blood Weed dissolve in the air all around him. The material was broken down into energy, leaving behind motes of tan and rust-colored mana that were then sucked back into Tilly’s armor.
The legendary armor set forcefully broke the surrounding material into its base state and then pulled it back in, using the energy to transform. The normally invisible script running up and down the fur and leather pieces that made up his armor flared brightly and began to change.
Fur and leather shifted to something light and dry, looking disturbingly like mummified skin, and then sprouted the Blood Weed everywhere. A hood grew up out of the collar and he was left wearing what looked like a special-forces, fantasy ghillie suit.
Time snapped back to normal, and while Tilly had gotten to witness his armor transformation process at one-tenth the speed, the others had only seen an explosion of material and Amelia flinch back. Ichiro and Gorock charged forward and Tilly quickly raised his hands to forestall their advance. Gorock already had his large “short” sword raised, and Tilly had no idea how he thought he was going to “help” whatever situation he imagined was taking place.
“It's OK guys! It's just my armor. It spontaneously transforms… sometimes.” He called out, realizing halfway through the sentence, that he hadn’t thought nearly enough about the mechanics of these transformations. He turned to Amelia, who was straightening, both hands stuffed threateningly in her pockets.
“I had no clue that would happen, I swear.” He said waving placatingly while pulling up his flashing notification log.
Congratulations! You have activated a hidden prerequisite and catalyzed an armor transformation. Your armor has taken on characteristics of the Blood Mound Shambler. +270% to any stealth-related activities while out of combat in the Undying Plains
+50% bonus to first strike from stealth.
“I believe you… and somehow I am convinced that this is not the last time something explosive will happen in your company.” Amelia said with a sigh, her face softening as she wearily pulled empty hands from her pockets.
“Well, if it's any consolation, this set now gives me a huge bonus to Stealth, along with a bonus to my first strike from hiding. It should be a game changer as we move through this area.”
Ichiro’s face brightened at the news, while Gorock’s dropped in disappointment, reluctantly sheathing his sword and turning away mumbling.
“Very good Mr. Tillman, this solidifies your position as our scout. We must move before the storm dissipates.” Ichiro responded, gesturing opposite the cliff face and away from the approaching force.
“Gorock, you will guard our rear. Mr. Tillman, you take point. We will move in a staggered line at double time. Keep spacing at about fifty paces, except for you Mr. Tillman, you range ahead at two hundred paces. Kindle. If you would accompany me, I will inform you if we need Mr. Tillman and he can let you know if we need to halt. We will move at a double patrol pace for now. Is everyone clear?” He asked, issuing out the commands in a cool professional tone.
They all responded in the affirmative. Even Kindle responded with a ‘cheep’ before hopping off Tilly’s shoulder and fluttering over to Ichiro, settling onto his small pack.
She scanned the plains with her sharp all-blue eyes before sending him a word of advice for his mission.
‘Hide’ she sent stoically, accompanied by images of a small creature moving through the underbrush. Then she looked over to him away from the plains and added, ‘I protect’ accompanied by the image of a mother bird spreading her wings over the nest.
He sent back ‘I know you will girl. I’ll be careful and you do the same.’ then he turned to her new perch; the serene samurai. Tilly was impressed, but not surprised at Ichiro’s tactical prowess, and only had one question for the initial plan.
“What do I do if I am spotted?”
“Immediate and overwhelming use of force. Do not hold anything back, there can be no report of our presence moving through this land.” He responded without hesitation, his calm expression untouched by the intense subject matter.
“Finally!” Gorock whispered in a tone that very much failed to be private.
“We will run as long as we are able, and make camp only when we must. Time is no longer working with us... Is everyone ready to move?” Ichiro checked a final time. Tilly fought down the familiar feeling of being an imposter as he observed the expression of professional detachment that settled on the other’s faces.
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'Looks like life or death quests are par for the course around here...'
Choosing not to dwell on his scant qualifications in scouting, Tilly shook out his shoulders and drew his weapons. Everyone else shifted to similar states of readiness, and without further preamble, Tilly turned and started moving at a steady jog. His steps ate up the ground and he once again marveled at the fact that he was easily maintaining what would have been his full sprint in his old life. In fact, the state of his body seemed entirely unaffected by the change from standing to running, and he felt like he could keep this pace for an entire day if needed.
After a few yards of finding his pace, he activated Stealth and felt the skill settle over him. However, he immediately noticed a difference in how quickly and thoroughly he felt his form become indistinct. He had been told that as long as the Skill remained active you would feel less… physically present. This sensation was often but not always a good indicator that you remained unobserved by hostile forces.
As soon as he activated the Skill he felt a flash of alarm from Kindle who immediately sent,
‘Where?’ accompanied by a memory of his departure from her perspective.
The memory was jarring enough to cause Tilly to stumble mid-stride as he adjusted to the entirely different way she saw the world. All the physical features of the landscape were unchanged if not outlined in a much higher resolution, but superimposed over them was a grey/white haze. Somehow the haze did not diminish her ability to make out even minute details, but did overlay everything with a confusing extra layer of information.
Tilly asked her to send the image again, and she complied. This time Tilly was able to pick his own form out from the endless sea of grass, partially because he was moving, but also because the haze was markedly whiter around his form. He realized that she had an innate heat sense built into her vision, which made sense considering what she ate.
After a few seconds, he watched himself disappear in the memory, the haze fading to uniform grey right where he had been. Tilly couldn’t help but smile at the sight of his huge jump in the Skill with the new armor transformation.
He sent back the same image she had sent him along with the word, ‘Hide’. She answered with a mental chirp that was layered with so much attitude that it would have been an eye roll on a human teenager.
As tough as Nephesh had been on him, some of the things he had experienced were undeniably cool. Being able to fade into nothingness was definitely one of those things. He leaned a little more into his pace and started to scan the area in front of him.
The plains were a reddish tan sea of low rolling hills broken by long swathes of flat land that interrupted the hills like ripples in a pond. Breaking this expanse was the storm wall, now directly in front of the enemy forces, blocking their line of sight. Tilly continued to move at a forty-five-degree angle away from the cliff wall with the storm and the enemy it obscured to his left.
He kept moving until they had gained about 5 miles of distance between their group and the pass, keeping his eyes peeled for anything out of place in the monotonous dead grasslands. Cresting a relatively large hill, he crouched low and turned back towards the wall to find that the clouds had cleared, marking the end of the supernatural storm. Tilly was able to barely make out an indistinct grey mass flowing toward the flooded delta before the walls.
As that tide of furious hungry flesh hit the waters, it slowed significantly, meaning their inhumanly fast sprint was relegated to a jog. Tilly watched for a few moments more as the mass was broken up, and reduced on its approach to the base of the wall. His sight failed him in the specifics, but he understood enough to know that the wall would likely hold through the first charge if nothing changed.
‘Hold on guys… The only thing I can do for you now is keep moving.’ He thought to himself as he duck-walked to the downslope and started to move again. Just because he couldn't make out individual shapes at this distance didn't mean the enemy had the same limits. Even with his bonus in Stealth, he refused to tempt fate by making a silhouette on any of the high points in the hills. He sent back his observation to Kindle, trusting her to convey the update to Ichiro.
He continued along the direction they had set, occasionally sending back an image of a stunted tree, or odd boulder to make sure they didn't lose his line of travel. Without any real change in the moody grey skies between day and night, it was difficult to track the passage of time. So it might have been thirty minutes or two hours when he encountered the first scout.
He had been sticking to the lower paths through the low hills, winding his way further and further to the side of the Horde when he felt a shiver pass through this Stealth. On instinct, he dropped, then achingly slowly, he craned his neck to peer at his surroundings from deep within the cowl of his grassy hood.
Once he had turned his head almost completely to the right, he spotted the source of his unease. A figure crouched on top of a hill just past the one he had been skirting. Tilly watched, barely breathing as the creature continued to scan the area. Some part of its predator instinct clearly pushing it to search hills carefully, even though there seemed to be nothing.
Level 37 Strigoi
Tilly sent back an image of the scout to Kindle from his hiding place. She sent back a mental ‘cheep!’ of concern, but also sent along a picture of the rest of the group crouching down and hunkering under their cloaks, becoming little more than misshapen features of the same endless rust and tan grasslands. She even looked down at herself to show a new piece of fabric extending out of the pack below her and covering her blue form.
Finally, the scout stood, giving up its search, and turning back to head away from Tilly and the others. It released a short sharp screech that echoed through the hills and another screech answered the call a few hundred yards closer to the enemy force. That was the moment Tilly realized that these creatures were far less mindless than he first assumed. He didn't know how far this screen of scouts spread from the Horde, but he hoped they would get through them soon.
Once he was sure the scout was gone he sent back an all-clear to the others and started moving again. As he loped forward keeping his form slightly crouched, he carefully scanned each approaching hilltop.
‘One enemy avoided, thousands more to go.’