They set off at a ground-eating pace, with Hilbert leading the way, following some sort of magical compass. The group stayed mostly silent as they ran, but Tilly found that he was a long way from feeling any exhaustion after the break they had just taken. His Endurance had just gone up another twenty points, and he felt like he could probably run at this pace for the next twenty-four hours and barely be winded at their destination.
The effortless feeling that marked his movements during moderate physical activity contrasted greatly with how quickly he had felt depleted near the end of the fight. It seemed like his abysmal Strength stat was holding him back whenever he operated at the leading edge of his physical ability. However, if he kept himself to moderate output, he had the sense he could go on for a ridiculous amount of time.
That being said, when he thought back to the recent battle, he couldn't help but smile in grim satisfaction. He might not have been a paragon of grace, but he more than held his own in the fight. All of the practice scenarios and the brutal Skill leveling he had done over the last month had really transformed his combat ability. Sure his power advantage over corrupted opponents was the only reason he had survived that last encounter, but it had not been the only factor... He had also kicked some significant monster ass.
And he wasn't the only one! Kindle had demonstrated a dramatic increase in capability after the fight. Tilly could only imagine how having access to this new sort of fuel allowed her to advance. Instead of riding on Tilly’s pack, she had taken to the air, gliding as an almost invisible spot high above them. She was now more at ease in the air than perched on his shoulder. A change that he wasn’t sure if he liked or not. He loved her increased survivability, but not being needed quite as much stung a little.
‘Are you sure you don’t need a rest? I think Hilbert has some sort of tracker that lets him avoid scouting parties, so you don't have to keep watch all the time.’ He sent again, marveling at their capability to suddenly converse in complete sentences.
‘We just rescued that peacock from a pack of the grey flightless. With your permission, I would like to remain above as another set of eyes.”- She replied with only a hint of exasperation, then he felt something like affection thrum through their bond, - “But I promise, I will tell you if I need a rest. I can sense how strange my growth seems to you. But this is my nature. I cannot remember them, but I can feel hundreds of my previous lives reaching back through time. This is the way my kind grow.’
Tilly tried to dampen down his sadness at how much she had changed in such a short time, knowing that she could feel it as clearly as he could feel her concern.
‘Well, I am excited for you to continue to advance... I saw that flame attack you did at the end. What's next?’ He asked, unable to keep from sending images of mythological phoenixes he had read about in the past. Creatures that were the living embodiment of flame. Symbols of immortality and resilience.
She considered the images he sent, and replied hesitantly, ‘Some of that feels correct, but I know for certain that I can and will die… It feels like an essential part of my cycle, and when the time comes, I will know how to best leverage my end. Also, I don’t think I have ever been bonded before, and I feel there will be unique options for us going forward as we both grow. Things that none of my kind have ever experienced-’ on the tail end of that thought, Tilly caught the barest hint of a concept. Something that she couldn’t put into words.
It felt sort of like a future invitation to become a whole that was greater than the sum of their separate parts. He wanted to ask more but got the sense that she was already pondering over the same questions, and he realized how jarring it must be for her to advance in leaps like this. Catching hints of what had been and yet forced to remain in ignorance until reaching a future unknown threshold of power had to be difficult to balance.
So he released their connection and smiled as he felt her return to the newfound joy of untethered flight. She may have been maturing rapidly, but there was something innocent and captivating about her exultant emotions at rediscovering her chief domain. She was a creature of Air and Fire and today’s events had allowed her to discover a much greater portion of herself.
He left her to it, deciding instead to catch up to Ichiro, who whether by coincidence or intention, had maintained the first position behind the two vampires who led their group. As Tilly pulled up beside him, he noted that while the lapin didn’t seem as fully at ease as Tilly, he looked like he also would have no trouble keeping this pace for hours on end.
“Ichiro, can I ask you something personal?” Tilly spoke in a low tone, hoping that they were far enough away from the vampires that they wouldn’t be overheard.
“Please, Jonathan Tillman, feel free to do so. I will let you know if I think it unwise to continue in our discourse,” he answered, with a quick, but pointed look at the two leading their group through the twisting lowlands winding between the hills.
“As you and Shuji both know, my build is maxed around Endurance and while I think I understand both the benefits and costs of my stat layout, I am not sure I fully understand the context of my numbers.” Tilly laid out hesitantly, trying to form his ideas into a cohesive question.
“Shuji told me that if my stat score matched my level numerically, then I would be around the average for someone at my stage of power. He then explained that most builds only double, or rarely, triple their level score in a single stat, and that each multiplicative threshold I pass produces some sort of unmeasured but noticeable impact. But now, my Endurance is more than five times my level and I’m not sure I really understand the implications. How does it square up against something like a level 75 Consumer for example?” Tilly whispered, leaning into the lapin’s extraordinary hearing ability to make sure their conversation stayed private.
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Tilly watched as Ichiro considered the question, and for the first time noticed that the lapin wasn’t breathing in rhythm with his steps. Instead, he was maintaining a double-speed version of the meditative breathing he had taught Tilly a month ago.
Then it hit Tilly… Ichiro was meditating. He never stopped meditating. In the recent fight, while he was running, even while he talked, he fit every one of his moments and actions into a cadence of his meditation. Tilly couldn’t imagine what his Skill level must be at this point.
Ichiro’s calm measured answer interrupted Tilly’s musings.
“A very popular theory in this area is that your Endurance and an opponent’s Strength, are measured against each other by the System in every martial exchange. If the stats are equal, then there are no unseen stat modifiers affecting the blow. However, if your opponent has twice as much Strength as you have Endurance, then they might gain something like a +50% modifier to their damage output. But the reason this is only a theory is that these exchanges are also affected by armor, positioning of the blow, racial and skill boosts to attacks and defense. In fact, there are even more theoretical factors than the ones I am mentioning” He said speaking his words in a rhythmic cadence,
“The exact numerical advantage of having such a high Endurance is not known, but doubling or tripling your opponent's Strength score will make their Strength-modified attacks significantly weaker against you. The same is true for magical attacks and intelligence, as well as environmental damage against your physical body. Endurance essentially is the measurement of your body’s ability to persist in its ideal physical state no matter the opposition. It does not, however, help you with spiritual and mental attacks… that is where Wisdom comes in, and it is the area of your build I have been most concerned about.”
“Yeah, I can see that. Especially with Corruption eroding my mental defenses. The attack from the Red Eyes guy more than demonstrated that…” Tilly trailed away losing himself as he considered Ichiro's answer, as he mindlessly followed the group through the hills at an easy jog. He had achieved some measure of mental defense against the surges of dark desires that were leveled against him in times of extreme stress, but that wouldn’t help him when it came to resisting the powers of the forces arrayed against him. Ichiro watched the conflicting emotions play out across Tilly’s face and lapsed into silence easily, content to give his companion space to process.
‘The Wisdom bottleneck is where the Min-Maxing of my build takes its toll. But honestly, [Resolute] has saved my life so many times I can’t imagine going forward without it, and without the increase to my survivability that Endurance has given me, I wouldn’t have made it through half of the fights I have faced so far. So I’m pretty much committed...
‘Just got to keep moving forward and look for some alternative way to shore up my weakness’ besides stat dumping. At least until I finally rip this thing out of me. ’
…
They continued on their run for hours, letting Hilbert lead them around enemy hot spots well in advance of actually seeing them. After a while, Tilly moved up to ask him about the compass object he held and he explained that it was keyed into the vampirism variant that infected the Strigoi. It was something his master had left him as a parting gift years ago.
Otherwise, they made great time through the Twilight Planes, something that Hilbert said would normally be much more difficult if the Horde wasn’t so concentrated on both fronts of attack. During one of their short breaks, he shared with the group that the Order still patrolled the edges of the Horde lands on their border, and typically kept covert resources invested in tracking Horde movements. Yet every major Horde aggression over the last few months had been so far away from the Order’s lands, that intervention had seemed like a foolish risk to the queen, who thought each attack was a feint to lure them away from protecting their supply lines.
However, the consequences of this non-interventionist policy had driven a very small number of their Order to seek out alternatives. The Horde continued to expand at an alarming rate and Hilbert, Sir Michael, and a few others thought that their continued expansion had to be stopped at all costs.
The group kept their breaks short, and after what seemed like seven or eight hours, even Tilly was starting to develop a sheen of sweat under his Moundstalker armor. Franklin and Amelia were in much worse shape. They barely kept pace, relying on different herbal concoctions from Amelia’s never-ending stock to keep moving. Yet, even though they had not uttered a word of complaint, Tilly was beginning to grow worried for the pair.
“There it is, one of our outposts!” Hilbert's voice interrupted Tilly in the middle of another worried glace back at the two who were now struggling not to fall behind.
“We shall vouch for you and hopefully secure better transport for the rest of the trip to our Order’s Capital.” He said, looking back at the last members of the group lathered in sweat and grime. They did not reply to his comment or even look up as he gestured to what Tilly could see was a small military structure on the horizon. The two Vampires didn't seem winded at all for the effort, but a darker part of Tilly was glad to see that they still did have to breathe to function.
He had been thinking a lot about what had happened back with the ancient cave bear, and was sure there were another couple of tricks he had up his sleeve, even in open-air environments, that would multiply his group's attack power by an order of magnitude…
They approached the rest of the way to the outpost at a walk, and as they drew near, Tilly saw that it was a squat medieval-style fortress, surrounded by a wall two stories high. The moment they came within view of the fortress towers, a cry went up, and soon after, a group of ten riders emerged from the gate to meet their group out in the open.