According to her short introduction Linda had been an acupuncture therapist before Initiation and now had a Class called Aegis, focused on shielding and buffing her party members. According to her she was a transfer from Resolute, one amongst about 30 that had decided to move Guild after the option had been discussed with Resolute’s leadership. At 44 years of age she had just made the cut-off but her slate grey hair made her look older and when Ryan had asked her she hedged but then relented and just stated that it was a result of her experiences in Windhoek before she had been liberated by Resolute. She left it at that and Ryan felt awkward as the pregnant pause that followed her admission dragged on before Mike cut it short by asking her what she was capable off.
Linda explained that Shielder, her first class, allowed her to reinforce and manipulate the Energy Shields of her party members by constantly channeling Energy through a tether attached to the Shield. According to her it had a fairly mediocre range, approximately 50 metres before the Energy requirements became absurd. She also needed physical contact to initiate the tether. The best part, according to her, was that it allowed her not only to strengthen the Shields but vary the primary effect, to some extent. Linda further explained that she had created several templates that she could switch between reasonably quickly, for example one geared to reducing blunt impacts, one geared to slowing piercing attacks and another for deflecting projectiles.
Her second class, Reinforcer, allowed her to gift a person with Energy that supercharged certain aspects of their physique, be it reaction speed, muscle strength, speed or resistance of their skin or deadening their pain receptors. Unfortunately, once the effect expired a similar reduction in the attribute followed until the person had recovered their equilibrium. For that reason, she admitted, she wasn’t as experienced in utilising that skillset and had just created a few ‘Oh shit’ buffs as she called them, to be used only in emergency situations.
“So, once John got informed of the incident with the mopane flies, did you know they’re actually bees, Africa’s only stingless bee, and went over your plan to deal with the itty-bitty porcupine with a fine toothed comb he drafted me as your support. Should make the whole exercise a whole lot safer where the words he used. I’m supposed to keep the bees off you guys and possibly deflect quills. Also, John said to deal with the swarms of the mopane flies once we’re done with Mr. Grumpy. Anyways, I’m here and what’s the plan.” she finished her explanation with a continuous rush of words.
William started explaining the plan to the hyper-energetic shorty as they started moving down to the lodge. Save for the fact that Carmen and Miguel would remain in close proximity of the melee group and setting up on the building that would be the starting point of their charge the plan hadn’t changed significantly. They had decided to get the fight done with today instead of waiting another day for Ryan and Miguel to recover and Tanya was repeatedly healing them as they made their way down to the lodge.
While they were walking Ryan observed Linda as she and Tanya listened to William laying out the plan. Linda kept scanning her surroundings with frenetic motions of her head, enthusiastically fascinated by everything around her, all while her head was half tilted to listen to William. Her actions reminded him of a quick little bird, a twit, and Ryan couldn’t help but smile at the image that evoked. Her boundless energy would probably be exhausting if it wasn’t so adorable in a 44 year old woman the size of a gnome.
“Gnome.” Ryan loudly said without thinking.
“Yes?” she answered.
“Your nickname is gnome?” Ryan asked, perplexed.
“Yes. How’d you know?” she replied.
“I didn’t.” Ryan considered, before continuing. “But you remind me of one.”
“You’re not the first to feel that way. I actually kinda liked it once I started delving into fantasy after my nephew called me that the first time. Auntie Gnome. It was so cute.” her face fell as she continued quietly. “I wonder if they’re still alive. They moved to Sydney two years ago.”
That statement broke the mood and the group continued quietly, each probably thinking about family or friends that they likely wouldn’t ever see again. The mood persisted while they circled around the lodge and until they had made their approach to the building that would serve as the group’s point of ambush.
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“Everyone knows what to do.” William whispered. “Get in position and let’s don’t fuck up.” As motivational whispers went it wasn’t the greatest but except for Linda’s participation the plan had been discussed ad nauseam and everyone knew what was expected of them. Ryan, followed by Miguel and Carmen, climbed onto the roof of the building. As soon as he had reassured himself that the two would have clear line of sight to the barn and his baiting position Ryan Shifted to his chosen starting point.
After a short ready check done via the party chat Ryan once again carefully made his way to the ridge of the roof. A foreboding feeling gripped Ryan as he spotted the darkness of the gaping cavern between the wide open barn doors. The contrast between the bright sunlight outside and the lack thereof inside made details difficult to resolve but after furiously squinting for a good long while Ryan spotted the rear-end of their foe. From his position he couldn’t make out the whole animal but such was life. Fully focused on what his sphere of senses was telling him Ryan felt the position of the porcupines head, plunged, no surprise there, into a barrel of refuse. Ryan fully drew his bow in a smooth motion and released a bodkin arrow straight at the head of the animal.
The metallic clang of the arrow punching through the tin sheeting making up the walls of the barn just reached his ears when he felt the animal shudder and twitch its tail in his direction. He sensed the flight of quills spearing in his direction and in a moment of superluminal awareness knew that none of the trajectories would intercept his position. As if in a dream he called another bodkin arrow out of his pocket-space, silently thanking Miguel for the suggestion to use it as a quiver, drew and released. And again. His fourth arrow was in flight before Mr Grumpy had awkwardly manoeuvred its rear out of the barn and started the microscopically slow charge at his position. Ryan rained arrow after arrow on the massive body, dimly hearing the concussive reports of Carmen’s rifle and the roar as Mike charged, before he Shifted sideways of his perch just as the enraged beast impacted the building.
With exacting precision he pirouetted once his feet touched solid ground nocking another arrow and releasing it near instinctually at where the whipping head would be once his arrow reached the target. The bodkin point punched straight through the ridge above the beast’s eye and tore through its head before exiting the top of its skull at a greatly reduced velocity. Ryan only stared in awe as the porcupine continued with its frenzied rampage, barely staggered by impact of Mike’s charge that arrived a second later.
Another second later Ryan chanced another shot at its head, missing by a fair margin after the state of supernatural concentration deserted him. Then, not willing to risk inadvertently hitting his team mates Ryan Shifted himself directly in front of the animal, at some distance, and released shot after shot at the porcupine that was trying its utmost to flatten Mike and William in an awkward side charge. They both easily dodged the attempt and moved to the front of the animal, obstructing Ryan’s line but keeping the animal pinned against the building. Ryan Shifted again, moving onto the porch directly below the position of Miguel and Carmen before he resumed making a pincushion of their target. Mike and William had the animal well in hand, shield-checking it backwards every time it tried to gain space to turn around.
With its footing fouled by the bloody mud below it the pair managed to neutralise its greatest threat, its rear. The feeble attempts to bite the two wouldn’t have presented a danger even if Linda hadn’t shielded the two and Carmen soon stopped firing, preserving her ammunition as the animal was clearly done for, its struggles weakening by the second as the loss of blood and damage to its internal organs took its toll. Ryan soon followed suit, content to let William and Mike contain the threat as the animal succumbed to the grievous injuries the team had inflicted. Fury ambled over to settle on the couch next to him, still content to only watch the fight and not participate.
The end, when it finally came, was as anticlimactic as the start of combat had been exciting. A minute after Ryan had shot his last arrow he watched as the porcupine collapsed and exhaled a frothy burst of blood over his brother and Mike. The two held position for a few moments longer until, after Mike confirmed the veracity of their experience notification by poking its glassy eye with his spear, they ambled over to where Ryan was standing in the shade of the porch.
Mike greeted them somewhat grumpily. “Well, that was easier than expected. That last blow though. Didn’t expect that, now I’ll be sticky and smelly until I can find a working shower.”
“Well, should be soon.” William added. ”John requested that you open another Portal once we were done so that they could continue moving the Guild over. Celeste will come through first and accompany us to deal with the mopane flies. Ryan, you want to join us or will you stay and regenerate your Energy here?”
“I’ll tag along.” Ryan answered as he moved into the courtyard to spin up a Portal. He was really looking forward to see the Witch deal with the swarms and could partially cultivate his Energy while on the move. Losing half an hour at this stage shouldn’t prove to be a problem, they’d likely be done moving the majority by day’s end in any event.