As soon as I equipped the armour, I knew the Asterians were done for. The dizzying array of buffs, perks and bonuses that swirled around my vision upon inspecting my Stat Screen was stupendous. I couldn’t even finish reading one single notification before being buffeted by another two.

Immediately, I wanted to ditch Paul’s quest and just never hand in the armour. It wasn’t a bad idea, except that all my active quests and their prospective rewards would be cancelled upon switching from Bill’s Yard to the real world.

I could be a powerhouse for the rest of the year, or I could hand in the set and take a piece for myself, permanently. And if I made my way back here and found another armour set, and then another.

Chill, Ollie. Still gotta escape with this one.

Out of curiosity, I checked my new Armour total. I’d been thoroughly impressed with the {Acidic Breastplate} and its 320 Armour, but…

3062 Armour.

I had to refresh my inventory just in case it was a visual glitch. To be ten times better defended — across my entire body, nonetheless — was unfathomable. It was like when people tell you ridiculous facts about the size of the universe compared to Earth, and the numbers are so vast that at some point your brain just can’t facilitate the proper scale of the difference.

My next pleasant surprise was in the form of the set bonus.

[Dragon’s Breath: With each successful attack, release a fireball inflicting 120% damage of the original attack.]

I’d essentially double my damage. Again, it didn’t play well into the shortcomings of {The Glass Cannon}, but that was a separate issue. On the other hand, any properly successful strikes would be even stronger.

I was even more of a glass cannon now. If I wasn’t careful, I’d make a name for myself this way.

The soldiers had finally closed in on us, both archers and ground combatants. Two men holding swords blocked my exit, one of them looking rightfully concerned after seeing my armour.

His comrade wasn’t so observant. With a foolhardy charge and a yell that didn’t frighten me one bit, the soldier rushed straight at me. I resisted a laugh, feeling like that was too supervillain-ish, before leaping forward with an amount of agility that I wasn’t actually prepared for.

Barely staying upright, I launched {The Glass Cannon} straight through his chest.

If it weren’t for his brazenness, the man with a tad more concern might have lived.

Instead, the fireball that sprouted from my spear shot straight across the room and transformed the hesitant man into smoking smithereens.

“Holy shit!” I heard from outside. It sounded like a Claire thing to say, though it wasn’t quite at the angle that I expected it to come from.

I rushed out, bouncing over the poor soldier’s remains and turning to take in the circumstances. Claire was hiding behind a blockade of carts and boxes whilst the archers pinned her down with a constant stream of arrows and the soldiers eased forward, nearly ready to strike.

[Dash] [Spear Charge]

I took the first soldier high in the shoulder, then aimed the tip of my spear up at the group of archers above us. It was a shot in the dark — I had no idea if gravity would affect the fireball, or even if there was a long enough delay for me to ‘aim’ it — but it was the only good way I could deal with the archers at their range.

An even larger fireball than before lanced out, spiralling through the air. I saw the shocked look on an archer’s face, ignited by the blaze of light thrown out by the projectile. They stood no chance.

As for the soldiers, they suddenly had a more difficult predicament. Originally the hunters, they were now pinned in on both sides by Claire and I, and they made the mistake of surging towards Claire in a last ditch effort, showing me their backs.

{You have defeated a Level 71 Asterian Soldier.}{+380 EXP}

{You have defeated a Level 73 Asterian Soldier.}{+400 EXP}

LEVEL UP! Your new Level is: Level 57!

Attributable Stat Points: (25)

Attributable Skill Tokens: (9)

Access the ‘Stats’ screen to boost your potential!

For a moment, I thought that the Attributable Stat Points and Skill Tokens were my rewards for levelling up. But I’d had enough insanity and good fortune today — it was just showing my total distributable amounts.

Level 57. I can’t believe my level ups are still reasonably close together. It seems like every few days of playtime, almost.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

Claire shook me from my contemplation with a shoulder punch that I barely felt.

“Oi! Snap out of it! You might be a frickin tank now, but I’m not! Let’s go!”

I followed her out of the facility, sticking close to her heels in case a stray arrow found its mark. She moved faster and faster, but I was finally able to keep up with her natural agility.

This time, our escape involved no ropes or dangerous ascents and heart-stopping leaps.

We simply barrelled through everything.

I soon led the charge, using a [Dash] when available and flinging fireballs all over the place. A few poorly aimed shots disintegrated portions of the greystone walls, but it was always enough to draw the defender’s attention. Either that, or a vicious pelt of shrapnel took them out.

Claire focused on keeping herself alive. It was nice to have our roles reversed for once — this whole trip into Asteroth had forced me to come to terms with the fact that {The Glass Cannon} by itself would not always get me through. Claire had versatility, something I’d severely lacked up until now. She’d been fully responsible for getting us through Otto’s quest for the Dallytongue and Perrywort, and without her around to help me face the Stakes — and sweet-talk Tabitha — I’d still be in some severe debt.

Anyway.

By the time we ran out the front gate, the guards didn’t even try to stop us. They’d seen the trail of destruction spreading from the storage facility all the way down the main streets, past the outposts, along the roads, and now to them.

Not coming out in chains, that’s for sure. Our driver would be proud.

There were several more outposts to get past as we pushed further from the base, but they were no problem. It helped that they were all tasked with catching people coming into the base rather than leaving — all we did was run out the other way and they assumed all was fine.

All is fine. The only thing we took was a measly old armour set worth nearly three hundred thousand krad…

When the trail turned to dirt, and the military presence fell to just the occasional passing squadron, we darted off into the wilderness and collapsed under a grove of trees.

Our Endurance had finally given up.

“We should’ve…stolen a horse,” Claire puffed.

I grunted an approval. “You should’ve carried me. This armour is actually kind of heavy, you know. I can go quick, but I can’t go as far as I was hoping.”

She shot me a questioning look. “You literally just ran the same distance as me, and my class is built for this kind of stuff. I’m supposed to hunt by tracking it down and chasing thing until they give up.”

“Yeah, but, this armour is insane. Guess my Armour stat.”

“Defence? Or Armour.”

“Armour.”

She mused on the thought for a moment. I noticed her checking her screen, as though comparing her own gear might help.

As if.

“I’ll go with…one thousand one hundred and eleven.”

I smirked. “Higher.”

She threw a fistful of grass at me. A piece landed on my face and I blew it away. It landed back on Claire and I half-expected a raging fireball to be thrown out.

“Just tell me. My little sister does this stupid ‘higher and lower’ stuff until I get exactly the right number. So annoying.”

“Three thousand and sixty-two.”

Claire scoffed, then looked back at me like I was joking. When I held a straight face, hers dropped.

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No!”

“If I could show you my stat screen, I would do it. I’m not kidding. This is not a drill. Please remain calm and walk to the nearest emergency exit.”

Claire sprawled in the grass and did snow-angels. Or ‘dirt-angels’ was probably the more appropriate term. Now I felt obligated to complete some quest that would give her a similar experience to my time in the super-armour. Unfortunately, I didn’t recall Paul having any armour in his secret room that would suit a [Huntress].

“That’s so unfair. I’d never take it off if I were you.”

“Ya. I’m already trying to think of ways that I can use it on the way home. We definitely should’ve done this quest first. I can’t believe I didn’t consider that.”

“But we wouldn’t have had Penny to help us out if we did it like that.”

“I guess.”

A slightly overconfident part of me wanted to test my Armour against a Stake. If the most likely outcome wasn’t getting my ass kicked and sent straight back to Bill’s Yard, I would’ve considered it a bit harder.

“Oh, Claire, have you read the most recent article about me? It’s a banger, you’d love it.”

She tilted her head towards me, her hair spreading in a million different angles through the grass. Her bow lay across her chest, and her quiver was by her side. Equipped and ready for danger, but not expecting it.

“Ya. My eyes struggle with small letters though, so it took forever. I had to zoom in on each word just to see that bunch of bullshit. What about it?”

“Well, Dale and I were talking about it, aaaand, he kind of suggested that the best way for us to get out of their limelight in the long run would be to completely raze Asteroth. Like, kill Piliton and basically anyone with political ambition. He wanted us to turn the country into a bunch of farmers and small villages.”

Now she sat up. The grass was flattened where she’d lain. She squinted back at me.

“And what did you say to that? That’s some pretty hardcore stuff. Who’s this ‘Dale’ guy?”

I had to remind myself that I wasn’t talking to the gang, who were all getting used to Dale’s new legendary status. Claire wouldn’t know him from a bar of soap.

“Oh. Right, yeah, Dale is my mom’s boyfriend. There’s so much background that you’re missing, but he was literally The Best. Anyway, I said I wouldn’t do it, but now that I’ve got this armour…”

“So you only said no to him because you were too weak up until an hour ago?”

She’d inadvertently driven me into a corner that I didn’t even know existed. I hadn’t taken the time to really consider it.

“I…no, that’s not it. I guess it just wasn’t worth considering until an hour ago. Now I feel like I could have a chance against the Stakes, if I played my cards right.”

Claire looked around us. “I mean, it looks like Tabitha is doing a good job of keeping Marla in check. There was a real possibility that the whole country would become a giant Hollow Forest the second she was let out. But I don’t think that suggests weakness on their part. There’s no way that Armour alone is going to protect you from some of their powers. Or are you forgetting what Marla did to us with her eyes?”

I shuddered. She was right — no matter how many layers of metal I wrapped around myself, a telepathic attack like that would blow right through it. My mood only took a slight hit from the realisation.

“Mm. Good point. That shit was nasty.”

“So you still gonna try to become The Scourge of Asteroth?”

I laughed and spread my arms out around our surroundings.

“I think that ship has sailed.”