Willow
The Summit, Savriâ
> Ranks are split into titled “tiers”. These tiers are, by enlarge, dictated by large qualitative differences in power from the prior tier to the next. The tiers are generally broken up thus:
>
> Base/Newbie: Ranks 0 - 9 Ranker: Ranks 10 - 49 Legend: Ranks 50 - 99 God: Ranks 100 - 499 God King: Ranks 500 - 1499
>
> While god king is often considered the highest tier anyone can strive for, there are two higher tiers.
>
> Pinnacle God: Ranks 1500 - 9999 Penultimate God: 10,000+
>
> These final tiers are largely theoretical, though there are at least stories of pinnacle gods. There are no written records, nor even fictional accounts, of penultimate gods. Their very presence is theorized to be enough to warp reality.
>
> - Chezly Falthrick, The Comprehensive and Concise Guide to Ranking
As the morning light snapped on, Willow was already in motion. Jonah and Naomi would be here within the next handful of hours, meaning she had to be ready. As ready as she could possibly be to fight gargantuan skyscraper-sized opponents.
The first problem at hand, of course, was actually damaging them. This was a problem she already had a solution to, thanks to her climb up the mountain. Practicing her timing was all she could really do on that front, so practice she had. Problem number two was much more difficult to solve. How do I actually get to a place where I can actually land a meaningful hit?
Obviously, she could land a hit on their massive feet. Just as obviously, that’d be a waste of time and energy. Feet could certainly be a vulnerability if enough damage was done to them, but compared to the rest of the body feet were relatively sturdy. Even a human foot wasn’t the best target in a fight. The knee, ankle, or even shin were better marks in most cases. On a giant monster which didn’t even have toes, and presumably didn’t have any of the smaller bones which made up the foot’s main point of vulnerability? Forget about it.
The best option was to go for the face. Due to the sheer size of the thing, she hadn’t gotten a good look at the features of the one which had been born in the pop-hopper village. From the pop hopper village? Even with the giants relatively close, she couldn’t make out what their faces looked like. They may or may not have been looking up at any given moment, it was pretty difficult to tell. If there were any stable outcrops halfway down the cliff face, she likely would have gone to check. Unfortunately, any that may have previously existed had been turned to dust by Madrick’s resistance against her ascent.
It’s fine. I don’t need to beat them all by myself, that’s why the kobolds are coming. They’ve got experienced warriors, and there was a kind of quality in quantity. While Willow had told her friends she had a plan, it hadn’t been quite that sophisticated. Her plan was essentially getting the kobolds involved to help distract two of the three giants, so she could challenge them one at a time. The logistics of that, she’d graciously left open for the kobolds themselves to decide.
Taking deep breaths, Willow fed her nervous energy into her focus. Her semi depleted discipline mana quickly refilled. Her main problem right now was her instruction mana. She didn’t need to use as much of it, but that didn’t mean she had an endless supply. If she couldn’t figure out how to boost her instruction regeneration in a manner similar to her discipline mana, then she’d have to stop practicing to conserve her resources. Less than ideal. I guess I should have spent less time reading and more time practicing magic, like Jonah said.
Grumbling to herself, Willow reeled her mind back, concentrating. The topic of her focus was simple, she was trying to identify what a source of instruction might be. Her emotions, stray thoughts, even distractions were all easy to understand fuel for her discipline mana. While none of those were actually sources of discipline themselves, they were potential for discipline to be applied. That was what she’d determined after her reading of Madrick’s gift had made her consider the question. Apparently, all mana aspects had sources of potentia which were more closely aligned. Those sources were easier to convert into the aspect than something entirely unrelated. The fact that she generated her own potentia for her discipline mana was a bit odd, as far as Willow could determine, but still made sense based on what she’d learned.
Putting aside reviewing topics she’d already thoroughly exhausted, she refocused on her instruction mana. What was it? It’s mana which lets me instruct… Right… But what does that mean exactly? Direct, command, demand, control? Not control, instructing isn’t controlling. Someone can attempt to be controlling through over-instructing… But instruction itself isn’t control.
Finally finding her mind properly engaged in the question, Willow hopped to her feet and started pacing. The motion sometimes helped when she was working on something particularly confusing. Alright, so I know it’s not control. Probably. What about demand? Is it a demand or command… Hm… I don’t think so, not by itself, at least. It’s closer to a request? But that’s not right either. So what’s the difference? Her mind flicked to wishing she had a ball or something to toss while thinking, but she quickly reigned the errant thought and contented herself with pacing.
Not a request, not a demand… Something in between the two. When I’ve been instructed in the past, it’s generally been to teach me how to do something. An instruction is a step which is within the recipient’s capability to understand. This felt right. She was on the right track!
So, my instruction mana’s purpose is to… Uh… Teach? No… I definitely wasn’t teaching the mountain how to be strong. It definitely knew how to do that. She stopped, slapping her forehead, “Duh!” She shouted aloud. Continuing her monologue to the air, her voice was fast and excited, “Instructing doesn’t have to be about teaching! A recipe is a set of instructions, heck a pamphlet with pictures explaining how to put together furniture is called instructions. Instructing isn’t about making anything happen, it’s about communicating in a way that the target can understand! The mountain didn’t get what I wanted when I just used discipline mana. When I used instruction mana, it bridged the gap in understanding so that I could tell it what I wanted! That’s why it tried when I just used instruction mana, but it didn’t have the ability to actually do what I wanted by itself. Or rather, maybe it had the potential but couldn’t reach it? That’s where my discipline mana comes in! That’s why I need both to freeze time or impact anything outside of myself with my ability!” A laugh of pure glee exploded from her, filling those gaps felt incredible.
“Hah… Hah…” She calmed herself, then put on her game face again, “Right, Willow. Focus, girl! You figured some things out, but I still need a way to regenerate my instruction mana quickly.” The thought had her stumped. Were there any naturally occurring forms of instruction? Or at least potential for it, like with her sources for discipline mana? Instincts? They’re kind of like instructions, right? No jolt of inspiration hit her. She felt no more able to rapidly absorb her secondary mana aspect than before.
Eyes falling as she let her neck relax a bit, she watched her feet for a moment as her pacing continued. Right, left, right. Stop. Blinking, Willow lifted her left foot slowly and felt something. Isn’t every move I make done through instructions sent from my brain to my body? It’s not like I consciously understand all of the muscle groups that need to move and how, so it’s a more generalized instruction. It’s… As the concept solidified, Willow could suddenly feel that something much more clearly. More importantly, when she pulled at it, it came.
Unlike her emotions and distracting thoughts, pulling instruction mana from her motions didn’t stop her from moving. It didn’t even alter her control over her body in any way. However, the boost to her regeneration was also significantly less. Unlike with her discipline mana, she couldn’t simply refill herself from empty within moments. The boost to her regeneration was just that, a boost. She felt like she’d doubled the speed at which she accumulated instruction mana. While doubling her regeneration rate was good, it still didn’t get her anywhere near the absolutely incredible speed with which she could expend and then regenerate her discipline. It’s a start!
Pumping her fist in the air, Willow grinned from ear to ear. Then she blinked as she realized she could see a wave of color moving slowly through the forest from the south-west. The kobolds were here!
----------------------------------------
“Alright, Willow, everything is in position.” Jonah’s voice poked into Willow’s head. Dropping from a one-fingered handstand, her bare feet slapped into the mountain’s surface. She’d removed the boots after climbing the mountain, due to them being little more than scraps by that point anyway. Her pack was barely hanging together by their threads. She didn’t even notice the jagged stones or the rough surface, her feet already having calloused far beyond the point of caring about such minor discomfort.
She sent back excitedly, “Finally! I thought I’d die of boredom!” After noticing the kobolds, Willow had assumed her wait was nearly ended. She’d been quite wrong. Nearly eight hours later, now her wait was nearly over.
Naomi replied, “You were the one who said to take our time to make sure the kobolds were confident that no one would get squashed.”
Glaring off toward where she assumed Naomi was, Willow replied with a petulant tone, “So? That doesn’t mean I can’t be bored!”
A soft laugh came through, then Skeetha’s voice, “If this plan works, we will owe you much for all the suffering you’ve put up with.” Unlike when they spoke through the UICI, the party chat’s translation seemed to be perfect. No extra “S” sounds or undue hissing. Skeetha’s voice through the party chat was actually quite pleasant, gentle and soothing. A far cry from the somewhat high-pitched hissing tones of her UICI translated voice.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Yes, certainly, I’ll be demanding a warm meal and maybe some new clothes.” She glanced down at the absolutely devastated rags clinging to her skin. Mostly, it was held together at this point due to the caked and dried mud and sweat. It wasn’t hard to imagine that taking a quick shower would wash away not only the grime, but the scraps preserving her decency as well. Why don’t heroes in stories end up naked after trials like mine? I’ve literally never heard of someone ending up almost nude because of a stupid mountain climb.
More laughs from Skeetha, Halshath, and their lieutenants as well as her friends. Smiling, Willow readied herself. The plan the kobolds had finished fleshing out was much better than the rough outline she’d sent her party off with.
“I’m ready.” Willow sent.
----------------------------------------
Jonah
Command Bunker, Foot of the Mountain, Savriâ
Three massive forms stood surrounding a jutting piece of sharp grey slate. Atop the razor-shaped mountain, stood a tiny figure. Although her features were entirely indistinguishable, Jonah knew it was Willow. Further afield, there were four smaller camps setup. Each boasted a structure constructed rapidly of stone and reinforced with feather-branch wood.
The kobolds had been intelligent in their war-band’s composition. While the majority were fighters, a couple dozen were support staff with specialized spells and abilities. Four of them were builders who followed the same path. As such, they all had access to an extremely useful spell which allowed them to call the stone up from below the earth and shape it to their will. The process wasn’t quick, but it was impressive. They’d used this ability over the last eight hours to create makeshift war camps.
These camps were, of course, diversionary. None of the kobolds had any intention to be stuck within a building that would likely take no more than a handful of seconds to be stomped flat. Instead, they were massive traps.
Cracking an eye open, Jonah checked that everything was situated within his bunker while he waited for Willow’s banter with the kobolds to die down. The area was oppressive. Black and brown dirt everywhere his eyes traveled, without a single egress. Health and Safety would have an aneurysm. He thought dryly.
The only color to be found within his grave-like hole came from the six kobolds sitting down here with him. They were all support focused warriors. Each could fight, if needed, but had talents much better used from within cover. Just like him. One of them, a teal koboldess winked one of her giant eyes at him, at least he assumed she was winking. Given her head was turned so he could only see the one eye, it was impossible to be sure. “Don’t worry, I can keep this boost up for hours.”
Nodding his thanks, Jonah sent her a quick smile. Her name was Vicsca and she was the reason he was able to be sequestered down here while also being useful. Her primary ability was one which drastically extended the range of any other utility ability within about fifteen meters of her. She was the linchpin for the entire support operation down here. While he didn’t know what her rank was, Jonah could see her level was way higher than anyone else he’d seen. [LVL 33|Kobold|Support]. While Jonah still wasn’t entirely sure how levels equated to ranks, he knew level twelve was far stronger than his own paltry level seven.
“I’m ready.” came Willow’s reply.
Halshath’s voice came next, sharp and professional. His gruff hissing was gone, replaced by a militaristic bark, “Deploy bait!”
Three of the four “bases” suddenly glowed below Jonah’s RTS View. Quickly closing his eyes to avoid being distracted by anything within the bunker, he was able to observe the fireworks. Literal fireworks. Explosions of red, green, pink, gold, and so many other shades suddenly exploded into the sky. Even under the bright sunlight, they were eye catching and highly visible. Not to mention the BOOM each one released as it exploded in the sky.
As they’d hoped, the giants’ attention was captured. They began turning ponderously, looking around themselves in wide circles. They were still simple creatures, Jonah was certain. The certainty was confirmed when each of them stopped their rotation as soon as they caught sight of one of the bright displays. Seeing they were each fixated, Jonah relayed, “They’ve each locked on to a different camp.”
“Excellent. Proceed with taunts.” Halshath spoke.
The lights, hanging preternaturally long in the air, suddenly began to speed toward the giants. They were directed at their faces, hoping to annoy them. The only camp that didn’t send their sparkly payloads toward a titan was the one which had no giant looking its way. Those sparks simply disintegrated into nothing.
Upon being struck, the giants all staggered back in an almost identical manner. Like they’re playing a ‘surprised’ animation. Jonah thought with amusement. Then, they all roared. The sound would have been deafening, had he not been thirty feet below ground. A quick glance toward Willow’s position found her staggering back from the noise, before stilling. She probably had to use her ability to stop the sound.
Then the creatures ran toward their attackers. Or, Jonah thought they were running. Their awkwardly positioned hip-arms hung behind them as a counter-balance as the creatures leaned forward and stomped toward the origin of the lights which had dared hit them. He wasn’t sure how fast they normally moved, but the creatures seemed sluggish. They traversed the two hundred meters in a handful of steps each, of course, but that was entirely due to their size. The steps themselves weren’t very fast. A full twenty seconds went by between “rushing” the positions and arriving.
As they’d hoped, the creatures reared back and stomped down onto the very obvious stone structures they’d made. Also as they’d hoped, they were easily able to smash through the roofs. Their feet slammed down, and down, and down. Jonah cheered along with everyone else on the channel as he saw them all fall directly into the trap. Their disproportional bodies made the nearly kilometer deep pit hidden within the “buildings” especially effective. The titan’s own momentum and weight were their greatest enemies as their stomping legs plummeted down. They stopped with painful sounding cracks as their hips struck the edge of the hole and broke the earth one after another. The impact could even be felt by Jonah and the others in their bunker, several kilometers away.
The support are the real heroes of this battle. Jonah thought with pride. Halshath’s next order came in, directed at one of the kobolds in his bunker with him. “Jokka, knock out the supports.”
The silvery-grey kobold to Jonah’s right may have made a gesture, or not. He didn’t know, but he saw the result. The holes had been intentionally drilled by the earth movers in such a way that they were unstable. They’d added artificial supports in the form of “ghost beams” supplied by Jokka. Those beams were temporary constructs which Jokka could cancel at any time, so long as he was within range. With Vicsca’s buff, they were well within range. The holes suddenly began to sink, pulling the massive forms of the pop-hoppers turned colossus further and further in. Each of their hips and at least one of their arms were caught by the suddenly expanded and collapsing hole. One of them somehow managed to have both of its arms caught.
Now, instead of just having one leg fallen into a wide hole which they could easily, if painfully, extract themselves from, the creatures were half buried. This tactic likely wouldn’t have worked on a more intelligent creature, and it certainly wouldn’t have worked if they weren’t so oddly proportioned. Had their arms been positioned on shoulders like a normal humanoid, they would have had plenty of leverage to pull themselves out.
Unfortunately for them, they were both stupid and badly designed. How’d Nuu expect these things to make good guardians, exactly? The question brought Jonah a small measure of anxiety. As odd as the man had been, he hadn’t seemed stupid. He’d been able to see how bad they’d do in any kind of organized combat. One on one, sure, they were intimidating. Unprepared, their mere passing was terrifying.
Maybe he was just going for shock factor? He could have assumed people would be intimidated and just leave? Or was it something else? What’d he say about the purpose of these things…
“Warriors, engage.” Halshath spoke through the party chat and Jonah’s eyes snapped back to the scene. He quickly began casting his buffs, determined to be helpful in this fight.
----------------------------------------
Naomi
Western Rally Point, Foot of the Mountain, Savriâ
“Warriors, engage.” Came the command Naomi had been waiting for. She sprinted alongside the kobolds in her group. They were mostly faster than her, mostly higher rank. She didn’t care. She just kept running. The bunker was a little less than half a mile from where they’d been waiting, but it came into view seemingly moments after they began their rush toward it.
Rather, the single flailing leg of their massive enemy came into view. The kobolds swarmed around it, ignoring the awkwardly splayed and twitching limb in favor of heading toward the presumably more vulnerable torso and head. She followed.
The head, when it came into view, was surprising in its simplicity. The grays of its skin became more uniform around the oval edge which delimited the face from the skull. Within that oval, the uniform grey was broken up by ridges and shades which hinted at a face, yet didn’t actually describe one. This brought with it an unexpected challenge.
She reported through the party channel, “The giants don’t have eyes, ears, or noses. No obvious weak points.”
Then she felt Jonah’s Predator Vision wrap around her. Blinking a few times, she quickly scanned the enemy for the tell-tale red spots which would indicate a particularly weakness. She saw none.
“Predator Vision doesn’t register any weak points.” She concluded her report.
Deciding if there was no particular weak point, then any area was as good as any other, she moved toward the creature’s twisted torso. One of its arms was firmly buried while the other was swinging about desperately. Moving to a point under its sternum, near where the ground had closed around it, Naomi pulled back the sharp spear the kobolds had lent her and begun stabbing.
Her technique wasn’t anything special. It didn’t have to be. She just kept stabbing for a solid minute, before the creature finally seemed to notice her. Unfortunately for it, the other attackers had also gained it attention. She noticed the shadow of its building sized hand pass over her, hesitate, then continue on toward the larger group attacking its neck. They would be doing much more damage, all together, all more experienced with spells and abilities to boost their power.
Flashes of grim red and cold blue flared within her and she called forth her mana. She surrounded the spear with her mana, and struck forward again. The tip sunk slightly into the flesh again, a pin prick against a wall. The mana pulled strength from the creature, siphoning it into Naomi’s body.
Drawing the spear out when she noticed the draw of strength fading, she struck again. The spear bit more deeply. Grimly mechanical, she continued with piston-like strikes. Each attack was more effective. The spear sunk more deeply. She changed the focus of her mana, it should take toughness and durability as well as strength.
The next strike was followed by a higher-pitched bellow. The creatures hand suddenly loomed large over her. Having anticipated this would be coming sooner or later, she braced her senses for the unpleasantness, and stepped into the hole she’d dug with her spear strikes. The hand slapped down at its own side, sending a rippling concussion through its flesh and knocking Naomi to her knees. That was all it could do, though. She stood back up and resumed her attack.
This isn’t a fight. It’s a butchery. The thought might have been more than an observation to some. To Naomi, all it changed was the urgency with which she should act.
Each strike brought with it more power. Power which the next strike carried back. By her estimation, it took Naomi five minutes to reach one of the creature’s ribs. The yellowish blood which had been a weak afterthought before, suddenly flooded out of the wound and swept Naomi out of the person-sized cavern she’d slowly managed to cut into it.
Is it blood, or something else? She wondered as she got up and watched the wound gushing. It showed no indication it would stop, so she moved a few feet over and began the process again. By this time, the titan had given up on slapping its side to stop the pain there. It was much too busy trying to sweep away the creatures harrying its neck and head. Laying mostly on its side as it was, that’s where most of the kobolds had chosen to focus.
This time, it only took two minutes to reach a rib. Another explosion of yellow blood threw her off her feet and backwards.
Getting back up, Naomi moved to create yet another hole. A stray thought passed through her focused mind, Willow is probably not happy about how this ‘fight’ was going.