Marksman’s expression blackened, and an instant later the fancy hardwood desk in front of him exploded, filling the air with shrapnel.
Will sent a spear of compressed air straight ahead, following behind it in the tunnel of clear air. The spear of air was deflected by Marksman, but the tomahawk that followed behind it buried itself in the man’s shoulder.
Marksman gave a gasp of pain, but Will was already following up, brutally pressing his advantage by assaulting the wounded side.
Marksman’s arm failed to lift, the severed deltoid unable to fulfil its purpose. He tried to shield himself with his other hand, but didn’t quite make it in time as the tomahawk caught him in the neck.
Marksman gave a burbling vocalization as will yanked the axe out of his neck, letting the blood flow.
Got about a hundred and seventy Resistance, Will thought dispassionately as he wound up for another strike.
That’s decent for not wearing his kit, Will thought, raising the tomahawk. He could only see one Relic on the man.
Will got complacent.
The wounded hand that had fallen to the man’s side created a sigil that shot forward in the blink of an eye and caught Will in the torso.
Will flinched backwards, his third attack far too shallow as Marksman staggered backwards, slumping against his bookshelf.
“I win, boy.” Marksman burbled, his eyes going glassy as he died.
Will was not paying attention.
The sigil that had hit Will’s torso was much like Will’s tag cantrip for his maps, a remote mark that can be used to track a prey.
But it had Charge in it, making what it could do much more potent.
The sigil had made the miasmatic structures of his Class writhe and twist in pain as it approached, as though they were living things assaulted by a hot branding iron.
They contorted around the sigil as it slid into place, creating a matching one in Will’s own Class.
Nope, not having that.
Will let miasma and charge flow through his left hand, creating simple claws of charged miasma which he jammed into his side and twisted in a circle, using them to tear out the sigil wholesale.
Will tossed aside the mangled chunk of his class that had been infected as he glanced up, wary for whatever the next trick would be.
A small patch of his stomach felt slightly colder and weaker, similar to how his left hand felt all the time.
The dangling threads of miasma in his stomach began to seal and reattach to each other. They would heal eventually, regaining the shape that the Tower had decided for them…but not just yet.
Ahead of him, Marksman was slumped up against the bookshelf, a curtain of bright red blood cascading down his chest.
And…that’s not Marksman.
Will’s gaze landed on the single piece of Kit the man was wearing, a plain gold ring.
Ring of the Body Double
+25 Resistance
If lethal damage is dealt to the wearer of the matching ring, the two switch places, but the wounds remain.
“What an asshole. Sorry about that, buddy.” Will said, closing the man’s staring eyes. Guy probably took a cushy job to wear that ring assuming nobody would ever be able to hurt Marksman at all. And it was probably the right call, ninety-nine times out of a hundred.
Will bent down and took the ring. Best if Marksman didn’t get a chance to put this on someone else’s finger.
Using money, fighting indirectly and having people to do the dying for him. This man’s lost the meaning of being a Lord. I should educate him.
He took a deep breath and re-examined his situation, checking his Map.
Miles away in the town below, Will identified Marksman’s Class, hastily opening a chest filled with Relics.
Will drove a stake of solidified air through the house, turning it into shredded wood as he turned his attention to the dozen Advanced Classers flying towards him at sub-sonic speeds, miles distant.
He pictured how the fight would go:
He attacks Marksman, who managed to put on some of his Kit and hold on until his backup arrives. Will dies.
Hmm.
Will sent three of his snakes towards Marksman while he and the other seven shot out of the destroyed office, heading towards his furthest flung pursuers. Men and women who had the ill-fortune of landing further away than everyone else.
Will arrived in front of the man as six more snakes shot towards the slowest pursuers.
It was the wounded warrior bounding from island to island. It figured a wound would slow him down.
He saw will coming and unleashed a slash of light. Beneath the glow, it was a crescent of miasmatic structures that formed a simple blade of interlocking miasma.
It was similar in nature to Will’s Aspect.
Titan’s grasp tore the Ability apart, shredding the blade of light before it even arrived.
The Charge in the Ability made it a bit finicky, but Will was able to isolate the chunks and disperse them into the environment in that blink of an eye.
Scattered chunks of light flew past Will in every direction as the warrior gaped.
“You don’t have to die here.” Will said, floating above his opponent. Giving him an out.
“RAGH!” the warrior lunged forward, his stance awkward, spine contorted as he tried to adjust to Will floating above him.
267 Charge remaining.
Will shot out a Will’s Magic Missile to the left with his hand, and swept to the right with his body, doing a half-spin around the warrior.
Another Ability manifested in the man’s hand, and Will lunged forward and disrupted it with raw miasma, swinging up with his tomahawk.
The warrior barely blocked in time just as the magic missile curved around behind him and caught him in the back. The miasmatic construct unzipped and smashed dozens of tiny dimensional spirals together, creating a jumble of tiny blades of force, each only about six inches long.
A foot-wide hemisphere of the man’s back was instantly shredded.
Will finished him off with a grimace and turned his attention to the rest. The surprise attack from his serpents had managed to decapitate three of his pursuers, while the other three had managed to block or dodge.
So, eight people plus Marksman left. Will thought.
Marksman erupted out of the ruined building, wearing half his kit. The rest had been buried under the ruin of the building when Will squashed it with a pillar of air from a mile away.
Let’s just make sure it stays that way.
Will turned the three phantom snakes that were harrying Marksman away and instead had them change their armor into blades and mulch the building along with the relics inside.
scream of outrage echoed through Will’s map, and it brought a smile to his face. Marksman probably hadn’t been expecting Will to be on him immediately from over a mile away. even now, the phantom snakes weren’t letting Marksman have a moment to rest, chasing after him with
Commanding the Phantom Snakes to return, Will turned his attention to the remaining eight.
They were getting closer together now, so Will’s opportunity to pick them off one at a time without the others catching on had lapsed.
Now to deal with the fastest ones.
The slowest ones that had survived his attack were now moving even slower, wounded and cautious of ambushes, while the remaining five pulled ahead, closing in on Will’s last-known location, unaware of the gap they were creating between themselves and their compatriots.
Will crouched down, turning invisible before shooting forward. He arrived behind the nearest opponent in a matter of seconds, cutting silently through the air to arrive behind them, completely unnoticed.
“Step, behind you!” A woman’s voice shouted.
Well, not completely.
The Nuker whipped around and Will yanked himself out of the way of a beam of raw energy that would’ve vaporized him.
The beam lanced out into the distance, carving a line through the clouds that drifted between the 2nd Floor islands, thankfully missing the land itself.
Will brought a snake up from beneath the man while using Aspect through his map to shake the other four like disobedient children.
A shield popped up and absorbed the hit.
Will’s Magic Missile (x5)
262 Charge remaining.
The Nuker blocked the attack by the Magic missile, but it gave Will an opening to catch him in the neck with the axe.
The other four magic missiles shot towards the four Climbers he’d shaken up with Aspect.
Compressed air simply wasn’t strong enough to kill, but that didn’t mean it didn’t have a use.
One of the Climber’s heads disappeared in mulch, leaving three opponents who managed to disable his home-made Ability before it hit them.
The woman who had screamed in warning had avoided most of the hardened air seeking to disorient her, so she made it to Will first.
That. Is a child.
The girl’s age was probably somewhere around fourteen, and she didn’t really seem like she wanted to be there. Her expression was a mix of anger and terror as she lunged forward, arm outstretched, fingers extended as though she were trying to grab something.
Looking past the freckles and the anguished expression, Will could see the hooks of a Contract embedded into her brain, making her ‘wants’ irrelevant.
That’s a Brianna.
Shit.
Maybe I can just punch her out and kill the guy who wrote the Contract. There was no possible way to remove the barbed hooks of miasma from her brain in the middle of a fight, so it wasn’t even worth considering.
Will’s instant of hesitation reduced his options and he was forced to simply slip around her lunge and catch her with a cross-counter to the jaw.
The child tumbled backwards, eyes rolling back.
Still alive? Will could hear her heartbeat through the tag he’d placed on her chest. Good. As if I needed more reason to kill Marksman. He must’ve gotten along well with Frederick Wyrd.
Wait.
He DID!
Will paused for a moment as his thoughts gelled into a sudden gem of clarity.
This Floor, Marksman’s domain, was where he first encountered Frederick Wyrd’s goons kidnapping fresh Climbers and shipping them up to the 7th Floor to be experimented on or forced into becoming Vassals.
Now that Will had been a Lord for a few years, he understood:
There was no way Marksman hadn’t been fully aware of what Frederick Wyrd was doing here. The man was too old, too rich, and too powerful to simply be unaware of something detrimental happening on his Floor.
…Unless he was paid the proper amount.
Two peas in a pod, those guys.
Will never got the opportunity to kill Frederick Wyrd in person. That honor went to the person the Lord of the 7th Floor had abused the longest: His son.
Will relished this unexpected opportunity to murder someone indirectly related to Brianna’s wounds.
One of the remaining two enemies went down to catch the girl while Will attacked the straggler.
He hissed through the air and exchanged a rapid flurry of blows with the man before hooking the axehead behind his weapon and kicking him in the throat. His control in flight was below Will’s so Will was able to outmaneuver him and catch him in the spine before he fired off any Abilities.
Seeing their teammates under attack, the three remaining slowpokes started moving faster again
Two left there, Will thought, looking down at where the girl had been caught by her teammate.
Three there, Will thought, watching the remaining three approaching from three separate angles.
Their encirclement is all messed up. I can lead them around by the nose now, Will thought, putting on some speed, the air gathering around him and breaking as he surpassed the speed of sound.
Now all he needed to do was-
Wait a second. I’m going much slower than I should be. Why is the air breaking? Why am I creating a sonic boom? I fixed that with the ring of Traversal.
Will took a quick glance down at the ring of Traversal.
It had been replaced by a big, gaudy gold signet ring with seven flaming skulls carved into the face.
Signet of the Burning Court (Cursed)
-12 Strength
-12 Kinesthetics
-36 Resistance
-45 Focus
-36 Acuity
+30% Weakness to Fire Damage
Fire damage will spread to Party members.
Whenever an enemy is killed, Abilities and minions lose potency until the end of battle or an hour passes. Scales inverse to Focus
Cursed: User is prevented from removing this Relic.
Burning Court Set Bonuses:
Half of potential damage dealt by the user is automatically returned as fire damage. Fire damage may burn Eidolons, Debt and Contracts. (2 items)
Aspect of the Immortal Serpent becomes a flaming aura that hinders the user’s movements. When the user is damaged, a portion of the Fire aura will infiltrate the wound. Damage scales inverse to Focus. (4 items)
Fire damage ignores a portion of user’s Resistance. Scales with Focus.
Gain the enmity of the Burning Court. (6 Items)
“…Hahah…fuck.”