Maybe I should’ve just run when I had the chance. Will thought for the umpteenth time as he wove backwards, the Rogue Archetype flung towards him at outlandish speeds that nearly surpassed his own.
The thick umbilical cords connected to her shoulders wound pulsed with Charge, and Will could see the way the miasmatic structures in her class changed, spreading from the sigils in her shoulders into her spine and beyond.
Was it a buff, debuff or something in between?
It took Will several furious exchanged of their high-stakes game of tag to realize:
It’s an original Ability.
Will had seen so many Abilities tuck their exposed guts in extradimensional space to cross large distances, keep themselves compact, or prevent others from disrupting them. If this Ability was truly part of Marksman’s normal set of Abilities, why didn’t it have that final bit of polish?
Because it was a crude alteration to one of his normal Abilities that he made himself.
How does that help me, though? Will thought, upside down and whirling through the air, chased by dozens of sigils and a puppeted young lady.
He’d already tried to sever the pulsing tubes of miasma that connected the two, only for them to writhe out of the way of his attacks. Will’s ability to manifest raw miasma through his left hand was still growing and he couldn’t extend it very far.
Will’s Magic Missile got confused when it didn’t have a target in the physical world, which was an overlooked problem.
All this meant that Will had to shop through the strings controlling the kid by hand, getting up close and personal.
When he got close, they squirmed away from him by living things.
The only way he could cut them was if he got closer to either the destination or the source.
Both options had their problems.
If he got close enough to this ‘Jessica’ character to cut the cords in her shoulders, that meant she was close enough to swap one of his Relics.
She had managed to do the swap when his fist hit her cheek, so it was already proven that any amount of skin contact was unacceptable.
Cutting it off at the source was just as dangerous. Will had no idea what tricks Marksman had up his sleeve, and getting even closer seemed like a good way to get blindsided.
As he was considering tactics, Will’s mind was also running at full speed, looking for a way to remove the cursed ring, which would overturn the entire situation.
What about the Mirror of Inversion? Will thought. Would it invert the curse long enough for him to take off the ring? Will brought up the item’s description in his legend.
Point the mirror at the target and capture their image. Until the end of the duration, the target’s sense of direction is inverted. The target’s state is set, and they are immune to both positive and negative effects until Capture Image expires. Duration Scales with Acuity.
So…
My state would be set, but I would be immune to negative effects. I would consider the curse to be a negative effect.
But would it include the ‘can’t remove’ debuff as part of the preserved state? Will wasn’t very optimistic about that.
I don’t think it would work. When Will had cursed Jericho the Dragon with the Sickle of Malignant Silence, the mirror of Inversion had halted and preserved the debuff until the duration was over.
But the debuff was inactive.
I guess the question is: Can I remove a relic and change my state while ‘preserved’? I’ve never tried it.
Okay, let’s try this, Will thought, whipping the mirror out of his dimensional Storage
Capture image.
202 Charge remaining.
Will was assaulted by nausea as everything inverted.
Immediately he tried to pull his left and right hand apart.
The inversion forced them together.
Clumsily, Will focused on his left hand and closed it slightly to open it, then opened it to tighten his fingers around the cursed Relic.
Easy now.
Will focused on his fingers and arms, keeping the tension and then with one swift movement, jamming his hands together.
Which forced them apart.
Will’s heart sank as the ring slipped through the fingers of his left hand, some unknown force locking the ring in place.
So my state is set, and that includes the ring. Disappointing, but I can take advantage of that.
This all took place over a fraction of a second, and the very next moment, Will stopped in place, waiting for the rogue to approach.
It only took another blink for the rogue to arrive, fingertips landing on his mask.
The confusion on their face was extreme as the no-doubt ultra specialized Relic-stealing Ability simply failed to remove Will’s mask.
Will tied to grab her arm, but his inverted consciousness caused him to be a bit too slow, and she slipped out of his grasp, turning her attention to his torso slot, tapping his chest and frowning when nothing happened.
Okay then, sorry about this.
Will splayed his fingers and pulled back as hard as he could, which manifested as a clumsy punch that caught the girls’ shoulder and sent her spinning away from him.
“?no gniog s'tahW” Marksman demanded.
“!gnikrow ton s'tI” Jessica shouted back.
It was making Will’s head hurt trying to parse their conversation so he simply stopped listening, instead diving towards Marksman, using their respective orientation as a constant and having the Phantom Snake wrapped around him move in the opposite direction.
If my state is truly set, then I AM the weapon, Will thought, going spread eagle to increase his surface area and shooting through the air.
I feel like a round of scattershot, Will mused as he plowed through several dozen curses and defensive Abilities.
They scattered off Will’s preserved body as he shot forward at full speed. If Will was unable to be changed, that meant he was indestructible for a short time.
Marksman gave a squawk and dove aside a bit too late, Will’s ankle catching Marksman’s. The older Climber’s leg snapped as the irresistible force clipped him.
“AAAAHH!” Will didn’t need to translate that one backwards. Sounded the same either way.
They played a merry game of keepaway for a couple minutes, but Will couldn’t get the surprise on him again after that. His movements were too simple, limited by the nature of his inversion debuff.
Suddenly, Will’s neck strained as he changed direction instantly, shooting backwards, his sense of direction flipping in the blink of an eye.
Okay, the Mirror’s run its course, I need to keep-
Tap.
Tap?
The opposing Rogue appeared out of thin air, fingertips touching Will’s cloak.
Crap. I should’ve expected a Rogue to have a stealth Ability.
Will was suddenly wearing a gaudy crown studded with fire opals.
Crown of the Burning Court
- 16 Resistance
-20 Acuity
-50 Focus
-30% potency to Fire and Necromantic Abilities.
Debt slides from the minions to the wielder.
Aura of Authority:
28 Focus, Toggleable
Creates a hostile zone of Faewild Miasma around the wielder and a lesser one around any minions. This allows Debt to be accrued outside the 9th Floor.
Radius scales with Focus.
Starts toggled on. Pay to turn off.
The first set bonus had been reached.
Half of potential damage dealt by the user is automatically returned as fire damage. Fire damage may burn Eidolons, Debt and Contracts. (2 items)
Will habitually took a sketch of the changes in his Class as the set bonus snapped into place, even as he contemplated his imminent death.
Well, I’m screwed.
Will’s speed dropped even more as the set piece drained his Acuity.
In fact, he was slower than the girl now.
Despite his body being slow, Will’s mind was overheating with how desperately he was thinking.
I’m about to die. In the next second, the rest of the set is going to be slapped onto me and I’m going to literally fall out of the air because my Abilities are no longer strong enough to support my weight.
I need a way out of this. I can’t uncurse the Relics with Titan’s grasp. They’re too complex and I don’t have an unedited reference to revert them to. I can’t block the curse at my brain because I’m likely to lobotomize myself.
The mirror of inversion locks them in place, so that’s out.
Do I have anything else I haven’t tried? A consumeable for a temporary boost or an Ability that I haven’t-
Will’s eyes widened.
I still haven’t spent my Tertiary point. I was saving it for an emergency. I’d say this qualifies.
In a fraction of a second, Will scanned through his Tertiary Abilities and picked the one he needed.
tap tap tap tap.
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 of Focus. (4 items)
In that fraction of a second, the rest of Will’s Kit was replaced with the Burning Court set. Will’s ten snakes coalesced back into two hands, and Will began to drop out of the sky as his stats plummeted.
World Traveler Level 70
71 + 6 Strength
213 - 129 Resistance
210 + 11 Kinesthetics
276 - 83 Acuity
140 - 140 Focus
Charges: 180/0
Free Points: 0
Non-stat Item Abilities: -100% fire potency, 6 Charge penalty, Undead damage curse, Debt curse, Party damage curse, Fire conversion, minion weakening, Undead Focus cost increase, Potency loss on kill, weak heart, Charge surcharge, Debt Slide, Block weakening.
Phantom Hand Slots: (Hammer of God) (Ring of Explosive Doughmaking) (Wand of the Undead Retainer) (Sickle of Malignant Silence) -(Dimensional Coiled Serpent Amulet)-
Primary Abilities: Aspect of the Immortal Serpent*, Phantom Hand(x7), Map****
Secondary Abilities: Sourdough* Uru Drake’s Eye Titan’s Grasp*
Tertiary Abilities: Phantom Eye, Ouroboros’s Tongue
…Ow. So this is what hitting zero in a stat feels like, Will thought as he tumbled downwards. If his Acuity hadn’t been so absurdly high and continuing to boost his Phantom Hand slotted Relic, more than one stat would’ve hit zero.
Compared to the clarity of his normal existence, having zero Focus felt like all his fears and doubts had assembled around him and were now screaming in his ear. It didn’t help that he was probably about to die.
My Charge has nowhere to go.
Will could feel the Charge escaping his body, a container far too small to retain it anymore. He saw it rapidly dwindling in his stat sheet while the world around him took on an odd sizzling effect due to the raw Charge being dumped into the environment.
I need…more Focus. Before I lose all my Charge.
The Family gathering set didn’t even have it’s second bonus, so it wasn’t doing enough to keep him alive.
Will immediately swapped to the Sickle of Malignant Silence for its better stats, then checked his status.
World Traveler Level 70
71 + 18 Strength
213 - 106 Resistance
210 - 9 Kinesthetics
276 - 84 Acuity
140 - 79 Focus
Charges: 120/61
Even the sickle’s outrageous Focus bonus wasn’t enough to completely negate the massive penalty from all the Cursed necromancer items, but at least he wasn’t at zero. Will watched as the rest of the Charge escaped, leaving him with just sixty-one.
“Whoops,” Marksman’s voice said from uncomfortably close as he caught Will.
Will’s hand was glued to a gaudy mace shaped like a scepter, so he decided to put it to good use.
BAM!
Will caught Marksman full in the face with the strength of five men. It did nothing. Not even a bloody nose. Marksman blinked it off, looking more puzzled than anything.
“Why isn’t your face you on fire? Shouldn’t the set bonus redirect damage back to you?” Marksman asked.
“The Relics reduce my fire Ability potency to zero,” Will replied. “The fire damage that gets returned back to me got caught up in that.”
“Ah. Missed that. You always learn something new when you put things into practice.” Marksman flickered, punching Will in the face faster than Will could react, sending him tumbling straight down.
Will hit the surface of the floating island like a meteor, digging a furrow through several body lengths of solid rock until he came to a halt.
“Ugh,” Will was still durable enough to survive such a feat, but just barely.
“Still alive after that punch? I can’t believe your stats are still that high.” Marksman asked, landing beside Will.
Here comes the monologuing. Will thought as he crawled out of the furrow in the ground.
I would use the Sickle of Malignant silence on him just to shut him up if I thought it would work. Unfortunately, it scaled with Focus, and that was garbage at the moment.
“One other question.” Marksman said, squatting down beside Will.
“Shoot.” Will groaned, flipping over onto his back.
“Why isn’t the Burning Court tearing you limb from limb right now?” Marksman asked.
“My Left hand’s not connected to my Class.” Will said, wiggling the gaudy ring that the rogue had placed on his left hand. “Can’t get the max set bonus with anything that takes both hands.”
“Fascinating,” Marksman said, rubbing his chin. A moment later, a scintillating sigil formed in between his fingers. “Tell me, William Oh, do you want to live?”
Will shrugged. “I could take it or leave it.”
“Well, that’s too fuckin’ bad.” Marksman said. “Because you’re gonna live.”
With his other hand he tapped Will’s skull. “I don’t know how you removed the mark I put on you earlier, but I’m willing to bet you couldn’t remove one from the inside of your head.”
“I’m gonna have my best doctors open up your skull and I’m gonna put a mark right in the center of your brain, right on the corpus callosum. And from then on, whenever I want, I can kill you, just like that.”
Marksman snapped his fingers.
“Didn’t I just say I wouldn’t mind dying?” Will asked, exasperated.
“Oh I heard you. But here’s the thing: I’ll also be able to take the control whenever I want.”
Marksman leaned in close, until their noses were less than an inch apart, dropping his voice to a whisper as he tossed aside his mask.
“Picture this: You limp your way back to your Stronghold having just barely escaped with your life. Your Tangled whore gives you a great big hug and forgives you for your failure. After a long day of battle and desperate damage control, you retire to your bedroom.
That night, I use your hands to choke the life out of her once I’m done enjoying myself. How does that sound You have so much more to lose than just your life, William Oh. Now…What. Do You. Say?”
Will supposed Marksman was looking for something along the lines of ‘please don’t rape and kill my girlfriend’
He licked his lips, and cleared his throat, reviewing his newest Tertiary Ability.
Ouroboros’s Tongue
Active: (eternity) 1 Charge.
Active: (Inversion) 10 Charges.
With a word of Eternity, extend the duration of a buff or debuff on the target for (Acu/10) Seconds.
With the Word of Inversion, change a buff into a debuff or vice versa.
A primordial utterance rose to Will’s lips, miasma spilling from his mouth. For a brief moment, Will understood something far beyond mortal ken. A single word in a language never meant for humans passed through his mind.
The language wasn’t anything Will had ever heard before, but for brief instant, he knew exactly what it meant.
“Inversion.”
Fifty Charge flooded out of his body as he inverted the curse on the Burning Court set.
Will’s Strength alone tripled in an instant.
The Lord’s eyes went wide as Will snaked his arm around Marksman’s neck faster than he could react.
Dimensional Storage
11->2 Charge remaining.
Will stole every piece of Kit the Lord was wearing, leaving Marksman standing there in his underwear. The man blinked at the sudden rush of cold air on his skin.
“Wai-“
With a grunt of effort and a bit of help from his Phantom Hands, Will tore the man’s head off.
Dimensional Storage
2->1 Charge remaining.
Will stored the head and climbed to his feet, shivering a bit, his knees knocking from the adrenaline and concussion.
“You alright?” Will asked, glancing at the young girl staring at the headless corpse of her master.
“Eh, Um, what?” she asked, blinking as she glanced up at Will.
“Can I get my Relics back?” Will asked, holding his hand out.
She glanced back down at the corpse.
“Don’t look at him, look at me. I don’t wanna kill you so just give me my stuff back and we’ll call it square. I-”
Will doubled over and puked his guts out.
What the…
Will raised his head, taking a ragged breath between bouts of sickness. That was when Will noticed Abby.
The living suit designed to moderate his Miasma Acclimation from Floor to Floor was squashed in the center of the trough Will had cut through the mountainside with his own body.
Shit. The shivering wasn’t because of adrenaline, it was because my body is dumping miasma like crazy after skipping fifteen Floors.
“Ummm…here you go. Pleasedon’tkillme.”
Will’s kit tumbled to the ground in front of him as the young girl ran away.
Miasma Acclimation: 22 days
It is not advised to Ascend or Descend before the Miasma Acclimation period has elapsed. Side effects of doing so include fever, bulging bloodshot eyes, coughing, pustules, necrosis of the extremities, paraphilia, parasitic twin growths, and Death.
…to the Abyss with it, Will thought as he swapped his Relics with shaking hands.