Chapter 11: Blondie
“So, Lily, hold a random amount of fingers behind your back.” Fay sliced his arm yet again with the midnight snake knife. Making sure its venom could soak into the wound before he moved it away, it hurt a lot, but with a high vitality the little cuts would be healed quickly.
[You have been poisoned]
“Uhhh okay.” Lily put her hand behind her back, “is this one of those bet thingies?”
Fay nodded and made a wager that the number was three. “Show it?”
Lily slowly and theatrically whipped out her hand, “Tadaaaa!” It was a five.
[Bet Failed: -10 perception for 20 seconds]
Huh… that was perception based? Not luck based? He thought to himself, the debuff was terrible and made him instantly feel teary eyed, he hadn’t realised just how much perception made him focus. But if his math was correct, if he succeeded the buff would be 5 perception for 10 seconds, and the bet was a 1 in 5 chance, he was just annoyed that it didn't leverage his luck.
Marx sat on a chair, mortified, looking right at the bloody arm of Fay, “Why’re…?” He had been curled up in the corner as soon as he entered the cabin, quite uncomfortable with the group Fay was in, “Are you…?”
[Uncommon Venom Extracted]
“Oh? To level up, I guess.” Fay hadn't found it weird, nor did Lily who was barely paying attention to anything but herself. “I have a skill to extract any poison, any and all.” He lied, “So…”
Marx nodded, “that's useful… probably helped during that boss too huh?” He laughed and returned to his chipper self, or atleast pretended to, eating some boar meat that Millie prepared for him. “This stuff is good!” He munched down, “nothing compared to Joey’s though, he made some beef stew the other night and it was amaaazing… but I'm still growing, so, you know, I need some protein.”
Bark was in the corner slaving away, using midnight snake scales to make a full armor set, he had been working tirelessly through the night, maybe only getting two hours of sleep. His back was turned to all of them so he was more of a piece of furniture to Marx at the moment. Sometimes he would groan at a mistake, he had failed to make an armor set the night before, and wasted about 12 of those scales and had to go back to the dungeon, which by this time smelt horrible.
He was on level four in his profession though, so if he succeeded, he would get a new skill, something that could make or break his survivability. Either way, Fay had his back, it was useful to have support on the team that wasn’t Millie.
The perception finally came back and Fay used the knife to cut himself again, this was around the fifth time and he still hadn't got any results on the skill. He wondered if the venom had to be a higher rarity for it to function as experience, or if it had to be applied by another creature. But that didn't make much sense to him, venom was venom.
[You have been poisoned]
“So… Do you guys just sit around…?” Marx asked, "aren't you worried about tonight?” He was already stretching, getting ready to combat the day.
“I don’t wanna!” Lily groaned and laid backwards against the wall, she’d been moping around the whole day, “fighting is annoying, snakes are gross! And people want to kill me! So many people want to kill me! I can’t go out there… or I’ll die. So, yeah.”
Everyone ignored her, Millie kept quiet too so Fay had to speak up. “I guess we are tired from yesterday.”
“Well, duh, I am too. But that's not how this works, you need to keep going. No matter what. How else are you going to get to level four?”
Level four is impossible. Fay told himself, the only real way to get there is with another one of those snake events, he needed a vast amount of weak enemies to progress. “Sorry.” Fay shrugged. The only other option was to kill other survivors, which was not a good idea considering how Fay was terrible at hand to hand combat. Really the only way forward was to level up his class and skills for basic stat boosts.
“Right…” Marx stretched a final time, “well, I should go, we are all going to go to that purple magic forest with the level three monsters, do you want to join us Fay? Would be good for you.”
“I’m fine.”
[Uncommon Venom Extracted]
Still no upgrade. It was getting annoying at this point, especially since he had no way of knowing that it was even working.
Marx opened the door and went through it, Fay could see some shiny armor in the distance, ten trees away. “What’s he…” Fay activated the cloak and held the knife to his side. Making a weak wager that they were here to kill someone. If it failed it wouldn’t matter much because a fight wouldn't happen so the debuff wouldn’t be deadly. Marx and Fay stepped outside and down the cabin steps.
Blondie stopped ahead of a couple of trees and waved. “Didn’t know the ginger had friends!” He laughed, “did she collect some cattle for me? Good girl.” He smiled, he wasn't with anyone else now, completely alone.
“Fucking prick.” Marx groaned, “is this guy your ally?” He asked in a whisper, fully ready to fight.
“No.” Fay sighed at him as they both stepped forward until they and him were two meters apart. He looked disheveled, the blonde boy, his hair was twigged up with strands and residue from monsters, his armor looked disgusting and off-hue. He was limping and had a crack along the front of his armor, his eyes were red and blotchy from lack of sleep.
“Hm. What levels are you?” He smiled and scratched his hair, “nice to meet you again Marx, as you can see I lost my two friends, I need more, high level ones too.” He stepped forward and Marx and Fay stepped back. “So?”
From behind Fay, he could hear the croaking of the cabin door as Millie stepped out. Never before had he felt so happy for her to be here. “Hello Thomas.” Millie walked down and waved with a tiny gesture, her hands were elegant in the way they moved. “You may leave us alone, okay?” She stepped in front of Fay and Marx, standing right where she could be cut down by blondies sword. She bowed to him with the utmost respect.
“Now, I am just here for Lily… did she tell you my name?”
Millie looked up at him, “Thomas, you did a bad thing, didn’t you?” She reached out her hand to him and Thomas moved backwards in a frantic jerk, his teeth gritted together and made a clicking sound. His heart started racing as if he had almost died.
Without a word he slapped his hand outward, sending Millie flying into multiple trees, her being dragged by an unknown force. The sounds of trees ripping apart filled the air, some falling over with loud creaks and others being a mess of leaves and dug up dirt. Some trees fractured and shot out chips of wood all over the ground, some also caused dirt to spit up and create holes were the trees were planted and knocked over, the whole right part of the forest now had a path of destruction with several trees felled.
[Bet Succeeded: +3 perception, +2 wisdom for 30 seconds]
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Telekinesis… so that's the strength of a rare skill…? Fay was tired already. “We don't mean trouble.” Fay held his hands up as Marx sprinted forward, firing four fireballs at once.
Thomas easily cut through the flames with his sword and raised both his hands up, much like Fays, and sent Marx flying up into the air. “Bugs, really. ‘Least you have some respect for nobles.” He turned his focus to fay, judging him with his brow furrowed, “okay go away now.” He swung his arm to the side and Fay felt that invisible pull, like he had been stabbed by a fish hook and was being reeled.
[Activated Stop Momentum]
Thomas screamed out, his hand making a cracking noise by the knuckles as Fay simply hopped to the side, the force still rang in Fay’s ears since he didn’t time it right, but he was mostly fine. Thomas stared down at his hand, four or five cuts appeared and began to bleed. “What did you do?” He whispered.
“Sorry…” Fay took a step back, not excited for when he inevitably uses his sword. That move took 30 MP from him because of his own body's velocity, it was dangerous if he happened to repeat it. “Your skill doesn't work.”
With the slight extra perception Fay noticed that Marx was planning an attack from above, still falling down. Fay gripped the knife and overhand chucked it above Thomas’s head, hoping Marx can end this with the weapon's poison. With Thomas still confused all he did was step to the side, which allowed Marx to slam down onto the floor with enough force to break the soil below, he grabbed the knife from the throw and tried to slice at blondie's face.
Thomas quickly focused and shot Marx backwards into multiple trees, he screamed out in pain as he bounced off them before sliding onto the ground with a yelp. He was out. Thomas wasted no time to unsheath his sword and sprint at Fay.
Fay, with no weapon, tried to retreat but was met with someone with a much higher agility than his, someone who surpassed him in all physicals. Thomas thrusted forward and caught Fay's side with the sword, just below the armpit. The sting was worse than any of the pain from the snakes, being stabbed sucked, he decided. He felt blood already spilling down the side of his ribs and wetting the cloak. Fay tried hitting back with a punch but that was deflected with a slap and then a kick. Fay went tumbling down onto the soil.
He wanted to make another wager but that was risky, he couldn’t find any use for his other skill as he couldn't really use his own body as a shield since he had a sword. In fact, freezing his body while he was slicing him would probably make it easier for the sword to go through. He wanted to try and stop the sword but the problem of having to put his hands on it was too great.
“I surrender!” Fay held his hands up, Thomas didn't care and dragged his sword behind him as he walked over to Fay.
“Can’t keep you alive, you’re my natural enemy apparently.” He raised the sword high.
Fay tried moving but his wound was spilling way too much blood than what should have been possible. Enchanted, it was enchanted, maybe even a rare sword that inflicted constant bleed. Either way his eyes were dimming out. Is this how I die? This is pathetic.
He made a final wager that he wouldn't die from the slash, because why not. The blade comes down and he raises both of his hands to block it.
[Activated Stop Momentum]
He stopped the sword as it was halfway through Fay’s hands, halfway through his finger bones and halfway through his palm. Thomas tried pushing forward even more, resetting the momentum and since the sword was likely rare in sharpness, it slid through Fay’s bones even more.
[Activated Stop Momentum]
Fay’s mana pool was much higher than before, but even he was surprised it was outlasting Thomas’s strength. The sword became frozen for a second and allowed Fay to slip his fingers out, wedging the bones away and rolling. His hands bled out onto the soil beneath him as he tried making distance, getting close to a tree that he could lean on.
“Oh!” He chirped up as the sword became unstuck in the air, “I know now, you have that one skill.” He sighed, “almost had me worried, you’re almost out aren't you?”
MP: (110/190)
Surprisingly not really.
[Bet Succeeded: +1 defense for 60 seconds]
That was all? For surviving that slash? Fay stuck to the tree as Thomas turned to the cabin and whipped his sword so Fay’s blood flew off and splattered to the soil. “You can bleed out, I’ll go take out the little girl who's peeking out of that window.”
Fay saw Lily duck under the cabin's window, she gave herself away like an idiot. “No… fight me…”
“No? I mean, sure you’re defensive but… your offense is terrible, you can't even hit me. And you look almost dead, you’re so pale.” He stepped to the door and opened it, receiving a punch to the face by Bark that knocked him back down the steps. “Goddamn it what? How many of you are there?”
“Oh!” Bark seemed pleased with his punch, he had some scaly black gloves on, along with a half made chestplate, all very thrown together. He barely had time to get his bearings as Thomas swiped at Bark with his sword.
“Time out!” Lily screamed as Thomas missed by an inch, Bark used this to punch Thomas right in the face again, bruising him, finally. He fell back down the steps and looked mortified with himself. “You’re all so annoying! Can’t you fight honestly? What’s with all these tricks?”
A knife flew past Fay, and the tree he was leaning on and directed itself towards Thomas’s neck. He easily used telekinesis to stop it right in front of him, causing it to drop to the floor right by his feet. “You’re stronger Marx.” He took a step back and decided it would be best to get rid of Marx fully this time. “Is everyone here? Was this a trap Lily?” He clicked his tongue.
Fay grew more and more tired, the bleeding was ahead of his vitality stat, and passing out was definitely an option. But he couldn’t hold back from trying something, he had never tried to stop the momentum of certain parts of his body before, it seemed dangerous to him instinctively, but with blood pouring out of his hand and the side of his chest, it was worth the risk.
He focused the skill on his hands first, around the ring finger which was still spewing blood, the issue was keeping the momentum of the hand but removing the blood flow, like pin pointing. He thought of it like a chain on a flail; if you froze one chain connected to the flail's end, would it affect the other links? Or would that personal inertia keep going. He knew from the way the sky moved that the world he lived in was consistently spinning, logic was that he was just a link in a chain, if he were to truly stop his momentum fully, he would fly into the sky.
It was local, in some way, somehow. It was difficult to wrap his head around how momentum was just a link in a chain of multiple motions, but he tried to freeze a finger without it locking his hand to that finger, rather locking the finger to the hand. He wouldn’t be able to move the finger of course, but the rest of his body, the local force of the body, should hopefully still function.
With his high perception he activated the skill, twice every second, on this small scale it would use up 4 mana per second which was a lot, but he could hopefully optimise it with more use. He tried to change it from two activations to one, knocking the use to 2 mana a second. Still a lot, but viable for one injury. He then, instead of stopping the momentum of the entire finger, focused it onto just the wound that dug down to his bone, knocking the final mana cost to 1 mana per second. He repeated this for the six fingers that were injured, and had to focus 5 mana a second for the side of his chest to stop the blood falling out there.
It was too costly, but with the cost of 11 mana per second, he left his body to heal without the constant draining of bleeding, vitality got to work. The blood simply stuck to the side of his fingers now, making a solid wall that would hopefully coagulate soon and block off the wounds.
[Stop Momentum LVL UP]
-20% -> -25% mana consumption
+1 intelligence
I deserve that. He smiled. Mana cost went down to 10 per second. Fay watched Marx run forward and try to yet again hit Thomas with a punch, it was all for nothing as he shot his sword forward like an arrow. The sword aimed right for Marx’s head, but he managed to just in time shift on his feet and dodge, the blade sliced the shoulder instead.
Fay managed to stand up, with just about 10 seconds left of mana he needed to help in some way. He sprinted forward alongside Marx, who slowed down a bit after the bleeding in his shoulder began, Thomas held out his hand, making sure to only focus on Marx as Fay couldn’t be affected by his skill.
He activated his skill on Marx to shoot him back, however, Fay guessed this would happen. His hand found Marx’s back as he was pushed and-
[Activated Stop Momentum]
It took a total of 40 MP, Marx stopped mid air and fell squarely beside Fay as Thomas screeched out in pain, the veins in his hand ruptured open, leaking blood all over his fingers. Bark saw his opportunity and punched the hurting boy, this time in the back of the head and shot him falling forward pathetically.
Marx tried to join in the beatdown but fell over from blood loss. Fay was also beginning to feel his skill lose its function and the blood began to flow freely, yet again, his lack of MP was ruining everything.
Thomas stood back up and kicked Bark in the chest, knocking him into the stairs of the cabin and breaking a few, Bark was knocked out completely. “Urgh… finally.” He saw that Marx was down, bleeding, Fay was next, even if he was still standing he knew that he wasn’t an issue combat wise. He had won completely.
That was when he saw a man with an axe sprinting right at him. “Who the fuck are you?” He waved his hand and flung him into a tree, the tree broke before he did, and he landed stably on the ground. “Another level three, what's your name? Cripple?”
Jason gripped the axe with a knuckle cracking strength, angry that he had missed yet another fight.
