Icarus Awakens

The arrow struck Daniel in the right shoulder, going through the unarmored flesh but not all the way. A lethal shot was prevented by the way the crossbow hung on his back and the archer’s reluctance to kill, or enrage the other two. Even so, she fed mana into Quick Strike for a follow up to the lower leg. From this range, she couldn’t miss. “Down!” she called out, eyeing the large collection of whirling vines now that the Artificer had been injured. Her arrows would do relatively little against it, but the blades of her followers posed a real threat.

In seconds, ropes were tossed from the rooftops and most of her crew moved to surround the three. Sherry followed with a wisdom spell, Muffle Sound, to prevent the cries of pain coming from the injured human from alerting anyone. She wasn’t concerned about the occupants of the buildings, though someone on a neighboring street could be a problem. The ability reduced the intensity of ambient noise, meaning she had to shout at the top of her lungs to be heard at a normal volume.

“Don’t move! Reach for a weapon and we attack.” She knocked another arrow. Five of her people, including herself, had remained on the roof while the rest approached from both sides of the alleyway. No one else had powers but they all carried a short sword. Knowing that none of her targets were higher than level 2 meant that there was a good chance that they could be killed with even unenchanted weapons. Sherry didn’t know for sure and didn’t want to find out, but the prize was worth the risk.

“Wha, why?” The dusker’s voice carried clearly through her active ability, and Sherry narrowed her eyes.

“Shut up! No one talks. Plant! Stop moving!” The gestalt had been reaching for one of the arrows lodged in the Artificer who was still writhing in pain. No doubt to pull them out, but the Agony Arrow spell applied to them would keep the Artificer under control for at least a minute even though he was at a higher level. Its effectiveness depended on how much damage she did with her shots, and her Sneak Attack feature had gotten maximum value with the first one.

“Dusker, toss your bow out. Both you and the plant put your coins on the ground. I know what he gave you!” It was a shame she couldn’t use the threat of the sun against the dusker. The shadow covering the alleyway did make it easier to use her stealth abilities if needed, but took that card off the table.

The dusker looked to the plant helplessly. It was in a strange half man, half vine ball form assumed in the first few moments of the attack. “Obey.” It said, and Sherry thought she heard bitterness in the voice. A reflective green coin appeared from its form, and the gestalt slowly ambled to one of the surrounding walls as the thieves came closer.

Sherry had gone over the plan with them while they’d waited for the right moment. Incapacitate the Artificer, then jump on the dusker if they resisted. That hadn’t happened, thankfully. Even a dusker without levels could kill a non-Blessed with ease.

“Dusker, throw out your bow! I won’t ask again. Quiver too.”

That finally spurred the dusker. The bow was tossed in front of the eight coming her way, and one swore when they tried to pick it up. Her quiver she held in her hands, reluctant, but her eyes went to the human on the roof still aiming at the Artificer. Instead of throwing it, she placed it on the ground and gently rolled the quiver and arrows away.

“Good! Against the wall and get down into your shell!” Sherry was nervous for a moment when the dusker chose the wall she was perched on, but one of her subordinates gave her a thumbs up and she peered over the side to see they’d shrunk by half. “We’re going to search your friend now. No one’s getting hurt unless either of you do anything. Don’t resist and you can get his wounds looked at in a few minutes. Larry, Fetch, you do it.”

The gestalt against the far wall tensed and became the focus of Sherry’s renewed concern. There was nothing visible that happened, just an instinct for danger her three lackeys lacked. She couldn’t help but feel spite, which she directed at the Artificer. “Pathetic. You call yourselves monster hunters?”

His pained shouts had turned to gasps, still leaving him unable to respond. The fact that he wasn’t a complete wreck with two of the arrows of pain in him concerned Sherry, but then again he was level 2. The fact that he was still enfeebled settled her nerves. Now, what was that dangerous feeling coming from Heightened Awareness?

“Watch the weed,” she warned. “Keep away. It’s doing something.” Some of her people below looked nervously at the ground, wondering if it was burrowing underneath to hit up at them. “Do anything and he gets one in the head. Understand?” Sherry spared a moment to wonder if it did. The rumors of the plant people said they were just barely mortal enough to know not to attack people on sight. Oh well, she’d make her point one way or another.

In truth, her people didn’t get close to either the plant or the dusker. Even in their smaller form, the one below her could kill easily with a punch. If either posed a threat she’d shoot the Artificer and tell her people to run. Two vermillion in the bank was a bigger score than they’d pulled in months, but the demon in Sherry wanted more. She even had a good feeling about her crew being able to take them with the Artificer down.

It all went wrong when the two she’d chosen got within a meter of the Artificer.

…

Khare had been as surprised as Daniel had by the ambush. Their wisdom was among their lowest attributes and still suffered from level disparity. Khiat was much in the same way, but the gestalt wondered why Daniel himself hadn’t noticed. Through the various conversations they’d had, Khare had gotten the impression Daniel was close to being balanced in terms of his attributes, and they didn’t have a sense any of the attackers were more powerful than they were. Far from it.

That didn’t change the fact that his friend was overcome with pain and more than he should be, considering Daniel had walked off a mountain collapsing on him. Khare suspected something on the arrows, be it poison or a more straightforward power. Unfortunately, their attempt at removing them had been noticed. If they’d been able to engulf Daniel he would have been safe from reprisal while Khare took them out, but there’d been no time.

The woman’s words on the rooftop weren’t perfectly clear to them, though Khare understood the threat of the bow’s current trajectory. They complied, urging Khiat to as well. Not because Khare intended to give up, but because they needed everyone to be closer. In the way most mortals came to realize the effects of powers they’d recently acquired, Khare had known there was some way they could change the weapons they’d used. Now, with Daniel’s slightly distorted insights, it was clear.

Khare could affect either all or some of their weapons with a new ability. While Daniel’s explanations had left the impression of swords, they also sensed it could extend to arrow tips as well. Enhancing their entire arsenal, which was worthy of the name, would take more mana than Khare had. Thankfully the number of assailants was well below the number of their weapons.

In the space between themself and the wall, Khare carefully brought weapons out from their interior space. Throwing daggers exclusively, each affected by the power they now knew as Bleeding Blades. This was the extra edge they’d need to make sure the surprise attack of their own would be decisive.

The flow of mana to their weapons didn’t need to be constant. Khare could sense it was stored in each knife to maintain the effect. This meant he didn’t need to dual-channel to use another ability, something the gestalt couldn’t possibly have had the time to practice. They readied Coordinated Strike once the enemies were close enough. The lead archer on high seemed to notice something was up as they held the attack but only guttered another warning. They waited, prepared, in much a similar fashion as Khiat had hunted almost a week ago. Just before the enemies could get to Daniel, Khare struck first.

A cloud of daggers exploded outwards like thorns as their humanoid upper half dissolved. Even the otherwise golden heliorite daggers mixed in had a reddish-black tinge along the edge that gleamed menacingly. Khare had thrown ten daggers in rapid succession, catching the two close to Daniel in the throat, the three closest to Khiat in the chest, and at least two of the archers. The lead archer and other two he either missed or only grazed.

Khare wasn’t sure how the bleed effect would work, blood overall being a foreign concept compared to the substance their species used. It turned out to be almost as deadly as the daggers that had landed in vital areas, the higher level effect causing blood to pour from what they suspected were normal humans and avianoids. The air around him filled with words, Khare only understanding glimpses of what they were saying.

“Back!”

“Bleeding!”

“Run!”

“Crossbow.”

“Attack!”

Khare noticed both they and Khiat were the subject of hostile intent, but not from the five he’d hit on the ground. Two had instantly died, one was clutching at the dagger in his abdomen, while the other two were twitching on the ground as blood flowed like water from the wound. The archers hadn’t retaliated yet, either because they had dodged or were horrified by what they saw.

“Protect!” Khare’s word was meant for Khiat. She had just come into her power and couldn’t be expected to fight here, but the least she could do was shield Daniel from further arrows with her carapace. Only, she wasn’t moving. She was backing into the wall so hard it was cracking. Her assailants, seeing this, chose to prioritize the one who’d just slaughtered a quarter of their number.

Forced to respect both the threat on the ground and above, Khare flowed over to completely cover Daniel instead of releasing another immediate volley. That might have been enough to scare off the remainder, and it sounded like the leader was calling for retreat. The men on the ground didn’t listen. They had looked at those who had fallen prey to the bleeding effect and decided on vengeance instead.

Though Khare had inherited Stone Form from their progenitor, the mana cost to use it was greater than their entire mana pool. It was something they would have to grow into. More importantly, they couldn’t use it to defend against the various blades surrounding them. Khare was a ranged Martialist and though they could whirl to parry every attack while in their natural form, they had neither the experience nor the ability to do this. They were facing normal enemies with unenchanted weapons, though they’d still easily cut through vines and sever the vital internal points within their mass.

For multiple reasons Khare couldn’t use their bows, having to rely instead on a dwindling supply of daggers that the enemies now knew to dodge. Khare whirled and pulsed their being with every attack, not having the room to commit to multiple without leaving themself open to reprisal. Every sword that hit them was a line of pain across their being, amplified ten fold if it struck through one of the knots. A few arrows struck them too, but they didn’t matter.

Their attackers realized Khare’s weakness in melee and pressed them, even as a handful more died. Khare cut their way free, forced to abandon Daniel’s position. Fortunately, he was forgotten amidst the greater threat that was the gestalt. If the attacker’s leader was still present she might have realized what Khare had been doing while protecting the Artificer, but she’d fled after almost taking a dagger to the eye.

…

The last few minutes of Daniel’s life could be compared most to his hazy recollections of barely surviving the fall from the second sky island. The terrible novelty of being pierced by two arrows was one thing, but his entire body burned with echoes of the sharp, blinding agony like he was in the middle of a continuous rain of them. In all his time spent fighting monsters he’d only been grazed at best. Even falling from the mountain had knocked him out long enough to heal from the damage. That left him mentally unprepared to handle real pain despite Fortitude taking the edge off of the worst of the effect. It might not have been as bad if he’d heightened that or his healing feature beforehand, but he hadn’t expected to need it in the supposedly safe city.

What happened around him was a blur. At some point it went dark before the arrows were yanked out and the pain in his body severely improved. The places where he’d been shot still hurt like hell, but he could bear it and the pain diminished quickly with time. Now able to take account of what happened, he struggled to believe it had.

They just shot me. No warning or anything. His blood stained the sand littering the streets, preventing it from pooling. Daniel reached for his crossbow only to find it gone, though it was the only thing missing. Beyond a dagger, he was unarmed.

In what seemed like moments after the arrows had been pulled free, he was exposed once more. A ferocious melee was taking place, multiple humans and avianoids armed with swords attacking a large mass of vines. To the casual eye, it would appear like a group of civilians fighting a monster, but that monster was Daniel’s friend. He remained frozen for a few moments longer, unable to accept what part of him wanted to do. These were people, even if they’d just ambushed him. He didn’t want-

“Plant! Plant! Stop, or run them through!” A panicked voice cried out behind him. Daniel saw Khiat was recoiling from a sword pressed against her armor. Even though her chitin was connected protectively, and she could easily tear him in half if she wanted, Khiat stood frozen at sword point. The small part of Hunter living in him from constant exposure to the Empathic Link flared in anger, feeding on his pain and spreading.

Daniel reached out with his mind and tore the sword from the man’s grip. Telekinetic Reach was costly to use on things people held, but the man didn’t, or couldn’t resist.

There was a snap as it flew out of the man’s hand. He screamed, doubling over in pain. An arrow flashed by his face as the remaining archers above realized he was both alive and kicking. Daniel Dodge Rolled away, feeling another arrow fly past just past him. He couldn’t travel as far or come to his feet by using it on the ground, but it got him out from the arc of the next two arrows.

It wasn’t over. Khare was pressed against a wall, out of room against seven remaining opponents. There was no time to think until he got a hold of himself and realized there was. Daniel used Moment of Clarity, despairing at his fading mana reserves. He’d used two level 2 abilities to fix a damned curtain this morning, and even more to hover it in place to keep it open. What had he been thinking?

Daniel didn’t know how gestalt worked, even now. He wasn’t aware of the vital points within them, only that fire was a critical weakness. Still, Khare’s desperate retreating had told him what he needed to know; they were under mortal threat. He had powers, he had killed things before, but people? A decision had to be made before his mana ran out. He knew what he had to do, or rather, what he had to do if he wanted Khare to live. For a brief moment, he thought of Gadriel confidently telling him that a capable warrior could fight without killing their opponent. Could he?

“Bulwark!” Daniel shouted, summoning a wall of hardened sand in front of Khare. That was extremely taxing, even though he’d just made it a few centimeters thick. The realization that Daniel was fighting made it to those on the ground in a flurry of callouts, the attempt at coordination running over itself to make it hard to tell who was saying what.

“He’s up!”

“Fuck, behind!”

“Run!”

“No, get him.”

“What about-”

“Get him!”

The men and women in front of him had fought together before, but not with the stakes Daniel had with his team. They were slow to respond, some trying to hack apart the shield wall while others turned to face Daniel. “Shoot him!” One of them yelled, reminding Daniel of the threat above. Khare was still alive, but they weren’t trying to break out of the wall. Too injured? His opponents' red auras drowned out the green behind them. They didn’t have any levels! Why were they doing this?

Daniel clumsily threw his dagger. Snap Shot corrected his poor natural aim to sink it into the knee of the first one. They fell, blood seeping from the wound as he retrieved the dagger telekinetically. More mana drained away, he couldn’t do that for each of them or the ones on the roof. Not enough mana to roll to safety either, though as his wounds suggested he could take serious damage and keep going with Regeneration in the background.

His blood was pounding, and it felt like he was moving slightly faster than his enemies as his enhanced attributes gave him a clear advantage. If he could just ignore the humanity of his opponents he could easily slaughter them. Hunter would, if he was here, but Daniel couldn’t stop himself from seeing even the Grafted species as human.

Still, they were coming to kill him. He ducked as an arrow came for his head and then jolted back before righting himself. They were already on him! No time to think, no mana to buy it either. He stabbed the first in the stomach and left the dagger there. No hesitation at least, a lesson learned from the skabs. His enhanced strength was enough for part of the hilt go through as well, making the clean cut messy. Daniel circled backward, but he couldn’t turn away from the archers or outpace the running men. Not all of the people lying on the ground had auras left, but some had died before he’d gotten back up. Those were all Khare’s kills right?

Talons. “Get away!” he yelled, holding up his hands as they twisted. They lost a digit as the rest elongated into bird-like claws. The level 1 ability had a very low cost even while actively channeled and remained an effective option with the mana he had left. Though Daniel was averse to taking life, the months spent in the Thormundz had instilled the will of a survivor if nothing else. The thought of what Hunter would do if he got himself killed by holding back removed the final bit of doubt from his mind.

“Fuck!” The leading enemy recoiled on seeing this but was shoved by the one behind her.

“GET HIM!” another near the back screamed.

Daniel first tried to grab the sword coming for him, knowing his enhanced hands could resist damage as well as deal it. He received no cut for the attempt, but the point of it raked his chest as the improvised move failed. Only his consistent backpedaling saved him from a worse injury, though the unenchanted blade wouldn’t have been able to kill him from just one strike.

With his hands still transformed, Daniel punched one of the remaining five in the chest. There was a cracking, squelching sensation and the woman went flying. He lost track of her as another arrow came for him. The rest were frightened but also furious, the same anger he’d felt seeing Khiat threatened taken to another level.

No time for pity, not that it would matter. Now that Khare had cut down their numbers and freed him from those arrows, they didn’t have a chance. All Daniel had to do was connect with a punch and they went down with broken bones or worse. It was frighteningly easy. When there was one left chasing him, he looked them in the eye. “Run.”

The man suddenly realized he was alone, dropped his sword, and took off. He stopped to grab the one that had taken a dagger to the knee before abandoning the rest. The archers were gone, disappearing sometime between when the last and second to last were struck down. There were many more lying in the street, too injured to move or dead. Blood was pooling under some, refusing to coagulate.

Daniel ran back once he knew it was safe. Khiat was still pressed against the wall, unmoving. There was noise coming from a street ahead, but Daniel’s attention was on Khare. He carefully broke down the wall to find the gestalt was huddled together. Something about how the vines were moving looked off. “Are you ok?” With what seemed like pain, Khare reformed their humanoid upper half. The face was grimacing, but they nodded. “You saved my life.”

As he breathed raggedly and Khare compressed themselves into a smaller shape, it fully struck Daniel how loyal Khare had been to the group. They’d gone so far as to separate themselves from their people just to travel with his team, and if it had just been Khiat and himself here the thieves would have gotten away with at least everything on him.

How alone must Khare feel to constantly be with people who couldn’t completely understand them? Khiat knew the pain of being forced to leave home, but perhaps it was the gestalt who could truly empathize with how isolating this world could be for him, even with his friends. Numbly, Daniel extended a hand out. It was ridiculous, but the world was off. Things weren’t seeming quite real after what had happened. Khare shook the hand anyway.

“Gratitude.” There was a change in the air, something Daniel could just barely perceive in this alert state before his phone vibrated. Something oddly familiar.

“I, I think I should check this. Are you ok?” Another nod. When Daniel saw the notification, he was only slightly surprised.

You have formed a Bond: Outcast with Creature: Khare. The effects of this bond will persist unless the relationship between you and this entity dramatically changes. Additional or improved effects may be received if the bond is strengthened.

Bond Benefits:

• Tactical Network: You and the bonded entity possess the Power to improve coordination and efficiency. Either of you may Mark up to three targets, designating them with a visual effect only visible to you and the bonded entity. This is a Magical and Spiritual effect that functions in an area of Magical Suppression.

• Customer Appreciation: You and the bonded entity possess the power to benefit from arcane creations. This feature improves the damage and durability of Items you enchant that the bonded entity uses to a minor degree. This is a spiritual effect that functions in an area of magical suppression

• Called Shot: You and the bonded entity possess the power to amplify Attacks: Ranged made against opponents who are marked. At a minor Mana cost, one bonded creature may designate a marked target, improving the accuracy and damage of the other bonded creature’s attack to a moderate degree. This is a magical and spiritual effect that functions in an area of magical suppression

“A combo attack,” Daniel said breathlessly.

“Are we safe?” Khiat’s voice was shaking and Daniel suspected she would be crying if she could. He turned and saw her pressed up against the wall in loose-fitting leather armor, looking between him and where her bow and quiver were resting in the sand.

“I think-”

“Freeze!” From the entrance to the alley, a commanding voice carried. More people with weapons were running into it. “You are under arrest! Do not resist!”

What? But we- In a flash, Daniel recalled Thomas’ fears about this city, and what he had been told happened at the gate. He couldn’t fight anyone else, lacking both the mana and the will. Instead, he whispered quickly. “Khare, get my necklace.”

Daniel plunged his head into the gestalt, feeling the vines writhe around him. At the same time, he thrust his phone inside and just managed to conceal his coin pouch before he was dragged away and forced to the ground where a knee pressed against his back. His wounds protested, but none were serious enough to worry about with Regeneration on board.

“Oh, oh gods.” One of the guards sounded horrified. “Are there any alive?”

“A few,” another called out. “Barely.”

“They attacked us!” Daniel shouted, and the pressure on his back doubled.

“It doesn’t look like any of them are in a state to tell their side, so we’re taking you all in. Don’t resist.”

“What’s going on here?” Someone else behind Daniel asked, a new voice. One with far more authority than anyone else.

“Lieutenant Sherman! Reports of fighting, we just found them like this. Looks like at least a dozen dead.”

“I can see that for myself. Hmm. Hmm, what is this?” He still couldn’t see who was talking but heard the deep interest in the voice.

“Found it among the bodies sir. Seems fancier than the rest of the weapons. I don’t think anyone else had a crossbow. And it’s, uh, golden sir. Can you make a crossbow out of gold?”

“You couldn’t.” Daniel felt the gaze of the Lieutenant shift to him. “But an Artificer could.”