The Power of Ten

Author’s Note: If you aren’t aware by now, a unicorn’s horn is properly called an alicorn.

Tactics were pretty simple. One of us hit something, and then the other one finished it off.

He could shoot faster than I could, I got two Darts at a time. I just watched him pop stuff, layered a Dart onto whatever he shot, and then popped whatever was close by. His follow-up generally pasted it.

If he had to cut it, and it wasn’t nice enough to die, I could pop one in the back.

Six of them buzzed their way towards us as insects. His forking Wrath marked three of them at range, giving me a target, and I popped the two in back with Darts. The one in front actually made it all the way to him, because he lit up the last three behind it with his next shots, and I killed another two of them.

It materialized on him as a clawing, leering, stinking undead with the gaunt build of a ghoul, burning eyes in a ravaged face, and exaggerated jaws. It dropped on him, still burning and with a big hole in its belly. Idiot ripped it right up the middle in a burning swathe. Master Fred walked right through the halves without slowing down.

The last one dove on me as it warped back to claw/claw/bite form, and Sleipner abruptly reared up to meet it, razored blades snapping out of his front wheel and instantly turning it into a screaming power saw. The gaki’s scream dissolved into burning undead bits spraying in all directions as it ran into the wheel, and Sleipner hammered it into the ground.

I shot the corpse regardless, as the vivus would clean up the unicorn, and Sleipner trundled after Master Fred, supremely undeterred.

Master Fred silently pointed left and right. I kept my Darts up, looking for them, and Sleipner turned left, indicating the one on that side was approaching us through the ferns under the trees.

The aswang thought it was going to ambush us, erupting out of the ferns that couldn’t possibly hide something its size. Its skull was long, jaws protruding to twice the size they should be, all needle teeth and bruised-black skin, fingers twice human length with claws for nails, hair like a bristling bush of stinking meal remnants.

First Dart to the face. Blinded for a half-second, it didn’t realize that Sleipner had again rocked back on his rear wheel, and this time his horn was extended, four silver rings about it, and perfectly braced to take the leap as his front wheel folded back underneath.

Taking a supernaturally dangerous alicorn waiting like a braced pike is not a good idea for anyone. The aswang slammed into the motorcycle, hands just barely not reaching me, bloody eyes and burned face bulging at the spiral point emerging from his back.

I slapped my hand on Sleipner, gave the Dart away, and there was an explosion as the aswang was flung off the spiral horn, parts flying in every direction, burning vivic as they did so.

Sleipner nickered excitedly. I looked over as Fred stepped into the leaping aswang, bracing himself, and to its utter surprise, not only wasn’t bowled over, he clotheslined it with his left arm, blew a hole in its chest, and then chopped down with Idiot venting Wrath. The clawed hands that ripped over him failed to do anything to him, which just made me snicker. Crystal DragonDR and Nat AC were no jokes.

“Anything else?”

TWO SIGNATURES TOGETHER THERE. He pointed again. MOVING QUICKLY.

“That they are.” I saw shadows bouncing between the trees. “The hoppers.” I put my hand on Sleipner’s bars, discharged a Dart. “Discharge when you get a clear shot...”

The wheel turned, the alicorn elevated slightly, and I felt the engine tense as the unicorn revved slightly in anticipation.

“What is this?” one of the undead called out in English, speaking with a lisp. The control runes on the paper talisman hanging down on its forehead were burning with faint magical light. The two jiangshi landed on some tree branches, partially covered by leaves, looking down at us. “Two little mortals, delivering themselves unto us?”

“<Your accent is horrible>,” I replied in Necrus. “<Couldn’t learn Human, eh? No surprise, your bosses have a time of it, too.>”

Their eyes shifted to me instead of the well-armed Heavenbound staring at them with shining square silver-black and blue eyes, and the burning Sword. “Oh, and you’re crap informed about enemies, too, or you’d know Master Fred, who really is sort of famous, doesn’t talk.”

“<You dare insult us?!>” the male vampire of the two hissed, now that I could see both of them slightly. In Necrus. Was the female wearing a courtesan’s dress? Seriously? That sash alone...

“<Ah, you know, immune to fear, daring is what I do,>” I shrugged. “<Go on, try to terrify me. I haven’t had a good laugh all day.>”

He raised a hand to point a clawed nail of a finger at me. “<Such insolence! I will have you weeping in->”

Fred’s Grit belched Wrath, which struck him, detonated, and ate his magical defenses, not that Fred needed the meal right now.

An identical golden beam carrying a single white Dart with triple flames around it came in on the heel of that from a certain spiral horn, and punched into the jiangshi.

He looked down at the sudden hole blown through his chest, right where the blaze of the bullet had hit.

“<Your turn!>” I shouted at the woman, who was also beating at flames on her chest from Forked Wrath as she half-screamed, ducking behind the tree.

The Mick’s bats glided down silently, and condensed into his figure out of nowhere as they swirled down through the branches. She had just about enough time to turn around in shock when a bloody trail of light cut across, carving through six inches of the tree trunk, and incidentally her neck, on the way.

He let the corpse drop, and I shot it on the way down. It was burning white when it hit the ground, and getting eaten up like paper.

“Got all the sentries,” he said, balancing effortlessly up there on the tree for a moment before hopping down. He basically glided softly down to the ground, still as white as ever. He glanced at the things burning unwhite around, and pointed off with his Katana. “Based on the sentries and where they were, the tomb is up there somewhere.”

Fred nodded, and together the two of them headed up that way, while I lifted the jewelry off the dead vampires, their paper control talismans being the first thing to burn away after they died, and Sleipner trundled after them.

--------

Dusk Renewal. I softly invoked the Salute to Aethra as the darkness, the shadow of the world, swept across the land, and delivered us unto night.

Waited. Waited...

I popped one eye open. No ding?

Despite myself, I smiled.

Finally, I had a choice! Oh, this was going to be killer...

“Archer/1! Set Preferred Ranged Weapon Group to Ranged Attack Spells! Weapon Focus/Specialization in Shards! Training Feat, Improved Initiative! Purchased Feat, Necropotent! Purchased Mastery, Argent Savancy/1!”

It was like little crystallizing emblems of death went off in my mind. My Signature Spell, weaving and growing into my Matrix, solidified into leaves of diamond blades in its orbit.

Damn, I had been waiting too long for this...

My Shards flickered up, the teardrops scintillating now, the crystalline edges looking so sharp and perfect they could have been knives, the rounded center rippling with internal waves of its own. As the seventh Shard manifested in front of my fist, instead of around my wrist, they all burst into burning elemental fire, yet still looked jagged and fractured.

Master Fred looked over, and narrowed his eyes at the sight. He could feel the increased danger coming off them, but didn’t know exactly why.

Right now the Shards were hardened into Weapon form. Shooting all of them would be -6 to hit, but since I had just gained +4 via Ranged Attack bonus +1, +2 Competence from Argent Savancy, and +1 from Weapon Focus, it wasn’t that much of a change, especially against undead.

I had also gained +1 damage/die on force spells from Argent Savancy, which meant +1 per Shard... and +2 Weapon Damage from Weapon Spec per Shard, when it was Weaponized.

+7 Damage per Shard, with kickers on the back end, was not a small thing, along with a 19-20 Crit range. I’d take the penalty to hit every time, sure enough.

The fun thing was that Necropotent activated when Specialization did, for another +4 damage per Shard to undead...

Needless to say, that could escalate the damage quickly. It would only work when Weaponized... in touch attack or auto-hit mode, I’d just get the bonus once per target. But it made the single-target damage against an undead being INCREDIBLE.

I could probably one-hit this vylstrigoi with a full Shards spell right now.

GOT TO CHOOSE?, he asked, seeing my beaming smile.

“It was about bloody time.” I had wanted to take an Archer Level a long time ago. Witch, Bard, bwah, those could all have waited. If I dared to go full Weapon on Shards, I could now hit with each one nearly as hard as an Archer with Arrows... and with a whole lot of kickers...

And I got seven of them at a time right now, as a One!

I had fed Einz and Clavus already once earlier, thankfully getting them some Naming Karma. Happily, there was still enough left to feed them again.

With a soft woosh, vivic flames leapt up on the head of my shortened Staff. Damn, I had so much work to do on him, but I didn’t have the Boneshaping Ranks to do it. Annoying... and Marrowmeld, or Boneshaping, was a Valence II I couldn’t Cast yet. Even more annoying.

Whatever. I wasn’t going to use it as a Weapon, just an Implement.

We didn’t expect to be able to use the Eyes to sense the twat as he was approaching... but in the end, we didn’t really care.

His tomb was here, he’d gone out and back for six days. His week was up and he had to make it back here.

And if he thought he had an edge against us in the darkness, wow, was he going to get a surprise.

I had no problem sitting there in silence. Waking Meditation kept my senses on full, time slid by as I felt the twisted magic and necroic energies infesting the place. He wouldn’t be long now...