Eleven> has joined your party.

That was the notification that followed the naming. Luke found this strange, given a familiar could be considered an extension of self, thus this was akin to joining one’s own party. “… Myself and I,” he muttered, moving onto the next problem.

He’d been so engrossed in hatching his familiar that he hadn’t kept track of the time, which had run past midday and afternoon, all the way to dusk. This would put him at roughly an hour away from deep darkness, the prime time to continue his escape.

He used the remaining hour to prepare for their departure, rearranging his inventory and replacing the stamina capsule on his utility gloves. He didn’t anticipate battle, so he’d make the best of the boost on mobility the capsule would provide.

Speaking of mobility, there was the question of how mobile his familiar was in its tadpole phase. Would it be able to keep up with him, or would he have to carry it? He looked the question to Eleven, who, in tune with his thoughts, provided the answer to his question.

Eleven> has invoked [Meld].

+--------------+

|Familial Alert|

+-------+------+

|“Meld”|

+-------+-----------------+

|Class: Skill Notification|

+------+------------------+

|Limits|

+------+--------------------------+

|- Familiar’s combat skills are - |

|- - blocked during a full meld. -|

|-50% Observative Acuity during a |

|- - - - - - meld.- - - - - - - - |

+-----------+---------------------+

|Description|

+-----------+---------------------+

|“Meld into your companion’s - - -|

|- - - - - - form(s).” - - - - - -|

+---------------------------------+

The skill effects manifested, allowing the familiar to meld into Luke’s shoulder. To Luke, it felt like he’d just regained a piece of himself he’d never known he’d been missing, which seemed to be the case for Eleven as well, who purred in delight, a strange sound coming from a tadpole-like entity.

Eleven melded completely, his presence briefly disappearing from Luke’s notice before flaring up again. This time, it was split between both his shoulders, and a quick look at them revealed a huge, glossy eye blinking from each. An idea came to him, and he followed his instincts, closing his own and opening the familiar’s eyes instead.

+---------------+

|Auxiliary Alert|

+------------+--+

|“Sense Meld”|

+------------+----------------+

|Class: Sub-Skill Notification|

+-----------------------------+

|Source: Meld (Familial Skill)|

+------+----------------------+

|Limits|

+------+--------------------------+

|User’s attack effectiveness takes|

|a dip proportional to the gains -|

|- - in observational acuity. - - |

+-----------+---------------------+

|Description|

+-----------+---------------------+

|“Boost observational acuity by - |

|- increasingly tapping into your |

|- - familiar’s free senses.” - - |

+---------------------------------+

This seemed quite the counter to Eleven’s loss in observational effectiveness, but it did come with a caveat; Luke would lose more of his attack-effectiveness the more he boosted his observational skills. This would be a point on the positive side due to his increased ability to dodge, and a point on the negative side of his combat ledger due to his decreased ability to answer with force. He would thus have to watch when and how far-in he would lean into the skill.

◆◆◆

With a gentle touch, Luke removed the rocks barring the entrance, one by one, resting them on the walls to avoid alarming any lurkers. The evening curtain had already closed the day’s chapter, plunging the whole swamp and visible parts of the forest into darkness. Just right.

It was short work revealing his exit, so he wasted no time dallying in his former refuge, save for the minute it took him to scout the surroundings. He pushed Sense Meld to its limits and managed to get a clear view of his surroundings, including the path of mixed terrain he’d chart to his next vantage point.

He retrieved his sickle for new purchases and flattened himself to the walls just outside the cave, shimmying to a position he could best make his initial leap from. With one calming breath, he leapt from the ledge, arm-extended backwards. The wind-up was enough to penetrate the free rocks with the sickle, creating the purchase he’d need to pull himself up on.

He landed hard on his chest and belly, the only telltale the gruff grunt he issued before pulling himself up. His efforts found him on another ledge by the time he’d finished the ascent, and this time he changed tactics, adding a Blink, Quick Draw, and spin into the routine. The Blink dampened the impact, whilst allowing him to push-off the cliff face and vault over the purchase.

The Quick Draw landed the sickle in his inventory but this time he did not retrieve it for the next purchase, electing to leap off the next ledge instead. He employed a short Blink just before impact, providing an extra umph to his leap through Phase-Stepping. The wind caught onto his clothes as he flew through the air, prompting an idea in his mind. I’ll name this one myself. How about… ‘Phase Bound’.

Bounding from ledge to ledge, he made his way higher and higher, eventually retrieving his sickle for purchase on a protruding root located an inch away from the cliff face. This last spin landed him a spot on a tree on the forest’s edge, beginning his trip through the dense foliage.

Having scouted the area for lurkers and determined it free, he experimented more with his mobility skills. He refined his choice of skills, choosing to limit the span of his Phase Steps, lest the underlying ‘bomb’ part of the skill result in him giving up his position.

He’d considered avoiding direct contact with the ground on landing and splitting his landings into multiple phase steps, alternating between upright and upside-down steps to dampen the sound, but this had had results contrary to his expectations. Instead of dividing the sound over the number of stopping steps taken, all the aerial steps had been accompanied by a boom, removing any semblance of stealth out of the approach entirely.

He found his balance within 5 more minutes of experimenting but unfortunately, this had been 6 minutes too late to avoid detection. Pursuers were on their way, and they were within 3 minutes of making contact.

◆◆◆

Luke found a prickly but thick bush to hide in, awaiting his pursuers while contemplating the way forward. He would either take them out if feasible or send them sniffing on the wrong trail if that wasn’t possible; but the main question wasn’t how he’d deal with them, but where he’d go after, for there was the matter of his deal with the female merc after all.

His love for freedom and self-determination begged for him to renege on their deal and chart a different path for his escape, whilst the pragmatic side of him told him he was highly likely to end up in her hands either way, so rather he go willingly to a questionable ally than land into her clutches a deserter. There hadn’t been an outright call to her service, but desertion felt like the right term since he instinctively knew there had to be a high price for the assistance she’d offered him.

An appraisal of the floor revealed a path of arrows leading deeper into the forest, into an uncharted area, The Webbed Domain of Westfall. From what he’d read, the ‘webbed’ part of the name would fast become literal the further in he penetrated the lands, and whilst the ‘west’ was self-explanatory, the ‘fall’ was still a question mark to most.

Will there be a sudden cliff, or is it something more ominous, like a guaranteed death in those western lands? He questioned, dreading the answer the more explanations he posited.

Lastly, there was the issue of the ‘domain’. Was the whole area under one monarch, or was it a random choice to name it so? He doubted the latter, given how half of the other components of that name were known to be somewhat literal, but the former worried him.

There wasn’t enough information on the domain and monarch to suggest the best way to proceed. The governing party might not abide outsiders for one, and even if they did, there might be rules and laws to be followed he wasn’t privy of, making it highly probable to unwittingly offend.

He placed all these considerations on the back burner, choosing to investigate further when it became expedient to do so. He’d done so at the correct time as well, for only a minute after arriving at this decision did the tracking party appear.

◆◆◆

Foxtrot preceded the rest of the team, bounding from perch-to-ground and back, covering as much ground as possible.

His strengths and weaknesses made for quite the awkward combination, making it hard to qualify him under any classic position. Although he boasted quite the speed in the mobility department, a lack of umph to his offensive repertoire made him a bad fit for skirmisher, whilst his dismal stealth skills made for a bad tracker.

He was also quite hardy, bearing a suite of resistances to match his bountiful health pool, but a slight stature, and lack of AOE and taunt skills made for a bad match as the group’s tank, his own tankiness notwithstanding.

However weird these parameters were, they made for a good tip to their spear of pursuit when coupled with the skill he had to thank for his moniker. Foxtrot, although his was more of a plod. It came off as a hunting snow fox’s dive visually, but the weight each hop carried left a beaten and trodden path, literally. This allowed him to flush out prey effectively.

The force from each landing manifested in different ways, depending on the choice of landing point. Where hops onto the ground resulted in cracks and shakes below that were accompanied by an outward push along the horizontal plane, hops onto perches resulted in winds that spiraled upwards and downwards instead, and these originated from the planted body. Like this, he scoured the forests, flattening all that stood still on his path and revealing everything else that so much as flinched.

Although seemingly erratic, the pacing and speed to his hops could be predicted over time, and Luke had already found the rhythm. He was sure he’d be able to avoid this man, but the second of his pursuers gave him more reason for worry.

This one floated 10 meters off the ground and followed 20 meters behind the first. He spotted a blindfold and an extended smile that ran all the way to his ears thanks to the stitches that kept it from literally splitting his face in two. His maw remained open as if to accommodate an incoming mouthful and his jaws flexed to control the shape of the opening.

As far as Luke’s ears could tell, no sound resulted from the movements, but the way the man’s ears had a delayed response to the shifting jaws told Luke the man could hear something, prompting him to appraise the man.

[Advanced Appraisal] has been invoked on Unknown>. Unknown> cannot be identified. Analyzing surroundings…. High-frequency sound wave detected.

+-----------------+

|Third-party Alert|

+-----------------+---+

|“Echoes of -Silence-”|

+-----------+---------+

|Limitations|

+-------+---+

|Unknown|

+-------+---+

|Description|

+-----+-----+

|“???”|

+-----+

Even without a proper description, the combination of notifications and the alert’s title were enough to give Luke an idea of how his assailants planned to flush him out. The first would act as a spook whilst the second would echo-locate him.

The third, who ran just 10 meters behind the second, would likely be the team’s bruiser, built to take him down fast as soon as he’d been spotted. Of this he was sure, given the skill the man seemed to be using. Bailiff’s Comet. The skill had remained a theory to him thus far due to his only exposure being thanks to his own reading, but he had little doubt this is what he was currently witnessing.

The user would employ ice-based effects to freeze the particles around their body, temporarily affecting the speed of their own movements in the process. These effects would be concentrated on the outside, making for a dampening barrier should one attack them from the front.

The user would then utilize mobility skills to overcome this dip in speed, and as their speed increased, the resulting friction would overcome the ice effects, resulting in vast amounts of gas being released from the inside of the barrier. The warmer gas would then push the oppressive ice effects outward, resulting in a projection of arresting force should there be anything in the way of the comet’s path.

Once caught in place, the helpless victim would be subjected to the chill first, followed by the heat of the gas once they got close enough, and ending with a collision of the target and the solid mass backed by all its momentum. This meant there would be a danger to the user due to the force of the collision, but the man who was employing it looked like he could take that much punishment, and more.

Although devastating, the skill wasn’t without its weaknesses, and seeing as he’d already taken stock of his 3 pursuers, Luke planned on taking advantage of all the holes he could see in their strategy, starting with their so-called strengths.

◆◆◆

Foxtrot had already cleared this area, leaving the rest to the members of his team. Echo adjusted his maw once again, anticipating the same response as before, nothing; but this time he sensed a fast-moving object heading his way.

It was too small to be their prey, and too ‘silent’ to be a sentient ally of his, which left only one thing, a projectile attack. He took evasive measures whilst noting the rocks trajectory to estimate its origins, quickly extending the width of his maw for a wider projective radius, but the returning echoes rang hollow to his animated ears, and his investigation turned up nothing but cold steel from in-and-around that position.

Cold steel, he thought, considering the sword-shaped object he’d picked up in that area. A second round of echoes confirmed it as a fine point whilst turning up more information about the sword, which although hollow, had a rich ring to it. A valuable blade, nothing someone would just abandon.

The residual heat that appeared in his echoes as a haze near the sword was proof enough there had been someone close by recently, and although the lack of heat from its handle told him it hadn’t been handled recently, this was clearly meant as a trap. Echo would definitely trip this trap, albeit with another’s hand with the paws and claws to contend with the ambush he suspected would be waiting.

He adjusted his maw and loosened his jaws, effecting a different frequency for communication with his party members. Although human ears could now pick up the sounds, the utterances were still unintelligible to all eavesdroppers.

On cue to the instructions, Stampede, the bruiser, thudded forward, closing the distance between Echo and himself. He would be the one to spring the trap Luke had set for them, whatever that entailed. He did not slow down on arriving at 5 meters from the sword, accelerating instead in a bid to bulldoze their prey who’d made a sudden appearance near the sword.

◆◆◆

To Luke’s delight, his Phase Blink seemed capable of escaping the hovering echo-locator’s senses, which made his planned actions more effective.

Although the bruiser maintained a steady pace on course to the sword, his charge seemed more tentative than resolute, which further assured Luke he hadn’t been spotted yet. He would need to provide the bruiser with more bait to solidify the charge, and a sudden reappearance would do the trick.

A quick cancelation had Luke in the bruiser’s sights, and the man accelerated as expected, but this change in pace had also been accompanied by an unexpected change in the effect field. A pulling force beckoning his form toward the bruiser’s.

With his feet off the ground and his body continually being sucked towards the bruiser, he’d have a hard time evading the coming charge, but to Luke, hard was just a little bit of extra effort, nothing close to impossible. He leaned into the pulling force, tumbling head-first towards the ground and Quick-Drawing the sickle for a grounding stab.

[Bailiff’s Comet] has effected on you. has impeded all mobility type effects. has increased the invocation time of all effects. An infusion from [Stamina Capsule] has temporarily overcome the effects of .

The boost ate up a tenth of his capsule, only managing to buy him 2 seconds, but one was more than enough for him to execute the dive out of the way. He’d barely cleared the bruiser’s path when the man thudded past him, his latest step sinking into the ground in anticipation of a collision that never came, for Luke had blinked a split-second before that.

He hadn’t escaped unscathed however, due to the halo of intense freezing effect, which had made contact with him before the blink. The burns had been concentrated on his right side and were affecting him this very moment, but he ignored them as he estimated the time it would take for the comet’s head to pass, placing him in its tail when he rematerialized.

This was the comet’s weakness, its assailable tail end. Although the effects were still present there, they were quite weak when compared to the head and sides, making it the best path of attack. Luke aimed for this, springing towards his target’s back for a quick take down but as soon as he got to within a sword’s length of his nape, an attack was levied his way, removing the chance for his quick takedown, and converting his enemy’s precarious circumstances to his own.

◆◆◆

Freeloader. That’s what all of her previous party members had called her, but their mistress had thought otherwise, providing her with additional training and an opportunity to put her skill and bad habit to use.

Due to her slight stature and one of her starting skills, Weightless, she could hitch a ride on stockier individuals without much trouble, save for her transport’s annoyance; and strike unexpected, making her a viable secret weapon, but after her encounter with the mistress she’d gained a second alley of use as a hidden shield.

Like Echo, her codename was descriptive of one of her primary skills, the difference being that hers matched it word for word, an easy task given it was only one. Shimmer. This was a skill that utilized the ambient lighting to effect illusions, allowing her to blend into the environment so long as there was enough lighting.

This made Stampede’s armored back the best perch for her, and from there she could serve both purposes, protecting his vulnerability whilst affording her the opportunity for a counterattack should anyone go for it.

Luke had, and Shimmer made sure to make him pay for it, breaking the socketed capsule on his glove, and pinning his feet to the ground with her poisoned throwing knives. He could struggle all he liked, but he wouldn’t get far, and Shimmer would be there for all of his feeble resistance.