7.3

“For the pursuit of progress supersedes all consideration.” - The Mad Mage Khao

The sound of panic and shouts ringed around Noam as he sat on the Traveller rogue.

“So…” he languidly asked, turning the man over.

Noam’s weapons were gone or broken, but he was in no way harmless. The rogue’s face lay bruised and broken, Noam’s own knuckles were scratched and bleeding slightly. The Summer’s staff was itself covered in blood.

“Let’s begin with names,” Noam asked.

The rogue spat at him.

He did not react, simply staring down at this person he had pinned. The spit slowly slid off his face, and with the same languid motion, Noam began caressing the rogue’s hands.

“You seem to have a bit of arthritis in your joints,” Noam told him as he held his hands. “That why you in such a bad mood? Simple introductions aren’t hard. I’m Noam, see, that easy.”

“Fuck off and die,” the rogue snapped.

And Noam broke his finger.

The rogue’s scream was drowned out by the sounds of the crowd dispersing.

“You have really bad arthritis,” Noam murmured, twisting the broken finger, “this stuff requires a good chiropractor to solve, but thankfully I am one.”

Ignoring the man’s screams, Noam continued, “Twenty digits, four limbs, one neck, one spine. Two-hundred and six bones in a human body. A good chiropractor can help crack every single one of them just right. There are some horror stories of chiropractors killing their patients by cracking their spine the wrong way.”

“That’s my finger you psycho!”

Noam broke another finger.

The rogue screamed again, loudly and hoarsely. So loud that to make sure he was heard, the tiefling leaned in very close to the rogue’s ear. “But don’t worry, my treatment will not kill you. You won’t die and you won’t respawn. You will be here, for as long as I can have you.”

Sweat dripped down the rogue’s brow as he craned his neck to stare at Noam’s face.

Noam would do it.

The rogue saw it in his face, and knew as certainly as the rising of the sun, that this man would sit here and slowly break every single one of his bones.

And he would be alive for all of it.

The fight dying in his eyes signalled to Noam that his victory had been achieved. The tiefling knew there was an unseen ‘HP’ bar for Travellers, that would automatically cause them to dissipate, not at bodily death, but at an amount of damage the Traveller can’t mentally take.

That significantly limited his torture options, so he had to resort to scaring the shit out of them. Not to mention he’s been waiting to try the two-hundred and six bones quote since he saw it in a show several years ago.

“What is your name?” Noam asked now, innocently twirling one unbroken finger. The threat no longer spoken.

“...Yanis.”

And Noam smiled a large and friendly smile, “Now who set you up for this?”

Noam (Mattmanfoo): Scarlet Samsara, hired by the Governor lady, wants to get the Hearth Church out for some reason. Numbers at least twenty people, guild from Yggdrasil. Levels around 3, with a few at 5…

“Good job Noam,” I muttered as I read through the walls of text he sent me. “We’re dealing with a small guild of enemies, twenty people,” I said, repeating the information to Celine.

“And they’re all Travelers?” she asked with a tremor in her voice.

“Likely,” I told her as we moved, “a Yggdrasil guild… I have some ideas. But currently we need to secure Johnny and an escape route, Tai is still moving to-”

“Utoqa’s taking damage again!” Celine suddenly yelled out.

I paused, both of us stilling in our run. Celine had started rapidly repairing Utoqa’s body; she would not be able to move quickly as she used her magic.

My body was far too slow, I had no points in Agility and Dexterity. There were multiple problems that needed a response. If Utoqa was taking damage again then that meant he had engaged in combat.

Noam (Mattmanfoo): Respawning

And he was successfully taking some out, but that meant they would only respawn where Noam was. Not to mention the Hearth Home, was it under attack as well?

Multiple problems to solve, Johnny missing, Utoqa surrounded, enemies respawning, the Hearth Home undefended. We were too spread out, and we could not mount an effective response against either problem.

Begin working down from the problems that can be ignored, at least for a while, the Hearth Home was a Church to Lorn and Gwaina, it should have divine protections of sorts similar to that of the Tilt Church, we have to rely on that to hold. Tai was still a distance away from where Utoqa last reported they were, I’m slower, but I am also closer to him.

“Wisps, spread out in a wide detection net around me,” I commanded them. “Celine, inform Tai of our location, and have her move in with me to the area around Utoqa. Johnny or Utoqa, whoever we find first we’ll support and then assist the other.”

“And me?” she asked even as she rapidly began sewing Utoqa’s wounds.

“Hide, continue long range support and communications.”

“Got it,” she replied as she moved away from me.

My final order went to Noam.

Dustin (HitZaDecs): Hold the Wayshard. Angry whale, crab cage.

“Easy for you to fucking say, you would do both far better than I would,” Noam murmured, though his mouth splitting into a wider and wider grin.

For he was surrounded.

All remaining citizens had fled, letting the city guard enter, a few Travelers were respawning behind him, proof of Utoqa’s work. Bless that extremely efficient gecko.

“I have a hostage!” Noam yelled, holding the broken edge of his hook swords to Yanis’ neck.

“Yanis is a Traveler!” one of the Travelers yelled, “He’ll be fine!”

The guard nodded, and began pushing in, drawing wands as they did so.

Noam tsked, and stabbed the rogue in the neck, killing him as he stood up.

He glanced at the two broken hood swords in his hands, “...I really fucking liked these you know?”

Without the slightest hesitation, he slammed the remaining blades into each other, hacking at each other until he had shortened the stumps. Leaving only the hilt and crescent guard, two crescent bladed knuckle dusters.

With his impromptu weapon, Noam shifted into a boxer’s stance, muttering to himself, “You’re Mattmanfoo, inventor of gun juggling and slayer of Vek’Na…”

Wands raised, the guards began firing stored magic at him.

“If you cannot beat a mere thirty enemies, what good are you for?” he insulted himself, and he exploded in magical fire.

Breathless, Beatbox Inspiration, and I’M LIT all activated consecutively. The world slowed, as a firebolt flew directly to his head, Noam simply reached out and backhanded it.

The heat of the firebolt paled in comparison to the fire burning him right now.

The guards paused.

Noam smiled, “You might want to call for more people.”

Avoid the crazy man on fire. Call for more backup, wait out his buffs, secure the Wayshard, all reasonable things to do.

But he cannot make it obvious that that was what he desired, so he rushed the Travelers closest to him, moving in a blur as a flame empowered fist decapitated him before anyone else could react.

“He’s a Traveler!” someone yelled, “We have to disable him!”

Call them all here, let Dustin and the rest of the Toys reposition. With Catch These Hands, I’m the distraction, bait and trap all in one.

Utoqa killed another Traveler.

He kept moving. In every environment, there was a way to Survive. Utoqa knew of crocodiles, large and placid things, slow and still until the hunt began. He had hunted and consumed swift furs, who hunted with massive bursts of speed, taking down a single prey before stopping to eat.

Utoqa could be neither, his enemies were many, and he had to hunt them all. In this battlefield, stillness was death. They had lost track of which was the real one between him and his duplicate. Both moved and struck with the same deadly efficiency, yet Utoqa could see his copy slowing as the barrage of attacks. Both were skilled enough to avoid truly lethal blows. Yet, the remainder, attacks small and glancing, ignored in favor of dodging far more lethal attacks, was wearing the repli-Utoqa down. Utoqa’s own wounds disappeared as quickly as they came, sown and Stitched.

That redoubled their focus on the duplicate, and consequently, lowered the focus on Utoqa. So he leapt, slamming down and cracking the tiles beneath him as he rushed and hacked at the soft and weak mages.

Defensive spells flew.

Blood stained the street.

Most of it dissipated into light, as Traveler bodies did, but as Utoqa began licking his lips, tasting the blood left, and Scavenging parts, he had claimed enough that some remained on the streets.

There wasn’t enough time to Scavenge something useful. Utoqa saw his copy die, apparently they didn’t have use of Survive, so a killing blow was a killing blow. So he simply began jamming and linking the bloodied guts and bodies of the mage Travelers together. There was mana there, but he didn’t have the time to find a specific spell amongst the mess.

So he simply set it all to explode.

The shower of gore bought him another precious moment as he began considering escape. Johnny was in the hands of his duplicate, the prey here was disorientated enough. The hunt had gone well, he had fulfilled his job.

The snapping of a string, Utoqa spun around, too slow, as he saw the crossbow bolt slam into his chest.

He smelt blood and poison as he ripped the bolt out and dodged to cover. His first duplicate was dead, now all attention was on him. Chains grappled him but Utoqa was fast as he severed them with Gift. A twitch of movement from behind, and he twisted out of the warhammer aiming for his head by mere centimeters. The third blow from below could not be stopped as it stabbed into his abdomen.

The rogue tried to retreat, but found she could not pull her dagger out of Utoqa. A single moment too long as he clawed at her, drawing five bloody lines on her face. At the same time, Gift rose behind him to parry the warhammer blow, sending it slamming into the ground. He twisted the tomahawk, and beheaded the man behind him as he rose and kicked the rogue in her stomach.

Utoqa’s body was weakening, but he had no option to address the poison other than Celine and relying on his constitution. As a second bolt flew, Utoqa slashed with Gift, cutting the projectile in two. More Travelers closing in.

They were shouting something, “....Overleveled… Area boss…” Neither term he understood, so he put them out of his mind as he dashed backward. He needed to retreat. He had two more uses of Survive, it had to be enough.

He ran.

Spells and projectiles flew behind him, but he could sense their coming, dodging them as if he had eyes on the back of his head. The more physically statted Traveler’s gave chase, creating distance from the spellcasters as they did so.

A fatal flaw.

Utoqa leapt on rooftops, disappearing into alleyways. The city was but a jungle of stone, and without a child slowing him down, none could track him as he vanished around a corner as easily as he would do in a tropical swamp.

Looping around until he reached the mages again, separated from their physical and melee fighters. He leapt from above, Gift raised and bisecting a man from head to crotch as he landed. Surprise, a few seconds of stillness as his prey began casting their slow spells.

Two bodies flew, their upper torsos completely removed from the rest of their body. An attack spell struck him, but with his tough hide and Celine’s support, he truly could ignore most low level spells thrown at him.

He heard the sliding of steel, as someone drew their sword.

Utoqa dodged out of the way, but his opponent wasn’t aiming for any vitals. His axe arm went flying, still gripping Gift. Celine reacted quickly, ethereal strings appearing and linking the severed halves.

She would not be fast enough, as Yone turned around and drew his sword again.

The Traveler swordsman appeared directly behind him, their backs almost touching as Utoqa’s head went flying.

“...You had a good run for being out-”

Yone’s sentence could not finish, as Utoqa Survived the beheading. A new head regenerating itself as soon as the last disappeared. The lizardfolk pivoted, freshly grown jaws clamped around Yone’s face like a vice. With a simple twist, he broke the Traveler’s neck.

Utoqa’s old head landed on the ground.

Another bolt stabbed into his back. Same as the last two, he could not sense where it was coming from. He raised the Traveler corpse like a shield just as Celine finished stitching his arm back together. Two more casters were around him, one was vainly trying to heal the corpse in his hand, the other-

-casted Fireball.

The flames engulfed all of them, a suicide attack, one that utterly devasted everything nearby.

Yet as the flames and heat cleared, the charred and ashen corpses cracked and disappeared into light. There was still a figure standing.

Burned, charred and covered in dozens of wounds, Utoqa Survived the fireball. He had spent all his uses of the Path, still he raised his weapons to meet the upcoming Travelers head on.

But the Travelers stopped in their steps.

Utoqa did not know fear, but he knew caution. He knew calculated and measured caution, and he knew caution programmed into the very bones of a creature. Both were rational things, and he saw the latter in the Travelers before him.

For they held caution. The same caution one may hold when they witness the brutality of a grown bear fighting for territory, the systematic gore as a vulture went about its meal.

There was a hunter here, and he was the one alone.

However caution masked one simple truth. Utoqa was spent, though his body may continue yet, he held only two Scavenged creations, a tongue and a finger. All uses of Survive had been spent, the next time he was killed, it would stick.

That was why, for the first time, Utoqa opened his jaws and growled. He howled like an animal, roaring as he flexed his body.

For the sin of the weak was appearing as such.

Then, a constant tapping sound came. The strikes of a staff on cobblestone. At that moment, something was thrown in the midst of the Travelers, a black, purplish mushroom.

Dustin had arrived first, and Purple exploded in Rot Spores.

I flooded the streets with poison spores.

Greenie directed my hand, together we created a cover and attack both as I stepped to Utoqa’s side.

“Start moving, I’ll cover you,” I told him.

The lizardfolk nodded. Practically naked as everything he wore had been blown off and destroyed. Utoqa was covered in numerous hastily stitched and healed wounds. How does he still stand?

Lime and Yellow climbed onto him, one mending his wounds and the other acting as a second pair of eyes.

“Find Johnny, you’re the only one with good enough tracking skills,” I yelled as he ran.

Utoqa held a thumbs up.

And I turned to take his enemies.

I remained outnumbered, and spent all my mana to create the cover. Purple had taken some of them out, and was now returning to me in its wisp form, unfortunately the lethality of Rot Spores meant their body was one use. I could not wait long enough for my mana to regenerate. The poison spores were already clearing, and the screams and coughs were being healed away by light.

Perhaps I was not as suited for this as Utoqa, for Utoqa had more instant kill options, while I killed slowly, slow enough for healers to undo my work.

Still I could not run.

Tapping my staff in a circle around me, I quickly grew a circle of blank Sporages, no spells. I didn’t have the mana for that. Leaving me at the center, I used my new skill for the first time.

“Fairy Circle.”

A ripple of power came as the circle of mushrooms lit up. Around me, various scenery flashed by in a single moment. I could link the area to Arcadia, the mental dimension I battled the Accumulation in, and surprisingly, Gaia, though that was a bit further. I sensed dozens more different planes, but those three were the ones I could recognise quickly enough. There was also a lag as the Circle connected to another plane, so I opted for the closest.

“Arcadia.”

Within my circle, the world turned strange as Arcadia overlapped with reality. Colours churned and writhed like living things, wisps seeped out of the cracks in the ground. Misty, almost ethereal fae creatures turned and stared at me from their plane.

“Step into my circle, and you die,” I lied. There was no such effect to my Fairy Circle, however the skill looked impressive enough.

It was a bad habit of gamers to associate special effects with skill strength.

A pause. I could not see my opponents, the secret I Kept was still the Scales, however I could see theirs stop before me, just as Greenie relayed the same information.

But the swap was coming, by keeping constant concentration even as I ran here, I finally swapped back to my True Sight eyes at that moment.

I finally saw past five meters.

And I completely froze.

Rotted body, covered in poison spores. Clothing appeared agrarian, though heavily degraded from my spells. Broken finger nails suggested they died clawing the wall in pain.

It was a civilian.

The wisps didn’t mention it of course, I didn’t teach any of them morality. Neither did Utoqa, he intellectually knew what human morality was though he didn’t understand it. Neither do those players, because it was just a dead NPC. I didn’t even register the screams, it was a common enough reaction to my spells.

But I just killed someone.

Utoqa followed the scent, tracking the second repli-Utoqa through the city. He acknowledged without a hint of pride that he was skilled. He almost couldn’t track the movements of himself and Johnny.

Yet, he grew increasingly cautious as on the trail, he smelt blood.

There, splayed across the wall, was the repli-Utoqa who had escorted Johnny, his body was ripped apart as if drawn and quartered by several horses.

Or perhaps, by something with many hands.

That moment spent examining the bloody mural was all the opportunity needed, as another crossbow bolt shot into him. Utoqa turned, directly ignoring the bolt sticking out of his back, finally sighting the sniper-

Utoqa fell to his knees as blood spurted out of his body. Lime kept trying to heal the wound, but there was something wrong with it, even though the bolt was stationary, the puncture hole just kept growing larger. And his body refused his commands.

The sniper landed deftly in front of him, just out of Utoqa’s range. “I finally hit you with my third shot…” the Traveler muttered.

“I can’t heal Utoqa!” Celine yelled through her dolls. Shaking Dustin out of his stupor.

“He’s been taken down,” she continued with urgency, “Dustin what do I do?”

Dustin opened my mouth to answer, but nothing came. I don’t know. Useless questions flashed across his mind. Could I have prevented civilian casualties? Curse my short sightedness! I shouldn’t have fought in a city. It was always too populated. How was Utoqa taken out?

It was Noam that answered.

“Tell Utoqa to repeat after me…”

As the sniper carefully closed in, crossbow trained on Utoqa, he muttered.

“...Fucking casuals you are, can’t even face me one on one…”

The Traveler paused, before typing in a chat room.

Mist: The lizard is a Traveler as well, do we take em?

The World: Fuck really!? Knock them out and take them. Make sure they don’t die. If he respawns we’re really fucked.

The World: Same meetup, we’re gonna try to knock out that tiefling as well…

“...Utoqa wasn’t killed,” Celine breathed a sigh of relief.

Dustin barely acknowledged that. Everyone dies, he thought. What about this is special?

The only difference is that you killed him, rather than the world, he accused himself.

But he had to keep on going, so he put away the body, threw it into a distant corner of his mind, before asking, “Status on Tai?”

“She’s found Johnny.”

“Good, tell them both to get out,” Dustin said.

“Noam is asking what he should do.”

He furrowed his brow, “Tell him to get caught, see if he’s locked up in the same place as Utoqa.”

Noam had kept the respawning Travelers off them, but that mission was now getting lower returns as their primary objectives were completed. Yellow and Lime were with Utoqa, with Celine’s doll that should be enough to track him down and save him, but Dustin needed Noam as an additional safety net. If the two weren’t locked together, then Noam was capable of killing himself to respawn.

Casting Misty Step, Dustin escaped the standoff, the Fairy Circle collapsing as he left.

Every muscle in Noam’s body screamed. Even though he needed no oxygen, he felt the desperate need to pant. His impromptu knuckle dusters were covered in blood, as was the entire square surrounding the Wayshard.

He still had Catch These Hands in reserve, and with it activated, he could turn the tides.

Instead, he let a blow to the head knock him out.