222. The Hunter’s Stand (Part 1)
Travertine’s new status realized Serac’s worst fears. The man she’d known as her detective partner—rigid, awkward, but undoubtedly decent and caring at heart—had given himself fully to the contradictions inherent to all souls. And he, like a Tiryaga doctor before him, had allowed his baser natures to rewrite him in full.
Neither deer nor man, but an elevated and depraved fusion of both. Paradox Incarnate—and therefore a powerful Aberrant that needed smiting by a party of Wayfarers. Except… the leader of said party had yet to decide if she was up for the job.
[CROZIER Spell: SHEPHERD’S CALL]
Travertine saluted his Keeper by tapping his antlers and raising his weapon to the heavens. More ripples exploded through the Promontory, armed then detonated by a KL-95 Mriga’s golden aura. Serac shut one eye against the impact, even as she kept the other on…
In Paradox form, [Shepherd’s Call] served as a hunter’s warning shot. For one brief Ksana, golden shadows rose out of Travertine’s person, flashing the shapes of his familiars before fading into the aether. There was Little Doe DLEE, nimble legs and pretty antlers zooming across a lotus-white field with blinding speed. Then Big Stag ORD—grown to at least ten times his usual, already formidable size—filled one side of the dome with his bristling, muscular presence.
DLEE and ORD are here. Serac reckoned with the implications. Only they’ve been absorbed into Travertine to form a single entity—like Gladiolus with his DREAMPROWLER. The knowledge at once reassured and disturbed her anew. At any rate, it brought her no closer to squeezing the trigger from her side of the battle.
In the absence of cogent leadership, the Upheavers-minus-Serac acted on their own. And they, unlike Serac, all proved to be attack-minded, as they had every right to be. Zacko [Lance]-closed into an opening [Cestus], Renna [Fluxed] to bring herself within DREDGER range, and even Oriole [Tagged] his way into the fray with dagger glinting in gauntleted hand. But then…
[ORD Technique: STALWART BRACE]
Big Stag’s massive shadow reappeared in three sequential flashes, each of them antler-forward, each perfectly timed and angled to parry and rebuff the three incoming attacks. Zacko, Renna, and Oriole all bounced away from their respective points of impact, momentarily stunned. This was followed by…
[DLEE Technique: UNERRING DART]
More discrete shadows jumped out of Travertine’s body, in conjunction with ORD’s triple parry. Three shadows, to be exact, for three DLEEs: all doe-sized yet just as potent as her once physical self. She chased the attackers as they stood stunned by her partner, laying into them with deadly antlers of her own.
Zacko: [144!], Renna: [168!], Oriole: [193!]—varied damage according to their respective Primal mitigations. Unfortunately for Oriole in particular, the most underleveled Wayfarer was also the squishiest, already down a quarter of Health after just one hit.
ORD to maintain order, DLEE to lay down the law. Precise counterattacks built into perfect defense. All while the deerherd himself stood over it all, unbothered and safe from reprisal. For his deer and their golden apparitions hunted for him and him alone.
Serac’s trigger finger twitched again, but fell short of contracting altogether. She cursed herself. How? How could she still hesitate, when her opponent showed no qualms about harming her allies?
Yet the allies in question didn’t wait for her, each springing back into action as soon as they were able—even novice, squishy Oriole. They each had choice words for their chosen leader, speaking one after the other in a jumbled mess of moods and intents.
Zacko: “Sit this one out if you have to, Princess. If I can find a way to knock some sense into your boneheaded friend without smiting him outright, I’ll give it a go.”
Renna: “I can’t make the same promise.”
Oriole: “I won’t make the same promise!”
Sit this one out? The notion went so violently against Serac’s nature she could’ve shuddered in disgust. And she would’ve if the alternative didn’t horrify her more.
To smite Travertine in his Paradox state was to permanently kill her friend and detective partner. A loyal and long-serving protector of Dawnwick and a man Serac knew to be fundamentally good. It also meant letting DLEE and ORD perish right alongside him. Which, if anything, horrified her more.
This is just horrible all the way around. How did we end up like this? How did Trav climb the city of Twicereign just like us, see the same things we saw, Pass the same Rites we Passed… and come away believing something so different?
Time waited for no one, least of all a Wayfarer who’d lost her way. Even as Serac hesitated, the Upheavers-minus-one launched their second salvo. They made the necessary changes to their approach, the two veterans incorporating what they’d learned from the opening exchange, while the novice followed his nose to the most intuitive course of action.
It began, as it must, with Zacko donning his VISAGE, Buddha-side up. He then aimed [Steel of Refinement] straight at Renna. Blade-shaped waves of purple energy flew at the frog woman at speed, which she scooped up with DREDGER and redirected toward Travertine.
[Elemental Surge] was only as strong as the ripples it picked up. In this case, however, the intent was quantity rather than quality. The combination play split a NINEFOLD master’s single attack into a dozen and more instances of damage, inadvertently giving the CROZIER wielder a taste of his own medicine.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
[ORD Technique: STALWART BRACE]. Big Stag’s golden shadow made its return, picture of valor and diligence. It worked overtime to parry away every one of Zacko-Renna’s [Surge]-split [Blades]. With each impact, [DLEE Technique: UNERRING DART] flew out in rapid succession. Only for all the apparitions to ‘go to waste’, led astray by the offending projectiles’ random flight.
Into this confusion of purple, gold, and antlers flew one more shadow of a decidedly darker complexion. Oriole ere’Quinlan [Tagged] his way back into the mayhem, nose- rather than antler-first. He trusted in the wisdom of his far more experienced companions. He understood the limitations of all creatures that fought under Pathsight. And he seized the chance to make his own mark upon the very peak of Tidereign.
[Oathborn Technique: SHADOW STRIKE]
[289!]
The retractable dagger in Oriole’s gauntlet gave off a dark glint as it buried itself into Travertine’s chest. An exceedingly difficult technique to land, and Pathsight saw fit to reward it an intrinsic critical multiplier, irrespective of the state of the target’s Poise. If only the KL-17 Tiryaga had built up his Base Attack, his [Shadow Strike] might even have done respectable damage.
As it stood, it barely threatened Travertine’s HP pool (somewhere in the mid-3,000s, at a glance). It did, however, force the deerherd into his first active response. His face darkened anew with fresh wrath, as he swung his shepherd’s crook at the cat burglar before him. Oriole, quick as a shadow-cat, bounded away to safety, preserving his squishy self in the exchange.
Thus, the Upheavers-minus-one formed a triangle of sensible collaboration. Zacko and Renna to break down the boss’s defense. Oriole to pick his spots and chip away. Before long, they might even force open a bigger ‘window’ in which to finish the job altogether.
Have they cracked it already? Serac mused numbly. And where does that leave me?
But a KL-75 veteran such as her should’ve known better than to underestimate a fellow Wayfarer. Especially one so elevated and depraved by his baser natures.
As the Wayfaring party piled on the pressure, the boss’s grin only grew more savage, more deranged. He saw the triangle for what it was—supported first and foremost by Manusya and Yaksha pillars. Remove the foundation, however, and the only thing left would be…
Zacko’s Erudite aura flared anew. Renna gripped DREDGER with calm determination. But as the duo readied to test the boss’s defenses once more, Travertine went to them first. The deerherd held CROZIER aloft for all to see, its crook now gleaming with a circular pane of golden light—a mirror to shine upon the contradictions inherent to all souls.
[CROZIER Spell: HUNTER’S SIGHT]
The changes—the transformations—were instantaneous yet subtle. Zacko’s aura shifted in hue from Erudite-purple to Martial-red—this despite his mask still bearing [Dreamer Aspect]. Renna, on the other hand, appeared to shrink in on herself—her natural slouch ever more pronounced as she let DREDGER drop to the floor.
What? What just happened?
The transformations were instantaneous and subtle to the naked eye. In Pathsight, however, they were anything but. In fact, they were so drastic and so utterly beyond the realm of imagined possibilities that Serac had to see them to disbelieve them.
[Designation: ZACARIAS BORGES-JUVENTUS—the Spiderling Ghost]
[Aberrant Race: Paradox Incarnate]
[Designation: RENATE SANDVIK—the Finless]
[Aberrant Race: Paradox Incarnate]
A mirror to shine upon a soul’s contradictions, and in so doing, elevate and deprave in equal measure. Travertine’s new spell was only made possible by embodying his Paradox form, startling in its effect and terrifying in its implications. Just like Gladiolus’s veil-cutting SCALPEL before it, CROZIER now acted above the laws of its Realm of origin. And there was only one place such power could’ve come from.
Yet, before Serac could look to the heavens for retribution, she must first face her trials on earth. For her friends had turned Aberrant, forcibly and without warning. The results of which now came to bear—physical torment and mental anguish.
“Aarrgghh…!!”
Zacko let out an animalistic howl, one Serac never imagined him capable of. Even as the veins in his neck bulged, and as jets of ghost-red aura shot forth in all directions, he clawed at VISAGE until he drew blood, desperate to rip it off his person. It was no use. The mask—the cruelly laughing Buddha—was stuck to his face. The fusion between man and the demons that ever haunted his memories and stalked his hopes.
True to her nature, Renna’s suffering was quieter, though no less debilitating. The pink frog, fresh off her soul-searching triumphs just one Realm below, succumbed once more to a crisis of identity and purpose. She was Renna, Renate, a Sandvik, a Tyrsdatter, the Finless, the Friendless, the Reaper. She was all of those things and therefore none of them. And she dutifully dropped to the floor and shrank into nothing, only for the want of a hiding place.
Travertine stood over it all, a picture of calm exultation notwithstanding the madding angles of his grin. He now gave CROZIER a casual flick—a deerherd sending out his flock to hunt.
[ORD Technique: DOMINANT CHARGE]
[DLEE Technique: STEADFAST MARCH]
Big Stag’s big shadow ran across Zacko’s writhing figure, eliciting [268!] in damage while knocking him over. Little Doe’s forelimb combo pushed Renna deeper into the ground with every hit: [128!], [145!], [162!] -> [435!]. In both cases, the attacks shattered the Upheaver duo’s Poise on top of their already compromised Zen.
And that was when things finally fell into place for Serac. She just saw her companions’ Health bars chunk down in Aberrant form. If she did nothing, Zacko and Renna would be gone. Forever. And that, finally, was a simple enough concept for her feelings-addled mind to wrap around.
There was nothing for it. Before she could look to the heavens for retribution, she must first end this tragedy on earth. She gripped REVOLVER and fired a triple burst, a name and purpose assigned to every bullet.
The first was aimed at the deerherd’s center of mass, forcing ORD’s [Brace] to swoop down and DLEE’s [Dart] to shoot forth. The second locked in her target, as she spun away from [Dart] and slid under [Brace], to then emerge at Travertine’s feet. And the third—point blank to render moot all attempts at evasion…
[Chamber Three: YOUR NAME]
[Avowment Target: TRAVERTINE aft’NANKERVIS]
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