NOVEL NEXT AF Chapter 86 – The Ruby Hand of Death
-That sounds like assassin’s tools...- the Mick /noted slowly.
-The Ruby Hand techniques are and should be part of a warrior’s arsenal, for just this reason. They don’t work against a large number of creatures, but against others, it might be literally all we have to use,- the princess /said grimly. -Now, the whole shtick of assassins killing anyone they are pointed at for the proper amount of coin is something very different. Ryin, what do you have to work with?- she /asked firmly.
-I have True Casting to get past magic resistance, one spell at a time, and I have Emerald Shards of Paralysis.-
Kris’ breath hissed out. -Can they be paralyzed? Will the spell affect them? It’s only a II, right?-
-They’ve no immunity to paralysis in their Assay, and it’s not Hold Person, I actually have to hit them… but it’s a touch attack. They still get the save, but it’s a Shard, and it’s in my specialty.-
-What level of Save are you looking at?- Kris /asked pointedly.
-I’ve been looking for some alternate attack means once I realized how much Health some of these creatures have. So, I worked in Spell Focus for Good, Cold, and Evocation spells into my choices. They’re all on different lines, so they all stack.- Go, go, Paid Feats per day, go! -I’ll Raise it to a III. 10+3+9 Int +7 Spell Focus +2 Staff +2 Banespell is a 33.-
Kris barely managed to stifle a laugh. -And you’re a SIX?- she /breathed out in disbelief, while the Mick just listened and wondered, and realized something really deadly was brewing here.
-Optimizers gotta optimize, Your Highness. Dare I ask what your Fort Save is?-
-You’d never land that, but that’s beside the point. Damn! What are you figuring their Saves are?- Princess Kristie demanded in return.
-+20 minimum.-
-Those aren’t good odds, Ryin...- Basically, 60%, or less.
-Yes, but I’m a Shardcaster,- I /reminded her. -I get two Shards, even Emeralds.-
She was silent for a moment, before sighing. -My Ruby Hand save is going to be a 32 with Quaver.-
I said nothing. It meant she was a Master Assassin by any measure you wanted to use. She just had to study her opponent, find the weak point, and strike while they were unaware. Death Strike stuff was totally nasty that way.
Yet one more reason to get totally broken saving throw numbers, as it were!
-How do I help?- the Mick /interjected, not wanting to be left out.
-The paralysis effect of an Emerald Shard is Saved against every six seconds, lasting a maximum of six seconds a Caster Level. So if one lands, it could break free in seconds, or it might be tied up for a few breaths. During that time period, you chop off its damn head with extreme prejudice,- I /informed him blithely. -Under the magical system, a coup de grace is a Fortitude Save against the amount of damage applied, which is always a critical hit. Not even Kris would survive one against a weapon with Crushing Blow.-
-So, I sneak up, get close, and when one stiffens up and stops moving, I take off its head with Bunita. That sounds like an eminently reasonable and efficient way to prosecute the abrupt termination of our mutual enemies,- he /sniffed in a lofty professorial tone. - I goddamn like it! I have no pissing desire ta duel one of these bastards an' eat point-blank magic, even with a Healer around!-
-That might still happen, but between you and the Princess, there is nothing that is going to last very long in a fight, and with her Null up, spellcasting is going to be extremely hazardous to the thing,- was my /opinion, and they didn’t say I was wrong.
-I’m going to take out that damn pixie thing and then run for a line-of-sight break around the Mansion. I’m going to pass you as I do and get an Invisibility hand-off as I do. Then we see if they split up. If we can isolate one, for even a few seconds, we combo up and go for the kill. Then Invisibility the lot of us again, try to paralyze the remaining two, kill whatever is paralyzed, and then duel down the last one is the most likely scenario.- She set action to words, because her Null was already eroding away the Invisibility she was under, and she only had a few minutes left.
Totally enough to take out a loopy little fey shadow-maddened thing zipping around and randomly unloading on the environment, and now heading up for the Mansion to investigate a fun place with a lot of doors, walls, and broken windows to zip in and around and through.
We didn’t have any problem tracking her, since she was giving us her visual feed as she moved with predatory grace and speed, closing in on the oblivious thing with the silence of a raised Sound Bubble tight around her, and the smooth grace and poise of the Waveskating Step. She was only a ripple fluttering through the tough grass and scrub of the hilltop, and the casually flying shadow-maddened fey that was staying close to the ground had absolutely no idea she was closing in on it.
The shades behind didn’t seem to be moving too urgently, either, their light-devouring bodies unnaturally graceful since there was no muscle or skin or anything to contrast their motions. They were literally walking black pools in humanoid forms, only their burning eyes and occasional hot flashes of their mouths opening and whispering something in their sussurant language drawing attention, although the obvious leader was also clad in bloody red stylized breastplate and greaves, and the other male was holding a bow as tall as he was.
The Mick and I slid away from the Wagon, moving quietly and slowly to the sides of where the shades would be coming up on the front door of the Mansion, mindlessly following the trail up like most beings automatically would, path of least resistance and all.
Even the flying zefir was keeping to the path, completely ignorant of death coming upon it. It might be as tough as nails from a magical standpoint, but Death Attacks just didn’t care. Kris’ deadly focus was almost harrowing to feel, a murderous intensity and hyperanalytic state devoted to the simple task of the perfect moment, perfect time as she closed in, having no problems keeping up with its steady flight. It even helpfully paused at one point to unleash a blast of fire and knock off a section of the roof that was trying to hang on, laughing in piercingly high, inhuman manner as the tiles fell to the ground.
Quaver was solid Ruby as Kris came out of the Invisibility and in one sublime stroke, lopped off its head in midair. Its meep! of shock was actually totally muffled, but there was no denying the shades instantly spotted the flash of bloody red. Then Kris was off and running for the side of the Mansion I was pressed flat against, while the shades all burst into inhumanly fast motion after her.
She came around the corner, hit the hand I had held up, and was Invisible the instant she left their line of sight. Instead of continuing to run around the Mansion, she looped back out into their arc of view, Quaver already sheathed and any red light it emitted concealed.
I stayed flat against the wall, wringing my hand to get rid of the numbness from hitting a hag princess who felt like moving bronze. The shade in scarlet armor led the way, waving a crimson axe of rather unbalanced proportions like a toy, blood magic curdling around it. The female moving on a cloud of shadows was gliding at speed right behind him, no feet to trip or fall on anything, hands raised to pummel or to Cast, I couldn’t quite tell.
The archer came last, arrow swirling with dark magic in hand that he’d obviously conjured out of nowhere, plainly covering the other two, his long, ornate, and why was it spiked? bow ready in hand.
The Mick was up by the back corner. Bunita did not emit light, so he had her drawn and ready for a hip-snapping, shoulder-whipping crosscut as he crouched there, invisible.
The two melee specialist shades pounded around the side of the building, ready for a fight, didn’t see anything, and raced ahead. The archer, on the other hand, came to the corner and paused for just a moment, moving arrow to bow in perfect form to cover the other two and take a shot at any target who should just be on the far end of the mansion… or to turn around and come back, making ready to shoot her if she was circling around, which, having no target in sight, meant she’d somehow been fast enough to reach the far side of the ruined building already.
I spent the True Casting, and Divined transcendent insight into his magical resistance blossomed across my forebrain. Two crystalline green wedges of hard light appeared next to my hand as I whipped them up, and his head turned at the motion and light, halting in shock on seeing me right there, where he’d obviously run right past me.
Both Shards drove into his side before he could dodge them, and seemed to resonate for a second as the green glow spread over him. He stiffened into a perfect black statue.
The Mick’s long claymore came scything across as Kris slid in low and drove Quaver up and completely through whatever nexus of energy formed his heart. The Sound Bubble from Quaver ate any noise, and I watched the archer’s black head tumble free and clear.
Who got the kill didn’t matter, proper Fellowships with supplemental Marklinks shared Karma nicely between all parties, Karmic weight given to everyone who contributed, high or low. After all, even the novice standing guard allowed someone to focus fully on a fight, instead of having to watch their back…
Kris levered the shade over, whatever he weighed immaterial as she heaved him back out of line of sight of the other two still running away, just in case. The Mick darted past her and down the side of the Mansion towards me, grinning fiercely, followed by Kris.
I spent the Invisibility 10’r again, and all three of us vanished from sight. The two melees dashed down the side of the Mansion ahead of me, Kris in the lead, her tremblesense radiating from the Marklink and placing all of us perfectly as long as we stayed close.
I would become visible as soon as my Shards popped up, but not when I cast the True Casting. However, I could only focus on one of them, the other was more than likely to resist the Shard entirely…
-You and the Mick take out the female, we gang up on the guy with horrible taste in armor.-
It was an order. The Mick shifted position as I stayed back. She’d noticed, as I had, that the two Shards seemed to accumulate the paralytic charge. Maybe a +2 to the DC of the Save needed per extra Shard? Would make sense, and be hard to test if you weren’t a Shardcaster to begin with.
Whatever, it should mean a 90% chance of success if things didn’t go sideways.
The shades came around the side of the Mansion, back to the front, and slowed down when they saw nothing there. A sound like a burning wind rushing out rose, I recognized it as a call for the archer as the two burning-eyed blots of blackness looked around for an enemy, saw nothing, and wondered where the archer was who should have sniped her.
Of course, the weakling human could have ducked into the Mansion, and their eyes drifted that way after a few burning words in their corrupted speech. They glided forward urgently, either not caring about where the archer was or so focused on their prey they didn’t have any other thoughts in mind, and so happily had their backs turned when I popped up and let go.
At the same second, Kris charged, and the Mick leapt in, trusting to the magic going off and going for the head shot on the female.
Both Shards struck her, hard emerald light flashing over her and locking her instantly in place. I noted that her levitation effect actually had to be some form of physical locomotion, or she should have kept gliding along. The Mick knew and had already compensated for her stopping, and Bunita hissed across in a bright flash of steel, a spark of magic accenting as the Crushing Blow went off. The enhanced crit cut through whatever magical effects were boosting their Health, and he harvested her head.
Kris was layering everything. Ways, Spirited Charge, Valorous, One Strike, Power Attacks, Leap Attack: it was all coming in at the unwary walking inkspot as she came down on him.
I figured the hit she landed on him did north of 500 damage, before the Death Strike, and it was definitely a death strike, coming down on the side of his neck and plunging in deep as she slammed down onto his shoulders.
Didn’t kill him.
The Void Lord shade’s whispery shriek of agony only reached us because Kris could hear it. A full yard of golden-edged, Lost Light-enhanced adamantine was driven into his chest and impaling all the vitals anything human should have, and the sunuvabitch still lived.
Kris’ response was to kick her legs over, wrap them around his axe arm, and clench ferociously as she heaved at Quaver and made him scream in agony again.