NOVEL NEXT Chapter Thirty-Eight – Stepping into Six
Time for Nightmare...
Three more days to Impervious.
Nine days to Slot Drei for Shielding use. Two more days for Armory, another two days for Defiant/Giants, and we were in business.
Tremble now had 66 or so Hardness against damage, and was in no danger of being sundered by giants who weren’t using an anvil and hammer to try and break him. Accordingly, I could now use him as a Parry Shield against their weapons, and suddenly my tankiness in non-ambush combat spiked a lot.
The mobile Constructs in the start room went away. In their place were a dozen lovingly stuffed dolls, a rocking horse, and some wooden soldiers in family colors in the corner, standing guard.
The opening fight became a whole lot deadlier, as boneless lions, bears, tigers, wolves, dragons, and so on came for the fight, every bit as strong as their living counterparts, and fully capable of everything the real things were while not being restricted by unimportant things like a skeleton’s range of motion. None of them were smaller than a rhino, either!
Naturally, the nutcracker soldiers turned out to be golems, of wood, stone, and iron, respectively, and moving much faster than those things were supposed to.
The rocking horse was a magnificent black unicorn that could fence with its horn like a master duelist made of ebony wood, stepping free of the arcs of its rocker with a haughty air that being made of stained blackwood didn’t affect in the slightest.
Needless to say, my opening fight was now much more exciting than it had been for some time.
The spiders were replaced by bigger spiders… being ridden by black-skinned hatchet-faced goblin imps with bows and spears. Oh, and the spiders had iron cleavers on their front legs, too. Because, why not? What were physics and strength/mass ratios in a magical reality, let alone a Dream?
The mammoth-sized mother spider with a howdah of archers and a jeering goblin chieftain throwing poisoned javelins at me I could have done without, too.
Slinky the hell kitty became Slinkies, six of them being ridden by thornbyte faeries with endless amounts of throwing spikes to hurl my way.
Fido was advanced to Nessian Warhound and got himself a playmate, who happened to be an oversized Canian Warhound, and who also happened to look like a white poodle, doo and all. Spitting Hellrime, of course. The feral wolfkin riding the two of them were all about the claws and teeth, too. Still, their poodle doo’s were perfect when they trotted in to play.
This Cursed Dream, where did it find a dog groomer?!...
The rats were still there, but now they were cranial rats, a hivemind species with psychic mind-blasting powers, commanded by a two-headed version with basically unlimited mindblasts to ply. Telekinetic fun and mind-ripping for the funsies, it was.
Night-time changed, too.
Since the spectres, wraiths, and shadows were basically helpless against me now, they went away. They were replaced by fey bogeymen, four-legged predachi daemons, vampires, and Night Hunter werebats, all assassin-types trying very hard to ambush me from the shadows.
The ghosts were replaced by skeleton knights. The witchfires were relieved by Annis Hags. The banshees stuck around, except they started hurling necroic death-rays in imitation of the witchfires. Sisters hanging with, doncha’ know.
Oh, did I mention they all became Olympian? Sure I did. They all doubled in size, gained four to eight hit dice, size bonuses to damage and such, and had great fun with me.
Oh, and then there was that damn grimm. Only one a day for now, but it spawned sometime during the night, and could attack any time during it, usually when I was beset by other enemies and it could do the most damage.
It was a fey thing made for killing other fey, but it made a great sneak attacker for anything else, and it was endlessly opportunistic. Given how much the combat wore down my Soak despite my best efforts, it would never attack until I had been hacked down into my Health, and then it piled on as best it could, stealing quite a lot of kills from the others… until I began to lure it in by letting Health damage pop up, and then I murdered it with extreme prejudice.
I got very artistic when it came to killing grimm. Tremble also got very good at sensing their presence, as they threw out more raw Evil than most Fiends.
I got in a ton of combat experience, and that was no lie. Happily, there were no over-juiced spellcasters in these initial spawns; they were intended to wear me down and make it harder for me to leave the room.
The tactic worked. Without being able to get Tremble to a Neun Slot, I wouldn’t have any form of active healing, although Vampiric was still an option, heh. 40 healing points for Lesser Vampiric, another 100 points for standard Vampiric, being slowly worked in over eight days into Arsenal II, but only two days were required for the I.
It was not continuous healing, but it was better than nothing.
More endurance and healing, extending out that pool of Health and Soak that was my staying power.
The Slinkies were soon swapped out for Ironjaw Stalkers, a metal-eating bunch of Hellborn pseudo-cats from the rusting eternal battlefields of Acheron. Someone didn’t like my Sword getting stronger. Tremble sniggered and insulted them unendingly as they attempted to chomp on him, and for their trouble had their jaws sliced off. Their Barbed Devil handlers weren’t happy to see that, but they were even less happy when it happened to them and their thorny hides.
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But finally, the long list of Masteries I had to click over to /3 ended, and I hit Six.
Six was a Power Feat Level, a Power Mastery Level, and what followed would be a lot of hitting Four on my Secondary Classes. Some key Feats and Techniques had Melee/6’s Resolve II as a pre-req, too.
My Inherent Con bonus from Forsaken had maxed out at +5. Now the Wisdom bonus side kicked in, starting at +1.
Training Technique, Combat Genius: +1 to your numbers for Melee Trainings and Resolve, but couldn’t exceed the max by Class. Req Int 16, Wis 14, Combat Expertise, max Martial Lore, Weapon Focus in at least three weapons, Weapon Spec, and being a natural Weapon Talent wielder, and a Melee-centric Title. Between Levels 17-19, you had to choose to turn it into a +1 bonus for one of the three Focuses, not that most people would ever get there.
Yeah, how’s that for pre-reqs!
So, my Resolve was now +3, Armor and my Weapon Training +2.
Click that advance on Sword Mastery/2, to Increased Threat, and Specialization doubled it to Increased Critical. Coupled with Extraordinary Weapon Proficency, now a 20% threat range with a x4 critical damage modifier.
Combat Technique, Mitharn Technique. Served as Shield Focus, and started advancing me up the Shield Mastery pathways, allowing me to remove the dupes of that from my Inspiration. Gave access to Way of the Shield, Sword and Board, and Eternal Shield Masteries. More levers to click.
Bonus Combat Technique, Way of Water II, Lake and Stream. Now +4 to hit vs Armor and Natural Armor.
With one Level, my bonus To-Hit had increased by +5, my damage by +2.
My Waveskating Step improved with MAB and was now at +20, Fleet’s fast movement was at +15. I was scooting around at 75’ now, or basically about twice as fast as a good runner, with much better cornering than giants had... or should have had, sigh...
Resolve increasing to +3 meant two more Skill Points per Level, two more Class Skills, two more Primary Weapons (Hammer, Spear), and two more Vigor and Inspiration uses per day. I could Inspire for an additional two Feats, and my Vigor both cleared off more hostile conditions and I now healed the temporary damage left behind at a point per minute. Still not hugely impressive, because one minute of combat could easily take an hour of healing, but over the long term it would be quite impressive.
Alchemist and Gemcutter became Class Skills, so my Scout Cunning would apply to them. Extra Skill points brought them and Gearsmith to 6 Ranks, among the others I had locked in as my base at Five. Profound Artisan improved with the additional two Skills, to +26 damage for me.
My Fort Save went up by +2 (Weapon Training), my Will Save by +3 (Resolve), Reflex by +2 (Armor Training), and Dodge bonus by +1.
In addition, Health +1, Soak +22, and Null +3, to 74, 175, and 32, respectively. My cockroach-ness was growing...
Today was also the day I donned a broad crossbelt, with a sheathe on the back for Tremble, who could Morph down to dagger-size now. It was embroidered with threads made from giant sinews and ivory studs from giant teeth, and it gave me a Strength of 22, all my MAB of +6 could handle… but which meant I didn’t have to use Weapon Finesse anymore.
It also meant, combined with my Philosopher’s Might, I had an effective Might of 30… quadrupled by Giant Power. With an Impervious Weapon, just watch how I parried swords weighing more than I did now!
I was now working on a Warding Soulstone, an item that would basically gather what I was expending on Soulwarding and extend it to Mindwarding and Bodywarding. It was much cheaper than doing it straight as an Insight bonus, because it required the Feats and the Essence to function.
I also had new Bracers, reshaped by Tremble’s flames in Firephasing, and would be slowly improving them as giants coughed up dream gold or magic stuff for me. Adding in a Force Armor bonus would result in all sorts of good stuff… for me. They were going to find it a nightmare of their own.
My playmates today were going to have so much fun!
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I killed the Mother today.
This damn Dream. She was a Dream replica of the woman who was supposed to have been MY mother, and I was being forced to fight her and kill her repeatedly.
Her spells were only half successful now when Tremble was Guarding, and she couldn’t catch me in AoE’s then, either. Instead, she now patiently and impossibly Summoned in Olympian bears to block me, and assailed me with impossibly boosted Shards while I had to hack through the Summoned bears, then the lions she brought in behind them, then the Wall of Ice she used to seal off most of the corridor.
I hewed through the magic and dissolved my way through them all. I couldn’t slice spells out of the air yet, or she wouldn’t have had any chance at all against me. Still, she couldn’t stop me, and had to rely on the guards racing up from below to forestall me.
I didn’t let them, disengaging and charging her down along the length of the wall with Dragon Walk.
Tremble did a LOT of damage on the charge with Valor, but the problem is that I had to break her Buffs, including the Stoneskin effect that completely soaked five hits in normal circumstances. Pierce Magical Defenses took care of it, but it meant that I couldn’t just charge in and kill her instantly.
However, at Six my Null also expanded out from my skin if I let it, meaning she couldn’t Cast when I was hanging onto her face and hacking at her throat.
She had a copious amount of Health Qi. I kicked off her right into the face of one of the giants coming up to help her out, clearing the sword he wasn’t ready to use while I was putting bloody gashes in her face and throat, and he instead inherited Tremble in his eye, right to the damn hilt this time.
His head weighed more than I did, but the instant death did convulse him backwards as he tried to retreat. I rode him down as the giants all cried out, and then I charged her again.
I went up the wall again with Dragon Walk, and had no trouble reaching her throat as I came in from the unexpected angle. The Shards slammed into me and hurt like a bastard right through my sparkly effective Force Resistance, but couldn’t stop her from getting her throat opened wide.
There was a shout of shock and outrage behind her, and I got my first look at who should have been my dad. Blond hair and full mustache, military-style suit, complete with sash and medals and high cavalry boots. Probably something that made a big impression on the Curse, I guessed, because that simply wasn’t right for first thing in the morning, and it was the first time I’d seen him.
They were giving me no time to loot her, but I could at least grab that Wand. The noble Dad ignored his dying wife, since his primary purpose was like everyone else, killing me, and he went right to it.
So, I ran away from him, towards Guard Five, who was just coming up the stairs.
Guard Five had no luck at all. I bounced off the wall, sliding his sword along Tremble, and slowed his swing so that it drove into the wall behind me instead of cutting on through. Then I jumped past his shoulder, and half-severed his neck in passing. I hit the ground behind him as the Dad slammed him out of the way, shouting at me to stop.
In reply, I leapt fifteen feet into the air, landing easily on the guardrail, and zipped down the wood, sliding down it easily on my Waveskating Steps.
His hacking blow came a little late, but his hand grabbing and wrenching with inappropriate strength did not, ripping the handrail out of its spindles and trying to imbalance me as he twisted it.
I played log-rolling as I continued to descend, and then simply jumped away as I hit my ten-meter threshold of falling without a problem, doing a full layout somersault, hitting the ground in a skid and skate that actually curled away from the stairs and back under the balcony.
He jumped down from the stairs, completely ignoring the fact that weighing that much his ankles should shatter like twigs. Oh no, physics is waving from the coffee lounge, yessir, fake Dad giant trying to kill me. King Gravity does not rool in Dream...
But he was going to have some real problems now. Because I was really hard to hit, and this audience/ballroom ahead of me gave me lots of room to move.
It also gave a lot of room for about twenty richly dressed giants of both sexes to stand around in, who I impossibly didn’t see until I crossed the threshold of the place and skidded to a stop.
“Welp,” I managed to say, as all their heads turned around at the same moment and fixated on me.
“This is going to be exciting,” Tremble murmured as I chopped the Wand-staff in half, and he sucked it into his Hilt Chamber.
“That’s one word for it!” I grimaced, and turned around to see dream Dad charging toward me. Ignoring the sound of weapons and spells humming behind me, I ran for the edge of the door and cover before the world totally exploded around me.
“Did you see how much bling they have?!” Tremble crowed, as I slid under the corner of a cabinet, and the dishes within and the fine woodwork were hacked to bits by the Dad.
“I did!” Good Sword, well-trained, focusing on the important stuff! “I’ll snatch as I can, but it might be a little dicey!” I drew a three-inch deep cut across the back of the Dad’s hand; he swore and swiped at me, I did splits as I jumped over his arm and slashed across his midriff, opening a gash nearly six feet long as I tumbled by. His jacket was cut open, his sash was cut apart, and his shirt was hanging open, the white of it getting a little red now.
I have to admit I found the looks on their faces pretty funny as I parried and deflected the blades that weighed more than I did and were over twice as long as I was tall, and of course I glided about and moved with a speed and agility I’m sure the looming giants thought was rather disconcerting.
The amount of pressure I could withstand with Tremble was impressive. With my Philosopher’s Might, I was nearly as powerful as they were, if not so Mighty. I seemed to avoid their blows by millimeters, and when I hit, I hit with incredible force and accuracy.
If I charged them, it was often fatal.
They looked like a bunch of people trying to hit an extraordinarily evasive rat. Their blows weren’t hammering fast, but they were One Strikes, bringing with them incredible damage that would overwhelm all defenses if they hit, and they were both incredibly accurate and had overwhelming power behind them.
That I wasn’t dead yet was completely astonishing them. The fact I could last this long was astonishing me too, because a single solid hit evaporated a third or more of my Soak, and a crit would probably one-shot me.
But in the meantime, I was definitely doing the ducking and dodging thing, and the giants were hampered by their own size in dealing with me.
What took me down in the end was Casting. They could still burn very unfairly through my Null half the time, even in Guardian Mode, and eventually they managed to restrict my movements with enough Summons that I simply couldn’t avoid all the attacks coming in from different directions. I was cut apart, one hit blowing through all my Health and straight to death.
Meh.