Azure: Gunner

“All right all right, I hope y’all are awake now! Pay attention my friends, because today I have a very special guest for you! The one, THE ONLY officially known Tier-fucking-SIX in LA, the Guild-fucking-master of the Delver’s Guild, TWO-STEP! Say hello to Lost Angels, Two-step!”

“Hello Lost Angels! Thanks for having me on the show, Demophon. I hope you know I’m a huge fan.”

“Incredible! Folks, this is clearly a man of great power and great taste! Now, let’s start off with a real softball of a question, just to get things rolling. How did you get a wicked name like Two-step? I’m dying to know!”

“Funny you should ask that, my man. You see, back when I was just a young Tier 1 whippersnapper, I once cut a guy’s throat so cleanly he took two steps before he realized what had happened to him, and my teammates started calling me Two-step. Of course, that was almost fifty Levels ago, I’m much better at it now, I promise.”

(prolonged silence)

“THAT IS FUCKING AWESOME!”

- DJ Demophon Kerner, with guest Two-step on K-RAD LA, April 2nd, System Year 453

The afternoon sun was uncomfortably intense, especially in my dark armor and baselayer. Downing some water from my canteen helped, but I was still sweating as we walked. I looked back at Vale and Block in their heavy plate.

“How can you handle the heat wearing all that metal?”

“Eh, it’s not so bad when you get enough Endurance, Skills, and the right armor mod,” Block answered. He and Elin had moved up and were now walking in a group with Vale.

Beyond them I could see the town walls getting smaller as we got further away, and I realized with a start that I was further outside the town than I could ever remember being. My parents’ farm had possibly been further still, but I had only hazy memories of it and didn’t even know which side of town it had been on.

It doesn’t feel real, leaving like this. I mean, just walking out the gate and into a new life… I guess I was always scared that Sunland wouldn’t let me go, and now that I’m actually here… I shivered for a moment, despite the heat. This place shaped me, but I won’t let it define me! I’m on my own path now!

I smiled and looked over at Raylan. “You going to share anything about your Class, Raylan?”

“My Class is Knife Fighter.” He gestured dramatically and a pair of knives appeared, one in each hand, before vanishing just as quickly. “So far, I’ve got Quick Step and Swift Cuts, which gives me a passive bonus to my attack speed when using short, bladed weapons. I’m good up close, obviously, though I have a shortbow in my Inventory for emergencies. Unlike you though, I can’t conjure up more ammunition, so I’ve got a limited number of shots.”

“Well, between my gun and Zaire’s spikes, hopefully you won’t need it. How about Elin?” I turned around and started walking backwards. “What can you do?”

What she seemed to be best at was being angry at me for no reason I knew of, it seemed. Her glare was fierce, but she had to realize the question was perfectly reasonable because she eventually replied.

“I’m a Healer, though I… can’t actually heal anyone yet. As I’m sure you already know, healing Classes get an offensive option as their first Skill so we can fight in the Tutorial. My primary rune is Pain, and I can cast Pain Bolt using my scepter. Like Zaire, I can switch the modifier in it for another, so I’m working on Touch next. Once I get to Level 3, I’m supposed to get a healing rune.”

That was… interesting, and vicious-sounding. I hadn’t known that Pain was a rune at all, and a Pain Bolt sounded nasty. Probably effective. I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of having to trust her to watch my back in a fight, but I couldn’t do anything about it. Surely they wouldn’t make us stay in a Squad together for all of our training, right?

“I’m glad you’re taking an interest in your fellow recruit’s Skills, Az. You’ll get a much closer look at them once we’ve stopped for the day and can get a little bit of light training in,” Mason added.

I had a feeling his idea of light training wasn’t going to be a lot of fun. Sighing, I turned back to face the front and looked around me at the farms we were walking by. The first farms we’d passed, those closest to the city gates, had been visibly greener. Most of them either had a Water Mage in the family or were rich enough to employ one to help irrigate their fields. We’d passed that first ring of farms already and the hard-packed dirt and gravel road was now running between rows of cactus.

The widely spaced, towering yucca plants – they were considerably taller than even Mason – were as far as I knew, the easiest thing you could grow in the hot, dry weather. They didn’t need much water, which made them cheap, and so we ate a lot of them in town. I had no idea who’d figured out you could eat the things.

Their leaves were razor sharp and if the plant was injured, it would randomly shoot out deadly spike-leaves in all directions. Farmers obviously had some way of dealing with that, but I didn’t know how. The dangerous crops probably also helped keep their farms safe from monsters. At least any monsters dumb enough to try and eat something that looked so unappetizing.

We’d walked a while further when a faint clinking sound from my pouch reminded me that I had mods to use! I decided to start with the dregs and work my way up. I pulled the first one out of my pouch and touched it to my armor. Even after attuning it, it was still a dull and lifeless blue compared to the ones I’d used in the Tutorial.

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