Azure: Gunner

Baby Delvers ask me from time to time, ‘Papa Delver, where do monsters come from?’. My response is always the same – that’s a stupid fucking question. You want to know where monsters come from? Go to the fucking University and become a Scholar. A real Delver usually asks one question about any given monster – ‘how the fuck do I kill it?’. Sometimes, a Delver is smart enough to ask a follow up question – ‘how will it try to kill me?’. Those Delvers tend to live a bit longer, I’ve noticed.

- Delver’s Guild Handbook, Section 9.1 – “On the origin of monsters”

“Why does this one look like the head is cracked?” the dark-haired Knife Fighter asked, clearly not as impressed by the previous shot as I was.

I leaned closer, seeing what he meant. The broadhead looked like it had been assembled like a puzzle out of a dozen or more smaller pieces. There were small gaps between them that did look like cracks.

“It’s a fragmentation shot,” Hassan explained, taking it back. “There’s an explosive rune inside. When you’re ready to fire, you push mana into it.”

Suddenly the cracks started glowing from within, an ominous red as if the inside of the arrow had just been pulled out of a forge. Oh shit, that looks dangerous – I can’t wait to get something like that!

He drew this one a bit more than halfway, then released. The arrow streaked through the air, burying itself completely in the sphinx’s upper rear leg. There was a muffled crack and I saw the huge corpse twitch.

“The rune detonates after impact, fragmenting the arrowhead and shredding the target from the inside.”

We followed Hassan as he walked first up to the rock. Instead of trying to pull the arrow straight out, he deliberately yanked it sideways, breaking off the shaft a couple of inches behind the head, then slid the damaged arrow into his normal quiver. A moment later, he pulled it out, and it looked brand new.

“Hmm, it did work, though it used more mana than I expected.”

“It felt like mine used a lot of mana, but I didn’t know what to expect,” I told him.

“Well, let’s see about the frag. First, let me show you the effects.”

Hassan walked around the corpse to the far side. I stopped in shock halfway. The frag arrow had sunk into the monster just like a normal arrow – assuming it was normal for an arrow to slice through thick scales like butter. I wasn’t prepared for what I saw on the other side.

There was a section of scales missing that looked to be as big around as my torso, maybe bigger. Everything that had been behind those scales was now, well, outside the monster – splattered over the ground and decorating some nearby rocks. The sphinx’s blood was dark red, almost black, in the bright morning light.

“Wasted hells,” I breathed, trying to control my stomach. I had to turn away for a moment, before I gathered myself and carefully walked to where Hassan was standing, making sure not to step on any bits of the monster. From this angle, I could see into the body, not that I wanted to.

“Dead gods,” Raylan added, and I looked at him in surprise. That curse would have earned me a whupping from Sister Mercy – even though the Church taught that the System killed God, it was considered a sin to demean His death with a curse.

Hah, I can start using that one now that Hazel’s not around! I almost blurted it out right there, eager to rebel against her rules, but Raylan continued talking.

“How am I supposed to compete with that?” he asked despondently.

“With about thirty Levels,” Hassan answered in an amused tone. “You can get throwing knives with the same type of enchantment, after all.”

“Maybe the System will give you some soon!” I added, trying to cheer him up. “And I bet you would have won the training today, if Hassan had let you use Quick Step.”

“I was going to have you try that,” Hassan agreed. “Now, let’s get back to our experiment.”

Ten minutes later, we’d reached some conclusions.

“So,” I said slowly, “it seems that you can’t restore an arrow made by a person even if it’s in near-perfect condition. On the other hand, if it came from the System, you can, if it’s not totally destroyed. And it takes more mana compared to restoring a conjured arrow.”

“There’s one other important thing to note. Use Inspect on your restored shell,” Hassan ordered.