Broken Lands

Notii stared at the nonfunctional clockworks. It looked exactly like a scene he’d seen any number of times before, one that was easy to explain: Lith’e’s vines exuded a pollen that weakened and, eventually, killed enemies while not affecting people Lith’e considered allies. It sounded impressive, but Lith’e had never been happy with the Ability. He wanted it to weaken the strong enemies that his team often had trouble with, not deal with the weak hordes that they could already handle.

Worse, in Lith’e’s mind, it wasn’t even a real answer to the hordes. Sure, it helped keep them from going over his vines, but it only worked close to the vines and a large enough horde would overwhelm it. Worse, once the monsters were away from the vines, they’d start to recover and many monsters could recover quickly enough to still be a threat.

There was one big problem with that theory, though. “Lith’e … have you managed to improve your pollen to work on things that don’t breathe?”

The woodpecker shook his head without taking his eyes off the field of death. “No. This is … it’s the right area, but I don’t think it’s the pollen that’s killing them. Not the pollen on its own.”

“What do you mean?” Notii was pretty sure Lith’e hadn’t picked up a new Ability that changed how his pollen worked. It was very difficult to add Abilities when you were third upgrade, but more to the point, Lith’e wouldn’t have picked something for his pollen if he had any other choices.

“I noticed it earlier. You know how Sophia’s Domain makes things that aren’t really alive easier to kill?” Lith’e paused for just long enough that Notii started to realize what he was getting at. “That’s not what it does, not exactly. It isn’t weakening the enemies; it’s boosting us. Same overall effect, different method. Which wouldn’t matter … except that it’s treating my pollen like an attack. Which means it works on anything that isn’t alive.”

“Things it normally doesn’t affect. And it wasn’t a big noticeable effect until now because we didn’t try to slow and trap the big monsters,” Notii followed up. He bit his tongue before he could add that that was the reason Lith’e’s pollen was usually useless.

“Right. Which means that Coben can probably kill them with Dry Breeze,” Lith’e added. “And if he can kill them faster than they stack up and keep the sacks from getting overwhelmed … the monsters have been dissipating once they’re dead long enough. So he doesn’t have to kill all of them …”

Dry Breeze was usually only immediately dangerous to flying fish and amphibians; most other creatures could tolerate the exceedingly dry air it created for a while. It wasn’t pleasant but it only killed slowly, like most of Coben’s Abilities. It was pointless against something without a need for water like the clockworks … but then again, so was Lith’e’s pollen. It was also relatively cheap, especially in an already dry environment like the one for this Event. “One more person who can kill groups means we can have more recovery time. Good idea. I’ll get him; can you pass along what we just learned to the others so they can adjust their Ability use?”

With that, they were never in any danger of being overrun by the clockworks, especially not after Lith’e converted the two lanes they originally left open into cul-de-sacs and added pollen-spewing vines in strips that didn’t block the way but made the environment hazardous in a couple of the routes. That was all he could manage and still expect to be useful in the final Fall.

Tellix managed to run out of mana two hours into the Fall. It wasn’t a surprise; his Abilities were not really compatible with long-term usage the way the clockworks required. If anything, he’d done well to stretch it that long. He usually didn’t do as well.

Notii had planned for it, and they’d have managed even without Sophia’s Domain. As it was, Notii kind of appreciated it because he was able to send him off to rest for the rest of the Fall without upsetting his friend. Normally, Tellix wanted to be disturbed when they needed him, even if he hadn’t recovered fully. This time, Tellix knew they could manage without him while he rested and he didn’t protest.

Despite their efficiency, it took just over an hour after the last meteor landed to kill all of the swarming clockworks. The Abilities that could kill quickly, like Tellix’s, were mana-hungry. The ones that killed efficiently were slower. With Lith’e’s lanes and cul-de-sacs, that was fine.

Notii reached out to see if any of the nearby Pillars needed help. No one did, which made it time to rest and recover, something that he suspected everyone was doing once their clockworks were dead.

The Fall didn’t end quickly. Instead, it lasted until exactly twenty-nine minutes were left on the timer, just low enough that the World Tree would let them have the remaining time between Falls as recovery time and not shorten it to fifteen minutes the way it had on the early Falls. Notii made a mental note of that time limit; while he’d known there was a standard time, he hadn’t remembered what it was. Half an hour as the breakpoint made sense, that was twice what it would be set to if it were reduced.

Exactly one Pillar fell during the seventh Fall. They were definitely back on track and ought to finish out the eighth, though Notii had no idea if they’d finish in time for the Bonus Round or not. He’d never seen a Meteor Pillars event with the full eight Bonus Rounds; normally, the last few rounds were a frantic struggle relieved when roving teams that had lost their Pillar came around to help.

The Falls didn’t have to get innately harder to stress everyone fighting; they just had to not give enough breaks. That was why everyone tried to finish before the next Fall even if they’d already failed that once and would get no more Bonus Rounds.

Notii made his way into the Flying Stars’ tent. It was larger on the inside than the outside and could clearly carry its own contents, which said that the Flying Stars were wealthy. That wasn’t a surprise at this point; everything pointed to them being the children of high-upgrade Called. How high, Notii wasn’t sure; technically, everything they had was appropriate for their upgrade, which was a little unusual but only meant that their parents believed that too much help in the form of gear meant the children wouldn’t learn to fight properly.

They clearly weren’t lacking in aurichalc, but the only things he’d seen that were clearly not third upgrade items were for comfort, not combat: Sophia’s pack and this tent. If he had the option of stuff like that, he’d use it too.

He wasn’t sure how large the pack was, but the “tent” had multiple rooms. From where he was, he could see a table and chairs, a food preparation area, and three other exits blocked by curtains. A tent this large was probably … fifth upgrade? Sixth? Notii wasn’t sure. If it was enchanted with anything else, it might be even higher. “Sophia? Dav? Ci’an? Xin’ri?”

“Urrgh?” One of the four answered. Notii thought it was Xin’ri, but he wasn’t sure. It came from behind the curtain to his right.

“It’s time to wake up! The next Fall is in…” He paused and checked the Event screen. “Twenty-three minutes! We’re going to need the four of you.”

“A’right,” a groan came from the curtain across the way from the exit. It sounded like Dav. “We’re moving. See you in … a bit. Don’t suppose you have breakfast?”

“Sorry,” Notii answered and turned to leave before they asked for anything else he wasn’t able to provide. “Hope you slept well, I’ll see you outside.”

The Flying Stars were ready in less time than he expected. Sophia even managed to pack up the tent before the Fall started, which made Notii even more convinced that it was a high upgrade artifact from somewhere wealthy enough to make things that weren’t purely functional. He knew stuff like that could be found sometimes in the Night Markets and more often on the higher branches, but a tent wasn’t something he’d ever thought about buying.

Maybe he should.

They all gathered to watch as the timer ticked down the last few minutes. Notii took the time to turn towards Sophia. “So, your Domain helps people kill things that aren’t alive even when you’re asleep.”

“I hoped it would help, but I wasn’t sure,” Sophia admitted. “It’s not like we ever fight while I’m asleep.”

Notii nodded and glanced at the Event screen again. The more he thought about it, the more this reminded him of working with Imatin. Imatin had an unusual Ability set; it didn’t have the same overall effect that Sophia’s did but it could have the same sort of impact on an Event. It was really too bad that he’d never done Meteor Pillars with Imatin. “I know your Domain is where the feathers are, but are you certain you aren’t helping beyond that? The Falls that were really easy for us are the ones where your Domain helped, well, other than the Jump Tossers. And … other than the Jump Tossers, this entire Event has been surprisingly easy.”

Sophia shook her head. “My Abilities only work inside my Domain.”

“You don’t have anything that can, say, spread across the Lifeweb?” It was a guess, but there weren’t many other reasons for the Event’s difficulty to line up so perfectly with what Sophia could help with. Her boost was powerful enough to make a difference, which meant that even half as much would be useful to groups that were riding the edge of keeping up, and that could be the difference between a win with hours to spare and losing a Pillar or having monsters that lasted past the four-hour mark. If it was enough to let some teams who should struggle keep up and other teams who should keep up dominate and help, it could completely change things.

There were very few Spheres that could push boosts widely across the Lifeweb and most of those had a significant downside. It sounded like Sophia’s biggest downside was that she had no control; she didn’t even know it was happening. There was also the requirement that the recipients had to bear feathers, but all Archons were winged and feathered wings were very, very common. That was probably enough.

Notii had worked with Lifeweb-range enhancement specialists in the past. Everyone had, really; they were fairly common in Events, but it was organized attempts at Branch Lords where you were almost guaranteed to find them. They were among the few who could enhance everyone, though most had severe time (or mana) limits that Sophia apparently didn’t. The one he knew the most about was Imatin, who always complained about how much mana everything cost but who could finely spread the mana she out or concentrate it on the people who needed a specific boost at any given time.

It was also all they could do, most of the time. It wasn’t an easy Ability to gain, from what Notii had heard; there was a reason most of them were Et’Unii. Only the Et’Unii had mastered the sequence of Spheres and Challenges that were required. It was entirely likely that it required a Challenge the Et’Unii controlled. Notii wasn’t certain that was true, because Imatin wasn’t Et’Unii and she always claimed she wasn’t taught by them and never went through any of their Challenges. Her mother was Et’Unii, which gave Notii a guess that maybe it wasn’t a Challenge that mattered. “You aren’t related to the Et’Unii, are you?”

“What? No,” Sophia rejected his guess with a violent shake of her head. “My Clan is Et’Tart. We’re Suras, not Archon.”

She paused and stared at a spot in front of her for a moment, then sighed. “You might be right, though. I have a Species Ability from my Suras heritage, Lifeweb Link. It doesn’t say my Domain extends across the link but … well, a lot of Abilities aren’t very specific. It says ‘To be Suras is to be linked to the life around you, especially to those of your kind. You have found that the Archons are your people just as the Suras are and you are connected to them through the Lifeweb.’”