Liberty and Death, Chapter 42
A familiar, piercing howl split the night the moment after the orb dropped into Cora’s hand. Like before, it wasn’t just one throat making it, it built, and built, and built, taken up by throat after twisted throat.
“That’ll be the Addicts wakin’ up then,” Iain said, voice casual, but quavering at the edges. “Time ter make tracks, ladies.”
The pocket dimension was still open, so Cora tried pushing the new orb through, but it wouldn't budge, hitting the blank air in front of the opening like a brick wall.
“Fuck!” she shouted, “I think it's this thing! Pulled it out of.. I don’t know, the fucking soul of the Matriarch or something, they started screaming right after.”
She’d already begun to run, falling into step behind Iain and Hawk, just trusting that Kyra was somewhere around. She didn’t have a great idea of how far they were from home. Not only did she not know the city, the mist, and the caution with which they’d moved, made distance seem both smaller and larger at once. As they raced down streets and alleys, she just had to trust that Iain knew the way.
Note to self: Figure out if there’s some way to get a map spliced into my Party Array.
One of the voices in the howl had grown close enough to become distinct. Cora knew there was at least one Shimmie the next street over, racing alongside them. She squinted into the alleys as they ran past, trying to catch a glimpse. When she finally did, her blood ran cold.
It seemed that either the Shimmies they’d fought before were small fry, or perhaps being daylight, outside the shimmer, weakened them. For all their toughness and strength, those things had been manageable. The house sized, twisted monstrosity that sprinted like an ape down the next street over did not seem manageable.
“Holy fucking shit!” Cora screamed, exerting a lot of her considerable willpower not to turn on the jets, and let her [Str] turn her strides into the great leaps her legs were capable of. “Is that what they usually are?”
“Oh” Iain said conversationally, taking a left down an alley, as the crashing to Cora’s right was overcome by a shriek, a skid, then began to grow closer behind them. “Perhaps not so very big as all that, depends how long they’ve been outside, soakin’ up the Shimmer, ye ken.”
“Are we gonna fucking make it home before that thing catches us!?” Cora yelled, realizing she didn’t actually care very much whether or not this thing was ‘normal’ for its species. Mutation?
Iain lazily looked over his shoulder. Credit to him, he almost stopped his eyes from bugging out of his head, the expression flashing over his face so fast you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d imagined it.
“Well, mayhap a bonny lass or a big beastie like ye two might, were ye to really let those legs loose. Mayhap a bonny lass or a big beastie might deign to carry an old soldier with bad knees?” His voice was becoming high and tight, the warning sign of oncoming panic.
All aboard the Casanova Choo-Choo, Cora thought, and grabbed Iain by the body armor, throwing him over her shoulder, and finally really getting her use out of the boosted [Str].
‘It’S SO much FUN tO RUn!!’
His weight was nothing, like a doll, and when she tried to see what her legs could do, she shot forward like a rocket. Hawk laughed as she dashed up beside her, booming along, each great stride leaving craters in the road, occasionally overshooting a turn, only to land on the wall, on all fours like a beast, scrabbling along it for purchase before rejoining Cora in flight.
“Left here, lass!” Iain ordered, and Luxholme came into view. It looked like it was in a separate dimension, the border between its outer walls and the shimmer visible over the Courtyard like a rainbow sheen of oil on the water of reality.
“Either of you have eyes on Kyra in the Party array!?” Cora asked, ready to piss herself in terror, as despite the speed of their flight, the booming sprint of the monster behind them hadn’t gotten any further away.
“I’m right here, Cora,” Kyra’s voice came from just behind her, where the sneaky bitch had probably been the whole goddamn time.
“Gah!” Cora yelled, “I mean, good! No time to waste! Over the wall!”
As they approached, Cora picked up as much speed as she could, then shot-put Iain over the wall, tensing her legs and jumping with all of her might to follow. She heard the old timer give a plaintive wail of protest, but, c’mon, he’d be fine, right? Even if he wasn’t, Jocasta had been instructed to wait up, {Verdant Heart} at the ready until the group got home.
Cora cleared the wall, barely, having to take an extra little kick off of the top of it to enter Luxholme. Immediately, a feeling of safety and security wrapped her like a warm blanket, and she knew the worst had passed.
‘Oh, misstress, I was worried about you! I felt you return awhile ago, but…. without yourself? I was very confused!’ Lux gushed, and Cora could feel her winds gusting about her like a fussy maid.
“Heh, yeah, I think I know why. We’re fine Lux,” Cora said, as Hawk slammed to the ground in a squat on one side of her, and Kyra flipped off the wall to land on the other. Iain groaned in a pile on the dirt, but all of his limbs appeared to be facing the right way, so really, he was just whining. Regardless, when Jocasta shuffled up, she hit him with the green glow anyway, and Iain scowled at Cora as he pulled himself to his feet.
“Ridin’ with the big one, next time, lass,” he growled, “ye’ve got bony shoulders, ‘n not a whit o’ respect fer yer elders.”
“You think she would be better?” Cora asked, jabbing a thumb at Hawk, who looked between them with a grin, bearing teeth that looked more and more at home on a wolf.
“Well… p’raps not, but least she’s an unknown quantity,” Iain admitted, scowling at them both before heading for the Armory with a frustrated “Bah!”
“Thanks for your help!” Cora called after him, “Talk to Mike for your engagement bonus!”
“Oh, shit,” Hawk said, with the blank stare that meant she was in her HUD, “that stat bonus you were talking about is working now. Fuckin’ niiiiiice! How’d you get such a big boost to… Damn! You’ve got your class!”
“Damn straight, and its a fuckin doozy. Still need to figure out a bunch of stuff, but right off the bat its making everyone here stronger. I’ll figure out how to do it outside, too, eventually,” Cora said with a shrug.
“Yeah…. Hey, I’m level 6, now, why didn’t I get a class?” The giantess asked, with a pout that was the closest thing to cute Cora had ever seen on Hawk’s face. Still, she had to sigh.
“Probably because you’re a Monster, Hawk, remember? Capital M. This stuff doesn’t work the same for you, I bet,” Cora said gently. Like always, emotions flew across Hawk’s face, unrestrained and naked, before falling on sadness for a moment, quickly covered by a mask of pride. “Right, forgot I’m literally better than human for a second. Can’t complain about that!”
“I got mine, though,” Kyra said, forming out of the ground behind Hawk in a silent surge of earth.
“Whoa! That kicks ass!” Cora exclaimed, “Can you like, actually teleport now?”
“Kind of? Basically I can shift into the earth and pop out of the ground behind somebody like this,” Kyra shrugged, trying to play it off like it wasn’t the coolest thing any of them could do.
“Awesome, Kyra, and very you. Just, uh, try to use this power for good, not to scare me, okay?” Cora begged.
“Mmmm, we’ll seeeee,” Kyra said, in the slightly musical voice she seemed to only use to tease Cora. “Still haven’t 100% decided those aren’t the same thing!”
She disappeared, and a moment later, Cora heard an “Ayagh!” from the direction Iain had headed.
Great, now we’ve got Tania and Kyra able to scare the bejeezus out of people.
Out of curiosity, Cora pulled up Kyra’s character sheet.
[Kyra Light][Level 5 Vengeful One (A)]
[Str:15+10(=D=]
[Dex:26+20(Voidblack Bodyglove)]
[End:5+5(Voidblack Bodyglove]
[Vit:4+5(Voidblack Bodyglove]
[Agi:20+20(Voidblack Bodyglove]
[Int:9]
[Will:17]
[Cha:8]
[Class Actives: {The Dirt You Created}]
[Class Passives: {Burn You Down}]
[Skills: {Knife Expertise},{Karambit Mastery I},{Silat Mastery I},{Stealth III},{Cleaning II},{Service II},{Service (sexual) II}, {Harvesting I}]
[Relationship Stats]
[Anger: 3/20]
[Devotion: 3/60]
[Affection: Confused]
[Cybernetics: Receiver Array<Cora Casanova>]
[Equipment: [Voidblack Bodyglove (II)]]
Cora let out a slow whistle. Not only had Kyra gotten some big ups in terms of stat points, that ‘teleportation’ skill was a doozy.
That passive though.... damn.
{Burn You Down}- Channel the burning rage inside into your strikes. Each landed blow stokes embers in the core of your enemy, dealing stacking fire damage that ignores armor (but not resistance)
Hell yeah. Strikes that burned your enemies from the inside out made it a hell of a lot less important for those strikes to kill them outright.