32 Chapter Thirty-Two - Courtier of Death (1/2)
Pure reflex, I put my hand up to my head, making sure it was still attached.
”Ugh, wasn't that a big change.”
I injected Soul Essence into Tremble, and he lit up.
”From incorporeal killer singers to tree-sized maids and guards. Wow. Everyone raise their quillons to indicate who saw that coming?” he quipped, a bit irked. ”Did you see the size of that sword? It was over twelve feet long and almost a foot wide!”
”Yeah, I got a real close look at it,” I groused at him as I sat up.
”They must hit real hard. What are the numbers?” Tremble asked. He found it weird how I reduced it all to numbers, but then he saw the numbers interacting with our real life, and realized that in a weird-ass magical universe, just like himself, what those numbers represented were real and tangible things. When I was able to perfectly predict what Naming Karma and power comp enhancements could actually do, he became very curious about them.
”The broomstick is something like 4-24 +11. The saber is 4-32 +12 or 13. But I think he pulled off a One Strike with it, so more like 12-96. No, wait, they are overgeared on strength, able to wield larger or Heavy weapons. So, 6-36 and 6-48, tripled to 18-144 with a Greater One Strike.”
”Ugh. The To-hit?”
”For the maid? Something like +27. The guard was probably +30 to +32. Stronger, masterwork saber, Weapon Focus…”
”Ugh.” My Sword was silent for long minutes as he did the math. Two month's worth of investment had raised his Intellect significantly, and he had his own Skill Points that came with it, as an Item Familiar. He had invested a lot into Song, but a point in Math meant he was totally capable of handling basic mathematics. Of course, now that he had his Primary powers, he was capable of using up to four Cantrips, as often as he liked. His favorite and mine was the illusion one, which displayed two-dimensional, flat-screen holos.
”So, what are we looking at?” He flicked up holos of the two giants for us to ponder over, with the two of us in scale, barely reaching their knees.
”Well, sizewise, they are equal to cloud giants, sitting at seven to eight meters tall. That's a Strength score of 33 or 35 base, they have a Resist All damage reduction that applies to all attack forms and energy types, equal to their strength bonus. So, DR 11/- to 13 or 14/-.” Those Stats flicked up. ”Natural Armor 12 or so, Dex bonus usually around +1, plus whatever armor… hers probably counts as +2, due to thickness of the cloth, he's wearing breastplate and greaves, so +5 there.”
”So, 25 to 30.” Tremble didn't have a face, or it would have been pretty long at this point. ”I've got no Bane, there's no Foe Hunter, which means relying on Bardsong for the morale bonus, and none of the stuff for killing undead stacks on. The Damage Reduction is going to be significant, since your Penetration is only at 4…”
”Yeah, these are high-end giants. Sixteen hit dice, Con bonus defaults to +6 or so, so almost two hundred Health. Reach is tremendous, of course, their arms are longer than we are together. And, of course, they hit like trucks.”
”They have To Hit equal to their Hit Dice?” Tremble protested. That was a huge advantage!
”Yeah, Giants are hard-wired for combat. They are natural One-Strikers, too, so the damage they do is always huge even if they do single attacks. Most have Cleave or something, so overkill spills onto a neighboring target. Their reaction time might not be as fast as mine, but you saw that they move incredibly fast once they get in motion, proportionate to a human of the same size. So, four times the potential speed of motion. I'm not sure real Jotuns move this fast, but the Curse is obviously playing games on us. I won't be able to outrun them.”
”So, what's the plan of attack? You need an AC of 40 to dodge half their attacks!” Tremble could clearly see the gaping hole in our defenses viz these guys, and didn't know how to address it. Defender simply wasn't a big enough bonus.
”Titan Slaying Defensive Technique,” I told him.
”Ohhhhhh,” he drew it out, unable to hide his glee. ”I see this is a problem encountered by others before.”
Feats were gained by practice from teachers, or by Karma from the Human Akasha. The latter required you to know what you were looking for, at the very least.
”Supposedly dwarves and gnomes excel at killing giants, they are martial races that enjoy killing things bigger then they are. They all gain a +4 Dodge bonus against giant-kind from racial martial training, which they sometimes retask against orcs, kobolds, or goblins.”
”Uh… but you can't access the Akasha of another race, right?”
”Right, but it's a training technique, not much different from a Feat, and completely trainable. Only, the benefits aren't the same, since half the Feat's emphasis relies on exploiting the smaller size of the combatants.”
”You're being coyly mysterious again. What's it do?”
”It increases your Dodge Feat by a multiplier of how much bigger the Giant is then you.”
”Oh, oh! So, size Large would be twice as big, and Huge would be three times!” Tremble exclaimed in glee.
”And?”
”Uh, the Dodge Feat is only +1…” I made an 'and?' motion. ”Except if you're a Melee, its increased by your Armor Training, to +2 right now. So… wouldn't that mean you get +6?” It was equal to the ability it was derived from, then!
”What other Feat do I have that is equal to the Dodge Feat for all purposes?”
”Uh…” Tremble hastily brought up the listing that I had made for him, in essence a Stat sheet for him to look over. After all, we didn't have access to an Assay, so this guesswork was the best we could do. ”Ooooooo, Elusive Soul. And you can juice it to +3 now…tripled to +9…”
A +6 bonus to AC from one Feat was pretty substantial. Well, two Feats, and three Essence…
”There's also Favored Enemy Dodge, which adds your Slayer bonus as a Dodge bonus. Unfortunately, no FE bonus right now…”
Giants didn't care about my Vajra, unlike all the special tricks of the undead. It was straight-up damage grind, all about attacks, hitting, damage, and damage reduction.
If they'd've been hill giants, stone giants, or ogres, this totally would have been no problem. But they had to go all the way to cloud giants! Mitharinnabucket.
At least four to five hits to kill. If they had Warrior levels, add another hit per three levels.
That was still within range of a good charge attack. I just had to reach them, not getting swatted down thirty feet away, or something.
So, full investments in Expert Soul and Reckless Soul. +Essence to Expertise AC bonus, and +Ess TH/Dmg when charging. The extra bonus to-hit should make up for losing Bane, and since it would be my main killing strike, totally reasonable as an investment.
My AC was +4 from Int, +5 Dex, +3 Wis, +1 for no-armor fighter, +1 for Natural Swordsman Talent, +Expertise of +3 now, +1 Nat AC, +2 Dodge, +3 Elusive Soul, for +23, or AC 33, beyond the feasible threat range of anything but the Banshees, especially with Ghost-Scarred and Defensive Fighting able to raise that to 37.
Titan Slaying DT would get me to 39. If I kept moving, Elusive Dodge would get me to 41 with its +2. Shielded Parry would give me +2 Shield AC while using a weapon two-handed. As my Sword was my Shield via Grand Mastery, Shield Focus and Greater Shield Focus would raise that to +4.
Shield Ward would apply it against touch attacks… if Ghost Strike already didn't, for the undead. Mmm. Those Banshees were screwed.
AC 45. Defensive Fighting would mean taking a -4 to hit for +3 to AC, so AC 49.
49 would mean the warrior giant would need a 17 to hit me, and the maid would need a nat 20.
It would have to do for now. I wasn't sure I could implement it all, and it would vary wildly depending on the situation, but I could only do what I could do.
”Tremble, we're going to have to change some things on your advance schema.”
”I kind of expected that with giants here,” my Sword sighed knowingly. ”Damn, Arsenal III is getting further and further away every day…”
”I know it.” There was a hugely key +III Enhancement I wanted, Wrathful Healing. Hit something, do d8 positive force damage, doubled against undead, and heal a d8 in damage. It was only Health healing, not Soak, but still, it meant I could basically fight forever if I didn't take an overwhelming hit.
It had a counterpart, Invigorating, a +II that could wipe fatigue or exhaustion on killing a foe. Between the two of them, I could be an untiring, relentless killing machine, healing as I fought, slowly but surely.
To get the combo, I'd need to get Tremble to Neun. I was at 72 of the 162 deaths I needed to get that far, and now I was pushing those three months of dying off further. Except, of course, that Slot Neun was impossible unless I got my hands on some exotic metals to alloy him with, and forged a new home for him from scratch. I would be limited to Sieben to work with, no +Drei Enhancements on call for now…
”We need to up your Shield Enhancement.”
”Really?” Tremble was shocked despite himself.
”Yes. Shielded Parry lets you give me a +2 Shield AC when you are wielded two-handed and used defensively. My Grandmastery means my Sword is my Shield. Ergo, if you take a Defensive Enhancement, it'll apply. It's wasteful, but since I don't see a Shield falling into my hands anytime soon, we need it. If needed, we can always transfer your Defensive Slots to the Shield, and you'll have a little brother.”
”Okay. Just like Weapon Slots?”
”No, Defensive Slots are half as expensive.”
”Half?!” Tremble protested. ”How unfair!”
”Blame the gods, not me. But it does mean that you'll get to Drei in only nine days. Soulbound, Greater Soulbound, and Defiant, with Warding in one day after that, if desired.”
”Ooooo… +6 to AC. That's another huge leap!” he realized.
”Yes, and exactly what we need at this point. However, it comes with a cost. We also have to make you Impervious now, and possibly Indestructible later. One chop from a Giant Sword, and you might be broken.” And I didn't have the tools to put him together again.
Tremble was silent only a moment. ”That sounds like a very important thing to do!” he finally spoke up.
”Yes. Another thing we have to do, and that will be first, is making you a Hilt Chamber.”
”A hollow hilt? Why? What have we got to put inside it?”
”Well, in the future it becomes the basis for a Wand Chamber, and in the meantime, we can use it as a compressed space area, for storing stuff… and keeping it with us inside of you.”
”Oh!” There was a pause. ”Ohhhhhh…” He realized the deeper implications. ”Like, ah, what?” he had to ask.
”The maid was wearing a gold ring on her finger, and a silver necklace at her throat, as well as silver earrings. The guard was also wearing a ring and necklace of gold, as well as a belt buckle.”
”Goldweight!” he hissed out in understanding. The fact that the Curse didn't understand that faithfully replicating bling gave me access to goldweight I could use to upgrade stuff was something I wasn't going to tell it.