52 Chapter Fifty- Two – Let’s Go For a Walk on the Pier (1/2)

There were a lot of giants coming up off of that boat. There was no good way to kill all sixty-two of them. Once they entered the active area, they were searching for me, and the magic of the Curse made sure they would eventually find me. So, no real rest or recovery time.

That said, I was still faster then they were, and I didn't have any problems kiting them, leading them here and there, crashing through windows in either direction to open up distance between us, running up the outside walls to the roof or higher floor windows.

It was a long, drawn-out game, as they quickly tried to come up tactics to corner me, and I whittled them down. Their teamwork was unnaturally good, but they were up against me, and I wasn't any worse in figuring out the weaknesses in their tactics and hitting them hard from surprise.

Tremble slowly slid in Subtlety to the Slotless Enhancements on him. +4 to-hit and damage when Sneak Attack damage applied, which it basically always did, left me room for Defender to improve my AC and make me more unhittable, even with all their teamwork.

The only way to one-hit them was with a charge or braced against a charge, or getting that sweet crit on them, and even those didn't work on the officers and commanders, who had been Advanced and had Health Qi dumped on top of them.

The captain of that ship ended up with 500 Hit Points after all that damn Health Qi. He was basically a legendary monster that existed just to make it hard for me to kill him. I was still a damn Deep Seven, and could only shake my head and continue on with what I was doing. Him, his first mate, and the marine commander made a lethal team that I simply couldn't take head on, and had a damn hard time taking out sneakily.

Kind of fun in its own way, like a boss fight where the boss was controlled by a PK, 'cause these bastards were definitely not dumb and locked into simple tactics.

As the sailors killed me repeatedly, I noticed that the tactics of the spellcasters were changing. Direct attacks and Summons were becoming less and less common, simply because they were next to useless. The only kinds of spells that were viable were those that buffed their allies, and I could even cut those, if I wished. Direct spells were simply useless if had Guardian up at full strength now, and 75% of the time otherwise.

So, the number of Casters dropped off, and swift, strong, and often stealthy warriors took their place. My night-time fights began to get very interesting as the room began to shrink, and the first time the Grimm hit me in ambush, sent us through the window and outside, did surprise Tremble and I.

The horde of ghouls rising from under the flower gardens, and the flowers turning into animated poison-thorn vine-lashing, attar-clouding, seed-spitting horrors, well, it just moved the front yard fight that much more intense, doncha know.

I still hadn't made it to the second night, however.

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I pulled a yard of steel out of the captain's ear, riding him down as he toppled with a crash, his desperate and defiant expression frozen on his face.

And yeah, he actually had those curls, he wasn't wearing a wig.

I tore the hoop earring off his ear, it was larger than a bracelet, and certainly big enough to Burn.

I jumped off his shoulder as he hit the ground next to his first mate, who had just stopped twitching after the torrent of blood from his throat slowed down. I went sliding across the blood-slick grass, came to a stop.

”Uh…?” Tremble asked, as we both looked around. ”Is that all of them?”

”Yes, unless there's more on the ship.” I looked down the hill at the oversized two-master, shaking my head. ”Give me three of them.”

His pommelstone unscrewed, lifted aside with cantrip-level magic, and I caught the three slender vials stored within.

I could make four Potions a day, to a max of a goldweight in value, barring comps, and naturally in lieu of Burning something else. But the increased staying power was worth sacrificing a day or two, and especially if I could make it to the end of the sailors.

Three wouldn't even take care of the damage from one hit, but that was fine. My Battle Vigor was salvaging more Soak out of nothing, and I spent my last Vigor as I dumped the first sour, concentrated vial down my throat.

Flesh shredded by the passing of swords that weighed as much as I did first sealed, and then were settled by the Potions in passing, cleaning up what the Vigor could not. The Caster Level of any Potion I ingested was considered to be my own, and if it was a Healing effect, it healed additional damage equal to my Toughness bonus (currently +7), and was then doubled. Double that again by healing existing an equal amount of temporary damage, and then on top of that converting an additional amount to temporary damage, meant Potions were incredibly powerful for a Melee like me. It was just a shame that I could easily burn through everything I made every day.

Powered lived and died by their chi or mana reserves. I was much more direct, my only reserve was my Health and Soak. If I had them, I could fight. If I didn't, I was dead.

But I had finally made it past the sailors. I wasn't in great shape at all, but my Health was near topped, and I at least had a modicum of Soak.

I dropped the vials back into the Hiltspace, and Tremble sealed himself back up as I glided gently down the first slope to the next open space.

Motion to the sides caught my eye as I skated across the level area, and rolled my eyes.

Seriously, giant hornets?

They were as long as I was, buzzing like nobody's business as they swarmed and thrummed over towards me.

I put my foot down for the second time today, and the oversized bugs crashed rather awkwardly to the ground, bringing themselves and the winds they were kicking up down to earth.

A lot of buggy heads went flying, and I thanked the Curse happily as I drew out the poison from their stingers, sucked it down, and Poison Healing reacted energetically, sending waves of new vitality through me at the rate of 1-6 HP per dose. Given the thirty or so yellowjackets and multiple doses, I happily stocked up on extras as I raided their venom for contrarian healing supplies.

And if my heart rate and blood pressure topped 200 for an extended period of time, well, that's what a 35 Con allows you to laugh off.

”Wow, it's like the Curse sent us a bunch of healing just so we could see what's going on with the ship. Bet you it decides the hornets are a bad idea tomorrow.”

”No bets. It left in the vipers too long, but eventually realized you were treating the venom sacs as healing potions. And the scorpion was only one night, too, after you sucked its tail dry.”

”See, you're paying real attention.” I turned to survey the sky, making sure nothing was coming down out of the blue mist up there at me. ”Well, you ready to see what the water has in store for us?”

”Damn straight.” Battle Vigor on top of the poison healing and the easy kills also topped off my HP, which was definitely a good thing. I didn't have any more reserves then Potions I didn't want to spend… but you never know.

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I glided down the next slope, to the level stretch that ended in a built-up break wall and walkway along the river, some twenty feet above the water, leading down to the pier the ship was docked at.

More then two minutes had passed, so something out there had glommed on to me. It had to be in the water, because there was no movement on the ship, surprisingly enough. Then again, there wasn't anything that said the ship itself couldn't be a monster. An animated ship would take quite some work to take down, although I suppose it would burn pretty well.

Which actually wasn't all that bad an idea. As I came down the stairs towards the pier, Tremble shifted to Firephasing, and then we began peppering that ship with Banestars of fire, fwishfwishfwish, fast as I could twirl him and send them out into its hull, sails, masts, and cabins. Incredibly hot flames splashed over the dry wood and caught fire with great speed. They spread with unnatural, dream-like speed, and in a remarkably short period of time, the ship was on fire, the ropes that were lashing back and forth on their own were being eaten away.