61 Chapter Sixty-One - Captain and Commander II (1/2)
”So, Captain Sama Rantha. You're a long way from Coralost, Sama,” Briggs noted, not unamused.
He'd swapped out his torn leather shirt for a simpler, embroidered vest that his mother's sister had made for him. It wasn't high QL, but the feelings behind it were much deeper, and it conveyed great status in the tribe. He'd been seated with the elder warriors when they sat in council, and he often represented the tribe with the dwarves.
”I'd say the same for the great Commander Briggs of Redshore. Just one more neo-demonic invasion to thwart, eh?” That oddly compelling toothed smile of hers had him shaking his head.
”Why are you keeping the Mask up?” he asked, glancing at the floating Disk next to them, which was still burning slightly. The sight of such naked magic was keeping his kinfolk away, which was probably for the best. The crazy killer girl's rep had come with the rangers who had arrived late to the fight, too, and everyone was sharing careful drinks and looks at the two of them.
”Hagsign covers half my face. People tend to react poorly, but it's buried under the active Tats, and the neck isn't as off-putting,” she replied crisply, and he nodded understanding. The Mask washed away before his eyes, and he looked over the blue-black mottled flesh, and the devastating blue eyes.
He had images of her biting on his shoulders, and firmly reminded himself that he was still too young for such things. The side of her mouth curled up.
”Those purple eyes of yours are gorgeous,” she told him, leaning in slightly. ”How does your tribe see them?”
He was rather embarrassed by her directness... and she was turning him on effortlessly. ”Uh, they thought it was a bad sign when I was born, evil eyes from ogre blood. They were very surprised when I turned out to be smart, rather than vicious.”
”Good!” she complimented him, offering a tunk of her cup of ice water, which he clinked automatically. Her Sword cooling it down made it very nice.
”How are you already at Ten?” he asked, a little aggrieved. ”I thought I was making pretty good progress. I killed my first ogre at four, and my first giant at seven. I thought I was doing pretty good!”
”Ehhhh.” The way her mouth on that side turned down made the Tat's whiskers exaggerate her frown. So cute! ”Well, you're leading the typical life of a tribal Ancient, you just had sentience when born, and knew what to do and where to put the Karma, right?”
”Pretty much.” He flexed his arms and chest, watched her delighted eyes follow the motion, not at all off-put by his body hair. He so wanted both of them to be ten years older about now...
”Wellllll, I found out that being a reborn soul destined to be a Hagchild is something right out of a horror flick.”
He blinked. ”What? Doesn't the Ritual of the Silver Queen take care of that?”
She nodded, but that side of her mouth was at a weird angle. ”Yeah… if you're the persona the Curse sets up. For the soul, well, it's only possible if the soul is refined away.”
Briggs felt his jaw dropping. ”What?”
”Hags can't have true children, it's an aspect of the Curse. Their children are extensions of their Curse, made to corrupt innocent souls. In my case, the annis Tusk Annie ate some poor fool after having sex with him, bore a Hagchild, and that Hagchild ate and replaced a week-old baby, before living out her life… and I was that baby.”
Briggs blinked, then blinked again. ”Holy Hell,” he murmured. ”And… it couldn't refine your soul. Instead of the Ritual cleansing it from without… you Nulled and broke out from within?” He watched her nod. ”Then… what of the persona? She…” He followed her eyes to Tremble floating there, watching and listening silently. ”Ah, she managed to transfer to your Soul, because of the Soulbind tie…”
”So I've been told,” Tremble said softly in her chiming voice. ”I don't have many memories of being human…”
”And you're being Ten is related to this?” Briggs asked, curious now.
”Mmm. It was like being caught in a video game, where I wasn't allowed to die, because if I did, the Curse died, too. So, the Curse was trying to wear me down, by pain and killing me over and over again until I couldn't take it anymore. I met it head-on, treating it as a game, and I leeched power off of it, growing my soul and tempering my psyche, as I was basically caught in Nightmare.”
Briggs was silent, picturing that. Being caught inside a video game and dying over and over would be a horrible, non-stop cycle of violence, pain, and ultimately dying futilely. Enduring until you were strong enough to break the cycle would take an awesome level of willpower and perseverance.
Which is exactly what a Null did. They endured and persevered.
”And you got enough Karma to make Ten from that? Damn, that Curse is strong…”
”It's hollow Karma. It's like I have it all, but I don't. The Curse was pervasive and continually sucking in the real stuff, but it's not like it had enough power to make me an F-Rank Ten, just like that. It had more then enough power to make me the equivalent of an Annis, but above and beyond that, I've got to earn that Karma all over again before I can try anything new.”
”So, the structure, filling in the meat.” He got it. ”Still, that's a lot more Karma then I've been exposed to,” he admitted. ”Although I've been killing stuff beyond my means, too…”
”That Hammer Grandmastery kick in at Five?”
”Yes, not too long ago, really. Adding Ranks in Hammer-using Skills to my damage with a hammer has been very useful…”
”The four Smiths, Miner, Sculptor, Lumberjack, Carpenter…?” she wondered aloud. He grinned and nodded. ”+40 damage, at least. You're just a monster, just like back home!”
”How about you? You're a Sword Grandmaster, too!…”
”Ah, I didn't get mine by building on Warsmith. Mine let me use any weapon-related Feat that could conceivably be used with a sword, with a Sword. So, I can Hew and Finish, for example.”
Briggs blinked, turning over those two Feats in his mind. Hew was a nice Feat for Axe-users, as it helped not waste damage while Cleaving. It was only limited by having a Cleave target, so useless against most bosses, and only if you killed something, so more a minion-clearing tool. Finish was just a way of making sure that something that fell down, didn't get back up. Basically, an anti-healing/regeneration Feat.
But if you could use them together, then…
”A crit once a round, whenever you kill something…” he murmured. The damage would splash to the next target, resulting in a huge opening blow, and if they were weak, probably another kill, and another Cleave instantly.
She flicked a finger at the piles of corpses, most of which had burned down to soft white ash by now, the mists hanging around long eaten by the ever-insatiable Land. ”I want to charge the little guy, then hit the boss,” she agreed cheerfully.
”Damn! But, what about your base damage?”
”Well, you took Warsmith's Class Feature to an extreme. I took Profound Artisan.”
He went dumpster diving through his memory again. ”Plus synergy bonus from a chosen Skill to your Focused Weapon damage?” he asked. It wasn't a bad bonus, but not a great one…
”Started with Mastersmith. Expanded it to every Skill that had a viable connection with any weapon through my Grandmastery. Earned a new Title for it, The Sage of Swords.”
”I, whoa… That… would eat a lot of Skill Points. But any and all applicable Skills, just start stacking the synergy bonuses… That could get really high, Sama…” He eyed her thoughtfully. ”Is that how you were such a badass in-game?”
”Twenty-plus appropriate Skills at ten Ranks.” His whistle was low and impressed. ”I've effectively got just over half that right now as the Karma fills in. It won't go as high as yours, I think, but it's got a lot more niche bonuses, like Stealth increasing SA damage.”
”Didn't know you had two Titles, impressive!” Titles weren't easy to come by.
That cunning smile rose again. ”I had three. Now, I've got four.”
”Three!” He blinked. ”And you earned another?” That was hard to believe!
”It's more an Achievement Feat, but because it has so many pre-reqs, it applies as a Title.”
”What was the third one from the game?”