I will admit that while theoretically Roland and the expeditionary Librarians should be able to handle a Distortion, I strongly suspect that Jamie isn't going to get handled "offscreen," and we really shouldn't assume this'll be the case.
I will admit that while theoretically Roland and the expeditionary Librarians should be able to handle a Distortion, I strongly suspect that Jamie isn't going to get handled "offscreen," and we really shouldn't assume this'll be the case.
Just because Jamie won't be handled offscreen due to payoffs, doesn't mean that Roland and Co won't be able to handle him and Tola. We have been jumping between POV characters a lot lately.
huh, the prophet is technically only endured to all damage, its just that you have to have ranged counter dice to damage them. I know turb's got some of those but i dont think on anyone we have with us so its a moot point. And well, to just about everyone else (besides like, silverash, who is also not here) the prophet is close enough to invincible
Scheduled vote count started by thenew on Aug 17, 2023 at 6:14 AM, finished with 33 posts and 11 votes.
[X] Plan: Scrambled Eggs
-[X] Warn everyone of Andoian's Arts and Adam's invincibility.
-[X] You and Arabella are the fastest combatants here. Quickly get into melee with Andoian and disarm him, literally, before he can shoot too much, and try to steal his gun.
--[X] Use chains and spears of light and blood to immobilize Andoian once he's disarmed.
-[X] Ayam and Linette should focus on keeping Adam busy. He's invincible, but you just need them to keep Adam from interfering with your beatdown on Andoian.
-[X] Once Andoian is down, have the party retreat towards Abel. Arabella takes point with you at the rear, always keeping an eye out for Andoian's bullets.
[X] Plan: Shedding Light
-[X] "What did you want with Hibiscus?"
-[X] Should Adam prove loquacious or unforthcoming, don't waste any time. Make your way to the center of the Arena and the Catastrophe causing Distortion as soon as possible, battling Adam and Andoain if they attempt to interfere
--[X] Sieghart managed to save one Distortion through a combination of intense violence, battle therapy, and his strange connection with the Light - with any luck, he can pull it off again.
[X] Plan: Do we have time to talk?
- [X] Ask Adam if he will stand in our way
- [X] Try to immobilize Andoian
- [X] Make a break for the area at the earliest opportunity
With the release of this chapter, I've decided to finally finish this! The final remaining members of Turbulence officially on Rhodes Island's side for mpw. Linette's a... special matter in terms of design. She's a tricky, hard to pin down. I still haven't settled on anything.
Ayam's gimmick might be a spoiler, but eh, you'd see it anyway next chapter. And Capone is a Lord Guard with his tentacles and crossbow solely for the purposes of getting thrown in the same class as Lappland and having to do training with her.
Though I do have an alt written. You might have seen it... somewhere.
An Interlude with the Operator files of some Turbulence operators might come soon, you know!
Tags: Support, Survival, DPS
"...I'm Ayam. Mother told me to come here. Is this what it means to have a job?"
Ayam, Tactician Vanguard, is a land-based lifeform and always was.
Hello? Goodbye.
Faction: ????, Seaborn, Bloodfiend Traits: This unit can designate one Tactical Point within attack range to call Reinforcements; ATK is increased to 150% when attacking enemies blocked by Reinforcements.
Self-Replication (Unlocked at E0)
Can summon a Newborn to assist in combat from a Tactical Point. The Newborn will automatically respawn 20s after being defeated. Both units heal 1% of Max. HP every second.
Self-Replication (Upgraded at E2)
Can summon a Newborn to assist in combat from a Tactical Point; The Newborn will automatically respawn 20s after being defeated. Both units heal 3% of Max. HP every second.
Sea-Fiendish (Unlocked at E2)
When this unit or its summon attacks an enemy, both heal 20 HP, twice if the enemy is bleeding.
Ayam and the Newborn release a projectile, dealing 130-220% of ATK as Physical damage each and inflicting stackable Bleed (40-70 Arts/damage sec over 10 secs)
Each Mastery increases ATK and Bleed by 10 and Mastery 1 and 3 increase DP gain by 1.
Newborn stops attacking, fully heals and enters a chrysalis for 5 seconds, generating 13-15 DP over this period.
After this, it becomes an Evolved Newborn, gaining +1-2 Block, 50-150% Max. HP, +30-90% ATK, +20-50 ASPD, inflicting stackable Bleed (10-30 Arts damage/sec for 15 secs) with every attack and attacking all blocked enemies.
Retreats the Evolved Newborn after the skill duration is over, while stunning Ayam for 15 seconds.
Each Mastery Rank increases DP gain by 1, HP gain by 25%, ASPD and ATK gain by 5 and Bleed by 10.
Operator Module: (TAC-Z) Tombstone Shard
Unlock Conditions:
Have at least 100% trust with Ayam
Raise Ayam to at least Elite 2 Level 40
Complete Ayam Module Missions
Module Missions:
Have Ayam or their summon heal 6.000 HP in a single mission,
Have Ayam inflict 400 Bleed damage/sec on a single target.
Trait updated: This unit can designate one Tactical Point within attack range to call Reinforcements; ATK is increased to 200% when attacking enemies blocked by Reinforcements."
Curiosity (Unlocked at E0)
When assigned to the Reception Room, clue research speed +40%, but self morale loss +0.3 per hour.
Endless Questions (Unlocked at E2)
When assigned to the Reception Room, whenever a clue board is filled, this Operator recovers 12 Morale.
Ayam's Token ("You")
A mask molded by Ayam under the moonlight, from… something. It resembles your own. It is horrifying, but there's an uncomfortable sense of morbid familiarity to it...
Diciassette - 5* Lord Guard
Tags: Support, Survival, DPS
"Right, right. Took ya time gettin' me cleared for combat operations, eh? I'm Operator Diciassette, from… the Turbulence Office. You can call me Capone. Nice to meetcha."
Diciassette, Lord Guard, offers his crossbow and his resilience to the team.
Weaponry manifested from one's mind… How curious.
Faction: ?????, Siracusa Traits:Can launch Ranged Attacks that deal 80% of normal ATK.
The Long Road Ahead (Unlocked at E0)
Redeployment time -30. Attack Interval decreases as this unit remains deployed (up to a maximum of -0.2 sec after 1 minute).
Heal 1.5% of Max. HP every second.
The Long Road Ahead (Upgraded at E2)
Redeployment time -35. Attack Interval decreases as this unit remains deployed (up to a maximum of -0.4 sec after 1 minute).
Deals 160-190% of ATK as Physical damage in the next attack, Binding the target for 1-2 seconds and Silencing them for 4-6 seconds.
Each Mastery rank increases damage by 20%. Bind/Silence duration increased by 0.5 second. Mastery 3 decreases SP cost by 1.
EGO Manifest (Offensive Recovery) (Manual Trigger) (25 seconds)
Initial SP: 0
SP Cost: 29
Attacks now deal an additional hit of Arts damage (affected by trait) and can hit targets equal to Block count. ASPD +10-40. Healing effects of Talent 2.0x-3.0x. Max HP triples.
Each Mastery Rank increases ASPD by 5, duration by 1 and Talent heal by 0.5x. At Mastery 3, HP quadruples.
Operator Module: (LOR-X) A New Oath
Unlock Conditions:
Have at least 100% trust with Diciassette
Raise Diciassette to at least Elite 2 Level 40
Complete Diciassette Module Missions
Module Missions:
Have Diciassette heal 100.000 HP.
Have Diciassette receive 15.000 damage over the course of a single operation.
New trait: Ranged attacks no longer deal reduced damage.
"Trade" Contacts (Unlocked at E0)
When assigned to a Trading Post, Efficiency -20%, but Order Limit +16.
Further "Negotiations" (Unlocked at E2)
When assigned to a Trading Post, likelihood of a 4-gold order increases (up to a maximum of 90% chance for a 4-gold order at +25 Order Limit) with every additional Order Limit added beyond the base.
Diciassette's Token (Sicilia's Letter)
A letter found in Operator Diciassette's quarters, left there by some unknown party. He didn't even bother reading it- that life was long beyond him.
Is this a hint that Ayam has really high potential with utilizing Mimicry? I mean, it makes sense, their primary character trait is the exact same as Nothing There's at the moment: the desire to be human. Well, I guess that due to Ayam wanting to be an individual, they'd actually have a better time syncing with NT's Abberation, Nobody Is.
Ayam seems fun. Reminds me a bit of a 5* Muelsyse; less gimmicky of course, but the core of a tactician vanguard with a summon thats just extremely annoying to kill is neat. Feels like an evolution (ha) of the old defensive dpos vanguards like courier and zima.
at s2m3 e2 max the summon has 9428 hp, 1043 atk, block 3, 0.9s tba (I think). Between the 3% healing, massive hp pool, and second talent, its pretty much guaranteed to live the entire skill duration unless under fire much heavier than a tactician vanguard should be taking, also the bleed at that point is stacking 60/s for 15s or +900 arts damage per attack which is actually quite strong, against a single target thats ~22 attacks which is a little under 20k arts damage on top of a nice amount of bonus physical dps.
Given that our current non-muelsyse tacticians are either whatever or CC based, having a 5* thats like this is neat.
--
Capone taking a page out of merchants with that talent; both wanting to be redeployed but also wanting to stay in a position for a while. Plus the regen which is actually a really nice way to compensate for the fact he's probably going to be the most recently deployed operator most of the time.
S1 seems like a pretty decent way of locking down a smaller lane, has a really nice damage bonus + bind and a cheap cost at m3 at every 5th attack. actually, at max stacks he has 0.9s tba and it binds for 3.5s, thats a solid 77% bind uptime and 100% silence uptime against a single target. it isnt quite as flexible as our girl lappland at silence but it does other things and probably shouldnt be as good at silence as her anyway.
Was initially unsure about s2 but it actually works kind of nicely with talent. defo more of a map knowledge tool than anything you can just slap wherever, but if theres a wave/boss coming with just a really annoying amount of damage that you can't block by just slapping a nian down and calling it a day, placing capone done early to charge it up and stack talent then popping it once the wave comes out and just become unkillable for a solid 35 seconds while also doing pretty nice damage *and* not leaking any slugs that happen to come his way.
for the sake of math, his HP is 8436 and he regens 380 of that per second. its not quite skadi s3 with gladiia module bulk, but it's on a 5* ranged guard and doesn't require two team slots.
remember that one event stage with the maria nearl tiles and the four different bosses that came out staggered from each other? I feel like thats where you'd use capone.
Diciassette my absolute beloved holy shit. He's got that La Pluma vibe where he's effectively a specialized tool that does insanely good at his job, better than or equivalent to 6 stars in certain niches. And like La Pluma, I can imagine using him and Ayam in Integrated Strategies a lot.
Anyways, Ayam also seems pretty good; Haven't used a ton of Tactician vanguards, but the Evolved Newborn seems pretty solid as a unit, and Crystallization of Desire works as a nice varied Skill 1 option. Bleed in general is a really good status, to be honest.
Edit: oh my fucking god I just realized the clock telling Nicole that she'd be able to grab Czarny in three hours was not only because of the imminent storm, but also failed to mention the upcoming catastrophe whatsoever. actual worst artifact ever
Thanks for the post! This sort of analysis is like crack to a writer, be it in the chapters or in the theorycrafting.
And you missed the small detail that he is, with S2M3, not regenerating 4% HP. He's regenerating 18%, so he has a staggering 1.517 HP/sec heal. If he has a Potential (which he'd have, since he'd be the Code/Distortion welfare), it's 20.25%, so 1707. I ended up beefing his SP cost and reducing the time of the skill. It was a bit too much, but still.
BREAKING NEWS, LOCAL FORMER MAFIOSO REFUSES TO DIE
God I love it. It's hilarious to imagine what he could just facetank with that skill (not limited to but including dreaming current's charge)
Also…honestly, him being a Code/Distortion welfare is awesome. Not only to bulk up his heal, but also because thematically, beating an incredibly tough boss and then recruiting said boss and getting the full "hard as fuck to kill" experience using him as an operator is probably one of the coolest hypothetical event experiences
][X] Plan: Scrambled Eggs
-[X] Warn everyone of Andoian's Arts and Adam's invincibility.
-[X] You and Arabella are the fastest combatants here. Quickly get into melee with Andoian and disarm him, literally, before he can shoot too much, and try to steal his gun.
--[X] Use chains and spears of light and blood to immobilize Andoian once he's disarmed.
-[X] Ayam and Linette should focus on keeping Adam busy. He's invincible, but you just need them to keep Adam from interfering with your beatdown on Andoian.
-[X] Once Andoian is down, have the party retreat towards Abel. Arabella takes point with you at the rear, always keeping an eye out for Andoian's bullets.
3. 21 - Vigil
"Everyone!" you bark out. "Keep your eyes on the gunman- ricocheting bullets. The guy with the wings… we're probably not going to kill him. Whatever power he's hopped up on, it's making him untouchable."
As soon as the words come out of your mouth, you act.
The world slows down to a crawl. Whatever words would come out of the mouth of Adam become unintelligible. But you're not here to listen to his tripe. You have to get out of here. Your mind whirls, thinking of a plan, and your hyper-accelerated brain arrives at the solution pretty quickly. Okay, then.
First, you point two fingers on the hand that isn't holding the sword at Arabella- then at the Sankta. Her eyes widen in understanding, her agile and limber form seeming to move normally even in slow motion.
You then point at Linette and Ayam. The first is already preparing herself, intending to charge the enemy. The second is taking their distance, red claws sprouting… crystals? Red crystals.
Crystallized blood.
Projectiles!
You grin.
You point at the two, and at Adam. Your mouth moves, silently.
"Keep him busy." you speak without speaking.
They understand you perfectly.
Your body blurs. As always, it's comforting to utilize your full speed without fear of having your body collapse on itself. You wonder what happened to that jar of Fairy… it's no matter. It's not time for daydreaming about the past. Your body moves…
And your sword moves as well.
In one clean swing, you can separate the Sankta's gun hand from the rest of his body, and with that, the gun as well. Your sword cuts through flesh for just a second- but it's the wrong part.
In the millisecond of time you gave him, he managed to act and blocked your assault with his other hand. You slice clean through the flesh, a jet of blood sporting out. The appendage falls to the ground.
The Sankta isn't hampered by the blood loss, and even though the gleam in his eyes shows that he is in agony, he doesn't let it weaken him. He immediately moves, lashing out with a kick at your ribs. He's fast- faster than he was before.
But still.
Not fast enough.
You easily evade the kick and react with an unbalancing sweep kick. The gun is already aiming at your throat, but your action throws him off his course- and the shot goes wide. It hits one of the nearby walls and ricochets back at you.
You mentally prepare yourself to deflect it with the sword-
But Arabella intervenes, stepping into the scene just in time to slice the bullet in half with an almost effortless swing of her blade.
You smile.
It's good to have someone you trust covering your back. You missed the feeling.
Okay, back to it!
Your hand smashes into the Sankta's unprotected temple and he gasps. You block the blind headbutt that comes after as he tries to pry himself out of melee with you. Smart on his part, he's not suited for a brawl with a Color Fixer.
You try to go for a kick in the ribs, but he's surprisingly quick to recover. His gun is back in its course- but he's not aiming at you.
But before he can shoot, Arabella's on his ass from another angle, a flurry of strikes erupting from her form. Her sword buries itself in his foot- then slices off a chunk of his cheek- then a piece of his elbow.
You don't stay put while she's putting on her show. While the shooter's blocking her big, flashy frenzy of swordsmanship you creep up from behind- and slice off his entire arm.
"Another target subdued. We're better at this than the Zwei…" laughs Arabella. "You're good, Engel. You're just a hundred years too early, and maybe a bit outnumbered."
You turn towards Adam as the Sankta collapses to the ground. He's not exactly doing too well. Chains of light form in your hand and you pin the Sankta to the ground, taking a page out of N-Corp's book and manifesting a nail. With your boot giving a bit of help, that same nail pierces his bleeding leg. He'll be stuck on the ground for a while.
"Sorry!" screams Linette as Adam starts to turn towards you. "He's really untouchable- phased right through my sword!"
A shard of blood crystal flies through the air, piercing the former manager's left eyeball. It doesn't do anything, moving through his body as if it wasn't even there. Phasing through objects, hm?
Adam is fast, for sure. He might be strong- you don't know.
But he has little idea of what he's doing.
E.G.O, according to Abel, at least, doesn't really require training. Being a skilled combatant helps, it comes with all sorts of useful instincts, but you could pick off anyone off the street with a sufficient "synchronization value" and the right mental structure and they would be able to utilize E.G.O weaponry.
It comes with the skills, he said. All nice and packaged inside of the weapon, and whoever picks up, say, a magic rapier won't have any issues like having no knowledge of footwork or riposting that would normally hamper a Cinq wannabe.
And as useful as the ability of becoming untouchable is, it does have its limitations, and Adam is simply not practiced enough to circumvent or work around those limits.
For one- he is still chained to gravity in a manner. Even if he can maintain his flight indefinitely, he is still affected by the planet's gravitational pull.
As such, Linette's body shifted towards a form you don't exactly recognize- but the weapons she wields are unmistakable.
A sparkling, G-Corp branded- the new G-Corp, obviously, not anything to do with the insect implants- warhammer.
You're not sure of where she got that one. Might have simply been a job you weren't present for. But she remembers such a specific weapon, from so long ago…?
No matter.
Linette slams the warhammer on the ground, and it thrums with power, pulling Adam towards the floor. He grunts and lifts himself into the air, but it's clear that this is affecting him.
Ayam's leech creature has formed a chrysalis around itself- and is in the process of growing, and scarily fast. It'll burst out of the cocoon in a matter of seconds, you feel, it's better if you're out of its way when it does so.
They grunt and launch another projectile, but this time not aimed at Adam. You and Arabella nod at each other just as you reach the scene, waving at the team.
The projectile hits the chrysalis, which explodes into a cloud of red dust. Adam gasps. He still has to breathe, then? No, it's not that! He can't see through obstacles, even if he can get past them.
He seems to have a supernatural sense of where his allies are- he's already moving towards Andoain, or at least gearing up to do so.
Even if he's blind and has his sense of direction confused by the gravitational alterations…
Interesting! You have to try out an E.G.O weapon yourself, at some point.
His wings start flapping around, dissipating the cloud of red mist, but you're close- leaping at him, aiming your sword for a stab at his throat.
Just as you do so, Ayam's leech creature comes from the ground, jumping towards Adam mouthfirst, wings morphed into enormous claws.
He flings himself to the other side- away from the Sankta shooter- missing both your stab and a devastating overhead strike from the leech that would have chopped a man's head off.
And that was exactly your intention.
Even if he knows he can't be hit, his subconscious- his instincts- still scream at him to get away. E.G.O weaponry might package combat skills, but it doesn't give the user any experience.
They might not be able to think outside the box… and their intuition is lacking.
You land on the floor and run away from the fighting, waving at your team.
They understand what you're implying. You don't have time to get wrapped up in this fight. You need to get back- and face off with the Distortion. Adam's hand turns towards the Sankta on the ground, his hand glowing with power.
Linette's form switches again- and you notice the enormous twin-tails of a Rhodes Island operator you somewhat recognize… What was her name again? You saw her moving cargo somewhere.
The staff in her hands thrums with power- and all of a sudden, Adam's body language shifts. It is as if he has become completely unbound by gravity. In surprise, the white-haired man's hand flies off course and his body simply flips, cursing incomprehensible profanities at you.
Ayam leaps into the back of the- now enormous- leech creature. It runs after you, dragging a tail that is rapidly sprouting multiple insectoid legs as it moves in leaps and bounds towards your crew.
"Go, newborn!" they bark, and the creature obeys without a second thought.
"…this might be the first time I've seen him really, well, lose it." says X in your head as you and your Office break away from the region.
Wait.
X?
"I asked Abel to patch me up with you. He can talk in my mind too. I'm making my way to the storm's eye, too."
Right. The more the merrier. You just hope he doesn't rely too much on his E.G.O like Adam did.
He does have at least some combat experience, right?
"No…?"
What about the monsters he was in charge of containing!?
"I just told my employees to go and whack them. Occasionally I also sent them to hide on elevators if the Abnormality was gearing up for a big attack… I don't think that's enough, ha!"
Figures.
Well, he'll be useful anyways, if that creature can fight. The E.G.O is powerful, too, right?
"Oh, it is. I basically can't die while I'm in sync with it!"
"Arabella, cover me! Keep an eye for the bullets. Like I said, they ricochet, up to five times. The guy's way stronger at range." you roar, and she nods.
All right. All you gotta do is make it to the arena. You can think of what to do then.
"Hey! Hey!" screams X. "I forgot to ask you something!"
What?
"The book! The Book of Abram! And the Current! Is it- is it with you?"
Yes? You have both hidden inside your jacket. You hide a lot of things inside of it. Man, you miss your armor and its storage compartment...
Where's Abel, by the way?
"A bit busy right now. Rhodes Island is almost- almost there to help. He's saying- he's saying the storm is forming- forming a tornado. On the middle of the arena. Everyone's evacuating... we'll talk later, I have to get there!"
You nod silently, and pick up the pace, footsteps almost cracking the cement.
You've got to get there, and it has to be quick.
Your name is Paul.
You've made a great amount of bad decisions in your life. Taking up smoking, taking up drinking, taking up Enkephalin…
Though that one was a consequence of the admittedly worse choice of signing up with L-Corp. You should have went to fucking K, they accepted your application too. You have no idea what "Excision Staff" actually means but it sounds pretty good, basically a security job.
Easy peasy, and wouldn't involve being tortured for what apparently was ten thousand years.
You had to struggle to control yourself when you learned the guy who is apparently responsible for ALL of this- plus your fucking managers- is just hanging around, living in this hellhole you've found yourself transported to.
They didn't say that, but if you had to guess? Yeah, big Ayin is absolutely somewhere. Why would literally all the people you've worked under be here and not him?
When you find that guy you're going to give him a good punch in the eye, that's what you're going to do. But anyway.
Bad decisions.
You made another one.
It wasn't that bad, just a little break from your job.
You don't deserve this!
You took a break of a few minutes of your watch around the arena and look what has fucking happened! There's a storm here out of fucking nowhere and the arena has a giant fucking cyclone funnel there. It's not killed anyone yet but- shit!
Shit, now everyone's running away. Things aren't good right now. If you stay here someone's going to notice you're…
Well, and- damn it, you're not even thinking right!
You're all sweaty and you can barely breathe. Okay, calm down, let the calm wash over you. What would Pickman do in this situation?
…probably push someone into the storm and paint their deaths.
He was such a sick fuck, but you respect the guy more then you respect your boss.
Not Angela, you respect the shit out of her. Roland. You just think he's lame as hell. He just looks boring to you- and damn it, that's Pickman talking. Aesthetics were a big thing for the guy. Goddamn it, the full E.G.O starts to mess with your head if you wear them for too long…
But okay, you're calm now. The skeleton armor- the materialization of Pickman's psyche feels warm around your body, which is weird, because it's bone.
Okay, doesn't matter.
You approach the storm that has entirely consumed the heart of the arena by now. You'll have to leap off the stands-
Your phone- the communicator Angela gave to allow all Librarians to talk to each other- is ringing. Who is it- dammit, it's Tatyana. The bitch.
"All right what's fucking happening-" you curse out, dodging a piece of rubble flying through the air. You slice it with your weird bone knife and it falls over, bisected.
Everyone's evacuated by now, thank god.
"There's a bunch of knights coming into the city right now!"
What?
Are-
Are you in a city that is being invaded?
Did someone set off a war while you weren't looking-
"No, you idiot, stop thinking out loud! They're Silver-something. They saw the huge storm, they're evacuating people. Some of them are charging on this direction. Get me to the boss, I can't call him!"
Shit, the boss!
Ugh, this thing is fucking with your head. You like your boss. It's some kind of grudge… god. This never happened in the Library.
You're going to shut off the full E.G.O manifestation as soon as you get this finished. You've been wearing this thing for like twelve minutes now.
Goddamit.
"Don't tell me you lost him!"
He's in the fucking storm.
"He's in the fucking storm!" you scream as the wind howls in your ears. You can barely listen to your own voice.
"What?"
"Just get the fuck to here! Call everyone here! I think something is about to come out of that storm and it isn't good- ohshit-"
Pickman's well-practiced instincts from jumping children and old people to murder them and pick their bones over the years aren't helpful at this exact moment, but E.G.O magic and your instincts are. You avoid the enormous thing that sails over you, thrown directly out of the storm by some massive force.
It slams into the metal railings of the seats way above you, and crumples to the ground.
It's some sort of centaur creature, carrying a giant black banner on its back. It is armored, leaking black fog, and every part of its body that is exposed is dark, so dark that the moonlight vanishes into it.
It carries an enormous, sharp halberd.
It turns its helm directly at you, and you let out an involuntary helmet as it splits in two, to reveal a black maw filled with eyes. It points its clawed hand at you, and a wave of spears, swords, axes- all sorts of pointy instruments that turn men into ghosts- erupts from the ground.
Oh shit!
You leap out of the way, a stray blade leaving a nick in your arm. Shit.
The creature turns its quadrupedal body at you- and then it charges.
You're going to die if this keeps on. You're no match for this- for a Distortion. You're not too bummed about dying- but if they can't recover your book from your corpse, you're going to vanish. All you have is a weakened page from some psycho murdered. God damn it, you asked for this thing because you thought his knowledge of how to sneak around might be useful…
Only E.G.O users and Distortions, they told you. Stabilizing your existence here, they told you. Why couldn't you have taken the Shi? You liked the Shi!
God damn those assassins, why couldn't any of them have found E.G.O or Distorted? Why couldn't Angela have run a simulation or something! She did one for that screenhead guy! And that literal who from the Streetlight Office! And that Reindeer guy!
The halberd almost takes your head, but you dodge. You then stab a hole in its armor with your weird knife-sword made of bone. The Distortion roars in rage- and a boot plants itself on its face, throwing it back.
That announcer- the Turbulence Office operator- lands squarely on the Distortion's face with a blast of lightning, and then falls back in the ground.
Right.
You pick up the phone.
"We're almost there!" says Chesed's voice, coming out of it. "Hold on!"
You breathe out in relief. You could trust Chesed. He'd never been anything if competent and courteous across all your journey. He was the man.
But where was your boss, you ask yourself.
Still in the storm? What the hell was he doing there…?
"It's coming up again." says the Turbulence Office fixer in front of you, screen head spinning to look into your eyes. In its blue screen, a simple emoticon. You dislike those a bit.
"(=" is what the screen says. His cutlass which you almost feel like you've seen before glows softly with sparks of energy.
The Distortion is indeed raising itself from the ground. It raises its halberd- and black fog emerges from its body, forming into shapes- the shapes of… warriors.
Warriors in similar armor… porting spears.
An unnatural fear settles inside your heart.
"He's coming." says Beats. "Brace yourself!"
As you dash towards the arena, Linette turns at you.
"So, as we're heading out to the arena… Can I make a detour? It's pretty close. I'm sensing someone important. It's going to be just me."
What? Why?
She smiles, body shifting back into the Mirrored Knight. You continue to race through the streets of Kawalerielki. Tonight, there are remarkably few people walking around, and most of them are screaming or saying something about the "Catastrophe" forming atop the city.
You're going to have to do something about that.
"I have a friend I can pick up- well not a friend. He's a huge asshole. Name's Młynar, and he might be around his bounty hunter buddy or his nieces… not sure. Anyway, I'll go and pick him up to help." she says rapidly, never stopping her feverish pace as she does so. "Quick, and easy. Five minute adventure. Any issue, bossman?"
All right… it's the Linette you know.
Have you seen this Młynar before?
"The guy I transformed into during… the match." she says, guessing your thoughts perfectly. "Well, that was my shitty outdated copy of him. I wouldn't bring out the real deal, it's not like I have it! Either way, trust me, he's going to follow. It'd take the city being at stake, but he'll bring out his full arsenal, the asshole."
You have a choice to make, then. Let her go and not have her at first so she can pick up her ally- who is definitely someone strong, or she wouldn't be asking for this.
Or don't let her and keep her around.
[ ] Let her.
(Linette will go and pick up Młynar Nearl. According to her, it won't take long, but you'll miss her presence in the initial assault.)
