Thanks, fixed
The Villainess wants to be a Hero
- Thread starter dmclain2
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Thanks, fixed
Solark
sun-chaser
[X] Ciel will jump down and charge into the melee while El casts spells from the ledge and Markus rescues the tied-up civilians.
Probably the best change to rescue the civs, and doesn't involve splitting up too far. El's condition is somewhat concerning, I'd rather Ciel be nearby.
Probably the best change to rescue the civs, and doesn't involve splitting up too far. El's condition is somewhat concerning, I'd rather Ciel be nearby.
[X] Ciel will jump down and charge into the melee while El casts spells from the ledge and Markus rescues the tied-up civilians.
- Location
- United States of America
[X] Ciel will jump down and charge into the melee while El casts spells from the ledge and Markus rescues the tied-up civilians.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Ciel will jump down and charge into the melee while El casts spells from the ledge and Markus rescues the tied-up civilians.
I would very much argue that Ciel charging in head first isn't brave at all. Ciel doesn't actually believe they're in any danger at all, meaning it's about as brave as a kid charging into a candy store.
[X] Ciel will jump down and charge into the melee while El casts spells from the ledge and Markus rescues the tied-up civilians.
[X] Ciel will jump down and charge into the melee while El casts spells from the ledge and Markus rescues the tied-up civilians.
This does get into a larger question of what is bravery and who/what determines it. El has a better explanation that she'll give at some point, I'm sure, but in short, these types of skills trigger off of what the user thinks/feels rather than what is true in any sort of absolute sense.
That said, I'm gonna go ahead and close it here. Update should be out by Monday (maybe over the weekend if I can find time for it.)
Hmm. Started reading this and I am enjoying it so far. Reread the first chapter and Ciel comes across much more malicious and worldly than she does later on. Like the line about ogres measuring their clubs doesn't fit with her later naivety. I wonder if Ciel's childish character is an outgrowth of her chosen Sin or just how she ended up being written.
Speaking of Sins, the offered options at the smart at the very least don't line up with the titles/themes we later see expressed by Pride and Lust. I think then that Sloth is the Calamity I am most curious about. Also the Envy and Greed options from the first post feel backwards to me.
Speaking of Sins, the offered options at the smart at the very least don't line up with the titles/themes we later see expressed by Pride and Lust. I think then that Sloth is the Calamity I am most curious about. Also the Envy and Greed options from the first post feel backwards to me.
The first part is absolutely true. I wasn't quite sure how I wanted to write Ciel when I started. Editing that chapter is on my list of things to do when I have a moment.
The second part is intentional. The options for which sin Ciel went with weren't necessarily ever going to be the same as for her sisters. Mostly because there are abilities/etc. that are fun (for me) to write for side characters and those that are fun to write for MCs. There may be some overlap with the other sisters (or not) and those options, but we'll see when they show up.
On a side note. I've been away from my computer for the last few days, so I haven't had a chance to write anything. I should have the next chapter out by Friday or so.
In which an Adventurer has a lot of fun
I slide back from the ledge and look at my teammates. El looks resolute. I could tell by the tightness around her eyes and the pale color of her face in the reflected firelight. Markus looks equally ready if the fur standing upright on his tail is anything to go by. They were just as ready to put this travesty of food to the sword as I was.
That was good. More than just good, really. It meant my team and I were in perfect sync—as any soon-to-be-[Hero] and her team should be. All I'd have to do was give them my genius plan, and then we'd spring into action.
"I'm going to charge in," I whisper to my team—though I'm not sure how much my being quiet matters when the monsters below are still chanting that terribly ungrammatical chant of theirs. "El, you stay up here and blast them with fire. Markus, you sneak in and rescue the civilians when we've got the monsters good and distracted."
El looks at me, stunned and speechless by my genius. Markus doesn't say anything either, but the fur on his tail pops out a bit further to let me know he's on board.
I grin and slip my shield from its spot on my back and then flourish my sword with my other hand. This time no one could complain about my warcry since the whole goal was to draw as much attention to myself as possible—just like a good tank and almost-[Hero] should. So, with one final peek over the ledge, I bunch my knees beneath me and…
Jump.
The stale cave air whips my hair against my face as I soar through the air and bellow out my squeaky warcry, "Little Calamities, charge!"
I hear El's voice shout something like, 'We are not calling ourselves that,' but I'm not listening. Not because I'm ignoring her, that would be rude—and my sisters taught me better than that—but because I'm busy angling my shield beneath my feet. Because from one moment to the next, I go from flying through the air to sliding down the steep decline of the cavern wall.
"Woohoo!"
Sparks fly up from my shield as I slide down the cave wall like a bolt of miniature-[Calamity] shaped lightning. A dozen monsters instantly focus in on my sliding charge, and a moment later, the cave walls around me are being pelted by rocks and sharpened sticks.
I skid to the side to avoid a rock that explodes into shrapnel behind me as it collides with the wall. A spray of stone shards bounces harmlessly off of my [Brave Soul] enhanced [Tough Skin], and I spin my shield around in a half-circle so I can shout at my teammate.
"El, blast 'em!"
Moments later, [Firebolts] begin to rain down from the ledge. Most of them land on the monsters crowding my landing spot below, but a few of them pepper the cave walls to either side of me. I spin again to avoid an errant blob of fire and shout back up to my teammate again.
"Them, not me, El!"
"Only if you stop calling us the Little Calamities!" Her response is accompanied by another [Firebolt] searing through the space my head would have occupied if I hadn't ducked the moment I'd seen it forming.
"Never!"
"Then keep dodging!"
My grin widens as my shield rapidly careens toward the gathered bunch of monsters. A [Mage] teammate who indiscriminately set things on fire was the best kind of teammate. Right up there with an animal companion that was secretly something else but trapped under an evil witch's curse or something.
I don't have any longer to contemplate perfect teammates, though, because, at that moment, wall transitions to floor. In my plan, I scythe through the pack of monsters the same way a tidal wave caused by a [Calamity]'s rampage scythes through a fishing village. Unfortunately, since I didn't consult my genius mind first, my plan falls apart when the lip of my shield touches the floor, and instead, I'm sent…
Flying.
"Woohoo!"
I shout out a third warcry even as I carefully latch my foot beneath my shield's straps to keep from losing it as I soar once again through the air. Unfortunately, I didn't have any skills for landing, so instead of falling to my feet with an elegant flourish, I land on my shoulder and skid in a confusing tumble of limbs for a half-dozen feet before rolling to a stop.
I spring up to my feet an instant later and check myself over carefully while the monsters are too overwhelmed by the awesomeness of my entrance to swarm me. My [Thick Skin] had absorbed all of the bumps and scrapes of my roll, but unfortunately, the skill didn't work on clothes, and my shirt had been shredded along one sleeve and was hanging loosely off of one shoulder.
I kick my shield up into my offhand and set myself in an aggressive pose with a terrifying growl. This was my favorite shirt. El had given it to me after she'd seen me wear the same thing two days in a row. These monsters would pay for ruining it.
A ball of fire lands in between me and the group of monsters and explodes with a burst of light. I grin. Perfect timing, El. A wave of heated air washes over my face, ruffling my hair lightly, and I charge. Embers of El's fire spell dance around me, drawn in by my wake as I clear the space between me and the monsters in seconds.
My shield crashes against the nearest monster with a loud clanging sound, and I make sure to slide the edge up to crush his throat in the instant prior to the force of my charge propelling him into his monster-friend standing behind him. Then I whip my sword around to block the swing of a piece of wood that might have been as big as I was—at least in this smaller form.
The monster grunts as he tries to force me to the ground, doubtless so he and his friends can pummel me mercilessly. I grin as I push back against him. Just because he was a lot bigger than me didn't mean he was stronger. For a moment, monster muscle contends with [Brave Soul] enhanced [Enhanced Strength], then with a squeaky roar, I push his weapon to the side and send him stumbling. He doesn't have more than a moment to lament his defeat in a battle of muscle before my sword flicks through his neck and sends his head soaring to the ground a few feet away.
Blood spurts from the gaping hole where his head used to be, and I carefully step to one side. My shirt was already damaged enough. I didn't want to get it stained with monster blood. El would make me clean it myself rather than using a [Cleanse] cantrip on it. I shudder at the thought, even as a trio of monsters try to swarm over me.
My shield bongs loudly as I block the first monster's claws. That reverberation of sound is soon joined by a monstrous scream as my sword cuts into the second monster's leg. I raise my weapon to fend off the third monster, but before I can, he drops lifelessly to the ground with a burning hole in his torso. I pause for a moment to skewer the de-legged monster's neck, just to make sure he wouldn't get up and claw me in the back while my attention was focused on my [Hero]ic actions.
Looking over, I see Markus calmly nibbling away at a link of chains wrapped around the wrists of what was probably the next civilian who was going to have been fed that weird not-food. Hmm… unless he'd learned a new skill that he wasn't sharing, it would take a while for teeth used to pecans to chomp through metal. My grin widens on my face as I raise my shield in one hand and my sword in another. That just meant more for me to fight!
I slam my shield with the hilt of my sword and roar out as loudly as I can. The circle of monsters surrounding me responds with a slavering roar of their own. Their bloodlust flows over me, hitting me with nearly physical force. Another adventurer may have been stunned, but I'd fought off armies, hordes of dragons, and even Ashe one time when I'd gotten lost and eaten everything in her basement, including a bottle of some delicious golden liquid. She'd chased me halfway across the ocean before catching up and carving out a new underwater trench with my face. My genius mind pokes me, and I let my reminiscence go with a slight sigh. I had a horde of mook-monsters to defeat, after all.
A clawed hand the size of that bear's paw we fought before rescuing Reitzland from my sister swipes toward my head. I reach out to bash it with my shield, but before I can really enjoy the sound of bone smashing, I have to spin away and under a slavering bite from another monster. I reward him with a [Brave Soul] enhanced [Enhanced Strength] kick to the knee and slide gracefully to the side as he collapses forward, howling in agony and no longer able to stand on his shattered leg.
It served him right. Trying to bite me like that. I wasn't food. I ate food.
Unfortunately, I don't have time to silence his anguished cries with a stomp through his skull because a pair of monsters are charging me as though they intend to wrap me up in a giant monster-hug. I wait until their arms are close enough to wrap around me before bunching my legs and jumping.
I soar clear of their attack and grin as I hear a meaty thud as they collide with each other. Hmph. Only my sisters were allowed to ambush-hug me like that. I'd probably let El do it too if she wanted, but she really wasn't a touchy-feely type of person. Unless you counted her repeated assaults on my forehead, which I didn't.
My jump takes me free from the center of the monsters that had encircled me and I tuck my knees into my chest and bring my shield up to rest against my shoulder as my momentum goes from flying to falling. My sword flicks out at the last moment to slice through a monster's throat. Thankfully, I'm past him and bowling into his comrades a row back before his blood can spurt all over me.
My shield crushes a monster's face with a wet noise as I land and spin free in a blur of kicks and sword strikes. My violent windmill attack clears out enough space that I have a moment of freedom to look up and see a huge mass of flame falling down from on high. In an instant, my eyes trace out its trajectory, and I carefully hide the grin I'm feeling inside my chest. A few moments of distraction would be all it would take to turn the group of monsters in front of me from raging-beasts to raging-on-fire-beasts.
Well, I could do distraction. Shey always called me an impossible pest when I interrupted her reading, and Riri called me strange words that I wasn't supposed to repeat when I showed up at one of her naked parties. Compared to my sisters, distracting some hairy, growly monsters would be easier than eating cake.
Mmm… I hope our feast has cake. A chocolate one with layers of cream and cherries between each…
I shake my head to banish fantasies of my triumphant, [Hero] feast and bang my now blood-covered sword and shield against each other as I let out a fearsome warcry. It works, as every monster-eye focuses on me, but instead of charging into the mass of muscle and fur and dagger-like teeth, I set myself in a defensive pose and wait. I can see confusion flash through their tiny monster brains, but I just fix my face in a fierce stare and wait.
It doesn't take long before fire cascades down around the gathered monsters like a blanket you flap up into the air and then race under so you can be completely covered by the time it lands on you. Except instead of fluffy comfort, it's a burning conflagration that falls on them.
Fur sparks to light like the little balls of cotton that El showed me could be used to start a campfire if I ever needed fire and she wasn't around. Of course, since she didn't know about my secret [Calamity]ness, I hadn't been able to tell her about how [Hellfire] could burn anything, even non-burnable things like rocks and souls. Still, it had been a fun lecture because when we got the fire lit, we'd roasted little puffy balls of sugar and syrup until they were crispy and brown.
Unfortunately, for the screaming, flailing, now-on-fire-monsters, they didn't crisp up anything like the marshmallows did. Neither did they smell delightfully like burnt sugar. Instead, they smelled a lot like burning hair and a little like the not-food that one civilian had been forced to eat. But even though the fire was burning them and doing other things, too, like popping eyeballs and making them run around screaming in agony, it wasn't quite killing them.
So, with a disgusted sigh that I would have to get even closer to that gross not-food, I slip my shield onto my back. I wouldn't need it to deal with the burning, panicked, not-dying-quickly-enough-monsters in front of me. Then I plug my nose with my free hand and step forward to end the last of the mook-monsters.
Skewering the first burning monster through his chest and then dragging my blade free in a downward angle that disemboweled him felt a bit like stealing El's kill. After all, she did all the work of conjuring up a big blanket of fire to drop on them. But I'd given her plenty of time to shoot down more [Firebolts] if she'd wanted the kills, and we still had a boss-monster to fight. So, even though it felt unfair to decapitate, dismember, and disembowel the remaining monsters, I did so without complaint.
A half-dozen sword swings later and the last of the mook-monsters was defeated. All that was left was a slowly growing pool of blood that I carefully avoided stepping in—my shoes had been a gift from El, too—and a few piles of limbs and heads and torsos that were slowly beginning to stop burning.
I don't have long to admire our total victory before I'm interrupted by the sound of stone crashing into stone. A sound that's followed a moment later by a deep, guttural voice grinding out a horribly ungrammatical sentence.
"Killed minions, you have. Food for Mother, you will be."
I turned to look at the boss monster, who was glaring down at me from his stone slab of a throne. His red eyes burned with a fell flame as they stared at me, a promise of a slow, agonizing death dancing within them.
I frown, sending my own glare back at him, but I know that stuck in this smaller form, that was not a battle I could win. It was much easier to glare at someone with half-a-dozen eyes that could shoot out beams of [Annihilation]. Still, just because he had a better evil stare than me—something that was only appropriate given my soon-to-be-[Hero]ness—didn't mean I had to concede my loss quite so easily. So instead of continuing that futile battle, I decide to attack from another angle.
Besides, I'd had more than enough of this terrible grammar.
"That's not right at all… didn't your mother ever teach you how to speak?" I shout at the boss-monster glaring at me on his throne. "It's subject, verb, and then object. Ygnaiih! Ia! Ia! has to go after shogg'nn! Zoth-Ommog! otherwise, it makes you sound like an idiot."
The banked flames in his eyes flare into a bonfire at the insult to his mother, only to fade into coals of confusion a moment later as my lesson on grammar collides with his misshapen skull.
"Kill you, I wi-," he cuts himself off with a scowl that shows off a pair of jagged fangs and then roars correctly. "I will kill you and feed your corpse to the Mother!"
I nod proudly as my impromptu grammar lesson works its magic—as could only be expected from someone with a genius mind like me—and set my shield into a defensive pose as the boss-monster springs out of his throne at a speed far greater than something that big should be able to move. In two steps, he's cleared the distance between us, and barely the blink of an eye later, that me-sized warhammer is cutting through the air with a cool, whoosh-whurr sound.
I move to catch the strike on my shield, just as my no-longer [Basic Shield Proficiency] tells me to, but something strange happens as I deflect his strike with my peerless skill. I hear El's strangled voice shout my name, no doubt caught between amazement at how well my lesson had worked and how well I'd blocked the boss-monster's strike, but for some reason, I can't turn around to give her a grin or even a thumb's up. Instead, I'm too busy soaring through the air.
A moment later, I collide with the stone wall of the cavern and start to slide slowly to the ground. Fortunately, my [Brave Soul] enhanced [Tough Skin] absorbs most of the force of my collision with the cave wall, or I might have broken a bone or two. Unfortunately, it can't keep the air from exploding out of my lungs, and when my slide reaches the ground, I hunch over for a moment to gather my breath.
El shouts something again, but I can't quite make it out over the ringing in my ears. It does catch my attention enough for me to see a [Firebolt] splash harmlessly off of the boss-monster's chest as he charges toward me, a malicious glee burning in his eyes. For a moment, I considered setting my shield and blocking the strike of his warhammer once again—if only to demonstrate once again how much more skilled I was—but with my back against the wall this time, I didn't think I'd be sent flying this time. A flash of me being squished like a bug between hammer and wall flashes through my thoughts courtesy of my genius mind, but I ignore it. Instead, I carefully angle my shield not to block but to deflect.
The boss-monster's hammer swings in, and I lift my shield almost parallel to the ground below me and push. The hammer grazing against my shield still sends a shockwave up my arm that almost completely numbs it, but my deflection was enough to push the strike up and over my head and into the cave wall behind me. Stone shrapnel explodes as the hammer carves a divot into the cave wall, but I ignore the shards of stone that bounce uselessly off of my [Brave Soul] enhanced [Tough Skin]. I had an opening to exploit, after all.
My sword flicks up in a move I'd used to disembowel more than one of his underlings, but instead of the slick sound of entrails spilling out of a hole in the stomach, my blade barely carves through the layers of hair and fat that surround his stomach.
I have just enough time to scowl at the thin line of blood in his torso before a leg wider around than I am swings forward in what promised to be a violent collision with my chest. I twist frantically, not wanting to get squished against the cave wall by those gross, hairy toes, and manage to move out of the way just enough that I'm sent spinning sideways through the air rather than having my chest crushed by a giant foot.
Once again, I hear El's shout through a ringing in my ears, this time accompanied by a high-pitched chirp, as I tumble through the air, limbs flailing around me in a way that probably looked a lot more fun than it really was.
No! I shout inside my mind. I had to do better than getting kicked and warhammered around like this. Our plan relied on it.
So, between one revolution where I spun with my rear end taking the spot my head normally would, I flex the muscles in my stomach and pull my legs into my chest. As my rear end spins back down in the direction it belonged, I bunch my legs beneath me and push. My knees almost buckled as I pushed against the cave floor, but I was an adventurer, a secret [Calamity], and a soon-to-be-[Hero]. I wouldn't lose to something as minor as a violent change in direction.
I explode back in the other direction, back toward the boss-monster slowly turning around to face me. As I'm soaring toward my foe, I offer a quiet apology to my shield. It wasn't enough to block this monster's attacks—or maybe I wasn't skilled enough, after all, I wasn't a [Paladin] yet—I would have to dodge. Dodge and rely only on my sword to defeat this beast. That didn't mean my shield couldn't get one last piece of the action, though.
I flex the muscles in my torso even as I swing my shield back behind me. A moment later, I release all the strength I have, [Brave Soul] pumping extra force into my [Enhanced Strength] as I launch my shield forward. It flashes forward in a tight, spinning circle, and for an instant, I'm reminded of the shield throw I'd used to protect El in that battle against Ashe's blood-monsters.
Unlike that time, my shield doesn't carve through jelly-flesh, but then, I wasn't expecting it to. It was enough that the boss-monster had to raise his warhammer in an awkwardly angled strike to swat my shield to the side. A strike that left me free to raise my sword in front of me like the tip of an arrow.
I feel my sword dig through layers of flesh before bouncing off of a ribcage that must have been tougher than iron, even as I use the momentum from my flying strike to tumble past the monster and out of range of any follow-up attacks from that massive hammer. I spring upright the moment my feet land clear of my foe, and a grin nearly splits my face in half as I see a barrage of [Firebolts] rain down upon him. A moment later, a silver scythe flashes around the monster's ankle, and it staggers to one side with a howl of pain. Looks like Markus was getting into the fight as well.
I have the best teammates.
The monster tries to spin around to stomp down on Markus, but he flashes out of the way with an arc of silver and a thin spray of black blood. A warcry escapes my throat as I throw myself forward. Even swinging with all of my might, my sword doesn't do more than carve a narrow divot in the monster's thigh, but that's enough to draw his attention away from my furry-teammate and back to me.
I slide away from a downward slam of his stone warhammer and use the spray of stone shards as a screen to flick my sword out and cut a shallow line into his forearm. The beast roars and lifts his bloody hand away from his hammer to swat me away, and I raise my sword just in time to block his punch before it can splatter my skull open. As I reel back from that punch, Markus flashes in and nips at the boss monster's other heel while a [Firebolt] that looks a lot more like a lance punches into the monster's shoulder.
My sword shakes slightly in my hands, my muscles feeling a bit like jelly after all of the punishing blows I'd taken, but I hardly care. Markus, El, and I were like a [Hero] team from my books, fighting an enemy much bigger and stronger than us with our skill and perfect teamwork.
A curtain of fire flares into life in front of me, and I burst through it, gathering a bit of that fire onto the tip of my blade before I jam it into the monster's thigh. He howls something unintelligible, but doubtless rude, as I twist my sword around like a screw before dodging back so Markus can flash in and stab the beast in the back of his knee.
It was like cutting a tree. Or at least what I guessed mortals did when they cut down a tree. Markus and I carved a hundred tiny cuts into his legs as the beast spun back and forth, futilely trying to focus on both of us at once. While above us, safely perched behind the ledge, El dropped fire down upon him like she was burning away tree branches.
I wasn't quite sure if mortals cut down trees with fire, it seemed a bit backward, but then most trees weren't ten-foot-tall slabs of muscle and fat and violent, incoherent rage. If they were, I would absolutely understand the need for fire.
With the boss-monster distracted by attacks from front and back and above him and bleeding out slowly through a growing collection of cuts and stab wounds, it was only a matter of time before…
"Timber!" I shout triumphantly as an exhausted-looking evil monster slowly collapses to the ground.
"Ciel, what?"
I ignore the question in El's voice in favor of planting my sword in the eyesocket of the defeated boss-monster. Fortunately, his eyes weren't nearly as tough as the rest of his skin. Unfortunately, it takes me leaning almost my full weight on my sword to push through into his brain. A task made all the more difficult by the last-minute frenzy of thrashing as he half-saw, half-didn't see his death approaching.
Despite that bit of struggle, though, once I felt my sword slide through the last bit of bone in his face and into something softer, his struggle ceased, and he fell limp.
"Woohoo!" I shout out, my warcry sounding a bit more tired than it normally did as I hop off the beast's motionless chest and back to the ground. "We did it. Team Little Calamities with the win!"
I shift slightly to the side, avoiding a slow-moving [Firebolt], and grin to myself. It seemed like El was coming around on the name after all. Otherwise, I would have actually had to duck to avoid her spell.
Now all we have to do is bring all the rescued civilians back, be welcomed with a giant feast like the conquering [Heroes] we were, and make our way to the Jhoral Mountains to thwart my sisters' evil plot. In fact...
"Ciel?"
"Yeah?" I turn to look up at the ledge where my teammate was gingerly looking down at us.
"How exactly am I supposed to get down from here?"
I look down the steep cavern face from where she's perched to where we were. If she were a [Rogue] or a soon-to-be-[Hero], she wouldn't have any trouble sliding down the wall like Markus and I did. She wasn't either of those, though. I didn't even need my many [Hero] books to tell me that [Mages] weren't the type of adventurer best suited for charging or sliding down a near-vertical incline. If only...
My genius mind pokes me, and I nod. El was much more a set-things-on-fire kind of mage rather than one who knew spells like [Glide] or [Feather Fall] or [Cushion Landing]. But then, who wanted to be teammates with an air mage anyway? A breeze really wouldn't have helped in the fight against either the boss- or mook-monsters. Although...
"Ciel?"
El's shout pulls me out of contemplation about how much nicer it would have been if I'd been able to fight the monsters while surrounded by a bubble of [Fresh Air]. I'd never have to smell anything stinky ever again. No. I couldn't throw away my fire teammate so callously as that. Besides...
"Ciel!"
Oh. Right. I had a teammate trapped on a ledge that she couldn't get down from. I let my mind shatter into fractal patterns. It returns with the perfect plan. "Want me to carry you?"
"Not a chance!"
"Then I don't know..."
Since Ciel and her team have defeated the monster attack, it's time for shinies. Please keep in mind that there are narrative limits to the skills listed below (i.e. they aren't absolute in the power they offer).
[] [Shield Throw]. Once per scene, Ciel can throw her shield and have it return to her grasp.
[] [Sharp Cut]. Once per scene, Ciel can use her sword to cut through armor or other defenses.
[] [Bulwark]. Once per scene, Ciel can negate the force of an attack with her shield.
[] Upgrade an existing skill
-[] pick which one.
[AN]
I think stopping it here and letting the next chapter be the rescue and celebration works better tonally.
That was good. More than just good, really. It meant my team and I were in perfect sync—as any soon-to-be-[Hero] and her team should be. All I'd have to do was give them my genius plan, and then we'd spring into action.
"I'm going to charge in," I whisper to my team—though I'm not sure how much my being quiet matters when the monsters below are still chanting that terribly ungrammatical chant of theirs. "El, you stay up here and blast them with fire. Markus, you sneak in and rescue the civilians when we've got the monsters good and distracted."
El looks at me, stunned and speechless by my genius. Markus doesn't say anything either, but the fur on his tail pops out a bit further to let me know he's on board.
I grin and slip my shield from its spot on my back and then flourish my sword with my other hand. This time no one could complain about my warcry since the whole goal was to draw as much attention to myself as possible—just like a good tank and almost-[Hero] should. So, with one final peek over the ledge, I bunch my knees beneath me and…
Jump.
The stale cave air whips my hair against my face as I soar through the air and bellow out my squeaky warcry, "Little Calamities, charge!"
I hear El's voice shout something like, 'We are not calling ourselves that,' but I'm not listening. Not because I'm ignoring her, that would be rude—and my sisters taught me better than that—but because I'm busy angling my shield beneath my feet. Because from one moment to the next, I go from flying through the air to sliding down the steep decline of the cavern wall.
"Woohoo!"
Sparks fly up from my shield as I slide down the cave wall like a bolt of miniature-[Calamity] shaped lightning. A dozen monsters instantly focus in on my sliding charge, and a moment later, the cave walls around me are being pelted by rocks and sharpened sticks.
I skid to the side to avoid a rock that explodes into shrapnel behind me as it collides with the wall. A spray of stone shards bounces harmlessly off of my [Brave Soul] enhanced [Tough Skin], and I spin my shield around in a half-circle so I can shout at my teammate.
"El, blast 'em!"
Moments later, [Firebolts] begin to rain down from the ledge. Most of them land on the monsters crowding my landing spot below, but a few of them pepper the cave walls to either side of me. I spin again to avoid an errant blob of fire and shout back up to my teammate again.
"Them, not me, El!"
"Only if you stop calling us the Little Calamities!" Her response is accompanied by another [Firebolt] searing through the space my head would have occupied if I hadn't ducked the moment I'd seen it forming.
"Never!"
"Then keep dodging!"
My grin widens as my shield rapidly careens toward the gathered bunch of monsters. A [Mage] teammate who indiscriminately set things on fire was the best kind of teammate. Right up there with an animal companion that was secretly something else but trapped under an evil witch's curse or something.
I don't have any longer to contemplate perfect teammates, though, because, at that moment, wall transitions to floor. In my plan, I scythe through the pack of monsters the same way a tidal wave caused by a [Calamity]'s rampage scythes through a fishing village. Unfortunately, since I didn't consult my genius mind first, my plan falls apart when the lip of my shield touches the floor, and instead, I'm sent…
Flying.
"Woohoo!"
I shout out a third warcry even as I carefully latch my foot beneath my shield's straps to keep from losing it as I soar once again through the air. Unfortunately, I didn't have any skills for landing, so instead of falling to my feet with an elegant flourish, I land on my shoulder and skid in a confusing tumble of limbs for a half-dozen feet before rolling to a stop.
I spring up to my feet an instant later and check myself over carefully while the monsters are too overwhelmed by the awesomeness of my entrance to swarm me. My [Thick Skin] had absorbed all of the bumps and scrapes of my roll, but unfortunately, the skill didn't work on clothes, and my shirt had been shredded along one sleeve and was hanging loosely off of one shoulder.
I kick my shield up into my offhand and set myself in an aggressive pose with a terrifying growl. This was my favorite shirt. El had given it to me after she'd seen me wear the same thing two days in a row. These monsters would pay for ruining it.
A ball of fire lands in between me and the group of monsters and explodes with a burst of light. I grin. Perfect timing, El. A wave of heated air washes over my face, ruffling my hair lightly, and I charge. Embers of El's fire spell dance around me, drawn in by my wake as I clear the space between me and the monsters in seconds.
My shield crashes against the nearest monster with a loud clanging sound, and I make sure to slide the edge up to crush his throat in the instant prior to the force of my charge propelling him into his monster-friend standing behind him. Then I whip my sword around to block the swing of a piece of wood that might have been as big as I was—at least in this smaller form.
The monster grunts as he tries to force me to the ground, doubtless so he and his friends can pummel me mercilessly. I grin as I push back against him. Just because he was a lot bigger than me didn't mean he was stronger. For a moment, monster muscle contends with [Brave Soul] enhanced [Enhanced Strength], then with a squeaky roar, I push his weapon to the side and send him stumbling. He doesn't have more than a moment to lament his defeat in a battle of muscle before my sword flicks through his neck and sends his head soaring to the ground a few feet away.
Blood spurts from the gaping hole where his head used to be, and I carefully step to one side. My shirt was already damaged enough. I didn't want to get it stained with monster blood. El would make me clean it myself rather than using a [Cleanse] cantrip on it. I shudder at the thought, even as a trio of monsters try to swarm over me.
My shield bongs loudly as I block the first monster's claws. That reverberation of sound is soon joined by a monstrous scream as my sword cuts into the second monster's leg. I raise my weapon to fend off the third monster, but before I can, he drops lifelessly to the ground with a burning hole in his torso. I pause for a moment to skewer the de-legged monster's neck, just to make sure he wouldn't get up and claw me in the back while my attention was focused on my [Hero]ic actions.
Looking over, I see Markus calmly nibbling away at a link of chains wrapped around the wrists of what was probably the next civilian who was going to have been fed that weird not-food. Hmm… unless he'd learned a new skill that he wasn't sharing, it would take a while for teeth used to pecans to chomp through metal. My grin widens on my face as I raise my shield in one hand and my sword in another. That just meant more for me to fight!
I slam my shield with the hilt of my sword and roar out as loudly as I can. The circle of monsters surrounding me responds with a slavering roar of their own. Their bloodlust flows over me, hitting me with nearly physical force. Another adventurer may have been stunned, but I'd fought off armies, hordes of dragons, and even Ashe one time when I'd gotten lost and eaten everything in her basement, including a bottle of some delicious golden liquid. She'd chased me halfway across the ocean before catching up and carving out a new underwater trench with my face. My genius mind pokes me, and I let my reminiscence go with a slight sigh. I had a horde of mook-monsters to defeat, after all.
A clawed hand the size of that bear's paw we fought before rescuing Reitzland from my sister swipes toward my head. I reach out to bash it with my shield, but before I can really enjoy the sound of bone smashing, I have to spin away and under a slavering bite from another monster. I reward him with a [Brave Soul] enhanced [Enhanced Strength] kick to the knee and slide gracefully to the side as he collapses forward, howling in agony and no longer able to stand on his shattered leg.
It served him right. Trying to bite me like that. I wasn't food. I ate food.
Unfortunately, I don't have time to silence his anguished cries with a stomp through his skull because a pair of monsters are charging me as though they intend to wrap me up in a giant monster-hug. I wait until their arms are close enough to wrap around me before bunching my legs and jumping.
I soar clear of their attack and grin as I hear a meaty thud as they collide with each other. Hmph. Only my sisters were allowed to ambush-hug me like that. I'd probably let El do it too if she wanted, but she really wasn't a touchy-feely type of person. Unless you counted her repeated assaults on my forehead, which I didn't.
My jump takes me free from the center of the monsters that had encircled me and I tuck my knees into my chest and bring my shield up to rest against my shoulder as my momentum goes from flying to falling. My sword flicks out at the last moment to slice through a monster's throat. Thankfully, I'm past him and bowling into his comrades a row back before his blood can spurt all over me.
My shield crushes a monster's face with a wet noise as I land and spin free in a blur of kicks and sword strikes. My violent windmill attack clears out enough space that I have a moment of freedom to look up and see a huge mass of flame falling down from on high. In an instant, my eyes trace out its trajectory, and I carefully hide the grin I'm feeling inside my chest. A few moments of distraction would be all it would take to turn the group of monsters in front of me from raging-beasts to raging-on-fire-beasts.
Well, I could do distraction. Shey always called me an impossible pest when I interrupted her reading, and Riri called me strange words that I wasn't supposed to repeat when I showed up at one of her naked parties. Compared to my sisters, distracting some hairy, growly monsters would be easier than eating cake.
Mmm… I hope our feast has cake. A chocolate one with layers of cream and cherries between each…
I shake my head to banish fantasies of my triumphant, [Hero] feast and bang my now blood-covered sword and shield against each other as I let out a fearsome warcry. It works, as every monster-eye focuses on me, but instead of charging into the mass of muscle and fur and dagger-like teeth, I set myself in a defensive pose and wait. I can see confusion flash through their tiny monster brains, but I just fix my face in a fierce stare and wait.
It doesn't take long before fire cascades down around the gathered monsters like a blanket you flap up into the air and then race under so you can be completely covered by the time it lands on you. Except instead of fluffy comfort, it's a burning conflagration that falls on them.
Fur sparks to light like the little balls of cotton that El showed me could be used to start a campfire if I ever needed fire and she wasn't around. Of course, since she didn't know about my secret [Calamity]ness, I hadn't been able to tell her about how [Hellfire] could burn anything, even non-burnable things like rocks and souls. Still, it had been a fun lecture because when we got the fire lit, we'd roasted little puffy balls of sugar and syrup until they were crispy and brown.
Unfortunately, for the screaming, flailing, now-on-fire-monsters, they didn't crisp up anything like the marshmallows did. Neither did they smell delightfully like burnt sugar. Instead, they smelled a lot like burning hair and a little like the not-food that one civilian had been forced to eat. But even though the fire was burning them and doing other things, too, like popping eyeballs and making them run around screaming in agony, it wasn't quite killing them.
So, with a disgusted sigh that I would have to get even closer to that gross not-food, I slip my shield onto my back. I wouldn't need it to deal with the burning, panicked, not-dying-quickly-enough-monsters in front of me. Then I plug my nose with my free hand and step forward to end the last of the mook-monsters.
Skewering the first burning monster through his chest and then dragging my blade free in a downward angle that disemboweled him felt a bit like stealing El's kill. After all, she did all the work of conjuring up a big blanket of fire to drop on them. But I'd given her plenty of time to shoot down more [Firebolts] if she'd wanted the kills, and we still had a boss-monster to fight. So, even though it felt unfair to decapitate, dismember, and disembowel the remaining monsters, I did so without complaint.
A half-dozen sword swings later and the last of the mook-monsters was defeated. All that was left was a slowly growing pool of blood that I carefully avoided stepping in—my shoes had been a gift from El, too—and a few piles of limbs and heads and torsos that were slowly beginning to stop burning.
I don't have long to admire our total victory before I'm interrupted by the sound of stone crashing into stone. A sound that's followed a moment later by a deep, guttural voice grinding out a horribly ungrammatical sentence.
"Killed minions, you have. Food for Mother, you will be."
I turned to look at the boss monster, who was glaring down at me from his stone slab of a throne. His red eyes burned with a fell flame as they stared at me, a promise of a slow, agonizing death dancing within them.
I frown, sending my own glare back at him, but I know that stuck in this smaller form, that was not a battle I could win. It was much easier to glare at someone with half-a-dozen eyes that could shoot out beams of [Annihilation]. Still, just because he had a better evil stare than me—something that was only appropriate given my soon-to-be-[Hero]ness—didn't mean I had to concede my loss quite so easily. So instead of continuing that futile battle, I decide to attack from another angle.
Besides, I'd had more than enough of this terrible grammar.
"That's not right at all… didn't your mother ever teach you how to speak?" I shout at the boss-monster glaring at me on his throne. "It's subject, verb, and then object. Ygnaiih! Ia! Ia! has to go after shogg'nn! Zoth-Ommog! otherwise, it makes you sound like an idiot."
The banked flames in his eyes flare into a bonfire at the insult to his mother, only to fade into coals of confusion a moment later as my lesson on grammar collides with his misshapen skull.
"Kill you, I wi-," he cuts himself off with a scowl that shows off a pair of jagged fangs and then roars correctly. "I will kill you and feed your corpse to the Mother!"
I nod proudly as my impromptu grammar lesson works its magic—as could only be expected from someone with a genius mind like me—and set my shield into a defensive pose as the boss-monster springs out of his throne at a speed far greater than something that big should be able to move. In two steps, he's cleared the distance between us, and barely the blink of an eye later, that me-sized warhammer is cutting through the air with a cool, whoosh-whurr sound.
I move to catch the strike on my shield, just as my no-longer [Basic Shield Proficiency] tells me to, but something strange happens as I deflect his strike with my peerless skill. I hear El's strangled voice shout my name, no doubt caught between amazement at how well my lesson had worked and how well I'd blocked the boss-monster's strike, but for some reason, I can't turn around to give her a grin or even a thumb's up. Instead, I'm too busy soaring through the air.
A moment later, I collide with the stone wall of the cavern and start to slide slowly to the ground. Fortunately, my [Brave Soul] enhanced [Tough Skin] absorbs most of the force of my collision with the cave wall, or I might have broken a bone or two. Unfortunately, it can't keep the air from exploding out of my lungs, and when my slide reaches the ground, I hunch over for a moment to gather my breath.
El shouts something again, but I can't quite make it out over the ringing in my ears. It does catch my attention enough for me to see a [Firebolt] splash harmlessly off of the boss-monster's chest as he charges toward me, a malicious glee burning in his eyes. For a moment, I considered setting my shield and blocking the strike of his warhammer once again—if only to demonstrate once again how much more skilled I was—but with my back against the wall this time, I didn't think I'd be sent flying this time. A flash of me being squished like a bug between hammer and wall flashes through my thoughts courtesy of my genius mind, but I ignore it. Instead, I carefully angle my shield not to block but to deflect.
The boss-monster's hammer swings in, and I lift my shield almost parallel to the ground below me and push. The hammer grazing against my shield still sends a shockwave up my arm that almost completely numbs it, but my deflection was enough to push the strike up and over my head and into the cave wall behind me. Stone shrapnel explodes as the hammer carves a divot into the cave wall, but I ignore the shards of stone that bounce uselessly off of my [Brave Soul] enhanced [Tough Skin]. I had an opening to exploit, after all.
My sword flicks up in a move I'd used to disembowel more than one of his underlings, but instead of the slick sound of entrails spilling out of a hole in the stomach, my blade barely carves through the layers of hair and fat that surround his stomach.
I have just enough time to scowl at the thin line of blood in his torso before a leg wider around than I am swings forward in what promised to be a violent collision with my chest. I twist frantically, not wanting to get squished against the cave wall by those gross, hairy toes, and manage to move out of the way just enough that I'm sent spinning sideways through the air rather than having my chest crushed by a giant foot.
Once again, I hear El's shout through a ringing in my ears, this time accompanied by a high-pitched chirp, as I tumble through the air, limbs flailing around me in a way that probably looked a lot more fun than it really was.
No! I shout inside my mind. I had to do better than getting kicked and warhammered around like this. Our plan relied on it.
So, between one revolution where I spun with my rear end taking the spot my head normally would, I flex the muscles in my stomach and pull my legs into my chest. As my rear end spins back down in the direction it belonged, I bunch my legs beneath me and push. My knees almost buckled as I pushed against the cave floor, but I was an adventurer, a secret [Calamity], and a soon-to-be-[Hero]. I wouldn't lose to something as minor as a violent change in direction.
I explode back in the other direction, back toward the boss-monster slowly turning around to face me. As I'm soaring toward my foe, I offer a quiet apology to my shield. It wasn't enough to block this monster's attacks—or maybe I wasn't skilled enough, after all, I wasn't a [Paladin] yet—I would have to dodge. Dodge and rely only on my sword to defeat this beast. That didn't mean my shield couldn't get one last piece of the action, though.
I flex the muscles in my torso even as I swing my shield back behind me. A moment later, I release all the strength I have, [Brave Soul] pumping extra force into my [Enhanced Strength] as I launch my shield forward. It flashes forward in a tight, spinning circle, and for an instant, I'm reminded of the shield throw I'd used to protect El in that battle against Ashe's blood-monsters.
Unlike that time, my shield doesn't carve through jelly-flesh, but then, I wasn't expecting it to. It was enough that the boss-monster had to raise his warhammer in an awkwardly angled strike to swat my shield to the side. A strike that left me free to raise my sword in front of me like the tip of an arrow.
I feel my sword dig through layers of flesh before bouncing off of a ribcage that must have been tougher than iron, even as I use the momentum from my flying strike to tumble past the monster and out of range of any follow-up attacks from that massive hammer. I spring upright the moment my feet land clear of my foe, and a grin nearly splits my face in half as I see a barrage of [Firebolts] rain down upon him. A moment later, a silver scythe flashes around the monster's ankle, and it staggers to one side with a howl of pain. Looks like Markus was getting into the fight as well.
I have the best teammates.
The monster tries to spin around to stomp down on Markus, but he flashes out of the way with an arc of silver and a thin spray of black blood. A warcry escapes my throat as I throw myself forward. Even swinging with all of my might, my sword doesn't do more than carve a narrow divot in the monster's thigh, but that's enough to draw his attention away from my furry-teammate and back to me.
I slide away from a downward slam of his stone warhammer and use the spray of stone shards as a screen to flick my sword out and cut a shallow line into his forearm. The beast roars and lifts his bloody hand away from his hammer to swat me away, and I raise my sword just in time to block his punch before it can splatter my skull open. As I reel back from that punch, Markus flashes in and nips at the boss monster's other heel while a [Firebolt] that looks a lot more like a lance punches into the monster's shoulder.
My sword shakes slightly in my hands, my muscles feeling a bit like jelly after all of the punishing blows I'd taken, but I hardly care. Markus, El, and I were like a [Hero] team from my books, fighting an enemy much bigger and stronger than us with our skill and perfect teamwork.
A curtain of fire flares into life in front of me, and I burst through it, gathering a bit of that fire onto the tip of my blade before I jam it into the monster's thigh. He howls something unintelligible, but doubtless rude, as I twist my sword around like a screw before dodging back so Markus can flash in and stab the beast in the back of his knee.
It was like cutting a tree. Or at least what I guessed mortals did when they cut down a tree. Markus and I carved a hundred tiny cuts into his legs as the beast spun back and forth, futilely trying to focus on both of us at once. While above us, safely perched behind the ledge, El dropped fire down upon him like she was burning away tree branches.
I wasn't quite sure if mortals cut down trees with fire, it seemed a bit backward, but then most trees weren't ten-foot-tall slabs of muscle and fat and violent, incoherent rage. If they were, I would absolutely understand the need for fire.
With the boss-monster distracted by attacks from front and back and above him and bleeding out slowly through a growing collection of cuts and stab wounds, it was only a matter of time before…
"Timber!" I shout triumphantly as an exhausted-looking evil monster slowly collapses to the ground.
"Ciel, what?"
I ignore the question in El's voice in favor of planting my sword in the eyesocket of the defeated boss-monster. Fortunately, his eyes weren't nearly as tough as the rest of his skin. Unfortunately, it takes me leaning almost my full weight on my sword to push through into his brain. A task made all the more difficult by the last-minute frenzy of thrashing as he half-saw, half-didn't see his death approaching.
Despite that bit of struggle, though, once I felt my sword slide through the last bit of bone in his face and into something softer, his struggle ceased, and he fell limp.
"Woohoo!" I shout out, my warcry sounding a bit more tired than it normally did as I hop off the beast's motionless chest and back to the ground. "We did it. Team Little Calamities with the win!"
I shift slightly to the side, avoiding a slow-moving [Firebolt], and grin to myself. It seemed like El was coming around on the name after all. Otherwise, I would have actually had to duck to avoid her spell.
Now all we have to do is bring all the rescued civilians back, be welcomed with a giant feast like the conquering [Heroes] we were, and make our way to the Jhoral Mountains to thwart my sisters' evil plot. In fact...
"Ciel?"
"Yeah?" I turn to look up at the ledge where my teammate was gingerly looking down at us.
"How exactly am I supposed to get down from here?"
I look down the steep cavern face from where she's perched to where we were. If she were a [Rogue] or a soon-to-be-[Hero], she wouldn't have any trouble sliding down the wall like Markus and I did. She wasn't either of those, though. I didn't even need my many [Hero] books to tell me that [Mages] weren't the type of adventurer best suited for charging or sliding down a near-vertical incline. If only...
My genius mind pokes me, and I nod. El was much more a set-things-on-fire kind of mage rather than one who knew spells like [Glide] or [Feather Fall] or [Cushion Landing]. But then, who wanted to be teammates with an air mage anyway? A breeze really wouldn't have helped in the fight against either the boss- or mook-monsters. Although...
"Ciel?"
El's shout pulls me out of contemplation about how much nicer it would have been if I'd been able to fight the monsters while surrounded by a bubble of [Fresh Air]. I'd never have to smell anything stinky ever again. No. I couldn't throw away my fire teammate so callously as that. Besides...
"Ciel!"
Oh. Right. I had a teammate trapped on a ledge that she couldn't get down from. I let my mind shatter into fractal patterns. It returns with the perfect plan. "Want me to carry you?"
"Not a chance!"
"Then I don't know..."
Since Ciel and her team have defeated the monster attack, it's time for shinies. Please keep in mind that there are narrative limits to the skills listed below (i.e. they aren't absolute in the power they offer).
[] [Shield Throw]. Once per scene, Ciel can throw her shield and have it return to her grasp.
[] [Sharp Cut]. Once per scene, Ciel can use her sword to cut through armor or other defenses.
[] [Bulwark]. Once per scene, Ciel can negate the force of an attack with her shield.
[] Upgrade an existing skill
-[] pick which one.
[AN]
I think stopping it here and letting the next chapter be the rescue and celebration works better tonally.
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NSMS
Probably evil, unfortunately.
- Location
- A rapidly widening tear in the fabric of reality
I am very curious what El and Markus think of Ciel at this point. Her sheer level of weirdness has rapidly passed beyond what 'sheltered, uneducated, and unsocialised child' can explain, and the sheer number of red flags she's accidentally throwing up is honestly impressive.
As for upgrades:
[X] Upgrade an existing skill
-[X] [Enhanced Strength]
This fight would have been much easier if we'd been able to punch through the boss monster's toughness without struggling, and besides, what self-respecting hero can't rip a tree out of the ground with their bare hands?
As for upgrades:
[X] Upgrade an existing skill
-[X] [Enhanced Strength]
This fight would have been much easier if we'd been able to punch through the boss monster's toughness without struggling, and besides, what self-respecting hero can't rip a tree out of the ground with their bare hands?
Is there any central threadmark that keeps track of what skills Ciel has? Because I'm not seeing one and while thats fine for now, scrolling back for precise names will get annoying eventually.
For now:
[X] Upgrade an existing skill
-[X] [Enhanced Strength]
Stronk
For now:
[X] Upgrade an existing skill
-[X] [Enhanced Strength]
Stronk
Eternal_0bserver
(Unverified Bookworm)
- Location
- Earth, Northern Europe
[X] [Bulwark]. Once per scene, El can negate the force of an attack with her shield.
Watching how the enemy's ultimate attack breaks about your impenetrable barrier is always funny.
[X] Upgrade an existing skill.
-[X] [Brave Soul].
This one also sounds pretty cool.
Watching how the enemy's ultimate attack breaks about your impenetrable barrier is always funny.
[X] Upgrade an existing skill.
-[X] [Brave Soul].
This one also sounds pretty cool.
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Can we pick any existing skill to upgrade? Because [Brave Soul] exists and that'd be kind of OP.
Imagine the shock and recoil if we just negated the warhammer's momentum.
[X] [Bulwark]. Once per scene, El can negate the force of an attack with her shield
Imagine if we could've cut through his steel bones like butter.
[X] [Sharp Cut]. Once per scene, El can use her sword to cut through armor or other defenses.
Maybe enhanced strength for the mobility that comes with it, but I'm on the fence.
Imagine the shock and recoil if we just negated the warhammer's momentum.
[X] [Bulwark]. Once per scene, El can negate the force of an attack with her shield
Imagine if we could've cut through his steel bones like butter.
[X] [Sharp Cut]. Once per scene, El can use her sword to cut through armor or other defenses.
Maybe enhanced strength for the mobility that comes with it, but I'm on the fence.
- Location
- Florida
[X] Upgrade an existing skill
-[X] [Enhanced Strength]
I like keeping it simple.
-[X] [Enhanced Strength]
I like keeping it simple.
Solark
sun-chaser
Who? Is our mage cross-classing, or our calamity changing her name?
- Location
- Rochester, NY
[X] [Bulwark]. Once per scene, El can negate the force of an attack with her shield.
I loved the bit of Ciel critiquing the boss's terrible grammar! I'm also hoping all of that blood isn't directly infectious like the meat or the creatures we saw in the chapter interlude, otherwise I'd be worried for Markus. Anyways, for the skill upgrade, I like the idea of having a defensive option.
Spotted some typos:
Also as someone else mentioned, is it supposed to be Ciel's name in the vote options?
I loved the bit of Ciel critiquing the boss's terrible grammar! I'm also hoping all of that blood isn't directly infectious like the meat or the creatures we saw in the chapter interlude, otherwise I'd be worried for Markus. Anyways, for the skill upgrade, I like the idea of having a defensive option.
Spotted some typos:
next civilian to -> next civilian who
Shouldn't it be perched on top of the cavern face?
Also as someone else mentioned, is it supposed to be Ciel's name in the vote options?
- Location
- United States of America
[X] Upgrade an existing skill
-[X] [Enhanced Strength]
[X] Upgrade an existing skill
-[X] [Brave Soul].
-[X] [Enhanced Strength]
[X] Upgrade an existing skill
-[X] [Brave Soul].
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I always forget to update character sheets, so I stopped doing it a quest or so ago. I can put her skill list at the end of each chapter if that helps.
It probably wouldn't upgrade in quite as straightforward a manner as the other skills, but sure.
Can't believe I didn't notice that.
Thanks.
- Location
- california
[X] [Shield Throw]. Once per scene, Ciel can throw her shield and have it return to her grasp.
SleepyCaterpilar
Just a Rapariga
[X] Upgrade an existing skill
-[X] [Brave Soul]
-[X] [Brave Soul]
[X] Upgrade an existing skill
-[X] [Enhanced Strength]
-[X] [Enhanced Strength]