Chapter 195: Kill The Messenger

“Why didn’t he use his hand?” Caddock mused, thumbing his chin.

“Excuse me, sir?” His lieutenant asked.

“Why didn’t he use his Phantom Hand, one of the Abilities that he is most famous for…while fighting us?”

“I…don’t know?” The man was fine at relaying orders, but not so great at thinking.

“Did you know he can counterspell with it? According to reports he literally slaps the Charge out of his opponent before it properly activates. He was using his superior speed to stay ahead of the cursemonger’s activation time for a few seconds, and he did a lot of damage during that time. If he’d had his hand with him, he might’ve fought us to a standstill.”

“…And?”

“That means it’s not with him. If he had it, he would’ve used it. So it’s somewhere else, doing something else. What the Abyss is he doing with it?”

Is it just a trick to make me second-guess myself or did he predict I would target it and is using the Ability somewhere I can’t reach?

Where could it be that it could affect us, but we couldn’t affect it?

William Oh liked to use his Phantom Hand for ranged attacks from unexpected angles to supplement his guerilla fighting style. If it were hundreds of miles away, though, it wouldn’t be able to hit anything due to distance and the curvature of the land.

Even if it shot things straight up into the sky, then took advantage of a Ring of Accuracy to make it self-correct, making a sort of artillery, that still limited the range to a few miles, because projectiles would eventually lose speed and come to a halt because of wind resistance.

There was a maximum arc.

And at only a few miles away, it would be easy to have Orev teleport a specialist over to deal with the hand.

So where could it be?

Caddock had been through the Ninth Floor, same as anyone, and he’d even discussed the young lord’s theory about ‘the language of battle’ a decade ago, back when he’d first coined it. He had a decent sense for it.

This whole time, it felt like William Oh was saying that he had put them on a countdown, biding his time until the moment he rained destruction down on them.

Caddock paused.

Ranged attacks from unexpected angles. Rain destruction down?

Caddock stepped outside his command tent and peered up into the sky.

***William Oh***

“Hey, buddy, how you feeling?” Reggie’s voice cut through the haze, his tone reminiscent of how one might talk to a dog after it’d eaten something rotten and made itself sick.

The voice gave will a thread to tug on and he kept pulling on it until his eyes opened, staring at the dirt his nose was resting against.

At least I can see that.

“Feeling…Not…Great.” Will said, wincing as his voice shook the earth.

“How big did I…” Will propped himself up, hissing in pain at the cut on the back of his neck, where someone had taken a serious stab at removing his head.

If he hadn’t been wearing the ring of explosive doughmaking, he might be dead.

Sourdough.

86 Charges remaining.

Will took a healing potion out from the pocket inside his armor and downed it, the line of fire across the back of his neck sealing itself.

“How big did I get?” Will asked, trying to see Reggie through the blue haze.

“Stand up and find out.” Reggie said from somewhere beneath him.

Wait, I’m just propped up on my elbow.

Will staggered to his feet, trying to prop himself up on a nearby bush and causing the thing to shake precariously.

Phantom Eye.

85 Charges remaining.

Will put the eye on his forehead and looked down.

“Oh, wow.” Will said, staring down at Reggie. The Tank was about the size of his foot, if you stood it on its heel.

Speaking of… why is my foot naked? Will thought, wiggling his toes.

“…THAT SON OF A BITCH ROBBED ME!”

“Worse than that.” Reggie said, taking his hands off his ears. He destroyed your Relics soon as they came off to permanently cripple your Build.”

“Oh no, that bangle I gave you to remember me by!” Loth gasped, emerging from the bushes with his hammer.

Yeah, that one stings a bit. Most of Will’s kit had been made in a day and he didn’t have any particular attachment to the Build…but the bangle had been something he wanted to keep. One-hand items were rare.

“Gave me?” Will asked, accepting the Hammer of Shockwaves between thumb and forefinger. It grew in his grip until it felt right in his hands. “I distinctly recall getting scalped on that one.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Eh.” Loth shrugged.

“How’s Jean?” Will asked, turning his attention to the more pressing issue.

“She’s fine. Jason used Withering Repudiation to unstick her brain.”

“It can do that?” Will asked.

“Seems to be the case.” Loth said. “She’s hidden again and recovering. I’ve got Jason there with her just in case.”

“We can’t use her again until we account for those cursemongers.”

“Yes. Which is why he’s going to tuck them away for a rainy day and switch tactics now that he knows your Build is broken. Expect more direct damage to come your way. You remember the Nuker?”

The last time he’d fought Caddock there’d been an extremely powerful Nuker on standby waiting for him to weaken enough to erase him from existence in a coup-de-grace.

“He’s really predictable, isn’t he?” Will asked.

“If making sound strategic moves makes you predictable, then yes.” Loth said.

This engagement hamstrung one of my options while opening up new options for my enemy. The very definition of good strategy.

And here I am, 20 feet tall, visible above the treetops from miles away. The perfect target for a long-range Nuker with a damage chain to prevent his heavy nuker from being killed by the backsplash.

And without my Phantom hand or the snakes to harry her from a distance, I’m a sitting duck. How long until Caddock gets back to his people and deploys his heavy firepower now that it doesn’t run the risk of getting fried by Thorns? Minutes?

“…We should be running.”

“Indeed.” Loth said, taking a step forward. Will grabbed Loth and set her on his shoulder.

“Anybody else want a ride?”

Everyone raised their hands.

Will dropped Mason beside Loth, Reggie and Alicia on his left shoulder.

“Here we go.”

Loth let out a whoop as Will lunged forward, the ground rippling under his feet as he flew forward, each stride consuming over thirty feet.