Chapter 246: Naval Battle
by“Milord!” a grease-stained host shouted, intruding on Vincent’s limited quiet time.
He rubbed his throbbing temple and turned in his chair.
“What is it?” He asked, carefully keeping his voice neutral.
“Lookouts spotted something coming out of Steve.” The host said, thumbing over his shoulder.
“What?”
“Some kind of island?”
What? Is stuff passing through it’s digestive system unharmed now that it’s undead? That would make it hard to do what I want to do with it, Vincent thought, standing.
If the snake was shitting out all the islands he was trying to lock down so Zodiac had no place to run, then he would have to get more creative. Possibly by sticking the islands to the outside and wrapping the snake around them.
As long as they were close enough that Steve’s Cannibalize explosion would wipe them off the map, then it was fine.
It wasn’t a major problem, just an annoyance.
“It appears to be accelerating away from st-?”
Vincent was out the door before the man finished saying ‘away’.
The walls of the barge flashed past Vincent’s eyes, and he barely felt the stairs under his feet, emerging into the cold air of the 11th Floor.
“Spyglass.” Vincent said, feeling one drop into his palm.
He raised the glass to his eye and followed the pointing finger of his lookout, orienting on a twinkle of blue light.
Vincent’s mental finger was hovering over the string of Cannibalize, an instant away from vaporizing everyone on the Floor and using a Door to escape.
Wait.
Vincent saw that the Key Site was being tugged along behind the floating island, facing directly back towards Steve.
They’re wary of the explosion.
Damn. They’ve already figured it out.
Part of Vincent wanted to detonate Steve and be done with it, but he didn’t think it would have the effect he wanted if he blew it now.
Zodiac and his illusionist were probably far enough away to buy Doors and leave before the wave of flames hit them, and the people on the island might be spared by the Key Site acting as a breakwater.
It would amount to nothing. Or nearly nothing.
DAMN!
Enemies had just spent unknown hours to days inside the undead he had been proud of. Rather than be warded off, they had gone inside the damn thing, where he would’ve been able to kill them instantly…if he’d known they were there.
And now they had a shield against the Floor-wiping explosion, stolen out from his under his nose.
It was incredibly frustrating.
Vincent took a deep breath and let go of his anger, numbing the parts of his brain responsible.
Simply a move on the board. You make your, they make theirs. Anger is unproductive.
“Bring us to the island. We need to take it from them.”
“Is it Zodiac?” the host beside him asked.
“Too slow. This is someone else.” Vincent said, handing off the spyglass. “Someone who thinks they’re clever.”
In his mind, Vincent matched the aggressive, flamboyant, near-suicidal move against the other Lords that might’ve come to kill him.
Marksman would just shoot me. Or perhaps detonate Steve from a distance prematurely.
Bakton’s approach would be more balanced. He would never expose himself to that kind of risk.
Ghoul might manipulate Cannibalize itself to counter the spell.
Akul is too old for that shit.
The only people young enough to do something that stupid are the new Lords.
The only new Lords actually powerful enough to accomplish it are Carrie Envar and maybe…William Oh?
William Oh’s Stronghold is on the 10th Floor. It would likely be much easier for him to attack than it would be for Carrie Envar, whose Stronghold is on the 14th.
…It’s probably William Oh.
William Oh: Adaptable. Rogue/Ranger, Relic-focus Build with a sub in Terrain. Able to steal Relics from other Climbers, modify terrain, rumors of teleportation Abilities, Dimensional Storage, telekinesis, and unknown-yet-powerful detection Abilities.
In short, a slippery son of a bitch.
A thought occurred to Vincent.
He’s the one they told me wounded Tassos…how?
If I come after him myself, he’ll target my Relics to try and cripple my Build, and if I send a fae, he’ll likely have improved whatever technique he used to wound Tassos.
…Let’s just hit him with everything we have then, and overwhelm any fancy tricks.
Playing it conservatively would only give Wiliam Oh the ability to adapt and counter.
He had to be crushed from the onset. He might be shifty, but he wasn’t overwhelmingly strong.
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He couldn’t take everyone at once.
William Oh
World Traveler Level 55
56 + 424 Strength
168 + 296 Resistance
165 + 342 Kinesthetics
216 + 174 Acuity
110 + 207 Focus
Charges: 180/317
Free Points: 0
Non-stat Item Abilities: +30% Move/Attk, Scaling Move SpeedX2 (Kin/Res), +65% Dimensional Potency, +85% Rogue Potency, 50% A/V reduction, Ghostwalk, +40% All-radius, Homeland Advantage, +85% Detection Radius, Scaling Rogue Cooldown, 25% All Dmg Mitigation, Scaling Ranger Ability linger, +90% Ranger Potency, +40% Terrain potency, Scaling footing boost, Freedom of movement: Terrain.
Phantom Hand Slots: -(Hammer of God)- (Ring of Explosive Doughmaking) (Wand of the Undead Retainer) (Sickle of Malignant Silence) (Dimensional Coiled Serpent Amulet)
Primary Abilities: Aspect of the Immortal Serpent***, Phantom Hand*(x6), Map**
Secondary Abilities: Sourdough** Uru Drake’s Eye
Tertiary Abilities: Phantom Eye
Secondary Ability Upgrade Available!
…I could probably take everyone at once, Will thought as he studied his stats as well as the barge approaching from a distance.
The air in front of him was lensed in such a way that it made the distant barge filled with Climbers seem close enough to touch.
The problem was…
The hundred or so Climbers on the surface of the Barge, looking back at him with misplaced determination…weren’t actually infected with Norworms.
They were just stupid.
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