Chapter 50: Do Your Thing
byWilliam Oh once jumped on a hydra and fought a Lord on its back, riding it until the poor thing tuckered out, then he leashed it’s heads together, attached it to chariot and steered it into battle. No, I’m serious. I’m not trying to one-up you! I saw it happen…well, I may have run away before that last part.
- Abe Witzman, level 25 Tracker, 5th Floor bar.
Armguard of the Swampstalker equipped.
+2 Strength.
15% reduction in noise made traversing swamps.
10% bonus to potency of Ranger archetype Abilities.
Adds the paralytic bite of the dragon eel to projectiles fired.
Not bad. Will thought, taking it off and adding it to the ‘keep’ pile, jotting down it’s effects in Loth’s ledger and then putting the Armguard of Tracers back on.
Overall the Swampstalker was better, but it wasn’t a cornerstone of the build like the tracers were, so Will couldn’t switch them out without losing half his damage.
I’ll put them together with the spare Swampstompers.
They’d gotten new pants for Alicia, and everyone had assured her she looked fine in them. Reggie had gone so far as to say he liked her face and eyes more than anything, before June pinched him.
Admittedly they didn’t actually look as good on her, but they were Ranger pants and not Charm pants, so there wasn’t really anything anyone could do about that.
Will had gotten Travis, June, Alicia and himself some Swamp Stompers which made Will basically able to walk on water….basically. As long as there was a bit of muck, leaves, or algae in it.
Which covered a lot.
Now that everyone save Loth had Swamp Stompers, they could return to the ground and travel the old-fashioned way…assuming they were no longer being hunted by a peeved lordling.
This is just a holding action, Will thought. I need to decide what to do about the Wyrd family, who have likely figured out the name and Class of everyone on this barge.
Run away, of course, but run up the tower or run down the tower?
Running down would lower the danger in aggregate, but it would stop their growth. Gaining levels was the surest way to earn safety.
Running up would spike the danger drastically, since they would be caught between an unfamiliar land and the people hunting them-
Wait. The fifth floor is next.
From what Will had heard from Steve’s dossier, the danger of the fifth floor was pretty low…on average. The floor was a quiet, peaceful plains where you could see for miles in every direction and monsters rarely prowled.
The only downside was that when they did show up, they were several stories tall. Huge monstrosities that each individually was a raid boss in it’s own right.
They were somewhat infrequent, and Will and company could easily spot them and steer around.
The 5th floor was a game of weaving between Party-crushing encounters, and it wasn’t that hard for a Party with decent mobility.
Like ours.
Not to mention they had contacts on the fifth floor, namely Thea Oilton, who would be waiting in the city with a mercenary army meant to help them grind Kaijuu and crack the 6th floor.
I know the normal rules probably don’t apply to a lordling, but surely he’d think twice before attacking a guy with an army…surely?
As Will was thinking this, a glowing arrow descended from above and slammed into Alicia, driving her into the floor of the floating platform with a surprised squeak.
The entire platform wobbled violently causing them to all grab hold for dear life, as all that existed below was water and mucky reeds.
“Agh,” Reggie gave a pained grunt and spat up a bit of blood before the glow of Second Wind enveloped him.
“We’re under attack!” June said, scanning the horizon.
“Over there,” Alicia said, pointing. Will barely saw a smudge that looked like humans, sprinting after them across the dangerous terrain.
“We may have cleared a path for our pursuers through overhunting.” Loth mused as Alicia pulled the arrow out of her shirt and returned it to sender.
“Reggie, Pull Travis in and put the haunting ring back on. Loth, make it harder to hit us. Everybody hold on.” June said. “Alicia. Can you hit them from that distance?”
“Of course.”
“Use this,” June said, handing Alicia an arrow made of what looked like driftwood and dragon eel fang.
Alicia nodded and her bow bent to a tortured degree before snapping straight again.
June’s homemade arrow flew up in a massive arc before splitting into dozens and raining back down on the approaching party of…gods at least ten people. We are outnumbered and likely outleveled.
The arrows wobbled in flight like a school of fish swarming towards their prey, spreading out and swooping back in to hit the enemy Party from every angle, following unpredictable patterns.
“Agh!” Reggie cursed as puncture wounds opened up across his body. “Looks like Mark Wyrd is in there, and he’s not being protected from damage.”
Which made sense.
Will could barely make out the flicker of barriers being penetrated, but it didn’t look like any major harm had come to their pursuers. None of them keeled over in their tracks.
Is that a bear!?
That confirmed it: It was the same Party that had tried to attack them the first time. Were they acting on orders from Mark Wyrd the first time or were they just trying to loot some noobs?
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The point was kind of moot, because they’re working with him now.
The blood wraiths that emerged from Reggie’s wounds disappeared halfway to the enemy Party, their time-limit expired before they could even reach the distant Party.
Damn.
Clang!
Above their heads, Loth’s insects caught one of the sniper’s shots on Reggie’s tower shield.
“Everyone be prepared for a rough landing!” Loth said. “If they get within range, they can berserk my insect and we all go into the swamp.
Well, that’s less than ideal.
“What’s going on!?” Travis asked, getting a hand onto the platform from Reggie.
“We’re being attacked, don’t unhook that harness yet,” Will said, motioning to the rope around Travis’s torso.
“You think we can use him to muck up the path?” Will asked, pointing at Travis.
“…Yes. Travis, your job is to flood our path with angry monsters.” Loth said, stepping forward and kicking Travis back off the platform.
Travis screamed all the way back down, ending in a pained grunt as he hit the end of the chain. The platform rose to keep him out of range of most of the monsters while still getting their attention.
“What do you need me to do?” Mason asked.
“Keep an eye on them, and warn me when they’re about to enter your maximum range. Their debuffer and nukers likely have similar ranges, so that’s when we’ll abandon the platform.
“Screen,” June said, pointing towards a copse of withered swamp trees in the distance.
“Right. If we can make it.”
Their luggage began to spread out and move independently of the rest of the platform confusing their enemy’s eyes while obscuring nets formed between them.
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