Chapter 85: Spoils of War Pt. 2

“Punth me in the fathe.” Reggie said around the mouthguard.

“I believe you.” Will said, holding his hands up. “Just because it says it reduces damage to your nervous system doesn’t mean there won’t be any. I’m not gonna give you brain damage to test it.”

“Aw heck, I’ll do it,” Bee said, stepping forward and winding up a tiny fist.

“Wait, Bee-“

There was a small explosive sound as the shapeshifter’s fist hit the Tank’s jaw at superhuman speeds, sending the oversized young man bouncing away like a child’s soccer ball. Will winced in sympathy as Reggie finally hit the ground, limbs tangled and dirty.

A moment later, Reggie coughed and groaned, putting his arms and legs under him before staggering to his feet.

“WHOOO!” Reggie exclaimed, while Loth sighed and shook her head.

“Your jaw, skull, brain and spine are unharmed.” Alicia whispered, holding up Reggie’s arm like the victor of a particularly nasty street fight. “The rest of you…”

“Wait, I didn’t get my hips in it, lemme try agai-“ Bee began.

“Absolutely not,” Jean said, dragging her repressed anger away by the ear.

‘Jean’ was complicated. They had originally met her on the third floor under the name ‘Brianna’, where she had been the victim of a plot to engineer living weapons. The abuse she had suffered at the hands of her captors had led her to use her Ability to split to break her emotions off into manageable chunks, which led to the creation of Bee, Ria, Anna, and Jean.

Bee had gotten a little less outburst-y now that she knew what she was mad about, but she was still a bit of a wild card.

Ria had gotten quieter and less brash, seemingly still in the process of absorbing the root of her burning desire for justice, and the fact that she would never have it. Even now she sat in the corner of the warehouse, sharpening her halberd and staring into space.

Anna was more active, the chubby blonde cheerfully cooking and baking for the group, putting on a façade and keeping herself busy so she didn’t have an opportunity to think about things too deeply.

Each of them were working through feelings that had been cut out of Brianna by her tougher, older alter ego Jean, feelings that would cripple a normal person’s mind.

And they were now a part of William Oh’s Party.

Why do I do this to myself?

From Will’s understanding, their stats were identical:

Bee/Ria/Anna/Jean Baker

One Man Army Level 32

160 Strength

64 Kinesthetics

150 Resistance

10 +15 Focus

32 Acuity

Charges: 25/25

Free Points: 0

Primary Abilities: Ex Uno Plures***, Regeneration***

Secondary Abilities: Shapeshifting*, Hivemind

Item Abilities: Total Freedom

The Tangled, the brainchild of a mad Lord obsessed with power, was designed to be the perfect footsoldier.

Strong, hardy, and cheap.

Strong, because she had 5 Strength growth, which was outrageous.

Hardy, because her Resistance was equal to a Tanks, and any damage she did sustain was healed in a matter of heartbeats.

All at the expense of Focus and Acuity.

Any Focus in her status was purchased with Free Points as she had no natural growth for the stat. From what Will had heard of her time spent on the seventh Floor, she’d been directed to only put seven points into Focus to achieve daily charges, and all the rest went into Resistance. The last three points into Focus had been after she escaped, determined to ward off the Handler’s control.

Finally, Tangled were cheap because they could copy themselves infinitely, and each copy gained the benefits of the original body’s Relic slots, making them insanely inexpensive to deploy en masse relative to a typical army.

Will knew they shared Relic effects because Jean had been wearing the ring of Total Freedom, but Bee had been impossible to grapple or restrain when Will fought her, above and beyond what her shapeshifting could account for.

And all of them had more resistance to mental effects than their base stats would account for, allowing them to avoid the worst of the Handlers signal for Tangled to begin attacking the city. Again, because of the Ring of Freedom.

And from what Will had seen in Oilton, each of them could split an extra copy of themselves up to three times a day. And those copies could do the same.

There were many caveats to this, but worst case scenario, Jean could spread across the land like wildfire, exterminating all life in The Tower, if she really put her mind to it.

Thankfully she did not.

But she could.

Will did not bring this up in casual conversation. Especially not where Bee might hear him.

Tangled were cataclysms in the making. They were nearly as powerful as a Lord, save for their built-in weakness to mental attacks.

They were strong, tough, easy to transport and deploy in large numbers, and…

Can they count as two hundred residents in a settlement, bypassing one of the steps required to gain Lordship? Will thought, eyes widening.

The Tower wouldn’t let people exploit the system like that…

Will’s entire experience Climbing flashed in front of his eyes.

Okay, maybe it would.

Will glanced over at Loth, whose insects could construct fortifications and traps in a matter of minutes. If they could produce those, surely they could make houses as well. Enough to make a ‘settlement’, anyway. Get a few hundred tangled copies ‘living’ there…could he fool The Tower?

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

…Could I bypass the majority of the requirements?

That’s assuming a lot. Best not bank on my hairbrained idea being correct.

Even if that were the case, he still needed a dozen people willing to make him their Lord.

Will glanced around his Party. Mason and Loth had their own plans for the future, and likely wouldn’t be interested. Alicia might, given that she couldn’t become a Lord. June might become his vassal if she smelled a big paycheck.

Reggie just wanted to wait out his Contract and be done with it…although his attitude towards climbing had relaxed somewhat. Still, it couldn’t be fun being the surrogate risk-taker of the group.

Steve their Healer liaison, might swear fealty.

Travis…Travis probably wouldn’t be interested in being the vassal of someone he perceived as being lower-born than himself.

Still, in a vacuum, if Will could convince Alicia to become his Vassal, Travis might follow suit.

Jean had been Frederick Wyrd’s Vassal, giving him an extra measure of control over her until his death. She couldn’t be a Lord in her own right anymore, but would she be interested in subordinating herself to anyone ever again? Unlikely.

What does that give me? Five at best?

Will glanced back at the pile of expensive loot.

Thea was right. He needed bribes and expensive Relics to lubricate the attitudes of other Climbers toward throwing their lot in with an untested boy as a Lord.

It wasn’t like he could just get so famous that people would pop up out of the woodwork eager to…

…Or could I?

Will was an urban legend, winner of the yearly tournament and savior of the city.

They were building a statue of him on the islet in the center of the city.

I need to talk to Thea and Loth.

“Jean.” Loth said, holding out an amulet. It seemed to be made of burnished steel depicting some kind of spiked collar. “This one’s for you.”

Jean took the amulet and studied it.

“Amulet of the potent beastmaster?” Jean mused.

Amulet of the Potent Beastmaster

+10 Focus

+5 Acuity

Living creatures created, summoned, or controlled by the wearer’s Abilities receive a 10% boost to their stats.