Travis Gardin
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Chapter 12: Spears
🕑 Added 2024-09-28 02:00:04 +0000 UTC“So, what did we learn?” Henry asks the group as we recover, regenerate and reload. He's taking on a coach role.
Madeline was pulling the dragon man's chest and shoulder armor over her head. Once it was on it resized to her. Well that was neat. She also took the greatsword and sheathed it on her back. The tip scraped the ground.
Sky Dragon Steel Armor. The metal this armor is made of is incredibly strong, but also fairly light for its defensive power. It's a miracle metal that's like aluminum, but better, and shinier. As this is magical armor, it automatically resizes to the wearer, assuming you can get it on over your head.
Sky Dragon Steel Greatsword. Is this sword great? Yeah, it is. It's a bit lighter than it should be, but not enough to cut down on its cleaving power. The sword is enchanted with durability and sharpness runes. You know about magic gear, right? No? Maybe take the Enchanter class, then.
I respond to Henry's question. “I learned that your hair can burn even when it's under your helmet.” I am currently bereft of facial hair due to the up close scorching. Kailani used a chant to heal up my extra crispy facial skin.
Quins tries next. “I learned that bloke has got some pep in his step that we weren't made privy to.”
“Right,” says Henry. “The briefing didn't tell us these things were bulletproof. And they said they were slow, and didn't mention wings.”
Mercy, quickly becoming an expert in Dracosys stuff, confirmed. “The dungeon evolved them to negate the troops' previous tactics against the dragon men.”
I use Ki Cloth Weaving to restore my uniform. It's a technique that fixes clothes after a fight. When I got it I was pissed, since it didn't help during battle. Now I appreciate it.
“Bullet proof takes half of us out of the fight,” Cappy said. Her FN P90 sub machine gun had ripped through the previous floor's lizard men, and she looks dejected as she admits her new powerlessness.
We talk it through. Jeff the magic falcon hadn't done anything. Henry's shotgun hadn't made a dent. Scarlett and Kailani had rifles which were mere annoyances.
On the upside, Henry had his aura up, which covered everyone in a Toughness-increasing effect. It might have saved Quins and Mercy's lives. Jose could still level heavy shots at the dragon man and do damage and stun. Parker's Ki enhanced shots did damage but she could only do them intermittently. Apparently her Stylish Swashbuckler subclass lets her not use KP if she switches up attacks. Rutger's spells hit just fine, though we suspect these things are immune to fire and light. Quins could probably use exploding arrows to do damage, but not if we're in close quarters with the foe. Mercy, Madeline and I were the only ones who really did damage in that fight. Sheer physical strength was going to be our strategy going forward.
And yet... I can't help but feel like I could probably kill everything on this floor by myself. I've been holding back. I've been trying to be a team player, a leader rather than a one man army. I let the others lead the way on the 6th floor. The 7th floor was a team effort because of the sheer numbers involved, but if I'd just flung around 15 telekinetic weapons it probably would have been fine. The 8th floor was all breech and clear, but with my radar telling me exactly where enemies were, I honestly didn't need anyone watching my back.
So now we're here. Fighting things tougher than before and half of us are useless and I could stomp these dragon men alone and I just can't. Not if I'm leading. Not if I want a team to be at my side. And deep down, that is what I want. What got me through cave R-32 was a team. What kept me in the army when I knew I didn't belong was the comradery. What draws me to tabletop RPGs as opposed to video game RPGs is the teamwork, the people by your side.
So this is what I want. Now how do I make it work? Swords? Swords and spears? Could work.
I shift to Lunar Mind(!) and teal crystal samurai armor shapes around me, followed by five katana and five spears.
Crescent Moon Gear
Exotic
Create samurai and ninja equipment from Lunar crystal.
Range: 10 ft
Cost: 7.5 Arcana Points/10 minutes
Proficiency: 49%
Huh. I figure I can give weapons to others but I wonder if... Samurai armor appears around Parker and then snaps into place on her.
“Woah,” is all she says, and seems to marvel at the gauntlets, shoulder plates, chest piece and armored skirt. She takes off her helmet. The Lunar crystal plates have attached to her Pathbreakers helmet, forming a hybrid of samurai and modern military design.
I gear up the others, though Henry's George Washington hat prevents him from also having a samurai hat. Apparently double hats are fine but triple hats are not. I give a spear to Kailani, Cappy, Parker, Henry and Scarlett. I try and succeed to make Lunar arrows, and hand a handful to Quins. He has a gleam in his eye as he takes them from me.
The new formation is thus: I'm in front. Mercy is a 15 feet to my left, Madeline 15 to my right. Ten feet back from me is our spear line, there to step up or back as needed. Behind them our snipers. This is old school military shit. I lure the guy in, Madeline and Mercy come in to flank, the spears prevent his advance, I prevent his escape.
With our new plan and formation, we march down the hall into another intersection where a dragon man is sitting down, seeming to meditate.
I hear Quins's bow string pull back and Jose shoulder his rifle, but I hold up a fist to stop them from firing.
I step forward alone, entering within 30 feet of the dragon paladin. His sword is placed carefully in front of him on the floor. His head is down. He looks serene.
“We don't have to fight,” I say, confident but not threatening.
“Yes,” she says in a slightly feminine but raspy voice. “We do.” She raises her head to look at me. Her wings extend back, her hand reaches for her greatsword. I pull my five katana to my side.
Time seems to halt. The silence of the dragon temple seems oppressive. The vast empty space seeming to call out for great battles to be fought here. I can feel the tension as we both wait to strike. Both of us waiting for her to lift her sword. Both of us knowing that the other is offering dignity in this fight.
She grasps her sword and her wings flap, hurtling her forward, low to the ground. Her greatsword flashes with gold Ki and I send three katana to meet it. She slashes out at my blades, batting them away, but that's what I was hoping for. I use the split second after her swing to slash forward with two more katana, each cutting diagonally down at her wings. The blades make long cuts into the leathery flesh. She barrels into me and I take the shoulder charge in my stomach, digging my feet in and bringing all of my 163 Strength to bear as I grab her horns and push back, slowing her charge to a stop.
Mercy's naginata and Madeline's new greatsword slash down from the right and left. The paladin whips her tail left to knock Mercy back and tries to parry Madeline. The greatsword vs greatsword clash rings out, and Madeline has the upper hand, cleaving down with her weight behind her swing. The dragon pushes up, grinding her feet into the ground, and I leap back without attacking, to her surprise. Quins and Jose loose attacks. Lightning and moonlight strike the dragoness in both legs and she falls. The spears come forward and stab mercilessly. The people using them aren't strong enough to make pure thrusts into dragon scaled flesh, but their Lunar spears are sharp enough to leave long cuts as they scrape along the paladin's body.
The dragon woman breathes fire straight down and the flames shoot out in all directions, pushing us back. Pushing most of us back. Quins and Jose fire again as she stands up, covered in her own white flames. These shots are aimed at her elbows and her hands then drop to her sides. Mercy and Madeline step in again, chopping from both sides and their blows cut deep into her arms. Her head rolls back as her cumulative wounds begin to take her down. I step behind her, call all five of my katanas to me, and then come down with five slashes which all meet at her head, splitting her open like a watermelon.
We take a minute to check that we're all okay, and then move on. We move forward and kill the next two dragon men without much trouble. Maybe if they respawn they'll have resistance to Lunar element weapons. But for now, my Crescent Moon Gear is working like a charm.
“We need diversity training,” I say after the 5th dragon paladin.
Madeline says, “I'm pretty sure that's not what you mean.”
“Yeah, I need more diversity.” Madeline looks at me like I'm missing the obvious thing, which makes me grasp the obvious thing. “Sorry, I mean tactically. Each of you has basically one thing you're really good at. But clearly that's not enough for the higher difficulty areas. We need to be flexible and adaptable.”
Both Jose and Quins shoot their hands up like they're in class. I scowl at them and say, “and shooting different bullets or arrows doesn't count.” They both slowly lower their hands. “From now on, when you hit level ten in a class and can choose a new one, you come to me and get a consult. We'll think about not just making you stronger, but our teams stronger too.”
I get nods of agreement from almost everyone. Henry is the holdout. “Can we decline your advice?” he asks.
He's quite the individualist for someone in the military. I sigh. “Yeah, so long as you accept the consequences of your choices, I'm fine with it.” He nods and gets back in the spear line.
We cut down the remaining eight dragon paladins. (I can't say dragon men because three were women.) This takes only about 45 minutes. Most of that time is spent walking the giant temple and finding the damn dragons. After we kill dragon person number 13, we hear the grinding of stone coming from the north side of the temple. We head over and, like we'd heard, the stairs to the 10th floor only appear when the 9th is cleared out.
For our trouble now Henry, Parker and Kailani are all wearing Sky Dragon Steel Armor. Which is good because I can't afford the AP cost of armoring everyone forever. Henry and Parker took greatswords that they swear they'll use after they raise their Strength. The real prizes were the two ability scrolls we got.
Ability Scroll Of Dragon Edge. Teaches the technique “Dragon Edge.”
Ability Scroll Of Dragon Tackle. Teaches the technique “Dragon Tackle.”
We'd seen both moves in action. Dragon Tackle was the high speed shoulder tackle, where the user's shoulder was covered in Ki flames for extra impact. Dragon Edge gave extra unexpected speed to a slash, and was able to be used in a split second, making it doubly hard to predict and stop.
After much debate, Dragon Tackle went to Parker and Dragon Edge went to Mercy. Parker would be able to leverage her high speed sliding technique with the shoulder tackle, giving her a solid melee option she didn't have to drop her rifle for. Mercy reluctantly took Dragon Edge because she didn't actually have any techniques. Her Costume Witch class kept giving her costumes upgrades, but those upgrades weren't actual techniques. Now she could combine those costume attacks with Ki for better results.
We all surround the stairs down. I'm keeping Lunar armor on those who need it, but we're going back to guns for this next encounter. Since nobody's killed the dragon on the 10th floor, it shouldn't be adapted against bullets. Yeah, it's just a regular monster that whole squads have died to. Nothing to be concerned about.
From below we hear the beating of heavy wings and a mighty roar. Alright then. Here be dragon.
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Jun's Lunar (ice/earth) Spells
Lunar Trap
Exotic
Create crystal spikes or moonlight wires to cut and stab unaware foes.
Range: 50 ft
Duration: 1 hour
Cost: 1 Arcana Point
Proficiency: 65%
Crescent Moon Gear
Exotic
Create samurai and ninja equipment from Lunar crystal.
Range: 10 ft
Cost: 7.5 Arcana Points/10 minutes
Proficiency: 49%
Eclipse Beam
Exotic
Fire a Lunar energy beam.
Range: 50 ft
Cost: 1 Arcana Point/second
Proficiency: 118%
Moon Crash
Exotic
Summon a crystal moon that breaks upon taking damage. The pieces home in on the origin of the attack, pelting them with chunks of solid crystal.
Range: Infinite
Duration: 30 seconds
Cost: 50 Arcana Points
Proficiency: 4%
Lunar Dragon Breath
Exotic
Breathe out pure Lunar energy in a wide cone or narrow beam.
Range: 50 ft or 100 ft
Area: 50 ft cone or 10 ft beam
Cost: 25 Arcana Points
Proficiency: 7%
