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.”

“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.

Will mentally checked the regrowing fingers on his Phantom Hand. He’d gotten some sleep before things had spiraled out of control, and it felt like they only had three days left until they finished overwriting the previous Relics.

Once that happened, Will could slot Hammer of God and match Caddock’s best Nuker easily.

How to buy three days? Will thought as they rapidly gained distance from the battlefield.

I could take off the colossus armor, shrink down and hide in the outskirts of the Floor for the next couple days. That would give me the opportunity to find some kit to replace what I lost.

Pros: Relatively safe. Caddock will have to spread his forces thin just to find me.

Cons: Giving him the opportunity to do as he pleases. No longer have the bloody colossus armor equipped.

The second option: take his Set back from Jason and go back on the offensive. Maybe glass a fort or two.

Will pictured himself sailing miles above the fort, creating an enormous lens and…A bolt of lightning from a clear sky turns him to char.

He still remembered the distant mountainside rendered into glass in the blink of an eye.

I don’t know where his nuker is, and glassing a fort takes a lot longer for me than it would take for her to find me and take me out.

His technique of glassing a castle was effictive against fae without any long-range abilities, and used his Phantom Hand to fold the dough and push troublesome ants back in.

Without those two things, it was significantly less effective than it might otherwise have been.

That reduced Will’s safe options to using his Set to harry the edges of Caddock’s territory.

It might work.

There was probably a lot of overlap between the ones who’d taken down Jean, and the ones who could nullify his Phantom Hand.

If that was the case, a lot of them were probably sequestered in a handful of Caddock’s main forts, not patrolling the wilderness on the edge of their territory.

But it’s not that different than just running into the wilderness, and if I take Jason’s kit, what will he wear?

Will briefly thought of asking Jason to use the Family Gathering Set to cast Withering Repudiation on an entire fort, suffocating a thousand Climbers under psychic damage without damaging any of the infrastructure.

They could grab enough kit and supplies to last another year, let alone three days.

It felt wrong.

Jason truly seemed to believe that Will was some kind of hero of legend, and the prospect of leveraging that belief to turn the kid into a mass-murderer didn’t sit right.

It would tarnish that golden sheen over Jason’s eyes when he looked at Will.

Haah.

Option #3: A bluff. Claim that I want to meet for negotiations in a few days.

Pro: it would be a relatively straightforward way of buying time, and it might even get several key players together at one time.

Con: Not a goddsdamned chance that either of us would act in good faith. We would both be walking into traps, and whoever’s was better would win.

And in the meantime it isn’t like he’d stop hunting me. if he could catch me before the ‘meeting’, it would be a non-issue. I would basically just be telling him when Hammer of God is going to be ready.

…How about some combination therof?

Have Brianna go out into the wilds and kill monsters, ferrying any relics they drop back to me. I harry the outskirts, and someone else delivers a message to meet for negotiations in three days?

Will glanced at Mason on his shoulder.

A trapped message.

“Hey Mason, how’s your Charge?”

“Thirty, so…not great. One, maybe two more pitched battles, if I keep it light.”

“How many Bees are you carrying?”

“…A lot.”

“How would you like to deliver a message?” Will asked the tiny Nuker on his shoulder.

“Is it gonna be dangerous?”

“Probably.”

“I’m in.”

**Caddock**

“Sir!” Caddock’s lieutenant broke his concentration, but he was used to it. He set aside his map and turned his gaze to the excitable young man.

“How’d it go, did Ms. Glasswind catch his tail?”

“Uh, no, sir, they sent us a messenger.”

Caddock raised a brow.

It’s obviously a trick.

“It’s a trick. Kill him.”

“Well, sir, he’s got Binding chains on and he’s a Lanover, so…”

That rich family from outside the Ring?

Caddock sighed and picked his sword up off the desk and strode outside, where the gangly young man with pearlescent skin was being secured by a warrior with a firm grip on his Binders. The messenger wasn’t wearing any Kit, just a tunic and trousers, seemingly trying to make himself appear as unthreatening as possible.

“Greetings, High Paladin, I am- ACK!”

Caddock whipped his sword completely through the young man’s upturned hands and the neck beyond it.

There was a black cracking tear in the young man’s skin, like he’d cut through a massive piece of mother-of-pearl, but no blood, and neither his head nor hands toppled to the ground. They were seemingly held on by the void inside him.

Caddock leaned up close to the messenger’s neck and peered into the void, spotting nothing but endless black.

Some kind of remote-control doll, or are his organs safe at home?

“I imagine you’ll be a pain in the ass to kill.” Caddock said, placing the tip of his sword under the effeminate young man’s nose. He’d never seen this particular passive defense, and he wasn’t inclined to waste his time trying to figure it out.

“That would be a fair assessment.” Mason Lanover acknowledged.

“Probably can slip out of those Binders anytime you want, too…” Caddock mused before he turned and bellowed. “GET ME A CONTRACT MAGE!” They at least should have him enter a Contract to be on his best behavior while he was a hostage.

“Alright, since I can’t kill you, what’s the message?” He asked, turning his attention back to the nobleson.

“William Oh would like to meet you for a negotiation in a week. He figures that if you can’t kill him by then, you might as well get together and have a talk.”

“You can choose the location the day of, and indicate your presence with a flag with your heraldry, and he will meet you there, but he will take whatever steps he feels are necessary to ensure his safety.”

“A week, huh?” Caddock asked, eyes narrowing. Is that how long he actually needs, or is it a bluff?

“…Three days.”

The skinny young man gave a helpless shrug. “I can’t…relay that information for him?”

“I’ll find a way to let him know.” Caddock said, motioning for them to take the nuker away.