Chapter 114: Dangerous as They Say

Boots of the Returning Hero

+5 Resistance

+3 Focus

Allies of the wearer of these boots can perceive their footfalls at triple the range, and more easily locate their position.

What? Will thought, frowning. Your allies…can hear you coming better? That sounded vaguely useful to coordinate stealth operations with multiple operatives, but Will didn’t quite understand why they would be called ‘of the returning hero’.

Well, they grant Focus, and that’s what I need right now, Will shrugged, beginning the laborious process of tying the boots one-handed.

I may just need to find another Ring of the Eidolon, because this is awful. The ability to touch things with Phantom Hand had been taken for granted for a while now.

I do have another Primary Upgrade available, Will thought as he finished the knot. I wonder-

Will frowned, head rearing up.

It was too quiet.

The distant sound of shouting and soldiers searching buildings had unobtrusively faded into the background of his awareness over the last few minutes, then it had dwindled to nothing over the last few seconds.

Ability!

Will clapped his arms over his head and neck.

**Caddock**

“Hit it.”

The Nuker beside him nodded, and an instant later, the abandoned water tower exploded into flames and shrapnel.

One particularly stubborn piece of garbage went flying to the east, trailing smoke as it flew.

“Knock it down.” Caddock said. He didn’t want it flying far.

BOOM!

An explosion directly above William Oh drove him straight down, sending the deceiver crashing through the roof of a nearby home.

“I don’t like that building blocking my view.” Caddock mused.

The Nuker nodded, and a moment later, the houses walls exploded outward, a detonation from the Deceiver’s exact entry point, clearing the view while driving their quarry further straight down.

“Lock him down.” A little paralysis will do us some good.

Their cursemage nodded and a flicker of charge sang through their body before the effect leapt across the way towards the destroyed building.

An instant later, Caddock felt a strange vibration of Charge through the air.

“He countered it.”

“He did what?”

“The charge just, pbbbblt.” The Cursemage blew a raspberry.

Caddock’s eye twitched. The dossier did not say anything about him being able to counterspell. Caddock thought sourly.

William Oh was incredibly hard to pin down because he was a jack of all trades, and leveraged it beautifully.

He was a bit slower than their scouts of equal level, but he fought better, so he lured them away from their warriors to kill the scouts. Caddock had ordered them not to chase him beyond a certain distance from their backup…but people got caught up in the heat of battle.

William wasn’t as good at fighting as their dedicated Warriors and Tanks of equal level, so he simply never fought them, instead pelting them with stolen ammunition from a distance whenever he had the chance.

Their Nukers could do decent damage if they could pin them down, but William Oh was nearly as tough as a Tank and squirrelly as an orchard, and he had a tendency to use Caddock’s men as human shields.

Thankfully the boy only had one hand so all he could do was launch bullets from a makeshift sling, rather than anything more dangerous.

I can scarcely believe how long this bastard has been dodging us.

Seven HOURS ago they’d closed the net around Basalt, and after the first hour of playing hide-and-seek, the Tower’s light had dwindled to nothing for the night, plunging the town into complete darkness.

Caddock had done night operations many times and knew that anyone with Acuity below thirty or so would have trouble navigating at night, and plenty of their men fell below that mark.

Anyone above sixty Acuity could see in the night clear as day, and anyone above one hundred could practically see with their ears, nose, and skin.

Most of his scout’s Acuity lay between thirty and fifty.

The 4th floor was a Ranger’s playground, but there were very few scouts above level 25, since the Sixth Floor had a high death rate for scouts, especially land-based Rangers who found themselves trapped on a floating box, their survival dependent on their crewmates and not their own obsolete survival skills.

 Hell, my Nukers can see better than a lot of these scouts.

“Should we move in?” Hiro asked, looking at the ruined building, eager for a second chance at proving himself against the deceiver ever since he’d learned who they were chasing.

Good way for the kid to make us look like a bunch of bumbling idiots again. I need to do something about his maneuverability. Take away his places to hide.

“…He’s not there anymore. Is everyone out of the town now?” Caddock asked.

“Yessir.”

“Burn it down.” Caddock said, motioning expansively to the town. “Pull everyone out to the outskirts and burn it.”

By morning there wouldn’t be any places to run or hide, or William Oh would be burnt to a crisp. Either outcome would satisfy Caddock.

Hiro frowned but did not question, heading to relay his orders to the rest of the army.

It was a matter of seconds before their logistician, a pencil-pusher of some political affiliation or other who coordinated supplies between his army and the church, came to a sliding halt in front of him.

“Milord Paladin, this is-“ At a glance from Caddock the man lowered his voice and minded his tone.

“This is a town of substantial financial interest for the church, we can’t-”

Caddock seized the political appointee by the scruff of his neck and pointed at the mountain.

“That was the primary financial interest of the church, and the Deceiver already destroyed it. when this is reported, they’ll send an army of engineers to repair it, an army to whom rebuilding a town will be an afterthought.”

“…Sir.”

“So far you’ve done a good job keeping everyone fed, clothed and bandaged, but if you ever tell me what I can’t do, and it doesn’t have anything to do our supplies…I will fong you. Is that understood?”

The logistician nodded vigorously.

“LIGHT THIS PLACE UP!” Caddock bellowed, turning away from him.

**William Oh**

I’m almost offended, Will thought sourly, watching from the eve of a nearby building, clinging to the underside like a bat as he plucked splinters out of his skin. Will didn’t get very many splinters anymore, his skin was nearly as hard as the wood itself.

It took getting blasted through a building by Conflagration to get them nowadays. The burns from the explosions didn’t really hurt either, thanks to his stolen armor.

He’d been hoping for the commander to tromp into the ruins of the building and poke around a bit, shaking his fist at the heavens while he impotently cursed Will’s name. It wouldn’t have improved his situation, but it would’ve given Will some much-needed props for the skin-of-his teeth escape.

But instead, he bellowed ‘light this place up!’ and walked away.

At first, Will naively thought he meant to scatter lamps, torches and Abilities around the town to better see Will moving around in the dark.

But then a squad of protected Nukers started lighting buildings on fire, including the one Will was in.

Damnit, Will thought, wincing as he climbed through the window and dove through the empty building, aiming for the window into the alley nearby.

Will skidded to a halt as he spotted a bowl of cold soup and a plate of baklava left there by the evacuated civilians.

Will shrugged and wolfed the unexpected snack down before continuing on his way. It was only afterwards that poison occurred to him, but Aspect of the Goat made that not a concern…probably.

Will jumped out of the burning house and began working his way towards the outskirts of town.

Will could see where this was going. They were going to flatten the entire town to take away his ability to hide. If he retreated to the outskirts, they would prod him back into the flames or outright kill him.

If he retreated further up the mountain the town was perched on, they would close the net tighter around him, giving him less options in the future.

There were no good choices.

If…I still had zero Charge.

Will had regained two, with another on the way.

What can I do with one Charge?

Will could use Sourdough once, or Dimensional Storage once…or Phantom Eye.

…That’s it?

Will sat and thought about it and he really did only have three active Abilities. And Sourdough only provided future benefit.

That future benefit had already come and gone as the Fireball beads he’d saved during the 5th Floor tournament had already been used to save his skin tonight.

Sourdough was meant for when he had plenty of charges and plenty of time. Now he was running dangerously low on both of those things.

Will assessed his Phantom Hand’s slotted Relics.

Wand of the Undead Retainer is ready, but I can’t afford to summon one, and even if I did, their combat prowess isn’t exceptional. Stevie couldn’t get me out of here by himself.

Stormfists are still on cooldown for another 18  hours or so…

Cold Harvest, what he had on currently, had kept Will going during this long game of keepaway, restoring the myriad small wounds he took, preventing them from slowing him down and getting him killed. Additionally, the freezing effect made the warhammer brutally effective in close combat. He’d taken multiple scouts down with a bit of kicked gravel and a single swing.

Ring of accuracy…

Will frowned. He hadn’t thought about the ring of accuracy in a long time. Ever since he’d left behind the gauntlets of Tracer Fire and the Sting Ring that formed a soft-set with it, he hadn’t paid too much attention to the effect slotted in Phantom Hand.

Will checked its effects.

Ring of accuracy*

+15 Strength

8 degrees of correction.

Manhunter: When a creature is struck by a projectile from the wearer, they are drawn toward the shooter along the path of the projectile. Force scales with Strength.

 Eight degrees of correction, that means it changes its orientation by eight degrees toward the target every 10 yards.

That was pretty damn good. 100 yards of flight would allow nearly a ninety degree turn.

If I wanted to punch a hole through their net, I’d have to do it from a distance. Suddenly, without warning, and with brutal effectiveness.

I think I remember something…

Frowning, Will reached into his pocket and pulled out all the rings he’d looted off the scouts he’d picked off recently. Any of the ones he’d had time to loot before their friends chased him off, anyway.

Ring of softstep

+3 kinesthetics

+3 Strength

Movement speed is increased by 10%, and the wearer’s footsteps are muted when in a wooded area.

Nope. Will flicked to the next one.

Ring of Accuracy

+3 kinesthetics

1 degree of correction

Nope.

Ring of Satiation

+3 resistance

-1 Focus

1/7th of the Wearer’s hunger and thirst are negated.

Nope. Wonder if there’s a stronger version of that that prevents eating entirely? Climbers wouldn’t use it though. It would be sacrificing combat potential, which Climbers were loath to do.

Next.

Ring of Snaring

+3 Focus

Projectiles shot by the wearer are held in place for a short time after they hit their target. potency scales with Focus.

…Huh. It says the projectiles are held in place, not the target. A nice little runaround a target’s resistance to magical effects.

Will could picture a hunter shooting a barbed arrow into their target, the arrow suddenly held in place, the barbs preventing the prey from moving without causing itself extreme damage.

If it even could move.

Will turned his attention back to the mutated ring of Accuracy in his Phantom hand, comparing the two ring’s effects.

…Could that work?

The two effects did not directly interfere with each other. One acted on the target, one acted on the projectile.

Suddenly, without warning, and with brutal effectiveness, Will mused.

It’s worth a shot. I’m only missing one thing.

Well, several hundred things. But I know where I can find them.

Will broke into a sprint towards the nearest weapons shop. Basalt had plenty of them, and since the army had withdrawn to let the town burn to the ground, Will had free reign of the place for the next few minutes before it became too hot to survive.

Plenty of time.

**Keb Bower, level 15 Devoted Soldier**

The attack came suddenly, without warning, and with brutal effectiveness.

Their new commander Caddock had enforced a greater degree of discipline than they had been accustomed to in the past, but soldiers adapted.

None of them were slacking off, distracted, or sleepy.

They stared at the roaring fire that used to be a town, throwing baleful light on the jagged volcanic peak that rose high above the buildings. Waiting for the Deceiver to show his face.

ZZZZ

A sound, like a thousand dragonflies caught Keb’s attention.

A flicker of firelight glinted off a tiny metallic surface, prompting Keb to throw his hand up reflexively.

A prick in his wrist was suddenly a searing brand of pain as his entire body was violently yanked forward, the foreign object slicing through his arm and shoulder before Keb collapsed to the ground.

Keb hit the dirt hard, groaning in pain, his arm unwilling to support him.

Gripping his mangled arm, Keb sat up as best he could, his skin breaking into a cold sweat as he scanned the surrounding soldiers. Men who had been standing shoulder to shoulder with him only a second ago.

Limp and lifeless, each and every one of them.

Erwin’s helmet had fallen off in the tumble, revealing a thin puncture wound in his left eye, like a coin had gone through it.

Keb twisted his neck to look at where they had been standing, and spotted hundreds of Blessed Steel arrowheads, each one suspended in place at the exact eye-height of the man who’d been standing there.

Coated in blood.

“Wha-“

“Nice reflexes.” A voice came from behind him.

Keb twisted back to see the Deceiver, William Oh, standing behind him, rendered in silhouette by the blazing flame climbing the mountain behind him.

Keb tried to scramble away, his wounded arm dropping him into the dirt.

“Here,” William Oh said, stooping down before tossing Keb a Healing Potion from a nearby commander’s kit bag.

“Drink that before you bleed out,” The Deceiver said, fading into the darkness down the mountainside.