Breaking the Rules Pt. 15

"I will flay your bodies and send your naked carcasses on fire into a hail of arrows!" he cried, urging the warhorses forward in a charge directly at Nuru.

"Get more room!" Ace called out to Nuru.

Nuru dodged straight back as the chariot came on, the rider urging on to greater speed, until he hit the traps and the horses collapsed in a spray of fire and flying debris, twisting the chariot to the side and spilling the rider out into the dirt, narrowly missing the blades still attached to the wheels.

"Argh! I am a second-degree disciple of Jabu! You will not defeat me with these petty tricks!"

He reached and pulled free a lance from the carriage of the chariot and came on towards Nuru.

"!Gunung Seuneuan Hampang!!Gunung Seuneuan Hampang!!Tsoratarwa!" Nuru cast, summoning a hellfire orb over each shoulder and grinning viciously at the man through the red haze of his Intimidate spell. "I look forward to hearing your death rattle."

The man faltered, circling carefully. "What sorcery is this? Be you demon spawn? Warlock?"

"I am the one that threads the needle," Nuru replied, watching Dayo use the cover of the chariot to get into position.

"You're a long way from your linens, weaver," the cultist spat. "Go back to the women where you belong."

"Ooh, you shouldn't have said that," Nuru said, seeing Dayo materializing the scythe blade.

"What, did I hurt your feelings?" the man sneered, raising the lance. "Pathetic. Prepare to dine on your own blood."

Ace got in a strike to the man's knee just as Dayo leaped into the air in a direct charge. The man turned, taking an Arcane Blast to the face, staggering and falling to his other knee. His armor shrugged off most of Ace's arrows, though the thief kept at him to harass and distract him, and Dayo went full duel-to-the-death.

Nuru kept up a steady attack rhythm and intoned, "You see, what you've learned unfortunately late, is that the female body is capable of great feats just as well as a male's. They may vary in their stat distribution, but whether the roll is DEX or STR based, you discount them at your own peril."

"Pfah! Just another body to bag. I know how to do crowd control.!Fashewar Duniya!"

Dayo was pushed backwards, and Ace dodged an arrow thrown back at him by the expanding blast centered on the man's fist. Nuru covered his eyes, watching the man pick his lance back up and preparing to skewer Ace.

"Dayo! Close quarters!" Ace said, gesturing.

FOOM

Instead of portaling Ace away, as Nuru expected, one of the portals appeared right next to Dayo and the other by the cultist. Dayo hurled an Arcane Blast at the end of their staff, which stuck straight through the portal, straight into the man's chest. This had the effect of leaving the staff trapped in two places as the portal collapsed, and Dayo could not move it until it had been dematerialized and rematerialized. This was enough to give Ace a chance to slip into Sneak, however, and he was gone.

"Enough of your childish tricks! Your hubris ends now!!Madaukakin Dillacewa!" the man howled, launching towards Nuru with the lance with a speed-enhanced lunge, delayed only by a short targeting period.

"!Kafa Mara Nauyi!" Nuru cast, leaping backwards as hard as he could, letting everything except Weightless Foot lapse.

The lance head came hard and fast, catching Nuru in the chest and shoving him even faster backwards. He tumbled and flailed as he tried to recover; Tusa came in with a hard pounce, and the man had fully extended the thrust and only had time to shriek in terror before he got flattened.

CRUNCH

All three party members winced visibly as Tusa mercilessly tossed the man about like a rag doll, smashing bones and crushing joints. By the time Nuru had gotten back to his feet and rejoined the group, Dayo and Ace were surveying his broken body, looking doubtful as to whether any of the armor would still be saleable.

"Or, you know, don't miss a Class B bloodthirsty monster," Nuru said, kicking the fallen man spitefully. "Who's choking on their own blood now?"

"!Karamar Bunga!" the man said, expiring noisily.

A pillar of light sprang up throught his chest, rising high into the air, highlighting their position for anyone within several miles.

"Oh dear. Time to go," Ace said, doing a quick search of the cultist's body for smaller valuables. "That's the wight convergence signal."

"!Rai Magudana! You OK, Nuru?" Dayo said.

"That one hurt," Nuru said, holding his chest.

His shirt's metallic weave had caught much of the penetration, but without padding or a full plate he still felt the blunt trauma deep through much of his chest.

"Better get to a medic immediately," Ace said. "You're not leaking much, but that's all I can tell from the outside. Internal bleeding can be just as deadly and it's much harder to notice a little at a time."

"Tusa, see if you can slow them down or lead them in a new direction away from us," Nuru said. "Once we're gone for awhile, go ahead and take off for the day. And be careful!"

Tusa climbed the boulder and gave a great War Cry.

"Right. Now to do what we came for in the first place," Dayo said.

The valkyrie ran back and forth, reviving hobgoblins, and boosting with a few extra souls each time to compensate for the revive penalty.

"!Kafa Abokai Cikin Mutuwa!" The bunch gathered close to Nuru and lifted him up, and he surfed the small crowd as it followed Dayo.

"I guess I might as well practice this now," Nuru said, starting to drum in a marching rhythm, smoothing out the rough and uneven bouncing of the hobgoblins with his Musical Trance.

They made good time back to the rally point, and then away. They left the hobs outside of town, in the direction of Quartz Port, and went to see the healer.

"It's going to hurt for a few days," the woman said. "I can do a Greater Heal ritual, but that's expensive. Lots of ingredients."

"I guess I'm taking it easy for a little bit then," Nuru said.

*****

He perused the library until sundown, then got a room and stayed the night there, and completed the trek home the next day, when Ace and Dayo had met him again. Tusa barked and spun in circles next to him when he arrived.

"Yo, what's got you so excited?" Ace said.

[Level up!]

"Nice! That disciple had some good EXP for you, I take it."

[The most I have had at once since the arena. Yesterday's pursuers and hunting in the evening filled the belly of the bar.]

"Yeah, you got the bulk of EXP on that guy, minus our assist," Dayo said. "How's the chest, Nuru?"

"Hurts a bit, but I'll be OK. How's your rib?"

"I'm taking an herb for the pain, most of the time I don't even notice. I've probably got a penalty to a saving throw against breaking it again for another week or so, but I'm fine."

"Ain't modern medicine grand," Nuru grinned.

"Sure beats the old ways," Ace agreed.

"Alright, so we'll attack at dawn tomorrow," Dayo said. "It would be good to grow our ranks a little more. Ace, can you bag some hawks? I need a refill on those, and bear souls, for contingencies. I could use your help with the bears, Tusa. Coming, Nuru? I bet we can bag some warthogs while we're out to reinforce our hobgoblins."

"They won't be proper mounts, though, right?" Ace said.

"Well no, there's no Mount Charm bonus if they're undead. But the Legion won't know that when they show up riding on top."

Ace shrugged, then vanished. "Alright, wish me luck."

"So, this is the life of an adventurer, huh?" Nuru said as he and Dayo went in search of their prey.

"I guess it resembles that, yeah, even if few parties rely on reinforcing the capabilities of a necromancer to complete their quest."

"Well, maybe they should."

"Well, maybe necromancers should be better team players."

"Hey, you said it, not me."

"Please. You've traveled with Chibale. Tell me I'm wrong."

Nuru sighed. "If he's representative of you as a group, then I guess I can't."

Dayo shivered. "When you put it like that, I guess I hope that we can have a better representative."

"Then let's get you ranked up to represent."

"You'd be better. But if you do join, you know Onyekachi's going to want his favored people mentoring you, not me. Valkyries never get to train anybody."

"Onyekachi can bite my shiny metal codpiece."

Dayo stifled the loud laugh with a hand over their mouth. "I'm glad Mesi brought you home that night."

"Me too, a privilege few men indeed have had, I'm sure."

"Oh, definitely."

"How's she doing, anyway? Had some trouble with the weekend crew, you said."

"Just a personality clash. I gave her something to take her mind off of it."

"Mm, good. I hope everything works out between you."

Dayo turned and hugged him. "You're sweet. Not a lot of guys can be happy for a woman being with someone else."

Nuru shrugged. "I don't know why it should bother me. She's not into me, so it's not like I'm losing out on anything."

"I don't know if I should say this, but..."

Nuru tilted his head, and remained silent.

"...she did say, if there's any guy she'd enjoy seeing me with, it would be you. It was a little rocky that one time, but with a bit more time to get used to the idea, I think she's gotten better about it."

"That's surprising. I mean, she's not into guys."

"Well, it's complicated. She doesn't want to be with a man, physically. But if the circumstances are right, she can maybe appreciate how a man can look good together with a... female-bodied person, shall we say."

"Hmm. Is that how you're describing yourself these days? Not a woman, but female-bodied?"

"I'd rather gender didn't come up at all, really. That's why I wear a loose robe when I can; people have trouble putting me in 'man' or 'woman' category, and I mean for it to be hard, because it's not their business and therefore doesn't matter. I'm just a person. Treat me like a fucking human being, that's all I ask. But no, somehow we all decided that people need to play some gendered role in everything we do, even though there's no point. Sorry, I'm not saying you personally do that, it's just what I wish other people could grasp."

"I understand, and I think I get what she's saying, too; I feel the same way. I don't want to be with another guy, but... just to watch, a good looking male paired with a good-looking female is good entertainment; you know, just from a physical perspective. It's better than watching a good-looking woman, and a real ogre of any kind. I'm sure ogres need love too, I just don't want to be there for it."

Dayo snickered.

"Speaking of ogres," Ace said, appearing and dashing past them back in the direction they'd be coming from, "Random Encounter incoming!"

A great bellow crashed through the trees and made Nuru cover up his ears.

"I had to say it, didn't I!" Dayo smacked their forehead, then got into defensive position with the staff. "Don't run, they're too fast!"

"We'll see about that-!Kafa Mara Nauyi!"

He took off in the same direction, that Ace had gone, activating Tusa's Oath. Two ogres burst through the trees just as he got up to speed; one of them sized up Dayo while the other broke in hot pursuit of him.

"Crap these guys really are fast!" Nuru said, watching out of the corner of his eye for his pursuer.

The ogre kept pace, and Nuru could tell he would be able to quickly catch up once the Weightless Foot entered cooldown.

"New plan!" he said, picking a copse of waist-size trees and took a flying leap to avoid the ankle-grab the ogre behind him tried to make.

He flew between two trunks and heard a heavy impact and a snapping sound as at least one of them splintered under the ogre's charge. The ogre growled, pulling itself between trees trying to keep up, but Nuru was too quick.

"!Iyuan Aram Afak!" he said, cancelling the spell to see if he could still outpace the ogre without it.

He could, but the frustrated ogre decided to start smashing down trees. It sood up howling angrily as its HP took a good hit, thrashing left and right.

"What the...?" Nuru said, turning to watch.

The ogre turned its hate-filled eyes back to him and he had to scramble as it pulled itself through the trees again. Another hit came in, and the ogre stopped and flattened trees right next to it.

"Ace, is that you?" Nuru said, as the ogre resumed the chase.

Ace appeared briefly just outside the ring of trees, waved, and gestured in a direction beyond them.

"I guess you're right, the trees won't last long."

Cooldown expired and he cast Weightless Foot again, taking off the way Ace indicated. The ogre fought its way free of the trees and followed. It was closing on him again, when it let out a wild scream of pain. Nuru dodged to the side just in case, and turned to look. A rock had appeared in a swiftly-dissipating smoke portal in the ogre's path, and it had stubbed its toe hard, then fallen forward to the ground. It writhed in agony as Ace peppered it with Sneak Attack, keeping it from getting its bearings and climbing back to its feet.

"!Tasiri Motsin Zuciyarmu!" Nuru cast Musical Trance, to enhance the hits, and drummed at a regular speed to match Ace's fire rate.

The ogre bellowed and entered its Battle Frenzy state, moving even faster and less carefully. It sprang to its feet and spied Ace through his Sneak, causing him to appear as he ran in circles.

"Oop!" Ace said as he narrowly escaped through another Smoke Portal.

The ogre turned and looked for something to attack and spied Nuru again.

"Not good not good not good!" Nuru said, preparing to run again.

Tusa came in like a streak, crashing straight into the ogre's ribcage. Undeterred, the ogre turned to this new opponent, eagerly trading blows. Though the ogre was bigger, Tusa was fresh and spoiling for a good fight. The lyena's dexterity was sufficient to allow him to dodge the greater portion of damage, thought not enough to avoid injury completely. The ogre seemed completely oblivious to the imbalance and came on without pause, even as deep cuts scored its chest and began bleeding profusely. The ogre went to grapple him, but Tusa went for the eyes, slipping free in the gorey mess as the ogre's HP ticked down with blood loss. Tusa stood aside, shaking himself and cleaning as the ogre flailed around, trying to find him. At a good moment, Ace hit with a Sneak Attack arrow and dropped the ogre right to zero health, and it toppled over with a final gasp. Tusa gave a cry of victory. Through the trees, distant sounds of the other ogre boomed in reply.

"Yikes. We better go check on Dayo," Nuru said.

Tusa scampered off in that direction, and Ace and Nuru followed as quickly as they could. They arrived just in time, Tusa standing aside and looking for an opportunity, and Dayo crouched defensively, braced under the staff as the ogre came in for a heavy downward hit. The ogre's fist slammed the staff into motion, spinning around to rap it hard on the knucles and give out a cry of frustration and pain. Dayo dematerialized the staff, latched onto the ogre's hand as it pulled back to cradle it, and flew free in the air in front of it. The world stood still for the briefest moment, and then Dayo used their last momentum to spin hard and put their hand out with the scythe extended as far as it could go, slicing upward toward the ogre's jaw. It lodged behind the chin, and the ogre backed in a small circle as Dayo hung on with one hand and shoved away its frantic swings using Arcane Blast with the other hand. One hit deflected the ogre's hand back towards its face, and with an angry jerk it mistakenly struck the handle of the scythe in an upward strike. The ogre fell backward, and Dayo swung up and over, dematerializing the scythe at their apex, hurtling through the air with a yell that cut off as they face-planted in a bush. Nuru looked back and forth, not sure where to go first. He was even less certain what to do when a figure leapt out of a tree to lance the groggy-but-recovering ogre with a great spear. Dayo tore themselves free of the bush, and then got another look at the ogre.

"Yes! It's dead, I did it! I- wait."

The new figure rose from the ground to grasp the lance from the ogre's body.

"No... no! Damn it! I get my once-in-a-decade supercrit, solo a live ogre, and some halfwit steals my kill and my Heavy Hitter badge! How dare you!?"

"Ss-sssorry!" the woman said in a loud whisper. "Your party abandoned you, you were incapathitated, I thhhhhought-"

"Aaarrgh! It takes more than that to take me out! Do I look like some trembling maiden to you!?"

"Well no, jusssthhhht-"

"I'm claiming this kill! You already stole the EXP, the loot is mine!" Dayo snapped, putting a hand out and launching an Arcane Blast from their fingertips straight at the hand holding the lance, and its owner.

The valkyrie bent over and angrily dumped out the ogre's belt pouches to start rummaging through the contents, but then paused. Their head slowly turned to look back at the person still standing there, staring wide-eyed back.

"You..." Dayo said, suddenly struggling for words. "You didn't move."

"W-well I jumped out of the tree to attack-"

"I mean, you didn't flinch, fall over, move an inch. An Arcane Blast may not do a lot of damage every time, but the one thing it never fails to do is get some movement. Are you- you're a mirage, aren't you!?"

Dayo materialized the staff and shoved it much like a spear directly into the interloper's abdomen. Rather than knocking the target over or, as Dayo had apparently expected, flying straight through, the staff hit with a heavy thump and bounced back, throwing the valkyrie off balance.

"Uwaa!" they said, falling briefly to the ground, leaping back to their feet spinning the staff defensively.

"Dayo, stand down," Nuru said, stepping forward with hands open in a peaceful gesture.

"What the hell are you!?" Dayo growled.

"Uh, you came to help, did I hear that right?" Nuru said, ignoring the demand.

"Yesss...." the woman hissed.

Nuru spared a brief glance down towards her feet. He found himself staring instead at a thick serpentine tail that emerged from the bottom of her coat of armor.

"I think there may have been a misunderstanding, but I for one appreciate the intent," Nuru continued.

Dayo turned and went back to looting the corpse, pulling out the witch hat and tilting it low over their face.

"I am Kunto. I apologisthhh for sthhhtealing your kill. When firsthhht I beheld the sounds of battle, I believed you perhapsthhh... outmatched."

"It did seem kind of a near thing," Nuru said. "They caught us unawares. Kunto, I am glad to meet you."

He extended a hand to shake. Kunto reached to return it, but then snapped her hand down to her purse and lunged with some impressive fangs at Ace, who slipped his hand free and dodged backwards to keep his fingers from getting chomped.

"Whew! This one's not paying the stupid tax, that's for sure," he laughed as she glowered at him with lance ready to skewer him.

"Really, Ace!?" Nuru said. "I get why Dayo's upset, with a stolen kill and all, but what's your excuse for antagonizing a new friend?"

"Chaotic neutral?" he said, holding his hands out. "Look, you can have my share of the loot, if it makes you feel any better, lady."

Kunto's gaze swept back to Nuru, looking for any more unexpected interruptions, but not finding any. Nuru sighed, and started pulling his hand back.

"Alright, so let's just settle-" he started.

"Good to meet you too, man-who-almost-remembers-his-manners."

Kunto slipped forward and grabbed his hand before he'd quite gotten it back, and shook it.

"Aheheh... yes. The name's Nuru. This is Ace-" the thief bowed, "-and that's Dayo."

Dayo kept their head down and said nothing.

"So, err... what brings you out to these parts?" Nuru said.

"Same as you, I imagine. Grinding for EXP," the woman whispered loudly.