53. The Trappings of a Protagonist

((Author Note: One of the Skills mentioned below is getting retconned name-wise. You might notice, you might not. Oh, and enjoy! Jay goes hard in this chapter, and we're 2 more chapters away from the end of book 1!))

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There was nothing that could be done with Derek. No matter how hard Jay reached into his whimsical side and tried to sense something small but gravitational, the agent was simply a mortal man caught up in forces above his pay grade. The [Freak] dropped him off near the assortment processing buildings. Then Jay took matters into his own hands with Kleo flying swiftly over his shoulder and hungering for action.

“Peek-a-boo!” Jay swerved around a stack of junk, skimming the wet ground with micro alterations of [Dance Floor Relativity]. He noticed by staying low, he made it difficult for the killer robo doggos to shoot him accurately. Then he’d attack the rear of their formation with his short blade, a surprisingly effective weapon. Magic metal, even the basic kind, could beat non-magic metal most of the time.

He’d done this five times so far. This sixth ambush had him faced off against only nine doggos after whittling down the rest from past attacks. He hadn’t come out unscathed, of course. Each skirmish forced him to devolve further into a bloody maniac with a devil-may-cry grin. Not the role he wanted to leverage under Chance right now, but he wasn’t willing to run away, and his choices were limited unfortunately.

But damn was it fun!

He skimmed under a big robbo doggo and ran the edge of his short sword through the leg joints. He pushed off the ground while still falling along the surface and ignited his feet with the signature purple glow of [Grav Kick].

He dropkicked a second robo, the magic blast ripping it apart as the blow back bounced him into a high cartwheel. That propped him up above the doggos, making him seem like an easy target, especially with [Dance Floor Relativity] turned off.

But the robo doggos failed to notice Kleo hanging tight at ground level. She was in the middle of their formation, her eyes solely on her master as she [Gravity Grasped] Jay! She yanked him down past the bullet curtain.

Jay and Kleo hadn’t had the time to practice all of the possible maneuvers their power set could pull off. But that wouldn’t stop them from trying different tricks. They were so well-linked as Master and Familiar, Kleo could be right on cue with what Jay had in mind without being told. It would’ve been faster and sleeker if they had the practice, but they were making the most out of things.

After the [Gravity Grasp], Kleo [Sling Assisted] Jay around as soon as he got close to her.

“Wahoo!” Jay cheered.

He flowed into the sudden revolution, letting his sword hang out to slice through the face of a third robo doggo and hack off the front legs of a fourth. Then he flew like Kleo launched him with a giant slingshot, getting propelled by a boost of magic.

Instead of [Grav Kick] this time around, Jay used [One Heavy Step] on its own. But he paired that with a flying knee he’d seen in a movie. His increased Resilience, Poise, and weight would remain as long as he didn’t take a single step.

That turned out to be true when he crumpled three lined up robo doggos. His knee drove them into the metal carcass of a jumbo jet, crushing that, too! A combination of being hurled at speed by Kleo and the weight-increasing Skill did heavy damage!

It also saved mana when he didn’t combine [One Heavy Step] with [Grav Kick], so that was a huge plus. Now, if only he could better manage his Agility getting penalized. Which sucked. Because tripping around while trying to pull himself out of the wreckage made him an easy target. The last two functional robo doggos leveled their guns on Jay.

Oh, wait, he had a familiar for that.

Kleo did what [Faeries] did best from all the media Jay knew. She made herself into an annoying menace, getting into the robots’ camera faces. They turned their assault rifle barrels on her and fired. They missed each time as Kleo flared her gravity-thruster wings and darted around like a pro, staying close to their bodies. Something about their programming stopped them from shooting each other, keeping Kleo safe long enough for Jay to free himself and regain normal Agility.

Though, seeing Kleo skirt around while under constant attack wasn’t good for Jay’s cool. He had a close connection with his familiar, and before he could clamp down on his rising rage, he [Gravity Grasped] one of the last robo doggos. It hurtled end-over-end to him where he sliced through its main body with a sword cut before [Sling Assisting] it into its friend. The last doggo struggled to stay in the fight after that hit.

Jay jumped on it, yanking the gun aside with a metal-bending jerk. He flipped his short sword around and stabbed it savagely again and again, spraying himself with robotic fluids as the doggo suffered a terrible death. It hit the muddy, rainy ground with a splash as Jay stood on its corpse, letting the rain wash some of the robo gunk off his face.

He should make a joke or something. A 90’s reference to Robocop was right on his tongue. But Jay wasn’t in the mood for some reason.

Beating a bunch of hi-tech military robots was fun and all, but they were a distraction from the army of hitmen that heloed in all over the junkyard. He could literally see through the dark and rain as night-vision wearing snipers climbed onto a junk tower about a thousand feet away.

“Master, we did very well on conserving mana with that fight,” Kleo said, sitting on his shoulder.

“You don’t have to be nice, Kleo,” Jay said. “I wasted more than I should’ve on that last [Gravity Grasp].”

“But we’ve gained a lot!”

Dance Floor Relativity leveled up to 12!

Grav Kick leveled up to 11!

One Heavy Step leveled up to 11!

Sling Assist leveled from 4 to 6!

Gravity Grasp leveled from 4 to 6!

Jay was a little happy to see the Skill levels go up. But that didn’t elevate his dour mood. He could feel it on his back. A target. It wasn’t noticeable at first, but it had gotten heavier as he finished off the robo doggos. Chance was going to serve him something awful, and Jay didn’t know what. It was almost criminal how unavoidable that status could be. But it served as a clue, too. None of these mortals could manipulate Chance. And YoAnna was away. So, who else could be pushing the System against him?

“System Admins,” Jay muttered.

“I figured,” Kleo said.

It was ridiculous. But it made sense in a way. How else could you shove a bunch of paramilitary hitmen into fighting a bunch of magical teens without higher powers involved? The system hadn’t even fully integrated yet, and the System Admins were meddling because of something Jay and Kleo couldn’t remember.

Oh, well, the principle remained the same. The dynamic duo had done something that upsetted the people in power, and now Jay and Kleo had to fight through the consequences.

“I hope Miss Luckrun is okay,” Kleo said as Jay stepped behind cover before an eager sniper got a shot off.

Jay felt a burst of fear, unease, and anger. But he forced himself to smile. “Frank’s gonna do his best to protect her.”

“I’m worried about that, too,” Kleo admitted. “He’s the type to sacrifice it all.”

Jay opened and closed his mouth. Frustration started to mount. He couldn’t leave the junkyard. The gravitational weight of Chance had him pinned here now, using his own title [YoAnna’s Champion of Challenge and Change] against him. If he was to ignore how his Title wanted to rise out of this mess victoriously, leaving would cause untold damage elsewhere in the story. Chance wouldn’t play mercifully.

“I’m going to use it,” Jay said.

Kleo would know he meant [Cloak of Freakish Relativity] and all the wonder and horror that entailed. It was one of multiple powers gained from defeating the godling dungeon and punishing YoAnna for her transgression. And it was not something to be used lightly. But it would put the fear of the [Freak] in these assassins.

The sound of a shrieking rocket stirred Jay into action. He tucked Kleo into his chest and bolted from behind cover. A split-second later, the stack of rubbish he’d been hiding behind exploded and toppled over. Hissing smoke rose as mud rained down. The rain grew fiercer, prattling over countless stuff like a junkyard orchestra. Sniper potshots cut through the din as they clipped the air near Jay.

“I’m ready!” Kleo said.

“[Cloak of Freakish Relativity],” Jay grunted, dashing straight at the enemy.

[Cloak of Freakish Relativity (Freak), Level 1]: Use your familiar’s whimsical touch and presence combined with your power over gravity to create a mythical, Chance-influencing cloak. While wearing the cloak, all of your Attributes are significantly boosted, attacks made against you are likely to bend and distort under incredible gravitational influences, and all allies near you gain increased mana regen. The Cloak can also weigh in on Chance outcomes, good or bad. Neither you nor Kleo can use Gravity Skills while the Cloak is active. Variable mana costs from small to moderate. Includes a long cooldown. Leveling up improves attribute boosts, distortions, and Chance manipulations.

This was the only Skill that had a cooldown limit. Jay didn’t know how long was ‘long’ but he assumed it could be an hour or more. That was a long time in a fight, which meant this Skill was up there with [Horizondancer] when it came to finding a special moment to use it.

Kleo became a flash of purple, pink, and orange circling around Jay. Her hands moved with a blur as she fashioned mana into strings. Then her Talent [Mana Weaver] worked those strings into a magical apparel.

Within a few seconds, as bullets and raindrops pelted around Jay, an astral-looking hood covered Jay’s head, swallowing his face in absolute darkness except for his heterochromia eyes. Then the purplish, pinkish, and orange cloak extended down from the hood, around his shoulders, and hung all the way to his ankles with a mystical cape-like flourish.

His Chance went up to Chance x3. For now, at least.

“The shooters on the towers,” Kleo said, her voice reverberating within the hood. She was in a quasi-state of existence now, leaving her physical state to be more attuned with the cloak. “Those towers don’t seem very stable.”

Jay bolted straight at them as bullets bent strangely around him. Some veered off course. Or they curved right in front of him and clipped the very edge of his body. Most, if not all, of their direct shots failed to hit dead on as Jay crushed the distance between him and the snipers.

Assassins on the ground level attacked with a multitude of guns, but Jay sailed over them. He slapped a hand against a tower and felt a brief blip of a Chance outcome that could go awry with a slight push.

So, he gave Chance that push. Metaphorically speaking. Putting his Chance against the enemy that didn’t have any clue that Chance existed. Jay won and caused the tower to topple over. It fell on other assassins with a thunderous crash.

Cloak of Freakish Relativity leveled up to 2!

Jay pushed his boosted Attributes to catch more assassins unprepared. Short sword flashing out, he hacked them down faster than they could warn each other. Men and women fell with a swift sweep of magic metal, rendering gear, flesh, and bone without much issue. He might’ve gotten more kills faster if he dual-wielded, but Jay had grown deadly comfortable with the one short sword style.

And he used one-handed handsprings liberally, leading into kicks, high-rising jumps, or the next Chance-manipulated opportunity. All while causing havoc among the assassins. They couldn’t pin him down. He moved so fast, he was like a garishly bright comet streaking through their numbers. The gulf between systemless mortals and Jay became more and more apparent as he continued to hunt them down and sew chaos.

The slaughter was horrendous, especially when he caught more than four dozen of them packed in a small area. Jay scythed through them mercilessly as they screamed, died, and tried to shoot him only to end up spraying their comrades.

Cloak of Freakish Relativity leveled from 2 to 4!

But for some damn reason, no matter how many Jay killed, no matter how much ruin he brought to the assassins, the target on his back grew steadily heavier as time waned. And that scared Jay because he was nearing his limit on how long he could use [Cloak of Freakish Relativity]. His body felt strained from pushing his Attributes further than ever before.

Even then, he still managed to kill upward of a hundred. A hundred fifty. No. Maybe way more than that. Jay had lost count. There were just so many of them. How could so many assassins slip into a small city in Central Florida? And launched an attack like this? It was out of this world insane.

All the killing he’d done should be enough to scare the assassins off for good. But they kept fighting regardless of the dead Jay had piled up.

And he was killing so many of them. So, so, many.

“Fuck!” Jay cussed, sliding to a stop behind a gutted monster truck.

He was a bloody mess. Most of it wasn’t his. But some of it came from wounds suffered by unavoidable explosions. The cape was losing power, and Jay could barely eke out any more use out of it.

“Kleo,” Jay called. “It’s going to get tough from here on out.”

He could rely on Stamina Crystals and Health Crystals while he fought the next leg without too much magic. The last mana crystal would have to be used now in case he or Kleo needed to draw on magic for an emergency.

Another shrieking rocket flew at Jay’s position.

Kleo pulled herself out of [Cloak of Freakish Relativity], ending that Skill. She milked their remaining mana to [Sling Assist] the rocket back where it came from, blasting a few assassins to smithereens. Jay immediately used the last Mana Crystal paired with a Stamina and Health Crystal.

Teeny Faerie leveled up to 9! +1 Perception, +1 Discovery

New Skill acquired! [Manasinger (Faerie), Level 1]

“On, YoAnna, please tell me that’s what I think it is,” Jay said.

[Manasinger (Faerie), Level 1]: Kleo’s singing draws ambient mana faster, boosting mana regen to whoever she’s orbiting, especially her Master–he gets slightly more mana regen benefits. Kleo must concentrate on singing to maintain this Skill and cannot diverge her attention to other strenuous or magical activities. This Skill can only be used by Kleo. Leveling up improves the mana regen effect slightly.

It was the exact thing Jay could hope for. A mana regen Skill! He was so ecstatic, he pulled Kleo into a wet, grimy, and bloody embrace. She squirmed around, unable to break free, until she bit his fingers and forced him to let go.

“Don’t get so excited, Master,” Kleo griped. “It’s gonna be hard singing with all of this action.”

She was right. Without a break away from the assassins, having Kleo sing would just invite more attacks. Hell, there were groups of assassins converging on their spot right now, ignoring all the death and injury Jay had given them. They may lack actual power, but they were relentless and had numbers.

Jay worried that he didn’t have enough magic to face this tide. But then a new development revealed itself.

“Soldiers!” shouted a familiar girl’s voice. “Let’s give these bastards a real junkside welcome!”

A giant generator kicked on.  Hundreds of high powered lights lit up the area, blinding the nightvision wearing assassins.

Jay winced as he taxed his Perception to readjust to the lights.

Only a dozen feet away, an assassin meaning to use a shotgun on Jay had to tear off his night vision goggles. The shotgun assassin tried to blink his vision back to working order. He took a gunblast to the face before the latest element to enter this junkyard mosh pit conducted a full assault.

Rifle toting gangsters pushed the assassins back and away from Jay’s position. Following behind her subordinates, the girl with the overbite swaggered up to Jay.

“You,” Jay said.

“Cutie,” she said. “Cutie Brown. And don’t you dare laugh. I’ll show you a ting or two if you do.”

“Uh, what’s got you helping me?” Jay asked.

Cutie frowned. “We ain’t here to help you. We’re here to defend our turf. Helping you is just a byproduct.”

“And the O’Kelly Family requested to look out for you,” the somber guy from before appeared. “I’m George. Should’ve known juju like yours would bring us back together.”

“Good, good, with these guys pulling distraction, I can get to singing,” Kleo said, spooking Cutie and her somber friend. All pretenses of hiding magic and her presence went out the window after spending who knew how long killing assassins.

A series of shrieks filled the air.

Jay looked up just in time to see a salvo of rockets flying down at him and the head gangsters. Instincts on overdrive, he tapped on [Horizondancer] despite his low Chance. The Skill slowed down time enough for him to flash his magic for [Dance Floor Relativity] and [Sling Assist]. He threw Cutie and George behind cover. At the same time, Kleo pulled up the biggest and widest [Graviton Wall] she could muster.

[Horizondancer] came to an end too soon, forcing Jay to use [One Heavy Step] as the missiles struck down.

***

“Jay. Jay. Wake up, Jay.”

He snapped awake, grasping around wildly for his short sword. Two firm and caring hands gripped his arms and pinned him down. Jay snarled at the grabber before he realized he was looking at the Band Lead!

“Brit?”

“It’s gonna be alright now, sugar,” she said with a halo of light shining around her head. “The Champions are here.”