IV-18 Decisions

Leadership is made up of three things, son. Vision, choice, and imperfection.

When you lead, you need to sell people on an idea, a path that they can follow. This ties into choice, but the main reason people seek a leader out is that they are uncertain, that they're lost, that they don't have an idea, and that's something that matters. An idea, a hope, a reason to believe, a reason to fight. When you come of age, you will encounter sell-skilled and other Pathbearers who use cynicism or naked cruelty as a shield.

But a vision too governs them. It's a vision of themselves, nourished, comfortable, and protected from harm. I will tell you right now so that you do not need to learn this the harsh way. Every cynic is vulnerable, for they turned away from idealism because of defeat or fear. Should you be able to rekindle their hopes, then they will follow you unlike any other. Because that's what it means to govern someone's vision.

Eventually, they will give you their heart, but they must choose. To be a true leader, you cannot be a tyrant. Fear is potent; fear will betray you the moment you face someone with greater power. Fear is fickle.

Leadership is not a thing of ethics, but a thing of simplicity. If you must force people to decide the same as you do, then there will be a price to pay. You must always be paranoid. You must always watch and fear and worry if you are to be betrayed. There will be betrayals in your future. But the difference between a tyrant and a leader is that a leader will find proper path bearers to surround themselves with, and a tyrant will always fight to hold the throne. And someday, perhaps a day is long in the distance, or near as a few steps away, you will lose the throne because of a series of unfortunate mistakes, or a superior adversary.

Finally, imperfection. Imperfection will rule both you and the people you lead. You cannot possibly understand everyone. And the same applies to the fact that you cannot possibly lead everyone. There will be people that will not listen to you, that will not believe in you. That is fine, that is not your failure. Even failure is not your failure. It is complicated. It is important that you understand what you can do and where you might falter. If you can do that, if you can bring these three things together, then you will look back someday and find yourself bolstered by countless allies.

"People are born into the integration with little to do other than to struggle vainly and strive for power, to yearn for purpose. Give it to them and make sure it's a good one.

-Roland Arrow to Adam Arrow

IV-18

Decisions

As the situation within the valley-shaped prison broke down into a series of skirmishes, Adam focused his Awareness to find the next recruit for his team. The burning Pathbearer was already a reliable Vanguard of a sort, but Adam still needed a scout and a dedicated mage to complete a team ensemble. However, he wasn’t looking for any Pathbearer to round out his team. He wanted to find someone who was desperate, who likely couldn’t prevail against the wardens on their own.

The reason for that was simple. It gave Adam the best chance of controlling or escaping from them if they proved to be dangerous, and the less powerful were usually more willing to band together. Such was the calculus going through the Gate Lord’s mind.

His Seer of Horizons accelerated down the valley as he searched from proper candidates. He saw a massive automaton that blinked from place to place, hatching into existence with knife-like petals. Wardens peeled apart in its presence, and the automaton let out a droning laugh of cruel triumph. As it tried to teleport once more, the spells lining the Orichalcum walls flashed and the automaton rebounded, crashing back first against the ground.

Adam considered going for that one, but a mage-warden immediately unleashed a bolt of bright-yellow lightning into the fallen automaton and fried the bot’s internal circuitry. Adam had heard enough automaton death rattle’s to know that prisoner was lost.

His senses jumped again—this time going upward. The soaring prisoner from earlier returned. They resembled a sort of bird-human hybrid with flaming wings and blazing plumage detailing their body. Yet, blood was spraying free from a deep wound in their neck, and Adam noted a steel bolt in their throat.

Ah, Ascendants, Adam winced. The flying Pathbearer fell from the air and struck the ground with a resounding crashed. A spatial pocket burst open nearly and a small ground of wardens emerged with blades descending. The soaring prisoner tried to rise one final time, but his limbs were taken, and his wings thereafter. The wardens are reasserting their control. I need to work fast, I need to—

A sound of a body crashing against a shield drew Adam’s attention, and he immediately projected his Awareness toward the source of the disturbance. The moment he arrived, he found himself gazing upon a fascinating scene. Twelve heavily armored wardens were surrounding a single prisoner using tower shields that projected vertical and horizontal barriers made from mana. The mana connected to each other, and they effectively domed one of the prisoners inside. 

Through the magical sheen, Adam observed the prisoner and noted their capabilities. The prisoner was little more than a blur slamming against the shields over and over again. Adam had to guess they were practically Legendary in terms of Reflexes, far beyond his capacity to observe. However, their strength wasn't very high seeing how they couldn’t just break out.

Looks like I found my scout. Maybe a Thief or a Shadow based on their Path. Right. Let’s do this.

“Friend. Hold. I found some fools you can hug.”

The burning man stared at Adam, and then let out a raspy laugh. “But there are plenty of poor fuckers to cook nearby, little guy? Why not them?”

Adam noted a group of badly wounded wardens just fifty meters away. They emerged from a dense veil of smoke, and were dragging other survivors away from the scene of a battle. Just then, a colossal impact shook the Orichalcum valley, and a rush of kinetic force came flooding toward the wounded wardens. Adam flinched as he saw a wall of flame surging over, but then one of the wardens let out a cry and parried the oncoming blast aside. The explosion curled up the leftmost wall as it rebounded from the warden’s shield.

“Bloody hells,” Adam muttered to himself. “They’re all Heroic-Tier too. At least.”

“Told you,” the burning man said. “Deal with them first—”

“No. We avoid them.” Adam prepared an arrow and continued his explanation so that it didn’t sound like he was bossing the burning man around. Most Pathbearers hated being commanded by someone weaker. “I suggest that we avoid them so that we can build up our little ground and capture a guard station. I hate the bastards too, but I want to get out. Don’t you?”

The burning man froze mid-step and slowly nodded. “Yeah. Yeah. Fine. Alright. Wait, guard station? You know how to get to a guard station?”

“Not alone,” Adam said. “I know where they are, though. I can see through the gaps in these walls. I just need to find a way to get through the Orichalcum.”

The burning man studied the red-gold walls nearby and snarled. “Give me a bit and I can melt my way out.”

“Right. But we’re not doing that without someone fast. Someone that can intercept enemies before they get to you. I’m not going to be enough. But I know someone who just might be. And if we help them—”

“They’ll scratch our asses too,” the burning man finished, following Adam’s train of thought. “I get you. I get you good. Alright. Show me the next member of our club and make it fast. I can’t hold back the burn for too much longer. I gotta spend it on something soon before I end up popping.”

Adam frowned. He did notice the temperature climbing fast. The burning man’s dot-like eyes turned into half moons. Adam got the explicit feeling that the Pyromancer was smiling at him. It was oddly unnerving. There was something deeply unpalatable about needing to rely on criminals and prisoners to preserve one’s own life against their own government. It made Adam feel like a criminal himself.

Because I bloody am, godsdammit! Godsdamn you, Stormhalt. And godsdamned all the Ascendants too. Just utter madness…

Pushing all thoughts aside, Adam primed a Veilpiercer and prepared to release his shot. But as he drew back on his hydrokinetic bow, something changed inside of him, something completely burst and shattered. For a moment, Adam thought he was more injured than he realized. It sustained several brutal blows earlier, impacts that should have concussed or shattered, reduced down to mere bruises and more contusions by his Phoenix Riposte skill. Yet, there was also another detail: he felt no pain, instead Adam felt stronger than he had ever been before, heavier too. 

It was then that he saw some transparent particulates in the air flowing into him. As they splashed against Adam’s body, he saw how his flesh rippled, felt his very nature go softer, as if he was becoming fluid. What the hells is happening to—

Skybearer’s Strength 100 > 102 (Skill Evolution Reached)

Hydromancy 50 > 52 (Skill Evolution Reached)

Skill Evolution: Skybearer’s Strength (Adept) - Hydromancy (Initiate) > Herald of the Deepest Fathoms (Heroic)

Particulates of moisture were drawn into his body and his flesh became as if turbulent, became akin to the surface of a turbulent ocean. Waves crashed around Adam as his Hydrokinetic bow became less like a stable water construct and more like a tsunami compressed into a curving shape. More uncannily, Adam could feel the tsunami as if it was part of his flesh, for it was part of his flesh.

Two notifications came to his awareness then, and Adam realized he neglected to finish going through the rest of his skill evolutions. He was wrong earlier, it wasn't just his Physicality that had been involved while he was struggling, his Hydromacy had developed further too, and they came together to change his biology.

Herald of the Deepest Fathoms, Adam thought as he observed the skill. He had heard of the Skill Evolution before, and the fact that he obtained it left him utterly surprised. It wasn't a common skill evolution for a human, instead it was more often found in Elder Merfolk who specialized in ranged combat, or certain krakens that survived long to gain sapience and commit themselves to archery. 

Thanks to Adam's knowledge, he knew the general way this skill worked, and smile appeared on his face just as he turned entirely into liquid. Despite the misery pressing down on his mind of the fact that he was in this prison and how his own republic had betrayed him, a faint note of triumph played in the depths of Gate Lord Arrow’s heart. 

The world could be cruel and savage, the system might be out for his blood, but with every battle Adam survived, he was a bit more than who he used to be. The Ascendants were going to discover the folly of not killing him when they had the chance.

"You all right there, little guy," the burning man said, regarding Adam with a worried look. “You feel a lot wetter than you did a moment ago.”

“I fee—” Adam guessed that the burning man couldn’t really see. Ah. Maybe they just sense things by heat-signatures. How fascinating.

"Don't mind me," Adam replied, “I’m just building up a bit of strength for my skill.” He gathered more and more moisture from the air, a dryness consumed the surrounding space, and his physical form vanished entirely. He was now a goliath-shaped from crashing waves, a behemoth forged over the ocean's depths that barely retained the dimensions of a human. With every bit of water he absorbed, so too climbed his strength; so too grew the pressure that gripped his very core. But it wasn't painful pressure, instead it was a power that Adam enjoyed. Instead of relying on his muscles, Adam felt like an incarnation of the ocean itself.

He drew back on his new bow like never before.

A dense cord shaped from surging rivers was drawn past Adam's ear. A tension built along its length as Adam channeled even more Hydrokinetic power into the bow itself. By this point he was well over four meters tall, nearby wardens gagged and died as the water in their bodies were ripped free, fueling Adam's ever-growing sterngth.

"When the dimensional pathway opens, go straight across," Adam said. His words were deep, and they came out not as if a human spoke them, but as if the crashing waters of the ocean spat out a cataclysmic roar. “Kill the wardens, but try not to burn our new associate.”

By this point, the nearby wardens had noticed him and the burning man. One of them pointed in his direction. Adam didn't care. A Veilpiercer formed along the length of his new great bow, and when he could draw it back no further, he let the bowstring free. The air before him detonated like a thunderclap. A dimensional rift was torn open, its width three times the previous norm. The burning man flinched at Adam's awesome display of archery, in less than a fraction of a second, the dimensional arrow impacted one of the wardens doing their best to contain the blurring prison within their shield cage.

There were eight hundred meters between Adam and the warden he shot. They weren’t ready for him; he was stronger than ever before; the Veilpiercer had time to travel. The results were fatal. It didn't matter that the warden was clad in adamantine armor. It didn't matter that he was a Vanguard with considerable levels and toughness to boot. It didn't matter, for when Adam's arrow struck the warden in the back of the neck, it was as if a hammer falling upon a beetle.

The adamantine plating guarding the man's supple flesh gave a sickening scream as it was promptly compressed inward. Adam caught a brief spray of blood as everything inside the man was pulped, his innards spilling free from the rinse lining his broken armor.

Veilpiercer 165 > 166

This provoked an immediate reaction from the other Vanguards. Two stepped out and swung their shields in the direction of Adam’s projectile. At the same time, Adam heard some of the wardens near him fast approaching. He used his Commander’s Foresight Skill and halted the moment. Two approaching. Looks like one is an Archer like me. They will probably fire a shot in the next second. The other is a mage. Neither should have very high Toughness. But they’re close, and they’re dressed in adamantine, too. I’m unlikely to achieve an easy kill here. I should have the burning man move across and then follow him. No hesitation.

As soon as he stopped using his evolved tactical skill, a faint ache passed through his skull. “Across! Across now!” He called out to the burning man. The momentarily stunned prisoner, responded as if awakened from a stupor, and blasted into motion. A flash of heat struck Adam, but rather than suffering any burns, the Gate Lord endured a rush of weakness as some of his water-mass was dissolved by the spike in temperature. “Well, that’s useful,” Adam said to himself.

Just then, he felt a spike of magical pressure in the air and noticed a Hydromancy spell lashing out to cage him. As it struck his body, he winced as he prepared to feel his Hydromancy tear, yet found only a crushing sensation instead. He remembered that his Hydromancy had evolved alongside his Physicality and pushed through the spell with a shout. A crack sounded. An arrow arched over his dimensional rift and struck his body.

It passed through without inflicting any actual harm.

Gods, this is a good skill, Adam thought to himself.

He rushed after the burning man, accelerating into the dimensional pathway. To his pleasure, Vector of the Eternal Ascent allowed him to glide from place to place with ease. His new body tumbled through the dimensional channel like a raging flood—no, not like. He was a literal raging flood now. If Adam had to guess, he was well over three tons right now, and if he gathered more moisture he could keep building on his Physicality. He wondered if there was a limit to his new strength—he would test that by draining as much fluid as he could from the environment.

As soon as he burst out from the exit, he found himself slamming into two wardens from behind as he doused some of the burning man’s lingering flames. The wardens Adam struck cried out, surprised and laid low b y his sudden emergence. He tore free from his own rift in jetstreams of water. Bones broke against him. Armor endured. But Adam lashed at more than just bodies now—he could strike Magical Resistances as well. More importantly, he funneled his Physicality down the orifices of the two enemies he just hit and felt them gag inside of him.

Rather than letting them fly free, he drew them deeper into his embrace and compressed his might inward. He held them there as he flooded their lungs, as he choked them while trying to follow in the burning man’s wake.

To the Vanguard Wardens’ credit, they hadn’t collapsed before Adam’s ambush and were holding the Pyromancer back. One of their number was channeling more mana into their shield, creating what seemed to be a pulsating dome of mana infused with hints of Pyromancy. The others stabbed at the blazing figure using a lightning infused halberd. The fiery prisoner Adam just recruited was fast, was strong, but he fought without any technique. He let his enemies cut him and when they did, jets of flame spewed forth from his open wounds, splashing toward his foes. 

Even through the clamor of chaos and battle, Adam could hear the burning man laugh. It was the sound of a crackle building. It was the growl of a forest fire yet to reach its apex. And it was drowned as two dimensional wounds opened up behind the two unsuspecting Vanguards holding the burning man back. 

Adam unleashed a chain of Veilpiercers as they struck his enemies. The Vanguards folded, as they failed to anticipate this asymmetric attack. The attack left them winded but injured—yet that was bad enough. As they crumbled, more arrows exploded out from them due to Adam’s Propagating Salvo Skill. These new arrows zipped out and impacted the other Vanguards still battling to contain their fast-moving prisoner.

The Gate Lord readied another shot—but paused as the world went white in front of him. 

“FEEL IT! FEEL MY EXISTENCE!” A dense channel of Pyromancy erupted forth from the burning man, consuming everything in front of him. There was a good few meters between the Pyromancer and Adam. The Gate Lord expected to feel an incense rise in heat, but instead, only the space in front of the burning man came ablaze. And what a blaze it was. In the beginning, Adam saw the wardens as faint shadows. About three seconds after, there wasn’t even that.

And that was a good thing, as Adam was still building up more moisture. But he was having a hard time containing all the fluid that made up his body now. Every time he moved or took a shot, parts of him were left behind as he failed to hold onto them. The Gate Lord winced internally and understood what he had to do. I really need Parallel Thinking. This skill demands too much concentration.

Just then, an alloyed spike tore through his chest. Adam felt something inside him part but then meld back together. He realized the two Pathbearers he drowned earlier were making a last ditched effort to get free. At the same time, Adam could hear at least fifteen sets of heartbeat nearby. There were more wardens on the way, and he needed to deal with them. The first the the Gate Lord did was spit the wardens he was drowning inside himself out at the burning man. The moment they tumbled past the Pyromancer, they were vaporized entirely. Their adamantine plate as well.

Good thing I’m not standing in front of him, Adam shuddered. He wasn’t lying when he said I might want to keep my distance.

Adam fired shot after shot at the enemies coming from behind. Between his vector-wings and his fluid morphology, physical attacks either missed and passed through Adam without inflicting true harm and magical spells were avoided entirely. Veilpiercer after Veilpiercer crashed against the armored bodies of the wardens like a hammer descending upon an anvil. Every arrow spawned more, and even though he didn’t slaughter his foes immediately, he launched them against walls, sent them sprawling across the ground, broke knees and shattered ankles.

A few wardens had strange skills of their own. One turned into a rush of wind when they dashed—but they combusted by the burning man as he waved a hand, reduced to cinders in an instant.

“Oh, yeah!” The burning man let out a near lustful shout. “I’ve been holding that one back for a good long while! Yeah! Burning, good! Love to burn! Burn is love!”

With every word the burning man spoke, Adam felt his discomfort grow. The Pyromancer was a psychotic pyromaniac at the very least, and probably had a pretty good reason for being in this prison. But prisoners couldn’t be choosers, so Adam was going to keep using him and figure out the moral dilemmas later. Gods, that’s such a Shiv or Uva thing to do.

“Switch positions with me,” Adam said. He tore through the air and hovered just over the Pyromancer. “I’m going to—shit, I hope you didn’t burn them to death.” He was looking for any sign of the fast moving Pathbearer he came here to recruit. Right now, though, all he saw on the ground were a few puddles of melted adamantine, the smoking corpse of a Vanguard with pretty impressive Toughness, and a few soot patches aside. There was no sign of the fast-moving prisoner.

Dammit. I told him to—

A spatial pocket burst open right beside Adam. A heavy blow slammed hard against his body. This time, the force didn’t just pass through him. It crushed down on every part of him, ensuring there was no way for him to disperse the impact. It was then that Adam realized he was surrounded—and that it was just one team of wardens jumping in to ambush him, but four. Twenty heavily armed Pathbearers tore into him with Dynamancy first, caging his Hydrokinetic form. But then they made a mistake. Before the Pyromancers among them could do anything, the Dynamancers squeezed too hard, and Adam released the water he was pulling into himself.

The excess fluids blasted free from him in a concentric tidal wave, and Adam snarled as he felt his bones crack beneath the gravitation pressure. The tidal wave slammed into the wardens surrounding him first. It didn’t harm them much, but it did stun them long enough for him to reposition himself using Phoenix Riposte. He landed right behind the burning man and began drawing in water once more. As his flesh quivered, as he called out to his companion, trying to get the Pyromancer to stop burning corpses and face the new enemies, something flickered through the air.

And then twenty wardens were beheaded at the same time.

Adam’s breath was stuck in his throat as he beheld the carnage. He activated his Commander’s Foresight Skill immediately—and found himself startled to notice a new presence in the fray. The world turned top-down, and there was something gliding in the air right next to him. Wait. No. Not something, but someone. Adam found himself staring down at a small but constantly vibrating goblin. The goblin was female by the look of her form, and she was covered in golden quills instead of that standard green-leathery skin goblins normally had. Wicked curled claws were extended forth from her fingers like scythes and a shimmering mirage was left in her wake.

As Adam’s head swelled with heat, he noticed illusory outlines of the goblin flickering past the head of each of the twenty wardens. And that’s how he uncovered the reason behind each of their deaths.

Well, I suspect I found my scout. But… She’s pretty close to my neck as well. Oh, gods, I hope she doesn’t behead me too. Yet, with how she just hand her arms down by her side and was just staring at Adam, he had a feeling he wasn’t about to get finished just quite yet.

Commander’s Foresight 101 > 102

He dismissed his Tactical Skill and shifted back just in case. His body turned fully fluid, and the goblin prison remained in place, staring up at Adam while the burning man loudly proclaimed that the world was his oven and he wanted to fry the sky.

“Well. Hello. Glad to see you remain unburned.” Adam coughed awkwardly as the goblin just stared at him. He noticed a faint gold glow in her eyes and began to suspect she was a Chronomancer as well. She didn’t say anything for a moment. And then she briefly vanished, before returning with her claws bloodied and a trail of entrails dangling from her small torso. The viscera painted the prisoner’s rags she wore red, and she gnawed on what looked like a collection of ears.

The suddenness of her disappearance and return was jarring. The violence painting her even moreso. Again, Adam was reminded that he was drawing his recruits from a pool of prisoners. There were consequences when one only had prisoners as potential allies. Felling hells. Shiv. Uva. I’m never complaining about either of you again.

“You’re the one that fired the shots,” the goblin said, speaking so fast it took Adam a moment to understand her.

“Hey, you our new Thief?” The burning man said.

The goblin vanished and appeared behind Adam. She was using him as cover from the burning man. “Keep him away. Hot. Don’t like heat. Doesn’t care what he burns. Deranged.”

“What did she just call me?” the burning man said.

“She said you were the rage,” Adam said. “That your fire was hot.” He chose to hold up a hand before the goblin, and she just frowned slightly as she continued eating ear after ear. “Listen. We’re going to—”

“You want to break out. You’re recruiting me because of my speed. Need someone to intercept or keep you both protected from ambushers. Got it. I’ll do it. Do you have a plan about getting out? Know where to go? What to do? What’s the plan? What are we doing? Where are we going?”

Questions left her lips in an unceasing rush, and Adam found himself overwhelmed. The goblin didn’t just move absurdly fast, she thought that way too.

“I might,” Adam said. “We need to get out of this place first and maybe secure a nearby cube. I think I saw a guard-manned cube earlier. Not that many people inside. A common living space, a teleportation anchor, and a few other rooms as well. We can use that to figure out our next move—learn the layout of the prison.”

The goblin blinked and then nodded rapidly. “Acceptable. But we need to get out through the Orichalcum. Or someone needs to disable the warding spells. Can’t do it. Tried. Claws not sharp enough. Hard to use Chronomancy to displace myself with the wards constantly active. Need alternative strategies.”

Adam extended a quivering hand made of a water and realized he didn’t know the burning man’s name. They had a brief moment of respite just then. There were no wardens in a hundred-meter radius. Most of them within fifty were burned down to smouldering husks. The rest had their ears taken and throats slit.

I need to be very careful about how I interact with my two new friends.

“Firstly, do either of you two have names?” Adam asked.

“Call me Candles,” the burning man said with a laugh. “Candles McCormac.”

“Candles McCormac,” the goblin muttered. “I am Gone.”

“What?” Adam said.

“Call me Gone.”

“Alright. Well. I think we should get a—”

“Mage. Dedicated. You already serve that purpose. Reserve mage? Maybe. Risky. No other prisoner in this cube has the mental stability for that. Unless Wormtooth is still alive. Can go take a quick look.”

Adam gritted his teeth as he caught up with what the goblin was saying a full three seconds after. “Yes, but—” The moment he agreed, Gone was… well, bloody gone. “We should move together to maintain maximum security.” He sighed. Controlling Legendary-Tier prisoners wasn’t going to be easy. Adam knew that. “Candles. You want to try burning your way through the walls now? We seem to have an opening.”

Candles threw his head back and let out a primal cackle. “Yeah! Let’s see at what temperature Orichalcum melts! Buuuuurrrnnnnn!”

A dense beam of flame exploded out from Candle’s entire body. It splashed against the Orichalcum walls, but the Pyromancy simply expanded outward without inflicting any harm. The Gate Lord used his Divination then to track Gone. He focused on the afterimage she left behind, and immediately, the system began whispering details directly into his mind, painting visuals before his eyes. A violet glow manifested to his left—

And then Gone was back again. She dropped badly mutilated skull at Adam’s feet. “Wormtooth didn’t make it.” And then the goblin began sobbing loudly. For about a second. She stopped after that, wiped her eyes and shook her head. “We should leave. You shouldn’t have let me mourn so long. Only friend here; barely knew her.”

Gone went from point to point so fast that she gave Adam whiplash.

“I—right, so—”

A crushing force pressed down on him as a burst of pain flooded Adam. Yet, the part of him that ached was spiritual. His Dimensionality was in agony, and he realized what was coming. “Contact!” Adam shouted. “Enemy—”

The dimensional hunter emerged. Candles swung his body around and channeled his Pyromancy into the ambusher. Adam triggered his Commander’s Foresight Skill and bade the battlefield to halt for a moment. As everything came to a standstill, Adam fought off a spike of pain burrowing through his brain matter and studied the dimensional hunter. Their armor was cracked in several places and leaking static mana. One of their arms was slightly limp, but it still held onto the bladed greatbow they hand. 

There was but three meters between them and Adam, and there was already a dimensional arrow nocked along their bow. He needed to face this enemy with careful precision. He resisted their Dimensionality earlier, and it left him mana strained. The Gate Lord doubted he could resist another direct blast of mana from this enemy. But they were wounded, and Gone was right behind them as well.

Alone, Adam was outmatched. But the dimensional hunter had made a mistake. He gave Adam time. And so Adam changed the variables of their struggle. The dimensional hunter came here to hunt the Gate Lord down and bring him back to the Ascendants as a prison. Too bad all they did was damned themselves to an early death.

Should have brought backup, fool, Adam sneered at the dimensional hunter. Heat began to swell up inside his skull, but he considered how he might be most useful in this battle. Gone was far faster and Candles had incredible Pyromancy. What did Adam have that could stun the hunter? 

I have mass and pressure. I should keep him held in place. Losing a bit of water mass is worth it if Candles can get a good shot off. Yes… That should make this fast. Gone will likely hit the hunter first, I’ll drive my body into them and pin them against the wall, and then I’ll have Candles unleash his full power into the hunter.

With a simple plan in mind, Adam deactivated his Commander’s Foresight and entered the fray.

True to his expectations, Gone struck the hunter first. She tore into him fast and savage, her claws raking his helmet time and again, leaving the smallest gaps along the side. Adam saw the hunter’s eyes for the first time, and noted their hazel color. The hunter was human, and judging by skin texture, probably somewhere past eighty years of age if he was an Adept without any Biomancy treatments. Considering he was probably borderline Legendary at the very least, that hinted his true age was probably substantially older.

The hunter let out a snarl and unleashed a pulse of force from his body. A rushing wave pinned Gone against the wall, and the small goblin cried out. The hunter fired the shot he prepared for Adam at her—and missed as the Gate Lord swallowed him whole using his Herald of the Deepest Fathom Skill. 

A static arrow drove a deep divot into the Orichalcum wall, and Adam found himself staggered by the hunter’s strength. But despite the dimensional hunter’s considerable Physicality, his Toughness was lacking. He gagged as Adam forced water down his throat and into his eyes. The pressure the Gate Lord unleashed upon him wasn’t enough to crack armor or break bones, but it did leave the dimensional hunter startled.

“Blast him! Now!” Adam called out to Candles. The Pyromancer didn’t hesitate. But instead of releasing a massive valley-swallowing blast of fire, he extended a finger and directed a finger-thin thread of Pyromancy directly through Adam. That didn’t mean the fire magic was any less potent. Immediately, Adam felt a good portion of himself evaporate. The dimensional hunter suffered far worse. The beam punched a clean hole through their chest and cleaved downward. The hunter tried to teleport, but Gone was back, and she practically reappeared with both hands buried in the hunter’s collar and neck.

A warbling scream came from the hunter as his agony-howls created air bubbles within Adam. Large vibrations pulsed, and the hunter concreted his Dimensionality. But before he could do anything, Adam spat him out past Candles. “Full power! Now! Gone! Off!”

The goblin had already vanished by the time Adam spat his commands. Candles meanwhile flared bright, and a rolling blaze exploded free of his body. The Pyromancy impacted the dimensional hunter’s body, and Adam immediately heard the crackling sounds of burning fat. Maybe the hunter screamed just then, but the Gate Lord wasn’t sure. It was hard to hear a man’s shrieks over the wail of hyper-heated air. More importantly, Adam wasn’t done either. He fired shot after shot into the flames. His Veilpiercer struck something over and over—

And then the hunter blasted free from the fire and drove his blade into Adam. A flash of Dimensional glided along the edge of the blade, and Adam felt his own mana fray to the point of utter ruination. He tried to move back, but the hunter was on him—and a pulsating blast of force sent Gone sprawling along the wall, unable to help. Candles was still turning. Adam felt his magic on the verge of shredding.

He activated Commander’s Foresight, and patches of darkness spread through his vision. A migraine crept through his brain as he let out a miserable groan. He was using this skill too frequently without letting his brain rest, but being able to pause the flow of a battle to plot in real time from a bird’s eye view was too useful.

Right. So I have a problem: My Dimensionality is on the verge of being shredded. If I don’t do something in the next second, he might just end up teleporting me back into a prison cell of some kind and all this would be pointless. I can’t resist his magic, and I’m not faster than him… Adam tried to see if there was something he could do with Candles, but winced internally as he realized the Pyromancer was slower than the hunter as well. Maybe I can try to free Gone somehow? Fire an arrow at her? No. I’m not fast enough for that. So, what other skills can I use to get out of this? What can I—

He paused as he noted his new Toughness Skill Evolution. And a plan formed. It wasn’t a wise plan, but it might just work. Of course, it came with a bit of pain, but what plans didn’t when better options weren’t available.

Alright. Just… try to have his blade burst out through our shoulder instead of chest, Adam grimaced.

He released both Foresight and Fathoms in the next moment, and suddenly, he cried out as a good meter of metal was left in his chest. That was enough to trigger Phoenix Riposte, and Adam came ablaze once more. The stab wound on his chest vanished into a slight scratch as Adam crashed against the dimensional hunter. Rather than delivering a concussive blow this time, a similar stab thudded against the hunter’s armor.

I’m transferring damage types through the riposte, Adam realized.

He impacted the hunter several more times—but found himself flung back by another repulsive wave the man projected. As Adam tumbled through the air, his riposte time came to an end, and a stinging pain lined his shoulder. It wasn’t quite a scratch anymore, but it wasn’t a full cut either. And if I don’t fully transfer the damage inflicted on me to something nearby, I still retain some of the ha—

The dimensional hunter fired an arrow at Adam. The Gate Lord tried to shape a Veilpiercer and fire back. He knew he wasn’t going to be fast enough—

Adam slammed hard against the Orichalcum wall and blinked as he found himself displaced from the fight by eighty meters. The dimensional hunter roared in agony as Gone tore into him, shredding her way into his compromised throat. A series of blurs came back to Adam as he realized she pulled him out of harms way. Just then, a large teleportation arrow ripped past him—the same arrow the hunter was about to fire at him earlier.

Rising to his feet, Adam drew in moisture once more as he shifted into his Fathoms-form. He fired two shots in quick succession—then two more right after. One of his first shots missed due the flailing of the dimensional hunter’s body, but the additional arrows crashed into his ankles. He collapsed against the ground and Gone was burrowing through his guts. The dimensional hunter was trying to push her out, but by now, his repulsion skill was dead. 

Adam locked eyes with him, and froze momentarily. He saw several things in the man’s eyes. Dread. Despair. And defeat. He knew he was dead—and he had died trying to hunt down an honest son of the Republic. Adam knew he wouldn’t feel at ease if he perished in such a way. The hunter cried out and tried to say something, but Candles’s burning foot slammed down on his skull and Adam watched as the man’s eyes popped and melted.

It was one thing to be a Legend. It was another to face another Legend in close-quarters combat while not having enough Toughness. To the hunter’s credit, he clung to life a while longer, but the goblin ended up severing his spine, and Candles incinerated his entire head with a final burst of fire. With all that done, all the remained of the dimensional hunter was an unmoving body and a discarded bow.

One that Adam promptly picked up.

Equipment Gained: [Arch of the Banishing]
Tier: Heroic
Condition: Perfect
Composition: Adamantine
Enchantments > Banish to Prison Plane; Dimensionality 150; Self-Mending; Seeking Shot; Perception Link; Master Regeneration

The moment Adam picked up the bow, the wounds lining his body began to close. A rush of healing flowed through the Gate Lord, and he let out a satisfied sigh. At the same time, he felt a vast space within the bow, and realized it contained an internal dimension for prisoners. Not too unlike Hawgrave’s sword. Glad I didn’t get hit by this damned thing. Just how large is this dimension anyway? This bow doesn’t have that many enchantments. I’ll figure that out in a moment. We still need to get out of this mess.

He regarded the dimensional hunter’s armor for a moment, and frowned. Gone pulled her self free from the hunter’s chest, and the front side of her face was painted with blood and entrails. The hunter’s helmet was also gone. Utterly vaporized by that maniac, Candles. Adam could have done with a new set of—

Oh, wait, I couldn’t use that anyway. It has a telepathy enchantment. They can track me through that.

The Gate Lord remembered what the raven told him before her most untimely demise and grunted with displeasure. It was a good set of Dimensionally infused armor. It would have served him better than the tattered dress uniform he was wearing right now.

“Well, that one was a bit harder to cook,” Candles giggled. “I liked that. I wanna get the rest of the body too.”

“How about some other guards instead?” Adam suggested, trying to keep the Pyromancer focused. “After we find out if you can burn us a way out of here.”

“Oh. Right. Got interrupted.” Candles shook his head and shrugged. “Hate that. Hate that.” He giggled again and started staring at nothing for a few seconds.

“Candles?” Adam asked, not sure what was wrong with the other Pathbearer.

“Brain damage. He has that. He’ll keep losing track of things if you don’t mention it. It’s better if you just keep saying things to him. The guards made him this way. He was too good at thinking before. They cut out part of his brain. Kept him because he’s a good resource for fire. Made me run on a treaded machine to power cells for automatons. All prisoners have work. All prisoners have wounds.” Gone looked Adam up and down. “And you’re not a prisoner.”

That got Candles attention as well. “What. But he’s…” He leaned in and noticed Adam’s ruined uniform.

“I’m escaping from them all the same,” Adam said. “I just got brought here and woke up in a cell. Look. I stole one of their uniform’s and was being aided by a spy—Look, if I am one of the guards, why would I have done all this?”

Gone shook her head fast. “I’m not saying you’re a guard. You just aren’t a prisoner. Not crippled like us. Not hurt yet. Still pristine. Jealous. Sad. Miss that.”

And Adam’s apprehension about his new “friends” gained a side-note of pity as he realized just how damaged they were. Whatever the Republic was doing to them, it wasn’t right. They might be sinners and criminals, but wounding them this way was wrong.

Everything I know about the Republic is wrong, too, Adam realized. How could a good nation do this to people? Punishment was one thing, but mangling someone’s brain to reduce their threat capacity. It was just brutal. It was just dark. I never knew my own home at all.

A sorrowful weight built inside Adam, but he pushed it aside as he called out to Candles to fire a beam through the wall. The Pyromancer began charging up his shot again, but then a loud whistle came from behind.

Adam spun, priming a Veilpiercer arrow, but by the time he laid eyes on the intruder, Gone was already on them. To Adam’s surprise, he found a raven-helmed man standing just eight meters away, with both hands held up.

“Can we talk?” the raven said. He nodded down at Gone’s claws, which were pressed against his neck.

“Gone. Hold on.”

The goblin blinked back beside Adam. “Know them? What are they? No. Helmet. Raven. Aviary.” She paused and a rush of rage flared behind her eyes. “You’re Aviary?”

“Gods no,” Adam snarled. “But right now, they’re trying to get me out of this place. And they can probably help you as well.”

The new raven rubbed at his throat and looked around. “Before we continue—”

“I couldn’t keep your associate alive,” Adam said. “I’m sorry. She died in the heat of combat.”

“Ah. Well, that explains why we couldn’t probably locate her. Her body was likely destroyed beyond recomposition as well.” The raven shook his head. “Quite the life we lead. Anyhow. Would you like to leave this place, Gate Lord? Because your method of burning your way through the Orichalcum? That won’t work.”

“Oh, we’ll see!” Candles growled. He unleashed even more fire, and it splashed against the red-gold walls.

Adam narrowed his eyes at the raven. “So, what’s your way out? Actually, how did you get in first place?”

The raven stared at the ground—at the entrance to one of the nearby cells. “Anchors, dear Gate Lord. And the larger a place is, the more compromises it gains. So. Shall we?”

Gone looked up at Adam and gave him a disgusted look. He returned it. “It’s our best option.”

“Can’t trust them. Did work for them. Tried to collar me.” The goblin shuddered.

“I know,” Adam said. “But they need me right now. So they’re not going to do anything to us. Not yet. Not yet.” He looked the raven up and down and sighed. “Fine. But you stay in front. And I want to know everything about this place.”

“Ah? Going to seek out the Deathless, are we?”

“Yes. But also, I think I want to know where the most dangerous prisoners are held so I can let them out. I think I’ve suffered enough of this place. I want the avatars to be miserable in my stead.”