Chapter 1-3: Warlocks (2/2)
The sky made me falter, but I couldn’t dwell on it right now.
Parking lot, old, weathered, very cracked... but not a single weed growing through it. Low buildings of cement or wood in all directions, looked very much like an old city area or suburbs, but decaying, rotting, extremely weathered, windows shattered, faded signs.
But no overgrowth or plants in odd places.
Directly in front of me was a beaten panel van, with side seats, and another purple-black eyed bastard standing in it, complete with leather jacket and polo shirt. His jaw dropped to see me, and the driver behind him, looking in the mirror there, squealed and instantly slammed the gas pedal down.
The guy in the passenger seat was handling something wrapped in swaddling clothes.
Smart guy in the back was lunging to close the door as two Shards took him in the chest for 5d6+12, and the driver received the other two in the back of his head, spraying his face and brains all over the windshield.
The van drove straight across the cracked asphalt, hit the chain-link fence on the far side, and broke off two of the poles as it rode up it and sideways, the hit getting the man’s foot off the gas.
The lights of the van looked queerly bright, and I glanced up at the unnatural haze above, swearing to myself as I flicked up more burning Shards around my arm and made for the van.
I hated being a One. No firepower, no toughness... but, you know, four jetsilver Shards burning white and crimson as they spun around my arm can look plenty ominous on their own, especially after just two of them wasted the other two Warlocks.
I saw the swirl of shadowy magic, made an educated guess, and turned my eyes to the rooftop of a building next door, possibly an old warehouse or storefront.
He was standing atop it, having Ridden the Shadow up there, quite beyond my ability to follow. I could see his grin from over here, and the baby he was holding in his arms. He drew his pistol confidently, and it swirled with the purple-black flames of his Scorn.
A Warlock’s Gun.
I paused behind an old electric light post, losing one of my Shards as I glared at him. He seemed pretty cocksure that I wouldn’t fire as he brought his gun up, but I did indeed let go.
Pure instinct made him move the baby in front of the incoming Shards, but if he thought I could call them off, he was wrong, and the baby was in no danger. The three auto-targeting Shards diverted around the child and punched into the asshole for a comfortable 6d6+15. His pistol discharged wildly sideways as he convulsed at the new holes in his gut, leg, and shoulder, and I could clearly see the shock on his face.
He was at least a Five if he could Ride the Shadow that far. One more shot had a pretty good chance of killing him, and his chances of hitting me behind cover at this range were not good... and his chance of a kill shot was even lower.
He realized it too, stumbling, and then ducking and rolling down out of my line of sight. A couple seconds later, shadows converged, evaporated, and he was gone.
I really, really wanted to stand there and glare after him, knowing there was no way I could catch a Warlock who could move fifty yards in any direction basically constantly. Instead, I turned around, certain I wasn’t going to like what was coming out of the door behind me.
The light seemed to falter and ebb, the rays lifting away from me, shadows growing, lengthening... and I gamed the system and juiced my Arcane Bond, renewing one of my Spell Slots.
I had a Dusk Renewal, Aethra’s Own, rising as the Light faded and the Shadow stirred. Things of the night could now move freely about, even if the sun was painting the sky oddly hazy hues in the distance...
The Renewal surged through me, and the Valences I’d expended relaxed in their tension, ready to receive more mana... but I still wouldn’t be able to Cast from them for eight hours from the moment of expending a spell. It was a wonderfully refreshing feeling, and most pointedly, actualized my magic to relieve me of exactly one point of ability damage per Stat.
Which left me feeling mildly horrible and nauseated, instead of totally horrible.
More importantly, I could take another Level!
Ding!
The fuck? Did my Karma just auto-invest?!
The first zombie was stumbling through the door thirty feet away. Without another thought, I spun up a Disrupting Dart, and drove it into the thing. Banefire and vivus combined for a nice 4d6 impact, and the zombie promptly fell down, dead flesh on fire... and revealing the rest of the undead behind it.
I had two Valences left. I had to work this chokepoint if at all possible, as long as possible. I could insta-pop four at a time, twice, but then I’d be dry of everything but Cantrips.
I grit my teeth, steadied myself, and concentrated on trying to obstruct that door with more falling corpses who didn’t have the greatest agility.
Their clothes were extremely ragged and weathered, but give me a sense of age from decades ago in their cut and material. The corpses themselves were pretty weathered and dry, with an emaciated look to them that reminded me of the soul-sucked, and yawning black eyes full of negative energy.
They caught on fire and burned unwhite nicely, which started a proper burning barricade for me.
Seeing me there, the zombies started to press past, obviously very hungry and trying to reach me. The second was probably a woman once, judging by the remnants of her skirt, and I dropped her like I had the stumbling man in front of her. The bodies began to stack up, and burn thicker as the zombies tried to get around and past them; I moved over to get a better view straight into the hallway beyond.
They wouldn’t run into the vivus any more than they’d charge into a burning house, but me right in front of them meant they didn’t want to move away, either, and they didn’t really have any kind of strategic brains...
I glanced over to the side, and winced. There was another door there next to what looked like a loading dock, and it was open. They could always mosey over that way if they knew it was there... and something intelligent certainly would, if it didn’t just go find some exit out of my line of sight and try to sneak up on me.
With that in mind, the safest place was actually moving forward, into the vivus!