Chapter 3-70: Just a Little Karma... (2/2)

For an anti-undead Feat, it was okay. More for a Forsaken Null or Source, with those Save boosts. I didn’t mind the boost, but I definitely had more important things to take...

It left me my Mastery again. I sighed, and mentally clicked over Basic Metamagic Mastery/1, Reach Spell.

There were several Basic Metamagicks, where you were basically twinking with the features common to all spells. No Materials was universal to all Sorcerers, and meant you didn’t need bat guano and sulfur to make fireballs, letting you bypass the need for cheap material components, if not expensive ones. No Motion, often called Still Spell, meant you didn’t have to gesture to cast a spell, and could basically just say a word and the spell went off. No Words , often called Silent Spell, naturally meant you didn’t have to say anything, and could cast the spell with just a gesture.

In addition to the three No Components Feats, there was Extend Spell, Reach Spell, and Widen Spell Area, which affected spell duration, spell range, and spell area, respectively. There were also Feats and Masteries to quicken Casting time, Sculpt spells and give them widely varying appearances, and of course Raising Spells to higher Valences for additional power and effects was a thing, especially with Damage Cap-breakers like Delimit...

They were all things I had to acquire over time and Levels, and which I was definitely missing right now.

Reach Spell allowed you to increase the range of your spell by either one category, from touch to short to medium to long-range... and then it would double it again, once. Each range increase cost a Valence.

Many people didn’t realize that the Feat also allowed you to decrease the range of a spell down to touch, and if so, would increase the power of it by a die size, i.e. 10d6 would become 10d8. If you were channeling the spell through a Weapon, say, with Spell Combat, that little bit of extra damage could be quite useful.

I picked it because it would give my Darts Medium range, the same as Spellwarping them, but keeping them separate... and with much higher long-term upside.

Notably, I could right now Reach three times and blow these Cantrips into Extreme Range, over a thousand feet away, and even if they’d have no punch, they could still HIT out there.

And I could do the same with Shards... with considerably more impact.

Reach r strong, it r.

Triple Metamagic reduction before rep counts was strong, too...

YOUR VOICE IS DIFFERENT, he told me in a flutter of flames.

“Minstrel/1. It dumped all the Skill Ranks into Oration.” Yes, I was talking different. I had a unique accent that was drawing off all the languages I knew, and his eyebrow, and those around me turning my way, showed that it was indeed attention-getting, especially in Human. “Master Fred, Commander Briggs, we’re going to start the show with you two.” I flicked up the Darts, now only girt in red and black, no need to supercharge them with these two here, using Reach to ensure that I had the range.

The jetsilver teardrops still looked pretty impressive, and they were still doing 4-24+8 against these things, especially now that I was using my Staff like a Wand, and I had Invested it to Ki-Bound, gave it two ki, and it was now +II.

I definitely had a lot of work to do with it, but that would have to wait until I got Boneshaper Ranks...

The two men swung their shooting irons into play. Master Fred’s was burning with ready Wrath, while Commander Briggs’ had a Baneskull framing the muzzle, and a Token Against the Undead dangling from it.

My Darts went out, bashed into two adjacent wraiths there, both burning with visible black flames from a Minister hidden somewhere close by.

They didn’t get the chance to break the Wardfield before the shots arrived. Multi-colored Wrath detonated inside and tore the first apart, while a twelve-inch blast of Banefire ripped through the other and blew it to drifting motes. Vivic fire feasted eagerly over the remains, and they vanished.

The undead were unperturbed, not knowing that said Damned spirits would not be returning come the dusk tomorrow, but since they probably didn’t recognize or remember them too well, it just didn’t matter.

The troops there whooped at the precise and efficient one-shot kills. I flicked up two more Darts, pointed them at my targets out there, and let fly.

There was no hesitation, no shifting of targets. Both men were accomplished shooters, and the Wraiths simply didn’t have a chance against the force of the firepower they were putting out.

I shot six times, and six pairs of wraiths died, with more zooming into this busy section after they saw us popping them, aching for their chance for us to miss. The six troopers to the sides were there on back-up, so even if one did end up really juiced, the instant it breached the field it would have gotten a salvo of back-up shots.

“Switch out. Gunners ready.”

Grit and Boomer were stowed, Endure and Idiot flipped out to readiness... and both men hopped easily up onto the battlement of the Wall, completely unconcerned about the sixty-foot drop.

I shot, and this time the wraiths got to breach. Howling mad, they charged right in for me, quite ignoring the men... which was a bad idea.

Briggs just snapped his wrists, and Endure tore through one Wraith, blasting it into vivus-devoured smoke. Master Fred cut smoothly, Wrath blew off the burning arc of his Sword, and his wraith got no further than the other had.

This repeated four times, and the fifth ones decided to get clever and fly away from us, heading for some other targets on the wall.

The shooters said no, and accurate rifle fire plowed into them, and blew holes in them that vivus ate away. I waited until the targets were confirmed dead and they swung their barrels back in line, and shot again.

With six each done, Briggs and Master Fred redrew their own firearms, and stepped back for the two teams of three shooters each to step forwards.

As there were three Weapons to each team, that naturally required more pairs of Wraiths than Master Fred and their Commander, but I was perfectly willing to pop wraiths, and the wraiths were eager to be popped.