Chapter 3-87: Traveling Plan, Makes a Lotta Stops, All With a Sword... (1/2)
“As long as it generates Naming Karma, I’m game... or if it’s a Good Thing to do.”
The fire burned over his shoulder blankly, his version of a sigh. PRETTY MUCH NOTHING CALLS ON ME TO DO SOMETHING THAT ISN’T VIOLENT, UNLESS I’M GOING TO STICK AROUND A WHILE, AT WHICH POINT IT’LL JUST FILL UP MY TIME WITH ANYTHING FOR BUSYWORK.
“The perils of being motile and horribly proficient at your job,” I agreed, swinging onto Sleipner first. An actual courier would transport the books we’d found to Heavenbound Hall, where the allied churches enjoyed universal access to its archives. The rest that had not been sent off with the Mick had first been offered to the church’s own collection, and those they passed on had simply been incinerated by Master Fred.
While I wasn’t a big fan of book-burning, I’d effectively read each and every one of those books, and the world wasn’t going to miss any of the revelations concealed within them, that was certain.
IF EXPERIENCE IS ANY GUIDE, YOUNGTOWN AND WARREN WILL HAVE SOMETHING FOR ME TO DO, AS WILL CANTON AND AKRON, IF NOT VERY IMPORTANT TASKS... USUALLY. THE CITIES AROUND DETROIT TEND TO HAVE MORE CITYBOUND, AND IF THOSE CAN’T HANDLE TASKS, THEY USUALLY KNOW WHO TO CONTACT TO DEAL WITH THEM. CITIES HAVING TO RELY ON A WANDERER LIKE ME TEND TO BE A LITTLE PUT OUT.
“Yeah, not being able to take care of yourself and having to rely on a wandering doctor would be annoying,” I agreed, putting on the helmet he gave me. “On the other side, it’s the smaller communities that don’t have that level of protection who are most likely to be targeted by things they can’t handle.”
YES, THE DETERRENT OF HAVING ACTIVE CITYBOUND ABLE TO CALL IN A HIT SQUAD IS SURPRISINGLY EFFECTIVE AGAINST A LOT OF CREATURES, ESPECIALLY THE FEY, AND EVEN SOME OF THE DRUIDIC ELEMENTS.
“Making them prime targets to take out in the event of conflict, yes. I imagine many of them wish they had your phone number.”
A smiley face popped up in the flames. HOW TRUE! THEY DO, HOWEVER, MAKE SURE I HAVE THEIRS, JUST IN CASE I’M BORED...
I thought about that. “Well, then, how about we plan ahead a little bit. If we call up their Citybound, we’ll waste less time setting up anything we have to do, right?”
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Master Fred burst out with his Wrath, and his Angel Weight flared, reaching out and cancelling flying magic all around him.
The screeching horse-headed, bat-winged creatures with green-scaled kangaroo legs was beating for the sky, and shrieked really loudly as suddenly it couldn’t warp the laws of aerodynamics, and began to fall from the sky. It really was unnaturally strong, and managed to sort of plummet-glide down, keeping its leathery wings stiff, but it was much too big to actually handle its own weight if physics applied.
It was ten feet from the ground when my Shards slammed into it.
Blasted sideways by the impacts of my Weaponized spell, the thing wasn’t prepared to land properly, and slammed down badly. I heard the crack as it broke a leg, then snapped a wing as it rolled and tumbled badly several times.
Fred’s Grit flared a couple times, only a zipping sound and no crack as he fired into the bulk of the thing, adding to its woes.
It obviously had fast healing, getting to its feet as its leg snapped back into place with a jerk and pull of its hands. Its wing was dragging as it looked back at us charging in, shrieked again, and then turned around.
Sleipner slammed directly into its chest, alicorn leading the way, and blew it back off its feet. A murderous front wheel revved, meat flew as the thing was buzzsawed, and then a Grit round found the creature’s head and ended its shrieking completely.
I flipped a Dart to clean Sleipner’s wheels as I trotted up on the thing. “Okay, I’m clueless. What is this?”
A JERSEY DEVIL. I blinked. YEAH, THEY HAVE BEEN SPREADING WEST FROM THE MANHATTAN SHROUDZONE. FLIERS ARE PAINS TO CATCH AND NAB, SO THE BOUNTY HUNTERS TEND TO NOT WASTE TIME ON THEM.
ON THE FLIP SIDE, WE CAN CLAIM THE BOUNTY FOR THEM, AND IT’S ABOVE AVERAGE BECAUSE THEY ARE RUNNERS.
“And sell the carcass,” I sighed. “Okay, let’s bleed the thing; the blood is overall the easiest to sell. Ask Gregorigori if the local alchemists want the carcass, haggle a price with them, and can get a retrieval team here to grab it.”
ON IT.
We were in a copse of woods on the outskirts of Warren, where this winged brown-furred, green-scaled creature had hidden and was raiding the area at night. It might have grabbed a bum, but had actually been spotted making off with a large dog it had torn apart, obviously for dinner. Finding it had been a case of getting the general area from the town and stalking it, as it hadn’t bothered to leave when nobody had chased it, and instead just holed up at night.
Just more Karma on the stack... and an Aberrant Baneskull, if it’s physiology meant anything...
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The slender, trench-coated figure was thirty feet in the air when the hurtling trashcan interrupted its snickering laugh with a crash and really threw off its airy gracefulness.
When Sleipner melted out of the shadows and came up on one wheel to meet it as it was flipping over and coming down awkwardly, its eternal smirk was a bit forced.
The alicorn impaled it, and it sprawled across the front of the motorbike, a hatchet-faced, bloody-eyed, long-nosed bastard with a genetic smile permanently twisting its face, clutching a long razor that was dripping blood in its hand.
It looked at the seven Shards rotating in front of its eyeballs, the holy light nearly blinding it... and then the vivic fire sparked between the rotating array.