Chapter 7-178: Back into the Fires (1/2)

“Anything in the works with the Void Brothers?” I asked. I was a bit miffed that they didn’t want to work with me, but given how my Aura reeked of the Shroud, it was understandable. I probably tasted like a perfect vanilla ice cream cone wrapped in dead rotting flesh to their Helices.

“I’ve got their phone numbers, and Briggs and I got some Weapons made for them, as you requested. Whether they’ll take the negative Levels and rebuild is something else. They were a pretty twitchy pair, but they did seem to find the idea of having a lot more Voids around working with them a Good Thing. They also nommed to the fact Briggs and I were way more than we appeared fairly quickly, but their instincts said we weren’t a threat, so we got along fairly well. They actually spent around fifteen minutes just feeling out my Curse, fine-tuning their sensitivity. They had some stories about things some Hags had done that could curdle milk.”

“Adjusting their trackers. Well, hopefully they come around and can work with us. Whether they trust us to do what is ‘right’ is a hard thing from their perspective, but taking out the Shroud definitely can’t be low on the scales, right?”

“Damn right. If there are any of them in Asia, they have to know what is going on, too... but I imagine getting word out would be rather hard right now. The Daoists and Buddhists will hunt them with everything.”

“Sounds like they need someone to come in and relieve some pressure, and show them how to slaughter properly.”

“Topped Bursting Chained Shards on rinse and repeat?” she asked rhetorically.

“I was thinking Cleave Trains and Butterfly Runs, but eh.”

“Butterfly Runs?” she asked, after I let that hang, and she bit.

I whipped up a vid of that from the Crusades of Terra-Luna, and she actually bent closer to look and watch it. “Holy shit, who’s doing that?” she asked, eyes wide as seventy-foot ‘wings’ of Sharding strokes extended up and down into mounds on either side of a massive Cleave Run through literally a landscape of undead. The runner was killing hundreds of them a round, if not over a thousand...

“You did,” I replied.

She watched entranced as that line of death a hundred and fifty feet wide ran all over the place, and Buffed zombies and skeletons of many types exploded as she cleared a road all over the landscape.

“You can’t do that with Sharding...” she had to say, and I just shrugged.

“She did. Maybe the rules have changed on what has happened, but the Butterfly Runs of Sama Rantha are still embedded in history. Like you need Perpetual Shards to be a badass like her.”

She grinned toothily. “She managed to conflate ranged and missile Feats, penetration strikes and Cleave opportunities, all into the same attacks? That is just insane...”

“Yeah, well, she’s definitely a character.”

Sama grumbled to herself, wondering how to pull off the same thing. “Someday!” she finally said, and I could only grin.

In all honesty, just being able to run a Cleave Train like she could was pretty monstrous. A Butterfly Run was just hugely overboard.

But most people thought the same about unlimited Bursting Chained Shards and stuff, so I wasn’t one to judge.

“How far along are you on Rantha/7?” I had to ask.

“I grit my teeth and got Con done while I was in St. Paul. I worked out Strength while I was in Wakefield, and Dexterity in the army. I’m basically just stuck on Charisma now.”

I recalled what I knew of her Racial Class. “Wait, didn’t your Charisma hit +6 at Three?”

“Yes,” she said, “and it still let me advance Racials until I hit Six here, I don’t know why. I’m guessing I ‘can’ get +2 to Charisma a Level until Eight, but I ‘must’ take at least +1 per Level. I hope I don’t have to backpay +12...”

1.44 million was four years of just buying Charisma. Ouch! “Well, you’re going to need all of that to rule the world, so no better time...”

She rolled her eyes at me, I returned it to her, and we both laughed. “Okay, how’s the Karma for this Firezone doing for you?”

“It’s decent, keeping ahead of what I’m spending at any rate, and you know the huge amount I need. I’m definitely hoping for some bigger stuff...”

“And the boss is probably a magmawight...”

She smacked her lips as if I’d just talked about the world’s finest steak. “Yes, that would do!” she agreed happily. “And it should have quite the powerful cohort...”

“Karma on the stack,” I agreed with her. “We’ll be heading out tomorrow as a group again. There’s a lot of groups wanting to coordinate with us and try to clear ground.”

“Nothing wrong with that. Briggs and I can handle any fast rescue requests if they pop up, or would you prefer to?”

“If they are close enough I can just Linejump over and back. If I need help, I’ll just scream for the rest of you, and Master Fred and Sleipner can tow you over quickly enough.”

“That unicorn has a lot more than eight legs under its hood,” she agreed affably. “But don’t think we’re gonna stop killing stuff just because you’re off helping feebs!”

“I wouldn’t dare even consider it!” I replied dryly.

----------------------

And thusly began our epic return to the Firezone.

We had already garnered a lot of notoriety, returning with salvaged creature loot, pyric crystals, and especially getting rid of the killer Oriental Fire Dragon. Helix was now at the center of our communication network, keeping tabs on everyone, and there were serious talks of making real progress here with us around.

The vivic fire was making sure everything we killed didn’t come back, after all. That was huge, although the enemy wouldn’t find out for some time...