84 Finalizing Details (1/2)

Kessiah propped her weight onto one hip, “He’s actually serious?” She reached over and flicked Hod at the tip of his metallic beak, “I’m not Lady Friend number two. I’m Kessiah Crow.”

Hod grabbed his nostrils, “Hod sorry. Hod not mean to hurt Crow’s feelings. Hod thought Crow not bird like Hod. Hod see now. White hair of Crow like feathers. Crow’s Violet skin like…Hod give up. How is Crow bird and not person?”

Kessiah blinked, “Wait…My last name is Crow, I’m not an actual crow. How do you even know what a crow is?”

Hod raise a hand, “Hod use blue box’s help. Box tell Hod what Crow is.”

Torix cupped his chin, “Assuming you can’t read, you must have discovered the audio function preset into the system. You might not be as idiotic as your speech implies.”

Hod shook his head, “Hod think Dry Man think too much about Hod speaking. Hod speak strange, true, but Hod use words to speak. Words not good for speaking. Actions better, because actions speak alone. Actions not need Hod to speak for them.”

Torix lowered his hand, “Quite a strange observation. I can’t tell if that was incredibly intelligent or incredibly stupid.”

I tilted my hands back and forth, “Take everything Hod says with a grain of salt.”

From beside me, Althea materialized out of thin air. She raised a hand, “Hey guys. It’s good to be back.”

Kessiah and Torix froze in place. Unlike them, Althea’s appearances didn’t surprise me anymore. Anytime I didn’t use my skill for sensing gravity, Althea could erase herself from my senses at will. Neither Torix or Kessiah had seen it in action though. Torix gasped,

“Althea…You disguised your mana? How?”

I turned to her, curious as well.

“Oh yeah, I forgot I was doing that. Uh, well, Daniel and I trained a lot by playing a game, kind of like hide and seek. He would try to find me while I hid. I came up with all these different ways of hiding, some of them worked and some didn’t. Mana was one of those ways of hiding.”

She raised a hand, “Hmmm…What’s the best way to say this...Ok, you can sense mana anytime it’s regenerated or is full, right?”

Torix nodded, leaning closer to her, “Of course.”

I raised an eyebrow, “Why exactly?”

Torix pointed a finger towards the sky, “The reason for sensing a filled mana bar is the over capped mana creates an aura you can sense. The reason for regenerating mana is the fluctuation of mana. If someone’s mana pool is altering in size, it distinguishes itself from ambient energy. It’s similar to a camouflaged animal moving.”

Althea nodded, “So with Arcane Blood, my magic is like health. You can’t sense it being made, because it’s just health regen. The hard thing is finding a way of keeping my health uncapped all the time.”

With a vigorous nod, Torix tapped his chin, “That’s very true. Daniel couldn’t disguise his mana signature at all. His method of dispersing it is…vibrant to say the least.”

I shrugged, “I didn’t know you could even sense people’s mana like that.”

Torix grinned, “I planned on showing you later. You’ve been rather keen on developing your own skills in your own way. I decided to let you develop yourself organically.”

Althea pointed at me, “The thing is, unlike your health build, my build is strength, dexterity, and perception. I’m an assassin, and I don’t have some ridiculous value for my health regen. To keep my low regen from capping out my health, all I have to do is make it equal to my mana consumption. It uh, strengthens the stealth form and makes my mana signature harder to detect.”

Torix nodded, “But how do you use your ammunition? To my knowledge, it requires mana to make?”

She glanced at the ground, “That’s uh, well, Daniel gave me a ring that lets me use his mana for that.”

Torix grinned at us both, “Both of you working together has improved our fighting potential drastically. This is precisely what we needed out of Althea for killing a follower. I do wonder, however.”

He pointed a finger at me, “How are you sensing her then?”

I tapped temple, “I’m sensing her fluctuations in gravity.”

Kessiah frowned, “What? Bullshit. That’s impossible.”

Torix nodded, “I have to agree. That shouldn't be possible. I told you to feel the fabric of the dimension you were in, not tiny fluctuations in it. That’s overly precise. It shouldn’t be possible for a warrior bui…Ah. Your enhanced perks.”

I grinned, “Exactly. All the extra leveling perks let me do stuff like that when other builds like mine shouldn’t be able to.”

Hod interjected, “Friends discuss complicated things. Complicated things leave Hod behind. Hod think complicated things better saved for later. Now we handle simple things, like what Hod do now.”

Torix opened his palms to Hod, “Ah yes, what to do with you. You must be bored with our discussion. It involves words with more than two syllables.”

Hod nodded, ”Yes.”

Torix opened his arms in exasperation, “The Eltari will be used for handling reconnaissance and guerilla warfare. The gift of flight will allow us to strike at different areas of the quarantine zone and cull the infected there. You will lead the strike forces during those operations.”

Torix turned to us, racing through his words to get rid of Hod, “During this, Daniel and Althea will be destroying opened rifts. It will be a two-pronged assault.”

Althea offered a hand, “I can spy on them using my stealth form. I could gather intelligence or something like that on the enemy.”

Torix pointed at her, still racing through his words, “Good. You will gather details on the enemy’s habits, weaknesses, anything you may find. Daniel can focus on clearing rifts.”

Slowing him down just to tease him, I shrugged, “I could do some scouting too with my sensing abilities. I mean shit, I can sense Althea even in her stealth form. Someone still needs to clear rifts, so I’ll upload data about what I sense above me as I travel.”

Torix frowned, exasperated by our interruptions, “That's just dandy. I'm certain that extra information will be useful. Regardless-”

Kessiah nodded, interrupting him, “It sounds pretty good I guess, but we haven’t even grilled these two on what they learned yet. How long were you guys gone exactly?”

I shrugged, “I don’t know. Maybe three or four months. It was a pretty long time.”

Torix sighed, giving up on rushing through the conversation, “You both must have found a rift with a rather intense time dilation. It’s only been three days since you both left.”

Kessiah stepped closer to me, looking up at my face, “Yeah, in three days you’re even taller now. Like six inches taller.”

I stared at one of my hands, checking out the size of it, “Yeah, I guess it comes with the whole leveling thing.”

Torix pressed his hand into the air, fiddling with a status screen none of us could see, “Speaking of which, let’s see what we’re working with.” He glanced up at me, his jaw dropping, “Since when did you become a higher level than even me?”

I raised an eyebrow, “Wait, what?”

I analyzed Torix again,

Torix Worm, of Darkhill (lvl 1341) – A powerful necromancer who has lived for a very long time. Taking a calm, patient approach, Torix Worm has slowly accrued an army of summons that he may use. Instead of focusing on leveling, Torix is a seeker of knowledge. He jumps from one interest to the next, gaining mastery of each magic or tactic he leaves behind.

While his pursuit of knowledge is admirable, knowledge does not result in the death of Eldritch. His level is far below what his volume of skills would indicate, and his ability to use those skills in combat is limited as well. His assortment of skills is like a swamp, wide and varied, but lacking in depth.

Make no mistake, however, those skills become deadly when used over time. Torix’s ability to weave intricate strategies that make use of his many skills are second to none. Combine that with his usage of fortress tactics, and you have a difficult foe to kill indeed.