Chapter 48: ...And The Horse You Rode In On
"Alright, give this feed a few more seconds. Let's find something else." Elias clapped his hands rallying everyone once more. "Also let's get some food in here. I'm breaking the rule." Random applause and cheers sounded for a moment since the 'old man' was going to allow them to eat at their workstations, something that was usually inconceivable and a punishable offense.
Elias motioned for one of the stagehands nearby to come over and told him to get a notepad and start taking orders. When asked where they should order from he said he didn't really care, sparking another round of applause. Abhy was idly standing next to him, flipping through the feeds of other streamers they might switch to after they moved away from Hunter and Forsythe.
"It'd be a good time to switch to some of the other streamers and start showing the scale of the battle. Watching the one on one fights in the middle of the city was good but the visage swarm on the outskirts is starting to get intense." Philip spoke up, immediately getting drowned out by another producer Fei Hong. He made a face but didn't say anything. Speeches had to be made fast in this environment and there were no hard feelings mostly.
"We're looking at a possible breach on the east side of Blutonsi. The wall of dead visage is actually starting to look like it could get high enough to teeter over and fall on the Residents there." Fei Hong said quickly, very briefly flashing a 'what can you do' look at Philip.
"Alright. Let's queue up the east side of Blutonsi. Who are we looking at for that?" Elias asked.
"Wait!" Abhy who had been glancing through the other monitors stopped because movement on the main screen had caught her attention.
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Forsythe finally started to relax from his pose as he stepped back, drawing the length of his blade out from Grimgrieve. The red blazing eyes of the creature had dimmed going from the color of scarlet to a dull garnet. The health bar above his head had finally resolved at 0% HP. The visage, like many other visage in the event, didn't vanish in typical monster fashion. Instead, he sank to his knees, hand still lightly grasping that murderous rapier with his head bowed down. The majority of the arrow shaft hung out of one side of his neck, leaving his head tilted at a weird angle.
Hunter came up, and much to the surprise of a few of the Shadow Fall members around them, pulled the arrow out from the notched end all the way through the neck, making a grunt as the barb traveled back through the wound. The body shook but otherwise remained a corpse. Forsythe didn't look surprised or disgusted by the move. His own blade hung down at his side as he stared at the body, almost as if he too thought it could spring back to life at any moment.
"Eerie." Hunter dropped the spent arrow into the snow and brushed her hair back from her eyes, taking a momentary respite as the battle continued to rage in wide circles surrounding them. She glanced at Forsythe, noticing that his head had turned sharply up and to the left. She followed his gaze where several visage were falling slowly off the edge of a short building nearby. Perhaps a dozen of the creatures that had been crawling across had suddenly lurched to a halt and fell over the side of the building, hitting the ground with audible thuds. The blackness of their scales and limbs lightened significantly as if the very pigmentation inherent in their body structure were being drained by some unseen source.
Hunter, a terrible premonition flashing through her mind, began to turn back to the 'corpse' of Grimgrieve. Before she could fully turn she sensed movement from her side, belatedly regretting that she had moved forward to pull the arrow from his body and hadn't moved away. Just as she completed her turn she was frozen once again, looking directly into those burning scarlet eyes. Grimgrieve, who once again stood before her with full health, had obviously used his fear ability on her again. He raised his rapier, arm positioned as if he were going to stab her straight through the stomach and with such force that his arm might very well burst through her back as well.
Instead of the swift death she had imagined, an unexpected warm sensation spread out over the leather and laces of the armor on her stomach as Forsythe's hand planted there, briefly, before sending her rocketing backward and away from Grimgrieve with such speed that her vision blurred to either side. Despite everything around her turning into lines, the point of the rapier chased toward the center of her vision as if it would catch her even still. When she finally came to a halt meters away, she was still on her feet for a moment before collapsing onto her butt with a soft thud, somewhat amazed that the tip of the rapier actually hadn't caught her in the end.
[Die]. Grimgrieve turned, scarlet lines leaving an after-image as his eyes whipped around to look at Forsythe once more. A silver [INVINCIBLE] once more appeared above his head, and the same look of casual disregard was on the stalwart Shadow Fall member's face as he readied his own saber to strike forward.
"[Intrepid Strike]," Forsythe called out, the same amazing speed being produced from the start of the skill that he had used to completely dominate Grimgrieve minutes before. Almost immediately he canceled the effect and leaped back, apparently intuiting something as Grimgrieve marched closer into range without any attempt at parrying the skill. It turned out his perception that something was different was correct. Grimgrieve very briefly vanished from Hunter's sight, amazing enough considering the perception of an archer was high, appearing in a direct and extended thrust with the blade piercing the center of the position Fours had just been standing.
Grimgrieve straightened slightly, red eyes boiling as he slowly pulled himself up to a casual at ready stance. Cracks had begun to appear on his armor, and steam was being emitted from his body. He cast another casual glance at the members of Shadow Fall who were still ringing the courtyard and killing visage, returning briefly to Hunter who was starting to recover and go back into a full draw position. Grimgrieve quietly reached toward his neck and felt around the area where the arrow had gone through. There had been a rather sinister-looking black hole of a wound there before, but now it was an ugly knot of distorted flesh that even now was smoothing out.
"Boss," Riddly panted out over the guild channel. "Those visage that died before he woke up were kind of special looking. They have pluses next to their normal designation and are kind of red. There are about twenty more on the buildings that we thought were just moving around to other parts of the battlefield, but now it looks like they're circling."
"Thanks," Hunter said, trying to make sense of the information. "So… uhh… We just kill him 'til there are no more of those?"
"Or we could kill them so you only have to kill them once. I just wish they weren't so projectile proof. Gotta shoot the crap out of them to even get one." Rat chimed in. "What do you think Forsythe?"
Forsythe was standing ten meters away from Grimgrieve as the creature was feeling around its chest where it had been run through. It seemed thoughtful, which made the tall warrior even more alert and vigilant. The speed it had shone was a tier above what it had been before. "It can still get faster and stronger," he slowly spoke.
"You think killing them gives it power in addition to reviving it?" Riddly sounded like he'd swallowed something bad.
"What do you mean you have to 'shoot the crap out of them'," Forsythe asked, ignoring the other swordsman entirely. "What is your strategy when you shoot arrows?"
"Strategy? Uh, just shoot them a lot until they die from it?" Rat replied, sounding thoroughly confused. Secretly Hunter was nodding her head.
Forsythe actually took a moment to turn his head away from the scarlet gazed monster in front of him to stare incredulously across the plaza to the north-west side where Rat was peppering the visage on a roof with arrows.
"What?" Rat must have sensed the gaze. She immediately reacted defensively when she saw the slack-jawed man staring at her from far away. It must have peeved her because she muttered that having great vision wasn't always a blessing as an archer.
"Shoot them in the hands, the knees, the elbows, the joints. Immobilize them so the swordsman can finish them. Even if you hit one in the hand and the shaft breaks it still slows them and makes them fall off the surfaces. Your approach is thoughtless and useless. Do you even know what mostly projectile proof means?" The ruthless and savage commentary came from Aidan across the guild chat. Worse, Forsythe was actually nodding as if he 100% agreed.
The only blessing really was that the viewers at home, in hotels, in streaming bars, and everywhere else in the world weren't privy to the scathing lecture. In fact, this was the point where all the archers in Shadow Fall and everyone who was paying attention to them drastically changed their approach from 'shoot the crap out of them' to something else.
Where before they had been shooting the visage however they could, as fast as they could, they began focusing their shots to knock visage off surfaces and to herd them into groups on the ground where melee could get to them. To the viewing audience, it seemed like the members of Shadow Fall had an epiphany about how to fight the visage when the truth of the matter was they had been scolded harshly by a wizard in guild chat.
The immediate gratitude of the melee players and residents who had been getting overwhelmed from the walls and ceilings of corridors made several archers cough gruffly. If their ears could have reddened, they probably would have.
Before the conversation could continue, however, Grimgrieve had apparently had his fill of feeding off the indignation of actually being killed once. Forsythe had just turned his full attention back when the creature disappeared in Hunter's vision, appearing to the left of Forsythe and stabbing at the neck. Forsythe briefly blurred, turning so fast her eyes couldn't keep up from this distance, pushing the enemy blade to the left and turning his hand slightly to turn the edge of his own blade on the monster. He swiped back at Grimgrieve's neck with the clear intention of decapitating him. No deception or feinting was in either move. Grimgrieve blurred again, recovering from his thrust and swaying backward, narrowly avoiding the saber edge that flashed in front of him.
Grimgrieve dropped his shoulder and charged trying to upset the flow by smashing into Forsythe with his greater weight. Forsythe blurred and appeared to the side, backhanding a slash at the monster's lower legs as he passed by. Grimgrieve, shoulder still dropped, planted the foot he had been driving himself forward with and hopped laterally and away, spinning slightly to keep Forsythe in front of him. The saber strike passed with a flash of light, missing entirely, and once more the creature and Fours faced off.
"[Release]." Hunter breathed as Grimgrieve presented his back to her. The full draw tore the air and flurried the snow in the air as it passed practically instantaneously through the air toward the back of his left knee. Before a triumphant smile could plant itself on her face, a sheet of ice in the form of a small curtain rose up behind him, and her arrow chipped itself against it and deflected uselessly across the snow nearby. Hunter blanked out for a moment and looked around wildly, finally focusing on a dark figure with fluttering robes who stood in the sky with arms crossed. A long length of ugly and burned wood was settled across her back, a veil covering her face. Her golden eyes seemed to burn through the grey gauze on her face, and she stood unmoving as if it were the most natural thing in the world to just be hanging out in midair. "Oh Come...on… Screw you and the horse you rode in on."
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Lady Unfair (259) 100%
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Forsythe made no comment and had already stepped back, pivoting in the snow quickly to avoid another rapier strike that would have likely bisected him despite the fact the rapier wasn't typically a weapon capable of such destruction. Grimgrieve stepped forward, no longer paying any mind to Hunter or any member of Shadow Fall as his dark companion watched unfeelingly from the sky.
Hunter looked around for someone to take care of or at least distract this new opponent so they could return their focus to Grimgrieve. As if sensing the ill-conceived threat being directed at her from Hunter, Lady Unfair turned her head slightly and uncrossed her arms. She turned one palm toward Hunter thematically. Ice condensed from water vapor that was taken from the atmosphere into five incredibly detailed ice spears which immediately flew toward Hunter. Hunter started to dodge-.
"[Mass Manipulation - Ice Lance]." A sudden and unlikeable voice uttered from nearby.
Hunter paused as five crude and roughly shaped ice spikes rocketed from behind her, striking the projectiles into the buildings surrounding the plaza. Lady Unfair also lowered her palm, looking up at the same place Hunter did.
Aidan stood there smiling, lowering the end of his white staff. He pulled down his white hood, revealing his curly hair and generally disagreeable countenance. "Your call is important to us, please stay on the line and an Amelia will be here to assist you shortly."
"That's…" Hunter was at a loss because everything was happening to fast.
Lady Unfair crossed her arms and looked down at him, the golden light of her eyes pulsing enigmatically behind the veil. She started to reach for the staff on her back, identifying her opponent as an enemy mage. An unhurried motion with no real emotion behind it that, according to what Hunter knew of Aidan, must have irritated the smiling wizard.
"[I'm sorry, I can't hit a woman]," Aidan spoke calmly, lifting his staff and gesturing as if he were apologizing for something. While the snow swirled and nothing happened, for a brief moment be it the viewers back home, the people in the control room, or the members of Shadow Fall in the plaza, everyone gaped. Even Forsythe stumbled and almost ate a rapier to the face. After an infinitesimally small delay after his words, Aidan adjusted his staff slightly to point at Lady Unfair and a tremendous explosion of sound erupted as a streak of white lightning flashed upward and directly impacted Lady Unfair, who, up to and including this point, hadn't been on guard at all. An explosion occurred and a darkened and smoldering figure fell from the sky and smashed through the roof of a building on the side of the plaza below where she had been hovering.
Immediately Forsythe's voice sounded across the plaza as even Grimgrieve paused to glance behind him toward the crashing cacophony that was erupting from the interior of the building. "You renamed a spell that? You are the worst."
The walls of the building in question began to tremble and explosions and great crashes were heard inside.
Aidan just cackled as the sounds of rage continued.
Elias was rubbing his temples. Everyone else in the quiet control room seemed either embarrassed or at a loss. Fei Hong actually giggled, breaking the silence, before a sort of anxious and soft laughter covered the room.
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