Chương 84: As a Treat

Day 10 Sarah shook her head and pulled the sword out of the withered corpse.

"The sword is keeping the worst of it at bay. Can't remove the Ruinbrand, but stops it from spreading. But unless you have more enemies hidden away somewhere, she won't have enough juice to last through this. And once she runs out, it'll spread and get worse. The source needs to be fresh, too. Very fresh." I had. There were 'enemies' right down that corridor. They'd just saved my life. And Gabriel insisted they weren't real people. Sarah's life traded against the loyalty of those I promised I'd protect.

Unless—"Wait. What is juice?"

"Chi, life-force, blood, juice. That kinda stuff."

"Does it—does she need to kill to absorb it?" Sarah tilted her head, as if listening to another voice.

"No, she does not. She does say that your flimsy little butt wouldn't make a difference, though." I once more swapped to the Might-enhanced Garmr-touched golden retriever. Which would grant me regeneration as long as I was defending a chosen place or person. Which I sure as hell was doing here.

"Do it. Stab me." I lay down on my side, my shoulder facing Sarah. Sarah looked like she was about to complain but then winced in pain. Her health started draining.

"I regenerate!" I psionically shouted at her. That gave her the push. With far too much care, considering our time pressure, she drove the sword into my back. It hurt, and it felt impossibly cold. And slowly, very slowly, my own health was drained away.

"It… it's working," Sarah said. With my back to her, I couldn't see her face, but I could hear the quiver in her voice.

"Oh fuck, it's working. Holy shit. Will you be okay? You are being drained."

"It will be okay. I can take a healing potion. I can even shift back and forth. Though I assume that No Quarter isn't actually draining my health. There is something else underneath. Like our vitality. But I think it'll be fine." Behind me, Sarah shuffled.

"Sorry. I'll sit down, okay? I… It's a bit much right now, and I think I need to sit. I'll try to keep her steady."

"Do it. I'll be—" I yelped as Sarah settled down and failed to hold the sword that was buried between my ribs steady.

"Sorry!"

"Been hit by worse…"

"Damn. I really thought I was a goner."

"That's why I was told I had picked this class. Because of the flexibility. That first night it didn't look all that great. But now I can become a living IV. Maybe I was on to something. It's kind of funny that this is also how we met, isn't it? How Ina was using her vines to drain slain chimeras to heal you? Same principle, more metal execution."

"Hah. Now that you say it. Crazy that this was only this morning."

"Been a long day. That first demon, how did you pull that off? The kill with the odachi?"

"Oh, if I may toot my own horn a bit, that was a really cool move. See, I knew this one had retreated a bit. And I'd seen that jumping spell you used. So I figured they were looking for an opening. So I turned 'all my attention' on the other one, and the moment they jumped, I pulled the odachi out of my inventory. Nowhere for them to go but death."

"You might be the coolest person in the apocalypse."

"Pretty sure you're carrying that title right now. I'll gladly take second place, though. Also… it was easy to take the risk when I already thought it was too late." And then I had no more banter in me. This had gotten far too close. Assassins that had come for me had nearly killed a woman whose only sin was spending the evening with me. We sat in silence for a while. The tower had calmed down, too. The kobolds didn't come to report, they just took the elevator back down.

The sprinkler system took care of the fire I had left behind. The air smelled of stale water, blood, and ichor. Cold spread through my back. Ten minutes later, Sarah pulled the sword out of my back.

"She's not exactly apologizing, but admitting that you may be tougher than you look. Still wouldn't let you wield her, though," Sarah said. I stood and shook myself, spraying ichor over Sarah and the walls.

"I'll take it." Hopefully, for the final time this night, I returned to my true self. I held out a hand to help her up. Sarah smiled as she took it.

"Could have warned me, you know?" I shrugged.

"Not really. It's more like a sneeze, but to shake off anxiety." Sarah returned No Quarter to her sheath. For a moment we just stood there. I looked down over her, then down over my own ichor-covered self.

"I suppose this is where we both find ourselves a shower, there are definitely plenty, and then I take you home? Kept you from your family long enough." Sarah's smile only sharpened as she stepped up closer and ran a finger across my shirt.

"Or, we avoid wasting water, share that shower, and you take me home in the morning?" For a tiny moment, I wanted to argue that I wasn't this kind of girl. That we'd only met this morning. But I had been given a long and hard lecture on how to keep my emotions in check, and now I gleefully ignored all of it. I could have some emotions as a treat.

"Sounds good," I squeaked. Eventually we both found sleep. Considering that I had company, I resigned myself to letting us rest in one of the penthouses. My duties as a host obviously outweighed my disdain for the filthy rich. Once more the genius loci awaited me in my dreams. This time the memories remained more dreamlike, though. By morning I remembered that we had talked and talked a lot. They wanted to be called Rook. I had shared memories—Angel, my parents, Claire. The things I'd done before the apocalypse.

They'd had many questions, and as far as I could remember, I'd patiently answered them, though the specifics eluded me. The most important thing I remembered was that they noticed the pressure had eased when I air-gapped the entire building. The Wyrm was no longer breathing down Rook's neck. At least for now. If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. It was the bright light of the morning sun, poking in through the blinds, that woke me up.

The morning sun, already well above the horizon. Which barely qualified as morning anymore. I'd promised Ash I would help him this morning. And promptly slept in. I peeled out from under Sarah's arm and searched for my clothes. They were gone, though. Tentatively, I shifted into the gnoll shape, which came with its own outfit, but more importantly, I hoped that my Blessing-approved attire would return once I shifted back.

"Now that's a look. Hello, there," Sarah said. I looked down at myself. It was definitely a look. One that'd give you tetanus if you examined it too closely.

"Uh. Good morning, Sarah."

"Good morning, stranger." Sarah grinned.

"What did you do with the girl I spent my night with? Did she sneak off?" I rubbed my eyes.

"Look. I'm sorry, that girl you spent the night with made promises to help someone this morning and is running late. So… how about a quick coffee, and then I get you home?" Sarah didn't dawdle and swung out of the bed. Her clothes were all over the place.

"You did warn me that you were spread pretty thin. You don't have to take me there, you know? I could handle it on my own."

"It'd take you hours. And I don't know yet if the tower is somehow under observation. I'll bring you home, and Ash will have to wait a bit longer." After a couple of awkward moments of Sarah making herself presentable again, we found ourselves in the elevator.

"Hey, about yesterday," Sarah said.

"Yes?"

"When it was clear that we'd have to fight. You went all the way from level 20 to level 23 in an instant. Can you actually cheat?"

"Do you think I'd let things escalate the way they did if I could?"

"Well, no. But if you could do that all this time, why not earlier?"

"First, let me do it again." I wanted to take a look at my Perk choices over coffee anyway. Now I could make it a magic trick. I snapped my fingers at the same moment I turned in the gorilla first-kill Task, which gave me the missing experience I needed to hit level 24.

"Show-off," Sarah said, but with a smile.

"So?"

"Every first kill with a new shape gives me a Task Reward. One-fifth of a level." We stood in silence for a moment. Down at the level with the now-familiar coffee shop, we left the elevator.

"And you get three new random shapes per day? And you can eat hearts for more?"

"Exactly."

"Not fair."

"My first four kills were all in the shape of a house cat, against demon hounds."

"... how?"

"Explosives." Sarah laughed as she settled down at the bar. ["You two want a coffee?"] I asked in Guide chat.

"No, thank you," Gabriel immediately replied. Which was only slightly concerning. I had assumed those two were off somewhere in the tower. At least I very much hoped they had been last night.

"I will gladly assist with that Perk choice, though."

"Decaf or regular?" I asked Sarah.

"Who the hell would drink decaf? Life is too short for that." I just merrily nodded along.

"One decaf, one regular." As I prepared the coffee, I checked out my new Perk choices. [Empty Mind Technique (Ability) Enter a combat-trance, reducing the effectiveness of external mental, emotional, sensory, and spiritual influences. +10 Levels of Heightened Senses +10 Levels of Dodge 50% increased Intuition Enhanced Resistance to Fear, Pain, Compulsion, Corruption, and Foreign Instincts. Conscious control is reduced. Actions are guided by instinct, training, and subconscious priorities. - Shared Blessing (Passive) Declare up to three volunteering, non-Blessed allies as your champions. Champion's level is raised to the average of the Champion's level and your level, then further increased by 2 (1 + Charisma/5). Note: Created levels provide specific advantages dependent on the Created. They do not provide the same attributes, perks, or subclass choices as they do to the Blessed. - Chimerization (Ability) Gain 2 Chimera Points upon Perk selection and 1 Chimera Point every Daily Reset. Use Chimera Points to invent a new shape, combined out of available shapes, costing 1 Chimera Point per shape contributing to the new Chimera. ATP cost of Chimera is the combined cost of contributing shapes. Unless the Chimera contains conflicting traits, traits of contributing shapes will be present. Note: Chimerization can have unpredictable results.] There wasn't enough coffee in the world to make this choice.

I could make my self-control issue worse while at the same time shielding me against instincts and Nemesis' influence. The other wanted me to commit to a path I had long since decided I would not follow when all of this began. A choice that'd be forever weakened due to my slowed Charisma progression. And the last one just told me to do what the first Fallen we ever encountered did—surely this time it'd be fine. I groaned. Sarah made a show of looking over all the tools and beans at my disposal.

"Ran out of something?"

"No, I just looked over my perk choices. And they are… loaded."

"Ignoring the fact that you shouldn't get a perk at this level—loaded how?"

"It's offering me Chimerization." Sarah's face went blank.

"That's bullshit."

"Yeah. And it might still be the one I default on. The first is out of question, it kills my greatest advantage. The second scales off my weakest stat. The one stat I can't raise as easily as others."

"How is that even possible? Aren't they all the same?"

"That's the price for my unfair advantages. It's a thing all of us could have done: take a disadvantage to get a boost. My Charisma growth will forever be slowed."

"It's high enough to have charmed me. What more do you need?" To that, I didn't have any clever reply. I hid behind making coffee. ["Thoughts?"] I asked in Guide chat.

"I mostly agree with your assessment. However, I wouldn't dismiss Shared Blessing so quickly. The kobolds' intervention was very valuable yesterday," Gabriel said.

"While I think you should pick the Chimera thing, you could buy yourself some peace of mind with the other one," Lucy said. ["How so?"]"Just because they are your champions doesn't mean they'd need to hang around with you. Promote the old matriarch, promote Leilah, and get Zi'rah to tag along with you. This place becomes a lot safer, same for your oh-so-precious babies. And you'd complete your trio of frontliners. Jamie, Sarah, and Zi'rah? You could sit back and let them do all the work."

["If there was a world in which I could convince Aleria to join me, that would solve an actual problem."]"Just let Jamie seduce her. He got Charisma out the wazoo and already looks like an elf if you squint." I placed the first coffee down in front of Sarah.

"Getting some guided consultations?"

"Yeah, they don't entirely agree with my initial thoughts."

"That attack last night—which one would have made a difference?" I made my own cup as I thought about it.

"Fuck. Maybe the chimera-thing. Maybe a honey badger's resilience extends to debuffs?"

"Not exactly, but they are cut-resistant. And those weapons did need to slice you to apply their debuff," Gabriel explained.

"But then, three bodyguards would have tipped the scales. Even if they are only mediocre compared to true Blessed," I said.

"The Charisma one just gives you three bodyguards?" Sarah asked. I finally emerged from behind the counter and settled at the bar next to Sarah.

"Not exactly. It would empower three non-Blessed. And it's not like I wouldn't have candidates."

"Why would you ever not pick that? Could more shapes ever beat more numbers?"

"Mobility, mostly. When I flew in there and helped you out of the jungle? Until the Blessing decides to hand me Pokéballs for the Created, I couldn't have brought them along."

"Hrm." I decided to postpone the decision and enjoy my coffee. There was one variable today that might move the needle on this. The question of what that flying mythborn creature was.