Born a Monster

In your favorite novels, the protagonist may have time to just develop a new ability in the heat of combat. I’m not saying it can’t be done, just that it can’t be done by me.

He flashed toward me, directly between Kang Shi and Gon Nung, with a blow intended to skewer me. It went through the lower middle of my shield, cut my arm, and pierced my chest.

[You have suffered an ORANGE critical...]

[You have suffered a YELLOW critical for double damage, from a base of 24 points of piercing. 48 points of piercing damage has been received.]

[Champion Ability – Roll With Damage – Activated.]

Wait, champion ability? But I didn’t have... except that obviously I did.

[You have taken 24 points of piercing damage, and have become Staggered: level 7. After Armor, 14 points of damage have been received. 51/80 health remain.]

[4/5 Champion Points remain. Complete more Champion-level quests to refresh Champion Points.]

.....

Okay, that was actually amazing! I wouldn’t think so later, when I had time to think about it. But there, atop the Rice Gate, taking only 14 points of damage from a blow that might have done 96? Yeah, but I couldn’t do that again, not with my shield reduced to fragments.

I rolled to my right, as my fellow champions piled around Xinyi Shi. For a few moments, he forgot I was there, whirling and parrying, dodging and making shallow strikes.

But there was surprising power there, as a seemingly idle backstoke swept his blade across Gon Nung’s belly. With a terrible squelching noise, it went through his bronze breastplate, through his midsection, and out the other side.

His spear abandoned, Gon Nung clutched at his midsection, trying to keep the coils of his intestines inside. Oh, and he screamed, of course. I would later see him staggering toward the stairway down, wobbling, but at least not stepping on his own insides.

But there was no time for that; I lowered my sword to parry a sweep by the flashing spear’s blunt end at my legs, only to have sword and legs alike swept aside. I was able to turn that into a roll, but...

[49/80 health remain.]

Cripes, I took damage even after a successful parry? It wasn’t much, and I could see Xinyi Shi’s blood upon him.

“Oh, you’re still in the fight, are you? Try this, Porcupine aura!”

It seemed he blurred in that instant, taking a thrust at each of the five of us within range.

[You have taken an ORANGE critical for...]

[Champion Ability – Roll With Damage – Activated.]

[You have taken a YELLOW critical for double damage, from a base of 24 points of piercing damage, and have become Stunned: level 7. You have taken 48 points of damage; after Armor, 38 points of damage have been received. 11/80 health remain.]

[3/5 Champion Points remain. Complete more Champion-level quests to refresh Champion Points.]

I lay on my side and coughed up blood. THIS was the power of a hero versus a champion? How were a mere seven of us supposed to fight even one of him?

I needed to run.

[You cannot take movement actions while Stunned beyond your Resolve threshold.]

Or hide.

[You cannot engage complex or maintained skills while Stunned beyond your Resolve threshold.]

Or at least light the fires. I was expecting an error message, but my hand moved.

[Willpower check to employ ability while Stunned successful.]

, I thought, my coughing having turned to vomiting. And someone had coated me with urine from waist to knee.

But Xinyi Shi was close enough; in moving freely, he had coated his feet in flaming oil.

“You ignite me with oil again? Did you learn nothing last night? Taste my flaming feet! High Kick!”

Good gods, what manner of monster had my exchange unleashed?

How had he not just taken the gatehouse by himself?

Kang Shi struck him with her axe, and Leng Li with his sword. Wa Fenya struck him with some ball of life energy, but he closed with her before she could do so again, striking her face with his shoulder pad, sending her sprawling.

A third of one of her teeth fell near me.

[Willpower check to reduce Stun has succeeded. Stun reduced to level 6.]

[Resist Bleeding Check successful. Bleeding reduced to 4; after ability use, you have taken 5 points of damage. 6/80 health remain.]

No, no, no... at this rate, I’d be stunned until I passed out from blood loss.

[Willpower check to act while Stunned has failed; wait until this message is no longer visible to try again.]

Dang it! I didn’t wait, of course, continually trying to just MOVE. Maybe to cast Slumber. I was good at that spell at least, wasn’t I?

The System message slowly faded, coming back into clear focus every time I tried to act.

“Agh!” Xinyi Shi yelled. “You bastard! I felt that blow!”

“Come near enough, and you’ll feel...”

THWOK!

I saw Leng Li pass through my field of view, toward the front of the gatehouse. I heard his legs hit the wall, heard him bounce off the top.

Wait, bounce?

“Fickle goddesses of fate!” Leng Li screamed. “I leave any unclaimed favor to my second wife. I leave...”

There was a sickening crunch, and Leng Li was no more. The inmate army began cheering, urging Xinyi Shi to even greater feats of heroism.

I nearly passed out, but I slid my head along the floor until I could see him. He just stood there, twirling his spear and SMILING. Between the others (only three were left), arrows would be fired, but most were turned by his spear, or blunted themselves against his armor.

[You have successfully resisted a Fear effect.]

“Hahaha!” he mocked us. “I suppose I leave today after only a single kill. But don’t any of you worry, I’ll be back tomorrow. Flash Step! Chi Levitation.”

He mocked us, descending gracefully toward the ground.

[Willpower check to employ ability while Stunned successful.]

[You cannot take movement actions while Stunned beyond your Resolve threshold.]

Well cripes. I could at least pull Tang Ning’s Revenge from my inventory.

“Gon Nung.” I called. “Gon Nung! You are the best archer among us! Fire this arrow at Xinyi Shi while he flees.” I knew, I knew there was a reason Gon Nung wouldn’t answer, but between the pain and being stunned and feeling helpless, and oh, yes, slowly bleeding out... through it all, it is a miracle that I formed words at all.

It was not Gon Nung, but Kang Shi, one of our... well, she was still a better archer than I was. “This is magic?” she asked.

“It should be magical enough.” I said.

She pulled a short horn bow, already strung, from her inventory, sprinting for the wall.

Around me the patterns of oil spread flames across the roof. Boil, Boil activated.

My stored mana left me so fast it did serenity damage, hitting me with all the power of ... I compare it to learning that sunshine has given your new puppy cancer, a cancer that can be passed to you through the puppy’s lick.

There were a variety of messages. Experience for Pankratios, for Water Adept, for Combat, for Malice... I let them scroll by. It was a handful of single experience points, nothing that justified what we had just been through. And the champions of the Rice Gate endured this every single night?

I’d have to commission a medal, or something. Or... something. I’d lost my train of thought, briefly.

I was just so tired suddenly.

It wasn’t long now. I’d pass out soon, and my body would burn away. It wasn’t as if I had done anything that mattered.

Kang Shi pulled me away from the oil, into a safe area. “I know I didn’t see what I just saw.” She said, unstringing her bow. She then stepped on a drag-mark that contained enough oil to ignite.

[Resist Bleeding Check successful. Bleeding reduced to 3; after ability use, you have taken 3 points of damage. 3/80 health remain.]

“What did you see?” I asked.

“I thought that I just saw an arrowhead leave the broken shaft of an arrow and plunge directly into his eye.”

In spite of my low serenity, a dim shaving of hope waved hello from somewhere far away.

“Ib da bathtahd dead?” Wa Fenya asked, obviously in pain from her shattered nose, the ruins of her mouth.

Kang Shi shook her head. “I didn’t see that. He fell a distance, but they formed a shield dome over him, carried him back to camp. He’s in a bad way, but I don’t think we’ve seen the last of him.”

The arrows began falling in greater volumes. One struck Wa Fenya in the back, and she shrieked as though it had struck her in the face. She fled toward the stairway, still wailing like a banshee.

“Curse the Archer class, and a pox upon all who follow it!” Kang Shi exclaimed.

But she placed a hand upon my shoulder, and was dragging me (literally into and through the flames) to safety when I passed out.