Jjhutto_Son of Flame
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B3. Ch. 42 Evening Stroll
🕑 Added 2024-10-08 02:21:30 +0000 UTCTilly groaned turning to find Amelia staring at him with eyebrows raised. He smiled back, his chagrined expression made even more awkward by the myriad of small, still-healing burns that covered his face. The ground around him was littered with little bits of iron, and he couldn’t help but peek down at them, still grinning. It had worked even better than he had hoped and he might have been just a little bit giddy at the thought of setting one off near its intended targets. Shaking his head, he turned and found the rest of the group standing over the icy chunks of assassin littering the side of the street.
“Is it me, or is this area getting a little rough?” He chuckled as Kindle dived down from the sky squawking in outrage. She fluttered around his head angrily, before settling back down on his shoulder. Tilly didn't know if her outrage was at his poor joke or near death, but he was glad to see that the phoenix had somehow evaded any damage.
“You. It’s definitely you.” Amelia deadpaned, putting her hands on her hips.
It was then that Tilly finally registered one particular detail that all of his friends currently had in common… They were all wearing the same Forsaken uniform he had worn when he anonymously went on a cleansing spree in the fallen capitol of the Thousand Phalanx Empire. Amelia was covered in grime and blood, but the uniform was all there, she even had the identity obscuring hood hanging from the back of her collar. The whole group was outfitted in tailored uniforms and were giving distinct “team” vibes. Well the whole group minus Gorrock, calling the shredding mess that hung in bloody ribbons from Gorrock’s muscular body a uniform was a stretch.
Once it was clear that the assassin was well and truly down, they wandered over, looking as tired as he felt.
“Thanks for the save guys… But mind if I ask where you have been?”
“Oh, nowhere special.” Threstus grinned, sheathing his swords with casual grace. Aurelia, closed her mouth at the blithe answer, clearly having been about to give Tilly actual information.
Then their levels and classes started populating as Tilly’s scrutiny unconsciously activated the Identify skill.
Level 56 Botenast Surveyor
Level 72 Bastion Commander
Level 68 Wall Breaker
Level 48 Priestess of Origin’s Flame
Tilly’s heart sunk seeing their levels… now feeling absolutely sure that he had wasted the last week. While he had been messing around testing out his new synergy, they had clearly been doing some serious leveling. He tried not to glance up petulantly at his measly level 35… it didn't help that hadn’t even succeeded in testing all the possible combinations, and had lost the title synergy to boot. Until he got another level, he was stuck.
The notification icon was blinking pointlessly opposite his name and class, but he didn’t bother to open it. Whatever Experience the fight with the wechuge had given had obviously not been nearly enough to get him to the next level, not spread among all the others. He would have to find another way to steal a few levels before he got to the Contested Lands.
Gorrock lifted his shredded bit of cloth, squinting down at them, “We put on these stinky uniforms, and they dress-wearing people send us off to fight.” He summarized helpfully.
“Ok, secret missions for the church. No biggie. I can even accept how ridiculous some of your growth has been if you have been fighting for your life all week… But Aurelia, how is your level possible?” Tilly asked, trying his best not to sound morose. He was supposed to be the Champion, the one who fought to protect everyone, but he couldn’t help but feel that his leveling had been nerfed somehow when looking at the others.
“Well… um…” She muttered, turning red as the whole group turned curiously to look at her.
“She doesn’t have to answer if she doesn’t want to.” Amelia interposed, glaring in challenge at the others, “It's bad enough that we are allowing her on these missions, let her have some privacy if she wants.”
“No, its ok Mrs. Cooper… I… I have a title that gives me a small amount of experience when something I bless is used to kill another creature. It has been steadily sending me experience for weeks.” She finished abashed.
Threstus whistled in appreciation before a thoughtful frown creased his forehead, “That is one valuable title girly, but I doubt it will remain that useful once you pass the bottleneck. The system stops tracking any gains less than 10 experience at Level fifty. So unless the title is truly broken, I imagine much of your individual notifications are going to be rendered moot.”
“Must have been pretty nice while it lasted though…” Tilly grumbled, to the embarrassment of Aurelia, who was clearly uncomfortable with the whole conversation.
“Just what in the hell is going on here?! Y’all having some sort of murder party in the middle of the night?” A voice shouted from down the street. The whole group turned to see Watch Captain Achillia at the head of a contingent of Flame’s Watch.
While everyone was distracted, Amelia elbowed Tilly in the ribs, “She is still a child! You should be grateful for any advantage she gets.” She hissed through he side of her mouth as Thrustus stepped up to answer the approaching Guard Captain in a loud voice,
“Enemy infiltrator. Attempted to assassinate the human, but we took care of it.”
“‘Took care of it’ my ass! I lost twenty men tonight, and several more patrols still have to check-in. Keep this shit out of my city.” The Watch Captain spat as she approached. The Flame’s Watch with her held weapons at the ready and scanned the street for further threats.
Tilly's jovial attitude at surviving the attempt on his life and getting to catch up with some friends began to sink as he realized that the night's events had been far more involved than he had realized. He was about to speak up to apologize when Threstus beat him to it.
“I’ll make sure to cancel the rest of my invites to any other monsters across the plane.” Thrusters drolled as he stepped up to confer with their group, gesturing behind his back at the rest of them to get away while they still could. The look on the Watch Captain’s face spoke of many more questions, but a late-night interrogation sounded like exactly what he didn’t need right now. So he hooked Amelia's elbow and started guiding them away from the conversation.
Gorrock had somehow already disappeared, and Aurelia looked back and forth between the departing pair and the official sounding debrief, before sighing, and moving to stand next to the Bastion Commander. Tilly walked quickly away to the sound of an overly loud conversation between the two leaders of military arms in the Alliance.
“Obviously, I have a few more questions, but before I ask anything else… you don't happen to have a decent health potion I can have?” He muttered as they inconspicuously turned out of sight down a side street. Kindle took the opportunity to alight on Amelia’s head, affectionately ruffling her pixie haircut.
“Gah, good to see you too, featherball!” she exclaimed, snatching the adolescent phoenix off her head and holding her close to her chest, stroking the newly grown feathers.
“Why, do you still need more healing?” She followed up confused, squinting over at his face in the low light.
“No, Aurelia fixed me up just fine. This is more for preparation. I had a list and it’s the last thing on it.”
Kindle chirped in annoyance as Amelia took a break from stroking her and rifled through one of her pockets until she pulled a free flask tinged a characteristic red, “Sure, the church has been outfitting us with one health and mana before each mission.” She said, casually handing it over to Tilly who examined it as she went back to rubbing her fingertips down Kindle's back.
Major Healing Potion (Epic) Add the equivalent of 110 stat points in Constitution for five seconds.
“So…Do you guys work for the church now or something?” He asked, tucking the potion into the last slot on his belt gratefully. His lips quirked upward as he felt another Feyback had already formed in its slot. He had figured that it would be fast, seeing as the item had only been rated Rare by the System. But it had to have only been minutes!
“No, this is more of a temporary arrangement.” She said, plucking at the hood hanging from her shoulders, “Honestly, I was not interested when they first approached me, but when I saw several of the children volunteering, I couldn’t stand by while they were sent who knows where to do who knows what.” Then she paused, her eyes going vacant for a few breaths as she moved through some obviously heavy memories.
After a quick, shuddering breath, she continued, “Now that I have gone on a few missions, I have found the work is even more dangerous than I had feared, but also incredibly necessary. It is one thing to see Corruption ravaging your own home, but to see the havoc it is reeking in Factions across the plane… I find myself glad I agreed to help.”
“It's good to hear the church is finding ways to fight back where there is opportunity. I just wish there were more powers trying to do the same…” Tilly responded tiredly, before forcing a little more energy into his voice, “Any successes?”
“Difficult to say,” She replied, taking another turn, at this point fully leading the way through the city toward Tilly’s little house, “Thus far, our team has deposed two Corrupted Faction leaders, and helped evacuate three other Factions as they devolved into a feeding frenzy. None of It has been very pleasant, and I can’t say any of the Factions we have helped so far will be able to meaningfully contribute to a military operation in the foreseeable future. There are some elites from each one that have agreed to come to our aid when called, but too much of the rest is in ruins to be of any help when the time comes.”
“Is that what it has been like for the other groups?”
“No, not all. I spoke with Heras two days ago, you remember my shop assistant? Well, she somehow earned the Bastion Class, and from what I hear, she comported herself very well on the wall. She is fulfilling the tank role on Franklin’s team although with that bear of his, I can hardly see why it is necessary… Anyway, three days ago, they were sent to support an important bid for leadership over the orc clans. My understanding is that they have some sort of sanctioned brawl within a stasis field every few years and the winner rules the clans until a new challenge is called. With Franklin’s team’s intervention, the Corrupted candidate was defeated and now the clans are ruled by a Chieftain who is more or less favorable to our cause. Everyone knows the clans love a good fight, so hopefully that will work in our favor. Though, I honestly doubt they will answer our call unless we offer to pay mercenary wages.”
Amelia had slipped into her lecturing voice at some point during the walk, and Tilly honestly found it comforting. Something about hearing her share details, some important, and some less so, made him feel the tiniest bit normal. Almost like he wasn’t going on a suicide mission tomorrow, he smiled as a now pleasant breeze danced along the nape of his neck.
He asked after the rest of the children who had been offered classes and early adulthood by Origin. He didn’t know them well enough to even keep up with all she shared, but she happily ran down the list, naming names and newly acquired classes, along with their first weeks in their roles. Amelia had apparently split her time evenly between checking in on them and risking her life to help others on these missions. Before he knew it, they were at his door and even though his eyelids felt like they weighed a ton, he couldn’t help but smile ruefully at how nice it had been to just walk and talk.
“Well, I have to get an early start tomorrow, got a thing with a dragon and after that, a vendetta to settle. You know… The usual” Tilly said tiredly, yawning at the end of his sentence. He reached out his hand for Kindle and she chirped in tired agreement before hopping from Amelia's arms onto his open forearm.
“I understand a little better why you are the way you are.” Amelia said, suddenly serious, as her eyes focused on him intently, “I know you are only doing what you have to, for all our sakes and more than ever I am convinced that there is much more at work behind the scenes than I can fathom. Even if I happen to disagree with much of it. Many people are alive, and perhaps even thriving because of you being… you. So go do what you have to, but if you get the chance to come back to us… Take it.” She finished quietly, looking down.
Then before his tired mind could form any sort of meaningful response, she leaned in and kissed him lightly on the cheek.
