Jjhutto_Son of Flame
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B3. Ch. 14 Tests
🕑 Added 2024-06-24 20:06:31 +0000 UTCTilly took the written orders and folded them, unconsciously shoving them in a pocket as he headed out of the manor and into the street. Ideas for what he would need for his first test were tumbling through his mind like a box of rocks.
He was halfway to the wall before he realized that his armor didn’t have any pockets…
Looking down ruefully, he pulled up the bottom of his jacket to see an innocuous leather stitched patch with an open top, happily holding his set of orders from Hiro.
“You're just full of surprises aren’t you?” He muttered happily before being struck by another thought and desperately reached around to the back of his waistband. Days ago, his armor had formed loops to hold a few potions and Tilly had happily, slipped them in, before promptly forgetting about them like an idiot. His hand patted around blindly, finding the loops and the potions gone.
“What happened to the potions?” He demanded angrily down at his chest. The armor gave no reply, and Tilly scowled, “You didn’t… eat them, did you?” He asked, suddenly suspicious about what his armor would and wouldn’t absorb in the pursuit of new forms.
At that the collar of his jacket constricted around his neck, suddenly chaffing. Tilly slipped his fingers under the material and pulled it back in defense, “Woah, hey! Just asking… jeez.” He exclaimed, as the collar slowly loosened back to its normal fit. In dismay, he looked around at the relatively crowded street while seemingly talking to himself.
Attempting to go for a much more subtle mode of communication, he subvocalized, figuring it was magical armor, and didn’t need ears to hear anyway, “If you didn’t eat them, and I didn’t use them… What happened to them?
The armor stiffened for a moment, and Tilly got the distinct impression that it was, thinking. Then in an impromptu game of clothing charades, it fought to arrest his movement.
Curious, Tilly complied, shuffling to the side of the street, and letting his body relax. His sleeves flung his arms forward, before snapping them backward jarringly in conjunction with a heavy imprint of pressure moving in a thick line up and down his back.
“Uh... Can I get that again?” He asked lamely, trying to avoid eye contact with most of the street as he tried to figure out what the armor was telling him.
The armor repeated the motion, this time attempting to throw Tilly’s legs forward too, before being violently flung back in concordance with the appearance of the long, cylindrical impression running up his back.
It clicked.
‘The explosion and the tree.’ The memory was faint, probably addled by what had certainly been a concussion, but in that final blow against Marcellus the Elder, he had unleashed a concussive blast from his weapon, throwing him back against a tree and knocking him out.
The impression of the impact that the armor was conveying directly overlapped where the potion loops had been, “Oh man, my bad. I guess my style of fighting doesn’t really lend itself to keeping a lot of items close to hand.”
He felt his shoulders pushed up into a shrug in response. Tilly smiled ruefully, doing his best not to waste any more time on the dream of an unlimited inventory. Thinking of other possibly useful items reminded him about Cog’s strange request from the day before. Tilly spun around and took a jogging detour to his shack to pick up the dirty cloth bundle before continuing on to the wall. Might as well get this checked out while he was at it.
Once he had the bundle, he kept his pace easy, wincing at every clink of the contents, but not willing to open it until he was well away from the possibility of collateral damage. He had already decided to test out a maxed Constitution/Endurance switch today, as it was probably the least likely to create an explosion. What better day to test out experimental items than when he was planning to hurt himself anyway… It would be fine… Probably.
Lost in thought on how he would actually test out a Constitution, linked temporary Title, he looked up to find himself at the base of the wall steps. The area was busy but not crowded with recently elevated Three Fold Infantry or Watch Veterans as it was repurposed into a staging ground for patrols out into enemy territory as well as the Alliance’s, main line of defense.
“Commander?” Tilly called, “I'm looking for the Commander of this shift.”
Several of the soldiers looked down from their posts on the wall and started muttering, while a few additional conversations started up in the nearby logistical tents. Finally, one of the flaps was flung aside and a familiar roguish smile glinting with gold greeted Tilly.
“Oooh, My favorite quest reward generator!” She breathed with a throaty chuckle, her eyes lighting up as she approached him with a smooth dangerous gate. Her former mismatched armor had been replaced by something reminiscent of the Bastion’s kit, but more form-fitting.
Level 56 Flames Watch Captain
“Like the new goods?” she said, waving her hand up and down the outfit with a few suggestive eyebrow raises, “Word is, we got you to thank for these too. A lot of the boys who didn’t get a new Class got offered a unique armor or weapon.”
Tilly had finally been able to pin down the Watch Captain's behavior now that he had interacted with her a few times. He had known plenty like her in the fire department and realized that while she looked like she was in her mid-twenties now, she was much older. A vet in a rookie's body. He was sure that came with some perks, but also probably its own set of problems as well.
So like any good leader, she leaned into the joke instead of away from it, not at all hesitant to use her youthful femininity, in contrast with her weathered experience-laden personality to keep many around her on their back foot.
“It looks great on you Captain! Although, if it were me, I would have asked for more gold. Finish out the set, you know what I mean... “ He said blithely, tapping his finger against his jaw in mock clarification.
“Bwahaha!” She bellowed, “Maybe you’re right! I hear some of our crafters got the recipe for these uniforms, so maybe gold would have been better in the long run.” she finished with an over-the-top lick across her alternating yellow and pearly teeth.
“So what brings you to the wall? Our last heavy patrol went out hours ago, and the next one is due to leave until sunset.”
“I have a small errand I will be pursuing just beyond, and I might need a few things from you or whoever else is here over the next couple of days,” Tilly answered, reaching into his pocket and producing the orders Hiro had given him.
Captain Achillia gave them a quick read before thrusting them out to the side and hitting a robed man in the chest just as he emerged from the tent behind her as if on cue.
“Oooph.” He groaned in surprise, shooting her a dirty look, and grabbing the orders angrily.
“Requisition orders, take ‘em down and note ‘em for the next four days, that way we won't have to do this song and dance again.” She ordered without looking, “Now, what do you need from us, oh mighty Champion?” She asked, looking him up and down with curiosity.
…
After a few inquiries as to what was available, Tilly had left the wall with the shift subcommander in tow, a Bastion named Julius, and a brand new Acolyte. They climbed down the other side of the wall with rope ladders, and Tilly couldn’t help but wonder what they would do now that there was no enemy pressing in on their border.
Well, actually, it wasn’t their border anymore, was it? Tilly now had to squint into the distance to see the break in the skyline where their normal sky shifted into the ever-present cloudiness of the twilight lands. Their Faction now boasted a twenty-five-mile radius of influence. Tilly didn’t know how that stacked up against other powers on the Plane, but he doubted it was much.
“So what are we going to do about the gate,” Tilly asked, looking down at the lane of packed, dirt that led through the middle of the swampy morass before the unbroken wall. Just a few days ago, this had been the killing fields of battle just a few days ago. Julius shrugged simply in reply, but the younger man stuttered out an incomprehensible answer, coughed nervously, and then tried again, “Ahem… Uh Sir, from what I know, we will be building a collapsable ramp soon and that will open us to trade for the time being. They say it is not on our short-term priority list to reconstruct the wall.”
The new acolyte was a sandly blond humanoid with pointed ears and no discernable animal characteristics. If Tilly had to guess, he would have put him somewhere in the low elf category. They continued to move out of sight of the wall along the cliff and Tilly shot a few more glances at the young elf a nagging suspicion building,
“Do I know you?”
The elf’s pale skin colored an interesting shade of grey and he bobbed his head once, swallowing, “Yes sir. You healed me in the capital. I’m one of the…Originals.” he said, looking away as if embarrassed by this last part.
“Man, this age-up thing is getting weird, so you were there at the temple two nights ago?”
“Yep, name’s Marq!” He answered, his embarrassed tone turning up into something bright as he took Tilly's response as proof that he had been remembered.
“Well, Marq, Julius. We have two goals today, and if at all possible, I will have you both present for the rest of these so I can keep this as need-to-know as possible.”
They both nodded, Julius with a soul-deep look of indifference covered over by a thin veneer of professionalism, and Marq with a schoolyard’s grin of eagerness.
“First, we are going to give these a test far away from other people.” Tilly announced, lifting his cloth package with a soft clinking of glass, and wincing at the noise, “... And once the easy stuff is out of the way, we are going to be testing some of my stats. Julius, this is where you come in. When I say the word, I am going to need you to attack me multiple times to test my Endurance and then Constitution. You were put forward as one of the highest-Strength fighters in your unit, and I need to get some hard data on what my stats can do.”
Julius accepted the plan without blinking, and Marq's eyes grew as big as saucers, “Marq, you are here in case something goes wrong. If I ask for it, or it looks like I am slipping into unconsciousness, I need you to give me everything you have healing-wise.”
“Y-yes sir, I can handle that.” Marq stuttered out. By that time, Tilly deemed that were roughly out of sight and earshot of the wall, and he paused to open the cloth sack, revealing four glass containers of various sizes, with tags tied around each one with a brief description written in a messy script.
Warrily, Tilly picked up the first one, which was a spherical glass bottle with a cork in the top containing a thimble full of liquid.
Accelerant- Time delay three seconds. Ignight and throw.
“Everyone ready?” He asked, looking over at the other two. Marq wisely stepped behind Julius, who unlimbered his shield and casually propped it against his body, ready to lift as needed…
Just to be safe, Tilly put down the rest of the sack, and jogged a few yards away before calling over, “OK! Here goes!” Then he channeled the smallest amount of flame he could manage into his palm, treating the glass container like one of his hatchetts and enflaming it slightly.
The spark entered the sphere, and the liquid instantly expanded into a high-pressure vapor. Tilly flung it away immediately, and the cork whistled then popped out the moment the sphere left his hand. Then there was the sound of shattering glass followed by a woosh of flame.
