The thing that surprised Rory the most when he awoke was the fact that he had woken up in the first place.
You know, what with the fact that he should probably have been dead.
"Anyone ever tell you that you're way too fond of theatrics?" A voice spoke out as Rory's eyes fluttered, brain rebooting.
"How long was I out?" Rory questioned after a mont of making sure his tongue was still functional.
"Only a few minutes," The Vanguard said, frowning at Rory.
"Oh, not that bad." Rory nodded to himself as he slowly leaned forward from where he was lying at the bottom of a rather large crater. "I would ask how I'm alive, but it doesn't take a genius to realize that was your doing, wasn't it?"
"I'm glad a guy called the Architect isn't a total moron."
"You know, so people I know would say otherwise."
The woman scoffed, offering Rory her hand. Grasping it, Rory let the woman pull him to his feet.
"So… how?" Rory asked.
"I've got a damage nullification skill. It's how last ti I withstood you dropping a teor on . I managed to eat up most of the initial damage. As for the aftershock, well-" The woman gestured vaguely about the crater they were within.
"A skill that can nullify an attack like that?" Rory whistled, impressed.
"It has its limitations."
"It's either ti-gated or it uses so sort of valuable resource." Rory hypothesized, watching her expression as he spoke. "Ahh, ti gated."
"Hey," She crossed her arms, glaring at him. "You know it's rude to pry into a woman's secrets?"
"Uh-huh, you seem like the delicate sort who would get all bothered by that," Rory snorted. "Well, by the definition of you having to bail my ass out, I guess we can safely call this your win."
"Yeah, I'd say so," The Vanguard said. "By the way, quick question."
"Yes?"
"What the actual fuck was that?" The woman all but yelled.
"You ever seen a movie with a mad scientist who gets an idea and decides to go ahead without ever considering if maybe, just maybe, they might be getting ahead of themselves?"
"I guess so?"
"Yeah, well, that's what that was," Rory said with a sigh.
"I'm pretty sure without my nullification skill, that attack would have killed in one hit." The Vanguard admitted.
"Exponentials be exponential-ing."
"aning?"
"Nothing," Rory said with a sigh, waving it off. "Just that it's sothing I'm going to have to lock up for a long ti, probably until tier eight at the earliest."
The two stood around awkwardly for a mont before Rory finally spoke.
"So… If I lost, now what?"
"Well, we're tied 1-1."
"Tied?" Rory questioned, raising his eyebrows at the woman.
"Yeah, you won the first ti around, you know, when you dropped a teor on ."
"You seem strangely hung up on that."
"It was a teor; how wouldn't I be?!"
Rory ignored the comnt, the woman reminding him briefly of a certain forr apprentice.
"I'm not sure I would have called it my win," Rory answered honestly.
"Nah." The Vanguard said with a straight face. "I had to burn up my nullification skill, and at that point, trying to return to my boosted state would probably have knocked out on the spot. You probably could outlast at that point with your magically appearing goodies and all that, or do you an to say you had nothing left?"
Rory frowned slightly, considering what she said. She was, in fact, correct; he'd had plenty of things within his inventory still, not to ntion so ossified blood gems to help replenish his strength and vital energy. Part of the reason he had bailed out was that, after blowing up in anger and then the ensuing chaos of the fight against a fellow founder that had been far more perilous than he had prepared himself for, Rory's instinct had been to retreat, plan, and prepare for their next encounter instead of committing fully.
"Yeah, alright, one to one. Next round, winner takes all?"
"Sure."
Having co to a mutually favorable agreent, Rory was prepared to turn around and leave when he found himself considering a certain niggling thought at the back of his mind.
"Are you like, going to try to stalk ?"
"What, why would I do that?"
"Because Eia has said that she's noticed you around the mountain occasionally."
"I… I don't like that implication. Also, is that the na of your pet snake?"
"Not a pet," Rory corrected. "She'd probably bite if she found out I called her my pet."
"Oh."
Again, an awkward silence reigned for several monts before Rory coughed into his fist, trying to break the tension as he finally asked what had been working around his mind.
"So… where exactly do you live?"
The Vanguard glanced to the side, as if suddenly embarrassed. "Around."
"Around," Rory said, deadpan.
"Yeah, you know… around."
"You're holess." Rory sighed. "How the hell are you tier seven and holess?"
"You think this is where I first appeared?" The Vanguard said with a snort. "I would have been chewy little Zoey-bites for even the weakest monster here. No, I got stuck here a while back."
"Alright, but again, I should remind you, you're tier seven. How are you holess now?"
"I found a cave," Zoey said defensively, crossing her arms and looking anywhere but at Rory.
Don't do it, Rory. You're not a charity. What would Eia say?
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
Sighing, against his better judgent, Rory's big, fat mouth opened.
"If, well… I guess if you need sowhere better to live than so random ass cave… I could probably lend you a room."
"Lend a room?" Zoey finally t Rory's gaze again. "Like, you don't live in a cave?"
"I an, I sort of live in a cave," Rory admitted. "But ya'know, 'Architect' and all that jazz is in my title."
"And you have rooms?"
"Quite a few of them."
"A bath?"
"Sort of?"
"A kitchen?"
"I an… not a fancy one."
"And you're offering a room… for free?"
"Well, maybe not free, but I guess-"
"Deal!" The woman said, all but yanking his arm out of its socket as she grasped his hand and began wildly shaking it.
"If I may ask, how long has it been since you had anything like that?" Rory questioned.
"Umm, when did I leave… Ehh, more than ten years?"
"Oh, Christ on a stick," Rory thumped his forehead, palming his head for a mont.
"I look forward to getting to know you, roomie."
I made a mistake.
"Now, I know what it may seem like," Rory said, prematurely raising his hands defensively as he entered the main workshop, the armored woman following behind him with her jaw on the ground.
"Why is sssshe here?" Eia questioned, her 'accent' coming out thicker in her agitation.
"Oh, you're Eia?" The Vanguard stepped forward, glancing down at the serpent. "Sorry for almost killing you before."
Eia's head rose until she was looking down on the deceptively short woman.
"I do not appreciate being stomped on."
"You wouldn't stay put."
"I do not appreciate being slamd into the ground like a chew toy."
"You tried to bite !"
"And I do not appreciate being treated lightly," Eia said, perhaps the point that stung her pride the most. "If you should best , do it properly."
"She for real?" Zoey turned to Rory, her face scrunched up in contemplation.
"She's… she is prideful," Rory said with a sigh.
"Right," Zoey said with a nod.
"As for you," Eia turned to fix Rory with her serpent's gaze. "Is this ant to be so sort of mating ritual?"
"What? No!" Rory answered defensively. While the woman was attractive, he wasn't particularly interested in shorter won.
"Sorry, I don't roll that way anyway," Zoey said with a shrug.
"Oh, like… you're a-"
"Ace." Zoey corrected Rory before he could stick his foot further into his mouth. "I don't roll any way."
"Gotcha, well, nice to know," Rory said before turning to Eia. "See, no mating stuff. Aren't you too young to be considering that?"
"I was simply making an observation," Eia turned her nose upward as if not intending to dignify his remark.
"Well, either way, uhh, welco to my humble abode," Rory said as he waved his arms about. "This is the first main entrance room, my main workshop."
As Zoey looked about, her gaze landed on where the lava spewed into the magma whirlpool, the bust of a dragon's head recognizable.
"Is that the sa dragon head you dropped on ?"
"Not the sa in the sense that it didn't teleport and grow, but it is the inspiration."
"Huh, gotcha," Zoey said before her gaze turned down to the magma whirlpool, where a certain elental decided to erge, flapping his arms around.
"Should I be alard that an elental is splashing around in there?" Zoey asked, clutching her shield a tad harder. "Or the fact that's all cute and stubby?"
"Relax, Jinn is almost harmless. Just don't try to hug 'em, I guess."
"Jinn?"
"Yeah, I nad 'em."
"Speaking of which, what is a 'World Ichor' elental? And does that have anything to do with the reason I've suddenly started seeing fire and volcanic elentals pop up recently?" Zoey questioned after taking a mont to examine the elental.
"Err, sort of?" Rory answered. "I made Jinn,"
"You made an elental?"
"And as a result, I think Aelia or Eon decided to copy the idea and started popping them into existence as well."
"You made an elental?" Zoey questioned once more, not letting that specific point pass by.
"Not as difficult as you'd imagine."
"Uh-huh, sure. So, are you planning on giving a tour of the rest of the place?"
"Not really. Unless, for so reason, you want to… I guess?"
"Ehh, truthfully, no. I spent enough ti as a kid being shuttled around fancy places being given tours of things I wasn't actually that interested in."
"Sounds like you had a tough life," Rory said, facetiously.
"Right! I just feel for my younger sister. I ducked out pretty early on, basically lost all contact. Well, not that it matters at this point."
Hmm, familial problems… Yeah, not going to touch that.
"Alright, well, we can skip the tour, and I'll just show you the main areas of interest, the bathroom and kitchen area. As a fellow tier seven, you really shouldn't have a reason to need anything outside of showering-"
"Haven't had to shit in years," The woman said proudly, flexing her arm as if it were an achievent she'd personally accomplished and not simply a matter of ascensions changing how their bodies operated.
"Good to know," Rory muttered. "Anyways, I don't really have much of a guest bedroom, as I don't have much of a proper bedroom myself. I should probably get around to that. Maybe while I'm at it, I could also…"
Rory mumbled for several monts before he snapped back to attention, his fellow founder eyeing him as if he were a strange animal.
"Sorry, I get distracted at tis," Rory answered.
"Question," Zoey asked, suddenly sticking her hand up as if he were a teacher she was desperately trying to get called upon from.
"Err, yeah?"
"Can you make so armor?"
"Can I make you so armor?" Rory repeated the question.
"Yeah."
"I could," Rory answered.
"Aweso so-"
"I can make you so armor, not that I will," Rory corrected. "We're not exactly on the sa team after all, so why would I make you so armor?"
"Why not?"
"Well, because I'd rather not have you use it against ."
"No, I an, why not team up?"
Rory opened his mouth for a mont, ready to respond, before closing it a second later.
Huh. I an… I guess there isn't really a good reason.
Aelia had told them they were to compete against one another, but that had also been before many things, such as the introduction of the forrly known System, now rebranded as Eon. Furthermore, unlike with the Chosen Banes, there wasn't any specific event saying they had to beat each other's skulls in.
"What about our tied record?"
"I an, we can always have spars, right?" Zoey asked, confused at Rory's reluctance. "Honestly, I'm not much of the competitive type, not usually. That was more of my younger sister; she was insanely competitive."
"Sa, I guess," Rory responded.
"So, we've got a deal?"
"Hey, slow it down a mont," Rory said with a frown. "What do you get out of this?"
"Well, first off," Zoey started, clapping her hands together as if Rory had walked into a trap. "Armor, obviously. I've got a skill that enhances the effectiveness of my durability stat, dependent on the overall quality of the armor I'm wearing. With the armor you've got, bam-" She mid throwing a fist forward as she spoke, "Hitting would be like hitting a steel wall."
"Aren't you already tougher than steel was on Earth?"
"Besides the point," Zoey said, waving it off. "Also, I might have another bit of an ulterior motive."
"Is it an ulterior motive if you tell directly?"
"I've got this item, called a Horizon Mirror. Every morning, it would allow to 'jump' from one Horizon to the next, and I could do a decent few. It allowed to travel damn fast."
"And the point is…?"
"It's broken."
"Broken?"
"Broken," Zoey confird. "I didn't have a way of, nor did I even know how to repair it, so over ti it started to degrade. Eventually, I made the mistake of thinking I could squeeze a few more jumps out of it, so I jumped up here with it."
"Then it broke, and you were left stranded."
"Yep!" Zoey said, surprisingly cheery. "Been here for years now."
"Rough," Rory added.
"Indubitably."
"Indubitably? Who actually says that out loud?" Rory said, scoffing.
"I do," Eia suddenly spoke up from where she had been silent for the last few minutes.
"You don't count," Rory snapped back.
"It's a fun word," Zoey added.
"It's not a fun word,"
"It totally is," Zoey said with a smirk.
"Are… are you doing this on purpose?" Rory said, realizing that she was directly irritating him.
"Hah, yeah, sorry." Zoey rubbed at her neck, sheepishly. "For a mont, it felt a bit like I was talking to my sister again, and I couldn't help it."
"Right… Anyway!" Rory said, deflecting. "What benefit do I get from teaming up with you?"
Again, Rory wasn't actually against the idea, just that he was at least a bit paranoid about the thought of so freely teaming up with soone that Aelia had for years been saying he would be competing again.
"You're squishy," Zoey said, poking his side as Rory glared at her for a mont. "I'm not. Plunk in front of a monster with your armor, and steel wall mode activated. It will be nice not to have to rely on inverting my attributes for once. Anyway, I take all the focus, and you do your stuff from the background. Just not that exploding bomb thingy you did, I'd rather not die because you got carried away."
"Wasn't planning on it," Rory countered. "But…. I must admit, it's not a bad idea."
A big issue he had was that his big attacks required build-up ti, and Rory, for all his fancy equipnt, was not a physical juggernaut. Investing in growth had helped him in that sense, giving him a bit more attributes on average that allowed him to be both a combat and a crafter type that typically wouldn't be possible with his current 'build.' With that said, so investnt in physical attributes wasn't the sa as a focused investnt; he still fell behind any real combat type in that regard, and it was only the caliber of his gear that kept things in his favor.
Against more powerful opponents, it simply wasn't good enough; the ape had been a perfect example. Powerful armor only went so far when your opponent could break you in half like a chocolate bar; his main strength was in how much damage he could lay down when left unmolested.
Now, if he had soone like Zoey, decked out in armor of his caliber, taking the aggro, while he was free to lay down covering fire and major impact attacks…
We might even be able to handle that damn ape.
Thoughts of clearing the Trial of Burning Snow and Freezing Fire-
Or was it the Trial of Freezing Fire and Burning Snow?
-flooded his mind, the potential rewards tempting Rory sothing fierce.
"Fine."
"Really?"
"Yes, really," Rory said with a sigh.
Once more, Rory found his arm nearly torn from its socket as his hand was vigorously shaken.
"Here is to a long and fruitful partnership!"
User Comments
0 comments from readers