SoK Chapter 202

“That thing sucks.“ Farid said, glancing at Sarah as she opened her mouth to curse. She squinted at the other man and scoffed at his transparent attempt to keep her from swearing. For a long moment, they stared at each other, seeming to be deciding how to answer.

Finally, Sarah cocked her head in a slight admission of the point. Then she refrained from swearing as she agreed, “Yeah, the whole ‘immune to lightning’ thing is distinctly not great for us. Worse than immune, lightning heals it. So it’s a good thing I just got my new Skill, huh?”

“Yeah, we’d be SOL without it.“ TJ agreed as he looked at the twisted remains of the Elite Copper Shambling Mound. He got the impression that, instead of using the remains for equipment, the materials would be better used for something like what the Lifeblooms were good for. Maybe a potion or concoction or something? There is no way to say, but the body of an Elite tier monster wasn’t something to disregard.

“Tell me more about how awesome I am. I’ll wait, after all, I did save your life.“ Sarah deliberately dismissed her helmet just so she could toss her hair over her shoulder. She grinned with a cheeky look on her face as she wiggled her eyebrows in a needy demand while the three men looked at her for a solid ten seconds. 

“Yeah, I’m not gonna do that.” Seth shook his head as he broke the silence.

“I never knew you were so petty, Seth.” Sarah shook her head as she tsked her tongue. “I guess you’re still a kid, though.”

“I realize you’re trying to be funny,” TJ cut off any further discussion from either side, “but Sarah. You’re being a child. Stop it. Don’t bake a fool out of yourself when we’re working together.”

Sarah didn’t hesitate to nod to that. “My bad. I’m always running my mouth, so I always need to apologize. Wasn’t trying to actually piss you off, but it sometimes happens. No hard feelings?”

Seth blinked twice before shaking his head. “I’ve talked to plenty of real assholes before. People who thought I wasn’t worth shit. I know you were just making a joke. TJ, I’m happy you’re willing to step up as the leader and so on, but this wasn’t mean, just a dumb joke. Anyways, thanks for the apology, I really appreciate it.”

Sarah nodded and looked at TJ. “Sorry, I wish I wasn’t constantly saying stupid things, but I am. I’ll try to be better, promise.”

TJ nodded, feeling a little foolish at having chastised his most loyal follower for what might have been nothing, but he shrugged and changed his attention back to the remains of the Shambling Mound. As he looked at the twisted, bloody roots that made the monster, he asked Sarah, “Is there anything that you think we should do with this?”

“Why do you think I’d have any idea?”

“Good question. Farid, do you have any ideas?”

The two Acolytes both shook their heads, to nobody's surprise. TJ figured that Stanton would be able to figure out more about the possibly vegetative material, and not for the first time, TJ missed the Druidic man. His stolid company and willingness to deal with whatever was coming with just a few curses and a stubborn willingness to keep pushing. Despite knowing that there wasn’t any real opportunity to do so for now, TJ thought about how to make a plan to get himself and some of the people that followed him over to wherever Stanton had said he lived. Was it Gap? That sounded right, but even with TJ‘s Attributes as high as they were, two brief conversations without much detail months ago didn’t stick in his mind enough to be positive.

“Seth, you go ahead and gather up the materials from this. We’re gonna keep an eye out on everything else around here, and maybe sit around for a little bit longer to see what there is to find in this swamp. What do you think, should we sit around and maybe run into another one of these?”

“The biggest question I would have is how much more stamina you have, Sarah?” Seth’s answer was a question to the Zealot in the front of their formation. “If you’re scraping the bottom of your barrel, then I’m not going to be rushing to fight something that we need you to be near top form to not die against.”

“I’m down about a third of my total.” Sarah shrugged. “I’d be fine to fight one more, especially now that I know what I’m doing. It might be difficult to do much of anything after that, but I can do what I need to.”

“Me too.“ TJ agreed. “For a moment I thought to use my Nascent Deity boosted attack, but I forgot to use it in the moment. With more familiarity, we’ll be able to fight it better, and I’ll make sure to stay out of its immediate range.”

“I don’t know if that’s entirely necessary.” Sarah smirked as she protested. “It was pretty helpful to have you distracting it so well so I got a couple good hits in there. Once the ice started covering everything, it wasn’t able to react even half as well. So, for the good of the rest of us, maybe you do let yourself get a little squished. After all, you weren’t close to dying or anything, were you?”

“Maybe when I get to Ruthenium I won’t have to worry about having my skull crushed, but I have a sneaking suspicion that yes, I was pretty close to dying.” TJ shook his head down at the joking Zealot. “And even if I wasn’t about to die, it’s pretty damn unpleasant to suffocate.”

“Then I suppose I will take the brunt of all the danger due to self–sacrificing ways and kind nature.“ Sarah sighed audibly. “I deserve your respect and admiration for my willingness to put my own well-being on the line.”

“Yes, you’re very wonderful.“ TJ half placated her as he turned his attention back to the marshes spread in front of them. “Let’s see what we can find out here.”

***

There were no more Yagas to be found, but another shambling mound, this one only level 33, made its way towards them at one point. With knowledge of what to do, TJ used a pillar of wind from above to blow much of the initial layers of moss and leaf litter away before it got close enough to be in combat with anyone. Now that the defensive covering had been thinned, it allowed Sarah’s frost to set into the middle of the monster. The deeper the chill penetrated into the real shambling mound, the easier the fight became. With a boost to her Attributes as well, there was no real danger, Sarah chopping almost leisurely through the defenses before TJ used a blade of wind empowered by Nascent Deity to cut it cleanly in half. Again, a string of roots remained of the Elite. Left on the ground, it almost looked like a mass of wild ginger, and the party took the time to collect every scrap, but this time, they all agreed to return to the camp up above. The thought of dealing with an ambushing Yaga while having to deal with a shambling mound was not a heartening one, and the group knew to withdraw and allow themselves time to recover.

Fortunately, given his Skills, Seth was easily able to guide them out of the swampy under land to return to camp, since even TJ had gotten a little turned around in their constant fights and journey through the dark marshes. It was strange that they hadn’t come across a single will-o’-the-wisp, given he saw two right at the beginning of his first ever foray into this section of the world, but TJ wondered if the witches had something to do with their appearance or disappearance. Nothing he could think about right now, and as they strode out of the inhospitable swamp back into the comfort of the fierce winds originating from the storm he created, TJ took a deep breath as his resources started restoring with triple the speed.

“Being in the storm just feels better, doesn’t it?” Sarah mused as she hauled a bunyip behind herself. “Never would’ve thought that I’d suddenly start enjoying getting pushed around by the wind like I am right now, but it’s the best, isn’t it? Testing myself against nature’s fury?”

“That feeling obviously has nothing to do with the fact that you're noticeably stronger when it’s around, right?” Farid shook his head with a laugh.

“Are you saying you don’t feel this way?”

Farid didn’t answer, only shaking his head at the misrepresentation of his words. TJ didn’t answer either, just continuing to drag a bunyip corpse and the remains of the Yaga. As they stood at the edge of the overpass, finally able to return to their camp located above, TJ prepared himself before adjusting his position to stretch himself upward. After just a handful of seconds, he was ready to take the bunyip up as high as possible. To his surprise, Sarah picked the corpse up, settled it on her shoulders, and leapt straight up with the thousands of pounds of monster weighing her down. Even with so much impeding her, the Valkyrie’s wings appeared and gave her enough height to reach a hand up onto the concrete ledge of the overpass. 

She tossed the corpse over with a grunt and laughed as she simplified the ascension. Only then did TJ think about how high her Strength was when using her Valkyrian Ascension. Assuming her Strength was about the same as his Fixation, being his highest Attribute, she was well over 100 times as strong as the strongest people before the Integration. That wasn’t considering any Attribute boosting Skills and the fact that she wasn’t so limited by balancing her Attributes as he was, given that her Shieldbearer Occupation gave a significant bonus to her Strength as well. Not for the first time TJ laughed about his own more rounded Attributes. Maybe Sarah’s Strength was as high as 1500 with her equipment and Skills and the bonus from the storm?

TJ scoffed at his quiet envy as he looked, and Sarah grinned as she hopped back down and did the same thing again with the second bunyip corpse. TJ figured he might as well do his part and tossed the remains of the Yaga up to the overpass as he himself slithered up there. Once they were all up there, TJ returned back to his human form and enjoyed the opportunity to just feel more like a human. He was, more and more, feeling like he had two selves, one the coatl and the other the human. When first the Integration began, Divine Transformation had felt like it was just the ability to transform into a magical snake. Now, he couldn’t imagine that same mentality continuing as he became the Storm Serpent. 

Would this sense of disconnect continue? He couldn’t say, but he supposed he could talk to some other Neophytes and see what they were feeling from the use of their Skill. With every passing day, TJ felt that his very soul was changing, and he needed to push himself to get Junior to be returned to him faster. At Silver, TJ would be able to protect his son, right? Then he could have the little boy and be saved by him, and TJ’d be able to keep his core, the man called Thiago Jorge Harris. Right? The existential dread settled into him as TJ took that brief moment to think about how different everybody around him was just a few months ago. It was April, all this had started in January. Already he was willing to allow people to call him a god, how could he say that he would take care of his son the way that Junior deserved as he continued to change?

“I will be a god who protects children.“ TJ whispered to himself, disregarding the curious look that Farid gave him as he said it. With the words spoken, TJ felt a little bit better, and he continued his path towards his settlement, just in time to hear people scream in fear. He started running, the three corpses laying on the ground, forgotten behind him in his haste to save his people.